The FM21 Youth Academy Challenge

[Muttley84]

20 minutes ago, OlivierL said:

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  

The start is pretty good in the first matches, but I do fear on what the first intake will bring in numbers compared with the players we will lose next summer for not wanting new contracts. I actually had RW Essen on the shortlist and they had some cool red jerseys, but unfortunately most expensive so that is the reason I did not picked them. @Winski had a good start in Berlin and already making victims with his Finnish star  But I do have two weeks vacation so might play around enough to catch u guys.

[DazRTaylor]

I am struggling to get into an existing save.  Maybe I am too "detached".  Any ideas where to go?

[Padders]

Everytime!

Bottom of the league

2nd vs 24th

Unbeaten in previous 10

No manager

LOSE!

Edited August 9, 2021 by Padders

[the_hdk]

2 hours 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 . 

nice! charlemange...after his resting place

[the_hdk]

1 hour ago, DazRTaylor said:

I am struggling to get into an existing save.  Maybe I am too "detached".  Any ideas where to go?

if you are detached maybe a country you have good feelings for or a club close to home ?

[The7Striker]

Karsiyaka 2022 /2023 (2 Season)

Finances  Transfers  Released  Squad  Media Pred

 

Finances are worse but at this level it is what it is so. Lets hope somehow money starts to show up.
In terms of transfers, same as usual, clean the squad a little and open space for the youth to grow. Just a bunch of players that run out of contrats or just to same some cash in wages.
Media pred is the same old odds, last on the table, lets see what the season brings.

 

Upgrades:

Course: National B Licence

 

Ziraat Turkiye Kupasi

 

Another good cup run and this time we gave work to a Superlig team. Lost 1-0 is a good result if we compare the squads.

 

TFF 1.Lig

 

Games I  Games II  Playoffs

The return TFF 1.Lig was superb. A wonderfull 3th place in the first season and far way from the media pred.
Thanks to a great first half of the season, team got some important point and even with the horrible second half we manage to stay above the expectations.
Of course games with 15 or even 20 days apart it wasn't the best of calendars but we did it.
after beating Goztepe in the semi finals we really tought it could happen but...we lost vs Adana so, another season in TFF 1.Lig.

 

Top Newgens

 

 

 

Alaaddin is my Sergio Busquets...this guy is insane and by far the best player in the club. Came in the 2021 AI youth intake.
Another one of those is Hakki the CD is not awesome but he does the job, for a third or fourth choise he is good.
Umit is probably the worst but we needed a coverage option, and he was the chosen.
Yilmaz was my second Striker and sometimes the right winger.Not a beast but still a very solid player.

 

Youth Intake 2023

 

Best Prospects

 

So this year YI wasnt as bad as the 2022 one but still some deadwood.
This ones are by far the best one and they will stay around 1-2 years in U-19 to development.
Burhan could join the senior team right away but with only 15 yo i want him take it easy.

 

Edited August 9, 2021 by The7Striker

[libbyshuss]

2040/41 - Season 20

League 1 - 1st

Season Summary

Wow, what a season. We were consistently inconsistent and somehow won the league and a third promotion in a row!

League - Such a bizarre season, I'm still a little in shock. It's not that we were great, but we were inconsistently great. We'd win 3 games in a row then lose one. But for some reason, when we didn't lose, we'd win. Looking at the stats, it was our strikers that made the difference. Our xG over the season was 75 goals and we scored 94, which is down to just how good that strike force is. Championship level strikers, league 1 level midfield and a National league level defence. Our season can be summed up in our final 3 games. We needed 2 points to clinch the title and the first game we drew 2-2. We then went to Crewe and got hammered 7-1. So, final game, 1 point needed and we run out 5-2 winners against Dulwich Hamlet. We lost 14 times and somehow won the league!

  

Cup - Again, sums up our crazy season. We beat Wrexham and Braintree to get through to the third round of the FA Cup. I was hoping for a money spinning tie against premiership opposition - we were given a home tie against non-league Yeovil. Ah well, routine win and into round 4 and another chance! nope, they beat us 3-1!

 

Players

So, that strikeforce. The real star this season was Connor Stanley 37C. Only 25 goals and 13 assissts in 52 games but in the first part of the season he was carrying the side

Christopher Agyemang 36A - scored 9 in 3 in pre-season before getting injured until October. When he came back he took a while to find his form and scoring boots and only really got going in January. Still ended up with 27 goals though. I rejected a measly 2m bid for him from Middlebrough. As if!

Neil Little 38F is a nice surprise. I never had any expecation of anything from him but he broke through this season to become easily our best midfielder and only one really capable at this level. He couldn't do it all by himself sadly, but he's gone from largely ignored U23 player to first choice middie in the space of 6 months

Kyle Grayson 38E is another nice surprise. He only played because my strength in depth in defence is ludicrously poor but he performed so well he kept his place and made some huge improvements as well. 

Youth

So, I'm desperate for defenders and I have strikers coming out of my ears. So what does the preview offer me?

       

You don't want to sound ungrateful, but honestly, the strength in depth up front is ludicrous. I could play 7 up front!

But anyway, the actual intake was less exciting. Only one 4 star, and only 5 or 6 worthy of signing up

Seamus Hook? I've seen better but I've also seen worse so who knows?

 

Finances and Upgrades

the good thing about having 800 million strikers is when someone comes in I can afford to make a sale. Billy Smith 38B this time. He was injured for the start of the season, came back in December, scored this goal:-

and then Fulham offered 2.4m for him (eventually). 1m now, 1.4m over installments. I said yes because I really need to pay for my youth set-up and I had loads of back up I could replace him with. Plus, I didn't really fancy him as much as some of my other prospects for some reason.

Even so, we still finished the season 300k or so in the red. I really do need to make a sale a season to keep from getting in stupid Barcelona style debt.

 

Career

[hyrule_king]

Season 9 Review

Most Improved

Neco 7a

Felizardo Figueira 4a

Best Youth Intake

 

Edited August 10, 2021 by hyrule_king

[XaW]

 

Folkestone Invicta - Season 2032/33 (Season 12) Review - Sky Bet Championship

Table | Squad | Transfers | Finances

We are almost at the top, but as many have experienced before, the Championship is not an easy league to be in. It's also a very tough league to get promoted out of. Still, I think we made a very solid first season at this level, finishing 11th. I have some serious issues now, as some of the players I've gotten a really attachment to are now starting to get overtaken by a few younger players. The legend that is Ryan Doyle 23f, who has scored almost 300 league goals for us, is now, not rated as one of our best strikers. I'm hoping to slowly rotate him out, and keep him for a long time if I can. I have Gareth Wilde 32b lurking in the shadows as well, and I think he is going to become a monster for us. The biggest issue with the team is still the defence though. And I keep hoping the youth intakes will bring some, but I keep getting strikers. I don't want to complain too much, because they are very talented strikers, but the squad is quite saturated with strikers now. So I've started to loan out some of the ones who are approaching 18 to give them a possibility to keep growing as players. I just wish I had more money to build up a group of teams of varying level to send to, currently I'm just hoping for the right team to approach us.

In the FA Cup we beat Swansea before losing to Liverpool in the 4th round.

In the EFL Cup we beat Cambridge United and Dulwich Hamlet before losing to Norwich in the 3rd round.

The stadium is still one year away, but I'm looking forward to it. We had 23 out of 23 sellouts this season, so we are clearly being hindered by our stadium. It's the next step for us as a club, more than doubling our current attendance capacity.

Youth

A much better intake this time around. Lots of strikers, though...

Thomas Steele 33g is the best goalkeeper talent we've seen yet, I think. Some very good base attributes, so I have high hopes for him.

U18 team:

In the U18 Youth Alliance League South-East they retained the title as the won it for the 3rd time in a row.

In the U18 Youth Alliance Cup they won their group ahead of Swindon Town, AFC Wimbledon, Dulwich Hamlet, and Rugby. Then we beat Shrewsbury and Crystal Palace before we lost to Bristol Rovers in the final to finish as runners-up.

In the FA Youth Cup they beat Nottingham Forest, Manchester City, Sheffield Wednesday and Bromley before losing to Leicester City in the semi final.

Statistics:

Spoiler

Quite the varied, but only one new country in USA.

Trophy cabinet:

Sky Bet League Two - 2029/30
Vanarama National League - 2028/29
Vanarama National League South - 2026/27
(U18) Youth Alliance League South-East - 2030/31, 2031/32, 2032/33

EFL Trophy - 2030/31
FA Trophy - 2028/29

[dkouv]

@libbyshuss congrats - is that 3 promotions in a row now? This even beats London buses in terms of them all coming at once )))

[libbyshuss]

4 minutes ago, dkouv said:

is that 3 promotions in a row now? This even beats London buses in terms of them all coming at once

ha ha, i know! 3 in a row is crazy, caught me a bit by surprise. Especially after waiting 10 seasons for the first one!

I suspect relegation is way more likely than a fourth promotion though......

[dkouv]

59 minutes ago, libbyshuss said:

I suspect relegation is way more likely than a fourth promotion though......

maybe, but let's hope your strikers can fire you out of trouble one more time ))

[Zeldster]

Shaoxing Keqiao

Season 4

Squad | Transfers | Finances

Fourth year in was expecting another 4th place finish to follow. From following this thread I was intrigued by @toshimitzou1 post analyzing his team and tactics. Now, I've never been a master tactician and have stuck to the basics in the past but during the off/pre-season I began diving deeper into my team and tweaking the tactic from last year. I changed to a 4-3-3 last year from my usual 4-4-2 to try and stop leaking goals but I also dried up the goal scoring ability upfront. Mainly a few change of roles and instructions but also I manually assigned players duties on defending corners/free kicks/throw ins due to a high number of deep free kicks against us. First time I've ever attempted this challenge and I must say, it's getting me hooked...

League: Promotion, And as champions as well! I have no idea if it was the new youth players that got promoted to the team or if it was my tweaks but who cares, we're up! We went on a 15 game unbeaten run at the start of the season with 13 wins and 2 draws. That set the standard for the rest of the season as we only went on to lose 3 more games.

Cup: A clubs personal best of reaching the Semi Final knocking out 2 Super league teams in the process, not to forget Meihzou who are just recently relegated as well. Shenhua was a step to far for us and destroyed the dream comfortably. Only allowing me 3 shots on goal with 1 being on target to their 8/16.

NewGens:

Huang Tingfeng 01b: Another goal scoring season for Huang, can see the team struggling if he does decide to jump ship - hopefully the prospect of being the star man for us in the Super League will keep him at the club.

Ye Dongsheng 03b: Had a great debut season at CB and would regularly dominate any long balls played into the box. Chipped in with 2 goals from corner but would like to see him score more.

Huang Yuming 02e: For the 2nd season of his professional football career, Huang knocked it out the park again at CB. Also chipped in with 6 goals from CB, a improvement on last years numbers. Also the first player from the club to receive a full international cap.

Youth Intake 2024:

Another good youth intake, the FM Gods have been kind to be on this save through out my intakes. Chen Lin is my favorite of this crop as he will replace my current RB who is on the decline.

 

Summary:

Optimistic about the season ahead in the Super League. If we can keep hold of our key players and the new youth intakes, I'm slightly confident of survival.

 

[Padders]

Season 80 - 2100/01

The unluckiest FM manager continues

Finished 3rd, 3 points off 2nd with 87 points

Win Semi Final Playoffs, hammering Bolton 7-1 on aggregate

Then lose the Final 2-3 to Stockport

 

WE GO AGAIN!

Another takeover, managed to improve youth facilities

Intake not good again but may a decent keeper. Haven't had one for decades!

[Padders]

Also to note in the takeover, board purchased two players

One failed a work permit

The other I have put in U23s and trying to sell

Nobody want's him

[libbyshuss]

16 minutes ago, Padders said:

The unluckiest FM manager continues

Sean Carey scored 65 goals? Is he new?

[Padders]

8 minutes ago, libbyshuss said:

Sean Carey scored 65 goals? Is he new?

Yeah, first full season, came in couple of years ago

He's class

My only potential Championship standard player

M

 

[libbyshuss]

9 minutes ago, Padders said:

He's class

Hopefully you can keep hold of him, he could get you promoted single handedly. 

[Padders]

32 minutes ago, libbyshuss said:

Hopefully you can keep hold of him, he could get you promoted single handedly. 

Yeah got him tied down on a 4yr contract last season so fingers crossed we can keep hold of him

Yeah he can fire us into The Championship next season hopefully

[thomas_e]

Congrats @darren1983! Great achievement! 

[Winski]

Viktoria 1889 Berlin
Season review 2023/2024 (season 3)
League Table | Competition overview | Finances | Facilities | Transfers | Youth intake | Club overview | Manager profile

 

Another decent season for us. We finished 10th, which is a very good finish when you compare our squad to the rest of the 2. Bundesliga. As posted earlier we had a very good Pokal-run, with wins against Dortmund and RB Leipzig. But Bayern was way too good for us in the Qtr Finals. But again: I enjoyed the run, with Kimmo Hovi who became a club hero with his goals against Dortmund and Leipzig.

Last season our central midfielder Bernd Nehrig(who is now our U19 Ass. Manager!)  retired, so I put our youth player Miloš Radovanović 22c in the first eleven. And with great success, because he developed into a very good player for us this season.
I'll show screenshots of him comparing his attributes on intake day, and now, 2 years later:

Another player who developed really well and who's in our Starting XI is Filip Rehbein 22a.

We also managed to upgrade our facilities. Our Youth- and Training Facilities are now Average. Junior Coaching is now labelled Excellent, and our Youth Recruitment as good.

 

Best players this season were, again, Falcão and Christopher Theisen. Falcão is a lovely player, he scored 19 goals for us this season, together with 7 assists. And Theisen (who became 2. Bundesliga topscorer last season) scored 15 goals together with 7 assists.
But also Lucas Ewert 22m had a very good season. This youngster from Luxembourg is progressing really well in training, and I gave him some chances. He grabbed them with both hands, and he scored 7 goals and had 7 assists. Very good.

Youth intake
A golden generation! A very, very promising intake with some serious good talents for us. I totally forgot to make a screenshot of the youth intake preview....... But this was the intake. I can safely say that we got a lot of potential First Team players here.

Next season will be a bit of the same I think, but that's okay. We will progress slowly, upgrading our facilities and I'll give some more youngsters the chance to impress. The club is getting populair and populair. Our avr attandence is growing a lot if you compare this season to the first season. So that's a good thing. We still play in the stadium of Union Berlin, because our own stadium is not big enough for this league. So hopefully we can build a new stadium when we promote the the Bundesliga. But step by step. My goal for next season will be the same as this one: finish around the 8th - 10th place.

 

[JAwtunes]

Season 4 (2023-24) Review

On the pitch

Starting 11:

Spoiler

Domestic: League 3rd, Cup semi final

Spoiler

End of season form

Europe: Conference League 4th Qualifying Round

Off the pitch

Youth intake: Described at HoYD as a Golden Generation in the intake preview

Spoiler

Players:

Spoiler

Top players

 

 

Spoiler

Youth intake

 

 

SUMMARY

Record Slovakia league transfer - £1.9m (first million £ transfer) Stefan Milic, 23 yrs DC from Dinamo Zagreb

Spoiler

Around the world (Euro24 = England ; CopaA24 = Brazil; UCL = Spurs; CL =  Banfield, Bd'Or = K Mbappe(3))

Spoiler

Euro 2024 Germany

Copa America Ecuador

Euro Champions League

Copa Libertadores

Balon d'Or

 

 

 

Edited August 10, 2021 by JAwtunes

[Proffa]

3 hours ago, libbyshuss said:

Hopefully you can keep hold of him, he could get you promoted single handedly. 

I remember Padders scoring over 150 goals and not winning the league... 

[The7Striker]

So this guy might be a good CD too right ? For now the space as open as WB but the dribbling 

 

 

Well lets hope the CD and GK isnt a lie 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 10, 2021 by The7Striker

[OlivierL]

5 hours ago, Winski said:

Viktoria 1889 Berlin
Season review 2023/2024 (season 3)
League Table | Competition overview | Finances | Facilities | Transfers | Youth intake | Club overview | Manager profile

 

Another decent season for us. We finished 10th, which is a very good finish when you compare our squad to the rest of the 2. Bundesliga. As posted earlier we had a very good Pokal-run, with wins against Dortmund and RB Leipzig. But Bayern was way too good for us in the Qtr Finals. But again: I enjoyed the run, with Kimmo Hovi who became a club hero with his goals against Dortmund and Leipzig.

Last season our central midfielder Bernd Nehrig(who is now our U19 Ass. Manager!)  retired, so I put our youth player Miloš Radovanović 22c in the first eleven. And with great success, because he developed into a very good player for us this season.
I'll show screenshots of him comparing his attributes on intake day, and now, 2 years later:

Another player who developed really well and who's in our Starting XI is Filip Rehbein 22a.

We also managed to upgrade our facilities. Our Youth- and Training Facilities are now Average. Junior Coaching is now labelled Excellent, and our Youth Recruitment as good.

 

Best players this season were, again, Falcão and Christopher Theisen. Falcão is a lovely player, he scored 19 goals for us this season, together with 7 assists. And Theisen (who became 2. Bundesliga topscorer last season) scored 15 goals together with 7 assists.
But also Lucas Ewert 22m had a very good season. This youngster from Luxembourg is progressing really well in training, and I gave him some chances. He grabbed them with both hands, and he scored 7 goals and had 7 assists. Very good.

Youth intake
A golden generation! A very, very promising intake with some serious good talents for us. I totally forgot to make a screenshot of the youth intake preview....... But this was the intake. I can safely say that we got a lot of potential First Team players here.

Next season will be a bit of the same I think, but that's okay. We will progress slowly, upgrading our facilities and I'll give some more youngsters the chance to impress. The club is getting populair and populair. Our avr attandence is growing a lot if you compare this season to the first season. So that's a good thing. We still play in the stadium of Union Berlin, because our own stadium is not big enough for this league. So hopefully we can build a new stadium when we promote the the Bundesliga. But step by step. My goal for next season will be the same as this one: finish around the 8th - 10th place.

 

Good job , who is your HOYD ? you should get better personalities in the future . Great job in the Pokal !

[ATW]

2025/26 Season - Midway Point, Getting Excited but...

 

League and Cups

In the league it is going rather well, currently sitting in 6th place, with a game in hand on the clubs around me...

but we have a real problem building up.  This is my Starting back 4 and we have 6 games in the next 14 days, 5 in the league and 1 in the FA Cup 3rd Round away to Stoke...

*Ethan Stewart plays Centre back for me...

Youth Intake

 

[Winski]

1 hour ago, OlivierL said:

Good job , who is your HOYD ? you should get better personalities in the future . Great job in the Pokal !

I posted a screenshot of him before. It’s this guy, a Newgen:

[the_hdk]

Polonia Warsaw - Season 8

League

League Stats / Transfers / Transfers 2 / Best 11

Second championship!. And 4th for Polonia! Completly different scenario from the last one. First halve of the season was for Pogon. They ware leading half way by 6 points but gave it away in March and April. We had a hickup at the end. Losing 3 and a draw but we had a big enough difference in points from Lech. Lech was the best team in Spring. Overall we ware the secondbest team in both halves but won the league! The champion from last two seaosn Legia had a horrible season, sacked their Czech manager and after that they gained a few positions. Wisla who was 2nd last year also had a bad seaosn but managed to win the Cup. LEWINSKI was moved from midfield to attack and he did very well, even managed to get TOPSCORER. HALUCH was again MVP. ZAKLIKA came back form loan to Cracovia and managed to replace MILEWSKI. Talking about MILEWSKI and GORSKI. I received great offers for them and as ZAKLIKA was halve a star better in rating I just sold them and used teh money to imporve our training up to state of art (i think the highest level). SPALEK became #1 goaly after GRZYBOWSKI's min fee was activated by NANTES. Only 600k. my own booboo. I didnt notice it was so low. Thankfully I loaned him to ZTE , my affiliate so I could get him back. Our old timer MARCINIEC wanted to leave and was getting annoyed so I sold him to Termalica for 1k. In his place in midfield joined two youngsters KIEWEL and SIUDAK. The defense stayed the same. Are we ready to try Champions League? Nope. If LEGIA and/or LECH get thier home in order we will not win the league next season. The youngsters from last year need another year to grow. So I think in 2-3 years we might have a team that might be able to start dominating in Poland.

Cup was again horrible, lost in second round to Korona Kielce. That we beat literally a game before 6-3. Europe was interesting. Best result so far. Quarter-Finals of Conference league. We got eleminated by Fenerbace (TUR).

Three big sales

Season Stats

Great news about both youth and training facilities getting expended. I need 6 mln more to expand the youth to state of art.

No changes in affiliates. I keep getting offered, Bulgarian, Serb or Mononegro clubs. I think i'll just accept one. The Slovak club got relagated to 2nd level.

Youth

Predicted Youth intake

Suprise surprise..another GG

The top 3 look very promisisng. Sadly no foreigners again! after one year of Lithiuanians...the game forgot about the link.

CEGIELKA. Great name for a defender. The LITTLE BRICK! If his strenght would have been 15 that would have been even more fitting. Future 1st team wing back me thinks.

GROMEK. Needs to improve his finishing. ASAP. Or should I retrain him to MC?

PRZYBYLSKI, abnother winger. Love his determination and work rate. And a Proffesional player. Me thinks this one will have the fastest improvement.

 

 

Youth Stats

Nothing unusual this year.

[Padders]

Unbeaten in 11

Sitting top playing bottom 1st vs 24th

What could go wrong.................................................

[hyrule_king]

5 hours ago, The7Striker said:

So this guy might be a good CD too right ? For now the space as open as WB but the dribbling 

 

 

Well lets hope the CD and GK isnt a lie 

 

 

 

 

Yeah definitely re train him as a CB, I did the same with One of my LB Intakes a few years back and he is now the number one CB.

[ATW]

2025/26 - Quick Update

It went as well as I imagined... 

The missing League Game was postponed as my pitch is very poor and has been since 2022... 

[Padders]

Yep you guessed it

LOST!

Next game also against 24th place

[hyrule_king]

Training is going really well.

[Padders]

Yep as usual

One loss against a poor side results in a run of bad results!

Does frustrate me playing Morale Manager 2021 at times!

Off to bed 

[Deicide]

A couple of questions regarding sold players that have a % of next transfer clause in their contracts:

How is the amount on the sell now clause calculated? I see it rise or fall depending on the player.

Will the % of next sell on clause be canceled if they sign a new contract or does it only get canceled if they are released? I'm curious because the three players that I've sold only signed 2 year contracts.. currently scouting them to see if they have contract extension clauses. I'm not sure if I should take the money now and improve my facilities if possible.

Is there a reason why the sell on clause and the sell now clause aren't showing up for a player that I sold a 2 months ago?

Also, I had a sell now clause suddenly disappear. Is this a known bug? Good thing I save after every match.. the bad thing is that we had just beaten a top 5 team 5-1!

Edited August 11, 2021 by Deicide

[Padders]

Board sold one of my best players, not Carey but my left winger, Sergei Mutle

Gone to Spurs for £6.25m with 40% of profit of next sale

As you can see, we are in so much debt, just clears it.

Board won't improve any of the facilities

Edited August 11, 2021 by Padders

[libbyshuss]

2041/42 - Season 21

Championship - 16th

Season Summary

A nice boring season of mid-table mediocrtiy. I'll take that to be honest

League - We didn't start great to be honest, but we started picking up results quite quickly. Then we had an unbeaten November that firmly stuck us in mid-table, which I was more than happy with. January came, along with our unsettled players and inevitable loss of one of our best players. Between late December and February we had a run of 1 win in 13 which threatened to drag us into a relegation battle I was desperate to avoid. Thanfully, a briliant March and April saw us win 6 games when it mattered the most and give us Championship football for another season.

Again, it's our forward line to thank. 65 xG but we scored 81, they're signlehandedly dragging us up the leagues at the minute.

FA Cup - Finally, a 3rd round draw against a premier league team! It was Burnley, away. They hammered us 6-2!

Players

Considering how young the team is we did really well in the Championship. Look at the ages of my first choice XI:-

Christopher Agyemang 36A - Started the season like a beast, witha goal a game but really lost his way after christmas. Only scored 2 and then got injured for the last 3 months of the season. He's now rated quite lowly by our coaches, and has lost his number one status to Barcham-Driver

Caludio Barcham-Driver 40A - Only 18 but had to step up after the board sold our best striker Connor Stanley and Agyemang got injured. Really answered everything asked of him, he improved an unvelievable amount and is now easily our best player. I signed him up on a 5 year contract but he insisted on a £14m release clause. I'm now thinking that's ridiculously small given how good he is proving to be.

Neil Little 38F - Premiership quality! I turned down two 10m bids for him and the lad was happy to sign a long term contract with the club! I still haven't found a tactic that allows our midfielders to perform conssitely above a 6.5 rating though!

Youth

Another nice golden generation promise, for what they are worth

So, I wasn't sure what to expect really. The intake wasn't too bad at this stage of the game tbh

4 potential good  prospects there, and Woods and Skipp could be real dark horses too. Be interesting to see how many of these fellas make it, particualrly as the first team now is much harder to break into.

Goal of the Season

Lovely team goal, I love goals like this

 

Finances and Improvements

So, the big news for our finances is that Connor Stanley 37C got sold. It was my own fault, I was getting silly offers so to try not to **** him off I kept asking for what I thought was unrealistic things. I should have known better than to do that on transfer deadline day, clubs do silly things then! 

It could be worth a lot of money for us and to be fair it did pay off our debts and pay for the youth set-up for another couple of seasons, but he was a great player I'd rather not have lost. Ah well, what can you do? My own silly fault.

It did mean the board agreed for some more improvements, but they won't be done until next season

 

Career

 

 

[hyrule_king]

Last 2/3 Intakes have really helped give the team a really good look, fingers crossed this is the season we move on to stage 2 but still no rush.

Edited August 11, 2021 by hyrule_king

[Padders]

Season 81 - 2101/02

Poor season that looked so promising

As posted above, we were top just before Christmas on an unbeaten run of 11

Then that one bad result causes the whole season to turn into a mess and I can't turn it around.

BUT

We some how manage to win 4 out of the last 5 games, sneaking into 6th place (previous to that we won 4 in 22!!!!!)

We then beat Huddersfield in the Semi Final 6-4 on aggregate

Then  a very comfortable 1-0 win in the Final vs Notts County

So after 9 seasons in League 1 we are back in The Championship

Really poor intake and I mean awful, not one 5 star player!

Edited August 11, 2021 by Padders

[Muttley84]

Season 1 - 2021-2022

Competitions
What a superb first season here in Aachen in the 3. Liga . We managed to finish in 3rd position, but somehow that was enough for direct promotion, due to Bayern II winning the league and being ineligible for promotion. Not really a big surprise as we were in the upper part of the table for most of the season. Osnabruck joins us in Bundesliga 2, while the other 3 clubs promoted with us got relegated straight back to Regionalliga. We did not feature at all this season in the DFB-Pokal, maybe next season we can have a nice run in it (at least from a financial point of view). 

Players
Most of the season we lined-up in a 4-2-3-1 control possession default tactics, although we did switched a bit to 4-3-3 and counter tactics when we were setup with much bigger clubs (at least on paper). The players performed above my expectations, with a high number of them averaging above 7. If we take a closer look at the End of Season Review one can notice also the performers of the season: Marwin Studtrucker (ST) was the main goal scorer (with 9), Stipe Batarilo behind him in AMC had the highest assists (8), Fans player of the season was Dustin Zahnen (MC) while my preferred players is Oguzhan Aydogan (played on both wings). The record breakers tab is surely a mistake, as Aachen had no records listed in the default db in Touch, that is why you can see all those records which are actually so far from reality. 

Facilities
No changes here really, no improvements or downgrades and they are just as we found them. The only changes comes in the affiliates, but as per usual in FM Touch I have no control over that, just got a message in the inbox that the boardroom developed a partnership with Dudelange (Luxemburg). Curious to see if that nationality shows up in the future intakes.

Finances
When the season ended in 3. Liga we had a negative overall balance of over 300k. Which is not that much and probably can be covered during the transition to the new season (just fingers crossed as the competition prize money is currently 0 income). We do have a loan at the club until 2031, but it's only 20k per month we need to give back to the bank. Problem is we don't generate enough income, and the low attendance compared to the stadium is one explanation. We only averaged 7419 spectators last season (which is around 25% of our huge 30k+ stadium here in Aachen), and that needs to grow next season if we want to achieve any success. I have kept the wage below the limit, although I did had some challenges there, as actually every single player who we entered negotiations wanted an Important Player status (surely a bug). 

Transfers
Of course, no Transfers in, just a few players leaving mostly on Free Transfers.

Youth
As I previously expected we did not received a large number of players in the first intake at the club. Actually, just five of them so the only logical solution was to sign them all with the club. I am not sure why would the HoYD would consider it to be a "golden generation", with only 3 top prospects? Surely, 3 is not enough to represent a generation, but I guess that is pretty much the standard message everyone gets in the first intake. Also noticed a fix in Touch compared to previous seasons, when the intakes happened at season end, now the players (at least in Germany) came at the beginning of April. Pick of the bunch is expected to be M. Cebi 22a (as I've nicknamed him), but Sassi and Toksoz look decent too, all 3 of them will get chances to play in the next season. Kehl and Maurer joined the reserves team (who plays in Reserves Group 2 - pretty sure that competition does not exist in real life). 

[The7Striker]

16 hours ago, hyrule_king said:

Yeah definitely re train him as a CB, I did the same with One of my LB Intakes a few years back and he is now the number one CB.

Thanks. I will try him as CB hope he plays well. 

12 hours ago, Deicide said:

A couple of questions regarding sold players that have a % of next transfer clause in their contracts:

How is the amount on the sell now clause calculated? I see it rise or fall depending on the player.

Will the % of next sell on clause be canceled if they sign a new contract or does it only get canceled if they are released? I'm curious because the three players that I've sold only signed 2 year contracts.. currently scouting them to see if they have contract extension clauses. I'm not sure if I should take the money now and improve my facilities if possible.

Is there a reason why the sell on clause and the sell now clause aren't showing up for a player that I sold a 2 months ago?

Also, I had a sell now clause suddenly disappear. Is this a known bug? Good thing I save after every match.. the bad thing is that we had just beaten a top 5 team 5-1!

I don't want to deceive you but it will depend on the value you sell for and the value the player is sold on from the other team.

The clauses only disappear if the player is sold (unless you put the % of the next sale clause and the selling team too, in which case you will still have some more money in the future), or they are released. Sign contracts with the same club, keep everything the same at the transfer level agreed with you. If you have the € symbol, you can sell that clause too and it will disappear.

I dont think that is a bug but im not 100% sure. It could mean that the club did not agreed with the board a value for the clause sell.

[Padders]

What a great start to The Championship

NOT!

Draw and win first two games

2-0 up against Preston and lose 3-4

Then here comes the losing run

Think I may have to work on a really boring negative tactic and grind out results

[libbyshuss]

40 minutes ago, Padders said:

Then here comes the losing run

you know you're in for a long season with a run like that. Hope you break out of it soon, they're no fun!

[The7Striker]

 

Karsiyaka 2023/2024 (3 Season)

Finances  Transfers  Released  Squad  Media Pred

Finances are worse every year and if that continues, well he have to sell some talents to face the costs.
Players who don't have quality were sold or released in order to renew the team with young talent.
Good squad with varied options that will give us advantages.
Once again, rock bottom....i dont belive in that to be fair.

 

Upgrades:

Course: National A Licence

 

Ziraat Turkiye Kupasi

Another good cup run. We got to the sixth round where we got crushed by Besiktas. We had no chances.
 

 

TFF 1.Lig

Games I  Games II

Oh my Word...we did it. TFF 1.Lig champions just like 1995 and we are back to Superlig. Well im happy for the promotion but im worried about the side we are going to face it.
A very consistent time in terms of results and performance.
It was until the last rounds, but Goztepe lost breath and we got a margin of 7 points.

 

Best Newgens 

Once again, Alaaddin was the key to success, he spread magic on the field. We had some proposals and he wants to leave so i have no idea if we can hold him.
Acar is a YI 21 prospect that had his debut in the team this season and i hope he can shine in the future.
Anil rotated with Alaaddin and i also have high hopes for him.
Meriç started the season as a RB but he is definitely a CB so in the next season will play more in this position.
Yilmaz it remains with us and remains a valuable asset both as striker and winger.

 

Youth Intake 2024

 

This year YI wasnt as great as 2023 but still some potencial. This guys are the one i signed, everyone else is gone. Just a bunch of 1-5 all over.

 

 

[Padders]

36 minutes ago, libbyshuss said:

you know you're in for a long season with a run like that. Hope you break out of it soon, they're no fun!

Yeah really tough to break

Change of tactic has yielded 2 wins out of 3 but just lost heavily to Swansea

[Padders]

Bottom of The Championship and this comes through in your news feed 

[ATW]

2025/26 Season - We're a Football League Club!!!!  

League and Cup

Thanks to some squad management, and leave of absences along with some massive training changes (remember we're Part-Time) the team were able to hold and reach the playoffs.  After the month of hell, we went on a 20 game undefeated streak, although we only won 8 of those games, it was enough to keep us in the playoffs.  Where we first done away with Grimsby at home 3-1, then Solihull Moors 3-1 away before travelling to Wembley.  I am not gonna lie, I nearly burst into tears of joy at nearly midnight last night as we won on Penalties 5-4 against Chester in front of over 38,000 fans.

So Football League here we come!!!!  

As for the Cups, the FA Cup seen us making it to the Third Round - result of the tournament for us was being League 2 Wrexham at Wrexham 2-1 after extra time in a replay.  The dream did end though in Round 3 with a 1-0 defeat away to Stoke.  

As for the FA Trophy, less said the better.  Another 3rd Round exit.  If anyone is keeping score, that is 5 seasons and 5 3rd round exits - consistency ftw!

Previous Youth Intake

Les Sharp (22a), Welsh GK - Made no appearances although now seems happy to 

Mohamad Brown (22d), The Young Aussie Central utility man featured in all but 3 games scoring 5 goals and assisting in further 9

Tai McCormick(23a), English Midfielder - Absolute rock in the centre of the park.  Playing 37 league games scoring 5 goals

James Green(23b), English GK - Main stay and played a massive part in the promotion campaign.  Nominated to win League POY

Elliot Reilly (23c), English forward - Featured in over 41 league games scoring 9 goals and creating a further 6.  Massive leap forward for the young man this season

Douglas Watt (23d), Scottish left back - A player who looked to be on his last legs at the end of last season, came into the season with a point to prove.  Ending up being No. 1 left back.  Started 35 league games.  

Denis Blake (24a) English Forward - 5* recruit, featured in 35 league games scoring 2 goals, mainly playing on the wing.  Refusing to sign a new contract and out of contract at the end of THIS season  

Wyn Smith (24b) Welsh Full Back - made the right back his own this season, playing 39 league games

Richie Ince (24c) English Defender who was nothing more than a bit part player this year... more to come?

Eddie Roberts (25a), English full back - Featured in 11 games but spent most of the time in the U18's

David Daramy (25b), English right winger - Like Roberts, spent most of his time in the U18's but featured in 8 league games

2026 Youth Intake

Adam Westwood (26a) - English Defensive midfielder.  Will be playing most likely mainly in the U18's but you never know

Mohammed Taylor (26b), Young forward will be in the Senior side, but likely available for the U18's

Also had my first poached player from my academy.  

Transfers

Professional R Us!

Edited August 11, 2021 by ATW

[Padders]

[The7Striker]

So the guy accepted the 2M  

 

 

EDIT:

Its just me or the board is drunk ???

 

Time travel 

Edited August 11, 2021 by The7Striker

[ATW]

Pre-Season Start 2026/27 Update

Just a quick update to show the many changes going on with Stadium Expansion, adding an U23 team and many more...

Edited August 11, 2021 by ATW