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.
The arrival of the Beta version of Football Manager 2024 means that, as is now customary, we're heading back to Italy for the fourth year to begin our FM stories for the season. Having managed Sampdoria, Milan and Roma, we're doing something a little trickier as we take the reigns at Empoli FC.
Ruprecht Prusseit - the first man ever to win a Bundesliga title with a team from East Germany - led Union Berlin to a fifth Bundesliga title in six years and a second Champions League crown in three years in 2043. And that marks the moment where we brought this particular FM Story to an end.
Our Sir Alex Ferguson Challenge went well beyond what I expected as we ended up staying at Nottingham Forest for 26 years to play out the career of the great Luís Pereira to its conclusion. In that time, we firmly established Forest as the best team in the world, lifting an absolute armoury of trophies.
Union Berlin had made a flying start to their Bundesliga title defence, taking a seven-point lead into 2043. The onus was now on Ruprecht Prusseit to maintain his side's good form to win their fifth title and target a second Champions League success.
The summer of 2042 saw manager Ruprecht Prusseit and attacking midfielder Leandro Van Dessel instilled as Union Berlin legends, while record-breaking striker Claudio Sepúlveda became an icon.
After 15 Premier League titles in 16 seasons, the end was very much nigh in this successful Sir Alex Ferguson Challenge. However, I felt we had to conclude the career of arguably the greatest player in Football Manager history, Luís Pereira.
World Champions Union Berlin headed into 2042 with a narrow lead at the top of Bundesliga as they looked to regain the title they'd previously won three times in a row.
But manager Ruprecht Prusseit had a new challenge on his hands, to re-surpass Bayern as champions of Germany and lead his team into their first attempt at becoming World Champions.
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