FM17 Youth Academy Challenge

[Black and Yellow]

2 hours ago, MCPlay said:

@Black and Yellow Tried the method you are describing, but didn't have any luck with it. The person who perseveres and climbs to the top in Northern Ireland will have my eternal admiration. Think you have to be a borderline masochist to do it though

Have a quick look at this!. Didn't quite fit the bill of this challenge as it wasn't a newly promoted side, but it was a bloody struggle!

Not a borderline masochist either 

[smp20]

Litex Lovech 2021 Youth Intake

Youth Intake ~ Nikolaev 21A ~ Velikov 21B ~ Maksimov 21C

Not the same depth in quality this year, but Nikolaev looks class! He's got the attribute profile and hopefully the potential to make it big in the game.  One problem I've had recently is the young players losing their determination due to the ''less than desirable squad personality'' . Our HOYD is determined, so I hope he can bring a few more determined youngsters to sway the balance.

 

[smp20]

Litex Lovech 2020/21 Season Overview

Play-offs ~ Europa League ~ Facilities ~ Finances ~ Commercial Activity ~ Transfers ~ Player Ratings

We really struggled to hit the season off domestically and at one point we were 13th. Fortunately we managed to go on a few decent runs and got ourselves into the top 6 just before the league split. A team you'd normally expect there are Ludogorets, but they had their worst season in top flight history. They got to the European Places play-offs, but we inflicted defeat on them and clinched the final Europa League spot.

Speaking of the Europa League, we actually did rather well! We got through the first two qualifying rounds as expected, but I really didn't expect to beat Nice (who had Fabregas, Balotelli and Alex Teixeira) and a strong Brondby side. The latter we roared back to a 6-5 aggregate victory after losing the away tie 4-2. We continued our fine form in Europe by picking up wins against Rubin and BATE, but Villarreal proved to be too much. A double over Rubin saw us head into the final game needing to avoid defeat to qualify for the next round. Drama ensued, an injury time equaliser dragged us into the Round of 32. We were 3-1 up in the home tie against Chelsea and it was disappointing to concede two late goals. We were no match for them at Stamford Bridge. I'm very proud of this cup run, it equaled the clubs achievements of the 2004/05 season.

Finance wise we are in a very strong position. Our sponsorship deals are getting better and better and our wage bill is still extremely low. A few of our top prospects are unhappy and want to leave, but we really can't lose them. I hope they change their minds and sign new contracts soon, some only have 1 or 2 years to go. I will do a full squad update at the end of next season. I've decided now is the time to sell off all of our non-academy players and just go with the youngsters. In terms of tactics, after lots of changing, swapping and tweaking, I'm now gearing towards a 4-4-2 with DMs with a high press, attacking, very fluid approach. I really liked how we finished the season off with it, I just hope we can find some consistency.

[MadCatPT]

Blyth Spartans - 2019/2020 - Vanarama National League North

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

Preseason:

I think I have a setup I'm liking, still needs some tweaks, but I train Balanced on Very High, get 3 team with a more higher reputation, 2 of the same and 3 local at the end to get morale back up if needed.

Season:

It was a strange season, started slow, but also slowly but surely I climbed the table on the back of a great defence, but always failed on the games that could get us to the playoff spots. Then I was able to start winning those games and was among the big boys, getting to 2 points from the league leaders!

Then Jarret Rivers who was having a great season (won PoY) got injured again and we slowly started dropping points until we dropped out of the playoff spots never to return, finishing just 3 points from the last playoff spot. We are getting closer, 11, 6 and now just 3 points to reach the playoffs at least. We had the best defence(again) with just 30 goals against!

Some collapses against teams on the relegation places costed us, also our inability to score goals on some games, I consolidated our tactics, seeing that the AI seems to be able to get good squads, since in terms of average each year I'm getting down, and each year I get more stats where I'm the worse in the league. Luckily the only one where I'm the best is determination, so the Spartan fighting spirit is getting us hard fought points, since we are almost always the underdog. Finally got a tactic that got me some wins when I'm the favourite and another to help and close games, having those 3 tactics all filled helped a lot.

Finances:

It was my worst season in the Cups with some early exits and not so much money entering, even if this year my board invested a lot of money in our running costs, so while in the red (at least until the takeover), we are not in the dire situation of having 400k in the red (now only aroung 100k).

Next year there will be another cut in the wage budget, so my fringe player will be put in non-contracts so I'll get under the wage budget. I may lose some of them but what can I do? I hope to be able to keep renewing with my best players so I can try and have a bit more luck and reach the playoffs.

[MCPlay]

15 hours ago, Black and Yellow said:

Have a quick look at this!. Didn't quite fit the bill of this challenge as it wasn't a newly promoted side, but it was a bloody struggle!

Not a borderline masochist either 

Wow, I've started reading this and I'm looking forward to seeing how far you were able to take it. Have only been able to read the first 3 seasons, but will definately read the rest when I have time!

[MCPlay]

Season 8 European Wrap-up

Champions League Group Stage | Fixtures

After beating Naxxar Lions of Malta in the first qualifying round our europa run we were drawn against Maribor of Slovenia. I felt it was a though draw but retained a glimmer of hope that we could fight our way past them. After 1-1 in Slovenia, we overturned an early Maribor-goal at home to win 2-1 and advance. After this performance I was already incredibly happy with our european run, but it was only an appetizer of what was to come.

In the next round we were drawn against Basel of Switzerland, a team with a great history of getting into the Champions League and the Europa League group stages. It was never supposed to be an even match-up, but when they scored in the 90th minute to give them a 1-2 win at our place, it felt like they were robbing us. We played a great game, and it was bitter to see it slip away in the end. We went to Switzerland without even thinking we could advance, but lightning struck and we won 0-2 and had beaten Basel. This meant we were secured group stage football this season, and a whole lot of cash. At this point I was already shaking with excitement and adrenaline, but what came next had me in total and utter disbelief.

As chronicled earlier in this thread we took on FC København in the Play-off to the Champions League. I don't consider them to have a greater team than Basel, but surely lightning couldn't strike twice. We went to beautiful Copenhagen and possibly we travelled through a portal into another dimension. We won the away game 5-7. We went up 0-1 then they got a red card as we were awarded a penalty. From there on in it was mayhem, they were slaughtering us with 10 men, but every time Huw Price 4A touched the ball he banged it into the net. We scored with our first 6 shots, all from Huw, who ended up scoring all our 7 goals. The home game was every bit as crazy, ending up 5-5. It was my craziest night of FM-gaming since I started out in the early 2000's.

Haverfordwest the semi-professional team from Wales has qualified for the Champions League!

Money rained down on us, and when the group stage were to be drawn we were hoping to get some of the real giants of europe. Our prayered was answered, and we were awarded a mind-blowing group of Man Utd, PSG and Borussia Dortmund. We will do well to score a single goal in these fixtures, but to be allowed to play these titans of football is amazing.

In the first game we travelled to Paris, and were promptly smashed 9-0. The difference in quality was staggering, PSG looked to be going at twice the speed of our guys. We then lost 0-3 at home to Dortmund in a sold-out stadium. A great result, to be able to keep it somewhat respectable in our first home game was satisfying. Man Utd then came to visit and was irresistable, winning 0-6.

We then travelled to Old Trafford, and managed to get our first Champions League goal. Richie Morgan 4D scored a great goal in the 21st minute, too bad United were already up 4-0 at that point. We went into half-time down 10-1, but thankfully United somewhat to their foot of the pedal in the second half, and the game ended in a CL-record 12-1 defeat. My players decided to repay all the away fans for their tickets beacause of the humiliating result. I found this to be incredibly harsh, as they are earning on average £100 a week, and Paul Pogba of United alone earns 100 times more than my entire squad and staff

We lost 0-4 at home to PSG before losing 3-1 at Dortmund in our best game of the group stage. In the end we were just incredibly happy to be in the competition, and I am somewhat pleased to see that the difference in quality gave such results. It would have been unrealistic if we were not destroyed by these teams, and I had a nagging feeling that there was an imbalance in the game the way we qualified. Thankfully this feeling was evaporated as we were being run over time and time again, and I can forever look back on the play-off against FC København as my greatest FM experience.

Man Utd and PSG both made good use of the confidence boost they got from destroying us and met up in the final of the CL, with PSG winning 1-0.

[deez0r]

@MCPlay that must have done the finances the world of good! Hopefully a few upgrades?!

[MCPlay]

Season 8

Transfers | League Table | Season Review

 

Dafabet Welsh Premier League

We amassed a lower points tally than the last two years, but still won the league with great ease. TNS hired Nathan Self as a new manager, which I found to be a bizarre hiring, given his Tactical Knowledge of 1, and his only prior experience was as a u-19 assistant manager for our team. He decided on a formation utilising only 1 striker, which seems like a pretty bad idea when you have the two best strikers in the league in your squad. They massively underperformed, and the league title was done and dusted 5 rounds before the end of the season.

Cup runs

We lost to TNS in the third round of the Nathaniel MG Cup. In the Welsh Cup we fared better, winning the final 4-1 against perennial third placed Bala.

 

 

Youth Setup:

Youth Intake

Luke Brian 8A | Lee Williams 8B

 

Two tagged players this year, which is pretty decent. Unfortunatly both are strikers, which is my most well-covered position by far. Luke Brian 8A looks amazing though, he is already the best finisher at the club with his beautiful 14, and could very well become a real star. Our reserves and u-19 won their league again, and I expect them to do that for the foreseeable future. We have gotten approval on upgrades to all our facilities, so the talent will continue to bloom in Haverfordwest.

 

Notable events

Two other teams went professional before the start of the season, which was amazing. West End and Llangefni, both are elevator teams between the Premier League and the 1st division, but hopefully they-ll be able to kick on now with their professional status, and build good teams. We got approval to turn professional at the end of the season as well!

We moved up 178 places in the european club rankings more than any other team, and is now considered the 219th best club in europe!

 

TNS watch

After their horrible manager hiring they had their worst year to date. They lost in the first round in the europa league qualifiers and was unable to compete with us in the league. Neither of their strikers got going, with Ball being the top scorer with 13. That is solely on the mananger and his insane 4-5-1 formation, as the two up top possess great quality. Hopefully they'll find a better manager soon, or I'm afraid they'll fade away. I need them to grow and get stronger, to help me get the coefficients up. They performed well against us however, rising to the occation when we met. Also they won the Nathaniel MG Cup.

Our record against TNS this year: 1 wins 3 Draw 1 Lost.

 

Big Mike watch

Big Mike had a Big year. After Huw Price 4As devastating achilles injury in the wake of the miracle in Copenhagen, Big Mike suddenly was a nailed on starter. He played in all 32 league games, starting 30 of them. He managed 13 goals and 14 assist with an average rating of 7,45, immense performances from a player who is rated 1,5 stars and the coaches tell me is not good enough. He was named player of the month for February, and was runner-up twice. He was awarded a place in the team of the season aswell, and I couldn't be happier with the big fella.

Player of the Year:

Kevin Smith 4D

Kevin really broke through this season, putting in great performances from the left wing. His dribbling and crossing ability allow him to create chances for our strikers with great consistency. Big Mike will definatly be buying Kevin a beer after this season, as a lot of his goals came after crosses from the left. Kevin finished the league season with 5 goals and 11 assists, and also showed his quality in europe getting the assist to the goal against Dortmund.

Huw Price 4A and his 10 goals against FC København is not forgotten, but he is elevated beyond silly things such as player of the year. He is a bonafide legend, and an untouchable god in the minds of all Haverfordwest-fans.

[MCPlay]

@deez0r We have had yearly expences of beetween £500k and £900k up till this point. Qualifing for the CL gave us about 10 million pounds, so I'd say we are in an okay financial situation

[deez0r]

12 minutes ago, MCPlay said:

@deez0r We have had yearly expences of beetween £500k and £900k up till this point. Qualifing for the CL gave us about 10 million pounds, so I'd say we are in an okay financial situation

Make the most of it, get those upgrades in!

[MadCatPT]

@MCPlay Really hit the Jackpot! Make a statue to Huw Price 4A, improve the facilities and start hammering away at those giants.

[Braumiller]

Congrats @MCPlay!  Really enjoying your updates  

[Vevi]

Hello all

Really nice to read this topic. Same was in previous version (fm2016).

Anyway I want start this challenge but still I not decided on what league. And I need Your advice ... prefer something really hard  

In my head I have 2 options:

Option nr. 1 - some unknown club from unknown league (something like Wales, Sweden, Bulgaria, Poland, Czech Republic, Macedonia, Croatia, Serbia etc). This I think can be more easy. Easier to dominate the domestic league, no need to fight against MC, MU, Arsenal, Liverpool, Tottenham, Chelsea and other billionares

Option nr. 2 - try Varanama North/South English League. Anyway is there someone who done this challenge playing in English Leagues??? And I don't know how deal with Brexit. If clubs like Man Utd, City etc can't employ young talents from Europe Union this mean they will search them in domestic league. That mean It will be very hard to retain the best talents.

 

So guys I want to see your opinion and then I'll start

P.S. Sry for my English

[MadCatPT]

22 minutes ago, Vevi said:

Hello all

Really nice to read this topic. Same was in previous version (fm2016).

Anyway I want start this challenge but still I not decided on what league. And I need Your advice ... prefer something really hard  

In my head I have 2 options:

Option nr. 1 - some unknown club from unknown league (something like Wales, Sweden, Bulgaria, Poland, Czech Republic, Macedonia, Croatia, Serbia etc). This I think can be more easy. Easier to dominate the domestic league, no need to fight against MC, MU, Arsenal, Liverpool, Tottenham, Chelsea and other billionares

Option nr. 2 - try Varanama North/South English League. Anyway is there someone who done this challenge playing in English Leagues??? And I don't know how deal with Brexit. If clubs like Man Utd, City etc can't employ young talents from Europe Union this mean they will search them in domestic league. That mean It will be very hard to retain the best talents.

 

So guys I want to see your opinion and then I'll start

P.S. Sry for my English

I'm playing in the English Leagues, Brexit is always different, and is hard to retain talent, you will be happy if you have talent that any of the Manchester want to take.

You basically want to get promoted/get a good cup run/sell a player to get enough money to improve facilities/junior coaching/youth level/recruitment so you can have the best youths possible and very important, get professional status so you can improve youth faster.

[oulzac]

2017-2018 Mid-season Update

Season Expectations | Promotion Odds | Preliminary Phase Table | Results

So not having actual goalkeepers is as fun as it sounds. I highly recommend it for the masochist at heart. The pre-season wasn't that great. No wins, which is fine. But, struggled to get players match ready. It was also a struggle to get them used to the tactics being trained. Usually when first taking over a team I try to start with something to as close to what they have been using as possible. But they did not appear to be competent in anything. To start the season there is the Preliminary Phase, which is three groups of eight teams in the 2. Division (we are in group 1). In this phase you play each team twice, 14 games. Top eight of each group goes on to the Promotion Group stage, and the bottom four move on to the Relegation Group stage. There is a four month break between these two phases. Yay! Anyways, back on track. At the start, we came out strong. Winning 4-1 away. I had hope! Then we won on PKs in the first round of the cup. Not great seeing as how that team was TWO DIVISIONS below us. But a win is a win I guess.  And then from there it just went straight down hill. And fast. The next game is when the injuries started. All of our top players were constantly being injured through this phase. Never having a full compliment of players for any setup. And having a very small group of players to begin with, who never seemed to all fit into the same formation/tactics, it was constantly changing. Which is never a good thing. And in the end, we finished in 7th place. Which was always expected. To be in the relegation group, that is. I just got my hopes up in those early games. We had promise! So now we have a four month break to try and figure this out and stay up. Otherwise its curtains. Oh, and we lost in the second round of the cup, in extra time. To a team one division below us. Board was not happy about that.

Transfers | Youth Intake

Ervin Muric 18A | Burak Demirel 18B

The youth gods have heard my prayers! They gave me a good keeper. I was hoping for two decent ones. But I wont complain about the one I got. He is a beast. I guess this is what the game does for you if you have zero on your team. It throws you a bone. I am now praying that this kid will be enough to help keep us up. Because watching those virtual keepers at times was a living a nightmare. Watching goals roll in from outside the box. And watching them just stand there. Anyways. Muric should make an immediate impact in the first team. He wont be able to keep us up on his own though.  But now that the break is over, and most everyone is back from injury, we should be able to do okay with him in goal. As long as we stay healthy. I only highlighted two of the youth intakes above, as they are going straight into the first team. Burak is a much needed second striker. The team has only had one true striker to this point. And when he went down for 3 months, I had to resort to playing someone out of position, or playing striker-less tactics. Which never really worked out for us. There were a few other decent recruits, that I will go over end of season.

14 games left for us in the Relegation Group stage. The first two to this point have both been draws. And to teams at the top of the table. So that makes me feel good. But I still think we are going to struggle. Its going to be a battle to stay out of the bottom four of this group. We just need to not be one of the four worst when its all said and done. But my hope has returned after seeing the youth intake.

[oulzac]

And fired. This was the most frustrating thing I've ever done in FM.

We lost pretty much every game after I made my last post. It was a disaster. In a way I'm very glad this is over. lol

[korvalis]

As I didn't really get off the ground with a youth based game in fm16, instead of treading down the familiar path of Turkish football.  It's off to Northern Ireland and taking charge of the newly promoted Malachians.

Manager Profile

Club Facilities

Squad

[smp20]

@MCPlay - incredible work to get to the CL group stages with Haverfordwest, huge achievement. Huw Price is a legend! 

@druvo - congrats on the promotion!

@Muttley84 - damn you were so close! Serie B is within touching distance now, you can do it! edit: just seen your next post  come to bulgaria

@Sanno11 - great start to the challenge, shame about the play-offs.

@MadCatPT - solid season, always tough with finances in those lower leagues. But one good cup run can keep you solvent for a while.

@oulzac - that's really unfortunate . Where do you think you will head next?

@Vevi - i think it's all about the club. If you can get a feel for the team and buy into them, then you can have a long, fulfilling career. Find a team where you like the history, badge or whatever the reason.

@korvalis - best of luck in Northern Ireland, it's going to be tough!

 

[smp20]

Litex Lovech 2022 Youth Intake

Youth Intake ~ Mihaylov 22A ~ Haralanov 22B ~ Iliev 22C

There's the phrase. ''looks as if he could possibly emerge as one of the best players of his generation''. When you see that phrase whilst doing the you (in your head or out loud) scream with joy. Mihaylov looks like a brilliant keeper already, can he become the next Buffon or Casillas? We will see. One thing I'm worried about is him losing his determination, which is happening to everyone at the moment. I'm really struggling with that, I like determined teams and now I have the opposite and I can do nothing about it . But back onto the positive, Mihaylov is class. Haralanov may not be in the limelight, but a 2* CA 5* PA striker is another reason to be excited and Iliev will be re-trained as a DM and has a good future ahead of him too. Brilliant .

[smp20]

Spoiler

This is our league table at the moment, 7 games to go. Bricking it!

[oulzac]

@smp20I'll probably just do a regular save for a bit. And then try and come back and do this again. I don't think I can jump back into this challenge right away. I'll want to research a team better next time too.

[smp20]

Litex Lovech 2021/22 Season Update

League Table ~ Results Aug-Dec ~ Results Feb-May ~ Europa League ~ Bulgarian Cup ~ Facilities ~ Finances ~ Transfers

An incredible season! We won the league on the final day, beating CSKA Sofia at their place to leapfrog them. This gave us the double because we also beat CSKA in the cup final a few weeks prior, thumping them 5-2. We had an indifferent start to the season, but things clicked together from December onward under the 4-4-2 DM Attacking, Very Fluid system. It has been tweaked so that it mirrors my favourite ever FM tactic, one I created on FM13 to emulate Arrigo Sacchi's high pressure system. We finished the season on a 24 game unbeaten run, including 20 league games.

We started very well in Europe thumping Simurq and AEK Larnakas. We were 2-0 up in the home leg against Vojvodina, but we were trounced 6-2 in Serbia dumping us out in the 3rd Qualifying round. Of course next season we have Champions League Qualifiers to look forward to. We had upgrades to our training and youth facilities and we are pumping more money into it again this season; we are not far off top facilities. As you can see from the transfers we sold a player to rivals Levski, but it was not through choice. Bloody chairman! 

Litex First 11

Player Stats (Most Appearances)

 

Petkov 19A ~ Nikolaev 21A

 

Kamburov 20A                                                             Dimov 18M

Dimitrov 18D ~ Stoilov 20E

 

Penev 19E ~ Georgiev 17A ~ Bosilkov 18B ~ Dzhorov 19D

 

Iliev 20D

This is our current best 11 and this side played the majority of the games in the 2nd half of the season. There have been some great partnership formed; Petkov / Nikolaev have been incredible up top while Dimitrov / Stoilov and Georgiev / Bosilkov have helped us at the back, we even went on a spell of 6 straight clean sheets at one point. However those last two partnerships will not be the same next year , Bosilkov is off to PAOK on a pre-agreed deal from last summer. He didn't want to sign a new contract so I cashed in on him while I could but also managed to negotiate it so that the deal was at the end of the season. Better than losing him on a free! We have a real lack of depth defensively, therefore Dimitrov is being re-trained to play at centre-back to replace Bosilkov. Both full backs have been consistent despite their extreme lack of technical ability. After losing Ivanov to Levski, Dimov had to step up as first choice right winger and he did really well. The best player at the club is Kamburov. He has bags of pace and unlike Dimov he has some ability to go with it. I've already had to reject bids for him from lots of Europe's elite (Chelsea, Inter, Bayern for 3!)

Next season will be tough without Bosilkov, I just hope we can continue our excellent form into the new season and push for the title again. Oh and our first attempt at the Champions League. It would be great if we made the group stages or at least the Europa League. I'd love to get to a stage where I can keep my stars.

Petrov 18A Profile ~ Petrov 18A Stats

Edit: a quick update on Petrov. After just one season with Inter and never making his debut (he spent half a season on loan to Sassuolo) he was sold to Sevilla for £7.5m. It meant that we got around £1m due to the 50% of next sale profit clause, but I was a little disappointed with this amount. He developed well while in Italy but this season he's been blighted by injury. I hope that now, at 21, he can push on to become a regular at Sevilla.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Muttley84]

@smp20 Wow, you are really doing a good job. Thanks for the invite to Bulgaria, but currently thinking of going to somewhere a bit warmer  Starting up in Greece and will update in a couple of days (I'm not as quick with seasons as you are).

@korvalis Good luck in northern ireland, thats a hard challenge.

@oulzac Welcome to the unemployed side. We hace cookies  

[Kaiserwatman]

FC Energie Cottbus

Profile  Facilities  Squad

Had previously been running a game with Stafford using only local players but decided I may as well go the whole hog and restart with an academy challenge . Squad looks OK with no immediate worries about retirements so youth will be allowed prosper until they meet German league playing rules . Rank outsiders in 3.liga but will see how it goes .

 

 

[smp20]

Cheers @Muttley84, I've been having a right old fm binge! Best of luck in Greece, I did it with Aris last year and enjoyed it there. 

 

[smp20]

@oulzac - yeah it did seem that you'd given yourself a hard target considering you didn't have any keepers! See you back here soon

@Kaiserwatman - best of luck in Germany. I've never got a feel for Germany in a youth challenge because I'd hate not being able to play my 16 year olds . Nice team choice, certainly remember them being in the top flight.

[smp20]

Posted this in GD. This is a huge issue. My best player, Kamburov, has a clause that I can renew his contract but I can't use it. He also won't sign a new contract outright at this stage. There are several other players as well  

[KUBI]

4 minutes ago, smp20 said:

Posted this in GD. This is a huge issue. My best player, Kamburov, has a clause that I can renew his contract but I can't use it. He also won't sign a new contract outright at this stage. There are several other players as well  

You need to post this in the bugs forum, to get the attention of the coders.

[smp20]

 

7 minutes ago, KUBI said:

You need to post this in the bugs forum, to get the attention of the coders.

Thank Kubi, I will do this. I just wasn't sure if it actually was a bug or if I'm missing something somewhere.

[MadCatPT]

11 hours ago, KUBI said:

You need to post this in the bugs forum, to get the attention of the coders.

 

+1

[smp20]

It has been logged. Unfortunately it is too late for Kamburov, he's off to Barcelona on a free 

[Kaiserwatman]

FC Energie Cottbus

3.Liga Champions 2018

League Table   3.Liga Player Stats   3.Liga Team of Year  Transfers

The club has further had to damage their finances by having to rent an open top bus to tour the city following a spectacular season where they were rarely outside the promotion hunt and were crowned 3.Liga Champions with 3 games to go . Is it too early I expect so as 2.Bundesliga is entirely a different kettle of fish to the standards seen here . The squad does indeed lack in numbers though should now be bolstered by the class of 17 which will be listed below along with the new recruits. I was disappointed to lose Josh as my only outgoing transfer but he was offered a contract but chose not to take up on it . There was no doubt in either fans or managements view as Benjamin Förster and Philipp Knechtel picked up Player and Young Player Awards respectively. Förster also added 3.Liga Player of the Year and 3.Liga Golden Boot Awards to his list of accolades.

Finances are not great so there hasn't been much development within the clubs facilities yet though a couple of staff additions have been added within the youth ranks.  The u19s finished midtable in their respective division, hoping for some improvement here next season as they have been bolstered by the class of 18.

The Class of 17

Thorsten Egbert              -  Solid season for the u19s and showing some signs of improvement , will rotate been both sides in the upcoming season

Ralph Hauptmann          -  Outpreformed Thorsten in a similar role , will see how he develops

Maik Stohn                       -  Will wait and see with Maik , currently in no need for a left back and retraining may be needed

Giannis Andreakos         -  Will be left with the u19s barring injury for another season as happy enough with players currently between the sticks

Hakan Avci                       -  Hakan like Thorsten will rotate between squads , the majority of games with the u19s

 

The Class of 18

Arash Baharvand           - Already signed up til 2021 , a future Iran international perhaps 

Thorsten Dresing           - Can see this guy playing a part at the heart of defence in the years to come

David Altier                     - Another GK so currently will be limited to u19s

Thilo Jahn                        - Has regressed , not so sure on this one

Francois Mandjeck        - Future First Teamer as I lack in this area

 

Upcoming Season and what lies ahead

I expect to struggle big time now I will be against sides a lot bigger than Cottbus but they are back to where I think they belong at least so will need see how things go , there may well be another trip back to 3.Liga instore but will take things slowly. Currently trying get Tomislav Piplica back as Goalkeeping coach purely because he is a legend  - many videos of goalkeeping howlers from years gone by on youtube on him but when I think of Cottbus I think of Piplica.

Current Best XI  -  Will see how it evolves over the upcoming years

 

 

[smp20]

@Kaiserwatman congrats on the promotion, best of luck in the 2nd tier. Things should start to look pretty good financially now.

[Muttley84]

Season 1 - Greek Youth Career 

 

For our second attempt in this challenge we are the Manager of the newly promoted team to the Greek National B Division - GS Ergotelis. Not the worst team selection out there, with some pretty good facilities, a large stadium (5th largest in all of Greece according to wikipedia), a big city and most of all - Adequate Training and Youth Facilities.

The present First team squad has good depth (although seems a bit aging) and we also have some promising youngsters in the Reserve squad also. So no Transfers there. What we are lacking is the backroom Staff, but trying to get all those positions covered there. The Finances aren't the best in the league, but not the worst either. We are predicted to finish 16th, but I think we can do so  much better than that, and at least finish above the other team for our town - OFI Crete.

The good news? Just kidding around and I requested the board an Youth upgrade, and they gladly agreed on that. So we have an one year upgrade going on now, hopefully that should help us grow our younger players without influencing our budget to much. On to the first season!

[MadCatPT]

@Muttley84 Good luck.

[Dragoniere]

good luck to everyone with their respective attempts at the challenge

Just picked up FM2017 myself, and I think I'll join in the attempts of youth glory

[ghost of bury]

wow @MCPlay great stuff, thoroughly enjoyed reading that update!

congrats @Kaiserwatman on going up at the first time of asking, Energie are somewhat of a fallen giant so hopefully you can get them back to the top! And also great idea to do the challenge with an East German club, in the current national team only one player (Kroos) comes from the former GDR, hopefully you can redress that balance! 

that bug sounds like a real pain @smp20! sorry to hear that! but congrats on the title nonetheless

absolutely gutted for you @Muttley84, don't give up, we need other FMT players doing the challenge!

 

[smp20]

Think I may have worked out why the contract extensions weren't available. Note: offer 2 year optional contract extensions to youngsters rather than 3!

 

[smp20]

@ghost of bury - thanks, yeah it's been a harsh way to find things out. I hope Kamburov does well at Barcelona...

[smp20]

Litex Lovech 2023 Youth Intake

Youth Intake ~ Bobby Read 23A ~ Hristov 23B ~ Marinov 23C ~ Dimov 23D

Another intake to be very happy with. The best player to come through is an Englishman, Bobby Read. Most importantly, he is a centre back which we desperately need. He will become first choice straight away. Hristov looks like he will soon compete with Penev for the left back spot, while Marinov and Dimov both look like good options for right wing.

[smp20]

4 hours ago, Dragoniere said:

good luck to everyone with their respective attempts at the challenge

Just picked up FM2017 myself, and I think I'll join in the attempts of youth glory

Cheers Dragoniere, look forward to seeing where you end up .

[Vevi]

@smp20 what is the current status of your team? Is it full pro, semi-pro or still amateur what I think is not possible.

Anyway if you can type me when exactly your board change status of your team i'll be glad  

[ghost of bury]

 UNION ST. FLORIAN

Season 1: "die Sängerknaben sind Meister!"

league / squad / transfers

So Union St. Florian's first ever season of professional football was a resounding success! Champions and promotion! The league turned out to be a bit of a cakewalk in the second half of the season, as FAC Team Für Wien never really looked like catching us. Local lad Marvin Abele was key the choirboys' success, leading the assists charts with 15 assists this season. His central midfield partner Marco Diekhake and fullbacks Oliver Horn and Marcus Borsdorf were also protagonists as our attractive brand of possession football took the Austrian Erste Liga by storm and led us to promotion.

Our youth intake includes two promising players, Oliver Schober and Ziya Er, who look like they could really help us in the top flight. And David Ebner will provide some much needed cover for our midfield.

Finances look relatively decent, mostly thanks to our low wage budget. We haven't managed to upgrade any facilities yet though.

I'm unbelievably proud of our promotion, it's the stuff of dreams: a young manager of an unfashionable provincial team with a small squad of determined local players, playing attractive possession football and making it to the top. But the fact is that we are an absolutely tiny club, with the lowest attendances in the second tier (just 718!), and the worst facilities, and our squad is still far too thin. In the top flight we'll be out of our depth, and an injury crisis will see me playing greyed out players against the big boys. So I'm understandably nervous about next year...

[smp20]

Iconic Page Builds Litex Legacy

League Table ~ Champions League ~ Facilities ~ Finances ~ Transfers ~ Best 11

Bulgaria Rising ~ Stadium Expansion ~ Roma ~ Bayern ~ Lyon ~ PSG

There are hardly any words to describe how I feel about this season, so I'm just going to:

In the league we were dominant, securing the title before even playing our 32nd game of the season vs CSKA after Levski lost. Our 81 points showed just how dominant we were and we were surprisingly good defensively considering we lost our best centre back in the previous summer. If our league form wasn't enough, we massively overachieved in the Champions League. It was a rocky road to the group stages; we narrowly beat Rosenborg over 2 legs and needed an 89th min goal from Petkov to sneak past Basel on away goals.

We were drawn in a very tough group and I would have been happy if we came away with a point, but we defied all predictions. We had a shaky start and succumbed to an expected 4-1 loss. However we roared back to a home win against Roma! We kept it tight in Munich and to our surprise somehow got a victory against the German giants back in Lovech. Our dream run was consolidated by comfortable home win against Lyon which secured us a place in the last 16. We played Roma in the final game which was the decider for 1st or 2nd and this time the Italians came out on top. Bayern came last with 5 points . We were drawn against PSG who had thrashed everyone in their wake so far. They have a world class team including an attacking midfield trio of Hazard (£72m), De Bruyne (£112m) and Coman (£78m). We were absolutely dominated by them in the home tie and didn't look like scoring, especially without our top scorer Petkov. However goals from his replacement Evtimov in 89 and 90+3 saw us pick up a home win . We were thrashed 6-0 in France, but even getting to this stage is brilliant. At home, we were unstoppable.

There are only two negatives from this season. The first, lesser negative was the early exit from the cup, while the more important one was losing Kambarov, our best player on paper. I couldn't extend his contract despite having a clause to do so for 3 years and off he went to Barca on a free . Oh well, I now know to only include 2 year optional extensions, learning the hard way! We are expanding the stadium, have State of the Art facilities and we're upgrading the youth facilities so that mid-way through this season we will have fully maxed out all of our facilities. Finance wise we are looking very healthy and I can only see it getting better.

 

 

[smp20]

1 hour ago, Vevi said:

@smp20 what is the current status of your team? Is it full pro, semi-pro or still amateur what I think is not possible.

Anyway if you can type me when exactly your board change status of your team i'll be glad  

Hi Vevi. We were professional from the point I took over, all teams in the top two divisions are in Bulgaria. Although, my players were on £50 to £100 per week on full-time contracts, which doesn't sound a lot to me! So if you were you start with a team from Bulgaria, you will always start professional.

[smp20]

@ghost of bury - congrats, a great first season and nice to get some silverware so early on.

[Kaiserwatman]

FC Energie Cottbus 2018/19

3.Liga Champions 2018

League Table   2.Bundesliga Player Stats    Transfers

A Bit of a wake up call as the standard was way higher as expected to 3.Liga but the team were never really ever in danger of dropping into the red zone though knowing the massive gap there was to the top . Champions Augsburg inflicted 4-0 and 5-0 defeats for example though against the mediocre sides we were able hold our own.  I wasn't too bothered about standings once relegation was off the cards as I introduced youngsters into the first team to get some valueable experience.

Finances are better due to the TV money within 2.Bundesliga though the club now want to invest in a new Stadium but I have got youth facilities and a coaching badge out of them as a carrot before the money was gone .

Players Not involved in the first team will get dropped off this list as time goes by ,  Class of 18 etc. are still underage to German League Rules so will pop up in the next update

The Class of 17

Thorsten Egbert              -  Didn't perform at Senior Level when given chance

Ralph Hauptmann           -  Forced into role due to long term injury ,  gets on flick on's  - German U17

Hakan Avci                       -  Scores goals when given opportunities

 

The Class of 19

Kohler looks Ok but nothing in areas where I need as of yet ,  - Will see how the class of 18 progress  , currently I have only 3 above 30 so it will be pretty rotational to start off with as I don't need get rid of anyone

Josef Kohler                     

Aris Jakopovic                    

Marius Neiß                      

Bakary Kouakou              

Marco Neubert                

 

Upcoming Season and what lies ahead

Still trying sign Piplica as goalkeeping coach , will get him at one point  - Cottbus Legend  - Stay in 2.Bundesliga for next 3 years

Current Best XI -  An Early Inductee , only has played 5 games mind

[Emperor J]

FC Sakhalin Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk

Russian Football National League 2018-19

 

Transfers|League Table|Season Review

League

Sometimes it's easy to tell the kind of season it will be by the opening match. For 45 minutes against newly-promoted Chernomorets, we were unstoppable as we went into the break 4-0 up. In a 10 minute spell in the second half, we looked like a pub team and the match finished 4-4. The league campaign in the second season was already going to be rough, but I was hit by a rash of retirements almost exclusively in the centre half position. While we were tabbed to be relegated this season with our mix of youth and very old with maybe 2 players in their primes, we were able to stay up in the end, though it took a lot of messing around with my tactics. The worst part of the campaign came after the winter break, which the chairman let us go to Cyprus for (though didn't give us the funds to actually schedule friendlies) , since the injury list became extensive after that. It meant in key relegation six-pointers I was fielding a back four consisting entirely of full backs.

Key Players

Sergey Zaitsev 18-D - When I said after the first season he would see some playing time, I wasn't expecting it to be 1st name on the teamsheet when fit. He was deservedly named the club's player of the season.

Evgeny Matrakhov - A hard-tackling force in midfield who is probably going to leave in the summer.

Mikhail Gorelishvili - The best player at the club by far, I'm desperately hoping to get him to stick around for another season.

Vyacheslav Lobanov 18-A - Made the number 10 role his own for most of the season and finished as top scorer with 10. I think he will be back in front of the defence next season. Is also the only player in my squad currently described as a potential Russian Premier League player.

Cup

My reserves and youth players fell 5-1 to lower division Dinamo St. Petersburg in the 4th round. They were eventually beaten in the semifinals.

The Youth

Rustam Belov 17-A - Played a handful of games early in the season, but will probably be gone after another season.

Alexandr Drozdov 17-C - Made 1 start this season due to injuries; is only around for cover.

Yuri Shevchenko 18-B - Made his debut in the cup disaster, and a league debut on the final day; probably lacks the determination to make it.

Rafael Galstyan 18-C - My first youth international (taking advantage of Armenian 2nd nationality), he remains an interesting prospect.

Dmitry Frolov 18-E - Got a run of games due to injuries and might stick around for a few seasons at least.

2019 Intake

Anton Pavlov 19-A - Described as the star of the group, his attributes don't look that special to me at this point. Maybe he can develop like Lobanov.

Vladimir Streitsov 19-B - A speed merchant full back who made his debut immediately, might be a key contributor in the near future.

Vadim Degtyarev 19-C - Made his debut as a substitute on the final day, but lacks ambition.

Finances

Degraded quickly as the season wore on due to travel expenses. Still managed to get the youth facilities upgraded to "Poor" and convinced the board to pay for 2 coaching badges for myself. I don't think I'm going to get another facilities upgrade in anytime soon.

Season 3 Outlook

Probably looking at yet another battle against relegation and fortunately the board and players are okay with that for now.

History

2017-18: 9th in Russian Football National League

2018-19: 13th in Russian Football National League

 

[Emperor J]

@Kaiserwatman - Good idea on bringing legend Piplica in. Hope you can get him to sign.

@smp20 - Looking good so far, hopefully you can start to dominate the league so you can focus on Europe.

[MCPlay]

@Black and Yellow I've read through your entire Northern Ireland Journey, it was a great read! I was a bit sad to see you let go of the team, but getting them to the Premier League and keeping them up was a great accomplishment especially after wading through the hell that is the Northern Irish lower divisions.

@smp20 Amazing progress in Bulgaria. Getting to the knock-out stages of the CL is Incredible at this early point. Also found it very cool that the best regen of the most recent intake was English. I always love when you get some foreigners through the academy