FM18 Youth Academy Challenge

[Sanno11]

East Kilbride F.C.

Season 7 2024/2025

First Team Squad | Finances | Transfers

Season Review

Cups (Results) - A quick exit in the Betfred cup didn't fill me with confidence at the beginning of the season. Our performance in the Scottish cup was good and we really gave eventual winners Rangers a game, missing lots of chances ourselves. In a repeat of our performance two years ago we made the final in the IRN BRU cup, and just like that run, we lost to Partick Thistle in the final.

League (Final Table |  Results 1 | Results 2) - I have mixed feelings about this season. On first appearance I should be ecstatic we survived comfortably etc. However, from looking at our fixtures you can see how differently it could have turned out for us. After about 20 games we led the league by 4 points. Our form had been incredible and despite my early season pessimism, I actually started to think promotion could happen. Dunfermline's form really picked up for several weeks and we started to drop points. Then our form got even worse and we couldn't buy a win, luckily for us we had created a large points cushion due to our great early season form. What is more annoying is that Dundermline's form was poor in the last 6 games and if we could have just won a couple more games it could have been us promoted instead.

As it turned out we had to settle for 3rd place. In a grudge match against Partick in the first promotion play off round we overcame them 2-1 on aggregate and then faced Motherwell. With the extra rest they proved a little to good for us, but the score flatters them and our poor finishing and two penalties given away killed our chance.

I know we would have struggled in the premiership and it is a good season of consolidation, but I was so close the 3 back to back promotions.

 

Youth Intake

A better intake for us this year, but without much depth (Please excuse the missing screenshot). We have lost almost all our tutors as well now so these bad personalities could be a problem.

Paul Welsh (YP07a) An exciting left back, he needs plenty of work but is good enough to be a sub for the first team. I have high hopes.

George Ferguson (YP07b) A decent looking forward, faces some tough competition so will need to show something in any chance he gets.

David King (YP07c) Another forward, has a better personality but less technical ability.

 

Transfers, Finance and Facilities

Shaun McClean (YP04a) has finally left, he signed with Aberdeen at the end of his contract. I have made peace with this and have a replacement that needs to step into his place. We didn't manage any facility improvements this year despite the £400k for finishing 3rd. Our stadium still stands at a mighty 917 capacity which I expect could be a problem in the future.

 

[XaW]

Been away from FM for a little while, but are going for this once again. I'm having a go in Hungary this time. Loading up now.

[Muttley84]

Season 1 - 2018-2019

League and Cup - Our first season in the Greek second league and we performed better than we expected (fixtures 1, fixtures 2), including a superb run following the winter break where we only lost one game. After a hard fought battle with OFI (which collapsed in the end) and Levadeiakos (which join us in promotion) we have won the Football league! The fans were so happy after this. So next year, its Top-division football for us, in a SuperLeague which for the second consecutive season was won by AEK (what are the chances of that happening in real life?). Olympiacos, Panathinaikos and PAOK are all up there, proving their continued dominance in the league (as a fun fact, in real life, except for an accidental Larisa win the 80s, the league has been only won by teams from Athens Metropolitan or Salonika). We got out of the cup at the first entrance (the group stage).

Squad and transfers - We had to rely a lot on the first 11, as we didn't had much depth in the squad. But our players performed pretty good. On the worrying note, from the first 11 players used around 7 are over 28 years old, which might require us to push the younger players in sooner that we would want to. No players leaving the squad as we had such a small number i decided to keep them all in for rotation and tutoring. The transfer in was arranged before my arrival at the club.

Facilities - Not much happening here, just a small upgrade of our youth development budget. Youth and training facilities upgrades have been turned down by the board. Will be interesting to see how we fare in the league with our tiny stadium (or if we play in another place). Hopefully the SuperLeague will mean we get some money in the coffers as we been actually losing them in the second league.

Youth intake - The moment we've all waiting for, and in Touch it comes at the end of the season. We got seven players in the Youth Intake and I've decided to tag them all for following purposes (the * is for players born in Piraeus). To be realistic, two of them will be given first team chances this season, with Tsouris 19a in attacking midfielder and Skordos 19b on the left back, while Nikos 19c can maybe provide some rotation if needed. They are not superstars in the making for sure, but they are the best that we got at the moment.

Next season - Realistically just survive. And maybe improve finances a bit so we can have an upgrade in the third season if we pile enough.

[andershs]

A quick question. I have started a save in Northern Ireland with Crumlin Star. The club has 'No youth recruitment' and 'No youth coaching'. 

Will this, as should be expected and is implied, mean that there will be no youth intake? I am desperately hoping that the youth intake will be there, but be potentially extremely poor, but I know this is probably a longshot.

The board will not invest in any youth recruitment since they believe they have not got the funding, which is a problem for me, if I am on route to getting absolutely no youth intake. And in that case, I would rather start over again before spending too much time on a save, which is destined to fail.

Thanks in advance:)

[XaW]

Oh, how I have missed Hungarian names and words. I'm now the new manager of (and here goes with the names...) Tiszakécske. We are a club from the town Tiszakécske (surprise), located west of the slightly bigger town of Kecskemét. Both are southwest of the capital Budapest. According to the English Wikipedia article, the town is known for it's spas and recreational parks. That's also the only line of info there, so not a grand city there. The club starts with a decent stadium with room for about 4500 people. Quite good facilities for this level, but poor youth coaching and recruitment. Hopefully, I can foster the new Ferenc Puskás or Balázs Dzsudzsák.

Edit: Oh, and I started with loads on players in on loan. Cancelling everything as soon as possible, and will not play them if I can't cancel at once.

[Boyd The Beast]

18 hours ago, andershs said:

A quick question. I have started a save in Northern Ireland with Crumlin Star. The club has 'No youth recruitment' and 'No youth coaching'. 

Will this, as should be expected and is implied, mean that there will be no youth intake? I am desperately hoping that the youth intake will be there, but be potentially extremely poor, but I know this is probably a longshot.

The board will not invest in any youth recruitment since they believe they have not got the funding, which is a problem for me, if I am on route to getting absolutely no youth intake. And in that case, I would rather start over again before spending too much time on a save, which is destined to fail.

Thanks in advance:)

I believe there will be no youth intake for you, though I would save the game and holiday the day before the intake and see if you get it

[andershs]

4 hours ago, Boyd The Beast said:

I believe there will be no youth intake for you, though I would save the game and holiday the day before the intake and see if you get it

Thanks for the answer.

Played through to the youth intake date (6th of March 2019), as I have finally found a decent Lower League 4-4-2 tactic which is solid, and you are completely right. There were no youth intake.

I will play through to the end of the season and see if the final position prize money (I hope they actually exist in Northern Ireland division 2:)) will enable me to invest in youth recruitment. If this is the case, I believe my current squad is capable of avoiding relegation again, and it seems to be fairly easy to keep hold of players in the lower tiers in Northern Ireland.

But again, thanks for the answer.

[XaW]

A mini update from Hungary. A bit into November and things are going well. I've gotten my National C licence and are studying for the National B, nice board. We are mid table, but have only lost 2 matches. We are drawing most matches, but as long as it keeps us up, I'm happy. If we just scored our chances we would be just below the promotion spots, I think. There are a couple of special rules here. I need to have 2 U20 players in the playing 11 at all times. This won't be an issue later on, but since I have a total of 3 U20 players at the moment, I have certain issues. A couple of 16 year old at the club are suddenly playing every match, and they are not quite ready for it. I can't wait for the youth intake. It will hopefully give us more options for the designated spots! Enjoying things in Hungary so far, though the names are killing me.

[Ice Ice Gravy]

1 hour ago, XaW said:

Enjoying things in Hungary so far, though the names are killing me.

I'm the same in Serbia. Just finished my fourth season and I still don't think I'd be able to spell the name of a single one of my mini-Galacticos.

[XaW]

XaW - Tiszakécskei VSE - 2018/19

Table | Squad | Transfers | Finances

Note: The transfer in the image happened before I took over. I joined June 20th while the player joined June 15th.

The first season in Hungary. I actually played here in FM13 or FM14 I think, when I took Budafok to Champions League glory in Gundo's challenge. I haven't played here since, I think, so it's good to be back. As it happens, Budafok was actually one of the opponent in this division this season. Had they not been there, I might had tried to reload to get them, but Tiszakécske is my chosen club, even if I have to look it up each and every time I try to write it. The season itself started quite good, as we were unbeaten the first 5 matches. Other than that though, we struggled to find anything resembling to a run of sorts. Not that we lost many matches, but we drew a ton. This lead to us to jump up and down the middle of the table, but unable to make a push for the upper levels of the table. In the end we finished in a decent 10th place. However, the board are apparently "unhappy" with our league placement, but I don't quite know why. When another manager got the boot, I found out I was heavy favorite in the "sack race". I don't know if I get to stay, but I'm hopeful.

In the Magyar Kupa we beat Balatonfüred, Győri, Soroksár and Ferencvárosi to reach the semi final, here we lost to Balmazújváros Sport on away goals. So close to reaching the final, but I'm very happy with the run we had.

Since the club started with more than £1M in the bank (very uncommon for lower level teams), I managed to get some coaching courses done and improve youth recruitment as well as youth coaching. Hopefully, I can get more improvements into next season since this should help out a lot with the intakes.

Our first youth intake was pretty good. 3 very good players who are going straight into the main squad. Partly, to fill out the limitations to the match squad and partly since they are quite talented. Meet Robert Cornelissen 19a, a very talented dutch midfielder. Dont' know where he came from, since I don't have any Dutch staff, but I'll take him! Istvan László 19b is a very talented goalkeeper who will be rotated in quite soon, and finally György Bányai 19c is a very talented defensive midfielder who matches my tactic pretty well.

[XaW]

How talented Cornelissen 19a is?

Well...

And I haven't seen this before. Nice feature.

[andershs]

1 hour ago, XaW said:

How talented Cornelissen 19a is?

Well...

And I haven't seen this before. Nice feature.

Congratulations with Cornelissen. If you can keep him, you can build a team around him. Impressive with the international call-up.

And a 2nd Team is also an important step in developing a good development setup:)

Are you still threatened by a potential sack or how is that situation developing?

[XaW]

14 minutes ago, andershs said:

Congratulations with Cornelissen. If you can keep him, you can build a team around him. Impressive with the international call-up.

And a 2nd Team is also an important step in developing a good development setup:)

Are you still threatened by a potential sack or how is that situation developing?

Yeah, he looks light a right talent.

We've rolled over to the next season and now my status is "secure" and they are "happy with last years success", so I don't know if they are bipolar or something, but everything seems to be rainbows and unicorns at the moment.

[Muttley84]

Season 2 - 2019-2020

League & Cup -  We were pretty much inconsistent thought the season (fixtures 1, fixtures 2), but somehow we did enough in beating the small teams like us to finish the Superleague in 11th. No miracles from our part other then that as we got out of the groups of the Cup but lost to AEK afterwards. A miracle did happened in the league, as Atromitos stunned Greece to win their first title ever. We lost pretty heavy to the big boys of the league, some of the defeats so hard they embarrassed even the players. To conclude, a pretty much satisfactory season for everyone at the club.

Squad & Transfers - Played more with a DMC this season and a defensive tactics as much of the teams were superior to us. Not a lot of ground breaking players in the season awards, but notable is that the young LB Skordos 19b has played the most games for us this season. Three players who left us on free transfers or retired, although I think might be some sort of bug here, as selecting the All transfers tab doesn't show them at all. Of course, no players joined us. 

Facilities - The board said no to the youth, but agreed on the Training facilities upgrade (much needed as they were still at a basic level). We got also the news of an upgrade on our stadium, but that isn't really good as we spent over 1 million for reaching just a little over 2000 seats. There's no way we can compete with the big boys of the league in that. Our Finances are looking much healthier since we are playing in the first division and just hoping they improve further with the savings we are making on the transfer and wage budgets.

Youth Intake - Just four players joining our ranks in this season's Intake, but three of them look quite promising: Felekis 20a gonna jump into rotation at DC this season, Andrikos 20b might not get that many chances as we are pretty packed in the middle at the moment, while we are nurturing Alkis 20c to be our long term keeper, though I doubt it he would get much chances this season. All of the four players are born in Piraeus, that might bring some extra local-pride and loyalty to the club. Also, decided to change our HOYD from a balanced one to a fairly professional, but still searching for the right person to fill that very important role for us.

Next season - Consolidate on our position in the first league (as we are predicted last even behind the newly promoted sides) & Give more game time to young players.

[Ice Ice Gravy]

OFK Belgrade – 2021/22

League (4t^h) – Solid first season in the Super League and very happy. If we could sort out a bit of consistency we’ll be laughing.

Fixtures 1

Fixtures 2

Fixtures 3

After parking this save for two months I have remembered what I find most frustrating about it – the dam fixture schedule. The Serbian league winter break lasts for two months. Two months of absolute nothing. Our season then ended with 8 games in 23 days.

It just seems absurd if this is what happens in reality. How is that good for players? I’m sure someone smarter than me would be able to explain, but surely cutting a few weeks out of the winter break would help.

Serbian Cup – Winners! We broke the curse of continually reaching the 1^st round only to obtain my first piece of silverware. And perhaps bigger than this…. Qualify for the EURO Cup.

Squad – Very happy at the minute, solid squad which is very young. Should only really get better from here on. Key mentions as follows:

Bogdan Radojkovic – Top goalscorer (20) and joint most MoM awards (4). Just keeps getting better and better in front of goal.

Vasilije Djuric – Highest average rating (7.38) and joint most MoM awards (4). Ran the show in midfield for the most part, and has a cracking shot from long range.

Nikola Lakcevic – Most assists (14). Very reliable winger, which is useful considering out transfers in the year…

Other notable mentions would be Ivan Sreckovic 3b (a 16 year old goalkeeper who has made the number 1 jersey his own with a series of spectacular one-on-one saves),  and Nikola Spajic 1d (much better as an AMC than as a striker).

Transfers – Unfortunately lost Nemanja Sucurovic 1a to Partizan. However we received a good package for him and it allowed Lakcevic to make the right wing position his own. As a bit of a spoiler I’m almost a season ahead from this update, and Sucurovic now has three full Serbian caps and is attracting interest from Chelsea, Liverpool and Roma, so hopefully that sell on clause will come in handy.

I was more disappointed to lose Ostoja Basanovic 3a also to Partizan – I’m hoping we just don’t end up being a feeder club to them. I thought it was a pretty poor financial deal which my board accepted for him. Even more frustrating that he was getting game time for us in the Super League, and Partizan farmed him out straight away to what I believe is at best a third tier Serbian team. Red Star are definitely my preferred Belgrade giant.

Youth Intake – a bit of a “meh” intake after season three. None ready for first team action, and not many with great potential. The best of the lot being Marjan Prolic 4a.

Other – Cash received on players in the year came in useful, as it meant I could successfully request improvements to our youth recruitment, junior coaching, senior training facilities, and data analysis facilities.

My manager is now studying for his Continental A licence – now we have a bit of extra cash the board just keep letting me carry on going to college. My under 19s also won their academy league, no mean feat considering they were up against the Partizan and Red Star academies.

In other news Serbia has now joined the EU, although I’m unsure if this is a good thing, as it probably makes it easier for other European cubs to sign my best players. But at least they wouldn’t be joining Partizan, so every cloud and all that.

Serbia has also improved its European coefficient, so there’ll be an extra Champions League place next season!

Next Season – The next step has to be to reach the top three. I’m also going to enjoy being in Europe, regardless of how long for.

SEASON-BY-SEASON PROGRESS

Season    League         Pos     Europe         Serbian Cup         Notes & Achievements
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2018/19   First League   12th	 N/A		1st Round	    Avoided relegation on final day of season.
2019/20   First League   9th     N/A            1st Round 
2020/21   First League   2nd     N/A            1st Round           Promoted as RU. Manager of the Year RU.
2021/22   Super League   4th     N/A            Winner              Qualified for the EURO Cup


OFF-FIELD PROGRESS

Season   Finances  Balance Sheet  Reputation  Av. Att  Capacity  Stadium  Pitch      Corporate  Training Facs.  Youth Facs.  Jnr Coaching  Youth Rec.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2018/19  Okay      (£106k)        National       440   19,100    Average  Perfect    Adequate   Average         Good         Adequate      Above average
2019/20  Okay        £57k         National       416   19,100    Average  Very good  Adequate   Average         Good         Adequate      Above average
2020/21  Okay       (£26k)        National       778   19,100    Average  Very good  Adequate   Average         Good         Adequate      Established
2021/22	 Okay       £777k         National     2,543   19,100    Average  Very good  Adequate   Average         Good         Adequate      Well established 

 

[XaW]

Solid season there @Muttley84. I had to laugh at the name Alkis seeing as it is a slang for an alcoholic in Norwegian. Hopefully, he'll stick to football instead of booze!

Congrats on winning the cup and qualifying for Europe, @Ice Ice Gravy! Should help on the finances and allow you to keep improving things for the youth.

I'm currently heading into the final stages of the season and promotion are looking likely for us. Much helped by our Dutch wonderboy. He is having an amazing season and are rated as a star in the top flight already at the tender age of 17. Luckily, his personality is fairly loyal, so I'm hoping this will keep him here for a while.

[XaW]

XaW - Tiszakécskei VSE - 2019/20

Table | Squad | Transfers | Finances

After the good season last year, I hoped to build on it this season. With the youngsters coming along well, and even two of them as regulars. Robert Cornelissen 19a had a great season, and the same for our young goalkeeper Istvan László 19b (who are also taking our pens and freekicks, you know, for other challenges). While we lost the first game of the season, we actually started out quite good. About a third into the season we had run away along with Soproni. However, Debreceni had a good middle part and almost caught up towards the end of the season. We had some bad injuries to key players towards the end, so Soproni got away for a bit, but we caught them just before the season ended to finish as champions. The promotion to the top tier are most welcome, but I still feel it might be a bit early for us. I wouldn't be surprised if we get relegated next season. I'll keep the faith though.

In the Magyar Kupa we beat Bonyhád, Paksi, Debreceni, Balmazjúváros Sport and Budaörs before losing to Ferencvárosi in the semi final. Our second semi final in a row and we are looking like a propper cup team.

We have some great sponsorships and got in another million this season. This have allowed us to improve out youth coaching and we are currently improving the youth facilities.

The youth intake this season was just amazing. Out of those the best 3 ones seems to be Árpád Fodor 20a, a talented striker, Zoltán Erdős 20b, a promising defensive fullback, and Tamás Oláh 20c, a very tall central defender. Some of the others might have good futures as well, so I kept quite a lot of them this season.

[andershs]

Ards Rangers

Pre Season 1 - 2018-19

First Team Squad | Finances | Transfers | Facilities

Season Preview

Another try in Northern Ireland. I decided to end the previous save with Crumlin Star since the club had no youth recruitment. This along with my chairman being quite stubborn made the save infeasible for the current challenge.

This time it will be with Ards Rangers, an amateur club who has chosen El Grande Alberto as manager.

When appointed there was one transfer agreed, for a young central defender. Otherwise, no transfers of course.

The current first team should be skilled enough to avoid relegation, which is the goal for the season.

Since the facilities are absolutely minimal (Minimal Youth Coaching, Limited Youth Recruitment), upgrades here would also be welcome during the season. But on the bright side, I can look forward to a youth intake come next march.

The tactic will be a basic 4-4-2 with a minimum of instructions to the players.

Onwards, upwards toward Europe! 

[MWE]

Season 4 done with Torpedo Moscow

Squad

Table - Lost int the play offs to Baltika Kaliningrad

Finances

Transfers

Youth Intake

Ismagilov
Rozhkov
Tkachuk
Tarakanov
Panfilov
Terentjev
Axionov

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)
2021/22   Wtoroj Diwizion      3rd         4th round        Lost in play offs             Yeliseev   (28)

[Miek]

Another year, another youth challenge.

 

 

Kettering Town FC 2018 - 2019 (Season 1)

League Table I Season Review I Finances I Transfers I Stadium expansion

Season goals: 

First season is all about getting rid of the bad players, involving youngsters and making sure the club stays healthy by making money at the end of the year. The board expects me to fight bravely against relegation.

Season recap:

The first season went perfectly. After some decent cup runs we never got into a relegation battle and parked our car in the middle of the league table. We kept our money in our pocket and made a nice profit at the end of our fiscal year. We spent hardly any money on scouting and kept the wages in check. This made our board decide to expand our stadium even though we barely reached 27% of our capacity all year. We were lucky to have our first 'golden generation' and thus got rid of some older players to sign 8 youngsters to the first team:

Luke Draper:

Spoiler

Liban Elmi:

Spoiler

Jason Martyn:

Spoiler

Clive McNamara:

Spoiler

Christian Prince:

Spoiler

Tony Scott:

Spoiler

Daniel Woolford:

Spoiler

Jake Wright:

Spoiler

Daniel Woolford and Jason Martyn are instant starters.

Season summary:

 

[Muttley84]

Season 3 - 2020-2021

League & Cup -  Another season of mid-table mediocrity starting with six straight defeats (fixtures 1, fixtures 2) as we finished the season in 11th. At least things got back to normal in the league, as Olimpiacos won it. But the best part is that we had a long run, and the season review shows us reaching the final of the Cup, where we unfortunately were destroyed by AEK. We were lucky to reach it anyway and it did brought us some valuable cash so won't complain to much, we were never prepared for Europe anyhow, 

Squad & Transfers - Still not a lot our young players good enough to make it playing a lot of games for the squad, though i tried forcing Tsouris 19a and he has been average at best. So our statistics are being dominated but the same players, which are beginning to fade a bit. Three of them were actually quite useless and had to leave on free transfers.

Facilities - Still no upgrade to our youth facilities which is pretty unfortunate, but another upgrade to our training, costing around 850 k and taking around 5 months to complete. Our board seem to be rather poor at doing business as for the second year they are investing over a million for a small 1k upgrade to our stadium, following which it will have the impressive (not) capacity of 3100. Seems like a bit of waste for money here. Another change in the youth development budget, now aiming for an average youth recruitment network, which is always nice. An unnecessary upgrade to the scouting network too, allowing us to travel the world. Despite all these constructions going on, our finances are pretty good.

Youth Intake - Four players in this year intake, none of them from Piraeus, but overall decent first team prospects in AMR - Karakasidis 21a, AMC (will be retrained possibly to MC) - Samaris 21b and AML - Stathas 21c. We also got a pretty rubbish striker (though we need young blood in that compartment, our options being pretty old), but not a single defensive oriented player which is kinda strange and might put us at trouble at some point in the future. 

Next season - Predicted last again, so do better than 11th and really put young players to game time!

[QSF25]

which league is lower rep wales or north ireland?

[XaW]

3 hours ago, QSF25 said:

which league is lower rep wales or north ireland?

Northern Ireleand, I think.

[XaW]

I usually post my youth players in my season update, but holy cow look at this guy:

I think I might have gotten a world beater! 

[Sanno11]

@XaW Wow, he is incredible , definitely worth sharing. Good luck making the most out of him.

[XaW]

3 minutes ago, Sanno11 said:

@XaW Wow, he is incredible , definitely worth sharing. Good luck making the most out of him.

Yeah, he was so good, I almost missed the other super talent.

Not sure if I should turn him into a ball playing defender or not... I have a very good DM already, but are more lacking in central defense, so I'll consider it.

This should give me a good foundation to build on, provided I can actually keep them...

[Muttley84]

27 minutes ago, XaW said:

This should give me a good foundation to build on, provided I can actually keep them...

That being the key issue, in general I haven't been able to keep the best ones past 18, but good luck with that.

[Sanno11]

@XaW Your HOYD needs a raise I think, what a superstar. Although I agree with Muttley it may be tough to keep such great talent.

 

I have just finished my current season and this is why I keep playing this challenge, an unbelievable last day. On the final day of the season we sit in 2nd place 1 point behind Motherwell. We are at home to 4th place. A win would give us of winning the league as long as Motherwell don't win. We managed to put in our best performance of the year and win 6-3, quickly do the team talk and check the final score for Motherwell, they drew 0-0. After 8 years we have reached the Premiership.

[XaW]

9 hours ago, Muttley84 said:

That being the key issue, in general I haven't been able to keep the best ones past 18, but good luck with that.

Yeah, I've gotten him to sign a pre-contract with 2 years + 3 years of "optional extention by club", and that only takes effect from his 17th birthday. So In theory I should be able to force him to stay until he is 22. "In theory" is the key words though, as he might rebel, but we are doing quite good in the league and have a good shot at Europe this season. Seems like the two tiers in Hungary aren't that far of each other. A trip to Europe should help us keep him at the club, at least for a while, unless the top top clubs of Europe come sniffing...

7 hours ago, Sanno11 said:

@XaW Your HOYD needs a raise I think, what a superstar. Although I agree with Muttley it may be tough to keep such great talent.

I have just finished my current season and this is why I keep playing this challenge, an unbelievable last day. On the final day of the season we sit in 2nd place 1 point behind Motherwell. We are at home to 4th place. A win would give us of winning the league as long as Motherwell don't win. We managed to put in our best performance of the year and win 6-3, quickly do the team talk and check the final score for Motherwell, they drew 0-0. After 8 years we have reached the Premiership.

Yeah, he got his contract extended. Though, he really isn't all that good. Expect for a decent personality, his stats aren't much and I were considering switching him out if the intake was poor. Now though, he can stay.

Congrats on reaching the Premiership! Should be good for the reputation and perhaps money? I haven't played much in Scotland. At least improved attendances should help out. Think you have a good chance to stay up?

[Sanno11]

@XaW, Thanks. I know luck does play a part in the youth intake but I like that you gave him a new contract! He definitely deserved it. 

I haven't got through to the new season yet, but we are still semi-pro at the minute and they just refused my request to go professional. I have no idea of the money in Scotland, but I do know finishing in 12th (last place) still gets you 1 million in prize money.

We beat two premiership teams in the cup last year and a team from the championship was promoted with me, so if I can do better than them, I have a good chance of surviving.

[Sanno11]

East Kilbride F.C.

Season 8 2025/2026

First Team Squad | Finances | Transfers | Facilities

Season Review

Cups (Results) - We topped our group in the Betfred cup, but were unlucky to face Hamilton away in the next round and lost 2-1. In the Scottish cup, we entered in the 4th round and managed to beat two premiership teams. In the quarter final we drew Celtic away, the dream fixture in a Scottish save. We were demolished 4-1, but took home around £250k in gate receipts.

League (Final Table |  Results 1 | Results 2) - Wow, as my post yesterday shows we managed to win the league. It didn't start well and to be honest after 7 games we sat in 9th place, with 7 points and I was thinking last season was a fluke and we could be relegated. The squad called a meeting about the atmosphere and afterwards I made the decision to release two of the last original players, both were influential and moaning about game time. Whether this had an effect or not, I don't know but we went unbeaten for 13 games and won 9 of those. This shot us up the league and we managed to maintain this form. A 4-1 home defeat to league leaders Motherwell handed them a 4 point advantage. However our form bounced back again and we won 6 of the last 7 games. To snatch the league title on the last day, with the combination of a great win and Motherwell dropping points was amazing.

I wanted to highlight our main man, club legend Andy Dallas. He was signed in the summer, just before I joined and has led this team. A fell out with him in 2021, when he wanted to leave for a bigger club, but apart from that he has constantly risen to the occasion. On the last day of the season his goal, saw him become our record goal scorer and league appearance holder. He also won Championship player of the year. Here are his stats through the years.

Also quick shout out to my 17yr old keeper Sandy Chalmers (YP07d) who kept 19 clean sheets in the league and has a great future.

 

Youth Intake

A youth intake without much quality and severly lacking centre midfielders. Despite improvements to youth recruitment and coaching I am yet to see the benefit. We have no real tutors for the next couple of years so, those with poor personalities will have to stay

Colin Cowie (YP08a) A work in progress and due to a shortage of midfielders he will be retrained.

Mark Paterson (YP08b) A keeper with some glaring deficiencies, is never going to replace Sandy, but has a chance if he develops.

Transfers, Finance and Facilities

At the end of the season a stadium expansion was announced. 1.4 million for 1,219 seats, seems a little pricey but it is a welcome upgrade. After the prize money hit the bank account I had youth recruitment and junior coaching upgrades approved, along with a coaching badge. The board refused attempts to turn professional or increase youth facilities. I organised our first affiliate club in BSC Glasgow and despite them being non-league, their training facilities are better than ours so we get to share them.

No real transfer issues this season and with the promotion I hope most of the squad will be content. Shaun McClean who left at the start of the season has made around 20 appearances for Aberdeen now and looks to have a good future.

The 700K+ in the bank will probably go to the stadium. I have no idea of prize money or TV money in Scotland so wait to see if we have a lump sum to come. The biggest issue now is us being semi-pro which, I hope when the league reset day happens will be dealt with.

[XaW]

XaW - Tiszakécskei VSE - 2020/21

Table | Squad | Transfers | Finances

Well, we are in the top tier and I had no idea how the level was compared to the second tier. Turns out, not that much of a difference. However, the season started quite poorly as we lost 0-6 to Soproni, the team we got promoted along with. They also got relegated this season. Luckily, it was a freak match and we didn't have many matches like that the rest of the season. We actually did far far better than expected. We conceded quite a lot more, but also scored a lot more than last year, so we won more than we lost. A bit after the Christmas break we found great form and with 5 matches left we were up top and part of the title race somehow.

Újpest soon fell of and when Videoton beat Ferencváros it was down to the final game with Videoton a point behind us.

We had a tough game away to Újpest while Videoton played Diósgyőr at home. They won their game 2-1, while for us Robert Cornelissen 19a decided he wanted a title and scored both in a magnificent 2-0 win. Champions in our first season is just an amazing feat and we are heading into the Champions League next season!

In the Magyar Kupa we beat Csurgó and Szentlőrinc before losing away to Paksi in the 3rd round after a poor match.

We got some improvements again this season and our youth facilities finished and our training facilities should be finished a bit into next season.

A fantastic youth intake with 2 amazing players who went straight into the first team and some other talents as well. The top two are Attila Orovecz 21a, a super talented goalkeeper, and Péter Horváth 21b, who I'm transforming into a ball playing defender.

[Muttley84]

Wow, title at the first go. Now thats something we dont see often. Maybe with some luck you can get into EL groups, as CL qualifiers will be a nightmare for a team from Hungary.

[XaW]

10 hours ago, Muttley84 said:

Wow, title at the first go. Now thats something we dont see often. Maybe with some luck you can get into EL groups, as CL qualifiers will be a nightmare for a team from Hungary.

Yeah, I didn't quite expect it to be honest. At least when I go thumped 0-6 by one of the worst sides in the league in the second game of the season. I think the togetherness in the player group are helping out a lot. None of the players are unhappy, and my captain is excellent in resolving issues when someone want's to talk about something. Cornelissen 19a have come a couple of times looking for a bigger club, but my captain have talked him down.

I'm note expecting much in Europe this season, so everything is a bonus. I'll likely have a very low seed, so I'm expecting to be dominated by some bigger sides. Still, it's a start on our European adventure.

[XaW]

I'm having an amazing start to the season, and I'm in the CL group stage somehow...

[MWE]

Season 5 with Torpedo Moscow done

Squad

League

Transfers

Finances

For some bizarre reason I forgot to take a screenshot of the youth intake and prospect a will post a screenshot of him when I get a minute

Ivanov
Titov
Yevloev
Burmistrov
Kovalev
Melnikov
 

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)
2021/22   Wtoroj Diwizion      3rd         4th round        Lost in play offs             Yeliseev   (28)
2022/23   Wtoroj Diwizion      9th         4th Round        Another step back             Kosyanchuk (26)

[andershs]

A small update during the first season in Northern Ireland as Ards Rangers manager.

This has got to be one of the craziest matches I have ever witnessed in FM. 8-0 after 38 minutes... I like our efficiency:)

First game with some of our new regens, but otherwise, same old tactic.

Against all odds I am in 1st place going into the Play-off phase, but I doubt, that I can keep the spot when the opposition gets harder each week.

 

[XaW]

XaW - Tiszakécskei VSE - 2021/22

Table | Squad | Transfers | Finances

After the success last season I were hopeful we could compete once again. Another year for our young squad will help out a lot. I also sold a couple of the original players this season, since they often didn't play, or at least weren't good enough to fight for a spot. I The squad should be good enough now, it's just a matter of time before they become way too good for the Hungarian league. I did get a couple of bids from bigger European clubs, but luckily my captain talked everyone out of wanting to leave once again. The league started great as we won our first 6 matches and were cruising. Then we had a bit of a slump and Ferencváros and Videoton caught up and gave us problems. We struck back though, and were a couple of points ahead of the the pursuers throughout the season. In the 5th last game we beat Videoton 1-0 away and shut down their hopes of catching us, and when we smashed Ferencváros away a couple of games later the title was all about ours. The deciding game was a poor 1-1 draw at home to MTK Budapest, but I'll take it for the title. Our second on a row, and hopefully the start of a great era. We need to watch out though, as both Ferencváros and Videoton are good teams capable of beating us. Újpest and Gyirmót are also teams who can do damage on their day.

In the Magyar Kupa we beat Hódmezővásárhely (try pronouncing that out loud...), Pénzügyőr, Paksi, Tiszafüred and Pécsi before losing to Újpest on away goals in the semi final.

We had our first go in Europe this season and since we won the league last season we entered the Champions League. The 1st qualifying round gave us Steaua București of Romania. A fine 2-2 draw away was followed up by a massive 5-1 win at home to go through. In the 2nd qualifying round we got Malmö FF of Sweden. We narrowly beat them 3-2 away and then thumped them 5-1 at home. In the 3rd qualifying round we got a harder draw in Celtic of Scotland. In an amazing match we managed to beat them 5-3 in Glascow and then followed up with 2-1 at home to push through. Since we beat Celtic we got their seed for the playoff and got an easier draw in Legia Warszawa of Poland. 4-0 at home was followed up with 4-1 away to get to the group stage.

Here we got a tough draw as a 4th seeded team. Arsenal of England, Marseille of France and Atlético Madrid of Spain were our opponents. I don't think we could have gotten a harder group to be honest and the goal was to not make fools of ourselves. We kind of failed that seeing as we lost all matches, including conceding 7 goals in two different matches. So yeah, we got down to earth again here, but the financial gain was amazing.

We are continuing to improve and we have gotten approved new facilities that will be done durin the next season. I'm also getting new licences and are currently learning Continental A.

Another solid intake with one very good player. Attila Domján 22a are a very promising midfielder who are going to play a lot for us next season.

[dkouv]

ASM Belfort youth challenge
 

Going to give this a go in France this year – never tried this challenge in one of the top countries so am curious to see how it goes. I spent a while reloading and waited until 2019 hoping SC Bastia would come up, but it was not to be so I went for ASM Belfort, a nice-looking town in Alsace close to the Swiss border.

The team looked decent with lots of depth and cover for positions, so I signed everyone up from amateur contracts in hope of figuring out the formation and best personnel during the first season, and releasing whoever was surplus to requirements at the end of the year.

Starting profile | Game set-up | Starting facilities

Season 1 – 2019/20 – French National

League: we had a good season, but it could have been even better, perhaps. Started off in mid-table before going on a great mid-season run which saw us shoot up into the 2^nd promotion slot. Form then tailed off badly with lots of draws and losses due to last-minute goals – not sure if it is tactics or personnel, but something that would be nice to get rid of next season. Mind you, we scored quite a few last-minute equalisers ourselves, too. We finished 4^th, just a point outside of the play-off place, so I am happy with that, but it’s a shame we couldn’t maintain the promotion push.

Cup: out in the 9^th round to Ligue 2 Nancy

Star players: Fode Guirassy (AMR/ST) has been in great form up-front (I play him as a striker), and Thomas Manzinali (DC/DR) is probably my best player, even though he doesn’t get very high ratings in my attacking set up.

Youth watch: Hakin Valade (AMR/ST) was already at the club when I joined, and looks like my top prospect at the moment. Several Ligue 2 teams are interested, but only offering a measly £2.5k for him.

Youth intake: Simone Perego 20a (DC) is the best pick of what is dubbed my “golden generation”, but I suspect it is dubbed that because my first team players are crap. It’s hard to tell at this point which of the youngsters will make it, but unfortunately quite a few of them have bad personalities and are refusing tutoring.

Squad: Solid midfield and attack, but only one good defender.

Facilities: youth coaching, recruitment, and training facilities upgrade – happy with that! Got the youth philosophy through as well, even though my board had a strong dislike for it.

Finances: stable – finished and started with around £500k, and managed to fund the youth upgrades. Think I can afford one more coaching/recruitment upgrade while in National before I start leaking money.

Transfers: I’ve settled on a 3-4-3 with wingbacks, and started to get rid of a few surplus midfielders and wingers.

Next season’s aim: hope my late-season slump was just random, and that I can get that play-off spot next season. Would be good to get to Ligue 2 for one season to get a bit of extra cash and training time from turning professional, even though we would probably go straight back down.

Season  |  League   | Pos. |   Cup   |     CL      |     EL      |     Top scorer          |  Top assists         |    Top rating           | Notes
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2018/19 |  National |  4   |   R2    |   n/a       |     n/a     |    Guirassy (24)        |  Honore (18)         |    Guirassy (7.6)       |  1 point off the play-offs

Season  |  Finances |  Coaching    |  Recruitment   | Training Fac.  | Youth Fac.      |  Stadium
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2018/19 |   £450k   |  Average     |  Fairly Basic  |  Basic         |  Poor           |  5500

 

Nice to read on everyone’s progress here, hope I get a few good youngsters to show off soon – I have to say, @XaW's youths look pretty amazing!

[andershs]

Ards Rangers

Season 1 - 2018/19

Transfers

League - (Results 1|Results 2|Results 3) Against all odds, we were crowned champions of the Bluefin Sport Premier Intermediate League. It seems, on this level, that you can come a long way with decent strikers. Luckily we had two. Meet Warren Pinkerton and Tony Tumelty who have made the difference for us this season. Our best player in term of current ability seems to be Jay Shields. We started the season on good form, and never really looked back. Around new year, we had a slight dip in form, but still managed to draw a lot. First, and somehow only, defeat of the season came in the Playoff phase in the third to last game of the season.

In the end it did get a bit nervous, and we ended up winning on goal difference. Warren and Tony will get an extra pint at this years christmas party...:)

Youth Intake - Under the circumstances, and with the current level of players available, this has got to be a quite good intake. Standout players are Philip Jennings, Jamie Moore and Chris McBride. They have all started more or less regularly since being signed, and they have improved the team.

Facilities and finances - Just to stop all the positivity, this is a disaster. We started the season with a positive balance of £26.000, but with a monthly deficit of around -£4.000, we ended the season with a sorry negative balance of -£9.000. The price money in Northern Ireland is close to nonexisting, so we got no help from there.

The very poor financial situation, is also the main reason to why we did not get any facility upgrades. This might be a problem over time.

Aim for next season: Avoid relegation. I do not think it is possible. We are still a good 4th tier level team now going to play in the 2nd tier. That will be tough.
I will settle for a relegation if we get some facility upgrades. 

 

[Cheekybananafm]

Evening everyone

So I've really been struggling to get a save going this year but after reading through this thread I've decided to give it a shot.

The nation I've decided to start in is Austria, a season simmed and June 14th comes about, it's nice to see that the Austrian First Division has had the number of teams increased from 10 to 16 so I have 9 teams to choose from (3 were relegated and 9 promoted to increase it from 10 to 16).

After a bit of investigation I decided to take the job with the team with the best Youth Facilities.

So my club I am going to be is....

 

This should be fun!

A few screenshots for you

The manager attributes page

Club Overview

My manager profile

 

[Thescouser20]

Hey Guys, I just started a new save in Nottingham, with only English youth players (up to the age of 21).  I have created a club, so do I qualify for the challenge?

[Vélodrome]

On 7.2.2018 at 22:03, XaW said:

Attila Orovecz 21a, a super talented goalkeeper,

That is one of the best talents I've seen for a while. Does he have potential to improve a lot as well, or is he close to his full potential?

[XaW]

13 hours ago, Vélodrome said:

That is one of the best talents I've seen for a while. Does he have potential to improve a lot as well, or is he close to his full potential?

Well, I'm a bit further into the game now, but his stats haven't changed much. Other than his small drop in determination (I think my squad average is dragging him down) he has only slight changes. I'm thinking it's my poor coaches and facilities, so I'm working on improving both.

My coaches do think he can "improve a lot" in the future, but with the level we are at the moment, I don't know. I think he might leave should any big clubs notice him...

[XaW]

In other news, the Hungarian have started to notice that the 2 times champion of that Hungarian league _might_ have some players who might be good enough to play. To be fair we have had a player here and there called up, but rarely any games. However, this just happened:

Yes, that is 4 of my players getting game time and another two on the bench. Things are certainly improving for us.

[XaW]

For anyone who are doing this challenge and having issues with training and improving youth players (or want to know a bit more how it works) I would advise you to look at this thread:

It is one of the best threads in regards to youth and how to improve them. The thread is some years old, but the general idea is much the same.

Especially the part about personality and how it affects training and improvement.

[v1n1akabozo]

8 hours ago, XaW said:

For anyone who are doing this challenge and having issues with training and improving youth players (or want to know a bit more how it works) I would advise you to look at this thread:

It is one of the best threads in regards to youth and how to improve them. The thread is some years old, but the general idea is much the same.

Especially the part about personality and how it affects training and improvement.

Does anyone have a pdf version of the thread including it's images? It's hard to keep track of what he's talking without any of them =/

[XaW]

12 hours ago, v1n1akabozo said:

Does anyone have a pdf version of the thread including it's images? It's hard to keep track of what he's talking without any of them =/

I don't, unfortunately, but it's not really needed to understand it. It was mostly screenshots from FM12 to highlight the things Cleon writes about. Still, reading through it still is a good exercise and is very useful as a reference. The personality and tutoring part in particular.

[Cleon]

It can be found here in its entirety;

 https://docs.google.com/document/d/1FHIQMUWwHT1CQhdhaoYJyn4zyrkG-uK2Ua4Skla3asw/edit?usp=sharing

[MWE]

Season 6 with Torpedo Moscow done

Squad

League Table

Transfers

Finances

Youth Intake - Only tagged one player this time round.

Potapov
 

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)
2021/22   Wtoroj Diwizion      3rd         4th round        Lost in play offs             Yeliseev   (28)
2022/23   Wtoroj Diwizion      9th         4th Round        Another step back             Kosyanchuk (26)
2023/24   Wtoroj Diwizion      11th        4th Round        Another step back             Kosyanchuk (15)