The FM23 Youth Academy Challenge

[Vlach]

Season 2025/26

 

 

We made it and survived our first season in the Serie A. Mostly some lucky draws and wins against relegations rivals helped us in the end to get the needed points.

But i will probably have to sell soon my main goalkeeper since the beginning, Salah. He always wants to leave, and is now starting to escalate it. He has one year remaining on his contract, guess i will try to get some money in summer for him and hope, just hope that one of our young goalkeepers can somehwo step up next season.

It will be anyway a season centered around survival in the seria A again, and centered arond incorporating more and more younger players in the team, since the older ones are - of course -getting older and/or are retiring 😉 If me manage to survive that I will be very happy, but i fear the sack after a relegation. Ah well we will see.

 

League

 

 

Lineup

 

 

Accolades

 

Transfers

Spoiler

Transfers

 

 

Finances

 

 

Youth Intake

 

Spoiler

4 Elite Talents - things are improving. Managed also to convince the board to further improve the youth recruitment. Will sign those most talented and those with best personalities.

 

 

 

 

Edited January 3, 2023 by Vlach

[BigJack]

Can scrap the last update (which I have now deleted). As I uploaded it the game crashed, this has pushed me back to the start of March which changes everything, intake included. 

Edited January 3, 2023 by BigJack

[Neo_Geo]

Challenge complete!

Another penalty shoot-out in the final but this time we came out on top!

@darren1983 that's Switzerland off the list of incomplete countries now, I'll post the transfers and manager profile in my next post as it will exceed attachment size for this post.

Season & Save Review

Spoiler

Domestically we only lost one game all season which came after heavy rotation for Europe as we completed an historic treble!

Once again I had to be firm with Jusufi and Radulovic in telling them they couldn't move and it paid off in the end as the best elven showed all 11 regular starters averaged over 7

In the final itself we were really close to winning it in normal time until our Schulthess (Elite5) lost Liverpool's left inside forward who smashed it off the far post and in to take it to extra time. Cantarella had scored two very Cantarella-esque goals, breaking through the backline between the central defenders and slotting it home to take his Champions League tally to 13 this season and his goals undoubtedly got us here in the first place.

The best part was we outperformed Liverpool based on the XG and I didn't ever feel too nervy until the penalty shoot-out. Cantarella was the one player I was sure would score but he missed the second penalty meaning we were 2-1 down at that time but the remaining players held their nerve and we succeeded in the end!

Interestingly just after winning our facilities were downgraded which once again allowed me to request an upgrade to training facilities and it unlocked the upgrade youth facilities just as it did for me in FM 22 for Katwijk when the downgraded news came through. It may just be coincidence as my reputation went to 4.5 stars and that might have been the thing that unlocked it (I was 4 stars before the final) but the board rejected both! I had just won the Champions League and we had £260m+ in the bank and they turned it down and only reconsidered when I threatened to quit to find out the total cost of the upgrade was just £4.5m!!!!! Talk about a tight board!

I thoroughly enjoyed the save and whilst the last few weeks have been challenging to get the game time to continue I can chalk off Europe for FM 23 which means I am going to try another continent next (only so many times you can keep playing the same teams in Europe before it gets a bit tedious).

Switzerland was good to me and the money made in the early seasons coupled with the first few big sales put the foundations in place to be able to offer enough money to get my platers signing deals with inflated or removed minimum fee release clauses using the DoF trick.

I had some cracking players along the way with Intake 2 and 3 providing Mandli and Pereira who were just that step above the rest at the time. It seems a solid keeper was the bedrock of my success domestically as when I looked back every year since I got promoted one of my keepers won the Swiss League Goalkeeper of the Year award (Mitrovic x 2, Baldo (Elite1) x 2 and Carobbio (Elite5) x 6. I also had a bit of good fortune with the players I had initially as I had Nivokazi who was scoring for fun and bagged me £2.5m for all important upgrades when Manicone then took over befiore Mandli (Elite2) stole the show. My record holder for appearances Lorenzo Valeau was rock steady for 8 seasons allowing Jusufi (Elite6) and more recently Kirk (Elite8) to grow into the role gradually.

The one thing I would say I learnt about my approach with this save is I usually buckle under the pressure of players wanting to go when they kick up a stink however this is the first time I stuck to my guns and just dropped them into the U18s when their mood was low for a few weeks and it seemed to sort itself.

On to the next challenge.....watch this space!

 

[Neo_Geo]

Transfers

Spoiler

Season 1

Season 2

Season 3

Season 4

Season 5

Season 6

Season 7

Season 8

Season 9

Season 10

Season 11

Manager Profile

[fries]

Congrats @Neo_Geo!

I would love to see a few of your most important players.

[Winski]

Congrats, @Neo_Geo!! Well done!! 

[Neo_Geo]

@fries

Here are who I consider the best at the club plus the two best players we had to let go:

Spoiler

These are the two best players no longer at the club.

 

Edited January 3, 2023 by Neo_Geo

[The7Striker]

Congrats @Neo_Geo

[darren1983]

Congrats @Neo_Geothe HoF has been updated.

[polesetter1]

@Neo_Geo congrats! That's massive achievement.

[hubwub]

Congrats @Neo_Geo! WHOOP WHOOP!

[Daddy]

Congrats @Neo_Geo!!

[officiallydeej]

Congrats @Neo_Geo!

[the_hdk]

congrats @Neo_Geo

[BigJack]

Congrats @Neo_Geo

[gb2003]

Karşıyaka SK

Season 8 -  2030/31| TFF 1.Lig - 10th (Media:17th) | Cup - 5th Round

Another good season but couldn't finish in the playoff ranks. I had a really good start and thought after the winter break I could make it because we had a really good offensive players but I had 5 lost and 3 draws in the last 8 games. Even we played good the results was bad. Aziz Mert was one of my best players and the best scorer in the team with 20 goals and 6 assists in the league. He won the the rookie of the year award and was 2nd in the goalscorer rank in the league. In the winter break Adana ( süperlig) wanted him but I refuse because I got already for my best right back Mustafa Kurt 18,75 Mio. Unbelievable offer and so much money to invest in the team and in the facilities. Maybe he was the key why we don't manage to get in the playoffs because I hadn't a good backup but the offer was so good that I couldn't refuse.

And at the end of the season my goalie who already had a offer from Saint Etienne takes part at the uefa u21 european championship.  Also Mustafa Kurt who left me at the winter break is in the u21 turkey squad. What a great honor. Even when my goalie leaves me I have so many talented goalies. Another year with an elite prospect. Yigit Öztürk has already a market value of 700k. I don't know what I should do with so many goalkeepers because only one keeper play at time.

 

Manager | Transfers | Overview | League Table | League Stats | Club Overview | Facilities |Squad |Squad Stats |Youth income elite | Youth income top

Top 5 players

Muhammed Sari - 29 games - 44 conceded - 9 clean sheets - 1 POM - 6.97

Umut Kilic - 32 games - 4 goal - 1 assist - 5 POM - 7.48

Aziz Mert - 35 games - 21 goals - 6 assists - 2 POM - 7.29

Kuray Gebeci - 28 games - 20 goals - 4 assists - 2 POM - 7.19

Selim Kum - 33 games - 0 goals - 6 assists - 2 POM - 6.99 - he is now dutch, funny.

 

Top 3 prospects

Hüseyin Yilmaz - left midfield, with 16/17 already regular starter

Mehmet Kilic - right back, maybe next year regular starter as a right back

Yigit Öztürk - goalkeeper, crazy market value as a 15 year old

Edited January 3, 2023 by gb2003

[gb2003]

Well done @Neo_Geo

[The_Gato_In_Goal]

Brønshøj BK - Youth Intake Season 12

Pretty confused by this intake in general. There are a lot of seemingly similar talent players, and I don't know which ones will be almost at their PA and which have room to grow. Overall, happy with some positive personalities, but disappointed our best prospects are in the positions we didn't need. This was the first intake for the new HOYD taken from Nordsjaelland who replaced our HOYD of 5 years.

Toft Kristiansen 12a has the CA to contribute right away since he is of age as well. Great finisher, will play striker to start, but can fill in on the wing if needed and has a good personality.

If he wasn't so short, I would have trained Rami 12b as a striker as well. Instead, he furthers the case that we should switch to a 4-2-3-1 from a 4-3-3 with a DM, since he really doesn't have the physical attributes to stick further back in the midfield.

De Biase 12c will stick it out in the reserve as we have 2 young keepers better than him, but if he develops well with the Driven personality, he will get a chance to impress.

[The_Gato_In_Goal]

And for the first time we have player on this list. Unfortunately this success still hasn't translated to the league since our defense remains horrendous. But have a look at both young wingers from the same intake. Luckily we have both contracted for another year, plus a 3 year extension. So despite their pleas to leave (which have already began to happen), we can force them to stay.

Spoiler

 

[BigJack]

Lets try this again shall we.

FC United Season 17 - 2039/40

Season Preview

Preview

Predicted Finish: 22nd

Competition Overview

Overview

EFL Championship - 7th. League Table    Past Positions

FA Cup - Knocked out in the 3rd Round by Middlesbrough.

Carabao Cup - Knocked out in the 1st Round by Shrewsbury Town.

The crash meant we had to replay the last 10 league games, we came 9th pre crash, but this time managed to finish 7th. I am glad we didnt make the Play Offs/Promotion as it would have just felt dirty after failing first time around. Still a very promising season, and if we can progress as much over the next 12 months as we did this year, we could very well be looking at a promotion push.

Playing Squad

Squad    Best 11    Transfers 

Another great year and one where we have had a few players emerge and grab first team spots and make them their own. I am hopeful that we can avoid any sales this summer and make a real push for the play offs next season. Notable Mentions for:

Bascoe 36a - Has made one of the 2 CB spots his own and is improving all the time.

Adkins 39a - Broke into the 1st team towards the end of the season and looks a real prospect.

Cook 37b - Another player who has broke into the first team picture this season and also won his first Japan cap.

Woodcraft 36b - Improving all the time and is developing a nice little partnership with Cook.

Purcell 37a - Another solid season saw him ranked 28th on the NXGN list.

Rouse 36c - Moved him back to the wing but fills in at CM if needed still and does a job in both roles.

Liddle 33c - Has started to look better in front of goal but I think he may have hit his ceiling.

Jewell 33d - Another solid year and his best yet as he hit 34 goals in all comps.

Youth Development

Preview    Intake    Personalities

Still nothing amazing with just 1 elite talent, and he has dropped to 4 star potential already.

O'Leary 40a

Finances and Facilities

Finances    Facilities

A productive season saw us agree a Stadium Expansion early on, before this took off the board announced this expansion was being scrapped due to plans To Build A New Stadium. I am excited for this and hold out hope that I could finally get a stadium named after me for the first time ever.

We also asked for a Youth Facilities Upgrade and this was accepted. I asked again in April, And the board agreed again. This will take us to either superb or state of the art youth facilities and alongside a new HOYD, I am hoping to improve our intakes as they have not been amazing recently.

Other

Club Records    Overall Best 11

 

[officiallydeej]

 

Season Summary

Now this was a better start to my second attempt in Portugal! The squad here, though not one of the best in the division was clearly better than I had at Braganca and it showed. We were in and around the top two all season and despite only winning 1 of our last 4 made it into the playoffs with relative ease. After 3 games we were top and I foolishly didn't realise we played both home and away, losing our 4th game and drawing our 5th meant we went into a winner takes all finale against Caldas, who won our league and beat us in 2 of our other 3 meetings against them. Luckily the boys delivered with a 91st minute winner from midfielder Nuno Sa (his only goal of the season!) enough to take us up and spark wild scenes in my living room which led to two panicking cats and one angry wife. This was just the start I needed after the grind at Braganca and I can't wait to see what the third tier brings. 

Our U19s also romped to their league title with a very impressive record of 26-1-3 finishing 7 points clear of the prestigious Belenenses academy. We have very good facilities at this level which showed in our both our intake and the players I inherited from the holiday season intake. I'm optimistic we can at least compete in the 3 Liga, though another bizarre league system that means everyone outside the top 4 plays in the relegation playoff! Being professional from the off was a huge help and has already seen some of our younger first teamers developing at a good pace. The only concern is our finances, we are already in debt to the tune of 400k and with our facilities and professional status I don't expect that to slow down any time soon.

 

Key Players

 

 

as in any promotion season there were a lot of good performers but José Semedo was easily the standout. 28 goals in 34 games was an excellent return in the centre of a front three designed to utilize his acceleration and finishing. He is also a Sao Tome & Principe international and equally prolific for his country, bagging 5 goals in just 3 appearances. The only downside is that at 31 his days are already numbered but he will be remembered fondly for getting us up so quickly and hopefully keeping us there next season.

I could have picked any of my midfielders as they all had terrific campaigns but Francisco Sénica was the leader of the pack. Attribute wise he is probably our best player and he absolutely blinds anyone I ever had at Braganca, it's no wonder I struggled! 5 goals and 5 assists is an excellent return for a defensive midfielder and at only 25 I'm hoping he will stick around to help our upwards progression.

 

Youth Intake & Transfers

 

With standout facilities for this level I was looking forward to the intake and it didn't disappoint. Although the personalities aren't great some of the players certainly are. Garizo 24a is already a baller at this level and ended up making 4 playoff appearances due to a number of injuries. He'll stay with the first team group from the start of next season and I'd expect him to register a fair few minutes. Santos 24d is already my 5th best striker and with Semedo aging it will be interesting to see if he has the potential ability ceiling to take over the mantle as our talisman in a couple of seasons time. All in all a solid first effort from our HoYD and I signed all the candidates which is unusual for me.

Only one departure this season with our third choice keeper leaving for pastures new. We already have 1 or 2 youths almost at his level so I wasn't concerned when he came to me asking to leave. Although we haven't yet it wouldn't surprise me if we start to see interest in some of our better younger players soon and with money in short supply we'll be looking nervously at Mr President to see if he decides sales are needed to keep us afloat.

 

Next Season

Survival has to be the obvious aim but our squad is strong for this level and I feel with the supplement of talented graduates we can push on. I'm not sure we will go straight through to the second tier but I'm cautiously optimistic we can try and finish in the top four. I don't expect the finances to sort themselves out until we are in the top tier, possibly even Europe, and although our players aren't worth much right now I'm prepared for the fact we may need to sell a player or two at some point in the future.

 

[officiallydeej]

Considering our stadium was barely a third full last season and we are now nearly half a million in debt this feels like a wholly unnecessary move from Mr President.

Edited January 4, 2023 by officiallydeej

[thomas_e]

Congrats @Neo_Geo! Very impressive! 

[Elsjorro]

So i really need that HoF position, but i keep forgetting to keep uploading the seasons. So im gonna give it another try to upload all the screens here.

 

Allemannia Aachen 2025-2026:

 

Let's start with the important part:

 

 

No incoming transfers and no big outgoing transfers. That's all a man can ask for right?

 

So, 2nd season in the 2. Bundesliga. In my experience, the 2nd season is prob the hardest. I can't tell the times i relegated the 2nd season in one hand. So, let's see how it went?

 

 

To be fair, a pretty similar season as last one. We almost get the same amount of points and same position. That's more then fine at this point. The money is starting to get in at this point and upgrades are being made, so we are not standing still.

 

Preview time:

 

 

I mean, we might as well skip this. It's as accurate as MvG was at his doubles yesterday.

 

Intake time:

 

 

oooh, this aint bad. This aint half bad. Spoiler alert: Tarkan will be our CL winning goalkeeper. The others are garbage tough. Except for Tas. He aint on the Elite talents list, but he is going to be very usefull.

 

Tarkan: 

 

 

 

So, season stats:

 

 

Mause had a hell of a season upfront. 

 

Best Regens:

 

 

Is developing quite decent. Will get more chances next season.

 

 

Our leader in the back. Will prove very usefull. Weird to see how early intakes produce the better players.

 

Partner in crime of Bjekic.

 

First poached player is here:

 

 

And also a new HoYD arrives:

 

 

And we put the money to good use:

[the_hdk]

have issues connecting to the brazilian club and the league...I also really dislike that there are so many games in a season. so going to postpone that save

thinking of where to start a new save but im kinda stuck.

 

first possibility is Austria as they have two teams that sound interesting...Wacker Innsbruck and Austria Salzburg

would like to start in Sweden...but starting in 4th level is going to be a too big hassle to go up and take atleast 20 seasons. I dont know

[Neo_Geo]

Time for a change of continent for me, off to Puerto Rico (thanks to the Timo Megapack) and taking over Leal Arecibo (game has Aracibo but everything I find on the club has Arecibo).

The league pack had the 3rd tier but given there were no relegations from there I only included the 2nd tier.

Leal are predicted to finish 1st and the expectation is automatic promotion so this could be a very short save if I don't achieve the goals!

The two tiers only play 22 matches in the league so it should be a nice quick season!

Here are my kits for the first season:

Getting Parma 1998/99 vibes from the home top.....nice 

[libbyshuss]

Season Summary

Another ok season but we're still a million miles from cracking the top 5. 'Best of the rest' seems to be the best we can do at the minute. Still, back in Europe next season which has to be a win. European competition is fun!

 

Players

Lorenzo Lippi 40K - seems a bit harsh that we're still only 7th when Lippi is so good. He scored 46 goals in 38 games this season. He's insanely good!

Tarek Ramadan 45A - number 2 in the nxt gn wonderkid list for two seasons in a row. Now he's 20, how good is he? Pretty good I guess, but not a wonderkid. D'oh

Luca Mengoli 44B - Number 1 in the Nxt Gn list for the last two seasons. He's now 20 and sure to be a wonderkid right? Nope, he's just pretty good too. Bah.

 

Youth

Another golden generation! I really need one to be an actual real golden generation!

 

Career

 

 

[thomas_e]

FC Energie Cottbus

Season Summary 2032 - 2033

A great season that ended with European glory! 

CHALLENGE COMPLETE

 

What a great season for us! We didn't manage to defend the Bundesliga title from last year, but our goal was the Champions League and we really delivered! We beat Arsenal 3-1 in the Champions League final and that means the challenge is complete! 

We finished 2nd in the Bundesliga behind Bayern Munchen. They finished 10 points ahead of us, but we only got 6 points less than we did last year (when we won), so it wasn't really a bad domestic year, Bayern were just really good! We did beat them at the end of the season, proving that we are very much competitive against them. We rotated quite a bit this year, but our goal was always to finish top 3 and that was never in danger! 

Anyway, the focus was on the Champions League, and if we slipped up a few times in the league we looked phenomenal in Europe. We finished in 8th place in the group stage, meaning that we went straight to the last 16 knockout phase. In the first game we faced Borussia Dortmund. A really strange two-leg tie as we lost 1-2 away, but won 6-2 at home in the return leg! 

Next up was Man City, a team that looked amazing on paper. We managed to beat them 3-2 at home in a game we probably should have lost! In Manchester for the return leg we got through after a crazy 3-3 game. I have to count my blessings in that game as well, as Man City managed to get 6 players from the first game injured in the days leading up to the return leg, including Erling Haaland. How they managed that I don't know, but we basically ended up playing a very weakened City team. 

In the semi final we faced Inter, a team that had a very easy route to the semi final. We were simply a much better side than them and we won 2-1 in Italy in the first leg before crushing them 4-1 at home in the return fixture. 

The final against Arsenal was a very even affair, with Arsenal taking the lead in the first half. We managed to fight back and in the end I think we deserved to win. 

The last goal in the final was scored by Josua Pagot, and that was well deserved, as he has been by far my best player this season, a campaign I wont forget. He won player of the year in the Bundesliga and the Champions League. 13 goals, 26 assists and a 7,49 avg. rating from left wing says it all, a majestic campaign! 

I was surprised that we won the Champions League so fast, but looking at the team we are a really good side. We dont really have many weaknesses, except maybe missing that top quality striker. This is my second time completing the challenge with Energie Cottbus, which is cool. Even cooler is the fact that we had players on the bench in the CL final that played in my first season with the team! 

After a couple of bad years we got a great youth intake, not that it matters now! 

I really love doing this challenge in Germany, but now its on to the next one! 

@darren1983, challenge complete! 

 

Season Summary

      

 

Key Players

      

 

Youth Intake

      

 

 

[The7Striker]

@thomas_e congrats 

Where next ? 

[thomas_e]

2 minutes ago, The7Striker said:

@thomas_e congrats 

Where next ? 

Thanks! 

I was considering doing the England grind, but don't know if I have the stamina! 

Maybe return to South America! 

[fries]

Congrats @thomas_e!

You have now completed the challenge 7 times in 5 different versions of the game. Very impressive!

[OlivierL]

On 03/01/2023 at 17:34, Neo_Geo said:

Challenge complete!

Another penalty shoot-out in the final but this time we came out on top!

@darren1983 that's Switzerland off the list of incomplete countries now, I'll post the transfers and manager profile in my next post as it will exceed attachment size for this post.

Season & Save Review

  Reveal hidden contents

Domestically we only lost one game all season which came after heavy rotation for Europe as we completed an historic treble!

Once again I had to be firm with Jusufi and Radulovic in telling them they couldn't move and it paid off in the end as the best elven showed all 11 regular starters averaged over 7

In the final itself we were really close to winning it in normal time until our Schulthess (Elite5) lost Liverpool's left inside forward who smashed it off the far post and in to take it to extra time. Cantarella had scored two very Cantarella-esque goals, breaking through the backline between the central defenders and slotting it home to take his Champions League tally to 13 this season and his goals undoubtedly got us here in the first place.

The best part was we outperformed Liverpool based on the XG and I didn't ever feel too nervy until the penalty shoot-out. Cantarella was the one player I was sure would score but he missed the second penalty meaning we were 2-1 down at that time but the remaining players held their nerve and we succeeded in the end!

Interestingly just after winning our facilities were downgraded which once again allowed me to request an upgrade to training facilities and it unlocked the upgrade youth facilities just as it did for me in FM 22 for Katwijk when the downgraded news came through. It may just be coincidence as my reputation went to 4.5 stars and that might have been the thing that unlocked it (I was 4 stars before the final) but the board rejected both! I had just won the Champions League and we had £260m+ in the bank and they turned it down and only reconsidered when I threatened to quit to find out the total cost of the upgrade was just £4.5m!!!!! Talk about a tight board!

I thoroughly enjoyed the save and whilst the last few weeks have been challenging to get the game time to continue I can chalk off Europe for FM 23 which means I am going to try another continent next (only so many times you can keep playing the same teams in Europe before it gets a bit tedious).

Switzerland was good to me and the money made in the early seasons coupled with the first few big sales put the foundations in place to be able to offer enough money to get my platers signing deals with inflated or removed minimum fee release clauses using the DoF trick.

I had some cracking players along the way with Intake 2 and 3 providing Mandli and Pereira who were just that step above the rest at the time. It seems a solid keeper was the bedrock of my success domestically as when I looked back every year since I got promoted one of my keepers won the Swiss League Goalkeeper of the Year award (Mitrovic x 2, Baldo (Elite1) x 2 and Carobbio (Elite5) x 6. I also had a bit of good fortune with the players I had initially as I had Nivokazi who was scoring for fun and bagged me £2.5m for all important upgrades when Manicone then took over befiore Mandli (Elite2) stole the show. My record holder for appearances Lorenzo Valeau was rock steady for 8 seasons allowing Jusufi (Elite6) and more recently Kirk (Elite8) to grow into the role gradually.

The one thing I would say I learnt about my approach with this save is I usually buckle under the pressure of players wanting to go when they kick up a stink however this is the first time I stuck to my guns and just dropped them into the U18s when their mood was low for a few weeks and it seemed to sort itself.

On to the next challenge.....watch this space!

 

Great job @Neo_Geo and @thomas_e

Edited January 4, 2023 by OlivierL

[Daddy]

congrats @thomas_e!!

[BigJack]

35 minutes ago, thomas_e said:

FC Energie Cottbus

Season Summary 2032 - 2033

A great season that ended with European glory! 

CHALLENGE COMPLETE

 

What a great season for us! We didn't manage to defend the Bundesliga title from last year, but our goal was the Champions League and we really delivered! We beat Arsenal 3-1 in the Champions League final and that means the challenge is complete! 

We finished 2nd in the Bundesliga behind Bayern Munchen. They finished 10 points ahead of us, but we only got 6 points less than we did last year (when we won), so it wasn't really a bad domestic year, Bayern were just really good! We did beat them at the end of the season, proving that we are very much competitive against them. We rotated quite a bit this year, but our goal was always to finish top 3 and that was never in danger! 

Anyway, the focus was on the Champions League, and if we slipped up a few times in the league we looked phenomenal in Europe. We finished in 8th place in the group stage, meaning that we went straight to the last 16 knockout phase. In the first game we faced Borussia Dortmund. A really strange two-leg tie as we lost 1-2 away, but won 6-2 at home in the return leg! 

Next up was Man City, a team that looked amazing on paper. We managed to beat them 3-2 at home in a game we probably should have lost! In Manchester for the return leg we got through after a crazy 3-3 game. I have to count my blessings in that game as well, as Man City managed to get 6 players from the first game injured in the days leading up to the return leg, including Erling Haaland. How they managed that I don't know, but we basically ended up playing a very weakened City team. 

In the semi final we faced Inter, a team that had a very easy route to the semi final. We were simply a much better side than them and we won 2-1 in Italy in the first leg before crushing them 4-1 at home in the return fixture. 

The final against Arsenal was a very even affair, with Arsenal taking the lead in the first half. We managed to fight back and in the end I think we deserved to win. 

The last goal in the final was scored by Josua Pagot, and that was well deserved, as he has been by far my best player this season, a campaign I wont forget. He won player of the year in the Bundesliga and the Champions League. 13 goals, 26 assists and a 7,49 avg. rating from left wing says it all, a majestic campaign! 

I was surprised that we won the Champions League so fast, but looking at the team we are a really good side. We dont really have many weaknesses, except maybe missing that top quality striker. This is my second time completing the challenge with Energie Cottbus, which is cool. Even cooler is the fact that we had players on the bench in the CL final that played in my first season with the team! 

After a couple of bad years we got a great youth intake, not that it matters now! 

I really love doing this challenge in Germany, but now its on to the next one! 

@darren1983, challenge complete! 

 

Season Summary

      

 

Key Players

      

 

Youth Intake

      

 

 

Congrats mate 

[Neo_Geo]

Congratulations @thomas_e nicely done

I’m yet to take on a big 5 league for this challenge yet, I think England is calling after I’ve had my little Puerto Rican fun!

What about your next save?

[darren1983]

Congrats @thomas_eanother update to the HoF is done. 

[JLAB]

Motor Lublin - Season 8 - Review

So we had our youth intake for this season, and it was a pretty decent one in terms of quality.

Michał Jaros is probably the best player in potential and current ability off the bat, but has some rather concerning problems with his personality and being extremely inconsistent.

Still, we were given some nice players alongside him. Wojciech Adamczuk is a LWB who I will train to play as a LB.

Sebastian Gutkowski is a RM who I will be training as a RW.

While Michał Zawadzki is a goalkeeper who is a little short for the role. He's the first Sweeper Keeper on Attack I've ever had on default though.

Sometimes, things don't go your way in the league though. After coming back from the Champions League, we won 5 games in a row, but then lost 5 games in a row. We did win 4 of the last 5 matches, but how badly did losing 5 of the last 15 matches do for our season?

It actually meant that we've missed out on European football after winning the league for 2 straight seasons. That's not ideal to say the least.

We lost some Social Media followers, but they only want me to attempt to avoid relegation.

The board are more ambitious and want us to not only finish mid-table, but to develop the best youth system in the country.

We finished improving our training facilities meaning that something special has happened.

We now have State of the art training facilities, and the only thing that needs to be improved to have completely maxed out our facilities are our youth facilities. I 100% believe that the club's reputation is linked with improving the youth facilities, as shown by the fact that some people in this forum were able to ask for one after the won the Champions League.

I got named the second favourite for the Lyon job, thanks but no thanks.

I also confirmed affiliate links with both Slavia Sofia and Olimpija Lublana so we can tinker the links so we can get youth intake prospect arriving in our future intakes.

Like I did here with Steaua.

Two players that we produced ended up on the NXGN list again, but they are no longer playing for us. Mateusz Szulc and Mariusz Dąbrowski are enjoying their time abroad it seems.

We also managed to make improvements in the Build A Nation aspects of the save, with Poland gaining a place in the coefficients and the Ekstraklasa gaining a place in the competition rankings, meaning that the league is now considered a 3.5 star reputation league.

JLAB's YAC with Motor Lublin Part 24

[Diego D10S]

[Winski]

Congrats, @thomas_e!! That’s another completed challenge for you. Very impressive! 

[JAwtunes]

Congrats @Neo_Geoand @thomas_e👏

[thomas_e]

4 hours ago, fries said:

Congrats @thomas_e!

You have now completed the challenge 7 times in 5 different versions of the game. Very impressive!

Thanks @fries! All 7 of them great fun. The youth academy challenge community is basically my FM motivation, so it's always fun when a challenge is completed! 

[thomas_e]

3 hours ago, darren1983 said:

Congrats @thomas_eanother update to the HoF is done. 

Cheers @darren1983! 

[thomas_e]

2 hours ago, Winski said:

Congrats, @thomas_e!! That’s another completed challenge for you. Very impressive! 

Thanks @Winski! 

[thomas_e]

4 hours ago, Neo_Geo said:

Congratulations @thomas_e nicely done

I’m yet to take on a big 5 league for this challenge yet, I think England is calling after I’ve had my little Puerto Rican fun!

What about your next save?

Not sure yet! Considering England or maybe Italy. 

Africa and South America also good options! 

[schnauzer]

Dorchester Town FC   -   Season 7 (2028 / 2029) Review   -   Vanarama National South

 

League Performance

Been a while since my last update, trying to push through but we can't seem to make much progress!

Well, we came so close to promotion and we were even leading in the playoff final against Barnet they overcame us. So annoying because I think the players are now good enough to stay up in the Vanarama National League. Hopefully we can achieve promotion again next year as the past 4 seasons have been a struggle to keep motivated to continue the challenge 

To be fair we got 23 points more than last year, which reflects the growth of our young players. Aaron Peel and Jesmond Micallef have joined the club of Miquel Hunte, Kieron Lambert and Aaron Dorrington as our star players. Micallef hit 26 goals (20 in the league) in a breakthrough goal-scoring season and became a full international for Malta. We were hindered early in the season by our board deciding to sell our star Australian centre-back Toby Miller to Melbourne City on deadline day - although they did put a clause for 30% of the next sale so we might make some money down the line as his current value range for them at 18 y/o is £150k - £1.5million! Young, 6'6, 17 y/o centre-back Josh McCarthy took his place for the remaining 3/4 of the season and did excellently and has become the new star CB of the squad. Our intake gave us two tidy players in midfield playmaker Sezer Amuca and winger Mitchell Morgan which bodes well for us taking the next step and winning this league (for a second time, and hopefully not returning again!!) next year.

Newport County finally get back up to the 5th tier on the 4th time around. We outplayed Eastbourne Boro in the playoff 1st round, but they managed to take us all the way to pens. This led to the team being very tired for the 2nd round a few days later, a tough away game to Ebbsfleet. I felt sure we'd lose but we had an inspired 3-1 win. With the final at neutral venue of Wembley I had the feeling we'd do it, especially after going 1 up after 10 mins, but the ref gave one of those classic FM penalty decisions when the defender cleanly tackles and somehow the penalty is given, and the wheels fall off. Oh well, onto season 8!

    

 

FA Cup - We take Bromley to a replay in the 1st Round after knocking out Faversham, Hampton & Richmond and Yeovil.

FA Trophy - A good year in the cups as we made the Quarter Final! We beat Lewes, Ebbsfleet, Billericay and Lancaster but FC Halifax were too strong and prevented us from reaching the semis. Still, a quarter final is our best cup progress to date in the challenge!

 

Squad - No longer reliant on Alfie Stanley's goals, and at the perfect time as he finally rounds down his contract in a month's time! He leaves having scored 126 league goals in 330 games and is listed in the club's icon page. He is only 27 and still plays regularly for me but he has lost his starting striker spot to Micallef. The challenge now is that Micallef is now our only decent striker - although Alfie Peel can play there and will probably have to next season. Miquel Hunte - who has opted to play for Suriname and is now a full international - has scored plenty of goals from midfield which has been important. Despite being our strongest player on paper, I'm struggling to get the best out of Kieron Lambert yet, although he improved on previous seasons having been moved from left back to defensive midfield. Oikonomou continues to improve as a keeper and Puddy is now an important starter too. I am also hoping for big things from Morgan and Amuca next season as they already cemented a place in the team having only just come through the academy in March.

 

Players of the Season

1. Jesmond Micallef - Had the season I knew he was capable of, hitting 20 league goals. Very good all-round forward but to improve his heading to score more.

2. Miquel Hunte - 26 goal involvements (15g, 11a) in the league, he is so important for us. Has 3 years left on his deal and is keeping his options open so I might have to sell him to one of the interested sides in a year or two sadly. Not sure he will improve much more now though.

3. Alfie Peel - Will probably become the best player we have produced yet. Has brilliant physical and mental attributes but needs to sharpen his finishing to take the league by storm. Going to be difficult to keep hold of all of Peel, Hunte, Dorrington and Lambert this summer!

    

    

Rookie of the Season (1st full season)

Josh McCarthy - Done very well in stepping in to replace Toby Miller. Still only 17 and developing attributes really nicely, and with that resolute personality could end up being very important for us!

 

Youth Intake - A solid improvement on last season's disastrous intake, and Morgan and Amuca are first team ready, but both need their poor personalities worked on. Kevin Davies and Joe Roberts also seem as though they may be good enough in a couple years' time. Next season will be the 8th intake for our HOYD which I believe means that it's his own crop finally?

  

  

 

Transfers - As mentioned, Toby Miller snapped up by Melbourne City - hopefully they don't come for Mitchell Morgan later too as he is also an Aussie! Alfie Stanley will sadly be moving on and I will release Harvey Wilkinson (now 3rd choice keeper) and some hangers on from our early intakes Faton Hysa, Xavier Angell, Vinroy Dubidad.

 

Finances - A great year for finances as the cup runs ensure that we make over £100k this season! We must be close to improving our 'below average' youth facilities now which will be important for pushing on.

 

Other Updates - Continental Pro licence attained! Changed my tactics up a bit this year and will continue to refine next season.

 

League Finish History

Y22/23 - VNS - 7th - 75pts,   Y23/24 - VNS - 1st - 92pts,   Y24/25 - VNL - 24th - 38pts,   Y25/26 - VNS - 18th - 49pts,   Y26/27 - VNS - 16th - 59pts,

Y27/28 - VNS - 13th - 62pts,   Y28/29 - VNS - 4th - 85pts

Facilities

Training Facilities - Average,     Youth Facilities - Below Average,     Junior Coaching - Excellent,     Youth Recruitment - Excellent.

Average league home attendance & Number of Season Ticket Holders

Y22/23 - 468 (104),   Y23/24 - 507 (113),   Y24/25 - 666 (169),   Y25/26 - 435 (138),   Y26/27 - 509 (138),   Y27/28 - 519 (142),   Y28/29 - 527 (144)

[the_hdk]

congrats @thomas_e

[Trainspotting90]

I dont relegate, but after 4 years Novara call me in Serie C and i go: the same rules, only youth, but fot this topic isnt the claim, maybe i start a new thread on fm career or maybe in fm challenge

[grff]

Royale Union Tubize-Braine: 2042/43 Season Review

A great domestic season as we achieved the double double, blitzing the league and clinching the Croky Cup. Our Champion's League campaign ended in the round of 16 stage which matches our best finish so far.

Some really good player stats as our star striker surpassed his own record as he bagged 68 goals in all competition. His efforts last season saw him break a domestic goals record from 1945!

Our youth intake was poor again. We took only a handful on. We've since changed our Head of Youth Development to try and help the quality coming through.

Transfers out. Our record goalscorer went out on loan as he's no longer able to perform to Jupiler League standard.

Season history. Annoyingly, I don't get the option to upgrade the youth facilities to state of the art despite having £108m in the bank and nothing to spend it on.

 

[The_Gato_In_Goal]

    

 

Brønshøj BK - Review Season 12

We're still stagnating in the league. We finished either 10th or 9th for the fourth season in a row and we actually had 1 less point than last season, although we finished 7 points clear of relegation. Our players took steps to improve this year and towards the end of the season we could consistently score goals for the first time in forever. The issue is that we still concede 2+ in most matches. The defenders developed, but not super rapidly and they're still short. This year's intake did not help much on that front either. We will continue to push forward as we always do.

 

Key players:

Spoiler

 

Finances are never going to be a problem again, which is nice.

One set of upgrades to both facilities this year, and another training is in the works. No transfers in, a few out for big money.

[Pedrike2021]

congrats @Neo_Geo and @thomas_e