libbyshuss

Catania - Italy - Season 2060/61 Season Summary bit of a transition season as I could,t dissuade Lorenzo Lippi 40K from retiring and Tarek Ramadan leaving on a free, so that was 2 out of ny first choice front three gone and only kids to replace them Ramadan was nothing more than a useful squad player at this stage (he was 31) but Lippi was still an absolute legend at 36. Look at his career biography! He scored 648 goals in 798 games for us in total, with an average rating of 7.48. He was just awesome! We were always gonna miss him. although not too much as he's now on our books as an U18 coach! League So, league, we were ok, but not our usual high standards Champions League this is the one we need! We were not good, and to be honest I have no idea how we got through against Bayern, but Liepzig put us in our place Players So why am I still going? Because looks at these three! Stalwart of the first team at 18! Played him out of desperation at the end of the season and he ended with 5 goals from 12 games at an AR of 7.28! so he's a first team starter from next season! Dal Ferro is gonna be great. He replaced Ramadan on the right and although not quite as effective he did show signs of hopefully surpassing him. Only 6 goals from 41 games though! Moscardelli stepped up this season. 57 goals from 51 games! and he's started whining again about leaving to join Leeds..... no way Jose! So I'll keep going a few more seasons, see where these wonderkids can take us. The real issue though is keeper - I've never had anyone better than Serie B standard in almost 40 seasons!

2059/60 - Italy - Catania Gonna keep updates short and sweet from here on in as all I need is the Champions League to complete the challenge. Did we do it? League Went into the final day of the season top of the table by 1 point from Milan, 2 points from Juventus. We played Juventus and were 2-1 up after 89 minutes....... d'oh!!! lost in the final minute of the season! Never mind, we won 3 of the previous 4 so.... Champions League Yeah, we were rubbish really poor in the league section, only just squeaking through. we got Arsenal in the knockout and they were too strong Players Lorenzo Lippi 40K - still going strong at 36! announced retirement at the end of the season and i begged him to reconsider. He's still thinking about it..... but honestly, what a career with us. well over 600 career goals. Here's his career stats Youth Annoiyngly technological advances meant our youth facilities dropped. And there was no option to request an upgrade! aaaargh! anyway, we got another potential superstar this season

Season Summary Well, we won the league again, which is nice. Almost without me noticing as I wasn't paying much attention to the league. Champions League is all now! We did ok in Champions League but we start to get tired and injuries creep in around March which doesn't help us at all. Even resting players in the league and lowering training doesn't help too much. We did ok in the league section - a win at Rangers in the last game, who we beat 5-1 in a pre-season friendly at Ibrox, would have put us straight through to the last 16. But as it was we drew and had to go into the knockout. Leeds are still ludicrously strong atm (14 Premier league titles in last 20 years, 4 Champions League wins too) so to beat them twice was a nice sign Players Lorenzo Lippi 40K - I know I keep going on about this lad but he was a 2 star potential youth when he first showed up. I signed him just to make up the numbers! and now, at 35, he had his best season for years, won MVP Serie A player of the year and is sitting on 626 goals in 747 appearances for us. He is showing bno signs of slowing or giving up either! what a legend! If anyone deserves a CL medal, it's him Giovanni Moscardelli 51A - poorest season yet from our resident superstar. Saying that, he still scored 40 in 48 games. in a three man attack! Sebastian Ramos 58A - last seasons top graduate. Only 16 but looked so good I gave him a chance. As did the Uruguay national coach! still 16, and a full international already! Youth And another potential superstar rolls of the production line! I stuck him in the first team for the last 3 games of the season too and he looked good! Good personality, amazing starting attributes, potential looking good too. What's not to love? Career it's a long one now

17.9% of total wage bill but i don't think that includes bonuses. That goal bonus is the one that's going to ruin us!

Season Summary No third title in a row, but not totally unexpected as I put all my focus on the Champions League. Did it work out? no.... we got battered by Bayern in the quarter final. Still a way to go! Players So the big news this year? Moscardelli 51A signed a new contract! and it is ridiculous!!!! His opening gambit was to ask for 625k basic a week, which is way out of our league. So I maxxed out all bonuses and hoped for the best.... Honestly, it's mental. 425k basic, 215k appearance fee, 200k goal bonus! He's gonna bankrupt us! thing is, he's totally worth it... If he wins me the Champions League it'll be money well spent! Youth We got a lovely looking youth pull this year He looks like he could be another wonderkid - fingers crossed! he's already not far off a first team spot at 15! I might even give him a few games next season, who knows? Career We're close to a Champions League win! and with Moscardelli 51A we have every chance as well.

Season Summary Ridiculously good in the league, winning 18 out of our first 20 games. We were miles ahead all season, which was nice as it meant we could focus on the Champions League. So how did it go? Champions League league stage A much harder set of fixtures this time around. Leeds have won 12 out of the last 15 Premier League titles and 2 out of the last 3 Champions Leagues. They are scary good! A pleasing set of results, except for that last game. A win would have sent us straight into the last 16 but as it was we had to go into the play-offs Champions League Knock Out Rounds An amazing run! Playing 3 Spanish sides was interesting and to be honest none of them got near us. Leeds were a different proposition though. Honestly it's nuts how good they are! Players The key was Giovanni Moscardelli 51A again. He's seriously good! trouble is he only has 2 years left on his contract and has refused to sign a new one for the last 3 years. It's gonna be a miracle to get him to stay i think. Trouble is, if he does go I think my save is over. How can I carry on without him? So...maybe only 2 more seasons to try and complete the challenge! Youth Only the one elite talent this season. Could he be as good as Moscardelli? Unlikely, but he does look pretty good. Wonderkids I got another one! Finances and Upgrades They let me max out my youth facilities! wahey! Career

Season Summary Serie A Champions!!!! It didn't look like it after we lost the opening game of the season home to Juventus. But after that, everything clicked and as we headed into December the league table looked like this:- 10 points clear after 16 games is crazy! we couldn't maintain that form but we're able to keep a nice healthy distance between us and the rest. The real test came in April when we were in a little sticky patch and second place Bologna had won 6 in a row. We were 9 points clear but they had 3 games in hand and we had to go to their place. And we won 2-0!!!! I celebrated like we'd won the league! it was pretty much a procession from there on in, although the last 4 games were a little worrying when we lost Lippi 40K and Moscardelli 51A to injury for them. But in the end... Champions League Quite a tough looking start but we made it look easy! The Chelsea/Bratislava games show what happens when I rest Moscardelli the Cercle Brugge result was annoying as it dropped us out the first 8 and meant we had to play in the knockout round Into the knockout rounds! The second leg against Benfica was unbelievable! We were poor in both legs against Liverpool, shows how much work still to do there is. Players Here's the title winning XI! Lorenzo Lippi 40K - really pleased he was around to enjoy our title success! absolute legend! He is now 32, shows no sign of slowing down, and even made it back to the Italy squad. This season was his best, with an average rating of 7.72. Played 50 games during the season with 25 goals, 21 assists. 557 goals in 624 games for us now! Giovanni Moscardelli 51A - Here's the real star though, he's just unbelievable. he even spent the season with middling morale as he wanted to play in better squads/leagues etc throughout the season. Finished second in the balon d'or when he really should have won. Look how good he is! only the 44 goals in 45 games though, needs to up that goal to game ratio! Marco di Gioachinno 48B - slowly became a midfield dynamo, and one of the best in Serie A. Now 24, just won his first Italy cap and valued at 70-77m, he's going to be key if I'm gonna challenge for the Champions League Youth We're still getting excellent previews and golden generation intakes, which is nice. 3 elite talents this time around Best of the bunch is Trovato, who the coaching staff assure me could be as good as Moscardelli. I'd be happy with half as good! Career Time to focus on the Champions League!

Season Summary Our best season yet! We led the league for most of the season, only losing out in the last few weeks. juve went on an insane unbeaten run after losing at home to us in January and we just couldn't match it. At one point we were 5 points clear but that's not much. 2 draws and it's down to 1! I changed tactics from a 4-2-3-1 to a narrow 4-3-3 after realising my best 3 players were all natural strikers. So Moscardelli 51A, Lippi 40K and Ramadan 45A ran riot up top. It's a tactic that concedes a lot as well as scores a lot so we had a few 5-4s and 4-4s. It's great fun though! Champions League The league phase was quite kind to us with the draw, except Man City and PSG in the last two games. We did pretty well, the only blip being away at Shamrock Rovers, who were 4-0 up against us within 20 minutes! Luckily we did enough to qualify for the knockout round. The Man City and PSG results were especially pleasing. The next round gave us Arsenal, which would be a real test. Which we narrowly failed. Coppa Italia I'm usually really terrible in domestic cup competitions so this was a nice surprise Players Moscardelli 51A is the star! 46 goals and 11 assists in 50 appearances this season. The only shock was he didn't win Goldenboy! I couldn't believe it! He did win this though:- Youth Another golden generation with three elite talents Schiavoni looks the brightest talent. Could be a replacement for Lippi 40K if I stay with a 4-3-3 formation in a few seasons time Career

yeah, Gio is the main reason I'm still going with this save. I wanna see how good he gets! my AssMan still thinks he can improve a lot so it should be fun finding out. hopefully he can lead us to glory!

Season Summary Feels like a real step forward! We lost 3 of our first 6 matches and then went on a run of 1 defeat and 16 wins in the next 17 games which put us second. We couldn't quite maintain that but finished top 4 for the first time to ensure our first ever Champoins League adventure! Players The main reason for our excellent season was the continued emergence of Giovanni Moscardelli 51A as a real genuine superstar. This season, at 18, he made his debut for the Italy national team and won Goldenboy. Finished the season with 27 goals, 10 assists from 46 games, mainly from the left wing. He is unreal. I've got him signed up for 5 more years but he's already whinging about moving on, which kinda sucks. Lorenzo Lippi 40K is now 30 with 498 goals in 527 games for us. Ridiculous stats for a 2 star youth intake player! Career

Season Summary Feels like we're finally making progress! it was only a fifth placed finish but we were top 4 for the entire season until the second to last game. To come so close is frutrating but it's still a young team and I feel like the only way is up still! Europa League was fun - the second leg of the Semi saw us knackered out with a patched up team on the field. Our first XI is great but squad depth is not Players So why the improvement? I put it down to one man (well, 17 year old boy really) Giovanni Moscardelli 51A he is gonna be an absolute star! I figured I'd give him a few games and started him on the left wing. He was brilliant. He also filled in up front when Lippi 40K was injured and was brilliant there as well. Eventually that'll be his main position. So, 17 years old and with an insane valuation and season stats of 46 games 27 goals and 19 assissts. Mostly from left wing. He is gonna be nuts in a few years! While he's around I can't give up on this save! Wonderkids So.... do I have any? Moscardelli has to be one, but Rosati 49C took me by surprise. I am so low on decent keepers I stuck him in the first team but he's still only a 2.5 star potential Serie B keeper. Maybe the coaches got this wrong? Oh, and I won Goldenboy this season! I assumed it was Moscardelli but no! really odd! He's only a 3 star potential but can play a variety of positions so gets a lot of game time, despite not being in my first choice XI. He did well enough to win golden boy, which really took me by surprise! Finances and Upgrades Be nice if i had the option board! Only Juve are ahead of me with a state of the art youth facility so the board need to start putting their hands in their pockets! Career I want to see how good Moscardelli can get! I have a feeling it's gonna be special

I've been stuck at the same level for about 10 seasons now but there's signs of change on the horizon...... Normally I'd go to try in another country at this stage but I've got this lad in my U18s and I want to see how far he can go:- I played him in the first team a few times and he ended the season with 9 goals in 13 games with an average rating of 7.13. He looks very exciting! We had great fun in Europe, going all the way to the final! It looked a really good test to see how far we've come and.... So close! ex-2 star youth player Lorenzo Lippi 40K has now scored 403 goals in 441 first team goals for us. And he made his Italy debut this season as well! Legend! Youth Another number 1 in the next gen top 50 wonderkids! Hopefully this one is the real deal Still plenty of room to improve! also, I got all these affiliates feeding me possible youth players as well So although it looks like I've made no progress for years I'm quietly confident of the next few seasons. If it doesn't happen then, then I'm off to Uruguay! Career

Not much to report on the pitch but major news off it..... The board also added "have the best youth system in the country" as a goal in club vision so with any luck we can max it out soon. And then we'll see if it makes any difference with players coming through! cos while they're good, they're just not good enough. Still no Italian internationals or wonderkids, 30 seasons or so in! Europa League results show how much work is left to do:- Career

Stuck in a rut! I'll keep it short (ish) Players I went 4-3-1-2 just to get Ramadan 45A into his preferred position. He did ok:- Problem is in 30 seasons I've only managed to produce one player who has been valued at over £20m. It's hard to compete against Juve, the Milans, Napoli with a squad full of them. Not sure what's stopping us getting those better players through. Luck maybe? Club rep? Youth facilities? maybe a bit of all 3? Wonderkids Another two in the top 50. Sadly none have gone on to develop into actual wonderkids yet for some reason Youth Looks promising. I was most impressed with the range of nationalities though. A Not only a US player, but a Nicaraguan as well! Finances and Upgrades Now this is annoying. THEN GIVE ME THE OPTION TO IMPROVE THE YOUTH FACILITIES!!!!!!! Career

Season Summary Another ok season but we're still a million miles from cracking the top 5. 'Best of the rest' seems to be the best we can do at the minute. Still, back in Europe next season which has to be a win. European competition is fun! Players Lorenzo Lippi 40K - seems a bit harsh that we're still only 7th when Lippi is so good. He scored 46 goals in 38 games this season. He's insanely good! Tarek Ramadan 45A - number 2 in the nxt gn wonderkid list for two seasons in a row. Now he's 20, how good is he? Pretty good I guess, but not a wonderkid. D'oh Luca Mengoli 44B - Number 1 in the Nxt Gn list for the last two seasons. He's now 20 and sure to be a wonderkid right? Nope, he's just pretty good too. Bah. Youth Another golden generation! I really need one to be an actual real golden generation! Career

Season Summary Pretty good but just not quite good enough against the better sides. Frustrating but it's where we are atm. Youth The intake was much better than I thought! 6 elite talents! Wonderkids well Ramadan is still there but his second season was a disappointment all told. We'll see if he gets better. Ideally he'd play striker but he's got little chance with Lippi 40K up there. I did experiment with a couple of two striker formations but they weren't particularly successful. Career

I like to rank my youth intake players by how good they look when they first come through. So 45A just means the best looking prospect from the 2045 intake, 45B is second best and so on. Makes it easier to track/prioritise different players

i liked it! the bottom half just needed some little explanation bits too i think

Season Summary League - Well, it was the season I was expecting last year with all those youth players! we were playing well but just kept losing - Christmas time saw us 18th with 3 wins out of 17 and in a real relegation scrap. Then something clicked and we started getting the results our performances deserved and started climbing the table. Too late to get back into Europe though! Europe - which is a shame cos it's fun! here's our adventure in the European Conference League this year We were knackered and down to the bare bones for the Celta Vigo second leg. We'd battered them at home as well, should have won it 4 or 5 nil. but what can you do? Cup - finally! a decemet run! all the way to the semi-final where we lost to Brescia. we shoulda won that! Players Lorenzo Lippi 42K is still the star player. 42 goals in 48 games this season, now 23 and reaching the peak of his powers. Tarek Ramadan 45A scored 80 in 27 starts for the youth teams so I really wanted to get him some game time this season. I used him sparingly at first but then found the more I used him, the better we played and the more we'd win. So he started every game after christmas up until the end of February when he broke his leg. Really upsetting as he was just hitting his stride and looking like a potential superstar. He should be fit in time for the start of the new season so we'll see what he can do in a full season! 16 goals and 6 assissts from 25 appearances, mostly as an inverted right winger. He looks good! Luca Mengoli 44B - could he be my first proper wonderkid? signs are looking good! Youth Another golden generation! and some really good personalities this time too! woohoo! The top prospect is Pignatelli - and he looks really, really promising!!!! Wonderkids Still no proper ones but the NXGN top 50 is nice to see again Numbers 1 and 3!!! Ramadan came through my affilliate club in france as well - i love affiliate clubs! Career it's a bit of a slog in Italy - there's so many top clubs to steal the best youths from you. might take a while to get there, and probably maxxed out youth facilities. I didn't complete it with Whitby until we had the best youth facilities in the world so....

Season Summary Really pleasing season! I felt we were stagnating a bit at the end of last season and decided to really shake things up. I promoted our best 5 youth prospects to the first team at 17/18 - a good year or two before I usually like to do it, and at least 4 more than I usually like to promote! But I felt desperate times called for desperate measures. As a result, i wasn't expecting too much and would have been happy with just survival while the youth players bedded themelves in. But I surpassed my expectations by finishnig 7th and qualifying for Europe. We could have done better as well but a poor start (5 defeats in first 7) and finish (1 win in last 8) ruined us. But back in Europe next season! Players Really interesting! for some reason I'm finding that my poorest players at intake are more often than not turning into my best first team players. After Lorenzo Lippi 40K winning golden boy twice and U21 FIFA best player 3 years in a row come this:- |I don't think I've ever had a plyer rated at intake as an M ever make the first team, let alone win golden boy! I mean, M is just ridiculous! bottom of the pile stuff! I hardly ever even sign that many youth players! oh, and i still have Tarek Ramadan 45A to promote - 80 goals in 22 starts for the youth teams!!! Quite excited by him Wonderkids Promoting so many youth players to first team football at such a young age is always a gamble. I knew it had paid off when the list for this years top 50 wonderkids came in though:- Four of my players in there for the first time! Khafi 42J is a Moroccan full back I sent out on loan who has done really really well. Mazzoleni 43C and Rietveld 43B are full back, Mengoli 44B a midfielder, which I'm really pleased about as I was running a little low on middies. Youth Another 5 star golden generation promised! and I was very excited to see 6 elite talents come through! and then I looked at their personalities and determination and it all came crashing down honestly, other than Giorgi could it be any worse?? Really disappointing to be honest, i'd swap them all for a professional 2 star potential! Career

Season Summary Europa League - I really like the new format, it's fun! Here were our results Which meant automatic qualification for the last 16! We did really well in the knockout stage as well! To be honest, we should have won it! Sadly it took the focus of the league a little bit and we only finished 9th, so no european football next season, which is upsetting cos it's fun! Youth Another cracking youth preview and intake! Intake was very nice and my French affiliate club came up trumps for me! Wonderkids Really interesting! I had a Morrocan youth, didn't look much good so I sent him out on loan. And yet... he made the top 50 wonderkid list! Career

We're back in Europe!!!! Europa League this time! Mainly down to Lippi 40K who is looking by far our best ever newgen this save so far. Youth Another cracking preview and intake! Hopefully they prove better than the last couple of years have done in the end. Best thing about the intake was the two Portugese, one French and one Dutch player - the fruits of my new affiliate teams finally! sadly none of them look any good! Best of the lot is this lad:- Also, got onto the top 50 wonderkid list! Kyrell Moore 40A is an Irish centre back who I decided to give a first team spot to this season. One of the only players left with a 4 star potential after the purge of last season! he had a pretty poor season to be honest but hopefully he'll start showing that potential soon. Although Petrovic 40G, who made the list last season, is now only a 2.5 star potential Serie B talent so...... Career Completing the challenge in Italy is still looking a long, long way away to be honest.

Season Summary Our first season in Europe was great fun! We qualified easily for the league stage, won 5 out of 6 in the league (including away at Celtic!) to qualify for the last 16. We drew Celtic, went away in the first leg and somehow contrived to lose 7-3. We won the second leg easily but at only 3-1 we crashed out. Really disappointing in the end! Our league form suffered though. We made a poor start and never really recovered, spending the whole season bumbing around mid-table. As soon as we'd get within touching distance of Europe we'd end up losing the next 4 on the spin or something. Frustrating in the end Players So here is where it gets weird. At the end of the season my Assman/HoYD decided to completely re-eavaluate the squad. Previously decent Serie A talents are now good serie B talents and my 20 or so 4 star youth prospects dropped to only 2 4 star youth prospects. I've never known anything like it, they decimated my squad! in terms of their ratings anyway. But looking at the transfer values of them I can't really argue with their conclusions. 20 seasons in and my top talent is worth 11m. it's worrying to be honest.... It might be partly explained by the emergence of my new best player Lorenzo Lippi 40K You can see how little i rated him on original intake, given the letter K. But it's not surprising really. Here he is a couple of months after intake day:- Rubbish right? But I always sign up youth prospects if they have decent personalities and he had a nice one. Last season I had way too many youth players so sent all the ones with the lowest potential out on loan. Lippi 40K went to Serie C and played really well, coming back with a new super 4 star potential! so I decided this season to play him in the conference league, see how he did. He did well! 11 goals in 12! By January he'd replaced my old golden boy Fabio Frau 38C as our first choice striker and was brilliant (Frau 38C is now rated as serie B standard and valued at 4m btw. what the heck is going on?) By the end of the season Lippi looked like this:- and he won this! and was top of the nxgn wonderkid list too Petrovic at 46 was rated as a 4 star potential at the time! now? 2.5 star potential. what the heck!!!!!! Youth So another fantastic intake! although by the end of the season they had all again been completely decimated Career I need some top quality players pretty soon if I'm going to get anywhere. But for some reason they're just not coming.

Season Summary Our best season yet! 7th place finish gets us into the Conference League for next season! Which, given the amount of youth prospects I have now, is gonna be a godsend. Only bad part of the season was the Sicilian derby, which we somehow managed to lose 6-0 to Palermo. They also knocked us out the cup as well! They finsihed 19th and got relegated so we got the last laugh! Players Good solid squad full of decent Serie A players now. None of them are superstars though, or even close to stars. Our best player, Fabio Frau 38C, is still only valued at 9m. He might be a Golden boy winner but I have a feelnig he won't be with us in a couple of seasons time. Youth This new HoYD I have is insane Jack! Not content with supplying us with 9 elite talents last season, he's gone and upped it to 11 this time around. Again, a mix of personalities and nobody stands out as a future star but I really can't complain. 20 elite talents in two seasons at this stage is unreal! I also managed to get another couple of affiliate sides as well. Serbia and Portugal this time, so hopefully we'll see a wide range of nationalities start popping through For the second season in a row the U18s made us proud Career

i hope you got a 50% future fee clause! that value is insane!