A Football Manager Journey
Welcome to the latest and Final Chapter of Florence And The Goal Machine. After ten seasons with La Viola the curtain comes down on one of my all time favourite FM saves and we went out in style by winning the Serie A title for the third time of the duration of the save. The Champions League eluded us yet again but overall I am more than satisfied with what we have achieved over the last 10 years.
Continue reading “Florence And The Goal Machine : (10.0) The Final Chapter 2027-2028”
Welcome back, its season nine in to the save and things in Florence are starting to change with Abdou Diakhate on his way to China at the end of August after agreeing a deal early in the summer, it feels like the save is coming to an end with the loss of my trusted warrior on the pitch but maybe that gives someone else the chance to step up and replace the Senegalese midfielder.
Continue reading “Florence And The Goal Machine : (9.0) When The Going Gets Tough 2026-2027”
Welcome to Part Two of my 2025-2026 season review. I left off last time at the end of December with us in 5th position in the league, out of the Champions League at the group stage but in the Europa League and last but not least in the Semi Final of the Coppa Italia. Our form in my opinion was a bit patchy but what was about to happen simply had me stunned and the very reason why the sub title this season is Helter Skelter.
Continue reading “Florence And The Goal Machine : (8.1) Helter Skelter (Part Two) 2025-2026”
Welcome to a round up of season 8 of Florence And The Goal Machine. Things are really kicking on in Florence with me taking every opportunity to delve in to the save I made two additions to the club squads with young Brazilian defender Arnaldo (Newgen) coming in to our Under 20 squad after a £1m move from Santos. Another Brazilian 24 year old winger Vinícius Júnior joins us on a free transfer after running his contract down at Real Madrid.
Continue reading “Florence And The Goal Machine : (8.0) Helter Skelter (Part 1) 2025-2026”
Welcome to the latest ramblings from Florence where we have reached the end of our seventh season together. Going in to the season my priority was to try and bring home a second Scudetto after three consecutive 2nd place finishes. Making the decision to prioritise the League over the Champions League could be a costly one when it comes to the club finances but it is a decision that I was prepared to take and who knows we may even have a decent run in the Champions League.
Continue reading “Florence And The Goal Machine : (7.0) Campioni 2024-2025”
Welcome to my first blog post since my appointment to be the Italian National Team Manager. I will be running separate blog posts on The Azzurri to keep them separate from my posts about ACF Fiorentina. If you have read my last blog post you will already know that I turned down the England job to become manager of Italy and become the first foreign manager to manage the Italian National Team.
Continue reading “The Velvet Revolution (La Nazionale) Azzurri 1.0 (2024)”
Welcome to the end of our season six round up, yes season six I can’t believe already that I have managed this fantastic club in over 300 games already. My last update saw me reveal our new tactical system The Velvet Revolution which if you have not already read you can do so by clicking here. So without further ado let’s get on with looking at how we got on when it came down to the sharp end of the season.
Continue reading “Florence And The Goal Machine (6.1) ‘Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow’ 2023-2024”
Welcome to the latest from Florence where we are now in our 6th season of the save. You will notice that the header for this save consists of a few managers who all have managed either Ajax or Barcelona or both. Rinus Michels, Johan cruyff, Louis Van Gaal, Josep Guardiola, and Erik ten Hag are the men in question and the ones who I have grown up watching and studying closely whilst admiring their philosophy on how the game should be played.
Continue reading “Florence And The Goal Machine (6.0) ‘The Velvet Revolution’ 2023-2024”
Welcome to the latest from Florence where it has been quite a season with the winter World Cup taking place in Qatar which incidentally England won 1-0 against Denmark meaning that we had to have a pre-season break in December. My last save update took us up to that winter break with us in 5th place in the table 5 points off Juventus at the top of the table.
Continue reading “Florence And The Goal Machine (5.2) Always The Bridesmaid 2022-2023”
Welcome to the latest post from Florence, on a cold November day in Florence back in 2019 I decided that I would take myself off to Brazil for a few days and take a look at a few youth team games during a blank 14 days in the Serie A calendar. My first port of call was a game in Porto Alegre between Gremio U20 and Flamengo U20 to run the rule over left wing back Juninho Capixaba who was on loan at Gremio from Corinthians.
Continue reading “Florence And The Goal Machine (5.1) ‘Ganso’ The Boy From Porto Alegre”
