FM18 Youth Academy Challenge

[DazRTaylor]

I will be detailing my career over on the careers forum and you can find it here.  I will be listing the required posts in this thread too, as required.  My opening club post is detailed below.

Haverfordwest County

Club - Haverfordwest County.

Nation - Wales.

League - Dafabet Welsh Premier League (top tier).

Stadium - Bridge Meadow Stadium, Haverfordwest.

Capacity - 2,400 (1,050 seated).

Training Facilities - Below average.

Youth Facilities - Poor.

Data Analysis Facilities - None.

Corporate Facilities - Basic.

Junior Coaching - Average.

Youth Recruitment - Fairly basic.

Media Prediction - 12th.

My expectation - 10th and survival.

Wage Budget - £3,730 per week.

Current Wage Bill - £1,007 per week.

Squad

I should have enough so survive.

Finances

A healthy bank balance to start.

Personal Coaching Data

Season     Reputation          Qualifications          Att   Def   Fit   GkD   GkH   GkS   Tac   Tec   Men   WWY   Ada   Det   PlK   YoK   LoD   MaM   Mot
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
At Start   Minimal   (0.25*)   None                      1     1     1     1     1     1     1     1     1     4     1     1     1     4     1     1     1

Club Facilities

Season     Training Facilities  Youth Facilities  Data A'sis Facilities  Corporate Facilities  Junior Coaching  Youth Recruitment  Club Reputation    Club Ranking  League Reputation    League Ranking   National Team Ranking
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
At start   Below average        Poor              None                   Basic                 Average          Fairly basic       Half a star             N/a      One star                  120th                15th

Career Overview

Season     Champions League     Europa League          League                              Position     JD FAW Welsh Cup     theWord Cup     Achievements
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2018/19           N/a                N/a               Dafabet Welsh Premier League                                                          Appointed on 25 June 2018.

Overall Career Record

Played     Won     Drawn     Lost     Goals For     Goals Against     Goal Difference     Win Percentage     Drawn Percentage     Loss Percentage     Goals For Per Game     Goals Against Per Game     Time At Club
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

 

[Swindon69]

Going to give this a go in France.

Le Mans appoint an unknown Englishman

Mtwambe appointed manager of Le Mans

Not only unknown but with no badges - how will he fare?

Look Ma no skills :)

Result - my board will fund my 1st badge.

[darren1983]

Good luck @DazRTaylor and @Swindon69 

[Swindon69]

@darren1983 Thank you - it's years since I've managed in France - I'm taking a break from Dafuges challenge.

[DazRTaylor]

Thanks mate.

[T-Rex]

On 29.10.2017 at 18:22, Muttley84 said:

Still playing on Touch though, so that might be a bit more difficult, but I will compesate by chosing a club with good starting facilities.

Anybody still doing this challenge playing FMT? I am considering it. I understand that in FMT the youth intake is not as broad as in the full game, but you still get some new players in every year, even at the lowest levels, dont you? Any suggestions for clubs to manage?

[T-Rex]

I have decided to try this out, on FMT, managing Messina in Serie C/C. This way I can compare fortunes with Darren.

[Boyd The Beast]

Well this season has been a real struggle, 2 games left and 2 points behind 19th. Need the soccer gods on my side. Hopefully will have time after work to complete the season and post update 

[DazRTaylor]

Well that went well.  Sacked after losing our first eight games.  Nothing worked tactic wise.

[Muttley84]

5 hours ago, T-Rex said:

Anybody still doing this challenge playing FMT? I am considering it. I understand that in FMT the youth intake is not as broad as in the full game, but you still get some new players in every year, even at the lowest levels, dont you? Any suggestions for clubs to manage?

Last year at Sassari Calcio the first intakes were so small, 3-4 players. At other clubs with better facilities this increased to maybe even 10 further the career. I guess it's a bit tougher if you are starting with a small squad in the first years, though if you look at some of the intakes of guys here on full fm only few of the youth make it anyway.

[T-Rex]

6 hours ago, Muttley84 said:

if you look at some of the intakes of guys here on full fm only few of the youth make it anyway.

Yeah, that is what I have been thinking, and I guess it was supposed to work as well. I will give it a go!

[fairsy]

Have just been beaten 8-0 by Man City, this Premier League lark is quite hard - I have 2 points from my first 11 games!

[TheWillsy]

Due to personal reasons I won't be able to play football manager for a while, so I thought I'd leave a quick update in this thread.

We ended up making it to the playoff final and experienced one of the craziest finals I've ever seen. I'll post a full season update when I come back to FM, but for now I can enjoy our status as a premier league team without worrying about how we're going to get thrashed every game. 

Spoiler

Oh, and good luck to all those starting new games. 

[Swindon69]

A totally insane game pulled back from 4-1 down to go 5-4 (with one of my strikers scoring all 5) only to concede yet another goal from a throw in to make it 5-5 in the 93rd minute!

[Sanno11]

 

East Kilbride F.C.

Season 4 2021/2022

First Team Squad | Finances | Transfers

Season Review

Cups (Results) - I won't dedicate much space to this section, a really disappointing effort in the cups and despite becoming a better team we have lost our giant killing ability.

League (Final Table) - With my expectations extremely high and with holding onto all the key players I hoped promotion would be a formality. After 10 games I was hugely disappointed and realised how frustrating this was going to be. We were sat in mid table and had played poorly, but it looked like our form was turning around. We had phases of consistency, stringing together runs of wins followed by 2-3 poor performances, this moved us up the league. After 26 games we were within 3 points of the league leaders. Just when I thought promotion as league champions was still possible, we entered our worst run of form. Despite the relatively kind fixture list we only managed 4 wins from these 10 games and had to settle for 3rd place and the playoffs.

A frustrating 1-1 draw at home to Stranraer was a missed opportunity and they punished us in the away leg coming from behind to beat us 3-2, there striker bagging a hatrick and breaking our hearts.

Youth Intake

I really like a couple of players in this intake and whilst it lacks the volume of decent players, the ones who will get to the first team look ready now.

Shaun McClean (YP04a) - The star of the intake and really well rounded for a centre mid. Will be added to the first team. Scored and assisted on debut.

Alex Black (YP04b) - Slightly in McClean's shadow, but great nonetheless, needs a little more work.

Barry O' Neil (YP04c) - A much needed left back, lacking in technical ability but good mental and physical profile.

David Henderson (YP04d) - A centre back who will be trained as a left back. Needs a bit of luck to make it, he is very pacey though.

Transfers, Finance and Facilities

My solution to combat all the vultures trying to steal my best players is to set asking prices on all players that are relatively low. I have to deal with lots of offers but my chairman is never tempted to go over my head. This means my transfer history for the first time is amazingly empty. Nothing else really happened this year, so I will just speed straight into next season and hope we don't fluff our lines again.

[vignjoslav]

Hi guys. I have choosen Rugby FC, league is Midland football league in England. Curently i'm playin third season, but i will post some pictures from last two seasons.

In first season i did't do anything, but youh intake was realy great.

League 17/18
Marc Creany
Kai Warner

Unfortunately i lost my best regen who sign for Bath on free transfer, and that is beacuse i can't anymore sign part time contracts, only non contract. I don't know why is that.

Transfers
Max Shaw

In second season i manage to gain promotion, with my new 433 tactic.

League 18/19

With more great regens for this stage.

Michael Bennett
Aidem McKee
Adam Williams

And finally, im curently in month December in my third season and i'm doing very well, but i will post images at the end of season.

But still i have problem with signing new contract for my players. On that way i lost one more important first time player.

Kyle Rowley
Contract

He joined to Thurrock  beacuse i could't gave him a part time contract. Other teams in league can sign new contracts and new players with part time contract, only i don't have that option. Can anyone helps me with tat problem?
Sorry for my bad English.

[Boyd The Beast]

2019/20 Review - Season 1

 

League - The season is over and man was it brutal but we scraped by to safety. Started the league off with just 1 win and 7 losses..OUCH! Things improved and we then won 3 out of our next 5 and then after that we were just bad and inconsistent. We could not keep the ball out of the back of our net. About 3/4 of the way into the season I was preparing myself that relegation was a real possibility and only managed to stay up by a single point. As the league table shows our goal difference was by far the worst and we definitely were the worst team in the league but managed to get 2 more wins then Volendam. Our savior was Aimane M'Rabet who was actually the leagues third top goal scorer.

Dutch Cup - Was a 1 and done for the Dutch Cup which was fine by me as I high a league crisis on my hand

 

Transfers - Not in of course and 2 out. Both were back ups who were still on Amateur contracts that I would have kept around for tutoring as but they started complaining about playing time so off they went.

Finances - Our finances are excellent thanks to a fantastic TV deal for this league! Our finances went up by $1.5M during the season which included increases in Youth recruitment, junior coaching, youth facilities  and coaching badges

Facilities - As mentioned above, due to our financial situation I was able to have every request accepted once I got past the new to club spell at the beginning. I am eagerly waiting for the next upgrade to pop up in the board request section.

 

Youth Intake - Received a few good players in this intake who already have made contributions in the last few games of the season. Signed everyone as I only had 3-4 youth players at the club.

Mario Boeve 1A - Already seeing starting time at CB as he is essentially as good as our second best CB. Looking forward to see how he progresses

Brian Troost 1B -  Not quite as ready as the first team as Mario as we have a bit better quality at that position plus I am retraining him as a ST

Tom Willemse 1C - Lacking in the technical department but seems to be progressing. Made his debut in the last game and scored!

Albert Kuipers 1D - Nothing special but can cover all 3 positions at the back. Rate him as our second RB at the moment if that tells you anything.

Career Update:

Season	League	Position	Dutch Cup	Training Facilities	Youth Facilities	Junior Coaching	Youth Recruitment	Achievements/Notes	Top Scorer
2018/19	N/A	N/A		Below Avg	Poor	Fairly basic	Basic	Promotion	N/A
2019/20	JL	19th	1st round	Below Avg	Poor	Average	Fairly basic	Survived	M'Rabet (18)

 

Goal for next season is to simply survive again and get as many upgrades in/

[Britrock]

Had a break over Xmas and trying to get back into it. I got moved in Serie C/A in the offseason and had to sell Cipolletta and Veglio and I'm currently stuck to the bottom of the table. Trying to work out if this is worth continuing with as this is now my 5th season going nowhere. I can't get near the playoffs and I'm not making any money so as soon as a half decent bid comes in for my best players they're sold by the chairman. It's a vicious cycle at the moment. Tempted to sack it off and move to Ireland to see how I get on in a smaller league.

[Liverbird93]

Any suggestions of fun league to try?

 

I’d like it to be European, not England and play as a winter league (August/September to May) 

 

any suggestions?

[Sanno11]

@Liverbird93 Sweden is a great country to attempt this challenge. There is plenty of choice when it comes to newly promoted sides, the seasons are short and the youth intakes always seem to be decent in the early years. It can get tough if you make it into Europe as the gap in quality can take a long while to bridge.

[Muttley84]

5 hours ago, Liverbird93 said:

Any suggestions of fun league to try?

 

I’d like it to be European, not England and play as a winter league (August/September to May) 

 

any suggestions?

Russia and Ukraine are both fun. Smaller no of matches, big clubs for domestic challenge, decent money and enough European places for getting games out there. I had fun with Dnipr but couldn't make it.

[Dan BHTFC]

FLINT TOWN UNITED - SEASON FOURTEEN - 2031/32

Welsh Cup - League Cup

 

League Table:

We won every game, what a season!

Champions League:

Tough group but we managed to get 3rd place which put us into the Europa League

Europa League:

Made it to the Quarter Finals but were edged out.

 

Transfers:

Some more changes to the squad.

Finances:

Finances are looking strong, facilities upgrading once again.

Youth Intake:

A couple of back up players, nothing amazing.

 

For those interested here is my main starting XI

 

Best XI

Season    League    Position    Welsh Cup       League Cup      Training Facilities    Youth Facilities     Junior Coaching     Youth Recruitment   Achievements/Notes        Top Scorer
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2018/19   WPL       9th         Semi-Finals     Winners         Poor                   Poor                 Minimal             Limited             N/A                       Bull (24) 
2019/20   WPL       10th        4th Rnd         3rd Rnd         Poor                   Poor                 Fairly Basic        Limited             N/A                       Smyth/Bull (15)
2020/21   WPL       5th         4th Rnd         1st Rnd         Poor                   Poor                 Fairly Basic        Limited             N/A                       Smyth (21)
2021/22   WPL       4th         4th Rnd         Finalists       Poor                   Poor                 Adequate            Basic               N/A                       Maxwell (YP19e) (31)
2022/23   WPL       6th         Semi-Finals     1st Rnd         Poor                   Basic                Good                Fairly Basic        N/A                       Maxwell (YP19e) (23)
2023/24   WPL       4th         3rd Rnd         1st Rnd         Basic                  Basic                Excellent           Fairly Basic        N/A                       Maxwell (YP19e) (25)
2024/25   WPL       4th         4th Rnd         2nd Rnd         Basic                  Basic                Excellent           Fairly Basic        N/A                       Howells (YP21c) (36)
2025/26   WPL       2nd         Finalists       Finalists       Basic                  Basic                Exceptional         Average             N/A                       Cheedy (YP25b) (34)
2026/27   WPL       2nd         Quarter Finals  3rd Rnd         Basic                  Basic                Exceptional         Average             N/A                       Davies (YP26b) (32)
2027/28   WPL       1st         Quarter Finals  2nd Rnd         Basic                  Basic                Exceptional         Established         League Winners            Mansbridge (YP24f) (29)
2028/29   WPL       1st         Semi Finals     Semi Finals     Below Average          Below Average        Exceptional         Established         UEFA Youth League Winners Cheedy (YP25b) (47)
2029/30   WPL       1st         Finalists       1st Rnd         Adequate               Adequate             Exceptional         Well Established    UEFA Youth League Winners Cheedy (YP25b) (43)
2030/31   WPL       1st         Winners         Winners         Average                Average              Exceptional         Extensive                                     Cheedy (YP25b) (57)
2031/32   WPL       1st         4th Rnd         Winners         Average                Good                 Exceptional         Extensive                                     Cheedy (YP25b) (53)

Career Overview:

[Dan BHTFC]

And just been offered the Wales job again, hopefully in the next few years I can come close to winning the Champions League.

[Sanno11]

@bigjack.se18 Good luck with bringing glory to Buxton mate.

A few people complete this every year. I think I am right in saying that only one has managed it so far on FM18, that was @Bartrcm back on page 6

[Liverbird93]

Is there anything you can do about pre arranged transfers joining your team when you first take over? Or is it a case of not signing anyone after that?

[Sanno11]

@bigjack.se18 When you are setting your game up make sure to customise the database to include the feeder leagues for the lowest playable league. Have a look at the opening post, I would think that Buxton would have a much larger squad than 14.

@Liverbird93 If I understand you, you mean players already signed before you joined. Below is a screenshot of my first seasons transfer history, the previous manager had made 10 signings. Then obviously once I had taken over (June 24th 2018) there haven't been any more signings since.

If it is a signing pre-arranged but not yet completed, I think that may be questionable.

[Sanno11]

East Kilbride F.C.

Season 5 2022/2023

First Team Squad | Finances | Transfers

Season Review

Cups (Results) - An uneventful start in the Betfred cup and a poor showing in the Scottish cup are not worth going into any detail. However, we had a great run in the IRN BRU cup, which I assume is a Scottish version of the Checkatrade trophy as no premiership teams enter. The highlight of the run was a 6-0 thumping of Northern Irish team Linfield, who are also invited to this competition. We made it all the way to the final and in a close game unfortunately lost to Partick Thistle in the final.

League (Final Table |  Results) - This was an incredibly fun and in the end tense season, which the final league table shows went down to the wire. Our form was fantastic throughout the whole season, however a loss here and there was enough to allow Stranraer to match us. We kept pace with each other for the whole season.  In the January transfer window we lost an important striker Craig Cameron (YP02d) and looked less threatening after that. Nearing the end of the season and we lost at home to Stranraer to give them a 4 point lead. With the playoffs secured already, I had accepted my fate. Then to my delight Stranraer faulted and started dropping points. A draw in our penultimate game, took us to the top on goal difference and by winning the last game we secured the title.

The board expected promotion by being champions and the media had us as heavy favourites, but to actually manage it is very satisfying.

Youth Intake

The first intake where I am unsure if any players will reach the first team. One player was tagged and will be watched closely.

Craig Irvine (YP05a) - Not a bad defender, no worse than any of the best from previous intakes, however now there is a queue for first team action and he may not get it.

Transfers, Finance and Facilities

As mentioned above, we lost Cameron to Hamiliton in January. Several other players are heavily wanted by bigger clubs. A few of my best prospects are itching to move to a bigger club and this transfer window could see us lose a couple of them. We at least have a bigger squad this time.

Our finances are fairly steady, but no improvements to facilities again. I have manage to get started on another coaching badge though.

Judging by the last few years, a 5 star potential prospect in my team can with luck reach the ability of Championship player, as a couple of my better intakes have shown. So I am quite content with keeping things as they are for the time being. Hoping this time, we survive in league 1.

[QSF25]

Witton Albion 2018/2019

Coaches of england. How are you doing this? 

Not doing that bad for 10 games

 

But my finances worries me.

 

Facilities suck 

 

And we don't charge much

 

 

Then how the hell are you guys doing it? 

 

Improving facilities is a no. 

- Improving youth coaching perphaps when they ask me what to do with money if they have.

- Get a HoYD with (resolute, drive, determined, professional, etc) and that resembles my tactic?

FA cup runs?  I wont last more than 2 or 3 rounds.

 

Any advice will be welcomed. thank you. And the best wishes for your managerial carreer!

[MWE]

Giving this a go in Russia with Torpedo Moscow

 

Manager Profile - 

[QSF25]

Question, does it matter if i simulated beyond the first season? 

 

[Boyd The Beast]

So my game is in the third season and I was looking at some of the major European clubs and noticed they all have like 3 youth players. This concerns me on a few different levels, to make it short I'm thinking of starting over and adding the top European countries as view only. 

[Boyd The Beast]

Ok so after thinking about it I have decided to start a new one with Merthyr Town F.C.  So here it is, the young inexperienced American takes charge of the Welsh team competing in England. I'm committed to this save and look forward to where it goes!

[MWE]

Season 1 finished with Torpedo Moscow finished 8th in the league.

League Table

First Team Squad

Transfers

Finances

Youth Intake - I tagged them all but only signed two of them

Rasul Kharchenko & Roman Kalinin

Did I miss anything?

[CJ'43]

NK Zadar 2018/19

Squad / Staff

 

After completing the Big Euro Challenge in FM14 - which took me 30 seasons - I'm up for a new challenge. I'll be starting in Croatia (restart date is July 20th) , as a Faroese manager: Jørgen Hansen who has been appointed as new boss at Stanovi Stadion.

The board is expecting  a mid-table finnish for NK Zadar and so do I. Our facilities are pretty decent for this level and our youth team gives me a good feeling we can fight for a spot in the top flight in the next couple of seasons.

[Muttley84]

Thinking about getting back to the challenge, but with playing in FMT, i searched for a couple of clubs in a specific country and they all have like 16-17 players. Dunno if one can make it through the season like this. Anyone managed to do it with under 17 players?

[MWE]

Season 2 done with Torpedo Moscow finished 5th in the league only 4 points from promotion

League Table

First Team Squad

Finances

Transfers

Youth Intake

Rustem Belousov & Vyacheslav Rozhkov

 

Season    League               Position    Russian Cup      Achievements/Notes            Top Scorer
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2018/19   Wtoroj Diwizion      8th         5th round        Stayed up                     Kosyanchuk (33) 
2019/20   Wtoroj Diwizion      5th         Qtr Final        Only 4 points from promotion  Kosyanchuk (31)

 

[Boyd The Beast]

Season 1 2018/19

 

League - First season in charge and after looking at our squad I saw enough to see we shouldn't have to worry about a relegation fight. We started off very well and made it up to 2nd place for a 2 week period before sliding down to the playoff spots in 7th. We spent much of the 2nd half of the season here and were unlucky to miss out by 1 point! It came down to a poor month stretch in February which saw us only pick up 2 points in 6 games. All in all it was a good season which earned me Manager of the Year but coming so close to a playoff spot certainly left us a bit disappointed. 

FA Cup - Only made it to the Fourth Qualifying Round losing away to Chorley and needing a replay in the Third Qualifying Round again Canvey Island. Not overly disappointed but would have liked to get some more money from it

FA Trophy - Knocked out in First Round in replay with Salford. Not bothered as I was using this competition to rotate players in. 

Transfers - None in and none out

Finances - In the red, steadily bleed money throughout the season and without getting an FA cup run saw us end in the red. This limited us to just a Junior Coaching and Youth Recruitment increase. 

 

Youth Intake - A good intake which saw us add a starting LB and ST for next year with one of our joint top scorers retiring. Personalities are not good and will be looking for this to improve in future intakes.

Geraint Marsh 19A - Straight into the starting lineup over our 31 year old who I will use to help tutor him. Appeared in 3 games with average rating of 7.5 before picking up a twisted ankle

Jon Smith 19B -  Will be a starter next year as mentioned above with the retirement. Appeared in 7 games this year and managed 3 goals

Matt Hall 19C - Has good speed and will be played as a ST in the rotation next year, bad personality that I'm hoping I can improve with some tutoring.

 

Career Update:

Season	League	Position	FA Cup	Training Facilities	Youth Level	Youth Facilities	Junior Coaching	Youth Recruitment	Achievements/Notes	Top Scorer
2017/18	N/A	N/A	N/A	Poor	0	Poor	Average	Basic	N/A	N/A
2019/20	VNN	8th	4th Qualifying Round	Poor	0	Poor	Adequate	Fairly basic	Won MOTY	Fleetwood/Richards (15)

[Sanno11]

East Kilbride F.C.

Season 6 2023/2024

First Team Squad | Finances | Transfers

Season Review

Cups (Results) - With league survival being the priority I gave my 'B' team a chance to play in the cup games, we performed well enough but nothing to write about.

League (Final Table |  Results) - The failure in our first season in league 1 was still fresh in the memory, so this season I was determined to avoid that. My board expected a top half finish and the league preview have us finishing 5th so it seemed like we were considered as a more competitive squad. We started well and against all my expectations we found ourselves top. I expected this to just be a strong start, but to my surprise our form held pretty well. The tougher away games we still struggled, but throughout the whole year we never dropped below second position. Queen of the South finished the season really strongly and won the league comfortably in the end, we finished a clear 2nd and entered the playoffs.

The semi-final was against St Mirren, we held them to 0-0 at their place and then demolished them 5-1 at home. Montrose had made the final after finishing 4th in the league, so we were the favourites. We came from behind to win 2-1 in the away leg. Going into the 2nd leg knowing it was ours to lose was great and by half time, I knew we had it in the bag. The end result was a 6-2 aggregate win. We are promoted to the Championship.

One player I have has all the big teams interested and I know I will lose him, so before I do here is Shaun McClean (YP04a), he's been really good over the last couple of years.

 

Youth Intake

Another very disappointing intake and actually is worse than last year

Brian McManus (YP06a) - Not a bad looking forward, however refuses to be tutored and I already dislike him.

Transfers, Finance and Facilities

We shipped out a couple of players who were struggling to get into the first team. The loss of Heron was a shame, a cheeky 7k bid from Ayr was enough for my chairman to let him go, he was my 2nd choice striker for next year.

At the end of the season when we had a little money I pushed for an increase in junior coaching and youth recruitment and got them both.

Our chairman stepped aside and the I survived the takeover, nothing exciting happening here but it could be a good thing.

[Boyd The Beast]

@Sanno11nice job on promotion this time around, good luck next year

[Sanno11]

Thanks @Boyd The Beast, it was unexpected, we have started well in the championship and I think we have enough to survive.

Well done on your first season with Merthyr, that youth intake should really help next season. With the new talent and a familiar formation the playoffs should be within your reach.

[fairsy]

Not played this for a while, but my first season in the PL has been a joyless struggle so far. Hopefully I can hold on to my better players when I go down, have £50m in the bank so should be ok.

I'll hopefully be moving back to my own stadium soon as still at the Den, my key RB still won't sign a deal and has been playing on a non-contract basis all season.

 

[Swindon69]

Giving this another bash in Northern Ireland - I couldn't really get into my French save.

[Muttley84]

@Ice Ice Gravy - Is your OFK save still going? Been thinking about returning to the challenge and wanted to play in a new league. Was thinking something eastern with few European places and Serbia is a big candidate. Was also considering Croatia but see now @CJ'43 already started there, how is that working?

[Swindon69]

I've taken over a semi-pro side in NI but I can only offer non-contract to my players?

Oh and I've taken over a side with 4 keepers and 3 strikers

[Ice Ice Gravy]

1 hour ago, Muttley84 said:

@Ice Ice Gravy - Is your OFK save still going? Been thinking about returning to the challenge and wanted to play in a new league. Was thinking something eastern with few European places and Serbia is a big candidate.

Really weird time for you to ask, today is actually the first day I've picked the save up in 2 months!

I haven't had as much time to play FM, and what little I have had has been  on the Tour of Challenges (that's not going too well for me).

I guess I'd fallen out of the idea of a European save as I thought I could reach the top domestically pretty quickly, and so thought about starting again in England (I wasted a Sunday afternoon/evening a few weeks ago to get Farsley Celtic). But I've really enjoyed picking OFK up today so think that still has some legs.

[Boyd The Beast]

Season 2 - 2019/20

 

League - Coming into the second season I felt we had a good chance at getting into the playoffs after missing out by 1 point last year. We had a good first intake which I thought would get us over the edge. We started off great and were in 2nd place 7 games into the season and after 14 found ourselves in good position in 4th. Our form started to drop off a bit and were inconsistent in November and December. However things got very disappointing after this as we only won 6 games January onward with 6-2-11 record in the span saw us finish outside the playoffs in 10th. We scored 90 goals in the league but also conceded 87, if we are going to make a promotion bid next year our defense needs to improve.

FA Cup - Was hoping to get past the qualifying rounds this time around and get a big money draw but we crashed out in the 4th Qualifying Round again this time at home again National League side Aldershot.

FA Trophy - Made it a round farther this time making it to the 2nd round before a disappoint 1-4 defeat to National League side York. As we had a full 7 days before and after this game I played my strongest team so was not too happy by the scoreline. 

Transfers - None in and none out

Finances - Not good and went deeper into the red, need to get a promotion and FA cup money before we can make any upgrades. Limited to just Junior Coaching and Youth Recruitment increase.

 

Youth Intake - Not at much depth as the first intake and saw me only sign 4 from this intake but did get a starting defensive minded CM. Still lacking a quality CB from an intake so hopeful next year gives us one

Adrian Rees 20A - A very good defensive minded CM who started 6 games and 3 sub appearances after the intake. Fantastic mental with 17 team work and 16 work rate! 

Sean Llewellyn 20B -  A natural finisher with 16 finishing, will not be a starter next year(most likely) but will keep a close eye on his development 

Jon Jones 20C - Another striker who has potential, like Llewellyn won't be a starter next year due to the first intake producing so many options at the position. 

Youth player updates

Jon Smith 19B - Wow what a year for Smith leading the team in goals(33), assists(16) and average rating(7.38)! His pace at this level allows him to get past defenders and cause havoc and will look for him to help us for the promotion push next year

Matt Hall 19C - Another good contributor from the first intake with 10 goals and 11 assists in the league. Will also look for him to push us forward next year

Geraint Marsh 19A - Our starting LB saw him get 7 assists  this year. Needs to cut out some of the mistakes to help improve our defense next year

Marc Brown 19E - Yet another one of our striker prospects from the first intake. He was down the list getting the tag of E but he really developed into the second half of the year. Had a couple strikers go down with injuries and when he got his chance he showed why he deserved to stay in the lineup. 12 goals and 9 assists in just 12 starts and 1 sub appearance. Going into next season my 3 up front will be Smith 19B, Hall 19C and Brown 19E

Career Update:

 

Season	League	Position	FA Cup	Training Facilities	Youth Level	Youth Facilities	Junior Coaching	Youth Recruitment	Achievements/Notes	Top Scorer
2017/18	N/A	N/A	N/A	Poor	0	Poor	Average	Basic	N/A	N/A
2018/19	VNN	8th	4th Qualifying Round	Poor	0	Poor	Adequate	Fairly basic	Won MOTY	Fleetwood/Richards (15)
2019/20	VNN	10th	4th Qualifying Round	Poor	0	Poor	Good	Average	None	Smith 19B (33)

[Muttley84]

8 hours ago, Ice Ice Gravy said:

Really weird time for you to ask, today is actually the first day I've picked the save up in 2 months!

I haven't had as much time to play FM, and what little I have had has been  on the Tour of Challenges (that's not going too well for me).

I guess I'd fallen out of the idea of a European save as I thought I could reach the top domestically pretty quickly, and so thought about starting again in England (I wasted a Sunday afternoon/evening a few weeks ago to get Farsley Celtic). But I've really enjoyed picking OFK up today so think that still has some legs.

I assure you it's all due go my psychic abilites and not just a weird coincidence ☺. Will be probably joining later today after putting on hours in deciding a country and club.

[MWE]

Season 3 done with Torpedo Moscow

Squad

League Table

Finances

Transfers

Youth Intake

Salugin 3a
Vlasov 3b
Ignatovich 3c
Scheglov 3d
Beraia 3e
Haqverdiev 3f
Polyakov 3g

Season    League               Position    Russian Cup      Achievements/Notes            Top Scorer
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2018/19   Wtoroj Diwizion      8th         5th round        Stayed up                     Kosyanchuk (33) 
2019/20   Wtoroj Diwizion      5th         Qtr Final        Only 4 points from promotion  Kosyanchuk (31)
2020/21   Wtoroj Diwizion      13th        5th round        Bit of a step back            Kosyanchuk (21)

[Boyd The Beast]

Just had my Brexit and got the 17 foreign player limit

[Muttley84]

Time to get back in the challenge. After a lot of looking around I decided the best option was to go back to the beloved Greece where I had such much fun last year. Presenting Ethnikos Piraeus (a club with a rich history but unfortunately fallen out of favor in the last years). Our trophy cabinet isn't entirely empty with a Cup the most notable. Introducing the manager - Athanasios Gavrilidis (that should be a good enough Greek name, sorry for forgetting the profile page in the first day).

The difference from last year is that Ethnikos don't have good facilities or stadium. We should be looking to improve the facilities ASAP, while regarding the stadium, theoretically in real life if we get back to Superleague we have the option of joining Olimpiacos at Karaiskakis, but hardly doubted this is implemented in the game. One of the first tasks is to fill in the staff of the club, as at the moment it's only me here. A small squad (part 1, part 2) with another confirmed transfer of a goalkeeper when I arrived. 

On the positive side, we are not predicted to finish last, but actually on 13th, best team of the newly  promoted, and if my knowledge of the Greek second league is true, anything can happen, although relegated Larisa and Levadaiakos, as well as OFI Crete might be pretty hard to crack.