Quarantine Journey Through Europe

After dropping out of Europa League and the Minor Cup Winners Cup, it was time for the Super Coppa Sammarinese final, which didn't go well, a 2-0 loss to Tre Penne. I started regretting choosing my team based on its logo. Some pre-season signings were needed, and because of the rules of the league, I made a few. You can have at most 11 players, not from San Marino, but up to 99 players in the squad. So I set about signing everyone that I could find that was from San Marino. Signing almost 30 new players, all of which were given a generous £0 contract.

I start the Campionato Sammarinese di Calcio season of with a 9-0 home victory followed by a 6-0 away win, and start to think this might go well. 5 games later I am top of group A and realise that is the end of the group and I probably should have looked up the rules for the league before starting the season (Quick overview of how the San Marino league is done. there are two groups of 8 and 7, they all play each other once and the top 4 of each group go into another group called group 1, and the bottom 4/3 go into group 2, you then play everyone twice and the top 6 from group 1 and top 2 from group 2 go into a knockout tournament where you get a winner, sort of like a SuperBowl type league)

Group 2 goes well where I finish top: 14 games, 11 points clear, and a GD of 27. I also have a 2-0 quarter-final win in the cup. We head into the knockout rounds of the league and a 0-0 draw followed by a 1-1 draw leaves a strange situation, I went through as I was a higher-seeded team, yet another occasion where I should have learned the rules before starting the season. I beat Murata in the semi-final of the cup and beat Cosmos in the semi-final of the league, putting me in both finals. A 2-1 win in the league final comes first, followed by a 2-1 victory in the cup final.
Season stats:

• League - Won
• Cup - Won
• Super Cup - Final

Hoping to be in San Marino for only the beginning of the season, as all I have to do is beat Pennarossa in the super cup and that will be San Marino finished. But the beginning of the season brings two issues, continental competitions and a reminder that amateur contracts are a bloody pain. My first XI players are dropping like flies so I go about signing some new Sammarinese players. I manage to re-fill my first team which leads us to a Champions League win in the 1st preliminary round and an extra-time win in the 2nd. A loss in the 1st qualifying round takes us into the Europa League 2nd qualifying round which we go through on away goals. Things take a turn where 4 more draws take us out of the Minor Cup Winners Cup and the Europa qualifiers, both on away goals. Which takes us to the important game, the Super Coppa Sammarinese Final. A win and we tick of San Marino and move up the ladder, a loss and it's another 12 months here. Luckily our lead striker is on point and an easy 2-0 victory completes this leg of the journey.

I leave the game and talk to the media, and then resign, much to the surprise of everyone.
Season Stats:

• Super Cup - Won

• League - Won
• Cup - Won
• Super Cup - Won

1 down, 35 to go.

Unemployed, but knowing where the next stop is, I start looking at all Gibraltarian teams and who is likely to lose their job first. 6 weeks into the season Lions fire their manager and I jump in. I'm the fans favorite for the job and after a successful interview, it's confirmed. I remove San Marino as a playable nation and add Wales, and then it's time to start.

Rock bottom 1/3rd of the way through the season, my expectation was to try and avoid finishing bottom. Luckily the bottom 3 was fairly tight so shouldn't be too difficult. Just need to pull out of this nosedive of a start to the season and we should be ok. Unfortunately, morale is low and a 2-1 loss to second-bottom Boca Juniors doesn't help. A 0-0 draw to league leaders Europa FC helps but the next 4 games we fail to pick up a single point. But that leads us into January, and with two key signings coming on the first I hope we might be able to turn things around, and hopefully pick up some more players to fill out the poorer areas of the squad.

The first game of 2021 and our new signing Tito De Torres starts up front, and he starts well. 3-1 with a hattrick on his debut. After 6 long weeks, we finally have our first win. Hopefully, the first of many. With a new CM coming in I was quietly optimistic of our chances, but a lucky late goal puts this down as a loss. We finish off January with a win and a draw in the league and a Loss to Europa in the QF of the cup. We bring in two more players and are ready to lead are charge up the table from February.

Another game against Europa has another loss to its name, but we plough through the rest of the month with 2 wins and 2 draws, we are now 11th and not bottom for the first time. The gap between us and the rest of the league is closing down and looks perfectly feasible that we might be able to shoot up the table if this newfound form continues. A loss to new league leaders Lincoln pushes up to perform better in the final fixtures of the league which we managed to win 4 and draw 2 for Lions longest unbeaten streak of 6. Our form in 2021 has been great, in 15 games we have lost 3 and those were to the only two professional teams in Gibraltar.

The season finishes and no silverware is added to the tally so far, but we are in a good position to push for top 4 next year, the real challenge will be trying to squeeze past the top two. Europa and Lincoln are the only two Professional teams in Gibraltar and it does really show, in the two seasons so far, the total number of times one of these teams were beaten by someone that wasn't the other is 3, so to win the title I will need some cunning

Season Stats:

• League - 8th
• Cup - Semi Final