The FM24 Youth Academy Challenge

[HanziZoloman]

vor 7 Minuten schrieb XaW:

Other than that? Make more money!  

I'm on it thx

[thomas_e]

1 hour ago, XaW said:

You were in the 3. liga, no?

A very good season! Hope you complete it with them, after all no West German outside of Berlin have ever won the Bundesliga! It's one of the reasons why I've tried the challenge with them so many times, but never succeeded.

Thanks for the heads up. I actually used a former excel template from my Cottbus save on FM23 when I wrote this up, and forgot to change 2nd Bundesliga to 3rd Bundesliga for the 24-25 season! 

A good season indeed, and I have now gotten promoted the first year with Cottbus on all my three YAC-saves. Both of my previous completions have been done in 2033, but this time I am sure it will take a lot longer, if at all! 

[DazRTaylor]

Youth Candidates

Season 2026/27

Bury

The preview was exceptional:

It was a pretty good intake though not the outstanding one I was promised.  Maybe I expect too much.

[iamnobody]

My time in Indonesia is over.  I made it a whole 14 games before getting the boot.  The game is much tougher without strikers.

[Shankly84]

Just finished my first season in Sweden and I've only just noticed that we never entered the Swedish Cup. I'm presuming this is a bug that will be rectified in future updates? If so, am I ok to continue or do I need to start again?

[Ranga846]

2 minutes ago, Shankly84 said:

Just finished my first season in Sweden and I've only just noticed that we never entered the Swedish Cup. I'm presuming this is a bug that will be rectified in future updates? If so, am I ok to continue or do I need to start again?

Have the exact same issue and question, except in Germany

[Mahzun_Savas]

I received a message saying I had repaired the clubs financial damage

Spoiler

Only problem is the club has a huge amount of debt so no financial damage has been repaired that I can see.

Spoiler

Not sure what I am supposed to do about the debt.

[Mahzun_Savas]

My youth intake came through, described as a poor intake it certainly was not poor. 4 elite talents and 8 top talents meant a very good intake with some players I desperately need.

Spoiler

Spoiler

 

[hubwub]

I just got to a point in my save in that I'm using an 18 year old as my GK due to GK injuries.

[Vipertitan]

 

first try at this 

manager profile

Vendée Les Herbiers profile

Vendée Les Herbiers general

Vendée Les Herbiers current squad

Vendée Les Herbiers history

 

[Atrux]

In Germany you are only guaranteed DFB Pokal if you are 1. and 2. Bundesliga, plus the first 4 of the 3. Liga. Otherwise you have to win the amateur cup, which is not on the game, so is decided randomly.

[hubwub]

What's the equivalent of the following in team training from FM23 to FM24:

- Team: Defensive Shape

- Team: Teamwork

- Team: Attacking Movement

Is Attacking Movement and Defensive Shape now Tactical: Defensive Shadow Play and Tactical: Attacking Shadow Play? Is Team: Teamwork not just relegated to Team Bonding?

Edited October 24, 2023 by hubwub

[Sazchu]

Seems like I didn't pay enough attention, time to find another country to give it a go in.

Edited October 24, 2023 by Sazchu

[Bartrcm]

58 minutes ago, Sazchu said:

Season 1 | 2024

 

Welcome to Latvia, and to Rēzeknes FA.

The newly promoted club shocked the league when they decided to hire an unknown new Manager to try and stave off relegation.

With a full squad of players of questionable quality the newly promoted side were predicted to finish dead last in the league.

The first order of business for the new manager was to strengthen the backroom as he brought in former Czech international Milan Baroš to get some proper experience into his coaching team.

The newly promoted side started the season with a shock draw in their first game of the season against title holders, and favourites RFS.

A good start to the season saw them with 7 points in their opening 4 games, the good form wasn't there to last thought as they lost 9 of the following 11 games, picking up 6 points during that time.

A change of fortunes came at the end of May as they finally managed another win, and another one...  Summer had arrived and with it had a form that would see Rēzeknes FA charged into the middle of the table, 5 wins and a draw during a spell of 7 games, which included a win against RFS, as well as a win in the cup against league leaders Auda.

Though as the saying goes, all good things must come to an end.

In the following 15 games, there came a win in the cup quarter-final and a draw against bottom of the table Super Nova, ending the season on a run which saw them only scoring one points in the last 14 games of the season, but thankfully the previous good form meant that they survived to finish 8th out of 10 teams in the league.

Their form in the cup saw them reach the Semi-Final, where they lost to eventual runner-up RFS.

Youth Intake

Things were looking up with the new batch of youngesters coming through the youth program with the club expecting an Excellent intake of players.

As they arrived there was a bleaker picture with the intake now being rated as being poor, but there were multiple players that could look forward to having chances with the main squad in the following season.

The star of the intake was Goalkeeper Jurijs Slesarchuk who could look forward to being the starting goalkeeper as soon as the new season started.

Seasonal Overview

  Hide contents

 

Everything Else

A season of instability saw us just barely surive, with a complete lack of chance creation and a defence that was leakier than a plastic bag filled with lava.

Heading into the next season we have been predicted to do even worse than the previous season, so it should be extremely difficult to survive, though hopefully a few of the youngster can help us stay afloat with a squad that would be a mid table team in the division below us.

We lost over 400,000 thousand during the season, so if we survive the second season we'll do so while struggling financially.

Starting date: I saved on the 10th of november for a chance of different playoff teams, the league reset date is January 1st.

 

 

 

 

As Latvia has only 1 league, it's not applicable for this challenge. Sorry.

[Sazchu]

9 minutes ago, Bartrcm said:

As Latvia has only 1 league, it's not applicable for this challenge. Sorry.

Ya know, I had thought why Latvia wasn't on the list, guess I didn't think about it enough though, thanks for telling me.

[Makoto Nakamura]

3 hours ago, Shankly84 said:

Just finished my first season in Sweden and I've only just noticed that we never entered the Swedish Cup. I'm presuming this is a bug that will be rectified in future updates? If so, am I ok to continue or do I need to start again?

Think with Sweden you need to finish in the top 2 places in the 4th tier to qualify for the Swedish Cup!

[Atrux]

Sigh

[Virtual Male]

Season 3 2026/27

Manager Profile - Competitions - Finances - Facilities

 

Competitions -

• Vanarama National League North - Very much a season of 2 halves. I changed the tactics a little in an attempt to sure the defence up and at the start of the season it looked like it was working really well, going in to the new year we sat at the top of the table with a 7 point gap to 2nd and it looked like we actually knew how to play football. That all changed after a loss in the FA Cup, morale tanked and we plummeted down the table, I think we were as far down as 10th at one point. Everything I tried to get some form back just seemed to make things worse so we just stopped trying to defend at all really and too an approach of if you score 4 we'll score 5 and it seemed to do the job, a good run in the final 3rd of the season saw us creep back into the playoffs and on the back of that good form none of the playoff games were close really, even winning the final 5-2! So it's the Vanarama National League for Merthyr next season!!! From what I remember from previous saves in England the quality isn't a massive step up so I'm hoping for a fairly solid season and anything other than relegation will be a success.
• The Emirates FA Cup - We made it all the way to the 3rd round thanks to drawing exclusively non-league teams. I was hoping for a money spinner when the draw cam around and that's what we got, Arsenal away!! The game wasn't a fun one to manage, we 10-1 and the season sort of fell apart from there. Luckily we still managed to get promoted, otherwise the £300k we got from the fixture might not have been worth it.
• The Isuzu FA Trophy - No such heroics in this one, 3rd round exit.

Squad - Not hugely different from the previous season, a handful of youths getting minutes again but no-one ground-breaking. I'm praying for a good keeper to come trough the academy because Cogman is a liability.

• Mathew Hughes (2025YP6) - The best we've produced so far an was the top scorer this season. I had big hopes of him carrying us to survival next season but he had no interest in renewing his contract which was a pain but that stuff is always going to happen in the lower levels isn't it. Having played a little of the next season he moved to Eastleigh, scored 2 in 2, mutually terminated his contract and has now retired so I'm not sure he made the right call with leaving. Oh, well. 

Youth Intake (Preview) - Another pretty good intake, all be it top heavy again. Not many decent personalities but one stand out player in my eyes.

• Travis Collins (2027YP4) - If it wasn't for already having Ryan Astley this guy would be straight into my starting XI. I'll make sure to get him plenty of playing time so he can step up when his time comes.

Transfers & Finances - No transfers again. The bank balance is looking pretty goo off the back of both the FA Cup run and to board just popping an extra £100k in there at the start of the season, I'm hesitant to start spending too much on facilities until we're in a place to turn professional really. 

Other - I have made sure to use some of the money from this season though so the tax man doesn't get it all, we've upgraded our Youth recruitment, Junior coaching & Training facilities so hopefully we'll see some benefit in the coming season.

[Winski]

IFK Lidingö FK
Season 1 | 2024
Finances | Transfers | Club Overview | Manager Profile | Tactic
 

Well, that was a very good season! We only lost one league game, we scored by far the most goals, and so we managed to win the league with 5 points clear. Most of the season I had to play with a grey player on goal. So we not only scored lots of goals, we also conceded a lot. We had scores like 6-6, 6-4, 5-3 and 5-4. So it was a lots of fun this season!

Topscorer was Victor Söderström, our big man up front, who scored 24 goals in 26 matches.

Upgrades
Because of our healthy financial situation I was able to upgrade Junior Coaching no less then 3 times! So it's now labelled as Excellent.

The same can be said about Youth Recruitment. I was able to upgrade it twice, and it is now labelled as Above Average.

And last but not least, my coaching badges. The board was willing to let me study for National C, National B and National A Licence. I'm still studying for National A, so within the next couple of months I can hopefully start studying for the next licence.
 

Youth intake
As posted before, our youth intake preview was very promising. The intake itself was spectaculair, with 16 Elite Talents! So all of our players are labelled als Elite Talents. Never had that before! We got one GK, and after he signed his contract I put him in our First XI right away. So he already played 5 matches this season.
I also promoted some other talents to our first squad, as some of them are really talented compared to our current players.

Oh, and it's a bit weird that it's a Golden Generation with 16 Elite Talents, but the graphic on the right shows that it's a poor intake. That must be a bug, me thinks.

Spoiler

 

[Neo_Geo]

With a grey keeper all year and only 10 players left now (had 11 for a month or two) I never expected to be in this position with 4 games to go:

5 points separate the top EIGHT teams!

Edited October 24, 2023 by Neo_Geo

[Coxbox]

Quick Mid-Season Update, I have won a game of football.


Hopefully changing to the 442 and being forced to use a grey right back will be the turning point of the season.




Also, my intake is here and looks "good"

 

[Potat]

On 23/10/2023 at 22:04, Potat said:

I may have just made a fatal error agreeing to this.. is this a new feature?

And just like that, this very vague promise has seen me get sacked at the end of season 3. Despite having two academy players play 35+ games out of 41 possible, and getting 2800 minutes and 1900 minutes respectively as well as giving over 1500 minutes to other academy players the board did not view this as 'meaningful'.

To be fair I should have known better than to make a risky promise during a beta no matter how confident I was in achieving it. But it's disappointing to have a save that was just getting interesting, end due to what I can only assume is a bug.

On the bright side, I don't have to deal with 5'9 CBs with 7 jumping reach anymore.

Any suggestions for what nation / specific team to do next greatly appreciated.

Edited October 24, 2023 by Potat

[Coxbox]

And I thought it was starting to look brighter  we lost 4 games in a row conceding 19 goals, over half from longshots by players with The longshot attribute no higher then "6"



I do want to keep the Asia theme going so might try india,

Edited October 25, 2023 by Coxbox

[Neo_Geo]

55 minutes ago, Potat said:

And just like that, this very vague promise has seen me get sacked at the end of season 3. Despite having two academy players play 35+ games out of 41 possible, and getting 2800 minutes and 1900 minutes respectively as well as giving over 1500 minutes to other academy players the board did not view this as 'meaningful'.

To be fair I should have known better than to make a risky promise during a beta no matter how confident I was in achieving it. But it's disappointing to have a save that was just getting interesting, end due to what I can only assume is a bug.

On the bright side, I don't have to deal with 5'9 CBs with 7 jumping reach anymore.

Any suggestions for what nation / specific team to do next greatly appreciated.

Wow, you’d have thought with contributions like that it would have counted 

I recently struggled to find a nation/team that I felt any kind of connection to. Hard to suggest a nation or team as it largely depends on what you are looking for. Interesting league structure, a nation yet to be completed, an “easier” team to try to complete the challenge, a team with an interesting backstory etc.

[Mahzun_Savas]

Season 24/25

End of Season Review

Portulgalete

It was a season that started so well and ended so badly and with a loss in the last game of the season I failed to meet the expectation of a midtable finish. The board currently are disappointed in me and give me an E rating. Will I survive for a second season? I doubt it.

League Table

Spoiler

Schedule

Spoiler

Spoiler

Star Players

My best two players were midfielder Gonzalo Zorilla, who finished with 13 goals and 7 assists, and striker David Nates who scored a remarkable 28 goals in 33 games. A mention also goes to the consistent 16 year old Inaki Goni who played the whole season at DM and while he was only okay he provided a serviceable option in a midfield with very few options. He has a lot of potential and should become a very good player for the club.

Spoiler

Spoiler

 

Spoiler

 

[HanziZoloman]

vor 10 Stunden schrieb Virtual Male:

Vanarama National League North - Very much a season of 2 halves. I changed the tactics a little in an attempt to sure the defence up and at the start of the season it looked like it was working really well, going in to the new year we sat at the top of the table with a 7 point gap to 2nd and it looked like we actually knew how to play football. That all changed after a loss in the FA Cup, morale tanked and we plummeted down the table, I think we were as far down as 10th at one point. Everything I tried to get some form back just seemed to make things worse so we just stopped trying to defend at all really and too an approach of if you score 4 we'll score 5 and it seemed to do the job, a good run in the final 3rd of the season saw us creep back into the playoffs and on the back of that good form none of the playoff games were close really, even winning the final 5-2! So it's the Vanarama National League for Merthyr next season!!! From what I remember from previous saves in England the quality isn't a massive step up so I'm hoping for a fairly solid season and anything other than relegation will be a success.

Wonderful club and superb season! First year promotion 

[Mahzun_Savas]

I think my time managing Portugalete is coming to end at my choice. The board has decided to revert to semi-professional which stinks. However the club was losing a massive amount of money so it probably should not have been a surprise. Also I will have less staff.

 

On top of that I have lost 4 key players, 2 to retirement and 2 which refused to sign with me. My defence is exceptionally weak now although attack is strong.

[Mahzun_Savas]

I am going to give Japan a go with ReinMeer Aomori.

[dondagz]

After so many, I believe I have found the one. Say hello to Hitchin Town F.C

 

Spoiler

 

Spoiler

 

Season 1 2024/25

• Vanarama National League North - After looking at the profile of players, I realised for once we could actually play decent football for this level, a patient-passing play, call me Pep De-Zerbi. I was wrong, we could not score goals to save our lives. However, keeping 70% of the ball also meant we barely considered. Our right winger Arnold Matshazi scored bangers here and there and we scraped enough wins together to survive another year.
• Spoiler

  

   

• The FA Cup - Drew a team in our league in the 4th qualifying round and they made easy work for us. Too bad because Hitchin don't really have the fans to make money through tickets. It'll be a while before we make enough for any facility improvement. So hopefully we do better next year.
• The FA Trophy - Double jeopardy as Spennymoor boped us 4-1 in our very first outing.

Squad - Our wingers were amazing but couldn't stay fit. One game Arnold scored four and assisted two, I have extended his contract by two more years. Our Aging CDM playmaker and Creative forward which the tactic were built around are now retiring. Although as luck we have it I think we got their exact replacements in our intake. One of our Centre backs I thought will be instantly replaced once we got an intake just kept improving and is now actually a decent player for this level. I'm happy with the team going into next season.

Youth Intake- Quite pleased as the best players were exactly the positions we needed.

Spoiler

Ben wallace is going to be our deep lying forward

Spoiler

And Jake Callow our CDM playmaker

Spoiler

Summary - Hopefully we make a cup run and make the playoffs so we can start seeing some money for facility improvement. But the current intake should develop nicely. P.S normally I wouldn't hire coaches, just me and the Ass Man to save costs, it has worked for me in the past with young players still developing through game time, however this year coaching and training are way more important than they they've ever been to player development. Once I hired a coach and got the training stars up, a lot of my younger players started seeing remarkable improvement.

[DazRTaylor]

End of Season Review

Season 2026/27

Bury

Season Summary

We clearly overperformed in the league by sneaking into the promotion playoffs though our performances in the two cups left a lot to be desired.

Season Details

League Table - By finishing seventh, we qualified, just, for the promotion playoffs.

League Fixtures 1 & 2 - It was either feast or famine with long unbeaten spells followed by weeks without winning.  We ended the season in desperately poor form.

Promotion Playoffs - We were obliterated away to Spennymoor in the first round to end any chance of promotion.

F. A. Cup - Despite leading at half time, we lost away to seventh tier outfir Guiseley in the third qualifying round.

F. A. Trophy - We crashed out at the first hurdle, the second round stage, as we lost a nine goal thriller at home to fellow Vanarama National League North side Farsley Celtic, despite leading by three goals at one stage.

Friendlies - It was a very good pre season campaign as we claimed some league scalps.

Squad 1 & 2 - We are not good enough

Squad Dynamics - This could be better.

Transfers In - None.

Transfers Out - Just the one departure as a fringe player was allowed to leave for pastures new.

Youth Candidates - It was a decent intake with striker Jack Morgan YP27F6 being rated as the brightest prospect.

Finances - We made a large profit this year and we have a seven figure bank balance as a result.

Key Players

Andy Scarisbrick - The midfielder played well above his level this year.  On the transfer list as he threw a tantrum recently.

Kieran Baker - Playing at right back, he had a very good season.

Liam Cross - Can play anywhere in midfield or on either wing, he thinks I am too harsh during team talks.  Needs to get tougher.

Dylan Sime - One of two quality strikers we have.  Just shaded it as the better player of the two.

Eko Solomon - The left back is not good enough for this level yet he continues to perform well.

Next Season

I would be more than happy with a mid table finish.

Personal Contract

Season     Contract Start Date     Contract Expiry Date     Pre Tax Wage     Post Tax Wage
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
At start          25 June 2026             30 June 2027         £750 p/w          £600 p/w
2026/27         2 January 2027             30 June 2028         £775 p/w ↑        £600 p/w =

Personal Coaching Data

Season     Reputation            Qualifications     Att  Def  Fit  GkD  GkH  GkS  Tac  Tec  Men  SeP  WWY  Ada  Det  PlK  YoK  LoD  PeM  Mot
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
At start   Minimal   (0.50*)     None                 1    1    1    1    1    1    1    1    1    1    5    1    1    1    5    1    1    1
2026/27    Minimal = (0.50*) =   None =               4 ↑  4 ↑  1 =  1 =  1 =  1 =  4 ↑  4 ↑  4 ↑  1 =  5 =  1 =  4 ↑  4 ↑  6 ↑  5 ↑  4 ↑  4 ↑

Club Facilities

Season     Training Facilities  Youth Facilities  Youth Level  Corporate Facilities  Junior Coaching  Youth Recruitment  Club Reputation
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
At Start   Great                Great                  2       Basic                 Adequate         Average            Local   (1.00*)
2026/27    Great =              Great =                2 =     Basic =               Excellent ↑↑     Good    ↑↑         Local = (1.00*) =

Season Record

Season     Played     Won     Drawn     Lost     Goals For     Goals Against     Goal Difference     Win Percentage
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2026/27      50        23       10       17         110              91                 +19              46.00%

Overall Career Record

After Season   Played     Won     Drawn     Lost     Goals For     Goals Against     Goal Difference     Win Percentage     Time At Club
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2026/27          50        23       10       17         110              91                 +19              46.00%             300 days

Transfer Sale Record

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

Trophy Haul

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

Trophy Cabinet

League Titles
-------------

Cup Competition Victories
-------------------------

Career Overview

Season     Champions League    Europa League    Europa Conference League             League                             Position     F.A. Cup                    League Cup        Achievements
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2026/27           N/a               N/a                    N/a                       Vanarama National League North        7th       Third Qualifying Round          N/a           Lost in promotion playoffs first round.  F. A. Trophy second round.

Record Number of Appearances (Players From The Academy Only)

Season     Player                    Cumulative Number of Appearances
---------------------------------------------------------------------
2026/27    Sam Berry YP27I9                          6

Record Goal Scorer (Players From The Academy Only)

Season     Player                          Cumulative Number of Goals
---------------------------------------------------------------------
2026/27    No one                                        0

Record Number of Assists (Players From The Academy Only)

Season     Player                        Cumulative Number of Assists
---------------------------------------------------------------------
2026/27    Jordan Baguley YP27B2                       1

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

Season     Player                    Cumulative Number of Clean Sheets
----------------------------------------------------------------------
2026/27    No one                                     0

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 26, 2023 by DazRTaylor

[the_hdk]

 

Transfer History

Well second season went good. We started off really well. First 10 games went undefeated, but in second half we had many injuries and had a period that we we could not win for more than 10 games. Thankfully for soem reason we had a 1,5 month free after 3/4 of the seaosn (whole september) so we came back for last 4 games in full force. We have the most scored goals (108) but also most conceded (91). We have crazy results. 6-1, 4-8, 3-5, 6-2...alot of high scoring games...without spoiling you too much look further for my own personal highest scoring game below. Either way I'm happy, sadly I do think we are going to be stuck in J2 for atleast 5-8 seasons depending on the youth intakes. So far they have been bad-ish.

We are losing 6 players at the end of the year. 3 retirements and 3 players who just do not want to extend. that brings our amount of midfielders back to...3...so I'm forced to use youth next year. KANDA (best Youth form last intake) was already playing alot as he is our second wing back on the left. So at 16 he has already 10 league starts. Seems to have done him good as he went up to 2 stars ability.

Season tickets are going up. And our youth coaching and recruitment is up to Good. Lets hope to imrpove it further this year. Facilities also improved once...but now we are in red. So I will wait a bit to build up maybe 2-3 mln in bank before I ask for more again.

Now the grind starts.

 

My biggest win ever in FM!

Poaching of Staff

The down side of succes, staff poaching.

 

YASUDA 25 Intake

5 elite...but once I see them in my u18 team...all their ability went down to max 1 star and potential to 3,5 stars....

Not in Elites...but once in u18 seems the biggest prospect. Resolute. INADA. Love the determination. For some reason I get alot of youngsters with horrible Stamina and Strengh. Ohh well. let;s see how he will develop.

(I added the faces after I made the screeshot above)

 

 

[HanziZoloman]

@DazRTaylor How is Jack Barr developing? He looks great 

[DazRTaylor]

10 minutes ago, HanziZoloman said:

@DazRTaylor How is Jack Barr developing? He looks great 

He didn't sign so has already left.  

[XaW]

XaW - Folkestone Invicta - Season 2025/26 (Season 2) - Vanarama National League

Squad | Transfers | Finances

Well, we avoided relegation! And that was the only real goal for this season, so I think I can firmly say this was a good season. Now, the main issue I had with this season is that we are conceding way too many goals for my likening. And I also know what the issue is, but I just can't solve it...yet. The isse is that we don't have enough good defenders, or an actually good goalkeeper. The goalkeeper from the original squad is almost geriatric, and I've so far not gotten any good ones through the intake, so I have an issue here. The one we got towards the end has talent, but is not really good yet. As for defenders, the same goes there, I had to give a significant amount of game time to players who are so far from this level, it's almost laughable. So whenever I had to rotate due to extreme fatigue, we got thumped due to the crappy kids I had to field. The intake this season was vastly better than the last one, so I hope for better days in this regard next season.

The season itself went well overall, as we showed we can compete at this level, at least with the first 11 before the quality drops off. Being semi-pro, we do have a big disadvantage, but we are still actually making money, so I hope we can continue to build on this and eventually go pro. One big issue for us is that one of our best players, Nelson Ndongala, is out of contract this summer. I'm still trying to get him to sign a new one, but so far no luck. If we were to lose him, we'd have a big hole in the middle of the pitch, but either way we have to try our best to continue improving.

This season a few of the youngsters from last seasons intake got a lot of matches. The key one is clearly Timotej Sokol 25b who scored the 2nd most of any players at the club. He was the main replacement for the 3 up top, so he got a lot of matches. Another who played a lot is Scott Morris 25g, our 2nd choice left back. I like him, he is a Model Citizen after all, and he does fairly well when he fits in. The coaches really doesn't rate his potential though, so I guess we'll see how he develops. The 3rd and final player I'm going to highlight,is Stephen Perkins 25a. The coaches really think he has something in him, but I struggle to see it myself. Still, with a lack of great options I've given him his fair share of matches, but so far he has not delivered.

And we need even more seats for league regulations it seems, so we continue to revamp the stadium.

FA Cup: We beat Slough Town after a replay before we lost to Wrexham in the 1st round.
FA Trophy: We got thumped by Torquay United in the 3rd round when I fielded a rotated side to gain some fitness.

I got some more improvements accepted this season.

Around the world

U18s:

Our youth side finished 8th in the National U18 League South East this season.

FA Youth Cup: They lost to Barnet in the 2nd qualifying round.

Youth intake:

Trophy cabinet

None

Player statistics:

Most apps for the clubs

Name			Nation		2nd Nation	Time at club	Apps
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Carlos Mohamed 25f	England		Ireland		2025-Present	44
Timotej Sokol 25b	Slovakia	England		2025-Present	42
Scott Morris 25g	England		Ireland		2025-Present	41
Stephen Perkins 25a	England		<N/A>		2025-Present	37
Keanu Mott 25e		England		<N/A>		2025-Present	19

Most goals for the club

Name			Nation		2nd Nation	Time at club	Goals
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Timotej Sokol 25b	Slovakia	England		2025-Present	15
Carlos Mohamed 25f	England		Ireland		2025-Present	2
Chris Butler 26g	Northern Ireland Ireland	2026-Present	2
Stephen Perkins 25a	England		<N/A>		2025-Present	1
Scott Morris 25g	England		Ireland		2025-Present	1

Most assists for the club

Name			Nation		2nd Nation	Time at club	Assists
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Stephen Perkins 25a	England		<N/A>		2025-Present	5
Carlos Mohamed 25f	England		Ireland		2025-Present	4
Scott Morris 25g	England		Ireland		2025-Present	3
Timotej Sokol 25b	Slovakia	England		2025-Present	1
Nik Surridge 26b	England		<N/A>		2026-Present	1

Supporters:

Summary:

 

[Neo_Geo]

Lewes FC Season 1 (24/25) Vanarama National South

 

League

Spoiler

Far better than I hoped given the squad of 14 quickly became 12 with 2 players retiring. A further two players were to leave due to being transfer listed and out of contract - one before the league kicked off and the other a month in, leaving me with 10 players and a grey keeper all season long.

To reach the play-off was incredible however we only missed out on the top spot by 3 points in one of the tightest title races I've been involved in. We were top of the league a few times and always in he mix but it was the number of draws that killed any chance of winning the league outright (that being said many of the draws were losses turned into draws so I'm not complaining).

I opted for a counter attacking wing-play 4-3-3 DM Wide which worked well given my main assets are a pressing forward, 2 wingers and a deep lying playmaker. Much of the season was spent trying to manage the fitness levels and at times it was ok and others the games just piled up and I dropped a lot of points due to fatigue where games I was winning I just couldn't see them out.

In the last game of the season my striker, Deon Moore (who had 33 goals in 44 games at this point) broke his leg meaning he wasn't available for the play-offs, whether this would have made the difference or not I'll never know but he's 25 and under contract for another year so we go again.

 

Cups

Spoiler

Didn't make the FA Cup proper and made it through two rounds in the FA Trophy to the 4th round where I lost on penalties to Southend 13-12. Not overly disappointed with it as the league was the focus this year and financially things seem solid.

 

Youth

Spoiler

Intake preview was good and the intake didn't disappoint (except for the fact the youth intake view in the dev centre wasn't working  so I've included the squad view instead):

Easily the most promising is Carlos Olivares Elite1 who scored 2 in 4 appearances at the tail end of the season. The big call for me is whether to revert to my tried and tested  4-2-4 counter attack formation from FM23 and play him alongside Moore or just rotate the front line and stick with a slightly more defensive formation. The low determination isn't great however at this stage its just about getting numbers and enough quality to survive and improve the facilities at the club.

I got a keeper who is a Top talent and at least the 3 silver current ability is better than the half star grey keepers!

 

 

Club

Spoiler

After much pestering the board finally agreed to junior coaching and youth recruitment improvements (these are always the two I focus on as its not upfront costs and has a bigger impact on the intake quality). Much to my surprise when the options became available once more they agreed again:

For my manager I had two coaching courses approved so I really have zero complaints over the way the first season went off the park (and I ended with roughly the same balance as the start of the season).

 

Edited October 25, 2023 by Neo_Geo

[Padders]

OMG 

[darren1983]

So been playing around with a couple saves waiting for full release but I've yet to play more than 2 league games with a side as I can't connect to a save knowing I'm going to stop in a couple of weeks so screw it, I'll start now.

I return to Dulwich Hamlet after 6 or 7 years when last time I only got as far as the Championship. This has been my plan since I saw they got relegated back in May so let's see how it goes  

Starting Profile

 

[HanziZoloman]

vor 3 Stunden schrieb DazRTaylor:

He didn't sign so has already left.  

Wtf

[Neo_Geo]

@Padders that's insane!

[Atrux]

Season 1 in the Books

Transfers

Spoiler

 

Edited October 25, 2023 by Atrux

[Potat]

 

FC Breitenrain

Lets try this again

[Braumiller]

Oh boy.....  This years edition of the challenge has got off to a fantastic start.....

Spent more hours than I'll admit reloading trying to get a specific club to appear that I wanted.  Finally gave up last night as I was happy with an alternative that had appeared.  Spent a couple of hours or so getting the save set-up, played 3 friendlies in the preseason before I noticed that in Croatia you cannot play anyone under 17 in the league.  That doesn't vibe with my playstyle, so the save has been deleted!

I think I have found my new home (Switzerland) and a possible new team (not the same as @Potat just posted above me as I type this out! ), but will reload a little more at lunch to see what other options I might have.

Will finally get this off the ground tonight I hope!

[JLAB]

@darren1983 So France ticks over for the new season on 19th June. I only know this because I'm doing my beta save at Lyon. The last league game of the 4th tier is 25th May.

[Padders]

And in typical Padders style who hasn't got out of the VNN/S in over two versions of the game, we have been relegated and sacked

Gutting to miss out with that investment 

[Coxbox]

Let's try this again, I now have players in most positions.

[Atrux]

If I make it through season 2, then I'm going to have a problem, cause everyone wants to leave after the season. Exciting times for Paris 13.

[KingKCrush]

CSC Ghiroda - Liga II - Romania - The Beginning - 2024

After completing the Youth Challenge unofficial (just fur fun aka a **** ton of save scumming  ) in FM19 and FM21, I want to win this challenge officially and be part of the Hall of Fame.

I decided to start this save in the same country where my parents come from. The Beautiful Romania. Sadly there is no Team from my "home city" Targu Mures, so I just simmed forward and went with the most interesting looking Logo from the 4 newly promoted Teams. So here I am. Welcome to Ghiroda!

Club

Ghiroda, with a Population of around 6200, is a very small commune next to Timisoara (Population: 320 000) and could pretty much be seen as a suburb of Timisoara. There is even a district in Timisoara called New-Ghiroda. This means that, in the search for the best youth players, we are competing against much larger clubs such as Rispensia and Politehnica. Both have excellent youth recruitment - 7/8. So we have to be satisfied with the leftovers for the next few years.

The club itself was founded in 2010 and rapidly climbed the ladders of Romanian Football. In 2017 they managed to get promoted to Liga III. 5 years later they reached the highlight of the young club history: runner-up. However, they failed to advance to League II in the playoffs. Only one year later they reached the dreamed promotion in the season 23-24. 

The newly promoted club just released the new jerseys for their first ever season in Liga II:

Facilities | Finances | Board Vision | Supporters | Season Preview

Manager: Profile | Attributes

Everyone expects a hard season but I´m so hyped to finally start this save and this hopefully long and epic journey!

[the_hdk]

 

Transfer History

Season three. We got into play-offs just to draw and lose as Fujieda was higher in the league. Biggest improvement are our youth facilities. Up to exceptional both! Training went up one too. But we are broke now as they decided to build a new stadium that is going to cost us 220k per month...so we will stay in red for a while.

KANDA def broke into first team and had a major year untill he tore his calf muscle to be out for a few months. Still he improved up to 4 ability stars and mightbe our best player. INADA got to play alot in the midfield and went up to 2,5 star. One more retirement so we will need play ready youths soon.

Italy with World  Cup!

Poaching continues, our olfd AM become a manager in J3. For some reason poached staffs do not show in transfer history for staffs. Bug?

 

New Stadium!

Did not expect that one....also it will take a while...2030..so we still have a while to play in Nagoya. 15k is nice. Fastest new stadium I ever got in FM I think.

YASUDA 26 Intake

Now that is an intake! 5 elites...and two with high abilty! 3,5 and 4 stars! NICEeeee! Player pictures ware added again at end of season as I needed to generate them.

 

SHIBATA, 3,5 star from teh get go. Not bad. AMAZING Finishing (16!) Already. Needs to work on his Physicals...but otherwise we might have struck gold.

And MISAWA. More of a winger. Very pacy (14/15). Will play form the side. Both dudes will get some games next seaosn already.

Are we ready for J1? No...not even close.

 

[the_hdk]

@KingKCrush Love the kits man! did them yourself?

[KingKCrush]

vor 2 Minuten schrieb the_hdk:

@KingKCrush Love the kits man! did them yourself?

Thank you very much! Yes I used FC 12 kits templates and GIMP for that. It took me quite a while to get used to it but once you know how to use it, you can produce phenomenal jerseys.