DaneBramage

July 2027 Signings Four signings this summer. The first is Amar Zahirovic, a left-winger from our feeder club Osijek. I met his release clause to bring him to the club as a contender for a starting position. Has made 50 appearances in the Croatian top tier. Has a one-in-three goalscoring record for his nation at under-21 level. Not just one, or two, but three American centre-backs. Bit of a scattergun approach, but all three will likely get gametime over the season. Fernando Alvarez and Kobi Henry are the more experienced of the two, and will be in the first-team before too long. Alvarez, who has a Colombian second nationality, has barely played for Bologna over the last three seasons, so this is a chance for him to kickstart his career. It was a similar story for Henry, who was mainly sitting on the Reims bench in France (his second nationality). Jason Mozynski (German second nationality) has some developing to do, but has a ton of potential to grow into. When he makes his debut with us he will see his first minutes of senior football. ------------------------------------------- Facilities Training Facilities: £2 million has been invested to upgrade from the current good level. Will take a few months. Youth Facilities: £1.8 million has been invested to upgrade from the current good level. Will take a few months. Youth Recruitment: Has been upgraded to an exceptional standard. Requests to improve junior coaching and for another feeder club were declined. -------------------------------------------

2026/27 USA Senior Squad: The national side won five out of eight friendlies in the build-up to the 2027 CONCACAF Gold Cup, and they then sailed through the early rounds. They came unstuck in the semi-finals though, throwing away a two goal lead to be defeated 3-2 by Mexico. Under-23: A friendly loss to Panama, and wins over South Africa and Tunisia. Under-20: A mixed year in tournament football. They easily won the North American U20 Championship, beating Mexico 3-0 in the final, but lost to Senegal on penalties in the U20 World Cup Second Round. Under-19: Friendly wins over Panama and South Africa. None of our players represented the US this season, in any of the age groups. -------------------------------------------

2026/27 Awards Can I reject this? It's clearly nonsense. Yep, definitely wrong. -------------------------------------------

2026/27 Season Review The Players Andrija Novakovic was again our top scorer and fan's player of the season, but it was with his lowest goal tally in four years. He's now reached 71 league goals though, becoming the all time leading scorer for Venezia. No one else offered up any good numbers. Our big money signings, Ricardo Pepi and Marko Klepac, managed just 12 goals between them for a combined fee of £6.5 million, costing nearly half a million per goal. ------------------------------------------- History + Facilities A really disappointing campaign. We've regressed from the last two seasons, and were just one bad result away from relegation. Behind the scenes everything is looking rosier, with all facilities seeing improvements over the past year. Our bank balance has taken a hit with the loan repayments coming out each month for the upcoming new season, hopefully at some point we can get some better sponsorship deals to put us on more of an even footing with the other clubs in the division. ------------------------------------------- The Americans The percentage of goals scored by Americans dropped this year, with contributions from players signed from our feeder clubs and the Italian lower leagues picking up some of the slack. But as a whole, the lack of goals was an issue. Our total was the worst I've seen during my time in charge, averaging less than a goal per game. -------------------------------------------

I butchered trying to get this in the previous post, so it can have its own. 14327b29d6b65a43cdb1b5bb577bd402.mp4

2026/27 Coppa Italia Only the third round, but it's our best run yet. ---------------------------------------------- Serie A A win on the opening day was a false dawn, as we then went six games without seeing victory again. A surprise point from Juventus and a win over Bologna gave us a good October, and we were unbeaten through November, but December was pretty tragic with only one point from five games. January saw an uptick in form with consecutive victories over Atalanta and Fiorentina, but we couldn't maintain. Just one win in 13 games fall down the table, and after gameweek 37 we finally dropped into the bottom three. A win on the final day would have seen us to safety, but a draw against Udinese wasn't enough. We were relegated. Or were we? ---------------------------------------------- Play-Off It turns out that the deciding factor in Serie after points is results between teams. We drew 0-0 home and away with Hellas Verona, so I thought it was going to goal difference, which would doom us. But the asterisk saved me. The goal difference is only when there's multiple teams that can't be separated. So as it was just us and Hellas Verona, we've got a play-off instead. I assumed we would lose. But Marko Klepac stepped up and made himself a hero. He'd only scored three times in 21 appearances so far, but scored possibly the most important goal he'll ever score to keep us in Serie A. Not a classic by any means, but it did the job. -------------------------------------------

2027 Youth Intake >>>>>>>>>>>> The preview matches the final message. There's a lot of potential on display, but the personalities and lack of determination is a killer. You wonder how these fellas even find their way to training. At least the top-rated chap, goalkeeper Antonio Cappelletti, has both potential and determination, so he has the best chance of making it. Argentina is the only new nation represented. ----------------------------------------------

January 2027 Departures Pietro Ceccaroni had been my first-choice centre-back for a long time, but he'd just become a liability over the last year or so. I tried giving him a shot at left-back instead, and he went and conceded a penalty in the dying minutes of a game, throwing away a point we deserved. Final straw, it was time to ditch him. ---------------------------------------------- Signings If in doubt, buy another striker. Marko Klepac has come in from my Croatian feeder club, where he'd scored 10 goals in 29 top-flight starts. ----------------------------------------------

---------------------------------------------- September 2026 Results From back in March. James Alves Rodrigues has played his part with 4 assists this month, and Hilmir Rafn Mikaelsson (another promoted from the under-20s) has also contributed with a goal and an assist, but other than that, the above still applies now. The defence in particular is completely hopeless. Unless my scouts magically find four good American defenders, I don't know how I can improve this. American goals: 4 (6 for the season) American assists: zero (2 for the season) ---------------------------------------------- USA Senior Squad: 0-2 v Panama, 2-0 v Nicaragua (friendlies) Under-23: 1-2 v Panama (friendly) Under-20: 6-1 v Panama, 4-0 v Nicaragua (friendlies) Under-19: 3-0 v Panama (friendly) ----------------------------------------------

August 2026 Results We should have beaten Alessandria more convincingly, but at least we avoided being knocked out of the Coppa Italia by a team in a lower division this year. We managed a good win over Udinese to kick off our Serie A campaign. James Alves Rodrigues (a Luxembourg winger promoted from the under-20s) scored his first goal for the club, before we were pegged back. In the final ten minutes we snatched victory, Leonardo Sernicola also grabbing his first goal with a 25 yard screamer. And in the dying minutes Giacomo Paciello bounced on a mistake from their goalkeeper to kill the game off. Napoli were just too strong for us. Both centre-backs had a poor day as well, subbed before half-time and each being fined a week's wages. American goals: 2 American assists: 2 ----------------------------------------------

July 2026 Feeder Club I pressured the board a bit more for another affiliate, and this time they relented. An agreement was made with Osijek, in the Croatian top tier. Their facilities are pretty good, so hopefully they'll bring through some decent young talent we can pick up. ---------------------------------------------- Departures Jayden Oosterwolde was my starting left-back, but his release fee of £6 million was met. I offered him out for a little more, and Everton won the battle for his signature. I would have liked to keep him, but there's no competing with Premier League money. Michael Svoboda had been phased out off the first-team over the last few years, and when still called upon he never performed. One poor display too many saw him transfer-listed. ---------------------------------------------- Signings I wanted another striker to give Andrija Novakovic some competition, and with these self-imposed rules options were limited. Ricardo Pepi is the man that caught my eye, 18 goals in 29 games least season as he helped Arminia Bielefeld win promotion to the Bundesliga. Leonardo Sernicola is a more experienced player, and was originally signed to provide cover across the back-line. With the departure of Oosterwolde though he may find himself as our starting left-back. ----------------------------------------------

June 2026 Poached A fifth player stolen away. Doesn't look like he'll be up to much. None of the previous poached players have yet come through elsewhere. ---------------------------------------------- Facilities The board wouldn't let us have another feeder club, despite specifically asking for an American link being one of the options. But after a bit of complaining, all other upgrades were approved. Training Facilities - £1.8 million is being spent to upgrade these from average to good, should be completed by November. Youth Training - £2 million is being spent to upgrade these from average to good, should be completed by December. Junior Coaching - Improved from adequate to good. Youth Recruitment - Improved from good to excellent. ---------------------------------------------- USA Senior Squad: 2-1 v Ukraine (friendly), 1-3 v Norway, 2-0 v Guinea (World Cup Group Stage, finished 2nd in group), 1-2 v Germany (World Cup Second Round) Under-20: 4-0 v Gabon, 2-1 v Spain, 3-1-v Japan (French Youth Invitational Group Stage, finished top of group), 1-2 v Norway (French Youth Invitational Semi-Final), 0-1 v France (French Youth Invitational Third-Place Play-Off) ----------------------------------------------

2026/27 Season Review The Players Nowhere near good enough. Not a single green average rating of 7.00 or above. Andrija Novakovic top scored with 13 goals, but this was well off the pace compared to the last two years. He was also voted player of the season again, but only as the best of a bad bunch. Gianluca Busio wasn't completely useless I suppose, but everyone else was dreadful. ---------------------------------------------- History + Facilities After the sale of Malik Tillman in February we have a strong bank balance now, so I'm going to have to try and find some reinforcements over the summer to get us back on course. I think we can pinpoint our downturn to the moment he left. If we'd repeated our form from the first half of the season we'd have ended up on 54 points, taking 12th place. Our form over the second half of the season, extrapolated out over a whole year, would have seen us get relegated with just 26 points. A horrendous drop-off. We'll also look at improving our facilities again during the break. ---------------------------------------------- The Americans 28 players made an appearance this season, 14 of them were American. We signed 6 players this season, including 3 Americans. Nearly all of our goals came from American players, though we did have a first goal from a player signed from one of our affiliates. ---------------------------------------------- Malik Tillman Hope you're enjoying that German bench. ----------------------------------------------

May 2026 Results At least we ended the season with a win, just our second in the last 18 games. American goals: 5 (40 for the season) American assists: 4 (21 for the season) ---------------------------------------------- Serie A In February I was confident that we'd finish 12th or 13th, and 14th place couldn't catch us. We fell to 15th... Absolutely livid with how these last few months went. ----------------------------------------------

April 2026 Results No words. American goals: zero (35 for the season) American assists: 1 (17 for the season) ----------------------------------------------

2026 Youth Intake >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Interesting, this may be a good batch... The assessment hasn't dropped since the two preview, and two potential 5.0 star attacking players is great news. They already have 1.5 star current ability, they could have something about them. And that determination column is by far better than any seen previously. There's only a couple of players with single figure determination, and they're well down the list. All 16 being Italian is a bit boring though. ----------------------------------------------

March 2026 Results There comes a time in every save where I think I really hate this team. I am there now. All three of these matches were against sides in the relegation area. Should have been a nine-pointer, or seven at the very least. Just two, and not even a single win, is embarrassing. Andrija Novakovic did his job this month, everyone else is stealing a living. American goals: 3 (35 for the season) American assists: zero (16 for the season) ---------------------------------------------- Serie A A month ago we had an 11 point lead over 14th place. It's now down to just four. ---------------------------------------------- USA Senior Squad: 2-2 v Serbia (friendly) Under-20: 1-2 v Serbia (friendly) ----------------------------------------------

February 2026 Departures As alluded to in my last post, Titas Krapikas left for Crystal Palace. He'd been okay, but I felt there were probably better options out there. But then the big one came along. Bayer Leverkusen met the £10.25 million release clause for Malik Tillman, and he was straight off to Germany. His goals on loan in 2023/24 were a key part in helping us avoid relegation, and although I don't think he ever hit those heights again with us, he was in decent form again now and our top scorer so far this year. It was too late in the window for us to look for a replacement, he'll be a big loss. ---------------------------------------------- Results The win over Lecce was a major relief. We'd been on a horrendous run, so we really needed to snap the streak. The losses themselves weren't necessarily that troubling; there were a lot of difficult games here so the defeats weren't entirely unexpected. But the nature of the games was the problem, shipping goals by the bucketload. Rokas Pukstas has put forward an argument why he should be starting more games, and Andrija Novakovic has found his shooting boots again. But this was a rough start to his time here for Alessandro Plizzari in goal. American goals: 6 (32 for the season) American assists: 3 (16 for the season) ---------------------------------------------- Serie A We've dropped a place, but it's fine. Relegation isn't even a thought at the moment, we even have a comfortable gap between us and 14th place. ----------------------------------------------

January 2026 Signings We made a couple of signings this month, both from Serie B. We've had an offer from Crystal Palace for our goalie, so we've brought in a replacement for him. And even if that falls through (currently going through the work permit process), this fella looks like an upgrade. Admittedly, signing the goalkeeper from Pescara when they sit bottom of Serie B doesn't look like the smartest idea, but Alessandro Plizzari has only conceded 25 times in 21 games, so without him it could have been much worse. He has 50 clean sheets over the last three and a half years, including a couple of seasons in Serie C. I thought we'd pulled off a bit of a coup, agreeing a deal with Bologna to sign Ethan Ampadu for £3.3 million. He decided to go elsewhere though, joining Norwich (for £6k a week less than we offered). We'd looked at another Bologna player as well though, and brought in his team-mate Luis Binks instead. Not as good as Ampadu, but pretty much on a par with what we already have at the club, so offers strength in depth. I did have a bit of a brainfart, completely forgetting about Brexit. We already have four non-EU players, so I thought we wouldn't be able to register Binks. But luckily you can still register them if they're coming from another Italian club. ---------------------------------------------- Results Can't argue with this. We lost to the team considerably higher in the table than us, drew with the team in a similar position, and beat the two teams below us. There was a scare against Salernitana, but Gianluca Busio came off the bench to rescue the result. Andrija Novakovic is on a stinking run of form, now 8 games without scoring. American goals: 4 (26 for the season) American assists: 3 (13 for the season) ---------------------------------------------- Serie A Still hovering around midtable. ----------------------------------------------

December 2025 Youth Preview We were also told 4.5 star excellent this time last year, and it turned out to be 1.5 star below average. So probably best to assume this means nothing. ---------------------------------------------- Results The draw with Torino was a solid result and made it six games unbeaten, by far our best Serie A run to date. But the defeat to Spezia was appalling. Both centre-backs had a horrendous evening. And let's just pretend the Atalanta game never happened. Tanner Tessmann got sent off after 15 minutes, and from there we got destroyed. We bounced back with a win over Fiorentina, Malik Tillman getting the only goal of the game. He's already bagged more than he did last season. American goals: 4 (22 for the season) American assists: 2 (10 for the season) ---------------------------------------------- Serie A We've dropped a couple of places, but have still won more games than we've lost. A comfortable 14 point gap over the relegation area. ----------------------------------------------

November 2025 Results Absolute banger of a game to start the month, goals flying in all over the place against Cagliari. After 90 minutes the score was level, but Malik Tillman added another to complete his hat-trick, before Gianluca Busio killed the game off with the last kick of the evening. The next couple of matches were against tougher opposition, but we held on to get a point from each. An element of luck went our way when Roma had a 93rd minute goal ruled out for an offside in the build-up. American goals: 6 (18 for the season) American assists: 3 (8 for the season) ---------------------------------------------- Serie A Still flying high, and bizarrely we're closer to the top than we are the bottom three. ---------------------------------------------- USA Senior Squad: 1-1 v Paraguay, 2-3 v Turkey (friendlies) ----------------------------------------------

October 2025 Results Two wins makes this a good month, but one that should have been even better. Monza and Palermo were two of the sides promoted this season, so beating them was expected. But Lecce were bottom of the table at this time, so losing at home was a big disappointment. American goals: 2 (12 for the season) American assists: 1 (5 for the season) ---------------------------------------------- Serie A I'd be amazed if we ended the season in the top-half, but it's a good start. ---------------------------------------------- USA Senior Squad: 2-0* v Ireland (friendly) Gianluca Busio played in this game. Under-23: 2-1 v U.A.E. (friendly) Under-20: 5-0 v U.A.E. (friendly) Under-19: 3-0 v U.A.E. (friendly) ----------------------------------------------

September 2025 Results Doesn't look like the best sequence of results, but I'm happy with this. Beating Genoa was the priority and we managed that, and Andrija Novakovic snatching a late point from Milan was just a bonus. After six games we sit in 9th place. American goals: 4 (10 for the season) American assists: 3 (4 for the season) ---------------------------------------------- USA Senior Squad: 3-1* v Croatia, 0-0* v Switzerland (friendlies) Gianluca Busio played in both games. Under-20: 5-3 v Nicaragua (friendly) Under-19: 3-0 v Switzerland (friendly) ----------------------------------------------

August 2025 Poached That's now four players poached this summer, and the second by Genoa. ---------------------------------------------- Results Perfect start to the season that. Going out of the cup at the earliest stage possible, somehow conceding four times from a 0.99 xGA against a Serie B side. Great work lads, well done. On the plus side Adrian Gill scored on his debut, but at the other end of the pitch Diego Kochen should consider himself lucky he wasn't immediately transfer-listed. While the second-string may have disgraced themselves, at least the first-team have performed in the league. It's always good to get an opening day win, and an away point will do nicely. American goals: 6 American assists: 1 ---------------------------------------------- USA Senior Squad: 3-0 v Jamaica (CONCACAF Gold Cup Final, winners). ----------------------------------------------

I'd gathered that you were probably American, but hadn't picked up that you were a Venezia fan. I've just checked this year's Serie B table, and yeah, that's pretty miserable.