The FM20 Youth Academy Challenge

[vikeologist]

Vikeologist's Palermo 2028/29 Youth Intake Report

With my facilities almost maxxed out, (just waiting for Youth facilities to be state of the art in Autumn) I could be getting really good players through, and maybe one has come through.

Gianluca Allegretti YP9a – A striker. The media description is ‘promising’. If he can score goals, he’ll be useful. There’s little sign any of my current strike force can, but Luca will probably spend the rest of the season settling in while I give some strikers from the last couple of intakes a chance.

I gave my YP9c striker a youth (instead of full time) contract by mistake, but hopefully that will be easily corrected at some point. It’s not as though he’s going to get enough first team football in the near future to go to his head.

(UPDATE- Immediately after signing his youth contract, I offered him a full-time contract and he wanted twice as much as normal intakes, and rejected the contract because of the extension. Lucky I have so much money, or it would be an expensive mistake).

I’m going to skip a season of looking back a few intakes, because I don’t think 3 seasons is enough time to properly evaluate an intake. From next season I’ll look back 4 years.

That said, my YP6 intake was a really good one with 3 current first teamers. Be interesting to see if they’re still first teamers in a year.

 

[Bigpole]

21 hours ago, Fastbasher said:

Is it possible that for some staff members it's not possible to get the continental pro licence?
Mateo Henry joined us in 2020. He has been with us for 28yrs now. He has just failed his pro licence for the 11th time in the last 25 years.

If a coach have low ambition and professionalism (hidden attributes) he's more than likely to not pass coach tests.

[Wils88uk]

Caley Braves - Révolution française – 2020/21 Season

After many years away from full fat FM, I have decided to jump straight into the deep end and attempt this challenge. Caley Braves took my fancy with the interesting fact they produce French newgens in the Scottish league system.

This is my second attempt at this with Caley Braves, the first attempt ended in being sacked at Christmas despite not sitting bottom of the league. I missed the part where I was meant to post my profile at the start of the challenge so see below my profile at the start of the second season, as you’ll see I still have no qualifications.

We had a great season and just missed out on the playoff places, and had a good cup run which was ended by Kilmarnock in the 5th round of the Scottish Cup. It was a tough slog with the lack of players (15 in total) where we had to fill the bench of with grey players.

The youth intake was meant to be a golden generation, however due to our poor facilities and poor team it wasn’t heard for players to be given a 5 star potential.

The best thing about the the intake was the number of players to help with squad depth. There are a couple of youth players who I am hopeful about.

Luckily the entire youth intake has Scottish second nationality. Two of my best first team players (GK & DL) are French and due to Brexit neither can get a work permit. I am keeping them in the squad as they both qualify for citizenship this year.

[Ronaldo Beckham]

Kelty Hearts Season 3 Youth Intake Review 

At last I got a good to great goalie coming through as I only had 1 goalie who is only 3 stars.

This Scottish goalkeeper apparently from Western Super Mare lol.

Another Golden Generation coming through, I wonder if it will give me as many good players as the last one did.

I could do with some centre defenders coming through the youth intake as I am low on decent centre defenders.

 

 

[XaW]

XaW - Follo Fotballklubb - 2022

Table | Squad | Transfers | Finances

During the holiday season I made some changes to the tactic to help us be more solid in the back and the friendlies looked great. Then the season started, and oh my things didn't go well. We lost 5 of the first 6 matches, and I then reverted to the same tactic we played with last season, and we turned it around. So note to self, don't fix something that works. We started to play much better then, but we started quite far off the other teams. As the season progressed we kept getting closer to the top, slowly but surely. At the top though, Sandefjord got an early lead, but not much ahead of Strømsgodset and Start. Fredrikstad, Kongsvinger and Sandnes Ulf were the teams chasing them, and also the ones in the playoff spots. Towards the end we had gotten involved in the playoff spots and fought to finish around were we ended last season. After all the matches were played we finished in 5th place, knocking Sandnes Ulf out of the playoff spots, while the rest of the top 6 were as expected. So into the playoffs again.

In the semi final we faced Fredrikstad away. A really tough and even game that became even tougher when we were reduced to 10 men not long before full time. Still, no goals meant extra time. We went into counter mode and sat back allowing Fredrikstad to play, but we broke the deadlock just after the short break in extra time. Then we managed to hold on until full time to go to the playoff final. Here we faced Kongsvinger, who had beaten out Start in the other semi final. This match were only 3 days after the last playoff match and both teams had very tired players. This showed in the game were neither team managed to create much on they way of chances. Another 0-0 for us, and it once again went to extra time. Here neither team managed to find the net so the playoff final went to penalties. Here we kept our composure while Kongsviner missed twice to allow us to win. Promtion, I thought, but no, things don't work like that! So after winning the playoff final we were only qualified for another playoff! A two-legged tie against the third last team in the top division! So here we faced Odd, they had finished in 14th place, but were favourites to go down before the season. That filled me with some confidence, seeing as they were rated to play in our league. In the first game, at our home turf I set out with a bit of a cautious approach. However, we dominated the game, so went back to our normal positive approach and we controlled the match, but failed to create many chances. In the end it finished 0-0. Only two days later we had to play them away in the final decider. Here I went out with the positive approach due to our domination in the first match and we continued to be on the front foot. Once again we struggled to create chances, but neither did Odd, so it was anther rather dull match. That is until the 92nd minute. A hopefull cross from our right back were completely missed by an Odd defender and fell into the feet of youth player Vemund Gundersen 21a who tried his luck. A rather poor shot, but the goalkeeper let it slide under him and into the net. Then we withdrew everyone back and tried to contain the lead, and we did! Finally, promotion were ours! Eliteserien here we come!

Now, I really hope the board allows us to turn professional during the offseason, otherwise I'm certain we will go straight down again. Only time will tell! I'll update if it happens.

In the Norgesmesterskap we beat Majorstuen and Sportsklubben Herd before losing to Sandnes Ulf in the 3rd round.

The leading players this season have been Henrik Hatlen Osen, Ernest Hubert Rzepecki and Johannes Lieberg 22b.

[Ronaldo Beckham]

Kelty Hearts Season 3 Youth Intake

Another awesome youth intake and players in positions I desperately need.

Currently 4th in the league with 3 games to go, Cove Rangers only 1 point behind me so going to be close.

[OlivierL]

I hope i can post an update about my fifth season tomorrow but things are going great in money time.

The two best players from last youth intake are already playing and both scored the winner in their first games.

An unexpected push for the top 3 spots after a lot of draws in the middle of the season.

[Sanno11]

 

TABLE | FINANCES | SQUAD STATS | TRANSFERS

Salisbury FC - Season Review 2022/23

I have been avoiding this write up as the season was so underwhelming, I am hoping to move on quickly from this year. We started inconsistently and never found any real form. We were never in danger of relegation, but looking at the table shows how close we were to that possibility. A 17th place finish is a wake up call and hopefully we improve.

The one highlight of the season was our run in the FA Cup. We made it to the 3rd round and were drawn away at Huddersfield (in Premier League). We got thrashed 6-0, but the money we earned has set us up for a few years.

Youth Intake

Stuart McCall (YP23a)   The most exciting player to come through our ranks, will go into the first team immediately.

Wes Scott (YP23b)  A competent full back, I need depth in this position and this lad is close to our starting full back.

[Ronaldo Beckham]

Kelty Hearts Season 3 Review

I managed to get promoted through the play offs, was tough but I beat Ayr in the Championship Relegation Final 2-1 on aggregate.

Gordon Wilson is becoming Mr Kelty Hearts as he keeps banging them in for me.

26 goals in 45 games. Have a look at his record for Kelty Hearts so far.

[XaW]

Youth intake 2023

Just before we had the intake I got a message that Jerv had poached a young goalkeeper.

Now, he's not that good, but the principle stands. I hate Jerv from now on.

This intake looks very nice! A lot of talents and some that are not far off the first team already.

Paul Duffy 23c looks like a very talented defender. Very quick for a central defender. No clue why I got a Englishman in though, not that many English here in Norway as far as I know.

Mads Fredrik Sandnes 23f is a very exciting midfielder. Looks like he is better going forward threading passes, rather than defending though.

[Fastbasher]

2048/49 Annecy FC season review - French Ligue 1

The League

This was a strange season. We were stretched a bit with a small squad dealing with European games as well as domestic. In the league, only Marseille scored more goals than us, so I was very happy with our attack. But we also conceded the most goals with the same defence and keeper who have done well in the past few seasons. This ended up giving us a 14th place finish. We had a good win each against PSG and Lyon along the way, plus a draw and huge loss to Marseille.

In the Euro Cup II, we made the final fairly easily, then lost 0-3 to Inter in the final. It looks like they were the only decent team in the competition. They won every game quite convincingly, so I guess we were a bit lucky not to meet them until the final.

 

The Players

Bryan Pham Ba YP39a had another great scoring season with 43 goals. 13 against some fairly average Euro Cup II teams. He was the second highest scorer in Ligue 1 with 30 goals, behind 8 time World POTY, Andreas Boeckl (37) of Olympique Marseille.

Florian Dupuis YP41d won the Annecy Young Player of the Year award and contributed 14 goals and 14 assists as an AM.

Florent Janin YP49a was the best of another poor youth intake.

With our state of the art facilities, we should be producing better youth players. After four seasons and four poor intakes I have replaced my 'Model Citizen' HOYD with poor attributes, with the 'Balanced' Victor Bouchité who as much better attributes.

 

Transfers

A quiet season from my transfer department.

[OlivierL]

IR Reykjavik - Season 2024 - review

Table- Squad - Finances - Transfers - Youth intake

Great performance in the cups ! happy to get into Europe (conference) league again so we can cash. Extending the contract of my star striker Santos and getting a very good youth intake was even more important.

Pepsideild:

Good performance in the final part of the season. We had a lot of delayed games but our form in the last games give me hope for the future.

Fixtures

Bikarkeppni Karla:

A good pre-season win and first trophy.

 

Deildabikar :

And the double ! so this gets me back into Europe .. good for the reputation and balance.

 

Best players :  Santos - Porsteinsson - Mar Vidarsson

Next season :

First time that all my good players are staying. One legend is retiring .

For next season i hope to survive in the europa league conference round(s) so w'll earn some money.

I hope i can push for the tittle soon with the arrival of a few hot prospects and all the good / old players staying.

 

 

 

Edited January 2, 2020 by OlivierL

[Fastbasher]

One of my strikers has missed 3 of the first 8 games of the season due to being out at a nightclub the night before. Three separate occasions.

He has been fined all three times. His personality is 'realist'.

It started happening after I got him to sign a lucrative new contract. Too much disposable income now.

Trying to work out how to prevent it happening again.

[XaW]

Things are going well so far in the top tier, though I think Rosenborg are quite far ahead of all the other teams...

[vikeologist]

Vikeologist's Palermo 2028/29 Almost End of Season Report

After a couple of matches of the season, I changed the formation of my team. Partly because it didn’t look as though we were any better than the last 2 relegation endangered seasons, but mostly because the team just weren’t any fun to watch. Also, not much point having a 3 striker formation when you only have  good striker, and he doesn’t score anyway.

This did mean retraining a lot of players. We were inconsistent, and with 8 matches to go we were still in slight danger of relegation. Not much, but enough to be included in the relegation battle notification.

With 4 matches to go, we were in the hunt for a European place.

With 1 match to go, we are just one point behind the team in 7^th and occupying the last qualifying slot.

Trouble is we are in 10^th place, and will lose the head to head against all 3 teams above us should we finish level on points. We have to win, and hope none of the other 3 do.

 I know this sounds as though I’m setting this up for the miracle to happen, but I’m writing this before the final round of matches, and all 3 teams are playing teams below them, including the team in rock bottom. We stand no chance, but it’s better than being in a relegation battle.

 

UPDATE: All 3 teams above us did indeed fail to win, but so did we, losing 2-1 due to uncharacteristic mistakes from a couple of key players. Still, at lest it gave me an insight into which young players have low pressure.

[vikeologist]

Vikeologist's Palermo 2028/29  End of Season Report

So we missed out on European qualification by losing on the last day, but I’m not too disappointed. At least we’re on the right track with our new formation.

2 of our positions have players with a best of 2 stars current ability (in that position), but that should improve with a longer period of time training players in that position, and hopefully in future years we’ll have promising players come through in those positions.

Top Goalscorer – Alessio Fantini YP3g - 18

Our star striker and the first time he’s scored more than 10 goals in a season, despite being a starter for five and a half seasons now.

Highest Average Rating (minimum 10 matches played) – Luciano Campi YP5g – 7.41

Along with Fantini, our best player according to coach reports. The new formation meant that he went from being the backup right back to the starting winger, which was probably his best position all along.

I’ve only just realised that my best 2 players are g tagged, or predicted to be the 7^th best players in their respective intakes.

This was thus his first full season, although his 17 yellow cards meant that ‘full’ in his case was only 30 matches, and he was suspended for the final critical match where I had to replace him with a far less able player.

He’s not my dirtiest player though. Not even close.

For one season only, a new award

Most Psycho Player (minimum 10 opponents hospitalised) - Francesco Galati YP3f – 22 Yellows, 3 Red. (Yes, that’s just this season – in 30 matches!)

The right back who Campi previously backed up. At least that meant that Campi got some matches in his formative years, which turned out well in the end.

110 Yellow cards and 9 Reds in just a smidge over 6 seasons.

He’s not even any good. I’m just too scared to drop him.

Man of The Match – Luciano Campi YP5g - 5

Most Valuable Player – Luciano Campi YP5g

Season	Division		Position	Notes										
20/21	C/C			8th		Eliminated in 2nd round of promotion playoffs.
21/22	C/C			8th		Eliminated in 3rd round of playoffs
22/23	C/C			2nd		Eliminated in Quarterfinals of playoffs.
23/24	C/C			1st		Won league and Super C Cup easily.
24/25	B			4th		Lost in playoffs S/F
25/26	B			2nd		W7 D1 of last 8 matches. Automatic promotion.
26/27	A			13th		Flirted with relegation, but it never got inside our pants.
27/28	A			16th		Went backwards.
28/29	A			10th		Changed formation. Missed out on European qualification on last day.

[keeper#1]

Foggia 2023-24 End of Season Report

Table - Fixtures 1 -- Fixtures 2 -- Playoff Fixtures -- Season Stats -- Finances -- Transfers

Our defense-first mentally pushed us all the way to 4th in Serie C/C this season.  Offensively, we were led by Daniele Cannas who scored 15 goals in all competitions. That gave us a first round playoff bye for the first time in my management.  Every round of the playoffs were tight.  We needed away goals to win some ties.  We needed penalty kicks to win others.  But in short, we rode this defensive wave all the way to playoff championship and will be promoted to Serie B for the 2024-25 season.  Now comes the tough part, I brought in a LOT of youth this season.  A couple of these players are ready for the rigors of Serie B football.  Most of them are not.  I'm going to need to ride another defensive wave to stay above the relegation fray next season while finding a way to score just enough goals to turn draws into wins and losses into draws.  Goal difference will be our friend next season.  Could make the difference between relegation and relegation playoff.

The first round Coppa Italia match against Inter went better than expected as we only lost 1-0.

Player of the Season:

CM Matteo Gerbaudo was named the player of the season on the heels of his six goals and nine assist performance from the center fielder.  Helped pick up the slack from Andrea Conti who had a down year.

We had our first player named to the Serie C/C Team of the Year in Alessandro Caporale our starting left back.

Youth Intake

Not as good as last year's intake.  Has some very good top end talent but it tails off rather quickly.  I expected this as last year's group was a very talented group which featured two players who were in this year's senior team starting lineup.

Giampaolo Casadi 24A beefs up our center-back depth even more.  He will probably have a reserve role in the 2024-25 season before pushing for a starting role alongside Fedele Narraccio 23C in the 2025-26 season.

Kevin Sgambati 24B is our first quality center forward to come through an intake.  As such, he will be like Casadi in that he will have a reserve role in the coming season while pushing for starting minutes in two seasons.

Mario Milani 24C: we keep churning out quality goalkeepers.  This is our third goalkeeper featured in the youth intake write-up since we took over four years ago.  I doubt he will push for a spot on the senior team next season.  He will likely get loaned out to a Serie C side so he can get some first team minutes.

Francisco Lazzarin 24D: Lazzarin also comes into a position of depth so like Milani will likely see some time on loan next season.

Antonino Masi 24E: Masi projects to be a long-term reserve in the attacking midfield while providing some deep depth at center forward.

As an intake everything was down across the board compared to last year, as expected.

Spending more of our sponsorship dollars on facility upgrades since our player sales are still low.

Not listed: Obtained my UEFA B License and will receive my UEFA A License in September.  I've seen my personality go from Spineless to Low Self Belief to Balanced to Fairly Ambitious as I have received more and more coaching licenses.

 

EDIT: Clean sheets go a LONG way!

29 clean sheets shatters the previous record of 14.

[XaW]

XaW - Follo Fotballklubb - 2023

Table | Squad | Transfers | Finances

So first of all, we didn't turn professional, and we still aren't. On a more positive note, we didn't lose any players I wanted to keep. We did sell a youth player, but he was not one I rated and £40k is a nice transfer fee. The season itself started rather good, albeit without winning much. We drew 5 of the first 6 matches, but I'd rather get one point than none. Since we now play at the top tier, the other teams are quite a lot better than the teams we used to face, so we had a few bigger losses including a 0-4 at home to Brann as the worst one. Still, I kept my positive tactic and for the most of the season it worked quite nicely, especially considering the bulk of my team are the ones I started with. In the end we finished in a very decent 11th place, 5 points clear of the relegation playoff. We got a nice sum from that place and I hope the board will let us go professional soon, that is a major issue for us at the moment.

In the Norgesmesterskap we beat Flisa, Mandalskameratene and Sarpsborg 08 before losing to Odd in the 4th round after pens.

The leading players this season have been Ernest Hubert Rzepecki, Arbër Mustafi 22a and Mads Fredrik Sandnes 23f.

[schnauzer]

I've decided to have another go at this, this time in Germany. I tried for hours to find FSV Frankfurt or Saarbrucken, but it seems that there is a limited number of teams that will load from this country... In the end of gone with FC Rot-Weiss Erfurt, a club from the beautiful medieval town of Erfurt, in the middle of Germany - which was also once the home to Martin Luther and Max Weber.

I'll probably get sacked pretty quickly though, so I'm not getting my hopes up 

 

Edited January 3, 2020 by schnauzer

[Fastbasher]

5 hours ago, schnauzer said:

I'll probably get sacked pretty quickly though, so I'm not getting my hopes up 

Getting sacked is a badge of honour in this challenge!

[XaW]

I finally got Johannes Lieberg 22b tied down to a massive contract. The hawks have been swarming around him, and I almost lost him last season when the board accepted a bid over my head, but I managed to turn them around.

It's a 4 year deal with an option for 3 more. So that's a really long term deal, but I think he is worth it. He has come leaps and bounds since he came through and are rated as a potential star of the Eliteserien. And he has been capped for Norway U19s.

Ok, he is not Martin Ødegaard reborn, but by a mile our best player. The only potential issue is that is slightly injury prone and missed a lot of last season due to injuries. Granted it was a broken ankle, so I not that worried.

Edited January 3, 2020 by XaW

[thomas_e]

@XaW, very important contract, Lieberg looks fantastic, and only 19! Your youth intake also looked really good! 

[XaW]

1 hour ago, thomas_e said:

@XaW, very important contract, Lieberg looks fantastic, and only 19! Your youth intake also looked really good! 

Yeah, I think I can build my team around him the next few years.

[XaW]

Youth intake 2024

A really good intake! Quite a lot of exciting prospects.

Joakim Hording 24f looks like a nice striker. No glaring weaknesses and some really nice attributes.

Inge Borchgrevink 24c looks like a promising left back, a position I don't have that many good talents in.

[Winski]

This a special moment: we got our first international call-up! Not for the first squad but for the U19. But still: it's a very nice recognition for one of my biggest talents.

I got a lot of transfer offers for him: Hearts and Aberdeen keep on sending a transfers bid to us. But I will not accept any offer at this moment, unless the offer is above 100k.

[schnauzer]

12 hours ago, Fastbasher said:

Getting sacked is a badge of honour in this challenge!

Hahaha! 

Btw, how are on earth have you made it to 2050 in your game so quick??

[Fastbasher]

3 minutes ago, schnauzer said:

Btw, how are on earth have you made it to 2050 in your game so quick??

A lot of leave my boss forced me to take at the end of the year. Getting through a season a day, but it will slow down from Monday.

[OlivierL]

5 minutes ago, Fastbasher said:

A lot of leave my boss forced me to take at the end of the year. Getting through a season a day, but it will slow down from Monday.

Do u play instant result ? I play the league games and cup games on 2d of 3d (key) and use instant result for the friendly games. we have a many friendlies in Iceland .

[Fastbasher]

1 minute ago, OlivierL said:

Do u play instant result ? I play the league games and cup games on 2d of 3d (key) and use instant result for the friendly games. we have a many friendlies in Iceland .

I'm playing this save on commentary only and very rarely make changes in the first half. My Ass Man takes care of the friendlies.

[XaW]

I'll take it, undeserved or not...

[SpS_Zen]

Season 5 2024/2025

A quiet season, despite a rough start due to a bad calendar. My best player/striker, Mazzone, carried me threw the season. He won the best player of the year award in VNLS and the best striker award. He's 31yo, and it was his best season. Hopefully he will be able to reproduce it next season, before he decreases. Buchan03a will be in my starting 11 next year. It should be an improvement. Also, i choosed to improve youth recruitment and junior coaching rather than build better facilities. 

 

Bad draws in cups, no miracle run this year. -27k€ over the season, i plan to keep the same amount of expenses for next year. I should be able to have 3-4 more seasons with positive finances at this rythm. I noticed if you play friendlies home, it will decrease the quality of the field, and improve significantly your daily game expenses. It seems that play with your U23 and U18 away cost less, and it avoid the field deterioration.

 

A lot of promising players, but also a lot of unambitious players. A winger is the most promising one this season.

 

Next season aim: better run in cups, and try to install other youth from the club in my starting 11.

Edited January 3, 2020 by SpS_Zen

[Ronaldo Beckham]

Kelty Heats Small Update

Currently bottom of Scottish Championship with only 5 points after 11 games. The players are struggling with the step up I think, I think the promotion in the season before come too quickly for the team.

I am trying new tactics out to see if I can find one that works so hopefully I can just stay up this year.

[XaW]

Say what....? He is my U18 manager on an amateur contract....?

[Sheyra]

Well, I wasn't expecting this in just our third season.

[OlivierL]

A quick update before i start in season 6 . A few youngsters were promoted and i have my biggest squad (25) ready for season 6.

 

This are the best new youngsters ( baldursson and Hallsson already played after the last youth intake and are my diamonds).

Could play libero in the future

box 2 box option

Best pressing forward option in the squad.

This is a good evolution:

 

Edited January 3, 2020 by OlivierL

[Ronaldo Beckham]

Another goldern generation coming through. The future is looking good, I even got a prospect from Kelty.

I just hope I can stay in the division and build on from it.

[CJ'43]

Aliados Futebol Clube Lordelo 2022-23

Schedule / Statistics / Transfers / Manager / Facilities

 

Campeonato de Portugal (var): a bit of disappointment. We were placed in a different league group this season, and therefore avoided the reserve "B" teams of Braga and Vitória de Guimarães. However, Serie B is much more levelled with a few good teams capable of fighting for the promotion spots. We had a pretty decent start but after winter/world cup-break we went through a streak of bad results, only winning one out of 12 games. We finished just above relegation, safe by 6 points. Just so you know how bad this season was, our top goalscorer was Basílio Guimarães, a midfielder, with only 9 goals.

Taça de Portugal: we reached the third round of the portuguese cup, only losing to Nacional da Madeira from first division.

Youth intake: another intake and once again another potential golden generation. We got a couple of good prospects, like Jorge Coelho and Pedro Silva.

History:

Season

League

Position

Cup

Top scorer

Top rating

Notes

Coaching badge

Corporate facilities

Training facilities

Data analysis

Youth facilities

Junior coaching

Youth recruitment

Average attendance

2019/20

AF Porto Divisão de Elite

?

-

-

-

AI Controlled

-

Adequate

Basic

Poor

Average

Fairly basic

Limited

-

2020/21

Campeonato de Portugal

12th

3rd Round

Jorginho (10)

Pedro Gouveia (6.93)

Survived relagation

National B

Adequate

Adequate

Poor

Average

Average

Basic

748

2021/22

Campeonato de Portugal

9th

2nd Round

Flávio Carvalho (15)

Flávio Carvalho (7.09)

-

Continental C

Adequate

Adequate

Poor

Average

Adequate

Fairly basic

762

2022/23

Campeonato de Portugal

13th

3rd Round

Basílio Guimarães (9)

Basílio Guimarães (6.94)

-

Continental B

Adequate

Adequate

Poor

Average

Adequate

Fairly basic

668

 

[Fastbasher]

2049/50 Annecy FC season review - French Ligue 1

The League

We had a fantastic first half to the season and were in 2nd place at the halfway stage. Partly due to traditional contenders PSG, OGC Nice and Lyon having bad starts and partly due to fixing our weak keeper and leaky defence situation. We didn't quite do as well in the second half of the season, but managed to hold on for the 4th Champions Cup spot. Nice missed out on Europe completely and Lyon almost got relegated. Marseille won the league easily and Andreas Boeckl picked up a 10th straight World Player of the Year award, effectively killing off the Messi vs Ronaldo debate.

Our new stadium was completed just before the start of the season. Attendances and gate takings have gone through the roof. First home game, my gate takings record went from 450k to 750k.

Youth facilities are back to state of the art.

 

The Players

Club stalwart, Jonathan Marques YP31e is retiring. The versatile defender played 536 games (479 league games) for us at left back or centre back. He spent a lengthy period as vice captain and his last two seasons as captain, albeit in sporadic appearances from the bench. He won two Ligue 2 titles.

Benjamin Bernard YP45a won the European Golden Boy award and the Annecy FC 'Bad Boy' award. He missed 6 games after being seen out at nightclubs and also started missing training sessions after signing his bumper contract. I can't get rid of him as him and Pham Ba are my only two decent strikers. I guess I get a lot of his wages back from fines.

Steve Tossavi YP47a looks to be a significant upgrade on our old keeper, which means we also have a better backup as well. Tossavi spent two seasons out on loan, but now looks to have come of age.

Ahmet Cinar YP46a was another huge contribution to our success. With a quality right back, right wing and someone who can play either, we have a lot of versatility and cover on the right side of the field.

 

Transfers

Nothing major. All my first team players are now willing to sign long contract extensions, even if they are for large wages. A barrier has been broken.

 

[Fastbasher]

Seven times out at a nightclub now.

I keep fining him, but several members of the team are complaining about him and annoyed at me for not doing anything about it.

I then warned him about his conduct and now he's annoyed at me too. I really don't want to get rid of such a quality player. Especially since we're on the verge of becoming a regular in European competitions.

[andershs]

OK. This might be common knowledge to most of you.

But I finally found the reason why my Head of Youth Development kept trying to sign players for my Reserves team.

It turns out, that it is these three settings in the Staff > Responsibilities > Transfers and Contracts section. As a default they have the very descriptive value of 'Set All'.

Changing these responsibilities to the manager solved the issue.

[Fastbasher]

A nice surprise. England, France, Spain and Italy all get 4 teams straight into the group stage of the Champions Cup. I was expecting a qualifier.

We are in a group with Real Madrid, Napoli and LASK of Austria. Hopefully we have a chance against LASK.

[XaW]

Well, this was a bit surprising.

I mean, he is decent for me, but there seems to be a clear lack of centrebacks in England for him to get a call up for the U20s.

[Fastbasher]

7 minutes ago, XaW said:

I mean, he is decent for me, but there seems to be a clear lack of centrebacks in England for him to get a call up for the U20s.

Do you have just Norway loaded?

I find that countries other than the ones you have loaded always have a lack of depth. Especially at youth level.

[XaW]

7 minutes ago, Fastbasher said:

Do you have just Norway loaded?

I find that countries other than the ones you have loaded always have a lack of depth. Especially at youth level.

Just Norway at the moment, but I were thinking about adding a few more when I get into Europe.

@darren1983: Just noticed the rules are a bit strange regarding this.

On 31/10/2019 at 17:44, darren1983 said:

Mandatory

Only load the Nation you’re managing in

On 31/10/2019 at 17:44, darren1983 said:

We used to limit this to just loading the leagues from the country you are playing in but we now allow you to load as many leagues as you to add a bit more immersion into their saves. You don't have to add any more than the country you are playing in but the option is there for people that want to.

Maybe something to clear up in the intro post.

[XaW]

XaW - Follo Fotballklubb - 2024

Table | Squad | Transfers | Finances

Still semi-professional, and the board keep claiming we can't afford it. We have almost two bloody million in the bank you idiots! Anyway, we started really, really poor, not winning any of the first 5 matches. I changed tactics again, and this time we had more success, now in a 4-4-2 type formation. I think it makes us more threatening. Since we keep conceding dumb goals, we might as well go for more goals and two up front. After that we actually started to keep a clean sheet or two along the way. Who knew a more attacking formation was the way to better defence? So we kept winning and climbing up the table, and even reached as high as 2nd at a time. No one were close to keeping up with Molde though. In the end we dropped a bit back and finished in 6th place, 4 points behind the European spots. A very good season for us. Our main issue is not training full time, so I'll keep pestering the board.

In the Norgesmesterskap we beat Oppsal, Verdal, Lillehammer and Sogndal before losing to Stabæk in the quarter final.

The leading players this season have been Edison Gjikokaj, Ernest Hubert Rzepecki and Sander Egner 23e.

[darren1983]

40 minutes ago, XaW said:

Just Norway at the moment, but I were thinking about adding a few more when I get into Europe.

@darren1983: Just noticed the rules are a bit strange regarding this.

Maybe something to clear up in the intro post.

Ah cheers, it's one of those hangovers from previous threads, I thought I'd got rid of them, will change it now 

[SpS_Zen]

Il y a 4 heures, Fastbasher a dit :

Seven times out at a nightclub now.

I keep fining him, but several members of the team are complaining about him and annoyed at me for not doing anything about it.

I then warned him about his conduct and now he's annoyed at me too. I really don't want to get rid of such a quality player. Especially since we're on the verge of becoming a regular in European competitions.

You could try to increase the fines in the Code of Conduct. This may reduce his appeal for nightclubs.

[XaW]

Finally!

[thomas_e]

A pretty good Europa League draw. We have twice competed in Euro Cup II, but this year we got Champions League qualification. After beating Young Boys and Dyamo Kyiv we faced Benfica. That was always going to be tough, and a 0-4 loss in Portugal proved that. We lost 6-1 overall, but getting Europa League is fantastic. We avoided top teams like Man Utd and Spurs, and even some of the second seeded teams were great to avoid (Roma, RB Leipzig).

Hopefully we can get some good results, and if we can play well at home I think we have a chance to reach the knock out stage. 

 

[thomas_e]

A miracle! We managed to keep hold of Drazen Surbek throughout the summer transfer window. With a £10,25 million transfer clause I was sure we lost him. Juventus made two bids, but he refused them twice, I have no idea why!