[FM22] For Club and Country! - Making San Marino the Jewel of the Adriatic

[Zeonflux]

 

After spending the last few years mostly lurking in the career threads with the occasional comment, I've decided to take the plunge and start a career of my own. After a very enjoyable save with 1860 Munich I decided that I wanted a challenge that will take me through until FM23 is released and after much thought and consideration the San Marino Challenge is the one I kept coming back to after having previously attempted the British Steel (FM13) and Pentagon (FM12) challenges.

Aim of the Challenge: Win the World Cup with San Marino.

As above the aim of the save is simple (in that there's only 1 goal to achieve) but its a big one win San Marino ranked 209th in the world with such football luminaries as US Virgin Islands, British Virgin Islands and Turks and Caicos Islands ahead of us.

As of the start of the game San Marino are on a streak of 112 games without a win so there's certainly no way that we're gonna brute force a win let alone winning a world cup.

Carrying on as we are with San Marino isn't going to work and brute force isn't going to work so we're gonna be using option 3 - Growth.

Grass Roots to Global Megastars

To achieve the dream of taking San Marino, a nation with a population of only 33,500 (half the size of Shrewsbury), I'm going to be working double time and managing Victor San Marino as well as the San Marino National Team.

Victor San Marino

Victor San Marino are a Sammarinese based team that are currently playing in the Eccellenza which is the 5th tier of Italian Football and so this allows me to raise the club through the Italian leagues whilst also enabling me to bring Sammarinese Youngsters in through the Youth Team. This in turn should allow me to improve the nation team as the save progresses and you never know if I'm really lucky and the FM Gods smiles upon me I may get some World Class Sammarinese players before this save is over.

I've already made a start on the save and am currently working through pre season but with only around £14 left in my weekly wage budget and no transfer budget I'm pretty sure that my transfer business is done. I've also looked at the Season Preview for the league and we're 10-11 favourites to win the league so looking for a nice first season promotion to get the ball rolling on the save.

Transfers

Tomassini comes in to challenge for a starting spot on the right wing, to be honest I'm not sure what is considered "Good" when it comes to the attributes numbers at this level but Tomassini looks good and I'm looking forward to seeing how he does.

Le Selva comes in as our 2nd best striker but again he's got some good looking attributes so he should provide us goals throughout the season.

Faetanini is one for the future, he will be joining in 2 years time but at 16 he looks good enough to get games as it is and he's Sammarinese so he was a no brainer.

Bianchi is in the same boat as Faetanini, joining in 2 years but young, good attributes and Sammarinese so again another no brainer.

Best Player

Santoni is by far the best player at the club, he's currently rated at 4 1/2 star with a potential ability of 5 star so hopefully he;s gonna help guide us this season.

These are the tactics I'll be using this season, there's not a lot of instructions on either tactic as I don't really know what to expect with the players having attributes to low.

San Marino

As for San Marino, they're still San Marino so for now I'll just be playing games as they come and posting the results after each international break. I'll make the San Marino updates more detailed once I start getting youth intakes.

Let's Go!!

Well that's about it for now all that's left is to get the save going!

Edited June 8, 2022 by Zeonflux
Extra Images removed

[Zeonflux]

Pre-Season

We had a mixed bag during Pre Season, no real stand out performances as the team gets settled but there maybe a change in the offing regarding tactics as I'm looking at using a 4-1-2-1-2 Diamond that served me well during my 1860 Munich save.

I'm also looking at bringing in another Sammarinese CB but that won't be until the January transfer window. Going forward I'm going to try and get the squad filled with Sammarinese players as possible but that going to take time as the ones that are good enough either don't want to join me or want too much of wages. I do have a set of 10 attributes that will be necessary for any players joining the club to have going forward but I'll post them during another post when its more beneficial.

San Marino

World Cup Qualifiers - September 2021

Well I was going to make a joke about how long it was going to take to score a goal with San Marino but i was surprised to get one in only my second match in charge so that was a welcome surprise. The second goal of my reign with the national team came courtesy of an own goal, more of a calamity when attempting to play out from the back for Hungary as we pressured the ball back to the Hungary keeper who then slammed a clearance into the back of his own CB and then watched helplessly as the back looped back into his net.

I'd say its going to be a long road to success but its San Marino so that's par for the course.

[Zeonflux]

September 2021

We had 5 games in September which were split into 3 games in the Eccellenza Emilia-Romagna Group C, which is the league and there's only 1 way out and thats to win the league and then the other 2 games were in the Eccellenza Emilia-Romagna Cup.

League

Wasn't a great month but then it wasn't the worst with us getting a draw, lose and a win from the 3 games to leave us on 4 points. Not a great deal to say about the matches, we dominated for the most part but just couldn't put the ball in the net enough times in the first 2 games before finally finding out shooting boots against Alfonsine.

So after a mixed start to life in San Marino we find ourselves midtable but only 3 points off top, which isn't a bad place to be.

Fya Riccione and Savignanese are supposed to be out rivals for Promotion according to the Season Preview and they currently sit 2 and 3 points ahead of us respectively so they're gonna be the teams that I'll be keeping an eye on for the rest of the season.

Cup

The cup competition in the lower levels of Italian football is a bit different to what I'm used to but I'm open to trying new things. The Eccellenza Emilia Romagna Cup is a Tournament style competition with a group stage, followed by the QTR Finals, Semi Finals and then the Final.

Both games were pretty simple with us taking 3 points in each and topping the group without conceding a goal.

[Zeonflux]

October 2021

Victor San Marino

We bathed in a sea of greens during October, going unbeaten in the league and getting an early season victory over potential promotion rivals Savignanese.

Unfortunately we didn't do as well in the Cup, losing to both Sant'Agostino and Cotignola. Wdid get some redemption in the following game by strolling to a 3-0 victory over them.

The unbeaten month in the league moves us up to Second in the league behind our other promotion rivals Fya Riccione on goal difference.

Unfortunately the 2 defeats we had in the cup take us off of the top spot but with 5 games to go we're sitting nicely in second spot, 1 point off of Sant'Agostino.

A high point of October includes us breaking records within the first 8 games of our club career, hopefully the run will continue for a bit longer.

San Marino National Team

Not a great month for the National Team, taking on both England and Poland, I decided not to spend too much time worrying about these games and choose to "Instant Result" both games as we're in no position to even challenge them.

The 9-0 and 6-0 loses confirming that my decision to skip the matches was pretty valid, as the save progresses I'll be taking these type of games more seriously but for now I'll be worrying about the games we actually stand a chance of getting a decent result in.

Speaking of which we have 2 more games left to play in the World Cup Qualifiers which are against Albania and Andorra. Albania will probably be too strong for us but i have my eyes set firmly on taking at least a point from Andorra, they're on a list of teams I believe we should be beating (when we play them) that in the long run will be the start of our International rise to power.

[Zeonflux]

November 2021

Victor San Marino

Another good month for us domestically picking up 2 wins and a draw but the loss to fellow promotion chasers Fya Riccione could come back to bite us in the ass towards the end of the season.

Luckily the lose to Fya Riccione didn't cost us our spot at the top of the table but it did prevent us from opening what would of been a 7 point gap between us and second place. Instead we'll have to make do with just the 2 point gap.

We also manage to hang on to top spot in the Cup as well (albeit only just), getting a win and a lose in the 2 games we played. Oh fun fact in the Cup there are no draws, if a game finishes in a draw then it goes to extra time and then penalties until the is a winner. That's why we lost to Russi in the Cup even though we dominated the match without scoring.

San Marino Nation Team

We lost to Andorra.........I mean we had chances but we didn't look like scoring and we it was quite the eye opener, this is gonna take a while.

As expected we finish bottom of the World Cup Qualifying group. I would say that we can only improve but if we get an unfavourable group for the next qualifying period we could concede more the 50 goals, so i'll just look at getting more that 2 goals and maybe even a point if I'm feeling greedy.

[Zeonflux]

December 2021

Victor San Marino

Only 4 games in December with 1 of those being in the Cup. League wise we continue to pick up points and 7 out of a possible 9 is a good enough Christmas present for me. Not so much holiday joy when it comes to the Cup, losing again to Sant'Agostino.

Our form in the league sees us open a 5 point gap from the rest of the chasing pack and hopefully will give us a bit of a cushion during the second half of the season.

Our lose in the Cup puts us 3 behind Sant'Agostin and 2 behind Corticella with 2 games to play. This is looking to be a bit of an uphill struggle as we'll need to win both games and hope for both Sant'Agostino and Corticella to drop points for us to have a chance of winning the group and qualifying for the next round.

[Zeonflux]

January 2022

Victor San Marino

January was not the best month for us, losing 2-1 to Alfonsine was not a great start to the New Year but a 4-1 victory over Sanpaimola before getting a point away at Vincoli helped to ease the hangover from New Years Eve. As far as the cup in concerned we had 2 games left and needed 6 points to even think about going to the next round. A 2-1 win at home to Cotignola was the just what we needed and it should have been easy to get a win against Russi, especially as they had a player sent off after 34 minutes but we just couldn't find away past them. After 120 minutes it came down to penalties and for the second time in the cup we lost to Russi on penalties after drawing 0-0. 

Thankfully we weren't punished too badly for losing in the league and so remain at the top of the table by 2 points over Fya Riccione. I have a feeling that the league could be decided when we play them.

The loss on penalties to Russi condemned us to 3rd place in the cup group stage and I'm pretty sure that had we beat them we would have gone through to the next round, unfortunately it wasn't to be. Incidentally I looked back and that in was Russi's 4 win on penalties in the competition.

[Zeonflux]

February 2022

Victor San Marino

February was a decent month, taking 8 points from a possible 12 but again we could only manage a goalless draw with Russi.

We maintain out spot at the top of the table but with 4 games left to go and 1 of them being against 2nd placed Fya Riccione, our issue with finishing has me worried that a 3 point lead may not be enough.

[Zeonflux]

March 2022

Victor San Marino

Only the 2 matches in March, with a hard fought win over Classe before a 0-0 stalemate against Fya Riccione. The win over Classe means that we maintain a lead over Fya Riccione in the league as we head into the last 2 matches of the season.

With Savignanese too far back to challenge us, it means that the league will be going to either us or Fya Riccione. We've been top of the league since November so it would be a shame to miss out on winning the title in the last 2 matches.

We also had a great youth intake with 2 potential 5* players in Betti and Mitrano as well as lost of 3 1/2 - 4* players. Unfortunately most of them seem to be wingers but I'll be reviewing them at the end of the season and looking at retraining to fit our tactic.

Also with the intake being so good, unless there are some better players available if we get promoted, almost all of the youth intake that we sign will be in the squad for next season as there's not a great deal attribute wise between them and what we already have.

Oh we also has a friendly with the San Marino National Team against Luxembourg but we got hammered 4-0 so nothing really so say about that.

[Zeonflux]

April 2022

Victor San Marino

2 games to play and only 3 points between us and Fya Riccione, we got off to a bad start by losing to Valsanterno but we weren't punished too badly by Fya Riccione as they drew against Del Duca Grama to cut the deficient to only 2 points and take the league to the last game of the season.

For the last game of the season we put Tropical Coriano to the sword and with better finishing it would have been more than 3-0.

Fya Riccione wilted in the final game of the season and lost to Valsanterno just as we did and so we ended up winning the league with a 5 point margin (that really should have been more as all season we created several chances every match but found it so difficult to finish them).

With that we are finished with the Eccellenza and will be plying out trade in Serie D next season, hopefully that will bring in more finances and we can begin bankrolling the improvement of our training and youth facilities.

Always nice to finish the season with some silverwear........I'm sure Spurs fans can imagine . I joke of course (my Dad's a Spurs fan so i couldn't resist).

Finally we get a cool £8.4k for transfers and our wage budget increases by £2.2k a week so we should have some room for improvements across the team once the transfer market is open.

I've decide I'm going to wait until the window opens before I start looking for players for next season, purely so I can see which released players that haven't been scooped up are available and also hopefully once the new season begins to roll around it'll improve my standing and more players will be open to moving to San Marino for their football.

[Zeonflux]

June 2022

San Marino National Team

We got drawn against Latvia and Liechtenstein in a 3 team Nations League group. Liechtenstein looks like they could be a potential scalp with them being only 18 places ahead of us in the FIFA rankings.

Kaspars Gorkss!, Marians Pahars! Your boys took one hell of a beating!! (It's really hard to find famous Latvians that are commonly known) Unbelievablei thought that we'd have a chance of taking a point off of Liechtenstein but to get 3 from Latvia in a convincing 4-1 win was outstanding from the lads. Unfortunately we couldn't do the same at Liechtenstein in what was a close game but we just kept fluffing our lines in front of goal.

After the fantastic win against Latvia and the 2 goals we got in the losing effort to Liechtenstein we're actually top of the group with another match against each to finish off the fixtures for the Nations League for this calendar year. With us being in League D group 2 I don't know if winning the group puts us into group 1 or League C, so that will be interesting to find out.

Finally I was going to keep a log of how long it would take before we got a win with San Marino in this save but after 120 consecutive loses, 8 of them as manager we got a win and hopefully the dream of World Cup glory can start to blossom.

[Zeonflux]

August 2022

Victor San Marino

We had a nice easy Pre Season, scoring loats of goals and getting wins over other Serie D teams which is always good. Should probably have beaten Fabriano Cerreto but I was in the garden with the kids whilst the match was playing so wasn't able to ensure we didn't lose our 2-0 lead.

I made a total of 8 new signings for our first stab at Serie D. Unfortunately there was an issue of ambition and location that stopped me from getting any real talent that will help us progress in the long run as most players either didn't want to move relocate to San Marino or didn't think we were ambitious enough.

Either way I think I've managed to buy relatively well and whilst they more than likely won't last to see us into Serie C, they will certainly do a job for us for now.

Pellanda comes in as first choice GK, boasting much better kicking than our our previous No.1 and is generally a decent upgrade.

Both Furlan and Massaccesi improve our backline and whilst Furlan is on loan this season I will be trying to sign him when his contract runs out at the end of the season, unless we get a very unexpected promotion.

Menghi and Beatrizzotti have both been brought in to play in the middle of the park in the new formation we will be using. Menghi is going to be taking the starting role in a 2 man midfield with star player Santoni, whereas Beatrizzotti was brought more for his technical and mental abilities rather than his physicals which he is severly lacking.

Albonetti re-joins us on a contract after being on loan last season, during which time he managed 10 goals and 3 assists in 26 games and also had a 7.29AV R. He'll be our starting left winger. Pilastro on the other hand will be fighting for the right wing berth.

Finally we managed to get Bolzan on loan from Roma, completely free of charge. He'll be our starting AF next to last seasons top goalscorer Carrer. Hopefully Bolzan's acceleration, along with his trio of 12s for the "Holy Trinity" should ensure he bangs in more than his fair share this season.

Finally this is the tactic we will be using for the foreseeable future. I got this from @Makoto Nakamurafrom his career thread in Africa, must say if you haven't I recommend giving it a read, @Makoto Nakamuraalways delivers when it comes to great career threads.

Anyways as someone who doesn't normally play lower league or obscure leagues I decided to copy @Makoto Nakamuraand use the same tactic as he's always in weird and wonderful leagues. Once we start reaching Serie B and Serie A I will be trying to make my own tactics.

[TheRobert]

Congratulations for you win against Latvia and for winning the league.

[Zeonflux]

September 2022

Victor San Marino

The board are expecting us to "Fight bravely against relegation" and the season preview has us down to finish 17th so this could be a long, hard season.

At least the fans are giving us some hope with an extra 13 people picking up season tickets.

Well a perfect month in the league has certainly repaid the faith in the fans, and if it wasn't for the 2 we conceded against Mezzolara it would have been a month with out conceding as well with would have been wonderful.

We're also through to the second round of the Serie D cup with is great, hopefully we'll get some financial benefit from that but I feel winning it might not be possible.

Our perfect month in the league sees us soaring at the top of the league with a 2 point gap already, whilst favourites Carrarese and Carpi are in 12th and 13th respectively. And I though Serie D was gonna be a struggle.

San Marino National Team

We had 2 games left to play in the Nations League against Latvia and Liechtenstein.

Well get got a draw against Latvia that could have been a win as Latvia went down to 10 men after 38 minutes but we just couldn't score. On the other hand we found our shooting boots for the Liechtenstein game and smashed 3 past them to finish the group in style. The only question is where did we finish.

After starting the Nations League group on a run of 120 losses in a row, we managed to get 2 wins and a draw in the next 4 and somehow little San Marino have won the group with a respectable g/d of +4 to get promoted to League C.

[Zeonflux]

4 hours ago, TheRobert said:

Congratulations for you win against Latvia and for winning the league.

Cheers fella, the Latvia win was so enjoyable but I had the kids asleep upstairs and had to mute the celebrations. The league was a worry just due to the number of draws we kept getting towards the end of the season.

[Zeonflux]

October 2022

Victor San Marino

Another very good month in the league, only the 2 loses to Forli who are our senior affiliates and Belfiorese. We also went out of the Cup to Fezzanese but I'm not too worried about that.

We've managed to increase our lead at the top of the table to 7 points and we've basically ensured safety from relegation as we were told at the start of the season that 40 points are needed to avoid being relegated. Having said that after 13 games and 33 points I've now got my eyes on more than battling against relegation.

[Sheriff7]

Congrats mate.You are already San Marino national team best manager ever.

[Zeonflux]

December 2022

Victor San Marino

Had to do both Novembers and Decembers fixtures as one entry as I accidently played the Prato fixture without taking a screenshot of the league table.

Either way it was a nigh on perfect 2 months with draws against Carrarese, Forte Querceta and Carpi as the only blemishes. We continue to remain strong at the back with only 5 goals conceded in 9 games. Pellanda proving to be a fantastic signing for us in shoring up this between the sticks.

We extend our lead at the top of the table to 8 points with over half of the season gone.

Another excellent youth intake but not as good as last year, which was a golden generation intake but my only concern is that due to our overall club finances and the state of our youth and training facilities unless we get players that are good enough to be around the first team then it doesn't matter how good the intake is as they're not going to progress enough to be with us in the long run.

San Marino National Team

We also got our group for the upcoming Euros qualifiers and in all honesty its gonna be a long qualifying process, can't really see us getting anything from any of them.

[Zeonflux]

1 hour ago, Sheriff7 said:

Congrats mate.You are already San Marino national team best manager ever.

Thanks fella, 2 wins and a draw is definitely San Marino Hall of Fame form

[Zeonflux]

January 2023

Victor San Marino

Oh dear, only 1 point in January and 2 loses, including one against 2nd place Lentigione isn't going to help with winning the league. Including the last game in December that means we've not won a in our last 4.

Well January has cost us and seen Lentigione claw back to only 2 points behind.

Transfer wise Duse comes in as an upgrade in DM and I've renewed the contract of players I want for next season and transfer listed the rest.

[Zeonflux]

February 2023

Victor San Marino

8 points from 12 in February isn't a bad return but Corticella were 19th when we played then and Tritium were also in the bottom half. Both games involved us fluffing chances that we should have scored and I'm disappointed not to have to got the full 12 points.

After spending the whole of the season in the top spot we drop down to second after Carrarese wipes out the points lead we had.

We've got 9 games left to play and it seems that we've chosen to do it the hard way.

[Zeonflux]

April 2023

Victor San Marino

Well I forgot to get an image of the table at the end of March so it's a double month again. We had a good 2 month spell with only the loss to fellow promotion hopefuls Carrarese. The draws though have been a pain in the ass all season. Every drawn game seems to be us smashing teams but our strikers just can't seem to find the net.

Unfortunately after spending the majority if the season at the top of the league, we couldn't hold on and ended up 2nd. We actually were 1st for most of the final day as Carrarese were drawing to Borgo San Donnino but they ended up shipping 3 goals in the second half and so our hopes of promotion went up in smoke. Overall its been a great season as we were tipped for relegation and to come 2nd is a fantastic achievement but to miss out after doing so well is heart breaking.

Honestly a younger me would have just gone back and replayed the Aglianese game until I won and got promotion but I've grow and so next year were gonna look to go one better and make it to Serie C.

Bolzan was the stand out player for us this season and luckily we've managed to secure him on loan again for next season. I've also managed to re loan Furlan who's been a rock at the back for us.

The board have given us pretty much the same budget for next season as they did for this one but as I really didn't use it there's a lot of room for recruitment.

We also had another Golden Generation Youth Intake. I've scooped up all of the 5* potential players and then some of the rest.

As it currently stands only Morri looks like he could make it to the first team and that's mainly due to his his Finishing, Heading and Natural Fitness.

San Marino National Team

There was also in international break in March but as you can see it was really not worth mentioning.

Bottom of Euro Qualifying group A with -18, although Azerbaijan have also lost both games so there may be a slim chance of a point off of them during qualifying but that might be a dream too far at this stage.

[Zeonflux]

Pre Season 2023

Victor San Marino

Pre season went fantastically well, with us winning all of our games. Bolzan returns this season on loan from Roma and in pre season he chose violence, getting 11 goals in 5 games with 3 hat tricks.

Transfers

Vitale comes in as an upgrade to Pellanda in goal.

Although a natural left back Gabelli will is one of our 2 new starting CBs.

Vesentini has the honour of being our first transfer to cost money, coming from Virtus Verona for a whopping £2.9k. Although a CM by trade he's got all the attributes i want for a BPD so is being converted to play alongside Gabelli.

Both Bani and Mata come in to improve our left wing, Bani is being trained to play there as we need cover there and he's better there than as a DM. Mata will be our starting LM for now though.

Like a few of our other signings Molossi is being retrained as a Right Winger, his attributes are more than good enough for it at this level. Orfei comes in from SPAL on loan and is instantly our starting Right Winger.

Finally Mattioli comes in to start up top alongside Bolzan. Mattioli was comfortably the most well rounded striker I could afford and that would come but there is one I'm keeping my eye on but he wouldn't join, hopefully that'll change if we get promoted.

Overall I'm very happy with our transfer business, we've improved the CB pairing whilst keeping last seasons CBs so that great. We've also massively improved our wings which whilst they weren't bad last season it is nice to get some wide players that have pace, acceleration and crossing, I'm hoping for this to bring us goals. And finally Mattioli increases the skill level of our CF that will be playing alongside Bolzan.

I'm hoping that Gabelli, Vesentini, Mata, Orfei and Mattioli help us to finish what we started last season.

[Zeonflux]

September 2023

Victor San Marino

To say September was a good month is an understatement. We're through to the second round of the Cup but more importantly we're unbeaten in the league with an astonishing 19 goals in 3 games! Bolzan has been on fire with 9 goals and all of the wide players that were brought in during the summer have played their part.

This has been the overall stats of my front four (Mata and Orfei rotating with Bani and Molossi respectively). Absolutely on fire!.

All of that puts us 2 points clear with a perfect record and a +12 goal difference over the chasing pack already.

San Marino National Team

Business as usual with the National team, although Azerbaijan went down to 10 men before they beat us but they had something we don't, players who can play football.

We're bottom of the group but I don't really expect much until the next Nations League. Oh we did move up to 207th in the FIFA Rankings though so that's good.

[Zeonflux]

October 2023

Victor San Marino

Another great month in the league with the only slight downside being the 2-2 draw to Rimini, we should have won that as we were 2-0 up but Gabelli got sent off and we couldn't hold on.

After blitzing the record for number of goals in a match in September in the 9-1 win over Lentigione, it took us less than a month to beat that by destroying Progresso 11-1.

Bolzan playing like Serie D Haaland. Last season it Bolzan scored 19 in 37 matches, this season he already had 21 goals in 11 matches.

Unsurprisingly we keep our place at the top of the league but the draw to Rimini allows Carpi to narrow the gap to only 2 points. We play them next in the league so a win opens up a 5 point gap.

Transfers

I wasn't expecting to sign anyone else but both Pavlev and Scorza were available for free and both are improvements at what we have at RB and DMC respectively so they're welcome additions.

San Marino National Team

More losses but 2 goals against Serbia and only conceding 1 to Montenegro is great.

We remain rock bottom of the group but I wasn't expecting anything else. One last game against Azerbaijan and then qualifying is done.

[Zeonflux]

December 2023

Victor San Marino

We kept up our pace throughout November and December although the losses to Fya Riccione and Lentigione we unexpected and annoying, Lentigione had 2 shots all game and only 1 was on target, truely FM'd.

We also progressed to the 4th round of the Serie D cup which is great.

Carpi failed to keep pace with us after getting a second loss and 2 more draws, so we now have a nice 6 point gap between us and them.

Transfers

Benedetti and Mazzerani come in as a back up LM and a starting CB so that means we can move Gabelli to LB as an improvement there. Benedetti is probably gonna be our main back up for Bani at LM as Mata has be very injury prone.

San Marino National Team

Somehow we scored 3 goals as San Marino and still didn't win. I thought at 3-2 we could steal it as we were in the ascendency but it wasn't to be.

Surprisingly enough we didn't qualify but at least we conceded less than 50 goals this time round. Next up for us should be Nations League so we may have a chance of some points then.

[Zeonflux]

February 2024

Victor San Marino

Another near perfect run for us in January and February with only the draw to Formigine causing us to drop points. We also progressed to the 5th round of the Serie D cup.

We continue to keep our lead over Carpi in the league but they refuse to fall too far back and continued to match us when it comes to results. Carpi are also through to the 5th round of the cup with us so it's still possible that we will have to beat them for the league as well as the cup.

[Zeonflux]

March 2024

Victor San Marino

Perfect again in the league including a 2-1 win over rivals Carpi. Unfortunately we went out of the Cup to Trapani due to us just not finishing off our chances.

Thanks to the win over Carpi we've extended out lead at the top to 17 points.

With 5 games left to play we've been crowned Champions of Serie D Girone D and the club are set to go Professional next season. We've got some great players at the club but we're going to need to improve for next season.

San Marino National Team

More losses with the National Team but until we start getting good regens, that pretty much how its going to go.

[Zeonflux]

May 2024

Victor San Marino

5 wins from 5 to end the season and we go leave Serie D on a high note.

After keeping up with us for the majority of the season Carpi ended up falling away from February, which is the same thing we did last season to allow Carrarese to take the title last season. Eventually win finished with a 20 point lead over them, breaking the 100 point barrier in the process.

We also broke the record for least number of draws in a season and smashed the record for points in a season with 104. The previous record was 94 and was held by Parma.

Here are the fab 5 from this season. Bolzan was far and away the best player with 62 goals in 43 appearances which is the best return I've had from a player since FM17. He also chipped in with 10 assists and was responsible for just over a 1/3 of our 138 league goals this season.

Bani and Orfei spent the season trying to out do each other on who could score and assist the most goals, with Bani seizing his chance to become a start on the left after Mata got injured and then due to injuries and Bani's form, he just never got a look in again. Orfei ended up losing to Bani due to getting injured not long after Bani became a starter but still got 19 goals and 23 assists.

Mattioli's numbers of 21 goals and 15 assists were great and would have been fantastic had it not been for Bolzan.

Finally Benedetti only joined us in November but quickly became integral to the team with 12 goals and 9 assists in 20 matches.

Club Changes

As for the club next season we will be going Professional so I'll be looking at renewing contracts to full time contracts to make the most out of training.

We will also be moving to the 5500 seater San Marino Stadium for next season as our current stadium isn't up to scratch for Serie D.

San Marino National Team

Not a great group for us to get for the Nations League so I'm expecting immediate relegation to League D.

[Zeonflux]

August 2024

Victor San Marino

The Pre Season before our first attempt at Serie C went pretty well. I decided to play most of our Pre Season games against bigger clubs as I was trying to get extra income into the club, so we had a lot of loses due to playing Serie A and Serie B teams but a 3-1 win over top flight Udinese was good for the boys morale.

Since the transfer window hasn't ended yet I'll do a transfer round up in the next post.

San Marino National Team

We played our final game of the 2023/2024 international fixture list against Estonia who we will be facing later on in the year in the Nations League. We lost 3-0, whilst we were nowhere near good enough to win we did have a chance or 2 to make it 3-1 but fluffed our lines.

[Zeonflux]

September 2024

Victor San Marino

Well that is not how I expected our start to Serie C to go! Undefeated in 8 league games from August and throughout September with no goals conceded. I would have taken 12 points from those 8 games but an unbeaten start is just a dream.

Unsurprisingly the unbeaten start puts us top of the league with a 5 point gap over the chasing pack, which includes Carrarese who beat us to the Serie D title during our first attempt at it.

We've played 8 Serie C games and we've broken 2 records already, we're now the proud owner of the records for games without conceding and wins in a row.

Transfers

Before I show the signings I've made during the summer, I must say that this has probably been the most difficult transfer window I've ever done in an FM game. The board gave us no transfer budget as we were in debt as a club. Secondly they gave us no additional wage budget so it remained at the £8310p/w that it was last season, which would have been great as we had around £2500 - £3000 spare last season but we went Professional so I had to give the players I wanted to keep new contracts which took up a lot of the budget. Finally almost all of the players that we could have got to improve the team either didn't feel we had enough finances to get them, didn't think we were big enough, didn't want to move to San Marino or chose to go to a different team.

Saccuti comes in on loan to replace Vitale in goal as I chose not to resign Vitale. Saccuti is a better keeper all around than Vitale so it was definitely the right call.

Serna and Bandini come in as cover for left back and centre back respectively. They're both upgrades on what cover we already have.

Jarre is also a loan signing, although the agreement is to play AMR, he will be the back up MR.

Ramello is coming in to be back up striker and is a big improvement on our previous back up striker.

2 players aren't mentioned in the transfers above and that's because i was able to get them before the end of the previous season. Both Orfei and 62 goal talisman Bolzan return on loan. Orfei was agreed not long after he singed a new contract but Bolzan initially refused to re-join us but after securing promotion I offered again and he accepted.

San Marino National Team

2 games and 2 losses, which was expected but we scored in both so that's progress.

Bottom of the group but only a -7 goal difference, I'll take that.

[Zeonflux]

October 2024

Victor San Marino

Another unbeaten month in Serie C with only a 2-2 draw to fellow promotion contenders Frosinone preventing us from 5 wins in 5.

Our form in October keeps us top of the table and increases our lead at the top to 7 points. I'm sure Serie C will become more difficult as the season progresses but if it stays this way then we'll be in Serie B next season.

San Marino National Team

2 more losses but another 3 goals, so whilst we're not winning games we are scoring which is promising.

We stay bottom of the group and with 2 games to go I can't imagine we'll be staying in League C.

[Zeonflux]

November 2024

Victor San Marino

November was a pretty good month but we dropped 2 points against Viterbese before suffering our first loss of the season to Fermana. We’re also through the the Coppa Italia Lega Pro Semi Final after a hard fought victory over Olbia

We remain top of the league but Teramo have cut our lead to 1 point. The second half of the season could be closer than I want it to be.

I also brought in Santoro as an upgrade to the cover we had at DM. If I can move players on there maybe some more signings in the winter transfer window but otherwise there won't be much going on as we're around £1200 over our wage budget.

San Marino National Team

We rounded off the National League group games with losses to Iceland and Estonia.

Obviously we finished bottom of the group but with 7 goals scored I'd say that's a bit of a win.

We also have a Relegation playoff game to potentially keep us in the Nations League C but we're playing Kosovo and since they're ranked 95th in the world and are 113 places higher than us and the cheapest player in their National Team is worth more than our entire National squad, I foresee us in League D next time round.

Edited June 28, 2022 by Zeonflux

[Zeonflux]

December 2024

Victor San Marino

December was probably the worse month for us since the save started with 3 consecutive loses. Cesena is the only game we deserved to lose as they blew us away but it didn't help that we missed some great chances. I initially thought that we had gone out of the cup after losing 2-1 to Triestina as I didn't realise that it was over 2 legs. Hopefully we'll win the second leg as I don't want to be going out in the semis especially as I feel like its our competition to win.

The 2 loses we suffered in the league allow both Frosinone and Cesena to overtake us in the league.

San Marino National Team

Well qualifying for the World Cup in 2026 is out of the equation.