The FM23 Youth Academy Challenge

[kdavva74]

I've enjoyed reading through some of these updates, and I especially enjoy the concept of using a 'fallen giant' that is languishing in the lower leagues somewhere around Europe or a club with some other kind of special geographical or historical importance.

With that in mind, I've decided to take over SV Austria Salzburg, who were founded in 2005 in response to the original club being bought and renamed Red Bull Salzburg.

The club starts with some pretty decent facilities and I was surprised to see the game actually assigns them the history of the original club which means we have a pretty sizeable trophy cabinet already.

It's a decent squad with a lot of depth, and with most of the best players being relatively young. Definitely an emphasis on defensive talent which should help us stay up in the early days.

[Vlach]

vor 7 Stunden schrieb Virtual Male:

@Vlach Massive Fa cup tie against United that, was it at old Trafford or your place?

At my place. I expected much media turmoil etc. because of the history . Nothing - sure some media because they are a premiership club, but nothing special. I  checked then, and they are not rivals in the game.

[HanziZoloman]

vor 9 Stunden schrieb Vlach:

In general, a fantastic season for us.

At the end of the season we caught a bad slump, mostly caused by tired players - the "old" ones can't go on a whole season, and the young ones mostly are still too weak and too young to provide constant backup.

We made the playoffs, but had no chance there. 

Since old players are leaving us again, and the young ones are mostly not ready, i guess next season will be much tougher. We had much luck this one, i doubt that will repeat - especially since i mostly lack good players in defense.

Fantastic season, it’s good to see you amongst teams like Swindon and Newport which occasionally play a league above. Man your beating it.

Would you again share some tactical insights? For a beginner like me it’s always gold if someone of the more experienced guys shares a bit here and there.

Your narrow 4222 looks interesting why did you chose something like this? No wide players except the FB it’s very contrary to what is expected to be a balanced tactic.

It’s also amazing how you manage your finances, anything special you do there? 
 

@Johnny Ace that’s looks bad though maybe you should join in England

@Virtual Male congratulations for the FA Cup Winnings. Austria is just a beautiful country. 

 

Edited September 6, 2023 by HanziZoloman

[Johnny Ace]

29 minutes ago, HanziZoloman said:

@Johnny Ace that’s looks bad though maybe you should join in England

I can't hack the amount of games in England, I like around 25-30 so I can get through the seasons without it feeling like a slog, have been tempted many times though 

[Johnny Ace]

Holy smokes! Was nosing around the other club's finances, Cardiff Dracs had a tycoon takeover, have £6 mill in the bank, went fully pro and got relegated all in the space of 2 months

If they come calling for my services once they go back up, I'm jumping 

[tomay]

Würzburger Kickers
End of Season 22 Review 2044/45

Excellent intake with 3 elite talents.
Signed 8/16 players.
intake
intake-all
DC Hudson - BRA

Table
League - predicted 6th, finished 2nd with 70pts (-2)
    First round - 37 pts, 2nd place, 2pts behind RB Leipzig.
    Second round - 33 pts, 2nd place, 12pts behind RB Leipzig.

DFB Pokal - Winners!
Won final 2:1 vs VfL Wolfsburg

Champions League - 1/8
Lost 0:2, 1:2 vs FC Bayern

Key moment
DFB Pokal victory!

Transfers - Not all sold players are listed on this screen because i move them into my second team and sold them from there(WK II team has amateur status).
Departures

Players stats
Presence of youth players in the main team (all 22/22 players) with stats.
Two debuts this season.

    
Summary (last 3 seasons)

Edited September 6, 2023 by tomay

[Neo_Geo]

Hi everyone, I've been away from the the game and also this forum for quite a bit.

Had a look at the hall of fame to see who I missed completing the challenge, so congrats to @grff for multiple completions, @leyrtj for South Africa, @Dr Pepper Man on the gruelling marathon that is England and of course @libbyshuss for the success in Germany.

I had been doing the ultimate challenge but I don't like managing big teams, I like to build my teams up from the ground and I enjoy the restrictions of the challenge meaning you need to adapt formations rather than buying players to fit your formation and to be quite honest the ultimate challenge forum is like a graveyard, no one seems to talk about their successes or issues they are facing at their club, certainly not at the level of this forum.

So I'm back for an attempt (or a few) before FM24 starts to emerge, starting with Croatia and ...

Nice to see the club vision aligns nicely with the challenge

Probably going to shy away from infographics this time, I do enjoy them but with reduced time on the game I want to just focus on playing and then posting smaller updates.

[Neo_Geo]

Been a while, what are the rules about pre-contract signings at the start of the save that were arranged before taking over and can't cancel?

Do I have to not play them and try to sell them?

[Johnny Ace]

Yeah @Neo_Geo, chuck them in the youth team and sell or release

[Neo_Geo]

46 minutes ago, Johnny Ace said:

Yeah @Neo_Geo, chuck them in the youth team and sell or release

Thought so, shame as he was far better than who I have currently 

[jstu9]

Season 6 in Fiji, Fijian Premier League, 2028

The Fijian Premier League is 8 teams, you play each other twice for a total of 14 games. These games are spread out from January to September. So, sometimes there are 2-3 weeks between games.

But with the league there are 3 Cups. The FA Cup which is held in May. The Battle of the Giants which is held in July/August. Then the Interdistrict Championship is held in October. The format is the same for each of the Cups. The 8 Premier League teams are broken into 2 groups of 4. You play each other once. The top 2 go into a one game semi-final, winners play in the Finals. So a minimum of 9 more games with a max of 15. The champion of the League plays in the Oceania Champions League which I haven't really looked at the format yet. I'll get there eventually (hopefully). Then there is a "Champions vs Champions Cup," which I'm not entirely sure how you get in. Probably the winner of the League vs the winner of the Cup? I'll worry about it when I get that far, lol. By reputation the Cups go.... BoG > FA Cup > Interdistrict > C vs C.

After having two strong youth pulls I felt reasonably ok about going into the season. I figured the bigger clubs (Suva, Rewa, Lautoka) would likely crush me but I was hoping to just survive. There's got to be one team that I can beat, right? I just need to beat one. I figured I would pretty much ignore the Cups as far as I can and solely focus on the League. The League games are spaced out, but the Cup games are every 3-4 days so you treally need depth to win those and I don't have that yet.

We started off 0-2-4, managing draws against Nadroga and Lautoka. But our first win came against Nasinu on April 1st. We lost our next 2 but we managed to win 2 in a row against Ba and Nadi in May. We were still near the bottom but Ba was having a horrible season (luckily). We somehow managed to win our last game of the season against Rewa, a big upset. In the end, we finished 6th, pretty comfortably ahead of Ba who got relegated.

I really didn't worry about the FA Cup or Battle of the Giants. The Interdistrict Championship is after the League and I can use all the youth pulls so we did better there, making through the group to the Semis. We lost 2-0 to Lautoka in the Semis.

The '26es and '27es dominated the playing time. All those players I had been playing a couple seasons ago just aren't good enough. As I keep improving my facilities, the better my youth and the old guard (meaning the 18yo) are just not good enough anymore.

Emosi Qiolevu 27a is the star here, another left wing. Sterling A Anare 27b leads the defense. And if you look at my squad you will see some '28ers in there. I can't play youth players in the league (due to registration), but I can play them in Cups, the Interdistrict Championship to be exact. That Cup is where I give my new fresh faced stars their first game time. Luke Khan 28a is the star here, a right back. Along with Joeli Kumar (AMC) and Mosese Khan (DC). Yep the '28ers look to be even stronger than the last 2 pulls. Here is the youth pull.

The '26 to '28 youth classes have been great.

Mohammed Chand is the loss here but truthfully most of these guys were backups and reserves. So for I think the first and only time during this save, I didn't really lose anybody major (Ok, Chand was a loss but he was replaceable).

 

[Vlach]

vor 11 Stunden schrieb HanziZoloman:

 

Would you again share some tactical insights? For a beginner like me it’s always gold if someone of the more experienced guys shares a bit here and there.

Your narrow 4222 looks interesting why did you chose something like this? No wide players except the FB it’s very contrary to what is expected to be a balanced tactic.

It’s also amazing how you manage your finances, anything special you do there? 

 

Sure, although i do not consider myself as a particularly good tactician. And since i consider it very unlikely, at least for the next two seasons, to gain promotion, I plan to test and work on several tactics - in order to have them ready when the team seems ready

The 4-2-2-2, as well as the narrow 4-3-3 I am using simply because my wingers were and are rubbish. I got two to three good strikers, several mediocre central midfielders, two good fullbacks and one good CB right now. On the wings the options are either too slow or technically bad, or both. Or too young. Therefore, I concentrate on tactics with many central players.

 

A bit an extrem version of this is the 4-2-2-2 - sadly very intense with much pressing; otherwise, the central midfielders and attackers do not always join the defense needed on the flanks. For more risk, I change the AM to SS, for more safety the attacking VOL to defend. Worked well for half of last season, then slowly broke apart it seemed.

Spoiler

 

 

The narrow 4-3-3 is quite basic - but if the strikers are ok-ish it performs often really well for me. When I want to hold the lead or against strong opponents, I change the PF to support and the DM to defend. For more attack one of the CMs becomes an attacking MEZ. Does really need strikers who work a lot upfront.

Spoiler

 

 

And this is a shape i would like to experiment this season with - at least as long as I am not in relegation territory 😉 Or i retrain some strikers to be IF wingers and try again with a 4-2-3-1 or wide 4-3-3. Just want to experiment for the next years until my youngster are hopefully ready to go for promotion.

Spoiler

 

 

And doing nothing special about the finances ... but I guess it helps if one survives the first rounds of the cups.

[Johnny Ace]

Season 2031/2032 - Port Talbot

Quite a season, we were part of a really strong top 4 and Swansea Uni were the strongest by far

Have quite a decent squad at the moment, the average age is probably around 19/20 now and they're enjoying their football and developing, every transfer window I'm having to fight to keep them but we motor on. We also have a cashflow problem at the moment which might thin the squad out a bit over the summer. We're about £350k in the red right now and raising funds isn't easy when semi-pro

The intake preview was very average looking...

... but it turned out alright, a few players ready to go into the first team 

Honestly not sure what to do with Alex Gray, I don't use MCs, he's slow and can't tackle. Wilkes and Street are improvements over the first team players I have

We lost Rowlands in the end, right before the start of the season, he'd achieved Icon status at the club within 2 years 

Tom Westall was our long standing keeper who ended up throwing a wobbler a couple of seasons back so I released him on the spot 

Robinson was a meh centre back, no idea who Gregson was and Viggo was a useless keeper from the Faroe Islands

No badges or upgrades, for a while now 

Spoiler

 

Spoiler

 

 

[Vakama2619]

16 hours ago, Johnny Ace said:

Holy smokes! Was nosing around the other club's finances, Cardiff Dracs had a tycoon takeover, have £6 mill in the bank, went fully pro and got relegated all in the space of 2 months

If they come calling for my services once they go back up, I'm jumping 

😂😂😂

[WhiteCat33]

Barbados YAC: Road View FC

2033 Season 11 – BFA Digicel Premier League

Start Post | Season 1 |Season 2 | Season 3 | Season 4 | Season 5 | Season 6 |Season 7 | Season 8 | Season 9 | Season 10 |

 

League Performance: Champion

7 in a row now.

Spoiler

Cup Performance: Final Defeat 

We had an awful final after a very smooth run through the cup. This season we beat BDSFP twice in the league handedly, yet we can’t do it when it matters, They got a fluke early goal and no matter what tweaks I made my offense just couldn't manage to produce anything. In the end when we pushed full forward they got us on the counter and it was these final minutes when they got all of their xG. Frustrated we won't be in the NACL again next year.

Reserve & U18s:

 Another Repeat title for both teams.

Spoiler

Squad:

 I released some players before this screenshot was taken who were older and not featuring much. Still a large squad as I don't keep players in the reserves and just set my extras to play in that league.

Spoiler

Transfers:

 We let players transfer last year, but this year I noticed players would refuse contracts from other teams to stay with us and not play so I ended up releasing a bunch of players who I hope will find teams and improve the strength of the league.

Spoiler

Records & Best XI:

FM Screenshots:

Spoiler

 

Excel Tables:

 

Head Coach:

 Final badge completed. Apparently my manager specializes in tactical defensive coaching

Club Improvements:

 We will finish the stadium in another month, will update when we do.

Youth Academy:

HOYD:

No Change

Youth Intake Preview:

  

Youth Intake:

Top 3 Players:

No wonder Arsenal stole a CB as we got another great one in our intake this year

Another either-footed CAM who looks pretty interesting

Then unfortunately the next best players all have bad personalities. I like this fast small winger the most. 

Excel Tables:

Williams is our 2nd best ever player and Lawrence adds to our depth at both CD and CAM, which honestly aren't bad positions to be overweight in talent. 

 

I didn't end up hiring coaches, but I definitely will this summer as our personality percentages are sliding down substantially. CA is more important for us though as a Semi-Pro club (considering development is very poor), so I'm not unhappy with the tradeoff of personality for ability. 

Barbados National Team:

Barbados Main:

Barbados did great to get past Grenada in the first round, but then were humiliated by Honduras in the second round. Unfortunate, as Hondorus is loaded in my save and they seem to have 1 player on the NxGn Wonderkid list most years so they have a much stronger team than usual and are ranked 56th in the world right now. 

Barbados Youth U20:

This year was the North American U20 Championship. Barbados did the best of the Caribbean nations in Group B, but Honduras and El Salvador absolutely dominated.

Road View Internationals:

Barbados Main:

Barbados Youth:

Barbadian’s Around the World:

English Academy Players:

We have a new English player at Crystal Palace! No sign yet of my Arsenal youngster.

MLS/Canada Academy Players:

In the depths of Canadian Lower-Leagues there is a Barbadian new this year and one from last year I missed in the Canadian Championship

Jamaican Academy Players:

Two new players who both are at the exact same clubs that generated Barbadian players last year

Other Nations:

St Lucia: I have LCA loaded and we have a straight Barbadian player come through at one of the teams. I checked, this is his only club.

Caribbean International Performance:

Gold Cup is this Summer and 3 Caribbean nations made the Quarter Finals: Curacao, Trinidad and Tobago, and Jamaica

 

Summary

I'm disappointed in the season due to that final cup defeat. Next year we move into our new stadium, and I hopefully can turn around the finances with gate receipts. The goal now is to go professional and to do that we need to make it into the NACL. Hopefully in the next 5 seasons we will build up enough cash to go professional. It's a slow process to develop these caribbean clubs.

[Novafluff]

Season Review 2033

Table | Transfers | Finance | Facilities | Youth Intake

As i thought we where must better prepared this year for this division. During the season we were a bit of a dark horse for promotion but we were not quite ready for that yet. Hoping to build on this as we remember it was the second season that we went out last time. A good intake i would say, get a new leftback which is already on division 1 standard. We will most likely loose Jesper Rask our best average player this season, but we have young lads ready to step up.

Top Scorer: (06-A)Tobias Jonsson 33 Goals | 27(2) Games

Most Assists: (04-A)David Rosén | 10 Assists | 18(2) Games

Best Average: (07-A)Jesper Rask | 7.37 Average | 30(0) Games

Top Prospect: (09-A)Robin Rask | 3 Clean Sheets | 63 Conceded | 30(0) Games | 6.74 Average

Best Intake Prospect:  (11-A)Pontus Burakowsky-Hagsell

[jstu9]

2029, Fijian Premier League, Season 7

We started the season pretty rough going 0-2-3 but we quickly settled in mid-table pretty early on. Relegation was sitting there for good chunks of the season but we finished the season with an unbeaten 2-4-0 stretch. All in all, we settled in around mid-table and finished a very solid 4th. We have played Suva 3 times over the past 2 seasons at home. All sellouts (granted our capacity is 800 but...). I think Suva is our big rival. Works for me since I hate them They, on back-to-back days in July, stole my starting left back (Naicker 27e) and center back (Anare 27b). Aside from maybe GK, I get hit the hardest with losses in the defense. I think I lose at least one starting defender every year. It's hard to keep up.

But the good news regarding my evil nemesis Suva is.....

They somehow got relegated. They have won the League 5 of the 7 years I've been playing this. They are the strongest team in Fiji. How they got relegated, I have no idea. But good riddance, have fun in the Lower Division. (Yeah I know they'll probably come straight back up but I can dream).

Eagle eyed viewers will note Semesa Ali 29a at the bottom. I'll talk about him later.

Cups Results:

A solid result in the FA Cup. We lost in the Final 2-1 to Lautoka. We never seem to do well in the Battle of the Giants. But we won the Interdistrict Championship! Our second trophy!!!

The silverware is piling up now.

Here is a comparison of two players. The first is Edward Mani who was one of my "stars" in my first season, I think he still holds a number of records for the club. The second player is Emosi Qiolevu 27a, my star left wing. He just got his first 2 caps for Fiji at 17 yo.

So our youth system is definitely working. I'm starting to produce National Team level players.

So, let's show our youth pull this season...

So, we got a number of depth pieces, alot of this group is uninspiring. EXCEPT for 29a Semesa Ali who is a Fairly Professional striker. Instantly becomes my best player and single most important player on the team. At 15yo.

This is him at 15. Just compare him to Mani or Qiolevu above and Qiolevu is a National Team level player. He is easily the best player I've had in this save. In relative terms, he might be the best player I've ever had in any save.

But he scored 6 goals + an assist in the Interdistrict Championship and generally took us to the title. He's going to be good.

We have 5 really strong players. The new striker Semesa Ali(29a), the left wing Emosi Quilevu (27a), our very strong right back Luke Khan (28a), our dominant center back Mosese Khan (28c) and our AMC Joeli Kumar(28b). If we can keep these guys here, we can win lots of trophies.

[FoxGe1994]

On 06/09/2023 at 15:08, jstu9 said:

Season 6 in Fiji, Fijian Premier League, 2028

The Fijian Premier League is 8 teams, you play each other twice for a total of 14 games. These games are spread out from January to September. So, sometimes there are 2-3 weeks between games.

But with the league there are 3 Cups. The FA Cup which is held in May. The Battle of the Giants which is held in July/August. Then the Interdistrict Championship is held in October. The format is the same for each of the Cups. The 8 Premier League teams are broken into 2 groups of 4. You play each other once. The top 2 go into a one game semi-final, winners play in the Finals. So a minimum of 9 more games with a max of 15. The champion of the League plays in the Oceania Champions League which I haven't really looked at the format yet. I'll get there eventually (hopefully). Then there is a "Champions vs Champions Cup," which I'm not entirely sure how you get in. Probably the winner of the League vs the winner of the Cup? I'll worry about it when I get that far, lol. By reputation the Cups go.... BoG > FA Cup > Interdistrict > C vs C.

After having two strong youth pulls I felt reasonably ok about going into the season. I figured the bigger clubs (Suva, Rewa, Lautoka) would likely crush me but I was hoping to just survive. There's got to be one team that I can beat, right? I just need to beat one. I figured I would pretty much ignore the Cups as far as I can and solely focus on the League. The League games are spaced out, but the Cup games are every 3-4 days so you treally need depth to win those and I don't have that yet.

We started off 0-2-4, managing draws against Nadroga and Lautoka. But our first win came against Nasinu on April 1st. We lost our next 2 but we managed to win 2 in a row against Ba and Nadi in May. We were still near the bottom but Ba was having a horrible season (luckily). We somehow managed to win our last game of the season against Rewa, a big upset. In the end, we finished 6th, pretty comfortably ahead of Ba who got relegated.

I really didn't worry about the FA Cup or Battle of the Giants. The Interdistrict Championship is after the League and I can use all the youth pulls so we did better there, making through the group to the Semis. We lost 2-0 to Lautoka in the Semis.

The '26es and '27es dominated the playing time. All those players I had been playing a couple seasons ago just aren't good enough. As I keep improving my facilities, the better my youth and the old guard (meaning the 18yo) are just not good enough anymore.

Emosi Qiolevu 27a is the star here, another left wing. Sterling A Anare 27b leads the defense. And if you look at my squad you will see some '28ers in there. I can't play youth players in the league (due to registration), but I can play them in Cups, the Interdistrict Championship to be exact. That Cup is where I give my new fresh faced stars their first game time. Luke Khan 28a is the star here, a right back. Along with Joeli Kumar (AMC) and Mosese Khan (DC). Yep the '28ers look to be even stronger than the last 2 pulls. Here is the youth pull.

The '26 to '28 youth classes have been great.

Mohammed Chand is the loss here but truthfully most of these guys were backups and reserves. So for I think the first and only time during this save, I didn't really lose anybody major (Ok, Chand was a loss but he was replaceable).

 

Cant you show us some of the players you got? 

[jrobertgordon13]

15 hours ago, jstu9 said:

2029, Fijian Premier League, Season 7

We started the season pretty rough going 0-2-3 but we quickly settled in mid-table pretty early on. Relegation was sitting there for good chunks of the season but we finished the season with an unbeaten 2-4-0 stretch. All in all, we settled in around mid-table and finished a very solid 4th. We have played Suva 3 times over the past 2 seasons at home. All sellouts (granted our capacity is 800 but...). I think Suva is our big rival. Works for me since I hate them They, on back-to-back days in July, stole my starting left back (Naicker 27e) and center back (Anare 27b). Aside from maybe GK, I get hit the hardest with losses in the defense. I think I lose at least one starting defender every year. It's hard to keep up.

But the good news regarding my evil nemesis Suva is.....

They somehow got relegated. They have won the League 5 of the 7 years I've been playing this. They are the strongest team in Fiji. How they got relegated, I have no idea. But good riddance, have fun in the Lower Division. (Yeah I know they'll probably come straight back up but I can dream).

Eagle eyed viewers will note Semesa Ali 29a at the bottom. I'll talk about him later.

Cups Results:

A solid result in the FA Cup. We lost in the Final 2-1 to Lautoka. We never seem to do well in the Battle of the Giants. But we won the Interdistrict Championship! Our second trophy!!!

The silverware is piling up now.

Here is a comparison of two players. The first is Edward Mani who was one of my "stars" in my first season, I think he still holds a number of records for the club. The second player is Emosi Qiolevu 27a, my star left wing. He just got his first 2 caps for Fiji at 17 yo.

So our youth system is definitely working. I'm starting to produce National Team level players.

So, let's show our youth pull this season...

So, we got a number of depth pieces, alot of this group is uninspiring. EXCEPT for 29a Semesa Ali who is a Fairly Professional striker. Instantly becomes my best player and single most important player on the team. At 15yo.

This is him at 15. Just compare him to Mani or Qiolevu above and Qiolevu is a National Team level player. He is easily the best player I've had in this save. In relative terms, he might be the best player I've ever had in any save.

But he scored 6 goals + an assist in the Interdistrict Championship and generally took us to the title. He's going to be good.

We have 5 really strong players. The new striker Semesa Ali(29a), the left wing Emosi Quilevu (27a), our very strong right back Luke Khan (28a), our dominant center back Mosese Khan (28c) and our AMC Joeli Kumar(28b). If we can keep these guys here, we can win lots of trophies.

I might attempt this in Oceania next year, so I’m watching closely.

[jstu9]

2030, Fiji Premier League, Season 8

Semesa Ali (29a) is good. 34 goals in all competitions, 21 in the league. I truly hope I can keep him even though I know that inevitably he will leave. We started 3-0-3 in the league, in the middle of the pack and then went on to win 8 in a row to finish 11-0-3. 33 points. Only behind Lautoka by 3 points. We were never really in the hunt for the title but in retrospect, we were actually up 2-0 on Lautoka early in the season. We conceded 3 goals in the last 25 mins and lost 3-2 including a 82' winner. In retrospect, if we win that game or even just draw it, we win the league. (Luckily I didn't realize the significance at the time - aside from the annoying loss).

Cups: We got out of the group stage in all 3 Cups for the first time. And we repeated as CHAMPION of the Interdistrict Championship. Go Lami!

Our 3rd trophy! Hopefully 3rd of many more!

The squad:

So we started the season with what I thought were 5 very good players. We ended it with 2. Ali and Khan are both National Team level players. Actually the 3 we lost (Emosi Qiolevu, Mosese Khan and Joeli Kumar) are National Team level players too. Within two months Lautoka took both Qiolevu and Khan. I'll get my revenge. Then my mortal enemy Suva (who was in the Lower Division - yeah they got promoted straight back after getting relegated last season) got Kumar.

I'll throw out one of my original players, Jope Narayan. He primarily has played as a right wing but I have played him at the left and at striker. He's a club legend (well in my eyes). He's actually the only player during my save who has goal or assist in every one of my 8 seasons. He's not really good enough anymore but I keep him at the club.

I've kept track of appearances, goals and assists. Here's the Top 10 in each.

 

[jstu9]

12 hours ago, jrobertgordon13 said:

I might attempt this in Oceania next year, so I’m watching closely.

I've enjoyed it so far. Though I haven't reached the Champions League I think it is winnable, at least potentially. I guess I'll see if I can manage it. The only thing that's annoying is the constant offers on your players.

[lewis999]

Playing this challenge in Italy and it feels really difficult. Livorno started with adequate or average facilities in everything and i'm grinding away. Spent 7 seasons in Serie C before winning the league and now in my first Serie B season. I was losing a lot of money in Serie C and thought it'll be fixed when I reach Serie B, turns out its not and i'm still somehow losing money despite only having a wage bill of 22k a week. I've tried to find any others playing in Italy but don't have the time to search the entire thread.

I haven't had one upgrade or even a coaching course since I started and it feels like it might get a bit stagnant, anyone know if Italy have any financial bugs that could be causing this, my outgoings feel like they should be REALLY minimal. Only 3 coaches, 22k wage budget etc. 

Really frustrating.

[HanziZoloman]

@lewis999 I don’t know Serie C only my best player left me for it. 
seems like 22k is still too much. Managing the finances is important I believe because I didn’t get any upgrades until the finances were big green. Had to pick the players who get an extension and let others leave. Same goes for youth players usually I keep them all around because I didn’t have balls to let them leave (poor young lads) but it’s better financially to only keep the ones who really have a chance and some who are good for the squad.

 

Small January Update

We're in a good position winning difficult games and losing only few. Defence is really solid again. A lot of good players with great personalities are waiting for first team action but they're still young. Some first teamers want short contracts with a lot of money maybe they won't get any. Youth intake preview was the best in years surly the good academy coaching has to pay off some day and spirited HOYD Jason White delivers strong personalities as well. I am excited! 

Spoiler

 

Now what a look! Didn't get so many A's ever ... and the positions ... wow let's hope.

Spoiler

 

 

Edited September 8, 2023 by HanziZoloman

[lewis999]

3 hours ago, HanziZoloman said:

@lewis999 I don’t know Serie C only my best player left me for it. 
seems like 22k is still too much. Managing the finances is important I believe because I didn’t get any upgrades until the finances were big green. Had to pick the players who get an extension and let others leave. Same goes for youth players usually I keep them all around because I didn’t have balls to let them leave (poor young lads) but it’s better financially to only keep the ones who really have a chance and some who are good for the squad.

 

Small January Update

We're in a good position winning difficult games and losing only few. Defence is really solid again. A lot of good players with great personalities are waiting for first team action but they're still young. Some first teamers want short contracts with a lot of money maybe they won't get any. Youth intake preview was the best in years surly the good academy coaching has to pay off some day and spirited HOYD Jason White delivers strong personalities as well. I am excited! 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

Now what a look! Didn't get so many A's ever ... and the positions ... wow let's hope.

  Reveal hidden contents

 

 

Maybe it is a bit too much but we have the lowest wage bill in the league by half so I assumed with the larger attendances and TV money we'd make a bit of cash each month. Nothing crazy but we're still losing money each month. I'll try letting a few go at the end of the season that never play and be really strict and see if I can turn a profit, thanks.

[kdavva74]

SV Austria Salzburg
Season 1 | 2023/24

Competitions

2. Liga

We survive our first season pretty comfortably in the end, which is great considering we were considered to be the weakest team in the league heading into the campaign. After a shaky start we went on a bit of a run in September/October which saw us briefly in the conversation for promotion, but then a horrid run of form after the winter break saw relegation become a real possibility. We shipped plenty of goals, which meant our GD was generally awful all year, but 4 narrow wins in our last 4 games had us finishing in an extremely respectable 7th.

OFB Cup

Our cup run was extremely frustrating, because we got given a very favourable draw in every round. However, an early red card against Regionalliga team SC Wiener Viktoria saw us succumb to a penalty shootout loss, I'm not sure how long it'll be before we get another crack at a quarter final. And tragically, Wiener Viktoria were drawn to play Red Bull Salzburg away, so we were denied an opportunity for a Salzburg Derby.

Personnel

Transfers

Only one transfer this season, our wingers have been pretty poor all-season so I was happy to dump a backup's wages off the books, with Bosnian Gavrilo Foniga getting a chance to head back to his home country. A number of players are set for release as I try to trim down the squad a little, including Christoph Bann, Johannes Zottl and Alessandro Hetzer. Moritz Hutt has agreed to deal to join German lower division side Eilenburg when his contract runs out.

Squad Stats

Best Eleven

GK: Manuel Kalman: I usually avoid short goalkeepers like the plague, but honestly he didn't do too bad considering the strength of the team. Actually has surprisingly good aerial reach for a man of his stature.
RB: Benedikt Erhard: One of my favourite players at the club, he led the squad in assists and his attributes are actually fantastic for this level. Absolutely terrific on the training ground too, I already want him to play until he retires here.
CB: Matthias Theiner: Probably the best player at the club right now, even when the rest of the team had a poor day he would consistently pump out 7+ match ratings, I've never had any issues from tall, strong and determined centre backs and Theiner is no exception.
CB: Mathies Hausberger: Didn't have the best season in the left centre back slot, and rotated a lot with our other option, Luka-Nils Sandmayr. Hausberger doesn't have much going on technically but he is tall and quick which can make up for other deficiencies.
LB: Florian Wiedl: As the only true left back at the club, I was very reliant on Wiedl and he started nearly every game. Had to put him on the highest wage in the squad to keep him around but he'll be needed to hold down that left back spot for a while yet.
DM: Fabio Trkulja: Right up there with Theiner in terms of our best players, although didn't quite live up to expectations in terms of his performance, he's still comfortably the best midfielder in the squad. He actually came to me at the end of the season saying he's too good for this squad and he's probably right.
DM: Nico Schiedermeier: I envisioned him as more of a 'Mr Fix-It' who could plug holes but to his credit he made the left DM position his own. Technically pretty able, not the best defensively.
RW: Marinko Sorda: I was pretty disappointed with my wingers this season, and Sorda was pretty poor. While his technical ability and pace is up to par, he's just atrocious in terms of mental attributes and I'm glad I have some youth intake players who could start filling in for him.
LW: Manuel Krainz: Left wing was another area where I struggled to find a good option, Krainz is probably more suited to playing centrally as a playmaker but I don't use those in my current tactic. 4 G/A contributions is probably indicative of his crossing and finishing ability.
ST: Yannick Fotschl: I use inside forwards so Fotschl wasn't need on the left wing and instead I utilised his height as a target forward as the season went on. I was honestly pretty impressed with how he did despite having 6 strength, and at 21 he can definitely continue to develop into the role.
ST: Marco Hodl: Finished as top scorer with 14 goals for the season, had some incredibly quiet patches especially through the middle of the season but all things considered he scored some important goals and will need to score plenty more over the next few years.

Accolades

Youth Development

Youth Intake

Nothing too spectacular in our first intake, we've picked up a few players who potentially pinch-hit as backup options next season plus some youngsters that might not ever play for the first team but will at least flesh out our B team.

Marcel Heider (24A): will probably act as the backup keeper next season
Moritz Dopatka (24B): my favourite of the intake, got some good technicals and physicals to build from
Simon Bier (24C): has some upside as a centre back but needs to put on a lot of muscle; 
Strahinja Babic (24D): solid mentals, I'll need to retrain his position to fit this team, can definitely see getting some minutes next season
Max Elsebrook (24E): another tall, skinny, weak centre back but at least he can play at left back as well.

Youth Players in the First Team Squad

Adem Oguz (23A): The first youth player to break into the first team, his match ratings were pretty lacklustre but he did develop a bit this season and he's at the point where I don't feel like I'm playing a man down when he's on the park. Has a couple of caps for the Turkish national youth team as well.
Aleksandar Zivkovic (23B): Zivkovic joined Oguz in getting some more opportunities as the season went on, his work rate is quite poor which definitely hinders him as a full back but I think he's got a good technical and physical base to work from. He'll probably be my backup right back from next season.
Christian Deppe (23D): Mostly just sat on the bench so I could have more Austrians in my matchday squad as the first team backups are all German and Romanian. Nothing really special and probably doesn't have a long term future at the club.

Finances & Facilities

We lost money pretty steadily as the season went on, but I'm trimming the wage budget quite a bit this off-season and I have discovered the Austrian FA gives out free cash for playing Austrians, so I'll be taking full advantage of that next season.

The lack of funds did mean we had no upgrades to our facilities this year, but I am pretty blessed to have good training and youth facilities already. Will be mainly focusing on improving the junior coaching and youth recruitment.

Miscellaneous

Contract Extension

New contract inked over the winter break which locks me in until June 2025.

Austrian FA Funding

I had absolutely no idea this was a thing until it popped up for the first time in early March. Gonna be super conscious of this moving forward. This should be an amazing source of income going forward. Does anyone know if they have to be Austrian as a first nationality, or does second nationality also count?

Progression

[Johnny Ace]

Season 2032/2033 - Port Talbot

Boosh, promotion baby!

Was pretty tough with Llantwit Major going unbeaten, we were very close to beating them if it wasn't for a 94th minute equaliser 

Was good to have a few seasons in the first division, the players I've managed to keep have had a few years to develop and mature

Spoiler

We're really weak in both fullback positions though, I do have a decent looking right back coming through 

The finances are not looking good though, nearly 450k in the red, I don't think anything but a Euro run would fix that to be honest 

Spoiler

It shafts us really, I struggle to offer my top players £110 p/w and I can't offer the HOY more that £35 p/w, that reminds me, I need to go find a new one this preseason if I can, because..

 

This is dropping off, I think I signed up 6 or 7 or these, it's literally a waste of time and resources signing up the kids I know won't train well when I don't need numbers

Alex Gray was that young CM who I had no idea what to do with and I think Sam Jones was a right back who never really developed

No changes on the profile of me or at the club

Spoiler

 What's starting to grate my cheese is the amount of fans we have, we have 125 season ticket holders, still. We've won two leagues, the Welsh cup, have spent 5 seasons in the top flight and been in Europe and we have 125 season tickets holders, for real? Llantwit Major have the smallest stadium in the league and they have way more fans than we do? Minor annoyance as we have a higher rep, I guess Port Talbot isn't a football town 

Anyway, lets see what happens this time round 

[_JHTB_]

Ilkeston Town - Season 26 – Premier League–3rd

Champions League – Champions!

Challenge Complete

Transfers -- Squad -- League -- Key Player -- Hot Prospect

League: This season we were pretty poor defensively, we conceded as more in our opening 3 games then we did in the entire second half of the season last time out. Thankfully, we were still potent offensively but it was still frustrating to see such a difference compared to how we’d ended the season prior. The season pretty much followed the path of us scoring plenty goals and conceding plenty, usually we scored more than we conceded, but when you concede as much you do lose and draw more than you would hope and that ultimately cost us in any chance to win the league for the second time.

Europe: Our Champions League campaign was largely similar to how the league was going, conceding quite a lot of goals but scoring more usually. We did draw one and lose one in the league phase as to Liverpool and Villereal respectively but progressed to the round of 16 fairly comfortably in the end. Our reward here was a tie against an Arsenal side who would ultimately win the league this season but despite being outplayed in the opening leg we managed to come away with a draw which we then repeated in the 2^nd leg to win on penalties. Barcelona was our opponent in the next round and really, it was straight forward in the end as we came away 2-0 victors in both legs.

The semi-final did not get off to a great start as we faced off against PSG. We were comfortably second best and could have easily conceded more but found ourselves 2-0 down with it all to do. The second leg was in some ways a reverse of the first with us deserving of the victory on the night and we had managed to equalise the tie by half time but could not find a 3^rd goal to win it outright so instead we had to settle for penalties which we seem to be well practiced on now.

The final was actually a rematch of sorts from our Europa League win as we faced off against the same opponents in Villereal. We started the game very well and looked like we were going to be quite comfortable victors before they scored first against the run of play.  Thankfully we were gifted a way back into the game just before half time as we were awarded a penalty which we duly converted. The second half saw us again the dominant team but Villereal creating a few more chances. It seemed as though the game was going to go to extra time but in the 90^th minute up popped Gary Joyce 10 to win us the game.

Youth Intake

A little underwhelming intake though some useful enough prospects nonetheless.

Robert Salamaj 26 – He doesn’t have the best of personalities, but looks to be the best of the bunch of this years intake. I am training him to be a wing back as I think his attributes are fairly well rounded for that. He does need to improve quite a lot physically if he is to be a good option in the future.

Charlie Pycock 26 – A central defender which is actually a position we do need as one of my regular starters is starting to decline due to age. He has been developing nicely since coming through and probably will be in the first team fold in the next few years.

 

Overview

We played the season with a reduced capacity on our stadium and we are immediately expanding the capacity to the limit of 59k.

I don’t know that I’ll continue on till next season, but we’ve got to aim to win the league next time out. I am a bit worried that my squad is aging with not many new players of decent quality coming through from the youth team.

Key Players

Tariq Caton 20 – Caton was back to his best this season averaging around a goal a game in all competitions finishing top scorer in both the league and Champions League. He also won the Ballon D’or for the second consecutive year.

Ahmed Al-Akchaoui 17  – Al-Akchaoui did attract interest at the start of the season with us rejecting north of £100m for him, but as one of the two standout players he is unsellable. He proved his credentials this season with 24 goals and 16 assists in all competitions.

Gary Joyce 10 – Joyce continued to be a consistent performer for us, his 5^th in a row with double figures for goals and assists. This time 16 goals and 11 assists for the season including the all important Champions League final winner.

 

Edited September 9, 2023 by _JHTB_

[libbyshuss]

6 minutes ago, _JHTB_ said:

Ilkeston Town - Season 26 – Premier League–3rd

Champions League – Champions!

Challenge Complete

congratulations! it had been on the cards for a while!

Happy for the people of Ilkeston!

[HanziZoloman]

vor 15 Minuten schrieb _JHTB_:

Ilkeston Town - Season 26 – Premier League–3rd

Champions League – Champions!

Challenge Complete

Wow!! Congratulations!! And you needed only 26 years amazing work 

[libbyshuss]

Uruguary - Villa Teresa

2025 - Season 3

Division 2

Season Summary

Groundhog Season! We missed out on automatic promotion by one point and lost in the play off final again. For the third season in a row! We weren't helped by our first chpice centre backs both been suspended for the final, and only having two natural centre backs in the whole squad

 

Youth

Another promising preview - i always like seeing the phrase 'golden generation;, even if it rarely ever is.

The intake itself was pretty good again. Not as promising as the previous year but considering how low my facilities are, I can't really argue.

Finances and Upgrades

Still got no money! In a sad attempt to try and get some income so we can start upgrading our facilities I sold off some of our better youth prospects. I hate doing it but sometimes you got to take the short term hit for long term gain. Hopefully it'll pay off cos the transfer fees just pay off our debts, and we're still in debt!

 

Career

Keep plugging away! It's quite nice in Uruguay, and we've had three really good seasons so far. It's still a young team, youth players are integrating nicely, it's looking positive

 

 

[JAwtunes]

Congrats @_JHTB_ 👏👏

[Virtual Male]

1 hour ago, _JHTB_ said:

 

Ilkeston Town - Season 26 – Premier League–3rd

Champions League – Champions!

Challenge Complete

 

Congratulations @_JHTB_, I'm always amazed how quickly some people can get through this challenge!  

[Virtual Male]

@kdavva74 The money for playing Austrian players is a godsend isn't it, that's what fully funded my youth upgrades in the early years. Be aware that it stops when you get to the top division so make the most of it while you can.

[jstu9]

19 hours ago, lewis999 said:

Playing this challenge in Italy and it feels really difficult. Livorno started with adequate or average facilities in everything and i'm grinding away. Spent 7 seasons in Serie C before winning the league and now in my first Serie B season. I was losing a lot of money in Serie C and thought it'll be fixed when I reach Serie B, turns out its not and i'm still somehow losing money despite only having a wage bill of 22k a week. I've tried to find any others playing in Italy but don't have the time to search the entire thread.

I haven't had one upgrade or even a coaching course since I started and it feels like it might get a bit stagnant, anyone know if Italy have any financial bugs that could be causing this, my outgoings feel like they should be REALLY minimal. Only 3 coaches, 22k wage budget etc. 

Really frustrating.

How expensive is your youth setup? That's what I always run into when I do this. I always end up with not having enough money to upgrade facilities and fall in the trap where you just can't progress.

[kdavva74]

42 minutes ago, Virtual Male said:

@kdavva74 The money for playing Austrian players is a godsend isn't it, that's what fully funded my youth upgrades in the early years. Be aware that it stops when you get to the top division so make the most of it while you can.

It's basically impossible to lose money, I'm loving it. I don't think I'll be good enough to get promoted for a while yet so I should be able to build quite a nice piggy bank.

[jstu9]

Season 9, 2031, Fijian Premier League

My 4th trophy. This one is the Champions vs Champions competition which I think is the equivalent to the Community Shield. I might need to start expanding my trophy shelf. We played Lautoka who had just won the league, we won the first leg 2-1 and drew the 2nd leg 1-1 on an 89' equalizer goal. A nice 3-2 aggregate victory.

As for the league, we took a step back. Still a very strong 3rd place finish, I had dreams of winning the league behind my star striker Semesa Ali (29a). Ali is still with us (I was expecting him to leave to be honest) but he actually had a much quieter season. Still excellent but he went from 34 goals, 21 in the league to 17 goals, 13 in the league. We started 2-1-0 but lost 3 in a row to Suva, Labasa and Ba. We finished the season strong though going 4-1-0 in our last 5.

Cups: You'd think I would do better in these. Made it to the FA Cup Final falling to Rewa in extra time 2-1. I think that's the largest crowd we've ever played in front of, all 3997 of them. Netani Koro (30d) scored an equalizer for us at the 86' but alas it was not to be. One issue with these Cups is they are usually during International Breaks so I'm often missing players. Two, games are ever 3-4 days and the Battle of Giants, the games were every 2 days this season. Also, I tend not to prioritize them vs the League. But it would be cool to win the FA Cup and Battle of Giants trophy before I'm done.

Squad:

Asish Chand(30a) looks to be good. Not entirely sure where to play him, I moved him around a bit but hopefully he can join Khan and Ali as my superstars.

I did not have a single player leave the club in 2031. Must be some kind of record. Prashant Kumar was in the reserves so not a loss. I have offered contracts to pretty much any significant player over the past few seasons whenever they get an offer from another club. I think I have offered a contract to Mohammed Lal (my starting center back) probably 50 times a season. Filipe Sakai (backup at right back) about the same, 40-50 times. I don't know if this is 100% necessary but with all the losses I've had, I can't afford not to. It seems to work alot of the time, but its not 100%. I've lost players after offering a contract, but they are typically the stronger players.

This is actually probably my worst youth pull since I've started this (relatively). That GK might go right into the starting spot. And Seremaia Chand might go straight into starting. My central defense has been the hardest hit when players leave. I did get my Junior Coaching up to Exceptional late in the year. I suspect that will kill my finances (but if I spent the money that the board allows me to spend we'd be ridiculously in debt anyways).

[Sn00gle]

        
Kotwica Kołobrzeg - 2045/46

Squad - League - Finances - Transfers 

Fast update of the season. Main goal was to win Europa League, we manage to get to the final, unfortunately Chelsea was to strong for us. Even if we lost only 0-1, we had no chance in this match. Fun fact Zagłębie Lubin is next Polish Club which won Conference League but they almost got relegated in league. We got decent second half of season when we got in touch with top of the league and we secured a 2nd spot. Ruch Chorzów managed to win Polish Cup which is very unexpected.

No foreign intake this year but we got wonderkid Jajkowski and finaly GK as well.

Intake Prieview

Spoiler

Intake Report

Spoiler

 

[HanziZoloman]

Injuries, penalties, late equalizers, late losers, cycle of doom and of course red cards ... when dear football god ... when will we charge for promotion? When will we be ready?

[tomay]

Würzburger Kickers
End of Season 23 Review 2045/46
Challenge completed!!!

Table - We Won!
This year RB Leipzig had weaker first round where they were 3rd with 5 point behind. Second round was much better for them and they was even first at day 31, but they were involved in all competitions (won DFB-Pokal, and lost UCL Final) and had poor form at the end of season. Lost away in day 32 with us, drew at day 33 and also lost the last game.

League - predicted 5th, finished 1st with 77pts (+7)
    First round - 38 pts, 2nd place, 2pts behind FC Köln!!!
    Second round - 39 pts, Victory!

DFB Pokal - 1st round
Lost away 1:4 vs FC Nürnberg (Bundesliga 2)

Champions League - 1/8
Lost 1:0, 0:2 vs Inter Milan

Key moments
Won Club World Ch'ship.

Emmanuel Wellington top league goalscorer with 29 goals.

Excellent intake with no elite talents.
Signed 5/16 players.
intake
intake-all
MC Spyros Alibalis - GRE

Transfers - Not all sold players are listed on this screen because i move them into my second team and sold them from there(WK II team has amateur status).
Departures

Players stats
Presence of youth players in the main team (all 22/22 players) with stats.
Four debuts this season.


Summary (last 5 seasons)

Edited September 9, 2023 by tomay

[tomay]

Screenshots of my three best players thanks to which it was possible to win this challange.

Striker - Emmanuel Wellington


Left Winger - Toni Zorica

Right Wingback - Alessandro Zahn

Edited September 9, 2023 by tomay

[JAwtunes]

Congrats @tomay 👏👏

[HanziZoloman]

vor einer Stunde schrieb tomay:

Würzburger Kickers
End of Season 23 Review 2045/46
Challenge completed!!!

Congratulations 

[Novafluff]

Season Review 2034

Table | Transfers | Finance | Facilities | Youth Intake

We ended up on the exact same points as last season but way better goal difference and 2 places higher. If it werent for a horrible spell in the first half of the season we would be playing in the next tier next season. What hurt the most is that Jesper Rask that left us because he didnt think the team were good enough ended up at Oskarshamn in the same division and we lost both games 0-1 where he scored both goals, otherwise we would be qualifying. But hopes are high for our third year in this tier. An okay intake with 3 guys on 2 ½ stars in CA. Fedel is the only guy that makes the starting eleven as a new CD. 

Top Scorer: (06-A)Tobias Jonsson 35 Goals | 32(0) Games

Most Assists: (07-B)Martin Tapper Holter | 12 Assists | 32(0) Games

Best Average: (07-B)Martin Tapper Holter | 7.50 Average | 32(0) Games

Top Prospect: (11-A)Pontus Burakowsky-Hagsell | 0 Goals | 4 Assists | 29(1) Games | 6.74 Average

Best Intake Prospect:  (12-A)Janne Pettersson

 

Edited September 9, 2023 by Novafluff

[Vlach]

FC United

Season 5- 2028/29

 

 

 

It was a season of ups and downs ... and one big success:

 

 

Winning the FA Cup I had never in my cards - but when I saw in the quarterfinals that the best three teams of the National were out I considered it possible for us, and went for it by resting important players in league games before the cup matches. Luckily it worked out

 

In the league made it into the playoffs - barely but we did. Despite many tactic experiments, where i settled for now in the end with a 4-3-3, since i have now one really good and several ok wingers.. 

We won in the playoffs the first round, but lost in the second against Bath - with many tired players again. But Bath was obviously stronger anyway. At least at the end of the regular season I had the tiredness problem a bit better under control.

 

And we clearly do have a star now - the one regen which immedeatly caught my eye: Owen-Bird 26B

He closes my problem on the right flank nicely, and can act as well as a decent striker.

Sad part of the story: he wants to leave because our team is too weak for him 😞 Two years more of contract ...

 

 

And: After what felt like 100 request the board at least agreed to have an u21 team. Gives me some room to maneuvre players and test them longer before they are stuck or released in the main squad. After the cup win I was also able to convince them to improve the youth recruitment. Indeed a good season finale for us also in this regard.

 

 

Competitions

 

 

Lineup

Spoiler

 

 

Accolades

 

 

Finances

Spoiler

 

 

Youth Candidates

 

 

 

Better personalities and imho more talent this time. Especially happy about some players which are or might be retrained as wingers.

Having high hopes about Allan 29B and Rooney 29C

Spoiler

 

 

 

Still no chance to get a better HOYD btw. Probably have to wait until I am in a higher league

 

Youth Team

 

The U21 on its league, again. Wonder if its possible to go into a higher youth league?

Spoiler

 

[HanziZoloman]

@Vlach great achievements, congratulation on your first title (even if its not the FA Cup ) 

 

"Awful just awful. I don't know if I can do it any longer." Earl of Grey

Season I don't know in I don't care

Just look at it. In February we lost all football skills and started to play soccer instead. I don't know what happened. We had our best year before and suddenly the cycle of doom got my lads and pulled them down, all the way down from 4th to 9th. And if I look at @Vlach I must say we got better players. It's the coach, it's the Earl. He's made of roses and not of the wood you need for gaining something in this swamp of a league which pulls you down and down and down. Please Lord. Give us a sign!

 

Spoiler

 

Spoiler

 

"I don't know if I'll be back. I just don't know it." Earl of Grey

[aldojags]

amazin work well done @tomay and @_JHTB_

[Virtual Male]

13 hours ago, kdavva74 said:

It's basically impossible to lose money, I'm loving it. I don't think I'll be good enough to get promoted for a while yet so I should be able to build quite a nice piggy bank.

That money is pretty much what funded my youth recruitment and junior coaching all the way to max before I even got promoted in my first few seasons, pretty much the reason my run has been relatively pain free so far. 

[kdavva74]

25 minutes ago, Virtual Male said:

That money is pretty much what funded my youth recruitment and junior coaching all the way to max before I even got promoted in my first few seasons, pretty much the reason my run has been relatively pain free so far. 

I genuinely had no idea I was picking possibly the ideal team for this challenge!

[Virtual Male]

Wierner Sport-Club

2033/34

Competitions

• Admiral Bundesliga (1, 2) - The eagle eyed amongst you might have noticed that trophy isn't the FA cup. League champions!!!! The final points tally would have got us 3rd in 4 of the last 5 seasons and it's the 2nd lowest to win the league since the save was started, so it was more a case of the usual 2 at the top having an off season rather than us stepping up but a win is a win and I'll take them all. We only actually lead the league for about 60 minutes all season, luckily they were the last 60 minutes. Straight into the Champions League's League stage next season for the clubs debut in Europe's premier club competition.  
• Austrian FA Cup -  Couldn't make it 4 finals in 4 years, out in the quarter final.
• UEFA Europa League - Straight into the league phase this year and that was pretty straight forwards, only dropping 4 points and finishing in 6th place after the league phase was finished. Basel in the round of 16 didn't really pose a threat as we beat them 5-2 over two legs. Rennes were a different story though, 1-1 in both legs over 90 minutes led to extra time, I thought we'd done it when Fabio Kopp put us ahead in the 107th minute but it wasn't to be. Rennes scored 2 late goals to win the tie 4-3 on aggregate.  

Squad - It's looking much more balanced now, still a little low in quality at the back. Lots of players are getting interest from some of Europe's big boys now, doing well in the continental competitions does have its drawbacks. 

Key Players

• Florian Hiemann (25YP4) - He's got a new face due to a mis-click with my regen face pack but he's still scoring goals. 29 in the league left him 2nd in the golden boot which was sort of the theme for his season with him coming runner up in both the Austrian Sports Magazine Player of the Year and the Austrian Player of the Year.
• Fabio Kopp (27YP9) - Averaged a 7.34 in the league and was just always a guy I could rely on to put a solid shift in, his G/A aren't mind blowing but they all seem to have come at the right time in important games.

Youth Intake (Full View) - Solid again, 5 4.5* and higher potential players and a few higher rated defensive players which will do the team good in the coming years. Some good personalities too!

• Dominik Wilhelm (34YP1) - My assistant reckons this is the guy with the highest potential in the intake. Another forward, but I think he might be the first to come through the academy with the consistent trait from the off.
• Robert Kehl (34YP3) - I think Ole has got it wrong though. To have a valuation of between £5.6m and £9.8m the day he signed on means this kid has to be something special, surely. I'm thinking I'll bring him in as my cup goalkeeper next season and see how he comes along

Transfers - Nothing of note really, the only outgoings either didn't get game time or I couldn't see developing into a player that would be in the first team.

Finances - Lost about £10m over the season, which isn't ideal. Might be able to hold off on a big player sale for another season at least, hopefully some Champions League money will come rolling in next season and keep me in the black.

Other - 

• The board agreed to upgrade the training facilities which leaves the clubs facilities looking like this.
• They then decided it was time to expand the stadium from being 8000 capacity to just shy of 12000 costing a little less than £4m. Then as soon as the season had ended they scrapped this idea despite having already spent the money in favour of just building a whole new one. Not sure the board should be left in charge of any money if this is what they're going to be like.
• Ivo Cosic (31YP5) was in the NXGN List again, coming in at No. 41 despite having a pretty poor season really.
• Jannik Schlicke (30YP6) won European Golden Boy but I think half of his appearances were for my B team at the back end of last season so I don't think that entirely legitimate.

[Virtual Male]

1 hour ago, kdavva74 said:

I genuinely had no idea I was picking possibly the ideal team for this challenge!

I'm surprised it's a nation that hasn't been completed yet tbh, there's a lot going for Austria, they're pretty high in the coefficients so they get plenty of places in Europe on top of that their youth rating is pretty high and game importance is high too. I didn't realise how well the nation was set up for this either, the top 2/3 clubs in the Bundesliga will be hard to displace though, they're spending crazy amounts on money in my save.