CM2 96-97 Italia - Career of Gianluca Peroni - Season 8

Having accomplished pretty much everything I could achieve at Cesena by the end of Season 7 I did start to think about where to go next. There was one more trophy left to compete for and win; the World Club Cup and there was the challenge of retaining the European Cup, so owing to that, and owing to the fact that there wasn't really the presentation of any new challenge worth exploring at the end of the season with anybody else, I decided to stay where I was and take a shot at winning that World Club Cup! Despite wanting to work Saibene and Zickler out of the team, both of them were still with us by kick off in August, however Zola had retired as expected and a couple of other departures gave me a bit of room to build on the squad. I brought in a new Forward; Alessandro Cognata from Udinese for £5 Million who, at only 22 but with incredible stats, I hope will grow into the future lead goalscorer for the club. I picked up Sweeper Defender Centre; Radoslav Kadlec for nothing from Cremonese. An excellent signing with 8.00 plus averages across three seasons before joining us and will instantly command a first team place. I signed left sided Defensive Midfielder Sergio D'Autilia to act as cover and eventually as replacement for a now aging Giovanni Bosi, again for free from Napoli. And to replace Zola I signed Attacking Midfielder Izudin Dadi Petursson for £2.2 Million from Bologna though I suspect he will be more cover than first team as Lampros Zanchi steps up to first team starts. Usually I'd share a screenshot of my team for the season but I've somehow managed to lose it... So instead, here's our group draw for this years European Cup:

Love that we once again have Manchester United in our group! Aside from that I can't see Slovan Bratislava or Ferencvaros causing us too many problems so hopefully we can at least get through to the knockout rounds. Our season kicked off with the traditional Supercoppa Italiana fixture; this time against Milan who, to be honest were the far better team and comfortably beat us 2-1 however a mild caveat in that half my first team starters weren't even fit. So I'm not too concerned but that does mean we won't get to add a 4th Supercoppa in a row to the list of achievements but hopefully that isn't an omen for the rest of this season... We responded by knocking Sampdoria out of the Coppa Italia 2nd Round 2-1, then paying Milan back in the first league game of the Serie A campaign by also beating them 2-1 before travelling to Manchester and taking home the win in our first European game with a 1-0 victory over a very lacklustre Manchester United team. Returning to Italy we picked up wins against Avellino, Ancona, Cremonese and Piacenza in the league but suffered a loss against Fiorentina and Juventus. However in Europe, we easily bettered Slovan Bratislava 2-0 at home and crushed Ferencvaros 5-0 in a game they never even turned up for!

3 wins and 9 points in the group table didn't guarantee us a spot in the knockouts but it did put us in a very good position in our first European Cup as reigning champions. Back in the league we beat Genoa 1-0, lost to Inter away 3-0 in a very poor game that we didn't even try in to be frank. We responded by destroying Lazio 4-0 at home, Bari 2-1 away, Brescia 1-0, Cosenza 4-2 and a great win away at Napoli 2-0 meaning that after 14 games with only 3 defeats we sat atop Serie A with Napoli, Milan and Avellino behind us by 6 points equally:

A strong start and things really seemed to be clicking this season! Our performance in cup competitions was also going well despite facing potentially the toughest opposition we could! In a deceptively close game we knocked Juventus out of the Coppa Italia 3rd round 3-2, but having lead by 3 goals until the 78th minute, the scoreline flattered Juventus really. We knocked Inter out of the Quarter Final on away goals! After Inter held on to a 0-0 draw at the Dino Mannuzzi despite us registering 14 shots on goal, we managed to hold on to a 1-1 draw at the San Siro and squeezed through to the Semi Finals! In Europe we beat Man United 4-3 at home who were a far better Man United team than the one played in September! We drew 0-0 with Slovan Bratislava away but truth be told we were missing most of the first team through lack of fitness and by this point had qualified anyway, and a 3-3 draw against Ferencvaros saw us take top spot in the group and qualify for the knockout rounds.

Awaiting us in the quarter final was a trip to Holland to face PSV Eindhoven, who qualified alongside Dortmund in their group and had a pretty quality side so I felt like it wasn't going to be an easy one. However before turning our attention to progressing the European campaign we flew to Spain and joined Brazilian giants Flamengo in competing for the World Club Cup - the last trophy (aside from the UEFA Cup...) that I hadn't won yet with Cesena! And expecting it to be a cagey and close game, we completely destroyed the Brazilians 4-1 and added that final trophy to the cabinet bucket list!

I was really pleased as it now meant I'd won almost everything I could literally win with Cesena at least once! There is the small matter of having not yet won the UEFA Cup... but to do so means we'd need to almost underperform in order to qualify so, I don't know about that one... maybe further down the line! The good league form continued; we obliteratied Lecce 7-2 in an outstanding win, drew 1-1 with Parma in a close game, beat Sampdoria, Milan, Avellino, Ancona, Juventus, and Cremonese to go 5 wins in a row before a 1-1 draw at home to Piacenza. In between league fixtures we knocked Parma out of the Coppa Italia Semi Final 5-3 on aggregate to setup a final with Napoli and after losing the first leg of the European Super Cup 2-1 against Leeds, we bounced back with a 3-2 win on away goals (!) to add a second Super Cup to the cabinet and pick up our second trophy - so far - of the season!

Away goals was paying dividends for us so far this season! Returning to Europe, over 2 legs, we collated a 7-4 win over PSV to move onto a Semi Final fixture against Dortmund, who finished top of the group PSV qualified from. In the league we drew 1-1 with Genoa but went on to thrash Inter 5-1, Lazio 5-2 and Bari 6-0! A win away at Brescia 3-1 followed and meant that mathematically, with a gap of 17 points ahead of Juventus in 2nd, and after 23 wins, 3 draws and only 3 defeats after 29 games we were Serie A champions with 5 games still left to play!

I felt like the team really was on the next level this season and it was by far away the best season I'd had so far. A points total of 72 after 29 games was better than our final points total by the end of the season for the last 3 consecutive title wins (67, 68, 68) and with 23 wins already collected, we had surpassed our previous record of 21 wins in 34 games from 2 seasons ago. And retained the Serie A title for a 4th straight consecutive season. Truly establishing ourselves now as the top team in Italy. But there was still work to be done! In Europe we were again held to a 0-0 draw at home, but responded with a 3-1 win away in Germany to setup a rematch against Spanish giants Barcelona! This time in the final!

We'd beaten Barcelona before, over 2 legs, so we could do it again. I was sure! To retain the European Cup would be the final accomplishment this season ticked off the list! Well... almost the final... We soundly beat Napoli at home 4-0 in the first leg of the Coppa Italia Final meaning that when we traveled to San Paulo for the second leg I did something totally out of character; I setup the team to play Ultra Defensive for the whole 90 minutes! We conceded a goal after 50 minutes, scored by Marco Veronese, but despite registering 6 shots on target, Napoli couldn't find another 3 or 4 goals and although we suffeed a 1-0 loss away we were eventual winners 4-1 on aggregate to add a 6th Coppa Italia and 5th consecutive Coppa Italia to this seasons trophy haul!

Despite our last 5 league games not being massively consequential, I didn't want all our hard work to be completely squandered so still continued to field a strong team. We beat Cosenza 3-1 and Parma 2-1 but drew against Napoli 2-2, lost to Lecce 1-0 in an awful match and lost to Sampdoria 2-0 in our final game of the season, although I had rested most of the first team for that one. The total downturn in form had me worried for the Barcelona fixture at the end of the season as we appeared to have just totally fell off! But I stuck to my regular starters and stuck to my regular 5-3-2 and hoped that the prospect of something to play would be enough to entice the players...

It was! In a game we never really felt threatened in really, we easily beat Barcelona 2-0 to retain the European Cup and pick up our 5th trophy of the league season! Despite registering 7 shots on target I felt like we were just the far stronger team and in reality it was a very routine game! But we had done it; our 2nd consecutive European Cup trophy!

It might not have been the best end to the league season I could have hoped for but after 34 games we accrued 25 wins, 4 draws and 5 defeats totaling 79 points. Our highest points tally in Serie A yet and 14 points ahead of Juventus in 2nd. By far and away our best and strongest season yet and I was worried we had peaked about 2 years ago...! Omar Melizza was once again our player of the season. Despite missing some of the season through injury and a handful of games through fitness, he still scored an incredible 19 goals from 38 games from central midfield! And continues to hold down a regular place in the squad despite the talent of Lampros Zanchi! So long as he stays fit and continues to play this well he is always the first or second name on the team sheet!

Top Goalscorer again went to Simone Inzaghi, although only just! With 21 goals after 45 games he had a bit of a mixed season actually alongside Chianese who improved on a dip last season to rack up 16 goals in 39 games and new signing Cognata who scored 16 goals in 34 games. But he was only 2 goals ahead of Melizza in second! Either way all x4 players were integral in ensuring we scored goals and turned results that would have been maybe draws last season into wins this season.

And once again coming through with all the assists was Esteban Valencia with 25 assists in 43 games. Not as many as last season, but more than a healthy contribution and although not often a standout performer he is still an integral part of our three man central midfield and I'm sure will do enough to continue to hold down a place in the squad next season.

And finally a little bit of a personal success celebration again, but with 685,325 points this season, I finished top of the Managerial Performance Points table and also picked up a new high score, surpassing the 500k score of last season.

At the End of Season Awards Omar Melizza took League Player of the Year, Lampros Zanchi took Young Player of the Year and I was recognized as Serie A Manager of the Year. Bodo Todt just sneaking passed Inzaghi for Serie A Top Goalscorer by 3 goals but to be fair he is an incredible player. Moreno Gautieri with 30 league goals for Verona is interesting though... wonder if he's out of contract at the end of this season...

And I'm not sure where to go from here now! I've done everything. I've won everything... UEFA Cup excused. And next season we once again get to compete in the European Cup, the European Super Cup, the World Club Cup and for the Supercoppa Italiana. But they are all competitions I've already won. To take stock of my achievements with Cesena I have; x1 Serie B title, x4 Serie A titles, x6 Coppa Italia trophies, x3 Suppercoppa Italiana trophies, x1 Cup Winners Cup trophy, x2 European Cup trophies, x2 European Super Cup trophies and x1 World Club Cup trophy. I've won Serie A Manager of the Year 3 times, and Serie B Manager of the Year once. I genuinely don't feel like there is much left to do! I'd like to take a shot at managing Italy, and they are in the European Championships and the end of this season so potentially, if they perform poorly, there might be the opportunity to take on that challenge, but aside from that I don't feel like I have anything else left to prove at Cesena! So I'm not sure if this is my final season here or if I decide to carry on for at least one more year! Guess you'll have to watch this space to find out!