Hello. After (somehow) not getting into my Athletic Bilbao save, mainly due to it being too easy, I decided I needed a fresh start with a different team and I have decided upon U.S. Sassuolo from Italy's Serie A.
I chose them because they have won nothing apart from a Serie B title last year and they are making their debut in Serie A this season.
Hopefully I will lead them to glory and develop some excellent young talent.
Here it goes...........................
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CLUB STATS
Founded - 1922 Nickname - I Neroverdi (The Black and Greens) Stadium - Stadio Citta del Tricolore (owned by Reggiana) Capacity - 22,000 Derby - Modenese derby versus Modena
All facilities, youth coaching and recruitment are either average or adequate. We share a stadium with Reggiana as our own stadiums capacity has only a 4,000 capacity and is used for training.
All 3 will be crucial to any future success and my main priority is to fully own all 3.
Also in the squad we have Reto Ziegler, Antonio Floro Flores and Matias Ezequiel Schelotto on loan and a few co-owned players that are semi decent.
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PLAYERS IN
I said we would finish in a mid-table position so got a budget of ?3.2m and fortunately the board agreed to give me extra wages to take it to ?6m.
My first deal was to buy out Simone Zaza for ?750,000. I couldnt get Berardi or Marrone as Juve want a total of ?20m for the pair!!!!!
I did however manage to get Marco Capuano in from Pescara for ?2.6m and he will be my first choice centre back. Also joining was our new goalkeeper, Mattia Perin, from Genoa for ?1m. View attachment 447343View attachment 447342
Finally Rafael Guarderas came in on loan from Atletico Madrid after I managed to get them as a parent club. View attachment 447341
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PLAYERS OUT
Not much. I released a 35y/o centre-back anc cancelled a few loans - thats it!!!!
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SUMMARY
I would like to think we can easily avoid relegation and finish safely in mid-table and maybe even sneak into the top 10 but we shall see.
I will play my usual 4-2-3-1 formation and in my head my first choice will be.........
Perrin
Ziegler - Capuano - Terranova - Pucino
Kurtic - Morrone
Alexe - Zaza - Missiroli
Berardi
This is liable to change lol.
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OTHER NEWS
I managed to get the board to improve all the facilities and youth coaching while in addition to Atletico Madrid I managed to get a feeder side in the form of KV Kortrijk of Belgium.
Coppa Italia 3rd Qualifying Round Sassuolo 2 (Alexe 1, Terranova 32) Lanciano 0
A nice and comfortable start. We took the lead after only 27 seconds and once the 2nd was added it was game over.
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Catania 1 (Almiron 46) Sassuolo 3 (Schelotto 75, Zaza 86pen, 90)
A fantastic way to kick-off our first ever Serie A campaign. The first half was even so it was a huge blow to go a goal down early in the 2nd half but we battled back to level and got a dodgy penalty for the winner.
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Sassuolo 2 (Missiroli 65, Alexe 84) Atalanta 0
This game was played on 1st September but I put it in this post to cover the transfer window. Another fine result and performance.
What a start!!!! The cup game was always going to be a comfortable one but to win 3-1 away from home in Serie A was fantastic and follow it up with a hard fought win over a decent Atalanta meant that we have had a dream start.
So, to the transfer window, and I broke the clubs record transfer fee!!! I shelled out ?2.2m on Tommaso Arrigoni from Cesena. Methinks he will develop into a top midfielder providing I give him enough games. I am looking to establish a core of Italian players for the future and he will be a big part of that. View attachment 447287
My last deal was a loan move for Diego Buonanotte from Granada for ?675,000. He will add a bit of flair and creativity to my side and hopefully will be a star. View attachment 447284
Outgoing was Ettore Gliozzi to Lazio for ?325,000 on a co-ownership deal and Aladje to Bassano on loan. I rejected several bids from clubs for Domenico Berardi - the highest being a ?7m bid from Arsenal.
A stupendous performance away from home. Just about everybody got a rating over 8.00 and my CMs played so well I couldnt put on Arrigoni for his debut. Zaza has been banging them in up front in Berardi's abscence.
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Sassuolo 2 (Berardi 30, 75) Livorno 0
This Serie A malarky is quite easy lol
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Cagliari 0 Sassuolo 2 (Ziegler 2, Marrone 83)
And here was me thinking this would be a challenge lol.
This month was crazy. We won every game and performed magnificently to maintain our dream start to the season. I picked Sassuolo because of a few decent youngsters and players that would fit into my tactic and they have responded brilliantly.
However next month is going to be a completely different story as the tough fixtures are rolling around so I will enjoy this honeymoon period while it lasts.
The winning streak continues with another great performance. The big teams are just around the corner though.
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Sassuolo 1 (Buonanotte 90) Roma 1 (Gervinho 46)
Our winning streak comes to an end in a game that we dominated from start to finish but in the end we managed to scrape a draw thanks to Buonanotte's goal deep into injury time.
They had Campagnaro sent-off minutes before they took the lead and after that we blew them away.
WOW!!!!!
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Sassuolo 1 (Berardi 10)
Juventus 2 (Llorente 36, 69)
Our first defeat and it was undeserved to tell the truth. Berardi missed a penalty on the stroke of half time that proved to be costly.
This month was pretty decent with one obvious highlight. The Inter match was unbelievable and it will take some beating. We performed well against Juve and Roma too and didnt get the points our play deserved but thats the way it goes sometimes.
Anywho it is safe to say we wont be heading towards relegation!!!!
Sassuolo 1 (Arrigoni 90) Fiorentina 1 (Rodriguez 79)
A decent point I suppose considering we levelled in stoppage time and they had a goal disallowed earlier on.
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Udinese 3 (Di Natale 77, 79, Lazzari 86) Sassuolo 5 (Berardi 5, Zaza 18, 26, Buonanotte 60, Rossini 89)
Another away game where we bang in the goals. We have scored 23 goals in 6 away games and only 9 in 6 home games! Zaza missed a penalty here too.
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Sassuolo 0 Napoli 1 (Callejon 90)
This was tough to take but we have scored plenty of last minute goals ourselves so I cant complain too much.
A mixed month this as we scraped a draw, got a convincing win and lost a tight game to a last minute goal. However we are still flying high in the league and sit in 2nd place. Juventus look as though they have won it already!!!
I signed a new contract with the club with the expectation to finish in mid table which should be easily done considering how good a start we have made.
Inter appoint Leonardo Menchini
Fiorentina sack Montella and appoint Bielsa
Napoli sack Benitez after beating us and appoint Spalletti
Cagliari also looking for a new boss
Bologna are struggling at the bottom and we piled more misery on them here.
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Coppa Italia 4th Qualifying Round Sassuolo 5 (Longhi 11, Zaza 33pen, Floro Flores 40, 67, Chibsah 43) Varese 1 (Pereira 54)
I decided to rest a few players here and my backups did well. Chibsah particularly impressed and showed why he gets called up for the Italy U21 side.
Genoa moved off the bottom of the table with this point. We had enough chances to win 10 games here.
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Verona 1 (Longo 65) Sassuolo 2 (Marrone 10, Berardi 90)
A very hard fought win this and Verona probably deserved a draw but Berardi struck in stoppage time to get us the points.
A very good month was had here with the only disappointment being the draw against Genoa. Our performance against Lazio was arguably our best of the season so far.
In the Coppa Italia we will play Roma and I am hoping to qualify for the Europa League at least by the end of the season. If we drop out of the top 6 it means we have gone on a horrible run.
