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ri916's FM15 Youth Academy Challenge


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I have a question:

What is your experience with feeder clubs? Is it worth? Do the intakes improve? Is the loaning out worth it?

When to find/ask for one?

I doubt i am ready for one but i am getting to a point where i have a lot of young guys and i would like all of them to play but simply can't if i want to stay consistent.

Tried to loan out some players but no offers came.

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Fantastic season Willafus, congrats!

I agree with you all on Wikstrom. Also, that kid is a heart attack waiting to happen with his injury proneness! First pre-season game, so obviously his match fitness is abysmal and he has to be taken off injured after 22 minutes..... Thankfully only a 4-5 day lay-off this time! I have played 4 other friendlies now, and he has got through them all and MF is around 88-90%, so hoping to have gotten by the worst of it for now.

Interestingly, my coaches want his training specialization to be Stamina (was 8, is now 9). Going to follow their advice, going along the line of thought that better stamina = less drop of condition and match fitness, would hopefully will = less injuries......

I have a question:

What is your experience with feeder clubs? Is it worth? Do the intakes improve? Is the loaning out worth it?

When to find/ask for one?

I doubt i am ready for one but i am getting to a point where i have a lot of young guys and i would like all of them to play but simply can't if i want to stay consistent.

Tried to loan out some players but no offers came.

For the most part, I do not use them. Especially early on in the challenge while you are scratching and clawing to climb the divisions. If a kid is going to make it, I am going to be throwing him at the deep end sooner rather than later. Also, tiny feeder clubs will have poor training facilities and coaching.

Further on in the challenge I constantly try to get more feeder clubs, especially merchandising and foreign ones designed to funnel foreign kids into the intakes. You have to be pretty big to get to that point though :(

I will also have at least one domestic feeder (with as good a training facility as I can find) so that I can send youths if needed (decent kid, but log jam ahead of them in the seniors).

(NOTE - Everyone plays this game and challenge differently, and I will bet my pound to your penny that there are people who can get the loan / feeder club system to work for them beneficially. I just have not managed to yet)

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Season 2016/17

11th

Summary:

Se we took a dip into the Second Division, for the first time in club history, and for the first half of the season, we did exceptionally well, as we were floating around 6th place.

As is visible from fixtures, things turned around and we lost many many points, so even the 11th place is kind of an achievement (though if someone told me we were about to finish 11th in first season in higher league, I wouldn't mind it)

We have not managed to cut the debs, and it has grown, but at least not as much as last season, maybe we can eventually slowly crawl the money back.

League Table

Fixtures 1

Fixtures 2

Transfers

Facilities

Squad

Ascension, although he has a cool name, is just too old for the squad, so he will be replaced by a kid from intake, which is already better at CA than him.

Youth intake

Good intake all-around, we got kids into positions we much needed (ML, DC) and some others, who can develop nicely.

Here are my 4 tagged players:

Sam Jacobs (YP02a)

Jean-Luc Detry (YP02b)

Leon Wils (YP02c)

Angelo Mannelli (YP02d)

Goals from last season:

Stay up! Success - 11th place

Lessen our financial deficit: (1.32M Debt) Failed - debt of 2.15M €

Goals for next season:

10th or better place

Finish the season with less than 2.5M debt

Include tagged players in first team when possible

Seasonal Summary:

Season     Division                       Position     Belgian Cup       Achievements
2015/16    Belgian Third Divison A        1st          Sixth round       Promotion
2016/17    Belgian Second League          11th         Fifth round

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Nice season Willafus that Braithwaite has crazy physical stats!

Detry has some good stats Tush, congratulations on the survival.

Can I ask a question guys. I terminated the trials of some youth players at the youth intake (before I had checked their personalities), and then offered them youth contracts. 3 of them now show up on my "transfer history", instead of the youth transfers. Is this against the rules? I will terminate their contracts now if it is.

Also how long does it take for posts to appear here? I submitted my first season yesterday but said it required a moderator.

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worrell Re: feeder clubs, I don't really use them, I don't see the need. I find I have to reject about a loan offer a week that come out of the blue for random players from conference clubs so it's not exactly hard for me to loan out players once you go up a few leagues.

Also for the most part my good youths I'll keep at the club as backup ... I'm running a fairly lean squad, a couple of injuries and I need the youth team guys to fill out a bench, would rather fill it out with good potential players who I can maybe give a couple of sub games to help them develop than random players I have no intention of bringing on. Loaning is more for the duds who aren't going to make it (especially if someone is willing to pay their wages) or for players who get too old for he youth team but are blocked by an older player in the main team - if the older player is on the decline but still good now it can be good to use a loan to give the young guy playing time for a year or two. Oh and backup keepers, I often send them out on can be recalled loans, better keep them fit by playing I figure. But again, never had a problem finding takers for players without a feeder team.

ajt - Technically signing players for any reason is against the rules, but I don't think you've violated the spirit of the challenge signing your own youth intake, so I personally wouldn't worry about it. If your account is new any post with links in it trips the spam filter, which is why your post would be waiting for moderator approval.

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thanks for the info Shakes. I terminated the trials and signed them on the same day before the trials ended, I forgot they would technically leave the club and become free agents before having to rejoin. In the end I've released two of them again anyway as they were rubbish and the third one is no great shakes (har har). I'll probably end up releasing him again anyway but I won't sign any youth prospects like this again.

thanks for the info regarding the links, its a bit frustrating as I've already completed my second season and its writeup, I feel like I can't continue until I can post it :D

Nice one Tush who are you against in the final? Did you beat Anderlecht or Standard Liege?

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Giant killers Beerschot

Belgian Cup Final result

The game was a rollercoaster, we took the lead, then conceded two goals. After the half-time we got a penalty kick, which equalized the match. I wanted the match to go longer, so I put the mentality to defensive, as they had already made three subs. I knew that if I managed to get to overtime, any injury would put us in a man-advantage. And it happened! One of their players got injured, and with the man-advantage we managed to put two balls in their net, securing the game and pulling off a stunning achievement for a club of our stature.

My shadow striker Jaric Schaessens was the cup's top goalscorer, and also had most assists.

I am looking forward to the one round I will play at EURO league next year :D

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Rot-Weiss Essen 2016/17 ~ German Third Division

RWESSENLOGO_zpsfa7c50ca.png

Season goal: promotion

Media prediction: 14th

League Table | Stats | Transfers

After the catastrophe of last season I checked the coaching setup, and dismayed with what I found, decided to fire the whole of the backroom staff. I managed to snap up ex Croatian forward Ivan Klasnic to inspire the u19s and added 2 dedicated fitness coaches. Hopefully this will reduce our injury problems a bit.

Our starting goalkeeper (and best by some margin) decided he was too good for the club during the preseason, so I offloaded him to Frankfurt for 240k. He hasn't played a game since his transfer.

Our friendlies went well as I tinkered with the tactics to fix our leaky defence. We started with 2 wins and a draw, I had cracked it, title here we come!

In the following 11 games we took just 7 points and dropped to 15th place. A bizarre 5-3 defeat to local rivals Munster shattered the teams morale, and the fans were up in arms.

Next up was against Bielefeld, who have 2 strikers valued over £1 million, by far the best strikeforce in the league. We needed a miracle. Up step Cebio Soukou, maverick right winger extraordinaire, scoring 2 goals in the first 15 minutes and ending with an 8.8 rating. At the winter break we were up to 9th place, 7 points off the playoff spot.

Straight after the winter break we had a pivotal game against league leaders Dresden, who sported a goal difference of +25. They had taken 13 points in their last 5, whilst we had 12. They completely dominated the game possession wise, but our 4-5-1 counter paid dividends, as we romped to a 3-1 home victory. We had now taken 19 points from 24, with a goal difference of +7.

This was swiftly followed by an injury crisis which saw two key players out for most of the season.

  • DM Kai Nakowitsch broken foot (5 months)
  • AML Kevin Grund slipped a disc (3 months).

Kevin Grund had only just returned from knee tendonitis (5 months). He scored 11 goals in 30 games for us in 2015/16 and had averaged 7.75 rating in 7 matches this season with 2 goals and 3 assists.

Injury

  • AMR Cebiou Soukou broken ribs (7 weeks)

Cebiou Soukou then injured himself during a match vs Aalen (where we somehow managed to go from leading 3-1 to drawing 3-3 after they scored 2 goals in the last 5 minutes). He had the highest average rating of any third division player at the time of his injury.

Injury

  • ST Sven Krayer fractured arm (5 weeks)

We would have to play 5 of our last 8 games without our best striker. At the time of his injury he had 15 goals, joint 4th in the division.

RW Essen 3 - 0 Saarbrücken

RW Essen 0 - 2 Halle

RW Essen 2 - 0 Munster

At half time it was 0-0 against Munster. Cebou returned as as a sub in the second half. In the 79th minute Cebou Soukou scored his 9th goal of the season. In the 90th minute he added his 2nd as we avenged our local rivals 2-0.

RW Essen 2 - 0 Bielefeld

RW Essen 0 - 1 Grosapach (8th)

RW Essen 1 - 2 Kiel (15th)

We were 4 points off the playoff spot in 6th position. We had two games left in the season.

We faced 17th placed Rostock. By this stage I was tired of losing to rubbish teams.

RW Essen 1 - 0 Rostock

I changed the tactic to attacking mentality and much higher defensive line. How we didn't win by more goals is remarkable as until the 70th minute they hadn't even had a shot on goal. We moved up to 4th place.

Our final match of the season would be against 2nd place Osnabruck, who had just clinched automatic promotion. 3rd placed Halle went up against 14th placed Kiel, the team who had beaten us 2 weeks prior.

I decided to stick with the tactic as we had to win to have any hope of getting into the playoff spot. We went 2-0 up within the opening half an hour, only to be pegged back to 2-2 by half time after I dropped the defensive line back deeper - I had forgotten to change the style from attacking to counter :rolleyes:

At half time a win would take us into the playoff spot if other results stayed the same. Our left back was poor and I decided something had to change, so I brought on Kevin Grund who had returned from injury in his place. He is not a natural left back but he couldn't be any worse. In the 68th minute Tim Treude scored a header to make it 3-2. We were currently in 3rd by goal difference over Unterhaching. Osnabruck equalised in the 72nd minute and we dropped back down to 6th. We chased the win and Osnabruck ended up scoring again in the 84th minute. The game ended 5-3 to Osnabruck. In the end Halle won their game anyway so we would have missed out by two points.

We won 14 out of 24 games in the league after our horrendous first run. We lost 3 out of 5 games at the end of the season. Halle beat Aue 2-1 over two legs and gained promotion to the second division

Overall I think it was a fair outcome. We were absolutely terrible in September/October, now that I've played the game a bit I've fixed my tactics and I don't think we'll concede so many stupid goals (mainly from crosses and corners).

Player of the Season

Cebou Soukou

If only he didn't have to play in the African Cup of Nations qualifiers! I think he would have been close to 20 goals without his injuries. Hopefully we can keep him fit next year.

Youth Intake

Emannuel Umoh (YP02a)

Andreas Petersen (YP02b)

Marko Ricken (YP02c)

As I forgot to do it in my first season I thought I would start now.

Umoh looks pretty good for this level and Petersen has great pace, they'll be starters as soon as I'm allowed to play them.

My youth intake from the previous season is doing pretty well and a couple of them will be in the team next season. In German third division you can't play youth players until they turn 17.

So you know the 3 transfers were from my own youth intake, I've released two of them already and the other guy is only 3 stars potential (apparently). None of them have played a match. I will release him too if anyone has an issue. :thup:

2016/17 goals

  • Try and make a decent tactic - passed hopefully
  • Pray to the gods - they don't favour us anyway
  • Not lose 3 games in a row - failed dramatically

2017/18 goals

  • Give my 17 year olds starting roles
  • Do some tutoring now I have an idea who might turn out to be decent
  • Promotion
  • Rotate the squad more to try to prevent injuries
  • Make my next thread shorter and more concise :lol:

the free transfers were from my own youth intake as explained in a post above. You can compare the dates/names on the two transfer screenshots to see what I mean. I've released two of them already and I will release the third if anyone has a problem with it

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Thanks guys for gratulations!

hehehe it seems a Cup win has put us straight in Euro Group Stage, so it won't be just one opponent as I had previously declared :D

Villareal, Borussia Mönchengladbach, Ludogorets - those are the teams I am put against. I don't expect results, the money from participating puts us just 200k in the red. (from around 1.5M red balance)

I am currently on mobile, will update season when I get home.

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Season 2017/18

8th

Summary:

The season was fine, as we managed yet again to beat board's requirement of finishing mid-table. In the end we took respectable league position, 8th place.

Fixtures had their ups and downs.

Highlight of the season was the Belgian Cup victory, a remarkable feat for a lower league team. It guaranteed us an EURO Cup Group Stage participation - nice money hiding there.

Striker Ventose was again league's top goalscorer - that is 3 times in a row (Third division, and last year Second division top goalscorer)

League Table

Fixtures 1

Fixtures 2

Transfers

Facilities

Finances

Squad

Nice ability overall, we can do well in the following season.

Youth intake

Nice intake with 3 good prospects, I signed only those three and gave them a tag

Here are my 3 tagged players:

Maxim Nys (YP03a)

Pieter-Jan De Moor (YP03b)

Zakaria Yildirim (YP03c)

Goals from last season:

10th or better place - Success - 8th

Finish the season with less than 2.5M debt - Success - only around 2M

Include tagged players in first team when possible - Kinda managed to include few players: Detry as DC, Jacobs as ML (replacement for Ascension, who declared retirement as he was 35)

Goals for next season:

Finish in the top 5

Try to lower the financial deficit as much as possible

Seasonal Summary:

Season     Division                       Position     Belgian Cup       Achievements
2015/16    Belgian Third Divison A        1st          Sixth round       Promotion
2016/17    Belgian Second League          11th         Fifth round
2017/18    Belgian Second League          8th          Winners           Belgium Cup - Euro Cup qualification

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Rot-Weiss Essen 2017/18 ~ German Third Division

RWESSENLOGO_zpsfa7c50ca.png

Season goal: promotion

Media prediction: 11th

League Table | Stats | Transfers

Preseason

Sven Kreyer (our captain and scorer of 15 goals last season) decided he wanted to leave the club to play in the second division. I spoke to him and he was adamant he wanted to leave. Heidenheim made a £350k bid for him - well below what he is worth to me. Our finances are fine (we have one of the lowest salaries in the league) so I have decided to keep him and will let him go for a free at the end of the season.

The RW Essen board have offered me a new two year contract which will take me to 2019.

New Essen Order

We begin the season with 17 year old Sadio Coulibaly in centre midfield, a 4 star youth prospect with great fitness attributes. In the first match of the campaign (against Saarbrucken) he scores a freekick from outside the box. We win the game 8-3, the highest scoring match in the Third Division so far. Coulibaly ends with a rating of 9.1, and when I praise him for his last game he says "I don't think I was that good" :D

Back to the future

Our great start was never going to last and it quickly surfaced why - our defence is absolutely abysmal. Either that or I started tinkering too much.

Sven Kreyer has injured himself before Christmas and refuses to negotiate a new contract. I have decided that he will become an impact sub. In his place I introduce Martin Böhm, who joined the club in the 2015/16 season. I had neglected to tag him at the time but he is now YP01a. I have high hopes for him and he is bound to be one of our future stars. Our goal tally is bound to suffer in the short term, but this is the best decision for the clubs future.

Half way point

We currently sit in 12th place, but I'm confident we can survive the drop as we still have Sven Kreyer to bring on as our super sub.

The under 17 rule in Germany is debilitating and really does set you back a few seasons. Players have to be turn 17 before the 1st of January, meaning I now have several youth players who are better than my current starters, but will not be allowed to play until next season.

The one major positive is Sadio Coulibaly. He has had an impressive start and I expect him to be a key player for the next decade. At age 17 he has already become Mali's youngest ever player!

Essen in crisis

On 31st March the board called me in to see them and were upset about our poor performance against Rostock, a match we drew 0-0 (Rostock are in 9th position we're in 15th). Apparently they no longer care about the performances of the last two seasons. The board decided that I have to win the next game, or I am out.

To put this into context...

The next game is Wurzburg away. They are in 4th position. We haven't won once in the last 9 games, having recorded 5 losses and 4 draws. Our best player Tobias Steffen is out for 5 months due to knee tendonitis. We have no left back and have to play a midfielder instead.

Wurzburg vs. RW Essen

The match starts and we are under heavy pressure as Wurzburg dominate possession.

22nd minute: Phillip Zeiger scores after a corner. He is a centre defender who has only played 7 games all season. This is his 3rd goal for the club.

54 minutes: Sven Kreyer is taken off with an injury. It later transpires he has torn his calf muscle and will be out for 4 months. This could be his last ever game for the club if he leaves in the summer.

67th minute: Cebiou Soukou scores his 8th goal of the season from a beautiful counter attack!

Full time: Wurzburg 0 - 2 RW Essen

Sadio Coulibaly had to play in left midfield due to injuries. He picks up the man of the match with an 8.3 rating. He assisted one goal, made 5 interceptions, 7 tackles and created 3 key passes. He was almost certainly the reason that I didn't get sacked!

Relegation battle

Our last 5 games of the season are brutal.

H: RW Essen 2 - 2 Kiel (4th)

A: (14th) Sandhausen 1 - 0 RW Essen

H: RW Essen 1 - 0 Aalen (1st)

A: (3rd) Fortuna Koln 1 - 1 RW Essen

H: RW Essen 0 - 0 Unterhaching (12th)

I have saved RW Essen from relegation after finishing in 16th position. My job status however is listed as very insecure. If I get sacked here then I will be extremely disappointed after the previous two seasons.

Conclusion

The board decided I hadn't performed well enough and called me in to see them again. In the end I told them they wouldn't get anyone better and they accepted it. I have no idea what this means as my job is still listed as "very insecure".

I have a feeling I could be sacked if we don't get off to a good start next season. I still feel pretty confident though as our overall squad will improve with our 17 year olds coming into the side. Unfortunately Sven Kreyer decided to leave and I couldn't negotiate with him, the Wurzburg match was his last hoorah, he has been one of the clubs best players.

Youth Intake

Basaran Yilmaz - will be a starting MR in the future

Mahmut Aykurt - should be a good ML one day

It wasn't a great intake but these two should come good.

2017/18 goals

  • Give my 17 year olds starting roles - by the end of the campaign we had three 17 year olds in the starting lineup
  • Do some tutoring now I have an idea who might turn out to be decent - got most of my senior players to do so
  • Promotion - failed massively haha
  • Rotate the squad more to try to prevent injuries - we did have less injuries overall, but Tobias Steffen's injury killed us
  • Make my next thread shorter and more concise - failed, next one will be shorter

2018/19 goals

  • Don''t get sacked
  • Top 10 position
  • Continue introducing youth

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Tough year ajt, the u17 rule in Germany sucks, i played the challenge there and this is a big problem in the beginning. But Sadio looks great and he should carry you the next few seasons.

Once again great season Tush. EL should help you massively with you financial problem.

On my update: i am currently in mid-March, sitting behind the promotion places. Very comfortable, no stress over relegation :) and had another great intake.

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Yep, it's a shame because I would have given a couple of 15 year olds starting roles. I also have to say that up until now I thought they had taken out the "team meeting" interaction. Turns out I must be blind as it's obviously been on the squad panel the whole time... My players morale isn't fairly poor for the whole season now :D

btw do we set nicknames on players who become important players? or is it only used for tagging who we think will be the best players when they first come in via the youth intake?

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Season 2018/19

2nd

Summary:

Great season, in the end we climbed to the 2nd spot and got to promotion playoffs, it's a shame we didn't get promoted. The playoff functions like a league from 4 teams (3 from 2nd division and one from Top league)

We started the promotion playoff well with 2 wins, then we lost, won, lost. STVV were 2 points above us and we played them in the last match. We took a 2 goal lead, but by the end of first half we conceded 3 goals in 10 minutes :thdn:

Final result was 3:4, meaning we have to try again to get promoted.

I am slowly making youngsters a first team players, and it looks like we have a gem on ML position (see screens from youth intake)

Again and again, Ventose was league's top goalscorer - 4 times in a row (Third division, 3x Second division top goalscorer)

EURO Cup - We managed to get 4 points - draw against Ludogorets and a win against Borussia Mönchengladbach

League Table

Fixtures 1

Fixtures 2 - Look at that IMPRESSIVE unbeaten run!!!

Transfers

Facilities

Finances

Squad

Let's hope our high star midfield-forward can push for promotion!

Youth Watch:

Before: Sam Jacobs (YP02a) After: Sam Jacobs (YP02a) - just look at that development! He even earns more weekly then I do monthly in RL :D

Before: Jean-Luc Detry (YP02b) After: Jean-Luc Detry (YP02b)

Before: Angelo Mannelli (YP02d) After: Angelo Mannelli (YP02d)

Before: Pieter-Jan De Moor (YP03b) After: Pieter-Jan De Moor (YP03b)

Youth intake

Good intake seeing 5 youngsters receiving a tag

Here are my 5 tagged players:

Julian De Winter (YP04a)

Nand Van Dijck (YP04b)

Floris Pauwels (YP04c)

Werner De Vos (YP04d)

Jens Van Den Eynde (YP04e)

Goals from last season:

Finish in the top 5 - Success - 2nd

Try to lower the financial deficit as much as possible - 800k in the red from 2M

Goals for next season:

Promotion, if possible

Seasonal Summary:

Season     Division                       Position     Belgian Cup       Achievements
2015/16    Belgian Third Divison A        1st          Sixth round       Promotion
2016/17    Belgian Second League          11th         Fifth round
2017/18    Belgian Second League          8th          Winners           Belgium Cup - Euro Cup qualification
2018/19    Belgian Second League          2nd          Fourth round      Promotion Playoffs

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Rot-Weiss Essen 2017/18 ~ German Third Division

RWESSENLOGO_zpsfa7c50ca.png

Season goal: Top 10

Media prediction: 16th

Board expectations: Don't be outclassed too often

League Table | Stats | Transfers

Calm before the storm

After nine games we have 18 points. Sadio Coulibaly has picked up the Player of the Month award for September and currently has the highest average rating in the league (7.88).

My job status has gone from Very Insecure to Very Secure within the space of 2 months. Sven Kreyer joined Frankfurt Erlenbruch in the Second Division. I have since handed the captains armband to Sadio Coulibaly.

Winter blues

The teams form has dipped off again. From October to the winter break we lost 7 out of 12 games, leaving us in 10th place.

During this time I've developed a more attacking tactic (4-2-3-1) to shake things up a bit as I'm guessing the AI now adapts if you play the same formation every game. The only issue is that our pitch condition is terrible and we don't have enough money to relay it!

It's just been announced that 34 year old Carlos Tevez has won world player of the year! He seems to be having a brilliant end to his career in Turin. I can still remember signing him from Boca in every save on CM 03/04. I wonder what ever happened to the legendary Supat Rungratsamee :D

New era

The newly adopted 4-2-3-1 formation saw us win 9 out of our last 14 games to finish 7th in the table.

I re-signed all of the important youth players to long term deals. Our finances aren't that great and at the end of the season we are £1.1 milion in the red. We are now ranked 11th in the league in regards to salary per annum. However club finances in Germany are terrible in general, there are five clubs worth £0 (including league champions Cottbus) and 13 clubs are worth less than £1 million. The clubs owners have had a change of heart and I'm apparently doing alright now.

Our young striker Martin Böhm (YP01a) has played pretty well and I reckon he could be a 20 goal a year striker in the future.

:applause:The Best of Essen :applause:

Sadio Coulibaly

He won the third division Player of the Year and was (obviously) our most consistent performer.

Performance of the Year

Our best performance this year came in April, when we played league leaders Cottbus away from home. We improved so much as the season went on and to beat the league champions 3-1 hints towards a brighter future for RW Essen.

Youth Intake

No players tagged and the highest rated player was only three stars. However the majority of the first team are now from our youth system so I can hardly complain.

2018/19 goals

  • Don''t get sacked - :thup:
  • Top 10 position - :thup:
  • Continue introducing youth - :thup:

2019/20 goals

  • Top 5 position
  • Get rid of the old timers

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Good seasons ajt and Tush, both of you are making good progress. Very impressive cup win Tush and well done for winning a game in the Europa League! Nice to see you getting through the seasons quickly too like I have these past few weeks.

I've just had one of my essay deadlines today so I shouldn't have too much work to do over the weekend and plenty of FM time to finish my season :)

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ajt - Thanks, the BMG win was funny, began with losing 0-1, after half time we equalized. At 80th minute I set mentality to contain, to save the draw, and somehow from normal attacks we scored 2 goals, securing 3-1 victory :)

Detry has great def stats, would Jacobs be viable for ur team too? He has great all-around stats, and I'll work on his Passing next season :)

You are also progressing well, hope u get into top5 next season.

Willafus - Thanks to you too, I have free time everyday to play after I finish at my work, and I have a good notebook so game runs fast :)

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Tush I have a good ML but I would defo swap him out with jacobs (if I would be allowed, he would have to be 17). Normally I sell off my players as soon as someone with potential is available to take their place to keep the squad fresh.

I did have a decent winger coming through actually but then my board decided to sell him.. I didn't notice until I went to screenshot the transfers screen this year, shows how much attention I pay haha :D

edit: they also sold one of my best defensive prospects. Such a useless board :applause:

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Tush / ajt, excellent seasons and write ups guys! Loving the progress and following along :thup: Especially our first foray into Europe in the challenge this year!

Finished my season earlier this afternoon and will try and get it written up later tonight or tomorrow morning!

I also have to say that up until now I thought they had taken out the "team meeting" interaction. Turns out I must be blind as it's obviously been on the squad panel the whole time... My players morale isn't fairly poor for the whole season now :D

Quick question, how often do you guys use team meetings? I have to admit to rarely using them here, and I wonder if I am missing out due to it? The only time I really use it is if I lose a few on the bounce and I try to boost morale. Do you use them for other events / patterns?

btw do we set nicknames on players who become important players? or is it only used for tagging who we think will be the best players when they first come in via the youth intake?

I think some of us do it slightly differently. Myself, I tag them as they come in via the intake and do not edit. I like to go back and see which high letter tags fail and are released, and also at the other end which 'plain' tags really excel and force their way into the side ahead of the highly touted kids at the intake.

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Quick question, how often do you guys use team meetings? I have to admit to rarely using them here, and I wonder if I am missing out due to it? The only time I really use it is if I lose a few on the bounce and I try to boost morale. Do you use them for other events / patterns?

I hold one every 6 or 7 games, either "you've been excellent" or "we're doing okay" depending on what was expected of the squad at the start of the season (first pre season meeting following holiday). Sometimes I keep a meeting in reserve if I know I will need to pick the squad up after a game (versus a vastly better team for example), and I don't use them if the first teams morale is very good or better.

I think some of us do it slightly differently. Myself, I tag them as they come in via the intake and do not edit. I like to go back and see which high letter tags fail and are released, and also at the other end which 'plain' tags really excel and force their way into the side ahead of the highly touted kids at the intake.

I started going through the squad tagging first team youth players so I knew which draft they were from, but that's pretty pointless as it doesn't really show anything at all, so I'll only do the one time tagging at youth intake now

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I tag the high potential ones at intake time, and then if anyone shows some potential later I'll tag them too. Nobody plays a game in my team without receiving a tag. In FM13 I was also giving them squad numbers based on the order of debut (think I got around to the 50s a second time), but I gave up on that this year because I spent so long in the regional conference where you can't give out numbers.

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Vastra Frolunda IF - Season 6 Review (2020)

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League Table | League Positions Graph | Squad Stats | Transfers | Finances

Competitions

First Division Elite : 11th (Fixtures)

Swedish Cup : progressed to group stages (early next season)

Season Review

What has to go down as a very disappointing season. With all the fanfare of Niklas Wikstrom (YP 05A)'s first full season and the hope that came with it, we just never really clicked and performed. That in itself comes down on me, I just never found and settled on a formation. We finished 11th, and while we didn't fall into a proper relegation dogfight, we were at times just one bad result away from it.

Niklas Wikstrom (YP 05A) himself had a fantastic season, which only really magnified the failings everywhere else. He only missed two games via injury for the season and recorded 11 goals (5 from the penalty spot), 12 assists and 10 PoM awards (new PoM record for both ourselves and the Swedish First Division Elite). He spent most of the season in a variety of AMC roles, often the focal point of the attack, but it just never clicked. He made nice attribute progress for the year, and during the Swedish transfer window we fended off offers from 3 of the Swedish Premier clubs, topping out at 232k (his value is 70k). He signed his first senior contract and is currently refusing to talk about an improved offer. 2 years left of his deal.....

Youth Intake

The second year in a row that I am very happy with the main kid in the intake! Also the 2nd year that the intake has nice depth as well. Hoping to get a bunch of these kids playing time sooner rather than later and maybe try and build some consistency into their games.

Joakim Lagemyr (YP 06A) - A short central defender but with nice starting physicals. Can also play at right back, which will help find him game time. He is currently rated as leading (Swedish) Premier League caliber potential which is huge! Determination 20 is also a very nice factor. If he can grow a couple of inches then I will be delighted. Going to play as often as possible, ASAP.

Jurgen Celiku (YP 06B) - Puzzled by this kid, despite his potential rating. Tackling of 1 means nothing defensive. Finishing of 1 means nothing offensive. Crossing of 1 means nothing support.....

Christer Alexanderson (YP 06C) - Useful looking defender. I already have a logjam of central defenders, so toying with the idea of central midfielder retraining, as I am woefully lacking in good tacking midfielders.

Anders Frojd (YP 06D) - Technically lacking midfielder, nice physicals

Glen Gustafsson (YP 06E) - Full back, again lacking technicals but nice physicals

Joakim Fransson (YP 06F) - Decent looking wide player

Arlind Kaci (YP 06G) - Eccentric youth goalkeeper

Michael Wiland (YP 06H) - Left back, the most common of all Swedish youth products to date!

Anders Otterstedt (YP 06I) - Versatile midfielder with good starting physicals.

"Frolunda Five" - 2019 Edition

Niklas Wikstrom (YP 05A) - Easily our player of the season, which at 16 is fantastic for him and probably a fair slight on the rest of the squad! Injury free for the most part, which feels like a bullet dodged. Just 3 minor injuries and one of the spanned an internation break and didn't miss any action. Now has 3 u21 caps for Sweden

Robert Smolander - Yet again another steady season in the middle of the park for us. Robert rated better this year than any previous season, and yet we failed.

Emil Avdic (YP 01C) - Another productive season from the pacey, but technically lacking Emil.

I am punishing the rest of the squad by not highlighting anyone else for their performance :)

Miscellaneous

So, disappointing.

Behind the scenes we had a nice milestone, securing another improvement to our youth recruitment when I asked immediately after receiving our league prize money. The news item stated it would be raised to an exceptional level, which I believe is the highest. Obviously we are going to be hurting on the financial side, but hopefully the improved intakes will pay off.

I do not believe we are far off and if I can fit a couple of pieces into place then we have the chance of being more competitive.

Season 6 (2020) Targets

* Improve points total (46) and goal difference (+8) from this year - FAILED

* Solidify tactical approach - FAILED

Season 7 (2021) Goals

* Improve points total (38) and goal difference (-4) from this year

* Solidify tactical approach

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Celiku has some bizarre attributes. Wikstrom looks incredible though, I wonder if he is the Swedish Eriksen? Shame the player valuations never match the attributes properly in smaller countries as I reckon he'd be worth 2.5 million+ in his early twenties. He would walk into my team that's for sure :D

I love pacey wingers, last year I played a save in Denmark and had one of our youth players who was rubbish (other than his 19 pace/acceleration) who was getting 10 goals/20+ assists each season.

Beating Ljungby is a good achievement they're a big club! There are some good teams in your division so I wouldn't be down on yourself. I've played in Sweden before (with transfers allowed) and the FDE was still a tough nut to crack.

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Shame the player valuations never match the attributes properly in smaller countries

I 100% agree with this! Wikstrom is playing even better in my new season, averaging over 8 a game currently and his list of admirers now include Liverpool, Chelsea and Man Utd...... :(

And still his value is stuck at 70k!

I have his asking price bumped to 15m from my previous 10m, and no-one has come knocking yet.

Early in the season he came to me with his desire to join West Brom (the first English club who appeared in the interested clubs list) but he was thankfully placated with a 'you will not get as many games with them as you will with us, trust me I have your best intentions at heart' chat!

You have to figure it is only a matter of time until someone bullies him away from me :mad:

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Rot-Weiss Essen 2019/20 ~ German Third Division

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Season goal: Top 5

Media prediction: 14th

Board expectations: Mid-table finish

League Table | Stats | Transfers

Get on top

After twelve games we sit atop the league.

A special mention goes to our goalkeeper Pirmin Schefer who is exceptional for his age.

He is touted as the next Diego Benaglio, who has (so far) made 380 appearances for Wolfsburg, and picked up 61 national caps. I hope Pirmin can one day make it into the Swiss national side.

Mount Doom

We won nine out of thirteen. We then won two out of eight. It isn't as if we had tough fixtures either – these teams were mostly from the lower half of the table, some of them were in the relegation zone at the time. We totally dominated the majority of these games in regards to stats.

I used to act surprised, I used to say things like 'this is unbelievable!'. But the clue is in the name; we are a rotten club. You come to expect disappointment and you miss it when it's not around. I've become a manager mired in misery, a master in the art of failure. At the end of day the hips don't lie. We are Essen, we are dire!

We occupy third place at the winter break.

There and back again

The frustration appears to have been worth it, as we have apparently won the league. It was very close and we sat in 3rd as recently as March.

I made a few changes to player instructions after the winter break which gave us many more shots on target. It's a very simply tactic (in terms of team instructions) and that probably suits some of my very simple players :D

Martin Böhm picked up the player of the month award for April with a crazy average rating and in the end completed his first 20 goal season. It's a shame Sven Kreyer didn't stick with us, and having played only twelve games for Frankfurt (over two seasons) he will be back in the third division next season :brock:

Obviously this unexpected victory caused everyone to lose their minds, allowing me to win the third division Manager of the Year award.

Essen had five players in the team of the year, and we should have had six as Pirmin Schefer was a rock at the back.

This promotion comes at a good time as the finances were starting to get a bit rough, we will receive £4 million minimum at the end of next season (even if we're relegated).

:applause:The Best of Essen :applause:

Tobias Steffen

He won the Third Division Player of the Year.

Performance of the Year

Strangely enough I think it was our 1-1 draw at home against Osnabruck. We scored a goal in the 81st minute to carry on our run of eleven games unbeaten. After this draw we won seven matches in a row to clinch the title on the final day of the season.

Youth Intake

Johannes Eggert (YP05a)

Kamil Dreszer (YP05b)

Eggert (YP05a) - should be a starting right back in the future, he has great bravery and determination attributes.

Dreszer (YP05b) - We now have at least three young goalkeepers that can take over from Pirmin (should he decide to leave).

I've also been trying to upgrade as much as possible (even though we don't have any money) and we now have Exceptional junior coaching!

2019/20 goals

  • Top 5 position - :thup:
  • Get rid of the old timers - :thup:

2020/21 goals

  • Survive!
  • Win a German cup match
  • Keep hold of all my important players!

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You have to figure it is only a matter of time until someone bullies him away from me :mad:

I found it hard enough to keep young players in FM 2014, I can't imagine how bad it will get now with these new player interaction shenanigans, I wonder if the whole of the first team will go on strike since I won't let any of them leave? :lol:

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Amicale Sportive Vitre 1st Season Review

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Season Objectives

My board wanted a safe mid table position, which I thought would be difficult. Board wanted me to get into 9th round of the French cup. They also were adamant the way forward was to sign young players for the first team and to play direct football. Both of which I do gladly on previous games. I have no problem going route one. But sometimes you need to be a rebel

Despite winning 3-0 5-0 and 5-2 in the first 3 games they were disappointed with the boring slow football I was playing. Thankfully after asking every opportunity I got them to remove direct style.

It took until February to get them to remove sign young players. Signing a contract in late March I got them to finally agree to concentrate on youth.... Woohoo!

A whole 80k is going to be spent on youth facilities :D

Season Review

League

If you read my previous post you would know my 1st half of the season I dominated. After January I really started to struggle and had to grind results out.

I only won 1 home game in the last 7 but my away form kept me in the race. I have put that down to not owning my own stadium and playing at a local amateur teams 2500 seated (presuming made from park benches). 2 games to go with no chance of 1st but only needed a draw for promotion, I walked the game. Time for rejoicing

Cup

9th round was the objectives. The cup run was Brilliant... I played poor teams mostly but had SM Caen in 7th round and beat them 2-1 away. Matched them all game and actually went 2-0 up...after more poor sides I got AS Saint-Etiene from league 1... Now that's a test!..... nope won 2-0 after an awesome 2nd half where I could have scored more. Finally got to the quarter final to play LOSC Lille.... with my boys on TV I got spanked 3-0. So proud of the run though.

After a great season I won manager of the year

Good

Promotion

Bad

Poor youth intake

Ugly

Old squad getting older

Player Form

Cyrille Lhuisser was top scorer with 24 league goals playing as a deep lying forward which I Tthink is awesome for that position. As I have gone forward to next season before writing this. Here are his stats

My other striker more attacking striker scored 13 so nothing special.

Nicolas Moal 16 yo substitute striker - Delighted with his progress. Only started one game but came of the bench 27 times and scored 7 goals. He is my future. I will again be using as a sub but will be giving him more starting games. He was great against poor sides in the cup scoring 7 goals in 3 starts and 2 subs.

Ibrahima_Tandia - attacking midfielder had a fantastic start to the season scoring 7 in first 10 games but slowed down midseason then started playing better. He was a player that if played well my team won easily. Play poorly and my team really struggled.

Guillaume_Borne - Rock at the heart of my defence

Four players got into team of the season

Finances

Finances were not looking great. Projection was looking like a downward spiral! A good cup run kept me in the green for the time being.

Thankfully Promotion has sorted that out and my board has took a loan out to buy a new stadium

Youth Intake

As you can imagine my youth facilities are rubbish so my intake was rubbish too.

I only named players with 2 or more potential so that includes 4 players.

YP01a - Stanislas Ngoyi - CM looks athletic and good technique says he is a ball winner but I will prob train him in more attacking roles

YP01b - Didier Ouattara - CB aggressive with no determination - cant see much of a future but ya never know.

YP01c - Flaubert Sohou - CB determined with good positioning - only 2.5 stars but worth keeping and eye on

YP01d - Youssou Dieng - GK mental attributes are good and its always useful to have a gk come through. Likely to put on bench this season.

Previous Youth

Obviously this is my first season but thought it is worth mentioning 2 youth players that came through last season.

Nicolas Moal has been mentioned before but he is an exciting prospect

Jean Jacques Le Lay a good star prospect but unplayed as was injured when I went to play him... has now been put in first team to give him some sub games

Next Season

Board are happy just to fight bravely.

I am now professional and have offered contracts. Even to backup. I will bring youth through as much as I can, Unless something magical happens then it will probably be relegation.

Building for the future, not present. hopefully my board don't expect too much and sack me.

Miscellaneous

my history

Now I have gone professional I have got a few new quality staff in

Assistant

head of youth development

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Braumiller - Thanks man, you made me choose Belgium, don't know if you remember, but I played this challenge in Turkey with Haceteppe club and had a wonderkid defender, at that time you were at Belgium :-)

What did you mean first foray into Europe? Am I first to get qualified to continental competition?

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I wanted to start in Norway but suddenly noticed it isn't mentioned in the first post. any reasons for that or can I take aclub from there?

My first thought was to play in Norway too since it has a few divisions. Not sure why it isn't listed in the first post (I thought Denmark would be okay too).

Tush can I borrow Dirk please? :D

Paul congratulations on the promotion and cup run!

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Braumiller - Thanks man, you made me choose Belgium, don't know if you remember, but I played this challenge in Turkey with Haceteppe club and had a wonderkid defender, at that time you were at Belgium :-)

What did you mean first foray into Europe? Am I first to get qualified to continental competition?

I love the Belgium set up, very unique and keeps most teams interested right up until the last game of the season. I think going forward I will alternate between Sweden and Belgium on a yearly basis. Good luck :thup:

And yep, unless I missed it (and if I did, apologies to that person), I think your EURO Cup appearance was the first European appearance in this challenge this year.

pauladams84 congrats! I really like your new HOYD

ajt congrats as well, very nice season!

Tush, I would give anything for someone with the finishing and composure of Dries Ventose at Vastra Frolunda right now!

Just finished my season (write up to come later) and I had a great goalscoring feat this year, and it hurts to think what someone with the superior quality of Dries might have done! lol

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Loving the look of this challenge and slowly reading through the thread from the start. Brilliant stuff. :thup:

Am still playing my FM14 San Marino save and if I finish that and start FM15, (or if I hold out to FM16), then this will be my next challenge I think. Actually.... thinking about it might be a good idea to do a dummy run for a couple of first seasons.

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Sölvesborgs Season 11 2025-2026

First Division Elite

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[League] [Fixtures] [squad Stats] [Transfers] [Finances]

Season Review

A brilliant season for Solvesborg, ending with us finishing in 2nd position and achieving automatic promotion to the Swedish Premier Division. We started the season with a convincing win, however some bad results in the first 6 games definitely knocked the confidence. The fixture list was kind to us and we had a run of easier games, winning 7 from 8. This rocketed us back up the table and into a position I hoped we could stay. I could put the success of the rest of the season down to two key games. I honestly believe they were the difference between us staying on track or falling away. First one came after 2 losses, a home game to relegation threatened Husqvarna, a terrible game but we scraped a 1-0 win, which started a little unbeaten run. Very similar was our game against Sleipner. We hadn’t won in two and desperately needed a win to stay in touch with the top 3. Again we just managed to do enough to win 2-1 and I finally felt this team was capable of promotion, grinding out wins even when we play badly. We went unbeaten in the final 7, winning just enough to stay ahead of third place. Our final game could have seen us crowned as champions, but it wasn’t to be and luckily for us 3rd place failed to win so we remained in 2nd.

A great achievement for us and with several key players who have been playing together since the second division, they will finally get their shot at the big time. I will run through my first below, but must highlight Jonas Norell’s contribution this season, scoring 18 and assisting 14, he was a class above and has been delivering for 5 seasons now.

Solvesborg first team

I tend to only highlight key players and new youth intakes, so this is to showcase the guys who have played week in week out but get no mention in my updates.

GK – Bengt Martensson (YP08a): Very consistent, makes big saves and hasn’t missed a game in 3 seasons (98 apps)

DR – Ludwig Wikstrom: Has made 199 apps for the club and although he never had great potential he has always been better than any new youth player, he is being phased out now with a long term replacement in mind

DC – Adrian Carlen (YP06c): I waited 5 years for Frej’s first decent partner and he has done very well since making the first team. A good partner to my captain (102 apps)

DC – Frej Jonson (YP01b): My rock, I was forced to play him from day one, but he has kept on developing and has been so consistent at every level. He deserves his chance in the premiership (266 apps)

DL – Felix Larsson: This guy still has a lot to prove, but he is good defensively and is my best option right now

MR – Tony Isaksson (YP06b): Tony burst into my first team, in his second season and is now just about first on my team sheet. So much comes from him, we struggle to create chances when he misses games (105 apps 38 goals)

MC – Michael Sandahl (YP09a) Sandahl fits the template of a ball winning midfielder perfectly and he keeps getting better. Compliments my other MC perfectly. (44 apps)

MC – Jacob Martensson: A converted centre back, he has paid back my faith in him and then some. He is great at winning the ball back and moving on quickly. One of my better decisions retraining him (62 apps)

ML – Victor Franke: Injuries have slowed him down in the last two seasons but a useful winger and often chips in with goals and assists. (67 apps 17 goals 19 assists)

FC – Sebastian Blomquist: Basically my version of Emile Heskey. He has been a nuisance at every level we have played and will score important goals. (188 apps, 56 goals 56 assists)

FC - Jonas Norell: My goal scorer. The best decision I made was to focus on this guy as my main forward 5 seasons ago, he has subsequently lead us up through the divisions, being our top scorer each year (132 82 goals, 46 assists)

Key subs

DC - Oscar Axelsson (YP10c) My next great centre back, shared game time with Carlen and will soon be a key player.

FC – Kristoffer Selmer (YP02a) He has been around for ages. I have never given him a proper chance but he is still useful and will bag a goal if given a couple of games (132 apps 52 goals)

ML/FC – Tony Jacobsson (YP10a) I am still not sure of his best position, he wil get game time on the left wing and has performed well when given the chance. A lot of potential that I hope I can put to good use.

Youth Intake

I am very excited about the best prospect from this year. He is ready for the first team now. I just have to make sure I give him a chance.

Johan Andersson (YP11a) A big imposing player with lots of ability going forward. I intend to use him as a deep lying forward. He scored a hat trick in his 3rd game so I am hopeful his poor finishing will not be a problem

Marus Nilsson (YP11b) I need better full backs so this lad will get a chance, he needs lots of work before getting to the first team though.

Season summary.

A great year for Solvesborg, it ended with us improving our junior coaching and youth recruitment. We still haven’t upgraded any of the facilities yet (Stadium, training, youth) but we’re in the Premiership now and hopefully it’s only a matter of time. I hope we can finally sell out my 1670 capacity stadium this season.

Other teams are now interest in my talents, but I have graciously declined them all.

We go into the new season, still in the cup and with a massive task of avoiding relegation. I believe we have enough to do it and just need a bit of luck.

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