The Roman Empire

One last FM23 save, returning to an old favourite of mine - AS Roma!

A Brief History

A Newcastle Fan IRL, the majesty of Francesco Totti was brought to my TV screen thanks to Football Italia on Channel 4 through the mid-to-late 90s. From there a CM00/01 Roma save - which helped me through one of the most difficult periods of my life - saw a life long affinity with the Giallorossi develop. They've been a regular FM save choice of mine ever since.

In FM23

A simple set of goals; to first deliver another Scudetto, and then grow Roma into the biggest club in the world!

The Technical Bits

I'm using the Winter Update database (c. January/February 2023) - so Cristiano Ronaldo to the SPL, Gakpo to Liverpool and all that jazz.

How It's Started…

A limited wage budget meant some rebalancing of the transfer kitty, but with a few squad depth issues I needed to wheel and deal in order to have my Roma side ready for the season ahead.

In came Simone Bastoni to backup Leonardo Spinazzola at left back, Houssem Aouar arrived to add midfield depth (especially with Georginio Wijnaldum ruled out through injury until after the World Cup), and I signed Yunus Musah from Valencia, primarily with the intention of performing an old FM trick and converting him to a right winger! Secretly, I hope to bring Nicolo Zaniolo back to the Olimpico at some stage though.

We're not deep deep, but with some good youth prospects - like Nicola Zalewski and Edoardo Bove - I feel we have enough to challenge for a Champions League spot, compete in the Europa League, and maybe make a little Cup run in the Coppa Italia.

The club staff was also thoroughly revitalised, with Brian Kidd and Dennis Bergkamp among those joining the first team coaching staff, whilst Real Madrid legend Guti was hired as the new Under 18 Manager among a raft of changes to my youth staff.

I setup us up with a 4-3-3 DM to begin the year with, plus a 4-2-3-1 (with a double DM), and a 5-3-2 that encompasses two DMs and an AM - no doubt tweaks will be needed as the season goes on, but that's how we're starting out.

Up to the World Cup

An opening day loss at Atalanta (0-1) is quickly forgotten as we win ten on the bounce in all competitions - propelling us towards the top of Serie A, whilst setting us up to progress to the next round of the Europa League. Despite some minor injuries, and a few tired legs due to the compressed schedule, we reach the World Cup break sitting in 1st place in Serie A, and top our Europa League group, booking out place in the Last-16.

The season resumes on January 5th at Fiorentina, with a home tie against Bologna in the Coppa Italia six days later.

I also send a contract offer to Marcus Thuram, in a bid to bring the Frenchman in on a free during the summer - with Andrea Belotti struggling as second choice behind Tammy Abraham, it seemed like a good move, especially as Thuram wanted similar money to Belotti (and can provide further depth at AML). 

Additional: I also negotiated new contracts with Chris Smalling, Stephan El Shaarawy, and Nemanja Matić; all three have been performing well, plus the renegotiations see them take reduced wages, saving me around £50k per week against the budget - Matic wants one more year than I'm willing to give really, but I'll take that chance while Bove develops further.

We've reached February 2023 in my FM23 Roma save, and I'm happy to report that the Giallorossi remain top of Serie A, 5-points clear of second place (and surprise package of the season so far) Torino! Particularly pleasing given we were without four first choice players for between two and four weeks at one point.

March brings the Europa League Round of 16, where we've been drawn against SK Sturm, while Juventus await us in the Coppa Italia semi-final in April.

Transfer wise, I manage to strike a deal to bring Matheus Franca in from Flamengo - albeit the young Brazilian will remain on loan with Flamengo until the end of their season - and signed Fabian Reider from Young Boys; Marash Kambulla was the only departure, joining Real Sociedad on loan for the remainder of the season.

With Manchester United sniffing around, I've opted to offer Paulo Dybala a new contract, one without such a relatively small release clause (£17.25m…) - I'd like to keep the core of this squad together as best I can, and fought off interest from PSG, Real Madrid, and -checks notes- Tottenham Hotspurs(!) to keep other key players at the club during the winter transfer window.

March 2023 proved kind to my Roma side - a 2-1 win against Milan was followed by an admittedly disappointing defeat in Sturm during the first leg of our Europa League Last-16 tie, bt a 1-0 win in Turin, thumping 5-1 win against Sturm in the second leg, and a hard fought point against Sassuolo kept us in the hunt for European and domestic success, but at the cost of our fitness as April brought no less than nine games!

A win over Verona suggested we'd be up to the task, but a 5-2 loss to Juventus in the first leg of the Coppa Italia Semi-Final took the wind out of my sails a bit - we were poor, dreadful in fact. I admit to fearing the worst, but resounding wins over Bologna, and FC Midtjylland quickly got us back on track. We beat Empoli and Spezia to retain our spot at the top of Serie A, we finish off the Danes to advance to the Europa League Semi-Finals, and extract some form of revenge on Juve, beating them 3-1 in the Cup SF second leg - oh so close to overturning them…

A surprise loss at Lecce to finish the month (classic FM situation) hints at how tired we are though; we grind out a 0-0 with Lazio, Gigi Wijnaldum helps us secure a sluggish 1-0 win against Fiorentina, before we grind out another draw with Lazio in the Europa League SF first leg (yes, an all Rome semi-final!).

The grind is worth it however, all the fingernail chewing justified when Paulo Dybala lashes home a penalty at the Olimpico to give us a 1-0 win over Inter and the title!!! 

We're dogshit against Lazio in the second leg, losing 2-0, but I don't care - we are the champions. The first step in my quest is achieved.

The summer 2023 transfer window sees me skew young - Pietro Pellegri, fresh off a brilliant season with Torino, comes in as my second choice striker, replacing the disappointing Andrea Belotti. Martin Baturina and Josip Sutalo arrive from Dinamo to bolster our midfield and defence respectively, while Southampton's relegation from the Premier League allows me to cut deals to sign Romeo Lavia and Tino Livramento.

Rui Patricio stays for at least one more year, but his aging body leads me to sign Stefano Turati from Sassuolo as our long term option in goal. Nostalgia also sees me make a move for Sebastiano Esposito from Inter.

Out go Eldor Shomurodov, Gonzalo Villar, Carles Perez, Justin Kluivert, Ola Solbakken, Nemanja Matic, Bryan Reynolds, and Zeki Celik (for twice what Roma paid for him in 2022).

The squad remains tight, but better in the long run I feel - I have at least one player for every position, plus some good youth prospects, including newgen forward Andrea Babbini, who has a current Potential rating of four stars.

You had me at Newcastle fan. Also a Magpie and my foreign team is AS Roma. Good work so far.