NOT Another San Marino Story

[kandersson]

National Team: Year 2014

Everybody get ready for an exciting year of the NT...

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...yeah not really. SMNT making slow progress here as we once again lost every competitive match in our EURO qualifying group and were even outplayed by a very modest Liechtenstein side. I'm now introducing the 'best' prospects from the original youth squad, new back four (led by good old Juri Biordi) are definitely an upgrade from veteran SM amateurs I had to play in 2013. There were also some bright moments during the year though, we managed to score three goals against Montenegro (conceded 6 though...) and ended 2014 with a convincing win against Yemen (friendly match), first win for the NT under my reign. Standing at 200th place in WR we certainly have much room for improvement.


Teenage starlet Alessandro Venerucci is currently the hottest name in the country:

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The young striker keeps improving nicely and his performances with the NT earned him a co-ownership offer from reputable Serie A side Parma. I decided to accept the 250K offer as I'm still not sure about Alessandro's long term potential, anyway he'll stay at San Marino during the deal. He's now described as a potential leading star for Serie B, which is actually not bad considering his potential was only 'good Serie C1 player' just a few months ago... my staff seem to change opinion about him quite often, maybe we'll find out he's Serie A quality eventually? We'll see...


Coming up next: mid-season update for the club + new youth intake


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[flez85]

Hope your next youth intake is better than the last, this challenge was one of the first saves I started this year but after 3 years of sole Italian or dual nationality players being to only ones worth a **** I haven't been playing as much. Haven't upgraded anything on the youth front so can't expect much anyway. Good luck in Serie B!

 

[kandersson]

Hope your next youth intake is better than the last, this challenge was one of the first saves I started this year but after 3 years of sole Italian or dual nationality players being to only ones worth a **** I haven't been playing as much. Haven't upgraded anything on the youth front so can't expect much anyway. Good luck in Serie B!

thanks flez!

class of 2014 was quite promising, and the dual nationality players aren't creating many problems atm, they're accepting a call-up for SM straight away

should do next update today!

 

[lukecrompton]

Awesome pal .. any more wacky challenges???

 

[kandersson]

Awesome pal .. any more wacky challenges???

there are a few I like

Vaduz+Liechtenstein and Canada+MLS in the mould of the SM challenge. I also like the idea of the Red Bull challenge and any youth academy challenge in general. I have a couple of ideas for challenges with Poland and Northern Ireland but right now my focus is only San Marino

 

[kitchin75]

what the **** is the red bull challenge?

 

[kandersson]

what the **** is the red bull challenge?

http://www.fm-base.co.uk/forum/foot...bull-challenge-gives-you-wings-challenge.html

 

[kandersson]

Serie B 2014/2015: Mid-Season Update

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An excellent first half of the season for San Marino as the Titani are shockingly leading Serie B after 24 games, and look like a strong candidate for direct promotion at this point! Uruguayan playmaker Pablo Ceppelini is carrying the team with his dead-ball skills and creativity, while loanee striker Gianni Bruno has emerged as first choice at the lone striker position, scoring 14 goals in just 18 matches. Despite solid defence and consistent results I wasn't exactly happy with our style of football, as once again we mostly relied on simple wide play (a counter 4-1-4-1) and individual quality of wingers (Ricardo Quaresma also having a good season) to create scoring chances. I decided I wanted more, and took a big risk switching tactics for the crucial, last 10-12 games of the season as I embraced the infamous http://www.fm-base.co.uk/forum/shar...922-3-4-2-1-no-striker-tactic-ccc-s-gold.html ... but we'll see how it all went in the full season update (hint: there's a reason that thread has almost 100 pages in just a few days )


Important news for San Marino were obviously coming from latest youth intake:

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I hired a new Head of Youth Development after last year fiasco (I'm looking at you Louis Saha!), he actually looks quite good despite obscure reputation and cheap wages (was working at a Serie C club). And he apparently did a good job as he came up with three Serie A caliber prospects (curiously all left-footed), with striker Mirco Veronesi considered particularly promising - btw I LOVE left-footed strikers. Not only that, as the feeder club Federazione Sammarinese (essentially a youth academy project financed by Sammarinese FA) also produced an interesting midfielder which I obviously signed for next season. He seems to have good potential, and was actually generating lots of interest amongst Serie B clubs. All four will go straight to the senior NT (two of them have dual nationality but accepted the call-up straight away ), though Veronesi will serve as a back-up for star striker Venerucci for the moment. Good thing that they all fit into our new system very well!

A 'small' teaser from late season matches:

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I just love when this happens (scoring debut, not winning Serie B...)​

 

[Safc-mad-scotty]

That center midfielder from the feeder club looks brilliant!

You noticed any clubs gaining SM knowledge through the national team staff yet? Always remember a Samminerese player coming through the Real Madrid academy on my FM12 San Marino save because they had one of the San Marino clubs as a feeder club.
He was awful but it was pretty nice to see regardless XD

 

[kandersson]

That center midfielder from the feeder club looks brilliant!

You noticed any clubs gaining SM knowledge through the national team staff yet? Always remember a Samminerese player coming through the Real Madrid academy on my FM12 San Marino save because they had one of the San Marino clubs as a feeder club.
He was awful but it was pretty nice to see regardless XD

yeah the kid from the Federazione SM is quite impressive and as he joined the club I could also see he has fantastic potential (Serie A star!), nice to see the FA project is working, at least in the game

NT staff are building SM knowledge though this only gives a small chance of their clubs producing the odd sammarinese regen - still better than nothing though! Best options for that are other clubs hiring a sammarinese manager (go Andy Selva!) or having a SM feeder club, I think this gives a much better chance. Unfortunately my parent clubs Bologna and Cesena are now in a lower division than us (bastards decided to get relegated!), which means the affiliation is automatically cancelled so no more SM link/knowledge for them

 

[sammyt]

yeah the kid from the Federazione SM is quite impressive and as he joined the club I could also see he has fantastic potential (Serie A star!), nice to see the FA project is working, at least in the game

NT staff are building SM knowledge though this only gives a small chance of their clubs producing the odd sammarinese regen - still better than nothing though! Best options for that are other clubs hiring a sammarinese manager (go Andy Selva!) or having a SM feeder club, I think this gives a much better chance. Unfortunately my parent clubs Bologna and Cesena are now in a lower division than us (bastards decided to get relegated!), which means the affiliation is automatically cancelled so no more SM link/knowledge for them

I wonder if it would work in reverse, e.g. if you got a foreign feeder club.

 

[kandersson]

I wonder if it would work in reverse, e.g. if you got a foreign feeder club.

it does work in the sense that your club can have the odd foreign youngster coming through the ranks (doesn't seem to happen only for San Marino, at least in my past saves since FM11...) but the feeder club won't get the SM knowledge and won't improve chances of producing SM players.

 

[kandersson]

Club Season 2014/2015: Serie B

League & Cup Results


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Back to back promotions for San Marino as the Titani once again shocked Italian football winning Serie B against all odds and predictions! They called us overachievers whole year (23rd place was apparently our designated spot...), well I guess best defence and most goals scored in the league together with new Serie B record for most points mean we did deserve the title after all... San Marino showed they were able to win using different styles, as we spent most of the season playing a solid, counter 4-1-4-1 relying on our lethal wingers, then switched to an ultra-creative 3-4-2-1 (sort of, see preovious update...) for the last 12 games, unleashing our young attackers and playmakers in the middle. The latter will most likely be our main tactic even in Serie A! A decent run in the Italian Cup ended with a narrow defeat against Napoli.



Highlights & Top Performers


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Very pleased with the performances of virtually every single player, both wingers were probably the key performers until the infamous tactical revolution made them expendable, and our group of young attackers led by trequartista Tobia Maccioni took over and showed their impressive potential. My honorable mentions for this season:

Pablo Ceppelini: the former Uruguayan youth international was our main playmaker throughout the season leading the league in assists while also adding 16 goals, tipically scoring with long distance efforts or beautiful 'dry leaf' free kicks. One of two San Marino players selected for Serie B Team Of The Year, and Fans Player Of The Year as well. #ElMaestro

Ricardo Quaresma: our highest profile signing seemed to justify all the hype as he consistently displayed good performances on the field while also boosting our shirt sales. Contributed with 9 goals and efficient playmaking from the right wing before new tactics made him redundant. Will be remembered in San Marino as our first international class star. #JogaBonito

Tobia Maccioni: young playmaker joined the club for 68K and spent most of the season developing in the U19 squad or appearing as a sub for the first team. Then everything changed in the last 10 games when the improving Tobia became the focal point of the offence scoring 5 goals and dishing 5 assists in his 10 starts for the club. His game showed flashes of pure magic, drawing comparisons (made by me of course) with a young Roberto Baggio. Currently a member of Italy U20 for their youth World Cup campaign, Maccioni has superstar potential written all over him and will likely see decent playing time next Serie A season as well. #Future

Marco Rossi: what a year for Marco. A former youth international for Italy and a well respected centre back for several Serie A sides, Rossi's career was in jeopardy after his involvement in recent match-fixing scandals cost him a two-years ban in the summer of 2012. San Marino were willing to give him a chance as Rossi was finally cleared to play in July 2014, and he responded with a monster season being an ever present force in defence as well as scoring 8 goals in 41 appearances. Joined teammate Ceppelini in Serie B Team of the Year as well. #Redemption

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[kitchin75]

so the god tac worked well for you thats what i will call it from now on well done mate when i get round to starting this i think ill start with the god tac and see what mayhem it will do keep up the good work

 

[kandersson]

so the god tac worked well for you thats what i will call it from now on well done mate when i get round to starting this i think ill start with the god tac and see what mayhem it will do keep up the good work

hahaha thanks mate! to be fair it was my boring (UGLY) tactic that put us in first place for the first 30 games, but the god tac definitely brought the excitement back in San Marino

it's weird because so far in FM14 I could only build successful tactics that were also ugly to watch... won Serie C playing some prehistoric football (just cross it for the big guy upfront!) then most of serie B with hard working, counter strategies (everybody defend, then counter with the wingers!). The god tac finally made my team play some exciting football (something I failed to do by my own since FM12) although in a less conventional way!

 

[seanhrfc]

Top quality stuff so far, I'm following. After last years success I'm not sure about going for the San Marino challenge again, but I am doing a Gibraltar game managing the national team and Man Utd (GIB).

 

[kandersson]

Top quality stuff so far, I'm following. After last years success I'm not sure about going for the San Marino challenge again, but I am doing a Gibraltar game managing the national team and Man Utd (GIB).

thanks mate, yeah I know the feeling I actually didn't really play much FM13 for the same reason after my epic san marino saves in FM11 and especially FM12.

This time I'm taking a different approach, I want to use the SM players at the club asap and not only after I won everthing. Doesn't mean I won't try to win it all, but good SM youngsters will now go to first team as soon as possible! I have at least three that should become quite good, they just turned 16 though so definitely not ready for serie A yet. Maybe next year

 

[kandersson]

Serie A 2015/2016: Summer Update

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First season in Serie A traditionally brings more frantic transfer activity than usual for San Marino (which means A LOT), new TV contracts and sponsorship gave us a good budget and I probably got a bit carried away as I managed to throw away 14M euros between all signings, loans and co-ownerships!

Actually the whole number was softened a bit with a few sells and other co-ownerships deals, while I was delighted I could include some fringe, unwanted players as partial exchange in some of our bigger deals! New signings feature a new Slovak keeper, a trio of solid nordic defenders, a few Serie A veterans and some loans to add depth at reasonable cost. Here are key new signings (see screens above)


Rafinha: Thiago Alcantara's little brother found himself on the transfer list at Barcelona, so a structured deal of 5.5M euros (actually softened by a couple of useless Dutch wingers heading to Barcelona...) was enough to land the talented playmaker. San Marino's most expensive signing so far, and definitely a huge part of our present and future. Obviously got injured for two months after a very promising start.

Guido Vadala: 18 years old wonderkid from Boca Juniors joined for a total of 1.7M euros (half-decent prospect Nicolas Albarracin also went to Boca in the deal) and already looks good enough to be first choice in the key shadow striker role. One of the most promising young players in Serie A, joined Rafinha in the physio room for 6 weeks after a couple of excellent games...

Nam Tae-Hee: South Korean attacker joined on a free and has ideal attributes to perform in any of the three creative roles upfront. His pace and skills on the ball make him a deadly option as the shadow striker, though I'm comfortable using him as a playmaker as well. NOT injured, actually very much active on the pitch in this start of the season!

Simone Benedetti: young centre back joined the Titani in a co-ownership deal worth 1.3M euros and immediately became the leader of the back line despite being youngest member. Touted as the next Franco Baresi, Benedetti still has much room for improvement and hopefully will develop in San Marino for years to come.


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Extremely pleased with quality and depth of our squad, we're certainly NOT another newly promoted team! Squad might actually be a bit too large considering we'll only play Serie A and Italian Cup, but we do have cover for the occasional injury crisis at least...

In other news the club is progressing well in every area, Youth Facilities were cancelled (!) but I had them re-started straight away and now they're taking much less time than before to be completed (!!). Training Facilities are also being improved, while Junior Coaching and Youth Recruitment were both upgraded to Average.

Links with parent clubs Cesena and Bologna were automatically cut as they're now playing in a lower division than us, while Serie C1 side Como are our new feeder club. Scouting knowledge has reached elite level thanks to our foreign coaches and scouts, and the legendary Liam Brady is also taking over as Head of Youth Development. Our old HOYD actually did pretty well with last year's youth intake, but Brady just looked so good...





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[kitchin75]

some nice players you have got there the god tac has had a son its ment to be a lot better go see

 

[kandersson]

some nice players you have got there the god tac has had a son its ment to be a lot better go see

the son of the god tac? should we call that the jesus tac then XD

Thanks I'll gladly have a look, though we're doing REALLY well with the original tactic even in serie A!