The FM23 Youth Academy Challenge

[Barnsley]

2 hours ago, russ the womble said:

I try to develop a defensive 5-3-2 to get a decent result against RB Salzburg (who play a 4-1-2-1-2 narrow) and this is what happens

So frustrating! I'm looking at it and I out number them, men behind the ball.. nope. I think I will always lose against them regardless.

I am not good at tactical switches either, I also wanted to create a 523/532, however no matter how I set up or what i do. just get beat either way.

[JAwtunes]

Cardiff Corinthians - Season 2051/52 Review (s30) Season 30

Another reasonably good season.  We won the league again but did drop more points than we have in the last couple of decades.  We made it to the second knockout round of the Europa League after finishing third in our Champions League group.

Competitions

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Youth Intake

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Preview

Intake

HoYD

Players

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First Team

Fan Player of the Year

Best Prospect

SUMMARY

[JusttJD]

Alright, this is going to be my final try for this challenge for the time being.
And, because I'm persistent (or stupid), I'm going to give it another go in Belgium.
And, after a lot of reloading to pick a unique team, I have chosen the following team.

They are not the favorites, but I think we can still be fairly competitive.

Images to shown that I started out as a nobody and that there hasn't been any transfers.

Spoiler

My facilities are... well, they are there.

My squad though, they might not be the best (although there are a couple good individuals.)
There are plenty of players, so I should not run into the issue of my previous game. (Running out of players and having to depend on grey players.)

I'm not sure where this season is going to take though.
First priority is to renew a lot of contracts and hire a decent staff

[P O\'D]

Finally Promoted.. Lokeren 27/28

Phew it took awhile but we did it and weirdly we did it without ever testing the top places in the league.  We cruised through our own playoffs and luckily drew Cercle Brugge in the top/2nd division promotion/relegation player.

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Youth:

It was a year of trash mentalities and only 4 elite players.  Nothing amazing here.

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A look at the picks of the bunch (imho of course)

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And the squad that achieved promotion well it was...

I didn't play near as many youth team players and stuck mostly to my young first team squad as above shows in comparison to other seasons.  Lotta potential in this team.

Heres a look at the stars.  Emre Aktas still wants to leave but sadly no one in Belgium can afford his huge transfer fee.  Have to get him out the door by December or he'll leave on a free.  Big problem.

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Sadly our facilities got downgraded and we have to cash to push them back up.  Oh well.

Slightly better but still terrible.

Edited February 19, 2023 by P O\'D

[leyrtj]

Season 2 - South Shields

Wow, that was a tough season. A disappointing start as the board refused any improvements in facilities. They injected a loan into the club to cover any debts so money isn’t great. For our first season in the Vanarama National, our media prediction was 24th with odds of 45 - 1. Not quite as bad as I thought. All players signed extensions, some by 3 years. We finished 19th in the end. The start was promising and I thought we might have a chance of the playoffs. But then everyone started getting jaded and in need of a rest. We reduced our pressing intensity and rested the whole first team squad for two weeks. But the bad results kept coming and coming. At one point we were 4 points above the drop but a couple of key wins and we survived, finishing 19th in the League.

Check this out for a bad run of form.

 

Our goal next year is to start getting those youth prospects into the first team. Porritt, our 5 star potential winger from the first youth intake batch is now the starting MR.

 

Edited February 19, 2023 by leyrtj

[Barnsley]

Think second season in the Premier League will be our last one, not sure i am going to get myself out of this one already starting to get cut adrift! the bad teams have been relegated the season before and I think this time there isn't 3 worse teams! Last year I had only won 2 games from the first 19 but I was still just outside the bottom 3 with how bad the other 3 were! this time Norwich have come up and they have a tycoon,. The rest are all premier league teams that seem to Yo-Yo.

[Ray46]

On 17/02/2023 at 23:39, russ the womble said:

This youth intake..

I thought I had a gem with Feliu Torres, but Linus is on another level. 

[libbyshuss]

Catania - Serie A - 2062/63

 

Another quick update as all I need is the Champions League to complete the challenge. Did we do it? Did we heck!

 

Our record isn't great in the Champions League tbh

 

league

I focus on CL at the minute and let the league take care of itself which it usually does. We were top most of the season and with three games to play only needed 1 win for the title. So we lost 5-4 away to Roma, 5-3 away to Milan and finished level with Milan, sending us into a ply off

 

Players

Crazy stuff from Moscardelli!

He scored 55 in Serie A alone!

[Barnsley]

Incredible, does it get easier over time or harder? I am solely relying now on producing enough good players to be able to push in the premier league but there is not much else I can do. Feel like i will be relegated this season and then struggle to come back up the next season. and repeat! I guess there will be a time where everything just clicks into place like yourself. 

How unlucky to lose the playoff after that.

I have always felt the champions league easier to win than the premier league. Too much money and too many good teams!

[GylfiAsCharged]

On 01/02/2023 at 14:18, Neo_Geo said:

Czech Republic run over....

I guess losing 3 first choice centrebacks in a calendar year isn't going to do many favours for my defence. We had horrendous luck with injuries early on in the season and our the morale plummeted with the results, then players asking to leave and not being happy about it caused the rest of the squad to lose faith. Injuries then continued and the mid-season break did no favours this time round and it was just too much to continue.

Lots of promising talent but they were a couple of years away from being ready to play alongside each other at this level.

Now I'll be looking where to go next  (Back to Enfield or another country?)

Anyone know if the u19s issue in Scotland is fixed yet?

Gutting to see this, great work getting them as far as you did! 

Still going with them but FM has taken a back seat due to work this month, only just coming out of the winter break in season one but will keep flying the Vítkovice flag!

Will be catching up and following your progress in Northern Ireland!

[russ the womble]

A pivotal season? Took a risk this season that I'd cash in on a few players and hope that the funds would allow me to improve youth system. We had a very tough second half of the season but were able to make a number of improvements in the youth system so it has paid off overall. Now hopefully can get some better youths and make some progress medium term.

The Table

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We struggled second half massively and ended up 9th but only a few points off bottom once points were halved for the relegation group

We did go briefly bottom of the relegation group, but eventually managed to scrape survival on the final day with an exciting 0-0 draw whilst neither of those below me won.

The Team

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Not great ratings, but they need to improve with a bit more training so I can control games a little more

The Talent

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Some good current talent in the first team:

We have the following new youth who look promising

The Transfers

We sold two players (including out only good defender!) for £20m net income:

The Stats

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Our xG suggests we underperformed and could have got a top half finish:

We are good attacking again, but defensively, less said the better. This is roughly in line with the star ratings where our attack is well rated and defence is bad.

The Bank

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Healthy balance - we have some installments coming in for transfers so should be good for a while

The Fans

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Improvements in numbers overall and a few more casuals

The big W for this season - the transfers have given us big boosts in the Youth development facilities. Hopefully reflected next season.

Goals next season

- Retain key players

- Get a good youth draft! Specifically need a good CB and DM to replace those sold.

- Survive (again)

[leyrtj]

Season 3 - South Shields - Vanarama National - 23rd - Relegated

 

This was the second season in the Vanarama National and our media prediction was 70 - 1.This was worse than the year before when we only just stayed up. And it was an omen of what was to come. We won two of our first three games and I was hoping for a nice boring mid table. However, we got relegated. It wasn’t even close. Luckily the board wanted us to struggle bravely against relegation, so we weren’t sacked. Down to the National North then. We did blood in a number of our 5 star talents, including a new goalkeeper who came through the youth intake. Just need some defenders now.

 

Another good youth intake. Another central midfield, but more importantly two 5 star goalkeepers. Goalkeepers were one thing that worried me about this ave - what happens if you don’t get any good goalkeepers coming through? We do need defenders but I’m sure they’ll come soon.

[jepze]

         

Jepze - FC Claravallis Clervaux - Season 2033/34

Squad | Transfers | Finances | Supporters

Another season, but it was a hard on. We were in the relegation zone until the last game of the season, where we got a victory against 10th place Mondorf-Les-Bains. It was a 3-1 victory, but i think, if we just won with 1 goal, we would had relegated, but we don't know and will never know it. The hardest part of this season was, that our all-time topscorer wouldn't signa new deal and left the club to get retired afterwards. Our new striker couldn't get the same amount of goals, but it was enough to secure our place in BGL League. Other than the results, we got some more money in the bank, we got better junior coaching, and maybe better youth recruitment, but i'm not sure of that one.

Competitions

And then to the relegation match. We played against Victoria Rosport, who relegated last year, so it must be a tough match for us. We started the match good. Our defender, Dave Bettis, scored the first goal of the match with an header in the 9th minute, and after 37th minutes, our new first choice striker, Jerómino Silva, scored to 2-0, with a volley clos to the goal. We got the lead after the first half. After 67th minutes in the second half, Victoria Rosport scored to 2-1, but we got much og the chances and secured another season in BGL League

 Coupe de Luxembourg

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Youth academy

Youth preview

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Youth intake

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Best prospects

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Matteo Gentilini (AM (R))

- Matteo is one of the best players in the club, and are going into the starting XI in the next season. He will be one of our most creative players in the squad, and i think he will get on the top of our teams assistlist next season. We got a lot of good AM (R), but no one is like Matteo.

Andrzei Markowski (D (C)

We got a habile D (C) here, and Andrzej is going to get into a rotation with our other D (C)'s in the next season. We already got a good D (C), formerly DM, but we get's a lot more backup, when we gets suspensions and injuries in the squad. He will be a good squadplayer in the first season.

Sven Moreira (M (R)

I don't know, if i should talk about Sven. He's a good player, but i fon't really know, if he is going to be a part of the sqaud, because we already got a good AM (R) in the club and the new Matteo. I thought of making him an D (R), beacuse it's one of our weakest points in the tactic and squad.

Infrastructur

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Best XI

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Best ever XI

Trophy cabinet

Division 1 - Série 1 (1)

[russ the womble]

Another close season with an awful defence! My coaches need to up their game

The Table

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11th placed finish - pretty close in the relegation group as last place won quite a few games! Scraped home in the end..

The Team

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This defence smh

The Talent

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Very good youth pull with seven Elite talents! Still need a DM though.

The Stats

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The Bank

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The Fans

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Almost going viral at this rate

A quick season, I need defenders to progress before I can consider climbing the table.

Got another few upgrades though! What's the next tier up on training? Excellent?

 

[DazRTaylor]

I haven’t posted much lately as I am waiting until I am not sacked and complete an actual season with Macclesfield.  Currently had five attempts since my sacking with FC United.

I thought I had it today as was mid table in November comfortably clear of relegation until a seventeen game winless horror run saw the club relegated and me saved with one game left.

I will crack this though.

Edited February 19, 2023 by DazRTaylor

[P O\'D]

Never thought about this but just wondering on the rules, if I sell a player with a loan back clause is he usable or against the rules.  Had to panic sell my star player £11.5m value to PSG for £5m to avoid him going elsewhere on a free and in my haste agreed to a loan back clause.  Haven't used him yet but unsure on the ruling?

[JusttJD]

44 minutes ago, P O\'D said:

Never thought about this but just wondering on the rules, if I sell a player with a loan back clause is he usable or against the rules.  Had to panic sell my star player £11.5m value to PSG for £5m to avoid him going elsewhere on a free and in my haste agreed to a loan back clause.  Haven't used him yet but unsure on the ruling?

I've read through this entire thread in the past couple of weeks, and I'm fairly sure that isn't allowed.
But, I'm sure someone that is in charge or knows it for certain can give you a definitive answer.

Maybe you can still cancel the transfer or cancel the loan before you play him?

[P O\'D]

Just now, JusttJD said:

I've read through this entire thread in the past couple of weeks, and I'm fairly sure that isn't allowed.
But, I'm sure someone that is in charge or knows it for certain can give you a definitive answer.

Maybe you can still cancel the transfer or cancel the loan before you play him?

I couldn't terminate it cause something about belgian foreign loans during the transfer window.

I threw him in my u21's just to keep him out of the way.

I wasn't sure its against the rules but it felt against the spirit of the challenge so better to use caution I felt..

[Cultured Left Foot]

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

 

END OF SEASON 15 - REVIEW
 

We finished season 15 remaining in League One. Although it wasn't as good as season 14. Its another season of consolidation. 

 

The chairman was reportedly looking to step aside, but it didn't result in anything.... yet...

 

We had a decent draw in the FA Cup, with West Ham coming to Nethermoor. Of course, the Premier League team beat us comfortably... but it was good for the club coffers!

 

Our youth intake was decent, with a number of elite and top talents coming through.

 

With only one sale in the the whole season, we aren't making much money in terms of player sales...

 

But we did get a new record holder for the club top appearance maker...

 

On we go to Season 16, hopefully we can get in and around the playoffs again...!

Wish Us Luck !

Into Season 16 we go!

 

 

[russ the womble]

10 hours ago, P O\'D said:

Never thought about this but just wondering on the rules, if I sell a player with a loan back clause is he usable or against the rules.  Had to panic sell my star player £11.5m value to PSG for £5m to avoid him going elsewhere on a free and in my haste agreed to a loan back clause.  Haven't used him yet but unsure on the ruling?

I fell into the same trap previously, loan backs aren't allowed. Putting him in your U21s seems like the best way forwards.

[leyrtj]

Season 4 - South Shields - Vanarama National North - 3rd

The Board again wanted us to finish mid-table following our relegation which seemed reasonable. Our media prediction was 17th with odds of 12-1. Already I’m seeing how this challenge is a grind. These first few years especially as you wait for your touch players to develop into first team players. We already have two (Porritt and Gallagher). Even if we get those defenders it’ll be two seasons before they’re good enough. Putting the squad together felt better this season. There are some decent players now as back up, meaning rotation wasn’t as much as an issue. We sold our best player at the beginning of the season. His average rating was low, was costing us 100k a year, and he kicked up a fuss when we got relegated. We also had Conor Gallagher, one of our 5 star prospects, ready to step up. We started amazingly, and were 14 points clear after 20 games. Then I started rotating in the league to focus on the cup. And you can probably guess what came next. We ended up finishing 3rd and lost in the playoffs. Overall, though, a good season. The board even increased Youth Recruitment up to Good.

A disappointing youth intake. We got another 5 star goalkeeper but nothing much else. The new GK will be first choice now as he has a good personality and determination. Need a defender. We did, however, move one of our 5 star midfields back to defence. Only 176 cm but decent stats for a ball-playing defender.

 

[leyrtj]

6 hours ago, Cultured Left Foot said:

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

 

END OF SEASON 15 - REVIEW
 

We finished season 15 remaining in League One. Although it wasn't as good as season 14. Its another season of consolidation. 

 

The chairman was reportedly looking to step aside, but it didn't result in anything.... yet...

 

We had a decent draw in the FA Cup, with West Ham coming to Nethermoor. Of course, the Premier League team beat us comfortably... but it was good for the club coffers!

 

Our youth intake was decent, with a number of elite and top talents coming through.

 

With only one sale in the the whole season, we aren't making much money in terms of player sales...

 

But we did get a new record holder for the club top appearance maker...

 

On we go to Season 16, hopefully we can get in and around the playoffs again...!

Wish Us Luck !

Into Season 16 we go!

 

 

Your videos were actually the reason I decided to have a go at this challenge. Never thought it possible before. I love this challenge so thanks for the inspiration. Already planning which country to do the next one.

 

Edited February 20, 2023 by leyrtj

[P O\'D]

Lokeren Season 28-29

A season where we were expected to go right back down but boy did we shock the division.  With odds of 1000/1 we were set to give it our best and we did.  A fantastic run after the winter break saw us safe

Belgiums gibberish league stuff then saw us thrown into the Euro playoff division.  The format is points / 2 and split into 3 groups, top 6, middle 6 and bottom 4. Weird. Nonetheless we gave a good account of ourselves.  We did ship alot of goals.

Results:

Spoiler

Youth:

A quite shocking haul of youngsters and I'm starting to worry.  Is it normal I get my dev centre reports from my chairman and not my HoyD?  Because yet again, we got a ton of trash mentalities, unambitious, low determination if highly rated?

Of the following 2 of the good talents wouldn't accept the offered deal so were binned off.

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Potentially Good Players:

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Transfers:

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Proof Aktas didn't play.

Squad:

You can see here Aktas didn't play post loan.  Better shot than above.

Stats:

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Stars:

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Summary:

All in all a good season, where by times we punched above our weight.  Belgian football is weird though and there is such a big gap in quality between the top 8 and everyone else, making inroads is going to take a long time.  Our best hope of making money is to actually finish as close to 7th as possible and sneak a conference league spot from getting 7th after the changeover.  Something I feel we're quite a bit away from.

Even losing Aktas I think we have enough about us to stay up as we actually did better without him second half of the season.  Sadly Jul Ory also wants to leave so this might set us back a bit butI feel he has some potential replacements who can hit his standard.

We really need some cash our to turn our best youth into some kind of selling factory to stay afloat, while Aktas has put us back above the 0 line, our 3 season project now stands at -£20m.

Edited February 20, 2023 by P O\'D

[mikeyfm]

Am i allowed to use a second Trainer in the lower playable league for my second Team to get the tactics, formation and players right? My second Team is a partnerclub and i dont have really influence as Trainer of the first team and my second team trainer just do poorly.

[JusttJD]

17 minutes ago, mikeyfm said:

Am i allowed to use a second Trainer in the lower playable league for my second Team to get the tactics, formation and players right? My second Team is a partnerclub and i dont have really influence as Trainer of the first team and my second team trainer just do poorly.

Pretty sure that isn't allowed.

[karax268]

Louletano Desportos Clube - 2023/24 Youth intake

Not as good as advertised but I’m still decently happy with what we got. 

Wilson Evora looks like the most talented of the bunch. He is unambitious though, so that worries me. Maybe I’ll promote him to the first team straight away just to mentor him.

Wilson Évora 2401 | Steffen Bohnsack 2402 | Luís Salas 2403 | Pedro Serras 2404 | Momede Dafe 2405 | Mário Varela 2406 | Fábio Lopes 2407 | Daniel Pinheiro 2408 | Rui Ribeiro 2409 | Daniel Abreu 2410 | Tiago Mendes 2411 | António Fonseca 2412 | Samuel Marinho 2413 | Guilherme Varandas 2414 | Gonçalo Marques 2415 | Augustine Musah 2416

 

(the excel sheet is from a few months after the intake so some attributes will be slightly different)

Off the field

Finances are not great at the moment. Twice now the new board has provided a 100K cash injection. As such, no improvements to the facilities have been approved. 
I did get two of my coaching badges.

Edited February 20, 2023 by karax268

[karax268]

52 minutes ago, mikeyfm said:

Am i allowed to use a second Trainer in the lower playable league for my second Team to get the tactics, formation and players right? My second Team is a partnerclub and i dont have really influence as Trainer of the first team and my second team trainer just do poorly.

Is this for a B team? I think you can take charge of match days from the staff responsibility screen.

 

[mikeyfm]

vor 1 Minute schrieb karax268:

Is this for a B team? I think you can take charge of match days from the staff responsibility screen.

 

It's a partnerclub. But i am pretty sure i can't because i can do the players, formation and everything else i want  for my U20 without any problems and the trainer does no switches but for my second team the Trainer just switches the tactic and ranomly selects players even if they are selected for the U20

[JusttJD]

45 minutes ago, mikeyfm said:

It's a partnerclub. But i am pretty sure i can't because i can do the players, formation and everything else i want  for my U20 without any problems and the trainer does no switches but for my second team the Trainer just switches the tactic and ranomly selects players even if they are selected for the U20

That is just taking charge of 2 teams making sure that all your talents grow at the best rate.
That is obviously not how it works. (And, can't imagine it being allowed.)

Your talents not playing enough when you send them away is just a risk that you have to accept.
You can minimize those risks by making sure the coach of that team likes to work with youngsters or have a option in the contract that says he should play.
But, apart from that... you are at the mercy of the coaches.

Just like in real life where plenty of talents are send out to other clubs and barely play.
(I also responded to your message on another thread that should explain your situation a bit better, that your reserve team is a team on it's own, and not a second team for you... Very much like the Jong clubs in The Netherlands.)

Edited February 20, 2023 by JusttJD

[mikeyfm]

vor 2 Minuten schrieb JusttJD:

That is just taking charge of 2 teams making sure that all your talents grow at the best rate.
That is obviously not how it works. (And, can't imagine it being allowed.)

Your talents not playing enough when you send them away is just a risk that you have to accept.
You can minimize those risks by making sure the coach of that team likes to work with youngsters or have a option in the contract that says he should play.
But, apart from that... you are at the mercy of the coaches.

Just like in real life where plenty of talents are send out to other clubs and barely play.

But its literally my bclub? Its not any club.

 

I also can tell my u20 trainer what starting 11 and formation to play.  I get the prematch mail where the second teamtrainer asks which players to play and he lets randomly players play that are even at this team/or club (look at the assigned team at the top of the playerscreen) and does not play my players from the first team even if selected.

 

 

[kndrx]

NK BJELOVAR SEASON 2023/2024

Matches | Squad | Transfers |Facilities | Supporters

Competitions:

Youth Intake:

[Riebow]

 

After the loss of my Sevlievo save, I was looking around a bit to see where I would take my next challenge. I've played a season in Brazil, but I didn't really feel it. I want to play in a nation with a good youth rating so I've loaded a custom 5-tier France database, holidayed for a season and found this absolute gem:

FC Arras

Have a look at these facilities for a team that just got promoted to the National - 3!

Spoiler

 

Their facilities are just insane for that level of competition (we're sharing the Lens youth facilities, which explains the Excellent). All other teams of this level, that aren't B teams, have Poor or Basic ratings.

Manager profile:

The squad seems decent enough to avoid relegation. It helps that some of the B teams at this level are garbage.

Edited February 20, 2023 by Riebow

[leyrtj]

Season 5 -South Shields - Vanarama National North - 12th

I'm really starting to enjoy this save now. I’m normally a wheeler-dealer type of manager so it’s forcing me to play the game in new ways and I’m learning a lot in the process, especially about training and development. Praising the training and development of a 16 year old in the U18s is not something I’ve done before. The media season preview had us at 11-1, which was up from 12-1 the year before. We ended up finishing 12th, and were mid-season throughout. Despite this being our worst league position ever, I’m starting to be more positive about the long term possibilities of the save. The board agreed to improve academy coaching and youth recruitment (both Good now) and that showed in the youth intake.

Our youth is finally starting to be integral to the team. Derrick Boakye started the year in the U18s, but ended the year as our top goalscorer, fans’ player of the season, Vanarama National North player of the season and our best player. He’s been capped at U20 for Ghana. Colin Gallagher is our captain and second best player, and the second best player in our club. There are another 3 - 4 players who are now good players at this level. The problem is defence. We retrained Harrison (only 176 cm) to play at centre back and he’s starting to improve. I’m going to change my Head of Youth Development to someone with 3412 as his formation in the hope of getting more centre bucks - not sure if that works but worth a try.

Another good intake with three 5 star potentials. Christian Haley is now rated as the Hot Prospect at the club and with those stats, I’m not surprised. He’ll be a big player for us. The general feeling is these players are better than previous. The board agreed to improve Academy Coaching and Youth Recruitment and I think it’s showing.

201cm striker...

 

 

[CameronFM]

A double-season update, seeing as I forgot snippets for the first season and was away for the long weekend!

 

Szolnoki MÁV FC

Season 2029/30

League | Cup | Transfers

Despite pre-season predictions of finishing rock bottom with our young squad, we over-achieved which was amazing for the club, but also scary at the same time. I did not want to fall into the trap of an over-achieving club so quickly, as it would cost money to keep producing both talents through the academy, along with the cost of training and development to ensure solid performances week-in and week-out.

Youth Intake 2030

A youth intake that I was quietly confident about as we began to see the emergence of players in positions that we desperately need - midfield and the defence. Jószef Varga will take the "favourite Jószef" spot in the team now, and slot nicely into CM to play that role.

Dávid Kiss gives us further depth at the back, a position where the club has struggled to produce talent so far into the save.

Spoiler

 

Season 2030/31

League | Cup | Squad | Transfers | Finances

The good times just keep on rolling for the club, as we improve on our performances from last season to snatch a final European position on the last day of the season. A first for the club, and a massive step for the club going forward. Okay, it is only the UEFA Europa Conference League, and we enter the Second Qualifying Round, but we have European exposure which will only help the development of younger talents.

Youth Intake 2031

More talent arriving in the academy for the midfield and defence; I am certainly not complaining about it! A mixed bag when it comes to mental ability, but I feel that we can get them onto the right path hopefully. We are certainly going to need as much help as we can get as we prepare for a European campaign.

Spoiler

What a huge season for the club, and another mammoth season is incoming.

BRING ON EUROPE!

[WhiteCat33]

FC Elazig Spor Hamburg

Season 5 2027-28 Oberliga Hamburg (Tier 5)

Spoiler

Season 1 | Season 2 | Season 3 | Season 4 |

Competitions

League: 8 of 17 [Preview – 17/17 (1000-1)]

We had an awful start to the season with a 14-game winless streak and I was forced to abandon the 5-3-3 for the classic aggressive 4-2-3-1 Geggenpress. It took a while, but slowly we turned the season around and worked our way back to our regular mid-table finish. Part of the issue was rushing my new striker into the frontline before he was ready. Took him 23 Hours to score his first Goal....yikes! But really, with 1000-1 odds getting Mid-table is really all you can ask for as the grind continues to build-up the squad.

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Cup: 1st Round

Lost the screenshot and can't be bothered, I run all backups for this as we just don't have the depth for extra games and there is no monetary value to the Verbandspokals until you get to the QFs. When we are challenging for the title in our league then I'll start focusing on these as winning this cup is what gets you entered into the DFB-Pokal.

Squad:

Lots of low ratings around the team so we have a long way to go to get a squad that's evaluated as competitive at this level.

Spoiler

 

Performance:

You can see from our xG table that we under-performed this year but it really wasn't that dreadful there are just some wild outperformances by some of these teams. What I should have done is taken the xG before and after we switched to a 4-2-3-1 as I'm pretty sure we significantly over-performed in the back half of the season once my Striker figured out how to shoot and the team began working in the new formation.

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Transfers:

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Youth Academy

Youth Intake Preview:

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Youth Intake:

The only positive about this intake is the personalities: 4 Fair Professionals, 1 Resolute, 1 Driven & 1 Light-Hearted. I guess also we got some interesting nationalities considering this is an alt-nation save.

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YI Player Highlights:

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Best is probably Zeki Dede, mostly due to his flexibility

Of them the only other who has at least 1 CA* would be Kabgangu who could be a SV playmaker for us

Then there is this guy who I’ll call Mr. Umlaut who could be a flexible defender for us…I’m really stretching it here

Academy Data:

I've played the next season, so the summary will wait till the second post, but here are the specifics for this intake. Again, lots of data for awful players, but hopefully it will pay off later when there are actual useful players coming through. Generating this table is now just a copy-paste of the exported player-list, so now I'll start thinking about what next I want to automate. Thinking Personality + Media Handling to then have a better grasp of mentoring groups later.

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Head Coach

No change for me, but I am getting my HOYD started on coaching badges

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Club

We were still losing money so of course no improvements and everything is so bad it shouldn't ever go down. I really don't think there is any way to be profitable down here with a Youth Only save due to needing to keep everyone on contracts to stop poaching and paying all the youth 

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Manager Thoughts

I'll be updating with a second season after this tonight as I'll actually have some time to chug through the final matches. The league expanded to 19 teams due to 2 Relegations appearing, so it's like I'm playing in English Lower-Leagues with a 38-game season. My slowdown is that I'm busy right now so am not playing FM as much as I'm still enjoying this truly difficult challenge down here in the depths of Germany. 

Edited February 20, 2023 by WhiteCat33

[JusttJD]

After two failed attempts in Belgium, I just couldn't get into my third try.
Even though we promoted in the first year, I just didn't have any fun anymore.

So, I'm finally going to do what I should have done from the start.
Start a save where it all began... In England.
But, not just in England... I'm going to start all the way down in Tier 10.
Going to be a very long save (hopefully).

First, two screenshots to show my settings and the database that I used (The Tier 10 one from the steam workshop)
 

Spoiler

And, I have chosen the following team.

I thought that London doesn't have enough teams already in the premier league, so.
In de Spoiler underneath will be an image that proof that they finished last in the previous season.
 

Spoiler

This is going to be a very long save, but that is just the way I like them.

.

My facilities are what you expect from this level, worthless.
Just as my profile.


Hopefully, I can slowly make both of them better in the coming years.
But, I don't expect to be in the premier league before 2050.

 

This is allowed for the challenge, right? @XaW

Edited February 20, 2023 by JusttJD

[XaW]

6 hours ago, mikeyfm said:

Am i allowed to use a second Trainer in the lower playable league for my second Team to get the tactics, formation and players right? My second Team is a partnerclub and i dont have really influence as Trainer of the first team and my second team trainer just do poorly.

No, sorry, only 1 manager per save is allowed in this challenge.

[XaW]

21 minutes ago, JusttJD said:

This is allowed for the challenge, right? @XaW

Yeah, so far down the tiers in a custom league it's fine to take over the team that finished last in the holiday season.

[WhiteCat33]

FC Elazig Spor Hamburg

Season 6 2028-29 Oberliga Hamburg (Tier 5)

Season 1 | Season 2 | Season 3 | Season 4 | Season 5 |

Competitions

League: 8 of 17 [Preview – 19./19 (1000-1)]

If you look at the league position we had a strong start with our slide in games 6-12 and then we climbed back to mid-table by match 18 and just held that for the rest of the season.

Spoiler

Cup: 2nd Round

Same story here

Squad:

Showing by gametime while you can see we have some real stars in the club there are also some pretty low CA rated players getting massive gametime and only 5 of our players have over a 7.00 AVG Rating. 

Spoiler

One positive is my Striker who took 23 Hours to score did not have that problem this year managing 25 goals in 37 matches. Not the most unbelievable performance, but not too shabby for a 17 year-old. Even better, I signed him onto a new 2+2 year contract so we can depend on him for a while as he slowly improves as a DLF.

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Performance

More statistical underperformance by the team, but it's not nearly as bad as in previous seasons. The big point is on Attacking we are actually almost completely above the league average with a ton of shots that leading to more xG which we are converting with 1.75 Goals for 1.78 xG. I'm still shocked that statistically we should have made it to 3rd, I really didn't see us as that strong this season. Reason being is we are terrible at defense. Sadly this won't change next season as I'll be using a new CB and GK.

Spoiler

 

Tactic:

Nothing exciting here just figure its worth showing. My players are so bad really just pushing numbers into the box has been the way to get points as our defensive players will just miss marks and tackles anyways to give up break-aways and gifting penalties

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Best XI

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Transfers:

Will update if I sell anyone this summer

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Youth Academy

Youth Intake Preview:

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Youth Intake:

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YI Player Highlights:

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Our 2* CA AML has all the right things to be a good, we will see if he can deliver

Next we have another RB, but really need a CB rather than a FB

With his long-shots I might drop Kaya back to SV role

6’4”, Fair Profesional CB is in the run for being our replacement, I like the mentals hopefully I can improve that marking/heading/ tackling as that’s super poor

Then with how much my GK has started declining this year at 33 years old (and the awful performance) I’ll be giving this 16 year old the chance between the posts, he sucks but will have to do till we get a good GK intake.

Academy Data:

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Head Coach

No badges, but I hit 200 games!

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Club

Same broke story

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Manager Thoughts

Long season is over and our offense is finally clicking, but defense has just peaked and it was still one of the worst in the league. 4 of our 5 starts (Def+GK) are over 30. Only 1 Dominik Erhorn is from our youth academy and he's actually developed well and should hold his position for a long time. The rest will all need to be replaced in the next 3 seasons and I'll be testing 2 next year. Should make for a high-scoring season ahead, just question is if we will score more than we let in...

Edited February 20, 2023 by WhiteCat33

[leyrtj]

Season 6 - South Shields - Vanarama National South - 3rd

Well, that was both positive and negative. After a poor start, we put together a great run in the second half to finish 3rd. The problem was we lost our last two games out of nowhere. Not sure why, but wasn’t confident going into the playoffs. 2-0 and 3-2, then had our captain and best player Colin Gallagher sent off, and lost 4-3. Our  media prediction was to finish 17th with odds of 12-1. We now have Good academy coaching and Excellent Youth Recruitment, after I promised to play the youngsters. Colin Gallagher and Derrick Boakye are the best two players in the league, and slowly the squad is coming together. Derrick Boakye scored 35 league goals. We even got a defender in the youth intake, though not a natural one. Just one more defender and a left winger and we’re set. Just hope we can hold on to our players, they’re all on long contracts. Learning a lot about the training part of the game. I’ve never had much success with mentoring but Damian O’Sullivan went from Low Determination to Fairly Professional and determination from 4 to 10.

8 of the first team are now youth intake players. The GK needs another year, and defence and left wing are still weak.

A good youth intake but not quite what we wanted, as two are natural in positions we don’t play. Daniel Asante was the stand out as I’ll retrain him to a defenders. Only 7 tackling but it’s better than anything I have. He’ll also be a good mentor in the future.

 

[Libertine13]

2029/30 (Season 7)

We were hoping to bounce straight back after the disappointment of relegation from the top division last season. We started off brightly, only losing the first game of the season then remaining unbeaten for the next 13 games. Dungannon Swifts, who came down with us last season, were just on another level though, we couldn't keep pace with them and a poor November saw us lose our advantage over fellow play off hopefuls, Ards and the following pack were in touching distance. We recovered well until March rolled round as the league split in two when we had our 2nd poor spell of the season. Qualification for a play off place came down to the last day of the season, where we faced Ards, who had already booked their spot. Newington Youth held the advantage over us, just needing a draw themselves to qualify!

Maybe having the league out of our own hands helped ease the pressure in that last game, or maybe Ards were already thinking about their own play off matches to come, but we flew out of the blocks, Michael Maher 26B, putting us into an early lead inside 10 minutes. We were on top until Ards equalised on the 25th minute, but we showed resilience to restore or lead ten minutes later when centre half Lawrence Vernon 27f headed home from a corner. We deservedly gave ourselves some breathing room in first half injury time as Michael Maher 26B doubled his tally. In the other game Newington Youth had put themselves in front inside 2 minutes but had gone into the break at 1-1. We managed the game well and Robbie-Lee Clingan 29A put the game to bed with a handful of minutes to spare! Attention focused on the result of the Newington Youth game, they'd actually conceded on the 79th minute to Carrick Rangers and couldn't get that draw to see them into the play offs! 

Our two talented strikers, Michael Maher 26B and Robbie-Lee Clingan 29A, amassed a total of 55 league goals between them. Our other young forward, Reece Byrne 29B, chipped in with 14 as well. 

So onto the promotion play offs where we'd face recent beaten opposition in Ards...

Play Offs;

Spoiler

I'd have taken a repeat performance vs Ards, in fact going forward we played just as well as our last match. But defensively we were all over the shop. Having taken an extremely early 2 goal lead to be level again after only 13 minutes tells you exactly what sort of match this was. We didn't even make it to half time level! Thrown away a two goal lead to be two goals after 45 mins! We pushed for a goal to give us a better chance in the second leg and it seemed like it just wouldn't come, until Robbie-Lee Clingan 29A came to the rescue late on.

With only a one goal deficit to over turn we were definitely still in the tie. That was until the 17th minute when we went behind! It was another ding dong battle that I felt just wouldn't go our way. Michael Maher 26B gave us a semblance of hope just before half time. We threw everything we had at them in the second half and Michael Maher 26B got a well earned second of the game, levelling us up in the tie. We were on the ascendancy and Ards collapsed under our pressure, Karl Brown 28C and Robbie-Lee Clingan 29A giving us a 7-5 win on aggregate! 

So onto the play off final. We were up against Institute, who had beaten us in our last two meetings with a combined score of 7-0! However, we were the team playing with confidence and in really good goalscoring form and they'd come off the back of a disappointing season. It was a cagey affair, as you'd expect, but we did find ourselves going into the break with a one goal lead through none other than Michael Maher 26B. The second half went by without incident as it seemed we'd taken control of the first leg. BUT in the 4th minute of the three added on Institute had managed to get themselves an undeserved draw!

We were unlucky in the first leg not to have come into this one with a more positive result so I was quietly confident in achieving promotion! We were by far the better team, just unable to put away any of the chances we'd created and keeping Institute at bay. We persevered and toiled away and finally managed to get the all important break through on the hour mark, courtesy of Robbie-Lee Clingan 29A. fourteen minutes later he doubled our lead and his own tally! With the win and promotion within our sights we took our eye off the ball and conceded when they'd thrown caution to the wind! Nerves were frayed only a few minutes later as they found an equaliser, two goals from two shots on target! Surely we couldn't throw this away so late on! Fortunately we held out to win on away goals but it was just relief!

We actually had a good cup run this season as well, making it all the way to the final of the NIFL League Cup! The poor runs of league form we had I'm happy to attribute to the run we had in this competition. We were fairly lucky with the draws we had up until the final where we were up against a Cliftonville side who we've not even so much gotten a draw against!

Spoiler

We were all expecting something of a beating in the final. Cliftonville are one of the biggest clubs in Northern Ireland, the current Danske Bank champions and one of only four fully professional clubs. 

I'm not sure if it was complacency on their part or if we were just destined to have a positive result but we found ourselves ahead after only 4 minutes, through young right sided winger Karl Brown 28C! Still in complete surprise that we were ahead in this final, we hit them with another perfectly executed counter attack, Robbie-Lee Clingan 29A doubling our advantage! We went into half time in dream land, not quite sure how we'd found ourselves in this position!

As expected, Cliftonville got their act together and started playing like the team they are. They forced a mistake and won a penalty shortly after the restart and we were in for a very long 43 minutes of football! They kept knocking at the door, but we'd recovered well from the penalty and held firm! We were even having a bit more joy on the break as they flooded forward. Somehow we defied expectations and held on for a famous 2-1 victory!

Since this is a big season review I'll try keep the youth development side short and sweet...

Intake;

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A fairly disappointing intake compared to previous ones. I'm really hoping those defenders can develop as we're really struggling at the back with a lack of talent!

Matthew Gorman 30A, surprisingly made 9 appearences at the back end of the season and played very well. Got himself 4 assists as well. He's already developing nicely and will likely play a decent part next season!

Matthew Gorman 30A

Ciaran Keogh 30B

 

[leyrtj]

I'm a bit behind posting my updates here. In Season 7 we got promoted to the National League and then stayed there comfortably for two seasons. At that point the grind got to me and I tried to force things as the finances were awful, so I sold our two best players and use the money to invest in facilities. Well, 10 games later and I got sacked. The crazy part is I signed a 3 year long term contract just 2 games previously when I was in mid table and they were pleased. I went back to a previous save and didn't sell the striker, then simmed to see what would have happenned. 7th at Christman. Hmm. 

I went to bed last night saying I would never do this challenge again, but I'm starting a new save right now. I will be looking carefully into the finances on this save, trying to cut out what's unnecessary. For example, with South Shields I employed a whole scouting team on 1k per week. I don't know why I did it, maybe just because there's space avaialble. That's 500k over the ten years I was at the club. 

Edited February 21, 2023 by leyrtj

[Barnsley]

Still going horrifically here guys, if I manage to pull this one off i think I deserve a special trophy! I switched to a 5-3-2, which seems to have helped us slightly. In the fact we are conceding slightly less, and are countering quite well. The last two games i have been unlucky. Been in the lead and had a man sent off, to lose both times. was also 2-0 up against newcastle away, at HT, another red card. I ended up losing 6-2  

If this was the season before, the 3 teams above me would have been on 12-15 points because they were very poor. 

[JusttJD]

1 hour ago, leyrtj said:

I'm a bit behind posting my updates here. In Season 7 we got promoted to the National League and then stayed there comfortably for two seasons. At that point the grind got to me and I tried to force things as the finances were awful, so I sold our two best players and use the money to invest in facilities. Well, 10 games later and I got sacked. The crazy part is I signed a 3 year long term contract just 2 games previously when I was in mid table and they were pleased. I went back to a previous save and didn't sell the striker, then simmed to see what would have happenned. 7th at Christman. Hmm. 

I went to bed last night saying I would never do this challenge again, but I'm starting a new save right now. I will be looking carefully into the finances on this save, trying to cut out what's unnecessary. For example, with South Shields I employed a whole scouting team on 1k per week. I don't know why I did it, maybe just because there's space avaialble. That's 500k over the ten years I was at the club. 

Yeah, I think that if you are stuck in the lower leagues for too long, you have to get really lucky with an FA-Cup draw to keep your head above the water.
Either a big away match against a premier league club, or just a very long run against bad opponents.

My finances are... well, I have to pay off a €150,- loan... with €2,- a month...

Edited February 21, 2023 by JusttJD

[leyrtj]

Let's try again. I've done three England saves in a row so time for Portugal. 

[leyrtj]

19 minutes ago, JusttJD said:

Yeah, I think that if you are stuck in the lower leagues for too long, you have to get really lucky with an FA-Cup draw to keep your head above the water.
Either a big away match against a premier league club, or just a very long run against bad opponents.

My finances are... well, I have to pay off a €150,- loan... with €2,- a month...

That sounds about right. I wonder how many years is about right to get promoted to League 2. 8? I worked out by getting rid of a lot of unnecessary staff and players my finances wouldn't have been too bad. Perhaps also focusing on the cup like you say, especially if a mid table is likely. -

[karax268]

Louletano Desportos Clube - 2023/24 end of season report

Fixtures 1 | Fixtures 2 | Finances | Transfers | Supporters
 

The league

What a season! We started strong and kept on going. Qualification for the promotion stage was secured early and despite some rotation we kept on winning. 

The promotion stage started very well. After 3 wins we had promotion as good as in the bag. What remained was the top spot, which granted a place in the championship match. A loss to Sertanense (a game that I totally didn’t confuse for a friendly, no matter what the fans are saying) made things more interesting than I liked. The next game we needed to win, so we promptly fell behind 2-0.Somehow we managed to turn it around in the last 25 minutes and win 2-5! A draw in the last match secured our top spot.

In the championship match awaited Sporting CP B. They had a similar dominant season, so I wondered how we’d do against them. A solid, professional performance of my team saw us winning 2-0. Champions!!

The cup

A short afair, but I was happy with what we achieved. in the second round we beat Moreirense (who achieved promotion from liga 2 to the top division this year) and in the third round we got narrowly beat by Estrela da Amadora SAD (also from Liga 2)

Off the field

No changes to the facilities this year. Our finances are not in a great position. Every request has been denied. I’m not too disappointed. Our facilities are good for our current level. Let’s hope Liga 3 brings some money with it.

I’ve been awarded manager of the season. Very much deserved off course

In other news, veteran Micael retires. He had an offer from us to play another season but he opted to retire. Instead he accepted a position in the training staff off our U19’s (I hope he’s actually good. We’ll see)

With the promotion comes a B Team. Couldn’t refuse it. At this point there is absolutely no need for one.

Next season

I wonder what this team can do one level up, assuming I can keep most of the team around we shouldn’t have to struggle. Sporting B, who got promoted with us are top favorites to go back to back promotions. I’ll be disapointed if we don’t at least be competitive.

Edited February 21, 2023 by karax268

[Libertine13]

2030/31 (Season 8)

Another quickfire update to help catch up on where my save actually is. We were back in the Danske Bank Premier League at the first try, hoping to give a better account of ourselves than our previous campaign here! Again we weren't expected to do much other than attempt to survive. It looked like we were in for another torrid time as we 7 games without a win and only a single point to show for it. But we managed to find our feet in the games that mattered most after then, picking up important victories against our relegation rivals to give ourselves a fighting chance of staying up. Into the new year we really picked up some momentum and gave ourselves some much needed breathing room. It's a good job we did because we only managed the one win in our remaining 8 games of the season. Fingers crossed this is something we can build on.

We had another half decent cup run, this time in the most important Irish Cup. We got all the way to the semi finals where we lost to eventual winners, Larne, in extra time. We were seconds away from beating them in the 90 minutes as well, so it was a gutting result!

Best XI;

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Youth intake;

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This seasons preview wasn't the greatest. Our current keeper has been progressing quite steadily so we weren't desperate for another one. I'm crying out for some defenders still, my current crop seem to be regressing more than anything else and are well below the required standard!

Intake;

I really wasn't expecting another 5* ability player so soon after our last one. He'll definitely be replacing our current keeper. 

Jonathan Johnston 31A

Johnathan Mitchell 31B

Keith Gallagher 31C

 

[Riebow]

Arras Season Review (23/24)

League: A nice mid table finish. I was very lucky there were 3 very crappy teams who we could kind of beat up on. For next season there is only one promoted team from the regional divisions so I believe competition might be more fierce.

Cup: We made it to the 9th(!) round, where we had a nice local derby again Lille (which we obviously lost).

Intake: Some very nice personalities fora first intake. We even got a player from China! Etcheverria and Adam were dropped straight into my starting XII. Kourouma might be the best of the lot, but I have to wait until he turns 16 before he can play first team football.

Mohamed Kourouma: Driven personality

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Pascal Etcheverria: Fairly Determined personality and starting ball winning midfielder

 

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Romuald Grimauld: Future first-choice goalkeeper?

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Hamza Mokhtari: Will become my starting left back once he's off age.

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Damien Adam: Starting Centre Back

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Other: Training facilities downgraded, but they're still at Adequate which is still superb at this level.

Next Season: Hopefully we can establish ourselves in the National - 3 and develop some of our players.

[Winski]

Jyväskylän Jalkapalloklubi (JJK)
Season review
Season 6 | 2028

League table | Finances | Facilities | Transfers |Youth intake| Tactic |  Affiliated Clubs| Club overview | Manager Profile

 

And that is our 4th league title in a row! It was a much tougher season, as we won the title on the final day. KuPS and SJK both had a very good season, so it was a more exciting season then the last seasons. We also won the Cup for the first time in history, so we won the double!

But even more important: we qualified for the Champions League league phase for the first time!! We had a fantastic campaign, we won against FC Balkani(Kosovo), FK Sutjeska Nikšić(Montenegro), Ludogorets 1945 Razgrad (Bulgaria) and Bohemians Praha 1905 (Czech Republic). And with the win against Bohemians, we qualified for the League Phase of the CL!! Hello money, but also hello topclubs. We are directly facing the strongest teams: FC Barcelona, Liverpool, PSG, Ajax, PSV and Kobenhavn. So if we can get just one point, I'll be happy  

Best players this season were topscorer Juha Eerola 24c, who scored 41 goals in total; shadow striker Lauri Lindberg 25c, who now holds a new CL Average Rating Record as well, striker Fred Diakité 23k, striker Arttu Leivonen, defenders Tommi Tulppo 24d and Janne Kouhia 26i, and goalkeeper Tuomas Saarinen 23b, who scored 5 goals from Free Kicks this season.

The Finnish Football is slowly rising. Hopefully within a couple of seasons we'll get some more CL places, and I don't have to start in the very first round anymore.

And with the big CL money, our board was finally ready to build a new stadium! And beside that, also our Training Facilities will get another upgrade. So we are now almost at the point where we maxed out our facilities. Hopefully we are also able to upgrade our Youth Facilities again.

Youth intake

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The preview looks quite good to be honest. Three A's, some fullbacks (as we need some more depth there).. Let's see what the actual intake brought us.

Well, that's a bit dissapointing. I had higher hopes for this intake. Only Tero Niskanen 28B looks like a very decent talent, I'll put him in my squad right away. But the others are..mwah. I most dissapointed by their Personalities, and their Determination. I'll give our current HoYD some more chances in the next seasons, but if we keep getting intakes like this I'll search for another HoYD.