The San Marino Double

[Ubernisation]

Ok, and now it's time for a club update

Table:

18 more points than last season, 2 places higher up- a fantastic season. Although it looks close to 1st place in the picture, I was never in the running to get 1st and this was probably the closest I was to AC Milan all season.

Champions League:

So overall I had some pretty hard fixtures. A disappointing loss to Rangers which meant I had to adopt an aggressive tactic from the offset in the return fixture which worked a treat.

Then I got draw Man Utd. Although at first fearful, they had been faltering in the Premier League and had obtained 3rd-5th in the last 5 seasons. A masterful 2nd half at home to Man Utd gave us the advantage, and after bagging a 3rd goal in the 1st half of the return fixture I adopted a mega defensive fixture and held out for the win.

And then of all the teams I cold have drawn, I got AC Milan. I was helpfully reminded that in 10 matches against AC Milan I had not yet won- and this didn't change. Although not losing to them was a big success in itself, I was frantically trying to bag a goal in the 2nd half of the return fixture but their defence was solid.

Anyway- Very pleased with this run in the Champions League. The money earned means I can finally update my Youth Facilities to the best they can be, and also meant I got a very healthy transfer budget for the next season.

Awards:

So here are the awards some of my players got at the end of the season:

For an aging Full Back who my coaches say is the worst player on my team and needs to be replaced (and who I was planning on replacing) Mathieu has had an outstanding season, and I was very pleased he got this recognition. Also note how completely dominant AC Milan are in this dream team, it's frightening.

And here are the individual awards my players got. Ivanovic did very well this season with 18 goals and a few assists to boot. His value has exploded this season, easily the best signing I've made.
Mathieu also got recognition in the league as he did in the Champions League- I won't lay any more hyperbole on him than I already have!
And Fiorillo finally got recognition. Initially I signed him because he was the cheapest of the good young keepers around. But he has since grown into being one of the best keepers in the world with the likes of Man Utd and Arsenal wanting his signature. He has also become the no. 1 for Italy.

In addition to the praise already given to Ivanovic and Mathieu, I now have an excuse to praise Todorov. He's very much like Mathieu in a way. My coaches say he's not good enough, and I was even tempted to bring in a replacement. But he seems to just love playing for me, he's always first on the team sheet at AML, and can fill in as AMR or ST if needed. He's consistently scores goals and gets assists (12 and 6 respectively last season) and coupled with Ivanovic is my most potent attacking threat. I never thought when I signed him in Serie B that he would still be first choice at this point, but his average rating for a season since I signed him as been 7.38, 7.21, 7.17, 7.22, 7.18, 7.20. The 7.38 was in Serie B, so there was a slight decline in form as we got promoted, but that is still fantastic.

New Season:

I've finished the pre season of the 2017-2018 season, here are the transfers.

In:
Eric Lenfant: Bought AC Milans steak in this young prospect

Erdin Yalcin: Signed last season and delayed for a year due to only being able to have 2 non- EU players signed per season, he was meant to be replacement for Mathieu in LB position before I knew what a season he would have. My plan now is to play Mathieu in the first 11 and see if his form continues, if not I will allow Yalcin to have a chance

Alexey Panin: Also signed last season and delayed for a year, he is a very promising striker, and I thought I needed a third striker because last season I was running with 2

Antonio Mirante: An old backup goalkeeper to replace Ivan Cuellar as he was starting to ask to be played. This is my general tactic with back up keeper, either have a very young one who wont demand games, or keeping selling them and bringing in new old ones on free transfers

Juan Antonio Lopez Perez- What a name! He's a brilliant young CM who stats-wise is the strongest player in the squad. He is going to replace Alejandro Gomes and play alongside Escobar and Barazite. I payed a lot for him, but I wanted to bring in a star player and the positions of choice were either CM or CB.

Daniele Mancuso: After selling Jack Wilshere I did not have anyone who could cover at AML if Todorov gets injured. So I thought I signed this guy. He's young and has potential, but he also is pretty good already, about on par with the players who make it to my subs bench (Antonio Valencia, Alexandre Song)

Out:

Loan: Sent out all my non- San Marinese youth players out on loan to gain experience as all these guys are hopefully going to become future first 11s. Also sent out all the San Marinese players who are over 23 or a starting to break into the national team so they can get some experience. The only youth players I've kept are young San Marinese players with good potential but who currently aren't up to snuff.

Carlos Matheu: Had been a good player for the club, but only got 5 appearances last season and I felt it was a waste to keep an aging player on who wasn't getting any games, may aswell fill his position with an up and comer. Got a decent amount for him too

Ivan Cuellar: Started asking to be played, was only going to get a game if Fiorillo got injured so for harmony sake I sold him

Jack Wilshere: I wanted to sell one of Wilshere, Song and Valencia. Song is the best of these 3 so I decided to keep him. So I put the other 2 up for transfer and see who I got the best offers for, Valencia got offers of around 3m, whilst WIlshere got a much better price. Although this meant I had to sign a new AML, it was a good choice to sell him as Wilshere is 25 now and it seems he isn't really going to develop any more.

Caetano: Came back from loan a much better player, he's now my 2nd sub at MC position. It seems other teams saw his development too and wanted a slice of the pie. Getting 8.75m for him whilst he stays at my club is just a way of making money

Juan Antonio Crespo: A regen I signed a while back who is now getting on a bit and might not fulfill his potential. So I sent him out on a loan to buy

Josef Kobr: Same story as Caetano- just a way to make money

So there we go, that's the update for the season. Now its time to see if we can possibly win the league- though I doubt it!

 

[kuksugarolle]

Wow, the best thread Ive read on here. I just stumbled on here and spend the last 20 minutes or so reading this. I hope you play more San Marinese players tho, at least after you've had some success in europe.

 

[Khanvicted]

wicked story this. with that right back you aint winnin jack but at least your clubs doin ok. keep the updates coming...

 

[sass101]

I came world champions with Estonia in 2022 so.... ^^)

 

[Ubernisation]

I came world champions with Estonia in 2022 so.... ^^)

Well done! But i'm never gonna be able to do it that quick I'll be lucky to qualify by 2022!

And thanks kukssugarolle Yeah, my plan is to build up the wealth through the champions league for a few seasons whilst I wait for good regens to appear and develop. And then once I have regens of a good standard (or potential) start using them as subs and later insert them into the 1st 11. However, at the moment I would say I have a few regens who have the potential to play for a lower Serie A team, but none who will ever be the standard of a top half team/ :/

Khanvicted, glad you see what I mean about the right back! He's utter **** but compared to the rest of the right backs he's a god. If he gets injured I have to play an 18 year old who who has never had a professional game.

I'll try and update this evening.

 

[KingEric]

Are your regens Italian or San Marinese?

 

[Ubernisation]

Are your regens Italian or San Marinese?

San Marinese- which is why I have hope! I've fully upgraded the training facilities and should be getting the youth facilities upgraded to the best they can be at the end of this season. So hopefully after this season i'll be getting improved regens.

 

[KingEric]

San Marinese- which is why I have hope! I've fully upgraded the training facilities and should be getting the youth facilities upgraded to the best they can be at the end of this season. So hopefully after this season i'll be getting improved regens.

Nice stuff, keep it up.

I tried a different San Marino double by adding the San Marino league. I qualified for the Champions League after about 20 seasons and eventually got the training facilities to the highest level but the regens weren't the best. Yours should be different though as your in Serie A

 

[Montanaro]

can you post your club information screen? I want to see your value/stars/ticket prices etc...

 

[Ubernisation]

Nice stuff, keep it up.

I tried a different San Marino double by adding the San Marino league. I qualified for the Champions League after about 20 seasons and eventually got the training facilities to the highest level but the regens weren't the best. Yours should be different though as your in Serie A

Yeah, I think when I finish this game and buy the new FM game (could be FM 11 by then!) i'll try doing that- even more of a challenge I bet until you are consistently getting into the Champions League there is like no money to be had, and with no money its gonna be hard to get to the Champions League :/ But once I got to the Champions League with San Marino my finances were massively boosted and I got a much higher transfer budget

EDIT: Montanaro i'll post all that stuff up in a few minutes- i'll edit this post with a few screens of stuff like that.

Here we go:

Information:

One thing I find a bit weird about this is that the game doesn't update rivals. I mean I'm obviously not playing any of my rivals anymore, and so there is never any derby games- something which would be nice. Really the game should give you a few new rivals of a similar class once you've established a team as a different standard than before.

Stadium and Facilities:

There is no room to expand the stadium anymore, and this is crippling my finances. I am losing money every month, but am getting big boosts in the off season from TV Revenue and throughout the season with Champions league rewards. I'm hoping if I dry up spending in a couple of season and save up a wealth of cash, they'll build me a new stadium- i'm not sure if this is how it works so any advice here would be appreciated.

Affiliated Clubs:

All are feeder clubs. Chievo I send my good foreign regens who are just not quite of the standard for my subs bench whilst Real Marcianise are for my good San Marinese regens. Chievo are battling to stay up in Serie A, Marcianise are mid table Serie C1/B
Shenzhen and Montreal are Commercial links, I have sought for an international feeder club for loans- but everytime i've asked they've come back with no-one.

 

[Montanaro]

Montreal is in the USA?

Surely it means the MLS system.

 

[Ubernisation]

Yeah that is a bit weird, but then again on my Information Screen it says Italy. I guess it's just an anomaly in the game. I'll update in a couple of hours.

 

[Montanaro]

Yeah that is a bit weird, but then again on my Information Screen it says Italy. I guess it's just an anomaly in the game. I'll update in a couple of hours.

I believe it goes by what league you are in. Montreal isn't in the MLS but is a feeder/farm team so I guess it's still affiliated with it.

 

[Ubernisation]

National Team:

Results:

The Denmark result was disappointing, we got annihilated. But we did well against Israel and a draw was a totally fair result.

The table at the end of qualifying looks like this:

Didn't come bottom, and got a point against one of the bigger teams, but still disappointed overall. We've leveled out as one of the minor teams, but not one of the teams to be bullied around, but we haven't really made much progress. I'm hoping in 5-6 years the team should be considerably strengthened by regens, as although the ones coming through aren't world class, we are getting a lot of decent Serie B/Serie A potential players coming through who should be able to strengthen the team by the time they've matured a bit.

Euro Championship Qualifying:

Very annoyed by this. For some reason I'm still the bottom seeded team, which means inevitably I get some harder games.Out of the other lower seeded teams I got Montenegro and Bosnia Herzegovina who were probably the two best in their seed pools, if not close. These teams are considerably stronger than me and I think it really could happen that I get 0 points this qualifying as there is no team like Cyprus to be bullied. On the other hand Portugal and Serbia were probably two of the weaker teams in their seeding, but because these were the top two seedings it doesn't really help me. ANNOYED

Fixtures:

Club:

Serie A:

League Position:

Amazing run of results early in the season left me top! I was ahead by 7 points at one point, but in the last 6 games I've had a drop in form.

Results:

A great opening win and a fairly easy opening to the season was a boost for the team, and we were 13-1-0 by time we defeated Ravenna. Here is where form has gone downhill however; a slightly disappointing result to Empoli and a predictable loss to AC Milan followed by just scraping a draw with Roma began the downturn. We had a 3-0 lead over Genoa which we almost lost in a terrible 2nd half, and followed this up with a disappointing performance to Juventus where we were dominated. However, I've arguably got the 3 hardest fixtures of the season out of the way (Away to AC Milan, Juventus and Roma). Also a thing of note is that I'd say the team has been performing worse than last season and we've had numerous 1-0's with a goal late on or from a corner or such.

Italian Cup:

Did an Arsene Wenger and fielded youth players for most of the games and was predictably knocked out. A bit disappointed, but these games would only really have been a burden.

Champions Cup:

Lost away to Real Madrid and drew at home to them; but I also drew away to Dinamo Moscow which was disappointing. However we still comfortably qualified. When I was looking at prospective teams I would meet in the next round they were all top quality teams with perhaps only Espanyol and Sporting CP being the weaker teams among them

Thankfully I got drawn to one of the weakest teams, so I'm pretty hopeful that i'll go through to the next round and earn the £2 million that comes along with this

Serie A Player Ratings:

Our team haven't had as many players at the top of the player ratings this season, despite us doing better than the seasons before. This may indicate that we're grinding out victories more often than before where we would maybe draw or even lose a tight game before. Ivanovic has definately not been his normal brilliant self this season, but in the last few weeks he's been performing more like his old self. His average rating last time I checked before this was a lowly 6.87. Todorov is still bafflingly excellent.

Transfer Center:

Holzhauser is an MC prospect ready to replace Song/Valencia in the future as a back up, and hopefully will develop into a first team player
Lehman is a class young right back who still has room to improve, a very good buy- I thought he would cost a lot more. He is going straight into the first 11 at right back with Zapata moving to center back.
Thiebault is only 15 but has great promise, so I thought i'd nip in while I'm loaded and he had no real suitors.
Krasnoschekov is one of the best central midfielders in the game and is still only young. He costs a lot, but I had money to spare, and he will come straight into the first 11. Had to delay signing him because of international player signing rules
Erdogan was also delayed because of international signing rules. I've been tracking him for 3 years and I kept on asking for a price but it was always too high. His price has plummeted recently though and he is having a bad season, so I snapped him up sharpish. He should be world class in the future hopefully.

On the way out:
Juan Antonio Lopez Perez: An AMAZING £80 million offer for him from Real Madrid. I was pretty dumbstruck. They weren't looking at him when I signed him from Portsmouth, and he had made 17 appearances with an average rating of 6.97- nothing world beating. My board interjected and accepted the offer, but I would have anyway. This money funded a spending spree in January where I wasn't going to do anything, and i'm still left with £25m transfer budget. AMAZING.

Valencia: Was out of contract at the end of the year and I decided not to renew it and instead replace him with youth players
Song: Same as above
Panin: Again, cash farming of co-ownership deals
Javier: Same as above
Manz: Sent out on loan to get experience at Bologna

Big update. Please to enjoy.

 

[TommyHayes1989]

Just WOW

 

[Ubernisation]

If that wow was about the £80m transfer- yeah I was amazed. That 80m is basically going to cover the cost of my next 2 years of transfers without even needing the new money i'll get in the summer. I mean realistically my team is pretty strong, but the only positions that may need strengthening are AML if Todorv ever loses his touch and a Centre back as Zapata is getting old and Papodoupolous seems to have reached his limit.

 

[Ronaldal]

would you mind in your next update posting a screenshot of the £80mil guy along with his history? thanks in advance, o and btw great update

 

[Ubernisation]

Nation:

Results

So first off the Northern Ireland team. They were ranked about 40 places above me in the world rankings, so this is a considerable scalp. During the game we were surprisingly dominant. In this performance our young striker Sergio Arias seemed to come of age. Albeit he didn't score a goal but he held the ball up well, distributed it to the wingers and had plenty of powerful shots and headers- he was unfortunate not to score. However- after winning this game 1-0 my computer crashed and I lost the save :/ So the picture you see is a game a holidayed not the actual game I played. In the game I actually played they didn't miss a penalty and the goal was scored by Rinaldi from the edge of the box.
We were expected to beat Bhutan and we duly delivered. It was a confident performance and the passing looked especially fluid.

Ranking Graph:

As you can see i'm pretty much consistently floating around the 90-105 mark. The aim is to slowly creep up the rankings for a while; and when my regens start to come of age to hopefully make a surge in an attempt to qualify for a tournament.

Club:

League Table:

So...wow! This was not expected. AC Milan had won the league 3 times in a row, they are dominant in Europe (They won the Champions Cup) and are probably the best team in the game (Some of the major European teams aren't doing so well in my game- see the end of the post). I would say that this season we generally played worse than last season, but we won games we might have drawn or lost before, and our defence was probably a bit more solid than before. Very pleased with this indeed- hopefully we can do this next season, but it will be hard.

Results:

Ok, so a few notable scores are the away losses to Napoli and Lazio. This is our major weakness. We lose to the top half teams away more than we should considering the possession we often have in the games. I may need to start adopting a slightly more attacking formation to win more of these games. You'll notice one or two high margin victories here too, Udinese home, Mantova home, Catania home, Parma away, something our team doesn't tend to do too often. These victories helped our GD come close to AC Milan, as at one point they were about +25 on us. One last thing of note is if you look at the six games from Treviso away to Genoa away (discounting the Roma game) this was a very easy run in. Before the Treviso game we were 2nd and 9 points behind AC Milan with 2 games in hand. I was picking up quite a few injuries and having some bad performances by key players, so I took a big risk and played almost my reserve team for half of these games. This in fact worked wonders, and i'll talk about which players impressed later.

Champions Cup:

The 1-0 victory in the first leg was a very hard game, much harder than I was expecting. We picked up a couple of injuries and were probably fortunate to get anything from the game, never mind win. With this in mind I was more wary and played my best possible team in the 2nd leg where we thankfully put in a good performance to go 3-0 up, but annoyingly shipped some late goals. At this point I was hoping to be drawn with Olympiakos as all the other teams are pretty strong.

Disappointed to go out at this round, but Real Madrid have won La Liga every season besides once when Zaragoza won- a tough proposition indeed. We went down 2-0 at home in the first leg in a truly dismal performance. So I started out with an attacking formation and e bagged a goal midway through the game. I threw on attacking players and went all out attack for the last 25 minutes but to no avail. We didn't create too many chances in these last 25 minutes besides a couple of corners and a close free kick by Todorov. Didn't reach the same levels as last season, but at least I could concentrate on the League.If you're interested the final was AC Milan- Real Madrid with AC winning 2-1.

Players Reviews:

First 11:
Vincenzo Fiorillo (GK): An almost immaculate season. Only 1 bad performance all season and has become first choice for Italy and a highly sort after keeper- one of the best in the world. Average Rating 6.97

Daniel Lehman (RB): Came in January- had an Average Rating of 7.19 and made the position his own

Cristian Zapata (CB): His first season as CB and not RB thanks to Lehman, and he had an even better season than the last two. Average Rating of 7.19 over 7.07 last season and seems to prefer his new position

Perez Garcia (CB): A bit inconsistent. Plays immaculate in some games and is my first choice free kick taker (oddly), but he was one of the key players who went of the boil mid season and in the end he was dropped from the team as Felipe had a very good run from when I played the reserves against Treviso. Average Rating of 7.03

Yalcin Erden (LB): After Mathieu didn't start as he ended last season I gave Erden a go. He played well for the first few games, but went off the boil and was becoming a bit of a liability. He was averaging around 6.50 at this point. I allowed Mathieu back into the team until he was injured where Erden got another go. From here on in he put in very good performances and seemed to gain in confidence. Average Rating 6.84 but i'm expecting him to start as he ended next season

Manuel Escobar (CM): Another consistent season as a first choice center back, he's one of the youth players I bought who has developed very well. Average Rating 7.01

Nacer Barazite (CM): Another season of good performances from my lead central midfielder. Many teams want him, but I see no point in cashing in as he's been excellent for the team. Average Rating 7.08

Caetano (CM): After a season out to loan to promoted Ravenna last season he seemed to develop rapidly and became a much better player over the course of the season. Rather than spending lots of money on a CM to replace the Gomez who is not quite good enough anymore, I thought I'd give him a shot. Along with the other two CMs he played very well, and seemed to enjoy the slightly more defensive role I gave him over the others. Average Rating 7.07

Abdel Wilhelm (AMR): Has become a first choice player for France and for me. Exceedingly good attacking right winger who everyone wants. Average Rating 7.20

Tsvetomir Todorv (AML): Another season of defying expectations which saw him pick up 3rd in foreign player of the year. Technically he is not of the standard to play in Europe, but he's just playing awesome so I'm sticking with him. Average Rating 7.26

Srdjan Ivanovic (ST): An off season by his standard which still saw him bag 18 Serie A goals. Whilst he started very well, by time there were 10 games left in the league he went off the boil. He was starting to have really average first halves and coming through in the 2nd. I dropped him for that game against Treviso where I played reserves, and he only got a couple more games after that. Average Rating 7.11

Subs:
Antonio Mirante (GK): Only got 2 games, will probably keep him unless he demands games at which point he'll be sold

Kyriakos Papodopoulos (CB): Dropped to the subs as Zapata was shuffled to CB; I was a bit guilty about this as he's been a trooper for the club, but he isn't really the standard that the team is at. However, he was solid in the 25 performances he made (often as a sub) with an Average Rating of 6.89

Jeremy Mathieu (LB): Had a few average games at the start and became a sub. Had about a 10 games run in the first team when Erden was off where he also impressed. He got 20 games with an Average Rating of 7.03

Simon Holzhauser (CM): I wasn't expecting to him to get more than a few games; but when we got a few injuries I had the decision between playing him or the outbound Song/Valencia so I thought I'd give this guy a go. He played well in his appearances with an Average Rating of 6.98 in 13 games.

Alejandro Gomez (CM): Was my first choice CM who I know could steady the ship if needed and is also relatively good going forward as he can also play in the advanced AMC role. He had an Average Rating of 6.88 in 26 games.

Josef Kobr (AMR): A young right winger used whenever Wilhelm was injured and in the period where I played reserves. Had an Average Rating of 7.00 in his 10 appearances.

Daniele Mancuso (AML): Bought in January I have high hopes for him, and he should be able to take over from Todorov if he ever goes off the boil. He was generally picked ahead of Kobr as my chosen sub as Todorov can be moved to AMR. He was impressive in his performances and he seems like a safe pair of hands. Average Rating of 7.07 in 14 games.

Francisco Javier (ST): I felt guilty for not giving him games where he wasn't subbed in last season. He has broken into the Spanish Squad but has not yet been capped. So when Ivanovic went off the boil I gave Javier a go. He was very impressive with an Average Rating of 7.03 in his 23 games. One of these games included an excellent 4 goal haul in the 6-0 defeat of Parma.

Player of the Season: Tsvetomir Todorov
Young Player of the Season: Francisco Javier
Signing of the Season: Daniel Lehman

Alongside this many of my loaned out players games back looking much stronger players. The 5 players I sent to Real Marcianase helped them to a solid mid table position, and the ones sent to Chievo saved them from predicted relegation. On the San Marino side our best 2 striker Sergio Arias and Andre Ghiotti came back markedly improved as did the 3rd choice central midfielder Matteo Zonzini.

Ok, so that's the main update. I'm just about to enter the new transfer period, so I'm organising friendlies, scouting players and deciding upon signings at the moment. At the end of the transfer window I will do my annual inspection of San Marino looking at if aging players are falling apart and if any youths are shining.

Here are few misc Screenies

The player I sold for £80m:

No doubt he's a very good player, but definitely not worth £80m, and probably not worth the £40m I spent on him. My Coaches said he was near his potential, so he probably won't improve much. Also it looks like he's had a pretty average season, and he was on the subs bench.

I thought I would give a few screenies of the other major leagues just to show you how the big teams are doing.

Some big names are under performing here namely Barcelona, Valencia and Atletico Madrid. Whilst Real Madrid have won the league EVERY season besides 1 where Zaragoza won.

Arsenal have pretty much bossed the Premiership winning it all but 3 times. Man Utd and Liverpool are surprisingly low and Villa are also underachieving. I was also quite surprised to see Everton being relegated. No other major upsets throughout the Football League except Preston have just been relegated to League 2 and Forest are coming back up to the Premiership

There is only one reason I'm giving this screenshot- Chamois Niortias. After seeing them up there in 2nd and without a logo I investigated a little. They've come from the bottom French League and have now reached the Champions League and almost won the league. I've never seen a team rise this high naturally throughout the game- I just thought it was impressive.

Ok end of update. Hope you liked it

Oh, and I'm updating pretty late because Forest winning and the consequential drinking stalled me ^.^

 

[Neall]

nice to see a story on fm 2009 and well done just get the country better then you are amazinger lol

 

[Ubernisation]

Thanks I realise I'm a bit outdated now, but I'm so enthusiastic in this save file I don't want to give it up. Ideally I'd like to port it over to a new game, but I'm pretty sure there is no way of doing this.

And yeah, I do need to improve with the country- but I just looked at my new regens for the new season and there are some good uns. Two or three my coaches reckon could be good Serie A players- that bodes well. And by September my Youth facilities will be at their optimum so I should get even better regens from then on in.

And I've done a few edits to the last post- I hadn't posted the french league screeny and I added a bit of colour.

PS: Exams are boring- I have 5 coming up in 2 weeks time >.<