[FM21] Youth To Gold - Le Havre AC

[Rabbix]

Youth To Gold - Le Havre AC

Welcome everyone! This is my long-term save with Le Havre AC, a team which is known for devolving bright French talents, most notably Paul Pogba. Now before I explain everything with this save, I would like to answer one question I will most likely get. Why did I abandon the Valencia save? Well it's quite easy, I wasn't having fun. See this Le Havre save was the one I was playing over Valencia. I didn't want to focus on in depth profiles and trying to figure out stats. I still like them, but I ultimately decided not to play that save because of me over-relying on it and going too in depth when I just wanted to play some games. I hope you understand, and now, let's dive right into this.



What's a Youth to Gold save?
Originally came up by FM YouTuber and streamer Omega Luke, the Youth to Gold challenge focuses on well, youth! There are only two main rules:

- You are only allowed to sign Teenagers. (players age 15 to 19)
- After your first year, You are only allowed to play players 30 or older as substitutes

Now by technicality, the rules set by Omega Luke are that you have to sell players that are 30 or older/They are no longer allowed to play in your squad. However to save cohesion, have more veterans to teach the youngsters, and to keep realism, I think the best way to do it is after a year to leave old players on the bench at most. The other rule is exactly the same and is the main appeal to this challenge. You can't sign anybody who's age 20 or higher. This means you have to rely on the wonderkid fix, but I'm sure most FM players won't mind it at all. Other then that your free to run wild. Tactics, Youth Intake, Staff, that's all to be decided by you without any modifiers. Now that we know the rules, let's go into why I picked the club.



Why Le Havre AC?


Welcome to the Stade Oceane. This is the home of Le Havre AC, who have developed players such as Paul Pogba, Dimitri Payet, and Steve Mandanda. These players would all go on to play for the top teams in the top leagues of Europe. Le Havre themselves however have stayed as a mid-table squad in the 2nd tier of France. Since 2002, this club has been in Ligue One only twice. Once where they got relegated at 18th, and the other in 2008/2009 when they only achieved 26 points and finished 20th. They have often made the playoff places but have never delivered in securing promotion. I'm here to hopefully change that and with a new mentality. YOUTH, YOUTH, YOUTH! We want the new age of this club to rise, and that is hopefully a Champions League win and trophies galore to bring back to the Havre Faithful. Now, let's review the first season, shall we?



2020/2021 Season Review


If you notice the trophies, you can see we did a domestic double. We did not only just win Ligue Two (by a mile might I say).... BUT WE HAVE EUROPA LEAGUE FOOTBALL!!!! That's right baby, in a 2-1 win against Nice, we won the Coupe de France!! This win wasn't easy, as we had to barely scrape a win against PSG on penalties to get to this point, but I was so happy with the team especially since I would think nobody thought this Mid-Table Ligue Two team would secure their slot in Europe. But no more chit chat, let's see exactly how we did.



First, we now hold the record for most wins in a row for Ligue Two with 12!!! That was all thanks to Jamal Thiare, who should not be playing anywhere besides Ligue One. By using a simple 4-4-2 gengenpress, we we're able to create so many chances for Jamal and make most of them count. Sadly though, the end of the year was our Squeaky Bum Time. It seemed as if teams had figured us out and took away a potential 100 point season. But honestly I'm proud in that since going undefeated would make me question the game itself. But there was one thing we did go undefeated in....



The Coupe de France! Our best game was against Ligue One bottom-dweller Metz, who failed to even get a single point over us. However the road after that was very rocky, as we beat both a rotated PSG and Saint Etienne only on penalties. The final was not as exciting, a 2-0 lead against Nice only crushed by an 89th minute goal by Danilo. We did great against Ligue One competition, but some of our key starters will be on the bench next year as they are 30 or above. However, I am confident this team can still do great without said players as their impact was minimal apart from a few games and I can hopefully find good replacements. That's going to be all for me, I'll see you all next time when we have our first every transfer special!!

[deltablue]

I like that transfer rule.

[abulezz]

Good luck, always love me some Youth saves!

[Rabbix]

Youth To Gold - Le Havre AC (Transfer Special!)

Welcome everyone back to the transfer special! I've been preparing a few transfers and as the window opens on the 1st of July. I needed to be spending quite a bit of money however as key slots in our lineup would soon be opened thanks to the rule of benching 30 year olds or older once you hit your 2nd season. So I have already spent my budget before the window started. I wait anxiously to get our players in but as soon as I got the word from our press officer...



oh it was time.



Transfers!
CB - Elias Machuca ~ 1.2m


The steal of the season! Elias Machuca arrives to Le Havre for just 1.2m! He's an excellent defender, has great decision making, and can only improve being just 18. He slots in for a defense that was alright last season but could have preformed way better as it seemed like a 1 CB team. This time however Elias is going to be the perfect support to this squad and hopefully help us make a grand European run.

ST - Matias Arezo ~ 1m


What can be said about Matias Arezo that hasn't been said already? He's a baller and a star. We had two great strikers but to make the move to Ligue One I needed to bring in a generational talent. Arezo was just that. Eventually he's going to leave us for a big money move, but whilst he's here, I'm hoping to use him as much as I can. He has amazing stats everywhere and is going to be the highlight for this season. Let's go A-re-zo!

W - Arjen Van De Heide ~ 19m (24m)


Was this a bit much to pay for a good winger? Yes, of course. So why did it do it? Well he looks absolutely class. Great Pace, Agility, Crossing, and Dribbling! He's exactly what I want to see from a Winger. As well he's 19 so he still has buckets of potential (Which I can say for every player we sign) and fills a horrible winger situation I have been dealing with for a while.  And let's not forget his campaign IRL where in 14 games he scored 2 goals which is very good for a kid making his league debut. 19m is a done deal for me.


 

Edited June 1, 2021 by Rabbix

[john1]

Congrats on winning Coupe de France  Good signings so far