FM17 Youth Academy Challenge

[Dragoniere]

19 minutes ago, darren1983 said:

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?  )

Lead them to greatness, Darren Guardiola

[darren1983]

32 minutes ago, Dragoniere said:

Lead them to greatness, Darren Guardiola

Haha, thank you, I shall do my best.

Seems the previous manager made a couple of signings before I kicked him out.

[darren1983]

Edit: scrape all that, game crashed just at the start of the season and no save point from when I took over so have to do it all over again  

[Bartrcm]

Racing Mechelen - 1th division - Season 2020-2021

 

Prediction: 16th

Final position: 15th

Play-offs: 4th

We had a terrible season, and we only survived due to the fact that Antwerp were that awfull. They only won their first game in game 21 of the season. We picked up the most points in the first half of the season, but our football was terrible. After the winter break we played better but picked up less points. With 5 games to go we needed a win against our city rivals to secure safety. And this is the result of that game. We just humiliated them, and secured safety in best way you can do.

At the end of the season, we were 15th, and due to the system in Belgium we still had a chance on European football. All the teams from 1-6 play the champions play-off, and the teams between places 7-15 play with 3 teams of 2nd division for a chance on the last European ticket. And we were drawn again with our city rivals in the group. We drew twice, what means that we haven't lost against them in the whole season. Because I was very sure that we weren't good eough in these play-offs I played most of our youth players, and actually they did it very good. That gives me some hope on a better performance next season.

 

Games 1

Games 2

Cup: eliminated in the 7th round. Again against our first 1th division team we had to play.

 

Tranfers: None

Youth intake: Overall the worst intake, but we get 2 good prospect in places that we needed badly.

Milo Van de Velde (YP3a): DR, played in the play-offs and will play first team next season.

Jef Bosmans (YP3b): AML, straight into the starting 11. I have high hopes on him.

Cheikhou N'Diaye (YP3c): DC, only tagged because I don't have a lot DC's. U19 next season, and don't have the feeling he has first team potential.

 

Finances: Terrible. Lost more money during the season. I don't know how I can change this in the future. The board invested a lot, so we even lose more money than the grafic shows.

 

Goals last season:

Survive: SUCCES

Better finnaces: FAILURE

Goals next season:

Survive:

Better finances:

 

[Bartrcm]

Racing Mechelen - 1th division - Season 2021-2022

 

Predicted: 16th

Final position: 11th

Play-offs: 4th (sorry forgot to take a screenshot)

 

After our last end of the season, I was sure that we would have a better season. And that was correct, we survived pretty easy, and were never in any relegation fight. We finished on a very good 11th position. We also finished higher than our city rivals, and I think that happend for the first time in more than 40 years. So the supporters, manager and board are very happy at the moment.

In the play-offs I played again my new youngsters, and we finished again in 4th position, but we earned more points than last season.

 

Games 1:

Games 2:

Cup: WINNERS. We did the impossible. We won the cup for the first time in our history. I have to admit that we had a easy run during the whole adventure. All the big teams were eliminated very early. The only big team that we faced were Lokeren (Tycoon 

          owned). But te sweetest win was the QF against our city rivals. Due to this win, we are allready qualified for the Europe league group stages. The money will be very good, but we are definitly not ready for Europe at the moment, but we will enjoy this

          european adventure.

 

Transfers: None

Youth intake: Nothing special, and perhaps the worst intake in this challenge.

Glenn Mertens (YP4a): DC, U19 next season.

Ryan Claessens (YP4b): MC, due to the lack of options he will start next season. Played very good in the play-offs.

Bigger Mutombo (YP4c): DL, back up next season.

Finances: We have very good finances at the moment. Reason for that is the fact that we had a takeover during the season. At the moment of the takeover I wasn't very happy that they took a new loan to clear out our debts, but at the end it was an incredible

                  thing. Another positive thing was that we played the final of the cup for a bg crowd earning us almost 1M. End of season money was also good. Next season our finances should be even better due to the European money.

                  Due to this good finances, we finally could upgrade youth and training facilities, youth recruitement. The future looks a bit better at the moment.

Goals this season:

Survive: SUCCES

Better finances: SUCCES

Goals next season:

Mid-table finish

Don't be humiliated in Europe.

Have another cup run.

[Bartrcm]

Racing Mechelen - 1th division - Season 2022-2023

 

Predicted: 16th

Actual finish: 6th (and look who got relegated. )

Champions play-off: 4th (again no screenshot, sorry)

 

After our cup succes of last year, we started the season with the super cup. We lost against last season champions Club Brugge, but we didn't play that bad.

What a season. We were almost the whole season in the top-6. And for the first time in the challenge we could defeat a couple of the big teams. At the end of the season we finished 6th, and qualified for the champions play-off. Just unbelievable. Top-4 in the champions play-off will play European football next season, and the team in 5th position has to play a final game against the winner of the teams between 7 and 15 in the European play-offs. So our goal was to go at least 1 place up during the champions play-off. And we did what we had to do. We played some good football, and finished in a well earned 4th position. We play Europe again next season, but we have to play at least 2 qualifing round to reach the group stages. I don't think I will be seeded next season, so it will be a tough challenge.

 

Games 1:

Games 2:

Cup: what a disappointment. In the 7th round the draw wasn't very kind for us, and we got elmiminated by Standard

EURO cup: We had a very tough draw, with Southampton, CSKA Moscou and Braga as opponents. Every point in this group would be seen as a succes. We ended the group stage in 3th position after a win against Braga, and 2 draws against again Braga and

                    CSKA Moscou.

 

Transfers: None

Youth intake: After our first upgrades we got our best intake until now. 5 players were tagged, and when they develop well they all could become first teamers.

Lukas Maes (YP5a): DM, but will be retrained as a DC. In our tactics we don't play with a DM.

Albert Bosmans (YP5b): AMC, back up next season.

Eddy Vermerien: (YP5c): DC, U19 next season

Daniel De Smet (YP5d): GK, U19 next season.

Bjorn Goossens (YP5e): DC, U19 next season. Tagged him due to his high determination.

 

Finances: Again better than last season. We could upgrade the youth and training facilities again.

 

Goals last season:

Mid-table finish: SUCCES

Don't be humiliated in Europe: SUCCES

Have another cup run: FAILURE

Goals next season:

Qualify for Europe

Qualify for the EURO cup group stages

[Jintro]

@Bartrcm The takeover of the city is complete, the rest of the challenge is just a nice extra  Good job on getting into Europe two years in a row.

[Bartrcm]

@Jintro Thanks.

[Muttley84]

Greek Youth Adventure - Season 4

And the best so far. Seems that my fears of having to many unprepared youths in the squad turned out to be wrong, as we did pretty well in the Superleague and finished around our usual position in 11th. What changed is our Cup run where we went all the way to the Greek Cup Final where we meet AEK. It was a thriller match, with balanced possession, a few more changes on their part but we won in the penalties 10-9!!! Next year we are qualified for the Europa League Group Stages. Cha-ching (sound of money rolling down into our budget). Oh, sweet life.

Our Squad did pretty good this season, with the Awards going to Kaimakamoudis (for goals, assists and mom) but also notable mentions go to Stoupakis 18b (our main Gk and most matches this season but doesn't want to sign a new contract),  Ieronimakis 18b (same goals in no 1), Agrimakis 18f (highest season average and young player of the season -  a proof that not the best rated prospects end up to be the best players at the club), Ntoupis 17a or Zonas 19b (mom).  No Transfer activities besides the usual release of older players.  Nothing special in the Youth Intake this year, but finances so far allowed us to sign every prospect and see how they develop in time.

Great news from the board as our Upgrades have finally finished, and now we are looking like this. Overall our Finances look pretty good. Next year Expectations looking pretty realistic, and although I would love another season in Europe I doubt it we can repeat the cup run or end higher enough in the League for that. Our European Group looks so tough with Roma, Salzburg and Alkmaar that I doubt it we will make any points, just don't embarrass ourselves will do for me.

[Bartrcm]

Great season @Muttley84. Congrats on qualifying for Europe.

[darren1983]

We were 4 points clear at the top before this run of form

 

We're now 6 points behind  

[darren1983]

@Bartrcm congrats on the progress, 2 season's in a row in Europe is great

@Muttley84 congrats on the cup and getting into Europe. 

[MCPlay]

Hi guys. I'm having a bit trouble keeping up my motivation, seeing as the quality of competetion in the welsh league is so poor. For the last couple of years I've pretty much holidayed every league game. This makes the game progress fast which is nice, but it feels a bit hollow. Anyone experienced the same feeling, and have any tips for how to keep going?

[Bartrcm]

@darren1983 Thanks, but that's a terrible run. I hope you have a bit more luck in your next games. You still can do it.

 

[darren1983]

21 minutes ago, Bartrcm said:

@darren1983 Thanks, but that's a terrible run. I hope you have a bit more luck in your next games. You still can do it.

 

Cheers, yeah was a shocking run, came as we lost our GK and RB for a few weeks. It picked up though as my next post will indicate...

[darren1983]

Dulwich Hamlet - Vanarama South - Season 2017/18

 

League Table - FA Cup - FA Trophy - Transfers - Squad - Finances

 

A wonderful season in the end as we secured the title by 5 points. If I'm to achieve this challenge in England then I think a couple of early promotions are key so that I can get to the football league and turn professional and before the finances start to really bite (bar getting a cup run/big sale) we flew out the traps this season winning our 2nd game of the season 5-0 and followed that up with an 8-2 win away to Truro (they must hate us we beat them 7-1 in the return fixture) Bishops Stortford were the only team that was keeping pace with us but as the new year came and went we held a nice 4 point lead before we went on a run that saw us win only one of 9 (8 in the league) and drop to 2nd. As out GK and RB found fitness the team recovered to win 5 of the last 7 games to win the league. We were helped hugely by Bishops Stortford failing to win any of their last 9 (losing only 3 but crucially one of those was against us) and they would go on to fail in the playoffs as well. In our final game of the season I was able to give debuts to 4 players that came in this year's youth intake and all done pretty well in a 0-0 draw.

Cups

In the FA Cup we done ok but were totally FM'd in the 4th qualifying round. In the FA Trophy I felt we actually had a chance in this but we were knocked out during the middle of our poor run.

Finances

Really good for this level, helped hugely by the sale of young GK Adam Cherry who attracted the interest of half the Championship - we managed to hold out for £400K and 50% of any future sale (we got £250k for him first time around but a crash meant I had to start again and I pushed my luck by asking for more this time) There were also a couple of deals in place when I took over the club.

Youth Intake

Not a great one with only one guy who looks to have real potential

Vengelis Bosganas YP1A - will be used as a wide man, did well on his debut

I also tagged 4 others, not because they look great but with their personalities I think they have the best chances of maybe becoming players for a season or two.

Gheorghe Matei YP1B - will look to hold him to the DM role as we don't have great cover there. Made his debut already & was solid
Rory Weston YP1C - left winger, provides cover.
Bradley Humphrey YP1D - striker, will be no more than cover but again it's needed. Also Made his debut, played 90 mins but didn't score
Kwame Boateng YP1E - left back where we again need the cover, also looked solid on his debut

Career Overview

Season		League		Position	Achievements

2017/18		VNS		1st		Champions

Next Season

Stay up 
Give some more game time to the youngsters

 

[Bartrcm]

@darren1983 Congrats with the promotion.

[Shakes]

@MCPlay - Maybe you need to set ambitious goals for yourself. See if you can get a striker to do the Danny Roberts challenge (1000 career goals)? If you're rolling through the league that should be possible with the right player, and would be amazing to achieve it in a youth challenge.

@darren1983 - Nice job, Dulwich Hamlet are definitely the most realistic prospect to do this in England, but you still have to execute and you did.

[darren1983]

2 hours ago, Bartrcm said:

@darren1983 Congrats with the promotion.

Cheers, thought that run had blown it.

58 minutes ago, Shakes said:

 

@darren1983 - Nice job, Dulwich Hamlet are definitely the most realistic prospect to do this in England, but you still have to execute and you did.

Yeah Dulwich seemed a realistic (as realistic as this challenge is of course) team that may attempt something like this.

First month in the national league isn't going so well - P4 W0 D1 L3 Ouch  

[Shakes]

@darren1983 - I feel like in England the step up to the Conference National is the biggest other than to the Premier League. The couple of times I've tried this challenge in England I've given up after relegation back down from there.

Still not sure where I want to go, have been trying loading Israel for something different but a couple of high rep clubs keep hogging the promotions and the clubs I am trying to get never come up.

[AFH]

going to start this in France. why is adding players from top clubs in Europe recommended?

[The_Gato_In_Goal]

9 minutes ago, AFH said:

going to start this in France. why is adding players from top clubs in Europe recommended?

It gives you more of a challenge once you get into European competitions.

[darren1983]

Looks like a pretty hard Brexit with even Irish players needed work permits 

Be interesting to see how this affects the game world, will any potentially great young players be harder to keep now. 

[Dragoniere]

Big congrats to all you title holders!

Nice pace of titles this time around in the challenge

[MCPlay]

Season 13 European Qualifcation Wrap-up

Fixtures

After a couple of days of struggling with motivation we are back at it. After a good suggestion from @Shakes I will try to incorporate a couple of other challenges into this one to keep the domestic games from becoming stale. So from here on we will try to implement the Danny Roberts Challenge, the Longevity Challenge and hopefully the Big Fat Goalie-challenge. At this point Huw Price 4A is my top scorer all time with 244 goals, he just turned 26 years old so it's unlikely that he will come Close to the 1000 goals required for the Danny Roberts Challenge. I have a couple of other up and comers that will hopefully get closer to the 1000 goal mark, but for the time being we will see how many Huw will bang in during his career. Our captain Emyr Boyle 2D has the most appearances all time with 413, at 27 years old and with him not being a starter anymore, he wont Reach 1000 games. For the goalie Challenge we are going to need a goalie that is both fat and good at free-kicks and penalties. Our goalie at this point is neither.

On to the Champions League qualifiers, were we had a good time. After strolling by Cliftonville we drew Scottish giants Celtic. We won 3-2 at home thanks to a last minute winner by "Danny Roberts-Challenger" Davies 10D. We went into the dying moments of the away fixture Down 2-1 and needing a goal, when Gwion Price 5A popped up with a great long-range effort to make it 2-2. We are trough to the Champions League play-off for the second time in our 13 Seasons!

The play-off wasn't nearly as heart-racing as the last time we were here, but it was still a great couple of games. We were drawn against Israeli side Maccabi Tel-Aviv. We travelled to Israel and went home with an easy 2-0 win in the bag. The story of the home game was quite different, and when they got their goal in the 61st minute it was well deserved. They pressured us like crazy the last half hour, but we hung on. For the second time Haverfordwest will be playing in the Champions League!

The last time we qualified for the CL we were completely outmatched, losing all 6 games with a goal difference of 2-37. Hopefully we'll be a bit more competetive this time around, maybe picking up a point or two on the way.

[MCPlay]

If only Davies 10D could score like this every match, he would Reach 1000 goals in no time. Hat-trick in 1 minute 22 seconds

[Dragoniere]

@MCPlay - Great to see you back with drive.

Great job beating Maccabi Tel Aviv, my hated team IRL

Good luck in the CL. You will definitely do better this time around, I wonder just how much

[Vevi]

Any of you who already played minimum 4-5 seasons can paste the photo to show us how changed your personal attributes?

[AFH]

8 hours ago, The_Gato_In_Goal said:

It gives you more of a challenge once you get into European competitions.

ok,thanks  

[darren1983]

@MCPlay Glad you've stuck around, can imagine it's a little frustrating after Europe is done just waiting around for the next season.

[darren1983]

Dulwich Hamlet - Vanarama National - Season 2018/19

League Table - FA Cup - FA Trophy - Transfers - Squad - Finances

 

What a fantastic season this turned out to be, with only 1 win from our first 7 games I thought this would be a real struggle, but when star forward Daniel Carr returned from injury our form picked up and we started to string wins together. After losing away to Braintree on the 8th of December we wouldn't lose another league game till the last game of February, a run of 10 games where we only conceded 3 goals. With 8 or 9 games to go we were 6 points and 4 places off the final playoff place so I started to give our youngsters from our first intake games time, but injuries elsewhere (including  top scorer Carr for the final 6 weeks) meant that not all of them got the time I was looking for, however despite playing (at times) 4 or 4 17/18 year olds we went into the final game of the season in 6th place just a point away from Boreham Wood in the final playoff place, we needed to beat Sutton and hope Boreham Wood drop points - they did their part with a 3-3 draw but we could only draw 1-1 away to Sutton, Aldershot (who started the day in 7th) beat then 3rd place Tranmere to leap frog us both and grab the final playoff spot (they would also win the playoffs) a slight disappointment in missing ut of the playoffs but a 7th place finish in our first season at this level is nothing to be sniffed at.

Cups

In the FA Cup were fell at the first hurdle after a replay to eventual league winners Ebbsfleet. While in the FA Trophy we were smashed but lower league Hampton & Richmond in a game where we just didn't turn up. 

Transfers - none in or out this season.

Finances - not bad, lost around 40k for the season, a good cup run would be nice

Youth Intake

Seems I forgot to take a picture of the youth intake this year which is really annoying. I did tag 5 players though and did remember to take screenshots of all of them at least.

Leon Brown YP02A - brightest prospect, in an area we need (we only have 3 senior CBs 1 of who is retiring this season) so will probably get some game time next season.
Les Nicholls YP02B - looks a solid player, will share the 3rd CB spot with Brown
James Daly YP02C - right back that looks well suited to our need of flying full backs, our first choice is 29 so will hope Daly can step up
Nicky Pollock YP02D - GK, our first choice is pretty solid but Pollock could develop
Elliot Andrews YP02E - coaches think he's a target man but as I don't play with one I think he could make a solid inside forward

Career Overview

Season		League		Position	Achievements

2017/18		VNS		1st		Champions
2018/19		VNL		7th		

Next Season

Stay up again, not looking for anything more than 50 points again.
Give more kids game time
Try and have a cup run

 

[Dan BHTFC]

SELKIRK FC - SEASON ONE - 2017/18

League Table - Transfers - Finances - Youth Intake

 

It was a tough first season, my squad wasn't big enough and we struggled. 1 transfer happened before I took over but we were still way short. WE had an ok start to the season but injuries hit us and we just didn't have the quality of players so we finished bottom of the table. We managed to beat Cove Rangers in the Relegation Play-Off but we know we will need to improve next season, my main aim is to finish 9th next year.

[Muttley84]

Greek Youth Adventure - Season 5

So, our first season in Europe was a blast. We had a pretty difficult group on our hands but we showed a lot of consistency in the Europa League. I mean if 6 straight loses and 3-24 goals isn't consistency than I don't know the meaning of that English word. I also think we had the thrashing of the season in Europe, but we didn't expected much from the European cups anyway. Unfortunately we weren't able to repeat our performance in the Greek Cup as we lost in the QF in front of eventual winners Olympiakos. By now you will be wondering how we did in the Superleague. Finished in 4th, our best position so far, and qualified for the European places playoffs, where we managed to scrap a 3th position which allows us to enter the qualifying stages next season (though with our bad coefficient we need some luck in the draw to qualify again to the groups). 

The Squad performed pretty good in this season, as we only have 4 players in the first 11 which are not products of our youth academy. Season Awards go to Micheel (highest average rating), Zonas 19b (top goalscorer and man of the match), Ntoupis 17a (most assists),  Tzanakis 18a (young player of the season) with a honorable mentions to Mara 18d (a rock in the back this season). Decent Youth Intake for the season, but have to start thinking about playing the youths in the reserves or loaning them out as not all of them can get into the first team anymore. I am still signing all of them to contracts on long term, just to see how they develop in the long term, seeing we can afford to do that. Some Transfers out this season, including our first sale of youth product, for the fortune of 11k. 

European campaign made our Finances look pretty good, with prize money of over 3.5 million we actually managed to make a profit of 1.5 million, that should make the board pretty happy. And they show their gratitude by upgrading the youth facilities at the club - and again upgrading (still don't know if a bug or something else). 

The cherry on top of the season? Being named Manager of the Year. Next season objectives - consolidate our position as an European Club.

[darren1983]

My Brexit means the end of the bosman rule, should add an interesting wrinkle to this save. 

[darren1983]

Congrats on another strong season @Muttley84

[Muttley84]

7 hours ago, darren1983 said:

Congrats on another strong season @Muttley84

Thanks, although not entirely my credit there. Feel like this one of the perfect countries for this challenge: decent money and average facilities to start with, not that huge difference going up the leagues, good regens. I can see England being 10X tougher and hope you will hang in there and slowly climb up

[Dragoniere]

14 hours ago, darren1983 said:

My Brexit means the end of the bosman rule, should add an interesting wrinkle to this save. 

I think this is the worst possible brexit so far in terms of changes.

 

But coming to think about it, great brexit for youth challenge managers - even the guys who don't want to renew their contract bring in money when they leave

[BillHoudini24]

I was thinking about restarting this challenge, because of some issues on the Greek Leagues. One question though. Why are added leagues banned from this thread? I was thinking about playing in San Marino, after their incredible response to Thomas Muller's comments about their level.

[padula]

 

Hendon FC ~ 2017/18 Season

League Table ~ Transfers ~ Finances ~ Squad ~ Facilities

Gino Padula's first season as Hendon boss ended with an 18th placed finish and survival. We had a difficult start, exacerbated by an injury crisis up front. Star striker Tom Ashton tore his groin in pre-season keeping him out until early October, second choice Karl Oliyide was perennially picking up small knocks in the early part of the season, necessitating the use of veteran journeyman Kezie Ibe. Ibe started the season well, scoring a brace in the second game of the season to get us our first points but then did his ACL in the following match forcing him into early retirement. With all 3 senior strikers injured, I was forced to use Hendon stalwart Casey Maclaren (primarily a holding midfielder) in a false 9 role, with mixed results. The return of Ashton saw a fleeting improvement, but most of the season was spent between 14th and 19th, scrapping for occasional victories but generally being outscored by the division's superior sides. Defensive vulnerabilities really told, and with Luke Tingey, our best centreback, the Buckinghamshire Cannavaro, being just 5"8, we seemed to concede a lot from set plays. The 5-0 away win over eventual play off semi-finalists Dartford was a rare highlight in an otherwise bleak season.

A loss in the 3rd qualifying round of the FA Cup to a 10 men St Albans side was very frustrating, but defeat in the FA trophy first round to National League Premier side Aldershot was far more palatable. The lack of a cup run has seen our finances drop into "insecure", at around £105k in the red. This has put an end to any hope of improving our meagre facilities. Here's hoping a generous rich oligarch comes along and fancies investing in the youf.

Aims for the next season

Top Performers

Tom Ashton - Wonderful season from him. 20 goals, in such a poor team, and after missing the first 9 games of the season is remarkable. It is almost solely down to him that I still harbour some, probably misplaced, hopes of a play-off push next season. His one on one finishing at this level is deadly, but he also scored 2 or 3 goal of the season contenders from long range.

Andre De Costa - When Ashton was injured at the start of the season, a lot of the responsibility fell on De Costa to get the goals. He got 4 in the opening 2 months, and was an important source of assists and goals throughout the season.

Christian Toonga - Started every league game, barely missed a minute and reached 10 assists for the season at the age of 20. Has the potential to play at a higher level, and hopefully can continue his form next season

Youth Intake

Not good. Perhaps too much to ask to get anyone immediately capable of playing at this level, but the lack of anyone in the 4/5 star potential bracket is really disappointing.

Michael Kelly is rated as the best prospect in the intake, and will be given game time in the FA Trophy and early FA Cup games to test himself.

Dan Atkinson has solid physicals, and I like his teamwork and workrate. It was a big mistake to give him his debut at centreback in the final game of the season, he was torn apart by a strikerofrce including a 39 year old Kevin Lisbie, but is an able understudy to senior LB Tom Bird.

Chris Willis is an excellent set piece taker at this level, something that my side is otherwise sorely lacking. Made regular cameos in the last month or so of the season

[MCPlay]

Season 14

 

Dafabet Welsh Premier League

9 in a row. Lost a game after 61 games unbeaten, which was disappointing. It was the last dominant team of Wales that stopped our streak, TNS.

Cup runs

Won both cups. Had a Club record 13-0 tie against Gresford were Davies 10D scored 7 goals. Great for his quest to 1000.

Champions League

We were pretty satisfied With a Draw that saw us take on CSKA Moscow, Anderlecht and Real Madrid. We felt like we could pick up our first CL-Points, but after 5 games we had been unable to do so. We didnt concede more than 3 goals in any game, which was a massive improvement from the last time we tried our hand at the CL. In the last game wee welcomed Anderlecht to Wales, the "easiest" game of the tournament. And we were able to secure a 1-1 Draw and claim our first CL-point. The -11 goal difference matches the goal difference from 1 of our games last time in CL, when we lost 12-1 at Old Trafford. So we're going in the right direction

 

 

Youth Setup:

Youth Intake

Peter James 14A | Dave Owen 14B

Decent intake. No 5-star prospects, but a nice central defender and a goalie With free kick rating of 9. He is now my first Choice goalkeeper in the League, as I am trying to incorporate the Big Fat Goalie Challenge. My best goalkeeper will still play the CL matches, as I can't afford to mess around there.

 

Big Fat Goalie Challenge:

Started the season With Richie Price 11D as my League goalie, as he had higher penalty and free kick rating than my best goalie Griffiths 7B. Price 11D scored 4 goals this season, the first one a beautiful long range free-kick. When Owen 14B came through the youth intake, he was instated as the fat goalie. He missed 2 of his first 3 penalties and didn't score any free-kicks. Hopefully I can improve his penalty rating.

Richie Price 11D - 4 Goals

Dave Owen 14B - 1 Goal

Longevity Challenge:

The aim in this Challenge is to get players to 1000 appearances for the club. We're currently playing just over 50 games a season, so it will require an incredibly injury-free player 20 Seasons to do it.

Most appearances:

Emyr Boyle 2D - 441 Appearances

Huw Price 4A - 381 Appearances

Ones to watch:

Callum Hart 12A - 66 Appearances

Rory Cooper 12B - 51 Appearances

 

Danny Roberts Challenge

The aim in this Challenge is to get a player to score 1000 goals during his career, national team goals count.

Most goals:

Huw Price 4A - 287 goals in 381 games. 45 goals this season

Jacob Davies 10D - 90 goals in 81 games. 55 goals this season despite being injured for 2 months.

Jacob Davies 10D might just be able to do this, unfortunatly it is unlikely that he will rack up a lot of international goals as he probably won't become an international starter. He is however called up regularly, but has yet to make his debut.

[Dan BHTFC]

SELKIRK FC - SEASON TWO - 2018/19

League Table - Transfers - Finances - Cup Results - Youth Intake (Forgot to take screenshot) 

 

Once again another tough season but a good set of results towards the end of the season meant we didn't finish bottom, still going to be tough to move up the table without a good youth intake.

[Vevi]

@MCPlay can you show me your profile? I mean your personal attributes. Im wondering how they changed from beginning

[MCPlay]

@Vevi Sure, here you go! Seems most attributes have changed. I think I had put all my points into working With youngsters when I started out, and it was at 4 back then too. Dicipline and adaptability are also unchanged I think. Maybe dicipline has gone up by one

[AFH]

Étoile Football Club Fréjus Saint-Raphaël

SEASON 1 - 2017/18

Starting Profile - Transfers (two completed before I joined the club)

Championnat National - 13th 

We were only 4 points clear from the relegation zone but I feel we were quite comfortable in reality. I tried using youngsters in the last few games which we ended up losing . The league was quite tight really and I was only 8 points from 6th.

French Cup - 9th Round

Not much to say here. Met the board's expectations, lost when we first came up against good opposition. Maybe we could put a run together next year.

--

Youth Intake:

Jean-Luc Santini (18a) - looks like he has really good potential considering our level and should develop nicely into a great striker for us, which is important as we don't have great depth there. Have already received bids from a number of Ligue 2 sides for him.

Noureddine Yousfi (18b) - I love managing in France because the players have brilliant names. Noureddine will be useful as we have poor depth at CB and he could help one day.

--

Key Players:

Akim Orinel - the heartbeat of our team at AMC. Chipped in with 11 assists and 3 important goals in all appearances. Will need to get a decent AMC in an intake as he's getting on a bit now

Belony Dumas - was amazing at the back for us and made it into the Team of the Season. He even scored a hattrick one match, no idea how to be honest

--

Next season's aims:

1.  Push for a midtable finish
2.  Get past 9th Round in the cup
3.  Give playing time to the youth prospects, especially Santini

 

[darren1983]

14 hours ago, Muttley84 said:

Thanks, although not entirely my credit there. Feel like this one of the perfect countries for this challenge: decent money and average facilities to start with, not that huge difference going up the leagues, good regens. I can see England being 10X tougher and hope you will hang in there and slowly climb up

Yeah think England is going to mean this is my only save for FM17. Safe to say this is a long term challenge  

6 hours ago, Dragoniere said:

I think this is the worst possible brexit so far in terms of changes.

 

But coming to think about it, great brexit for youth challenge managers - even the guys who don't want to renew their contract bring in money when they leave

Yeah if this was a non youth save I'd be annoyed with this but in this type of save I think it adds to it.

Am loving the challenge so far but I've got so much work on this week it's going to be Friday or Saturday before I can really get back playing  

[Vevi]

@darren1983    IMO you should simulate with this Brexit rules next 30-35 years and then all we can check what will happen with ENG Premier League and English Clubs in the near future   .

I know it will be only simulation but I think many people wait for the save of the game like this

Ofc before you start - you should add Serie A, Bundesliga, Primera D., Ligue 1, Liga NOS and Eredivisie...

 

Anyway GL with career 

[Dragoniere]

Good luck in France, @AFH

[Pippadoc]

Grenoble-Foot 38 

Pre-season 2017

Starting Profile - Squad - Transfers (2 made before joining)- Facilities

I will be starting the Youth Challenge in France with GF 38. A team who went into administration in 2011 and were relegated to the 5th tier of French football. They have had some notable players over the years, including Youri Djorkaeff and Olivier Giroud. 

We begin as a semi-proffesional side, but hopefully we can rectify that soon in order to get more training time for our players. Facilities-wise, the average training facilities should be really helpful for developing some of our youngsters. Everything else could do with some improving if we can make enough money. 

The squad looks pretty promising to start out with, we have two solid goalkeepers which is a big relief. In defence we have a lot of solid DCs, but not a lot of options at DR and DL. Moving on to the midfield, we are again strong through the centre with weaknesses out wide. Finally, upfront we have two very good strikers in Florian David and Nicolas Belvito. David is attracting interest from abroad, and I may end up having to sell him if I get a big enough offer.

Given our strengths, I've decided to use 5-3-2 (WB) as our primary tactic, with a Narrow 4-3-1-2 as an alternative. This is the first time in as long as I can remember I will be using WBs in Football Manager (been playing since CM3), I like to use a flat back four but getting the best players on the pitch seems crucial in this challenge. It may take me a while to get this tactic working well, so hopefully we will be able to make up for what I'm expecting will be a slow start. 

Notable Youths

We have one youth player from last years intake who I have deemed promising enough to the tag, I will sign the whole class to ensure I have some depth in the squad over the next couple of years and there may be a couple who stick around as back-ups if they continue to improve. 

Mathias Horjak (YP17A) - Horjak is a very promising central midfielder. With his good work rate and stamina, I'm looking to turn him into a Box-to-Box midfielder. Unfortunately league rules don't allow under 16 year olds to play first team football, but I will start giving him game time asap in January.

Board Expectations

• Championnat National - Top Half Finish - Bit of an imposing goal here for our first season in the division, although it is only a 18 team league with 4 teams relegated. Judging on last season this would need us to get around the 45 point mark, which isn't impossible. Hopefully, failure to meet this goal won't result in my sacking as I could see us finishing slightly lower than this. 
• French Cup - Ninth Round - We start in the Fifth Round so this may be another challenge depending on the draw. I'm not familiar with coaching in France, so I'm not sure how likely it is we will have to face clubs from our tier and above. If we can get away with only lower league sides this should be manageable.

[MCPlay]

Season 15

League Table | Transfers | Season Review

Dafabet Welsh Premier League

10 in a row. 89 Points, but somehow lost a game 3-0 against Barry.

Cup runs

Won both. Time to order a new trophy cabinet, it's getting crowded.

Champions League

A much harder Group this time around, Paris St. Germain, Arsenal and Sporting. After losing the first 5 matches Arsenal made the short trip to Wales, needing a win to advance to the next round. We played magnificently, by far our best European effort (bar the magic nights against København). Arsenal couldn't muster a single shot at target, and 2 minutes into extra time the entire population of Wales exploded when Kevin Smith 4D smashed the ball into the top corner. For the first time we have beaten a true giant of world football, and to do it in a game that Arsenal had to win makes the accomplishment that much greater. Paris St. Germain on their part is totally dominating the world, winning the CL a laughable 9 times out of the last 12 years.

 

Youth Setup:

Youth Intake

Matthew Boyle 15A

Decent intake. No 5-star prospects, Boyle 15A might become a great midfielder if he develops. Still no promising full backs which we really need. Our U-19 team Advanced from their Champions League Group, and was eventually beatenon penalties by Bayern in the 2nd knock-out round.

 

Big Fat Goalie Challenge:

Owen 14B had a great season from the spot, scoring on all his 8 penalties this year. Was a bit disappointed that he couldn't score any free kicks, but 8 goals is a great start for him, especially seeing as he missed 2 of his 3 penalties last year.

Dave Owen 14B - 9 Goals. 8 this season.

Richie Price 11D - 4 Goals

Longevity Challenge:

The aim in this Challenge is to get players to 1000 appearances for the club. We're currently playing just over 50 games a season, so it will require an incredibly injury-free player 20 Seasons to do it.

Most appearances:

Emyr Boyle 2D - 470 Appearances

Huw Price 4A - 419 Appearances

Ones to watch:

Callum Hart 12A - 101 Appearances

Rory Cooper 12B - 100 Appearances

 

Danny Roberts Challenge

The aim in this Challenge is to get a player to score 1000 goals during his career, national team goals count.

Most goals:

Huw Price 4A - 309 goals in 419 games. A long term injury unfortunatly hampered his season this time around, resulting in only 22 goals being scored.

Jacob Davies 10D - 141 goals in 125 games. 51 goals this season despite 3 minor injuries keeping him out of action for about 2 months.

Jacob Davies 10D has yet to debut for Wales, but is a mainstay in the national squad. Several teams from the lower end of  the Premier League have bid for him, but he is contracted to us for 4 more years, and we won't be letting him go. He will just be rotting on the bench there anyway, as our last super striker Tom Coates 6A currently is at Blackburn.

[deez0r]

@MCPlay congrats on the CL victory over Arsenal!