FM16 The Sammarinese Challenge.

[coady]

Our second season in Serie A with our rapidly improving young team. We were hoping to add to the holes in the squad and push on for a 2nd successive top half finish.

=141913051&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=11"]Club Transfers

We were unable to renew/buy many of our star loan signings, leaving some big gaps in the core of our side. Monteleone (CB) & Mason (CM) were going to be particularly big misses, exacerbated by skipper Raggi's ageing decline. We lost out on so many of our top targets to other similar clubs, so ended up adapting a makeshift loan policy in many areas, as well as promoting some of our young talents earlier than anticipated. Only one real standout signing, with Tsygankov showing shades of last season's key signing Oprut. Gonnelli would be an average CB replacement and Flanagan was the best of the loanees. For the outs, much of the deadwood backup players left and we promoted youth players to replace them on the bench where possible.

Club Competitions

=141913051&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=0"]Serie A - We stormed the first half of the season, we were 4th at the winter break. A slow freefall in the second half of the season was stopped just in time to hang on to the last Euro Cup place. It was a poor league generally, we got less points and conceded more than the previous season, where we finished 9th!

=141913051&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=9"]Italian Cup - Deja vu, but not as embarrassing in the semis this time.

Youth Intake

Great for the club, poor for the NT & still no good defenders! Both of the Sammarinese players, including one with World Class potential, rejected call ups to the NT.

=141913051&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=2"]Davide Ragini - Potentially world class, will get a chance in the first team off the bench whenever possible.

=141913051&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=4"]Andrea Righi - Potentially a good NT No.1 with his Serie B potential, not accepting a call up yet though!

=141913051&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=7"]Matteo Amodio - Won't fit our tactics, but will become a decent player, maybe lower Serie A.

=141913051&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=8"]Nicola Togninalli - OK player, has potential to possibly become a squad player. Would have been a gem but Italian unfortunately.

Youth Player Updates

Due to transfer window failings, this became the changeover season for many of these and their development astounded me.

=141913051&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=3"]Marco Ceccoli - Became a first choice central midfielder this season and developed almost to potential now. Still won't take a NT call up despite no Italian interest!

=141913051&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=5"]Ivan Cacciotti - Got a chance due to Mendicino's decline in form. Started slowly but exploded towards the end of the season and finished joint 2nd top league scorer. He's a first touch away from being world class, but there's still time.

=141913051&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=6"]Paolo Nanni - Became first choice after winter break due to injuries, developing quicker than anyone to grow into the key deep playmaker role.

=141913051&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=1"]Matteo Pellicioni - Potential has dropped, but played well for the club and became key for the NT.

Club News

=141913051&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=12"]We move into a new stadium with a big expansion potential which is key for the future and wage budget. Our squad is at risk of being ripped apart, with =141913051&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=15"]the board accepting this huge offer for Raul Oprut. Worryingly, a couple of others are at a similar risk.

National Team

=141913051&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=13"]European Championship qualifying - As you can see we finished 5th above a terrible Latvia team. =141913051&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=14"]A full list of our results here.

Our national ranking reached a peak of 119th during this spell.

[toonbalmy87]

Napoli are constantly trying to sign him with bids like this, that should tell you how special he is. He hasn't even signed a professional contract yet , but I guess that's the reason he's not complaining about me rejecting Napoli. I can't wait for the transfer window to close.

just offer him to clubs for 4 million un-negotiable that will soon stop them buzzing around him

[coady]

I'm in trouble now, Oprut was easy to replace with Tsygankov not far behind him in rating and attributes. However, he is now starting to attract 15m bids, I'll have to accept it at 25m even if the board haven't by then. They used the upfront Oprut money to pay off our stadium loan, so my transfer budget is still quite low. Also my 71k signing of Serie B season Jozwiak is attracting offers of 12m, he's worth about 20m. This means my entire young front 3 could be lost by the end of the window, albeit for 84m combined, a profit of just over 76m. I'm trying to keep the wage bill down so it's harder to replace them than usual. My top paid player is now up to 15k a week.

Finally the newest young star I mentioned, Davide Ragini, is already attracting 5m bids from R.Madrid & Bayern, I can see him being snapped by Italy unfortunately.

[amosbastian]

Signed my favourite player when I was younger as our HoYD!

With him, our now excellent junior coaching and average youth recruitment I can't wait to see what our youth intake will be like. The league is also going much better than expected, but unfortunately Modic is out for 2 months which sucks. We have also drawn Roma again in the cup, hopefully the result is different though!

[amosbastian]

So frustrating! They were the better team in the first half, but we completely dominated them in the second half. Knudsen and Lichaba had their best games for us (Knudsen had like an 8.5 rating at FT, but this went down to a 7.0 after ET), but after Lichaba went off injured and we went down to 10 men we just collapsed.

A completely different game than last year's game, so I'm really happy about that.

[coady]

He's the best HoYD in the world in my game. He's still at Benfica, who have kept almost all of their wonderkids at the start of the game and produced 3 more since! The Portuguese league is threatening the big leagues for the 4 champions cup places coefficient in my game!

[coady]

Regarding the NT sackings issue, I just wondered if anyone had any experience of this. I was hoping to know if the Euro Nations League performance has any impact on this? As getting promoted from that league in 2022 is far more realistic than qualifying for Euro 2024?

[vDraycottv]

I've been slowly chipping away at this save for the past few months and have finally after five seasons found myself in Serie B. Has anybody else thought that the league as a whole seems to be somewhat lacking in quality? I've been able to bring in players for free that are as good as if not better than most, whilst finding myself in 2nd with currently a minimal budget. Not that I'm complaining mind, although it might be a little bit to early for promotion since squad depth as a whole is....somewhat lacking lets say!

[coady]

I've been slowly chipping away at this save for the past few months and have finally after five seasons found myself in Serie B. Has anybody else thought that the league as a whole seems to be somewhat lacking in quality? I've been able to bring in players for free that are as good as if not better than most, whilst finding myself in 2nd with currently a minimal budget. Not that I'm complaining mind, although it might be a little bit to early for promotion since squad depth as a whole is....somewhat lacking lets say!

I found Serie B very tough in FM15, but breezed it this year. I agree that the bottom half of the league is very easy to get on a run against with good free players. I managed to play 3-4 SM youth players in some games and still get a result. Also if you go out of the cup early, 1 game a week generally makes it much easier.

[amosbastian]

With Nuno Gomes as our HoYD and our excellent junior coaching and average youth recruitment I was expecting a better youth intake Pretty disappointed, but I can't really complain considering Casadei (04a) is improving rapidly!

[leonavich]

Cup loss could be a blessing in disguise?

San Marino have lost away from home in what was a tight Italian Cup match verse Palermo, but does the 2-0 defeat have any added benefits for what will be a run at 7 consecutive Serie A titles?

With the Club World Cup and a heavy schedule, a rotation squad was not able to handle a well groomed Palermo side who are also in competition with the Sammarinese for the League crown. Though the loss takes away the chance to complete the back to back treble, it does free up a schedule congested due to additional matches for the Club World Cup, that have left the league wide open.

San Marino, heavy favourites to start the season, are currently sitting in second place with a game in hand. 1 point ahead of Palermo and 6 points off an Udinese side who last year, lost out on head to head difference to the title by just 1 point in a fierce final day, that had 1 point separating the three sides.

With such close competition for the first time in years, could the Cup loss, keeping both Udinese and Palermo busy, aid San Marino in the second half of the season?

Navarro, the captain of the side stated "This is a very competitive league and Cup, with full credit to Palermo. We will need to play better going forward and hopefully our form will come back and we can close the gap and retain our title"

Their next match is a home game against Taranto and San Marino are favouites to get back into their winning form.

Only time will tell if the elimination from the Cup will help them in continuing their title run.

[amosbastian]

Just finished our first season in the Serie A and it went surprisingly well...

New signing Christopher Luchaba actually won this

and we won this (didn't even know this was a thing)

[toonbalmy87]

Season 3



Squad

League Table

Finances

Transfers

Youth Candidates

International

Tactics

Fixtures

World Ranking

World Cup Qualifying

[leonavich]

They are some good results so early in the challenge for the national team toonbalmy87 and 4-0 over the Czech Republic is huge!. Have their been some good prospects already leading the way?

[amosbastian]

San Marino Calcio - Serie A - 2019/2020

End of Season

Club Profile / General / Facilities / Affiliates / Manager Profile / Squad / End of Season / Season Review / Transfers

Expenditure / Income / Overall Best Eleven

Serie A: Team Stats / Player Stats

Serie A

This season went much better than expected to say the least. We started off slow, but some how turned it around half way through the season and managed to win the majority of the games, with us beating Milan 0-2 away from home on the final day to secure a Europa league spot! We struggled to find some consistency throughout the season, so I think we'll get demolished in the Europa league next season if we stay like that. Grigg is leaving us next season (£300K for 5 month contract, not too bad) and changing between strikers constantly was probably a big part of that lack of consistency.

TIM Cup

Met up with Roma again, but this time we put up a much better fight. We dominated them completely, but they scored 2 goals in ET when we went down to 10 mean because of injuries. Really sucks, but next season we'll take revenge (hopefully ).

Youth Intake

Nowhere near as good as last year (only 1 player above 2 star potential), which is disappointing considering we upgraded our junior coaching, youth recruitment and HoYD. Can't complain really, because Casadei (04a) has been amazing for us.

Alessandro Selva (05a) - Will more than likely be starting for the national team soon. Low potential, so won't be as useful to us though.

Diego Berardi (05b) - Not Sammarinese, so not really interested, but he looks like a decent young player.

Federico Zonzini (05c) - Actually some decent attributes across the board, so will probably be valuable to the national team as well.

Mirko Colombini (05d) - Maybe a good backup goalkeeper for the national team, considering Canti (03a) is coming along nicely and will probably be starting for them soon.

Giacomo Arzilli (05e) - Pretty terrible and plays the same position as De Angelis (01a), so that says it all.

They honestly look like they started with a higher current ability than usual (our excellent junior coaching coming into play), but their potential just isn't there unfortunately.

Key Players

Thought I'd show some of our key players for once, because I thought it'd be interesting for others and because I am honestly in a bit of a bind (my own fault).

Ralf Klingenburg - Signed this wonderkid in the january transfer window for only £1.3M! We already had plenty of advanced playmakers (some of them complained about lack of playing time), but just look at those attributes! And at that price I HAD to sign him.

Andrej Modic - Signed last season, but has grown to be a wonderful player. Originally used as an advanced playmaker, I've tried using a deep lying playmaker and advanced playmaker together to accomodate both him and Klingenburg...

Christopher Lichaba - Signed in the summer as one of our 2 foreign players and he performed way above expectations. Won young player of the year and broke our record amount of assists in 1 season. Amazing player.

Sérgio Ribeiro - Also signed him last season, but he's been just as good this season. Became our captain and did really well, having a bit of trouble getting him to sign a new contract, but it should hopefully be okay.

Daniele Casadei (04a) - At 17 years old he has been used as a rotation player in the Serie A already. He has already improved loads since last year and I can't to see how this continues. Will be here for a long time! Only negative is his low acceleration and pace, but maybe he'll still improve on that.

Daniel De Silva - Signed in the summer to play alongside Modic as a box to box midfielder (even though his best role is advanced playmaker). That has been working out okay, but he definitely performs best when played in his preferred role. Can also play as an IF, but haven't tried that yet because of Lichaba.

Mattia Caldara - Also signed last season, but he has improved a lot since then. Started pretty much every game for us and has been really good playing alongside our young central defenders.

Ibrahima Sy - Signed this season and I wished I had taken a screenshot of him then, because he has improved SO MUCH. He was already really good, but now he's amazing. 3rd in cleansheets and 5th conceded in the entire league and that is pretty much all down to him and Caldara. Amazing player and also still young so hopefully will be with us for a long time.

Okay so now my conundrum. I have Klingenburg, Modic and De Silva in one team. Modic plays best as a deep lying playmaker, but I had been using him as an advanced playmaker alongside a box to box with a defensive midfielder behind them. De Silva and Klingenburg both play best as advanced playmaker, so this means that one of them will have to play as something else. Also, I'm unsure about having a deep lying playmaker and advanced playmaker in one team? What do I do? Also, in the future I would like to play with two IFs, but Lichaba and Ribeiro are too good right now, so I'm a bit conflicted.

Anyway, it was a great season, hopefully we can match it next season and maybe even improve.

[coady]

They are some good results so early in the challenge for the national team toonbalmy87 and 4-0 over the Czech Republic is huge!. Have their been some good prospects already leading the way?

Toonbalmy87

I have to ask the same, I'd argue they are the best results I've ever seen for the NT at this stage of the challenge.

Amosbastian

7th is great, is Italy in the top 3 coefficient nations to get you a Euro Cup spot or did you just miss out?

Also, that RB Casadei is gonna be unreal. With him in my NT I'd say I could probably qualify for a EURO's before the NT issue gets me sacked. That's my weakest position by a distance!

Zonzini looks average, but a decent Anchoring defensive midfielder can stop goals shipping in any NT away from home.

I'm 2 weeks from my Youth Intake day again so fingers crossed it brings me a RB or RCB

[amosbastian]

Amosbastian

7th is great, is Italy in the top 3 coefficient nations to get you a Euro Cup spot or did you just miss out?

Also, that RB Casadei is gonna be unreal. With him in my NT I'd say I could probably qualify for a EURO's before the NT issue gets me sacked. That's my weakest position by a distance!

Zonzini looks average, but a decent Anchoring defensive midfielder can stop goals shipping in any NT away from home.

I'm 2 weeks from my Youth Intake day again so fingers crossed it brings me a RB or RCB

Yeah, like I said in the above post we managed to qualify for the Europa league by beating Milan 0-2 from home with Cutrone scoring against his former club (Bologna won 3-0, so if we didn't win and drew/lost we would've probably missed out on goal difference)! If you click on the Serie A link in my above post it will show you the table.

I can't wait to see how Casadei turns out, he's pretty much improving visibly week by week. It's insane. Hopefully you get a similar prospect!

[toonbalmy87]

They are some good results so early in the challenge for the national team toonbalmy87 and 4-0 over the Czech Republic is huge!. Have their been some good prospects already leading the way?

The Defense is all prospects but as you can i play six at the back they are deep so takes its really defensive and also it you use hit crosses early it majority of the time leads to a goal but yeah i was surprised by the results they were missing there 2 CBs who were banned so that helped also

[coady]

Yeah, like I said in the above post we managed to qualify for the Europa league by beating Milan 0-2 from home with Cutrone scoring against his former club (Bologna won 3-0, so if we didn't win and drew/lost we would've probably missed out on goal difference)! If you click on the Serie A link in my above post it will show you the table.

I can't wait to see how Casadei turns out, he's pretty much improving visibly week by week. It's insane. Hopefully you get a similar prospect!

Haha I have no idea how I missed that, you only mentioned it a few times! I tried to sign Cutrone at the start of my current season, but he went to star at Lazio instead.

[leonavich]

Casadei looks very good at 17. One worry I have is SM players plateauing due to not getting enough opportunities. With the rotational role he has, hopefully he continues to develop.

[toonbalmy87]

Just been offered just over 10 mil for my young goalkeeper dont know what to do even though i have just signed Dragowski

[toonbalmy87]

First game in Serie A Vs Inter and i Win 3-1 Computer decided to update while i was away eating oh guess what i have not been beaten by Inter 1-0 FML!!!!!

[coady]

I would sell the keeper. Dragowski is best keeper in world at R.Madrid in my game.

[coady]

I've just had the moment in this challenge that most of us wait for... only to be partially disappointed by. I hired a new unreal HoYD this year and the youth intake message comes 'picked out ... who he feels could become one of the best of his generation'. You click on him to see he's Sammarinese, then notice his second nationality. Imagine you then had 3 world class players in one youth intake, they were all Sammarinese but they all had DN. Well... that is annoying!

I shouldn't complain really. I got a 2* CB/RB who is straight in the NT but when you see what you could have had, you're always disappointed.

On the positive note, the winning competitions with a completely HG side could be a real possibility for me in the near future. I'm probably only a good GK and defender away from being there in 4-5 years!

[toonbalmy87]

I would sell the keeper. Dragowski is best keeper in world at R.Madrid in my game.

yeah i decided to let him go again to much money to turn down tbh hes 19 as well And Dragowski is only 20 so made sense to get rid £5.75 Mil upfront the rest in clauses & 40% of Profit made so not bad tbh

[toonbalmy87]

I've just had the moment in this challenge that most of us wait for... only to be partially disappointed by. I hired a new unreal HoYD this year and the youth intake message comes 'picked out ... who he feels could become one of the best of his generation'. You click on him to see he's Sammarinese, then notice his second nationality. Imagine you then had 3 world class players in one youth intake, they were all Sammarinese but they all had DN. Well... that is annoying!

I shouldn't complain really. I got a 2* CB/RB who is straight in the NT but when you see what you could have had, you're always disappointed.

On the positive note, the winning competitions with a completely HG side could be a real possibility for me in the near future. I'm probably only a good GK and defender away from being there in 4-5 years!

soon as they come in i stick them into National team just to give them one cap then cant go anywhere else

[coady]

They've rejected from the first day. They are all unbelievable. I've had 8 top prospects come through now and 7 have SM as their birth nation. If they all agreed to play for us we'd be a GK & LB short of one of the world's international forces!

In big club news, SLB (Benfica) boss J.Klopp has made San Marino Icon Raul Oprut available for 14.25m just 8 months after paying nearly 40m for him! Oprut has expressed his interest in the potential move, though it is believed he wants to earn treble that of the higher earner at the club currently. This may prove to be the stumbling block for any potential summer move!

[leonavich]

I would never condone holding someone back in real life, but if you can keep them under the radar for a few years, you may get lucky and keep them our of Italy's mitts until you can swoop in and take them. May need to wait until hey are 24 or so though, which is quite a while.

[amosbastian]

I forgot I had promised Caldara and Modic that I would give them a new contract and now they want to leave the club because I had broken our promise! They are refusing to talk to me, so I guess that's one solution to the problem I mentioned above. Modic wanted £15K p/w anyway, which is insane, double than our 2nd highest earner.

Ribeiro now also wants £15K p/w... up from his £2.6K p/w. That's really annoying to say the least.

[vDraycottv]

So in season 20/21 I found myself top of Serie B only to implode in the last 4 games and drop to 3rd. Turns out there was no need to be worried since we turned up for the play offs winning all four games we had to participate in. The promised land awaits.

Upon looking at who I was able to sign for relatively low amounts I was amazed. Yes we're predicted to finish drop dead last, but the amount of young quality players available due to clubs simply having too many players to sustain is unreal. I HAVE HOPE!

[amosbastian]

Pretty frustrating to see that Modic wanted £15K p/w from us, but has a contract at Anderlecht earning £3.4K p/w.

[coady]

Pretty frustrating to see that Modic wanted £15K p/w from us, but has a contract at Anderlecht earning £3.4K p/w.

That's always the most annoying bit. I lost Tsygankov for his release clause in the January window because I couldn't afford the 60-70k wage demands. He then signs for A mid table Bayer Leverkusen earning 37k a week in Germany!

[coady]

I will upload a large season summary later this evening, but it is quite ridiculous. I have seen a sequence of events in this season than I have ever seen in all FM games before combined. It all became pretty astonishing for the development of our club side.

[coady]

After Serie A lost its top 3 coefficient ranking, we knew we'd need to better last season's seventh placed finished to make it into Europe this time around (or so we thought). In the most remarkable season of events I've seen in FM history, this club could give me the first ever team of HG players to compete at the top level.

Club Transfers

Impossible to miss the key here! Star players Oprut & Tsygankov left in each transfer window, both for a hefty profit! (We also got an extra 8.25m for Oprut due to an international clause.) We wanted to re-invest wisely, using the same policy that brought those two players to the club in the first place. We added just three solid permanent signings in the summer, with a few additional loans to boost the squad for the Euro Cup. Deadline day signing Savio picked up a 5 month injury on his first league start too!

Onto January, we remarkably replaced Tsygankov with cheap, young January signing El Sayed, who you'll agree is ridiculous for the money paid? I only stumbled across him after my DoF highlighted one of his team mates earlier in the season! I also have to highlight Franchini, bought on the cheap from relegation bound Chievo & Pluntke, a superbly talented young CB. Although I haven't picked Gedson out, he is a brilliant signing who'll make a large profit too. Hadziosmanovic signed permanently as sub RB after 4.5 years on loan!

Club Competitions

Serie A - We did so well this year battling so hard to finish fourth, despite resting players for other competitions at key times. This would confirm Euro Cup participation again (or so I thought).

Euro Cup - We made hard work of the qualifiers, but stormed the group and did well in winnable ties until we met the eventual champions.

Italian Cup - We avoided Juventus and caught Roma in an awful spell in the Semis. We got Napoli in the final and despite losing our HG top scorer to international duty, we prevailed for our first major silverware! I'll make the most of it with Juventus likely to return to winning ways next year.

Youth Intake

I hired my sublime new HoYD this season & he produced a Youth Intake list like I've never seen before! Here are some of the key players from it. As mentioned before, most know they're too good for the NT unfortunately.

Michele Gennari - Potential to be 'best of his generation'. He came on in the cup final and will go straight in as Cacciotti's sub striker next year, as I look to work towards a HG squad.

Thomas Tamagnini - Hugely talented CB, no NT interest unfortunately. He will be U18 skipper and 5th choice emergency CB for the First Team next season.

Alessandro Franciosi - Doesn't really fit our style, but a hugely talented player again. I'll try and develop him to potential.

Cataldo Barba - Italian player with good Serie A potential. He fits into our style so I'd like to try and get him to squad player standards.

Manuel Andreini - The only one to accept a NT call up so far. He's another with squad player potential, but I will develop and sell him to play first team football and stay fit for the NT.

Alessandro Molinari - Not the highest potential, but high CA. I will try to loan him to a smaller club to accept a NT call up, as he will never be Italy standard.

Youth Player Updates

Marco Ceccoli - Key first team player. I wish he'd come back to the NT.

Ivan Cacciotti - First choice striker and top scorer. His pace and finishing is superb.

Paolo Nanni - Star for both sides. Had an injury lay off this season but didn't stop him being a key performer.

Matteo Pellicioni - Developing okay and has decent potential. He seems to be a natural midfield goalscorer.

Davide Ragini - Played more than expected this season due to our star outgoings. He's going to be a key player in a couple of years!

Other Club News

Some strange goings on here. Firstly, Tsygankov. Despite leaving on the 1st February, he managed to get Serie A player of the year. These stats might explain why!

Now let me take you to the final day of the season. We've finished 4th and everything is great looking to the cup final, until 3 messages change everything. Here's the first, the second & the last. We'd suddenly been promoted 2 positions in essence, unbelievable stuff.

Finally, the board have agreed yet more improvements due to the added continental revenue and huge profit on transfer spend. Our youth facilities are being upgraded to good & our youth recruitment to established. They have also agreed a training facilities boost next year (to excellent) and a stadium expansion of around 2000 seats.

National Team

=141913051&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=1"]Euro Nations League - It was a tough group and a 3rd place finish, but 9 points is positive moving forward. Maybe promotion in 2022 with some players choosing their NT.

=141913051&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=0"]World Cup Qualifying - We've got a stinker of a group, with just the two Scandinavian sides giving us any hope of avoiding last place. Having said that, we started well against them both.

I wanted to quickly pick out 2 HG players who become key for the NT. They will never make it at club level and probably be Serie B players at best. But Carlini & Zafferani have really been key to our improved results.

Next Season

Depending on our Champions Cup group, I'd love a top 3 finish to get another crack at the Europa League. I'm not worried about the Italian Cup for now, now we've won it (that may change if Juventus go out early again). The Super Cup is almost impossible vs Juventus too. As for the league, a top 6 finish and some form of European Qualification again is the target. I will try to give HG youth a chance where possible by having a much thinner First Team squad and keep our top earner to 20k another year if possible.

As for the National Team, I'd love to finish above one of the Scandinavian teams (probably Iceland) and break into the top 100. I'll keep trying to persuade some of the young club talents to play for us, but I won't hold much hope for it.

[leonavich]

Wow, that certainly is very interesting! What are their finances like? I have seen it happen down the other end, where a team is short on funds and points are deducted from their total for the season resulting in relegation, but I have not seen teams miss out on Champions League for next season.

Unless it is related to financial fair play?

[coady]

Wow, that certainly is very interesting! What are their finances like? I have seen it happen down the other end, where a team is short on funds and points are deducted from their total for the season resulting in relegation, but I have not seen teams miss out on Champions League for next season.

Unless it is related to financial fair play?

It must be FFP, as both have decent bank balances. Also both had made a huge net spend the previous summer and since the announcement a huge net profit. It's a shame as the co-efficient will be destroyed, only Roma have chance of making it out of the group stage. Juventus have lost some key players from their once formidable team due to unhappiness at no continental football. Their 10 year Serie A streak may be over!

[leonavich]

Interesting to see the ramifications though. In your next update, maybe supply a bit of info around what has happened to Juve and Milan, as well as the teams moving in to replace them in Europe.

[leonavich]

Old Giants Upset the new as San Marino triumph in 7th successive title!

Udinese will have to wait another season in their search for a Serie A title, as a 1-1 draw with yesteryear giants, Juventus, has cost them the 2044-45 title on the final day.

San Marino triumphed 5-0 over a lackluster Chievo to claim a 7th successive title, but have long term rivals, Juventus to thank, who drew with Udinese to force the then league leaders from the top spot.

Coming in to the final day, both Udinese and San Marino sat level on 82 points, with Udinese having the upper hand in the head to head record.

Udinese struck first, just 4 minutes into the encounter to give themselves the upper hand, while across the boarder in San Marino, Titani took a little longer to get things rolling.

As the half approached in both matches, each tie took a change that would ultimately decide the matches and the title. Juventus struck through Aguilar to level things in Friuli after 40 minutes, whilst at virtually the same time, Navarro struck the first of his goals to put San Marino up 1-0. Neither match showed much in the opening 10 minutes of the second half, but Navarro brought things to life for the blue and whites as he struck a second after 56 minutes. The flood gates then seemed to open as Fofana and Rocha strcuk a goal apiece just 7 minutes apart from each other to make it 4-0.

Udinese knew they needed to win and that the margin counted for little, as long as they could get the result. However, seeing the Sammarinese giants banging the goals in, obviouly had them keeping their heads towards the scoreboard and not on the pitch, as they failed to materialise any chances towards the final third of the match.

Navarro completed a stunning hattrick, scoring a lovely finish from close range to round out the score at 5-0, whilst Udinese where lucky not to concede just minutes from fulltime. They pushed, but paid too much attention to the clock, letting the pressre oft he situation get the better of them as they failed to find a winner.

Navarro proved once again, as captain of San Marino, that his role within the team is fundamental to their recent success.

As the final whistle sounded, San Marino proved that experience at this stage of the season helps in spades, leaving Udinese to another heart wrenching title defeat. This is now the second season, where Udinese have failed to come up with an answer and have lost the title on the final day, losing out by 1 point the previous season, in an even tighter finish, seeing themselves, Palermo and San Marino all end within 1 point of each other.

Catania finished in a very distant 3rd, on 66 points while Palermo fell away heavily to end in 4th on 63. The final table had a very differing top 10 to years past, with the likes of Fiorentina, Roma, Napoli and Juventus all missing out on European football, some even being in the bottom half of the table. Previous heavyweights Lazio, fared even worse, resigned to the foot of the table and relegation to Serie B.

With an unrelenting grip on the title, it will take a strong team and mental strength to beat San Marino in what has become a one sided league. But new comers to the top of the pile, Udinese, look to be the closest and most likely challengers to battle San Marino and we expect another fiery finish in the upcoming campaign.

[coady]

Great run of titles you're on there, but good to see there's still strong competition domestically.

Interesting to see the ramifications though. In your next update, maybe supply a bit of info around what has happened to Juve and Milan, as well as the teams moving in to replace them in Europe.

I will shortly provided my season update but thought I'd do it separately as the ramifications were unexpected and worrying.

Firstly, although not dominant like in previous years, Juve just surged back and clinched the title. However, they've sold some of their formidable squad and are now occasionally beatable. Milan finished 2nd, selling squad players and investing very cleverly on low wage players. They are both back in the Champions Cup next year, thankfully.

Ourselves, Inter and Roma entered the CL group stages, but all went out. Inter didn't even drop into the Euro Cup (despite having Partizan in their group).

Lazio, Napoli & Frosinone were in the Euro Cup group stages, but Frosinone went out at this stage too.

Of the remaining 4 sides in the last 32, only 2 reached the last 16 & none got past this stage! This was coupled with Portuguese side Benfica winning the CL, and a French side reaching the Semi's in each tournament.

If this season's performance is repeated next year, Italy will drop to 6th in the coefficient rankings.

[amosbastian]

Just read your most recent update coady, very impressive. Pretty crazy how you esentially finished 2nd I had the same with the 6th place team getting into financial trouble, but I don't know if that actually made a difference for me or not. Also, some of those youth players will be so good for the national team (if they accept the call up). Not sure when I'll want to manage the national team, will probably wait for a few more decent players and then give it a try. Will really suck for you if Italy will drop in the coefficient rankings, don't think I have that problem seeing as I got Europa League with a 7th place finish (where can I see the coefficient ranking?).

Haven't played for a week, so going to start playing again today .

[coady]

As we moved into our first year of Champions Cup football, albeit fortunately, we knew we'd need to strengthen to compete in all competitions. We still wanted to develop within though, and give a chance to some of last seasons unbelievable youth intake.

Club Transfers

We weren't horrendously busy, but did spend some of our added income in key necessary areas. The key was defensive reinforcements, with Victor & Ward becoming the right side of our first choice back four. Kabia was loaned back, but will be left back for the following season, when Barreca will be sold for contract purposes. Capone was a belated replacement for Tsygankov, who we lost the previous January. We are still working to a self-imposed tight wage budget (we have the 3rd lowest in the league)

Club Competitions

Serie A - We attacked the weakened top 2 this year, and profited from the extra European games for a lot of our usual close challengers. We were a comfortable third and will face a tough Champions Cup play off next season to determine our Continental competition.

Champions Cup - We were lucky to draw a poor Fenerbahce team in our group, allowing us to finish third and move into the Euro Cup.

Euro Cup - Won an easy game then lost a difficult one, simple as that.

Italian Cup - We were good this year, before performing a minor miracle against the new vulnerable Juventus to retain the trophy, much to my delight!

Italian Super Cup - Outplayed by a formidable Juventus before they lost some of their stars.

Youth Intake

This year was not great for the club, with just one potential first team prospect, but it was incredible for our National Team. A GK and 3 defenders capable of NT success, with only one holding the dreaded DN. This will be huge for the upcoming qualifying campaigns.

Simone Pantano - A genuine prospect with top Serie A potential. He will be given every chance to develop and play a bit part next season.

Matteo Zavoli - The RB answer for the NT, already good enough for country. We will try to improve him quickly.

Michele Zonzini - Potential NT keeper for years to come, will start in friendlies for now.

Marco Pellegrini - Nothing special, but easy sub CB for the NT moving forward.

Guiseppe Righi - Decent full back for the NT, capable of playing both sides.

Youth Player Updates

Marco Ceccoli - Must be at potential now. Vice Captain and strong player. With no interest from Italy I hope he will play for the NT soon.

Ivan Cacciotti - Had a very average season but still a very solid player.

Paolo Nanni - Wonderkid playing fantastically for club & country, a key player for me.

Davide Ragini - Really starting to improve now. He will be given even more football next year. Italy U21's have now stolen him.

Marco Pellicioni - Has a talent for goal scoring. NT record scorer already and key for that team.

Michele Gennari - He's going to be world class, a goal scorer and star. Another stolen by Italy already at youth levels.

Thomas Tamagnini - Improving and will be 4th CB next season. Again Italy U19's have taken him.

Cataldo Barba - I like him and think he'll make a squad player eventually, good technically.

Manuel Andreini - First choice CB for the NT. Solid player at that level.

Alessandro Franciosi - Doesn't fit the style we play at all, but no doubting the talent at all.

Miscellaneous News

We're having a large stadium upgrade at our new ground. We will have to leave for a year. More surprisingly and completely off topic, DR Congo reached the 2022 World Cup final!

National Team

A tough year but some promise being shown.

World Cup Qualifying - We finished above Iceland as hoped, but will have to improve remarkably in 2 years to save my job from this issue.

[amosbastian]

Those are some really good Sammarinese players coady! Hopefully I get a good intake like you had last year, because currently the only stand out players are Casadei (4th youth intake), Stolfi and De Angelis (1st youth intake). I also still have the frugal mindset for some reason, so even though we have a nice transfer budget, I wouldnt dare spending £8M+ on a single player. I should change that and get in some quality like you have, although I haven't really seen anyone available that I thought was worth that much anyway. Hopefully with us playing in the Europa league this season it will improve our reputation and better players will want to join. Sucks that you didn't get that far in the Europa league, better luck in Europe next year!

[leonavich]

Great run of titles you're on there, but good to see there's still strong competition domestically.

I will shortly provided my season update but thought I'd do it separately as the ramifications were unexpected and worrying.

Firstly, although not dominant like in previous years, Juve just surged back and clinched the title. However, they've sold some of their formidable squad and are now occasionally beatable. Milan finished 2nd, selling squad players and investing very cleverly on low wage players. They are both back in the Champions Cup next year, thankfully.

Ourselves, Inter and Roma entered the CL group stages, but all went out. Inter didn't even drop into the Euro Cup (despite having Partizan in their group).

Lazio, Napoli & Frosinone were in the Euro Cup group stages, but Frosinone went out at this stage too.

Of the remaining 4 sides in the last 32, only 2 reached the last 16 & none got past this stage! This was coupled with Portuguese side Benfica winning the CL, and a French side reaching the Semi's in each tournament.

If this season's performance is repeated next year, Italy will drop to 6th in the coefficient rankings.

Interesting to see such a poor return, especially from the likes of Inter and Roma. Even more interesting to see Benfica win the CL! The likes of Barca, Bayern, Real and the Manchesters must of had a shocker.

Are you playing with detailed leagues for any of the other major leagues? It is interesting to see the likes of Benfica doing so well only 5-6 years into the save, how does their squad rack up in comparison to some of the heavyweights?

[toonbalmy87]

Interesting to see such a poor return, especially from the likes of Inter and Roma. Even more interesting to see Benfica win the CL! The likes of Barca, Bayern, Real and the Manchesters must of had a shocker.

Are you playing with detailed leagues for any of the other major leagues? It is interesting to see the likes of Benfica doing so well only 5-6 years into the save, how does their squad rack up in comparison to some of the heavyweights?

Think thats weird South Korea won the World Cup on my game in 2018

[toonbalmy87]

Season 4

Serie A - 4th - End of Season Game

"]Coppa Italia - Qtr Final[/url]



Squad

League Table

Finances

Transfers

Key Player's

Escoval

Francioni

Schumann

Elbers

Young Player

Podeschi

Youth Candidates

International

Squad

Fixtures

World Ranking

European Interantion League

[leonavich]

Think thats weird South Korea won the World Cup on my game in 2018

Hahaha, You must of read my other post. You are only about 8 years off!: http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/456316-Football-s-Next-Star?p=10818893#post10818893

Or South Korea winning in 2026 against Cameroon

[leonavich]

Not a bad season there, coming in at 4th and good end of season thumping of Sampdoria too!. Key players are looking pretty strong and a good core should see you there or there abouts again next year me thinks!

[toonbalmy87]

Hahaha, You must of read my other post. You are only about 8 years off!: http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/456316-Football-s-Next-Star?p=10818893#post10818893

they hammered France 4-1 and knocked England Colombia & ivory coast out

[toonbalmy87]

Not a bad season there, coming in at 4th and good end of season thumping of Sampdoria too!. Key players are looking pretty strong and a good core should see you there or there abouts again next year me thinks!

I'v just sold Will Hughes for £30 Mil to Man City they offered 10 Mil i said 30 they said deal

But iv already replaced him with Donsah who plays for Bologna on a free

[leonavich]

they hammered France 4-1 and knocked England Colombia & ivory coast out

Not a bad run really. Had to beat a few big names. so Was it Ivory Coast and not Cameroon in the final!? I was so close