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FM16 Youth Academy Challenge


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Welcome back everyone!!

This is the 2016 incarnation of the Youth Academy Challenge started by ri916

The Aim

To win your chosen countries' top division and win the Champions League with a previously unplayable club using only your academy as a way of acquiring new players.

The Available Countries

Any Country in Europe is eligible as long as you can get a previously unplayable side promoted from Holidaying.

For example Holland is no longer available as there is no longer any relegation from the 2nd tier.

The Reset Dates

Confirmed for FM16

Croatia - 14th June

England - 24th June

Scotland- 20th June (Save 30th April for choice of teams by reloading - playoff game is May 14th)

Switzerland - 19th June

Italy- 29th June

Germany- 18th June

Czech Republic - 29th June

Portugal- 29th June

Iceland - 23rd November

Turkey- 19th June

Belarus - February 14th

Denmark - 29th June

Norway - 13th January

Finland - 25th November

Unconfirmed for FM16 (dates from previous versions)

France- 19th June

Spain- 9th July

Russia- 19th June

Belgium- 30th June

Database Settings

Mandatory

• Only load the Nation you’re managing in

• Database size can be small, medium or large

• Advanced Options have to be as shown here --> http://i.imgur.com/Tmlt92S.jpg

Optional

• Any additional settings in the ‘Advanced Database Setup’ – Due to us not being allowed to buy players, adding extra players just adds to the realism of your game and potentially slightly increases difficulty. NOTE – It is highly recommended you add the highest unplayable leagues for your country, as this will help make sure the promoted teams (you will be taking control of) have players. As an example, this is what I loaded for Croatia - http://i.imgur.com/Xre3XJO.jpg

• Players from Top Clubs in Europe is also recommended

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 you’re planning on reloading.

3. Retire the manager

4. Add a new manager with your chosen nationality and the lowest possible reputation and qualifications

5. Choose the newly promoted club of your choice

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. The beauty of these challenge threads is to share your story and to read others. Please keep us updated, even if you are not performing as you may wish.

Season Update

Youth Candidates

All Tagged Players Attribute page

Transfers (to prove that you haven’t signed any players)

Squad

League Table

Anything else is optional.

Also, some people like to nickname/tag their best players from each youth intake in chronological order. For example, you could nickname your best player in the intake in season 1 as *their name* YP01a, and so on. 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.

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FM16 Youth Challenge - Progress Tracking!

Challenge Completed!!

Aris - 2024 (smp20) - Link

Foligno - 2024/25 (Bartrcm) - Link

Won Their Nations Top League!!

Finland

FC Viikingit - (toonbalmy87)

Playing In Their Nations Top League!!

Norway

Algard - Braumiller

(updated thru post #708)

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Dates for Scotland - Stop at April 30th if you want to pick a team, as this is the day of the last league fixture. Relegation playoff is May 14th, when you get to see if the new team comes up. Actual changeover date June 19th.

Much like last year the contracts end at the end of May, so newly promoted teams seem to be pretty light on for players. The first year is going to be brutal again!

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Updated with Scottish dates :thup:

So I wasted a night last night! Decided to go Croatia, reloaded a bunch, picked a team, played the preseason and all its initial minutia...

Got to the first league game and noticed a match day rule of having to field at least 3 u21's..... Piece of cake after the first season, but I had zero this year :(

Off to find a new league/team......

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Updated with Scottish dates :thup:

So I wasted a night last night! Decided to go Croatia, reloaded a bunch, picked a team, played the preseason and all its initial minutia...

Got to the first league game and noticed a match day rule of having to field at least 3 u21's..... Piece of cake after the first season, but I had zero this year :(

Off to find a new league/team......

Could you go around this rule by leaving 3 sub spots unselected?

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Could you go around this rule by leaving 3 sub spots unselected?

Sadly no, I tried :(

The only way around it was to have 3 grey players in the starting XI (the 3 u21s had to be in the starting XI). I guess technically you could limp through a season like this, but it would be brutal.

I may do some more reloading and see if I can get a team with a sprinkle of u21s.....

I guess you could start the game with 3 greys, then sub a couple of immediately in the first minute! lol

edit - just tested this theory and you cannot sub them off, there has to be 3 u21s on the pitch at all times!

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Sadly no, I tried :(

The only way around it was to have 3 grey players in the starting XI (the 3 u21s had to be in the starting XI). I guess technically you could limp through a season like this, but it would be brutal.

I may do some more reloading and see if I can get a team with a sprinkle of u21s.....

I guess you could start the game with 3 greys, then sub a couple of immediately in the first minute! lol

edit - just tested this theory and you cannot sub them off, there has to be 3 u21s on the pitch at all times!

Eh that sucks...

p.s. I have tried to start a save in Sweden but almost all new teams have 13-14 players. Is it allowed to play gray players if I get injuries/suspensions and if I can't field 11 normal players?

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mosa1.jpg

Salford City FC

2016-2017 Season

Vanarama Conference North

Beginning

Advanced Set-Up - Initial Manager Profile - Manager Profile - Squad 1 - Squad 2 - Brendan Evans YP0a - Jon Buchanan YP0b - Jamie Robinson YP0c

So it's my first proper attempt at this challenge in a few years and hopefully it'll kickstart the FM bug again. I'm taking charge of Salford City FC and whilst we're expected to finish 11th in the league I'd like to think with the squad we have we could push the for the play-offs. The board are expecting a mid-table finish in the league along with us reaching the Fourth Qualifying Round of the FA Cup and the First Round of the FA Trophy.

As you can see from the squad it's got a North West feel to it. A lot of players who have come through the ranks at 'better' Manchester, Liverpool and other clubs. The squad has some good quality within it from the likes of Robbie Threlfall, Adam Mekki, Danny Webber, Nathan Luscombe, Tommy Miller, James Poole and Lionel Stone. Many of these players have higher league experience so hopefully that will stand us in good stead.

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Eh that sucks...

p.s. I have tried to start a save in Sweden but almost all new teams have 13-14 players. Is it allowed to play gray players if I get injuries/suspensions and if I can't field 11 normal players?

Yeah, as a last resort you can play greys.

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Locos.png

Who you tryin' to get crazy with ese? Don't you know I'm loco?

Manager B-Real is off to Scotland with a massive 13 player squad and some fairly shoddy facilities.

Having gone forward a day or two and hired an ass man I can see that my team is surprisingly reasonable in comparison to the division (the best for quickness and finishing, I like!) and has a chance to avoid the relegation playoff if we can stay relatively healthy. Given the make up of the squad I don't have a lot of choice tactics wise, a 4-4-2 seems like the logical way to go. In FM15 that meant a ton of goals both ways, so lets see if we can live up to our name and make the games loco. :)

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So hoping that third time is the charm.....

Ran my holiday and reloads in Switzerland and picked my team (Young Fellows Juventus - great name for a youth challenge!). The issue is the minimum ANY staff want is 800p/w and the max I can offer is 300p/w..... I even ran a test holiday for another season to see if financially things changed and maybe I could limp along as the only staff for a season, but nope :(

Will be posting in the bugs forum later...

So third time, and I too am going to try out Scotland!

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RVZg7sz.jpg

So, we are off to Aberdeenshire this year and Fraserburgh FC!

Initial screenshots to mark the occassion!

Background

Club Information

Profile Part 1

Profile Part 2

Starting Squad

The ground looks nice! Bellslea Park

The squad is a little unbalanced currently, with 5 of our 17 players being strikers. 3 of them are straight into positional retraining.

When the won the play-off they had 33 players on their books. By the time I was able to take control that number had dwindled to 17, which whilst low is workable (hopefully!).

Looking to play a trusted 4411 formation, but time will tell if that is workable with the current squad.

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Good luck Braumiller. At least you don't have to walk too far to pray to keep your 17 players healthy.

New FM, some more time on my hands so maybe this year I actually make it past season one. I'm starting in Austria (might as well fail in alphabetical order), since there seem some problems with the competition reform in Belgium. I've already chosen my team, and will post some info tonight. Austrian reset date is june 6th.

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Locos.png

Season 2016/17 - Scottish League 2 - 3rd (Promoted via Playoffs)

League | Positions | Semis | Finals | Cups | Squad | Transfers

I was hoping just to survive, but it was clear very early that it wouldn't be an issue. I put together a quick basic attacking 4-4-2 with the aim of tweaking it as I went and it became a matter of not wanting to touch what wasn't broken. Even with the grey players having to chip in to fill spots we were in the playoffs the whole way. Our attack was very pleasing with us only narrowly failing to put up the best goal total in the league as we faded the last couple of games with nothing to play for.

Promotion from the playoffs wasn't supposed to happen though. The youth intake was very handy as we dealt with injuries and suspensions through them, but largely the little squad I started with pulled us through. 6 goals in the promotion final against the team coming down from league 1 hopefully bodes well for what we can do next season.

Great youth intake to go along with a great season. Great mix of positions, some that can contribute straight away, others that are more for the future.

[17a] Fraser Main - ST

[17b] Gordon Graham - MR

[17c] Fraser Massie - DL/DR - Handy pickup with our men down back limping to the finish line with injury and suspension.

[17d] Dean Fulton - AMC/ST - Looks like a handy poacher, already scored 3 times in 2 starts and 4 sub appearances.

[17e] William Watt - MC/AMC

[17f] Ryan Scullion - MC/AMC - 7 appearances already, mostly from the bench. Yet to really impress but the central midfield needs to be solid not spectacular.

[17g] Ross Brown - DC/DL/DR

[17h] Brian Stewart - DC - Another who had to fill in for suspended players at the pointy end of the season.

[17i] Ross McHardy - GK - Already filled in while the first choice was injured, possibly ready for more next season.

[17j] Alan Lowdon - ML/MR

[17k] Gordon Fraser - DR/DL

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Good luck Braumiller. At least you don't have to walk too far to pray to keep your 17 players healthy.

It is not working!

201CrU7.jpg

What you guys feel about the tactics on this new version?

Not a tactics expert and quite fortunate here that we can import FM15 tactics. I am using one of mine from last year with the occasional tweak. Counter based due to our rep against others

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Welcome on board Jimbo!

so no Västra Frölunda this year Braumiller

Decided to try elsewhere this year, and I think they are not playable in this challenge this year due to a real life promotion :thup:

Nottingham Forest - yikes! 84% possession! Is that an anomaly for you, or is your tactic a heavy possession type? Even if it is, 84% is crazy!

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Wow Shakes, awesome! I like the look of Graham & Fulton from that intake :thup:

I'm very excited about Fulton. My two strikers are both only 20 and performed well this year so hopefully the three of them will be enough fire power for the next level.

Just having so many good prospects is pleasing though when you start with 13 players. I seriously thought some of my guys might reach 0% fitness when we went to extra time in a cup game on 3 days rest with no subs for either game!

What does your HOYD look like?

HOYD. Decent enough for this level but nothing special, probably just got a lucky intake? Will be looking to upgrade to someone with a better personality long term, I don't have any decent tutors in my current group so I'm going to need to get them from intakes.

Very nice start of the challenge Shakes. First promotion of FM16 is yours.

It's a shock to me since I usually get relegated a couple of times before catching on at a club.

Hi guys, quick question can you play this challenge on Classic mode or Touch or whatever it's now called?

Yes, it's possible. Just refrain from using any cheats that get unlocked in classic mode. Youth intake day is at the end of the season in classic, so you get them later than in normal mode which might make it a little harder first season.

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HOYD. Decent enough for this level but nothing special, probably just got a lucky intake? Will be looking to upgrade to someone with a better personality long term, I don't have any decent tutors in my current group so I'm going to need to get them from intakes.

Spookily similar! My HOYD

What are finances looking like for you? Averaging a loss of 4-10k a month here, but I drew Premiership Rangers in the League Cup 1st Round and the 23,000 crowd boosted me by around 200,000!

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Made a 70k profit last season without a cup run, 50k of that is league 2 prize money. Expenses are pretty low.

Also just to rotate the squad started an all youth XI a cup game. Earliest in the challenge I've ever done that. :)

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Not sure whether to laugh or cry at this.

There's a keeper glitch where he just stands glitching over the ball and doesn't kick it. At half time in a game I had 96% possession to Blackpool's 4, but noticed there were no highlights so check and found the keeper had held the ball for 39minutes!

I will be taking this challenge up soon, just getting to grips with the game first.

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Salford City FC

2016-2017 Season

Vanarama Conference North

Youth Intake

So it's that day that I've been waiting for. Youth Intake Day! I was hoping for a striker who would look the part or another full back who could help take the pressure off my first choice. Unfortunately I didn't get a striker who looks like he'll make the grade but I did get a couple of defenders and few other handy looking players.

Possibly not going to be our very own 'Class of '92' but I do have high hopes for Nicholas Walsh, Graeme Adams and Gary Smith. I do believe that Thomas Kenny could have a reasonable career with the club whilst Aaron Bodie will be given a chance. All will be moving into the first team once they've signed their contracts.

All youth players have been offered contracts.

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CE.Europa.logo_zpscoegupf4.jpg

Club Esportiu Europa

Here's me!

11 Players on the books...

This will probably be a short run because i wanted to get the first season out of the way before posting and my 11 players (not counting the Youth Intake) became 5 after 6 refused new contracts. We managed to survive which was the only target for the season. Next season will be an whole other story.....

CE Europa Background

Club Esportiu Europa is a Spanish sports club, based in the Gràcia district of Barcelona. The club is best known for its football team who in 1929, along with city neighbours FC Barcelona and RCD Espanyol, were founder members of La Liga. They currently play in Group 5 of the Tercera División.

During the late 1990s they won the Copa Catalunya twice in succession, on both occasions beating FC Barcelona in the final.

Spanish Second Division B3 Table|The Squad|Title Odds|Youth Candidates

Youth Watch List;

Jaume Morera (YP1A) - CF Profile|First Report

Gerard Nieto (YP1B) - L/CB Profile|First Report

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Up to youth intake day on my second season, but really need sleep before finishing the season off. Didn't get 11 tagged players this time around unfortunately! I stand by my decision to pick up the better personality HOYD. :)

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Just a quick question from a new person looking to possibly start the challenge. Does anybody recommend a specific country to start in?

E.g low amount of games, favourable leagues to get out of, good facilities. Anything like that really.

Sweden has a very low amount of games per season, 22-30 depending on the league (this was last year, haven't looked this year to see if it has changed). Not sure on others. Obviously England has a very high amount, and also a lot of divisions to climb as well.

There are a few leagues where you will find former larger clubs coming back from issues / bans. I believe Italy has a couple. They can be easier starts, but you might have chairmen who expect more, sooner....

These saves can take a little bit to evolve, but once they do I feel a much stronger attachment to them that 'regular' saves.

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Sweden has a very low amount of games per season, 22-30 depending on the league (this was last year, haven't looked this year to see if it has changed). Not sure on others. Obviously England has a very high amount, and also a lot of divisions to climb as well.

There are a few leagues where you will find former larger clubs coming back from issues / bans. I believe Italy has a couple. They can be easier starts, but you might have chairmen who expect more, sooner....

These saves can take a little bit to evolve, but once they do I feel a much stronger attachment to them that 'regular' saves.

Thanks! I think I want to go for a smaller country just for realism, as in you wouldn't get EPL teams not signing anyone. Obviously it's important to get the country right so I'm going to do some research before diving in!

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