[FM22] San Marino: For Club & Country

[kizmarlo]

 

And so, it begins.

Big thanks to @Shrewnaldo for his plugging of this site on twitter - been looking for somewhere to host my management journeys for a long time (also a former Dugout-er), but I'm not young, hyper-enthusiastic, and miraculously win the Champions' League with any side I pick within 5 seasons, so Twitch and Youtube were out of the question.

I'm a huge fan of a club & country save.  Had big success with Jablonec & Czech Republic (I think FM14?), winning 2 World Cups and 6 Champions' Leagues, and then on FM20 was Bodo/Glimt & Norway, also world champions, before they were league champions IRL and hipsters loved them for beating Roma.  Patrick Berg 

Anyway.  The basic premise of these saves is to use the club side as a vehicle to improve the national set-up.  Recently on Twitch, I've seen plenty of 'Build a Nation', and I guess that's because they're too scared to manage national teams.  So here I am.

After it was announced that Victor San Marino would be entered into the Eccellanza (5th Tier of Italian football), I knew what was going to happen once I could get my hands on the editor for FM22.  Now, I'm obviously not aiming to win World Cups and Euros down the line with San Marino, so this is more about the journey and falling in love with what would appear to the outside world as mediocre players, and celebrating the little victories - even if they're very, very rare (especially to start with).

How This Save Works:

I have a edited database that enables the 5th tier of Italian football, and a file to enable the 15-team, semi-professional Campionato Sammarinese di Calcio (San Marino League).

It is worth noting at this stage that Victor San Marino cannot nationalise players - much like Cardiff & Swansea in the English system, as they're based in Italy.  However, the vast majority of youth intake players are Sanmarinese, and that's where we'll focus when the time is right.

Goals & Direction:

Club:

First of all, our first season's goal is to finish in the top two of the Eccellenza - Emiliana Romagna C at least - only the top team gets promotion to the Serie D, and that's got to be the first logical jump.

As for direction:  This season is a bit of a blank canvas.  We have no money spare, and hardly any 'pull' in bringing improvements in, so I'm working with what I have.  However, 2nd season onwards, my goal is to have a minimum of 2 Sanmarinese players in every starting line-up, and a total of 5 in each match-day squad - gotta get these boys some gametime!

From there, it's fairly simple.  Work towards playing defensively-solid, counter-attacking football so that we match the appropriate 'brand' of the national team; and then get ourselves up the leagues.  In time, we want to get ourselves into Serie A, improve our facilities, and bring-through youngsters to improve the national team.

Country:

Not going to lie, it's going to be painful.  I want us to work towards getting a point at least in our next Qualification campaign, and then baby-steps from there.  If we ever qualify for a major tournament, I'll celebrate it like winning the World Cup with any other nation.  This is going to be a slog.

Still, we have some talent in the set-up, in the form of Elia Benedetinni and Nicola Nanni - but they're hardly world superstars.  Enough to give us some hope though.

Anyway, hope you enjoy this as much as I intend to.  Updates should come thick and fast

For anyone not used to my style - I tend to write-up in a story base, and then go off on both tactical and developmental tangents.  Strap in for the ride, it's going to be a long one!

LINK TO EDITOR FILES USED IN SAVE:

San Marino League

Italy to 5th Tier (Eccellanza)

NOTE:  The steam reviews state crashes and/or bugs, but I can attest that I have not had any issues in test saves, or the real deal.  Only known issue I can see is that you have to start a different league's start-date than Italy upon cocmmencing the save.  Everything else works fine from what I can see.

Edited November 11, 2021 by kizmarlo

[Handyfernandy]

Hi mate you say you had file fmf/dbc for Italy level 5 and san marino league. Can you share it to me? i want to play with victor san marino too 

[bigmattb28]

Be super duper handy if you could share the files you're using. The San Marino challenge is a popular one round these parts

[kizmarlo]

2 hours ago, Handyfernandy said:

Hi mate you say you had file fmf/dbc for Italy level 5 and san marino league. Can you share it to me? i want to play with victor san marino too 

 

48 minutes ago, bigmattb28 said:

Be super duper handy if you could share the files you're using. The San Marino challenge is a popular one round these parts

Inserted both links to the bottom of the OP.  Hope they're of use/interest to you

[Handyfernandy]

2 minutes ago, kizmarlo said:

 

Inserted both links to the bottom of the OP.  Hope they're of use/interest to you

Thanks mate i will download and play too. 

[6499red]

If anyone is interested, we have a thread for all the people doing this over on the challenges forum...

 

[kizmarlo]

Fresh Beginnings

Soon after taking-over at Victor San Marino, I very quickly became aware of the difficulties that we would face in bringing-in new players due to our low reputation, and the habit said players had of choosing a side in our tier of football, on a wage 10% lower than what we offered, every. single. time.

As a result, this season I'm reverting to the old routine of working with what we have, and hopefully our team cohesion will help us deliver results, over any ridiculous recruitment.  To be honest, on first-glances, it does appear as if most players/sides are all fairly equal, and that delivery of management, and a system, will determine whether this season is a good one.  We do have some 'talent' on the books though, so let me introduce you to them now before I forget and they disappear in future seasons' rebuilds:

 

Because of the above, I decided to splurge our miniscule transfer budget on beefing-up the backroom staff; meaning that we now have a dedicated Head of Youth Development (naturally), as well as a Fitness Coach that I'm hoping will give us a mild edge with our limited part-time training over our rivals.  Run, Forrest, Run!

A swift, brief pre-season tour of Slovenia was then initiated, and we managed two wins and a draw - happy times.  No idea why that tour was pre-arranged, but everyone likes Slovenia in July, right?

At this point, I highlighted two potential holes in our squad, and addressed them as quickly as possible ahead of the league season starting.  So, in defensive midfield, holding everything together, we brought-in Caeser Tesa on loan from Virtus Castelfranco; and also some much-needed Sanmarinese cover at right back in the form of Alessandro D'Addario.

So far, so good in the league.  Tactically, we've been told we have one of the best sides in the division so I've settled for a fairly simple 433 - nothing too extravagant for this level of player to get confused with.  I'd like us to dominate games a bit better, but the counter-attacking style actually fits the national team plans, so I'm running with it for now.  Overall, I'd like to assert that the Eccellenza has some of the most spectacular 'FM-ing' set-ups I've ever seen.  Teams sitting back with 10 behind the ball, then the final 15 minutes is just constant highlights for them out of nowhere.  Soooooo... either our side has a problem with concentration, or I'm going to have heart failure at some stage during this save.  Only time will tell.

 

National Team Me Harder Daddy

Let's face it, these updates are going to be fairly similar for quite a while.  However, we're here, and I'm constantly tinkering with tactics to try and find something that will either get us a goal against a big boy team, or stop them scoring at will.  Both have evaded me so far.

Still, there is one HUGE silver lining in that we beat fellow minnows Andorra 3-1 to effectively seal 5th place in the group.  Whether that does anything for us ranking-wise, I don't know just yet, but it's got to be baby steps for now, and when we're not just finishing training for England, I'm actually quite enjoying it here.

More to follow soon!

 

Edited November 11, 2021 by kizmarlo

[Conardo]

Good luck!

[LUFCspeni]

I've downloaded the file you linked and the club doesn't have a youth team - is this correct? 

[kizmarlo]

24 minutes ago, LUFCspeni said:

I've downloaded the file you linked and the club doesn't have a youth team - is this correct? 

I imagine the game will give you an option to create a youth team should you want it - especially at higher levels.

However, I'm going to be playing or loaning every single youth player, or at least that's the plan.

Edited November 11, 2021 by kizmarlo

[DefinitelyTaylor]

Great start! A very impressive victory for the national team too. I can only imagine the celebrations over in San Marino. 

[kizmarlo]

 

Premature Update-ation.

I'm not going to lie, I've taken well to this save.  It became very apparent once we gained tactical familiarity that our squad was by far and away the best one in the division, and we had some fun with it.

One game against Tropical Coriano (fantastic team name) away from an unbeatable season, but that was early-on, and we went 21 games unbeaten thereafter.  Key to this success was our defence, with our wingers taking the burden of our goalscoring output for the first half of the season.  Emiliano Pedrazzini and Brazilian veteran Antonio Queiroz were absolute rocks at the back, only conceding 13 goals all season.  As expected, Boccioletti was superb at left back, and we even managed to force a Sanmarinese right back into the first-team, even if he wasn't the best option in the squad. 

We adjusted our tactics to be more dominating when Caeser Tesa was recalled from his loan due to his club being unhappy that he was being played as an Anchor.  He went on to play 5 games for another Eccellenza side on-loan in the second half of the season.  Logic.

However, this led to a mild rebuild that I didn't particularly want to do, but I went-around offering pay-cut contracts to our highest earners, and managed to wrangle enough wage budget to bring in two players.  The first of which, Samuele Mugelli, was earmarked to bring some experience, and a bit of quality to the now-Deep Lying Playmaker role at DM.  The second, I'll get onto now.

How do you solve a problem like Matteo (Prandelli)?

As you can see, the target man approach we've encouraged with the national team didn't extend itself to the club side, and our 'big-name striker' was dreadful for the first half of the season.  However, we quickly identified the issue, and new arrival Andrea Rudella was absolutely deadly for the remainder of the campaign as an advanced forward.  At times, the link-up play of the front three was beautiful, and befitting of a side in a much higher division.  As such, I'm very happy to move-forward with this system in Serie D next season (albeit with different personnel).

Youth

Perhaps the biggest part of this save, is youth development.  Our intake was alright, but there was one major disappointment in that our three best youngsters have exclusively Italian nationality.  I guess that's going to happen every so often, but I'm optimistic that in time (with money spent on faciities upgrades) if this happens again, even the 3/3.5 star potential players would be good enough for the national team, and then we work from there.

Francheschini immediately took our number one spot, though I'll happily drop him to the bench for a Sanmarinese player next season.  Antonioli looks like an OK player, but with promotion already I can't see him breaking into the team barring injuries/a miracle.  The rest of the intake was ignored, and only San Marino nationals signed-on.  I'll look to use them as our squad players in the future, instead focusing on spending money/wage budget on the first-team alone.  That way, I can get them game-time, and also improve our chances at rushing up the leagues - which is needed if we want better facilities/reputation/youth level.

Anyway, trophies are likely to be very rare early-doors in this save, so I'll leave it at that for the moment (for the club at least), lifting the trophy with pyrotechnics for our 150-odd fans.

We finished-up the World Cup Qualification group with a 5-0 defeat to Hungary, and 4-0 against Albania.  However, our performance against Albania in particular was actually promising - we created a few chances, and if it weren't for a red card and two penalties we could've ended the campaign respectfully.  Still, it was always going to be incredibly difficult, and will continue to be difficult for a very, very long time.  Ending with two wins felt like a particular personal victory though.  My next goal, for Euros Qualification, is to finish second-last with a goal difference better than -30.  Though, obviously, that depends on the draw.

Still, what would help the draw would be better seeding.  In order to do that, we need to continue to beat the teams around us.

A friendly in March led to a 1-1 draw with Latvia, which was nice, and after that the Nations' League groups were drawn - where we face Moldova and Liechtenstein in Division D, Group 2.  It's worth noting that this now coincides with our second-best player, Filippo Berardi, returning from a 9 -month layoff.

Our first game here was against Liechtenstein, and it truly was a thing of beauty.  Nicola Nanni grabbing four in a 4-0 routing.  I'll savour this for a very long time, as in comparison we genuinely looked like world-beaters.  We followed this up with a 3-1 defeat to Moldova through two late goals, but I'm actually feeling quietly confident of progression - though obviously we need to win both games, especially the home game against Moldova.  If we get 'promoted'; cool.  But I'm more interested in getting good results against the sides around us in order to boost our nations' reputation etc.

San Marino Youth

Aside from the disappointment of our own club youth intake, we did manage to find/grab these young 'uns from external sources.  Denis Villa is the best CB in San Marino at 15 years old, and somehow was developed at Chamois Niortais, which I find cool.  Alessandro Toccaceli has come through the ranks at Cremonese, and whilst he won't be a world-beater, he's already squad-worthy as second fiddle to Berardi on the left side.  If Villa doesn't become the record cap holder in years to come, I'd be surprised.  As you can see, both have caps, featuring off the bench versus Liechtenstein in order to lock them out of their second nationalities of France and Italy, respectively.

Anyway, that's it from me here.  Next-up will be an inevitable rebuild at club level ahead of the Serie D season, and likely ending after the return fixtures in the Nations' League!

[kizmarlo]

The rebuild is off

Well, this went-through a lot quicker than I expected, as the reputation 'jump' between Eccellenza and Serie D is minimal at best.  Therefore, we haven't really had much to work with in the transfer window.  Still, we've tried our very best to build a team that, quite frankly, is likely to fighting relegation in it's first season at this level.

The picks of our 8 incoming players are Filipo Falcone, a very talented centre back, on loan from Mantova in the Serie C; Simone Brunetti on a free transfer after his release from Tiferno; and Matteo Vitaioli - now San Marino's record cap holder - as an experienced head in attack.

Beyond this, we've had a solid pre-season, beating everyone in our path as we took-on opposition from across Serie D to find out where we stood ahead of the season.  This gave me huge amounts of optimism as I laughed in the face of the season previews stating that we were favourites for relegation.  I soon sat back in my chair and realised the work that would be required as we lost our first two league games, 4-0 to Livorno, and 2-1 to Pianese - sandwiching a penalty victory in the Serie D Cup, which was mild cause for optimism.

I'm really hoping that tactical familiarity and team cohesion kicks-in like it did last season, but I definitely get the feeling that this is not going to be the plain-sailing that the Eccellenza was last season.

Don't count your chickens...

Just the one game to speak of for the national team, and we were in a situation where I was quietly confident that another victory against Liechtenstein, and sneaking a win at home against Moldova would leave us in the shock position of winning our Nations' League group and making significant, unexpected early progress.

After taking the lead away to Liechtenstein, we managed to absolutely capitulate and ended-up losing 4-1, putting an end to our campaign before it really started.  Our aim now is to avoid big defeat versus Moldova in order to not finish bottom of the group.  Biggest thing here is that we have good talent in attack for a team of our level, and 3-4 first-team quality goalkeepers; it's just defence and midfield where we need to find new players through youth intakes across the world.

We'll keep ploughing-on though - we've said along, this is about the fight and the journey, not some long-con to win World Cups etc.

[_Ben_]

Nice to see you on these boards, Kiz! Always loved your writing style and this is no different. Enjoy the long slog, of which you’ve made a great start to. 

[Shrewnaldo]

Re the intake players having Italian passports only, is there a nationalisation route for them? How long does it take to get a Sammarinese passport? 

[kizmarlo]

1 hour ago, _Ben_ said:

Nice to see you on these boards, Kiz! Always loved your writing style and this is no different. Enjoy the long slog, of which you’ve made a great start to. 

Ah, Ben... such nostalgia seeing your name again.  Still putting me to shame with the in-depth analysis that I like to do but have no patience to write-up?

I'll make sure to scout your stuff out when you post though, always inspiring to take my saves to a new level.

[kizmarlo]

12 minutes ago, Shrewnaldo said:

Re the intake players having Italian passports only, is there a nationalisation route for them? How long does it take to get a Sammarinese passport? 

There appears to be no nationalisation for San Marino, even in the native league.  Everyone appears to be home-grown in Italy.  Which is a shame, but I kinda like it as any success will feel even more organic.

No doubt I'll end-up ripping my hair out at one stage or another, but that ONE DAY I get a San Marino wonderkid in, like, 2050, it'll be glorious.

[Shrewnaldo]

That's a bit frustrating re the lack of nationalisation. Maybe you could try to influence it over time by packing your side out with Sammarinese staff etc? Tough one

[kizmarlo]

21 minutes ago, Shrewnaldo said:

That's a bit frustrating re the lack of nationalisation. Maybe you could try to influence it over time by packing your side out with Sammarinese staff etc? Tough one

Already on the case on that front.  Recruiting all-Sanmarinese staff from day one, even if it means a mild drop in quality.

I've got plans of following the recent 'build a nation' trend down the line too, where I 'donate' any remaining transfer budget to San Marino clubs in the hope they become professional and make infrastructure progress through getting further in Europe etc.

It's all pie in the sky stuff at the moment, but I like it nonetheless.

[kizmarlo]

If this A-rated DM is from San Marino, I'll cry genuine tears of joy.

National team has roughly 3 CMs, all of which are absolutely non-league standard.

[kizmarlo]

OK OK DON'T PANIC!

It looks like there may be a visual glitch, and it only takes 2-2.5 years for Italians at least to get Sanmarinese nationality.

Best CB at the club very quickly becomes the national team's best CB in an instant

[kizmarlo]

1 hour ago, duesouth said:

Looks like a bug in your database.  It takes 30 years to get Sammarinese nationality.  If he has one Sammarinese parent but was born outside of San Marino, it's quicker, but still 10 years residency in San Marino...

Well, I can assure you I've not edited anything (can you even edit nationalisation?) so I'll be running with it.

As I say, there's no countdown on the eligibility screen for any player playing in San Marino, regardless of league, so I was of the assumption that it wouldn't happen at all.  I'll still be running the save, just not looking to exploit this if it keeps popping-up.

I've stated several times above that I'm in this for the slog, not quick results.  We'll see how it unfolds.

[deltablue]

This should be fun.

[kizmarlo]

I'll slow down soon, I promise.
 

I'm sure everyone here has gone down the route and picking up a save, writing updates, and then falling in love - and all of a sudden the season's gone flying-by.

Well that's where I'm at.  A really sloppy start in Serie D with 4 losses and a draw in our first 5 league games led to me revisiting my post and thinking 'oh boy, what have I done?'

'I soon sat back in my chair and realised the work that would be required'
 

Yep.  But then I also revisited my theory that we did the exact same last season, and as soon as tactical familiarity kicked-in (not helped by my change to a more attacking formation) we actually started winning games.  A LOT of games.  A huge part of this was the introduction of pacy poacher Vincenzo Ferrara on-loan from Sassuolo.  Rudella had been doing the business for us since he joined last January, but at this level we needed something a bit more direct due to a lack of creative options out-wide.  Enter Ferrera, and I've never seen so many offside traps broken in my life.  13 pace in the Italian 4th Tier feels like having Mbappe in the Championship. 8 wins on the bounce, a little blip around the Christmas break, then another 10 consecutive wins, and we found ourselves top of the pile by the end of the season.

That doesn't guarantee promotion though, but instead fast-tracks us to the Playoff Final, where we play a 2nd-placed side from the Serie D sub-divisions for a place in Serie C.

Stand-out performer, bar Ferrara, was Serie D Player of the Year, and new Sammarinese international, Emiliano Pedrazzini, who has been with us the full journey so far.  His defensive output was integral to our outstanding (dare I say, dominating?) goal difference, as well as contributing 9 goals in 34 games with his 6"4 chunky body.  He may not be the fastest CB in the world, but I love him.

In fact, the only disappointments for the season were an early exit in the Serie D Cup during our poor patch at the start of the season, and the fact that our youth intake was expectedly poor.  Our best talent was Italian, not Sammarinese, and was 5* potential in name only.  Very much a 4th Tier misnomer.

Moving-forward into the Serie C, I can tell already that every team in professional, so if that's not automatically applied, we need to move towards it very quickly.  Upgrading to full-time training could be massive for the development of players for the national team, and I for one am all for it.  When this save is not an exercise in 'scout/buy the best players and win that way' like most lower-league journeys, I look forward to more in-depth analysis on development etc, but for now we'll keep plugging-away.

False Dawn

Our goal here was to avoid defeat against Moldova in order to try not to finish bottom of our Nations' League group.  Well, a Nanni (now at Dunkerque in France) brace gave us a 2-2 draw, and we ended in 2nd place - by some margin.  Still, baby steps.

As you may remember, my target was to finish 2nd last in our next qualifying group, but that was all dependant on how kind the seeding pots would be to us.  They weren't that kind, in all fairness.

In Group G of Euros Qualifying, we find ourselves with Holland, Russia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, N. Ireland and Latvia.  Maybe we can try and pick a point or snatch victory at home to Latvia, but now my target has shifted to keeping our goal difference below -20.  Again, baby steps, but ones we need to take.  As a national team, we need to settle on a tactic that isn't going to make us press self-destruct at any opportunity.  For instance, we were 1-0 up away to Latvia, but a red card led to 2-1 defeat, and my soul was a little bit crushed.

We've tried pressing and harrassing the opposition, but it's clear that I need to do my homework on low blocks and come back to this.  Disappointing results aside though, we've not been getting hammered like we did in the previous qualification against England and Poland - but there's still a double-header vs Holland to look forward to.  Here's our qualification results in full:

Latvia 2-1 San Marino (Nanni '87 / Fabbri sent off)
San Marino 0-1 Bosnia & Herzegovina
N.Ireland 4-0 San Marino (D'Addario sent off)
San Marino 0-3 Russia

Unlike last season, there were no 'spicy' youth intake players from abroad.  I'll keep my eye out though, especially if we ever get higher up the rankings etc.  I will update later-on about what the tactical direction is going to be, but for now, that's my lot.  Onto the third season!

[kizmarlo]

Crashing Down to Earth

After a phenomenal, and unexpected promotion to Serie C, I was excited to move into the next phase of the grand San Marino project.  However, as the subtitle suggests, things have been a little... bumpy.  Immediately after the season tick-over, I requested for us to become professional, expecting it to be a formality, and the board rejected it on financial grounds.  Quick success has led to a rough ride, it seems.

I thought then I'd do a bit of digging in order to discover just how much of an uphill struggle we may face.  So, outside of the fact that our players only will be training 2 days a week (the only semi-professional side in all the Serie C sub-divisions), this is what we're looking at in terms of remaining competitive financially.

'Eeeek' doesn't quite cover it.  One of six sides in our divisions spending less than £1m p/a on salaries, we're in an easy bottom place on £210k p/a.  And when you factor-in that we have substantially less sponsorship income than the teams around us too, it makes for very uneasy reading.

My initial thoughts that I'd recruited well in the build-up to this season came crashing-down, and I've had to adjust expectations.  Though, this is hardly new from the two seasons we've already had with the national set-up.  The goal here clearly is to gradually improve the infrastructure of the club a little bit more organically, so we don't get found-out like this again in the event of an unexpected promotion, because there's a big difference between being a 'small club', and being an absolute bottom feeder.  On that note, our stadium is not suitable for Serie C's standards, so we're renting the national team stadium for the duration.  Just what we needed - more expenses!

As you can see above, our 'marquee' signings really do show the level we're currently at with the finances, and any potential big bargains simply refuse to sign part-time terms, so we're making-do for now on a minor upgrade to the side that got promoted.

Karamoko is a French forward that came through the ranks at PSG, then Sassuolo, and he looks good for this level in all honesty.  Not superb, but just the right sort of signing that we need if we're going to stand any chance of surviving.  The same goes for goalkeeper Vivoli - who we rushed-through after failing to convince San Marino national keeper Colombo to join as a part-timer.  Still, he's better than the only other option at the club - a year-one Italian youth intake lad, who will be sitting on the bench this season.

Filipo Berardi was brought-in as he was about to be without a club for the season, and I figured we could make use of him and give him game-time.  However, as I'll get into in a bit, we're likely to try and move him on mid-season due to a change of shape.

After initially continuing with our 433 from last season, it really did become painfully apparent that we needed to change our tactics to be more... pragmatic.  So, here we are borrowing some ideas from the national team.  Basic idea here is to play a low block and counter quickly - same as with the national side really - and with similar results to start with.  However, we picked-up two victories just before the winter break to put ourselves in a very strong position.  Our goal difference is not crippling us, and a few more good results could see us escape the possibility of relegation playoffs - which would be massive given our infrastructure situation.  On that note though, just as I'm writing this, the board has agreed to work-out plans to make us professional by the start of next season, and we've also convinced them to upgrade our youth recruitment from 'fairly basic' to 'adequate'.

There's no point ruining our finances to get better facilities just yet, that we'll save until we've got some money in the bank (currently £50k and earning roughly £4k a month profit); but it's a good start.  Even having professional, full-time training schedules should improve our chances massively, and also allow us to eek-out any potential from the somewhat lacklustre San Marino youngsters we've had so far.  So, with all this talk of 'the future', let's set-out some goals/targets:

Short-Term:

1) Turn Professional
2) Consolidate our position in Serie C, with a view to promotion to Serie B within 3/4 seasons
3) Continue to use at least 2 San Marino players in each starting line-up throughout

Longer-Term:

4) Generate enough money (likely through player sales and development) to upgrade our facilities year-on-year
5) Work towards a first £1m-rated San Marino player
6) Put in plans to build our own stadium (Serie A target so as to not be hindered by low capacity before then)

I'd love to give it the big 'uns about this, but the international job is currently an exercise in 'lose every game by the least goals possible, and give away at least one penalty per match'.

I'm trying to tweak things tactically, but the quality simply isn't there.  We need a whole team of Nanni's before we're close to winning a game outside of seeded Nations' League games, and that's going to be the case until we can get the club into the higher leagues.  However, we knew that from the start, so the plan is to scrap to keep our job until then.

I would post the final group standings, but I think you can guess.  Plus, it kinda breaks my heart.

At least we scored twice, right?

RIGHT?!?

[duesouth]

I feel your pain - not turning professional on promotion to Serie C happened to me in FM19 - I guess the old San Marino Calcio board's reluctance to spend cash has carried over to the new club!  You've made a good start considering that is handcuffing you.  If you can pull more than 8 points away from 18th place, you'll avoid the dreaded relegation playoff.  Serie C is a wild division - not exactly much mid-table obscurity with so many promotion playoff places (and that's a long road), plus the relegation playoffs.

How have you found your youth intakes?  Do any have Serie C potential?  Or have you slightly outgrown your early intakes with back-to-back promotions?  I guess no full-time training doesn't help their development either...

I'm fascinated with the dynamic youth ratings in FM22, but tough to build the National Team without strong Victor San Marino intakes.  I guess the Nations League is the best place to grow and perhaps inch up the nation's youth rating.

I'm still in Year 1 of my FM22 save as I play pretty slowly - plotting in my head how to go about it, but I really like your short-term vision.  It is possible being aggressive with loans to get out of Serie C (and even Serie B) quickly, but I'm thinking doing it too quickly will mean your youth intakes just aren't good enough to help the team and would only end up being released and end up in the San Marino League where development will be limited.  Consolidate, try to do okay a Nation's League and hope/pray/beg for even slightly better intakes!

Good luck with the rest of the season.

[kizmarlo]

1 hour ago, duesouth said:

I feel your pain - not turning professional on promotion to Serie C happened to me in FM19 - I guess the old San Marino Calcio board's reluctance to spend cash has carried over to the new club!  You've made a good start considering that is handcuffing you.  If you can pull more than 8 points away from 18th place, you'll avoid the dreaded relegation playoff.  Serie C is a wild division - not exactly much mid-table obscurity with so many promotion playoff places (and that's a long road), plus the relegation playoffs.

How have you found your youth intakes?  Do any have Serie C potential?  Or have you slightly outgrown your early intakes with back-to-back promotions?  I guess no full-time training doesn't help their development either...

I'm fascinated with the dynamic youth ratings in FM22, but tough to build the National Team without strong Victor San Marino intakes.  I guess the Nations League is the best place to grow and perhaps inch up the nation's youth rating.

I'm still in Year 1 of my FM22 save as I play pretty slowly - plotting in my head how to go about it, but I really like your short-term vision.  It is possible being aggressive with loans to get out of Serie C (and even Serie B) quickly, but I'm thinking doing it too quickly will mean your youth intakes just aren't good enough to help the team and would only end up being released and end up in the San Marino League where development will be limited.  Consolidate, try to do okay a Nation's League and hope/pray/beg for even slightly better intakes!

Good luck with the rest of the season.

Youth intakes have been poor, to be blunt.  Two players with good potential (a GK and DM) - both Italian - but with no realistic development pathway with limited training and gametime.  The sort of players that could've been Serie B quality if they'd come through in Serie A, if you get me?

On the loan front, the options for any signings, permanent or not, have been poor due to the club's low reputation and semi-professional status.  I reckon if we can stay up this season we'll have a big rebuild in the summer, with plenty of better options becoming available.  I'm keen to take things a bit slower and 'organic' from now though - the mad rush was to get out of the lower leagues, and now we make sure we do things right so it all meets-up in the long-term.  Can't really risk being in this situation in a higher league, where we're so disproportionately disadvantaged financially, as if this was Serie B, we wouldn't have a fight on our hands, we'd just be relegated.

For now, we plug away, improve each season and go from there.  If it takes 5 seasons to get to Serie B, and another 10 to get to Serie A; so be it.  At least the infrastructure will hold-up and hopefully guarantee very long-term success.

[Shrewnaldo]

Tough going - do you reckon your job would be safe if the club was relegated from Serie C?

Also, what do the FA expect? Is it just "try hard"?

[kizmarlo]

1 hour ago, Shrewnaldo said:

Tough going - do you reckon your job would be safe if the club was relegated from Serie C?

Also, what do the FA expect? Is it just "try hard"?

I'm about 50/50 whether it would be safe or not.  Ive been told to 'fight bravely against relegation', so I guess it would be down to how happy they are with my performance on other objectives alongside that.  I like to think I can take the doubt out of their minds, but it's definitely there in the back of my head causing concern.

As for the FA, yeah - I could lose every game 8-0 and I'd have a C+.  Currently on a B- for winning a game vs Liechtenstein in the Nations' League.  That kinda says it all, really

[DefinitelyTaylor]

The graphic you kindly created for us epitomises the situation you face. It's an uphill battle to contend with sides that can just outdo you in seemingly every single way financially. You're certainly giving it more than a good go, however, and should be pleased with your efforts. The situation isn't helped by the board's reluctance to go professional which I can only hope changes should you survive this year. You're handicapped in multiple ways but as I say, giving it a superb fight. Fair play!