The FM21 Youth Academy Challenge

[Diego D10S]

            

Changed my mind again  Moving to Toronto in the italien riviera  

Time to play. GL ALL !!  

[Diego D10S]

!

Edited November 25, 2020 by Diego D10S

[Perre8]

@OlivierL goodluck in Cataluna!  It looked like Pep was in your squad at first

[Wavelberry]

George Purcell can't be taken off the transfer list, has an expired contract and won't discuss a new one...

He hasn't gone anywhere though and just put in a MotM performance in my first friendly. If he doesn't want to talk about it then I am happy to ignore it too...

[Wavelberry]

Couple of friendlies and I reckon I've got enough to stay up but the squad is really thin. A couple of injuries and I'll be using greyed out players. Gonna have to pray.

[JLAB]

I plan on keeping an eye out on the team report, given that I can see what I’m strong at in comparison to the league.

Given my defence’s lack of speed, I’m going to be sitting deeper which will suit their jumping and heading abilities more than keeping a high line.

I’m going to hope that going for a direct counter attack will be something I can pull off and can help me push up towards the playoffs.

In other news, my best right-back is only 1.5 stars at the beginning, but is only 19, so despite that I guess I can say I’m lucky?

I also managed to upset the players by not being ambitious enough, which was fun.

[keeper#1]

South Shields January 1, 2024 Review

A good November when we were playing, basically, one match per week.  December was tough because of a lot of matches which forced a lot of rotation to keep everyone fresh since we are still a semi-pro side.  Great upset of Exeter in the FA Cup which has earned us a 3rd round trip to Leicester.  That should be another big pay.  Maybe the board will finally give in and pull the trigger on turning pro.

More mixed bag of mentoring.  

They say it has the potential to be a golden generation but it has negative for just about every position group.  We will see what happens when they move up to the U18 team in March.

[danielclouston1]

 

Chemnitzer FC Season 2021-2022

Season Expectations

 

My (and the boards) expectations for this season were relatively low. My goal was ´to fight bravely against relegation´ and after having a look at our squad I felt that was probably about right although media prediction had us at 15^th. 

 

 

Season Planning

I developed two tactics based on our group of players, our main tactic being a 4-4-3 DM Fluid Counter Attack and the secondary tactic being a 4-2-3-1 DM Park the Bus. We had some pace and relatively ok passers so felt these would do us well. I had 3 pre-arranged transfers that I couldn´t cancel, I was initially annoyed by this as it took us over our wage budget but I managed to ship two of our higher earners out to bring the wage budget under control and turns out two of them went straight into our starting XI. I also promoted a couple of players from U19 to compliment our squad and to gain training experience with the first team squad. They will more than likely play a very small role this season.

 

 

 

Season Overview

We had an outstanding start to the season and by the half way point of the season we had amassed 33 points with 10 wins, 3 draws and 6 losses and found ourselves rooted in the top half safely away from the relegation battle. After 20 games we found ourselves in the automatic promotion places for the first time but at this point I took the decision to drop the older first team players and started fielding a side of players u23´s because I was wary of overachieving in my first season. It lasted for two games before fans started causing an uproar over the style of play so I reverted to the old tactic but with the young squad. We went on a run of 1 win out of 9 and 2 draws, leaving us firmly mid-table but I had to tweak a few things to turn results around again because the squad were unhappy but after 3 wins from 3 that changed, again and with 6 games remaining we had officially bettered our expectations and had avoided the drop. A run of 3wins, 2 draws and a loss in the final games of the season see us finish a very comfortable 5^th.

 

Youth Intake

So the youth intake preview had me excited, first season and it looked like it could be an absolute beauty. Turns out the PA for some of them is fantastic but I’m a little disappointed with the CA. I had, maybe naively, hoped one or two would be close to first team ready. Their attributes are nothing to shout home about just yet so I’m not going into any detail at this stage. Ultimately, I offered a contract to also those below and disregarded those with less than 3* PA.

 

 

Club and Personal Development

The board agreed to upgrade the youth facilities and also took it upon themselves to upgrade our training facilities at the same time and both should be completed by October 2022. In December they also agreed to send me on my National C coaching course. Result.

 

 

Summary

Overall we had a good season on and off the pitch. A solid league campaign saw us finish far above expectations. A few issues with squad moral but it was entirely self-inflicted with tinkering a winning team. Lesson learned.

 

See you all for 22-23.

 

 

P.s what do you think of the report? I quite enjoyed writing it and would like to continue in that manner but I know there is a lot of guff in there so if it is too long and you want me to take out some of the fluff then let me know. Otherwise I will keep this style. Cheers.

 

 

 

Edited November 25, 2020 by danielclouston1

[thomas_e]

Keep that style of writing @danielclouston1. Enjoyed reading it! 

[witticism]

Another academy graduate has been featuring more consistently in the first team, and I am contemplating moving away to two strikers just to feature a targetman:

193cm + 16 jumping

 

I've spent the majority of time since launch hacking together a skin from various different pieces, so barely in December 2023, the speed at which some of you guys progress astounds me.

Edited November 25, 2020 by witticism

[danielclouston1]

7 minutes ago, witticism said:

Another academy graduate has been featuring more consistently in the first team, and I am contemplating moving away to two strikers just to feature a targetman:

193cm + 16 jumping

 

I've spent the majority of time since launch hacking together a skin from various different pieces, so barely in December 2023, the speed at which some of you guys progress astounds me.

Most of us use instant result for a large number of games. I play the first few games of the season and important games but the rest get instant result.

Edited November 25, 2020 by danielclouston1

[scarp]

12 hours 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?

I play attacking tiki-taka ever since Scottish 4th tier 

[danielclouston1]

12 hours 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?

I tend to switch between positive, attacking and cautious. Positive to start, attacking if we're chasing the game or drawing fairly late on and cautious if we're winning but on the ropes a bit.

[shaunvamos]

Excelsior Maassluis 2024/25 Season Review

 

 

Kenny Lipman - Tijmen Westra 1J* - Youri de Winter

 

Another season, another survival. Given that we are far and away the weakest team in the league, we are still overachieving massively. We seem to to just be holding in place, but with these youngsters coming through I'm hoping that'll change. Moritz Durr 2B* is actually getting interest from clubs as big as Feyenoord, and his release clause is a very juicy 650k, and if they meet that that'll be excellent. We have maxed out our junior coaching and upgraded our training and youth facilities, but we've finally gone into debt so I doubt that we will have anything new for the time being. But I'm excited to see what next seasons youth intake is like, if this year's one is anything to go by. 

 

 

Youth Intake

Dehninio Mawie 4A* - Charalabos Kousidis 4B* - Annuar Bosnie 4C*

 

Finally, a thoroughly excellent intake! Our top 3 all have fantastic personalities, and despite the need to retrain the top 2 (4A as a ST, 4B as a WB) all made their debuts this season. This intake makes me think we have a shot at cracking the top half of the league next season.

 

Transfers

 

Progress

 

Edited November 25, 2020 by shaunvamos

[Winski]

 

Things are going NOT very well here. I knew that this challenge would be hard in Holland, but it's way harder then expected. We lost 11 of our first 13 matches. I'm not sure if I will survive my first season....

 

[Braumiller]

3 hours ago, witticism said:

I've spent the majority of time since launch hacking together a skin from various different pieces, so barely in December 2023, the speed at which some of you guys progress astounds me.

lol, not all of us move that fast.  Welcome to the slow but steady section of the cult  

[witticism]

16 minutes ago, Braumiller said:

lol, not all of us move that fast.  Welcome to the slow but steady section of the cult  

Honestly wouldve gone a lot quicker if I handnt forgotten the keys to reload skin instead of having to click through the menus

[thomas_e]

27 minutes ago, Braumiller said:

lol, not all of us move that fast.  Welcome to the slow but steady section of the cult  

Yes, some of us take our time! And I don't think I could have ever completed the challenge without playing the games. 

[scarp]

Brora Rangers - 2040/41

Great season from us as we finish top four and secure our best ever finish. In Conference we had rather hard group but we made it out only to be eliminated by Parma in first knock-out round. After being eliminated in Europe we could have focus only on league and we managed to win five in a row and eventually finish top four even with -11 goal difference  Paul Thomson scored 49 games for us and broke the records, I really did not expect that. We managed to renew contract with Miller and his release clause is now around 12mil. Intake was trash again, no idea why. We are bulding a new stadium with a 18k capacity. I did not do any facility upgrades as I want the stadium to be finished before that.

Transfers | Youth in-take

Key players: Gerard Fox, James Miller & Paul Thomson

Academy graduates:

Spoiler

 

[OlivierL]

7 hours ago, danielclouston1 said:

 

Chemnitzer FC Season 2021-2022

Season Expectations

 

My (and the boards) expectations for this season were relatively low. My goal was ´to fight bravely against relegation´ and after having a look at our squad I felt that was probably about right although media prediction had us at 15^th. 

 

 

Season Planning

I developed two tactics based on our group of players, our main tactic being a 4-4-3 DM Fluid Counter Attack and the secondary tactic being a 4-2-3-1 DM Park the Bus. We had some pace and relatively ok passers so felt these would do us well. I had 3 pre-arranged transfers that I couldn´t cancel, I was initially annoyed by this as it took us over our wage budget but I managed to ship two of our higher earners out to bring the wage budget under control and turns out two of them went straight into our starting XI. I also promoted a couple of players from U19 to compliment our squad and to gain training experience with the first team squad. They will more than likely play a very small role this season.

 

 

 

Season Overview

We had an outstanding start to the season and by the half way point of the season we had amassed 33 points with 10 wins, 3 draws and 6 losses and found ourselves rooted in the top half safely away from the relegation battle. After 20 games we found ourselves in the automatic promotion places for the first time but at this point I took the decision to drop the older first team players and started fielding a side of players u23´s because I was wary of overachieving in my first season. It lasted for two games before fans started causing an uproar over the style of play so I reverted to the old tactic but with the young squad. We went on a run of 1 win out of 9 and 2 draws, leaving us firmly mid-table but I had to tweak a few things to turn results around again because the squad were unhappy but after 3 wins from 3 that changed, again and with 6 games remaining we had officially bettered our expectations and had avoided the drop. A run of 3wins, 2 draws and a loss in the final games of the season see us finish a very comfortable 5^th.

 

Youth Intake

So the youth intake preview had me excited, first season and it looked like it could be an absolute beauty. Turns out the PA for some of them is fantastic but I’m a little disappointed with the CA. I had, maybe naively, hoped one or two would be close to first team ready. Their attributes are nothing to shout home about just yet so I’m not going into any detail at this stage. Ultimately, I offered a contract to also those below and disregarded those with less than 3* PA.

 

 

Club and Personal Development

The board agreed to upgrade the youth facilities and also took it upon themselves to upgrade our training facilities at the same time and both should be completed by October 2022. In December they also agreed to send me on my National C coaching course. Result.

 

 

Summary

Overall we had a good season on and off the pitch. A solid league campaign saw us finish far above expectations. A few issues with squad moral but it was entirely self-inflicted with tinkering a winning team. Lesson learned.

 

See you all for 22-23.

 

 

P.s what do you think of the report? I quite enjoyed writing it and would like to continue in that manner but I know there is a lot of guff in there so if it is too long and you want me to take out some of the fluff then let me know. Otherwise I will keep this style. Cheers.

 

 

 

good post; So u made profit ? i saw a few German teams with a lot of debt after holidaying one season.

[Braumiller]

The first evening of the Wales experiment was enjoyable - made a last minute club decision change......

<<< new profile badge 

As an Englishman in the US, a couple of days off after I get my work done today for Thanksgiving, hoping to get a season under my belt 

[Anners]

@scarp Another good season! Is it the top 3 that get into the Champions League? You must not feel that far off now?

[jmonfu]

38 minutes ago, thomas_e said:

Yes, some of us take our time! And I don't think I could have ever completed the challenge without playing the games. 

Another non "Instant Result" player here.  I see all matches on Extended, and the less important on Key.  That's why I am still in my first season

[JLAB]

So I've hired my backroom staff and given my players new contracts (some of which actually asked for less money than they were on), and my projected profit has gone down from £2.99M to £2.36M. It is legit something that I'm finding myself enjoying, seeing what every tiny thing does to affect my potential profits and the like.

I am also a non "Instant Result" player here as well, but got through 2 seasons in 2 weeks with Sheffield Wednesday during the beta, so I know I can get through the seasons quickly, especially since I'm not worrying about signing players unlike I was with Sheffield Wednesday.

It's just a shame that I can watch the projected transfer budget continue to go up and up and up. It could be over £1.6M by the end of my 3rd season with Siena if I keep control of the budgets like I plan on doing.

[thomas_e]

3 minutes ago, jmonfu said:

Another non "Instant Result" player here.  I see all matches on Extended, and the less important on Key.  That's why I am still in my first season

I do the same! 

I tend to use only key highlights when in the lower leagues and switch to extended when things get a bit more "tactical" as the players get better. 

[Braumiller]

I have to say, I have toyed with the idea of one of my saves being an 'Instant Result' only save to change things up.  Just couldn't pull the trigger   I am jealous of folks seeing their progressions get so far (and so good!).

Different strokes for different folks 

KUTGW all

[jmonfu]

16 minutes ago, thomas_e said:

I do the same! 

I tend to use only key highlights when in the lower leagues and switch to extended when things get a bit more "tactical" as the players get better. 

I also started documenting my progress in a Youtube series just for fun...................that's what makes it longer also, but its a hobby more than anything

[scarp]

@Anners Thank you. Yes i believe its top three. The difference between third best team and Rangers & Celtic is massive. We can do third in next few seasons but getting top2 will be another story.

[OlivierL]

24 minutes ago, thomas_e said:

Yes, some of us take our time! And I don't think I could have ever completed the challenge without playing the games. 

For me this is the eternal doubt... playing myself but then I don't play five seasons a year... or use the IR button. I now do a mix at Sant Andreu.  Practice matches and matches against lower ranked teams via IR , against higher ranked teams or decisive matches, I do it myself.

[witticism]

Still no fullbacks/wingbacks but hopefully those midfielders look right for a position switch

[DazRTaylor]

I don't use Instant Result either.

[syemo]

Finally caught up with this thread it's a challenge that's I've never really attempted fully. Had a small half arsed attempt in fm20 with barwell that went horrible wrong. 

Sadly with my MacBook being too old doubt I'll get fm21 unless I get a new laptop. If touch was spec less then I might be able to attempt it on there. 

I'm guessing it'll have to be attempted on a older version even though I prefer 17.. I guess I'll load up 20 and give it ago. 

What sort of tips would people give someone new to this challenge. I normally like to be teams that are in a little insecure countries that I've never seen maybe people have managed there or places I've been.

Tempted to either go Scandinavia, South Africa or Asia. 

 

If I start on fm20 I guess I have to post in the other thread?

[thomas_e]

37 minutes ago, OlivierL said:

For me this is the eternal doubt... playing myself but then I don't play five seasons a year... or use the IR button. I now do a mix at Sant Andreu.  Practice matches and matches against lower ranked teams via IR , against higher ranked teams or decisive matches, I do it myself.

Yes, I don't manage friendly fixtures either. I use only my starting 11 in all 7-8 friendlies and I use Reserve/U20's to get the rest match fit. 

To use instant result in any competitive games is something I would never do I think, but its great that people have different way of playing the game! 

[yowg8ynwa]

1 hour ago, thomas_e said:

I do the same! 

I tend to use only key highlights when in the lower leagues and switch to extended when things get a bit more "tactical" as the players get better. 

Same here, but extended because I just like to watch the games.  I don't think I have ever IRed yet, seems like I would not be able to affect the game through subs etc.  Although it doesn't always work...

[OlivierL]

33 minutes ago, thomas_e said:

Yes, I don't manage friendly fixtures either. I use only my starting 11 in all 7-8 friendlies and I use Reserve/U20's to get the rest match fit. 

To use instant result in any competitive games is something I would never do I think, but its great that people have different way of playing the game! 

yes i agree but if i can't play more than 5 season by playing all the games myself.. i shouldn't pick the youth challenge. We need many youth intakes  

Now i'm doubting again . My only safe choice to play fast would be Iceland / short league  

Edited November 25, 2020 by OlivierL

[Braumiller]

Sneaking the odd game in here and there in-between meetings & calls (a true sign the new save has my attention! lol) and just got my intake preview

Given the state of the starting squad, how on earth have we managed to not get the 'golden generation' comment 

MC is the one position we are ok at, but the forward will (hopefully) be a godsend.  Playing a 442 and first choice FCs are 30 & 32, backed up by a 34, 28 and 39(!) year old 

[yowg8ynwa]

10 minutes ago, OlivierL said:

yes i agree but if i can't play more than 5 season by playing all the games myself.. i shouldn't pick the youth challenge. We need many youth intakes  

Now i'm doubting again 

That's true, the more youth the better!  This might be my only save for the year due to work and family, unless the board releases me :'(

[lewis999]

Does anyone know when the Greek reset dates are? Can't find them on the OP and no-one seems to be managing there! 

[Winski]

 

 

Well, that was it. This was WAY tougher than I thought when I began with AFC.

I will start a new youth only save, but I need to think where. I will never try it again in Holland, that's for sure!

[danielclouston1]

3 hours ago, OlivierL said:

good post; So u made profit ? i saw a few German teams with a lot of debt after holidaying one season.

No, I didn´t make profit mate. I lost €3mil during the season. Starting balance was €4mil and I made around €500k from friendlies over the course of the season. It seems they have a sponsorship injection of €4mil every season as my balance rocketed again.

[JLAB]

37 minutes ago, danielclouston1 said:

No, I didn´t make profit mate. I lost €3mil during the season. Starting balance was €4mil and I made around €500k from friendlies over the course of the season. It seems they have a sponsorship injection of €4mil every season as my balance rocketed again.

That was something that helped me out when I was in Germany last season with Energie Cottbus. Their sponsorship money helped so much with how much money we were spending on wages. Once you get promoted to 2. Liga, the prize money is literally enough to cover most costs at the end of the season.

[Padders]

Relegated after 12 seasons in charge, gutting

Highest finish was 9th

we go again

[danielclouston1]

42 minutes ago, JLAB said:

That was something that helped me out when I was in Germany last season with Energie Cottbus. Their sponsorship money helped so much with how much money we were spending on wages. Once you get promoted to 2. Liga, the prize money is literally enough to cover most costs at the end of the season.

I had planned to try stay in 3.Liga for another 2 seasons but think I'm going to have to try get promoted for the prize money. Running off sponsorship alone is going to take forever to upgrade facilities. Just now it's a godsend though. They've got players on 8.5k a week in the 3rd tier...

Edited November 25, 2020 by danielclouston1

[JLAB]

5 minutes ago, danielclouston1 said:

I had planned to try stay in 3.Liga for another 2 seasons but think I'm going to have to try get promoted for the prize money. Running off sponsorship alone is going to take forever to upgrade facilities. Just now it's a godsend though. They've got players on 8.5k a week in the 3rd tier...

Search up Energie Cottbus and see how much their highest earners are on, in my Siena save they have 5 players who are getting paid £8K or more and they're not even in the 3.Liga. Some of the teams pay ridiculous money in the Regionalliga.

[witticism]

 

So I was curious about a player who I thought kept reacting negatively to every sideline shout, not every player is going to react the same to shout and fair enough but this seemed too consistent(ly negative), turns out I was half right:

Something is making my man here see red, which right happens to the best of us, but every match? all match long?

Oh

Yeah that checks out

Edited November 25, 2020 by witticism
spelling

[keeper#1]

No instant result playing here.

[DazRTaylor]

The persistence of @Paddersis extraordinary and a lesson to all.

[Cheez3y]

 

Try Number 3...off to Argentina.

[Padders]

13 minutes ago, DazRTaylor said:

The persistence of @Paddersis extraordinary and a lesson to all.

Probably done over 30 season now. The first week didn't get past 3 seasons

At a guess, on my 15th attempt now

[Braumiller]

My fans get their monies worth......

This is not an atypical game - no-one knows how to defend in this league 

That is me being saved by the linesmans flag in the 97th minute from being pegged back to 5-5