FM17 Youth Academy Challenge

[MCPlay]

Season 9 European Wrap-up

Fixtures

After last years shocking run to the group stage of the Champions League the coefficient of the Welsh Premier League was improved to the point were we no longer had to play in the first stage of the CL-qualifiers. We were seeded in the second round, and drew Cliftonville from Norhern Ireland. They had most of their players on amateur contracs, so it seemed to be a favourable draw. However they took the lead at home, and although we were the best team they held on for a long time untill Gwion Price 5A made it 1-1. The home game was a different story and we swept them of the field in a 5-0 shellacking.

We were not seeded in the draw for the third round, and our old pals from Switzerland, Basel, were plucked out of the hat. It was an immense accomplishment when we ousted them last year, and all of Wales wondered if we could do it again. We started at home, and in an even fought game we managed to win 2-1. The last kick of the game was a penalty, which Richie Morgan 3D blasted straight at the keeper. The ref blew his whistle 3 Seconds later, and the great win felt a little less good. Last year we lost 1-2 at home and still powered through so we brought a much better resultto Switzerland this time around.

The away game was a frustrating affair. We played just as well as Basel, but their quality showed in the key moments of the game. In the end we lost 3-0 and Our hopes of going to the CL Group stage were over.

Losing in the third round of the CL-qualifiers saw us moved over to the Europa League play-off. Braga of Portugal were drawn, and we once again had a monumental task at hand. However we never came Close to beating these guys, losing both games 1-0, which was massively flattering for our team.

So there would be no Group stage football for us this year, which is of course a bit of a disappointment after last year rousing success. But it's not supposed to be easy to get into europe at this point, and we can only keep building and growing our talents, Next year we will give it another go!

[Black and Yellow]

Cheers! I think it would have taken a few more years to progress to the next stage (top end of the table) so I decided to call it a day after survival! I may venture back to NI at a later date, but for now, I am doing this challenge again but in Austria with SV Austria Salzburg. I have another FMCU thread for it but I'll try and update in here too!

[Sheep]

Does anyone have the reset date for the Swedish leagues or can tell me how to find it? Cheers.

[Muttley84]

Greek Youth Adventure - 2017-2018 Review

Now we are talking. A much better season than everyone at the club ever expected, which saw us perform admirably and finish as Champions of the National B Division and promoted to the Greek SuperLeague together with our city colleagues OFI Crete (led by a surprisingly Giorgios Samaras retired to his home country). In addition we had a good run in the Cup also, where we stopped in the quarter-finals against PAOK (to be honest we were lucky enough in the draws to get there, and not meeting any of the "big boys").

The Players did pretty good this season, with Season Awards going to Kaimakamoudis for the most goals, Cale for assists, and Kolokas for the highest average rating. We were so good as a team that we didn't got a single red card the entire season. Talk about discipline. Our GK Stefanakos also won the goalkeeper of the year award in the League. We did managed to get some playing time for some of our youths also, with notable mentions going to C Noutpis 17a (young player of the year and a solution for the first team already), T Damianakis 17d and C Stoupakis 17b - which both will get into the first team rotation next year. We also had a decent Youth Intake which allowed us to release some players to the free transfer agency (as nobody wanted them).

Noticed we got our best player in the AMC position so wondered if that's related to the HoYD by any chance, so decided to change the staff member to one preferring the position we use in the matches 4-1-2-3 DM wide. Hopefully we will get some DM next youth intake. Also, changed the physio mid-season also as we had to many injuries in the team (dunno if there is a connection there). Finances didn't looked that bad at the end of first season and we somehow even managed to make some small profit. Oh, and remember about that youth upgrade I told you in the first post? Forget about it - Cancelled. Expectations for the next season? Just survive in the league, that sounds like a realistic Expectation, maybe a good Cup run to cash in some money and increase the average attendances to matches (26k stadium and 400 spectators sounds awful), and of course, integrate the youths in the first team.

[Dragoniere]

So, I've decided that as always - my first stop in FM is going to be a save in Israel.

The reset date is June 20th if anyone is interested (but the relegation playoff is on May 27th). I reload from April 30th to get different teams to pop up.

So far, I have been reloading for the better part of two hours, but mostly get the same three teams that I don't really want to manage. Hope for better luck soon

[Shakes]

Was going to give FM17 a miss after running out of steam on this the last few years, but here I am. Going to try to do better in Scotland than last time, and how can I resist a club with a logo that looks like it was made in MS Paint?

Here's my starting manager profile. Nothing much to report about the squad, the usual super thin deal you get in Scotland, 12 players to last until the youth team arrives. Best player is a target man type striker with potential to play a couple of tiers above so hopefully I can keep him as a base, fits my tactical plan of playing 4-4-2 ultra long ball which seemed to work well in the demo so hopefully translates to this team.

 

[MCPlay]

Season 9

Transfers | League Table | Season Review

 

Dafabet Welsh Premier League

We lost 3 of our first 5 games, that's more losses than in either of the previous three Seasons. TNS and Bala both started very well, and it looked as though it might be a compelling Chase all the way till the end. However we turned it quickly around, and went unbeaten for the rest of the season. We jumped past TNS around gameday 22 and kept our form going untill the end of the season. When it was all said and done we had won the league wit ha margin of 11 Points. The trophy was decided on gameday 29, when the legend Huw Price 4A scored twice in the closing moments of the game, to turn 0-1 to 2-1 against TNS.

Cup runs

We made it our first clean sweep, by winning both the Nathaniel MG Cup and the Welsh Cup. We beat Bala 2-0 in the NMG Cup and TNS 3-1 in the Welsh Cup.

 

 

Youth Setup:

Youth Intake

Tim Burrell 9A

 

Our first really poor intake, with the player with highest potential measuring in at a lowly 3,5 stars. There might still arise some unlikely first teamers from this group, but right now it seems unlikely. We desperatly need some full backs, but it isn't likely that this bunch is a solution to that problem. Tim Burrell looks decent enough, but he will find it hard breaking in to the first team given the great option we have at central midfield.

 

Notable events

There are now 5 Professional teams in the Welsh Premier League, which is great. Bala has not turned Professional, but has produced some great players. They had both the top scorer and the player with the highest average rating in the league. It's good to see that other teams are also producing good players.

We moved up 39 places in the european club rankings, now were ranked as the 180th best club.

 

TNS watch

I sparked up a constant fight in the media with their manager Nathan Self, a former employee of mine, in a bid to unsettle him and hopefully get him fired. He has horrible stats for a manager, and favors a 4-5-1 formation that really doesn't suit the team. Alas he is still around, and to his credit TNS performed a lot better this year, losing only twice. 11 draws were too much to keep up with our pace, and they settled for a comfortable 2nd Place. TNS lost against a side from Luxembourg in the first qualifying round to the Europa League, which was very disappointing. Hopefully Self is ousted soon or move on from his inane 4-5-1 formation that sees one of the best players in the league nailed to the bench at all times.

Our record against TNS this year: 3 wins 3 Draw 0 Lost.

 

Big Mike watch

Another good year for Big Mike who is now considered a Haverfordwest icon. He managed 14 goals and 9 assist with an avg. rating of 7.34 in 31 league games. He comes up big time after time, when we are struggling we can allways revert to route-one football, lumping the ball up to him and watching him dominate the opposition in the air. His flick-ons for the strikers are a thing of beauty, and he undoubtly leads us in hockey assist.

Player of the Year:

Emyr Boyle 2D

Emyr grabs his second poty several years after he broke onto the scene and won it the first time. His game has matured, and while he still has the surging runs into the Box in him, he now much more often sit back and pull the string. His passing was a joy to behold this year, and together with Big Mike he is the primary source of supply for the to poaching type strikers we play. Two of the 3 poachers had pretty poor season in terms of goal scoring, with only Huw Price 4A really putting the chances away with consistency. The other guys have showed their mettle in front of goal in previous seasons, so I am hopeful that they will find their confidence next year

[MCPlay]

@Shakes Best of luck in Scotland!  I've found a target man and long balls to be a very viable tactic so far. If you can pair him with a somewhat pacy striker, you could see some really nice interplay. #BigMike

[Scouserrrrrrrrr]

Stourbidge Football Club - Season 1 - 2017/2018

Starting Manager Profile | Squad | Transfers | League Table | Results 1 | Results 2

Season Summary:

First season success and no idea how it happened, the start of the season got off to a rocky start, in the first 5 games we won one, drew 3 and lost 1, the potential was there. We conceded off crosses every game, corners and balls from the center backs over the top, tweaking the tactics and team instructions seen us win 10 games and lose 5 in the following 15 games. Cup matches were not a priority and often fielded a second team, the run was ended in the 4th qualifying round of the FA Cup by Sutton Coldfield and 3rd qualifying round of the FA Trophy by Stockport. The first half of the season seen us sitting in the top 5 chasing Kettering town who were top by 9 points.

The second half of the season brought misery and happiness, mixed results that i could not explain, one match my team played amazing the next match we simply could not pass a ball to save our lives. With 5 games to go with had been on our worst run, dropped out the top 5 and lied 9th in the table, a team meeting of not letting our head drops seen us go an unbeaten stretch and we finished the season in the playoffs, with injuries to our top striker I did not think we had a chance.

As a proud scouser we simply do not like football clubs from Manchester, and our first task was to dispose of FC united, we snatched a 1-0 victory away which was a very close game and could have gone either way. The 2nd leg was a clown fiesta and on the day beat them 4-3 and respectively 5-3 on aggregate, they had chances to win the game and to say we got lucky was a understatement.

The final match to get us promoted was against yet again another Manchester club, Salford who were chasing 1st all season, the social media activity said we didnt stand a chance, i didn't think we stood a chance and the bookies pre game made them favourites despite us being unbeaten in 7 games. They scored a goal in the 1st 10 minutes and we didn't equalise until the 83rd minute, extra time and we bagged a 104th minute goal to take the lead, the remain 15 minutes was us sitting in our own half taking punishment, but we held out and somehow got promoted in the first season !

Top Players of the season:

Matt Gould : Great goalkeeper who has 5 star potential, will only get better each season and was the difference.

Lewis Lacey & Adam Brice: Defensive partnership that lacked ability, but limiting them made a great partnership.

Luke Benbow, Issac Nelson & Ryan Gondoh: 69 goals between 3 of them, 20 + goals for each of them, the difference in getting promoted.

Youth Intake & Improvements:

Mid season we recruited a head of youth development and improved our junior coaching budget, however this did not help our youth intake and if we do not make any improvements next year, this may be a tough challenge, one player to note in position that already has depth.

Youth Intake - Poor Intake maybe could use 2-3 player in rotation ?

Stuart Rawle - A half decent centre back who could develop into 1st team starter

Season Goals:

After unexpectedly getting promoted the goal for next season is to survive and improve the youth system as much as possible, the club has just got into debt to upgrade the stadium to meet with the league requirements, here we go again ! 

[granarian]

Love the idea of this challenge, so loaded up Scotland and holidayed the first season. In the relegation playoff the team already in league 2 won...

I holidayed the second season, this time Cove Rangers won the playoff and came up into League 2. They had my name written all over them. 

I made myself the manager but heres my question, they only had 9 or 10 actual players and the rest were the greyed out variety.

What are the rules here? I presume I lump it with the minimal playing team until youth intake? Do you sometimes expect to get more "playable" players at the beginning? 

[MCPlay]

@granarian Yeah, you're going to have to stick it out with what you got. If you load all players from the league just below the lowest playable league you might get more players in the promoted teams though. But to do this you're going to have to start all over

[granarian]

22 minutes ago, MCPlay said:

@granarian Yeah, you're going to have to stick it out with what you got. If you load all players from the league just below the lowest playable league you might get more players in the promoted teams though. But to do this you're going to have to start all over

Ouch thats a tough start. Fair play to all those who have stuck it out. Thanks for reply, not sure what you mean by load al players from the league just below playable league.

[MCPlay]

@granarian It is possible to do when you start a new career. It is done when choosing database size Advanced. There you can load all players from det league that is below the lowest playable Scottish league. This should increase the number of players in the promoted teams. Someone elsecould probably explain it better than I just did

[Dragoniere]

After a miserable 3.5 hours reloading, finally got something I'm willing to work with. After all, I worked in Herzliya for two years after the army, so it's like coming full circle

Hapoel Herzliya

The beginning - Liga Leumit (Israeli 2nd tier)

Manager profile - Club info - Club Facilities - Finances

 

Hapoel Herzliya are the smaller side from the city of Herzliya, with the local rival Maccabi Herzliya being the more recognizable and successful team. Hapoel don't have much of a history - Their greatest feat was a State Cup semi final in 1961, where they got thrashed 4-0. Since Israel got its independence in 1948, Herzliya have never been to the top flight of Israeli football, getting only as far as the second tier for short spells - lastly between 2009-2012, before dropping back to the lower leagues. The team isn't renowned for its youth system, but I'm here to change that.

The team has rather okay facilities and finances in comparison to other teams coming from the lower leagues. They play in the Municipal stadium in Herzliya, an 8,100 all-seater, which is pretty decend, and boast adequate youth facilities along with basic junior coaching and youth recruitment. Their starting finances and wage budget are also slightly bigger than what I usually get in the Liga Leumit.

The team has no staff at all, so it's a clean slate for me, choosing my own people, and the board allowing me to have 5 people in the coaching staff is great.

The squad - we're predicted to finish dead last in the league and I can see why. No real quality to the squad, with our best player being goalie Snir dori, who is nothing to write home about - a decent level keeper. With a 16 men squad, two of whom are youth players, I'm only hoping to survive the relegation battle this year and start building on the newgens from next season on.

The rules in Israel - you can't field youth players under the age of 17. so that means no youth players can be thrown into the first squad immediately, like in Germany. The league includes 16 teams - 30 games played, and then a split to a championship group and a relegation group of 8 teams each, playing one round, for a total 37 games. top two teams go the Ligat Ha'al, the 1st tier. bottom two get the axe, with the team in 14th place going to a relegation play-off.

Youth watch - Like I mentioned, I had two guys from the 2017 youth intake. One is total rubbish. the other, Eran Tsarfati, might actually amount to a squad rotation player. I'll see if I can bloody him with some minutes as a sub this year. 

Season 1 objectives: Survive. Nothing much.

Here we go!

[MCPlay]

I've now played 10 seasons and still haven't got the chance to upgrade the youth recruitment, anyone know why this is? Seem to remember that I had a problem with this on FM 16 aswell

[Vevi]

13 minutes ago, MCPlay said:

I've now played 10 seasons and still haven't got the chance to upgrade the youth recruitment, anyone know why this is? Seem to remember that I had a problem with this on FM 16 aswell

Did you change philosophies of your club? I mean did you choose option: "develop younger players etc"?

[Shakes]

You need to raise your clubs rep before you can raise your youth recruitment. Generally you'll need success in Europe first unless you're in a league that has a pretty high rep to start with.

Re: Scotland, it's normal to have a tiny number of players, there's not much in the DB below the playable leagues and even then most players contracts expire before the change over. Just live with it, there's a playoff to stay in the league so finishing dead bottom isn't an issue.

[MCPlay]

Season 10 European Wrap-up

Fixtures

We drew Lincoln from Gibraltar in the second round of qualifying to the Champions League. That resulted in an easy 11-0 win on aggregate. For the Third straight year we were sent to Switzerland for the Third round of the CL-qual, this time the un-googleable Young Boys were our opposition. It was a decent enough draw, and I had some belief that we could advance. We managed to be competetive, but in the end they proved to strong and we lost 5-2 on agg.

We were then tossed over into the Europa League Play-off, were we were drawn against Leicester. That we would be able to advance was far from my mind, and the 3-0 loss on aggregate was a very nice accomplishment for my guys. The fact that we have lost out two years running in the qualifying rounds feels strangely good, as it strenghtens the leagacy of our legendary performances against Basel and København 3 years ago. We will eventually get back to the group stage, but untill we are seeded in the Third round of the CL-qualifier we will need some luck and otherworldly performances to advance.

[MCPlay]

Season 10

Transfers | League Table | Season Review

 

Dafabet Welsh Premier League

Our best season to date, which saw us lose only one game in heartbreaking fashion. We lead 2-0 and managed to throw it away, which was painful as we would have loved an unbeaten season. We did demolish TNS' record of games without losing, which stood at 46 and we ended at 51. We won the league by a whopping 27 Points, and the team that ended up second was not TNS. The fact that most of the teams have turned Professional seems to have brought some more quality into the league, and most teams have produced some decent players. TNS ended the season in a crappy 5th Place, but they were able to secure Europa football by winning the Europa play-off.

Cup runs

For the second time running we won both cups, which is nice. More trophys for the cabinet.

 

 

Youth Setup:

Youth Intake

| Dylan Rees 10B | Simon James 10C

After a couple of disappointing intakes we got a whopper, with several great players. Another two awesome strikers to add to the collection, I am litteraly overflowing with striking Choices, something I have never experienced in a youth academy Challenge before. 6-7 of my 11 best players are strikers, which is a little bit of a shame. I am trying to loan them out, but have a hard time getting teams to bite, even if they don't have to pay their wages. Maybe my guys aren't willing to go out on loan to other welsh Clubs. We also got a right back, which was needed as full backs have been our achilles heel so far.

 

Notable events

Most of the Clubs are now Professional which I think is great news. Some even have secure finances, not sure were they got the money from though. Bala managed to pick-up a former Premier League player in Paul Dummett who looks great despite his age having taken a toll on his physicals. He is by far the most accomplished player in the league at this point.

Our assistent manager was named manager of the month for March when I holidayed some games after the league title was secured and the unbeaten run was over. Nice for him to get some praise. He is a great manager prospect, so hopefully some other club will pick him up as a manager soon

We moved up 23 places in the european club rankings, now were ranked as the 159th best club. The Welsh Premier League is now rated as the 91st best competition in Europe, moving up 19 Places.

 

TNS watch

Nathan Self is holding on, but his position has to be threatened at this point. Once again lost out in the first round of Europa and then a horrorshow of a league performance which saw TNS finish in an unthinkable 5th Place. We dominated them in our match-ups and they really need to get their act together if they want to hold on as the second best team in the country. Bala has great Young talent, together with Dummett and the other teams are following suit.

Our record against TNS this year: 5 wins 1 Draw 0 Lost.

 

Big Mike Watch

For the Third time in the last 4 years Big Mike lead the league in assist. He also set a Haverfordwest record for most assist in a season with a total of 21. He had the best total output of his career with 15 goals and 14 assist in 32 league games. The big fella keeps a stronghold over one of the starting striker spots, even with so many more talented players competing for a spot. He also became our captain, and leads by example everytime the going gets though. The coaches tell me that he loves big matches, which is a feature I really appreciate in a captain.

Player of the Year:

Gary Loyd 6C

The tall strong right back really found his stride this season, and put in great performances everytime he was on the field. He was named the best player in the Welsh Premier league and it's hard to argue, strong and solid when defending and capable of whipping in great crosses he also contributes a lot going forward. As we are playing without wingers he has a monumental job of covering the entire flank, and he does that job with aplomb. Huw Price 4A was the top scorer in the league with 26 goals in 28 games.

[brenosantos]

Rishøj Boldklub - First Update

I've created two or three posts here announcing a new career, but after some choices, I finally found my favourite place to play following my sack with Stuttgarter Kickers: Denmark. There are a lot of weak teams in Denmark, but the country generates good players, so it's a good choice.

Manager Profile | Club Info | Facilities | Finances | Current Squad | U19 Squad

Decent setup here, now let's try to avoid relegation.

[Shakes]

Preston Athletic -  2017/18 Scottish League 2 - 10th (Survived Relegation Playoff)

League Table | Playoff | Squad

Things went about as well as I expected with 12 not very good players, we were outclassed the whole way but managed to scrape 23 points, which was not too bad (I think last year I managed 15 or so) and at least had us entertaining the idea of avoiding the relegation playoff. Ultimately we fell 7 points short of that and had to play for our spot, but it was a pretty easy game, a 3-1 aggregate win that really could have been by 5 or 6 goal margin if we'd taken our chances. Was nice to see us play a team we were better than for once!

Player of the season was without a doubt Jamie McKay. 24 of our 38 league goals is all you can really ask of your poacher, he didn't get a lot of supply but generally did well with the chances he got.

Youth Intake

Yikes, when you have a team that's clearly the worst in the league you hope to get at least one player who can slot into it, but these guys are just not ready. Good to at least have some depth that isn't greyed out players, but they're not going to take us any further in the short term. Here's hoping next year's batch is better!

Just going to have to slog out another season, I suspect we'll be right down the bottom again, but perhaps with a little development from the younger members of the squad and having a bench to call on means we might be able to pick up a few extra points and avoid the playoff next year. Given it took us until our 17th competitive match to get a win this year hopefully with a familiar tactic in place we can start a little faster and that will be enough to make a difference too.

[Muttley84]

Greek Youth Adventure - 2018/2019 Review

Our first season in the Greek Superleague wasn't as bad as predicted. We finished 12th in the League Table but we were safe for the better part of the season, never threatened with relegation per-say. Downside is that we lost in the second round of the Cup (the group stage) so we should aim to improve on that to attract some revenues. And we finished 6 places under OFI and that needs to change for the next season. 

The Squad performed pretty well overall, though I do feel we lack the quality of goal scoring, wouldn't mind getting some nice strikers in the intake. Our Season Awards go to veteran striker Leal for the most goals (at his last season playing football), Cale again for the assists and  Rousakis for the highest average rating. Not a lot of impact from the youth players here, with Ntoupis 17a, Stoupakis 17b, Brokalakis 18c or Zoidakis 17c all getting playing time. 

We did lost some players again this season to the free transfers or retired, but they were aging anyway and not a lot better than the youth we currently have. What worries me we have some of the key players refusing to sign new contracts as I won't "bring new players in to help the team grow". But our second Youth Intake was pretty rewarding, though no strikers there, but we needed cover in the DC position and I think we got that pretty good. 

Our Finances are looking pretty good considering how many teams in Greece are marked as Insecure with their finances, and that was reflected by a change in the Youth Development Budget and also by a Facilities Upgrade (just hope this is gonna go all the way and not be cancelled like the last one we had, gonna try and keep the finances good to make sure that doesn't happen - already have over 1 mil. saved from wages and 1 mil. from the transfer budget that I ain't gonna touch). 

Getting a bit headhunted by the end of the season, but they were mainly unattractive teams (though I caused some panic at the club and in the media when I accidentally clicked on honored to be linked with such a high profile job for Platanias). Other than that, me and the board get along just fine, and we established some decent objectives for next season just an attempt to avoid relegation and 2nd round of the cup. I know those might seem a bit unambitious but considering that we are trying to induct our youths in the main team and losing the older players that sounds feasible to be.

On to the next season!

[MADA]

Hi guys, has anyone got the regen hairpacks to work yet?

[Mushtaq]

Are other added on European nations eligible for this? claassen has released another 10 European countries in the Editors forum but just wondering if they are eligible for here?

[Muttley84]

@Duroliponte I know the feeling, but if you first you don't succeed, try harder the second time. Your nation was kinda hard anyway. Good luck in your next plays.

[MCPlay]

Season 11 European Qualifcation Wrap-up

Fixtures

We were handed a pretty tough draw in the second round of CL qualification, KR of Iceland. A Professional team with decent players, they were actually favoured by the bookmakers in both games against us. After 180 minutes without anyone breaking the deadlock we headed in to extra-time. Lee Williams 8B scored twice in as many minutes to see us through in a 2-0 win.

We were then handed a decent draw in the next round, Victoria Plzen of the Czech Republic. This felt like the most beatable team we had drawn at this stage, and I was very hopeful that we could get a result. Unfortunatly it wasn't to be, we were the best team, but a frustrating 1-0 loss away from home gave us a hard task in Wales. We fought hard, and even though we went behind twice we were able to come back to a 3-2 lead. We now needed only one goal and had all the momuntum in the match. Unfortunatly it was Plzen who got the all important goal and it ended 3-3, and for the third year running we were headed to the Europa League play-off.

We drew perhaps the hardest opposition in the play-off, Everton. As Leicester easily dispatched us last year and Everton has a much better team, I had little hope that we could give them a fight. We took the lead at Goodison Park when Coates 6A scored after 19 minutes. Their Welsh star striker then turned it on, and banged in two goals in 6 minutes to turn it to 2-1. Kevin Smith 4D equalised, before their striker, Christopher the Welsh phenom, grabbed his third of the day. The legend that is Huw Price 4A then levelled it in the 80th minute before he assisted Coates 6A for his match-winning goal 2 minutes into overtime. We had won 3-4 at Goodison Park!

We then welcomed Everton to Wales in what promised to be a nervy affair. Coates 6A gave us the lead, but once again their Welsh striker unleashed his fury on his countrymen, scoring twice and making it 1-2. They needed one more goal to advance, and we parked the bus praying to all deities that we would hold on. Then an unlikely hero emerged when our second string left back rose out of the pack on a corner and headed in the equaliser in the 75th minute. They now needed two more goals, and we were able to pack the Box and prevent them from getting them. The ref blew his whistle at 2-2 and we were once again ready for European Group stage football!

It wasn't quite as emotional as the last time we qualified. But beating Everton in the play-off is a great accomplishment in its own right, even though it can't compare to the night in Copenhagen. The group we were handed was a decent one, with two teams I've faced before. Young Boys, Braga and Celtic are our opposition. This is a group were I think its very possible for us to grab some points and hopefully our first win. This will give us a Financial boost and also a great boost to our coefficients!

[Dragoniere]

@Duroliponte tough luck out there.

I'm pretty sure England is the hardest place to start this youth challenge, and requires quite a bit of luck

 

@MCPlay - Congrats! when you get to the next rounds, you really do it with a bang. crazy tie against Everton

[GloryFan2002]

  Decided to start this after being sacked by Osasuna. My team will be Finnish team Atlantis FC

The team was created in 1980 and has won the Suommen Cup in 2001, the same year they were in the Veikkausliga.

No annoying rules as it looks as well as having the current squad (barely) fit into these rules, will be hoping to stay up this first season and after that build up a young team to challenge for promotion. I haven't signed an assistant manager yet so I don't currently know who my best players are will keep you guys updated 

[granarian]

A few people have mentioned England as one of the hardest nations for this challenge, I tried to start in Scotland but it doesn't look too helpful either. 

Can anyone recommend a country that could be regarded as "easier" ? Need all the help I can get!!

[MCPlay]

@granarian I am no expert, but I think a mid-size nation with 2 or less Leagues is considered the "easiest" path. Something like Netherland, Belgium, Poland, Croatia etc. That is definately not to say it's easy, it will still be a great challenge, but you will get to the top of the national league a lot quicker than in f.ex England and from that point it is easier to continue building your team.

[MadCatPT]

@granarian You may also look for fallen giants in countries with 2 leagues, so you may get a club that already has a huge stadium and nice facilities, so you get good talent from the start.

Doing it in England and it's hard to get the money to improve facilities so I get better talent so I can rise the levels. It is an egg and chicken situation but you start without eggs...

[Kaiserwatman]

FC Energie Cottbus 2019/20

3.Liga Champions 2018

League Table  2.Bundesliga Team of the Year  Transfers

Overall a slight improvement from the season before without pulling up any trees within the division . There was plenty of rotation involved as the older generation slowly started to see less game time in a period of change.  Even with that it wasn't really the youth produced during my challenge but more the ones one two years older which have started come into their own . Karbstein and Knechtal are now leading centre halves within the division and will be the rock for the upcoming years. Arash Bararvand 18A won the award for best u17 in German Football. Prolific at underage level I am sure he will turn out decent enough for this level in the years to come.  In the Cup Energie did enjoy a trip to round three before been taught a lesson on how big the gap is , getting hammered 6-1 by RB Leipzig.

A now healthy Bank Balance has seen some improvements within the youth structure with upgrades to recruitment and facilities . Next year will be same as before , hang round midtable without doing much .  Rot Weiß Oberhausen have become an affiliate and hopefully start moving a couple out to the Regionalliga to gain first team experience in the upcoming season.

 

The Class of 20  - Only 3 this time round worthwhile

Nobile         -  Looks a decent utility player able to cover several positions

Zielinksi       - Will be needed in a couple of years as have a few retirements pending in this position

Stahler         - I don't want any more keepers

 

[Vevi]

Only german clubs generate so many 15 yo newgens?

[GloryFan2002]

@Duroliponte Not sure of rep was gonna go for atlantis or santa whichever one came up first and I got Atlantis after 5 reloads

[Shakes]

Preston Athletic -  2018/19 Scottish League 2 - 10th (Survived Relegation Playoff)

League Table | Playoff | Squad

A much better showing this year, up 13 points to 36 on the back of better defense. Having fresh legs to bring on certainly helped too. We started out well and were safe by 7 points at one stage, but a mid season slump saw us fall to the bottom. We still had a chance on the last day of avoiding the playoff, and went 1-0 up, but ended up losing 2-1 to finish bottom by 1 point.

The home leg of the playoff was a 5-0 thumping and that should have made staying alive a formality, but complacency set in and we gave up 4 goals in the return leg to leave us with a tense last 30 minutes.

Player of the Year: Salim Kouider-Aïssa - Our target man came out firing early but kind of faded to close the season. We need him to be more consistent to move us up the table.

Young Player of the Year: (18e) Grant Horn - Youth prospect poacher who took a while to score but had a good late run when our regular went down, including a hat trick in the playoff that turned out to be needed to keep us alive.

Youth Intake

Another intake without any standout players, just plain bad luck to get a couple of these in a row. At this stage of the challenge it's certainly a setback but we'll just have to keep building slowly and see if any of these develop.

The two hopes for next season are pretty obvious - avoid the playoffs and get a better intake. We've got youth & training facility upgrades planned so financially we're doing well, just need to find a star player or two.

[Sanno11]

Ilkeston FC Season 2

League| Squad | Finances| Transfers| Youth Intake

Season Overview

A mixed season and a finishing position that reflected our performances this year. We began really well, beating Chorley (who knocked us out in the play offs last season) 3-0 away from home, we followed this up with a couple of close wins and a draw. Then a couple of mixed results and injuries led me into changing things around. We struggled to pick up wins consistently and found ourselves in 8th position around the mid point of the season. We had lost our most prolific striker Atkinson for 3 months at the beginning of the season and then disaster struck for Ross Hope (YP18b), an Achilles injury ruling him out for 6 months. Our form continued to stutter, picking up wins here and there. With only a slim hope of the playoffs, as soon as the youth intake came in I changed the system to fit the best players, in preparation for next year. Most did admirably and we finished the season with a 5 game unbeaten streak.

The key lesson I learned from this season is that bad results don't always mean bad performances. I need to be more patient, I was too quick trying to fix something that wasn't broken. With a bit more luck on the field and with injuries I think we can hit the playoffs next year.

 

Top Performers

Anthony Dwyer - Due to injuries became the focal point of my attacks for much of the season, he was more than equal to this responsibility, scoring 26 and assisting 10 (Including 5 in 24 mins vs. Halifax)

Ross Hope (YP18b) - Will get a mention here, started the season well (replaced Atkinson) and had scored 12 in 23 games before the injury.

 

Youth Intake

Ilkeston is definitely filled with talent. We received another great bunch of players across a mix of positions. Again several of these will be involved in the first team immediately. Ryan McNamara (YP19a) is an exciting prospect and our set up next season will be adjusted to fit him in.

Ryan McNamara (YP19a) - A right footed, AML, plays best as an inside forward and has great acceleration. His technical stats will need to show improvement. He managed to score 3 goals in his 10 appearances, which is very positive.

Roger Jones (YP19b)- Fighting for a place against McNamara, better technical ability but worse physically. Will be given chances but not first choice.

Connor Bindley (YP19c) - A solid ball winning midfielder with a good work rate, terrible mental stats though.

Nathan Bond (YP19d)- A short centre back, who can play at full back. Great pace which I intend to use in formation with a higher defensive line.

Adam Gould (YP19e) - A wide midfielder with many weaknesses, will need to develop quickly.

Adam Kozluk (YP19f) - A tall goalkeeper who is probably my second best straight away. Will be given a chance.

 

Club overview

We did not manage any improvements, but I am still very content with Ilkeston. Without any cup runs and a less exciting season our finances have suffered this season but we are still very much in control. No players are looking to force a move away from the club so we will go into the next season with a great chance of improvement.

On the staff front we had our assistant manager poached this year and although it seemed harsh to fire my HOYD after the intake we had I couldn't miss out on This Guy who is exceptional at this level and has the 'resolute' personality trait.

 

Summary

A steady season for us and a solid position for us to push on into next year. With a bit more luck and less tinkering I think Ilkeston could be hunting for promotion next year.

 

[MCPlay]

Season 11

Transfers | League Table | Season Review

 

Dafabet Welsh Premier League

Easy win again. To be honest I'e started holidaying most of the games at this point, as the League is a foregone conclusion. We are still looking for an unbeaten season though, accomplishing it will continue to be something to strive for.

Cup runs

A bomb was detonated as 1. division team West End beat us in the second round of the MG Cup. In the Welsh cup we won the final 4-0 against Barry.

Europa League

We were were drawn against Young Boys, Celtic and Braga. I was hopeful that we could grab Our first win in the "real" stage of European footbal, and we didn't disappoint, beating Young Boys 3-1 in Switzerland in the first game of the group. That gave us a belief that we could maybe advance to the knock-out stages, but that proved to be too great a task. We lost the remaining 5 games, but still finished the group in a sweet 3rd place Ahead of Young Boys.

 

 

Youth Setup:
Youth Intake

Gary Griffiths 11A | Simon Griffiths 11B | Gwion Allen 11C

A good intake With 3 5-star prospect. Griffiths 11A Plays right winger, which is a position we're not using currently, I am therefore committed to developing him into a attacking full-back. Griffiths and Allen both look to be first-teamers soon aswell.

 

Notable stuff

Not much here. The seasonal updates will likely be shorter going forward as the league has no real competition or excitement at this point.

TNS watch

I am disbanding the TNS watch as they have been surpassed by several teams in their time under Nathan Self's horrible management. Bala now seems to be the second best team, but there are several teams who are fighting for second.

 

Big Mike Watch

Big Mike scored a personal best 16 goals, and was unfortunatly injured for 2 months while in his finest goalscoring form. Good season from the big fella.

Player of the Year:

Tom Coates 6A

He has been overlooked for a time, a grave mistake on my part as he is now firmly placed as Our best player. He was the top scorer of the League, despite only starting 15 games and coming on for 4 more. He was also my first player to be called-up to the national team, a great accomplishment even though he didn't get on the field. Unfortunatly he won't renew his contract as he is determined to go on to greater Things, but we will have the pleasure of his company for one last season.

.

[Sn00gle]

15 hours ago, Vevi said:

Only german clubs generate so many 15 yo newgens?

If I remember good in France you got 14-15 yo intake aswell if we talking about Europe

[MCPlay]

Season 12 European Qualification Wrap-Up

Fixtures

We faced Aktobe of Kazakhstan in the second round, winning easily 7-0 on aggregate. From there we were drawn against Austia Wien of, you guessed it, Austria. Huw Price 4A gave us a really nice 1-0 win away, and when Tom Coates 6A gave us the lead at home we felt in Control. However 2 early second half goals saw Austria Wien advance on away goals in a heartbreaker.

Feyenoord  was our opposition in the Europa League play-off, and as our Balance were dwindling we really needed to advance if we wanted to keep expanding the club. We played a thight 1-1 match at home, which gave us a less than desirable result to take to the Netherlands. They stomped us 3-0 in the away tie, With their captain Kristoffer Ajer scoring a hat-trick.

Once again we are on the outside looking in at the aristocracy of European football.

 

 

[MCPlay]

Season 12

Transfers | League Table | Season Review (forgot to screenshot)

 

Dafabet Welsh Premier League

7 in a row for Haverfordwest and our best Points tally, With 85. My Assistant manager got manager of the year, as he took charge of approx 70% of my games this year, good for him

Cup runs

We lost the final of the MG Cup 1-0 against TNS and the horrible Nathan Self, it was an embarrasment for the entire club. Won the Welsh Cup final 3-0 against Llangefni.

 

 

Youth Setup:
Youth Intake

Callum Hart 12A | Rory Cooper 12B

Not much here, 2 4-star prospect who might well become first-teamers in the future, but overall it looks like a poor intake.

 

Big Mike Watch

An injury ravaged year saw Big Mike only start 8 league games this year scoring once. We might be moving a bit away from him as a starter as we're trying to adopt a more "Continental" brand of play With the increasing quality in our Squad. But Big Mike will allways have a place in our team as an impact sub and all around awesome person.

Player of the Year

Huw Price 4A

The legend had a very nice season, calming the nerves of Haverfordwest-supporters as Coates 6A is set to leave. As long as Huw is in the Squad we will be in great shape. 32 league goals and 14 assist in 32 league games tells the story of a great season. Coates 6A got his Wales-debut and was named Welsh player of the year, With Huw coming in Third. This award is usually dominated by players in the Premier League, so for my guys to take up two spots was great. After the season Coates 6A left us on free transfer, and became our first graduate to go to a decent team in England as championship side Blackburn picked him up. We are happy that he got the big move that he wanted, and hope to see him banging in goals in the national team for years to come.

[brettney1980]

So i fancied jumping into a Youth Challenge this year as.....

 

 

FC Sakhalin Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk

 

..and for those of you wondering where Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk is on a map...

 

 

Right over there near Japan!

With that out the way, here's me. The club's background and the Squad!

 

First thoughts: The Squad is old, lets try and survive.

[MCPlay]

Season 12 European Qualification Wrap-Up

Fixtures

We smacked Valletta of Malta in the second round of qualification, and were then drawn against our superiors from last year Austria Wien. Could we get our revenge after that painful loss?

It all started great in Austria as we totally outplayed them, racking up 7 Clear cut chances, and looking a class above. However we could only get 2 goals past their goalie, and when they drew one back at the end, anything could still happen as we travelled back to Wales. A good result, but we really should have made our domination count more.

They got an early goal and the tension increased tenfold across Wales. But then the legend stepped forward and turned it all around, scoring twice and giving us the lead. In the 80th minute one of their midfielders picked up a second yellow, and they had to finish the game with 10 men. 11 v 10 and a 2 goal cushion, what could go wrong?

EVERYTHING CAN GO WRONG. Their striker scored two great goals, in the 83rd and 88th minute. We were pushing for a winning goal in overtime, but the ball refused to go in. The ref blew his whistle and we had lost in heart shattering fashion, I couldn't believe my eyes.

 

We got the best possible Draw in the Europa League play-off, Pacos Ferreira of Portugal. Once again we played great away from home, beating them handily 1-3. Could we hold on at home this time? They scored an early goal, but thankfully we were able to shut up shop and it petered out in a 0-1 loss and we are back in Europe!

To lose out in the Champions League qualifier like that hurt like crazy, but advancing through to the Europa League was a decent consolation prize, and very much needed for our finances.

[Dan BHTFC]

Profile - Club Info - Facilities - Finances

 

After trying to get Santa Claus in Finland I gave up and decided on a Scottish adventure instead, I'm taking over at Yarrow Park, home of Selkirk, with a small squad to start with it's going to be tough!

[Mushtaq]

Finally got the team I wanted to come up in Wales - Denbigh Town. Will wait to see how season one goes though before posting. Although I will mention @MCPlay that I have started with two wins in the cup and league against Haverfordwest 

[MCPlay]

@Mushtaq Great to have some company in Wales, best of luck! Hopefully Haverfordwest will put you in your place next  time around

[Shakes]

@QSF25 - If you follow the recommended setup of top players from Europe you stock all the teams in the Champions League without slowing the processing down by having a bunch of leagues you aren't going to play in, so there's really no point loading anything other than the league you plan to play. I agree it probably doesn't provide any significant advantage/disadvantage though, so if you're set on it I don't see a problem with it.

[Muttley84]

Greek Youth Adventure - Season 3

Our second season in the Greek Superleague and it wasn't so bad for us. We managed to push up another 2 places and finished in 10th (beating the prediction of finishing last in the league). A better run in the Cup also where we went all the way to the semi-finals and got eliminated by PAOK (which seems to be the new power in Greek Football winning their second straight title). We still haven't  managed to finish above OFI but have closed the gaps between the two teams a bit.

Our Players performed pretty well this season, with the Season Awards going to Kaimakamoudis for the top scorer, assists and most man of the matches and Micheel for the highest average rating. On the downside during this summer we did lost two of our best players (GK and AML) to the Free Agency as they didn't want to sign new contracts. So next season gonna be harder if our youths don't step in their shoes and perform well. 3 of them already managed to break in the best team of the season, those being A Mara 18d, T Tzanakis 18a and the regular C Ntoupis 17a.

Pretty good Youth Intake for us, happy to finally get that DM we needed so much (for some matches we had to play this season with an AMC as we didn't have any viable options in the DM position). The Youth Development and Facilities at the club starting to look better. Although I didn't knew you could have a Youth Upgrade in the middle of another one? Not sure if that's a bug or my Boardroom going Trump on me. Will just have to wait and see. Finances never looked better and that's motivates me, If i can hang in the first division till the youths develop a bit maybe we can get somewhere with this team. I am predicting a much harder season but I don't fear relegation (although board expectation is still fight against it).

[Shakes]

Well I couldn't manage a third time lucky. Found ourselves in the relegation playoff again, and this time we lost in extra time. I think 3 years finishing bottom each time is about as bad as you can do, so frustrating to have a squad that was worst in nearly every category on the comparison screen and not get any youth that would improve it.

Not going to jump straight back in, need to recover from how brutal those 3 season were to play through. 

[LethalTexture]

On 06/11/2016 at 21:54, smp20 said:

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

Hi there, do you happen to remember when the reset date was for Bulgaria? I'm thinking of doing a save with Maritsa Plovdiv pretty soon.

[darren1983]

Since my less than successful attempt with Dynamo Berlin I have been having a bash at Dafuge challenge, while it has been going well, this challenge has been like an itch I can't get rid of, and reading through the thread while also playing my game has made me miss it, so am back and trying an even harder challenge by going to England with Dulwich Hamlet. We have a media prediction of 2nd in our first season so that might create some early pressure. 

Me (and yes I have modelled myself on an image of Pep - if you're gonna try and do this why not try and emulate the great man?  )