Empoli FC enjoyed a season of overachievement in our first season of the Football Manager 2024 Beta, as we led them to an 11th-place finish. Those achievements were all the more impressive considering most of our squad was considered Serie B players, and most of them were on loan.
That meant we had a lot of work to do in our first full summer in charge. It began by releasing 30 players, who were mostly youngsters who were nowhere near good enough. We set about moving on a mass of players who returned from loans and weren’t good enough and last season’s Sebastian Walukiewicz and Sebastiano Luperto, bringing in a total of 11.25m for 21 players. That gave us a transfer budget of around £14m and a spare wage budget of around £200,000 per week.
Our first permanent signing of this save was Matteo Cancellieri, who was probably our best player on loan last season and signed for £3.9m rising to £8m. We spent £4.6m on holding midfielder Alexsander, who can also provide cover at left-back and left wing, and £2.8m on Lazio’s promising centre-back Fabio Andrea Ruggeri. We also turned to free transfers to fill key positions, bringing in Brighton centre-back Jan Paul van Hecke, goalkeeper Ignacio de Arruabarrena and former PSV and Chelsea midfielder Marco van Ginkel, who brings a little experience to the squad. We were also bolstered by 21-year-old homegrown prospect Duccio Degli Innocenti returning from a loan at Lecco, where he got eight assists in Serie B last season. And on deadline day, we snapped up 20-year-old midfielder Franco González for £3m from Penarol, who had quoted us £10m two months ago, and he chose us ahead of Inter and Milan.
Given the lack of finances, we also turned to the loan market. I’m particularly excited about the signings of Brighton winger Facundo Buonanotte and Barcelona winger Ángel Alcarcón, who are joined by Dortmund centre-back Filippo Mané, two right-backs in Liverpool’s Conor Bradley and Juventus’ Tommaso Barbieri, Man UFC left-back Álvaro Fernández and Sassuolo midfielder Luca Lipani.
I think that transfer activity – with 51 players departing and 14 arriving – has us in a much stronger place, given we now have 13 players considered at least Serie A players and plenty of potential to work with. I’ve worked on a few tactics over the summer, and am leaning towards a solid-looking 4-3-3 approach (casually switched to the Sas24 skin at the start of the season).
Season 2 In Empoli Begins
Our transfer activity seemed to have convinced the bookies we had more of a chance this season. They now have us to finish 15th with odds of 300/1 to win Serie A, up from 1000/1 last season. Champions Milan, whose manager Pioli quit to become Italy boss and was replaced by Zidane, are now 12/5 favourites followed by Inter (11/4), Juventus and Napoli (11/2) and Lazio and Roma (18/1). And thankfully, the board still only wants us to avoid relegation.
We began the campaign with a must-win game at home to newly-promoted Catanzaro. They had an early goal disallowed then a player sent off and we went on to dominate. However, we could only find one goal through homegrown striker Tommaso Baldanzi just before half-time. We then went to Torino and Baldanzi’s last-minute strike earned a point and were a little unlucky to draw 1-1 at home to Udinese – but lost Cancellieri for up to four months with a broken foot and de Arrabuarrena for six weeks with torn wrist ligaments.
That meant we had to throw in backup keeper Niccoló Chiorra, who is terrible, and we unsurprisingly got thumped 5-0 at Inter. However, for context, they spend 10 times more than us on wages and bring in £114m in commercial income compared to our £5.5m. In other words, Serie A isn’t fair! We were then abysmal in the first half at home to Bologna, who finished 7th last season, trailing 2-0 from three shots on target. But a stern half-time team talk did the trick as winger Stiven Shpendi’s double earned a point.
Chiorra’s incompetence led me to throw intake star Primoz Kompara in for his debut at rivals Fiorentina… and he dislocated his shoulder after 8 minutes. Great. So Chiorra was straight back in. González’s first goal for the club put us ahead but Fiorentina got level. But just as it looked to be drifting to a draw, Alexsander picked up the ball 30 yards, moved forward and delivered a delicious curled effort from 25 yards to seal an Arno Derby victory.
We then enjoyed a great first half at home to Atalanta as Bradley’s superb run ended up with Shpendi heading in from close range, Baldanzi doubled the lead and Buanonotte’s first goal restored the two-goal lead just before half-time. We also hit the bar three times before Alexsander drilled home a fourth from 30 yards and our former loanee Cambiaghi curled in an absolute beauty, but we got a much-deserved 4-2 win with 2.15 xG.
Just when I thought we were getting somewhere, Chiorra went and conceded the only two shots on target at Lecce and we lost 2-1 despite Shpendi’s sumptuous volley. Chiorra has now conceded 13 in 6 matches and, as this graph shows, he is the worst goalkeeper in Serie A, saving 58% of shots.
We got battered 4-1 at Roma but recovered with a 3-1 win at Palermo, in which homegrown Degli Innocenti scored his first goal for the club. de Arruabarrena returned and kept the rarity of a clean sheet as a brilliant González double inspired a 2-0 win over an inept Monza. And we maintained the home form as Shpendi and Baldanzi strikes downed Sassuolo 2-1 before nicking a draw with high-flying Salernitana.
Challenging Italy’s Big Boys
The away form was a little more shaky as we got dominated at Lazio but put in a solid effort to win 1-0 at Hellas Verona through a screamer from Barbieri. But we finished 2024 with a tough run of games. That started by welcoming Napoli, who we drew with twice last season. And this time we went one better as Degli Innocenti’s penalty decided a tight game. We got dominated at Juve but only lost 1-0 then finished the year by entertaining Milan, racing into a 2-0 lead through a Baldanzi brace then holding on for a solid 2-2 as Milan bossed us by 16 shots to eight.
That ensured we remained unbeaten at home and went into 2025 in 9th place, just four points off the European places and 19 above the dropzone. We sit on 29 points from 18 games with eight wins, five draws and five defeats. The attacking threat has dropped off with 25 goals but the defence has certainly improved with 26 conceded.
Our good form so far this season earned me a new three-year contract on £16.5k per week. So there were plenty of positives around Empoli FC. However, it looks increasingly likely that we will lose top scorer Baldanzi, who told me he wants to join a club with a stronger squad and agreed to an asking price of £50m.
So can we keep hold of Baldanzi? And can we push for a top-half finish in our second season at Empoli?
Football Manager Addict 
Leave a comment