CM2 96-97 Italia - Career of Gianluca Peroni - Season 6

Having just completed what was my most successful season to date (both with Cesena and with any club so far on these old CM2 engine games) after we won the Supercoppa Italiana for the first time, the Serie A title for the first time, the Coppa Italia for the 3rd time and the Cup Winners Cup for the first time, I took stock to think about what was next. Finishing top of Serie A surely qualified us for the European Cup, which was on my trophy bucket list, and winning the Cup Winners Cup - I'm pretty sure - also qualifies us for a spot against European Cup champions Juventus in the European Super Cup. Not necessarily one on my bucket list but certainly one I'd like to add to the cabinet! The team, for the most part was in a pretty decent state however I was lacking in cover on the right wing, and at centre back. So I brought in Central Defender Stefano Rossini on a free transfer from Atalanta who - shockingly... again... had been relegated out of the game from Serie B! I signed Right Back Marco Malago from Castel di Sangro for £2.5 Million, and took a bit of a risk on Right Wing Midfielder Gennaro Scarlato from FC Groningen for £1.4 Million. With Girolimo Bizzarri now departed on a free transfer and Gianluca Viali retired, I signed 24 year old Luxembourgian Forward; Joel Saibene from Mypa for £275k who scored 32 goals in 36 games for the Finnish side, and although no way comparable to Italian level football, he clearly knows how to find the back of the net, so I hope he'll do well as a backup striker. Finally I picked up young Yugoslavian Centre Back Ilija Pantic on a free transfer as I suspect he might be a regen of Predrag Stankovic who retired through injury, but probably one for the future.

Signing x2 Centre Backs is not going to do much to cheer up Marc Vivian Foe who wants to play more first team football...! But he'll have to fight for his place in the team! Thanks to the Serie A title win, and the Coppa Italia cup win, we once again get to compete for the Supercoppa Italiana, our first test for the new season and once again against Juventus who I think qualify for finishing runners-up in the league behind us, since it's usually Serie A winner versus Coppa Italia winner and we took both. However unlike last years thrilling 4-4 draw that ended with penalties it was far more plain sailing this year as we easily bettered Juventus in a 2-0 win and picked up our second Supercoppa trophy and our first of the 2001-2002 season!

Following that we knocked Vicenza out of the Coppa Italia 2nd Round before drawing our opening game of the season against Juventus 2-2. Mild spoiler alert but: games against Juventus this season so far: 2. Then it was time for our first European tie of the season but to re-wind first, this was our first time in the European Cup and, don't get me wrong - winning the Cup Winners Cup was very nice but the European Cup is the big one. Known nowadays as the Champions League. And I felt like we had a fairly decent group:

Bayern Munich would of course be tough opponents but I felt like we could pick up results against Partizan and Olimpija and at least finish runners-up behind Bayern? In our first European match we welcomed the German heavyweights to Emilia-Romagna and I was very pleased when we managed to pick up a 3-2 win against them in a fairly close game! Before our next tie away to Partizan Belgrade, we beat newly promoted Parma 4-0 and Lazio 1-0 before stumbling away to Fiorentina in a poor 3-0 loss and then in our European Cup match suffering a 6-2 hammering away in Yugoslavia. Maybe I'd underestimated Partizan just a little bit too much...? The team responded with a 4-0 win over Bari, a team a bit difficult to play against in this universe, before losing 1-0 to Cremonese which might have been a poor result but Cremonese have - who I think - is the best goalkeeper in Italy right now in Domenico Doardo. We bounced back though, beating Inter 5-2 in a fantastic match with Inter being one of the stronger teams in the division.

Taking that momentum into the next game we picked up our second win in the Euro Cup group stage with a 3-0 win over Olimpija, only to then get demolished away to Genoa 4-0, although Afanasenko did get sent off early on to be fair and with no substitute keeper on the bench, unfortunately Karl Petter Loeken drew the short straw. Back in the Coppa Italia we knocked Brescia out of the 3rd round, picked up a win against Lecce and Avellino in the league, but drew with Brescia and Bologna. Whilst suffering a 2-1 loss away in Germany to Munich but paying back Partizan with a statement 6-1 win and easily besting Olimpija 3-0 in Slovakia meant that with 4 wins and 2 losses compared to Bayern's 3 wins, 2 draws and 1 loss, we topped Group C by a point and qualified for the Quarter Finals.

Very pleased with topping the group as it gave us, in theory, the "easier" draw but to be frank there was no easy draw! Back in Italy across x2 ties we beat Foggia 5-2 in the Coppa Italia Quarter Final to move on to the semi final. We beat an in form Napoli side 2-0 at home, and picked up a great 5-2 win against Sampdoria but lost to both Cosenza and Milan, meaning that by the halfway point we sat in 3rd place. I'd usually share a screenshot of the table at this point... but I genuinely forgot to take one so you'll have to just take my word for it and enjoy this lovely image from the game of Silvio Berlusconi looking at the European Cup instead:

I did feel that competing in two cup competitions whilst balancing league form was having an effect on the team, and truth be told some games where we should have picked up results that we didn't (Cremonese, Cosenza, Brescia, Bologna) was because key members of the first team weren't fit. However with a momentary break from European competition I was able to focus on the league a bit more. We picked up wins against Sampdoria, Pescara, Parma, Lazio, Bari and Cremonese. Suffered a loss away against Juventus (games against Juventus so far: 3) and drew with Fiorentina 0-0 in a game we really should have won. However 19 points out of a possible 24 was decent and it kept us competitive with Napoli and Milan in 2nd and 1st above me respectfully. Meanwhile we had got a fairly friendly draw in the Coppa Italia Semi against Lecce and after beating them 2-0 and 3-1 we progressed to our fourth Coppa Italia Final with Fiorentina awaiting us in April!

Outside of the league and cup competitions though, there was the small matter of the European Super Cup to contend with! Owing to our Cup Winners Cup win we had the pleasure of, once again, getting to compete for something against Juventus who, owing to their European Cup win last season were drawn against us as opponents! After besting them 3-2 at home in a very close game, we managed to do enough to hold on to a 2-2 draw away at the Stadio Delle Alpi, (games against Juventus: 5) to bring the European Super Cup home with us and add something new to the trophy cabinet!

Was the Super Cup on my trophy bucket list?... Well... yeah, kinda? Would have been disappointed not to win it! And 2 for 2 so far in silverware with the Coppa Italia, European Cup and Serie A title still very much in contention! Speaking of the European Cup, we were drawn against Steaua Bucharest in the Quarter Final. A team I genuinely felt I could beat and if you've been following this story from the beginning; the team I signed Goalkeeper flop; Florian Prunea from. So feel like I kind of owe them payback for that! And payback was what they got. We absolutely destroyed Steaua 5-3 away and 7-2 at home to make it 12-5 on aggregate. I was delighted.

Juventus, Man Utd and Rangers joined us in the Semi Final and of those three I'd have really liked to draw Rangers to sort of circle back to Scotland where this blogging journey started out (with little ol' Queen's Park!) but the game decided we hadn't really played enough games against Juventus at this point and of course we had to be drawn against them in the Semi Final round. Returning to the league, we beat Brescia 3-0 only to then go on and lose 2-1 away at Avellino (who are bottom the league at this point so I was furious!) before the first of our Euro Cup Semi's against Juventus (games against Juventus: 6) ended in a disappointing 2-0 loss away. We bounced back in the league, smashing Bolonga easily 3-0 and Cosenza 2-0 in the league but welcoming Juventus back to the Dino Mannuzzi once again (games against Juventus: 7) for the return Euro Cup fixture, we couldn't break down their defence, managing only a 1-0 and 2-1 on aggregate final score to bring our European campaign to an end.

A bit disappointing because Juventus hadn't even been that good really and by this stage I had Valencia, Melizza and Inzaghi all out with injury so had they been fit would it have been different? Maybe? But I felt like the Semi Final was still a decent achievement for our first attempt. Returning to Italian competition though and we easily beat Fiorentina (for a change!) in the Coppa Italia Final home leg and did enough to hold them to 1-1 in Florence to lift our 4th Coppa Italia and 3rd in a row which I was incredibly happy with!

Trophy number x3 out of a possible x5 this season and there was still one more left to play for! Our league form maybe hadn't been the best. But we sat just 2 points behind Milan at the top of the table. We picked up a great win against Napoli 2-0, who sat in 3rd, defending our position, but at the same time Milan beat Bologna 3-1. But then; they had to play us! And at home. And we picked up a dominating 3-0 win with Milan only managing 2 shots on goal the whole game! To move above The Red and Blacks by 2 points with x2 games left to play! We could only manage a 2-2 draw against Sampdoria away which, wasn't bad in retrospect as Sampdoria were in a relegation scrap that they ended up surviving. But Milan beat Napoli 3-0 meaning they moved above us by 2 points. We needed a win against Pescara and hope that Milan either lose or draw. We did enough; beating Pescara 3-2 in a close game not made any easier by a transfer listed Marc Vivian Foe own goal... But Milan had Cosenza and they... drew? They drew 2-2?

I was shocked! We'd sort of backdoored it, but we'd just done enough to edge out Milan and win the league. By a point! I almost felt like we didn't deserve it. And that we hadn't really played good enough to earn it, but after checking the table against last season we actually had one more point than our total last season and lost one less game. It had just been a lot more closer this season!

And maybe I was being a bit too harsh on myself, cos 21 wins from 34 games is still pretty good going! But we had proved last season wasn't just a fluke. We'd been competitive and retained the Serie A title, whilst picking up another Coppa Italia, the European Super Cup, and competing in the European Cup.

Player of the season was once again Centre Back Luis Savio. 18 goals across 48 games in Domestic and European football is just bonkers. Better than half if not more than half of the Centre Forwards in other Italian teams. He does take penalties for us, granted, but he still gets goals from open play and I'm genuinely considering giving him a run upfront! Quickly becoming the best player in our squad and an absolute sensation. For £3.1 Million from Ancona in 1998 he has been my best signing of the save.

On the subject of best signings, £8 Million for Vincenzo Chianese wasn't a bad bit of business either really. 28 goals in 47 games, he was our top scorer again this season. And at 26, still going strong, and just signing a new contract he will start again next season alongside Simone Inzaghi who, not quite breaking into these numbers just yet... is also doing well for himself! But Chianese is a club legend at this point and his fire power contributes towards us winning games and as a result, winning trophies. I don't know how he hasn't been capped for Italy yet?

And despite missing a good chunk of the last third of the season with injury, Esteban Valencia still topped the Assists tally with 20 goal assists across 27 games. On the left hand side of my centre midfield next to Omar Melizza, he has been the solution to a problem I had for a good 3 seasons and completes my midfield trio (alongside Melizza and Salvagno). He does take corners, which helps, but he also plays well and at 30 years old I hope he still has a few good seasons in him yet to continue with his contributions.

And finally, just a little bit of personal success, but Juventus ended up losing the European Cup final to Man Utd, and couldn't climb above Milan in the league which meant with a Serie A title win, a Coppa Italia cup win, a European Super Cup win and a Supercoppa Italiana cup win, I topped the Manager Performance Points table over Marcello Lippi and improved on last seasons score of 464307.

At the Annual Awards Vincenzo Chianese took home Player of the Year and Nicola Campilongo Young Player of the Year which is interesting because despite me trying to integrate him into the squad more this season his performances have been decidedly average and he will likely go next season as his contract is up and he wants the same wages as Bosi, Savio and Chianese which just isn't happening. I also took home Serie A Manager of the Year which is very nice, thank you very much! I said last season was our most successful yet but a better points tally (ok by 1 point, but still) in the league, and a better points tally in Performance Points technically means that this season was better? But I think winning the Cup Winners Cup last season just edges that one slightly over this one! And I still have things left to do! I'm fairly sure we will be returning to the European Cup again for a second attempt at that next season, and part of me wants that third Serie A title just to cement Cesena as the new dominant force in Italian football. So it's time for me to reflect on where I can improve the squad and work on turning those 8 results where we couldn't pick up points into games where we are more competitive.