kandersson

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After a one year hiatus I finally feel ready to start http://www.fm-base.co.uk/forum/football-manager-2012-stories/87029-not-another-san-marino-story.html on FM14!

Hopefully this will be a success story like the last one, though I have to say I still have a lot to learn in FM14, and current ME probably isn't helping much but still...

As per tradition I have started as both club & national team manager from day one, I like to be the one and only responsible for every little thing going on in San Marino 8-|


So the club starts in in Italian Serie C1 (third tier), and board's expectations are... well not much! This year Serie C won't have any relegation due to future change of format, and the board is happy to just consolidate and build for the future. Which is great for me as I can start my own legacy almost from scratch and experiment a bit with tactics, new players, new staff and youth development all without risking my job.... while of course trying to get out of Serie C misery as soon as possible!

As of January 2014 I can say I'm feeling optimistic about our season:

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First place after 20 games, despite an average squad for this standard of football and my early season struggles with tactics. I was determined to play a flamboyant 4-2-3-1 with creative attackers and technical forwards and put together a squad full of gifted attacking midfielders, wingers and playmakers... only to fail miserably everywhere and blow everything up!

Eventually I found both defensive balance and offensive efficiency in a 3-4-2-1 based on simple wide play and crosses for a supporting Target Man! Which is pretty much the opposite of how I like to play, but it's working very well at the moment so...

Meet my 'star' players so far:

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My big bad target man Fausto Rossini - originally a backup in my plans - has been on fire since embracing our new style of football: he's scoring at impressive rate finishing everything that comes from the flanks, and being the focal point of whole offence. Fellow veteran and former Portuguese international Luis Boa Morte is our main assist man and has become a key player on the left flank providing deadly crosses and the occasional goal.

I like having a strong veteran presence in lower leagues, maybe it's because I can't afford anything else... though I feel the likes of Lorenzo Stovini and Bobo Balde (!) are very useful to lead the team and work with the more inexperienced young players on loan at the club. Actually my first team players are either very old (35+) or very young (18-19), a curious mix working quite well so far though!


Next update with a frightening year 2013 for the NT, including the heaviest loss in my long CM/FM career...


 
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Nice! Will be following for sure, good luck bud.
 
excellent, was gutted you didn't do this last year, hopefully becomes better than your fantastic effort on fm12
 
I read your fm12 effort with this story and will await updates on this story with baited breath
 
thanks a lot guys!

I'm only a bit worried about ME development (if you remember FM13 was almost unplayable until xmas patch), hopefully they can soon release a solid ME who doesn't need constant adjustments in the future! FM12 had its flaws but ME was pretty consistent from day one.
 
National Team: Year 2013


I took a quick glance at my National Team side, and thought I could feel slightly
more confident than usual as it seemed to me that the average standard of Sammarinese players was looking less awful than I expected.


Old buddies Aldo Junior Simoncini and Andy Selva are still the best players of an amateur level side, with fellow 'star player' Mirko Palazzi now cleared to play at international level from the start. Other promising - for SM standard - youngsters feature the likes of Matteo Vitaioli and Juri Biordi, plus a bunch of potentially half-decent prospects developing at the club - not ready yet for senior NT though, which does say something about their quality...

Here's a screen of our most respected pro, Mirko Palazzi:

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So how did we start our journey at international level? Well, have a look...

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A series of spectacular losses across Europe, culminating in a 0-11 embarrassment against Poland, which is the heaviest I've ever suffered in my long career as a Football (Championship) Manager. I have to say current ME doesn't go particularly well with defending/containing strategies, especially when you also concede lots of corners... More acceptable results against old enemy Myanmar (0-1) and Hong Kong (2-4) closed a tragic 2013 for the NT, stable at 204th place in World Rankings.


In other terrible news the legendary Andy Selva decided to retire from football during the season, though I'm glad he did score in his very last game for San Marino. Other depressing moments included players not even answering at the phone after rejecting a call-up as subsitutes...

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The most 'successful' part of the year as usual was recruiting new staff for the various NT squads as I offered jobs right and left and eventually put together a very reputable group of managers/coaches mostly from various Serie A clubs. Highlights include the likes of Giuseppe Baresi, Marcel Desailly and Sammarinese legend Massimo Bonini. Hopefully they can spread some SM knlowledge at their clubs, or at least bring some credibility to our NT!

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Brightest note for the NT was the advent of young striker Alessandro Venerucci. The 16 year old attacker was one of many SM regens generated at the start of the game, and certainly the most promising. I signed him at the club and started working at his development, he's a 5-star prospect... for the NT, while his PA seem to fluctuate quite a bit as he's now described as a potential decent player for Serie B (after being a potential Serie C1 star), he's improving nicely though:


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He managed to score against Hong Kong, and also assisted Andy Selva's last goal for the NT, I like to see this as a good omen for the future. After Selva's retirement Venerucci is already listed as a recognized star for San Marino in the info page. Of course he's no Alessandro Paolone, but he's the best I've got at the moment... San Marino 'making progress' sure why not XD


 
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Looking forward to this! Hopefully you don't get screwed too much by those dual nationality regens. XD You going to go for any of the achievements you set on the FM12 San Marino challenge thread?
 
Looking forward to this! Hopefully you don't get screwed too much by those dual nationality regens. XD You going to go for any of the achievements you set on the FM12 San Marino challenge thread?

thanks! yeah always have those mini-challenges on my mind I'd especially like to go for the cantera policy asap this time.

I see the challenge section is now open so I'm going to post the new SM challenge there soon :)
 
Club Season 2013/14: Serie C1

League & Cups Results:

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A good way to start the challenge with this unexpected promotion to Serie B despite modest board's expectations and early struggles with tactics and new players! Our streak of 18 consecutive games undefeated to close the season was the key to promotion, as well as a dominating 4-0 win at close rivals Albinoleffe's ground. We couldn't replicate this success in cups though, with an early exit in Serie C Cup (lowest point of our initial 4-2-3-1) and a defeat in the Serie C Super Cup against a very strong Lecce side, despite a convincing win in first leg. All in all a very good season for the club, it's always great to get out of Serie C as soon as possible.


Transfers, Best 11 & Top Performers

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Typical San Marino transfers frenzy to start first season... Our core of seasoned veterans meshed up very well with youngsters on loan from higher divisions (most of them signed to provide cover at low price actually). Best Eleven is listed in our inconsistent 4-2-3-1 formation, though we found success only when we switched to a more simple 3-4-2-1 based on crosses for our target man. Four of our players were selected for Team Of The Year in a very successful season for the club and for our players. Key performers:

Fausto Rossini: veteran striker had the best year of his career and thrived in our key Target Man role, winning Serie C1A Top Scorer title and leading San Marino to Serie B with his goals. Fans Player of the year, will stay at the club another year as a cheap backup and as a mentor for young players. #GoalHunter

Luis Boa Morte: former Portuguese international was a key player for the Titani, owning the left flank and leading Serie C1 in assists. Hopefully his skills and experience will be useful in Serie B as well, think Brazil's Denilson in 2002 World Cup... #AmazingLeft

Lorenzo Stovini: experienced defender led the line with authority and was an ideal role model for young players. Earned a contract extension despite his 37 years. #Captain

Stefano Sensi: young trequartista on loan from Cesena, Sensi was undisputed first choice at the key No.10 role, being our main playmaker and scoring important goals in key games, including a brace in the very last league game of the season. Made Team Of The Year and won Serie C Young Player Of The Year. #Maestro


Youth intake was quite disappointing this year: the three best prospects were FULLY Italian while all SM youngsters were quite useless, hopefully this won't be the trend in the future... Early season pick up Alessandro Venerucci is still best prospect in the country at the moment, which isn't all great news despite his nice progress:

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Currently touted as a potential decent player for Serie B, can he beat the odds and develop into something bigger? We certainly hope so...



I'm waiting for next patch before starting Serie B, honestly I haven't really enjoyed the tactical side of the game very much despite good results and I think current match engine has more than something to do with that... Can't wait to continue the challenge and bring glory to SM :)
 
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great start, but how is your wage budget 2 million already? I'm playing with san marino and although i couldn't get oiut of eerie c first season my wage budget was about 40k.
 
Good start can't wait to see the first world class SM player

Thanks, and well Venerucci will have to do for now ;)

great start, but how is your wage budget 2 million already? I'm playing with san marino and although i couldn't get oiut of eerie c first season my wage budget was about 40k.

Thanks mate, yeah that's 2M per annum (ie per year) while you're probably used to weekly wage budget so 40k per week should be same as 2M per year :p.

Serie B will indeed give you decent money via new sponsorships and TV deals, I now have a healthy 2M for transfers which means I can stretch wage budget to 4M per year!
 
Serie B 2014/2015: Summer Update

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Back to San Marino for the Titani's debut season in Serie B!

Of course it was another crazy transfer session for us, I probably signed too many players in the end but a healthy wage budget (which I managed to stretch to 4M euros per year) and Serie B rules (maximum wage of 300K per year for a single player) seemed to encourage my insane policy... Veteran striker Jeda started impressively scoring for fun in the Italian Cup (unfortunately got injured early) while teenage sensation Tobia Maccioni was our most 'expensive' transfer at 68K, he's a fantastic prospect with leading Serie A potential, really excited about his development. But the real coup was the free signing of Portuguese wizard Ricardo Quaresma, truly an international class winger and a game changer at this level. Well at least I hope so, though even if he fails badly he will still be a marketing success as confirmed by the board ;)


Big news from board and staff too:

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Works for youth facilities upgrade have started (will be completed in late 2016 oO)), while I also used the off-season to bolster our backroom staff with quality additions. The level of training and coaches is now very respectable, and German legend Andreas Brehme also takes over as DoF. I'm thinking I'll have him handle next youth intake as our HoYD (Louis Saha!) is pretty average and didn't impress me at all last season.


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Our Serie B squad. Definitely a good team, I'm happy with overall quality and feel confident we can do more than avoid relegation, which is what the board expects. We started the season very well with four wins between league and cups, too early to say if we can make a push for playoffs/promotion though. Youngster Alessandro Venerucci got some extra minutes as a sub after Jeda's injury and responded with a couple of nice goals. He's improving very well, and I absolutely love his powerful left-footed strikes!


Coming up next: National Team year 2014​
 
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