The FM23 Youth Academy Challenge

[russ the womble]

Season 2 - SV Austria Salzburg

Fairly comfortable mid-table, which is acceptable. 

Finances are looking good and a good base for upgrades

 

 

[Riebow]

Sevlievo Season Review (26/27)

League: Media prediction had us 700 - 1, but we were never really in trouble. We were almost able to avoid the relegation group, but finished 11th in the end. Relegation group was a breeze with one draw and 4 wins. 

Our goal difference is atrocious though. We are very weak at front. My main striker only scored 4 goals all season, let's hope he develops next season.

Cup: We were knocked out in the 2nd round.

Intake: First intake with a new HOYD. Some decent potential, but no-one knocking to enter the first team.

Spoiler

Best of the bunch: Trendafil Stambolov (Look at that Flair!). Bad personality, unfortunately

Spoiler

 

Most improved player: Denislav Denchev (2025 intake). Just like other players who reach the 4 - 5 stars CA, he doesn't want to sign a new contract and wants to leave for a bigger squad. He's valued at 1,4M, but nobody is offering that kind of money. I'm afraid I will lose another star player for free or close to nothing. 

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

[XaW]

Don't think I'll continue with Cottbus, just not falling in love with it... Might need a break from the challenge, or at least try to find a team that really grips me. Not sure yet.

[The7Striker]

8 minutos atrás, XaW disse:

Don't think I'll continue with Cottbus, just not falling in love with it... Might need a break from the challenge, or at least try to find a team that really grips me. Not sure yet.

I ve been there.  Hope you can find something.

[russ the womble]

Season 3 - SV Austria Salzburg 

Going to have to think about my tactics from an attacking perspective.

Comfortable enough season anyway.

Training ground fell in rating but is being upgraded back to what it was.

Cost a chunk of cash but still in the black

 

 

[officiallydeej]

1 hour ago, XaW said:

Don't think I'll continue with Cottbus, just not falling in love with it... Might need a break from the challenge, or at least try to find a team that really grips me. Not sure yet.

I feel this too. I'm reaching that point in Bulgaria that I reached in Portugal and Hungary where I can't break the dominant team(s) and it's giving me the itch to start again. I've never managed outside Europe on any FM going back to CM01/02 but I'm really tempted to give Brazil a try.

[XaW]

Alright, I have no idea if this will stick, but I still get the England itch, so why not. Perhaps this will die in a few seasons, but it is what it is.

Not sure how I will play this, quick or slow or a mix whenever I feel like it, but I feel I have unfinished business here.

[Koetzer]

FK Viktoria Žižkov – season 2031/32

Struggled at start with only two wins in first 12 games, but managed to recover and qualified for the championship group in the end. One game on this run was especially pleasing, when we thrashed Sparta at home and Muxel became our first player to score four goals in a league match.

With only one point earned in first four games we couldn’t finish higher than 5th place. Luckily, Sparta won the cup (at least some consolation for them after breaking a streak of nine league titles!) so this was a Conference spot once again.

Cup

Opava knocked us out again, this time it was very annoying as we felt a possibility of a good cup result, fielded the strongest squad and still couldn’t score.

Conference League

Unlucky draw for the debut. Antwerp had a much better squad, we managed to keep the score clean for 210 minutes but lost in a shootout lottery.

Squad stats

M.Muxel *23a – scored less than last season, still enough to win the top goalscorer and MVP awards with a huge margin. He also became our first player to be selected for the major tournament.

J.Šmíd *28a – scored 10 goals and was in the preliminary squad for the Euros.

D.Klinka *26d – the best assistant, as usual.

V.Matejka *24a – another decent season for our playmaker.

L.Petržílka *26g and B.Varga *26i – our center-backs keep the good form. Varga once was called up to the Hungarian senior team but didn’t play so far.

J.Jambor *30a – our second player to feature in the NXGN top 50, his performance isn't too impressive though.

 

Transfers – quite a good profit from selling reserve players (loaned players with higher fees will be released after this season, so actually they are sold as well). Sedlacek *27a is the most familiar name there, a striker who looked really good in the intake and had a great rookie season, but unfortunately had no potential at all. We also missed the future fee clause for D.Macek *25a who signed as a free agent with Liberec after three season in PSG reserves (leaving us certainly was the wrong choice). 

Youth intake (preview)

Fišer *32a | M.Novák *32b | J.Nowak *32c | Froněk *32d | Sifneos *32e | Vágner *32f | Divíšek *32g

Were promised to get some central midfielders, got another bunch of wingers instead (and not the best ones actually).

Sponsorship deals increased a lot after playing in Europe, that allowed us to schedule a training facilities improvement and the ultimate recruitment upgrade.

[Neo_Geo]

New adventure began over the weekend in Northern Ireland with Ballymacash Rangers...

 

Waited until seeing if a) it wasn't a total disaster (as reworking my infographic templates takes a bit of time) and b) I felt something about the club, league and country.......looks like its sticking for now

 

 

Youth Intake Preview

Youth Intake Top 5

 

Season Review
Better than expected given I only had 15 players for most of the season and lost my main striker in January due to work permit rule changes. Definitely punching above our weight, the route one counter attack formation did seem to pay dividends and I got really lucky not to have many injuries (though my ML kept getting booked and sent off so he missed about 8 or so games). We made the play-offs and narrowly missed out on the final appearance against Carrick but to be honest this squad would have been demolished next season if I had achieved promotion so I was relieved in a weird kind of way. In the cups I think we could have performed better given I was put out in 2 cups in home ties, I think losing 2-1 away to Larne from the division above is more acceptable than the other two cups at home against teams in my division. Newry City actually won the play-off against Carrick so it'll be interesting to see how they and Annagh United (0W 1D 3L) get on next season in the Danske Bank Premiership.

Off the field, I managed to get the board to agree to Recruitment and Junior Coaching improvements though neither resulted in a change to the star grading. The intake was pretty decent with 3 of them now playing in the first team (changed to a 4-3-2-1 narrow at the tail end of the season as the aforementioned ML was suspended for a couple of games) and with my new personality graphic you can see that there whilst we had a number of positive personalities (a larger percentage than the current squad) there are a fairly sizeable number of negative personalities so I will probably look to move these one when the next intake comes through. I'm determined with this save I'm going to focus on having a squad with really solid personalities. The board also let me get my first badge and start the course for the second so par for the course for the save.

Not too much else to add on the save at this early stage.

Next season I want to concentrate on identifying the good prospects and getting them more involved in the first team, I'm not going to push for promotion as hard as I can as again I just don't see this squad being anywhere near the level it needs to be as the original squad members just aren't strong enough to carry the youth prospects at a higher level so I need to develop the youth for a few seasons. I'm not bothered by this at all as the save is just 2 tier so its not a big delay in the grand scheme of things and the one thing I learned from my Czech Republic save (and I suppose I saw it even during my success with Chiasso) is that I need to focus on bringing through the youth in a broad and shallow approach rather than getting 1/2 players excelling then they outgrow the club because none of the others improved with them.

Edited February 6, 2023 by Neo_Geo

[russ the womble]

Season 4 - SV Austria Salzburg

Big moves for SVAS this season!

Firstly, a good youth intake for once!

And secondly, despite still languishing in the lower half of the 2nd division, the board have decided to build a new stadium completely out of the blue!

Our crowds have been decent this season, with an average of 1,467 in a 1,566 all seater stadium, so little room for big crowds. But no idea what this does to our finances once it all needs paying for.

I guess there's an issue there if they build a new stadium with little room for expansion! Hopefully not..

Transfers

Borussia Dortmund came in with an offer for our striker, so sold for £800k with a 30% sell on clause. 

He's a decent prospect so will be interesting how well he does at a top club and if I can benefit from the sell on clause later on.

As for this season, we finished fairly low in the table. My tactics suck balls so will need to work on those next season. I give up too much control in the middle of the park.

 

[The7Striker]

ACS Foresta Suceava 2023/2024 Season

Finances  Facilities  Transfers  Squad

 

Liga II

 

Championship

What a season! We were predicted to finish around 10th so we outperformed expectations by winning Liga II, quite happy about it.
As far as the squad is concerned, we have good options for your starting eleven, but after that some areas are a little weak to be honest.
Off the pitch took National C and B licences and start the National A one. The board also allowed me to improve Youth Coaching and Youth Recruitment not only once, but twice.

 

Cupa României - It was a way better then I expected, reaching quarter finals.

 

Under 19 - Very good season despite not having many players.

 

Youth Intake

Spoiler

 

 

Despite being a 2.5* YI, we have some decent players and much needed depth to the FB area.

 

 

Supporters

 

 

 

Edited February 6, 2023 by The7Striker

[Academia_FM]

Heliopolis SC - Season 3

*Tournaments:

We improved compared to last season, moving up a few places in the table. In the National Cup we make our best campaign reaching the quarterfinals.

 

*Youth Intake:

A very interesting youth generation, with a young midfielder who rises directly to the starting team.

 

*Transfers:

[russ the womble]

I am nothing if not consistent..

Youth Facilities fell, but luckily, board have granted an improvement. Just another cool million out of the finances!

New ground should be decent

[AlwaysNalah]

Welcome to my new Challenge - Senegal the start of a multi-fm challenge across Africa, if I fail I move on but the aim is to tick off as many as possible over the next ..... years. My Ivorian save was corrupted for some random reason so I am hoping this does not plague me again

 

 

 

 

Senegal's top league is currently ranked 29th so one of the lower ones in this journey, and we start in the lowest of the low the only 4th tier in the database, is any of these lads know how to kick a ball I will be shocked. Released 8 players on arrival to trim the squad of the worst of the worst personalities. Going to be an interesting ride. 

 

[mikeyfm]

I have some questions.
 

Is it allowed to make a second human trainer for my second team?

 

Also in my second team were some players without contract that just in the second season appeared. They got promoted in the first finish league and i think they came while i was still in charge with transfers.  Without contract but not greyed out but in there history was just Jazz pori II and no other club. I didnt use them and released them. Did i fail the youth challenge?

[grff]

Tutankhamun: 2025/26 Season Review

A positive season as we were involved in the title challenge until the very last day of the season. Unfortunately, we just fell short but did post our best league finish to date.

Off the field, we had our first takeover which helped clear the debt.

Player stats were pleasing once again as we had many consistent performers.

Youth intake wasn't the best but a few handy recruits came in that have at least neutral personalities rather than a bunch of unambitious.

Transfers

Season history

Aim for next season

• Clinch promotion to the Premier League
• Attempt to transform a decent amount of negative personalities.
• Release sub-standard youngsters

[streety]

So my saves not going as well as i had hoped it would, Guessing im not going to see christmas before io get the boot. 

[russ the womble]

These cash boosts are very handy in Austria!

[russ the womble]

A fantastic... 11th place this season

In other news, new stadium in a year's time

£9m loan isn't too bad, hopefully paid for by extra ticket sales.

Have also purged the last of the old guard, so now only young players from next season.

Maybe I can finish higher than 11th for once?

[LazyBandit]

FC Wacker Innsbruck Season 5 (2027/28)

League Table

Before the season I thought we would be up for a challenge, and my prediction ended up coming true. For our first season in the top flight, 7th is a good start. We had a couple of good wins throughout the year. I employed an attacking style of football that led to us scoring a lot of goals, with us having the league's top scorer. That also meant we were very susceptible to conceding goals, which we led the league in. Ultimately we showed we're capable of playing in this league, and I'm proud of the boys for that.

Austrian FA Cup

We made our deepest run in the FA Cup yet, reaching the Quarter final round. We were drawn against the one team I didn't want to play, and it went as I expected it would.

International

Everyone at the club is incredibly proud of Mihály Nagy, who became the first youth player to reach his country's national team. He has developed well and worked hard, and his efforts are beginning to show off.

Transfers

Unfortunately FC Porto was paying attention and were clearly impressed. About 2 months after being called up, he became our record sale. I tried convincing him to stay, but in the end I couldn't stand in the way of his career. With Nagy leaving we are now incredibly thin in defense, which is concerning.

Intake

Lots of talented players in this intake, but terrible personalities overall.

The crown jewel of this intake, Enio Buić is already good enough to challenge for our starting spot. He also has already been called up to the Croatian U20's, before even playing a game for us. RB Salzburg are already showing interest, so we've tied him down with a long contract. I believe he can be our GK of the future.

We added Afghanistan and Croatia in this year's intake

Countries: 11/227 (4.85%)

Season Review

A good first season in the top flight for us. The board agreed to expand our youth recruitment to Exceptional, and take funds from the Nagy sale to upgrade our training facilities. I think it will take a few season of building up before we can really start to challenge RB Salzburg.

 

[Bubbles_DK]

I have been reloading for hours and hours to get my chosen team in Denmark "Boldklubben 1908" but no luck.

I will instead rejoin the challenge with Brønshøj. Last time i went to a match with them IRL you could buy glass bottle beers. So there are some fun memories from this club and their loyal (semi drunk) fans.

 

 

[Libertine13]

2026/27 (Fourth Season)

I was pleased to have been given a chance to carry on here despite the disappointment of relegation last season. The board were happy for us to achieve a mid table position but I had higher aspirations than that, especially with our fire power. Unfortunately we lost Bob Robinson 25A before a ball had even been kicked, he went to Southend on a free which really annoyed me, he was destined to be a very good player for us through the leagues. Our early season form was a little patchy and we were still having problems with conceding goals, but with Brendan Glackin up top we were able to mostly outscore any opponent. We just couldn't quite keep up with Balllymacash Rangers and finished 2nd, in the play off places where we'd face Dundela.

Bob Robinson transfer...

Spoiler

So on to the play offs... 

Spoiler

The first leg of the play offs we were away from home and going into the match with some decent form and took a deserved lead after 25 minutes through youngster Michael Maher 26B. The lead didn't last long, only 7 minutes to be exact. So half time and we're 1-1 despite deserving a lead. Second half we really weren't at the races, we created enough but everyone seemed to have forgotten their shooting boots. We fell behind on the hour through a contentious penalty and then got hit with a sucker punch shortly after, seemingly leaving us a mountain to climb. Fortunately for us we did manage to pull one back in injury time, Stephen Newberry 26A giving us a lifeline going into the second leg.

With only a one goal deficit to overturn and welcoming Dundela back to our place I was quietly confident. However it seemed our opponents had turned up looking to just hold onto their slender lead. We finally made the break through after 65 minutes with Brendan Glackin adding to his absolute haul this season. With no away goal rule it looked like we were heading into extra time... until young Brazilian wide man Afonsinho 25D curled in a stupendous free kick in injury time! The cherry on the cake was a second for Glackin as Dundela threw everyone forward leaving us an easy counter attack in the dying seconds. A deserved, but hard fought win 5-3 on aggregate to send us back up at the first time of asking.

Best XI;

At the beginning of the season I put in a request to improve the youth recruitment and got this back. Pretty handy considering the team is made up of around 95% youth products. First time I've seen or been given this requirement.

Youth;

Spoiler

The intake was very good. Again we were expecting pretty much A's through the board. We finally got a fantastic midfielder come through, Daniel Young will step into the first team right away. Albert George will likely displace last seasons top prospect, Newberry, as our first choice left back, which means I'll likely retrain the former as a left sided midfielder. Our top three prospects all having 15 determination or more is extremely welcome as well!

Albert George 27A

Daniel Young 27B

Cameron Graham 27C

Hopefully we're at least in a better position on the pitch next season, off field we've barely been able to make any progress. We just don't have the finances available for facility upgrades and I highly doubt we'll get any upgrades any time soon, it'll have to be through qualifying for Europe that we get any sort of cash injection. I think as long as I keep hold of the HoYD we have we'll keep getting very good intakes for the level we're playing at though.

[Libertine13]

2027/28 (Season 5)

Sorry for the back to back updates, I'm a couple seasons ahead of updates and thought whilst I'm here I'll try catch up on a couple.

Back in the Championship following our promotion after a play off win last season, hoping we'd fare a lot better than last time at this level. The board weren't expecting anything other than a struggle and hoped we'd give survival our best shot. Little did they expect what was to come. Michael Maher 26B, with a whole season under his belt as a regular starter, was phenomenal! He finished the season with 35 league goals in 37 games. Whilst we still haven't been able to address the defensive issue with conceding bucket loads of goals, we still managed to run away with the league. Only 6 points seperated us from 2nd place in the end, but the league was wrapped up early and we only managed 9 points out of a possible 24 at the end of the campaign. We might as well not have turned up for the cup matches as rotating the squad in the early round saw us knocked out comprehensively each time.

Oddly this season we really struggled against the worst teams, I'm not sure if it was a tactical issue because we were still dominating the chances and XG stats, but it was frustrating at times. I wasn't rotating much at all in the league so it had nothing to do with a drop off in ability amongst the starting XI's either. 

Spoiler

As you can see, up to this point of the season (just before the league split) out of the 6 losses we've had, 5 of them are by the bottom 3 teams! And there's some very high scoring games, considering how poor those teams were at the bottom of the league. Odd.

Best XI;

Off the pitch we again made zero improvements, we've never been in the red but our finances have yet to reach 6 figures. Hopefully the promotion to the top division will help convince the board to invest in some facilities! We're producing decent youngsters in every intake but most of their development has been a slog, if at all!

Youth;

Spoiler

As you can see we've been blessed with a couple of players who'll push for first team action right away. I'm undecided whether Ian Hamilton will be deployed as a midfielder or a centre half, he can play both roles well and improves both areas of the pitch. Would have been nice to have a couple of better mentalities with this crop but I can't complain at the ability.

Ian Hamilton 28A

Ian Norton 28B

Karl Brown 28C

 

[Academia_FM]

Heliopolis SC - Season 4

*Tournaments:

It's been a really disappointing year, we never competed for promotion. In the cup we had little luck facing the mighty Al-Ahly in the first round.

 

*Youth Intake:

While we didn't get any youth "star" this year, we do have a lot of interesting youngsters adding to the squad rotation.

 

*Transfers:

[JAwtunes]

For the last few seasons I have been using my favourite newgens as my football manager alter ego and I think I have found my guy for the next save.  He's not exceptional but is still going very strong at the age of 35!  That's the great thing about academy only saves, you can get so much more invested in your favourite newgens.

He has been my captain for 12 years, and was vice-captain at 18, and recently went up to Model Pro.

[officiallydeej]

Santa Cruz FC - Brasileiro Serie C

 

=

I've decided to take a short break from my Bulgarian save to scratch an itch I've had for some time. I mentioned a few posts back I have never managed outside Europe in over 20 years of playing FM but something about Brazil has been tempting me for some time now. I've taken over at Santa Cruz FC who were promoted into Serie C, which is the lowest playable tier out of the box. They seem fairly well set up, with a huge 55,000 all seater stadium and above average youth recruitment always a plus for this challenge. We have a decent sized squad of 22 players but 5 are over 35 with 3 of those already announcing retirement at the end of the season, meaning I'll be looking to the intakes fairly quickly.

The interesting part of this challenge for me is that I know absolutely nothing about how the Brazilian structure works. From what I've seen so far I start the season with a State Championship against other local teams ranging from Serie A to amateur, then I'm entered into the group stage of a local cup (Copa Nordeste) alongside the national FA cup style competition that seems to be a straight knockout. If we progress through all that it could be 20 games before the league even starts! Serie C has 20 teams but from what I can tell we only play each other once. Then there's some sort of playoff for promotion with the bottom 4 being relegated. Really looking forward to it, can't wait to try and unearth the next Ronaldinho or Neymar.

 

[Winski]

European campaign 2026/2027

Conference League

While the Finnish season still needs to start, apart from the Cup, we played some matches in Europe. It started in the League Phase of the Conference League. We managed to grab 7 points. We won against Viking FK(Norway) and FC Shakhter Soligorsk(Belarus), and played 0-0 against Maccabi Tel-Aviv. Whis these results we managed to qualify for the Knock Out Play Off Round, where we met FC Kobenhavn again. But we really had no chance at all against the nr. 1 of Denmark. Overall I'm very happy with our first real European adventure.

Those European matches were the first matches that we played in our new kits for season 2027. Our new home kit was previously our third kit. It's based on their real-life home kit from some years ago. I'm having fun creating my own kits.

[russ the womble]

Season 2029/30 - SV Austria Salzburg

A good season with a 7th place finish. I think I may finally have a tactic that can do well in this game!

League Performance

Spoiler

Despite being a number off points off the top, we finished fairly strongly this season with only one loss in the last 8 (albeit also 3 draws in last 4 - however we had most chances and possession). Cautiously optimistic of improving next term.

Tactics

Spoiler

I was disillusioned with my tactic and decided to redo it, including a bit of testing. Settled on the following:

Inverted WBs - these have freedom to dribble through the centre of the pitch, allowing players to support on either side as options. If we lose the ball, the IWBs are centrally positioned. For a quick CA the only free space is generally down the sides, which keeps the ball away from the box in the first instance. We press early to force a cleared ball.

Mezzalas and IFs. This creates an overload and drags players out wide, the Central mid position is then taken up by the IWBs and Half Back. Wings are supported by the forward drifting wide. Mezzalas are also instructed to dribble to bring the ball up the pitch. They should have options either side and can help to force players out of position.

Defensively, we press agressively to force a clearance, otherwise we should have the IWBs in the middle of the pitch unless the opposition slow the play down, in which case we then have the team back into position. 

Quite an exciting formation as the FBs arrive in the box on a regular basis. I've had to put them on shooting training!

Squad

Spoiler

The change in tactics appears to be benefiting the team with many being in good form in the last 5 games.

 

Finances

Spoiler

Our finances took a big downwards turn! But this was due to loan repayments commencing for the new stadium whilst not benefitting from the revenue as we played out the season in our old home.

We have around a million quid outgoing each season for loan and interest, so have to hope that attendances and income in the new ground will at least match it

Onwards and upwards..

Edit: Next season may be a bit of write off as star defender is leaving - didn't think they'd meet the asking price but can't turn it down!

 

Edited February 7, 2023 by russ the womble

[P O\'D]

Its been a long, long time since I played FM alot and my greatest achievement was completing the San Marino Challenge back in FM12.  Beating England in the WC final 3-2 in 2050 (I think).  I had a huge thread over in the stories section of the forum.  So my wife got me fm23 for christmas and I've been playing about with Man City and a top level career learning the ins and out. I have owned other fm's but haven't had huge time with them since about 2016.  This should be fun.  After digesting a ton of youtube and tactical forum content I'm ready for a challenge.

Foolishly I've picked England, I say foolishly because whilst its probably the toughest to work up the leagues, its probably the one that will be strongest and easiest to win the CL from.  But alas I ain't simming another year for somewhere else.

Looking at the promoted teams I opted for the ones with the worst odds and thus...

Hired:

Spoiler

With odds of 450/1 this should be a rough start.

Manager Stats.

Spoiler

Proof of Correct Option Settings:

Spoiler

Not sure what else to put here other than we're crap.

Facilities:

Spoiler

Thats about it, wish me luck. I'll be sacked by November.

 

[Daddy]

2028/29 Season Review:

I was hoping for more so this is a bit disappointing. There's a gap between us and the teams above us and one for all the teams below us. An early exit in Conference league was rough. A rec Card in the 2nd leg and we managed to hold on to penalties, but the keeper missed his. The red card struck us twice. 

Y25B wouldn't resign and we just let the contract expire since I don't really need more money and figured I'd max out time with my best player. A slightly larger stadium is being built. Not really sure the benefit of just  under 3000. 

Youth Intake: 

Another good crop of players, and the keeper is immediately going to push for starting.

2029/30 Season Preview:

Since the third has never been used I decided to make that the away this season. Third will just be plain white until it's ever used. 

I suspect a similar finish in league, and hopefully making the league phase in Conference League. I'll be doing some tactic tinkering to see if there's more I can get out of the players and push higher.

[libbyshuss]

2059/60 - Italy - Catania

Gonna keep updates short and sweet from here on in as all I need is the Champions League to complete the challenge. Did we do it?

Spoiler

no

League

Went into the final day of the season top of the table by 1 point from Milan, 2 points from Juventus. We played Juventus and were 2-1 up after 89 minutes.......

d'oh!!! lost in the final minute of the season! Never mind, we won 3 of the previous 4 so....

Champions League

Yeah, we were rubbish really poor in the league section, only just squeaking through. we got Arsenal in the knockout and they were too strong

 

Players

Lorenzo Lippi 40K - still going strong at 36! announced retirement at the end of the season and i begged him to reconsider. He's still thinking about it..... but honestly, what a career with us. well over 600 career goals.

Here's his career stats

 

Youth

Annoiyngly technological advances meant our youth facilities dropped. And there was no option to request an upgrade! aaaargh!

anyway, we got another potential superstar this season

 

[DazRTaylor]

Youth Candidates

Season 2023/24

FC United of Manchester

Big things were expected after such a good preview:

Unfortunately, I think I was lied to.

[Libertine13]

2028/29 (Season 6)

Back to back promotions meant we'd managed to get ourselves in the top league in Northern Ireland. I wasn't expecting to stay here for long and the board was hoping we'd fight bravely against relegation. But we never expected the step up to be this difficult. Our first victory didn't come until January 23rd, the 25th game of the season! We were atrocious! We weren't helped by the fact that Glackin missed the first 4 months of the season through injury and then as he was about a month from returning, Michael Maher 26B suffered a similar injury and would miss 4 months himself, so without any firepower up top we were just being hammered left, right and centre.

I wasn't worried at all about losing my job throughout the season as I thought I'd built up enough credit with the board and fans from the last two campaigns. The had both rated our season as a C- as well. But since my contract was up the board did pull me in for a chat. I basically had to beg to keep my job, which I wasn't happy about doing but fortunately I'm still here. I'd have been devastated to be sacked after one poor showing in the top division!

Best XI;

Youth;

Spoiler

This was the first season our preview wasn't all A's and it had me worried that we might struggle for good youth prospects until we had a goo go at upgrading facilities and the likes.

Imagine my surprise when the intake came through and I see my first ever 5* ability youth prospect! My only gripe is that it's another two strikers as our best players here, we could really do with some ability of this level in other positions.

 

Robbie-Lee Clingan 29A

With the arrivial of Robbie-Lee Clingan he's become our best player instantly, the players who were already in the squad have already been downgraded a star each because of him.

 

[XaW]

         

XaW - Folkestone Invicta - Season 2023/24 (Season 1) - Vanarama National League South

Squad | Transfers | Finances

I have a thread in the careers forum with monthly updates for this save in anyone is interested.  

So, back in England with Folkestone again, and this was a very fun season. The main problem for us this season was that we started with only 11 players at the club, so any injury or suspension made me use greys, and we all know how poor they are! Even so, we had a great season and were part of the top of the league for the whole season. Things went very well until February where we had a horrific month with 4 losses. We did bounce back after that, but we had lost the top spot to Barnet and were firmly in the big pack chasing them. Eventually we finished 3rd and headed into the playoffs. There we beat Hemel Hempstead Town in extra time before we had a penalty loss against Dorking Wanderers in the final. So lose, but no cigar. On to next season, at least now we will have a full bench every match!

I also managed to get one improvement accepted.

And the board also want to build a new stadium, but it's a long term project.

FA Cup: We beat Ramsgate and Tonbridge Angels before we lost to Aldershot Town in the 4th qualifying round.
FA Trophy: We beat Corinthian-Casuals and Hungerford Town before we lost to Eastleigh in the 4th round.

U18s

They finished 8th in the National U18 League South East this season.

FA Youth Cup: They beat Bowesr & Pitsea before they lost to Whitehawk in the 2nd qualifying round.

Youth intake:

Trophy cabinet

None

Player statistics:

Most apps for the clubs

Name			Nation		2nd Nation	Apps
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Frannie Stratton 24f	England		<N/A>		7
Baden Ardley 24g	England		<N/A>		7
Jens Ewald 24m		Germany		England		7
Gregor Borg 24a		England		<N/A>		6
Tyler Mendes 24c	Montserrat	England		1

Most goals for the club

Name			Nation		2nd Nation	Goals
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Frannie Stratton 24f	England		<N/A>		2

Most assists for the club

Name			Nation		2nd Nation	Assists
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Frannie Stratton 24f	England		<N/A>		1

Supporters:

Summary:

[DazRTaylor]

End of Season Review

Season 2023/24

FC United of Manchester

Season Summary

A good campaign that ended in the playoff final.  There were no cup runs of note.

Season Details

League Table - We were outside the top seven for most of the campaign until a late run decured a promotion playoff spot.

League Fixtures 1 & 2 - A poor run of results in November & December meant we were always scrapping for a playoff spot.  We managed to secure one of these playoff positions on the final day of the season.

Promotion Playoffs - We made it all the way to the final and played against Boston United and unfortunately it proved a game too far as we were beaten by three goals to one.

F. A. Cup - We made it through a couple of rounds to the fourth qualifying round before being beaten at home by Altrincham, who play in the division above, rather convincingly.

F. A. Trophy - Having drawn away to Gloucester in the second round, I had high hopes for the replay, but it wasn't to be, going down at home after extra time.

Friendlies - It was certainly a mixed bag of results.

Squad - I am not sure we are good enough to go up so need our intakes to improve significantly.

Squad Dynamics - It is rather good.

Transfers In - None.

Transfers Out - None.

Youth Candidates - I was very disappointed with the intake, having been promised the earth.  Right sided midfielder Oumar Koffi YP24K11 is the pick of the bunch.

Finances - We made some money this year and have a healthy bank balance as a result.

Key Players

Eden Bailey - Our best player by a country mile, the striker netted an impressive 43 goals in 53 appearances.

James Vincent - The veteran midfielder was dominant for most of the campaign.

Alex Wollerton - The central midfielder had a fine season.

Luke Griffiths - Usually deployed in the anchor midfield role, he flattered to deceive.

Michael Tait - Comfortable up front or on either wing, it took a while for him to settle though he improved as the year went on.

Next Season

I feel we overachieved this year, so a safe mid table finish is the aim for next season.

Personal Contract

Season     Contract Start Date     Contract Expiry Date     Pre Tax Wage     Post Tax Wage
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
At start          25 June 2023             30 June 2024         £750 p/w          £575 p/w
2023/24         1 January 2024             30 June 2025         £775 p/w ↑        £600 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
2023/24    Minimal = (1.00*) ↑   National B ↑↑        6 ↑   6 ↑   2 ↑   1 =   1 =   1 =   6 ↑   7 ↑   5 ↑   8 ↑   1 =   6 ↑   5 ↑   6 ↑   5 ↑   6 ↑   6 ↑

Club Facilities

Season     Training Facilities  Youth Facilities  Youth Level  Corporate Facilities  Junior Coaching  Youth Recruitment  Club Reputation
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
At Start   Basic                Basic                  4       Adequate              Fairly Basic     Basic              Local   (1.00*)
2023/24    Basic =              Basic =                4 =     Adequate =            Average      ↑   Fairly Basic ↑     Local = (1.00*) =

Season Record

Season     Played     Won     Drawn     Lost     Goals For     Goals Against     Goal Difference     Win Percentage
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2023/24      54        26       12       16         107              81                 +26              48.15%

Overall Career Record

After Season   Played     Won     Drawn     Lost     Goals For     Goals Against     Goal Difference     Win Percentage     Time At Club
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2023/24          54        26       12       16         107              81                 +26              48.15%             329 days

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     F.A. Cup                    League Cup        Achievements
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2023/24           N/a               N/a                    N/a                       Vanarama National League North        4th       Fourth Qualifying Round         N/a           Lost in promotion playoff final.  F. A. Trophy second round.

Record Number of Appearances (Players From The Academy Only)

Season     Player                    Cumulative Number of Appearances
---------------------------------------------------------------------
2023/24    No one                                    0

Record Goal Scorer (Players From The Academy Only)

Season     Player                          Cumulative Number of Goals
---------------------------------------------------------------------
2023/24    No one                                        0

Record Number of Assists (Players From The Academy Only)

Season     Player                        Cumulative Number of Assists
---------------------------------------------------------------------
2023/24    No one                                      0

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

Season     Player                    Cumulative Number of Clean Sheets
----------------------------------------------------------------------
2023/24    No one                                     0

 

 

 

 

 

Edited February 8, 2023 by DazRTaylor

[P O\'D]

Well I predicted November but I almost made christmas lol...

What can I say we had 8 non-grey players on the books in total and had at least 2 injured non-stop.  Starting every game with at least 5 1/2 white star grey players was quite tough and a goalkeeper who I think was a hologram didn't help.  The board then inexplicibly demanded I drop one of my only non grey players who was rated 5 star due to bad form and it all got even worse.  I really shouldn't have thrown that water bottle after the game vs Dover, thats when I lost all 8 people at the club.

In the end though it was probably the shortest and worst attempt at this challenge from anyone thus far in living memory and I walk away feeling like Frank Lampard.

On course to finish the season with 6 points.

What a run of results...

 

Luckily for me, I have a week off work, so we go again.

Edited February 8, 2023 by P O\'D

[Cultured Left Foot]

If you'd like to follow along in more detail, this is a series on my YouTube channel : www.youtube.com/c/culturedleftfoot

SEASON 13 REVIEW

Season 13 saw us in League One for the first time. And it wasn't too bad..... !  We secured a solid mid-table position and boy did we need it. The tough financial situation (more on that later) means that anyway we can solidify at this sort of higher level is great!

 

Another youth players was poached at a young age and there was nothing we could do about it.... although I don't think he'll ever amount to anything. 

 

Our finances are really in the mud and its getting to be a serious problem...

 

Which means, we needed to sell some players and generate some more income...

 

 

But the money incoming wasn't enough to help and we get the first reports of the Chairman maybe looking to sell...

 

But, as ever, its not all bad. We have reached 700 games in management !

 

We were declared the biggest overachievers in the league !

 

And the youngsters are looking good and can offer some support to the first team next season.

 

And finally, it was a record year for Season Ticket sales, which is awesome. The fans are flocking in their numbers to see the mighty Guiseley. 

 

Once again, our striker Allpress was the man with the goals, he's seriously over performing for his attributes. Certainly deserves the number 10 shirt at the moment !

A very good and enjoyable season. A mid-table finish was amazing and hopefully we can push on next year and aim for the playoffs !

Onto Season 14 we go !

WISH US LUCK !

 

Edited February 8, 2023 by Cultured Left Foot
Formatting and Spelling

[The7Striker]

ACS Foresta Suceava 2024/2025 Season

Finances  Transfers  Squad

 

Superliga

 

Relegation Group

I braced myself for this first season in Superliga or Liga I with the hope that we can avoid ending up at rock bottom. Surprise or not, we finished 8th in the regular phase, far from any relegation problem. After that, the Romanian league has some curious aspects, first you play 9 extra games and after that, 1st and 2nd play a semi-final where they face 4th from the Championship group for a place in the ECL. We beat Voluntari and FCSB to book our ticket to ECL.
Players like Niga, Makongo, Marian and Chika did some very solid season. Chika was a beast with 20 goals in the league.
Financially speaking, we have some money in the bank, but Under soil heating, has hit us. Even so, the board allowed me to take Continental C licence and start the B one.

 

Cupa României - Not the best run. It showed us that we still have a long way to go to reach FC Rapid quality!

 

Under 19 - After finishing 1st in the group, they play playoffs with teams from other groups, unfortunately they lost in the semi final, but still a wonderful journey with a 3rd place finish.

 

Youth Intake

Spoiler

 

Upgrades start to kick in and that translate in a very good intake. we have a perfectionist player, I have high hopes for this lad.

 

Supporters

 

 

 

[ludak]

ND Dravinja Slovenske Konjice Season XI

Squad I Transfers I Finances

 

We played a similar season as the last one, only this time two teams had more points than us at the end, as we had 68 last year and 67 this year.

 

We did win the cup this year though.

 

We were defeated heavily in the third round of qualifiers for the CL against Sparta which saw us go down to EL Playoffs in which we won without trouble. The group phase itself wasn't our best showing, but we did snatch a win and 3 draws in our debut in Europe.

Neiva Rožman Rozman Jankovič Kelenc

A good intake really.

 

That's all for this one, see ya at the end of next one mates.

 

[Flashman\'s School Days]

Jomo Cosmos - Season Review 2027/28

Manager Characteristics - Attributes - Transfers - Fixtures 1, 2, 3

DStv Premiership - 2nd

It's been a few weeks since I last posted as I was off playing other games or not playing anything but as soon as I came back to this save I really got back into it again.  We weren't able to retain the title this season but we did accumulate more points and it looks close at the top, however, Orlando Pirates had already wrapped up the league title before the last game of the season in which we played and beat them.  I'm thankful we managed to finish above Sundowns because they absolutely battered us in the two league games.

TotalEnergies CAF Champions League - Runners Up

As you can see an almost fairy tale run to the Champion's League title in our first attempt.  We were really really good in this competition until the final where I think the occasion got to us and we conceded within 40 seconds from my left back running with the ball behind my goalkeeper under no pressure and just hoofing it against him for an own goal.  No complaints in the end as they were the miles better side.  Originally I had thought that we were going to get dumped out in the group stage because Sundowns always do well against us but ES Tunis had made the previous 5 finals, only losing 1, amazingly though in our first group game which was against Tunis, we smashed them 8-0 before going undefeated in the group stage.  Ayanda Kubheka was the top scorer in the competition but he was injured for the final and one of 4 starting players to be unavailable so that is also a mitigating factor for the final loss.

Other Cups

Nothing to write home about from the domestic cup competitions this season.

Squad

Again no significant changes to the squad, a few youth players left and then early in the season my captain was unhappy so he was sold.  This made room for Nkosinathi Clark 24d to become a starter although we did then struggle for back up.  Victor Shongwe 25b also became the regular starter at left back and did well getting 11 assists.

Morgan Masuku 26g had a bit of a better season but still drops the odd shocker of a game, although this is something I have always found with young keepers.

Njabulo Francis 24g took his chance to become a starter this season as club talisman Matsi Sono has declined quite significantly due to his age.  I thought he had a really good season but will have to keep it up as we have a couple of really good defensive midfielders coming through.

Thokozani Shabalala and Mfundo Smith 26f were the starting wingers and absolutely tore it up both getting double figures of goals and assists.  The person they assisted the most was Ayanda Kubheka who despite missing the last 5 weeks of the season managed to hit 46 goals and also pick up his first few international caps.

Another player to get international caps (first from my academy) and the most impressive player this season was Luke Mthimkulu 24a who had a coming of age season, being incredibly deadly with his goals and assists.

 

Youth Intake

You may notice that this season's intake has quite a few players and it's certainly the most I have ever had in a single intake, well this is because this intake included 8 players that we had previously poached from other sides.  It happened to also be called a golden generation, unfortunately only a few of the poached players seem to be really worth the effort of having been poached.

The 4 top players from this intake are Lesedi Hlombane 28d, Thulasizwe Mkwanazi 28f, Eddie Makhoba 28b and (the star of the intake) Tebogo Mvebe 28a.

Finances

The finances are about £1.5m lower than this time last year but we have actually had a really good season financially but a week or so before this I had a request for improving the training facilities approved and that cost £2.9m.  We made a lot of money this season off prize money in the champions league and having not done well in domestic cups, this was a big bonus.  We also finally moved to our new stadium back in Potchefstroom which not only increased our season ticket holders but also our average attendance shot up by about 8000 people.

[russ the womble]

Season 2030/31 - SV Austria Salzburg

Back down to the bottom half lol. Whilst we were starting to look good last summer, this season saw the sale of two of our better players, for a combined £5.3m

Whilst frustrating (one offer was accepted as 'too good to refuse'), it has allowed us to upgrade our youth facilities to 'Great'.

We also opened the new ground this season and saw a bump in crowds of around 1,000 extra souls, which helps to mostly offset the loan, and will put us in a good financial position in the future. Also frustratingly I'm not sure if the AI worked out my tactics or if it was the standard of players. We went through a bad spell and experimented with alternatives, but have not found another tactical style to mix in yet.

 

[WhiteCat33]

10 hours ago, Libertine13 said:

But since my contract was up the board did pull me in for a chat. I basically had to beg to keep my job, which I wasn't happy about doing but fortunately I'm still here. I'd have been devastated to be sacked after one poor showing in the top division!

Enjoying your NI progress! Glad you've got an understanding board that has let you survive relegations, makes for a more realistic rise through the leagues. Makes me think SI tweaked this in the updates as it was brutal at the start of this cycle. I'm still salty about my first run in Luxembourg when apparently 1000-1 odds meant I should have kept the team up...

[OlivierL]

        

Youth Intake Preview

Average wise our best intake with some great prospects. 

Spoiler

Sabolović Sabolović 29C what a player ! our first player with starting average above 50 (51.13).

Barišić 29D is another future option for the wing.

Tomšić 29G could become our future goalkeeper.

 

[officiallydeej]

The imbalance in the quality of teams in these State Championships is crazy. I can see why Pele scored so many goals!

 

[WhiteCat33]

Season 2 2024-25 Oberliga Hamburg (Tier 5)

Spoiler

Season 1

Competitions

League:

Mandirali who came in last year and I was so excited about is actually super young so didn't turn 16 till January when he could finally get registered. Because of this he only played 14/32 games and was the top scorer with 11 Goals, so it shows how poor my offense was before the break. Also, at the end of the season our star key CB Balçık was out injured and we lost every game without him as our backup CBs are 2-3 Silver stars. Those two things combined we did well to just coast to a mid-table finish without any relegation worries. 

Cup:

Out again fairly early, fine by me.

Squad:

We are seeing some development but really this team is bad and we just need to start actually producing players so I can actually have substitutes that aren't liabilities. Quality Lower-League. At least I can say my formation is really working. The team has a decent spine and at the end of the season my 2 AM(A) and 1 AF(A) combination up front was lethal. Really causes trouble for their CB's with runs from deep.

Spoiler

Transfers

Youth Academy

Youth Intake Preview: Same 4* Good

Spoiler

Youth Intake: Dreadful Intake, but we did add 2 African nations.

Spoiler

YI Player Highlights:

Spoiler

“Best” Player is Dominik Ehrhorn at a 15 CA w/o WF (27 CA/w) who gives us a better #2 WB(R) but that's a low bar

2nd best at 10 CA is a very dreadful GK who will never play, not even sure he’s worth signing

And apparently our #3 player at a shocking 8 CA is Goekten Tinel

Even though the calculations rate him 4th due to his points being in “free” categories (Agg, Brav, Flair, Det) those all combine for what could be an interesting BWM though 1 passing is concerning…

HOYD:

After that intake this I found the literal only coach with a good personality and okay Det/WwY to be an interim HOYD cause he can’t be worse right? He’s a 17 year old who literally just didn’t get selected as a player in last years intake and retired to coach. Fits my 20 year old Head Coach

Spoiler

Pretty awful, I’ll be keeping an eye out for replacements and since his contract is only 3 months I can ditch him anytime

Academy Data:

With how poor this intake was I don't see the point, next season I'll start showing some data.

Head Coach

Got another coaching bad up to Cont. C

Spoiler

Club

Still no upgrades due to lack of funds

Spoiler

Manager Thoughts

We will be at this level for a while. This is the first time I played in a league that has no guaranteed promotion positions. Instead, if you are the Hamburg Champion you enter a 4 team "Oberliga North Playoff" where the top 2 teams get promoted to Tier 4 Regional Division. This is LSK Hansa's 3rd attempt at promotion... Because of this the league has 3 top teams who went basically undefeated all year with +40GD while the rest of the league was pretty weak. I expect this to get a lot harder in 1-2 seasons though when all the initial youth players get dropped by Bundesliga sides and picked up down here.  Hopefully by then I can generate a good CB as I still only have 2 of 3 that are strong. 

This season the processing time was pretty brutal, but I'll be able to drop the bottom LandesLigas this summer, which removes like 36 leagues so that should help significantly. Slow start for my Turkish squad, but no disasters yet!

Spoiler

 

Edited February 8, 2023 by WhiteCat33

[P O\'D]

Quick question as I'm unsure on the rules, seeing Belgium wasn't completed I decided to give it a try despite the bug and this happened.  I imagine Lokeren is against the spirit of the challenge?

Edited February 8, 2023 by P O\'D

[The7Striker]

5 minutos atrás, P O\'D disse:

Quick question as I'm unsure on the rules, seeing Belgium wasn't completed I decided to give it a try despite the bug and this happened.  I imagine Lokeren is against the spirit of the challenge?

As long as it fits the rule "with a previously unplayable club", you can use it.

The downside is that you might have a board with high hopes for your first season.

[P O\'D]

1 minute ago, The7Striker said:

As long as it fits the rule "with a previously unplayable club", you can use it.

The downside is that you might have a board with high hopes for your first season.

Thanks dude I might do it so I last more than 25 games this time.  Just wanted to double check.  Might offset the cash bug in Belgium too.

[russ the womble]

Final Table

Spoiler

Fantastic bit of progress on the pitch with a 5th placed finish. With SCALU going up, it's an 11 point gap to make up to 2nd, which is more than doable.

Team Line up

Spoiler

We generally rolled out with the 4-1-2-2-1 formation, with inverse full backs. Roth enjoyed his time maruading from right back, although the LB spot did not generate anywhere near the same returns.

Sven Fix was a bit of a monster in the Mezzala role in midfield and almost got into double figures for goals.

 

Data Hub

Spoiler

We have a good attack, above league averages, but defence is a little disappointing. Although it has less goals conceded, the defence looks a bit apathetic!

Finances

Spoiler

FInances have taken a turn for the worst! Mostly due to loan payments.

One nice milestone for this season was hitting over double the average attendance from the first season. Hopefully they come back next year!

[Daddy]

2029/30 Midseason Review:

As I stated in the preview I planned to do some tactical tinkering. The results have been a bit mixed, but I'm at least learning some things that don't work. I'm still pretty confident we'll finish top 5, but if things look dicey I'll switch to old ones which would be good enough to finish 5th I believe. 

Intake Preview:

I don't really need another keeper, but all the other A's and B look good to me.