Despite only losing once in the first half of the 2028/29 Serie A campaign, Empoli FC found themselves trailing leaders Napoli by five points. But there were certainly shoots of optimism at the young side's improving fortunes against Italy's traditional big boys.
The old FM24 goalkeeper injury curse hit Empoli FC hard and curtailed their push for a maiden Serie A title in 2027/28. But that disappointment aside, we'd built an exciting young squad in Tuscany and the club was very much on the up.
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.
The good people of Empoli painted the streets blue with gallons of Nastro Azzurro, Chianti, limoncello and Negronis flowing freely as they celebrated the greatest day in the history of Empoli FC. Our young side defied all the odds to win the Europa League and record the highest-ever finish in club history.
These were exciting times at Empoli FC as we'd established ourselves in Serie A, were beginning to challenge some of Italy's bigger sides, and were edging towards the latter stages of the Europa League.
Empoli FC brushed off the loss of their talismanic striker to work their way into the top half of Serie A, securing a 9th-place finish in 2024/25. That success saw the board get all big-headed and expect a mid-table finish in our third campaign, so the pressure was on.
A massive summer turnover had worked very nicely as Empoli FC sat pretty in the top half of Serie A heading into 2025. Any risk of relegation looked long gone, given we were 19 points clear of the dropzone.
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.
Empoli had made a solid start to the 2023/24 Serie A campaign as, despite a seven-match losing streak, we found ourselves firmly in mid-table heading into the new year. The hard work continued now as we looked to avoid the risk of a relegation battle.
In part one of Gli Azzurri, we gave you a brief introduction to Empoli FC, ran through the board and supporter expectations and met the players available to us in the FM24 Beta. Now we'll look to play our first matches of FM24 with Empoli.
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