Ideas for my new FM game?

Heya. I want some advice on what league to play in for my new game. I want to play in a league I've never played in before, and I dont know where to go. I want to manage a club with a half-decent (although not by any means perfect) youth set-up because I want to do Neppo's youth challenge. I don't want them to be a top team in any country, either, although I will probably be looking for a team in a top division (this is not an absolute requirement but I think that's what I want).

Could anyone tell me which country would be the best from these? I want a fun game which is possible but not too easy, and where the Neppo principles (i.e. Give Youth a Chance) will not jeopardise my success too much.

SCOTLAND - was thinking of someone like Inverness CT or perhaps Hearts/Hibs. Would be good to break the Rangers/Celtic duopoly.

ITALY - perhaps Fiorentina, to restore them to former glories?

FRANCE - was thinking of perhaps going with a smaller team here like Nimes or perhaps Metz?

GERMANY - perhaps 1860 Munich or Bochum?

RUSSIA - with all the money in Russian football now, could this be a good place to do it? Who with?

MINOR EURO LEAGUES - Finland? Belarus? Wales, perhaps? I had a good game in FM08 with Linfield in N. Ireland....Even Holland might be fun - there are so many clubs that are always in the top division but never in Europe. Basically, it seems to be just Twente, Ajax, Feyenoord and PSV.

AUSTRALIA - no idea who with, but it just sounds like fun.

CHINA - people keep saying they'll be a big powerhouse in football soon, but will they? Is it worth a try? Will the regens be decent?

SOUTH KOREA - probably the strongest league in Asia? Worth a shot? Also, what happened to the J-League? How come it's not in FM?

BRAZIL/ARGENTINA - has obvious benefits with regards the Neppo thing (i.e. Brazilians are awesome), but would I have the $$$ to keep hold of them for a while? Which teams might be good?

ANY OTHER S.AMERICAN LEAGUE - no idea which would stand out - any thoughts?

MEXICO - no idea about this league, any thoughts?

I would like a country where the squad restrictions are simple and not too restrictive, too. But frankly, somewhere like Brazil, Italy, France, Germany etc does appeal simply because they are likely to produce more decent regens, which is important for Neppo....

Want to start this evening. Undecided about whether to holiday through the first season to get my first youth intake or not, though....

Any thoughts?

Maybe on Portugal or Holland? Though it could be easy with any of the big teams there i suppose, IRL Sporting is a bit behind Porto or Benfica but they have a great youth setup, still it's probably quite easy to dominate the league so it might not be what you are looking for.

There are no restrictions with foreigners on those leagues.

Also on France i think Nantes is on the second tier and has a good youth setup.

Coentrao - I wouldnt want to do it with Sporting, I'd want to use a mid-table team or perhaps lower-mid-table....

I prefer being a smaller club in the "Big 3" - England, Spain or Italy.

Reason being - when in a smaller league, there is a huge gap from being best in the league and best in Europe. This means you can dominate your league with your eyes closed and this takes the fun away.

Example - I went Motherwell (because they had no debt). Had great fun, but as soon as I dislodged the old firm the league got easier and easier. There is a long term challenge to become the best in Europe, but I lose focus when the league is so easy!

Actually becoming better than Rangers and Celtic was a great challenge and I really enjoyed it but I lost interest once there was no resistance left in the league.

I've already done Dafuge's Challenge - and though I havent yet won the CL, i want a break from that. I want to play in a league I've never played in before. Italy would fit that....but I dunno, it seems a bit "samey" - i quite like the idea that I could make a "smaller" league bigger. It would be a long-term challenge, I know, but by increasing the league's rep and so on, things will slowly get easier and eventually I could start dominating Europe.

If you still want a smaller league maybe the dutch league with AZ,Twente,Hereenveen or Groningen i suppose, i don't know how good those youth setups are.

On the bigger leagues i'd say France or Germany could give you what you are looking for, those leagues are quite balanced with a lot of strong teams and most of them have good setups, plus if you can always use the II team on Germany as a sort of B team to help you develop the youngsters.

Mmm. You know any with particularly good youth setups?

Have just thought - I can always add/remove leagues later on! Think I'll start off with three leagues (France, Germany and Russia, I think), holiday through till almost the end of the season, then pick a club just in time for the first crop of youth players. Then I will remove two of the leagues and play on as that club, then I can always add more later. Will the game run as fast as if I had started with one league if I remove the other leagues after a season?

http://www.thedugout.tv/community/showthread.php?t=77708

This thread has a list of the best youth setups, on France it seems that Lens and Sochaux have really good facilities.

About the league question, i think so, though i haven't used that feature yet but logically it would work that way.

Mmmm. RGUOR Minsk are the standouts, then....but I'm not sure I fancy the slog of having to get three promotions or something.....grrr I dont know!

Just realised I need an .xml file for them. Stade Rennais also stand out to me - decent youth setup, but not a huge team in France at the moment...

Personally; id think about Australia, with a team like Newcastle Jets, certainly not the biggest and best squad in the league but can produce some quality regens as ive found in my own experiences with them. Had 3 or 4 after the first season that broke into my first team within the next season.

But the challenge is getting through the final series and champions league at the same time as the end of the A-League season overlaps with the start of Champions League

Why Newcastle Jets in particular, powelly? Im certainly considering Australia, the only thing is I wonder whether I'd miss playing in the UEFA Champions' League....

Hmmmm....

Current favourites:

Anji (just because they're the "in vogue" team).

Newcastle Jets - though not sure why.

Stade Rennais - best youth setup in Europe, relative to their status in their league.

SC Internacional - one of the 3 best youth recruitments in Brazil, and not quite as big a club as the other two (Sao Paolo, Flamengo).

Parma - decent youth recruitment in a big footballing nation, and have fallen from a great height to obscurity. Might be fun....plus I have a Parma shirt!!

Any thoughts?

What about Brazil or Argentina? Certainly some good youth setups there, and they have among the best templates for youth in the game.

Yeah - Brazil was definitely a frontrunner for me for that reason. Quite like the idea that one of my YPs could be the new Pele or Ronaldo....

I'm going to go for Internacional, I think. It came down to them or Stade Rennais, but I thought it might be cool to try a new continent...

I could always change later on...