SEASON 11: STRENGTH IN DEPTH
Season 11 is an exciting time for Palermo. We have qualified for the Europa League which should be much more achievable than the Champions League at this stage of the save. We were unlucky not to reach the final last season so that is our target this year. Although we finished 4th the season before last, we learnt last season how tough it can be to compete in three competitions throughout a season. Rotation is important and therefore we are looking to add more players to our squad this pre-season. To our relief, after a successful season for AC Milan, the riots that effected the schedule in in the past two seasons is now over, and we will resume a normal fixture list this season.
Salah and Lukaku leave the club freeing up an extra £300k in wages. We have about £25 million to spend, but we all know that in todays game, that isn't really a lot of money, so we must purchase wisely. We will look to offload a couple of players, and send a few of our younger players out on loan.
The first piece of business in pre-season was the sale of Nigerian Michael Kingsley. He failed to impress when he played last season, so we cashed in and sold him to Atletico Miniero in Brazil for £2.6 million up front, rising to £3.9 million.
Vinko Kovacic was the first signing of Season 11. The Croatian winger was transfer listed by Inter Milan and we snapped him up for £9 million. Only £3 million up front, the rest in installments. He will be a usual player and provide competition for Susa on the left wing.
Mattia Ballabio was the second addition to the team. He has a succesful season at SPAL last season, and only cost us £5 million. He will provide back up to Acascibar and replaces Kingsley. He is more defensive minded so will hopefully balance our midfield.
The next signing was a big money transfer. German wonderkid Daniel Bayer joins for £20 million from Bayer Leverkusen. The 6'5 striker is only 20 years old and already has fantastic attributes. He will be the second choice striker behind Duncan, but is a real talent who will add a lot of quality to the team, he also has the potential to be the best player at the club. He is known as a 'Haaland' type of player, tall, great acceleration and finishing ability. He is a real coup for Palermo.
Daniel Bayer had a dream debut. He was subbed on in a pre season friendly against Tottenham in the 60th minute. It took him just 10 minutes to score, and 2 minutes later he scored again. This boy is something special!
Palermos next signing is Argentine winger Mauro Girladi. The Argentina winger from Liverpool costs the club £3 million this season, rising to to £12 million. His pace and passing ability make him a quality player and with rumours that Joensen could be leaving the club, he could start on the RW for Palermo this season.
The next pre-season friendly was against Dortmund, and Acascibar got a straight red after 9 minutes, it resulted in big loss, Dier also got sent off in the 75th minute, we really must not like Dortmund!
Pol Joensen was one of our best players last season. He scored 15 goals in 32 games as well as 6 assists. But at Palermo we have a philosophy, if a player wants to leave and we can make a good profit, then we will sell. Joensen wanted to leave last season to play Champions League football, and as we are in the Europa League this season we decided to cash in. We signed the Faroe Islands international in 2024 for free. Today in 2029 we sold him for £40 million to Borussia Mochengladbach. We are currently receiving 100% of the transfer revenue so we now have more money to strengthen the squad in other areas. He was good, but not irreplaceable, new signing Giraldi will now start on the RW with Roberts as his back up.
Miguel Vazquez signs from Real Madrid. The Spanish midfield has great passing and vision and will add depth to the already strong Palermo midfield. He cost the club £7 million up front rising to £17 million. Palermo really are adding a lot of players to build the team even stronger, and making the most of the money bought in from the sale of Joensen.
Alisson signs on a free transfer from Juventus. The Brazilian keeper is aging but still a great player! He will start this season ahead of Urso who has struggled with injuries that past year. This will likely be Alissons last season before he retires, so he will want to finish his last season in football well, and we are hoping he can be an important player this season.
The arrival of Alisson saw the departure of Plizzari, he was sold to Genoa for £650k
Cristian Bombana signs from Barcelona for £20 million. The Brazilian left back will be starting this season and is an upgrade on the current players De Winter and Migliaccio. Bisogno is still coming through but not quite ready for the first team. He has great heading, tackling and natural ability but we will train his crossing all season. He played 27 games for Barcelona last season so he is ready to play at the top level.
We ended pre-season with a very good win over Athletic Bilbao. Bayer really impressing again, and giving us a decision, either Bayer or Duncan to be the main striker this season...
This pre-season we used every last penny we had to spend and certainly improved the squad. This is the most we have ever spent in one window. The total is a bit misleading as a lot of our deals involved installments. But we did spend a lot. The team now has more quality depth, with less older players. I would have liked maybe one more CAM or RW, but we had no more money left. On transfer deadline day we sold De Winter to Torino for £5 million as we had 4 left backs. We signed him for free too so a nice profit.
Transfer Summary, Squad & Tactic
Pre-Season Results
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This season I have decided that as a 'thank you' gift for your support, you can choose a player in my save to rename to whatever you like. First in first served, tell me the player, and tell me what you want his new name to be. You only get one pick, so choose wisely, you can name the player after yourself, or whatever you like. Hope you enjoy it !
Comments:
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Griffo - Thanks mate, always aiming for the top we are !
J_ames - Yeah Duncan is really good but Bayer might be better! What do you think of our recruits? Juventus, AC Milan, Inter and Lazio all have stacked teams and will take some beating...
