The FM21 Youth Academy Challenge

[weepube]

Well looks like my 15 year old goalkeeper is getting thrown in the deep end current experienced keeper has no intention of staying as he was bombed off for all of last season no matter how much I beg he is off! 

[Steveh171]

Stourbridge FC

I've decided to go for a bit different to the other vanarama saves. I've gone with a relatively local team of Stourbridge FC. An area I drive through to my other halves parents. It was a toss up between these and Redditch united, or two town centres that consist of having a massive ring road around them. However I've opted to go for the "Glass Boys" due to the nickname being much better than "The Reds".  Heres my Profile. Transfer In/Out

The team is a shambles really. I have 2 AI generated players in a goalkeeper and left back. One first team centre half, a centre mid that can play centre half so is now doing so. We have about 1 player in the rest of the attacking positions. After reviewing the U23s I've managed to promote a wopping 5 players taking the total first team up to a grand total 16 players. I essentially have no defence, and a reasonable attack for this level. Therefore the my target this year is to finish in 20th position, and cling on playing my youth take can give me a defence of any sorts. Not that will help, as we have poor youth recruitment and poor junior coaching so I think this will be a farcry from some of my colleagues in here's newgens.

So what's the story so far? Well after an exceptionally strong start I thought we were going to **** the league. We played Vanarama stalwarts gateheads on the opening day and smashed them 5-1. going 5-0 up in the first half. We then had a miraculous comeback in our next game from 2-0 down away at curzon ashton to finish 3-2. After 5 games we were top of the league and I was thinking surely we're not going to do this?

Reality has since set in and since that miraculous run at the start we've been found out. Our record since that time is 2W 4D 8L. My initial counterattacking 4-4-2 has had the goals dry up as teams have figured out that a long ball over the top from virtually anywhere, regardless of how deep i play my defensive line, will result in a goal. We seem to have an ability to pick up wins against top teams and really struggle when teams ask us to come on to them. A side effect of this being that when we do come on to teams our average pace of 6 between our back 4 is quickly undone.

I'm hoping I can figure out this conundrum and not be a flash in the pan. I'm just praying I can hold until the intake.

Edited November 24, 2020 by Steveh171
images were massive

[hubwub]

@darren1983 The league reset date for China is December 27, 2021. It's possible for three teams to get into China League One, you can holiday up to November 1, 2021 to see who wins the playoff between China League One team vs. China League Two team.

SS: 12/25/2021 | 12/27/2021

 

Edited November 24, 2020 by hubwub

[hubwub]

Zhejiang Yiteng F.C. - 2021/2022 Season

CLUB PROFILE | GENERAL | FACILITIES | HONOURS | CLUB VISION | FINANCES

MANAGER PROFILE: CHARACTERISTICS | ATTRIBUTES

Upon my hiring , it seems like the club is predicted to finish 12th. The looming problem before the season even starts is that we do not satisfy FFP, if you take a look at the club finances.

[Snabel]

[benrollo]

2032 & 2033 Season Updates

Overview

Progress! After our 8th place finish in 2031, we followed it up with another 8th place in 2032. We finished with more points and a bigger cushion back to the relegation places, and on top of that we didn't lose any big players to transfers. I felt good about 2033, and I was right - we stormed to a 3rd place finish, and earned ourselves a little European adventure in the Euro Cup II. I say 'stormed', we actually could have finished anywhere from 2nd to 8th going into the last round of games. A tight one!

We did end up selling one big player towards the end of the 2033 season, as Soufiane Boukhriss 31-1 left to join Napoli (yep, them AGAIN). We're basically their feeder club at this point.

We did have a player win an end of season award, as Guttorm Kvale 30-4 picked up the Norwegian Young Player of the Year. Of course, he now thinks he should be playing at a bigger club. Come on mate, we're going to be playing away in some Moldovan back garden next year!

I don't expect us to do much in Europe, but hopefully we can make a few quid on our journey. In the league, we're still a mid table side for the most part. If we can go another season without selling anyone decent I'll feel pretty good about our chances.

Players

Departures and past players
 

Spoiler

 

Lars Erik Bergum Hansen is still with Djurgardens, and doing alright. He got 12 goals in 2032, but just 1 in 17 games in 2033. Might be time for him to find his 6th club.

Erik Fjeldstad left Sweden after what seemed to be a 5 year holiday. Not a single game for Malmo! He's now in Iceland and not really doing much. We'll stop tracking him after this update.

Lars Woien Sto is still with Stromsgodset, and hasn't really done much despite still looking like a handy player. Stromsgodset got relegated last season, so maybe he'll find his feet in the First Division. He's only managed 61 league appearances since leaving us 5 years ago, and 26 of those were on loan to a Romanian second division team.

Christian Kvitblik is having a pretty decent career. Still with Valarenga, he's a member of the first team squad.

Sander Gronlien is still with Spurs, and has managed to appear in 15 Premier League games, which is pretty impressive. A value of £10.5m and wage of £21.5k a week ain't too shabby either.

Hakon Nielsen has been loaned out to Perugia from Napoli, and hopefully he develops into a first teamer when he returns - we're in line for some decent pay days if he gets games and goals for Napoli!

Soufiane Boukhriss went to Napoli for £1.9m, with the possibility of another £3m if he plays 10 games for them. He's got one appearance off the bench already.

 

Key Graduates

Spoiler

 

The graduate classes are getting more top-heavy, with the overall quality of the classes dropping as we improve as a squad. The lads at the top do look impressive though, with Sondre Dahl 33-1 and Elliott Vose 34-1 looking like great prospects. Vose might be knocking on the door of the first team squad already!

Cool to see a few Englishmen coming through the academy now, a testament to the superior recruitment we have. Simon Wiseman from the last class is developing really well, and managed 13 appearances off the bench last season.

 

Top Performers

As mentioned above, Guttorm Kvale was really good for us last season. Fredriksen continues to be really solid between the sticks, and Kim Eriksen at right back is a good looking player.

I thought it would be a good idea to show off my strongest 11 in all their glory. We still have a few weak spots, but we're getting there.

GK - August Fredriksen (2027 Academy Class, #3 Prospect, 132 Apps, 140 Conceded, 6.93 AvRat)

RB - Kim Eriksen (2030 Academy Class, #1 Prospect, 92 Apps, 2 Goals, 6.73 AvRat)

CB - Rune Brekke (2030 Academy Class, #2 Prospect, 76 Apps, 0 Goals, 6.98 AvRat)

CB - Nils Magnus Fallet (2030 Academy Class, #5 Prospect, 23 Apps, 0 Goals, 6.97 AvRat)

LB - Aubert Bendiksen (2026 Academy Class, #4 Prospect, 116 Apps, 0 Goals, 6.74 AvRat)

CM - Reidar Lauritzen-Nerbovik (2028 Academy Class, #3 Prospect, 25 Apps, 6.67 AvRat)

CM - Oystein Olsen (2025 Academy Class, #14 Prospect, 202 Apps, 10 Goals, 6.89 AvRat)

AML - Johannes Heir Solbakken (2027 Academy Class, #1 Prospect, 142 Apps, 30 Goals, 6.81 AvRat)

AMC - Jesper Pettersson (2027 Academy Class, #5 Prospect, 144 Apps, 23 Goals, 6.82 AvRat)

AMR - Floyd Rolsasen (2027 Academy Class, #2 Prospect, 127 Apps, 13 Goals, 6.88 AvRat)

ST - Guttorm Kvale (2030 Academy Class, #4 Prospect, 78 Apps, 35 Goals, 7.06 AvRat)

Facilities and Finance

The stadium is complete! We moved into the 3,406 seater Elverum Stadium a few weeks ago, ahead of the 2034 season. Would be great if we could get a decent bump to attendance this year to try and claw back some of our losses!

I did manage to convince the board to upgrade the youth facilities again, which cost £1.6m and pretty much wiped out our profit from the Boukhriss sale. It should serve us well down the road though!

Finance wise, we're going to still be relying on selling one player for decent money each season to get back into the black. We've got a couple of nice transfer clauses that have a slim chance of coming in, which would really help us out to the tune of about £5m all in!

On the qualifications front, I'm now as qualified as possible with my Continental Pro License. Here's my history.

 

[Braumiller]

Has anyone started a Wales or Ireland attempt yet?

I tried to start a Wales game last night after the game went full release and hitting a potential bug (reported it last night, no acknowledgement yet) or maybe I am just missing something simple.

I get to the season summary to pick a promoted team after the holiday year and can become their manager.  The club info shows they are semi-professional, but the only contracts I can offer are non-contracts.  I cannot offer part time deals and tie up players and start losing players with other teams offering them deals.

To test, I took over another established team in that division and they can offer their players part time deals.

 

Anyone successfully started a Wales save?

Or anyone see what I am hoping is a simple mistake / miss on my part?

[keeper#1]

South Shields November 1, 2023 Update

A couple of rough games on the road against some of the "bigger" teams in the National League.  Bolton are really struggling this season in the mid-table.  Got revenge on Witton, who knocked us out of the FA Trophy last season, by knocking them out of the FA Cup.  We played Guiseley in the 1st round in November.

I really need some better personalities in my older players.

[darren1983]

Finally got some free time to sink my teeth into my Kingstionian save over next week or so which should be good. Have hired this guy for HOYD 100% for his personality right now and have this legend (?) waiting a work permit to become our GK coach.

[Winski]

3 hours ago, Winski said:

I wanted to start a youth only in Holland, but I think they disabled the relegation from the Keuken Kampioen Divisie. I holidayed for one year and nobody relegated/promoted from the Tweede Divisie. IRL you cannot relegate from the KKD in the next three seasons. I will holiday for two more seasons, to check if it's possible then.

Well, if  you holiday for three seasons, you can start a youth only save in Holland! The reset date is 6-07-2024, so save a couple of weeks before and then holiday until the 6th of July to get a different club. Maybe @darren1983can change this in the OP?

Edited November 24, 2020 by Winski

[darren1983]

6 minutes ago, Winski said:

Well, if  you holiday for three seasons, you can start a youth only save in Holland! The reset date is 6-07-2024, so save a couple of weeks before and then holiday until the 6th of July to get a different club. Maybe @darren1983can change this in the OP?

Cheers, I'll change that now. 

[jmonfu]

Do you guys know if the "contract" issue for the Free Transferred players has been fixed?  The one where you cannot extend the player's contract if his value is 0?  Have not started a new game yet.

[Braumiller]

12 minutes ago, jmonfu said:

Do you guys know if the "contract" issue for the Free Transferred players has been fixed?  The one where you cannot extend the player's contract if his value is 0?  Have not started a new game yet.

That might explain what I am running into as my underlying issue

I entered a bug report last night, waiting on an SI reply - 

 

My Argentine save felt a little too advanced of a start to what I prefer and was looking to go to the other extreme

 

[Atrux]

For some reason Stafford does not want to grace me with getting promoted. Will try another hour and a half and hope they finally show up.

[OlivierL]

15 hours ago, JLAB said:

Alright, found 5 different teams from 5 different countries that's caught my interest. 

Germany - Sportfreunde Lotte - Predicted to finish in 16th, are projected to make a profit of £2.31M a year, meaning that I could increase their facilities easily enough, they've never gotten higher than 3. Liga. Their wage budget is only £64K a week.

France - Le Puy Foot 43 Auvergne  - Predicted to finish in 11th, are projected to make a loss of £720K a year, and they have a small budget of just £20K a week. They've never made it out of the Championnat National.

England - FC United - Predicted to finish 19th, are projected to make a profit of £232K a year, and not enough to cover upgrades to facilities. A club founded over the Glazer's takerover of Manchester United, they've never made it out of the National League North. They have just £5K to spend on wages and will need to get 5 promotions instead of the 2 that is required in Germany, France and Italy. 

Italy - Siena - Predicted to finish in 16th, are projected to make a profit of £2.99M, a team that was in Serie A in 2012 and had to file bankruptcy in 2020 just 6 years after it had originally refounded in 2014. They have a wage budget of £32K a week, of which they are only spending £16K at the moment. Taking them back to the Serie A would make this side be something that their fans who have had to go through 2 resurrections in less than a decade.

Spain - Real Jaen - Predicted to finish in 9th, are projected to make a loss of £2.27M. A side last in La Liga back in 1958, the years have not been kind to this team having spent the last 4 seasons in the 4th tier of Spanish football. They have a wage budget of £67K, a stadium of 12,569 seats, and adequate facilities all round, with their average academy coaching being the only thing standing out from there. The finances are a scary sight, but they will be needing a promotion sooner rather than later. 

Will admit, that I'm leaning towards Siena at the moment, but I'll make a decision after a night's rest. 

What did u decide ? i'm still doubting :o 

[Gbrexiton]

[Crayam99x]

1 hour ago, Braumiller said:

Has anyone started a Wales or Ireland attempt yet?

I tried to start a Wales game last night after the game went full release and hitting a potential bug (reported it last night, no acknowledgement yet) or maybe I am just missing something simple.

I get to the season summary to pick a promoted team after the holiday year and can become their manager.  The club info shows they are semi-professional, but the only contracts I can offer are non-contracts.  I cannot offer part time deals and tie up players and start losing players with other teams offering them deals.

To test, I took over another established team in that division and they can offer their players part time deals.

 

Anyone successfully started a Wales save?

Or anyone see what I am hoping is a simple mistake / miss on my part?

Pretty sure that is how it has worked for all recent FM games. Remember that amateur clubs can't offer non-contracts. So you are semi-pro, but because of finances and/or player demand and/or team reputation stuck at offering non-contract deals. To cheese the game you can offer non-contract deals with an end of season future start date. You can do this on the first screen you get when offering a contract. I'm in Northern Ireland doing this challenge, in 2025 and still have what you're describing.

And... spoiler about my save game:

Spoiler

I'm doing pretty well with it. Sitting 1st in the 2nd tier with only a handful of games left. Only lost 1 important player and 1 trash player at the start of this season.

 

[OlivierL]

19 minutes ago, Gbrexiton said:

Where did u find this ? or own calculations  ? Njarovikur is own of my potential saves. my other isn't included

[JLAB]

8 minutes ago, OlivierL said:

Where did u find this ? or own calculations  ? Njarovikur is own of my potential saves. my other isn't included

You can find that information in the FM Editor I would assume? Correct me if I'm wrong there Gbrexiton.

31 minutes ago, OlivierL said:

What did u decide ? i'm still doubting :o 

I've chosen my team, I'm gonna make a post in a bit.

Edited November 24, 2020 by JLAB

[OlivierL]

4 minutes ago, JLAB said:

You can find that in the FM Editor I would assume? Correct me if I'm wrong there Gbrexiton.

I've chosen my team, I'm gonna make a post in a bit.

Yes i know where to find it,but did u find the list online or created this yourself ? good work. would be great if their was a list from every country :o  

How did u calculate the youth importance ? in the editor it is listed from 0 to 20 .

Good luck with your team, i think i found my team .. it wasn't on my list. 

Edited November 24, 2020 by OlivierL

[Gbrexiton]

16 minutes ago, JLAB said:

You can find that information in the FM Editor I would assume? Correct me if I'm wrong there Gbrexiton.

I've chosen my team, I'm gonna make a post in a bit.

I looked in the editor and picked the club that I thought was best for each country. 

Edited November 24, 2020 by Gbrexiton

[thomas_e]

Sacachispas FC 

Season Summary 2022 - 2023

Great first season in the top tier!

 

After our promotion last season the media tipped us for relegation with a 901,00 odds to win the league (the second "worst" team had 401,00). We ended up surprising everybody, building on last seasons good form and finished 4th! That means we are already qualified for the Copa Libertadores after two seasons in charge! 

The relegation system in Argentina is based on average points over the last three seasons. Combined with this the league is also going through a re-structuering process, reducing the number of teams each season (I dont know when it ends). 

I feared before the season that we would struggle in the bottom, but right from the start we played some decent football. We lost our first game and drew the next one, but after that we lost only one in the next seven. A bit of a rough patch followed, but we got consistently better for each month, tweaking the tactic here and there to suit the team. The quality difference between the 2nd and 1st tier in Argentina isn't that big, except Boca, who are way beyond everyone else. They lost only 5 games all season, luckily one of them were against us on the final day of the season when we beat them 1-0. 

Coming into the final stretch of the season we were in a Copa Libertadores spot, but with a tough fixture list ahead! In a great team effort we managed to win 5 out of our last 6 games, which included a 3-3 draw away to River Plate, where we were 3-0 up at one point! This secured a very strong 4th finish and hopefully this will help our dreadful finances! Unfortunately the Copa Libertadores group stage doesn't start until the veryh end of the domestic league season so any money is months away still! 

Last year we struggled a bit with our strikers not scoring enough goals and our top scorer finished with 10 goals. This year was totally different and Bissene up front finished as the leagues top scorer with 27 goals! 

I will start to include some more youngsters into the first team next season and hopefully this will help their development. Our HOYD retired now after the end of the season and even though he's only been with us for two seasons I have to say he's done a great job! 

Our best player at the start of the save, Diego Auzqui, has now turned 33 and he's attributes have declined rapidly. He doesn't seem to see that himself though and with his contract expiring next month I am not willing to offer him a new deal as the best paid player in the club. 

I don't expect us to finish in a Copa Libertadores spot again next season, but I am at least confident we will stay in the league. 

 

Season Summary

          

 

Key Players

          

 

Key Talents

          

 

 

 

[Braumiller]

1 hour ago, Crayam99x said:

Pretty sure that is how it has worked for all recent FM games. Remember that amateur clubs can't offer non-contracts. So you are semi-pro, but because of finances and/or player demand and/or team reputation stuck at offering non-contract deals. To cheese the game you can offer non-contract deals with an end of season future start date. You can do this on the first screen you get when offering a contract. I'm in Northern Ireland doing this challenge, in 2025 and still have what you're describing.

Yep, looks like you are correct

Did a little searching back through last years thread and read through @Cookie147's excellent Brickfield Rangers adventure.  They are actually the club I am looking to play (they are based in Wrexham, so we want to beat Deadpool into Europe  ), so I think I may just go for it and see if I can make it through the no contract madness......

[JLAB]

ACN Siena 1904 - 2021/22 Season Preview

Having taken the evening to think about my options and look through the teams that had caught my interest, I decided that the club with the history of Siena was going to be my pick. Why? They've gone bankrupted twice in the last decade, once in 2014 and most recently in 2020. Meaning that this reincarnation of the club is only a single season old, which in itself provides a unique opportunity to created history with a club that already has a lot of it. With the club having been in Serie A from 2003 all the way to 2010 before they got relegated and bounced back to the Serie A on the first time of asking. They stayed up for another year before they got relegated again in 2013, just one year before the club was forced to go bankrupted in 2014.

The club reformed in Serie D where they won the E league in their first season, but they never managed to escape from Serie C before they found themselves going bankrupted again in 2020. They had one season in Serie D again and got themselves promoted back to Serie C on the first time of asking for the second time. With the club expected to finish in 16th place (just above the relegation zone), their staff's contracts expiring on the day of my appointment and more than a handful of players' contracts expiring just 8 days after my appointment, the first order of business will be to ensure that the players sign new contracts and to build the backroom staff up from scratch if the staff decide to leave. 

Manager Profile

Spoiler

Club Vision

Spoiler

At least with the club I don't have to worry about any major ambitions like getting promoted in my first season or even getting a top half finish. I can see us struggling to get into the top half of the table with the fact that two of our best players are players on loan that will be leaving for their parent clubs as soon as we go forward a day. Not ideal, but what can you do? Just as long as we don't get relegated or I don't get sacked, things could be going rather well for us as far as I am concerned.

Facilities

Spoiler

I suppose in one way our facilities being as poor as they are, outside of the stadium size, means that we are not spending as much money which will keep us going for a long while. However, given that we have so many local rivals, it also means that we are likely to struggling to get a lot of really impressive youth intakes into the team. I am blessed with some good financial power and some good young players as well, so perhaps it won't be as big of an issue as I'm making it out to be, especially if we can upgrade the facilities sooner rather than later.

Finances and Financial Projection

Spoiler

 

 

Speaking of finances, we are expecting to be making quite a bit of money by the end of the season, with the profits consistently staying around £2.9M every single season so far. This can very easily change, but given how much transfer budget we're already getting, I can see myself being able to tweak the wage budget sooner rather than later. With a wage budget of £32K being available and we're not even spending half of it at the moment, I'm almost certain we can keep our best players attracted to the financial side of things, especially given that some of our players are already being paid over £1K a week.

Sponsorship Income

Spoiler

We are also blessed with the fact that we have the best sponsorship income in the league as well. It's not something to be upset about, but I also know that this could go very badly, very quickly if we are relying on the sponsorship income to get us by every single season. That just feels like a mess waiting to happen.

 

Edited November 24, 2020 by JLAB

[Cheez3y]

Looks like the first sacking is coming....

Edited November 24, 2020 by Cheez3y

[OlivierL]

6 minutes ago, JLAB said:

ACN Siena 1904 - 2021/22 Season Preview

Having taken the evening to think about my options and look through the teams that had caught my interest, I decided that the club with the history of Siena was going to be my pick. Why? They've gone bankrupted twice in the last decade, once in 2014 and most recently in 2020. Meaning that this reincarnation of the club is only a single season old, which in itself provides a unique opportunity to created history with a club that already has a lot of it. With the club having been in Serie A from 2003 all the way to 2010 before they got relegated and bounced back to the Serie A on the first time of asking. They stayed up for another year before they got relegated again in 2013, just one year before the club was forced to go bankrupted in 2014.

The club reformed in Serie D where they won the E league in their first season, but they never managed to escape from Serie C before they found themselves going bankrupted again in 2020. They had one season in Serie D again and got themselves promoted back to Serie C on the first time of asking for the second time. With the club expected to finish in 16th place (just above the relegation zone), their staff's contracts expiring on the day of my appointment and more than a handful of players' contracts expiring just 8 days after my appointment, the first order of business will be to ensure that the players sign new contracts and to build the backroom staff up from scratch if the staff decide to leave. 

Manager Profile

  Reveal hidden contents

At least with the club I don't have to worry about any major ambitions like getting promoted in my first season or even getting a top half finish. I can see us struggling to get into the top half of the table with the fact that two of our best players are players on loan that will be leaving for their parent clubs as soon as we go forward a day. Not ideal, but what can you do? Just as long as we don't get relegated or I don't get sacked, things could be going rather well for us as far as I am concerned.

I suppose in one way our facilities being as poor as they are, outside of the stadium size, means that we are not spending as much money which will keep us going for a long while. However, given that we have so many local rivals, it also means that we are likely to struggling to get a lot of really impressive youth intakes into the team. I am blessed with some good financial power and some good young players as well, so perhaps it won't be as big of an issue as I'm making it out to be, especially if we can upgrade the facilities sooner rather than later.

 

Speaking of finances, we are expecting to be making quite a bit of money by the end of the season, with the profits consistently staying around £2.9M every single season so far. This can very easily change, but given how much transfer budget we're already getting, I can see myself being able to tweak the wage budget sooner rather than later. With a wage budget of £32K being available and we're not even spending half of it at the moment, I'm almost certain we can keep our best players attracted to the financial side of things, especially given that some of our players are already being paid over £1K a week.

We are also blessed with the fact that we have the best sponsorship income in the league as well. It's not something to be upset about, but I also know that this could go very badly, very quickly if we are relying on the sponsorship income to get us by every single season. That just feels like a mess waiting to happen.

 

Good luck , great club and history ! 

Your finances look ok. how many players can u use ?

[Anners]

On 18/11/2020 at 18:26, Anners said:

This will be my first proper go - I had a flirtation last year, but didn't feel too committed. I didn't want to step on any toes and start in Scotland, so a trip to the south of France is in order. Had to head somewhere with a personal connection, so a trip to Canet just outside Perpignan is where I'm heading!

 

 

  Reveal hidden contents

Canet start with a fairly deep squad before their youth intake, so this is what I'm working with:

 

  Reveal hidden contents

We are predicted to finish 16th overall, but I've got a reasonable amount of depth at the club so we'll see how it goes!

 

Right, let's try this again with French Cup involvement!
 

Spoiler

The squad is slightly different, as the manager signed a couple different players before I took over. Last time I had great strength in depth on the wings and this has somehow got better?

The youth intake that I missed wasn't too impressive:

Spoiler

Let's try again!

[Crayam99x]

9 minutes ago, Braumiller said:

Yep, looks like you are correct

Did a little searching back through last years thread and read through @Cookie147's excellent Brickfield Rangers adventure.  They are actually the club I am looking to play (they are based in Wrexham, so we want to beat Deadpool into Europe  ), so I think I may just go for it and see if I can make it through the no contract madness......

Yeah it's quite unfortunate. Make sure to use the future contract agree date if you want to keep any good players. I'll let you know when I can start offering real part-time deals to players.

[Crayam99x]

Have you guys had your saves impacted by the change from Beta to official? I feel like my tactic is a lot worse and I can't do team talks properly anymore. Other than that no bugs so far.

[DazRTaylor]

16 minutes ago, Braumiller said:

Yep, looks like you are correct

Did a little searching back through last years thread and read through @Cookie147's excellent Brickfield Rangers adventure.  They are actually the club I am looking to play (they are based in Wrexham, so we want to beat Deadpool into Europe  ), so I think I may just go for it and see if I can make it through the no contract madness......

One way to bypass it, albeit temporarily, is to offer non contract terms but put a start date at the end of the season during contract negotiations.  This way, if they accept, they won't get poached at all during that season.

[JLAB]

19 minutes ago, OlivierL said:

Good luck , great club and history ! 

Your finances look ok. how many players can u use ?

We've got about 25 players in the main team, but 10 of them have contracts that expires in 8 days time. We do have a further 9 players in the under 20s team though.

[Wavelberry]

Managed to sign lower league stalwart of many a FM career Ian Simpemba as ma Assistant...

[Cheez3y]

 

...and sacked.

Time to delete the tactic I used in the beta.

[Motlhen]

Hey guys, looking to start this with the full release now but looks like any of the non-contract players that are transfer listed are permanently stuck that way, has everyone else experienced the same thing? None will start contract negotiations due to being transfer listed & inevitably move on before the season starts. There doesn't seem to be an option to change their transfer status either (which applies for all non-contract players).

I was going to start as Enfield Town (closest club to where I'm from) but I've had to opt for Truro simply because they had the most players!

Edited November 24, 2020 by Motlhen

[Winski]

I'm going to give it a try in my own country! Let's see if I can get AFC promoted to the Eredivisie. Although Amsterdam is by far the biggest city in Holland, the only professional football club from Amsterdam is ofcourse Ajax. But now AFC is promoted to the Keuken Kampioen Divisie, Amsterdam finally get their second professional football club. Let's make AFC the biggest club from Amsterdam!

This is my profile.

Let's have some fun!

 

[Shankly84]

Someone posted on here earlier that it's pretty easy to win the league in a country like Iceland. Well I must be awful at this game. 9 seasons in and I don't feel any closer than the 2nd season. I can't improve the facilities because we have been in debt since day 1. We are up and down from year to year and I seem to get the best intake player being a right winger every season. This is gonna be some slog.

 

I will keep going though. Suppose it will feel all the better when I do get there!

[OlivierL]

Just now, Shankly84 said:

Someone posted on here earlier that it's pretty easy to win the league in a country like Iceland. Well I must be awful at this game. 9 seasons in and I don't feel any closer than the 2nd season. I can't improve the facilities because we have been in debt since day 1. We are up and down from year to year and I seem to get the best intake player being a right winger every season. This is gonna be some slog.

 

I will keep going though. Suppose it will feel all the better when I do get there!

Yes i found it was easy but only after 6 seasons

Good luck, u'll win it soon !

[jmonfu]

36 minutes ago, Motlhen said:

Hey guys, looking to start this with the full release now but looks like any of the non-contract players that are transfer listed are permanently stuck that way, has everyone else experienced the same thing? None will start contract negotiations due to being transfer listed & inevitably move on before the season starts. There doesn't seem to be an option to change their transfer status either (which applies for all non-contract players).

I was going to start as Enfield Town (closest club to where I'm from) but I've had to opt for Truro simply because they had the most players!

Was not possible in the Beta too, lost 4 players like that with Lokeren.  So I guess this bug has not been fixed

[XaW]

21 minutes ago, Shankly84 said:

Someone posted on here earlier that it's pretty easy to win the league in a country like Iceland. Well I must be awful at this game. 9 seasons in and I don't feel any closer than the 2nd season. I can't improve the facilities because we have been in debt since day 1. We are up and down from year to year and I seem to get the best intake player being a right winger every season. This is gonna be some slog.

 

I will keep going though. Suppose it will feel all the better when I do get there!

I think it's more "easiER" rather than "easy"

[Crayam99x]

23 minutes ago, Shankly84 said:

Someone posted on here earlier that it's pretty easy to win the league in a country like Iceland. Well I must be awful at this game. 9 seasons in and I don't feel any closer than the 2nd season. I can't improve the facilities because we have been in debt since day 1. We are up and down from year to year and I seem to get the best intake player being a right winger every season. This is gonna be some slog.

 

I will keep going though. Suppose it will feel all the better when I do get there!

I may have been that guy . Which team you choose definitely has an impact. I feel it's important you have the finances to improve junior coaching and youth recruitment. Facilities can come later. What I would mainly see as easy is that if you survive season 1, you most likely will end up becoming champions of the country, even if it takes 10-20 seasons. I feel that's more so the case in Wales or Northern Ireland than in England or Spain.

[Shankly84]

Just now, Crayam99x said:

I may have been that guy . Which team you choose definitely has an impact. I feel it's important you have the finances to improve junior coaching and youth recruitment. Facilities can come later. What I would mainly see as easy is that if you survive season 1, you most likely will end up becoming champions of the country, even if it takes 10-20 seasons. I feel that's more so the case in Wales or Northern Ireland than in England or Spain.

To be honest, I won the cup in the first season and thought the top league would be a doddle. Let's just say, it's starting to frustrate me!

[Gundo]

What kind of tactics do people tend to use in the initial seasons of their saves?  More generally, not detailed ... more cautious or positive?

Edited November 24, 2020 by Gundo

[Crayam99x]

2 hours ago, Braumiller said:

Yep, looks like you are correct

Did a little searching back through last years thread and read through @Cookie147's excellent Brickfield Rangers adventure.  They are actually the club I am looking to play (they are based in Wrexham, so we want to beat Deadpool into Europe  ), so I think I may just go for it and see if I can make it through the no contract madness......

2 hours ago, Crayam99x said:

Yeah it's quite unfortunate. Make sure to use the future contract agree date if you want to keep any good players. I'll let you know when I can start offering real part-time deals to players.

As promised to tell you, I have the option for the first time ever to offer real part-time deals. Wage budget is 1370 euros a week and I'm promoted to the top tier. I have 300 per week spent with more than 1000 open. Reputation is still 0.5 star, local. Minimal wage I can offer players is 20 a week. I can tie players down to 4 years + 3 year optional now. (so 7 years total, 8 if you agree a to have the contract start at the end of the season I guess). Non-contracts are still possible for the below average players in my team.

Thought this might be useful to you and other players to plan for the future.

[OlivierL]

U.E. Sant Andreu - 4th tier - Segunda División - Intro

Database | Manager | Club info | Club vision | Facilities | Finances | Squad | Youth 21

Intro

I doubted between Njarvik (Iceland - great facilities) and several other countries / teams. I did Iceland last year so now I will start in Spain. At the beta they always started with few or no real players. Now it wasn't that bad so I gave it a chance. Why Sant Andreu? I am in love with the city of Barcelona and I have been there many times on a city trip. I have seen this stadium a few years ago (outside) and it seems fun to play with a smaller club in Barcelona , and get newgens from Barcelona. The story behind the club , their badge, the colours and their nickname do Catalonia all honour !

Los Cuatribarrados literally means 'four bands' , referring to the 4 orange/red bands on the catalan flag and on their shirt. Sant Andreu claims this shirt and these colours. When Barcelona released an away shirt with these colours some time ago, the fans of Sant Andreu couldn't really laugh about it. Sant Andreu played a total of 11 seasons in La Liga 2 (2nd tier). The last time in 1976-1977

I start with 21 players (  8 real players - 4 older fake players - 9 youth players from first intake). I gave the fake and youth newgens a better face. Three transfers (one loan and two future transfers) were not finished yet, so i canceled them.

History

Spoiler

The Unió Esportiva Sant Andreu is one of the most representative and historically important sports organisations in Catalonia. This recognition is not only expressed by sporting merits, but also by its composition as an organisation closely linked to the evolution of its neighbourhood, socially committed and with unbeatable values.

 

The courage, determination and effort characteristic of the entity is a fan of all those who have been linked to the Sant Andreu Sports Union for many years.

 

The arrival at Sant Andreu de Palomar of a large colony of Scotsmen to work in the area's spinning industry meant the introduction of football to the neighbourhood and the first steps of what would become the origin of the Sant Andreu Sports Union.

The practice of this sport grew in popularity and importance, and in 1909 a group of Andreuencs created Club Z (Zeta), which later became known as Andreuenc Club de Futbol. This club, with some divisions, merged and changed by the slightest, has continued and has been in existence for more than 100 years now, and is now the Unió Esportiva Sant Andreu.

The dictatership of General Franco led to the elimination of the colours of the senyera and the shield of the samarreta of the Unió Esportiva Sant Andreu by the Francoist management board, which had been responsible for the creation of the entity named by the Federació Espanyola de Futbol in 1939.

 Unio Esportiva Sant Andreu, 110 years old this year, are known for their very active fan groups that travel the country in huge numbers following their team. Their ultras group promote anti-racist and anti-sexist values, and work to make their club inclusive and welcoming for all. The club are also celebrated for their work in the community, and wear the logo of Open Arms, the migrant rescue ship sailing in the Mediterranean, on their shirt to promote awareness of the NGO. 

UE Sants are one of the most historic clubs in the land, boasting over five thousand registered members in the 1920s. They regularly competed with the country’s best teams at the turn of the 20th century, amassing hundreds of trophies. They even called Barca’s Camp Nou their home for a period, when they came agonizingly close to reaching the second division in the 1960s.

Facilities

Barcelona , Espaynol and Sant Andreu are the biggest clubs in Barcelona.

Narcis Sala - 6557 seats with synthetic pitch . Training facilities : adequate |Youth facilities : Below average | Junior Coaching : Fairly basic |Youth recruitment : Adequate

Key Players

 

Youth intake 2021 - Best of the class

 

 

 

Edited November 25, 2020 by OlivierL

[thomas_e]

5 hours ago, Braumiller said:

My Argentine save felt a little too advanced of a start to what I prefer and was looking to go to the other extreme

Too bad, I was enjoying the fact that I had company in Argentina!

[thomas_e]

1 hour ago, Gundo said:

What kind of tactics do people tend to use in the initial seasons of their saves?  More generally, not detailed ... more cautious or positive?

The FM21 engine does seem to favor attacking tactics, but besides that i would say to keep it simple. 

The quality of the players at the start of the save is usually really low and probably not suited for a tiki-taka/posession/high risk style of play. You end up losing posession in key areas of the pitch. 

I would also say that exploiting the strengths of your team is very important in lower leagues. A fast striker/wingers, physical attributtes and set piece quality are all areas to gain an advantage. 

Edited November 24, 2020 by thomas_e

[Braumiller]

8 minutes ago, thomas_e said:

Too bad, I was enjoying the fact that I had company in Argentina!

I haven't completely written them off

A lot will depend on how my potential Wales adventure starts tonight after work and a reapplication of the name fix......

[darren1983]

43 minutes ago, OlivierL said:

U.E. Sant Andreu - 4th tier - Segunda División - Intro

Database | Manager | Club info | Club vision | Facilities | Finances | Squad | Youth 21

Intro

I doubted between Njarvik (Iceland - great facilities) and several other countries / teams. I did Iceland last year so now I will start in Spain. At the beta they always started with few or no real players. Now it wasn't that bad so I gave it a chance. Why Sant Andreu? I am in love with the city of Barcelona and I have been there many times on a city trip. I have seen this stadium a few years ago (outside) and it seems fun to play with a smaller club in Barcelona , and get newgens from Barcelona. The story behind the club , their badge, the colours and their nickname do Catalonia all honour !

Los Cuatribarrados literally means 'four bands' , referring to the 4 orange/red bands on the catalan flag and on their shirt. Sant Andreu claims this shirt and these colours. When Barcelona released a second shirt with these colours some time ago, the fans of Sant Andreu couldn't really laugh about it. Sant Andreu played a total of 11 seasons in La Liga 2 (2nd tier). The last time in 1976-1977

I start with 21 players (  8 real players - 4 older fake players - 9 youth players from first intake). I gave the fake and youth newgens a better face. Three transfers (one loan and two future transfers) were not finished yet, so i canceled them.

History

  Reveal hidden contents

The Unió Esportiva Sant Andreu is one of the most representative and historically important sports organisations in Catalonia. This recognition is not only expressed by sporting merits, but also by its composition as an organisation closely linked to the evolution of its neighbourhood, socially committed and with unbeatable values.

 

The courage, determination and effort characteristic of the entity is a fan of all those who have been linked to the Sant Andreu Sports Union for many years.

 

The arrival at Sant Andreu de Palomar of a large colony of Scotsmen to work in the area's spinning industry meant the introduction of football to the neighbourhood and the first steps of what would become the origin of the Sant Andreu Sports Union.

The practice of this sport grew in popularity and importance, and in 1909 a group of Andreuencs created Club Z (Zeta), which later became known as Andreuenc Club de Futbol. This club, with some divisions, merged and changed by the slightest, has continued and has been in existence for more than 100 years now, and is now the Unió Esportiva Sant Andreu.

The dictatership of General Franco led to the elimination of the colours of the senyera and the shield of the samarreta of the Unió Esportiva Sant Andreu by the Francoist management board, which had been responsible for the creation of the entity named by the Federació Espanyola de Futbol in 1939.

 Unio Esportiva Sant Andreu, 110 years old this year, are known for their very active fan groups that travel the country in huge numbers following their team. Their ultras group promote anti-racist and anti-sexist values, and work to make their club inclusive and welcoming for all. The club are also celebrated for their work in the community, and wear the logo of Open Arms, the migrant rescue ship sailing in the Mediterranean, on their shirt to promote awareness of the NGO. 

UE Sants are one of the most historic clubs in the land, boasting over five thousand registered members in the 1920s. They regularly competed with the country’s best teams at the turn of the 20th century, amassing hundreds of trophies. They even called Barca’s Camp Nou their home for a period, when they came agonizingly close to reaching the second division in the 1960s.

Facilities

Barcelona , Espaynol and Sant Andreu are the biggest clubs in Barcelona.

Narcis Sala - 6557 seats with synthetic pitch . Training facilities : adequate |Youth facilities : Below average | Junior Coaching : Fairly basic |Youth recruitment : Adequate

Key Players

 

Youth intake 2021 - Best of the class

 

 

 

Best of luck, they were someone I was thinking of when I was coming up with sides before the game came out, love the idea of, in my head at least, beating Barcelona with a home grown 11. 

[OlivierL]

2 minutes ago, darren1983 said:

Best of luck, they were someone I was thinking of when I was coming up with sides before the game came out, love the idea of, in my head at least, beating Barcelona with a home grown 11. 

Thank you . i hope that the finances won't kill us but i'm going for it .

[Diego D10S]

            

Changed my mind again  Moving to Toronto in the italien riviera  

Time to play. GL ALL !!