[FM20] Tequila and Mariachi?

[_Ben_]

Finances

I remember having to scrape funds together to sign a couple of new recruits not twenty years back! Maybe a new aim is to reach the €1bn mark?

[_Ben_]

Expectations

Are becoming very lofty...

[RageMaster]

1 hour ago, _Ben_ said:

In comes Duarte to replace Zaros, Yuste to deputise as a backup centre half and my next top prospect, Julen Falcon, who I have really high hopes for.  The best part about this squad is that ten of these eleven (minus Fulvio) are academy graduates. They are young, have great personalities and are already good enough for La Liga, with some having plenty more room for growth. This is the kind of academy that I set out to build - and, with 31 academy graduates currently playing in La Liga or La Liga 123 (excluding those at my own B-team), we are close to surpassing the feats of La Masia, some thirty years prior to this.

---

Like I said - I want to see how this season pans out in terms of the difficulty we have in our quest to retain the title. There are some fantastic players now in their peaks but a whole host of my academy graduates have yet to reach that level yet, so I'm kind of torn between a new idea and staying put for five seasons of winning each game! If I do the latter, I may move to the IR button (for easy games, anyway) and kind of take a step back from first team manager to essentially become a Head of Player Development.

The top paragraph is exactly what makes this thread one of the best on here at the moment. To see how you've achieved that in all the little details and the lengths you've gone to in order to build up the club has made this whole thread a magnificent read. I had a save on FM19 with Leeds where I had 6 academy home-grown players in my best XI and I thought that was good! It's been a great pleasure to see an insight into the data you've collected over the course of this save and how you're using it and also experimenting a bit to see what you can get out of the data. I find playing without looking at the numbered stats and star ratings as very intriguing although I haven't quiet got the courage to start doing that myself - yet anyway! 

I think seeing you become Club World Champions would be a natural end point for the thread (especially if you win a few more La Liga's and Champions League's before then). As much as I've enjoyed reading this thread, it would also be fun to see you have presumably(?) 1 more crack at another long term save on FM20! Personally speaking I would love to see you approach a save in England just because the Youth Development is different in terms of player pathway and opportunities with no B teams. 

[scousevasey]

18 hours ago, _Ben_ said:

I'm not sure really.

Have you downloaded the panels? Have you cleared your cache and reloaded your skin? 

What is the exact problem you are having?

Was struggling to find the relevant information.

Had more of a play, and search through the forum and made some progress but not perfect.  Decided to go the other way about it, and have downloaded the skin you are using, and working from there

 

Thanks though

[_Ben_]

1 hour ago, RageMaster said:

The top paragraph is exactly what makes this thread one of the best on here at the moment. To see how you've achieved that in all the little details and the lengths you've gone to in order to build up the club has made this whole thread a magnificent read. I had a save on FM19 with Leeds where I had 6 academy home-grown players in my best XI and I thought that was good! It's been a great pleasure to see an insight into the data you've collected over the course of this save and how you're using it and also experimenting a bit to see what you can get out of the data.

Thank you so much.

Playing in Spain, with the quality of youngsters and league rep etc has meant that this save has really allowed me to focus on the numbers of players I've pushed through and how I've been able to analyse large quantities of data. I mean, I have data for 154 youth candidates - which is a good amount and I think this save will finish with an overall summary of what I have found out - which is nearly as important as what I have achieved.

1 hour ago, RageMaster said:

I think seeing you become Club World Champions would be a natural end point for the thread (especially if you win a few more La Liga's and Champions League's before then)

I agree - and that is held in the summer of 2045 so would be a nice period to enjoy these players at the peak of their career, too.

1 hour ago, RageMaster said:

As much as I've enjoyed reading this thread, it would also be fun to see you have presumably(?) 1 more crack at another long term save on FM20! Personally speaking I would love to see you approach a save in England just because the Youth Development is different in terms of player pathway and opportunities with no B teams. 

I normally get two long term games in and I looked back at my older threads here and my first save on FM19 ended in May, so I'm going to be in a similar kind of position I think. I had earmarked Brazil (and using the expansion that means I can be in state championships yet not necessarily a league) to experience that but England has caught my fancy too. I'm English and, to be fair, I hate the Premier League and the money that has ruined it but it's a very different kind of setup to what I've experienced in Spain. That being said - I could see myself starting at League Two level and going from there as I think starting in the VNN or VNS would mean I have too many years to play before doing any youth dev stuff.

I want my next save (more than likely played with attribute numbers visible) will really focus on the player specifics, rather than the whole youth team development. It may still see me monitoring each player in the cohort but I want to really focus in on the impact that increasing each attribute can have. More on this when the time comes - but I am already building some tracking mechanisms and the like...

 

[_Ben_]

International offer

Not interested, sorry!

[keeper#1]

6 hours ago, _Ben_ said:

World Cup shock

It's 2042, granted, but Barbados aren't exactly a great team!

GO CONCACAF!

[_Ben_]

2 hours ago, keeper#1 said:

GO CONCACAF!

They, sadly, lost 3-0 to Colombia in the first knockout round.

Still - a great achievement for a small island team made up entirely of dual national Brits!

[keeper#1]

49 minutes ago, _Ben_ said:

They, sadly, lost 3-0 to Colombia in the first knockout round.

Still - a great achievement for a small island team made up entirely of dual national Brits!

Hopefully, I can do better with Qatar in my save even if those Qatari players make up my B team.

[pheelf]

Congrats!!...Not only did you put all those seasons of hurt in La Liga behind you, you done it with inimitable style, hammering the two giants along the way. A fantastic and well deserved double.

[Mikaelinho]

On 22/05/2020 at 14:08, _Ben_ said:

2041/42 Youth Intake

I got so excited when I saw another 'Samaniego' but, sadly, he's no relation to myself or my son - I wish 'cousin' or even just 'relation' was listed, but, to be fair, he's not born in the same place. This intake was classed as 'good.'

Pedro Luis Hernando. Moustapha Diallo.

This will be an interesting test of personality as my top rated player has the 21st (out of 24 that I've encountered) personality in terms of amount of progress across the first year in the game.

---

Here is my analysis of this intake (just a reminder - this is all automatically done for me via formula that have been carried over for years and literally takes one CTRL+P and one copy and paste from a html file!):

Despite being listed as 'good' - this is actually very strong compared to past intakes - something I've noticed as our reputation has increased over the last few years. There are significantly more midfielders than I normally have, also.

Only one player makes the top 20 based on his starting mean of attributes, and that is full back Jesus.

Ok, the top player through this intake, according to mean of attributes is Jesus. However, on the back of some of the things we've been discussing on this thread - here is some further data (which I won't do for each intake, just this one)

What I'm doing here is looking at the average of attributes that actually make up the CA. In the first 'adjusted mean' I have removed the attributes that have no value added to CA - aggression, determination, flair, off the ball and natural fitness). Sometimes, these become almost 'traits' of player - an aggressive player may be naturally fit, for example, and these extra points would skew that. Notice Djkine moves right down here - he has good aggression, flair and off the ball - but this would suggest his CA is lower than what my first mean was doing. The next adjusted mean removes the set pieces from this as they don't take up a lot of room in a players CA. From this, it's Nacho Gomez (a good corner and free kick taker) who takes quite a hit. 

Obviously, this works both ways. People like Jesus (very poor free kick and also average in all other set pieces as well as average off the ball) actually improve when taking this into account and his starting mean of 10.1 now actually makes him seem a decent player when compared to other players through my intakes. Hernando, with his awful free kicks and flair also gets a boost here, from 5th to 2nd best in this perceived CA calculation.

The last thing I could do is look at preferred foot as there is considerable weighting difference based on that but I'd need to think of an accurate way to weight each one - which is above me right now.

---

TLDR?

Basically, Jesus is probably the highest CA player in this intake. His PA, according to the game, isn't great. The intake is probably just 'ok' from a CA perspective.

Nice to see you using the adjusted mean to offer a bit of dynamics/food for thought in comparison to the standard mean. I've made a discovery though, which will shake things up slightly. I was to quick to jump on the conclusion that OtB didn't have any impact on CA. I based this on the fact that it's not listed as an attribute contributing towards CA, which led to the conclusion that it actually was one of the attributes that didn't affect CA. However, since then I've found the attribute "Movement" in the editor, which is most likely just another name for OtB. I'll return with numbers shortly...

[Mikaelinho]

On 22/05/2020 at 18:29, _Ben_ said:

Title

And with five games left to play, too...

And of course major congratulations on winning the title! I give myself a bit of credit, since this was the first season in a while that I actually didn't tout as THE SEASON along the way!

[_Ben_]

20 hours ago, Mikaelinho said:

Nice to see you using the adjusted mean to offer a bit of dynamics/food for thought in comparison to the standard mean. I've made a discovery though, which will shake things up slightly. I was to quick to jump on the conclusion that OtB didn't have any impact on CA. I based this on the fact that it's not listed as an attribute contributing towards CA, which led to the conclusion that it actually was one of the attributes that didn't affect CA. However, since then I've found the attribute "Movement" in the editor, which is most likely just another name for OtB. I'll return with numbers shortly...

If I'm honest - I was sceptical about the Off the Ball - as it's the 'positioning of attackers' in my eyes and, combined with decisions - pretty much makes up what I'd look for in a striker with the way I tend to play.

I quite enjoyed looking at the adjusted means - for example. I'm still looking for an answer/and idea as to the impact that starting CA has on progress. I know that personality makes a huge difference and I've seen that players with a lower starting CA tend to develop faster in the first year - but it's the long term impact of that. Therefore, getting a really strong understanding of 'what makes up a starting CA' will help me identify these players more accurately.

[_Ben_]

20 hours ago, Mikaelinho said:

And of course major congratulations on winning the title! I give myself a bit of credit, since this was the first season in a while that I actually didn't tout as THE SEASON along the way!

Thank you! It's been a long journey but very much worthwhile! 

Now, don't even mention me doing well on the pitch again...  

[_Ben_]

21 hours ago, pheelf said:

Congrats!!...Not only did you put all those seasons of hurt in La Liga behind you, you done it with inimitable style, hammering the two giants along the way. A fantastic and well deserved double.

Many thanks! I'm kind of hoping that they mount a huge comeback this year as I don't want all the hard work to now turn into a procession in the league!

[metallimuse]

On 24/05/2020 at 15:29, _Ben_ said:

 

I want my next save (more than likely played with attribute numbers visible) will really focus on the player specifics, rather than the whole youth team development. It may still see me monitoring each player in the cohort but I want to really focus in on the impact that increasing each attribute can have. More on this when the time comes - but I am already building some tracking mechanisms and the like...

 

Very exciting to hear your future plans.

[_Ben_]

2 hours ago, metallimuse said:

Very exciting to hear your future plans.

Thank you! I needed a 15 minute break from FM this morning - so here is what I have been making (complete with some dummy data from my intakes)

Starting to unpick the attributes that make up personalities and how they impact development. Then, as I'll be using the attribute numbers, I'm trying to establish 'floors' - so a mean of above 10 is good for a 16 year old, but at 19, the mean should be 13 or above if they want to make the first team. A simple icon can show me who is at the right area as we progress from season to season in the three years plus that I'll monitor each intake.

I'm also excluding CA free attributes as well as set pieces (but tracking separately - hence the 'player type' being made up from the largest of those 'free attributes' which I'm now seeing more as a player trait than anything else) and using a Harmonic Mean to calculate them. I knew than A-level maths would pay off but it's using the reciprocal to find the average (so 5,6 and 10 would have a mean of 7 whereas a harmonic mean of 3 divided by 1/5 + 1/6 + 1/10 which equals 6.4(ish). This helps alleviate the impact that outlying attributes have and we all see newgens with Bravery of 1 or Teamwork of 20, for example - and I want to minimise how much that skews it.

Hopefully I can add more bits to it as I carry on in addition to the stuff I've already built!

Again - a lot of thanks goes to @Mikaelinho for his research into CA free attributes which will help me identify really accurate starting points for these players, which, combined with a deeper understanding of how they'll develop, means I can really start to focus their development (which I have done less of with Guadalajara).

[Mikaelinho]

6 minutes ago, _Ben_ said:

Thank you! I needed a 15 minute break from FM this morning - so here is what I have been making (complete with some dummy data from my intakes)

Starting to unpick the attributes that make up personalities and how they impact development. Then, as I'll be using the attribute numbers, I'm trying to establish 'floors' - so a mean of above 10 is good for a 16 year old, but at 19, the mean should be 13 or above if they want to make the first team. A simple icon can show me who is at the right area as we progress from season to season in the three years plus that I'll monitor each intake.

I'm also excluding CA free attributes as well as set pieces (but tracking separately - hence the 'player type' being made up from the largest of those 'free attributes' which I'm now seeing more as a player trait than anything else) and using a Harmonic Mean to calculate them. I knew than A-level maths would pay off but it's using the reciprocal to find the average (so 5,6 and 10 would have a mean of 7 whereas a harmonic mean of 3 divided by 1/5 + 1/6 + 1/10 which equals 6.4(ish). This helps alleviate the impact that outlying attributes have and we all see newgens with Bravery of 1 or Teamwork of 20, for example - and I want to minimise how much that skews it.

Hopefully I can add more bits to it as I carry on in addition to the stuff I've already built!

Again - a lot of thanks goes to @Mikaelinho for his research into CA free attributes which will help me identify really accurate starting points for these players, which, combined with a deeper understanding of how they'll develop, means I can really start to focus their development (which I have done less of with Guadalajara).

This is absolutely lovely and gives me loads of inspiration to use for my Santos save! Are you planning on a general focus towards developing the players or will you focus more on technical, mental or physical development for your U18s? Or will you try to implement a strategy that individualises development aims and therefore paths as much as possible?

[_Ben_]

4 hours ago, Mikaelinho said:

This is absolutely lovely and gives me loads of inspiration to use for my Santos save! Are you planning on a general focus towards developing the players or will you focus more on technical, mental or physical development for your U18s? Or will you try to implement a strategy that individualises development aims and therefore paths as much as possible?

I don't want to give too much away, yet (largely because they are just a collection ideas in my head at this point) but I'm going down the route of very individualised plans to work on the three broad areas of technical, mental and physical aspects - using all of the data I've collected in the past, and this, that I just made:

It shows the amount of areas focused on for each schedule with the % of the total training amount shown next to it. I was thinking that, now I don't see the 'circles' as in any way necessary and use my gauge of attributes to chose roles - why am I not using schedules solely as a purpose to develop attributes?

Let's say I have a player who I want to improve some of his midfield attributes but he's particularly weak mentally - a WM(s) would be an ideal way (and who even used that schedule?! also - look at the technical gains for a DW(s)!!) to do that as it focuses 60% of the time of those attributes. It may mean that I turn my AM(C) to a M(L), AM(C) for example, but that's all part of positional versatility.

 

[keeper#1]

Your work in excel makes mine look like amateur hour.  

[_Ben_]

1 hour ago, keeper#1 said:

Your work in excel makes mine look like amateur hour.  

Thank you! However, this knowledge comes from no more than A-level ICT waaay back and Google!

Although, I am quite proud of how my little 'development checker' worked -

A numerical value (1 or -1) is produced based on a personality search and then some conditional formatting (excuse the 12 DET showing an X - I was manually messing with the personalities so added Low Det without changing the numerical figure - it's not an error!) and then some conditional formatting makes it look pretty. I'll be 'looking for the three ticks' whenever I get my youth intake now...

[_Ben_]

Champions League Draw

Lots of digression - back to my game. Here is our Champions League draw:

As two-time winners, I have to be confident. The away tie vs Dortmund will be a test though.

[Mandy42]

On 31/12/2019 at 10:17, _Ben_ said:

2026/27 End of Season

This graphic, now showing only LaLiga 123 performances, adds to our worry - there are several players that just aren't performing at the level that they once were. Ferran Sarsenedas, once the stalwart of my defensive midfield role has found himself down the pecking order and, maybe, out of his depth. Similar can be said for another ex-Barcelona prospect in Vilarrasa who was never able to take a chance at left back by performing nothing more than averagely. Juan Villa has seen a massive drop in his ratings too and both Argentine wingers, Ojeda and Konig have never really come out of their 'settling in' phase, which is a concern.

 

---

 

Must say I am loving the thread so far, even though I have only made it to page 4!

I love the in depth analysis, I was just wondering, when you are looking at this data is it the trend over the full time period you are more worried about? Because while I agree that the players you mention above are trending downwards from their original numbers in the 1st season.

Sarsenedas - .27

Vilarrasa - .22

Villa - .21

Your worst performer this season, compared with last season is Brian Pena on -.24

Are you willing to offset that number due to his previous seasons and the number of goals he has scored?

I am mainly asking as in my own saves I struggle a lot with becoming attached to players due to their heroics in previous seasons and that is without such a focus on youth development and club DNA. Which I can only assume makes it harder to ditch a player who you have worked on and nurtured from the beginning.

[Ausie]

On 22/05/2020 at 11:33, _Ben_ said:

Sorry to bother you with another question mate but I'm still making my way through this thread and having another read of things I've already read  I'm loving your take on things.

On the above image under the attributes, have you got any shortcuts to getting the colours in to the relevant box for each player or is it purely checking the player on FM and then back into the spreadsheet and filling it in? I notice further up the thread you mention something about an html file. I know this is talking about something else but just wondering if you have a shortcut for this as well.

[_Ben_]

On 27/05/2020 at 04:43, Mandy42 said:

Must say I am loving the thread so far, even though I have only made it to page 4!

I love the in depth analysis, I was just wondering, when you are looking at this data is it the trend over the full time period you are more worried about? Because while I agree that the players you mention above are trending downwards from their original numbers in the 1st season.

Sarsenedas - .27

Vilarrasa - .22

Villa - .21

Your worst performer this season, compared with last season is Brian Pena on -.24

Are you willing to offset that number due to his previous seasons and the number of goals he has scored?

I am mainly asking as in my own saves I struggle a lot with becoming attached to players due to their heroics in previous seasons and that is without such a focus on youth development and club DNA. Which I can only assume makes it harder to ditch a player who you have worked on and nurtured from the beginning.

Trying to work from memory here as Pena has long since retired!

I think I 'allowed' that by following a hierarchy of something like:

1. Ability

2. Last season's form

3. Form dip/increase

---

He found his level pretty quickly in La Liga and wasn't good enough but I wanted to stick with him. I've purposely been attached to my players as it really helps with the development side of the game - I reckon I could have won La Liga ten years earlier if I'd have hoovered up talent from all over the world whenever I had the chance!

[_Ben_]

22 hours ago, Ausie said:

Sorry to bother you with another question mate but I'm still making my way through this thread and having another read of things I've already read  I'm loving your take on things.

On the above image under the attributes, have you got any shortcuts to getting the colours in to the relevant box for each player or is it purely checking the player on FM and then back into the spreadsheet and filling it in? I notice further up the thread you mention something about an html file. I know this is talking about something else but just wondering if you have a shortcut for this as well.

It is not manual in any way! The amount of data I handle would make this completely unusable.

I print screen my FM page, open it in Chrome and copy it in to Excel to use. Once it is in Excel, I use conditional formatting to hide the numbers and fill the backgrounds.

[_Ben_]

July/August/September 2042

A strong start for us but it's nice to see us not being top of the league! We've added our second UEFA Super Cup to our trophy cabinet, also.

[Ausie]

53 minutes ago, _Ben_ said:

It is not manual in any way! The amount of data I handle would make this completely unusable.

I print screen my FM page, open it in Chrome and copy it in to Excel to use. Once it is in Excel, I use conditional formatting to hide the numbers and fill the backgrounds.

Ah I see, cheers again mate.

 

Started a new save last night and I’ve decided to use the colours rather than numbers and I plan on using a lot more excel sheets as well. Will take another look at it later. 

[_Ben_]

October/November 2042

It is scary how good we are!

I haven't been playing as in depth as I have previously and I've even used the IR button for a couple of these league games as I want to push on and develop as many players as possible in the last few years of this save. We are able to rotate players and the likes of Duarte have stepped into the first team really well to cover injuries and suspensions, leaving us relatively unchallenged.

We do face, as always, Barca and Real in back to back December games but, given the Madrid giant's awful start to the campaign, I'm hoping that, at worse, this turns to a two horse race.

[OlivierL]

Ben, i have a question( i'm sorry if u posted this before but i'm only at page 12 of this great topic and i'm reading everything again and take notes).

You recalculate your youth intakes year after year and i saw that u don't calculate the players that left (because problably u can't see their attributes anymore) . Do u recalculate your first team squad and at what time in the season ?

I'm going to take fixed times ( start pre season for first and reserve team and the classes will be calculated after the next youth intake ).

 

[_Ben_]

9 hours ago, OlivierL said:

Ben, i have a question( i'm sorry if u posted this before but i'm only at page 12 of this great topic and i'm reading everything again and take notes).

You recalculate your youth intakes year after year and i saw that u don't calculate the players that left (because problably u can't see their attributes anymore) . Do u recalculate your first team squad and at what time in the season ?

I'm going to take fixed times ( start pre season for first and reserve team and the classes will be calculated after the next youth intake ).

 

It has developed a little bit, of late, but I take my youth intake mean once they generate and then every year for three seasons. As you say, if they leave the club, I don't track them but I have tried to keep each youth player for the full three years of late.

The only time I re-calculate my first team players is when I'm comparing things using the DNA. I am conscious of overloading the thread with Excel calculations as it is!

[_Ben_]

Youth Intake Preview

This looks really good! Prospects all over the place.

[_Ben_]

Player Sale

Deadline day!

Not ideal, but great money for an academy graduate and I'll dip into the B team to promote Alvimir.

[_Ben_]

December 2042/January 2043

A couple of bumps in the road but overall, we are still doing just as expected.

A defeat to Real was unexpected, but we were poor throughout but we made up for it by beating Barca - as I wasn't expecting to take full points from both of those games. New Barca boss Heiko Herrlich has set them up much better than predecessor WIlly Sagnol so I think the 5-0 days are gone, for a while as they are back to being serious challengers. 

A shock loss to Soceidad means we've now lost three whole times in the last season and a half (!!!) but we are doing enough to keep the gap open at the top of the table, but have one eye on the trip to the Camp Nou at the end of March. That game will be just after our first knockout Champions League tie against Man City, who are fresh off the back of a Premier League title in their revival after a 13th place finish six years back. Julian Nagelsmann always creates teams that are tough to break down but, as I mentioned last season (and will now adjust to fit our plan) when we have won the Champions League (two times in a row) we must be considered favourites!

--

I made a rare signing, paying €86k for Vitoria midfielder Yan Victor, below. He'll spend some time in the B-team:

---

The B-team themselves are making some improvements following their poor finish of 18th last year. I expect far less changes from this squad now as there is neither as much talent in here nor many expected first team changes.

 

[_Ben_]

Worries

Not one but two very contentious goals means we have the fight of our lives if we want to stay in this competition...

[_Ben_]

Youth Development Update

I thought I'd try and condense these three tracking updates in to one, for fear of overloading with Excel documents!

Three Year

The first cohort were promoted three years ago. You can see their starting screenshot below. Sadly, I lost Moussa Traore to Celta after I didn't offer him a professional contract despite playing in the B team.

Starting screenshot

Of this cohort, Duarte and Yuste have spent this whole of this season in the first team and Alvimir has just been promoted following the departure of Ibero. There is a definite slow down in development with this cohort (and probably all of them) - averaging 0.4 points of progress in their third year compared to 0.7 in the first. The gap between the personalities is really becoming clera with the Unambitious and, strangely, the Light-Hearted way behind the rest.

Zapata is Light Hearted (Pressure 15-20, Sportsmanship 15-20, Determination <18, Professionalism <18, Leader <19) and Unflappable (Temperament 15-20, Pressure 15-20) so  I know nothing about his actual Professionalism and Ambition and his Determination is somewhere between 5 and 10, so not great - however, this is a poor result for what has been, prior to this, considered a good personality. Abel Cabrera (the second!) has it and has progressed really well, yet Zapata has decreased from the age of 16. 

---

Two Year

This cohort came through two years back and all members of this team remain at the club. Below is the screenshot when they started.

Starting Screenshot

Less of a dip in this cohort, at 0.7 now from the 0.8 in year one, in what was considered a mediocre cohort. From this group, only Julen Falcon has experienced first team football and he, sadly, isn't developing as quickly as some of the other Model Citizens (although I have no other year 2 data for actual comparison). An interesting one is Oscar Diaz, who, quite frankly, has a terrible personality. He's made some really good overall progress and, despite still being way off the best, has developed more than anyone else with such a negative personality.

His personality is Temperamental (Temperament 1-4, Professionalism 1-10) and Volatile (Temperament 3-6) so I know that he has terrible professionalism yet I don't know his ambition and I can tell his Determination is somewhere between 10-15, so he could tick two of the three necessary attributes for development, yet he's one of very few that have done this.

One Year

Here is the cohort that came through the intake last year in what was considered a 'good' intake and held the highest average rating for quite a lot of areas. However, I was not convinced as there was few good personalities within this line up. Below is the starting screenshot.

Starting Screenshot

If I had to pick someone who I would bank on making good progress, it'd be Villalba, the Model Citizen. Sadly, his attribute balance is not great and he's unlikely to make the first team, yet has improved really well and considerably better than everyone except Jesus Alonso.

• Level Headed: Professionalism 13-20, Loyalty 12-20
• Sporting: Sportsmanship 18-19, Determination 1-9, Professionalism <18, Leader <19
• Determination 5-10

That can then be narrowed down to Pro 13-17 and Determination 5-9. I, again, don't know all of the ins and outs, but he potentially has great ambition, good professionalism and poor determination, which is an average mix of what he needs. 

Looking at the poor performers, Capellas lacks high attributes anywhere, Cubo has no ambition (Determination is between 10-15 and Level Headed means Pro is between 13-20), Samaniego has poor Determination (no sighting of ambition but Level Headed again means Pro is between 13-20) - so it's quite easy to pinpoint the factors here - either nothing being good or one of the three being really low. However, Nacho Gomez (Pro/Level Headed and Good [10-15] Determination) has, in my eyes, two of those three (as no sighting on ambition) so it is therefore, a strange sight to see his development being so poor. He's had a few little injuries (one lasting three weeks and the others less than one week) but his bravery hasn't taken a hit and hasn't trained in a new area of the pitch (whereby his CA would have to be re-distributed somewhat) or learnt a new Player Trait. My eyes are on what he does next season.

Looking at my overall top 10 based on growth, there is a definite indicator as to what personality 'works' the best - and Josue Villalba joins that list, in seventh place.

However, when looking at the overall end mean for this intake, we have nobody breaking the top thirty and, to be realistic, probably meaning no first team players from this crop - although they have two more years at the club before being moved on, which hopefully we'll see some more improvements and gather some more data about them.

----

Here is my overall tracker now - with 154 players having their first season at the club tracked. It appears that I am developing defenders slightly better, overall, than the rest of the players, despite having the most midfielders to work with. The overall personality breakdown can be found by clicking on the link and continues to show that there is a clear gap at the top for my positive personalities when I have enough data to properly compare.

 

 

[_Ben_]

February/March 2043

We aren't the best team in Europe for nothing, as evidenced by our 5-0 return victory over Man City. Our league form has been surprisingly less fantastic with a poor showing at, now rivals, Real Madrid and a last gasp equaliser in a Barca game we probably should have lost, too.

However, we remain three points clear with a good run in and I definitely fancy our chances.

---

We face AC Milan in the 2nd Knockout Round of the Champions League, too.

 

[_Ben_]

2043 Youth Intake

Matteo Mollejo. Julian Heredero. Rafael Escobar.

---

This is a fantastic intake! I've definitely got at least three players here who can go on to do big things at this club. Sadly, I don't measure growth etc for goalkeepers, but Model Citizen Escobar will go into the B team and be playing first team football from the age of 17 until he is able to replace Fulvio. The comparison of all intakes shows that, despite the good players at the top, this is actually quite weak with a poor technical average compared to the past four years. The group is slightly older and decent physically though.

Here is the squad dropped into my tracker:

Quite a spread based on the starting mean for this group and I'd expect the likes of Alberto Acosta to not develop much anyway. Here are the players when compared to my all time list for starting ability:

In Mollejo, I have the second ever best player to come through my youth intake, as determined by a mean of their starting attributes. A quick check on his personality:

• Fairly Loyal: Loyalty 15-20, Ambition 8-14, Determination 6-15, Professionalism <18, Leader <19
• Level Headed: Professionalism 13-20, Loyalty 12-20
• Determination: 10-15

He's got somewhere between 13 and 18 for professionalism which is above average, average determination and somewhere around average ambition. It is essential that he can feed off the good squad personality to assist in his development.

Heredero also makes this list, coming in at a steady 15th.

--

Interestingly, when the above players signed, their values sky-rocketed, as seen here!

[_Ben_]

U19 Team

Over the course of this save, I've promoted all of my promising players to the B team, and, as such, the U19's have struggled. However, they've had their best run this year losing out in the final to Celta, who have the strongest youth setup at the moment:

[_Ben_]

Milestone

It's been a good run to date...

[_Ben_]

2042/43 End of Season

We've wrapped up the season in quite convincing style - albeit not hitting the magical 100 point mark again. Despite the eight point winning gap, we were pushed by Barca, which is good, and shows signs that they're not just going to fall away, as Real have done this year.

Unfortunately, we couldn't add our third consecutive Champions league, going on on penalties with Fulvio, again (although I can't remember what the game was when he did it last) missing the decisive penalty. It wouldn't have been another Guadalajara/Inter final anyway as they crashed out in the group stages. Chelsea won the all-English final.

---

Player performances have been a little up and down again, if I'm honest with the biggest under-performer being Quique Garcia, who ended with only twelve goals in an injury hit season. My 'backup' squad are doing as required and performing ok in the minutes, and substitute appearances, that they are required for but there isn't really anyone in this part of the team who is able to challenge yet - as Falcon and Duarte are still some distance away from usurping the elite players.

---

As I said, I'd like to end this with the Club World Championship in 2045, which gives me another two years. I have a plan of something that I'd like to do (in this game world) from there and then I also have a plan (and lots of background writing/document creating) ready for a new save.

Hopefully, I can keep the momentum and get through this without losing interest!

[RageMaster]

Congrats on the title win and pretty unlucky in the CL semi's as technically you didn't lose in either game in the 180 minutes. I'm fascinated about your goal scoring, only 1 player above 20 goals and 2nd on 14 and 3rd with 12 goals. Still decent returns obviously, just kinda surprised to see it seems a bit low. Saying that though on this version of FM I have struggled to get strikers scoring more than 20 goals in a season, so it seems gone are the days where your striker can regularly get 30+ goals. 

Can't wait to see what you've got in store for your next chapter/story but likewise still plenty of interest to go until you reach the CWC! 

 

 

[_Ben_]

1 hour ago, RageMaster said:

Congrats on the title win and pretty unlucky in the CL semi's as technically you didn't lose in either game in the 180 minutes. I'm fascinated about your goal scoring, only 1 player above 20 goals and 2nd on 14 and 3rd with 12 goals. Still decent returns obviously, just kinda surprised to see it seems a bit low. Saying that though on this version of FM I have struggled to get strikers scoring more than 20 goals in a season, so it seems gone are the days where your striker can regularly get 30+ goals. 

Can't wait to see what you've got in store for your next chapter/story but likewise still plenty of interest to go until you reach the CWC! 

 

 

Many thanks!

Our strikers really blow hot and cold but with no Copa del Rey run and a more difficult CL group, we've really just relied on low scoring wins, given the really defensive nature of the other clubs. It's lucky that we have such a strong defence!

In terms of the new save - I'm writing some introductory stuff and I'm already nearing the 3500 word mark, which is making it even more difficult to focus on getting this job finished!

[_Ben_]

Change of Plan/ Part B begins

With a heavy heart, I've decided that my work here is done. There was a mass exodus of staff leaving too - but there is more to the save left.

I decided that I'd use an editor to make both a transfer ban (so that I can see how the AI will develop the incredible youth that I have):

And also to promote B team manager Facundo Yabale to the role of first team manager, in a Pep kind of move:

I am also planning on making his contract stupidly high so that he doesn't ever get sacked as I want him to be in charge of the next part of this plan. I have, of course, kept a save before I did this, in case I ever want to truly finish off everything...

----

Part B

Just how good could we get?

Aside from the Club World Cup, I have achieved everything that I want with Guadalajara and have developed a whole host of fantastic players. However, it is now the right time to hand over to the player who worked so hard with these players in the early part of their careers.

I am going to holiday this save for 5 years and look back at some of my favourite youth players to see how they have got on, as well as some of the new prospects who are yet to have made the first team.

This experiment will follow:

1. Julen Falcon

2. Mohamoud Almansour

3. Dani Barreda

4. Samuel Duarte

5. Mateo Mollejo

My plan is to check back every few years and look at how they've done, as well as how the team has fared under my protege. 

[_Ben_]

Save roundup

I've holidayed two seasons to see that, somehow, Facundo Yabale has been poached by Arsenal (I gave him a €500k p/w contract for 15 years so maybe the game has worked out the max compensation allowed because otherwise we're talking millions of €!). Annoyingly, he took over at Arsenal, who then beat Guadalajara in the semi final of the CWC, ending that dream, too!

Here are some stats:

Utterly dominant in the league!

However, only a semi final and a First Knockout Round of the CL to show and no more Copa del Rey victories.

Here is the squad, as of 2045:

It is, still, absolutely incredible with nobody having left the first team, understandable when you are in a transfer embargo. Frances, the backup full back was replaced with Qatari B team player Al-Abdulla and my last signing Yan Victor has been promoted, with a few of the original 'backup squad' out on loan now.

The biggest change is the wages that are now being paid to these players though!

I'm going to leave this save with a picture of the new heir to the throne for Guadalajara - Julen Falcon. What a player!

---

Thank you all so much for reading and contributing to what has been, by far, my favourite ever FM game. I'll be starting a new thread, called Voltaco, in the next day or so!

[-Jef-]

This was one for the history books.

 

Looking forward to seeing what you can do in the new thread

[OlivierL]

Superb thread & save . Great inspiration. Keep up the good work

[WillHoward42]

[metallimuse]

 

Greatest thread ever, learned so much from it.

[Djuicer]

Quality CU. 

Edited June 2, 2020 by Djuicer