Saving Parma! From Zero to Heroes (Please delete)

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TouchyFM

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Yo, first off, I'd like to apologise for the SAF Challenge ending abruptly, the save file corrupted and I hadn't made backups :'(.

Anyway, I've been through a period where I completely disliked the game, I wasn't enjoying it. But a recent save with Northampton (currently in 2026: Premier League champions!) has brought me back into it, and I've wanted a new challenge.

Many of you will have heard about Parma's financial plight in recent months and years. They have a net debt of nearly £75m at the moment, and I've stumbled across a data edit file that has replicated these events. I've also tweaked it a bit, but basically, Parma have no money, and owe a lot. There is no money to spend, and none of the money made through transfers is re-allocated into my transfer budget. This will be one **** of a task.

In game, Parma are in administration: the main aim will be to exit that (probably through a takeover) and then try and build this once very good side into European champions. This won't be easy, I'll be on the definition of a shoestring budget, in fact, the shoestring has nearly completely worn out - financial management will be paramount. Therefore, I have set myself some rules that will help keep Parma in the black once we get there

 -No signings to be made that exceed the value of £8m;
-No new signing or new contract offer may have a weekly wage of more that £25k p/w;
-All offers that are received that are double the value of a player must be accepted, regardless of the player;
-No agent may receive more than £500k in fees, whilst the maximum appearance fee is £2k.

These rules are pretty stringent in all honesty, and will be incredibly hard to meet, which means that youth development must be key (it must be noted that the facilities of Parma in the data editor have been made worse for cost purposes).

So they're the rules of the challenge/story: and here's a bit about Parma itself:

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Competition History

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As you can see, Parma haven't been incredibly successful domestically, they've never won the Serie A, which gives me an opportunity to create by own legacy, whilst 3 Coppa Italia's isn't too much to boast about. However, the 2 Europa League (then UEFA Cup) victories in the 1990s are a very nice piece of history to have in the back pocket.

First Season Aims

Obviously the first season aim is to just stay up, 17th place would be fantastic. There's no doubt I'll have to sell my key players, well the administrator will, to keep our heads above water financially. Parma also have to pay most of their debts back by the end of the season if they want to compete in the Serie A next season, so I've added that to the £25.3m they owe to the bank and the state, to make things extra hard.

Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy it, and the next update will be all of the pre-season news (there could be a lot) and any signings we make, there probably won't be as many of those.


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PRE-SEASON ROUND-UP

So, it's the 30th August (my birthday) and we're just one day away from our opening Serie A game at home to Sampdoria. As you can see from the image below, we had a rather fantastic pre-season, especially as we beat Dortmund, a game that also got us £210k which was a massive bonus. It's nice to know that the system I'm looking to deploy is working (so far).

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Transfer dealings

This is the section where I'd like you to welcome our new signings, all 0 of them. Yes that's right, as expected, we've not been able to sign anyone, and I'm actually really disappointed that we didn't make more money from sales than we did; £1.42m is really not enough. The players' commitment has been highlighted, with a few players rejecting moves away (b***ards). In all honesty, the squad is generally quite weak, but I think we can get some money from Ishak Belfodil and Antonio Mirante, both will be key for the coming season. Gregoire Defrel who left for Lorient is pretty useless, so to get £1.3m for him is very pleasing indeed.


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(We need one to stop the goals, and one to score them)

In terms of our long term future, we're well in the red, and our wage budget is absolutely terrible (combined with the £0 transfer budget)! Unfortunately, I've only seen one news item referring to a takeover, and that was near the beginning so that looks like a non-starter, we could really do with some investment soon as I'd love to be able to control all outgoings, something I can't currently do.

So with a pretty poor squad in terms of strength in depth, we really have to get off to a strong start against Sampdoria, they're a decent side and will probably challenge for Europa League football, but I believe we can get the win, even if we have to play some pretty boring football to get it (hoofball up to Belfodil).
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SERIE A MATCHDAY 1

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Wahey! What a start, it's always nice to bag 3 points, and it was such a close game. The first 40 minutes or so were incredibly boring, and highlightless. Belfodil had the best chance of the half with 5 minutes left, when he stung the palms of Viviano with a great chance inside the area which he should have really scored. The game was quite dirty, there were 7 yellow cards before half-time, and we had Cristian Rodriguez sent off on the hour. Playing with no left-winger was fun (not), but substitute strike Massimo Coda gave us the lead with just over 20 minutes left. Sampdoria went more aggressive with a 3 man strikeforce for the last 15 minutes, and should have scored when Luis Muriel forced a great save from Mirante, and a minute later, they were inches away from levelling when Marco Marchionni struck the post.


It was very nice to start with a win. 1-0 wins are my favourite and to play half an hour with 10 men and still keep a clean sheet is pretty impressive. We also survived a late onslaught which shows there is great character in the team, plenty to be pleased about. But with a tough game away at Lazio after the international break, the lads can't get overconfident.

In more worrying news, Ishak Belfodil has come to me moaning about the club's finances and what I'd do about it, I said not a lot and he's not happy, may have to cash in on him.

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Ill be following this, looks like it could be a great story, will be a huge challenge.
Ive set myself financial constraints on my ipswich town save, but not as tight as yours,
Good luck and a great start to your story
 
Tracz said:
Ill be following this, looks like it could be a great story, will be a huge challenge.
Ive set myself financial constraints on my ipswich town save, but not as tight as yours,
Good luck and a great start to your story
Click to expand...

Thanks a lot mate :) we're already -£5m in terms of bank balance which is not great at all!
 
SERIE A MATCHDAY 2

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Hmm, this wasn't really a 3-0 game but our defence just completely collapsed. We should have taken the lead after 30 seconds when Abdelkader Ghezzal (great name) fired wastefully wide from 6 yards. Lazio took the lead when Marco Parolo fired in from the spot after Lucarelli fouled Lulic. For the rest of the first half we defended okay, but Miroslav Klose made it 2-0, heading in from a corner thanks to some pretty terrible marking. Just 2 minutes later, Ghezzal missed another great chance, he's dropped. Klose wrapped up the 3 points in comical fashion, Cassani's pass went through Lucarelli's legs who didn't look like he could be arsed, and Klose tapped in. It could have been worse, but Candreva rifled a shot off the post.


This was an incredibly frustrating day. If we'd have taken the early chance I feel the game could have panned out differently but it wasn't to be. Needless to say, Ghezzal is definitely dropped for the next game, and our players are going to get a lesson in improving their first touch, it was diabolical - so too was the defending. Much to improve on for the visit of Torino, where I feel we can get a win.
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SERIE A MATCHDAY 3

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A 1-1 draw in terms of the quality of chances created is probably an unjust result, but that can only be based on the first half, we could have been 4-1 up at half-time, as Lucarelli had a couple of chances, with one hitting the bar. Padelli also had a good free-kick well saved. Silvestre Varela gave us the lead when he volleyed in a Rodriguez cross, but Torino equalised with their first attack of the game with Maksimovic heading in from a corner. The second half was dominated stats-wise by Torino, but neither side created anything meaningful.

A draw is by no means a bad result but we should have had the game dead and buried at half-time. We were solid defensively apart from the corner, we'll have to do far better when we travel to the San Siro next time out to play AC Milan!​
 
SERIE A MATCHDAY 4

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This could be a crucial point come the end of the season, and it was a really strong defensive showing from the boys. Milan took a deserved lead through Alessio Cerci, who had earlier forced a great save from Mirante. Cerci picked the ball up after a Lucarelli challenge and slotted it into the corner. Massimo Coda was sent of for an off the ball incident, but one minute later, Cristian Rodriguez scored after a fantastic counter attack. Milan couldn't break us down and we held on for a valuable 1-1 draw.

In all honesty, we played for a point. Never did I think we would or could win the game, so a point is perfect for us. Due to having a 1 point deduction at the start of the season, we now have 4 points from 4 games, and with a home match against Sassuolo next, I'm confident we can have 7 from 5.​
 
This is brilliant - will be following for sure.
 
SERIE A MATCHDAY 5

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1-1 draws are getting a bit tedious, and yet again we played a lot of the game with a man light. We dominated the first half but the turning point came just before half-time when Andi Lila was sent off for a second bookable offence. I was surprised when Ghezzal scored, as the last time he played he missed two sitters. Poor defending helped Domenico Berardi equalise, he was unmarked at the back post to head in. I can't honestly say that either side deserved a win, so a point is very fair, but still frustrating.

Points help, but we really need to start getting wins. We may be unbeaten in three but we're also winless in those games, but we only really deserved to win one. We're not in the bottom three which is a bonus, but we don't have an out-an-out goalscorer as Belfodil just isn't performing, and we're wasting a lot of chances in games. That has to improve if we're going to get anything away at Napoli next time out.
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SEPTEMBER REVIEW

With the first month done, I'm pretty happy, I'd have taken 6 points (5 if you count the point deduction), especially when we've faced teams like AC Milan and Lazio. October's first three games aren't exactly easy, with us playing Napoli away, Udinese at home and then Fiorentina away. I think we can beat Chievo at home, but I'm only realistically expecting 4 points out of 12 - any more than that and it's a bonus, here's a roundup of the results so far:

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These results leave us in 15th place, not the end of the world, and we're only 3 points off 6th. We're predicted to finish 17th but the board want us to finish in mid-table which is a bit ambitious, and puts more pressure on me to make sure that results are good enough. I'm happy that we've only conceded more than one goal in just one game this season, and even then, all those goals against Lazio were of our own making - so despite looking shaky in games, my defence has performed, even though we've only kept one clean sheet so far.

League Table

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Player performances

In terms of our best performers, our two loaned wingers Cristian Rodriguez and Silvestre Varela have been our best players so far this season. Rodriguez has averaged a 7.80 whilst Varela has averaged a 7.04. These two will be key to our success as they are our prime creators. Amazingly, Ghezzal has the best avg. rating of all the strikers with a 6.67, which is still shocking, Belfodil needs to pull his socks up, he's done sweet fa. Mattia Cassani (RB) has been our worst performer so far, he's appeared in all of our games, but only managed a measly 6.42 avg. rating; the 4.90 against Lazio probably didn't help.

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I really need these two to keep performing if we want to stay up

So the first month is done and things are average if anything, we've not set the world alight but the lads are doing their jobs and not losing games (well, except for the Lazio one). I'm really keen for us to get the second win that we deserve, but patience is key, and I'm not worried that we'll hit a negative run of form and slump to the bottom, which has happened in real life. I hope you guys are enjoying the story, and I'd like to know what you think of the layout and format, all feedback is greatly appreciated.

FORZA PARMA!

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SERIE A MATCHDAY 6

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I am utterly speechless at this result, this was a wonderful defensive display, with a really potent counter attacking threat. Ghezzal is turning in some decent performances, and I might partner him up with Coda as Belfodil has been terrible. Ghezzal scored after just 7 minutes following a nice jinking run. There were no other chances of note in the first half; and we should have been 2-0 in front when Belfodil failed to convert after an incredible run through the Napoli defence. They equalised through Jose Callejon, after he converted the rebound from Michu's 25 yard strike. At that point I'd have taken a draw, but when Varela smashed in from Ghezzal's blocked effort, I dared to dream. And we held firm, Napoli never really tested Mirante, and in the 90th minute, captain Lucarelli headed home from Varela's corner, an incredible day!

I couldn't be happier, I targeted 4 points over the next 4 games and we're already 3/4 of the way there. This was the best performance of the season by miles, we were disciplined, pick the right moments to attack and took our chances brilliantly. They had much more possession but we utilised ours to perfection. It's a massive, confidence boosting win which we'll take going into the game at home to Udinese.
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BREAKING NEWS

Some big news regarding the save, we've been taken over. Apparently we're still in administration, I don't know if that will change over time or if it's a bug within the edited DB. The new owner/chairman doesn't seem as bright as the old ones, as he's trying to solve our finances by taking out another ****** bank loan.

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I'm happy that the finances seem more stable, but I'm still going to stick to my rules as the whole point is to prolong financial stability whilst achieving success, but that transfer budget is, erm, nothing special. Let's see if we can attract anyone decent :p
 
NOTICE!!

******THE SAVE FILE HAS CORRUPTED, I'M STARTING AGAIN, FFS******
 
Hey man! Too bad your save file got corrupted :( I felt that this was gonna be a great story. Good luck for your next adventure! If you want to, you can follow my Derby County story, "Ramming Our Way Back Among the Best" for a bit of inspiration! Appreciate if you do :)

Anyway, I just wanna ask, how do you do the scoreboard thing? I think it's really cool and I may want to incorporate it into my story. Thanks!
 
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