CM2 96-97 Italia - Career of Gianluca Peroni - Season 7

After just creeping passed Milan by a point to retain the Serie A title, whilst picking up a European Super Cup, a Coppa Italia and a Supercoppa Italiana, I felt like we were now fully in the middle of what would be this teams golden age. I kinda hoped we hadn't peaked; I have my eyes on a European Cup sized gap in the trophy cabinet... but I did feel that we were currently operating at full potential, there was some aging heads, and most of the players carrying the squad were not likely to improve much beyond where they were currently at. That in mind there were a couple of players that I felt were not good enough and / or just didn't perform well enough to hold down spots as squad players so I went to market and I brought in 19 year old Central Midfielder; Lampros Zanchi who just had a fantastic season with Udinese in Serie B and was someone I felt could lead the team into a new era once the older heads drop away. He will also likely replace Nicola Campilongo who won't sign a new deal and frankly, has been fairly average anyway. I brought in 24 year old Sweeper / Centre Back Giammarco Frezza from Lucchese as again, somebody I felt would grow into the squad in time but could also have an immediate impact, and for cover for an aging Gio Bosi and Ilya Tsymbalar, I brought in both sided Defensive Midfielder Daniele Amerini from Vicenza. I picked up 19 year old Midfielder Centre; Leonardo Rutzittu and 19 year old Striker Antonio Venturin both on free transfers as potential future stars, but they likely won't feature much. Finally with Mauro Morello departed, I signed 20 year old Goalkeeper Morgan Barraco as cover for Afanasenko.

As I anticipated we get a second crack at the European Cup this season, after making it to the Semi Final last season, and I would be lying if I said it wasn't my priority being the only thing I haven't won yet...! And this year we find ourselves in Group D with Copenhagen, Gothenburg and some little team from England called Manchester United?

Never heard of them? Must have sprung up overnight? But our season started off with a defence of our Supercoppa Italiana crown against last seasons second placed Milan and it was a bit of a cagey affair with us taking the lead after 8 minutes, then being pegged back to 1-1 in the 62nd minute only for Chianese to score immediately after to take the game to 2-1 and to win us out 3rd Suppercoppa Italiana in a row!

Three times in a row is very nice! But it has got to the stage now where I feel like I need to win it... and not winning it is underperforming! But certainly don't take it for granted and a very nice way to kick off the new season! Next up we travelled to... Tuscany... and knocked Pistoiese out the Coppa Italia 2nd Round but with half the entire squad under 90% fit... it was a tough game and ended 3-2 after Inzaghi scored in the 77th minute to seal the win! We then opened up our Serie A campaign with a delightfully boring 0-0 away at Vicenza before travelling to Manchester and getting beat 3-2 by the Red Devils in our opening European Cup group stage game! Following this we lost 3-1 to Juventus, drew 3-3 with Milan and drew 0-0 with Cremonese (a team who I've said before in other posts, have the best goalkeeper in Italy at the moment in Domenico Doardo). Not really the start I was hoping for to be fair. Following this we couldn't put a goal passed Copenhagen despite playing them at home which was poor really, but we were missing a few first team players. Eventually fitness levels balanced out and we went on a good run, picking up a 4-0 win at home against Pescara, a 3-0 win away at Lecce and a 4-0 win over Roma at Home. Followed by a 4-0 win over Gothenburg in the European Cup group stages to pick up our first win in Europe.

Lampros Zanchi already showing his talent at just 19 years old, might find himself with more of a first team presence much earlier than he anticipates! After this we travelled to Bari and let them beat us 3-0 in a poor match we didn't even turn up for. And we then couldn't get passed a Serie B Lazio team as they held us to 1-1 in the Coppa Italia 3rd Round - a replay I could really do without at the moment owing to our fixture congestion! Things picked up quick though with a 3-0 win over newly promoted Parma, and an excellent SEVEN - TWO win over Man Utd in the Euro group stage!

That's current holders of the European Cup Manchester United there and we beat them 7-2! To speed things up a bit as we risk this blog post getting a bit out of a hand... I picked up wins against Torino, Inter, Cosenza, Genoa and Ancona in the league, alongside draws against Brescia (a team low key putting a bit of a streak together...) and perennial rivals; Fiorentina, to pick up 17 points from a possible 21 before January meaning that after 16 games we sat third behind Juventus and Fiorentina.

In cup competitions, things improved in the Coppa Italia with us beating Lazio 3-0 in the replay then being drawn against Milan in Quarter Final, a team I thought might be difficult to beat but we absolutely demolished them 7-1 on aggregate across both legs. In Europe we beat Copenhagen in Denmark 2-0 and Gothenburg 6-0! In Sweden (Zanchi scored twice again!) meaning that we finished top of Group D albeit by goal difference, sharing equal points with Manchester United in second.

Back in Serie A things started to come together very nicely, we went unbeaten across January and February with wins over Napoli, Vicenza, Milan, Pescara, and Lecce as well as draws against Juventus, and Cremonese. But our good form meant that we now sat top of Serie A and were defending our position rather than pushing to move up the table. We dispatched an in form Serie B Salernitana side from the Coppa Italia Semi Final (Salernitana would actually push for promotion but just miss out this season) and our prize for doing so was a 5th consecutive Coppa Italia Cup final against Juventus.

We had been drawn away in the first leg which, I was growing to like, as we push to pick up a decent result, or push to keep the scoreline respectable, and then go in strong in the return home leg. In Europe we were drawn against Barcelona in the Quarter Final, and usually I'd be grateful to get that far and bow out to a superior team, but - they picked up £10 Million valued Nicola Campilongo from us for nothing... and I honestly felt we could beat them. We followed the tested method I explained above, keeping it to a respectable 2-1 loss at the Nou Camp and with only a single goal difference, I felt we could beat them at home. And beat them we did. Thrashing them 4-0 back in Italy! Lampros Zanchi yet again, scoring 2 goals and taking man of the match. We were then drawn against Bayern Munich in the Semi Final, a team we've beaten before in the group stages last season. We once again had the away leg first, but this time we smashed them 4-2 in Munich and 4-1 in Cesena to make it 8-3 on aggregate and seal a place in the European Cup final!

Of course it was Man Utd. It was only ever going to be Man Utd in the final! The Final Boss of European football! We'd beaten Barcelona and Bayern Munich to get here, they had beaten Steaua Bucharest and Arsenal... And we had the mental edge with that 7-2 drubbing earlier in the season, I honestly felt we were going into the game as the slight favourites. But you can never count out Manchester United... or at least not in these 90's football sims anyway... Back in Serie A, we picked up only our 3rd loss of the season so far against Roma 2-0 but responded with wins over Bari, Parma and Brescia before a poor 3-2 loss against Torino. With 6 games left to play we held a 8 point lead over Juventus in 2nd. That narrowed to 7 points when we lost against Inter in a terrible match 4-0 but thankfully Juventus could only manage a 1-1 draw with Ancona. We then went on to face Juventus in the Coppa Italia final coming away from Turin with a 1-0 win, 11 days later we welcomed them back to Dino Mannuzzi where, after coming behind from 1-0 we held on to a 1-1 draw to win our 4th consecutive Coppa Italia and our 5th overall since 1997!

I was really pleased. Board were delighted. We'd done it 4 times in a row now and it was our trophy to lose. And I'll be honest, I really don't feel like giving it up just yet! So regardless of how this season goes, it'll be a focus for next year and we'll push to make that 4 a 5! One down... two to go. We beat Cosezna 3-2 in the league, followed by a disappointing 1-0 loss to Genoa after the Coppa Italia final which narrowed our lead to 5 points ahead of Milan who had leapfrogged Juventus. We went to Ancona and won 3-2 keeping that lead of 5 points and a win at... Fiorentina... would be enough to seal the title. I genuinely thought we'd struggle with it because Fiorentina always seem to be our undoing, but we soundly and comfortably beat them 4-2 and despite Milan also winning we held a 5 point lead with only 1 game left to play meaning we had won our third consecutive Serie A title and, counting the Serie B win, our fourth league title overall!

No sneaking in at the last moment this time, we had held first position for 16 games of the season and this time we'd proven we were capable of playing, and picking up results, against the rest of the whole league. Except Cremonese... but anyway, two down. One to go. And I felt confident going into the European Cup final. Not helped by a 3-3 draw on the last day of the season against Napoli, narrowing our eventual lead over Milan to 3 points... but I felt like we could beat Man Utd and win the European Cup. I really did. We'd dispatched Bayern Munich 8-3 on aggregate, it was our time to become immortal!

Things did not start well... Paul Scholes scored after 41 minutes and a generated player named Andy Joachim followed up with a goal after 52 minutes. However after some half time changes we'd started to get back into the game and Marco Malago scored in the 76th minute to make it 2-1 and I felt we might just be able to get back on top. Man Utd had switched to Ultra Defensive and nothing happened for a painful 5 minutes until an 81st minute headed goal from Centre Back Vincenzo Esposito (a guy who just refuses to be rotated out the side!) took the scoreline to 2-2 and to extra time! I had to take out Captain Gio Bosi as he was exhausted, but Mauro Zironelli stepped in to put on a masterclass, assisting Vincenzo Chianese in the 97th minute to make it 3-2. And a goal by subsitute Antonio Venturin, fresh off his loan deal to Genoa made it 4-2 after 115 minutes. I genuinely felt we had done enough and on the cusp of full time Paul Scholes scored a 3rd for Man Utd but it wasn't enough. We beat the Red Devils 4-3 after extra time to become champions of Europe for the first time!*

*- does winning the Cup Winners Cup mean it's a second time? I don't know decide for yourself!

But I was so happy. We had finally done it and proven we were the best team in Europe at the moment. I felt we were unlucky to lose to Juventus last season and I felt like had we beat them we could have gone on to win it, but this time around was different. It was special. To beat Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Manchester United on our way to becoming champions, I genuinely felt, cemented us as the best club in Europe right now! Sure, ok, we need to win it a few times to rank alongside some of the European super clubs, but for now we were the names on the trophy. Piccolo Cesena. Honestly, the best team I've had on these CM2 saves so far.

Player of the season was Luis Savio and for my money, he's one of the best players in the game at the moment. This guy wears number 6 for us and sits on the left hand side of a 3 man central defence and he scored 18 goals this season. Sure he takes penalties which helps, but the guy is incredible and at 26 years old I think he still has life left in him yet. Bizarrely he sits on the bench in Colombia's national side?! No idea why they aren't playing him? He just won a European Cup?!

Top Goalscorer this season was Simone Inzaghi who stepped up with 25 goals in 49 games, and was also Serie A top goalscorer. Chianese had something of a quieter season, still getting into double figures but Inzaghi was developing into the main striker. He will start and play next season for definite and at 26 I feel he isn't quite at his peak yet in Serie A and he could go on to do even better next season.

An astonishing 49 assists - a new club record - from Esteban Valencia this season puts him firmly at the top of our Assists table. That's a goal assist a game... and he has firmly established his place in our central midfield trio. At 31 I worry that he may start to suffer some decline but he will have a chance to prove he still belongs in the first team next season after having what is arguably his best season to date with us yet.

And a little bit of personal celebration, but a European Cup win notches me just passed the 500,000 mark in the performance points table to pick up my best score - I think - of any CM2 save so far! But certainly the best score so far in this save, and top of the Italian Managerial Performance Points.

At the Annual Awards, Demetrio Albertini somehow picked up European Footballer of the Year? I checked it out and personally I think Luis Savio did miles better... but ok... Luis did get the honour of League Player of the Year with Lampros Zanchi rightfully picking up Young Player of the Year - he will be contesting for a place in the first team next season - and Simone Inzaghi was recognized as the Serie A Top Goalscorer. I also retained the Serie A Manager of the Year award, thank you very much to my peers and contemporaries for voting for me!

Ok... now what? Next season will be my 8th season in charge of Cesena under the pseudonym Gianluca Peroni. There's one more trophy I've got my sights on; I'm fairly sure we get to challenge for the World Club Cup now against a team from the other side of the planet as European Cup champions. I'd love to make it 4 League Titles and 5 Coppa Italia's. And the challenge of retaining the European Cup awaits. There are some players I plan to work out the team; Zickler, Saibene, Franchini and Zola all haven't been good enough this season to stay and at 34 with no new contract Zola will likely retire, so there are areas I need to improve before I go into my 8th season but with that European Cup win, I am now thinking where next do I go on my career path with Gian Peroni? Do I stay at Cesena or do I look to take on a new challenge at the end of next season? Guess it all depends on if I can pick up that final missing trophy win...