[FM24] From Sicily to the top

[AM23]

Introduction

Sicily, the largest and most populous island in the Mediterranean Sea, the 'football' that is being kicked by the boot of mainland Italy. Sicily is where the sun burns and where Mount Etna rumbles. It is also where the Phoenicians, the Greeks, the Carthaginians, the Romans, the Vandals, the Arabs and the Normans all set foot and left their marks, resulting in  a real melting pot of cultures. Moreover, Sicily is home to cities like Syracuse, which was once one of the most important cities in the Mediterranean, and Messina, where the Black Death first arrived in Western Europe. All in all, this beautiful island that is populated by around five million people has a very rich history.

Nowadays, Sicily is just another part of the relatively poor south of Italy. This is shown in its football clubs too, as they simply do not have the resources to battle it out with clubs from the richer north of the country. Even the football club of Palermo, the fifth biggest city in Italy, has only played 29 seasons in Serie A since the inception of professional football in Italy in 1929. The only other teams from the island to have even reached the Serie A are Catania (17 seasons) and Messina (5 seasons). Another four teams have reached as high as Serie B at some point: Siracusa (7 seasons, 1946-53), Licata (2 seasons, 1988-90), Acireale (2 seasons, 1993-95) and Trapani (5 seasons, 2013-17 19-20).  Of these clubs Trapani came closest to becoming the fourth Siclian team to reach the Serie A with a 3rd place finish in 2015/16, after which they lost the play-off final to Pescara.

While bankruptcies have sadly been commonplace in Italian football for a long time now, they seem to happen especially often on Sicily. During the '90s, when Serie A was the best competition in the world, some of these bankruptcies and bad results had led to Sicily being without a club in the top two tiers of Italian football for the first time ever. Surprisingly though, the big three of Sicily (Palermo, Catania and Messina) all recovered quickly, which actually turned into the most successful period of Sicilian football. In the 2006/07 season the island had three Serie A teams at the same time for the first and so far only time ever. It was also the period in which the biggest Sicilian club, Palermo, achieved its best league finishes. Six top half Serie A finishes in 7 years got Palermo into the UEFA Cup / Europa League five times, while they also reached their third Coppa Italia final in 2011, though they failed to win it for the third time as well. 

However, we all know good times do not last forever. Things went in a downward spiral quickly again, and in 2017 Palermo was the last Sicilian club to be relegated from the Serie A. Following on from that finances started to play a role again, with the clubs from the island playing in the top three professional divisions going bankrupt one by one: Messina (2017), Siracusa (2019), Palermo (2019), Trapani (2020), Catania (2022). This meant a restart in the Serie D, outside of the professional leagues, for all teams. As a result, from 2020-22 again no club from Sicily played in the top two tiers of Italian Football. For the current 2023/24 season the distribution is as follows:

Serie B                                                  Serie C                                                           Serie D

                      

Edited June 7 by AM23

[SixPointer]

Nice introduction! Would be nice to put Sicily on the football map for the right reasons. Following 

[AM23]

15 hours ago, SixPointer said:

Nice introduction! Would be nice to put Sicily on the football map for the right reasons. Following 

Thanks! At least I've got the luck that FM doesn't have bankruptcies in the game. Should make things a bit easier.

[AM23]

The save

It probably does not come as a big surprise after the introduction that I will be taking charge of one of the Sicilian teams. The goal of the save is to build up the club in a sustainable way, but more on that later. As for the club I will be managing, I have chosen Trapani. There really is not a special reason that I have chosen them over the other teams, just that their project excited me most. I mostly like the starting point they give me, being one of the favourites to earn promotion from the Serie D. I am using this database to activate Serie D. Furthermore I am going to be using the Mustermann skin, which will take some getting used to as I have not used it before. As for the save, I plan on taking things a little bit slow, unlike my previous FM24 save where I went through the seasons relatively quickly. 

                    

The club

Trapani is a small port city located on the west coast of Sicily, where Africa is geographically closer than mainland Italy. Inhabited by almost 70,000 people, Trapani is the 8th largest city on the island in terms of population. The local football club plays at the Stadio Provinciale, which holds 7,787 people.

Throughout its history, Trapani spent most time in the 3rd, 4th and 5th tiers of Italian football. Some financial problems in the early 2000's had even led to the club spending a few seasons at the 6th tier, but their fortunes changed following a promotion in 2007/08. Five seasons and two more promotions later Trapani achieved the biggest success in its history, by winning their Serie C division, thus getting promoted to the Serie B for the very first time. Their quick rise continued with 14th, 11th and 3rd place finishes. That third season saw Trapani come very close to the Serie A, but ultimately falling at the final hurdle of the promotion play-offs to Pescara. They got relegated a year later and a second Serie B spell starting in 2019 did not last longer than one season. The year after Trapani was declared bankrupt. So far the Serie D restart has led to a 12th and 3rd place finish, and in the current 2023/24 season an unbeaten championship, but that will not count for me in this save. For the stadium atmosphere, see the highlights of their recent championship match. 

  

                    

The philosophy

I have identified two problems with Sicilian football. The first one, bankruptcies, is the most obvious. The second is that there are not a lot of players from Sicily that reach the Serie A. Using these problems I have formulated the following rules/objectives for the save:

• I will only allow myself to sign players from lower divisions than the one I am in (so if we reach Serie A, only players from Serie B and lower can be signed). In practice this should result in paying less money in transfer sums and wages for established players, using the big talent pool of the Italian lower levels instead. 
• Free transfers are another story. Since they do not require transfer sums, they will be allowed. This will be especially handy for signing more experienced players of sufficient quality, as they are obviously more difficult to find at lower levels.
• There is one more exception for the signing policy. Namely, that I will always be allowed to sign players born on Sicily. The region is underpresented in Italian football, so I should give them the chance if possible.
• As a consequence of the restrictive transfer policy, the youth academy will play an important role in this save. Focus on the academy should be useful on two fronts: giving the club another supply of talent and producing Sicilian footballers.

All in all, the restrictive transfer policy is in place to stay out of financial troubles and build sustainable success instead, while creating a good youth academy will hopefully make Trapani a talent hub for Sicilian players.

                    

The road

The exact process of building up the club will of course form itself during the save, but I have made the following road map for some general directions:

1. Quick promotion: getting back into the Serie C has to happen as fast as possible, preferably in the first season.
2. Building up the club: start improving the academy and set up a network of scouts to get a good overview of the Italian lower leagues.
3. Slow improvement: maintain an upward trajectory working towards promotion to the Serie B and establishing the club there.
4. Talent hub: become one of the leading Italian academies and produce some Sicilian talents.
5. Historic promotion: continuing the path of steady progress should eventually lead to Trapani reaching the Serie A for the first time.
6. Sicilian Success: establish the club in the Serie A and work towards winning Sicily's first ever major trophy (Serie A or Coppa Italia)

[Jogo Bonito]

I like this idea and look forward to following. I think there is a good set of player targets in the lower leagues (Serie C & D) which can be acquired for free. Boosting Sicily itself will be a long haul but should be satisfying if/when you achieve something worthwhile.

I started with Palermo a few weeks back but haven't convinced myself whether to continue through or go with a Serie A side. A group of us from work in Malta will be going to Sicily (Marina di Ragusa) in less than two weeks so that might inspire me!

Good luck and enjoy the sunny Med Island and lifestyle 

Edited June 9 by Jogo Bonito

[AM23]

On 09/06/2024 at 14:39, Jogo Bonito said:

I like this idea and look forward to following. I think there is a good set of player targets in the lower leagues (Serie C & D) which can be acquired for free. Boosting Sicily itself will be a long haul but should be satisfying if/when you achieve something worthwhile.

I started with Palermo a few weeks back but haven't convinced myself whether to continue through or go with a Serie A side. A group of us from work in Malta will be going to Sicily (Marina di Ragusa) in less than two weeks so that might inspire me!

Good luck and enjoy the sunny Med Island and lifestyle 

Thanks! I'm excited to get started. I do believe that there should be enough quality players available to put together a good squad. It might get harder when going up the leagues but that should only make possible success more rewarding. As for improving the quality of Sicilian players I think that it will be more difficult to get them better, but having a great youth academy on the island should be helpful.

My original idea was actually to go with Palermo before I decided to start a bit lower on the pyramid, so I'd say it's a good choice. They are an interesting team with some good results in recent history and a nice stadium.

[Jogo Bonito]

Looking forward to reading about your journey, will be reading whether I continue with Palermo or not.

[AM23]

Summer 2023

With the summer transfer window turned off July and August were mostly about getting familiar with the squad and deciding on a tactic. I also got the time to check out our Serie D group, which is made up for more than 50% by Sicilian teams. The most interesting opponent is however not one of the nine other teams from the island, but one just a 20 minute ferry ride away. LFA Reggio Calabria (Reggina) are the arch rivals of Messina, with whom they fight out the Derby dello Stretto. The first decade of this century saw them spend 9 seasons in Serie A, and in the 2022/23 season they came close to a return by reaching the Serie B play-offs. Instead of a return to Serie A, a bankruptcy has sent them down to Serie D, where they will be our main rivals for the single promotion spot.

Expectations in Trapani are high as a return to the professional levels is the goal. The board seem to be ambitious overall, as they want to get back to Serie B within 4 years. 

                    

Squad & Tactic

The squad I inherited looks to be a good mix of talent and experience as players from all age ranges are present. Of course, we wouldn't be in Italy without some older players that are essential for the team. One such example is 33 year old German winger Oliver Kragl, who appears to be the star man. While he has some good technical stats and is known as a dead-ball specialist, he isn't the quickest anymore, which has led me to decide on giving the Raumdeuter role another try. On the right side in our 4-3-3, I have paired him with our biggest prospect Emiliano Pino, a complete wing back very suitable for storming the flank. To compensate for this attacking right back we will play with an inverted full back on the other side of the pitch. Our oldest player is the man who will spearhead our attack, Andrea Cocco. At 37 years old he still is one of our best players and he carries the experience of 9 Serie B seasons with him. 

The best word to explain our tactic is patience. Building up our attacks from the back is the plan, while we are in no rush to win possession with our lower line of engagement.

                    

Pre-season

A total of six friendly games for us in August to get ready for the league season. We started out against a 5th tier side after which we met two of our division rivals from the island and three Serie C teams. 

Overall results were very positive, with especially the wins over Pro Vercelli and Juventus B-team giving confidence. In the end Perugia made sure we aren't flying too high going into the season. 

[CameronFM]

An absolute sucker for an Italian save! Can’t wait to follow this one along. 
 

At least you can say that the board at optimistic, could always work in your favour at a later date. Intrigued to see how you get on with the lone striker - an area I have struggled with in recent weeks. 

[AM23]

On 12/06/2024 at 22:34, CameronFM said:

An absolute sucker for an Italian save! Can’t wait to follow this one along. 
 

At least you can say that the board at optimistic, could always work in your favour at a later date. Intrigued to see how you get on with the lone striker - an area I have struggled with in recent weeks. 

It's been a while since I have had an Italian save game, but so far I've been enjoying it. The lone striker has been working quite well actually in the first few matches, although that might also be because our striker is one of the league's best players. 

[AM23]

September 2023

For my first competitive match at the Provinciale we meet Licata in the Serie D Cup, where the first rounds seem to be drawn on a regional basis. In the league we have been assigned a relatively easy start, meeting three teams expected to finish in the bottom half. 

                    

Licata (H) 

The first game of the save already throws up a nasty surprise, as it turns out there are quite strict rules on the use of youngsters in the Serie D (+ Cup). It turns out there are some rules for the amount of young players in the playing XI at all times: 4 U20, 3 U19, 1 U18. Admittedly, I would have known this had I taken the time to look into league rules. Anyways, the problem would have been the same since the summer transfer window was turned off.

I did already have two young players in my intended first XI in right back Emiliano Pino (U19) and goalkeeper Enis Ujkaj (U19), while defensive midfielder Racine Ba (U20) is not a bad option. The U18 player gives us more trouble, as we only really have two left backs not quite ready for the first team as our options. An even bigger problem is that these restrictions stay in place during games, meaning that when taking one of these players off, another youngster needs to be subbed in, but we really miss some depth for that.

Only 822 people turned up for this fixture I thought would be a cakewalk after a lucky second goal gave us a comfortable margin, but Licata only really needed two chances to get the game back even. Eventually we had to rely on penalties to get through to the next round, as we couldn't convert our chances in the second half. Despite the draw, we can look back on a good game, where we kept them at bay for almost all of the match. 

                    

Matchday 1-3

  

We do what was expected of us and shoot into first place as the only team with a perfect record after three games. A very nice way to get the season going and it takes a bit of the pressure off.

San Luca (H) - No better way for a striker to start the season than to do so with a hattrick. Andrea Cocco immediately shows how important he can be for this team after having already opened the scoring in the cup game too. We were in full control in this match with 78% possession and a passing accuracy of 91%. Once again it wasn't so much our defence being untrustworthy and giving two goals away, but more so their effectiveness, as San Luca scored both their shots on target.

Castrovillari (A) - An incredible scoreline for an away game, but the result doesn't really tell the story of this match. Initially Castrovillari gave us a hard time as they were in no rush to take on our backline, opting for control instead which resulted in them having 64% of possession. For the first 60 minutes chances were scarce and we even fell behind for a short moment. Once we had scored the 2-1 though, their resistance stopped and the floodgates really opened. Our mezzala Federico Marigosu was the catalyst to our success, being seemingly at the center of every attack and contributing to three goals.

Canicattì (H) - A game very similar to the first one, albeit with a few less goals. We were in control throughout with deep lying playmaker Marco Crimi  completing no less than 134 passes. However, we needed a third penalty in as many matches to break the deadlock, and were unable to keep a clean sheet again.

Not all is good though. Francesco Bova is our first big injury, which is not great since he is one of the few youngsters in the first team. Without him we have even less options for our necessery U20 players.

                    

League table

[AM23]

October 2023

We will meet some tougher opposition in October. Definitely an exciting month though, as we travel to two of our rivals in Akragas and Siracusa, the latter of which is predicted to finish 3rd. Additionaly, we have fixtures coming up against Vibonese and Locri, who have both gotten of to a good start in the league. I expect this month to be a lot more challenging than our season start, so it will be interesting to see how the team handles that.

                    

Vibonese (A)

We travel to the mainland for the second time this season, where we will play one of the better teams in the league. After a narrow loss to Licata, who we beat on penalties in the cup, Vibonese have showed their worth with two convincing wins.

Although results have been good last month, I do feel like we conceded too easily. Most of the chances our opponents got looked to result from a lack of pressure, so I have changed things up slightly by changing my central defenders to play as a stopper and a cover, with the idea that the stopper will close down opposing attackers early.

What a great win this is! Only 5 minutes after coming onto the pitch right winger Mauro Bollino heads home the only goal of the match. Although we were in control for most of this game, we had a difficult time creating chances. I would have been happy with the draw too to be honest, given that we were away from home against a good opponent.

                    

Matchday 5-6 & Serie D Cup

  

Akragas (A) - Agrigento, the city where seven magnificent Greek temples (500 BC) stand tall in the Valle dei Templi. Besides this UNESCO World Heritage site, the city is also home to a football club which carries the Greek name of the city, Akragas. The first rival we meet in this save does not have the quality to stop Andrea Cocco, who gets his second hattrick of the season to extend our winning run. 

Real Casalnuovo (H) - Our third clean sheet on the bounce and yet another win. Real Casalnuovo turned up playing a good old catenaccio system which gave us plenty to think about. We could not create any real chances no matter what tactical changes I made (xG 0.62 - 0.35), and were lucky Roberto Convitto chose today to score an absolute sreamer from distance. The left winger got into the starting XI for the first time last match and had already payed back trust with an assist too. In the end we are a bit lucky to come away with a 1-0 for the secont time this month.

Canicattì (A) - A very rotated sides gets us through to the next round. Although it almost came down to penalties again, I am very happy with the way our back-ups played. They dominated Canicattì all the way throughout this game with 63% possession and an xG of 0.23 - 1.82. 

                    

Siracusa (A)

Next stop: Syracuse. The 4th biggest city on Sicily with 125,000 inhabitants, located on the southeast coast of the island. It is the place where the famous scientist Archimedes lived his whole life and designed machines that are still used to this day. 

The local football club is the Sicilian team to have played most seasons in Serie B besides the big three of Palermo, Catania and Messina. Their seven years there ended long ago though. Right now they are our biggest rivals in this league and also one of the main contenders for promotion. They have already fallen behind a bit, with a loss against Reggio Calabria last month and more recently a very disappointing home loss against last place Castrovillari. This means that we have the chance to put them at a distance early on in the season here. 

A truly special performance to humiliate our rivals! I don't think the first half today can be topped in the rest of this season. Siracusa had absolutely no say before the break, as we made four goals within 20 minutes to put the game far beyond their reach. They will have a chance to get revenge next month as we have been drawn against them in the third round of the Serie D Cup.

                    

Locri (H)

Another very interesting game to finish the month. Locri have been surprising so far and are unbeaten in 3rd place. They only dropped points in two draws, and are the second best attacking team in the league behind us. It will be exciting to see our defence, that hasn't conceded a single goal in the last 4 league matches, going up against an attack that scored at least two goals in each of their seven league matches so far. Once more, we do have the chance to put a close rival at a distance in the table.

Life is good right now. Yet another win to end the month. Francisco Sartore came on to the pitch as a left winger at the half and provided two assists that won us the game after a boring first half. He has had trouble performing early in the season losing his place in the starting XI, but today he showed what a valuable asset he is.

                    

Defensive performance

At the start of this month I announced a small tactical change to our defence, where we are now playing with a stopper and a cover. Interestingly enough, this has worked out very well. There is a clear improvement in our performance defensively, which can be seen from these stats:

• Tactic: Previous system | Current sytem
• Matches: 4 | 6
• Goals Against / 90:  1.5 | 0.33
• xG Against / 90: 0.87 | 0.61
• Blocked shots / 90: 0.5 | 1.17

It has to be noted that our opponents this month were on average better than those we met previous month. Therefore the improvements might be even better. We clearly concede much less and give away less chances, while blocking more shots. I attribute the higher amount of blocks to an increased pressure on opposition attackers, though I am not completely sure. Also, the sample size is quite small of course, so there is a chance that these stats are just a coincidence.

Below are the two tactics (current on the right) and the players most used in them:

  

The change is seemingly very small, but has also led to better individual performances. Andrea Cristini is the intended leader of our defence, but struggled a bit initially with an average rating of 6.75. In the matches after the change this has improved to an average 7.22. Young defensive midfielder Racine Ba has also increased his average rating from a 6.73 under the previous sytem to a 7.12 under the new system, which could be a result of having more back-up preventing shots.

                    

League table

An exceptional month has kept us on top and with a loss for Licata in the last game we have also obtained some room for error now. 

[MrTepig]

Perfect season incoming!

[CameronFM]

Such a subtle change to the defensive roles, but by god does it pay dividends!

Cocco absolutely flying as well, glad to see you aren’t suffering from the one striker disaster like I am!

[AM23]

On 21/06/2024 at 05:27, MrTepig said:

Perfect season incoming!

I don't see why not 

23 hours ago, CameronFM said:

Such a subtle change to the defensive roles, but by god does it pay dividends!

Cocco absolutely flying as well, glad to see you aren’t suffering from the one striker disaster like I am!

Cocco really has been a blessing. Massively outperforming his xG and scoring more than one goal a game so far. 

[AM23]

November 2023

A busy month with two midweek games coming up. No big travel times though, as we only meet Sicilian teams. Our trip to Licata is the most important one. They currently sit in second place, and have so far been the only team to keep us at a draw after 90 minutes, albeit in the cup. 

                    

Matchday 9-10

 

And our perfect league run comes to an end. Just in the last post I was bragging about how good my tactical decisions in defense were, only for us to concede four goals in two matches to start this month. 

Igea Virtus (A) - A trip to the northwest of the island brought us to the beautifully named town of Barcellona Pozzo di Gotto, where we sadly suffered our first point loss. It only took Igea Virtus two shots in all of the first half to score as many goals. It was Francisco Sartore who made sure the scores where still even at the break, as the left winger built forward upon two assist in the last outing with a brace. Taking the lead back after an hour of play gave some relief, but we gave away control which led to a deserved equaliser. Despite not being in attack much, Igea Virtus still almost matched our xG (1.31 - 1.42) as our defence was unable to stop them when they did go forward.

Ragusa (H) - We barely escape another draw in what should have been an easy home win. Oliver Kragl displays his amazing technique to save us, but I can't say it was deserved. In fact, Ragusa are the first team this season to have a better xG than us (1.18 - 1.20), while they kept us from our preferred style of slow build ups by pressing high up the pitch.

                    

Licata (A) 

While we struggled so far in this month, the four teams still relatively close to us all won their two matches. This means Licata could overtake us at the top of the table if they manage to beat us.

Licata overtake us as they hand us our first loss of the season. After Licata had capitalised on a good start to the game, we seemed paralysed until the break. Slowly but surely we started to find our footing after that, resulting in more and more attacks, and at last the equaliser we were longing for. We couldn't really enjoy it though, as Licata quickly took back the lead with their only shot after opening the scoring.

I am torn between two thoughts after this match. On the one hand we showed resilience in the second half, not giving up on the equaliser despite some missed chances. On the other hand, it was too easy to score for Licata the two times they felt the need to.

                    

Serie D Cup & Matchday 12-13

  

Siracusa (A) - Our second trip to Syracuse of the season gets us another positive result, although it was nowhere near as convincing as our 4-0 victory earlier in the year. We fielded an almost fully rotated side, which did actually not lead to a bad performance. We actually completely outplayed Siracusa and finished the match with 28 shots, opposed to their 6. However, we did fall 2-0 behind, and still relied on two first XI subs scoring to get it to penalties. There we emerged victorious for the second time this season, courtesy two saves by young goalkeeper Enis Ujkaj.

Acireale (H) - Since we recently struggled against teams playing a 5-3-2, which Acireale does as well, I decided to mirror that formation for this match. This meant a less dominant showing than in our usual formation (only 49% possession), but did give us some more strength in defense. Moreover, Emiliano Pino was able to play in his best position as a complete wing back, which paid off as quickly. 

Città di Sant'Agata (A) - Back to our 4-3-3 we were dominant as ever, with 64% possession and a passing accuracy of 93%. Originally Oliver Kragl was our main man with a brace to get us in the lead twice. A flurry of goals in the last quarter of the game meant a big result in the end, although we do concede two goals yet again.

                    

Tau (A) - Serie D Cup (RO16)

Our win against Siracusa has given us another midweek game to end this month. We're in the round of 16, and thus we have gotten a non-regional draw for the first time. An away draw means we travel to Altopascio in Tuscany, close to the famous city of Pisa. Tau Calcio are currently sitting mid table in their division, so I feel like we should be able to get past them.

No third penalty shootout win for us. We've been riding our luck all tournament and it ends here. Such an unnecessary loss though, as we were in full control in the first half with a comfortable lead too. The dynamics of the game completely changed after the break to send us back home disappointed.

                    

Financial situation

The main premise of this save is to break the trend of financial problems that have been haunting Sicilian clubs. The idea to this is by taking no unnecessary risks in spending so that the balance remains healthy. Therefore it is interesting to look into the current situation.

We started out the save with €1.5 million in the bank, and have only been losing around €40k per month since then, which seems decent. Of course, a possible promotion would lead to the club turning professional and thus an increase in expenditures, but at least we have a bit of a buffer.

What might stand out in the graph above is the negative spike in the most recent month. Luckily, this is not due to some unexpected reason, but actually a sign of the first improvements being made within the club. Namely, we are in the process of upgrading our youth facilities. All in all, things on the background are going well so far.

                    

League table

We're back in first place as Licata dropped points twice immediately after beating us. Vibonese look like our biggest threat right now. In fact, after we beat them at the start of October, they have accumulated 9 league wins in a row.

[Jogo Bonito]

After a great time in Sicily last week, I finally had time to catch up on this. A very good league campaign so far, but still tight at the top. Ragusa (where I stayed) are finding it much tougher!

I didn't visit Palermo, so despite making myself some kits for them that I really love, my Italian career may take me somewhere else.

Will be checking in on this whenever I can!

[AM23]

1 hour ago, Jogo Bonito said:

After a great time in Sicily last week, I finally had time to catch up on this. A very good league campaign so far, but still tight at the top. Ragusa (where I stayed) are finding it much tougher!

I didn't visit Palermo, so despite making myself some kits for them that I really love, my Italian career may take me somewhere else.

Will be checking in on this whenever I can!

It has been a good run for us so far, so I am quite surprised there are still four teams close to us. As for Ragusa, they should have been in 7th according to the xG table, so I expect them to rise up the table later in the season. 

Good luck with your own save! Hope you find yourself the right Italian club to start with. 

[Jogo Bonito]

The battle makes it even better, doesn't it. I didn't get to see a pitch or stadium in Ragusa, but can't imagine they're anything special!

I think I found my club, well, assuming I don't stick with Palermo and after discounting all the Serie A sides who have a story about them in here!

[SixPointer]

Solid start, but looks like a few others are going to make your fight for it. Shaping up to be a very interesting season. KUTGW

[AM23]

On 03/07/2024 at 19:54, Jogo Bonito said:

The battle makes it even better, doesn't it. I didn't get to see a pitch or stadium in Ragusa, but can't imagine they're anything special!

I think I found my club, well, assuming I don't stick with Palermo and after discounting all the Serie A sides who have a story about them in here!

Oh it really does. Makes it all the more rewarding if you do come out on top. 

Have fun with Bologna! A very interesting project and of course a great season in real life. 

6 hours ago, SixPointer said:

Solid start, but looks like a few others are going to make your fight for it. Shaping up to be a very interesting season. KUTGW

Still tight at the top of the table indeed.

Edited July 6 by AM23

[_Ben_]

Hadn't seen this before today but I love your writing style, the fact that you're using the Mustermann skin and the fact that you're also managing in Sicily! In my save, I'm battling at the bottom of Serie C with Messina and, just below me are Trapani after being promoted last time out.

[AM23]

December 2023

After 13 games in the previous two months, December looks very relaxing. We finish the first half of the season with a relatively easy schedule, as we meet 17th, 13th and 18th in the table respectively, before a big game against Reggio Calabria.

                    

Matchday 14-16

  

Gioiese (H) - Five losses in a row had not given our opposition much confidence judging by the one way traffic in this match. There was one part we lacked in though, as we saw almost all of our shots miss the target. The score was finally opened when Andrea Cristini headed home from a corner with our 21st shot of the game. It was a great alround performance by him, as he also lead our defence which only gave up one shot.

Portici (A) - At the foot of the Vesuvius we encountered a dangerous combination of a compact defence and quick counters. Chances were scarce and the 1-1 scoreline after an hour wasn't unfair. Only after we decided on a more direct playing style making use of the counter ourselves did we start getting in front of their goal regularly. In the end Mauro Bollino underlined his status as a supersub on the wing, scoring a late winner for the second time this season.

Sancataldese (H) - Our first point loss at home comes unexpectedly. Initially we had no real trouble as Andrea Cocco got us the lead scoring for the 4th league match in a row, but after that we failed to capitalise on our chances. A direct red saw us perplexed for a moment leading to the equaliser shortly after.

                    

Reggio Calabria (A)

A very important game close to the end of the year. With three wins in a row the phoenix club of Reggina is now only three points away from us, meaning they could take over first place with a win here. They play in a 5-3-2 system, so once again we will mirror that formation since that worked out well last time.

Did we deserve the win? Probably not. I won't let it bother me though, as this is a huge result with respect to the battle for first place. 

It took us some time to find our footing in this match, but after Reggio Calabria had been the best team for most of the first half, it was us who went into the break with the lead thanks to two goals in quick succession. We reacted swiftly after their equaliser in the second half, scoring another two goals. The game was far from over however, as Reggio Calabria piled on the chances in the last fifteen minutes. Luckily they were unable to finish any of them.

Some mismanagement by me saw us with not enough U20 players on the bench, which meant I was unable to take off some very tired youngsters. When the 2-2 was scored I was sure it was over for us. In the end I got saved by two perfect Oliver Kragl corners.

                    

Sicilian Players

In one of the first posts of this thread I layed out the philosophy for this save. One of the goals I formulated was to not only build a succesful Sicilian club, but also for there to come more talent from the island. Therefore I thought it would be interesting to look at the current state. 

I recently finished my Sicilian player search filter and thus am now able to see were all players with roots on the island are active. I have to say the distribution is even worse than I expected. With Sicily holding more than 8% of the population of Italy, you would expect more than the following:

• Serie A holds just 2 senior Sicilian players (0.4% assuming 25 players per squad): Emmanuel Gyasi (29, Empoli) and Antonino Gallo (23, Lecce). Of these two only the latter is actually getting game time too. Gallo is however one of the few positives in a struggling Lecce squad, and even leads Serie A with his 6 assists so far. 
• 13 more players are active within the youth teams of Serie A clubs.
• In other European top leagues Mario Balotelli is the only active player born on the island, though he did move to the north of the country not long after his birth.
• The numbers in Serie B are better, with 14 senior players coming from Sicily. This is still only about 2.8% of all players in the league though.
• In Serie C the number lies around 60. With the same amount of teams active at this level that means about 4% of players.

Clearly, there is many room for improvements. I am curious to see if it would be possible to get these numbers up by building a world class youth academy on the island, although I might be getting ahead of myself here.

                    

League table

Despite the very disappointing draw against Sancataldese, I can only really call this a succesful month. Losing that last game against Reggio Calabria would have meant a three way tie at the top. Instead, we are the lone leaders with the advantage of having won against both Vibonese and Reggio Calabria already, which could be crucial given that head-to-head results are the first tiebreaker in Italy.

Edited July 8 by AM23

[AM23]

On 06/07/2024 at 17:33, _Ben_ said:

Hadn't seen this before today but I love your writing style, the fact that you're using the Mustermann skin and the fact that you're also managing in Sicily! In my save, I'm battling at the bottom of Serie C with Messina and, just below me are Trapani after being promoted last time out.

Thanks for the comment! Great to hear you are liking the thread so far.

Using the Mustermann skin has definitely taken some time to get used to, and to be honest I am still learning as I go. I do really feel that it helps me focus more on the actual match performances of players instead of being fixated on attributes so much.

Good luck with Messina! Hopefully I will meet them next season in this save. I will be sure to check out your thread.