Queen's Park F.C. - a youth only story

[Winski]

Queen's Park F.C.

After some failed attempts in the youth-only topic, I decided to start a save with Queen's Park F.C.

According to Wikipedia: 

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Queen's Park Football Club is a Scottish football club based in Glasgow, which currently plays in Scottish League Two. Queen's Park is the oldest association football club in Scotland, having been founded in 1867, and is the oldest outside England and Wales.^[2] Queen's Park is also the only Scottish football club to have played in the FA Cup Final, achieving this feat in both 1884 and 1885.

So, the oldest football club in Scotland. That's a nice thing. Another nice thing is the sell of Hampden Park:

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In 2018, a deal was made for the SFA to purchase Hampden from Queen's Park upon the expiry of the lease in 2020 for a fee of £5 million, with the club to improve Lesser Hampden and play their matches there.^[62] In November 2019 the club announced plans to redevelop Lesser Hampden into a 1774 capacity ground.^[66] As of August 2020, ownership of the main stadium had been transferred to the SFA and a new facility was under construction at Lesser Hampden.^[67]

 

So in 2020 Queens Park will receive appr. € 5 million for the sell of their stadium! That's a lot of money for a club in League Two. 

And, according to BBC:

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Queen's Park's members have voted to end 152 years as amateurs and Scotland's oldest club will now move towards the professional ranks.

The Glasgow club are the last remaining amateur side in the Scottish Professional Football League.

 

But 91% of members accepted advice from the club that change was needed to compete with their rivals.

President Gerry Crawley said: "It's a historic evening. 152 years of history. There's a degree of mixed feelings."

With Hampden Park being sold to the Scottish FA, and a move to neighbouring Lesser Hampden in prospect, Queen's Park also recognised the growing threat of Highland League and Lowland Leagues keen to take their place through promotion to the SPFL.

So that means that finally, after 152 years, Queens Park isn't an amateurclub anymore.

So a lot of reasons to start a save with Queen's Park FC! It will be a youth only save, so I will not buy anyone. I will only use players from my own academy. Maybe I'll allow myself to buy academy players back when I sold them before. But I'm not sure about that.

My goal? Win the Champions League. The same goal as with the 'real' youth only-challenge.

Let's go!

[Winski]

The first season went very well! 

I didn't expect to become champions, but we dit it! It was a hard fight, together with Cove Rangers and Edinburgh City. We won the league with only 1 point more then Cove Rangers! Surprisingly Stenhousemuir won the playoffs, so they are also promoted to the League One.

Youth intake

The preview was quite good. I hired David Johnstone as our HoYD because of his Perfectionist personality. 

The intake was a 'golden generation'. And indeed, we got some nice talents. That's one nice thing about this club: the facilities are very good at the start of the save. 
These are the best talents from this very first intake:

 

Sean McLaren 20a will go directly into my first team squad. 

And then, on 01-07-2020, this message came into my inbox:

We got almost € 6 million from it! So that's very, very welcome. 

And with that money we could ask to go professional. 

So I need to wait for one more season, but then we are Professional!

These are our current facilities:

 

[Winski]

Things are going very, very good. We are at the top of the league halfway the season, with only one defeat. My best players this season:

 

[Winski]

End of season 2020/2021

What a fantastic season it was! We only lost 2 games, absolutely brilliant. So a back to back promotion!
The cup results were not very good, although we had a good run in the Betfred Cup, where we made it until the Qtr Finals.

This is the tactic that I'm using:

I build this strikerless tactic in my 1. FC Kaiserslautern-save, which is also a youth only save. It's based on some great articles of "Crusadertsar" on Dictatethegame and it's all about Total Football. I tweaked it alot along the way and this version is doing great things for me, in several saves.

Youth Intake
The intake this year was a good one. I forgot to make a screenshot of the preview unfortunately.

I'm most exited about the following players:
Alex Kerr 21a A talented striker. I will re-train him into a attacking midfielder. He needs to work on his technical attributes, and I hope that his determination will rise with some mentoring.
Colin Macdonald 21b Also a talented striker, but I will re-train him into a Inside Forward.   A bit the same as above; he also needs to work on his techical attributes and his determination.
Gavin Morrison 21c Well, determination isn't a problem with this guy. A technical gifted winger. Looks like he has some potential, I'll train him as a Inside Forward. 
Jim Robertson 21e Looks like a goalkeeper with plenty of potential. 

Then the players who impressed this season:
Joffrey Lidouren Great player for us! Topscorer with 16 goals overall and 9 assists.
Craig Slater My DLP(d) and he's doing a great job. Also my vice-captain. Very good midfielder, and very important for us. 
Jack Purdue My biggest talent. He's doing great as our mezzala. I hope to keep him for as long as possible at the club.
Tim Crainey A newgen that came through the youth ranks on the day I took over the club. So he's not a player from my own intakes and therefor not tagged. He is the replacement for Adam King, who played for us on loan last seaon. I put Crainey in my starting team from the beginning of this season and he did great. He is developing nicely.
Stuart Mcallister Another player that came through the academy on the day I joined the club. I put him in my starting eleven from day one and he always deliver. This season he scored 10 goals and 7 assists as a left Inside Forward. I'm very happy with him.
Sean McLaren 20a McLaren 20a was our biggest talent from last years intake and he played a full season as a Inside Forward, on the other flank as Mcallister. He did well, but he didn't scored much goals and assists. But he's developing well. I'm happy with his first season.
Gregor Stewart Another youth player from the very first group of players that came through the youth ranks when I joined the club. He is my first choice as a left Inverted Wingback and doing very well. He scored 3 goals this season, together with 7 assist. Nice stats for a Inverted Wingback. He is progressing very well, statswise. He will be my first choice again next season.
Neil Kelly 20g Well, this guy was a bit of a surprise this season. His progress this season was fantastic, so I gave him a chance in the starting eleven when I needed a CB because of an injury. His first match was fantastic, so I decided to gave him some more chances. And he delivered. So he is now my first choice as CB, together with his mentor Peter Grant.

Because of our promotion to the Championship, we are now a full professional team.

Very, very, very happy with this.

And because of our healty financial situation this message came:

Our Finances still looking great, even after this message.

I can't wait until next seaon to see how we'll do in the Championship.

 

[Winski]

End of season 2021/2022

What. A. Season. What. A. Season! This has to be one of the most amazing seasons for a long time in FM for me. We managed to win the league on the final day, while I didn't expect it anymore. It was a fantastic fight, the whole season long. Together with St. Johnstone and Dundee United we fought for the first place in the league. Along the way Dundee Utd wasn't competing anymore, so it was a competition between our team and St. Johnstone. Sometimes were were 1st, sometimes St. Johnstone. In March and April we won almost everything. But on 16/4/2020 we played at home against St. Johnstone and we just couldn't deal with the pressure. St. Johnstone was way better then us. After that match, I thought that our dream to become champion again was over. 

But then. The final day. We had to play against Ayr at home, and St. Johnstone away against Dundee Utd. A difficult match for them, and an easy match for us. We could play our normal game, and won easily with 3-0. But St. Johnsone surprisingly draw against Dundee Utd!

So we are the champions!!! Promoted to the Premiership!!!! And again a back to back promotion! Incredible. I never thought that I could play in the Premiership with this club this fast.

We also had a very good run in the Cup this season. We lost in the Qtr Finals against Rangers. Away, so we got over 800k from that match!

Best players
Stuart McAllister Again a very good season. Our topscorer this season with 13 goals. There are some youngsters fighting for a place in the team, but McAllister still doing a good job for us.
Gavin Morrison 21c Well, the big surprise this season. I gave him a chance in the first team and he delivered. What a talented guy this is! His development is good, I think he can become a very, very good player for us. I moved McAllister to the AMC position to make room for Morrison on the left wing.
Sean McLaren 20a  Very, very talented guy. A lot of big clubs in Scotland are interested in signing him. He is developing nicely. He's playing on the right wing. So there is no room foor Lidouren in our first team anymore.
Neil Kelly 20g  The best player based on the average ratings. He scored 7 goals, which is quite a lot for a DC. 
Shaun Rooney Well, a player with a story. I signed him on a free transfer, because I was desperatly in need of a right IWB. My other right IWB had a serious injury and I had no backup for him. So I checked the transfermarked if there was a player, originally from our academy, who I could sign. And so I found Rooney. He was on a free transfer, so I signed him for two years. If he wasn't originally from our academy than I didn't sign him. It was the first, and hopefully the last time that I had to sign a player.
Tim Crainey  Last but not least. One of my best players. Most assists, 16 this season, which is a new team record. Great player for us.

Youth intake
The preview this season:

So not a 'golden generation', but it sounds very promising. Let's see what the actual intake was.

I really like it!! I signed a new HoYD, Stuart Anderson, a Model Professional. He found some really good players! And it still is a golden generation, although the preview said it 'only' was a group of excellent players. 
These are the ones I like the most:

 

Some really, really nice talents here. Pawel Gawron 22a is a fantastic talent. I will use him as a back-up for Shaun Rooney. 
Lewis Ross 22c also looks like a fantastic talent. I also really like his personality.
And with Tony Sweeney 22e I finally got a new DC. I don't have many options there, so he is very welcome! Will get his chance in Cup matches soon.

Well, this is the third promotion in a row. It's amazing how things are going. I am really enjoying this save. Can't wait to see how we will do in the Premiership. Within a couple of months our stadium will be expanded:

So from 2.000 seats to 4.538 is a nice expansion. I also upgraded the youth recruitment, so this is how our facilities looks like at the moment: