Le Aquile - A Palermo Story

[FM_TNSSO]

Pre season preview; Well for the first time since our return to Serie A, the bookies don't fancy us to go down! However, they still don't think we will finish in the top half either despite our excellent performance last season! None of our players make the media dream 11 which comes as no surprise considering the crazy budgets and transfer spend of the bigger clubs. We will again go hard and try to over achieve but it remains to be seen how we cope with juggling both domestic and European competition this season.

Our first fixture of the new campaign would see us play host to Torino, who we beat 1-0 and 2-0 last season, so we had every right to feel confident about starting with a win. We did win, with Shakur Omar's 50th league goal for the club sealing the points.

Another youngster then joined us as we continue to develop for the future. 18 year old Brazilian midfielder, Kaique Jordan, comes in on a free from Atletico Mineiro. He looks like he will become a very good footballer and has a good chance of featuring for the first team sooner rather than later.

And then it was time for the big draw...Champions League Group Stage here we come! We were seeded 4th for the draw so knew we were likely in for a tough group and I was right! The financial might of PSG, the elegance of youth in Dortmund and Benfica...we'll do well to progress from this group...I just really hope we don't become the whipping boys!

For now though, we have Serie A to focus on and a really tough away day at Juventus came a little earlier in the season than I'd have liked. Although we lost the game, the lads left everything out there on the pitch and we put up a really good effort...they're just a better team than us right now.

To give you an idea of what we are up against here, Juventus bought Lautaro Martinez from Man City this Summer for a pricely sum of £62 million. In 5 whole seasons (and a Summer transfer window) I have only spent a total of £29.5 million on new players!!

In an attempt to at least get me a little tiny bit closer to the big boys, I asked the board to increase the transfer budget before the window closes, but they said no! They did, however, stick an extra £50k in the wage budget which might help get another loanee in.

It did just that. I only had one recognised left back in the squad and desperately needed another. 20 year old Pierre Kameni is the answer and he comes in on a season long loan from our Champions League Group buddies, PSG!

Despite that increase in the wage budget though, there is still only one team in the division spending less than us on player salaries!

After all that, we got back to it in Serie A with a home game against Atalanta and get a good win under our belts after that defeat to Juve. It baffles me as to why Atalanta keep letting us loan Shakur Omar every season and don't play him in their own side...they might think twice next season after he completely destroyed them here!

Time for our first taste of Champions League football and without a doubt our first game would be the hardest in the group...away at PSG! There was no Kylian Mbappe (Liverpool), Neymar (Juventus) or Messi (retired) nowadays though! However, their front line is still full of immense talent that I could only dream of!

Despite defeat in Paris, we can hold our heads high as we didn't disgrace ourselves one bit. A brave effort from my lads and this might even give us a little bit of confidence that we can give the likes of Dortmund and Benfica a game in this group!

Back to domestic action and a much easier opponent stood in front of us in the form of Bologna. We made it 3 wins from our opening 4 Serie A games with a comfortable victory here in a game we never looked like losing.

Our positive start sees us up there mixing it with the best in the early stages again.

 

[FM_TNSSO]

Our first Due Sicilie Derby of the season resulted in victory for us! We were solid at the back and defended resolutely throughout the game. Two second half strikes from Alessio Rosa ensured all 3 points came back to Palermo with us and this is a massive win early on in the season!

There could have been no bigger game for 16 year old Francesco Lampis to make his debut for the club and the youngster gave a good performance in his first appearance in a Palermo shirt.

I had mixed emotions after our game with Lecce. I was disappointed that we only managed a draw against a newly promoted side, but I have to be pleased with the manner in which the draw came about as we found ourselves 3-1 down at one point in the match!

Back to the Champions League and our most winnable game of the group was up next...Benfica at home! Now Takumi Minamino was brought to the club for his big game experience and it was his goal from the bench that gave us our first Champions League points.

A Serie A meeting with Fiorentina was our next game...a Fiorentina team that we hadn't beaten in my Palerma career yet (4 games, 2 draws, 2 defeats). However, that poor run came to an abrupt end here as we gave them a footballing lesson, with young Gyorgy Szatmari scoring his first professional hat trick!

And we followed that up with a solid 1-0 win away at Udinese.

In the Champions League, we headed out to Germany to take on Dortmund! A tough task on our hands but they're hardly flying in the Bundesliga this season, losing 5 of their opening 8 games and sitting 13th in their domestic league!

We came so close to earning a point against the German giants but an injury time goal for them just pipped us in what was an enthralling game of football. Proud of the fight my team put up here and we were just a bit unlucky.

Half way through the group stage and we certainly aren't out of the running to qualify for the next stage. PSG are running away with the group, but if we can beat Dortmund at home and get a result in Benfica then we might just pull off the unthinkable and make it to the knockout stages in our first season in the competition.

Before that though, we had the matter of bottom side Spezia to take care of back in Serie A...But take care of them we did not! A really disappointing performance all round. We simply weren't at the races even before the sending off and after that we barely mustered up a single shot at goal! By far our worst showing in a long time!

Despite that defeat, we are still right up there with the best of them. The top 5 have already opened up a little gap back to the rest. Napoli and Fiorentina will be disappointed with their starts to the campaign!

 

[FM_TNSSO]

The riches of Champions League football has already seen our bank balance inflate to over £33 million, so I thought I'd try my luck and see if the board might bump the transfer budget for the January window in a couple of months. I'm pleased to report that they have obliged and made another £5 million available to me. If I'm being honest, I'll probably look to invest the money in 1 or 2 youth players for the future, but we'll see what the window brings.

Our next Champions League game would see us host German giants, Dortmund, and a win would put us in a very strong position to potentially qualify for the knockout stages, or at least get 3rd and drop into the Europa League! And we only went and pulled it off...a massively dominant performance and we easily could have bagged 3 or 4 goals here and thrashed them, but 2 was easily enough and we now know that a win away at Benfica will probably secure us a place in the knockout round as Dortmund are unlikely to get a result against PSG.

Back in Serie A, we bag another 4 points. However, the fact that Parma are struggling in the relegation places, that draw was a bad result for us, but we at least made up for it with a win over Sassuolo.

It is my aim to continue to build foreign relationships with clubs that have great youth facilities and we now have a link in Portugal.

And our next Champions League opponents were in fact Portuguese side, Benfica. We went into it knowing that if we won and Dortmund failed to beat PSG, we would qualify for the knockout stages...talk about a massive opportunity for us!

And we made the very most of it! An Alessio Rosa double ensures we get the win we needed and we're through to knockout stages at our very first attempt. A great achievement considering the tough group that was handed to us and it means we don't need to worry about what happens in the last game against PSG.

There's nothing better than celebrating an achievement than with an upgrade to the facilities

Our next 4 games came thick and fast as we played 4 times in 10 days! With some heavy squad rotation between these matches, we managed to pick up another 6 points in the league before an expected defeat in our final Champions League group game against the mighty PSG.

The final group of the Champions League confirms our 2nd place status and we'll go in the draw for the next round. Benfica will be bitterly disappointed to have only picked up a single point and there will be no more European football for them this season.

Our 15th league game of the season ended in defeat away to Lazio. We struggle against the side from the Capital City, losing 4 of our 5 games with them so far in my career.

We are still very much up there in the right part of the league table. Juventus (now managed by Pep Guardiola) look to be staking a claim to regain the title this year after 2 years of it going to AC Milan.

 

[FM_TNSSO]

The draw for the Champions League First Knockout Round could not have been any tougher on us, as we draw German giants and 6 times competition winners, Bayern Munich!!

Our final game of 2026 would see us take on bottom side, Sampdoria and it gave us a great opportunity to finish the year with a win. We did exactly that with a dominant performance all round.

And as we turn the year, there's another award for me as I lift the Serie A Manager of the Year!

The January transfer window opens and we have a really talented young striker that I've managed to snap up from Girona for a £4 million fee. Guillem is only 18 years old and already has 31 goals in 82 competitive appearances...he looks set to have a bright future ahead of him and could be a star player for us in years to come! He has immediately gone back to Girona to see out the rest of the season on loan with them as part of his deal.

With the African Cup of Nations coming up, we were about to lose both Brian Oddei and Daouda Peeters for a period of time, whilst Takumi Minamino will also be missing for a few weeks at the Asian Cup, so I needed to bring in a loan signing for some cover in midfield. That man was Lewis Travis who isn't getting any game time at Leeds United, but he can definitely do a job filling in for us.

But then I realised that I'd made a complete f*** up! Travis is a non EU players and we already have 2 players registered this season so we can't register him!! And I can't terminate his loan move for 28 days, so for the next month I'll be paying his £44k wages for absolutely b*gg*r all!! What a t1t I am!

Even with us short on numbers and having to rely on kids to fill the bench, we still managed to kick off 2027 with another 4 points in the league and progress in the Coppa Italia! We do, however, have some tough fixtures coming up in AC Milan and Juventus and I'm fully aware this run may not continue much longer.

And I was right as were largely outclassed in both games! We might have finished in the top 4 last season and be flying high again this year, but we're clearly still miles off the top, top clubs in the country!

I was looking forward to playing some supposedly easier opposition in our next couple of games as we took on Torino and Spezia, but we were unable to capitalise on playing weaker opposition and laboured to two disappointing bore draws. Our strikers had a couple of really bad days at the office as we created 33 shots on goal across the two matches but couldn't find the back of the net!

Our run of poor form has seen us drop to 6th in the table and 6 points off the top 4. I'm not worried as we are still heavily overachieving against ours and the media's expectations, but it would be nice if we could get back into the mix for Champions League qualification again over the next few fixtures.

 

[FM_TNSSO]

We desperately needed to end our poor run of form and it didn't look like we would, when Atalanta took a lead against us towards the end of the first half. However, a spirited second half fight back from my lads saw us take all 3 points from the encounter and get back to winning ways!

Our next game would see us take on AC Milan in the Coppa Italia. We haven't beaten them in 5 meetings so far, so things didn't look promising.

I thought there would be no harm in trying something different on the tactical side to try to overcome them. I've been thinking about this type of formation for a while and after some tinkering with player roles and some individual instructions, this is where I'm at.

Unfortunately, it didn't bring about a change in fortunes for us. But the performance wasn't terrible for a brand new tactic against one of the best sides in the country, so I might stick with it for a few games and see how it goes.

A Shakur Omar double ensured victory over a struggling Lecce side. We weren't at our best by any strecth of the imagination, but a win's a win and we had drawn our earlier encounter in the season with Lecce 3-3.

And that leads us into the big one...Champions League specialists Bayern Munich were in town and the first leg of our first knockout round was upon us. We were massive underdogs to get anything from the game and Bayern dominated us from start to finish. We get away with a respectable 2-0 defeat but everyone knows it could have been a lot, lot more! The odds on us overturning the result our in Germany in the second leg will be huge!

Before that though, we had the matter of four Serie A games to take care of. We picked up 9 points from a possible 12 and really should have got something from the Napoli game if I'm honest. Goals haven't exactly been free flowing, but our defence has been rock solid and that's been the foundation of our recent run of good results.

So that led us to our trip to Munich and we required a miracle if we were going to progress to the next stage of the competition. Unfortunately, there was no miracle though and as expected, we were soundly beaten by the side that has now won the Bundesliga for the last 14 seasons straight!

The financial rewards of the Champions League are clear for all to see though as we bag another £8 million for just reaching this stage! This kind of money is going to really help me to take the club forward over the coming seasons.

So now we turn our attentions back to Serie A and doing everything we can over the final 10 games to qualify for next season's Champions League! And that started with an away say at Parma...but things didn't exactly go to plan!

Despite that defeat against Parma, we have crept back into the top 4 for now, although Roma and Napoli are breathing down our necks with a game in hand!

 

[FM_TNSSO]

This year's youth intake isn't terrible and there are one or two players that could develop through our now excellent facilities!

The best of the bunch is right winger, Sergio Vago.

Only 9 games of the season remain and our first of those would be away at Sassuolo. It was a game we went on to win with relative ease and will hopefully rebuild some confidence amongst the team after losing our last couple of games.

Or maybe not...we were really poor against Salernitana and probably lucky to get away with a draw!

And things got worse when we lost our next game to rivals, Cagliari! This isn't good and Champions League football next season is slowly getting further and further away from us!

Two more games, two more without a win as we only manage a single point between our matches with Lazio and Roma. A long season which included Champions League football is looking like it's now taking it's toll, as we look tired and lethargic!

With just 4 games of the season remaing, we have all but lost our chances of qualifying for the Champions League next season, with Roma opening up a 6 point gap over us with that last win. Top 7 should be nailed on from here, but we want 5th or 6th for Europa League, rather than Europa Conference.

We finally got back to winning ways with a big victory over Genoa, smashing four past the relegation battlers. This is exactly the sort of result we needed to get back on track for the final few games.

But then we found ourselves up against an Inter Milan side that we hadn't recorded a win over in 5 previous attempts under my management. And we didn't stop that rot here, but a point away from home is a decent result against them.

With 2 games of the season remaining, centre back Jan Paul van Hecke has picked up an injury that will likely see him miss a few months.

He's been one of our best players this season and turned out to be a brilliant loan signing for us. But Palace have recalled him early to undergo his rehabilitation back in England, so he won't see out the season with us.

Our penultimate game was against bottom side Sampdoria, who had already been relegated back to Serie B, and we piled on the misery for their fans as we battered them from start to finish. A couple of breakaways for them and some sloppy defending from our side allowed them to bag a couple, but when we're scoring 4 it doesn't really matter.

With one game remaining, it looks like we will most likely have to settle for a place in next season's Europa Conference League. We would need to win against the mighty AC Milan in our final game and hope that Napoli or Lazio lose.

I say it's unlikely, as we haven't managaed to beat AC Milan once from 6 meetings so far!

And we made it 7 encounters without a victory as were beaten again!

So it's a 7th placed finish for us this season and we only make the Europa Conference League next season. Disappointing to finish with 9 points less than last year and drop 3 places in the table, but we still hugely overachieved against our board's, fan's and media expectations!

 

[leckuno]

7th is still a decent result and gives you a good shot at a European trophy next season

 

[FM_TNSSO]

7th is still a decent result and gives you a good shot at a European trophy next season

I think you're right. Although I'll miss the money from the Champions League, I think we have built the bank balance up enough not to have to worry about that and the board should give me a good budget for the Summer (I have over £50 million in the bank). The Conference League is definitely winnable for us, providing I add some good quality players and I need a larger squad too as we struggled this season without enough cover in certain areas, although our first 11 is hot when all fit!

 

[dporter8999]

Brilliant career so far, Palermo used to be a fave side of mine, and as Leckuno pointed out, a good chance at a trophy in the lower euro competition.

 

[FM_TNSSO]

Brilliant career so far, Palermo used to be a fave side of mine, and as Leckuno pointed out, a good chance at a trophy in the lower euro competition.

Thanks for following mate

 

[FM_TNSSO]

End of Season 2026/27 Review

Serie A = 7th (qualified for Europa Conference League)
Coppa Italia = Quarter Final (knocked out by AC Milan)
Champions League = First Knockout Round (knocked out by Bayern Munich)

Serie A = Juventus
Coppa Italia = AC Milan
Serie B = Hellas Verona
Serie C/A = Cittadella
Serie C/B = Pescara
Serie C/C = Olbia
Coppa Italia Lega Pro = Ascoli

This season definitely wasn't as good as last, although it was still well above expectations for us to finish in European qualification places again. The squad overall didn't perform as well, with only handful of players meeting the target benchmark of a 7.0 average rating for the season. Filipe Cruz was our best player this year and had a great season at right back, scoring the highest average rating for the season and getting 6 assists. I'll definitely be looking to try to keep him here next year for another loan season at least. Federico Ravaglia had another good season between the sticks, whilst Alessio Rosa continues to impress up front, bagging 21 goals and finishing top scorer again this year. Shakur Omar was the only other player to reach double figures on the goalscoring front, whilst Brian Oddei led the assists charts with 13. The squad as a whole was light on numbers this season, and I think we suffered from a bit of fatigue in the last couple of months of the season, where I'd not been able to rotate enough throughout the year's different competitions. I will need a larger squad next year for sure!

The Best 11...

In general this season, we did really well and were above the league averages in most individual areas of the game!

One area we will need to work on though is our crossing. We get more crosses into the box than any other team in the division, but they are mostly inaccurate!

The Awards...

For the second season in a row, Federico Ravaglia is voted the Serie A Goalkeeper of the Year!

Amazing to think I picked this guy up for just £750k!

Also for the second season in a row, I'm the Serie A Manager of the Year!!

The commercial summary this year shows a significant increase in competition prize money, predominantly brought about by Champions League football this season. As our status as a football club continues to grow in general though, everything is on the way up.

The bank balance has exceeded £50 million for the first time since I've been at the club! We've come a long way!

Plans For The Summer

Well the plan is to build a squad capable of getting us back into that top 4 and amongst Europe's elite in the Champions League. And the board are backing me to do it with a £30 million war chest to spend this Summer, which blows all my previous budgets out the water and I might actually be able to bring in some very good players with this money! I will need to do some juggling though as the wage budget hasn't been increased so some of the transfer funds will need to go here to get the right players in. The main focus is going to be on bringing in a number of defenders, as I have two 34+ year olds in Michael Keane and Simone Benedetti so they will likely be leaving this Summer. Also, I have an on loan number 1 right back (Filipe Cruz) and a number 1 left back in Filippo Costa who is also the wrong side of 30 and had his worst season so far this past year.

One thing I have managed to do is extend the loan signing of Shakur Omar for yet another season from Atalanta. He was our second highest goalscorer this season and seems to be continuously improving, so it made sense to keep him here for another year. On top of that, he will become an outright Palermo player next Summer when that loan deal ends with a fee of £6.25 million already agreed.

Another player that I am pleased to have negotiated a permanent deal for is Filipe Cruz. He's been brilliant for the last couple of seasons on loan from Benfica and I was keen to make that deal a permanent one. I've agreed to pay £9 million next Summer to bring him to Italy on a permanent basis, but for the next 12 months he will remain with us on loan. A great piece of business on our end for a great player who still has his best years ahead of him!

 

[FM_TNSSO]

My first sale of the Summer was Takumi Minamino who joins Fenerbahce for £950k. He was only here a season and filled in when needed, making a total of 21 appearances. However, he only contributed with 1 goal and 2 assists and I was happy to make nearly £1 million profit on him after just 12 months.

The second player to leave for a £60k fee was 35 year old Simone Benedetti. He drops down to Serie B to join Cosenza and I'm positive he'll still have something to offer at that level. He's been a great servant to the club, having been with us for 4 years and making 97 league appearances under me. He just fell a little down the pecking order last season and wasn't justifying the £10k per week wages we had him on, so it was time to part ways.

A whole bunch of players were released this Summer, most of them from the youth sides. But there were two notable names who have departed that are worth a mention here. Filippo Costa has been an important part of the team for the past 3 years and worked his way into the first team on several occasions through good performances, despite me only ever having him in my head as a backup. It's just that I feel we can bring in a better calibre of player for the left back position now.

The second player worth a mention is Michael Keane! What a surprise he turned out to be...I brought him in as an emergency backup at the age of 32. He actually went on to become a first team regular for us, making 61 league appearances for us over the past 2 seasons and doing pretty well too! For £130k, he became so much more to the team than I ever would have expected!

Now on to the new arrivals at the club this Summer and I have to say I really feel like I've nailed it this window...we have a returning player to the club, some young talent for the future, a youngster I think I can cash in a decent transfer fee in a couple of seasons and some experienced talent as well. So let's get to introducing you to the new players at the club...

First in was a new left back in the form of Ludwig Augustinsson, who joins from rivals Cagliari for £1.1 million. I know he is 33 years old, but he is a considerable step up in quality for this position and he has been a first team regular for Cagliari making over 100 Serie A appearances for them and bagged 7 assists for them last year.

I needed to address our lack of players and quality at centre back this Summer too, so I have moved for not 1, not 2, but 3 centre backs! The first is Kevin Bonifazi who comes in from Bologna for a nice cheap £1.5 million. Again, a player that has made well over 150 Serie A appearances for both Bologna and SPAL, he brings a wealth of experience with him. I was keen to add a couple of Italian players this Summer too and he ticks that box.

The next centre back in is 28 year old Portuguese defender, Riccieli. He looks like a very good player for us and is one of the best centre backs I think I've ever had at the club and I hope his on pitch performances live up to that. He moved from Famalicao to Brentford last Summer for £1.9 million and played 26 times for them in the Championship last season, recording an average rating of 7.05. I've forked out a higher fee of £5 million to bring him here, but I think he'll prove well worth it!

The final centre back signing of the Summer sees the return of Bright Arrey-Mbi to the club! Everyone knows how gutted I was to lose him to Spurs 2 seasons ago, when they met his release clause of £4.1 million to steal him from us. He only played 13 times for them, before they sold him on to Real Betis last Summer for £4.5 million and he then went on to feature 25 times for them in La Liga last season. I've paid £7 million to bring him back to Italy and I'm delighted to see him back in a Palermo shirt!

Next up is a striker that I managed to pick up on a free transfer from Manchester United. Craig Williams is 21 and in all honesty, he probably won't feature for us and instead I will send him out on loan for the season...the main aim here was to bring him in as I felt I might be able to bag up to £5 million for him next Summer if he has a good season out on loan this year...this one was purely an investment to make money.

One thing I am trying to fight off at the moment is interest in Brian Oddei. Bournemouth has been in with several bids which started at £9 million and is now up to over £12 million. I really don't want to lose him and for now the player isn't unhappy and demanding a move...but it's something I have a very cautious eye on! Plus if their bids reach silly money in the region of £20+ million, I might not be able to resist.

It's always in my mind that we could lose our best players to big clubs if they come calling, so I am always looking to build for the future and the arrival of 17 year old Italian winger, Nereo Mazzon, is solid proof of just that. Mazzon comes in from Pisa for a fee of £3 million and looks like he will have a bright future in the game and could certainly make it in the future as a first team regular for us if he develops well.

My squad was almost complete and ready for the new season, but for one position. I had only one recognised left back in the squad, so needed another and someone who was available on the cheap. Alex Telles is 34 years old now, but has played for some top clusb in his career inluding Inter Milan, Porto, Man Utd and Marseille (moved from Utd in 2022 for £7.25 million). Despite his age, he will be able to offer plenty to us this year I'm sure, as long as we look after his ageing legs and don't over play him! He only cost us £500k and even if we only have him for 1 season, that should prove a bargain.

 

[dporter8999]

Smart transfer window there! Especially with the upgrades in defence.

 

[FM_TNSSO]

Next up was a big sale...my biggest since I've been manager of Palermo in fact. Not one I initially wanted to make, as we lose Federico Ravaglia, our number one keeper to Saudi club, Al-Hilal. The two time Serie A Goalkeeper of the Year was signed by me for just £750k two seasons ago, so when I received an offer of £17 million for him, I simply couldn't say no!

That sale did however leave a void in the team for a new number 1 between the sticks. I have a young squad this season and wanted to add some experience in goal, so opted to bring in Aston Villa's Emi Martinez. Paying £7 million for a goalkeeper that is 34 years old might seem crazy, but his experience will be extremely valuable this season and he is a solid, safe pair of hands that could prove crucial as we try to work our way back into that top 4 this season!

Emi Martinez was a non EU player and to be able to register him, I would need to sell another non EU player. Diego Rosa had been attracting interest from a whole host of clubs and I took the decision to accept a bid of £10.75 million from Mexican side, Club Necaxa, for him. It is another great piece of business from me (if I do say so myself) getting over £10 mil for a player I only paid £1.4 million for 3 seasons ago.

However, I had a big problem....even though I sold Rosa who was a non EU, I still got this message when I went to register Martinez for the squad!! P155ed off!!

Our pre season friendlies went well and included a tour of the USA in which we scored 14 goals in just 3 games!

Our first competitive game of the season would the first leg of our qualifier to get into the Europa Conference League group stage. We'd drawn Lech Poznan and it's fair to say that the tie is all but over already after we thrashed them here!

As we head into the first Serie A game of the season, there's no doubt in my mind that this is easily the best and biggest squad of players I've had during my career. The bookies clearly agree with me as they actually have us tipped for a top half finish for the first time in 4 years of Serie A football.

And the board's expectations are also increasing and they firmly expect us to finish in that top half this season too!

Our season didn't exactly start in the best way though as we could only manage a draw away at Salernitana...they played a very negative game with 10 men behind the ball for 90 minutes and we simply couldn't break them down!

I heavily rotated the team against Lech Poznan in the 2nd leg of our Conference League qualifier, making 9 changes to the lineup. It didn't really disrupt the flow of the team as we still record another easy win to seal our place in the group stage.

The group draw was kind to us as 2nd seeds and we should breeze through to the knockout stages.

Back to domestic action for now though and we took on a Fiorentina side that flirted with relegation last year. And based on this result, I'd be shocked if they manage to stay up this season...they were awful! Alessio Rosa stole the show with a first half performance that saw him score 4 times!

Those goals actually make Alessio Rosa the club's all time leading league goalscorer!

Two games in so the league table doesn't really have any significance at this stage, but here it is anyway.

 

[FM_TNSSO]

TRANSFER DEADLINE DAY

I decided to do a small update just on transfer deadline day as it was an extremely busy one for us with players in and out!

Transfer deadline day came and I had to do something about Emi Martinez who was unable to be registered for the squad but was eating up £84k per week in wages!!! I tried to offer him out, but nobody would bid for him based on 'his reluctance to leave after just joining the club'. So I offered him out on loan for the season in the hope I could at least get him off the wage bill for the year and Real Betis were willing to take him and pay 90% of his salary, so he goes straight off to Spain without making a single appearance for us.

The departure of Diego Rosa a couple of weeks ago had left a gap in central midfield and I needed to bring in another player to cover this role. I was keen to add an Italian to the squad as the number of home nationality players has dwindled slightly and the man that comes in is 30 year old, Rolando Mandragora. He signs from Torino for £8.5 million and is a really strong addition for me to add to my midfield three that I like to play.

One of the new stipulations of the board's vision this year was to bring players up from the lower divisions to play in the first team and I hadn't done that once yet. So the one that ticks the box is my new goalkeeper, Michele Di Gregorio, who signs from Benevento, where he has been their number 1 for 3 seasons since signing from Inter Milan. I paid £2.1 million to bring him here and hope he can turn out to be another great piece of bargain business.

Next up wasn't a deal I had in mind, but a fee was offered that was too good to turn down. Brian Oddei has been with me for 6 seasons, 4 on loan and 2 as a permanent Palermo member. He made 159 league appearances under me, scoring 49 times and getting 56 assists, but when someone comes in with a bid of £25 million for a player I only paid £5.25 million for, I couldn't turn it down (especially when I'd already turned down £17 mil and Oddei had expressed some unhappiness around this). He joins Eintracht Frankfurt in Germany.

Eintracht Frankfurt then completed a double swoop as they take Eduard Lowen off our hands for £3.5 million as well. Lowen had been causing me some issues since January, complaining about his playing time and edging for a move away from the club. I was keen to move him on during this window as he was my 4th choice centre back, but had a squad status of important player, which was causing issues. We got £3.5 million for him which is a small increase on what I paid for him. Lowen played 44 times for the club in league competitions, scoring once.

I had to replace Lowen and again, was keen to go with an Italian player. I needed someone who was willing to fill that spot as 4th choice CB and who would accept a backup squad status on their contract, so it made sense to appease the board and raid the lower divisions again. Christian Dalle Mura has has performed well for SPAL in Serie B over the last 2 seasons, scoring an average rating of 7.20, and he fit the bill perfectly on what I was looking for. He joins us for just £1.7 million.

I'm always on the lookout for promising youngsters for the future and I think we have a real talent in 16 year old French attacking midfielder, Benjamin Perrot. He only cost me £850k to bring him to Italy from Marseille and could well go on to become a very important player for us in future years!

My final signing of transfer deadline day was 25 year old Italian midfielder, Daniel Maldini, who arrives from Torino for a fee of £6.75 million, which is an absolute bargain....personally I think we've robbed them! Maldini provides competition for places down both wings and is an ideal replacement for Brian Oddei. I'm looking forward to working him into my team!

Here's the squad at the end of a hectic day. Pleased to get my Italian player quota back up to 9

 

[FM_TNSSO]

Despite dominating the game against Hellas Verona from start to finish, we simply couldn't score and suffer a 1-0 defeat after being caught on the break late on! A really bad result in a game we should have and deserved to win!

We quickly put the disappointment of that result behind us by kicking off our Europa Conference League campaign in style against Panathinaikos. The highlights for us were 18 year old striker, Guillem, bagging a hat trick, whilst new signing Daniel Maldini got two assists and scored a pen on his first start for the club.

Lazio came into their game with us in Serie A, having drawn all 4 of their previous games so far this season. However, we put a stop to that run here as we record a great victory at their place! Lazio has been a place where we have notoriously struggled in the past, so this is a great result!

4 points from our next two games, including a very good draw against AC Milan where we were actually the better side and probably deserved to win! We have had a couple of dodgy results already this season, but from watching our performances on the pitch, I'm still convinced we are a much better team than I've ever managed before.

Back in Europe we took on North Macedonian side, KF Shkendija, and I took the opportunity to play some of our second team, including handing starts to 21 year old Josh Quirk and 16 year old Benjamin Perrot...twice they linked up well to gain goals and assists between them in what was an impressive all round performance.

Six games into the Serie A season and Torino are top of the division, so we knew we were in for a tough game here. And we did lose it...although we never should have! They had 5 shots and scored 3 goals...we had 26 attempts on their goal!!

We quickly got back to winning ways against Sassuolo though.

Another win came in our next league game against Spezia, and that was sandwiched between two big scoreline victories over Ujpest in the Europa Conference League.

Four wins from four in the competition has seen us qualify for the knockout stages with two games still to go.

Our youngsters are thriving in the European competition this year as I give them valuable game time against weaker opposition, none more so than 19 year old striker Guillem who has 7 goals and 3 assists in the competition already this season!

Next up was our first Due Sicilie Derby of the season in Serie A and we had our centre backs to thank for the win over Napoli. We haven't been a side that has scored a lot of goals from set pieces over the years, but two headed efforts from corners here was enough to overcome one of our biggest rivals.

We only managed to follow that up with a bore draw at Atalanta though and it was disappointing to drop points here, especially as we managed 16 shots on their goal and were in charge of the game for large periods.

It means that after 11 games of the season, we sit 4th. Inter and Juventus have opened up a small gap at the top already, but we're very much in the mix with the best of the rest for now.

 

[FM_TNSSO]

Our penultimate game in the group stages of the Europa Conference League again saw us record a big win and we are literally scoring goals for fun in this competition so far this season.

We followed that up with a disappointing draw against Cagliari back in Serie A though...yet another of those games where we created a lot but failed to take our chances and were punished for it.

However, we improved our form pretty sharpish with an excellent win over Roma and then backed it up with victory at Crotone. That's 7 Serie A games without defeat now!

And then we rounded off our Europea Conference League group in perfect fashion, making it 6 wins from 6 games.

Our unbeaten run in the league came to an end though as we took on both of the top 2 and rounded off 2027 with back to back defeats. Juventus are just on another level and we still look so far off the pace with them!

The January transfer window opens and I'm pleased to welcome three young signings to the club for the future. First is 18 year old right back, Stefano Bifulco, who joins us from Sampdoria for a fee of £4.8 million. He's broken into their first team this season in Serie B and will go back there until the end of the season on loan as part of the deal.

Next in is Portuguese centre mid, Bernardo Mosca. He's a bit older at 20 years of age and will likely get some game time this season for us...he could improve into a first team regular for sure and cost us £3.8 million from Vitoria de Guimaraes. He already has 70 senior appearances to his name in all three of Portugal's league competitions.

Finally, I spent £2.2 million to bring in 18 year old French striker, Tome Pinto, from Marseille. He's a determined kid with some good mental attributes already and if he can improve some of his technical skills, he could become a very good player. Not sure if he'll star for us one day or not yet, but certainly a youngster I reckon I could make some money on in a couple of years if he doesn't improve enough to play for my first team.

The board increased my transfer budget enough for me to make one key signing this window and that was for a new keeper. I haven't been entirely convinced by Michele Di Gregorio since he signed in the Summer, so wanted to bring in another keeper to strengthen us at the back. Josep Martinez is the man I've opted for and he signs from Eintracht Frankfurt for a fee of £6.25 million. He has been the number one keeper for them for the past 2 years, recording an average rating of 7.15. Prior to that, he was Union Berlin's number 1 between the sticks for four seasons, again being ultra consistent with an average rating of above 7.0 for three out of those four years!

Martinez first game between the posts for us was not a good one though as we go down to Empoli in a poor performance. Their first two shots on goal both went in and that was enough to sink us!

We needed to make a change and it was time to go to the tactics board. I have a much better squad nowadays so decided we're good enough to really go after games now...more attacking formation, more pressing, more direct passing, quicker tempo....the whole idea of this new tactic is getting the ball forward as quick as possible, unsettling the opposition as much as we can with fast quick passing from back to front. Overloading the opposition in their own half. Mentality is that if we play 90 minutes in the opponent's half, then we will surely win the game!

It immediately brings about a better result against Bologna!

And then sees us progress in the Coppa Italia against one of our fiercest rivals as well. I might be on to something here with this new setup!

The goals are not as free flowing as I thought they might be with this tactic, but defensively it's superb, as we went on to take 7 points from our next 3 games, conceding only 1 goal in the process!

And that leaves us 5th in the table, but we have a whole host of teams stacked up behind us! We're 4 points off the top 4 places and they're not out of reach yet.

 

[sahajpal97]

Great story so far. Your journey from the lower leagues with Palermo has been great. I especially like how your signings are not the obvious wonderkid signings which people use to blitz their way through a save.

It would be great if you can check my FM 2021 stories which I am writing.

1. The journey of a lifetime: https://fm-base.co.uk/threads/the-journey-of-a-lifetime.178165/
2. The big rebuild: https://fm-base.co.uk/threads/the-big-rebuild-club-1-manchester-united.178171/

 

[FM_TNSSO]

Great story so far. Your journey from the lower leagues with Palermo has been great. I especially like how your signings are not the obvious wonderkid signings which people use to blitz their way through a save.

It would be great if you can check my FM 2021 stories which I am writing.

1. The journey of a lifetime: https://fm-base.co.uk/threads/the-journey-of-a-lifetime.178165/
2. The big rebuild: https://fm-base.co.uk/threads/the-big-rebuild-club-1-manchester-united.178171/

Thanks mate. Other than following other people's stories on here, I always play the game organically and like to find my own journey. Never use downloaded tactics and never look at posts for obvious wonderkids and bargain signings etc....I like my game to be authentic to just me. Doesn't always guarantee me success but it's the way I like it

 

[FM_TNSSO]

Our most dominant performance with the new tactic yet, came against Hellas Verona in a very comfortable win, that could have been 5 or 6 based on the chances we created.

That led us into a Coppa Italia Quarter Final encounter with Juventus and this would easily be the toughest test I'd faced with the new system. We didn't do ourselves any favours, giving away a penalty as early as the 12th minute! As it turned out, we actually responded pretty well to that when we could have easily folded and matched Juve for the remainder of the game...unfortunately, there was no equaliser though and we are out. But this wasn't a bad performance.

We could take plenty of confidence from that, into our next league game away at the San Siro. And we did our fans proud once again and can count ourselves really unlucky to come away with nothing from the game!

The lads had every right to feel a bit sorry for themselves after the past couple of games, but I did my best to channel that frustration into our next performance. They did exactly that as we beat Udinese to get back to winning ways again.

Which would lead us into a huge game against Lazio that would see 5th play 7th, with two sides who both have European qualification aspirations this year. And we absolutely battered them!

Torino are another side looking to close in on the top 7 this season, but we quickly put a dent in their hopes too!

And we made it 4 wins on the bounce with a scrappy win over Spezia. We had to work hard for this one, but got the job done and it saw us climb back into the top 4 as well!

And so it was that time of year when the knockout stages of the European competitions start up again and we'd been handed a bye through the first knockout round for winning our group in the Europa Conference League. The second knockout round would see us take on Belgian side, Antwerp. It was a tie that we were expected to run out comfortable winners from. However, things didn't go entirely to plan in the first leg and we have to make sure we get the win at home now.

We got the job done with relative ease in the home leg though and will now go on to play Lille in the Quarter Final.

No better way to celebrate than signing a new 4 year contract with the club!

Between those two games, we had another league match against Sassuolo - a side we had won our last 3 games against. However, on this occasion, despite having 27 shots at their goal, we could only manage a 0-0 draw!

So we're back in the top 4 with 10 games of the season remaining. With an 11 point lead over Cagliari in 8th, we look comfortable to qualify for European competition again next season - it just remains to be seen which one.