Ciao, welcome back! 

Last season could have ended up in heartbreak if we didn’t qualify for the Champions League. Luckily, the FM gods were on our side this time and we’re through for another season of European football. 

Summer Transfer Window

Transfers Out

We sold a total of 13 players for a total of £68m, breaking the club record that from last season. The most notable transfers were, Ben Brereton Díaz to Hertha (£32m), Finn Becker to RB Leipzig (£24m) and Luca Ghiringhelli to Benevento (£1.1m). We also loaned out a few youngsters and unwanted players.

Transfers In

We brought in 6 players for a total of £23m. Two players for the first team and four for the U20s. We somewhat continued with our original recruitment policy, four out of the six players are Chilean, one German (from St. Pauli), one Korean (not St. Pauli).

First Team

Joan Cruz was main target to replace Finn Becker as our CM(A), he joined from Colo Colo (£700k). It wasn’t until I tried to register him that I realized that I fucked up again and forgot that I can only sign one foreign player per season so I wouldn’t be able to register him, that worst part is that he won’t join another club on loan 🙄. I now had to look for a replacement. That replacement is Woo-yeong Jeong, who joins from Freiburg (£14.75m). He comes in on a three year deal with a £30m release clause.

Under-20s

Sebastian Rubio – Colo Colo (£100k), Pablo Peralta – Universidad Católica (£350k) joined the club straight from Chile and will spend two years in Madrid with Rayo Vallecano. Lukas Berhmann has been one of my main target for the last two years, he comes in from St. Pauli (£5.5m), my scouts love him, he will spend the season on loan. Carlos Cortés – Malmö FF (£1.5m) is half Chilean and will spend stay at the club.

Player Promoted and Pathway

Promoted

Here are the eight players that have been promoted to the first team. Some of these players came from the intakes and the rest came in within the first two seasons at the club. 

Defenders: Dani Degli Esposti (18), Guiseppe Paderno (18), Gerald Brandt (18), Lorenzo Carrara (18)

Midfielders: Ljubiša Dragićević (18), Samunel Utaka (18), David Peréz (20)

Forwards: Matteo De Rossi (17)

Pathway

I was beginning to get frustrated with my transfer dealings early on the save as I wasn’t able to give the youth team players as much game time as I wanted. We currently have 8 of youth players in the first team. There are 15 players in the U20s and another 5-7 in the U18s that have great potential of making into the first team. So I needed to be more realistic about the chances of them one day playing for the first team. 

I decided that I was not going to get in the way of any youth player if they really wanted a move away and I was not going to block any transfer for any first team player regardless of which player it was, as long as the offer was within their value range. Youth team players who are not ready for first team football will continue to develop at our superb facilities with the best youth coaches in the country. The ones who are knocking for some first team minutes but can’t make into the team will be loaned out for further development. I will then reassess next offseason to see where they fit into the team.

First Team

At the end of last season, I decided that I would be making room in the first team in order to promote several youth players. Our average age went down from 25 to 22, the goal is to maintain that number in the next couple of seasons. The first team will include 24 players for the season, as usual some youth team players might make appearances depending on injuries and fatigue.

Serie A

We fucking did it, we won the league!

I mean, what can I say? Where do I start? 

We began the league with a thirteen-match unbeaten run. September was an especially hard but successful month with four matches against top-8 clubs, Lazio (2-1), Inter (2-1), Atalanta (0-0), and Juventus (3-1). Milan handed us our first loss (1-3) on match-day 14. We bounced back a ten-match unbeaten run between mid-December to mid-February. We had some fun matches in that winning run – Cagliari (6-2), Bologna (4-0), Fiorentina (4-1), and probably my favorite match of the season, against Lazio (3-3).

The second loss of the season was at the hands of Juventus (1-2). Four wins on the bounce followed, including a win against Napoli (3-0). Benevento handed us our third loss (1-2) of the season, they’ve been a pain in the ass. Two matches later we lost our fourth and final match against Roma (1-3). After that there was no looking back, we finished the season with a six-match winning run and we were able to get revenge against Milan (4-0). 

As you can see, we scored the most goals and had the third-best defense in the league. Lorenzo Lucca and Alfredo Donnarumma dominated their opponents combining for 45 goals and 10 assists. We scored 3+ goals in 19 matches (eleven 3-goal-matches, seven 4-goal-matches, one 5-goal-match, and one 6-goal-match). We kept sixteen clean sheets throughout the season, which was rewarded by having the back five (GK and defenders) all named in the team-of-the-year.

This season was truly a group effort. We played a total of 31 players through the season due to injuries and fatigue. We had the third-lowest wage in the league at £19.4 p/a, as well as the second-lowest transfer expenditure with a net of +£37.42m. We also had the youngest team in the league at 22 y/o, with youngsters Ljubiša Dragićević and Lorenzo Carrara having their breakout season and won over their respective starting spots, renewing their contracts is a priority.

Here are the results from August through December and January through May.

Coppa Italia & Champions League

For the second year in a row, we were knocked out of the Coppa Italia in the Quarterfinals. Last season it was Atalanta, this time it was Milan’s turn. Unlike last season, I actually tried to field the strongest eleven. We were up 2-0 after goals from Jeong & Nesta. Then in the 68th minute after Brahim Diaz found the back of the net to give Milan momentum to find the equalizer through Ismaël Bennacer tying the match in the 90+2 to take it to extra time. It was a close match but in the 117th minute, Alvaro Morata slotted a header past Titas Krapikas. We go again next season.

In the Champions League, we were drawn against Borussia Dortmund, Celtic, and Real Madrid. I was confident that we could beat Celtic to push for the Europa League. After six matches played we were able to finish second in our group to qualify for the first knockout round. As predicted, we beat Celtic (3-1) in both matches, tied (2-2) & beat (0-1) Dortmund, and lastly, we tied (0-0) & lost (2-0) against Madrid. 

In the first knockout round, we would face Atletico Madrid. We put ourselves ahead at home in the 23rd minute after Alfredo Donnarumma snuck a shot between two of Atletico’s defenders. Thomas Lemar returned the favor in the 88th minute to finish the match (1-1). In the return leg, we struck first from a corner by our towering forward, Lorenzo Lucca. We shit the bed in the 69th minute when Lorenzo Bernasconi got himself sent off. Yannick Carrasco would tie the match in the 88th minute (AGAIN?!) taking the match to extra time. Carrasco would go on to score his second goal of the match in the 114th minute to knockout us out.

Player of the Year

Our Italian giant had another superb season. He scored a total of 29 goals and 5 assists from 41 matches to average a 7.60 rating. He was not able to match his numbers from last season. Ben Brereton Díaz leaving could have affected his performance, as they had formed a great partnership upfront. He also dropped his conversion rate from 14.6% to 9.60.

January Transfer Window

Transfers In

I’ve been scouting Juan Pablo Leone (Chilean/Italian) and Facundo Maldonado (Chilean/Spanish) since the summer transfer deadline day. It’s hard to find Chilean players with dual European citizenship. I decided to pull the trigger on both in January as we needed more reinforcements due to injuries and due to the fact that most of our first-team-ready players are out on loan. Maldonado (£500k) joins from Defense y Justícia (Arg) and Juan Leone (£1.4m) joins from Banfield (Arg).

Transfers Out

In terms of outgoing, left-back Bruno Martella joins Lugano (£105k) as his role decreased to impact sub and Francesco Toffanin wanted more playing time so he joins Genoa (£2.1m).

Youth

Intake

We had another great intake. Although it’s not as great as last year’s “golden generation.” We did have a few standout players. Cream of the crop is Uzbek/Swedish towering striker Rustam Jumayev, he is already valued between £18k-£9.4m. We also had couple of midfielders, defenders and another decent goalkeeper.

First Team

We had fourteen players under the age of 23 playing in the first team. These youngsters were able to step up when needed. We need to keep a hold of these players this summer as we’re bound to lose some of the older starting players. As mentioned above, Ljubiša Dragićević and Lorenzo Carrara had a solid first season in the first team. They also were featured in NxG, Carrara landing in the 3rd place and Dragićević in 11th.

U18s & U20s

We’ve had the best youth coaches in the country for the last two season and has truly paid off. The U20s team didn’t not win their respective league, they did win the Primavera Super Coppa, Viareggio Cup Coppa Carnevale beating Partizan (2-0) and the UEFA Youth League beating Celtic (1-0). The U18s team swept through all of their competitions. 

We gave debuts to a few players: LB – Tommaso Bernardi (17 y/o), Striker – Nicola Luparini (17 y/o), DM – Dalibor Verbič (17 y/o), CM – Romano Conti (16 y/o), CM – Martin Hovarth (17 y/o), GK – Billy Thomas (16 y.o), and Striker – Rustam Jumayev (16 y/o).

Finances & Infrastructure

Finances – We were able to double our overall balance to £168m after selling £70m worth of players and £20m for winning the league. 

Facilities – No news on the new stadium, I’ve come to believe that it won’t ever happen. Our youth facilities are now “State of the Arts” and we’ve also invested £4.9m to upgrade our training facilities.

Next season will be more of the same, focusing on promoting more youth players, waving good bye to longstanding first-team players and hopefully another Serie A title.

Here are three of my favorite goals from the season, enjoy!

Thank you once again for stopping by, until next time!

Best,
José