Campionato Sammarinese

It's been a couple of years since I last started a story in Football Manager, and seeing Dan's great work with Gilbraltar side Magpies I've decided to give it another crack. I downloaded the San Marino league database, with a couple of goals in mind:

1) Improve San Marino's standing in football (increase training/youth facilities at my club)
2) Get a Sammarinese Club into Europe

Instead of going for the standard challenge which is to manage San Marino in Serie C1 I thought I'd go straight into the country itself, mainly because there are fewer league games and it might keep me interested in the challenge!

Campionato Sammarinese
The top league in San Marino is a 100% amateur league, featuring 15 teams, split into two Groups (Group A has 8 teams, Group B has 7). Teams play each other 3 times in their groups, with the top 3 entering the championship playoffs, to decide the overall winner. 1st place qualifies for the first knockout round of the Champions League, 2nd into the same stage of the Europa League.

So after looking through the teams I decided to pick S.S Virtus, not for much reason, just picked at random (they are predicted to finish 14th out of 15 overall).



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Next: Preseason and signings

Nice little idea, only ever seen people use the San Marino in the Italian leagues so this looks nice and original. Good luck!

Brilliant idea Kieran, good to see you back to! I almost went with the San Marino leagues but Gibraltar stole it last second! Best of luck!

Cheers guys, I always find I need something different to play to really get behind it. Little side San Marino beat Gilbraltar 1-0 in a friendly during pre season. Can't believe they won a game!

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Well I had 5 friendlies already when I started, however the gap between the last friendly and first cup game was about 40 days! So i added a few extra.



Real mixed bag, I played against much tougher opposition in the preset friendlies, with our best result being a 2-0 defeat to German Second Division side 1860 Munich, which to be honest we are unlucky, controlling more of the game. After that we went unbeaten for 5, including an impressive 5-0 team win over Ravenna. We ended preseason on a sour note losing 1-0 to Italian non-leaguers San Rocco Faenza in a game we dominated but failed to find the back of the net.

Transfers
I made a lot of signings during the window, mainly due to us being amateur and not having to pay anyone! I also released some players that didn't warrant a place in the squad, again because it was free to do so.



Which left my squad looking like this heading into my first competitive game in charge.

Squad


I'm fairly happy with the squad as we started getting results as preseason went on, however time will tell as to how well we get on. I'll highlight my best keeper, defender, midfielder and attacker to see the standard (or perhaps lack of!).

Goalkeeper - Gianmarco Pazzini

Played well in preseason until getting injured, however he has just returned to fitness before the start of the season.

Defender - Roberto Peluzo

Decent stats I feel for this level, a solid centre-half, who has put in some good performances in heading into the season.

Midfielder - Enea Righetti

Plays best as a defensive midfielder but is equally as adept in central midfield. Based on preseason I hope he recovers from injury soon as he was my best player by far.

Striker - Elton Shabani

Was my first signing, after being a former member of the club, decent stats for a target man up front, I'm looking for him to lead from the front and get some goals.

So there we have it, Virtus are ready to go!

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So how did the first half of the season go? Look below...



Not what I expected, but then again we are considered the second worst team in the division so maybe it really shouldn't be too surprising. The things that's been annoying me is we control possession virtually every game, but our defence is woeful. So was the strike force to begin with, but as you can see in the last few results, that isn't a problem anymore! We scored 11 goals in our last 4 games, but shipped 16!

Squad

Elton Shabani as expected as been my leading scorer, with 7 goals at the half way point, not as many as I expected but his overall game has been impressive. He's been supported well by left winger Nicola Moretti, who I keep getting told to drop from the first team because he's not good enough...

Cup Competition

I don't see any reason why we can't push for 3rd as possibly one of the 2 best placed finishers, but we really have to tighten up in defence.

League

Predicted to be bottom of the league, so I guess being 6th isn't too bad! Although only 6 points short of the champions playoff, so its not all doom and gloom at the moment.

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Next Update: January Transfer Round-Up

So with us clearly needing to improve in departments I made 8 moves in January, of course all free signings due to everyone being amateur at this level. Below are a few of the picks of the bunch, as some are for depth.

Federico Rinaldi - 24 year old Central Defender

Comes in as a bit of cover in defence, but can hold his own, due to winning a cap for San Marino.

Damiano Vannucci - 36 year old Left Back

Fantastic pick up for us, we have consistently been poor on the left side of defence so this could be a massive signing for us, especially with 69 international caps to his name, we will be looking to Damiano's experience during the second half of the season. Unfortunately he is injured at the moment though and won't be able to make his debut for a couple of weeks.

Jose Adolf Hirsch - 28 year old Striker

Felt we needed an extra striker to support Elton Shabani, who leads the league in assists (7). He might get a few more with this lad, who also has an international cap on his resume. Scored a dramatic winner for us in our only game on the month, as our 10-men emerged victorious 2-1.

Luca Rossi - 20 year old Central Midfielder

Signed due to a rule in the league requiring at least 1 player under the age of 21 in the starting line-up and at least another under 21 on the bench. I overlooked this rule at first and didn't bring any good youngsters in. Luckily I have one now who has impressed during the season so far, and Rossi comes in as that second youngster who can make an impact straight away when given the opportunity.

Daniele Bucchi - 33 year old Central Defender

Another centre back as my current core defenders just have not been delivering. Wealth of experience having played as high as Serie 1/B.

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Next Update: End of season

Good luck mate! Very good challenge! Am enjoying it so far!

So we come to the end of my first season in charge, and after addressing some issues in the transfer window, how did the team fare in the second half of the season?



Apart from a 3 game losing stretch we had a great second half of the season, winning 6 out of 10 games with the 1 draw and the 3 defeats. If I didn't have that wobble in the middle table position's would have been different, but I can't complain with my first season in charge. Best part was unquestionably our 8-1 spanking at home to Domangago, a game in which we fell 1-0 down before going into half time 7-1 up. Safe to say the team took it easy after and understandably so.



Final Cup Standings


Decent effort considering the sides in the group, La Florita defeated Cosmos in the final.

Final League Standings


Very pleased with finishing fourth in the group, especially after our dreadful start. Perhaps with some smarter business by myself at the start of the season we could have made the champions playoffs, but never mind, it was enough for me to be awarded third place in the manager of the year awards. Overall pretty happy, and have things to look forward to next season as we try and push on.

Player Ratings


Hirsch turned out to be a great signing for us, finishing as the highest rated player for us, after scoring 7 goals in 10 games. Thomas Baldelli finished as the clubs top scorer with 12 goals from the right wing, awesome effort considering his finishing rating is only 2! Other notable season efforts came up new club captain and left winger Nicola Moretti, and Elton Shabani continued to provide for his teammates, leading the squad in assists. There are some players who didn't pull their weight this season, and I think I will be moving them on in an attempt to find some better players.

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Next Update: 2014/15 Preseason Round Up

Tough season Kieran, its all about building though and seeming you were predicted rock bottom!