The FM24 Youth Academy Challenge

[Brentmeister]

This is annoying. I'm doing everything I can to negate the Belgian financial bug, and I can't even find a suitable senior affiliate to bring in some tiny funds.

[Brentmeister]

This could be the golden ticket I need for some upgrades and future money

[Skora11]

2 hours ago, heutheo said:

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

Would it hamper his development if you were to play him before then? 

[WhiteCat33]

6 minutes ago, Skora11 said:

Would it hamper his development if you were to play him before then? 

League rules in Slovenia only allow players 17 and older. Had a great campaign there last year with an extended LL database. Pretty sure that restriction is common for multiple nations in the region.

[Winski]

11 minutes ago, Brentmeister said:

This could be the golden ticket I need for some upgrades and future money

Nice!! Good player also, from what I can see on this screenshot. Hopefully you'll receive some good money for him, and a 50% clause.

[Colossus]

Sociedad Deportiva Leioa

2028/2029 Mid Season Update / Youth Intake Preview

This team just outperforms every expectation that I can set for them. Alberdi, despite not having the best stats, just keeps on getting crucial goals.

 

We really needed a CB. Not a lot that I can do with more strikers and fullbacks, but more depth is always good

[Gonner]

Austria Salzburg, Season 5, 2028/2029

 

Season Recap :
No mid-season post for us now that we are in Bundesliga, because Austria is among those countries who tries really hard to make the "regular season" pointless ! You play about 18 games before the winter break, then go into a 3-month winter break, only to play the remaining 4 games. Then, once you reach the 22-games mark, the division is split into 2 groups of 6, all your points are halved (and if you have an odd number of points, it is rounded down, not up!) and you play 10 more games against the 5 teams in your pool. We finished the regular season in 11th place, some 9 points clear of Austria Lustenau, but that advantage dwindled to only 4 points when we began the second phase. Luckily, as is often the case with this challenge, my team got better throughout the year thanks to the progression of our young guys, and we managed to finish 2nd in the relegation pool, or 8th overall. But then I was in for another calendar surprise ! 

Indeed, in Austria, there's about 3 levels of teams. RB Salzburg & SK Rapid fight for the title (you can see that SK Rapid got it despite finishing the regular season 9 points behind Salzburg). Those two teams are on their own planet. Then, Austria Wien & SK Sturm tend to fight for the lone remaining podium spot. The 8 other teams are more or less somewhat on the same level. What I mean by this is that a club can finish 11th one season, 5th the next one, and then 11th again. Relegation is an injury or a bad phase away for basically 8 teams in that division. So if you want to play European Competitions, your only chance is grabbing the 5th spot. Or at least that's what I thought... but Austria is full of surprises. Indeed, as RB Salzburg & SK Rapid are so dominant, they end up winning the Austrian Cup almost 100% of the time (SK Rapid beat us in the semis by the way). The Cup winner gets a Europa League berth, but if that team has already qualified through the League, then that spot is awarded to the best-ranked team in the League, not the finalist. But it is not that simple.

Long story short, after I thought we were done for the season, following our defeat at WSG Tirol, I learned that we had qualified in the "Playoffs for Europe". The 8th best team (or 2nd in the relegation pool) plays a home-game against the 7th best team, and the winner of that match-up plays the 5th ranked team, with the first game away and the second at home. 

I have so many questions for the person who thought about this : 
- Why reward the 8th placed team with a home game ? What's the point of even trying to finish 7th ?
- What about the poor club that finishes 6th ? They get 10 games to play in the title pool, 6 of them (RB Salzburg *2, SK Rapid *2, away games at Sturm & Austria Wien) are going to be pure demolition, and in the end they get nothing ?
- Again, why does the lesser-ranked team (winner of the 7th-8th game) gets to play at home in the second leg ??

Anyway, rant over, that was a fun way to end the season even though playing every 4 days is not ideal when there is a clear gap between your best XI and your bench players. We managed to beat SCR Altach at home, and then we got Sturm who had fallen to 5th. Defeats in both games, nothing to regret.
 

Transfers :

Révélation

 

Ivica Kovacic progressed really well and became our N°1 GK. Kalman, our goalie since the beginning of our adventure, did not take it too well to be relegated to the bench, so we sold him in November to Lech, with the transfer happening on February 1st. Fonjga was a casualty of our tactical change, he was clearly better as a Wide Midfielder than as a winger and did not get any playing time.

 

Finances : 

Révélation

 

More sponsorship money, but way way less competition prizes, because we do not get the Austrian national players bonus in Bundesliga... Starting to approach the red zone.

 

Squad :

Révélation

9 of 11 from our youth ranks ! And without a long injury to Fatih Gül, Fötschl would probably be the only one there. 
As discussed above in the transfers section, Kovacic became our N°1 GK this season. In defense, Sauer and Bertram started mainly because of lack of competition, but the playing time they got led to quick progress, and I really feel comfortable with my back 4 now. Only issue, as usual, is depth. Wiedl covers both full-back positions when one of them needs to take a breather. For central defenders, we need to rely on Finn Kiene, one of our 2026 regen, but he is far from first-team level.
Central midfield is one of our strenghts, with Neumann being the advanced playmaker and Abesser the Central Midfielder whose role varies with the opposition. Bandlow is really strong on the right wing, he does not have much competition but a lot of our strikers are able to play on the right wing so I am not too worried. On the left wing, Fötschl will be the last of the mohicans I believe. Kraft is seen as having tons of potential but his progression is slow. Finally, I think Fatih Gül and Luca Götz are our two best players, period.

Admin & Facilities :

Révélation

Completion of the stadium renovations had been announced for May 12th so I was really disappointed when I saw that we were playing (what I thought was going to be) our last two games of the season away. The playoffs for Europe gave us the occasion to play in that newly refurbished stadium, and by the second game against Sturm Graz the max capacity had been reached !

Club vision : 

Révélation

 Board and supporters agree ! I would like the young players development to be more than "favoured" but I cannot complain too much.

Bonus : 

Révélation

Obviously skewed by the fact that soon 100% of our team will come from our youth ranks, but it's good to be on the podium in our first season !

Youth Intake : 

The preview

And this is what we got. 9 elite talents  !

Peter Albl : Mandatory yearly goalie. I think we have hit gold with Kovacic in 2026 but the other ones have been disappointing. Good potential but bad personality meant very little progress. Hoping the fairly professional Albl can at least make a decent bench player. 

Révélation

Kenan Todorovic : I need depth in defense so Kenan will likely be promoted to the first team very soon. 

Révélation

Henrik Berger : Same thing with Berger. He is unlikely to dislodge Sauer at the moment, but he will probably play some cup games, at the very least.

Révélation

Bozenko Stokic : Again, depth, depth, depth. If he and Frede can be good enough to let Aksu take one or two games off here and there, Wiedl is just a quick fix right now but he was a good Liga 2 player, that's it.

Révélation

Julian Frede : Good physcial attributes. I will train him to play FB because I tend to never use the WB position. Unless I really do not have a choice I like to play a back four.

Révélation

Pasko Stipica: Seems to be the current best of our youth team. I like that he can play on both wings, I dislike the fact that his best role is Advanced Playmaker and his unambitious personality.

Révélation

Lucas Rösch : Another right winger, more comfortable as a wide midfielder, which we do not use a lot these days. We will see how much he progresses. 

Révélation

Patrick Galm : Similar thoughts for Galm. We do not use wide midfielders much, and that position is filled for the foreseeable future with Fötschl & Kraft.

Révélation

Harm Domke : Luca Götz is good, maybe too good for us, he has already hinted that he might not stay long in Austria, so maybe Domke will be able to become our new 2nd striker. Fairly professional is OK I guess.

Révélation

 

Game in a nutshell :

Edited November 17, 2023 by Gonner

[Anners]

Previous Post:

On 15/11/2023 at 09:46, Anners said:

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!

 

2029/30 Season Report

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

League:

I'm not going to bother saying much about the season - it's literally just rinse and repeat of the previous few. Do well before Christmas, do poorly after. Win 3/4 games at the end of the season to make a mid-table finish.

Youth Intake:

We're actually at the point where we're one of the best Junior Coaching clubs in the country, we're only behind Celtic, Rangers, Hibs and Hearts. For a League 2 team!

As the youth coaching and recruitment keeps improving, the intakes keep being very solid indeed. Darrargh Garrard (DL), Ryan Gill (MC) and Taylor Munro (SC) go straight into the first team as I'm needing cover there, with Munro most likely being my starting striker next year at 15! I will do a post either for the 30/31 season or 31/32 season where I'll post about the players as we're obviously getting to the point where the intakes get more and more interesting.

Other than that, not much of an update here. We've lost money as I wanted to see if I put the u18s into friendlies against top u18 sides, if they would improve more even with the lack of training and youth facilities. They did not. I am incredibly looking forward to the next few seasons though - probably in the next 2 or 3 we'll have a full youth intake team!

 

[aldojags]

1 hour ago, Brentmeister said:

This could be the golden ticket I need for some upgrades and future money

get a 50% sell on clause on him mate at all costs!

[aldojags]

Aaaand just like that my best player is out for months

 

My young right winger who's been banging them in, out with a hip injury.

 

I'm 11 points clear with 17 of 36 games gone....this is a huge blow.

 

Here's a question for you, how do you resist temptation when scout reports come up of these free agents who would easily start for you, who you can easily afford, I'm so determined to win the league now i was hovering over some players thinking "ah just sack the youth challenge and just play a regular save with my wee team" 

 

is there any way of turning off scout reports?

 

I have 1 chief scout as i thought i'd need that to scout the other teams etc, but the player report cards that come up witrh suggestions, it's like "here's what you coulda won" it's very distressing!

 

Here's my lad who's injured, heartbreaker!

 

 

Spoiler

 

[SuperRedditch]

@aldojags

Scouting > Scouting centre > click cog wheel below Wage budget in top right corner > make it look like this

[Brentmeister]

1 hour ago, aldojags said:

get a 50% sell on clause on him mate at all costs!

I managed to get £7m, 40% sell-on and a friendly that was worth 100k!

He's now worth 40m - 49m so I'm hoping, that 40% should be worth at least 10 right?

[WhiteCat33]

2 minutes ago, Brentmeister said:

I managed to get £7m, 40% sell-on and a friendly that was worth 100k!

He's now worth 40m - 49m so I'm hoping, that 40% should be worth at least 10 right?

Fantastic sale! I could see it going over 10 especially if he gets a magical senior CAP for Belgium. Just watchout for the AI being dumb and not renewing his contract.

Brave man fighting the finances there.

[SuperRedditch]

9 minutes ago, Brentmeister said:

I managed to get £7m, 40% sell-on and a friendly that was worth 100k!

He's now worth 40m - 49m so I'm hoping, that 40% should be worth at least 10 right?

Check in 6-12 months if you can negotiate an early buy-out for that clause. It might be for more like £8m, but that much guaranteed immediately in your bank is much better than potentially £10m+ at some vague point in the future, imo.

[Brentmeister]

Record sale, massive sell-on clause waiting for us, bank balance finally in the black, and our board decided to downgrade us to semi-pro

Belgium, man!

[WhiteCat33]

1 minute ago, Brentmeister said:

Record sale, massive sell-on clause waiting for us, bank balance finally in the black, and our board decided to downgrade us to semi-pro

Belgium, man!

It gets better: forget who it happened to, but their board sold off all their training and youth facilities on them for peanuts.

[Brentmeister]

Just now, WhiteCat33 said:

It gets better: forget who it happened to, but their board sold off all their training and youth facilities on them for peanuts.

[michiganhugefan]

Berwick Rangers Update
So my computer died and I had been slacking in backing up my save files for 2024, so that's dead. But onwards and upwards, time to move forward and all that. Nothing really was speaking to me, so I decided to put what I think are all of the eligible countries not in South America (since I completed there last year) and spin the wheel as it were, and we almost were back in Scotland, but looks like we're going to Romania.

[BustaRaymes]

AC Bra 2026-27

Serie C

We needed a playout this year to survive for another season. The club is declining, most players are getting stale and the finances are starting to be an issue.
I'm thankful that we managed 2 upgrades early on in the save, but next season is going to be trouble.

 

Squad

Tchokokam still manages to not stop easy looking shots, but he's improving. He's miles better than any of his colleagues so as long as he wants to stay, he has a spot.

Club captain Pautassi was our standout defender this season, but the overall quality at the back is going down rapidly.

In midfield, Marchisone is dropping off fast as well, while still being arguably our best attacking player. On the right side, Lucchi managed to win a surprising starting spot.

As Mawete really outdid himself in missing chances, Bonfiglio got more and more playing time. Two hat-tricks in january cemented his starting spot and although he is Unambitious, he's improving nicely.

 

Transfers

 

Youth intake

The only starting spots that are filled by regens are ST and AMR. What do I get? ST and 2 AMRs. And a centre back that is very mediocre.

Bonini is a good players for us. I'm a bit annoyed that he's a playmaker, I might retrain him into that role on the left side.

I can't see how Foti is rated at 2* CA. He lacks so much, is Unambitious and besides that, doesn't fit in my current setup as we push people outside, inviting more crosses.

Iori is kind of interesting as he won't be a goalscoring superstar, but I like that he has decent Pressing Forward attributes.

Constantino is another player I like the look of, purely based on his starting attributes.

Lubrano is not an elite talent but could do a job for us sooner than later.

 

ANYWAY

This is shaping up to be a classic Youth Challenge situation. No development in the squad, not enough youth that can merit a serious squad spot after 3 years, no money. I'm probably going to take the jump and put a few youngsters in teh squad as regulars, overrate their ability, go on a losing streak and get the sack by january.

[The7Striker]

I've been lurking around and I'm tempted to go back 

[Braumiller]

Season 05 - 2028/29

FC Biel-Bienne

I did not deserve that.....

Well that was a beyond frustrating season in the Swiss Super League!  We actually won our home season opener 1-0!  Lost a couple, then draw, win, draw and we were feeling alright about things, hitting 5th.  Lost 3 on the bounce to start a little worry and hit 9th, then we won 3 on the trot!  Up to 4th for a couple of weeks and then 5 straight defeats.....  At this point I was desperate and chopping and changing roles in the tactic and players playing.  Then an improbable 2-2 away draw at runaway leaders Young Boys triggered another violent swing in form!  That draw started a DWWWD sequence and all was right in the world!  12 games left until the league split (top 6 go off to play for European places and bottom six get into a deathmatch for relegation) and we were genuinely having half an eye on maybe sneaking 6th.  And then......  We didn't win a single damn game out of the remaining 12 games before the split.  So many late goals, penalties and other incidents.  Just terrible all around.  So here is where we were at league split.  9th, but only a point off of 11th and a relegation playoff.  An under 12s team would have fancied their chances against us at this point.

 

So, 5 games to save the season against the other 5 worst teams in the league.  We get lucky and 3 of our 5 are at home.  Game 1 at home top Lugano and maybe just maybe karma paid a visit to repay us.  We completely undeserved 1-0 win where we were outplayed and scored with our only attempt on goal....  Game 2 and on a little high we rode our luck again to another 1-0 win, away at Lausanne.  We played better this time and had a better xG than them, but they hit the woodwork as did Lugano in the previous game.  Game 3 at home and normal business is resumed.  A limp display and a 0-2 loss but other games go our way and we are safe!

We then played woeful Winterthur and won 4-0 in our only comfortable game this side of the winter break.  And just so we cannot dream of a corner being turned, in our final game of the season at home to Vaduz we raced into a 3-0 lead only to end up losing 3-6!!!

I genuinely could not have complained if I was pushed into the relegation playoff, we were abysmal in the 2nd half of the year.  Thankfully Winterthur were even worse and we scraped a few points together at critical times.

League Table

Squad Stats

Youth Intake - Actually looks ok.  Truth be told I barely paid attention to it once I saw we did not hit the lottery like odds of getting an instant impact kid.  I will reassess those I signed in the summer, as a whole squad overhaul is needed.

The elite tagged kids

Transfers

 

Next season.....  Well I cannot see anything other than more short term pain to be honest.  With the promotion fight at the end of season 4 and the constant fighting this season there were very few youth opportunities given.  I need to change that and I need to see which of season 4 & 5's intakes will sink or swim.

In theory everyone in the first team should have improved a little over the year with the higher level experience, but whether that is anything more than negligible we will see.

And then possible exits.....

Orlando Kwasie (YP01-Elite) was on the transfer list most of the season.  He has underwhelmed so much, but his transfer value has always stayed good.  I had agreed to sell for any bid at 3m last year and then with his contract getting close to 18 months left I triggered his 1 year extension.  That pissed him off and he demanded talks with me.  So I agree again to sell for the right price, but this time I could only push the value up to 2m - big error on my part.  AC Milan had minor interest all year, and truth be told I would have took their money but they never came knocking.  As the winter transfer window closed he came back again and said he understood I tried to sell him and no-one offered, so he was ok to stay now.

Then, a month to 6 weeks later, back he comes wanted to leave again.....  Another chat, but this time his value had increased even more (I believe i shown 1.8 to 3.5m or close) and in our discussions on what I would sell him for I was able to push him up to 4.3m.....  AC Milan are back interested and I am going to push for a sale.  Might as well cash in and reinvest instead of being disappointed for another 2 years.

Financially we are doing ok.  The extra TV money helps and we basically broke even for the year.  The projections are still horrible and show around 1 millions losses each year (as they did this year), but we did just fine.  A good sale would get us to the point where I can hopefully get another upgrade (and cause more penny pinching further down the line! lol).

Edited November 17, 2023 by Braumiller

[The Chairman Plays]

Alemannia Aachen S1

"Season to remember!"

 

 

"Wow! Season was going really good and board offered new contract which I happily accepted! At the same point we got our 1st coaching badge, National C License"

 

Season Review!

Spoiler

 

"At the end it was really, really good 1st season. We finished 7th and that's only because our bad run at the end of the season. Our problem this season was our managerial support which was on red all the season. Players also was complaining for eeveryting! I mean everything! Also I think my tactic wasn't so good what it looked like at the start!."

"We had lot of players who featured in our team and mainly because of that and the fact that we couldn't sell anybody we made lot of loss in this year. Two players were beyond others, my left wing Cas Peters and my striker Elsamed Ramaj they both got double figures in goals and Ramaj was only to get over 7 avr." 

 

FINANCES

Spoiler

 

 

ELECTION TIME!

Spoiler

 

"We also had election and new chairperson is Carsten WImmer and he told us that nothing will change so no plans for future investments! Damn!"

 

TRANSFERS

Spoiler

"Of course no tranfers in...only one loan out!"

 

Miscellaneous

Spoiler

 

"Of course board and supportes were happy that we stayed in 3.liga. why wouldn't they!? And of course at the end of season our facilities were downgrated due technological advances. We asked to upgrade, board refused! Also we had decent budgets for upcoming season. Now we can offer new contracts to couple of key players!"

 

YOUTH INTAKE PREVIEW AND REVIEW!

Spoiler

 

"I didn't know what to expect when I saw our intake preview. Aaand! well it could've been worse than what it was. Couple of players stood out for this years intake"

 

Christian Saurer

Spoiler

 

Ernesto Alba

Spoiler

 

Marcel Oppermann

Spoiler

 

Matthis von Aschwege

Spoiler

 

Sebastian Böttcher

Spoiler

 

Thomas Bacher

Spoiler

 

[Brentmeister]

28 minutes ago, The7Striker said:

I've been lurking around and I'm tempted to go back 

[libbyshuss]

Japan - Honda FC/Haneda

J1 - 2034 (season 11)

Objective: Get back into the Champions League and challenge for the title!

Season Summary

First two games of the season were our first knockout round in the Champions League against Suwon Bluewings of South Korea. They'd beaten us twice in the group stage so revenge was on the cards. First leg was away, and we were brilliant, winning 3-2. The home leg though.....

That home defeat really knocked us and had a huge effect on our league campaign.

Only one win in the first 8! but we recovered to win the next 5 and by the time we headed into the mid-season 6 week break (for the world cup!) we were sitting 5th, in form and with cracking morale.

So what happened? Our best three players all had their minimum release fee clause activated! I couldn't believe it!

So that was our title challenge over! question was how would the youth players I was forced to promote early cope. And to be fair, they did pretty well. But in the end we had to settle for 6th.

Since winning the league two seasons ago we've lost 5 of that team!

 

Youth

A really nice preview and intake! 

and our first foreign youth player!

 

Career

so we rebuild again! It's proving harder than any other country I've played in to keep hold of your players, but on the other hand the intakes are proving really, really good. So rebuilding shouldn't be too tricky. We'll see!

[aldojags]

Oh dear the wheels are coming off....

 

I was 11 points clear 10 games ago

 

[aldojags]

lads I'm devastated 

 

 

Can you explain how I have a first half of the season that looks like this

Spoiler

 

and then a second half the season that looks like this

 

 

Spoiler

 

That goes from 11 pts clear, to 4 points adrift

 

Devastated!

Edited November 17, 2023 by aldojags

[WhiteCat33]

FM23 Barbados YAC: Road View FC

2053 Season 31 – 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 | Season 30 |

Statistics Posts:

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

 

League Performance:

 

Cup Performance:

Slightly embarrassing it took ET to take down Empire Club who are actually in the division below us this year, but we got the job done eventually. 

North American Champions League:

Caribbean Zone:

We dominated our group, so happy to see we are now clearly the best team in the Carribbean.

Caribbean Playoff:

 The team that actually gives us the most trouble is surprisingly Cibao in the Dominican Republic. We made it through 2-1, but they and Harbor View in Jamaica are the only teams to regularly challenge us.

NACL 2nd Round

 We drew Chivas, who are the Mexican Only team. How did we do!?

Spoiler

We survive Mexico! We were the dominant side early and we got the early goal. They didn’t really threaten us the entire first half, but man did they come out a changed team in the second half. We were constantly under pressure in the second half and the fact we only let in 1 was fantastic defense. This sets us up perfectly for the home second leg.

2^nd Leg again we cut through them with Nurse finding an early goal to give us the lead! Can we hold it?!? 54’ we are ****ing around with the ball in the middle and they tackle and boot it to an unmarked striker who has an easy finish to tie it up. They went very high press after that and we had to drop back and play more disciplined as it would just take one mistake for them to counter us again and win. We hold out and it goes to the dreaded penalties. It took 8 takers, but finally my GK made a stop and then my anchor CD Applewhite steps up and scores to send us on!

NACL Quarter Final

 If we survived Guadalajara we would be matched up with CD Cruz Azul. How did it go?

Spoiler

We do great in the first half until stoppage time where we mismark on a short corner and they blast one in from inside the box where the GK had no chance. After half-time isn’t much better with an own goal in the 51’. Then to make matters worse our striker Nurse gets an innocuous injury and has to come off. How bad is it? Thankfully just a minor injury, he’ll be fine.

Return Fixture, after the disaster that my younger strikers were I went with the classic pairing of old man Carrillo and Nurse. In 2 minutes Carrillo created a goal for the AP-A Grant to get the easy tap in. Lets GO!!! The positive momentum is immediately crushed when not even a minute later my WB-L injures himself and needs to be subbed. Big tactical decision now of which alternate I bring on: more defensive Croney who is a converted DM or the lightning fast attacker Stoute. Even though we are a goal down, I think we need the defensive abilities.

It works okay, but of course we make 1 error in build up and they light us up and score with their only shot on target and only meaningful xG of the first half. With away goals we now must score 3 in the 2^nd half to win, which is essentially impossible. We got so close in the 49’ when Nurse got a breakaway, but unlike their strikers who convert he is blocked.

They are crunching my players hard and they injure Carrillo who has played well, but can’t continue. Also, they have a fantastic offside trap that is constantly catching my attackers in offside positions. 89’ they finish us off with a scored direct free kick. Their set-piece ability has been lethal against us.

Only reason we were even in the game was some fantastic work by my GK who got 7.2 and 7.4 ratings even letting in 2 goals in each games.

NACL Semi-Final

 

Spoiler

 

NACL Final

 

Spoiler

 

NACL Tournament Tree:

 

Spoiler

Yes, two years running now we have been knocked out early in the tournament by the eventual champions. Also look how much harder our half of the bracket was with all the Mexico sides except Santos Laguna. All this time in the NACL and we have yet to play a non-Mexican side in the knockout stages. 

NACL Awards:

Spoiler

He is also the top scorer, and in the best XI. Great performance by our new first choice #9.

Reserve & U18s:

 We got invited back to Italy again for the Tourney, but didn't escape the group stage this year. We also get notifications for the U20 Copa Libertador's, but never get added into the group stages. 

Spoiler

Squad:

Overview

Spoiler

Graphs:

I didn't make the changes I mentioned last season, but did remember to include the full team CA Range stacked Bar graph. The big drops in total players are when I forget to include the Reserve & U18 players in my exports.

Spoiler

Star Player Highlights

As it's been a minute, I figured it's worth screenshotting the key players in the squad. You'll notice 4 are strikers, then there is our GK, DM and WB-R/CM. 

Spoiler

New Formation:

With the decline of Carrillo we are now to the point where he's the 4th best striker to choose. Unfortunately, his replacements really are better as wide strikers than central strikers due to their speed and lack of finishing. Thus, after our NACL departure I started playing a 3-4-3 Wide to utilize them better. I'll keep our classic 3-5-2 1DM 2CM for when I want to focus play down the center, but might consider changing our 3-5-2 3CM formation into a 3-4-3 3STC formation as our "attack" strategy.

Spoiler

New:

Old:

Transfers:

 Trying to utilize loans to develop players, but it's honestly hit or miss especially domestic ones due to how much better our training facilities are than everyone else in Barbados (and most in the Caribbean). We seriously need an American affiliate to loan-farm development.

Spoiler

Nurse Contract Renewal:

The huge news this year was after compulsively checking him every week Nurse finally agreed to negotiate a new contract with the club! He has been unwilling to for atleast 3 years now, and his contract was up in 18 months, so we were almost out of time. I promised him the world and set a new record wage at 7.25k p/w,  but the NACL Golden Boot winner is worth it. As a 2+3 deal this will keep him at the club till 32, which is perfect. Downside is the 1.1M release clause, but it was 825k and we survived that so maybe I'll keep him the whole time. 

Spoiler

Best XI:

FM Screenshots: 

Spoiler

Excel Tables:

I keep doing these after the tick-over for the NACL (as I export on intake day) so the season stats are low again, but they do have all league and cup games.

Spoiler

Head Coach:

 Nothing new, still have a few years till we hit the glorious 1000 competitive games.

Club Improvements:

 Nice quick little stadium expansion that we did during preseason. We did our first expensive Training Facility Upgrade bringing them up to "Superb" by the spring. Unfortunately, there is still no Youth Facility option and we have yet to have a board takeover succeed. Playing the waiting game now.

Spoiler

Facilities:

Spoiler

Youth Academy:

HOYD:

Gave my HOYD another coaching badge, it didn't change his abilities.

Spoiler

Youth Intake Preview: Oh boy was I excited. I can't remember the last time we had an A rated prospect

Youth Intake:  YESS!! Not sure how a French Algerian got lost in Barbados, but that's fun.

Top 3 Players:

Arantes Lloyd: Like my GK recently this WB has me speechless. I used the large screenshot to show, not only does he have great attributes, but he is also Highly Consistent and Resolute. If I was forced to say something negative he's short and not quick, but his ability and potential will easily overcome that (and hopefully gain some speed as he develops). For once the game gave me a true A rated player when it promised one.

After him it's a large drop off. I like Renaldo Holder even with Fickle, as we are in desperate need of WB-R. 

And then Shane Grant has the basics to join the Perfectionst Striker mentor group and maybe bump up that potential.

Excel Tables:

Intake is all around awesome (for a minor nation) and a true Golden Generation producing our 2nd best player of all time in A Lloyd with 3 more players who are good enough to work their way into our rotations and phase out older players.

Let's see if the improvement can be the start of a trend especially in the player mentality department.

 

Barbados National Team:

English Players:

We have a new English generated Barbadian in the squad with Sheran Forte who is on loan in Iceland from Tottenham. The only English-generated player in the squad is the AML, so if he actually declares Barbados [could happen if he plays all the WCQ matches] then both wide attackers will be playing in Europe!

Spoiler

For the Belize game he is joined by a new Brentford Player who has formally declared for Barbados at only 23! That gives us two "Brentford Bros" in the wide AM positions. Here are all the players on the squad from outside of Barbados. Rashard Harte, Terence Soares and Shane Brathwaite are all from our academy.

Spoiler

Performance:

 

Road View Internationals:

Barbados Main:

Spoiler

Barbados Youth:

Spoiler

Summary:

Well again I can't be too upset of how we bowed out of the NACL. We are losing to literally the best team of the year in North America and we are soundly not as good as those team. The positive is we are becoming the clear best team in the Caribbean and are slowly showing we can hold our own against the 2nd rung of Mexican sides.

Hopefully we have the start of a Golden Generation that will deliver some more star talents like our LB and GK recently. If one could finally be a CD that would be amazing. All of ours are barely good enough (like 11-12 abilities), and we could use a star to anchor that back line. 

Edited November 17, 2023 by WhiteCat33

[Padders]

38 minutes ago, aldojags said:

lads I'm devastated 

 

 

Can you explain how I have a first half of the season that looks like this

  Hide contents

 

and then a second half the season that looks like this

 

 

  Hide contents

 

That goes from 11 pts clear, to 4 points adrift

 

Devastated!

Happens to me most seasons

See if I can find you a screenshot

[Padders]

1 minute ago, Padders said:

Happens to me most seasons

See if I can find you a screenshot

 

[michiganhugefan]

Romania

So I picked this club Şoimii Lipova, because it looks like Romania is the France type where you can't actually play in the lowest division in the game (correct me if I'm wrong, but it was greyed out). So I've picked a team that was promoted into the Liga II in Romania from the Liga III after this past season, which I believe is SOP in these situations.

New Manager Profile

Some other general Info about the club

And it looks like there was a Year 0 intake I'll be looking at and tagging some of, probably not all of them, but we'll see.

Excited to get started.

[aldojags]

@Paddersthat's a sore one man, it's so frustrating, taking me all the willpower I have not to bin the save!! 

[Brentmeister]

After several false starts and early sackings, I decided to go back to my Belgium save to finish the season and pray for some luck to beat the financial situation.

 

Season 2 Summary

With starting odds of 250-1 and a media prediction of last place, we defied all expectations to mount an unlikely promotion push, eventually finishing 3rd and losing in the play-offs.

We failed to match last season's cup heroics and went out in round 6 (32)

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Youth Intake

The intake preview, as usual, was giving mixed signals. A Golden generation was promised but with only 1 A-rated player.

No doubt the actual intake would be completely different.

....and so it was

5 elite talents, a model citizen, and a guy named Bigger!

 

Young Vietnamese/Belgian Nguyen Xuan Vinh was named best in class. With his blistering pace, decent finishing, and high determination, I'm expecting big things.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

Other stuff

This is where the save turned a bit mental.

I needed a miracle to get me through the various bugs in Belgium and my 17-year-old model citizen proved to be it.

After a season of steady development, Europe's elite came calling. A bidding war ensued and Juventus finally won with a £7m + 40% offer.

 

This cleared all our debts and then some. We got a training ground upgrade, 2 junior coaching upgrades, and a youth recruitment upgrade. I even went on a coaching course, Hello National C!

We also got a couple of senior affiliates for some money-spinning friendlies and small fees. Every little helps.

 

Then the board demoted us to semi-pro, I immediately contested the decision and they agreed to reverse it next season. What was the bloody point in that?

Oh yeah, we also got a takeover! It wasn't the good kind unfortunately and they're not investing any money as of yet.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

Transfers

Lecocq's transfer was completed just after this screenshot and will show on next season's update

....and breathe

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

[The7Striker]

 

 

Oh boy, here we go for madness 

BFC Dynamo got his original logo back and is sick 

[Brentmeister]

@WhiteCat33 Lloyd looks like a fantastic prospect. It's amazing Barbados can produce a 15 year old like that

[WhiteCat33]

10 minutes ago, Brentmeister said:

@WhiteCat33 Lloyd looks like a fantastic prospect. It's amazing Barbados can produce a 15 year old like that

He's something special for sure! I was shocked when I was able to set up his initial contract as a 3+3 w/o a release clause. Pretty quickly he switched his primary over to England, so here's to hoping I'll get the absurd feat of an English International in Barbados  

His Debut in the NACL against a relatively weak Martinique side sees him get a Goal an Assist and Man of the Match. Off to a roaring start!

 

Edited November 17, 2023 by WhiteCat33

[SuperRedditch]

 

Leça FC
Season Six - 2029/30
Liga 3 North First Stage - 1st
Promotion Stage - 1ST! *CHAMPIONS*


 

 

 

Five seasons in this division and we're out (for now). We fought hard. A lot of those victories were close, and were build on mean defence - conceding just 23 goals in 32 games. The flipside of that is that we just couldn't score - at least our strikers couldn't. Main man Lucas Gomes only managed to hit 8, going on two goal droughts, and the top scorer actually ended up being my DM Ibrahim Muhammad who also scored 8 (from corners). How do I solve that? Dunno, that's a problem for future me - for now we celebrate. The younger lads are developing nicely - led by the Perfectionist GK Danildo Évora 28b who is now firmly my number 1.

In other mental news:

 

 

LMAOOO. WHYYYY!? We HAD a 12k stadium. We're now nearly £6m in debt. I'm begging there to be more money in the next division up. Please. Even just enough to break even every month. I see now how so many Portuguese clubs have been relegated due to financial difficulties in recent times...

 

The Intake

 

 

 

The striker actually isn't too bad - especially given our struggles in that position this season. He's a long, long way off though.

 

Next Season

Stay in the second tier, hope for money. If we can't break even and save up for some upgrades this challenge will get very difficult very quickly.

Maybe I might even be allowed to get my first coaching badge.

[WhiteCat33]

He's still 15: we are only in September after he generated in July. I figured with the switch England would show interest in him, but already a U20 call up. Could he be our first Wonderkid?!?

Unfortunately for us had Barbados intake been in the Winter he could have joined the English U20s on their run to the U20 World Cup Final!

[SuperRedditch]

 

 

Yes yes yes YES YES.

[karax268]

 

Hey Board, They are second in the table, we are last.

We lost 2-3 because of a 25 yard screamer in the 94th minute.

What exactly were you expecting from this particular match??

 

 

[The Chairman Plays]

8 hours ago, SuperRedditch said:

 

 

LMAOOO. WHYYYY!? We HAD a 12k stadium. We're now nearly £6m in debt. I'm begging there to be more money in the next division up. Please. Even just enough to break even every month. I see now how so many Portuguese clubs have been relegated due to financial difficulties in recent times...

 

 

Could there be regulations that in 2nd tier you should have at least 14k stadium?  Don't know why else they would do that, that mental 

[abirdc]

 

Well I am late to the party but now I feel like I am ready for the Youth Academy Challenge. I am choosing Hong Kong for this and I chose a very special team for this challenge. 

Club Introduction

South China AA

 

Why special you ask? Well, look at their trophy counts below.

 

By far historically the best team in Hong Kong, they are facing some hard times in recent years as they decided to voluntarily self relegate themselves in 2017. Finally, in game they have been promoted to the top division and it is my duty to bring them back the glory days. 

Forget it, I am blabbering too much honestly, look at the season preview. I will be lucky if I can last even 1 season. Even a team like Hong Kong Under 23, an impossible save told by many has way better odds than us. The club has decent facilities though, with a 40,000 seater stadium. 

Manager Profile

First up, just secure survival in the first season. 

Oh I should add, season update date for Hong Kong is on 31 August. Save on around 15 May to get new teams. 

Edited November 18, 2023 by abirdc
Addition

[Brentmeister]

1 hour ago, abirdc said:

 

Well I am late to the party but now I feel like I am ready for the Youth Academy Challenge. I am choosing Hong Kong for this and I chose a very special team for this challenge. 

Club Introduction

South China AA

 

Why special you ask? Well, look at their trophy counts below.

 

By far historically the best team in Hong Kong, they are facing some hard times in recent years as they decided to voluntarily self relegate themselves in 2017. Finally, in game they have been promoted to the top division and it is my duty to bring them back the glory days. 

Forget it, I am blabbering too much honestly, look at the season preview. I will be lucky if I can last even 1 season. Even a team like Hong Kong Under 23, an impossible save told by many has way better odds than us. The club has decent facilities though, with a 40,000 seater stadium. 

Manager Profile

First up, just secure survival in the first season. 

Oh I should add, season update date for Hong Kong is on 31 August. Save on around 15 May to get new teams. 

Hey man, I don't want to be the bearer of bad news but I'm not sure 1 league countries are allowed?

I don't want you to get too far along with the save if that's the case. Hopefully someone more experienced can confirm @XaW @darren1983

[DazRTaylor]

An attempt in Wales.

Club Introduction

Penrhyncoch

 

The Manager

This is me.

Personal Contract

Season     Contract Start Date     Contract Expiry Date     Pre Tax Wage     Post Tax Wage
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
At start          24 June 2024             30 June 2024         £750 p/w          £575 p/w

Personal Coaching Data

Season     Reputation            Qualifications     Att  Def  Fit  GkD  GkH  GkS  Tac  Tec  Men  SeP  WWY  Ada  Det  PlK  YoK  LoD  PeM  Mot
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
At start   Minimal   (0.50*)     None                 1    1    1    1    1    1    1    3    1    1    3    1    1    1    2    2    2    2

Club Facilities

Season     Training Facilities  Youth Facilities  Corporate Facilities  Junior Coaching  Youth Recruitment  Club Reputation
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
At Start   Basic                Basic             Basic                 Fairly Basic     Basic              Regional   (0.50*)

Season Record

Season     Played     Won     Drawn     Lost     Goals For     Goals Against     Goal Difference     Win Percentage
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Overall Career Record

After Season   Played     Won     Drawn     Lost     Goals For     Goals Against     Goal Difference     Win Percentage     Time At Club
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Transfer Sale Record

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

Trophy Haul

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

Trophy Cabinet

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

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

Career Overview

Season     Champions League    Europa League    Europa Conference League             League                 Position     JD Welsh Cup          Nathaniel MG Cup          Achievements
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Record Number of Appearances (Players From The Academy Only)

Season     Player                    Cumulative Number of Appearances
---------------------------------------------------------------------

Record Goal Scorer (Players From The Academy Only)

Season     Player                    Cumulative Number of Goals
---------------------------------------------------------------

Record Number of Assists (Players From The Academy Only)

Season     Player                    Cumulative Number of Assists
-----------------------------------------------------------------

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

Season     Player                    Cumulative Number of Clean Sheets
----------------------------------------------------------------------

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited November 21, 2023 by DazRTaylor

[JLAB]

Real Jaén - Season 3 - Injuries Have Hit Us Hard

When I thought things were going well, we started to struggle again. Taking six points in seven matches into the winter break is not ideal, but at least we picked up some points.

Despite our stumbles in the past two months, we're still near the playoffs, even if we've dropped to 9th place. From here, the board's goal of a top-half finish still looks realistic.

Unfortunately, the youth intake preview doesn't look impressive, and I fear we will not get the reinforcements I desire until perhaps next season.

What I didn't see coming was an interview offer from 2nd-tier side Lugo. Despite everything, other teams in Spain have recognised my work.

Watch the video below if you wish to see the goals in all their glory.

YAC - Real Jaén - Part 12

Edited November 18, 2023 by JLAB

[SuperRedditch]

3 hours ago, The Chairman Plays said:

 

Could there be regulations that in 2nd tier you should have at least 14k stadium?  Don't know why else they would do that, that mental 

No, we started with a 12k stadium.

The board then sold it to build a 2.5k stadium for £2.3m.

Which they are then expanding to a total of 4.9k for another £2.9m. It's madness.

[darren1983]

2 hours ago, Brentmeister said:

Hey man, I don't want to be the bearer of bad news but I'm not sure 1 league countries are allowed?

I don't want you to get too far along with the save if that's the case. Hopefully someone more experienced can confirm @XaW @darren1983

You are correct. 1 league countries are not eligible for this challenge. 

[The7Striker]

14 minutos atrás, SuperRedditch disse:

No, we started with a 12k stadium.

The board then sold it to build a 2.5k stadium for £2.3m.

Which they are then expanding to a total of 4.9k for another £2.9m. It's madness.

And lets be fair, there is no real reason. Even if ground costs were high, building a new one just adds more debit into the club.

 

[Ron_Swanson]

[FM23] Reymersholms IK - season 7 - 2029

I want more intakes like this one. 4 or maybe 5 of them going straight into first team rotation, two solid defenders good enough to be starters

Went better than expected. First half of the season gave us a safe distance from relegation and even a horrible second half didn't get us down. Finally I see some improvements in attributes for the youngsters who play regularly. Finances don't look great so I'm keeping wages very low, we spend 80k for youth setup but it's necessary, our main source of income is fund raising (about half of total income).

[Diego D10S]

                                                                             

                                        

 

Changed my mind.

Going for Matera Calcio from a hillside village in Italy.

 

GL ALL !!!  

 

[Braumiller]

With how this is worded "Should be focusing on becoming a more consistent performer at this stage of his development" is there anything I can be doing to help him with that or is it purely on him?

Would love to hear if there are anyways that I have missed where I could have even a small chance of helping improve consistency.