[FM22] San Marino build a nation (Folgore/Falciano)

[TheNapalmNerd]

 

[TheNapalmNerd]

Sliding doors:

We're saying goodbye to a lot of players at the start of this season as we have way too many in our squad who will not be given sufficient gametime over the next season.

He was a huge player for us a season ago, but now he would be only a fringe player in the squad over the coming season and we decided to cash in on him.

Bought on a free as a sub and never really did good for us, but a fine addition to the clubs economy.

He was already replaced in January with Papetti coming in, and with Lovato coming in in January as well, we don't really need Rhys Williams on the bench either.

All in all these sales make sure that we have lots of money to spend in the transfer market when someone becomes available to us. Right now there's no one who we are really interested in though. We've bought in Filippo Ranocchia and Ricardo Pepi so far.

Another reason why Jørgensen wasn't needed anymore.

An upgrade on Martin up front who has finally become homegrown at the club and will have two seasons away on loan to try and realise some of his potential.

[TheNapalmNerd]

San Marinese Players aren't that great yet

One of the biggest obstacles for our squad building phase right now is the rule that you have to use at least two San Marinese players on the pitch all of the time in the matches in San Marino. I actually like that rule a lot as it gives their players gametime at every club, but it also has its limitations as we don't have many capable players. My original take on this was to get the best San Marinese players to the club, but I have since changed my opinion on that as I'm not able to guarantee all of them sufficient gametime to be in the run for the national squad. As such I have tried to get rid of Nicola Nanni and Filippo Berardi (arguably the best players from San Marino), but no one wants them outside of San Marino, and the other teams can't pay them. Nanni is out on loan, and Berardis contract will soon run out.

For now we have instead focused on younger talent and trying to help them realise their potential. This has helped a three of our players to a level that is above the San Marinese league level but probably only around Serie D or C in Italy. Still it is a big improvement First we have Marco Giorgetti who originated in Cesena. I have linked to him in the earlier pages as he had remarkable talent for a san marinese player, and we took him in when he became 18. He is continously winning awards in san marino:

Second we have Bonifazi originally of Victor San Marino (I mentioned I'd be trying to get them into the Serie A by holidaying, that didn't work out and I got sacked, but they are in the Serie C, and we have started pumping some money into them)

Last we have D'ercole also from Victor San Marino:

These three players are the best that have come through so far, and they have really evolved at our club. In the San Marinese league their level of football is godlike, but in our squad youu can tell by their ratings, that we are lacking something. Still they are nice squad players to have, especially as they are homegrown by the club or in San Marino, so they meet European Registration regulations, which have been a pain for us so far, but will soon be an okay obstacle.

As for the state of San Marino in world football they are soon about to break into the top 200, having started at rock bottom 208, so things are moving forward, but at a very slow pace. You can also tell by the major transfers that Folgore is the only club that has anything to say in San Marino right now, and it will probably be like that for some time coming. There is some movement though. Due to our succes in europe so far, we're in 16th place in the national coefficient rankings barely making 15th two years in a row and probably the closest we'll get for some time. as our succes of the second season will go away for now after this season. We do however have another team that has gone full time professional as Tre Penne is the second team in San Marino to go pro. Great succes. I'm hoping they can contribute and was actually thinking about sending them some money, but I don't think they will do well with much money, as they will only start to pay higher wages and throw it all away.

[TheNapalmNerd]

Financial situation:

I gave an update earlier on some of our signings. We haven't made any since that, and probably won't do that before december, where we will go on a spending spree at anything that has 3,5 stars or higher. I have sold many of our young talents who have stalled their progression, and our economy is looking ridiculous now as we have so much money, and nothing to spend on.

 

 

And on the ins...

They have all been loaned out. Eduardo Huerta is actually our first wonderkid, and a highly rated prospect up front, but seeing how much I stalled the progression of Christophe Martin keeping him at the club for 2,5 seasons I decided to loan Huerta out to enhance his abilities. I will be lending him out on a year to year basis as I want to make sure everything goes the best for him.

Massive talent. I would really like for him to be homegrown, but I also just want him to be the best player possible for the future of himself and the club.

[Thomassje123]

Quote

As for the state of San Marino in world football they are soon about to break into the top 200, having started at rock bottom 208, so things are moving forward, but at a very slow pace. You can also tell by the major transfers that Folgore is the only club that has anything to say in San Marino right now, and it will probably be like that for some time coming. There is some movement though. Due to our succes in europe so far, we're in 16th place in the national coefficient rankings barely making 15th two years in a row and probably the closest we'll get for some time. as our succes of the second season will go away for now after this season. We do however have another team that has gone full time professional as Tre Penne is the second team in San Marino to go pro. Great succes. I'm hoping they can contribute and was actually thinking about sending them some money, but I don't think they will do well with much money, as they will only start to pay higher wages and throw it all away.

This is true! Other clubs can or will not scout outside San Marino and Italy before they get to 3,5 star reputation. And to give you an idea... I'm in 2056 now and Tre Penne just got to that 3,5 star rep. You can give them some money to help them get professional but is is unnecessary to give them like €50 million or so. They wil spend it to players that are not good enough for those wages.

Get young players in and loan them out to the other clubs. That is the way to improve them

[TheNapalmNerd]

San Marino in European Competitions

Due to our early years of succes we are now starting in the second round of the champions path. This has also blessed the other San Marinese squads with another spot in the champions path qualification for the champions league (don't know how that makes sense with two national champions), and further three spots in the conference league with two spots in the second round of league path qualification and one in the thrid round league path qualification for the conference league. We're moving forward. They'll still get hammered though. I'm still not expecting much help from the other squads in improving the nation coefficient, but maybe a draw in one of the ten matches they'll be in.

We do however have five teams in europe, and that brings a little extra money into San Marino, which will help in the long run. I'm thinking we should be hoping for our league competition reputation to get higher in order for all of us to get higher reputation. There's still a long way to go, but in six seasons we wen from 170 to 98. That is huge as our league reputation is now 1,5 stars. It is still below Vanarama National league though.

Champions Path Second Round: Shamrock Rovers (H):

Our first match was against Irish champions Shamrock Rovers, who are supposed to be a walkover. We should have managed a bigger win at home, but it shouldn't be a problem away from home either.

[TheNapalmNerd]

13 hours ago, Thomassje123 said:

This is true! Other clubs can or will not scout outside San Marino and Italy before they get to 3,5 star reputation. And to give you an idea... I'm in 2056 now and Tre Penne just got to that 3,5 star rep. You can give them some money to help them get professional but is is unnecessary to give them like €50 million or so. They wil spend it to players that are not good enough for those wages.

Get young players in and loan them out to the other clubs. That is the way to improve them

I'll mostly let them keep to themselves and focus on having Victor San Marino get some money to improve their status. I believe they will get the best San Marinese talent. So far I'm not able to loan other than san marinese youngsters to Tre Penne. That's not helping them at all

[TheNapalmNerd]

Progress is progress

It's not a lot when you look at the numbers, but in percent it's about 15% higher than last season and that's a lot.

[TheNapalmNerd]

Through to the next round

Bad start, but we quickly overcame that and took control of the match. Troy Parrot was signed on a free last season but has shown okay tendencies so far, that we can rely on him if nothing better shows up before deadline.

We're up against the georgian champions next round:

 

Edited September 14, 2023 by TheNapalmNerd

[TheNapalmNerd]

Win in Georgia

This really was an awful first half, where I was thinking WTH... after a bit of shouting at half time things started improving, and ended up with and expected result against an opposition that should never be any real threat to us. Troy Parrot is establishing himself firmly in our squad and his heading ability is something we have lacked so far, as we are making lots of crosses with our inverted wingers, but most of our attackers are better finishers, and have never been that much of an aerial threat. They might complement each other well Pepi and Parrot.

We'll be going to either Norway or Sweden should we go through to the next round. Most likely Sweden:

Edited September 14, 2023 by TheNapalmNerd

[TheNapalmNerd]

Into the playoffs

There was never any doubt about the result. In the end I decided to give D'Ercole and Giorgetti some minutes on the pitch just so that we had played with some of our national talent in the competition. Were going to Sweden in the playoffs:

A tight second match after all.

Edited September 14, 2023 by TheNapalmNerd

[TheNapalmNerd]

Not the start we had in mind:

Terrible attacking and defensive performance. Norrköping had four chances all match and luckily Peña saved their penalty. Meanwhile we hade four shots on the post and had a terrible time trying to score goals. This has to be sorted out at home. I don't mind going into the Europa League, but if it's happening this way, I really do mind. Shambles...

 

Not a performance to impress a national manager either..

We all know that they will never get into the national squad while playing in San Marino though, but it is still something that we have players who could be in contention.

Edited September 14, 2023 by TheNapalmNerd

[TheNapalmNerd]

Announce Palacios!

And it's not club favored personel Matias Palacios, but 34 times Argentina capped Exequiel Palacios!

All of a sudden he showed up on the transfer list, and with all that money we got burning in our pockets I went out and spend some of it right away. Palacios is a player who will be in contention for our starting 11 slotting in beside Tommy Doyle in midfield and effectively moving Afonso Valente up front as a striking option, making sure we're looking good in squad depth.

We'll be looking to try and extend his contract as soon as possible. He is not the best player and I would have liked for an even better player to come in and join the club, but we'll take whatever we can get. Meanwhile he is also a signing that enhances our club reputation, which has taken a toll after selling out lots of young talent this season. It bothers me that we've said goodbye to players who didn't have any future at the club for huge amounts of money and our club reputation has gone down as a result of that. In my opinion the fact that we've sold players for huge sums, should have enhanced our reputation and club stature. but... That's just the game though.

[TheNapalmNerd]

Champions League it is!

Expected and much better performance. The tendency from last match was luckily gone, and we made use of some of our chances. Joao Pedro burned them off the field with a world class performance. There's a reason clubs have bid for him all summer, and a reason we have set automatic rejection as an instruction.

[TheNapalmNerd]

Champions League Group Stages

We're once again seeded third:

Resulting in our luckiest draw so far:

We should be fairly evenly matched with Fenerbahce and Red Bull Salzburg. I'm expecting us to at least go into the Europa League.

[TheNapalmNerd]

Inter (H)

A match we were never supposed to win anyways. Inter just has quality in every part of the pitch, and they dominated us all game.

We were unlucky in the run preparation for this match as both Parisi and Baturina, two of our best players and normal starters were injured before the match. Parisi will be out for two months or about half of the group stage, if not more.

Edited September 14, 2023 by TheNapalmNerd

[TheNapalmNerd]

Transfer window ending in august

I originally decided not to make a post about this, as nothing spectacular besides the Palacios deal has happened. We did however say goodbye to Okoli and replace him with Mattia Viti. The players are quite similar, and Viti is paid the same as Okoli had in his contract, so nothing breaking here.

We did however make som money out of this switch which we sent to Victor San Marino:

Smart piece of business so far. Now we only need to extend Vitis contract before January (same old song).

 

[TheNapalmNerd]

Fenerbahce (A)

Fantastic result in Turkey, and every goal was well deserved. Looking through the starting 11 Fenerbahce seemed like a team we were supposed to beat. Their best player is Christophe Martin, who they've loaned from us. My only worry was whether we would get a red card or not with all those yellows in the first half, and my subs were very much affected by that. the rest of the players kept their cool, and won a great result that will be fantastic for our european campaign!

[TheNapalmNerd]

Loan Farm

Things are looking good in the youth squad as our loan players are developing and quietly following the progression of the first team players. We have lots of options in future with all these players. Especially Hoogma is looking good. He also became third placed in NxGn last season and has developed well at PSV Eindhoven.

Other than that Guillermo Mena is challenging Jevremovic to become the best right back out on loan and at our club in the future:

Jevremovic is still defensively the best option, while Mena is better offensively.

[TheNapalmNerd]

Red Bull Salzburg (H)

Deserved win, and another team that is below us in terms of current ability. They have good players in their team but overall we're just a better side than them. Parisi is back early from his injury, and we're happy to have him back. He played just about one half and showed what we missed while he was gone.

Halfway through the group stages, and we have a chance at securing progression to the knockout rounds in next match in Austria. We've really been lucky with the draw this season compared to the first three season we spent in the Champions League. Inter are still destroying everyone though:

On to the next one.

Edited September 14, 2023 by TheNapalmNerd

[TheNapalmNerd]

Through to the knockout rounds:

I expected a win in Austria after the last beating, but not this big. Another great result for the club and the coefficient, and now we're guaranteed to be playing Champions League after January. This is looking really good.

[TheNapalmNerd]

Fenerbahce (H)

Another great result while Inter won as well. this has been the best group stage we've had in the champions League so far, but it is also by far the easiest group we've had. But we'll take it. The money and reputation is good from this.

Next up Inter, and soon christmas is coming. I'm really looking forward to seeing what we can get in december on the transfer list.

[TheNapalmNerd]

Inter (A)

Taking the lead three times and still losing in the end. Devastating... I could have killed Lovato for that penalty... We were so close to getting a fine result with us from this match. BUt it shows that we are able to play up against great opposition. That will be good in the time coming.

[TheNapalmNerd]

First Knockout round draw:

Aaaaaand it's gone...

We could probably hope for a draw at home if things go well

[TheNapalmNerd]

The transfer list:

Notice anyone special? Yeah. So did seven other teams. But we're trying to make a deal with Scamacca. Interestingly Wisdom Amey is also available but has just gone missing from this list, even though his report card says he has doubts, but it's a possibility. They would be perfect players for our squad. I tried going for retsos, but paying 10-14M Euro for a player who only wants a contract for six months with no optional extension doesn't seem worth it.

Edited September 14, 2023 by TheNapalmNerd

[TheNapalmNerd]

Martin FIFA U21 Best player

It seems Martin is catching up while away on loan. If he could just get some more finishing, that would be fine. His height suggests he'll never be an aerial threat up front.

[TheNapalmNerd]

First of January and this is the transfer list:

Trying to decide what next, and hoping we won't meet competition from other clubs. I might try and stall our business until late january, to see if we can buy players on deadline day without others interfering like with Scamacca who hasn't decided yet.

[TheNapalmNerd]

Announce Sandry

Our first big signing this January is for the midfield. We're currently overloaded with midfield talent, but the opportunity to get Sandry was one we couldn't resist. Dortmund showed interest in him earlier but when there was no one else interested we struck and got our man. Sandry is a fantastic midfielder who can play both defense and offense, and will be highly valuated in the future.

 

 

Meanwhile we're also saying goodbye to Filippo Rannochia who wanted away as he wasn't playing enough.

Ranocchia joined us only six months ago at the price of 3,5M, so we've made a huge profit on him in very short time.

[TheNapalmNerd]

Announce Scamacca

We finally got him. I had to throw in all we could in the loyalty bonus for us to get him, but we have Scamacca!

At 29 years he's got a few seasons in him yet, and with that natural fitness he can be here for long. I am very excited about this transfer as we now have two strikers capable of striking the ball. This might also mean a goodbye to Troy Parrot, as we're not going to use him in the future, and we might as well cash in on him. He's mad that we've rejected a lot of offers anyways.

 

In other news Wisdom Amey has joined Frankfurt

[TheNapalmNerd]

Announce Otasowie

I actually agreed everything earlier and delayed this deal as I thought we don't need another midfielder but, he is just a physical beast, who we'd really like to have. When Wisdom Amey rejected us we suddenly missed the new guy in central defense we lacked, and thats when I thought about Otasowie as a central defender.

The guy is a brick wall in physical attributes. And a huge improvement upon Lovato and Viti who have battled for the spot besides Papetti.

He can become very good for us. He's actually a player I have never heard of or used before. As I stated earlier it is fun to find players I don't usually use in FM. This guy fits in well with that philosophy. By the looks of it I really wanted Amey, but it looks like we actually got the better deal.

Edited September 14, 2023 by TheNapalmNerd

[TheNapalmNerd]

End of January window:

Our deals for Sandry, Scamacca and Otasowie along with some talents made us the second highest spending club in the January transfer window. We did however manage to sell most of the players we replaced, ad actually made a profit on transfers in january. In the end we managed to say goodbye to Parrot and Lovato, before deadline.

They practically brought in the same amount or more than we bought their replacements for. It is easy to make money once you have money in this game. And overall this year we're running a massive profit after selling lot of youngsters in the summer:

Resulting in our finances looking fine, and us still having a huge transfer budget but no one to spend it on, as we already have the best players that are available to us at the moment. I'll be keeping an eye on the transfer list in spring and hope that we can get one or two huge signings in at the start of the summer.

All that money and still they won't even present the idea of us upgrading our average youth facilities...

Edited September 15, 2023 by TheNapalmNerd

[TheNapalmNerd]

Bayern Munich (H) WIIIIIN!!!!

An equal match, with two evenly matched teams at least when we're at home. There weren't many chances throughout the match, and bayern never really came close. Interestingly they fielded a very strong squad, with two of their younger (still very talented) players in it.

This was about as good as it can get, and now we have something to fight for in the next match. I might try a more defensive approach in that one. Let's hope!

[TheNapalmNerd]

Announce Camavinga!

By far our biggest signing so far, and also the most expensive, but this was just a chance we couldn't let go. He'll be joining us in the summer and he's only got a one year contract, as there was no negotiation about that.

We gave him a big loyalty fee and low basic wage, making our chances of extension much bigger. That's the approach I've done with all players. It keeps our wage budget down, and makes it easier for me to present them with a new contract.

This is a huge signing for the club.

He hasn't progressed as well as he could in the game. That's also the reason he became available to us. But he's still a fine player who could become a huge asset for Folgore/Falciano in the future, and we could have a very good midfield duo with Sandry and Camavinga while Doyle (our captain) will be a very good sub.

This also means we have to say goodbye to one of our many midfielders. Afonso Valente might draw the short straw there.

Edited September 15, 2023 by TheNapalmNerd

[TheNapalmNerd]

Youth intake

Another year with talent that would never be mentioned in europe, but for San Marinese standards we actually have a little gem on our hands

He could become a strong player for the national squad, if he's trained optimally. We'll be looking into that. Best San Marinese player we've had come through our own system so far, and if we had a guy like this at the club when I started the game in 2021, he would have been the absolute best player at the club, quite possibly in the league.

He'll be given individual strength training right away.

[TheNapalmNerd]

Announce Pavard

He'll be 32 when joining and is probably not the best signing we could make, but I see this as a Marquee signing. He has a reputation of 3,5 stars and is a well known player, so this signing will undoubtedly boost our reputation, which is something I'm trying to do whatever the cost. Furthermore he can cover every position in defense which just gives us so much versatility when playing.

 

Two big french signings incoming in the summer, and all of a sudden we have spent most of our remaining transfer budget this season.

[TheNapalmNerd]

Meltdown

And just like that... Our season is over. I was tripping when Doyle scored and then all hell broke loose. Afonso Valente is the only outfield player not to get a yellow card. When Otasowie was shown off I took out Scamacca because he had a yellow card and Pepi didn't. We never had a chance but were actually through to the next round until the 71st minute.

Rollercoaster of a performance...

[TheNapalmNerd]

NxGn

This year we have a player on the NxGn list once again. In third place we find our wonderkid Eduardo Huerta who we have high hopes for in the future as our top striker.

He's already very good, but I think keeping him out on loan will be the best for his development.

[TheNapalmNerd]

End of season:

Another easy season in the national league and every domestic trophy won once again. We only failed this feat once, when we lost the super cup in second season.

On to the next season. We already ahve some exciting signings incoming, so things are looking good already.

[TheNapalmNerd]

We lost to the new champions, in the first knockout round. And have two players among the top performers.

[TheNapalmNerd]

Things are moving forward

We couldn't really do anything about the nation coefficient as we have now lost the succesful coefficient from our Europa League quarter final in the second season when San Marino only had three teams in europe.

[TheNapalmNerd]

Start of season 2028/2029

We've been drawn against Shamrock Rovers in the Champions Path second round

 

Lots of changes are happening in the squad at the moment and I will be giving a huge update at the end of the transfer window. My strategy of lending out players and cashing in 175K every mont pr player is gone, as no club wants to spend the money anymore. Furthermore most of our talents have gotten so old that we've been hit by restrictions that we can only have six players at the age of 22 or older out on foreign loan in a season. This means we are selling a lot of players at the moment to make sure that we can keep some of our better players at the cost of some of our previous starters in the squad. I guess our reputation will take a huge fall as a result of that

I have decided to keep superstar talent Eduardo Huerta at the club this season as we were lacking strikers in the Squad. Ricardo Pepi didn't want to extend his contract and I managed to send him out on loan early to get rid of all interest in him. He has since extended, but will be out on loan for the season, as a result of that. This means we will probably keep Huerta at the club to become home grown over the next three seasons.

More to come. First we have some qualifying to do! We're going for five seasons in a row with Champions League football

[TheNapalmNerd]

Disappointment

Terrible match. Our pre season is muddy with all the players we have to get rid of and have in our squad. It is only recently the squad has gone down to 25 and that has probably disturbed our preparation a lot. Let's not hope this gets worse.

[TheNapalmNerd]

[TheNapalmNerd]

Win in Ireland

We should be winning a match like this, and we did. We still have our own problems however, and they are still related to transfers, as most of our players want away.

This is why we're playing like S***.... The league stature isn't very big and as a result of that most of our players' worth is estimated at about 10-100K, when they've been here for some time. This means that we'll receive lots of bids for a player like Tommy Doyle (or others) at about 150K, and they'll get mad we rejected because they we received what the believe to be a fair bid. But we have over 500M in the bank and there's no way we'll ever accept something like that, and then the players get mad.

I have set up automatic rejections on most of our players, because we receive hundreds of offers every week. This ruins squad morale however. But we won't be able to get better players in a while, so we have to hold on to what we've got, and hope it goes away at the end of the transfer window.

On to the next one: we have Apoel in the third round:

The winner of the next round will most likely be up against Red Star

Edited September 18, 2023 by TheNapalmNerd

[TheNapalmNerd]

We're back on track

It seems we've gone through the worst of the crisis. Morale is still low, but we are getting the results we want for now.

[TheNapalmNerd]

Into the playoffs

Nothing special about this match. We did what we came for. Victory.

[TheNapalmNerd]

Red Star (H)

Our best match in the qualification so far. We introduced our new right winger Karel Hoogma at half time and he made an instant impact.

Interestingly when looking at Red Stars lineup we find a few familiar faces:

Up front we have our former top scorers Alex Millan and Slobodan Tedic (he was only at the club for half a season and we couldn't extend his contract). In midfield we have former talent Pintado who never made the cut, and on the right wing we have Rodic who is currently on loan at Red Star, from Folgore/Falciano.

Anyways... Group Stages it is!

Edited September 18, 2023 by TheNapalmNerd

[TheNapalmNerd]

Some spectacular transfers:

We actually sold some San Marinese players.

Both players have shown huge progress at our club and then it occurred to me that we need to get some new faces in, in order for the national squad to be strenthened. We managed to get some good deals out of it and chose teams where we could see they didn't have anyone else as right midfielder and attacker respectively. I'm hoping they can develop even further this way.

[TheNapalmNerd]

Champions League

Right now I'm just waiting for the moment I can extend Camavingas contract. And It better come soon! He's incredible in this team.

Things were going well, so i decided to field some of our San Marinese players in this match with Cesarini in goal, Bonifazi in defense, Podeschi in midfield and Raschi up front. It is valuable for them to get some gametime at high level.

[TheNapalmNerd]

Group Stage!

For the second season in a row we were lucky with our draw. This season we drew Besiktas seeded first.

We have to get through this group in second place. We are a much better side than both besiktas and Antwerp. Interestingly Matias Palacios plays as a midfielder for Besiktas who also have our former left winger Stephan Beuing in their squad. This is looking good!

 

Edited September 18, 2023 by TheNapalmNerd