[FM16] San Giovanni - A Sammarinese youth only challenge

[Bedese]

Unhappy with the lack of football, he decided to leave on a free. I was really hoping he'd end his career here

[sherwinriga]

I can't believe that retirements are your team's weaknesses! Well, not a good run in the Europa League. So, will Michele Zafferani continue to play outside San Giovanni or not? Marco Pedini may return to his coaching course, doesn't he?

[darixx4]

I've read through all of the posts, and this is a really good story. Keep it up, i hope you'll get professional status asap.

[Bedese]

I can't believe that retirements are your team's weaknesses! Well, not a good run in the Europa League. So, will Michele Zafferani continue to play outside San Giovanni or not? Marco Pedini may return to his coaching course, doesn't he?

Zafferani is still a free agent, and I don't see any team picking him up. Unfortunately, Pedini has retired from football all together

[Bedese]

I've read through all of the posts, and this is a really good story. Keep it up, i hope you'll get professional status asap.

Thanks for the support I'm hoping that professional status isn't that far off, but we won't get it without consistently getting the CL money.

[Bedese]

Youth Intake Day!

Fantastic. This is the worst intake yet. I'm not even going to tag anyone, but here's the best player:

[darixx4]

You are really unlucky with intakes lately. did the new NT coach/manager include any of your players in his team?

About professional status, remember that expenses of your team will grow dramaticly so you should be really prepared for that. More coaches, bigger contracts,... Your league is improving slowly which is true, but its money prizes are not enough to cover your expenditures.

Do you think its easier to achieve group stages of CL or EL atm? I hope you will achieve this goal in next few seasons. Great thread really, i enjoyed every post of it.

[Bedese]

You are really unlucky with intakes lately. did the new NT coach/manager include any of your players in his team?

About professional status, remember that expenses of your team will grow dramaticly so you should be really prepared for that. More coaches, bigger contracts,... Your league is improving slowly which is true, but its money prizes are not enough to cover your expenditures.

Do you think its easier to achieve group stages of CL or EL atm? I hope you will achieve this goal in next few seasons. Great thread really, i enjoyed every post of it.

I include a list of caps at the end of every season review, but a majority of the NT are our players (I'd say every squad has between 10-14 San Giovanni players out of 23). He has dropped some of our older ones, however, which is kind of sad to see. Marco Bernardi (YP1) in particular wasn't far away from 100 caps, but as far as I remember didn't get into the team once under the new manager.

It's a good point about professional status, but we should (hopefully) be making the CL nearly every season, which gives us at least 400k in prize money. I'm confident enough that we would be able to survive economically as a professional team, but the waiting game isn't bad because it allows us to save up a decent amount of money in case we need it.

The EL qualifiers are a lot harder than the CL ones, because of the way they're split. In the CL qualifiers because we'd be the League Champions, we'd go down the Champions Qualifying path, meaning we'd only play against other Champions from weaker countries, e.g. Celtic, Rubin Kazan etc, and avoid teams from stronger leagues who came third or fourth such as Arsenal. In the EL, they don't split it like that, meaning that if we ever did make it to the later rounds, we'd be given impossible draws against teams like Fiorentina.

I think the easiest path to Europe at the moment is this: Win the league, and so enter the CL qualifiers. Win the first round (easy), the second round (not so easy, but we aren't that far off) and then probably win the third round too. This would mean that we'd go to the final round of CL qualifying - win and we'd make the CL group stages, or likely lose and make the EL group stages. I think we're a long way off being able to do that, but EL qualifiers are just too tough, so this is the way forward. As for how long it'll take, I'm really not sure, but I think that turning Pro would definitely be a big help.

[abulezz]

Ive had an incredible run with the Youth Intakes, so I keep dreading the next one. So far, the past few years Ive had immediate contributors, but I know the crap one is coming up and its probably going to be followed by a bunch of crap ones!

[Bedese]

Ive had an incredible run with the Youth Intakes, so I keep dreading the next one. So far, the past few years Ive had immediate contributors, but I know the crap one is coming up and its probably going to be followed by a bunch of crap ones!

They're so unpredictable, but surely the odds must be in our favour soon

[sherwinriga]

If that so, then Zafferani should wait until the next season while I will see another Pedini with another first name comes out in your youth intake! Retirements affects your team already, then this team needs more help by being affiliated by another club soon.

[Bedese]

Season Review

Campionato Sammarinese:

Table

Schedule

Unbelievable. We absolutely tore the league apart, setting a new record for points, and then f***ed it up in the playoffs.

Coppa Titano:

Table

Schedule

A perfect cup run.

Key Players:

Highest Average Rating:

Marco Battistini (YP34) - 8.20

Fifth year in a row.

Top Goalscorers:

Mattia Bacciocchi (YP43) - 32

Youth prospects:

He has a great scoring record for us.

Marco Bernardi (YP1) -

Nicola Romanelli (YP6) - His career's winding down.

Fabrizio Lo Russo (YP7) - He's finally lost his first team spot.

Giacomo Mancini (YP9) - Upset he's not been getting any first team football, he's leaving on a free. That's three club legends gone. (Marco Bernadi (YP1) and Michele Zafferani (YP2).)

Marco Gatti (YP15) - Didn't play a single game for us.

Manuel Gentile (YP16) - He's an important player for us.

Matteo Valentini (YP17) - I've been saying that he's our most important player, and this season proved it. We dominated all season, but he hurt his knee just before the playoffs and we collapsed without him, losing 2 out of 3 games.

Pier Marino Valentini (YP19) - Had his best ever season for us.

Luca Conti (YP21) - Left to join La Florita, and did terribly. Quite fitting.

Jacopo Bernardi (YP23) - Played well.

Thomas De Angelis (YP26) - He's a great third choice to have.

Paolo Tessarin (YP31) - Had a great season.

Pietro Buscarini (YP33) - He may get a little bit of gametime next year.

Marco Battistini (YP34) - He's fantastic.

Paolo Rosti (YP36) - He'll likely be leaving when his contract runs out next year, because I don't see him getting the football he wants.

Renzo Bellini (YP38) - Might feature next year now that Marco Bernardi (YP1) is retiring.

Davide Muccioli (YP39) - Didn't play much.

Mattia Muraccini (YP41) - Had a good year at LB.

Matteo Ugolini (YP42) - Played fairly well when given the games.

Mattia Bacciocchi (YP43) - Pace kills at the lower level.

Federico Gennari (YP44)- I gave him the starting job, but he didn't do that well. I've got no idea who my starting GK is going to be next year, because I've got about 4 all around the same ability.

Denis Bacciocchi (YP45) - I've been complaining about the recent youth intakes, but he's absolutely fantastic. He could form a fantastic partnership with Matteo Valentini (YP17) at a crucial position for us.

Special mention:

Nicola Rattini - I keep bracing for a decline, but he's still going strong aged 31.

Marco Podeschi - He looks really good for a youngster from San Marino.

Pietro Bonfiglio - San Marino have a new explosive winger. He came through at San Marino Calcio (It really does look like adding in the Italian Leagues is having an effect, although San Marino Calcio are in Serie D atm, and it was a stupid oversight to not have them included from the start).

Aims for next season:

I wasn't expecting us to dominate the league so handily, so we'll see what was the fluke - doing so well in the league, or losing the playoffs. Still desperate for a good intake for once.

Other teams:

League Winners: Virtus beat Folgore Falciano on penalties in the final.

Cup Winners:

How the team in CL qualifying did: Folgore lost 7-1 to Videoton in the Second Round.

How the teams in Europa qualifying did: We lost 8-2 to Aberdeen in the Second Round, while Virtus lost 6-0 to Trnava of Slovakia and Faetano lost 6-1 to Flora of Estonia in the first.

San Marino National team:

2035 Results --- 2036 Results

Outside of a draw against Latvia, disappointing.

Caps for our players:

Marco Bernardi (YP1) has 93, Jacopo Bernardi (YP23) has 69, Matteo Valentini (YP17) and Pier Marino Valentini (YP19) have 68, Nicola Rattini has 62, Manuel Gentile (YP16) has 58, Giacomo Mancini (YP9) has 51, Marco Battistini (YP34) has 49, Nicola Romanelli (YP6) has 30, Davide Muccioli (YP39) has 20, Paolo Tessarin (YP31) and Marco Gatti (YP15) have 15, Matteo Ugolini (YP42) has 10, Thomas De Angelis (YP26) has 8, Mattia Gasperoni has 5, Roberto Michelotti has 4 (these two are competing amongst others to be my first choice GK next year), Mattia Muraccini (YP41) and Paolo Rosti (YP36) have 3, Fabrizio Lo Russo (YP7) and Roberto Berardi have 2, and Federico Gennari (YP44), Renzo Bellini (YP38) and Mattia Bacciocchi (YP43) have 1.

[Bedese]

[Bedese]

They've never made it past the First Round, but we've got a lot of injuries so this won't be easy.

[Bedese]

He was a legend indeed. Our first ever youth player, he saw us rise from the bottom of San Marino to the top, and got to experience Champions League football with us. He's on the club legends list, and he'll be remembered around here for a long time.

[Bedese]

We missed a lot of sitters, but eventually pulled through to get the win.

Well this should be fun...

[Bedese]

We might have let in 5, but scoring 3 away at Sparta Prague is a damn good result.

[Bedese]

I can't be too disappointed with this scoreline.

[Bedese]

After years of service, Fabrizio Lo Russo (YP7) has left us in order to get some first team football elsewhere. With Michele Zafferani (YP2), Giacomo Mancini (YP9) and Lo Russo leaving, Marco Bernardi (YP1) retiring and Nicola Romanelli (YP6) not getting into the team, it's an end of an era for San Giovanni.

[Bedese]

Youth Intake Day!

He's not that bad, but he's not that good, and he's the only player worth tagging. What do we have to do to get a good intake?

[darixx4]

He was a legend indeed. Our first ever youth player, he saw us rise from the bottom of San Marino to the top, and got to experience Champions League football with us. He's on the club legends list, and he'll be remembered around here for a long time.

First intake and a true legend. Nice away game against sparta, i hope you will get to third qual. round soon.

[sherwinriga]

A very good run turns in the middle of a journey where older people went separate ways. So, to recap the first youth players, how they feel after they played there as well as elsewhere San Marino?

[Bedese]

A very good run turns in the middle of a journey where older people went separate ways. So, to recap the first youth players, how they feel after they played there as well as elsewhere San Marino?

Michele Zafferani (YP2) didn't find a new club, but he's decided to become a HOYD. If he wasn't so useless at his job, I'd hire him

Mattia Bianchi (YP3) only played 5 games for us, as he left for Cosmos. He stayed there for six years, played at Fiorentino for five and Cailungo for four before retiring. He played 255 games, scored 12 times, got 23 assists and had an average rating of 7.05. He's now a Director of Football:

Nicola Bacciocchi (YP4) was our GK for a few years before playing for Cosmos, Pennarossa, Folgore Falciano and currently Cailungo. His career is coming to an end and he hasn't really distinguished himself, with an average rating of just 6.76.

Nicola Nanni (YP5) never played a game for us but found first team games at La Florita, Fiorentino, Libertas and lately Juvenes Dogana, where he's spent the last 9 seasons. His average rating is just 6.77.

[Bedese]

Season Review

Campionato Sammarinese:

Table

Schedule

We finally reclaimed the League Title, and deservedly so.

Coppa Titano:

Table

Schedule

Perfecto.

Key Players:

Highest Average Rating:

Marco Battistini (YP34) - 7.98

Six years in a row is just remarkable.

Top Goalscorers:

Mattia Bacciocchi (YP43) - 25

Youth prospects:

"Potential to be a decent player?" I think he's already a pretty decent player...

Nicola Romanelli (YP6) - He only saw games when everyone else was injured.

Giacomo Mancini (YP9) - He's our new scout! I don't need one and he's pretty terrible at it, so I'm going to try and make him a coach.

Marco Gatti (YP15) - His three starts were all in the cup knockout rounds, and it was great to have him help us win the trophy.

Manuel Gentile (YP16) - A great winger.

Matteo Valentini (YP17) - He's great, but he's about to hit 30.

Pier Marino Valentini (YP19) - He's so consistent.

Jacopo Bernardi (YP23) - A solid CM.

Thomas De Angelis (YP26) - Played well as my third choice.

Paolo Tessarin (YP31) - He's pretty good.

Pietro Buscarini (YP33) - Still doesn't feature for us.

Marco Battistini (YP34) - Superb.

Paolo Rosti (YP36) - I renewed his contract, so he'll be a backup for another couple of seasons.

Renzo Bellini (YP38) - I gave him some chances, but he didn't take them.

Davide Muccioli (YP39) - He doesn't play as well as his stats should.

Mattia Muraccini (YP41) - A really good LB.

Matteo Ugolini (YP42) - Played well as a rotational CM.

Mattia Bacciocchi (YP43) - He's a great striker.

Federico Gennari (YP44)- Lost the starting job.

Denis Bacciocchi (YP45) - He's way too good to play for us, and unfortunately he knows it. He doesn't want to renew his contract because he thinks he can do better, so we may be losing him in a couple of years.

Roberto Vagnini (YP46) - I don't see him breaking into the first team any time soon.

Special mention:

Nicola Rattini - Aged 32, he's finally starting to decline

Mattia Gasperoni - He's my new first choice GK.

Marco Podeschi - He looks superb, so why the hell is he not getting capped?

Pietro Bonfiglio - What a winger.

Aims for next season:

We might have won the league, but we really need a good intake to start replacing the older players.

Other teams:

League Winners: (Finally)

Cup Winners:

How the team in CL qualifying did: Virtus lost 6-0 to Trencin in the Second Qualifying Round (I'm not sure why they didn't start in the First Round though).

How the teams in Europa qualifying did: We beat Zeta 4-1 away, but Sparta Prague were too strong for us in the Second Round. Folgore Falciano narrowly lost 2-0 to Jabonlec of the Czech Republic, and Faetano lost 6-1 to HJK of Finland.

San Marino National team:

2036 Results --- 2037 Results

Two good wins over Andorra.

Caps for our players:

Jacopo Bernardi (YP23) has 76, Matteo Valentini (YP17) has 73, Pier Marino Valentini (YP19) has 71, Manuel Gentile (YP16) has 65, Nicola Rattini has 62, Marco Battistini (YP34) has 56, Nicola Romanelli (YP6) has 30, Davide Muccioli (YP39) has 21, Paolo Tessarin (YP15) and Marco Gatti (YP15) have 15, Mattia Gasperoni has 11, Matteo Ugolini (YP42) has 10, Thomas De Angelis (YP26) has 8, Mattia Muraccini (YP41) and Roberto Michelotti have 4, Paolo Rosti (YP36) has 3, Denis Bacciocchi (YP45) and Roberto Berardi have 2, and Mattia Bacciocchi (YP43), Renzo Bellini (YP38) and Federico Gennari (YP44) have 1.

[Bedese]

This should be a fairly standard win for us in the First Round. The Second Round draw, however...

As long as we avoid Celtic, we have a chance, but if we could get Shirak I think we'd actually be favourites.

It's not the easiest draw, but we should have a chance.

[abulezz]

Should be able to go through the 2nd Qualifying Round, no?

[Bedese]

Should be able to go through the 2nd Qualifying Round, no?

We'll see, but I like my chances

[Bedese]

We didn't dominate, but we got the job done. Bring on APOEL!

[Bedese]

We played well, but just weren't clinical enough. We were looking like heading back to San Marino with a decent result at 2-1, but a late long range goal leaves us with a lot to do at home.

[Bedese]

We've done it!!

Needing to overturn a two goal deficit from the first leg, we defended like absolute heroes and hit them on the break twice, with Nicola Rattini crossing first for Manuel Gentile (YP16) and later Paolo Tessarin (YP31) to tap home from close range, sending us through into the Third Round!

We'll give it a go!

[Darius1998]

I can imagine the entire country's 35,000 people celebrating that.

[Bedese]

We got battered over two legs, but we weren't far off getting a result against Anderlecht at home! I'm absolutely delighted with how Europe's gone this year, and it's not over yet... we now head into the last round of Europa Qualifying:

They should batter us, but I think Anderlecht are a better side so let's see what happens...

[Bedese]

I can imagine the entire country's 35,000 people celebrating that.

I wonder if our rivals would be happy or annoyed

[Bedese]

If Davide Muccioli (YP39) hadn't gotten himself sent off, this one could have been a lot different. A stupid second yellow card put us under the cosh, and it's no surprise that we eventually cracked.

[abulezz]

Sucks - still, that was not a bad run.

[Bedese]

What a ride Europe was this year!

[Bedese]

Sucks - still, that was not a bad run.

I'm delighted with it

[Bedese]

With this unexpected bonus money added onto our prize money from an extended European run, Professionalism might not be too far off...

[Bedese]

Youth Intake Day!

No relation to Marco Gatti (YP15), Marco Gatti (YP47) looks like a fairly handy CB, and could be an excellent replacement for Denis Bacciocchi (YP45) if he decides to leave in a year's time. 6 strength is a bit of a worry, but he looks good everywhere else. He's the only decent player, but after the rubbish we've had recently I'm not complaining.

[Bedese]

Season Review

Campionato Sammarinese:

Table

Schedule

Can we please stop f***ing this up...

Coppa Titano:

Table

Schedule

We f***ed this one up too, meaning we didn't actually win a trophy this year.

Key Players:

Highest Average Rating:

Marco Battistini (YP34) - 7.70

Seven years in a row, but it's not that high of a rating.

Top Goalscorer:

Mattia Bacciocchi (YP43) - 32

Youth prospects:

Top scorer yet again.

Nicola Romanelli (YP6) - No games for our longest serving player.

Marco Gatti (YP15) - No games for our second longest serving player.

Manuel Gentile (YP16) - He's going to start declining.

Matteo Valentini (YP17) - Likewise.

Pier Marino Valentini (YP19) - Had his worst season for a long time, probably due to a weak European campaign.

Jacopo Bernardi (YP23) - He's solid for us.

Thomas De Angelis (YP26) - He's not that good.

Paolo Tessarin (YP31) - Went 18 hours without scoring at one point. 18 hours! In San Marino!

Pietro Buscarini (YP33) - I think the best thing you could say about him is that he's loyal/

Marco Battistini (YP34) - Our best player.

Paolo Rosti (YP36) - He was awful.

Renzo Bellini (YP38) - He played really well in limited gametime, and with Nicola Rattini declining he might be in line for some more time next season.

Davide Muccioli (YP39) - He started for me at LB, but didn't do that well.

Mattia Muraccini (YP41) - He was awful, and lost his starting spot.

Matteo Ugolini (YP42) - I need to give him more gametime next season to keep him around.

Mattia Bacciocchi (YP43) - Our only consistent striker.

Federico Gennari (YP44)- No games.

Denis Bacciocchi (YP45) - Still doesn't want to sign a new contract, and I think we'll be losing the best player we've ever had.

Roberto Vagnini (YP46) - Virtually no gametime.

Marco Gatti (YP47) - He could turn out to be a decent CB.

Special mention:

Nicola Rattini - Next season might be his last useful one. He's always relied on his explosive pace, which he's losing quickly.

Mattia Gasperoni - Superb in between the sticks.

Marco Podeschi - He's not going to develop without gametime, but the NT manager needs a talking to for STILL not capping someone clearly better than the rest of the Sanmarinese strikers.

Pietro Bonfiglio - Needs gametime.

Aims for next season:

Pathetic. Our European seeding might have improved enough to have us seeded in the Second Round, which would basically have turned qualifying from the CL Second Round from an unlikely occurrence to a should be certain. We've now not qualified for the Champions League, so I think we've absolutely f***ed that one up for ourselves. Too many of our players are getting old, and we just haven't got the quality in to replace them, so we may have hit our peak for now until we start having better intakes. It's so frustrating.

Other teams:

League Winners: Tre Fiori beat us in the final.

Cup Winners: Libertas beat Folgore Falciano on penalties to win it.

How the team in CL qualifying did: We made it to the Third Round!

How the teams in Europa qualifying did: We lost to Chievo Verona in the playoff. Libertas lost 4-0 to Shakhter Karaganda of Kazakhstan, Folgore lost 6-0 to Norwegians Molde, and Pennarossa lost 5-0 to Slovan Bratislava from Slovakia.

San Marino National team:

2037 Results --- 2038 Results

Holy ****, we drew with Croatia...

Caps for our players:

Jacopo Bernardi (YP23) has 85, Matteo Valentini (YP17) has 74, Pier Marino Valentini (YP19) has 73, Manuel Gentile (YP16) has 68, Marco Battistini (YP34) has 63, Nicola Rattini has 62, Nicola Romanelli (YP6) has 30, Paolo Tessarin (YP15), Marco Gatti (YP15) and Mattia Gasperoni have 15, Matteo Ugolini (YP42) has 10, Thomas De Angelis (YP26) has 8, Denis Bacciocchi (YP45) has 7, Mattia Muraccini (YP41) has 6, Roberto Michelotti has 5, Roberto Berardi has 4, Paolo Rosti (YP36) and Federico Gennari (YP44) have 3, Mattia Bacciocchi (YP43) has 2 and Renzo Bellini (YP38) has 1.

[Bedese]

They're Finnish, and I won't even try to pronounce their full name. We should win.

[Bedese]

Vaduz are a strong team, and I don't see us getting past them.

[Bedese]

One thing I've noticed is that we've been playing European games in the 5,500 capacity San Marino Stadium, rather than our new San Giovanni Stadium that holds 5,974. It's a bit annoying if it's hardcoded into the database to make all Sanmarinese teams play European games there, because we're missing out on ticket money that we'd get, as European games are pretty much always sell outs.

[Bedese]

Considering Davide Muccioli (YP39)'s incredibly stupid tendency to get sent off in the first half in big games, we didn't do badly at all here, although we probably don't have much chance of advancing.

[Bedese]

Let's just try to get back into the CL for next year.

[SoloTitano]

Nice progress. Curious to see what new consortium will bring to the club.

Sorry for the annoying stadium problem, but I have requested it some years ago. It was quite unrealistic seeing European matches at 300+ crowd stadiums when irl they play at Olimpico, pardon now San Marino Stadium. Actually they don't even have an own home stadium, so we don't take into account the (quite unlikley atm) possibility they can build a new one!

[Bedese]

Nice progress. Curious to see what new consortium will bring to the club.

Sorry for the annoying stadium problem, but I have requested it some years ago. It was quite unrealistic seeing European matches at 300+ crowd stadiums when irl they play at Olimpico, pardon now San Marino Stadium. Actually they don't even have an own home stadium, so we don't take into account the (quite unlikley atm) possibility they can build a new one!

Haha, it's a good thing that they play European games at the NT stadium, I'll just have to deal with losing out on a little extra cash in a few games

[Bedese]

Youth Intake Day!

Not a single player worth tagging. Pathetic.

[sherwinriga]

Good job on going to the Third Round of UEFA Champions League! And with a bunch of youth players playing around, that would be more familiar than the other Sammarinese teams.

[Bedese]

Hey guys,

The save isn't going anywhere, but I need to do something about the season reviews. They're taking me nearly an hour to do, and I just don't have the time for that, so I need to cut that down considerably. My question to you is what are the things that you want to stay, and what kind of things would you not mind being cut out? I think I might cut out the player section, and only post our key players rather than every single youth player we have at the club, but let me know your thoughts.