[FM19] One night in Serravalle

[_Ben_]

They might be down in fifth, but this is still a huge jump from where we are...

Of course - there is work to be done in Serravalle.

[_Ben_]

2027/28 Youth Intake

At a time where I have little understanding of where I want to take this team tactically - a youth intake that provides me potentially some good players in a variety of positions can only be seen as a good one. I was hoping, of course, that the reputation boost brought about a new level to the quality of youth intake and a number of these prospects could walk into the first team picture, as backup at least. That isn't the case but there are a couple of players I have picked out to be watched as they grow. With our financial strain as it is - I haven't been able to sign all of them so there may well be a chance that the Sammarinese Messi has walked away from this club with myself and my backroom team being incorrect.

Below are the top three from the intake:

Canti is the first player I noticed in this intake - as he has a couple of attributes in the extremely good range (but one being natural fitness which isn't really specific to his overall ability).  His report reckoned he was already good enough for Serie C with the potential to improve a lot in the future. His positioning, for me, is up in the air, as I decide whether I want to use wingers in the AM strata or in the Midfield strata but hopefully converted him back to an ML won't be too tough. Balanced and Volatile (Temperament 3-6) is not the best recipe for development of a youngster but I reckon, with his good passing, first touch and physicals, along with his great technique - first team football could be what is required to get him to develop.

Sadly, Percassi is not eligible for San Marino but will certainly need to find his way as a footballer before being considered. With nothing more than an average (at best) set of technical stats (remember - these could all be 9's and 'pop' to 10's soon) he doesn't actually look very good, at all. He's quite good physically, if a little slight but does make good decisions. I need to decide how I want to push his development - attacking, defensive or box-to-box are essentially the options and I'd be probably thinking about the latter hoping that his F.Pro (Professionalism 15-17, Temperament 11-20) Level Headed (Professionalism 13-17, Loyalty 12-20) will allow that to develop.

Cochis is the last player I have highlighted - he is pretty quick, works hard, makes good decisions and can head a ball. He is lacking a lot in the other technical areas and, as such, wouldn't really fit in with any kind of possession play but he certainly seems like someone who could play on the last man. He's very one footed, which I dislike and will attempt to amend immediately, but there is a decent base. Balanced/Outspoken (Controversy 15-20) is, again, not the ideal combination for best development but I will do the best I can do!

[_Ben_]

February/March 2038

Looking back, this doesn't look great. However - four defeats and four games where we picked up points is probably as good as I'm going to get at this point. My big concern is clearly goals, or lack of them. 2 months without a goal for a striker is a real worry - with neither Molinari nor Arzilli able to find the net and not much luck from elsewhere.

With players positioned pretty much according to their best roles, we've been lining up in predominantly a flat 4-5-1 although have played a range of formations - 4-1-2-3, 4-3-3 and even a strikerless 4-1-2-3-0 but have really been unable to find both a style and shape that suits us. The next eight games are pivotal - stay up and we have a shot at making ourselves better over the next few seasons. Go down, and we lose two thirds of this already depleted squad and are back to square one - tactically and team selection.

[_Ben_]

April/May 2028

We have, just about, done enough to stay in this division although we do face an extra two game playout against Pescara next month (stupidly long break between end of season and playout, which is annoying). A slight tweak tactically, of which I will run through over the summer months, has seen us a little more dominant going forward, even if we have only managed to score more than one goal five times over the course of the season. The little run of form came at a time when teams around us were flailing and, as such, have finished a comfortable seven points above the automatic relegation zone.

We now rest and prepare for the biggest two games of my time in San Marino.

[_Ben_]

2027/28 End of Season Review

Even though Pescara were sat in 17th in Serie B, they were a big club - predicted fourth with a striker up top who cost them just over £5m. However, we successfully dismantled them and, as such, stay in the division for next season. In the end - they offered very little and I knew that two draws would see us through as higher 'seeds' - giving us a big boost after the first leg. 

That leaves the table looking like this:

Overall, an ugly season that leaves me with absolute delight. Due to the intricate nature of these promotions and relegations - we are lucky that we have four new teams to this league and, hopefully, gives us four teams that we are better than. We certainly need to find ourselves once again as we played some pretty dull football - only 24 goals scored, the second highest amount of defeats in the league and, as previously mentioned, only scoring more than once on five occasions.

7

As you can see - there are not a huge amount of high performing players here, but, then again, I would expect that from a team that were ninety minutes away from relegation. On the plus side, Molinari comfortably reached double figures despite a barren spell in the new year but there was little support from the midfield in terms of goals. Stefano Stefanelli kept thirteen clean shirts, taking his total to 106 in just 203 games. There has been breakthroughs for Davide Zafferini and Alessandro Bianchi this year but we are still horribly short in terms of depth and those depth players are struggling, such are Arzilli - who is still unable to open his career scoring record.

Next year is much the same - remain in this league!

[john1]

Wow! Bloody close eh!   Hopefully you can improve the squad for next season  

[_Ben_]

Tactic building

After struggling for an identity last year and being able to forge any kind of winning patterns, I want to take a look through my squad to get a picture of the strongest XI in terms of shape and style and how and what will need to change during the season.

Firstly - the players who are classed as being too good for us. It is essential that they are playing in their best role and we get the most out of them as they will be carrying the team at times. I have Stefano Stefanelli and Giacomo Selva at my disposal.

Pretty self explanatory at this point - Stefanelli has fantastic vision but not necessarily the passing range I want for an outgoing sweeper keeper. However, he can position himself really well for any through balls and distribute it to the defenders. Selva is pretty solid, in comparison to the rest of the defence anyway, but is really good mentally. I want to use his ability to read the game in order for him to utilise his pace stepping behind the defence and sweeping up anything that is missed or has been lost.

The group of players who can hold their own in this division. Headed up with Roberto Molinari and Marco Casali with Nicola Manca and Gianluca Muratori providing strength in the defence. These players will be in the first team pretty much certainly but I really don't feel that they are players I want to build the next ten years around, necessarily.

Despite being top scorer for the past few years, I want to experiment with a change of role for Molinari, moving him to the right wing. That is partially to allow for Andrea Arzilli to have a regular shot at football but also to give me three attacking options on the pitch and utilise his pace and directness as an inside forward. It goes somewhat against a patient build up that I had previously preferred but if we can make the transition through the final third quicker, he could be a real threat. On the other side, and also a former striker, Marco Casali will be dropping a little deeper and playing somewhat more cautiously but will hopefully retain his strikers instinct.

Muratori has to make the move back over to left back due to the lack of options there - both players I trialled there this season are not good enough and this was a cause of some of our problems. Although not great going forward, he will tuck in behind Casali and offer another body. Next to him is Manca who really isn't comfortable on the ball and will look to move it on as fast as he can.

The next group are of players who can do a job at this level - these are largely younger players who will hopefully go on to achieve better things. This group consists of Armando Maiolo, Davide Zaffereni, Alessandro Bianchi and Andrea Arzilli.

  

Bianchi has had a great transformation to being able to play as a full back over the last couple of years, however, it is a shame that he really isn't a good full back. He's there due to us having no depth and I foresee him as a more offensive link up between defence and attack. I really like Davide Zaffereni but cannot get away with playing an engache in a team that is pretty much always an underdog - therefore I've opted for a DLP(s) and will use some traits to get him forward a bit more. This is particularly necessary because Maiolo offers very little going forward and the BBM role is more for presence in their half as opposed to real attacking threat. Up top, Arzilli abandons his F9 dream and moves to a PF(a) as he is pretty decent at closing down, winning the ball, creating chances and finishing.

This leaves Pietro Della Pinna as my last gap in the side. He is not good enough for this league and not comfortable in this position, but, out of the players in my first team squad that aren't picked, he is the only one that can be squeezed into a logical gap (I have several wingers as backups but they won't be much use anywhere else.

I'm going for his most suited position as just a player to hold the defence together, win tackles and move it on.

The end goal...

Let's see how this goes. The team instructions haven't changed and even the name of Tiki-Taka remains despite us moving away from the principles somewhat but I want to see this in action and then slowly move the team instructions. The end goal is to have patient build up and then quick, incisive passing into the final third where hopefully we can take our chances...

[kidthekid]

Great escape. Hopefully things pick up next season, It does look like you've found a system that works.

[_Ben_]

8 hours ago, john1 said:

Wow! Bloody close eh!   Hopefully you can improve the squad for next season  

 

7 hours ago, kidthekid said:

Great escape. Hopefully things pick up next season, It does look like you've found a system that works.

Thanks! The end of season form picked up drastically and coincided with a few tweaks that I've kept on for this season. Hopefully the team can rally around and improve again as it is the same group of lads - not had any departures.

[Lewis89]

Congrats on staying up. I found the first season in serie B to be a real tough slog aswel.

[Mbasnett6]

Just popping in to say am really enjoying this. Seeing someone who is mostly succesful, struggling a bit, and explaining how they go about trying to solve it, fascinating. Bravo.

Oh, and congrats on staying up. Good work!

[_Ben_]

18 hours ago, Lewis89 said:

Congrats on staying up. I found the first season in serie B to be a real tough slog aswel.

 

15 hours ago, Mbasnett6 said:

Just popping in to say am really enjoying this. Seeing someone who is mostly succesful, struggling a bit, and explaining how they go about trying to solve it, fascinating. Bravo.

Oh, and congrats on staying up. Good work!

Many thanks, both.

@Lewis89 - I've been reading your thread and it is nice to know that it isn't really possible to turn them into a dominant force, not quickly, anyway!

It has been a struggle but one that I've really enjoyed.

[_Ben_]

August/September 2028

Can we stop the season right now? We still have some frailties - losing 4-0 at home to the side currently bottom of the table being one of them, but this has been a magnificent start, capped off with a well fought away draw against a side who are far too big to even be entertaining this league, Torino. The move to a slightly more offensive shape hasn't really been at a detriment to our defensive solidity, casting aside the four goals we gifted Avelino. Andrea Arzilli failed to find the net in his first 15 games for the club but my trust in him, and moving Molinari to the wing, seems to be paying off as he leads our, and the leagues, scoring chart at this point. 

I do remember being relatively happy with the start last season and then watching it all fall down. I feel that we are in a better position this time around but I don't expect to keep this up for the long run!

[Lewis89]

3 hours ago, _Ben_ said:

 

Many thanks, both.

@Lewis89 - I've been reading your thread and it is nice to know that it isn't really possible to turn them into a dominant force, not quickly, anyway!

It has been a struggle but one that I've really enjoyed.

Yeah im enjoying the struggle myself. In my first attempt I found it alot easier due to allowing myself loan signings etc, but using only youth/Sammarinese players has added a whole new level to it. 

[_Ben_]

October/November 2028

Again - could the season not have ended in September? A really poor couple of months for us, on paper, and on the pitch. We lost Andrea Arzilli to 'an innocuous' broken ankle - he'll probably miss all season now and we recorded just one victory which has seen us slip down the league.  What concerns me the most is our inability to keep a clean sheet - errors are a big part of our game play right now and we are gifting goals to the opposition.

Part of the reason for this loss of form, I believe is down to the above. 19 games into the season and the vast majority (minus Casadei who has come in allowing Molinari to fill the Arzilli gap) have played almost the whole season. We are tired. The 11 men on the pitch can stand up to the rigours of the opposition over 90 minutes - but two or three games a week, with little to no rotation, is proving tough. I think that I need to be clever with my rotation - potentially playing weakened teams against sides I know I won't be beating (saying that - we ended up with a solid away draw at Torino) and focusing on beating the teams around us. I think that is slightly adopting a 'small team mentality' but I do feel that this might be the key to our longevity in the long term.

[psychonaut]

Wow, that's a tough schedule. Glad I just have the 1 match a week most weeks. Good luck for the next couple of months, sounds like you need it.

[Bedese]

No idea how I've missed this up till now. This is class!

[_Ben_]

On 17/06/2019 at 00:33, psychonaut said:

Wow, that's a tough schedule. Glad I just have the 1 match a week most weeks. Good luck for the next couple of months, sounds like you need it.

 

On 17/06/2019 at 01:01, Bedese said:

No idea how I've missed this up till now. This is class!

Thanks both - it has certainly been a struggle, as you say, but one that is very rewarding!

[_Ben_]

December 2028/January 2029

We continue our free-fall towards the bottom end of the table but we have, at least, sorted our leaky defence somewhat. I very much favour an approach where, as long as we are picking up points, look to stem the flow of goals and then spend time in training working on going forward. With young, inexperienced strikers, probably not of the calibre required in this league, I do expect goal droughts - and this one is no different. Still confident that we have what it takes to stay up...

[_Ben_]

2028/29 Youth Intake

Forget depth, which this incidentally has - this intake has a brother!

Lorenzo Zafferani heads up a solid group of players where he, along with Sammarinese striker Massimo Bologna, are team leaders, which would indicate that they are probably towards the top of the list when sorted on current ability. We are once again gifted an awful intake when looking at their personality, with several unambitious personalities and very few that I would call positive - minus Pogialli, who looks awful attribute wise.

Here is Zafferani:

He's not fantastic, to put it mildly. However, my coaches say that he is currently operating at a Serie C level with the potential to improve significantly in the future. There are no red flags anywhere and, aside from his natural fitness and dribbling - even though I am not really looking for a left winger to be an out-and-out runner, there are no really low attributes. He is 'left only' so I shall initially be working on that area of his game and then see how he develops. 

His brother is a vital player in the first team and I hope that I can develop him to be able to join him.

[_Ben_]

February, March and April 2029

I didn't bother with the two-month February and March update as there was little to talk about, 1 goal scored, 3 goals conceded and just one win. We sure know how to play dull football in San Marino. April, however, has seen a turn up in fortunes - five without defeat and a fortuitous defeat against Verona, where tired legs conceded late in the game despite being largely on top. That leaves us in a solid position in the league, five ahead of Feralpi with a possible six remaining. We are at home to Salernitana in the first game of May where we can secure our safety before going away to Latina - both games could yield goals and points, which is great.

Elsewhere, I've tried to get a few mentoring groups going:

We have a squad wide issue with determination and, even though I don't know the exact number, it drops down to a dark green (good [somewhere between 10 and 15]) which isn't great. I am not in a position to be able to change that, as all my team leaders have that kind of level and won't pass anything good on. However, they all have moderately positive personalities and I'd be happier to pass those on.

[_Ben_]

2028/29 End of Season Review

Just the two games in May, which we lost both of but managed to stay up and avoid the relegation playoff that we faced last year. Finishing 15th, one place better than last season, doesn't feel like too much to shout about, given the perceived lack of development, but I feel much more content than I did twelve months ago.

Here is the final league table:

We are faced with the prospect of a strong Serie B next year with Torino not going up and Udinese coming back down again - as well as losing three relatively weak teams down to Serie C. Never the less, we are still facing the prospect of several more seasons at this level unless we can suddenly pick up some kind of form.

As for the player performances, they are below:

Once again - few players averaging over 7, but that is to be expected given our performances. Two defenders with good average ratings, plus holding midfielder Maiolo and striker Arzilli, who finally gave me a striker in double figures as Molinari has not managed that over the past two seasons. There are a few players who are able to provide some backup to the team now - Casadei, Guidi and Rebiscini are just about good enough and Canti is now at the point whereby he is offering a slightly left field option as a central player, but more on his development in a later post.

Aims for next season are, again, to stay up. We are not really big enough or good enough for this league but there are patches of quality coming through that I need to ensure are built around.

[_Ben_]

I would say that I have won, in the end. Despite the forced sale, I have managed to knock Atalanta back enough times to force them to pay a pretty stupid amount for a player of his quality. He's our first choice striker, but we are a poor Serie B team and I can bring through a striker with more potential but I now have used that £6m to head back into a positive bank balance which can be used to supplement youth coming through in the future. As you can see from his profile, the move to Serie A hasn't aligned with the value of his sale but I do hope he progresses whilst using better facilities and doesn't just rot in their reserves!

[_Ben_]

August/September 2029

As starts go, this is fantastic. However, I have said that twice before and then found October and November very tricky. We started the season with a blistering win, far exceeding our old record margin, putting seven past Serie C Modena and then overcoming Mantova to give us a fourth ride tie against Udinese - we could really win that and make some progress in this competition. The league didn't start too well but Frosinone have just been relegated, so this was to be expected. Since then, we have pieced together a nice little run, even if we did our best to throw the Trapani game - three up just after half time led to a very nail-biting last few minutes after they'd scored.

We head into October just behind two of the relegated sides. I have every reason to think we'll fall away so, again, am happy whilst this feeling lasts.

[john1]

Decent offer to get Arzilli  Decent start in Serie B   Sad to see Torino in Serie B  

[_Ben_]

2 hours ago, john1 said:

Decent offer to get Arzilli  Decent start in Serie B   Sad to see Torino in Serie B  

Thanks! Yeah, Arzilli was out of the door - a bid accepted at £4m but I managed to win the protest. Seeing that they were still interested, I set it at £6m and they bit. I'd have loved installments, a sell-on etc but the money has paid for a couple of coaching courses, some new contracts and a few other things!

Yeah - Torino and Udinese are definitely two teams that I don't like seeing down in Serie B, as well as Parma who are currently seven points adrift at the bottom of the league.

[_Ben_]

October/November 2029

In comparison with previous years - it's better. We are still four games without a win but nine points over the two games keeps us much higher in the table than we had been in previous years. Lecce are proving to be a cut above everyone else and I would expect them to be promoted straight back to Serie A - they certainly took us apart but, in fairness, I went into the game full of confidence, hoping to catch them on the break.

[_Ben_]

Player Development - Andrea Canti

Canti was the pick of my intake two years ago and is currently making some really good strides in his development. Over the past two years since his inception, I have been training him as a central midfielder as a way to get the best out of his solid build, size and workrate. He's not a creator, as I leave that role to Zafferani, but he is the runner. Even though he is very poor defensively at this time, I like him as a BBM(s) rather than a Mez(s) because of the defensive support in the shape of another body that he offers. Below is his development across all three areas:

His is now considered to be a good dribbler and, that, combined with good passing, first touch and excellent technique, make him a good technical threat in the middle of a creative side. I do wish that he was a bit more competent going forward - long shots and finishing are a little low for my liking but they are unlikely to ever really improve. He's made strides on his anticipation but that remains only at a decent level, whereas he is now considered to have a good workrate and vision on the ball. He's also reached a point where he has an excellent jumping reach, agility and pace and has grown an inch as well as putting on 6kg.

At 17, he is already good enough for the first team and has made thirty appearances to date, forming a good relationship with Maiolo and Zafferani. Going forward - I want to continue his development as a box to box midfielder, work on his attacking attributes and consider any player traits to add to his game.

[_Ben_]

The most nostalgic of appointments...

 

[_Ben_]

Player Sale

Whilst this deal for Percassi isn't the best, I feel that I have negotiated well and got a decent figure bearing in mind that each player has a price. The installments mean that, for every one month out of six, my staff wages are 'free.' I have spent a lot of time thinking about my backroom team but significantly less time budgeting for the so this comes as a help.

Despite the £6m sale of Arzilli, we are still losing money at an alarming rate...

Edited June 22, 2019 by _Ben_

[_Ben_]

Coaching Development

Something that I have spent time addressing, at the detriment to our finances, is the coaching system that I am using in this save. I want to employ a internal promotion approach whereby I maintain a good turnover of staff throughout my club as they develop and then, hopefully, go on to manage other sides in Italy and beyond. Below are my coaches for each age group:

To get this working effectively - I need to focus on attributes that don't change - personality, determination, working with youngsters, motivating and discipline. My plan is to find young coaches who don't necessarily have all of their coaching badges (and hopefully have enough potential ability left to complete them), hire them for the youth team and look to move them up as and when vacancies arise. I lost my old assistant manager to a managerial job in Serie C so youth team Assistant Pellissier was appointed (he's superior, in name and not FM nostalgia at least to U20 assistant Alessio Cerci). Espianl and Nohman both started out as U18 coaches but when an advert found both Di Paolo and Iadaresta, I took the chance to move them up to make space. 

Hopefully this will form part of the continuity that I'm trying to achieve at the club.

[_Ben_]

December 2029/January 2030

We are still, somehow, in contention here. A really good couple of months where we put behind us a difficult November, breaking the winless streak with a hammering over arch rivals Cesena. Hernan Crespo's rejuvenated side took a point from us but we have won all three since - including a good win over then-second-placed Frosinone. 

I have also used this time to renew some contracts. We are still running the smallest budget per year (£1.73m and about £180k less than Trapani - who sit 12th) and I am relying purely on loyalty when it comes to being able to keep these players here. Stefanelli could very well be earning £20k+ for a Serie A club but his demands remain very low and convenient at this point. I envisage that, the next time I could round to renewing these, I will once again have to break all kinds of records to keep them at the club.

[john1]

11 hours ago, _Ben_ said:

Coaching Development

Something that I have spent time addressing, at the detriment to our finances, is the coaching system that I am using in this save. I want to employ a internal promotion approach whereby I maintain a good turnover of staff throughout my club as they develop and then, hopefully, go on to manage other sides in Italy and beyond. Below are my coaches for each age group:

To get this working effectively - I need to focus on attributes that don't change - personality, determination, working with youngsters, motivating and discipline. My plan is to find young coaches who don't necessarily have all of their coaching badges (and hopefully have enough potential ability left to complete them), hire them for the youth team and look to move them up as and when vacancies arise. I lost my old assistant manager to a managerial job in Serie C so youth team Assistant Pellissier was appointed (he's superior, in name and not FM nostalgia at least to U20 assistant Alessio Cerci). Espianl and Nohman both started out as U18 coaches but when an advert found both Di Paolo and Iadaresta, I took the chance to move them up to make space. 

Hopefully this will form part of the continuity that I'm trying to achieve at the club.

Interesting and I find it hard to get decent coaches for the U's18/20, with decent personality.

[_Ben_]

2029/30 Youth Intake

An interesting intake with a lot of players directly from Serravalle and two of the best three solely eligible for us, San Marino. Ideally, I wanted some depth at centre back and I have that, with decent players Cesarini, Della Valle and Ramadan but the addition of another top central midfielder in Mucciolo will add some depth and Zavoli will pressure Molinari up top.

Here are the best three:

[john1]

Pretty good youth intakes  Hard to say anything without knowing it by numbers  

[kingjericho]

All the focus on adding good personalities to the backroom staff seems to be working, most of the boys in the intake have positive personalities.

[_Ben_]

21 hours ago, john1 said:

Pretty good youth intakes  Hard to say anything without knowing it by numbers  

My post was a little rushed and vague to be fair - work is getting in the way right now! However, what I want people to see from this is a colour and decide whether that is good or bad (or even average). Muccioli, for example, has some really good (maybe even excellent) mental attributes but is pretty poor overall technically. With that kind of removed min/max of number thinking, I think I get more out of the game.

11 hours ago, kingjericho said:

All the focus on adding good personalities to the backroom staff seems to be working, most of the boys in the intake have positive personalities.

Yeah - definitely. I've forgotten what constitutes a light-hearted personality but I think they are pretty professional - which shows that there is some transfer.

[_Ben_]

February and March 2030

Rails and fallen off them? I must blame the Sammarinese FA for the majority of late March - scheduling friendlies which, for some reason, I can't recall my players from so we had to hand 10 new shirt numbers (and debuts) to a squad of about 17. To lose only 0-1 and 1-3 is probably a great result given the team that we had out, even with normal international regular Marco Casali rested.

We have an outside shot at the playoffs now - I say it that way based on our form rather than our current league position and with Torino below us.

[john1]

Awful scheduling by Samarinese FA! But good to see youngsters making their debuts.

Edited June 27, 2019 by john1

[_Ben_]

19 hours ago, john1 said:

Awful scheduling by Samarinese FA! But good to see youngsters making their debuts.

One of them has since picked up a very strange and rare injury, too...

[_Ben_]

2029/30 End of Season

We were really set back by an awful March and it took much of April to cement ourselves again - always following the pattern of tightening the defence before pushing on. In the end, we huffed and puffed but couldn't really make any kind of headway and it was only a narrow win over Pescara and a thrashing of already-relegated Parma that kept us in the top half. We qualified for some kind of preliminary-play-off but lost out to a 120+1 goal to Benevento. Promotion was never my aim this year as the squad simply lacks any kind of depth which would make staying up at all possible. Below is how the first team fared:

A reasonable goal return from a fair number of players and it is good to see that there is a majority of solid average ratings across the team. The whole first team vs backups principle is still very much in play as the cut off is clearly Canti, then Guidi filled in for various injuries then we move on to players who are only really backup players at this time. The next couple of years, and I have a plan for this, need to involve me getting the best from my youth players to actually flesh out a decently sized first team squad. Currently - we are completely knocked back in any kind of injury crisis and that just cannot happen if we want to be promotion contenders.

On to the next one!

[kidthekid]

still a great season. Massive improvement. 17 points!!

[_Ben_]

21 hours ago, kidthekid said:

still a great season. Massive improvement. 17 points!!

Of course - keep up that rate of improvement and we'll be in Serie A in no time...

[_Ben_]

Temptation.

Big bids to turn down but I'm happy the board now have either enough trust in me or don't feel we need the money any more to go over my head. Zafferani is a great player - one of my best and rated as good enough to be in Serie A. He is also under contract for 4 more years but the bid was over ten times his value. Last summer, we sold Arzilli for £6m and managed to lose nearly £2.5m of that over the course of the season. I believe a sale like this needs to happen - I just don't want to lose anyone!

[scarp]

Zafferani looks awesome!

[nsd]

I've been following your saves since the days of The Dugout, though to FMNow and finally here. I always love the level of detail you go into with regards to club and player development and this is no different. Keep it up and you'll be in Serie A before you know it!

[_Ben_]

12 hours ago, scarp said:

Zafferani looks awesome!

He does - got all the right attributes for a deep lying playmaker and is, probably, too good for us!

4 hours ago, nsd said:

I've been following your saves since the days of The Dugout, though to FMNow and finally here. I always love the level of detail you go into with regards to club and player development and this is no different. Keep it up and you'll be in Serie A before you know it!

Thanks @nsd - a username I remember! Do you still play FM? Ever thought about posting about it? Hopefully another couple of years here will see us have a squad strong enough to give Serie A a go.

[_Ben_]

August/September 2030

A really solid start to the campaign where we remain unbeaten, even if we have fallen off somewhat with three draws in a row. Sadly, we have exited the Coppa Italia, falling one stage previous to the past two years. A good win away at a strong look Torino gives me a good omen as we enter the winter period.

[_Ben_]

Developing new talent

I'm a little short (to say the least) on talent able to fill out my first team at the moment. I have been able to fit the 'best' players from the intake straight into the first team and allow them to develop with first time football, but I have struggled to develop backup options that are anywhere near the level I need.

Here is my current U18 team:

I have a couple of players that are classed as 'promising' with their tag - hopefully an indication of some good potential to fulfil. I want to use this PA to address training in a slightly different way. I want as many of these players to be useful by the age of 18 or 19 so I really need to focus on developing areas that they aren't strong in. I think that, despite my DNA, we need to approach youth training on a year-by-year basis. Making the U18 team as strong as it can be will then allow me to specialise later on.

To monitor how this develops - I have taken averages from each attribute area (I don't think that this gives me any information that I've been hiding as it's just the average of the whole youth squad and not a single player - I still know the rough 'area' that it is in but that's it). This is what that looks like:

I have horizontally sorted these to see strongest (left) to weakest (right). I have left the goalkeeper out of this and all GK attributes because I need to approach their training differently. 

My DNA loosely consists of the following styles:

• Ability to retain possession of the ball
• Patient movement in defence but incisive attacking movement leading to clear cut chances
• Playing through the middle with wide players offering passing options rather than focus

I would consider the attributes to be important: Vision (7), Passing (7), Anticipation (8), Technique (8), Teamwork (9). Whilst these are universal attributes for players across the pitch (unsure how many centre backs have 20 for vision or passing) but I think that they are quite low for a whole team average, even when considering a youth team. Therefore, I am going implement the following schedule each week. I see no point changing it as we just play on a Saturday and therefore can use a fairly generic set up.

My thoughts are getting the physical work in early. We are quite strong (9), quick (acc 13 and pace 12) but getting these to a really good level will make the long term focus easier when we get to the first team. From there, I want to use schedules that focus on passing, both across the whole group and their individual units. We then spend Friday all together going over a whole variety of things.

The workload is high, but, I literally have no idea what is right at this moment. In a year, I will come back and analyse both average attributes and look at injury rates.

[nsd]

17 hours ago, _Ben_ said:

He does - got all the right attributes for a deep lying playmaker and is, probably, too good for us!

Thanks @nsd - a username I remember! Do you still play FM? Ever thought about posting about it? Hopefully another couple of years here will see us have a squad strong enough to give Serie A a go.

Yep, still an unwilling slave to FM! I'm currently considering a new save after a fairly long term one is coming to an end, and I've thought about getting a thread up here when I finally make a decision.