The Sammarinese Challenge.

[Jimbokav1971]

The Sammarinese Challenge.

Originally the brainchild of Ter, (I think), the thread was started last year by TWFL. He doesn't seem to be posting in the FM13 thread so as I have already started my FM14 save I thought I would get things up and running.

The Challenge.

The basic idea is that you manage both the San Marino club side, (who start the game in Serie C1/A), and the San Marino National Team, using the players produced by an improved club academy to benefit the NT in a long-term save. If you are just interested in a challenge that will take you a few seasons then this ISN'T for you. It is likely to be measured in terms of decades rather than seasons because it is likely that you will be the only club producing players of a sufficient quality to impact on the NT as soon as your NT gains any real level of success.

The Club.

San Marino, (nicknamed Titani), have never played higher than C1/A, (where they are now), and have only completed 3 seasons at this level over 2 different periods. They play within the Italian structure, (the only San Marino club to do so), and they are also the only professional football club in San Marino.

The Challenge rules.

No Limits on how many leagues you can load.

No FMRTE or Genie Scout whatsoever.

Once you’ve been sacked by the Club, the Challenge is over and you have to start again.

Don’t have to start immediately with NT you can wait for as long as you would like.

You can add Edited in Leagues such as the Sammarinese League.

FMC can be used in this but you have to mention that you are using it.

Thread Rules.

Screenshots are allowed but none should be embedded due to making the page slower to load so please post them as hyperlinks to Imageshack/Photobucket or another photo hosting website.

Player Naming is allowed along with talk about Tactics but no talk on downloadable tactics. If you want to download someoen else's tactics, (sigh), fine, just don't talk about it in here please.

When joining the Challenge please post a photo of your Manager’s Profile.

Once you’ve done a season please can you post a short summary of your progress showing the key things with Screenshots(e.g. Squad Stats, League Table, Youth Intake etc.)

Setting Up.

You can run as many leagues in as many nations as you want, but in order for San Marino to be active you need to load at least down to Serie C1/A.

After you have selected the Nations that you want to start the game with, press "Next - New Game Overview". From there click on the "Database Size" tab, and then select "Advanced" at the bottom of the sub-menu. It will then allow you to include some options that may assist you within your game.

Nations - San Marino.

Current International Players.

Players Based in Nation.

Players of Nationality.

Players from Top Division clubs.

Players from Top clubs.

Players with Continental reputation.

Players with National reputation.

Players from clubs in Continental competition.

Divisions - San Marino.

Campionato Sammarinese.

You don't have to include all of these options, and in writing these instructions I have only just discovered the option to include the Campionato Sammarinese, (which I obviously didn't include), and I have already finished my 1st season.

Good luck to all.

[Bill_Strevros]

I will give this a go again once the game is offically released, I will not start it with the beta. Hopefully I can do better than last year when I never got out of C1/A despite a number of different saves.

[Bill_Strevros]

Dear Sammarinese football fans,

I am delighted to announce that the San Marino Calcio club team and the San Marino national team have trusted me with guiding the teams to new heights. It is my aim to take both of these teams to highest heights. I aim to develop San Marino Calcio to be a club envied and feared by all clubs across the world. While doing this I will develop Sammarinese football to the highest quality so that the national team will overshadow its larger neighbor Italy and win the world cup. This will be a long journey and I invite you all to follow the highs and lows of this wonderful journey.

Berengar Idoni.

My full profile http://i1287.photobucket.com/albums/a637/Bill_Strevros/Sammarinese%20Challenge%202014/BerengarIdoni_OverviewProfile_zps9303a4cf.png

[Brizza]

Good luck! I started on this last year, but fell away. Hope you enjoy the journey

[Bill_Strevros]

Good luck! I started on this last year, but fell away. Hope you enjoy the journey

Thank you. Hopefully I do better than last year.

[Bill_Strevros]

Dear fans,

I was delighted to get a upset draw in my first game in charge of the San Marino national team although in reality we were generally the second best team. Lithuania, ranked 104th in the world, played well, especially in the first half, but thanks to a superb goalkeeping performance by man of the match Aldo Simoncini the team kept a clean sheet. There were plenty of other positives from the side and I am confident that the team will keep improving and this will bring more results against higher ranked teams.

Berengar Idoni

[Bill_Strevros]

This seems to be going nowhere unfortunately. I might have to go and do one of the other more popular challenges.

[Bill_Strevros]

I am enjoying the save too much even though no one else is actively doing the challenge in the thread so I am going to continue playing for a while at least.

I have had a good start to Serie C1/A and am currently sitting 2nd one point off the lead but it is still early.

The national team has continued from the draw in a friendly against Lithuania to play the remaining WC qualifiers. I thought I had done well to only lose to Poland 3-0, England 4-0 and Montenegro 3-1 seeing that are so much higher rated. I really targeted the final game against Moldova as a game I could get a result out of after the draw against Lithuania and managed a 0-0 draw. We held our own for the first 60-70 minutes but were really over run in the last part of the game and getting out of it with a 0-0 was a bit lucky. It was particularly pleasing because I had 5 first XI players missing due to injury or suspension. Having a good goalkeeper also is a huge help, if we did not have a good goalkeeper losing 10-0 or worse in games against good teams would be a certainty.

However I was surprised to see the San Marino Football Association was not as pleased by the results as I was and suggested I needed to get improved results otherwise they would start looking for another coach. Hopefully I can pick up a win in the next two friendlies when I play the Faroe Islands as well as Hungary. I have just noted that in a rather odd choice of opponent Uruguay and Faroe Islands will be playing a friendly. Seems rather unlikely to say the least.

[P O\'D]

good luck mate. Im doing this over in FMCU so i'll keep and eye to see how your going. Im currently up to Serie A, I accidently set my manager nationality as Irish so I hope I'll get the NT job at sometime but its gonna be alot harder.

[Bethay33]

Game is very exciting, I hope you continue to fuel

[Masi`]

Currently 5th after 6 games, just lost 4-5 to Lummezzane which was really annoying. Just couldn't get the ball off them, changed to 442 with a winger up in the AMR and pulled some goals back, but 1 too short.

Really enjoying this as i have played some really good football, lots of goals. Scouts have actually found some decent players for a changed too!

[Bill_Strevros]

I am not playing that much due to lack of time. However I am currently well clear in first place, scoring heaps of goals and the defense is doing okay, not conceding to many.

[Masi`]

Got asked to resign, never been so angry in all my life. After a great start went on a 7 game losing streak, picked up a win, lost 5, draw, lost again.

Every game i was only having 30-40% possession and the other team just past it around until they were 2 yards out and blasted it in. 15+ games i had to watch that....... Going to start again with San Marino lol

[mrmurphster]

Have never tried this challenge before may as well give it a go on FM14...

[mortdecai1]

wonderful challenge and it is great fun but the problem is often the best regens want to play for italy not san marino and therefore it makes it very had to improve internationally to a level where you can compete for competitions. it's easy enough to get to the top of serie a but the national team is another matter altogether. to be fair the population is something like 40k so not really surprising

[Bill_Strevros]

2013/14 End of Season Update

Club Update

WINNERS SERIE C1/A

Serie C1/A league table

It was an exciting year with the club dominating Serie C1/A to earn promotion promotion to Serie B. The key to victory was the teams ability to score goals, ending the year with 70 goals from the 30 games. The goals were shared around without a stand out leading goal scorer, Gavilian scored 13 and Graffiedi scored 11 and both spent significant game time playing on the wings as inside forwards. The defense did its job but was not one of the best in the league although new signing Fabio Vignati had an excellent season. However the midfield was outstanding with new signing Roberto Guitto providing 22 assists and 2 goals. Young loanee Stefano Sensi scored 10 goals and had 12 assists. Anchor man Gabriele Pacciardi was the rock the team was built around with his defensive efforts in midfield being vital.

Player Statistics.

| Name                | Age       | Apps      | Gls       | Ast       | PoM       | Av Rat    | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| Alessandro Armenise | 29        | 29        | 2         | 6         | 0         | 6.81      | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| Gianluigi Bamonte   | 30        | 4 (7)     | 0         | 0         | 0         | 6.71      | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| Nicola Beati        | 31        | 5 (9)     | 0         | 1         | 0         | 6.51      | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| Juri Biordi         | 19        | 3         | 0         | 0         | 0         | 6.83      | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| Fabio Conocchioli   | 24        | 32        | 3         | 4         | 1         | 6.97      | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| Lorenzo Crocetti    | 30        | 14 (12)   | 8         | 2         | 1         | 7.06      | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| Alessandro Fabbri   | 24        | 0 (3)     | 0         | 0         | 0         | 6.60      | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| Daniele Ficagna     | 33        | 16 (4)    | 4         | 1         | 1         | 6.82      | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| Alessandro Fogacci  | 34        | 23        | 5         | 0         | 2         | 6.73      | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| Giulio Fogaroli     | 27        | 11 (8)    | 1         | 1         | 0         | 6.76      | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| Manuel Gavilán      | 22        | 28        | 13        | 6         | 3         | 7.19      | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| Mattia Graffiedi    | 33        | 22        | 11        | 4         | 2         | 7.37      | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| Roberto Guitto      | 23        | 31        | 2         | 22        | 1         | 7.22      | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| Nicolò Lolli        | 19        | 23 (4)    | 9         | 7         | 1         | 7.08      | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| Lorenzo Marchionni  | 19        | 9         | 1         | 2         | 0         | 6.90      | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| Gabriele Pacciardi  | 30        | 30        | 1         | 0         | 0         | 7.03      | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| Luca Pigini         | 24        | 1 (2)     | 0         | 0         | 0         | 6.73      | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| Davide Poletti      | 32        | 2 (3)     | 0         | 0         | 0         | 6.67      | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| Stefano Sensi       | 18        | 21 (7)    | 10        | 12        | 1         | 7.27      | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| Giacomo Venturi     | 22        | 32        | 0         | 0         | 1         | 7.00      | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| Fabio Vignati       | 30        | 23        | 6         | 0         | 3         | 7.14      | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| Marco Villanova     | 22        | 1 (6)     | 0         | 0         | 0         | 6.68      | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| Gianluca Vivan      | 30        | 1         | 0         | 0         | 0         | 7.80      | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 

Notes:

Poletti missed most of the season with injury

Graffiedi the second half of the season with injury

Lolli played almost exclusively on the wing so the lack of goals is understandable

Marchionni was loaned mid season to cover the injuries mentioned.

[leonavich]

Good start Bill.

I haven't been playing much since the final World Cup in the FM13 thread. I will keep following and maybe start this up if I start getting back into FM.

[Bill_Strevros]

Thank you Leonavich.

It has been a good start but a long way to go to get the kind of success you had.

The national team has shaped up a bit better than expected. I have young central midfielder who will be a star for the national team and is my first team squad at the club although probably will only get game time off the bench. I think the team probably should be somewhere around 150 in the world judging by the early performances but only at 202 at the moment.

[Bill_Strevros]

Finding it much harder in Serie B which is hardly surprising. I am last after 8 games with only won win. Not scoring enough goals which is not helped by having Gavilan out injured for all the season so far. He will be returning soon so hopefully he can score a few.

[Bill_Strevros]

.............

[Bill_Strevros]

....................

[leonavich]

Those dots make me feel like you have an update brewing?

[Bill_Strevros]

Those dots make me feel like you have an update brewing?

No, I was just angry and posted two swear ridden posts after losing a game 6-0 where I had as many opportunities to score and heaps more possession just could not score. A mini update is I am last in Serie B, struggling to score. My defense was doing well until the last two games which ended 0-6 and 1-4. Too many injuries now, 6 first 11 players injured. Things go very badly.

[Bill_Strevros]

I just cannot win a game. Last 4 games I have given up a 2-0 lead after 70 minutes to lose 3-2, a 3-1 to draw 3-3 and just lead 1-0 into the 93rd minute to give up an equalizer with literally the last play of the game. The team is just falling apart from 70th minute. Too many injuries means I cannot rotate players properly. Almost constant midweek games means my team is tired going into games and just cannot run out the 90 minutes. I am going to get relegated in last place unless I can turn things around quickly.

[Bill_Strevros]

Next game I get a win. Good to win but the circumstances absolutely ridiculous.

My team totally out played my opponents. Grabbed a lead through a nice goal on 11 minutes kept the 1-0 lead until the 59th minute. My right wing back decides to head the ball into our net, 1-1. Go down the other end and after a period of pressure score making 2-1, looking good. However my central midfeilder decides to charge back into the defensive area jump high in the air and power an unstoppable header off of an innocuous cross into the top left corner of our goal. 2-2 after 71 minutes. After that all I could think I was going to lose the game. However team did not fall apart like in previous games but could not get a winner. Into the 3rd minute of extra time, giving up winning. Cross into the box, midfielder charges into the 6 yard box, miscontrols the ball, rolls to opposition goalkeeper. Simply could have just picked it up or kicked to long down the ground, game over draw. But instead the goalkeeper fails to grasp the ball, it hits one leg as it rolls between them and slowly into the back of the net for a goalkeeper own goal. A 3-2 win where my side managed to score 2 at each end while the opposition only scored an own goal.

I will also mention I completely changed my formation a few games ago and the team is looking more dangerous going foward. Hopefully we can win a few more games and get off the bottom of the table.

[leonavich]

Sounds like a very frustrating, hair pulling game! But the result is what matters. Hope it is enough to get you guys going forward and off the bottom. Do you have any chance to avoid relegation?

[Bill_Strevros]

Yes, I have a chance of avoiding relegation, a very good chance. I am not tailed off at the bottom, only 2 points behind 19th place and safety. Since changing my formation my results have improved, 2 wins, 5 draws, 2 losses and unbeaten in 4 games. Only completed 22 games so 20 more to go. I feel the team is strong enough and now that most of the mid week games are done I will not have to run players into the ground as much as I have been doing due to lots of injuries.

[Bill_Strevros]

The team is now up and flying and rocketing up the table.

Since the last update, 5 games, 4 wins and a draw and moved up from 22nd to 14th.

The teams record with my old formation and tactics, those which I used to get promoted to Serie B, was 1 win, 4 draws, 8 losses, 7 points from 13 games

With my new formation and tactics it is 6 wins, 6 draws, 2 losses, 24 points from 14 games. Unbeaten in 9 games.

Looking at the stats for Serie B I am equal most in form team in the league, LOL. The bottom team, 22nd, 5 games ago, 14th now. A bit of a gap to the next team ahead of me now so the team will not be moving up the table much more in the immediate future even if we keep winning.

So I guess the lesson from this is, if your tactics are not working, change them.

[jespernielsen28]

Alessandro Libertas has now joined the challenge

http://s850.photobucket.com/user/jespernielsen28/media/sanmarion_zps52265796.jpg.html

[jespernielsen28]

how about the staff should they also be from san marino??

[Bill_Strevros]

how about the staff should they also be from san marino??

You can sign whatever backroom staff you want and play whatever nationality players for the club side as well.

I currently only have 1 Sammarinese player in the clubs first team squad and he probably is only there because he is Sammarinese. He is not a bad player and is young and could develop into a very good player for the club in Serie B but I would not have recruited him expect for the fact he is Sammarinese. There are better young Italian players with more promise I could have signed. I have also signed a young goalkeeper to come to the club for next year because he is probably going to become the next national team goalkeeper unless a better young goalkeeper comes along. However he probably will only be my third goalkeeper so I might have to loan him out.

As far as staff goes I have decided to go for the best staff I can find and they are not Sammarinese so I do not have many Sammarinese staff either. This might limit the amount of Sammarinese I get in the youth intake though, I will see what happens.

[Bill_Strevros]

I played a game against Atalanta after winning the next two games from the update above. I was losing the game against Atalanta but the match then went rogue. I have reported what happened in the bugs forum.

After much thought I am going to reload and replay the game as I want a proper result from the game. I am also not sure whether keeping playing might see another occurrence of the problem but reloading might not make any difference with that.

However this game was played on the 21st of March, the last save I have is the 15th of March. That means in between I also received my youth intake, I was quite happy with the youth intake but I guess now I also will have a new youth intake as well. Quite frustrating, now I have to replay the game hoping I lose it seeing that was what was almost certainly going to happen.

[Bill_Strevros]

It is over.

It is ruined.

Deleted my save.

Not coming back to this.

[leonavich]

sorry to hear Bill. Nonetheless, great job carrying the torch for San Marino into 2014! Hope to see you back when I too also decide to carry on with the game.

[Bill_Strevros]

What part of not coming back to this did you misunderstand. I am finished, done with it, not doing again, sick of tired of it, do not want to be reminded of it, just cannot do it again. Is that clear enough?

[jespernielsen28]

i have started this challenge

[kccircle]

Can you even play this on FMC - Cannot see a way to get the International job

[PikaBen]

To have the internationnal job you have to check the option when you chose a club ate the beggining, there is three choice : One team only, One nation only or One team and Ona nation. So you can take the club and the nation directly

[ryanlion28]

Bill Stevros's last reply was so needless, it's a game calm down

[mrmurphster]

Have never tried this challenge before may as well give it a go on FM14...

Second in first season.

Halfway through second season and am just above relegation. fingers crossed

http://i232.photobucket.com/albums/ee128/mrmurphster/SanMarino/currentLeaguePos.png

http://i232.photobucket.com/albums/ee128/mrmurphster/SanMarino/currentLeaguePos-1.png

[mrmurphster]

Second in first season.

Halfway through second season and am just above relegation. fingers crossed

http://i232.photobucket.com/albums/ee128/mrmurphster/SanMarino/currentLeaguePos.png

http://i232.photobucket.com/albums/ee128/mrmurphster/SanMarino/currentLeaguePos-1.png

Finished 13th in my first season in Serie B.

http://i232.photobucket.com/albums/ee128/mrmurphster/SanMarino/currentLeaguePos-2.png

[Jimbokav1971]

Ok. A bit of a mega update here.

The pace of this challenge is so slow that sometimes there is little reason for a season on season update.

Club Update.

2013/14. Promoted as Serie C1/A Champions but only by virtue of a better head to head record against Virtus Entella who also finished on 54 points and had a better goal difference.

2013/14. Italian Serie C Super Cup winners.

June 2014. I sign a new 1 year contract.

November 2014. Youth Facilities upgraded.

2014/15. Relegated from Serie B after losing 40 out of 42 games. If I told you we won only 1 game and drew 1 other would you believe me? (Rumour has it that I might very well have actually been on holiday the day we won). :o

July 2015. Despite being relegated, the board stick with me and actually offer me a new 2 year contract.

2015/16. Serie C1/B seemed considerably harder than C1/A and we missed out on the Playoffs on the last day of the season as we slipped up against someone rubbish and eventually finished 6th.

November 2016. New consortium, (just normal), take over the club and I am in danger of bring replaced.

December 2016. After a few sneaky results I do enough to impress the new owners and they offer me a new 1 year contract.

2016/17. Promoted as Serie C1/B Champions with a whopping 94 pts after scoring 115 League goals.

July 2017. Sold Bianchi (SMR) (2015) to Latina for £4m.

2017/18. Finished 4th in Serie B and fought my way through the Playoffs to the Playoff Final only to draw 3-3 on aggregate and lose by virtue of my opponent, (Latina), being seeded higher. (Seriously, I was significantly less than impressed as I didn't know about this until after the game as I was wondering why I wasn't watching penalties being taken).

November 2017. I sign a new 2 year contract.

2018/19. Finished 3rd in Serie B and was promoted via the Playoffs after beating Chievo 2-0 in the Final.

2019/20. Finished 13th in Serie A after a poor start and a decent finish.

June 2019. I sign a new 2 year contract.

December 2019. Training facilities upgraded.

July 2020. I sign a new 3 year contract.

August 2020. Signed Bianchi (SMR) (2015) back from Latina for £4.3m

2020/21. Finished 13th in Serie A, (again), and with the same number of points, but it was a much poorer start to the season and we only finished as high as we did by virtue of a 16 game unbeaten run to the end of the season, (ok, so 9 of them were draws, but that's still good for little old San Marino).

2020/21. Italian Cup Runners Up. We lost 1-0 to Juve in extra time. It was a phenomenal performance but we just couldn't hang on in there and get the goal. Their players were waaaay better than our players so just to get there and give them a game was an achievement. The added bonus is that because Juve did the double, (despite us beating them on the last league day of the season), little old San Marino will be playing in Europe next season!

February 2021. Stadium capacity increased to 7,813.

May 2021. 1st Place in Serie A Best Club of the Year. (I hadn't hear of this before, but it appears to be an award for the team which exceeds it's pre-seasons expectation by the most positions).

Summary.

It's been a bit of a trek getting here to be honest. I have been relegated once, almost lost my job through a board takeover, and had to work REALLY hard in each of the Serie A seasons just to stay up. I have got here by playing quite a conservative 4-1DM-2-2-1 formation that I quite like and which has served me well, but doesn't seem to cope well with the rigours of Serie A. Next season I will be tweaking to a slightly more attacking formation, (in order to try and make use of a certain player), and I guess we will see how it goes. I am at least looking forward to the EURO Cup and I think the added games will actually benefit me, (I like a huge squad).

There are currently only 2 San Marino nationality players in my senior squad, and both of those were only there because they had been promoted because I am fielding a weakened team away to AC Milan because I have a big European game coming up on Thursday. I have 1 other player has dual San Marino/Italian Nationality and has chosen, (at this stage), to represent Italy. (Bianchi (2014)). He has 7U21 Caps for Italy but seems a long way off getting a call-up to the senior squad, so I still live in hope.

Here is a glimpse of the best players produced each season. (I will post the pics tomorrow).

Bianchi (SMR/ITA) (2014). For a club like San Marino to be able to produce a player good enough to get even 1 Italian U21 cap, (right at the start of the challenge remember), is pretty impressive if you ask me. I am still hopeful that he will one day change his mind and turn his back on Italy for the Nation of hid birth, San Marino. I had tried to play him wide right down in the lower leagues, but he isn't really suited to this and it was either that or central midfield and that didn't seem to work so I was really wondering what to do with him, That was until rivals Latina offered me £4M for him. That was that sorted and I could upgrade the facilities. I did buy him back after 3 seasons though, and next season I plan on playing him in his preferred position behind a SC.

Di Santo (ITA) (2015). He was never capped for Italy U21's, but did represent Italy at U19, U20 & U23 level. I'm a bit gutted he missed out actually. He's my skipper and has already made 191 appearances for the club at the tender age of 22.

Pellizzari (SMR) (2016). Although he hasn't been capped by the NT yet, he has scored 10 goals in 39 appearances for San Marino U21's. The main reason for him not being selected is simply that the quality of the other players is so bad at the start that there is not much point. I didn't take much notice of the NT at the start of the challenge and even holidayed the games where we were likely to get a good hiding. When he is too old for the U21's he will immediately make the step up to the full NT.

Chiaruzzi (SMR) (2017). He might have been the best youth player of that season, (and he's not rubbish), but he's not exactly going to set the World alight either. He would have made the senior squad by now, but like Pellizzar (2016), I'm holding him back in the U21's.

Franzot (ITA) (2018). He seems to have decent potential, but for whatever reason doesn't seem to be developing. Oh well, at least he's not San Marinese.

Amici (SMR/ITA) (2018). While this guy initially wasn't deemed to have as good potential as Franzot, he soon developed quicker and now looks pretty impressive for a 19 year old, (even one who is a centre-have with delusions of being a striker). This guy would walk straight into the San Marino NT right now, (even at SC never mind about DC). He is currently out on loan at Roma, (also in Serie A), where he has already made a few sub appearances in the league. I am desperate for this guy to choose (SMR) over (ITA) but I just have to wait and hope.

Bosso (ITA) (2019). This bloke looks very good and is developing nicely. Already capped at U19 level for Italy, (no dual nationality unfortunately). Should still help me out in Europe though, (assuming I can continue to qualify).

Pezzi (ITA) (2020). The best of a poor bunch this season. Not even got dual nationality so pretty worthless really.

Visentini (SMR) (2021). You may notice that he already has a senior Cap despite being only 17. The simple reason for this is that he again has dual nationality and I wasn't taking any chances. Job done. he doesn't look brilliant, but you have to remember that even at 17 he's already better than the players I inherited in the NT.

Finances.

I'm really in no hurry to get rid of the players I've got and although I have loads of money, I am close my limit in terms of wage budget, £23k pw of £400k budget remaining), by virtue of us having such a small ground and having so little gate money coming in. Despite that, we currently have £34.5M in the bank and a transfer kitty of £19.87M. The 2 stadium upgrades have obviously helped, but the 1st one was better because we ground shared in a 20k capacity stadiuk for a few months and that was handy. We currently have 51 players out on loan and although any that are San Marinese are not going to be flogged on for a profit, there are plenty who will be.

Our finances are classed as secure and we are valued at £52M.

Olimpico us now a 9,187 capacity all-seater.

We have adequate corporate facilities, average training facilities & adequate youth facilities. That's pretty good going considering we started as one of the poorest in Serie C.

I haven't really got my head round how this next bit works yet, but we have average junior coaching and fairly basic youth recruitment. In view of the players I have just shown you above, (or will do tomorrow), that's a little surprising.

(Do you really want a NT update?)

[Jimbokav1971]

NT Update. (Start of challenge to end of 2021).

2013. Played 9. Won 0. Drawn 1. Lost 8. Goals for 5. Goals against 34.

We played 9 games, losing the first 8, (one of which was a 10-0 loss to England at Wembley), before we sneaked a friendly 1-1 draw away to Liechtenstein.

2014. Played 8. Won 1. Drawn 0. Lost 7. Goals for 4. Goals against 33.

We may have lost 7 of our 8 games, but we didn't only get our first win, we got our first competitive win, (a 1-0 away win in the Faroe Islands)

2015. Played 9. Won 1. Drawn 1. Lost 7. Goals for 4. Goals against 30.

We followed up our victory against Faroe Islands in Euro qualifying with friendly 0-0 away to Gibralta and then a stonking 2-0 home win against Belarus, (again in the Euro's).

2016. Played 6. Won 0. Drawn 1 Lost 5. Goals for 4. Goals against 23.

It actually doesn't sound like we have improved this year as we didn't get a win, but the games were harder, (at least the competitive games), and I was ecstatic to get a 0-0 draw at home to Wales in World Cup qualifying.

2017. Played 9. Won 0. Drawn 1. Lost 8. Goals for 4. Goals against 36.

The year started off well with a couple of competitive goals against FYR Macedonia, but then we had to wait for the last game of the year, (a friendly against Malta), to avoid defeat.

2018. Played 6. Won 1. Drawn 0. Lost 5. Goals for 4. Goals against 21.

3 goals at home to Singapore in a friendly started 2018 off well, but the rest of the year was a struggle with only a 2-0 competitive loss to Belgium being worthy of praise.

2019. Played 8. Won 1. Drawn 0. Lost 7. Goals for 3. Goals against 42.

You know it's tough when you have to create a friendly against Bonaire, (never heard of them until now), just to get a single 1-0 win. The less said about the other games the better, (other than Serbia going goal-crazy and smashing in 11 against us).

2020. Played 7. Won 1. Drawn 0. Lost 6. Goals for 3. Goals against 27.

Not quite Bonaire, but Gibraltar were our only victims, (and they scored against us). Spain and Russia both stuck 8 past us.

2021. Played 6. Won 0. Drawn 1. Lost 5. Goals for 6. Goals against 23.

We still have 2 friendlies to play this year but they don't matter so what the hell. We may not have won, but it was actually an improvement on recent seasons as we didn;t have to create a friendly against someone tiny just to avoid defeat. We drew 2-2 away in Estonia, (and we led going into the last 10 minutes). More pleasing though was our defensive structure as we finally stopped leaking big numbers of goals to the big Nations. Spain 3-0 and Russia 3-1 were decent results, but again it was Serbia, (grrrr), who took us apart. Not content with scoring 8 goals in 2018, and 11 goals in 2019, they stuck 6 & 7 by us in 2021. This means that in 4 games against us they have notched 32 goals. We actually acquitted ourselves quite well in the last of these games, (losing 3-2 at half-time), but we collapsed late on to a final score of 7-3.

Summary.

I holidayed many of the early games, (and indeed most of them), but where we eked a narrow win or a draw, this was me trying to get a feel for the NT. I didn't even pick the squads a lot of the time and instead just went on holiday for the day.

More recently as I have been trying to get Bianchi (2015) and Amici (2018) to accept a call-up, I have taken more of an interest and now I am playing all games and going through the squad carefully. Obviously the draw against Wales did wonders for our rankings, but we soon fell away again and it was only the recent draw away to Estonia that gave us a boost again and we are now ranked 187th, (between Dominica and Laos). Now that I am taking more of an interest I hope to see our ranking improve, and I will probably be trying to assist this with some nice friendly friendlies.

There are no players really worth showing at the moment but what the hell.

Stefanellihas been my 1st choice striker but suffers from injury and fitness issues. I have signed him on a contract at the club and then loaned him out somewhere but he still keeps getting injured.

Battistini I quite like and he is plahying quite well for me at the moment. Like Stefanelli I signed him to the San Marino clun and then loaned him out with a view to getting/keeping him match fit, but after scoring 2 goals against Serbia, he has now torn his hammy.

Juri is another who I have signed to the club and then loaned out. He will never play for the club but I need him playing regularly just to keep him match fit for the NT. That someone of such limited ability has almost 50 Caps at the age of 26 shows what little I have had to work with.

Conti is probably the pick of the players that I have not had to sign.

As you can see we are a looooooong way away from doing anything of note here.

[Edit]

Sorry for that large text. Didn't realise I had done that.

[Jimbokav1971]

January 2021 Transfer window update.

I have never given staff the responsibility to sign players before, but as I had a few quid in the kitty I was happy to change that around a couple of seasons ago.

I issued the following instructions.

DoF responsible for... Finds and makes offers for players for your 1st team.

HoYD responsible for... Finds and makes offers for young players for the future.

HoYD responsible for... Finalises signings for young players for the future.

The Head of Youth Development has signed players before, (I just get to say yes or no), but I have never really liked the look of them, (I'm a sticker for certain things within certain types of players), but the DoF has never made any signings before, (other than a couple of loanees that I just accepted for the sake of it).

Imagine my surprise when on deadline day, the following deals are dropped in my lap.

Matteo Corazza - Co-ownership. £550k.

Amidu Salifu (GHA) - Co-ownership. £675k.

Gabriel Nsingi (BEL) - £1.9M.

Another loanee.

And the last bloke will be joining at the end of the season on a free.

Pape (FRA).

Now I quite regularly click on a player I like and try to add him as a transfer target or and end of contract target or whatever, but nothing ever really comes of it, (or if it has done I have put the block on it). Because we are a bit flush I just sort of went with it this time though and Pape (FRA) looks quite tidy. The others are possibly not good enough, but who knows really. I had £33M burning a hole in my pocket so might as well let them spend some of it.

(Will update pics later).

[leonavich]

Well done Jimbo. I have been out of touch lately, but good to see the Sammarinese flag fly high.

[Jimbokav1971]

Well done Jimbo. I have been out of touch lately, but good to see the Sammarinese flag fly high.

Thanks mate. It was you who inspired me to this before so thanks. Surprised to not see you back actually.

[Jimbokav1971]

After finishing 13th in each of the last 2 seasons, a good run-in at the close, (which saw us lose just 2 of our last 17 League games), saw us with a record high 10th place in Serie A. We retained the Serie A Best Club of the Year award, (I think that is performance related to expectation).

We were Italian Super Cup winners, (beating Juve in the Final)

As a result of finishing Runners-up to Juve in the Italian Cup last season, we made our first foray into Europe in the form of the EURO Cup. I was a bit nervous as to how we might match up and to be honest, after we lost the home leg of the Qualifying Round I thought it was over before it had begun. As it was I needn't have worried and we enjoyed a great campaign before deservedly losing to a dominant AC Milan. 14 European games was brilliant experience though

EURO Cup Fixtures.

3rd Qual Round. Leg 1. San Marino 1 - 2 Luzern (SUI).

3rd Qual Round. Leg 2. Luzern (SUI) 0 - 4 San Marino.

Euro Cup Playoff. Leg 1. SV Ried (AUT) 1 - 3 San Marino.

Euro Cup Playoff. Leg 2. San Marino 2 - 0 SV Ried (AUT).

Group H. Lech (POL) 2 - 0 San Marino.

Group H. San Marino 3 - 1 AC Bilbao (ESP).

Group H. San Marino 3 - 0 Viktoria Plzen (CZE).

Group H. Viktoria Plzen (CZE) 1 - 3 San Marino.

Group H. San Marino 3 - 1 Lech (POL).

Group H. AC Bilbao (ESP) 3 - 1 San Marino.

1st Knockout Rnd. Leg 1. Getafe (ESP) 0 - 1 San Marino.

1st Knockout Rnd. Leg 2. San Marino 3 - 1 Getafe (ESP).

2nd Knockout Rnd. Leg 1. AC Milan (ITA) 3 - 1 San Marino.

2nd Knockout Rnd. Leg 2. San Marino 2 - 3 AC Milan (ITA).

While we were negotiating the European hurdles, we were again making good progress in the Italian Cup. Surprisingly we again managed to get through to the Final where this time we were absolutely trounced 4-0 by Inter. A fairer reflection of the game would have been 10-0 such was their dominance. It didn't matter though, we had done brilliantly to get there, and as Inter were Serie A Champions, we would again be participating in the EURO Cup next season.

The Youth Academy seems to be progressing well and this year brightest prospect is a striker for the 3rd consecutive year.

Luca (SMR) (2022).

The good news is that he seems to have better potential than the others, (Star Serie A Striker), and the really good news is that there is no dual Nationality to worry about. Interestingly he is the 1st San Marino Youth product to be classed as "Promising". It was only recently that I realised where that description now was in the new game.

I have more money than I know what to do with, (because I'm keen to develop the players I have rather than just replace them, and there seems to be a really good team spirit at the club at the moment with lots of players being on eachothers favoured personnel list.

Total transfers in this season. 17 players for £10.41M.

I tried not to go mad and indeed my most expensive player was £3.4M for Diaz, (a utility left sided player). I'm not saying that I am regretting signing him, but he certainly doesn't make our strongest line-up.

Total transfers out this season. 4 players for £1.86M, (plus 4 players released).

Up to date, (and indeed historic) pics for all the Youth stars will be posted in Neppo's thread here.

Next season.

I made a bit of a ****-up in that when I went to register players for the EURO Cup, some products of my youth academy were not classed as home grown. I notice now that the wording of how a player qualifies has changed and that you must be "trained" at the club for 3 years. As I have just been loaning these players out and not training them myself, I have missed out on some "home grown at club" eligibility. I will have to make sure I don't keep doing that because the players we are producing certainly are good enough to impact on the senior team in Europe. I hope to achieve similar success in Europe, and I hope to extend both the Youth and Training facilities. It would be nice to try and get close to qualifying for Europe via our league position, (our run in the Cup cannot continue). If both finalists in the Cup have already qualified via their league position, then 7th will be good enough for the EURO Cup. Otherwise we have to be aiming at 6th. That's 15 points better than last season and that doesn't seem very realistic. I experimented a little with co-ownership deals last season, (well ok then I let the DoF experiment), and while the 2 players he bought, Corazza & Salifu (GHA), seemed decent and good value, it didn't really work when I then undervalued them and lost the ownership bid as a result. If I am going to let my staff sign co-ownership deals then I have to treat them more seriously when it comes to the bid

Finances are doing fine. We have £30M+ in the bank and even spending £10.41M on transfers was excessive as I gave both the D0F and HoYD a far more free reign, (although I still knocked a few very strange deals on the head).

Landmarks.

2013 Jul. Hired me.

2014 May. Finished 1st in Serie C1/A.

2014 May. Serie C1/A Champions.

2014 May. Promotion to Serie B.

2014 May. Serie C1 Cup Winners.

2014 May. I sign new 1 year contract.

-

2014 Nov. Youth facilities upgraded.

2015 Apr. Relegation from Serie B.

2015 May. Finished 22nd in Serie B.

-

2015 Jul. I sign a new 2 year contract.

2016 May. Finished 6th in Serie C1/B

-

2016 Nov. New President takes over club. (Consortium).

2016 Dec. I sign a new 1 year contract.

2017 Apr. Finished 1st in Serie C1/B.

2017 Apr. Serie C/1B Champions.

2017 Apr. Promotion to Serie B.

-

2017 Nov. I sign a new 2 year contract.

2018 May. Finished 4th in Serie B.

-

2019 May. Finished 3rd in Serie B.

2019 Jun. Promotion to Serie A.

2019 Jun. I sign a new 2 year contract.

-

2019 Dec. Training facilities upgraded.

2020 May. Finished 13th in Serie A.

-

2020 Jul. I sign new 3 year contract.

2021 Feb. Stadium capacity increased to 7,813.

2021 May. Finished 13th in Serie A.

2021 May. 1st place in Serie A Best Club of the Year.

2021 May. Italian Cup runners up.

-

2021 Aug. Italian Super Cup winners.

2021 Sep. Stadium capacity increased to 9,187.

2021 May. Finished 10th in Serie A.

2022 May. Italian Cup runners up.

2022 May. 1st place in Serie A Best Club of the Year.

[mrmurphster]

Finished 13th in my first season in Serie B.

http://i232.photobucket.com/albums/ee128/mrmurphster/SanMarino/currentLeaguePos-2.png

Season 2015/2016

Played 28 games

Position 6th

As things stand play-off position..

http://i232.photobucket.com/albums/ee128/mrmurphster/SanMarino/currentLeaguePos-3.png

[mrmurphster]

Season 2015/2016

Played 28 games

Position 6th

As things stand play-off position..

http://i232.photobucket.com/albums/ee128/mrmurphster/SanMarino/currentLeaguePos-3.png

So I missed out on play-offs by 2 point2..... (Silly rules in Serie B)

but only gained 1 point from last 4 games of the season...

http://i232.photobucket.com/albums/ee128/mrmurphster/SanMarino/currentLeaguePos-4.png

[Jimbokav1971]

Unlucky mrmurphster. Any progress at all is still progress in this challenge. Your players will be another season older and another season more experienced. I got relegated in my challenge and didn't come bsck up in my save and it was the best thing that could have happened to me. It meant that I was that much stronger when i eventually did.