The FM22 Youth Academy Challenge

[JLAB]

OFK Beograd - Season 4 - Surviving Without Retiring Players?

So the 3rd season in the top flight of Serbia promises to be one full of pain and suffering. I am shocked that we've even survived in the last two seasons, but at least our players are playing at a high level.

The person that retired? Elvedin Skrijelj, who managed to be a club legend before he retired. He was not great in terms of current ability, but still managed to produce good ratings. Hopefully we'll do well without him.

We're also playing in FK Partizan's stadium this season, so hopefully we'll be able to make plenty of money going forward.

We've also now become the 15th biggest team in the country as well, as a result of staying up in the top flight two seasons in a row. Hopefully we'll be able to keep ourselves as a 2-star team going forward.

Edited June 20, 2022 by JLAB

[_JHTB_]

Grew a little bored of my old save so here I am..

Enfield Town Season 1

Vanarama National League North – 8^th

Transfers – Fixtures (1) – Fixtures (2) – Squad – Table – Key Player – Hot Prospect  

I thought I’d give this a whirl in England and ended up settling for Enfield Town. In terms of our overall squad when I started it was actually relatively well rounded with decent depth. We did, unfortunately lose 7 players before the season had started but ultimately tied down a solid 16 players for the season.

League

The league started incredibly, 2 draws and 7 wins from our opening 9 (although wasn’t enough to see us top as Boston had an even better start). However, the first loss did send us in a inconsistent run, still hanging round the top of the league but not putting any strong form at all. In honesty, that was our form for most the season until we reached the latter part where we basically just fell of. We were almost constantly in the playoffs all season till game 40 before falling out altogether.

We did have a slim chance of still making the playoffs on the final day needing a win and a few results to go our way, so finding ourselves 2 down at half time was not that ideal. We did actually manage to come back and salvage a draw but ultimately, we missed out on the playoffs on goal difference.

A disappointing end to the season, however, a better season than I would have been anticipating so can’t really complain too much on it. As well, based on the xG league table we should have actually finished 1^st which I guess is another positive.

Cups

As the cups more or less coincided with the part of our season we were doing decently well, we did give a good account of ourselves making our way to the 1^st round of the FA Cup and arguably could have progressed at least one round further but I’m happy with the showing.  We also reached the 5^th round of the FA Trophy bowing out on penalties.

Youth Intake

We didn’t really have a great youth intake not many players in the areas that we would need them but there was a few players that look as though they could be handy for us.

Kieran Preece 1 –  Preece is the standout of this seasons intake – versatile and very capable physically, he will definitely be featuring a good amount next season.

Stephen O’Brien 1 – Has some nice attributes, but then also some not so good ones. I’m hoping he can at least develop to be a somewhat handy back up – but I don’t see him dislodging my current defenders.

Jamie McEvoy 1 – Nothing special, but has some not awful goalkeeping attributes. I did give him a game as my first choice keeper was in a period of awful form, however, he performed pretty terribly so I’m hoping before he has to step in as our keeper we manage to get a better prospect coming through.

Key Players

Muhammadu Faal – Quite comfortably our best player and for this level he’s a very good player. 44 goals and 13 assists in all competitions is a very good return. I have managed to tie him down for at least next season also which is good, but I don’t see us keeping him too long unless we manage to get promoted.

Lyle Della Verde – Naturally a winger he was playing in central midfield for us and did really well with 5 goals and 18 assists.

Infrastructure/Looking Ahead

We haven’t managed to secure any upgrades to our facilities, though did get two coaching badges completed. I’m hoping in the coming season I can start getting the board to improve the junior coaching and the youth recruitment, but we’re not that stable financially so I think the chances could be slim. Hopefully next season we can again challenge towards the top end of the league, leveraging our better players whilst we still have them.

[Daddy]

2023/24 Midseason review:

After a real nice start things have completely fallen off. Twelve in a row without a win. I've tried a few different tactics. It's been a tough season with injuries combined with the step up in talent. I've gone from thinking maybe we could sneak a European spot at fifth to needing something to change or we could be at relegation risk.

Before it all went to **** I was able to get an upgrade.

Would love for that keeper to come in ready to go. Our current keepers have been trash.

[WhiteCat33]

Toni Store Jugglers FC – St Vincent & The Grenadines
Season 22 2043/2044 SVG Championship
 

Performance

League Champion

Cup Champion

North American Champions League

Group Stage: I have to say this was a disappointing showing. We were looking very good after 4 games where we were basically tied with LA Galaxy and Saprissa on points with both of them Home for games 5 & 6. Yet our offense failed us and we lose 0-1 and 1-2 with our striker totally drying up. While our defense and midfield are strong and improving our Striker peaked very early and is no where near as lethal as he was in his teens. The team is waiting now for that 'sensational striker' to come through the intake as that's the last piece of the puzzle for the Jugglers.  Game-by-game in the spoiler.

Spoiler

LA Galaxy Dedicated Players: All offensive, which is bad news for us. Good news is they play a 4-4-2 so not all 4 can be on the field in optimal positions.

Match 1: Cibao Home – For this match I rotated out as we have LA Galaxy Away 3 days later, which will require my strongest lineup to hopefully steal a point. Wesley Davis is back from injury for his first game. Tons of early chances but it takes till the 29’ for Williams 05a to finally get a goal. 60’ Burgin got a header from Williams cross. They pull one back on a breakaway, we are very much under-scoring the xG today which is a concern. We win 2-1 with an xg of 4.15 to their .39… A win is a win but this wasn’t good enough.
La Galaxy and Saprissa draw 0-0!

Match 2: LA Galaxy Away – The big game! And we strike early! McLean 14b gets a goal in the 6’!!! He almost got a 2nd in the 23’, but missed a clear-cut chance and they turn it around and score on us to bring it level, that hurt. We hold on very well until the 80’ where our LB gets a second yellow and is ejected. We go strikerless and do our best to pack it in and wait out the clock. We do! 1-1 draw away in LA is excellent. 

Match 3: Saprissa Away – Not to be underestimated, Costa Rican teams can be tough. And they show it with an early goal in the 7’. But our high pressure wins the ball and Jeffers 12a makes one of his killer balls to Williams 05a who actually stays onside and finishes it for once in the 20’. 1-1. They have a nasty corner in the 39’ where a long shot murders my gk. Damn my RB gave away a penalty but my gk Emereld Lee 11c came up huge and saved it! Sadly we couldn’t get our offense going today and we fall 1-2. 

Game 4: Cibao Away – Nical McLean 14b gets an easy 13’ goal and doubles it in the 18’ with a corner goal. Then Jeffers uses his flair and backheels the ball off a defender to force an own goal. McLean 14b gets a hat-trick in the 58’ and our sub AML makes it 5 and sub CM make it 6, both in stoppage time. Perfect!
LA Galaxy win resulting in this crazy tight table. We have both LA Galaxy and Saprissa Home for our final 2 games. Lets go!

Game 5: Saprissa Home – Gotta win boys. They are playing 4-2-3-1 with 3 AMC, which is nasty when we play condensed in the middle. 33’ we give up a goal. We couldn’t make any chances connect and with an xG just shy of 2, we lose 0-1. We need a better offense.

Game 6: LA Galaxy Home – We are knocked out, but we can earn some money here if we win. Its 140k per win. Goddamn passback to my GK with their striker right next to him and he taps it in. 36’. Jason Snagg who caused the goal gets a redemption penalty to bring us level 1-1. And then they put it away in the 84’. What a disappointing NACL run. 
 

Caribbean Club Championships

Group Stage: We actually got a good group. Best T&T team (TLH Rangers) and GPS Puerto Rico who have the Bayern Academy developing their players so they are half decent. We still advanced comfortably.

Knockouts: Another Trophy on the shelf. We actually had to work for this one in the final with a Corner header in the 113' giving us the winning goal. 

Spoiler

Squad

Transfers

In a crazy twist my old Captain and St Vincent Legend Cleophys Stewart 04b and Ezra Williams 05a will be going to play their final years in China! Competition was done for the season, so wanted to get them a good final home in the Chinese Super League.

Youth Academy

Youth Intake Preview

Youth Intake

Youth Intake Squad

Awful Personalities, but its his first year and at least he got us an Elite Talent finally. But he’s not super useful.

Same with the AML

I took 5 but have little to no hope on them. This makes 2 mostly dud intakes in a row. Maybe I was hasty to change? 

Club Improvements

Club wants to build their own stadium apparently. Can’t say I blame them, even in the domestic league we are selling out the 3.5k ground we rent

Financially I'm treading water right now as with taxes we more or less break-even for the year. It will take a run into the QFinals of NACL again to build up the finances for our next upgrade. Probably will take 2+ seasons especially with a new stadium project.

St Vincent Internationals

New 100 CAP Club Members: My two fullbacks have passed the mark now. They tend to play Osment 07a as a BWM for the national team, but for me he's a dedicated LB.

Gold Cup Playoffs

St Vincent has to go from the 2nd level playoffs to make it into the Gold Cup. Our first draw was relatively straight forward: Aruba - Lots of goals for my players

Next, they drew Panama. While significantly more challenging, there is still hope for the Vincey Heat! And they do it, two victories will be sending them to the Gold Cup Proper

International Retirements

Ezra Williams 05a is retiring from International play which seems to be sending two more of my players out of the national team. Raheem Osment 07a is a big surprise as he’s only 30, just broke 100 CAPs and is in form getting a Brace against Panama, a difficult matchup for the team. Also WQ NAMs are this fall so there's actually something to play for.

International Careers

I've updated my table for my 40+ CAP players to also include Club League stats & Best XI All Competition Stats. 

 

Manager

I’ve gotten lots of MLS & Mexican 1st Division offers every season, but one to coach Spain!? That’s a serious job. I am currently paid $675 p/w, this would be a ‘slight’ pay-bump…

Excel & Thoughts

EXCEL SEASON 1 – 15 ; Season 16 - 22

At least we won the CCC again to keep building up our reputation. We are still only 1.5* REP, and I have no idea how many trophies it will take to bump us up to 2*. The club needs a better striker. My current player Nical McLean 14b is basically all 12-13 for the AF attributes, which is fine for CCC & Domestic play but is not good enough to break through against MLS teams. He just needs to be good enough to get us into 1 more QF as that should generate sufficient money to get a YF upgrade. Hopefully that will be what it takes to get back to averaging 1-2 Elite Talents a year. 

Edited June 21, 2022 by WhiteCat33

[libbyshuss]

18 hours ago, Neo_Geo said:

General forum question, how do you do the hidden sections? I remember seeing it before on another forum from the same provider but I don’t remember the code you have to insert in source mode to get it to work.

you use that eye/spoiler tag from the top bit. next to the smiley face.

i wish i could explain it better!

[Neo_Geo]

7 minutes ago, libbyshuss said:

you use that eye/spoiler tag from the top bit. next to the smiley face.

i wish i could explain it better!

Any time I tried to use it before and preview it still showed up.....will give it a go and see what happens (next update is quite lengthy!)

[libbyshuss]

11 minutes ago, Neo_Geo said:

Any time I tried to use it before and preview it still showed up.....will give it a go and see what happens (next update is quite lengthy!)

ican't quite remember how to use it

Spoiler

do you highlight the text and then click the eye?

if that worked then yes!

[Neo_Geo]

VV Katwijk Season 7 (2030/31)

Competitions

Spoiler

 Season 7 is when the hard work giving game time and adjusting the tactics in season 5 and 6 finally paid off.

A lackluster performance in the Dutch Cup with a second round exit to Ajax took a bit of the shine off the season, however thanks to a great run in March and April we just managed to snatch 3rd (and by just I mean it took a Botermans equaliser in the 93rd minute away to Ajax in the last game to pip PSV to 3rd place!)

We lost to Feyenoord when 1 point behind with 2 games to go, so Champions League wasn't far off.

In terms of the league position we were holding steady in 6th for quite some time but hit our purple patch in the last straight

Our home form was the basis for the success of this season beating Ajax for the first time in the save as well as a comprehensive 4-1 win over PSV in the last home game of the season.

Spoiler

Home Results

Away Results

 

Players

Spoiler

The team really seemed to go up a gear this season, I played an attacking mentality which they now seem to have got used to as well as a 2 striker and wingerless formation. The best eleven shows a very different picture from other seasons with 8 of the starting 11 pulling in 7+ average ratings

Botermans has now taken over as the record appearance holder as well as top scorer, though only still an icon of the club:

 

As for his striker partner (Bijl was injured for a chunk of the season leading to Plezier dropping back into the AMC role) he has excelled and won the Golden Boy award as well as appearing in the NxGn top 10

Strikwerda (who won keeper of the year) and Sezer also made it into the top 10.

So everything is going well but I am worried for next season as a number of the players weren't happy with their contracts and when I offered new ones the minimum fee release clauses were rather low, capped and locked (most of the time without expiry dates as well).

I managed to get Sezer up to £38.5m and he really is looking the part now

As for the rest I have Bijl at £15m, Depay on £7.25m, Strikwerda on £8m and Burger on £8.5m. The priority for me is to get rid of these or get them much higher, so I'm hoping European football might assist with this.

As for Depay there were some low ball offers from Inter and West Ham
 

Youth Intake

Spoiler

Another sound intake this season and I got a decent fullback out of it, certainly looks the part compared to our current LB, van der Ende.

 

The best of the bunch this year was an AMR, Bosma, however given my tactics don't use wingers I am going to retrain him as an advanced forward (where he scored on his debut off the bench). Second year running that the best prospect has Fickle as the personality, however Burger is now balanced after 1 year of mentoring.

Club

Spoiler

The club continues to grow, with exceptional junior coaching and youth recruitment and training and youth training at 3.5 stars with training facilities getting upgraded by October Season 8. Back in the Sportpark De Krom this season and a 98% average attendance by capacity (8885) shows the fanbase is growing and with that the club have announced their plans for the new stadium

The club reputation hasn't changed from 2.5 stars but again European football should help with that.

Finances are holding firm for now and I now have valuable assets that if I need to I could sell to generate some income.

Misc

Spoiler

We had our first full international of the save with Albertus getting his first cap for Aruba

I won the manager's manager award this season which I think given our 1000-1 odds and finishing only 10 points behind the winners seemed to be merited.

When Schreuder took over at Ajax I was offered an interview with AZ, so I must be doing something right.

 

The Stats

Spoiler

 

The Future

Spoiler

As mentioned under the players section the priority for me is to remove or at the very least increase the minimum fee release clauses of my key players as we just don't have enough quality in depth to cope with losing probably even one of the first XI.

Comvalius has no release clause however when he comes looking for a new contract I'm sure it will be there and his transfer value is only £5.2m - £6.6m so I doubt I'll be able to increase it to an 8 figure sum.

I'll be looking to get Bodker playing at left back and possibly the right wingback from the intake to see what they have as I don't believe Adrichem is a long term solution and right back and I know van der Ende at left back is definitely not good enough for this level in the long run. That means teams playing wingers are going to have a lot of joy when I play them so I should maybe not expect to hit the heights of this season.

Ideally I'd like to win the Dutch Cup as the trophy cabinet is only collecting dust right now.

European football in season 8 was not something I was expecting so I'll enjoy it while I can.

Absolutely loving the save, just can't quite get as much time on it as I would have liked.

 

 

 

Edited June 21, 2022 by Neo_Geo

[JLAB]

OFK Beograd - Season 4 - The Winter Break

If there was a concern that I had before this season started, it was whether or not my defence could cope with several retirements. So far, I've not been given reasons to feel like the side will survive for a 3rd straight season. The recent run of form has bene nothing short of shambolic to say the least.

With the winter break now here, I truly believe that for the team will not survive this relegation fight. After the season we had before the winter break last season, this paints a very bleak picture and one that I can not help but wonder if this will be the last time in several years we will be in this division. To be blunt, we almost need a relegation so we can stop being absolutely destroyed each and every week, even if we might end up having trouble keeping hold of our players.

The youth intake preview was honestly very disappointing. I had hoped for something more than what I had been promised so far and it hasn't helped my woes.

Bizarrely though, Dinamo Zagreb of all teams came in and offered me a job interview. I turned it down obviously, but it was not something that I was expecting to be getting any time soon. So that was a pleasant surprise.

[Terk]

Been looking for something long term to sink my teeth into as my usual journeyman saves aren't doing it for me this year. So here we are...

My squad currently has exactly four defenders, so some of the kids in the youth team are going to get a very quick promotion to the senior squad.

 

[libbyshuss]

Argentina

Premier League

2046 - Season 25

Season Summary

So, did I win the Libertadores and complete the challenge?

Spoiler

No, i did not. I got through to the semis again where i played Palmeiras of Brazil. We drew the first leg at home 4-4 and lost 2-1 away. So that's 3 semi finals in a row!

 

We finished 3rd in the league

 

Players

Have I found my first wonderkid? Maybe, maybe not. This fella here:-

I gave him a start in the Libertadores group stage and he scored a hattrick. So, I played him again and he scored again. After 4 games he scored 8, after 8 games he'd scored 16. After 16 games he'd scored 23!!!! And then after 23 he'd still scored 23, he had a bad run then. But he ended up our top scorer with 34 goals. Could he be our first elusive wonderkid?

Career

Can I keep going until I finally win the Libertadores? Maybe.....

 

[Diego D10S]

 

 

I'm back for my first try this year.

Its going to be a slow start with a very small squad.

Just hoping for a mid table finish and a couple of decent intakes to get started.

 

GL ALL !!  

[BustaRaymes]

*FM20*

Littlehampton Town 2047-2048

Sky Bet League Two

A pretty comfortable finish for our first season in League Two. We performed well above expectation.

 

Transfers

We lost Pourkhanmohammad but got a nice fee and a sell-on clause with it. 

 

Squad

Benham made a good impression in his first full season. He's not a star player type, but Molloy has been declining and we need Benhams physicals up front.

Page had a good season again. Not the most talented player we even had, but he makes good use of his free role on the right side.

 

Youth Intake

It could be worse. It's not good enough for League Two though.

Silic looks talented but I need to get that personality off him as soon as possible. 

I like pacy dribblers like Hudson as well, I'm curious to see what he can do for us.

Vassell is a right winger too, but a completely different type than Hudson. We lack good crossers.

[JLAB]

OFK Beograd - Season 4 - Youth Intake

The winter break has seen us get some momentum and secure some victories, before we went 4 games without a win, including dropping points to the bottom of the table side. I have no confidence in the team to keep us up.

Our chances of staying up is looking very bleak. We have 8 games left and the bottom two teams go down automatically, I am hopeful that we can climb up to 12th to avoid being in the relegation playoffs, so we need to overturn an 8 point deficient in order to avoid worrying about the relegation.

What I wasn't prepared for was this youth intake and my eyes widened in shock when I noticed the one player who looked incredible in terms of current ability.

This is Ivan Stosic. He is an incredibly DM who I plan on making my first-choice Deep Lying Playmaker in the DM position. I know that we will most likely lose him, but he is considered good enough to play in the Linglong Tire Superliga straight away. 

Stefan Ratkovic was also a player I was told to be excited about, and if I can train him to be a natural as LB, I will make him my first-choice LB as things stands. I just hope he's consistent.

The last person who has at least 4.5 stars in potential ability, Milorad Miletic is a person that I consider to be a striker. Whether or not he can be I don't know, but he is professional, which is nice.

It's just a shame I still don't have any amazing CBs, I really, really need one and quickly.

[aldojags]

@Neo_Geogreat season mate unlucky to miss out on 2nd. That home form is insane. Need to give us a look at the attribute page for the nxt gen winner when u get a chance mate!

 

@BustaRaymesLike the look of the young Swedish guy, if u manage to mentor him and get rid of the personality he'll be a cracking player for you before long. The other winger looks potentially good too just out and out right winger.

 

@JLABthat young prospect is insane, look at the mentals on him!

 

@libbyshussunlucky mate, u reeled me in with the spoiler, thought you'd done it!! 

 

[toshimitzou1]

Icelandic Youth Challenge - Haukur:

Season Summary 2027 - 2028

Domestic dominance perpetuated with another undefeated season:

All domestic trophies won again:

Transfer History:

BUT, the biggest story - An epic run to the Euro Cup final:

Don't get me wrong, the draw was very kind to us but you can only beat what is put in front of you. Juventus are far beyond us ability - wise but we did manage to break into the tournament XI with our CM - Attack:

We are really climbing the coefficient rankings:

and the League is slowly being dragged up as a consequence:

 

[aldojags]

Ok after a few days in the huff from my resignation from Lokeren after an eternity in the Belgian 2nd tier, I was a total saddo and went back to my German save from earlier this year, and just looked at my all conquering Jena side and reminded myself that I do actually know what I'm doing with this game! 

 

But I'm ready to get back on the horse, it will be a slightly slower pace as the seasons are chunkier, and I just have a lot on so I think i'll be lucky to get through maybe 2 seasons a month but see how it goes!

 

So without further ado, my next move is to Italy - Serie C/A, Novara, who were a Serie A team as recent as 2011, feel like I'm cheating a wee bit as they seem quite a big club, have £2m in the bank!! A long way removed from some of you guys who build clubs up from nothing, already a decent infrastructure here. But I don't have time for that!

 

 

[aldojags]

@toshimitzou1bloody hell....icelandic team to the euro cup final inside of like 6-7 seasons....how!!??

[Vlach]

Bisceglie

 

I decided to try this challenge again, in Italy. Team of choice is Bisceglie in Apulia. The usual Infos:

 

    

 

 

First task will be to find some staff which actually wants to work for us - seems to be quite difficult... But in the end i managed to hire an HOYD who seems quite nice -Roberto Butto:
    

 

Goal of course for now is to survive somehow the first seasons until some young players provide some depth. At least until then  probably every season will be a fight against relegation

Media Prediction in Serie C/C: 17th

 

[glennuk]

Worthing FC - Season 18 - English Premier League - Relegation Nation

League 20th

We actually had a chance to avoid the drop with about 6 games to go, also claimed to 19th briefly. But losing to Leeds (who finished in 19th) and having a tough end of year fixture run meant we were doomed to 20th. Although I was happy with the second half of our season. If we had matched the 2nd half in the first 19 games we may have survived.

The Squad

We definitely struggled at this level, but I do think playing this high up helped improve some players ability, as well as giving valuable experience to some of our younger players with high potential. We certainly rotated a lot towards the end of the season when there was nothing to play for.

The Finances

The best thing to come from our stint in the Premier League is the huge amount of money we took in. Pity the tax bill was over 15 mil. The parachute payment of 41 million next season will also help with the long term goals of this challenge.

The Accolades

Not much to shout about here.

The Facilities

We have nothing left to improve. I believe everything is maxed out. Once we get our new stadium (we are already having an average attendance over the 16k capacity of our new stadium). We will try to expand it ASAP.

Random News & Poachings

We have had 3 players poached (Chelsea, Newcastle, Brighton). The best of which looks like he could be promising unfortunately. I also bought back in Lawson D'Ath who was my HOYD previously, but will now be my Assistant Manager.

The Future

Now we have to rely on our coaching staff (which is the strongest in the Nation) to bring in some good Youth players, train them up and improve our side. I think we have a decent chance of going straight back to the Premier League, despite the fact we are tipped for bottom and relegation.

Edited June 23, 2022 by glennuk

[aldojags]

Hard luck @glennukbut I've every faith you'll be back to stay in prem in next few years! 

[Daddy]

2023/24 Season Review:

We had an abysmal stretch of 15 matches with just one win. Some were against the top teams, that's fine. However, there were plenty of winnable matches in there. I feel like we left at least 5-10 points on the table with that bad stretch. We were safe so no worries, but I feel like the quality of the team is a bit more mid table. We got hammered with injuries as well (bad enough one player straight retired).

We were expected to fight bravely against relegation, so the owner is happy and I got some more upgrades.

Not pictured are the four players I had retire. One was a starter, so that's a bit annoying. 

Youth Intake:

On my team 5 star appears to be "Good UPL player" (aka good for the top league), and four star is "decent" for this level.  With that context being given, this is a massive intake. One player (Mysyk Y24C) jumps right in as a starter. Due to retirements two other players come in as backups (in a league with 5 subs they'll see some time). I was hoping a keeper would come in ready to start, but I'm going to feed Holovko minutes and see if he takes over.

Intake Production:

I wanted a way to track the intakes, and this is what I came up with. I already renamed the Transfer/Released column to Not With Club to indicate an active player but not for us. 

2024/25 Season Preview:

I'm hoping mid table, but at least to avoid relegation

[glennuk]

2 hours ago, aldojags said:

Hard luck @glennukbut I've every faith you'll be back to stay in prem in next few years! 

Thanks to be honest our goals were not to have the record for lowest points or fewest wins ever, which we thankfully avoided. I think if we were to get promoted again this season we would have a decent chance of staying up.

[SkiIIs]

Season 2036/37 - Championship

Third season in the Championship and with playing in the playoffs last season, albeit surprisingly, my own expectation was to reach the play offs again and put a better account of ourselves after 2 straight losses. The season started off well and by round 10 we found ourselves looking good on top of the ladder. Form dipped from there and some random blowout losses really put a dampener to the season. We'd manage to put a few good games together but then get done heavily quite randomly. With 8 games to go we did find ourselves in 6th spot but 3 losses in the next 4 games meant season was over. Overall we suffered 6 losses that were by either 3 goals or more.

In terms of Finances, our losses are starting to hit 800k a month in the worst months with little home games and/or cup fixtures. We did start the season with 3m in the bank tho and by May/June we were able to clear the credit balance from the sponsorship renewals.  The board decided to inject 1.8m of funds as well. However our stadium expansion did not proceed unfortunately due to funding. 

The solidarity payment just landed in June and our bank balance was 7m, so quickly got training facilities improved. We're excellent so do we go to state of the art next?

My first player to be acknowledged in the top 50 NxGn Wonderkids list!   Although im not really happy about it (maybe i am) as it coincided with 2 transfer bids, 9m from Dynamo Kyiv and 8m from Jeonbuk.  Timmy was ok that i kindly rejected them. He's not considered a wonderkid by the media quite yet.

He's really come on in leaps and bounds.  When he first joined as a youth candidate, he wasnt in my top 5 and hence no nickname. Just goes to show what I know!

Although he really didnt look like much 2 years ago. The personality change must have certainly helped!  In my Ultimate Manager Challenge save, the 3 most impressive nationalities i experienced were Ireland, Wales and Mexico so I have a bit of a soft spot for them.

Youth Preview was quite terrible:

Youth intake was in line with the preview. As stated by others, the intakes seem to be flooded with top GK prospects which is a bit annoying.

Next year i hope to keep my best players however Jarvis is adamant he wants a 14m release clause in hi contract even though hes worth that but he's only got a year to go so i might have to give in to his demands.  Aim is to push for a play off spot

 

Edited June 22, 2022 by SkiIIs

[JLAB]

OFK Beograd - Season 4 - Did We Survive?

Football Manager can be a strange game at times. After struggling for most of the season, and giving up a 2-0 lead against Radnicki Nis in the first game of the relegation group, my confidence was low. What I wasn't prepared for was for the team to suddenly win 4 games in a row and actually produce the best run of form we've ever experienced at this level. I honestly felt angry, because I wanted to know where this sort of form had been all season long.

Unfortunately, despite winning 4 games in a row, we didn't pull off the great escape, and quite frankly, the fact we had only won 5 games all season before that run at the end of the season was what cost us survival and the team should be ashamed of themselves for allowing us to be in that situation in the first place, even if on paper we were the worst team in the league.

Despite being in danger of getting relegated, I had been offered a new 2-year deal and I was also told by the board that even if we were relegated, they wouldn't be sacking me, good times.

I had also completed the Continental Pro Licence as well, so we have completed all of the coaching badges in just 4 seasons. A reason to be happy at least.

Though when we did the team meeting and gave the players our objectives for next season, I was told by one of the team leaders Andreja Lazovic that he would be looking for a transfer next season after he helped get the team relegated. What he doesn't know is that my backroom staff and I only consider him good enough to be considered a decent 2nd tier player. The division we're going down to.

In fact, he isn't even the only player wanting to leave due to us getting relegated, and out of those players, only Aleksijevic, Pejcic and Maric are good enough to be top flight players. Everyone else are either 2nd or 3rd tier players who I was forced to play because the squad wasn't good enough and the youth intake players outside of Maric haven't developed that much yet.

Petar Ristic wants to leave because I keep fining him for playing poorly and doing badly in training. He's far too casual for his own good.

If there was any concern about how good was squad is and how ambitious the board wants us to be. I will honestly take the fact that they only want a mid-table finish at first and want us to work towards a top-half finish as a good sign that they will be patient with me. I appreciate the fact that they know the squad isn't good enough to get promoted straight away and that the three seasons we just enjoyed in the top flight were overachievements due to how poor the squad is.

Perhaps I can finally build the squad the way I want with the time that I need without the pressure of constantly being in a relegation battle.

[Winski]

Well, here we go again. I couldn't find joy in my IJsselmeervogels-save. And that's not the first time in Holland.... I think it's the big difference in quality between my team and almost all the other teams.
So I started a new save, and I went back to an old love: Íþróttafélag Reykjavíkur (IR) from Iceland.
It's my intension to stay at IR until FM23 will come out. So let's see if we can win the Champions League (again) with IR!

[toshimitzou1]

13 hours ago, aldojags said:

icelandic team to the euro cup final inside of like 6-7 seasons....how!!??

Was almost a total shock to me. Like I said, the draw was very favourable:

BUT, more than anything I have implemented a tactic that is viable in both 'easy' and 'tough' fixtures. At home we can often dominate possession against stronger outfits:

Where we make full use of our supporting players (CM Triangle and LB) to offer safe and consistent passing options. Away from home, without any changes to the base tactic, the choice of two out and out attacking roles gives uss viable options to trigger the counter attack whilst still being protected by a bottom heavy shape where, even if the LCDM SV - Attack commits to the attack, the LIWB - Support or the RCDM - Support (with hold position PI) provide adequate cover:

Furthermore, due to the comparative weakness of the Icelandic league I am able to field a fully rotated first XI prior to a European fixture (remaining utterly dominant with a second string XI) so always enter the relevant fixture in top condition. Plus, due to our domestic success Squad Morale is always exceptionally high, whereas playing some of these 'lesser' European clubs it might be the case they are struggling domestically and/or in the middle of fixture congestion.

Here is the tactic again:

And for when I am against stronger sides, particularly away from home:

All in all it must be a collective set of affairs but what I can say is this: Get a solid base tactic, maintain high squad morale and grab luck wherever you can and good things can happen.

 

[JAwtunes]

@toshimitzou1poacher leading the line, love it. I can never seem to get that to work so always revert back to AF, or F9 if I'm feeling a little continental!

[toshimitzou1]

21 minutes ago, JAwtunes said:

poacher leading the line, love it

Thanks. I chose the role dur to the limitations of my roster and then set up the rest of the team in a similar manner. It works, I think because of the support around the role. Winger - Support on left, IF - Support on the right and two midfielders (SV - Attack and CM - Attack) attacking the spaces from deep. As you can see from the season stats, the Poacher, whilst being the least involved in build - up play, frees up space for the supporting cast to exploit. Also, my Strikers atm are of no real quality as I chose to convert (retrain) my best striker to a CM - Attack to make the most of the premise of the tactic. I'm pretty sure if I had my best player in that position, the Poacher would become the leading scorer .

Love a F9 but those player types are rare. I feel when using an AF they become too involved in wide play. I particularly like that the Poacher is NOT hard-coded to move into channels. I want my striker central, sniffy and relatively lazy. Just hang around near the goal and score more than miss!!!

Edited June 22, 2022 by toshimitzou1
Added Stats

[JLAB]

OFK Beograd - Season 5 Preview

Going into the new season, we're only expected to be a midtable side, which quite frankly is a good position to be in. I just want to manage the squad and develop the players to suit our current situation.

In some good news, Serbia gained a Champions League place, which will hopefully help them out.

In terms of reputation, we've dropped down a few places and we're now ironically enough the relegated side with the lowest reputation, which is a bit annoying.

Still, we've got players who are considered good enough for the 2nd tier or above playing for us now, and I have decided to highlight them all.

Goalkeepers

Spoiler

The only goalkeeper considered good enough for the 2nd tier or above is Lazar Stanojevic, and with him only being 19 and not wanting to move on, I will be sticking all of my eggs in this one basket. Stefan Belic could come on to replace him, but Lazar is the leading man in between the sticks.

Defenders

Spoiler

Miloas Popovic is the only defender that is considered good enough for the 2nd tier, and it's that lack of actual strength in the backline that has caused us to be relegated to the 2nd tier in the first place. Popovic wasn't even good enough for the top flight and still wants to leave. We've put an asking price of £155K on him, but I don't see anyone coming in for the 23 year old.

Midfielders

Spoiler

Now midfield is where our strength comes into its own. We have Milutinovic, who looks like he should be good but hasn't delivered the goods so far. He wants to leave but is only considered good enough to be a 2nd tier player.

Filip Bozic was the starting DM before our latest intake arrived but hasn't made a fuss about wanting to leave. He'll provide good strength in the centre of the park, and I expect him to do well again.

Ivan Stosic is already considered the best DM in the squad and will be my talisman in the future. I believe this kid will be my first big sale of the save once he turns 18, but until that happens, I will be doing my best to keep and develop him into a player good enough to break into the Serbia National Team and lead us to glory.

Lazar Pejcic has been a productive player who has scored 31 goals and provided 25 assists in 133 matches, but he occasionally goes missing. He is young but has also expressed a desire to leave. He has an asking price of £150K.

Milan Maric was the first successful youth intake player to develop over time and become good enough for Red Star and FK Partizan to take notice. We've slapped an asking price of £275K after he expressed a desire to leave us after we got relegated.

Strikers

Spoiler

So far, Andreja Lazovic has led the lines for us and has scored 13+ goals in the league every season. He also goes missing for several games at a time, so when he expressed a desire to not only leave but also leave on a free at the end of his contract, I was honestly annoyed with him. Somehow, I doubt I can get anyone to sign him because of his age, but I suppose I can try at least.

Filip Gogic has been playing as a midfielder for the last four seasons, but I also know that he can play as a striker. Given that Lazovic wants to leave, Gogic will be one of two players I will need to rely on to play up front.

The other player I will attempt to give time up front is Mihajlo Mikan. He has been playing on the wings the last four seasons, but I know he can also be a decent striker if given a chance to show it. Whether or not he pulls it off remains to be seen.

Still, looking at the new season could be the most fun I have in a while, or could see me getting sacked. I feel the squad we have is good enough to challenge for a top-half finish, but we need the LBs and CBs to get better and quickly. A new amazing CB, LB and ST would be nice additions to the squad for this upcoming youth intake. Will we get them?

Edited June 22, 2022 by JLAB

[BustaRaymes]

18 hours ago, aldojags said:

 

@BustaRaymesLike the look of the young Swedish guy, if u manage to mentor him and get rid of the personality he'll be a cracking player for you before long. The other winger looks potentially good too just out and out right winger.

 

@aldojags I'm about 1,5 seasons on now and he's still Unambitious. Usually I put them in a group of Balanced players first until he pops to Balanced, then move them to Fairly Professional, which is the largest part of the squad. This works most of the time, sometimes even from Unambitious to Fairly Professional within a season. He's in a group with the most influential players now, with various positive personalities.

[BustaRaymes]

*FM20*

Littlehampton Town 2048-2049

Sky Bet League 2

We were off to a difficult start, with just 13 points from the first 24 games. We did a bit better during the second half of the season but it wasn't nearly good enough.

After two seasons in League 2 we go back down to the Vanarama National, which was so hard to get out of before.

Although no players are really pushing for a transfer, I'm going to try and rejuvenate the squad and slash the wage bill a bit by letting most of the older, stale players go.

 

Transfers

Antonis wanted to leave for a bigger club, but he wasn't even our best player so 300K is a nice sum for us.

 

Squad

Page was ok again, Benham just isn't very good, and most attacking players are decent enough but lack that extra bit of quality we needed to stay up. Most won't improve anymore as well.

However, as you can see there are quite a few youngsters without games present in the first team squad. That's because..

 

Youth Intake

We got our best batch in years!

Coulibaly is a player that needs to develop a bit, but I can see a place for him in midfield as the ones present are aging and/or mediocre. Very tall and Ivorian as well, hello Yaya.

Rayco looks like a prime talent. Determined, good mentals too. Big clubs are already looking at him. I'm not too sure about his height at the back but I won't be able to keep him anyway.

Moore is another great one; tall, strong and ready to start in the first team from the go. Even his 1 Flair makes me happy, no ******** at the back.

Mputu is a nice addition as well. Even if it's only because I regularly got Fishton Mputu back in the CM days. Scouts always thought he was talented but with 5 Finishing (IIRC) he was never going to be a star striker.

[_JHTB_]

Enfield Town Season 2

Vanarama National League North – 17^th

Transfers – Fixtures (1) – Fixtures (2) – Squad – Table – Key Player – Hot Prospect 

We had a really quiet off season, just one player who left to pastures new – but that was actually in my transfer screenshot from last update.

League

Based on last season I was optimistic for this season, unfortunately, we started awfully this time out. We were largely struggling to score goals with any regularity and found ourselves well down the table more in a relegation battle than a playoff battle like I’d hoped. I was really finding it tough to get anything out the team no matter the changes I made with us halfway through the season rock bottom of the table.

I finally managed to figure a tactic that we looked more promising playing with around December and finally managed to get a decent run of form in January as we won 4 out of 6 in January which saw us leave the relegation zone for the first time in 13 games. Thankfully, though inconsistent, we did manage to stay out of the relegation zone for the rest of the season. Again if going by the xG table we under achieved our expected position again but this season I never felt like we were a good team so I can’t say the stats are too reflective of the season.

Cups

We did reasonably enough in the cups in terms of the round we reached though we struggled in the early rounds of FA Cup qualifying against lower league teams. We did bow out a round earlier this season in the 4^th qualifying round. The FA Trophy did see us reach the same round as last time out, and I can’t complain too much at losing to Dover in the 5^th round as they were a good team in good form compared to our bad team in ok form.

Youth Intake

Pretty terrible intake for us, not too much in the way of quality both in current ability and what there potential is.

Ross Owen 2 – I guess one of the better players from this intake, has some ok pace though is lacking on finishing for a striker.

Jason Clarke 2 – Does have some ok attributes, but nothing special.

Really not any others worth showcasing, hopefully they can prove me wrong but this was not an ideal intake.

Past Intakes

Kieran Preece 1 – Managed to get quite a few games under his belt this season and I would say enters next season as a first choice player on the right. He’s not really developed too much since coming through but I’m hopeful he can come good through persistence if nothing else - besides, 10 league goals is good going for his first year, though hopefully he can also start providing more in way of assists too.

Key Players

Muhammadu Faal – Again comfortably out best player, he didn’t do quite as well as the season prior, but his goals are a key component of us staying up. He did request a transfer earlier in the season, but thankfully nobody bid and he decided that he would be open to stay so is contracted for next season also.

Lyle Della Verde – Like last season Della Verde was the main creator in the side. Similarly to Faal, a reasonable season but falling short of the season prior (not too much of a surprise given our fall in the table).

Infrastructure/Looking Ahead

Financially we’re not looking great, consistently losing money which means we have not been able to get any facility upgrades leaving us in a poor state for improving the quality of any youth intake as they come through. To compound the issue we have to upgrade our stadium this summer to comply with the league rules so I don’t see a way out of the financial black hole we find ourselves in for the immediate future. I have managed to get the board to agree to let us go on coaching courses so am now studying towards my Continental B License which whilst does cost the club money I feel it is probably beneficial in terms of bettering the overall coaching quality at the club.

[libbyshuss]

21 hours ago, aldojags said:

So without further ado, my next move is to Italy - Serie C/A, Novara, who were a Serie A team as recent as 2011, feel like I'm cheating a wee bit as they seem quite a big club, have £2m in the bank!!

good luck!

I had a try with Novara and really struggled! I'm not sure why but I just couldn't get it going at all. Hope you have better luck!

[XaW]

I haven't posted her in a few weeks due to some family stuff, and I don't know how much I get to play going forward, but I'll see if I can continue posting every now and then based on time. Due to this, I decided to start over somewhere new and fresh, and while many of you might have heard of this club, I finally found a database that allows me to play as them.

Yeah, I'm heading to Iceland and to play as a club called Afríka. Now, I do often chose special clubs, and this is no exception. The club is a club for mostly foreign players in Iceland. While the name seems to hint at a mostly African player base, it seems like the Polish contingency is the biggest one. It should hopefully give a lot of interesting newgens.

I did holiday a season and they finished bottom the of 4. deild Group A.

Wish me luck!

[Terk]

I can get the league ended after just three games, right?! 

[Neo_Geo]

Just now, Terk said:

I can get the league ended after just three games, right?! 

Only if you’re celtic

[Neo_Geo]

@XaWhope all is well and it’s just lack of time.

Think I’m the last man standing in Holland now, good luck in Iceland…..seems it’s a popular country at the moment 

[XaW]

Just now, Neo_Geo said:

@XaWhope all is well and it’s just lack of time.

Think I’m the last man standing in Holland now, good luck in Iceland…..seems it’s a popular country at the moment 

Yeah, thanks, nothing wrong, time is just not there at the moment. Was away from the game for a few weeks, and had lost all idea of how things were in my last game. Also I've had Afríka on my wanted list for a while.

[glennuk]

If a league is not on the list on the first page, does that mean it is not elligible for the challenge without a database mod? Looking at South Korea?

Secondly anyone ever see Bonn Sc come up through Germany?

[Daddy]

2024/25 Midseason Review: 

Obviously not going how I hoped it would. It seems the players that retired were a bit more involved than I thought, or we started off a bit higher last season than we deserved. I decided if we're going down may as well focus on the youth players and maybe they catch fire and we survive. What was surprising me was how many goals we were giving up. After 12 matches we were at 7 points and GD -18. I made a handful of tactical adjustments to be a bit more defensive. Only a six match sample size, but tough competition. Five points in those six games and only -4 GD. Hopefully that's enough after the break to get to 12th place and avoid all the relegation nonsense. 

Intake Preview:

I'd love if the two Centerbacks come to fruition as that's probably the weakest spot on the roster. 

Thursday is office day for me so I probably won't finish the season until Friday.

Edited June 23, 2022 by Daddy

[SkiIIs]

2 hours ago, glennuk said:

If a league is not on the list on the first page, does that mean it is not elligible for the challenge without a database mod? Looking at South Korea?

Secondly anyone ever see Bonn Sc come up through Germany?

oh noooo, dont tell me your reigns with Worthing are no more?? 

[SkiIIs]

general question - is it better to send youth players, say 18 - 20 out on loan to lower league teams (VNL/VNN/VNS) with basic training facilities/coaching as first team players or keep them in my youth team with good coaching and excellent facilities?  

[glennuk]

30 minutes ago, SkiIIs said:

oh noooo, dont tell me your reigns with Worthing are no more?? 

Oh no. Still playing with Worthing but excited for round 2 with someone else. Will play as many years as it takes to complete the Worthing save first though.

[XaW]

7 hours ago, SkiIIs said:

general question - is it better to send youth players, say 18 - 20 out on loan to lower league teams (VNL/VNN/VNS) with basic training facilities/coaching as first team players or keep them in my youth team with good coaching and excellent facilities?  

Before 18, at your club, training is more important until 18. After that game time become increasingly important, so if you can get the player to be a first team regular at a lower league that's preferable to your youth team. If you plan on giving the player a run in a few cup matches and/or some sub appearances in the league, then you might want to hang on to him. So the answer is "it depends".  

[XaW]

As I took over Afríka, they didn't have any youth coaching, but the board accepted my asking to improve it first time I asked! So I will have intakes from this season, at least I think so, as I don't really know when the intakes come along. At least this step is done far sooner than I thought!

[Winski]

2 hours ago, XaW said:

As I took over Afríka, they didn't have any youth coaching, but the board accepted my asking to improve it first time I asked! So I will have intakes from this season, at least I think so, as I don't really know when the intakes come along. At least this step is done far sooner than I thought!

You'll get a preview in May, and the intake in August.

Good luck with Afríka mate! Quite a big challenge! It's a club where I'll always arrange a friendly with, if I'm playing on Iceland. Only because of their name  

[XaW]

33 minutes ago, Winski said:

You'll get a preview in May, and the intake in August.

Good luck with Afríka mate! Quite a big challenge! It's a club where I'll always arrange a friendly with, if I'm playing on Iceland. Only because of their name  

Yeah, got the preview (looks decent), and I'm just happy with getting any. Was expecting to go a few years without an intake, so everything is a bonus.

Thanks mate, will be a struggle, but I think it will be a fun one. Currently playing all matches, but *shhh* I might do an IR type game.... 

[darren1983]

16 hours ago, glennuk said:

If a league is not on the list on the first page, does that mean it is not elligible for the challenge without a database mod? Looking at South Korea?

Secondly anyone ever see Bonn Sc come up through Germany?

It depends, can sometimes be that no one has tried it there so I don't have a reset date and so I've just skipped them from my list but in the case of South Korea it'll be because they have no relegation and only 2 divisions so are not eligible 

[glennuk]

7 hours ago, darren1983 said:

It depends, can sometimes be that no one has tried it there so I don't have a reset date and so I've just skipped them from my list but in the case of South Korea it'll be because they have no relegation and only 2 divisions so are not eligible 

Thanks. I quite fancied Korea. So are the rules at least 3 divisions to be eligible?

 

If so here is some potential good news for next year:

"The league is contested by eleven clubs. It operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the K League 2 and K3 League starting from 2023 season."

If so here is some potential good news for next year:

Edited June 23, 2022 by glennuk