_Ben_

Is the Keegan-esque play part of the plan here or are you just struggling because FM rates pace so much and your older defenders just don't have it? The goals and assists image at the end is very much like a who was who of European football, now in League One!

That is some signing! Wow! How does he compare to the rest of the J1 keepers? Also - a belated congratulations on your promotion and, honestly, those kits that couldn't look more Japanese if they tried - although I do get these vibes from it...

This signals that you're now one of the big boys! A move with intent! Hope he comes good for you.

Doing really well! I think you've got enough about to you secure this promotion, now. In terms of those youth players - my favourite part... WCB(D) for me! L(D) for me! I like him. Certainly a static 10 - maybe EG(s) Maybe Mez(a) and get him to get into that box!

Yep, used that card now for this season! However, in my defence - six from twenty-six (23% of the squad) is very different to six from twenty (30%) of the squad being out! The next card I can use is the morale card because that is the thing that is hit when you can't get the good results because you can't put the strongest team out!

Season Six: Not yet where we want to be... Amid rumours of a board takeover - which, honestly, would be amazing given the fact not a single request - affiliates, improvements, coaching courses etc - has been granted - have somewhat dragged us off course and the season hasn't started in a way that I'd really wanted it to. Nicely prepared for the new season, we took on Serie A side Empoli and, again, showed our class in cup competitions. A nicely struck goal from Biagioni, bending it to the far post from the edge of the area, was the highlight but - overall - our play restricted the hosts, as they toiled to just 0.42xG to our 1.52. Our Serie B campaign, however, started far from ideally - Venezia may have recorded just 0.74xG to out 2.03xG, but, ultimately, they had the ball in the net twice and we had it in just once, and it came far too late to spark a real fightback. We dominated from the start but it was just one of those days! Our domination continued against Sampdoria, but, this time, we made it count. Allowing the visitors just two attempts at goal, totalling just 0.05xG and allowing them to progress the ball just 26 times, we racked up over three xG ourselves, with a lot of that coming from a Langoni shot from a matter of inches out! Spezia were our next opponents and the utilisation of the deep inverted winger was perfect; their less than aggressive press allowed Cubarsi to play as a L(s), occupying much higher up the pitch and de Leon moved to a CWB(s), cutting inside twice to bend strikes into the corner of the net. These two performances made the Venezia game feel like a distant memory. Riccardo Vinci doubled his tally from the entirety of last year with two lovely goals in a strong win over Cremonese, who are still a top side. Amey's own goal brought about some pressure but we saw it out nicely. But then Brescia tore us apart, in spells. Striker Sardini scored twice and, when you consider he had four shots in total, amassed 2.33xG himself across the course of the game as we just failed to stop Brescia getting the ball into our six yard box. A Pedro Santos strike had us back on level terms but we succumbed to defeat. The run continued into the Sudtirol game - we won this one on pretty much every metric except for the scoreline, mirroring the Venezia tie at the start of the season. Nothing wrong with our plan but an issue with Owusu running very low on confidence, among others. We almost went 0-3 in this run until Biagioni spared our blushes at home to Catanzaro - a team who we should be beating. 2.52xG to 0.69xG, where the visitors scored with both of their shots. It does, maybe, raise some questions about Matteo Esposito and his 10% difference between what he has saved and what he should save but, without any kind of realistic depth, he knows his place is secured. We bounced back a little with a win over Benevento, creating under 0.8xG but scoring twice; at this point though, the three points are really important. Again, we outplayed a team but failed to take three points as Modena scarpered back from Sicily with a draw, netting one of their three shots in the whole game. The xG table has us top yet we sit nine points back from a Parma side that we visit next. Honestly, the board - at present - are more interested in bickering about who'll be in charge to worry about my performances and that should certainly buy me a little bit of time to get our confidence back up and get going again. We've done nothing wrong, as such, but haven't quite clicked yet. Cutting the squad from 25/26 players to around 21/22 has meant that we've been more demanding on the minutes that need to be played, but the theory behind that was to ensure that I shared the minutes among higher quality players. However, with thirteen injuries already this season, quite some way above last year, we've been on the rails: Moderate injuries, ones that last a few weeks, have the potential to absolutely derail our season, particularly when they include important players such as Owusu, Lucenti and Amey. I'll never blame injuries and, maybe, this little hit comes at a different time to last year and we can push on in February, March and April - where last year we struggled - but I'm certainly noticing it feeling a little tougher. But the overarching concern is that we should've picked up more points against Brescia, Sudtirol and Catanzaro. October does see us play two of the newly promoted teams and we've already beaten Benevento once but Perugia, like Como last year, have started really strongly. We'll get there - I'm sure of it. Forza Biancoscudati!

Yeah...but there is just something almost romantic about Serie B! Whilst Como came up and went straight up, Cesena - the team I beat in the playoffs - went down last year. The league has such an eclectic mix of big sides now fallen on harder times: Parma, Perugia, Pescara, Cagliari, Palermo, Sampdoria, Brescia, Venezia and Lecce along with a spattering of smaller teams with their own stories: Taranto, who've never made Serie A; Sudtirol, who themselves had a year there from an unexpected double promotion and Pro Vercelli, the biggest sleeping giant of them all. Parma have a net spend of €25m this summer yet every first team player at Sampdoria is up for sale or wanted but the level of players is still really strong as new Tottenham signing Wilson Odobert - with over 100 Premier League appearances - is starting for Palermo. Honestly - Messina are now a stable club, which isn't always easy to achieve in Italy and even less so with the teams in the southern part of Italy. I'd happily avoid Inter, Juve, Roma, Champions League, millions and millions of Euros of players and a necessity to be elite or to fail and stay here for the rest of the save! I'm loving it and, whilst I will not go as far as sabotaging our chances, I'll never moan at just being decent!

I found a way to amend the templates so that I could add several more sponsors; the Sicily badge actually classes as a sponsor too, which I think is quite cool! I'm going to be doing a big kit rebrand in a couple of years too, as I've found some nice kit templates on their discord to use.

I've spent ages trying to work out how to do this and, without Photoshop or anything like that, have resorted to using Kitbasher for making the kits and then PowerPoint to make these! The artistic effects are useful because they hide a lot of my amateur work! Yeah, I think he and Wisdom are Serie A quality, definitely and will hopefully grow and stay together for many, many years. It was needed, for me as much as anyone who reads this! I find that squads can easily get bloated or you can get by on players who aren't up to the task, so a little review helps, I find.

Sad to see this end as I took a lot of inspiration from your writing and tactical choices. Is there one more foray into FM24 left in you or is it time for a break?

I was pretty excited when my scouts told me he was available! He's played just five games for Barca and has clearly stagnated a little as their B side had failed, until last season, to win promotion from the third tier:

Season Six: Evolution not revolution Honestly, my transfer dealings - incoming ones, anyway - were done by the first week in July. I'm really happy with the squad that we have and would rather spend some time developing some concrete targets that, potentially, could be coming to the club as we make the step up to Serie A. I had a big in for Almeria wingback Ruben Vinagre, and had got them to agree to pay half of his €33k p/w wages for a year, but, in the end, decided to pull out when I knew that I'd be having to renegotiate that potentially after a promotion to the top flight. I'd pay him around €8k for the season but then would see that double or even triple and that's just not what I wanted. Therefore, once again, the recruitment was pretty safe but essential areas have been strengthened and I feel that I have a good squad at my disposal, ready for the kickoff against Brescia in late August. With little else to do, I've spent far too long making those graphics, cutting heads out onto our kits - but it's been a fun process! The two new players and a third - returning - to the first team are: Pau Cubarsí is an absolute class act and a real coup for the club. Anyone training at the Barca academy, La Masia, is worth their salt but even more so when they come with over 150 career appearances in their system. Pau has excellent footballing intelligence and possesses a trait that I think will be really important in our early build up - stopping play. I think that, against high pressing sides, this ability to bait a press will allow us to get the ball through the first line of press to our most creative players to begin the next phase of our transition. His coach report lists him as, already, a Serie A defender and this is key as I look to build a long term partnership with him and Wisdom Amey. Naturally fit, consistent and enjoys a big match - he's got it all. Whilst he's current a peripheral member of the squad and alone in a social group, I hope that he can build on the strong leadership skills he already has and become an important part of the furniture here for many, many years to come. The top name of my 'right centre back' list is in the door! Whilst Mattia Viti - previously of Nice - was top of the list for the left centre back, a deal could not be agreed, so the recruitment side moved to the experienced Lautaro Valenti. The ex-Le Havre man has played over forty games in Ligue Une, had a half season loan at Cincinnati and started the game with over thirty Serie A appearances for Parma. As a robust centre back, he'll add some more mettle to the defence - again being consistent, versatile and fit, as seen by his coach report. Maybe starting to slow down a little bit but still a player I couldn't pass on. Riccardo Vinci is back a year older and a year better following time at Serie B side Catanzaro. He wasn't too effective, scoring once and assisting four times in nearly thirty appearances but his playing style across pre-season, including finishing a direct, line breaking move, tipped the scales for him staying. His ball carrying ability is great even if there are some holes, according to his coach report. I envisage that, particularly in the short term, he'll play second fiddle to Luca Langoni. - - - There is, of course, still plenty of time before the transfer window closes and I need to tie up the exits of a few youngsters and those who have been banished to the U20 team but, providing nothing out of the ordinary happens, I'd like to introduce to you the Messina side of 2029/30: The star men. With, at least, thirty-eight games to play this season, I expect the vast majority of minutes to be played by this lot and, further ahead, I would like to keep the majority of these within the squad if, or when, we reach Serie A. The most contentious pick here is Ali Owusu - who, honestly, will struggle to make the step up to Serie A but has produced the goods at important times across his career here to date so often that I was left with little choice to but to agree to his demands. Jacopo Lucenti is the key player and the initiator of my transitions, coming off the back of sixteen goal involvements last season. I do wish he had a little more composure on the ball to make him even more perfect of a playmaker but he's certainly a strong player for us. Pau joins this group and will play as much football as physically possible this year, as will Filippo Bellino, fresh with a new AI-face! Longer term, he's not quite suited to exactly what I want in the Volante role: he's more playmaking volante but I really want a destroyer volante but his partnership with Lucenti has been strong. Wisdom Amey is the second of my three centre backs and will continue in the middle of the trio, stepping forward to win the ball and lay it off. I wish he was more of a natural leader but, with Cubarsi next to him and another left sided player, he'll be fine. Matteo Esposito was not only the best keeper in Serie C, but also is - in my eyes - the best keeper in Serie B. I'm very, very happy to have him and appreciate his outputs in the build up phases, too. Both Floriani Mussolini and Tripaldelli are decent players but, given the lack of options and depth here, are both considered pretty important members of the team, with the latter being a team leader too. Longer term, these both need upgrades but I have a year to utilise the transfer budget for scouting purposes in order to decide how I want to play this, with - currently - the left side being the more offensive of the two. Vinci and Langoni are both listed as squad players, although I envisage that the minutes will be closer to 70/30 in favour of the Argentine, as the young academy lad will get most of his chances from the bench or in easier games. The idea with the second/shadow striker here is simple - pace and ball carrying ability to expose holes that the advanced forward creates by pushing defenders back. Ex-Inter forward Biagioni and Santos are two quite similar playmaking options who will rotate, but, unlike the second striker role, will go much closer to 50/50 game time. Carboni (11 months) and De Leon (nearly 7 months) have both completed their positional re-assignments to offer me different wing back options - with the former being a creative hub and the latter operating as a really deep inverted winger. I am, honestly, undecided about what I want to do with these roles going forward but the scope I now have to change games with their introductions is really useful. Valenti will probably become an important player although experienced Montero didn't put too many feet wrong last year. Marco Tumminello offers an option off the bench but, for my liking, is too similar to Owusu to really provide a proper option other than just fresh legs. I had thought about upgrading backup keeper Marchegiani but wasn't really able to find sufficient ability at a sensible price - something that has been mirrored by Marchetti, who is nearing 100 league games for the club and remains a strong servant. I still really rate Charlie Patino, but, as backup for Lucenti, has found minutes hard to come by. Hopefully, I can provide him time off the bench this season, keeping him happy, around and, potentially, a mentor for the younger members of the team if his standing in our dressing room increases. Lastly, Mario Moraga will stay around the first team, not moving out on loan, given his remarkable rise of late. He'll play second fiddle to Bellino but offers quite a different skillset and, despite still lacking some strength and top end aggression and bravery, one who is a little closer to that perfect archetype. - - - I'm not making any predictions for the season ahead - the media have us to finish sixth behind Lecce, Parma (R), Cagliari, Cremonese and Palermo (R), with Pescara - also relegated - a little further back. I'm not putting all of my eggs in the promotion basket but, likely, will lose the likes of Amey and Cubarsi if we don't go up - hoping that Bellino and Lucenti stay on pure loyalty alone. Forza Biancoscudati!

Oscar Bobb will surely be a great addition to your midfield. Things are looking pretty solid at the moment - confident to finish the job and get promoted?

I always enjoy your spreadsheet work but can't quite get my head around what you've calculated here!?

Honestly, start a save with a big club in a tiny league. Give yourself the best reputation and coaching badges. Turn off attribute masking and the first transfer window. Learn how to win at this game and come back stronger. I don't mean that in a patronising and big headed way but you've gone through, at least, fifty clubs on various saves this year, being sacked at them all. You've been unwilling to or unable to engage with any support from the community, sharing a post saying 'yes, I'll do this' and then ten games later showing that you've been sacked. I can't imagine that you, or anyone for that matter, would enjoy playing a game that they constantly lose at any don't know why - so, on behalf of the community - we're trying to help you!

. Season Five: More playoff heartbreak! Heading into the last few games of the season, I found a couple of prospects set for release, but not quite as strong as the group last summer. The youth intake brought about three new faces for the youth side: Luca Palazzolo, Demetrio Mirabelli and Federico Migliori. They'll join the ranks of a team that is continuing to grow in quality in the hope of being able to provide me with more first team options soon. When I get to this stage of the season, it's an exercise of heads down, constant work on tactical ideas and ensuring that I have the best players on the pitch. That makes for alarmingly quick progress between games as I take nothing in of the wider world but it does come at a cost. Sometimes, I cannot see the wood for the trees; sometimes, I get stuck in a bit of a rut and sometimes, I make quite big decisions that have quite big implications on our season. Following the trends from earlier in the season, nobody really wanted to win the thing, probably with the knowledge that promotion to Serie A does feel like a bit of poisoned chalice, as seen by the teams that are often yo-yoing around between these divisions - with two of them, Pescara and Palermo, coming back down to Serie B next year after just one season away. A series of pretty poor outcomes - where just nothing we touched turned to gold: 1.15xG versus Modena but zero goals, 2.04xG versus Cremonese but only one goal, 3.27xG against Sudtirol and a late, late headed goal saving us the points - meant that we went into the last game with a lot at stake. Verona played Salernitana knowing that they needed to avoid defeat to go up but knowing that, if we won, we'd join them. We couldn't win the league if Verona drew because our head to head was 0 wins and 2 losses against them but we would have taken second place if we could beat the inconsistent Venezia side. That we did not do. It was languid and tired and, despite 61% of the ball, just far too safe. We had shots and we created chances but we never truly looked like doing enough. Can I blame injuries and fatigue? Absolutely. Can I blame difficulties against opponents who also play three at the back? Yes. But will I? No. We didn't do enough and I had my head in my hands on 81 minutes as they pretty deservedly took the lead. Playoffs it was. And those weren't much better. Full of praise for a Como side who've just been promoted here but we were second best throughout. Again, a late goal in the second leg curtailed some decent attempts at clawing the game back, knowing that a 2-1 win would give us the stupid Italian rule of going through as the higher placed team. As with last year, we bow out to the team who eventually win promotion and, holding my hands up, cannot say that the form team didn't deserve it. It's a huge jump to make consecutive promotions and I do wonder how they'll get on next year. As for us, we've improved our record a little bit, finishing three points better off than last year but conceding six more goals. Both seasons for us in Serie B have now ended in playoff defeat and it's now up to me to work out whether we're getting the label of Italy's biggest bottlers or just a team who have reached the end of their fitness tether, besieged by injuries with a squad still in the transformation stage. It hurts. Absolutely. But, if you'd have given me the option to take a third season in Serie B where I - if I get things right - could be fighting, once again, for promotion, I'd have bitten your hands off! This team is special and their performances are matching that 90% of the time. The heads down approach is working and gets me through the last slog of the season but I'll need to go away, lick my wounds and work out just why we couldn't capitalise on Verona and Salernitana's poor form and why we didn't have enough steam of our own heading into these playoffs. - - - In my eyes, squad building is around progressively getting better - whether that is through upgrading the players or upgrading the ability of the players at the club. The former is easier but the latter is something that I'm striving to do. To assist with this, I've gone back into my metric tracker and used the averages we made last season to create the baseline. Any player with a green background has achieved the averages set by the rest of Serie B, and any player with a star next to their name has achieved better than the average set by us last time around. I'm really happy to see that a lot of players have stepped up their games and we're becoming better at performing the things I want us to do. If you look at someone like Amey, you'll see that he's not the kind of player someone who loves stats would like - as he doesn't appear to do a lot! However, I can assure you that his presence is often enough, as that defender who steps forward, to make entire moves go around him, playing to our strengths. Midfield duo Lucenti (16) and Bellino (12) both have been involved heavily with goal contributions whilst Owusu has once again scored well for us. There will be some players who just haven't hit the targets I have set, haven't had enough playing time or no longer have the pre-requisite amount of quality I require: With these leaving, I can add €5.3k p/w, potentially rising to over €10k p/w with a couple of hundred thousand euros made from transfer deals, maybe. Gonzalez and Frey haven't been too happy with their lack of football, despite agreeing to those squad statuses and the remainder are leaving at the end of contracts or, for Verre and Ciurria, are retiring. With Saudi Arabia being the place where players' careers go to do, I've decided to cash in on the sell on clause for Braschi, meaning I can reinvest that amount in a number of things, for example: Wage - £58,654 Scouting and Wage - £50,577 €1m transfer, scouting and wage - £31,346 €2m transfer, scouting and wage - £12,115 Add in the returning Riccardo Vinci - who has improved despite not actually doing that well for a poor Catanzaro side - and I have a decent idea of what I need to do over the summer! It's going to be a fun one! Forza Biancoscudati!

My thinking has been more specific than that - creating many different shapes within the same formation or same style. For example - at right wing back, I have variation from 4.34 dribbles and 44 passes attempted per game to 8.34 dribbles and 34 passes based on whether I'm playing my conservative right back or my deep inside forward. Because the WB(au) role is so easy to manipulate, I don't need to change the roles, just find the combinations of players who play around it. It's been such a interesting thing to experiment with. We conceded 23 across the entirety of last season, too, so I'm confident it's not a flash in the pan! I think we've got the best keeper in the league and a Serie A level defender, which obviously helps!

Interesting battle between growing your own and finding your own! Senegalese youth will be cheap but how many can you hoard? What are the squad and match day rules for foreigners?

We've never played with a low block! Our press is quite split, because, with our bottom heavy formation, the strikers aren't huge pressers of the ball given the amount of space there and, by using opposition instructions, I tend to make pressing traps that suit our style anyway. However, what I will say is that we play 90% of matches on Balanced or Cautious, with two players on attacking duties, three on defend and the rest on support in order to give us fluidity within the team. The lack of risk here is something that is almost certainly accounting for our tight defensive structures.

Doing ok so far for me when compared to other attacking midfielders: But I am asking a lot right now - learning the AMC position, strengthening his weaker foot and bringing him into the first team mid-season without a lot of football behind him. What I see on the pitch looks pretty good and I think that, once he's fully integrated, he'll be a really decent option for me. Such little experience at 27 means that he'll hopefully still grow as well as familiarise himself with my style.

Lots of similarities - particularly the DLP/VOL combo there! Also love the vanilla AM roles - are you going to use PI's to adapt them along with player traits and styles?

Congrats on the league win! Despite the disappointment in the CL, it's probably helped you and building the domestic level of dominance is always important. The above part, though, is absolutely my favourite part of the game and I'd love to see how you approach it!

It would also appear that they are to a divisional rival, as well. Can you post some screenshots of the incoming players please? Again - you've ripped apart a team and will likely struggle with cohesion...

Season Five: Promotion hopes still strong Plenty of thought has gone into my tactical design over the last week or so, and, as such, I've made some subtle changes to my 3-4-3 shape, with specific differences for Michele Carboni's role and my January transfer business. Luca Langoni was the first man through the doors as I wanted a proper second striker, who had pace, works hard and can finish. Luca was previously at Udinese, following a big move from Boca but struggled to settle and barely played. Whether that is an indicator for bigger issues, I do not know, but we all felt that it was a reasonable risk. His coach report has a couple of things to work on but his ceiling should be quite high and, because, technically, his last club was Udinese - I've been able to sign a non-EU player for the team, because he was still based in Italy. His arrival, as a right footer - made me think about swapping the sides of the box in the midfield, moving the SS(a) to the left, with the VOL(s) behind him and the more static AM(s) and DLP(s) on the right hand side. This worked really well with left footed Merola being able to cut inside on his favoured foot. That meant that I also flipped around my wing backs, too. Opting to try and repurpose Carboni on the left to be a more static, but playmaking, wing back, I then had an opportunity to experiment on the right hand side. Jeremy Leon - a winger from Serie D side Alessandria - comes in to try and be part of that experiment. His coach report reckons he's not quite good enough for this level but my intentions were clear: a wrong footed converted winger who is more about attacking than defending. He'll still sit in the five when we do defend, but, ideally, I'm trying to create a deep inverted winger - hence the need for Work Rate and, for future players here Stamina and Teamwork. I set my recruitment team up to sign him, as he was available for around €100k but, for some reason, they decided to go down the 'end of contract' route, meaning I was left with the option to 'Buy Now' for €275k. A huge transfer record for the club, and, to be fair, one that fits the positive recent history of a form player but far more than I actually intended to spend. I wanted him now as I really don't see him as an experimental wing back in Serie A - should we get there - and, therefore, wanted to try this whilst we're among the better teams. There are much better players out there but this will serve a purpose. This is, of course, to create more options within my tactical style. I still have Tripaldelli (quite traditional outside wingback), Frey (more defensive minded and a body in attacking play) as well as Ciurria (often on the physio table, like he has been for over 60% of the season) but it's important that I can play in different ways within the same 343 shape and, even, within the same roles, duties and instructions from that 343 shape. Lastly, the youngest of the sons of Patrick, Shane Kluivert, came in on loan from our parent club, Napoli. He's on about €18k p/w but, thankfully, we have to pay nothing for this deal and will give him some exposure to first team football as the season progresses. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for two of our players out on loan - Salerno and Fucili - who moved to Mantova at the start of the season. I was excited to see them move to a recently relegated team, thinking they'd be in with a shout for promotion, but, instead, they've struggled, sacked youth-developer Ignacio Abate and replaced him with someone who plays a flat 4-4-2, meaning that neither of these two can play their favoured positions. To make matters worse, no recall clause was added so two of my hottest prospects have sat in the Modena youth side, rotting away! We've been annoyingly inconsistent of late, but, then again, so have the entire top half of the league with only Taranto - down in eighth - unbeaten in their last five. Despite holding up our end of the bargain by beating Salernitana at home, where a nice run of form for Biagioni began, and beating the three weaker teams with ease, we then lost it, at the death, in the return fixture against the table toppers. That then started a period of some inconsistency, where we ceded ground to Verona by losing, pretty tamely, at home to them, before picking up one point from six against two of the relegated sides: Cagliari and Lecce, neither of whom are setting the league alight this year. That being said, we're still in a pretty strong position where we are. Our next five are quite comfortable fixtures for us and we're also look at the gap between ourselves and fourth place; fourteen or more points removes the playoffs and just promotes the top three. Lots to be excited about here! I'm continuing to try and build a squad that can survive in Serie A, so, if we aren't successful this season - I'm in no way disheartened. I've just signed a new three year deal and the goal in that is to keep us in the top half, something which I see being achievable. Furthermore, in the next couple of weeks there'll be a new youth intake and my favourite part of the season - the set for release day! Forza Biancoscudati!

That is a poor record. I've got to say that, despite commenting here quite regularly over your last few saves, you don't seem to want any help and think that this type of career is realistic. Honestly, FM is way easier than real life, you shouldn't need to bounce around 20 clubs, winning one in five. You've also disregarded lots of people offering help - very often just blaming the players in order to try and create this narrative. If you plan to continue and want to be successful, I genuinely ask - again - that you slow down, ask for support (even if it's a screenshot of 'should I sign x player?') and look at each game from a tactical perspective.