Football's Next Star

Game Information

I'd hope that the people who have signed up to take part know what this is all about, but for anybody wandering onto this thread I'll give you a brief summary.

This thread will be following the fortunes of 23 of the most talented, unsigned teenagers we could find. For two years they will train & play with the FNS Academy, starting off in the Vanarama National League, and during this time will be evaluated constantly as they fight for a professional contract.

Rankings

At the end of every month the players will be ranked based on their performances. For this the players will be split into four groups - goalies, defence, support & attack - and within each group there will be a top 4 announced with players winning points for their ranking. Goalkeepers are slightly different, each keeper will be given half of each season as our number one and after two full seasons they will be compared to one another to determine who was the best performer.

After two seasons their points will be tallied and this will give us an overall ranking for every player, it is this final ranking that will determine where they end up starting their career with the highest ranked players being picked up by the most desirable clubs and those at the bottom ending up somewhere much less pleasant. The actual list of clubs will be announced some time in the second season.

Oddities

When you look at your profiles you'll see that each of you is shown as having a future transfer to Manchester United, this is simply something that I did to ensure that you can't be signed by anybody during your two years at FNS. After two seasons this future transfer will be changed to ensure you move to whichever team you have been allocated.

You'll also see that some of your positions are a bit different to what you'd said. I've made a few tweaks just to give you more chance of getting game time. I couldn't find a formation for the Assistant Manager to use that included defensive midfielders, central midfielders, attacking midfielders and wingers so I have made the AMCs competent as MCs and the ML/Rs competent as AML/Rs.

So, time to get on with this thing then.

Season 1 - Initial Profiles

GK - James Shaw - Initial Profile

GK - Mario Gradi - Initial Profile

DR - Andrew McGowan - Initial Profile

DR - Jake Mulrooney - Initial Profile

DL - Alfred Geolan - Initial Profile

DL - Vilis Ozolinsh - Initial Profile

DC - Killian Luka - Initial Profile

DC - Jack Quispe - Initial Profile

DC - Vasiliy Pupkin - Initial Profile

DC - Galen DeKay - Initial Profile

DM - Wilson - Initial Profile

DM - Chris Draycott - Initial Profile

MC - Michael van Aarde - Initial Profile

MC - Leon Jorge - Initial Profile

MR - Kristian Dwyer - Initial Profile

MR - Chak Tau - Initial Profile

ML - Alexander Baker - Initial Profile

ML - Ace Robinson - Initial Profile

AMC - Ariel Pryde - Initial Profile

AMC - Arron Balmerk - Initial Profile

ST - Graham Brophy - Initial Profile

ST - Ugrasen Deshveer - Initial Profile

ST - Joel Acosta - Initial Profile

Looking forward to this

August 2015

Results

Vanarama National - Forest Green 1-1 FNS

Vanarama National - FNS 1-1 Southport

Vanarama National - FC Halifax 0-1 FNS

Vanarama National - FNS 0-2 Wrexham

Vanarama National - Welling 0-2 FNS

Vanarama National - FNS 2-0 Altrincham

For their first month playing as a team I say this is a pretty good effort really. Six really competitive performances, unlucky to not take more than two points from the opening two games, and finishing the month with a pair of very strong showings to get them on their way with some good momentum to carry forwards.

League Table

Player Stats

Rankings

To clarify on what was said in the opening post, the players will be split into four sections for the rankings based on their position.

Goalkeepers

Defensive - DC, DL & DR

Support - DM, MC, AMC

Offensive - ML, MR, ST

Defensive:

1st - Galen DeKay

2nd - Vilis Ozolinsh

3rd - Jack Quispe

4th - Andrew McGowan

Overall the defense has started fairly well, four goals conceded in six games for a very young unit still learning how to play together is good enough for me. Overall Galen DeKay just takes first place, four dependable performances, not setting the world on fire but nice tidy defensive work, very few mistakes, almost unbeatable in the air and stepping up really well against Forest Greet with a huge 28 interceptions. Hot on his heels was Ozolinsh, was quite quiet for the first few games but came alive in the final two matches to torment Altrincham and Welling down the left flank and unlucky to only get a single assist for his efforts. Then there wasn't much to separate Quispe and McGowan, both tidy if unspectacular but at this stage I'm just happy to see them defending without too many mistakes.

Support:

1st - Wilson

2nd - Michael van Aarde

3rd - Leon Jorge

4th - Arron Balmerk

Clear winner here, Wilson looked like an absolute brick wall in front of the defence, losing a grand total of 2 tackles all month, rarely looking rushed with the ball at his feet and doing a very nice job linking the defence and midfield. Needs to work on his ability in the air, but if can start to win a few more aerial duels he could be a force to be reckoned with. Behind him van Aarde and Jorge were pretty similar, five OK performances and one very good one, however van Aarde just takes second place because his very good one was better than Jorge's and because Jorge seems to be a graduate of the Paul Scholes school of tackling and did put the team in a tricky position with some poorly placed fouls at times. Bringing up the rear is Balmerk purely by virtue of the fact that he was the only other midfielder to set foot on the pitch this month!

Offensive:

1st - Chak Tau

2nd - Ugrasen Deshveer

3rd - Graham Brophy

4th - Alexander Baker

First place goes to Tau, not for any eye catching performances, but for his consistency. A hard worker on the right flank simply doing his job, getting past his defender and putting a nice ball into the box time and time again and was rewarded with a trio of assists for his efforts. Close behind is another hard worker, Deshveer. Didn't get much chance to show what he could do this month with a series of late substitute appearances but in each of them has shown a good understanding of the game, linked up well with his teammates and been a handful for the opposition and against Altrincham he turned the game brilliantly, came on with the match in the balance and put it beyond doubt with a pair of very tidily taken goals.

My computer is still trying to load the Game Screenshots, But According to the ratings, Shouldn't Baker be the best in offense?

And for future, In the match result updates, I would like to to the panel where they have the list of all players, their ratings and substitutions etc(cannot remember what it is called).

Finally can you confirm that the Indian national Team is manageable? Strange that an Italian could manage a call-up, but an Indian cannot(An indian making it to English league in real life would probably have been called up straight to the senior team..)

My computer is still trying to load the Game Screenshots, But According to the ratings, Shouldn't Baker be the best in offense?

And for future, In the match result updates, I would like to to the panel where they have the list of all players, their ratings and substitutions etc(cannot remember what it is called).

Finally can you confirm that the Indian national Team is manageable? Strange that an Italian could manage a call-up, but an Indian cannot(An indian making it to English league in real life would probably have been called up straight to the senior team..)

Average rating isn't the only way to judge a player. I decide the rankings from looking at each players full stats, not just their overall rating because I personally think that the rating itself is a pretty poor way to judge how a player has performed because of the way that the game weighs certain aspects of a performance.

As for the match screenshots, I'm keeping it on the screen it is at the moment. I don't want people being able to see exactly what they have done in each match because if they do then it becomes a pain in the ass for me. Last time I ran a game like this where people could see their ratings for each match I spent 90% of my time having to deal with people arguing over the rankings I'd given them and I'm not going through that again!

Regarding international selection, no the Indian team isn't playable, it's full of grey players however it is still a nation that plays matches and therefore your guy is eligible for selection and can play international games. Why he didn't get picked for the youth team for their September friendlies I don't know and honestly I'm not going to look into it because figuring out what's going on within FM is nigh on impossible. He is eligible, the team plays games, therefore at some point he will probably get selected. If he doesn't then it's the game being weird and there's nothing I can do about it.

I'm really glad to see this get on again! I think last year the 2-year-period with FNS was probably the most compelling part of the save. It's good to see van Aarde starting off well, and while I wish I could see his individual stats I completely get why you don't want to disclose them.

I'm really glad to see this get on again! I think last year the 2-year-period with FNS was probably the most compelling part of the save. It's good to see van Aarde starting off well, and while I wish I could see his individual stats I completely get why you don't want to disclose them.

At the end of the season I'll put up a screenshot of the full stats of each player.

"Oi Gaffa.

Hope you appealed my 1st yellow card that I picked up in the 1st game. Must have hit someone with a chair or a table as the ref was D. Rock." - Wilson

Must admit I do like the look of Wilson though I think that he may be spending a little bit too much time sitting in the stands with three bookings already after only six games.

Fantastic to come 1st in the rankings for Support and long may that continue.

3 clean sheets in 4 appearances for Gradi, though disappointed to be in goal in the 2-0 defeat.

I actually think Shaw looks the better keeper, but maybe Gradi can take advantage whilst Shaw is out injured...

Good work, I remember this from last year and thoroughly enjoyed seeing my player disappoint me on a regular basis!

September 2015

Results

Vanarama National - FNS 1-0 Boreham Wood

Vanarama National - Cheltenham 2-2 FNS

Vanarama National - FNS 0-0 Gateshead

Vanarama National - Macclesfield 1-3 FNS

Vanarama National - FNS 3-0 Braintree

Vanarama National - Tranmere 2-1 FNS

Well the boys are consistent, 11 points from 6 games for the second month running. Like the first month it was a case of good but could have been better, the team failed to capitalise on a dominant position against Gateshead and threw the match away against Tranmere thanks to some sloppy finishing. They're doing well but if they can make the most of their chances there's no reason why they couldn't be much higher in the league.

League Table

Player Stats

Rankings

Defensive:

1st - Vilis Ozolinsh

2nd - Alfred Geolan

3rd - Andrew McGowan

4th - Galen DeKay

Vilis missed the first couple of games thanks to an international callup but took no time at all to find his feet upon his return, turning in three top class performances showing defensive nous and attacking flair, looks like Latvia might finally have a footballer to be proud of. Behind him, picking up his first points of the season comes young Geolan, he didn't play very much with only two appearances to his name, but thanks to Vilis's absence he was thrown into the first team after a month without setting foot on the pitch and more than held his own, looking rock solid in both games.

Support:

1st - Leon Jorge

2nd - Arron Balmerk

3rd - Michael van Aarde

4th - Wilson

Good month for Jorge, finally discovering his shooting boots and converting exactly 50% of the chances he had this month! Admittedly he only had 4 shots in 6 games but I still think it's pretty impressive. A good passer of the ball, rarely looks rushed for time but really does need to calm himself down a bit when trying to win the ball back having taken his yellow card tally to 5 for the season already. Balmerk was unlucky not to take top spot, like Jorge he looks like a very tidy midfielder but he seems to be struggling for consistency and can flip flop between great and mediocre too frequently. Bringing up the rear van Aarde and Wilson were very difficult to separate, up until the final game Wilson was just about edging it but getting himself sent off for a dangerous two footed tackle which likely cost his team the game and earned him a three match ban saw him drop right to the bottom.

Offensive:

1st - Ugrasen Deshveer

2nd - Chak Tau

3rd - Alexander Baker

4th - Ace Robinson

Right now the weakest area of our team, really not making the most of the chances that are being carved out for them. Quite frankly Deshveer takes the top spot purely because he seems to be the only one of them that is aware that attacking players are meant to score goals, he may only have scored in two games but his fantastic substitute hat-trick against Braintree secured top spot easily. After that it's slim pickings really. Tau takes second because he had one very good game bagging a goal & assist, and one game that wasn't awful, and Baker just pips Robinson to third spot by virtue of the fact that he was marginally less terrible.

Vills is on fire! Good to see him getting an international call up, even if it does mean him missing some game time for FNS.

I am surprised how Brophy continues to be the first choice striker, given that Deshveer has clearly been better. The three starts seem to be a result of Brophy's injury, so I hope that by the time he is back, Deshveer has cemented his place in the starting XI.

btw, for how long is Brophy injured?

EDIT:Apparently, It was not the Injury, for Brophy was clearly available till the last match against Tranmere. So, when did he get injured?

October 2015

Results

Vanarama National - Woking 0-1 FNS

Vanarama National - FNS 1-0 Torquay

Vanarama National - FNS 2-0 Dover

Vanarama National - Barrow 0-2 FNS

Vanarama National - FNS 5-0 Chester

Vanarama National - Aldershot 0-2 FNS

This is more like it, at long last the boys seem to have figured out how to play as a team. Defence looking tight as a drum, attacking unit starting to pose a proper threat, and it all sees them move to the top of the table. Now they just need to stay there!

League Table

Player Stats

Rankings

Defensive:

1st - Andrew McGowan

2nd - Jack Quispe

3rd - Vilis Ozolinsh

4th - Galen DeKay

Support:

1st - Arron Balmerk

2nd - Michael van Aarde

3rd - Chris Draycott

4th - Wilson

Offensive:

1st - Chak Tau

2nd - Ugrasen Deshveer

3rd - Graham Brophy

4th - Ace Robinson

Apologies for the lack of text in this update, didn't really have time to write a lot.

Also, if you're signed up for this can you please make sure that you're dropping the occasional reply to this thread, just to keep it active and so I know that those who signed up are still actually following this! Thanks.

I am following, for one.

btw, are those leaderboards periodic or cumulative?

Really, I do not see why Brophy is still the first choice striker over Deshveer. I mean, he is better in both goals scored and rating.

I'm following, there's just not much for me to say about Ariel Pryde right now.

9 clean sheets in 10 games for Gradi, that is phenomenal stuff!

Also regularly following, just hoping Jack Quispe ups his performances a bit.

All those clean sheets this month...crazy. McGowan's recent form is insane. Good to see van Aarde pick up another assist.

How does ranking work? Alfie's the top defender in average rating terms, yet has just one 2nd place...

I am following, for one.

btw, are those leaderboards periodic or cumulative?

Really, I do not see why Brophy is still the first choice striker over Deshveer. I mean, he is better in both goals scored and rating.

Don't blame me, everything is being managed by the Assistant Manager, I'm literally holidaying through everything other than when I stop for a day to take the screenshots each month.

As for the rankings, they're monthly. So each month the player ranked 1st gets 4 points, 3 for 2nd place, 2 for 3rd place and 1 point for 4th place.

Then after two years the points will be totalled to give the final rankings.

How does ranking work? Alfie's the top defender in average rating terms, yet has just one 2nd place...

At the end of every month I'm looking at the full stats for each player and picking my top 4 performers. While Alfie has played well when he's got on the pitch he only played enough to warrant a ranking in September.

I'm actively following, check in probably more than I need to, just waiting for Baker to get his feet underneath him (although evidently he's currently in a wheelchair).

Woop woop, took me a while but I'm up and running. Next Pirlo incoming!

Just realize I did made something wrong on Chak Tau, but he did really a great job at the moment for the club:)

But according to my own experience, top performer doesn't do well after he leaves the club, and I hope Chau Tau won't be the case

Ace seems to be doing not too bad but just lacking that little bit of finesse to make any real difference. Still lots of time for change though. He'll be climbing the ranks soon.

Great updates so far. Looking forward to seeing how this develops.

November & December 2015

Due to the small number of games in November you get a 2 for 1 on this months update.

Results

Vanarama National - FNS 0-2 Eastleigh

Vanarama National - Kidderminster 1-2 FNS

Vanarama National - FNS 2-1 Grimsby

Vanarama National - FNS 1-3 Lincoln

Vanarama National - Southport 1-1 FNS

Vanarama National - FNS 3-1 Forest Green

Vanarama National - Bromley 1-4 FNS

FA Trophy 1st Round - FNS 1-0 Welling

Injuries - Killian Luka - Damaged achilles tendon - 3 months

Vanarama National - FNS 1-1 FC Halifax

Injuries - James Shaw - Strained stomach muscle - 3 to 5 weeks

Vanarama National - Wrexham 1-0 FNS

Injuries - Chak Tau - Damaged knee cap - 3 to 4 weeks

Vanarama National - Altrincham 1-3 FNS

League Table

Player Stats

Rankings

Defensive:

1st - Andrew McGowan

2nd - Vilis Ozolinsh

3rd - Galen DeKay

4th - Vasiliy Pupkin

Support:

1st - Michael van Aarde

2nd - Wilson

3rd - Leon Jorge

4th - Arron Balmerk

Offensive:

1st - Graham Brophy

2nd - Alexander Baker

3rd - Ace Robinson

4th - Kristian Dwyer

That's a bit better, 3 goals and 1 assist in 2 months. Better than the 2 and 2 in the previous months. Plus the average ratings seeing a slight increase. Thinks are looking up.

yay, looks like Baker's turning it around, a 7.08 in the last 5 matches.

Odd question but what's Alfie's squad number?

OK so yellow is definitely Wilson's favourite colour, 4 bookings in Nov/Dec brings my total to 7 yellow and 1 red in 25 appearances.

But happy to finally get on the scoresheet with the equaliser against FC Halifax. It would be nice to add to that to my game instead of a rather large card collection.

Team is beginning to look really good with class players in all positions.

Quispe has the most appearances for the club

Odd question but what's Alfie's squad number?

45 (no idea why but the AI assigned squad numbers in the range of 30-52!)

Well in Vills

January 2016

Results

Vanarama National - FNS 3-0 Welling

Vanarama National - Boreham Wood 0-1 FNS

Vanarama National - FNS 1-0 Cheltenham

FA Trophy 2nd Round - FNS 2-1 Hednesford

Vanarama National - Braintree 0-4 FNS

Vanarama National - FNS 3-0 Macclesfield

Another great month for the lads, starting to pull away a real gap at the top of the table, looking defensively solid, much tidier in attack and overall playing like a very handy unit. Also another 5 clean sheets for Gradi in goal taking him up to a quite frankly ridiculous 14 clean sheets in 18 starts!

League Table

Player Stats

Rankings

Defensive:

1st - Andrew McGowan

2nd - Vilis Ozolinsh

3rd - Jack Quispe

4th - Galen DeKay

McGowan has well and truly found his feet now, putting in a string of outstanding performances this month to continue on from his hot streak towards the end of last year and taking his third consecutive first place. He does have Vilis hot on his heels though, performing just as well but isn't quite getting the luck going his way.

Support:

1st - Michael van Aarde

2nd - Wilson

3rd - Leon Jorge

4th - Arron Balmerk

Two in a row for van Aarde. Not the most consistent of performers which results in some games where he is pretty anonymous, but when he turns up he is capable of absolutely bossing a game from the centre of the park. Backing him up is Wilson, continuing to do a fairly unglamorous job, it's not pretty, it's not eye catching but it's a job that somebody needs to do, putting his body on the line to protect the defence match after match, and two more cards for the collection.

Offensive:

1st - Graham Brophy

2nd - Ugrasen Deshveer

3rd - Kristian Dwyer

4th - Chak Tau

So after a slow start to the season Brophy is beginning to find the back of the net a bit more regularly, 5 goals and a couple of assists in a good month for him, still a bit too keen when it comes to shooting from range but if he can tone that down a bit he could be a force to be reckoned with. A close second is our resident Super Sub Deshveer, taking home 2nd place despite only making 2 substitute appearances this month! His 8 minute hat-trick against Macclesfield and goal against Boreham Wood give him a goal for every 13 minutes he played this month, not too shabby!

(Views of Alfred Geolan are not my own. He's just a kid!)

Twitter:

@AlfieG45 Even down here in the Conference, I find a Latvian nicking my job.

I could go through and add it up myself but I thought I'd check if you have a rankings to date? i.e. Total points for the players.

Michael got a goal! Better to boss a couple games than play boringly, am I right?

The twitter war is heating up.

Now, What is the name of the Assistant manager, again?(You know why I am asking)

King of the assists from Right Back. That's my boy!

No ones gonna complain now about this not being Lively...

Lenzar if you are also using Simitator, could you please redo you post by wrapping @UDeshveer with {{}}?(write {{@UDeshveer}} ) and it will appear in blue,so it seems more real

February 2016

Results

Vanarama National - Gateshead 1-2 FNS

FA Trophy 3rd Round - Lincoln 1-2 FNS

Vanarama National - FNS 1-1 Tranmere

Vanarama National - Torquay 0-1 FNS

FA Trophy 4th Round - Aldershot 0-3 FNS

Another month, another series of good performances and with the lead at the top of the table now up to 15 points with 10 games to go I think we can safely say that we're going to be plying our trade in League 2 next season.

League Table

Player Stats

Rankings

Defensive:

1st - Vilis Ozolinsh

2nd - Andrew McGowan

3rd - Jack Quispe

4th - Galen DeKay

Vilis & McGowan continue to trade blows, both looking like a constant menace on the flanks and once again practically impossible to split. Quite frankly it only came down to a single incident this month which was McGowan making a mistake against Tranmere that led to their equaliser, but when they're as closely matched as they are it's always going to come down to the little things.

Support:

1st - Michael van Aarde

2nd - Chris Draycott

3rd - Leon Jorge

4th - Wilson

Once again van Aarde was head and shoulders clear of the rest of the midfielders and he had his most productive month yet with a pair of assists and a goal to his name. If he could add some assists to his game regularly he'd be outstanding, but even without them he's a very capable midfield general. Second place was a tricky one. On paper Wilsons was the second best performer however thanks to his reckless tackling he earned his tenth yellow card of the season against Tranmere and an automatic two game ban and I couldn't let that go unpunished. Instead the points go to Draycott, given his first shot for a long time thanks to Wilsons ban and he turned in two performances of the highest quality.

Offensive:

1st - Chak Tau

2nd - Graham Brophy

3rd - Alexander Baker

4th - Ace Robinson

After missing the best part of the last two months through injury Chak didn't take long to find his feet as shown by the 4 goals in 5 games. Plodding along behind him comes Brophy, not an eye catching player, not a glamorous player, but he keeps on making enough of a contribution to keep himself in the team, much to the dislike of certain other members of the squad...

Really feel for Acosta, but he seems to be very patient indeed

Balmerk is slipping down the rankings fast but guess will work in my favor if i dont get a big club

Roy Keane's a pussy compared to me lol

Looks like young Geolan's getting a name for himself on the social media.

In a post in his FB...

Joel Acosta: I am pretty good to be playing here in FNS, but going back to my home and train there will be my starting point after Man Utd. Just to know that I am still young to play and big universities will be picking me in the future.

Sorry for the slight pause, been a bit busy, next update will be done tomorrow (Friday).