The FM21 Youth Academy Challenge

[Padders]

13 minutes ago, ATW said:

2023/24 Season - Promotion!!!  

 

The League

We did it.  Promotion to the National League.  Unfortunately, couldn't go the whole time without losing - as Gateshead beat us on Match Day 35.

Previous Youth Intake

Les Sharp (22a), Welsh Keeper - A bit part player this season, playing 11 games and all cup games (3 games).  Remains with the Club

Chris Darby (22b), English Full Back - Youngester featured in 12 games this season.  Nothing much to write home about.  Hopefully pushes on

Adam Marrow (22c) - English Striker - Featured in 26 games, mostly from the bench bagging three goals this season

Mohamed Brown (22d) - English Central Player - Featured in all but 1 game this season, scoring 5 goals.  

Tai McCormick (23a) - English midfielder - Played in 44 games this season scoring 4 goals in the process

James Green (23b) - English Keeper took the no. 1 shirt and went on to win Fans Player and Club's Young Player of the Year Award.  

Elliot Reilly (23c) - Young English winger  played in 20 games.  

Douglas Watt (23d) - Young Scottish Left Back - Featured in 5 league games but spent most of the time playing U18's

Youth Intake

Denis Blake (24a) - English forward.  Looks to be a good one, unfortunately injured until November 2024.  Hopefully won't hamper him too much

Wyn Smith (24b) - Welsh Defender.  Will go straight into the first team squad

Richie Ince (24c) - English Defender - Will be part of the First Team squad.  Hopefully gets some self belief. 

Transfer

Wow one loss, superb

And a 5 star player in the intake. Stuff I can only dream of!

[ATW]

13 minutes ago, Padders said:

Wow one loss, superb

And a 5 star player in the intake. Stuff I can only dream of!

Thanks man.  Would not recommend watching what I did.  Like I said eye bleeding at times.    Was raging when I lost though, as it was the one game where I actually dominated the possession.  

A Quick Update

James Green (23b) wins Vanarama North Player of The Year.

And then followed up by winning the Manager of the Year Award

Edited August 7, 2021 by ATW

[darren1983]

South Shields 2045/46 Season Review - Premier League

 

League - With us winning the league last year my main focus was the Champions League so for this I just wanted top 4. We started OK but both Norwich and Spurs started much better and were quickly away from us, we really struggled with injuries this season and my rotating probably didn't help but going into the new year we sat 3rd and were comfortable, we then lost our best wide players in Matthew Davies 38A to a hamstring injury and then a couple games later my current fave player (his personality is why) Andrew Gent 41A to a broken leg, neither would play again in the league but from the new year we went on a 15 game unbeaten run taking us top with 5 games to go (first time we went top all season) but with 2 games to go we lost 4-3 away to lowly Ipswich meaning we needed to better Norwich's result on the final day to secure back to back to back titles. They drew 0-0 at home to Arsenal while we beat Palace 1-0 and we were champions with the lowest point total ever  

Champions League - This was my target this season and we had a odd Group Stage where we won the first 3 games before losing the next 2 and drawing the 3rd all without scoring a goal. From there Porto were next and gave us a real battle. 0-0 at home and 1-0 win away put us through to play PSG. This is where I thought our run would end as they're much better than us, we found ourselves 1-0 down after 3 minutes in the first leg when we just turned up and battered them for the rest of the game and won 4-1. The return leg had me worried as we were 2-0 down after 11 minutes, we hang on till HT and I made 3 changes and changed the formation, we grabbed the away goal I wanted from a corner before they scored again, they then scored their 4th with 20 to go meaning we were heading to ET. 2 minutes later, we bundled in a goal from another corner and I shut up shop and killed the game off. Spurs in the semi finals were tough, we again found ourselves 1 down after 3 minutes but we turned it around after the break again to win 2-1 away from home, in the return leg we held them to a 1-1 draw to make our first final. We faced Schalke in said Final and injuries meant I had to rotate a bit and the final was hardly a classic but it was an ealry goal for us which was enough to win us our first ever champions league!

FA Cup - a nice run here as aside from Leicester in the 3rd round we faced no other top flight side till Liverpool in the Final - we just didn't turn up on the day and the result should have been more comfortable for them

League Cup - Leeds beat a rotated side. Can't make the final in every cup I guess

Community Shield -Our first time in this and we had a comfortable win

Transfers - a few out for cash but mainly loans as usual

Finances - over 500m now  

Squad - The legends that they are. Couple notable guys I wanted to highlight, firstly our main man in goal Graham Hodges 39D the last 3 seasons where he's been first choice have been our best 3 seasons and having such a quality keeper is a massive help. Shout out to Mubarak Idowu 36C as well as I almost sold him in Jan to China for 30m but he turned it down, am glad he did as he broke back into the side in the 2nd half of the season and ended with 15 assists but the main man is  Mark Campbell 31A who hit 20+ league goals for the first time in 5 seasons (and 31 in all comps) he's been the key man for so long now and has 283 goals in 554 league games for us now.

Youth Intake - our best one for a while but still not great. Not that it matters now

Ross Hugill 46A - attacking player, would work as the 10 when we play 4231 or wide left when we play 433
Marc Franks 46B - another decent looking CB
Peter McDermott 46C - trained to be a winger at AMR

Career Overview

Season		League		Position	Youth Recruitment	Youth Coaching		Notes & Achievements 

2021/22		VNLN		5th 		Adequate		Adequate		First coaching badge
2022/23		VNLN		2nd 		Adequate		Good			Promoted via playoffs, FA Trophy runners up
2023/24		VNL		16th 		Average			Excellent 		2nd coaching badge
2024/25		VNL		12th 		Average			Excellent		3rd coaching badge
2025/26		VNL		6th 		Average			Excellent		Promotion via playoffs
2026/27		League Two	1st 		Good			Exceptional		Promotion as champions
2027/28		League One	11th 		Good			Exceptional
2028/29		League One	14th 		Good			Exceptional
2029/30		League One	7th 		Good			Exceptional
2030/31		League One	1st 		Good 			Exceptional		Promoted as champions. Completed all coaching badges
2031/32		Championship	18th 		Excellent		Exceptional
2032/33		Championship	8th 		Excellent		Exceptional
2033/34		Championship	7th 		Excellent		Exceptional		Training ground upgrade, Academy up level 3, new ground announced
2034/35		Championship	6th 		Excellent		Exceptional		Lost in playoff semi finals
2035/36		Championship	9th 		Excellent		Exceptional 
2036/37		Championship	11th 		Excellent		Exceptional		Moved into new stadium
2037/38		Championship	3rd 		Excellent		Exceptional		Promotion via playoffs
2038/39		Premier League	16th 		Excellent		Exceptional		Youth Academy rating from level 3 to level 2
2039/40		Premier League	7th		Excellent		Exceptional 
2040/41		Premier League	5th 		Excellent		Exceptional		Youth Academy now Cat 1
2041/42		Premier League	14th 		Excellent		Exceptional
2042/43		Premier League	8th 		Excellent		Exceptional
2043/44		Premier League	5th 		Excellent		Exceptional		Qualified for Europa League
2044/45		Premier League	1st 		Excellent		Exceptional		Premier League winners! 
2045/46		Premier League	1st		Excellent		Exceptional		Premier League winners, Champions league winners, FA Cup runners up

Player Nationalities - Just a little thing where I kept details of all nationalities that came through for me that I ended up signing

So yeah, for the first time ever I can finally say CHALLENGE COMPLETE!!!!

Edited August 7, 2021 by darren1983

[JLAB]

Congrats @darren1983

[toshimitzou1]

On 06/08/2021 at 10:59, Padders said:

Season 76 - 2096/97

Based on my progress, I can see this being a long - term save here too. My latest tactical experiment seems doomed to failure:

Eep. Even though my player's current ability is currently sub-standard, I still believe there is more I can get from them. 9 games before the relegation group kicks-off. Time for a BIG change.

Update: On 22.12.2029 I had no choice but to change things up. My attempts to nullify the opposition have come completely unstuck by a lack of Composure and Decision throughout my defensive unit. I have survived for three seasons in the top flight and I'll be damned if I am going down this time!!

So, my defenders cannot Defend Deep and are too error prone to hold a high line. Adding an extra defender into a back three only seems to have increased my weaknesses rather than harnessing any strengths within the squad.

Of course I have a weak squad, with my key players only being lower tier level at best: WTM Example

Deep Lying Forward Example:

Ignoring the poor ability, the inconsistency you can see is prevalent in 60 per cent of the First XI. In the youth ranks I do have some far more promising players with consistency present, but they need to seriously increase their CA before I can consider them.

The long and short of it is this:

• My player cannot pass 9.29 Ave (lowest in the league).
• My players cannot run Pace 10.67, Acc 10.48 (lowest in the league).
• My players struggle to create (lowest Flair 8.21 and Vision 9.53 in the league).
• My defensive unit (Defenders and three central midfielders) cannot tackle 7.72 (lowest in the league).
• They can however, WORK HARD AND MEAN IT): Determination 14.84 Ave, Teamwork 13.42, Workrate 14.47, Aggression 11.58. This can however, be something of a mixed blessing! If I have implemented a tactic that is flawed or asking too much of my players, due the these mental attributes, my players will follow my instructions without question - Yes boss, no boss, three bags full boss.

 

With all of this in mind, I have made the following assertions that I hope will see me to survival and allow progress in following seasons:

1) I cannot consistently compete with the top 8 teams in a division consisting of 14 teams - the gulf in ability is almost akin to two tiers.

2) I only need to focus on being able to beat the teams that consistently occupy the bottom six league places.

and I have made one revelation! Both of my GK's have 14 for Acceleration! Bloody 14 and mmy starter has 14 decisions to boot. How could I not have noticed this? Anyway, here he is:

How is this going to dictate my choices from here then? To date, I have been attempting to cultivate a tactical approach that could potentially be used against all league opponents with a little tweak here and there. That notion is now abandoned. I will henceforth only consider myself in competition with the bottom six teams and this will allow me to to the following:

- Implement a tactic that harnesses the mental fortitude of my players and presses from the top, safe in the knowledge that I will get obliterated by the top 8 teams due to my lack of pace, but confident aginst the weaker teams that this will encourage far more goalscoring opportunities.

- Use a Sweeper Keeper on Defend Duty. This guy is the fastest player in my squad!

- Allayed with the implementation of a Sweeper Keeper, shift to a standard defensive line at the back. Neither good at defending, fast, or slow - this seems a happy medium and will be buttressed by a fast developing Sweeper keeper, there to clean -up a dodgy offside trap!

This is what I produced:

and I am pleased to say, results finally turned in my direction: NB - Tactic changed on 22.12.2029.

As can be seen, the big boys: Panathinaikos, AEK, Aris and in my save, Xanthi, all obliterated me. But, against my 'bottom 6' opponents, we were really improving. I go into the relegation group with 7 games to play and 3 points off of guaranteed safety.

I fear not - based on the recent performances, I predict we win 3 of those 7 and clamber to safety for another season.

TBC...

Edited August 8, 2021 by toshimitzou1
Added Results Update

[libbyshuss]

8 hours ago, darren1983 said:

So yeah, for the first time ever I can finally say CHALLENGE COMPLETE!!!!

congratulations!!! England as well!

[Padders]

Superb @darren1983  Well done 😀

[libbyshuss]

 

2039/40 - Season 19

League 2 - 2nd

Season Summary

What a season! Surpassed our expectations with a second promotion!

League - I started the season a lot more confident than last time we were in league 2. I had a much better team now, albeit a much, much younger one. I was confident their talent would outweigh their inexperience enough to keep us up, and I knew we could score goals. The first match was home to Burton and we lost 5-3. We scraped a 1-0 win against Solihull Moors in the second match. In the end, those two teams would be relegated! It wasn't until the 5th game everything clicked. We had to go away to close neighbours the mighty Luton Town, and we ran out 4-1 winners. That kickstarted an amazing run of form during October, November and December where we won 10 and lost 1. Suddenly we were 2nd and looking good for promotion! The new year was a lot sketchier for us, and we had some awful results but then so did the teams around us and we were always able to just stop going into a tailspin. In the end we stumbled over the line to finish 2nd but what a performance from such a young side!

  

Cup - another disappointing season and 2nd round exit in the FA Cup, to Bristol Rovers of league 1 this time. The other cups i just played reserves because who cares, especially that one they let the stupid U23 teams play in, ruining it for everyone.

Players

So, i I knew these guys were good, especially in attack, but wasn't sure how they'd perform seeing how young the majority of them were. Average age more often than not was under 20

Christopher Agyemang 36A - Still the star but he seems to have slowed with his development. 41 goals for this season is a crazy return though, and his third season in a row with over 40 goals. He's a star, I love him. He had some offers in January, and made noises about wanting to leave, but I stared him down Daniel Levy style and he stayed. Look what he can do!

   

Low Res GIFS FTW! Plus, I'm loving this new facepack mod. 

Connor Stanley 37C - I have high hopes for this lad, I hope he meets them! January saw the board accept a 4.4m bid for him. I protested to no avail. But Stanley wasn't that bothered with moving so I offered him a new contract with us and he accepted, turning down Cardiff! Hopefully it pays off because potentially he can be much better than Agyemang. We'll see!

Best XI here:-

Midifeld is clearly the weak spot in this side, but it always is so it's much more likely a tactical issue. I'd sort it out but it's getting results at the minute and I'm scared of jinxing it! The three middies are young but with high potential. Omae Al-Salman is the most interesting just because he's a Saudi international with 14 caps already 

 

Youth

Another one of those odd previews that promised a golden generation without actually promising anything. Except another striker (!)

So I wasn't expecting too much from the intake. So I was quite pleased when it came:-

Only two 4 star prospects but in positions that I can use, and Barcham-Driver looks a real talent. Chambers, less so, his attriubtes are weak at the minute. But high finishing, technique, pace and acceleration on a striker are very nice to see. Composure and off the ball over 10 are a nice added bonus as well.

 

Finances and Upgrades

So I got a nice little bonus in August as Craig McKenzie 35A was sold. I'd have hoped for a little more but £1.7m isn't to be sneezed at. Plus, it saved me having to sell one of my youths this season, for the first time in years. Yay!!!!

So, at the end of the season the board had an announcement for me:-

Youth Category 2! Which is huge for a league 1 side. 2.77m a year for a youth set up in league 1 is completely insane though. It shoudl pay off though as hopefully I'll be getting some premier league quality youths popping through now and then. It's just a question of whether I can hold on to them or not now

Career

 

I'll be happy just surviving in League 1 but you never know, last time I tried this challenge in England with FC United we bounced right up the leagues really quickly once we got out the conference. I have no idea what to expect next season!

 

 

[Winski]

Fantastic, @darren1983!! Well done!!! Finally you are part of the Hall of Fame yourself! 

[OlivierL]

9 hours ago, darren1983 said:

South Shields 2045/46 Season Review - Premier League

 

League - With us winning the league last year my main focus was the Champions League so for this I just wanted top 4. We started OK but both Norwich and Spurs started much better and were quickly away from us, we really struggled with injuries this season and my rotating probably didn't help but going into the new year we sat 3rd and were comfortable, we then lost our best wide players in Matthew Davies 38A to a hamstring injury and then a couple games later my current fave player (his personality is why) Andrew Gent 41A to a broken leg, neither would play again in the league but from the new year we went on a 15 game unbeaten run taking us top with 5 games to go (first time we went top all season) but with 2 games to go we lost 4-3 away to lowly Ipswich meaning we needed to better Norwich's result on the final day to secure back to back to back titles. They drew 0-0 at home to Arsenal while we beat Palace 1-0 and we were champions with the lowest point total ever  

Champions League - This was my target this season and we had a odd Group Stage where we won the first 3 games before losing the next 2 and drawing the 3rd all without scoring a goal. From there Porto were next and gave us a real battle. 0-0 at home and 1-0 win away put us through to play PSG. This is where I thought our run would end as they're much better than us, we found ourselves 1-0 down after 3 minutes in the first leg when we just turned up and battered them for the rest of the game and won 4-1. The return leg had me worried as we were 2-0 down after 11 minutes, we hang on till HT and I made 3 changes and changed the formation, we grabbed the away goal I wanted from a corner before they scored again, they then scored their 4th with 20 to go meaning we were heading to ET. 2 minutes later, we bundled in a goal from another corner and I shut up shop and killed the game off. Spurs in the semi finals were tough, we again found ourselves 1 down after 3 minutes but we turned it around after the break again to win 2-1 away from home, in the return leg we held them to a 1-1 draw to make our first final. We faced Schalke in said Final and injuries meant I had to rotate a bit and the final was hardly a classic but it was an ealry goal for us which was enough to win us our first ever champions league!

FA Cup - a nice run here as aside from Leicester in the 3rd round we faced no other top flight side till Liverpool in the Final - we just didn't turn up on the day and the result should have been more comfortable for them

League Cup - Leeds beat a rotated side. Can't make the final in every cup I guess

Community Shield -Our first time in this and we had a comfortable win

Transfers - a few out for cash but mainly loans as usual

Finances - over 500m now  

Squad - The legends that they are. Couple notable guys I wanted to highlight, firstly our main man in goal Graham Hodges 39D the last 3 seasons where he's been first choice have been our best 3 seasons and having such a quality keeper is a massive help. Shout out to Mubarak Idowu 36C as well as I almost sold him in Jan to China for 30m but he turned it down, am glad he did as he broke back into the side in the 2nd half of the season and ended with 15 assists but the main man is  Mark Campbell 31A who hit 20+ league goals for the first time in 5 seasons (and 31 in all comps) he's been the key man for so long now and has 283 goals in 554 league games for us now.

Youth Intake - our best one for a while but still not great. Not that it matters now

Ross Hugill 46A - attacking player, would work as the 10 when we play 4231 or wide left when we play 433
Marc Franks 46B - another decent looking CB
Peter McDermott 46C - trained to be a winger at AMR

Career Overview

Season		League		Position	Youth Recruitment	Youth Coaching		Notes & Achievements 

2021/22		VNLN		5th 		Adequate		Adequate		First coaching badge
2022/23		VNLN		2nd 		Adequate		Good			Promoted via playoffs, FA Trophy runners up
2023/24		VNL		16th 		Average			Excellent 		2nd coaching badge
2024/25		VNL		12th 		Average			Excellent		3rd coaching badge
2025/26		VNL		6th 		Average			Excellent		Promotion via playoffs
2026/27		League Two	1st 		Good			Exceptional		Promotion as champions
2027/28		League One	11th 		Good			Exceptional
2028/29		League One	14th 		Good			Exceptional
2029/30		League One	7th 		Good			Exceptional
2030/31		League One	1st 		Good 			Exceptional		Promoted as champions. Completed all coaching badges
2031/32		Championship	18th 		Excellent		Exceptional
2032/33		Championship	8th 		Excellent		Exceptional
2033/34		Championship	7th 		Excellent		Exceptional		Training ground upgrade, Academy up level 3, new ground announced
2034/35		Championship	6th 		Excellent		Exceptional		Lost in playoff semi finals
2035/36		Championship	9th 		Excellent		Exceptional 
2036/37		Championship	11th 		Excellent		Exceptional		Moved into new stadium
2037/38		Championship	3rd 		Excellent		Exceptional		Promotion via playoffs
2038/39		Premier League	16th 		Excellent		Exceptional		Youth Academy rating from level 3 to level 2
2039/40		Premier League	7th		Excellent		Exceptional 
2040/41		Premier League	5th 		Excellent		Exceptional		Youth Academy now Cat 1
2041/42		Premier League	14th 		Excellent		Exceptional
2042/43		Premier League	8th 		Excellent		Exceptional
2043/44		Premier League	5th 		Excellent		Exceptional		Qualified for Europa League
2044/45		Premier League	1st 		Excellent		Exceptional		Premier League winners! 
2045/46		Premier League	1st		Excellent		Exceptional		Premier League winners, Champions league winners, FA Cup runners up

Player Nationalities - Just a little thing where I kept details of all nationalities that came through for me that I ended up signing

So yeah, for the first time ever I can finally say CHALLENGE COMPLETE!!!!

Great job Darren  Really good to see you in your own hall of fame

[darren1983]

10 hours ago, JLAB said:

Congrats @darren1983

 

2 hours ago, libbyshuss said:

congratulations!!! England as well!

 

1 hour ago, Padders said:

Superb @darren1983  Well done 😀

 

1 hour ago, Winski said:

Fantastic, @darren1983!! Well done!!! Finally you are part of the Hall of Fame yourself! 

 

37 minutes ago, OlivierL said:

Great job Darren  Really good to see you in your own hall of fame

Cheers guys. And yeah it's about bloody time I got in there  

Part of me fancies trying to win the world club cup as well but it's 3 or 4 seasons away  

[Padders]

32 minutes ago, darren1983 said:

 

 

 

 

Cheers guys. And yeah it's about bloody time I got in there  

Part of me fancies trying to win the world club cup as well but it's 3 or 4 seasons away  

I would have carried on with my FM20 save if FM21 wasn't being released the day after!

[XaW]

Congrats @darren1983! Finally good to see you finishing this! About time, really!

[Proffa]

Yes, well played darren1983. 

Edited August 8, 2021 by Proffa

[The7Striker]

Congrats @darren1983

[toshimitzou1]

We are looking good; played 4, W2 D1 L1. 3 games remaining, two of which are against the bottom three!

If I cannot beat Ergotelis I deserve to go down!!!

[keeper#1]

Congrats @darren1983

[toshimitzou1]

How nasty is that last game?

My direct rivals score a late equaliser and we lose the lead twice against strong opposition who blitzed me with a 424 after going one nil down. All is not yet lost; relegation play - off come!!!

Pheww! Drew both legs 0 - 0. Scraped it on pens. Season review and plan for next season to follow...

Looking at the results at the back end of the season, my attitude towards how to compete seems to be paying off: write off any chance of a result against the big boys and maintain a strong attacking impetus against those teams in and around me. Bring on next season!

Edited August 8, 2021 by toshimitzou1
Added Season Review

[hyrule_king]

23 hours ago, OlivierL said:

Looks good but can't really read it 

 

Also use the role suitability spreadsheet to help with training and playing players in the right role or position for their stats.

[hyrule_king]

17 hours ago, darren1983 said:

South Shields 2045/46 Season Review - Premier League

 

League - With us winning the league last year my main focus was the Champions League so for this I just wanted top 4. We started OK but both Norwich and Spurs started much better and were quickly away from us, we really struggled with injuries this season and my rotating probably didn't help but going into the new year we sat 3rd and were comfortable, we then lost our best wide players in Matthew Davies 38A to a hamstring injury and then a couple games later my current fave player (his personality is why) Andrew Gent 41A to a broken leg, neither would play again in the league but from the new year we went on a 15 game unbeaten run taking us top with 5 games to go (first time we went top all season) but with 2 games to go we lost 4-3 away to lowly Ipswich meaning we needed to better Norwich's result on the final day to secure back to back to back titles. They drew 0-0 at home to Arsenal while we beat Palace 1-0 and we were champions with the lowest point total ever  

Champions League - This was my target this season and we had a odd Group Stage where we won the first 3 games before losing the next 2 and drawing the 3rd all without scoring a goal. From there Porto were next and gave us a real battle. 0-0 at home and 1-0 win away put us through to play PSG. This is where I thought our run would end as they're much better than us, we found ourselves 1-0 down after 3 minutes in the first leg when we just turned up and battered them for the rest of the game and won 4-1. The return leg had me worried as we were 2-0 down after 11 minutes, we hang on till HT and I made 3 changes and changed the formation, we grabbed the away goal I wanted from a corner before they scored again, they then scored their 4th with 20 to go meaning we were heading to ET. 2 minutes later, we bundled in a goal from another corner and I shut up shop and killed the game off. Spurs in the semi finals were tough, we again found ourselves 1 down after 3 minutes but we turned it around after the break again to win 2-1 away from home, in the return leg we held them to a 1-1 draw to make our first final. We faced Schalke in said Final and injuries meant I had to rotate a bit and the final was hardly a classic but it was an ealry goal for us which was enough to win us our first ever champions league!

FA Cup - a nice run here as aside from Leicester in the 3rd round we faced no other top flight side till Liverpool in the Final - we just didn't turn up on the day and the result should have been more comfortable for them

League Cup - Leeds beat a rotated side. Can't make the final in every cup I guess

Community Shield -Our first time in this and we had a comfortable win

Transfers - a few out for cash but mainly loans as usual

Finances - over 500m now  

Squad - The legends that they are. Couple notable guys I wanted to highlight, firstly our main man in goal Graham Hodges 39D the last 3 seasons where he's been first choice have been our best 3 seasons and having such a quality keeper is a massive help. Shout out to Mubarak Idowu 36C as well as I almost sold him in Jan to China for 30m but he turned it down, am glad he did as he broke back into the side in the 2nd half of the season and ended with 15 assists but the main man is  Mark Campbell 31A who hit 20+ league goals for the first time in 5 seasons (and 31 in all comps) he's been the key man for so long now and has 283 goals in 554 league games for us now.

Youth Intake - our best one for a while but still not great. Not that it matters now

Ross Hugill 46A - attacking player, would work as the 10 when we play 4231 or wide left when we play 433
Marc Franks 46B - another decent looking CB
Peter McDermott 46C - trained to be a winger at AMR

Career Overview

Season		League		Position	Youth Recruitment	Youth Coaching		Notes & Achievements 

2021/22		VNLN		5th 		Adequate		Adequate		First coaching badge
2022/23		VNLN		2nd 		Adequate		Good			Promoted via playoffs, FA Trophy runners up
2023/24		VNL		16th 		Average			Excellent 		2nd coaching badge
2024/25		VNL		12th 		Average			Excellent		3rd coaching badge
2025/26		VNL		6th 		Average			Excellent		Promotion via playoffs
2026/27		League Two	1st 		Good			Exceptional		Promotion as champions
2027/28		League One	11th 		Good			Exceptional
2028/29		League One	14th 		Good			Exceptional
2029/30		League One	7th 		Good			Exceptional
2030/31		League One	1st 		Good 			Exceptional		Promoted as champions. Completed all coaching badges
2031/32		Championship	18th 		Excellent		Exceptional
2032/33		Championship	8th 		Excellent		Exceptional
2033/34		Championship	7th 		Excellent		Exceptional		Training ground upgrade, Academy up level 3, new ground announced
2034/35		Championship	6th 		Excellent		Exceptional		Lost in playoff semi finals
2035/36		Championship	9th 		Excellent		Exceptional 
2036/37		Championship	11th 		Excellent		Exceptional		Moved into new stadium
2037/38		Championship	3rd 		Excellent		Exceptional		Promotion via playoffs
2038/39		Premier League	16th 		Excellent		Exceptional		Youth Academy rating from level 3 to level 2
2039/40		Premier League	7th		Excellent		Exceptional 
2040/41		Premier League	5th 		Excellent		Exceptional		Youth Academy now Cat 1
2041/42		Premier League	14th 		Excellent		Exceptional
2042/43		Premier League	8th 		Excellent		Exceptional
2043/44		Premier League	5th 		Excellent		Exceptional		Qualified for Europa League
2044/45		Premier League	1st 		Excellent		Exceptional		Premier League winners! 
2045/46		Premier League	1st		Excellent		Exceptional		Premier League winners, Champions league winners, FA Cup runners up

Player Nationalities - Just a little thing where I kept details of all nationalities that came through for me that I ended up signing

So yeah, for the first time ever I can finally say CHALLENGE COMPLETE!!!!

Well Done!!!! Fair Play for sticking it out.

[ATW]

congrats @darren1983

2024 / 25 Half Point Update 

The League

Not going as badly as I feared it would tbh.  Nowhere near good enough to challenge for the promotion spaces.  Got the smallest wage bill in the league with £173K p/a compared to the very rich in the league who have closer to £2m than £1m.  Although FC Fylde is one of them and they sit 24th.

Youth Intake Preview

[JAwtunes]

Congrats @darren1983 

Does this mean you will run the thread for us again next season?

[darren1983]

3 hours ago, XaW said:

Congrats @darren1983! Finally good to see you finishing this! About time, really!

Haha yeah it's taken longer than I thought when I started trying it all those years ago  

15 minutes ago, JAwtunes said:

Congrats @darren1983 

Does this mean you will run the thread for us again next season?

The chances have improved yes  

[hyrule_king]

2 minutes ago, KevMacRae said:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2569620796

 

[KevMacRae]

 

1st attempt at this and 1st time managing in Czech Republic. 

[KevMacRae]

10 minutes ago, KevMacRae said:

 

Couldnt find it in the rules but had 2 player in on loan when I took over. Terminated the loans on day 1, makes things a little more difficult ha

[The7Striker]

This is not a free for all  

[dkouv]

Congrats @darren1983, fantastic stuff! )) Don't forget to add yourself to the Hall of Fame will you

[ATW]

22 hours ago, Padders said:

Wow one loss, superb

And a 5 star player in the intake. Stuff I can only dream of!

Remember that 5 star recruit...  

 

[KevMacRae]

2 hours ago, KevMacRae said:

Couldnt find it in the rules but had 2 player in on loan when I took over. Terminated the loans on day 1, makes things a little more difficult ha

Question, this team had 2 agreed transfers prior to me taking charge. Is that the luck of the draw or do I need to reload and get another team that don't have future transfers agreed?

[ATW]

3 minutes ago, KevMacRae said:

Question, this team had 2 agreed transfers prior to me taking charge. Is that the luck of the draw or do I need to reload and get another team that don't have future transfers agreed?

if you can cancel, then you should cancel.  If not then they are fair game - up to you if you use them or not.  

[hyrule_king]

[Padders]

1 hour ago, ATW said:

Remember that 5 star recruit...  

 

Oh no what a nightmare! 

[OlivierL]

4 hours ago, hyrule_king said:

 

Also use the role suitability spreadsheet to help with training and playing players in the right role or position for their stats.

Love it, u know my spreadsheets but i have seen things now, that i never used before  thanks

[Padders]

1 hour ago, ATW said:

Remember that 5 star recruit...  

 

How is he looking now? Stats wise?

[Padders]

Happens every year. Just waiting for the bad run. Sat top just before this, then go on a run of not winning a league game in 7!

[ATW]

13 minutes ago, Padders said:

How is he looking now? Stats wise?

He missed the first 3 months through injury he picked up on the Youth intake friendly.  TBF he hasn't been that much of a standout, but that might be my tactics doing that to him.  I'm lucky to get him for 3 games at a time before he needs time off.  

[Padders]

15 minutes ago, ATW said:

He missed the first 3 months through injury he picked up on the Youth intake friendly.  TBF he hasn't been that much of a standout, but that might be my tactics doing that to him.  I'm lucky to get him for 3 games at a time before he needs time off.  

Not a superstar yet.

Any clubs linked with him?

 

[JAwtunes]

Looks like my strategy of selecting the 2nd from top response in all press conferences (rather than actually taking the time to read the questions/answers) needs to change!

[KevMacRae]

Felt like I needed a club with no transfers incoming so after several reloads I'm in Poland to start the challenge with the mighty Olimpia Grudziadz.

[JAwtunes]

4 minutes ago, KevMacRae said:

Felt like I needed a club with no transfers incoming so after several reloads I'm in Poland to start the challenge with the mighty Olimpia Grudziadz.

Hope you enjoy it!

I had a fun save in Poland, so much so that I decided to use my favorite newgen on that save as my manager in Slovakia. GL

[dkouv]

Xerez – Season 2 (2022/23)

Segunda Division B Grupo IV After a 4th placed finish, my last review said something about being sure not to be in a relegation battle in the year ahead. Sure enough, we started the season in absolutely shocking form, getting tonked 4-1, 3-0 and 4-1 in 3 out of our first 4 games (the other being a late comeback to salvage a 3-3 draw). It didn’t improve much until we scarped a couple of results against some the other bottom sides in the division, which started off a good run that took us out of the relegation zone. A mad 5-4 loss, where we were 4-1 up at half time and 4-3 up until the 88th minute saw our form collapse again, but the bottom sides were terrible so couldn't catch up, and we scraped together a few results at the business end of the season to finish a respectable 11th.

Players: Lots of the senior players from last season just stopped performing full stop, so I had to throw in quite a few youngsters. The only ones that really shone were the Xavi-esque newgens without a surname Miquel 01d and Sebas 01f, who scored 17 and 16 goals respectively and are developing nicely, so it looks like we have some good attacking options on our hands.

 

Youth intake: I was excited by the preview promising a golden generation of defenders, but in the end I got a load of centre midfielders which is the only position where we still have good senior players. Sigh… So more excitement is sure to follow next season as our defence gets worse with some contracts expiring, but our attack gets better as the youngsters develop. Juan Pedro Espinar 02a does look like a very good prospect, but since he has 2 surnames instead of none I'm not sure I can put that much faith in him.

   

Facilities: no upgrades

Transfers: no ins or outs

Season    |  League             | Pos. |     Europe     |   Best player                 |  Notes
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2021/22   | Segunda B Grupo IV  |  4   |     n/a        |  Lolo Garrido (AMC)           |
2022/23   | Segunda B Grupo IV  |  11  |     n/a        |  Miquel 01d (AMC)             |

Facilities
----------
Season    |  Coaching     |  Recruitment      | Training Fac.  | Youth Fac.    |  Stadium
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2021/22   |  Fairly basic |  Fairly basic     | Adequate       |  Adequate     |  800
2021/22   |  Fairly basic |  Fairly basic     | Adequate       |  Adequate     |  800

 

[ATW]

17 minutes ago, Padders said:

Not a superstar yet.

Any clubs linked with him?

 

Far from it.  And nope, not a single one.   He still has next season on his youth contract, so he might either a) change his mind or b) net me something.  

2024/25 Season - Midtable You Say

The League and Cups

Well we ended midtable, although between match day 30-36 we looked like we could maybe push for the last playoff spot, but in the end I am happy with where we see ourselves.  Can we push on next season? 

As for the FA Cup, I managed to get to the first round proper for the first time in my career.  It went as well as I expected as Sunderland smashed us 3-1.  Although highlight was my wife telling me to be quiet as I celebrated taking the lead after 5 minutes 

The FA Phase, was meh, losing in the 3rd Round again.  

Previous Youth Players

Les Sharp (22a), Welsh GK - Playing backup to James Green (23b).  Featured in 4 games this season, signed a new contract to be the Cup Keeper - then requested to leave right after signing.  Will see what happens

Chris Darby (22b), English Full back - Featured twice.  Has been told his contract will not be renewed at the end of the season.

Adam Marrow (22c), English striker - Featured 10 times for the Club and has now been told he will be a free transfer at the end of June 

Mohamed Brown (22d), Australian Utility man - Featured 45 times this season, starting 25 of them.  Could be the only "one to watch" players to be in the side next season

Tai McCormick (23a), English Central Midfield - Played 34 games, starting 32 of them.  Solid and one I hope continues to grow.

James Green (23b), English GK - What a player he has been.  Second season and without a shadow of a doubt the No.1.  Featured 45 times with an avg of 7.20.  

Elliot Reilly (23c), English Winger - Played 45 times, starting 20 scoring 4 goals.  Solid season from the youngster

Douglas Watt (23d), Scottish Left Back - Played 27 times but has got his work cut out for him to keep his place next season.  

Denis Blake (24a), English Attacker - My 5* recruit who thinks he's too good for us.  Played 34 times, scoring 3 goals

Wyn Smith (24b), Welsh Full Back - Solid first season, playing 39 times for the Club.  

Richie Ince (24c), English Centre Back - Not the greatest season.  Could not really break into the team but he could still make it out of this.  Played twice. 

2025 Youth Intake

Eddie Roberts (25a) - English Right Wingback - 15 year old youngster will likely spend most of the time with the youth next season.  Will train with the seniors though

David Daramy (25b), Sierra Leonean Winger - Moved to the first team but will play for the U18's

Transfer

 

[Padders]

Season 79 - 2099/00

What a disappointing season!

Sitting top just after Christmas then the form after that was absolutely dreadful! If you look at the historical league position graph, just dropped further and further down the table after Christmas. Nothing short of embarrassing

Won 3 of the last 16 league games

Also lost in Final of JPT to Hull 1-2

Youth Level dropped from 2 to 4. Never seen it drop two levels! Can't improve it as have no money!

In a real rut at the moment 

 

Edited August 9, 2021 by Padders

[Muttley84]

1 hour ago, Padders said:

 

79 seasons! That is some dedication! Congrats and hang in there, I am sure things will pick up soon enough!

[Padders]

49 minutes ago, Muttley84 said:

79 seasons! That is some dedication! Congrats and hang in there, I am sure things will pick up soon enough!

Cheers, fingers crossed

[Winski]

Okay, this is getting absurd. In the Third Round of the DFB-Pokal we faced RB Leipzig. And we won again!!! And again it was Kimmo Hovi who became the hero of the evening. He scored a magnificent free-kick!

 

And again we gained a lot of money, appr. € 1.2M in total.

In the Qtr Final we face Bayern München at home. I think that our fairytale-story will end up there, but who knows?!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Muttley84]

After toying around reading some stuff on this part of the forum and reloading across a shortlist of countries to see what comes up, I have finally decided to take part in the FM21 Youth Academy Challenge as the last save in this iteration of the game. I was left with a shortlist of two German clubs (Alemannia Aachen and Rot-Weiss Essen), a Swiss club (AC Bellinzona) and a Greek club (Pansseraikos). The deciding criteria was represented by the possibility of buying a jersey of that team (I always do that for immersion) and therefore, I will be starting this with Alemannia Aachen. The club is pretty decent, with a 30k stadium, Good training, youth and corporate facilities, Average academy coaching and Adequate youth recruitment.

Now I am pretty sure that I saw around the 150 pages of this thread someone else playing with them, but can not recall who it was and how far it got. Introducing therefore the manager of the club, Mr. Karl der Grosse (bonus points for those of you who get the reference). The expectations are not that high, Club culture is Strive to make progress on and off the pitch, while the 5-years plan is to Work within wage budget and Fight bravely against relegation. The wage budget is around 2.2M (which may seem high but considering that around 80% of the squad is having their contracts expiring in 2 weeks time, might not be enough). We do have a good number and spread of players both in the First Team Squad (Part 1 and Part 2) and in the Reserves.

One thing which is very important for this challenge is that I am playing this on FM21 Touch. That will surely come with great consequences, starting from the Staff we have at the club (just one member for each position), and most surely continuing with the reduced number of players we get in intakes (simulations show an average of 4-5 players per intake for formations promoted from Regionalliga in the first year). Also, training and mentoring is much simplified in Touch. On the other hand, I might have some advantages in the reduced number of players and media interactions, reducing the amount of moaning and nonsense talking to a minimum. Hoping for a fun career, not sure I will get to the end of it (heck, not even sure I will reach Bundesliga). At least I should stay at the club until the Aachen jersey gets delivered . 

[Winski]

We had no chance. But it was a wonderful campaign!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[OlivierL]

48 minutes ago, Muttley84 said:

After toying around reading some stuff on this part of the forum and reloading across a shortlist of countries to see what comes up, I have finally decided to take part in the FM21 Youth Academy Challenge as the last save in this iteration of the game. I was left with a shortlist of two German clubs (Alemannia Aachen and Rot-Weiss Essen), a Swiss club (AC Bellinzona) and a Greek club (Pansseraikos). The deciding criteria was represented by the possibility of buying a jersey of that team (I always do that for immersion) and therefore, I will be starting this with Alemannia Aachen. The club is pretty decent, with a 30k stadium, Good training, youth and corporate facilities, Average academy coaching and Adequate youth recruitment.

Now I am pretty sure that I saw around the 150 pages of this thread someone else playing with them, but can not recall who it was and how far it got. Introducing therefore the manager of the club, Mr. Karl der Grosse (bonus points for those of you who get the reference). The expectations are not that high, Club culture is Strive to make progress on and off the pitch, while the 5-years plan is to Work within wage budget and Fight bravely against relegation. The wage budget is around 2.2M (which may seem high but considering that around 80% of the squad is having their contracts expiring in 2 weeks time, might not be enough). We do have a good number and spread of players both in the First Team Squad (Part 1 and Part 2) and in the Reserves.

One thing which is very important for this challenge is that I am playing this on FM21 Touch. That will surely come with great consequences, starting from the Staff we have at the club (just one member for each position), and most surely continuing with the reduced number of players we get in intakes (simulations show an average of 4-5 players per intake for formations promoted from Regionalliga in the first year). Also, training and mentoring is much simplified in Touch. On the other hand, I might have some advantages in the reduced number of players and media interactions, reducing the amount of moaning and nonsense talking to a minimum. Hoping for a fun career, not sure I will get to the end of it (heck, not even sure I will reach Bundesliga). At least I should stay at the club until the Aachen jersey gets delivered . 

Good luck and great choice ! You can bring Aachen tot the Bundesliga, i'll take RW Essen (and Winski Viktoria)   Germany is supposed to best the fastest way to complete this challenge but on this FM , nobody did it in Germany, must be a reason.. we will find out soon  

Edited August 9, 2021 by OlivierL