The FM24 Youth Academy Challenge

[bpecanha]

16 minutos atrás, Neo_Geo disse:

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)

That's what I'm going to do, thanks!

[JAwtunes]

1 minute ago, Neo_Geo said:

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.

That's not the way it works, promotion from 'inactive' feeder leagues is so heavily dependent upon reputation that certain teams have almost zero chance of ever being promoted.

[The_Gato_In_Goal]

44 minutes 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.

Some of my players have declined technically, but I just chalk it up to basic training facilities, being semi-pro, and poor coaches. If you think about it, these kids are going from top-of-the-line junior coaching and better facilities as youths (assuming you've gotten some upgrades in), to worse facilities, with worse coaching, training twice a week. I really don't expect them to grow much technically, but they can become more experienced mentally and develop physically with age no matter how poor my training situation is.

Here's one of my 19 year olds who has been training as a BWM. As you can see, his technicals have barely improved with the exception of his marking. And that's with only Marking and Tackling being focused on in training for his entire career. But he's grown mentally and physically because he's played 130 games of senior football.

There's also the issue that some players just don't have the PA to improve that much technically. As you upgrade more and more junior coaching, the gap between CA and PA narrows since your youth are more technically advanced than their predecessors. It's natural that they just don't have that much more improvement left.

[Neo_Geo]

25 minutes ago, JAwtunes said:

That's not the way it works, promotion from 'inactive' feeder leagues is so heavily dependent upon reputation that certain teams have almost zero chance of ever being promoted.

Quicker to sim a month than save scum every game of the season god knows how many times.

I think it’s unlikely Victor San Marino will ever be playable for this challenge

[JAwtunes]

4 minutes ago, Neo_Geo said:

Quicker to sim a month than save scum every game of the season god knows how many times.

I think it’s unlikely Victor San Marino will ever be playable for this challenge

Why are you talking about same scuming? and yes as it's (basically) infinity Vs a very long time... and this has derailed...

For what it's worth I do agree that V San Marino will be unplayable as that's the simplest and cleanest call for @XaWand @darren1983 to make.

if you do want to chat then ping me a message 👍

[v1n1akabozo]

2 minutes ago, JAwtunes said:

Why are you talking about same scuming? and yes as it's (basically) infinity Vs a very long time... and this has derailed...

For what it's worth I do agree that V San Marino will be unplayable as that's the simplest and cleanest call for @XaWand @darren1983 to make.

if you do want to chat then ping me a message 👍

Save scumming would be a way to make that team go up. You reload every time they don't win until that one/1000th time until they do, and do that until the team you want gets promoted. What's debatable is whether this is accepted or not.

[SuperRedditch]

 

 

I wish I could swear on these forums, because this is the dumbest excrement in the entire universe. So triggered. I don't have a single badge, yet they're happy to let my out-of-contract Assistant get his Continental C.

[Neo_Geo]

6 minutes ago, JAwtunes said:

Why are you talking about same scuming? and yes as it's (basically) infinity Vs a very long time... and this has derailed...

For what it's worth I do agree that V San Marino will be unplayable as that's the simplest and cleanest call for @XaWand @darren1983 to make.

if you do want to chat then ping me a message 👍

Didn’t mean it to come across argumentative, sorry if it did.

[JAwtunes]

Just now, Neo_Geo said:

Didn’t mean it to come across argumentative, sorry if it did.

It's fine mate. We've all had a coffee

My ASD makes me rubbish at communicating anyway, so probably on me!

[aldojags]

Mid season update (season 1)

 

This is not a drill folks, but after half the season, going into the insane 2.5 month Croatian winter shut down, I am 11 points clear at the top of the league. And we honestly haven't been that good! Fluked a few wins, been outgained on xG a few times and won, few games where our goal has led a charmed life and I feel there's still a shock to come! But a promotion in season 1 would be incredible, I hope I can keep this up 2nd half of the season.

 

Finances a complete mess, despite me only spending 6k a week of a budgeted 19k on wages, average crowds of 500. So hopefully if I do go up there's a few quid to be made in the top league!

 

And my preview of my first ever youth intake is in. Apparently a top prospect in central mid, which is by far my strongest position in terms of depth, i probably already have 5-6 starting quality central mids, could have been doing with a great CB coming through but nothing!

 

[darren1983]

21 minutes ago, JAwtunes said:

Why are you talking about same scuming? and yes as it's (basically) infinity Vs a very long time... and this has derailed...

For what it's worth I do agree that V San Marino will be unplayable as that's the simplest and cleanest call for @XaWand @darren1983 to make.

if you do want to chat then ping me a message 👍

Personally my take on it is that it's OK in like France and Norway because those leagues are in the game but aren't playable (unless you get relegated) opening up a league just to try and get a team up goes against the no editor rule.

I understand the frustration when someone has their heart set on a team but that's just the way it is. We (I) have relaxed the rules a lot over the years but I think where we're at now makes the challenge as accessible as possible while still in the spirit of the challenge.

[Coxbox]

Previous Post




 Season 26/27
Better season than the last one however we did collapse near the end for some reason, part of that is the match engine i think. 
 

League  

Cups

 
Facilities

Tickets and Sponsorship

Intake

This is a ridiculous intake of 4 players with 4.5 stars Current Ability  Please suggest how I should play them, ignore the faces, I need to fix them,





 

Spoiler

5/4.5 Star Current 
 

 

Spoiler

2.5 Star Current

Spoiler

2 Star Current 

 

There is two more i cant upload.

 

 

 

Edited November 16, 2023 by Coxbox

[SimplySamantics]

Season One Review

A tremendous campaign from Joensuu! The boards, and my own, ambition was to simply survive my first season and keep the team in the Finnish First Division. Unexpectedly, we ended up not just qualifying for the promotion stage (top 6) of the league, but going on to play Salon Palloilijat for a spot in the Finnish top flight. We ended up losing over two legs and we were overpowered by the top-flight side. I'm sort of glad we stayed in the first division. Our squad isn't deep enough to cope with that level of competition and the youth candidates I have still need time before they can be trusted with regular competition. My two standout youth players for the season were DM Angelo Assellin and ST Marko Santala. Both players were part of the original squad and had a solid impact on the season. 

Spoiler

League Table and Playoffs

Spoiler

Youth Candidates

Spoiler

 

Finances 

A problem that will need to be addressed quickly

Spoiler

Managerial Support and Awards

Spoiler

Team of the Year and End of The Season First Choice Squad (yellow dots are youth players)

Conclusion and Future Goals

The first season went fantastically overall and the youth candidates I got all look like they might be able to contribute some depth next season. No youth players outside of Santala and Assellin are ready for regular first-team football but there are some that show enough promise to warrant some time off the bench, such as Peltonen and Petri Heiskanen. Addressing finances will be another task of mine. I have a couple of senior players who are looking to move on. Their sales will at least lighten the wage load. I'm not expecting to finish 4th again, but I'm hoping I can at least stay in the upper half of the table. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited November 16, 2023 by SimplySamantics

[tobiahabramson]

when your team comparison looks like this.... I may be in for a rough season

[Bezzey]

Question for those who started in Japan, where the teams filled with nothing but regens when they first got promoted? I've seen this with every team on many tries and I believe I have everything setup correctly in the database. I am also unable to add a custom face to any of the players which also seems weird.

[Diego D10S]

                                                                          

 

 

Here we go !!  

GL ALL

[XaW]

7 hours ago, darren1983 said:

Personally my take on it is that it's OK in like France and Norway because those leagues are in the game but aren't playable (unless you get relegated) opening up a league just to try and get a team up goes against the no editor rule.

I understand the frustration when someone has their heart set on a team but that's just the way it is. We (I) have relaxed the rules a lot over the years but I think where we're at now makes the challenge as accessible as possible while still in the spirit of the challenge.

Yeah, I agree here. Manipulating the game to get the team you want is allowed when the vanilla game gives you the option (Norway, France, Romania), but I think the only editor files we should allow are countries not in the vanilla game made realistic (and this is key, it has to be made as real as possible, so no fantasy type files), or extreme lower leagues of vanilla countries also made realistic. Those two types are allowed because it allows to play in countries and leagues that are impossible to play in otherwise. Manipulating clubs to get a certain club promoted goes outside the scope of this challenge for me.

And this also impacts me, I have loads of lower tier clubs in England that I'd love to see come up. Cambridge City is still one of my favourite clubs after I had a great save with them many years ago,but they are at one level too low, but could theoretically come up after 2 years if I pump up their rep. Last year I spend about 5 days on reloading to get Beaconsfield to pop up.

Still, I think we should keep the rules as is. The line must be drawn somewhere, and I think we have found the best place for it to avoid confusion. Lower leagues made real and new countries made real is ok to load, anything else is not allowed. Simple as that.

[DazRTaylor]

@darren1983Northern Ireland.  League reset date is June 24 2024.  Save on 17 May 2024 for different teams.

[glennuk]

40 minutes ago, Bezzey said:

Question for those who started in Japan, where the teams filled with nothing but regens when they first got promoted? I've seen this with every team on many tries and I believe I have everything setup correctly in the database. I am also unable to add a custom face to any of the players which also seems weird.

 

No @bezzy i had actual players. In advanced setup of the database did you add the option to include players from lower leagues in Japan (EG: Japan National League etc.) or just Japan League 1, 2, 3?

[Bezzey]

9 minutes ago, glennuk said:

No @bezzy i had actual players. In advanced setup of the database did you add the option to include players from lower leagues in Japan (EG: Japan National League etc.) or just Japan League 1, 2, 3?

I did a couple of tries with just J1-3 and the National League and then another with everything in there checked. I’ll have to take another look at it, at least I know there is a problem. 

[DazRTaylor]

@darren1983Iceland reset date is actually 9 December, not 10 December (Important detail for people with OCD like me).

[Bezzey]

35 minutes ago, Bezzey said:

I did a couple of tries with just J1-3 and the National League and then another with everything in there checked. I’ll have to take another look at it, at least I know there is a problem. 

Managed to find out that I needed to delete some of the files that were added in the last update. Thanks for the push in the right direction @glennuk

[Matsusipida]

Per-Ölev finished third season with IFK Lidingö.
IFK Lidingö somehow survived another season in Swedish First division north. We were struggling for most of the season and only strong end of campaign saved us from relegation (or relagation playoffs). For the first time we also entered the swedish cup. we were beaten in the second round.

Spoiler

In the last game we rotated a bit. Well...it didn't work out againts champions.

Spoiler

Söderstöm was our top scorer with 15 goals. Omar Olsson was retrained as leftback.

Spoiler

Youth intake was decent once again. Johan Åkermark 26A is a useful BBM. Lukas Stannervik 26B is a promising CB.

Spoiler

Spoiler

Finances were on negative for most of season and the board cutted all excess transfer funds and wage budget. after the youth intake we ended up being over budget.

Spoiler

Spoiler

since the finances were on the limit we couldn't uppgrade anything else. Training facilities were the main reason for the financial struggle.

Spoiler

[JLAB]

Real Jaén - Season 3 - Preview

The new season has arrived, and before the other teams have done all of the transfers and loans, we are predicted to finish in 10th place. Given that we finished in 9th place last year, it tells me how much we overachieved last year.

It was funny that Lozano dropped his concerns over the lack of sufficient quality squad depth because of our "recent signings" when we didn't make a single signing outside of the youth graduates playing for the team.

I also decided to go over every player at the club who would be in my first-team plans for this season in the video below. I decided to avoid taking a lot of screenshots here to stop clogging up this update.

YAC - Real Jaén - Part 10

Edited November 16, 2023 by JLAB

[DazRTaylor]

I have decided upon my main youth only save so will be starting it when it is ready.

I think I am going to go the whole hog this year and start at the tenth tier in England.  Once the file is available from @lionel messi, I will begin.

[The Chairman Plays]

14 hours ago, aldojags said:

Finances a complete mess, despite me only spending 6k a week of a budgeted 19k on wages, average crowds of 500. So hopefully if I do go up there's a few quid to be made in the top league!

@aldojags This was the reason why my Bjelovar save ended. We made so much loss per month that end of the season board turned us back to semi-pro, which screwd our training and every player got so annoyed about it that morale did crumble down and we ended up losing all the time. So basically domino effected due finances. Hopefully you gain promotion and managed to survive! 

[JLAB]

1 hour ago, DazRTaylor said:

I have decided upon my main youth only save so will be starting it when it is ready.

I think I am going to go the whole hog this year and start at the tenth tier in England.  Once the file is available from @lionel messi, I will begin.

That's already out, isn't it?

[Ron_Swanson]

1 hour ago, DazRTaylor said:

I have decided upon my main youth only save so will be starting it when it is ready.

I think I am going to go the whole hog this year and start at the tenth tier in England.  Once the file is available from @lionel messi, I will begin.

One of the best saves I've ever had, still unfinished, I've put it on hold now but definetely feel l'm going to do few more seasons at some point. Good luck

[Colossus]

Sociedad Deportiva Leioa

2027/2028

 

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

Did not see this coming at all. Maybe it was just that little bit of extra quality, maybe it was the different group that we had, but the team just clicked and we win the league and get promoted!

 

Team Stats

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

Big improvements from almost all of out players, Villanueva is now far and away our best player

Standout Performers:

1 - Ignacio Villanueva

Who else could it be? On his first senior year, 18 goals and 14 assists is just mad

2 - Gorka Alberdi

He had a injury year free season and he played to the same level that he did last year, with 30 goals. He was the top goalscorer in the league and looks like could lead our line for years to come

3 - Jokin Zumalakarregi

Perhaps not the flashiest of players, but he has been a rock at the center of our defense ever since I joined the team.

Youth Intake

Our best player is a Model Citizen. He is not all that good, but he is going to be starting right away

Rest of the Players:

GK - Simon Henry

CB - Pablo Igartua

CB / RB / LB - Ander Badiola

RB / RM - Josu Iruarrizaga

CB / RB / CM - Gaizka Cantero

CM / CDM / RM - Igor Larrea

RM / RW - Xabi Cantero

LM / LW - Iker Santos

CM / ST - Inigo Diaz

RW - David Medina

CAM / ST - Imanol Nunez

 

Other Stuff
Yearly Progression

Manager Attribute Progression

Youth Player Stats

 

Gora Leioa!

[WhiteCat33]

FM23 Barbados YAC: Road View FC

2052 Season 30 – BFA Digicel Premier League

Spoiler

Youth Academy Challenge FM23 Thread:

Start Post | Season 1 |Season 2 | Season 3 | Season 4 | Season 5 | Season 6 |Season 7 | Season 8 | Season 9 | Season 10 |Season 11 |Season 12 | Season 13 |Season 14 | Season 15 | Season 16 |Season 17 | Season 18 |

Youth Academy Challenge FM24 Thread:

Season 19 |Season 20 |Season 21| 2043 Takeover |Season 22 |Carrillo Post |Season 23 |Season 24|Season 25 | Season 26 |Season 27|Season 28 |Season 29 |

Statistics Posts:

CA Calculator 1 | CA Calculator 2 |CA Calculator v5 Download |Mentoring Post |

League Performance: CHAMPION

 

Cup Performance: CHAMPION

 

North American Champions League:

2051

Caribbean Zone:

This group didn't trouble us. Good to see the squad has progressed to now I'm less worried about the first part of the NACL.

Caribbean Playoff:

 Cuban team Ciego de Avila wasn't too hard of a challenge.

NACL 2nd Round

 We drew Monterrey who are fantastic in our save.

Spoiler

In Mexico VAR saved us disallowing one of their goals and allowing ours. Granted we had a lot of offsides due to their high-line, but the fact we held them to just 2-1 is basically a win against by far the best team in North America.

Well we didn’t concede any goals in Barbados, but we also didn’t have the offense to break through Monterrey. They are ridiculously good.

NACL Tournament Tree:

 And who won the NACL….? Yeah the monsters Monterrey. Real unlucky on our draw.

Squad:

Road View CA

Road View Graphs

I have the same graphs for the full squad now that I made for the youth intakes last year. Only additional graph I'm considering is to add the CA Avg of the First XI (sort by minutes?) to the Top CA tracking. Downside to that is I only added Minutes into the export like 15 seasons or so ago. Also for the 2 or 3 Pro, Amb Det I should probably add in Prof+Amb to have all the combinations.

Monterrey

Out of curiosity of how strong they are I exported the team to the CA Calculator. Yeah, the results are not pretty, the fact we were within 1 goal of them in the tie is an absolute miracle

Spoiler

From a Salary perspective we have about a 25x discrepancy.

Spoiler

They have also done fantastic in competitions getting a shocking 2nd place in the Club World Championship

Spoiler

Transfers:

 Shockingly I held onto my players and got my young star GK onto a non fee release clause contract. I got so close to losing Nurse (my younger star striker)

Spoiler

Thankfully the MLS AI clubs are real dumb.

 

Best XI:

FM Screenshots:

Spoiler

Excel Tables:

Spoiler

Head Coach:

 Up to 900 now

Club Improvements:

 Probably the final ground expansion

Youth Academy:

HOYD:

 

Youth Intake Preview: Pain incoming...

Youth Intake: Well, considering what we were promised I'll take this.

Top 3 Players:

Pretty easy with 3 Top Talents, and they are okay I guess. Most exciting mart is 2 are wingers that I can retrain easily into WBs.

Third is a striker who is small and not quick, so not quite sure where that leaves him.

Excel Tables:

Pretty poor CA & Personalities (no Prof. or Amb.)

Worryingly we are seeing a meaningful drop off in CA the past couple intakes. The biggest issue I'm running into is holding onto U18 Managers. Because our Youth team win the league every year these guys get huge reputation (for Barbados) and are very quickly poached by awful teams in the country. I really think having an unstable U18 manager is detrimental to intakes.

Barbados National Team:

Barbados easily returns to Division A. Look at that Goal differential!

This year is all friendlies until WCQ in October. We got a very nice first draw of the very poor Belize. Hopefully after that is someone easily overtaken.

Spoiler

Road View Internationals:

Barbados Main:

Spoiler

Barbados Youth:

Spoiler

Summary

We had an awful NACL draw against the reigning champions of North America, and while we put up a valiant effort it was doomed from the start. Carrillo is on a 2 more-year contract and has announced his intentions to retire at the club like the legend he is. Next year he will become more of a rotation option off the bench as my younger strikers are quick and putting in good performances.

I'm worried about the academy. This is the problem I started to see in St Vincent about this deep into the save where instead of holding a strong academy we started seeing a major drop in the intake quality which stagnated the game. Carrillo aside, the team is pretty young with the majority of starters around 25 now, so we have time to weather a dip in intakes.

[Sdp9511]

End of Season Review

Season 2023/24

Le Puy

Season Summary- The season started horribly 3 games in and my players had lost confidence in me (thanks to my assistant manager losing all of our friendlies). Those issues led to a point where I thought I might get sacked, due to the fact we ended up on a 7-game winless streak after that meeting. After getting knocked out in the 7th round to a team 2 divisions below us, we somehow started to gain form. From December till March, we suddenly became the second most inform team and didn't lose a single game during that time. That form also gave us a slight chance of making it into the promotion play-off. Which we duly decided to not take and go back to our old ways. Ended up 12th which was not that bad. The board also asked us mid-way in the season if we wanted to upgrade our youth facilities which was something I did not expect to happen. Hopefully, it will lead to some good players arriving in the next few years.

Season Details

Transfers In - None

Transfers Out- No sales

Youth Candidates- The best player I got in this youth intake was Goran Grahovic, looks like an okay midfielder. Might be able to play some games for us next season

Key Players

Jules Meyer - Started off upfront, and wasn't performing. Changed to 4-2-3-1 with him at CAM and he really became a completely different player

Maxence Fournel - Was in and out of the lineup, until a sudden injury to the other striker and a change of formation allowed him to blossom and be vital for our run from December to March

Issiaka Karamoko- Right-sided winger with 9 goals and 9 assists this season.

Beaulieu- Came to his own in the DLP-DM role, our rock in the midfield

Best Young Player 

Gilles Comte was our youngest ever player to play yet. While he is probably our 3rd best left-back right now, his current ability has improved a lot since the start of this season.

Personal Contract

Season     Contract Start Date     Contract Expiry Date     Pre Tax Wage     Post Tax Wage
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
At start          20 June 202             30 June 202          €1300 p/w         €1100 p/w
2024/25           30 May 202              30 June 202          €1300 p/w =       €1100 p/w =

Personal Coaching Data

Season     Reputation            Qualifications     Att   Def   Fit   GkD   GkH   GkS   Tac   Tec   Men   WWY   Ada   Det   PlK   YoK   LoD   MaM   Mot
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
At start   Minimal   (0.25*)     None                 1     1     1     1     1     1     1     1     1     7     1     1     1     1     1     1     1
2024/25    Minimal = (1.00*) ↑   National C       ↑   4 ↑   4 ↑   1 =   1 =   1 =   1 =   3 ↑   5 ↑   3 ↑   7 =   1 =   3 ↑   4 ↑   3 ↑   9 ↑↑  4 ↑   3 ↑

Club Facilities

Season     Training Facilities  Youth Facilities  Corporate Facilities  Junior Coaching  Youth Recruitment  Club Reputation
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
At Start       Average             Average           Adequate              Average          Fairly basic       National (2.00*)
2024/25        Average             Average           Adequate              Average          Fairly basic       National (2.00*)

Season Record

Season     Played     Won     Drawn     Lost     Goals For     Goals Against     Goal Difference     Win Percentage
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2024/25      35        10       12       13          37              40                 -3              28.0%

Overall Career Record

After Season   Played     Won     Drawn     Lost     Goals For     Goals Against     Goal Difference     Win Percentage     Time At Club
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2024/25          37       12       13       12          64              62                 -2               32.0%             328 days 

Transfer Sale Record

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

Trophy Haul

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

Career Overview

Season     Champions League    Europa League    Europa Conference League             League                             Position     French Cup    
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2024/25           N/a               N/a                    N/a                       French National                      12th       Seventth Round              

Record Number of Appearances (Players From The Academy Only) 

Season     Player                 Cumulative Number of Appearances         This season          Player              Season Appearances
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2023/24    Gilles Comte                        3                             2023/24           Gilles Comte                 3

Record Goal Scorer (Players From The Academy Only)

Season     Player                    Cumulative Number of Goals                         This season                 Player                       Season Goals
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2023/24    -                                          0                                 

Record Number of Assists (Players From The Academy Only)

Season     Player                    Cumulative Number of Assists           This season                 Player                       Season Assists
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2023/24    -                           0

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

Season     Player          Cumulative Number of Appearances                 This season                 Player                   Season Appearances
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2023/24    -                           0

[DazRTaylor]

1 hour ago, JLAB said:

That's already out, isn't it?

Negative.  He has completed down to tier eight so shouldn't be long.

[seatdean]

AYSA - Season 1 (2024)

* Season Overview:

After more than a year without playing FM, it didn't take long for me to remember how enjoyable this game is. We arrived in Zimbabwe, and the board was clear in its objectives, we had to obtain the promotion quickly if we wanted to sustain ourselves financially. With just 10 players but with a team willing to run and sacrifice, we achieved not only promotion, but also the third division title, the club's first.

 

* Competition Performance:

 

* Squad:

When we arrived at the club we had 18 players, but other clubs quickly took them away from us, finally we were only left with 10 players. The 10 lions who faced most of the league, playing on Wednesdays and Saturdays, but demonstrating their ambition and love for the club. The tactic used was a classic 442, waiting in the final third and counterattacking quickly when recovering the ball, it gave me very good results in my last save in Burundi, and is still very useful in Zimbabwe.

 

* Academy:

The club's good youth system did not fail, and we obtained 6 young players who jump directly to the starting team for next season, in addition that most of this year's youth players will be good substitutes.

 

Hot prospects: Innocent Maziwisa - Talent Mandiranga - Nyasha Mhindirira

* Transfers:

Spoiler

 

[Potat]

Saint Davids Warriors - Bermuda

Season 4 + 5 - 2026/28

These short seasons (18 league games) are too addicting.

Season 4

Not much happened in season 4, we finished mid-table which is the best for us and we had an incredible intake (previous post) that turned our previous 5-star players into 2/2.5 star players in comparison.

Season 5

League

Champions

First of many hopefully, I wouldn't say we are the best team in the country yet but definitely top 3 going into the future, defensively we were mehh, however, our new wingers getting 26 / 27 goal involvements each meant we had the best attack on the island

Cup Run

It is what it is losing to one of the teams I'd say were better than us all year.

Finances and Facilities

Financially we arent in a great place, I offered everyone actual contracts so they wouldn't leave on free transfers but we don't make enough money to pay actual wages so we're losing a lot of money. With the facilities we cant afford training/youth facilities meaning our only option for now is to try max out our Junior Coaching until we start getting money from somewhere somehow.

Youth Intake

Another good year, 16 elite talents all from Bermuda, Tyler Pearman and Mikkael Morton come straight into the first team as our best two players in the squad.

Mikkail Morton

Tyler Pearman

Youth Teams / Reserves

It was the first time we've actually had players available to play in these teams as we were so short on numbers, and they provided by winning the league in each age group

.

Internationals

It was a good year as our now backup GK cemented his place as the U20 team's first-choice keeper alongside a few others making more regular appearances for the youth side

As for the main national side, we had our first player make their senior debut for Bermuda, our Model Citizen midfielder Brendon Lawler at the age of 16, who, after the most recent intake is now only the 3rd best midfielder in our side.

Team Stats

[Coxbox]

Made a quick update to my previous post nothing to crazy, was knocked out of the cup but did get a Junior coaching Update. Quick question does anyone find it hard to score, i get so many games where the AI goalkeepers play 7.0 + , and every shot on goal is deflected hits the post or goes wide, some games I have 20 shots 9 on Target 3 Half Chances 2 Clear Cut but I still loose 2-10 with an XG of 2.5-3.0

 

[andershs]

A general question concerning an important area of the game, particularly for this challenge:

I am on the brink of losing my best central defender at the end of the season when his contract is up.

I am currently in the Vanarama National League. My coaches judge him to potentially be a League Two standard player.

Once League One and Two clubs started showing interest, he was determined to go play for a bigger club (minor issue). I rejected the first offer, he got grumpy, and I promised to sell him for an agreed amount (they are always ridiculously low).

He was the one player, that I hadn't tied down on a longer contract, and as a result, that is it. He is now unhappy while waiting to be sold, even though no clubs have offered the amount, and I cannot extend the contract in any way.

 

So my question is actually: what are your experiences in this regard? Are there any other possible options out of the 'Why did you not accept the offer, I want to leave'-conversation that possibly yields better results or are not promises?

Edited November 16, 2023 by andershs
typos

[WhiteCat33]

50 minutes ago, andershs said:

So my question is actually: what are your experiences in this regard? Are there any other possible options out of the 'Why did you not accept the offer, I want to leave'-conversation that possibly yields better results or are not promises?

I'm still playing on FM23 so don't know how it's changed but I've found its honestly better to just decline to do the conversation. Yes they get unhappy, but you don't push them to the 'i'll never be happy again' level where they demand to leave which seems to be the outcome for almost every option made available for you. If you have your players on long enough contracts you can usually wait out the general unhappiness for declining a transfer and set up the next contract in the short window they are actually happy. That's how I've held onto my players.

[SuperRedditch]

 

Leça FC
Season 5 - 2028/29
Liga 3 North First Stage - 1st
Promotion Stage - 4th

 

 

 

Another season done, another year in the Liga 3 awaits: the league where financial mismanagement is rife and where hopes and dreams go to get snuffed out. In all seriousness it was a good season  - we brought through some youngsters and I'm developing a picture of the squad that can get us to the next division.

The promotion stage is so competitive, we lost the last game to Porto B - we win that and we were in the play-offs.

Financially, still an absolute mess. The move to the tiny stadium means my pre-season moneymaker friendly against Porto now brings in 80% less money. Great financial management, board.

 

The Squad

Lucas Gomes is still the man scoring all the goals. Infact the supply to him was so poor this year that he was also top assister. One winger had a travesty of a season and the other is 33 and is on the decline.

Maurício Rivelino 28c - started bring this lad through at CM. Have high hopes for him. He's gone from 3 silver CA to 1.5 CA. There about 4 of them hovering around that mark and with another season under their belts I think they'll be challenging to be regulars.

A lot of the rest of the squad are kind of just there. No-one is lighting up the league.

 

The Intake

 

 

It's actually a load of rubbish. No idea what happened to the A striker. Not showing any - waste of screenshot space. The drop to my youth facilities has hurt our intakes and with no money on the horizon I'm just hoping that a promotion will let me upgrade the facilities.

 

Next Season

We could make a cheeky little promotion push, if the stars align and we can put a run together in the promotion stage.

 

 

 

[unfocused_alex]

Bradford (PA) - 2025/26 Season - Vanarama North

Our second season saw an opportunity for many of the first intake to get some minutes under their belts. I was keen this season not to overplay youngsters as I'm sure it's detrimental in the long run. Rather than run a group of 16-17 year olds into the ground I made a more concerted effort to keep the spine of the team relatively the same as the 24/25 season, with youth players filling in off the bench and starting when required. 

Looking at our squad, we are lacking depth in a few areas. Notably at centre back and midfield, but also really lacking a focal point up front. I'd rather play Osadebe to start games and then bring a youth product on rather than really stunt a youth player's growth early on. I do worry about next season in the defensive department but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. Outside of the important and regular starters, we really only had 16-17 year olds left to rely on and that was a worry as the season went on. This definitely showed as we started the season pretty well but really struggled through the winter.

After a goal on his debut last season, youth product Jaromír Kučera just kept proving he couldn't be left out the team. After a Czech U21 call up in October saw him pick up 2 assists in two games, his form continued in a BPA shirt with multiple goals off the bench. At times he would just pick the ball up on the edge of the area on the right side and just batter it into the top corner. Case and point below! 

Spoiler

 

Midway through October we received our record transfer sale of - wait for it - £3k! Harrison Hopper left due to not getting enough first team opportunities and I was pleasantly surprised to even receive a fee, but not arguing. Every little helps. After last season's implementation of a stricter wage structure we are now spending even less on wages and really seeing our overall finances improving as the months go on. Hopefully we can funnel some of this money into facilities and the like.

Although we had an impressive run in the FA Cup which saw us reach the 2nd Round, we failed to impress in the FA Trophy again. I wasn't too bothered by this to be honest. We took plenty of cash off the FA this year and even though we lost 5-1 to League One West Brom, it was a run to be proud of. A sell out crowd at Horsfall gave our coffers a boost adn hopefully we can keep the interest in the club up! I'm looking forward to giving the cup another go next year. 

Spoiler

 
Thankfully the board finally approved a request with our Junior Coaching being raised to "Adequate", so hopefully we'll reap the rewards of that in years to come. The board do not seem to want to allow me to go on a coaching course though, as it seems to not be a priority. Cheers lads! 

We started the season really well and looked actually quite good for a potential play off push but as the season wore on, our inexperience showed. We were never in threat of relegation but look at that past position graph... A real drop off after through December. 

We finished the season 16th. Just like last season! 

Intake

Spoiler

Our intake arrived and finally some reinforcements in central midfield and up top. Unfortunately, nothing in central defence. The way we had been shipping goals this season and if we don't get some quality there soon, we could be in some trouble. However, I'm confident we can start to see some development from the lads like Kyle Lamey and Owen Mackintosh. The later has seen lots of game time this season. Now he's 18, game time is the key to improvement. 

 

There's certainly a few options that could be of use going into next year. Here's the highlights. 

Paul Rushe made his debut and although starting well, was sent off... Maybe he was a little too enthusiastic! Just a little different to Jamomir's debut last season where he scored. Debuts also arrived for Nat Noble-Lazarus and Kristian Neil soon after they signed their contracts. 

I'll mainly be looking to progress a few from last years intake into the first team fold in the upcoming season. Some of these lads got a fair bit of involvement through the 25/26 season.

Youth Involvement This Season (All Comps)

Spoiler

All Time Youth Involvement 

Spoiler

Manager Profile 

Spoiler

Manager Career Stats

Spoiler

 

Club Info

Spoiler

 

We go again next year and will spend the summer upgrading staff and hopefully pushing on to a top half finish next year! 

 

 

Edited November 16, 2023 by unfocused_alex

[andershs]

1 hour ago, WhiteCat33 said:

I'm still playing on FM23 so don't know how it's changed but I've found its honestly better to just decline to do the conversation. Yes they get unhappy, but you don't push them to the 'i'll never be happy again' level where they demand to leave which seems to be the outcome for almost every option made available for you. If you have your players on long enough contracts you can usually wait out the general unhappiness for declining a transfer and set up the next contract in the short window they are actually happy. That's how I've held onto my players.

It worked like a treat. Thank you very much! 

My best, and only really, goalkeeper was under a barrage of offers from bigger clubs. I ignored them all as well as his desire to have a conversation.

As soon as the interest from other clubs stopped (Why, I don't know. Too many failed bids?) he was happy at the club again, and we have now started contract negotiations.

This goalkeeper was a player I could not afford to lose.

[WhiteCat33]

11 minutes ago, andershs said:

This goalkeeper was a player I could not afford to lose.

Glad it worked! Wish there was a way to utilize the conversation properly, but its (IMO) a bugged interaction.

The unhappiness from 'desires a stronger squad' is a little harder to get over than the transfer one you had.  One of my star strikers has been upset for 2 years now due to it, and I have 2 left for him to get happy before I'll lose him. I expect I'll lose him sadly, downside of mentoring him up to Perfectionist...

[andershs]

Macclesfield FC (England)
Season 5 - 2028/29 - VNL

 

As I said last year, we are stable and dependable. We are the definition of a midtable VNL team. That being said, looking at the details, we did perform better in matches and did improve overall even if it is not visible from a first glance.
The transition from original players to regens in our first team is almost complete, and the general level of these are increasing.

League (Results 1, Results 2, Cups, League Chart) - Not much new to add here. We finished in 12th, but with a few more points that the last couple of years. And as noted above, we did perform better in matches. There is improvement. The fluctuations in performances decreased, and
the number of times we were completely outplayed also went down. Next year, I would like a decent cup run. So far, with the finances being as good as they are, I haven't focused on this and played my youngsters for valuable game time.

Team (Details) - The performance levels of the team improved this season. So did the ability of several of our regens. We still have a few original players in the squad, but they are not that good anymore, and in a season or two they will be gone. Lewis Fensome, our record appearance maker, along
Brandon Lee and Kane Drummond are still in the team. But not that good anymore. In January, after a period where the quick picker preferred our goalkeeping talent Astley Rawson - 28C, I made the change and made him first-choice keeper replacing club favorite Conor O'Keefe. Rawson is just better now.
In midfield Dieter Bickerdike had an even better season, and this year actually won the VNL Player of the year. He is extremely good at this level, and with a potential of a decent VNL player, he is not wanted by everyone. These players are nice to have.
Alan Corcoran - 25B at right back is one of my best players, but with the emergence of Luke Kyle - 28F, I might sell him, as he is attracting a decent amount of interest. Exaucé Binguila - 26B is my best central defender, has one year left on the contract, but will not sign a new. As his Potential is 
judged by my coaches to be that of a Sky Bet League Two standard player, I am tempted to let the contract run out, and benefit from him for another year. I might even be lucky to be able to extend the contract. Newly graduated striker Gavin Kershaw - 28E scored a lot of goals. What an impressive season
from a 16-year old. He is just clinical, and at this level seems like a combination of Kane and Inzaghi. Nice. Charlie Roddan - 28B and Charlie Hopley - 28A was also among our best players. The wonder season of Kershaw, meant that Steve Loveland - 27B received fewer starts than first imagined. He is quite good though.

Facilities - No changes here. Youth Intake facilities (Junior Coaching and Youth Recruitment) are at max level. Scratch that. Future changes. At the dead end of the season, the board asked if I found it a good idea to go fully professional at the end of next season. So this is what we will do. Good
all in all, but I have never tried this lower than League Two, which makes me a bit worried for the finances long term. But we will have to see.

Finances - With the youth intake facilities upgraded fully, the gate receipts and season ticket are still securing a profit. It is not as stable as previous seasons. If I play no matches, the fixed cost of the youth setup will result in a loss, but over a full season, we are making a decent profit.
Lovely. At some point, I might ask for training or youth facility upgrades if this continues. The good finances, I feel, is the real difference between the relative success of this challenge attempt, and some of my other failed attempts. It is just much easier when you can sign contracts, improve facilities and
keep the oaf of a chairman from selling your best prospects for nothing.
In other news, Reece Ord - 26A developed in the Bristol City U21s, but did make his debut in the Championship. I hope he makes it, and Bristol extends his contract, otherwise, I will miss out on a 50% future fee clause.

Youth Intake (Dev. Centre, Preview) - A good intake, but at first look not as good as last years intake. That may change over time though. David Baker is the star. I currently have Kershaw, Loveland and Baker as strikers, so I might look to sell Loveland next year, since I am only playing with one striker.
I have to be careful, though, as Kershaw has been very good and developed rapidly, so he might also be gone soon. Abdallah Chafik looks like a really good winger, Andy Smith and Enock Coo will strengthen my defense, and Lea Woodhouse might be retrained as playmaking central midfielder as I currently
do not use attacking midfielders.

No Transfers in. 

Goal for next season: Survive and keep improving. If I could break into Top-10 in the league and get a decent cup run, I would be happy. Keep hold of my best players and prospects or sell them for good current or future value.

 

Edited November 16, 2023 by andershs

[darren1983]

Not actually had enough time to play much this week, hoping that'll change at the weekend, but I did play enough to conclude my idea of going full on Ajax/Barca total football at tier 6 in England with part time players and no transfers was not the most solid of ideas  

Have put that plan on the backburner for now but it may well return once we're professional and I can actually do some proper training of players. 

[Neo_Geo]

45 minutes ago, darren1983 said:

Not actually had enough time to play much this week, hoping that'll change at the weekend, but I did play enough to conclude my idea of going full on Ajax/Barca total football at tier 6 in England with part time players and no transfers was not the most solid of ideas  

Have put that plan on the backburner for now but it may well return once we're professional and I can actually do some proper training of players. 

Should have gone to Israel 

[lewis999]

 

US Livorno 1915

 

After finishing 20th in Serie A in the 2013/14 season Livorno have fallen off a cliff since. By 2021 they were in the 5th tier and now in 2024 they are back into Serie C.

Manager Profile

Step forward 33 year old Englishman Lewis Hawley in his first ever managerial job.

 

Facilities & Kits

 

The Beautiful Port City of Livorno

 

Facciamolo!

 

Edited November 17, 2023 by lewis999

[darren1983]

9 hours ago, Neo_Geo said:

Should have gone to Israel 

Ah but then I wouldn't be able to blame my lack of ability to do it on my players and the level I'm at  

[JLAB]

Real Jaén - Season 3 - In A Financial Mess?

Things were off to a decent start in our 3rd season in the Segunda Federación Grupo IV despite giving up the lead in three of the first four matches. We managed to win all of the matches in October to ease my concerns about the team, with only a defeat to Cádiz CF Mirandilla to speak about. Even if we were fortunate to win against Melilla and avoid losing to Recreativo de Huelva, the team's performance in October was encouraging.

After 11 matches, we are in 5th place, only four points behind the leader Cádiz CF Mirandilla. This shows just how big of a task it was to try and overcome them. Progress has been made, but I would be surprised if we can keep up this run of form after suffering injuries to some of our best players.

I am also starting to get concerned about our finances, and I have no idea what the current owners will do to ensure our financial stability in the future. I'd prefer not to find ourselves in a position where we are forced to sell some players, but you never know with some owners.

Feel free to watch the video below to see the goals we scored and conceded. You'll also be able to see what injuries I am concerned about.

YAC - Real Jaén - Part 11

[The Chairman Plays]

ALEMANNIA AACHEN

"Here we go again!"

 

 

CLUB HISTORY

Spoiler

 

MANAGER PROFILE

Spoiler

 

BOARD VISION!

Spoiler

 

FINANCES

Spoiler

 

SQUAD

Spoiler

 

TRANSFERS

Spoiler

 

"The reason why I was keen to go with Aachen, was that big 32k stadion and decent facilities (Average training and Good youth). Also to be £1M in black at the start was really good! Team looks big enough to survive for the season. Unlucky I forgot to take picture for season preview but we were 16th so media thinks we can survive and I think that too! My only concern is how I blunder our finances this time." 

Edited November 17, 2023 by The Chairman Plays

[heutheo]

2 updates

1. 18 games winless run (90 minutes)

 

2. this guy

 

so please just pray that I won't get sacked before he is 17 and I can actually play him

[Brentmeister]

2 hours ago, heutheo said:

this guy

 

so please just pray that I won't get sacked before he is 17 and I can actually play him

Wowzers! He could start for a Championship team, fantastic player