What the ****! I thought San Marino was a restaurant in Bolton?!

Season 3 - Pre-season update

Transfers:
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In:
De Pever is a central midfielder that I have had on previous editions of FM. He is now 25, he is tall, strong and scores the odd goal.
Palazzi is a player I know from the San Marino set up. He will come in as cover at right back.
Hottor is a young defensive midfielder from AC Milan.
Saporetti can play central midfield or right wing. He is only 20 and has bags of potential.
Brown will go into the reserves. he is a central midfielder.
De Sena should be my starting striker and will hopefully give us the goals that Pericard previously provided.
Scotto is a very good striker who gives us another top option up front.

Out:
After being asked to cut the wage bill significantly I had to let Poletti go. Claessens and Bonifacio went due to better players in their position arriving.
Angelelli is an interesting one. He is 17 and has a 5 star potential and a 3 star current ability. He will be in the first team squad this season. I was getting co-ownership offers for him about once a day for anything from 30k-180k. I always negotiated asking for 400k as we really need the cash. It was always rejected until AC Milan decided they would take a punt. He will stay with us for the next 2 years.

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A good showing in the Italian Cup which got us around 27k in prize money which isnt much but for us every little helps. The performance against Grossetto was encouraging and De Sena and Scotto both look very dangerous.

National Team update next....
 
National Team

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The match against South Sudan was one I was hoping to win, but we bounced back with a great win away at Pakistan. Cibelli was really on form for those 2 games.
Two home 0-0 results against the Faroe Islands and Indonesia were very pleasing before a 3-3 draw with Luxembourg. Good to see Stefanelli getting his first international goal too.
The defeat to Kazakhstan was a disappointing one. I think that shows just how far we have come to say that losing away to Kazakhstan by one goal is disappointing.

Euro 2016 Qualifiers
The game against Malta was the one I was hoping I could get something from and...WE DID!!
We were helped by the fact that Malta went down to 10 men after just 11 minutes but Mazza took his goal well and its very pleasing to say that we have beaten Malta, Moldova, Pakistan, Seychelles and Turks & Caicos islands in my reign so far with only 1 regen in the squad (and he isnt even first team).

It goes to show that the San Marino team are not THAT bad before you get your regens etc. Take a look:

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OK, so it wont stay like this for long unfortunately, but after beating Malta I am hopeful that we can avoid finishing bottom of the group which may improve our seeding for the next World Cup. They key match will be away to Malta in 2015, if we can get a point there then I would fancy us to finish 5th.

Rankings:

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Palazzi, Berretti, Cibelli and Mazza are proving to be a very good midfield 4 for me, playing in a diamond formation.
 
great going with the NT, just the league now then you'll really be flying
 
Season 3 - First half of season update

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A disappointing opening day defeat but since that we have only lost 1 other league match when Novara tore us apart. Carmine De Sena has been a revelation upfront. Massimo Coda has requested a transfer as he has only made 1 appearance. Adriano Angelelli is developing very nicely, shame we had to sell 50% of him to AC Milan at the beginning of the season. Sean Thornton and Daan De Pever have been great in central midfield.

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With only 2 defeats you may expect us to be higher, but its a very tight league. The top 5 are 9 points clear of 6th place. Hoping we can kick on in the second half of the season as this is familiar territory for us now at the halfway point of the season (see season 1 and 2). This is proving a tough old league to get out of...
 
Season 3 -Second half of season

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We have done it...we have made the playoffs for a second season running. I was getting worried when we went 4 games without a win and failed to score in 3 of the matches and looking back 5 more points would have seen us win the league.

However, its great to have our highest league finish yet and now we face Modena in the Playoffs.

Carmine De Sena has been superb with 17 league goals. Thornton, De Pever and Saporetti have all been rocks in the centre of midfield and Adriano Angelelli is coming on leaps and bounds and is still just 17!

De Sena has 5 goals in his last 4 games going into the playoffs so I am hopeful. Maxime Partouche continues to be inconsistent but is hitting a bit of form at the moment which would be great if he can keep it going for a few more games.

Vandenbergh may have a challenger for player of the season...we will see in the next update, but he has been excellent once again. Xabier Galan has been disappointing at left back and Palazzi has been first choice right back because Sabaly has been error prone all season. Palazzi is trying to shake off an injury ready for the playoffs.

FINGERS CROSSED!
 
PROMOTED TO SERIE B IN SEASON 3!

We have done it! Below you can see the results:

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Modena - We completely controlled the first leg and it all looked rosy. However we gave away 2 penalties in the 2nd leg...fortunately Caraux managed to save 1 penalty and despite losing 2-0 we went through as the higher placed team (an Italian alternative to the away goals rule).

Pro Vercelli - After our home performance against Modena I cant say I was confident but Saporetti grabbed us a goal! In the 2nd half we shot ourselves in the foot again by giving away a penalty...but Caraux saved it! 2nd Leg was very nervy but Thornton scored an absolute beauty from 25 yards to put us in a commanding position. Thornton then hit the post just a minute later as we took the game to them. Pro Vercelli scored just before half time to remind us what a threat they were. In the 2nd half Saporetti robbed posession and made a great run, he crossed the ball into the box and De Sena and Lunardini were there against 1 defender...Lunardini scrambled the ball over the line. The last goal was the real story...Angelo Sinisi of the youth team had to play at centre half due to injuries and U21 international duty. It was his debut and he was a rock and headed in a Maxime Partouche corner kick (shame he isnt Sanmarinese). Saporetti was the stand out player over the 2 legs!

The club is 1.68 million in debt and so promotion was really needed. I need to have a long hard think about who will stay and who will go as we prepare for Serie B. I already have a few young lads on pre-contracts but we definitely need more quality in defence and out wide.

Ill be back with a NT update and Season 4 pre-season in SERIE B!!!
 
Team of the year season 3

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Steven Vandenbergh was named player of the year for the 3rd season running despite stong opposition from Carmine De Sena.

Dallamano and Gabriel were loaned in during the January transfer window to give us a bit more depth but only Dallamano secured a regular starting spot.
 
NATIONAL TEAM UPDATE

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Not very pretty reading lately. The win over Turkmenistan was a good result as Coppini lashed one in from 18 yards. We were 2-0 down against Bermuda before Palazzi scored a double to get us a draw.

The Slovenia game wasnt too bad but the Bulgaria game was very disappointing. It was 0-0 for 91 minutes before they scored a header from 3 yards. A point against Bulgaria would have been huge but it wasnt to be.
Malta beat us 1-0 to put us to the bottom of the group, a Mifsud goal on 50 minutes condemning us to defeat.

Hoping for a positive result against Andorra before 3 home qualifiers.

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As you can see our ranking peaked around March 2015 at 155th in the world. We are now 169th. I think if we had got that point against Bulgaria we would be around 155th still, thats how tight it all is when you are this low down. Hopefully we can get the graph trending upwards again.

REGENS:

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A couple of regens that I think the future of San Marino (at least until I get some money) rest with.

Valentini has been a sub at international level for me but is playing in my under 20s.

Tini was actually a regen at Juvenes Dogana in San Marino! I signed him up as soon as I saw him so that at least he is training full time and we can hopefully get the best out of him.
 
ou've inspired me to do a club/country game with SM, here's hoping I can do as well as you!
 
Season 4 - Pre-Season (Serie B)

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I havent been given a bigger budget, my wage budget is the same as last season and as I was already over this it was difficult to do business.

Valente, Rigato, Pinheiro - 3 Portuguese regens that I signed on pre-contracts for free. My scouts found all 3 of them, they will be in the youth team.
Spendlhofer - He will come in as potential starting CB with Vandenbergh.
Tini - Sanmarinese regen signed for youth team.
Radoux - Signed to be my sub goalkeeper, hes only 20.
Baldinini - Signed with a view to being my starting RB.
Davigny - Young French striker signed for the first team as competition for De Sena and Scotto.
Cervellini - Young LB brought in to fill the gap left by Galan and Crivello being released.
Marchetti - Will compete with Spendlhofer to be starting CB.
Deville - Can play AMR or AML and gives us an extra option on the wing.

I had to let alot of youngsters go on loan, to cut the wage bill as they are all on around 325 per week each. Hottor left on loan as he has twice moaned about not getting first team football.

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Fabian Mullner (an Italian regen from season 2) featured in pre-season as I was a winger short until Deville arrived. Disappointing result in the Italian Cup but Serie B is our priority this season.
 
Season 4 - 1st half of season

With the signings I had made I was a little nervous going into the season. I felt we were short at full back and Sabaly would be my starting left back who had a poor season last season. Baldinini, Marchetti and Spendlhofer were all untested with me so Vandenbergh was about the only defender I had confidence in.
Midfield wise I felt the central midfielders were good enough. Thornton, De Pever, Saporetti and Lunardini should have enough quality between them to provide what we need. We also have Palazzi who can play that role.
Out wide I felt alot will rest on Partouche and how many of his good games he has, Angelelli is naturally a striker who has been playing on the wing, Schurpf spends more time visiting the physio and Deville has never played in Italy. Luckily Fabian Mullner had a good pre-season and so kept his place with the big boys.
Carmine De Sena would be the main man upfront backed up by Scotto and Davigny.

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A terrible start, we just couldnt hit the back of the net. Our first win came as substitute Fabian Mullner scored a low drive in the last minute against Ternana. That was a huge win and also won Mullner a place in the team. We strung together a couple of good runs after that but I still dont have a regular goal scorer, someone who I can count on. Previously its been De Sena and before him it was Pericard but so far this season my top scorer is Partouche with 4 goals. Davigny had a nice run where he scored 3 in 3 but De Sena hasnt scored since October and Scotto since August...its now January.
My 4 centre mids of De Pever, Thornton, Lunardini and Saporetti have all been superb and Sabaly has really upped his game at left back. Angelelli missed about 6 weeks with injury and it seems Schurpf is never fit.

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At the half way stage I am delighted with 10th position but my first season taught me that the 2nd half of the season can quickly become a nightmare but as you can see our defence is 3rd best in the league...we just struggle to score. Its now January and I have 1 or 2 signings in the pipeline so watch this space...
 
January Transfer Window

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Four co-ownership deals meant we have gone back into the black with a net income of around 2 million for January. Unfortunately Fabian Mullner damaged his cruciate ligaments in mid-January and will be out for 9 months. Really disappointing as he was developing well, but glad we got 500k for him before the injury. Mullner is also the only for those 4 that came through our own youth setup, so its nice to see we can develop players.

Ferreira Carrasco - A major coup, can play either wing. His contract was up in the summer but I paid 35k to bring him in 6 months early.
Diabate - Young french midfielder, will go into the youth team.
Traore - Right back who should go straight into the first team.
Cogoni - Young Italian central midfielder with bags of potential.

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Great news. Wont affect this seasons youth intake though which is due in a couple of months time.
 
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