The FM24 Youth Academy Challenge

[Virtual Male]

The January window is going to be eventful.

[Ikthop]

4 hours ago, XaW said:

That's the trick, have extremely poor players, it helps with the intake!  

I see what you guys are saying. My first intake in Vanarama North most players showed with 5 stars (4 yellow + 1 "white") PPA, but when I checked what that meant by looking at some of the OGs (original non-newgen players), 5 stars basically meant a player good enough for "tier 6" in England. 

[fries]

42 minutes ago, fries said:

Unfortunately, I can't. At least not right now. I hope I get the chance to cancel before the confirmation of the transfers

Phew! I got the possibility to cancel the transfers when I received the confirmation mail. No wasted money that could be put into the youth setup instead. And no unhappy players on my reserve team.

[andershs]

Macclesfield FC (England)
Season 2 - 2025/26 - VNL

It turned out, that my original concern following our promotion to the Vanarama National League and our playing ability level was unnecessary.
We managed a safe midtable finish in the VNL and until the end of the season, had a slim chance of reaching the play-offs.

League (Results 1, Results 2, Cups, League Chart) - We started the season strongly. Had a dip in November and December followed by a good period in January and February and stopped playing once the play-offs were not an option, loosing the last three matches.
But all in all, a very satisfying season as a newly promoted team. The cup run was more like a failed race walk and never quite got going. Underwhelming, but the league was our clear priority.

Team (Details) - It turned out, that the team was capable of being competitive in the VNL. Connor O'Keefe stayed strong in goal. Lewis Fensome and Ryan Qualter again formed a good central defence together with Brandon Lee on left back. John Rooney fell out the team in midfield, but Luke Murphy played a decent season. Both are retiring at the end of the season. Luckily, Dieter Bickerdike had some sort of breakthrough season in midfield. He will have to take over next season. For goals and assists we had Kane Drummond and Alex Hurst while Alex Curran had a mediocre season.
A major breakthrough came from our youth graduate from last years (the first) intake Alan Corcoran who quite quickly replaced Tre Pemberton as our first choice right back. He is just very good, and his star rating and improvements is what makes this challenge extremely exciting.

Facilities - We improved the training facilities as they were downgraded, and we had a decent balance with monthly profits. Moreover on top of the conversion of 1000 standing places to 500 seats, the board decided to increase the capacity with 1.631 seats.
Importantly for the viability of this challenge attempt, given the good finances and decent performance in the league, I managed to get two upgrades to the Junior Coaching and Youth Recruitment. They are now Good and Above average, respectively.

Finances - Even with the stadium work and training facility improvement, further investment in the youth setup and new and better contracts for key players and new youth prospects, we keep turning in healthy monthly profits.
This makes this challenge much easier so far, and I have been enjoying it immensely, as this is usually one of the most limiting issues in this challenge.

Youth Intake (Dev. Centre) - What a strong intake. The best ones are defender Exaucé Binguila and striker Reece Ord. Cole Wright, Connor Muir, Troy Ward and Taavi Mägi also look very promising.

No Transfers in.

Goal for next season: Survive again. With John Rooney and Luke Murphy retired along with several of our key players so far showing decreased ability levels, we are forced to start playing our youth players. It might be a year or two too soon.

 

Edited November 13, 2023 by andershs

[darren1983]

Usually when I'm in to this challenge I get to a point where I come up with the idea of trying to turn my side into a Ajax/Barcelona (classic Ajax not current one ) style side and have that running through my club, usually it happens when I'm in the Championship but for some reason at the end of this past season I have a desire to try it again. 

Now I'm not sure it's possible to really do it in this challenge as you can't go out and but the players you need to play that style and you're so reliant on what players come through, I'm certainly sure it's not possible to play that extreme possession and pressing style in Vanarama National league North but here I am trying to work out a tactic to try and play it like a crazy fool  

[HanziZoloman]

vor 38 Minuten schrieb darren1983:

Usually when I'm in to this challenge I get to a point where I come up with the idea of trying to turn my side into a Ajax/Barcelona (classic Ajax not current one ) style side and have that running through my club, usually it happens when I'm in the Championship but for some reason at the end of this past season I have a desire to try it again. 

Now I'm not sure it's possible to really do it in this challenge as you can't go out and but the players you need to play that style and you're so reliant on what players come through, I'm certainly sure it's not possible to play that extreme possession and pressing style in Vanarama National league North but here I am trying to work out a tactic to try and play it like a crazy fool  

Please let us take part in this journey and post about the attempts 

@XaW few pages ago you posted an incredible youth intake: how do you explain that?

[XaW]

Just now, HanziZoloman said:

@XaW few pages ago you posted an incredible youth intake: how do you explain that?

Explained it a few post on from it. My squad is really bad, and the players, while good, are not world beaters, they are simply very good for my current squad. 

The best one, Jim O'Leary 26a, is still only rated as a standard player in my league:

But compared to the dross I have, he is excellent! Lots of players from my original squad are rated "Good" for the tier below, like this guy who is still playing for me!

He is now 2 stars, before I got the intake he was rated 5! That was the kind of level of players I had, so thus player rated decent at this level will come through with amazing ratings!  

[HanziZoloman]

Aye thanks @XaW I wish you a lot of fun with that „upgrade“ in players 

[SuperRedditch]

19 minutes ago, HanziZoloman said:

Please let us take part in this journey and post about the attempts 

@XaW few pages ago you posted an incredible youth intake: how do you explain that?

It can happen, I got this guy in the National League North on FM23. This is him on intake day. Best player I've ever had (and probably will ever have)relative to the quality of the league/squad. I still see him rinsing the defenders of the VNN when I close my eyes at night.

[Gonner]

Austria Salzburg, Season 4, 2027/2028 - Mid-season update

Time for our mid-season and youth intake update !


FC Liefering (RB Salzburg's B Team) is far from their usual dominance so that opens the door at the top of the standings, and here we are, fighting with Admira !

Youth Intake :
Not our most pressing needs but 3 As is always a welcome sight.




Once again, I leverage our good first half to get some improvement and the board agreed to improve both the junior coaching & youth recruitment.


Getting some much needed money from the "Austrian player bonus" has helped our finances and I believe played a part in those board decisions.


The board also decided to get a parent club, from Belgium of all countries. They are yet to offer me one of their player in loan, so in the end they are just giving us pocket change...

[DrJones]

Oriental Dragon 2028/29

Promoted to the second tier! What a season we had, we started off slow but clinched a spot to the championship group pretty easy. In the spring season we were performing good but had trouble to win the games and with two games left my hope of promotion was gone. We faced Felgueiras away and had to win. 2-1 down with ten minutes left ended up with a crazy comeback win with 2-3 and we had the promotion spot in our hands before the last game against Braga B due to head to head being favoured in this country. They won their game but we smashed Braga B with 6-1 and the riots in portugese china town erupted!

Squad

We have a pretty decent squad now despite selling our godlike leader Chasqueira to Benfica, they gave us 8,5m € which was crazy. He was whining all the time and the offers for him were an absolute joke so I offered him out for 100m SEK just to make the useless bids stop incoming. I was very surprised when Benfica just made the bid and took him without me even saying goodbye to the guy.

Chinese prospects

Youth intake

History

 

[aldojags]

@DrJonesthats some intake!!

[The_Gato_In_Goal]

   

               

Haringey Borough - Youth Intake and Youth Review Season 5

Been out of town for the past week, but finally back on my monitor large enough take good screenshots for updates. This is a good intake punctuated by exceptional personalities throughout. I've been really aggressive with remodeling the squad with good personalities, and these guys will help. I will try to give the Model Citizen GK all the starts next season since he's not half bad as of now.

Spoiler

Paterson 05a will be our first team RB going forward. Wished he was a bit taller, but the attributes are very solid.

  

Spoiler

Worrell 05f is the Model Citizen, with good One On Ones and Reflexes, I think he can be effective right away.

 

Youth Update

Class of 2024

Brian Inglis - A fantastic servant to the club with over 150 appearances to his name. However, we have prospects behind him with more potential and I do want to cull the squad of poor personalities so I don't plan on renwing his contract,

Class of 2025

Callum Graham 01a - Was complaing about lack of first team minutes, so I loaned him out to Scotland midseason. Probably also will not get another contract.

Johnny Rea 01b - A 3 year starter at RB despite his shortcomings (namely 5 acceleration). Will lose his starting spot next season, but I'll probably keep him around for cover for one more season. The awful personality might sway my decision however if I'm confident in the rest of our depth at the position.

Colin Morgan 01c - Another 3 year starter whose performances have finally started to improve. I don't think he has much more development in him, but can do a job and has an ok personality.

Kenneth John 01d - Went on loan this year, but hasn't developed at all. Don't plan on renewing his contract as we have younger, better talent coming through.

Matthew Freeman 01e - Has a decent personality, so don't mind keeping him around the club on a non contract to be depth at GK.

Rayon Messam 01j - All the way up to 2 technique. His physicals are still immense and he scored 8 and assisted 7 with a 7.11 rating in the league this season.

Class of 2026

Oliver Smith 02a - One of the better players in the squad now, but has been making noie about wanting to run down his contract that expires at the end of next season. Wouldn't care to see him go as his performances have underwhelmed.

Paul Banton 02b - Couldn't force his way into the first team so he left to join Worthing and play in their youth teams instead.

Dylan Wilson 02c - Impressive mentals and is in line for a breakout performance next season after a few middling ones.

Gonçalo Paulo 02d - Impressed in his limited minutes this season, but is not developing to merit more minutes at a position we are very deep in. Will extend his contract, but he's running out of time to prove it.

Gregory Griffith 02e - At L2 Southend now, but I'll admit I don't see his potential at all.

Ryan Camm 02f - Broke into the first team and played well, but a poor personality and some holes in his game mean I'd really like to see some development.

Class of 2027

Aaron Porter 03a - Developed very well this year and scored 20 goals in the league.

Kemar Cox 03b - Developing nicely and received a senior cap for Barbados (although not when this screenshot was taken).

Armando Sargeant 03c - Part of the reason I wouldn't be sad to see Smith 02a go. Needs to develop more, but does have the Fairy Professional personality.

Dean Murray 03d - Yes, he takes penalties, but he scored a fair few longshots too. Double digit goals and assists and is our best player by a good margin with a 7.26 rating in the league.

Deno Jeffers 03e - I do like him, but without a great personalities and with those low technicals, I can't see him ever making our first team so will let his contract expire.

Alex Nicholls 03h - Solid starter in the defense, has developed a bit this year but would like to see better technicals for next update.

Calvin Swift 03l - Liked the look of his attributes enough to give him 12 starts this year, but it's now clear he just doesn't have the potential and the ability to reach it, so will be binning him back to the youth team next season or letting him go.

Thomas Badu 03m - Similar story here, although we don't have as much depth for defensive midfielders.

Class of 2028

Ammar Al-Kindi 04a - Is going to push me to my limits with the awful personality but solid performances and stats. If he starts negatively influencing the youth, I will get rid of him without question.

Jonathan Purrington 04b - Great personality, but needs to develop. It's hard to get him game time at LB, so I'm hoping he can develop a bit and show me something.

Razark Ashimeru 04c - Performed well when called upon, but hasn't started to develop yet.

Yannick Ongenda 04d - Ok attributes and was the backup GK, but will be replaced by the Model Citizen unfortunately.

Deno Jeffers 03e - I do like him, but without a great personalities and with those low technicals, I can't see him ever making our first team so will let his contract expire.

Alex Nicholls 03h - Solid starter in the defense, has developed a bit this year but would like to see better technicals for next update.

Calvin Swift 03l - Liked the look of his attributes enough to give him 12 starts this year, but it's now clear he just doesn't have the potential and the ability to reach it, so will be binning him back to the youth team next season or letting him go.

Thomas Badu 03m - Similar story here, although we don't have as much depth for defensive midfielders.

Colin Chaney-Williams 04e - Will have to separate himself in training, since we have too many wingers.

Robin Hamilton O'Hara 04f - Those physicals look like adealbreaker right now.

Luke Evans 04h - Tall and Fairly Professional, so I gave him rotation minutes in the defense. Looks to be improving nicely, but has a ways to go technically.

Vaughan Southernwood 04i - If mentoring can rub off on him next season, I will let Rea 01b go and give this guy the backup minutes.

[heutheo]

FC Drava Ptuj - Slovenia
Season 4 - 2027/28

Promoted yay!!!!

History

Spoiler

Start Season 1 Season 2 Season 3

League

Spoiler

Last season we could avoid the drop because of even shittier teams, this season we were fighting for the title. Gorica was just to strong, after a few seasons always fighting at the top of the league, they now managed to get the ticket to first div football. And we can go together with them because of a crazy playoff game againmst Rogaska, winning both matches in furious ways. The season went consistent, except for a short span where we had to face Gorica first in the cup and a few days later in the league, losing both matches. After a short break we faced Tabor and lost again, which led to us dropping to third and leaving Gorica with a 4 points lead up top. But after that we found our form and managed to finish second. The first playoff leg at Rogaska in front of 2,244 spectators (record for us away), started roughly but in the 78th minute Dino Dukadin scored the winning goal for, we had to just survive at home - where we are strong. 932 people (home record this season) came to watch us. After 49 minutes we led 3:0 and the manager (me) already popping the champagne, Rogaska needed 4 and even after the first 2 scored I didn't thought we could lose that. And we didn't so now we play in the Prva Liga the slovenian top flight.

 

The best eleven consists of only 2 academy prospects with Marko Mocnik (the corner monster) and Mario Spiegel (the slovak). THe best players were Janzekovic, our keeper who stayed quite healthy throughout the whole save, but managed to got injured in one of the last matches of the season, where I had to put Niko Salamun in goal. Long story short, he isn't the new Olivier Giroud and conceded a penalty in that match. The playoffs then were played by one of our academy keepers, who did fairly well. Offensively Maj Penic was the star of the team with 25 scorer points, followed by the not-next-Giroud Salamun who scored 19 goals and his partner Dino Dukadin, who scored extremely well in the second part of the season.

 

(stats are bit off due to the playoffs not included)

Stadium

Spoiler

Despite our strong performances we weren't able to get more people to come to our matches and missing a big rival in the league we only managed to get 329 spectators at most (apart from the playoffs). But this will change in the next season because...

 

...for some reason our 4,000 capacity stadium isn't good enough for top flight football, so we have to move to a 250 all seater in Maribor (ca. 30km away) which looks like this:

Perfectly fine for matches against Olimpija and Maribor.

Intake

Spoiler

Intake of 2028 looks decent, this time we got our first croatian player and another slovakian besides the slovenians. 

Gregor is probably going to play as a right back in the future since we don't use wingers and nonetheless he is slow af. 

Rok looks like the young Maj Penic, and he can shoot free kicks. He will play as CM.

And in this year we got a new CB which is always nice, you can't have enough of them according to my team captains. But this time he is also 190+ which I'm a big fan of. He will probably score double digits from corners in the future.

Misc.

Spoiler

I finally made some kits, trying to reproduce the real life kits the club has this season.

 

With the promotion we also turned professional (half of the second div already is professional, so I thought we can survive the financial issues as well.

 

And we had our first transfers this season, at the start I sold the 4th striker to a croatian 3rd div team or sth like this for 1.4k and in winter the big clubs came in asking for our third striker, but also biggest academy talent Kristian Kozar. The board then couldn't resist the first big offer but I've managed to get a better deal off from Olimpija who spend less but they came with a 40% next transfer clause, which now is worth 200k. Below you can see the player when he was sold. He wasn't very important for us but it always hurts I guess.

Summary

Thanks for reading!

 

 

Edited November 13, 2023 by heutheo

[DrJones]

10 minutes ago, aldojags said:

@DrJonesthats some intake!!

Yes, the intakes in Portugal with some improvements to the facilities seems to be mad!

[K13eke]

So it begins...

This is my first time taking part in this challenge & I'm going with one of my local clubs, Merthyr Town FC.

Merthyr start the game with 24 players in total when all players are moved into the senior team.  Many of those players are out of contract, already transfer listed with bids pending or retiring so it will be a difficult start to the challenge, however I've got full confidence of getting through season one and moving up the leagues.

 

 

Lets Go!!

[Colossus]

Sociedad Deportiva Leioa

2025/2026

Competitions | League Table | Transfers | Schedule Part 1 | Schedule Part 2

Very up and down season. We managed to stay in the league through the Playoffs, but whenever Garmendia was hurt, we just stopped scoring. The fact that he damaged his Achilles and looks to be very visibly getting worse is worrying.

 

Team Stats

Team at the Start of the Season | Team at the End of the Season

Player Stats

 

The fact that a lot of our young players seem to be getting worse is worrisome, but we keep marching on.

 

Standout Performers:

1 - Iker Garmendia

Whenever he played, we scored points. It was as simple as that.

 

2 - Gorka Estrada

Not as good of a season as last year, but he was still our most consistent performer. However, with out financial woes, he is probably leaving us at the end of the season.

 

3 - Jaume

One of the Youth Players that was already on the team when I joined, he really stepped up this year with 17 goal contributions. He is probably our best player going forward.

 

Youth Intake

7 Elite talents is huge. Most of them with decent personalities as well.

This are out best 3 talents

3 very solid talents that are probably starting right away next season.

Here are the rest of them:

GK - Borja Agote

GK - Unai Perez

RB / CB - Jose Ignacio Ibanez

CB / LB - Ivan Echeverria

CB / RB / CDM - Jose Angel Etxarri

LB / CB / LWB - Jorge Arrizabalaga

LB / LW - Manuel Etxebarria

RM - Jose Angel Garmendia

CM / LM - Javier Perez

LM / LW - Ivan Herrero

LW / LM / CAM - Adrian Santos

RW / CAM - Jon Merino

LW - Lander Burgos

 

Other Stuff

Yearly Progression

 

Manager Atribute Progression

 

Youth Player Stats

 

Gora Leioa!

[Braumiller]

Irrational things that make you like one of your youth products more?

I'll start, you put a 15 year old kid on the bench for the first time, you go to assign him a squad number and he tells you he wants the number of your star player.  You got brass ones kid, I like you  

[darren1983]

2 hours ago, HanziZoloman said:

Please let us take part in this journey and post about the attempts 

Let me see what I can cook up in the post season - thinking a complete rebuild of my staff to begin with  

[HanziZoloman]

vor 1 Stunde schrieb SuperRedditch:

It can happen, I got this guy in the National League North on FM23. This is him on intake day. Best player I've ever had (and probably will ever have)relative to the quality of the league/squad. I still see him rinsing the defenders of the VNN when I close my eyes at night.

With that class of players I’m in EFL1 … when I close my eyes at night I see something else..

 

[Neo_Geo]

Got a little bit of time to get started on my Israel save and there are a few interesting points straight away.

1. Here is my 19 year old keeper who was already here 
   
    
2. Melika doesn't want to talk to me about a new contract as the squad isn't strong enough
    
3. Melika cannot play in league games as month to month contract players are ineligible (luckily my back up keeper who is also 19 looks to have potential but not at the same level as Melika who is already with the Israeli U23s)
    
4. I didn't realise there was a National League Cup so I've had to amend my bingo card
   
    
5. I said I was going to go attacking........here's my first 4 games in charge
   

[Ron_Swanson]

[FM23] Reymersholms IK - season 4 - 2026

Finally some A in preview which turned out to be a quite nice prospect, a professional. We also got 1* goalie, maybe this one will stay between post for more than one season

First games made me think "we can do it, we can aim for a lower mid table spot" but after game vs Motala AIF all went really bad. Two horrible winless streaks and we slowly fell into relegation zone and couldn't climb up. I even changed tactic to more defensive with 2 DM's and 1 ST but it didn't help at all. We're going down back to 4th tier. Some people were not happy about that. The board almost fired me, they gave me last chance so the save continues. On top of that Jesper Kallman and Abdoulie Jabang said they won't sign new contracts and they will leave on free transfer. They both have 1 year left and selling them would earn me zero money so it's better to keep them in squad.

Spoiler

Edited November 13, 2023 by Ron_Swanson

[the_hdk]

12.05.35
Champions League Final

Veertien Mie vs Esteghlal

Let's GO!

 

In Spirit of Cruijff, Veertien Mie

Upon the path to the final of the Champions League,
Veertien Mie, in Cruijff's spirit, stands full of skill and technique,

With every stride, they weave the scene,
the number fourteen's magic in their footballing sheen.

Their spirits soar, their fans ignite, In this grand stage, a fearless flight,
Through trials, toils, they've earned their place, With Japanese charm, they've embraced the chase.

With number fourteen as the beacon, guiding light, Veertien Mie's valor takes to flight,
In every pass, in each swift play, Cruijff's legacy in their display.

The philosophy etched in every move, Total football, a vibrant groove,
Veertien Mie, in unity's dance, Their fervor, their courage, an exalted stance.

So let the world bear witness and see, Veertien Mie's journey to destiny,
For in this grand, illustrious scene, Cruijff's spirit, their hearts convene.

 

To accompany the occasion of getting into the Champions League Final I've written (with a bit of help of ChatGPT :P) a poem. Hope you guys like it. Tomorrow I will play the final. Let's see.

[Neo_Geo]

Good luck @the_hdk been quite the adventure

[Ikthop]

1 hour ago, Braumiller said:

Irrational things that make you like one of your youth products more? 

I enjoy seeing good newgens from smaller/weaker nations. Even when they belong to an AI team, I add them to a shortlist and follow their careers. 

[aldojags]

See this game sometimes...

 

My first attempt in Norway, which I didn't even get round to posting, was a disaster, players all turned on me due to poor squad depth and how terribly I'd handled this!

 

I'm getting same again - I've had 3 games in charge, won all 3 and playing great football with a 4-3-3 with an inverting left back causing hellish overloads in the middle, great wingers and forwards, but now team want a meeting about lack of squad depth at centre back (which is true, we really only have about 3 and they are all rubbish!)

 

But team atmosphere was good as you'll see (excellent in fact) due to great start to season, they all want a meeting moaning about squad depth, and because i tell them no I think we're good we are doing well, now the atmosphere is abysmal!

 

I know this challenge is meant to be difficult but this is such an unnecessary obstacle to put in your way, how many squads pull up the manager about the squad depth, i get it all the time in these challenges!

[Neo_Geo]

Missed opportunity of winning a cup just a couple of months into the job and the first game we fail to score. We were the better side, just couldn't break the deadlock.

[Neo_Geo]

6 minutes ago, aldojags said:

See this game sometimes...

 

My first attempt in Norway, which I didn't even get round to posting, was a disaster, players all turned on me due to poor squad depth and how terribly I'd handled this!

 

I'm getting same again - I've had 3 games in charge, won all 3 and playing great football with a 4-3-3 with an inverting left back causing hellish overloads in the middle, great wingers and forwards, but now team want a meeting about lack of squad depth at centre back (which is true, we really only have about 3 and they are all rubbish!)

 

But team atmosphere was good as you'll see (excellent in fact) due to great start to season, they all want a meeting moaning about squad depth, and because i tell them no I think we're good we are doing well, now the atmosphere is abysmal!

 

I know this challenge is meant to be difficult but this is such an unnecessary obstacle to put in your way, how many squads pull up the manager about the squad depth, i get it all the time in these challenges!

Yeah it can be a bit illogical at times.

I found when I got the squad depth issue I said about the youth prospects, it only buys some time and obviously if you are in the first season its likely they'll be annoyed about it but it was usually manageable.

Don't they understand its a Youth Challenge and we can't strengthen? 

[Makoto Nakamura]

2030/31 End of Season Review

A great end to the season, unbeaten in eight games! This sees us finish with our highest ever points total! 

Overall Best XI

2030/31 Best XI

Majed Al-Shammari (YP5d)

Mohammed Al-Dossari (YP5i) - Yahya Al-Harbi (YP5f) - Faisal Al-Bishi (YP6j)

Majed Al-Dossari (YP5b) - Fawaz Al-Zahrani (YP5l) - Khaled Al-Dawsari (YP2a) - Saad Al-Mansour (YP5p)

 

 

Musharraf Al-Ghamdi (YP6b) - Suleiman Masoud (YP5c) - Majid Al-Shammari (YP5g)

[Neo_Geo]

Compared to my Danish save in the first few months the board sanctioned:

Coaching Course

Junior Coaching Increase

Youth Recruitment Improvement

I have a good feeling about the start of this save and I'm finding being aggressive and on the front foot is more often than not yielding results.

 

[aldojags]

14 minutes ago, Neo_Geo said:

Yeah it can be a bit illogical at times.

I found when I got the squad depth issue I said about the youth prospects, it only buys some time and obviously if you are in the first season its likely they'll be annoyed about it but it was usually manageable.

Don't they understand its a Youth Challenge and we can't strengthen? 

Yeh i did that in Norway, and they were all immediately happy (but as I say I got fired after 11 games so didnt see it through)

 

Trouble is in croatia, i have no young CB's, none, so I didnt want to promise this and then let them all down!

 

 

I know we are the 0.1% that play the game this way, but I'd love an option to have an option to have a board change their policy to be a youth heavy club as its a pain in the ass playing it this way but u cant explain it to the game!  rant over!

[Gonner]

Good luck @the_hdk!

 

il y a 33 minutes, aldojags a dit :

See this game sometimes...

 

My first attempt in Norway, which I didn't even get round to posting, was a disaster, players all turned on me due to poor squad depth and how terribly I'd handled this!

 

I'm getting same again - I've had 3 games in charge, won all 3 and playing great football with a 4-3-3 with an inverting left back causing hellish overloads in the middle, great wingers and forwards, but now team want a meeting about lack of squad depth at centre back (which is true, we really only have about 3 and they are all rubbish!)

 

But team atmosphere was good as you'll see (excellent in fact) due to great start to season, they all want a meeting moaning about squad depth, and because i tell them no I think we're good we are doing well, now the atmosphere is abysmal!

 

I know this challenge is meant to be difficult but this is such an unnecessary obstacle to put in your way, how many squads pull up the manager about the squad depth, i get it all the time in these challenges!

Yeah I usually tell them some young players will get better and create the depth they want. 

[Gonner]

Responding to myself here but this (unhappiness because of squad depth) is listed as being addressed in the latest update : FM24.news/Update2411

 

[glennuk]

FC Honda - No Update - Just a post for accountability

It looks like I have one transfer, but it is just a youth player I offered a contract to and he took a while to accept (I did offer it 2 days before his trial ended to be fair to him). He also will not make much difference. Luckily I had a rolling save 2 weeks before, so you can see him still in my youth intake on trial with the club. You can also see him here in the youth intake screen (although not yet labeled as YP01N)

 

 

[The_Gato_In_Goal]

                  

Haringey Borough - Review Season 5

Another year, another mid table finish... surely this can't be the third straight season I've said that. This one was closer to the playoff spots than we've been all save with exception of that inaugural campaign. The young players are developing nicely and their performances are finally starting to reflect that. Hoping for a playoff run in our future and building a professional squad that can mentor poor players effectively.

 

FA Cup run was great, didn't quite get to the first round proper but managed to take Layton Orient to a second leg. Losing in the first round of the FA Trophy when the opponents went down to 10 men after 13 mins and we conceded in the 90+2 minute was embarrassing.

 

Top 3 performers:

Spoiler

Made 100k due to cup runs. I'm still wary to upgrade youth recruitment and would rather upgrade our facilities that don't increase youth setup monthly expenses as much.

Nothing in, let many guys on non contracts leave.

[The_Gato_In_Goal]

Checking off another bingo slot in style!

[xQrtx]

SG Sacavenense - Year 2 2025/26

Campeonato Nacional D - 2nd
Promotion Stage - 2nd




Started the season out really rough, was sitting mid table after the first 10 matches of the season, even being level on points with teams in the relegation zone at one point.
A lot of our better players from the previous season had started regressing and weren't performing at the same level as they had the season prior. Some had regressed so badly they played less than half the amount of games they had played the previous season.

So I had to change the tactics up a bit, resorted to a high press and started playing more direct which lead to instant positive results. After the tactics change we went unbeaten in the group stage, picking up our first loss in 5 months in the promotion stage vs Louletano.


We completely overachieved in the Taça de Portugal, reaching the Quarter Finals after knocking out a full strength first division side, Chaves and a full strength 2nd division side in Tondela.

Shortly after the Chaves match, they fired their manager and offered me the job 😭
 

Spoiler

Club

The club provided a nice injection to take our balance back into the positive while also taking out a 10 year back loan to help with debts. 
We also improved our youth recruitment from Adequate to Good, but no coaching license for me. :/

Squad

Squad Stats
 

Spoiler

Full Squad Stats

Spoiler

Top Scorer - 25 (All Comps) - Iaquinta

Spoiler

Most Assists - 13 (All Comps) - Léo Mofreita

Spoiler

Young Player of the Year, Newgen Top Scorer - 14, Newgen Top Assists - 7 (All comps) - Belarmino Valido 25-A

Spoiler

 

As I previously mentioned a lot of our better players had regressed quite a bit...
This lead to almost all our top rated players from our first intake playing for our first team at some point in the season, most notably, Belarmino Valido and Kurt Netzer who both started nearly every match.

Transfers

Spoiler

Best XI



Youth

Intake preview looked really nice


The actual intake on the other hand... It's ok.
Tiago Veloso and Fabio Dias will go straight into the first team next year in the 3. Liga with Dias in a mentoring group.
Ruben Timoteo is good but we got a high potential GK last intake, would've preferred anything else but I'm not too disappointed.
As for the rest of the intake, it's kind of disappointing, a lot of bad personalities and a lot look like if they are to be of use it wouldn't be for at least a few seasons.



Best Intake Profiles

Spoiler

Youth Joining 1st team next season

Spoiler

Full Time

Flavio Ribeiro 17 as starting RB next season in Liga 3 after great growth in year 1

Spoiler

Jose Gomes 17 to play significant minutes at CM in Liga 3 after great growth in year 1

Spoiler

Ansu Camara 17 as #3 CB in Liga 3 after good growth in year 1

Spoiler

Duarte Tavaraes 16 as backup ST in Liga 3 after great growth in year 1 

Spoiler

Jerson Gualdino 16 as backup GK in Liga 3 

Spoiler

Part Time

Fabio Dias 16 as depth CM option after good performances at the end of last season. Expected to play a good amount of games.

Spoiler

Tiago Veloso 15 as 4th Winger option

Spoiler

That makes 9 total newgens in the first team for Year 3 with these 7 joining the already established Belarmino Valido and Kurt Netzer.

Kurt Netzer

Spoiler

 

Season History



Manager History



Next Season Preview

Feel like we should be able to avoid relegation. Just have to hope we can avoid injury struggles as our squad is pretty thin and isn't very deep.
I'm excited to use all these newgens on a frequent basis.
Main goal to just not get sacked if we were to get relegated.

Edited November 14, 2023 by xQrtx
fix wording

[Matsusipida]

Per-Olev's IFK Lidingö struggled in early parts of the season after promotion to First Division North. I tought the team played pretty well but we somehow couldn't get wins. We only won 3 of our first 14 matches and looked like we would be fighting agains relegation. Luckily the end of the season was brilliant and we won 8 of our last 11 matches. We finished on 9th position clearly above relegation spots.

Spoiler

Our striker Söderstöm scored 11 goals and right winger Pourshahidi scored 14 goals. Brenner Toris scored 10 goals from left wing. Calle Sjöberg had a nice season once again and he is now a real crowd favourite.

Spoiler

We had a decent youth intake. Milorad Mijailovoc 25A is looking promising.

Spoiler

Spoiler

We have upgraded our youth recruitment and junior coaching.

Spoiler

After the season weird things started to happen. First the training facilities were downgraded due to technological advances etc. I couldn't see any difference in the facilities page. Well then I asked to upgrade them, of cource we had no money for anything like that. A couple of weeks later the board decided to upgrade them and spend around 2M€ of our 1,7M€ balance to it. I guess we'll be fine with negative balance for a while.

Here are the finances right after the season when we still had some money.

Spoiler

Spoiler

 

[Shankly84]

 

 

 

 

[JLAB]

Real Jaén - Season 2 - Youth Intake

Having enjoyed a tremendous first half of the season, seeing us struggling to pick up our form after the winter break has been annoying.

Having at one point been looking like we were challenging for promotion, we've now slipped down to just trying to stay in the top half of the league. Thankfully, we're not in a relegation fight, but it would have been nice if we could have kept up our challenge for the playoffs at least.

That being said, we just had our youth intake, and if you take away some of the personalities, it is a promising intake.

Manuel Gómez has been considered the best player for potential. Unfortunately, he is unambitious, but we could work on that with some mentoring.

Francisco José Silva is a winger who I think I can improve, but we need to ensure that we give him the development he needs. Being able to play in three different positions couldn't have helped his development.

Roberto López Ruiz is an exciting player I could use in all three positions in midfield, but I need to work on his personality and playing ability.

Manuel is the last player that I want to cover. His fairly ambitious personality is exciting for me. While inconsistent, I believe he can be the leading CB partner with Mato long-term.

In the video linked below, I covered the other youth candidates with three stars of potential ability and some changes in the backroom staff that were out of my control. 

YAC - Real Jaén - Part 8

[Neo_Geo]

So I wanted to be attacking.....

Positionally we don't look bad for the goals that were conceded, so I think with better defenders the tactic could work at keeping goals conceded lower however as long as my front line are racking up the goals we are getting points on the board.

I'm also seeing a lot of worldies getting scored (both teams), is anyone else seeing a high frequency of insanely good strikes?

Looking at the rest of the league it's not just my matches that have really heavy scoring, take a look at this match week:

My managerial record in Israel is as follows:

P 25
W 17
D 4
L 4
GF 81
GA 41

My matches are averaging out at 3.24 - 1.64

 

[the_hdk]

@Neo_Geo thats a tactic straight out of the 70s

I think Netherlands played like that in the WC.

Edited November 14, 2023 by the_hdk

[Perre8]

No seasonal update yet, i just wanted to show my intake, one player i HAD to share already with you guys!

This is only my third season in Austria, absolute beast!!

[KingKCrush]

CSC Ghiroda - Liga II - Romania - Season 4 - 2027 - Start

We use the relegation to rebuild the team and give more youth players a chance even though we might have better options from older guys. So a lot of key players, that were in the team before I came, were released and a lot of youth players joined the senior squad from the U19 Team.

Sold/Released/Loaned Players:

Spoiler

Promoted Players from Class of 24/25:

Spoiler

Positions: Grosu - Backup Striker; Radoi - Backup LW; Macavei - Backup GK

Players to watch: Grosu. Grosu did develop his personality from frickle to ambitions and I see that in his training results and overall development. If he continues like that and performs well in the cup and as a sub, he will be a contestant for the starting position.

Promoted Players from Class of 24/25:

none

Sonea, a good player from that year is already playing in the senior squad and the rest is still young enough to play for our U19 and develop there.

Promoted Players from Class of 24/25:

Spoiler

7 Players from lasts year "Golden Generation" made it into the first team. I dont want to overwhelm them so only Voicu and Dima will start. The rest will be back ups at the beginning of the season and we will see how they develop.

Season Preview

The quality of our squad is still below average but we are not dead last which is nice. If my players develop well we might have a shot at the promotion playoffs but the experts dont really think so.

Spoiler

Anyway with this season the big rebuild started and from now on I want to replace the remaining old players by new youngsters so we need better YIs. I expect a similar Yi like last season which will massively help me.

Im currently not able to improve facilities since finances are very bad and in the second league they will get even worse. Overall I am pretty confident for this season, I just hope that the new Youngsters develop well so we can take a realistic shot at promotions in the next season.

[TCH]

9 minutes ago, Perre8 said:

No seasonal update yet, i just wanted to show my intake, one player i HAD to share already with you guys!

This is only my third season in Austria, absolute beast!!

Good personality too. Enjoy him before Salzburg inevitably unsettle him in a few years.   

[Perre8]

4 minutes ago, TCH said:

Good personality too. Enjoy him before Salzburg inevitably unsettle him in a few years.   

haha probably yes, hopefully i can hit the jackpot

[Winski]

IFK Lidingö FK
Season 6 | 2029
Tier 1 | Allsvenskan
Finances | Transfers | Club Overview | Facilities | Manager Profile | Tactic

 

A great debut season on the highest level of Sweden! With a 8th place we finished higher than I hoped for. So yeah, things are going very well! We received € 1.9M for finishing 8th in the league, so we finally got some money in the bank again!
Best player this season was midfielder Kjell Rune Anfindsen 27d. He was very important for us this season. But also striker John Nairn-Tallén 25g had a good season.

I really love this save, but I'm thinking about starting a new save. I've got an idea in my head for a Youth Only Journeyman save, to win the Champions League in several countries, but only in countries who never won the Champions League. I'm allowed to move clubs, but only when my team is the best team in the country. Maybe I'm starting that save, and then play with both saves. Because I really don't want to stop with this one.

However, I'll show the screenshots of this season first

I'll show our current first team.
GK Rami Huttunen 28a
DC Markus Kenne 26e
DC Erik Sinani 24e
DC Ebrima Bah 25f
WBL Daniel Kenne 25d
WBR Boris Fjäll 26d
DMC Mattis Rashid 25j
DMC Kjell Rune Anfindsen 27d
SC John Nairn-Tallén 25g
SC Amala Kanté 27b
SC Isac Thärnström 26b

Youth intake 2029
We had a better preview then last season, so I had higher hopes about this intake. And the actual intake didn't dissapoint! We got 5 Elite Talents. And all 5 are really good talents! So yeah, a very nice intake.

 

 

Spoiler

U19 team

Our youth team performed good, with a 7th place on the highest youth level. Bit of the same as the first team

 

Edited November 14, 2023 by Winski

[Neo_Geo]

2 hours ago, the_hdk said:

@Neo_Geo thats a tactic straight out of the 70s

I think Netherlands played like that in the WC.

It’s not for the faint hearted anyway, I only watch key highlights but there are dozens in most games 

[BustaRaymes]

AC Bra 25-26

Serie C

Again, we managed to evade the playoffs. Just one point more than last season. We started well, were in the upper half of the table for the first 12 matches but dropped off hugely again. Some really long strings of losses.

We need to do better next season or we could get into trouble.

 

Squad

We went attacking for most games, but found a cautious 4-2-2-2 that did some good on our travels to the big teams.

Tchokokam has been developing, and has been a bit better in games as well. Still not my kind of goalkeeper but he'll have to do.

Giorcelli has surpassed Ropolo as our best defender. Ropolo is declining a bit, but retraining Baggio means his position is covered for the near future.

Marchisone stayed away from major injuries this season and has been really valuable for us.

Up front, Muzzo got a bit more into his inside forward role and provided a lot of needed goals.

A special shoutout to Alessio Parisi. He's played frequently due to his position, not his attributes, but delivered wonderfully. Especially from the AMC position he found the net easily for us, resulting in the highest average rating in the squad.

 

Transfers

 

Youth intake

Two upgrades has given us a talented group this year, with Bonfiglio and Lucchi going straight into the first team.

Marrazzo is said to be talented but I'm not sure if he'll make it. Low CA, bad personality.

Menini has some nice starting attributes but his Slack personality means he'll probably won't get a lot better.

Bonfiglio is the pick of the players for me, as we really needed a striker and he's accomplished on the wing as well. All mentoring is focused on taking that Unambitious personality away from him.

Morelli is well-rounded but his Low determination is a concern. We'll have to wait and see if we can get that off him and if he develops.

The nice personalities with Auricchio and Fonseca gives me hopes for them. Auricchio seems to have some qualities other than defending and Fonseca is right-footed, which means both can potentially slot in our current formation.

Lucchi is pacey and a much needed winger. He'll get a fair bit of game time soon.

[the_hdk]

Transfer History

Well I already teased you guys. But we did it. Won the Asian Champions League. The Dutch Total Football has landed  in Mie. We also won our second championship. Only Urawa was in the run together with us. We did not manage to get a cup in the end besides the SuperCup. Took us 12 seasons in the end.

IMAZEKI was sold and replaced by the soon to be wonderkid KATAYAMA at age of 16. Dude grew up to 4 stars and had 22 goals in 36 games and took teh TopScorer title at age of 16. Japan will def enjoy him for a while. In our last season EL ARABI sneaked into the first team. The now 18 year is already a player of under-21 of Dutchies. And still alot to learn. NAKAMOTO was the our main goaly and only player to be a regular in Japanese national team. Has already 16 caps.

Fiorentina with a surprise title there.

Sale of IMAZEKI

 

Second Championship.

 

Cool new overview in FM24. Really love this kind of detail.

 

 

CL Final

We had an easy 3-0 win at hime.

Away was even easier. 4-0. We dominated them. ASHTON in the end with MoM. Was a very anti-climatic final. Also I forgot asia had a two-leggeg final :D. So I was celabrating and than thought I missed the ceremony just to see there was a game to go.

Celabrations!

 

Last Youth intake.

No Foreign intake. MARAOKA looks good. Will probbly have gotten into the first team eventually.

 

Thats it for Veertien Mie. I'm going to take an FM break for a few weeks. And maybe try to tackle this challange again in few months.