Career il Mago reborn: the Herrera (5-3-2) challenge [Completed]

[BatiGoal]

I like Sevilla, a class team, but 4 seasons into a career it's always hard to predict in what state the squad's in when we take over the reigns. 

I'm predicting a tough run in your debut season with them. Top-4 

[1899]

Season 7: 2023/2024 Sevilla FC - Part 1

Finally, some suspense! Starting fresh with a new squad really brought the fun back in this game. When I arrived, we were already three games into the season, with the season premiere a 4-1 drubbing courtesy of Valencia. From that moment and to the very end, we would be in hunting mode.

The squad took some time getting used to the new formation, and we struggled with getting goals for much of the fall, with striker Benedetto the only reliable goal scorer. Some fortunate bounces meant that we were still able to pick up a decent amount of points and by year-end we were 2^nd in the League, aided by an extra game or three to our main opposition.

We were also still alive in both the Copa del Rey and the Europa Cup. However, being able to compete on multiple fronts will be tough so the La Liga is our #1 priority.

Transfers:
The January transfer window brought with it a chance to add some quality and depth to our squad. Unfortunately, it also meant saying farewell to striker Benedetto. In retrospect, I should have just cut my losses and let him play out his contract with us (he ended up scoring 14 in 13 games with us), but when La Coruna flashed €11M in my face I was simply too much of a cheapskate to resist. We also lost crafty midfielder David Ivan for the same reason but scored a major win as we convinced Diego Gonzalez to extend his contract with an additional 4 years in exchange for a Big Club Release Clause. Let’s hope it doesn’t come back to haunt us further down the road.

The key positions to strengthen was, in order of importance, Striker, Defense, Keeper along with rejuvenating our midfield and attack with some promising youth for the future. Having just north of €80M to spend, we had to pick our options with care. Enter:

• Moise Kean (ITA), ST, 23 y/o, from Juventus €35M. Benedetto’s heir apparent struggled for playing time at the Italian giants but with youth on his side and greens in all key attributes I hope that he can find his scoring boots in Spain. Potentential major bargain.
• Alban Lafont (FRA), GK, 24 y/o, from Toulouse €28.5M. Lafont had grown tired of a Toulouse-side seemingly going nowhere. I’m confident he’ll be able to find more success with us.
• Jonathan Menosse (URU), D/DM C ,19 y/o, Defensor Sporting €3.5M. Despite his young age and cheap price, Menosse is expected to become a first-choice center back for us as we are frighteningly thin at the position.

We also jumpstarted our youth revolution had an additional six promising youngsters coming in which we will try to develop and hopefully get some early contributions from.

January 2023 – I’ve created a monster
The beginning of the year saw us thrice going up against Valencia. Finally, a chance to see how we measured up against my old team.

Came up well short we did and that's it for our Copa del Rey ambitions.

Indecisiveness 
Indecisive, [in-di-sahy-siv], adjective

1. characterized by indecision, as persons; irresolute; undecided.
2. not decisive or conclusive: a severe but indecisive battle.
3. lacking definition; vague or indistinct: the indecisive outline of the distant hills.
4. Valentin Vada:

  

Man, get over yourself! As it turned out, this back-and-forth would continue throughout the spring. If he wasn’t such an integral part to our team I would have sent him packing. 

 

The 2^nd part of the season is coming up within the next day. It’s a good one, I promise.

Edited January 18, 2018 by 1899

[1899]

Season 7: 2023/2024 Sevilla FC – Part 2

We quickly recuperated from the shaky start to the year, and went on a roll that lasted all the way towards the end of April. The only issue, neither Valencia nor Atletico were in the mood of dropping many points either.

League run-in:

With just six games to go, we’ve managed to get into third, but are still six points away from leaders Valencia. A top-4 finish is already nothing to sneeze at but we want MORE. Let’s clean house in the remaining games and see where it gets us. Valencia has a difficult run-in with games against Barcelona, Real Madrid and Atletico so there’s a chance they drop some points.

Three wins on the trot and we are getting closer. Valencia dropped five points and Atletico two, meaning we’re just a single point behind. Making yesterday’s update and now this, I realized we let just one goal past us in 15 league games since that 3-4 defeat to Valencia in January. That’s some Catenaccio 3.0 right there.

Another three wins for Sevilla, and wheels falling off our competitors. I got too excited so I forgot to take a proper picture of the Final table so you’ll have to make do with this one. Valencia completely bottled it, dropping 10 points in the final six games despite having the strongest squad in Europe. Mancini to blame obviously.

Europa League:
When Sevilla plays in the Europa League they usually win, and that was the case this year as well. Despite playing a weakened team throughout much of the tournament we had no trouble reaching the final, where we once again got the better of Atletico Madrid, winning 2-0. 

Star of the Season:
That Moise Kean guy from Juventus turned out alright, scoring 24 with 4 assists from 22 games for an 8.04 Av R. A trio already in the team upon my arrival; midfielders Correa and Vada and wingback Costa laid on most of ‘em, combining for 40 assists on the year.  Young gun Lo Celso managed 10 goals in just 13 games, despite having pretty average attributes (likely aided by his 3-rated Teamwork value – selfish little brat!).

What's going on in the rest of the World? 
Honors shared in Spain and Italy with Chelsea and PSG bossing it in England and France respectively. Valencia once again bottling it, being runner-up to Chelsea in Champions League. At least the won the Club Worlds and the European Super Cup.

 

Challenge status:

• France: Done
• Spain:  
  • La Liga: 3 out of 4
  • Copa del Rey: Done (2/2)
  • Spanish Super Cup: Done (1/1)
• Italy: Not started 

A surprise win in the first season means we’re just one league win away from completing Step 2 of the challenge, which should be doable next year.

I figured you might also be interested in having a look at the man himself, Federico Vincere – the hero of this story. A lot of 20’s on the board, and that beautiful bright red Domestic Player Bias squeezed in between. Discipline is slowly on the up.

Look at that elite (1337) manager profile. Would be interesting to know who the six managers ranked ahead of him are…

Edited January 18, 2018 by 1899

[BatiGoal]

That was an exciting sprint to the finishline. With Spain stage almost wrapped up I'm already looking forward to your Italian adventure. Good-looking manager profile too. I like the Discipline numbers. Any idea how I can bump mine up? Seems inconsistent to me.

[1899]

28 minutes ago, BatiGoal said:

That was an exciting sprint to the finishline. With Spain stage almost wrapped up I'm already looking forward to your Italian adventure. Good-looking manager profile too. I like the Discipline numbers. Any idea how I can bump mine up? Seems inconsistent to me.

You just need to be more of a d*ck to people.

Nah, to be honest I don't really know either as my progress is marginal as well (up to 12 now though). I usually try to hit em hard with the fines when they get sent off. If it's an early straight red = 2 weeks, late red = 1 week and two yellows = warning or 1 week depending on my mood. 

Players seem to usually accept it although I did create a fuss-up when i fined Kean (who is "very popular within the squad" or whatever is say on the squad page) after being sent off with two yellows. He accepted but some seven players had issues with them and complained about me being unfair to my staff. It subsided rather quickly though except for one player who is still mad about it almost a year later. 

Thanks for the comment as well. It was a really exciting season as a whole and that run-in just made it all even sweeter. Did not think we could make it with six to play.  

Edited January 17, 2018 by 1899

[BatiGoal]

I had my discipline drop to 7 and wasn't really sure how to get it back in the blue. I followed my assistant's advice on the punishment but doesn't seem to be the right path to take. Been fining the players randomly when they're disrupting the training or get sent off which brought the Discipline back to 8. Trying to get a full set of 20s is proving a b#tch.

2 hours ago, 1899 said:

If it's an early straight red = 2 weeks, late red = 1 week and two yellows = warning or 1 week depending on my mood. 

 Sounds sensible. Will try. Cheers! 

[1899]

Season 8: 2024/2025 Sevilla FC

I’m not planning to make a big deal about this season. The Andalusian turnaround was a short one and season 8 becomes my finale in Spain. We lost central defender Lenglet who wanted to play in a 'Big club', Real and Pozo because we were well overpaid and unfortunately last year's #1 assister, wingback Costa due to a release clause I was unaware of. 30-year-old José Gimenez is an upgrade in central defense, Caillard and Abreu attacking superstars in the making while Saintfiet is a SW/CD that will rotate with Gonzalez in the easier games. Yes, since last season, we are employing a libero in our tactics which makes me feel all warm and fussy inside. 

All we needed to do to finish step two of the challenge was to bring home another La Liga trophy, and we accomplished that feat with four games to spare. 

Moise Kean was again an absolute monster. Playing as a complete forward he's scoring at will and ended up with 59 goals and 9 assists from 48 games. Portuguese youngster Ruben Abreu blasted onto the stage and contributed with 27 points and the rest of the team chipped in with what they could as well.

The season also offered up this gem, courtesy of the rascals of the Atletic Bilbao Board.

A full two days it lasted, that vote of confidence. No game was played in that time either so I don’t know what he did.

Champions League
In an all-Spanish final, we bested Barcelona to take home the cup, Sevilla’s first ever Champions League trophy. We were also just the odd goal away from having the perfect final, as Valencia went out against Barcelona in an even more Spanish semi-final round.

What’s going on in the rest of the World?
Sevilla the world beaters, honors shared in England, Napoli bossing it in Italy and PSG once again victorious in France. I’m thinking of dropping this topic on a season-by-season basis and instead try to highlight when something interesting happens, and give you a summary on the developments every three or five years. 

 

Challenge status:

• France: Done
• Spain:  Done
  • La Liga: Done (4 out of 4)
  • Copa del Rey: Done (3/2)
  • Spanish Super Cup: Done (2/1)
• Italy: Not started 

With that, we bid farewell to Spain. It’s been a pleasure. Despite just two seasons in Sevilla, we leave the club in excellent shape for future success. Onto new adventures in Italy!

 

 

Edited January 19, 2018 by 1899

[1899]

Apparantly I just leveled up to a pink level 5 poster on the forum. I have zero idea what it means but feels good it does. Currently holidaying so lets see where we end up.

Edited January 19, 2018 by 1899

[1899]

Holiday mode. Living life, rejecting a bunch of offers from teams in England, France and Spain but still waiting for an opportunity to present itself in Italy. And then, with October about to an end, we receive an offer. And it’s certainly an interesting one.

• A club with ZERO major trophies.
• Founded 1900 in Southern Italy.
• Notorious for an owner that is bat-shit crazy historically impatient with his managers (gulp!).
• A club that has recently featured prominent strikers such as Luca Toni, Edison Cavani, Paulo Dybala and the legend that is Fabrizio Miccoli, the Maradona of the Salento.

They also play in pink. They are, of course:

Spoiler

 

[BatiGoal]

Well done on the Spain stage! How did the libero perform for you? 

Palermo are actually a decent team at the start of the game not top of course but some nice players in the squad. You're a good few seasons in now so chances are they're a completely different side by now. Goodluck in your Italy stage. 

[1899]

8 minutes ago, BatiGoal said:

Well done on the Spain stage! How did the libero perform for you? 

Palermo are actually a decent team at the start of the game not top of course but some nice players in the squad. You're a good few seasons in now so chances are they're a completely different side by now. Goodluck in your Italy stage. 

Thanks! The libero was doing quite well. Not too much of a difference from a BPD to be honest but he did occasionally pop up in slightly more advanced position with a key pass or long-range attempt. He was slightly more involved in the passing game overall, where the middle BPD would often otherwise be ignored as the outer BPD would be combining with the WB and CM. Defensively, it worked fine but again no big change from a straight three. So to be honest, it was 99% about honoring Herrera's original tactics and me liking the idea of a libero  

I'll be back with a writeup on Palermo sometime during the weekend. They're a classic mid-table team, hovering around 10 - 14 in the league for the last five years. The squad is pretty old and avg player value of starters ranges between €5-25M so it looks like my biggest challenge yet. Should be fun! 

[1899]

Challenge goals – Italy
Must win at least 3 Serie A titles, 1 Coppa Italia, 2 Champions Leagues and 2 FIFA World Club Cups with two different clubs. 

So once again we’re not only tasked with winning a lot of silverware, we’re also supposed to, once again, do it with two different clubs. Palermo was the first viable offer (I turned down Juventus per my own big-club rule) that presented itself and I will stay here until I’ve won at least one Serie A trophy before moving on to my fifth and final club.

Current state of affairs
Having managed two top-6 clubs in Spain, Palermo is an interesting change of pace and should offer a nice challenge. The club has been hovering around in no-mans-land for the last five years (12^th, 12^th, 10^th, 16^th and 10^th). As our hero walks into the door, we are 16^th in the league with 9 games played, and the Board expects another mid-table position. As usual, I want MORE, so let’s aim for a top-4 finish and see where that gets us. We’ll be kicking about in the Coppa Italia as well but won’t focus too much on it.

The squad
The squad has three decent building blocks; in central defense 21-year-old Pole Sebastian Sikora and 28-year-old Frenchman Jean-Kevin Duverne and at the striker position, 28-year-old Dane Kasper Dolberg. Brazilian attacking midfielders Coronado and Scarpa are decent players as well but aged 33 and 32 respectively and both already aging retirement they're hardly long-term solutions. The rest of the squad is unfortunately rather mediocre and going off the assistant’s assessment, matches that with having limited potential as well. Judging by their morale, they don't exactly love playing here in Sicily either. But hey, it’s supposed to be a challenge, right?

 
Apparently I lied before, there's no €25M player to be found here. Dolberg tops the chart with €17M. We probably have starters below €5M as well. 

Let’s play out the rest of the year and see what we can do in the January window. We only have €17M to spend but hopefully we can off-load some dead meat and increase that by a couple of mills. The key positions to strengthen are keeper and defense (central and wingbacks) while midfield and attack should be alright. With limited cash and club reputation, it’s going to be hard to complete any major immediate overhauls.

Tactics
It’s been a while since we discussed tactics but during my two years with Sevilla, I was finally able to implement a libero. With some success to boot. Unfortunately, Palermo lacks any player even partly comfortable in this role, so we’ll have to return to a straight back three. Otherwise, we play with panache, meaning we’re going to play attacking and we’re going to play fast no matter what the opposing does – or who they are for that matter.

We’re playing an asymmetrical 5-2-3, with an inside forward playing from either wing and an advanced playmaker slightly offset behind the complete forward. One of the central midfielders have been withdrawn slightly as a DLP, playing in front of three BPDs and a sweeper keeper at the back. I’ve decided to ignore the limited technical ability of my defenders and will take the occasional howler in exchange for a more constructive approach. The wingbacks are still asked to cover the entire flank by themselves so nothing much to say about that really.

 

 

First game in charge
What did I tell you guys? Panache! Five goals, two sending-offs, an early injury to the opposition and a big ol’ W in the end. A real beauty of a game this. 

[1899]

Season 9: 2025/2026 U.S. Città di Palermo

The fans were jubilant. Their imaginary chants split in half between professing their love for the pink and black outfit and displaying their disgust for Catania, Reggina and the North, as we crushed opponent after opponent, slowly but steadily climbing the table. By the end of January, we were 3^rdin the league after running the table through much of December and January. Between ourselves and eternal glory however was an AC Milan-shaped obstacle that had already ended our Cup dreams and was yet to taste defeat in the League. 20 points to make up from 16 games remaining – a man can dream, right?

  
Okay, technically we also have an Lazio-shaped obstacle in our way but six points should be a cake walk  

Transfers
Before we go any further, let’s do a quick summary of our transfer dealings. We sold what we could to generate some cash and then set our focus firmly on strengthening our defensive situation. It didn’t really go according to plan as no one decent wanted to play for us. Instead, I began a youth revolution by bringing in a 17-year-old Costa Rican to be our goalkeeper and two scrawny Argentinian defenders (aged 18 and 21) to help him out. One of them (Alario) is actually an old reject of mine as he wasn’t good enough for my Valencia side. We also found an exciting attacking prospect in 16-year-old Cabrera – another Argentinian in the seemingly endless supply of talented youngsters from that nation. Guedioura is, as mentioned, an unspectacular 21-year-old Algerian brought in by the previous management that will primarily act as backup to Dolberg in the striker position.

 

We also secured three loanees to provide some coverage for the many deportees, none that were anything special though.

Final stretch
Let’s bring it home, shall we. We continued collecting points at a pace never seen before by this side in the Serie A. With 8 games to go, we had cut the gap in half, now trailing Milan by 10 points (or 10,5 as they held the tiebreaker advantage on us), the rossoneri was wilting. Would we be able to make it?

 
Three points from your last five, Milan, you're just going to hand us the trophy?

Five games later, we had the answer to our question...

Unfortunately, it wasn’t the answer I wanted. Milan had picked themselves up and secured four wins and one draw and with us dropping points courtesy of a frustrating away loss to Sassuolo, our competitors secured the League win with three games to go.

The final rounds were just a matter of formality. Still, a 2^nd place finish with this side must be considered a major win as we were punching way above our weight. It also means a place in next year’s Champions League although we’re likely another season or two away from competing for European glory. Next year, all our efforts will go into trying to grab the Italian crown.

Star of the season
Hard to go with anyone else than Dane Kasper Dolberg. Despite battling injuries throughout stretches of the season, he managed 31 goals and 4 assists from 27 games. He was also awarded the title of “European Player of the Year”, an award that seemingly by default is awarded to a player in a Vincere-managed team. The season also saw Scarpa and Guedioura contribute with 10+ goals while assists were spread evenly among the squad.

 

Want to win European PotY - join us! 7/9 winners, and that's with the glaring omission of Gelson Martins' 48 goal campaign in 2020 (I'm ok with Messi's win in 2019). 

Other things of note
The boys at Sevilla made me proud by winning the Champions League final, their second on the trot, beating Roma in the final courtesy of an overtime goal from Kean. France won the World Cup, beating Argentina 2-1 in the final while Spain bested Brazil to secure the bronze medal. 

Back-to-back, baby. Almost feels like a bigger achievement having the CPU win with the squad you've assembled. 

Challenge status:

• France: Done
• Spain:  Done
• Italy: 
  • Serie A: 0 out of 3
  • Coppa Italia: 0 out of 1
  • Champions League: 0 out of 2
  • FIFA World Club Cup: 0 out of 2

Season 9 didn’t bring any progress to our challenge goals but with some luck, we’ll be back to our winning ways in Season 10. The aim is to have the challenge sewn up by Season 15, granted we have some luck on our next job search. 

The upcoming off-season will surely be an interesting one. The 5-2-3 tactics is still yielding excellent results, but we also had a lot of things going our way with several come-from-behind victories and late goals. Despite our recent success, we also have star defender Sikora and prominent midfielder Colombatto crying for a ‘big club’ transfers (apparently they haven't reviewed my manager history). The plan is to throw whatever cash I’m allowed Sikora’s way, while cashing in on 29-year-old Colombatto who’s just an average talent anyway. 

Thanks for reading! I’ll be back with the off-season in a while. We also had a job opportunity thrown our way from Napoli which tickled my interest. However, I’m way too invested in this Palermo side to throw them away without a proper trophy.

[BatiGoal]

A great run with The Pinks but no trophies to show for in the end. Still you've definitely made very good progress and built a solid foundation for the coming season. Was always going to be tough to beat 93 pts in Serie A. 

I like Dolberg a lot but he's proving so incredibly injury prone in multiple saves. Shame really as I'd like to use him at some point but am probably picking someone else over him. 

[1899]

Season 10: 2026/2027 U.S. Città di Palermo – Part 1

Transfers and Squad
 
The youth revolution in full effect, with several kids aged 16-22 coming in to replace older players. Net spend just about breaks even.  

Goalkeeper: We’ll continue rolling with the Costa Rican kid, Duarte, in goal. He’ll turn 18 this year and is progressing nicely so should only get better as the season goes on. He’ll be our Donnarumma.

Defense: A bit hit-and-miss as we were unable to find any players already in their peak. Thankfully, we were able to convince Sikora to sign a new 5-year deal that will hopefully keep him happy. So again, we’ll rely on youthful enthusiasm to get us through. Contrary to last year, we at least have some depth.

Wingbacks: The wings will be manned by new signing Vandamme, a now 22-year-old former Rennes prospect that I promoted just before leaving France, and 32-year-old Dell’Orco on the left. Behind them, we have two other 30-somethings and that’s it but at least we have versatility on our side as everyone but Dell-Orco is comfortable playing on either wing.

Central midfield: We're rather weak on top-talent but has a lot of contributors so hopefully we can find strength in numbers. We’re putting a lot of faith in a bunch of teens and early-twenties to do the battle for us, which works better in FM than in real life, but still comes with the occasional mishap.

Attack: Attacking midfield and strikers are where it happens. Dolberg did the business last year, but recurring injury issues makes it hard to trust him. A handful of new signings and academy prospects ensures that we also have much better coverage this year, as they will be rotating with Dolberg and our oldies Coronado and Scarpa to keep them in decent condition.

Five-star academy player Alan Maran looks like a real talent. Shame about the name though as it sounds more Spanish than Italian. Imagine if he was something like Alessandro Maragni instead  Anyway, I’m sure we’ll have a reason to come back to this lad in the future.

[1899]

Season 10: 2026/2027 U.S. Città di Palermo – Part 2

Serie A
We went full throttle from the start and racked up points aplenty. With AC Milan, nor anyone else for that matter, unable to replicate last season’s performance the league was never in question. We had our first loss coming in the 29^th round away to Napoli and in the end, were just two points off the century mark. So, 2027 becomes the year when Palermo win its first ever Serie A trophy. An amazing turnaround for this squad and hopefully the first of many trophies to come. 

Along the way, we spent some time familiarizing ourselves with both Milan clubs.

Really, Inter? First you get obliterated by a 16-year-old and then you can’t even fight back with 11 vs 10 (11 vs 9 in the final five minutes).  

 
I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many positives from one game – two full pages. For the sake of transparency, Milan got a red card about 30 minutes in. 

Coppa Italia
We didn’t put much effort into the cup this year and played our reserves throughout. Our adventure came to a halt in the Quarter final, going out on an extra-time goal away to Lazio. We save this one for another year. 

Champions League
This season was the rosaneri’s debut in the Champions League. The first draw was kind to us, as we ended up in a group with two beatable opponents in Celtic and Monaco, while reigning champions Sevilla was obvious favorite for the Group win. In exemplary catenaccio fashion, we drew all three away games and then won at home against Celtic and Monaco, while earning a forth draw against Sevilla to secure a 2^nd place finish.

Another kind draw saw us up against Benfica in the first knockout round. That round was THIS CLOSE to becoming our final. A bit of a screw-up on my part I must confess, as I misjudged the opposition thinking we could get away with playing a weakened side. That resulted in a 2-2 draw at home and then an excruciatingly frustrating away game where we conceded an early lead to go 2-1 down after just 10 minutes played.

We spent the next 78 minutes occupying our opponent’s half, bombarding the Benfica goalkeeper with shots but to no avail. A desperate charge in the final 10 saw us go with a sexy four striker-formation that would have impressed even Zdenek Zeman. Finally, in the 88^th minute, substitute striker Ribeiro slotted home the equalizer to send the game into extra-time. By then, as we were out of substitutions, backing down was not an option so I decided that we were going to live or die with the offense. But once again, the clock kept ticking all the way down to just two minutes remaining before we could put the final dagger in the fat singer’s package (or whatever the saying is).

Vandamme, you absolute beauty of a dot!

It’s games like these which makes you really love this game. From the delight of a 3^rd minute go-ahead goal, to disgust from letting to past you in the next seven, to maddening frustration, the ecstasy of a last-minute equalizer, uncertainty of how you’re going to tackle overtime and then finally the ecstasy of having your wingback say screw you to both penalties and his defensive duties as he takes off, advances past two opponents and sends a screamer into the net. Just wow!

The rest of the playoffs was kind of a blur. We drew PSG in the Quarter Final, with the first leg being played in Paris - and what a game it was. 

The return leg didn't offer much drama so into the semis we went to play another familiar foe in Barcelona. By this time of the season, we were seemingly playing in trance. A 3-1 win at home and the below 4-0 thrashing at Nou Camp meant that we had suddenly advanced to the Champions League Final. 

 
Lots of sad sheikhs in the Middle East these days.  Lots of goals disallowed as well. 

Champions League Final
Remember that time when you had just turned 17 and scored two goals to win your club's first ever European trophy? Nah, me neither but maybe Alan Maran can tell us how it feels. An amazing turn of events after that near-loss against Benfica. 

Again with a goal disallowed. Even the referees loves an underdog. 

Star of the Season
An early injury layoff for Dolberg opened the door for youngster Maran, and he responded by kicking it wide open in similar fashion to that of fellow Sicilian Toto Schillachi when he burst onto the stage in Italia 90. He scored a hattrick in his Champions league debut (a 4-1 drubbing of Celtic) and went on to score a total 38 goals and 13 assists from 38 games. He’s still raw as a prospect and his conversion rate needs to improve but if he continues developing, there’s no limits to what this guy can accomplish.

 

To his credit, Dolberg handled his new role like a true professional. Despite rotating with the young lad and being “demoted” to winger duty, he chipped in with 17 goals and nine assists. I also want to highlight the contributions from our three rotating wingbacks Dell'Orco, Matiello and Vandamme, as well as January signing Gnabry's 20 points in 19 games after he was picked up for peanuts due to an expiring contract.

Other things of note
Nothing much this year. A moment of pride in Spain as Sevilla won the League ahead of Valencia and a surprise win by OGC Nice in France, with Rennes again the runner ups (their fifth in seven year's since I left them). 

Challenge status:

• France: Done
• Spain:  Done
• Italy: 
  • Serie A: 1 out of 3
  • Coppa Italia: 0 out of 1
  • Champions League: 1 out of 2
  • FIFA World Club Cup: 0 out of 2

Two steps closer to the finish line, and we set us up for competing for the World crown. That also settles my plans for the next year in that I'll be staying with Palermo for at least another season. What happens after that will depend on what job opportunities becomes available, we want to make sure that the final destination of this trip is at least as nice as the first four. 

Edited January 25, 2018 by 1899

[1899]

Season 11: 2027/2028 U.S. Città di Palermo

Year 2028 and we’re heading into our third season with the pink and black outfit. This year, we’ll have our first shot at winning the Club Worlds – ironically the easiest trophy to win but the hardest to qualify for, so we’ll play our best side to ensure we don’t squander this opportunity. A second Serie A trophy should also be on the cards and I’ll do my best to push for a win in the Coppa Italia as well. These one-and- done playoffs are always a bit tricky though as you never know when FMM decide to have its way with you.

Transfers:
The Board has finally offered up some cash for me to spend – a cool €80M to be exact. Our primary focus is to find some fresh blood for the wingback and CM positions. That fresh blood came in the form of two familiar faces from earlier stages of this career. From Valencia, Brazilian 24-year- old Oliveira Silva in a €30M deal that also included a player (average young mid). That move made space for our second big money transfer, bringing in Rennes’ versatile midfielder, 23-year- old Killian Lucas to become our starter in the DLP position.

We raised some cash from selling a trio of youngsters that wasn’t developing as I wanted and spent it on a promising Belgian winger my scouts had found. Already 19 years old, we expect him to contribute right away and will make him part of the AM rotation.

All in all, no major overhaul as it wasn’t needed, but some fresh talent brought in to replace aging players and lesser talents leaving.

Serie A:
Never in doubt as we were literally #1 from the first round to the last. A couple of points dropped and still not the defensive solidity of my Valencia side, but well enough to secure Serie A title number two with seven(!) games to spare.

Coppa Italia
For the first time in three years, we made the Coppa Italia a priority. The road was pretty straightforward, beating Fiorentina and Atalanta in the first rounds and then a 7-2 drubbing of Inter in the semifinal. With that, our place in the final was secured, going up against fellow mafioso stronghold Napoli.

Crazy game that one, with us falling behind twice before taking the lead, just to squander it in the 90th minute so that Ribeiro could become our stoppage-time hero.

Champions League
Everything was smooth sailing for us up until the Quarter Finals, which saw the level of competition increase as we were going head to head with an inspired FC Bayern side, which had just sent my old buddies at Sevilla packing in the first knockout round. A 3-0 win away in the first leg set the tone and we advanced comfortably, just to face another old friend of mine, Rennes in the semi-final. Two goal-fests gave a final tally of 9-4 in our favor. The final saw us come face-to- face with English outfits Liverpool.

Caballero tried to make it interesting with an early red but despite the send-off , the final was never in doubt as we were still 10 men against 11 boys.

Club World cup:
We wanted a win, and we won it in style after an explosive first half with six goals within 25 minutes.

Other things of note:
We won the European Super Cup, beating Juventus 2-1, but lost to Napoli in the Italian Super Cup after having one of those games.

Maran continues to do the business as our #1 striker and is coming along nicely. We also have this guy – Sebas Ocaña – manning the inside forward position who’s developed into a world-beater. He’s also by far the squad’s highest valued player with a €177M price tag, some ways off his original purchase price of €2.3M.

 

Challenge status:

• France: Done
• Spain:  Done
• Italy: 
  • Serie A: 2 out of 3
  • Coppa Italia: Done (1/1)
  • Champions League: Done (2/2)
  • FIFA World Club Cup: 1 out of 2

Another season down and some further progress towards our end-goal with four of the remaining six trophies secured. Now we’re down to just the final two, and in order to push through, I will continue another season with Palermo to try and grab another Club Worlds title, before switching clubs to grab that final Serie A title to make our journey complete.

 

The update has been a long way coming, but I finally got around to play through it and will try to work through the remaining seasons at a quicker pace. Sorry for the delay and thanks to everyone who's still following!

Edited March 2, 2018 by 1899

[1899]

At the start of season 12, this happens  Glad to see the Board take notice and reward my commitment as we head into season four in charge of the rosaneri - my longest stay with one club so far. 

[1899]

Season 12: 2028/2029 U.S. Città di Palermo - Part 1

Our forth year with the same team – a new record for this save – means that the squad is pretty much set up as I want it and we don’t have to spend a lot of time on the off-season. We only did a couple of transfers, replacing some depth players with talented prospects. I realize now that I forgot to take a picture but you're not missing out on much. We were also asked to put a name on Palermo's new arena, and of course I had to honor Herrera and this challenge. 

We started off with the two Super Cups, and games against Tottenham and Napoli. The result, back-to-back 2-1 wins and another couple of trophies in the bag. 

 

But this year is all about the Club Worlds, so let’s start with that and see how we went on. It’s a really short tournament, and the first game is usually a bit of a joke, which held true this time as we won four goals to nil. The final saw us up against Japanese competition in the form of Osaka AC, and well, the final wasn't any more exiting but getting a hatter is always nice. 

Yes! A second worlds title, and our seventh Italian trophy secured.

Unexpected developments
What happened next was this, on December 20, just three days after the cup final:

A mid-season resignation which I must confess is somewhat of a jerk-move on my part but I think I’ve given Palermo enough for them to forgive me. I also leave them in a good situation for a repeat, second place trailing Juve by four points with three games on hand so we're basically giving up on some very likely silverware this season.

Torino on the other hand didn't make the picture, being 13th on 21 points. But my reasoning for the move is pretty simple. I set out to win at least one league title with each of the teams I managed and as a third Serie A title is the only missing piece to this challenge, I might as well give myself a head-start on re-shaping this Torino side to contend for the title in Season 13.

But first we have to go through what remains of this season. Another 20 point gap to try and make up I guess... Stay tuned for a short introduction of our new surroundinga. 

[Kingsolop]

I'm tuned in alright

KIU mate, KIU. 

[1899]

 

Torino FC. For most, probably thought of as that Other club from Turin, overshadowed by dirty town rivals Juventus. That wasn't always the case though and Torino is actually a very important piece of Italian football lore. Between 1943 and 1949, Italian football was dominated by the "Grande Torino", who won five straight* scudetti and the squad were also integral to Italy's national team.

Fittingly to this challenge, Torino's domination was also aided by the tactical scheme commonly referred to as Sistema (The System) or WM, which was revolutionary as it introduced the three man defence and used four central "midfielders" to form a square in the middle of the pitch which helped the side dominate possession. 

  

The Bulls from Turin were truly at the top of the World and then, tragedy stuck as the plane carrying the team, staff and players alike, lost track of its surrounding due to heavy fog and crashed in the hillside just outside Turin. The impact caused the instantaneous death of all the 31 people on board, including players, coaching staff, journalists and crew. A horrible tragedy for both the club, city and the country, it also meant an abrupt end to Torino's footballing domination as the club has not been close to reach those same lofty heights since. They did however grab an emotional seventh scudetto in 1977. 
 

* Torino won season 1943 and then a four-peat between 1946-1949. The gap, of course, was due to WW2. Spezia was later crowned "honorary champions" of the 1944 season but doesn't really count. The 1945 season was cancelled. 

Back to the FMM world 
For the last five years, Torino has been hovering just below the league's best, finishing 3rd in 2023/24 and then 11th, 4th, 6th and 7th in recent years. The current squad is decent, but as with a lot of teams this far into the game, the core players are getting a bit long in the tooth. Value-vise, it looks like this, with Argentine winger Canteros fetching a team-high €57M, followed by centerback Carrasco's €52M. Canteros looks a really nice player, were it not for his 4 points in stamina which makes him pretty much useless for our high-pressing game. Carrasco has good technical and mental attributes but shit physicals, so I don't really fancy him either. The goal is to offload them both for cash in January. 

In the squad are also three players that I've disposed of previously in this career, Palermo cast-offs Guedioura and Villanueva, as well as Sevilla reject David Ivan. They'll get a new chance here in lesser competition. 

This is what my Assistant, who's none other than Italy's favorite baldie, Attilio "Popeye" Lombardo, has to say about the team. The TL;DR version is that we need a new keeper, wingback and difference makers to replace Carrasco and Canteros. Depth-wise, were OK but will be relying on a lot of 30-somethings while we bring up some younger prospects to replace them. Let's see what we can do in January. 

 

First game in charge
True to form, we start off with a win. Although the fact that it was this close despite us playing 11 vs 10 for an entire half doesn't exactly fill me with confidence.

Oh well, I'll try to get through the season tomorrow and give you a short update before moving on to season 13.

[BatiGoal]

I love Torino ever since I did a career with them. It was one of my first careers here on Vibe building the team from scratch after that terrible Superga disaster. Maybe it sounds odd to some of you but that particular career regarding a real life shocking event really taught me that FMM can sometimes be a little more than just a game. I was invested in the challenge, I took time to read up an Torino's entire history involving that disaster, I read up on the players that lost their lives, how they played and what each player excelled at, on the tactics this Grande Torino side played to capture people's hearts. It was such a terrible thing to happen to any football club, which is why I was so dedicated and enjoying every second I spent on it. That's another side of FMM I suppose, the experience is as rich as you make it to be.

Do Torino proud

[1899]

@Kingsolop: Thanks buddy!

@BatiGoal: I'm similar as well, although I haven't gone to the same lengths as you It really helps with the immersion and one of the fun parts of this challenge for me has been reading up on Herrera and try to mirror his tactics and mentality. It's been a blast! 

Proper update coming in a matter of seconds. It's a good one!

Edited February 17, 2018 by 1899

[1899]

Season 12:  2028/2029 Torino FC – Part 2

Forget about what I said about just breezing through the remainder of the season. This became an absolute nail biter and with just two games to play, the league looked like this after an amazing turnaround by this new squad. The run-in was anything but easy though, as we would have to face Napoli at their place before hosting Roma in the last game of the season.

  

But before we head into these fixtures, let's do a brief recap of how this situation came to be. After all, in the last update we were 13th and 20 points off first place. 
 

Transfers
Our key goals for the transfer window was finding a new keeper, a versatile wingback capable of playing both sides and an attacking focal point to replace the departing Canteros, who was offloaded to Real Madrid for the tidy sum of €85M. Well chuffed with that, even though the greedy Board member kept a large chunk of it.

  
Villanueva and Vitiello were both purchased by previous management. Rodrygo da Silva was the big money purchase. 

• Titas Krapikas: We get our keeper in 30-year-old Lithuanian Krapikas, arriving from Chievo for a tidy €6M. Unspectacular but solid which is just what we need. 

• Frenchman Boubacar Kamara joins us from Guingamp for €14M. Aged 29, he looks ready to become a centerpiece in this Wall of Meat version… 5.0 as he possesses all the necessary defensive qualities as well as a decent set of feet.

• Emerson Santos (not in the picture): There weren’t exactly an abundance of wingbacks that fitted our job profile and even fewer that were willing to join us but we finally found our man in Brazilian 19-year-old Emerson Santos, available for just €4M
   
• Finally, the belle of the ball, another Brazilian in 24-year-old Rodrygo da Silva. Joining us from BMG on a €55M price tag. He’ll man the inside striker position and should create havoc with his fields of green. He comes with a sidekick as well, 16-year-old Levir Rodrigues Moura da Silva (that name…) who's basically a younger and slightly lesser version of Rodrygo but give him a couple of years and he might even supersede him.

 

Serie A
Back to the league again. We kicked off with two straight wins, experienced a brief hiccup in a 2-0 loss at Roma, and then went on to win 10 straight, some of which were quite impressive. Palermo on the other hand, suffered quite a bit without their former coach, at least initially. 

    

  

After 30 games, we had manage to shrink Juventus advantage to 7 points. Between us were also Palermo, Inter and Milan, with Roma trailing us by three.

With another three rounds played, it was Palermo on top, and we only had a 3-point-gap to first.   

With 36 out of the 38 rounds played, as seen at the beginning of this post, Torino topped the charts on 75 points, two up on Juventus, Palermo and Inter in what had the makings of the title fight of the century. But by now, we had faith in our own hands. Win out and we're champions. Just two games left. 

Gameweek 37: Away to Napoli. 

This fucking game. We squander a two goal lead, manages to come back on top just to crap the bed and let another one past us in the 85th. 

As our competitors won, the following situation emerged, which as far as I can remember is the craziest I've ever experienced with FM. A four-way tie to decide the title.

In the Serie A, the first tiebreaker are head-to head results. In a four-way-battle we held the advantage on the other three, and in all situations we would be ahead of Juventus and Inter. However, Palermo had us beat on goal difference in the head-to-head, and would also win a three-way-tie that included Juventus but not Inter. 

So the first thing we needed was a win at home to Roma, and then hope that the other results didn't screw us. The deciding match-ups were: 

• Torino vs. Roma
• Juventus vs. Milan
• Lazio vs. Inter
• Sassuolo vs. Palermo

Gameweek 38: Home against Roma. 
The referee blew the whistle and the game started off in a frantic tempo. With just 8 minutes played, the referee decided to take center stage by awarding Roma a penalty. Lucky for us, Krapikas had his big-boy pants on and saved it. Half an hour into the game, we weren't so lucky as 1kc specialist Alexander Isak headed home a corner; 0-1. 

We weren't playing badly though so I decided to stick to my guns and just minutes before halftime Rodrygo da Silva slotted home the equaliser; 1-1. At halftime, I reviewed the other scores, just to see that neither of the four teams had managed to grab a lead. Inter being down to Lazio did however change the preliminary standings as Palermo moved ahead of us. 

  

Okay, all to play for still. First order was to overcome the giallorossi. A brace from Rodrygo da Silva in the second half made sure of that, putting us up 3-1, which stood until the final whistle. Now all we could do was for the final scores from the other games. 

  

Absolute HEART. BREAK. Unfortunately, it wasn't meant to be. With both Juventus and Inter dropping points, all our hope was left in the hands of Sassuolo who couldn't withstand the bombardment from our Sicilian friends conceding twice and then scoring a late consolation goal. 

To be frank, my emotions for the loss was a bit mixed. First, I never expected us to be in this situation so it felt like we were playing with house money anyway and it would feel a bit too sudden to have the challenge end so abruptly after just 6 months in Torino. Lastly, I couldn't have lost the league to a better team and I am glad that Palermo was able to come back after that horrific run at the turn of the year. 

Other things of note
Nothing much. Sevilla won the Spanish League and I forgot to take a proper picture of the Serie A table. Rodrygo da Silva turned out to be a true gem for us, scoring 18 goals and 10 assists in the 20 games he took part in. 

Challenge status:

• France: Done
• Spain:  Done
• Italy: 
  • Serie A: 2 out of 3
  • Coppa Italia: Done (1/1)
  • Champions League: Done (2/2)
  • FIFA World Club Cup: Done (2/2)

For next year, which should be my final of this challenge (even though I'll probably continue the save outside of this thread), I've decided to try and take a more nationalistic approach to team building by prioritizing Italian players in my pursuit of creating a 2.0 version of Grande Torino.  

Edited February 22, 2018 by 1899

[Nucleus]

Just caught up on this. A fantastic career so far mate, well done 

[BatiGoal]

Holy smokes, exciting end to the season, shame it wasn't to be but loved the edge of the seat stuff 

[1899]

@NucleusNT, @BatiGoal: Thanks gents! Crazy ending to that season for sure and halfway through Season 13 looks like it could be more evenly contested than I first thought as well. Palermo with a blinder of a season so far. 

[Titjes]

What a thriller season mate  To bad you didn't finish first, next season will be your season  

[1899]

Season 13: 2029/2030 Torino FC

We have reached our likely final season, as the league is usually the easiest trophy of the season. A key advantage for me throughout this challenge is the 5-2-3 tactic being so successful against the bigger teams, often giving us a 6-point advantage in the head-to-head against our main competitors.  

Looking back on our performance, several of our biggest wins have been against supposedly superior competition while we've sometimes struggled against lesser teams sitting deep and/or playing direct, especially with the defensive 4-5-1 or straight 4-3-3 formations. I think a key factor in this is the aggressive mentality, with intense pressing and a high defensive line. If the opposition pushes too many players forward and/or tries to play fancy, chances are high that we’ll intercept and hit them on the counter.

However, if they play direct, they are more likely to occasionally catch our wingbacks and midfielders out of position, and create 3 vs. 3 situations against a deserted back three. I haven’t found a way to properly counter this, without micro-managing the team game by game which is not something I’m interested in doing. Most of the time, the defensive three are able to fend for themselves either way.

Transfers
I wanted to bring more Italian players into the squad, and who better than to bring along an old acquaintance? Wonderkid striker Alan Maran wasn’t getting the playing time he deserved after my departure last year and I couldn’t stand to see all that potential wasted. €50M and a player exchange later, we reunite with our old protege.

  

We also picked up Palermo's talented backup keeper Alessandro Licastro to be our starter, which cost us €75M plus Krapikas. This is actually our third stint together, and the Italian has come a long way since I first picked him up with Sevilla for just €675k and then again with Palermo for €18M as backup for Costa Rican Duarte. 

A beautiful profile that, perfect for the sweeper keeper role. 

Those were by far the biggest transfers of the off season, but we also added a talented winger (Stefano Scavone – watch that kid), a central midfielder as well as promoting two nice-looking prospects from our youth ranks which all held Italian passports, With those moves, I have now quadrupled my “Domestic player bias” to a whopping 4. Easy does it...

Serie A
We start with the most important competition to find out if we were able to avenge last year’s downfall and bring home that eight scudetto to Torino. 

We soon realized that it wouldn't come easy. Despite winning 16 of our first 18 fixtures, we were just four points ahead of Palermo at the turn of the year. The Sicilians continued their impressive title charge and kept their form throughout the season, ending up with 95 points on the year. Alas (for them), it wasn’t enough as we did even better, collecting 104 points and was able to secure the title with two games to spare.

That’s the final piece to our puzzle and the Helenio Herrera challenge in the bag. But we still have a Coppa Italia and European adventure to account for as well.

Champions League and Coppa Italia
This time, I’ll be brief. Thanks to some good luck with the draws, we coasted through both cups, beating inferior competitors Chievo (Agg. 6-1) and Liverpool (Agg. 7-2) in the respective semis to make it into the finals.

   

A hatter and a brace from Maran in the respective final, both of which were basically won by half time.

Player stats
Rodrygo da Silva continues to do the business with an excellent 55 points season. Maran adds another twenty to make it 75 points. Youngsters Pereyra, Giacomelli and Scavone with impressive debut seasons as well. 

 

Challenge status:

• France: Done
• Spain:  Done
• Italy: Done
  • Serie A: Done (3/3)
  • Coppa Italia: Done (1/1)
  • Champions League: Done (2/2)
  • FIFA World Club Cup: Done (2/2)

That's it folks, we've made it! We struggled a bit initially as we had some trouble making it out of France but ever since, we've been knocking down the trophies like nobody's business. 

I'll be back with a proper re-cap shortly to summarize this adventure. 

[1899]

Challenge re-cap

With a trophy cabinet filled with all the required titles and while I decide what I’m going to do next, I wanted to give you a re-cap on what’s been going on during these initial 13 years. Setting out as your average nobody, with neither badges or reputation to talk about, our hero – the self-proclaimed magician – has managed to scrape together 44 titles over the years across five different teams.

  

Not a bad haul that. If you look closely, you’ll see a Copa America win in there as well which was secured during a short stint with Argentina. I only managed them for about six months though and as it didn’t fit the story I resigned and forgot to mention it.

Here’s a year-by-year re-cap as well, with graphics courtesy of MS Excel. Dark grey means that we didn't participate in the competition under my management, and as you see, some seasons were split between multiple teams.  

It’s been quite a ride I must say, and it is also my longest-running career with any FM. It’s been interesting travelling across five different teams as they’ve all presented different challenges.

Another interesting, but also sometimes limiting, aspect has been the tactics and being forced to play with three at the back. The only time I allowed myself to deviate from the rule was when goal-hunting in game, where we often replaced one of the defenders with a striker, and moved some other pieces around as well depending on opposition weaknesses.
 

Manager profile:

Moving teams and looking for quick turnarounds meant that the domestic player bias trait took a hit and it’s been a solid 1 for most of the challenge, before slowly creeping upwards now with Torino. Besides that we have greens across the board, with fancy 20s in everything except for Discipline.

Spending-wise, we very close to break-even, which I’m also quite satisfied with. I’m less impressed by the FMM ranking system as I was never able to move above 4^th place in the manager rankings and now, fresh off our latest treble season, we are somehow down to 7^th.  

Team Season Records:
- Highest point total: 112 points (37 wins, 1 draw), Valencia 21/22
- Most goals scored: 114 goals, Valencia 22/23
- Least goals conceded: 10 goals, Valencia 21/22 and 22/23

Individual player records and Manager's Best XI:

This is what we got according to FM. A pretty good selection actually. Glad to see players from each team represented as well. Too bad we couldn’t get our three-man defense in there but what to do.

I also created my own preferred XI, which excludes regens. Basically, players I recommend anyone to try out. I tried to be strict in putting players at their correct positions, with Berardi the only exception although he did spend some time at wingback for me in my final season. It’s a bit heavy on Valencia and light on the Italian teams but that’s only natural as we became more dependent on regens as years went by. 

Player Records:

• Goals (season): 1^st: M. Kean, 59 (from 48 games); 2^nd: A. Maran, 57; 3^rd: G. Martins, 48
• Assists (season): 1^st: R. da Silva, 31 (from 42 games); 2^nd: D. Berardi, 23; 3^rd: A.H.O. Silva, 22
• Total goals scored: 1^st: A. Maran, 155 in 3.5 seasons; 2^nd: P. Cutrone, 84 in 2 seasons, 3^rd: M. Kean, 83 in 1.5 seasons

INTERNATIONAL HONORS
Nothing too crazy on the International scene, although Ivory Coast’s silver in the 2022 World Cup was certainly a bit surprising. Going back to the 2014 World Cup, Argentina made it to the final in three out of four tournaments, without being able to grab that elusive third title. By winning the 2030 World Cup, Italy kept their 24-year-cycle alive having now won 1982, 2006 and 2030.

World Cup winners (and runner-up):

• 2018: Spain (Argentina)
• 2022: Spain (Ivory Coast)
• 2026: France (Argentina)
• 2030: Italy (Portugal)

European Cup winners (and runner-up):

• 2020: Germany (Spain
• 2024: Holland (Germany)
• 2028: Germany (Portugal)

Current World rankings:

Interesting to see Egypt and Algeria in the Top-5 while South Korea and Tunisia are 9^th and 10^th. At the other end, Spain is 13^th, England 27^th, Belgium 29^th and Ireland 101^st.

CLUB HONORS
Nothing too controversial here either. The Champions League trophy has been passed around quite a bit, the only trend being that any team managed by a certain Italian appears to have an advantage.

Glad to see that Sevilla has been able to keep up their performance in Spain and win another three titles since my departure. Rennes on the other hand has been the runner-up six times without winning. PSG expectedly the dominant force in France with eight titles, Chelsea with an even firmer grasp of the Premier Leauge, winning nine(!) titles on the trot.

Champions League winners:

• 2 titles: R. Madrid (17/18, 20/21), Valencia (21/22, 22/23), Sevilla (24/25, 25/26), Palermo (26/27, 27/28)
• 1 title: PSG (18/19), Rennes (19/20), Chelsea (23/24), B. Munich (28/29), Torino (29/30)

National titles:

• Ligue 1: PSG (8 titles), Rennes (3), Marseille, Nice
• La Liga: Sevilla (5), Barcelona (4), Valencia (2), R. Madrid (2)
• Serie A: Juventus (3), Milan (3), Palermo (3), Inter, Roma, Napoli, Torino
• Premier League: Chelsea (9), Man Utd (2), Arsenal, Liverpool

 

 

Finally, a big THANK YOU to all of you who have read, followed and commented! I will probably keep the save rolling and create an all-Italian Grande Torino and see if I can get Maran to 1k goals but the official challenge ends here. If there's anything else you like to know or see, just give me a shout. 

Edited February 22, 2018 by 1899