Eric Portapotty - Comments

Preseason 2043/44

Season 7 begins here:



2ish weeks of friendlies and some others last season preparing our defensive formation, and we still get pumped.

At least we do have a backup despite the loss, and some actual beatable opposition this time round:



Our usual system paid dividends against Lincoln Red Imps, completely dominating them at home and maintaining the edge in Gibraltar.

It only took a proper win (and the utterly dour CL exit) to open my eyes to the idea that I don't actually have to sit back against superior opposition all the time.
And so we didn't, Lech Poznan did us over once before but we weren't going to let them roll past this time round - well at least not the final score anyway.
20 shots and 9 on target with only and OG to show for it, while we at least managed to create 4 of our own and level the scores ahead of the 2nd leg:



WOOT! A fantastic effort from the guys to keep Lech at bay again and put 2 past them this time.
Admittedly we were even more clinical (read: Lucky) this time, with 2 goals from 2 shots on goal.

Ok... So we somehow only have 1 more tie between us and an EL Group Stage spot:



Young Boys Berned us real good with their 1st, a blindingly quick passing sequence that ended with a goal before I even knew what was going on. Our keeper dropped the ball to gift them their 2nd, but even without that it'd be hard to see us winning this.



As such the team I sent out at Bern was a largely rotated one, mostly with the intention of letting the guys who didn't play in our European campaign yet to get some game time in Switzerland. So imagine my surprise when Della Valle scored a shock opener.
Well I mean they did reply almost immediately, but they did make me second-guess myself over that decision - not that it mattered in the end...



Quite surprised they did this, because we certainly didn't when we got absolutely dicked by Maccabi Tel-Aviv last season.



Nevertheless, there can be no question that this European adventure has been a roaring success, and I hope marks the beginning of longer runs in the future (just hope that I'm not around to manage it anyway).

This run was helped in no small part by the transfer activity this summer:





Lauro Steffens was found last season via the Global scouting package, and it was a good day's of access having found him.
He spent 2 months on trial at the tail end of last season, and did enough to earn a deal this season.
He's got great pedigree too, having been released by Internacional - I'm really expecting him to stay this season only, with a less expensive replacement to be sought out throughout the season.



Or maybe I don't - Pavaozinho comes in as backup and development in the U19s, but if he develops sufficiently I'll be tying him down to a long ass extension.
Still a bit rough around the edges, though rough for this team is top class for the league as a whole at this point.



Hofmann is more youth fodder and backup to Micheli at LCB, and will start cup games at minimum.



Dedic returns!
I wasn't optimistic about getting him back on loan, but apparently he was willing to stay here even as his game time didn't really increase last season.
He'll be the 2nd choice playmaker - quite raw compared to Tangara's more refined game, but there's an incredible ceiling for him and I'll try to train him to be a more all-action playmaker than the quarterback role last season.



Safaryan approached the club on the eve of the Lech tie, and with his wage demands ($180 is the minimum wage in the league) I couldn't turn down this opportunity.
I was really unfortunate that he dropped the ball against Young Boys, but as a goalkeeper he's levels above any GK in San Marino and I'm really expecting him to give us the Coppa Titano this time.



Mattia Pelliccioni didn't cover him in any glory throughout our European run, so I figured that we really needed some competition for him in the season proper.
Biaggio's another bruiser at leftback - not quite as much of a crossing wizard that Agost was, but still more than good enough here.

Season Preview




Lmao no, he might be the best ability wise but I'll be damned if he get the highest rating.



Again no, the bookies don't know that Ferrucci has been out of favour for the best part of a season (though he somehow still gets called up to the NT).



No surprises, with our team and 6 straight titles this is almost a pre-requisite.



We're helped that our group is again relatively easy, with only Tre Penne the other giant around.



Coppa Titano, even as we need to win this, does prove to be much trickier with Tre Fiori as the Pro team, while Juvenes Dogana and Libertas being more than capable of being banana skins.

End of Season 2042/43

6 seasons in San Marino, 5 league titles, and we still can't buy a Coppa Titano trophy for love nor money.
Sure Folgore has shown good form this season, sure I was probably too cautious for making the team focus on defending setpieces in anticipation of their gigantic back 3/5, but 27 shots and only 6 on target? Come on now.



Absolutely well deserved, we had the squad to win it so to stumble in the QFs yet again is all the more damning.

So for the 6 straight year, we have to dust ourselves down and regroup for the Championship playoffs:



Only difference in Michelotti's performance was that he scored this time, such is the fine margin between prolific and profligate.



Oh man what a game.
Pelliccia has consistently terrorised his former club, and today was no different, contorting our backline all match and coming away with a race.
Our only hope here was another brace, as Tangara came in flaming hot when it mattered the most.
Fancy us coming through on penalties too - can't do it against Folgore, but La Fiorita was a piece of cake somehow.



Fiorentino shithoused an opening OG then proceeded to shut up shop with their infamous back 5.
Their approach largely worked, though with repeated fouling near their area they began accumulating cards.
Eventually Veronesi pushed things too far and collected a and yellow, but by then Tangara had already hauled us back level with another wondergoal.
We kept knocking on the door a man up, but it looked like we had another extra time to get through...
... Until Ceccoli came up with a wondergoal of his own.
What a time too, to earn us the title.



And with that I've finally been mentioned in the ranks of Icons at Domagnano - only took the failure to win the Coppa Titano 6 times eh.

Season Review

Players of the Season



Michelotti pretty much made the starting right winger spot his own this season, with his superior pace winning out over Della Valle's crossing - the latter has also made peace with his new reality by accepting a new Backup role in his new deal , thankfully for us.
Michelotti himself though, he's still very much a weapon down that flank - 6 assists in 17 don't seem much but I'd probably attribute that to our strikers' finishing than his lack of final ball.



6 months in and Tangara has already taken to this league like taking candy from a baby.
Both a creative and physical presence, he's got a penchant for long shots with either foot and already has 6 goals and 4 MotMs in just 11 league matches.
Perhaps he'll be the key in us winning Coppa Titano next season...



A return to form for Claudio, with 15 goals and 6 assists in 18 league starts somehow not quite getting him the top scorer's gong, but certainly enough to win the league.
Alas, it's his ability to go missing at times that really cost us - add to that his lack of outright strength and hitting his ability ceiling, and I think he'll finally relinquish his starting spot to Nicola Ceccoli.

Oh and he's now a club legend, how about that - scoring 60+ goals at 21 does have that effect.



Nicola Gennari did well enough to keep Sandro Roma out of the team even after the latter's return from injury, and after our striker merry-go-round in January also kept himself in the conversation alongside Tocacelli.
He's happy with his non-contract deal, I'm happy with his goalscoring, what's not to like.



Agost was a mainstay at leftback, and ruled the left flank like his own fiefdom.
I'm actually disappointed he only came away with 2 assists, but his overall threat on the left was constant throughout regardless.
He's far too good for us at this point unfortunately, so there's no chance of signing him on a pre-contract.



Player of the Season, Bakare pretty much deserved it.
Showing an unusually golden touch for assists to add to his all-action performances, he turned it up to 11 this season.
Unfortunately... His performances also warranted a new contract which he eventually demanded, which when I rejected, he promptly kicked up a fuss and could've put our season in jeopardy during the tail end of the league stage.
Well so I did, 200 p/w for something like 4 months.

Unfortunately (again), he also suffered a long-term injury which rules him out till next season, and pragmatically speaking there's scarcely a better time to cut loose, goodwill be damned.



Shoutout to Nicola Ceccoli, who despite featuring sparingly with the 1st team, did score our winner in the Championship playoff final, and spent most of the season tearing up other kids as we won the U-19s double.
As I've said he'll probably lead the line for us next season.



Micheli didn't really excel or anything, but he did come back into the team after Marco Zanotti was poached, and well he's gone on to develop into our best defender.
He's still got massive weaknesses (Concentration, Jumping) but we might alleviate at least 1 of them with a new signing.
But no, I've highlighted him because he really did have my balls in contract talks:



That's a 2.5x increase in wage before other clauses and bonuses, way over the odds.
So yes, moral of the story is to negotiate at least some of your key players' deals before you win the title.



Beggars belief how we still haven't achieved that top reputation, is 6 years on the bounce not enough?!



At least we're climbing somewhere... Baby Steps...



Yep baby steps, even if this dumbass baby does fall a fair few times along the way.

Regular Season 2042/43

Quite an eventful January window:



Zanotti leaving was seriously annoying - a tall left footed centreback complemented Pietro Ugolini lack of height well, and he had started most of our league games in the 1st half of the season.
Alas, hubris got the better of me as I assumed that he'd be ok with a non-contract deal and Youngster role, though when Fiorentino came in oour full-time deal was offered with bonuses and all.
Lo and behold it turns out that a regular wage is suddenly no longer the be all and end all for players, so off he went to Fiorentino living off his appearance fees.

By contrast, Sandro Roma's departure was much more on our terms - it transpired quickly that his contract for next season would require a $200 raise minimum, which frankly I wasn't prepared to stump up.
So after trialling and scouting potential replacements we moved on to offer him out to other clubs, with Rende successfully securing his signature for the next 18 months.
Great player, can and did score bucketloads, but I couldn't justify his pay packet especially seeing him bomb in Europe at the start of the season.

His replacement:



Having only come through San Giovanni's academy last season, I broke my rule of not signing from clubs in the same league for Tocacelli.
Very clearly a step down from Roma, but more than enough for us at this point in time.
More importantly, with the deal we agreed on we're assured of his staying and wage stability for the next 4 seasons basically, which even if the board disagrees I see as a win.



Barseghyan trialled with us previously, and an 18-month deal on minimum wage was agreed afterwards.
A relatively quick destroyer with setpiece ability, that's precisely what I needed.


Dedic didn't really manage to deliver on his ability as a playmaker, so I figured we had to look for an alternative.
Enter Boubacar Tangara, whose passing might not be as spectacular but overall ability offers much more.
Also on relatively low wages, him and Barseghyan give us the flexibility to changes things come the season after if things don't work out.



Our league campaign continued its trail of destruction, as we finished the regular season unbeaten.
Fiorentino did frustrate us with an early goal in our 1st game (which thankfully we went on to win) and a late equaliser in the 2nd, but it wasn't enough to nab that top spot eventually:



Good shit, best attack and joint best defence.
Tre Fiori has been poor throughout the season despite their good defence, and it couldn't have come at a worse time with another 3 professional teams in the same group.
San Giovanni, Libertas and Folgore were beneficiaries of their easier group with qualification to the playoffs.



In the Coppa Titano, we bounced back from the Murata loss with a clutch win at Cosmos, then went on to clean up on the rest of the group.



Not much in the way of surprises, though Tre Fiori has again paid for their Group of Death and find themselves ending their season prematurely.



We NEED to beat Folgore, end of.



Lastly, we welcome a new batch of youth graduates:



Ahhh... Yeah this is a bit of a down year for us, not a good intake.



Bacciocchi is one bright spot for us - he continues the trend of short goalkeepers at the club, but he does have the fundamentals of goalkeeping otherwise.



Maiani and Michelotti are the only others who will be signed probably.



Ok I lied, we'll sign Aliff as well - I mean come on, a first Singaporean coming through the academy? He's getting signed.

Midseason 2042/43

Bit of an odd start, struggling to break open Folgore, finally doing so only to concede a late equaliser.
Cosmos was a mandatory 3 points given how they've been for a long while, and Tre Penne was desperately disappointing given our improvements this season.
We do seem to have taken that loss personally though, and blasted to the top of the pile with 7 straight wins - only 1 'big win' against La Fiorita to speak of, but this was sorely needed regardless after the uninspiring start to the season.



Top of our Group, though with another game against La Fiorita and 2(!) against Fiorentino I'm not putting too much stock on top spot just yet.



And this is why.
2 straight Supercup losses to Fiorentino, horrible showing from the strikers and Michelotti stupidly conceding a penalty despite trying his best to make amends afterwards.
They're a bogey team if we ever have one.



Our Cup run started as good as it could, 10 in 2 to put us on top.
... Then we proceed to throw all that away with another insipid performance up top and a late concession of the winner.



Makes our journey to progression far harder than it really needed to be, so annoying.

Preseason 2042/43

Well... We go again:



Another vastly superior side in Maccabi Tel-Aviv, and we somehow scraped a draw.



Well ball don't lie as they say, even if it had to take another 90 minutes.
Not really sure what else to say here - they're better, we'll have this for the next few seasons unless we pull something out of the bag this season, and playing a back 5 after a season's worth of positive back 4 football was never ending well.



OOO!!!! A win in the qualifying rounds proper.
As usual we were well under the cosh, but Ceccoli popped out with his first ever senior goal, and what an occasion to do so!



Er yeah, still not good enough.
But at least we did come away with a lead at the halfway point of the tie, baby steps and all that.

On to transfers now, and with our newfound professional status we've suddenly found ourselves a ton of trialist offers:



As it turned out, none of them were signed:



No real commitment to permanent signings this season, as we try to evaluate our options throughout the year.
And as you'll see, with the quality available in the loan market I don't even need to commit:



The only permanent arrival first, Sandro Roma came in as a left-footed and superior version of Nicola Gennari.
It's been a tough start to life in Domagnano though - started all the European matches and did so little, and to add injury to insult he tore his hamstring in the 2nd leg against Buducnost.
I think he'll still come good? That dribbling ability is nothing to be sniffed at after all.



Jeez.... Leopoldo Agost is an absolute beast.
Tall, pretty quick, already our set piece taker and a wicked crosser, he's a mad pickup on loan.
We're also changing our formation to play him in that maurauding wing back role, which I think he'll be a monster in.



Poratti... He's tall, not really fast and reads the game somewhat well.
I'll still start Ugolini over him, but he's already streets ahead of Diego Varela and that's all that I need right now.



Boyd? Meh - tall, somewhat quick, can tackle, I can play him over Micheli at a pinch though he'll mainly be making up the numbers in the U19s.



Dedic I reckon will be an absolute beast in the midfield, and if I have my way he'll be starting over Claudio Zanotti.
Top vision, great passer, great first touch - in a stronger league he'd be seen as a bit raw, but over here? Game breaking easily.
Too bad he's already a bit injury prone, so minutes wise we'll have to see.



Preseason was er, fine I guess.
Unbeaten again, Gennari was quite prolific, hopefully we can bring it into the league.



5 titles in a row and professional status, no surprises at the Favourites tag.
Not that I give a damn though, Coppa Titano's my priority now (and has been for 4 seasons - how can we win 5 leagues and not a single cp ffs)

By Number 1 30 January 2022 - 20:53 PM UTC

Good to know that the game has a great sense of comic timing by invoking that mayhem.

 

Also fair play on keeping this up.

Haha, helps that I've not bought 22 yet and I'm not that desperate to play 20 that I'll install Epic Launcher.

And yeah, thanks for following too!

-------------------------------------------

End of Season 2041/42

Well that's one more season at Domagnano guaranteed, and our season is arguably up in flames already.
I switched to a back 3 due to Teijeira's poor form and to accommodate the 'talents' of Micheli and Varela, and there's not much more to say than it blew up in my face.

Ok, reset - drop Varela and Micheli, revert to a 4-4-2, try to scrape whatever top 4 is in this convoluted playoff system and hope one of the other 3 wins the Coppa Titano, so I can at least make the Europa league.



Much, much better showing - Teijeira returned to the back 4 (and scored) as did Marangio with Afkir returning to RB, and Ugolini playing centreback with his decent speed and Jumping Reach.
Michelotti has been complete trash for a good month or 2 by this point, so Gennari also started, and he returned with a clinical near post finish.



Ferucci picked up a knock in the previous round, so Michelotti did play in his stead - he was pretty invisible throughout, but he poached a goal when it counted, off an unexpectedly good cross from Gennari.
And yes, another knock, this time Marangio being the unfortunate recipient.



We weren't at the races for quite some time, up top in particular, so Fede Michelotti's introduction over Gennari as a makeshift forward was all the more crucial - Bakare's leveller came off his saved shot, before his own winner.
(Marangio was replaced by Micheli - he didn't have a great game, but we don't dwell on that do we)

Ok, so we're in the final, which I know for certain means a Europa League place at minimum - some solace after a hair-tearing season.
Oh and we are in the final, so it'd be a hell of a way to end on a high!



Oh my days - we make it unbelievably hard for ourselves, but my days do we turn it up in the playoffs.
Much of the pregame talk was Boschi's return, and boy did he try his damnedest to turn heel.
But a goal and assist from Michael later (sandwiching another goal from them), and we were headed to extra time, where it was their old boy's turn to spoil their party - Gennari with a late, late winner in 2ET.



And there it is - I haven't the faintest clue how the guys turn it up to 11 for the playoffs (but not for the Cup somehow ahem) but they just keep going.
Definitely one of the more satisfying titles of the 5, maybe only bettered than our 1st.

Season Review

Another disaster of a Coppa Titano, and it was about to be the same for the league if they didn't put that hero run out of the hat.



Well deserved for Della Valle, though Id've liked for Michael to get his roses for this season.



And our all time XI, still a ways to go before we get all this squad's guys in but we're on our way.



Players of the Season



Player of the Season despite sharing game time with Fede Michelotti, well deserved for Della Valle as his crosses continued to threaten all season.



... Though my pick would've been Michael, who raised his game playing all season when his opposite flank was rotated.
Not the best winger out there, but so long he's still doing bits we're more than good.



Michelotti and Ferucci didn't manage to replicate their rampant successes of seasons past, but such were their performances that even a below-average season still returned over 20 goals in the league.
Unfortunately for the former, with newcomer Nicola Ceccoli being so much better a goalgetter he's very likely going to find himself sidelined next season.
Ferucci still has his industry to set himself apart, but if we can find ourselves a physical presence (that's better than Gennari) he could find himself looking in from the outside too.



Lastly, let's have a toast to Bianchi - 3 fantastic seasons as the set piece master and midfield coordinator, and when his legs left him for good he was good off the bench too.

Lastly....



Pros are definitely getting to keep youth prospects, cons we'll have to see (obvious one being the wage bill, which is why it's no longer just beneficial to qualify for Europe, it's basically essential at this point).

Regular Season 2041/42

A stuttering season descends into a full-blown crisis.
Firing blanks in 4 of 7 games, and while we're usually ok when we score, the horrific reverse against Folgore only rubbed salt to our wounds.
Michelotti and Ferrucci have struggled up top, and Gennari has been arguably worse as their deputy - our reliance on strikers' goals have come back to haunt us.



Despite averaging barely above 1.5ppg, we've found ourselves 2nd on our group, behind runaway leaders Fiorentino.
We're very lucky we weren't in Group A and their trio of professional clubs, where our points total wouldn't even have been enough for the playoff deciders.



Thankfully the cup proved to be much more productive - beating Folgore secured qualification to the knockouts, while the remaining group games also afforded us some rotation.



Big shock was La Fiorita bombing out, but other than that group-toppers were the usual suspects.



San Giovanni is about as good a draw as we could get (other than Cosmos anyway), but with Tre Penne drawing Fiorentino that's already a contender confirmed out for the semis.
In any case, I think I need to win this more than any other season - I don't think we're winning the league this time round, and with the move to full-time (well part-time really) the money issues could well start to appear.

There were also some wheeling and dealing:



Outs wise, well they're all youths in the fringes of the senior squad - probably the more annoying one is Pontrelli who was developing into a good striker and recently started in the cup, while Novaes didn't show much in the games he did play.

Likewise, Ins were all youth fodder, including the Brazilian Cassiano - I can't help myself when I'm offered random Brazilian youths who reject trial offers.
Not the best technically, and not yet 1st team material in general.

We finish with another youth intake:



Ceccoli and Colonna are great striker prospects and will light a fire under Ferrucci and Michelotti hopefully.
Arzilli's... odd I guess, good passer and equally athletic.
Nah he's great, will be a 2-way option as a DLP or B2B/Carrilero in our system/s.
Zanotti's a tall centreback(!), not sure if he can improve enough to hack it alongside Micheli and Varela, but his height is already an advantage off the blocks.

And Michael Masi? The jokes write themselves, especially when you consider how his debut went:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOlR6zRC1z4

Midseason 2041/42

Clearly a very frustrating season so far, starting with 4 points from 4 matches and losing both Virtus matches.
I don't know if De Letteriis' departure was the direct cause of this, but what I do know is Varela's way too limited to be part of a title-wining backline - short, way too aggressive and lacking in positional discipline to make up for that, he's cost us many a game already.



At least we can say we did the current league leaders for 7, though that was only 1 of 2 defeats all season as they recovered from missing out on the playoffs last season.
Meanwhile we're top of our group on points, but Fiorentino will catch us up if we're being honest - our double header late in the regular season will be crucial.



Didn't help that we weren't able to beat them in our 1st meeting this season, as we lose the Supercoppa for the 1st time.
Plenty of chances, but when your attackers aren't on it they just aren't, really.



Coppa Titano brought a lot more joy, even if we didn't exactly start promisingly, a late freak equaliser that really summed up our awful start to the season.
10 goals in our next 2 matches though, that's bound to give us a lot more joy.



Drawing on MD1 put quite the dampener on things, but at least we've got some buffer as far as qualifying in general goes.

To end off, some unfortunate news:



Yeah, to be honest McCombe was ever going to play in the cup, and with Novaes around as well there's just not enough game time to go around.
And what good is a superior aerial ability if you're not available to provide it?

Preseason 2041/42

Champions League Prelims had us pitted against Trepça of Kosovo, a better side than ours considering they'd made it to the 2nd round of Europa League qualifying last season.



A jammy, jammy win - being peppered with shots at home all game (including a missed penalty) only for Gennari to bundle in a winner, I'll take those.



Hibernians of Malta were also considerable opposition (well at this level I consider us rank underdogs so everyone's technically considerable) but playing at home, we didn't disappoint our fans and put them away.
That also turned out to be Nicolas Acosta's last game with us before the end of his loan deal - he helped to bring us into the CL (qualifying) proper, but we're on our own now.




Qualifying round 1 gave us our most famous opponent so far in Polish champions Lech Poznan.
And it showed - comfortably outclassed in both legs, helped by our 5-4-1 no doubt, though in my defence we'd probably be done for by more if we played more openly.



Upon dropping into the Europa League, Dudelange welcomed us for our next qualifying matchup - having beaten fellow Luxembourgish side Differdange a few seasons ago I really thought we had a chance here.
We showed that we did too, with our forward double act grabbing a goal each to give us a shock lead.
Alas, the loss of Acosta and inability to bring in a replacement in time meant Varela and Micheli started at centreback, and with an average age of under 17 that was always going to be a risky proposition - 3 goals in 5 minutes only exposed that fact.
Still, 2 away goals and a home leg, anything could happen.



We definitely gave it a go, and Ferrucci gave us a glimmer of hope early in the 2nd half, something to build on.
Well, until Goncalves broke San Marinese hearts with a belter from range.

So that was that, another profitable campaign in Europe, and with better news going forward:



Direct entry into CL qualifying, and 3 teams in EL qualifying! Great stuff for San Marino as a whole.



With our European exploits over, we returned into the usual preseason prep - 5 wins from 7 is good stuff, with Jena being the only real blip.

Of course, while all this was going on we had some transfer activity:



The standout departure had to be De Letteriis, who arguably stayed 2 seasons too long at the club.
Not that I'd begrudge him for it, far from it - he even stayed until we exited Europe, can't argue with that commitment to the cause.
But yes, now he's off to earn a regular wage back in Italy, and deservedly so given his ability.

Giardi would've been his successor as the midfield orchestrator, but he too left earlier having not seen a path to regular 1st team football here.

Giovanelli was a prospect from this year's youth intake - fantastic 1st touch and decent distribution from the centre, unfortunately his Low Self Belief and complete refusal to be mentored by any of the senior players meant I won't be missing him too much.

Bernardi was a bit more annoying, having rotated with Bakare regularly last season.

Incomings:


Teijeira was signed too late to play in the 1st leg against Dudelange, but he arrives on loan nonetheless - he'll partner Varela, mainly because of the latter's height deficiency.


You know things are getting desperate if we're signing players from (England's 7th tier) Warrington.
Jon McCombe will be to Micheli what Teijeira will be to Varela, a more aerially dominant player to shore things up at the back.


Fabio Novaes was actually offered to us by his agent, and judging by his stats back in Brazil I had to take a punt on him.
His stats were not without reason as he's probably the most intelligent defender at the club, but the back of any physical ability whatsoever really puts a dent on his potential.
He'll definitely need to toughen up in the U19s 1st.

Chiaruzzi, youth depth signing, not likely to do anything at senior level.



With 4 straight league titles we've come to expect the billing of favourites by now.



At least the groups are far more forgiving this time, with a better distribution of favourites than last season's bloodbath.



The Coppa Titano draw also gave us a very favourable group, so qualification is an absolute must even without this being my elusive trophy.

We finish with a surprise:





A casual chat about increasing physios' wages turned into an approval for turning professional!
It was just a shot in the dark and I hadn't expected it - it'll be interesting to see how we handle this (assuming I don't win the Coppa Titano and leave of course).

End of Season 2040/41

Coppa Titano quarterfinals, and a pretty easy win over Cailungo.
Ferrucci and Michelotti were at their best in a double act, and well we'll need them to replicate it in the semifinal - more so now because well, it's Tre Penne:



Fuck sake.
Michelotti gave us a vital lead early in the 2nd half, but other than that was pretty wasteful with his chances and keeping himself onside.
Meanwhile our defence wasn't able to hold on to the lead and eventually caved.
about 40 minutes of tense football later, penalties happened - and well, well see for yourself.



At least they failed to defend their cup title, the pricks.

So for a fourth season, we have to pick ourselves back up for the league playoffs:



A pretty shit win, but given our mental wounds after the cup run I'd take progress by any means.



Much better, though it was helped by Virtus going down to 9 men.
Michele Giorgi scored against his former club for their opener, but De Letteriis fired in a great freekick 7 minutes later, and once Ferrucci gave us the lead 5 minutes after we knew we had things under control.



A fantastic semifinal win against Fiorentino - none of that cautious stuff this time.



Another clash against Tre Penne, another opener, another inability to hold on to the lead, another penalty shootout.
At least we won this time round.

Season Review

Honestly, at this point every title win is just to keep the show going, since every win just means a season without the Coppa Titano and I'll probably be sacked if I didn't win it.



Not sure if I should've won Manager of the Season given Tre Penne's dominance, but I'll take it.



This is definitely the most annoying thing - La Fiorita got blown out at the start of the league and eventually failed to qualify for the playoffs, but despite winning 4 in a row we still can't overtake them as the best most reputable club in San Marino? Come on now...



Players of the Season



Michelotti was actually out with a torn hamstring just before the new year, so to finish as top scorer after that is testament to his undeniable talent (if not his consistency...)
Honestly, 14 goals in 14 starts is a stunning return,now all he needs is to work on his reading of the game and springing of the offside trap.



Della Valle could've had a much worse season if accommodating Federico Michelotti worked out - thankfully for him it completely flopped, so he kept playing at right wing and returned with 8 assists.



Midfield orchestrator Gianpaolo De Letteriis continued his orchestrating from deep, and chipped in with a couple of goals to boot.
The clear areas of improvement for him are his setpieces - with his technique as it is it just makes sense for him to be on dead balls as well.



For a last-minute loan, Nicolas Acosta eventually became the most solid centreback in the team, with his strength and aerial ability vital in making up for Diego Varela's lack of either.
Shame we'll be losing him - his parent club will only offer him a non-contract upon the expiry of his youth deal this summer, and frankly with a guy of his talent he needs (and wants from us) contract terms.

Lastly, some great news on the continental front:



Our first opponents in the CL Preliminaries are Kosovar side Trepca - a couple of Kosovo internationals in there, but I'm quietly confident I think.
In any case that's not actually the good news:



For next year at least, league champions go straight to the 1st qualifying round, which ensures at least 700k-ish of cash just for playing.
3 teams in the EL too, massive.

Regular Season 2040/41

We start off with a bit of an impulse signing:



Federico Michelotti was released by Tre Fiori at the end of last season, and much like Gennari was unwilling to sign a non-contract deal.
Much like him too, he eventually caved in when the summer transfer window came and went.
However, it had to be said that with Della Valle around, we really didn't need another right winger - well that is until I contrived to convince myself to start playing Della Valle on the left and converting George Michael to play LB. We'll get to how that got on later.

Outs:



Quite a painful series of departures, all in and around the 1st team:
- Ceccoli probably had the least impact as a young striker who hadn't yet made his mark in the 1st team;
- Would've liked to keep Giorgi as left wing cover, but he's offered even less than Ceccoli when given game time so ehhh;
- Tommasoni didn't exactly do well when called upon either, but with Tralongo also gone it meant we'd lost about half our senior centrebacks - bad bad vibes;
- Bacciocchi had only found some semblance of form, only to be whisked away on deadline day - pissed off at that.



I'd say the departures were the root cause for consecutive losses to San Giovanni, but truth is the ridiculous change of system to accommodate Michelotti had completely failed, and after copious amounts of humble pie I reverted to our usual system, just to get the team going again.
We went unbeaten in our remaining games, but a lot of struggling had to be endured - lucky to bite back at Juvenes Dogana, failing to capitalise on an early lead against Tre Penne, horrible setpiece defending in both Cailungo games, and only 1 goal against 10-man Virtus.
TLDR not good.



All in all, no one was able to stop Tre Penne's romp to the top.
The bookies got the right call though, with preseason favourites finishing in the top 5 of Group A - La Fiorita almost snuck into the playoffs with 5 straight wins to finish the season, but it wasn't to be.
It was quite the bloodbath too, with only 3 points separating 3rd from 7th - tight in an 8-team group.



Coppa Titano proved to be much easier for us, sealing progress into the quarters by Matchday 4.
It ended rather appallingly:



But ehh, it's not like La Fiorita were going to qualify anyway.

Lastly, we welcome another batch of youths:



Not quite the crop we'd seen from last season, but there were a couple of lads who could do a job here and now:



Micheli isn't the best marker, neither is he any good in the air, which makes him worryingly similar to Varela - good as they are, pairing them together will be a match made in hell.



Giovanelli's got a fantastic touch, but otherwise, well what a terrible personality to begin with - will need a lot of work.

Midseason 2040/41

3 for 3 in the SuperCoppa - some might dismiss supercups, but as far as I'm concerned these things are propping up my trophies to seasons ratio at over 1, so I'm counting these.

But of course the real meat is in the league:



A bloodbath indeed, though ironically we did well enough against the big guns, and tripped up more often than we'd liked against supposed smaller fry.
Folgore was a disasterclass in defending, while Juvenes Dogana... Well we just had no answer to their eventual control of the game.



As such both sides find themselves in the midst of overperforming seasons, and we find ourselves right in the mix as well.
La Fiorita completely shat the bed at the start of the season (losing 7-0 to Tre Penne among other results) and their season has stuttered since then, and while Tre Fiori started well enough, 4 straight losses to close our the year dropped them to the back of the queue.
Fiorentino also lost 4 of their 1st 6 but stormed back to top their group going into 2041.

For us, I'm just glad to have cleared most of the preseason favourites - Tre Penne and Cailungo (x2) are probably our toughest tests for the rest of the season.



Back on the hunt of the elusive Coppa Titano, and that start is about as good as it gets.
7 goals and 3 cleansheets in 3, gg ez.

We also had a signing in this time:



Welcome back Nicola Gennari, who was unceremoniously released by La Fiorita - considering he scored in 14 for them last season, that's just a stupid move really.
He's still the best finisher at the club, but also arguably the worst reading of the game with just Off The Ball of 6.
Just as enigmatic is his targetman frame and physique, but with such terrible heading (and arguably Bravery) I'm not sure how effective in the air he'll be.
Nevertheless he'll be in the rotation with Ferrucci (who has been on poor form), Michelotti, Bacciocchi et al., and has already played and scored in the cup.

Bollocks, absolute bollocks.
So for context, in this year's CL preliminaries we had the usual suspects in us and Santa Coloma, with Maltese and Latvian champions in Birkirkara and Ventspils joining us - I don't know enough about either, but I know that Latvia isn't as bad as us.
So I tried to rotate the squad and try to snatch a win against the Malta side.
Nope, didn't work at all suffice it to say.

Well at least we wouldn't have beaten Ventspils-



ffs



Birkirkara then did the business and disposed of Santa Coloma (as we did and would have...)

So yes, we couldn't replicate the heroics of last season and confirmed 'progression' to the Europa League:



Where we promptly got torn a new one by Irish outfit Derry City.
Admittedly we had brought out the 5-4-1 last used in my 1st 6 months at Domagnano, and a team well used to dominate proceedings locally was not close to prepared for such a defensive system. And well, the scorelines showed.

So we're left licking our wounds while dealing with the transfer window:



More wounds.
Some were easier to stomach as others - Odaine Caesar has been a clear 3rd/4th choice since the emergences of Ferrucci and Michelotti, while Mularoni was only youth fodder at centreback.

The others... Well, not as much:
- Colonna might have been subpar last season, but he was still 1st team worthy and I could've done with keeping him around;
- Di Nicola - only left-footed left back in the club, nuff said;
- Ranocchini... Well he wasn't going to amount to much, but when he played his pace was a useful weapon;
- Giorgi I had hoped he would be happy with sharing game time in a title-challenging side, but clearly not.

And I've saved the best (worst) for last:



Well it was only a matter of time before he left, such is his ability and the boost in reputation he must've had having played in the CL qualifying rounds.
The one saving grace here is the transfer only going through at the turn of the year, which gave me a bit of time to find a replacement:



Admittedly a bit of a cheat here, as I had a peek at the World youth scouting package and looked for interested parties to offer loans.
Acosta was one such player, and my days is he an absolute stud - he lacks Tralongo's mobility, but is a much better tackler and is also capable in the air.
He'll play in the U19s for now (managed to talk him into a Hot Prospect role) and the cup as he learns the team and the language.

Our only other signing:



Semprini is someone who can actually dribble, which I hope, along with his speed will go a long way to making up for his lack of flair. Resolute personality helps too.



A more punishing preseason for the guys, playing more high-reputation sides to make up for our early CL exit.
A few losses, but all in all it wasn't a disaster.



We're title favourites, which while I'd much rather do without, I think I have to concede this as mostly true - 3 titles on the bounce is not nothing after all.
And it's clear that there's a distinct Top 6 currently, with a gulf in odds between Libertas and Tre Penne in 7th and 66th favourites respectively.



Which makes the draw for the league's group phase all the more bewildering really - 5 of the top 6 in the same group, including last season's top 3 (Cailungo lost in the Minor Semifinal), and that's without going into how there's a very real chance that one of the 3 professional outfits (Tre Penne, La Fiorita and Tri Fiori) will fail to qualify for the Playoffs.

Meanwhile Fiorentino's going to their the group a new one and reserve their spot in the Playoff Fourth Round as group winners.

Happy birthday Susie, been some good times around here

End of Season 2039/40

Less of an evisceration compared to last season, but a dominant performance regardless.
George Michael popping up on the far post to score twice was a particular highlight.



Far tighter against rivals Murata, Protti put a dampener on our half-time break and threatened to derail our chances of winning the game. Fortunately, Varela scored on he debut off a set piece to regain the lead, before Michelotti and Ferrucci sealed the game.

So a first final appearance personally, and the first since in over a decade for the club:



Bollocks.
Roerto Colonna continued his suspect form throughout the season here, struggling against Tre Penne's strike pair all game and eventually hauled off while on a yellow.
Even as they went a man down deep into extra time we didn't have enough time to capitalise, and as a result we had to face them off in penalties.



Yeah.
Going 2-0 up in the shootout only to miss all 3 subsequent pens, yeah this is absolute bollocks.

We now had to put away yet another cup disappointment (and having to play out at least another season here) and focus on the league playoffs:



Comparing the scoreline and shot counts it'd seem that we were much more clinical on the day - indeed that was the case, Michelotti entrenching his reputation as a penalty box sharpshooter.



Vengeance against Tre Penne! It was again quite a tight game, well up to the point when Poggiali got himself into the double jeopardy of conceding a penalty and earning a 2nd yellow.
Della Valle couldn't capitalise on the penalty of course, but we held on to qualify for the final anyway.

It was also a physical game, leading to many yellows including all our back 4; and wouldn't you know it, that meant we had both Tralongo and Colonna - our starting centreback pair - suspended for the final.

Well cometh the hour, cometh the man:





Yes, having been frozen out after last season's cup shitshow and only starting twice this season, Endri Bakaj was ready to hang up his boots but with our suspension issues, I had to swallow my pride and rope him back in for a last dance.
And my oh my did he have a solid performance, no fuss with dealing with that strike pair and seeing it through to win a 3rd title in his last ever match.

Season Review

Could have the Foreign player award wrapped up already 👀

Players of the Season




Michelotti has flourished in a Advanced Forward, fox in the box role, finishing with 25 goals in 34 starts.
The stats don't like, pretty much the Player of the Season.



Ferrucci is his partner in crime, doing the hard running while Michelotti poaches.
He's also a full international now, all in all great stuff.



Bianchi obviously started the season with a broken pelvis and did get his starting spot back once he got back to full fitness. However, De Letteriis' progress and Bianchi's own issues with lasting 90 minutes meant he was eased onto substitute duties.
With his setpiece ability though, he would always be first off the bench and did contribute with 2 goals and 6 assists himself.
His fitness means he'll continue to be rotated, but I'll do my damnedest to keep him around for as long as possible.



De Letteriis was supposed to be eased more gradually into the starting XI, but with the aforementioned issues and his own demand to start more frequently meant he had to get game time eventually.
He took to that deep-lying distributor to a duck to water, suffice it to say - being half-decent with freekicks also netted him one such goal.



Tralongo took the mantle of leading the backline this season - winning 85% of headers and 87% of tackles speak for themselves really.



Della Valle and Michael were our winged double act, clocking up the distance figures and whipping in crosses for Michelotti and Ferrucci to pounce on.

Regular Season 2039/40

An unbeaten 2nd half of the season, which is undeniably great, but even here we find things to be pissed about - 4 draws, especially the Tre Fiori game where we failed to score against 9 men.



It speaks to the quality at the top that we only sneaked top spot by 1 point.
The top 3 in our group was a class apart too, a 16 point gap between Tre Fiori in 3rd and Libertas in 4th.



Some of the draws could be attributed to prioritising the Coppa Titano, and with hindsight I'd say it paid off handsomely.
Winning crunch ties against Tre Penne and Fiorentino allowed us to debut some youth graduates, who promptly went on to open their goal accounts for the club.



Losing the 1st 2 games in the group? ez



Pretty much the only big gun that bowed out was Fiorentino, so we were likely to meet one of the others in the quarters.
And so it proved - hopefully we can repeat the insane heroics from last season.

A number of transfers out as usual:



Poggiali and Boschi came through the previous youth intake and were extremely talented, Poggiali in particular.
In fact they were all under 20, but other than the former only bGasperoni was close to the 1st team.

Only 1 arrival:



Renzi came in for the RB spot in the U19s, and who knows, with his physical ability he could turn out to be a somewhat competent option at centreback as well.

Finally, another youth intake:


https://imgur.com/a/wsJS1EB

Ohhhh yeah, Varela's going to be a starter for San Marino.
As mentioned, Ceccoli and Ugolini both scored in their 1st starts for the club, and while Varela wasn't able to due to injury I'm expecting him to feature in the cup knockouts as well.
Bindi's definitely a work in progress still, but that turn of speed will do us a world of good in central midfield, not to mention his freekick ability.

Midseason 2039/40

7 wins from 9 is our best start to a season so far, being able to both blow teams out and grind out 1-0s.
Of course losing against Tre Penne and Virtus(!) puts puts a hell of a damper on things, especially finishing out the year with an L.



Being 3rd is always going to irk at 1st glance, but when considering that we've got:
- 2 games in hand on Tre Fiori, and
- 8 points and 3 games on Cosmos in 4th
We're actually in a much better position than at 1st glance - but it goes without saying when the team goes 7 of 9 right.



Far more issues in the Coppa Titano - whether it's the rotated team or a game approach issue, we can't seem to get it right in the Cup.
There's a case to be made that Fiorentino and Tre Penne are bum draws in an arguable Group of Death, but regardless of the draw we still need to beat what's in front of us.



It was imperative that we beat Cailungo to prevent this campaign from becoming a shitshow already, but we do still find ourselves 3rd in the group.
At our best we can beat both Fiorentino and Tre Penne, but my days have we been far from our best in the Cup in all the last 3 seasons.



At least we've still able to pad the trophy cabinet with another Supercup win.
Pelliccia's on loan at Libertas from La Fiorita, and as the sole striker in a 5-4-1 he was their only goal threat up top.
He did score too, and he really should have had a hattrick, such was he extent to which he terrorised our backline.
Fortunately our own young strikers also turned up big time to put any of his threats down.

We end off with another off-transfer window signing:



https://open.spotify.com/track/7xGOvQukPKKQVLiJOPSmt0?si=dc50dae155574e5a

Much like Moses Bakare last season, Michael waited through the window for a club who would offer him a part-time deal that Tre Penne gave him last season.
Turns out no one thought him worthy of one, and so once the window slammed shut he had to have humble pie and entertain non-contract offers - that's when we pounced.
He's not brilliant, but he's a damn sight better than Molinari and that's all that counts really.

Preseason 2039/40

Back in the CL, and back to being drawn against Santa Coloma.
Much, much easier than our 1st encounter last season, and while we also had the fitness issues this time at least we didn't exacerbate it by playing Extra Time.



Round 2 of the Prelims matched us up against the champions of Luxembourg, and as it turned out, much much easier than last season as well.
With hindsight, it was actually quite odd to have a Lithuanian side in the Prelims of the CL - the 4 clubs in this tourney this season were from San Marino, Andorra, Luxemboug and the Faroes - Lithuania might not be giants of the game, but they aren't literal microstates either.
But I digress - winning the Prelims means we've secured at least 2 more matches in Europe than last season: 1 CL and EL qualifying tie each if I lose immediately in the former.



... And yeah, we inevitably did.
I've still not got around to developing a tactic to barricade our goal, so we do find ourselves exposed and dominated at this level.



Same deal against the Slovak champions - showed a bit of ambition, but not enough ability, and as a result we bowed out of Europe - but at least with a marked improvement in our coefficient.





Oh, and a shit ton of money - so much so that we've quadrupled our bank to 2.1m after only having around 500k at one point after upgrading our facilities.

Now for the transfers - and quite a bit of bittersweet news:





So yes, Lazzeri has returned to Italy with Alessandria - I can't help but be glad for him getting a full-time deal at a Serie C team after 2 great years with us. A bit annoying that he left midway through our European tour, but at least he didn't leave to a La Fiorita for some trash part-time pay.

The others:
- Blanco... Ehh, he needed game time and I was never going to play someone as aggressive and positionally naive as he is.
- Pelliccia was slightly frustrating, he would've started league games this season; he's joined by Amici who did start league games.
- Santi was on awful form last season so I'm not too concerned with him leaving, but I guarantee he'll score against us next season.
- Gennari didn't start a league game last season, so I'm not going to begrudge him for looking for a starting berth.

A couple of arrivals:



De Letteriis is a talented midfielder, if a bit of a wrong'un, having already rejected being tutored by Bianchi.
Nevertheless he's already starting material, and will get the game time he deserves.



Bollini spent 10 seasons at Tre Fiori, though he really was only a starter for 4 of them.
Not as good as Bianchi as a whole, he still managed 11 clean sheets last season and will be starting in the Coppa Titano at least.
The bigger question I have is why Tre Fiori released him to begin with - they currently have no senior goalkeepers and it doesn't look like they're signing a replacement at this point - maybe they've got a couple of youth gems?



Preseason went pretty well, a couple of losses here and there but I'll put those down to rotation.




I can definitely see us finishing in the top 2 minimum, and we're helped by having to play Fiorentino and La Fiorita only once.



But of course the Coppa Titano is the objective going forward, and we find ourselves in a bit of a Group of Death.
Fiorentino, Tre Penne and Cailungo (who won the thing the season before last), yeah we had an objectively easier group last season and still nearly tripped up.

Lastly, some shoutouts to our best players of last season:




Della Valle has another 10 seasons left in him minimum, but for Bianchi I just hope he can still keep up with the game after his broken pelvis - he's done ok in preseason, but is clearly still unfit and will need further nursing.

End of Season 2038/39

The Coppa Titano came calling first, as we look to complete my San Marino Challenge:



A spectacular beatdown after going 2 behind in 15 minutes.
The 15th minute was also when Michelotti began his one-man demolition of the Tre Fiori backline, and along with Gualtieri put six past that hapless defence.



Yeah... The hubris from such an emphatic victory might've cost us this one.
But can I just say how much I hate Endri Bakaj - all the ratings do is look at his strength and say Oh he's one of your better players. What they fail to appreciate is his lack of speed, excessive aggression, inability to tackle and general lack of mental strength when it matters.
He somehow avoided direct fault for either goal conceded, but clearances that fell to opponents, giving away a penalty and eventually getting himself sent off is more than just as bad.
I hate him, I hate myself for trusting him again, and he'll be exiled to the youths until he retires or leaves.

Oh well, another year at San Marino then.

Up next was the league playoffs:



Damn, got outplayed all game and exploited during corners, but we managed to hang on through 120 minutes into penalties.
For what it's worth I was too busy shitting myself to watch the shootout, but we won in the end, so all's well that ends well.



Fiorentino in the (Major) Semifinals, and while being under the cosh again we managed to pull another win out of our arses again.
Odaine Caesar has had a poor season by his standards so far (partly due to playing as a Shadow Striker all season) but came in hot today with a brace.
Long-time nemesis Enrico Crescentini had many chances himself - par for the course as a lone frontman - but current beef with his manager seems to have affected his game.
Like I care, we're in another final.



GET IN, 2 in 2.
La Fiorita won their (Minor) Semifinal against Fiorentino in a double elimination clash, and would've been expecting to improve on their earlier dominant performance to avenge that loss on the final.
Well that's what I expected anyway, but they didn't replicate that performance at all - after our 2 goals in 2 minutes we coasted through the rest of the game.



Let's hope they name their future new stadium after me.

Season Review

Meh, it was an unimpressive cup campaign for us regardless of the semifinal appearance - we'll need to improve substantially if only to convince ourselves of our credentials.



Now this is a surprise, I think there's about a hundred teams in the CL (preliminaries onward) and to be the biggest overachiever speaks volumes.
I suppose that's in part due to our sheer obscurity in Europe, but either way it's good to receive recognition.

Players of the Season

17 clean sheets in 32 games, no matter how good the defence is in front of you, you still have to make the saves when they come.
I was expecting to replace Bianchi with Gennari this season to improve our 1v1 weaknesses, but the man has responded to this threat and turned it up to 11 to carry our slightly misfiring attack this season.



In front of him are Tralongo and Colonna - to think I was trying to ease the former into the 1st team by playing Bakaj earlier in the season, silly me.
At least Bakaj did all of us a favour by getting himself sent off in the 1st Fiorentino defeat, bringing this dream partnership together.



Now in front of them is hands down our Player of the Season - distributor from deep, setpiece maestro, penalty expert.
I'm just hoping his broken pelvis is not a career ender, because my days I probably won't be able to find another dead ball savant at this level.



Della Valle didn't have as influential a season this time round, with injuries disrupting any sort of consistent form he could've had.
5 goals and 3 assists is still a great return though, and arguably it's only the emergence of even better performances from others that made him stand out less.



Michelotti came in in January and was supposed to play youth football, but scoring in his 1st start and then in the 1st minute against Folgore pretty much earned himself starting up top for the rest of the season.
I mean, there's now a bit of a dilemma with the striker corps that we have right now (Pelliccia, Santi, Ferrucci), will be a hell of a task trying to appease them all.
Then again, Santi has been gash this season, so I'm not too disinclined to drop him.

Anyway... To finish up the season:



Nice of the board to have some sense and initiate the upgrade of facilities themselves.
Does mean that we're a bit buggered in finances (then again, still 500k in the black so I don't know what all the fuss is about) so they've rejected my request for increasing the youth coaching budget.



Yep, 2 weeks and they're back, and we'll all be back unfit for another Champions League campaign.

Let's just get that out of the way:



He was always likely to leave - he expressed frustration at not starting every match when I was trying to ease him into the 1st team, and even after he was appeased with the game time he eventually refused a contract renewal.
So yeah, he leaves, Bakare replaces him, we move.

Meanwhile Marciano was a mediocre youth striker who was picked up by La Fiorita to buff up their youth ranks, no offence but no big loss.


https://imgur.com/a/pQiA5qk
A youth-focused window:
- Michelotti was the DoF's pick, already ready for 1st team football and still eligible for the youths so that gives us the flexibility to provide minutes for him.
- Not exactly great timing for Pelliccia though, especially being a year older.
Still a pretty good striker all things considered though, and he's also impressed in his appearances so far.
- Valente... Well he's 17, a good passer, decent vision - figured we could take a chance on him.
- Lastly Mularoni was signed just for youth numbers, don't expect him to start senior games.

Back to the league:



An absolutely astonishing 8 clean sheets in 10 games to finish up the regular season.
Not exactly all roses of course - getting torn a new one by Tre Penne, generally being goal shy throughout.



Nevertheless, the table does not lie - 11 points clear, 10 goals conceded, 14 clean sheets, an amazing defensive season.



And of course, we meet La Fiorita in the 4th round of the Playoffs - what this means in real terms is:
- Winner goes to the (Major) Semifinal,
- Loser goes to the 6th round, where the winner then plays in the (Minor) Semifinal.

Either way we'd better win this to save myself the trouble of figuring out who to play.

On to the Coppa Titano:



The poor cup form continued with a dour draw against Murata, before we contrived to concede a 4th goal in 2 games to this guy.
We finally beat Virtus after sending in the regulars, though even that encounter had its own troubles (including a missed Virtus penalty).
At least we finished on a high, comfortably dispatching Murata in our 3rd encounter.




No seeding here apparently, so we get the hardest draw around with Tre Fiori in the quarters.
And if the calendar is to be believed, we're expected to play out the rest of the tournament by the following, which means 3 games in 8 days - great.

Our bid for both competitions has also been dealt a spectacular blow:



What kind of training were they conducting?! An actual broken pelvis for our deep lying playmaker and set piece extraordinaire which definitely rules him out for the season and then some.

EDIT:



Not 3 days later......

Ok, let's at least end on a more positive note:





- I have to say that I don't understand why Bucci was singled out as a prospect - he's not even the best in his intake.
- Ferrucci is by far the actual best talent - it's slightly unfortunate that he's arrived in the midst of an already rich attacking corps, and as such I'll be expecting his departure next season.

Midseason 2038/39

A fantastic start to the season with 2 wins against 2 title rivals beginning a perfect 1st 5 games.
We went a bit off the boil after that, losing out 1st game against another title rival in Fiorentino, but at least ended the year with another 2 wins in 3.



With that great start we find ourselves in pole position to qualify for the playoffs.
Tre Penne recovered from their utter underachievement to lead the chasing pack, while Tre Fiori also found themselves in the mix.
We still have to play them both again as well as La Fiorita, so it's still early doors yet.

We'll move on to the Coppa Titano:



Great win against rivals Murata, with Luciano Blanco scoring on his debut and backup striker Joseph Onuh finding the net after an 11 hour drought.



Scoring in his debut, Blanco's next start was the exact opposite.
He and centreback partner Endri Bakaj constantly lost the hat trick hero Agostini, and even with 2 men up we also failed to make our numbers count.



Turns out Murata are probably going to be comfortable whipping boys this time round, so we do have 2nd place to hang on to if Virtus are to deliver another spanking.
We'll also have to play each other 3 times in this group, to match the 6 games the other groups' teams have to play.

In any case, at least we did have a cup final to look forward to:




Nerves galore inevitably, but we came through in the end, albeit on penalties.
At least we actually deserved to win it, having dominated proceedings throughout.

Finally, we end on a signing - yes, a signing before the window even opens:



Moses Bakare comes in to provide better cover/competition in our midfield, because our midfield depth is pretty trash.
Granted the likes of Giorgi and Lazzeri are on great form at the moment, but beyond them our quality starts to sink fast.
I'm fully expecting youth prospect Vannucci to leave this window as well, so I very much wanted to get someone else in and integrated before I get blindsided by another 'shock' poaching.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3Zs-HZczUM

Good: We're back in the Champions League!
Bad: Well... our 1st game came 4 days after the players returned from their 3 weeks of holiday.
Needless to say it didn't lead to great match fitness.



What I didn't know was CL Preliminaries being a single-legged affair with extra-time and penalties - guess who made all his subs by the 70th minute.
Incredible heart by the team to play through the exhaustion to prevail after 120 minutes - Vannucci especially clutch for his first ever senior appearance.



Shoutout to Afkir for pretty much ruining his body as well, and with the rest of the team wasn't in the state to play the next round of Qualifying, which quelle surprise was played 3 days after:



Lithuanian treble winners in the middle of their season, yeah we did bloody well to keep them to 2 goals.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WT6XoMf8oI

So we move - it's not the Champions League anymore but dammit it's Europe, if nothing else we're here to earn some coin:



Armenian league champions Pyunik were up next, and they were definitely more in the mood that Zalgiris were.
On hindsight I might've been too naive sticking with a back 4...



2nd leg was just as much of a struggle, but their forwards clearly saw the aggregate score and decided to have a day off.
Indeed we managed to scrape some semblance of pride with a late Caesar goal, to leave Europe with a win.





Oh yeah, and the coin - this little run netted us about close to a million dollars, which we immediately poured into the training and youth facilities.

With the pre-preseason European adventure out of the way, let's return to real life and the chaos of the transfer window:



Like clockwork, the semi-annual dismemberment of non-contract squads commenced - let's just have a rundown of who we lost this time:

-2 1st team centrebacks (Giacobbi and Della Valle)
-2 1st team rightbacks (Muccioli and Villa)
-a 1st team left winger (Cain)
-a youth striker who would've been in the 1st team fold this season (Gennari)
-a 1st team centre mid (Amici)
(Bianchi was a youth fullback who was comfortable on either flank and foot, but he's a bit shit so I won't be overly miffed at him leaving)

https://imgur.com/a/17Kp3JA

Vast majority were free agents, with the 2 exceptions being the handiwork of the DoF, who also found this window very hard to work with.

-Mularoni and Amici are youth team cover, though I think Amici could get some 1st team play through the season
-Gennari was unwanted by La Fiorita - I think he's more allrounded than Bianchi, and (despite the star ratings) better. It's still Bianchi's spot to lose though.
-Gualtieri is the backup right winger that we've sorely needed last season - pretty shit in all honesty, but physically decent and being able to fill in up top at a pinch means he's good for the bench at least.
-Tralongo is the star signing this window - if all goes well he'll pair with (and replace) Bakaj, though preseason hasn't been kind to him.
-Pedretti is primarily a centreback, though apparently he's also able to cover RB, DM and CM (he's not any good at them of course).
-Blanco was signed after Pedretti, and yeah I'm not feeling him too well.
Not that he's bad bad, but arriving after Tralongo means he's instantly 3rd choice at best, and a lack of versatility also disadvantages him in the bench spot discussion.
-And finally, Marangio is our new staring RB - already faster and better in the air than Muccioli, I see him thriving here.



Preseason proper was a bit of a mixed bag as we dealt with the squad overhaul.
We also pitted ourselves almost exclusively with bigger names (relatively anyway - these guys are Italian and Croatian amateur outfits) to give ourselves a bit of a test, and well the results aren't fantastic.



Nevertheless, that hasn't stopped the bookies from rating us 4th favourites to win the whole thing - it equates to 2nd in the league season and semifinals in the playoffs, which er... Yeah I didn't need this pressure.



At least we avoided La Fiorita and Fiorentino in our group and will only have to deal with them once each.

But of course, as you know the league is already crossed off y list, so let's turn our attention to something that actually matters:



The Coppa Titano groups are out, and pits us against rivals Murata.
I think we should be able to advance, though 2 rival encounters does put some butterflies in my stomach if I'm honest - could be real banana skins.

(And of course there's also the Supercoppa Sammarinese, but that happens after the start of the league so that'll have to wait, along with the closure of the transfer window.)

End of Season 2037/38

While we were waiting for La Fiorita to beat Cailungo (they did) we tried to devise a new system in anticipation for next season:



Bianchi as the quarterback DLP, Afkir beside him as an inverted WB, Della Valle on the right wing, and we somewhat manage to solve our issues up top with Lazzeri supporting the frontman at AM.
As it turned out, the couple of friendlies we tried this out with went so well that we abandoned the hellish 5-4-1 for the playoffs.



It's clear that playing Afkir alongside Bianchi gives us the numbers in midfield to keep possession, and we made it count against La Fiorita.
They weren't out yet, as I finally understood that the playoffs follow a Double-Eliminination format.



Next up was Juvenes Dogana, in a game where neither team's attack could hit a barn door with a banjo.
We somehow won out in the penalties, mightily impressive in our 1st shootout.



An absolute shithouse win that was pretty tarnished by Della Valle's injury early doors, one that would rule him out of the final as well - really bad considering he's our only right winger of any discernible ability.
Again, neither Santi nor Tre Fiori's strikers had any form, so youth target man Gennari came on to great shithousing effect, pouncing on a dropped ball from their goalkeeper.

And just like that, we're in the final - it's not been pretty (only an average of a goal a game) but I'dve snatched your hand off for this midseason:




And I'd snatch your damn hand off for this - CHAMPIONS!
Cometh the hour, cometh the man too - Odaine Caesar had been let out in the cold in favour of Santi, due to the latter's superior pace suiting play on the break. But with Della Valle out, Santi was shifted out to the wing - not that Caesar could get back into the team, as Gennari was rewarded for his semifinal goal.
Well he was poor, and once we went behind Caesar was called upon, to devastating effect with 2 poacher's goals.
But even that wasn't enough, so a final throw of the dice was needed; having come on to shore things up when we went 2-1 up, Giacobbi inadvertently found himself scoring the winner, a great effort from just inside the box to win us the final.



Well if Arsenal aren't getting in IRL I might as well have a go at it in-game eh.

Season Review

10 goals and 2 assists in 13 starts in his 1st season as a 19-year old, objectively brilliant numbers.
He did fall out of form and favour towards the end of the league stage, but delivering on the biggest stage more than makes up for all of that.



Player of the Season with good reason, a ridiculously consistent midfielder who also chips in with the occasional goal contribution.
His attributes clearly don't tell the full story, despite being technically mediocre he'll be one of the 1st names on the team sheets... so long he doesn't leave.



A revelation of a signing, Bianchi's distribution went some way to leading us through the playoffs, not to mention his setpiece ability (especially penalties, been a long while since I've had a penalty specialist).



Playing on the left all season, Afkir took it like a tuck to water, firstly as a Defensive Fullback then as an Inverted Wingback.
Again, his passing might be gash, but when you've got Bianchi for distribution you just need to be another body/passing option in midfield.
Helps a lot that his athleticism more than makes up for his more advanced positioning, and he's bailed out our snail-paced backline more than a few times.



Lazzeri was another one of our DoF's picks, and he proved to be another great signing.
Looking back at the season it's clear that the midfield was by far our strongest area, and Lazzeri contributed for 4 goals and 4 assists, going from strength to strength to become one of the league's standout creators.



Shoutout to Matteo Bianchi as well, who despite being very, very dodgy at 1v1s, did more than a great job on his line and earning himself a record number of clean sheets.

Well so now the players have gone on holiday:



Unfortunately we've got CL qualifiers in July, so it'll have to be a 3-week holiday instead of the 2-3 month breaks of seasons past.

Many transfers in the January transfer window:



Lots of ins and outs, a significant number we had our hand forced, and many were of my DoF's handiwork as I conceded my lack of knowledge in the Sammarinese market:

https://imgur.com/a/XRlNNwG

- Giacobbi was a free agent from the San Marino U19s, and given out shitness at the back his signing was completed way before the window even started. (We can gloss over the fact that he's also not a very good defender, or that he only ended up with 1 league start)
- Gennari, Santi, Bianchi, Amici and Della Valle were all the DoF's signings, and to be honest he has quite the eye for a player.
- Cain is the last of the Sugar Boys dropouts to join us, and we needed him too seeing as Quaver Fisher got poached by La Florita. Unfortunately due to his age he wasn't able to be registered before the transfer window closed; and when Creuso also left, well...
- Molinari came in as a last-minute stop-gap. Unfortunately for him, unlike in the leagues before you can't really cover up your lack of ability with sheer speed, so he's been a bit shit so far - nevertheless the Resolute personality and ex-international status will help off the field.

Now for Departures - 3 (including 2 Cayman Islanders and regular starters) left for part-time deals with La Florita.
I guess I'm happy for all 3 that they'll be getting a regular salary instead of only appearance fees, but for us this just means that our best players are probably just going to get hoovered up by them or Tre Penne, basically those who are able to pay part-time salaries.
Creuso left too which is a shame.

We've also come to the end of our regular season:



I've sold my soul to the devil and went with the 5-4-1, and in exchange we managed a 6-game winning streak, and finished with 8 wins from 11.
The football was genuinely turgid at times, lots of camping in our own box, but with Santi's pace we made it work somehow.
Fans aren't too happy though, so that'll be something to work on for next season - maybe don't play a 5-4-1 every game.

But did our 2nd half manage to save our season?



Well of course it did, imagine winning 6 in a row and not managing to climb at least a few places.
Evidently we were placed in the much easier group as well, facing off an underperforming Tre Penne twice and only having to play La Florita, Juvenes Dogana and Fiorentino only once.
Indeed, that top 3 in Group A all did better than Tre Fiori in Group B.



... So, in all its infinite wisdom, San Marino's football authorities deemed a playoff decider necessary, against 25-point Cailungo and 40-point La Florita.
Incidentally, the winner of that decider plays us in the 1st round of the playoffs.

Now of course we've scraped something of a success in the league - what about the cup?



2 very hard fought wins against Fiorentino and San Giovanni gave us a great chance to qualify from the group - all we had to do was to match or better Fiorentino's result against San Giovanni.
Well we drew, and I settled for a draw thinking that Fiorentino was also drawing (the live league tables were showing me that in any case) - well....



Yeah that 'Live' table was clearly bugged to hell and back, because Fiorentino ran out comfortable 3-1 winners - absolute bullshit.

That said, I should've gone for the win, and playing it Man City style when they got relegated in 1996 inevitably has its perils.

Let's end on a positive note at least, with another youth intake:




Despite having much less in terms of youth development compared to the big boys, we've got ourselves a couple of gems - Vannucci looks set to be eased into 1st team football next season, while Colunna looks set to start from the off - heaven knows we need some pace in our backline.

By kingrobbo 29 August 2021 - 22:02 PM UTC

I've unpinned it because it's been only me updating the thread no one seems interested, so dont see the point in it being pinned to the forum

Heh, if we're being honest the OT sections have been dead for many moons already.

Missing the heydays of ~2008-12, spiffing stuff around these parts at the time.

Life just happens eh

Midseason 2037/38

As it turns out, everyone but the best teams play a single striker up top - from the pretty adventurous 4-2-3-1, to the outright turgid 5-4-1.

Well look at what these lone strikers have done to us:



Horrible, horrible stuff at the back, with only 1 clean sheet and many a late equaliser conceded.
Oh and the penalties, the number of penalties we've conceded even though we have 2 men to deal with 1 striker.
Even with a very low defensive line, opposition goalkeepers still regularly punt the ball down to their lone targetman to run and have a shot.
Neither Rohan James or Bakaj have any pace of note or sufficient defensive ability to make up for that, so we often just find ourselves caught out by the simplest of long balls.
It's gotten so bad that I'm probably going to follow suit and trot out the 5-4-1 as well at this rate.

There are positives though - with our porous backline forcing our attack to do so much more, the likes of Caesar and Creuso have managed to nab a couple of goals - Caesar in particular top scoring for us so far with 5.



As a result we find ourselves 2nd from bottom, albeit with a few games in hand.
Testing times ahead regardless.

While all this was going on, we also had the Coppa Titano to contend with:



... And same story here.
Porous defence, attack only able to do so much, rinse and repeat.



Fortunately it's a home and away round robin, so we've got another 3 matches to salvage our group stage.

Preseason 2037/38

Since I've mentioned how bad the squad was, let's start with how I'm attempting to improve that:





I went back to familiar territory to start with - both Fisher and James were released by Sugar Boys mere days after I resigned (along with Odaine Caesar) and we had a bit of leeway with the foreign quota as well (4 from a maximum of 7 on matchday and 11 in the registered squad).
Bit of a bad sign that they're already one of the better players at the club though.



These 2 were courtesy of the DoF - Creuso was signed by him personally before I remembered to delegate transfer responsibility back to me, while Lazzeri was a suggestion of his.
Intriguing how 17 year olds from an amateur team's youth squad can walk into our starting XI too.



There are basically zero LBs worth their salt in the market right now, so I've decided to play Afkir there and solve the easier RB problem instead.
Muccioli isn't all that fast, but looks sufficiently solid at defending so let's hope that's enough for him to cope.

The rest of the signings were for U19 squad filler (arguably Caeser as well, he's not that good compared to the rest of the team, but with Professional personality I'm betting on some improvement from him over time).
Exits wise... Zanotti was a prospect GK who wasn't going to start over Bianchi, while Protti was so bad as a striker in preseason that I wasn't all that fussed to lose him.
Bit annoyed about Gesmundo though, one of our best players at centre mid and someone who wasn't labelled a destroyer for once - we had to offer him a new deal twice this window to fend off bidders, but eventually he still chose to leave at the 3rd time of asking.



Preseason proper was a bumper one as I tried to find a system that worked. Well quelle surprise, it's back to the trusty 4-4-2 - we did try a couple of others like a 4-5-1 they played with previously, but it's lower league football, and unless we have a baller team we'll play a 4-4-2.
Della Valle has adapted excellently to the right wing, while Fisher has played regularly and chipped in with a number of goals as a makeshift striker.
Rohan James is also going to be a starter at centreback, seeing as our best centreback had been beefing with me all preseason over something that the previous manager did to him - pisstake.



Now, in case you're not familiar with San Marino's league system:



The league's regular season is split into 2 groups, and the top 3 from each group qualify for honestly, needlessly convoluted playoffs - I don't know how it works yet, but looking at last year's results tree it definitely involves a minor and major semifinal.

Anyway, tl;dr I think we're supposed to challenge for a top 3 spot in our group, which looks like a tough ask considering we finished bottom of ours last season.

We also have the Coppa Titano:



Much easier format, 4 groups with the top 2 qualifying for a conventional knockout round.

Well not quite yet lol, there's still a day or so isn't it

We're still looking at Mbappe and whether he"ll move no?

Don't think I've seen a thread for this yet.

What a way to start though:

https://www.cheshire.police.uk/news/cheshire/news/articles/2021/8/man-charged-in-connection-with-serious-sexual-offences-in-cheshire/?__cf_chl_captcha_tk__=pmd_oomVtW1bs0tM8AoUOEIzBRLpo0_a6rg3svKH_nuHkCI-1629995407-0-gqNtZGzNA3ujcnBszQhR

beyond all belief

Well, they're the only club who got back to me, so Domagnano it is!



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F.C._Domagnano

So a decent club historically, but they've only won a single Coppa Titano this save.



The squad is your typical semipro club squad - bloated with at least half clearly not good enough, but all still with the team due to the non-contract situation.

Doesn't bode well that our best player, well he's not very good I think:



The only full international in the team, Luca Della Valle's a right-footed left winger who can't dribble - says it all really.
I'll going to try and force the square peg into the round hole and play him on the right where his ball control isn't as essential.



Ibrahim Afkir is our best defender with his best years ahead of him.
Not sure I'm on board with that defensive ability though.



At least we have someone reliable between the sticks - Matteo Bianchi has consistently conceded more than a goal a game throughout his career, but with our defence the way it is he's probably not getting enough credit for not conceding more.