The FM21 Youth Academy Challenge

[JLAB]

ACN Siena 1904 - 2028/29 Youth Intake

Was this the best intake I've ever had? No, not by a long shot, but did it provide me with some strength in depth that I was hoping for? Yes, it did. With some of my players currently looking like they are not going to be good enough for the team despite giving them plenty of time to develop, having a new centre-back and a new central midfielder who could play in all of the roles down the middle outside of the striker and centre-back roles was a blessing in disguise. It gave me a chance to look at my squad and get rid of the deadwood who will either never be good enough for the first team, which in itself was something that I was happy about.

In terms of current ability, Daniele Cantoro was easily the best player of the bunch, yes he could improve his heading and his crossing, but given that I now use Advanced Playmakers and he's a playmaker that I have been hoping for, his arrival couldn't have come at a better time, especially if the player who is currently in that role, Gabriele Antonaci continues to disappoint me in that role. I need consistency more than I need anything else. This guy can provide me with that more than my leading playmaker can at the moment.

This guy, is the centre-back that I have been longing for. Why? He is left-footed. A left-footed centre-back is literally something that I have been hoping for as a result of almost all of my current centre-backs being right-footed. So playing a right-footed centre-back on the left when their left foot is their weakest foot can, unsurprisingly cause some problems. He's not good enough to be part of the first team yet, but I will be damned if I fail to make this guy a solid centre-back for the first team in the upcoming years.

[Cheez3y]

12 hours ago, XaW said:

Offered him a 3 year +2 optional that he accepted, so I hope to keep him for a long time...

And in 6 months its time the renew this exact deal with couple bucks more per week.

He reminds me of my portugues wonderkid.

[XaW]

1 hour ago, Cheez3y said:

And in 6 months its time the renew this exact deal with couple bucks more per week.

He reminds me of my portugues wonderkid.

Yeah, I'll give him whatever he wants as long as I can tie him down to a long contract. We are not in financial dire either, so I don't think the board will sell unless we get a silly bid.

[Sn00gle]

 

Garbarnia Kraków - 2028/29

Squad - League - Finances - Transfers

So bad things on start. -1ml debt in bank stupid loans from Mr. No... and Young Facilities went down again  Still no luck in Polish Cup. I decided to sell every player that is unhappy about my rejecting the offerts for them. In that way we sold for even low money but 40% few players top prospect from season 3 Frydrych 03a left us for Stal Mielec in same league. Now some good news I decided to take over the training in winter brake and it give results in matches that we started to win and reach 8th place. Eugeniusz Guzejko 04g is our top scorer with 17 goals and Bielecki 03c is our best avr player. To be honest he is not the best losing with 2 stars rating by assistant with other one with better skils but I feel better and safe with him as on nr 1. We have few cool players like Skrzyński 04d which i trying turn in back playmaker and Nawałka 04c which unfortunately is loosing place to to many good offensive players in my team   Our u-18 team won the league! But I guess there is no Youth Champions League which normaly such win will allow to play in. Intake in this season as post before was decent. I'm starting have @Paddersproblem with to many good keepers... can't have them all, can't loan them and only one is playing KEKW




 

Edited January 22, 2021 by Sn00gle

[Padders]

Season Review 2074/75

A lot better season but we really should have finished higher than 10th.

Was top in November but you just knew the bad run was going to start sooner rather and later and it did as soon as we went top. Runs like 2 wins in 8

Bateson with yet again another 30 goals, hes a machine. 31yrs old now though 

 

[Padders]

1 hour ago, Sn00gle said:

 

Garbarnia Kraków - 2028/29

Squad - League - Finances - Transfers

So bad things on start. -1ml debt in bank stupid loans from Mr. No... and Young Facilities went down again  Still no luck in Polish Cup. I decided to sell every player that is unhappy about my rejecting the offerts for them. In that way we sold for even low money but 40% few players top prospect from season 3 Frydrych 03a left us for Stal Mielec in same league. Now some good news I decided to take over the training in winter brake and it give results in matches that we started to win and reach 8th place. Eugeniusz Guzejko 04g is our top scorer with 17 goals and Bielecki 03c is our best avr player. To be honest he is not the best losing with 2 stars rating by assistant with other one with better skils but I feel better and safe with him as on nr 1. We have few cool players like Skrzyński 04d which i trying turn in back playmaker and Nawałka 04c which unfortunately is loosing place to to many good offensive players in my team   Our u-18 team won the league! But I guess there is no Youth Champions League which normaly such win will allow to play in. Intake in this season as post before was decent. I'm starting have @Paddersproblem with to many good keepers... can't have them all, can't loan them and only one is playing KEKW




 

My keeper situation seems to have sorted itself out. I was having 5/6 first choice keepers in my squad 20-30 years ago. Seems a lot more even now

[DazRTaylor]

I am a bit disillusioned with my Dutch save so I have parked it for now.  I will return to it in time but am going for the dafuge Challenge at the minute.

[darren1983]

Almost punched my screen at this game - 2 down with 8 mins to go, bring it back to 2-2 in injury time then concede 36 seconds into extra time and allow a guy with 1 goal all season to score 5 goals in extra time  

Let in 7 and my keeper still get's a 7.7 match rating. I feel like the formation we used last season is maybe not the one for us this year now  

[XaW]

Teie IF Season 2035 review

Table | Squad | Transfers | Finances

We kept up the form from last season and once again fought at the top half. As the season plodded along we were caught in a massive fight with Rosenborg for 3rd place while Molde, Aalesund and Odd were chasing behind us. Vålerenga and Bodø/Glimt ran away early on, so the fight was for 3rd and the rest of the European spots. In the end we lost the final match away to winners Vålerenga and Rosenborg picked up a point to get past us. But we still finished in a very good 4th place!

Also, just as the season was drawing close, I got the best news so far. We are going professional next season!

In Norgesmesterskapet we beat Øygarden, Strindheim, Lillestrøm, Aalesund, Tromsø and Brann to reach the final. Here we beat Sarpsborg 08 to clinch out first ever cup final! And, it means we play in the Europa League next season as well!

Youth players of note:

Yet another strong season and quite a lot of goals, even if his end product was a bit lower than usual.

He is starting to come along as our best defender and even chipped in a few goals this season.

[Padders]

57 minutes ago, darren1983 said:

Almost punched my screen at this game - 2 down with 8 mins to go, bring it back to 2-2 in injury time then concede 36 seconds into extra time and allow a guy with 1 goal all season to score 5 goals in extra time  

Let in 7 and my keeper still get's a 7.7 match rating. I feel like the formation we used last season is maybe not the one for us this year now  

I feel your pain

[keeper#1]

Farnborough Introduction

After a brief trip to Germany, I've come back to England and starting in the VN South this time just so I can play some different teams than my previous save in the VN North.

South Shields legend Mike Neiland 23B is still my manager for this save.

Some confidence building friendlies before the season starts.

Only 14 players on the roster plus some greyed out players.

Neiland is keeping it simple tactics-wise.

[drittbil]

So, I'm taking the plunge...

After years of intending to bring youth through, but always falling to the temptation of high potential kids from outside, I decided to go cold turkey.

 

I've selected the mighty Lowestoft in the VNL North, who have spent 9 of the past 11 seasons in the Isthmian Premier Division, and are expected to finish rock bottom. I may be restarting this challenge before my first youth intake!

The tale of the tape, with respect to youth facilities is pretty grim, but I thought I would start from bedrock.

 

(One assumption I am making is that it is okay to keep the players that are already at the club (I'm scared to look!), although I do intend to mix in youth as soon as I can.) 

Stepping into the management breach is a newcomer Knuckle Headington, hailing from Melbourne, Australia.

He only ever played Sunday League football and has no coaching badges at all. He is, in other words, a total chump 

 

Wish him luck, because he's going to need it!

 

Edited January 22, 2021 by drittbil
More info

[Tush]

After 5 seasons I finally managed to get my balance into green numbers thanks to numerous board cash injections 

This let me convince my board to improve the youth recruitment and youth facilities for the first time! Yahoo 

[XaW]

                         

Teie IF - Youth intake 2036

Promising, very promising, I need a new striker.

Nice, nice, but the average is not that good. Still, I'd like to have more like this.

He has loads of good attributes, but I have no idea what he is. Poor finishing, excellent passing, but horrible vision.  Speed merchant on the wing?

Statistics:

Spoiler

Nice, very nice. A Norwegian guy born in Ukraine, and a Lithuanian, Bulgarian and Slovenian too.

 

[Sanno11]

This is just a little diversion before my end of season update. This surprised me and wanted to do a little quirky report. I present to you.....

 

Steveroy and Tash, my dynamic duo. They had a great season in League 2, leading the way at Nuneaton in goals and assists. However, a bigger story is developing. Antigua & Barbuda have qualified for the 2034 World Cup and there is a chance both of these Nuneaton Lads make the squad.

This will happen just after our season finishes and I am going to follow their progress.

Tash Abraham made his international debut in 2031, scoring a hattrick in an 8-0 win. With 23 caps, I am more confident of his chances to feature at the Finals.

Steveroy Richards was called up in March this year for a couple of friendlies, making his debut against in a 4-0 win over the Cayman Islands.

Drawn in Group G at the World Cup.

I imagine I'll never be this bothered again, but for a team Nuneaton's size, I am finding this very fun

 

[Sanno11]

 

Tash made his World Cup debut, I am actually proud. He came on in the 85th minute and he actually had a decent chance in the 91st minute. Steveroy was an unused sub. Not a dream start for the boys.

[TheWillsy]

@Sanno11 Steveroy and Tash, sounds like a crimefighting duo . I love the little quirks in FM like an Antigua & Barbuda strike partnership, it really adds to the immersion! Nice world cup update 

[Sn00gle]

@Sanno11 Love such stories!

[Sanno11]

 

Steveroy and Tash were both left on the bench in Antigua & Barbuda's final game at the World Cup. It wasn't the dream story I hoped for, but Tash returns to Nuneaton for pre-season having appeared at a World Cup final. He'll have nightmares about the 1 on 1 chance he missed against Scotland.

 

Coming summer 2038 (I hope).

Edited January 23, 2021 by Sanno11

[Sanno11]

Nuneaton Borough Season Review 2033/2034

Competitions

Vanarama National League - 6th position - League table

FA Cup - lost in 1st  round

Papa John's Trophy - lost in 2nd round

Carabao Cup - lost in 1st  round

Our first season in League Two started exactly as I expected, poorly. We managed 1 win in the first 9 games and look overwhelmed. We switched to a more aggressive set-up and got some mixed results in a run of games with crazy score lines. Then as we hit November, in the bottom two, I switched formation again, to a 4-5-1, that really suited us. 4 wins from 4 in November, saw us shoot up the table. The rest of the season wasn't as spectacular, but we were very consistent. We are competitive at home against most teams, and struggled away against the top half. In finishing 6th we went into the playoffs, which gave us a chance at an unlikely back to back promotion.

An incredibly professional performance against Chester, win 1-0 at home and 2-0 away, saw us face Scunthorpe in the final. The frustrating thing was 3 of our back four were suspended for the final and we just weren't good enough. It is almost a relief to have another year in League Two if I am honest.

 

 

Playing squad

We don't have a lot of depth, but our best 3-4 players are of League Two quality. Tash and Steveroy my World Cup hero's, combined well all season. One player I wanted to highlight was my left back Mensah Shields, he has developed incredibly well and is easily our most well rounded player. 

 

Youth intake

Our improved facilities have delivered a really decent intake this season, a couple of these are first team ready immediately. 35. Dan Al-Amin (34b) looks like the real deal and I imagine we'll struggle to keep him long term.

Olly fon Williams (34a)

Dan Al-Amin (34b)

Sion Lucas-Letheren (34c)

Dan Thorpe (34d)

 

Finances, Facilities and Transfers

I was naïve with our finances, after the season started they started to nose dive, the now full time contracts for players and staff, in addition to increased youth costs meant we started losing money. The playoff final gate receipts have helped here. 

Edited January 23, 2021 by Sanno11

[Raffen]

Merthyr Town FC - Season 2029/30

Table | Squad | Finances | Transfers

Back to mid table obscurity! Lost in the first round of the FA cup to League one Mansfield.

Central defender Callum Vaughan 25a was the best performer again, scoring 8 goals in the league as well. Long throws and corners making a difference this season. Better performances from all this season. Jamie Richards 23a top scorer again, and with solid performances. Not really sure why he performs, with such limited skills, but he is considered a "consistent performer", which could explain a lot!

Youth preview | Youth intake

Still no central midfielders in the youth preview. But the intake did provide some hope. I didn't fully agree with my HoYD on potential, ranking Wayne Wells 30a highest because of mental skill above pretty much the rest of the squad. Daniel Richards 30b and Lee Rogers 30c could become decent as well. Not seeing any major difference from the improved youth recruitment. Might take a gamble and sack my HoYD, even if on paper he's the best we can get at this point in time.

Back to increasing attendances, otherwise status quo.

[thomas_e]

Rimini Calcio FC

Youth Intake 2025

Another good intake for us, but some unlucky personalities. Our most gifted player on paper, Antonio Arnetoli has an unambitious personality. Vincenzo Tani has a professional personality, but still has 1 (!!) in determination. A strange combo indeed! 

 

               

[thomas_e]

Rimini Calcio FC

Season Summary 2024 - 2025

Survived another season

Another season and another 15th place finish. I didn't expect anything more than survival so we can't be unhappy with it. Our young players are developing nicely, but as a team I am dissapointed that we are still so far away from anything resembling quality in Serie B. We won 13 games, but in at least half of those games we were incredibly lucky! I will have to take a serious look at the whole first team and u20/u19 squad when deciding on next years tactic. Our striker, Dardan Vuthaj, finished the season as top scores, but he is literally our whole attack. We play two counter versions of the 4-2-3-1, but we get really disconnected in attack and I think I have to consider a 2-striker system next season. We do have three really good central midfielder, so if we go down that route we will have to drop our wingers. Decisions, decisions! 

Next year will be another battle for survival! Some of our top talents have now turned 18 so hopefully we will get some good loan deals for them this summer! 

Our finances are not in a great state all and this makes it impossible to get any more upgrades to our facilities. Luckily we have had good youth intakes the last couple of years so if we can just keep our place in Serie B we might have a good future! 

 

Season Summary

          

 

Key Talents

          

 

          

 

 

[Diego D10S]

                                                                                                                                   The Seagulls Season 2021 / 2022 Update

Fantastic first season and a amazing youth intake!!

Knocked out of playoff this season like expected but have a small hope I can take the next step already next season with this intake.

 

 

GL ALL !!!  

[darren1983]

South Shields Season 2023/24 Review - Vanarama National League

League - On paper 16th after promotion is good, and it is, but really feel like we got screwed this season. Started well, really well actually, winning 4of our first 5. At the half way point we were 6th and looking good. Our first 11 are able to compete at this level but if one or two are off form or we have to use our back ups we struggled. The Christmas period hurt us with so many games in short space and then we had 4 straight games postponed in the league in January meaning we dropped down the league and had even more runs of 2 game sa week. This effected confidence which cost us and we struggled. Did enough to stay up though which was the target.

FA Cup - first round proper was nice and we gave league one Crewe a battle

FA Trophy - urgh, that Sutton game still annoys me now

Squad - as said it's tiny and outside of starting 11 we struggle. We scored the 2nd most in the league but also conceded the 3rd most, it's clear our defence is weak spot - 13 times in the season we conceded 3 or more in a game.

Transfers - the loss of Anthony King 22D was a blow as he was someone we had spent a season and a bit to get ready for us but that's the way it goes in this. Otherwise we lost players that would probably never play for us

Finances - really good, got another recruitment and youth coaching upgrades, feel that might be the last till we get up though

Youth Intake really good. 5 5* players and few more 4* and above. This intake really did give me a boost as we were struggling to secure our safety, if this intake had been bad I might have cried  

Glen Chamberlain 24A - Gibraltarian CB, 6'5" at 16 is nice but has such poor heading for that. I like him though
Prince Adjei 24B - gotta tag a guy name Prince right? Like the look of him and will this coming season probably end up as our best option in CM 
Reece Townsend 24C - attacking left back, think he could be good in time
Jayden Mazzone 24D - has the 3 things I look for first in a keeper in Reflexes, Agility and Handling 
Jordan Moore 24E - another CB, poor personality though so needs work if he's gonna break through

Career Progress

Season		League		Position	Youth Recruitment	Youth Coaching		Notes & Achievements 

2021/22		VNLN		5th 		Adequate		Adequate		First coaching badge
2022/23		VNLN		2nd 		Adequate		Good			Promoted via playoffs, FA Trophy runners up
2023/24		VNL		16th 		Average			Excellent 		2nd coaching badge

Next Season

Stay up. Concede less. More young players in and around the team. 

[ravenation]

Gainsborough Trinity

11th season. 21st League Two - FA cup 1st round - Other cups 1st round

Relegation threat all season as bottom teams did better than last season. Our defensive was not good - so i developed another defensive approach which worked for many matches. But in general 38-58 in goalscore - it is the defence that are keeping us up.

I used the season to make a generation change in the start eleven. So we changed 5 starters to younger and with more potential. Still i cant make anyone except Dillon make goals!!!! It is horrible - he is just 1 star and have gone from 10 to 8 in finishing the last seasons.

Next season i believe again will be about not getting relegated.

Our finances is a compelete catastrophe - we need cup success in the FA  - but we get extremely hard opponents away the last seasons.

Youth intake was medicore - bad personalities and 5 players for left midfield! Why - WHY?

[Padders]

Season Review 2075/76

An okay season after such a poor start, winning 1 in the first 9 games.

Changed formation to 4-2-3-1 which I didn't want to do, wanted to play 2 up front with Bateson, Gumbs and Foley but with form so bad, I had to do something.

There is a Brazilian kid in the latest intake that I am hoping with a bit of luck turns out ok. His stats aren't great but fingers crossed 

 

[holidaysong]

FC United of Manchester ; season 2032/33

League Table ; A decent enough 18th place for my first season in the Championship.

Squad ; I lost two key players in the January transfer window, but the squad is still in good shape.

Starting 11 ; My left back Archibong gets into the team even though he was sold by the board in January. Full back positions continue to be an issue.

Transfers ; Two key players sold in January by the board. I have already cashed in the sell on clause on Taylor for another €10m and also got another €2.5m thanks to Archibong picking up a cap for Nigeria. Currently I have €25m in the bank with both training and youth facilities currently being upgraded to "great".

Youth Candidates ; A good intake with some strong personalities.

Next season expectations ; Again, it's to fight bravely against relegation.

Edited January 23, 2021 by holidaysong

[Shankly84]

I have a few seasons to update again, but just wanted to share that I've got a Europa Conference final to look forward to tomorrow!!

[Padders]

Season Review 2076/77

Nothing to report, more mid table mediocrity, except, Jamie Bateson is now the clubs all time leading scorer

 

 

[keeper#1]

Farnborough January 1, 2022 Update

Our little squad of 14 players is doing a great job this season handling all the matches.  A trip to the 4th qualifying round of the FA Cup.  A quick out in the FA Trophy.  Doing a good job in the league currently sitting in 9th as the calendar turns to 2022.

Pretty average across the board.

Finances looking good but not great.

Same with the youth intake.  Excellent group highlighted by a goalkeeper.

 

[shaunvamos]

 

 

 

Safe, and comfortably so. We had no business being this clear of relegation, but we did it anyway. Did pretty well in the cups too, just unfortunate to get a bad draw in the Irish Cup. Also pretty funny to note that our best player in recent memory who thought we weren't good enough for him finished below us this season 

 

 

Karolis Romanov 3E  -  Coist Hughes 3L  -  Tommy Magee 4E

 

 

I said Romanov was going to be our most important player in the last review, and he proved his worth, being extremely solid at the back when the situation called for it. Our overall has jumped up by nearly 3 points, as the players are getting older and playing more games against better competition. We are in a pretty decent position to stay up next year with this XI if this season is anything to go by.

 

Youth Intake

Nigel Beresford 6N*  -  Stephen Webb 6B*  -  Radosław Gwiazda 6C*

 

An excellent intake on paper, but we don't really need a keeper and a few of these guys need retraining. But that's the reason we have an U18s team and a Reserves team that play in their own leagues. Our reserves team also participates in cups our senior team competed in when we were in lower divisions. 

 

Record Breakers
 

 

 

Transfers

 

Another one of our strong CBs departs for a better club. They won't be better for long.

 

Progress

 

[drittbil]

A question:

Will greyed-out players ever develop any tactical familiarity with their position and the system, or will they remain as tactically hopeless as they were at the beginning?

 

Background

By greyed-out players, I mean the ones that auto-magically fill out a list. My promoted club (Lowestoft) has 14 real players only, and 4 greyed-out players available to me on top of that. Due to holes in the list of real players, I need to play at least one of the greyed out players in every match.

 

[JLAB]

ACN Siena 1904 - 2028/29 Season Review

Another season has come and gone. We managed to finish in 8th place, our best finish so far. We tried out some new tactics and while we were really good for goals, having scored the most amount of goals in the in our eight seasons at the club, we also had our worse defensive record too. With Perugia winning the Coppa Italia Lega Pro as well, we were never in any danger of dropping out of the promotion playoffs once we found ourselves building a bit of a gap to 11th place, which became a promotion playoff spot too.

The aim is to eventually find ourselves getting promoted to Serie B, but with the shock relegation of Virtus Entella still a stark reminder that anyone could go down if they have a bad season, even if they are predicted to be in a promotion fight. We did fall to Cesena in the first playoff round to Cesena, the team we overtook in the last day of the season, but I with the team not being good enough to play in Serie B right now, this comes across as a blessing in disguise more than anything else right now.

Still, it's only the second time we've finished in the top half in eight seasons, so I know that there is still more work for us to do, especially if we are not consistent enough against the teams around us in the league.

Missing some of the stats as I forgot to take a screenshot before I started the new season in advance. I'm releasing these posts as my YouTube series based on this save goes live now. Allows me to pace this out nicely too.

[Diego D10S]

                                                                                                      The Seagulls 2022 / 2023 Midseason Update

 

    

[TheGreatTraveler]

SC Freamunde

Season 6 - 2026/2027

Transfers - Past Positions - Best XI - Youth Intake - Finances

Season Summary - 3rd - Promoted!

To explain just how I got promoted, let me start by explaining how the Portuguese Fourth Division works. Made up of 5 groups of 12 teams each, the top team in each group qualifies for the end of season promotion play-offs. Then, the three teams with the highest point totals not already qualified qualify. Then, the 8 teams play a knock-out tournament where the two to reach the final get promoted. 

The season was amazing, no other way to say it, with our away form the key to our success as we went unbeaten away from home all season. The team was playing at a much higher level, with defensive solidity matched by a strong attack but we still found ourselves drawing a few too many games we should have won. In the end we were comfortably in the play-offs, 4 points ahead of the cut-off, but I was nervous as we had failed to beat Felgeuiras and At. Arcos all season. In particular, both our games against Felgeuiras had finished 0-0. 

But the team showed up: 

 

We did lose the final to Felgeuiras on penalties after another 0-0 draw, which put a small caveat to an otherwise incredibly succesful season. We are going up!

In the cup, we made the 3rd round again (beating a 2nd division side in the process) before falling on penalties to 3rd division Beira Mar.

Off the Field

Finances look ok, but promotion does seem to be crucial right now. I did get the board to improve our Youth Recruitment again at the end of the season to Excellent. Additionally, our U19 side stormed the Second U19 division (losing in the final as well on penalties) and getting promoted to the First U-19 division. 

Prospects worth Noting 

I almost feel like mentioning the entire first team squad! But let's talk about the true difference makers.

Nuno Casaca - YP0d (D(LCR),DM) - Played all but two games again this season at right back, making 3 assists and even got his first ever career goal through a penalty.

Gustavo Teles - YP0f (DC, DM, MC) - Our new captain settled into the defence very well, managing to go up the other side and get 7 goals as well. 

Gustavo Campos - YP1b (AML/ML) - Crucial as always on the left wing, he finishing the season with 2 goals and 7 assists.

Ailton Lopes - YP1d (GK) - Finally became the starter this season, benching our original keeper, and did exceptionally well, getting 10 shutouts, 2 POM appearances, and even an assist!

Gustavo Gomes - YP1k (ST/AML/AMR) - Incedible again, leading the line every game to finish with 23 goals in 30 macthes, adding in 3 assists for good measure. His 7.31 Avg. Rating shows just how good he was. Player of the season without a doubt.

Luis Cristo - YP2c (D(LCR)) - Joining Teles in defence, Cristo was imperial again, playing all but three matches he missed through injury. No goals for him though. 

Vitor Valente - YP2f (MC/AMC/ST) - Playing as a BBM, Valente became a goalscorer of amazing goals with all 5 of his strikes coming from outside the box. 

Fabio Luiz - YP3c (DM/MC) - Next to Valente as an AP, Luiz finally shined, getting himself 6 assists and one goal before his season was disrupted by an injury. Came back in time for the play-off final, were he missed one of the penalties. 

Alexandre Cande - YP3d (AMR/MR) - 7 goals, 5 assists, and a hat-trick in the play-off semi final that sent us up. Amazing. 

Bismark Danso - YP5a (DC/DM) - The now 16 year old may have been our missing peace. Playing as BWM most of the season, the team became quite good at getting cleansheets. Made 2 assists, both amazing throughballs for Cande in the play-off semifinal. Hoping it continues next season. 

Youth Intake

Can't really complain, seeing as I got a 3 star CA and a 2 star CA player, but after the past few intakes have given me ridicolous numbers of 4.5+ star potential players, only getting three is a bit dissapointing. However, I assume it has much more to do with our squad's ability growing than an actual change in the quality of the intake.

Next Season

Well after 6 22 game league seasons, next year will be something else as the Third Division has 46 (gulp). The depth of quality in the squad will likely become a lot more important, and hopefully the higher number of games helps more players develop. Avoiding relegation is the name of the game. 

Edited January 24, 2021 by TheGreatTraveler

[Padders]

Season Review 2077/78

Another 12th place finish

Bateson with 21 goals in only 28 games (injuries), still going at 33

 

[Shankly84]

I thought we had thrown it away. We were 3-1 up with 12 to go when they pulled two back. But we went straight down the other end and bagged two more. Our greatest achievement so far this one!!

[fmgrandtourer]

Going to give this a go. I was going to start as Scarborough but they only had 11 registered players so that first season would've been impossible. So I went with Nuneaton.

 

[XaW]

Teie IF Season 2036 review

Table | Squad | Transfers | Finances

We are now a professional football team! Though, it did not have the distinct showing on the pitch, as we did pretty much the same as last year. We got 3 points more, but one spot lower, so no Europe for us next season. It does seem to have helped the improvement of some of the players though, as some have have explosive improvements throughout the season. So now, we need to focus on becoming a team that can get into Europe on a regular basis and get some of that sweet European cash on a regular basis.

In Norgesmesterskapet we beat Nybergsund, Fyllingsdalen, Sarpsborg 08, Odd, Vålerenga and Bodø/Glimt to reach the final, here we lost to Aalesund.

We also had our first ever go in Europe this season and we went into the Europa League thanks to our cup win last year. We started in the playoffs (Norway have bounced up the coefficients!) against TNS of Wales. We beat them at home and drew away to go into the group stage. Here we had a really tough draw as we got Real Madrid of Spain, Fiorentina of Italy and Legia Warszawa of Poland. We beat Legia in both legs and also managed a very strong draw at home to Real Madrid, but unsurprisingly we finished in 3rd. That has made us qualify for the Europa Conference League knockout rounds, but those happen into next season, so I'll post a new one when that is done.

Youth players of note:

He is becoming a really good defender for us and he is also chipping in quite a few goals.

We are not keeping too many clean sheets, but our goalkeeper still does quite good. Chipped in with 9 more goals as well!

[Sn00gle]

Unfortunately, my progress is stooped by monitor issues Hope I will be able to resolve this asap. Great job guys!

[JLAB]

ACN Siena 1904 - 2029/30 Season Preview

When the 1st of July arrived, I was more than a little shocked to see that not only were we not predicted to finish in the bottom five places this season, but we were predicted to finish in the top half of the table and considered a team to fight for a promotion playoffs spot. Now, this was before the other teams in the league made their transfers and loans to strengthen their squads, but we were still predicted to finish outside of the relegation zone for the first time in our nine years at the club. It gave me a lot of hope that the team that we have developed was finally going to be good enough to be pushing up the table consistently, even if the division is very competitive. 

I just need to sort out a major issue that I'm realising it popping up in my players at the moment. More than a few of them are inconsistent, to the point that some of the best players on paper, are the worse players in regards to actual performances. It's more than a little concerning, and I need to figure out how to fix this issue that is coming up.

[vikeologist]

On 24/01/2021 at 09:52, drittbil said:

A question:

Will greyed-out players ever develop any tactical familiarity with their position and the system, or will they remain as tactically hopeless as they were at the beginning?

 

Background

By greyed-out players, I mean the ones that auto-magically fill out a list. My promoted club (Lowestoft) has 14 real players only, and 4 greyed-out players available to me on top of that. Due to holes in the list of real players, I need to play at least one of the greyed out players in every match.

 

I don't know, but at most you'll be playing them for about half a season.

I mean you say you have to use them, and there's certainly nothing wrong rules wise with using them, but you only need to use them if you only have 10 proper players. 

I'd rather use a real goalie outfield than a greyed out player, and have less than the full complement of subs.

Greyed out players can be quite good, but I'd have thought it was quite unlikely at the level that we are in the first season.

I had a couple of 1 star goalies my first season, and they got some matches as outfield players. They weren't terrible, or at least no worse than some of the supposed natural outfielders.

So, just from the perspective of keeping players fit, why use greyed out players at all unless you really do have to?

The one exception is that I would probably want to start a greyed out goalie if there were no proper players available, but I'm not sure exactly where the rules would stand on that, and as I say, my first season, goalies were the one thing I did have lots of.

[Armeniar]

A reason not to start this challenge in France: P$G.

Looks like a 10th title in a row is coming their way (2017-2027). Not that we're in a position to challenge them for the coming years, but it will be extremely hard competing with them.  

[Padders]

Season Review 2078/79

Tried a change of tactic to try improve from the mid table mediocrity.

As usual when I try that, it all falls to pieces and end up in a relegation battle

Luckily manage to win 3 and draw 2 out of the last 6 games

Jamie Bateson still scoring goals at the grand old of age of 35. Another 26 this season and has been top scorer for 18 seasons in a row now!

 

[Brentmeister]

How many career goals does Bateson have @Padders? That's outrageous!

[Padders]

13 minutes ago, Brentmeister said:

How many career goals does Bateson have @Padders? That's outrageous!

Shows 465 here but that's only league goals isn't it? Why does the history only show league goals? Anyone know?

The 2065/66 season, down here as 55 but on my spreadsheet he scored 61 goals that season

 

[TheGreatTraveler]

If you go to your squad and set the sheet to show stats - All time you should see all game stats, not just League

[Padders]

53 minutes ago, TheGreatTraveler said:

If you go to your squad and set the sheet to show stats - All time you should see all game stats, not just League

Can add the stat for all time career goals

Bateson got 540 @Brentmeister

[darren1983]

Season 2024/25 Review Vanarama National League

League - Coming into this season I was prepared for a real battle. My squad was still looking small and our players capable of performing at this level were a year older and our best young players were still around 17 and I'm not one to throw people in at that age unless they're very good already. I was keen to ensure we gave up less goals this year so went back to my preferred 433 formation and it worked. We started how I thought we would and sat above the relegation zone at the half way stage. We did lose 12 of our 23 games but unlike last season we were only losing by the odd goal, our goal scoring did take a big hit this yeah as a result though (last season had 2 players with 20+ and another on 19 - this year we only had 1 in double figures) but I kept faith with what we had and slowly things clicked. Nearly 2 months unbeaten in Jan and Feb pulled us clear of the relegation battle and we never looked back. Ended 12th which was 4 places and 10 points better than last season. 

FA Cup - Made it to the first round again. Lost to a league 1 side again. This was pretty frustrating though as in the first game we led Burton till the 81st min and then we also led them in the replay before another late goal (86th minute this time) got them the win. These games though were the reason why I had faith in the system I set up because of we good compete with a league one side then we should be OK 2 levels down. 

FA Trophy - Lost in the 5th round again. After extra time again - we do like to repeat things!

Transfers - Lost our back up keeper to fleetwood but he was about to be overtaken by keeper that came through last season anyway. Sent Slane out on loan as we moved from a front 2 to a front 1 and he needed game time. He did not get as mcuh as I would have liked though

Squad - Some players really stepped up this year, A couple players that came through my first intake became regulars as well as Prince Adjei 24A becoming our best CM (as I said when he came through last year) this felt like the season where I clicked with this team and save as we had several games with 5 or 6 academy players in the side. Trouble with no U23 side though is that as soon as someone turns 18 they're in my first team so might need a bit of culling this summer. My main rule is any plsyer that is in the first team squad but plays no games can be let go (unless they're a backup keeper) as they're not adding anything to us and that spot can be used for someone with higher potential 

Finances - Still pretty good. Can't moan about having 1m in the bank

Youth Intake - Another really good one. In fact a really good one. Can never moan about 8 (  ) 5* PA players. And yes I tagged them all  

Robert Spaulding 25A - Winger with nice attributes for our level and a good personality 
Nathaniel Rasmussen 25B - Another winger, good pace and agility 
Scott Grayson 25C - another decent looking full back, be nice to get some right backs in though, bit slow but otherwise ok
Jay Tolentio 25D - Yet another winger but could actually be the best of the lot, good mentals and pace. Also how can you not be excited about a random kid from the Philippines turning up at South Shields in the North of England?
Stephen Ofoedu 25E - Like the look of him, going to train him to play as a inside forward on the right cutting in on that left foot
Jason Wallace 25F - A CB, we have a few ahead of him and he's a bit slow, probably shouldn't have tagged him looking at him now. Ah well.
Adrian Gardner 25G - I like him as a potential mezzala 
Hamish Buchan 25H - another keeper, will likely never be more than back up but you never know with keepers.

Intake Nationalities 

Inspired by others I have decided to also keep track on the nationalities that are coming through. For now am only listing players with their first nationality unless they end up representing their 2nd one. 

Spoiler

Career Progress

Season		League		Position	Youth Recruitment	Youth Coaching		Notes & Achievements 

2021/22		VNLN		5th 		Adequate		Adequate		First coaching badge
2022/23		VNLN		2nd 		Adequate		Good			Promoted via playoffs, FA Trophy runners up
2023/24		VNL		16th 		Average			Excellent 		2nd coaching badge
2024/25		VNL		12th 		Average			Excellent		3rd coaching badge