Squad registration
- Maximum of 20 over-21 players
- Teams are not allowed to sign non-EU players from abroad
- 9 subs named, 3 used
promotion/relegation rules
- Top 2 teams promote directly
- A third team will prote via promotion playoffs
- the 3rd place team promotes directly (instead of playoffs) if more than 9 points seperate 3rd and 4th
- 5th to 8th can qualify for promotion playoffs if they are less than 15 points behind 3rd
- bottom three teams relegate
- 18th and 19th will play in relegation playoffs
- if more than 5 points seperate 18th and 19th then the team placed 19th will relegate without relegation playoffs.

As always we have a couple of players leaving us. No big losses but selling Teixera gives us a few bucks to consolidate our finances:



Luciano Texeira: Has been an important member of the team in our first two seasons but wasnt more than a backup last season and 6 red cards and 24 yellow cards for us made him replacable. I was happy to sell him when i got a good offer.

Jan Pahor: He was a starting player for 1.5 years until he lost his starting job in early March and never played another minute again. I would have liked to keep him as a backup option but we couldnt agree on wage demands.

The other three full-time departures played a total of 1 Serie C matches for us and were too far away from being any option for us going forward. I would not have mind if a few players would have left for small fees but i couldnt get the offers i wanted. This means that we will have quite a big squad once again which means we have more contests for playing time and those who dont make it will be offered around in the winter window.

We've also have a few loan players leaving us but most key loan players were extended:

DC Luca Ravanelli
DC Simone Ambroggio
DL Davide Seminara
MC Filippo Damian
AMR Emiliano Pattarello

And we've added a few more loan players to strengthen our squad again. If we avoid relegation this will be the last time that we will do so. The new loan players:

DR Clarence Bijl is a fantastic full back who joins us on loan from Feyenoord. Great defender with 14 tackling, physically gifted and a good decision maker. He will be the starting right back for the season.

DM Rodney Kongolo and MC Zenon are just another couple of those versatile central midfielders that i value too high as depth players.

But of course we've also signed permanent transfers on free transfers to strenghten our first team:



Lucas Schoofs is our star signing of the season. He wanted a chance to play after not being able to get into the Gent side. He has no weakness in his game and is intended as starter in our midfield and is absolutely worth the 130k p/a 2-y contract.



Jason McCarthy is a central defender who can play as DR too. He's super well rounded with his size as his biggest weakness (186cm) but even that shouldnt be an issue with 14 jumping reach. He also has a resolute personality which is very nice. He signed a two year contract worth 125k p/a to be a starting centerback.



Francesco Di Mariano has the pace to beat Serie B defenders and has good flair/technique/dribbling/first touch to be a good starter for us. At the age of 23 he could have a bit of potential left so a 2y deal with 95k p/a should be worth it.

AMC Maxence Toutain: One of my favourite signings in this save so far. His technical stats are already superb and determination/flair/vision is equally good. I'm hoping to further improve his quickness so that he can also be a good winger for us but he can immediately step in as an AMC option. He signed a 35k p/a contract for two years for now.

DC Junior Pius is still fairly young but he can defend quite well. Good in all mental stats, 14 tackling, 13 marking and strong aerial ability. He's only on a 1y deal for now (42k p/a) but we're hoping to extend it.

DC Martino Borghese: An Italian veteran who can be a weapon in the air and is very solid on the ground. He signs a one year deal to be a backup/rotational option for our team.

GK Kjetil Haug is a similar strong keeper as our starting keeper Grandi with slightly better goalkeeping attributes but worse mental stats. It will be up to our assistant to decide who plays.

Once again we also signed a couple of U20 players to either develop into a first team option or sell with a profit:

DC Alexandre Tosto(18) has high starting stats in all key defender attributes. 2y 25k p/a +1y option.

GK Robert Suskovic is a young goalkeeper with apparently a lot of potential. Right now we have two far better options in Grandi and Haug but he might outgrow one of them for a roster spot. He signed a two year deal worth 26.5k with a team option for another year that also extends itself if he plays 25 games in the last season of the contract.

AML Kim Ladefoged is a young danish winger with good technique who is currently considered to have the potential for a Serie B winger. 2+1 year contract with 26.5 k p/a.




The squad is strengthened a lot and the goal of avoiding relegation looks very possible. I'm quite happy with transfers although i would have liked bringing in another striker to challenge Pomiro for the starting position but i failed to find anyone for good value. But if his previous performances are anything to go by that should not be a big issue and he could be on track to reach the 100 goals landmark for our team (currently 89 goals in 109 league matches).

It's been a mixed bag of results without any real runs of positive or negative results at any point. A negative point is surely the early cup defeat vs Novara but the cup is no priority at this point anyway. However, this kind of mixed bag is good for a team that expected to battle against relegation and at the end of the winter transfer window we look to be pretty much saved already:



Sitting in 7th dreams for the promotion playoffs could still be alive. However, Carpi is already 9 points ahead of us at this point and i feel we already overperformed so i don't think it's realistic to aim for that. Instead this looks like the best moment to cut down some loans. Multiple loans were cancelled to give our own guys more chances to develop and raise their market value. These loans were cancelled: (league stats in brackets)

DC Luca Ravanelli (5 starting appearances (+7 sub ins) / 1 goal / 0 assists / 6.86 avg rating) [has played 99 league matches since 2016 for us]
DL Davide Seminara (22(0) / 0 / 0 / 6.94) [127 matches since 2016]
DM Kongolo ( 0(8) / 0 / 0 / 6.77 )
MC Zenon ( 3(9) / 0 / 0 / 6.72 )

Ravanelli and Seminara were two of our first players and remained on loan with us for four seasons. I'm very glad I had them but now it's time to move on to self-owned players for further grow of the club. I linked their profiles for you in case you want to see their current attributes.

Pattarello, Damian, Ambroggio and Bijl are still with our club as they have been absolute key players for us. None of them have missed more than two games and all four are within our top five in average rating ( >=7.04 )



They havent been the only departures as i thinned out my roster a bit further. Ercolani was one of those young project guys and despite never playing a single senior match for us Ascoli was willing to pay us a nice fee of 125k for him. The only player that leaves us that played a solid role for us this season is AMR Marco Ilari. He was rotated out of the team after promotion and only was subbed in eleven times before the transfer. He wasnt needed anymore because we signed a younger replacement:



Only 22 years old Ennali seems to have quite a bit of untouched potential in him. He's pacey and has good technique which should be enough to be at least a good backup at this level with the potential to grow into a starting role.

A short look at the financial situation of the club:



My board keeps increasing the wage budget each year and i am continuing to not spend it entirely but our budget remains in the red figures. Hence I will have to continue to rely on free transfers.

A rather calm second half of the season can be expected without any relegation worries. Gives me the time to already work on a couple of future transfers but previously it's of course youth intake day which will be covered in the next update.

DR Mattia Bucci (double nationality): There is a lot to like about this guy: He's huuuge with naturally good jumping reach and his mental stats are great: High bravery, good decisions but also high determination and leadership will help the national team. However, his report shows a few personality issues: He's described as unambitious, unprofessional and inconsistant. There is definitely a need for tutoring to improve upon that. The choice of position is a bit of a dilemma: He's currently a right back who can help out on the other side of the defense but i also see two big issues for that: 4 technique and 5 off the ball. That reduces his value as a fullback quite a bit. 5 natural fitness also suggest that his speed could decline quite quickly once advancing past his prime and that is also a big issue for a fullback when planning for a longterm NT role. Hence I'm training him as a ball playing defender (DC) for now. That way he will hopefully become more versatile which is always useful but the trained attributes are also useful for a fullback. No matter where he will be used eventually and despite all the flaws i see he is definitely a good player to have!



AMC Marco Tamagnini (double nationality): Not the most wellrounded player but definitly a good asset to have for the national team. Great pace, excellent first touch and good passing and also high work rate / flair are definitely something that can help the NT. I'm training him as an advanced playmaker for now to further strenghten his best attributes. Shouldnt be long until he's an upgrade over current Sanmarinese offensive options.


DM Davide Giovagnoli **** has developed nicely over the last 12 months and while only 18 years old he is already the best Sanmarinese player right now. Still holding out for a NT cap.
MC Luca Giardi**** developed nicely over the last few months and looks like a great playmaker for the NT. He's still holding out for a cap but he should be a regular for years once he declares.
DL Massimiliano Righi*** improved nicely in his physical stats while also a couple other important stats like tackling were developed nicely.
DC Diego "Per" Agostini*** developed slowly but steadily so far

In the february update we were 7th in the league and while we already had little hopes of promoting at that point, a bad run in March/April with only one win in nine matches destroyed the last hopeful thoughts. Due to three victories in the final three matches we qualified for the playoffs but lost 1-2 to Sampdoria.



The team saw little rotation as the starters played in most games. German Pomiro once again was our best goal scorer but player of the season is our loan signing from Bologna Emiliano Pattarello who collected 7 goals and 16 assists.

For the next season the team should be strengthened further so that we can qualify for promotion playoffs again. I no longer want to rely on loan signings so we will try to bring in further free transfers. We havent paid a single euro transfer fee so far (only loan fees) and i will stick to that approach for now.







The years with European league football will be the better years for our national team but right now, the country still has to get the only results through friendlies. A win vs Gibraltar and draws vs Liechtenstein & Malta are actually very sweet for us. 5 of the 6 goals are scored by 30 year old winger [url=]Matteo Vitaiolo[/url].

- I don't like to say it but it might be time to upgrade from Pomiro. He's 30 and still only considered a "Leading Serie C player".
- Still holidaying most of the seasons
- It's still 5-10 years till it's worth it to take over the NT