The FM22 Youth Academy Challenge

[Makoto Nakamura]

2025 End of Season Review

No cup heroics but again our best ever season as we get closer to the title!

2025 Best XI

Charles Lay (YP2e)

Camilo Alves (YP3a) - Jobelquim Monteiro (YP3g) - Ruben Panji (YP2b) - Ivan Ramos Costa (YP3b)

Juliao de Sousa (YP3n) - Jaimito Santos (YP2g)

Rivaldo Santos                                    Antonio Pereira (YP2a)

 

Gaspar Pereira - Olegario Timothio (YP3l) 

[Neo_Geo]

I'm so tired of my best players who have minimum fee clauses that they insisted on coming and moaning about joining a bigger club, every time I feel I'm getting closer players start throwing spanners in the works.

[The_Gato_In_Goal]

 

Survivals FC - Youth Intake and Mid-Season Analysis - 2033

After a run of infuriating results in which we statistically outperformed opponents, but could not secure victories, I took the plunge and completely switched formations. No longer is the 4-3-1-2 or 4-4-2 diamond narrow we've used for the last decade. In comes a 4-2-3-1 balanced tactic I've used to success before on this year's game. For the last few years, I have been retraining all wingers to play in central positions, so we lack a bit of depth on the outside. It gives a good opportunity to some of the wide players that didn't see many minutes, decreases the minutes for our 3rd and 4th choice strikers, and reduces the workload for the central midfielders. Time will tell how this affects our scoring and defensive performance. Best case scenario is that we go back to dominating the league, while keeping matches close in the NACL. Worst case scenario is that we continue our scoring struggles and the defense becomes worse. We'll see.

If you've read far enough, you'll be met with the most talented player to come out of St. Lucia (well, not exactly) in the entire save. It's been a few years since we've had a Spanish player come through, but we got another in Luis Alberto 33A. This phenomenon is entirely due to the nationality of our manager, Abel Limon, who was a talented winger I had at Marchamalo in a different youth save. We can visibly judge the accuracy of the backroom staff's evaluation of the players' CA by looking at the attributes. And this guy passes the eye test. The unknown is the accuracy of the PA rating. Could 5* mean less talented than the best players in the team currently (not likely in my estimation) or could it mean 200 PA and the best player in the world (also not likely). So what can we use to get a better sense of his true PA? The only thing that separates him from everybody else we've got is the Spanish nationality. My current understanding of the game is that a country's Youth Rating affects players of that nationality as they are brought into clubs around the world by the HOYDs. So for all the St. Lucians in our academy, their PA is heavily limited by St. Lucia's youth rating, importance, and development. For the Spanish players like Alberto, their PA has fewer limits since Spain's youth rating, importance, and development are relatively high. Now that's not to say that all Spanish players in the Survivals academy will be more talented, with higher PA, than the St. Lucians. There is still much luck and randomness involved; I just believe the upwards limit on PA for Spanish players in our academy to be higher than that of St. Lucian players.

My working theory has to do with the youth recruitment level of a club. I think the best prospects in a given country enter the academies of the clubs with the highest reputation and youth recruitment. But I don't believe clubs to be limited to their home country when obtaining prospects to enter their academy. In our case, I think the best Spanish prospects go to the most reputable clubs that can generate Spanish players with a high youth recruitment level. For this purpose, I think Survivals is considered a "Spanish" club capable of bringing Spanish prospects into their academy. Notice how all the Spaniards in our intakes have no second nationality, and are born in Spain. This contrasts with, for example, English clubs that develop ENG/LCA players. They don't count as "St. Lucian" clubs when the best prospects of St. Lucia enter an academy; instead, they are English players and their second nationality does not matter for this purpose. This theory explains our first two intakes contained fully Spanish players, but they did not have great PA. At the time, our club was less reputable, with no upgrades to youth recruitment, so all the best Spanish prospects joined the academies of Spanish clubs, not ours.

Of course there's no way to test if this is true or all a coincidence. Even usng the editor to check actual CA/PA would only provide anecdotal evidence. I just enjoy theorizing potential explanations. But anyways, it's a great intake with some solid personalities and talents.

[Makoto Nakamura]

2026 Youth Candidates

We really need strikers, but again we have nothing.

We REALLY need them.

Some rubbish personalities, but some very good players coming through again!

 

[Makoto Nakamura]

2026 End of Season Review

A big backwards step, we survived but we made hard work of it. We're still a very, very young team with winger Rivaldo Santos (31) being the only player over the age of 20 at the club so we still have a lot of progress to make and no doubt as the squad begins to get older we'll get better and better.

2026 Best XI

Rigelberd Silva (YP4e)

Ruben Correia (YP4a) - Jobelquim Monteiro (YP3g) - Jose Gama (YP4d) - Ivan Ramos Costa (YP3b)

Ruben Panji (YP2b) - Florencio Mendonca (YP4l)

Sandro Borges (YP4c)                                    Rivaldo Santos

 

Almerito Mesquita (YP4f) - Nazario Moniz (YP2d) 

[Neo_Geo]

Season 13 Mid-season Update

• Super Cup win (2-1 against FC Utrecht)
• Topped champions league group (unbeaten)
  
• AS Monaco in 1st Knockout Round
• Breingburg (8EliteC) won the World U21 Player of the Year
• Nurudeen (10 EliteA) won European Goldenboy
• Bosma (Y07EliteD) minimum fee release clause of £50m activated by Man City and Juventus EDIT: Bosma agreed to join Man City  (time for van Dijk (8EliteB) to step up)
  
  Make no mistake he will be a huge loss to the club
  
  
  Here's his understudy, different type of striker so it'll mean a slight tweak in the tactics
  
• Breinburg (8EliteC) asked to leave (no club matched valuation yet)
• New club captain Prince Wakaso (10EliteC) shows great leadership skills by wanting to move to a bigger club, complained no club would match minimum fee of £110m. I rewarded him for his actions by triggering his extension clause 
• Sold a number of players who had peaked or simply weren't going to make it here
  
   
• Intake preview has another keeper coming through
  
   
• Offered Portugal job, Man City interview, Chelsea interview and OL interview

Edited August 14, 2022 by Neo_Geo

[XaW]

Great job@Daddy ! Impressive! 

[glennuk]

@Daddy - knew it was coming soon enough. Happy it did now!

[Makoto Nakamura]

Turns out no Timor-Leste side as been playing in continental competition since season two, looks like I need a new country! 

[libbyshuss]

17 hours ago, Daddy said:

Really good season.

that's an understatement!!! comgratulations, enjoyed following your journey! 

hopefully i can get close to emulating you in croatia eventually!

[JAwtunes]

What an exciting final day of the season.  All three promoted clubs were fighting at the top of the league for one auto and one playoff place.

We went from fourth to second in the last few mins of our game and scored a winner 5min into injury time. Oh, and we finished with 10 men so were piling all our attacks down the right and had 2 up top as we chased a winner.  Gotta love FM sometimes!

[JAwtunes]

Cardiff Corinthians - Season 1 (2022/23) Review

Introducing The Manager

For this journey I decided to bring my favourite player from my last long save with me as my alter ego.  I will be Hugo Matos 28a, who is a 31 year old former Andorran international midfielder (started without experience in-game of course), playing 72 games for Andorra.  Matos spent his whole playing career at Lusitanos from Andorra la Vella in Andorra, making 532 appearances (348 in the league) and scoring 348 goals (72 in the league).

Matos was club captain for Lusitanos for 10 years and captained the team to several league titles and cup victories.  He also features in group stage of the Champions League in four seasons and had one season in the Europa League group stage.

Spoiler

Matos as player

Matos as manager

 

Season Summary

This is my second attempt with the club after a false start due to not knowing how to handle contracts at an amateur club.  The season was absolutely fantastic.  We started very slowly, with just 1 point in our first 4 games, but we were playing ok and managed to eventually finish in second place in the Ardal Leagues SW Division, giving us a promotion playoff spot.  We took on Risca from Caerphilly, who finished second in the SE Division, and managed a 9-2 aggregate win.  We will be taking our place in the JD Cymru South next season.  We competed in one other competition this season (the Ardal Southern League Cup), which we were again excellent in and managed to win, beating Aberdare Town who also gain promotion from the fourth tier this season.

Ironically, having figured out how to play the game, I received an inbox message asking whether I wanted to go semi-professional.  I said yes.

It was odd that the tier 4 promoted teams were all very strong in the Ardal Leagues this season, this despite being fairly low in the season preview.

Spoiler

...

...

Competitions

Spoiler

 

Players

We played my favourite and (generally) dependable 4-3-3ish asymmetric tactic.  The tactic makes use of an IWB on the left and a wide winger on the right, with kind of the opposite on the right with a WB and IF.  This means our LB drifts inside and mixes with our two central mids and our RB stays out wide (as does our ML).  The rest of the roles are pretty normal, with our striker moving about but being our main goal threat, while our IF on the right and AMC and MC get into the box a lot.

Fans' Player of the Season went to young Mike Evans who played most of the games at right back.  He picked up 10 assists thanks to all of the crossing opportunities he gets out wide on the right.

Spoiler

End of season Accolades

Youth Intake

We were told to expect a terrific intake (5 star) that could be a golden generation and the intake when it arrived didn't disappoint.

Spoiler

HoYD

Preview

Intake

Finances

We picked up £20k in prize money this season from winning the ardal league southern cup and the promotion playoff.  Had this not been the case then we would have finished in debt.

Facilities and Youth Spending

We haven't been able to improve our facilities due to our poor finances.  However, we have increased our youth coaching and recruitment spend quite a bit.  I made the most of the A+ rating the board gave me to force these through.

The board seem to be keen on building a new stadium (5 year plan).  This will no doubt load us with debt and will not increase our overall capacity much.  Though our seating capacity is tiny (20), so I guess that might actually lead to attendance increases in time.

Spoiler

Stadium

Youth Recruitment (Limited - Basic)

Youth Coaching (Basic - Fairly Basic - 

Competition Stats

TBC

Game Setup

Spoiler

Leagues selected etc

Top 5 leagues playable.  All others view only.

Custom db

 

[br00kster]

Season 3 Review (2024/25)

Sand Dancers, aka South Shields FC

Sadly the six weeks holidays in England are getting in the way of my Football Manager time, but finally I have the third season under my belt.

Pre-Season

Another stadium expansion and improvement to our Youth Recruitment was slightly tarnished by our star man, Joe Gilbey, again wanting to leave the club. With three years left on his contract at the beginning of the season and no release clause, it was going to take something special for me to let him go - bids reaching £600k, plus £250k were made, but nowhere near my valuation of him.

League Two

Season expectation were low, but somehow (despite a horrible run in form due to injuries in the final quarter of the season), South Shields make it back-to-back-to-back promotions...maybe my tactics are overpowered? This is the first time in my long, long FM career I think I've ever achieved this.

 

Despite our fantastic performance in the league, the Cup proved a different beast all together with a poor showing all round.

Carabao Cup - Third Round Exit

FA Cup - Third Round Exit

Papa John's Trophy - Out in the Group Stages

 

Current Youth Players

Along with Joe Gilbey, who again changed his allegiances back to England having been capped by Ireland at u18 level and receiving an u20s call up (and getting an assist on his debut), another star coming through is Lee Greig, who at the end of the season received a call up to Scotland u18s.

It was also a breakthrough season for Dinu at CB, who achieved a solid 7.09 average rating over 34 starts for the club.

Youth Intake

Another positive looking Youth Intake, I'll be looking to bring both Huovinen and Hodgson into the first team immediately as my original squad ages and we move up the divisions.

 

Post Season

The unthinkable finally happened. After fending off multiple bids for Joe Gilbey, a bidding war started breaking out between Middlesbrough, Porto, Logroñés and Fulham. It was inevitable that he was going to go and throwing caution to the wind, I offered Gilbey out for a ludicrous sum a few times hoping someone took the bait...Fulham did.

ELEVEN MILLION POUNDS. ELEVEN. and the opportunity to keep Gilbey for one more season as we hope to survive what will be a difficult season in League One, the board snapped their hands off.

This vitally important money allows us to focus on improving facilities and our youth setup, but I fear how we will cope in the future given Gilbey has generally single handedly dragged us through each promotion. Sadly, no future percentages were included so we will have to make this last.

Joe Gilbey, a legend of the game that I will never forget. Let's hope your final season with us is another cracker.

 

Facilities Update

The Gilbey money came at the right time with our Facilities being downgraded, so additional investment was required, along with Coaching Qualifications for myself.

 

Finally, our squad going into the new season and confirmation of no transfers made, bar the agreed loan of Gilbey as part of Fulham's purchase:

 

Up the Sand Dancers!

 

 

Edited August 14, 2022 by br00kster

[XaW]

3 hours ago, Makoto Nakamura said:

Turns out no Timor-Leste side as been playing in continental competition since season two, looks like I need a new country! 

Sad to hear it! What's next? Vanuatu? Réunion? Zanzibar?

[The_Gato_In_Goal]

 

Survivals FC - End of Season - 2033

Squad | SLFA First Division | Transfers | Pernal Williams 30A | Romiel Lawrence 27B | Eden Janvier 30B | Alvinus Nathaniel 28C

The tactical switch midseason helped us finish the league campaign strong, and repeat the CCC for the 4th time running. Amusingly, Jonay Fernandez 31D won the CCC golden ball despite being called up to the reserves after we switched to a wide formation. Playing as an IF(A) on the left side, he scored 6 in 3 in the league and 7 in 4(1) in the CCC, finishing with a 8.57 average rating in the continental competition.

I've played a couple months into the offseason already, and can confirm that we ran the bank dry with upgrades to our facilities now that we know our club can sustain the increased wage bill with prize money and increased gate receipts (our average attendance has increased by a couple hundred each year for the past few years and according to my rough estimates that can bring in 100k a year). Only have 100k left in the bank, down from 1.5M to begin last season. What that means is, by April our Youth Facilities will have improved by 2 levels to Adequate and our Training Facilities will have improved to Below Average.

[Daddy]

On 13/08/2022 at 14:25, Daddy said:

2040/41 Season Review:

Really good season. As things got congested with Champions League and the domestic cup I wound up basically sacrificing a match and had our first loss in league for almost two calendar years. 

Winning the 8th league in a row put me as the top American coach.

Cleared out some of the older backups to make room for younger players.

Rennes was tough on the road, but in the end we won fairly easily. The Arsenal matchup concerned me as we had never beat them. However, we never really let them in. Villarreal gave us a pretty good scare. We had faced them before but split our matchups. Still we got through and led us to another rematch with Liverpool in the finals. 

Very tight match, as you would expect. Trading goals back and forth and then a cross in bounces off a defender and in and put us up for the first time. We get a late penalty to clinch it and complete the challenge!

What's next? I'll take at least a few days off to play other games and a little bit of the journeyman save I have going too. Then I'll be back, probably with England. 

@darren1983 - FYI

23 hours ago, JAwtunes said:

@Daddy. Congrats on the win. Your journey was a great one to follow. 

 

23 hours ago, Neo_Geo said:

Superb @Daddy

You could see this coming for a few seasons, glad you got it over the line.

 

7 hours ago, XaW said:

Great job@Daddy ! Impressive! 

 

7 hours ago, glennuk said:

@Daddy - knew it was coming soon enough. Happy it did now!

Thank you all!

[The_Gato_In_Goal]

Well how about this for the group stages of the NACL. I think it was a combination of the 4-3-1-2 narrow holding us back, the squad improving after our first year of full-time training, and LAFC drawing 4 times and this group being generally weak. We finished the only team on a positive goal differential. I think the squad got hope after fighting to a 3-3 draw away to LAFC, probably the toughest of the 6 matches on paper. It was an even game, but we had to come back from 3-1 down in the last 15 minutes. After that, we put on impressive displays in the rest of the matches. Our draw for the quarterfinals was extremely kind. We avoided the 4 Mexican sides, and avoided the top 2 MLS sides from last season. We literally got the second worst team besides us in Sporting KC, who have finished second in the MLS twice in this save (not for the last 6 years) and have never won it. Am I wrong to be optimistic after being LAFC that we can beat Sporting KC?

This whole adventure netted us 100k for appearing in the group stages, 100k x 4 for each win, 25k x 2 for each draw, and 250k for appearing in the quarterfinals (altho this could rise to 500k if we advance). That money earned us another Training Facilities upgrade scheduled to be finished in July. And once we get knocked out of the NACL, we'll be close to having enough to upgrade the Youth Facilities again, which are scheduled to be completed in a month's time.

[XaW]

  

XaW - Hyde - Season 2024/25 - Vanarama National League North

Squad | Transfers | Finances

Mid-table again. We are really struggling to keep the goals out, that our main issue. According to the xG we got a bit unlucky this season, as we conceded 8 goals more than the xGA indicates, so here's to hoping it will improve next season.

FA Cup: We beat Leiston and Bromsgrove Sporting before we lost to Halifax Town in the 4th qualifying round.
FA Trophy:  We beat Gloucester City before we lost to Oldham Athletic in the 3rd round.

U18 team:

They finished 4th in the National U18 League North West. In the FA Youth Cup they beat Stafford Rangers, Chorley, and Spennymoor before losing to Preston in the 1st round.

Youth intake:

Trophy cabinet

N/A

Player statistics:

Most apps for the clubs

Name			Nation		2nd Nation	Apps
-------------------------------------------------------------
Robbie Brown 23f	England		Scotland	90
Fraser Bickerdike 23h	England		None		87
Zach Hubbard-Morton 24c	England		None		51
Joe Swinglehurst 24e	England		None		50
Carwyn Watson 23c	Wales		None		32

Most goals for the club

Name			Nation		2nd Nation	Goals
-------------------------------------------------------------
Joe Swinglehurst 24e	England		None		10
Philip Brown 25b	Scotland	None		3
Fraser Bickerdike 23h	England		None		2
Robbie Brown 23f	England		Scotland	1
Mark Gascoigne 23g	England		None		1
Zach Hubbard-Morton 24c	England		None		1
Elvis Džafić 24d	Germany		Bosnia		1
Matt Hunter 24i		England		None		1
Michael Morton 25d	England		Ireland		1

Most assists for the club

Name			Nation		2nd Nation	Assists
-------------------------------------------------------------
Fraser Bickerdike 23h	England		None		7
Robbie Brown 23f	England		Scotland	5
Joe Swinglehurst 24e	England		None		5
Mick Halligan 23a	England		None		3
Zach Hubbard-Morton 24c	England		None		3
Philip Brown 25b	Scotland	None		3

[The_Gato_In_Goal]

Edged out the first leg at home, only having a 1-0 lead on aggregate when we doubled their shots hurts a bit.... and it made us pay in the second leg as we lost an even tighter match 2-0. One of their goals was a direct free kick and the other was a fluke free kick that missed everyone's heads and found its way in the net. Really tough way to go out. But this run fills me with hope that we'll be able to consistently compete with the big boys (or at least the MLS teams, the Liga MX sides are a different beast in this save).

[Neo_Geo]

Got to love the post match press conferences.

Just finished the second leg against Real Madrid in champions league quarter finals and I get asked about my youth goalkeeper on loan at willem II who is out of contract and whether I’m concerned about his lack of playing time 

[darren1983]

On 13/08/2022 at 19:25, Daddy said:

2040/41 Season Review:

Really good season. As things got congested with Champions League and the domestic cup I wound up basically sacrificing a match and had our first loss in league for almost two calendar years. 

Winning the 8th league in a row put me as the top American coach.

Cleared out some of the older backups to make room for younger players.

Rennes was tough on the road, but in the end we won fairly easily. The Arsenal matchup concerned me as we had never beat them. However, we never really let them in. Villarreal gave us a pretty good scare. We had faced them before but split our matchups. Still we got through and led us to another rematch with Liverpool in the finals. 

Very tight match, as you would expect. Trading goals back and forth and then a cross in bounces off a defender and in and put us up for the first time. We get a late penalty to clinch it and complete the challenge!

What's next? I'll take at least a few days off to play other games and a little bit of the journeyman save I have going too. Then I'll be back, probably with England. 

Congrats on another completion. Added this one to the HoF as well 

[The_Gato_In_Goal]

 

Survivals FC - Youth Intake and Mid-Season Analysis - 2034

Well, no mid-season analysis this time. Not much to talk about other than our excellent campaign in the NACL, and we're continuing to roll through the league and CCC. Our two extra facility upgrades have been completed and we're looking good, adequate levels of both.

It's possible Luis Alberto 33A doesn't quite have the potential that I hoped he had. His ability gap is certainly greater than zero, since he has improved, but not at the rate to make me think he has more than say 130 CA. Remember he has a Professional personality, and our facilities are now at a point where they shouldn't be stunting all of his growth should he have the potential. The only thing I can think of is the training he's missed with injury problems. He has not suffered a major injury, but has struggled with a fair few moderate ones. Something to keep an eye on for sure as my scouts indicate he has a relatively high injury proneness attribute.

But now to what you're really here for: the intake, and dare I say it's got the best player we've seen yet (even better than Alberto) and he's not even Spanish (Although that and a couple of Spaniards with low PA do go against my theory from last intake). We've got 3 players challenging for the first team, all with solid personalities. The Reserved media handling style means Pro >15, so our third youth with 19 determination and 15+ professionalism is tasty (as is the second one with 12 and 15+.

 

 

 

Edited August 15, 2022 by The_Gato_In_Goal
One day I'll not forget to update the year in the heading

[The_Gato_In_Goal]

And as I simulate to the next day past the intake, I get this message. Interesting that we are established enough for English clubs to be poaching our players. It also reminded me to check on the progress of the youngster who got poached about 5 years ago.

He's played one match in the Canadian Premier League and finished with the 7.10 rating, pretty solid. Certainly would not make our team now.

 

[Makoto Nakamura]

Welcome to Koeru SK, we play in an Estonian corn field in the 6th tier of Estonian football.

It's going to be a rough first season.

And we're predicted last in our group.

 

[XaW]

Ah, an Estonian corn field, should have guessed it!  Good luck @Makoto Nakamura!

[JAwtunes]

1 hour ago, XaW said:

Ah, an Estonian corn field, should have guessed it!  Good luck @Makoto Nakamura!

Looks like the setting for a Stephen King novel!

[libbyshuss]

Croatia

Division 2

2033/34 (season 12)

Season Summary

Just a short one as more of the same sadly. There's not much room for error in this division so i knew we ewre in trouble after we lost our opening game. But the nadir game in matchweek 29 when we went away to the team bottom of the table, who had only won once in the previous 28 games, and lost. 

Again the champions were the relegated professional club from the top division. It's difficult competing as a semi-pro club

 

Players

The only reason I've not quit in frustration is these young players are looking good!

I finally got the striker I've been looking for. He only got 16 goals in 30 games but he's only 17 and looking really good. welcome Nezir Nukic 32A!

 

Big news this season was losing Zdenko Mijokovic 30B, our premier league quality midfielder. An offer of 50k came in, I asked for 400k +50%, and they went away. The press asked me about it and i said unkess there was a ludicrous offer he'd be going nowhere. Within a week.....

700k is crazy money for a club our size! shame about no sell on but what can you do?

 

Finances

So 700k in the bank should keep u going for a few seasons. Unless i ***** it all in one go....

 

Youth

Another crazy golden generation intake

 

Career

I'm not quitting! weirdly, despite being stuck in this infernal division our youth players are developing really well and I'm enjoying seeing them develop. By the time we do get promoted hopefully we'll already be able to compete!

Ideally though I need to go pro but the board just won't countenance it

[libbyshuss]

Croatia

Division 2

2033/34 (season 12)

Season Summary

Just a short one as more of the same sadly. There's not much room for error in this division so i knew we ewre in trouble after we lost our opening game. But the nadir game in matchweek 29 when we went away to the team bottom of the table, who had only won once in the previous 28 games, and lost. 

Again the champions were the relegated professional club from the top division. It's difficult competing as a semi-pro club

 

Players

The only reason I've not quit in frustration is these young players are looking good!

I finally got the striker I've been looking for. He only got 16 goals in 30 games but he's only 17 and looking really good. welcome Nezir Nukic 32A!

 

Big news this season was losing Zdenko Mijokovic 30B, our premier league quality midfielder. An offer of 50k came in, I asked for 400k +50%, and they went away. The press asked me about it and i said unkess there was a ludicrous offer he'd be going nowhere. Within a week.....

700k is crazy money for a club our size! shame about no sell on but what can you do?

 

Finances

So 700k in the bank should keep us going for a few seasons. Unless i spend it all in one go....

there we go!!!!

Youth

Another crazy golden generation intake

 

Career

I'm not quitting! weirdly, despite being stuck in this infernal division our youth players are developing really well and I'm enjoying seeing them develop. By the time we do get promoted hopefully we'll already be able to compete!

Ideally though I need to go pro but the board just won't countenance it

[Neo_Geo]

VV Katwijk 2036/37 (Season 13) Review

• League  won by 18 points but lost unbeaten status due to heavy rotation
  
   
• Retained the Dutch Cup
   
• Champions League
  Made the final with games against AS Monaco, Real Madrid (again) and Man City (again) to then play Bayern Munich
  Spoiler

  0-0 at 90 mins before Samir Thomas (Y07EliteF) scrambled the ball across the line for 1-0 Katwijk then we shut up shop for the last few minutes and watch the time tick away.

  Bayern then get a free kick on the edge of the box just right of centre with 30 seconds to go.......

  

  

  We then didn't have enough quality on the bench to change things in Extra Time.

  30 seconds away from completing the challenge is hard to take.

  

  

  I keep thinking if Bosma had still been here I could have won it but I guess I'll never know.
  
  Next Season

  Can we hold onto Breinburg, Boukhari, Wakaso, Milovanovic? If I lose these players I can see me losing the motivation to continue and I think a change of scene might be required, I honestly feel so deflated at losing the final in this way. If I can keep a hold of the players then I feel there is still plenty of growth in the players we have to at least have another good attempt but I might never get a better opportunity than this.

   

• £285m in the bank but that does me no good when I lose players like Bosma for £50m to Man City

Edited August 15, 2022 by Neo_Geo

[XaW]

Ooof! Close there @Neo_Geo! Keep at it!

[Neo_Geo]

Just had a bit of a breakthrough with the Youth Facilities issue.

So I've been stuck at 4 stars for a number of seasons now with no option to request it.

I get informed that due to technological advances my training facilities have been downgraded to 4.5 stars, so I request it, board turn it down, I challenge this, they agree to upgrade then I noticed that Improve Youth Facilities was listed once more, requested it, board turned it down (despite a balance of £285m), threatened to quit, they agree and now I should hopefully get over the 4 stars.

[Neo_Geo]

Transfer window open for a few days, Milovanovic requests move to bigger club, I say they can meet his minimum fee, 1 day later....

EDIT: aaaaaaand he's gone

He couldn't have talked to Nicola Cengic who made the same move, didn't get played then joined 1.FC Koln 

Edited August 15, 2022 by Neo_Geo

[Neo_Geo]

Sorry for the spamming, but I got into the World Club Championship which is taking place right after the season ends......what muppet scheduled it there? I've got most of my squad with the U21s Dutch side for the U21 European Championship 

EDIT: Made it out of the groups somehow with CEA and Dinamo Batumi then lined up against Real Madrid with no one over 3 star rating and a bench full of grey players 

Only lost 2-1

Edited August 15, 2022 by Neo_Geo

[BrightLad5]

On 11/08/2022 at 13:21, XaW said:

If you go to the first page and look at the hall of fame in the 2nd post, it might seem like a lot of completions, but remember, that is through 5 versions of the game! I've completed it once, in FM19 and never since. And I've almost exclusively played this challenge since then and I clock in of a few thousand hours every version...

This is for FM22, granted some hours are because I left it running, but still!

It definitely puts the challenge into perspective and I'm looking forward to it!

On a side note, would people here say that it is more challenging starting with a team in a big city with lots of clubs soaking up the youth (e.g London) or more of a challenge in an area with less population and overall less youth players available (somewhere like Cornwall for example) On the face of it I would expect more of a challenge in the more rural area, but I can also imagine that any half decent youth prospects from a London based non-league team will be swiftly snapped up by Arsenal/Chelsea/Spurs instead of joining your teams academy...

[JLAB]

OFK Beograd - Season 10 Review

After the youth intake, we had a horrible time. We did secure a top-half finish, but after the next phase started, we lost 6 of the next 7 matches. It didn't go well for us at all.

So our poor run of form caused us to struggle big time, and we were lucky that we did end up securing a top-half finish at the end of the season. 

I did reach 400 games in charge of OFK Beograd though, so there is that at least.

Good news, we've managed to ensure that we'll get a 3rd training facilities upgrade and 3rd Youth Recruitment upgrade, and I'm sure you can understand why I am very excited about this.

Sadly, our best DM has decided that he does want to potentially move to a bigger club.

We did manage to ensure that for the first time in the save, two of our youth graduates have now become full international footballers, and it leaves me feeling very excited.

Despite our worst league performance in 4 seasons, I still consider this season to be a success, mostly because we were able to improve so much off the pitch and bring in so much money as a result of making the Champions League Group Stage.

OFK Beograd - Season 1 | OFK Beograd - Season 2 | OFK Beograd - Season 3 | OFK Beograd - Season 4 | OFK Beograd - Season 5 | OFK Beograd - Season 6 | OFK Beograd - Season 7 | OFK Beograd - Season 8 | OFK Beograd - Season 9 | OFK Beograd - Season 10

Edited August 15, 2022 by JLAB

[WhiteCat33]

6 hours ago, Neo_Geo said:

Just had a bit of a breakthrough with the Youth Facilities issue.

So I've been stuck at 4 stars for a number of seasons now with no option to request it.

I get informed that due to technological advances my training facilities have been downgraded to 4.5 stars, so I request it, board turn it down, I challenge this, they agree to upgrade then I noticed that Improve Youth Facilities was listed once more, requested it, board turned it down (despite a balance of £285m), threatened to quit, they agree and now I should hopefully get over the 4 stars.

Brutal loss man! I think in addition to WwY being very powerful after the update, reputation is mattering more as well. So you getting to the CL Final probably made a difference in the calculation to make it available again. At least that's my hope in Malta where its gone away already at only 3*...

[Makoto Nakamura]

2022 Youth Candidates

Shocking, but we have players!

[Makoto Nakamura]

2022 End of Season Review

A poor run of form in the middle of the season but with us actually having a full team now I'm hoping we can do better next season!

No Best XI this season.

[Neo_Geo]

Guys I’m looking for suggestions on a new nation, feel spent with Holland at the moment….might go back again at some point but just feel I want a bit of a change (thanks Madu for your free kick 30 seconds from time and Arsenal for poaching another of my top players!)

Thinking of Australia to just change things up completely, anyone tried this database? https://www.fmscout.com/a-australia-complete-pyramid-fm22.html just read some comments on there about the wage issue so might avoid that one

Edited August 15, 2022 by Neo_Geo

[WhiteCat33]

 

Season 10 Mellieha Sports Club: 2031 – 32 Malta Premier League

Competitions | Squad | Finances | Transfers

I'm putting the basics up in the header now as we are doing domestic Trebles yearly. Note on the Transfers: at the last second I decided to take a chance on a "Casual" top prospect to fill out the U19 more, but the transfer happened after the trial expired so he appears on the "Transfer In" tab. Proof  Alan Scerri 10f came through the Youth Candidates.

Continental Qualification:

While we were ultimately successful in qualifying for the EC2 for the 3rd time in 4 seasons, I actually was disappointed with this campaign. It all comes down to a horrendously botched second leg game in Latvia. My team decided to not play and they switched from being docile to aggressive and we blew a 3 goal advantage losing 4-0 in the second leg. After that we were second best against Zilina from Slovakia in the Euro Cup dropping us down to an EC2 Playoff match. Luckily we drew Albanian side KF Partizani and won 6-2 Agg. Without such an easy draw I highly doubt we would have qualified as the team form was really off.

EC2 Group Stage: Table

I had a laugh when we got Man United down in the EC2, things must not be going so well there - though they did get Glazer to leave. They haven't won a single trophy all save, but have been runners up in the Champions League (2027), FA Cup (2031), & Carabao Cup (2024 & 2026). Still pretty poor considering who we are talking about. We did get a win against Cyprus side APOL Limassol, but really we are still the punching bag with all our U-18 players. Those Man U games were painful...

Youth Academy

YI Preview: Another high quality preview.

Youth Intake: We have a steep cliff in talent, but the top is fantastic

We have to talk about Peter Attard. While the last striker gives us speed and on-field skill this guy brings finishing and dead-ball skills as well as perfection on the Personality/MH combo. Then on top of it all he comes with “Curls Ball” as a set piece taker! We are now fully set up on Strikers with 2 top class starters & 2 backups who fill each roll. It's almost guaranteed I'll be losing the starters when they are 18, but neither have release clauses so hopefully I can set up good financing on the sales.

This year is the last batch of my old HOYDs players training under both him and my new guy. Next year we get to see how well my current HOYD has been recruiting. I've gotten him a couple licenses and he's improved slightly in his Reputation, while we've increased our scouting from our Region to All of Europe. It's a high bar to continue delivering this level of intake talent, but I have hope! Wouldn't mind them to be on the defensive side of the pitch though.

Young Stars

We have a three stand-out players in the first team now that are worth highlighting before they are gone:

Antonello Bonnici 08b is a player I fully expect to lose over the summer window. Bologna had light interest in the Fall, but a new contract saw them back off though he has a 105k release clause so I fully expect that to get met as he's improved since then. 16 Technique, Decisions & Balance set him up to be a fantastic midfielder

Lydon Caruana 09a like his older brother already doesn't want to sign a new deal with us. That means one more season with him till he will have to be sold on. He's developing great though at only 17.

Frank Formosa 09d is a surprise big developer from last years intake. still only 16, this guy looks like he will be amazing for us in the midfield. He's got an agreed contract for the end of the season that will see him with us for 3 years w/o a release clause.

 

Thoughts

For the next 2-3 years the goal is to keep grinding group stages to build up our Reputation and see my players start taking over the Malta national team. I'd love to actually make an Europa League, but EC2 is honestly fine. I didn't spend any of my money on upgrades this year as I'm anticipating the need to build a stadium soon. While we can use the National Stadium for EC2, I'd like to get us to our own ground that has room for more than 1k spectators.

Currently I have 6 on the Malta National Team + Sean Caruana 02a whose doing his thing in Australia, but I have 14 on the U21 side. I expect a good number to get call-ups soon as they get over 18. Malta is up to 167th, which is an all time high and actually survived in Division C of the European League by winning the relegation matches against Andorra. Makes up for their almost winless 2031.

 

 

[WhiteCat33]

24 minutes ago, Neo_Geo said:

Guys I’m looking for suggestions on a new nation, feel spent with Holland at the moment….might go back again at some point but just feel I want a bit of a change (thanks Madu for your free kick 30 seconds from time and Arsenal for poaching another of my top players!)

Thinking of Australia to just change things up completely, anyone tried this database? https://www.fmscout.com/a-australia-complete-pyramid-fm22.html

I remember seeing there are lots of wild alt-nationality clubs low on the Australian pyramid. Could make for an interesting play through building up a small nations national team at the same time. 

Have to say I'm really enjoying Malta. A steep hill to see us challenging for European silverware, but I'm pleasantly surprised with the quality of intakes we've been getting. Not sure you want this tiny of a nation though

Edited August 15, 2022 by WhiteCat33

[br00kster]

How am I meant to make a compelling case for Junior Coaching, if it gives me one option and it's constantly refused?

[XaW]

6 minutes ago, br00kster said:

How am I meant to make a compelling case for Junior Coaching, if it gives me one option and it's constantly refused?

You just have to keep asking. Rejection happens all the time.

[Neo_Geo]

9 minutes ago, WhiteCat33 said:

I remember seeing there are lots of wild alt-nationality clubs low on the Australian pyramid. Could make for an interesting play through building up a small nations national team at the same time. 

Have to say I'm really enjoying Malta. A steep hill to see us challenging for European silverware, but I'm pleasantly surprised with the quality of intakes we've been getting. Not sure you want this tiny of a nation though

I think I’m probably just still hacked off at the nature of losing that final the losing a key player a week after it but I think that’s just part of the challenge. Just have to look at developing the other players once more and hopefully my rep will allow me to hold onto players for a bit longer.

I might however do another small nation on the side with <30 games a season, thought about Gibraltar but not sure if there are any decent databases out there that are valid under the rules.

[dcayton9]

America De Natal: Youth Intake 2031

I usually wait until my season review to mention this, but I couldn't hold this back, and it looks like all the investment towards facilities is finally starting to pay off. First, I got this in terms of the preview, which was exciting as it was five stars but still only two A positions.

However, when youth intake day just showed up, I was greeted by this.

This is all crowned by Janderson Lenylthon, genuinely one of the best new-gens I've ever had. He has a decent personality and we can get his professionalism up with mentoring. However, to be an elite AM, all he needs is a bit better dribbling and he'll be our crown jewel.

 

[Makoto Nakamura]

2023 Youth Candidates

Shocking.

Deeply shocking. Everyone is awful AND we got FOUR WBL's?!

[br00kster]

3 minutes ago, XaW said:

You just have to keep asking. Rejection happens all the time.

Do they not know who I am? What I've done for this club?! 

[WhiteCat33]

3 minutes ago, Neo_Geo said:

I think I’m probably just still hacked off at the nature of losing that final the losing a key player a week after it but I think that’s just part of the challenge. Just have to look at developing the other players once more and hopefully my rep will allow me to hold onto players for a bit longer.

I might however do another small nation on the side with <30 games a season, thought about Gibraltar but not sure if there are any decent databases out there that are valid under the rules.

pretty sure Gibraltar only has 1 league like San Marino so its ineligible. 

[Neo_Geo]

9 minutes ago, br00kster said:

Do they not know who I am? What I've done for this club?! 

I won 6 eredivisies in a row 4 Dutch super cups, 2 Dutch cups, took Katwijk to a champions league final and have generated the funds to  have a 40k seater stadium with £270m+ in the bank and they turned down a £2.25m training facilities upgrade following a downgrade due to advancements. Some chairpeople just don’t care who you are or what you’ve done 

[Makoto Nakamura]

2023 End of Season Review

 

A shock here! A great run a form towards the end of the season pushed us up to 3rd and into the promotion playoff against Saku Sporting who finished 3rd for the first two seasons in the III Liiga North. Two nervy legs and two goals from Markus Grigorjev was enough to see us go up to the 5th tier!  We also entered the Eesti Karikas for the first time this season (Estonian Cup) And we were easily defeated by Elva, who won the 2nd tier this season.

2023 Best XI

Martin Savitski (YP1p)

Kirill Mones - Mihhail Nõmm - Pavel Pareiko - Peter Zajac

Nikita Smirnov - Beslan Bocharov (YP1m)

Pavel Matyushenko                                                    Marek Šišov (YP1e)

 

Lauri Mihhailov (YP1n) - Markus Grigorjev (YP1o)