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[FM2007] San Marino "double" Challenge


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I've got loads of players out on loan, including plenty of the players I signed from clubs in the San Marino league. Hopefully it'll help them develop a bit, as the main defenders for the national team are all getting older and slower, need some players to replace them.

We've been drawn in the group for the Euro 2024 qualifying as 6th placed seeds I think, out of 7 teams. So its important to try and do as well as possible to get higher in the rankings, and therefore get an easier group. England are in our new group, Turkey are probably the next best, Kazakhstan appear to be the worst.

As for the club side we might finally qualify for the Champions League, but we need to keep up the good form (its now February). We're about £6m in debt which isn't good as it means the board don't want to upgrade our facilities (which could really help the club) but we're filling the stadium every week (over 18k capacity).

This summer will be our first in 3 years that youth players actually come through (I hope), as the board got rid of the academy to save money after promotion icon_frown.gif We still only have minimal facilities with no youth academy though.

I also signed one San Marino national player for the first team, a 23 year old goalkeeper who will be second choice, as my young Dutch keeper decided he wanted to play regularly, and moved to Juventus (surely not going to play much for them!). I now have a few San Marino players in the first team, but they're not quite good enough to be regulars.

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Just finished the 2008-2009 season in Serie B and did ok. Finished a respectable 11th. We lay 15th in the table for the majority of the season but a superb end to the season elevated the team to 11th.

Serie B

The state of finances is still not good enough to allow for an expansion of the the Olimpico. Nor can the finances allow for an improvement of the youth or training facilities. I am unlikely to receive any transfer budget for next season so i will be looking at free transfers and loan signings. The team reputation is still regional which means signing quality players is difficult.

Managed to keep most of the squad together and rejected some good offers for a few of the more promising players in the sqaud. Finances are better this season that last. At most home games i am pulling in about 6700 to the Olimpico which means gate receipts are much healthier than in the Serie C1.

Finances

Scoham: In what season roughly did the San Marino National manager decide to retire? Am itching for the international job. The current manager is not doing so well.

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My board just randomly took out a £2.1 Million loan and has started to expand the Olimpico by 4017 seats. They have also given me a 450K transfer Kitty.

The board have really taken me by suprise. They showed no signs of wanting the take the club forward until now. Just hope the loan repayments don't cause too much trouble.

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Just a small update into season number 3, the first in Serie B.

Currently San Marino flying very high in the league after 13 matches by lying in 1st place with a record of 8 wins 3 draws and 2 defeats. Playing very well at the minute.

Don't wanna ramble on too much, just hope the players continue to dig deep and keep grinding out results. Anyways wish me luck for the rest of the season...

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Yeah the board took out a loan for our stadium expansion, another when after the 2nd takeover and a third loan for something else (possibly the stadium expansion, can't remember).

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Scoham: In what season roughly did the San Marino National manager decide to retire? Am itching for the international job. The current manager is not doing so well. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Summer of 2020. Had to reload my game as I realised I didn't get told so they put someone else in charge.

He should have a message on his profile (personal page? not quite sure) saying he'll retire on something like 14/06/2020 once it gets to May or June. Just keep checking regularly to make sure you don't miss the opportunity.

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<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Summer of 2020. Had to reload my game as I realised I didn't get told so they put someone else in charge </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Looks like i have got a 10 year wait then! They best give me the job when he finally does vacate the post.

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Another good season, our fourth in Serie A and we finished 4th (after finishing 13th and 7th twice in a row).

I was aiming for a Champions League place, but surprisingly came close to winning the league. We had some really good form at the end of the season, losing once in 11 games, including 5 wins in a row, and went into the final day 2 points behind Inter.

We lost 1-0 icon_frown.gif Inter were drawing 0-0 though so it wouldn't have mattered.

Then at the end of the match I saw that Fiorentina scored a 90th minute winner against Inter. One more win and we would have won Serie A icon_frown.gif

Always thought we maybe had a slight chance, but never seriously aimed for it.

We ended up 4th with Inter, Roma and Milan all on 70 points, us on 68.

As for Europe, was slightly disappointed to only get to the first round knockout of the UEFA Cup, as the season before we reached the semi-finals.

Still it was another great season and we should make plenty of money playing in the Champions League, assuming we qualify for the group stage. We're £10m in debt so we need it, which means the only way the stadium or facilities will be improved is if the board take out another loan to pay for it.

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The fans want us to challenge for the title now, the board only a 'respectable league position'. Only have just over £2m to spend as well icon_frown.gif

Don't need anyone, but it would be good if I could sign a few quality players.

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Haven't really said anything about my players, so here's all the players in my first team at the moment.

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">

| Pkd | Inf | Name | Position | Nat | Height | Weight | Age | Value |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| GK | | Michael Schreiner | GK | AUT | 6'0" | 12 st 8 lbs | 25 | £5.5M |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| DR | Wnt | Florin Balaj | D RC, WB R, DM, M RC | ROM | 5'11" | 11 st 13 lbs | 28 | £4M |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| DL | | Javier Gomila | D LC, WB L | ESP | 6'4" | 13 st 12 lbs | 21 | £3.4M |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| DC | | Joel Withe | D C, DM | ENG | 5'10" | 12 st 1 lbs | 22 | £4.5M |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| DC | Wnt | Thorsten Metzelder | SW, D C | GER | 6'4" | 14 st 2 lbs | 21 | £3.3M |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| MR | | Edin Fritz | AM R | AUT | 5'10" | 11 st 4 lbs | 24 | £3.6M |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| ML | | Ivan Esposito | AM L | ITA | 5'10" | 11 st 13 lbs | 26 | £5M |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| MC | | Stuart Murray | D C, DM | NIR | 6'0" | 12 st 10 lbs | 27 | £4.1M |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| MC | | Fabio Pietrangeli | M C | ITA | 5'11" | 12 st 6 lbs | 20 | £5.25M |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| FC | | Emanuele Quadroni | AM R, ST | SMR | 5'10" | 11 st 4 lbs | 24 | £4.5M |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| FC | Inj | Pat Brogan | ST | SCO | 5'10" | 11 st 9 lbs | 20 | £3.3M |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| S1 | Wnt | Óscar López | GK | ESP | 6'2" | 14 st 2 lbs | 20 | £650K |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| S2 | | Michele Bonifazi | D RC | SMR | 6'2" | 13 st 7 lbs | 33 | £575K |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| S3 | Wnt | Patrick Danielsen | D/WB R | NOR | 5'10" | 12 st 3 lbs | 20 | £1.6M |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| S4 | | Francisco Javier Arregi | M C | ESP | 5'10" | 11 st 9 lbs | 22 | £3M |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| S5 | | Simone Rossi | AM RL | SMR | 5'11" | 11 st 13 lbs | 25 | £3.3M |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| S6 | | Maicol Rossi | ST | SMR | 5'10" | 11 st 13 lbs | 27 | £4.6M |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| S7 | | Davide Bianchi | ST | SMR | 6'4" | 14 st 2 lbs | 22 | £3.2M |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| - | Wnt | Carlos | D L | BRA | 5'11" | 12 st 8 lbs | 21 | £3M |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| - | Inj | Roy Bergmans | D C | NED | 6'4" | 14 st 2 lbs | 26 | £2.6M |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| - | Wnt | Carlos Figueroa | D C | ARG | 6'0" | 12 st 10 lbs | 21 | £2.1M |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| - | | Sunny | DM | NGA | 5'11" | 12 st 1 lbs | 34 | - |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| - | | Ruud van Zundert | M C | NED | 5'10" | 11 st 11 lbs | 24 | £3.9M |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| - | | Alessandro Tura | AM LC | SMR | 6'0" | 12 st 3 lbs | 26 | £3.5M |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| - | Inj | Claudio Pasini | ST | ITA | 5'11" | 11 st 13 lbs | 28 | £4.5M |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| - | Inj | Cristian Poletti | ST | ITA | 6'3" | 13 st 12 lbs | 24 | £9.5M |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

</pre>

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That worked well enough, here's a bit about the usual starting 11 give or take a few players (still not sure on the centre backs), and the San Marino internationals. One thing they all have in common is good (some very good) physical attributes.

Michael Schreiner - Austrian goalkeeper, signed on a free. Played one game in our promotion from Serie C1, over 20 games in Serie B, and then a regular ever since while playing in Serie A. Makes some amazing saves, and has a good games/goals conceded record. Still only 25.

Florin Balaj - Versatile Romanian right back in his third season at the club. Signed from Atalanta for £3.7m, a big signing at the time. Solid player and helps going forward by getting a few assists.

Javier Gomila - 21 year old Spanish left back, a physical monster type player, signed for £3.6m from Lyon. Came through the Real Madrid youth academy.

Joel Withe - My only English player, quite good all round, forced himself into the team as a regular centre back, £1.5m signing from Coventry.

Thorsten Metzelder - Another physical monster, joined on a free, but was loaned out for the season as he was homesick. Back at the club now, with Bonifazi losing his ability, and becoming slower, there's a space in the team at centre back.

Edin Fritz - Second Austrian international (well only 3 caps so far), signed on a free in our first Serie A season, but loaned out to Spezia in Serie C1/A. Despite struggling for them, came back to San Marino and became a squad player and usually the first choice right winger.

Ivan Esposito - Italian left winger signed from Aston Villa for £2.7m. Only just realised San Marino was his 8th club of his career, because he was often loaned out, even though he signed when he was 24.

Stuart Murray - Northern Irish international, came in to the club from Sheff Wed, now in his third season. Regularly plays in MC but can play as a DC.

Fabio Pietrangeli - New signing from Torino and Napoli (co-ownership), paid £2.6m to each club. Good all round, and only 20 years old. Offered him £20k a week to make sure I got him, a lot of clubs were interested. He has 14 for finishing, which seems to be very rare in midfielders for some reason, its often around 10 or below.

Cristian Poletti - Record signing at £7.75m, signed him a year ago and he scored 16 league goals in 30 league games, 24 goals in 42 games in total, along with 9 assists. Broke into the Italy squad and played in the World Cup. Another player with very good physical attributes.

Claudio Pasini - Another Italian striker, signed him on deadline day of August 2021 along with Poletti. Paid £4m for him, and not a big impact, still managed 8 goals in 18 starts (plus 8 sub apps) in the league.

Michele Bonifazi - San Marino club and national team legend, lost his pace and is slowly losing his ability. Originally joined in 08/09 as a promising young player from the San Marino league, he had a couple of loan spells before breaking into the team. He then played in the team for 6 1/2 seasons before refusing to renew his contract, and moved to Serie A Cesena on a free transfer. He only played for them 12 times in the league in 2 seasons. In that time I took San Marino up to Serie A with two consecutive promotions.

I noticed he still wasn't playing, and was available, and brought him back on loan as a squad player. He soon proved he was good enough for Serie A, and after completing his loan signed on a free. He became captain and a regular at centre back (occasionally right back) for 2 seasons, before slowing down later in his career, becoming a squad player. He retired from international football, meaning some younger players will get a chance for the national side.

He's the clubs record league appearance maker with 264 games.

Simone Rossi - Another San Marino international, used as a squad player on either the right or left wing. His attributes make him look very strong in some areas, but weak in others. An effective player though, joined the club in our first promotion season from our San Marino feeder club, Cailungo for £10k. Has always been involved with the first team since. Still only 25.

Maicol Rossi - No relation to Simone, but another San Marino international, and their record goalscorer with 26 goals (in 67 caps). Also the clubs record league scorer, with 62 goals. Now in his 11th season, after joining as a 16/17 year old from Faetano. Never really scored as many as hoped, occasionally says he may want a new challenge. Now at 27 years old, should be reaching his peak, but with the club now competing in the Champions League, he may never be a regular. Great finisher and good physically, but he lacks a bit of composure and drifts in and out of the game with his poor concentration. Another decent player produced from the San Marino league for the national team however.

Davide Bianchi - The clubs best ever youth product, good physically (as well as being 6 ft 4 and over 14 stone) and pretty decent in other areas, is still yet to force his way in as a regular. At 22 has 18 caps and 6 goals for the San Marino national side. Scored goals in each of his 3 loan spells, hopefully he'll one day score goals regularly in Serie A, but at the moment it looks like it may be a bit too much for him. Maybe he just needs a long run in the side.

Alessandro Tura - Another winger and San Marino international, he's also a squad player. Probably not good enough all round for Serie A, but makes up for it with good physical attributes, work rate and team work. Played an important part in our two promotions. Signed from Virtus in the San Marino for just £6k.

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Forgot the other San Marino international in the first team squad.

Emanuele Quadroni - In his 6th season at the club, still only 25 in a few months time, signed on a free from San Marino league club San Giovanni. He got a few games as he got promoted from Serie B, and in the next two seasons scored 11 league goals to help us establish ourselves in the division. Hasn't really been a regular since then. He can also play on the right wing, and is a useful player for the national side, which he has a decent record for, scoring 14 times in 34 caps.

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I've also got the 2nd and 3rd choice national team keepers. I signed the 2nd choice for about £2m also to be my 2nd choice at club level, but he's out with damaged cruciate ligaments icon_frown.gif

Man Utd got relegated last season, only just noticed Weymouth are now in the Championship with them icon_biggrin.gif Only running down to League Two so they never had to 'win promotion' from the Conference.

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Well i've just finished my first season in Serie B (3rd season overall) and it proved a pretty good one at that.

Predicted to finish smack bottom of the league in 22nd place, the team managed to prove the doubters wrong and finish in a very respectable 10th.

For the coming season i've got a massive 27 transfers of new players set up costing a total of £115k. Hopefully this will help me push for a promotion place in the coming season.

As for current players, 3 of my trusted players have informed me that they intend on retiring:

Martin Herrera (GK)

Luca D'Angelo (DC)

Jose Santamaria (DC)

And a few are now wanted by large clubs, such as my young Czech right back who has had Chelsea declare an interest and Milan make an enquiry.

My 32yr old Argentinian DM and captain Diego Markic was named in the Serie B team of the year and striker Alex Fernandez finished second in the scorer charts with 20 league goals.

The club has taken out a £2.1m laon to expand the stadium by 4000+ seats and the clubs balance is currently looking a nice healthy £2.5m.

Will post some pics of the new look team etc at the start of the new season

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Hi guys,

After recently completing Dafuge's challenge, Ive decided to give this one a go, and have taken over both the domestic and national side from day 1.

I will write a season update soon (managed to scrape into 5th place sowe'll see how I go in the playoffs), but I am really struggling with the international team, as my last match shows (mind you I was missing 5 of my regulars through suspension / injury):

11 - 0 loss to Germany

Whislt the score was bad, had it not been for their 25 shots off target, it could have been a lot worse.

Afer my first 6 games, my average losing score is 7-0, is this normal, or do I need to adjust my tactics?

Also, can anyone beat an 11-0 loss?

Cheers,

Marky Mark

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They lost 13-0 IRL to Germany didn't they? The international team only improved for me because players like Bonifazi that were available on frees at the start of the game had random CA and PA, and turned out quite good players. Some good regens also appeared at clubs in the San Marino league.

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Right, I have been looking for a long term challenge to get me back into FM and this is going to be it.

Loaded all Italian leagues, top 2 in England and top league in Holland, Germany, Spain, Portugal and France. All San Marino players loaded and large database selected too. Only taken club job atm as I want to wait until San Marino have a decent pool of players first icon_biggrin.gif

Cup of coffee needed I think as I see what I have let myself in for - will report back with progress.

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2006 / 07 Season Update - Marky Mark

Having a look at the squad at the start of the season, I realised that I needed to make a lot of changes if I were to challenge for promotion, so I made the following 26 transfers in (over both windows) and 9 transfers out, costing me a net amount of $50,000 AUD (I did want to offload more of my squad, but funnily enough no one was interested in picking them up, even on free, so I will have to wait for their contract to expire):

2006 / 07 Transfers In

2006 / 07 Transfers Out

Unfortunatly for me, my biggest signing, Itallian winger Cristian Bertani ($110,000 AUD), who was averaging just under 7.5 after 20 games, injured his cruciate ligaments, and will be out for the next 6 - 10 months, and this resulted in most of his stats dropping.

However, my next biggest signing, American striker Marc Heider ($55,000) had a much better season. Despite only being signed on 19 Jan nd playing 19 games, he ended the season top scorer with 12 goals (equal with his Argentinian strike partner, Marchano), and less than 6 months after purchasing him he is now valued at $1.1M, and has scored 2 U21 goals for USA from 2 U21 caps.

Marc Heider - My star striker

With Heider staring in the 2nd half of the season (ave rating of 7.74), we just managed to make playoffs, finishing 5th

2006 / 07 Leage Table - 5th Place

After a 2-0 away win and a 2-0 home win to 2nd place Taranto, I was confident in the playoff final against 4th place Avellino, however, a 0-1 away loss and a 1-2 home loss later, the dream was over.

Whilst Im confident I can get up there next season, my only worry are my finances, where I am now relying on cash injections by the board to keep me afloat, despite me being under the wage budget

My Finances

On the international side, nothing to report but losses (my biggest one being 11-0 to Germany), but rest assured once I have some good news on that front you'll be the first to hear about it!

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Well I have made a solid start to the season - qualified from my group in the Serie C cup and currently sit 3rd after 8 games.

Losing money fairly quickly though, and despite still having 100k to spend we are already nearly 500k in debt. Hope the chairman has deep pockets icon_biggrin.gif

Will provide screenies at the end of the season.

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<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Losing money fairly quickly though, and despite still having 100k to spend we are already nearly 500k in debt. Hope the chairman has deep pockets Big Grin </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Happens every time, the original chairman usually puts some money in every so often to help a bit.

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Season 2009-2010

After finishing a respectable 11th in the previous season i looked to push in the Serie B. Made quite a few free transfers and managed to have a great season, winning the serie B by 10 points and therefore gaining promotion to the Serie A.

Transfers

Serie B

Notes

The board finished the expansion to the Olimpico to 11017. They also confirmed that they have begun work on upgrading the youth and training facilities.

Finances have been in good shape this season, gaining great gate receipts from ground sharing at the romeo neri(sp) giving me a transfer kitty or around 7.5 Million to spend on transfers to try to servive in the Serie A.

Season 2010/2011 Start

With a good transfer budget i set about looking to sign some young and exciting players. Spent all the budget on a few players but the squad is still abit small.

Transfers

Made a great start to the season, beating Milan 3-2 at the San Siro. Certain the form wont hold up but is nice to be flying high for a bit. Just looking to avoid relegation this season.

Serie A

Finances

Squad

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Season 2006-07

I took over as manager of the club San Marino, and set about trying to organise them into some kind of team. I got my staff sorted first off, and set out a simple attacking 4-4-2 system for the side to play in. We were expected to battle with relegation this season, but in fact we exceeded even my own expectations.

I managed to pick up a few cheap players to boost the squad and added a new keeper, 3 new defenders, and 4 new forwards to give us some power up front. The best of those signings by far was Rene Schnitzler, who was picked up for 2k from Gladbach reserves and went on to win the player of the season award.

We got off to a good start in the cup, and comfortably qualified for the knockout phase of the Serie C cup. We ended up getting to the semi finals, where we were cruelly beaten by Tarnana who went on to lift the trophy.

In the league we continued this form, and spent all of the season fighting promotion rather than relegation. We just failed in our valiant attempt to get automatic promotion, and were then scuppered in the play off final by Taranto, a club with far more resources than ourselves.

All in all I was delighted with the season, but we have massive financial problems and I have already had one of my defenders sold from under me to ease the debt. I need to hang onto the majority of my side and maybe add one or two to make that next step, but I don't think we are far away from promotion.

Squad Stats

Rene Schnitzler

League Table

End of Season Fixtures

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Season 2009-2010 - RufftyMan

Second season in Serie B after a 10th placed finish in our debut season there, and i decided that the squad needed a major overhaul in order for us to compete. So a total of 33 players were brought in.

So the season was going to begin and we were predicted an 18th placed finish by the media, and not much better by the board as they wanted a brave fight against relegation.

Info Screen

Pre season went as predicted against the smaller teams, and a little so-so against the bigger sides:

Skelmersdale 0-7 San Marino

Baracca 0-8 San Marino

San Marino 0-1 Bolton

San Marino 1-1 Dinamo Buc.

San Marino 1-2 IFK Goteborg

Onto the Coppa Italia qualifying rounds which brought about a 2-1 win against Crotone in the first round and then a 3-2 defeat against Livorno. So for the second season running i was knocked out early. But it would give the team more time to focus on the league.

The season proved to be extremely exciting and was even better than i had thought it could be. Biggest win of the season was 5-0 against Ascoli and the best performance brought about a 2-1 win against League winners Parma away from home.

Serie B

Squad

Finances

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2007 / 08 Season Update - Marky Mark

After a good first season, where I finished 5th and just missed out on promotion, I was looking to add a bit more depth to the squad (something I was missing last year) and push for the 1st spot and automatic promotion. To that effect I made quite a few transfers in (as well as a number of transfers out to try and reduce the wage bill):

2007/08 Transfers In

As you can see few of those names are Italian (and none are San Marinese), and the inflow of foreign names has led to only 6 of my 21 1st squad members being Italian, and none being San Marinese:

2007/08 1st Squad List

With little change to my starting 11 (I brought in a better GK and right back, but it was otherwise much the same), the results were much better, and San Marino ended up taking out Serie C1/B by 4 points:

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2007/08 Season Update cont - Marky Mark

As mentioned above, the league table looked as follows:

2007/08 Serie C1/B League Table

As well as taking out the league, I also had sucess in the cups. I did get knocked out of the 1st round of the Italia Cup by a Serie B team, but then went on to win all of my Serie C Cup matches up until the final against Venezia.

I lost the home match 1-2, but then bounced back to win the away match 3-1 and take ot the cup!

The C1 Super Cup also went my way, with 2-0 and 3-2 wins against C1/A side Cremonse (unfortunatly there is no prize money for this cup!)

2007/08 Fixtures - 2 x Cup Wins!

Finances wise, and after clearing out some of the driftwood from the club (both in players and staff), and managed to get my wage around $7k under the budget and, along with the cup sucess, managed to turn the club finances around. Cant wait to start spending some of the cash on a big(ish) name player!

2007/08 Finances - $1.6M to spend!

Whilst its not yet enough to improve training / youth / stadium, at least Im not relying on cash injections to stay afloat!

On the international front I managed to increase the world ranking to 192 in the world due to wining some friendly against poor opposition, however I lost all of my euro qualifier games heavily icon_frown.gif

However, I did have my first San Marinese player break into the Domestic team, with 6 substatute appearances at an average rating of 6.75 . Whilst not yet part of the first squad in the domestic team, he is bay far the best player in the international team (sadly):

Alex Gasperoni - The best of the San Marino International Squad

Annoyingly though, despite bringing in 2 San Marino coaches and 2 San Marino scouts into the Domestic Team (despite them being fairly rubbish), I have only produced 1 San Marino youth in 2 season so far (I have also produced 1 Suisse youth (I have a suisse assistant manager) and Luxumbergian youth (from a Luxembergian feeder club?).

Just wondering, has anyone here managed to get San Marino (national) qualified for a major tournument, or even close to (in FM 2007?) If not, whats the highest world ranking anyone has achieved?

Anyway, thats my update for the 2007/08 season, bring on Serie B!

Cheers,

Marky Mark

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2008 / 09 Season Update - Marky Mark

Well, after a great season last year in serie C1, I was full of optimism of oging back to back. After 4 games without a win I was starting to worry a bit, and by the new year I was sitting mid table, not in danger of going down, but not looking like chalenging either.

But then, from 11 Feb onwards, I went on a team record 16 games unbeaten (including 5 wins in a row), which saw the team require a win to grab 2nd place and secure automatic promotion. Unfortunatly I only managed a draw, and ended in a very respectable 3rd place, 1 point short of 2nd.

However my bad luck with playoffs contiuned. After a 0-0 draw at home (which was my 16th unbeaten game in a row), I lost 3-1 away to the eventual winner of the playoff finals, Rimini.

Serie B League Table - 3rd place

And of course, the a list of the squad that got me there (mainly unchanged from last year, though there were a few decent players signed up on bosmans which should join in July):

My multi-national 1st team squad

My finances were up and down, by August the finance were up to $2M (due to the sale of a lot of my reserve players), but then by June they were back down to 0 (despite being under the wage budget all season), and then at the end of the season the team took out a $5M loan to expand the stadium to 10,000 or so (without me asking):

2008 / 09 Finances

New Records - Domestic Team

Most Games without Losing - 16 (11.2.2009 to 7.6.2009)

2008 / 09 Sam Marino Domestic Records

2008 / 09 San Marino International News

Well, unsurprisingly I came dead last in the Euro Qualifiers and comming dead last in the World Cup Qualifiers, but just look at this:

0 - 0 Draw with Turkey in World Cup Qual

Yes, the international teams first point in any competition, a 0-0 draw with Turkey, the #4 team in the world! Sure, I got hammered by every other team in the group, but surely the draw is the sign of things to come?

The team did very well with all friendlies they played (generally against teams 10 - 20 places above them in the world rankings), and have now jumped from 180ish to 134 in the world, jumping above such football giants as Rwanda, Tahitit, and Uganda (teams 135 - 137). The goal is definatly to break into the top 100 by the end of next season!

I seem to be the only one still posting in this thread (I did sign up late, was busy with Dafuge's challenge), if anyone is still reading this please let me know, else I might stop posting.

Cheers,

Marky Mark

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I'm reading too, so don't worry icon_wink.gif

Played this challenge a few months ago and I really enjoyed it! I found it really hard to promote from Serie C1, took me 5 or 6 seasons. My major succes was winning the Copa Italia. I had to quite because it was taking too much time but I will give it a another try with FM 08.

Good luck with this challenge!

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Tried this challenge many months ago, but am now starting again.

Have played out most of the first season already. Just 5 games to go and we're sitting in 3rd place. No chance of catching the leaders, but hopefully we can get lucky in the playoffs.

Only signed two players at start of season, both Italian veterans. I'd be surprised if I get more than two seasons from either, but they're proving to be very solid and performing well so far...

As with everyone else, money is haemorraging from the club on a weekly basis. I think a quick promotion is the only way to slow it. Fingers crossed...

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My first season ended a little weakly, but I just managed to hang on to the last Playoff position (5th) by the skin of my teeth.

Unfortunately, this meant I was paired up with the team that finished 2nd, Avellino, who had been very strong all season and even were top with only a single game to go, but failed to capitalise.

The Playoff Semi didn't go quite as I hoped. Finished 0-0 in the home leg, so I had to really go for it on the away leg. Unfortunately, we proved to be just not strong enough and were beaten 3-2 by a much better team. Still I'm very proud of my team and (as football managers are wont to say) I would have taken a fifth place finish at the start of the season, so I'm not too disappointed.

Season two has begun and I am still losing money faster than I thought it was possible.

Have let a number of players go, some because I need to shed some off the wage budget, some because I didn't feel they would ever make it into the 1st XI and some simply because offers came in that I am not in a position to refuse.

In all I made 150K from selling a few players, including some I would have liked to hang on to, but I decided to let them go as they were "not getting any younger" and would soon be worth nothing.

Spent 55K on new signings and decided that that was enough to spend. The board would still allow me to spend another 90K, but I don't want to cripple the club financially any more than I have to.

My team this season just doesn't feel as strong, though as it did last year and, although I am scoring more freely, the defense is leaking badly.

After 17 games (half way) I am sitting in 8th spot. I just have to hope that I can kick on from here and close up on the top group. It's only a couple of point to make up, but we just aren't consistent.

On the plus side though, we are into the Quarter-final of the Serie C cup. Don't know what kind of prize money the tournament yields (I don't expect it to be much), but every little bit helps. Keeping my fingers crossed. I've very rarely picked up silverware on FM07 (not counting lower league titles), so I'd really like to win it.

Anyway, back to it... I'll keep you posted...

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betterspud - I took out the serie C cup in my 2ns season, and the prize money is minimal, around $60k IIRC. Also, the C1 Supercup has a grand total of $0 prizemoney.

I am halfway through my 2nd season in serie B (4th season overall), but am now quite busy, so it might be a little while yet for my season update (as Im not going to buy FM2008 anytime soon I'll stick to this challenge for a while)

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Finished my 2nd season in 7th place and never had any chance of getting any higher. We outscored all other teams in the division, but shipped about as many.

Made it to the Serie C cup, but was utterly destroyed there. TBH we rode our luck most of the way and the trophy went to the better team.

Have had no choice but to let a number of players go, due to the horrific finances, even though I have done everything I can to get the wages down and have sold anyone I got a realistic bid for. However, the board have made no cash available for transfers and have cut the wage budget again (unsurprisingly), so I am currently running in the red.

On the plus side though, I've been moved into the more prestigious C1/A for the new season, which I'm hoping will generate higher gates and help financially. it remains to be seen whether I can compete with the other teams in there though!

I'm actually not too unhappy with my current squad, having cut out some of the dead wood. I have quite a few younger players that I've picked up on frees, with minimal wages that are probably about ready now to make an impact. Still not finding a great deal of San Marinese quality out there though, but I've just had another batch of young 'uns through the system that I'm yet to evaluate, so I'm hoping there could be a gem in there.

Have only played out the friendlies and the 1st Qualifier for the Italian Cup, where I managed to beat a very strong Serie B Genoa 2-1, so our confidence is up and we're ready to face anyone!

Bring it on!!

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2006/07 C1/B Finished 5th

2007/08 C1/B Finished 7th

2008/09 C1/A Finished 15th

Possibly the worst season I have ever experienced on FM. At no point during the season could we string wins together. We regularly followed a 5-1 win with a 6-0 defeat and finished off the season with an eleven game winless streak. We just couldn't buy a win.

Finished in 15th place and had to suffer the indignity of a Playout game Vs 16th place Ravenna.

I've never felt so tense before. It's not nice playing out a tie for your survival, but I decided to throw everything at it and we followed a 1-1 first leg with a thrilling 3-3 second and survived in C1/A simply because we finished a place higher than Ravenna...

Have had enough of crippling finances, so I decided not renew contracts on the majority of my players and let many go at end of season. Also managed to shed a few for fees, including selling Devis Nossa for a club record £1,000,000! I would have taken the offer anyway, but the chairman jumped in and accepted it on my behalf.

Now at start of 09/10 season, I have picked up some freebies and a few others on the cheap to put together a much smaller squad, but I am happy that they will perform much better than last year. Everyone will get a game, including my youth players, one of which (a San Marinese DC) is regularly attracting offers of £150K+. I'm trying to hold on to him,at least until the bids are to great for my Chairman to resist...

Now have 5 San Marinese players in my first team and they look pretty good. Hopefully my scouts will turn up a few more soon.

Hoping to push for Serie B within the next two seasons. I feel quite confident that I will be top half this term, so maybe with a little luck we can go up this time...

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2006/07 C1/B Finished 5th

2007/08 C1/B Finished 7th

2008/09 C1/A Finished 15th

2009/10 C1/A Finished 5th

Massive improvement on last season. My biggest frustration was the number of chances we spurned leaving us with far too many draws. If only we could have grabbed the odd goal in a few more we could have finished as champions, we weere good enough!

Fought our way to the Playoff final with a stylish 4-2 win over 2nd placed Monza, to meet Verona in the final. Unfortunately, we found it really tough going and eventually were well beaten, with Verona controlling both legs and finishing as 4-2 victors and comdemning us to yet another season in Serie C.

Still couldn't go all the way in the Serie C Cup either, once again being seen off in the Semi-Final.

The good points of the season are that my scout has found numerous quality prospects at rock bottom prices, so my squad is really starting to swell. I feel that the squad I will start next term with will be much stronger, so should hopefully be good enough to gain promotion.

Finances are also improving. We're still in the red, but only just and, for the first time, have completed a season making a profit! Attendances are up, a new sponsorship deal, plus the reduction in my wage bill all helped. Let's hope that we can get the club into profit next year. There are bound to be a few players that I will receive offers for that are too good to turn down!

The National team are starting to show early signs of improvement. They are no longer getting regularly stuffed and have even managed a couple of wins. They have also climbed from 175th in the world rankings and are now up to around 120th. Still a long way to go, but they're heading in the right direction. The Coach is still under contract until 2013. I hope that he will be ready to retire around than and I can get in...

Many of my San Marinese squad members are easily holding their places in the national starting XI and 5 of them made 20 or more starts for me too.

Oh well, on with season 5...

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Have only just begun the 2010/11 season, but it's clearly going to be the best so far. We're sitting 2nd after the first 8 games, but more importantly, the finances are sorted. We've managed to battle our way past some good sides from Serie B in all three qualifying rounds of the Italian Cup and have been drawn against Juventus in the two-legged 1st Round proper!

I've played out the first leg already and I'm very proud of my team, only going down 1-0 at Delle Alpi against a very strong, attacking, world class side and the best thing is that we made more than £1M from that one game alone!!

Hopefully, I will be able to talk the board into upgrading the Youth facilities with it and start getting some more players into the national side...

What are the chances of bringing Juve back to our place and getting a result?? I've got everything crossed!

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2010/2011 Season

League - C1/A Finished 1st !!

Cups - Italian Cup - 1st Rnd

Serie C Cup - Winners

C1 Super Cup - Winners

Marvellous isn't it? I've waited for five years to taste some glory and, like buses, three come along at once!

Throughout the league season we played well and seemed to get stronger as we went along. Early on we were having to fight our way into the lead and then play with everyone behind the ball to hold on for three points. As the games rolled by, though, we gained in confidence and started to become far more dominant. I t took us until the very late stages to climb up to 1st place. The first time we occupied the top spot was with a single game to go and it took a very determined effort to secure a 1-1 draw on the last day to hold off the challengers.

What can I say about the cups? It was a fantastic start to battle through three qualifying rounds in the Coppa Italia and get the dream draw Vs Juventus. What a money spinner! I think we must have cleared £1.5M profit from those two legs alone and we really did ourselves proud, managing to hold Juve to just a single goal. We even created some excellent chances of our own and maybe on another day...

The other cups really did not see anyone put up much of a challenge throughout and we comfortably overcame all who stood in our way!

The club is now in fantastic shape and I'm looking forward to competing at a higher level. The bank balance is close to £2M in credit and my squad is filling up with quality players in every department. I have drawn up a shopping list for the new season and intend to sign another 8 players to give me sufficient cover in every position, plus a bunch of youth players behind that waiting for their chance. Once I've got those 8 in place I'll be on a strict one-in-one-out policy from then on until I can support my squad solely from the youth academy.

For the coming season, I will be happy to achieve a 12th place finish, but I've got a feeling that we'll do much better than that.

Hopefully the board will start investing in the capacity and/or the youth setup soon too, since they have done nothing so far.

Onwards and upwards... We are Titani!

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