The FM21 Youth Academy Challenge

[XaW]

16 minutes ago, OlivierL said:

Damn !  

7 minutes ago, Bartrcm said:

That will hurt you, missing your best player almost the complete season.

It was only a few matches left of the season though, and it's a 5 month pre-season in Norway, so he luckily won't miss too much of next season!

[OlivierL]

22 minutes ago, Bartrcm said:

Freamunde - season 2022-2023 - Championship (4th division)

Predicted: 10th of 60 teams

Final position: Won our league and the play-offs 

 

We didn't face the second season syndrome as we started the new season in an unbelievable way. We lost only our 13 game of the season, and only conceded once in our 9 first games. Our 13th game of the season was against Canelas2010 who were 2nd but already 8 points behind. But we lost that game, and the struggle started. We also lost our 14th game, and suddenly our lead was only 2 points. We could only win 3 of our last 10 games, but luckily for us the other teams around us couldn't take advantage of our bad run. We won our league with a very convincing win in our last game of the season  5-1. In the end we only won the league by only1 point.

Winning our league wasn't enough to gain promotion. We entered the play-offs, knowing that only 2 teams would get promoted.

Our quarter final was against Juventude Evora, and we won that game 3-0 after 2 legs. Next game was the semi final. The winners of the semi-final gain promotion to the 3th division. The opponent was Marinhense, a very tough opponent a they won their league and the quarter final very easy. First game was an away game, and we completelely dominated the game and won 1-5. Second leg at home was just a formality, and we won that game 3-1. In the final we faced Averca. The final was for the neutrals a very disappointing game. 0-0 after 90 minutes and straight to penalties. ANd lady luck was on our side and we won the penalty shoot-out 5*4, and were crowned as champions

 

Games 1

Games 2

Play-offs

Cup: wasn't interested in the cup, and lost in the first round

 

Youth intake: When I saw our preview is was very positive, but the actual intake was a disappointment. Like last season I signed all players witha potential of 3.5*

I will show you only the best 2 players, as I don't think the others will ever play in our first team.

Henrique Rafael: AMR/ST. Will be trained as a ST. We only have 2 ST at our club, and we have enough AMR players

Pedro Francisco: DC

 

Transfers: None

 

Finances: Even worse than last season, Chairman has put 90k in the club, but we still last ±350k this season. We are 640k in red,

 

Goal for next season: Just staying up.

Good job ! hope to copy u soon  Now u enter a 'big' competition with a lot of games , right  ?

[filipefm20]

Hey guys. Going to try this again this year, starting in denmark (4th tier). Starting in Silkeborg KFUM, an amateur side predicted to finish 6th in the danish 3rd division (4th tier)

[metallimuse]

RAAL La Louvière, Belgium

League / Squad / Intake / Transfers / Finances / Profile

A really tough second season for me this time out. At one point the board called me into the boardroom and I was close to losing my job but I've managed to hold on to it and hopefully I can improve next season.

We started off the season by doing really well in the Belgian Cup by winning in the third, fourth and fifth round before the league kicked off but we then went all of September without a win but we rebounded by doing well in October and November. At this point I actually thought we were recovering and could maybe make the playoffs still but that soon went out the window as we went winless throughout December and January.

We managed a couple of wins in February but then didn't win again the rest of the season only securing our place in the league for next season on the last day of the regular season in a 1-1 draw with Knokke who were just below us in the league at the start of the day, we knew that if we could avoid defeat we'd stay in the league.

Nicolas Orye was again my top scorer and best performer of the season. Central defender Boris Kamneng Djoum wasn't far away in the points haul for the season though. It was a tough year though and my squad wasn't big enough to rotate after my mistake with the contracts for last years intake.

Intake was ok but nothing to cheer about but I've signed them all on part time contracts so hopefully I should be able to work with them this year.

The last bit of news is that the board agreed to let me study for a National C license but not a B as our finances are now really poor.

 

[keeper#1]

3 hours ago, DazRTaylor said:

I had no offers.

Lucky.  He got poached from me in the first window.

[ATW]

Let's do this.  Was tempted to go back to Russia where I had my closest attempt to completing this in FM2020 but no, let's return to where I first failed.  Spain - with the same club!!

CD Toledo

 

Proof of Unavailability Year 1

 

The Manager - Me 

Club Information

Media expects a good season, so does the board - have they met me

Facilities

Give me a good starting position - see how it goes

Other Info

With no staff, it has given me a fresh blank canvas, lets hope I can get things through the door early and soon.  With only two days before the players come back from holiday

[scarp]

Brora Rangers - 2027/28

We started the season pretty well and whole fall we were playing around sixth place. Same as the last time when we played in Championship, after New Year's Eve we started playing terrible and losing to everyone. Thankfully we got some wins now and then and it all came to the last match of the season against Arbroath at home where we parked the bus and after a goal-less draw stayed up! Midfield is still the biggest problem and no new youngsters there either. I started to play diamond this season so lets see how long we will play that way. Hopefully we can establish ourselves as middle tier club in Championship and slowly work our way to better finances & facilities. Oh yeah, and board decided to upgrade both youth recruitment and junior coaching!

Transfers | Youth in-take

Key players: Jamie Stephen, Jordan MacRae & Millar Gamble

Youth watch: Chris Kirby, Tommy Findlay & Callum Kelly

[Gundo]

Another solid season, @XaW. Can I ask ... what year did you start your game in? And do you run the third division in view only or not at all?

Edited November 14, 2020 by Gundo

[keeper#1]

Still unbeaten at South Shields.  Brackley Town are just winning more games than us thus far.  

 

[XaW]

4 minutes ago, Gundo said:

Another solid season, @XaW. Can I ask ... what year did you start your game in? And do you run the third division in view only or not at all?

Well, I loaded up all 4 tiers to start with, but only the two highest tiers are played for the 2020 season in Norway, so I just holidayed past it. Then, after the season rollover, the third division starts, but you can't manage in it. So what you do is just essentially "save scum" up the team you want. Just save and reload to ensure the team wins their subdivision in the 4th tier. Since it's viewable and everything, just not possible to take over clubs there, it's the best way to make sure you get the team you want. It's kinda the same as reloading season rollover in other leagues, except you can force it.

[Gundo]

2 minutes ago, XaW said:

Well, I loaded up all 4 tiers to start with, but only the two highest tiers are played for the 2020 season in Norway, so I just holidayed past it. Then, after the season rollover, the third division starts, but you can't manage in it. So what you do is just essentially "save scum" up the team you want. Just save and reload to ensure the team wins their subdivision in the 4th tier. Since it's viewable and everything, just not possible to take over clubs there, it's the best way to make sure you get the team you want. It's kinda the same as reloading season rollover in other leagues, except you can force it.

Yeah, I thought as much, thanks. The problem is, I want a team that’s rated 100/1 for promotion – they have a reputation of 37 (compared with the best rep team that has 67). I guess it’s pretty impossible to get them promoted. 

[OlivierL]

Don't know what to think? is this a bug ?

4127 fans , only sold 5 season tickets this season .

 

 

I guess that having 4000 home fans for every game will gains me more as 4000 season tickets...

Edited November 14, 2020 by OlivierL

[XaW]

Just now, Gundo said:

Yeah, I thought as much, thanks. The problem is, I want a team that’s rated 100/1 for promotion – they have a reputation of 37 (compared with the best rep team that has 67). I guess it’s pretty impossible to get them promoted. 

Well, just holiday until they play a match, then save and reload until they win, then repeat until they are ensured promotion. Could take some time, but I think it should be possible.

[benrollo]

Managed a pretty comfortable 5th place in our first season. A few poor results early in the season probably cost us a run at the playoffs, but we've got a decent tactic going and I'm hoping we can give it a good go next year.

 

Our new boy Lars Erik Bergum Hansen 22-4 has improved an insane amount this year, forcing his way into the lineup halfway through the season and rewarding me with 14 goals in 15 games. He's had Eliteserien clubs sniffing around him already, so we'll see how long I can keep hold.

 

Encouraging signs ahead of the next youth intake coming in - taking full advantage of being able to get the youth recruitment and junior coaching both upgraded twice!

 

[filipefm20]

2 hours ago, filipefm20 said:

Hey guys. Going to try this again this year, starting in denmark (4th tier). Starting in Silkeborg KFUM, an amateur side predicted to finish 6th in the danish 3rd division (4th tier)

It only took me 2 hours to get fired 

[Crayam99x]

1 minute ago, filipefm20 said:

It only took me 2 hours to get fired 

That's frustrating man. Hoping you get a bit of luck on your side next time. And remember, pump fist and encourage

[OlivierL]

28 minutes ago, XaW said:

Well, just holiday until they play a match, then save and reload until they win, then repeat until they are ensured promotion. Could take some time, but I think it should be possible.

thats how we ( he @stefaanpeeraer) got me Caley Braves last FM.

[OlivierL]

you are doing great @keeper#1, with how many squad players did u start ?

 

[keeper#1]

1 minute ago, OlivierL said:

you are doing great @keeper#1, with how many squad players did u start ?

 

18 senior team players - lost RB Jordan Hunter in the first transfer window so I've got 17 senior team players right now

5 U23 players 

0 U18 players

[Bartrcm]

3 hours ago, OlivierL said:

Good job ! hope to copy u soon  Now u enter a 'big' competition with a lot of games , right  ?

Yes, next update will take a bit longer. Last season was only 22 games +7 play-off games, next season 46 games.

[filipefm20]

Try nº2 in Spain. Should be fun, predicted to finish 5th

[OlivierL]

5 hours ago, OlivierL said:

Don't know what to think? is this a bug ?

4127 fans , only sold 5 season tickets this season .

 

 

I guess that having 4000 home fans for every game will gains me more as 4000 season tickets...

To see if I would end up with 5 season tickets the next season, I have run a year's holiday.

The second season I only got 5 season tickets again but even worse, the club was in the red for 700k (euro). All because of the expensive facilities and expensive staff and players. Wage budget was 178k, I kept it at 35k. Of course a lot for a team from 4th tier Portugal.

I will not be able to fix the bug around season tickets and downgrade the facilities right now isn't an option, then I should not have chosen this nice club.

I'm going to think about it but I'm afraid this is the end ... and I was just starting the competition. I'm really disappointed because I'm sure a lot of talents had come through and I already had one top talent at front.. but if there is no income then this is NOT realistic.

 

[shaunvamos]

NK Belišće 2021/22 Season Review

 

 

 

 

 

Ivan Lackovic - Antonio Demo - Andrej Kovacic

 

A solid first season, given the rules in Croatia where we have to have 3 under 21 players in the first XI each league game. Until the youth intake came along they were mostly filled by grey players, but we shouldn't have to worry about that anymore. I think I've found a bug too, as we were supposed to be in the relegation playoff but the season ticked over and reset so I guess we didn't need a playoff. Development wise we have upgraded our Junior Coaching and Youth Recruitment which is excellent (well, they're both adequate but the progress is excellent). 

 

Youth Intake

 

We had a fantastic intake, and a defender that immediately becomes one of the best in the club! Plenty of other good prospects there too.

 

 

 

Antonijo Saric 1B - Davor Kukrika 1C

 

Transfers

 

 

Progress

 

 

Edited November 16, 2020 by shaunvamos

[scarp]

@shaunvamos Cvetanoski looks fantastic!

[shaunvamos]

4 minutes ago, scarp said:

@shaunvamos Cvetanoski looks fantastic!

Yeah he does, he's been wanted by higher division clubs as good as Hajduk Split, and he already has 4 caps for North Macedonia!

[DazRTaylor]

Back at East Kilbride, I had a rather underwhelming youth preview.

 

[Perre8]

anyone has experience with a club in this challenge who is already having very good facilities (wich they share with FC Porto)? I am having a look at Padroense and they have realy great facilities, yt facilities en yt recruitment, but i am afraid that it will cause a massive leak of money...

[Muttley84]

27 minutes ago, stefaanpeeraer said:

anyone has experience with a club in this challenge who is already having very good facilities (wich they share with FC Porto)? I am having a look at Padroense and they have realy great facilities, yt facilities en yt recruitment, but i am afraid that it will cause a massive leak of money..

They shouldn't affect your budget to much. Problem is Porto might be free to poach any interesting players you get through and that might be a bit to much for this challenge. Probably when you promote to the first division and establish yourself the partnership will be terminated and you will revert to some poorer facilities. So my vote would be  a No into chosing this team, but to each his own!

[Perre8]

@Muttley84 yeah you are right, but it looks really tempting but better picking a club and build the youth fac and recruitment slowly.

[Sanno11]

 

Nuneaton Borough

 

I tried to resist the call of this challenge, but I couldn't stay away. I've started the journey with Nuneaton Borough, a local team from my childhood. They have a large squad and 5-6 U18s that have potential, so definitely something to work with.
 

[Bartrcm]

8 hours ago, OlivierL said:

To see if I would end up with 5 season tickets the next season, I have run a year's holiday.

The second season I only got 5 season tickets again but even worse, the club was in the red for 700k (euro). All because of the expensive facilities and expensive staff and players. Wage budget was 178k, I kept it at 35k. Of course a lot for a team from 4th tier Portugal.

I will not be able to fix the bug around season tickets and downgrade the facilities right now isn't an option, then I should not have chosen this nice club.

I'm going to think about it but I'm afraid this is the end ... and I was just starting the competition. I'm really disappointed because I'm sure a lot of talents had come through and I already had one top talent at front.. but if there is no income then this is NOT realistic.

 

Wih Freamundo, I'm also losing a lot of money every year, but not as much as you. I only have a wage budget of 10K, and have only 700 spectators every homegame. It will be very difficult in Portugal, but I'm liking this save.

[benrollo]

We're up! I thought our tactics would help see us through this year and they did - with more than a little help from academy graduate extraordinaire Lars Erik!

I'm not sure I've seen a player improve as quickly as he has. In 2 years he's gained 81 attribute points in total. Just about every Norwegian Eliteserien side has put an offer in, and I've had to protest the board accepting 2 of them (for like £40k, come on guys!). I know I'm not going to be able to keep hold of him much longer, so I'm just hoping I can sell him on my own terms when he eventually leaves.

Elsewhere, we had another really strong academy class.

Lars Elvsveen should be able to come in and get minutes right away in CM, an area that we're pretty weak in after selling one starter and losing the other one on a free.

The goal is survival this year. We're still weak in a few areas whilst we wait for youngsters to develop. The U19s did win their league last season so the talent is there.

[OlivierL]

Good job @benrollo . Leb Hansen looks great :o seems realistic that you won't be able to keep him, lets hope u do !

[scarp]

Brora Rangers 2028/29

This was a very good season once more. This time without the drama in the end although we had our fair share of struggle especially around the Christmas. Youth in-take went well but we are really in need of some central midfielders. I do not know what we are going to do once Morrison & MacRae are too old/retire. I believe this is the first time ever someone other than them two got 10 or more goals for us. We also upgraded youth recruitment once more. Next step is to establish ourselves us Championship team and eventually become professional.

Transfers | Youth in-take

Key players: Jamie Stephen, Greg Morrison & Jordan MacRae

Youth watch: Kris Woods, Ross Rae & Kyle MacDonald

[scarp]

@benrollo That intake! 

[benrollo]

Cheers @OlivierL and @scarp!

Great to see your boys establishing themselves in the Championship now Scarp!

[Padders]

The amount of last minute goals I concede is absolutely unbelievable

[Lexclub]

Hi guys,

I was fine doing my standard beta save with Toulouse until I saw you already starded the challenge.

So after an unfinished business with Lok Lepizig on FM20 were we were in 2025, still a mid table team in 3. Liga with no hope to get better soon... here we go again !

Welcome Heinrich Labat, media predict you are the best candidate for relegation by quite a margin. Nice !

[DazRTaylor]

I am really really tempted to start as FC United now, rather than wait until the full release, especially as my South Shields file has corrupted.

Edited November 15, 2020 by DazRTaylor

[benrollo]

Sold him :(. Managed to get him back on loan at least though!

[XaW]

1 minute ago, benrollo said:

Sold him :(. Managed to get him back on loan at least though!

Sorry mate, you are not allowed to have him on loan. Quite strict rules there.

[benrollo]

Ah shoot that's a good point. I'll have to go back to an earlier save and correct

[DazRTaylor]

Club Introduction

FC United of Manchester

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  Youth Level  Corporate Facilities  Junior Coaching  Youth Recruitment  Club Reputation
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
At Start   Basic                Basic                  4       Adequate              Average          Fairly basic       Local   (1.00*)

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     F.A. Cup                    League 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
-----------------------------------------------------------------

 

 

 

Edited November 15, 2020 by DazRTaylor

[thomas_e]

Sacachispas FC

Season Summary 2021 - 2022

Promotion! 

 

After 10 or so games in Serie D before abandoning the save and a rules misunderstanding when picking a team in Portugal I decided to try my luck in South America. After loading both Brazil and Argentina I spent a lot of time deciding on a team. I ended up taking over Sacachispas FC as they had good squad depth and what I thought was good finances (we don't). Some of the teams had more quality, but especially in Brazil the squads had really old players! That makes this challenge almost impossible. 

The first thing I did was selling and loaning out players. We had too much coverage in many positions, with basically every player being average. I got some good money from them and some of the loan deals were good for all parties. 

We were tipped to finish 13th. The 2nd tier of Argentinian football is split into two divisions and the champions face eachother in a play off final. The teams finishing from 2nd to 4th also go into a playoff for promotion. Understanding promotion and relegation in Argentina is basically impossible by the way. 

We started the season well on the pitch, but disastrous off the pitch. We are bleeding money and the whole squad started to really hate me. We spent more time having meetings than training at one point!! I actually terminated a couple of contracts, influental players who were unhappy being on the bench. This finally had the team going in the same direction and it showed on the pitch. 

From the start of the season I spent quite a lot of time tweaking my tactics. I haven't quite found a good away game tactic yet, but at home we are really good. We play a wide 4-2-3-1, focusing on possession, creativity, passing and time. Combined with a high defensive line and one defender on Cover duty we have been able to really control possession and keeping plenty of clean sheets as well. We went unbeaten the last 12 games of the season, and kept a clean sheet in 6 of our last 10 games. 

We ended up promoted which was highly unexpected! We won our group with 70 points and a 4 point margin to runner up Patronato. In the Champions Playoff we beat Belgrano on penalties after a goalless game that we should have won to be fair! A fantastic season, but I really hope that there is plenty of money in the Liga Profesionel de Futbol as we are bleeding money! 

We are struggling a little bit up front as we dont have any gifted goalscorers that can decide games. Our top scorer finished on 10 goals and that needs to improve! 

How we can avoid relegation I really dont know. First of all we dont have a strong squad, and I also dont understand the relegation system. 

We have also advanced in the domestic cup, but the next round is played next season. It's all a bit strange here. 

 

Season Summary

          

 

Key Players

          

 

Top Talents

          

 

Season	|	League              |   Position    |      Cup     |  Continental               |  Note
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2021/22	|	Primera National    |	  1st       |      N/A     |     N/A                       Promoted

 

[XaW]

1 minute ago, benrollo said:

Ah shoot that's a good point. I'll have to go back to an earlier save and correct

Yeah, sorry about that. If your board had sold him with a loan back clause and you didn't have any impact, you could just leave him in the reserves and not play him (post proof of course), because we are not totally heartless here!

[metallimuse]

Having another tough season over in Belgium, here's the preview of my third intake to come later.

[keeper#1]

South Shields December 2021 Update

A loss to Northampton in the FA Cup brought in some decent money but showed the world that we can be beaten.  November was rough.  December was better but the fixture congestion is catching up to our small squad.

Still in 2nd place.  It's Brackley Town's title to lose.

Reinforcements are coming though.

Which we need with our top center forward out until mid-February.

[benrollo]

14 minutes ago, XaW said:

Yeah, sorry about that. If your board had sold him with a loan back clause and you didn't have any impact, you could just leave him in the reserves and not play him (post proof of course), because we are not totally heartless here!

Haha yeah I offered him out with a loan back clause included and Rosenborg bit - thankfully I have weekly rolling saves so it wasn't too painful to go back and re-offer without the loan clause.

Farewell sweet prince (with a nice sell on clause at least!)

Edited November 15, 2020 by benrollo

[darren1983]

21 minutes ago, XaW said:

Yeah, sorry about that. If your board had sold him with a loan back clause and you didn't have any impact, you could just leave him in the reserves and not play him (post proof of course), because we are not totally heartless here!

When did we change this rule?  

[XaW]

1 minute ago, darren1983 said:

When did we change this rule?  

Shhh! I'm luring them in here!