Well, it's been a long time since FM14 came out and this is the first time I decided to give it a go, with the latest database that I suppose makes it a little bit more difficult, as many great FAs and loan prospects have already been taken.
Season 1
Club
I considered the initial situation to be much better than expected, the wage budget is not very bad and gives you a quite large room to manouvre. There were several decent players in the original squad (esp. Sensi who was the standout player, Young Player of the Year of the league and POTY at San Marino - even though I prefer to follow a "Moneyball" approach relying almost exclusively on free players, I would have paid the 725K agreed fee for him - but he chose Cagliari instead of me; Graffiedi, Poletti, Pacciardi are all decent players at that level).
I managed to get some good loanees:
- David Simon at RB, best RB in the league, became an offensive threat after learning the long flat bullet throw,
- Testardi at striker, whose aerial strength inspired me to create a wide tactic with floated crosses - I don't really know how to play different tactics, but with him it was a given.
- Koopmans in goal, was instrumental, especially at the beginning.
- Umenugbu from Bologna at AMR, whose pace was good enough to create havoc, especially at the latter stages.
- Xavier Tomas, who arrived only for the final part of the season but was able to stabilize the defence.
Also had some free agents, Caillet in DC (quite old, not that good), Diamoutene at DC (very good, scored some crucial headers), Bonnanni at AML (after his ban expired on 1 Jan, he provided an extra spark on the left that was much needed), Youssuf Koubali at LB (really solid player), Lebresne at CM (though quite old, was a solid CM).
The season:
The first half of the season was difficult, with short good and bad sequences (an early exit from Serie C cup ensured that we only played once a week that was very useful as I had a small squad). We had some terrible luck halfway through the season, we conceded 3-4 goals in 90+ minutes to lose valuable wins with, but we managed to steady ourselves for the final 10 or so games, still, it was a close call, and a missed penalty in the last game cost us a potential win that could have made us 5th thus avoiding the best teams in the playoff. However, from then on, the team swung into a higher gear.
The QF saw us against Vicenza away (QF is only one leg), a meagre 1-0 win sent us to the SF against Venezia who were incredibly lucky in both our previous encounters. They won the first leg 1-0, but we completely shut them down in the 2nd and won 2-0 to get into the final against Cremonese. We drew 2-2 at home at first (CCCs were 3-0, half chances 6-4 for us), but we managed to turn around the 2nd leg 2-1 (CCCs 6-0 to us again...), so we got PROMOTED from the 7th place.
It was a great season, we improved constantly and got a deserved promotion. My moneyball-type approach was set aside for a bit during our worst form, and I rage-terminated the contract of some of our high earning-players to be able to sin some better ones and that left us in a financial turmoil at the end of the season, so this was a bit kamikaze ending of the season and we could have encountered serious problems without the promotion. Phew!
Nation
I decided to take over the nation in order to ensure that we won't miss out on any potential good regens. At first, it was a bit pain in the ***,as the team is really bad, so I just chucked in a very defensive tactic and hoped for the best. And it went pretty well, a close loss against Luxembourg (Selva missed a sitter while at 0-0), followed by a 0-8 thumping by England (but we managed to keep them goalless for the first 40 minutes, and we conceded 3 OGs in the final 10) and a 0-7 by Poland.
But then, it was 1993 again, as we drew against Ukraine away: they got ahead late with a corner, but then we managed to equalize through a stunning volley by Bollini after a corner. Later we had some success in friendlies, beating Bhutan twice and managing a goalless draw against New Zealand that saw us up to the 175th position in the world rankings. Not bad.
As the club had a significant incoming cash flow in the Serie B, I was able to strengthen the team to an extent that I feel that we could easily achieve a strong mid-table position, maybe competing for the promotion (although our squad is quite thin, so an injury crisis would have grave consequences).
I do have a decent regen named Selva, defensive midfielder though!
Not gonna start a thread cause I know I'll go inactive but you know, I'll post here a little if I can! Hoping my old favourites Aldo Jr Simoncini, Matteo Vitaioli, and the legendary Damiano Vannucci are all still knocking around!