The FM20 Youth Academy Challenge

[Diego D10S]

                                                                                  

                                                                                                                                    Season 2034 / 2035

                                                                                                                                          2nd in Serie A

                                                                                                                               So close but still far away!!

                                                                                                           League Table        Squad         Transfer History

 

A fantastic season !! Got really close to the leauge win. Had AC Milan in the last match away, so was hoping to be in striking distance before that match, but never got closer than 4 points.

For the first time I played well for the whole season without a big spell of bad form. I'm really optimistic before next season, but will be a new challenge with my first season i Champions League.

How I will balance the squad I dont know yet, but will probably prioritize both in the beginning.

 

Youth intake was only decent. Only one good prospect in GK Rodolfo D'Emilio. But some prospects I hope will be late bloomers.

 

GL ALL !!!  

 

                                                                                  

Edited February 6, 2020 by Diego D10S

[keeper#1]

@Ross Ingersoll do you have problem with another person doing a Beograd save?  I was eyeing them earlier today.

[Ross Ingersoll]

7 minutes ago, keeper#1 said:

@Ross Ingersoll do you have problem with another person doing a Beograd save?  I was eyeing them earlier today.

not at all, its actually a good squad, some decent young guys at the start, gives you a good base.  just watch out for the meddling chairman lol

Edited February 6, 2020 by Ross Ingersoll

[keeper#1]

3 minutes ago, Ross Ingersoll said:

not at all, its actually a good squad, some decent young guys at the start, gives you a good base.  just watch out for the meddling chairman lol

I will.  Taking $300 for one player is terrible. 

[Ross Ingersoll]

i actually just selected them because they have the 3rd biggest stadium in Serbia although as of right now only 10 k seats are available for normal matches out of the 19k but having alot of fun with the save

Edited February 6, 2020 by Ross Ingersoll

[Ross Ingersoll]

3 hours ago, keeper#1 said:

I will.  Taking $300 for one player is terrible. 

i would sttrongly suggest you change your mind, ive had my top 3 youths sold from under me, all from my first intake by the chairman.  if i wasnt doing so good in my second season i would think abiut doing another save. im hoping he sells the team in the next few years

[dervinus]

The step up to the Greek Super League has been tough for my squad. Not looking good for our survival chances as of January. I'm at a complete loss right now as to how to change things for the positive and squad morale is in the toilet. Just hoping I can survive getting sacked at the end of the season. 

[Ross Ingersoll]

Table | Squad | Transfers | Finances

Season 2021/2022

My second season was the opposite as my first as we jumped out to a great start and barely hung on to secure second place in the league and get promoted to the Super liga. An added bonus was turning professional.

In the Kup Srbije we were able to win the two qualifying rounds and even suprise a top league team before falling in the second round.

Another decent crop of youth in our Youth Intake however its anyones guess how many we can keep without our chairman selling them off for pennies on the dollar.

All in all was a great season but now is when the hard work starts, It begins by trying to keep the squad up in the top division and getting into the Continental competitions . For the first few seasons my goal is going to be to keep us up and try to get some of these youth players developed so we can make a mark in the league at some point. I should also say that due to keeping my team in a good position financially, ive been able to get alot of the  coaching courses completed and am progressing nicely as a manager

 

Edited February 7, 2020 by Ross Ingersoll

[Jtomsett11]

On 05/02/2020 at 17:39, Fastbasher said:

Congratulations @Jaketomsett. Very impressive time.

 

Did you still have any original players left in the team?

Carlo Proietti was a newgen from 2019-20 (so the year I holidayed through) so if you count him then yes. 366 league appearances so far and 27 years old. Will probably be with me for another 5-6 years so may hit 500 (I rotate quite a bit). What is very impressive is he's survived me relegating him to sub in at least 3 seasons so far and has then emerged as my most important midfielder yet again. 

[Ross Ingersoll]

question for people, will adding leagues enable me to get more offers for players i put up for transfer or no, as of now i only have serbia as a running league in my save

[XaW]

6 minutes ago, Ross Ingersoll said:

question for people, will adding leagues enable me to get more offers for players i put up for transfer or no, as of now i only have serbia as a running league in my save

Yes and no. It depends on the database size you chose at the beginning as well. But if you have a big database with a lot of players, more leagues may lead to more bids.

[Ross Ingersoll]

Just now, XaW said:

Yes and no. It depends on the database size you chose at the beginning as well. But if you have a big database with a lot of players, more leagues may lead to more bids.

ok, thanks. i use big . also, just so you know i sort of stole your season review formatting, just so mine looks a little cleaner, hope you dont mind . lol

[XaW]

36 minutes ago, Ross Ingersoll said:

ok, thanks. i use big . also, just so you know i sort of stole your season review formatting, just so mine looks a little cleaner, hope you dont mind . lol

No worries, I stole my formatting from someone I don't remember back in FM10 or something!

[Ross Ingersoll]

side note: my first top quality performance by one of my youths, for whatever reason i get most excited when one of them have a great match

[keeper#1]

The Republic of Ireland has no formal promotion/relegation.  Would I be running afoul of the rules if I simmed forward one season and then took over the team which finished in last place in the lowest tier available?  

[grff]

NK Zadar: 2028/29 season review

Best placed finish so far as we managed to come 4th First half of the season was excellent before we ended the campaign with a dodgy spell. Nervous for next season as European football last season saw us struggle with the amount of matches.

No real stand out performances at all as our only player with a 7.00+ rating was our right back.

Youth intake was quite promising thanks to the both junior coaching and youth recruitment being at high levels.

Transfers below. We actually sold our first player, raking in 220k as well as a generious sell-on percantage.

Training and youth facilities have been updated with further upgrades to come.

[thomas_e]

This challenge can be frustrating and thats part of the package! Lack of depth in squad, bad youth intakes, general low squad quality etc. etc. But nothing is more frustrating than this!! We are top of the league in Vanarama National and the board decides to accept a bid for a key player, and for what? £205k and a training fixture against Hull! Oh wow, the mighty Hull is coming to town, who wants to attend that... Yes, it does have a 40% of profit from new sale, but I cant imagine that will be anything to celebrate.. 

 

    

[thomas_e]

South Shields

Youth Intake 2025

 

I was told in the intake preview that we had a really talented goalkeeper on the way. That proved not to be the case and with the low quality of my current goalkeepers that was dissapointing! But thats how it is and at least we got what seems like a very talented central defender in Adam Lewis! Let's hope he can develop nicely over the next few seasons. 

 

     

[thomas_e]

South Shields

Season Summary 2024 - 2025

Promotion!

 

After three years making the playoffs in Vanarama National we had a breakthrough season, ending up winning the league! We finished on 96 points, 4 points ahead of Aldershot in 2nd. I posted earlier today that we lost top talent Bob Sterry, but after Reading put in a bigger bid we got the chance to cancel the transfer. He finished the season in great fashion and that seems like a good decision today. 

Our striker Jason Gilchrist had his best season so far, finishing the season with 35 goals! 

Unfortunately our finances are really bad and every year we get another loan from our chairman. This means no upgrades to facilities or recruitment/junior coaches. Hopefully we can manage to stay in League 2 as that should give us some more income. 

 

Season Summary

          

 

Top Performers

          

 

Top Talents

          

 

Season	|	League                      |   Position    |    FA Cup     |       League Cup            |   Notes
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2020/21	|	Vanarama Nat. League South  |	  1st       |  1st round    |       2nd Round (FA Trophy) |   Promotion! 
2021/22	|	Vanarama Nat. League        |	  7th       |  3rd round    |       2nd Round (FA Trophy) |   Made the playoffs 
2022/23	|	Vanarama Nat. League        |	  5th       |  3rd round    |       2nd Round (FA Trophy) |   Lost VNL playoff final 
2023/24	|	Vanarama Nat. League        |	  7th       |  1st round    |       4th Round (FA Trophy) |   Lost first playoff leg
2024/25	|	Vanarama Nat. League        |	  1st       |  2nd round    |       3rd Round (FA Trophy) |   Promotion! 

 

[Ross Ingersoll]

Table | Squad | Transfers | Finances

Season 2022/2023

My third season overall and first in the top leagie in Serbia was a mixed bag. It was touch and go all season but we managed to finish 12th out of 16 teams and survived the league. We had a few youths get good playing time and gain much needed experiance and got them developed rather quickly for just one season.

My bad cup luck continued as i lost in the opening qualifying round , in the three cups we have played in since starting the save, not had any luck at all.

Not much in the way of youths in my intake this season that will be of use to me.

The season was blah, outside of getting my younger guys some playing time, was a wasted season. Took all we had to stay in the league.

 

 

Edited February 8, 2020 by Ross Ingersoll

[grff]

NK Zadar: 2029/30 season review

A slump in league position for the season, as well as an early exit in the Euro Conference qualifiers after we met Rosenborg. Six places are now up for grabs in the league, which meant we were just pipped (I'm sure I should've finished above Rijeka due to head to head being the first sorting method, but then I would've been pipped by Instra).

Another average set of ratings from the squad. It's worth noting that my best XI on paper is now fully from youth intakes.

Youth intake was decent. A couple of potentials in GK and ST are much needed.

Transfers below. Well, this was a frustrating one as the board decided to sell my best striker to Liverpool. On one hand his goals will be missed, but the transfer revenue has already been invested in facility improvement. Training and youth facilities are starting to really look good now.

[XaW]

XaW - Caersws - 2030/31

Table | Squad | Transfers | Finances

After TNS ran away with everything last season, this season was ours. We started great, but so did Bangor City. The two us ran away with TNS on a distant third place. A bit before the split Bangor had a very poor stint, and so did we. Actually, this was when the new patch came along, so I struggled a bit to find how to change my tactic to suit it. A bit into the split though, I found something that worked and we continued to do well. Bangor City struggled further, but TNS really found their way and caught up good. In the end though, we won our 2nd title pretty comfortably.

In the Welsh League Cup we beat Carmarthen Town, Port Talbot Town, Ton Pentre and Gap Connah's Quay to reach the final. Here we beat Bangor City after they had an early red card to give us the trophy. In the Welsh Cup we beat Bont and Buckley before losing to Bangor City in the quarter final.

In the Irn-Bru cup we beat Southport before losing to St. Mirren in the 4th round.

We did play in Europe again and this time we were back in the Europa Conference and we started in the 2nd qualifying round against Apollon Limassol of Cyprus. We crushed them at home, and with a narrow loss at home we went on the 3rd qualification round to face Slovan Liberec of Czechia. A 3-1 win away was followed by a draw at home to get into the 4th qualification round. Here we met Mladá Boleslav, another Czech outfit. We also managed to beat them to go into the group stage. Here we got Glenavon of Northern Ireland, Basel of Switzerland and MŠK Žilina of Slovakia. One win against each, a draw to Basel and losses to the other two were enough to win the group and go through. I wondered a bit, but as it turns out this takes us past the 1st knockout round and into the 2nd.

Here we drew KAA Gent of Belgium. A goalless draw away were followed by a hard fought 1-0 win at home. In the quarter finals we drew Croatians Dinamo Zagreb and beat them 3-1 in both matches. In the semi final we got Feyenoord of Holland. They were the better side by far as they beat us solid 7-2 on aggregate. Still, a great run. I should note that TNS also got past the group stage, but lost to Qarabağ in the knockout stages, so Wales are making headlines in Europe now!

An updated map, with even more countries added.

The youth intake this season were really good, and we got some really exciting kids. Especially Chris Williams 31e and Simon Brown 31d looks like good prospects.

This season one of my players also came out as gay.

The leading players this season have been Lewis Williams 28g, Evan Evans 30i and David Murray 26a.

[DazRTaylor]

22 hours ago, thomas_e said:

This challenge can be frustrating and thats part of the package! Lack of depth in squad, bad youth intakes, general low squad quality etc. etc. But nothing is more frustrating than this!! We are top of the league in Vanarama National and the board decides to accept a bid for a key player, and for what? £205k and a training fixture against Hull! Oh wow, the mighty Hull is coming to town, who wants to attend that... Yes, it does have a 40% of profit from new sale, but I cant imagine that will be anything to celebrate.. 

 

    

Whilst it is frustrating, it can work out ok.  My personal best is receiving £42m from Borussia Dortmund for a 50% sell on.  I regularly get £1m+ from selling these clauses in the lower leagues.

[OlivierL]

IR Reykjavik - Season 7 -  2026 - review

Table - Squad - Finances - Transfers - Youth intake

Good performance in Iceland and a great one in Europe . After my first bad youth intake (and wasn't happy about a few things in the one from season 6) i was able to sign a HOYD with model prof personality and a tactical style that suits us . I hope i won't regret this. Iversen in ,  Jenson out

Pepsideild:

Couldn't reclaim the title . We lost points during our fixtures in the champions league qualifications.

We qualified for europa league conference playoffs, no champions league qualification next season.
Fixtures

Champions league & Europa League :

This time we did great in the champions league qualifications , beated richer teams but had bad luck in the final 15 minutes against Basel.

This gave us one final qualification round for the europa league groups stage, and we did it ! i gained +- 3 million and this gave me the chance to upgrade my training(not youth, maybe this wil follow) facilities.

Last two games in group stage will be played at the beginning of season 8 and if we get something against Bilbao or Sporting, we could become 3th (Europa conference League next round).

Bikarkeppni Karla:

Not a good year but not important this season.

Deildabikar :

We won this pre-season cup again

Frabaer Bikar (supercup) :

back to back wins in the supercup!

 

Best players :  Santos -  Baldursson(24a) - Heidall(21a)

Next season :

For the first team in a few years i didn't get a good youth intake, so won't promote many players . I hope my youngsters can step up to become champions again and my squad will be good enough to compete for the league and Europe conference league.  I'm also waiting for news about my new stadium (5k) .

 

 

Captain Kostic is the only first team player that leaves IR. legend !

New young captain :

Yes !

So i suppose we are going for average training facilities & good youth facilities.

 

Edited February 9, 2020 by OlivierL

[XaW]

We are doing fine, but we are far down the table anyway... 

[Ross Ingersoll]

20 minutes ago, XaW said:

We are doing fine, but we are far down the table anyway... 

are your players on strike? lol they are 3-4 matches behind everyone

[XaW]

18 minutes ago, Ross Ingersoll said:

are your players on strike? lol they are 3-4 matches behind everyone

Postponements due to internationals and cups is the reason. I don't think the Welsh league have ever thought a team might do anything in Europe!

[Ross Ingersoll]

6 minutes ago, XaW said:

Postponements due to internationals and cups is the reason. I don't think the Welsh league have ever thought a team might do anything in Europe!

haha, thats why i was confused, my team isnt even sniffing continental so im not use to that .

[Ross Ingersoll]

I wish i had never been promoted so early to top league. looking over my youths, im going to be fighting to stay up for a number of years. would have been better served to stay in lower one for a few seasons.

[thomas_e]

South Shields

Youth Intake 2026

Once again we were promised a top talented GK in the youth intake and once again that didn't happen. Time is really running out at getting a new GK as we have by far the worst goalkeeper in the league! 

At least we got what seems like a god talent in Derek Trodd. A brave hardworking central midfielder that I think has plenty of potential! 

 

     

 

     

[Crayam99x]

Season Update 2020/21 > Preview

Hi fellow managers!

Been reading these threads for 2 or 3 years now. It has been great reading your stories and it has inspired me to share my own.
I’ve chosen England as I know there should be some money there to not have the club go practically bankrupt too quickly and it being arguably the best league (system) in the world helps as well.
These are the settings and database size I went with.

Jarod Kendrick has been assigned to lead the kids of Merthyr Town to glory:

I've always wanted to manage this club because whenever I checked England for youth intakes this team would have a few regens for whatever reason, even when England wasn't loaded as a league whatsoever.
Take a look at the facilities, finances, and trophy history if you wish. Note how many small trophies they've won.

As of joining the club, this is the current squad Jarod has to work with. We're solid overall but lacking in all defensive positions except rightback.
Lee Lucas is the best player at the club. My ass. man rates him as a very solid League Two player, which is nuts for this level. Other good players are Eliot Richards and Tom Meechan.
We have two half-decent regens already in Shane Richards and Sean Cummings. Hoping to give Sean some game time here and there. Shane probably won't develop with his unambitious personality.

Now to get them into a good formation. I’ve opted for my personal favorite formation 4-2-3-1 with a lot of pressing, dribbling and mixed passing. Tom Meechan has a bit of pace so we should be fine chasing balls at least.
With many low league teams playing defensive formations putting them on the back foot has worked for me a lot in recent FMs. That's what we will try with this tactic:

Other than that, this is the current staff. Just the ass. man for now and an U18 manager you can't see in the screenshot. Guy was about to get a part-time contract but I cancelled it
We're predicted to finish 19th by the media, with the board expecting just to avoid relegation. I honestly don't know what to expect, but I think we won't be relegated this season at least.

Hoping I can give you updates once or twice a week. As of writing this last part I'm past January of the first season, so that's something at least
Good luck to everyone on their challenges!

Edited February 9, 2020 by Crayam99x

[OlivierL]

6 hours ago, XaW said:

We are doing fine, but we are far down the table anyway... 

I just saw an article about the 18 year old senior manager from Caersws. he is poached by Real  Madrid

[darren1983]

Palermo Season 2026/27 Review Serie B

 

League - This was a tough season, partly why it took me so long to complete (real life getting in the way too) on paper it's a massive step back, and in reality it is as well but there are reasons why. In the Summer my board sold our 2 best players, our inside forward, and pretty much the key player in our formation, Raimondo Lucera was sold right on the eve of the new season. Then to round it off, on deadline day, they sold our top scorer from the last 2 seasons Giovanni Elia YP03A. Leaving us pretty short in both areas. The result was a season down fighting relegation, we dipped into the bottom 3 a couple of times but pulled away in the final months. The issue was goals where our top scorer had 9. Both the young forwards trying to replace Elia struggled but both look to have a higher potential so hopefully at least one will step up next season. We shall see.

Cup - a good early win before Sampdoria were far too strong for us. 

Transfers - aside from the 2 big sales (and I'll say fair play for the board getting good money) I also shipped out many players who I just felt hadn't progressed enough in their time meaning we did raise a nice 7.25m

Squad - still a couple of original players in Ambro and Bobucar. Our keeper Medicino made big strides in last couple of seasons and got an Italy U21 call up this season

Finances - you can see why the board sold players, we need the money. Without that 7m then we'd be in real trouble

Youth Intake  - a 'golden generation' they said. I don't see it. So much so that I only tagged one player

Taulant Mema YP07A - full back but looks like he could be an OK CB too. 6'4" as a full abck could be fun though. ALso my first dual nationality to come through and he got an Albania U19 call up already

Career Overview

Year		League		Position	Youth Coaching		Youth Recruitment 	Notes
2020/21		Serie C		9th 		Adequate		Adequate		Lost in 1st round of playoffs
2021/22		Serie C		5th 		Adequate		Adequate		Lost in 3rd round of playoffs, got 1st coaching badge, won manager of the season
2022/23		Serie C		3rd 		Adequate		Adequate		Promotion through playoffs, 2nd coaching badge, manager of the year again 
2023/24		Serie B		14th 		Adequate		Adequate
2024/25		Serie B		12th 		Good			Good			3rd coaching badge and youth coaching/recruitment upgrades
2025/26		Serie B		6th 		Excellent		Excellent		Lost first round of playoffs, youth coaching/recruitment upgrades 
2026/27		Serie B		15th 		Excellent		Excellent

Hopefully the next update won't be so far away. 

[grff]

NK Zadar: 2023/31 season review

A season of two halves as we left for the winter break in 3rd place. We then came back and won just 1 game for the remainder of the season. However, we did squeeze into European qualification with pretty much the last kick of the season, scoring a 92nd minute equaliser.

  

Only a few players were able to post a 7.00+ average for the season. Much improvement is needed for the new campaign.

Youth intake was promised as a golden generation again. Lies. LIES!!! This striker does look an excellent prospect though.

Transfers below. Decided to get rid of the 22/23 year olds that had not developed enough for the first team.

Facilities upgraded again with further improvements planned by the board. The forced sale of Simic has really helped.

[XaW]

9 hours ago, OlivierL said:

I just saw an article about the 18 year old senior manager from Caersws. he is poached by Real  Madrid

What? Like, in real life? 

[OlivierL]

5 minutes ago, XaW said:

What? Like, in real life? 

Oops it was Caerwys FC.

 

[XaW]

1 minute ago, OlivierL said:

Oops it was Caerwys FC.

 

Haha, it's easy to mess up, there are so many 'C's and 'W's in Welsh that I sometimes think they are just screwing with us!

[darren1983]

My board just sold my first and 2nd choice keepers on transfer deadline day. I hate them so much. This season may be even longer than the last  

[Kazushi80]

I am thinking about ending my save. I played two season more to the year 2035 now.

FM confirmed that my save has a bug regarding the stadium sponsorship money. Instead of getting 7.5 million every 5 years I get 0 and my club is going bankrupt because of that (because we are paying back a loan we could never afford)

I can't sell players to even the books because all of my players are so far below the level of my league that no one is interested.

And i am not getting good youth players, so at the moment my team is even getting worse from season to season. I can't see making the club progress, so I think i will throw the towel here and will start over with another club in another country.

[Ross Ingersoll]

Table | Squad | Transfers | Finances

Season 2023/2024

My second season in Linglong Tire Super liga ended up being a tad better than my first as we were able to stay away from the relegation spots and finish a very respectable 10th seeing as how we were predicted to finish 16th. Ive noticed that we can play with most teams in the league but the top 5 or 6 teams are head and shoulders above mine so have some work to do before we get in that upper echelon.

My best cup run by far as we made it all the way to the semi finals before being beat by FK Radnik Surdulica.

My youth intake was decent, dont let the stars fool you , most lack things i look for in a squad member, mainly work rate and determination.

Things were looking up overall and then i noticed my best player game ratings wise wants to leave to move to a bigger club. Might be my fav of my youths but if i can get a good offer, i will push his butt out the door gladly because i need the funds.

[OlivierL]

2 hours ago, Kazushi80 said:

I am thinking about ending my save. I played two season more to the year 2035 now.

FM confirmed that my save has a bug regarding the stadium sponsorship money. Instead of getting 7.5 million every 5 years I get 0 and my club is going bankrupt because of that (because we are paying back a loan we could never afford)

I can't sell players to even the books because all of my players are so far below the level of my league that no one is interested.

And i am not getting good youth players, so at the moment my team is even getting worse from season to season. I can't see making the club progress, so I think i will throw the towel here and will start over with another club in another country.

stupid bug ! 2035 is already great !

[OlivierL]

We did it !

Situation europa league season 7 after the 5th and last game :

If we won against Bilbao, we would be 3th and be in Europa after the winterbreak (Europa Conference league).

Santos scores in both games in the first minute. Good lad !

So we are going to play Europa conference league first knockout , at the start of season 8.
 

[OlivierL]

Sorry for the spam.. i received news about my stadium !

We go from 1200 (300 seated) to this :

 

And they are upgrading my youth & training facilities once again..

 

 

[Ross Ingersoll]

Never had this happen before but my old staduim lacked enough seats so instead of adding them, they said screw it and rented a new stadium permanantly that had enough 

[Crayam99x]

12 minutes ago, Ross Ingersoll said:

Never had this happen before but my old staduim lacked enough seats so instead of adding them, they said screw it and rented a new stadium permanantly that had enough 

That seems very odd. How's your finances looking? Maybe it could have something to do with that?

[XaW]

XaW - Caersws - 2031/32

Table | Squad | Transfers | Finances

This season went on quite comfortable and we won the league again. We are now the best team in the country, and only TNS and Bangor City is somewhere close. I did start quite a bit down the table, but mostly because we had 4-5 matches less played than anyone else, so December were a tough month with 9 league matches. Still, the players did great and we held the composure. Our only loss this season were against Bangor City away, and with a bit of luck, we can improve that.

In the Welsh League Cup we beat Swansea Uni, Cwmbran Celtic, Bangor City and Cardiff Met Uni to reach the final. Here we beat TNS to claim the trophy. In the Welsh Cup we beat Ton Pentre, Swansea Uni, Bala Town and Bangor City to reach the final. Here we once again beat TNS, this time in extra time, to complete a domestic swoop.

In the Irn-Bru cup we beat Inverness Reserves, Celtic Reserves, Dunfermline Athletic and St. Mirren to reach the final. Here we beat Partick Thistle on pens to win the trophy for the first time.

We were back in the Champions League this season and we started in the 1st qualification round. Here we beat Sūduva Marijampolė of Lithuania to go to the 2nd qualification round. This time we got a tougher draw in Standard Liège of Belgium. Still, we beat them in both matches to go into the 3rd qualification round. There we drew Larne of Northern Ireland. We crushed them away, and when I played the reserves in the rematch we lost at home, but still went through. In the playoffs we got Qarabağ of Azerbaijan. Wins in both matches put us into the group stage.

Here we had a very hard group, when we drew Barcelona of Spain, Chelsea of England and Bayer Leverkusen of Germany. We became the whipping boy of the group, but at least managed to beat Bayer Leverkusen at home to avoid the humiliation of 0 points, but we still finished 4th.

An updated map, with a few more countries.

The youth intake this season were quite poor, at least compared to the previous seasons. At least we had some good talents in Sion Williams 32a and Robert Stephens 32b.

While none of my players have played for the national team yet, we are making strides in the youth teams.

The leading players this season have been Evan Evans 30i, Richard Matthews 30c and Chris Williams 31e.

[Ross Ingersoll]

1 hour ago, Crayam99x said:

That seems very odd. How's your finances looking? Maybe it could have something to do with that?

they arent bad at all, do have one loan out but thats only for about 29k.

[thomas_e]

South Shields

Season Summary 2025 - 2026

Our first season in League 2 and we got close to back-to-back promotions! We started the season in fantastic fashion, winning our first 6 games! After that we were uneven, but never left the playoff spots for the entire season. Only 3 wins in our last 13 games didn't bring a lot of momentum going into our playoff games against Notts County, but we managed to grab a 1-0 win at home. It could have been an even bigger win as we dominated most of the game. 

Four days later we travelled to the away game. An even start to the game gave some room for optimism, but Notts County got the opener after 38 minutes. They doubled their lead in the 49th minute, before having a player sent off after 58 minutes. For some reason playing with a one man advantage didn't see us put any pressure on Notts County and they even grabbed a third goal, winning the two game tie 3-1 on aggregate. This was fair enough, we had a really good opening campaign and hopefully we can push for a playoff spot next season as well! 

A three month injury to our first choice goalkeeper Bob McDermott saw us play 18 year old (now 19) Peter Hards for the last 7 games of the season. He has done okay, at least compared to our terrible GK standards, and has even seen his potential gone from three to four stars. He might just be our first choice for next year, but I am praying for a top GK talent next March! 

Our striker from the beginning of the save, Jason Gilchrist, just keeps delivering! He is 31 years old, finishing the season as top scorer with 25 goals! Him and Nathan Lowe have been our consistently best performers and as a bonus, they just dont get injured! Fingers crossed that stays the same next season! 

Our talents in the U18 and U23 are also coming along nicely. Some players have gotten valuable loan deals this season and will hopefully come back ready to contribute in the first team. In the U18 squad Max Dempsey has really improved this year and his potential has suddenly turned into 5 stars. My biggest hope is for Adam Lewis, I think he can become a really good CB. 

Some of our best players in the age group 19-21 are refusing to sign new contracts as they want to move on to bigger clubs. Bob Sterry, one of our best players, only has two years left and we need to consider a sale next summer if he refuses to put pen to paper. 

Goals for next season: Another ambitious push for playoffs. 

Season Summary

          

Top Performers

          

Top Talents

               

 

Season	|	League                      |   Position    |    FA Cup     |       League Cup            |   Notes
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2020/21	|	Vanarama Nat. League South  |	  1st       |  1st round    |       2nd Round (FA Trophy) |   Promotion! 
2021/22	|	Vanarama Nat. League        |	  7th       |  3rd round    |       2nd Round (FA Trophy) |   Made the playoffs 
2022/23	|	Vanarama Nat. League        |	  5th       |  3rd round    |       2nd Round (FA Trophy) |   Lost VNL playoff final 
2023/24	|	Vanarama Nat. League        |	  7th       |  1st round    |       4th Round (FA Trophy) |   Lost first playoff leg
2024/25	|	Vanarama Nat. League        |	  1st       |  2nd round    |       3rd Round (FA Trophy) |   Promotion! 
2025/26	|	Sky Bet League 2            |	  7th       |  1st round    |       2nd round             |   Lost first playoff leg 

 

[jepze]

I'm just beginning my journey 

 

Matlock to the prem!

[Ross Ingersoll]

5 hours ago, jepze said:

I'm just beginning my journey 

 

Matlock to the prem!

good luck, first 2 or 3 seasons were the worst to me, you dont have much in the way of youths so it was rather boring but now that im in my 5th season and have young guys getting ready to be ready for the first team, much more enjoyable.