El Capità: a new beginning

29/07/2017
The question about whether or not Puyol was going to keep his budget for later on in the year has now been answered as Milan spent a whopping €17 million on Italian promising centre-back Edoardo Goldaniga from Palermo. He played 20 games in the last 2 years at Palermo, scoring twice. With Romagnoli already at the back, this makes Milan's centre-back pairing one of the best young defensive partnerships in the league, making Milan one of the teams to watch this season as they will be fighting for Champions League football and at this rate who knows? Maybe the league title! With the Serie A starting in a little less than a month, Milan have two pre-season games left for Goldaniga to settle in before their season opener away at Sassuolo. Next update on AC Milan will be a pre-season review as they faced a couple of Spanish minnows in a Spanish tour as well as Napoli and Liverpool.
 
10/08/2017
View attachment 102654Goal-friendly Milan end pre-season with one loss and one draw from 6 games

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Puyol's Milan definitely had a good start to their first full season together as their pre-season was very successful. Carlos Bacca scored 8 goals in 5 games as he didn't play in the game against Liverpool and was the standout player for Milan, putting new signing Ben Yedder to shame who only managed 2 assists in 3 games. Lassana Diarra also managed to score a goal and Ziyech scored 2 including one against Liverpool in their 3-1 loss at Anfield. Overall, 4 wins, 1 draw and 1 loss from 6 games is a very respectable record and as Milan get ready for their opening game against Sassuolo away from home, basically a repeat of their last pre-season friendly, they definitely look like they will be one of the teams to watch this season in the Serie A given what we saw from them last season without all these new impressive players in the squad. Can Bacca carry Milan to a Champions League spot this season? They scraped Europa League qualification last season on the last matchday of the season in incredible fashion but will they be able to compete in Europe now with these fresh faces at the club? Only time will tell...
 
20/08/2017
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Close match between Sassuolo and Milan but Rossoneri come out victorious

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Muniain had a debut to remember for Milan as he scored the first goal of the match in Milan's 2-1 victory over Sassuolo on this Sunday evening. Romagnoli ended up scoring the winner just 6 minutes after Muniain's opener as Sassuolo tried to come back in the game with a goal in the 73rd minute but it wasn't enough. Three points to start the season off for Milan is a positive and the fans did talk about how happy they were with the performance despite only winning by a goal at the end of the match on ACMilanTV. Up next for Milan is a match at home against Torino before they then travel to Turin, not to face Torino again but for their biggest game of the season to date against Juventus. The 6-time in a row Serie A holders lost their first match 2-1 to Inter away from home due to 2 unfortunate own goals from Bonucci. They now stand in 15th place but have another match to get pumped up before the Milan clash. Unfortunately for Milan, man of the match Antonelli got injured meaning that he'll miss that big clash against Juventus but Puyol seemed confident that although Antonelli would be hugely missed, he knew that a couple of players would be willing to step up and take his place for the next month.

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25/08/2017
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AC Milan handed easy group for return to European football

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As AC Milan make their return to European football, all their fans and players were eager to find out who they'd face in the group stages and they were in the first group of the draw. With Dynamo Kyiv arguably their hardest opponent from the draw, the Rossoneri will also face the Glasgow Rangers and Slovan Liberec. This not only means that Milan SHOULD finish 1st of their group but it also means that they could really get some confidents going from these European trips in between league matches and hopefully get them to perform even better in the league. When asked about the draw, Puyol said that no opponent is an easy opponent considering some days it's just not your day but some days you crush everyone so Milan will have to be careful, especially when it comes to travelling to these places where the weather is so different from Italian weather, which could prove to be a factor (especially the wind, eh Klopp?). Milan fans have already voiced their hope for a 1st place finish in the group on Twitter as they all seem to be pretty confident that Milan will crush every single one of the teams in their group. We'll find out if that's true on the 14th of September as Milan will face Slovan Liberec for their first match in Europe in over 3 years.
 
27/08/2017
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Lassana Diarra sent off 30 minutes into debut as Milan are held to a goalless draw against Torino

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With a game in hand over most of the teams in the Serie A, Milan have gone top of the league temporarily. As much as Milan fans will try to find positives in this performance, they'll be disappointed with Diarra who started the game to make his Milan debut but somehow managed to get sent off in the first 30 minutes of the game, leaving Milan with 10 men for an hour and not being able to score and get all 3 points against Torino. This isn't a very good result for the Rossoneri who have to travel to the Juventus Stadium next week and will be gutted about this result. Abate put in a fine performance at the back and thankfully Milan stayed strong defensively, allowing them to at least get a point from this game. What can fans think of these first two performances in the league? Not much considering it's only been 2 games but they can definitely feel underwhelmed. With 6 quality signings and some controversial departures, Puyol will have to definitely make up for those first two pretty poor results and come back with a bang against Juventus. Speaking of the latter, they've just won 2-1 against Sassuolo, who lost 2-1 to Milan the week before so at this point, it's all to play for in the clash between Milan and Juventus.
 
09/09/2017

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Juventus continue Serie A domination with easy win over Milan

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Despite a slow start to their season, Juventus have now started to push on as they claimed an easy 2-0 win at home against AC Milan who had to get a couple of new players in due to injuries and suspensions. The Rossoneri finished last season very strong but since those summer arrivals, it looks like Milan have somewhat struggled. With a win, a draw and now a loss in the league, they sit in 8th with a goal difference of -1 as they won by a goal against Sassuolo and haven't scored since, conceding 3 in total. Can Puyol turn this all around? With a Europa League trip to Czech Republic in just 5 days, Milan's confidence could rise massively if they managed to get a good result against the Czech side before coming back to the league to play Genoa who sit in 3rd after a tremendous start to their season. The most disappointing thing for Milan about this performance against Juventus though definitely is the fact that they held on for so long, until the 79th minute when Higuain managed to score his 2nd goal of the season. It all went downhill from there as they conceded again in the dying moments of the game. They have it all to do AC Milan if they want Champions League qualification this season!
 
14/09/2017

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Bacca scores twice as Locatelli and Ziyech score first Milan goals ever in thrashing

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After a disappointing display against Juventus, Milan needed to show their fans what they were capable of and they did just that in an absolute thrashing in Czech Republic on Thursday night as Bacca scored his first 2 goals of the season and Ziyech and Locatelli scored their first ever goals with Milan to give them a 5-2 win in an incredible game for the Rossoneri. Playing Genoa in 3 days will be quite challenging for Puyol's side for sure but he did rotate his team a little bit, including starting Niang ahead of Suso for example, which proved to be a great decision as the Frenchman scored early on during his first game back for the club. In group A, the other fixture was between Rangers and Dynamo Kyiv, which finished 2-0 for the Ukrainian side, putting them in 2nd place in the group on goal difference. Milan's next 4 matches seem to all be very winnable ones with games against Genoa, Sampdoria, newly-promoted Trappani and Dynamo Kyiv.
 
Juventus are definitely going to take some beating it'd seem! Easy European group that!
 
17/09/2017

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Milan edge out Genoa in tight encounter

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Following some poor results in the league but a great result in the Europa League, Milan fans were worried. Not just because of the results but also because their side was playing Genoa just 3 days after travelling to Czech Republic but it's fair to say that they had nothing to worry about. Temporarily moving into 2nd, Milan won what was a pretty tight match (unless you look at the shooting stats, then you might wonder how Milan didn't score more goals). The truth is Milan should have probably scored more but thanks to a world-class performance from Suso, the Rossoneri walked away with the 3 points. Big match against Sampdoria coming up, another match which will be a must-win for Puyol's side if they want to stay in the Champions League race this season.
 
21/09/2017

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Late Sampdoria goal denies Milan all 3 points

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AC Milan have continued their somewhat underwhelming start to the Serie A with a draw against Sampdoria. Despite this result getting them up to 6th, Milan have really been disappointing so far. With 2 wins, 2 draws and one loss from 5 games so far, it's very early on of course but the players might want to pick it up a little bit if they want to really impress their fans, who have pretty high expectations following the smart summer signings the club made during the transfer window. With the club's next game against Trapani, who just got promoted from the Serie B, it's an opportunity for Puyol's men to score a couple of goals and get the confidence going in the league before hosting Dynamo Kyiv in the Europa League which will be their toughest match in their group for sure. Puyol will definitely count on Antonelli, who's been the club's starting left-back for the whole season so far and deservedly so as he got himself a goal against Sampdoria to claim a point for his side.
 
Wow you put so much effort in writing your story. One of the best ones around here. Keep up!

I like that you didn't go for the usual FM17 prospects when making transfers!
 
hera said:
Wow you put so much effort in writing your story. One of the best ones around here. Keep up!

I like that you didn't go for the usual FM17 prospects when making transfers!
Click to expand...
Thanks a lot! I was kind of aiming for that tbh, it's so easy to just pick up the best wonderkids in the game at the start and just wait till they develop! Glad you're enjoying the story so far :)
 
25/09/2017
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Easy win for Milan despite yet another red card

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Milan fans will be wondering why Niang ever went on loan to Watford after such a wonderful performance tonight against Trapani. The French winger/striker scored 2 goals to make it 3 goals in 2 games since the start of the season, 1 in the Europa League and 2 in the Serie A. Unfortunately, Locatelli received his first red card as a professional footballer, making it 2 red cards in 6 matches, just one less than Roma who have 3 in 6. With a confident performance in the league and a Europa League match coming up, this is bound to boost the players' confidence. Will they keep their good run of form going and get a good result at home against Dynamo Kyiv to then carry that form on in the league? Or will it just be a good result in the league and in the Europa League before yet another choke? We'll have to wait till next Sunday against Udinese to find out!
 
28/09/2017
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First AC Milan goals for Ben Yedder in Dynamo Kyiv thrashing

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An absolutely amazing performance from an amazing Milan side who showed all of Europe that they should definitely be feared in the Europa League. Dynamo Kyiv isn't the strongest of sides in the competition, that's for sure, but the Rossoneri winning 5-0 is a huge scoreline in an incredible game which saw Ben Yedder score his first 2 goals as an AC Milan player. Interestingly enough, he played as an attacking midfielder and with Bacca at striker too, that partnership was bound to score a couple of goals. Milan's next match will be against Udinese who have done well so far in the league and could really give Milan a run for their money. After such a great result, Puyol will be buzzing but will also have to make sure that his players don't get complacent and stay focused for the Udinese match.
 
01/10/2017
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Crucial away win for Milan sees them move up to 3rd

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Udinese stupidly gave away 2 penalties for Bacca to score his first 2 league goals of the season as Milan claimed a crucial away win against Udinese, taking them up to 3rd in the league just before their big clash against Roma. The home side took the lead just after half-time but about 4 minutes later, it all went wrong for them. Badu scored an own goal and Bacca then scored a penalty less than 10 minutes after that own goal and just when Udinese thought they were back in it with an equaliser 5 minutes after that penalty, they gave away yet another penalty which Bacca put away before Calabria scored his first ever goal for AC Milan since coming into the first team from the academy. This result is huge for Milan but especially for Puyol as some fans were worried about his approach to league games considering they hadn't been doing so well in the league but extremely well in the Europa League. This result will definitely change the fans' minds and get them pumped for Milan's second huge game of the season against Roma in about 2 weeks. A win against Roma will definitely make Milan title contenders or at least Champions League contenders!
 
14/10/2017
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Three league wins in a row for Milan with massive victory against Roma

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M'Baye Niang was once again the hero for Milan as he continues his incredible run of form with his 3rd goal in 2 league appearances. Puyol's decision to put the Frenchman in the starting lineup seems to work in his favour every single time as Niang has scored in each match he's featured in and considering how important his goal was tonight, he might well stay in the lineup for the next few games. Vermaelen put in a great performance for Roma but after defensive midfielder Paredes got sent off 75 minutes in, there wasn't much he could do. Carlos Bacca was the other goalscorer for Milan as he scored his 3rd in 6 games, a decent goalscoring record although it doesn't even come close to the one he had last season. With this massive victory against title contenders Roma, the Rossoneri move up to 3rd and can very much consider themselves title contenders too if they keep this amazing run of form going. Below is the current league table after 8 games:

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19/10/2017
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Milan edge closer to Europa League round of 32 with massive win against Rangers

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Ziyech confirmed that he clearly preferred the Europa League to the Serie A as he scored his 2nd and 3rd goals in 2 appearances for the club in Europe, with Bacca also scoring a brace and Niang continuing his incredible run of form. His teammate Ben Yedder scored his 3rd goal in 2 games in the Europa League for Milan too in what truly was a wonderful performance for Milan. No one really expected Rangers to do well against the Italian side but letting in 6 goals is a huge letdown for the Scottish club. Milan have now scored 16 goals in 3 games, averaging just over 5 goals a game, as incredible as that sounds. It's fair to say that Milan will qualify from their group as group leaders and given their form potentially go on to even better things in the competition if the draw is favourable to them. With a big game in just 3 days against Lazio, who have been struggling immensely lately and are in dire need of points, Puyol might have to rotate the side who just won 6-0 against Rangers quite a bit if he wants to limit injuries in the long-term.
 
Big win against Roma and a demolishing of Rangers, looking good so far mate
 
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