The FM23 Youth Academy Challenge

[SkiIIs]

Season 4 - 2027 - Expansion League

Opening Stage - we managed to finish atop on goal difference on the last day, giving us a great opportunity to get through the 2 leg qualifications. In the Quarters we were given a favourable draw against Tapatio and we rightfully knocked them out 3 - 1 on aggregate after a 2 - 0 away win first up. Next up was Raya2 in the semis. First up away again and we conceded early in the 8th minute but quickly replied in the 16th minute.  Wasnt much action until the 63rd minute where they went ahead again.  I made some substitutions with a view of the return leg in three days time and then copped a 88th minute goal which really hurt! At home we started off well scoring in the 4th but then couldnt get that elusive second goal and in going all guns blazing copped the knockout blow in the 91st minute.   Im really not good at this knockout stuff!!!!

Spoiler

 

Closing Stage - we were more inconsistent in the closing stage which again is becoming a common them but some really big away wins (you get 4 points instead of 3) got us up the table. In the QF we got our historic rivals in Correcaminos which was a favourable tie.  Away we held them to a 0 - 0 draw before beating them sweetly 2 -1 at home. Next up was Venados in again what seemed like a favourable tie. Away first up we smashed them 3 - 0 in a clinical performance and rested the team for the home leg for a 3 - 3 draw. The final was only my second time in the 4th season, meaning 8 stage attempts. Again a favourable tie against UdeG who finished 9th. First up away we started off brilliantly and had the opener disallowed for offside. Unfortunately we couldnt score and it was UdeG who opened the scoring in the 51st minute.  We managed to reply 15 minutes later but then stupidly copped a goal late on to lose 2 - 1. At home we started off hot gain but somehow found ourselves down 1 - 0 in the 13th minute. That only lasted 3 minutes as we managed to equalise quickly. Unfortunately we couldnt get another goal and in going for it we copped a penalty and a red card in separate incidents and lost 2 - 1 and are stuck in this division once again.

Spoiler

 

Finances are about right now with the previous upgrades so didnt request anything until the sponsorship money landed, the Board were kind enough to upgrade youth recruitment.  For some reason they arent allow me to improve our junior coaching which is stuck at Adequate 

The intake was probably the best to date, definitely seeing the benefit of our HOYD personality flow through in this intake. Even got a Kiwi in the intake which is rare for this part of the world!

Cabanas goes straight into the first Xi next season as we couldnt register him for this year. Resilient, tall, brave, determined tackling defender, hes gonna be a star!  Scored and assist in the friendly against my u20's

This really pissed me off as it came just before the closing stage finals.  No shock that we lost then drew the next two games after this.  Stupid thing is that we haven't even finished the closing stage for them to judge us on.  We were also second at the time 

Other things to note, we got our first u20 Mexican call up for 17yo Sol from our intake 2 years ago who has developed wonderfully so far. We also had our first player poached as well.  

 

[Winski]

Viktoria Zizkov
Season 1 / 2023/2024
Mid-season review

We are now halfway our first season with Viktoria Zizkov and things are going quite well. I struggled a bit in the beginning, finding the right tactic/formation. But after some matches I found out that this formation suited the best with our current squad.
We are creating a lot of chances, scoring lots of goals (39 so far, most of this league) but also conceding quite a lot: 22, which is too much. So I'm still tweaking the tactic.
After 16 matches we are 2nd in the league, just behind Opava. Our match against Opava is the only match we lost (0-1 at home).
In the Cup we are in the Qtr Final. In the Third Round we won against Top Division side Slovan Liberec with 3-0. And in the Fourth Round we won against Dukla Praha, again with 3-0. So now we face Viktoria Plzen, the current nr. 1 in the top division.

Our Youth Intake Preview was good, not spectaculair. Let's see what our HoYD Patrik Nys will bring to the club.

[Braumiller]

Notes

Another season of struggle that the final league position masks!  Technically a top half finish, but we were still fighting for survival from the relegation playoff until the final whistle of the final game!  That said, for the first time in seasons I am starting to find a little confidence in our future after the way we finished the season.  Our dramatic annual nosedive started much earlier than usual this year and I thought we were doomed.  I was struggling to find a formation and I was stubbornly sticking to anything that used a Shadow Striker as last years intake star Daniel Onnervik (07-Elite) had established himself as the main man ahead of expectations and that is his best role.  During a suspension of his I switched to a wide 433DM and it clicked.  This gave me issues when he came back, as he can currently only play in AMC and FC.  I started training him at AML, but stuck him up front at the expense of others and it worked well enough.  We actually finished the league 5th in the form table and if it had not been for that uptick in results we would have been comfortably in the relegation playoff spot.

Youth intake was very interesting.  Not much to write home about in general, except Oliver Andersson (08-Elite) has a Model Citizen personality!  He is also an interesting prospect in our right winger spot for the future.  I had wanted to give him some minutes off the bench in our last two games, but couldn't risk it.  Will start putting him in the mix next season and hope to get him established in the senior squad ASAP.

Finances have slid from worrying to uh-oh again.  Wage budget has been slashed to just above our current spend and I can only offer 1 year deals.  Something to keep an eye on and I fear will be a hot topic in upcoming updates.   

Screenshots

 

[shaunvamos]

 

 

 

2028 Youth Intake

 

 

 

Jesper Hansen 5E  -  Andreas Bak 5H  -  Tomi Kuitunen 5B*

 

 

What an intake  I guess back to back promotions and a sneaky coaching upgrade works wonders! In the grand scheme of things they aren't great, but we have some immediate contributors at a time where we're desperate for it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Ray46]

A Model Citizen with 13 leadership and 5 star potential. That'like winning the lottery in our style of playing. Congrats. Looking forward to seeing him develop @Braumiller.

Edited November 17, 2022 by Ray46

[thomas_e]

14 hours ago, Neo_Geo said:

Reached that point in the save my players are being targeted.

Why is it the clubs making offers don’t want to postpone the transfer but then come back with a loan back offer. Don’t they know the rules of the save? 

So I sold Roos to PSG after Inter met the minimum fee release clause of £6.25m, I negotiated for £5.5m, 500k after 1 international appearance and 40% of profit from next sale.

He will be missed that’s for sure, here’s the last look at him as a Chiasso player:

 

Always annoying to miss a player on a minimum release clause. In the future, to try avoiding it, you can set a price tag for the player that is just below the release clause. The AI will usually not make any bids above your asking price. They do sometimes, but it isually works. 

 

[JAwtunes]

I think our defence let us down

[Barnsley]

what sort of stats should we be looking at for what will make youth players good to keep etc? I have never really done a youth challenge before, so not sure on development properly. Here are my personalities and determination stat in the squad. The best player is Anthony Connor, low determination personality and 5 as a stat. but he was born to score goals.

[Barnsley]

2 minutes ago, JAwtunes said:

I think our defence let us down

Same as my lads every game. just checked my stats. 411 goals conceded in 230 games over the 5 full seasons. and 25 in 12 so far this season  bring it on!

[DazRTaylor]

Damn it, I am torn.  I am playing the San Marino challenge which is great fun and the Global challenge.  I have just noticed the phenomenal database by Mozza, the Scottish database down to tier ten, is now out...I have also found kits for all divisions.

Grrrrr.

[JAwtunes]

@Barnsley personalities (and media-handling) are really important but I always give a player a shot if they have high potential.  My top striker started at Casual and still managed to develop a bit, but far less than the players from his intake that had good personalities.

As for what to look for, I would say a positive personality, then media-handling (Unflappable seems to be a good one, for example) then Determination.  Determination can be boosted a bit by fining for poor performances.

I would always sign youth with good personality etc. as this will improve the squad personality, which filters through the whole squad.  Its mostly impacted by team leaders, so captains and regulars.  I only pick captains and vice captains with good personality etc.

 

[JAwtunes]

7 minutes ago, DazRTaylor said:

Damn it, I am torn.  I am playing the San Marino challenge which is great fun and the Global challenge.  I have just noticed the phenomenal database by Mozza, the Scottish database down to tier ten, is now out...I have also found kits for all divisions.

Grrrrr.

I was considering Scotland recently after watching the BBC documentary on Fort William FC

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001bgt9

[WhiteCat33]

8 minutes ago, DazRTaylor said:

Damn it, I am torn.  I am playing the San Marino challenge which is great fun and the Global challenge.  I have just noticed the phenomenal database by Mozza, the Scottish database down to tier ten, is now out...I have also found kits for all divisions.

Grrrrr.

Does this database get around all the bugs with the Scottish U18 teams in the vanilla database people have been reporting? I haven't played Scotland in a few years so I wouldn't know.

[Barnsley]

Have encountered a minor problem. My best Centre back won't sign a new contract because he wants the squad to be significantly strengthened. We have a major problemo with that  as he is going to have to be let go on a free!

[Neo_Geo]

45 minutes ago, DazRTaylor said:

Damn it, I am torn.  I am playing the San Marino challenge which is great fun and the Global challenge.  I have just noticed the phenomenal database by Mozza, the Scottish database down to tier ten, is now out...I have also found kits for all divisions.

Grrrrr.

Too many save types too little time 

I miss playing champ man in my teens where I didn’t have a full time job and responsibilities 

[DazRTaylor]

43 minutes ago, WhiteCat33 said:

Does this database get around all the bugs with the Scottish U18 teams in the vanilla database people have been reporting? I haven't played Scotland in a few years so I wouldn't know.

I can move players into the youth side and I can also recruit staff for the youth side.

[JAwtunes]

18 minutes ago, Neo_Geo said:

I miss playing champ man in my teens where I didn’t have a full time job and responsibilities

[Neo_Geo]

1 hour ago, thomas_e said:

 

Always annoying to miss a player on a minimum release clause. In the future, to try avoiding it, you can set a price tag for the player that is just below the release clause. The AI will usually not make any bids above your asking price. They do sometimes, but it isually works. 

 

I had negotiated with PSG and Juventus to the point where they would not speak anymore, so I negotiated rather than suggested. Inter then came in for him meeting the minimum fee so when PSG came back I wanted to try and get a percentage built in the the deal so if he has really high potential then I’d not feel like I was shortchanged.

Time will tell, in my Katwijk save most players that left to the big guns didn’t get played that often and only Sezer, my Turkish centre back wonderkid, got an additional move from Bayern to Juve (he left for minimum fee so that’s why I’m now scarred by it )

[DazRTaylor]

Mozza's database is here and it fixes the Under 18 bug in Scotland.  The database can be found here.  So, tier ten here we come.  St. Peters finished bottom of the tenth tier so they are my new club.

Club Introduction

St. Peters

The Manager

This is me.

Personal Contract

Season     Contract Start Date     Contract Expiry Date     Pre Tax Wage     Post Tax Wage
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
At start          25 June 2023              31 May 2024         £150 p/w          £150 p/w

Personal Coaching Data

Season     Reputation            Qualifications     Att   Def   Fit   GkD   GkH   GkS   Tac   Tec   Men   WWY   Ada   Det   PlK   YoK   LoD   MaM   Mot
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
At start   Minimal   (0.25*)     None                 1     1     1     1     1     1     1     1     1     4     1     1     1     4     1     1     1

Club Facilities

Season     Training Facilities  Youth Facilities  Corporate Facilities  Junior Coaching  Youth Recruitment  Club Reputation
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
At Start   Poor                 Poor              Adequate              Basic            Limited            Obscure   (0.50*)

Season Record

Season     Played     Won     Drawn     Lost     Goals For     Goals Against     Goal Difference     Win Percentage
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Overall Career Record

After Season   Played     Won     Drawn     Lost     Goals For     Goals Against     Goal Difference     Win Percentage     Time At Club
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Transfer Sale Record

Date               Player                    Position               Club Sold To                 Country                   Transfer Fee
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Trophy Haul

Season     Competition Won
--------------------------

Trophy Cabinet

League Titles
-------------



Cup Competition Victories
-------------------------

Career Overview

Season     Champions League    Europa League    Europa Conference League             League                             Position     Scottish Cup          Premier Sports Cup        Achievements
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Record Number of Appearances (Players From The Academy Only)

Season     Player                    Cumulative Number of Appearances
---------------------------------------------------------------------

Record Goal Scorer (Players From The Academy Only)

Season     Player                          Cumulative Number of Goals
---------------------------------------------------------------------

Record Number of Assists (Players From The Academy Only)

Season     Player                        Cumulative Number of Assists
---------------------------------------------------------------------

Record Number of Clean Sheets (Players From The Academy Only)

Season     Player                    Cumulative Number of Clean Sheets
----------------------------------------------------------------------

 

 

 

 

 

Edited November 17, 2022 by DazRTaylor

[Neo_Geo]

damn it @DazRTaylor you’re going to make me start up a secondary youth challenge save 

I don’t have the time for two(!)

[OlivierL]

19 minutes ago, DazRTaylor said:

Mozza's database is here and it fixes the Under 18 bug in Scotland.  The database can be found here.  So, tier ten here we come.  St. Peters finished bottom of the tenth tier so they are my new club.

Club Introduction

St. Peters

The Manager

This is me.

Personal Contract

Season     Contract Start Date     Contract Expiry Date     Pre Tax Wage     Post Tax Wage
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
At start          25 June 2023              31 May 2024         £150 p/w          £150 p/w

Personal Coaching Data

Season     Reputation            Qualifications     Att   Def   Fit   GkD   GkH   GkS   Tac   Tec   Men   WWY   Ada   Det   PlK   YoK   LoD   MaM   Mot
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
At start   Minimal   (0.25*)     None                 1     1     1     1     1     1     1     1     1     4     1     1     1     4     1     1     1

Club Facilities

Season     Training Facilities  Youth Facilities  Corporate Facilities  Junior Coaching  Youth Recruitment  Club Reputation
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
At Start   Poor                 Poor              Adequate              Basic            Limited            Obscure   (0.50*)

Season Record

Season     Played     Won     Drawn     Lost     Goals For     Goals Against     Goal Difference     Win Percentage
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Overall Career Record

After Season   Played     Won     Drawn     Lost     Goals For     Goals Against     Goal Difference     Win Percentage     Time At Club
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Transfer Sale Record

Date               Player                    Position               Club Sold To                 Country                   Transfer Fee
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Trophy Haul

Season     Competition Won
--------------------------

Trophy Cabinet

League Titles
-------------



Cup Competition Victories
-------------------------

Career Overview

Season     Champions League    Europa League    Europa Conference League             League                             Position     Scottish Cup          Premier Sports Cup        Achievements
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Record Number of Appearances (Players From The Academy Only)

Season     Player                    Cumulative Number of Appearances
---------------------------------------------------------------------

Record Goal Scorer (Players From The Academy Only)

Season     Player                          Cumulative Number of Goals
---------------------------------------------------------------------

Record Number of Assists (Players From The Academy Only)

Season     Player                        Cumulative Number of Assists
---------------------------------------------------------------------

Record Number of Clean Sheets (Players From The Academy Only)

Season     Player                    Cumulative Number of Clean Sheets
----------------------------------------------------------------------

 

 

 

 

 

Good luck ! I found a solution (delete U20/reserve team and appoint a u18 staff member with a contract valid untill you take the job.

But i'm not sure if im going for Scotland.

[Braumiller]

31 minutes ago, DazRTaylor said:

Mozza's database is here and it fixes the Under 18 bug in Scotland.  The database can be found here.  So, tier ten here we come.  St. Peters finished bottom of the tenth tier so they are my new club.

That's my next port of call sorted should things go pear-shaped in Sweden  

[Koetzer]

FK Viktoria Žižkov – season 2024/25

I knew this season would be a struggle, but the start was just ridiculous. We weren’t hopeless and sometimes had better stats and xG than our opponents, but got our first points only in tenth game, defeating Brno with a last minute strike from Voltr! After this we started scoring points more often and eventually left the bottom place at the end of first stage, but bad finishing and awful goalkeeping (both our goalies were worst in the league in goals conceded above xG) didn’t let us feel fully safe.

Mlada had an impressive winning run in this group, overtaking both us and Bohemians before the final matchday. Three relegation contenders played against three top teams and none could get any points, which meant a playoff spot for us.

 

Staying up! Petráň surely knows how to destroy the second tier teams Not sure if next season is going to be better though, our aging core isn't getting stronger and youngers aren't fully ready to replace them.

Cups

The only cup game fell into this awful start as well.

Squad stats

Michal Petráň – had a slow start (like all our team actually) but found his goalscoring form in spring. Took half of his last season’s goals to a higher level, that’s a good result for sure.

Augusto Batioja – another player who had an average rating over 7, age doesn’t affect him so far.

Radek Voltr – same as last season, became our second goalscorer from the left wing.

Milan Jirásek – still indispensable in midfield.

P.Ellison *23b – not so impressive season, but he is now assessed as our key player and gets U21 caps for Scotland.

Jiří Ciupa – despite struggling at start our goalkeeper had a decent end of the season, hopefully will take this form further.

 

Transfers – nothing happened at all. 

Youth intake (preview)

D.Macek *25a | Dvořák *25b | Hofmann *25c | P.Macek *25d | Šťovíček *25e

Spoiler

The new HOYD Mazinho Patrao brought us another top prospect in midfield. Other high rated players have worse personalities, though better than nothing, and we are still searching for a good goalkeeper.

We had first facilities downgrade (though immediately agreed to repair it) and two more upgrades.

 

@Winski keeping Kadlec is a really good start, hope he will guide you to promotion  

[Makoto Nakamura]

@DazRTaylorMinorly off topic but how did Threave Rovers do in season one? They decided to drop out of the 6th tier South of Scotland League to be more competitive in tier 10 West of Scotland Division Four this season.

[DazRTaylor]

37 minutes ago, Makoto Nakamura said:

@DazRTaylorMinorly off topic but how did Threave Rovers do in season one? They decided to drop out of the 6th tier South of Scotland League to be more competitive in tier 10 West of Scotland Division Four this season.

They won the league and went up to the ninth tier.

[jepze]

    

Jepze - FC Claravallis Clervaux - Season 2027/28

Squad | Transfers | Finances | Supporters

We're slowly climbing the ranks in the lower leagues of Luxembourg, but as last time, we're just being able to stay in the new division, after we got a promotion. This time, we're played very good, and got a 6th place, but the jump for promotion and the promotion playoff is still far away this season. Underway in this season, i looked at the predictions, and at one stages, we were not the last team you woulf predict to get promoted. A huge step, but the squad isn't the best. We got some good players, but our best players are reported to be in the bottom of Division 1. Still a lot to progress for the players, but i'll see some progression each month on some of the players. Otherwise, this was the first season, where we got to the second round in the cup. Hopefully we can do it again next season to get some prize money, because our finances are so bad, and we just got around 50K euros in other in the outcome, and i don't know for what.

Competitions

League

Spoiler

Coupe de Luxembourg

Spoiler

Youth academy

Youth preview

Spoiler

Youth intake

Spoiler

Best prospects:

Spoiler

Nearly no one.

Infrastructur

Spoiler

Nothing

Best XI

Spoiler

Best ever XI

Trophy cabinet

None

[WhiteCat33]

A.S. Luxembourgo Porto

Season 3 2024-25: Luxembourg Division 1 - Serie 2 (Tier 3)

Intro & Club | Season 1 | Season 2 |

Matches | Squad | Transfers |Facilities | Finances | Supporters

Competitions:

Cup

First round defeat.

Spoiler

League

Due to bad management, I broke squad cohesion resulting in a morale battle that was hard to win. That plus inconsistent strikers & a handful of players needing to be released due to playing time concerns sent us into an actual relegation scrap. Luckily, we only had 1 hard game remaining (which we lost) but then finally our forwards found form and recorded dominant wins over the final sides to bring us from a possible relegation at 13th up to our final position of 8th

Spoiler

Youth Academy:

Youth Intake Preview

Spoiler

Youth Intake

Interesting how many are just Portuguese and don’t have the Lux dual and when I look into the players, they don’t have any days in Luxembourg. Guess that means they are being found just at intake instead of hanging out in our youth academy.

Spoiler

Best Prospects

Spoiler

Pretty good top group here: Either footed FB is well timed as we are having real issues with our current substitute FB

Our new GK hasn’t played that well so could easily lose his spot to this guy, but I may let him just do the U21 for a year as my current GK is actually developing.

Same can be said for our left wing so these two will become the rotation next season (once I can register them) as well as potentially as strikers as I'm not happy with 2 of our 3 options there.

Best XI

Spoiler

Youth Products Highlights

Spoiler

 

Club Infrastructure

None

Coaching Badges

None

Thoughts

We certainly found our first challenge, but more because my offense just broke down this season when i tried to integrate way too many new players and as 16 year olds they were wildly inconsistent. With the players we've been given we will be moving to a 4-5-1 DM formation as we just don't have sufficient strikers and have too many DMs. Defensively we did look better this year with 3 new Defenders and a new GK. Good to take a breather at this level and hopefully can keep getting these reasonably good intakes to stabilize the team.

Also, first time I've seen this but my Supporter's Influence on the board actually went down from High to Moderate. Don't think I've seen that change in any of my other saves.

 

Edited November 17, 2022 by WhiteCat33

[WhiteCat33]

So out of curiosity for how the Belgium finances would play out I've loaded the top-flight from the start of my save. 3 years ago in 2023 KV Kortrijk got a Tycoon Takeover. Looking at the spikes he invested maybe 120-130M into the club. With them actually making +5M in transfers they have burned through half of that money already with a staggering -1.4M monthly cashflow. I'll be checking in every few years to see what happens.

Most of the clubs are somewhere between +1M and -5M however Standard, KV Oostende, & OHL are all at -10M with Charleroi not far behind at -9M.

Surprisingly KAA Gent is the most financially stable of the clubs registering 2 2nd place finishes and will get 3rd this year.

Spoiler

Club Bruge for example has fallen to break-even after missing European Football this season

Spoiler

And the most broke is SV Zulte Waregem at -15.8M and they sold off their youth facilities

Spoiler

 

[Barnsley]

I am really struggling to find any kind of consistency. Work so hard to get a win, throw away so many leads when flying in the game, amount of games i am leading at HT and get hammered and concede an obscene amount of goals. I finally feel my team is a top half team now, but genuinely cannot get away from the bottom and relegation zone. I Just can't win a few games on the spin to move anywhere. Very frustrating!

[v1n1akabozo]

One thing I noticed is that no matter what are the instructions I give both to the team and individually, my center-backs will keep forcing a pass to my lone center striker. I'm not using him as Target Man, set up a 'Play of the defence' approach, and a shorter passing and they keep doing it and losing possession. I'm getting mad hahaha

[Barnsley]

yep! similar, i have my defensive line so far back but most goals are just long balls and my defenders step out and they are in one on one every time. (i have them set to low line, drop off more, but they still do what they want) frustrating! I am sure it will click, i am sure!

[Makoto Nakamura]

We afforded upgrades!  

[Daddy]

2025/26 Midseason Review:

We're doing good, but should be doing better. Leaving a lot of points on the table. While I'm happy with where we are it's still frustrating to not be cashing in all the chances we're getting. Hopefully the goals start coming in and maybe get a shot at promotion. 

Intake Preview:

Another really strong looking preview. Bonus that the bottom two positions are ones we don't play with.

[Braumiller]

1 hour ago, v1n1akabozo said:

One thing I noticed is that no matter what are the instructions I give both to the team and individually, my center-backs will keep forcing a pass to my lone center striker. I'm not using him as Target Man, set up a 'Play of the defence' approach, and a shorter passing and they keep doing it and losing possession. I'm getting mad hahaha

Yep, same.  Shorter passing, play out of defence and still it is often hoofed up to a lone striker.  And often their attacks start when this invariably means they pick up the loose ball

[MadCatPT]

3 minutes ago, Braumiller said:

Yep, same.  Shorter passing, play out of defence and still it is often hoofed up to a lone striker.  And often their attacks start when this invariably means they pick up the loose ball

Same here.

[Makoto Nakamura]

2044/45 Youth Candidates

These intakes are beginning to get good!  

[Cultured Left Foot]

The Journey with Guiseley can be found in video form here : youtube.com/c/culturedleftfoot

My save will likely progress slower than most on here due to stopping for video recordings. But it means there will be some more detailed updates to keep you all in the loop too!   Apologies for the big update - there are plenty of images!

 

As we get to the midway point of the season. Its been a rollercoaster of a start for manager Dave Nicholls.  An opening fixture against fellow promoted team Hitchin ended with a 7-0 victory and propelled us to the top of the league.  We started the season with 1 loss in our first 6 games and flirted in the promotion and playoff places.  But the latter part of the first half of the season bought us back down to Earth with 0 league wins in 8 games. 

 

The board were impressed with our start to the season, and a run in the FA Trophy, beating Solihull Moors on the way, meant they agreed to fund a coaching course for me.

 

We have a lot to thank our two strikers for with Cassidy and Haw being amongst the goals consistently and bailing us out of trouble in numerous games!  Adam Haw (profile below) has scored 12 goals in 13 league games.  Jake Cassidy has also hit his bonus payout for his 15 league goals so far.

 

The unlikely hero of the first half of the season is central midfielder Chippendale. Who we have trained to also play in holding midfield to give us more options across DM/CM/AMC.

 

Kyle Trennery earnt his new contract for his good performances as well as being the only actual GK at the club! He was joined by Jake Cassidy and Adam Haw, who also agreed new deals to stay with the club until the 2025 season. 

And whilst talking about new contracts, the board were happy to extend my contract too!

 

Chesterfield have tried to unsettle our star centre-back (Jorge Sikora) with a transfer bid, but I'd rather lose him on a free at the end of the season than lose him at the midpoint. He's been a rock at the back for us this season and easily our most gifted player but unfortunately he knows he is better than the level of football we are currently playing and therefore will not renew his contract. 

And, finally, we had our preview for the upcoming youth intake. It looks amazing, but I can only put that down to the fact that we have an underwhelming squad at the moment!

 

And that brings an end to the mid-season update for season one!
 

Hopefully this update isn't too long or too detail. Not sure on the rules of posts. But this challenge has gripped me and I'm loving it. Can't wait for the youth intake to actually arrive!

Cheers,

CLF / Dave

Edited November 18, 2022 by Cultured Left Foot
Spelling / Formatting

[abirdc]

On 15/11/2022 at 08:52, glennuk said:

So even though the bugs are there in Indonesia League Two, I think they may be more visual and annoying than game breaking.

Basically:

Contracts: Manager (myself) and player contracts seem to end on Dec 31st even though that is in the middle (2/3rds) of the way through the season. However my contract as manager ran out (the board would not offer another one), but I was not fired. I eventually asked and got a new contract in March, making me think although the contracts say Dec 31st is the expiry, in game the AI is seeing it as 31st June. Going to test more with player contracts to see how that seems, but I have just been renewing contracts early (as in renewing in March 2024 for those who expire in Dec 2024), at this stage (end of season 1) I don't want to let anyone go.
 

Squad Registration: 

Summer Transfer Window is: 1st July - 25th August

Summer registration period seems to be: 17th February - 1st June

Winter Registration period seems to be: 15th October - 24th October

This seems to not make sense. You can sign players on the 1st July, but not register them until 15th October. My youth intake was 1st July, but they could not play for around the first 10 games of the season as they couldn't be registered.

 

However despite these issues (and doing well with Unterhaching), I may make Indonesia my main youth save.

 

Anyway, anyone else planning to start in Indonesia beware of the above.

I started my youth save in Indonesia, with Badak Lampung F.C. However I only started noticing the bugs when I tried to renew my existing players' contracts. 

 

The players I signed from youth intake could not be register till the 10th game of the season, which was annoying. The registration rules do not make sense at all. And now I see people reporting the most alarming thing, the contract renewal issue of the manager. 

 

I feel I have to stop this save for now. These annoying things will not allow me to fully enjoy this long term save.

 

Is there any chance SI will fix this bug before the January Transfer Update? 

[Redknapp_13]

Hapoel Ra'anana Season Review

Season 24/25 

Table - Squad - U19 Squad - Transfers - Finances

Relegation

Yeah well, turns out the Liga Tel Aviv came to early. We never had a chance of staying up as we had by far the weakest squad and went on a glorious 18 match winless run.

In the relegation stage of the competition we were able to get some points but it was too little too late. We were able to give two players from last years intake some games and they progress ok. Especially David (34B) seems to make good progress but also Elksaslasy (24A) comes along. In the lower league I will start playing the young guys even more and slowly make the transition to only intake players when they start becoming 18. We still rely on some of the old one like Roy Levy .

Intake 25

Not a bad preview but also not as good as last years

Liel Barrett (24A) the best of them

And also exited about Gennish, due to his high determination

The rest doesnt have the best personalities but seem to have some potential.

[Winski]

FK Viktoria Žižkov

Season review
Season 1 | 2023/2024

 

What a season it was! We won the league title, with 8 points ahead of nr 2 Slezský FC Opava. We only lost 2 games, both against Opava. In the MOL Cup we also did a good job, by reaching the Qtr Final. We lost against Viktoria Plzen, who also won the Cup.

Best players this season were Václav Kadlec, Michal Petráň, Radek Voltr, Josef Bazal and Václav Prošek. I also gave youngster Lukáš Mach a lot of playing time, and he is developing nicely. Our squad is quite old, so I really hope that I can still count on them next season.

 

Youth intake
As posted before, this was the intake preview:

And this the actual intake:


 

Spoiler

I'm really happy with a talented goalkeeper! I only have 1 GK, and he's also refusing to sign a new contract. So it could be that this youngster will be my new GK next season.
I also managed to upgrade the Junior Coaching budget twice, so we now have Good Junior Coaching. Our Training Facilities also get an upgrade and will be ready somewhere in the next month or so.

Next season will be all about surviving. I really hope that my aging squad can do enough to keep us save. I'll give our most talented youngsters a lot of game time, just to make them ready if some older players are declining.

[jepze]

    

Jepze - FC Claravallis Clervaux - Season 2028/29

Squad | Transfers | Finances | Supporters

I'll talk about the finances in the start. They are rubbish, and we got rumours about our chairman stepping back 3 times this season, but every time, there will go a week, before he shut down a potential sell of the club. Hopefully we can get some money soon, get some upgrades, so we can get better talents to the club. Some new players is coming up to the first team every season, but it's almost the same players, who had played in the last 3-4 seasons with 1-2 additions to rotation every season, but we climbed in the rankings in the league, and this time, we secured the playoff spot on the last day. We only needed one point in the last game. It was against Syra Mensdorf who was on the 7th place. They got a goal in the 17th minute, but after the kickoff, our new striker Helder Subtil made it 1-1. After the half time Helder Subtil got one more, to set us for a win, but in the 68th minute, they scored again, but nothing else happens, so we got to the playoffs.

Competitions

In the playoff, we played against FC Alisontia Steinsel from the other Division 1. After just 4 minutes, they got a red card, and then we scored 3 goals to set us 3-0 ahead, but a long ball got the a goal, before Helder Subtil scored one more, and I feeled safe, and we will promote to the next division. But FC Alisontia Steinsel got all out attack in the last 10 minutes, got 2 goals and got chances for more goals. The stats was in our favour, but they got a lot of big chances without ending up in a shot, so i was scared for them getting another goal. But let the champagne pop, we're going to the Promotion d'Honneur!

 Coupe de Luxembourg

Spoiler

Youth academy

Youth preview

Spoiler

Youth intake

Spoiler

Best prospects:

Spoiler

Nearly no one.

Infrastructur

Spoiler

Nothing

Best XI

Spoiler

Best ever XI

Trophy cabinet

None

[the_hdk]

Kaf Sin Kaf

Season 34/35 (12) - Süper Lig

Players / Transfers

Amazing season. We did a bit less good in the league but still 9 points ahead of Fener and we ware on top since November. Sadly no treble as we lost the cup finale to Besiktas. We did miss all the international players who ware selected for Turkiye so that really hurt us. In CL we lost to Bayern this year.

OZDURAN I had to sell as I just could not extend his contract. He was replaced by GULERYUZ. BAS and YILDIZ extended their contracts. We are paying them millions now butI keep rejecting 50mln plus offers for them. Thankfully around may they ware happy to extend for 4 years!.

VINICIUS with 3rd Ballon d'Or. Impressive. He's already 33 so we will be some regens there soon. CL Finale was again between two dutch managers. VAN NISTELROOY's Man City beat their rivals Man Utd run by SCHREUDER for their 2nd in a row CL win.

 

I finally managed to bad by pr licenace afetr 12 seaosns!

Amazing intake again after last years only 1 elite.

KAPLAN is the best of teh bunch. We really needed defenders so quite happy with him. Decent determination and work rate. Amazing tackling already. Brave. Just a bit slow.

Edited November 18, 2022 by the_hdk

[jepze]

Hmmm, i don't understand this, but i won the promotion final last season, but the team i beat got the the division above. I'm a bit disappointed, but i'll work with what i got and try to get promoted again.

 

And because of the bad finances, the club got amatuer again :P

 

[thomas_e]

Energie Cottbus

Season Summary 2026 - 2027

A great Bundesliga survival and very promosing youngsters! 

 

Our first season in the Bundesliga and it was always going to be a fight to survive. Several of the players in the starting eleven were with the team from the start of the save and even though they have developed really well we are extremely weak in several positions. Out of 18 teams we finished in a very impressive 14th place. We struggled massively in many games, but we actually won the season opener and never at one point throughout the season did we sit in a relegation spot. 

After winning the first game our victories came very rarely, but we did manage to win three games in a row before christmas and that run of games (including two draws after this) were really important! We also had quite a few easy games at the end of the season so with 7-8 games left I was quite comfortable in our chances. Not that we ended up winning most of those games anyway, but we got some points here and there. Hamburger SV and 1860 Munchen had shocking seasons, 1860 only won two games all year, so it was good for us that two teams fell so far behind early on. 

I really hope that will be the case next year as well, as we are certainly not in any position to be climbing on the table. Next season will be really tough and avoiding relegation is all that matters! I have probably played closer to 100 seasons on this challenge. This was definitely one of the toughest yet and I'm proud of keeping this team up. 

Mid-March I promoted two defenders from the U19 side and put them straight into the first team. Throwing out a couple of old bad players, and trusting the next generation of quality players!! I have a great U19 side at the moment, as strong as I can remember having at this challenge, and I need to integrate more and more of those players as soon as possible. 

We had another great intake and Noah Dittloff (GK) looks like a potential superstar. He already has a minimum release clause in his first contract, so that is a big worry, this is a player that the big guns will be chasing! 

In classic Football Manager-logic we are now moving out of our 22 000 seat stadium that is always sold out to a new 17 000 seat stadium. Great work SI! 

Goal for next season: Survive and keep bringing in youth players to the starting eleven. 

 

Season Summary

      

 

Key Players

      

 

Youth Intake

      

 

[Winski]

Wow @thomas_e, those two youngsters from the last intake are amazing!!

[thomas_e]

2 minutes ago, Winski said:

Wow @thomas_e, those two youngsters from the last intake are amazing!!

Yes, they are absolutely brilliant. The intake preview was great, but you never know what you're going to get, so I was absolutely ecstatic when I was the intake in March. 

We also got several other promising players. Not great stats, but great personalities! Really gives me great hope for the future! 

[OlivierL]

1 hour ago, thomas_e said:

Energie Cottbus

Season Summary 2026 - 2027

A great Bundesliga survival and very promosing youngsters! 

 

Our first season in the Bundesliga and it was always going to be a fight to survive. Several of the players in the starting eleven were with the team from the start of the save and even though they have developed really well we are extremely weak in several positions. Out of 18 teams we finished in a very impressive 14th place. We struggled massively in many games, but we actually won the season opener and never at one point throughout the season did we sit in a relegation spot. 

After winning the first game our victories came very rarely, but we did manage to win three games in a row before christmas and that run of games (including two draws after this) were really important! We also had quite a few easy games at the end of the season so with 7-8 games left I was quite comfortable in our chances. Not that we ended up winning most of those games anyway, but we got some points here and there. Hamburger SV and 1860 Munchen had shocking seasons, 1860 only won two games all year, so it was good for us that two teams fell so far behind early on. 

I really hope that will be the case next year as well, as we are certainly not in any position to be climbing on the table. Next season will be really tough and avoiding relegation is all that matters! I have probably played closer to 100 seasons on this challenge. This was definitely one of the toughest yet and I'm proud of keeping this team up. 

Mid-March I promoted two defenders from the U19 side and put them straight into the first team. Throwing out a couple of old bad players, and trusting the next generation of quality players!! I have a great U19 side at the moment, as strong as I can remember having at this challenge, and I need to integrate more and more of those players as soon as possible. 

We had another great intake and Noah Dittloff (GK) looks like a potential superstar. He already has a minimum release clause in his first contract, so that is a big worry, this is a player that the big guns will be chasing! 

In classic Football Manager-logic we are now moving out of our 22 000 seat stadium that is always sold out to a new 17 000 seat stadium. Great work SI! 

Goal for next season: Survive and keep bringing in youth players to the starting eleven. 

 

Season Summary

      

 

Key Players

      

 

Youth Intake

      

 

Great newgens ! 

[MadCatPT]

2 hours ago, thomas_e said:

Energie Cottbus

Season Summary 2026 - 2027

A great Bundesliga survival and very promosing youngsters! 

 

Our first season in the Bundesliga and it was always going to be a fight to survive. Several of the players in the starting eleven were with the team from the start of the save and even though they have developed really well we are extremely weak in several positions. Out of 18 teams we finished in a very impressive 14th place. We struggled massively in many games, but we actually won the season opener and never at one point throughout the season did we sit in a relegation spot. 

After winning the first game our victories came very rarely, but we did manage to win three games in a row before christmas and that run of games (including two draws after this) were really important! We also had quite a few easy games at the end of the season so with 7-8 games left I was quite comfortable in our chances. Not that we ended up winning most of those games anyway, but we got some points here and there. Hamburger SV and 1860 Munchen had shocking seasons, 1860 only won two games all year, so it was good for us that two teams fell so far behind early on. 

I really hope that will be the case next year as well, as we are certainly not in any position to be climbing on the table. Next season will be really tough and avoiding relegation is all that matters! I have probably played closer to 100 seasons on this challenge. This was definitely one of the toughest yet and I'm proud of keeping this team up. 

Mid-March I promoted two defenders from the U19 side and put them straight into the first team. Throwing out a couple of old bad players, and trusting the next generation of quality players!! I have a great U19 side at the moment, as strong as I can remember having at this challenge, and I need to integrate more and more of those players as soon as possible. 

We had another great intake and Noah Dittloff (GK) looks like a potential superstar. He already has a minimum release clause in his first contract, so that is a big worry, this is a player that the big guns will be chasing! 

In classic Football Manager-logic we are now moving out of our 22 000 seat stadium that is always sold out to a new 17 000 seat stadium. Great work SI! 

Goal for next season: Survive and keep bringing in youth players to the starting eleven. 

 

Season Summary

      

 

Key Players

      

 

Youth Intake

      

 

Sometimes the best seasons are the ones where you avoid relegation after a struggle of a season.

[WhiteCat33]

2 hours ago, jepze said:

Hmmm, i don't understand this, but i won the promotion final last season, but the team i beat got the the division above. I'm a bit disappointed, but i'll work with what i got and try to get promoted again.

 

And because of the bad finances, the club got amatuer again :P

 

That's a bummer the playoffs are bugged, but really with the youth contracts all being set a 30 p/w the amateur status is probably a blessing. I just realized I haven't actually played a playoff in either of my saves so i had no idea it didn't work properly.

[Kazushi80]

Since I dont't think that there will be a fix for the financial problem in belgium, I'll restart the challenge soon. At the moment I am thinking about the country I am doing it in (Poland, Czech Republic, Denmark, Romania, Croatia are on my mind)

One question 

@darren1983 / @XaW

I am thinking about using the great "Increase Realism"-Megapack from Daveincid. Is this a database update which can be used and you just get a note if you complete it (since it's only makes the game harder) or is it forbidden?