Welcome back to “Shades of Deep Purple” – the story where I lead Fiorentina to domestic and continental glory on Football Manager 2019. Okay, maybe I’m getting carried away, but surely you can excuse my excitement after the start we’ve had?

Four more Serie A matches await us in September, during which we’ll also open up our Europa League campaign. Speaking of that, the group draw has just taken place, so let’s get right down to it…

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EUROPA LEAGUE DRAW

The draw for the Group Stage of the Europa League was staged right at the end of August. That meant it was time to crack out THE most obnoxious, headache-inducing tune in footballing history. Yes, it really is even worse than Ian McCulloch’s collaboration with the Spice Girls.

Anyway, we just about had a high enough UEFA coefficient to be ranked amongst the top 12 seeds for this competition. That meant we would – in theory – get an easier group draw. In practice, it was a rather different story…

I’m sure there’s a Hollywood screenwriter working behind the scenes at Sports Interactive. How convenient is it that our first game back in the Europa League should be against Giovanni Simeone’s Everton?

The Toffees would be sure to prove a sticky proposition at Goodison Park, as well as at the Artemio Franchi later on. My UK & Ireland scout Fabrício Souza keeps telling me that Everton’s goalkeeper Jordan Pickford is quite good and that we should think about signing him.

Two things, Fabrício. Firstly, we’ve got Alban Lafont – and he’s great, in case you didn’t realise. Secondly… do you know which country I come from?!

Everton were the third seeds in our group, and we would also face fierce competition from second seeds Galatasaray. As many of my compatriots will testify, Istanbul is not the most welcoming city for visiting teams.

And that leaves poor old Charleroi, who finished runners-up in the Belgian Pro League last season. ‘Les Zèbres’ would need to perform incredibly well simply not to look out of their depth in such a big pool. Part of me fears they might sink without trace.

In other news, former Fiorentina man Federico Bernardeschi completed a €53million deadline-day move from Juventus to Paris Saint-Germain. The 10% sell-on clause from the initial transfer two years ago meant that a good few million Euro would go into our kitty. Some of that would go towards us upgrading our data analysis facilities from Basic to… erm, still Basic.

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NAPOLI vs FIORENTINA (Serie A, Match 3)

Our first match in September was a daunting one at the San Paolo against a Napoli team who’d now achieved four straight top-three finishes in Serie A. Carlo Ancelotti’s side had blown a great chance to win the title last time out, but a steady start had Partenopei fans dreaming big.

Our last meeting with Napoli was about as painful as having a tooth removed without anaesthesia. This wasn’t quite so bad, though it did hurt to see the hosts carve our defence open in the 14th minute. After collecting an excellent cross-field ball from José Callejon, Lorenzo Insigne dribbled to the byline and then played an excellent cut-back to the fast-approaching Piotr Zielinski. The goal took a Pole-axing, and we were 1-0 down.

Zielinski blazed over a couple of opportunities to score again, while the woodwork prevented Dries Mertens from making it 2-0 on 34 minutes. We weren’t being completely blown away, though we were restricted to one shot on target in the first half – a late Pietro Pellegri header that found Alex Meret’s gloves.

Worryingly, Almamy Touré had gashed his leg during the first half. I kept our star right-back on for the second half, but within eight minutes, a rough challenge from Insigne had made the injury worse.

Touré couldn’t see the match out, but I at least expected his replacement Kevin Diks to. Two rough altercations with Insigne that were more befitting of Julian Dicks saw to it that the Dutchman was sent to the dressing room a couple of minutes early. We need to talk, Kevin…

Diks’ dismissal was effectively the death knell for us. Riccardo Saponara‘s saved effort shortly before that proved to be our last chance to continue a 10-match unbeaten run in Serie A. Napoli had been too classy for us on the night, and they moved on to seven points out of a possible nine.

By the end of that match, we found ourselves in the rather unfamiliar position of 11th. Of course, there were mitigating circumstances, but it was rather annoying to see all the other big teams roar to victory while we licked our wounds.

Roma and Milan kept up their 100% records with two-goal victories at Parma and Chievo respectively. Inter and Juventus remained unbeaten after defeating Verona and Genoa by the same margin. Meanwhile, Lazio showed few ill effects of our Olimpico fightback by overcoming Torino 2-1 for a second straight win.

The international break gave us time to work on our game, and the gash on Touré’s leg time to heal. Several players went off on international duty, including Marco Benassi, who earned his third and fourth caps for Italy.

I had turned down another offer for Benassi’s services after the Napoli defeat, with Benfica offering €35million. There was a release clause of €50million for Champions League clubs in the tenacious midfielder’s contract, and I had no intention of selling for any less than that.

Mind you, I couldn’t help noticing that Marco had not been performing to his usual high standards. It seemed his head had been turned by the faint sound of that anthem by Tony Britten, not to mention the worldwide fame that came with being the new cover star of “Shades of Deep Purple”. Though Benassi was one of our team leaders, I dropped him from the starting XI for our next fixture, just to let him know that shirkers wouldn’t be indulged.

Nikola Kalinic would also be absent from the home meeting with Bologna, having twisted his knee on international duty with Croatia. Maybe he just didn’t fancy being a substitute…

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FIORENTINA vs BOLOGNA (Serie A, Match 4)

On paper, we should have had too much for our Derby dell’Appennino rivals, who had claimed just one point from their first three fixtures. However, just looking at their results would have been to discredit a strong Bologna defence. Filippo Inzaghi might’ve been a prolific scorer, but his team sure knew how to stop goals flying in.

That was very clear during the first half-hour, as Bologna dug deep to stop us taking the early initiative. Lukasz Skorupski tipped over a fierce edge-of-the-area drive from our stand-in ball-winner Bryan Dabo in the 23rd minute. Playmaker Nicolás Benedetti then wasted a bunch of attempts on goal over the next few minutes.

We went into the break still at 0-0, and with a couple more players out injured. Left-back Cristiano Biraghi had lasted just 19 minutes before pulling up with a thigh injury, while ankle knack saw winger Luciano Vietto‘s game end between the halves.

Diks might have been out through suspension, but his Bologna near-namesake Mitchell Dijks got his name into the book seven minutes into the second half. The Dutch left-back’s bodycheck on Federico Chiesa would be fully punished when Valentin Eysseric‘s free-kick into the visitors’ box was nodded home by Benedetti.

The Rossoblu’s resistance had been broken, but they were soon taking the game to us. Young midfielders Mattias Svanberg and Godfred Donsah gave Lafont a couple of scares midway through the half, but our goalkeeper was assured as (almost) always.

Striker Diego Falcinelli almost gave me a heart attack in the dying moments of injury time. The journeyman striker – who failed to score in 12 loan appearances for Fiorentina two seasons ago – powered Svanberg’s header into the net, only for an offside call against Donsah to scrub out his apparent equaliser. Imagine my relief when the full-time whistle blew moments later to confirm a narrow 1-0 win.

Milan and Roma each won again, as the Rossoneri trounced Parma 4-1 after the Giallorossi had battled to a 1-0 victory over Juventus. Lazio’s recent winning run continued at Udinese, but Inter suffered defeat for the first time at Torino.

Thoughts now turned to our impending trip to Merseyside. Sadly, Touré would have to stay at home after pulling his knee ligaments, putting him out for a fortnight. That was flippin’ fantastic.

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EVERTON vs FIORENTINA (Europa League, Group B – Match 1)

Everton were slight favourites going into our meeting at Goodison Park, as Marco Silva’s Toffees weren’t having the same goalscoring problems as we were. Guess who helped himself to a hat-trick in a 5-0 win over Newcastle three days beforehand? Yes… him.

The hosts got off to a predictably strong start, but it wasn’t Simeone who opened the scoring after a mere three minutes. Rather, it was centre-back Michael Keane who got behind our defence to volley Gylfi Sigurðsson’s lofted free-kick into the net.

Pickford denied Kalinic a quick equaliser in the eighth minute, and the hosts would need him to make an even more important save in the 24th. After Diks was bundled over in the box by Richarlison, Benassi stepped up confidently to take the spot-kick. Alas, it was easily parried away by Pickford, because English keepers can apparently save penalties now.

Everton continued to frustrate us before almost nicking a second goal on 29 minutes. Berardi was caught out of possession near our byline by Richarlison, who floated an excellent cross toward Simeone. Luckily for us, Gio’s header came back off the bar before falling into Lafont’s grasp.

We began the second half positively, only to find Everton defending more robustly than ever. Pickford pulled off a couple of fantastic saves, while Keane and his central defensive colleague Chris Mepham were unflappable. At the other end, Richarlison spurned another chance for 2-0 in the 55th minute, failing to beat Lafont after nodding Nikola Vlasic’s flick-on towards goal.

One of our Nikolas was luckless on 68 minutes, with Kalinic cannoning an Eysseric free-kick against the bar before Toffees captain Seamus Coleman cleared. Namesake Nikola Milenkovic had our last opportunity three minutes from time, beating Simeone to Jordan Veretout‘s outswinging corner. Pickford was once again determined not to be beaten, and so we were in our Europa League opener.

The other match in Group B went as expected, with Galatasaray strolling to a 3-1 win at Charleroi. We now had a fortnight to prepare for the visit of Charleroi in a match that we really could not afford to lose. Before then, there were a couple of Serie A matches to get out of the way…

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EMPOLI vs FIORENTINA (Serie A, Match 5)

Empoli hadn’t enjoyed the best of starts to the league season, losing their first three games by an aggregate of seven goals before toiling to a 0-0 draw at Salernitana. That left the Azzurri second-from-bottom, with only Genoa below them on goal difference. A chance to get us back to winning ways, perhaps?

You’ll have probably noticed that we hadn’t yet scored a single first-half goal this season. Our pre-interval goal drought would continue at the Carlo Castellani, though it was certainly not for the want of trying. Early attempts on goal from Eysseric and Dabo were well stopped by Ivan Provedel, whom we kept very busy in the Empoli goal throughout the initial 45 minutes.

Our frustration on the attacking front was not helped by a groin injury to Chiesa, who’d sustained it in an 18th-minute challenge with home right-back Giovanni Di Lorenzo. He played on through the pain for the best part of an hour before Vietto took his place for the second half.

We finally made the breakthrough in the 56th minute. Veretout slide-tackled Empoli midfielder Lorenzo Lollo on the edge of our area, kicking off a counter-attack that resulted in Pellegri bursting into the opposition box. Though his angled shot rebounded off the post, Eysseric got to the follow-up and drove us into a 1-0 lead.

A couple of Frenchmen had helped put us ahead… but 13 minutes later, another would cost us the advantage. Lafont made the wrong call in coming out to try and reach a corner delivery from Empoli’s Southampton loanee Stuart Armstrong (yeah, I’m confused as well). That allowed left-back Luca Antonelli to nod an equaliser into an ill-guarded net.

Empoli could not round off the comeback with a second goal, but I was still in agony at the full-time whistle… and so was Vietto. The Argentine’s difficult start to his Viola career had continued with him suffering a calf strain, putting him out for close to a month.

Roma made it five wins from five with a comfortable 3-0 triumph over Cagliari. Likewise, Milan’s ominous start continued after André Silva condemned Juventus to back-to-back defeats. No, I wasn’t trying to stifle a laugh there, I swear.

Also residing in the top four were Napoli (who beat Torino 2-1) and – interestingly – Atalanta. La Dea were still unbeaten after five games, though a late fightback by Parma from 3-1 denied them what would’ve been a fourth straight victory. Lazio’s three-game winning run was also ended by a 2-2 home draw versus Sampdoria.

Before we closed out the month at home to Chievo, I tried to get us back on track with a team meeting. I told the lads that I had faith in them, despite recent disappointing results, and… erm, I pretty much wrecked squad morale. The next day, Germán Pezzella and another dozen concerned players demanded answers:

That meeting ended with me promising to improve the dressing room atmosphere. That repaired some of the damage my misjudgement had caused, but was that enough?

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FIORENTINA vs CHIEVO (Serie A, Match 6)

Sadly, there was no sign of Giampiero Ventura at the Franchi when Chievo paid us a visit. The veteran coach had retired after guiding the Gialloblu to an 11th-place finish in Serie A, and he seemed to have taken his team’s survival hopes with him. Chievo had just two points to their credit after five matches and were already battling to avoid the drop.

This was a meeting between two sides low on self-belief, and it showed in the first half. While we took the game to our mellow yellow opponents, our attacks lacked the killer touch of old. Chiesa had a couple of tame efforts saved, while Kalinic looked like he would rather have been sitting on a warm bench than running around on a cold Florentine evening.

Christian Nørgaard did at least threaten to score in the 31st minute, but his ambitious 25-yard curler was secured by Andrea Seculin in the Chievo goal. Opposite number Lafont then blocked a couple of visiting efforts before we once again went into a break deadlocked at 0-0.

There would be more dirge in the second period. Our front three continued to underperform, even after a couple of changes, while not even the introduction of teenage playmaker Sandro Tonali could help us create better openings.

Our attacks bordered on the criminal, as did some of Chievo’s robust tackling. Five away players were booked in the last 25 minutes alone, and Manolo Gabbiadini was sent off seven minutes from time for a late two-footed lunge on Chiesa. I’d actually pondered signing the 27-year-old on loan from Southampton during my search for a goal-hungry attacker this summer… until I realised that he wasn’t Marco Gabbiadini.

Despite having some time to try and break the 10-man Gialloblu down, the goal just would not come. A 0-0 home draw against Chievo was right down there amongst the worst results of my Fiorentina career thus far.

We were now in mid-table, and already nine points adrift of the lead. Milan’s winning start had continued with a Giacomo Bonaventura double seeing off Cagliari, but Roma couldn’t keep up theirs, falling to a single away goal by – of all teams – Genoa. Football really is a funny old game at times.

Atalanta also lost their unbeaten record, having run into a Juventus team determined to make amends for recent poor results. Lazio took La Dea’s place in the top four after taking a point at Pescara, while 3rd-placed Napoli shared four goals with Udinese.

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We’re down in 10th, we’ve won once from five games, we’ve scored twice in seven-and-a-half hours, Fullerball has become a mess, and my players are losing faith in me. Other than that, I’d say September has been a pretty decent month for Fiorentina.

Come back soon to see if I can get us out of this mess.

“Forza viola?”