The Sammarinese Challenge.

[Jimbokav1971]

NT Mini Update September 2033.

2034 World Cup World Cup Qualifying.

Absolutely gutted.

After losing 2-1 away to Greece in June, (a game we should have at least got a draw out of), we have just lost 2-1 again away to Belgium, (where we again deserved more).

I really thought we were going to qualify for this one.

[Edit]

After 7 games played.

England 19 points, (unbeaten).

Greece 14 points.

San Marino 12 points.

Belgium 11 points.

N.Ireland 4 points.

Azerbaijan 0 points.

2 draws in those recent games might have made all the difference.

England have ourselves to play (3 points) and then are away to both Greece (3 points) and Belgium (3 points).

Greece are away to N.Ireland (3 points), home to England (o points) and away to San Marino (hopefully 0 points).

Next up we have England (0 points), (no chance of beating them), and then Azerbaijan at home, (3 points) and then Greece at home (hopefully 3 points).

Belgium are away to Azerbaijan (3 points), home to N.Ireland (3 points) and then home to England (0 points).

If we beat both Azerbaijan and Greece then assuming other results go as expected then we should at least finish 2nd in the group. Whether that will be enough to see us make the playoffs remains to be seen.

[Edit2]

To make it worse, our U21's lost 2-0 to Turkey and missed out on qualification for 2034 U21 Euro Championship Finals.

Really frustrated that we are getting so close now but not quite making it.

[Jimbokav1971]

Welcome Coady.

I have a vague recollection of Cudicini playing for someone else. I'm not sure if that was me in last years challenge, me in this years challenge, or someone else completely. lol

[Daymor]

Hey Guys, long time lurker figured I would take up a challenge and this one seems quite interesting. So far I have played through 3 seasons at San Marino so going to give a quick run-down of where I am up too.

2013/2014 Season

- Powered through the games at full speed. We had a pretty decent season finishing 8th in Serie C1/A

- Youth Intake had two youths who I tagged for San Marino who had potential to develop. I will post some screenies later which show their development.

- Michele Bindi, at the time I rated him as the 4th best candidate from the intake. His personality is Fairly Determined which I am reasonably happy with although I didn't have any suitable tutors at the time to improve it and I think now (end of the 2016/2017 season) I have missed the boat.

- Federico Casadei, I rated this guy as my top prospect for the intake. I have since been able to mould his personality to Resolute which I am very happy with.

2014/2015 Season

- Youth Intake was poor, signing only three because they were decent and a number of others just because they were Sanmarinese. Sold the second top rated prospect for 70k quite early on.

- Managed to finish the Serie C1/B in 5th spot and we won the Serie C Cup which was nice.

- Managed to upgrade the Training Facilities

2015/2016 Season

- Youth Intake, even worse than last season. Tagged only two players and signed some of the mediocre Sanmarinese players to hopefully bolster the National Squad. A couple have since been called up.

- Finished the Serie C1/B in 3rd and managed to get promoted.

- Upgraded Youth Coaching and Youth Facilities with the sponsorship income from Serie B.

2016/2017 Season

- Performed well in the Serie B, better than anticipated. Finished in 8th spot.

- Youth Intake. Epic. I would say this is the best intake I have had to date, it helps that once again the top prospect is Sanmarinese like my first intake. I will likely slot him right into my side at Serie B level. Also signed a few more Sanmarinese players to bolster the ranks.

- Luca Rattini, this guy is going to be special. At least I sincerly hope so, as mentioned above will likely slot right into the starting to side to boost his development.

- Federico Casadei 3 Years On. His development is going well, he has been playing in the National Side for a while now. Not my best GK, but I do try to get him as many games as possible. Last year got roughly 50% of the starts.

- Michele Bindi 3 Years On. Also developing well, been playing in the National Side even before he became a first team regular. Played the full 2016/2017 season in the first team. Rated as having the potential to become a 'Decent Serie A Central Defender'.

[Daymor]

Update

Didn't even get to the Italian Cup before I got a flood of transfer offers for my two star Youths. Managed to fend most of them off until A.C Milan came in and offered $1.1mil up front and other incentives worth up to $1.7mil for each.

I didn't even get a chance to say no, the Board stepped in and accepted on my behalf. On the bright side, lots more money to upgrade facilities.

::Edit:: Noticed my first post hasn't shown up yet. Should be up in a bit hopefully.

[col_nufc1]

San Marino 2014/15 Season Review.

Transfers

We obviously needed to sign better quality players and a lot of them if we were to do well this season and I think we did just that. Apart from Stefano Sensi who joined on a season long loan the rest of the players we signed were either free agents or players that club didn't want and agreed to let us have them on free transfers.

Serie B Table

I wasn't expecting to win promotion this season let alone becoming champions but that's exactly what we did this year. It was a entertaining season with only six points separating the top four in Serie B.

Serie B Player Stats

Results Part One l Results Part Two

The Squad

Player Of The Season - Stefano Sensi

We signed Stefano Sensi on loan again this season after a sucessful year on loan with us last season. Celtic signed him from Cesena this season and put him up for loan straight away, so we swooped to secure him on loan and he repaid us with 17 goals and 15 assists from midfield, simply wonderful .

Next season we are going to have to raid the free agency and possibly loan market again as the vast majority of these players won't be good enough to play in Serie A.

I am going to start playing a 4-5-1 / 4-3-3 counter system similiar to what a lot of clubs play like in real life because my three at the back systems are far to adventerous for us to play in this league, we would get hammered off most teams.

[Daymor]

::EDIT:: Double Posted. See Above.

[Jimbokav1971]

Welcome Daymor.

Nice start. It seems you are doing quite well with newgens.

Maybe you could try and add your pics to the text now and see if it works, (which remind me I need to add pics from last update. :o

[Daymor]

Yeah I have been doing pretty decent with the regens. Just finished another season. So I will try to post some images and give an update on where I am up to.

2017/2018 Season

- Finished 5th in Serie B. I thought we may possibly be able to sneak in a promotion, but got bounced in the first round of playoffs. A bit disappointed.

- Getting a lot of offers for both Casadei and Bindi, who are both now first team regulars.

- Been following the progress of Lucca Rattini in the AC Milan U19's and he is carving it up averaging what seems to be about 7.2 - 7.5. Made his debut for San Marino against Faroe Islands and scored a goal.

- Michele Bindi at the age of 20 seems to have somewhat stalled in his development now which is a shame. But I guess not bad for the 4th rated recruit. CA and PA both at 2.5*, rated as being a 'Good Serie B' player.

- Federico Casadei is still making significant improvements though which I am very happy about. CA 3.5* PA 4*.

- Youth Intake had one very good Sanmarinese player, and another GK who was also worth tagging.

- Roberto Ceccoli, Striker who is already a Model Professional and who should hopefully develop into a good player.

- Marco Fracini, GK who will probably not make it as a starter in the National Team due to how well Casadei is developing. Might have to do some tutoring to alter his personality then loan him out for game time, possibly even transfer later.

- ::Edit:: Should also note that I have been constanly upgrading my facilities (or trying to) when the board will allow me too. At the moment I can't ask for more money to be spent on Junior Coaching.

Peak World Rankings of National Team

2015 - 200th

2016 - 194th

2017 - 174th

[Jimbokav1971]

Ok, so I have no been playing this save for 20 years now and this will be our biggest game in that time. (We qualified for the Playoffs before but were never in with a chance of qualifying. Now we really are).

We have just beaten Azerbaijan 5-0 with a rotated squad to give us the best chance of beating Greece.

Greece on the other hand led England till late on and managed to come away with a draw, (although it doesn't change the fact that we needed to beat them before and now still need to beat them).

Belgium need a point against England to take it to.... whatever it is taken to when points are level. (Goal difference, Goals scored, Results between teams). I thought that they didn't have a hope, but after Greece drawing with England who knows.

All I know is that we have to beat Greece to be in with a shout.

We had 2 players suspended and another 2 injured for the Azerbaijan game. It looks like we will have a full compliment available against Greece.

[Edit]

In my opinion we have really underperformed during this campaign and 2nd spot should have been nailed on. Losing both games to England is not a biggy at all. We need everything to go well against them just to keep a clean sheet, and that's without truing to score ourselves. We've struggled with injuries and suspensions but that doesn't excuse the two 2-1 losses away to Greece and Belgium. If we draw just one of those games then it effectively rules the opposition out of running for 2nd and gives us a point buffer on the other.

[Jimbokav1971]

So this was the best prepared we had been in terms of squad depth and I thought right from the off, despite being handed a tough group, we were in with a chance of qualification. If England continued to be mismanaged, then we had a chance against them and I thought we were capable of beating everyone else. We didn't manage to beat England in either game, (lost 3-0 at home and lost 2-0 away), but we did manage to beat everyone else at least once and I was really chuffed to finish 2nd in Group 4.

Unfortunately, although we did manage to beat both Belgium and Greece at home, we also lost to both of them 2-1 away. I was really annoyed with both these games as we were the better team and we should have come away with a draw in both games at the very least. We didn't, and as a result it impacted on our points total in comparison to the other 2nd place teams, (only results against the teams ranked 1st-5th count), so the 2nd place table looks like this.

I was so happy when I saw that we had clinched 2nd place, and when I saw this it was just like being knocked over. Properly gutted.

I thought at the time that the two 2-1 losses could prove to be costly and it indeed was the case. We will just have to pick ourselves up and go again.

This is what the current batch of International players stats look like at the moment. The only significant absences are Bianchi (2014) and Conti, who have obviously retired.

You can see there is actually quite a lot of info on that screen so I have highlighted some bits.

1. Visenti (2021) & Amici (2018) have both announced their retirement from International football, (again in Amici's case), but thankfully I have persuaded both of them to return.

2. I don't know why they retired in the first place. Amici (2018) might be getting on a bit and Partizan have loaned him out to Salzburg, but Visentini (2021) is in the form of his life for both the NT and Celtic.

3. You will see that Visentini (2021) currently has 90 Caps and 30 goals, (from left wing). The highest capped SMR player is Conti with 116 so he still has some way to go to beat that, but Pier (2023) is the record goalscorer with 32 so he might be able to get back in front there before he retires.

4. You can see that the bulk of our goals, (87 of them in fact), have been scored by just 3 players. Visentini (2021) always plays on the left wing and Pier (2023) and Luca (2022) both alternate up front. I'm a firm believer in the use of subs at International level and these two both seem to score goals from the bench.

5. You will see O'Kav Jr down there too and he has now picked up 27 Caps and has scored 4 goals along the way. He is very much a back-up player though and this season it was even common for him to miss out on senior squad selection and end up playing for the U21's, (where he wasn't even first choice).

6. The highest valued player is 25yo DM Volp who is currently valued at £30.5M He usually plays as a Regista(s) although he can equally play in the middle.

7. Our World Ranking is currently 58th and has obviously taken a hit after 4 losses. It has been as high as 41st in the past, but I am not overly concerned about this. If we win the gamed then the rankings will rise and this sort of ranking should at least make it easier to qualify now than in the past.

8. My Job Status with the NT is Untouchable and this is pretty pleasing. I was worried that their expectations might rise in line with our performances but so far this has been unfounded and they basically love me.

Summary. Obviously it was a blow to miss out on China 2034, but that's just the way it goes. It was in our hands and we blew it. The qualification groups for Euro 2036 haven't been drawn yet, and although Euro qualifying groups haven't been kind to us in the past, I am hopeful of an easier draw this time around. With the 2 retirees agreeing to continue playing, we have a pretty decent squad now, (albeit young in some places). 2 GK's 3 left backs, 2 right backs, 4 centre-backs, 5 central midfielders, 3 options wide left, 2 wide right and... 4 up front I think. This is a significant advancement and never have we gone into a qualifying campaign with such depth. When we lose Amici and Visentini they will obviously be hard to replace, but hopefully we will get 2 more seasons out of them at NT level and by then their replacements will be 2 years older and of course we will have been blessed with 2 more academy squads.

[Jimbokav1971]

This was the first U21 campaign that I managed in full. I started mid-way through the previous campaign and really enjoyed it, (especially with my son featuring from time to time).

We lost one single game in this qualifying campaign, (well beaten 2-0 at home to Turkey), and while that ultimately cost us, my thoughts go back to the number of games where we led and couldn't see the game out. That used to be an issue I had with the NT and I think it's an issue with my pressing tactics and poorer quality players. In the past the NT players were just rubbish. With this lot they are just not fully developed and they struggle to cope. If I am goint to manage them again next season I might just have to look at my tactics there and see if I can make things easier on them. At the moment I think I am just running them into the ground and the opposition are picking us off late on.

Summary. If I am honest though, this is a far bigger achievement than almost qualifying with the Senior team. I am doing well with the NT but to almost qualify with the U21's at my first attempt, (my long term goals is to play in the Olympics), I must admit that I'm quite chuffed with that. Turkey have a 19yo playing at Fc Bayern who is valued at £5M ffs. We can't compete with that. I'm obviously gutted to miss out on this too, but I'm far happier with our progress than I am disappointed at missing out.

[Daymor]

Hard luck there Jimbo. But you seem to be running quite well on both the U21 and NT fronts.

You mind posting an image link for Volp? Wouldn't mind checking him out.

[Jimbokav1971]

25yo Volp (SMR) (2024) in Nov 2033.

A big part of this save for me has been learning about developing players. Volp was one of the earlier real real real quality players that we produced. I wasn't able to tutor him as well as I would like and he only has a determined personality which is not ideal at all. Because he is so good I have really not worried too much about his development, but that, (and other factors), have meant that I took my eye off the ball a little where he is concerned and as a result his attributes are just a little skewed. The addition of a Regista(s) into my tactic is a relatively new thing, (can't believe it took me so long), and although I love the role, it doesn't really suit him as well as it might do. The role that I had been playing him in was DM(s) and that's what his training was aimed at. Obviously there is a bit of difference between that and Regista(s). Anyway, I'm happy with the role and happy with him.

In terms of how much game-time I gave him while developing, this were his appearances in the early years.

0(2)

2(26) He went straight into the starting line-up for the NT here, and I really just played him from the bench in every game I could for a minimum of 15 mins.

4(23) He was still mainly used from the bench, but now if I was 2 goals up I would introduce him earlier.

30(9) After 2 seasons on the bench he was ready to start and he has been my first choice DM ever since.

37(1)

40(1)

24(1)

29

27(2)

27

If you wonder about the relative low number of appearances in recent season, it's simply down to rotation. We play about 55-60 games a season and I rotate the whole squad all the way through.

I've trained him to play in the middle now rather than just in the DM line and it's great but one of his ppm's impacts that a little negatively in my eyes, (although I trained it there on purpose).

Quite pleased with how he has turned out even if he's not perfect. He's currently listed as a star Serie A player and is at his peak and not going to develop much from here on.

I don't mind his poor jumping attribute at all and the only things I would change would be that I would remove penalty taking, long shots and finishing and spread the value elsewhere. Other than that I think he's pretty handy for a little lad from San Marino.

[Jimbokav1971]

1. Retain Serie A. I have already off-loaded a number of non-SMR players and as a result we are poorer in certain areas, (most notably full-back). I don't mind that though and so far they are doing well, (even if we are a little stretched at times in Europe). I'm considering bringing in a utility player to add depth for the latter part of the season, but will try and resist that if I can. I don't think a 5th consecutive league title is unrealistic even with the poorer quality squad.

2. Play a more attacking style. Because I was trying to have a little competition with myself last season to see how few goals we could concede, (14 in Serie A, 0 in the Italian Cup and 8 in Europe), we became a little boring at times. I was honestly happier with a 0-0 at times than I was winning 4 or 5-1. Although I still love clean sheets, that is gone now and I want to score goals.

3. I want to play at least 1 game where the whole starting line-up is Home-Grown. It's actually not that easy because our only HG centre-half, (I mean properly HG rather than registered as HG for European purposes), is Di Santo (2015) and he is obviously getting on now at 34/35. The others are still not up to scratch and have been loaned out to keep them match for the NT squad. GK is also a problem because Lucio is not HG and I can't remember the last time he didn't play.

4. Speaking of Lucio, I want him to score 17+ goals this season. (He's my GK). He scored 9 and 12 in the previous 2 seasons but 16 is the current record in a season for a GK and I want him to beat that. I think it's realistic. Last season he kept 38 clean sheets. This season it is at the other end I want to see him affecting the score.

5. I want to get to the Final of the Champions League. We have got to 2 Finals so far, (winning 1 and losing 1), and while the result itself is up in the air in these Finals, getting there should be very achievable. We only didn't get there last season because we had a player sent off early in the 1st leg of the Semi, and still only lost out on away goals. I really want to play in the Super Cup and the World Club Championships because it's more games and more trophies.

6. I want to get to the Final of the Italian Cup. We won it last year for the 4th time in 5 seasons and did so without winning a goal. I'm not bothered about not conceding this season but would like to score a few goals. We only play 5 games and the record is 19 goals for a team in 1 season.

7. I want to win the U19's League. We won it for the 1st time last season and now I want to win it every year. Although I don't manage these matches, I do keep an eye on squad management.

8. I want to get to the Semi-Final of the U19's Champions League. We got to the Semi last season and crashed out when I forgot to take over the match. I don't think we are as strong at this level as last year so the Semi will do me.

9. I want to have another pop at the U18 Youth Invitational. I can't remember how far we got last season and all the non-friendlies get wiped in the U19's which is frustrating. I think I got to the Semi again and would like to get there again.

10. U19's Cup. We won this last year and I would like to win it again but think it might be a tough ask with this young group, (we lost 3 big players from last season who are too old now).

11. I want to win the Italian Super Cup. (We already have), we means that we have no won it the last 5 seasons.

12, I have swapped the HoYD, (which is great), so what I really want from the new guy is a SMR centre-half of similar quality to the players that the Spanish guy has been producing in other positions. I'm not really sure how realistic that is.

13. I want a new feeder club.

14. I want Youth Recruitment to be improved past established.

15. I want to sign a Model Pro SC as a tutor. (Done).

16. I want to sign a Model Pro MC as a tutor. (Done).

[Jimbokav1971]

Ok So it's 23rd November 2033 and I have a goal-scoring milestone for you.

Our GK Lucio is already in double figures for the season, (in November!)

We have played 19 games and he has kept 8 clean sheets, scored 10 goals and got 2 assists. He can't possibly keep this scoring at this rate. If he does he will score about 30 goals this season.

In less good news though, we have already conceded 12 goals this season. By the end of January last season we had still only conceded 12 goals. My clean sheet OCD is in overdrive!

[dan_lcfc]

Unlucky there Jimbo, at least you can take solace in the fact that even a draw against Greece or Belgium in the first games wouldnt have taken you through.

I made a booboo with the keeper not being 6ft. I was looking at 2, I must have thought he was the 6-1 guy. We must have just had a bad patch because I didnt concede another DFK for the rest of the season. IDK, hes still the French no1 ant 20 so he cant be all that bad.

[coady]

I'm just starting my second season now, somehow managing to take the treble in the first. I say this because I was sitting around 4th-5th until the last 9 games of the league season when Bernardo Corradi suddenly fell in love with hat-tricks. I only got through the third round of the Italian Cup after Pisa lost narrowly to a minnow in the final group game, giving me a slender goal difference advantage. Finally, not realising there was a super cup after the season, I transfer listed most of my experienced first team players to try and reduce the wage bill and our significant debt at the time. This left many players with awful morale until a 5-1 victory in the first leg (which I still almost threw away).

On the National team front, it was heavy defeats in the qualifiers as expected. However, I did manage to pull 3 respectable draws in friendlies against Malta, Liechenstein & St Vincent, the latter seeing our first goal scored during my reign (albeit an OG).

Due to my all out experience approach in the first season, I had to vastly reshape my playing staff. I have not spent any of my transfer budget and have stayed well under my wage budget, meaning I was able to get a youth facilities upgrade with the Serie B TV money and new sponsorship deals.

Last but not least, I had one San Marino born gem in my youth intake. He's a striker with potential to be a 'good Serie A' player', but I will use him as an inside forward as I usually use a target man and he is accomplished on both flanks. Few other decent 2-2.5 star youth regens, including a goalkeeper and a very versatile midfield player.

I will try and post a few images later, showing transfers and a couple of the youth players.

[Jimbokav1971]

Congrats on the treble Coady.

If you are just doing a few pics, would love to see Corradi, (his name rings a bell), and the new youth player as well as maybe league table and anything else you fancy.

[coady]

Congrats on the treble Coady.

If you are just doing a few pics, would love to see Corradi, (his name rings a bell), and the new youth player as well as maybe league table and anything else you fancy.

I remember Corradi playing for Man City and having a tough time of it before they had big money. Here's Corradi's profile in the second season, his physical stats in particular have declined. Here's the League Table his goals helped produce in the first season (awful defensive record though).

For my chosen youngsters, I of course have top prospect Bianchi as well as a solid keeper in Muccioli & an average but very versatile midfielder in Zavoli. Zavoli is currently being tutored to hopefully resolve his 'low determination' personality.

Here are my transfers ahead of debut season in Serie B. My DoF pulled off a great loan deal of Romero from my parent club on deadline day to help my previously weak CM area, he should now partner Armellino in the middle. Since uploading this, my DoF also managed to persuade Cesena to let Stefano Sensi join me for another season.

Finally, I forgot to mention that the San Marino National Team has started to make a very tiny climb up the world rankings.

[Jimbokav1971]

We have just had our stadium capacity increased by 9'627 seats. It means that our capacity is now a whopping 45,000 all-seater.

I didn't ask for the initial new stadium to be built and not even once did I ask for it to be increased since, but the Chairman, (I am owned by a Finnish group), seems to be bang on the ball and has just kept extending it.

That should make a nice bit of difference to our income.

[Jimbokav1971]

Coady. I thought I knew the name, (Corradi). He looks a proper beast. You seem to have been built far more on attack than defence last season. Are you going to stick with that or try and tighten up?

Bianchi looks fantastic for this early in the save. (My #1 youth player from season was was Bianchi so I think that's a good omen).

Muccioli doesn't even have to be good. He's a GK and he's from San Marino. That automatically makes him decent. lol

Zavioli. Oh no. I don't like him at all. I hope he's not got good potential. That will be such a waste.

Guarco is a AML I think isn't he? I seem to remember him.

I think I remember Gavilan too. Nice.

[coady]

Great news that you can compete with the best for attendances now. And there I was getting excited about my attendance breaking the 1,000 mark...

My formation is naturally fairly attacking and very untraditional for an Italian team, but I have created a 2nd counter version of it for when coming up against the strongest teams like Udinese, who somehow managed to get relegated. So far it's going relatively steadily, 10 points after 7 games with my only 3 defeats coming against the 3 sides down from Serie A. Still scoring and conceding quite a few but 4 of my back 5 are new signings so it's understandable.

Bianchi has been great so far, after holding off big Udinese bids for him. He captained & scored on his national team debut, earning a draw against Andorra and moving us up to 202nd in the world rankings. Muccioli is developing really quickly actually & won POTM in both National team games this season. On mine San Marino have a fairly decent keeper 'Aldo Simoncini', but he's always injured!

I agree with you on Zavioli and usually wouldn't bother with someone like that but he can play 4 of the 5 midfield roles I use and is stated as a player who 'rarely succumbs to injury'. His determination is improving under tutoring and his personality is changing gradually too. I also found a 2.5 potential centre half from my youth intake, he's very weak mentally but this should improve with tutoring and international experience.

Ironically the two you mention are the two that have failed to develop at all whilst at the club. Sensi, Lolli & Venturi were all great and I have managed to extend their loans. I also found this young Slovenian in the first season who was a star on a £300 a week contract at the time. This season I found a young centre half released by PSG, you can see why I signed this one.

[ryanlion28]

after coming 15th in the 2016/17 season - which was my first season in Serie A, i thought i had improved going into the next season but it was a horrible season in which i only stayed up by one point, rebuilding again for this season, strengthened where i'm extremely weak ( full back) and also brought in John Flanagan on loan. And Diego Capel on a free. My final free i made which i'm sure i got excited by who it was is this http://gyazo.com/5127f3429c12d4db76de2639a6c466b7

[ryanlion28]

http://gyazo.com/71469e02c05f2f9632cc5530f7db3cea youth intake day - wow, delighted with this, no second nationality as well

[Jimbokav1971]

http://gyazo.com/71469e02c05f2f9632cc5530f7db3cea youth intake day - wow, delighted with this, no second nationality as well

I think I am going to cry in envy.

He's brilliant Ryan, (even without knowing what his PA is). It really doesn't matter. He's just a proper centre-half.

Well played that man.

ps. Would love to see a pic of your HoYD and the coach report for Felici when you get a chance.

[Jimbokav1971]

We were on a run of 45 competitive games unbeaten, (31 Serie A games), but the wheels have just come off in spectacular style against Inter.

We beat them last week in the Italian Cup Qtr Final, but are squad, (already weakened as I off-loaded some of our better players to free up space for Sammarinese players to play), has been hit pretty hard with injury and suspensions.

First choice GK, DL, DR, and AMC were all missing but through injury and add in a couple of suspensions and we were weakened still further. I don't think it would have made much difference though. When you are meant to lose, you are just meant to lose I think. We conceded 2 1st half pens we looked all over the place at the back. I can only put this down to the new GK. Lucio has played the last 3 and a half seasons constantly I think and in that time we have only once conceded more than 2 goals, (Champions League Final against Juve in 2032). This new bloke comes in and immediately he has to pick the ball out of the net 4 times.

This could be a long old month before Lucio is back from injury I think.

[Jimbokav1971]

Jan 2034. We've just had our first 45,000 sell out, (Serie A against AC Milan).

The bad news is that if I look at a request to upgrade the stadium further, (I have never used this even once in this save), then it is greyed out and if I hopver over it it tells me that "Stadium is at expansion capacity".

So it's great that the board has got it this big off their own backs, but as the existing stadium was only built in 2026 it means that we have 11 and a half more years to wait before we can build a new one.

[Edit]

45k capacity equates to approx £1.7M gate income.

[Edit2]

Just had a sell-out in Europe and raked in £2M.

[Jimbokav1971]

1st Seeds.

Albania (ranked 16th) (That's pretty impressive).

Denmark (ranked 12th)

France (ranked 2nd)

England (ranked 17th)

Portugal (ranked 3rd)

Italy (ranked 6th)

Poland (ranked 9th)

Spain (ranked 1st)

Slovakia (ranked 14th)

Ukraine (ranked 11th)

2nd Seeds.

Austria (ranked 24th)

Belgium (ranked 32nd) (809 FIFA points)

Croatia (ranked 25th)

Holland (ranked 26th)

Scotland (ranked 27th)

Serbia (ranked 29th)

Russia (ranked 21st)

Turkey (ranked 30th)

Romania (ranked 19th)

Switzerland (ranked 23rd)

3rd Seeds.

Bulgaria (ranked 53rd)

Ireland (ranked 52nd)

Greece (ranked 56th)

Hungary (ranked 64th)

San Marino (ranked 55th) (626 FIFA points).

Israel (ranked 38th)

Norway (ranked 35th)

Sweden (ranked 34th)

Wales (ranked 43rd)

Slovenia (ranked 48th)

4th Seeds.

Armenia (ranked 97th)

Belarus (ranked 79th)

Cyprus (ranked 65th)

Finland (ranked 75th)

Estonia (ranked 69th)

Macedonia (ranked 94th)

Czech (ranked 90th)

Georgia (ranked 74th)

Lithuania (ranked 80th)

N.Ireland (ranked 81st)

5th Seeds.

Andorra (ranked 166th)

Bos & Herz (ranked 121st)

Liechtenstein (ranked 145th)

Luxembourg (ranked 177th)

Faroes (ranked 191st)

Iceland (ranked 95th)

Latvia (ranked 109th)

Montenegro (ranked 97th)

Kazakhstan (ranked 144th)

Moldova (ranked 174th)

6th Seeds.

Azerbaijan (ranked 207th)

Gibraltar (No FIFA ranking because they are recognised by UEFA but not FIFA I think)

Malta (ranked 197th)

Germany are ranked 7th and do not have to qualify. (I'm guessing that means they are hosts).

So there will be 7 Groups consisting of 5 teams and then 3 Groups consisting of 6 teams. I would prefer to be in a group with an extra game if I'm honest. I wanted to have a look at the rankings of all teams and see if we were close to going up or down a group, so I thought I would list them all so you could see what's what.

A perfect example of how important this is, is the comparison between Iceland, (ranked 95th and in the 5th Seeds pot), and Macedonia, (ranked 94th but placed higher up in the 4th Seeds pot). This should ensure that Macedonia get an easier set of games as a result. It's exactly the same with Cyprus, (ranked 65th and in the 4th Seeds pot), and Hungary, (rabked 64th and in the 3rd Seeds pot). Just that single position in the rankings can make such a difference.

Qualifying as 3rd Seeds is always going to be hard, but at the same time, progressing up the rankings to get in that 2nd pot is probably just a struggle. We have 626 FIFA points and our target team, (bottom ranked in pot 2 Belgium), have 809 points. That's quite a big improvement required.

Group D.

Spain (ranked 1st)

Turkey (ranked 30th)

San Marino (ranked 55th)

Belarus (ranked 79th)

Luxembourg (ranked 177th)

It's a reasonable Group mainly because Turkey are a decent draw from Pot 2. Spain are obviously the worst draw we could have got from Pot 1, but as we had the bottom ranked team in our last qualifying Group, (England), and we didn't get near them, then I think we can ignore Pot 1 teams for the moment. We haven't played Turkey since two 3-1 defeats in 2032/33. The top 2 teams in each group qualify for the EURO's and then some 3rd place teams qualify via the Playoffs. Turkey are obviously favourites to finish 2nd, but I think we will give them a game and if they slip up elsewhere then who knows.

[coady]

I am pleased to say this season has so far exceeded my wildest expectations, despite the fact my team are still unable to defend. If you look at the league table, you will see our position and think everything is perfect. Unfortunately, 2 weeks before the break we had a disaster as Captain & talisman Bernando Corradi was ruled out with injury. His stats have declined rapidly & we lost the last 2 games. I attempted to sign free agent Peter Crouch as replacement, but he rejected me for Rotherham! I did, however, many to sign four Leader/Model Pros on frees to tutor some of my San Marino eligible youngsters for the remaining 6 months of the season.

The hardest thing in January has been fending off interest from Juventus & Inter for Charlery & Bianchi, with lucarative offers rejected for both.

On the national team, we have managed to catch the next worst European team in the world rankings (Andorra) and are now level on points with them. This is a huge stride and one that satisfied me hugely.

Finally, perhaps the most important moment in the season so far is that 3 of my parent club loanees have agreed permanent deals from the end of their contracts. The key of these is Nicolo Lolli, a player who has been on loan here since the start of the game.

[coady]

Just as I started to worry slightly due to various injuries in the spine of my team, my chief scout sent me a report on an Italian who played in this summer's world cup. I put in an audacious contract offer to him which he accepted. This is my only first team signing of the transfer window! I've had the commercial windfall for shirt sales messages too!

[Jimbokav1971]

So Youth Day as I call it has been and gone and my prayers were answered, (sort of).

I have been desperate for a centre-half and the new HoYD didn't disappoint.

* I had a really good HoYD before, but although he was producing very good players, he just wasn't producing enough centre-backs. I sacked/released the old guy and replaced him with the best who I could find who had Defending as his coaching style and who ticked the boxes in the other areas. I don't care at all about Nationality. Ideally I wanted a Professional type personality, but in this case I just went for Spirited in the knowledge that I have enough Tutors to fix anyone who comes through. The new guy has the following attributes.

DEF15, WWY16, JPA20, JPP20. These are the attributes I was looking for.

I don't know that this is how it works. It seems to be working for me, (but maybe I have just been lucky so far).

In this case he also has a Mental attribute of 16. I don't know what this equated to but I expect that it benefits the players he produces in the area of their starting mental attributes.

Matteo (SMR/ITA) 2034 Driven is a new youth player and has the highest potential of any player in any of our squads. His coach report suggests that he has the potential to be a World Class DC in the future, (and he is already a decent player for most Serie B sides). He is Driven, (which is good), but I will be changing that to Model Pro as soon as I can. The negative, (and it is huge), is that he has (ITA) as a 2nd Nationality. I currently have 3 young players refusing to play for me while they wait for (ITA), another who represented (ITA) all the way through U21 level and is now waiting for a Senior call-up, and 2 more (Ceccolli and Marco Fabbri), who chose (ITA) over (SMR) and are now regulars at International level. I am absolutely desperate for this guy to play for us. Desperate desperate desperate. :o

We had 16 players promoted.

I released 5 of them because they were average and because they were not (SMR).

I signed 9 players who were (SMR) or at least (SMR/ITA).

I signed 2 players who were (ITA) because they had the potential to be Leading Serie A players, (which now equates to only 2 stars), hence why I am signing the (SMR) guys no matter how many stars they have.

This player is brilliant and I am well chuffed, but we all know he is going to want to play for (ITA). Gutted.

I have just checked and 1 star in my squad is equal to a decent Serie A player in some cases.

Contrastingly, a number of players with 4.0 PA stars are rated as potential World Class players. (What I make of the 8 players who have 4.5 PA stars then, I just don't know.

[Jimbokav1971]

Serie A. Champions. We won it comfortably in the end, (by 18 points), to secure our 5th successive Seria A title. We only lost 1 single game. (Inter smashed us 4-1 while Lucio was injured). Our tally 103 goals scored is the best modern day record, and the record of 125 by Torino in 1947/48 is going to be hard to beat. Wel were 2 points short of Inter's record of 97 points in a season, (which we equalled 2 seasons ago). It's probably most impressive because I was actually prepared to lose this title thos year just so long as I developed the NT. As a result I sold our 2 best full-backs, (for a combined £88M), and replaced then with an average 22yo Sammarinese left back and a 16yo Sammarinese right back. Both were outstanding and we barely even missed our old full-backs, (although our depth was stretched at times). I have done exactly the same thing again in this close season and already we have sold a DR for £10M, a DM for £37M, and AMR for £7.5M, another DM for £40M and a GK for £6.5M.

Champions League. Champions. After losing in the Semi last year, (because of a red card), I was determined to win this and it was never in doubt as we ran out 3-1 winners against Barca. We have now contested 3 of the last for Finals, winning 2 of them.

Italian Cup. Champions. We won it for the 3rd year in succession, (the 5th in 6 years), by beating the Tycoon backed Sampdoria comfortably in the Final. The Italian Cup has been really good to us over the years and we have now featured in 11 of the last 14 Finals, (winning 6 of them). We really are by far the most dominant force in Italy right now.

Italian Super Cup. Champions. We retained the Cup for the 4th time with a 3-1 win over Juve who have an ageing team and are starting to struggle. Sampdoria and Inter look to be our closest challengers now.

U19's League. Runners Up. We won this for the first time last season and I was keen to retain it, (while not actually managing the games), but Fiorentina proved too string for us and win by 3 points. It certainly gives is a target for next season.

U19's Cup. Champions. I managed the youngsters all the way through this competition and then forgot to take over for the Final itself. They did me proud though as they dispatched Atalanta 5-2.

Italian Youth Club Invitational. Lost in the Quarters. I like this trophy and was really looking to win retain it after winning last season, but we came up against a good Barca team in the Semi's and 2 defensive lapses cost is and we ended up 11-10 on pens. Barca went on to win and I can't really have any complaints. I managed these games myself.

U19's Champions Cup. Lost in Semi's. I was really keen to win this and took it very seriously, but once again forgot to take control foe the Semi and eventual winners Sampdoria beat is 2-1. I'm really annoyed at missing this game because I managed us through to this point and I really think we might have gone all the way if I had been in charge. It's just so hard with so many games coming at the back stage of the season.

Summary. So we did a senior quadruple, and also added the U19 Cup to boot. As mentioned above, I was pleasantly surprised that we won Serie A with so much ease I was really prepared for a scrap and even to not win it. I think part of the reason was that I dealt with my clean sheet OCD and instead concentrated on scoring goals at the other end, (24 goals conceded and just 1 defeat is still decent though). I am again reducing the squad simply because there are non-(SMR) HG players and thei only have a year on their contract and I either pay them £100k+ pw to re-sign then or I sell them for about £40M a go. So sell it is then. Really delighted to win the Champions league again, (we would have won it last season but for that red card), and I will have a right good go at defending it this season too. I'm less pleased about the U19's coming away with just the domestic Cup to show for a good season, but in their defence I had their right back, left wing, srtiker, and centre-half all with the senior squad for most of the season so maybe that is something else I need to look at in the future. It's great to do a clean sweep of senior trophies, (just need to add the EURO Super Cup and the World Club Champs to that next season for 6 out of 6 and then get the U19's back on track. It may seem like it's all too easy but with me squeezing the squad and giving poorer quality (SMR) players more prominant roles it is far more of a challenge than it looks.

Lucio finished the season with 15 goals, (1 short of the seasonal record), and 6 assists, (that is a new record), but of course he managed much fewer clean sheets this season, (only 27). He has now scored 39 goals and 12 assists. I really gutted he didn't beat 16 this season. He missed 7 games with a hernia, (he doesn't usually get injured), and in those games we were awarded 4 penalties. He hardly scored at all late in the season. (1 goal in his last 15 games). (More about him in the "Fat GK" thread).

O'Kav Jr had a disaster of a season. He suffered a lower back stress fracture a week before the season started and then pulled his hamstring twice afterwards so that he was unable to go out on loan. He made 9 sub appearances for us and scored 1 Serie A goal, but to be honest it was as bad a season as it could possibly have been. An absolute right off. (More about him in the "Son in the game thread").

We are now ranked top in Europe via the coefficient and our points this season were a massive 39.185 which I think is the highest I have ever seen for a single season. We won 11 of our 13 games, drew against Bayern in the Semi 2nd leg and lost against Real in the Quarter 2nd leg

Star players.

GK. Lucio. Well he started brilliantly, but then got injured and really struggled to score after that. (Goal-scoring exploits can be followed in the Fat GK thread).

DC. El Amrani (ITA/MOR). He's been vice-captain for what seems forever. Has now been with us for 13 season and if I have my way he will never leave. He is the only non-HG player that I treat as if he was HG. He will be made captain now that Di Santo (2015) has retired.

DM. Volp (SMR) (2024). Because of the role he plays in, (not conducive to good match ratings), he always seems to be largely ignored when it comes to awards and whatever. I think the Regista(s) is probably the most important role in my whole team. If whoever plays there struggles then we struggle. It impacts on us like no other position/role.

AML. Ceccoli (SMR/ITA) (2026). The AML position in my FM14 tactics has always been the beneficiary of good work by others and often scores and creates at an impressive level that is not in proportion at all to the rest of the team. I can change players and roles and duties and player instructions, but the AML just keeps scoring and assisting. Such a shame that he chose to play for Italy.

AMR. Graziano (2028). Not the finished article yet all all, (scores too many goals and creates too few), but I am working on that so hopefully he should develop in that area this season. I am selling Musa (GHA) so he will be out and out 1st choice next season.

AC. Pier (SMR) (2023). For a while he was the one that got away, (he spent 3 seasons at other clubs after leaving on a free), but the decision to splash out £38M on getting him back proved decent as he has produced the goods for us again and again. This season he was much less effective in the league, (after I introduced a very good Brazilian Model Pro tutor to share the load), but he was brilliant in the Cups and was a large reason why we won the Champions league with such ease.

Assorted Home-grown players.

Di Santo (2015). He has just retired and I plan on posting a year by year summary of him so won't bother right now. He has been my single favourite player in this save and I am gutted to see him go despite the fact that he was pretty rubbish now.

Trini (SMR) (2026). He has never been 1st choice for club, but has been for Country right from the start. As a result I have really trimmed the DM/MC area of non-Sammarinese talent for next season. Trini needs to play more and we need to adapt to that if he isn't quite up to the previous standard. I see him as the more defensive of the 2 central midfielders where hopefully I will be better able to hide some of his limitations.

Sam (SMR) (2027). He has spent 2 seasons on loan in the English Championship and then 2 season in Serie B, but I think I will be keeping him at the club as 3rd choice right winger this season. I'm in the process of selling Musah (GHA) and everyone needs to step up one position. If he doesn't cut it then I will just get someone else in if I have to, but I want to give him a chance at least.

Volpinari (SMR) (2029). I don't really like him despite the fact that he is the best (SMR) AMC and once I offload Garnier (BEL) he will be the best at the club too, (not ideal). Because I don't like him, my default tactic has become the Regista(s) triangle rather than the AP(s) triangle. I need to try and mould that to suit Volpinari to try and get the best out of him in games where we are dominant.

Gabi (2030). He looks more like the type of player that I want Graziano to become, (although currently a poorer player). He will be the 2nd choice AMR next season and will play a lot of games.

Geri "Rossi" (2031). Touted as the next Paolo Rossi, I am determined that he will be given some game-time next season. My plan at the moment is to start him in all the Champions League group games and see how he goes. He is HG, although frustratingly not Sammarinese.

Fabrizio (SMR) (2032). At the tender age of 16 last season, I made him my 1st choice right back and despite obvious limitations he responded magnificently. Has World Class potential and will surely become a huge player for both club and Country.

Rob (SMR) (2033). I was really pleased with how he developed this season. 7 goals from 20 sub appearances is a brilliant return and I will be using him in much the same way next season. If the U21's are ever going to qualify for a Finals then I think it is this bloke who will score the goals. We ill not need him in the Senior squad at NT level for a while, so I expect him to possibly beat the existing record for U21 goals and appearances, (which I think stands at 40 appearances and 19 goals). I fully expect him to put a dent in both of those next season.

Matteo (SMR/ITA) (2034). Please God let this bloke pick to play for us and not Italy. I am really worried we will lose him too because Italy are doing really well at the moment. With him available the future looks really bright. Without him we look really short at centre-half and I just don't think we will be able to progress as I want. This decision of his is such a pivotal one. I'm properly desperate.

Finances: are obviously ok because we have just paid shareholders £34.5M and then been hit with a £23.5m tax bill. With our stadium maxed out at 45,000 capacity and no new stadium possible for quite a while yet, I am just being a bit careful in wages. It's just about the only thing that could really screw me over at the moment I think. We have just announced 5 new sponsorship deals valued at £80M, (last season it was £63.82M), so that's decent improvement. Our wage budget for next season is £3.5M and our transfer budget is £368M, (although I see that's not what is shown on the pic). In any case I don't really intend to buy any over 18 players with the possible exception of a good tutor is one becomes available.

[coady]

Serie B: Unfortunately our league form faded away slightly in the 2nd half of the season, with Corradi never quite returning to his best after injury. Despite this, we managed 2 late season wins against rivals to snatch 4th and a play off spot (6 points less would have left us 10th). This is when the miracle began! Bianchi scored the all important goal as we edged past Latina by a single goal on aggregate in the semi. This was followed by Pescara in the final, a team we hugely struggled against in the league games. I employed a new formation with my star no.10 dropped for Thiago Motta in an Anchor role. We were edged out 2-1 in the away leg, but managed to steal a very cagey 1-0 at home, thanks to a first goal by a loan sub striker. Luckily, we had finished higher in the league table & have somehow achieved back to back promotions!

Youth Intake: Although this season didn't bring me another star, it did bring me 3 solid Sammarinese players who can potentially strengthen the National Team in the next couple of years.

Ceccoli: Is a holding midfielder and already has Model Pro personality

Morri: A potentially decent left back, good for depth

Gatti: A really solid defender, should become a NT starter.

Youth Update: This season has seen huge improvements from my 1st year youngsters, even I've been surprised by the speed of development

Bianchi: Already vice-captain of NT, made lots of sub appearances for club and scored 3 goals for NT already.

Muccioli: Now first choice NT keeper, he's probably developed quickest of them all.

Zavoli: Personality is much better now, certainly no star but could become useful.

Giovagnoli: Didn't mention him when he first arrived, has come on leaps and bounds & now plays for NT regularly.

As you can see the NT is going to have a solid base for the future, just desperate for a good RB & CM now. I've decided I will not sell any Sammarinese players until they have reached their full potential, no matter how average they are. This means I will make the NT as strong as possible for the future few years.

I'm about to start my summer transfers for the upcoming Serie A season, but don't hold much hope for surviving if I'm honest!

[Bartrcm]

I'll try to do an update this evening, with great results with the team and country.

[leonavich]

I have been away for far too long, but it has been refreshing to see that this is still going! Well done on the recent quadruple Jimbo!

I am contemplating giving this a run again, as I am thinking about getting back into FM.

[leonavich]

So I am starting this up now and boy does the starting squad have a lot of dead weight and bloated loan list. Will try and get some semblance of an update out once i get into the swing of things again.

[dan_lcfc]

I finally have the internet back!! Why SKY cant train one bloke to do the tele and the phoneline at the same time bemuses me. Im an electrician and I know it cant be that hard to do both! 2 weeks gap between getting the tele and them coming to do the phone. But alas..

I have made some progress but its been fairly slow going - working away means that Im not playing in the week so its late nights on the weekends of just FM! Ill post up my progress which includes some miraculous NT results, a cup final and finally a striker from my youth intake to be excited about!!!

[col_nufc1]

San Marino 2015/16 Season Review.

Transfers

Cashed/Claused Transfers

l

Loan Deals

l

Free Transfers

Serie A Table

I am shocked that we have managed to finish third in Serie A in our first season and I also didn't realise that in the league sorting rules that results between teams came before goal difference. As you can see only four points separted the teams that finished between 2nd and 6th place in a close but if truth be known a pretty poor Serie A table.

Serie A Player Stats

Results Part One

l

Results Part Two

The Squad

Players Of The Season -

Stefano Sensi

and

Pierre-Michel Lasogga

I couldn't pick a player of the season out of Stefano Sensi and Pierre-Michel Lasogga so I have decided to sit on the fence and let them share the player of the season.

Youth Intake

Mirco Cecchetti

and

Willi Princi

are the two standout players from this years intake. The good news is that Mirco Cecchetti is Sammarinese and does not have Italian second nationality so he has went straight into the national side.

Board announce plans for new stadium

To be honest I am a bit disapointed that the new stadiums capacity will only be 22500 but hopefully there will be plenty of scope for expansion in the future.

[leonavich]

Welcome back for round 2 Leon Breakenridge

[ryanlion28]

Haven't played fm since i last posted about that amazing regen i got, he was just 16 years old and without even playing a club game at U21 level at San Marino.. Enrico Felici was thrown straight into the national team for the euro 2020 qualification game v Hungary, we had played 2 games before this, a 4-1 home defeat to Italy,which we was actually leading which was a complete shock, and a 5-0 thrashing from serbia away. The other teams in my group are Hungary and Belarus, who i believe have more chance of getting that 3rd spot than ourselves, but http://gyazo.com/64992ef5edffb77fddcd78186ca357a4 - DELIGHTED our first ever competitive win, still a long way to go in qualifying though, but now i feel hopeful that somehow we could get ourselves 3rd place

[dan_lcfc]

Welcome back for round 2 Leon Breakenridge

Have you managed to make any progress LEONAVICH?

[MADA]

anybody got any tips for convincing players to commit to SM and not italy?

[dan_lcfc]

anybody got any tips for convincing players to commit to SM and not italy?

Get SM higher than Italy in the world rankings!

Im afraid there isnt alot you can do, most players I have had this with have realised by their early 20s that they wont be good enough and accept a SM callup, but there will always be the ambitious ones!

[Jimbokav1971]

anybody got any tips for convincing players to commit to SM and not italy?

I've got a few things that I did with varying degrees of success.

1. Withdraw players from (ITA) aged group squads where possible. (I didn't bother with the really good one's).

2. Just keep approaching them EVERY single time you call up a squad. (I prefix players that refuse a call-up with *** so that they stand out). I call them up at the earliest possible opportunity and ensure that they get a competitive cap to resolve their dual Nationalities. (I will sacrifice 1 result to get a player (SMR) confirmed).

I have missed out on a World Class AML, (he was always going to be too good for us), a good AMC, (I never thought he was going to be good enough for (ITA) and so I took him a bit for granted. Now he would prefer not even to play for San Marino club side never mind about the NT.

Most players decided to play for (SMR) by about the age of 25 if they had dual Nationality and werern't making the (ITA) Squad. I didn't have anyone who held out longer than that.

I currently have a 16yo DC who is going to be too good for us and will choose (ITA) I think. Then we also have a 20yo MC/SC who I am hopeful of recruiting. A 23yo DR who represented (ITA) all the way through to U21 level and I don't think he will ever play for us even if (ITA) don't call him up. Next up is a 19yo SC who is never going to be good enough for (ITA), and only a back-up for us. That's everyone who is likely to be good enough to play for us. That's a pretty decent record I think. Obviously the 16yo DC is really frustrating, but that's just the way it goes I suppose. :-(

[dan_lcfc]

OK I think the last league table i posted up was from the 2026/2027 season

2027/2028 :-

League table http://i1296.photobucket.com/albums/ag7/danarlow90/SerieA_OverviewStages-6_zps004a932a.png

A solid start to the season slowed up considerably due to our small squad competing in the EURO cup took it out of us towards the end of te season. We did however make it to the Final of the EURO cup where we faced Sampdoria. We took the lead but were outclassed in the end, going down 2-1. We also got to the quarter final of the Italian cup, going out to Atlanta, which was frustrating as we should have won the game

Transfers: http://i1296.photobucket.com/albums/ag7/danarlow90/SanMarino_TransfersTransferHistory_zps94d9344a.png

This seasons transfers merely replaced players who had to go. The GK was very disruptive and 2 strikers had 12 months on their contracts so I cashed in on them.

2028/2029

League table http://i1296.photobucket.com/albums/ag7/danarlow90/SerieA_OverviewStages-7_zpse6f08cfa.png

With no European football this season I hoped we could push on somewhat but we were not clinical enough and kept throwing points away to teams at the bottom. We got the the quarter final of the Italian cup again, this time being knocked out bu Juve.

Transfers http://i1296.photobucket.com/albums/ag7/danarlow90/SanMarino_TransfersTransferHistory-2_zps5bb5fe28.png

We sold Rick de Graaf for £25m to Bayern so we needed a replacement. Roman Malano had a £9.75m release fee and he paid that fee with 15 goals

2029/2030

League table http://i1296.photobucket.com/albums/ag7/danarlow90/SerieA_OverviewStages-8_zpsbace22ea.png

A second consecutive 9th placed finish. Again our inability to close out games against the weaker sides in the league had been our downfall. We claimed wins against AC (5-1) Napoli (2-0) Fiorientina (2-1/1-1) Sampdoria (2-1/3-3) Inter (2-1) and Cagliari (3-1). We also drew 0-0 with Juve. (Udinese did the double over us) However losses to the likes of Palermo, Lazio, Bologna, twice drawing against Perugia (who are my bogey team, I just hate playing them) just really undid all of the hard work. In fact, had we won those games against the bottom 3, we would be competing in the Champions League, but hey ho, thats why we love FM right? :lol:

We were knocked out in the first round of the Italian cup to Cagliari

Transfers http://i1296.photobucket.com/albums/ag7/danarlow90/SanMarino_TransfersTransferHistory-3_zps258df541.png

Only 2 players brought in this year. A new CM and a striker, I did however sell 2 strikers. Strange you may think? NO! My HOYD finally came through for me.

May I introduce Massimo Bindi http://i1296.photobucket.com/albums/ag7/danarlow90/MassimoBindi_OverviewProfile_zps65617be2.png

SM only nationality, potential to be world class. Of course there had to be something wrong with him - his natural fitness. Hes basically the Sammarinese Michael Owen

The board have been upgrading our facilities at a steady pace too http://i1296.photobucket.com/albums/ag7/danarlow90/SanMarino_InformationFacilities_zpsf2b70f38.png

So thats the club up to date, will do the NT shortly!

[MADA]

good advice, thanks. one other question: is there any way to increase the tactical familiarity of an international team?

[coady]

I'm back from holiday and about to start season 3, which is in Serie A after a remarkable promotion last season. I have obviously had to make significant changes to both personnel and style to give myself a fighting chance of staying up. Thankfully both Parma & Verona were relegated with many unhappy players of high quality. I took this opportunity to make my first ever co-ownership deals in FM history and added some good versatile players around the side. I didn't fill the squad too much, as I want to still give a few Sammarinese youngsters game time this year if possible. I'm pretty confident of competing for survival as things stand going into the first game.

Here's the full list of transfers made so far in this window: Transfers 2015/16

With some of the Serie A money I have managed to get an upgrade to both youth & training facilities, as well as a feeder club in Serie C to send some of the less able Sammarinese youngsters to play in the future. I'm just hoping I get some good attacking players in my youth intake this year, to make the NT more competitive when attacking now we are restricting most teams to 2 or 3 goals.

[leonavich]

Transfers

We had a few loanees in prior to my arrival, so below are just the players I have brought in and their purpose within the side.

We brought in a few players of starting XI calibre to help strengthen. Ciano and Piva play on the defensive flanks, while Rocchi will be our primary frontman. Semioli plays a rotation role in the attacking midfield positions while the remaining are all squad players to add depth.

| Date               | Person               | From                    | Fee                | 
| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 17/7/2013          | Ivano Ciano          | Matera                  | Loan               | 
| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 17/7/2013          | Simone Piva          | Salernitana             | Loan               | 
| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 18/7/2013          | Franco Semioli       | Free Transfer           | Free               | 
| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 19/7/2013          | Valerio Virga        | Free Transfer           | Free               | 
| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 21/7/2013          | Roberto Rocchi       | Free Transfer           | Free               | 
| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 7/8/2013           | Edoardo Tosi         | Federazione Sammarinese | Free               | 
| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 8/8/2013           | Alessandro Saporetti | Cesena                  | Loan               | 
| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
|                    | Total                |                         | £0                 | 
| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
|                    |                      |                         |                    | 
| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 

We haven't strengthened massively, but enough to solidify our spot in the league for the first part of the season. I intend to remove dead wood and look to get some progress up the table next season, so its really a 3 years run I'm looking at.

I want to stabilize our funds and reduce wages, etc but move up quickly, as in the previous version, San Marino would bleed money. Lets see how we go.

[leonavich]

After 10 games we sit in 3rd place on 19 points, 3 points off first place who currently have 22 points, and 7 points clear of the final playoff spot. We have also played the majority of teams vying for the top half of the ladder, so we should be right heading into the next round of 10 matches.

[leonavich]

We struggled a little over our next 10 games, despite dominating possession in the majority of matches. Most of the teams were below us also, which has really seen us slip down the ladder, and give other sides a chance to level the playing field. We sit in 8th spot now, 1 point within the playoff spots, while we are on 30 total, 8 away from the top of the pile.

We only managed 11 points from the 10 games, so we need a better run in our next 10 otherwise we will be back to mid table obscurity, and right now, we really do have the potential to fight for the playoffs.