The FM23 Youth Academy Challenge

[Riebow]

Sevlievo Season Review (27/28)

League: A dreadful season to be honest. We only won 7 games, and I didn't really feel that my players were improving much. We did easily win our Relegation Group, so at least there's some hope for the future.

Cup: We made it to the quarter finals, but I don't really care much about the cup at the moment.

Intake:

We have a new HOYD! His stats look amazing. The only downside is his Tactical Style, but everything else is just so much better than was out there.

 

Spoiler

Actual Intake: We're starting to get some decent personalities. Best prospect is again a right winger. The 5-star potential is basically meaningless, because most of my first team players are still rated as 2nd or 3rd division level talent.

 

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Best of the bunch:

 

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Other: 

We've had our first 'big' sale: Denislav Denchev left for Levski for 300K. He was valued at 1,4M, but his contract was expiring at the end of the season so this was the most I could get for him.

 

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We maxed out our academy coaching:

 

Most improved player: Daniel Petrov (27 intake). 

 

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[russ the womble]

Is there any way to get rid of minimum fee release clauses when the agent makes it non negotiable? I keep offering contracts and about 50% of the time this is a non-negotiable, and then the player gets upset I have not offered a contract!

Edit: also,  

Edited February 9, 2023 by russ the womble

[officiallydeej]

Just now, russ the womble said:

Is there any way to get rid of minimum fee release clauses when the agent makes it non negotiable? I keep offering contracts and about 50% of the time this is a non-negotiable, and then the player gets upset I have not offered a contract!

If you leave the negotiation and advance a day, when you click the contract tab an option is there to speak to the agent. One of the options on there is to ask to agent to come back to the table but without unreasonable requests, 9 times out of 10 that will allow you to negotiate again without a locked in release clause.

The only time I've seen it not work is if the player wasn't overly interested in the initial negotiations, in which case they'll refuse to come back and talk.

[russ the womble]

31 minutes ago, officiallydeej said:

If you leave the negotiation and advance a day, when you click the contract tab an option is there to speak to the agent. One of the options on there is to ask to agent to come back to the table but without unreasonable requests, 9 times out of 10 that will allow you to negotiate again without a locked in release clause.

The only time I've seen it not work is if the player wasn't overly interested in the initial negotiations, in which case they'll refuse to come back and talk.

Thanks - I saw this come up one time before but wasn't sure how it is triggered as since then it hadn't appeared. Is it generally the day after that it appears?

[officiallydeej]

@russ the womble For me I usually just have to continue once after the meeting (ensuring the game progress not just moves to the news screen or inbox) and the option is there. I think if you wait too long the option disappears as the game assumes that round of negotiations to be over and the player just moves to unwilling to talk as recent talks broke down.

[WhiteCat33]

@russ the womble other trick is to let your DOF start the negotiations. If he can make a deal with the player if you go in to change the deal nothing will be locked. Be aware if you remove the fee release clauses you'll have to juice the wages so the agent will accept it. A couple times too I've had them add new awful clauses as well that weren't there initially, so its perhaps more of a gamble. I think both strategies are impacted by how much the agent likes/dislikes you, as agents that hate you will refuse to restart talks sometimes.

[russ the womble]

9 minutes ago, WhiteCat33 said:

@russ the womble other trick is to let your DOF start the negotiations. If he can make a deal with the player if you go in to change the deal nothing will be locked. Be aware if you remove the fee release clauses you'll have to juice the wages so the agent will accept it. A couple times too I've had them add new awful clauses as well that weren't there initially, so its perhaps more of a gamble. I think both strategies are impacted by how much the agent likes/dislikes you, as agents that hate you will refuse to restart talks sometimes.

Useful trick, thanks! Will revert to that if needed otherwise will talk to the agent.

[russ the womble]

Love these stats

[DazRTaylor]

Ok, I just lost at home.  By the odd goal.  What an extraordinary game.  Look at the xG!  I think it is safe to say the goalkeepers had a nightmare.  I lost 7-8!

[JAwtunes]

14 minutes ago, DazRTaylor said:

Ok, I just lost at home.  By the odd goal.  What an extraordinary game.  Look at the xG!  I think it is safe to say the goalkeepers had a nightmare.  I lost 7-8!

When both teams are playing rush-goalie

[russ the womble]

23 minutes ago, DazRTaylor said:

Ok, I just lost at home.  By the odd goal.  What an extraordinary game.  Look at the xG!  I think it is safe to say the goalkeepers had a nightmare.  I lost 7-8!

Imagine drawing 7-7 in the 95th minute and still losing  Damn..

[P O\'D]

We go again.  So Belgium and its money bug.  But a team thats super strong for the division and already has decent facilities.  I think the key to this will be getting to European football and a way to counteract the finances before things get too bad.

Options Proof:

Spoiler

Manager:

Spoiler

 

 

Edited February 9, 2023 by P O\'D

[DazRTaylor]

Youth Candidates

Season 2024/25

FC United of Manchester

I was once again promised a sublime intake:

The intake was actually pretty good.

[OlivierL]

15 hours ago, P O\'D said:

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?

 Not against the rules but keep in mind that Belgium is bugged with financial issues. Si is working om it. 

[XaW]

3 hours ago, russ the womble said:

Is there any way to get rid of minimum fee release clauses when the agent makes it non negotiable? I keep offering contracts and about 50% of the time this is a non-negotiable, and then the player gets upset I have not offered a contract!

Edit: also,  

If you talk to the agent, and then ask "please don't make anything non-negotiable" that often make it removeable, I've found. Not 100%, but quite often.

[Barnsley]

FC United Update - 2046-2047 ( bit of a summary)

Sorry guys, just an update - I haven't been on here in a while totally forgot to come online, however i have been playing it in the background since my last update. We are now into season 24, currently in the championship. See below for the info on the last seasons - i am into my 7th Season in the Championship - we made the playoff final once and lost 2-1, the rest of the seasons we have been solid. 

I must admit, this is my all time favourite game on Football Manager, I am not sure if this is ever actually going to be achievable - the premier league just looks insane, and complete luck now on getting players through the academy to be good enough to finally win a prem title and a champions league, for me my goal has been to get to the Prem and get a stadium named after myself. It has been such a refreshing game from my usual way of playing. From then on we will see! My motivation for this game is incredible, every aspect of it and I shall not give it up. I would like to get Anthony Connor managing the U18s or 21s at some point if he is interested.

Season	1	17	18	19	20	21	22	23
Year	22/23	39/40	40/41	41/42	42/43	43/44	44/45	45/46
League	Van North	League One	Championship	Championship	Championship	Championship	Championship	Championship
Prediction	18th	13th	24th	24th	24th	22nd	20th	15th
Comments		WON PLAYOFFS					Lost in playoff final
Place	12th	4th	21st	15th	15th	14th	6th	12th
Played	46	46	46	46	46	46	46	46
Won	17	26	11	17	15	18	23	17
Draw	11	9	7	9	11	9	8	13
Loss	18	11	28	20	20	19	15	16
GF	63	102	64	68	70	81	75	59
GA	65	62	100	69	72	69	61	59
GD	-2	40	-36	-1	-2	12	14	0
PTS	62	87	40	60	56	63	77	64
Top Scorer (League)	Bright Amoateng	Anthony Connor	Anthony Connor	Anthony Connor	Anthony Connor	Anthony Connor	Kevin Holland	Nikos Drivas
Goals (League)	18	48	28	30	23	26	21	12
Fa Cup	4th Qual	1st Rnd	3rd Rnd	3rd Rnd	5th Rnd	4th Rnd	5th Rnd	3rd Rnd
FA Trophy	Semi	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
Carabao Cup		3rd Rnd	2nd Rnd	Quarters	3rd Rnd	1st Rnd	4th Rnd	2nd Rnd
Papa Johns		2nd Rnd	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
Training Facilities	Basic	Average	Average	Average	Great	Great	Great	Great
Youth Facilities	Basic	Great	Great	Excellent	Excellent	Excellent	Excellent	Excellent
Youth Level	4	2	2	2	1	1	1	1
Youth Recruitment	Average	Exceptional	Exceptional	Exceptional	Exceptional	Exceptional	Exceptional	Exceptional
Junior Coaching	Average	Exceptional	Exceptional	Exceptional	Exceptional	Exceptional	Exceptional	Exceptional
Balance 1st July	£125,425.00	-£455,000.00	£1,125,000.00	£4,251,521.00	£33,505,000.00	£21,452,253.00	£24,425,421.00	£29,321,025.00
Capacity	4400	6150	6150	9225	12053	12053	18079	18079
Average Attendendance	2335	4186	5978	6351	10989	6426	17211	16499
Season Ticket Holders	2056	3574	5360	5550	6650	8357	8530	8582
Price	£149.00	£286.00	£354.00	£367.00	£377.00	£391.00	£402.00	£413.00
Match Ticket	£11.00	£20.00	£24.00	£36.00	£27.00	£28.00	£28.00	£29.00

We still have Anthony Connor - 38 years old - no plan to retire yet so may get another out of him after this. the reason why i have loved this game so much, some screens below of him. Finally got him on a head of youth development job too as well as player so hopefully keep him forever! The man was born to score goals, he lost his pace, but never his finishing. However the last 3 seasons have finally caught up with him. Prior to that he was probably on for 1000 goals which is obscene, his current all time stats according to the club where are they now page:

1056 Games - 927 Goals - he will just not make it unfortunately due to the last few year decline  

I am finally a legend on the club list, which is great as one day when we do get a stadium i will love it to be the Barnsley Arena.

[russ the womble]

   

The Table

Spoiler

After our 5th placed finish last season, we went a few better and finished runners up to Klagenfurt.

The ticker tape is a lie...

Klagenfurt were a tough team to face and - being an ex Bundesliga team - it's probably good to have them out of the way. 

Hartberg are going to be main rivals for the title next season hopefully.

The Team

Spoiler

Our team had a good spread of goals this season and right winger Marvin Hinze smashed in 21 goals! Arzberger had a good season in the maruading left IWB slot.

We don't have any exceptional players, aside from maybe Sven Fix, but I'm sure we can eek out a bit more performance from the team next year

The Talent

Spoiler

Whilst Sven Fix is a fine player, I found Adam Majzik and Dusan Dokic to be the two stand out new players this year. I think Dokic dropping deep helps his game and the midfield.

Hinze meanwhile, despite scoring 21 goals, does not appear to be that great! Maybe it's his reluctance to go into the channels?

Turned down a few offers for Pavlovic in goal, who is ultra reliable. May have to consider selling at some point though.

The Stats

Spoiler

Started to get more obsessed over the Data Hub this season!

Our full backs appear to have gone all 'Trent Alexander Arnold' and are picking up a lot of xA, which is good to see.

Whilst our forwards appear to run their socks off for the cause, at least over short ish distances

The Bank

Spoiler

We are not in great financial shape! But - it only increased a little from last season. If I can get the wage bill down another few k a week, it should be manageable. 

We have six more years left to pay off the stadium debt, so if we can sell a player or two and keep things ticking over, it's looking fairly comfortable.

My average attendance dropped this year despite finishing 2nd (wtf Austrians!), but hopefully they come crawling back to see a title win

[The7Striker]

My save is gone. 

I had a power failure when the FM was autosaving and now I cant open the file. 

[CameronFM]

Szolnoki MÁV FC

Season 2027/28

League | Cup | Squad | Transfers | Finances

And the good times come crashing to an end. Despite a promising promotion push last season, we were fairly outclassed in our first ever season in the OTP Bank Liga. Relegation was confirmed with 8 games remaining, and we smash a lot of records for our poor performance.

Time to go back to the drawing board and see what we can get working. 

Youth Intake 2028

A mixed youth intake, with start man Matty Munro standing out - he is deemed as good as Schimmer so it is a massive boost for the club! However, not many players in positions required - 3 strikers seem excessive!

Spoiler

József Vincze (intake 2026) really has me excited about the future after his second season with the club; 10 goals and 4 assists in 32 league games is impressive for the 17-year-old! He will certainly be a staple in the team.

2024 intake player Donát Bodnár continued to hold down on his own position within the team, recording 20 appearances throughout the season. Perhaps not the best season for development, but as long as we keep him on side, he will be huge for the future. 

[russ the womble]

19 minutes ago, The7Striker said:

My save is gone. 

I had a power failure when the FM was autosaving and now I cant open the file. 

Do you not have the old rolling save files? Sucks to lose a save entirely.

[P O\'D]

29 minutes ago, The7Striker said:

My save is gone. 

I had a power failure when the FM was autosaving and now I cant open the file. 

That sucks dude, is there a way to see if its saved on steam cloud if you use steam?

[officiallydeej]

I couldn't get on with how Brazil worked and in honesty it felt a bit easy (I won the State, local cup and had played 11 won 11 in the league) so I am back in Bulgaria to finish what I started.

 

Chernomorets 1919 Burgas - 2030/31 Season

Although this was a step back on previous seasons on the whole I am not too disappointed. I tried to change our formation at the start of the season from the one that had brought me this far and it really didn't work with us actually in the bottom half after 10 games. I limped to the Winter break because I didn't want to switch the tactic without time to familiarise the players, then used the friendlies over the break to switch back to our tried and trusted 4-4-2. In the second half of the season we stormed up the table to finish 4th in the Championship group. That set up a one off game against the team who won the middle post split group CSKA, who we dispatched fairly comfortably to secure a place in next season's Conference League. Ludogorets were back with a bang to secure their first title in three years with surprise package (but producer of excellent youths) Botev Plovdiv finishing second.

 

Not a great cup run this season. Our second string outplayed Sportist Svoge but couldn't find the net and were punished late on.

 

I didn't realise until the draw that due to Levski's work to raise the league's coefficient we were actually put into the Champions League qualifiers, entering at the second phase. We beat Silkeborg fairly comfortable but couldn't handle Brest (no sniggering) in the third round. I actually thought we were out altogether but a couple of weeks later we were drawn in the Europa League group phase. We actually did quite well in this despite it being pre the Winter break, only losing to Atletico Madrid and managing 5 wins and 2 draws. The big result was a 4-1 win at home to Lille to see us through the play off round but Man United were far too strong. We got beaten 4-1 at home which led me to feed our second string to the lions at Old Trafford in order to prioritise our rise up the Bulgarian League.

 

 

I changed up our HOYD in the hope of getting some full backs and wingers in the intake. Although we didn't find any 5* potential in those positions on the whole it was an improvement. 

 

 

Another full set of upgrades as we max out both academy coaching and youth recruitment, with training and youth facilities now both rated great. It is important to keep qualifying for Europe to pay upkeep on these as our bank would soon drain without the prize money European football brings. I let a few more players leave, some who had played quite a few times for the first team but had now been overtaken by the 2029 and 2030 intake stars.

 

Edited February 9, 2023 by officiallydeej

[Lunnarium]

Hello,

I am new around, and not very experienced with FM series, but I love Challenges. 
I'll start with Romania as I see there's no completion on the list for it.

My Team:


My players, including 2nd team(else I don't have a first 11)

Spoiler

And my profile as a coach:

Spoiler

And not much more, just the normal welcome

Spoiler

 

[The7Striker]

21 minutos atrás, P O\'D disse:

That sucks dude, is there a way to see if its saved on steam cloud if you use steam?

Nope. I had the autosave in 3 different files but all the 3 have error. @russ the womble

 

@officiallydeej glad you took Burgas again 

Edited February 9, 2023 by The7Striker

[Winski]

Intake 2027 preview

 

Pfew, this is a bad looking preview, to be honest. I appointed Cato André Hansen as my new HoYD, as he looks like a decent HoYD. But this first preview doesn't look good. Hopefully the intake will be better then this!

[officiallydeej]

@The7Striker I don't think I'll be venturing out of Europe again any time soon 

 

Sorry you lost your save, that sucks. Have you thought about where you might go next?

[officiallydeej]

Levski made the Champions League knockouts last season which has absolutely skyrocketed our coefficient. Sadly for them they only finish third meaning they won't benefit and are going into the Conference League! Hopefully Ludogorets and Botev keep flying the Bulgarian flag in the UCL.

 

[The7Striker]

23 minutos atrás, officiallydeej disse:

@The7Striker I don't think I'll be venturing out of Europe again any time soon 

 

Sorry you lost your save, that sucks. Have you thought about where you might go next?

I might wait for the winter update. But maybe a top 5 league or something.

Brazil has alot of game tbh but you get some superb wonderkids

[P O\'D]

Lokeren End of Season 1.

In the end we hit par based on predictions, but an amazing 2nd half of the season nonetheless.  We were tipped for 2nd and thats where we finished.

Amazing Run of Results: I didn't even change tactic.

Spoiler

How close were we to the title, well this close.  That 2nd last game of the season vs Rupel Boom.  We started that day 2 pts behind and Club NXT must have felt the pressure from the media and getting over the line because they got trashed at home 3-0.  We were a goal up with half and hour to play and blew it.  We did excellently in the cup pushing a top division team all the way to extra time and statistically should have won the match.

Youth Intake:

Stupidly good for our level thanks to our facilites.

The pick of the bunch is almost ready for our first team already.  Looks a wonderful talent.

.

Other Youth Stuff

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Angry Kid Above.

Transfer Screens

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Battle vs Finance Bug:

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This could get messy till I can somehow wangle my way into Europe.  We've got -1m after 1 season and after 3 we're projecting -5.9m.  Probably going to need back to back promotions and then Uefa Conference in the next 2 seasons our finances will be totally dead and so will the save.  Renewing contracts will be get very interesting.

 

Edited February 9, 2023 by P O\'D

[grff]

Tutankhamun: 2026/27 Season Review

Another last day decider and another bit of heartbreak as we finished 3rd. Our challenge was made much harder as we lost head to heads against the top two which was a disaster due to the league standings going on H2H first.

Player stats were good all round again. Our 17yo newgen finished top scorer so hopefully he'll consistently find the net.

Youth intake was a mixture of dross and poor personalities. I've currently got a born leader tutoring 15 unambitious newgens

Transfers

Season history

Aim for next season

• Clinch promotion to the Premier League
• Attempt to transform a decent amount of negative personalities.
• Commit our best players to long term deals.

[russ the womble]

   

The Table

Spoiler

Another 2nd placed finish. We were top after ten but two bad sequences of results put us massively behind Hartberg in the end.

AC Wolfsberger are coming down from Bundesliga - hopefully in disarray and I can take the title next season. 

The Team

Spoiler

A bit more goal shy this season, but still good ratings across most players

The Talent

Spoiler

Not much stats progress from what I can see, but Fix is still the MVP. 

The Stats

Spoiler

The Stats

Annoyingly I have told players to shoot less and they are still blasting it over from 20 yards out.

TSV Hartberg aside, we are quite well ahead of others on goal scoring, so hopefully bodes well for next season

Defensively also in good shape

The Bank

Spoiler

The owners put a bit more cash into the business, which is nice.

Debt is coming down.. 

The Fans

Spoiler

Overall a bit of a disappointing season but we're still at the right end of the table.

Big bump in attendances and STs this season!

Edited February 10, 2023 by russ the womble

[DazRTaylor]

End of Season Review

Season 2024/25

FC United of Manchester

Season Summary

It was another solid season as we secured another promotion playoff spot and enjoyed two good cup runs.

Season Details

League Table - Darlington were the best team in the division by some distance though we were competing for second best.  We had to settle for third place and another playoff appearance.

League Fixtures 1 & 2 - We were consistent though did drop silly points at times.

Promotion Playoffs - We were dreadful as we went out at home to Kings Lynn Town at the semi final stage.

F. A. Cup - We wnjoyed a good cup run before losing away, despite an excellent performance, to League One Lincoln City in a seven goal thriller at the second round stage.

F. A. Trophy - We had another decent cup run as we made it through to the fifth round before a poor performance away to Chelmsford Town, who play at the same level we do, saw the club crash out.

Friendlies - Five wins and five losses meant we had a mixed experience in pre season.

Squad - After a good intake, we are improving.

Squad Dynamics - It is still rather lovely.

Transfers In - None.

Transfers Out - I allowed Callum Gribbin to leave on a free transfer as his decline has been rather alarming.  Regan Linney also departed on a free transfer as he spent most of the campaign crying.

Youth Candidates - We received an excellent intake with Welsh left back Jonathan Jones YP25B18 looking like a fine prospect.

Finances - Another profit was made and our bank balance grew.

Key Players

Eden Bailey - The striker actually topped last season's 43 goals by scoring 46 goals in 53 appearances.

James Vincent - The veteran midfielder is showing signs of decline though he still more than held his own.

Alex Wollarton - He became our best midfielder this year.

Kit Elliott - Comfortable on either wing or up front, he established himself as a regular this season.

Michael Donohue - Highloy versatile as he can play at right back or on either wing, he had a fine campaign.

Next Season

Another playoff spot?

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 ↑
2024/25       30 November 2024             30 June 2026         £825 p/w ↑        £625 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
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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 ↑
2024/25    Minimal = (1.50*) ↑   Continental C ↑↑     9 ↑   9 ↑   4 ↑   1 =   1 =   1 =   9 ↑   9 ↑   9 ↑   8 =   1 =   8 ↑   7 ↑   8 ↑  13 ↑   9 ↑  10 ↑

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*) =
2024/25    Basic =              Basic =                4 =     Adequate =            Good         ↑↑  Above Average ↑↑   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%
2024/25      57        32        9       16         130              75                 +55              56.14% ↑

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
2024/25         111        58       21       32         237             156                 +81              52.25% ↑           688 days

Transfer Sale Record

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

Trophy Haul

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

Trophy Cabinet

League Titles
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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.
2024/25           N/a               N/a                    N/a                       Vanarama National League North        3rd ↑     Second Round            ↑       N/a           Lost in promotion playoff semi final.  F. A. Trophy Fifth Round.

Record Number of Appearances (Players From The Academy Only)

Season     Player                    Cumulative Number of Appearances
---------------------------------------------------------------------
2023/24    No one                                    0
2024/25    Jonathan Jones YP25B18                    9

Record Goal Scorer (Players From The Academy Only)

Season     Player                          Cumulative Number of Goals
---------------------------------------------------------------------
2023/24    No one                                        0
2024/25    Sean Bryson YP25K27                           1

Record Number of Assists (Players From The Academy Only)

Season     Player                        Cumulative Number of Assists
---------------------------------------------------------------------
2023/24    No one                                      0
2024/25    Sean Bryson YP25K27                         2

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

Season     Player                    Cumulative Number of Clean Sheets
----------------------------------------------------------------------
2023/24    No one                                     0
2024/25    No one                                     0

 

 

 

 

 

[Constantine]

Season 1 (2024/25)

We were in play out places going into last round and we should've ended up there with Alessandria but thanks to rules in Italy, in which I'm not getting into since there's many of them, both of us survived in no man's land.

In play out, Carpi got beaten by Arezzo, side that had 4 wins all year and got relegated. Feels bad man...

Bogus in Cup but... Who cares at this point.

 

Transfers

Pre-arranged, nothing I could do. No outings, as we had like 15 players in club, in total.

 

Youth Intake

All elite talents signed and that's about it. Numbers to fill out the bench.

It's a shame our most gifted are Italians but hopefully we'll get our San Marino eugenics program going couple of years down the line.

 

Top Talents

We needed a proper, right footed right back and we've got him. Nice physicals but he sucks in defense and offers basically nothing going forward so... Yeah, he'll start.

 

Our 34 years old backup striker is retiring so Luca's going to get some minutes off the bench.

 

We're well stacked in middle of the park but we're committed to developing Sammarinese talent.

Side note, I just love his mental high aggression with such low decisions. I'm sure it won't bring us any problem on the pitch whatsoever.

 

Top Players

Our top scorer, 24 goals in 37 appearances.

 

Top of the assists chart with *check notes* a whole 9 assists.

 

Arguably our best midfielder and most important player. It just sucks that he wants to leave and play with better players. We have him for next season and one-year contract extension but I hope he changes his mind and sign with us a long term deal.

 

That's about it for now. Cheers.

Edited February 10, 2023 by Constantine

[Weed07]

Crewe United - Season Four 26/27

Premiership

Season Summary

Last season was our first in the Premiership after 2 promotions and we over achieved to finish 5th, this season we were again predicted to finish bottom with odds of 1000/1 to win the league but as long as we kept our best players and in particular our keeper I expected us to do ok. Our keeper was also rated as 2nd to be the top young player which was nice to see.

I did find an annoying bug at the start of the season which I'm not too happy with, its not a game breaking bug but its one that for some reason has given all the youth players we have in the first team random teams showing up in their career history screen, they all have the same teams showing. Its been raised already on the bugs forum and SI have said they are looking into it but for a youth only save I want my players to only show as being at this club only and not showing them galivanting across Mexico and the USA as you can see in the screenshot below.

Spoiler

After finishing 5th last season and winning the European playoffs the club had its first venture into Europe and we went into the first qualifying round for the Europa Conference league and were drawn against AFC UTA Arad from Romania, a club I'd never heard of but they had a better reputation than us and players on a few thousand a week so I expected them to be better than us and they were but not by as much as i thought. We lost the first leg at home 1-0 but they only scored via a penalty and then in the away leg we only lost 2-1 which I didn't think was too bad, I hadn't expected us to progress anywhere in Europe yet as its too early but it was good to pick up some money and we got around £300K for it which was quickly put to good use as my board agreed to upgrade our youth facilities which is the first time on the save to get those upgraded.

Domestically we had another decent season as we matched last year with a 5th placed finish and winning the European playoffs again, the season overall wasn't as good as the previous as we lost more games and conceded more goals but we also won more games as we only drew 4 times but still ended up with 4 points less than the previous season. i kept the direct counter attacking tactics that got us this far but found it didn't work as well as in previous season as we were either good or bad, there were no average games and we seemed to be better away from home where the tactic worked better. No complaints though as we still over achieved and we managed to keep our best players.

In the cups we usually do nothing but this year we got all the way to the Northern Irish cup final where we took an early lead but ended up losing 3-2 to Glentoran, a win would have put us into Europe so thankfully we still got there via the playoffs but it would have been better doing it winning the cup. In the other cups we got knocked out fairly early on.

The league table:

Spoiler

Our starting 11 is now made up mostly of youth players with only 2 players that started at the club still playing:

Spoiler

Our youth preview was again good and for the first time it showed we were getting a defensive midfielder who i was hoping would be good.

Youth Preview:

Spoiler

Unfortunately although we did get a defensive midfielder it was one that would go into the first team and may never as he was rated 11th from the 16 players we got. Overall the youth intake was great in terms of having lots of good players but we did get 1 awesome striker who was our 2nd 5 star current ability player we've had in the intake, our junior coaching is now excellent which may be helping. I believe that this striker will be one that we will struggle to keep hold of but may be a cash cow for us later on if we can get a good sell on fee for him when he eventually leaves to a bigger club.

The youth intake:

Spoiler

It may look like we have a few good players in the list but other than the striker the rest have poor attributes or personalities and I don't have much hope for them

Our best youth player from this intake:

Spoiler

 

At the end of the season my centre back from the first intake we had came 3rd in the young player of the year:

Spoiler

My keeper also won an award but not with our club, he was called up the the England squad for the Under 20 world cup which England won and he picked up the u20 World Cup golden glove award:

Spoiler

The board kept allowing me to do coaching badges and I'm now up to Continental A and they were again generous to allow some more upgrades, I mentioned earlier we had the youth facilities upgraded with the European money so those are now basic which still isn't much but its a start and they also agreed to upgrade junior coaching again which will go to Exceptional which I think is the best they can be.

My manager:

Spoiler

Club profile and Facilities:

Spoiler

Transfers - We started seeing some youth players leave the club on loan as they need to play first team football but also some now getting released as they will never be good enough

Spoiler

Heres some spreadsheet data:

Spoiler

Club info:

Season stats:

Manager info

Next season I'm happy with more of the same, we just need to keep finishing top half and trying to get into Europe as it'll be the European money that will advance the club as we need to keep improving facilities.

Edited February 10, 2023 by Weed07

[Libertine13]

@Weed07 excellent progress in N. Ireland. Well ahead of me! Just curious to see if theres much difference ability wise between a couple of your starting XI players and mine as I've struggled in the top flight and have a major issue with the number of goals I concede lol.

 

 

 

Edited February 10, 2023 by Libertine13
Grammar

[P O\'D]

Quick question, mostly looking for advice, so my Hoyd is fairly professional, I put up and advert and he was best I could find.  The youth intake I was super excited about.. well lots of terrible mentalities came though and the future superstar I thought I had has slack for his mentality therefor (after ruining his mentor group with no influence, cussing me out numerous times and making zero improvement) he's back in the u18's and probably getting thrown out of the club at the first possible chance.

Is there a solid way to find a hotd with better mentality bar post a job listing and pray?

[JAwtunes]

I give it 6months before we break him

[Neo_Geo]

50 minutes ago, P O\'D said:

Quick question, mostly looking for advice, so my Hoyd is fairly professional, I put up and advert and he was best I could find.  The youth intake I was super excited about.. well lots of terrible mentalities came though and the future superstar I thought I had has slack for his mentality therefor (after ruining his mentor group with no influence, cussing me out numerous times and making zero improvement) he's back in the u18's and probably getting thrown out of the club at the first possible chance.

Is there a solid way to find a hotd with better mentality bar post a job listing and pray?

You can do a staff search with a custom view that shows the rating, preferred formation, personality and playing style like I do (see below):

Also I believe  that it takes a number of intakes for the current HoYD to have an impact so you could have a model citizen HoYD in the first season but you probably won't see the full effects until a few intakes later.

[XaW]

          

XaW - Folkestone Invicta - Season 2024/25 (Season 2) - 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.  

Well this was a fun season! In a very close season it went down to the wire. Torquay, Bath, and us were within a few points before the final game. We had the easier match where we beat Gosport Borought while Bath lost to Worthing to clinch the title. So we are going up into the national league for the first time! I had a blast this season, and when it ended in success, and a very good youth intake, I can't complain!

I also managed to get a few more improvements accepted. No news on the new stadium though.

FA Cup: We beat Tiverton, Basingstoke Town, and Metropolitan Police before we lost to Wrexham in the 1st round.
FA Trophy: We beat Hampton & Richmond and Farnborough before we lost to Eastleigh in the 4th round.

U18s

They finished 6th in the National U18 League South East this season.

FA Youth Cup: They beat Corinthian-Casuals and Basingstoke Town before they lost to Yeovil Town in the 3rd qualifying round.

Youth intake:

Trophy cabinet

Vanarama National League South - 1 (2024/25)

Player statistics:

Most apps for the clubs

Name			Nation		2nd Nation	Apps
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gregor Borg 24a		England		<N/A>		56
Baden Ardley 24g	England		<N/A>		50
Frannie Stratton 24f	England		<N/A>		39
Jens Ewald 24m		Germany		England		38
Tyler Mendes 24c	Montserrat	England		16

Most goals for the club

Name			Nation		2nd Nation	Goals
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Frannie Stratton 24f	England		<N/A>		6
Baden Ardley 24g	England		<N/A>		3
Gregor Borg 24a		England		<N/A>		2
Tyler Mendes 24c	Montserrat	England		2
Jens Ewald 24m		Germany		England		1

Most assists for the club

Name			Nation		2nd Nation	Assists
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Frannie Stratton 24f	England		<N/A>		7
Gregor Borg 24a		England		<N/A>		4
Baden Ardley 24g	England		<N/A>		4
Craig Martin 25b	England		Ireland		2
Jaud Kasongo 25d	England		DR Congo	2

Supporters:

Summary:

[The7Striker]

8 minutos atrás, XaW disse:

          

XaW - Folkestone Invicta - Season 2024/25 (Season 2) - 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.  

Well this was a fun season! In a very close season it went down to the wire. Torquay, Bath, and us were within a few points before the final game. We had the easier match where we beat Gosport Borought while Bath lost to Worthing to clinch the title. So we are going up into the national league for the first time! I had a blast this season, and when it ended in success, and a very good youth intake, I can't complain!

I also managed to get a few more improvements accepted. No news on the new stadium though.

FA Cup: We beat Tiverton, Basingstoke Town, and Metropolitan Police before we lost to Wrexham in the 1st round.
FA Trophy: We beat Hampton & Richmond and Farnborough before we lost to Eastleigh in the 4th round.

U18s

They finished 6th in the National U18 League South East this season.

FA Youth Cup: They beat Corinthian-Casuals and Basingstoke Town before they lost to Yeovil Town in the 3rd qualifying round.

Youth intake:

Trophy cabinet

Vanarama National League South - 1 (2024/25)

Player statistics:

Most apps for the clubs

Name			Nation		2nd Nation	Apps
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gregor Borg 24a		England		<N/A>		56
Baden Ardley 24g	England		<N/A>		50
Frannie Stratton 24f	England		<N/A>		39
Jens Ewald 24m		Germany		England		38
Tyler Mendes 24c	Montserrat	England		16

Most goals for the club

Name			Nation		2nd Nation	Goals
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Frannie Stratton 24f	England		<N/A>		6
Baden Ardley 24g	England		<N/A>		3
Gregor Borg 24a		England		<N/A>		2
Tyler Mendes 24c	Montserrat	England		2
Jens Ewald 24m		Germany		England		1

Most assists for the club

Name			Nation		2nd Nation	Assists
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Frannie Stratton 24f	England		<N/A>		7
Gregor Borg 24a		England		<N/A>		4
Baden Ardley 24g	England		<N/A>		4
Craig Martin 25b	England		Ireland		2
Jaud Kasongo 25d	England		DR Congo	2

Supporters:

Summary:

It was a close fight for the title. Glad you got the trophy 

[ludak]

ND Dravinja Slovenske Konjice Season XII

Squad I Transfers I Finances

We had 3 seasons in which we had 68, 67 and 67 points, so you could say that we play consistently. We did lose to Maribor 3 times and 4 times to Bravo, which beat us only once in all the past years.

Olimpija kicked us out in second round of the cup, so I won't cover that.

It was a sorry sight, but we did reach the ECL league phase which was kind of our goal.

We were really, really good in the group phase, and it seemed that we could go far.

They were lucky. 

 

This has to be the highlight of my save so far. Getting a Sammarinese player in my team is a dream come true, and him being a player that could play in the future is insane.

Dolinar Markovič Velič Belec Kotnik 

These are some really good prospects, and I look forward to see them play when they turn 17, but the future star of our save has to be one and only:

I know he seems bad now, but with a few years of first team football he'll certainly become good.

 

Ok, that's it for this one, see ya lads at the end of next season!

[XaW]

1 hour ago, The7Striker said:

It was a close fight for the title. Glad you got the trophy 

Yeah, last match was nerve wrecking!  

[P O\'D]

2 hours ago, Neo_Geo said:

You can do a staff search with a custom view that shows the rating, preferred formation, personality and playing style like I do (see below):

Also I believe  that it takes a number of intakes for the current HoYD to have an impact so you could have a model citizen HoYD in the first season but you probably won't see the full effects until a few intakes later.

Thanks buddy appreciate it, I had no clue staff search was still in the game, shoulda looked harder, curse the ability to hand all responsibilities over keeping me away from the search screen.

[Winski]

 

Wow! What a result in the Champions League 3rd Qual. Round! We lost the first match against Rangers at home with 2-3. So I thought I had no chance away. But we really blew them away! We played fantastic and won 0-4. What a result!!

So, that means we will meet FC Qarabag again! Last season we lost against them in the 1st Qual. Round, so it's time for revenge. And if we do, we qualify for the Champions League! But if we lose, we are still qualified for the Europa League. So either way we'll continue our European story after this match  

 

[Neo_Geo]

17 minutes ago, P O\'D said:

Thanks buddy appreciate it, I had no clue staff search was still in the game, shoulda looked harder, curse the ability to hand all responsibilities over keeping me away from the search screen.

I find in this type of save it’s super important to manage your staff yourself as personalities are super important as well as favouring staff with working with youngsters.

If I have an assistant at the start I look for HoYD, fitness coach and a general coach  using staff search, sorted by rating. If I don’t have an assistant I put out an advert for them and the physios but wait til they are in place before looking for the coaches.

Then every year as you lead up to contract expiries just take a peek at the staff search again to see if you have any better options.

[Bubbles_DK]

 

Season 1, 2 and 3

I waited a few seasons to update to see if I could get investet in the save and now I´m in the beginning of the fourth season and decided to update now.

 

Manager profile

Facilities

 

First season went really well and we briefly in the promotion race, but we simply didn´t have the squad depth to hang on to Holstebro and and Middelfart.

Season 1

Signed everybody from the YI, because we are a amatuer side, so why don´t give everybody a chance.

 

 

 

In the second season we startedto use a few youngsters but the rather succesful 433 DM Wide, was underproferming with 14 points lower than our projected points. That meant that we were in a hard fought relagation battle and secured another season in the fourth tier of Denmark.

Season 2

 

We got a decent intake this year - and again we signed the lot.

 

After the disappointing season last year, we changed our tactics to a direct 442 and it worked magic. We were back in the promotion hunt. We lost the second place in the league in the last match unfortunately. But there was so many positives in this season. Hopefully we will be back again next season.

Season 3

 

This year we got a really good intake - hopefully we won´t loose some players before we manage to get to part time.

Again we signed the lot.

''H

Now we are up to date and hopefully I can make some more detailed reports 

[P O\'D]

21 minutes ago, Neo_Geo said:

I find in this type of save it’s super important to manage your staff yourself as personalities are super important as well as favouring staff with working with youngsters.

If I have an assistant at the start I look for HoYD, fitness coach and a general coach  using staff search, sorted by rating. If I don’t have an assistant I put out an advert for them and the physios but wait til they are in place before looking for the coaches.

Then every year as you lead up to contract expiries just take a peek at the staff search again to see if you have any better options.

Cheers bud will do.

[Winski]

Well, it wasn't meant to be... I hate Qarabag

 

[WhiteCat33]

FC Elazig Spor Hamburg

Season 3 2025-26 Oberliga Hamburg (Tier 5)

 

Spoiler

Season 1 | Season 2 |

Competitions

League: 8 of 17 [Preview – 17/17 (700-1)] (matches)

We really struggled for consistency in the first half of the season, which really came down to our strikers just completely failing to convert their chances. But after the winter break and my fresh 16 year-olds were added we started to see more 

Cup: 8th-Final

Exact same as the past 2 years.

Squad:

I haven't really focused on the squad yet, so I figured it's worth a brief highlight of where our ability is at. 

Spoiler

For my CA calculations I generate 2 values the first with Weaker Foot = 1 and the second with the correct Weaker Foot weighting. I use this minimum added value because for players this bad the Either-Footed bloat can be a 100% increase in CA for a player I would never select based on attributes as you can see in the rough-and-ready table below. Players are sorted by Assistant Rating of CA to showcase how our evaluations differ:

I will say I need to go back and revisit the Striker calculations. With the weights I got off FM Scout it has a significantly higher weighted total so to get a high CA as a striker is much harder than any other position. This is balanced though by the 'position rating', which is unweighted for both the priority & secondary highlighted attributes when you select a role. Thus, when you look at 23. Güngör Mandıralı he has an awful CA, but if you look at his role skill he is  well on his way (even with the AI playing him at CB when he was a youth and blowing some of his ability). For CA it doesn't give any value to Aggression, Bravery, Flair or Natural Fitness which are Mandirali's best attributes hence why his CA is abysmal. 

Performance:

For now it's just the basic in-game graphics. Attacking we are getting lots of shots off, but they are low probability so might add 'work-into-box' for next season to get closer shots. Because we don't use wingers our cross completion is naturally higher, what I do find interesting is how often we are fouled compared to the league. Weird? Defense that's a real bad polygon with the exception of interceptions.

Spoiler

Transfers:

None

Youth Academy

Youth Intake Preview:

Spoiler

Youth Intake:

Even though my HOYD claims its a "Golden Generation" it's one without any standout CA player and we are already getting a Top Talent which is a very poor sign for the actual PA these players have.

Spoiler

YI Player Highlights:

Spoiler

Yildrim is a good personality CAM who at least is a hard-working team player and was our #1 CA of the intake at 16. Our 2 star players are this position, but he can provide rotation especially if I can get his passing up.

And just to show how useless the 2* CA player is Tasci literally only has speed and he’s the #2 CA player at 13.

Third is one of many RBs and he has a good personality so maybe could improve, but he only has 11 CA.

Academy Data:

This is still very much a work in progress but I've begun calculating and tracking CA for my intakes (and also squad) so have added some simple graphs onto the nation-tracking I have used from @XaW both these years I've posted in the forum. I've also been following your monthly updates for Folkstone Invictus and your position-rating was certainly inspiration for my second table.

Totally data-overkill to tell me what I already know that these players are awful, but the idea I have for this save in a big nation is to actually use the data in the game to help inform my squad building decisions because (hypothetically) there will be more player quality than I am used to playing in nations like Luxembourg and Malta... eventually  This first step is for CA, then I'll begin looking into the playing statistics probably raiding the Moneyball spreadsheets for ideas.

Spoiler

Head Coach

Board likes giving me coaching badges, I'm not complaining. Got my Cont. B and am currently working on the Cont. A.

Spoiler

Club

Only managed to get 1 Youth Recruitment upgrade, the lack of finances is killing me this save. Not sure how we can make any money to begin the snowball as we aren't entered into the DFB Pokal just the local Hamburg one, which doesn't pay out much at all so isn't worth using the 1st team.

Spoiler

Manager Thoughts

We again were mid-table without any dramatic fight to salvage the season. Most importantly we are starting to see some of the youth players develop from being shocking to just terrible. The quality in the league has definitely increased this year especially with youth loans coming down the pyramid. We still are dying for some CBs to arrive as well as a Striker with Finishing. If we don't get one of the two next year we may be in serious trouble.

Spoiler

 

 

[XaW]

2 minutes ago, WhiteCat33 said:

your position-rating was certainly inspiration for my second table.

Who can say no to endless parenthesis in horrible formulas...