Europa League champions Empoli FC were flying high, heading into 2028 sitting 2nd in Serie A and with the Champions League knockout stages tantalisingly close. And our continued overperformance prompted the board to give me a new four-year contract worth £30k per week.
That promise was boosted as we finally got a permanent deal over the line for midfielder João Veloso, who’d been wasted by Spurs and arrived for £24.5m. We also signed a second backup keeper in Matías Castro for £4.5m from Vélez and the versatile Dumitru Ionita for £3.6 from Cluj, who I think we may train as a holding midfielder.
Outside Title Chance?
Veloso marked his return with a player-of-the-match performance at home to Udinese, bossing the game and creating the only goal for striker Sebastián Miglioli. That took us 12 games unbeaten, which extended thanks to Diego Coppola scoring the only goal to get our first win against Juventus at the 10th attempt. However, I was happier with our performance at home to Sassuolo, in which Veloso made both goals for Claudio Echeverri sandwiched by a Nelson Weiper strike to take us top of Serie A for the first time.
The unbeaten streak ended with a 3-1 defeat at home to Lazio but Veloso got us back on track with a brace to down Udinese 3-1. Veloso and Echeverri were looking superb in midfield, both scoring as we won 2-0 at bottom side Catanzaro then creating both goals for strikers Weiper and Miglioli as we defeated Inter 2-0 at home. Our form remained very solid, including Echeverri, Weiper and Miglioli goals in a dominant 3-0 win over Bologna. And that sent us into the final few games of the season in a really strong position.
Challenging Champions League Clashes
The Champions League resumed with a daunting trip to Santiago Bernabéu. Madrid battered us in the first half but only scored from two set pieces, before we went down the other end and scored from our first shot. Bellingham scored after half time but Echeverri smashed in a free-kick to make it 3-2 from two shots! We struggled to get out and Madrid settled for a 3-2 win. That teed up a final day at home to Dortmund, who also absolutely dominated us but we improved after the break and only lost 2-1. But we’d just about done enough to sneak into the playoff round.
I kind of wished we hadn’t as we got drawn to play Chelsea. We got a great start as homegrown midfielder Duccio Degli Innocenti fired us in front only for Enzo Fernández to score his first two goals of the season and Chelsea to score their first three shots on target and kill the tie late on. So the Champions League adventure was over.
Tight Serie A Title Fight
With six matches remaining, Empoli found themselves sitting top of Serie A. However, the top of the table is very tight and we still have to go to Milan and Roma and entertain Napoli on the final day. And for context, in five seasons, we’ve beaten Milan once, never beaten Roma, and beaten Napoli twice. So could we buck that trend and lead Empoli to an unlikely maiden title?
Match 1 – Salernitana (18th) away: Our easiest game, on paper, was at former bogey side Salernitana, who seemed to be frustrating us again. That was until Veloso jinked past two defenders and squared the ball for Weiper to tap home. Elsewhere, Milan beat Inter 2-0 and Napoli lost 1-0 at Sassuolo.
Match 2 – Fiorentina (12th) home: Next up was a rival clash in the Arno Derby, which began like a house on fire. Fiorentina kicked off, shot from 30 yards and it deflected in. Weiper immediately equalised before Echeverri nipped in behind and finished superbly two minutes later. Weiper tapped home his second but two minutes later, the goalkeeper curse struck Kompara and Fiorentina immediately scored from a corner only for Echeverri to swiftly score his second. Fiorentina got one back, but we held on for a wild 4-3 victory. Milan lost 2-1 at Lazio and Napoli lost 2-1 at Roma, so we had a five-point lead.
Match 3 – Milan (2nd) away: Kompara suffered a fractured arm so would miss the rest of the season – how typical! Without him, we did our level best to give our opponents a chance as Coppola passed the ball to Neto to open the scoring on 12 minutes. Nothing happened until Echeverri crashed a free-kick off the bar and former Milan man Adam Bakoune had a goal disallowed on 86 minutes, so we fell to a 1-0 loss. So we now had a two-point lead with three games remaining.
Match 4 – Torino (16th) home: We also lost top scorer Weiper and Coppola to a training injury ahead of our penultimate home game. And we got a similar story as Torino scored from their first attack and, despite throwing everything at them, just could not score. Later that day, Milan won 2-0 at Verona to go top by a point, but we secured Champions League qualification through the league for the first time.
Match 5 – Roma (9th) away: Just what we didn’t need now was a trip to Roma, against whom we’ve lost eight out of nine meetings. This time we started well as Weiper headed us in front, only to concede to Roma’s first two shots on target. We got back into it through a superb volley by Fernando Berreira but, as we pushed, Roma won it from an 86th-minute corner. At the same time, Milan beat Fiorentina 3-0 to become champions.
Match 6 – Napoli (3rd) home: With zero pressure, the team finally woke up on the final day. Echeverri finished off a great team move and, shockingly, Castro saved a shot on target before Miglioli doubled the lead. But don’t worry, we gifted Napoli two goals after the break to throw the lead away.
Despite that terrible end to the season, we finished in a new club-record 2nd place. But that conclusion to the campaign is pretty difficult to take given we had to play it without the league’s best goalkeeper. We finished with 24 wins, which ties the club record, eight defeats and six draws, scoring 71 and only conceding 36, nine of which were in the last five games.
Analysing Season 5 at Empoli
Veloso and Bakoune were the second and third-best players in Serie A with their 7.38 and 7.36 ratings only bettered by Kvaratskhelia’s 7.44. Weiper was the joint-top scorer with 23 goals and Yvan Boulesteix’s 13 assists were only bettered by Siquet at Lazio. And Kompara got a league-high 18 clean sheets, only conceding 19 in 31 games while his backups conceded 17 in seven.
Our success this season was built on a solid base, as we conceded a league-low 36 goals and kept a league-high 17 clean sheets. We were also effective going forward, completing more crosses than anyone else (22%), creating the 4th-most chances (174) and having the 2nd-most shots on target (48%). However, we only scored and conceded six from set pieces and only gave away one penalty. Our reputation for squeaky clean football was further enhanced as we only amassed 25 yellow cards all season. And, just as a reminder, we have the fifth-lowest wage spend of £29m, which is one-seventh of Milan’s £196m.
Our success was led by the stunning midfield pairing of Echeverri, who scored 20 with nine assists, and Veloso, who got 10 assists, four goals and a 7.36 average rating in just 23 games. Weiper scored a new club record 29 goals in 48 games in all competitions, surpassing Éder’s 27 in 2009/10, followed by Echeverri (20) and Miglioli (11) but nobody else scored more than five. Boulesteix broke Cancellieri’s assists record of 13 as he got 15 followed by Bakoune and Veloso (10), Echeverri (9) and Miglioli, Weiper and Degli Innocenti (7).
In other news, Mads Rasmussen maintained his reputation by winning the Premio Gentleman Serie A fair play award, as he didn’t get a single card all season from wide centre-back. But that achievement was usurped as Echeverri became the first Empoli player to win Serie A Player of the Year. Kompara won Goalkeeper of the Year “F.Pulici” award, which just highlights how critical that injury was, and I rightly (in my humble opinion) won Manager of the Year for the first time.
We’d made huge progress this season, coupling up a first taste of the Champions League by again recording the best league finish in club history and coming so close to a maiden title. I think we’re close to usurping Italy’s big teams, especially considering we now have the best two midfielders in the league, but there’s still a massive disparity when it comes to finances and on the pitch when we play them.
It feels like we should bring this Beta save to an end soon, but I am really keen to see if we can wrap up Serie A. So I think I’ll keep this save going alongside our new Pentagon Pursuit challenge.
Can we strengthen Empoli for a shot at Serie A in 2028/29? Join us on Saturday to find out!
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