NOT Another San Marino Story

Great story mate, ive been enjoying reading this :)

Shame that guy is ignoring your call-up.....I had the same thing when I took over the belgium NT. Rangers had a great 17 yr old left back with Belgium/Turkey nationality (a weird mix i know). He consistantly ignored my call-ups and was capped for turkeys u21s 8 times. Then they got a new manager who didnt pick him for some reason and then he jumped at the chance to play for belgium.

So just keep hoping and he will soon answer the call!
 
sammyt said:
i can see you beating iceland home and away and possibly nicking something out of the latvia games. i reckon you'll end up with 7 or 8 points.
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thanks sammyt, you're quite optimistic ;) Iceland is surprisingly good, can't remember players' names but they have some very good defenders plus 2-3 excellent attackers (esp the Ajax striker). I think we'll have a better chance with Latvia, honestly I'd be happy finishing with 5-6 points :p

@mbaudrier: thanks mate, yep next year will be tough for the NT but that's my favorite part of the challenge :)

@Scullybug: I hope the defectors will change their mind soon, the NT would be so much better with them. Teenage striker Paolone is probably the first SM regen who could be good enough to play for Italy, though certainly San Marino need him more! I think he could become an important player for the club as well.


2015/16 mid-season update coming soon, comments and feedback always appreciated :)
 
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kandersson said:
thanks sammyt, you're quite optimistic ;) Iceland is surprisingly good, can't remember players' names but they have some very good defenders plus 2-3 excellent attackers (esp the Ajax striker). I think we'll have a better chance with Latvia, honestly I'd be happy finishing with 5-6 points :p
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Kolbeinn Sigþórsson (ajax) rocks and Gylfi Sigurðsson (hoffenheim) is great too.
 
Serie A 2015/16: Winter Update

Time for mid-season update for 2015/16, our second year in Serie A.

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San Marino with a shocking 2nd place after first half of the season! Star striker Ailton and club favourite Eric were hit hard by injuries, Ailton in particular seemed victim of some voodoo curse - food poisoning, flu, broken toe and other freak accidents kept him out for a total of three months. Luckily their back-ups Bruno Veiga and John Fleck were ready to step up and carried the team both in the league and cups. Fleck, who joined San Marino during our Serie B season, is finally maturing as a player and as a person after years of poor performances and personal issues.

San Marino still struggle against top 5-6 clubs in Italy and we're generally quite inconsistent away from home, but we're doing a great job against clubs in the 10th-20th range usually dominating and recording comfortable wins, that's where we get most of our points! I'm not thinking of Scudetto right now and tbh Napoli, Inter, Milan and Juventus should be out of reach for San Marino looking at their players... but... looking at the table I have high hopes of finishing top three and qualify for Champions League!


Our Europa League experience has also been great so far:

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We mainly played our youngsters in this competition (our injury crisis also helped this policy...), wasn't expecting to qualify from the group but we made it in the end! Sammarinese golden boy Alessandro Paolone was surprisingly the key player here, scoring 6 goals in 7 matches (always coming off the bench) including a brace in the crucial game against Marseille. Love him!


As for transfers we kept making good profits via co-ownerships while these were our signings for January:

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Samuel Souprayen from Celtic was our most expensive signing ever at 5M euros. He's a strong, pacey defender who can handle both CB and LB positions, and I can see him becoming our first choice left back very soon. Fabio is a young, talented Brazilian projected to be a long-term replacement for Eric as our left-footed AMR (once retrained). Fabio was quite cheap at 1.9M and we still had a non-EU spot available for this season, hopefully his signing will prove to be a good deal in the next years.
 
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Great update m8!
That Fabio is a great prospect, but his long throws! Never seen a AMC with such long throws!
 
Congrats on getting through the group, excited to see who you'll be drawn against in the knockout round!
 
loved reading this, as i did last year. however, having played in fm 11, i can't help but feel that it must be much easier this year. top 100 after 5 years and top class regens being produced! doesn't sound right for a country with a population of 30 000. what are the odds of producing a leading serie A player.
nevertheless, you are clearly doing brilliantly and i admire you getting things out of players who have flopped for me with crewe such as fleck and petrucci. keep it up!
 
Scullybug said:
Congrats on getting through the group, excited to see who you'll be drawn against in the knockout round!
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I can anticipate that:

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Trabzonspor aren't a bad draw for us though I have to say they have been very active in the transfer market recently! Their current star player is Bony Wilfried, truly an excellent striker. I'll need my best squad to face this challenge, won't be easy to handle both Serie A and Europa League at this stage.

@Grainger Jackson: I agree it's MUCH easier to get good/great sammarinese regens in FM12, so the NT job is much easier as well. Honestly I think it will be possible to win Serie A with only SM players within 10-15 years. Bad thing is the best ones usually have Italian nationality as well and won't accept SM call-up at least initially.

Fleck was very disappointing for a couple of years both on and off the pitch, but this season he's been great. I think he could be a good player at any level if he decides to put some effort.
 
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kandersson said:
Fleck was very disappointing for a couple of years both on and off the pitch, but this season he's been great. I think he could be a good player at any level if he decides to put some effort.
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from what i can gather from the short time i had him for on the last game he needed a run of games to get the best out of him and if i gave him a run of games then he could play at any level with ease but it was hard for me to fit him in to my team and as such i mainly played him off teh bench or in teh odd game and eh was absolutely dire when used that way.
 
Club Update 2015/16: Italian Cup Champions

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First major success in San Marino history! OK Italian Cup isn't exactly "major" but I guess we had to start somewhere. As you can see we had a relatively easy path in this tournament, beating Serie A strugglers Empoli and mid-table side Cagliari (after penalties) to reach the semifinals.

There we had to face Roma:

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Not what you'd expect from an average semi-final: both Roma and San Marino fielded lots of youngsters and back-up players, there was some entertaining football for sure but 2nd leg in particular looked more like an exhibition game. Still, I was very pleased we managed to get to the Final.

Italian Cup Final against Fiorentina:

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For the first time in the whole tournament I decided to use my first choice players and Fiorentina did the same, well at least the Final looked like a real final. San Marino cult hero Eric, at the club since Serie C1 season, decided the match with two goals and one assist and the Titani came away with a deserved win together with an excellent team performance.

As I said this was the first major trophy for San Marino, and hopefully won't be the last. Who knows, maybe we could add another one before the end of the season... or even two... or maybe zero :p
 
Club Update 2015/16: Europa League Fever

As you remember San Marino were able to qualify from Europa League group stage after some promising performances from youngsters and back-up players. Serie A was always the main priority for us but certainly I had no intention of snubbing EL and tended to field the best possible formation.


1st Knockout Round: Trabzonspor

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I was quite worried after first leg: we had totally dominated the game but only managed a 1-1 draw at home so Trabzonspor had a clear advantage now. San Marino came back strong in second leg and simply proved to be the better team on the pitch. A brace from super-sub teenager Alessandro Paolone helped us on our way.


2nd Knockout Round: Dnipro

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We were lucky to pick Dnipro at this stage as they were probably the weakest team in EL. After a disappointing 0-0 at the Olimipico San Marino managed a convincing 4-1 away win, and fully deserved to advance to next round.


Quarter Final: Villarreal

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This was a real test for us. Our away win in first leg was the key here: Villarreal attacked wildly and had plenty of chances but they conceded a lot too. A 2-1 away win gave us a big advantage for second leg, as we slowed down tempo and controlled the game in a solid 1-0 win in Serravalle.


Semi Final: Inter

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Fellow Serie A contenders Inter were our next opponents. Not sure what they were thinking in first leg, as Inter decided to field a second (or third) choice squad with many youngsters and reserve players. A deserved 3-1 win at San Siro made our job relatively easy in the second leg. Inter eventually played their best team but it was too little, too late as San Marino managed another 2-0 win thanks to some effective counter football.


Final: Sevilla

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Not exactly what I expected here. Wonderkid Ailton saved the best for last as he scored FIVE goals in a ridiculous 6-0 thrashing of Spanish giants Sevilla. Clutch performance from a clutch player. His five goals in a game were also a new record for the club.

Sadly this proved to be the very last game in a San Marino jersey for Ailton :'(


Hopefully full season update coming before I leave for xmas holidays (otherwise it will be in january :p)
 
Been following this thread closely, though I can't help noticing it's been a while since the last update! Looking forward to more installments soon...
 
Felley said:
Been following this thread closely, though I can't help noticing it's been a while since the last update! Looking forward to more installments soon...
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yep haven't played much FM for about one month and now I'm struggling to get back to my SM save. I had completed a successful 2015/16 season and new one started very promisingly as well, then lost a bit of motivation due to some "incidents" - most notably the board selling godlike striker Ailton behind my back and Sammarinese wizkid Alessandro Paolone accepting Italy U21 call-up.

I will definitely get back to my SM save at some point but right now I'd like to start something different, possibly a new challenge.
 
just read every page very interesting story you have done an amazing job
 
so not sure how many will be interested but after a healthy break I'm ready to get back to my SM save so new story updates will be here soon with 2015/16 resume, post-season "incidents" and 2016/17 pre-season :p
 
I am interested also, can u review your club and national team development in a short story and what are the main things you did in order to get there?
 
insanity said:
I am interested also, can u review your club and national team development in a short story and what are the main things you did in order to get there?
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hi what do you mean in particular? what exactly would you like to see that I left out in previous updates? more players' screenshots, Fifa rankings graph? just let me know

I should complete pre-season soon and then go with new updates, possibly tomorrow :)
 
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