The FM24 Youth Academy Challenge

[officiallydeej]

Dulwich Hamlet - 2026/27

Vanarama National League South - 1st (Promoted)

Third time lucky as we are promoted as champions, holding off Maidstone United to win the title by a single point. As I suspected all four relegated teams landed in our division making it a league of big hitting southern sides, but we led the league from early on and never looked back. I decided to make use of the fact all our best players were attacking, finishing the season with a remarkable 129 goals scored, which was more than enough to offset the 71 conceded. We only finished three points better off than last season, but with no runaway team at the top like Southend previously 96 points was enough to take us into the National League.

I'm not sure how next season will go as we are being carried by 3 or 4 high quality players yet are quite weak at the back, with 3 of my back 4 original players who probably aren't up to the tier above. I can take heart from looking at last seasons promoted teams Southend and Yeovil however, who finished 2nd and 7th respectively in the National League and will both contest the playoffs.

 
 

Cups

Another run to the first round this season gave us a decent financial boost. We beat Hashtag United, Hitchin and then Dover following a replay before being drawn away at National League outfit Crawley Town. Unfortunately the first round falls on the same weekend as the international break and we have four players who regularly turn out for nations in the Caribbean, including academy star Rakeem Thomas who has 3 goals in 4 caps for Antigua and Barbuda. We were no match for Crawley who comfortably beat us 4-1. 

As usual I put our second string out for the FA Trophy to keep my first team fresh. They put up a decent fight but lost out 1-0 at home to Slough Town.

 

Star Players

  

This list is now made up solely of academy players, as those from my early intake have overtaken my best original players. Sam Caldwell 25b started the season on the bench as he isn't the fastest, but he came in to cover injuries and never looked back. His professional personality has led to rapid development far beyond what I expected and he ended the season with a very impressive 20 goals in 26 starts. Our best player in terms of current ability is still Paul Moro 25d, who again didn't disappoint from midfield with a return of 16 goals and 11 assists in 38 starts. He has also been capped 3 times by the Ghana U20s and I'm excited to see him make the step up. The final player on this list is Bas Panamarenko 25g. He wasn't one of the stars of the 2025 intake but I immediately liked him due to his high finishing stat and his all round game is really starting to improve. He does have fitness issues and only managed 33 starts this season with an impressive return of 17 goals.

 

Youth Intake

  

 

The only real disappointment this season was the youth intake. Easily the worst we've had even accounting for the improvement in our first teamers coupled with a poor set of personalities. We did have our HoYD poached by Tranmere early in the season and I do wonder whether this contributed to the intake. Only four players signed in total, including Pomares and McHardy who are realistically the only two likely to get anywhere near the first team. We are very light in goal and defence, still relying on ageing original players so could really use some decent players through next season.

 

Admin

 

 

 

When it looked like we might win promotion I decided to gamble our finances slightly and request a youth recruitment upgrade which the board approved (now Average). Our money started to dwindle slowly following the upgrade but the decision was vindicated with a promotion and looking at this season's intake was definitely the correct step to take. I am hoping the increased revenue streams in the National League will cover the extra costs.

No transfers out again this season. I did loan one player out at his request, but Agwu is very unlikely to make another appearance for our first team after being rapidly overtaken.

Our board have (for some reason) decided to start scoping out a new stadium site, citing regular sell out crowds of our current Champion Hill Stadium as a suitable reason to do so. I was initially sceptical, but a bit of research showed me our average attendance in the league this season was an incredible 2948, meaning 98% of all tickets available this season were sold. That does explain why our finances have held up so well despite being professional and I'm hoping if/when the stadium does come to pass our fan base will continue to grow.

[officiallydeej]

Right on cue! I'm not keen on the £3.5 million loan for a 6,300 seater stadium, but I suppose it is more than double our current capacity and may be worth it if we can fill it.

[Neo_Geo]

@officiallydeej FM24 seems to be the FM version where boards go new stadium crazy!

[Neo_Geo]

Darn work night, going to have to call it there, hopefully will get the season finished fairly early tomorrow evening and get the write up in place.

Slight spoiler.....

[Colossus]

Sociedad Deportiva Leioa

2026/2027

 

Season Review

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

 

Well, that was another year stuck in the lower half of midtable. Calahorra B was just atrocious, they were a B team of a 3rd tier side, they had no chance at this level.

 

Team Stats

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

Team Stats

 

Pretty decent improvements from some of out best players

 

Standout Performers:

1 - Gorka Alberdi

There was no other choice really. 27 goals in 25 games is mad, and when he was fit, we were actually pretty decent. Here's hoping for a full season out of him next year.

 

2 - Jaume

Not as good as a season numbers wise as he has had in the past, but he is our stabilizer in the midfield.

 

3 - David Perez

Are his numbers inflated because he is our penalty taker? Yes. Does it matter? Not really. The more dynamic of the midfield duo, here's hoping that he keeps on improving

 

Youth Intake

If we need more proof that machines are alive and listening to us, here we have it. 12 Elite Talents with a ready made starter with a great personality? Could not get any better than that

Villanueva is a stud, obviously, but we also get a better goalie than what we have and a very hard working full back, which I might either play of the left and an IWB or as a CDM.

 

Rest of the players:

CB / RB / LB - Ander Arbeloa
CB / CDM - Diego Casado
LB / CB / LWB - Enrique Garai
RB / RM / RW - Iker Santos
CM / CDM / CAM - Unai Lopez
RM - Asier Astrain
CM / RM - Roberto Aizpurua
LM / RM - Manex Palacios
LW / LM - Iker Olaizola
CAM / RW - Yoel Arroyo
ST / LW - Aritz Iglesias
ST / LW - Fran
ST / RW / LW - Chechu

 

Other Stuff

Yearly Progression

 

Manager Atribute Progression

 

Youth Player Stats

 

Gora Laioa!

 

Edited November 15, 2023 by Colossus

[Colossus]

We are so back!

[glennuk]

@libbyshuss - I think it was the official minor update from SI that changed the name to Haneda, as I was Honda FC in game and it changed to Haneda after the update!

 

@XaW - Congratulations. First in FM24 and first ever in Japan. Hoping to follow in your big footsteps soon enough. Although my youth intakes have been absolutely terrible.

[The_Gato_In_Goal]

Are we bankrupting the club, maybe, but we aren't losing money at the moment so it seems worth an upgrade.

[Gonner]

Austria Salzburg, Season 4, 2027/2028

 

Season Recap :

This time around we do not crumble in the second half of the season, despite a less than ideal start of that second phase with hard match-ups and 1 point in 2 games. But then we have a perfect March that puts us top of the league. We win against FC Liefering at their place (!!!) and then face-up with Admira, one point behind them, for what seems to be a title decider. They beat us fair and square to get 4 points ahead and it seemed like all hopes were gone as they were winning every game after this. But they bottled it in the last two games, losing at FAC Wien to allow us to come back 1 point behind. On the final day, they only managed to draw against St. Pölten whereas we were playing the derby in Innsbruck against Wacker with extra motivation : beat the rival and hope you can celebrate promotion in front of their supporters. We won 2-1 ! 

Stats for the year are pretty good! 

Révélation

Transfers :

Révélation

Obviously no arrivals, Alvin Husic left us because he wanted more playing time that I could offer him. He was our 4th or 5th best central midfielder and the low amount of games made it easy for me to keep my best XI whenever possible.

Finances : 

Révélation

We met the threshold for the "Austrian players bonus money" all along the season, this bonus is distributed every 9 games, so we got it 3 times, hence the prize money amount at 1.46M€. Quite the helpful bonus !

Squad :

Révélation

Another season using my 4-4-2 "Wing Play", but this year considering the squad was better we played pretty much all games with the wingers in an advanced position. 

We can see that 2028 is the year where the youth took over ! The majority of our best XI comes from our youth center (I would have selected Fatih Gül instead of Amborn in our best XI, Amborn is usually our bench option). Sauer, our Left-Back regen from 2027 alternated between LB and CB. In midfield, we had a rotation in between Todorovic (BWM), Abesser (CM) and Neumann (AP) depending on who we were facing. After Sorda decided to leave us, Bandlow was a lock at right winger, to the point that Schwaighofer got mad and decided to leave at the end of the season, reinforcing the fact that a flat 4-4-2 is no longer suited to our team. Finally, we can see Aksu (RB), Götz (2nd striker) and Kovacic (GK) making progress and getting a few games under their belts. It should not be long before Aksu becomes our starting RB, the other 2 have tougher competition.

Admin & Facilities :

Révélation

 
We did not have a choice but to go professional after getting to the Bundesliga, so that was expected. Fingers crossed it will not ruin our finances.

We also join our buddies in Italy or in Portugal on that topic in the battle for "highest cost per extra seat added". 


This means that we will play the whole season in Linz, at the home of Blau Weiss Linz, another Bundesliga club. Far from ideal...


Our youth facilities also declined at the end of the season, and "foreseeing financial degradation", the board did not want to remediate to it.

Club vision : 

Révélation

 

Even in Bundesliga the board wants me to keep using players from our youth's system. But they have added a bunch of request on the way they would like us to play, and some of those seem contradictory to me. (Counter-attack & direct is a good pairing, but if you add attack to the mix ??)

 

Bonus : 

Révélation

I win coach of the year ! 

Youth Intake : 

To the good stuff ! As a reminder, this was our intake preview : 

And this is what we got. Quite a lot of elite talents, at least on paper ! I also took screenshots of the top talents, but seeing that we got promoted I am not sure they would have been rated the same had Sabic compared them to what's expected at that level.

 

Markus Bertram : Such a shame that young prospects cannot play straight away in the league, otherwise I believe Bertram would have started a few games. Really excited for my all regen defense Sauer - Bah - Bertram - Aksu in a few years.

Révélation

Emir Imamovic : Apologies, either I or Steam (let's blame Steam) screwed up with the screenshots, and so for Emir and a couple of his buddies I only have him at my current save date. He has progressed a bit but is PA has gone down. His personality is not ideal, I can see him being on the bench to cove the CB & RB position but I do not think he can compete with our best guys.

Révélation

Matthias Erdl : Natural as a Winger but his best position seems to be Central Midfielder with a BWM role. We will train him on this.

Révélation

Denis Brauer : More technically gifted than Erdl, might become a good playmaker.

Révélation

Thomas Färber: Färber has a good personality and I find him quite similar to Brauer. Central Midfielders is far from our most pressing need right now, but maybe one of those 3 will make it to the first team.

Révélation

Armin Bauer : Adding another one to our potential midfield pool ! Natural as an Attacking Midfielder, I will train him to play as a CM. Has the best evaluation of all the potential "attack-minded" midfielders but not a good personality though...

Révélation

Karl-H. Erkenbrecher : Considered as the most ready of our youth guy, I will admit he has very good physical traits but he is competing for one of our strongest position, Left Winger, where we have Fötschl, who is arguably our best player, and Kraft, one of the best regens we got. Tough battle ahead.

Révélation

Peter Walter : First of the two elite strikers we got, has his "fairly professional" personality going for him. Like Karl-H above, he will have to fight excellent prospects (Gül and Götz, among others) for a position, + Dorfmayr who is still quite young.

Révélation

Marcel Westphal : Another one where I screwed up the screenshot... Training him to be a second striker, good physical attributes but bad personality.

Révélation

Thomas Hübner : On to our top talents ! Another year, another GK. Taking a screenshot but I think we have had better young GKs the prior years, and his personality does not reinsure me one bit.

Révélation

Suad Mustafic : Depth in defense? Sign me up ! Somewhat good physical attributes to run up and down the right line.

Révélation

Riccardo Sciotto : We have gone away from our flat 4-4-2 this season, and having someone with "3" in crossing play winger is a big no for me. Unless he vastly improves, I doubt he will ever see first team minutes.

Révélation

 

Game in a nutshell :

Edited November 15, 2023 by Gonner

[HanziZoloman]

@officiallydeej congratulations to your promotion. Those were the days! Paul Moro looks amazing, never had one like him. His Tech skill and bravery are fantastic. 
btw how do you set your team up?

[the_hdk]

12 hours ago, OlivierL said:

Great job and i loved your banner(s) and poem !

thanks  really appreciated. 

thanks guys. 

 

[officiallydeej]

2 hours ago, HanziZoloman said:

@officiallydeej congratulations to your promotion. Those were the days! Paul Moro looks amazing, never had one like him. His Tech skill and bravery are fantastic. 
btw how do you set your team up?

 

Annoyingly about 20 minutes after I posted my update last night both Moro and Panamarenko decided they were too good (probably rightly so) for the club and wanted to leave! I managed to agree I'd sell them if a certain fee was reached which I'm hoping is unrealistic for the type of League Two and other National League clubs that are interested and in doing so I don't seem to have affected their morale.

I'm not a master tactician by any stretch, but I set up in a 3-4-1-2 which stems from years of watching Chris Wilder's Sheffield United home and away as we went from the bottom of League One to 4th in the Premier League when football paused for the pandemic. I tinkered with the overlapping centre backs but couldn't get that working, but the overall idea is to create overloads down the left and right and getting crosses in to my star strikers. The other telling thing from the screenshot is that only 3 academy players are in my best starting 11, something I really need to change quite quickly!

 

[HanziZoloman]

vor 30 Minuten schrieb officiallydeej:

 

Annoyingly about 20 minutes after I posted my update last night both Moro and Panamarenko decided they were too good (probably rightly so) for the club and wanted to leave! I managed to agree I'd sell them if a certain fee was reached which I'm hoping is unrealistic for the type of League Two and other National League clubs that are interested and in doing so I don't seem to have affected their morale.

I'm not a master tactician by any stretch, but I set up in a 3-4-1-2 which stems from years of watching Chris Wilder's Sheffield United home and away as we went from the bottom of League One to 4th in the Premier League when football paused for the pandemic. I tinkered with the overlapping centre backs but couldn't get that working, but the overall idea is to create overloads down the left and right and getting crosses in to my star strikers. The other telling thing from the screenshot is that only 3 academy players are in my best starting 11, something I really need to change quite quickly!

 

In the last EFL1 season I gave up my 4231 really quickly as we were thrashed. Now I am also with a 343 so it’s great to see your version. Thank you! 
you have three BPD, are all three fit to play that? Seems so with your success. Do you also play unfitting players in that role?

[Anners]

On 13/11/2023 at 12:03, Anners said:

Previous Post:

Will be a couple of seasons reported here - had some major train delays which meant more FM but the internet connection was a bit crappy to keep up!

 

2026-27 Season Report:

Club: Tranent FC (Scotland)
League: Scottish League 1

League:

Bit of a tough year, narrowly avoiding automatic relegation. We were thrown into the League 1/2 playoffs (9th placed team in League 1 joins 2nd, 3rd, 4th of League 2 in a 2 legged knockout). I was slightly nervous, but considering the difference between top and bottom in that league was only 19 points, I was reasonably confident of being able to stay up.

Thankfully we did! Although we did end up getting the following news item:

I'm extremely proud but also extremely sad! I really wasn't confident going into the next year. Whilst our youth facilities had improved, we only had a backup right back come through. Apologies for no screenshot here! At the end of this season, we also lost our first choice left back (who promptly retired at 22??) who was one of our best players.

---------------------------------------------

2027-28Season Report:

Club: Tranent FC (Scotland)
League: Scottish League 1

League:

Sadly, we can't get away with it for another year. We decided that any football played in the league before Christmas was a bit pointless, picking up 8 points from the first 18 games. Then all of a sudden beat Morton 3-0 on Boxing Day and then remembered we are still a half decent football team! Rather than try to explain, a simple screenshot will show just how hot we were after Christimas:

Absolutely nuts and I'm pretty pissed that we've actually gone down automatically here.

Youth Intake:

We've got a screenshot this time... and a half decent player!!

Bailey McKay will slot straight into the first team challenging for a starting spot. Other than him, we're still somewhat struggling for youth products. For some reason, our board seem hesitant to create a reserve or youth team, so I'm having to be a bit more selective in which youth products to actually sign sadly. Trying to balance getting youth products into the club, but not overwhelming the coaching staff isn't something I envisaged when I started!

The board seem to be very happy with me doing all of the coaching badges, are happy to allow extra staff (to the point where we're very close to having the best coaching staff in League 1), yet seem to be stumbling a bit with the facilities. We're still incredibly healthy off the pitch (our bank balance is still above the £400k mark!), but it's a bit disappointing to not see bigger improvements in our junior coaching or youth recruitment. I'm not sure if that's me wanting the world, but considering the health of the club, we can afford to take the risk to go a bit further.

 

Previous Post:

 

2028/29 Season Report

Club: Tranent FC (Scotland)
League: Scottish League 2

League:

I'm constantly having the tale of 2 seasons in this save and I'm getting a bit puzzled and annoyed by it. 1st half of the season - sat in the top 3 for all of it. 2nd half of the season - bottom 2 form. I hit Christmas and got 1 win in 14.

We did however manage to get through to the 4th Round of the Scottish Cup finally though - and drew our old friend Rangers! Sadly, this time we were at home. And even more sadly, this is how the game went:

Yeah, the laptop nearly got thrown out of the window after that one. I'd have probably preferred the replay rather than the win to keep the money flowing in, but to give up a 2 goal lead after being on top for 2 thirds of the game is so, if you'll excuse my language, ****ing annoying.

I managed the promotion in the first season which I think is the only time I've ever been consistent on the field.

Off the field though, we're putting some hard graft in...

Youth Intake:

This was the first intake which made me sit forward! There's a few players here that go immediately into the first team (Forbes at DR, Tonks at DL, Boonen at DM/MC, Dunn at MC after a bit of retraining..). It was nearly the perfect intake for us, but the personalities let us down a bit here.

I posted a little bit after that we got more improvements to both youth recruitment and junior coaching, so I'm actually quite confident that in a couple of seasons (hoping for another decent intake!), we'll actually be in a fantastic position to push the club on. We're over the £500k mark in the balance as we're making a small profit each year, so I imagine we'll get more structural improvements. We've also finally got an Under 18s team (I'm really not sure why it took so long?), so we're able to fill that out with some pretty decent players as you can see above!

[JLAB]

Real Jaén - Season 2 - Season Review

We only had three games left to end the season after the youth intake so it wouldn't be a long stretch to the end of the campaign. Still, we picked up five points and shocked Sevilla Atlético towards the end of the season, and we even cost someone the league title.

So it turns out our draw against Unión Atlético cost them the title and their promotion. We secured our best finish so far, securing the same points as last season but losing six fewer games. It turns out that drawing nine more games but only winning three fewer games can have that effect.

We've kept the same wage budget as last season but have also been given a bigger transfer budget. We can't use that transfer budget.

The board want me to just attempt to avoid relegation, but they now also want me to avoid signing players over the age of 30, develop players using the club's youth system and to play possession football. Suddenly, the board have given into my ideals for the club vision and the Youth Academy Challenge.

The supporters also feel the same way, even if we lost another 98 followers this season. They see what I am trying to do and are willing to back my ideals for the Youth Academy Challenge. Suddenly, I feel less pressure to sign players than I ever do.

So far, so good. We're starting to slow down on the goal conceded, but we're also slowing down on the goals scored. If you want to see the full review of the season, feel free to watch the video linked down below.

YAC - Real Jaén - Part 9

[thomas_e]

Energie Cottbus

Season Summary 2031 - 2032

First European league finish, but the end of the Michael Greif-era is getting close

 

Our third season in the Bundesliga and we already qualified for Europe, something I didnt expect before the season started. We played really well all year and took some big steps in the right direction, both offensively and defensively. I integrated a couple of youngsters into the first team and it really improved the team, both in quality and in depth. A big key on this challenges for me is not just the obvious improvement when replacing a player, but it also strengthens the bench, a much needed element in this stage of the challenge! 

We actually had a chance of a top 4 finish, but we faced Leipzig, Dortmund, Bayern Munchen and Bayer Leverkusen over the last 6 games of the season and we lost all four games heavily. I am a little bit suprised that we seem to have no chance when playing the top teams away. I am of course not expecting to beat Dortmund or Bayern away on a regular basis, but it seems to be the norm that we are losing 4 or 5-0. Bit frustrating, but part of the challenge! 

Next year playing in Europe will be a new and exciting challenge! With Bundesliga only having 18 teams it's not as demanding as it is in England, but who really wants to play Europa League? I will probably limit loans to a degree for next year (not that loans are working properly on FM24 anyway) to get more squad depth. The goal will definitely be on the Bundesliga. 

Our superstar and maestro Michael Greif now only has one year left on his contract. I have basically given up on renewing it, he wants to play for a better team and is wanted by teams like Real Madrid, PSG and Bayern. It sucks, but on this challenge you always lose a couple of stars along the way. He will definitely not be sold, he will stay out the remainder of his contract. 

 

Season Summary 

          

 

Tactics 

     

 

Key Players

          

 

Key Talents

          

 

Edited November 15, 2023 by thomas_e

[tobiahabramson]

Macclesfield Town FC

Vanarama National League 

Season 3 2026-27

Results

League: 20th place

FA Cup

Fourth Qualifying Round: Loss 1-4 v. Curzon Ashton (Vanarama North)

FA Trophy

Third Round: Loss 1-1 (p) v. Chester (National League)

Season Overview

A tough first season in the National League.

Last season we were promoted, despite having a rock bottom media prediction, and I feared it was too early a promotion that would punish us. I was mostly right. We finished 20th in the league with 50 points, going 13-11-22, avoiding relegation on the final day due to a loss elsewhere. We crashed out pitifully in both cups in our first game to a National League North Team in the FA Cup and a National League side that ended the season getting relegated in 22nd place in the FA Trophy. 

Our defense was extremely shaky, with the lack of depth and skill becoming glaringly obvious against higher level opponents. We were 3rd bottom in the league in goals conceded, with 88. Our offence often stagnated for games at a time. No player on our squad averaged over a 7 all season. I think that we were not going direct enough and losing too many short passes to our more physical opponents. I will be looking for a new tactical approach in the off season.

A few youth players continued to stand out, with our striker position fully rotated between two youth intake players and our left back, right back and DM positions having solid rotational efforts by youth players. 

Dean Whelan, a striker who came through last seasons intake, was the player of the year, scoring 14 goals and assisting on 3. 

Spoiler

Youth  Intake

We were hoping for another great intake this year to provide some much needed depth and new blood in a few defensive positions. It ended up being... ok. A few players who look like they may have some impact this year, but overall a not too exciting intake. 

Spoiler

Ryan Cross looks like he could be an interesting choice in midfield, particularly as our team is lacking players with solid technical passing ability. Lets hope he develops well despite his unambitious personality.

Spoiler

The other elite talents: I'm not sure how daniel keegan gets rated as elite, with those poor technicals I doubt he makes the first team unless he really progresses well.

Spoiler

We also had a good talent centre-back that looks underrated to me, though the 5 tackle and 6 positioning is a big worry. I am hoping he will step up in a season or two to fill a squad role, possibly at right back where we are quite thin.

Spoiler

Map of 2027 Intake

Spoiler

All Intake Hometowns to Date

Spoiler

Next Season

We are once again predicted to finish rock bottom of the table, and with a mediocre intake last year, avoiding relegation will likely again be a struggle. We will play with a few tactical ideas to try and shore up the defense and continue to try and matrix avoid the sack. This is a tough save but I am having a tonne of fun (when I'm not frustrated at losing)

Excelsior!

[AndrikoDS]

18 hours ago, HanziZoloman said:

"I'm still here ..." Earl of Grey

The year 2053 - Age Earl of Grey 71

Guess they found no replacement. It's a flashback from the first 20 years, a horrible season with a lot of defeats, with penalties against us in every single game. The board put some extra challenges like improving the dressing room atmosphere and the Earl just focused on that. Losing or winning didn't matter anymore. He talked to his players every single game. He praised for goals, he criticized for playing badly, he praised conduct, hold team meetings and the team met every week for breakfast and stuff (team bonding). It worked as he won a new contract. The Earl will go down to EFL2 and build new. A lot of players have to leave us, due to lacking quality like Millie Potter (good bye ol' chap) or James Beckett our spirited captain. Some because of relegation release clauses, some due to greed. The club is now big red, the adventure has cost some money but also full of eager youngsters. The U18s won the double. 

Player of the year: Chris Griffith "If everything around you is dark, look again, you may be the light." He scored some winners and equalizers, he was always positive and reliable. The 25 yo even managed to grind out some points in attributes. He is now the successor of Mr Ricay of guys like Rhys Platt, Inih Sole, Tyrone Roberts and our lazy jumper the icon John Flannery. Earl of Grey on the other hand became a club legend and rightly so.

"The King is dead. Long live the king!"

  Hide contents

 

The highs and lows! Billericay are really on a journey, at least you kept your job to keep things going!

[Colossus]

Sociedad Deportiva Leioa

2027/2028 Youth Intake Preview / Mid Season Update

 

Holy damn we are doing so much better than we expected- This year we got assigned to a different group and we are doing phenomenal!

 

I will take an high quality CM, then we can adapt Jaume as a CDM (I use CDM as a DLP)

[officiallydeej]

7 hours ago, HanziZoloman said:

In the last EFL1 season I gave up my 4231 really quickly as we were thrashed. Now I am also with a 343 so it’s great to see your version. Thank you! 
you have three BPD, are all three fit to play that? Seems so with your success. Do you also play unfitting players in that role?

I would say only one is fit to play that role, he was initially a centre midfielder that I retrained to fill the gap as he's a big, brave lad who can also play a bit.

The honest reason I play BPDs is that they just seem to perform better on FM's match engine. The BPD role by design makes centre backs play more direct passes which my tactic relies on, so in a sense 'ball playing defender' is a bit misleading as it feels as though they should play short intricate patterns like Man City but often gets them looking for a longer pass.

[The_Gato_In_Goal]

Did I sign a 19 year old recently released from Lowestoft to become my assistant coach, yes. Did I unsuccessfully try to get him to be my HOYD, also yes.

[JAwtunes]

5 minutes ago, officiallydeej said:

I would say only one is fit to play that role, he was initially a centre midfielder that I retrained to fill the gap as he's a big, brave lad who can also play a bit.

The honest reason I play BPDs is that they just seem to perform better on FM's match engine. The BPD role by design makes centre backs play more direct passes which my tactic relies on, so in a sense 'ball playing defender' is a bit misleading as it feels as though they should play short intricate patterns like Man City but often gets them looking for a longer pass.

Agreed, I think the default takes more risks doesn't help, as they end up just hoofing it into no man's lands.

Bit off topic, but as a Villa fan I have been trying to get a DM to slot in on the R or L of a 3 in build up (like Kamara) but half back always seems to split the back 2. If anyone knows how to do this then please let me know.

[Neo_Geo]

Hapoel Ra'anana
Season 1 (2024/25)

Incredible first season

Those who have seen my updates over the last day or so will know I was top of the league at the split but the team bottled it in the two biggest games, first losing at home to eventual winners Hapoel Jerusalem 3-1 before also losing away to 3rd placed Bnei Yehuda 2-1. We had the semi final of the State Cup to contend with and injuries started to mount up and we ended up crawling over the finishing line beaten and bloody from the fight but the main thing is we finished second and gain promotion to the top tier!

 

Edit: forgot to mention the cups….we made the final of the national league cup and lost to hapoel Jerusalem even though we were the better of the sides on the day, would have been great to mark this one off the list but it wasn’t to be. In the state cup (FA Cup essentially) we got really lucky with the draws and played one non league side before all national leagues until the semi final where Robbie Keane’s Maccabi Tel-Aviv beat us comfortably 4-1 (I stayed true to my attacking principles). Maccabi Tel-Aviv finished 5th so that gives me an idea of what to perhaps expect for next season if I don’t adjust the formation.

I started the save with the notion of picking an attacking tactic and working the players into that tactic looking to go on the offensive in this challenge rather than what I usually do which is sit back and look to counter. It worked a treat in this league with some of the craziest games I've managed in FM and it was incredibly enjoyable (and frustrating at times). Whether I stay true to this or not is my big question, if I am going to role play as a manager with an attacking, fearless brand of football then surely I have to stick to my guns (at least at home anyway). The board have added a number of items to the club culture along the lines of attacking football, entertaining and high tempo pressing so I kind of have little choice 

On the topic of the board they have been beyond amazing this year with the following:

• 3 coaching courses approved for me
• 2 junior coaching budget increases
• 2 youth recruitment improvements
• agreeing to adding a set piece coach
• agreeing to training facilities improvement

In stark contrast in my Bronshoj save I had zero requests granted in the first season (but financially things were much different).

Financially we are incredibly well off, finished the season at around £4.7m then when it ticked over to the new season the balance shot up to over £10m. Upon inspection of income I found just over £1m in sponsorship and £4.7m in grants (nothing in the inbox around the grants and I have no idea what it is for and whether it will remain in place). This club has a really solid footing for the future I just need to make sure not to screw up the first season back in the Premier League in 5 years.

Youth Intake

Spoiler

The preview was really promising with 4 A categories

This translated into 8 Elite talents coming through which would give me some much needed depth in the squad (although I couldn't play any of them as I was unable to register them at that point in the season)

      

   

First off Sela YP25-A looks to have the decent makings of an advanced forward so I will most likely look to get him some game time this coming season from the bench most likely unless the schedule is so hectic that a few starts will be thrown in (probably in the early stages of the cup). Ben-Chaim doesn't have the speed for a wing-back but has good marking and tackling and given my formation I see the potential to retrain as an achor (though it will take a fair bit of time to do so as he can't play t here at all at the moment). In a similar way Taddese is a similar ball winning midfielder type with excellent mentals and decent athleticism, at the moment I am looking at ball winning midfielder as for a segundo volanto he'll need to up his passing and vision quite a bit.

The Squad

Spoiler

The squad is average to good but I suspect next year it'll just be a case of trying to be better than 2 of the teams in the division to stay up. Melika (who was the top current ability player at the start of the save) is still sitting in the U19s, still unhappy and still refusing to talk about a contract. The crazy thing is he can't play and no one wants him, so just sign a deal and get a minimum fee release clause that allows you to leave if you are good enough. The only other unhappy player is the now star player, Dan Sirkis, who started by considering his options when his contract ends in 2026, then wanting to move to a bigger team (I did my usual of agreeing to consider bids but not actively look to sell). Given I am pretty soft in defence as it is I really don't want to lose him but I suspect its coming:

Aside from Sirkis we have the assist king Yoni Ferber and all-rounder Rahmian:

   

The Tactic

Spoiler

The idea with this was to focus on overloading the central attacking third with 4 of the 5 looking to be goal scorers rather than playmakers. It suits the squad that I have because the majority of the best talent is in the final third. The two pivots in midfield at present are defensively minded and I've opted to tell them to stay wider rather than the centre backs as I'd rather play wide centre back and I don't feel the current defence has the ability to do this. When teams play an AMC I have the anchor man mark allowing the ball winning midfielder to go on the hunt, when no AMC is present the two midfielders move across the park as required. The issue I have seen is that teams that play long diagonals hurt me because it takes time for the midfielders to move across and it leaves the DC on the receiving side quite exposed at that point. I do have real concerns about this formation in the top league this year as I haven't had any good central defenders come through the intake, so I have a secondary formation with the inside forwards dropping back to be inverted wingbacks (again the idea is to keep the threat through the middle).

As can be seen from the Best Eleven you can clearly see that the front line was superb whilst the defensive mids and central defence didn't have the best season. A total of 99 goals between my first choice front 5 shows the formation worked well offensively at this level.

Admin

Spoiler

Here are the improvements the board sanctioned

      

      

      

Unfortunately the current chairman is looking to step aside so this blossoming relationship may be cut short!

Here are the (absent) transfers

Bingo Card

Spoiler

Wow, what a first season for the bingo card with 8 objectives scored off (though now I cannot get a score of 100 because to win the National League and National League Cup I now need to be relegated so they are mutually exclusive  I actually suspect there is no manager of the month award at least not in the National League) I've also realised that the National League Cup is the cup for the National League and there is a corresponding Premier League Cup for the Premier League teams which I don't have on the scorecard so I think if I win the (arguably) tougher tournament I will count this as the same objective as the national league. Note to self "Next time do more research before finalising the card!"

Also decided to keep a track of the details of when and how the objectives were met:

Next Season Aims

Spoiler

Most likely to stay true to my attacking intent and look to survive the season and if relegated hopefully keep my job to go again.

On the youth front I don't think I can afford to bring too many of them through this year and it will most likely be out of necessity when they play (hardly ideal for the ones that need positional retraining).

 

Edited November 15, 2023 by Neo_Geo

[karax268]

Praiense Season Review 2024/25

 

On the  field

Fixtures part 1 | Fixtures part 2

Our first season was overall a succes. We finished a very respectable 6th place. Not once were we in danger of going down. In fact, for a brief moment we thought we could hang on in the promotion battle. However, a typical second half of the season collapse brought us back to earth.

Our cup run was over after the first hurdle. the less said the better.

The U-19

They got promoted to the 1st division. A strong regular season followed by a good playoffs run. 

 Squad

Highest rated player/topscorer: Lorenzo Rpdrigues

Same guy this season. He carried us in the first half of the season. and even though he fell off near the end he still came in clutch once in a while. 

best young player:  Ruben Mestre

He was part of the youth intake from before I joined and despite his youth he was the creative backbone of the team. Near the end of the season as we were playing for less and less I let him join the U19’s in their pursuit of a championship

Youth intake

Pedro Arruda | Carlos Carvalho | Micheal Eugster | Filipe Ferreira | Daniel Ferreira | Andre marmeleira | Carlos Santos | Filipe Aires | Bruno Andrade | Carlo Mthethwa | Nathan Judet | Angelo Noguira | Rui Ponte | Andre Resende | Luis Teofilo

 

Not a golden generation but enough talent to satisfy me.

Board

Transfers

The finances are in shambles. water is wet.
I’d forgotten how bad it was in the lower divisions of portugal. 

despite this the board decided to increase both youth recruitment and junior coaching (after a lot of pleading) as well as allow me to get my first coaching badge.

 

Next season

with a full(er) squad I want to build on this season. More consistency is a must. What that brings me? We’ll see.

 

Edited November 15, 2023 by karax268

[OlivierL]

27 minutes ago, The_Gato_In_Goal said:

Did I sign a 19 year old recently released from Lowestoft to become my assistant coach, yes. Did I unsuccessfully try to get him to be my HOYD, also yes.

It seems you can't select a non Hoyd anymore as a responsible for your youth development (intakes) ? only Hoyd or Assistent manager. I tried to select a coach but not possible this time.

So i wanted him as a hoyd (with a coach contract) - resolute - high det and my formation.

But it will be him:

 

[Flashman\'s School Days]

Hi all, I know the question was asked a few pages ago about editing a team's reputation in order to get them promoted but I wondered if it would be ok to instead lower the reputation of a few teams so that the target team has a better chance of promotion.  I have currently been reloading for around 35 hours in Italy to get Victor San Marino promoted but because of their particular Serie D group (Group D) containing a number of higher reputation teams than most of the other groups it seems impossible to get them up. 

So far I have seen 118 different sides be promoted out of the 166 possible and the breakdown of each group is as follows:

Group A - 15/20

Group B - 16/20

Group C - 16/18

Group D - 8/18 - group with Victor San Marino

Group E - 14/18

Group F - 17/18

Group G - 12/18

Group H - 13/18

Group I - 7/19

As you can see Group D and Group I are the ones with least variation, mainly because Group I has the by far the best reputation team in Serie D in LFA Reggio Calabria and Group D has 4 of the top 7 best reputation sides at the level.

All this is to ask whether it would be acceptable just to tweak a few teams in Group D down in reputation slightly just to give me a chance of getting Victor San Marino promoted.

[seatdean]

Here begins my first African FM24 adventure, from Zimbabwe, a country with little football history but with a great passion for this sport. The chosen club is the Aces Youth Soccer Academy, better known as AYSA, recently promoted (in the game) to the third division and which is considered the best academy in the country and has produced a large number of national team players. The FM has this set up correctly, giving AYSA the best youth infrastructure stats in the country, although they remain mediocre overall.

Club Profile:

Manager Profile:

[HanziZoloman]

vor einer Stunde schrieb JAwtunes:

Agreed, I think the default takes more risks doesn't help, as they end up just hoofing it into no man's lands.

Bit off topic, but as a Villa fan I have been trying to get a DM to slot in on the R or L of a 3 in build up (like Kamara) but half back always seems to split the back 2. If anyone knows how to do this then please let me know.

Ask the CB to sit narrow and the DM to stay wide? Or something which involves the FB? 

[Potat]

I know I'm a semi-pro team in Bermuda and our squad is pretty terrible, but I genuinely let out a laugh when I saw this intake... Just the EIGHT 5-star ability players.

John Griffith | Calon Cooper | Detre Delgado | Brendon Lawler | Ken Agnew | Remy Brangman | 
Quinaceo Tucker | Riley Hall

[Winski]

1 hour ago, Flashman\'s School Days said:

Hi all, I know the question was asked a few pages ago about editing a team's reputation in order to get them promoted but I wondered if it would be ok to instead lower the reputation of a few teams so that the target team has a better chance of promotion.  I have currently been reloading for around 35 hours in Italy to get Victor San Marino promoted but because of their particular Serie D group (Group D) containing a number of higher reputation teams than most of the other groups it seems impossible to get them up. 

So far I have seen 118 different sides be promoted out of the 166 possible and the breakdown of each group is as follows:

Group A - 15/20

Group B - 16/20

Group C - 16/18

Group D - 8/18 - group with Victor San Marino

Group E - 14/18

Group F - 17/18

Group G - 12/18

Group H - 13/18

Group I - 7/19

As you can see Group D and Group I are the ones with least variation, mainly because Group I has the by far the best reputation team in Serie D in LFA Reggio Calabria and Group D has 4 of the top 7 best reputation sides at the level.

All this is to ask whether it would be acceptable just to tweak a few teams in Group D down in reputation slightly just to give me a chance of getting Victor San Marino promoted.

No mate, that's not allowed. Part of the challenge is the small chance to get a very small reputation club promoted. Or the failure of it. So it's not allowed to tweak reputations.

[Perre8]

Season 3 27/28

FC Wacker Innsbruck

 

It was a dogfight at the top of the table between us and Ried, the were dominant during the first half of the season we trailed at one point at 5 points, after the winterbreak it was our time to shine!

that good run of results secured us promotion! The title went to FC Liefering because we failed to win the last game against Admira. But Liefering can't get promoted. 

Our cup run was also very good, with a semi final as a result. We stood ground until the 80th minute but then our ship stranded.

Our main goal next season is DO NOT GET RELEGATED

our main goalscorer

Goalkeeper of the year award

[Flashman\'s School Days]

23 minutes ago, Winski said:

No mate, that's not allowed. Part of the challenge is the small chance to get a very small reputation club promoted. Or the failure of it. So it's not allowed to tweak reputations.

Even if the only tweaks are ones to about 4 or 5 unplayable teams and not to the team I want to manage, and those teams will still have higher rep than the one I want along with about 120 other teams at that level? I would argue I am not making anything easier for myself and all it does is slightly increase the chance for promotion of a few sides in a group where only one team gets promoted from anyway

[Winski]

12 minutes ago, Flashman\'s School Days said:

Even if the only tweaks are ones to about 4 or 5 unplayable teams and not to the team I want to manage, and those teams will still have higher rep than the one I want along with about 120 other teams at that level? I would argue I am not making anything easier for myself and all it does is slightly increase the chance for promotion of a few sides in a group where only one team gets promoted from anyway

No, because it' still 'cheating'.
I know how you feel though, because I experienced the same many times. I often had a specific team in mind(Rushden&Diamonds in England for example), but it just never popped up. And that one time it does, it just feel as if you have won the lottery. But it is not allowed to tweak reputations or other stuff, just to get a specific team.

[Flashman\'s School Days]

3 minutes ago, Winski said:

No, because it' still 'cheating'.
I know how you feel though, because I experienced the same many times. I often had a specific team in mind(Rushden&Diamonds in England for example), but it just never popped up. And that one time it does, it just feel as if you have won the lottery. But it is not allowed to tweak reputations or other stuff, just to get a specific team.

Ok, fair enough. Thanks for taking the time to reply

[Neo_Geo]

27 minutes ago, Flashman\'s School Days said:

Ok, fair enough. Thanks for taking the time to reply

Are you simming the first season only? I know some other players had success getting different teams by simming a second season, might be worth a try if you really want that team

[Flashman\'s School Days]

2 minutes ago, Neo_Geo said:

Are you simming the first season only? I know some other players had success getting different teams by simming a second season, might be worth a try if you really want that team

I have tried that too, but the chances get even worse because you have higher rep sides that were relegated from the first season and also former giants coming up from the league below Serie D

[Ron_Swanson]

[FM23] Reymersholms IK - season 6 - 2028

With that kind of preview I was hoping for more and what I got is worse than last year (when best rating was only a C)

Promotion! It's a great news but on the other hand I have some doubts it can be a little too early and we will be at the dead end like last time. Especially because we're losing 3 key players and current intake didn't bring worthy replacements. Zeki Dağlı made a strong debut being our top scorer by a mile and Williot Hägerholm shows a nice progress but that's pretty much all, rest of our prospects need to do more.

At the end I have a question for those who played in Sweden. It's my second promotion from 4th tier and it happened again. After last game or intake I can offer my players only non-contracts. Every other season it worked normal, I could choose between part-time, youth and non-contract but after winning promotion it's suddenly not an option. Is this some kind of a bug? Would be a shame getting 5*CA academy wonderkid and lose him for nothing to a bigger club because of that

[Neo_Geo]

3 minutes ago, Flashman\'s School Days said:

I have tried that too, but the chances get even worse because you have higher rep sides that were relegated from the first season and also former giants coming up from the league below Serie D

Ah ok, maybe a few of us could sim for you and then if they come up send you the save…..I’ve never targeted a specific team for this challenge but I always feel,bad for those that can’t get that team they really want.

[JAwtunes]

3 hours ago, Flashman\'s School Days said:

Hi all, I know the question was asked a few pages ago about editing a team's reputation in order to get them promoted but I wondered if it would be ok to instead lower the reputation of a few teams so that the target team has a better chance of promotion.  I have currently been reloading for around 35 hours in Italy to get Victor San Marino promoted but because of their particular Serie D group (Group D) containing a number of higher reputation teams than most of the other groups it seems impossible to get them up. 

So far I have seen 118 different sides be promoted out of the 166 possible and the breakdown of each group is as follows:

Group A - 15/20

Group B - 16/20

Group C - 16/18

Group D - 8/18 - group with Victor San Marino

Group E - 14/18

Group F - 17/18

Group G - 12/18

Group H - 13/18

Group I - 7/19

As you can see Group D and Group I are the ones with least variation, mainly because Group I has the by far the best reputation team in Serie D in LFA Reggio Calabria and Group D has 4 of the top 7 best reputation sides at the level.

All this is to ask whether it would be acceptable just to tweak a few teams in Group D down in reputation slightly just to give me a chance of getting Victor San Marino promoted.

Have you tried adding the lower division as a playable league?  I was in the same position with the team I wanted in Denmark, so I opened the fifth tier and eventually they were promoted.

[Flashman\'s School Days]

3 minutes ago, JAwtunes said:

Have you tried adding the lower division as a playable league?  I was in the same position with the team I wanted in Denmark, so I opened the fifth tier and eventually they were promoted.

Would they then not be classed as "previously unplayable team"?

[JAwtunes]

9 minutes ago, Flashman\'s School Days said:

Would they then not be classed as "previously unplayable team"?

You could make the lower league non-playable if you want, similar to vanilla France, Norway and Romania.  I think its still in the spirit of this save style, as the team you're trying to get is non-playable in the vanilla db and you're only having to do this as they're arguably a more difficult challenge, hence the struggle to get them promoted.

[Flashman\'s School Days]

21 minutes ago, JAwtunes said:

You could make the lower league non-playable if you want, similar to vanilla France, Norway and Romania.  I think its still in the spirit of this save style, as the team you're trying to get is non-playable in the vanilla db and you're only having to do this as they're arguably a more difficult challenge, hence the struggle to get them promoted.

I would be really happy to do that if there is a consensus here that it is an acceptable thing to do

[Neo_Geo]

44 minutes ago, JAwtunes said:

You could make the lower league non-playable if you want, similar to vanilla France, Norway and Romania.  I think its still in the spirit of this save style, as the team you're trying to get is non-playable in the vanilla db and you're only having to do this as they're arguably a more difficult challenge, hence the struggle to get them promoted.

Might be a bit dense here if I'm missing something, but how will this help get them promoted? 

Only way I can see it helping is save scumming every one of their games so that they win the league.....which I would have thought isn't in the spirit of the save 

[SuperRedditch]

It might be to do with my facilities/staff but:

Is anyone else seeing no development in their players technical attributes? And even in some cases pure reduction?

Like, their mentals grow a lot and their physicals, but their technicals just aren't growing.

[Neo_Geo]

1 minute ago, SuperRedditch said:

It might be to do with my facilities/staff but:

Is anyone else seeing no development in their players technical attributes? And even in some cases pure reduction?

Like, their mentals grow a lot and their physicals, but their technicals just aren't growing.

I am seeing slight improvements for a couple of players (heading, marking, passing, dribbling, finishing). I think the biggest improvement was 2 but generally its just 1 at the moment.

[bpecanha]

Hello! I want to play in Romania, but there are three leagues: Liga I, Liga II and Liga III. However, only Liga I and Liga II are available to play, even if I load Liga III. What should I do?

[Neo_Geo]

9 minutes ago, bpecanha said:

Hello! I want to play in Romania, but there are three leagues: Liga I, Liga II and Liga III. However, only Liga I and Liga II are available to play, even if I load Liga III. What should I do?

Load up Liga I and Liga II as your playable leagues, sim a year and reload as required to get a team promoted that you like the look of. The fact Liga III isn't playable makes no difference to the rules if you have it selected as viewable only or not (though you will be able to see who is going to be promoted before the new season start date)

[SuperRedditch]

Leça FC
Season 4 - 2027/28
Liga 3 North First Stage - 7th
Relegation Stage - 2nd

 

 

An average season as we just tread water hoping to develop players good enough to get us out of the league. I have noticed that intake PAs seem to fluctuate wildly. For instance, this player was rated as a 3* PA when I got him and I tagged him 11th prospect that intake. He's now by far my best defender. Don't sleep on your unfancied prospects, especially those with good personalities. I imagine it's to do with my HoYDs low Judging Player Potential.

I'm at the point where I'm going to oversee a huge transition to purely newgens. The legacy players are ok, there's still 5 that I consider first-teamers, but they are never going to develop into players that will play in the division above. Next season will probably be a rocky one.

Financially - still a mess. We get just about into the black and then end the season -£500k. For the brief period we had money, I was refused a National C coaching badge because they could lose me to a bigger club. RAGE INDUCING. I'm a favoured personnel and have been here 4 years. This is overtuned way too much this year.

 

The Intake

 

 

 

 

Because of his personality, this lad is the best of a bad bunch this year. I'm gonna give him some games and see how accurate that PA is.

Next Season

Stay in the division, blood youngsters, pray for a 200PA wonderkid to sell.

 

 

Edited November 15, 2023 by SuperRedditch

[JAwtunes]

26 minutes ago, Neo_Geo said:

Might be a bit dense here if I'm missing something, but how will this help get them promoted? 

Only way I can see it helping is save scumming every one of their games so that they win the league.....which I would have thought isn't in the spirit of the save 

The problem is that inactive leagues don't simulate games properly and rely very heavily on reputation and a bit of rng when selecting teams for promotion. If you were to play in Norway, where the lowest division is non playable, the matches are simulated so there is a chance of promotion for even the lowest rep teams, but yeah, still could take ages to see the team you want get out of the league... And you'd be left with a weak team that would probably head straight back down

[Neo_Geo]

7 minutes ago, JAwtunes said:

The problem is that inactive leagues don't simulate games properly and rely very heavily on reputation and a bit of rng when selecting teams for promotion. If you were to play in Norway, where the lowest division is non playable, the matches are simulated so there is a chance of promotion for even the lowest rep teams, but yeah, still could take ages to see the team you want get out of the league... And you'd be left with a weak team that would probably head straight back down

I'd suggest it would take longer because you'd have additional games to sim to get through the normal league.

It's just highly unlikely that you can get the really small reputation teams into the playable leagues via any legitimate method.