The FM21 Youth Academy Challenge

[JWB935]

Great thread guys and I have been lurking and reading it everyday! :)

What do you think about the Swiss league and trying a newly promoted Lichtenstein team? They have FC Vaduz already. Would it be possible? It would be a mix of youth challenge and a building the nation.

[DazRTaylor]

10 minutes ago, XaW said:

Yeah, I agree, holiday the first season and take over the team that finished bottom then. Happy/Unhappy with that @DazRTaylor?

Excellent decision, Darren!

I guess so.  But holidaying an eight tier file takes ages.  I will also have to scum save to get the team I want.

[darren1983]

1 minute ago, JWB935 said:

Great thread guys and I have been lurking and reading it everyday!

What do you think about the Swiss league and trying a newly promoted Lichtenstein team? They have FC Vaduz already. Would it be possible? It would be a mix of youth challenge and a building the nation.

Pretty sure the only way you'd ever get into the Champions League is by winning the Europa League so that could be a real mission impossible.

[OlivierL]

December 2021 | Season 1

The winning streak continues. Two matches were won with very late goals. Two matches were also cancelled so no boxing day match.

Even with two games to catch up .. we are leading confortable

Youth intake preview 

Looks good.. wait and see .

[OlivierL]

Anyone thinking about doing the challenge with FC Romania, they don't seem to produce Romanian regens anymore.. 

[hubwub]

4 minutes ago, OlivierL said:

Anyone thinking about doing the challenge with FC Romania, they don't seem to produce Romanian regens anymore.. 

As in a bug with them not producing Romanian regens?

[OlivierL]

Just now, hubwub said:

As in a bug with them not producing Romanian regens?

I think so, don't know where i saw it, maybe the database was not good.

[Watson156]

2 hours ago, OlivierL said:

I have been using these as a guide for players, but I'm assuming that they also work for staff and working out which is the best to get?

[OlivierL]

Just now, Watson156 said:

I have been using these as a guide for players, but I'm assuming that they also work for staff and working out which is the best to get?

Yes but i would use the right part of the screenshots for staff. But most of them are the same.

[Watson156]

4 minutes ago, OlivierL said:

Yes but i would use the right part of the screenshots for staff. But most of them are the same.

Ok perfect thanks.

Another really stupid question but, how important would you/everybody put on youth coaching rating over personalities. I'm wandering is it more important to have better coaching personalities and hopefully bring in better youth players or have worse personalities but better coaching stats and be able to coach the poorer youth players? I hope that makes sense!

[Braumiller]

You ever just have one of those perfect away games, at a team with an oddly dimensioned pitch and take notes for your groundsman for next year?

5-1 and my striker had 3 disallowed!

 

[hubwub]

Zhejiang Yiteng F.C.

SEASON THREE - 2024 - Ping An CFA Super League

LEAGUE TABLE |FIXTURES | SQUAD STATS | COMPETITION OVERVIEW

MANAGER OVERVIEW: CHARACTERISTICS | ATTRIBUTES

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

SQUAD: TRANSFERS | RELEASED

STAFF: CURRENT| RELEASED

 

Ping An CFA Super League

We are predicted to finish the season 16th and be relegated. I don't mind the battle to not get relegated. I promoted Shen Xiangwei as the captain of my team. He is young but he had better stats. We won our first match of the season. It's a 1-0 over Shijiazhuang Ever Bright. They are going to be battling for avoiding relegation just like us.

Promoted teams to the league from League One are Shenzhen FC and Beijing Renhe.

Facilities

I have scheduled upgrades happening at the end of the season for my youth and training facilities. I can't upgrade my youth coaching and recruitment yet.

Staff

Upgrades were made. I got rid of some of my staff that had balanced personalities. I was considering changing my HOYD but he's been decent in providing me good youth players.

Youth

I will probably write a more details post about this separately. It will deal with mentoring in first team and youth team.

This is it for now as I'm baking pumpkin bread right now.

[hubwub]

21 minutes ago, Watson156 said:

I have been using these as a guide for players, but I'm assuming that they also work for staff and working out which is the best to get?

I don't personally use @OlivierL's chart. That's just a personal preference. I use this but then I'm making personal modifications on it in a Google Sheet.

13 minutes ago, Watson156 said:

Ok perfect thanks.

Another really stupid question but, how important would you/everybody put on youth coaching rating over personalities. I'm wandering is it more important to have better coaching personalities and hopefully bring in better youth players or have worse personalities but better coaching stats and be able to coach the poorer youth players? I hope that makes sense!

What do you mean youth coach rating? Are you saying coaching stats?

It's been said in a different thread that your HOYD's personality and your youth staff's personality have a great influence on your intake.

EDIT: Your question is not stupid in regards to your youth coaching staff. Remember that your youth coaching staff is only there in the first years in your youth team team. It all depends on what the age limit of your youth team is. In my save as Yiteng, it's U19s. I know that at the age of 18, I should be transitioning my players from my youth team to my first team or whatever level that I think they are suitable for.

You also have to consider if your first team coach has good personalities as well.

Edited December 7, 2020 by hubwub

[Motlhen]

1 hour ago, darren1983 said:

Pretty sure the only way you'd ever get into the Champions League is by winning the Europa League so that could be a real mission impossible.

Vaduz play in the Swiss league but they gain a continental spot by winning the Liechtenstein Cup, which they have done 21 out of the last 22 seasons!

[Watson156]

3 minutes ago, hubwub said:

I don't personally use @OlivierL's chart. That's just a personal preference. I use this but then I'm making personal modifications on it in an Google Sheet.

What do you mean youth coach rating? Are you saying coaching stats?

It's been said in a different thread that your HOYD's personality and your youth staff's personality have a great influence on your intake.

EDIT: Your question is not stupid in regards to your youth coaching staff.

Yeah by coach rating I meant coaching stats. Probably should have been clearer about that.

For example, I just signed this coach for my Under 20's mainly because he's a Model Citizen, but his coaching stats are terrible. I could sign this coach who is obviously a much better coach but comes with a balanced personality. 

I guess I'm asking there any downside to stacking the Under 20's staff with Model Citizens and Professionals etc. who cant coach, or should I be adding staff like the second screenie who is a balanced personality but will probably be able to coach the Under 20's better and maybe improve them more, while having the knock on effect of a bad personality.

Does your first team staff's personality have an influence on the youth intake? If not then I suppose there's nothing stopping me adding loads of good personalities in the youth team staff and then when a really good prospect comes through, move him straight into the 1st team to get the best training while making him available to play for the Under 20's?

I like that link you gave and its got some really interesting info. It would be amazing if there was a website like this but for personalities!

[JWB935]

19 minutes ago, hubwub said:

for now as I'm baking pumpkin bread right now.

Looking forward with intrigue what effect this will have on your youth players and intake 😁👍

[darren1983]

4 minutes ago, Motlhen said:

Vaduz play in the Swiss league but they gain a continental spot by winning the Liechtenstein Cup, which they have done 21 out of the last 22 seasons!

Yeah they get into the Europa League but can't get into the Champions League unless they win that. 

[OlivierL]

25 minutes ago, hubwub said:

I don't personally use @OlivierL's chart. That's just a personal preference. I use this but then I'm making personal modifications on it in a Google Sheet.

 

My files are based on that one and a recent post from FM20 . That link is very good.

[DazRTaylor]

So @darren1983& @XaW, can I choose a team from tier 8 in Holland, the lowest level on this custom database with no relegation and go with them?  Same in Iceland, with tier 5.  Malta with tier 4.  Faroe Islands in tier 4.  I think this is far enough down to not holiday myself, especially as none are playable at the start.

If you say we have to holiday for a year, then surely this won’t apply to the Faroe Islands as they no have one playable team in the bottom tier.

[darren1983]

Yeah you will still have to holiday for the first season. If that rules out the Faroe Islands then it rules them out. 

[Motlhen]

1 minute ago, darren1983 said:

Yeah they get into the Europa League but can't get into the Champions League unless they win that. 

You were less wrong than me, but we're actually both wrong! As we've now got the EC2, the Liechtenstein cup winners go into that competition now (according to Wikipedia anyway.)

Would be a monster of a challenge!

[darren1983]

Just now, Motlhen said:

You were less wrong than me, but we're actually both wrong! As we've now got the EC2, the Liechtenstein cup winners go into that competition now (according to Wikipedia anyway.)

Would be a monster of a challenge!

Had forgot that, yeah that's a monster challenge that I would say is impossible. 

[Motlhen]

1 minute ago, darren1983 said:

Had forgot that, yeah that's a monster challenge that I would say is impossible. 

@PaulHartman71 has one of the greatest career threads I've seen & is currently trying to do what we're talking about... minus the youth challenge bit & in FM19. So yeah, would be extremely improbable when you add those extra hurdles in!

[hubwub]

1 hour ago, Watson156 said:

Yeah by coach rating I meant coaching stats. Probably should have been clearer about that.

For example, I just signed this coach for my Under 20's mainly because he's a Model Citizen, but his coaching stats are terrible. I could sign this coach who is obviously a much better coach but comes with a balanced personality. 

I guess I'm asking there any downside to stacking the Under 20's staff with Model Citizens and Professionals etc. who cant coach, or should I be adding staff like the second screenie who is a balanced personality but will probably be able to coach the Under 20's better and maybe improve them more, while having the knock on effect of a bad personality.

Does your first team staff's personality have an influence on the youth intake? If not then I suppose there's nothing stopping me adding loads of good personalities in the youth team staff and then when a really good prospect comes through, move him straight into the 1st team to get the best training while making him available to play for the Under 20's?

I like that link you gave and its got some really interesting info. It would be amazing if there was a website like this but for personalities!

You should change the colors for attributes you have. The stats aren't readable in the skin you are using.

The way I hire my staff is first rating -> personality and media handling style -> stats -> tactical style.

I'd rather have a good personality with decent coaching stats than have a balanced personality. In my situation, it's hard for me to get better personalities for certain coaching positions because I don't have the salary budget for it or there are better teams.

My first team, I still want them to have a good personality. Also, coaches can raise their stats through coaching licenses. For example, I like to pick ex-players because I know they are the lowest totem pole and with coaching licenses can reach high levels.

[Watson156]

15 minutes ago, hubwub said:

You should change the colors for attributes you have. The stats aren't readable in the skin you are using.

The way I hire my staff is first rating -> personality and media handling style -> stats -> tactical style.

I'd rather have a good personality with decent coaching stats than have a balanced personality. In my situation, it's hard for me to get better personalities for certain coaching positions because I don't have the salary budget for it or there are better teams.

My first team, I still want them to have a good personality. Also, coaches can raise their stats through coaching licenses. For example, I like to pick ex-players because I know they are the lowest totem pole and with coaching licenses can reach high levels.

Perfect thanks for the explanation, your kind of in the same situation as me in regards of not being able to afford better coaches. I presume that the personality of physios or scouts doesn't affect the youth intake does it?

Thanks for your help

[hubwub]

13 minutes ago, Watson156 said:

Perfect thanks for the explanation, your kind of in the same situation as me in regards of not being able to afford better coaches. I presume that the personality of physios or scouts doesn't affect the youth intake does it?

Thanks for your help

Physios and scouts don't affect youth intake.

No problem.

[Mitren]

Update:

Survived the first season!

On 04/12/2020 at 18:11, Mitren said:

My attempt:

Tamworth.

 

 

[Braumiller]

I'll stop posting about a team I am not even managing, I promise.

No matter where you are in this table, TNS just have this inevitable, intimidating presence.  They are like the slasher movie bad guy just slow walking after the college kid, knowing they are going to catch their prey.

(They are doing well in Europe again and are about to have the fixture backlog from hell...  Our only chance is a well timed injury crisis to go with it  )

[keeper#1]

First League Two Match

Two shots.  Two goals.  Relegated Port Vale goes down 2-1 to the plucky boys from South Shields.

Edited December 8, 2020 by keeper#1

[JWB935]

50 minutes ago, Braumiller said:

 

(They are doing well in Europe again and are about to have the fixture backlog from hell...  Our only chance is a well timed injury crisis to go with it  )

When playing a rival for the same league placing or if I'm facing a team twice in a row I will tackle hard on their best players, use get stuck in and run at defence to try and injure their players or get them sent off LOL. Am I a bad person? 😂

Edited December 8, 2020 by JWB935

[DazRTaylor]

I think I will try Germany next.

[Shankly84]

Is there a limit to what age we can get to in the game as a manager? I’m 19 seasons in and starting to worry my manager will be about 150 before I complete 🤣

[DazRTaylor]

46 minutes ago, Shankly84 said:

Is there a limit to what age we can get to in the game as a manager? I’m 19 seasons in and starting to worry my manager will be about 150 before I complete 🤣

Last year, @Padderscompleted it in 260 years.  So you have a while yet.  

[Padders]

48 minutes ago, Shankly84 said:

Is there a limit to what age we can get to in the game as a manager? I’m 19 seasons in and starting to worry my manager will be about 150 before I complete 🤣

Caps at 100 but I was over 280 years old in FM19

[BamBamBam]

16 hours ago, Braumiller said:

On The Pitch - League Table
Our season starts earlier than usual and in the Europa Conference Qualifying rounds.
First round against Iskra of Montenegro and after not knowing what to expect, they were poor.  7-0 aggregate win and around 70k in appearance money!
Second round against Mura of Slovenia, and they were tougher.  One of our better performances this year saw a 4-1 away win, followed by a basketball type game at home, 5-3.  9-4 win and another 77k appearance money!
Third round and we draw what I feel is the toughest team available, Sparta Prague.  We didn't embarrass ourselves, but the skill level was evident.  Losses of 2-4 and 1-3 saw our dream end, but it was a great run and 233k received in total over the 3 rounds.  In comparison our entire income for the prior year was 348k, so this has started chipping away at our loan debt (now down to -446k).
Domestically it was a fantastic season.  We lost in our first round of the League Cup to TNS (although only 1-2!) and 3 of our first 10 league games (but won the other 7!) and then went just over 3 months unbeaten before a double header with TNS.  We lost both of those, but won our last game before the split to sit 2nd in the league.
A definite wobble then happened, losing our first 3 post-split games (not coincidentally around the time Chris Hilton 04A left) but we settled and ground out results to secure 2nd place with 2 games to spare!
We made our 2nd Welsh Cup final in a row and were promptly beaten by TNS again.

This is not unusual though, TNS are simply unplayable in my save right now and are exactly where we are aiming to be in the future.
They won the domestic treble again and their final league record was P32 W29 D3 L0 F99 A16 GD+83 Pts90
Then add in their 10 wins in the two cups......
Truly dominant.

Off The Pitch
The main news was already covered in this post.  We lost Chris Hilton 04A for just 35k, but we did get a 50% next fee clause in there.
FC Cincinnati, Houston, Real Salt Lake and one other MLS team I forget now were all in for him.
Since his move his value has steadily risen from around 50k to 155K and he has scored twice in 9 games.  Hoping he continues and we cash in at some point down the line.
Debt wise, we are making headway on erasing it.  A few more years of mini Europa Conference runs will go a long way to getting us back on a sound financial footing and maybe looking at infrastructure improvements that haven't happened now in what feels like forever.

Youth Intake - screenshot
A decent intake, as with last year I anticipate on 1 or 2 will surface in the first team, but if that happens each year then we should be ok (as long as we don't lose too many like Chris Hilton 04A)
Nathan Jones 07A - Noted as a playmaking attacking midfielder, I am hoping to turn him into my more creative deep lying attacker.  After starting on the bench Nathan started 5 games in the run in and scored twice.  If he settles there as it appears he will, that will free up James Downes 05A to move out wide into the spot vacated by Chris Hilton 04A!
Mykee Watkins 07B - Somewhat of a pattern emerging, with our midfield prospects being more combative than creative.  Not too opposed to this (although one MC role right now is a playmaker, but willing to experiment) if we can win the ball and move it quickly into space in front of us and let the fast lads up front and out wide loose.
Keith Ball 07C - Big potential GK.  Will need to impress in the u19s to get any chance of a first team start, but always nice to have options.
Sam Rumsey 07D - Sam joins a long list of left backs, none of whom have cemented the position for themselves.  Slow and technically deficient, not expecting Sam to break this mold.
Lewis Binns 07E - Big tall DC, Lewis will have a few years in the u19s to try and progress

Squad Stats

Transfers

Love the excels. Do you have a link to them?

[KVJ92]

1 hour ago, Padders said:

Caps at 100 but I was over 280 years old in FM19

How's it going? Still getting the bad periods you can't escape?

[Anners]

15 hours ago, OlivierL said:

I really have a hard time playing a lot of matches. I don't get speed in men save and what's most important in this challenge are getting a lot of youth intakes... I see them passing by here but I'm only half way through the first season myself.
If I don't play my own matches myself but use instant results, I don't feel good about it, I want to see and decide everything for myself. 
Small leagues help but both Iceland, Wales and Scotland rarely have clubs with high crowd numbers and so few FC United opportunities. (Money, opportunity to grow fast).  Too bad there are no short competitions in a stronger country.  Iceland also boring pretty fast with the same opponents and long winter break. I amuse myself a lot with FC United but the speed bothers me. Nobody has the solution for me, I suppose

 

Just on this as I've caught up with the last few pages...

I'm also somewhat similar, but more in the sense that I play quite slow. I'm trying to avoid thinking that everyone else seems to miles ahead, as it starts to make me feel like I'm falling behind. I'm still in the third season with Canet for example.

[Cheez3y]

I watch every match on key highlights.

With a little bit of squad managing, contracts, training etc, I get through 6-12 games an evening.

 

I miss scouting tho....

 

[jmonfu]

6 minutes ago, Cheez3y said:

I watch every match on key highlights.

With a little bit of squad managing, contracts, training etc, I get through 6-12 games an evening.

 

I miss scouting tho....

 

I watch most matches on Extended Highlights, especially first half of the season and also at the end if I am going to be involved in a promotion/relegation battle.  I can get through 2 seasons in a week mostly.  I forgot how to scout   

I also do a lot of squad management though, especially the youths with my stylesheets.  I try to plan ahead and retrain certain players in certain positions.  The problem is I tend to change formations often, so I can train a player as an IF, and then a month later as a Shadow Striker.

Edited December 8, 2020 by jmonfu

[XaW]

After all this talk, yeah, I had to do something... So I've started in the 5th tier of Iceland with Skandinavia! The team finished the first season with 1 (ONE!!!) point last season and finished dead last in the 4. deild - Group B. So this will be a fun challenge I think, but with only 14 games a season down here (22 in the tiers above) it should go quite fast.

 

[DazRTaylor]

So the new youth preview is in.  Sigh.

[DazRTaylor]

40 minutes ago, XaW said:

After all this talk, yeah, I had to do something... So I've started in the 5th tier of Iceland with Skandinavia! The team finished the first season with 1 (ONE!!!) point last season and finished dead last in the 4. deild - Group B. So this will be a fun challenge I think, but with only 14 games a season down here (22 in the tiers above) it should go quite fast.

 

All the best in Iceland!  I was just about to start one there too.  As there are four divisions in that tier, I will choose someone different.

[Braumiller]

Tell me if you have heard this story before......

Monmouth's best player goes on a great run of form, multiple MLS teams start bidding like crazy, Monmouth chairman accepts an offer

Is the Welsh Cymru Premier aired live on a sports channel in the US these days?  

[Padders]

2 hours ago, KVJ92 said:

How's it going? Still getting the bad periods you can't escape?

I am probably 40-50 seasons in, haven't got past 2-3 seasons bar once.

[KVJ92]

36 minutes ago, Padders said:

I am probably 40-50 seasons in, haven't got past 2-3 seasons bar once.

Have you thought about a different team, which might have a stronger squad to start with? :-) 

[officiallydeej]

He's chosen every position and individually told me the players in each one are poor.

[ANGL]

CLUB ESPORTIU EUROPA - SEASON 1 (21/22)

 

League table - Made It! The first season looked like it would be hard, and it has been, but we were able to be safe with a nice margin. Started a bit slow and it wasn't until the 8th game that we win our first. After that, a good run between october and december (5W, 4D, 3L) was the key for safety because the end of the season was a disaster (1W, 1D and 6L, including an humiliating 4-0 lose against rivals Sant Andreu), but luckily we had a good margin with relegation.

 

First team squad - Not a lot of players and not a lot of quality, but its what I got. Our best player this season has been Sergio, who didn't want to sign a new contract as was asking a lot of money, but finally did after negotiating directly with the board. There is no much more to show here, maybe except for Babacar Keïta's 16 goals. No transfers made as requested.


Youth Intake - The preview didn't quite look good, and after seeing the full squad (1, 2) I feel quite cold about it. Yes, there's a lot of 5* potentials, but I think it's because the lack of quality of first-teamers, and personalities look meh despite my HOYD being professional. Also, a lot of wingers and no strikers, which I need most. Of all of them, have caught the eye Jaume Puig 1f, who will be competing for a starter place, and Roger 1n, as he is already professional and I hope he can develop well. Because of the little players of the first team, almost all of them will be given contracts and some will have some minutes playing from the bench.

 

Club Structure - First of all, we signed a HOYD. He's no big thing, but at least he has a nice personality. In the personal sphere, the board allowed me to do a coaching course, so now I have a National B License.

The structure of the club hasn't changes much. An improvement for the Youth Recruitment System was aproved, which is now fairly basic. All the rest of facilities remain the same, with an improvement to training facilities asked but not given.

I've also asked three times the board to become Professional, but only received negatives as answers. We are still semi-pro, and I believe that this is one of the most important things I need to change to progress as a club and in the challenge.

 

Onto the next season!

[hubwub]

Would people like to know what the possible outcomes are for certain personalities with the use of mentoring groups?

Edited December 8, 2020 by hubwub

[Padders]

1 hour ago, KVJ92 said:

Have you thought about a different team, which might have a stronger squad to start with? :-) 

Yeah I have, tried one save with Hornchurch and got relegated first season so gone back to Witton

It is getting a bit desperate and most been at least 15 or 20 goes now

[danielclouston1]

3 hours ago, Cheez3y said:

I watch every match on key highlights.

With a little bit of squad managing, contracts, training etc, I get through 6-12 games an evening.

 

I miss scouting tho....

 

I just don't have the time to watch every match. If I was to play 100% of the games I'd be lucky to finish 10 seasons by next release.