Apologies for the length of time it’s taken me to write this but the world cup proved quite a serious distraction! For anyone wanting to read through or recap the rest of the series you can find it here!
2027/28: Serie A and Champions League
Buoyed by winning a maiden Serie A title last season out I was hoping to finally be able to dominate the league on a regular basis so that i could push more young national team players into the first team. I hoped to do this through signing a top GK for this level a LM and hopefully a good CD to really shore up the defence.
Sadly this wasn’t the case. After approving upgrades to both the training and youth facilities at the end of last season my board suddenly got cold feet and gave me a whopping £1.5 million transfer budget to play with. I would need to sell in order to invest in the team properly and hopefully create a team capable of defending our league title.
The best I could do with such a limited budget was to bring in two young prospects and hope they would develop into first team players, I couldn’t even secure any good loan signings. Less players would be going out on loan in order to boost the squad, I could only hope that they were up to the job.
The window started off well as I managed to flog two back up players for healthy transfer fees. Krizmanic was a particularly good sale as AC Milan paid over £10 million for a player I signed on a free transfer and who only played 8 games in two seasons.
Sadly, after this point things went down hill as the only other major player to leave the club during this window was out of my control. Right at the end of the window Stuttgart matched Taipa’s release clause and my most established goalscorer was gone from the club within hours. After 149 appearances and 70 goals he would be a huge loss to the club. Looking back Taipa was arguably one of my best signings ever on FM having arrived at the club for only £450k way back in 2022. He will be one to remember.
With no time to find a replacement I could only hope Francini and Reggini were up to replacing his goals or this could be a long season. I also hoped that by playing Francini up front regularly he would finally agree to play for San Marino before Italy decided to call him up.
The season started off well with 3 comfortable wins in the league. These matches signalled a changing of the guard in attack for Calcio as Taipa scored 3 goals in the first two games before he was sold. Alessandro Francini stepped in to fill his role up front where he then promptly scored 3 goals in the next two games, the early signs were promising going into the Champions League.
Calcio were seeded 2nd in the group stage and were drawn with Galatasaray, RB Leipzig and Sparta Prague, a group I felt we could progress from. If Calcio succeeded we would play in the knockout rounds of the tournament for the first time ever at the 3rd time of asking.
Unfortunately the opening game got off to the worst possible start as San Marino went 3-0 down during the second half before scoring two late goals to restore some credibility to the scoreline. This was a poor result to a lower seeded team even if it is tough to play away in Turkey. Calcio needed to smarten up in order to succeed in Europe.
This defeat was followed up by two more losses to Inter and Juventus and, after only two months of the season both the League and Champions League campaigns were in a precarious position.
I decided to switch away from a more counter attacking style and instead went for a more attacking 4-3-3 to take advantage of the teams high calibre strikers. Right away this paid off as lowly Salernitana were beaten 6-3 immediately followed by a shock 4-0 hammering of RB Leipzig. The result in Europe threw the group wide open to everyone but Sparta Prague who were proving to be the groups whipping boys.
These two heavy wins focused the team as they went on a nine game unbeaten streak which included back to back hammerings of Sparta Prague to put themselves top of the Champions League group and potentially back into the title race. Even though it was only mid-November a second consecutive title already seemed unlikely as Juventus had only dropped a measly 4 points so far in the league. They were in no mood to surrender another league title to Calcio and currently held a 9 point advantage, we could ill afford to drop many more points.
Calcio secured qualification from their Champions League group for the first time with a good 4-2 win over Galatasaray despite going down to ten men in the second half. This result assured me that the more attacking 4-3-3 style I had deployed for the past month and a half was the way to go for the time being.
In the very next game Calcio came from the very brink of a defeat against Torino. In a game where they were trailing 1-0 and 2-1 Jelinek won the game in the 91st minute to keep the momentum going and close the gap a little on Juventus going into December. This was followed up by a 4-3 and then a 3-0 win as Calcio continued picking up points through sheer weight of goals as the relatively poor defence were largely incapable of keeping clean sheets.
All strikers were firing with Francini currently the top scorer with 13 goals in only 16 appearances. He was slowly turning into one of Europe’s top goal scorers who also happened to be eligible for the Sammarinese national team, if I could just get him to accept a call up for me instead of Italy U-21’s my target of winning silverware in international management could be come a reality. Sadly on the 15th of November 2027 (a day that would be known forever as black Monday in Sammarinese football) the inevitable happened. The best player my academy had produced so far was brought on as a second half substitute for Italy against Belarus. A world class striker would now become an active hindrance to my goals.
A smaller negative in this pre-Christmas run was a 1-2 loss to RB Leipzig in the final Champions League group game, causing Calcio to finish second and with it a potentially harder knockout game. Despite this minor set back it had so far been Calcio’s best ever season in the Champions League after losing only two games to finish in a comfortable 2nd place with the best goal difference.
After a little bit of a patchy start to the season things were definitely looking up, Juventus were being reeled in, every striker in the team was scoring goals and progress had been made in Europe then, catastrophe. Star striker Francini (I type that line through gritted teeth these days) suffered a blood clot in his leg in training. I can honestly say I’ve never seen this injury before but it would be three whole months before he even returned to training. He would miss not only the next round of the Champions League but, more importantly, the majority of the run in as we attempted to defend our title. Damn.
With this major injury to one of my strikers I decided to switch back to the old 4-4-2 counter attacking tactic that won me the title last year in order to avoid over exerting my depleted set of strikers, especially as a very limited budget didn’t allow me to sign any decent replacements in January.
Despite this change Calcio managed to tick over nicely through January winning four out of five games (with Reggini scoring 6 goals) to set up a huge match away against Juventus. They currently held a 5 point lead over us in the league and a win was essential for us to successfully defend our title, Juventus were simply far too good to surrender too many points this season.
The switch in tactics lead to much tighter games than under the previous 4-3-3 formation, one goal either way would settle it. In the Juventus game this proved to be the case as Juventus scored a late second half goal to come away with a 1-0 victory and an 8 point lead in the league. Francini had only been missing for 3 weeks so far but it already felt like forever without him freely banging the goals in.
On the back of this defeat came the Champions League knockout draw which saw us paired against a superior Tottenham Hotspur side. Even with Francini fit this would have been a tough tie, I would have to rely on Reggini’s pace on the counter attack if i was to have any chance of getting through.
With the first leg at home a good result was crucial and Calcio were very competitive in the first half. Despite falling behind Jelinek scored an equaliser only four minutes later. Calcio managed to settle in the game after this and a decent first leg score looked on the cards well into the second half but they were just unable to find a second goal. This wastefulness upfront proved to be critical as both teams started to tire. With only 6 minutes left powerful defender Jonathan Tah scored a bullet header from a corner to put Spurs in control. Worst was still to come however as in the last minute of the game Postma gave a way a soft penalty to all but put the tie to bed. I would be amazed if we could win by a large enough margin in London to overcome away goals. With three months left Calcio looked like finishing this season without any silverware.
Despite this heavy loss Calcio recovered well to win their next three games in the league. This, once again, closed the gap between them and Juventus to only 5 points with ten games remaining. There was some hope that this gap could be closed at the top of the league (although more than likely this would be false hope).
Calcio came crashing back to earth in the second leg of the champions league as Tottenham won 2-0 without ever being pressured. Our first foray into the Champions League knockout rounds was ended in the very first round. In future I could only hope that we made it further to grow Calcio’s reputation off the pitch.
Two weeks after being knocked out of the champions league Francini was finally ready to be back in the squad ready for the final 7 games of the season. Hopefully his return could help us overcome the gap to Juventus in order to secure back to back titles. Unfortunately he was needed in his very first game back on the bench as he was brought on to salvage a late draw against AC Milan.
Juventus simply weren’t in the mood for dropping points and they were in the middle of a long winning run. Calcio’s title hopes were killed off completely two weeks later as they were defeated in a high scoring game against Sampdoria despite a late almost comeback.
Calcio finished the season with two draws against Frosinone and Juve Stabia to finish the league nine points behind a strong Juventus team. Perhaps the most impressive aspect of Juventus this season was that Calcio only picked up one less point than last season where they won the title, we needed to seriously improve next season if we wanted to beat them to the title.
Just to add to the slightly low mood my chairman announced that he was looking to sell the club. I guess this explains why he was so reluctant to give me much in the way of transfer funds.
Calcio’s vastly superior goal scoring was cancelled out by Juventus’ far greater consistency over the course of the season. Despite this it was still the second best season in the club’s history both in terms of points and league position. Hellas Verona and Cesena were two of the worst teams to play in Serie A during this save.
- Average Attendance – 14477
- Biggest Win – 5-0 v Sparta Prague
- Biggest Defeat – 3-5 v Sampdoria
- Top Scorer – Massimo Reggini, 17 Goals
- Most Assists – Sebastien Deniau, 12 Assists
- Player of the Year – Diego Bastia
- Highest Rated Player – Diego Bastia, 7.26
Best Eleven
In something of a strange team of the year Taipa was included in the starting line up from scoring 3 goals in only 2 games at the start of this season and the highest rated player Bastia wasn’t in the starting line up. What was pleasing to see was a record number of national team players in the line up as Mariotti and Reggini established themselves in the starting team for the first time this season.
Youth Intake
Impressive physical stats as well as having competent defensive stats Zanotti was difficult to develop because, despite numerous efforts, no club would ever take him on loan. This meant that the only competitive games he manage to play were for the national team where he has actually managed to score two goals. His current and potential ability are slightly above average for the national team but I need better if we are to improve significantly.
Another defender with solid physical stats but lacked the defensive ability of Zanotti. He has the potential to become a low Serie B defender so was unlikely ever to make an impact on the Calcio first team. However, if he developed he would finally provide the national team with an actual LB in defence rather than shoehorning Casadei into that position (not that he had done a bad job so far)
Another promising CB to come through this Youth Intake who had the potential to become the best player in this position for San Marino. A more rounded player than Zanotti but with lower pace, hopefully he could kick on in his development and provide some much needed back bone in defence and might even threaten the Calcio first team if he really did fulfil his potential!
The best player to come through this youth intake by some margin sadly wasn’t even Sammarinese. Adding to the impressive CM’s that Calcio had so far produced Di Salvatore should make it into the first team at some point in his career even though there is no real benefit to me doing it.
Overall an intake day that I have mixed feelings about. Sure it brought through a potential first team player (even if he is Italian) as well as three national team defenders in one go but none of them were definite improvements over what I already had at my disposal. It did at least guarantee that the national team wouldn’t get worse in defence when the current first team aged or retired.
National Team: European League Division C
With an ever developing team (especially in midfield) I hoped to do more than just survive in the European League this time round. In a group consisting of Czech Republic, Finland and Kosovo it was realistic to expect a second placed finish behind a young Czech team.
To prepare for this I started the year by arranging tougher friendly matches than in the past against teams such as Congo, Albania, Wales and Canada.
A respectable defeat to Wales was perhaps the best result from these games as the only victories came against the lowest ranked opposition. Most worryingly of all were the games against Albania and Canada who are both ranked only slightly above Congo and Bahrain and yet San Marino couldn’t beat either of them.
Perhaps the team were suffering a mild hangover from narrowly missing out on qualifying for the Euros last year but performances and results would have to pick up going into the European League or there was a chance of actually being relegated back to the bottom tier.
If I wanted to meet my objective for this year then the opening game was crucial as the Czech’s visited San Marino. I stuck with a more counter attacking style that had seen the team move ever upwards in the world rankings. The game started off tight with both teams probing but not really threatening each other. Neither side wanted to risk giving an early advantage to the other.
The deadlock was broken with the games first real chance as full back Kopecky slotted home from a corner. San Marino steadied themselves and got to half time still 1-0 down and it was crucial that they turned things round in the second half. San Marino came out on the front foot with Reggini causing the Czech defence a lot of problems. It was his hard work that allowed Pelliccioni the space to slam an equaliser in from the edge of the area.
This goal gave San Marino the belief that they could compete at this level and they were the better team from this point on wards. They were camped in the opposition third for long spells and this pressure eventually told as Tamagnini calmly finished a good chance with only minutes remaining. San Marino had struck a huge blow in the very first game!
In the next game Finland were beaten 2-0 with the same goal scorers again doing the damage. Riding high on top of the group the squads confidence had skyrocketed. If this level could be maintained then the group could be won even if they lost to the Czech republic.
Kosovo were next up and they were in no mood to gift San Marino points as they attacked to create a pulsating game. Hasani (who actually played in Serie B) curled in a great opening goal which kicked San Marino into life. Mariotti went one better than Hasani as he whipped a wonderful free kick in to equalise. Cevoli scored on his first start for San Marino to give them the lead as he was really beginning to blossom as a top midfielder.
This lead was maintained long into the second half when, for the second time in the game, San Marino took their foot off the pedal to allow Kosovo to score. Sensing the chance to snatch an unlikely win Kosovo came out and attacked, really causing the game to open up once again. This ultimately cost them as Reggini used his pace to get in behind the Kosovan defence who hauled him down in the box. Reggini picked himself up and with nerves of steel scored the penalty to win San Marino the three points.
In the next game Finland were hammered 4-0 as Reggini continued his good form to score twice. If San Marino avoided defeat in the next game against the Czech Republic they would be promoted to the next level!
What followed was a masterclass in counter attacking football. Although the Czech team were talented they were less experienced than San Marino at international level and they pushed way too high up the pitch against the pace of the Sammarinese strikers. In just over half an hour San Marino were 3-0 up and out of sight with Mariotti scoring a trademark free kick. The game wound down in the second half with the Czechs deflated after being humbled by tiny San Marino.
The year was rounded off by a 5-1 hammering of Kosovo (Reggini scored a hat trick) as San Marino completed a perfect campaign, not dropping a single point.
With two top strikers and a talented midfield San Marino continue to pick up points by overwhelming the opposition with goals, 20 goals in six matches is an impressive achievement. With a starting line up that now consisted of very experienced international players it would be interesting to see if we could compete in the next level of the European League and, more importantly qualify for a tournament.
Thanks for reading, I am aiming to getting back to regular posting again from now on!
StratMan Gaming 
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