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

[TheNapalmNerd]

New goalkeeper: Gianluca Salvini

We went out and spent big on our goalkeeping department, but I've been chasing this guy for a few seasons, and this was our last shot at getting him, and having him become homegrown, so we threw all we had at him, and then we'll try to get rid of his release clause, and his wage after 30 matches in the future. For now, we're just happy we finally got him. This one could be a new Buffon. And with him we officially are no longer in the market for a new goalkeeper for years to come. Now we only have to wait for january to arrive.

[TheNapalmNerd]

And a few days later this happened:

Edited October 19, 2023 by TheNapalmNerd

[TheNapalmNerd]

Champions League First Knockout Round First Match: Barcelona (A)

Yeah I kinda forgot to tell that we drew Barcelona... Unlucky draw...

Our defence is still a huge liability. Alarcon and Rusyn were out with suspensions, and Allingham can't carry anything in there. We still have Barcelona at home. Reports say that we have two even teams. We do have a chance.

[TheNapalmNerd]

Champions League First Knockout Round Second Match: Barcelona (H)

Disappointment... We had it all, end then they came back and took it all away. On paper we should be a better team than Barcelona. Next season we'll beat Barcelona, but not this one unfortunately...

And with that. Our season is over already.

[TheNapalmNerd]

NxGn 2035:

A few players on the list. I'm surprised at Fernandez in thrid as Salvini and Dias are much better prospects. Dias Will be a carrying pllayer in our midfield. In two years.

In the list we also have Frederik Jepsen in 5th place coming in:

No. 1 Ed Malyon is a player we'll be hoping to get once he turns 18. He looks absolutely ridiculous for a 17 year old player.

If we can get him in our attack, we'd be set for a very long time. Then all we'd need in the future is a new defence and then we'd be able to field a strong team for the coming 10 years.

 

[TheNapalmNerd]

End of season:

We went down pretty far on competition money due to getting beaten in the first knockout round.

[TheNapalmNerd]

San Marino in Europe 2035:

We've officially broken into the top 30! It's been a long way since we started at 177ish (don't remember exactly). There's no rela competition however. Most teams have gotten better, but honestly only Tre Penne have been contributing a bit. last season they came close to qualifying for the Conference League.

Soon we'll be overtaking the best divisions from Poland and Sweden.

An obvious consequence of our campaign this season. We should have done better. I really do believe we were looking better than Barcelona, but squashed it.

With us underperforming in europe we can also feel it in the national coefficients:

It's been a few seasons since we went and won the conference League or the Europa League and it really shows in the coefficient. With one less team in europe we are however bound to get a much higher coefficient in the 2036/2037 season when we only have four San Marinese teams in Europe. At that point we should really be able to mount a serious challenge to the Champions League as well, hopefully securing even further points.

[TheNapalmNerd]

We're in the middle of preseason and a lot of big things are happening at the club. Meanwhile I gazed through the national squad and this caught my eye:

The only unbeaten team in the group after three matches. Did not expect that.

[TheNapalmNerd]

Champions League Group Stage Draw:

This season I decided against showing all the qualification matches. We're at a level where we should never fail qualification, and I will only show if that happens.

On to the draw:

Easy draw, and I am really hoping we can take six wins from this.

[TheNapalmNerd]

Champions League odds:

We're currently third in the title odds for the Champions League, with better odds than defending champions Everton.

[TheNapalmNerd]

End of summer transfer window:

We're in september and a lot has happened to the squad that is now looking like this:

We've had a bit of a clearance sale up front and got rid of a lot of strikers recently. In January we said goodbye to Mason Greenwood, and this summer we said goodbye to Higinio, Fabio Silva, Christophe Martin and club legend Benjamin Sesko. I was actually planning on using Fabio Silva this season, bbut he didn't want to extend his contract, and we didn't want to let him go on a free. At the age of 33 it was an easy choice. He had to go.

'

A lot of money coming in, and aour board has also set 120M aside in reserves like last year. Only last year it was more like 400M...

We've said goodbye to a lot of players from our loan farm who were never going to make it in the squad anyways. With our higher reputation and league reputation, along with better players of course, we're now making a lot of money when selling players, meaning we have a huge amount in the banks right now and are ready to spend big when chances arrive. I remember thinking I overspent on Higinio when I bought him, but we managed to save most of the money. Overall we sold four strikers (Martin, Higinio, Fabio Silva, Sesko) for about 180M. 

With lots of strikers going out, some had to come in as well, and the first one is Nikola Jovanovic, whom we've had out on loan for the past five seasons:

He has really progressed well over the last two seasons and has conquered a spot in the starting 11. He doesn't like big matches, which is something we have to be aware about, but neither did Sesko, and he rocked the charts anyways. I had originally planned for him to either play with Alessandro Gori (out on loan to PSG) or Fabio Silva, until Real Madrid bought Silva, and we were one top striker short, so we went out and got Bernardino from PSG, as he was on the transfer List, which would help us right now, and help us in the long run as Alessandro Gori will probably get more playing time over this season (he's still competing against Haaland).

Bernardino is old, so we made sure that PSG pays half hism old wages, and that we pay them if he stays here for long. Gori will probably be going into our first team squad next season. Fine player who should score lots of goals in the future. We're hoping his goal ratio in the national squad continues at club level.

Other than that, we didn't see many changes in our first team squad, but we made one extra transfer for our defence: Giorgio Scalvini

We're in desperate need of better defending, and when Scalvini became available, we struck a deal right away. I'm hoping we can keep him for the rest of his career as his personality is one we'd very much liek to have in this squad. With mentoring of an exciting San Marinese youngster soon coming up, we really could use a Model Professional, to take care of business. Meanwhile his presence on the pitch will also be very good as Allingham has never really contributed when playing in central defence, and he's fallen short in the big matches.

He's also more of a wing back than centre, we just didn't have any alternative. Defence has actually been the place we've had most trouble getting good players in all game. With Scalvini our starting 11 looks like this:

It's easy to spot our achilles. Left Back...

Rusyn is doing okay, he's homegrown as well, so we want to have him in our squad, we just don't want to start him in the big matches. Alarcon can play at left back, but then we need a tower in central defence. So we're still stuck with Rusyn for the time being. Hopefully in January we can replace him in the starting 11.

Camavinga is getting old and will soon be 33 years. We have his replacement in our loan farm, and both Abel Basto and Kevin Astruc are four star players in his spot. But he just plays too good to let go of him yet. And he will also be a good presence once we get Riccardo Rosti in january. The hopefully future San Marinese Wonderkid. He's just unambitious and hasn't really progressed in his first 2,5 years in the game. That will be a problem. But we hope we can train him up to be a world beater.

[TheNapalmNerd]

Champions League Group Stage 1st match: Rangers (H)

Dominant, and with chances to score much more. We're at the start of the season, and trying to get som cohesion in the squad right away with new duos in front and back.

[TheNapalmNerd]

Champions League Group Stage 2nd match: Athletic Club (A)

Lots of chances and I think we hit the woodwork three times in this one. Nice victory as Athletic are supposed to be our hardest opponent in this group.

[TheNapalmNerd]

Champions League Group Stage 3rd match: Lyon (A)

An okay comeback, but we never should have let in those goals. But it was my fault as most of the players were not fully rested for this match, and they gave a tired performance. Interestingly we've had some injuries over the season already and our depth has proven not to be the best. It's of course not ideal when you lose a striker and two wingers, but it is something that will be adressed. Huerta hasn't been playing well for some time, and the only thing he's got going is the fact that he's homegrown. We need a better third striker and another winger in january to cope.

We're not ultra reliant on the transfer market. We can recall a player or three if thats the best option. I think Paul Wood and Alessandro Gori would be fine additions to the squad right now.

Edited October 22, 2023 by TheNapalmNerd

[TheNapalmNerd]

Champions League Group Stage 4th match: Lyon (H)

Still not at our best, but we won and that's what matters in this one.

Edited October 23, 2023 by TheNapalmNerd

[TheNapalmNerd]

Goal 50

We've got three players in it once again this season. No Jamie Ross anywhere to be seen.

[TheNapalmNerd]

Champions League Group Stage 5th match: Athletic Club (H)

Bad start as they scored two goals within the first minutes, but eventually the players showed class and came back and secured the win.

We've secured first place in the group, and now the last match is all about coefficient points.

[TheNapalmNerd]

Champions League Group Stage 6th match: Rangers (A)

Only one key highlight all match. Not a good performance...

Edited October 23, 2023 by TheNapalmNerd

[TheNapalmNerd]

[TheNapalmNerd]

San Marino National squad 2035 done

I think it's finally time to do another update on the national squad. 2035 was a crazy year for San Marino and they reached a career high world ranking at 142

The results were pretty crazy as well, and they actually came close to qualifying for a big tournament:

Heartbreaking as just one result could have made a big difference, but still massive for the national squad to get that far.

The squad is also looking very good. Most players are some that have been at Folgore at some point and then have been sent out to get regular playing time and develop even further:

Interestingly Tre Penne and SS Cosmos have really done wonders for their players lately and they are now contributing some fine players for the natonal squad. Tre Penne have even bought Roberto Bonifazi back from Norway to be part of their squad now. Most of these players would have been classy players to have if it had been our first season at Folgore and we had all of these players available. I believe they would even get through the group stages of the Conference League. So things are really moving forward.

Some of the profiles:

There are many decent strikers in the squad. All spots can be covered with decent players except for goal.

In the future we're trying to train up these two players who both have good potential. Rosti was the one I was very excited about a few seasons ago and he has finally joined the club. He hasn't developed in his youth years, but we're doing all we can to make sure our environment is best for his development.

Zanotti is a player form our own academy. He's partially italian. He should never be in contention for their national squad and so far he has switched allegiance back to San Marino. These two players could rule the midfield for years to come.

[TheNapalmNerd]

January transfer window done

Not much happened this month, we did however bring in one big signing in Niklas Martinsen:

He had a release clause at 88M. I'm not sure where we'll use him yet, but I'm thinking in midfield next to Jamie Ross would be the best in the future. Right now he might also do some time in defence.

We also brought back Alessandro Gori from PSG, to make sure we had enough strikers in our squad to cope with busy playing schedules.

[TheNapalmNerd]

We got him!

He'll be our by far highest paid player, and he's got a terrible appearance fee and highest earner clause. But we got him!

Massive talent. I'm hoping he doesn't go Sam Bray (Massive talent we bought at a high price only to find out he was already close to full potential and now he's just in our squad because he's homegrown) on me. But still. Even if he doesn't develop further, we'll still be able to keep him as a reserve for many years to come. We're gonna make sure he becomes homegrown. Our attack will be looking good in the summer with Malyon, Gori and Jovanovic. We still have Bernardino as well, but will probably be giving him less playing time as he has already reached 30.

[TheNapalmNerd]

Champions League First Knockout Round First Match: Milan (A)

An okay match away from home. We have a stronger squad than Milan and it showed. I would have liked a bigger victory, but we won away from home, and that's the most important thing.

[TheNapalmNerd]

Champions League First Knockout Round Second Match: Milan (H)

Good performance. Defence was good, and that's what's hopefully going to make a difference. Niklas Martinsen is our new left back for the time being. He did very well in this match, and his presence on the pitch seems assuring for everyone. So far a very good transfer for the club.

[TheNapalmNerd]

Man City up next. This will be interesting. On paper we have quite similar teams. They have some world class players in their squad. But we have some standout players too now.

[TheNapalmNerd]

Champions League Quarter Final: Man City (H)

We take the first straw, but it's a tight affair. The away game will most likely be away too exciting feat to watch. Defensively we were good again today. We used 18 year old Laskowski in central defence as Scalvini was suspended, and Laskowski really put in ag magnificent performance. Promising performance from the squad.

[TheNapalmNerd]

Champions League Quarter Final: Man City (A)

We started with a more defensive stance, but threw away everything and then switched back to our traditional tactics and came back. This match had everything! City has a great team and they really played well and did well to sabotage us. Right now I'm just very happy we recalled Gori from his loan in January. Fantastic comeback, and we're in the semis!

[TheNapalmNerd]

We have great yout facilities right now. We're not far from having maxed them out. I think we'll have excellent facilities after this one. It took over 15 years to get that far and we still haven't maxed out.

[TheNapalmNerd]

Champions League Semi Final 1st match: Bayern München (H)

WIIIN!!! We take the first match with a two goal victory. It's still going to be hard in the next one. Bayern has quality all over the pitch, but it's two evenly matched teams that are facing each other. We stand with a fantastic chance at going into the Champions League Final!

[TheNapalmNerd]

Champions League Semi Final 2nd match: Bayern München (A)

WE'RE IN THE FINAL!!!!

Not a good performance, but it was tight, and Bayern really has a good team, so losing by only one goal is quite the accomplishment, especially after going down so early in the game. We did it!!!

[TheNapalmNerd]

An interesting match. Inter has two of our Loan Farm players in their squad, and will be able to use them in the final:

I had thought of recalling Paul Wood in January, but had forgot to get that clause in his loan deal, and now we're facing him in the Champions League Final. Oh what a world...

And who did we sell Higinio to for 91M at the start of the season?

[TheNapalmNerd]

Pre-Final analysis:

Looking through their squad, we should be better, but it is still very even, and anything could happen.

[TheNapalmNerd]

Champions League Final: Inter

We lost...

They truly deserved it, we didn't do anything to dominate. Our best players didn't perform, and then you don't win matches...

[TheNapalmNerd]

[TheNapalmNerd]

We've finally broken into the top 25, and will soon reach top 20. The general level of football has risen, but it will take long before the others reach anything close to our level. Still with a higher level in general we might soon see teams qualify for the conference league and help gather points for the coefficient.

We're still up there among the best, and now we're really among the best of the best in all of europe. Next season we'll have an even stronger team. Several players will come back and join our squad, and we already have our new wonderkid striker joining forces. Succes in Europe is still close, and our squad will soon be the best. Then we  just have to hope it all shines upon the rest of San Marinese Football in general.

[TheNapalmNerd]

Champions League Group Stage Draw

We've reached a point where we should be favorites against every team we face. This is a hard group, but 1st place is of course the aim.

Qualification was a breeze:

Due to the nations coefficient we were back in the second qualifying round this season. I doubt we'll start there much more onwards. The general level of football in San Marino is getting better and the other teams are starting to contribute with a few wins in their qualification matches every season. It gives a few extra points to the nations coefficient, and I believe in the future those points will make a grand difference.

[TheNapalmNerd]

Champions League Odds:

We're the favourites for the Champions League! At the start of the 16th season we've reached the top. Now we only have to go all the way and win it. We have by far the best squad we've ever had after this summer, and now it's time to win it!

Edited October 26, 2023 by TheNapalmNerd

[TheNapalmNerd]

Champions League Group Stage First Match: Benfica (H)

Perfect start to the campaign. A performance that showed off our new players along with some of the talents that we are trying to get homegrown. We played with Riccardo Rosti in midfield as we're trying to assist his development as optimally as we can. He's already developed a fair bit, and could probably be the best San Marinese player if he continues his development over the course of this season. We're trying to get him to play as much as possible when the opposition level allows it.

Everton won the tournament two seasons ago. We're favourites, but they can be a problem.

[TheNapalmNerd]

Champions League Group Stage 2nd match: Sevilla (A)

Another good performance and another match where we gave some playing time to Rosti. I would have liked to secure the win earlier but it's still a great performance away from home.

I'll probably not be playing against Everton with Rosti in our lineup.

[TheNapalmNerd]

Champions League Group Stage 3rd match: Everton (A)

Fantastic performance and a thrilling match. We've really improved our consistency compared to last season. Before this season we promoted Wood (who played against us in the Champions League Final) to the first team squad as a right winger instead of Müller. Müller always fell out of the big matches, and Wood is really performing big all the time. Another great performance from him, and he has really provided a cutting edge in close matches.

We're already close to progression. 1st place is vital to our ambitions.

Edited October 26, 2023 by TheNapalmNerd

[TheNapalmNerd]

Summer transfer window:

A lot of time has passed and we are already in November, but I haven't made an update on our summer transfer window. We had two players coming into our first team squad from Leverkusen and Chelsea. Other than that we promoted players from our loan farm and our squad came out heavily strenghtened.

First the ins:

Most of these players coming in are actually just to inject some cash into the other san marinese clubs. I want to see them grow, and we injected some cash to them so that they can also build new stadiums and upgrade their facilities. I am really hoping they upgrade their facilities.

Other than that we welcomed Wonderkid Superstar Ed Malyon into our squad. We have already renewed his contract getting rid of his release clause, match highest earner and halved his appearance fee that was outrageous.

Crazy talent for his age, and he has already become an established member of our squad pushing Alessandro Gori onto the bench. Then we have Hugo Pearce who is actually a former Folgore player but we sold him five seasons ago as he hadn't developed as we hoped. He made up for that and is our new starting right back:

He has performed very well in defence and in our defence of almost totally new players he has provided consistency in his performances taking us to a higher level at right back, and effectively making sure we can sell Charles Raphael in the future and never miss him.

Then we made a few promotions from within:

Jose Fonseca was bought at 21 and sent out on loan to Atletico Madrid for two seasons performing and developing very well. He is originally a central player, but with his left foot and attributes we started training him as a left back, and he is already one of our best players in that position. And possibly one of the best in the world.

We bought him at 20 and lent him out for four seasons with him winning the Champions League against us along the way. Wood is our new right winger, and probably our best performer this season. He has been a revelation in our squad and forced Müller onto the bench right away. His versatility gives us lots of options while playing. Fantastic player and one of our biggest stars right now.

At 21 Dias is already a magnificent player and our second best midfielder. I really wanted to send him out on loan again, but noone wanted him, and now we're stuck with him. I don't mind that.

Rolfe was originally my plan for left back until I saw Fonsecas potential. Rolfe has spent five years out on loan with his last two seasons at chelsea where he was a consistent part of their team. He has come in and taken control of our central defence, and we are now looking stronger than ever in defence with a young and very capable defence at our disposal.

The last player we promoted is our Second Goalkeeper Adrie Van Boekel. I actually believe he is our best goalkeeper and one of the best in the world. But Salvini has the option of becoming homegrown so we're going with him for this season again and wanted to send Van Boekel out on loan again, but noone wanted him. He might become our no. 1 next season and then we'll send Salvini out on loan to aid his development. Haven't decided on that yet. We do have two world clas goalkeepers in our squad along with our former no. 1 William Hamilton. We've got too many players...

 

On the outs we said goodbye to Bernardino who joined our new Nemesis Internazionale Milan. He'll turn 31 soon and with Malyon in our squad there's no space for Bernardino. We also said goodbye to Club Icon Eduardo Camavinga this season. He was 33 years old and with all our new players coming in and our focus on giving playing time to Riccardo Rosti, he was never going to be playing anymore

We also said goodbye to a few of our academy talents to other San Marinese Clubs. I have decided that we will accept most bids from domestic clubs for our players, as we might then be able to strengthen them. Arzili to Tre Penne is one of these cases. He is actually a pretty good talent and he could become very good in the future for Tre Penne, hopefully taking them up a level or two.

 

With all these transfers our optimal starting 11 in the Champions League is looking like this, when all the best players at our disposal.

They have the ability to go all the way in the biggest cup. Now we only need that extra luck as well.

[TheNapalmNerd]

Champions League Group Stage 4th match: Everton (H)

Not our best performance, but we managed to win anyways. Everton didn't really come close to anything either. Good performance and we still managed to sneak in Laskowski and Rosti to get some playing time for development.

 

A lot has to go wrong if we are not to be no. 1

Edited October 26, 2023 by TheNapalmNerd

[TheNapalmNerd]

Meanwhile in Serie B:

My last update about Victor was them going into the Serie C again three seasons ago. Since then they won the Serie C with a dominant performance and have now established themselves in the Serie B. I am looking forward to the day they go up into the Serie A. Rosti is a Victor San Marino boy, and I believe they are the team that will get the best San Marinese newgens. It is vital to the future succes of the country, that Victor San Marino becomes succesful in Italy.

[TheNapalmNerd]

Champions League Group Stage 5th Match: Sevilla (H)

We need clinical finishing, other than that it was okay. The red card is an annoyance, but we can manage. Another full match for Rosti as well.

Edited October 27, 2023 by TheNapalmNerd

[TheNapalmNerd]

Champions League Group Stage 6th Match: Benfica (A)

I've never seen anything quite like it. We destroyed them, and the players never stopped and took a rest. They just kept going. That's a terrifying match for any opposition to have seen. Jovanovic and Malyon really stepped up after I wanted them to be more clinical in the last match. This is crazy.

Last season I expected six wins and didn't get it in a much easier group than this. Dominant performance in the group stages. Let's hope it continues in spring!

[TheNapalmNerd]

[TheNapalmNerd]

2036 was a good year for San Marinese Football:

Another great year with the national team progressing quite a lot. The wins against Hungary are promising and the future is looking bright, with most of the players still at an age where they can consistently present the same team for the next five seasons. All those results have contributed very well, to the high ranking at 134 in the world. So far the national squad has progressed 74 spots.

Key players for the squad:

 

The San Marinese teams are also improving:

In terms of reputation we only have one team that still has a half star. That's a lot of improvement compared to the start when we took several years to get one star reputation ourselves. We have four teams that are taking off and have improved their sides a lot. Soon they should be able to qualify for conference league. But for now we live with the fact that we can only get a few wins in the early qualification for them. The way we improved within the first three months of this save, none of the other teams in the league are at that level yet, but will soon get there.

Edited October 28, 2023 by TheNapalmNerd

[TheNapalmNerd]

Champions League First Knockout round 1st match: RB Leipzig (A)

Another great performance from our players. They have done some good comebacks in the Champions League so far. We are still to lose in this season in the champions League. Interestingly their goalscorer is a former Loanfarm player of ours and we just sold him this season, and he has already improved a lot away from the club, annoyingly enough. Another player they fielded was 18-year old Marian Kunert who is our new top target, as we need to get him within the next two transfer windows for him to become homegrown at Folgore/Falciano:

[TheNapalmNerd]

January Transfer Window:

Not much to report from this one. We did buy a new top midfielder as I believe Abel Basto hasn't been the revelation at our club I was hoping for. With Abdalas we have three top midfielders at our club:

We were in the run for this guy a four seasons ago when he was a top talent, but he went to Frankfurt instead. This season his contract would run out and we managed to get him for 50M, when his value should have been a lot higher. Other than that we also said welcome to Wonderkid Right Back Panzavolta:

All the ins:

We said goodbye to Ben Allingham this season. He hasn't been performing for us when he was given the chance over the seasons. We replaced him with Panzavolta, and still have Charles Raphael as well.

[TheNapalmNerd]

Champions League First Knockout Round 2nd Match: RB Leipzig (H)

Dominant win at home. Not a lot of standout performances, but a collective performance where everyone made a contribution. Our path to the final has been made clear:

This will be a tough one, but we'll do our best.