ri916's FM14 Anglo/Euro Youth Academy Challenge

So the BETA is OUT! Let's go go go with the FM14 version of the best challenge on CSE!

The Available Countries

France

Germany

Italy

Portugal

Netherlands

Spain

Belgium

Russia

Turkey

England

Scotland

Sweden

Greece

The Reset Dates (FM 13) (let me know if these are still correct)

France- 19th June

Germany- 19th June

Italy- 29th June

Portugal- 29th June

Spain- 9th July

Russia- 19th June

Turkey- 19th June

Netherlands- 6th July

Belgium- 29th June

England- 24th June

Sweden

Scotland

Greece

The Database

• Only load the Nation your planning on managing in.
  
• Database size is optional (small, medium or large)
  
• Players Based in your nation
  
• Players from top clubs in europe (or everywhere)
  
• International players is optional
  
• If you're managing in England, you can also add 'players from regional premier divisions'
  

No further customising of the database is allowed.

Attribute masking should be enabled. 'Add key staff' and ' Add players to playable clubs' should be ticked.

Steps when getting started

1. Add yourself as an unemployed manager. Call him holiday man if you want.
   
2. Go on holiday until the reset date of your nation or the day before if your planning on reloading.
   
3. Retire the manager
   
4. Add a new manager with your honest nationality and Sunday League reputation.
   
5. Choose the newly promoted club of your choice
   

To Complete the Challenge

Win your countries domestic top division and win the Champions League.

Rules for the Challenge

No loans or transfers in are allowed but you can sell and loan players out.

If you are sacked, sorry, you have to start again.

No save game editors are allowed. only cosmetic database edits are allowed. (team/competition names/logos)

No international management until completion of challenge.

Signing backroom staff is allowed. Signing players on trial or signing grey players isn't allowed.

Rules for this Thread

Player naming is allowed.

General discussion on tactics is allowed, although people should not refer to downloaded tactics. They are not banned, but I would expect the majority of people to avoid them.

Screenshots for anything are encouraged but please post links to your pictures, don't post them as images as it makes the pages slower to load. Posts included embedded images may be deleted without warning.

When you join the challenge, could you post a screenshot of your manager's profile on the league reset date.

Progress of your club should be documented using this thread, I want to hear the story of your club all the way through. Please keep me updated, even if you are doing really badly.

Updates should be seasonal and should include the following screenshots :

Season Update

Youth Candidates

All Tagged Players Attribute page

Transfers (to prove that you havent signed any players)

Squad

League Table

Anything else is optional.

Also, I would like you to Nickname/Tag your best player/s of each youth intake in chronological order. for example, nickname your best player in the intake in season 1 as *their name* YP01. But this is not compulsory if you don't wish to.

How to Post a Screenshot

• While in FM, press Alt and F9
  
• A picture will be saved to a screenshots folder, in the FM12 folder in your documents
  
• Upload the image to an image hosting website such as Photobucket
  
• Post the direct Url to the image here.
  

How to Add Links

At the top of the forum, go to 'Settings' then 'General Settings' (on the left). At the bottom, select 'enhanced interface' and save the changes. This will give you access to the extra posting tools that make it easier to post links. Once you've done this, highlight the word you wish to turn into a link, then use the link button (looks like a little globe) to paste in the direct Url to your screenshot.

Speech

I can't believe this is already the third iteration of this! It's been great fun and a massive success so lets hope for more of the same and some more completions!

reserved.

I've basically just copied the OP from the last thread so let me know if anything needs changing, I might improve it at some point.

Looks ok to me, just setting myself up in Italy to start off with.

Think what I'll do is holiday somewhere and then play a season. If I'm unhappy and there's a massive flaw with the game I'll probably hold off for a few weeks until everything is patched and ironed out and then restart. Now, where to go where to go...

Think what I'll do is holiday somewhere and then play a season. If I'm unhappy and there's a massive flaw with the game I'll probably hold off for a few weeks until everything is patched and ironed out and then restart. Now, where to go where to go...

Same boat as you Beta is downloading...

p.s. England. The only way to do this challenge properly

Italy reset day seems to be the 30th June now. I may start a proper England game after release, just wanted to see to the mass relegations being dished out due to the Italy rule changes happening next year.

Nah I don't think so, Portugal tempts me I think.

Italy reset day seems to be the 30th June now. I may start a proper England game after release, just wanted to see to the mass relegations being dished out due to the Italy rule changes happening next year.

Could be that.

Anyhows,

I've taken over the huge magnificent club of Isola Liri, in the newly created Italy C1/C Division.

Manager Profile[/url]

Finances - Including hilarious TV money deals...

Facilities

Squad + Reserves - Seems somewhat weak defensively, so may end up with a pair of DMs in front of them

Youths - Well I have some

I am not getting this till January every year in January you get 50% off without fail

I wanted to start this challenge with Kingstonian FC (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingstonian_F.C.), but for some reason, can't find them in game... Am I missing something, or DB has some error?

@korvalis: your screenies are so tiny they are almost unreadable

sorry about that, I play at 1920x1080, I'v cropped the manager profile screenshot down to a reasonable size, will look into a fix for the others which hopefully doesn't involve me having to change resolution each time I want to take a screenshot.

Currently holidaying. Until recently this challenge didn't appeal to me at all. You see, let me tell you how I roll. I scout. Then I keep scouting. Next I think about pressing continue, but instead decide to ask for scout reports on just a few more hundred players. Each year I get my youth intake, take one look at them and ignore them till the end of preseason when I release them all on frees. My success is built on wheeler-dealing, shipping players in and out like a day trader on cocaine. I buy success. So when this challenge first appeared, I thought, why would anyone want to do that. However, I'm now going to give this a try. I'm going to Italy, because that's the one 'hero' achievement I've never completed. Maybe I'll hate it, but it would be nice when I start at a club and tell the press that everybody will get a chance for that not to be a bare-faced lie. Usually when I take over a lower level club, there's not one player there worth keeping. I quite like the idea of using tactics (the interface for which has completely changed) and motivational wamma jamma for once. God, my team's going to be awful isn't it?

Nah I don't think so, Portugal tempts me I think.

I can vouch for Portugal having spent the past two years there, good fun and very satisfying when you finally get to kick Porto in the face after many years of them thumping you!

I wasgoing to take over Taranto (they have a dolphin as a logo) but they have nogoalkeepers in the senior or reserve team. (Just a few kids with no ability or potential in the under 19s), so I think that would be a ridiculous situation,and maybe impossible. So, I'm probably going to go the obvious route and takeover Piacenza, by far the biggest available team. They don't have a huge squad, unlike Taranto who have about 30 kids in the youth squad alone, so it will still be challenging in it's own way, especially once injuries hit. Managing Piacenza will make the challenge much easier, and I did love the dolphin, but the lack of a goalkeeper is a deal breaker.

Manager Profile

Squad

Information

Facilities

Uno-Andrea Mechetti (My first hot prospect. I'm going to rename them by putting their intake year numbers in Italian at the start of their names, rather than YP1 etc.

You can always holiday again if you really want to play a certain team but they have a dud squad, they'll sign different players through the year and you might end up with them being playable.

You can always holiday again if you really want to play a certain team but they have a dud squad, they'll sign different players through the year and you might end up with them being playable.

Korvalis- Good luck in Italy!

Vikeologist- I can't see your screenshots for some reason.

Okay, so I've just seen this http://i.imgur.com/anVpQLJ.png

No chance I'm settling into a save when the average goals/game is over 5 ffs.

This game doesn't feel right to me. I think I'll be going back to FM13.

No chance I'm settling into a save when the average goals/game is over 5 ffs.

But think of the Danny Roberts challenge potential!

Great challenge, enjoyed reading last years thread didnt get involved though. I really felt that this had one of the best community type feels on last years threads. This is something else I intend to do on this years FM but the list of things I intend to do is massive at the moment. Good luck all I will dropping in from time to time.

This game doesn't feel right to me. I think I'll be going back to FM13.

You really are a prat aren't you. It's like this every year, eventually it gets fixed and it's fine. There's a reason it's called a BETA. Instead of whining on GD why don't you look into what's wrong and try and help them fix it?

You really are a prat aren't you. It's like this every year, eventually it gets fixed and it's fine. There's a reason it's called a BETA. Instead of whining on GD why don't you look into what's wrong and try and help them fix it?

He's already told the entire community about this, he just needed to make sure that you knew too You'd probably die of laughter if you knew his reasons

Oh don't worry I've already seen the thread in GD .

I've been recently getting back into FM and I've been reading last seasons thread so I'm giving it a go with the new beta. Starting in Germany and on holiday now... wish meGlück.

You really are a prat aren't you. It's like this every year, eventually it gets fixed and it's fine. There's a reason it's called a BETA. Instead of whining on GD why don't you look into what's wrong and try and help them fix it?

What a friendly tone! I meant the UI more than the actual ME or other things that could be tweaked. I'm starting to get used to it but it's very stark and the tactics engine is really complicated. We'll see.

the highlights of the game look fantastic i think a real improvement and makes the 'extended highlights' much more fun to watch.

As for the challenge, my love was SVW Mannheim of Germany, never even managed to get them out of division 3...but sold a striker on for £600k and had a squad made entirely of my own youth academy by 2018...bring it on!

Okay, so I've just seen this http://i.imgur.com/anVpQLJ.png

No chance I'm settling into a save when the average goals/game is over 5 ffs.

I'm not sure what ffs stands for, and the link is blocked in China, but if you're simply referring to the number of goals, yep, my first competitive match was a 6-2 loss, which doesn't bode well. However, my defence and goalkeeper are the weakest parts of the team. My team played like incompetent idiots, but i'm not entirely sure that's a 'bug'. Anyway, I think one has to regard the beta-ness as part of the challenge at this point, though I completely understand people who want to wait, so that they know any problems are more likely to be them rather than the game.

Anyway, I have a question. Do any of you hire a scout, just to scout your next opponents? I'm always thought that may have some tactical preparation benefit, though of course the main purpose was to scout potential signings.

Anyway, I have a question. Do any of you hire a scout, just to scout your next opponents? I'm always thought that may have some tactical preparation benefit, though of course the main purpose was to scout potential signings.

I don't think it's really worth it, I did in my FM12 game and didn't in my FM13 game and didn't miss it.

Annnnnnd it begins

I have gone back to my routes where I regained my love for football manager. Unfortunately the team I dreamed to manage again did not appear however the team I have chosen have equally as good facilities and a strong squad to choose from.

The team I will manage is Rot Weiss Essen of the German Third Division

Squad: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=186737935

Team Report: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=186737783

Facilities: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=186737628

Transfers (Note the one incoming was made before I joined the club): http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=186738955

Youth Team: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=186738811

One thing I noted, I have 4/5 youth players with four and a half star - five star potential yet they are only predicted to reach leading Third Division players, so it will be interesting to see how they develop.

Tagged Youth Players:

Can Yayla YP01a: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=186739086

By far and away the best of the bunch, already wanted by three clubs with Fenebache amongst them, will be difficult to keep a hold of but we shall see.

Mohamed Afkir YP01b: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=186739342

Will make a good poacher in future years, some training to do.

Mirco Bruckner YP01c: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=186739615

First of two keepers...again lots of training to do.

Dennis Sela YP01d: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=186739886

Pleased overall and looking forward to getting going. I just hope I can hang onto Yayla as he maybe key to my future success.

Here goes.

Ok, installation done, and holiday complete. I'm starting in the lower reaches of Germany, Tier 3, to develop a side from nothing but an under funded youth academy. This is a crazy idea but not as crazy as building a football manager sim out of a spreadsheet....so here goes.

The German lower leagues contain the reserve sides for the big clubs so only team playable that was promoted was TuS Koblenz. And here I am.

Just a quick look around the club and it seems to be financially in Okay shape, although I'm yet to discover what "adequate" youth facilities mean. I somehow don't think they are expecting me to put it to the test. Staffing levels are a problem in that there is none so adverts placed. Also noticed that the Chairman likes having a hands on approach to the youth player's contracts/intake. Well he's not on my watch, he can go back to bean counting and looking after the corporate sponsors (if the club has any).

Just been officially welcomed to the club by Hans-Peter Muller (chairman). Seems a decent fellow, stating that avoiding relegation is the clubs expectation for the season and that the club has no philosophies that I have to follow. He did invite me to a meeting in a few days time to discuss any philosophies I may have. Let's hope I can press upon him the importance of local youth players in terms of club building. Incidentally, the previous manager of Koblenz signed 3 players who are due to arrive 1/7/14. I have a feeling that is the last transfer cheque they ever need to sign.

I don't think it's really worth it, I did in my FM12 game and didn't in my FM13 game and didn't miss it.

iv never done it plus it saves money

Good luck Budiko and Janesy.

What a friendly tone! I meant the UI more than the actual ME or other things that could be tweaked. I'm starting to get used to it but it's very stark and the tactics engine is really complicated. We'll see.

Sorry, I came to an understandable conclusion that your reason was because you lost your first few games by a large amount considering that's what your thread in GD gave as the reason for hating the new game.

Good luck to those taking on this challenge. Might have another bash at it when I pick up FM14 since I didn't get too far with Kettering.

Decided to have a pop at this challenge again this year. Loaded everything up and started with Worksop Town. I will post everything in a post later on.

Good luck NF.

I did say later on, but I mean tomorrow now. I do have all the screenshots apart from my manager on league reset date.

Don't try Holland unless you are a sadist. The rest of the teams are professional and have quite good set-ups and you pretty much get destroyed in every game. Veyr hard to slowly build up a youth-squad because the level of adjustment from semi-pro is too quick.

Don't try Holland unless you are a sadist. The rest of the teams are professional and have quite good set-ups and you pretty much get destroyed in every game. Veyr hard to slowly build up a youth-squad because the level of adjustment from semi-pro is too quick.

Mmmm, I was thinking of giving this a go in Holland this year......I guess it will be a test of my tactical nous if its that hard

Its bound to end badly

Anyone else having real trouble so far? I'm RW Essen, Played 7 Won 0 Drawn 3 Lost 4...My tactics seem to make sense. I can only put it down to being English national with Sunday League Rep managing in Germany. Its going to be a long hard slog

Bury Town - The Start

Manager: http://s1281.photobucket.com/user/gogogogolem/media/2013-10-19_00002_zpsabd66890.jpg.html?sort=3&o=4

Facilities: [http://s1281.photobucket.com/user/gogogogolem/media/2013-10-19_00004_zps6a766410.jpg.html?sort=3&o=2

Finances: http://s1281.photobucket.com/user/gogogogolem/media/2013-10-19_00003_zpsaff3f6c4.jpg.html?sort=3&o=3

Profile: http://s1281.photobucket.com/user/gogogogolem/media/2013-10-19_00005_zpse7f2dee4.jpg.html?sort=3&o=1

I just hope I'll have the heart to get into this save. And I've got a player just too epic to not put in the opening post: http://s1281.photobucket.com/user/gogogogolem/media/2013-10-19_00006_zpsf56ae3f5.jpg.html?sort=3&o=0

If you've got any questions just ask. Good luck to anyone else attempting the challenge.

Bury Town - The Start

Manager: http://s1281.photobucket.com/user/gogogogolem/media/2013-10-19_00002_zpsabd66890.jpg.html?filters[user]=137907240&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=3

Facilities: http://s1281.photobucket.com/user/gogogogolem/media/2013-10-19_00004_zps6a766410.jpg.html?filters[user]=137907240&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=0

Finances: http://s1281.photobucket.com/user/gogogogolem/media/2013-10-19_00003_zpsaff3f6c4.jpg.html?filters[user]=137907240&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=2

Profile: http://s1281.photobucket.com/user/gogogogolem/media/2013-10-19_00005_zpse7f2dee4.jpg.html?filters[user]=137907240&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=1

I just hope I'll have the heart to get into this save. And I've got a player just too epic to not put in the opening post: http://s1281.photobucket.com/user/gogogogolem/media/2013-10-19_00006_zpsf56ae3f5.jpg.html

It's going to be a frustrating one mate. I think to get into these saves you need a normal save running alongside it...so if you find yourself losing/drawing alot you can go away and win a few and go back to this one later. Good luck and I look forward to hearing how you get on, keep us updated.

It's going to be a frustrating one mate. I think to get into these saves you need a normal save running alongside it...so if you find yourself losing/drawing alot you can go away and win a few and go back to this one later. Good luck and I look forward to hearing how you get on, keep us updated.

Thanks for the support. Just had junior coaching and youth recruitment upgrades turned down, this could be tough.

Thanks for the support. Just had junior coaching and youth recruitment upgrades turned down, this could be tough.

It is undoubtably tough, but eventually extremely rewarding.

It is undoubtably tough, but eventually extremely rewarding.

I don't expect an easy ride. Have you got any tips since you've done it before? I'd also like to declare that there was a pre-arranged incoming transfer.

I don't expect an easy ride. Have you got any tips since you've done it before? I'd also like to declare that there was a pre-arranged incoming transfer.

Don't expect too much too soon. Tie any player who stands out for you down to a contract for as long as you can. i never even try upgrading those areas until I have enough cash flow. get a decent HoYD and a good U18s manager and be patient.

Did i mention patience?