The Football Manager Youth Academy Challenge

[andershs]

4 hours ago, optimusprimal82 said:

Can I quickly double check that these settings are in compliance with the R&R's - think i've got it right - planning to play in England!?

Hi @optimusprimal82

It looks fine.

Good luck in England.

Edit: You should go to the Season Preview of the Vanarama National League North and South to find the promoted teams after holidaying.

Otherwise, you can visit these sites:

Evo-Stik Northern Premier League

Evo-Stik Southern Premier League Central

Evo-Stik Southern Premier League South

Bostik League Premier Division

Edited March 2, 2019 by andershs

[optimusprimal82]

25 minutes ago, andershs said:

Hi @optimusprimal82

It looks fine.

Good luck in England.

Thank you - legend!  

[XaW]

5 hours ago, optimusprimal82 said:

Is there a reason it's mandatory to load only the country you play in btw or just down to game speed? I'm thinking long term that if successful i might like to carry on but restricted if just England etc?

From the opening post:

On 19/10/2018 at 09:36, darren1983 said:

Also from now on I will allow people to load more than 1 league in their starting database to add a bit more immersion into their saves. You don't have to add any more than the country you are playing in (my laptop is awful so I most likely won't be) but the option is there for people that want to.

The "only load 1 nation" was there before, but it were removed for either this version or the last, I can't really remember.

I usually start with only the league I'm playing in, then add on other leagues when I get close to Europe to allow some more competition there. Some times I add other nation in close proximity to the nation I chose to allow for some realism. Like adding Wales and Scotland for England or Sweden for Norway as examples.

By the way, I think I'm going to restart now that the new database is out. Luckily I'm not even done with the first season yet. Though I did win the league and have a great season. I also realized that Hungary have some weird rules, so I'm not 100% sure if I want to keep staying. I'll start up a couple of games and get a feel of it before posting somewhere on here.

[TrickyTree91]

Kettering Town 2037/38

League Table   Squad 1/Squad 2   Season Awards

Season Review

It turns out not having someone capable of scoring goals makes it difficult to survive in the Premier League. Our top scoring striker scored 5 goals in all competitions.  Only scored 24 goals all season, ended up in 18th but 9 points off safety. We were pretty good at the back considering, and even got decent back up options now. Kaine Harbottle 33c is genuine PL quality and hopeful of keeping hold of him to get us back in the big time, Chris McGuire 35a is his partner at the back and at 19, looks like he could be a top class player. Lost to Spurs in Carabao Cup R4 and Newcastle in FA Cup R3. 

Youth Intake - A couple of decent prospects upfront, Keith Bachelor has steady physical and mental stats, Nigel O'Leary  could be an out and out goalscorer which is exactly what we've been lacking for a good few years. 

Think relegation could be a blessing as it's a chance to get someone firing upfront. 

PS Great work on completion @XaW 

[XaW]

Thanks @TrickyTree91! Too bad with the relegation, but hopefully it can help you youngsters play at a level they are more suited to. I think it helped out a lot for me when I stay in VNL for 5 years helped mature the players quite a bit, hopefully the same goes for you next season in the Championship.

Batchelor seems like a very good prospect. Very nice physicals for his age. Needs some mentoring to fix his low ambition though, but other than that a possible gem.

[XaW]

So, a new database and a new youth adventure for me. I considered staying in Hungary, but I decided to leave for new pastures. Not necessarily greener, but at least new ones. I've headed to Belarus, or "White Russia" as it's know in my native Norwegian.

The season is April to November instead of the more normal August to May most other countries use. I'm not quite familiar with Belarusian football (Chrome keeps trying to autocorrect it to Belorussian, but all other places I've checked my spelling is correct. If anyone know the fact, please let me know), but I know that BATE is the biggest club and in fact they have won the league every year since 2006. So toppling them might be a big problem.

Over to my team! I've taken over FC Uzda! The club have never won anything ever and never been as high as the 2nd tier in the history of the club before! The club is located in Uzda, just south-west of the capital Minsk.

I've struggled to find out much about the club, including any pictures of the stadium, or indeed the stadium on Google maps... But! I've found out that Uzda means "bridle" in Belarusian, as in the leather straps that horses have around the head, so there's that. The stadium name in FM is Gorodskoy, but that only gives a street in Minsk, other sites have their stadium as "Гарадскі" (Which means Gorodskoy it seems?), "City Stadium", or "Stadyen Belita-Vitex". So there's not that easy to find out much about the club at all. Let's try to change this and lead this club to glory!

Edit: Oh, one thing, their nick name is "Shampoos"... I snickered a bit at that...

Edit2: And I just noticed that the club had bought a player before I joined.

Edited March 2, 2019 by XaW

[dkouv]

IFK Eskilstuna – Season 7
 

Season 7 – 2025 – First Division Elite (2nd tier)

League: The hoped-for playoff push did not happen this year, but neither did the media-predicted relegation battle, as we were the very definition of mid-table. We’d play great for 5 or so games, blowing everyone away, then have a terrible month or two, and so on and so forth… Looks like I might be in this division for a while longer, but since I’m breaking even in financial terms and the intakes are decent, I don’t really mind.

Cup: Out at group stage this year, through to group stage for next year.

Star players: A couple of youngsters are really staking their claim now. Johan Forsbald 22a (DRC/DM) is our best defender, and Henrik Gustafsson 24a (AMLC/ST) from last year’s intake has solidly took over one of the striker slots – but unfortunately Henrik is refusing to sign a new contract already, so he won’t be with us for much longer. Kristoffer Juhlin 20b (AMLC/ST) is also playing very well.

Youth watch: Albin Lundin (DM/MC/AML) has been the surprise of the year, the untagged player from last season’s intake claiming one of the two center mid slots and topping the average ratings. Alex Nordlander 24e (GK) is now our main goalkeeper – despite the low star rating his attributes look as good as the keeper in our original team, Gloveus, and he’s gotta have more potential.  Johan Palm 24c (WBR/MR/AMR) has forced the long-serving Milde out of the right winger slot. 

Youth intake: Looks like another good one, although personalities are no that great. Lots of 5* prospects, partly because our first teamers are so poor, but looks like there should be a few gems there too. Henrik Stenström 25a (DRC/ST) is into the first team already, hoping to steady our dodgy defense, which has struggled a bit since Gustavsson left, and Charlie Jönsson 25b (MC) and Christopher Lindqvist 25c (AMLC) look like they have good potential for the future, as do several others.

Finances: breaking even for now.

Facilities: youth facility upgrade complete, and managed to upgrade youth coaching right at the end of the season – let’s see how our finances hold up…

Transfers: Nothing of note

Next season’s aim: climb up the table towards playoffs

Season |  League       | Pos. |   Cup   |     CL      |     EL      |     Top scorer          |  Top assists           |     Top rating            | Notes
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2019   | Div 2 S. Svea |  3   |   n/a   |   n/a       |     n/a     |     Cirak (22)          |   Milde (15)           |     Alkoyun (7.7)         |
2020   | Div 2 S. Svea |  1   |   n/a   |   n/a       |     n/a     |     Cirak (22)          |   Milde + 2 more (10)  |     Milde (7.8)           | Promotion
2021   | Div 1 North   |  1   |   n/a   |   n/a       |     n/a     |     Cirak (21)          |   Milde (14)           |     Cirak (7.7)           | Promotion
2022   | Div 1 Elite   |  11  |   R2    |   n/a       |     n/a     |     Cirak (17)          |   Hallberg 19a (9)     |     Cirak (7.4)           | Survived
2023   | Div 1 Elite   |  9   |   R2    |   n/a       |     n/a     |     Juhlin 20b (12)     |   Milde (11)           |     Milde (7.1)           |
2024   | Div 1 Elite   |  6   | group   |   n/a       |     n/a     |     Juhlin 20b (20)     |   Milde (9)            |     Östling (7.4)         |
2025   | Div 1 Elite   |  7   | ongoing |   n/a       |     n/a     |     Juhlin 20b (19)     |   Palm 24c (14)        |     Lundin (7.3)          |
	.
Season |  Finances |  Coaching     |  Recruitment      | Training Fac.  | Youth Fac.      |  Stadium
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2019   |   £23k    |  Fairly Basic |      Basic        |   Poor         |  Poor           |  7800
2020   |   -£9k    |  Average      |  Fairly Basic     |   Poor         |  Poor           |  7800
2021   |   -£6k    |  Average      |  Fairly Basic     |   Poor         |  Poor           |  7800
2022   |   £55k    |  Adequate     |     Average       |   Poor         |  Poor           |  7800
2023   |   £42k    |  Adequate     |     Average       |   Basic        |  Poor           |  7800
2024   |   £38k    |  Adequate     |     Average       |   Basic        |  Poor           |  7800
2025   |   £136k   |  Good         |     Average       |   Basic        |  Basic          |  7800
	

 

[DazRTaylor]

@XaWBelarus is the correct spelling, as you say.  This country used to be called Byelorussia or Belorussia and may still be by Russia itself.

[XaW]

12 hours ago, DazRTaylor said:

@XaWBelarus is the correct spelling, as you say.  This country used to be called Byelorussia or Belorussia and may still be by Russia itself.

Thanks! Then I know I'm not in the wrong here. Damn Chrome making me unsure about my typing.

[andershs]

Scarborough Athletic FC (England)

Season 2 - 2020/21

Another decent season. At first glance it looks impressive to improve on the position from last year, but it was never comfortable, and there always was a feeling, that we were a bit behind in games and
had to fight for all chances and goals more than the opposition.

League (Results 1 | Results 2 | Results 3 | Cups) - This season we had a good start. This was halted by Annans departure after 8 games. Afterwards we had a bleak period where we did not put together much offensively. Slowly we found a decent level again. But it was never comfortable, and you had the feeling, that we were always reacting. On the positive side, we maintained a position between 6 and 9 for most of the season, and if it were not 
for an unimpressive ending to the season, we could actually have finished in the playoffs. A position we held until the last round of the season.
After intake day Mel Davison raised the offensive quality noticeably. But the overall feeling is that we still lack the general quality to compete in this division.
A very respectable cup performance again.

Team - We lost Annan, our best offensive player after eight games. This affected our offensive noticeably, but the arrival of Mel Davison bodes well. He played regularly in the last part of the season.
Our best striker Coulson have been unhappy all season due to the quality of the defensive players. So he will leave at the end of the season. At 33 and having scored only 9 league goals to the 19 last season, 
it is a smaller issue than it would have been at the start of the season. But we might lack some goals next season. Jack Johnson, our right back is the player who has improved most this season. He looks like
a decent quality right back for years to come in this division.
Sean Smith from last years intake played 18 games this season and did ok. He could develop into a decent midfielder at this level. Our two young striker Emanuel Kalu, a fast, technical player and Panos Panagiotou will spearhead our attack next season aided by the talented Mel Davison.

Facilities - At the end of last season and this season I managed with threats to get improvements to Junior Coaching and Youth Recruitment. This resulted in a very impressive intake this year. So I am very positive going forward. With the quality and potential of the incoming players, we will be able to build a competitive squad in this division over time.
Moreover, this season we played our home games at a stadion in Goole near Kingston-Upon-Hull due to our own stadium not living up to league requirements. This has promted our board to begin construction plans of a new stadium.

Youth Intake - A strong intake. The investments paid off. Mel Davison (At intake | End of Season) looks like a real talent and raised our offensive threat from day one. Robbie Harris will be our left back in the coming years.

Due to the investments in youth recruitment our positive balance is decreasing. So no recruitment investments going forward, but I believe we can build a competitive squad with the current intake quality. And no transfers. 

Goal next season: Consolidate. Improve current players such that it can become more comfortable.

[Braumiller]

Domestic League : Allsvenskan - 3rd
An identical 3rd place finish to last season, but this felt like a big step up in terms of our ability and standing within the league.  We again started off with 2 straight league defeats, which set us back and ultimately would prove costly.  Once we got ourselves going though we were now able to mix it with anyone in the league and on our day really punish teams.  Our league point total of 65 was 8 points better than last year and if it wasn't for the top 5 spots running away from the rest of the league, it would have been enough for a higher finish for sure.
3rd place again gets us into the EURO Cup at the qualifying rounds, but we were only a couple of minutes away from finishing in 2nd place and a Champions League qualifying round spot!  Last game of the season, 2 points behind AIK and with better goal difference.  A win for us would mean AIK needed to win.  We were comfortably winning and then AIK go 0-1 down in the 83rd minute!  AIK then immediately equalize on 84 and immediately go ahead on 88....  We stare in vain at the latest scores as our game uneventfully ends, but alas no miracle.  AIK escape with a win and secured 2nd place.

Domestic Cup : 2029-2030 edition - Already knocked out last season

Domestic Cup : 2029-2030 edition - Beat lower league IFK Timra 3-0 to qualify for next seasons Group Stages

Europe : 2028-2029 edition - Did not qualify

Europe : 2029-2030 edition - Oh boy....
The eagerly anticipated draw came for our first ever taste of european competition finally arrived and we received pretty much the toughest draw possible in the very early 2nd qualifying draw, Atalanta from Italy.  I fully expected a 1-and-done adventure, but when we saw their line-up in the away first leg I began salivating almost as much as my widemen.  A narrow 4222 (DM, DM, MC, MC, FC, FC), which we have taken apart previously with our wide play.  Sure enough, they just gave us cross after cross and soon enough we were 4-0 up at halftime!  They scored late on, but the damage was done.  It finished 9-1 on aggregate.
The 3rd Qualifying Round draw was a lot kinder, giving us FC Differdange, an amateur side from Luxembourg.  Thankfully no slip-ups and a very comfortable 11-1 aggregate win.  So, 1 round away from an improbable Group Stages appearance.
In the 4th Qualifying Round we drew Braga from Portugal.  This was a lot tougher.  Away first and a great battling performance saw us come away with a 1-1 draw.  The home game was huge.  We went down 0-1 early and it stayed that way until we equalized on 64.  10 minutes later and we get another to go ahead on the night and on aggregate.  A very nervy last 15-20, but we broke away deep into injury time and wrapped it up!
The draw for the Group Stages saw us avoid the REAL big names and get Marseilles, Besiktas and Steaua Bucharest.  First up is Steaua at home and the performance of the season!  7-1!  We then drew 2-2 away at Besiktas, before trading wins with Marseilles.  A draw at away at Steaua and a win at home against Besiktas meant we not only didn't get embarassed, we progressed from the group!  Our first round will be early on in our preseason next year.

Youth Intake
A decent looking intake, with a few prospects at the top end that should rack up first team appearances over the years.
Gustav Borjesson (12A) - A technically decent attacking fullback.  Will try to integrate into the first team ASAP.
Theodor Karlberg-Blank (12B) - Another good looking technical player.  Current thought is to try and retrain as a central midfielder (even though the development feedback is telling me he could be retrained as a striker.....  Er, nope!).  Would love to get his passing higher and along with his very high flair get a playmaking role going.
Johannes Nilsson (12C) - A professional personality is great.  A finishing of 6 for a forward, not so much.  Work to do here
Magnus Ohlsson (12D) - Nothing particularly wrong with the kid, he is just going to be behind quite a lot of competition for games in his position

Transfers
I really am hoping this is my last seasonal update that has to report on one of my top players being poached....  Viktor Lilja-Ekeros (10A) was still on a youth contract due to not believing we have the quality to match his ambitions (kid, check out the continental games you played in!!!) and so just two days after qualifying for the EURO Cup group stages SL Benfica came in and offer him a full time deal (talk about bursting my bubble!).  He agrees and we receive 775k in compensation (peanuts compared to his actual worth to us and what we could have gotten in usual transfer negotiations.....).  There are clauses, including a 250k one which has already been paid to us for him receiving his first full Swedish cap.  We have decent kids waiting behind him at DL, but Viktor Lilja-Ekeros (10A) was easily a step above anyone else  He has already made a decent start for Benfica, which is more than any of our previous outgoing transfers can say

Squad Stats - Season Awards
1st - Hans Larsson (08D) 38% - A great return of 20 goals and 11 assists, forming a deadly partnership up front with Niklas Oscarsson (10D)
2nd - Dario Hadzic (11B) 26% - Took to left midfield like a duck to water and made the spot his this year - 15 goals and 12 assists.
3rd - Niklas Oscarsson (10D) 22% - Hans Larsson (08D)'s partner and 23 goals gave him our record.

General
Losing Viktor Lilja-Ekeros (10A) was a tough loss, but I am hoping our performances this season have help stave off future issues.  Hans Larsson (08D) has for 12 months been unhappy with me due to wanting to go to a bigger club.  No-one ever came in for him (he was valued at around 300-400k and rose to 1.1M by the end of the year - Malmo were always listed as interested), probably due to the 10M asking price I had on him.  However, at the end of the season he stated he is now happy to stay with us!
And Hans Larsson (08D) was key to our performances this year.  What is a 442 set up for us by default, actually switches to a 4411 more often than not.  Niklas Oscarsson (10D) plays as a targetman and then depending on who is playing off of him, we have an Advanced Forward, Poacher or Hans Larsson (08D) actually as a Shadow Striker.  This may evolve again soon, as Simon Carlen (11C) has been a revelation when rotating in and seems to score whenever given time.
While we didn't struggle, we were always on a razors edge when it came to fitness and rotation in the 2nd half of the season.  The extra 12 EURO Cup games really did push us to our limits.  There is a new batch of kids ready for a little more play time, but I was too nervous to give it to them while we were trying to qualify from our EURO Cup group and push AIK for 2nd place.  Next year should see the start of a new phase of heavier rotation.
Right at the end of the season we received notice that we are building a new stadium!  The capacity of just over 10,000 is a little underwhelming but I guess we can also expand.  We were selling out our old ground of 5,500 every domestic game and in europe we were putting 14,000-15,000 backsides on seats when playing at IFK Goteborg's 18,400 capactity stadium due to ours not meeting competition requirements.  It is pretty pricey, but it is all covered by a loan.  2 years to build, so we still have to wait a little while.....
The influx of prize money also gave us our first tax hit!  1.2M!  On the plus side, we got our first 3 data analysis improvements.  Going from not having any DA facilities to now being of a poor standard!  A lot more upgrading to do here (which is thankfully cheap and quick, at least currently).  We also now have a double training facility upgrade going, which are much needed.  And to finish out the off the field upgrades, we got a couple of affiliate clubs to start this process off.  An Icelandic and Czech club, to kick start our world knowledge.

[Braumiller]

Domestic League : Allsvenskan - 7th
What a disappointing season!  After a pair of 3rd place finishes we are now due to miss out on European competition for a season (unless we win the conclusions of either the Swedish Cup or EURO League at the start of next season!).  We started horrendously with just 1 win in our first 8 league games (as you'll see below, there were lots of wins, just not in the league).  We did eventually stabilize, but by the time we did we were too far behind to realistically challenge for anything significant....

Domestic Cup : 2030-2031 edition - Runners-Up!
The first half of where our early season wins were....  We lost our first group game, but qualified top of the group after winning our remaining two.  We were stretched to the limit in the QF, finally winning due to an own goal in extra time.  The Semi Final saw a professional 2-0 against a strong Hammerby.  Our 2nd Swedish Cup final saw an outcome the same as our first..... heartbreak.  AIK nicking it 0-1 in the end.  Still we wait for our first top tier piece of silverware.

Domestic Cup : 2031-2032 edition - Qualified for next years group stages
A run of the mill 3-1 win against 3rd tier Eskilstuna.  Group Stages again next season

Europa League : 2030-2031 edition - 2nd Round
The magical run resumed with a kind First KO Round draw against FC Zurich.  We kept it tight in the first away leg, before two late goals on the break gave us a fantastic 2-0 away win.  The home leg was similarly tight and professional, 0-0 and we advanced!
Second KO Round draw and again we avoid the worst of it (Liverpool vs Juventus was another tie!) and get Shakhtar.  Home leg first and a very even game ends 1-1.  Away leg time and we take an early 8th minute lead!  Shakhtar equalize early in the 2nd half, but it remains the same.  Extra time.....  Shakhtar then score in the 93rd minute and we have to throw everything at them.  Sadly it proves fruitless and then see out the game without any further scoring.  A great run, which will raise our profile and bank balance.

Europa League : 2031-2032 edition - Advanced from the Group Stages
This time around we start a round later, 3rd Qualifying.  Here we get VPS from Finland and take care of business 7-1 on aggregate.  4th Qualifying round is tougher, pairing us with Serbian Partizan Belgrade.  Two tough games followed that could have gone either way, but thankfully we won both legs 3-2 for a 6-4 aggregate win.
This gets us to the group stages and this time we are drawn against Bordeaux, Dynamo Kiev & FC Midtjylland.  An opening draw away at Bordeaux set the table nicely and when we then won our next 4 games we were assured of top spot in the group before our final game.  Here we give the youngsters some European experience and fall 2-3 away at Kiev.
Knockout rounds again early next preseason!

Youth Intake
After a very nice run of intakes I guess we were due something like this.  Not great.
Vilmer Andersson (13A) - Vilmer could turn into something good.  I like his many possible playing positions and his personality.  MC is crowded right now, so time will tell.
Billy Lind (13B) - Another striker with sub optimal finishing.  I messed his screenshot up and cropped out his personality.... Low determination.....

Transfers
No outgoing permanent transfers!!!
I cannot yet say if this is the new norm or just a season without a quality kid getting poached from me, but I will enjoy the feeling while it lasts!

Squad Stats - Season Awards
1st - Adam Johnasson (09C) 45% - A lovely all round performance this season from Adam!
2nd - Niklas Oscarsson (10D) 32% - A lower goal return this year, but still central to our play
3rd - Marcus Antonsson (09B) 14% - One of our more consistent performers, first choice DL

General
A season of extremes.  Great in the cups, very poor in the league which will cost us next season.
Hans Larsson (08D) is still wanting to leave for a bigger club, but none have come in for him yet.  Just 12 months left on his contract, so that has potential to be a story line next year!  Dario Hadzic (11B) and Theodor Karlberg-Blank (12B) are also starting to make similar noises, although nothing said to me yet from them.
Prize money continues to fuel our facility upgrades.  Many Data Analysis upgrades and another round of training and youth facility increases.
Another smaller issue is that both our captain and vice captain have been knocked down the pecking order and neither are first XI players right now.

[Diego D10S]

  @tomay I might have to start over also due to the changes in the Italian league system.  Might start over with Cesena then. 

[keeper#1]

 

BERLINER AK 07 INTRODUCTION

Berliner AK 07 is, primarily, a running club in Berlin, Germany which happens to have a football team.  The club plays its home matches at the Poststadion, one of the sites used for football matches at the 1936 Summer Olympics.  At it's peak, the Poststadion had a capacity of 45,000.  Today, that capacity is down to just 10,000 and according to the club screen on FM only 4,743 of that capacity is seated.  The club has virtually no football history.  It has won no trophies.  It has never appeared in European competition.  Sidenote: I really wanted to manage BFC Dynamo also in Berlin and winner of many East German Bundesliga titles but they never popped up in many re-loads to get new teams.  BFC Dynamo is probably the 3rd biggest club in Berlin which would make Berliner AK 07 the 4th largest club in the city.  But there is a large gap between ourselves and the 2nd biggest Berlin club, 1. Union Berlin, and we are years away from Hertha Berlin.

POSTSTADION

The stadium has seen much better days but we need to fill this one before we can start to think about building a new one and a season ticket base is terrible.

CLUB INFO

Trophy case is barren and needs to be filled soon.  The entire club infrastructure needs a lot of improving as well.

Finances are decent but most of that bank balance has come from the 765k in annual sponsorship revenue.

A lot of work but a club with a blank slate and a lot of potential in my opinion.

 

[keeper#1]

However, early signs are pointing to a lot of difficulty of re-signing current players.  Salary demands are too high.  I could end up with a 2020-21 roster of less than 10 players since I can't bring up youth academy products because they will be under 17.  This Berliner save may be for naught.

[Diego D10S]

                                      

Starting over with Romagna Centro Cesena due to changes in the Italian league system in the last update.

Cesena is a club with alot of potential, a great fan base and pretty good facilities to start off with.

Squad is pretty good for the Serie C but defence is very weak and squad is very old so crossing my fingers for good intakes the first couple of seasons.

Going to stick with this save now until challenge is finished  

GL too you all  

 

 

Edited March 4, 2019 by Diego D10S

[XaW]

18 hours ago, keeper#1 said:

However, early signs are pointing to a lot of difficulty of re-signing current players.  Salary demands are too high.  I could end up with a 2020-21 roster of less than 10 players since I can't bring up youth academy products because they will be under 17.  This Berliner save may be for naught.

Yeah, that is an issue with doing this challenge in Germany. I did it there some versions ago, but I had a decent squad and managed to hold on until the youngsters were old enough.

[XaW]

Youth intake 2019

Well, pretty much every youth intake is a good one at this club. Before the intake the total number of players at the club were 20. Yes, 20 for all squads. Belarusian 2nd tier is also a strange one, we can have 7 subs and use 5! Subs ahoy!

So we got a lot of talented players, and we needed it. We got 2 strikers, and I'm very happy with that seeing as I started with 0 and had to train a midfielder into it this season. We also got a goalkeeper, some defenders and a couple of decent midfielders. All in all a very good intake. I will most likely sign everyone, but here are the highest rated ones.

Pavel Zubkovskiy 19a is a talented striker. A bit of pace and good finishing, though has much to do.
Denis Sverchinskiy 19b needs some work on his heading, but got a lot of good things going for him as a defender.
Evgeniy Begunov 19c is the other promising striker we got.
Denis Mikhnovets 19d will be a backup at the left midfield role.
Pavel Frantskevich 19e are the 2nd best goalkeeper we have and will have that role from the start.

[XaW]

 XaW - FC Udza - 2019

Table | Squad | Transfers* | Finances

* - Transfer already done before I took over.

When I took over the club the squad were pretty decent and well balanced, with a sole exception. We had no natural strikers, so that meant retraining. I had two options of players, but one had a finishing stat of 5, so I went for the other one. Just before the season started we also lost our only talented goalkeeper. Our only other option were a 17 year old crappy one, so he became our main goalkeeper for the most of the season. We started pretty bad with only 1 win in the first 5 games, but we improved after the rough start. We kept on picking up points from then on, and slowly crept up the table. In fact, we went on a run and didn't lose once in the last 13 games. This meant we got promoted! Even though we were only 3 points behind Hranit Mikaševičy we were never quite close to catching up with them, they just had a horrible end of the season. We are still going up though, so I'm excited to see how the top tier is like. I think we might get thumped back down, but with more players next season we'll give it our all.

In the Kubak Bielarusi we beat Hranit Mikaševičy, FK Lida and Neman Grodno and we are still in it until it finished at the start of next season.

And we are "moving back to Uzda" at some point...

We had a good youth intake this season with a lot of talented players. Pavel Zubkovskiy 19a is the most promising of the bunch.

Edited March 4, 2019 by XaW

[keeper#1]

SALISBURY FC INTRODUCTION

I've decided to jump back into England for what will, hopefully, be a very long career at Salisbury FC.  I went with England because I tried France and got hamstrung by coaches salary demands (of all things), I tried Germany and got hamstrung by player salary demands and the minimum age rule.  Switzerland was working out well but ran into board issues.  I wanted a big nation this time and Spain and Italy hold little appeal for me.  So, that left England.  My 29-year old Scottish manager will be taking over the reigns of the club.

Salisbury is a club was some decent history although most of that history came when they were Salisbury City FC which dissolved in 2014 when they went bankrupt.  Salisbury FC started out in the Wessex Premier League and has worked it's way up into the Southern Premier League and popped up as a promoted club into the Vanarama National League South.  They play their home matches at The Raymond McEnhill Stadium which holds 5,000 fans but only has seating for 500.  The club is just a stone's throw away from House of Hair - Salisbury and the Ian Leaver - Salisbury School of Motoring.  Hopefully, these local businesses are the backbone of our whopping £7,500 sponsorship revenue for the 2019-20 season.

The roster is decent the media thinks we will finish in 16th place which is safely away from the relegation zone.  We are led by center forward Dan Fitchett and goalkeeper Jake Hallett.  Tactically, I plan to use two different playing styles out of a basic 4-4-2 formation.  The first is a hybrid wing play-vertical tika-taka style and the second is a hybrid direct counter attack-wing play.  I'll go more into these if they prove successful.

[2481]

FC Rapid București

Răzvan Raț Profile

Club Background

After spending a silly number of hours reloading in order to try and get Csikszereda to come through from the unplayable Romanian Third League, I gave up and went with the phoenix club of the once-successful FC Rapid Bucharest. With their amazing facilities and well established youth recruitment Csikszereda would have been a great club for a youth development challenge but the league system in Romania, with its many B teams and small number of promoted teams, makes it seemingly impossible for them to make it into the Second League in the first or second season. In fact, I had to holiday for two seasons to get any interesting clubs coming through.

So, my challenge begins on 1st July 2020 with ex-Rapid Bucharest and CM/FM legend Răzvan Dincă Raț taking the reigns at the club. After doing some research on the club it appears they are also nicely positioned for a youth challenge - the club made headlines in 2012 when they sacked all their foreign players by email in order to focus on homegrown talent. The club was dissolved a few years later and reformed in 2017 as a new entity. According to a 2016 survey the club is the fifth most supported in Romania so there is a lot of potential to build that fanbase in the short to long term future. However, finances are a problem - the FC Rapid brand value has dropped by  €3 million in recent years. So, a medium to long term objective is to increase the reputation of the club and boost revenue through European competition participation and player sales.

Backroom Team

The first priority was to assemble a decent backroom team. Assistant manager Alexandru Fotescu joins the club and has great stats for this level. It wasn't easy to fill the crucial Head of Youth Development role, so Claudiu Pustai will have to do for now.

Initial Squad

The starting squad contains some decent players, of which young striker Alexandru Morar is the most exciting prospect.

Facilities

The club currently has good training facilities. For youth, the club has average facilities, but good junior coaching and above average youth recruitment.
 

Edited March 6, 2019 by 2481

[Braumiller]

 

Domestic League : Allsvenskan - 2nd!
I could write so much here...
Our final totals for points and wins would have set records for the Swedish top flight and therefore won the league in any other season in its history!  It just so happens that Malmo had the season of their lives.
Fair to say that this one screenshot sums up the season >>  The league table ahead of our first meeting with Malmo.....  They won this game 1-3 and then we lost our next game 0-3 as well.  At that point I presumed the league was gone, but we only lost 1 more game in the remaining 19 and it went right down to the wire.
Last game of the season, we are 1 point behind Malmo.  We win 4-2 and Malmo sneak what must have been a VERY nervy 1-0 win to secure the title.

Domestic Cup : 2030-2031 edition - Group Stage
A mixed bag in the group games.  1 win, 1 draw, 1 loss and we did not qualify for the knockout games (you need to win your group).

Domestic Cup : 2031-2032 edition - Qualified for next years group stages
An effortless 8-0 drubbing of 3rd tier Lunds.  Great performance

Europa League : 2031-2032 edition - Quarter Finals
Our second time going into this phase of the competition and we go one better than before.
1st Knockout Round and we get Saint-Etienne.  A great 3-1 away win set us on our way and then a solid 1-1 draw at home
2nd Knockout Round against Roma.  This time at home first and another great 1st leg performance set us on our way.  A 4-1 home win was followed by a 2-0 away win
Quarter Final time!  We draw Sevilla and this proves to be a step too far for us currently.  They played very well in the first leg at their place and run out 4-1 winners.  There was a faint hope the away goal would prove to be valuable, but they also won the 2nd leg to wrap up the tie.

Europe : 2032-2033 edition - Did not qualify

Youth Intake
A top heavy intake with four tagged
Joacim Stridh (14A) - Ooh, this kid has a look of being our future playmaker.  I would have liked to have given him some senior minutes this year, but the games were too important.  Will play a role next year for sure
Joakim Svensson (14B) - Decent looking forward who can also play out wide as well, which might be important for us moving forward.
Anders Olsson (14C) - Another entry into the overcrowded central midfielder club
Mats Hansson (14D) - It has been a couple of years since our last decent GK prospect, so he should have a clear run at the role in the youth setup for a while

Transfers
No outgoing permanent transfers again, but there is massive related news in the General section which I am not happy about.....

Squad Stats - Season Awards
1st - Theodor Karlberg-Blank (12B) 35% - A great season from our current playmaker.  8 goals and 9 assists from the middle of the park.  Currently has a host of German and Italian clubs interested in him and he is wanting a move to a bigger club.  Thankfully I have him tied up for 4 years, but this could evolve.
2nd - Marcus Antonsson (09B) 30% - Again the left back is a fan favorite.
3rd - Hans Larsson (08D) 23% - Hans' last appearance here....  A cracking return of 23 goals.

General
A season of so much, but again nothing to show for it yet.  We had the 2nd best record EVER in the Swedish top flight, beaten only by Malmo with the best ever record...  The positive here though is that the feel-good factor is back.  There is the constant underlying issue of our stars wanting to move on, but that seems to be the reality we live in, so....
However....  Before the season started Hans Larsson (08D) again wnated to leave for a bigger club.  We had a chat and it went south.  With only 12 months left on his contract he stated he would then just let it run out and leave at the end of the season.  We ended up turning away a couple of offers for 2-3 million almost immediately, in the hopes of things improving.  Obviously they did on the pitch, but Hans never reconsidered, unbelievably.  He was top scorer, in great spirits and this is his Dynamics screen 3 weeks before his contract ends and he left ON A FREE!  Loves me, loves the club, loves life and doesn't have a negative in sight....
Thankfully we have a bevy of forwards waiting to get starts, but obviously no-one is at Hans' level right now.
My standout GK Christer Eriksson (10F) is down to just 12 months on his contract and he is willing to re-sign.  However, I hate his agent, as he is demanding a minimum fee clause of around 2m for him to sign!  He is valued at 325k in game, but anyone worth their salt should be triggering the clause should we agree to it.  Holding off for now, but I figure I need to get something signed before the start of the season.
Europa League money is again funding another round of training & youth facility upgrades, which are finally starting to get up to standards.
We have also added affiliate clubs from the lower leagues in Belgium and Spain.
The new stadium opens up during this close season, so we should start seeing improvements in the finances from here and hopefully some expansion in the next year or two.

[Crowy]

Dorking Wanderers

2019/20

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Crowy - 2019

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Facilities/Finances

(click to View)

 

Squad Overview

(click to View)

 

Season Preview

(click to View)

[optimusprimal82]

With another Premier League title and Champions League crown in the bag, I could tell that the sun was beginning to set on my time with FC United of Manchester - an SI patch was on the horizon & with it came the lure & temptation of new challenges and opportunities! For once, the common FM question of "Where to go?" didn't generate the excitement I've come to expect - I guess after all these years it sometimes takes a little more than a change of country code to get the heartbeat quickening! The 'Where?' quickly became 'What?' as I wondered what realistically I had left to try in my FM career, stopping when I felt the age-old twinge of excitement as I recalled a few forum heroes mentioning early in my previous career they were taking on an academy challenge! Loathe to give up when I'd only just begun, I'd initially put the thought of winning something with kids to one side as I continued my quest to overturn the Manchester duopoly, but with that mission safely accomplished the time - as Moloko once sang - is now!

 

From Manchester to........ Manchester?

Erm, yes. Although I was satisfied with the progress in my last save, it didn't completely 'scratch the itch'; a lot of my last save was spent testing and working on The Mentality Masterplan and there was the small matter of a thing called 'Brexit' - it didn't ruin the experience but it certainly added a layer of frustration that perhaps took away from the fun just a little!? With Brexit having little effect on an academy save, let's call the last save a warm-up for this, the main event!

One thing I always try to do when picking a team is find one that at least resonates a little - could be a location (favourite holiday spot/somewhere I've live or worked), a notable history/event/player (presumably why Bari are so popular this year!) or something so simple as a name (hence a career at Viking FK in FM15!) - irrespective, if I don't feel any sort of bond or affinity for the club I'm managing I usually get bored very quickly and find myself on the jobs board more than the squad screen! With that in mind I spun the 'Holiday Roulette' wheel to see what the FM gods had in store for my first attempt; the Vanarama National League South offered me a choice of Margate & Kingstonian, whilst the Vanarama National League North had a choice of Halesowen, Hyde, Kettering & Warrington. I'm sure by now that your eyes have already glanced below so the cat's out of the bag, yes I chose....

 

Hyde United Football Club

That's right, from FC United to Hyde - a quick ride around the '62 or a short bus trip if that's your thing! When they showed up in the results who else could it be? I hadn't spotted them originally when scoping the possible teams, thinking Warrington or Stalybridge would be my likely picks (given their geographical allure) but once they came up I jumped at the chance! For anyone who's not aware, they've had a bit of a rollercoaster ride in recent years, with a bizarre sponsorship deal with Manchester City causing them to change their name to Hyde FC (City made it part of the agreement that they had to drop the 'United' from their name so's not to upset their own supporters), not to mention recolour their crest/strip & re-paint their stadium from Red - their traditional (and United's) colour to Blue. The stadium (Ewen Fields) is still blue to this day with the general manager quoted as saying "The ground today is still painted blue because it keeps better than the red, to be quite honest with you" - makes outrage at stadium naming rights seem a little trite in comparison!

I take charge of Hyde in their centenary year with them having been founded in 1919, although as a further twist in the tale above, they had originally formed as Hyde FC in 1885 before folding in 1917 due to the war. They actually moved into Eden Fields in 1906 as Hyde FC, but kept on using the ground when they rose from the ashes and still play there now!

 

The Squad

Obviously I'm still learning about these guys, but there at least looks like something to work with ability wise! There are 25 players, 4 of which are youths & 1 an existing loan. My biggest concern was what the squad 'determination' was going to be like as I'm laser focused on mental stats & personality when recruiting - if they're not green then they're not for me - so will be interesting to see how I adjust to that, rest assured I'll be hiring a new Head of Youth Development with a decent personality as soon as I can/finances allow to ensure our new players aren't crippled by an inability to train/handle pressure! A few of my new guys do have high Determination so I at least have a few potential mentors in the group! I'll post a bit more about the squad once I know a bit more about them, but let's just say that the media think we're up against it (and I don't have my beloved loan market to help me out!)!

  

 

Facilities

I'm not sure 'Horrific' is an actual in game term, but it should be added next year if not to describe teams like Hyde! Joking aside, they're not great but they could definitely be worse; the stadium (painted blue and in 'Average' condition) has a capacity of 4000, of which 550 are seats (installed by City as part of the sponsorship agreement mentioned above!).

The rest of the facilities are rated as follows;

Stadium: Ewen Fields

Capacity: 4000 (550 Seated)

Stadium owned by: Hyde United FC

Undersoil Heating: No

Roof: No (Although looking at that photo?)

Surface: Synthetic

Pitch condition: Good

Corporate Facilities: Basic

Training Facilities: Poor

Data Analysis Facilities: None

Youth Facilities: Basic

Youth Level: 4

Stadium Sponsor: None

Youth Stadium: Ewen Fields

Junior Coaching: Fairly Basic

Youth Recruitment: Basic

 

That's all for now - next update after we've lost played our first few games!

Edited March 8, 2019 by optimusprimal82

[andershs]

A tightly packed and quite disastrous October is finally at an end:

 

Let us hope November will make up for this. Right now morale is at an all time low, and my players are missing all chances to score.

That needs to improve.

Edited March 7, 2019 by andershs
typo

[Cwieku]

First time trying this challenge. I decided to choose a club from the country (but not city) where I was born and live to this day. From the three available clubs I decided to choose a four-time national champion Widzew Łódź.

Recent History:

In the beginning of season 2007/2008 Widzew was bought by one of the wealthiest men in Poland – Sylwester Cacek

In January 2008, while playing in the , the Polish Football Association ruled that Widzew Łódź should be relegated due to their involvement in a corruption scandal. However, Widzew became champion that year, and were allowed to stay in the second division, which was renamed First League (I liga) before the start of the 2008–09 season. Despite the deduction of six points as a penalty, Widzew managed to become champions once again, and were finally promoted to the Ekstraklasa. In total, Widzew played 35 seasons at the highest level before being relegated in the 2013–14 season.

Due to financial problems, Widzew finished last at the end of the 2014–15 I Liga season. Subsequently, the club ruled by Sylwester Cacek went bankrupt.

In consequence local businessmen led by Marcin Ferdzyn and Grzegorz Waranecki decided to take on amateur status as a new association called Stowarzyszenie Reaktywacja Tradycji Sportowych Widzew Łódź (Association of the Reactivation of the Sports Traditions of Widzew Łódź), which continues the tradition of the old RTS Widzew Łódź. The new association was registered in a Polish court on 2.07.2015, and within a few weeks of summer 2015 they managed to find new coach Witold Obarek and collect a new squad, which started the 2015/2016 season in the fifth tier of Polish football. In first season in IV League Widzew has promoted to higher tier. In season 2016/17 Widzew achieved third place in III League, after Drwęca Nowe Miasto Lubawskie and ŁKS Łódź but next season yielded promotion to II League. Now, on the halfway point of season 2018/19 Widzew is leader with 37 points in 17 matches.

Season Preview:

 My handsome manager Roger MacClintock:

Widzew Łódź Stadium and Facilities:

Capacity: 18,000 all-seater
Year Built: 2017
Stadium Condition: Good
Under Soil Heating: Yes
Roof: No
Surface: Grass
Corporate Facilities: Top corporate facilities
Training Facilities: Good training facilities
Data Analysis: None
Youth Facilities: Good youth facilities
Stadium Sponsor: None
Junior Coaching: Average
Youth Recruitment: Average

 

My Squad:

[bpecanha]

GBK KOKKOLA Youth Only Challenge - First Update

 

Hello, guys! I've tried this challenge on past FMs, but couldn't complete it. Now I have a new account (lost my e-mail and my password) and I'm starting again in FM19. I was tempted to start in Romania, but there were five promotions and all of them of "II Clubs". So I decided to go to Finland instead and manage the newly-promoted side GBK Kokkola.

Gamlakarleby Bollklubb Kokkola is a club from Kokkola and was founded in 1924. They play their games at Keskuskenttä, which has the capacity to accommodate 3,000 people (1,200 seated). The biggest glory in the club history is winning the Ykkonen (second division, where we are now) in 1975. Kokkola also won the Kakkonen (third division) in 1994 and 2006.

Manager Profile | Squad | Media Prediction | Facilities

Considering the limitations of the challenge, we have a decent squad to build. There are some youngsters that I can try to develop during the first season, such as Jaakko Alasuutari, Jimi Hackspik, Lasse Känsälä and Okko Airiola. We also have average junior training and youth recruitment - surely a good basis. Our key player this first season will be Miika Hohental, an inside forward who is rated 4* by our assistant manager. Also, I need to say that at the moment I just have the assistant manager at my staff backroom, so I'll need to bring more members quickly.

That said, let's hope for a safe mid-table finish in the season.

 

 

[Fadedaf]

Important update: 

 

There is a team in the Norwegian lower leagues named Fart

[XaW]

5 hours ago, Fadedaf said:

There is a team in the Norwegian lower leagues named Fart

Indeed it is. They even have a women side!

 

[SpS_Zen]

Nice to see this challenge is having a lot of success. We have already reach a similar amount of post than last year.

After the new update, i have started again this challenge with King's Lynn in england (4th time lol).  I want to be sure to go long term before posting any reports. 

[optimusprimal82]

Initial squad and tactical analysis

Ok, so I lied when I said the next update would be after a few games into the season; realised when looking at my squad that there are so many unfamiliar names and faces again that it's back to full note taking so made sense to jot some of this down here too!

Before I even look at my squad, tactics have been largely on my mind. I usually go with the time honoured FM approach of deciding how I want to play and recruiting to fit that rough template - obviously in an academy challenge that's a little trickier so I'm going to try and leave the comfort zone, flip that idea on it's head and fit the formation to the guys available. One bug bear for me is the 442 - often seen as synonymous with the English lower tier, I want to avoid playing to that stereotype, particularly as it seems to be an especially strong formation this year. I'm not sure with the quality of players at my disposal I want to go 'full Cleon' and try a 'W-M' as I did with my FC United guys but - as player availability/quality allows - I'd like to at least play a little more adventurously.

In my previous career, I got a lot of lower league success utilising a flat 4411 to great success, but noticed that it struggled a little more as I climbed the divisions and my reputation rose - teams were more frequently deploying DM's which seemed to counter the AMC a little too much, so my strategy evolved until in the Premier League I was rocking an array of situational alternatives, all following the methodology as defined in my 'Mentality Matters' approach. Whilst I believe that roles are useful for helping highlight to players what attributes to focus on or help them blend a team together, I'm not ultimately a fan of them and pay little attention to the games assessment of how well they may play in that position - as proven time and again, if a player has the right attributes, he can perform in a role he's 'red rated' for perfectly well (although it's at least worth considering the ratings when first setting up - if you have a team with only Inside Forwards, is it better to create a winger focused tactic or play to the strengths already at your disposal?). Along with my expansive 451/433, I also used a 4141 for game control and management, and a few other 'out of the box' creations in order to overcome some of the incredibly defensive sides my all conquering side were starting to come up against (all of these were actual tactics used in-game successfully!) so it's my hope at least to have something a little creative to keep me entertained - it may be a little harder to experiment like this in the lower leagues but I reckon it's far from impossible;

Anyone taking part in the beta may have spotted me highlighting an array of (perceived) issues with the attacking wingers in this year's edition, so I'm tempted to actually make a concerted effort to use them here in order to prove that they can actually be effective, but there seems to something of a mild stigma about the 4321 (which would be the most logical setup with wingers) and it's apparent ability to exploit the Match Engine? Not sure where that's come from, but I know it's not an opinion shared by the download tactic guru's - irrespective, I could debate what could and couldn't work all day, the only way to find out is to see what my guys are actually capable of and take it from there!

 

Let's meet our contestants...!

Ok so I know already that my coaches opinions are next to useless based on their attributes so anything they say may be taken in evidence must be taken with a huge pinch of salt;

With that being said, a quick look at our team report shows that the situation isn't terrible;

Again, this is the coaches ratings so it's likely far from truly accurate, but there are still more 'Great' options than I was expecting. My general rule of thumb in FM19 has been that if you've got 7-8 'Great' players that are consistent, with good mental stats & that you can keep fit, you'll usually be up near the top of the division. We're not at that stage yet, but we've definitely got a few decent players judging by this first screen at least, with my key positions of GK, DC & MC looking well catered for. The left side is a little worrying and the striker situation clearly needs some improvement, but at first glance it could be much worse, but let's go a little bit deeper and take a proper look!

Sadly, running these guys under my Excel-powered microscope has revealed the ugly truth, with just over half (13/24) of my team being rated as inconsistent, with some very average values for important stats such as Determination and Bravery too. I do have a few professional players (combination of calculated through combination of coach report, media handling style & personality) who may be useful as mentors, but otherwise the majority of the squad are 'balanced' in terms of personality which doesn't bode well (basically a 'catch-all') but unlike my usual saves where most of these guys wouldn't even make it on the pitch, I've not got a lot of choice here - it's cross my fingers time and wait for the youth-based cavalry!

 

What's in a formation?

Well so much for my grand plans earlier with all that talk of wingers and my daydreaming about expansive or creative asymmetric systems - looking at the positional capabilities of my guys I'm going to be pretty restricted;

 Ignoring attributes or quality, we're well covered in central defence and midfield, but away from there we're just about covered for a bog standard 442 or other similar (read: boring) formations. Someone did mention an old classic in the 442 wide diamond the other day and it brought back great memories of CM3 and I'd put it on the list for consideration, but the lack of bodies who can play in AMC rules that out. I've already earmarked a few players for retraining positionally, but that's more for cover than to give us any great tactical edge. Looking at the numbers - specifically the midfield options - one formation stands out above all others, especially given my previous experience/knowledge of it's pros and cons & consequent success on the back of it, and that's the 4-1-4-1. Defensively sound and perfectly capable in an attacking sense, whilst it may not excite me, it seems silly at such a level to fight against it and try to conjure something from nothing just for the sake of it; creativity is a good thing, but knowing when to stop can be equally important - who after all wants to name their tactic set 'The Homer'? We've naturally got some friendlies on the horizon so i'll do a bit of playing around, with the number of DC's I did consider a 352 variant of some kind, but with the fixtures almost non-stop at this level I worry about fatigue in the WB's so may at least test it a little for now and save it for special occasions! Hopefully we'll get to play our first game soon - next update will come some time after that!

[optimusprimal82]

Realise I probably post a little too often and with a lamentable verbosity, so much so I've started up a careers thread that follows my attempt at this challenge to save spamming you all & where I can go into more detail without irritating anyone as I inevitably obsess about things that are probably definitely not that important! Will (obviously) still be keeping up to date in here so please keep the stories coming, love them!

[Jtomsett11]

Hi all

Having got bored of my LLM career with Reading FC, I came across this thread and after seeing an early post regarding sleeping giants in Italy, I decided on SSC Bari as the team I would take on this challenge with.

Here I am. It would be fair to say the players were not impressed with my appointment and it took most of the first season for my coaching badges and initial success to win them over. Most matches they were 'clearly not paying attention' or whatever the phrase is when the players don't care what you say in team talks!!

The squad was in reasonable shape when I took over, luckily youth intake from the first season meant that I had just enough defenders, including this guy at right back, who improved from 1.5 stars to 3 stars in the screenshot I took just before the end of season 1. 

Season 1 was a huge success; I was expected to finish in the play off places (not hard in Serie C!) but instead went into the final day of the season just needing to better Catania's result. The match was incredibly tense, but super sub 40 year old Franco Brienza came on and made the difference to give us the title! 

Promotion to Serie B is huge and so far we are just above the relegation zone 6 games in with 7 points (as far as I can remember, writing this without the game loaded). However, two big players, Di Cesare and Brienza retired, leaving me with reduced depth of squad and issues across the defence. I have one senior LB, one senior CB and Forti (see above) at RB. Luckily picked up this guy in the youth intake, but the youngsters are going to need to step up very quickly!

Will update later this season!

Other info:

Transfers - (proof of none)

Youth intake - A few of note here, including Parise. Rizzi has already played and become my youngest player and scorer this season.

Finances/ facilities -  I haven't got a screenshot of, but they are very good due to ridiculously low wage budget (£39k a week) compared to stadium capacity and we have upgraded youth recruitment, youth coaching, and both youth and training facilities!

Aims for this season

Survival and retain best players. Forti is already wanting a move and I've rejected bids of £200k.

 

 

[dkouv]

IFK Eskilstuna – Season 8
 

Season 8 – 2026 – First Division Elite (2nd tier)

League: A very satisfactory season overall, but we fell just short of promotion in the end. As per custom, we started off inconsistently, especially as the new patch resulted in larger numbers of both scored and conceded goals. Eventually we settled down and started and went on a great run mid to late season, winning 10 out of 14 games, which saw us sneak into the 3^rdplayoff slot. But no wins and 3 losses in the last 5 games saw us miss out by a reasonably large margin – still, we managed to hold onto 4^thslot.

Cup: We were actually quite close to getting out of the group stage, but didn't quite make it.

Star players: Johan Palm 24c (WBR/MR/AMR) was our top performer this season, scoring 10 and assisting 12 in 28 apps. For some reason other teams are not very interested in him, but they have come in for both top scorer Henrik Gustafsson 24a (AMLC/ST) and formerly best center back Johan Forsbald 22a (DRC/DM) (see youth intake). I managed to talk the board out of accepting offers for both over my head, but may not be so lucky next time, especially as Gustafsson is refusing to sign a new contract. Eric Hallberg 19a (MC/AMC) from the first intake continues to play well, and seems happy to stay with us for now.

Youth watch: Henrik Stenström 25a (DRC/ST) has become a regular at center back, though I wish his personality would improve, and Charlie Jönsson 25b (MC) has come into the team towards the end of the season.

Youth intake: Ridiculous. As in ridiculously good. Don’t remember this good an intake in many a save – I certainly never had a situation where the defender Anders Alexandersson 26a (DRLC) is already close to our best player, and is refusing to sign a pro contract because our squad is not strong enough! He is right, mind you… So I don’t expect to have him here for long, and who knows what lies ahead for Anders – Barcelona, Madrid, Norrköping...

Filip Dyplin 26b (DR,MRC), Niclas Jonsson 26c (DL/ML) and Oscar Claesson 26d (ML) also look more than decent, and can already compete for first team places.

Finances: making money despite the youth coaching upgrade, so I may look to upgrade it again if the board agree

Facilities: no upgrades for now

Transfers: Lost Dimitris Papadoupoulos to a Greek team on a free, he was on a non-contract £45 appearance fee with us, and they offered him £1.3k p/w! So we could not exactly compete…

Next season’s aim: I am getting a bit saturated with life in the second tier, and hope we can get out soon, ideally next season – especially as it looks like our best players are about to leave in the next year or two…

 

Season |  League       | Pos. |   Cup   |     CL      |     EL      |     Top scorer          |  Top assists           |     Top rating            | Notes
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2019   | Div 2 S. Svea |  3   |   n/a   |   n/a       |     n/a     |     Cirak (22)          |   Milde (15)           |     Alkoyun (7.7)         |
2020   | Div 2 S. Svea |  1   |   n/a   |   n/a       |     n/a     |     Cirak (22)          |   Milde + 2 more (10)  |     Milde (7.8)           | Promotion
2021   | Div 1 North   |  1   |   n/a   |   n/a       |     n/a     |     Cirak (21)          |   Milde (14)           |     Cirak (7.7)           | Promotion
2022   | Div 1 Elite   |  11  |   R2    |   n/a       |     n/a     |     Cirak (17)          |   Hallberg 19a (9)     |     Cirak (7.4)           | Survived
2023   | Div 1 Elite   |  9   |   R2    |   n/a       |     n/a     |     Juhlin 20b (12)     |   Milde (11)           |     Milde (7.1)           |
2024   | Div 1 Elite   |  6   | group   |   n/a       |     n/a     |     Juhlin 20b (20)     |   Milde (9)            |     Östling (7.4)         |
2025   | Div 1 Elite   |  7   | group   |   n/a       |     n/a     |     Juhlin 20b (19)     |   Palm 24c (14)        |     Lundin (7.3)          |
2026   | Div 1 Elite   |  4   | ongoing |   n/a       |     n/a     |    Gustafsson 24a (14)  |   Palm 24c (12)        |     Palm 24c (7.2)        |
	
.
Season |  Finances |  Coaching     |  Recruitment      | Training Fac.  | Youth Fac.      |  Stadium
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2019   |   £23k    |  Fairly Basic |      Basic        |   Poor         |  Poor           |  7800
2020   |   -£9k    |  Average      |  Fairly Basic     |   Poor         |  Poor           |  7800
2021   |   -£6k    |  Average      |  Fairly Basic     |   Poor         |  Poor           |  7800
2022   |   £55k    |  Adequate     |     Average       |   Poor         |  Poor           |  7800
2023   |   £42k    |  Adequate     |     Average       |   Basic        |  Poor           |  7800
2024   |   £38k    |  Adequate     |     Average       |   Basic        |  Poor           |  7800
2025   |   £136k   |  Good         |     Average       |   Basic        |  Basic          |  7800
2026   |   £241k   |  Good         |     Average       |   Basic        |  Basic          |  7800

[ccfcpaul84]

Hey Guys

A few years ago I did this challenge and loved it.

As I am now busier than previous, FM19 has struggled to grip me (I only play in a clan online). I thought I would try this again. Hopefully I will find my mojo again with it.

I am currently setting up a game and downloading skins, logos etc.

Italy is my destination as I am hoping to get a big Serie B side. Obviously as Bari, Avellino, Cesena and then other serie C sides got kicked out into Serie D. If that is breaking rules then let me know and I will restart. I just want the best possible starting point (presuming they get promoted from Serie D). I accept this might take away some of the hardships that others have but I don't want to get fed up with it.

Anyway I will post in the next 30 mins my starting point.

 

[XaW]

20 hours ago, optimusprimal82 said:

Realise I probably post a little too often and with a lamentable verbosity, so much so I've started up a careers thread that follows my attempt at this challenge to save spamming you all & where I can go into more detail without irritating anyone as I inevitably obsess about things that are probably definitely not that important! Will (obviously) still be keeping up to date in here so please keep the stories coming, love them!

For what it's worth, I enjoy posts like the one above this. It gives me a bit of insight into how you think about the game itself, and in some parts it differs from my approach. And that is the best way to keep learning and improving. I also use spreadsheets quite a bit, and use them a lot in my games. I think @Braumiller made an excellent spreadsheet for FM14 or 15 that I still got that I use to determine how good youngsters are at each role, and I still use that to decide what position to develop them in. I'll follow your career for sure.

[andershs]

Scarborough Athletic FC (England)

Season 3 - 2021/22

Good season. Although I am disappointed that we did not manage to hang on to the play-off position which we held for most of the season until after the last round. Perhaps I got a bit carried away with the quality of the players from the intake and played too many of them.
But it was more comfortable without being solid and my two young strikers Panagiotou and Kalu did a decent job of taking over from Coulson. Kalu has pace, agility and acceleration and Panagiotou has been regular U19 striker for Cyprus.

League (Results 1 | Results 2 | Results 3 | Cups) - It was more comfortable this year, though we are struggling to obtain stability in our efforts and results. We started strongly, but had a horror-month in october. After that the results improved, but a poor end to the season meant that we finished just outside the play-off. A bit disappointing, but in the bigger picture another decent season. Perhaps I also need to take a look at our simple 4-4-2 tactic.

Team - After loosing our top scorer for the past two season, Michael Coulson, it remained to be seen if our two young strikers Panagiotou and Kalu could fill the gap. They did a decent job scoring 10 league goals between them considering their age.
But the revelation of the season is the star of last years intake, Mel Davison. Mainly used as a striker and sometimes a shadow striker he managed to score 13 league goals. Moreover, he improved massively this year and his training effort has been impressive.

Facilities - After putting my job on the line again, I managed to get improvements to the Youth Recruitment and the Junior Coaching. Great, but I am not certain, that the threats are viable going forward.
Moreover, this tipped our financial balance and it is now decreasing. So there is closed for further improvements, but the current intake level should yield talents capable of gaining promotion over time.

Youth Intake - Wow. Fantastic intake. The investments (and threats) really paid off. Overall we received seven players who could more or less improve the current squad from day one. I had to use the letter 'G' when tagging the players.
I really like midfielder Brent Morris and his Aggression, Bravery, Teamwork and Workrate. Him and Connor Green looks like my central midfield in the coming seasons. Up front John Muirhead looks like a really good striker and on the wings and the attacking midfield Moses James and Mark Dunning look really promising. Jamie Caldwell looks like a solid full back and Kian Leonard will be ready to take over in central defense. All in all a very solid intake.

No transfers and as described finances are getting less stable due to intake investments, but this is ok.

Goal next season: Integrate this years intake in the first team. Midtable position again. 

Edited March 10, 2019 by andershs

[tomay]


FC Rot-Weiß Erfurt
Season 2040/2041

Erfurt news:
- manager contract to 30.06.2045
- stadium 54 638, average attendance 52 849, by capacity 96%, 9 stadium sellouts
- finances: balance +708M
- tactic: 4-4-1-1, 4-1-4-1
- european ranking: 3rd, domestic reputation: 4th
---
Transfers: [Transfers]
As usual i am selling players which gained their max potential, and putting in 1st team younger players with lower abilities but higher potential.
+ 10,5M (ML) Sebastian Kraus 99/31
---
League: rules - players under 17yo not allowed to play
predicted 8th - odds 81.00
position 4th [table] - Champions League qualification

First season with 19.3.x patches.
I could write an essay (but not a good one because my english is rather bad) about this season and changes i did during whole season. It was very frustrating season. We had some fantastic performances like Euro SuperCup, but also few really bad (DFB Cup QF especially). There was a 3 games serie (L-D-L) where opponents with 5 shots on goal (and 0 CCC) scored 4 goals and we lost 8 pts and 2nd place.
I still don't believe i could win the league but will continue this save.
Next season i am planning to test instant results with match plans. Need to throw off some rage and frustration on FM match engine.
---
Cup: Quarterfinal
1st r. - won A[5-0] with TSG Sprockhövel (non-league)
2nd r. - won A[2-1] with Fortuna Düsseldorf (2.Bundesliga)
3rd r. - won H[4-0] with Schalke (Bundesliga)
QF - lost A[1-2] with 1. FC Kaiserslautern (2.Bundesliga)

Champions League: 1st round
Group stage:  1.Liverpool 16 pts, 2.Erfurt 13 pts, 3. Inter 6 pts, 4.Shakhtar 0 pts
1st r. - lost H[1-1], A[0-0] with Tottenham - lost on away goals, we should win home game but our strikers form this year was tragic.

Euro Super Cup: Winners! [match detail]
F - won [5-1] with PSG - we smashed them, fantastic performance, almost every action was a goal for us.
---
Intake:
Another dissapointing year. No one looks really good, best rated players are mediocre Striker and ok'ish Central Defender.
[intake] - [Nicko Alicke] - [Fabian Eckel]
---
Stats:
Top goalscorer: Dennis Alhaier (MR)  - 12 goals - 20yo - strikers form after patches is really bad
Most assists: Henrik Engelke (ML) - 15 assists - 28o - left winger, lot of good crosses, best player of the year
Highest average rating: Henrik Engelke (ML) - 7,40 - 28yo
Most POM: Henrik Engelke (ML)  - 4 - 28yo

Summary is growing big and long, pasting last 3 season only.

Season

League

Pos

Cup

Int.Cup

Top scorer

Top assists

Highest avg. rat.

TF

YF

JC

YR

Notes

2039/40

1.st

5th

3rd r.

EL 2nd r.

C.Matera [20]

F.Wähling [14]

J.Hanske [7.49]

State of art

State of art

Exceptional

Extensive

EL qualification

2040/41

1.st

3rd

3rd r.

EL won

C.Matera [19]

F.Wähling [17]

J.Hanske [7.58]

State of art

State of art

Exceptional

Extensive

won EL!

2041/42

1.st

4th

QF

CL 1st r.

D.Alhaier [12]

H.Engelke [15]

H.Engelke [7.40]

State of art

State of art

Exceptional

Extensive

won Euro SuperCup!

 

[optimusprimal82]

Wow, what a few in-game weeks it's been since my last update - so much has happened it's (almost) scary! Some good, some bad, some of it yet to be fully assessed for overall impact but I'll try and break it down! Following the initial run of 6 wins from 6, our amazing form carried on into the next three games which - Solihull game aside - we pretty comfortable;

I'd mentioned above that at some point I expected things may get a little hairy and sure enough, the FM gods decided they'd seen enough from plucky Hyde and it was time to act...!

 

The 'Knock-on' effect...

Nope,  don't worry, I haven't decided to give up football for 'Egg Chasing'; knock-ons here are a reference to how one seemingly insignificant event in the world of FM can have the potential to wreak havoc if you're not careful! It all started with John McCombe coming to see me to ask why he hasn't started more games; you may (or may not) remember me mentioning that - on paper and in my staff's eyes at least - he's the best player at the club in terms of ability so is quite entitled to ask the question, but you may also recall I had some serious reservations;

At the age of 34, sadly his physical stats have declined to such a point that I'd consider him a liability in most games due to the oppositions love of a quick and direct counter with a ball over the top of our defence, and I don't want to change my entire tactical philosophy to accommodate a single player, especially when he'll likely be retiring in the near future (if he was a young lad with huge potential I may be more willing). I managed to talk him down more by luck than judgement as he rejected my initial suggestion that the guy playing in his place was in good form (averaging 7.18 rating at the time);

Thankfully he backed down after that and decided that as an influential player I'd at least better try and keep him onside so saw the forthcoming cup game against lower league opposition as a good chance to give him some minutes and see how he fared. Naturally this decision backfired with a very defence minded Marine team showing up at Ewen Fields with a young pacy 21 year old striker in their starting XI who'd go on to pick up the PotM award. A quick glance at the high level stats suggests we were the (slightly more) dominant side;

But as ever with these things, scratch beneath the surface and you'll likely find a different tale;

Yes 20 shots looks fancy but we've all been playing the game long enough now to know that a goal kick that goes too long may be tacked onto that quite meaningless of stats! More importantly is the low percentage we got on target which illustrates how we struggled for penetration. We did (frustratingly) hit the post twice (which seems to be an FA cup habit if my teams) but take a quick squizz at the oppositions CCC count and you can see quite why overall I was a little relieved to get through the game; all three chances came in McCombe's area of the pitch (hard to say he was completely at fault for all but the goal) but it was clear he was a weak link in an incredibly shaky backline so I was left with little option but to sub him off, after which our performance stabilised and we restricted them to very few shots after that.

I was a bit torn heading into this game as to whether I should even bother with the cup or if it was just better to field an entirely second string and relieve the fixture list a little - games come thick and fast down in this division and realistically what could we possibly hope for? I decided to still field a strong team with memories of a decent cup run in my FC United save affording us an away trip to Man City (I have a magnet for City in the cups on FM19 for some reason); we were still in the Vanarama at the time - same as now with Hyde - but we managed to pocket 1.5 million in gate receipts which was monumental at the time. It's an absolute long shot that we make it through to the premier league rounds and get one of the big dogs but any potential windfall/chance to improve facilities has to be considered when looking at the current state of our facilities? In the end my indecision had a big impact as my 50-50 team could only get a 50-50 result and we drew 1-1;

The draw meant that we were still in the cup, but also that we were now at the mercy of the ' FM scheduling computer' which - let's face it - has been in need of an upgrade for a fair while now? We'd played the FA cup fixture on the Saturday and had league fixtures scheduled for Monday and then Saturday again, with a free week following afterwards. Naturally common sense was ignored and the replay was scheduled for the Thursday between the Tuesday/Saturday fixture;

This had the effect of (finally) forcing me to make a decision & prioritise - the league is 100% more important so I knew full well that the Marine game would have to be played by an entirely second string XI, what I'd forgotten to take into consideration was the lack of match sharpness, potential for injury and the subsequent chain of events that would unfold! With 65 minutes of the replay gone we were winning 2-1 but starting to look very tired so I made a couple of substitutions to try and shore things up - these worked to great effect as we added a third shortly after with an injury time 4th a fair reflection of our overall dominance - sadly the joy and pats on the back evaporated after the game as fairly serious injuries to both Sutherland (MR) & Daly (MC) weakened our First XI considerably;

Ordinarily Daly doesn't make the first XI, however he is first change for our regular MC's along with Platt, but Platt prioritises DMC first so Daly is first reserve in all but name. Where this becomes an issue is the fact that the other guy injured is Sutherland and we struggle with any sort of depth out side;

With Sutherland out for a while I either need to play Harrison - my first choice RB who can only play there in a pinch and has very young/average understudies unless I steal Fagbola from DC (which means playing McCombe) - or Roberts, who is my standout player overall and is not easily replaced. We have the bodies to cover their loss, but the drop off ability wise is significant and it costs us, going out of the very cup that I let get us into this mess and then losing at home to a poor Warrington team that got promoted this year alongside Hyde and who just came to defend; all of a sudden we lack creativity and were content to take poor long shots or hit hopeful crosses (which our strikers are not genetically blessed enough to take advantage of!), something I was/we were able to rectify in our next game out against Nuneaton;

So October hasn't got off to the best of starts, but hopefully that last win has injected some much needed morale and life back into the guys and we can pick up a few more points before we play our closest challengers next month (had to be FC United didn't it?!), sadly we have the small matter of both first choice MC's (or first choice MR whilst Roberts deputises for Sutherland) being banned for the same game for 5 yellow cards;

Still. to be in the position we're in after 13 games and have a six point lead, I probably should stop complaining and enjoy it all a little more!

 

Wipe that mud from your eyes...!

As mentioned previously I've been swapping out some staff members where possible to good effect, the best news being that I've managed to (significantly) improve my judging CA/PA stats overall which should help going forward - after re-analysing my guys it seems that the left side of midfield and strikers are indeed the areas most in need of an ability injection come the youth intake!

 

You don't know what you're doing...!

I'm sure a lot of you do this too; when first starting out at a new team I'll often use the Ass Man for team selection just as a rough guide to who he picks each game, often overruling him as I go. What I hadn't really witnessed prior to this save is how frequently (and determinedly) he'll swap sides of my MC's & DC's - for certain games he insists in playing them in the opposite configuration to my norm and I've determined it's not a random thing and is being done specifically, so can only make assumptions as to what he's basing that on, namely opposition lineup and CA/speed matchups?

 

Be the best you that you can be...?

We're not the most gifted team in the world financially (which worries me in terms of getting facility improvements) but the board did acquiesce to my request for a coaching course - I'd already learnt to dial back my team talks a little from my last save, realising that whilst my current squads poor mental stats likely aren't helping, neither is my abysmal reputation/overall manager stats considering I started the game as a - presumably poor seeing as I've gone into management at 25* - Sunday League manager?

(NB: Sadly not my real age or birthday)

 

Dirty Trainers...

No doubt we've all got these in our squad, the guys who regularly sit 'in the red' each week on the training report? Having been in charge of my guys for a long time last save out, I'd managed to shape them into an ultra professional, ultra determined bunch in which poor training scores were incredibly rare - not so with this bunch of jokers with the 'wooden training spoon' maybe having some financial incentive the way in which they all jostle for it! One thing that struck me as odd was the fact that Nicky Platt regularly seems to be 'the worst of the worst';

Now ignoring the fact that criticising/kicking him up the arse does precisely nothing (and he's 31 anyway so even if these 'productive' chats could make a change there'd be little point);

What piqued my interest is that looking at my initial squad analysis I'd marked him down as being 'Professional';

Now obviously I have no visibility of his actual stat, but whilst his personality type is just Balanced, his Media handling style is Level Headed which suggests he should at least have a reasonable level of professionalism;

It's long been my understanding - mostly through experience but obviously some of this is also 'forum hearsay' so you have to take with a pinch of salt - that both Determination & Professionalism are key for players developing well and reaching PA, but I was - apparently foolishly - led to believe that it was Professionalism that had the biggest impact on training performance which doesn't seem to be the case here at all, his abysmal '2' for Determination going some way to back that up.

If we contrast it to Grant Doran - our trainer of the week who also (quite helpfully) has the same media handling type - who I've also listed as professional but has an excellent Determination score of 18 then I think that goes some way to proving that it's still definitely a combination of the two that will help these kids become the next Carlton Palmer Leo Messi!

NB: I've got a soft spot for Doran due to his excellent mental stats and see him as a potential first teamer/captain of the side if we don't get promoted past his level. Since getting better staff, his PA has actually increased slightly to 4 stars; he's still considered a long way off first team readiness but I'll be playing him as often as possible as I doubt he'll improve much otherwise due to our appalling training facilities!

 

A 1-man team...?

I highlighted in a previous update how important midfielder Morgan James had been to our early season form (with 6 goals in 6 games) so it should be no surprise that coincidentally as our form took a wobble, so did his goalscoring, failing to find the net in his next 4 appearances. He did score in our last outing, netting the fifth in a landslide so let's hope that spurs him on for the next few games - but this is a worry that I expect to return over the season given his highlighted inconsistency and relatively young age (20).

 

9 points from safety...?

With 34 points from 13 games it'd take a drop off of miraculous proportions now for us to get relegated I think - pre-season predictions I made were ~43 points for safety and we're just 9 away so I think it's safe to say we're safe, just don't tell my guys yet! Definitely going to be interesting to see how we go from here - will our form pick back up and let us go on another great run, or will the wobble continue with a bit of see-sawing results wise? What this little patch has definitely proved is that the coaches are at least right about one thing, that our ability levels drop significantly outside of our first 11 so we're in definite need of quality fresh blood...

 

20 hours ago, XaW said:

For what it's worth, I enjoy posts like the one above this. It gives me a bit of insight into how you think about the game itself, and in some parts it differs from my approach. And that is the best way to keep learning and improving. I also use spreadsheets quite a bit, and use them a lot in my games. I think @Braumiller made an excellent spreadsheet for FM14 or 15 that I still got that I use to determine how good youngsters are at each role, and I still use that to decide what position to develop them in. I'll follow your career for sure.

Awesome - thanks! Maybe I'll post every alternate update in here just to keep my hand in and avoid upsetting others too much - I'm far from precious so if it's annoying anyone then by all means speak up and I can just throw up a season-end update etc? 

As you allude, learning what other people do/how they play is one of the most fascinating parts of the game for me - I've been helping people out a lot over on a Discord channel but even then, it's far from one way traffic as people will often throw up ideas/tactics/suggestions you hadn't considered and after all, how dull would the game be if there was only one way to win?!  

I can get a bit lazy with spreadsheets, but it often depends on what I perceive as the 'current difficulty' level of my save - I doubt I'll go into quite as much detail when/if I make it to the premier league, but when a squad is so new and players so terrible (so, so bad!) then every little helps when comparing quickly across the board! The other thing is of course that when I buy players I pay close attention to stats & personalities so I know they'll all be within certain parameters, this time I can't do that so to easily spot someone high potential who'll never work out due to being an ass is super handy!

Edited March 11, 2019 by optimusprimal82

[Braumiller]

On 10/03/2019 at 06:21, XaW said:

For what it's worth, I enjoy posts like the one above this. It gives me a bit of insight into how you think about the game itself, and in some parts it differs from my approach. And that is the best way to keep learning and improving. I also use spreadsheets quite a bit, and use them a lot in my games. I think @Braumiller made an excellent spreadsheet for FM14 or 15 that I still got that I use to determine how good youngsters are at each role, and I still use that to decide what position to develop them in. I'll follow your career for sure.

I do love my spreadsheets

[XaW]

I'm really struggling to get into the Belarus save at the moment, so I might take a break from it. I've never signed a player in FM19 yet, so I might start something else for a while, but I might join this again in a while.

[ccfcpaul84]

Well. I decided against the former Serie B sides as I figured that having such a low reputation will make this difficult and I might aswell have a proper challenge

I have tried editing this but I cant seem to get the pics just as a link. the keep coming up as photos

 

Edited March 11, 2019 by ccfcpaul84

[Diego D10S]

            

Had an issue with only the same teams showing up on reset date, probably because of the league changes.

So decided to take charge of Montebelluna. A really small club, but actually pretty decent facilities.

My new home is Stadio San Vigilio in the north east of Italy.

GL too you all !  

 

[Braumiller]

On 10/03/2019 at 06:21, XaW said:

For what it's worth, I enjoy posts like the one above this. It gives me a bit of insight into how you think about the game itself, and in some parts it differs from my approach. And that is the best way to keep learning and improving. I also use spreadsheets quite a bit, and use them a lot in my games. I think @Braumiller made an excellent spreadsheet for FM14 or 15 that I still got that I use to determine how good youngsters are at each role, and I still use that to decide what position to develop them in. I'll follow your career for sure.

And I can now officially blame @XaW for my lack of productivity this afternoon

Began recreating my old spreadsheets in SharePoint Online so I can access anytime / anywhere

[XaW]

7 minutes ago, Braumiller said:

And I can now officially blame @XaW for my lack of productivity this afternoon

Began recreating my old spreadsheets in SharePoint Online so I can access anytime / anywhere

Haha, I'll take the blame!

If you are inclined to share this one as well, I'm more than happy to receive it! 

[jeb_fm]

For me, is impossible to make an academy challenge. I invest money, excellents coaches, facilities, reputation, a excellent first team... All for nothing. I dont get any decent regen. Is frustating that other teams playing in lower tiers get not one, but 3 or 4 really good prospects. My theory: the game is coded in such way that you dont get the best regen, so that your only choice is to buy them.

[Braumiller]

13 minutes ago, jeb_fm said:

For me, is impossible to make an academy challenge. I invest money, excellents coaches, facilities, reputation, a excellent first team... All for nothing. I dont get any decent regen. Is frustating that other teams playing in lower tiers get not one, but 3 or 4 really good prospects. My theory: the game is coded in such way that you dont get the best regen, so that your only choice is to buy them.

/boggledmind

1098 posts prior to yours would suggest otherwise......

3 hours ago, XaW said:

Haha, I'll take the blame!

If you are inclined to share this one as well, I'm more than happy to receive it! 

At the moment it is all in my personal, single user license Office 365 tenant.  Using it as my hands on use-case for all kinds of fun O365 stuff, so I have a leg up when our company makes the move later in the year.

If/when that changes, I'll let you know

[XaW]

9 hours ago, jeb_fm said:

For me, is impossible to make an academy challenge. I invest money, excellents coaches, facilities, reputation, a excellent first team... All for nothing. I dont get any decent regen. Is frustating that other teams playing in lower tiers get not one, but 3 or 4 really good prospects. My theory: the game is coded in such way that you dont get the best regen, so that your only choice is to buy them.

What about the fact that I have won the CL with Kettering without buying any players? Why on earth would SI code something like that into the game. This strays into tinfoil hat county to me.

9 hours ago, Braumiller said:

/boggledmind

1098 posts prior to yours would suggest otherwise......

At the moment it is all in my personal, single user license Office 365 tenant.  Using it as my hands on use-case for all kinds of fun O365 stuff, so I have a leg up when our company makes the move later in the year.

If/when that changes, I'll let you know

No worries! I just enjoyed your previous spreadsheet (and still use it!), so an updated version would be welcome!

[tomay]

FC Rot-Weiß Erfurt
Season 2042/2043

Erfurt news:
- manager contract to 30.06.2045
- stadium 54 638, average attendance 53 228, by capacity 97%, 9 stadium sellouts
- finances: balance +777M
- tactic: 4-4-1-1, 4-1-4-1
- european ranking: 9th, european reputation: 14th, domestic reputation: 4th
---
Transfers: [Transfers]
As usual i am selling players which gained their max potential, and putting in 1st team younger players with lower abilities but higher potential.
+ 17,7M MC. Sebastian Pommer 75/10 - one of our rotation midfielders
+  2,9M DR. Andy Adelmann 44/0 - backup rightback
+  1,8M DL. Daniel Backhaus 341/3 - our leftback, hit 32yo, time for a change
---
League: rules - players under 17yo not allowed to play
predicted 9th - odds 91.00
position 5th [table] - Europa League qualification

We are too weak for top 4 but too good for rest teams.
Our best players on AMC position getting old. For 10 season i didn't get any decent AMC to replace them. This year my best players was strikers so i am switching to 4-4-2 for next season.
---
Cup: Semifinal
1st r. - won A[3-0] with SV Lippstadt 08 (non-league)
2nd r. - won A[2-1] Holsten Kiel (Bundesliga)
3rd r. - won H[2-2 p.4-3]with FC Ingolstadt 04 (Bundesliga) - won in  penalties
QF - won H[3-2] with Mainz 05 (Bundesliga)
SF - lost A[0-1] with SV Werder (Bundesliga)

Champions League: Quarterfinal
Group stage:  1.Atletico 16p, 2.Erfurt 11p, 3.Aalborg 4p, 4.Benfica 2p
1st r. - won H[4-3], A[0-0] with Man City
QF - lost H[1-2], A[2-2] with Schalke 04
---
Intake:
One good player, left winger, and nobody even to strengthen u-19 team. Disappointing.
[intake] - [Ben Wähling]
---
Stats:
Top goalscorer: Cristian Matera (FC)  - 18 goals - 32yo
Most assists: Stefan Schultz (ML) - 12 assists - 19o
Highest average rating: Cristian Matera (FC) - 7,26 - 32yo
Most POM: David Röppnack (FC)  - 5 - 26yo
summary  - last 3 season only because it's too long

Season

League

Pos

Cup

Int.Cup

Top scorer

Top assists

Highest avg. rat.

TF

YF

JC

YR

Notes

2040/41

1.st

3rd

3rd r.

EL won

C.Matera [19]

F.Wähling [17]

J.Hanske [7.58]

State of art

State of art

Exceptional

Extensive

won EL!

2041/42

1.st

4th

QF

CL 1st r.

D.Alhaier [12]

H.Engelke [15]

H.Engelke [7.40]

State of art

State of art

Exceptional

Extensive

won Euro SuperCup!

2042/43

1.st

5th

SF

CL QF

C.Matera [19]

S.Schultz [12]

C.Matera [7.26]

State of art

State of art

Exceptional

Extensive

EL qualification

[TrickyTree91]

Kettering Town 2038/39

League Table   Squad 1/Squad 2   Season Review

Overall Best XI

In the end, last seasons relegation looks like it has done us good. We returned to the Premier League as champions (W25 D12 L9), 5 points clear of second place although it could and should have been more comfortable in truth. As can be seen from the Championship team of the year our defence and midfield were better than anyone else in the division. Kaine Harbottle 33c is a rock at the back and Rowan Storrie 34b is solid at LB. Lee Clark 30c was unsurprisingly the pick of the midfielders. Couple of strikers managed double figures goals so an improvement but still a slight concern for the Prem. Disappointing performances in the cups again.

We will be playing in the King Power stadium next season as we still await an announcement on our new stadium. 

Youth Intake - Really like the look of Leigh Cooper-Richards, potential quality left mid. Martin Horgan a goalscoring AM is another quality looking prospect.

Seem to be developing a bit more depth in the squad so fingers crossed we can give the PL a better go next season...