NOT Another San Marino Story 2016

[kandersson]

National Team Year 2016

Looking to improve their terrible 2015 form, San Marino will now face World Cup qualifiers in a tough group. Pretty confident we can make a push and qualify for Russia 2018, we just need a bit of luck.

Yeah, not really. All in all it was a decent year with the first point in a competitive match with a 0-0 draw against Azerbaijan (GK Aldo Junior on fire), and first SM win under Alberto Rossini in a friendly vs Bangladesh. Of course we're going to ignore the 0-10 against Norway for the moment...

The real great hope

Striker Andrea Valentini, a legit Serie A caliber prospect produced during our Serie C season. He has dual nationality, but immediately accepted SM call-up (this seemed to be a rule as long as our club was in Serie D and Serie C; Serie B and above not so much...) embracing the front man role for the NT. I really have high hopes for this kid, I'll take his 5-star rating with a pinch of salt as he's compared to Serie C players, his Technique and Off The Ball could definitely use some improvement, but he does have the potential to be a great player for the future of both club and country (note from the future: he's good. Not Paolone good, still good though).
​

 

[kandersson]

Season 2017/2018: Serie B

It's a Serie B debut for San Marino as the Titani get a taste of Italian 2nd tier for the first time in their history. Ideally it should also be the last, as our dream case scenario would be an immediate promotion to the promised land, Serie A. First and second place mean direct promotion, while positions 3-6 will compete for an additional spot via playoffs. Of course the board would be thrilled if we could just avoid relegation... They'll never learn...

We had a shaky start as all our new signings (see below) were taking their time to gel together and learn Alberto Rossini's tactics, then after a couple of months the team really started to fly as the Titani dominated the Serie B sporting best defence and best offence in the whole league. We had an excellent squad for this standard, while we were also able to use our relatively low reputation to punish most teams with counter strategies.

Transfers

That's where the magic happens. We managed to complete some excellent signings, including players with Serie A pedigree like former Inter starlet Rey Manaj, Uruguayan international Alexis Rolin and regista Roberto Gagliardini. As you can see most signings were finalized just hours before transfer and registration deadline (had to wait as much as I could so players would reduce their wage demands), which is the main reason for our relatively slow start. Playmaker Russotto joined from fellow newly promoted Catania, our most expensive transfer ever at 300K euros - money well spent. Key loan signings from parent club Cesena include striker Moncini and winger Garritano, both playing an important role for San Marino in their Serie B triumph.

Best Eleven

It was a great season for the club and virtually every player performed at their best. The single exception would be supposed star striker Manaj, as he struggled all season with poor form despite all my attempts to make him our main scorer. Moncini scored much more playing much less (often appearing as a sub) and winger Napoli also found the net regularly when used at striker. That little ***** Manaj did score a lot for his country though, which at least helped me making a decent profit by selling him at the end of the season. Garritano was our POY as he destroyed the league from right wing position. The line-up with Garritano-Russotto-Napoli behind Moncini was really a joy to watch, too bad I had to (try to) inflate Manaj's value... (note from the future: of course the little ******* 'Nicky' Manaj scored the winning goal against San Marino when he faced his former club in Serie A. I hate that guy so much).​

 

[kandersson]

National Team Year 2017

Another busy year for the national team with more World Cup qualifiers and the ongoing youth development. The main role of the NT right now is giving valuable playing time at high level to our promising youngsters - and to the non promising too.

Apparently we always have the hardest time against Norway, as they punished us with a shocking 11-0 after last year's 10-0... ok Norway you got my attention, we'll meet again 10 years from now and see what happens...

Other than that we did alright, with decent efforts against Germany and Czech Republic, and encouraging wins in friendly matches - including my old FM12 enemy Myanmar... Youngsters are progressing well, with sammarinese golden boy Andrea Valentini looking destined to beat Andy Selva's record of international goals (8...) sooner rather than later.

2017 youth intake was particularly promising, with two Serie A caliber prospects coming through the ranks: centre back Alessandro Battistini and midfielder Maurizio Bernardi. Both have dual nationality and are rejecting the call-up, which is disappointing as all dual nationality prospects had always accepted so far, and this is very much the start of a new trend...

The best overall prospect is definitely Bernardi.

Bernardi has the makings of a great all-action midfielder, possibly a box-to-box or roaming playmaker type. His PA seems particularly high, and even at this young age he looked like a natural on the pitch when an injury crisis gave him a run of matches with the first team (in the final matches of Serie B, and also in the following Serie A). He's really that good, no surprise top european clubs have arrived to offer 8M euros + bonus for him (rejected of course). Bernardi was also called by Italy U19, didn't even bother withdrawing him as it's obvious he'll make their U21 squad sooner rather than later and play youth tournaments with them. I'm at peace with that, my main task is now freezing his career until he turns 24 without harming his development too much. As usual, I'd rather destroy his career than seeing him capped for Italy.​

 

[kandersson]

I'm having issues with the custom database I used to start in serie D. A few annoying bugs (can't remove lower leagues which is pretty bad for my old school PC as Serie D and Serie C have 12 ongoing divisions) plus I have the strong suspect there's a 'Power Regen' tool edited in this DB as I 'm seeing wonderkid regens since lower leagues. Not feeling this save despite massive success due to these reasons - and the Game of Crosses that is this ME oO)

might start this again w/o Serie D custom league, or more likely in FM17.

 

[olabj]

Sad to see this go (if it does).. I started my own save with FC Andorra and Andorra NT with a custom DB inspired by this story.. Why not give that a shot?

 

[kandersson]

Sad to see this go (if it does).. I started my own save with FC Andorra and Andorra NT with a custom DB inspired by this story.. Why not give that a shot?

I have huge respect for people who create custom leagues as I'm absolutely hopeless with the editor, but often find that custom leagues come with some issues especially long term. Sometimes it's minor stuff but can be enough to kill my saves. I do trust Claassen's league pack though

Andorra would be interesting to try, have you got a reliable custom league ? Though the truth is I've become quite bored with ME, might be my tactics (or the dozens I downloaded after 16.3) but I can't find a way to score (or concede) consistently unless it's a far post cross...

 

[olabj]

I'm using Sangue Blu's Spain 9 Level, 1182 clubs v 2.0 database. Pretty sure it's not correct but no DB will be at that level because Spain has soooo many divisions within each level so he split them into fewer per level. So FC Andorra start at level 7 instead of level 5 because of the amount of divisions... I don't mind it as it gives me more time to build my squad and get used to the team. La Liga by 2030 and Euros by 2050 is my goal... Might be a bit optimistic on the NT front

 

[Zlatan Lumic]

It's a shame seeing it end so early, but oh well... I hope to see this come into fruition in the next attempt whenver it might end up happening.

For future projects... What are your thoughts on Hungary? It's a country that's stronger than the usual subjects for this kind of saves (San Marino, Andorra, Liechtenstein and the like), but actually that's the fun part Hungary is Europe's greatest forgotten titan as they were one of the fiercest national teams from the 30s to the 50s and were on the verge of winning a World Cup twice ('38 and '54), so getting to do something with them that the greatest generations failed to achieve would be quite rewarding don't you think?

And for teams, you always have good ol' Videoton, as it's the team that got closer to get an European title ever (lost against Real Madrid in the UEFA Cup final back on 1984/85 season) and on the domestic competitions is not that strong either (only two leagues won 2010/11 and 14/15) so getting to establish a supremacy with them it wouldn't as easy as you might think.
Besides it also has the Puskas Academia FC as its youth/feeder club which might help greatly to develop young talents for the national team.

(Also the most important thing is that the Hungarian league system is already implemented in the game so you shouldn't have to download extra files for that one).

 

[kitchin75]

where did you the download from

 

[kandersson]

It's a shame seeing it end so early, but oh well... I hope to see this come into fruition in the next attempt whenver it might end up happening.

For future projects... What are your thoughts on Hungary? It's a country that's stronger than the usual subjects for this kind of saves (San Marino, Andorra, Liechtenstein and the like), but actually that's the fun part Hungary is Europe's greatest forgotten titan as they were one of the fiercest national teams from the 30s to the 50s and were on the verge of winning a World Cup twice ('38 and '54), so getting to do something with them that the greatest generations failed to achieve would be quite rewarding don't you think?

And for teams, you always have good ol' Videoton, as it's the team that got closer to get an European title ever (lost against Real Madrid in the UEFA Cup final back on 1984/85 season) and on the domestic competitions is not that strong either (only two leagues won 2010/11 and 14/15) so getting to establish a supremacy with them it wouldn't as easy as you might think.
Besides it also has the Puskas Academia FC as its youth/feeder club which might help greatly to develop young talents for the national team.

(Also the most important thing is that the Hungarian league system is already implemented in the game so you shouldn't have to download extra files for that one).

I'd still have a lot to post until 2021 I think but I'm pretty sure I'm done with this save mostly due to DB issues. Anyone want to see particular players or screens feel free to ask. Highlights include cracking the Top 100, moving to a new stadium and a bunch of SM wonderkids of course

I liked Hungarian league when they had B squads in playable divisions, for some reason that is always a plus for me in a save. My typical attempts of long term saves are with San Marino, Canada and New Zealand, plus youth academy challenge with AIK or Fiorentina, sometimes Cyprus, Brazil (Red Bull) and South Africa (the other Ajax). One I'd like to try is Guatemala because they had some cult players back in CM 03/04 days 8-|

 

[Zlatan Lumic]

Guatemala because they had some cult players back in CM 03/04 days 8-|

Dwight Pezzarossi was a beast back on good ol' FM 2k6... *sigh* those were the days ^^

A road to glory save with South Africa might also be interesting now that you mention it, the Bafana Bafana might prove to be quite an fun challenge too.

 

[kandersson]

where did you the download from

it was an italian site, don't remember which one. I had downloaded another Serie D DB earlier with no fixtures for any U20 or U18 squads. Next time I'm just going to holiday until San marino pops up in Serie C.

 

[kitchin75]

it was an italian site, don't remember which one. I had downloaded another Serie D DB earlier with no fixtures for any U20 or U18 squads. Next time I'm just going to holiday until San marino pops up in Serie C.

got mine from fm scout but not played it give that a go

 

[olabj]

How about Curacao as a pure National Team challenge? You'd get plenty of talents from the Dutch league and you could perhaps try to make a dutch team all-Curacaoan(?)

 

[kandersson]

How about Curacao as a pure National Team challenge? You'd get plenty of talents from the Dutch league and you could perhaps try to make a dutch team all-Curacaoan(?)

being the Club & Country geek that I am I had started something like that with Suriname and Sparta Rotterdam I think on FM14 but for some reason never got attached to the save. I'm too loyal to Canada in the Concacaf I guess XD

don't know if I'll be able to start a new SM save soon, think I'll play a bit my brazilian save (doing a scoring goalkeeper challenge just for a change) and hopefully find some new inspiration

 

[ninjaskill]

it was an italian site, don't remember which one. I had downloaded another Serie D DB earlier with no fixtures for any U20 or U18 squads. Next time I'm just going to holiday until San marino pops up in Serie C.

I think I am using the same database as you but, I am not as far in as you what are the issues you had with it?

 

[kandersson]

I think I am using the same database as you but, I am not as far in as you what are the issues you had with it?

most annoying thing is I can't remove serie D and its divisions (every year it says it will be removed next june) which is not very good for my PC. Also didn't get to play the Serie C super cup despite winning the league that season. I got strange messages of winning the double in Serie C and Serie B as the mysterious Serie D Scudetto Pool was also counted. I could offer bonus for Serie D and Viareggio Youth tournament to senior players even in Serie B and Serie A. Lastly, I have a suspect that some kind of 'Power Regen' edit is included in the database (think I read something like that in the italian forum).

Don't know if it's the same DB you're using, at first I tried another one that had U19 and U18 squads instead of U20 (which is more accurate and reflects real life structure, but those squads had no fixtures).