[FM20] [FM19] The Great San Marino Challenge

[TacticalGenius]

[duesouth]

12 minutes ago, TacticalGenius said:

First person to do that - well played, mate!

[TacticalGenius]

Just now, duesouth said:

First person to do that - well played, mate!

Thanks! Getting close to cracking the top 100 as well, currently 111th.

[TacticalGenius]

I reckon we can make a good go of qualifying!

[Cuomo10]

@duesouth

I think you may have missed my post from the other day as we finished top of our Nations League C Group too.

Also, we've reached the knockout stages of the Europa Conference League

[duesouth]

54 minutes ago, Cuomo10 said:

@duesouth

I think you may have missed my post from the other day as we finished top of our Nations League C Group too.

Also, we've reached the knockout stages of the Europa Conference League

I did - sorry about that!!  Great work on both counts

[Cuomo10]

20 hours ago, duesouth said:

I did - sorry about that!!  Great work on both counts

No probs, thank you. 

[Cross]

I just finished my 2nd season at San Marino Calcio and I think it was my worst season off all CM/FM games I have ever played lol. I should have the players available to me to at least finish in the mid table, but unfortunately nothing was working. The first 20 games we were on 8 points..

Luckily we managed to finish within 9 points of the number 16 and the FM gods let me win the playoffs for relegation.

Next season will be different. Now we are full professional I want to be more specific in which players I want for my team. I hope I can offload most garbage from this year's team.

In the YP we pulled a exiting and hard needed CB for the NT. 

The draw for the WC has been very favourable to us, but I don't expect anything to happen the next few years. Good thing is that Gaiola, the best player of San Marino Calcio, became a San Marinese and is now also the best player of the NT. Did this happen to anyone else?

[kowal.]

On 30/01/2020 at 22:36, Cuomo10 said:

Season 27/28; Midseason 

Business as usual domestically and we have hit double figures in 3 of our games. 

We had a good run in the EL group, beating Astana home and away and also drawing against Sturm Graz. We finished 3rd and have a tie against Javor in the EL II 1st knockout stage. 

Rolland and Spadazzi have been solid signings. The latters contract is up at the end of the season so will be offering a contract to him to see if i can sign him. Nanni has been an abolute beast scoring 25 goals in 12 starts. A lot of other stand out performances across the team.

Our facilities have been upgraded and our training facilities are now adequate and our youth facilities are average. Ive requested further improvements which have been accepted by the chairman.

**********

After a good start to qualifying, we faltered a little and finished 4th in the group

We are however in the playoff for qualification due to topping our Nations League group last season...you never know

 

Very good results of the national team, can you show the best players of the team?

[Cuomo10]

1 hour ago, kowal. said:

 

Very good results of the national team, can you show the best players of the team?

Here is a screenshot of the squad. 

Ercolani is the best player - he was my best rated youth product in my 3rd season

[Cuomo10]

Season 27/28; End of Season

We only failed to win just 1 game domestically this season as we retained the league and cup.

A very exciting European campaign saw us make the final in the Euro Cup II. We comfortably beat both Javor and Anderlecht and progressed to the Semi's after beating Midtjylland on penalties. The match against Werder was a lot more straight forward than i was expecting. We met Lille in the final, but never got involved or close to stopping them from lifting the cup. A tremendous run nevertheless.

There are a lot of decisions to be made during the close season as a few contracts are up and the quality in depth is lacking slightly. After losing Wolf and arguably our best player, Gecchele, last summer, we were resigned to also losing another star, Dallari, during the January window. Offers came in from China and met his release fee. We signed a young lad from Anderlecht, Jos Van den Buijs, who has been excellent. I'll be looking to extend his loan as signing him isnt an option considering the £50m price tag theyve put on him. Spadazzi will definitley be going as Milan are wanting him to feature in their first team plans next season. Nanni had a ridiculous season scoring 43 goals in 37 games.

Our Youth Intake wasnt the best so new faces will be coming in and I will be reviewing which positions. Some of my younger players have not quite progressed as well in CM so depending on the situation with den Buijs, I may need to invest in 2 quality CM's. At CB were fine with Rolland and Brzyski and with steady backup, but lacking for support at Full Back so will be looking at my options in the transfer marking. I will be allowing Biordi YP8C the chance to challenge Cervellini for the AMR position and I have no worries for AML. I was hoping for a decent striker through my youth intake, and I am going to see what Francini may be able to provide next season; Nanni and Mancini are still scoring well so I am not as concerned upfront.

I invested heavily in a new HoYD last season and was expecting better. Its probably more the case of low population/ranking/current squad ability that is resulting in non spectacular intakes. 

I do have a concern with the lack of young talent coming through in San Marino in general at the moment. Most teams are now professional so I am hoping that we can start getting a new crop of decent youngsters in the next few seasons otherwise it is going to be a long grind.

***************

We beat N Ireland in the Semi but just got edged out by Hungary 2-1 in the final.

We reached a new high of 116th in the World but are currently 121st. We have been rewarded with the following group for the Nations League

[TacticalGenius]

We beat Norway 3-1 to finally beat a top 50 side!

Aaaand we are SO close to the top 100 ourselves, at 105.

[Cuomo10]

1 hour ago, TacticalGenius said:

We beat Norway 3-1 to finally beat a top 50 side!

Aaaand we are SO close to the top 100 ourselves, at 105.

Well done. What season are you in? Are you getting any decent youth players coming through being based in Italy? 

[Cuomo10]

Season 28/29; European Qualification

Fairly straight forward making it to the CL Playoff where we faced PSV. We lost the first leg 1-0 and had to play around 70 mins with 10 men after Brzyski was sent off. I faniced our chances in the return leg but another early red card for us meant that we could only draw 0-0.

We have made the EL group stages and its not a bad group

4 new players have arrived. Calabrese comes in on loan to provide cover in the FB positions and we also signed legend Filippo Berardi on a free transfer. He's 31 but adds experience and cover outwide. 

We need a new BBM and signed Manu Kone for £1.7m from Lens

We also needed a creative, attacking player in midfield and we splashed £2.4m on Slavica from Hajduk

[parkin90]

The 2022/3 season of my play through is written up! It's got

⚽️Calamitous misses

⚽️plenty of loan signings

⚽️lots of pictures of Neil Warnock upset

Why wouldn't you want to read it? 

https://stratmangaming.wordpress.com/2020/02/03/a-serene-rebirth-7-determined/

[Cuomo10]

16 hours ago, parkin90 said:

The 2022/3 season of my play through is written up! It's got

⚽️Calamitous misses

⚽️plenty of loan signings

⚽️lots of pictures of Neil Warnock upset

Why wouldn't you want to read it? 

https://stratmangaming.wordpress.com/2020/02/03/a-serene-rebirth-7-determined/

Congrats on the promotion. I've got Nanni and he's scoring well still across all comps 

[TacticalGenius]

On 03/02/2020 at 12:01, Cuomo10 said:

Well done. What season are you in? Are you getting any decent youth players coming through being based in Italy? 

I'm in 2031/32. The club I created by reinstating San Marino Calcio and renaming them and changing the kit, etc, so all youths are Sammarinese.

We've got a wonderkid GK, an ex-wonderkid striker, and some decent-ish players, but we play well as a team. And now we've done this:

[TacticalGenius]

The two best and one up-and-coming player.

[mattboy_slim]

Oof. Newgens in the San Marino leagues are nowhere near that standard currently. Gonna be a long old save this 

[Cuomo10]

8 hours ago, TacticalGenius said:

I'm in 2031/32. The club I created by reinstating San Marino Calcio and renaming them and changing the kit, etc, so all youths are Sammarinese.

We've got a wonderkid GK, an ex-wonderkid striker, and some decent-ish players, but we play well as a team. And now we've done this:

One day we'll get a wonderkid, I hope.

Well done for cracking the top 100!

[Cuomo10]

3 hours ago, mattboy_slim said:

Oof. Newgens in the San Marino leagues are nowhere near that standard currently. Gonna be a long old save this 

tell me about it

[Cuomo10]

Season 28/29; Midseason Update

We actually topped our EL group after 4 games but ended up finishing 3rd. Im pleased that we were battling for the top 2 spots. We face HJK in the 'other' european comp

We're currently on a 90 game unbeaten streak in the league. 

The new signings have settled in well; Kone picked up an injury and was out for 5 weeks just before our first EL group game. Ive been giving a fair bit of game time to my 2 young CB's, Tota and Taberelli. The same for Biordi who I am trying to develop to challenge and succeed Cervellini for my AMR. I am on the lookout for a new striker and one of the scouts highlighted a lad called Duje Skugor who was available for free. His stats were very appealing and Ive signed him on a short term deal to see how he copes. 4 goals in 2 games is promising but we will see how he gets on against HJK.

We're under an embargo at the moment as the club is in the process of a takeover

********************************

The less said about the NT the better. It started well with a 2-2 draw against Norway too!

[TacticalGenius]

[TacticalGenius]

YESSSSSSSS! Third time lucky!

[TacticalGenius]

Also do I get bonus points for this? 

[TacticalGenius]

So proud right now! We got further than I could have ever expected!

[duesouth]

18 hours ago, TacticalGenius said:

Also do I get bonus points for this? 

I added an achievement - seems like something like that should be celebrated!  Well played, mate!

[Grizeu]

With the changes for the engine, I decided to try this challenge, here's what happened thus far:

1st season, we lost every game except against kazakhstan.

2nd season, friendlies went wrong, but in the UEFA Nations League D we got promoted.

Curious to see the future of this save, thanks for spending the time to read this!

[The Regista]

Not sure my attempt at the Dafuge Challenge is gonna stick this year as I've done the non league to Premier League loads of times.

Have got the bug to try this and have read the first post - any recommendations of which way most people load this up?

Also I see that you don't mind about international experience but wouldn't that make the climb with the club side a bit too easy?

Finally, can I confirm that if you were to manage Catolica Calcio SM you'd only get Italian newgens and not San Marinese?

 

Sorry for the questions - just a bit overwhelmed where to start!

Edited February 10, 2020 by The Regista

[The Regista]

I loaded the Level 7 database and looked at the scouting list and had virtually every big name player wanting to play for San Marino Calcio... presumably that's not right?!

[duesouth]

11 hours ago, The Regista said:

I loaded the Level 7 database and looked at the scouting list and had virtually every big name player wanting to play for San Marino Calcio... presumably that's not right?!

The reputation of the club is going to be higher than most at that level.  San Marino Calcio were a Serie D/Level 4 club - so putting them back at Level 7 means they are a big name.  Imagine if Bury re-appeared at L7 - they'd be the same.

I personally found everything until Serie C fairly easy - even Serie D I found easy enough, I think I recall correctly that we were undefeated.

The Cattolica save file - if you load the Serie D database and the other file in listed in that first post, it will give you Sammarinese intakes - you can always holiday forward with a test file just to check for your own peace of mind - but as long as you load both files, you should be OK.

With international experience, I didn't mind as the challenge is such a long and difficult one, by the time you are talking World Cup winners, your manager stats will be up there anyway.  Plus, you wouldn't need to be great to play for San Marino - although the game probably is thinking more Frank Lampard than Andy Selva!

[Kazushi80]

I just recently failed at the youth challenge and wanted to take another shot at it, but I thought why not mix things up, doing a challenge with signing players and national team management. So I am here.

I am taking over San Marino Calcio in Serie D.

And I am taking over the national team of San Marino from the start.

I decided to give my manager not the lowest stats, instead the ones recommended for the club. So i was am semi-professional footballer and have a Continental C Licence. But i am not speaking Italian yet.

Looking forward to sharing my progress the next months. Saw some amazing success here studying this thread yesterday and today... (and I hope I installed all the files correct)

[duesouth]

Welcome @Kazushi80 - as long as you downloaded both files in the original post (the Serie D database and the CC San Marino club one) you'll be fine.  Good luck and enjoy!

[Kazushi80]

Thanks @duesouth To be sure I just simulated one season until the first intake and it looked good.

[The Regista]

10 hours ago, duesouth said:

The reputation of the club is going to be higher than most at that level.  San Marino Calcio were a Serie D/Level 4 club - so putting them back at Level 7 means they are a big name.  Imagine if Bury re-appeared at L7 - they'd be the same.

I personally found everything until Serie C fairly easy - even Serie D I found easy enough, I think I recall correctly that we were undefeated.

The Cattolica save file - if you load the Serie D database and the other file in listed in that first post, it will give you Sammarinese intakes - you can always holiday forward with a test file just to check for your own peace of mind - but as long as you load both files, you should be OK.

With international experience, I didn't mind as the challenge is such a long and difficult one, by the time you are talking World Cup winners, your manager stats will be up there anyway.  Plus, you wouldn't need to be great to play for San Marino - although the game probably is thinking more Frank Lampard than Andy Selva!

Thanks for the reply! Part of me is longing to go down to Tier 7 - but the other part of me thinks "this is gonna be hard as it is - does it matter?" haha! 

[The Regista]

Anyway - throwing my hat in to the ring for this one! Went the CC San Marino Serie D route

[Kazushi80]

Startet with a rookie mistake (i account it to the 7 hours of pre-season): Called a few of my players up to the national team  and didn't see that Serie D is not stopping so half of my starting eleven will miss the next league game....

[The Regista]

First International match... yikes.

Edited February 12, 2020 by The Regista

[Cross]

I just finished my 3rd season and 2nd season in Serie C. The Serie C is, at least for me, a superhard challenge. With the squad this year I really expected to fight for the top spots, but instead we finished 12th. I invested a lot in this squad, so we are now 500K in debt. I have to see if I can manage this another season. 

 

Gaiola was once again my POTS, followed closely by fellow San Marinese Berardi

 

 

The NT did not went that well either. We almost snatched a draw against Turkey and Belarus, but that was it. Hopefully we can get the morale up in the Nations League.

 

[Kazushi80]

vor 11 Stunden schrieb The Regista:

First International match... yikes.

 

You are good compared to me. I lost 9 -0 against Scotland.

[The Regista]

 

I have no words...

[Kazushi80]

My first season is finished. I will do a deeper review at the weekend with some more time on my hands, so here just a quick announcement: I completed the first three achievements @duesouth

With the Club

Win the Serie D Girone F Title & Win promotion from Serie D

with the national team

Win a game (!):

[TacticalGenius]

WC 2034 Qualifying group...

[Kazushi80]

Season 1 Review

 

San Marino Calcio

It took me a little time get used to manage a semi-professional team since I did this over a year ago on FM19 for the last time. So we had a rocky start to the season (only 2 wins in the first 7 games), but slowly I could build a successful tactic around the 4-1-4-1 Formation I found best for the players available.

 

And so we climbed the table. After November we had only one more loss the whole season, on match day 30 we made it to the top and got the promotion in the end. A little bit helped us that Polisportiva Olympia Agnonese gave up an 11 points lead – from the start of February they lost 5 of their last 12 games, after losing only 2 games before.

 

 

San Marino National Team

 

With the national team it took me really long to figure out a tactic. The first game (0 – 9 to Scotland) was a disaster. At the moment we are playing in a very simple 4-4-2, didn't have a chance in any Euro Qualifiers game, scored only one goal.

 

 

At least 2020 began good, with a draw and a win in two friendlies.

 

Season 2 Preview

 

With San Marino Calcio there's an interesting season ahead. It takes us over a year to go professional, so we are the only semi-professional team in the whole league. I played the first 3 league games yet and that's an issue already. If there's a mid-week game we have no training at all and players are not really fit. So there will be a lot more rotation this season and I have a bigger squad.

 

With the national team we are playing Andorra and Malta in UEFA Nations League D. Since we beat Andorra in our first friendly the plan is to have a first win in a competitive game.

Through The Seasons - San Marino Calcio

Season

Division

League Pos.

National Cups

GF

GA

Int. Cups

Squad

Most Goals

Most Assists

(Other) Key Player

One to Watch

Transfers

Miscellaneous

2019/2020

Serie D/F

1st

-

69

25

-

Squad

Matteo Vitaioli - 19

Piero Paludetto - 12

Riccardo Gaiola

Alex Canti

0€

-

 

Through The Seasons - San Marino National Team
Year	World Ranking	Tournament	Pos	GF	GA	Most Goals	Most Assists	(Other) Key Player	One to Watch	Miscellaneous
2019	208th	Euro Qualifiers	6th	1	38	Tommaso Zafferani - 1	Davide Cesarini - 1	Elia Benedettini	Alex Canti

[Cuomo10]

Season 28/29; End of Season

We dominated domestically again, securing another treble. We couldnt emulate last seasons heroics in reaching the Euro Cup II final, but still managed to make the QF's, losing to Napoli.

Ercolani had an amazing season and it seems the whole of the MLS are after him but I am quick to reject the £1m+ bids for him. He is entering his final year and isnt wanting to discuss a new deal at the moment. Slavica was money well spent, as was Kone and Skugor impressed to secure a 2 year contract. Biordi stepped up well and will be my starting AMR next season as I attempt to get him to reach that 4* potential. 

There isnt much to write home about regarding our youth intake, although we did see a Slovenian and Englishman come through the intake...

[The Regista]

Time to tag @duesouth  in this one. Smashed The Bahamas in a friendly!

Edited February 15, 2020 by The Regista

[The Regista]

Serie D Champions!

First two achievements done @duesouth

Edited February 16, 2020 by The Regista

[Cuomo10]

Season 29/30; European Qualification

We lost out to Dynamo Kyiv in the CL play-off and have secured a place in the Europa League

We were handed a very easy group 

Just 3 loan signings come in as the players I wanted either wanted too much in wages or the clubs wanted too much. Henrique comes in as LB and has impressed, Illaria comes in as a back up option up front and Popvic provides me with a better option as BBM cover

 

Ive not posted this for a while, so here is a track of our progress

[duesouth]

San Marino Calcio 2025/2026 Season - Serie B

Our first season in Serie B saw us sign basically a new team - including 7 loanees.  We did manage to sign two outstanding players permanently - a striker and left footed central defender.  With team cohesion not great, it did take us time to figure it out as a team - but generally results improved from December.  We were in the playoff places for much of the season - rising to 5th at the end of the season.

The first round of the playoffs was a one leg home tie against Parma.  We were the higher seed - so a draw would see us through - and we played a cautious game, and in the end won with a late goal.  The semi was two legs against a long ball side in Casertana.  I ditched our usual tactic and dusted off one I had used with San Giovanni in Europe, which made sure "Regroup" was used to get us back in shape.  Another tight game saw us get a gift penalty to give us a 1-0 lead on the hour - and we kept it tight for the win.  We got off to a horrible start in the second leg, falling behind to a set piece on 2 minutes - but a cross from the left saw our right winger Paoli stab the ball home from close range to give us back the aggregate lead - and we held on.

The final was against Udinese - who finished below us - so we only needed to draw on aggregate as there was no extra time or penalties.  The first leg saw us away and in a very open game we drew 2-2.  Our best player - loanee playmaker Morabito was injured - so I threw in one of our youth products (who has been coming along really well), French U21 midfielder Benoit Besnier - and it was he who scored a goal from 30 yards to secure us the 2-2 only 8 minutes after we went 1-2 down. The second leg at home was nervy - and we fell behind on 34 minutes.  After the break, we played more attacking - and went 2 up front with 20 minutes to go.  We were rewarded when our leading scorer, loanee Luca Lazzaretti vollied in a cross from our left back after a poor Udinese goal kick.  We held on to secure the 3-3 draw and get promoted as we were the higher seed!!

The down side to 7 loanees is that we'll need to bring in a whole new team again - so our scouts will be busy!  Our finances are bad (-£778,000) despite a takeover - we've already got one bank loan - so the £2 million prize money and Serie A TV money should sort that out - and hopefully lead to some money left over for investment in facilities.

Youth Intake

Some potential - but I'm still awaiting that one who can come into the team from day one...

Edited February 17, 2020 by duesouth

[Cuomo10]

Congrats on promotion to Serie A!