The FM21 Youth Academy Challenge

[Constantine 884]

2 hours ago, darren1983 said:

Of course 2 league games later we beat top of the table for our first win in like 11 games because that's just how this game works  

This is copy/paste from my current save. Rubbish in Vanarama National, six or so defeats in the row but got to 2nd round of FA Cup (beaten by Doncaster) and 4th round of FAT (won against current league leaders, York)

It's ridiculous

[SoSolidSnake 80]

Can't really complain about that intake preview I suppose, at least we're going to have another keeper! 

[Shankly84 344]

So we got our players back early and pulled this one out the bag!!

[darren1983 2,988]

South Shields Season 2022/23 Review - Vanarama National League 

League - On paper a good first season for us at this level but it was rough. Started season OK with drawing lots of games and picking up the odd win and losses tended to be by one goal but 2nd half was so bad. We only won 3 of our final 23 games which was a run of 9 straight defeats, 5 games unbeaten and then another 7 straight losses as our team fell apart because they were shattered, postponements and mini cup run meant that for nearly 3 months our small squad played every 3 days which killed us.

FA Cup - Lost in our first game. Again. To a team in the league below. Again.

FA Trophy - made it to the quarter finals this year but again run affected our league form

Transfers - none in but losing our young back up LB really hurt us in the 2nd part of the season

Finances - really nice for this level

Youth Intake - on paper a really good one (and I have tagged 7 players!) but am starting to fear this says more about my current squad then the talent of these players  (I should add that I forgot to take screenshot on the day they came through so these are from end of season)

David Lamb 23A - left winger cutting inside - my dream wide player
Cian Gwyneed 23B - CM but thinking long term he might make a decent DM
Todd Bell 23C - striker, not at the level of first team but his pace and dribbling could be an asset
Aidan Narin 23D - Left Wingback, already played once when needed
Josh Norris 23E - another striker but training him as an IF from the right
Matthew Hancock 23F - CB, not amazing but we lack depth there
Manuel Campanga 23G - a decent looking keeper

Career Overview

Season		League		Position	Junior Coaching		Recruitment	Notes & Achievements
2021/22		VNLN		1st 		Adequate		Adequate	Promotion
2022/23		VNL		20th 		Adequate		Good

 

[VillaSmith 127]

Just got to the end of the season (will post an update soon) and got this message, bahahaha 

A pretty short tenure, only about 3 months and a £700k loss! I'm thinking I may have unwittingly been part of a money laundering scheme.

 

Edit: The takeover was completed 3 days later and the new chairman pumped in £450k, which gave me the funds to convince him to improve the Youth Facilities. Long live the new king Chairman!

Edited December 18, 2020 by VillaSmith

[gadedk 50]

https://www.fmtrendgames.com/tools/fm21-welsh-level-6-database-football-manager-2021/

[OlivierL 864]

1 hour ago, JWB935 said:

Wow that really sucks! Especially after 24 seasons!!

Thats why i want to start as a Liechtenstein team but really need to know the details first before I really get in to it.

I have athread here:

 

If anyone can help me, it would be appreciated. Hope Iceland can get fixed somehow and you can continue.

and in Gibraltar are also issues with the database. Love this FM edition but a lot of scary bugs.. already messed up 3 or 4 of my saves. 

[DJ Sir Matthew 308]

Question for those that criticize/praise players after weak training performance: what is your threshold?

And how do you respond to those pesky characters who say you criticize them too often etc. Do you try to convince? Take the hard line (threatening reduced play time) Or do you just back down?

[XaW 5,150]

I could see money soon. 50% of whatever they get will be mine!

[XaW 5,150]

There we go!

And thanks to that...

Edited December 18, 2020 by XaW

[witticism 162]

On 16/12/2020 at 15:28, witticism said:

I'm halfway through the season with Rouen after a fair amount of Cyberpunk. A new winger would be a welcome addition, as two I have are going to decline or retire soon.

Youth intake time:

 

 

[yowg8ynwa 40]

Season 2  -  2023 - Mid Season Review

Last year at the mid-season mark we were in 9th place after 15 games, winning 6.  Unfortunately, the second season in Concepcion, Chile has been much rougher.  Having won only 3 of the 15 before the summer month break, we will try and rebuild and retrain a new style of play.  Ending the previous season in 6th and qualifying for the promotion playoffs has been replaced with desperately trying to win one more game over Rangers de Talca, who are also regressing from last season.  Hopefully the new youth intake preview is soon and we are still in charge by the time they arrive!

EDIT - About a week later, the youth intake preview has come in.  It looks like we have a centreback coming in, while managing to poach a youth player from Arauco.  The coaches seem to think that we have the possibility of a real golden generation for Concepcion.  This could help get our season back on track.

Edited December 19, 2020 by yowg8ynwa
Youth intake preview came in soon after

[holidaysong 108]

FC United of Manchester ; season 2027/28

League Table ; I finished 18th, one place down on last year. It was a difficult year, with relegation always a possibility.

Squad ; Our team is slowly improving.

Starting 11 ; No standout goalscorer, but right back was the real problem area, having to play a 1.5 star player there.

Transfers ; Almost €2m for selling Alfie Crook in order to invest.

Youth Candidates ; Nobody exceptional but I was blessed with a badly needed new right back in Paul O'Sullivan. He goes in as my starting RB.

Next season expectations ; Fight bravely against relegation!

However, there was some fantastic news as on the back of selling Crook, I asked the board to turn Professional and they agreed! Hopefully this is the step I need to push on.

[XaW 5,150]

AFC Rushden & Diamonds Season 2028/29 review

Table | Squad | Transfers | Finances

Wow, seems like the vast amount of season in the lowest tier helps out now in the longer term. We actually steamrolled the league throughout the season! The only team that were anywhere close to us were Burton Albion, but even they couldn't keep up. It got a bit more hairy toward the end of the season when I also experienced the massive fatigue that @Padders have written about earlier. I tried to rotate, but it was still pretty hard to handle since I got a bit far in the cups as well. Anyway, I won't complain much since we got promoted as champions. Finally into the real league system! We are also going professional this summer, and I've gotten approved improvements to both training facilities and youth facilities. I've also gotten some more improvements to the youth recruitments, so things are looking very good for the future.

Oh, and we are building a new stadium apparently!

This preview made it look like we were getting beasts, but the intake was a quite average. We did get one good player though in German full back Jürgen Hermann 29a.

In the FA Cup we beat Morpeth, Forest Green and Havant & Waterlooville before losing to Championship side Sheffield Wednesday in the 3rd round after a replay.

In the FA Trophy we beat Halifax Town and Bognor Regis Town before losing to Yeovil Town in the 5th round.

Edited December 19, 2020 by XaW

[Padders 1,517]

@XaW I am beginning to wonder if this is something that has changed since the update

It's becoming unplayable in my opinion 

[XaW 5,150]

1 minute ago, Padders said:

@XaW I am beginning to wonder if this is something that has changed since the update

It's becoming unplayable in my opinion 

Nah, I'm not that bothered, since there is a metric ton of matches, and especially young players will struggle to keep fresh. I've noticed that it also depends of what role they play. My wingers struggle much more than my DM. So I'll handle it, it's just an extra challenge for me!

[Padders 1,517]

This is my current status

Pretty much all players knackered and I have rotated them

Haven't won a league game in 9 after been sat in 3rd

Oh and I am in December and this has been going on since October!

Got another 6 months of the season left!

Edited December 19, 2020 by Padders

[JLAB 295]

Just had my latest youth intake preview and there's a few things to be excited about. If we get another striker who's amazing and a goalkeeper to give us more competition that would be nice. Admittedly, with this being considered a "golden generation", I'm not sure how much of this I should believe. I'm curious to see if any of the "current" ability will be more than 2 stars for the first time ever.

[XaW 5,150]

I have to sell my best player again. His contract was up at the season, and he refused to sign a new one. I did negotiate the transfer date to be after the season, so I'm not losing him any earlier than I would anyway. And I got some money and the always good 50% of next sale. I really didn't want to lose him, because he is amazing, but such is life...

[Cheez3y 758]

Season 2021/22 - League 2

Youth Intake 2022

 

We got some decent players here.

 

He could almost be our starting right winger.

Lets see how this will be in the future.

Already loving all those things.

[JLAB 295]

Maybe, after five seasons in charge, I can finally finish in the top half of the table and secure a play-off place for the very first time with Siena. We've put ourselves in a great position to do so.

[Cheez3y 758]

Season 2021/22 - League 2

Lets see how this squad works in League 1.

We beat couple team in the cups already.

[DazRTaylor 1,721]

The FM Editor's Welsh division six file is out.  His files are among the best so will holiday for a year and take over a club that finished bottom on the sixth tier (there are four divisions in the sixth tier).

[SoSolidSnake 80]

@Padders @XaW Just because I noticed you talking about fatigue, according to Rashidi's Training Guide, not having a (or enough) sports scientists can lead to fatigue in a side. Also obviously there is over training them, so might just want to check how the training levels are looking for each of your players, especially the fatigued ones. Might be worth reducing training to half intensity if they become fatigued easily. 

You might already have thought of all this, and players are still fatigued because they're playing lots of games a season, but if you haven't thought about something I said above, might be worth a look!

[XaW 5,150]

19 minutes ago, SoSolidSnake said:

@Padders @XaW Just because I noticed you talking about fatigue, according to Rashidi's Training Guide, not having a (or enough) sports scientists can lead to fatigue in a side. Also obviously there is over training them, so might just want to check how the training levels are looking for each of your players, especially the fatigued ones. Might be worth reducing training to half intensity if they become fatigued easily. 

You might already have thought of all this, and players are still fatigued because they're playing lots of games a season, but if you haven't thought about something I said above, might be worth a look!

I didn't have one last season, but I had this and I didn't find it made much difference, really. I've changed the training as well, but I just think young players and too many matches just makes it tough. 

[DazRTaylor 1,721]

 With the release of the lower league database in Wales by The FM Editor, I am going there next.  After holidaying for a year, the worst team in the fourth tier is clearly Cwmfelin Press, who lost all twelve games.

Club Introduction

Cwmfelin Press

The Manager

This is me.

Personal Coaching Data

Season     Reputation            Qualifications          Att   Def   Fit   GkD   GkH   GkS   Tac   Tec   Men   WWY   Ada   Det   PlK   YoK   LoD   MaM   Mot
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
At start   Minimal   (0.25*)     None                      1     1     1     1     1     1     1     1     1     4     1     1     1     4     1     1     1

Club Facilities

Season     Training Facilities  Youth Facilities  Corporate Facilities  Junior Coaching  Youth Recruitment  Club Reputation
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
At Start   Poor                 Poor              Basic                 Basic            Limited            Local   (0.50*)

Season Record

Season     Played     Won     Drawn     Lost     Goals For     Goals Against     Goal Difference
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Overall Career Record

After Season   Played     Won     Drawn     Lost     Goals For     Goals Against     Goal Difference     Time At Club
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Trophy Haul

Season     Competition Won
--------------------------

Trophy Cabinet

League Titles
-------------



Cup Competition Victories
-------------------------

Career Overview

Season     Champions League    Europa League    Europa Conference League             League                             Position     JD Welsh Cup                    Achievements
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Record Number of Appearances (Players From The Academy Only)

Season     Player                    Cumulative Number of Appearances
---------------------------------------------------------------------

Record Goal Scorer (Players From The Academy Only)

Season     Player                    Cumulative Number of Goals
---------------------------------------------------------------

Record Number of Assists (Players From The Academy Only)

Season     Player                    Cumulative Number of Assists
-----------------------------------------------------------------

Record Number of Clean Sheets (Players From The Academy Only)

Season     Player                    Cumulative Number of Clean Sheets
----------------------------------------------------------------------

 

 

 

 

[SoSolidSnake 80]

27 minutes ago, XaW said:

I didn't have one last season, but I had this and I didn't find it made much difference, really. I've changed the training as well, but I just think young players and too many matches just makes it tough. 

Yeah that's probably true too! 

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

In other news, this will be the first transfer window where teams are actually interested in one of my players: 

Honestly, I don't want to lose him, he's joint top goalscorer in the league with 14 goals in 19 games, and that's despite 7 finishing. However, the media reckons I might get 600k for him, which is difficult to turn down given my financial situation, even though it's not really going to solve any issues. But with a 50% clause and a potential future sale, he could yet be our saviour! 

 

We're not doing too badly, but we're still outside of the promotion places, and if we lose Srdic it's only going to make it harder to make that push into the big money of  2. Bundesliga.

edit: 1860 Munchen lost their game in hand, so we're in 4th baby! Hopefully we can stay there, and then we've just got a playoff to win. Might be too much to hope though with 16 games to go.

Edited December 19, 2020 by SoSolidSnake

[SoSolidSnake 80]

It's not as much as I want, but it might be the best I can get. We'll hold off in case anyone else comes for him in the next week.

EDIT: So it turns out that if you advance a day, you can negotiate all over again, and so we got a better deal:

They agreed to meet his release clause, and give us 50% of the next sale - I really hope something comes of it because otherwise we've just sold a great player for relatively peanuts. Even if we could sell him twice, we'd still be in the red, financially speaking.

Edited December 19, 2020 by SoSolidSnake

[JAwtunes 138]

Hello all.

I finally managed to get around to starting my own FM20 Youth Academy Challenge with Widzew Lodz (Poland) yesterday.

The league reset date for my game was 19 June, so I jumped in 10 days.

I have posted the manager profile page below and a few others.  Fingers crossed this doesn't all end in tears for Widzew and me (mostly me!).

Manager profile page:

Spoiler

Lowest playable division (liga I) screenshot:

Spoiler

Start db settings

Spoiler

Day 1 Squad (our top striker is 37 years old.  Thankfully we'll be playing a 4411!)

Spoiler

Our proud history in Polish football (4 times national champions in the 80s and 90s) and league comparison vs. our 'fierce' local rivals.

Spoiler

The obligatory mutiny on day 1... we're just not good enough for Widzew, in the eyes of the players at least.  (I'm already having flashbacks to my Tromso save where I lost 50%+ of the dressing room and got sacked).

Spoiler

 

 

 

Edited December 19, 2020 by JAwtunes

[witticism 162]

This one took a while

2025/2026

 

 

It was honestly a bit of a struggle for consistency for the majority of it, we really felt the absence of the defender we sold in the summer and it was a struggle to find form ever after

 

A Season to Remember

Spoiler

 

Transfers

Spoiler

 

Memorable Moments

Spoiler

 

Finances

Spoiler

 

Lineup

Spoiler

 

Accolades

Spoiler

 

Intake

Spoiler

 

Best Prospect - Horst Evrard

Spoiler

 

And now for something different, progress pics. By now there's been several academy players in the first team but I'll try to limit this section to the most notable/memorable

 

Cédric Méyé

Spoiler

 

 

 

Vusi Caloin

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited December 19, 2020 by witticism
format

[OlivierL 864]

 SC Eendracht Aalst - Belgium -  Eerste Nationale - 3th tier -  Intro

Database | Manager | Club info | Club vision | Facilities | Finances | Squad | Squad Calc.

Intro

After an attempt in Gibraltar (bugs prize money and registration players) and almost starting with Croatia Berlin I am back... back in Belgium after a failed attempt at Berchem Sport , I have now opted for the team with the largest following in the lower series, SC Eendracht Aalst.  I also expect large expenses for youth setup but hope that this can be compensated by high income spectators.  I also expect a lot of special second nationalities and that is a nice extra ( @Cheez3y).  Semi Prof, no big competition, good supporters... I am looking forward to it!  We start with 19 players for the first season.

History SC Eendracht Aalst

SC Eendracht Aalst, or Eendracht Aalst for short, is a Belgian football club from the East Flanders city of Aalst. The club is affiliated with the KBVB with number 90, and has black and white as club colours.

Spoiler

At the beginning of 2000, Gilbert De Jonghe and Patrick Orlans were the 'bad guys' , because they were heading for a merger with Sporting Lokeren. However, the supporters protested en masse against selling the club's individuality; the match against Sint-Truiden was kicked off in front of empty stands to symbolise how many Aalst fans would come to watch a merged club. The merger plans were put away and De Jonghe and Orlans left the club. Luc Coppens, a loyal sponsor for many years, took over the torch and became the new chairman. The well that Orlans and De Jonghe had created turned out not to fill and despite countless desperate attempts, the club announced bankruptcy at the end of 2001/2002. This meant the end of KSC Eendracht Aalst under the old name. In the 2001/02 competition the club also ended penultimate, but because of the bankruptcy Eendracht had to go to Third Division. They never came back since those days.

Aalst played 16 season in the first division of Belgium. Last time in the firt tier was in 2001/2002. They finished 4th in 1995 and played two UEFA Cup games in 1995 against Levski Sofia and As Roma

SC Eendracht Aalst Facts

The City Aalst is very famous for ' Aalst Carnaval' . Aalst Carnival is an annual three-day event in the Belgian city of Aalst. It was formerly recognised by UNESCO as a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity

Nickname : De Ajuinen ( onion) 

Former Players : Dries Mertens (2005) - Nico Vaesen (1995-1998) 

Facilities

The Pierre Cornelis Stadium is a football stadium in the Belgian city of Aalst. It has been the home stadium of football club Eendracht Aalst since 1928. The stadium had 7500 seats of which 4000 stand and 3500 seats. Later this was reduced to 4,500 seats. The stadium is situated on the Bredestraat, near the viaduct over the Dender( Dender is the rival club and the name of a river) and in the shadow of the Heilig Hartkerk.

Pierre Cornelis Stadium - 4694 (2491 seats) | Average Training facilities | Good Youth facilities | Adequate Academy coaching |Fairly Basic Youth recruitment

Aalst is located between Brussel, Gent and Antwerp . 87332 people live in Aalst.

Key Players

 

 

De Neve, Fabris and COpado are my three key players and they are central midfielders so this is my strongest part of the squad. Lentz my main and good GK.

Best of Class 2020

Verstraete 20-1 is the only signed youth intake player at the start of the save. He has some potential .

 

Edited December 20, 2020 by OlivierL

[Steveh171 109]

 

Taranto 2022/23 Season Review

Well again this was a real struggle, not real improvement in terms of points on last season, as we secured 14th place again in a virtually identical season in terms of results. No real in danger of relegation. Another terrible run of form into the end of the season, in what just feels inevitable so far in all of my FM saves on this version.

A fairly decent youth intake, with a stand out centre back. However i would love for him to actually have some pace! Matteo Baggalini. The strongest teams in this division just play wingers up top and completely destroy my back line, its extremely frustrating!

Transfers, lost one of the 21 year instake a guy called Garbiel Secco. He was really good but wouldn't sign another contract, so i sold him with a sell on clause to home he picks me up a fee in the future. Another goalie i left due to offering the wrong type of contract, lesson learned!

 

 

[Cheez3y 758]

1 minute ago, OlivierL said:

 SC Eendracht Aalst - Belgium -  Eerste Nationale - 3th tier -  Intro

Database | Manager | Club info | Club vision | Facilities | Finances | Squad | Squad Calc.

Intro

After an attempt in Gibraltar (bugs prize money and registration players) and almost starting with Croatia Berlin I am back... back in Belgium after a failed attempt at Berchem Sport , I have now opted for the team with the largest following in the lower series, SC Eendracht Aalst.  I also expect large expenses for youth setup but hope that this can be compensated by high income spectators.  I also expect a lot of special second nationalities and that is a nice extra ( @Cheez3y).  Semi Prof, no big competition, good supporters... I am looking forward to it!  We start with 19 players for the first season.

History SC Eendracht Aalst

SC Eendracht Aalst, or Eendracht Aalst for short, is a Belgian football club from the East Flanders city of Aalst. The club is affiliated with the KBVB with number 90, and has black and white as club colours.

At the beginning of 2000, Gilbert De Jonghe and Patrick Orlans were the 'bad guys' , because they were heading for a merger with Sporting Lokeren. However, the supporters protested en masse against selling the club's individuality; the match against Sint-Truiden was kicked off in front of empty stands to symbolise how many Aalst fans would come to watch a merged club. The merger plans were put away and De Jonghe and Orlans left the club. Luc Coppens, a loyal sponsor for many years, took over the torch and became the new chairman. The well that Orlans and De Jonghe had created turned out not to fill and despite countless desperate attempts, the club announced bankruptcy at the end of 2001/2002. This meant the end of KSC Eendracht Aalst under the old name. In the 2001/02 competition the club also ended penultimate, but because of the bankruptcy Eendracht had to go to Third Division. They never came back since those days.

Aalst played 16 season in the first division of Belgium. Last time in the firt tier was in 2001/2002. They finished 4th in 1995 and played two UEFA Cup games in 1995 against Levski Sofia and As Roma

SC Eendracht Aalst Facts

The City Aalst is very famous for ' Aalst Carnaval' . Aalst Carnival is an annual three-day event in the Belgian city of Aalst. It was formerly recognised by UNESCO as a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity

Nickname : De Ajuinen ( onion) 

Aalst is 101 years old .

Former Players : Dries Mertens (2005) - Nico Vaesen (1995-1998) 

 

Facilities

 

The Pierre Cornelis Stadium is a football stadium in the Belgian city of Aalst. It has been the home stadium of football club Eendracht Aalst since 1928. The stadium had 7500 seats of which 4000 stand and 3500 seats. Later this was reduced to 4,500 seats. The stadium is situated on the Bredestraat, near the viaduct over the Dender and in the shadow of the Heilig Hartkerk.

Pierre Cornelis Stadium - 4694 (2491 seats) | Average Training facilities | Good Youth facilities | Adequate Academy coaching |Fairly Basic Youth recruitment

Aalst is located between Brussel, Gent and Antwerp . 87332 people live in Aalst.

 

Key Players

 

 

De Neve, Fabris and COpado are my three key players and they are central midfielders so this is my strongest part of the squad. Lentz my main and good GK.

Best of Class 2020

Verstraete 20-1 is the only signed youth intake player at the start of the save. He has some potential .

 

Good luck

[Steveh171 109]

Season 23/24 Review

Well it would appear I took no screenshots of the youth intake on this one... awkward! But I did take one of the progress of my one regens, one that i clearly didn't rate initially but just kept growing and growing until he became by far my best centre midfielder. Richard Passeirini A good all around midfielder which really helped out my midfield woes. 

So how did we do in the league? Slightly better with a 12th place finish. Still conceeding too many goals for my liking. That's the issue we need to stop to progress to the next level.

Transfers

Season 24/25 Review

While im catching up i may aswell post about this season too, again we had some fantastic development from on my players. A right back called Paolo Mattioli, he quickly became by far the best right back at the club!

So what was the youth intake like? Well i actually have evidence of this one!

Antono Salvemini - A bit of an odd midfielde,r not sure what hes good at.

Leo Stango - A winger that looks like he could be good

Mauro di biase- a ball playing centre back, may try and convert to a midfielder if i can change his personality.

So how did we do in the league? Well we came 10th, and got into the playoffs. And we lost the first game straight away, we are in just no way strong enough to compete with the top half of the table teams. We managed to reduce the goals we conceded this year at the cost of some goals up front. 

Transfers - Sold an existing left back at the club. Also managed to get youth recruitment and junior coaching to excellent!!

[Armeniar 214]

 

Lega Pro Serie C (14th) - Coppa Italia (Group Stage) - Squad 

 

First season is not really one to remember, I certainly  expected more. That's probably due to our excellent start of the season, winning 5 of our 6 first games and drawing against former Serie A side Catania. Things went south after that, I think it's a combination of my tactic and our lack of quality in certain areas. We fought until the very end, luckily for us never real relegation threats. Our 7 games loss streak was an all time low for me.

Disappointment of the season is our veteran striker Alfageme, ten goals is just not enough given his status. He earns €2,600 a week, while the average is about 600. As our finances aren't looking that good, we'll probably have to cut him off.

Youth intake

We could use every bit of quality to compete in the Serie C. Decent first batch of youngsters looking at their potential, we signed nine of them. Talarico is the most promising, immediately gave an assist in his debut game. He should fill in the gap in our attacking departement next season. Logrieco will be our back up goalie, if he can develop a little he'll be our starter as our current goalie is a weak link of the team. The other youth players are still too far away from first team level so they will get the time they need. 

[DazRTaylor 1,721]

My first intake preview is in and I must say, I am surprised it isn't a "Golden generation", considering how poor my players are.

[Gbrexiton 68]

Matchday 30, and I’m in the playoffs for the first time since matchday 7. Only 8 more games to go, hopefully I can hold on!

[Steveh171 109]

25/26 Season Review

One step forward and two steps back sums up this season. We had our lowest points total and lowest finish, flirting with relegation the entire season. We finished 15th with 43 points.  I was really pissed off to be honest as we still had alot of players from the original first team, and none of our youth intakes had really pushed on and got them out the out the team. 

It was at this point I even made an angry post on here, but obviously the staff at SI must have been reading as they then blessed me with my best youth intake, ever.

Enter Domenico Casula. The best starting stats i've ever had from a regen! I also had another number of other key players i clearly couldn't be bothered to screenshot in excitement from getting this guy.

This made up for the poor season we had, and made me very optimistic heading into our next season. Transfers as always, not alot to see here. Club is also in financial ruin, which me not being out of the red since 2024. So i'm still a national B level coach. Fantastic!

[Steveh171 109]

26/27 Season Review

Well this is my final catchup review, and another strange season. I had my moment where i tried to be a visionary and set us up with a new 5-2-3 formation as opposed to my classic 4-4-2. This really did not work out well with us having a record of 1W-7D-2L after the opening 10 games. I then went back to 4-4-2 which made us basically win or lose every game. 

It was at this point I need to talk about 1 player from the previous intake. On my above screenshot he didn't even make the top players. Mangione single handledly made my defence inpenetrenable. Not sure what our coached were feeding this guy, maybe horse meat, but holy **** he exploded into best centre back in the league.

This guy basically carried us from flirting with relegation to sneaking into the play offs, we snuck in on the last day after victories against the teams around us in the run up. Everything seems to be clicking!

However, its not all good news. The rise of Mangione caught me off guard and he refused to sign a contract. With 1 year left I made the decision to sell to strasbourg. I get to keep him until 2028 so he should be able to stomp the league next year. 

So the youth intake? The final piece of the puzzle for me in midfield was answered, with a proper defensive player. Cristian D'Agostino goes straight into my starting line up.

So that's me all caught up. Our formation, form and squad depth really clicked at the back end of last season. So i'm hoping with the last season of Mangione we can use him to carry us up the table, and potentially into Serie B. 

 

 

Edited December 19, 2020 by Steveh171

[Padders 1,517]

I'm guessing the new update had reduced the amount of goals with 25 top scorer!

[Padders 1,517]

3 hours ago, SoSolidSnake said:

@Padders @XaW Just because I noticed you talking about fatigue, according to Rashidi's Training Guide, not having a (or enough) sports scientists can lead to fatigue in a side. Also obviously there is over training them, so might just want to check how the training levels are looking for each of your players, especially the fatigued ones. Might be worth reducing training to half intensity if they become fatigued easily. 

You might already have thought of all this, and players are still fatigued because they're playing lots of games a season, but if you haven't thought about something I said above, might be worth a look!

Thanks for that

I don't have one and when I ask for one (pops up about board letting me know) nothing happens!

Must be a bug!

[DazRTaylor 1,721]

Youth Candidates

Season 2021/22

Cwmfelin Press

As long as they can recognise what a football is, then they are welcome additions.  Due to the quality, or lack thereof, of my players, there was always going to be a lot of five star potential players.

[DazRTaylor 1,721]

Out of interest, has anyone attempted this challenge from an English tier ten side?

[SoSolidSnake 80]

2 minutes ago, Padders said:

Thanks for that

I don't have one and when I ask for one (pops up about board letting me know) nothing happens!

Must be a bug!

Wow that's pretty weird, might want to report that! 

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Another small update from me (I'm never good at waiting til season end for these things): It's Youth Intake time!

And overall, it's meh...

There's Tommaso Guerra - or War Thomas as I think I'm going to call him, shame he hasn't got high aggression. But he looks fairly good for a 15 year old at this level, I'm sure he'll develop to become one of my key players, a nice stat distribution. Unfortunately he's not going to be able to play for two more years, but at least once he does play he should be pretty good (as long as I don't get fired by then).

Speaking of aggression here's Simon Lutz - the 20 aggression pacy winger. He's basically quick, angry, agile and can throw a ball a long way. That is essentially all he is good for. I guess he can run up the wing aggressively, get tackled poorly because players are a little scared of him, and then launch a throw in into the box?

Till Loose - Well I wanted a backup youth keeper, and now I have one. I'm not too sure about him, but hopefully he'll be the long term replacement to my current one, who's only 23 anyway.

And that's basically everybody worth talking about, but I'm sure there will be a few squad players developed here. 

On another note, the personalities in this intake are atrocious - I thought my resolute HOYD would help with that, but it doesn't seem to have done much! 

Anyway, we're down in 7th with 7 to go, so I don't think there's any chance of the playoffs, but we might have my best season yet! 

(Looking at where RW Essen are, it almost makes me want to start over with them)

[DazRTaylor 1,721]

A very tight league with just two games to go!

[keeper#1 650]

South Shields 2028-29 Mid-Season Update

Our center block has made us competitive in League One right away.  Not a lot of losses and we are grinding out a lot of draws which is fine by me.  Draws are better than losses.  Most of the wins came early in the season before the opposition had any scouting reports on us but they are starting to adapt to how we play and putting us under more pressure.

As you can see, our games are just a slog.  Not a lot of offense (7.81 shots per game),  Our xG is only .89 per game and we are averaging just over a goal per game.  The good news is our defense has been rock solid and keeping us in every match.

Another "good intake" I think.  An excellent group but only one positive.  Like last year, I'm having a hard time understanding the contradictory statements here.  We will see in March when the intake comes out.

Edited December 19, 2020 by keeper#1

[OlivierL 864]

21 minutes ago, DazRTaylor said:

Out of interest, has anyone attempted this challenge from an English tier ten side?

I did last edition with FC Romania, 7th or 8t tier . big big challenge for you  good luck.

[GylfiAsCharged 67]

On 17/12/2020 at 19:30, GylfiAsCharged said:

The third round of the cup was quite daunting, and my opposite number decided they were as good as through before the game had even begun.

Mr Özdilek however didn't account for us going a goal up, and then not folding when Albania striker Armando Sadiku who earns a full four times what our highest earner takes home per week bagged a second half hat-trick to open up a two goal lead which we closed up with goals of our own in the 74th then 94th minutes. Sadiku then tarnished his man-of-the-match display by getting himself sent off with a second yellow in extra time much to my amusement, though FM still gave him the award, and we outlasted our gracious opponents in the penalty shootout 8-7 in the penalty shootout with our top scorer Baran Basut who'd netted twice in the game but only has a penalty taking attribute of 1 stepping up and dealing the final blow to our opponents, before stepping aside and letting keeper Serkan Demirol save his third penalty of the shootout. 

Funnily enough my old friend decided against showing any self-awareness and took the defeat about as well as I'd hoped he would.

 

Assuming cup gates are split down the middle like in England, this could be a phenomenal money spinner and makes all that drama more than worth it!

[Padders 1,517]

Season Review 2037/38

Another season ravaged by the fatigue

Not a lot to report

BUT!

Look at this guy in the Youth Intake, going to struggle to keep hold of him, Just the 15 clubs interested 

 

 

[SoSolidSnake 80]

6 minutes ago, Padders said:

Season Review 2037/38

Another season ravaged by the fatigue

Not a lot to report

BUT!

Look at this guy in the Youth Intake, going to struggle to keep hold of him, Just the 15 clubs interested 

 

 

I guess that guy is testament to how much the improvement in Junior Coaching helps!