San Marino- Attempting the Impossible

  • Thread starter Thread starter flez85
  • Start date Start date
  • Replies Replies 252
  • Views Views 62K
2021/22 Best Eleven

View attachment 334661

Ogaga's performances were the best as expected, but it's Giandonato and Cortinovis that I'm most impressed with. They were both players that I considered backups but for one reason or another got plenty of playing time and performed better than the players ahead of them.

Overall Best Eleven

View attachment 334662

Giandonato is inducted into the overall best eleven first team this year, which probably justifies his cause for wanting a major pay increase.

Transfers

View attachment 334663

Unfortunately I thought Giandonato was asking for too much for a player that is probably my 4th or 5th best central mid. He's since joined Atalanta for a contract I would have gladly given him to stay. Worse yet, Barcelona came in with a bid for Guilherme that I rejected, then he wanted a new contract but the only way he'd sign was with a maximum of $48M release clause that they matched not too long after. Now losing Giandonato stings a little. I can't complain too much since we did get almost ten times the amount we paid for him in 2018.

Ins:

View attachment 334664

Chianese comes in because of his highly rated potential and awesomely high determination and work rate. Hopefully he'll develop quickly to alleviate the losses of Guilherme and Giandonato.

View attachment 334665

I know, poor piece of business. Not buying him this time but the fact that I sold him about 18 months ago. I've been keeping an eye on him since he left and he's developed very nicely. The price tag looks a lot larger than it turned out to be because we received 40% of the profit from the previous deal ($8M). I think he's at least as good as Maes is but in different areas.

View attachment 334666

I was really excited when I was able to snap him up on a free. He's a player I've been keeping tabs on for a very long time, even back when we were in Serie C1. Of course I couldn't afford him then and Ajax were asking way too much recently when I've tried to buy him. He's here now and I'm looking forward to seeing if he's been worth the wait.

View attachment 334667

Possibly my future right back, it's an area that I felt really needed strengthening and couldn't find any reasonably priced players that could start right away so opted for Birmingham to hopefully grow into the role.

View attachment 334668

Another player for the future and another one from Ajax. I'm hoping that I didn't spend too much on him, though he is a little closer to breaking into the first team than Birmingham is. The other thing that worries me is he'll be ahead of Sanchi, the San Marino native with high potential, in the pecking order so may slow down his development.

Friendlies

View attachment 334669​
 
August 2022

View attachment 334893

We won the Super Cup for the second year in a row, though honestly we were lucky in that one. Juventus really controlled the game and got off plenty of shots on target but Alvarado was in fine form and luckily we won the lottery of the penalty shootout. In the Competzione Amichevole I stuck to playing only U21 players with the exception of Custers and Chianese who I wanted to get some match fitness in preparation for the upcoming season. Even with the squad of youngsters we were able to win it easily. In the league we absolutely dominated both Lazio and Juventus, unfortunately we didn't start well in either giving up two early goals and having to come from behind.

League Table

View attachment 334895

Hopefully we can come out with more focus for the next games and not allow the other team to score early. The board expectations are to win the league though the media and bookies have Juventus as favorites.

Depth Chart

View attachment 334896

I think that with the departure of Guilherme and Giandonato at midfield we're a little weaker than we were last year but if the new players develop quickly we can be a threat to any team in Europe. I wish there was a way to change the order of players here manually because I feel that Donati is actually the best right back and Birmingham will be his main backup to try and get him developed. At midfield I'd put Chianese ahead of Sturaro for the same reasons.

Squad

View attachment 334898

I won't name a player of the month because of only two league matches being played, but I have been impressed with the new signings, especially Alvarado who is making a case to be the regular first choice keeper ahead of Maes.

Champions League Group Draw

View attachment 334899View attachment 334900View attachment 334901

I believe this is the first time we've been placed in the draw as a first seed and it helps tremendously. If we don't dominate our group I'll be disappointed. It's especially a blessing because we'll be able to get some of our younger players and new signings experience on Europe's biggest stage to expedite their development.

​
 
September 2022

View attachment 334974

Good month winning all of our games, cut the Inter match close but new recruit Chianese was able to grab the winner in the dying minutes.

League Table

View attachment 334975

Our recent form puts us back on top and it does mildly surprise me after thinking our squad wasn't as strong as it was last year. One thing I've noticed is that for at least the last couple of seasons Palermo has started out strong but they tend to start dropping off around November or December.

Squad

View attachment 334979

Boschetti has really been coming along and did really well in his only full game of the month netting a hattrick against Spezia. Sotomayor and Royer have also performed well though so it's tough giving him the nod over those two. The new signing I've been most impressed with is Birmingham who is already earning a good amount of time, though Donati has maybe sensed this and has stepped up his game. Batata handed in a transfer request, I'd like to hang onto him but with Fabbrini and Kusters ahead of him for the right wing I may have to let him go if a good enough offer comes along.​
 
October 2022

View attachment 334980

We've been continuing to play well though the Napoli result was disappointing as I felt we deserved to win that one.

League Table

View attachment 334981

Palermo has dropped like a rock since the last update. Juventus and Napoli, however, are hot on our tail.

Champions League Table

View attachment 334982

As I expected we should qualify easily from this group.

Squad

View attachment 334983

Sotomayor played in 4 of the 5 games for the month tallying 5 goals and 3 assists. This is the type of player I think he can be consistently but he's yet to play at or around this level for an entire season, maybe that's about to change. Birmingham didn't have that good of a month so I may be going back to Donati at right back.​
 
November 2022

View attachment 335186

The Catania game was our first loss of the season, including friendlies. It was disappointing but can't win them all.

League Table

View attachment 335188

AC Milan is starting to make a surge back up the table, but Catania have been the most impressive. I don't think they'll last long up here and the league will probably be between us, Juventus, Napoli, and Milan with us and Juventus most likely to pull away.

Champions League Group

View attachment 335189

We've done what we needed to and qualified with two games in hand.

Squad

View attachment 335190​
 
great results as usual but I think we should start to see a few Sammarinese youngsters breaking into first team now ;)
 
kandersson said:
great results as usual but I think we should start to see a few Sammarinese youngsters breaking into first team now ;)
Click to expand...

Boschetti's been getting some time, Sanchi and Ceccoli not as much but they're close. The problem is that there's few players capable of coming close to the first team, and the ones that are have dual nationality and are electing to play for Italy's youth teams so their nationality shows Italian on the squad screen. I'm really hoping that they play for San Marino eventually, preferable before they're 25, but I'm afraid that I'm training these kids up to be future stars for Italy.

I'm thinking of cutting myself off from buying foreign players once I win the Champions League to see if I can keep the club at the top using only homegrown players.
 
December 2022

View attachment 335253

Won all of our games fairly easily, with the biggest surprise being the difficult time we had against Serie B side Como.

League Table

View attachment 335254

Things are going well in the league, hopefully we can hold off Juventus this year and take the title back.

Champions League

View attachment 335255View attachment 335256View attachment 335257

Liverpool fired their coach due to a poor league performance and who did they approach?
View attachment 335258

Of course the offer was rejected, but ironically this is the draw for the Knockout Round of the Champions League:
View attachment 335259

Squad

View attachment 335260

Castellazzi has made a stellar return from injury and has locked down the left side of the pitch for us.
​
 
January-February 2023

View attachment 335276

Went two months for this update and overall it was a good period, though the Juventus match was frustrating as they smashed us and probably should have scored a couple more. In the Champions League Liverpool were the better team but we managed a draw to put us in a good position coming back home.

League Table

View attachment 335277

Despite losing the all important match against Juventus we're still top. They can close the gap though with their game in hand.

Squad

View attachment 335278

Lots of injuries during these two months. Royer just came back from his injury, and now Birmingham and Cortinovis are both out till around the end of the season with Cordoba out for 2-3 weeks. Boschetti has continued to do well with his increased role in the first team, he's now my third choice striker so when Royer was injured he started most games.

I think I made a mistake before saying that the team isn't as strong as last year. With the best 11 players on the pitch last years squad was stronger, but this year I'm a lot more comfortable with the players I can rotate in and I think that's really gone a long way to getting us positive results when we might not have before.​
 
flez85 said:
Boschetti's been getting some time, Sanchi and Ceccoli not as much but they're close. The problem is that there's few players capable of coming close to the first team, and the ones that are have dual nationality and are electing to play for Italy's youth teams so their nationality shows Italian on the squad screen. I'm really hoping that they play for San Marino eventually, preferable before they're 25, but I'm afraid that I'm training these kids up to be future stars for Italy.

I'm thinking of cutting myself off from buying foreign players once I win the Champions League to see if I can keep the club at the top using only homegrown players.
Click to expand...

yeah know exactly how it feels. If it's the same as FM12 dual nationality players who have played for Italy youth teams will only accept SM the day they turn 24 (if Italy don't cap them first!)

Best thing would probably be loan out those players to lesser clubs until they accept SM, otherwise Italy would likely poach them. Most annoying part of the challenge :@
 
March 2023

View attachment 335471

Good results minus the Palermo match. We're through to the next round thanks to a good performance at home against Liverpool.

View attachment 335473

League Table

View attachment 335475

So with the loss to Palermo Juventus get even on points with us but win the tiebreaker.

Squad

View attachment 335476

Champions League Draw

View attachment 335480View attachment 335481

Olympique Lyonnais could be tough, they beat AIK in the first round 11-1 on aggregate after a 9-1 home win. Then if we advance we'll most likely be facing Man U once again so I'm hoping we get the chance for some revenge.

Youth Intake

View attachment 335492View attachment 335495View attachment 335493View attachment 335494

Not the greatest year for youth, but Cappichioni doesn't have dual nationality so he could feature in the national team as early as next year. Maybe it's a good thing that the intake was poor this year, hopefully it will mean that the players will accept my call up sooner.

National Team ECQ Update

View attachment 335498View attachment 335499
View attachment 335500

The win over Slovenia was huge and jumped us up to around 150th in the world rankings. Who knows, maybe if we can get good results against Moldova and another against Slovenia we can finish 3rd or 4th which would be more than acceptable.​
 
April-May 2023

View attachment 335613

A disappointing 3 losses in the last 7 games in the league sees our season come derailed. The Pescara match was the most frustrating as we dominated but every time they came near our goal they somehow scored.

League Table

View attachment 335614

Juventus win the league again and they seem to be even better under Ferrara than they were under Conte, even though Conte just broke the record for most points in the EPL for a season with Chelsea.

Champions League

View attachment 335615View attachment 335616

Crazy second Leg in France but in the end Rugani's dominance in set pieces got him a hattrick and earned us advancement to the Semi Final to face off against Manchester United.

View attachment 335617View attachment 335618

It was set pieces that again earned us an unlikely win at Old Trafford in the first leg, then a credible win at home in the return leg sees us in the Final for the third time in 4 years. We'll face Conte-led Chelsea who overcame Real Madrid, PSG, and Barcelona. Nothing would be sweeter than to win the Champions League for the first time against an old rival, but they've been very good since he took over so we'll have our work cut out for us.

Squad

View attachment 335620

Sotomayor broke the San Marino record for assists in a season, tallying 32. He finally put together a full season playing up to his ability and I'm hopeful that he can get even better.​
 
Italian Cup Final

View attachment 335632

Boschetti becomes the cup hero! When they scored to equalize I thought for sure we were going to lose because we just didn't look like we had it in us to pull of the win but Boschetti came through for us.

Champions League Final

View attachment 335633

We've finally done it!!! When they went 2-0 up early I thought we were in for a long night but the players kicked on in the last 15 minutes or so for a great comeback.

View attachment 335634

We have Sotomayor to thank for some great performances in the campaign as well as the goal that ultimately won it for us. This makes the first (and easier) part of the challenge complete 10 years in.


I'm now thinking about how to keep this entertaining, not just for people following but for myself. If I'm being completely honest I've been getting frustrated with the lack of progress on the national side. I think I'm going to do updates less frequently now until the national team starts to become competitive, I'm thinking of doing 2 month, 3 month, or half year updates but I'm not sure which yet.

If anyone has any ideas or things they'd like to see let me know. I know kandersson mentioned seeing more Sammarinese players breaking into the first team and that's going to be a priority now that we've won the Champions League. It just concerns me that my dual nationality players (the best with Sammarinese nationality) might not play for the national team until they're 24, so that means a whole 10 years of training and developing players before they play and even then they'll most likely play for Italy given the chance.​
 
2023 Best Eleven

View attachment 335638

Sotomayor was the pick for the fan's player of the year and rightfully so. With the new signings I was impressed with Birmingham and Chianese. I expected Chianese to start pretty much right away but didn't think Birmingham would perform well enough to take the starting spot at right back. Boschetti has really come a long way in his development and I'm really hoping he isn't capped by Italy before he turns 24.

Overall Best Eleven

View attachment 335639

Pretty much the same as last year except that Giandonato and Murru dropped out and old players were put back in.

Pre-Season Transfers

View attachment 335640

No players in and I don't plan on bringing anyone in. On the outs are some aging players and some players who were never going to get a sniff of the first team. Floridia's transfer was a lot more than I would have expected for a player who barely made the bench last year.

View attachment 335643

Good to see I'm not the only one who thinks highly of Sotomayor. Offer was rejected though it was tempting. We really don't need the money either, the finances are healthy.

Friendly Results

View attachment 335641

I still haven't switched it back to setting up the friendlies myself so not very many games. I probably should have because I'm trying a new formation to attempt to play better defense, but I'm not sure I'll stick with it after these results against teams we probably should have won against fairly easily. Not too bothered though since they're friendlies.

Facilities

View attachment 335642

The board decided to build a new stadium and it wasn't until I read the news item about the loss to Valencia that I realized they named it after me. I'm skeptical as to whether or not we can fill that many seats but we'll see. I also managed to convice the board to put more money in junior coaching and the youth recruitment network as well as upgrading the youth facilities. I feel like I've taken the club about as far as it can go, now it's about maintaining the stature and producing youngsters for the nation.

​
 
August-December 2023

View attachment 336209

A great run in the league and it's really amazing what we've accomplished with the squad being riddled with injuries for most of the first half of the season. I switched to using seanhrfc's Arrigo Sacchi tactic found here and it's worked as well for me as it has for most people. I think I accomplished quite a bit using my own tactics and really wanted to try his tactic out.

Cup Results

View attachment 336213

With these results factored in that makes Stuttgart the only team so far this season to have defeated us. We also have already secured three trophies, the Italian Super Cup, European Super Cup, and the Club World Championship.

Champions League

View attachment 336217

We qualified fairly easily again and will look to continue our success in the competition.

View attachment 336216

I expect us to advance past Sporting, but I think I'm going to need to bring in a couple of players in this transfer window. Our squad is thin and with all of the injuries that keep happening we'll need some decent backups at a few positions. I'm going to try and not bring anyone in that may block a Sammarinese player from getting into the first team.

League Table

View attachment 336224

It's incredible that we've only allowed 2 goals in 14 games. Napoli have been doing well so far as has Juventus, and AC Milan had their usual poor start to the season followed by a rise up the table.

Squad

View attachment 336227View attachment 336228

I've been giving a lot of young players more game time this season, partly because I wanted to and partly because I was forced to at times through injuries. Ogaga has been remarkably even more awesome than usual as has Sotomayor. Kusters, however, is the one I'm most impressed with because I've been playing him as an MR which even after training for the position for 4 months is still at "awkward". I was just checking that info and saw that his first international goal was against none other than San Marino, not really relevant but thought it was interesting.

National Team

View attachment 336230

So I was definitely getting way ahead of myself when I was hoping for 4th place in the group. Good news is all of the games were more competitive than they appear from the scoreline, especially the Ireland match.​
 
January 2024 Transfers

View attachment 336845View attachment 336846

Cirigliano came in for $8M from PSG to provide some much needed cover at the DM position. He's an older player than I would have liked to bring in so I'll be looking to replace him in the near future. Novosad I thought was a steal at $4.5M from Maritimo despite being under rated by Adailton. Still, he's another player used mainly for cover when Cordoba isn't fit to play.

January-May 2024 League Results

View attachment 336847
View attachment 336848

Only one defeat on the season at the hands of Juventus and even that was a match we probably should have won. There were a lot of injuries during that time so things could have gone different if we were healthy. We had the league tied up with an impressive 5 games to play so there were a lot of youngsters played at the end and we still managed to go unbeaten for them.

League Table

View attachment 336849

An amazing season in the Serie A as we blitzed the record for points set by Juventus at 94. This is especially impressive with the amount of injuries we had at times as well as the fact that I played more youth this season than any other previously.

Cup Results

View attachment 336850

We were unfortunate to go down to Man U as the first leg away was a fairly even game where they managed to take their chances while our finishing was poor. In the return leg we dominated them but again couldn't put our chances away. We did manage to retain the Italian cup however, making it an impressive five trophies on the season (not including the Competzione Amichevole).
View attachment 336852

Serie A Player Stats

View attachment 336853

Sotomayor won the Golden Boot with Royer coming in third, Cordoba topped the assist chart with Kusters and Chianese both tallying up an impressive total. However our best player far and away was Ogaga, who broke the average rating record for a Serie A season.
View attachment 336854

There also seems to have been a glitch for shots on target, not sure how Aquilanti managed 307 shots on target with only 84 shot attempts.

Average Attendance

View attachment 336856

When we weren't even filling out our 5500 seater a couple of years ago I was wondering how we'd get on with over 19000 seats in the new stadium, but it was surprisingly filled at 90% capacity on average with 4 sellouts in the league.
​
 
2023/24 Best Eleven

View attachment 336881

This marks the first season (in Serie A at least) that a San Marino native was selected for the best eleven first team, and there's two of them in Boschetti and Sanchi. Unfortunately Sanchi has just been called up by the Italy senior team for a friendly against Germany and even if he doesn't win his first cap at just 19 I'm certain he'll be playing for Italy before his 24th birthday.

Overall Best Eleven

View attachment 336885

Ibrahim and Cordoba are the new additions to the first team with Royer making it to the bench. Kirev has recently retired from playing and I've just offered him an u20's position as a GK coach so hopefully he'll be back with the club. Also, Guilherme, who dropped to the bench in favor of Ibrahim, has been doing rather well at Barcelona and is proving to be worth the $48M they paid us.

Richest Clubs

View attachment 336893

We've come a very long way since 2012 and are now the 12th richest club in the world. What's interesting to me is that England have 7 of the top 10 clubs in this statistic.

2024/25 Depth Chart

View attachment 336894

I haven't brought in or sold anyone in the transfer window yet so I may stick with this squad. Kusters has been taking a long time to get familiar with the MR position he trained for all of last year so I might either look to bring in someone natural at that position or go back to attacking mids on the wings.


​
 
August-December 2024

View attachment 337130

We're on our way to another fantastic season. Our defense isn't quite as stellar as it was last year but it's good enough. The Juventus match was disappointing as star men Sotomayor and Ogaga performed horrificly and they took advantage.

Transfer Out, Transfers In

View attachment 337131

After a successful 9 seasons at the club, aging Livaja moves on and for a good $7M profit. He's done well for us but at his age I was looking to keep the squad fresh so when he handed in a transfer request I wasn't too upset.

View attachment 337132

Sukhov comes in for $23M from Spartak Moscow and will split time with Kusters on the right wing. I didn't want to pay that much for him but I really needed someone else to play at that position and he was the best option available that I was able to find.

View attachment 337133

I'm taking a bit of a risk with this lad who will be joining us from Celtic for $11.25M. I got him on deadline day and didn't have enough time to send my scouts to cover him so I'm hoping he's not a flop. I really needed someone young to come in at DM as Cirigliano and Ibrahim are getting old and Peruibe hasn't developed like I had hoped. Hopefully this kid can fit the bill.

Cup Results

View attachment 337134

We've won the Super Cup for the 4th time in a row and 6th time in 7 years by dismantling AC Milan. The Competzione Amichevole remains ours as well with poundings of Sammarinese teams by a squad of youngsters. I would have liked to perform better in the Champions League but the important thing is we made it through. The Italian Cup draws us against Juventus next so we have a chance to avenge the loss to them earlier in the season.

View attachment 337135

Olympiakos looked the team to beat after 4 games played in the group, but beat them did FCP and us for the final two games, causing them to drop out of qualification and moving us into first.
View attachment 337136

A tough ask for us but we did beat them in the final a couple years ago for our first Champions League Cup.

League Table

View attachment 337137

Halfway through the season and we're rolling the league again. We're on a 14 game winning streak and are showing no signs of slowing down. Napoli have been good again this season but it remains to be seen if they can hold off Juventus for second assuming we do close the deal and win our 5th title. Inter have been trying to build back into the powerhouse they once were and are doing a good job of it though they're still a ways off of Italy's elite.

Squad

View attachment 337138
View attachment 337139

Despite a slow start to the year, Sotomayor has come on strong and sits in second in Serie A for goals, assists, and average rating (Ogaga is first). Sukhov has impressed since joining and his performances merit more first team time than Kusters at the moment. Sotomayor and Royer have both been battling fatigue, injuries, and suspensions so Boschetti has actually been starting up top more than any other striker on the team. This is good for his development but for as well as he's been playing I'm just waiting for his first Italy call up to dash my dreams of him pulling on the San Marino national team jersey.

National Team

View attachment 337140

Not where I was hoping to be at the end of 2024. Good news is there's not a game where we aren't threatening at least once or twice, bad news is we still can't get a win. I just have a feeling that if some of the players with dual nationality would accept my call up we'd be a mid-table side right now. Instead, we're where we usually are:
View attachment 337141

Top Sammarinese Prospects

View attachment 337142View attachment 337143View attachment 337144View attachment 337145View attachment 337146

If only they were all playing for San Marino right now. With Benvenuti, he's already capped for San Marino as he's the only hot prospect that doesn't have dual nationality with Italy. Sanchi fortunately didn't play in the friendly against Germany and hasn't been called up to Italy's senior team since, so I'm still holding out hope for him. I'm trying to get him loaned out to a Serie B side so he's less appealing to the Italy manager but nobody has bit. He and Boschetti are regulars for Italy U21s and Bianchi for U19s. Ceccoli is looking like a player I'll actually get as he wasn't being called up by Italy U21s anymore when he was still eligible.
​
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

FMBase

Beta

Resources

Back
Top