Associazione Calcio Milan: Rebuilding the Rossoneri

[jstewart85]

For my first story in FM 2014 I have elected to go AC Milan. In all honesty I have started a few saves in this years game and have struggled to get involved in any of them. A combination of a slow laptop, working overtime and gettting to grips with the new game mechanics had left me not overly enamoured with this years installment. So I started a game as AC not really expecting to make it past November. Slowly but surely I have begun to get more into the save and now having just finished the first season and looking forward to the second I have decided to create this story.


Nb***

This save has changed from Rebuilding the Rossoneri into trying to become the Continent's best manager. I will try and win every trophy possible in a nation and then move to the next.

This 1st post will be edited as I progress.

1st Team
AC Milan
Manager for 2 seasons (2013/14 and 2014/15)
7 major honours; Serie A (2), Italian Cup, Italian Super Cup, Champions League, European Supercup and World Club Championship
Personal honours
Manager of the year (2)

2nd Team
TBA

 

[jstewart85]

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Rossoneri Hire Rookie Manager Stewart.

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AC Milan President Silvio Berslusconi has hired Rookie Scottish Manager John Stewart to take charge of Milan for the upcoming 2013-14 season. Pundits and Media alike believe that this change is further evidence of cost cutting at the club. With the Rossoneri having a net debt of -?185 million drastic measures have to be taken to secure the future of one of the worlds greatest clubs.

 

[jstewart85]

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Squad Introduction

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Goalkeepers

Christian Abbiati 36 years old.
Christian is a solid and reliable goalkeeper. Starting his 16th season at Milan he has 1 year left on his current deal and more than likely will not earn a new one. Will start as Number 1 but I will be on the lookout for a better and younger option.

Marco Amelia 31 years old.
Marco was meant to be the next big thing of Italian goalkeeping about 10 years ago but never really fulfilled his potential. Solid enough number 2 but I don't see a long future at Milan for him.

Ferdinando Coppola. 35 years old
Too old and too ****. Don't expect to see his name mentioned again.

Fullbacks.

Ignazio Abate 26 years old, RB.

A very attack minded fullback who is not the best defensively. On high wages and is unlikely to win a new deal on the same amount. If a decent bid comes in then it might be considered.

Mattia Di Sciglio 20 years old, RB/LB

A very prominsing youngster. Mattia is the main reason I am not too worried about Abate ever leaving. I am hoping that in 12-18 months time he will be a more accomplished full back than Abate could ever be.

Kevin Constant 26 years old, LB

New arrival and very similar to Abate. A good attacking fullback but the not the best defender. Due to lack of options will start as first option.


Centrebacks.

Christian Zapata 26 years old, CB.

A fast but sometimes rash defender. his physical stats are amongst his best. Will start as first choice but may have to put up with being a squad player in future seasons.

Phillipe Mexes 31 years old.

A cultured centreback. Phillipe will hopefully be the leader of my back 4. On ridiculously high wages (115k) on a 2 year deal. At his age it will surely be his last contract with Milan.

Daniele Bonera 31 years old, CB/RB

Been at Milan for years. Solid if not spectacular. Starts the season injured and will not be fit for 4 months. Once back will provide squad depth. Something that it currently lacks.

Cristian Zaccardo 31 year old, RB/CB

Is predominantly a RB but with the squad already having 2 good ones Cristian will be mainly used as a CB. Again fairly old and fairly poor will only be used as cover.

Matias Silvestre 26 year old, CB

On loan from Inter he played our first friendly and got sent off so instantly sent back.

Midfielders

Nigel De Jong 28 years old, DM/CM

Nigel prefers to play in a DM position but our formation does not allow for this. Solid in the tackle, Nigel keeps it simple and will be a vital cog in our midfield as the Ball winning midfielder.

Riccardo Montolivio 28 years old, CM/AM

A cultured playmaker who prefers to sit slightly deeper. He will sit beside De Jong and dictate play for the forward quartet. Club captain and big things expected from him.

Antonio Nocerino. 28 years old. CM

Very similar to Montolivio but just not as good.

Sulley Muntari 28 years old, DM/CM

On wages far too high for a player of his calibre (74k). Sulley is a solid enough ball winner but De Jong is undisputed first choice. One year left on his deal so he will have to either lower his demands or find a new club. Up to him.

Andrea Poli 24 year old CM (Co-owned with Sampdoria)

Andrea has the potential to be a good midfield playmaker. I don't like Co-ownerships so has a year to prove to me he is worth fighting for.

Attacking Midfielders

Kaka 31 years old, AM

Former Ballon D'or winner. Never really settled in Madrid and is now back home. If he can recapture half of his previous Milan form then the team will reap the reward.

Stephan El Shaaraway 20 years old, AMC/R/L/ST

Really promising youngster. Prefers to play as a left sided inside forward so that is where he will play. I am hoping to nurture his talent to the maximum for Milan's gain.

Robinho 29 year old, AML/C/ST

Prefers to play as a Striker but he won't be doing that here. On a one year deal on high wages, is in the same predicament as Muntari. Back up to EL Sharaaway.

M'Baye Niang 18 years old, AMR/ST

Likes to play as a right winger which Milan have a shortage of. Will start as first choice but I will be looking to provide him some competiton.

Riccardo Saponara 20 year old AMC/R/L (Co-owned with Parma)

A decent enough prospect. Can play right along the width of the pitch inthe advanced positions. Fairly down the pecking order though.

Valter Birsa 27 year old AML/C

Valter shows just how far Milan have fallen. An abomination of a player or at least by Milan's standards.

Strikers

Mario Ballotelli 22 year old, ST

Bat s**t mental but one **** of a player. This season's success rides on how I can get him to perform.

Alessandro Matri 28 year old ST

A very good striker but just not as good as Super Mario. 2nd Choice striker berth for him

Giampaolo Pazzini 28 year old ST

Seems to have been around forever. Good penalty box striker but there are 2 that are better than him already here. Starts the season injured for 5 months. Will need to work very hard to get a game.

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[jstewart85]

Transfer Updates

Budget 5mil

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Incoming

Agustin Allione 18 year old RW

I spent 6 million after add ons for this highly rated right winger. Due to the lack of funds available I found it difficult to find someone better than we had who wasn't at the tail end of their career. Milan now have 2 young raw right wingers with no experienced alternative. Not ideal but I am hoping that they are up to the task.

Outgoing

Urby Emmanuelson 26 year old LW

Not good enough to be a regular starter and an easy 7.5 million earned in letting him go. Shouldn't be missed.

Matias Suarez 26 year old CB

As previously stated not very good and got sent of in his first friendly. I felt I could use the 35k a week elsewhere.

Net Spend

-1.5 million. -65k a week saving too

 

[jstewart85]

Predictions

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Media Predictions

Domestic


The media predicted a top three finish but no serious title challenge and I tended to agree with this. Juventus look a far stronger squad than ourselves and I envisage a battle with Napoli for 2nd/3rd. Inter and the Rome clubs are not contenders in my eyes.

We were also fancied to reach at least the semi's in the cup. With such a threadbare squad and not much funds I was definetly looking at the cup as a distant third in my list of priorities.

Europe

Milan are a historic name in the Champions league with nights of equal elation and devastation in our past. With our low domestic finish last year the Champions league play off will have to be negotiated. The Media seemed to think that we could qualify and at least get to the last 16 but that we lacked the genuine quality to truly challenge. Inwardly I couldn't argue with those sentiments but to the players and the media I was bullish in my optimism about our chances of causing a few upsets.


Readers Prediction

What do you guys think are realistic ambitions for my first season at AC? I am interested in hearing what you think is acheivable and what is not. Leave a comment and I will try and get some more updates battered out with screenshots once I'm home.

 

[jstewart85]

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January Transfers


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So I forgot to mention the young left back that I signed Nicola Murru.He was signed on deadline today to provide cover for Constant. Honda signed a pre contract for January. I decided to sell Nocerino in about October as he was fairly poor and 8.5 mil seemed a good price. I decided to buy some more young potential in Will Hughes as he can play both centre mid and att mid. I felt that he and honda for less money than Nocerino was good buisness. I got a small cash injection and decided to push the boat out for ter Stegen. I know I massively overpayed for him but at 22 years old I will get at least 10 seasons out of him if I play the save long enough.

 

[jstewart85]

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Italian Cup Campaign 2013/14

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My second string with a relatively comfortable victory against a poor team. Balotelli who had been out for 4 months getting a run out to build match fitness.

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By this point in the season I was unable to field a second string as I had so many injuries. I remember being raging that we had to play the whole 120 minutes.

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A comfortable victory away from home in leg 1. Notice how many shots and how little goals I scored. This was a constant bugbear of my season. Neither Matri or Super Mario pulled up any trees up front.

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Same as leg 1 but this time at home. 29 shots 1 goal. If anyone knows how to get the strikers scoring I'm all ears.


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Again not happy with the extra time as my squad were struggling big time. Nice to win the trophy but in all honesty I wasn't too bothered either way.



So my first trophy as Manager of AC Milan. Hopefully won't be the last.





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[jstewart85]

Serie A Campaign 2013-14


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So I am not going to mess about and offer any suspense. As I have finished the season I am limited to the amount of screenshots I can post so without further ado.

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So there you have it winners of the Scudetto in my first season. I have never seen before never mind been part of such a weird, topsy turvy season. To win the league with 71 points is frankly embarrassing. I was convinced at several points during the season that Juventus would run away with it once they hit the top but then they would have a mini collapse. I even lost the 2nd last game at Napoli to really pi** me off only to find that Atalanta drew and Juve lost also. Unbelievable

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[jstewart85]

Champions League Campaign 2013/14.

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This will only have partial screenshots for the campaign as it won't allow me to go all the way back due to it being almost a year later in game and also as I can't be bother but I drew PSV in the play off.

Leg 1 was at home and we won 4-0. Leg 2 was obviously in Eindhoven which we drew 1-1 for a 5-1 aggregate victory for which I was very pleased.

The group stages proved to be much more difficult than I imagined. We were drawn in group with Anderlecht, Olympique Lyonnais and Ajax Amsterdam.

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Serioulsy underestimated Anderlecht here but we still should of won. We were so wasteful in front of goal .


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Important first win of the Euro campaign. A much needed 3 points.

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Another Euro away defeat in a game where we had the most chances.

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Absolute domination. Should of scored more however.

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Never take a team lightly twice I say and we didn't here. Nice victory.


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An even game. We were already through and they were already out. Still annoyed at losing though.


Final Standings

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So we snuck through in second place with 3 wins and 3 losses. Out of 4 european away days we have lost 3 and drawn 1. Not too promising for the knockout phases.

 

[jstewart85]

Champions League Campaign 2013/14
Continued



Round of 16
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So we drew Zenit St Petersburg in the round of 16. We were the designated home team for leg 1 due to finishing our group as runners up. I was as you imagine rather pleased at this draw.

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One of the few games in the season when we were as clinical as I would like.

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We scored early to put in no doubt but to lose 5 goals was very disapointing. This results our 4th loss out of 5 away made me amend my tactics for the nextr round as we would surely be drawn against a better side than Zenit.

Quarter Final

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We drew Bayern Munchen in the quarter finals and in all honesty I was happy to have reached the quarters knowing that with a bit of spending in the summer could maybe fight with the big guns. I gave us no chance. As before we were home first in Leg 1

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1-0 was a great result but I was still not confident given our away form. I had just devised a counter attacking formation whchc was fully removed from our normal highly fluid controlling football and had tested it agaisnt Parma in the game in between the 2 legs to try it out. We lost and the fans had a go at the negative approachfor the game. I decided to still go with it in Germany due to my earlier away day blues for Leg 2

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We were absolutely battered for 90 minutes but Poli popped up on 50 mins to give us the lead!!! We conceded 2 late goals but held on firm for a spot in the Semis. Ps another away defeat.

Semi Finals

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We drew Real Madrid in the semis with Manchester United vs Barcelona in the other. I was under no illusion that we were the worst team left in the competition. Again we were home in the first leg.

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We controlled the game from the first minute but I thought our lack of finishing prowess ws going to cost us until the 80th minute when the deadlock was broken. The second goal went in at the death and I started to dream of the final.

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48 shots against us suggests a battering but we actually came from a goal down to take the lead. They then replied with two of their own and we just, Just hung on. 6 loses out of 7 away in Europe and we still made the final of the champions league. Weirdest season EVER!!!

 

[jstewart85]

Champions League Final 2013/14

AC Milan vs Manchester United.



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As you will have seen by my winning of the Italian cup I had played alot of games up to this point and the squad was stretched to the maximum. Both of my ball winning midfielders were injured (De Jong and Muntari) so Will Hughes deputised. With no other fit CM's Kaka had to drop to CM and Robinho deputised in the AM role. WIth 6 defeats out of 7 European games away from the San Siro I was tempted to play the defensivly minded formation but in the end my heart ruled my head and I went for the Red Devils throat.

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WE DID IT! An early goal from Robinho sent us on our way and then the Captain Mexes scored with 10 to go to settle the nerves. I honestly have never won the champions league in such strange circumstances. I honestly thought Bayern would kill us nevermind Madrid or Man U.

To win the treble in my first season was unexpected to say the least and it will accelerate my plans for Milan by at least a year financially as the squad is pretty poor and also ageing in certain areas. The revenue gained will help me in builiding a side that will hopefully last years.

Well that's me for tonight. I have done my transfers in game but I will update those tomorrow hopefully. Please leave comments etc and any recommendations on how to lay it out or present it better for you. I am still farily new to this story writing (I did a few seasons of Rangers in fm2013 that ended on a sour note re Europe) and I appreciate any feedback provided.

 

[jstewart85]

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European Supercup Final 2013/14

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So this years final shows the European Champions AC Milan square off against the Europa League winners Manchester City. The astute of you will be able to see some of my new signings who have yet to be revealed.



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So our fourth trophy from the fourth tournament entered means my guardiola esque start continues. This one was really in doubt as we went behind twice and also went down to 10 men at 1-1. To win on pens is always sweet as it is a bit of a lottery.​

 

[jstewart85]

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Summer Transfer Window 2014/15

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I was given a transfer budget of 55 million with a 50k increase in wage budget to 1.7mil with the ambition of title challenge. That is a very decent amount but I felt my team lacked in quite a few areas and needed a bit of an overhaul. In all i spent 66 mil but recouped close to 35 and I am pretty happy with my dealings. The squad has good cover in all areas and is a bit more youthful than it was previously. I made a point in making sure all my signings were paid for up front as the ter Stegen deal was over 4 years and I don't like having too many pay monthly deals.

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So I will provide a quick rundown on my signings and also the key players I let go.

Incoming

Samuel Umtiti 20 years old CB.
Everyone raves about kurt Zouma as THE up and coming French Defender but I feel Umtiti is pretty much as good and is much easier to sign. For a little over 10 million he will either be the mainstay of my defence for years or sold on for a tidy profit.

Victor Wanyama 22 year old CM.
I wanted the best Ball Winning Midfielder money can buy and I don't think there are many better than him. Still young, Milan fans can look forward to many years of dominating performances.

Kevin De Bruyne.
With Kaka getting on a bit I need a midfield wizard for the future and I think Kevin is more than capable. The fact he can play across the top is a bonus.

Marco Verratti. 21 years old CM
With both Montolivio and Poli leaving there is the need for a bit of italian flair and calm in the middle of the park. Hopefully will prove to be value for money until I get either Gundogan or Thiago Alcantara who are my first choices for the position.

Robinho 30 year old LW/ST

Originally let go due to high wages. I was hoping that my money would stretch for cover for El Shaaraway(Adam Ljajic) but in the end I didn't have the 12 million left and Robinho was happy to come back on less money for free.


Outgoing.

Riccardo Montolivio 29 years old CM.
I had high hopes for Montolivio but a combination of poor discipline, injuries and mediocore performances meant that 20 million was always going to see him leave.

Andrea Poli 24 years old CM
I didn't want Poli to go but I ended up being out bid in the co-ownership rubbish. Still I got 9.5 mil to make up for it so it wasn't all bad. Would of preferred to keep him though.

 

[jstewart85]

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Italian Supercup Final 2014/15


AC Milan Vs Chievo


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We deserved to win and we did! 5 Trophies competed for and 5 trophies won. Only the World Club Championship left. I thought this management malarky was difficult

 

[jstewart85]

Is anyone actually following this? I have wrote 2 pages worth and not had a single reply. If there is no demand for this I might as well just get on with playing the game.

 

[Average Joe]

Is anyone actually following this? I have wrote 2 pages worth and not had a single reply. If there is no demand for this I might as well just get on with playing the game.

I've only just seen this story mate! Yeah I will be following (as a Milan fan!)

What a mental season! Roma relegated, winning everything, 71 points to win the league and on goal difference!

Keep it up, good detail with each post

 

[jstewart85]

I've only just seen this story mate! Yeah I will be following (as a Milan fan!)

What a mental season! Roma relegated, winning everything, 71 points to win the league and on goal difference!

Keep it up, good detail with each post

Thanks Joe, It has been the weirdest save I have ever had. I have never been so successful with a team that I have been so unhappy with. I still can't get Ballotelli to score. Tried him as a CF,AF and Poacher. His Average rating is something like 6.1. Matri is no better. I don't see the point in buying another ST as they should be more than good enough. It must be something wrong with the tactic but I don't know what and while I'm winning I don't want to tinker too much. Hopefully get some more updates done tonight.

 

[AayushCFC]

I'm following it too. Just a silent reader, judge by the likes you get

You've also motivated me to start a save in Serie A which I've always avoided because of co-ownership system. I think I'll start the season with ACF Fiorentina.

Edit: I've had a weirder season, I saw Arsenal get relegated and Spurs just avoiding it, It made me so happy as a Chelsea fan.

And I think Balotelli fails to score much because of his "Shoots from distance" PM, worst one to have IMO. Try untraining that.

 

[jstewart85]

I'm following it too. Just a silent reader, judge by the likes you get

You've also motivated me to start a save in Serie A which I've always avoided because of co-ownership system. I think I'll start the season with ACF Fiorentina.

Edit: I've had a weirder season, I saw Arsenal get relegated and Spurs just avoiding it, It made me so happy as a Chelsea fan.

And I think Balotelli fails to score much because of his "Shoots from distance" PM, worst one to have IMO. Try untraining that.

I'm not too sure about the PM as Matri doesn't have it and he is just as bad. I think it has to do with how fluid possession based my tactic is. We keep the ball for alot of the game and I don't know if it is decisive enough for our striker. I might play about with changing it to a false nine so he can drop a bit deeper and get more involved.

Thanks for the support though. I was thinking though that if I win the World club that I will leave Milan and go elsewhere. The problem is my comp is rubbish and can really only run 1 nation so I will have to remove Italy and go elsewhere.

Where do you guys think I should go to next if I win the World club?

 

[AayushCFC]

you mean World Club C'ship? I'd recommend go to some smaller league to get more challenge, otherwise Bundesliga is nice when notp laying with the big two (Dortmund n Bayern).

Btw try this tactic if you want Possession football - http://www.fm-base.co.uk/forum/share-download-fm-14-tactics/147408-truly-tiki-taka-kun-20.html

I prefer direct football. And shoot from distance means wasteful shooting, a lot of it, trust me. And Balotelli is quality striker. I'd recommend Lukaku if you want a Target man, teach him shoot with power and he'll be a beast as he's good with headers. He's also good as DLF but not too much as False 9.