[FM17] Shield Wall - A Spartan Youth Challenge in Romania

[Jimbokav1971]

On 27/10/2016 at 22:15, LPQR said:

Youth Intake 2019

That's much better. You know that you can do away with the REC column because it's just a duplicate of the POTENTIAL column where young players are concerned?

On 30/10/2016 at 17:01, LPQR said:

they seem to be surprisingly supportive. I still think we're overachieving even though we're playing in the second division now, so that might be one of the reasons they''re still happy with me)

Have you considered throwing the title and staying in that league for a couple of seasons or do they expect an immediate return?

On 31/10/2016 at 13:43, LPQR said:

Youth Intake

 

That's another good intake. 

I deleted the coaching budget increase announcement by mistake, but that's good news and it should hopefully mean that more players are able to go straight into the senior squad from the off. 

On 01/11/2016 at 18:08, LPQR said:

great... another crash as we approached March and we start from the beginning of the season again....ffs

I save at key points. 1st save is at the start of pre-season, (early Jan).

2nd save is at the end of the League Cup, (April).

3rd save is on Youth Intake Day (late Aug).

Last save is at the end of the season (late Sept).

I partly did this so that I could up-load saves to the ftp highlighting bugs, and now I just stick to it.

On 02/11/2016 at 01:05, setzel said:

Option to extend by the club its a must !! Stop letting your guys go like that

I was wondering about this when Liviu left. Just sign them all to contracts like that at the start without exception. 

[Jimbokav1971]

On 07/11/2016 at 17:28, LPQR said:

Season 22/23

European Football!

a couple of professional and balanced players make their way into the squad this year to help us with the overall personality of the team. Really hope Ivan and Andone can improve their determination as a result of that.

Youth Intake

 

1. Amazing work qualifying for Europe. 

2. I noticed earlier that you had 2x (L.Det) players in your starting XI. Is there no tutoring or anything that can be done? What's your rule on re-signing players that have come through the academy in the past and left? Is it strictly a no signing ever rule?

3. That's a REALLY good intake. 

4. Youth Facilities being improved is great, but at £1.2M not so great. Do you have the option to improve Recruitment or coaching? These are far less expensive and far more beneficial. 

On 08/11/2016 at 16:47, LPQR said:

 

When you are doing that, who cares about the money. 

On 08/11/2016 at 18:51, LPQR said:

and this is the group we get. chances to make it out alive are as slim as a needle, but participation alone is a massive achievement for us

You have GOT to be getting out of that group!

On 09/11/2016 at 08:34, LPQR said:

 

2017-22                                                       2022-23                                                      2023-24

  

 

Brilliant post.  I love it that you explain your thinking and talk about the evolution of the tactic.

20 hours ago, LPQR said:

 Andrieș has by far been the revelation of the season for us this year. His rapid development meant he quickly exceed the ability of any of our CM's and was granted a starting spot which he dignified with some greatly intelligent and technical performances. His emergence as a potential star player is the kind of story I love about youth development  Part of the 2021 intake, he was given a fairly low rating at the time:

He really came out of nowhere, and I believe, in no small part due to his personality.

Youth Intake

1. Brilliant comment about Andries. It's something that I have recently been talking about in my thread. Sometimes you have to be careful not to take the initial JPP values too seriously and this is especially so with any players who have decent Pro levels, (who often seem to over-develop). 

2. Another good intake but 4 with (L.Det) is a shame. 

3. I suppose when you qualify for the Group Stages in Europe you can splash the cash on whatever you want because there is going to be no cash spent on players. It's probably burning a hole in your pocket. 

[LPQR]

first of all, thanks for taking the time to go through this career in so much depth, @Jimbokav1971, definitely had some flashbacks here

 

2 hours ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

It's such a shame that he only lasted 1 year, but every time you look at Liviu you should remember him fondly.

I still do to this day, and yes, looking at how Liviu has developed I can't help having a mixed set of emotions: disbelief at my inability to keep him at the club, nostalgia about Mr. Zamfir and a long list of what if's

1 hour ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

That's much better. You know that you can do away with the REC column because it's just a duplicate of the POTENTIAL column where young players are concerned?

aye, I need to have half an hour to organize my views a bit, been a bit messy and rushed lately 

1 hour ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

Have you considered throwing the title and staying in that league for a couple of seasons or do they expect an immediate return?

what would have been the benefit in that? I was playing and rotating as many of our youth products as possible anyway so game time wasn't an issue

57 minutes ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

I noticed earlier that you had 2x (L.Det) players in your starting XI. Is there no tutoring or anything that can be done? What's your rule on re-signing players that have come through the academy in the past and left? Is it strictly a no signing ever rule?

unfortunately there are no players in my current squad that qualify to tutor these two at the moment  it's quite a shame really, as most of our defensive players are really low on determination and that's a key attribute for that area of the game

and yes, no signings ever policy

57 minutes ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

Youth Facilities being improved is great, but at £1.2M not so great. Do you have the option to improve Recruitment or coaching? These are far less expensive and far more beneficial

at the time of asking the board those options were not available, so i went for YF. Of course, YR and JC are extremely important, and so far we have had 100% approval from the board everytime I've asked for an improvement there

 

57 minutes ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

Brilliant post.  I love it that you explain your thinking and talk about the evolution of the tactic.

thanks  I'm starting to think whether that amount of detail is suited for this section of the forum or if i should just start a new thread in the tactics section

57 minutes ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

I suppose when you qualify for the Group Stages in Europe you can splash the cash on whatever you want because there is going to be no cash spent on players. It's probably burning a hole in your pocket

yeah, we have a 5 Million transfer budget for the new season, which is quite ridiculous, given I won't spend a penny out of that. A new stadium would have been a far more suitable investment.

thanks again and glad to have you on our Spartan ship

[LPQR]

 

@Jimbokav1971when it comes to nationalities, we've had a 100% record of Romanian players with no secondary nationality in all of our intakes so far. The encouraging bit is the number of players we have that are born in Bucharest, as part of our philosophy is to develop local talent:

                                                           first team                                                                                                       Under 19's

                                                         
 

[LPQR]

July 2024

New Stadium Plans

I'm delighted with this, our current stadium has a 8.000 capacity with only 4.000 seats so we definitely need some space for the increasing number of supporters

 

[edit]

just a quick update on why this is good news:

 

that's pretty much all of the stadium guaranteed to be full for the next season

[Velodromè]

Favorite thread on FM17 so far. Had a try with Farul Constanta in Romania on FM16, but struggled with the economy due being a bit too eager to improve junior coaching and facilities. Not a big fan of the play-off system either, so when I could't figure out how to make my defence work I gave up. 

Your youth prospects seem to have a better mentality now, not as slack and low determined as earlier. Good luck in the Champions League, if you get through the qualifier(?). 

[LPQR]

10 minutes ago, Velodromè said:

Favorite thread on FM17 so far. Had a try with Farul Constanta in Romania on FM16, but struggled with the economy due being a bit too eager to improve junior coaching and facilities. Not a big fan of the play-off system either, so when I could't figure out how to make my defence work I gave up. 

Your youth prospects seem to have a better mentality now, not as slack and low determined as earlier. Good luck in the Champions League, if you get through the qualifier(?). 

Welcome  And yes, the playoffs are quite a test! I'm really enjoying it so far, and I hope this will be my main career for time to come. 

P.S. esti din Ro?  

[LPQR]

August 2024 

Champions League 3rd Qualifying Round

 

first leg

 

second leg

 

 

Off to the playoffs!!!

 

now this will be a true test

[edited]

new results (initial result was a 6-2 agg. win in our favour) after closing the game accidentally. Same result for the draw against Celtic  

[LPQR]

just closed the game accidentally while trying to minimize the window.... new results and draw in post above soon

[Llainen]

Just ruined my work day tomorrow because (starts in 4 hours haha) i have spent the whole night reading trough this brilliant tread! Absolutely amazing job you have done here! Cant wait for more and especially to se how you will perform in the CL! A little of topic here and im sorry if its wrong of me, but obviously you really know what you are doing with your'e youngsters. If you have an exciting young player lets say 16 years old, whats best?: To let him stay in your'e club with better facilities and good players to teach him up, but he has to play on the u-19 squad, or to loan him out to a smaller side and let him gain match experience at a higher level but not have the same good facilities? Thank you:)

[LPQR]

1 hour ago, Llainen said:

Just ruined my work day tomorrow because (starts in 4 hours haha) i have spent the whole night reading trough this brilliant tread! Absolutely amazing job you have done here! Cant wait for more and especially to se how you will perform in the CL! A little of topic here and im sorry if its wrong of me, but obviously you really know what you are doing with your'e youngsters. If you have an exciting young player lets say 16 years old, whats best?: To let him stay in your'e club with better facilities and good players to teach him up, but he has to play on the u-19 squad, or to loan him out to a smaller side and let him gain match experience at a higher level but not have the same good facilities? Thank you:)

haha, hope you enjoyed it enough not to blame me by the end of the day  thanks for taking the time and welcome on board

to answer your question, it all depends on a number of factors, out of which the most important one is a personal choice: do you like to micro-manage the player development yourself or do you just like to watch them grow without troubling too much about going into tutoring, specific training assignments, and so on? second of all, does your club have good enough coaches and facilities for them do develop in the youth squad?

Another issue would be the number of matches they play each year in the youth team. For example in this save I have to manually arrange around 15-20 friendlies a year for the U19's due to the limited number of fixtures that the youth league provides.

Another important issue is that youth development is very tricky business, particularly relating to how much personality has to play a role here. A professional player with 3* PA will develop much better and quicker as a 4*PA player with low determination, ambition or professionalism. So, for example, the same 16 year old player in your team that has a 'casual' personality could develop much better in your team after having his personality influenced through tutoring or by the general personality of the squad (whatever the dominant characteristic of your squad it will influence the younger players' personality in the team). This same player could develop much worse even if he plays 40 matches on loan in a squad with better facilities or league standards due to his poor personal attitude towards training and developing. The same scenario can be reversed in terms of having a player with decent personality (ambitious, determined, balanced, professional,etc.) that is sent on loan. The player might develop better playing on loan by gaining match experience at a higher level or training with better facilities.

Training is very, very important for a youth player. Think of it this way -  every player has a certain amount of PA and the training schedule you set up for him will decide in which attributes that PA is invested. You lose control of that when sending a player on loan, and personally, I find that to be the most annoying part. Coaches play a massive part as well, and having good coaches with a high attribute for working with youngsters will help a lot.

Thankfully, and happily, youth development has become much more complex in recent FM editions and it's definitely got areas where you need to make more decisions, and monitor more developments. But this is why it's fun! And to add to that, none of the above guarantees 100% that a player will develop exactly as you want, plan or how your scouts tell you, which makes it much more realistic imho. These are issues I have noticed from my experience and I believe all of them to play a key role in developing young players, so at the end of the day it all depends on your management style/club strategy approach, I believe

 

[BoxToBox]

45 minutes ago, LPQR said:

For example in this save I have to manually arrange around 15-20 friendlies a year for the U19's due to the limited number of fixtures that the youth league provides.

Is there a reason you don't let the youth team's manager set the friendlies?

[LPQR]

5 minutes ago, BoxToBox said:

Is there a reason you don't let the youth team's manager set the friendlies?

I do, he just doesn't arrange enough of them

[BoxToBox]

Fair enough!

[Llainen]

Thank you so much for taking your time to answer LPQR! I have always sent my young players on loan to teams in the 2 division/bottom teams in the 1 division because i've always thought match experience did more for the development. I never really tried to develop my own players  i've used them if they became good enough, but i have never really invested much time in developing them. Currently i am in my 5th season with Sparta Prague and i have decided to really invest money and my own time into youth development, since i comfortably won the league last season (obs "bragging" here, and the Europe League) i will give a lot of my young prospects play time and will try in a few years to have a team made up mostly of locals! After checking every team in the playable leagues i have the best facilities and i have secured me a bunch of really good youth coaches. The only problem i have is that there is no way i can ask the board to aloud hiring more youth coaches, only 1 team coaches which is a bit frustrating.  And the board will upgrade both youth and first team training facilities, so i do not se a reason to loan them out since they're best chance to progress is here and they play 36 matches in the u-19 division each year. At last another "noob" question, is it the head of youth development (not really sure about the english name, im norwegian) who decide who to bring in every year they announce the intake? As of now Ondrej Kucera is my most exciting young player. Im sorry if i post to much about "my own" save, its not my plan to take the focus away from your fantastic career:).

[LPQR]

40 minutes ago, Llainen said:

Thank you so much for taking your time to answer LPQR! I have always sent my young players on loan to teams in the 2 division/bottom teams in the 1 division because i've always thought match experience did more for the development. I never really tried to develop my own players  i've used them if they became good enough, but i have never really invested much time in developing them. Currently i am in my 5th season with Sparta Prague and i have decided to really invest money and my own time into youth development, since i comfortably won the league last season (obs "bragging" here, and the Europe League) i will give a lot of my young prospects play time and will try in a few years to have a team made up mostly of locals! After checking every team in the playable leagues i have the best facilities and i have secured me a bunch of really good youth coaches. The only problem i have is that there is no way i can ask the board to aloud hiring more youth coaches, only 1 team coaches which is a bit frustrating.  And the board will upgrade both youth and first team training facilities, so i do not se a reason to loan them out since they're best chance to progress is here and they play 36 matches in the u-19 division each year. At last another "noob" question, is it the head of youth development (not really sure about the english name, im norwegian) who decide who to bring in every year they announce the intake? As of now Ondrej Kucera is my most exciting young player. Im sorry if i post to much about "my own" save, its not my plan to take the focus away from your fantastic career:).

Glad to help  Czech Republic is definitely an interesting place to manage, I was considering something there before I started this career. And yes, HOYD - head of youth development is the member of staff responsible for youth recruitment (make sure to check your staff responsibilities screen and have that duty assigned to him). Kucera seems amazing! Best of luck and I hope you enjoy your career!

P.S. been around Norway for a while over the last few years, in love with your country, mate!  

[Llainen]

4 minutes ago, LPQR said:

Glad to help  Czech Republic is definitely an interesting place to manage, I was considering something there before I started this career. And yes, HOYD - head of youth development is the member of staff responsible for youth recruitment (make sure to check your staff responsibilities screen and have that duty assigned to him). Kucera seems amazing! Best of luck and I hope you enjoy your career!

P.S. been around Norway for a while over the last few years, in love with your country, mate!  

Yes indeed it is, been managing Sparta Prague in the last 6 versions and for some reason i don't get tired of it. Hehe good to hear, it is for sure a beautiful country:)

[LPQR]

August 2024

Champions League Playoff

 

first leg

 

second leg

well, 'outclassed' seems the right word to use in this instance

still, we get a great influx of money from our participation in the CL this year

 

 

and we draw a very tough group in the Europa League....

 

[LPQR]

an interesting development I get this message from my HOYD about Maior's development, and I'm struggling to make sense of it. Maior isn't being tutored by anyone at the moment and the overall determination of both, the youth and senior squads is quite low at the moment, well, at least way lower than Maior's determination. So what kind of off-fields events is my HOYD talking about? very intrigued by this. Could it be our overall development as a club? Could it be the coaches' influence? @Jimbokav1971 @Ceching You Out @mjaferrie have you guys had a case like this?

[Jimbokav1971]

Yeah, this is just something in the players life that has made him take things more seriously. In real life terms it's the things that make you grow up, (whatever that means personally to you). Having a kid, someone close to you dying. Things like that. This is a non-football incident influencing his personality and can go both ways. 

[LPQR]

3 minutes ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

Yeah, this is just something in the players life that has made him take things more seriously. In real life terms it's the things that make you grow up, (whatever that means personally to you). Having a kid, someone close to you dying. Things like that. This is a non-football incident influencing his personality and can go both ways. 

huh... wasn't aware of this kind of thing, thanks! As evil as that is, whatever happened to him, I'm kind of glad it did

[Bedese]

From the look on his face, I'd imagine he just had a brush with death. Poor guy looks terrified!

 

Fantastic thread, LPQR! Keep it up!

[LPQR]

11 minutes ago, Jupjamie said:

From the look on his face, I'd imagine he just had a brush with death. Poor guy looks terrified!

 

Fantastic thread, LPQR! Keep it up!

aye, that's an average facial expression reflecting life and training at Sparta

cheers!

[LPQR]

okaaaay

[mjaferrie]

34 minutes ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

Yeah, this is just something in the players life that has made him take things more seriously. In real life terms it's the things that make you grow up, (whatever that means personally to you). Having a kid, someone close to you dying. Things like that. This is a non-football incident influencing his personality and can go both ways. 

Haha, yep, unfortunately I'm usually on the opposite side of this one!  Had a few guys basically giving up and just watch those PA stars disappear!

[LPQR]

a message that shows our youth conveyor is working really well, and to have 9 players in Romania's youth squads is a reason to be proud about the present and excited about the future

[Ceching You Out]

Love seeing the way you rethink your tactics over the years. Inspiring me to take another look myself.

Basically others have covered it -- every once in a while you'll get a completely random event that increases/decreases a player's determination, ambition, or professionalism. Sometimes it breaks in your favor, sometimes it ruins a perfectly good prospect. In my Avenir Beggen save, I'd guesstimate it's happened once every five years or so.

[LPQR]

2 hours ago, Ceching You Out said:

Love seeing the way you rethink your tactics over the years. Inspiring me to take another look myself.

Basically others have covered it -- every once in a while you'll get a completely random event that increases/decreases a player's determination, ambition, or professionalism. Sometimes it breaks in your favor, sometimes it ruins a perfectly good prospect. In my Avenir Beggen save, I'd guesstimate it's happened once every five years or so.

I think it's crucial, especially in a youth save. Every season you will have different areas of the game that your team excels in or lacks in due to the huge extremes of youth development. Analyzing your squad's strong points and figuring out a system that exploits them is pretty much basic maths when trying to get the best out of your team. This is a very, very important part of managing, imho  

[abulezz]

Great detail, great description, and a great indepth look at a save that has to be one of the most interesting FM17 saves thus far.  Great job!

[LPQR]

2 hours ago, abulezz said:

Great detail, great description, and a great indepth look at a save that has to be one of the most interesting FM17 saves thus far.  Great job!

ah, thank you  yours is a fantastic read as well! really enjoyed it so far

[LPQR]

December 2024 - European Journey

some amazing performances in the Europa League this year, I honestly did not expect this, given we were big underdogs in all matches

we finish 2nd in the group to reach the knockout stages!!!

a familiar opponent in Koln, after having played them twice in last year's group stages  This will be a tough, tough match. Interestingly, the home match will be played at Steaua's stadium and we should at least make some decent income on ticket revenue should we fail to overcome Koln

[deltablue]

Nice work getting out of that group.

[Marbah]

such a good read man

 

thanks for doing this, will follow closely

 

felicitari  eram super happy daca reuseai sa reinvii Rapidu :))

[LPQR]

11 hours ago, deltablue said:

Nice work getting out of that group.

thanks, delta, really enjoyable campaign so far

2 hours ago, Marbah said:

such a good read man

 

thanks for doing this, will follow closely

 

felicitari  eram super happy daca reuseai sa reinvii Rapidu :))

thanks, glad to have you on board! 

merci, cred ca totusi mergeam cu U Cluj daca era disponibila liga a IV-a, dar Rapidu ar fi fost interesant, for sure

[Moonshine]

On 04/11/2016 at 23:02, LPQR said:

July 2022 - World Cup

 

Winners - Argentina

 

 

Great performance in the league so far, and exciting prospects. Is there a reason Benfica are buying Romanians? Dp they have a Romanian owner, perhaps?

 

And above - who is this M Edwards guy?

[wynter]

5 hours ago, Moonshine said:

Great performance in the league so far, and exciting prospects. Is there a reason Benfica are buying Romanians? Dp they have a Romanian owner, perhaps?

 

And above - who is this M Edwards guy?

Would assume Marcus Edwards at Tottenham. 

[LPQR]

6 hours ago, Moonshine said:

And above - who is this M Edwards guy?

 

57 minutes ago, wynter said:

Would assume Marcus Edwards at Tottenham. 

 

indeed, it's him

 

6 hours ago, Moonshine said:

Great performance in the league so far, and exciting prospects. Is there a reason Benfica are buying Romanians? Dp they have a Romanian owner, perhaps?

there seems to be no logic correlation there. Just checked, and they have no Romanian staff or board members at all. huh.

[LPQR]

Summer 2024 - European Championship

somehow slipped my mind that the Euros were played this summer. And imagine my delight at seeing Romania's performance in this tournament:

Romania beaten in Final (extra time) by France

that's a hugely impressive run. Beating the likes of Italy, Holland, Germany and Belgium is an immense achievement for a country like Romania
 

here are some star players of the Romanian NT:

Ianis Hagi: produced by Viitorul Constanta (2014)

 

Robert Moldoveanu: produced by Dinamo Bucharest (2013)

 

Adrian Stelea: produced by Viitorul Constanta (2016)

 

Dorin Rotariu - produced by F.C. Timișoara (2011)

 

[BoxToBox]

Hmmm, Rotariu is still good, but geez, he's was a monster in 15 & 14.

[oneronaldo]

3 minutes ago, BoxToBox said:

Hmmm, Rotariu is still good, but geez, he's was a monster in 15 & 14.

He still looks pretty beastly this year, but the real gems were IIRC Stanciu and Iancu several FMs back. My word were those two brilliant.

 

Koln is a pretty tough draw, but then you made it out of that group so there is always hope.

[BoxToBox]

15 minutes ago, oneronaldo said:

He still looks pretty beastly this year, but the real gems were IIRC Stanciu and Iancu several FMs back. My word were those two brilliant.

 

Koln is a pretty tough draw, but then you made it out of that group so there is always hope.

Stanciu was fantastic in 14(was one of my favourite signings along with Rotariu in any save), very good in 15, nothing special in 16, haven't seen him yet in 17. Other lad, I've no clue.

[LPQR]

March 2025

 

Playoffs

26 matches played and we reach the playoffs in a slightly disappointing position after a very bad run of form in the last two months

 

league table after regular fixtures

 

Steaua really picked themselves up this season after a few years of disappointing results, and so did Astra who showcase some really impressive talent in their squad. We struggled a bit due to a few injuries in defense and some morale issues, but we're still in a very good position considering our maximum expectation of reaching the relegation group.

Champions Playoff start

Thanks to the points being halved in the playoff groups, we're still within reaching distance of a CL spot, so I'm keeping our hopes high just yet.

 

European Journey

our dream run in the Europa League comes to a halt after being knocked out by FC Koln in the first knockout round. Despite the loss, I'm pleased with the overall performance from the team and I hope for an easier opponent if we get to this stage again this year

Home                                                                    Away

 

[noikeee]

Last time I was here you were yo-yoing between 1st and 2nd division, now you're Romanian champions, bloody hell!

Looking difficult to retain the title, but the kids are now looking quite useful (unlike a few years back!), everything seems well set for the future.

[LPQR]

32 minutes ago, noikeee said:

Last time I was here you were yo-yoing between 1st and 2nd division, now you're Romanian champions, bloody hell!

Looking difficult to retain the title, but the kids are now looking quite useful (unlike a few years back!), everything seems well set for the future.

ah, good to see you back  yep, some really interesting prospects making their way from the youth ranks, for sure. Hopefully I manage to keep them at the club and build from there

[LPQR]

Season 24/25

 

 

a good season for us, which saw us snatch a CL place only thanks to the format of the playoffs. The new generation that has been brought to the first team has put in some decent performances, however I don't believe them to be good enough to exceed the ability of our more experienced players like Nica, Kereszy, Vlădilă, Dobre and Andone. Overall, good performances across all competitions, though, and a very healthy financial season for us.

Playoff Table

 

Liga I final table

 

Competitions

Team of the year

 

Squad

 

Key players

 

Marius Penescu                                                                                                     Alexandru Ivan

 
 

Bogdan Andone                                                                                                        Alexandru Nica

 

 Penescu is an absolute monster at RB for a squad of our level, as his impressive physique and mental stats ensure a very efficient coverage of the right wing both, offensively and defensively. Ivan has improved on his technical and mental side of the game this year, and has been pulling off some impressive performances as DLP. Andone is still our reference point in defense, and despite his personality he still looks like he could improve a fair bit, and I really hope that goes into his tactical understanding of the game, as we desperately need players who can read the game and increase the number of interceptions we make as a team. Nica had his most prolific campaign to date, with 27 goals and 9 assists in 50 matches, a typically efficient return from our legendary striker.

 

Notable performers

 

Sorin Ștefan                                                                                          Cezar Dobre

 

Ciprian Kereszy 

Some solid and reliable performances from our second best defender, Ștefan. He is slowly reaching his peak and it looks increasingly likely he will be dropped for some of the prospect in the youth team, as it seems the club is outgrowing his ability. Our captain, Dobre put in some decent performances overall, which sparked that never-ending interest from Guardiola's SLB. That unsettled him for yet another season and I'm struggling to keep his morale high due to the constant transfer talk. Still, good stuff from Cezar, as he is coming along really nicely and is set to be a key player for us in the coming years if I can keep him. Our no.10, Kereszy has suffered a very disappointing downside in his determination, probably due to the injuries he's suffered over the last few seasons. He has been doing well in the AM spot, however he has been nowhere near as good as I want a player in that position to be, so I will have to think of something new, tactically speaking, for next season.
 

Youth Prospects

 

Bogdan Ghinea                                                                                                          Andrei Marta

 

 

Cătălin Vintilă                                                                                                                  Andrei Niță

 
 

Another Bogdan in defense, Ghinea has really impressed as the rotation option for Sorin and Andone at CB. Improved immensely due to being fast-tracked to the first team and his personality definitely had its say there too. Andrei Marta is yet another player who made the step up from the U19s this year and filled in nicely for Buștei, who had a few injuries this year. Andrei Niță was on the brink of overtaking Tiberiu Vlădilă as our main AML, as the latter had quite a bad season by his standards. Put in some decent performances and looks like he has a bright future ahead. Vintilă is not your speedy man and neither is he Gods gift when it comes to technical ability, but somehow he always manages to put in a solid performance when needed at LB, probably due to his personality and mental attributes. Looking forward to see him develop a bit more before I make a more conclusive judgement. All four of them Bucharest-born boys though, and they all look good for the future

 

 Youth Intake

What an intake, ladies and gentlemen.... what an intake!!! Truly the most remarkable batch of players that we've ever recruited, and if I'd be cynical enough to find a downside, there would be only one: no decent strikers for the 9th year in a row! Apart from that, positional depth, personalities, qualities fitting our philosophies, potential ability... you name it, it's all in there. This was so good, that there are, in fact, 4 players that stand out from this year's intake:

Cristian Dumitrescu                                                                                        Tiberiu Poșircă

  

Marian Blaga                                                                                                Tudorel Benga

Really hope some tutoring can change Benga's personality, and apart from that, the only thing I need to do about these guys is enjoy watching them develop and bringing them through with the correct training and game time to mold them into the best version of themselves. The encouraging bit that could be overlooked while high on this enthusiasm is that the next best players who (presumably) have lower potential than these four have really good personalities and could turn out to be really good players too, if managed correctly. This is as good as it gets, really 

 

Other Developments

the club is set to be boosted by some great upgrades over the next few years, with another round of improvements for training and youth facilities as well as the new stadium, for which I can't wait to be open so that we can give them fans the seats they deserve

speaking of the stadium, the board has announced more detailed plans about this particular development

 

the cost is more than reasonable, and a 13 thousand capacity is decent for now. Could have probably done with more than that, but let's just hope extensions will be possible if necessary.

 

commercial summary

 

Summary

A fantastic season for Sparta, marked by the incredible intake of this year as well as a good all-round performance in the competitions it took part in. Slightly disappointed at not having retained the title, but that only shows how great of an achievement winning it was last season. Still parting with a relegation favourite tag we overachieved for yet another season and made a good showing in the European competitions as well. Domestically, we've had some good runs in the cups too, so I guess it's one of them years where you don't get anything shiny but you can feel you've got good enough reasons to be content with your chocolate medals. Really looking forward to re-shuffling the squad a bit for next year, and figuring out a tactical system that will allow me to try out some new things as well as give game time to the amazing youngsters we've got this year.

[LPQR]

Season 24/25 

Best training showings/Future Stars

 

Some of the most amazing performers in training don't necessarily make for some of the best players on the pitch when it actually matters, and this has been definitely the case for us this season. Here are some players who improved massively in their development this year and are set to become some key figures for us in the next few seasons:

Alexandru Grigoraș                                                                                             Tiberiu Vlădilă

 

 

Felix Nicola                                                                                                         Alexandru Buștei

 

None of them caught the podium for this year for their performances, however, I believe that's because the current system doesn't allow for their best qualities to be used. I've even re-trained Grigoras to the WP position on the right to allow me to give him more game time, however there are general issues about the way we play that make me re-consider some things for the next season. We'll see what we can come up with, but all four of them look great and are developing really well and the only one to blame for not getting them to perform would be me, so hard work ahead
 

[LPQR]

June 2025 - Career Progress

 

Tracker

                                                                        Career Progress Table

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                   League                                                          Cups                                     Europe
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
              2016-2017 Liga II- 2nd(promoted)                                 Quarter final(RC)                               N/A

              2017-2018 Liga I- 13th(5th in relegation group-survival)         6th round(RC)/8th final(RLC)                    N/A

              2018-2019 Liga I- 13th(7th in relegation group-relegated)        6th round(RC)/Semi-final(RLC)                   N/A
              
              2019-2020 Liga II- 1st(promoted)                                 Semi-Final(RC)/8th final(RLC)                   N/A

              2020-2021 Liga I- 11th(5th in relegation group-survival)         6th round(RC)/Final(RLC)                        N/A

              2021-2022 Liga I- 8th(5th in relegation group-survival)          7th round(RC)/Semi-final(RLC)                   N/A

              2022-2023 Liga I- 5th(4th in Champions Playoff- Euro Cup)        6th round(RC)/Semi-final(RLC)                   N/A
 
              2023-2024 Liga I- 2nd(Champions via Playoff)                     6th Round(RC)/8th final(RLC)                 EL-Group Stage

              2024-2025 Liga I- 4th(2nd in Champions Playoff- CL)              Semi-final(RC)/Semi-final(RLC)         CL-Playoff/EL-first k.o.round

 

[BoxToBox]

That intake was off its tits. Potentially the core of a squad a few years down the line.

[LPQR]

10 hours ago, BoxToBox said:

That intake was off its tits. Potentially the core of a squad a few years down the line.

still chuffed with it. Interesting part is that 3 months after the intake, we get a different opinion on the CA/PA of those players, and it looks even more promising:

 

Ioniță II and Marin get better PA ratings these time, while Blaga gets a slightly worse PA rating. The first two actually look decent enough for a rotation spot already:

 

 

[wynter]

Out of Curiosity, how's Vestag? Dude's mentals were great in the intake photo, even if the PA was a bit average.