[FM24] Sassuolo: A New Beginning

[warlock]

At the end of the 23/24 season, Sassuolo ended an eleven-year stay in Italy's top flight. During that tenure, although predominantly a mid-table side, they did feature in the Europa League in the 16/17 season reaching the group stage, and were rarely threatened with relegation. But last season they slumped to 19th place and fell out of SerieA. So begins the task of not just securing promotion, but driving the club to new heights... a first cup, a first title, perhaps a first taste of European glory.

[I have installed a database accurate to July 1 2024, which means all relegations and promotions, transfers to that date, and European qualifications, are accurately reflected. Because of FM limitations, unfortunately, we do have an in-game start date of 2023 just to make screenshots confusing.]

On arrival at the club, I find a ridiculous player roster - 40 in the first team squad, 39 in the u20s, and another 23 in the u18s - a situation that has always put me off Italian football in the past. More usually, there's work to do in the backroom staff, a better-than-expected transfer budget of around £15m, but no spare wage budget.

Staff

My first task at any new club is to sort out the coaching, recruitment and medical departments. As a newly-relegated club it's no surprise that Sassuolo have one of the better backroom teams in the league. A handful of vacancies in the medical and scouting departments are quickly filled, but we are without a DoF or Technical Director and those roles are less easily dealt with.

The biggest issue is with coaching where we have two overpaid assistant managers, and a number of specialist coaches who can be easily improved. There is always the question of whether to lose these people through natural attrition or bite the bullet and take the immediate financial hit of terminated contracts. I usually prefer the latter approach and it's one I take here. We quickly put together a stellar cast:

Transfers

Reviewing the squad was difficult, for three reasons:

1. As noted, it's a flabby, bloated thing with more players than we can reasonably use but sorting the wheat from the chaff takes time.

2. As a relegated club, we have many players who are not happy with the situation and want an immediate return, via the transfer market, to top level football.

3. Also because of relegation, our better players immediately become more attractive to rivals who sense the chance of scooping up bargain signings. 

Generally, I want players who are happy; anyone who really wants away will be sold - but only at a price that makes sense for the club. So I spent an inordinate amount of time in the transfer window batting away insulting offers from top clubs in Italy, Germany and England, and West Ham.

By the end of the transfer window, we have allowed 23 players to leave - some arranged before my arrival - and signed five new faces. In the process, we made a £15m profit. The only deal I was less than happy about was the transfer of Cristian Volpato, a bright prospect at AM, who was determined to join Milan. When we eventually drove the price up to £9m I had to let him go, offset by the fact that he immediately returned on a completely free loan for the rest of the season. The board, on the other hand, were unhappy with a couple of other deals where they felt I had failed to achieve a good price. I can live with that.

First of the newcomers, signed before my arrival, was a central defender:

Cas Odenthal joins us on a free transfer from Como, and he's already looking like a decent signing.

Sebastian Boselli arrived on a £5.5m deal from River Plate in Argentina and provides us with useful cover at both RB and CD.

Gianluca Gaetano joins us on a loan-to-buy deal from Napoli. He provides us with good flexibility across the AM line and as a decent CM.

Key players include:

Striker Andrea Pinamonti

AMR Domenico Beradi

AML Armand Loriente

DM Maxime Lopez

GK Stefano Turati

Squad overview:

Tactically, we experimented with the Darlington 343 in the first couple of pre-season friendlies but the squad is far from ideal for that. Eventually, I settled on the 433 as shown and it has been working pretty well so far:

The only area of concern is the lack of goalscoring from the frontline. Berardi is tipped as the league's top scorer, and Pinamonti is among the favourites but so far neither has impressed. Tactical familiarity is pretty low so I'm sure things will improve.

[mannojunior]

Looking forward to following this! 

[Carambau]

Yay! Good luck in Italy  

[_Ben_]

I enjoyed my time at Sassuolo on FM23 with the pleasure of Pinamonti and Berardi in the team. Enjoy!

[warlock]

3 hours ago, mannojunior said:

Looking forward to following this! 

3 hours ago, Carambau said:

Yay! Good luck in Italy  

2 hours ago, _Ben_ said:

the pleasure of Pinamonti and Berardi in the team

Cheers, chaps! The chance to manage Berardi was certainly a big part of the attraction.

I've looked at Italian saves in every FM for as long as I can remember but never quite managed it. Squad management is always a big part of my game, but the sheer size of Italian setups makes things more complicated than I'd like, especially when you have players who aren't quite good enough for the first team but are too old for the u20s. Is that why there are so many loan deals in Italy?

[Deisler26]

Good luck with this!

[_Ben_]

8 hours ago, warlock said:

Is that why there are so many loan deals in Italy?

Yep. Just an u18 and a u20 league means that anyone over 20 now plays in the first team (part of the reason for the 15 subs rule) or goes on loan. Ten or so years ago, and it was implemented into FM, Italian teams used to use co-ownership where you could buy 50% of a player, normally a hot prospect or, for lower teams, a glorified loan, and they'd just sit in the U20 team of the non-playing side, taking up more space! 

[warlock]

Sassuolo - October 2024

After a disappointing start to the season, our big names - Berardi and Pinamonti - have begun to show their quality. But the unexpected star so far has been AML Armand Lauriente. The former Rennes and Lorient player, who joined Sassuolo at the end of the 22/23 season, has been our leading source of both goals and assists. Cutting in off the left wing, the Frenchman has proved capable of conjuring chances out of nowhere... or finishing them himself. With 7 goals and 5 assists from 11 appearances, he has become the first name on the teamsheet.

But his colleagues in our attacking trident, AMR Berardi and ST Pinamonti, have also moved through the gears and found excellent form of their own:

With such a potent strikeforce it's no surprise that we have enjoyed an unbeaten start to the season:

Our form generally is probably no surprise - we're predicted to win the title at a canter. But the board will settle for nothing less, so there's some pressure to keep this up for the whole of the season. It would be useful if we could tighten up in defence because, as those draws demonstrate, we can't always count on out-scoring the opposition. Which leads to another area of concern: complacency. We're regularly leading at the interval but find a way to let teams back in during the second half. We need to find a ruthless streak and snuff out those late threats.

But our 12-game unbeaten streak (including the opening round of the cup) is a new club record and has propelled us to the top of the table:

(For those worried about their maths, Sampdoria had 2pts deducted for financial irregularities.)

We also face another threat: finances. We're carrying the biggest wage bill in the league, and with much-reduced gate receipts and TV money, we're likely to end the season some £10-12m in the red. Promotion is absolutely vital.

[Carambau]

Good start, the finances should sort themselves out by themselves if you get promoted  

[Stuniverse]

Good luck at Sassuolo @warlock 🍀⚽️🤞

[warlock]

December 2024

We continue to perform at a very high level, stretching our unbeaten run in all competitions.

We were particularly good against second-placed Sampdoria, beating them comfortably on the road. But we had another reality check against Spezia, who held us to a draw at home, despite us holding a comfortable-looking 2-0 lead at the interval. Throughout November I had the squad working on a 4231 system in the hope that a double-pivot at DM would make us more secure at the back. Against lowly Catanzaro it didn't matter as they put up little resistance. Nevertheless, I thought the tactical switch might pay dividends so we introduced it in December's opening game.

It's difficult to say how much difference it made, with 5 wins, 2 clean sheets, but 4 goals conceded, but we did look more solid. Only Reggiana, in a big local derby, pushed us hard and it was only when they went down to 10 men midway through the second half that we managed to take the lead for an eventual victory.

However, our final game of the month - a Coppa Italia third round tie away to giants Milan - proved to be nothing short of miraculous:

We expected nothing but a spanking, but an early goal from Lauriente gave us something to hold on to. As Milan became increasingly desperate and missing chance after chance, you could see our players growing in confidence and we put the game away with two more goals before the interval. In the second half, Milan threw everything at us, picking up three yellow cards in the process, but they rarely looked like scoring and the final result was as comfortable as it looked. Our reward is another trip back to Milan to play Inter in the fourth round.

We head into the new year with a 10-point lead over Sampdoria, boasting the best attack and defence in the league.

Ahead of the transfer window I'm not expecting much business but everything will depend on holding on to our best players. In the circumstances, it's no surprise that all of our key men are wanted across Europe and while they would attract good fees by Serie B standards, we'd struggle to replace them for that kind of money. So I'm hoping that January will be a non-event.

 

[danyates8]

Excellent results, your players certainly have an eye for goal!

[warlock]

2 minutes ago, danyates8 said:

your players certainly have an eye for goal!

They do, but our front 3 of Lauriente, Berardi and Pinamonti are much better quality than most of Serie B. I'm already somewhat concerned by our likely return to Serie A, given that this is largely the same squad that got convincingly relegated in 22/23 season. I think the emphasis will have to be on strengthening in defence, assuming we can keep the strikeforce together.

[warlock]

Having highlighted the poor financial position of the club, I can't say this surprised me much:

They've taken about £10m from the transfer budget and cut the wage budget to zero.

[Stuniverse]

Just now, warlock said:

They've taken about £10m from the transfer budget and cut the wage budget to zero.

Ouch!

1 minute ago, warlock said:

I can't say this surprised me much:

Does this affect your planning for Sassuolo this season much, @warlock ?

[warlock]

3 hours ago, Stuniverse said:

Does this affect your planning for Sassuolo this season much

Not really. I had in mind using the missing £10m to sign a couple of young prospects, and to keep a reserve fund to replace anyone that left. The real effect was to limit our options if any of the First XI moved out, but so far we've been OK. Transfer deadline day coming tomorrow 

[Deisler26]

5 hours ago, warlock said:

Having highlighted the poor financial position of the club, I can't say this surprised me much:

They've taken about £10m from the transfer budget and cut the wage budget to zero.

OOOF. That's awful

[warlock]

9 hours ago, Deisler26 said:

That's awful

Not great but, as noted, not a surprise. I really need to thin out the u20s squad - 60 players, even on not much money, adds up to quite a chunk of change over the season. And there's only about 6 who have a hope of making it to the senior squad.

I've managed to move on a few of the fringe players this transfer window, and hung on to almost everyone I wanted to keep, so some progress has been made. Much will depend on the generosity - or otherwise! - of the board this summer.

[john1]

Good luck!

[lfds89]

5 horas atrás, warlock disse:

Not great but, as noted, not a surprise. I really need to thin out the u20s squad - 60 players, even on not much money, adds up to quite a chunk of change over the season. And there's only about 6 who have a hope of making it to the senior squad.

I've managed to move on a few of the fringe players this transfer window, and hung on to almost everyone I wanted to keep, so some progress has been made. Much will depend on the generosity - or otherwise! - of the board this summer.

Some of them, even if you can only get 10/20% of the wage being paid while on loan it adds up in the end.

[warlock]

Transfer window, January 2025

I said I was hoping that the window would be a non-event, and I almost got my wish. With all of our best players wanted by top flight clubs in Italy, Germany, France, Spain and England, the best we could hope for was that we could get through deadline day without weakening the squad. By and large, we managed that.

The other side of the coin was the need to raise some cash and reduce the wage bill. And we managed that, too.

Six players left the club. Theiner and Parlato were in the u20 squad and never looked like making it here. Alvarez was a backup striker who never impressed when given the chance, likewise Antiste who - according to the coaches - was actively declining week by week. I'd have preferred permanent deals away for both but was happy to get their wages off the books. Ruan had been a rotation option at LCB and had done reasonably well, but with 6 months remaining on his contract and a refusal to enter renewal talks, it was important to get whatever we could.

The one departure I'd have preferred to avoid was Moro. The striker had been backup to Pinamonti and looked like he had decent potential, bagging a couple of goals from limited opportunities. But he was unhappy with his playing time, put in a transfer request, and a £1.4m offer from Udinese seemed like a reasonable deal.

Of those, the only player we needed to replace was Ruan, particularly as we were already short of left-footed centrebacks. After the board took away my transfer budget I wasn't hopeful but the recruitment team alerted me to the availability of Andrea Carboni, listed for loan at Monza. With the departures of several high earners, we had more than enough free in the wage budget to secure his services for £15k p/w and an optional future fee that we probably won't activate.

He's a natural left-footer and very good in the air. I'm sure he'll do a good job for us.

As the window drew to a close we had to fend off a number of low-ball offers for RB Missori (Southampton) and RW Berardi (Spurs) but all were loan-to-buy deals with payments spread thinly over two or more years. Rejecting them caused no problems.

While that was going on, we played and won several games. The only black spot was the final game of the month, the cup tie away to Inter in Milan. Unfortunately, we couldn't repeat the heroics of our win against their city rivals last month, although we did give them a scare as we opened a 2-0 lead before succumbing to three goals in the last 30 minutes.

 

[Jogo Bonito]

Welcome to Italy! Just seeing this tonight for the first time, but great to have you join those of us already here.

A great start here, and it already looks inevitable that you'll be in Serie A next season. They have a decent squad (better than decent for Serie B) and keeping Berardi was a real bonus for you. I agree what you said about the difficulty of players not quite at first-team squad level but too old for the U-20 squad, it's a really tough one to balance out and although you can play a small number of over-age players in the U-20 matches, it's still tricky and gets harder over years!

[warlock]

4 minutes ago, Jogo Bonito said:

great to have you join those of us already here

Cheers! As you know, I've never been able to find an Italian save that worked for me, but when I noticed that Sassuolo had been relegated IRL I found my story.

5 minutes ago, Jogo Bonito said:

the difficulty of players not quite at first-team squad level

That will be my main challenge after promotion, I think. I've long been impressed with a thread @Cleon wrote over a decade ago about Ajax's youth development and setup, and more recently revisited by others, which is available here (lacking a few images):

I've never done much youth development in FM, and certainly not in a structured way, but Sassuolo seems like a good candidate for some of these ideas. In particular, I'm taken by the idea of strictly limited numbers in the squads below the First Team (traditionally Ajax used just 16 players). My gut feeling is that 16 is maybe too limited, but I'm keen to explore the potential of no more than 20 players per squad. It seems like something utterly revolutionary in Italian football, which gives it even more appeal 

At least, it's a goal and a framework to aim for. We'll see how it works.

27 minutes ago, Jogo Bonito said:

They have a decent squad (better than decent for Serie B)

Very much so. The likes of Pinamonti, Berardi, Lauriente and Doig are head and shoulders above Serie B standard. The main challenge is finding a tactical structure that is solid at the back while they run riot up front. Not quite there yet!

[Deisler26]

8 minutes ago, warlock said:

I've never done much youth development in FM, and certainly not in a structured way, but Sassuolo seems like a good candidate for some of these ideas. In particular, I'm taken by the idea of strictly limited numbers in the squads below the First Team (traditionally Ajax used just 16 players). My gut feeling is that 16 is maybe too limited, but I'm keen to explore the potential of no more than 20 players per squad. It seems like something utterly revolutionary in Italian football, which gives it even more appeal 

I genuinely love youth development on FM. But I fear that you may end up losing more stars than you keep if you limit yourself to just 20 in the U-20's UNLESS you are intending to buy in youth and just make that the cream of the crop.

Like this guy. If I was running with 16 in my youth team, he would have been gone at source, but because he had that time to develop (which also encompasses good facilities and youth coaches) his recent debut for 15 mins plus extra time, saw him be the highest rated player on the team

[warlock]

18 minutes ago, Deisler26 said:

I fear that you may end up losing more stars than you keep

Fair point! I readily admit I come to this as a novice, so there'll be mistakes along the way. The question is, where is the happy medium? If 16 or 20 is too small, can we agree that the 60 players in my u20s squad is much too big? 

In any case, I think it's reasonable to assume we'll miss out on some good players, and my feeling is that that is true regardless of how big a squad we run. At the other end of the process, what is the end goal? Assuming everything is working as expected, what should we be looking for? One player suitable for the First XI? Two or more? I would genuinely be interested to know how you approach this. 

[Jogo Bonito]

That will be an interesting side story to follow. I've done lots of work on my U-20 squad with many of my signings being specifically for that group. The difficulty is what you do with them if you have too many or they become too old. I took the decision to loan the best of the too-old ones out in season 4, with a clear plan to put those who perform well in the mix for promotion to my senior side when they return.

I'd say that about 22/23 players for that group is about right. But you also have to consider what is coming up from the U-18 side as they will quickly get too old for that group and swell your numbers at U-20 level (if good enough to keep).

I'd look to try and promote a couple each year from U-20 to Seniors, replacing those with expiring contracts or sold.

Edited September 8 by Jogo Bonito

[Deisler26]

1 minute ago, warlock said:

Fair point! I readily admit I come to this as a novice, so there'll be mistakes along the way. The question is, where is the happy medium? If 16 or 20 is too small, can we agree that the 60 players in my u20s squad is much too big? 

In any case, I think it's reasonable to assume we'll miss out on some good players, and my feeling is that that is true regardless of how big a squad we run. At the other end of the process, what is the end goal? Assuming everything is working as expected, what should we be looking for? One player suitable for the First XI? Two or more? I would genuinely be interested to know how you approach this. 

So, I can only go on how I play it. Whether or not this will suit you or it is the 'right' way, I have no idea.

At Intake

• Sign every player to a first contract. Unless they're your top 3 prospects, try to give them a youth contract.
• Make sure all the academy intake are re-trained to play your formation in the way you like (Currently, I don't use any AM strata players, so any AMC's are retrained to MC and AMR/L's to MR/L's)
• Blood your top 3 prospects in the last game of the season (assuming it isn't important)

17+

• Keep an eye on the stats and talent of your youth team frequently. Keep in mind, a high goals/assist tally is nice, but the player may not fit your system (I recently let go a winger who had scored over 75 goals for my U-18's)
• If you have a cup match against a Serie C side, play an XI composed entirely of U-18 players that you have your eyes on. That way, it's game time at a higher level, without the pressure of having to win
• At the end of the season, look through the players to see if any have improved above your expectations. (again, this is dependent on decent facilities and coaching) PUT YOUR BEST 5 U-18'S IN TRAINING WITH THE FIRST TEAM

18+

• This is the season, you should be looking to send them on loan to a Serie C club. Who you send them to is vitally important. There is zero benefit in sending them out and they don't play. You need them to be playing week in, week out for your feeder / loan side. 38 games for a poor Serie C side is better than 3 games and training with a Serie B side with good facilities 
• They should be in their final contract year, so when you get the expiry alert, look at the player and his stats to see if he fits your team. If yes, sign to a contract. If maybe, sign to a one-year extension and send them out on loan again. If not, let them go.

This won't ensure that you get superstars, but you'll be less likely to lose out on some players you didn't expect

[Jogo Bonito]

2 minutes ago, Deisler26 said:

So, I can only go on how I play it. Whether or not this will suit you or it is the 'right' way, I have no idea.

 

Much more detailed and specific than my brief thoughts, an interesting read!

[Deisler26]

4 minutes ago, Jogo Bonito said:

Much more detailed and specific than my brief thoughts, an interesting read!

This is just what I have gleaned over the last 8 or so incarnations of FM and my own coaching knowledge.

However, there is always room to learn more. I recently watched this video and it informed my views on loaning players out

 

Edited September 8 by Deisler26

[warlock]

2 minutes ago, Deisler26 said:

there is always room to learn more

So much this  What a great game where after playing for 20-plus years there's still so much to learn and explore. Appreciate your input (and yours @Jogo Bonito)

[_Ben_]

15 hours ago, Deisler26 said:

I recently watched this video and it informed my views on loaning players out

Such an odd video but, agreed, the bit about loaning him out was really interesting for me!

19 hours ago, Deisler26 said:

At Intake

• Sign every player to a first contract. Unless they're your top 3 prospects, try to give them a youth contract.
• Make sure all the academy intake are re-trained to play your formation in the way you like (Currently, I don't use any AM strata players, so any AMC's are retrained to MC and AMR/L's to MR/L's)
• Blood your top 3 prospects in the last game of the season (assuming it isn't important)

17+

• Keep an eye on the stats and talent of your youth team frequently. Keep in mind, a high goals/assist tally is nice, but the player may not fit your system (I recently let go a winger who had scored over 75 goals for my U-18's)
• If you have a cup match against a Serie C side, play an XI composed entirely of U-18 players that you have your eyes on. That way, it's game time at a higher level, without the pressure of having to win
• At the end of the season, look through the players to see if any have improved above your expectations. (again, this is dependent on decent facilities and coaching) PUT YOUR BEST 5 U-18'S IN TRAINING WITH THE FIRST TEAM

18+

• This is the season, you should be looking to send them on loan to a Serie C club. Who you send them to is vitally important. There is zero benefit in sending them out and they don't play. You need them to be playing week in, week out for your feeder / loan side. 38 games for a poor Serie C side is better than 3 games and training with a Serie B side with good facilities 
• They should be in their final contract year, so when you get the expiry alert, look at the player and his stats to see if he fits your team. If yes, sign to a contract. If maybe, sign to a one-year extension and send them out on loan again. If not, let them go.

Very, very interesting points here!

@warlock - out of interest, do you have an U20 team? I'm running a custom DB that opens up the bottom tiers but it seems that the league stopped running in 2026, which is really annoying for my player development of over 18s!

[warlock]

2 hours ago, _Ben_ said:

do you have an U20 team?

We do, and they're playing both league and cup campaigns, so players are getting a lot of game time:

2 hours ago, _Ben_ said:

I'm running a custom DB

I have tried unofficial databases a couple of times over the years and found them severely lacking. Promotion and relegation, and lesser cup competitions, are often borked. One particular disappointment was an English Tier 10 save I started with Durham City. After a promotion we were put into a Midlands league that featured clubs from Kent, Sussex and Cornwall. In less than a season we were bankrupted by the travel expenses .

Not knocking the creators because I can't imagine how much work goes into creating them, but it seems impossible to get everything to work correctly. Not helped by the fact that FM simply isn't designed to work at those very low levels - finances, in particular, just don't work.

 

[warlock]

March 2025

We continued the season in good form, extending our unbeaten run even further:

The month was not without cause for concern, though. Against Pisa we slept through virtually the entire match before a bit of touchline berating woke them up enough to grab two very late goals. Against Bari we took an early lead and then allowed them to overtake us before another two late goals gave us the win. I imagine we're suffering a bit of complacency, although it doesn't show in the players' body language. 

And those issues continued in March:

It took another late strike to give us a share of the points against Reggiana in our biggest derby, and again against Spezia. Even the mighty Berardi has been too often hauled off for drifting through matches although - as his performance against Frosinone proved - he is still capable of greatness. The biggest disappointment, though, has been Lauriente. Easily our best player in the first half of the season, his form has slumped this year with just one goal and no assists in his last 10 appearances.

Regardless, we have now extended our unbeaten run to a record-breaking 31 games:

With 7 games to go we're probably two games away from the title and one point from securing automatic promotion (if my dodgy maths is correct). I'd like to see us imposing our will on opponents, not relying on last-gasp goals to snatch a point.

[danyates8]

Absolutley steamrolling the league. 

[warlock]

Champions - April 2025

You can't say I didn't see this coming. Not the title but this result:

First game of April and our first defeat of the season. Another sloppy performance and the stats were unbelievable:

Yes, they scored twice from just one shot on target. Even more unbelievable, at the final whistle we learned that this abysmal performance had secured automatic promotion .

Then just a week later, after some stern words to a number of the squad, we also clinched the title:

Time to get ready for life back in the top flight. The board have scrounged up a bit of money:

A small increase for transfers but a fairly generous increase in wages. But between promotion clauses and the inevitable demands for new contracts, I expect that to disappear rapidly. The urgent task is to undertake a squad review to see who deserves to play in Serie A and who has flattered to deceive this season. We'll definitely need a new goalkeeper to replace the ageing Consigli, who is now 38, and reinforcements in central defence and defensive midfield. A better backup to Pinamonti up front would also be useful. And with 10 players in the first team squad showing as 'wanted', there are a lot of unknowns ahead of the transfer window.

[Carambau]

Congratulations on winning the title! Now the next challenge awaits 😎

[Deisler26]

Congratulations buddy! Great work this season. Now the hard work begins

[Stuniverse]

13 hours ago, warlock said:

Yes, they scored twice from just one shot on target. Even more unbelievable, at the final whistle we learned that this abysmal performance had secured automatic promotion .

Then just a week later, after some stern words to a number of the squad, we also clinched the title:

Ouch! How did they score two goals from one shot on target?

But congratulations @warlock on winning Serie B!

I look forward to seeing how Sassuolo get on in Serie A.

[warlock]

12 minutes ago, Stuniverse said:

Ouch! How did they score two goals from one shot on target?

First was a dinked ball towards the far side of the box. Defender stuck his head in the way and it ricocheted into the net. So they took the lead without having a single shot, let alone one on target 

[warlock]

I've now completed the season and was hoping to get an update posted but... today was MrsW's birthday, wine has been drunk, so it'll have to wait 

[warlock]

MrsW has sloped off to bed, I'm still finishing off a rather splendid Portuguese red, so let's do this..

We were predicted to win the league so no great surprise, but I think we rose to the expectations and probably exceeded them. 

Success on the pitch is probably the most important thing, but I take pride in the manner of our victory and winning the fair play award is always an endorsement of our style. We don't 'get stuck in', we don't 'tackle harder' - our defence is always based on being hard to break down and picking off any opposition errors, and controlling games when we have the ball.

There's no doubt that Turati will be a great goalkeeper but he's only 23 and I've been critical of some his performances this season. Thirteen clean sheets is good, but there were probably as many games where the opposition had 3 shots on target and scored twice. Some of that has to be down to the GK, either through a lapse of concentration or poor positioning. I expect life in Serie A to be tougher so he has to keep progressing.

Like Turati, D'Andrea has a great future and has shown some of his potential this year. The greatest need is not his but mine - he's equally adept at AMR and AMC and I need to decide on a position and give him a chance to shine. His best performances have probably been as backup to Berardi on the right so perhaps I need to look for a better option at AMC.

Most of the Serie B records were set by Juventus back in 06/07 - we managed to exceed their points total but could only match their 28 wins. After losing to Catanzaro at the beginning of April, we also succumbed to defeat against Cremonese on the last day of the season:

The return to form of Armand Lauriente was a particular bonus of the last two months, offset by the continued mediocrity of first-choice striker Pinamonti, who hasn't scored - or put in a decent performance - in forever.

Next up: plans for the transfer window.

[Deisler26]

Wow, just pure domination! Congrats!

[Jogo Bonito]

Whilst awaiting the update (hope Mrs W's birthday bash was good) it's clear to see you had another outstanding and successful season.

Well done mate and good luck preparing to take Serie A by storm.

Two player questions please. How has Berardi done for you, has he been the star I would have expected? And how reliable is Turati? it looks like he has done well but is that a bit flattering because he rarely gets tested in a dominant Serie B side?

[warlock]

5 hours ago, Jogo Bonito said:

How has Berardi done for you

He's done very well, no question. But there are some slight causes for concern. He can rarely play more than 70 minutes, and if we have to play him twice in a week he's often a passenger in the second game. I'm happy to keep him next season, but I'll have to carefully manage his game time.

5 hours ago, Jogo Bonito said:

And how reliable is Turati?

A good question, indeed. As always with 'keepers, it's difficult to work out how much (good and bad) is down to him and how much down to the defensive line in front of him. With an ageing backup (who just announced his retirement) he's had to play nearly every game. In an ideal world, I'd have liked to bring in a more experienced GK to give Turati a season where he could develop without the constant pressure. but I'm not sure the budget will allow that.

I've no doubt that he'll be a great 'keeper in two or three years, but to answer the question directly: for four games out of five he's great; in the fifth he'll have a stinker. The concern is that in Serie A, that proportion is likely to worsen rather than improve (at least in the short term).

[warlock]

Transfer window, 2025

I had planned to do a squad review and then a planning session for the transfer window. Somehow, a combination of real life and actually playing the game means that plan is rather outdated. The transfer window has a week to run, but there's plenty to talk about.

Players Out

In an ideal world I'd have liked to upgrade the squad in a number of positions, but a transfer budget of just £5-6m meant I had to be more judicious about how many players could be released. In the event, it was largely those squad members who made it clear they didn't want to be here.

Andrea Consigli Backup GK, announced his retirement at the end of last season.

Gian Marco Ferrari A reliable option at CB, declined all offers of contract talks. Left on a free.

Maxime Lopez One of our better players and ever-present at DM, also refused to extend his contract. Left on a free.

Jeremy Toljian First-choice RB but agitated for a move away all season. We agreed he could leave for a fee better than £6.5m. Moved to Lille for £7.5m.

Andrea Ghion Played 13 games for us last season at DM without being spectacular. Demanded a huge pay rise and kicked off when refused. Eventually moved on to Sampdoria for £1.6m.

We also had two loan players leaving, CB Andrea Carboni, and AM Cristian Volpato. We allowed another 7 u20s players to leave as their contracts expired, saving us a few thousands in wages. All told, the outgoings raised £11m.

Players In

Despite my hopes of upgrading the squad, it quickly became clear that our priority had to be like-for-like replacements for the departures, with an eye on extra quality if we could find it at the right price. So far, we've replaced 7 players with 6 new signings and one promotion from the u20s who had done very well on loan for the previous season.

Stankovic joins us on a season-long loan from Inter as our backup GK. His current attributes and potential look promising, and we have an optional future fee of just £110k if he performs for us.

Justin Che joins us from Brondby as our backup RWB to Filippo Missori. We paid the top end of his value range but I'm optimistic he'll reach that potential and prove to be a good signing.

Smolcic comes in from Frankfurt as our first-choice LCB and is a cut above our other central defenders. Not the tallest but still good in the air, tough in the tackle, and hard-working, he was a bargain at £4m.

Alessandro Marcandalli completes our defensive roster as fourth-choice CB. He joins us from Genoa and already looks a reliable option.

Marco Brescianini was originally signed as our Lopez replacement at DM. I'm now experimenting with a 433 system and he's naturally better at CM but is equally adept at every role in both areas of the pitch. Will surely be hugely valuable to us.

Sebastiano Esposito is our one signing who isn't a direct replacement but when my scouts flagged his availability on a free transfer and his willingness to sign on a low wage and 'squad players' status, I couldn't see a reason not to snap him up. Especially as current backup striker Samuele Mulattieri is constantly moaning about status and playing time improvements that he just isn't going to get behind first-choice Pinamonti. Esposito is arguably as good as Mulattieri and with more upside, and is ready to step in when necessary.

At this point I thought our business was done, but then there were developments!

CM Uros Racic was a new signing just before I took over at the club. He did well but not exceptionally so last season, is one of our highest earners on £33.5k p/w (only Berardi and Pinamonti earn more) and has two years to run on his current deal. He came to me demanding a new contract that, in the circumstances, I wasn't inclined to offer. But I agreed to talks; he wanted a 50% increase, plus all the clauses under the sun. I refused and, inevitably, he had a meltdown. So he immediately went on the transfer list.

Next came the player delegation insisting that he was worth a new deal, but the delegation consisted of just two players who are themselves problematic. CM/AM Kristian Thorstvedt has been pushing for a new deal himself since Christmas but has done nothing to earn it. Third-choice RB Yeferson Paz is also unhappy about his playing time but can't be registered as a Columbian with no second nationality. Both have joined Racic on the transfer list.

With one week to go until transfer deadline day we're likely to need replacements for Racic and Thorstvedt, but until at least one is sold we can't make any moves. Thorstvedt is currently in negotiations with Getafe and Cadiz for loan-to-buy deals with a guaranteed £7.5m future value; we can only hope he accepts one of those offers.

Tactics

Last season's 4231 possession-based system had done very well and was not to be changed without much thought. But after being the best team in Serie B I was worried that it would be less effective as a team predicted, somewhat optimistically, to finish in mid-table. My thoughts turned to something based more on counter-attacking and, even before the new signings, a squad review convinced me that a 433 shape was a better fit for the players we have.

Which looks pretty good to me - apart from the issues with Racic and Thorstvedt, it's just a matter of waiting (and hoping) for the likes of Missori, Che, Marcandalli and Lipani to come good on their potential. That and seeing how the tactic, and the players, perform on the pitch.

[Carambau]

Very rational and reasonable signings there - I like it! Smolcic and could lead your defense and Brescianini looks like a nice fit in CM. And Esposito is always a good catch for attack, had him in some saves before and he always delivered. Maybe you will find a suitable right back among the unattached players in the remaining time too. Good luck for the new season, the squad looks quite capable  

Edited 2 hours ago by Carambau