The FM22 Youth Academy Challenge

[BustaRaymes]

*FM20*

Littlehampton Town 2050-2051

Vanarama National League

Another playoff season and again we were out in the first round.

 

Squad

Wood was our driving force again. His attributes are not that great but he's a good playmaker for us.

Lewis O'Neil had a strong first season with us and is developing steadily.

 

Transfers

We couldn't hold on to Moore. Although I'm curious if he can develop into a PL player, a low amount + sell-on clause is what we could get for him.

 

Youth intake

Intake could be better but at least the positions are good. We were in need of a goalkeeper and a right back.

I'd like my fullbacks to be a bit faster, but Lapeña seems to be at least a good prospect. Mensah needs to develop for a few years and Smith has to lose the personality.

[toshimitzou1]

4 hours ago, Neo_Geo said:

I think for most nations in this challenge that 2035 is some achievement but for Iceland on top of it really is a credit to @toshimitzou1's tactics

This is why I adore the Youth Challenge. Tactics, player development and game management are pivotal and the lack of scouting and transfers really encourages me to control and be involved in the 'nitty gritty'.

Edited August 6, 2022 by toshimitzou1
sic

[The_Gato_In_Goal]

Survivals FC - Youth Intake - 2022

EDIT: Turns out the NACL qualification doesn't work at all for smaller nations without using the fix included in the megapack. As a result, I never would have been able to qualify, so I had to restart the save. I played back up to the intake, and here are the new results. More disappointing than last time.

Spoiler

Spoiler

 

 

 

Edited August 6, 2022 by The_Gato_In_Goal

[the_hdk]

If I start a youth challange in FM21....do I need to post the updates in FM21 thread or can I do that here?

[WhiteCat33]

Mellieħa SC 

Season 6 2027-28 Malta Premier League

Performance

League: CHAMPIONS!

We had an up and down year, which coincided with Sean Caruana 02a being fit. He had a rough go of it getting dropped by the national team at the start of the season and then tearing his thigh muscle at the start of October which saw him out till after winter break. Before his injury we went 6-1-0. While he was out injured we went 4-4-3. And then he lead the charge to win the final 7 games straight, which saw us win the title by GD when we won the final game of the season and Hamrun Spartans drew. [Match Schedule]. We certainly stole this title, as we did it with the exact same points total as last season. Next year though we should win it deservedly.

Cup: We drew the team to beat in Malta, Hamrun Spartans, in the opening round and lost. Whatever. 

European Conference League: We got Dinamo Minsk from Belarus as our opponent and they smoked us 5-1 on Agg. Even with our 2 offside goals called back we never really threatened their chances of advancing

 

Squad & Transfers: While the loss of Samuel Tanko 03a over the summer was unfortunate, my fresh new RB Matthias Sant 05d stepped up and filled his big shoes. The other notable debut was my new Winger/Forward Fabian Farrugia 05c. I had intended for him to be a rotation player, but with our Star's injury he had to start and did contribute 4 goals and 6 assists in his 20 starts. Not great, but good enough to get us a couple important draws crucial to our stealing the title. Rest of the team is as it was last year. I will need some CM upgrades soon though as those initial players are starting to get eclipsed by the newer intakes.

 

Youth Academy

YI Preview - Our same 4* Good with lots of A's.

Youth Intake - not great on personalities this year

Top rated is this central player. Not really impressed, can tackle

I like this CB better though

Club Infrastructure - No Upgrades this year, didn't get near enough money after losing our first EC2 match.

 

Thoughts - I've played the preseason so Part II incoming

[WhiteCat33]

Mellieħa SC 

Season 7 2028-29 European Competition Preseason

I have never been this excited about qualifying for the Conference League. I am truly shocked to have pulled this off. It was that winning combination of advantageous draws and our star striker Sean Caruana 02a just absolutely destroying defenses to show the Malta boss he's an absolute fool if he doesn't recall him to the national team. He averaged over 1 Goal Contribution per game in Europe, just check these stats:

I like to type game summaries as it goes to get into the save, read-on in the spoiler 

Spoiler

European Qualification Opponents: https://imgur.com/a/3pTLp2h

Champions League CP First Qualifying Round: We got a great draw of Luxembourgish F91 Dudelange, who do have an okay squad compared to ours but not overpowering. MR: https://imgur.com/a/NqTd7Hl

1^st Leg Away – A cagy early match really opened up when we scored in the 72’ and they immediately got a player sent off. We put 2 more in to win 3-1. We got the home crowd next, which should be perfect.

2^nd Leg Home – They couldn’t handle my speedy forwards. 3 breakaway goals and 1 FK goal in the first half put us 7-1 Agg up by halftime. Sean Caruana 02a had 2 goals and 2 assists with a 10.0 rating. Worried about last year's injury crisis I took him off at half-time and the team coasted in the second half. A very convincing 5-0 thrashing.

 

Champions League CP Second Qualifying Round: We drew FC Sheriff Tiraspol of Moldova. Again, this is another team that while strong for us is at least in our realm of quality. MR: https://imgur.com/a/PbcJav2

1^st Leg Away – We gave up an early goal and from there struggled to make it click offensively. Our strikers who were so on against F91 were completely off in Moldova. 0-1 isn’t ideal, but we tend to play well in Malta.

2^nd Leg Home – Big game but again we give up a very early goal with a missed header by our CB in the 5’. We never made headway and gave up another in the second half. Stats-wise it was an even game, just we couldn’t finish any of our chances and they got all of theirs.

 

Euro Cup CP Third Qualifying Round: With the loss we drop down into the Euro Cup CP. If we win this matchup we are guaranteed group stage play in either Euro or EC2! But to do that we have to get through Raków Częstochowa of Poland which will be a serious challenge. MR: https://imgur.com/a/Nbl55TJ

1^st Leg Away – We had a multiple great early chances and we finished one in the 19’ by Claude Penza 00b! We hold them through halftime but in the 57’ their 19 JR forward got to a header to level the score. But not even 2 min later the GK made an error coming out for the ball and my CM Abelea 02d punched it by him to retake the lead. Our star Caruana 02a made it 3 in the 67’ by rounding the keeper on a fast break using that speed. Unfortunately we gave up a goal in the 88’, but we actually get the away win in Poland! 3-2

2^nd Leg Home – Another big home second leg. Can we hold our lead?! Early on there were some shocking giveaways that gave them very good chances but somehow they didn’t finish any. After a stirring halftime talk the boys came out and Caruana 02a got a goal in the 48’. But just as quickly it went away with an awful pass-back error to bring it level. Then not even 2 minutes later their CB two-foots my CM and got a straight red. Crazy first 7 min of the 2^nd half. Things settle down after that, but in the 67’ they shove Caruana 02a on a header and give away a penalty. Sant 05d, our RB, converts and we go up 2-1. We slow the game down and keep the chances to a minimum to see off to record a convincing 5-3 Agg victory!

 

Euro Cup Playoff: Next we have Rosenborg BK from Norway, a very tough opponent. But here’s the beauty of this match. Win or lose we get a European group stage. It’s a good thing too as we will have some bad congestion with the league matches right at the start of the season between each of these fixtures. MR: https://imgur.com/a/BMTEkSo

1^st Leg Home – Let’s see how we do here. A scrap after a fk  sees the 3^rd ball put in for Rosenborg to go ahead in the 26’. We fight hard and hold it there in an equal game until the 73’ when Caruana 02a makes the back post run beating their defenders for the easy tap in he loves. Rosenborg answers immediately with a 30 yard goal. No highlights after that and it ends a 1-2 defeat. Very happy with the performance though

2^nd Leg Away – 5 min in we give up a penalty, which they convert and they get an easy tap in two minutes later… They get a 3^rd within the first 25 min. Just an absolutely terrible start. Then Caruana 02a shows why he’s our only player at this caliber and chips the keeper on a breakaway, but they negate that just a few minutes later to make it 4-1 inside of 30 minutes.  But Caruana 02a isn’t done and he does it again to get a brace in a 6 goal first half. Madness. Second half was very quiet so it ends a 4-2 defeat. But that's okay because we get Conference league play!

Matches: Again, funny to be thrilled with 4 wins and 4 defeats

EC2 Group Draw: Well this is a group to bring us back to reality. I expect us to get absolutely crushed by Bayer Leverkusen and honestly would be shocked if we pick up even a draw with Maccabi or B/G. Just along for the ride in Europe and hopefully can keep the morale together enough to keep on top of the domestic league.

Club Improvements - In total we pocketed $4.6 Million in prize money. With the money and a group stage run ahead of the club I was easily able to convince the board to GO PROFESSIONAL! This will be my final year on non-contracts!

Also did both Youth and Training Facility Upgrades, which will finish by December. We still have 3.4M in the bank so I might be able to swing another round of upgrades in the spring

 

Star Players:

As I pointed to above, Sean Caruana 02a is just so much better than the rest of our team and he just keeps improving with every match. Really his only drawback is dribbling should be higher for the style of player that he is. Sure I'd love finishing, but if he could dribble well then he'd be lethal with the ball rounding keepers.  He already is just so much faster than anyone else in Malta with decent mentals he reads plays well enough to just get into the right position where the goal is more or less assured. He has refused to sign a new contract with us for 3 years now. The hope will be to convince him to sign a Full Time contract with us when the club goes professional.

My other player who has developed enough to get called up to the national team is actually my GK Kurt Psaila 04c. I don't mention him much, but he's very reliable in the back and is slowly improving in his ability. With such a low NF though and Strength I know he will eventually get replaced by a good intake GK, but he will be a quality backup for probably his entire career. 

Then I talked about Matthias Sant 05d stepping in at LB & Fabian Farrugia 05c stepping up at Striker. Both are still very raw and only 17, but are improving in their abilities with good personalities so I have high hopes for their future success with the club.

The other two players worth mentioning are my CBs Simon Zarb 02b & Dale Bonello 03b. While okay, both are badly inconsistent and I would happily replace if a better option appeared in an intake. We will see how the most recent crop start developing with the switchover to professional. 

[The_Gato_In_Goal]

 

Survivals FC - End of Season - 2022

Squad | SLFA Second Division | Transfers | Shawn Remy | Malik Duncan | Quamie Jones

Despite being heavy favorites to win the league, and despite the board expecting a title, we finished 2nd. Still gained promotion however, so not too disappointed. We are predicted to finish just outside the relegation zone in the top flight next season, so hoping to stay up there and build some more depth through our next intake. All the clubs in St. Lucia are semi-pro, so I figure making the step into continetal competitions and becoming a pro club will be tough. For now, our finances are decent, slowly dwindling with the signing of new players to youth contracts. The youth contracts earn more than all of our first team players on part time deals.

[The_Gato_In_Goal]

And was able to cash in on the promotion success while we still have a positive bank balance.

[WhiteCat33]

12 hours ago, The_Gato_In_Goal said:

Blitzed through the first season and had a promising intake, but the challenge of building a team with 13 players proved too difficult, and we secured relegation with a couple months to go. Looking to start in the Caribbean now using V50's megapack. I've loaded the leagues, but not the edited version of the NACL. Going to start in either St. Kitts and Nevis or St. Lucia.

If youre playing in either of those you will want the edited NACL as that will ensure the top 4 of the CCC qualify. Ive had a long save going in St Vincent good luck in the islands!

[XaW]

13 hours ago, the_hdk said:

If I start a youth challange in FM21....do I need to post the updates in FM21 thread or can I do that here?

I think the last agreement was you can post here, but do add FM21 in a header somewhere. Right, @darren1983?

[darren1983]

17 minutes ago, XaW said:

I think the last agreement was you can post here, but do add FM21 in a header somewhere. Right, @darren1983?

Yeah juat let's us know its FM21 is all. No point using last year's thread as not sure anyone reads it any more.

[the_hdk]

thanks guys!

[XaW]

I'm quite pissed now. We are in the final of the Europa Conference League and I had written up this long play by play post with screenshots and commentary, and before posting the page got reloaded somehow. Fear not, right? It's saved? Nope, my last post was there and my whole writeup is gone.

So here is a very short recap. We beat Lech Poznan, Odd, and Rosenborg to reach the final, here we faced Groningen, but lost on pens...

[JLAB]

OFK Beograd - Season 9 Preview

European football would be the dream scenario for our team this season, however, the media still doesn't believe in our side going into this season. Almost constantly given a 700-1 odds to win the league, I can only watch as my side keep getting worse and worse odds throughout. The only time we got given better odds was when the 1st July hit, as every loan spell ended and players were being released from their end of contracts. Still, the last two seasons have seen us finish in the top half of the table, and I don't believe this season will be any different.

JLAB - OFK Beograd - Season 1 | JLAB - OFK Beograd - Season 2 | JLAB - OFK Beograd - Season 3 | JLAB - OFK Beograd - Season 4 | JLAB - OFK Beograd - Season 5 | JLAB - OFK Beograd - Season 6 | JLAB - OFK Beograd - Season 7 | JLAB - OFK Beograd - Season 8

 

[The_Gato_In_Goal]

 

Survivals FC - Youth Intake - 2023

More depth being built in the club, with a mix of good and bad personalities.

 

I'm enjoying the one Spanish player we get through each intake. Right now, I play a 4-4-2, but I may need to change that to a 4-2-3-1 variation unless I play Dahmanii Nathaniel 23G in a deeper position.

Hopefully, we don't get another GK next year, as we already got a star from last intake (with a better personality).

[The_Gato_In_Goal]

 

Survivals FC - End of Season - 2023

Squad | SLFA First Division | Transfers | Shawn Remy | Malik Duncan | Trevor Stanton 22C

Our media prediction was around 6th, and we finished 4th. The seasons in St. Lucia are very short, 18 matches to be exact. We started hot with 4 wins on the bounce, but settled down late. The goal over the next few seasons is to hopefully see some youth development, but likely just hope for more stars from the intake, and push on to qualify for the Caribbean Club Championship by winning the league. Then we can push on to qualify for the NACL and gain some money to eventually turn pro and improve facilities. That being said we did gain a couple of upgrades after the season.

 

[Fudal]

Starting this in England, I chose Needham Market, expected to finish in 24th.

[thomas_e]

 

VV Katwijk

Season Summary 2029 - 2030

Eredivisie survival

 

*note: the reason the first season is in 2024-2025 is because of rule changes in Holland, so there were no relegation for the first three seasons

A quite surprising survival in our first year in the Eredivisie. Overall we were really bad, but against the bottom 5 teams I think we performed brilliantly. I dont think we lost a single game against our relegation competitors and that was key to ensure enough points. We promoted a couple of players to the first team and we will do the same before next season. I am quite comortable that we will stay up once again and hopefully the players will improve with more Eredivisie experience! 

 

General Summary

      

 

Key Players

      

 

Youth Intake

      

 

Edited August 7, 2022 by thomas_e

[The_Gato_In_Goal]

 

Survivals FC - Youth Intake and End of Season - 2024

Squad | SLFA First Division | Transfers | Shawn Remy | Malik Duncan | Quamie Jones

With the intake only a few matches from the end of season, I'll combine the posts into one for the time being. The intake was solid this year with a few players who can come into the first team. After the end of the season we continued to make progress in upgrading our academy coaching. Now it is at the average level. As we finished 2nd in the league on the final day of the season, we will qualify for the Caribbean Club Championship next season, which feeds into the NACL, although I don't forsee us making it to that point anytime soon. 2nd enters in the first qualifying round, while 1st in the league goes directly into the group stage, so next year winning the league will be the goal.

 

[The_Gato_In_Goal]

 

Survivals FC - Youth Intake - 2025

As the seasons continue to breeze by, I feel like the first noticeable sense of progress has been made. The intake this year was superb, with 4 or 5 players able to slot into the first team. This will push me to let go a bunch of the older members of the squad on wages exceeding their usefulness. Next year I will start a full youth side, with the exception of the aging Malik Duncan, who still is producing great performances on the wing. We did end up winning the league this season, so into the group stages of the Caribbean Club Championship we go. I think after next season I will post a more in depth squad review, as we'll hit that first milestone of an all-youth starting XI.

We also won another academy coaching upgrade.

[dcayton9]

America De Natal: 2030

Transfers: Right before the Serie B season, Serie A clubs came in for two of our top players and the club and in usual fashion, the club force-accepted the offers once they reached a certain price. 

Seeing the income from last season compared to the income from the rest of the save is amusing. 

I'm very sad to see Jarlesson 01D go. He's been my stalwart keeper since he was 17 years old and 2.4 million feels very undervalued. He's an elite shot stopper and has been my key player year in and year out. We have a 19 year old keeper with large potential that's stepping in to fill the massive hole Jarlesson left, but the quality just isn't the same. However, hopefully he (Marlos 06B, not pictured) will improve over the next few seasons.

Also to leave this window was wonderkid Rodrigo Eduardo 06A.  He has been starting at left back pretty much since he came through the intake and I'm confident he still had a lot of room to improve. This season he was going to make the switch to CB so I could implement a higher line and I had a few left backs ready to break into the first team, but that plan was foiled with his sale. With both of these, I feel that the 2 million and some change was an extreme underpay and if they were English or French or even on a higher reputation Brazilian team they'd be at least ten times the value. On the other hand, after all my years of buying Brazilian wonderkids for cheap I guess it's my turn to feel the other end of it for once.

Cups: Making this short and sweet, we won the Potiguar State (again). We went out in the Copa Nordeste groups. This was partially a hangover from last year, partially the lack of a developed tactic, but mostly an intentional move to not have to deal with early season fixture congestion. We made the third round of Copa Brazil. I'm not particularly sure how qualification works for this because every year until now, we have had to start in the first round, but this year we started in the third. Maybe something from winning Copa Nordeste. Anyways, cup success for now is secondary so I'm not pressed about the poor results.

Serie B: 3rd!!! Promotion!! Finally, we cracked the top four and were promoted. It's incredible that this season was the one that it worked out in, given that our squad was noticeably weaker than prior ones. I actually started with the intention of instant-resulting through the season to develop the hot prospects and give a better charge next year, but after 7 games, I was sitting near relegation zone and I was scared I was going to be at risk of going down. I did a deep dive on my tactic, examined how I was giving up chances and losing possession, and worked to fix it. After this, we got on a roll and did not stop rocketing up the table and into the promotion battle. We had a blip at the end, losing our second to last game 0-4 sticking us in the 5th position. Luckily, we had an easy matchup on the final day, and not only did the fourth place team Bahia fail to win but we won the tiebreak on the third place team and moved into that position and are moving on up.

Facilities: After the sales of Jarlesson 01D and Rodrigo Eduardo 06A we had the case to upgrade facilities further. We only had the option to upgrade training facilities so we took it, and went from good to great training facilities. We took the final step in junior coaching as well going from excellent to exceptional. As we have maxed out junior coaching and youth recruitment, we only need to take steps forwards in youth and senior training facilities. This will take time and more player sales but the recent outgoings of the last few seasons have accelerated our process incredibly. 

Spoiler

Affiliate: We were able to get our first affiliate, fellow Potiguar State competitor Globo. They are in Serie D, so provide a good platform to get our players that don't make the grade when they hit the magic 18 and need senior football some experience without having to work hard to find a good loan. 

Youth Intake: During this offseason I brought in a new HoYD. He's a slight upgrade in that he plays a formation I like and has better JPP. Maybe not a long-term option if I grow in reputation but for now he looks better.

His first intake was a pretty stellar one, with six (!) elite talents. I am not sure if this is from star ratings being less selective as we lost our highest end players or these are truly elite talents but I'm excited to develop them. None have great personalities but hopefully they'll still develop in time.

Three Stars: 

• 2030 Key Player, Glaucio Jose: I love when an untagged player develops into someone good. Glaucio Jose was still a grey star current ability player at 18, though he had 4.5 star potential so I sent him on loan to Serie D. He developed nicely into a squad player and has continued to be so for the last few years. However, after the loss of Joao Cleiton 01B last season he had to step up into a more prominent role and is now a regular starter. This season, he was initially used at right midfield as a WM (attack) but moved into a box-to-box midfielder position as the season went on. I'm trying to use that last bit of available potential ability to get a little more defensive attributes out of him. He's a great glue guy and his high average rating proves that.

• 2030 Breakthrough Player, Alan Pedro 06C: Upon losing Rodrigo Eduardo 06A, I had a hole at CB. I had two solid low-level Serie B type of guys, but I wanted to raise the ceiling of my back line, so I started giving Alan Pedro full-time starter minutes. He rapidly improved aided by his good personality and now he is my best defender. It feels like he still has a long ways to go being only 19 and I could see him growing with my team into being a mainstay in the backline, assuming we can get our reputation enough he's not poached soon.

• 2030 Hot Prospect, Otaviano 09A: Ignore the red arrows, all of my youth players have that for some reason right now. Otaviano is a real all-around player and with a little improvement in each attribute, we're looking at a great player. My youth ranks are stocked with forwards now so I'm working on a switch to a 4-4-2 to accommodate them all.

Looking Ahead: Next season will be tough but if we can hold on to our players and iron out a good tactic I'm hoping we can stay up!

Edited August 8, 2022 by dcayton9

[SkiIIs]

Season 2048 / 49 - Premiership

Bit of a step backwards this year, unbeknown to me as the team are quite settled from previous years. At a point we're ive hit the wall with this save unfortunately, not really getting the talent coming through and nothing to excite me, we'll see how we go.

Youth Preview:

Youth intake, couple of decent prospects but nothing really exciting.  My youth facilities downgraded at the end of last season and we only upgraded back to youth category 1 and the end of this season.  I will blame the intake on that

[glennuk]

Worthing FC - Season 26 - English Premier League - End of Year Review

League - 6th (we have finished in the top 7 in 3 out of the last 4 seasons). With that came a nice rankings boost.

We were defensively the best team this season, with only 31 goals conceded in 38 games in the PREMIER LEAGUE!!! I am very proud of that, but we really need a clinical striker if we are to complete the challenge.

Euro Cup II - Quarter Final

We breezed through the group and the second knockout round, then lost in a close match to Hoffenheim, who shockingly got beat in the final from Partizan! We should have really won this, I think between us and Hoffenheim we have the two best squads.

The Squad

We are starting to bleed in some of our youngsters, but our starting 11 is pretty solid and consistent now.  The only new entrant to the 11 was Jimmy Ngodzo (YP21A) who is a 5* PA talent. We really need to replace Jamie H (YP18D) with a more clinical striker. Although he is playing pretty well and scored 22 goals, he misses SOOOO many chances. His finishing of 10 doesn't seem like it is improving despite all of my efforts. Bobby Skidmore (YP13E) won the golden glove last year, but only came 3rd this year, I think this was due to him missing quite a few games with injury meaning less chances for clean sheets. My defence is very solid and should stay the same for at least the next 2 years, although both full backs are getting to their late 20s.

The Finances

We have over 300 million in the bank. The good news is we are selling WAY more shirts (71,000 last year to 445,000 this year!  ) and continue to attract more sponsorship.

The Future

I think we are a few key players away from really challenging for the title consistently. I am going to continue bedding in my younger players with 5* PA and although this may cause a slight decrease in position, I am hoping it will be good for the team in the long run.

On a side note, if I had these 3 poached players I may well be a few seasons closer to challenging for the title.

 

 

[DrJones]

De Treffers 2024/2025

Well this season went well over my expectations: I tought we were going to be absolutely murdered by most teams but were instead very close to a play-off spot. The concern is that most of the decent players are over their 30s so I would guess that the big struggle will appear in a few seasons.

Squad

We've got five/six really good players for this level, the rest should not be payed to play football..

Youth Intake

Not the intake I was hoping for, there are some potential and a few of them will get minutes in the league but they are nowhere near to actually deserve some gametime due to their skills.

 

 

[thomas_e]

What kind of regen facepacks are people using? Has there been any technical issues with any of them? 

[libbyshuss]

Croatia

Division 2

Season 2030/31 (season 9)

Season Summary

Nine seasons in and we had our worst season since the first one. It seems a long, long time since we went 46 games unbeaten in this league (that's only 33 games a season!)

Beset by inconsistency throughout this season we limped to fifth

 

Players

Looking at the first XI it's easy to see where our problems are. Our attack is woeful. Top scorer was our right winger who was out for 6 months with a broken leg!

Culjak 26A and Popovic 28C exhausted my patience this season. I think next season I'm gonna stick Pavic 23B up there next season, he's the only one who seems to know where the goal is.

 

Youth

So why am I persisting after years of failure to gt out of this league? The youth squad is crazy good! Next season I should see around 5 become old enough for the first team and even at 17 they'll step right into the side. Our youth set up is so good now this is the fifth intake with predominantly elite talents, and this year was the best yet!

The preview was ok but didn't really prepare for what was to come

a 5 star preview but only one A grade......

But again a massive influx of 4/5 star potential players!

The obvious standout is Igor Petrovic

 

Career

Surely one day I'' get promoted out this godforsaken league....

 

[JAwtunes]

1 minute ago, thomas_e said:

What kind of regen facepacks are people using? Has there been any technical issues with any of them? 

Just the Newgan one and no problems so far, but I haven't really played for about a month as I am trying to find a new save (way too many options!!), so perhaps they is a glitch with a recent update to the software?

[libbyshuss]

15 minutes ago, thomas_e said:

What kind of regen facepacks are people using? Has there been any technical issues with any of them? 

i been using Newgan. It gave up a couple of months ago but a re-install fixed it and it's all good again

[thomas_e]

1 minute ago, libbyshuss said:

i been using Newgan. It gave up a couple of months ago but a re-install fixed it and it's all good again

Good, just dont want any game breaking glitches! 

[The_Gato_In_Goal]

 

Survivals FC - End of Season - 2025

Squad | SLFA First Division | Transfers | Shawn Remy | Malik Duncan | Josh Orozco 24D

As I said in the intake post, things are progressing nicely. The prize money in the Caribbean Club Championship (10k for a win and 5k for a draw) helped fund some junior coaching upgrades this year. Since we go directly into the group stages next season, I'm hoping to make some more cash. Currently sitting on around 50k in the bank, but our expenditure is pretty low, so our finances are relatively stable. Next step is to slowly build up money and players to make it into the NACL group stages, and get massive gate receipts from playing large MLS and Liga MX sides.

 

[The_Gato_In_Goal]

I changed all of the Caribbean leagues from view-only to playable to increase the difficulty in the earlier stages of the save. When we establish ourselves as a perennial NACL side, then I'll change them back to view-only to make the save run quicker. But it's having the intended effect of seeing larger Caribbean sides bid on our best players! W Connection just won the Trinidadian league and knocked us our of the CCC in the quarterfinals last season. Still some testing to do as Joe Dore 25B didn't kick up a fuss after I rejected the offer, but it's something I was hoping to see.

In other news, it turns out all quarterfinalists in the CC qualify for the next season's NACL group stages (or at least I think). The rules tab in the competition page is not any help. We got demolished in the groups to start our season since the entirety took place during our preseason. It seems like it may have negative impacts on morale for the rest of the season, but it's hard to argue with the financial boon that funded another academy coaching upgrade. A few more runs to the groups should allow the club to turn professional, or so is the hope.

[JLAB]

OFK Beograd - Season 9 Winter Break

So this season has seen us enjoy our best ever start to a league season, where we won 6 of our first 7 matches. We did start to slow down before the winter break arrived, but this is very promising signs regardless. We even managed to draw twice against Red Star.

At one point, we were top of the top of the table by 4 points, but winning just 4 of our next 14 matches was always going to hurt us going forward to the winter break. It's something we need to improve going forward.

The intake looks like it'll only be providing 2 good players this intake, but I wouldn't say no to getting a good ST or a good CM. It's useful for us to get more strength in depth going forward.

JLAB - OFK Beograd - Season 1 | JLAB - OFK Beograd - Season 2 | JLAB - OFK Beograd - Season 3 | JLAB - OFK Beograd - Season 4 | JLAB - OFK Beograd - Season 5 | JLAB - OFK Beograd - Season 6 | JLAB - OFK Beograd - Season 7 | JLAB - OFK Beograd - Season 8

 

[WhiteCat33]

4 hours ago, The_Gato_In_Goal said:

I changed all of the Caribbean leagues from view-only to playable to increase the difficulty in the earlier stages of the save. When we establish ourselves as a perennial NACL side, then I'll change them back to view-only to make the save run quicker. But it's having the intended effect of seeing larger Caribbean sides bid on our best players! W Connection just won the Trinidadian league and knocked us our of the CCC in the quarterfinals last season. Still some testing to do as Joe Dore 25B didn't kick up a fuss after I rejected the offer, but it's something I was hoping to see.

In other news, it turns out all quarterfinalists in the CC qualify for the next season's NACL group stages (or at least I think). The rules tab in the competition page is not any help. We got demolished in the groups to start our season since the entirety took place during our preseason. It seems like it may have negative impacts on morale for the rest of the season, but it's hard to argue with the financial boon that funded another academy coaching upgrade. A few more runs to the groups should allow the club to turn professional, or so is the hope.

For the NACL  Jamaican and Trinidad & Tobago teams can qualify for the NACL with their cups (I believe), which can result in CCC Semi-Finalist/Finalists already having qualified so it bumps down to also give a QF team a berth in the NACL. Basically if you make it to the Semi-Final in the CCC you're guaranteed into the NACL. You got lucky this year entering with the QF berth. 

Hopefully you'll have better luck turning professional than I did. Let's just say my board was very very stubborn...

For transfers the two key nations to have are T&T & Jamaica as they will be the only nations really looking at your players at the early stages, then the MLS will take notice once you start beating them in the NACL. it took till I had a couple really strong players for Liga MX to have interest. I found if you add those 4 as well as Haiti you will have all of the strongest teams in the region filled out to keep competitions difficult and it will speed up the game. I also added DR & Puerto Rico who both did pretty well in my save as the latter has youth agreements with European clubs. 

Look forward to your future updates!

[SolnaRoyal]

Lowestoft Town FC
Season 2024/2025
Britain’s most Easterly football club.

 

Another season over, managed to stay up again, against all odds. Our G/D is so bad that I might have to rethink the tactics a bit depending on how the roster will look in the 2025/2026 season.
We did managed to reach the 2nd round in the FA Cup but was demolished by Colchester. Other than that we feel a bit stuck right now.

This year brought us a bunch of "Elite talents" but overall a pretty meager intake. Jack Clark could be used as a backup maybe. We'll see if anyone turns out ok.

 

Current squad looks OK when you check the stars, but we all know how they work. None of these players are on a VNL N level, Dylan Ruffles is the closest one.
Jake Reed decided to leave the club after the season, so we need a replacement on that position. Sadly Louis McIntosh refused the new contract and has an insane wage demand, most likely will loose him in a couple of weeks.

Will take a breather and see what we could build with what we have.

Current U18 team, some youngsters look rather promising but would really need something else than defenders to bring up. (Or maybe they will stop the leaky defence?)

 

Season

League

Position

FA Cup

FA Trophy

EL

ECL

Top Scorer

Most Assists

Highest avg.

Training Facilities

Youth facilities

Junior coaching

Youth recruitment

22/23

VNL N

20th

3QF

3rd round

Jake Reed (18)

Dylan Ruffles (11)

Dylan Ruffles (7.13)

Poor

Poor

Basic

Limited

23/24

VNL N

19th

2QF

3rd round

Jake Reed (12)

Louis McIntosh (9)

Callum Adebiyi (7.04)

Poor

Poor

Basic

Limited

24/25

VNL N

19th

2nd round

3rd round

Reagan Waud (18)

Louis McIntosh (10)

Dylan Ruffles (7.07)

Poor

Poor

Basic

Limited

[The_Gato_In_Goal]

4 hours ago, WhiteCat33 said:

For the NACL  Jamaican and Trinidad & Tobago teams can qualify for the NACL with their cups (I believe), which can result in CCC Semi-Finalist/Finalists already having qualified so it bumps down to also give a QF team a berth in the NACL. Basically if you make it to the Semi-Final in the CCC you're guaranteed into the NACL. You got lucky this year entering with the QF berth. 

Hopefully you'll have better luck turning professional than I did. Let's just say my board was very very stubborn...

For transfers the two key nations to have are T&T & Jamaica as they will be the only nations really looking at your players at the early stages, then the MLS will take notice once you start beating them in the NACL. it took till I had a couple really strong players for Liga MX to have interest. I found if you add those 4 as well as Haiti you will have all of the strongest teams in the region filled out to keep competitions difficult and it will speed up the game. I also added DR & Puerto Rico who both did pretty well in my save as the latter has youth agreements with European clubs. 

Look forward to your future updates!

Well I underestimated the monthly expense (about 25k) of maxed out junior coaching and youth recruitment (bar the chairman not allowing it to actually be maxed out), so it will certaintly take a fair few NACL runs to get us there. I imagine we'd also need to increase our reputation enough to convince the board to turn pro, it's not all about the money. From the looks of it, 6 teams have qualified from the CCC each time it has been held. So yeah, it seems semi-final guarentees a berth and you can get lucky with a QF.

[The_Gato_In_Goal]

 

Survivals FC - Youth Intake - 2026

What an intake! Now that facilities are maxed out, I should be getting roughly equivalent intakes from here on out. Right now, the rapid level of improvement means each intake fully supplants the last, since nobody will ever develop from part time contracts with no facilities. I'd wager a guess that the St. Lucia youth rating is so low that few players will even have PAs that much more than their CAs.

[WhiteCat33]

36 minutes ago, The_Gato_In_Goal said:

Well I underestimated the monthly expense (about 25k) of maxed out junior coaching and youth recruitment (bar the chairman not allowing it to actually be maxed out), so it will certaintly take a fair few NACL runs to get us there. I imagine we'd also need to increase our reputation enough to convince the board to turn pro, it's not all about the money. From the looks of it, 6 teams have qualified from the CCC each time it has been held. So yeah, it seems semi-final guarentees a berth and you can get lucky with a QF.

Yes reputation is the killer in the Carribean as your league is so low you don't get much by winning it. And unlike in Europe the league reputation is fixed so will remain low. It's all about winning the CCC. 

[The_Gato_In_Goal]

 

Survivals FC - End of Season - 2026

Squad | SLFA First Division | Transfers | Joe Dore 25B | Dahmanii Nathaniel 23G | Alexander Blanchard 25C | Josh Orozco 24D

Another league title, but we crashed out of the CCC in the group stages, so won't have any NACL action next year. I'm hoping no group stage of the NACL in preseason will save our morale and allow us to focus on dominating the league early, then shifting priorities to the latter stages of the CCC since we could use the cash from another NACL run in 2028. As an aside, it's a bit odd that teams that tie on points are chosen randomly for league position.

Looking at our facilities, I'm not going to focus on upgrading the training or youth facilities until we go pro, whenever that may be. The other things are maxed out. I'd love to get an affiliate to diversify our youth intakes, but I don't envision that happening anytime soon given our low reputation.

Finally have some healthy finances. I'm hoping that we can turn pro with around 1M in the bank, but if I had to guess, our lack of reputation will be the major factor, not the money.

[Daddy]

[The_Gato_In_Goal]

 

Survivals FC - Youth Intake - 2027

This intake gave us another 3 starters and a few more role players. Iran Stanley 27D and Romiel Lawrence 27B walk in as the club's top two players. Our strikeforce is set now with Lawrence and last year's Antonio Charles 26I.

[The_Gato_In_Goal]

 

Survivals FC - End of Season - 2027

Squad | SLFA First Division | Transfers | Alvinus Laurencin 26K | Joe Dore 25B | Alexander Blanchard 25C | Antonio Charles 26I

We ran through the league rather easily. What I wasn't expecting was to run through the CCC almost as smoothly. In the second leg of the semi-finals against Jong Holland (whom we had edged out in the group stages two years ago), we fell behind 3-0 within the first 25 minutes, completely erasing the 2-0 advantage we held from the first leg. Their 4-4-2 diamond narrow absolutely bossed our 4-3-1-2 narrow. We changed to a 4-3-3 narrow to overload their central defenders and prevent their outside backs from getting as far forward. From that moment, we played ourselves back into the match and it ended 3-2 (3-4 to us on aggregate) with a near identical xG.

When it was time for the finals, against Dominican side Cibao, we came prepared with the 4-3-3 narrow against their same formation. This time, we were the slightly better team, and scored in the 103rd minute with a man advantage to guarantee the title. This win should improve our reputation a bit (and of course ensure NACL qualification).

[glennuk]

Worthing FC - Season 27 - English Premier League - Youth Intake Preview & Mid Year Review

Well we are trying to play some more of our youth players and promote those with 5* PA to the first team, whether as starters or more rotation pieces. The good news is I am seeing some improvement from those individuals. The bad news is, as a team we are having our worst year in the league for a while. In terms of league position it doesn't look too bad, but I don't feel that we have been playing with the same attractiveness of football and our avg ratings are definitely lower than usual.

League - 8th so far

Euro Cup

We absolutely walked our group. I was a bit worried by Roma, but they were rather tame. We beat them 2-0 away and 4-0 at home.

Squad Dynamics

I haven't shown this before. However I am pretty proud to see the personalities listed here. Definitely taken some work in terms of mentoring, letting some decent players go when unhappy or who have poor personalities. I basically have 3 mentoring groups that are always full of younger players and the few leaders I have with Driven, Professional, Resolute and Model Citizen.

Now taking about LEADERS

Goodbye to a Club Icon (I think he is a legend)

Jean-Claude Kitoko (YP06A) - He stormed through the leagues and was instrumental in our early success. He has become a bit part player, a great mentor for youngsters and a leader who squashes any trouble before it starts. He will be well missed, but luckily has already started his coaching badges. I will post a fuller tribute once he retires.

Youth Intake Preview

Well this looks good. I am not sure when the last time is that we had 4 A's and actually I don't know if we EVER have. Hoping the actual intake is as exciting as the preview. We need those two forwards to be good!

[Daddy]

2038/39 Season Review:

Six in a row! Most of the league is well below us now.

Another domestic cup win. 

Inter put up a real tough fight, but we were able to get by them. Finally got one over on Real Madrid. We gave up a ridiculous own goal where a defender passed it back to the keep who slid tackled it into his own net. We traded goals in extra time, and the keeper redeemed himself stopping two penalties. From there we continued our successes against Borussia Dortmund. This leads us to our first ever Champions League final and first match against Liverpool. It didn't go great.

Hopefully this isn't our peak as it really took a lot of luck to make it this far, and Liverpool really outplayed us.

Just a bunch of loan out.

Finally given the option for a Youth Facilities upgrade. This is the first time in many season. Currently rated as "Great" so this will be whatever comes after that.

Youth Intake:

For the first time in a while an intake player comes in and makes the roster, all be it as a back up. Y39A may be unambitious but he's the 3rd back centerback in our whole system and he's first choice backup. Y39C is another striker that isn't terrible, but is a far cry from what we've had and doesn't look like the next star striker we need.

2039/40 Season Preview:

In league, the goal is to win a 7th in a row. The domestic cup must be won again by next season or else everyone will get pissy (had that happen a few seasons back). I don't have the group draw yet for Champions League, but the goal is to make another deep run at least into the knockouts.

[glennuk]

@Daddy almost there!! Seems like you need a bit of luck in there somewhere to get over that final hurdle. Was hoping this was your challenge completed post!

[JLAB]

OFK Beograd - Season 9 Youth Intake

The winter break arriving when it did was once again a blessing for our form. We found ourselves winning 5 of our next 8 matches, and drawing the other 3 games. We also kept 7 clean sheets as well, and we're showing that we can in fact be a dangerous side when we want to be.

Somehow, someway, we're in a title fight with Čukarički Stankom, Red Star and FK Partizan. Red Star have a game in hand over us, but we're right up there and looking like a team that can in fact crash the party if we get the right results. There's a huge possibility that either Čukarički or ourselves could become the first SuperLiga champion that is not Red Star or Partizan and I'm excited for that possibility to become a reality.

Our intake has arrived and I can't really say I'm happy with it. It feel lacklustre and honestly felt rather weak compared to our previous seasons. I have a feeling that soon we might need to change things up a little bit.

Still, I'm show you the two best players and Živorad Rašević is the first of two exciting young talents. Hopefully he'll be able to develop. He has some of the physical attributes I like as both a striker and a winger.

Stefan Milenković is the only other player that I have high hopes for and he is a true winger. He looks perfect for a starting platform as a winger going forward. Hopefully we'll be able to make sure he improves long-term.

JLAB - OFK Beograd - Season 1 | JLAB - OFK Beograd - Season 2 | JLAB - OFK Beograd - Season 3 | JLAB - OFK Beograd - Season 4 | JLAB - OFK Beograd - Season 5 | JLAB - OFK Beograd - Season 6 | JLAB - OFK Beograd - Season 7 | JLAB - OFK Beograd - Season 8

[JAwtunes]

@Daddyso close

[XaW]

Got a bit scuffed of by the final loss and need to let Follo rest for a bit, so I've started a new save in England with Hyde.

[The_Gato_In_Goal]

Compare the increased reputation from our double last year. This was the first team we were able to sign a foreign staff member and look at the level difference between him and the old GK coach. Hopefully it will also lead to Anguillan/Dominican players in our intake.

[DrJones]

De Treffers 2025/2026

A similar season to the first one, we play really well against the bottom half but get absolutely battered by the other teams who reached play-offs. I'm not totally sure on how the play-off spots are handed out to teams but we managed to get to the first round for some reason. We faced a really good Excelsior in the first round and were never near to make it competitive. Next season will get much tougher and the youth challenge will begin for real. Two of the best players will retire and a few others aren't interested in renewing their contracts.

Squad

Next season we will have at least three youngsters in the starting XI. They may not deserve to play but we will have to because of the old original squad.

Youth Intake

I really like the look of this guy, especially his speed, that's something we really have been missing by the old squad.

 

[BustaRaymes]

@Daddy Great going, getting this far. No doubt you'll lift it soon!