San Marino "double" Challenge 2008

[JamesW]

I can't give too much information right now as I'm in an Internet Cafe and don't have too much time - I'll give a big update when I get my internet back, next monday. For now, suffice it to say that I loathe the San Marino Board with a passion, and that I'm pretty sure they want me to fail. No other explanation for their recent behaviour.

[llama3]

chin up mate, always keep believing! i know san marino can do it!

[Ninjamark]

I'm giving this a go too.... in between being a BETA tester on FM Live... so updates might be slow and few to begin with!

[Ninjamark]

This challenge isn't as easy as i thought it might have been!

I presumed that when we were told we were amongst the favourites to go up, than i wouldn't need to tinker much with the squad, now that i'm mid table in the middle of November, i can see that isn't the case!

Off to restart again and take it seriously this time!!!

[JamesW]

(Note: whilst away I kept track of what I was up to and I've got it all recorded here. This first update takes it up to midway through the third season, though I'm actually in November of the fourth season now. I'll try to get the rest of my updates up soon, though after doing this one I think I might take a break.)

Serie C1 went far better than I could have expected, really. I told the board I was aiming to finish mid-table, and in the end I found myself pressing for promotion throughout the season!

One reason for that was how ridiculously close it was. This illustrates that point pretty well, I hope! The other reason was the performance from the team. Early on, Cristea was showing incredible ability. He amassed nearly 20 goals ridiculously early on in the season, albeit a lot of them coming from the Serie C Cup. After that it was Di Carmine’s time to shine, and up until about Christmas time he was scoring at least one goal pretty much every single game. Sadly it was around then that he started becoming incredibly injury prone – I don’t think he played more than, say, three matches in a row for the entire second-half of the season, which was very disappointing.

Thankfully, I found a great player at the start of the transfer window – Andrzej Rybski. You can’t see in that picture due to me not taking it until the summer, but in 14 games he scored 12 goals with 6 assists to accompany it, getting 4 MoMs with an average rating of 7.71! You may not actually believe the way I found him – I was searching randomly for ‘gems’ by typing in random combinations of letters into the search engine. I searched for “dan†and found him at his former club, “Lechia Gdanskâ€. I found quite a few players by this method, though he was the only one of them who signed for me during the transfer window (more on that later).

Small note: whilst doing this random searching method, I uncovered my nomination for the Best Team Ever. I don’t know whether I prefer their name, their average age, or the fact that for every pound they’re worth they have 7 and a half seats in their ground! (Well, not necessarily seats since it’s the capacity and it doesn’t say it’s an all-seater stadium, but you get the point).

Anyway, after the window closed (with the club making money due to me being very cautious with both the wage and transfer budgets), I had two things I was aiming for – a playoff spot, and a good cup run. I was still in both, at this point.

This is how the league progressed:

23 Played

25 Played

28

30

(In between this and the next league table picture, I played Albino Leffe in what was turning into a key match – this is how it went)

32

33

Final League Table

Yup – not just promotion, but automatic first place promotion, only achieved after Albino Leffe lost a match to a relegation candidate on the final day of the season! Back to back league victories in successive seasons! It was incredible, really. An amazing run of form in the final 10 games of the season saw us go from “one of the pack†to “the slightly better horse in a two-horse raceâ€. The fact that we picked up 4 points from Albino Leffe over the season proved vital, in the end.

They must’ve really hated us too, because not only did we pip them to the title but we also knocked them out of the cup, along with a bunch of other teams – and in the end, we won it! We lost the C1 Super Cup though, succumbing to a 2-1 defeat away and then being unable to break the deadlock at home, falling 0-0 (and 2-1 on aggregate). Frankly though I didn’t give a toss about that .

In retrospect though, it might’ve been better had we not gone up quite so soon. The board certainly seemed to think so, as they spent the next season seemingly trying to do me in.

Here’s how it happened – we were already relatively wealthy (well, not for a Serie B side, but compared to a Serie C side we were) due to me being careful with the wage and transfer budgets. The overall wage budget for the C1 winning season was about 14kpw (I can’t remember exactly and don’t know how to check, but it was about that). However, I’d made a bunch of free-transfer purchases for the end of the season, through the method I mentioned before. I will admit to two mistakes there – firstly, I signed up multiple non-EU players resulting, perhaps inevitably, in the transfers for the good ones falling through and the transfer for a not-so-good one using up my 1 Non-EU player for the season. Secondly, by buying so many players, I bought a bunch of not-very-special players who would’ve been good in Serie C1 but for Serie B weren’t going to cut it.

No worries though, right? I mean, we got £1.5 million from TV revenue for the season, giving the board a lot of income to give to me. In the “state how well you want to do this season†bit I was, I’d like to think, reasonable – a safe, mid-table finish. That would, according to the choice, give me a transfer budget of about £1 Million, and a wage budget of about 40kpw (with the teams wages currently at about 22kpw, which gave me a lot of room to make some signings to get us from “scraped promotion from Serie C1†quality to “Solid Serie B Team†quality).

So, the wage budget comes in. 16kpw.

Wait, what? …Yeh. 16kpw. I have no clue why, I have no clue how, but they gave me less than half the budget I was promised. They also claimed that I’d already spent 800k of my £1 million transfer budget…despite me only signing free transfers. Riiight… Well, the bank balance was still strong. Maybe I could fix the problem by asking for a bigger wage budget. Nope, the board thinks I have a sufficient wage budget to succeed. WHAT?! At this point I knew I was completely screwed. I’d promised the board a safe, mid-table finish. As a result, that was their lowest expectation for the season. However, the team was, quite simply, not good enough for that. I NEEDED to be able to bring in multiple players, preferably defenders, to give us security. However, not only did I not have the transfer funds to bring in the players that I wanted, but the board were worried about my irresponsible control of the wage budget and were limiting my funds to £1,000 per week for any new signings! I needed new players to survive, and I was having to offload players I already had just to get the wage budget down to an acceptable level!

Another issue – parent teams. Cesena had got relegated the previous season, and on principle I didn’t want to be a feeder team to a team in a lower league, so I broke off the link (and lost Cristea in the process ). However, I asked for a new link slightly too soon – before the end of the second season. As a result, the board returned with two choices – Cesena and Rimini, who were also in Serie B. I said no to both choices, assuming the board would take my decision as gospel (I HAD just got them promoted two seasons in a row and one them the Serie C Cup all within budget, after all…). Next day, I’m told that my new parent club is Rimini. A team in the same division as me, and a mid-table team at that. In other words, I effectively had no feeder team, as the only players they were willing to lend were players I didn’t want. I also lost Di Carmine due to him being loaned and couldn’t get him back at the start of the new season because the board were only willing to pay (wait for it) £100 per week to any loanee. I was ready to punch the screen by that point, though thankfully I thought better of it.

So to sum up, it was quite possibly the worst pre-season any club has ever had, ever. There were only four pieces of shining light, and they were all players. Firstly, two free transfers – Mariusz Zawodzinski, this season’s equivalent of Samuel Di Carmine, and Alexandre Licata, a player who was actually worth money! I was tempted to sell him the moment I got him to increase the bank balance, but the “he’s one of your few remaining players who’s actually good†train of thought prevailed and he’s been a solid (though unspectacular) player ever since. Secondly, my youth system produced its first two San Marinese players who have genuine promise! It was very exciting, I assure you! Giovanni Bandiera and Andrea Bernardini both show incredible promise – particularly Bernardini, who my assistant manager says could be a Leading Serie A Defensive Midfielder in the future! Both of them also currently say they want to play for San Marino (they’re both half-Italian) too, so I’m hoping the international manager calls them up sooner rather than later. I’m slowly introducing them to my first team now to try to get them experience and also get them noticed while they’re at it. Neither of them are good enough quite yet though, although I’m sure it’ll only be a matter of time.

Anyway, yeh, back to the depression. I managed – just – to get within budget for the wages. However, to do so I had to release practically my entire reserve team, a lot of excess first team players and most of the youth team too. By the end of it all, I had 18 players in the first team (after loaning in a full back and not including my two youth players, who were only 15 at the time and thus not eligible), 1 in my reserves (a defender with promise who I want nowhere near my first team yet, so he’s on loan), and about 5 youth players. In other words, it was absolute bare bones, and the board still wouldn’t free up money.

At that point in time, this was my first XI (when everyone was free):

GK Job Bulters

DR Jelle De Bock

DL Assani Lukimya

DC Michele Bacis

DC Adriano Rossini

DM Rodrigo

CM Artim Polozani

CM Alexandre Licata

AM Alexandru Chipciu

AM Andrzej Rybski

ST Mariusz Zawodzinski

(note: no updated picture for Chipciu yet because I’m going to mention him in more detail in a bit – the others all had their pictures linked to earlier on)

Not Serie B material, I’m sure you’ll agree. However, thankfully a lot of my players shared similar characteristics – the midfielders generally had good composure and passing skills, as well as pretty good off the ball and creativity. So I elected to play a defensive possession game, under the impression that it would help plug up my incredibly unreliable defense whilst at the same time I’d still be able to create enough chances over the course of a match for my better quality players (the attackers) to score. And with that strategy, I was hoping to be able to survive in Serie B and keep my job enough to fix the problem for the 2010/11 season.

First competitive match was a cruel draw in the Italian Cup against Siena, the team predicted to win Serie B (and top at the time of writing). We lost 3-1, never looking particularly threatening (the scoreline probably flattered us). Oh well, at least that only left the league as a priority in the players’ minds! We began the league with a loss, then a draw, then a loss. After that, we got an unbeaten run going until the 8th game of the season, where we succumbed to our first defeat in 5. It sounds impressive, right? Well, this is how the table looked after 7 games, just before the streak ended.

You could say we had a problem with draws, I guess!

It was the 9th league game of the season when a miracle happened! In the team’s defence and my own, we were unlucky in a few of those games. In others, we were screwed before the match even began – this is what I'm talking about.

One advantage of having so many international quality players though – sometimes they can help you with recruitment. I asked Jelle De Bock if he would recommend any team mates, and he recommended this chap – Yoni Buyens. Buyens was, at the time I found him, not with a club. Pretty difficult to believe, but it was true. That meant I was able to pick him up immediately on a free transfer, and he went straight into the backline, replacing Rossini without me giving it a second thought. At last, a good defender! On the downside I went slightly over budget on wages again, but really I just decided to say **** it .

One last problem, though – from the start of the 2009/10 season, Alexandru Chipciu has been asking persistently for me to let him move on. Or rather, he’s consistently whining to the press. Thankfully, I’ve been able to keep him contented so far. I think that, were I not one of his favoured personnel, he would have formally handed in a transfer request weeks ago. But it’s really becoming difficult to bare, at this point – when I said persistently, I meant that at least once a week I’ll get a new message about how he wants to leave the club. He’s been contented by every response I’ve given so far, but it’s really only a matter of time. No chance I can keep this up for, what, 18 months? I’m guessing I’ll need a couple of seasons to convince him I mean business with San Marino. Right now I’m just letting his value rise, treating his eventual departure as an inevitability – he’s risen in value by about 400k in the last three months.

Finally, I leave the league table at the time of writing – since getting the first win, we built up a considerable stride. Things are looking…well, plausible, I guess. I stand a reasonable chance at keeping my job, although not a great one, and then I’ll hopefully be able to make a better stab at moving up the league next season.

[Oktober]

I'd been taking a break from FM for a while after failing to qualify for the World Cup, even cheating on it with other games! However, hearing about James' adventures proved irresistable, so I fired it up and got going again on the second half of my season...

Final table, Serie A 2025/26

All in all a good season, with some drama towards the end. Should have had a treble, but was very disappointed to go out in the semi finals of the Italian Cup and Champions League on away goals.

Despite losing the Super Cup on penalties to AC Milan, we were unbeaten in the league until mid December, when a 2-0 loss in the San Siro allowed Milan to finally overtake us. Our form kept up well until in late January/early Feb, disaster struck, as every single one of my central players (DC, DM, AMC and ST) all went down to injuries of varying lengths. With a mainly San Marinese U20 backline we struggled to hold a 2-0 lead away at Sampdoria and ended up dropping two points, before falling in Palermo to surely concede the title and fall 7 points behind AC Milan. We still had them to play in Serravalle, but they hadnt slipped up until now so it was only likely to let us finish in a close second.

As our squad gradually recovered, our form did too, and by April (when I fell victim to the easter egg of an April Fool's joke) I had all but world class centre back Luke Curtis back, who would miss the rest of the season due to a broken foot. However, the young product of our youth system Domenico Bologna plugged the gap admirably, and is looking a top prospect for the future with physical attributes belying his small frame. Still though, with only 6 games left until the end of the season, we'd only managed to match Milan who were not letting up, and remained 7 points clear.

However, before they played us, they had the away leg of the Milan derby to get through - which proved only their second loss of the season, as Inter comfortably won 2-0. This at least gave us a chance to cut the lead to a single point by beating them in Serravalle, then hoping they didnt win all of their final 3. However, against all odds and form, before they even reached us somehow they managed to fall 2-1 at home to Chievo - their first league loss at the San Siro for 2 years. With the chance to unexpectedly retake top spot, we made no mistake at home, with world class midfielder and one of my personal favorite players ever Max Calabrese turning their aging defence inside out with a hat-trick, leading to a 4-1 win. I was gutted to concede in the final minutes - if we'd held it at 4 goals, it would have been AC Milan's worst ever defeat. 2 points clear, we just needed two wins and a draw from the final 3 to end it - and with Parma, Ancona and AlbinoLeffe, that didnt seem too hard an ask.

However, we had a real scare away at Parma. After going 2-0 up and prompting premature title celebrations already, Parma somehow managed to score their first 3 shots on goal in the final 5 minutes to go 3-2 up and hand top spot back to AC Milan. Disaster was only narrowly averted by Araújo equalising in injury time, but there was nothing between us at the top now, only our 4 goals to their 3 over the two games seperating us.

Fortunately, bottom of the table Teramo were the perfect team to bounce back against with a comfortable 3-0 win. For their part, Napoli managed to hold Milan to a draw on their awful San Paulo pitch, restoring our 2 point lead with a lone game to go. Against AlbinoLeffe and at almost full strength, we made no mistakes at all, smashing them 5-2 to take home our third Serie A title!

Onto next season though, and theres a lot of work to be done - maybe I should be glad that I can focus on the club instead of being distracted by the World Cup. With several key players aging and world-class winger Piet van Kesteren off for £23 million, it looks like it might finally be time to tap into some of the £100+m we have available to strengthen our team to continue competing at the top level. There is some fantastic youth talent coming through, but I'm concerned that they're maybe another couple of years off of top-level capability, so time to plug the gaps in between our golden generations.

However, at long last, I finally have a merchandising feeder club! Beijing Hongdeng severed their link with Beijing Gu'on, finally leaving a Chinese option open that I miraculously was offered first time. They may be fairly small, but I'm just pleased to finally have one - now I'm just hoping for the same again with the US and Japan...

[shaggy61]

end of march in 2008

has anyone had this happen to them?

good proposal

after a dreadful start we've picked up and lie second in league 4 points off top and good chance of being in play offs at least.

I have saved game as not sure what to do?

going to leave it open to offers/suggestions and will probably resume Thursday.

(have played 20 years on Dafuge plus 7 on sir toby's in major career games and not seen this at all?)

[Ridleys]

Originally posted by shaggy61:

end of march in 2008

has anyone had this happen to them?

good proposal

after a dreadful start we've picked up and lie second in league 4 points off top and good chance of being in play offs at least.

I have saved game as not sure what to do?

going to leave it open to offers/suggestions and will probably resume Thursday.

(have played 20 years on Dafuge plus 7 on sir toby's in major career games and not seen this at all?)

A few people in Gundo's challenge, including me, have had that message as well, it's quite a good joke actually.

[shaggy61]

and now i feel incredibly stupid along with those flying penguins!

[JamesW]

(This update's a bit shorter than the last - doesn't bring me up to date yet though. This takes it to the end of the 3rd season when I'm currently partway through the fifth)

Well, come the January Transfer window, I perhaps inevitably lost an important player. It wasn’t Chipciu though, as might’ve been expected – Alexandre Licata left after a bid of £1.4 million was accepted by the board without me having a say – although honestly I’d have let him go too for that amount of money. There was also a 20% sell-on clause to boot, so it was a pretty good deal considering I got him only 6 months previously on a free transfer and he’s not played TOO well since then (although he’s definitely still a loss). Initially, coming the other way was just Antoine Lambert, a right-back who has Serie A potential according to my scouts. However, more importantly the wage budget was FINALLY what it should’ve been. Sadly, the deal for Licata went through on the 28th January, giving me practically no time to take advantage of my new found riches. Still, I didn’t fair too badly – Andrea Cordos, Zoltan Hornyak, Vratislav Gajdos and (in probably the best coup of the lot) Andrei Ionescu sounds like a pretty reasonable haul in three days’ work!

After that I utilised a very attacking 4-2-3-1 formation, which was very successful. We proceeded to build up a 5 match winning streak. Perhaps a sign of how far we’d come as a result of the transfer window was beating our parent team, Rimini, 3-2 away from home after being 2-0 down. At the streak’s end, we found ourselves 9th in the league! We weren’t able to continue the surge up the table, but we were able to maintain the spot, and ended the season in 8th place, unbeaten in 8 including a thrilling 3-3 draw with Reggina (who were comfortably promoted) on the final day of the season. Not bad, all things considered!

Final League Table

All in all, things are looking relatively positive. I was so frustrated at the start of the season, but the second half of the season went very well.

[JamesW]

(Season Four Write-Up)

The moment I could (i.e. June 30th), I broke off the link with Rimini. Hey, San Marino now had a greater estimated value and was predicted by the media to finish higher than them in Serie B the coming season! The board forced me to stop hating it for its actions the previous season by getting me a new link immediately – FEYENOORD! I actually didn’t take many people. At the time of writing, I’m treating them with a sort of “it’s just good to have you there†attitude. This is partly due to them rejecting my loan suggestions for some of their players, and partly due to me being pretty happy with the squad I’ve got (see below). All I need is a left-back, and they won’t let their only one go .

(Update: I took two players on loan – well, I say took; Feyenoord moved them to me and I happily took them – Robin Vonk, a DM, and Glenn Kobussen, a right midfielder/winger who can also play centre-back)

Pre-season, I promised the board a top half finish – I think I might be able to push for promotion, but I didn’t want to risk promising that and failing when last season there were three teams (Ascolia, Reggina and Siena) that were in a league of their own and tied up all the promotion spots. My top-half promise gave me a transfer budget of just over 2 million and a wage budget of about 50kpw – however, for the second year again both were taken from me. I think it might be a bug resulting from having players due to sign when the transfer window re-opens. I also wasted my non-EU spot for the second year running – it’s not that I repeated my stupid mistake, but it’s the same stupid mistake as last time because the player in question was a youth who wasn’t going to be able to be transferred until then regardless. For the next season, I want to make my non-EU player Pedro Rosas, someone who I nearly signed last season but due to having multiple non-EU players due to arrive on the same day couldn’t get. Cruelly he doesn’t want to come now, but from the few stats I can see he could be world class at the tender age of 19! In any case, I wasn’t so bothered my budgets being crippled this year, because a) they weren’t so bad – with my team’s wages as about 42kpw, a wage budget of 38kpw isn’t that unreasonable; and b) I’d already signed enough players on pre-window deals to get a strong squad. As I said before, only a great left-back is stopping me from having an incredible squad.

These were my signings:

- Francesco Clemente (LM, Free)

- Mateusz Rajfur (DC, Free)

- Davis Curiale (ST, Free)

- Cao Yuanfeng (DM, 1k, my wasted non-eu spot and I’m already trying to sell him off)

- Michal Janota (AM, 140k)

- Ömer Ózcelik (DR, Free)

With the exception of Yuanfeng, a good haul.

I had two problems at this point – finding a better left-back than Lukimya (not great) or Buyens (good, but better deployed as a centre-back), and trimming down my squad to make the board let the former be possible. The latter required deciding what team to go with, which was actually pretty tough. Quality attacking midfielders necessitated at least one of them, but I didn’t want an AM and two strikers on top of that because I really wanted a sturdy defence. But then I had Curiale, my most valuable and arguably best player, and Zawodzinski, the 25 goal-scoring fans player of the season from 09/10, as well as captain Rybski and new signing Janota. That’s not even getting into whom to play behind them! In the end, I settled on this as my first-team:

GK Piotr Czaplinski

DR Ömer Ózcelik

DL Yoni Buyens

DC Andrei Cordos

DC Mateusz Rajfur

DM Andrea Bernardini

ML Francesco Clemente

MR Alexandru Chipciu

AM Andrei Ionescu

ST Andrzej Rybski

ST Davis Curiale

with Rybski having the potential to drop into MC if I needed more defensive power.

Something else of note – Andrea Bernardini, the San Marinese youngster tipped by my assistant manager as a potential Leading Serie A Defensive Midfielder, had probably about 100 offers. And I’m genuinely not exaggerating then, I’d advance to the next day every day in the pre-season and be stunned if there wasn’t a bid to co-own him for about anywhere between 300k and 600k. The same Serie A (and some Serie B) clubs would bid again and again, not getting the message. No way, I’m hanging on to this kid thanks! Goalkeeper Piotr Czaplinski received his fair share of offers too, but likewise I’m hanging on to him. A note about Czaplinski – I signed him pre-window at the end of the first season. I’m not sure I mentioned him before, but last season he established himself as my No. 1 ahead of Job Bulters, who was starting to show he was out of his league. I still have Bulters as a back-up, but Czaplinski’s the clear first choice.

All in all, I was pretty happy at the start of the season.

The season started, as normal, with the Italian Cup. Our board placed no expectations on us for the tournament, though I decided to go with a high win bonus anyway. We got a relatively fortunate draw, breezing past relegation-quality Serie B sides to get to the third qualifying round, where we reached Sampdoria. It was a very close game, as you can see here. Despite the cruel nature of the loss, I’m satisfied with the performance, and considering I was never going to win the cup anyway I’m not too unhappy! Plus, that left me with the league to focus on, and the drive for promotion.

First day of the season was against another promotion candidate (well, I say another – the media prediction for San Marino is 15th!), Mantova. I don’t like Mantova, because perhaps more than any other team in Italy they tried their best to unsettle Chipciu last year. Sadly I couldn’t get proper vengeance, and had to settle for a 0-0 draw at home. Still, undefeated so far!

One thing before I forget – the board agreed (after I asked) to expand the stadium by about 2500 seats. So I managed to more than double my record attendance in the first match. I bet the crowd were really psyched for that 0-0 draw! I’ve also asked the board to expand the training and youth facilities and they’ve unanimously agreed to do so with both, but nothing’s actually come of that yet.

One thing the 0-0 hinted at that at the time I didn’t truly appreciate was a very solid defence. How solid? Well, at this point I was feeling pretty happy with my defensive record, but at THIS point I was ecstatic! The main reason for that is Czaplinski, who in 9 games (he missed one due to an international call-up) had kept seven clean sheets and been named man of the match five times!

Sadly, things didn’t keep up at quite that standard, though I was still very much in contention for automatic promotion. Pretty early on it soon became apparent that Parma were the team to beat; or, to be more accurate, Parma were the team to lose to as they went on a winning streak of something ridiculous like 15 games. They won the league with about 5 games still left to go. However, the race for second and the playoff spots (it was pretty clear no team would open up a 10 point gap) was very close for a long while. These are the screenshots I have of how it progressed:

14 Played

25

30

35

Very, very close. Someone was going to be heartbroken, it was soon apparent. What helped make the question of which team it would be slightly easier was the fact that in my 35th, 37th and 38th games of the season I lost 4-1, 5-1 and 5-0 respectively. The fantastic defensive record that had got me where I was just completely vanished. I don’t think I’ve ever ****ed away a season quite so spectacularly before. The 39th game was lost too, albeit a close and unfortunate 2-1 loss, and though San Marino were able to turn their fortunes around with three consecutive 2-1 victories to end the season (some more deserved than others), it wasn't quite enough. Head-to-heads are a cruel mistress! Still, even if I didn’t get promoted, I’d still call 7th place a pretty successful season considering it’s only my second time in Serie B.

2007/08: Serie C2, 1st, 69 Points

2008/09: Serie C1, 1st, 68 Points

2009/10: Serie B, 8th, 64 Points

2010/11: Serie B, 7th, 69 Points

[Oktober]

I'd say my season's going relatively well, since if I repeat my first half in the second I'll finish with 110 points

National qualifying for the Euros is going well too. Sadly lost to Belgium away, but beat Liechtenstein 1-0 after leaving it VERY late and hammered Belarus 6-0. In friendlies I capped one of my club Brazillian right wingers in a magnificent 5-0 horsing of Portugal, I just need to work on my away form - particularly since I've got England at Wembley up next...

[JamesW]

Warning: next update might be excessively positive .

In the pre-season the board announced it was expanding the stadium. The expansion would take until May, but we wouldn't have to move out of the stadium, instead we'd just have to close off one stand and have our capacity cut by about 700 seats for most of the season. When the expansion's complete we'll comfortably have over 10,000 seats. They also finally got round to improving the youth and training facilities - they're now both considered "adequate"!

From a transfer perspective the pre-season wasn't overly eventful. My side from the previous year had an average age of 22, so it was just a matter of letting them mature more than anything else. That said, my lack of goals had cost me the previous season, and as I mentioned previously I needed a left-back. I brought in Jiri Liska as my left-back, and used my non-eu spot for the season to bring in Yusuke Kato as a striker. I also permanently signed one of my loanees from the previous season, Glenn Kobussen, on a free transfer, and also loaned in a back-up keeper after letting Job Bulters go (he wanted first team football, bless him). Finally, something I forgot to mention in the previous update was that I let Andrea Bernardini be co-owned by Ascoli for 120k, before promptly buying him back in this pre-season for 45k. Not a bad little profit considering he never left the club . That was it for transfers, leaving me with a surplus budget of £3.2M that should hopefully impress the board.

From a matches standpoint, the pre-season was VERY encouraging. I was able to delight the fans with a 2-1 win at home to Feyenoord and a 3-1 win at home to Liverpool(!) (although amusingly they were more happy with the fact that I trashed my feeder team 6-0 - it felt kind of like using an atom bomb to kill an ant to me, but clearly the Titani fans are big ant-killing enthusiasts!). This turned out to be a sign of the sort of incredible results that were to come.

The Italian Cup draw wasn't too promising. In the first round I was at home to Serie A side Cagliari; if I could beat them my reward was Mantova (a strong Serie B side) away; if I could somehow beat both of them I wouuld then have to deal with Brescia (Serie A) at home. Cagliari went 1-0 up in the first minute but new signing Kato equalised in the 25th. From then on both sides seemed oddly content to sit back, and it went to extra time - though not before other new signing Jiri Liska made his own mark on the game, being sent off in the 88th minute for a second yellow card! In extra time Andrzej Rybski, now relegated to impact sub status, poked home the winner, and Cagliari were unable to respond leaving San Marino through the first round. In the second round Mantova had their chances - their star player, Federico Nieto, missed a penalty in the 25th minute. That proved costly as Davis Curiale scored the only goal of the game in the 74th minute, sending San Marino through to the third qualifying round (which had been the board's expectations) for a home tie with Brescia. Brescia's Nene scored a penalty in the 26th minute, but even going 1-0 down didn't cause the Titani to falter as Kato helped himself to a brace to send San Marino through 2-1 to the first-round proper, and a tie with Atlanta!

However, the cup was hardly my main focus. Annoyed that I missed the play-offs last year I'd promised my board promotion, something that I was starting to regret (until the victory over Liverpool, when I of course thought "San Marino are the greatest team in the world!" ). However, I really needn't have worried. The team was starting to mature into something special. This special, to be precise. 42 points from 14 games! There were two primary reasons for this - Davis Curiale and Yusuke Kato. Between them in the first half of the season they score 30 goals, 14 for Curiale (who is now San Marino's highest ever goalscorer after a season and a half) and 16 for Kato. 6 Man of the Match awards each, too! Sadly the winning streak couldn't last, but things were still going well - this is the league table at the halfway point of the season. Promotion is looking pretty likely, if the form can keep up!

One last thing - that first round match with Atlanta in the Italian Cup. The first leg was at their ground, and after they dominated I was fortunate to take a 1-1 draw back to the Olimpico following a marvellous free kick from captain Omer Ozcelik. At home I wasn't anticipating much; I got this freak result! I would say the victory was deserved, although not by that much - like I care right now though!

After knocking out three Serie A sides to get this far, I now have a quarter final tie with Inter. I think the run probably ends here, although frankly I've already done far better than I'd ever dreamed of!

[Oktober]

Final Serie A table, 2026/27

Ah well... 2 off my target

Stunning league season where absolutely no-one was able to stand up to us, strolling to the title with ease in mid-April and going an entire year without losing a single league match. We've had good runs before, but this was the first time we were able to maintain it over so long.

We spent big in the summer, promising the board instant success in exchange for freeing up a large amount of transfer money - of which over £70m was spent on 3 players. Yang Hongtao from Sporting Lisbon for £11.25m was admittedly mainly merchandising based due to our new link with Hongdeng, but proved to be invaluable as established left back Michal Sikora fell to damaged knee ligaments very early on in the campaign and didnt kick a ball for the rest of the year. £32m spent on Danny Olsen is being looked at as an investment due to a lack of young, tall quality centre backs worldwide, and for £29.5m Welshman James Francis seamlessly slotted into the left wing position left empty by the departure of van Kesteren in the summer.

Key to the season's success though were homegrown club legends Max Calabrese and especially Italian player of the year, Antonio Mantovani. Both have been world class for some time now, but this season they amazingly stepped up another gear, often single handedly (or dual-handedly) tearing teams apart to win point after point with a combined 60 goals between them from midfield. However, this dominant partnership was papering over some increasingly growing cracks, which were found out at the worst possible time. Already smarting from exiting the Italian Cup prematurely on away goals, and after falling 2-1 in Istanbul in the Champions League quarter finals, all we needed to do at home in the return leg was to score against Galatasaray to have the lead. However, with Calabrese missing through injury, the Turks were able to double up and subdue Mantovani for the first time all year, and without the driving force from midfield supplying the goals Márcio Araújo's diminishing pace was brought firmly into the spotlight, as we failed to get anywhere near their solidly defended goal. At 31 a long-term replacement was already in my mind, but this just sharply focused on the fact that it may well be needed sooner rather than later.

We have no shortage of youth strikers though, with the most promising being 'the next Luca Toni', Simone Rainone. Fast and both strong technically and aerially, he's very well rounded and has performed excellently in his first team appearances so far - and with supposed potential to be as good as Mantovani, should only keep getting better. Last year's great hope Andrea Bolzoni perhaps wasnt given as much time to shine at Messina as I'd hoped, but in my own youth team Cristian Manzaroli and Christian Zanotti are filling me with hope for the future of the national team. In goal for the country we also have young stars Matteo Muraccini, Fabio Pancotti, Massimiliano Bernadini and Stefano Campagna looking to establish themselves, providing a lot of depth but sadly in the one position where spares cannot be put to alternative use. Its still very promising though that we appear to be on the cusp of another golden generation, and with the club's reputation and academy as high as possible we can only get even stronger from here.

Sadly though, the current campaign is not going quite so well. We've been extremely good at home, taking all 6 points from Liechtenstein and Belarus (the latter 6-0), but away in Belgium and England we fell first 1-0 in a close game, then were played off the park 5-0 while missing several key players. While that should mean that we have the hardest games of the group behind us, it'll still be a challenge at at best will require a playoff to get to Greece '28.

[HUFC]

Oktober, would it be possible for you to send me your save game?

The situation you find yourself in looks fantastic and could be just what i need to get me reinvigorated for FM again

Of course, I understand you probably won't want to...as it's to no benefit to you but you don't get anything if you don't ask

[HUFC]

I also meant to add that since you have given this game so much time, you might want to keep it personal.

I'd totally understand if that was the case

[Oktober]

The save file is huge... I'll have a look around and see if its possible. I've been having problems with it too, whenever it tries to autosave it tells me its failed and creates a backup file, but it always loads up perfectly...

[HUFC]

ok, thankyou for having a look

[Oktober]

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=35ZAJ79X should work, but I've never used it before so... heres hoping! Let me know.

I dont mind anyone nosing around my file and having some fun - checking to make sure I'm not cheating I just ask that its not played too seriously - I've spent a ridiculous amount of hours laying the foundations of the team, it'd be a bit gutting if I come back in here in 2 weeks and I've been beaten to the World Cup with my own save game

[JamesW]

Wow, way to put my Serie B success into some perspective! 108 points is beyond incredible mate, congrats. Ironically it seems like it was the first season in a while where you didn't actually need to dominate like that!

[HUFC]

Oktober you are brilliant, I can't thank you enough

And I think the main thing for me would be to try and keep your good work going, rather than have the team start sliding down the league

[Oktober]

Well, we may have had the 6th best attendances throughout the campaign, but did San Marino make it to Greece '28?

At the end of 2026 we'd taken 6 points from a possible 9, leaving us in 3rd - a 1-0 win over Liechtenstein, 1-0 loss in Belgium and a 6-0 horsing of Belarus. We'd looked very strong at home, but struggled a bit on the road, and we'd need to rectify that in the main part of qualifying in 2027.

It didnt exactly start ideally though... the March game at Wembley fell at the worst possible time, with most of my team struggling to cope with a tough domestic season, and several injuries. With a tired, seconds tring team against an unstoppable England, we fell 5-0 for our worst result in some time. We made up for things in June by beating Poland 4-1 and eventually overcoming Liechtenstein in Vaduz 4-2, but we had to get results next season away in Poland and Belarus, as well as hosting Belgium and England.

Things didnt start ideally as Belgium worryingly easily strolled to a 3-1 win in Serravalle, but a 3-0 win in Minsk brought us onto equal points with second place Poland who'd fallen, as everyone else had, to England. If we won again in Poland we'd take second on head-to-head even if we then lost to England, so it all came down to that game.

However, we finally managed to improve on our away form to romp to a magnificent 3-0 win away, with newly capped Brazillian born Ewerton Ferreira opening his national account, along with a great free kick and a goal for my own youth player Christian Zanotti, already fitting into a key role for the country. With the England game (and likewise, Poland's home tie with Liechtenstein) now only formalities, we unluckily fell 3-1 after taking the lead - and Poland surprisingly, with nothing to play for, limped to a 0-0 draw.

Now it was all down to the playoff, and as soon as we left the feild at the Olimpico we were greeted with the news that we had been paired with Russia - considering who else had finished second in their group, probably one of the better draws. The friendly with the Faroes cancelled, a trip to Moscow loomed in a months time, with entry to Greece '28 at stake.

Euro 2028 qualification playoff leg 1 - Russia 2 - 4 San Marino

After falling early, but clawing back an away goal, we went in at half time relatively happy with the standings, knowing we only had to get the game back to Serravalle and keep the score down to have a great chance. In the second half though, we were a complete class apart - Zanotti's hunger and versitility streaking through the centre, breaking offside traps and getting on the end of pinpoint crosses proved far too much for Russia to handle, as he scooped the man of the match award for his contribution, and Ferreira added a final blow by tapping in a rebound from a free kick. 4-2 up and just keeping the game quiet and calm in Serravalle would be enough to take us through!

Euro 2028 qualification playoff leg 2 - San Marino 7 - 2 Russia

...and as you can see, we failed miserably at keeping the game quiet.

With Russia scoring with their first shot of the game, the lead was already cut to one goal and looking like we were going to have to completely shut up shop to prevent a determined Russia team from steamrollering us in an attempt to overturn the away goals deficit. However, attack proved the best form of attack, as time and again they overcommitted men forward to an attack, leaving their own goal open to a simple counter. Zanotti ran riot before tiring, then his replacement Casadei simply provided the same again, as Russia had no answer to our frequent through balls and forward pace. Valentini hit another two trademark free kicks, one from an impossible angle, and Ferreira finally finished it off near the end with a nothing long shot that somehow beat the Russian keeper for the 7th time. 11-4 on aggregate, and San Marino are off to Greece in the most spectacular of fashions!

[Oktober]

Final Group A Qualifying group table, and of course, attack proved the best form of defence

[jameslowe]

Going to start this with the National Job and then apply for San Marino job.

[Oktober]

Euro 2028 Groups drawn. Of all the teams in it, I was hoping to avoid England... this will be tough. Realistically, I have to try and beat Croatia to get second place, and just treat the England game as a bonus. For the quarter finals, likely I'll get Italy as well, so if I get anything from this tournament I'll have definately done it the hard way.

[jameslowe]

Have decided to start with the club team first.

[Oktober]

Starting with the club and building them up is probably the best idea, since the national team will be awful until you're well into several cycles of regens.

[Oktober]

Uruguay 2030 World Cup Qualifying Groups

Very, very pleased with this draw, and very confident that I should be on my way to South America for the second time. Why so confident? These results against the top two seeded teams recently.

[DodgeeD]

Originally posted by Oktober:

Uruguay 2030 World Cup Qualifying Groups

Very, very pleased with this draw, and very confident that I should be on my way to South America for the second time. Why so confident? These results against the top two seeded teams recently.

After all your success, are you still seeded bottom for the qualifying groups? I have heard around the forums that international reputation doesn't seem to chang in the same mannr as club rep.

I'm still going on this by the way (halfway through my second season in Serie B) and I'll be reporting back soon.

[Oktober]

Yes - internationally, every game is treated as if I'm the lowest possible seed, odds are massive skewed against me, even beating Georgia would be called a 'massive shock win', etc. I've moved as high as 7th in the world rankings, but the other aspects of the game have never recognised this.

Incidentally, domestically its now been over 3 years since I last lost in San Marino. Jan 26th 2025 I lost 3-1 at home to Juventus, but never again since.

[Oktober]

Aww man, I just realised - Simone Rainone was born yesterday! I didnt mark it, I should have

[Oktober]

Final Serie A table, 2027/28

Desperately disappointing, after storming the league last season we only managed to finish runner up to Juventus in all 3 competitions we entered, beaten finalists in the Champions League and Italian Cup as well as a point adrift in the league.

Early on, attempts to play Andrea Bolzoni up front after his loan spell at Messina failed, and we dropped far too many points as we couldnt quite break down teams who were perfectly happy to play for a point. Despite finally losing our unbeaten run of 56 games in the Delle Alpi, as Rainone settled up front we began to catch them, cutting an 11 point lead right down to 1 on the final day, but the clock simply ran out on us. Mantovani and Calabrese carried the team, and Rainone's continuing growth are positives to take from the season, but I cant say I'm not deeply disappointed to miss out on all 3 trophies that we had within touching distance.

Yusuke Mori will be leaving in the summer, and to be honest I think the time is probably right. His ratings stayed high, but his pace and final ball have been found lacking repeatedly. Yang Hongtao has als proven to be out of his depth at the very top level, and a replacement is in order - but the real focus of my summer attention is the upcoming European Championships, which will be updated in depth in my next post.

[DodgeeD]

Originally posted by Oktober:

Aww man, I just realised - Simone Rainone was born yesterday! I didnt mark it, I should have

That's class. I guess he must be duped easily by opposing defenders though (being born yesterday and all ).

[Oktober]

Since I'll be referencing them a lot throughout the campaign, and also to give an idea of the strength of the squad this far in, (and due to a lot of boredom), I decided to profile my squad that I've picked for the upcoming European Championships.

Goalkeepers

1. Fabio Francini

One of very few players in the squad who did not come through the academy at the national team, Fabio started his career as a gifted schoolboy player in 2012. After impressing in a trial at then Serie D Sambenedettese, he only played in one Serie C2 game before attracting the attention of scouts from higher up the pyramid. After moving up a division to Pistoise, aiding their march to Serie B he moved on again to Cesena and Ancona, where he finally was given a chance to shine in the top division. Throughout his career though, he has been a victim of timing and circumstance, as his emergence on the national stage was outshone by centenarian Riccardo Albani, restricting his options. This will be his first and surely only major international championship.

12. Matteo Muraccini

One of several exciting young emerging keepers, Matteo was seen as a surprise call up by many, due to lack of domestic and international experience. After excelling at youth level with San Marino, he failed to stand out in loan spells at Rimini and Metz, where he only made a combined 32 appearances for the first team. Despite lack of experience, he has earned his way into the tournament squad on talent alone, and should be looking to feature heavily in years to come.

13. Stefano Campagna

The first choice backup to Francini, Stefano holds a slight experience advantage over Muraccini, with a full senior season with Reggina under his belt and a sole cap earned in the 2-1 friendly win over Tunisia. Despite being picked up by Sampdoria following his youth spell at San Marino, he failed to make a first team appearance and instead chose to drop down divisions to ensure regular football with Reggina. Costing almost £1m, he'll be looking to repay the club's faith in him as they battle to return up the leagues, having been recently narrowly relegated from Serie C1.

Defenders

2. Marko Paunovic, right back.

Born in Varvarin, Serbia, Marko began his professional career with Partizan Belgrade, making 42 appearances before being spotted by scouts from San Marino and brought to the Serie A aged 19. Despite featuring heavily for the Serbian U21 team that finished runners up in 2016, he was overlooked at senior level, instead making his debut for his new nation aged 24 in a 2-1 loss in Greece. After winning league, cup, European and world club honours for San Marino, he moved for £2m to Celta Vigo, adding a Spanish Cup to his impressive trophy cabinet. This will be his third major international tournament, and his second European Championships appearance.

21. Giorgio Ottaviani, right back/defensive midfielder.

A perennial backup due to the presence of Paunovic and Valentini on the national stage, Giorgio boasts the unusual accolade of making his full international debut before his domestic one. After failing to make the grade at senior level for San Marino, he featured heavily, if not starring in Atalanta's frequent trips in limbo between the Serie A and B. After being loaned out to lowly Pergocrema for a season, his contract was not renewed, but he found a new home across the French border with Nancy, again settling into the role of a squad player as his team bounces between divisions. With only an under 20s cup to his name, he'll be hoping to start his trophy collection with the extremely prestigious European Championship.

20. Enrico Bugli, left back.

Part of the same victorious under 20s squad as Ottaviani and making his debut in the same Greek defeat as Paunovic, Enrico has followed a similar career path to his right sided friend Giorgio. Making his debut for country before club, he only featured 7 times for San Marino, 4 from the bench, before moving on to Cagliari. Despite featuring heavily as they struggled to stay up, he eventually dropped down a division to Reggina, before moving for only £5k to France and Istres, where he has been instrumental in fighting in vain to keep the team in Ligue 1.

3. Corrado Bacciocchi, left/centre back.

After making only two senior appearances for San Marino, Corrado moved to Corsica and Ajaccio in 2019 - where he has remained ever since as a much loved and key star. A versitile but unexceptional player, his lack of height and pace have prevented him from excelling at any particular position, but good technical ability has made him a valuable backup.

4. Nicola Valentini, centre back.

One of two unrelated Valentinis in the squad, Nicola has found himself thrust into the national limelight from a young age, with his sheer presence making him an invaluable asset in an undersupported position. Starring at Udinese after leaving the San Marino academy, he followed several of his countrymen northwest to France, fitting into a key role alongside Ottaviani at Nancy. An invaluably solid and mature asset since an early age, he is being tipped by many as an integral part in his nation's drive for success for many years to come.

5. Domenico Bologna, centre back.

A recent phenomenon at youth level, Domenico raised a few eyebrows when he was chosen for the tournament squad ahead of the more experienced Nicolo Guerra. One of San Marino's brightest academy prospects in some time, he has already played 19 times at the top level, as well as spells on loan at Messina and a full season starring at FC Metz. Recently he was involved in a high profile crisis at the domestic club, as an injury to a key star resulted in his Metz loan being terminated, and he was thrust right into the first team for the Champions League and Italian Cup finals! With physical attributes belying his small frame, superb technical ability and having tasted bitter defeat twice in two high profile cup finals recently, he should be very hungry for success in the upcoming championships and beyond.

17. Maurizio Vannucci, centre back.

A late bloomer and perennial backup to first Guerra and now Bologna, Maurizio did not play a senior competitive game until leaving the San Marino academy and joining Sassuolo at age 20. Moving onto Reggina he played alongside Enrico Bugli for a while, before a short lived spell in Spain at Hércules and finally settling down in France at Strasbourg. With over 300 domestic appearances he has much more experience than his caps would suggest, and should provide an able backup should the circumstances arise in Greece.

Midfield

6. Mauro Valentini, defensive midfield.

One of San Marino's real stars, and a source of many vital goals from his frequent fantastic free kicks. A key star at overachieving Palermo for the past 8 years, for club he plays as his natural right back, while for country he serves as the team's dominant anchorman. Against Europe's best, breaking down opposition attacks and hitting them on the break could well prove vital, so Valentini should definately be one to look out for.

23. Diego Gatti, defensive midfield.

A real surprise inclusion for the championship squad, Diego is the final of Nancy's three contributions to the San Marino team. Moving to France after failing to make the first team in the Serie A, he's yet to make the first team consistently but should provide adequate, if untested cover for Valentini and the defence.

11. Ewerton Ferreira, right wing.

One of San Marino's top stars and tipped to feature heavily in the team's push for glory in Greece. Born in Brazil and starring on the right wing for Santos, he came to San Marino aged 20 and featured intermittently as a substitute, where his skill with both feet proved extremely useful. Seeking regular first team football after nationalising, he moved on to star at Sampdoria for an £8m fee, staying for two years before recently joining Portsmouth for almost £18m. Despite proficiency with both feet and on both wings, he is preferred internationally on the right, his marginally stronger of the sides where he also possesses more advanced ability in either MR or AMR, and a 'runs with ball down right' preferred move. He proudly possesses winners medals for the Copa Libertadores, Champions League and Club World Championship, but oddly no domestic leagues or cups. Having switched alleigance away from the country of his birth, he'll be looking to ensure that his new nation provides even more top level honours.

14. Andrea Ugolini, right midfield.

Despite being in the public eye for some time and his undeniable, Andrea has found himself yet to advance beyond his lone cap due to a lack of focused and specialised ability in any particular position. As a right sided midfielder he has starred constently for Grenoble, and Ancona before that, but lack of pace and crossing ability has limited his effectiveness as a true winger. For this tournament, its expected that he will serve as an understudy to Ferreira, and so may not add to his caps total at all.

22. Denis Gasperoni, left wing.

Faced with the unenviable task of filling in the legendary shoes of Marco Canini, Denis so far has provided a solid, if unspectacular contribution. Formerly a star at struggling Serie A Cremonese, the upcoming finals could well provide him with a shop window for a more lucrative move over the summer. A student of San Marino Calcio's legendary Daniele Rinaldi, he possesses a wealth of preferred moves well suited to a left wing role and will be looking to continue the form he established in the qualifying campaign.

7. Giacomo Capicchioni, left wing.

A younger alternative to Gasperoni, Giacomo will be looking to build on his growing reputation from the bench fresh off of a successful rookie season with Giugliano in the Serie B. Incidentally, he will miss his club's vital relegation playoff due to his participation in the European Championships, and so will have no control over which division he finds himself plying his trade in next season.

8. Alessandro Della Valle, attacking midfield.

The real forward driving force of the team, Alessandro may not yet be a key player at Sampdoria out wide on the right, but internationally he has been an absolute revelation in behind the strikers. Wonderfully creative, fast, hardworking and capable of running at players and finishing moves himself, he fulfils one half of the twin AMC roles that San Marino are famed for beautifully. Having studied from multiple World Player of the Year winner Max Calabrese as a youth at San Marino, his play style is very similar to his former mentor and could really be making a name for himself over the summer's play.

10. Marco Veronesi, attacking midfield.

In a similar role to the Titani engine room of Calabrese and Mantovani, Marco Veronesi provides the second, direct role for country provided at club level by his former mentor. Attracting a host of admirers after shining at youth level, many in football were surprised when perennial title challengers AC Milan expressed interest in the gifted youngster and followed through, where he was first farmed out to feeder club Sedan. Since then he has featured intermittently, and recently placed a transfer request, seeking more guarenteed first team football elsewhere. These championships may well provide a shop window for displaying his undeniable skills as he looks to attract the attention of Europe's elite.

18. Roberto Protti, attacking midfield.

Regarded as a first choice until the advent of Veronesi and Della Valle, Roberto provides tough competition for places and ensures that in the event of injury, the San Marino forward line should not be too badly harmed. Moving from San Marino to Chievo early in his career, Roberto spent a season on loan at Empoli before fitting into the first team, before moving to Spain and Salamanca. More recently he has since moved back to the Serie A with Parma, where he has established himself well on the left wing. Internationally due to his poor crossing ability he is preferred in the centre, where he has contributed to date with a stunning goal every two games on average.

19. Nicola Macina, attacking midfield.

Despite impressing in his limited oppertunities, Nicola remains a second choice for both club and country. Having spent time at Arezzo, Foggia and Brescia, he has nonetheless failed to really establish himself in any first team. With his team, Brescia, finishing in second place in the Serie B and attaining promotion, it remains to be seen if he will be given a chance to step up at the top level or be hoping to attract scouts attention in his probable limited appearances from the bench over the summer.

Strikers

9. Christian Zanotti

After attracting a lot of excitement as a youth player, Christian finally arrived on the international scene towards the end of the qualifying campaign, making a huge impact. Scoring twice in each leg against Russia to lead his nation to Greece '28, his international record stands at a magnificent average of a goal a game, in what is surely only the beginning of a brilliant career. At domestic level he has made 50 Serie A appearances for San Marino and Messina, and with great pace, skill, awareness and aerial ability he looks the perfect striking package for playing up front on his own as a lone striker, capable of threatening in any situation. Definately one to watch, for the Euros and beyond.

15. Carlo Casadei

The younger and more accomplished of two brothers to represent their country (fellow striker Giuseppe plays for Libertas in the San Marinese amateur ranks), Carlo speaks three languages fluently as a result of his spells in Italian, French and now Spanish football. Joining his brother two years later at the San Marino academy, he failed to gain much first team football either there or at Ascoli, and only broke into the first team after moving to Ligue 2 Lorient. After making 130 French appearances he moved to Liga BBVA Recreativo where he has just completed a magnificent season, and will be looking to help them return to the top level of Spanish football next year.

16. Roberto Savio

Finally, the only other player in the squad to not have come through the San Marino youth system, Roberto instead started his career playing for fun at Folgore, before being spotted by Viareggio. From there it was a steady move up the league ladder, playing for 6 different teams before finally ending up at Fiorentina where his game has come on leaps and bounds with regular first team football. Once unfancied and written off, Roberto continues to impress and his blistering pace provides a fantastic alternative route to goal, particularly late on when chasing games.

______________________________________________________

Well, I hope that's interesting to some of you - when I started writing 4 hours ago, I didnt realise just what a task it would be! Now all thats left it to match the effort put in on the pitch, starting in Salonika with Croatia.

[shaggy61]

San Marino 2007-08 Seria C2/b

A season of contrasting fortunes for debutant Grazzio and his young team, from San Marino. In his first season of "lower league" continental management, the team initially struggled to gel on the pitch whilst off it, finances plummeted alarmingly.

An early season exit in the Seria C cup was not a surprise against a couple of strong opponents, there really was little chance of making it through the group stages. However their league form mirrored this and after only 1 league win in their first 10 games Grazzio found himself at the foot of the table and already under pressure from on high.

A slight reshuffling of the pack, pre Christmas and some useful transfer window acquisitons seemed to balance the team out and a remarkable improvement followed. Noting how tight the league was a fantastic run of 9 wins from 11 games shot them up the table into play off contention.

transfers

A late transfer window sale of playmaker Berardi(enforced by the board) for 250k to rivals Carraresse didnt stop the teams momentum and in truth the team comfortably finished second and moved

table

Luck as always plays a part at this stage of the season and after a 1-1 draw away at Carraresse, keeper Simoncini was ruled out for the season with a twisted ankle, his replacement Merola untried as 3rd choice was given his opportunity, and boy did he take it.

semi final leg 2

And onto the final, again the teams luck hold an early goal, a sending off, super winger Zappia scoring the resulting free kick and two more counter attacks later the team were all but promoted.

final leg 1

A comfortable 0-1 defeat in the seond leg was enough to see Grazzio hailed a hero and rewarded with a new 2 year contract whilst financial improvements in terms of sponsorship and season ticket sales should help prevent the debt spiralling too far out of control.

A successful first season will hopefully provide the platform for success, although next season will undoubtedly be tougher.

[Oktober]

Group stage: San Marino 0 - 0 Croatia

A fairly dull game where neither team looked really like scoring, marred by the injury to backup striker Savio so late on. Muraccini, starting due to injury to Francini was awarded man of the match, but never really had to do much.

Group stage: Switzerland 1 - 2 San Marino

With several injuries now, things were beginning to get tougher. Switzerland dominated possession in the first half, and seemd to stroll up to our goal with ease, only Muraccini's further heroics preventing going in trailing at the break. With England in the final game, a result here would be vital - but Switzerland's pressure finally paid off, as we failed to clear our lines from a benign attack and the third attempt on goal finally went in. From there the Swiss were perfectly content to sit back and hold the lead, and things looked hopeless as we couldnt quite manage to break them down.

With nothing to lose we threw all our attacking subs on and went all out - but still couldnt get close to the Swiss goal. Finally though, with 7 seconds remaining on the clock in normal time, a harmless through ball from Valentini was somehow punched clear off of their own defender, rebounding back onto the line for a scrappy tap-in from late sub Casadei to steal what was probably an undeserved point. However, we weren't quite finished there...

As injury time went on, with our attacking substitutions providing fresh legs against a tired defence, Switzerland looked like merely running out the clock and taking their chances of qualifying to their match with Croatia. By the 96th minute, with the last kick of the ball, Protti took a hopeful pop from long range, charged down by the defence... and Swiss right back Gellhaus inexplicably stalled on the ball, failing to clear it and providing Gasperoni with a simple finish to steal all 3 points! For the third tournament in a row, the second group match provides high drama, and yet again it works out well. With 4 points and a better head to head, qualification was all but assured - as Croatia had conceded 3 to Switzerland, all we had to do was lose by less and go through ahead of them

Group stage: England 2 - 3 San Marino

From very early on in the day, we were greeted with good news - Switzerland had rallied and were destroying Croatia, 3-0 up within 20 minutes and finishing 6-2, leaving us qualified for the next round regardless. England had nothing to play for and switched off - and were stunned when a low cross from the left fell at the feet of Zanotti, who tucked it in via their defender. Considering that the ball was goal-bound regardless of the final touch, it was slightly harsh on the young lad to have been denied credit for it, especially with what was to come. There was no denying who deserved the credit for the second goal though - for some unknown reason the England backline stepped out of position to close down Veronesi a long way out from goal, who simply threaded a perfeclty weighted pass through the centre for a calm finish to make it 2-0. England clawed one back literally right from the kickoff with a long range curling effort, but Zanotti sealed what should have been his hat trick by turning his marker inside out and taking the ball around the charging goalkeeper to make it 3-1. Looking to avoid the draw with Italy England rallied, but by their third game seemed already tired and unable to break our youthful defence down. Despite a final simply built finish from a good passing move, they couldnt equalise to finish 3-2 and let San Marino top the group!

Final table, Group A

Quarter final: Scotland 2 - 0 San Marino

Sadly this was where our adventure was to end. After the England game flagged up our weakness to long shots, Scotland scored two of them, and their solid defence proved too difficult to back down. Several key attacking players including Protti and Ferreira had poor games, and a growing injury list had cut down on our ability to alter our method of attack. To be honest, we never really looked like scoring, and it was a disappointing end to a campaign that had shown so much promise.

Scotland went on to reach the final, eventually losing to England. Considering we'd already beaten the eventual winners, I have to wonder just how we would have done had we managed to overcome the Scots. With the team growing in strength all the time though and a favorable draw for World Cup qualifying, due to start within a week, attention must switch to that as we try and improve on our third consecutive Quarter Final result.

[JamesW]

I hate updating after Dave, it looks my experiences look incredibly boring by comparison .

The cup match with Inter ended, rather predictably, with a loss for the Titani. We lost the first leg at their place 3-1, and a 1-0 home win provided a lot of promise for next season, if not for the continuation of the cup run as we lost 3-2 on aggregate.

In the league, we went from strength to strength. I didn't make a single January transfer because, well, none were needed. Promotion came after 37 games, and we were serie b champions after 38. After making a slight meal of promotion, the second half of the season being slightly scrappy, the Titani promptly seemed to play for fun, being much more relaxed and winning with ease to end the season on 105 points, 20 points clear of 2nd.

Pre-season saw me get just over £7M in transfer fees (in exchange for promising a mid-table finish, mind). I spent about £6M in total on 7 players. Before the season ended, Ignacio Gonzalez was offered to me for only 30K - I'd have been a fool not to accept it, really. He was rated "good for Serie A", which is just the kind of player I needed. I also picked up last season's back-up keeper, Giacomo Bindi, on a free from Inter. Fans were disappointed by his signing, but he was already settled and for a back-up I didn't want anything too special - Czaplinski's still comfortably good enough for lower-level Serie A. However, my team wasn't without obvious weaknesses - namely defence, where I needed a left-back and either a right-back or a centre-back (with captain Omer Ozcelik taking the other role) to avoid having a player rated 2* in the team. I brought in Arne Vaneslander for the former, a player who's not great but is good enough, and at 20 has all the time in the world to develop, and veteran Santos for the latter to offer some more experience. Elsewhere I decided that, whilst Yusuke Kato and Davis Curiale were definitely Serie A-capable as a strike partnership, I needed a cheap back-up in case either one was injured. I stumbled across Erich Strobel, a very capable player who at only 4K is an absolute bargain. Additionally, after an injury to Chipciu in a friendly revealed how weak I am on the right side of midfield as far as cover goes, I bought Antonio Pecorino for £1.6M. He is actually better than Chipciu in right-midfield, and can cover right-back too if need be.

Finally, and most excitingly for me, I picked up my first world-class player and a player I've been trailing for three and a half seasons, Pedro Rosas. Rosas's transfer is, possibly, more satisfying than winning Serie B for me. I tried to buy him at the end of the second season/start of the third, but due to messing up with non-EU spots I couldn't get him - same for the fourth season. Fifth season I technically could've got him, but he didn't want to come and I couldn't afford his wage demands anyway. I was prepared for the long-term though - I complimented both him and his manager until I was on their favoured personnel list. Around the start of the fourth season other clubs inevitably started noticing him, and I devised a plan to ensure he stayed where he was - whenever someone made an offer for him, I'd offer his club £20M - I couldn't afford it obviously, but it meant they rejected the other club's offer (generally about £3M) and when Rosas rejected my contract offer that wasn't my fault . That tactic, though at times repetitive, worked, and he was able to stay with a small team until I got promoted in the fifth season, and with the promise of Serie A football I was able to lure him to the Olimpico for the bargain price tag of £1.7M. It's been three and a half seasons of patient work to build to this moment, and the reward is an incredibly cheap player who's world class in three different positions (defensive midfielder, centre-back, centre-mid) and, with 17 finishing, 19 first touch and 19 long shots, could well bag a few goals from corners too if I stick him on the edge of the box.

Write-up for my first season in Serie A to come when I actually play it . I'm pretty optimistic though, all in all. I'm not anticipating a top-half finish or anything, but I'd be surprised if relegation was an issue.

[JamesW]

Oh, and for the third year in a row the youth academy produced pure rubbish .

[DodgeeD]

2010-2011 Review: San Marino's Serie B Struggle II

I've finally got round to finishing off this season. After a lot of early promise, it turned out to be a real slog...

The season started out brightly enough. We manged to make several good signings of players on free transfers. Cherubin, a 22 year old French defender came in from Reggina, Candreava and Guberti arrived from Udinese and Ascoli respectively to add some width as did an Argentine, Leandro Depretis, from Brescia. Degre came in on loan to fill in as goalie and it looked as though the problem areas from last season were covered. The only money I spent was on Choco, a Brazilian one of my scouts spotted playing in Spain. He looks a good prospect but not good enough to play for Brazil (I'm hoping he'll stay long enough to get a new passport ).

All was going well as we stromed through the preliminary rounds of the cup and sat in the top 6 after 10 games. It was unrealistic to expect that form to be maintained and a few injuries exosed the lack of depth in the squad and we started to drop slightly. However, at the halfway point I was 10th and very pleased with that. The cup dream ended at the hands of AC Milan (as detailed in earlier posts) but that proved to be a turning point. Those two cup games co-incided with three matches against the top teams in Serie B (Parma, Bologna and Livorno), all of which were lost. After that, my team was totally bereft of confidence and we only managed three wins in the rest of the season as we went down the table lemming-style!

Injuries forced two more January signings: Daminuta, a Romanian U-21 defensive midfielder recommended by Andronic and Sburlea and Mendy, a French strÅŸker playing in the Czech Republic. Daminuta showed promise but was not quite ready to be thrust into Pit's place and it showed. Mendy was a big disappointment. At 27, I thought he would add much needed experience. The fan's were delighted by his signing (indeed, the board mentioned his 'fantastic' capture in every monthly report until the summer) but he just didn'T perform. One goal on his debut against AC milan in the cup looked good but he only scored one in the league after that and lef me counting the days for Sburlea and Dalla Valle to return from injury.

Our season all came down to the last day as we sat level on points with Sassuolo, who occupied the last relegation spot. Our head-to-head record mean they had to win so I was fairly confident despite Bregrie, my goalscoring centre back being suspended and Sburlea picking up a knock (again!). However, this game was played in June and half my first team squad was away on international duty - I couldn't even call on my U-20s as nearly all of them were off with the San Marino U-21 team! Lady luck smiled on us in the end though as Sassuolo had a player sent off in the first five minutes and a nervy match finished 0-0. We had just survived!

But it wasn't over yet - we had a 'playout' to contend with against Spezia. 1-1 in the home leg left us with a lot to do. The ref helped us again though as Spezia were reduced to 10 men after 25 minutes of the second leg. They then took the lead but a contoversial penalty got San Marino back in it. It finished 1-1, 2-2 on aggregate and we survived due to our better head-to-head record in the regular season.

Serie B Final Table June 2011 - we very nearly didn't make it!

2010/2011 Best XI - lots of ratings below 7 there. Bregerie was the Player of the Year again and Top Goalscorer! (again!) Not bad for a centre back

Overall Best XI (June 2011) - Dalla Valle was the new addition here.

Analysis and a look ahead...

It all started so well but my team was so poor in the second half of the season it was embarassing. I think part of it was down to my poor coaches and training facilities - most of the players seemed to have hit a wall in their development and showed no increase in stats despite still being aged 24 or under. Another part of it was me of course and I was glad just to survive and start afresh next season. Losing Guilliato at the start of the season hit us hard too. He had been getting over 15 assists a season but he wanted to leave and wouldn't sign a new contract so....

I've been busy with transfers as I get rid of the chaff and look to bring in some new blood. Yugel Fogelman, a young Isreali defender is coming - I hope he will become a San Marino national before he gets capped by Israel . Drummond, a very promising Costa Rican striker is arriving from Spezia. He wasn't capped when I signed him but unfortunately was called up for the Gold Cup over the summer. I still think he'll be a great player for the club though. I'm currently looking over scout reports from the U-20 World Cup and there seem to be a few promising talents (though with Fogelman, I've already used my 1 non-EU signing for this year).

As for the board, they agreed that facilities were not up to the standards of other Serie B clubs and they are working on improved training facilites now. The stadium will also have a nother 2500 seats added by January putting the capacity over 10,000. Transfer budget is 2.6 mil and with a couple of deadweights already out of the door, that's now up to 3.5mil. Here's hoping I can spent it wisely.

[JamesW]

Nice to hear the future looks rosy for you DodgeeD, if not the last season! U-20 World Cup's a great place to look - lots of players you can rely on for the future, or at least flog for more than you paid for them .

[JamesW]

San Marino have finished their first season in the Serie A, and...they WEREN'T relegated!!!

The season started out poorly when I drew Siena in the Italian Cup second qualifying round. This is, keep in mind, the team I finished 20 points clear of the previous season. Despite that I fell in injury time of extra time, a 3-2 loss after one new signing, Santos, was sent off and another new signing, Ignacio Gonzalez, made a stupid error in the 122nd minute that led to Siena's winning goal. I truly am a transfer wiz! Intriguingly this led to Gonzalez publicly apologising for his mistake, something that I hadn't seen before. He said I'd be justified dropping him, but considering most of the team wanted to help him get through the issue (not to mention he scored one of the goals against Siena in the first place) I kept him in the team and he played pretty well.

The league proceeded solidly. A 1-1 draw with A.C. Milan on the opening day of the season was promising. I seemed to get all the difficult teams at once, playing Roma, Juventus, Fiorentina and Juventus in consecutive games. A few games into the season I was in relegation form and slightly worried - fortunately I'd got through the hard part, and it was now time to pick up points. Lots of points. I got 31 points from the following 33, and at the halfway point in the season the very thing I mentioned not anticipating in my previous post seemed possible!

League Table After 19 Games

The second half of the season, possibly rather predictably, followed a similar pattern. For a while it looked like I might crack the top six, but a couple of poor results near the end of the season ensure that I ended the season in a very reputable 7th, taking Italy's Intertoto Cup spot!

Final League Table

Best Eleven

However, off-setting the miraculous league form was a decidedly un-miraculous bank balance. I was leaking money, losing about 200K per month (which when your bank balance is about £2M isn't good!). At the end of the season I had to make a VERY difficult decision - Pedro Rosas, the man I'd worked so hard to bring to the club, went to A.C. Milan for £15M. He'll be sorely missed, but the money was too good to turn down. I should say it was actually the board who accepted the offer - but I'm glad they did, in a way. I'm not sure I would have been able to, and it was almost certainly the right decision.

In other news, the stadium is to be expanded again, reaching about 15,000 (just over) in November. Training and Youth Facilities are also being upgraded from Average to...well, whichever the one above Average is . I'll find out when they're complete, I guess! Finally on this 'miscellaneous' stuff, I got a Commercial Link feeder team! Miami FC will helpfully provide San Marino with some good moneys, although alas there's not a single American player worth signing who wants to come to the club so I can't take full advantage of it yet. Hopefully I'll get a Japanese link before Yusuke Kato gets too past it .

Transfers IN:

Arturo Vidal (£11.5M)

Jim van der Hoeven (Free Transfer)

Lenny (£6M)

Transfers OUT:

Pedro Rosas (£15M)

Antonio Pecorino (£4.1M, Co-Ownership where he stays at San Marino)

As you can see, I found a pretty fitting replacement for Rosas! Arturo Vidal is better and can play in more positions, and I made a small profit too! I'm hoping for big things from him - the things I was hoping for from Rosas, basically, only slightly better.

Incidentally, I've noticed a problem. Could be a small one, could be massive and lead to bankruptcy, I'm not sure. Compare my bank balance to my value. Apparently the club is worth half of its bank balance?

Intended First XI for the next season:

GK Piotr Czaplinski

DR Antonio Pecorino

DL Santos

DC Omer Ozcelik

DC Arturo Vidal

MR Lenny

ML Francesco Clemente

MC (Defensive) Zoltan Hornyak/Andrea Bernardini

MC (Attacking) Michal Janota/Ignacio Gonzalez

FC Davis Curiale

FC Yusuke Kato

If anyone wants pictures of any of them just ask, but most of them I've put pictures up of in the past, I think.

Finally, on an international front - rather worryingly, Andrea Bernardini's been called up to Italy's U21s team. I really, really hope he doesn't get into the full national team. He could be an absolute STAR for San Marino. I produced a couple of potentially good San Marinese kids this season (for the first time since Bernardini), but not up to his potential quality. Remains to be seen whether they'll blossom as I'd hope, or as their nationality would suggest .

[Oktober]

Final Serie A table, 2028/29

* Super Cup winners

* Italian Cup winners

* Champions League semi-finalists

A good season where for the first time I completed the domestic double, but there was a lot of heartbreak towards the end of the year after things had gone so well.

Firstly, a world class striker I'd had my eye on for some time finally became available over the summer. Previously, Charlton had been asking for excess of £60m for Alcir dos Santos Santana, but despite his contribution they failed to stay in the Premiership past the 2028 season, allowing their board to finally step in and accept an offer of £30m. With an EU Italian second nationality, lightning fast and very handy in the air, he was a revelation for the club this season, shattering the club's league goals record with 30 and averaging a 7.5 overall rating for the season. Simone Rainone, officially a wonderkid now, played in cup games and made a lot of substitute appearances as Santana often ran himself into the ground, scoring 22 goals himself and helping to maintain our cutting edge right to the final whistle. Replacing the departing Mori on right wing was £15m Brazilian Rodrigo, who had impressed for Empoli in the previous season, and the very marketable and versatile Troy Kelly joined from Sheffield United on a free transfer.

The season started off brightly, as Juventus had won the treble last year we ended up playing them in the Delle Alpi in the Super Cup, where we surprisingly comfortably won 3-2 - without our new £30m signing as well, who was away playing at the Olympics. From there we managed an astounding 46 games in all competitions without losing, before finally going down 1-0 to Ajax in the second leg of the Champions League quarter final, having won the home leg 3-0. Incidentally, if we hadnt let in that goal then, we also would have gone 10 games without conceding, so a disappointing result there even if it ultimately mattered little.

What mattered a lot more though was the semi final - and after being 3-0 up to PSV at half time, somehow we managed to lose 5-3. Despite dominating proceedings back in Serravalle, with Mantovani and Calabrese both missing we could only win 2-1, when we really had an excellent chance of winning the competition for only the second time.

Internationally, the qualifying campaign is going well, if not quite as well as I'd originally hoped. Despite winning 1-0 in Lisbon, a loss in Norway and home draw with Austria leaves us a point behind Portugal, with 4 games remaining. I was very disappointed at the start of the new year to find that one nationalising winger had declared himself for Brazil, then again was absolutely gutted when Serbia literally pulled another world-class player out of my team to call him up and cap him before we had a game. Considering I cant do the same to AI players I thought this was particularly unfair, but theres nothing I can do about it now. Just four more matches in a tight group and hopefully I can be off once again to my second World Cup in South America!

[Oktober]

Incidentally, my only league loss of the season was to Gallipoli in a bizarre match - we'd already won the title and they needed Modena to lose to stand a chance of catching them. Despite inflicting our first loss in over a year on us, Modena won both their final two games and Gallipoli were relegated regardless.

And James - considering I'd love Vidal to slot right into my 5-time league winning team, I definately think you've got a gem of a player there.

[iacovone]

Hi guys, just been bored and have mainly read page 4 onwards and in particular Oktobers posts. Fantastic read mate KUTGW. The way you write is compelling and I've really enjoyed following your progress. The Euro squad analysis was great - it'd be good to maybe see an analysis of the latest youth products as well. Either way keep it up and good luck!

[Oktober]

Hey, thank you very much, very nice to be appreciated - I didnt realise just what an undertaking that squad preview was going to be until I was halfway through it! The main reason I've not previewed my youth players coming through is that they're pretty much all appaling, at least to start off with - only the latest three, Bologna, Zanotti and Muraccini have shown any real promise at youth level, the others have all just flourished with first team football after being let go. Out of my current youngsters just now, Lino Riccardi, Matteo Rossi and the giant Riccardo Francioni look the most promising, but my 20 potential judging assistant rates the entire academy as having 2 star potential - decent to good Serie A players.

Onto the current squad though, and we're almost there, but still work to be done. Despite a very promising start to the group, we ended up finishing second, and now have a two-legged playoff with Sweden to determine who makes it.

Despite starting strongly, including grabbing an amazing result in Lisbon, into the new year we started to contest some truly ridiculous matches. After narrowly missing out in Norway, a 6-3 win over Montenegro and failing to take full points from Russia, I tried to tone things down and keep things closer rather than just try and 'score more than the opponents' which was providing entertaining cricket scores, but not very efficient with points. Unfortunately keeping things closer proved no less fruitful, failing to repeat the 5-0 friendly result over Portugal from two years previously and very disappointly falling to Austria in a game where for the first time in years, we were really ripped apart. On the final weekend we needed favours from Portugal and Russia to re-overtake Austria again, but very nearly blew it ourselves after we couldnt quite get past Montenegro.

On the final game, it was time to throw caution to the wind - get all 3 points against Norway at home, and hope that Austria didnt win in Moscow. Within 5 minutes Russia had the lead, and by 11 so did we - and we never let up from there, utterly destroying a dejected Norway team where we could easily have scored 10. Despite a late, late equaliser, Austria could only share the points with Moscow and so we very narrowly sneaked through to the playoffs, Uruguay '30 within touching distance! Some four years ago, Sweden inflicted a disastrous 5-1 defeat on us... this time, we'll be looking for revenge in the same fashion we achieved against their Scandanavian neighbours.

[Oktober]

Playoff first leg: San Marino 2 - 1 Sweden

Despite an early scare, we performed very solidly, equalising with a scrappy goal from a long throw and going in at the break tied. In the second half it was all us, and we were slightly disappointed to only manage one goal from it - Sweden seemingly finally showing us some respect and keeping things safe instead of throwing things forward, before some magic from Ferreira provided a low cross for Zanotti to tap in. While hardly comfortable, its still a lead, and we know that just scoring in Sweden will put all the pressure on them. Halfway there!

Playoff second leg: Sweden 1 - 3 San Marino

Great result, and we're on our way back to South America!

From the very first highlight of the game, Sweden overcommitted and failed to pick up Zanotti on the frozen pitch, the simplest of through balls finding him for an easy low finish. We should have gone in at the break more than 1 up, but Sweden rallied in the second half and finally equalised, not from their increased pressure but from a lucky free kick. They still needed another though, and for the first time our defence held solidly, keeping them well away from our goal. With nothing to lose the Swedes threw everything forwards to try and tie it on aggregate, but left themselves wide open to the blistering pace of fresh supersub Savio to make it 2-1, 4-2 overall and require them to score 3 in the final 5 minutes. From there we just kept possession nicely, and in injury time a cool passing move eventually allowed Macina a glimpse at goal, where he made no mistake as he tries to convince me he deserves a more regular place.

On to the draw now, and we've been placed into Group F, alongside exotic opponents Australia, Cameroon and Brazil. We'll open the group in Maldonado against Cameroon, before moving to Montevideo for the final two against the Aussies and finally Brazil. If all goes to plan then hopefully the last game will be only to contest the winner of the group - I dont fancy needing a result against Brazil to go through, regardless of the heroics against England last time out! With potential second round opponents including Portugal, Argentina and Italy, this could be a very stern test for our small country, but we're in our best position yet to tackle it.

[Oktober]

I'm getting increasingly concerned with this... I'm now getting a LOT of crashes, about every 3 weeks or so in game. I've also been getting 'game cannot be saved' error messages for some time, and generally, my file is falling apart... I'm considering what to do. I think I might have one last go at this, try and make it 6 domestic titles and see how I do at the World Cup, and maybe take a break or roll back to the last file and date I can be sure isnt corrupted - I made a seperate backup file in 2022 when I qualified for my first World Cup, but I'd lose 8 years of game time by rolling back. In my current one, I cant view, for example, previous players of the year awards, highest attendances from previous seasons and the like.

There's also the minor issue of rolling back that far, that I'd know which youth players are going to come good - Piet van Kesteren is in my youth team as a 17 year old and I know he'll become world class, as will Evans Spinetti etc...

I'll try and get through this season, but if I could get any feedback over what to do here it'd be appreciated, I'd be gutted to lose whats my best ever game of Football Manager with over 30 days play time.

The last uncorrupted file was made on the 13th of February, in game time its 13th October 2021, the year I won my first ever Serie A title. The Olimpico is 40,333 all seated (2030 its 59,990), state of the art youth facilities plus academy. No commercial feeders but financially secure, worth £39m and with no top level trophies to our name. 17 days play time.

My plan is at the moment to end my current game after the World Cup in Uruguay 2030, take a break for a while and then roll back to this file, where hopefully it will continue to stay stable for longer. Within the spirit of the challenge, would that be ok to run that as my "1.5" entry? Or technically, it'd be 2.5 since first time around, way back in C2 I was sacked after failing to go up in 2 seasons...

[JamesW]

Dave - you could always go back to your save that you uploaded. What was that, about 2026, 2027? I'd say that's not so far back that it'd give you an unfair advantage, whilst hopefully far enough back to not be corrupted.

[Oktober]

That one too is corrupted sadly, with missing history items and the like

Sadly, it looks as though this adventure is finally over, I cant get the game to progess past 10th March 2030 at all Any suggestions of how to manage past it would be appreciated, but it does look like we never even got to make it to Uruguay, its just over

[DodgeeD]

Originally posted by Oktober:

That one too is corrupted sadly, with missing history items and the like

Sadly, it looks as though this adventure is finally over, I cant get the game to progess past 10th March 2030 at all Any suggestions of how to manage past it would be appreciated, but it does look like we never even got to make it to Uruguay, its just over

Man, you must be gutted after getting so far. A couple of times, I've had to replay 3 or 4 months of a season after a crash and I've found that frustrating enough, so to replay several years.... Really rotten luck.

Didn't you upload the game file for HUFC? Might be worth checking if he's been able to avoid any problems.