With seemingly only a few days left until the Football Manager 2019 beta goes live, I guess it’s about time I told you what I my plans are for the upcoming game.

When it comes to FM over recent years, I have tended to have one short-term save before later embarking on a longer career. Things probably won’t be different for me on FM19.

And so here are the two careers I plan to have, each of which will be updated (mostly) daily on Fuller FM. I’ll go into more detail when I start said careers, but this post is just to give you a quick synopsis on each of them.

SHADES OF DEEP PURPLE (Fiorentina)

The Italian leagues are always a popular destination for British FMers, especially those who have fond memories of watching “Football Italia” (featuring the late, great Peter Brackley) on Channel 4 in the 1990s. That show was a little before my time, sadly, but I have always been somewhat intrigued by the goings-on in Serie A.

Having shamefully neglected managing in Italy since the Championship Manager era, I decided earlier this year that it was high time I returned there. I narrowed my decision on which club I would manage during the first few months of FM19 down to two sleeping giants who had just missed out on European qualification. Torino was one, and Fiorentina was the other.

I eventually decided on Fiorentina, partly because I remember them being a very strong team when I was just getting into football. That Viola side from the turn of the millennium had many quality players – Gabriel Batistuta, Enrico Chiesa, Rui Costa and Francesco Toldo, to name but four – and a classy Champions League win at Arsenal still stands out in my mind.

Things quickly went catastrophically wrong for Fiorentina, as huge debts saw the original club go out of business in 2002. A reformed club took two years to advance through the lower leagues and return to Serie A, where they’ve remained since. The Viola have finished 4th in Serie A on several occasions, but they haven’t graced the Champions League since 2010.

The current Fiorentina squad is full of exciting young talents, headed by vice-captain Federico Chiesa, who appears in my story banner. The 20-year-old winger is already well on course to emulate his father Enrico and become a popular figure at the Stadio Artemio Franchi.

This new season is sure to be an emotional one, as it’ll be Fiorentina’s first since the tragic death of their beloved captain Davide Astori on 4 March. Astori suffered a heart attack in his sleep on the eve of an away league game against Udinese, aged just 31.

As Viola manager, I will look to build on Astori’s legacy and take the Viola back to where they once belonged. This story will hopefully run for at least three seasons, if not a little longer, and my aim is for Fiorentina to win Serie A (and be competitive in the Champions League) by the end of 2020/2021. Toppling the mighty Juventus will take some work, but I’m up for the challenge.

My Fiorentina story will begin within the next few days, after the beta has been released.

FLOREAT SALOPIA (Shrewsbury Town)

It’ll take some explaining as to why my main save on Football Manager 2019 will be with an unfashionable Midlands club in League One. The short answer is I’m replicating my first ever CM/FM save, which was with Shrewsbury Town 20 years ago this season.

Now here’s the longer answer: as an eight-year-old lad in the spring of 1999, I came across this exciting new football computer game called Championship Manager 3. I installed the demo on my parents’ computer and randomly chose a team with which I would start my first career. Shrewsbury were the lucky team… or, should I say, unlucky team.

Being a naive schoolboy at the time, I wasn’t very good at CM to begin with. That demo save ended after eight defeats in Division 3 and an early exit from the League Cup, but I was now hooked on Sports Interactive’s franchise.

Fast forward two decades, and Shrewsbury have just had one of their best seasons in recent memory. They were on the brink of an unexpected return to the second tier of English football for the first time since 1989, only to lose the League One Play-Off Final to Rotherham United in extra-time.

Having almost taken this provincial team from Shropshire to remarkable heights, manager Paul Hurst left just three days later, taking over the reins at Ipswich Town. I will now come in to finish the job Hurst started.

With a large turnover of players and backroom staff over the summer, the Shrews will not be expected to challenge for promotion from League One this season. My aim for that first campaign will be simply to keep the club safe from relegation. Of course, taking at least one point from my opening eight games would be a good way to start!

Long-term, the obvious aim has to be the Premier League. Shrewsbury have never come close to gracing the top flight in their 132-year history, though they have enjoyed the odd major scalp in the cups.

My Shrewsbury story will probably begin about a week after the Fiorentina save has ended. In that case, expect that to start at some point in early 2019, if not December 2018.

I am also making plans for a weekly series based on an FM19 holiday save. That will probably begin a few weeks after the game’s full release on 2 November, though I will provide more details soon.