The FM21 Youth Academy Challenge

[Winski]

 

I’m going to give this challenge a go again, this time in Germany. I had a great Journeyman-save recently, where I ended up at Hertha BSC. I enjoyed playing in Germany and that was the trigger for me to start a youth only save in Germany. And with the last Winter Update the rules have been changed: you can now play youth players when they are 16 years old. Before the Update you had to wait until their 17^th birthday. For some people this was a reason to not start a youth only save in Germany. Maybe this can help them to try this challenge in Germany.

I had to reload many, many, many times to get the team I wanted to play with: Berliner FC Dynamo, or BFC Dynamo. They are one of the most successful teams in East German Football. They won the East German Football League for ten consecutive times, between 1979 and 1988.

They had a very famous and successful youth academy during the East German era. So that’s something I want to achieve as well within my save. This is my profile at the start of the save.

I love their kits. I think they are just beautiful.

This is the club overview at the beginning:

 And the facilities:

They are playing in the “Friedrich-Ludwig-Jahn-Sportpark” with a capacity of 17.541. The stadium was located directly near the Berlin Wall.

 

It will be a tough challenge, because we only got 19 players at the club. Two of them won’t sign a new deal, so I’ll start the season with 17 players. Wish me luck…

Let’s go!

 

[hyrule_king]

Fingers Crossed

 

[JAwtunes]

2 hours ago, vikeologist said:

One thing I've noticed is that a few of my players' personalities have changed from resolute to Professional.

I've always thought that Resolute was the 4th best personality (after MC, MP and Perf) but Professional has priority over it. Actually loads of personalities have priority over it. 

I don't know why it's happening though. Is it that their professionalism has increased to 18 (desired) or their temperament has reached 10 (which to be fair would also be ok).

The point is that by any definition, a Professional personality is better than Resolute, unless I'm missing something.

I had a Model Citizen from my second intake (i think) drop to Resolute.  I mourned for him that day!

[hyrule_king]

Not too shabby, not exactly a golden generation but we will see.

 

 

[hyrule_king]

This youth prospect has come on leaps and bounds in the past 6 months. Now my Number 1 CM.

 

 

[Morpheus13]

Goalkeeper is nice, we need one, but definitely not in need of another attacking midfielder and wing backs. All in all this looks average

[XaW]

        

Miðvágs Bóltfelag - Season 2023 Review

Table | Squad | Transfers | Finances

The difference between the 4th and 3rd tier in the Faroe Islands is as small as you'd expect. We won the league, and with quite some distance as well. So next season we are going to play mainly against first teams instead of the 2nd, 3rd, or even 4th teams we have played so far.

In the Løgmanssteypið we lost to FC Hoyvik in the 1st round.

For the first time we had a very good intake! The improvements to coaching and recruitment have had an effect!

Statistics:

Spoiler

I thought I'd add this again, since I really enjoy it!  More foreign South American countries than European are quite surprising...

[XaW]

Argh!

[hyrule_king]

SEASON 3 REVIEW

SOBRADO (Portugal)

I am seeing an improvement year on year. The quality of youth intake is clearly stronger than previous 2 years which is good too see, exciting times ahead.

Having started the season with no win in 10 , to finish 5th is a very good show of character, I switched from my 424 to my 5212 gung ho tactic and it made such a difference.

Season

League

Position

Cup

Europe

Top Scorer

Top Assists

Best Average Rating

Training Facilities

Junior Coaching

Youth Facilities

Youth Recruitment

Avg. Attendance

Season Tickets

Transfer Budget

Wages

21/22

CdeP

8TH

1st

-

8

7

Ricardo Pinto -7.04

Below Average

Fairly Basic

Poor

Basic

538

243

£927,000.00

£20,000.00

21/23

CdeP

8TH

3rd

-

Pena - 12

Silva - 5

Luis Oliveira - 7.04 (GK)

Below Average

Fairly Basic

Poor

Basic

475

266

£963,000.00

£20,560.00

21/24

CdeP

5th

1st

-

Pena - 12

Migas and Luis Costa - 5

Pena - 7.10

Below Average

Fairly Basic

Poor

Basic

651

268

£796,000.00

£9,178.00

 

 

[Marazola]

First intake here at Rouen.

It's a shocking one, not gonna lie.

[vikeologist]

3 hours ago, JAwtunes said:

I had a Model Citizen from my second intake (i think) drop to Resolute.  I mourned for him that day!

Well, that definitely is a drop. When a new arrival has a great personality it can be hard to keep them out of a mentoring group for years. Even if it says the estimated effect on himwill be none, I don;t believe it.

[vikeologist]

11 minutes ago, Marazola said:

First intake here at Rouen.

It's a shocking one, not gonna lie.

 

You never like your intakes. Ok, this one does look quite bad, especially if it's the first intake. I mean, you usually get about half the intake with 5 stars. No doubt about it, this is shocking and you're responsible for the trauma you've caused to everyone who's read it.

Anyway, I wanted to ask about your sacking; what expectations did you set for your board and players?

I always go for the lowest expectations. I mean, this season I expect to at the very least be challenging for promotion, but to the players I'm all like, 'be brave, my little lambs, and do your feeble best to stave off the inevitable doom of relegation.'

I just don't see any benefit in higher expectations.

Edited March 5, 2021 by vikeologist

[Marazola]

Just now, vikeologist said:

You never like your intakes. Ok, this one does loom quite bad, especially if it's the first intake. I mean, you usually get about half the intake with 5 stars. No doubt about it, this is shocking and you're responsible for the trauma you've caused to everyone who's read it.

I use attributes to judge, not stars.

[Marazola]

1 minute ago, vikeologist said:

You never like your intakes. Ok, this one does loom quite bad, especially if it's the first intake. I mean, you usually get about half the intake with 5 stars. No doubt about it, this is shocking and you're responsible for the trauma you've caused to everyone who's read it.

Anyway, I wanted to ask about your sacking; what expectations did you set for your board and players?

I always go for the lowest expectations. I mean, this season I expect to at the very least be challenging for promotion, but to the players I'm all like, 'be brave, my little lambs, and do your feeble best to stave off the inevitable doom of relegation.'

I just don't see any benefit in higher expectations.

Oh sorry I missed the second part.

The lowest expectation was top half. I couldn't set it any lower, which annoyed me.

[vikeologist]

Just now, Marazola said:

I use attributes to judge, not stars.

Attributes related to their role? All the attributes? A universal cross-section like 'Die Maschine?'

Die Maschine - a Football Manager 2021 Philosophy - jamiektaylor

I do a spreadsheet with attributes (role and latterly die maschine) every couple of seasons, but it takes ages, and I'm not sure in the long term has proved to be that much more informative than my admittedly dodgy coaches' JCA/PAs. 

It is however a 2nd (and 3rd) opinion.

My HoYD has shocking JCA/PA attributes, so it is useful.

[Marazola]

1 minute ago, vikeologist said:

Attributes related to their role? All the attributes? A universal cross-section like 'Die Maschine?'

Die Maschine - a Football Manager 2021 Philosophy - jamiektaylor

I do a spreadsheet with attributes (role and latterly die maschine) every couple of seasons, but it takes ages, and I'm not sure in the long term has proved to be that much more informative than my admittedly dodgy coaches' JCA/PAs. 

It is however a 2nd (and 3rd) opinion.

My HoYD has shocking JCA/PA attributes, so it is useful.

I signed the players anyways but my top rated guy in the intake had stats around 5 or 6 in what he needs. I've never been good with development anyways but with poor facilities that makes it even tougher.

I really do not think he's good enough.

[vikeologist]

5 minutes ago, Marazola said:

Oh sorry I missed the second part.

The lowest expectation was top half. I couldn't set it any lower, which annoyed me.

So, I think we're missing some information. I thought (and I see now that's wrong) that you were sacked for only finishing 2nd, but it was the following season. How many matches had you played, and what position were you in? Sorry for trying to force you to revisit your trauma, but in my defence, I am a sociopath.

[Marazola]

Just now, vikeologist said:

So, I think we're missing some information. I thought (and I see now that's wrong) that you were sacked for only finishing 2nd, but it was the following season. How many matches had you played, and what position were you in? Sorry for trying to force you to revisit your trauma, but in my defence, I am a sociopath.

We were in relegation zone, which makes sense to be honest, but I am just a bit livid they didn't give a club legend a bit more time.

We dropped down to Europa league and made it out of our group, but that wasn't enough to let me have more time. They set an ultimatum and we didn't meet it. 

We were predicted to finish bottom.

[Marazola]

I have a question: Are we allowed to holiday a year and take over a newly promoted side within the same save but a different year than 2021? It looks like I won't survive relegation with Rouen unfortunately, if it comes to that I rather remain in the same save. But if not possible I'll start over.

[vikeologist]

1 minute ago, Marazola said:

I have a question: Are we allowed to holiday a year and take over a newly promoted side within the same save but a different year than 2021? It looks like I won't survive relegation with Rouen unfortunately, if it comes to that I rather remain in the same save. But if not possible I'll start over.

I know @darren1983 said recently that's ok, as long as it's a team that was originally unplayable. So if a league (playable)  side was relegated the first year, and then promoted the year after, you can't manage them. 

[Marazola]

Rouen relegated, so I started again within the same save.

We go again.

[JAwtunes]

25 minutes ago, vikeologist said:

Attributes related to their role? All the attributes? A universal cross-section like 'Die Maschine?'

Die Maschine - a Football Manager 2021 Philosophy - jamiektaylor

I do a spreadsheet with attributes (role and latterly die maschine) every couple of seasons, but it takes ages, and I'm not sure in the long term has proved to be that much more informative than my admittedly dodgy coaches' JCA/PAs. 

It is however a 2nd (and 3rd) opinion.

My HoYD has shocking JCA/PA attributes, so it is useful.

That link is really interesting - think I might add that to my spreadsheet.  Just out of interest, when you say it takes ages... you're not manually adding attributes to a spreadsheet are you?

[vikeologist]

3 minutes ago, JAwtunes said:

That link is really interesting - think I might add that to my spreadsheet.  Just out of interest, when you say it takes ages... you're not manually adding attributes to a spreadsheet are you?

No, but I'm sure I'm wasting loads of time. I have sheets for the 6 positions I use plus the die maschine, and then I have to do the formula, hide columns, change the font size and sort by value. 

And then I look at it for about 5 seconds. 

Really I need to stop ponsing about with the formatting and just do the 5 seconds thing.

[Brentmeister]

Someone has already probably thought of this, but in case they haven't; a little tip for people re-loading. If you load up the Indonesian league with your other chosen leagues, you can start from mid June 2021 meaning you have zero to holiday, I hope this is allowed. (shouldn't be a problem rules wise?)

 

You can then just disable the league. Depending on how slow your computer is this could save you days!

[Brentmeister]

2 hours ago, vikeologist said:

I always go for the lowest expectations. I mean, this season I expect to at the very least be challenging for promotion, but to the players I'm all like, 'be brave, my little lambs, and do your feeble best to stave off the inevitable doom of relegation.'

I just don't see any benefit in higher expectations.

Does that not cause morale to plummet?

[vikeologist]

7 minutes ago, Brentmeister said:

Does that not cause morale to plummet?

relegation battle is what they expect. morale is fine.

[Brentmeister]

1 minute ago, vikeologist said:

relegation battle is what they expect. morale is fine.

I see I'm the same.

I thought you meant if the board or media had you challenging for promotion, you'd still say expect a relegation battle!

[XaW]

         

Miðvágs Bóltfelag - Season 2024 Review

Table | Squad | Transfers | Finances

Now that we are playing against mainly actual first teams, the level of football is a bit harder than before. So we didn't get another promotion, but we still put up a tough fight and finished in a very decent 4th place. A bit annoyingly, we lost one of our best players before the season, and he even went to a team in the tier below! Grumble grumble grumble...

In the Løgmanssteypið we beat Hoyvik before losing to Suðuroy in the 2nd round.

The intakes are getting better, and we got a very exciting player this year.

Statistics:

Spoiler

Got Slovakia done now.

[karax268]

First season in spain. 

I have 13 players. They all are running on fumes because they have to play everything. And 2nd division teams come sniffing around for my 20 yr old ST who is the only one of the bunch that actually performs.

 

Fun times lol

 

First seasons in  these challenges are tough

[ravenation]

So my star player and topscorer refused to sign a new contract so i had to sell him in january to at least get some money out of it.

He decided to find a bigger club in highly profiled number 7 in Scottish league Ross County (not even sure how they had 14 million euro - but they had - so we have to avoid the drop with out him :-(

Thought everything would be excellent as son we reached the PL - but now it seems like it will be a fight to keep the good players

Edited March 5, 2021 by ravenation

[OlivierL]

10 hours ago, vikeologist said:

One thing I've noticed is that a few of my players' personalities have changed from resolute to Professional.

I've always thought that Resolute was the 4th best personality (after MC, MP and Perf) but Professional has priority over it. Actually loads of personalities have priority over it. 

I don't know why it's happening though. Is it that their professionalism has increased to 18 (desired) or their temperament has reached 10 (which to be fair would also be ok).

The point is that by any definition, a Professional personality is better than Resolute, unless I'm missing something.

Resolute has 15-17 determination . Maybe they increased their determination and went Prof (Prof has 1-20 determination) ?

[OlivierL]

edit

Edited March 5, 2021 by OlivierL

[Winski]

 

The first half of the season went very well! Way above expectations. With a 5th place after 22 matches we can be very happy. And with a bit of luck in the second half of the league and we can finish even higher!
We only got 17 players, so when someone get injured or banned, we need to improvise. I can't wait until Intake Day, because we finally got some more players.

The youth intake preview is okay, nothing more then that. Just as expected, because our facilities etc are very low.  We hired Fabian Fritsche as our HoYD, mainly because of his personality(Spirited). Hopefully he can bring in some promising youngsters with nice personalities.

[JAwtunes]

11 minutes ago, Winski said:

 

The first half of the season went very well! Way above expectations. With a 5th place after 22 matches we can be very happy. And with a bit of luck in the second half of the league and we can finish even higher!
We only got 17 players, so when someone get injured or banned, we need to improvise. I can't wait until Intake Day, because we finally got some more players.

The youth intake preview is okay, nothing more then that. Just as expected, because our facilities etc are very low.  We hired Fabian Fritsche as our HoYD, mainly because of his personality(Spirited). Hopefully he can bring in some promising youngsters with nice personalities.

Assistant Manager "This is a very poor crop of players, unfortunately".

You

Edited March 5, 2021 by JAwtunes

[OlivierL]

@vikeologist it happened !

 

[Winski]

10 minutes ago, JAwtunes said:

Assistant Manager "This is a very poor crop of players, unfortunately".

You

I signed one of my favorite players ever as my assistant, so I will never ever fire him

Edited March 5, 2021 by Winski

[JAwtunes]

1 minute ago, Winski said:

I signed one of my favorite players ever as my assistant, so I will never ever fire him

What a player he was!

[hyrule_king]

Think this Portuguese save could be one of my classic fm saves. So many of the 1st year youth intake now coming through to the first team. I got rid of 4 of our first teamers from the first two seasons to allow more game time for some of the youth players. Class of '21 you might say when fergie got rid of kanchelskis, parker, hughes and ince.

[djsterry]

Not sure I got the golden generation I was promised 

 

lets see how they  develop but the stats are pretty shocking on most of them

[XaW]

          

Miðvágs Bóltfelag - Season 2025 Review

Table | Squad | Transfers | Finances

We are finally at the top! Well, at least the top tier in the Faroe Islands, but still. Now, the quest for the national title can really begin.

In the Løgmanssteypið we lost to Royn in the 1st round.

Another solid intake, but we really need some better staff to help out with the personalities. It is hard though, as I currently only have 1 new HoYD who wants to join me and he is even worse!

Statistics:

Spoiler

No new countries here.

[OrToDaRy282]

Meet the new manager of GKS Katowice in Poland.

[keeper#1]

Farnborough January 1, 2030 Update

We are starting to look like a real football team out there.  They are starting to play as a team and it is showing in the results.  Still a negative goal difference but it's not a double digit negative goal difference.

Shots per game are still the worst in the league but they have improved from a low of just over six shots perr game.  Defense is just average which is an improvement over last season.  More shots will improve the xG as well.

First time that Nieland has been named Manager of the Month.

Even with losing a player to Coleraine, we still look to have a top intake come in the spring.

[Deicide]

Hey guys curious to know how some of you more experienced guys would train these players as I'm bad at the game and not sure I'm doing the most for their development:

 

https://gyazo.com/1c80b3a8ccf6fee438eba4d129d76bd1

Cant decide if i should train him as a CWB-A or a RP-S with additional focus on attacking movement. I'm planning on taking advantage of his versatility but I'll mainly be using him as a winger.

 

https://gyazo.com/9eb070853dc402c334d4058d966c915e

Currently training him as a CWB-A with additional focus on his crossing. Another versatile player that I'm planning to use as either a CWB or a winger with bad crossing but with exceptional flair.

 

https://gyazo.com/e45046550628a72d0f28ac09314c2d30

Currently training him as a CW-A with additional focus on crossing. A winger that cant cross. Any suggestions if I could do anything different to improve him?

 

https://gyazo.com/e0e303096141612f04a16b3dcd57aaa7

Bonus. The youth intake preview did not mention any goalkeepers coming through, but I'm more than happy that he's come in as he's even better than my now former starting keeper!

 

Also, would it be beneficial to set their training to double intensity?

 

 

Edited March 6, 2021 by Deicide

[vikeologist]

9 hours ago, OlivierL said:

@vikeologist it happened !

 

Yes. I've had my first proper international while at the club as well. And it's gone straight to his head, with him wondering whether he should be moving on despite having 4 years of a very lucrative contract left to run.

[vikeologist]

9 hours ago, OlivierL said:

@vikeologist it happened !

 

Yes. I've had my first proper international while at the club as well. And it's gone straight to his head, with him wondering whether he should be moving on despite having 4 years of a very lucrative contract left to run.

[Elsjorro]

So 2037-2038 we are going for our first CL campaing. 

 

CL Draw

 

It's a pretty decent group. Let's hope we can make things work.

 

We are in dire need of some decent CB. The 2 we have now arent really cutting it.

Pre youth intake

 

Guess we have to wait a little bit longer. Goalkeeper number 27 thats good this game. jeez

Edited March 6, 2021 by Elsjorro

[hyrule_king]

[Winski]

Look at this result against our fierce rival Dresden!! This is a VERY important win, I almost can't believe how well we are doing.

Thanks to this hero, who is scoring lots of goals for us:

[JLAB]

My youth intake has arrived and we've had some interesting players turning up, even if none of them are great right now, I can still work with this and make them into stars. Conte who has become my best midfielder was only meant to be 4 stars in potential.

Isaac Eshun is a very curious case of a defender, as he can be played on both sides of the pitch. My backroom staff also believe that he could make a good DM. The fact that Isaac is either footed and can play on both wings is very promising indeed.

Another intake, another goalkeeper. We've got a lot of them who I plan on sending out on loan for the foreseeable future, and this guy will be no different as far as I am concerned. Just a shame about his low determination.

Andrea Di Tommaso is a right back who is right footed only, but can also potentially play on the left side of the pitch. The fact he's unambitious isn't as bad as I think it could be, but his 6 determination isn't ideal.

[XaW]

6 hours ago, Deicide said:

Hey guys curious to know how some of you more experienced guys would train these players as I'm bad at the game and not sure I'm doing the most for their development:

https://gyazo.com/1c80b3a8ccf6fee438eba4d129d76bd1

Cant decide if i should train him as a CWB-A or a RP-S with additional focus on attacking movement. I'm planning on taking advantage of his versatility but I'll mainly be using him as a winger.

https://gyazo.com/9eb070853dc402c334d4058d966c915e

Currently training him as a CWB-A with additional focus on his crossing. Another versatile player that I'm planning to use as either a CWB or a winger with bad crossing but with exceptional flair.

https://gyazo.com/e45046550628a72d0f28ac09314c2d30

Currently training him as a CW-A with additional focus on crossing. A winger that cant cross. Any suggestions if I could do anything different to improve him?

https://gyazo.com/e0e303096141612f04a16b3dcd57aaa7

Bonus. The youth intake preview did not mention any goalkeepers coming through, but I'm more than happy that he's come in as he's even better than my now former starting keeper!

Also, would it be beneficial to set their training to double intensity?

Initial thoughts from only a quick look.

Cooper 01D - Not enough speed to play out wide for me, so I'd play him in the middle. Perhaps as a BWM-S?

Tyrer 01L - Also a bit short on pace, but as a fullback he could do good. Nice dribbling, but that poor crossing lets him down.

Jones 01I - Not bad, but pace is once again an issue. Looks more like a full back than a winger to me.

Barrett 01G - A really nice looking goalkeeper. Poor distribution, but as long as you don't tell him to do anything other than staying on his line and save, he should do excellent.