[FM22] Here Comes The Boom - A Journey Youth Achievement Save

[keeper#1]

Welcome to what is going to be a mix of my three favorite types of FM saves: Youth Academy, Journeyman and Achievement Hunter.

My manager is starting with no badges and a US citizenship to match my US citizenship.  The focus, wherever I manage, is going to be on the youth academy and supplementing the squad with transfers as needed on push us over the top for promotion/save us from relegation.

I will be using the Achievement Hunter model that I had fun with in FM21.

Not starting unemployed but not starting at a high level either:

Rupel Boom are a semi-pro playing in the Belgian Third Tier and play in the 9,470 capacity (1,850 seated) Gemeentelijk Parkstadion A.

The club has a strong youth academy for the level and is the starting point for three Lukakus.

My goal with Rupel Boom is to take from the Belgian Nationale 1 all the way up to the Belgian Pro League before I actively look for other jobs.  That said, if a promising job offer does come along, they ask for an interview and offer me the job, I will take it.

[keeper#1]

The staff room is pretty empty.  It's just me, assistant manager, Director of Football and Head Physio.

[OlivierL]

A Team very close to where I live.  Will be following! Good luck 

[keeper#1]

Just now, OlivierL said:

A Team very close to where I live.  Will be following! Good luck 

Closest team to where I live is either NYC FC or New York Red Bulls and I'm not managing in the MLS.  Plus, I'm a Philadelphia native.  I can't manage a team based in New York just out of principle.

[OlivierL]

13 hours ago, keeper#1 said:

Closest team to where I live is either NYC FC or New York Red Bulls and I'm not managing in the MLS.  Plus, I'm a Philadelphia native.  I can't manage a team based in New York just out of principle.

My team is Antwerp, they play in first division in Belgium ( and Europe  since last season) but the closest team near my house is Merksem City Pirates. I think that they are a candidate for a youth only save if I retry enough..

[DefinitelyTaylor]

Good luck! I’ve never given Belgium a go, actually. Maybe it’s a league to consider at some point this year. Looking forward to seeing you take Rupel Boom to the Pro League and potentially beyond.

[keeper#1]

3 hours ago, DefinitelyTaylor said:

Good luck! I’ve never given Belgium a go, actually. Maybe it’s a league to consider at some point this year. Looking forward to seeing you take Rupel Boom to the Pro League and potentially beyond.

Seasons are relatively quick and the players are decent quality.

Forced Sale

The board went over my head and forced the sale of, in my opinion, one of the club's best players.

First Club "Purchase"

I call it a purchase but he was brought in on a free to help stabilize the back line.

 

 

[keeper#1]

August-September 2021

We are off to a flying start with Rupel Boom.  Only a 1-0 loss to Thes Sport sticks out like a sore thumb among all of those wins.  Defense has been solid.  Offense has been clicking.  Can't ask for a better start.  What happened in the loss?

We made two half-time subs to take off players who were struggling with knocks.  Then Bergiers, our reserve right back who was playing left back to cover for one of the subbed players, got sent off after only two minutes of playing time.  We make a sub for him and go down to ten men and have used all of our subs.  Then Augustijnen got injured.  Dropped a player from the attacking line into the midfield and we get to play the last 35 minutes with just nine men.  Ryan Bantu, who we dropped from the midfield to left back when Bergiers got sent off, got sent off himself and we finished the game with just eight players.  

Solidly in the playoff mix just five games into the season.

[DefinitelyTaylor]

Finishing a game with eight men on the pitch is never ideal . Aside from that chaos, a very pleasing start.

[keeper#1]

3 hours ago, DefinitelyTaylor said:

Finishing a game with eight men on the pitch is never ideal . Aside from that chaos, a very pleasing start.

It was not our finest 90 minutes.  

October 2021

As great as August and September were, October was just the opposite.  We couldn't get out of own way.  First, we couldn't shoot and win games.  Then, we couldn't defend and not score.  Wins turned into draws and then the draws turned into losses.  Just a terrible run of form.

The drop in form knocked us out of the Promotion Playoff places.  Definitely not weak enough to get relegated but can we regain our form and continue to push for the promotion playoffs.

November 2021

A light November schedule saw us regain our shooting form.  The defense is still a little leaky but the offense has been more than strong enough to overcome their struggles.

Still sitting outside the promotion playoff places but we have a game in hand on every team above us in the table.  If we win that game in hand, we will back in the top four and back into the promotion playoff.  Still on track for a successful season.

Midseason Stats

Edited November 2, 2021 by keeper#1

[Hootieleece]

What are your tactics? to get off to such a good start.

 

[keeper#1]

4 hours ago, Hootieleece said:

What are your tactics? to get off to such a good start.

 

Very high tempo 4-2-4.

[keeper#1]

December 2021 & January 2022

December is a very light in the Belgian third tier so I lumped December in with January to get a fuller update.

Only two games in December where we blanked both opponents before taking a few weeks off to celebrate Christmas and the New Year.  Back in action against the lower division side so I could play every body on the roster and bang some goals to boost the squad's confidence heading into the stretch run.

UR La Louviere had other plans.  They jumped on us early.  Added a second goal in the second half.  We goat a goal in stoppage time but traveled back to Rupel with a loss.  Francs Borains was a maddening game.  Get out to an early lead.  Give up the equalizer right away. Storm out to 3-1 lead and then give it away as the fans go home entertained but in a 3-3 tie.

Started to solidify our place in the playoff four.  Just nine matches remain in the regular season before the playoffs begin.

Looks like a very top heavy intake with plenty of attacking options but defense and goalkeeping will need to be upgraded using the free and transfer markets.

 

[keeper#1]

EPIC SECOND PLACE BATTLE

On the 20th of February, we traveled to Dessel Sport for a second place battle.

We got lucky with an own goal in the early stages of the game and quickly doubled our lead just a few minutes later.  Another quick start to the second half and we were cruising 3-0.  But we go "All Gas No Brakes." Dessel comes back to score a goal to cut it to 3-1.  It became 3-2 with just 12 minutes remaining.  Stoppage time saw Dessel tie the game at 3.  I figured we were heading back to Rupel with a draw.  Dessel had a late goal kick which was won by Holly Tshimanga.  Tshimanga, then, dribbled around the goalkeeper and slotted home a very late game winner and we moved past Dessel into second place but only on goal difference.

[keeper#1]

February-April 2022

We hit our stride in the final nine games going 7-1-1.  Losing only to relegated Liege and tied Vise.  I think the biggest momentum boost came in the 4-3 win of Dessel Sport as described above.

We finished in 2nd place and firmly in the promotion playoff.  Everybody brings half their point title to the playoff and we are just one point behind Dender (30-29).

Edited November 4, 2021 by keeper#1

[keeper#1]

2022 Youth Intake

As I suspected, it is a very top-heavy intake with a couple of players who can come into the senior team next season and a couple others who could join them next season if they develop quickly.  Personalities are good with only a few poor personalities as shown in red.  Lots of players from Boom which is good but has a total population of just over 15,000...not good.

[keeper#1]

2021-22 Season Review

We started the playoffs with a huge 1-0 win over Dender which saw us jump into first place.  I was worried about the next three fixtures since they were all on the road.  Thes Sport was a tough opponent by we saw the game out late with a 3-2 win.  A draw against Dessel kept us in first place as we traveled to Dender.  Another tough match with Dender and we squeaked out a 2-1 win.  This gave us a five point lead with just two matches remaining.  We jumped all over Dessel in the first 10 minutes and claimed a 2-0 lead.  A third goal early in the second half and we cruised to a 3-1 victory which earned us the Nationale 1 title.  A dead rubber against Thes Sport ended in a 0-0 draw.  4-2-0 in the playoffs and we are a promoted side.

The offense was led by center forward Endy Opoku Bernadina who led the team with 19 goals on an xG of 13.54.  We lacked a creative force in the middle as Kanu, our playmaker, was pissy the whole season and didn't always put forth the best effort in matches or training.  We had to get our creativity from out on the wings.  Left back Bram Boeykens and left winger Emil Abaz led the team with eight assists and right back Matisse Bergiers added seven more assists.  Holly Tshmanaga was a spark plug off the bench with his four goals and six assists from a variety of attacking positions.

We were far and away the best offense in the Nationale 1.  We led the league in goals with 51 and our xG goals matched our high goal output.  Our offense could have been even more productive since we were below average in terms of shots on target and our passing was sub-par.  The defense matched the offense in terms of production.

We have a very goal heavy attacking octagon.  We overwhelmed teams with the sheer volume of shots we took and the dribbling intent we had to attack the defensive line.  This came with a cost in our crossing and passing.

Another oddly shaped octagon.  We led the way in terms of attempting tackles and denying the opposition chances on goal.  Since we are attacking so much, we are way behind in clearances but even with all the tackles, we are one of the least fouling teams in the league.  We try to pick the ball over as opposed to blocking shots.

17-year old Bram Boeykens won both the League Player of the Year and Young Player of the Year.  Quite the double.  No one interested in his services though.

Opoku Bernadina's 19 goals led the league.  Again, no one interested in his services.

And a little hardware for me.

Our U21 team just overwhelmed their league.

The U18s struggled but they were all grey players until the intake came in.

[keeper#1]

Summer 2022

It was a very busy summer at Rupel Boom as we try to reshape and improve the squad to battle in the Proximus League.

The biggest losses are the two starters: Emil Abaz who was our starting left winger as he joins Akademija Pandev in the North Macedonia top tier (league ranking 75th) and Kanu, our playmaker who I battled with his attitude all last season, who joins Belenenses in Liga NOS.  Kanu is the second oldest player on their roster at age 34 and only has a balanced personality with an outspoken media handling.  I can't see him being a great mentor to the younger players at Belenenes.

Not quite sure I understand this pre-season report.  It recognizes that our preferred formation is a 4-2-4 but shows us lining up in a 4-3-3.  It views our biggest signings at Rabbi Mwenda and Giannis Karakoutis.

Mwedna joins us from Club Brugge where he topped out in their U21 team.  He is a product of the ADO Den Haag academy and has yet to make a senior side appearance.  He will make his senior debut with us as he was brought in to be Kanu's replacement in the playmaker role.  A pretty much average player all-around but average along with some room for growth should be good enough for the Proximus League.

Karakoutis is another player who topped out at the U21 level with Olympiakos, who took him from the PAOK academy.  Comes in to be the replacement on the left wing for Emil Abaz.  Loads of pace on the wing and as seen in the friendlies (6 goals in 4 games) has a nose for goal.  I'll need a big season out of him if I want to stay up this season.

The board went above my head and sold one of my academy prospects for a pittance. The 40% profit from next sale could be nice if he develops.  Gysels 22C could have provided us some depth this season if we suffered injuries.

[keeper#1]

October 2, 2022

We are flying high as the calendar turns to October.  We are a quarter of the way through the season and we have dropped only two games while drawing two more.  The season got off to a great start when we beat league rival Wassland-Beveren 2-0 early in our friendly calendar.  We played a money-making friendly against Royal Antwerp who only beat us 2-0.  Then, we got into the small side squash games to boost our confidence heading into the cup portion of the calendar where we could rotate some players and chalk up big wins.  September is a tough month with a lot of matches which means squad rotation.

3-2-2 with a +6 goal difference is good enough for second place.  Need to keep the good form up in the second set of games so we can put more distance between ourselves and last place which is the only team that gets relegated in this league.  We are started to make some money reach month from TV revenue.  We might be back in the black by season's end.

Newcomer Giannis Karakoutis has gotten off to a flying start with five goals.  No assists to his name but I'll take the goalscoring.  Centerback Hannes Smolders is leading the team with four assists which is surprising since he's not a free kick or corner kick taker.  Right winger and newcomer Cedric Mitu has three assists.

[keeper#1]

Mid-Season Update

The 2022 World Cup messed up the league schedule.  We only had one league game in November which resulted in a crowded October schedule.

And we struggled in October with no league wins and only winning in the Croky Cup.  We win the only November league game and rebound with a win against Westerlo after, I guess, what we can be called the World Cup break.

We slid down the table a bit but it's a very tight league with just four points between ourselves in 4th and first place.  We are tied for the league lead in goal difference at +5.

We've got a solid youth intake coming in the spring.

Four positions rated as "A" and at all different levels of the formation.  Highly encouraged.  Can't wait to see them come through.

[keeper#1]

3rd Quarter Update

A tough stretch of games over a long period of time saw us go 2-2-3 as we solidified our mid-table status.

We are about as average a team can get.  Seven wins.  Seven draws.  Seven losses.  The only way we could be more average is if our goal difference was 0 not +5.

Our lead goal scorer, Elisha Sam, plays best as a super sub.  When I start him, he underperforms.  We are suffering from a lack of creativity in the midfield.  The ball gets into our two midfielders and just dies.  I've noticed that more teams are trying to pack the box against us which shows our lack of creativity even more.  We aren't under threat of relegation this season but it's something I'll need to look into tactics-wise next season.

[keeper#1]

2023 Youth Intake

It looks good on paper, right.

Diving into the intake, we find an intake full of bad personalities and players who do not fit in at all with the DNA that I look for in a player.  We also see an overall drop technical and mental abilities as a group by they try to make up for it with their physical abilities not quite sure this is a "golden generation."

 

[keeper#1]

2022-23 Season Review

We accomplished our primary goal for the season which was to ensure survival.  We did that and then some finishing with a quite average 9-10-9 record and 37 points to finish in 5th place.

The fourth quarter was a lot like all of the other quarters.  Two wins.  Two losses.  Three draws.  We are just an average team.

Elisha Sam was our only double digit goalscorer with 11 goals.  Endy Opoky Bernadina really dropped off in form going from 19 goals last season to just eight goals this season.  Bram Boeykens struggled with injuries for a lot of the season and his form struggled as well.  We get both of them firing again next season and we could push for a playoff place.  In the center of the backline Hannes Smolders was a rock and our player of the season as he tied Cedric Mitu for the team lead with five assists.

Three different xG graphs showing just how average we were this season.

The club was taken over in the spring with our Spanish owners bowing out and Belgian ownership taking over but they still want us to focus on signing Spanish players.

One big difference between the old board and the new board is the new board is willing to turn the club professional.  No more training on just three days each week.  This will only help the club and our push for the Jupiler Pro League.

They improved our scouting range as well.  We can venture into other nations around central Europe and not stop at the Belgian border.

Cools had one appearance for us this season in a Croky Cup match and becomes the first player to make this list.

[keeper#1]

An Earth-Shattering KaBOOM or Stampeding Buffalo?

My stated goal with Rupel Boom is to get them to the Jupiler Pro League.  I've gotten them promoted once.  Convinced the board to go from semi-professional to professional.  Not gotten the club into serious debt...though that may happen now that we are a professional club due to increased player wages and staffing.  What I did not expect was some stampeding buffalo.

Why are stampeding buffalo a concern for my time at Rupel Boom?

KAA Gent, the largest club in the city of Ghent, heard about my exploits at Rupel Boom and offered me an interview for the vacant position.  I took the interview figuring that they just wanted some manager close to the club to be part of the interview and would go back to my project at Rupel Boom.  To my surprise, they offered me the job and I accepted.  Gent finished the 2022-23 season in 6th place just outside the European places.  

Interesting, I live not to far from a different and much smaller Ghent (population: 5,402).  Blink and you miss the town.

I arrive at KAA Gent and they show me the books.  They are freaking mess.

11.5 million pounds in the hole.  Projected to fail UEFA's FFP.  Lost 15 million pounds last season.  On pace to lose another 11.5 million pounds this season.  A negative transfer budget.  The only good news is committed spending is under the wage budget.  But those budgets changed just a few days after my arrival.

A smallish transfer budget which I don't intend to use and not much change to the wage budget.  Just a few days later, I was informed that the club was back in the black.

Great.  The banks gave us enough to write off our debt by way of a 25-year loan.  The club now has 275k per month running costs in just loans.  The finances are still a mess but now a different kind of mess.

Work towards repairing the club's financial damage....well, that's a phrase for it.  How about overspending for years and now I'm the guy in charge to clean it up.  I'm completely on board with all of the other goals in the club vision.  I want to play entertaining football while bringing in younger players to sell for profit and keeping older players on a year-to-year basis.

Only good news is Belgium is moving up in the UEFA coefficients which will be nice if we can get the finances in line to be eligible should we qualify.

[keeper#1]

Summer 2023 Update

It took some time to get through all of the contracts and financial ruin that is the current state of KAA Gent but I got through the transfer window and the club is in a much better financial place though it did come with a short term cost.

We shipped a lot of players out the door.  Some were on bloated expiring contracts, a lot were young players going out on loan and we lost three players who were part of the senior side but we needed to raise some money from their sale.  The biggest loss was centre back Joseph Okumu to Villareal.  Villareal activated his 9.25 million pound release clause to clubs in a European competition.

The three players we did bring in with either on loan or on a free.  Alex Kirk was let go by Arsenal and we outbid Tottenham for his services.

Two players were brought in on loan deals.  Jandro Orellana, a defensive midfielder from Barcelona, and Martin Minchev, a winger from Sparta Prague.  Both will be rotation options this season.  We also have a future fee clause on Minchev and Orellana contract with Barcelona expires at the end of the season.  Both could be permanent additions if they play well for us this season.

The finances have gone from red to green but not green enough to pay off any of the loans.

  

How has this impacted the product on the pitch?  

Hasn't slowed us down one bit but we also haven't played any of the big clubs thus far.  We will see how we respond when we lose.

I only made one major staff change when I brought in a new Head of Youth Development.  Not too bad for a mid-budget side looking to build with youth.

 

Edited November 10, 2021 by keeper#1

[DefinitelyTaylor]

A nice little turn of events. Congratulations on the new job and a very big job at that. A shame that Okumu has left albeit for big bucks - he was a revelation for me during a save on FM21. Nevertheless, an excellent start!

[keeper#1]

November 1, 2023 Update

At the end of August, we were sitting in first place with five wins in five matches.  I chalked this up to playing some of the lesser teams in the league.  We are now two months deeper into the season.  How do things stand?

We continue to use our high octane pressing system to run over the league.  They just can't cope with the constant pressure we apply on the ball.  13 wins out of 13 matches including back-to-back 2-0 wins over Genk and Club Brugge.

We are running away with the league sitting 13 points clear of 2nd place Anderlecht.

We are close to the league lead in five categories while performing above average in two others.  The only place where we are "below average" is pass completion percentage.

Going Inside the Numbers

Here are the two tactics that we have been using all season.  The All Gas No Brakes 433 is a variation of the All Gas No Brakes 424 that I used in the lower divisions with Rupel Boom.  I use this formation on the road with the defensive midfielder staying back and supporting the two center backs as the fullbacks push up.  High Octane is a 4231 that I use at home to just swamp the opposition with players in their half of the field and not allowing them to get a clean breakout.  There's also some individual instructions in there as well to capitalize on player strengths.

The thing that stood out to me was how potent we are in attack.  I've never had a team that averaged more than two goals per game while allowing so few goals in defense.  I want to take a closer look at the front three and how they work together.

Bayo and Minchev are the two wing forwards in both formations.  What stands out to me is their defensive stats.  They win a large majority of their tackles.  They pick off passes as the opposition tries to break out of the back.  They complete a good number of their passes.  Bayo is much strong in the air compared to Minchev but Minchev is the better interceptor of passes.

Arezo is the center forward.  His defensive stats are not as impressive as the two wing forwards.  He is the beneficiary of the hard work from the wing forwards.  He scores almost a goal per game and outperforming his xG/90 numbers.

In 13 matches, we have gotten 18 goals and eight assists from these three players.  Can't be disappointed with those numbers.  They could be leading our team to glory.

 

 

 

Edited November 11, 2021 by keeper#1

[keeper#1]

2 hours ago, DefinitelyTaylor said:

A nice little turn of events. Congratulations on the new job and a very big job at that. A shame that Okumu has left albeit for big bucks - he was a revelation for me during a save on FM21. Nevertheless, an excellent start!

I was disappointed to see him go.  The accountants weren't disappointed though.  I've used two players to replace him: the more experienced Andreas Hanche-Olsen and the hot prospects, Mike "Rudolph" Reijnders

Edited November 11, 2021 by keeper#1

[keeper#1]

2023-24 Midseason Update

All good runs have to come to an end at some point.

Genk put an end to unbeaten run as they knocked us out of the Croky Cup 3-2.  I was not pleased with the scheduling of the match just two days after our league match with Anderlecht and we have a three-week winter break until the league season resumes in late January.  It couldn't be scheduled in the week before the our first league match after the break?!?!?!

We are just running away with the league title.  We have a twenty-point lead over second place Club Brugge and a 24-point lead over 5th place Cercle Brugge since we will likely have to go through the motions of a Championship Group to determine the overall league winner.  Though, I think with this type of commanding lead that they should scrap the Championship Group and name us title winners.

Our strike trio of Bayo-Arezo-Minchev have now totaled 31 goals and 13 assists in all competitions in the first half of the season.  

We are now average or above average in every General Performance category.

And we have what appears to be a great group of kids coming through the academy this spring.  

[keeper#1]

March 1, 2024 Update

It was another strong two months for Gent as well allowed only two goals in eight league matches while scoring 19.

Just running away with the league as we expanded our lead to 28 points.

Our strike trio of Bayo-Arezno-Minchev have scored 46 goals and added another 16 assists.

Already clinched a spot in the Championship Group.  Can we clinch the title before the Championship Group even starts?

A busy window for some.  A quiet window for us.

[keeper#1]

End of Regular Season Update

Our worst stretch of game this season.  Antwerp ended our dreams of an unbeaten season.  Sint-Truidense ended our dreams of clinching the league title before the Championship Group started.

We finished with a 27-point lead over Club Brugge.  Antwerp finished in 3rd place and Antwerp nudged ahead of Anderlecht for the 4th and last Championship Group spot.

We enter the Championship Group with a 14-point lead and only 18 points are available.  We should have the title wrapped up after one maybe two matches.

The strike trio finished the regular season with 55 goals and 18 assists.

Our Swiss Army Knife defender Mike Reijnders entered the NxGN50 list at #4.  I was very surprised that he was in the ranking at all let alone at #4.  Not a lot of players from big name clubs on this season.  Only #1 Gavi (Barcelona) and #5 I. Azizi (Dortmund) are at clubs that I consider big (in that they aren't likely to be scooped up by a bigger club).

2024 Youth Intake