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.
Gli Azzurri | Part 11 | Goalkeeper Injury Hits Hard
Pentagon Pursuit | Part 2 | Robaato Rasamu’s Job Hunt
Rasamu wasted no time in applying for vacancies that were available on 3 July, including a couple of roles in his native Japan and clubs in South Africa, Indonesia and Malaysia. Six days later, he attended his very first Football Manager interview with Malaysian club Melaka FC then two more interviews with Japanese side Kamatamare Sanuki and South African side Black Leopards.
Pentagon Pursuit | Part 1 | Introducing An Epic Global Challenge
"These days, it seems like every man and his dog thinks he's capable of being the next Pep Guardiola." That was the opening line from the thesis that Robaato Rasamu (ロバート ラサム) had proudly presented to the advisory board at The University of Tokyo Sports Science Initiative a few months ago.
Gli Azzurri | Part 10 | Empoli In The Champions League
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.
Gli Azzurri | Part 9 | Homegrown Hero Primoz Kompara
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.
Gli Azzurri | Part 6 | Spending The Baldanzi Cash
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.
Gli Azzurri | Part 5 | Club Record Transfers
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.
Gli Azzurri | Part 4 | Massive Summer Turnover
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.
Gli Azzurri | Part 3 | Entertainment At Empoli
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.
Gli Azzurri | Part 2 | Seven Successive Defeats
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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