The FM24 Youth Academy Challenge

[WhiteCat33]

4 hours ago, Shankly84 said:

Where is everyone getting their database add-ons from when using leagues outside of the original game? I'm tempted by Luxembourg or maybe somewhere like Kazakhstan. I just don't want to get into a save and then discover the format is incorrect or there are bugs. Cheers,

There's a great editor part on these forums and that's where I tend to get my databases like Carribbean and Luxembourg.

https://community.sigames.com/forums/forum/860-editors-hideaway-download-forum-fm23/

 

[Potat]

1 hour ago, WhiteCat33 said:

Bummer to lose him, that's the rub playing in the Caribbean in these early years. Are either of the other dominant clubs professional? I don't remember if they start professional.

If he gets transfered outside of Barmuda you will get a small percentage of the transfer as the development club,  like 2-5%. A pittance I know, especially with how valuable each dollar is in the Caribbean. 

Everyone is Semi-Pro with terrible facilities so players don't really develop, but I'll happily take 2-5% if it helps keep some of the best players in the future.

[Ron_Swanson]

[FM23] Reymersholms IK - season 9 - 2031

This time no one ready for a bigger role, best player is left winger but I already have that position covered so they will stay at u19 team

Good season, safe place, youngsters are providing nice effort. My best player was last years intake Eddie Nelen with 17 goals. We need better income sources as we're losing money and the board won't accept any upgrades due to financial situation and I could really use some better training facilities

Edited November 25, 2023 by Ron_Swanson
wrong season/year in title

[Plasda]

Hi Folks, 

I am doing a save with Dulwich Hamlet but my youth team isn't playing any competitive games, and haven't since 2028 when they won the national U18 South east league. 

I think I might have refused the invitation to join the league in the following season, but I haven't had an invitation to do this any year since, and I'm now in 2033. Any ideas? Don't know if I am just being stupid. 

[XaW]

16 minutes ago, Plasda said:

Hi Folks, 

I am doing a save with Dulwich Hamlet but my youth team isn't playing any competitive games, and haven't since 2028 when they won the national U18 South east league. 

I think I might have refused the invitation to join the league in the following season, but I haven't had an invitation to do this any year since, and I'm now in 2033. Any ideas? Don't know if I am just being stupid. 

You need to increase your youth level. In England the youth level of your team decides what youth competition your youth team enters.

[Perre8]

FC Wacker Innsbruck

 

Season 5

2029-2030

 

We got an upgrade in our youth facilities to start with

 

Because of our qualification for the league phase of the Europa League we had some money coming in for this upgrade

Our fixtures in that league phase were pretty difficult, but hey we qualified, grabbed that money and everything else would be a bonus!

After 7 games we were dangling at the bottom of the playoff qualification, with a home game against Fiorentina still to come 

Wich we won!! With 10 men for more than 70 minutes! We fought for our lives there

We managed to qualify for the next playoff round, were we took on Paok, we beat them and advanced to play Man Utd. They showed us that this was the end of the line this year.

A pretty decent youth intake preview

These were the three best scholars! Nothing really special but an overal good quality intake to raise the level.

In the Bundesliga we managed to qualify for the champions group

In the mean time our fixtures were congested because we managed to progress far in the cup, we even made it to the final, unexpected to win my first prize so early in the save! This gives us qualification to the Europa League Playoff!

In the champions group nothing spectacular happend, we managed to secure 4th place

 

[Makoto Nakamura]

2028 Youth Candidates

Lots of potential but right now it doesn't look the best. 

Edited November 22, 2023 by Makoto Nakamura

[andershs]

Macclesfield FC (England)
Season 7 - 2030/31 - VNL

 

This season, it clicked. I don't know if it was the better players being a year older or the professional status kicking in. But we had a fine season and managed to keep hold of the players and extend important contracts. We finished the season with the highest point tally for a season yet.
Unfortunately, during the second half of the season, we were hit by a very large amount of injuries. Maybe due to the lack of squad depth. But we found it harder to keep up the impressive performances. 

League (Results 1, Results 2, Cups, League Chart) - We were excellent. And at a point in second place only one point from first place. Then injuries took its toll, and the poor end to the season reflects, that my only good goalkeeper Astley Rawson - 28C got injured.
He was gone from the 13th of april, and I had to start my 17-year old, talented keeper Kemoy Mason - 30B. He made absolutely no saves, and exhibited questionable positioning throughout. Without that goalkeeper injury, we could have secured a better position for the play-offs, and who know what might have
happened. But that is part of the game, and in particular this challenge. And it is unfair to expect a newly graduated 17-year old to perform miracles. And all in all an excellent season.
In the FA Cup, we again reached the first round getting knocked out by reputable Sheffield Wednesday currently from League One. 

Team (Details) - As I said, I think we had a very high number of injuries to our key players. That may be down to their youth, and that they play more games, than is normally expected by young players. But I try to rotate often. We are also lacking in squad depth. Remember Exaucé Binguila - 26B? His contract was up, but I did not
release him. After the transfer window closed, and no clubs were interested, he suddenly wanted to stay, and we signed a new long term contract. Excellent. He is now though clearly the highest paid player. So I might have to let him go at some point and bet on some of my younger, cheaper talents. He has a minimum fee release clause, but at least, I will get paid if he leaves.
Otherwise, Luke Kyle - 28F was impressive at right back. What a player. He was also the reason why I chose to sell Alan Corcoran - 25B to Peterborough United in the summer. Charlie Roddan - 28B, Charlie Hopley - 28A, Connor Muir - 26C are the spine of the team. They are very good. Talking of spine, Anthony Coyne - 28F made a fine start the the season at AML, until he damaged his spine and was out for 6-7 months.
Striker Gavin Kershaw - 28E is my overshadowing star. He is simply fantastic. He scores so many goals. At the striker position, I have a lot of quality in Steve Loveland - 27B, David Baker - 29A, Antoni Petrie - 30A and now Brayden Wolland - 31A. I cannot drop Gavin Kershaw, so unless a club comes in
with stupid money, I might sell one or two from the back up group and hope for the jackpot with sell-on clauses. I do however know, that it is always handy to have one or even two players in backup for this challenge. You newer know what might happen. Lewis Fensome is still around, but he will leave next summer when his
contract is up.
A couple of you players to watch: Andy Smith - 29C on right back is next in line if Luke Kyle - 28F is sold. Andrzej Gawlik from last years intake has developed rapidly, and looks like a proper centre back. Lewis Douglas - 28D has been on loan at Southport, and will
strengthen the midfield next season, where we are particularly light in DM.

Facilities - No changes here.

Finances - After going professional we are for the first time losing money. It is not alarming though, and with this rate, we can keep the club running and sign players on contracts for the next years without problems.
As mentioned, we sold Alan Corcoran - 25B to Peterborough. Reece Ord - 26A is still at 21 lingering in Bristol City U21s. None of them looks likely to earn a big amount on the next sale.

Youth Intake (Dev. Centre, Preview) - Not the best intake. And yet another striker in Brayden Wolland - 31A. Also Joe Duggan - 31B is another promising goalkeeper. That we can use. Paul Keane - 31C and Charlie Kiely - 31D in defense and midfield are positions we need some cover for. We could use some power in midfield and another goalkeeper, as the end to this season has shown us.
So I wouldn't mind of next years standout players had one of those positions. Our very good Head of Youth Development Ben Bailey left for Chesterfield in the summer before the season. Instead we hired Paul Ashworth. I hope he can keep up the good intakes.

No Transfers in. 

Goal for next season: A top-half finish. I would like another shot at the play-offs, if possible. The current group of players are good enough. We might lack the squad depth, though.

 

Edited November 23, 2023 by andershs

[Scraborn]

Season 3 done - We are still Macclesfield from VNN

We managed to improve the recuiting, junior coaching even further - The owner doesnt want ti improve youth or training facilities because of our financial status... we only got 1.4M in the bank...

The media still doesnt like our project and told everyone we gonna drop out of VNN... I dont wanna do the Donald Trump but thats totaly fakenews TBH

We had a rocky start into the season and after we changes our 4-4-2 wingplay system to a 4-3-3 wingplay one we managed to stabilize our performances and getting up in the ranks. In the final part of the season our form went south drasticly. So wegt just two points out of the last 7 matches wich was a pain to watch. But in my opinion the problem was the realy bad defence. We ended like in season 1 as 6th but this time we lost the first playoff match in a disastrous 0-1. The goals were comming right, mid and center. And we conceded way to many penalies. When we dropp out of the FA Trophy we had four! penaties against us. Our GK saved two but it wasn't enough. Atleast some former youthplayers had a big impact. Overall I'm a bit disapointed but we will have another try to get promoted. I need to rebalance my tactic. Shoutout to Merthyr Town to get a back to back promotion.

Now some former academy prospects.

  First up we have Pawel. He made a big step forward and delivered as a Inside Forward on the left. He had 18 goals and 15 assists to his name. He was the best player in my first intake and now he was the best player in the whole team.

 

A prospect of our second intake is Matt. He came into the first team due to a injury crisis and he had a big part in our goalscorring. With a bit more development he can do even more. But it was a nice season for the aussie.

Next up we have some jewels of our third intake

Andrew is the best in his class. I hope to use him straight away in our next campaign. Maybe in a partnership with Matt or they do some jobsharing.

Sunday might become my next goalkeeper right now i see him third with my first team goalkeeper. Our current Number 1 is 32 right now and if we he leave both will have a fair chance to become the new first choice. I see him as a supportive sweeper keeper.

Kevin needs some more work but I dont have a second leftback so I hope for a quick devellopment to get him firstteam ready rather sooner than later.

After three years we accumulated some talented guys for our future

I hope for a more consistant season to get us promoted to the VNL. See you in a year

 

 

 

Edited November 22, 2023 by Scraborn

[Colossus]

Sociedad Deportiva Leioa

2030/2031

 

Season Review

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

Pretty safe season, all things considered. And we go again next year

 

Team Stats

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

Team Stats

Standout Performers:

1 - Ignacio Villanueva

Starting to run out of superlatives for Ignacio. 20 assists and getting the top assister in the league is fantastic!

2 - Aritz Melendez

Our rock at the back. Tall, aggressive, can head the ball and a real asset on corners

3 - Gorka Alberdi

He was supposed to become a bench player this year, but a crazy good start meant that he kept starting, getting 20 goals in the season

 

Youth Intake

 

Asier Marco looks insane and a day 1 starter. We also get our first non Basque coming through the ranks!

Rest of the players:

RB / CB - Carlos Alberdi

LB - Asier Urruta

RB / RWB - Julen Olaizola

RWB / RB - Aitor Martin

CB / CDM - Eneko Casado

LM - Santi Garcia

RM / RW - Inigo Diez

RW / RM / CM - Xabier Agirrezabala

CM / CAM - Andoni Saenz

LW - Javier Larrinaga

ST / CAM / RW - Javier Palacios

ST - Joseba Martin

 

Other Stuff

Yearly Progression

 

Manager Attribute Progression

 

Youth Player Stats

 

Gora Leioa!

[Makoto Nakamura]

2028 End of Season Review

We bottle the last two games but Fortaleza bottled it as well so we take the very last promotion spot and we'll be playing Serie A football next year! One thing I have only just noticed is that for some reason we weren't entered into the Copa do Brasil this season? I hope this doesn't become a recurring theme.

Overall Best XI

2028 Best XI

Ronaldo (ResD)

Procópio (YP1f) - Bruno Leonardo - Fabricio Baldo (YP2j)

Cláudio Henrique (YP3e) - Denis - Adriano (YP1e) - Elizeu (YP2g)

 

 

Alan (YP0g) - Denir (YP1n) - Chrigor

[Virtual Male]

Who needs all that Hollywood money anyway?

[Potat]

St Davids Warriors - Bermuda

Season 10 - 3032/33

League

You have to be borderline perfect in these short leagues in order to win it, and an 8-2 loss to Dandy Town didn't help that.

Domestic Cup

We finally got an easy draw and we made the most of it, easy group stage and for the first time in 5 years, we avoided the good teams on our way to finally winning it.

Caribbean Cup
Group Stages

Spoiler

The first group was much easier than last time, 10-3 and 7-0 wins meant we qualified comfortably. The second group not as comfortable but still never looked at much risk after a 9-0 win against Harlem

Caribbean Zone
 

Spoiler

So close yet so far, we played conservatively against Harbour View (reigning champions) in the opening game and it cost us, going very attacking the other games saw us win all of them but wasn't enough to reach the final

Finals

The finals were a Bermuda vs Jamaica doubleheader, us vs Arnett Gardens, and Dandy Town vs Harbour View

Spoiler

Finance and Facilities

No changes on the facility front as we can't afford training/youth facilities and I'm happy with the coaching/recruitment. However, on the money side, we are £250k in the red, and I've discovered that after winning the league our youth setup cost more than doubles, from £96k last year to £230k this season. This means the prize money from the League/Cups makes no difference as the youth setup takes more than we win. Almost more beneficial to not win the league until we are ready to dominate.

Youth Intake

Top Prospect?

Player Stats

Overview

 

 

Edited November 22, 2023 by Potat

[Winski]

FK Fotbal Třinec
Season 1 | 2024/2025
Tier 2 | FORTUNA:NÁRODNÍ LIGA
 Finances|  Transfers| Club Overview  | Squad overview |Tactic|  Facilities|  Manager Profile  

Disclaimer: I played with two different skins: Rensie Skin, and Tato24. So that's why some screenshots look different.
What a fantastic season!! We won the league on the final day, so we are promoted to the highest division in Czech Republic. 
I really have a great time managing in this country. This season was exciting until the final day. Look at the league table: we’ve got 58 points, Teplice 57 points and Prostějov 56 points. It was really that close, the whole season long. Fantastic! I really enjoyed this season.
In the MOL Cup we reached the Third Round, where we lost against first tier club FK Mladá Boleslav.

Best players this season were midfielders Lukáš Kania and Ondřej Machuča, and forwards Vanja Vučićević, Osah Bernardinho and Timofej Barkov. Also a big shoutout to two youth players from the 'holiday season intake': Jaroslav Kučera 24d and Tomáš Polák 24c. Both played a lot of matches already this season.

 

Youth preview & intake

A very good first preview and intake! Our HoYD Martin Kopřiva gave us a hopeful first intake preview. The intake itself was a good one. We got two Elite Talents, and a lot of Top Talents. Some of them look really talented.

Spoiler

U19’s
Didn't play any competition matches.

Facility Upgrades

Unfortunately our Training Facilities were downgraded after our promotion. I'm not able to upgrade, as we don't have enough money at the moment.
Also our stadium is too small next season, so we rent Městský Stadion the home of MFK Karviná. Hopefully we can move back to our own stadium, or a new stadium, in the future.
We were able to upgrade our Junior Coaching and Youth Recruitment once, so that's a good thing.

Spoiler

 

Commercial Summery

Spoiler

Trophy Cabinet

2024-2025: FORTUNA:NÁRODNÍ LIGA

 

Supporters Profile

Progress

[OlivierL]

FC Luxembourg City - Youth Intake - Season 1 - Class 2025

Youth Intake Preview

A decent first intake with a 3.5* player in the intake.

Spoiler

  
Leal 25H has the ability to enter the senior squad next year, Andrade 25J is already our second best option as a fullback and Theis 25A had the highest potential.

 

[Plasda]

4 hours ago, XaW said:

You need to increase your youth level. In England the youth level of your team decides what youth competition your youth team enters.

This isn't it unfortunately, lots of teams in my league have the same youth level as me with no issues. 

[glennuk]

4 hours ago, Colossus said:

 

 

OH MY!!!!!!! Asier Marco could be tremendous, especially with that starting personality!!!! 

[michiganhugefan]

Undy Athletic

Wales

 

Decided to take over Undy in the JD Cymru South

The squad is actually quite larger than I was expecting although most are filler that I'd hope to be immediately replacing with any new youth prospects.

3 players graduated the academy at the club in the year 0 in tier 3

One of my best players already, probably gonna start with him on the left side but the versatility is nice where I could play him through the middle anywhere from CM to ST if need be.

Another one immediately for the first team. Like the fairly professional and seems to be good room to grow.

Nearly missed this one in my U19s, but I think there's some things to like about this guy. like some of his mentals for sure. Laughable that he's apparently able to play CB as well, that will not be happening.

We're picked to finish 15th, but surely we can get ourselves at least up to 13th, that's only 2 spots.

Well, hopefully we get to a season 1 review with this one, fingers crossed.

 

 

[michiganhugefan]

42 minutes ago, michiganhugefan said:

Undy Athletic

Wales

 

Decided to take over Undy in the JD Cymru South

The squad is actually quite larger than I was expecting although most are filler that I'd hope to be immediately replacing with any new youth prospects.

3 players graduated the academy at the club in the year 0 in tier 3

One of my best players already, probably gonna start with him on the left side but the versatility is nice where I could play him through the middle anywhere from CM to ST if need be.

Another one immediately for the first team. Like the fairly professional and seems to be good room to grow.

Nearly missed this one in my U19s, but I think there's some things to like about this guy. like some of his mentals for sure. Laughable that he's apparently able to play CB as well, that will not be happening.

We're picked to finish 15th, but surely we can get ourselves at least up to 13th, that's only 2 spots.

Well, hopefully we get to a season 1 review with this one, fingers crossed.

 

 

Also my backup GK is my 3rd choice striker who has a GK rating of 6

[Anners]

Previous Post:

On 21/11/2023 at 19:28, Anners said:

Previous Post:

2034/35 Season Report

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

League:

We've done it!! We're finally back into League One! We don't half make it difficult for ourselves...

This actually came down to the last game, where we played Forfar at home in what was essentially a playoff to see who would get promoted. A lovely 4-1 win means we don't have to mess around with the playoffs this year as we return to League One after 7 years away.

We are sadly losing a couple of players, but we have managed to keep Jacob Connell in the GK position. The 2 we're losing this summer are Mark Shearer, who if he had any physical attributes would probably be an extremely sought after player by European clubs, and Josh Strachan, who I think will likely be getting regular starts in the Premiership for Kilmarnock soon. 

Some slight interest in the ViaPlay cup this year, as we managed to progress to the 2nd round and have Hibs make the short trip to Tranent. It took them a 75th minute winner to get past us and considering that they seem to have replaced Rangers as the 2nd biggest team in Scotland (and have won a couple titles in 29/30 and 30/31), I'll be quite content with that exit.

Youth Intake:

For the first time for a few years, this was actually quite disappointing! John Sinclair (DC) will likely get a shot in the first team as we're lacking a little bit of depth at centre back, but other than that it was fairly average.

The Youth Setup we're running is starting to take it's toll a little bit, but I am hoping with the promotion we'll be able to start making a bit of money again. It's not a huge loss, but it's a noticeable one for the first time this save. I will share Gerry WInton's stats here - I'm not entirely sure why he popped off so much this year but I'm certainly not complaining. He's got a bit of pace about him, but isn't close to being one of my better players.

 

2035/36 Season Report

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

League:

Um. So that happened.

May have completely forgot to take a screenshot before the playoffs started, but the fact I was even there was quite unbelievable.

We managed to turn over Championship side Raith Rovers in the Semi Final, then take out Cove Rangers in the final and now we're in the Championship! Somewhat hilariously, we actually did the whole "let's have 2 seasons in 1" thing again, but the opposite way round. We struggled a bit in the first half, but were still only 7 points off the remaining playoff place (2nd to 4th go playoffs). The 2nd half of the season we just kept.... winning. I didn't dare touch anything with tactics as we were just straight up dominating teams.

We even lost Graeme Wilson in the January transfer window to Hearts, who I actually thought was the reason we were doing quite well in mid-table. Alas, he was apparently holding us back! A very big shout out again to Gerry Winton who I still don't quite understand as to how he's my best player. You'll see below in the round up, he had the most goals, most assists and topped the average rating. He did play a bit in the 33/34 season, but not enough games for me to note him down. If I did, you'd be able to see he's averaging about a 7.26 over the last 3 league campaigns (88 games in total). He did also get Player of the Season in League 1, so the game also clearly loves him!

Youth Intake:

An interesting one here. We've managed to get a starter (to replace the departed Mark Shearer) at left back in Allen Morrison, as well as a couple of others who will likely be in and around the first team.

There's not too much to shout about with this intake, but it does give us a bit more depth thankfully. Financially, we're starting to feel the strain of the Junior Coaching & Youth Recruitment. We're not losing huge amounts of money, so it isn't horrible yet. The promotion is clearly going to help, but because we're still part time, we can't attract decent transfer fees for players yet. If Graeme Wilson can go and get sold to someone decent, we've got a 50% sell on fee clause there so that would be quite nice!

[The7Striker]

My save in BFC Dynamo is over. Sad about it but that 23M stadium just ruin the finances and all possibility for upgrades for the next 5 or 6 season. 

[Anners]

Bit of a youth setup costs query.

Since our promotion to the Championship, our costs have skyrocketed and I'm not entirely sure why. We've had no upgrades, but you can see as per the picture below just how substantial the increase is. Literally the only difference has been going from Scottish League 1 to Scottish Championship. It does seem to have stopped in October with no expenditure, but that took me completely off guard.

[The7Striker]

8 minutos atrás, Anners disse:

Bit of a youth setup costs query.

Since our promotion to the Championship, our costs have skyrocketed and I'm not entirely sure why. We've had no upgrades, but you can see as per the picture below just how substantial the increase is. Literally the only difference has been going from Scottish League 1 to Scottish Championship. It does seem to have stopped in October with no expenditure, but that took me completely off guard.

Did you turn professional ? If thats the case, costs go up in everything.

Edited November 23, 2023 by The7Striker

[Anners]

8 minutes ago, The7Striker said:

Did you turn professional ? If thats the case, costs go up in everything.

Nope, no change in status there.

Last season was £182,090 in total. This season I'm already at £592,994.

Unless I'm about to get about 10 wonderkids but it's been consistent throughout in terms of costs till now.

[JAwtunes]

10 minutes ago, Anners said:

Nope, no change in status there.

Last season was £182,090 in total. This season I'm already at £592,994.

Unless I'm about to get about 10 wonderkids but it's been consistent throughout in terms of costs till now.

Big change in Rep?

[tobiahabramson]

Macclesfield Town FC

Vanarama National League 

Season 4 2027-28

Results

League: 24th place - Relegated

FA Cup

Fourth Qualifying Round: Win 3-1 v. Blyth (Vanarama North)

First Round: Loss 1-2 (replay) v. Barrow (National League)

FA Trophy

Third Round: Loss 0-2  v. Northampton (National League)

Season Overview

Macclesfield was totally outclassed and generally unprepared for the leap to the National League. We were able to barely survive last year, but our luck did not continue this year as we finished dead bottom of the league with 5 wins and 28 losses and 28 league points. Our defenders as a unit lack any serious pace, and all the other teams had to do was walk around them and shoot. With a rather shallow bench of first teamers, we also seriously ran our of conditioning at the end of the season and we had serious problems filling the squad.

The one bright spot take away is a few youth players have now taken up starter roles on the squad, including man of the year Davide Santangelo with 14 goals and 1 assist, as well as solid striker/winger Dean Whelan with 8 goals and 8 assists. 

The squad view shows our terrible year quite clearly:

With the relegation, all of my youth players who are now starters had chats with me about wanting to leave the club. If I lose them I will certainly not survive the season, so I told them all off and will have to rebuilt all lockerroom trust.

My board's ambition last year was to attempt to avoid relegation. By losing the league so hard, we failed that ambition even though we expected relegation, and I narrowly avoided the sack by promising 9 points in my first 5 games. I do not have much faith in being able to do so, and this may be my last season on this save. (this challenge is hard)

Youth Intake

We actually had a wonderful youth intake this year, with my preview coming to fruition with 10 elite players coming through. I had 2 perfectionists and 1 determined player come through.

 

Spoiler

\\

 

Next Season

This may very easily be the last season of this save. I will for sure be doing another shot at it though I am having a tonne of fun.

[Anners]

9 minutes ago, JAwtunes said:

Big change in Rep?

Nope! Still sat at 1.5 stars for reputation, classed as Regional (it looks to switch to National when you hit 2 and a bit stars, but it's not that).

I've got a backup save from March 2036 that I've been comparing to and there's zero change. 

[Scraborn]

Damn, my GK keeps sabotaging my save... he is ordered to play the ball short in our defence line to start build up from there... sometimes he pings the ball to the midfield where its lost, or he sends his backline forward to play a short pass on the opposite striker. He costs me so many points but he is my best GK for now...

[CDGBruno]

Starting the challenge, I chose England, and I will start with FC United, the team is expected to finish 24th in Vanarama North. I hope I do well

 

[CDGBruno]

Hired Staff

We didn't have anyone so I had to bring a team

Spoiler

 

Edited November 23, 2023 by CDGBruno

[officiallydeej]

Dulwich Hamlet - 2029/30

Vanarama National League - 14th

Our lowest finish in the National League so far but probably a fair reflection of where my squad is at. We're starting to move out the last of the original players and with so may young players in the team it probably isn't a surprise we were so inconsistent. We never looked in danger of going down, but in the same vein never looked like getting close to the playoffs either.

When it became apparently we weren't going up or down I used the last 10 games to blood some younger players, especially in defence. Our results didn't suffer noticeably which was a positive, and although I'm not sure we'll go up next season I do have plenty of players in the team now with room to improve.

One not so good piece of news is that Rakeem Thomas has decided to explore his options and won't be renewing his contract. We do have him for one more season but he will certainly be difficult to replace. His natural understudy has been out for 10 months this season with an ACL injury so it remains to be seen how he will return.

I struggle with fitness in the early part of the season, with the relentless National League schedule meaning we play 8 league games in August and 9 in September, in fact this season by the time we had played 23 league games the Premier League had only played 9! We usually come on much stronger when we start to play once a week but that didn't happen as much this year.
 

Cups

We had a good run in the FA Cup, beating Wealdstone and Weymouth 6-0 and 3-0 respectively. I was rubbing my hands when we drew Dagenham & Redbridge in the second round as they were 20th in the National League at the time, with my dreaming of a big money spinning third round tie. Sadly despite having a full team out we didn't turn up at all and got soundly thumped 4-1 on our own patch. The real kicker was D&R going on to draw Wolves away in the third round and no doubt being far better off financially for the experience.

We beat Truro City in the third round of the FA Trophy before our reserves lost 1-0 to Chester in round 4.

 

 

Star Players

 

   

Despite some of our issues this season we have never had problems scoring goals, and this is reflected by our three star players once again coming from the top of the pitch. Jamie McHardy 27b is now very much a main player for us in his second season since moving up from the u18s, scoring 23 goals and laying on 12 more in 34 starts. Portsmouth are interested in him and although not unsettled yet it is definitely a situation to keep an eye on.

Against all the odds we managed to get Sam Caldwell 25b to sign a new 3 year deal with an extra year. I'd expected this to be his last season after he asked to leave but he came back to the negotiating table in August and I was more than happy to make him our highest earner to keep him at the club for 3 (+1) more seasons. He scored 28 goals in 42 appearances this season and in doing so became the first player to score 100 goals for the club so far in the challenge.

Rakeem Thomas 25c is our highest rated player and will be a huge miss when he leaves in 12 months time. 18 goals in 34 starts is his best scoring return from the left wing and he now has over 200 appearances for the club. He also now has 15 goals in 35 caps for his country and I've no doubt there will be plenty of suitors when he departs at the end of next season.

 

Youth Intake

 

 

 

Although there are no top prospects I'm not actually that unhappy with this intake, especially considering the last few we've had. Stevie Crawford is a tough tackling full back and I expect he'll pick up quite a few cards considering he has 20 aggression. We haven't had a defender come through and make the starting 11 since our first intake in 2025 but I'm hoping he could finally be one to make the step up.

Christopher Roberts isn't as good as the other forwards that have come through in the last few seasons, but I like his high work rate and attribute split. I may look to convert him to a left winger to fill the void that will be left by Thomas's impending departure.

 

Admin

 

 

 

No transfers out this season and only one loan. Jairo Pomares developed quite well on loan at Oxford City and will probably be pushing for a spot in the first team squad next season. I did release quite a bit of deadwood from the u18s this season who had reached an age where they didn't look like making it, but they don't show up on here for some reason.

Last season's takeover coupled with a rise in attendances in the new stadium have kept us in the black, at least for the time being. Our average attendance of 4,817 was bettered only by Oldham and Gillingham and although the finances are on the slide due to the loan did keep us afloat financially. I pushed through another coaching badge early in the season so now have my continental B.

[AndrikoDS]

On 19/11/2023 at 17:03, korvalis said:

Always fun when you're trying to sign the team up to full time contracts, and two of the best players don't want to sign. 

To be fair, with that lovely golden mane, Mats probably wants to leave Lidingo to pursue the inevitable life of model and all around hunk that awaits him. David Ginola will have nothing on that kid!

Edited November 23, 2023 by AndrikoDS

[Scraborn]

Is there any chance to convince the board to give me a U21s team while we are in the VNN? Some of my youth players have outgrown my U18 team and I want to give them some playing time but some of them wont get a lown club. I also cant search for a affiliate to loan them out there. Right now I have 5 players out on loan

[tobiahabramson]

4 hours ago, tobiahabramson said:

Macclesfield Town FC

Vanarama National League 

Season 4 2027-28

Results

League: 24th place - Relegated

FA Cup

Fourth Qualifying Round: Win 3-1 v. Blyth (Vanarama North)

First Round: Loss 1-2 (replay) v. Barrow (National League)

FA Trophy

Third Round: Loss 0-2  v. Northampton (National League)

Season Overview

Macclesfield was totally outclassed and generally unprepared for the leap to the National League. We were able to barely survive last year, but our luck did not continue this year as we finished dead bottom of the league with 5 wins and 28 losses and 28 league points. Our defenders as a unit lack any serious pace, and all the other teams had to do was walk around them and shoot. With a rather shallow bench of first teamers, we also seriously ran our of conditioning at the end of the season and we had serious problems filling the squad.

The one bright spot take away is a few youth players have now taken up starter roles on the squad, including man of the year Davide Santangelo with 14 goals and 1 assist, as well as solid striker/winger Dean Whelan with 8 goals and 8 assists. 

The squad view shows our terrible year quite clearly:

With the relegation, all of my youth players who are now starters had chats with me about wanting to leave the club. If I lose them I will certainly not survive the season, so I told them all off and will have to rebuilt all lockerroom trust.

My board's ambition last year was to attempt to avoid relegation. By losing the league so hard, we failed that ambition even though we expected relegation, and I narrowly avoided the sack by promising 9 points in my first 5 games. I do not have much faith in being able to do so, and this may be my last season on this save. (this challenge is hard)

Youth Intake

We actually had a wonderful youth intake this year, with my preview coming to fruition with 10 elite players coming through. I had 2 perfectionists and 1 determined player come through.

 

  Reveal hidden contents

\\

 

Next Season

This may very easily be the last season of this save. I will for sure be doing another shot at it though I am having a tonne of fun.

Update: I had to score 9 points in my first 5 games to not get sacked - I've won 3 and drawn 1 in the first four, so I am safe for now...

[XaW]

 

XaW - Cardiff Draconians - Season 2025/26 (Season 2) - JD Cymru South

Squad | Transfers | Finances

Well I can't really complain about this season, now can I? Wow, we played well, and seeing as we had a full bench every game, I also got to rotate a bit. Granted losing a few of the key players really do hurt when I have to leave them out, but overall the team is getting better and better. Our main opponents in the league was clearly Llantwit Major, as us they got far in the cups, and overall had a great season of their own. Luckily, we got the better of them, and secured promotion with a game to spare!

Looking forward to trying our luck in the top tier next season, as we have done quite well against the few top tier sides we met in the cup this year. So I hope we can stay up, and start building a team.

JD Welsh Cup: We beat Caerleon, Cambrian & Clydach, Aberystwyth Town, Afan Lido, and Llanidloes before we lost to Llantwit Major in the semi final. 
League Cup: We beat Llantwit Major, Mumbles, Barry Town, Caersws, and Gap Connah's Quay before we lost to Afan Lido in the final on pens!
Tier 2 League Cup: We beat Cwmbran Celtic and Swansea Uni before we lost to Trefelin BGC on pens in the 3rd round.

We also got some improvements accepted this season.

Around the world

U19s:

They still don't compete in any league system.

Welsh Youth Cup: They lost to Goytre United in the 2nd round.

Youth intake:

Trophy cabinet

JD Cymru South - 1 (2025/26)

Player statistics:

Most apps for the clubs

Name			Nation		2nd Nation	Time at club	Apps
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lewis Brown 25b		England		<N/A>		2025-Present	46
Steve Tudor 25a		Wales		<N/A>		2025-Present	45
Ross Jones 25c		Wales		<N/A>		2025-Present	45
Thomas Aboagye 25d	France		Ghana		2025-Present	42
Joe Sadler 25e		Wales		<N/A>		2025-Present	37

Most goals for the club

Name			Nation		2nd Nation	Time at club	Goals
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lewis Brown 25b		England		<N/A>		2025-Present	26
Thomas Aboagye 25d	France		Ghana		2025-Present	11
Ross Jones 25c		Wales		<N/A>		2025-Present	8
Joe Sadler 25e		Wales		<N/A>		2025-Present	6
Steve Tudor 25a		Wales		<N/A>		2025-Present	5

Most assists for the club

Name			Nation		2nd Nation	Time at club	Assists
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thomas Aboagye 25d	France		Ghana		2025-Present	17
Ross Jones 25c		Wales		<N/A>		2025-Present	13
Lewis Brown 25b		England		<N/A>		2025-Present	11
Joe Sadler 25e		Wales		<N/A>		2025-Present	5
Alfie Williams 25f	Wales		Ireland		2025-Present	5

Supporters:

Summary:

[Neo_Geo]

I swear @XaW you get the most varied intake nationalities I’ve seen on here.

Congrats on the promotion

[Virtual Male]

Season 12 2035/36

Manager Profile - Competitions - Finances - Facilities

 

So, I'm going to start this update with something I'd usually put at the end but if you guys are anything like me I'd end up just glossing over a paragraph of text at the end of a post without much reading actually taking place.

I'm finding this save quite hard to stay invested in at the moment and I feel silly for even saying that because it's for completely the opposite reasons people usually drift away from these saves, I'm struggling because there hasn't been any real challenge since my relegation from the VNL. Since then I've been promoted every year all the way into the Premier League now and it just doesn't feel right but I can't sandbag can I? I've a feeling that the shape and tactic I've been developing over the last 4/5 seasons is breaking the match engine in some way and players are vastly outperforming their abilities, I mean Frankie Thomas shouldn't be anywhere near a game in the Championship unless he's paid for a ticket but here he is with a fairly respectable average rating from 14 games this year

.

He's a VNN player on a good day right? Anyway the point of all of this is just to say that this might be the last update for a little while until I'm feeling this save again.... I just miss the pain I think 

 

 

Competitions

• Sky Bet Championship (Past Positions) - I don't understand what's happening anymore, 2nd place in our first season in the Championship means five successive promotions now. 78 points only just scrapes the play-offs in almost every season in this save until this year but here we are heading off into the Premier League, I really don't know how this has come to be.
• 
• The Emirates FA Cup - 90 minutes of the Fa Cup this year, 4-1 loss to Newcastle.
• Carabao Cup - Continued to not care about the Carabao Cup in the slightest exiting in the group stage again.

Squad

• 
• We're very top heavy now, we've got a Premier League quality attack and a defence that's League 2 on a good day. Luckily there's some potential at the back coming through but it's felt like that's been the case for a number of seasons now and I'm still playing the same guys because of a lack of development.

 

• 
• Robert Jones became our first official Wonderkid this year and made his Wales debut! He's got a couple of years left on his contract but I doubt I'll get to keep him until the end of it and will probably be forced into a sale before then,

 

• 
• Sam Haggett had another solid season up top bagging himself 17 league goals on our way to automatic promotion. I'm hoping he can manage to hit double figures next season, we'll need it if we have any hope of survival.

 

Youth Intake (Preview) - Probably one of the best previews we've had in a few years and it left me a little disappointed when the youth intake came around. Now, I'm not saying it's a bad intake, it isn't. Just I got my hopes up and wanted more.

 

• 

 

• 
• Richard Lloyd is apparently the main man from this years intake, he's coming through in a position that I need some more players in due to a sale so he'll be in and around the first team at some point in the near future.

 

• 
• I'm much more interested in Lim Yong-Jae though, a big Korean center back who's got a little bit of potential is everything I could have asked for really, he's going to be training with the first team with the hope that he can make his mark before too long.

Transfers & Finances - A couple of big sales this year. Llion Davies kicked up a massive fuss in the new year and it was spilling over to the rest of the team so a deal with Portsmouth worth up to £10m saw him heading to the south coast. Mike Cox-Davies was much less planned out but LAFC threw £18.5m upfront with another £1.5m in clauses that will be met and I really couldn't turn that money down. 

All of that left the finances in a good place with about £7m in the bank but with the Premier League money coming in next season we should be pretty set from now on unless something goes horribly wrong.

Other - The board we're very co-operative this year again allowing the training facilities to be upgraded twice and the youth facilities to be upgraded twice too! We moved up a youth category too, we're category 2 now. I got my final coaching badge too. The stadium needed some love with the promotion so we're getting undersoil heating fitted and a few thousand seats put in.

Bingo Card - A handful of things got marked off this season so we're up to 29/100.

•  

Edited November 24, 2023 by Virtual Male

[CDGBruno]

Cast of the season

VNLN Classification

FINANCE

FEATURED PLAYERS

YOUTH ACADEMY

Spoiler

 

Edited November 24, 2023 by CDGBruno

[Scraborn]

Maccelsfield FC Season 4 is over. We played again in the VNN and again we didnt secure ourself a promotion but overall we had a solid season. Not great not terrible I guess. Like the last two years we were predicted to end with an relegation and an early end of this challenge but we ended as 8th. After this season I will not extend any contract of any player who isnt a product of our academy to give young players even more playing time. This was the first year we made it to the first proper round in the FA Cup wich felt nice. Our trip in the FA Trophy was rather short again - as last year we met Grimsby Town in the third round and again they beat us. Our U18 squad managed to win the U18 Division 3 wich gives me hope for our future. We managed to expand our infrastucture a bit but not as much as I was hoping for. Moneywise we still look decent. I didnt get any coaching badge but the championship team Sheffield United offered me a job wich I had to decline of course.

Fakenews as every year

Next year could be our year

Two of our youthplayers break clubrecords

Andrew broke the goals record in his first season. Sadly he wont allow me to extent his contract right now but maybe there is a slight chance in summer for it. I dont wanna loose him cause right now he is the best player in the team and the best player ever recruited via our youth system. He is the first ever player to be called up for a youth National team. Sol he got a few minutes with the Irish U18s team. Another player was called up for the Northern Irish U18s team. Maybe we see som Internationals in our Vanarama years.

And again here is Pawel like after the last seasons. But he managed to set up a new record for assists in this club. But it he had a bit of a yo-yo year when it came to his performances. He missed one match due to a long nightout. Naughty boy!

Farshad here was in my opinion our talent of the season. He was need as a replacement for an injured player and right in his first match he scorred a hattrick as a advanced playmaker in CDM wich was remarkable. Some goals and assists and god overall performances followed after. Maybe he will be a Iran international some day.

Our Intake this year again looked promissing  witch loads of potential. Hopefully my HOYD isnt to wrong with his ideas about it.

Chris the scottish Striker here was the best of the bunch. If Andrew leaves us he will become first or second choice striker right away.

Our finacials are still secure and it is a steady rise even in this level. Hopefully the board frees more money to improve facilities and gives me finaly a U21s team to give more players time to be on the pitch.

Thats all for now. Lets see where our first year with eleven former academyplayers leads us to.

Stay tuned and good luck

 

Edited November 24, 2023 by Scraborn
formation

[glennuk]

@Pablo Counago - I see you browsing and just wanted to say, best user name ever. ITFC LEGEND!!!!

[glennuk]

Season 1 - Rein Meer AKA ReinBerg - Japan - J3 League - Youth Intake Preview

Just a small update here. I am still LOVING Japan, even with a new club and the issues I had at Haneda (FC Honda).

I quickly settled into life at ReinBerg playing an attractive 4-4-2 system with LOADS of goals being scored both For and Against.

 

Improvements

We actually got TWO junior coaching upgrades (no youth network improvements though  )

New Contract

I signed a new deal

And we got Youth Facilities upgraded, which must have been in the works before I arrived, as I never requested or saw any news about it until this popped up.

Youth Intake Preview

As for the Youth Intake Preview....it was absolutely DIRE!!! E's for days!

 

 

Edited November 28, 2023 by glennuk

[XaW]

8 hours ago, Neo_Geo said:

I swear @XaW you get the most varied intake nationalities I’ve seen on here.

Congrats on the promotion

Always upping that youth recruitment!

But I dunno, I thought I saw someone getting someone from Brunei here...

[thomas_e]

A while back there was talk about corrupted save games when adding leagues/nations along the way. Since 99% playing this challenge will be doing that, I wanted to let you know I have added several leagues and no corrupt save game problem here after several years. 

[Anners]

23 hours ago, Anners said:

Previous Post:

 

2035/36 Season Report

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

League:

Um. So that happened.

May have completely forgot to take a screenshot before the playoffs started, but the fact I was even there was quite unbelievable.

We managed to turn over Championship side Raith Rovers in the Semi Final, then take out Cove Rangers in the final and now we're in the Championship! Somewhat hilariously, we actually did the whole "let's have 2 seasons in 1" thing again, but the opposite way round. We struggled a bit in the first half, but were still only 7 points off the remaining playoff place (2nd to 4th go playoffs). The 2nd half of the season we just kept.... winning. I didn't dare touch anything with tactics as we were just straight up dominating teams.

We even lost Graeme Wilson in the January transfer window to Hearts, who I actually thought was the reason we were doing quite well in mid-table. Alas, he was apparently holding us back! A very big shout out again to Gerry Winton who I still don't quite understand as to how he's my best player. You'll see below in the round up, he had the most goals, most assists and topped the average rating. He did play a bit in the 33/34 season, but not enough games for me to note him down. If I did, you'd be able to see he's averaging about a 7.26 over the last 3 league campaigns (88 games in total). He did also get Player of the Season in League 1, so the game also clearly loves him!

Youth Intake:

An interesting one here. We've managed to get a starter (to replace the departed Mark Shearer) at left back in Allen Morrison, as well as a couple of others who will likely be in and around the first team.

There's not too much to shout about with this intake, but it does give us a bit more depth thankfully. Financially, we're starting to feel the strain of the Junior Coaching & Youth Recruitment. We're not losing huge amounts of money, so it isn't horrible yet. The promotion is clearly going to help, but because we're still part time, we can't attract decent transfer fees for players yet. If Graeme Wilson can go and get sold to someone decent, we've got a 50% sell on fee clause there so that would be quite nice!

Previous Post:

2036/37 Season Report

Club: Tranent FC (Scotland)
League: Scottish Championship

League:

Staying up with 28 points? We absolutely take those.

I also pick up another record to join our League One record:

Honestly, not quite sure what happened with the bottom 3 - Queen of the South were absolutely awful all season and picked up half of their wins in the last 5 games. Montrose only picked up 9 points since mid-November. I doubt we'll get this lucky next year, so I'm presuming we won't get a third year in the Championship.

Youth Intake:

A solid striker in John Mackay, with a couple of others being good squad depth again.

Finances:

To expand a little on a post I made earlier, my youth setup costs have increased dramatically and I do not know why. We've had no change in status, no reputation boost. This is the expenditure I've got from the year gone and the huge outlay in the first 3 months of the season:

The white bar being the youth setup - I don't know if it's an extra cost for being in a top 2 league or something, but whatever it is it's causing some pretty severe financial issues now.

[Brentmeister]

Meanwhile in Belgium.....

My board set me a transfer budget of minus 800k, despite us having 4m in the bank.

I can't adjust the wage budget and scouting budget to counter this.

Then this happens

 

...then this (he's our best player and there's no option to ask the board to reconsider like in previous versions)

It's so frustrating. I'm considering quitting and going somewhere sensible.

Edited November 24, 2023 by Brentmeister

[thomas_e]

Energie Cottbus

Season Summary 2033 - 2034

First top three finish!

 

The first season after losing our superstar Michael Greif. A big blow for our midfield quality, but luckily the rest of the team stepped up. Especially our defenders showed big progress this year and we now have two full backs who are creating havoc for the opposition going forward. Overall we were a lot better defensively, but we struggle a bit against deep lying opposition as we dont have enough x-factor in our offensive players. Still, we did our best season by far, finishing in 3rd place, and we are going to the Champions League for the first time! 

We were in the CL-spots for most of the year and we even had a shot at the title. We faced Leipzig in the third last round, but a 0-0 result at home saw then secure the title. As previous seasons we are of course completely hopeless in the last two rounds of the year. I think we have faced already relegated teams in the last two rounds for three years running now and we cant buy ourselves a win! 

In the Europa League we have rotated the team heavily. This will not be as easy in the Champions League, so we will struggle to copy a 3rd place in the Bundesliga next year. We managed to get to the quarter final of the Europa League before losing heavily to Liverpool. 

We had a pretty bad intake unfortunately, and we are now seriously lacking defensive prospects in the U19, especially center backs. 

I have big hopes for Maik Schulz, a tall striker with excellent potential. We already have a great striker in Marco Stumpf, but he has the qualities to perform as an attacking midfielder as well, so we might see a change at some point next season. 

 

Season Summary

          

 

Tactics

     

 

Key Players

          

 

Key Talents

          

 

[Brentmeister]

Does anyone know how to force, adjusting the budget? I can't drag the slider at all.

I have almost 30k pw available in excess wages, that's about 1.5m, but I can't adjust the budget. My board will surely start selling more of my players if I can't do it.

[The7Striker]

Either I have bad luck with the boards or something is wrong with this game and the stadiums...

@Colossus did you manage to rent a stadium during the promotions or did you also have a huge loan to build a new one?

[libbyshuss]

Japan - Honda FC/Haneda 

Division J1 - 2036 (Season 13)

Objective: Top four finish and a good start to our Champions League campaign

Season Summary

Objective met in some style! This was our best season yet, with us gaining more points than we did when we won the title a few years back. it helped this was the first season i can remember where we didn't lose one of our best players so the team could continue developing really well. We couldn't quite maintain a title challenge but a top four finish was always odds on. The only downside was that Kashima Antlers only won 4 games all season - and one of them was against us!

Cups - I'm always crap at cups in this save but I somehow managed to accidentally win the league cup! which was nice.

Champions League - So this is what really matters! We got a nice group with the only challenge coming from the reigning champions Ulsan Hyundai of Korea. It was really pleasing to get a victory against them as it shows we're not too far off

 

Players

Pretty much same team and tactics as last year. Best thing was seeing how well Ren Ninomiya 33A and Maicon 34A did when they had to step up due to injuries/suspensions. there'sa good chance those two will be first choice regulars next season

 

youth

well, not sure if this is a good or bad intake to be honest. It's not obviously great, but neither is it horribly bad. One of those wait and see intakes i guess

My HoyD says it's excellent but we'll see...... the two elite talents haven't got particularly good personalities and don't look that good. Another two strikers suggest that 4-1-2-3 tactic is here to stay though!

 

Career

On with the Champions League campaign!

[Neo_Geo]

 

Just starting to get some time on the save again, entering season 3 in Israel.

Been given a tough draw in the Europa Conference 2nd Qualifying Round against Dynamo Kyiv, could be a case of European adventure over as quickly as it started!

Anyway, thought I'd share this friendly match review:

Biggest scoreline I've ever had in FM (this was after a 15-1 win). I normally like to play small teams right before the first competitive match (Kyiv) but I never get scorelines like this (and this is my second string team as well)