fmonit Posted October 4, 2020 Author Share Posted October 4, 2020 17 hours ago, Hootieleece said: You are doing really well. Just enough improvement every season to want you to keep going...that is especially important with long-term saves. Are you going to continue this after FM21 comes out? Not sure. I usually buy the game in pre-order but only really start playing it around Xmas. By that time the new version has gone through a few patches. So I'm expecting something similar this time around. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
fmonit Posted October 9, 2020 Author Share Posted October 9, 2020 (edited) No new signings in the january transfer window. Faisal figured out that we are doing quite well with the current players so he’s rather not shake the apple cart by bringing new players in. He has however signed up 2 players that will join us at the end of the season when their contracts run out: Croatian 22yo DC Nenad Obsivac from NK Maribor Slovenian 22yo AMC Andraz Kocar from Olimpija Lublana. Maybe he links up with Kranjec better as they are both from the same country. So the 4th cup qualif. round was good and we beat Ascoli over a penalty shootout after we drew 2-2. We draw Atalanta in the First Cup round which is going to be a big ask. Naturally we didn’t stand a chance and lost 2-0. Hopefully one day we’ll get past the first round. January turned out to be a good month for us as we aply a few lower ranked teams and we score 3 wins and a draw out of 5 games. Not bad at all, and results like these will help us surviving in the league. Although at this rate it seems that we’ll comfortably stay clear of relegation if nothing major happens. February – March – April. We had a heavy defeat to Roma and a few tough games in Febraury. Needless to say we didn’t score many points, but we made that up in March and Arpil by winning 3 times in a row including a few draws. We were quite happy with a 2-2 away draw at Napoli. They are not the strong team they were around 2020, but they still have some good players. Faisal was still switching between Prasti and Kranjec up front, and even played both of them next to each other at one stage. They both seemed to score a few goals here and there, but Prasti created more chances for himself while Kranjec was relying on getting into the open space and being provided with a good pass. That didn’t always work and the long ball to Prasti who then dribbled the defenders or got to the ball quicker seemed to be a more effective strategy. This is also because most teams consider us as an easy 3 point game, which mean that we were much more effective on the counter. Hence why Prasti suits the system better and he became the first choice striker near the end of the season. The final month of the season was “the Prasti show”. Sure we play Inter and Juventus and lose quite badly, but Prasti managed to score 5 goals in the last 4 games, which includes a hattrick in the last game against Sassuolo. That was a good end to the season and we end up 11th in the league which is way better to what we expected (battle for relegation) Faisal was happy that he had some money at the start of the season to purchase a few good players. It was also a bit eeasier to attract better players not only because of the wages we could offer, but also the prestige of playing in the Serie A. Prasti was the real surprise this season as Faisal intially signed him as a plan B in case Kranjec fails to find the net. But Prasti outperformed Kranjec and claimed his rightful spot in the starting eleven. Prasti even became 4th top scorer in the league with 17 goals! Not only the offense should get credit, our defence was one of the best in the league! We had the highest tackle win ration in the league which is impressive for a club who is only in their 2nd season in Serie A. Faisal is really proud to be competing with his idol for the Manager of the Year award! He never believed he would actually be battling it out against him, but here we are. Pep manages AC Milan and won the league this season, and the last 6 seasons… Not Faisal or Pep, but Alejandro Arribas from Juventus won the award in the end… Youth Intake Christian Martini is the best youth intake prospect this year. No new Libyan player in the intake this year. End of Season Details Competitions League Serie A 11th Cup Coppa Italia 1st Rd Players Top Goal Scorer (all competitions) Pierfrancesco Prasti 17 Highest Avg. Rating (all competitions) Pierfrancesco Prasti 7.21 Most Assists (all competitions) Mladen Drobnjak 9 Best Pass Completion Antonello Gallo 92% Most PoM’s Pierfrancesco Prasti 6 Most Yellow Cards Jorge Scorsini 16 Most Red Cards Dimitri Mercatelli 1 Highest Value Player Pierfrancesco Prasti € 6M Highest Paid Player (Monthly) Mario Kranjec Mladen Drobnjak € 76K Manager Reputation Continental 6361 Qualifications Continental Pro Licence Wage (Monthly) € 59.5K Performance this season B Club Reputation National 5380 Stadium Virtus Ispica Stadium 6000 Corporate Facilities Adequate Training Facilities Basic Data Analysis Facilities None Youth Facilities Below Average Junior Coaching Basic Youth Recruitment Adequate Awards Fan’s Player of The Year Pierfrancesco Prasti Goal of The Season Mladen Drobnjak See Below Singing of The Season Pierfrancesco Prasti free Young Player of The Season Mario Giuffrè 24 Finances Turnover (June) € 9,177,149 Balance (June) € 39,882,737 Avg. Ticket Price € 27 Avg. Season Ticket Price € 286 Season Ticket Holders 3631 Sponsors Main kit (Annually) € 1.7M General (Annually) € 105K General (Annually) € 230K Libya FIFA Ranking (June) 98 Libyan players Age Playing for Most notable moment to date Caps Mohamed Al Ghanodi 17 Virtus Ispica u18 7.11 avg rating in u18 Italian competition (2041-2042) - Goal of The Season Player of the Season Team of The Season Legends Edited October 9, 2020 by fmonit Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lodi Lemmer Posted October 26, 2020 Share Posted October 26, 2020 A very entertaining read. I'm impressed with steady improvement that you have made with the club. I find career arcs like this a very rewarding way to play FM...taking a small, little known club and rising through the ranks with them. Congratulations on your many achievements! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
fmonit Posted November 12, 2020 Author Share Posted November 12, 2020 On 27/10/2020 at 03:59, Lodi Lemmer said: A very entertaining read. I'm impressed with steady improvement that you have made with the club. I find career arcs like this a very rewarding way to play FM...taking a small, little known club and rising through the ranks with them. Congratulations on your many achievements! Thanks for the feedback Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
fmonit Posted November 12, 2020 Author Share Posted November 12, 2020 In case people are wondering: this save is still progressing. I just haven't found the time to write updates as work/life are quite demanding past two months. If I have some free time, it is directed to playing the game as opposed to writing about it. I am thinking however to pick this up again, but I might change the format a little and skim over the next couple of seasons in less detail. I'm currently at the end of the 2047 season and have some great news stories. Stay tuned.... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
fmonit Posted November 17, 2020 Author Share Posted November 17, 2020 As the 4-2-3-1 system works quite well with Prasti leading the line up front, Faisal decided to stay with this formation, and find better players to suit this system. Key positions that were (arguably) in need for improvement are: · Central Midfield – BWM · Central Midfield – DLP or AP · Right back – WB · Backup Goalie, unless Faisal can find someone better than Gallardo We already highlighted Nenad Obsivac (DC) and Andraz Kocar (AMC) joining us, other acquisitions are: Right wing back 24yo Brazilian/Italian Leninho. He was constantly loaned out for the past 6 season from AC Milan, with the last 2 seasons to teams in the Serie A. Leninho brings his Serie A experience to our club and will likely be part of the starting eleven. Faisal also found a left back that will alternate with Scorsini. Just so there is a bit rotation and players are kept fresh. This left back is 20yo Spanish Antonio. It was hard to find a back-up goalie as they were either too expensive or too weak, but Faisal signed German 25yo Patrick Ahmel for a low fee from Entracht Frankfurt. He didn’t play much last season so the club was happy to let him go for cheap. He’s nowhere near Gallardo’s skill level, but at least we have a back-up. The midfield got strengthend with 20yo Italian Saverio Attardi, 22yo Bulgarian Ventsislav Nenov from Anderlecht in the BWM position and 22yo Italian Alessandro Artistico on the right wing to give Van Assema a break once in a while. Cup: Nothing special here, lost to Inter in the first round. League: Ispica ended 10th which is slightly better to last season. The first half of the season was great as we had more wins than draws or losses, including great performances against Juve and AC Milan (both a 1-0 loss away which is not a bad result!) The second half was good up to the end of february. We then went through 3 months of only 1 win and lots of losses including a heavy loss at Atalanta (7-0). We only recorded 9 goals in our last 13 games which is pretty poor. Special events this season: The positive: The upgraded Virtus Ispica Stadium (9000 capacity) was completed in February this season. The first game in the new stadium was lost 0-3 to Lazio. Upgraded youth and training facilities have been built, and the board agreed to upgrade again for next season. Although slightly less lethal compared to last season, Prasti is still our top goal scorer with 16 goals and 3 assists. Listed at 10th place in the Serie A top scorers list. He is now also the highest value player in the club at € 9.25M. Prasti was voted player of the season by the fans with a huge margin between the 2nd spot. Other players that performed well this season are playmaker Alfredo in the MC position and Attardi next to him as CM. Alfredo scored 7 times and assisted 9 times and has the 2nd highest average rating behind Prasti. Aaron Gallardo was voted as best goalkeeper of the Serie A. We have an affiliate club in Switserland where we can send players towards: FC Wohlen. It is our first one and hopefully more to follow. Our finances are ever increasing and we churned a profit of € 11.5M! The Negative: We said goodbye to our popular long term Ispica goalie Paolo Mosele. He decided to hang up his boots at 35yo and venture off into football management. He is the record holder of most leage apps (356) and most clean sheets in a season (26). He was a key member of the squad and helpd us to achieve great heights including winning the Coppa Italia Lega Pro (2030), Italian C Super Cup (2033). Serie C (2033) and Serie B (2040). Top defender Arthur was sold during the January transfer window for € 9.25M to Brazilian team Internacional. Faisal reckons we paid a little too much for Alessandro Artistico. The club spent a record transfer fee of € 10.5M, but he is still the number 2 on the right wing behind Van Assema. He is very talented so he might improve and claim that spot, but if we are to spend that kind of money on player, you’d expect him to make an immediate impact. Especially for a small club with limited resources like us. An average rating of 6.53, 2 goals and 0 assists out of 19 starts and 6 substitute appearances is just not good enough. Mario Kranjec also had disappointing stats. He is the nr. 2 striker behind Prasti so his stats would be low, but it looks like his days are numbered as he only pulled off 6.58 average rating, 1 assist, 0 goals out of 4 starts and 15 substitute appearances. Youth Intake: Nothing special and no new Libyan players. Libyan players Age Playing for Most notable moment to date Caps Mohamed Al Ghanodi 18 Virtus Ispica u18 7.11 avg rating in u18 Italian competition (2041-2042) - Team of The Season: Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hootieleece Posted November 21, 2020 Share Posted November 21, 2020 I see you have joined the 4-2-3-1 Wide Club! which means either "Heavy Metal" Football or "Wenger Ball". Which camp do you fall into? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
fmonit Posted November 23, 2020 Author Share Posted November 23, 2020 On 22/11/2020 at 06:37, Hootieleece said: I see you have joined the 4-2-3-1 Wide Club! which means either "Heavy Metal" Football or "Wenger Ball". Which camp do you fall into? Not sure, quite relying on the speed of the forwards at the moment and pressing a fair bit, but not as much as Klopp. So not the full blown heavy metal football, but rather a soft rock approach with subtle, yet effective guitar riffs. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
fmonit Posted November 23, 2020 Author Share Posted November 23, 2020 (edited) Faisal had to let go of two players on a free: Italian DR Alessandro Andreani who lost his spot to Leninho last season and prolific Dutch winger Thijs van Assema. Thijs was a great servant to our club and was integral part of promotion to the Serie A. He’s still a decent player for the club, but he was asking for a wage higher than what Faisal wanted to give so Faisal made the decision to let him go. Alessandro however was let go as he is now 2nd choice on the DR position and he wanted a new contract of 4 years, which Faisal didn’t want to give. Surely he can find someone better to be a backup DR. Faisal did some good work in December last year by scouting lots of players nearing the end of their contract so he can hopefully sign them for free. Free players are: Spanish/Belarussian 23yo DM Maxim Tarakanov from Real Madrid. Initially signed as a defender, but his passing and vision may lead him to become a DLP, CM or BWM in the midfield as well. Good utility player! Italian 24yo Alan Oberti from AC Milan. Oberti will likely play as a BWM in either a MC or DM spot. Italian 26yo Michele Baratto from Ascoli. Faisal couldn’t believe he was released on a free as he’s definitely a decent player for the Serie A. He may not be starting player for us, but he’ll be nr1 sub in defence. Brazilian 18yo Éderson from Santos. Taking up a non-European spot in our squad, but he is well worth it. His resolute nature will allow him to grow, and he’s good on both right wing as striker position. He’ll likely play on both positions where required. His aerial ability will make him a threat on set pieces, which he is also good at taking. However, he won’t be on set piece duty as Faisal wants to capitalise on his aerial presence. Very talented player and hopefully he can grow a lot! He joined us in the January transfer window. Transfers in: We paid € 6M for the services of 22yo Portuguese/French AMR Jorge Lopes from Angers SCO. Lopes is amazingly fast, very agile and does accurate crosses. He is the type player that Faisal has been looking for in that position and will strengthen the squad in that area. Probably our best player and a bargain at € 6M! We also got 18yo Spanish/Basque MC Asier Bengoetxea from Athletic Club for € 6M as well. Another fast player with great passing, flair and even free kicks. Borderline first team player but will definitely feature regularly in the first team lineup. That still leaves the club with € 6M transfer money left, but that is to be kept for next season. Cup: Nothing special here, lost to Lazio in the first round. League: Wow! What a season we had! Just look at the progress: Yep, we constantly hovered around 3rd-4th and only lost our Champions League ticket (top 4) in the last month of the season. We had a horrific end to the season due to injuries to 4 first team players, but our start of the season was fantastic. First game was a 1-0 loss in Brescia, but we then went on a 10 game unbeaten streak to only have a narrow loss at the end of November against Cagliari. We’ve beaten some great teams such as AC Milan 1-2 away, Napoli 0-4 away, Lazio 2-0 at home and drew at home 2-2 against Juve. The 2nd half of the season had more draws but still a few good results (Another win against AC Milan and Napoli) before the crappy end of season started. We were in real danger to even lose a Europa League ticket but the fantastic win against direct competitor Bologna made sure we got the ticket, and we even beat the Champions Atalanta in the last game as well. So not entirely bad near the end. Special events this season: The positive: Qualified for Europe League next season! Upgraded youth and training facilities have been built, and the board agreed to upgrade again for next season. This seems to be a yearly event now that we’re making good money. It’s hard to pick a best player this season as there are about 5 players that really played well all season. In order of highest avg. rating: Jorge Lopes – 10 goals and 13 assists! This guy is a beast! It’s a joy to see him get past the defenders with ease and dishing out crosses to Drobnjak and Prasti. He is also voted as best young player of the Serie A and had third most assists in the league! Pierfrancesco Prasti – good for 20 goals this season. Third top scorer of the league. Asier Bengoetxea – 5 goals and 9 assists out of 22 games. He didn’t always start but he played really well when he did start. Will probably feature in the starting 11 next season. Mladen Drobnjak – 13 goals and 10 assists. He was signed as SC, and potentially AML with inside forward focus. Because of Prasti playing well in the SC spot, Drobnjak got moved to the AML spot and he is performing really well in this position. One of the staple plays this season was Jorge Lopes getting past his defender on the right wing, dragging the defenders towards him while he crossed the ball to the far post where Drobnjak was uncovered for a clear header/shot towards goal. Drobnjak has good jumping reach although his heading could be a bit better. Andraz Kocar – 11 goals and 5 assists. He usually features in the AMC position with an advanced playmaker focus. While we have a lot of playmakers, Kocar was picked in the AMC position as he has a lot of composure and makes good decisions. He is always on the edge of the penalty area and gets layoffs from the wings that he fires towards goal. The other playmakers (Bengoetxea and Tarakanov) have less good finishing skills so Kocar was preferred in the AMC position. Jorge Lopes has created the most chances and Prasti had the most shots on target. The team just gets along with each other. 2 big social groups and no outsiders! Faisal is happy with this. Biggest result of the season: The Negative: Didn’t make a profit this time, but we invested in facilities yet again. Our turnover was a € 1.5M loss. We couldn’t sell Mario Kranjec, so we loaned him out to Udinese (Serie B), with the option for them to buy him. Turns out that Kranjec had the best season ever! Average rating of 7.25, 13 goals and 5 assists. It wasn’t enough for Udinese to get promoted as they finished 9th. Faisal doesn’t really want him back as he wouldn’t be able to compete with Prasti so he hopes Udinese decides to buy him. Youth Intake: Nothing special and no new Libyan players. Libyan players Age Playing for Most notable moment to date Caps Mohamed Al Ghanodi 19 Virtus Ispica u20 7.11 avg rating in u18 Italian competition (2041-2042) - Team of The Season: Edited November 23, 2020 by fmonit Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
fmonit Posted December 22, 2020 Author Share Posted December 22, 2020 Our first season playing in a European competition! Faisal is proud we’ve made it this far, but hopes to one day win the Champions League with the club. We needed to strengthen the squad a bit as we’re up to some though teams in Europe and we don’t want to get smashed by the big clubs in Europe. We got a nice €30M transfer budget to play with so we should be able to buy a few good players. We also sold/released a few players including Aleksander Zikic (€1.2M to Cukaricki Stankom), Mario Kranjec (€800K to Udinese), Antonello Gallo (released on a free) and Dimitri Mercatelli (released on a free) Free players in: Slovakian 24yo SC Adam Bajza from Ol. Lyon. He never made it in the first team of Lyon and was constantly loaned out. He had some mixed results while on loan. Lyon decided to release him so we snapped him up on a free. We picked him up to compete with Prasti in the striker’s position. Transfers in: Wingbacks is something we focused on this transfer period as we’re a bit spread out thin on both sides. We paid €4.9M for the services of 22yo Moroccan/French DR Fahd Messaoudi from Luzern. He’ll be our main right back We also got 19yo Icelandic DL Helgi Grétarsson from IA for €225K. Not the best player at the moment in the DL position, but a good backup to Antonio. Angelo Montanaro joins us as well for €3.1M from Sassuolo. He’ll mainly play in DC area but might feature as right back as well. And then our new golden boy: 20yo French AMC Evan Pinna that we bought for a whopping €16.5M from Auxerre. This kid is a gun already and still has room to grow. He’ll make a difference in midfield and we’ll rely on his vision and ability to create chances for both himself and teammates. Cup: We got through the first round with a 1-0 win over Cremonese, but lost 2-1 at AC Milan in the QF. League: We had a very slow start to the season and only managed to get our first win in late October. Faisal preferred to play Bajza over Prasti to see how he would cope in the Serie A. Pinna was also new to the line-up and it took a while before Faisal found a combination that works best. Also the defence was revamped a bit with 3 new players. So it took a little while before we started scoring more and conceding less. Once we got going though, stopping us was hard for the opposition. We had a great run in December/January, and again in March/April. It turns out that the best combination of players that Faisal lined-up was Drobnjak on the AML, Pinna AMC, Lopes AMR and Éderson in ST position, often switching with Lopes. So no Prasti or Bajza up front. Éderson has great aerial presence and scored a lot of headers from both set pieces and crosses. We ended up 7th in the league and qualify for Europa League again! If only we played better in the first half of the season, we might have actually had a chance at Champions League! Europa League: We get straight into the group stage and are drawn against Valencia, FC Kobenhavn and FK Vojvodina. Valencia will be though but we may get some wins against the other teams. Funnily enough, while we had a crap run in the Serie A, we played well in the Europa League! Our first game was in Valencia and we “only” lost with 2-1. It was actually a lot closer than anticipated so we could have gotten a draw out of it. Bengoetxea scored a long range screamer! Not a bad first goal in Europe for Ispica. Next game is at home vs Vojvodina. Not technically at home as we had to move to the Angelo Massimino - Cibali Stadium in Catania to play our home games. This is because the minimum seating capacity requirements are 8000 seats. Virtus Ispica Stadium only has 4000 seats and a total capacity of 9000. Nevertheless, the stadium was nearly sold out as 18617 people witnessed the first home game of Virtus Ispica in an international competition. And it was won with 3-1! Lopes, Bajza and Éderson on the score sheet after Vojvodina opened the score in the 29th minute. Drobnjak didn’t play well against his former team and was eventually subbed in the 59th minute. Other games: Virtus Ispica – FC Kobenhavn 2-1 FC Kobenhavn - Virtus Ispica 1-3 Virtus Ispica – Valencia 0-2 FK Vojvodina - Virtus Ispica 1-2 (with Drobnjak scoring twice in front of his own crowd) So we’re 2nd behind Valencia in the group and qualify for first knockout-round. And we play…. Chelsea…. Well, well, well, what have we here: We draw 2-2! Éderson was in great form and scouts watching this must have taken notice of his performance. We could have actually won the game but Chelsea managed to score twice in the last 5 minutes. We still weren’t convinced that we would progress to the next round as we were all sure the away result was a fluke… but that isn’t exactly true… We draw again and qualify for the next round on away goals! Éderson again made all the difference! Next round we’re up against RSC Anderlecht. A 2-0 home win sets us up for a chance to qualify for the Quarter Finals. Recognise a pattern here, yes, Éderson is amongst the goalscorers again. But wait, it doesn’t stop there. In Belgium, we smashed them with a 1-4 result! Éderson scored two early goals, smashing the dreams of the Belgians to pieces. Drobnjak scored the other two. The fans are re-naming the Europa League into the “Éderson League”. Quarter Final: Fiorentina awaits. This should be possible to win as Fiorentina is not having a great domestic season. They are around 15th place so we should technically be able to beat them. And so we did…. Convincingly! 4-0 at home and 2-5 away! To everyone’s surprise, Éderson only scored once over the two legs. Semi-final…. Valencia again. Well, if we can beat Chelsea, we should be able to beat Valencia… right? Well, that was wrong… It was close though and they had to win via a penalty. But we just could not score a single goal over both games. It’s hard to progress if you don’t score, so we were kicked out in the Semi-Final. But what a great performance… Chelsea, Anderlecht and smashed Fiorentina! Definitely a memorable first season in Europe. Valencia eventually lost in the final against Barcelona. Special events this season: The positive: The Europa League results! Qualified for Europe League again next season! Another upgrade to the youth and training facilities. It’s hard to pick a best player this season as there are about 5 players that really played well all season. But Faisal narrowed it down to three: Éderson His performance in the Europa League was brilliant and he scored a lot in the 2nd half of the season as well. He has earned his place in the starting line-up with 21 goals and 3 assist. He is also the top goal scorer in the Europa League: Mladen Drobnjak A slow start to the season, but made up for it in the 2nd half of the season. Brilliant on the left flank and good for 19 goals and 5 assists. Jorge Lopes 5 goals and 11 assists from the right wing. Super fast and was able to cross a lot to Éderson and even Drobnjak at the far post. He also ran the highest distance / 90 minutes in the Serie A (13.88km), and also in the Europa League (14.52km) Aaron Gallardo is voted best Goalkeeper of the Serie A Faisal is voted Serie A “Manager’s Manager of the Year” Biggest result of the season: The 2-2 draw at Stamford Bridge. To think that we could have even won that game if we didn’t lose our concentration near the end of the game. The Negative: Prasti was a bit disappointing this season. He got a fair few chances to play, but never reached the same heights he did a few seasons ago. He’s now 28 and it might be time for him to look for a new club. Our stadium is not big enough now that we play in Europe. We can’t request to build a new one as we only built our current stadium in 2029 and is still fairly new. (The game will only allow a new stadium 25 years after the recently built stadium, which means this option is only available in 2054) Youth Intake: Nothing special and no new Libyan players. Al Ghanodi was released from Virtus Ispica this season and hasn’t found a new club yet. He has featured in the national team though and even scored once! Libyan players Pos. Age Playing for Most notable moment to date Caps (Goals) Mohamed Al Ghanodi SC 20 Free player First goal for the national team against Kenya (WC Qualif.) on 7/10/2044 10 (1) Team of The Season: Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hootieleece Posted December 22, 2020 Share Posted December 22, 2020 Congratulations! you have more patience than me....How many seasons at the team? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
fmonit Posted December 23, 2020 Author Share Posted December 23, 2020 On 23/12/2020 at 01:24, Hootieleece said: Congratulations! you have more patience than me....How many seasons at the team? 26 seasons so far, but going a bit slower at the moment due to work commitments and the fact I also play some other games in between. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
fmonit Posted March 19, 2021 Author Share Posted March 19, 2021 It's been a little while and I've tried to get into FM21 but so far it hasn't captivated me so I've gone back to my 2020 save and continue the career with Virtus Ispica. So here we go... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
fmonit Posted March 19, 2021 Author Share Posted March 19, 2021 (edited) Players Out: Faisal has done some good business in the transfer market and brought in €44.5M in transfer fee revenue. Lots of clubs were after our youngsters and Faisal managed to get good deals for Jorge Lopes (€17.25M to AS Roma), Ventsislav Nenov (€11.25M to Wuhan Zall) and Maxim Tarakanov (€10M to Sevilla). Fans and Manager are sad to see these quality players go, but with the money received, Faisal is certain we can find suitable replacements. Adam Bajza kept underperforming so Faisal made the decision to sell him to Feyenoord for €5.25M We also released Patrick Ahmel (not good enough) and Omar Seck (27yo now and never really broke through) Free players in: 22yo Antonino Donato, signed from AC Milan. He’ll mostly play playmaker in either MC or AMC position 24yo Mattia Cirillo, signed from Inter. Faisal is not too sure about Cirillo as we have Prasti playing well up front but Cirillo can bring us some depth if Prasti needs a rest. Especially after Bajza was transferred out Transfers in: The club paid €2.2M for 21yo Serbian GK Ilija Gacic from Red Star. Quite similar to our current GK Gallardo but Faisal wants competition for the nr1 spot, and that is something that Gacic will bring (more than Ahmel, our former backup GK who was released). Also from Red Star is 19yo wonderkid Boban Mrvic, bought for €950K. Antoher creative player for either MC or AMC position. Faisal also acquired the services of super talented 18yo DL Romeo Frasson from Inter for €6M. Faisal feels Frasson is the type of wing-backs that fit the system: fast, stamina, a bit of crossing and still have good defensive skills as well. He’s only 18 so he can grow a lot and maybe even play for Italy one day! Marcello Olmedilla was purchased from River Plate for €7M. He’ll play as a left winger if we need a more crossing winger rather than a winger that cuts inside. Drobnjak is still the player for cutting inside, but Olmedilla gives us a different playstyle in case the centre of the pack is airtight. Cup: We beat Sassuolo in the first round 2-0, only to lose against AC Milan in the QF in extra time 1-2. So close… League: The Seria A was just incredible for us…. And here is why: First game of the season set the tone of the whole campaign, a 0-0 draw at home against Inter. For a small club like us, this is a big result! But the good results kept coming: 1-2 win at Napoli, 0-1 win at AC Milan, 1-1 at Juve,…. We only lost against AS Roma, Atalanta and Lazio in the first half of the season. In January we were proudly 4th on the ladder and within Champions League reach. I Then, in January, Faisal decided to break our record transfer fee with the acquisition of 19yo Portuguese/Belgian striker Martim Ilhicas for €27M from KV Mechelen. This kid is the perfect natural successor for Prasti as they are quite similar in playstyle, but Ilhicas is 10 years younger. And Faisal believes he can be a top Serie A striker, which is what this club needs! And boy, did he cause some waves in the Serie A. He started instead of Prasti up front and took a few games before he found the net: a nice 4-1 win over Parma where Ilhicas scored twice. He kept finding the net from that point onwards and there was just no stopping him. He scored a goal per game on average and ended up with 19 goals out of 19 league games, which also gave him the golden boot of the Serie A! Not bad for a player who only played half a season! We only lost twice in the second half of the season (4-0 against AC Milan and 2-1 against Bologna) and ended up in 2nd spot, well behind AC Milan. We actually pipped Atalanta from the 2nd spot in the last round when we beat Juve 3-0 (yes indeed, 3-0!!!) and Atalanta lost to Inter. That was an intense end of the season… Europa League: Our group stage was not bad as we were drawn in group with Sion, Angers SCO and PAOK. Should be no problem to get through to the knockout stages, but it was a bit harder than anticipated. We end up 2nd in the group after Angers SCO. We go to Celtic Park in the first knockout game and beat the local team 0-1. At home was no problem and we convincingly beat Celtic 3-1. Second knockout round was against Angers SCO, who we also got in the group stage. They had beaten us away, but we got the better of them at home. Faisal was a bit worried about another loss in Angers, but that didn’t happen. We firstly won 4-1 at home and drew them 1-1 in Angers. On to the quarter finals! Real Sociedad is the team we play in the QF. A nice 2-0 victory at home but we struggled a little in the away game. Real Sociedad played really ell and we were lucky to draw 1-1. They scored in the 5th minute, but Ilhicas silenced the Sociedad supporters 7 minutes later with a fantastic shot in the corner of the goal, triggered from just outside of the penalty area. Sociedad took control of most of the game, but failed to score again. The semi-final was already over after 30 minutes. We play in Anderlecht and the scoreline went something along these lines: Frasson 0-1 (1min) Pinna 0-2 (12min) Ilhicas 0-3 (23min) Baratto 0-4 (30min) And eventually the game ended 0-5 with a goal by Olmedilla in the 2nd half. That was one of the best games all season! Anderlecht just had no response… We slacked off a little in the home game and we lost 1-2, but that was ok as Faisal played a few players who don’t get many play chances. And the final is played in the Aviva Stadium in Dublin where we play against Real Valladolid. They didn’t have a great season as they finished 9th in the league, outside of European Football for next season. We on the other hand ended 2nd and already qualify for the Champions League. They also had a bad run of form where they only won twice out of their last 5 league games, while we are on a 9 game non-losing streak. So it’s looking pretty good for us as we’re slight favourite for the final. They have however kocked out Wolfsburg, Dinamo Zagreb, SPAL and Man Utd to get to the final which feels like a tougher run than what we played against. So, onto the game… It starts off quite equal with chances both sides and equal amounts of possession. First chance is for Valladolid when Scottish right winger McInally shoots a badly cleared ball to the top of the crossbar. Just over… It goes a bit back an forth and there were a few chances for Valladoild, but also for us through Ilhicas and Obsivac from a set piece. Both landed in the goalie’s hands. Then in the 33rd minute, a foul was comitted along the left wing by Valladolid and Oledilla steps up to take the free kick. Too far to rifle it in, so he decides to cross it. It falls in the middle of the pack and bounces off a few players before Baratto puts a foot to it. The ball flies straight to the goalie but he can’t hold on to it and it falls in front of Mrvic who slides towards the ball and taps it over the line! 1-0 for Virtus Ispica! That is also the scoreline at half time. Second half starts quietly until the 55th minute: Giuffre distributes the ball from the middle circle to the backtracking Donato who drags the right defender with him out of position. Olmedilla sees this and runs into the space that the DR vacated. Donato notices the run of Olmedilla and slides the ball in between 2 defenders in the path of Olmedilla. Olmedilla receives the ball on the edge of the penalty area, controls the ball, takes 2 steps towards goal and unleashes a heavy left footed strike that lands in the top far corner of the net! Unstoppable! What a great goal! 2-0! 70th minute, Valladolid score a long rage free kick in the top corner from about 25m out. Fantastic strike and the score is now 2-1. Last 20 minutes are going to be hell… 74th minute, Valladolid counters and managed to launch their striker clear from our defence and running towards Gallardo in goal. A 1v1 and everyone’s heart skipped a beat. Is this the moment that they come back and we have to score again to win the final? The answer is…. No, Gallardo stops the shot with his left shoulder and bounces clear… phew… In the same minute, Ilhicas received a long range pass and also has a 1v1 with the opposition goalie, but he’s a little bit further and hasto shoot as the defence is catching up. He pulls the trigger and…. misses the far post by about 20cm. 87th minute, Valladolid left winger cuts inside with the ball and is on the edge of the penalty area and about to get tackled by our defence. He decides to shoot before they can tackle but the shot lacks power and direction and was an easy save for Gallardo. 93rd minute… final whistle!!! Virtus Ispica wins it’s first European Silverware! Special events this season: The positive: The Europa League win! Qualified for Champions League by ending 2nd! Another upgrade to the youth and training facilities. It’s hard to pick a best player this season as you basically have to divide it into 2 parts: Ilhicas and pre-Ilhicas. Martim Ilhicas is our best player at the moment, but before he joined Faisal felt that Evan Pinna was the player that made the difference. Ilhicas is also Golden Boot winner, voted best Serie A striker, best young player and best player of the Serie A. He also made it in the Serie A team of the year. Aaron Gallardo is voted best GK of Serie A (3rd time in the past 4 years) and made it into the Serie A teamo f the year. Romeo Frasson also had a great season and was voted in the Serie A team of the year. Evan Pinna had the most assists in the Europa League (7) Faisal is voted Serie A “Manager of the Year” Biggest result of the season: The 0-5 win over Anderlecht in the first leg of the Europa League Semi Finals. The Negative: Our stadium is not big enough now that we play in Europe. We can’t request to build a new one as we only built our current stadium in 2029 and is still fairly new. (The game will only allow a new stadium 25 years after the recently built stadium, which means this option is only available in 2054) Youth Intake: Nothing special and no new Libyan players. Al Ghanodi has retired at the tender age of 21! He couldn’t find a club so decided to quit professional football and went back to uni. Libyan players Pos. Age Playing for Most notable moment to date Caps (Goals) Mohamed Al Ghanodi SC 21 Retired in 2046 First goal for the national team against Kenya (WC Qualif.) on 7/10/2044 10 (1) Team of The Season: Edited March 19, 2021 by fmonit Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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