FM17 Youth Academy Challenge

[Muttley84]

Sassari Torres - 3rd Season

League Table - A season that started all to bad, losing players and being eliminated from the 1st round (group stage) of the Liga Pro Cup (the first time that happened) together with a couple of injuries that got us sitting comfortably in the relegation play-out area. Then we picked out our form in the second part of the season, finished in 11th position which seemed to be enough to grab the extra place for the play-off.  We passed on Melfi in the first game but fall under Matera Calcio in the quarter final. Well, at least glad for the no relegation fear this year.

Transfer activity - absent. 

Youth Intake - Still lacking in quantity, but won't mind it that much as we get a good rotation player in each area we were lacking depth the most - center back and striker. Now, if only next year we could get some decent wingers. On the downside, from the three prospects I presented last year, only Fusco has managed to be a regular in the first team and scoring goals also. 

First time in this career I actually felt like we are growing as a club. The playoffs were a massive boost to our attendances and got us some money in the bank also. The board still won't upgrade anything, but maybe if we manage next season to to playoffs again we can have a chance of that. Congrats to all those in this challenge who managed promotion already, I do feel we are miles away from that at the moment.

History
2017/18  - 17th in Lega Pro C - Not in TIM Cup - 3rd Round Coppa Lega Pro 
2018/19  - 15th in Lega Pro C - Not in TIM Cup - 2nd Round Coppa Lega Pro 
2019/20 - 11th in Lega Pro C - Not in TIM Cup - 1st Round Coppa Lega Pro 

[darren1983]

@Duroliponte yeah in Germany you have to be 17 by a certain date in the season (Jan 1st I think) to be registered to play games so takes time for players to become eligible to play. Frustrating but adds to the challenge.

@Muttley84 nice recovery there in the 2nd half of the season.

[Pbrisebois]

Just to add. The Norway league reset date is the 13th of January, however they're changing up the setup of the 3rd division, so there's no promotions between 2016 and 2017. Looks like you'll have to holiday 2 years to get a new club.

 

After noticing this I decided to change to Belgium, and when a team gets promoted with a Boston Terrier in their logo you have to go with them!

Welcome to Olympic Charleroi!

Profile - Club - Squad

Well...it's not a very large squad. Many grey players for now. But it seems like the real players we have have some decent ability. First time I've tried to take on the youth challenge, so let's see where it goes!

 

[Bartrcm]

RC Mechelen - 1th amateur league - Season 2018-2019

Prediction: 14th

Final Position: 2nd

What a great did we have. We have been constantly around the play-off places. At the end of the season we finished on an incredible 2nd position and qualified for the play-offs. Top 4 enters the play-offs with half of their points, so we started the play-offs only 1 point behind league leaders Oudenaarde.

We started the play-offs with 2 draws, but all the other teams only drew their games, so we were still in 2nd place. Next game we finally won against leaders Oudenaarde, and we moved up to first place . A loss and a win in our next 2 games left us still in first place. Our last game of the season was against Oudenaarde, the only other team that could become champion. It was an away game. Very early Oudenaarde scored, and became virtual champions. At the end of the 1th half we luckily scored, and we were back in 1th place. The last 45 minutes of the season we kept our nerves under controle, and nothing else happened.

RC Mechelen are champions!!!!!

Play--offs

Games 1

Games 2

Cup: We were very good in the cup and got eliminated by one of the biggest teams in Belgium: Anderlecht kicked us out in the 6th round, but the money was very good.

Transfers: None of course.

Youth intake: not a bad one when you know that our facilities are only basic. Tagged 5 players, but I think that only 2 or 3 will ever got some game time.

Ferre Jacobs (YP1a): AMC, straight into the starting 11

Ian Geerts (YP1b): AMR, back up

Im Sung-Il (YP1c): DC, back up due to no other back up players in that position.

Alex Benteke (YP1d): AMC, back up

Tiebe Snelders (YP1e): U19, I don't think he will ever make it to the first team.

Finances: just in red, but only due to the cup game against Anderlecht (€395k) and the end of season money (€577k)

Goals next season:

Stay up

 

[herne79]

End of Season 2017/18

Somehow, I made the playoffs, sneaking into 10th spot and the final play off place.  We even managed to get through the 1st and 2nd rounds, as well as a nail biter in the quarter final against Teramo, winning on penalties after 2 legs.  I actually thought we'd got through on away goals (lost first leg 2-1, won 2nd leg 1-0), so couldn't believe it when it went to extra time and then penalties.

We met Perugia in the semi final, where a crowd of 8490 watched the lowly Biancorossi hold Perugia to a 1-1 draw after extra time, only to this time lose on penalties.

Gutted to have lost the match, but as one of the relegation favourites I have to be pleased overall with how the season went.

My first task now is to get stuck into the Finances.  We're currently €1.2m in the red and the axe is about to fall.  5 players who are not home grown at club and earn €7.5k a week between them have their contracts ending, which will save €390k pa.  Some other players will also not have their contracts renewed, saving a further €3.5k a week, €180k pa.

Staff will also suffer losses.  Several won't have their contracts renewed - Director of Football (saving €625 a week); and my U18 squad doesn't need an Assistant Manager, 2 GK coaches, nor 2 Fitness coaches (saving a further €2.5k a week).  I didn't employ any of those, they came with the club when I took over - another €163k pa saving.

In total, that's almost €750k pa savings, before any bonus and contract additions.  Expenditure currently exceeds Income by over €1m pa, so that's a significant reduction.  Hopefully I'll be able to start improving my facilities and get a few bucks to take my next coaching course.

Next season should be fun.

Forza Monza !

[Braumiller]

@Bartrcm congrats on the promotion!

@Muttley84 nice steady progression!

@darren1983 I like the look of young 19B.  A decent spread of stats, with none of the wild deficiencies you can see in the 15 year olds!

@Pbrisebois good luck in Belgium!  I still have a soft spot for that league!

@herne79 a very nice first season and I like your financial plan of attack!

I finally just finished my second season and took all my screenshots!  I don't have it in me to do the write-up tonight, but I will put it together tomorrow morning while watching the Premier League games

 

[Bartrcm]

Thanks @Braumiller. Allready played my 2nd season, and didn't go as I thought it would go. I'll try to update this weekend. Looking forward to your update.

[MadCatPT]

Blyth Spartans - 2018/2019 - Vanarama National League North

League Table | Finances | Transfers | End of Season Awards | Season Review | Youth Candidates | Injuries

Preseason:
This year tried fitness training and was met with lots of injuries, so next year will change it back to balance or try mental. Played just against weak teams, the 4-5-1 was not working so used a 4-4-2 with success for the friendlies.
Already had a long term injury from last year, and after the first two friendlies had 5 long/medium term injuries.

Season:
The 4-4-2 again didn't resist the test of fire of true opponents, had to change to 4-5-1, tried again in a couple occasions, couldn't get it to work, the opponents would get lots of changes and I didn't. It started slow, more inconsistent than last year, allowing lots of leads to be tied or turned, still I was making enough point to be safe, but not for any chance to reach the playoffs, the lack of some important players also didn't help.

After two 0-3 losses in a row, a team meeting changed our season, we won 8 straight games! After that the team tightened up at the back and we became a hard team to score on, and even if we didn't score many goals it was enough to almost reach the playoff spots where we had been after our best run. Whenever we were favourites we struggled, which was normally when we were about to get to a playoff spot. After awhile we started to be able to win some of those games, but the distance was already there.

We where about 6 points behind when an injury crisis happened, right when my youth influx appeared. It had a good player and two backups. Ian Williams is the heir apparent to Stephen Turnbull, and jumped right into his place. Then a game crash happened! Luckily didn't lost the youth, but lost half the injury crisis, it didn't help that my best scorer and my best midfielder/player were the first ones to be injured.

But the injury crisis was not to be averted, so again most of my midfielders were injured, just the goalkeeper and the defence unscathed, the 5-1 of my 4-5-1 was all injured. I was able to scrap some results, but did't get there.

At the end of the season I played my rivals, if won/drew against them, they would not go to the playoff spots. It was a drab game, each squandered a chance, then they scored. On the final seconds of the match my midfielder wins a desperation long ball/clearance by our central defender on the line, crosses, in comes our forward, the best youth from last year, heads it but it misses by inches!!!

Of course our rivals won all three playoff games. 

Finish 10th, out by 6 points from the playoff spots, best defence in the league, 19th best or 4th worst attack in the league.

Squad:
Extended most contracts to 2020, some players it took a awhile, some of my better player ask for more than I can give and lengthy negotiations start. My two older midfielders are the only ones who I didn't extend to see if any degrading happened. Stephen Turnbull did start losing physical stats, luckily got a youth to replace him, it's painful seeing him go for a ball and it seem he has a truck tire tied to him, was able to resign him for cheap, he will be the backup for next season.
Matty Pattinson was extend one more season, he was even better than the precious year.

Players:

GK:
Ross Dalton made a good improvement this year. I started to watch him make more saves than last year and kept us in some games, something that didn't happen last season. 19 clean sheets and just 40 goals conceded, part team effort, part Ross Dalton, making more saves and getting more crosses.

Adam McHugh had to enter in one game when Ross Dalton injured a finger in a second half and didn't suffer goals.

FB S R:
Andrew Cartwright has lot of room to improve, but didn't improve as expected.

FB S L:
Michael Liddle played well, he is young and highly determined but has already reached his potential. Got 3 straight yellow cards in the end of the year, hope it doesn't carry into next year.

CD D:
Nathan Buddle is the rock in our defense, he has a professional personality but he started with 4 determination when I arrived at the club. He is now up to 8! Discipline really works, it's not always and he doesn't' give many reasons for it. At this rate he'll have a decent 10 next season.

Emmanuel Kanteh is another evolving slowly, got lot's of room to grow, he got injured in the hip on the start of the season so was limited to 30 games this season.

Danny Parker played 20 games this season due to Emmanuel Kanteh's injury.

All D:
Alex Nicholson played 23 games(19 from the bench), all over the defence, mostly when someone has a yellow, is tired or is playing bad. Also had to play a couple of games in the mid due to injuries, will probably give him some additional training as a last resort M/DM.

W(M) S R:
Daniel Emmerton, was injured, was able to get him by 30% of his previous contract. Probably because the injuries seem to have sapped him of his potential, he is young but seem to have topped off at 2.5*.

W(M) S L:
Sean Whelan started the season injured, had to return and play due to other injuries, so while he didn't play bad he didn't do anything special. Still has room to grow.

Both W:
Reuben Dass has the ability to work both flanks and still has room to progress, he will take care of the right wing next year. Has a room to grow, currently my second player with the most potential.

DLP D:
Stephen Turnbull, has degraded but still a useful player. Losing second balls to speed is now in his repertoire unfortunately, so he has became the backup to Ian Williams 19a. Last year there were people praising left and right, not one such piece of news this year. Luckily he resigned for cheap(was never too expensive).

Ian Williams 19a, is not an ideal fit, but he has most of the good stuff, vision, flair for someone that could launch some killer passes. Already saw him recover some balls, and his mobility compared to Stephen Turnbull is day/night.

MC S/A:
Jarret Rivers is definitely our best player, in the MC A he makes a difference with goals and assists, was injured for 40% of the season. All the injuries have also dropped him to 2.5* when he top of both ability and potential, he was still our best performer with 7.31, and his 9 goals and 3 assist always handy.

Matty Pattinson, upped his game this season, he puts his foot in, assists and usually scores great goals, 9 goals and 9 assists this year. He is getting old but still didn't start degrading, but is asking crazy money to renew, will wait for the start of the season to see if he comes down to earth, may not be able to hold to him. 

Michael Richardson, the next man up, can replace Jarret Rivers but misses a lot of goals.

Michael Montgomery 18b, hard worker but is lacking a bit on the passing department, he is still young, and he doesn't need much of an improvement for the league average.

DLF S:
Louis Robles was injured in preseason, regressed and was never able to regain his goal scoring habits from the previous season, is on a month to month contract, doesn't want to renew, I may dismiss him.

Luke Armstrong is my best fit, but he squandered chances last season, this season he kept squandering chances until he suddenly got a killer instinct, he started scoring more until he got injured, never regained the form and them got injured again. He was missed, top goalscorer for the team with 19 goals, top assist maker with 13.

Chris Roberts 18a is my next best fit, he also misses lots of goals, has the "Shoot from distance PPM" which makes him sometimes shoot from distance, he score a couple of great goals though! He is developing so I hope to get him fighting for the start place. Played in 24 games, most from the bench and scored 3 and assisted 3. Missed a header that could have made him into a legend for the supporters.
Trying to make him lose the "Shoots from distance" PPM.

Dan Maguire was able to get just a few games, he scored a goal. He is a bit wasted because I can't get 2 forwards working, but he is cheap so I keep him.

Youth:
U18 champions!!!

Y17:
Lots of dead wood from the unplayable season, I may keep two.

Leigh Bond-Wellard 17d is a Professional goalkeeper, no talent, but I like to have 3 GK, it's like having the strong foot on the side of the field you play. I'm weird that way. 

Peter Farrell 17a is improving, could reach a decent backup place and be able to cover 3-4 places.

Y18:
May have picked more than I needed, didn't have the same mistake this year.

Y19:
Got just 3 players, Ian Williams 19a was discussed above.

Paddy Doyle 19b is a natural Wide Midfielder something that I want to start playing, will wait for some improvement before I play him.

Andy Bottomley 19c, is now higher rated than Paddy Doyle 19b. I want him to became a decent left fullback that could cover the wing in an emergency. Will play in the U23, U18 until there is an emergency or someone better appears.

Finances:
I am getting a huge debt, I don't know how that works in this version, last youth save my best players would refuse to renew and leave so my wage was low that I slowly made money, with the sale of a youth or some cup luck I would get enough money for the youth upgrade and would then get enough talent to get promoted. I only played one club in administration a lot of years ago, can't even remember the version, I know that they would take care of buying and selling players, would that break the challenge?

This save my best players renew but at the maximum I can pay, so I am accumulating some debt, I have made it to the 3rd and 1st rounds of the FA Cup, so made some extra money or else it would be worst, also my board made some money injections. My best players are young, so I'll probably try to keep them and keep pushing, hopefully I'll break through before I go to administration. One of my best is 32 and has a contract for one more year and I have some youths at midfielder, so probably will go youth at the end of next year and he accounts for 10% of my budget.

[Braumiller]

League Table - Squad - Results - Finance - End of Season Awards - Season Review - Injury Report - Transfers

League
Well, we survived but if I am to be perfectly honest we did not deserve to!  Our survival was very much down to other teams failings.  After checking past seasons
I set ourselves the nice round target of 34 points from the 34 game season.  We ended up with just 30 and it should have gotten us relegated.  We started out ok,
never got very high in the league but we were at least competitive in most games.  The positives of last year faded though and we began to struggle mightily.  With
that came the searching for answers and tweaking (and then frantically and sometimes radically altering) the formation and style of play.  A couple of vital
results around January/February actual gave us a comfortable feel, with an 8 point gap between ourselves and the relegation/relegation playoff spots.  And then we
lost our last 6 games (and 8 out of the last 9).  Somehow, the teams below struggled as well and did not overtake us.  Last day of the season saw us needing a
point to ensure survival.  16th place were at home to already relegated last place Regensburg and if they won their game I would need to avoid defeat.  As expected
I lost and I spent the majority of the second half staring hard at the league table.  Somewhat fittingly, the result that kept us safe was 100% down to another
team not being able to take advantage of the situation, and not us securing it ourselves.  They drew 0-0, and then won their relegation playoff game 4-3 and
perhaps fittingly again their winner was an OG!

Key Players
Joy-Lance Mickels - Versatility was key, as we chopped and changed trying to find something that worked
Jerome Propheter - Our big centre half was solid and constantly under pressure.  A potential banana skin for us, as he is 29 and time is ticking for us to find a replacement for him
Dragan Marinkovic 2017-A - Our main progress on bringing the youth through.  Dragan was my first name on the sheet when available and we had to turn down January approaches.  He requested a transfer (turned down) and after the transfer window closed he declared he was ok with staying!
Florian Ruter - A previously overlooked player, he played nicely in either an AMC or occasionally a MC role
Nerciwan Khalil Mohammad - Dragan's partner in the middle of the park, NKM played the ball winning to Dragan's playmaker

Domestic Cups
Our first showing in the domestic cup saw a narrow first round defeat at St Pauli Hamburg.

Europe
Nope!

Youth Development
Intake March 2019 - I forgot to take the screenshot immediately on the youth intake, so here it is a couple of days later before they signed.  Youth intakes are still in their green text.  Some nice midfield options, but still no good forwards have come through
Tino Gladrow 2019-A - I really like the look of this kid.  His attributes and two starting Player Traits point him towards being a playmaker in the middle of the field.  His personality is Unambitious, so we are trying to improve that via tutoring!
Christopher Bohning 2019-B - Another nice looking midfield option.  More attacking than Tino, he needs some work on his finishing and composure to try and turn him into a threat going forward
Marcel Agen 2019-C - A defender with potential.  Annoying born on January 2nd, which means he has to spend an extra year in the u19s before being eligible for the first team!
Ralf Formann 2019-D - Another youth GK prospect.
Vivaldy Mboyo 2019-E - The wonderfully named Vivaldy is our only striker option coming through the youth ranks.  Needs a lot of work, but he may be thrust into the first team in the coming years
Andreas Dietz 2019-F - A useful looking versatile defender

Finances
The main positive on the season.  Our prize money for the 2 Bundesliga is HUGE for us. 6.9m!  
We also had a cash injection just before the season started.  Teams were lining up to bid for Bulent Demir 2017-B and I kept knocking them back.  He eventually
become unhappy at not being able to move and his unhappiness spread throughout most of the team.  I was willing to keep one unhappy player, but if the whole squad
was to be affected then I decided to move him on.  I started aggressively negotiating the offers (which were in the 400k-550k range) and one team surprisingly
countered with a non-negotiable offer totaling 2.5m!  Approx 700k upfront and then 1.8m in installments over 24 months.  At this point I stared at the screen hard
trying to decide whether to accept or reject and try my luck and ask for more from others.  Eventually I rejected and began negotiating again.  And then
disaster....  FC Augsburg came in with a straight up 1.4m offer for him and the board went over my head and accepted!  I lost just over 1m from being greedy.  Now,
don't get me wrong, 1.4m is a very big deal for a club our size (and we were able to start a youth facility upgrade project - we had missed the deadline to begin
it immediately, it has been in planning all year waiting for this summer to finally start!), but that is 1,000,000 I just let walk away.....

Infrastructure
As mentioned above, we have a youth facilities upgrade started this summer.  The league prize money helped also start a training upgrade and I also managed to take
advantage of a rosy bank balance to get a Junior Coaching upgrade!  Both training upgrades are due to be finished around New Years Day.

Overall
It is hard not to feel very down about this season.  Yes we survived, but it was a season of struggle!  It always was going to be, but it is still a rough time.
We have infrastructure improvements coming, but they obviously take time to start paying back.
Without a doubt we got on a roll in season 1 and went up too soon.  The money is fantastic, and will help in the long run even if we drop back down, but I fear
what that would do to our current squad.

Season 03 Targets

• Survival again, although with a little more of it being of our doing!

[herne79]

@Braumiller Tino Gladrow looks good, and I'm very jealous of that prize money !

Just to clarify one of the rules, if I have a player home grown at club who leaves for another team, am I allowed to bring him back in the future?

[Braumiller]

 

Just now, herne79 said:

@Braumiller Tino Gladrow looks good, and I'm very jealous of that prize money !

Just to clarify one of the rules, if I have a player home grown at club who leaves for another team, am I allowed to bring him back in the future?

Nope   No transfers in at all

[herne79]

Just now, Braumiller said:

 

Nope   No transfers in at all

ok thanks, I didn't think so but as I'm new to this challenge thought it best to double check .

[Muttley84]

@Braumiller  - Great update, not so great season, but I thinks can only get better from here. Good luck in the next season. 

[brenosantos]

Ok, so I decided to start again and this time I'll manage in Germany. Please welcome the new manager of Sttutgarter Kickers!

Manager Profile | Squad | Club Info | Facilities

A club with a lot of history this time, we are fierce rivals of Sttutgart and I'm hoping to be promoted and to face them in the 2. Bundesliga or even in the Bundesliga. Our finances are really good and we are with € 3,5M in the balance. Our media prediction appoint us to the 19th place, only above Energie Cottbus, but I'm aiming to do better than this. 

[Sanno11]

 

Profile | Facilities

I can't resist attempting this in England again. I am the new manager of Ilkeston Football club. The main attraction is the relatively good (at this level) youth facilities. The club has no real history, being formed in 2010 so everything will be a first. We're predicted to finish 22nd, I think if we can survive the first season we can start making steady progress.

The club has a large squad, however not many possess great quality. I am an east midland's lad so taking over a club from here should hopefully get me more invested.

[MadCatPT]

30 minutes ago, Sanno11 said:

 

Profile | Facilities

I can't resist attempting this in England again. I am the new manager of Ilkeston Football club. The main attraction is the relatively good (at this level) youth facilities. The club has no real history, being formed in 2010 so everything will be a first. We're predicted to finish 22nd, I think if we can survive the first season we can start making steady progress.

The club has a large squad, however not many possess great quality. I am an east midland's lad so taking over a club from here should hopefully get me more invested.

Good luck.

Ilkeston was champion on my second season.

[MCPlay]

Hey guys. I'm back at it after a moderately succesful attempt last year, which saw me take Most of the Czech Republic from a hopeless newly promoted team to a mediocre team in the top division. When I installed FM 17 my first impulse was to get cracking at a new youth challenge. I wanted to try out a team in a very poor league and turned my sights to Northern Ireland. But my attempt there ended after one season, as i was unable to give out part-time contracts, and pretty much all my players were poached by other clubs. Most of them went to clubs from outside the league system which was particularly infuriating.

But anyhow, I brushed my self off and settled on Wales. The reason I chose Northern Ireland in the first place was the fact that it had more than one division, but the welsh league will prove an interesting challenge. TNS is by far the best team, and also the only professional team, overtaking them will be a good challenge. After Mr. Holiday Man had traveled around the world in 300-ish days I peeked at the newly promoted team and quickly chose Haverfordwest due to them having both training facilities and youth recruitment one level above the minimum, which I don't think a lot of welsh teams can match. On the 26th of June 2017 the african immigrant Aboulaye M'Baye takes charge of Haverfordwest as part of the new immigration employment initiative. Without speaking a word of english (nor welsh) I just pray that the fine players of Haverfordwest are fluent in French.

Season 1

Transfers | League Table|Season Review

The first season in management was one filled with ups and downs. Even though we were predicted to finish last, with a 1001-1 odds of winning the championship, we started the season firing on all sylinders, as newly promoted teams have a knack of doing. After the first 10-12 games we were howering around 4th place, but then the inevitable happened. It is something I've experienced in the first season of all my attempts at this challenge, we went on an insane losing streak, which saw us grab a grand total of 1 point in 10 matches. The welsh league splits in half after 22 games, with the top 6 challenging for the title and european places, and the bottom six scrapping it out to avoid relegation. After our horrible run of results we were of course in the bottom six, and relegation was snapping at our heels. At this point I decided that a tactical change was needed, and I duly threw our very defensive 4-1-4-1 tactic out the window. At this point I had gotten a basic understanding of the english language, which definately helped me communicate the new direction I wanted to take the team to.

The youth intake gave us a much needed boost in early march, and even though none of the players was able to claim a starting spot, it really gave the squad much needed depth. We started lining up in a very structured 4-3-3 formation, with 3 strikers up top, and pretty much everyone else defending. This allowed my best player, Jordan Follows, to play in his favoured role of Poacher, and he suddenly banged in goals left and right, with great assist from the targetman lining up next to him. The teams behind me kept grabbing points, so even though our form was decent and we never dipped below the line we couldn't secure our place in the Welsh Premier League until the final day of the campaign.

Season Verdict:

Job done! It was all to rosy in the start of the season, but the midseason malaise really tested our mettle. Hopefully we will be able to stay out of the relegation battle next year. It was interesting playing at this level, specially seeing the youth intake with pretty much every player having 5 star potential. This tells you something about the ability of the players in this league, namely that pretty much every youth player has the potential to become a good player in the Welsh Premier League as the level of play is so poor. Whether or not it will be possible to extract the potential out of these players remains to be seen, the low level of training facilities and poor quality of coaching might make it very hard for the players to reach their potential. Still, a reserve team full of players who have the potential to overtake the first-teamers is quite exciting.

[darren1983]

@Braumiller not the best season but after promotion all that matters is staying up really so well done on that, that prize money makes me even more desperate to get promotion now, could really do with it.

@@brenosantos welcome to the challenge, and welcome to Germany, can be tough here in the first season or two.

@Sanno11 welcome, having tried this challenge in England in the past I admire anyone that gives it it go there - good luck.

@MCPlay - first season and you stayed up, always a good start, good luck with the next season, TNS can be a real tough nut to crack in Wales. 

 

[MCPlay]

Season 2

Transfers | League Table | Season Review

The second season in charge of Haverfordwest was a sweet ride compared to the frantic season we had last year. We were cruising in the sweet middle of the table from beginning to end, something that we we're immensely proud of. We we're once again predicted to finish last, although our odds of winning the championship this year had risen to a mouth-watering 700-1. Throughout the season more and more of last years youth intake started to stake their claim in the squad, which was pleasing. None of them are really standing out yet, but they can definatly hold their own in this league. I find it quite interesting managing at this level, as all the players have major flaws, and few strenghts, so trying to extract maximum out of their performances is a great challenge. I've rarely before played a striker with acceleration 3 or a central defender with tackling 2, but such is life in the Welst Premier League.

When you finish in the top 7 you partake in a play-off for the last european spot. We were able to best our rivals from Aberystwyth in the quarter final, before Bala proved to difficult in the semi-final. It would have been great to get a chance in europe so early, but it wasn't in the cards this year.

 

Youth Setup:

Youth Intake

Crucially we got the boards approval on improving the funds allocated towards junior coaching. This led to a much more inspired youth intake this year, with 3 of the players stepping right in and claiming starting spots in a game 3 days after the intake.

Ones to watch:

Hywel Davies 2A | Tim James 2B | Sion-Daffyd Hurllin 2C

 

Season Verdict:

A nice calming season was just what the doctor ordered. It was great to see the young guys starting to take over the team, and the youth intake was beautiful. The fourth tagged player Emyr Boyle 2D might just prove to be the best of the lot, putting up a steaming 7.30 in the 3 starts he got and also contributing with a goal and an assist. He has amazing passing, teamwork and decision stats for this level, and decent physicals so he might become the centrepiece of our midfield going forward.

We didn't accomplish anything of note in the cups and were eliminated in the semi-final in the european spot play-off, but overall the season was a very positive one. With the great intake and the continued growth of the first intakees next season might be an even better one.

[MCPlay]

 

Season 3

Transfers | League Table | Season Review

 

With two succesful season to build on we came into the year with an aura of positivity surrounding the club. The players that were part of the club when I took charge are rapidly vanishing and now our half the starting eleven constitutes players from the academy. I keep putting the young guys to work, to see who can perform, but also who can develope well. The players seem to be developing at very different rates. This makes it important to identify who is developing at good rates and playing them, even though there are other players in the squad that are currently superior players. Some of my guys have taken great strides, while several of the guys I had high hopes for in the first 2 intakes just haven't gotten any better. I find this part of the game very interesting, and I think that playing at this level, where small changes in ability matter more, really emphasises development. A couple of good months of development can take a player from bench quality to a nailed on starter.

On to the season, which was a continued improvement. We once again were stable at the middle of the table, albeit a bit closer to the top. We spent most of the season in 5th-3rd place, and thanks to great performances in the last part of the schedule we finished at the top of that range. TNS once again won by a mile, but this season we went unbeaten against them, which is very promising. 2 draws and a loss, and only 1 goal conceded in those three games was amazing, given that they pretty much demolished all the other teams.

For the first time we also went on to have a cup run. We beat some lower level teams all the way untill the semi-final were we battled the leagues second best team Bangor City. We hadnt beaten them in the league, so it was very satisifying to claim a deserved 2-1 win and book a place in the final. In the final we of course ran into the titans of Wales, TSN. Even though our amazing record against them this year gave us a lot of confidence going in to the match, we still played our "park the bus-tactic" against them. After 72 minutes of defending we got our chance, target man Tim James 2B got his head at the end of a cross and the net rattled behind the TSN-goalie. We we're 1-0 up, and retreated even lower on the pitch. The next 20 minutes went by about as slowly as an episode of Catching up with the Kardashians, but TSN never managed to create any big chances and our excellent goalie took care of the few shots they managed to get on target. Haverfordwest County are the Welsh Cup Champions! The number of shots was 20-1 in favor of TSN, classic reading material. TSN and Man Utd fans both know that horrible feeling today, when nothing hits the back of the net. I'm just happy i got to be on the right side of one of those results

 

Youth Setup:

Youth Intake

Paul Hawkins 3A | Iestyn Misbah 3B | Gavin Griffiths 3C

Another great intake, which featured an amazing DMC,  which was very welcomed given that I only had one in the squad, and he was an ageing player whose ability didn't match up with the rest of the starting 11. So Hawkins 3A was directly inserted into the starting line-up. Several other players seemed to have great quality and got some chances to play, but due to our solid form and the fact that every game was important in the end, the other guys didn't get as much game time as I would have liked to give them. But they'll get their chances next year.

 

Season Verdict:

Finishing 3rd and getting a chance to play in the Europa League qualifier in the summer.. Incredible season. Winning the Welsh Cup, collecting the first major silverware in the clubs 121 year long history meant that the season was one of the greatest I have experienced. That we one the final in the fashion we did, with one of my academy players scoring an amazing goal completely against the run of play, was just too good. If Tim James 2B retired tomorrow he would still be a legend of the club. He slaughtered the seemingly invincible dragon, and carried us to the promised land. He didn't have a great season, in fact he only scored 1 goal in the rest of the season, but he was relied upon to do the grunt work for the goalscoring forward Jordan Follows. Follows had a bit of a down year himself, scoring only 9 league goals, compared to 19 last season.

It was the defence that carried us this year, as we actually only mustered up only 39 league goals in 32 matches, which was worse then all the other teams that wasn't relegated. At the end of the season, my colleagues decided that 3rd place and winning the Welsh Cup was good enough that I was declared Manager of the Year. Next year we will look to maybe inch a bit closer to TSN in the league, but the gap in talent level is still huge. I sent my one scout to check out their team, and he reported back that every single player in their squad was better than my best player. So yeah... This might prove an Herculean task.

 

Player of the Year:

Emyr Boyle 2D

Emyrs stats have gotten way better in just a year, and he is now without doubt our finest player. His performances on the pitch back this up, as he provided  7 goals and 7 assists in 30 league games for an avg. rating of 7,21. His performances led to him being named Wales Young Player of the Year 2019.

He didn't preform to his lofty standards towards the end of the season, when the everything was on the line, which is a concern, but hopefully it was just a run of bad form and not an indication of something else. If we are to replicate (or improve) our performance the next season we are looking for Emyr to take on an even heavier load

[Emperor J]

FC Sakhalin Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk

Russian Football National League 2017-18

 

Transfers (just the pre-arranged 2 before I arrived)|League Table|Season Review

League

The league proved to be quite an interesting experience since seemingly everyone could be anyone on the day (well except Saturn and Sokol) . Our initial target for survival was 42 points as that's all it took to stay up in the 16-17 season, but Arsenal Tula suffered their 2nd consecutive relegation with 45 points. As for our campaign, at times we were as high as 6th after 12 matches and 20 points, then proceeded to lose 7 in a row which left us 2 points from safety in 17th. We ultimately managed to find some form after the winter break and stayed up with matches to spare that gave me time to experiment with players I had not used.

Key Players

Andrey Kireev - The veteran midfielder transitioned into a role in our back four and proved to be a rock in defence. Unfortunately he is retiring after the campaign, but he signed off with the club's Goal of the Season with a fantastic free kick against Spartak-2 in his final match.

Kamil Agalarov - The former Anji full back is rated by my coaches as the best player at the club. Was superb when not suspended or injured.

Yuri Pugachev - The club's top scorer, but has wanted to leave since I rejected a loan offer from Saturn so he will be getting replaced.

Sergey Borodin - Our goalkeeper who while he didn't play well was considered a key player as he stayed fit and allowed me to avoid having a grey keeper.

Cup

League position was the priority, so a rotated squad went out at the first hurdle to FC Tosno.

The Youth

Rustam Belov 17-A - Backup fullback who only made 1 start for me at the end of the season, probably not going to stay beyond next season.

Igor Shevelev 17-B - Reserve striker/winger who only made appearances after my 2nd choice winger decided he didn't have to go to training anymore. Just here for depth.

Alexandr Drozdov 17-C - Backup goalkeeper who kept a clean sheet on his debut, but is as fragile as Samuel L. Jackson in Unbreakable. Will be kept around until more keepers come through.

2018 Intake

Vyacheslav Lobanov 18-A - Made a goal-scoring debut off the bench, then was injured in training. His full debut was marked by a sending off, but is definitely in the 1st team picture already.

Yury Shevchenko 18-B - Will be promoted to the first team next season ahead of Drozdov. I think he is a future number 1 keeper.

Rafael Galstyan 18-C - A striker I can imagine getting matches next season off the bench, not sure if he is a long-term option.

Sergey Zaitsev 18-D - Centre-back who should see some playing time next season.

Finances

Terrible as wages and travel costs (the 21,000 km round trip from Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk to Kaliningrad isn't cheap) ate up most of our money.

Facilities

I'd like to think that pointing out we were starting a 37-year-old centre back convinced the chairman to upgrade our youth facilities. That will be in place by November 2018 if the money doesn't run out. They are also buying the stadium back from the local council.

Season 2 Outlook

Survival again, while bringing through youth and clearing out an aging squad.

History

2017-18: 9th in Russian Football National League

 

[darren1983]

League Table - Graph - Season Review - Squad - Transfers - Finances

 

League - this must be what it feels like to be a Sunderland fan, different season but same crappy performances before finding form at the end of the season and staying up. we started slowly but actually found some form either side of the winter break where we only lost 1 in 12 then just as quickly our form changed and we dropped like a stone before finding some form at the end of the season and kept us up. I don't think it's a coincidence that our form dropped when youth graduate Lorenzo D'Agostino (YP18A) broke his leg just as he was finding form, sadly the leg break means he probably won't reach his potential. A couple of bright spots for next season is finally being able to use a couple of players that were in our fist youth intake (sadly their birthday's were just the wrong side of of the deadline to be eligible this season) in Kim Ujazdowski (YP18B) who looks a good fit for us and a player that I didn't tag as he didn't look anything special at the time but 2 years as our only real forward in the U19's seems to have done him the world of good Emre Dede. Dede will be key next year as our top scorer from last 2 seasons stopped scoring this year (went on 2 draughts with the first lasting 11 hours and the second just over 16 hours)

Cups - nope

Finances - awful, over £1m in debt, used half of Pre-season and part of the winter break to host friendlies with some of the bigger sides in an effort to boost funds, we also sold our first choice keeper who had been looking to move, managed to get £250k for him before the board intervened and accepted on my behalf.

Youth Intake - not a great one tbh, had one very good looking prospect but after that it was pretty slim pickings.

Rene Adlkofer (YP20A) - our brightest prospect (in the whole U19's according to my AM) can play all along the right hand side so am probably going to use him wide right as we already have a couple of good prospects at RB.

Benjamin Ehrentraunt (YP20B) - left winger that could do be a solid option

Daniel Schmidt (YP20C) - a small prospect up top where we are light, a season or 2 in the U19's might help him kick on like it did with Dede

Next Season
Stop being Sunderland basically  

[Bartrcm]

RC Mechelen - division 1B - Season 2019-2020

Predicted: 8th

Phase 1: 1th

Phase 2: 1th and PROMOTION!!! (Sorry forgot both screenshots)

Well, like I allready said, this season didn't go as I expected. It went incredible good. We won both phases and won promotion to the first division. Never ever expected this at the start of the season, but the step up didn't seem to be that big. I'm afraid that we went up much to soon, and that we will struggle a lot next season. I wouldn't mind to get relegated straight away, and buid our squad at a much slower pace.

 

Games:

Cup: Failed again against a first division team.

Transfers: only 1 out.

Youth intake: Again a good one, tagged 5 players.

Ryan Meertens (YP2a): DL, Back up, but will play a lot of games for U19.

Ward Willems (YP2b): AMC, but will be retrained as MC. No other options at that position.

Thijs Jansen (YP2c): ST, very welcome and back up next season.

Kazimiers Swist (YP2d): GK, and played allready a couple of games for the U21 national team of Poland. So I think he has a lot of potential.

Marco Dubois (YP2e): AMR, U19 next season.

 

Finances: Terrible. More than €1M in red. Strange thing is that end of season money was half of the money I received last season in a lower division. So no chances at all to upgrade something.

 

Goals last season:

Stay up; SUCCES

 

Goals next season:

Stay up

Make some money

[druvo]

@MCPlay - Nice progress there.  TSN will be hard to catch but with those intakes... who knows.

@Emperor J - Good first season and grats on the youth facility upgrade. 

@darren1983 - Tough season but the important thing is to stay up. But it seems like you really need that first promotion in Germany to sort the finances out.

@Bartrcm - Congrats on the promotions.

[druvo]

TSC Backa Topola - Season 1

League - Squad - Transfers - Season review - End of season awards - Fixtures

Season review
After my failure in Romania I was prepared for another tough season with surviving being the only goal, but after winning our first game 3-0 away to a team predicted in fifth place I realized that we should aim higher. As the season went on we kept picking up points and found ourselves in first place after half the season. A three month winter break followed and after that we lost our form. Three losses in a row and only one win in the first eight games post break meant that our promotion chances were almost over. Near the end we hit some form again but it wasn't enough to catch the teams ahead of us. No promotion but still a very good first season and I'm really looking forward to the next.

In the cup we won the two qualification rounds we played in against lower league opposition. In the first round we were drawn away to Partizan Belgrade and we really gave them a game. We had 2-0 and 3-1 leads but we couldn't keep our concentration levels up for the whole game so it ended 4-4. The game went straight to penalties after 90 minutes and we got destroyed in the shootout. They scored their 4 penalties and we missed all but one. It didn't give us any money either, but maybe it's only in England (FA cup) the top teams share the revenue with the minnows.

Top performers
1. Nebojsa Kovacevic: What a player. Kovacevic was always the first name on the team sheet and saved us many times. He was actually voted player of the season in Serbian first league.
2. Dusan Danojevic: The 30-year-old left back had a solid but unspectacular season where he performed in every game and rarely made mistakes.
3. Vladimir Siladji: Siladji is my best player "on paper" and he's pretty good on the pitch aswell. I had him play in the AMC position this year and he still managed 9 goals. 
4. Bojan Kremenovic: The young centre back had a good season. His CB-partner is 35 years old so Kremenovic will have to take an even bigger responsibility in a few years.
5. Alen Halilovic: My best striker scored 11 goals in 19 starts. Unfortunately he had a few injuries which kept him out or we might have finished even higher.

Youth intake
Not a very good intake really but there's a few that might get a chance soon. Interestingly most of those names sound hungarian but noone has Hungary as 2nd nationality. They all speak hungarian fluently while the kids with more serbian-sounding names don't. 

Erik Lázár (18A): A left back with a long way to go before he can be considered. Hopefully he improves fast.
Sándor Horváth (18B): A centre-back with 5 acceleration and 6 pace scares me a little but we will see. He might improve..

Finances
We are losing money but got most of it back at the end of the season due to our league finish. Still it's not sustainable so I doubt there will be any upgrades for a while.

Goals before season
*Stay up - Success

Next season
*Top half

[Sanno11]

@MCPlay Great progress already and the first person to get a taste of European football, so congrats.

@Emperor J Really solid first season in Russia, a tough place to start this challenge.

@darren1983 Not the season you had hoped for, but with more youths becoming available next season may be an improvement. Dede looks like a great prospect.

@druvo Great first season, a shame no great youth prospects but that probably reflects the quality of your first team. How does the Serbian first league work for the second promotion spot, is it just the top two promoted?

[Braumiller]

Lots of updates!

Congrats on the promotion @Bartrcm!

Loving the spread of countries being playing currently.  The Welsh save is very interesting as well.  Potentially becoming a national powerhouse and then slowly climbing the European ladder

Will read the rest in more detail later

[Muttley84]

Sassari Torres - Season 4

And possible the last season? Things don't look good for us at all, though we managed our best position in the League Table so far. A decent 7th place which lead us to the playoffs, where unfortunately we lost against Catanzaro in the first round, and so much for our promotion chances. It's getting harder as i see other player promoting and advancing in the challenge.

Furthermore, except for Fusco (ST) no other youth player succeeded in becoming a first-team regular. And I don't know how much we can keep hold of Fusco anymore as Transfer offers begun to appear (but for such few money that I won't consider selling him, though he doesn't want to extend his contract). As usual, a pretty poor Youth Intake which saw us add only two players to our team. We are around 1 million in the red in finances, and havent managed a single upgrade on our facilities. Our attendances remained around 1500-2000 for the 4 seasons we played. Unless I find a miracle on the streets of Sassari I see no way of escaping this soon. Anyway, will see how the beginning of the next season looks like, it's gonna be our first season qualified for the TIM Cup and maybe a long run there could earn us some money

History
2017/18  - 17th in Lega Pro C - Not in TIM Cup - 3rd Round Coppa Lega Pro 
2018/19  - 15th in Lega Pro C - Not in TIM Cup - 2nd Round Coppa Lega Pro 
2019/20 - 11th in Lega Pro C - Not in TIM Cup - 1st Round Coppa Lega Pro 
2020/21 - 7th in Lega Pro C - Not in TIM Cup - 1st Round Coppa Lega Pro 

[MCPlay]

Season 4

Transfers | League Table | Season Review

 

The season started horribly as I forgot to book friendlies before the first Europa League qualification round. We were drawn against Cork, not very exotic. As my players were totally out of match- sharpness we were never close and the 5-2 aggregate loss was flattering to us. Will definatly not make that mistake again. We got about 400k in price money for participating which was about the expenses we had all of last season, so that was a huge moment for us. The board decided to reward my nagging, and upgraded both the junior coaching and the youth facilities. Hopefully this can lead to some great intakes in the future.

I noticed a worrying trend last season, namely that my squads characterization was "low determination". This led to most of my academy players losing several points in determination as the season progressed, due to "the squads less favorable characteristic har rubbed of on them". The contract of all my old guys ran out in the summer, and I made a bold decision to let everyone go, except the two best players. Most of them had determination < 5, and when they left the squad was characterized as fairly professional which is a lot more appealing. However this led to me having to rely solely on my academy players and the two older stars, so the squad was suddenly extremely young. This wasn't helped by the fact that only one player from the first intake developed into a useful player, so it was pretty much 17 and 18 year olds at every spot.

With such a young squad we unfortunatly let ourselves down in all the big moments during the season. We lost the 3 last games in the league which caused us to drop from 2nd to 4th and consequently led to us losing out on a Europa League spot. We then got 2 opportunities to snatch the Europa League spot back, but we lost the Welsh Cup Final against TNS without even mustering up a single shot. After that we went out in the semi-final of the Europa-qualifier at home to 6th placed rivals Aberystwyth.

4th place wasn't a bad season, but as we fell short in all the big moments I can't help but feel bitterly disappointed in the outcome.

 

Youth Setup:

Youth Intake

Huw Price 4A | Anthony Owen 4B | Colin Hughes 4C

We've had some great intakes to date, and the improved junior coaching had my expectations turned up to the max. The youth facility upgrade isn't done until the start of next season. As it turns out our first intake was a total miss, and while I don't think this one will be as bad, my (way too high) expectations weren't met. There were a lot less depth in the intake, though this may well be down to the overall quality of my squad improving. The first intake was full of 5-star prospects, and only one of them has proved to be useful, lending credence to the notion that the potential of those guys were massively overstated due to the poor quality in the team at that point. Huw Price 4A is an interesting striking prospect, but he has got a couple of players in front of him. If he shows good development he could become an important piece next year. He was the only player from the intake who got first team football this year.

 

Next season:
With our squad being so incredibly young I think that we just need to keep going in the same direction. Every day our youngsters grow a little bit stronger and the squad as a whole looks a lot stronger at the start of the next season than it did when we started this one. It is concerning that two of my best players won't sign new contracts, but it's very possible that I'm going to have to get used to players outgrowing us. Getting back into the europa qualifier will be a major priority next season, as the money we get there will allow us to keep developing our club and hopefully one day turn professional.

 

TNS watch

They once again walked the league, winning by 19 points. All of their players are still considered to be better than my best, their best one might be the striker Charlie Bell, who they picked up on a free from Everton after the first season. He has averages over a goal per game in every season. If you compare him to my best striker(below), you see just how far we have to climb. They then proceded to pick up another striker in january on a free from Leicester, who duly banged in 5 goals in his debut. TNS have yet to make any real waves in europe, with their best attempts at qualifying being appearances in the second qualifying round to the Champions League.

Our record against TNS this year: 1 win 1 draw 3 losses.

 

Player of the Year:

Tim James 2B

The hero from last years cup final saw himself thrust into captaincy of the club after the clear-out of the experienced players in the summer. He didn't have a good season last time around, but he really stepped up to the challenge and led our team. 11 league goals and 7 assist was great return as he usually played in a supportive deep-lying forward role, with a host of different striking partners due to injury. Most of the other striking option in the squad are one dimensional poachers, so Tims size and hold-up play is invaluable.

[ghost of bury]

• UNION ST. FLORIAN •

Proud to announce that after two years of holidaying in Austria, I have joined Union St. Florian! There are a great deal of "bigger" clubs languishing in the lower tiers of Austrian football, such as SV Grödig, First Vienna FC or Austria Klagenfurt. They kept getting promoted so I had to wait another year for a truly obscure club to come up!

Union St. Florian are based in the beautiful Upper-Austrian market town of Sankt Florian. With a population of on 6,000, the town is apparently best known for its Baroque Monastery, consecrated in the 11th century. Not for long though, as soon St. Florian will have a football academy to rival La Masia!

The club, nicknamed the "Sängerknaben" or "Choirboys" have just been promoted to the second tier for the first time in their history. They play their games at the picturesque 2,500 capacity Sportpark St. Florian, training facilities are "basic", youth recruitment also, whilst junior coaching is "adequate" as you can see.

Squad looks pretty decent and well balanced,if a bit small (only 16 players, the B team are just greyed out). Gonna be a bit tough covering for injuries, particularly if our GK or Full-Backs are out!

Really relishing this challenge, been wanting to try it for years! The media are predicting that we'll finish in the drop zone in 9th place (it's a 10 team league with two relegation spots), and the board want us to avoid relegation. But young Austrian Manager Johann Strauss has just taken the reins, and with a highly determined squad anything is possible! 

[MCPlay]

@ghost of bury Best of luck on your austrian adventure. Looks like a beautiful place to live, so hopefully you'll be there for a long time . The nickname of the club will probably do a great job to intimidate the opposition  A little heads up, your screenshots won't show up for me, I'm only getting a white page saying access denied when I click the links

[ghost of bury]

@MCPlay Thanks for the heads up! Do they work now?

And yeah that nickname is truly terrifying... 

[Braumiller]

Good luck @ghost of bury!

@MCPlay great progression in Wales

@Muttley84 don't lose hope, especially if comparing to other challenge progressions.  Every save is different and every path too!  I have never played in non full game mode   Those intakes would be disappointing, but I presume they only give you the couple who are best suited to make it?  Anyway, start throwing them in there and get their progression going   Better to get a couple of seasons of slightly underperforming, but getting the kids started, than performing better but having nothing coming through the system

[herne79]

End of Season 2018/19

A real bitter sweet season.

The bitter / sweet started on transfer deadline day back in August when we lost our best player and key man Tommaso Cazzaniga to Lazio !  Whilst this was a blow, the player was in the last year of his contract, had already asked to leave for a bigger club and was valued at €130k.  So I figured I may as well cash in to help my poor Finances out - I managed to get €500k + 25% of any future sell on fee .  Not 25% of any sell on profit mind, 25% of any future transfer fee !  Gotta love deadline day panic buying.

Overall, the season went rather well.  We managed to lose in the final of the Serie C Cup 2-1 over two legs to Foggia, which was pretty tough to take.

But then we finished 3rd in the league and so made it into the play offs for the second year running, where we managed to get through to the Final before beating Cosenza and gaining promotion to Serie B !

Incredible for the team but bitterness followed when I found out after the match that one of my brightest prospects and best striker Nicola Mouton, who was stretchered off in the 24th minute, has damaged his Cruciate Ligaments and will be out for 10-11 months.  Gutted.

On a brighter note, I had a really good Youth Intake.  Sozzi   Coulibaly  and   Pelosi  particularly stand out and will slot into my First Team squad next season following a few departures.  Overall I signed 6 youngsters.

And now onto the Finances.  This time last year we were €1.2m in the red and I made some significant cuts (see previous post).  We're still in debt but the leaks have been plugged somewhat and we're now €1.36m in the red.  However, if it wasn't for the €500k transfer fee from Lazio it would be significantly more.  Bizarrely my player wage bill still seems almost as high as last season despite the cuts made.  Not sure what's going on there, but promotion to Serie B should help the balance.

In a further effort to save costs, I've decided to significantly reduce my playing squads.  Only a few expiring contracts will be renewed in key First Team areas, the rest will be allowed to expire.  This will result in Monza having a 22 player First Team squad, a fairly small U18s squad and no dedicated U20s squad.  The U20s team will be made up from First Team squad members who don't take part in that weekend's match, or who need the playing time for fitness reasons.  This will also allow me to avoid the need for an U20s Manager and his associated costs.

A bit drastic perhaps, but there are several benefits:

- Significant cost savings;

- Key players will always have playing time to help development;

- With costs (hopefully!) under control and income increasing from promotion, money may get freed up for Facility improvements;

- Hopefully be able to get stuck into my next Coaching course.

In two seasons, I've still only been able to take one coaching badge, and I remain on a National C Licence only.  My attributes are slowly increasing anyway, but I would like to get cracking on those badges.  If only I could pay for them myself !

Forza Monza !

[MadCatPT]

Congrats on the promotion @herne79.

Good luck @ghost of bury.

Hope you can pull through @Duroliponte.

Good TNS hunting @MCPlay.

 

[MadCatPT]

Nice escape @Muttley84 and @darren1983.

[darren1983]

@Bartrcm - congrats on promotion 

@druvo - good solid first season there

@Muttley84 - if you ever feel like others are progressing and you're not just go back and read my reviews and see how it's going, you'll feel much better  

@MCPlay - good season there, well done

@ghost of bury - like the club, like the story, best of luck in Austria

@herne79 - well done on promotion mate. 

Think I'm caught up on everyone's progress since my update, if I've missed you off I'm sorry but well done/unlucky/better luck next season (delete as needed)  

 

[darren1983]

As for me? Well it's been another struggle but after a tactical tweak we are looking better and even moved away from the relegation zone (it's still tight enough that a couple bad results will see as crash back to the bottom) when on deadline day my chairman accepted a bid for a player I'd been waiting 2 seasons to use and had only played 21 games for us. We did get £185k for him but when nearly a million in debt I'd rather have kept the player  

Goodbye sweet prince Kim Ujazdowski (YP18B) for we hardly knew ya!  

[MadCatPT]

28 minutes ago, darren1983 said:

As for me? Well it's been another struggle but after a tactical tweak we are looking better and even moved away from the relegation zone (it's still tight enough that a couple bad results will see as crash back to the bottom) when on deadline day my chairman accepted a bid for a player I'd been waiting 2 seasons to use and had only played 21 games for us. We did get £185k for him but when nearly a million in debt I'd rather have kept the player  

Goodbye sweet prince Kim Ujazdowski (YP18B) for we hardly knew ya!  

German rules are hard.

[darren1983]

Yeah they can be frustrating @MadCatPT but adds to the challenge so I almost kind of like it. Maybe I'm just sick in the head though?  

[smp20]

So after my normal first save with Cambridge United, I'm ready to delve into a youth challenge. Going to manage somewhere that I've never been to before. Holidaying as I type .

[smp20]

Litex Lovech 2017 Preview

Manager Profile ~ Club Background ~ Facilities ~ Finances ~ Transfers

Last year I did a bit of research and stumbled across Aris in Greece. This year, I find myself in Bulgaria with ex-heavyweight Litex. They are a team that I have always scoured for talent given their setup, which is among the best in the world. It's also the place we know the name Anatoli Todorov, who was my first ever CM/FM hero . You will struggle to ever find a better starting setup for the challenge.

However, Bulgarian football is in free-fall. The football league system is full of bankruptcy, scandal and controversy. Just last season, Litex were expelled from the A group due to abandoning a game - the manager alleging officials to be fixing matches. The Bulgarian NT are famous for reaching the 1994 World Cup Semi-Final lead by Hristo Stoichkov who scored 6 goals. Yet in recent years they have been poor, with Euro 2004 being their last major tournament. NT stars Ivelin Popov and Georgi Milanov are products of the Litex Academy and that is a production line I hope to continue in the future.

Last Season Results ~ Squad Overview ~ Skorchev ~ Atanasov ~ Krastev ~ Maymunkov ~ Mitsakov

So there's something I've never seen before . The club, whilst amateur under AI leadership, managed to win the Bulgarian Cup!!! That was a nice little surprise after countless reloading to get Litex up. This means that I will be getting my first taste of European action in just a few days. We have a home leg against AEL Limassol after drawing 2-2 in Cyprus. Talk about jumping in the deep end...

As you can see from the overview and the key player profiles, we have a decent squad for the division. One of the rules for the competition is that at least 2 U21s must be in the starting 11. That won't be a problem going forward, but after a lot of the talent had been hoovered up over the first season we're left with just one first teamer that meets this criteria. Therefore we will be looking to give the following season 1 youth intake players a chance:

Georgiev 17A ~ Angelov 17B ~ Bachovski 17C ~ Statkov 17D

None of them are really at the right level yet, but they will get the exposure and hopefully we can develop them quickly with our high-end facilities. Georgiev in particular looks promising, especially as I've identified a suitable mentor for him to develop his determination. My first task overall however will be to sort out some good staff, it's looking pretty bare!

 

 

[Mushtaq]

Good luck in Bulgaria smp. It is an option I am considering as I have hardly ever seen anyone play there on FM. I am looking at Maritsa Plovdiv (the youth club of Hristo Stoichkov and according to Wiki well know for its youth system).

Maybe now I can keep an eye on how you find it before really getting stuck in.

[smp20]

4 hours ago, Mushtaq said:

Good luck in Bulgaria smp. It is an option I am considering as I have hardly ever seen anyone play there on FM. I am looking at Maritsa Plovdiv (the youth club of Hristo Stoichkov and according to Wiki well know for its youth system).

Maybe now I can keep an eye on how you find it before really getting stuck in.

Cheers Mushtaq, it's completely unfamiliar territory for me, Maritsa look like they'd be a real challenge. I'm taking the 'weak' challenge with Litex . One thing I've noticed is that ticket prices are around £1, so don't expect to make money on the turnstiles! There is a relatively hefty sponsorship allocation however.

We lost 3-1 at home to Limassol, which I wasn't too disappointed with as I hadn't earned the opportunity. However, losing my best prospect way a bitter pill to swallow .

[smp20]

Cheers @Duroliponte  - you can even watch champions Ludogorets for just £4, not bad at all!

[MadCatPT]

@smp20 Professional club! Excellent Facilities and recruiting! The training wheels have training wheels! 

No one will stop the Litex Lovech Machine, luxury LLM. 

[MadCatPT]

After the last update lost all my custom views!!! 

Did someone had the same problem?

[smp20]

23 minutes ago, MadCatPT said:

@smp20 Professional club! Excellent Facilities and recruiting! The training wheels have training wheels! 

No one will stop the Litex Lovech Machine, luxury LLM. 

 Litex Lovech Machine, I love it! It certainly is luxury LLM at it's finest. With this upgrade we are now at Exceptional Junior coaching and Extensive Youth Recruitment. Not your usual position 3 months into the youth challenge! Needless to say I cannot wait for the youth intake in March.

[MCPlay]

Season 5

Transfers | League Table | Season Review

 

With no european football to worry about this summer it was a pretty uneventful summer. Some academy players who failed to show development left us, most of them for amateur contracts in the lower leagues of Wales. When the season kicked off we continued our performances from the last years, and were firmly in the top half from start to end. A great run of results in the latter stages of the season brought us to a club history best 2nd place which means we will once again get the chance to match our strenght with some of europas finest teams

2-3 of our players are starting to look way to good compared to the rest of the club. Unfortunatly they have realised this themselves, and won't sign contract extensions. This leads to me losing one of them after this season, an extremely well rounded left back, and then both my central midfielders will leave by the end of next season. I'm going to need a great youth intake this year, as the quality drop from the regular starters to the rest of the squad is huge.

We had great cup runs this year, in the Nataniel MG Cup we beat TNS 2-0 in the Semi-Final, our largest win margin against them, before we won the final on penalties against one of the worst teams in the Welsh Premier League. This cup seems quite meaningless, as there is no european football for the winner, but a trophy is always welcomed. Later in the season the "real" cup kicks off, and we made quite a splash here aswell. We had lucky draws all the way, without any quality comptetion until the final. In the final we matched up against Bala, on of the teams fighting for the spot behind TNS in the league. They had managed to knock off TNS in the semi-final so it would be a good match. We conceded early and was played of the pitch in the first half and were lucky to be down 1-0 at half-time. After adjusting to 3 strikers and subbing on the 201 cm tall Mike Walters 3I the tide turned and we smashed them in the 2nd half, winning comfortably 3-1 on lifting the trophy for the second time in 3 years!

 

Youth Setup:

Youth Intake

Gwion Price 5A

We really needed a deep intake, as several of our most gifted players are looking to leave for better clubs. Our new youth facilities was in place in the fall, so we were hoping that they would give us an even better chance of getting some top shelf talent. This was far from the intake we hoped for, and though we might just get some first-teamers out of it, it looks bleak right now. Price 5A looks good though, professional personality and will hopefully be ready to replace my midfield stars after the next season when they are leaving.

 

Next season:
We will probably struggle to accomplish a better season next year on the face of it. 2nd place and winning both cups is probably our ceiling for the time being, as the gap up to TNS grew even larger this year. Hopefully we will get beatable opposition in the Europa League qualifiers, and maybe advance a round. That would be a huge boost to our finances.

 

TNS watch

TNS racked up their best season to date, going unbeaten in the league and winning by a margin of 22 points. Their star man Charlie Ball turned 22 years old and scored a quit 37 goals in 30 games, his contract is close to running out though, so if he wont re-sign they will have to struggle to find replace him. We beat them in the Nataniel Cup semi-finals which was great, but had less luck in the league. In one game they had a man sent off after ten minutes and still proceeded to beat me 3-1 with something like 30-3 shots and 65-35 possession.

Our record against TNS this year: 1 win 2 draw 2 losses.

 

Players of the Year:

Big Mike Walters 3I and Richie Morgan 3A

Richie Morgan 3A banged in goals left and right, hitting 18 in the league and 26 total. He played as a poacher, together with last years winner of this award Tim James 2A or ths years co-winner of the award Big Mike Walter 3I. Big Mike started the season as an impact sub, but forced himself into the starting line-up with his great performances. He is a tall strong giant and the perfect foil for Richie Morgan 3A and our other poacher prospect Huw Price 4A. Big Mike ended up scoring 13 goals and assisting 8 across all competitions and becoming a cult hero along the way. His finest moment was the Welsh Cup Final, when his introduction at the half completely turned the game.

[smp20]

Litex Lovech 2018 Youth Intake

Youth Intake ~ Petrov 18A ~ Bosilkov 18B ~ Terziev 18C ~ Dimitrov 18D ~ Zarev 18E

As far as first youth intakes go, it doesn't get much better than this! Great depth, only one player not signed. Petrov looks absolutely class and will slot straight into the first 11, as will Bosilkov. Terziev is first team ready, however I will either need to re-train him or adapt my deep 4-4-2 to include an AMC. Dimitrov and Zarev are expected to feature straight away, likely from the the bench. Season update to follow soon .