retired_mkgn1112

okie doke, got bored of my previous mk dons game so decided to take up a challenge on the boards, and san marino seemed cool

so the story so far, loaded up the leagues and currently 7 games into the season... to begin with I mutually terminated most of my staff, tried to bring in my ass man who usually follows me everywhere but he decided stoke was more his cup of tea. plumped for a scottish guy called bryan cooper, and then brought in 5 coaches.

San Marino Staff Page

Moved onto cancelling all my loans apart from giorgetti, and spent the night scouring the database for some freebies. generally i just employ a method of choosing players i like the look of and waiting to see if they hit or miss.

San Marino Transfers Page

San Marino Team

Haven't done anything with the training side yet, so guess that leads me onto the games i've played. Pre-season consisted of friendlies against escheborn, bologna, cesena, erfurt, catania and ascoli (I like my teams hitting above their weight early on) won 1, drew 2, lost 3, but team showed some good signs. Then came the Serie C Cup, overall came 2nd with 2 wins, 1 draw and 1 loss, consider this a decent position although with my ambitions high (I'm expecting promotion), if i achieve then I'll have missed out on winning it.

The league is looking better, currently 3rd after 3 games (avelino, martini, lanciano), and the team is going from strength to strength, apart from a small morale problem after forgetting to congratulate them on a win.

San Marino Snapshot

San Marino Fixtures and Results

It's my first time doing one of these challenges so not sure whether there is some sort of rule for updating people, if not i'll just post some screenshots and details whenever something significant happens

benny2k7

I've never ever got aaround to attempting a challenge before, think I'll have a stb at this!
:thup:

vane

THis is the first challenge that i've seen that has really got em excited.. can't wait to get home and give this a go!!

gtzpower

All Italian teams are allowed to sign only 1 player from outside the EU per year. Juventus I think have 0 though for some reason in the first season, which seems to confuse a lot of people.

Finances are a nightmare, due to abysmal attendances. I'd think that most likely, you'll just bleed money until you're in the Serie B, so you'd better do well on the pitch so the board dont mind keeping you afloat with investments.

gtzpower

Anyone else struggling defensively? I remembered Dei as being solid enough to carry the team, but he's been AWFUL for me so far.

Alex Fernandez has 13 goals in 13 games, and Dei has conceded 26 in 19. If its on target, he doesnt keep it out. At all.

I've found another Spanish star though, left winger who should arrive in January, maybe he'll help. Only 17 so probably not old enough to make an impact yet...

retired_mathaus

i gave him 3 games but wasnt impressed with his distribution so i signed the austrian u21 keeper from stuggart.

think hes called langer, anyway im not too impressed by him either he seems to let in alot of goals from distance, any suggestions on how to stop this? i have set closing down high in the hope the pressure will stop them getting shots in

retired_runner2437

Im in January now
Lost £272k (£43k on Transfers)
Signed 2 free transfers and Vincenzo Esposito from melfi. Good technical ability, scored 3 in 2 from centre mid so far.
At the moment i am 11th in the league
pld 19
won 6
drawn 4
lost 9
For 20
Against 24
Points 22
Signed a new coach at the start of the season (Fitness 18) and put all the team on a high fitness based training.
Eventually going to aim for strong aggressive players to kick their way up to serie B. Maybe some tall target men, bit of long ball...
It doesnt need to be pretty :o

retired_chairman413

Alex now has 20 in 29 for me, while Dei has conceded 46 in 35.

I picked up a talented Swiss kid to partner Alex in the January window, and they are working well together.

Then main problem seems to be finding a replacement for Dei. The other two keepers in the squad a REALLY pathetic, and no one of any decent quality seems to want to come.
I'm hoping to pick up someones castoff for free in July, but would prefer to tie one up before then.

Finances, disaster, -200k now, and only in March. This will likely mean having to rely on free players and loans.

Did Cagliari as a parent send any decent players?

gtzpower

Well, just going into January now and results have been... mixed. 17 games played so halfway through the season, and I'm sitting in 9th place. We've had some stunning victories, but often have been comfortably controlling the game but stupidly conceded to draw instead of win. I have a good record against the bigger clubs, so I'd maybe be a little more confident than usual about playoffs.

I managed to bring in a new goalkeeper on a free transfer - his stats arent amazing, but he's decent enough that I can threaten to drop Dei and actually mean it :p Since he's arrived ,Mr. God has been tutoring him and has picked up his form dramatically, so maybe the competition is good for him. A similar thing happened with my left winger, he was doing very poorly so I declared interest in the kid I was trailing, and since then he's been great. A little motivation to keep on top of his game, perhaps?

Cagliari havent sent me anyone, and dont really have any sufficient depth that I can benefit immediately. Hopefully as time goes on it will help. I've also got Cervia as my feeder club, they're Serie D atm but in my experience they just about always come up to C2, so it could help having a feeder in the active league structure.

Tactically, going forward I just about always have a pass to make and am very strong with finishing, Alex Fernandez is top league scorer and second top rated in the league, behind only my own young French DM; he's also been on the club's Favoured Personell list since his 10th game! I had been struggling with players getting behind my defence and scoring from point blank range, but I think thats my full backs at fault so I'm working on having them do more defensive work. It worked well enough to steal a stunning 1-0 win against top of the league Ancona, with Dei even saving an (admittedly awful) penalty.

Finances, £466k in the red, no hope of making a profit, will have to cut the wage bill (no problem there) and relying on free transfers for the forseeable future. Ah well.

Half the season to go, I started poorly and have been climing so if I can maintain my current form and work on plugging the gaps, I should maybe have an outside playoff chance. Relegation looks pretty safe, barring some form of disaster.

gtzpower

Well, he should help. Sampdoria offered him to me for £0, so I just took him. Lucky, but should be good for me.