My goal with Chieti this season is to consolidate our position as a top team in Serie A (which means a top 4 finish, as high as possible though) and have a good performance in the Champions League, with my minimum expectations being to at least qualify from the group stages. So let’s see how things are going so far!

In the league, things are going pretty well: we’re grabbing wins and we also managed to beat Juventus again in a thrilling encounter (the game ended 4-3 for Chieti), but when it comes to the top flying team, we still can’t match them despite the fact that I think that, overall, we have some quality players in the team. We just have to keep working hard:

The results in the Serie A made us reach our objectives at mid-season: we are the 4th placed team, but it’s still a battle there and things can improve (or even decline) by the end of the season:

In the Champions League, we also did very well for our first ever appearance: after luckily getting past FC Porto in the Qualifyiers, we managed to beat Shakktar and get a draw against Liverpool, and after all qualify from a tough group:

Unfortunately, our luck seems to have ended as we got Man City in the first knockout round and they are a great team.

In terms of player performances, central defender Mario Silva is having his best season yet, while Yildirim is pretty quiet when it comes to scoring, even though he still performs really well.

I still decided to strengthen the squad even more during the winter: we really needed a good right winger as Adomah is getting old and can’t play at this level anymore; we also needed some extra power at the center of the field for added depth as well as a new left defender to fill up the ranks. I also found another gem that we didn’t really need, but I had to bring him in. Here are the transfers that we made during our most transfer-intensive season ever:

We’ll start with the player that I like the most and I have most faith that he will turn into a great player: striker Richard Stonebridge, who was no longer needed by Arsenal (crazy!):

Right winger Riccardo Fortina also looks like a great player and he also has the bonus that he’s Italian:

Ndijna Yacoubou looks like a solid central midfielder, even though a bit slow:

Emerson is the full back that will probably become a starting player soon:

And finally, I signed Jeffrey Geurtjens too – he was a Chieti player in the past as a season-long loan and I kept him on the shortlist since. He didn’t improve that much, but he has great pace and overall looks good:

And with these new players I hope for a better half of the season, where we will fight to keep our top 4 position in the league and hope for a miracle against Man City!