The FM24 Youth Academy Challenge

[Daddy]

congrats @thomas_e

[WhiteCat33]

Well done @thomas_e! I agree the bad AI makes things bittersweet when they do dumb things like that.

[Gonner]

Austria Salzburg, Season 10, 2033/2034

 

Season Recap :

We finished in the same position as last year, 4th, but this time around it was a lot more convincing.

In the championship, Austria Wien came back in the fight for the podium after their one-year absence from the title pool. We stayed with them, Sturm was somewhat in a no-man's land on their own, and SV Ried managed to get themselves ahead of the rest of the midfield to get the final spot. Rapid is no longer able to challenge Salzburg for the title (only 1 game lost over the first 22 games for them...) so the hierarchy now feels like RB Salzburg clearly on their own for the title, Rapid benefiting from C1 money and comfortable for 2nd place, and then the fight for 3rd place is between Austria Wien, us & Sturm Graz.


Halving the points always make it look closer than it really is. Our fight was with Wien for the 3rd spot. 



Austria Wien had a tremendous title pool, getting 20 points in 10 games, so we "only" finished 4th, but quite clear of the 5th place, so I consider that progress !

In the Cup, the draw made us face SK Rapid as soon as the 3rd round (1st & 2nd round pro teams are protected and play lower league teams so the "real Cup" starts in the 3rd round) and we got out before the quarter finals for the first time since we play in Bundesliga. To the surprise of... no one, the two best teams get to the final, and the best of the 2 gets the title.



For our second season in the Europa League, we miss on direct qualification on goal difference. 
 
But we get an easy draw with Maribor, so we advance to the latter phases. We manage to get past PAOK but fall to Real Sociedad.

Transfers :

Two major transfers that have already brought 15M€ and could bring 25M€ in the bank !

3 of our 2031 youth guys leave us, Weiss during the summer break, Tatic & Saedi during the winter one. Tatic was nowhere near the level of the 2 others, Weiss did not want to hear anything once the big clubs came asking about him, and he was still far from first-team contention. Saedi was a different story, he was clearly one of our best midfielders, and he has already seen some playing time at Tottenham.

Finances : 

Obviously considering our run in the Europa League, it is all green here. If we add the two transfers and the fact that our facilities are closed to the max, our balance went from "OK as long as we keep performing in Europe" to "more than OK, I could survive a very bad stretch".  We are spending way less than 50% of our wage allocation and there is even more margin considering we will not ever touch a dime of that transfer budget.

Squad :

Our favorite tactic was once again the classic 4-2-3-1, but 4-3-3 and 4-4-2 were also used during the year depending on sharpness and our analyst's recommendation. They still have some way to go, but for the first time in what seems like ages I am able to rest my back 4 against lower-ranked league teams and play the likes of Kiene, Todorovic, Bogdanovic and Förster. Clearly, all 4 of them together is a Liga 2. level defense, but inserting one here and there is OK.  In midfield the screenshot below has Tottenham's playing time for Saedi, not ours. Furthermore, Bauer is our AMC since Rakic left, in the second half of the season Neumann was paired with Mohr or Schulz. Speaking of Mohr, he & Ciric have been pleasant surprises from the recent youth classes, already fighting for first team minutes. Pantic could also be mentioned here, but in his case it has more to due with the fact that he is the only real DM in our club. 

Admin & Facilities : 

 

Révélation

Last upgrade for our training facilities that are now state of the art ! Surprisingly enough, our youth facilities are "superb" but I cannot ask my board for improvements. And for the first time ever we appear in the World's Best Youth Setup.

 

Bonus : 

Révélation

Ciric among the best U-19 in the world, while still being 17 ! 


This is huge ! Austria has slowly crept its way up in the European nations' ranking, in part because the league is so unsurprising that the same 5 or 6 clubs end up in Europe all the time. But that 6th place gives us an extra Champions League spot, which is in fact purely an extra European spot, so now there will be 6 austrian clubs in Europe (starting the season after next, so we remain in Europa League for next season...).

Youth Intake : 

This preview had me excited at the possibility of getting a Left-Back, and it was a Right Back once more ! 6 elite talents, 3 top talents. I have given a nickname to the last 3 as well but anything short of elite will probably not get me to Champions League level. 

Michael Beuth : OK, he's a right back, but A) he is almost first-team ready, B) does not seem to be the type of guy that will leave me in two years and C) can play with both feet and will definitely be trained to play at left back !
 

Révélation

Sascha Engl & Valentin Feichtinger : We are yet to find someone that can be on the level of Bertram, Imamovic (and Bah because he plays out of position) are our two-worst players in our starting XI, so getting two elite central defenders is a very welcome sight. Feichtinger's worse personality than Engl got him the "CD2" nickname. 
 

Révélation

 

César Lopez : My favorite of the bunch with Beuth. Somewhat unsurprisingly after producing so many midfielders but selling 80% of them, I feel that I am lacking some depth there. Lopez could follow the path of Mohr and become a squad player in a couple of years. 

Révélation

Timo Decker : We have not been able to replicate the success we once had with Rakic at Attacking Midfielder and we play Bauer there who is truly more of a Central Midfielder / Advanced Playmaker. Maybe Decker will be the guy !
 

Révélation

Christoph Huber:  Striker is probably where we have seen the most youth success stories, and it's a good thing because they tend to bring the most money ! Huber has decent technical & mental abilities for his age, if he can improve his physical stats he might be able to join the first team.

Révélation

7 years after :
A quick look at what our 2027 youth became. Back in that day, a lot like this year, we got 6 elite talents & 3 top talents. Our 3 top talents no longer play football at any level, which is somewhat understandable considering we were still in 2. Liga when we had that intake, so let's see what the elite talents became.


Milan Hasic, GK never managed to get anywhere close to Ivica Kovacic, our starter who came in a year earlier and he left at the end of his youth contract, played for a bit in 2. Liga and then went to non-professionnal austrian football. 

Lucas Baumjohann, CD has had somewhat of a similar career. Unlike Hasic, he has had some apparitions in Bundesliga, but defense has always been our Achille's heel and Baumjohann has not been able to develop enough to become a reliable option. He is barely getting some playing time at the second level.

Patrick Sauer, LB is clearly the best Left Back to ever come up our youth ranks. After 3 seasons with us, he left for Manchester United and despite the fact that he has played more than 70 games in the Premier League (including his loan spell at Leicester), he has not been resigned by United and will come back to Austria to play for SK Rapid next season. Here goes my 50% bonus...


Sebastian Kraft, LW followed Sauer's footsteps to England, but he did so before really establishing himself as a player in Bundesliga with us. He became fed up with me letting him know I was not satisfied with his training performances and left at the earliest opportunity. Well, he's never appeared even once under City's colors, and after two seasons on loan in India was signed by WSG Tirol, a team that is frequently moving up and down between Austria's two divisions. Another resale bonus gone !


Luca Götz, ST has also left us and the only one where I could not get a resale bonus is the only one that is still looking OK, even though I think Spezia would be hard-pressed to get a lot more for him than the 6M€ they paid us. Götz seems to be a honorable bench player for Spezia, a midfield team in Serie A.

Tobias Hartmann, ST is the only one still with us and is a lock in our starting XI. I believe if I had been asked back in 2027 to bet who among the 6 elite talents would be the most likely to fit that description Hartmann would have been far from my first choice... He was kind of a late-bloomer, not helped by the fact that most of the time we only play with one striker, so competition is tough for minutes. He was willing to go on loans in 2. Liga and got some playing time there. But I believe what really made the difference for him is Kraft's departure, because once he was gone it was Fötschl and only Fötschl on the Left Wing so I started looking at options in case our only non-youth player was to become injured for a long time and Hartmann was already comfortable playing as a left winger. Some more trainings later, he is now our first choice and his experience as a striker helps him score a dozen goals or so per season.

 

Game in a nutshell :

Edited December 21, 2023 by Gonner

[karax268]

Congrats @XaW and @thomas_e

Great achievements!

[Winski]

Congrats @thomas_e!!! 

[XaW]

Wow, well done @thomas_e! Excellent work in Germany!

[XaW]

Speaking of Germany....

Yes, I'm following in @thomas_e's footsteps and will have a go in Germany. I've tried Germany before, but don't think I've ever reached the Bundesliga at all, so there is something new here for me. Chose the club, as I wanted one in Berlin, and this club fits well. Also found out they are located in Mitte, which is a part of Berlin I've been to as my brother lived close to it for a few years when he worked in Germany. So it all fits quite nicely for my "outside the game connection" requirement, however flimsy it is!  

Made some nice kits too, so here we go!

[Colossus]

Sociedad Deportiva Leioa

2036/2037 Mid Season Review / Youth Intake Preview

I think that this might be the year that we win the League. Barcelona has looked mortal and Oier Ruiz being in the list of most clean sheets shows how much we improved on defense.

5 As at this point, when we already have a pretty good team, is amazing.

We now have the 7th best Youth Setup in the world. Funnily enough, out star graduate is the only player that does not play for us

[Gundo]

Congrats, @thomas_e. 

[BustaRaymes]

10 hours ago, thomas_e said:

Energie Cottbus

Season Summary 2037 - 2038

Champions league winners! 

CHALLENGE COMPLETED

 

Last year we got knocked out in the round of 16 in the Champions League and honestly I though we were far away from winning the title. We do have some really, really good talents in the U19's so I thought we had to play the long game to get that extra 2-3% of world class quality, but we won it this year, very surprisingly. 

We progressed from the group stage with a 6th place finish, a record for us, but we also had a pretty easy league phase with some pretty weak opposition. This gave us a seeded spot for the knock out stages and we faced RB Leipzig in the round of 16. A 0-0 draw away in the first leg gave us a good foundation for the return leg. We didn't dissapoint and won comfortable 4-1 at home. In the next stage we faced PSG and we played two of the best games that I've had on the save. We won 3-1 at home in the first stage, with goals in the 80th and 86th minute, a huge finish to the game for us. The return leg in Paris was always going to be tough, but we started the away game like a dream. We scored twice in the first 24 minutes, mindblowing stuff! PSG fought back with two goals of their own, but we finished 5-3 on aggregate. 

In the semi final we faced Villareal, a team that were consistently top 3 in La Liga over the last few years. We lost 1-0 in Spain in the first game, but played a great return leg at home, scoring three times in the second half, securing a 3-1 win. 

It was another Spanish team facing us in the final, Atletico Madrid, who beat Man Utd in the semi-finals. It was a pretty boring game, and in total I think the game had 3-4 big chances. Only one of them was ours, but we made it count. Marco Stumpf, our captain and club hero, scored an easy finish after a brilliant counter attack. We parked the bus for the last 20 minutes, and with that result completed the challenge!! 

There are two things that makes me a little bit sad after the challenge is over. The first is silly; I really wanted to continue because I think we have the potential for a true legendary team with our U19 talent! The second is more serious and really bothers me. The AI is awful and broken is the only word for it. They dont rotate and they dont rest players. I have attached a screenshot below, which I took in the 42nd minute of our return leg against Villareal. They had a home game against Sevilla three days before our second leg (four days after the first leg). The game meant nothing as Villareal had basically finished 3rd in La Liga by this stage. They played with their best players and clearly didn't rest them after the game. This gives me a bittersweet feeling, because we basically won the game by default due to a broken AI. I load many leagues as the save goes on as I think its even more unfair not to do that, as teams from non-playable leagues dont build squads at all and rarely achieve full match-fitness. So either way, it doesnt work. Sad!!!! 

This was my third completion of this challenge with Energie Cottbus, I really love this club!

We almost won our third Bundesliga title, but missed out by two points to Dortmund. 

Now, lets find another team for a new go at the challenge! 

@darren1983

 

Season Summary

          

 

Key Players

          

 

Key Talents

          

 

Congrats man, nice run!

[xQrtx]

SG Sacavenense - Year 4 2027/28

Liga 3 South First Stage - 2nd
Championship Group - 3rd



I've been very busy and couldn't find time to play in the last month so this is my first update since.
Started the season out very well with 13 points out of a possible 15 in our first 5.
Half way through the season it was obvious we'd make the championship group, we were dominating almost every game in every area, except putting the ball in the back of the net.
We had only 2 games where we won by 2+ goals.



I'm very certain that at least 10 of those unscored goals happened during the group stage, our finishing was going to be the thing to kill this team.

3 of our big stars Belarmino Valido, Jose Gomes and Flavio Ribeiro were garnering interest from first division sides and all wanted to leave, but selling them would just not be worth it.
Clubs from the Spanish 1st and 2nd division were making offers, as well as a few clubs in Italy and Germany.
They kept gradually increasing their offers and I was afraid that the board would accept any offer around 1M which would clear up around a season's worth of debt, but would not help as we have nobody even close to their ability in their positions.
I figured since they were unhappy anyway, that I'd might as well change their asking prices to 100M to deter any interest. Not sure if it worked, but we luckily never received a $1M offer before the deadline.

So the stakes were kind of high, Jose Gomes, the star midfielder wouldn't renew his contract and his contract was going to run out in 2.5 years. Not only did I not want to have to lose a top second division quality player,
I definitely did not want to lose him for free. Another season in the 3rd division would mean we'd be in more debt so the chances of the board accepting an offer would get higher the longer we stayed in the division.

The Championship Group came around, 10 points out of a possible 12 in our first 4, then things went downhill a little.
A few injuries and suspensions lead to 2 points out of our next 3 games which put us out of the automatic promotion spots.
 Then, the youth intake happened...... and omg.

Fernando Neto, 6'0 15 year old who immediately is one of our best wingers. 
And he 100% left his mark on the season and this save with 5 goals in his first 3 matches, the goalscoring we needed finally came through. 
His big performances along with a little luck and choking from Varzim SC meant we'd be playing in the promotion playoff vs Leiria, a team that was in the 1st division a season before,
although we had beaten them in the cup 2 prior, but they got their revenge this year by knocking us out in the 4th round. 

This was our chance to set the record straight vs Leiria and earn that promotion that we deserved. 
Bad news meant we'd be missing some key players. Our first choice CB picked up an injury a the beginning of the month but was cleared to play 20 minutes in the 2nd leg, our backup CB was out until next season
and our RB was suspended for the first leg. 

An early goal put us at a big advantage at home, they equalized 10 minutes later but we got it right back. The game was pretty even but I felt we could've and should've grabbed a 3rd.

A 1 goal lead going into their huge empty stadium, we were favorites. I tried to control possession with a patient approach, no need to rush things... and I guess the team didn't get the message because a horrible rushed pass in build up lead to Leiria's undeserved equalizer 16 minutes in. Then we were awarded a penalty in the 60th minute which we missed and now we were in big trouble as Leiria scored off a corner 7 minutes later to take the 3-2 lead.
We were now chasing the game, and in familiar fashion we were squandering chances left and right, until Leiria keeper, the man who saved a penalty 30 minutes earlier, Iranian international, a name I'm familiar with and a player I've used in previous FMs, Amir Abedzadeh passes it straight to our winger off the goal kick to pretty much relegate his team as we were now headed to a shootout, a few minutes after a huge costly mistake. 
I'm not sure if FM can make an opposing player nervous after a huge mistake but he didn't save a single penalty and we were awarded promotion in the craziest way that I've ever seen in FM.


Club

The club have allowed me to study for my National A license as well as giving me a new contract which keeps me as manager until 2030 with a 2 year extension if we are promoted again.
Prize money from promotion was nice to help with our debts, hopefully we'll make some more money in this division.
Opened a B club to help with the overcrowding in our only youth team.
The board is willing to spend to help with our debts as well.


Squad

Squad Stats

Spoiler

Full Squad Stats

Spoiler

Top Scorer - 11 (All Comps) - Iaquinta

Spoiler

Most Assists - 6 (All Comps) -  Nuno Sá & José Gomes 25-A 

Spoiler

Highest Average Rating - 7.11 - David Tomás

Spoiler

Young Player of the Year, Newgen Most Assists - 6 (All Comps) - José Gomes 25-A picture shown previously

Newgen Top Scorer - 8 (All Comps) - Belarmino Valido 25-A

Spoiler

 

Very happy with the squad, I feel like we're in a good place to avoid relegation and remain as strong when our older players regress.

Transfers
 

Spoiler

Best XI



Youth

Didn't initially expect too much from the intake after the preview


However the intake had something special...

The previously mentioned Fernando Neto being the clear star of this intake but i like the profiles of some of these guys. More specifically, my fellow Canadian, Antony Halter.

Top Rated Intake Profiles

Spoiler

Season History



Manager History



Next Season Preview

We're definitely better than the odds say, media prediction has us at 18th. Goal is to not get relegated, I feel like we can do that.
Ultimate goal is to get José Gomes and our 2 other disgruntled players on long term contracts once their promises are done, I mean surely he'd want to make more than €160 per week and accept a new contract rather than waiting 2 seasons to become a free agent right? Well hopefully he does.

[leyrtj]

Challenge Start - Vietnam - Lam Dong

I just can't stay away from this challenge. I've set myself the goal to finish this challenge in all 6 continents. Going to take a few real years. After finishing South Africa, I also like the idea of doing it with nations that no one else has finished. I'm now off to Asia. I wanted to do Thailand but none of the databases I found worked. So I'm off to Vietnam with Lam Dong. I'm using Timo's database and there are two divisions. 

 

[Riebow]

Olot UE Season Review (27/28)

League:

Last season the board reverted our status to Semi-Professional. It's safe to say the clock was ticking. We needed to get promotion as soon as possible to regain professional status. To make matters worse I sold our best player for peanuts. As a result I had a team of players on full-time contracts (so we're still losing money as crazy), but only training part-time. Despite all of this I wanted to secure promotion this season. We finished the season strong last season, so I was still pretty positive about our chances. It's safe to say we vastly overachieved even my expectations. For a long time we were tied with Ponferrada for the top spot. Their form fell off a cliff at the end, while we remaind consistent. In the end we win the league with a 11 points bonus. League won and promotion secured! (The advantage of being part-time is that you barely have any injuries)

Spoiler

Champions Play-offs

We won our league, but that didn't mean the title yet. There's a two-game tie with the winner of the other Federation 1 league: Real Madrid B. Unfortunately half of our squad was either injured or suspended for the first leg. Unsurprisingly we lost the first leg 3-1. We had a stronger game at home, winning 2-1. So no title, but that's irrelevant as we're going up anyway.

Copa del Rey

We made it to the 3rd round, beating 2nd tier team Malaga on penalties in the 2nd round. We were knocked out by Albacete. Unfortunately no big gate receipts for these games.

Spoiler

Youth Intake:

Again I was promised an Excellent intake...

Absolute rubbish: no 5-star potential, dreadful personalities 

Transfers

One important transfer out: our starting GK Albert Batalla wanted to go to a better squad so we had to say goodbye with 6 months left on his contract

Spoiler

Upgrades

The best news arrived when we secured promotion: we're a professional team once again!

Lo and behold, we could finally convince our board to upgrade our junior coaching and youth recruitments:

Best XI

Miguel Angel Ricart (24 intake) took the reins from the departed Momodou Janneh  and scored 20 league goals. We still have 5 original players in our squad. I was very lucking to inherite some talented youngsters. Joan Maynau  is 32 and still going strong, but I worry he will start declining soon. 

Spoiler

Next Season

The goal is to improve our finances and get some more facility upgrades, so that we can improve our youth intakes. The last two were terrible so we're relying on the players who came through the first two. I don't really care if we go back down, I just want to be in a position we can develop our squad.

[schnauzer]

Hi everyone, I've been tempted to have another try at this challenge again! I'll be starting at Kettering Town FC - the first season went quite well, will do the summary post in my next post  

 

[libbyshuss]

France - FC Fleury '91

2028/29 (Season 5)

Season Summary

League: France National (Tier 3)

Predicted Finish: 17th

Actual Finish: 2nd - Promotion!

Again, the predicted finish was based on the strength of my admittedly paper thin squad and not a reflection of the first XI, which I knew were stronger. And so it proved. We were amazing from the get go, going on long winning runs at a time. By February us and Paris FC were running away with it and the latter part of the season looked like it was going to be a procession. But then our form collapsed and we really struggled, losing as many as we were winning and just unable to put a run together. luckily, we were so far ahead that we managed to just stay in automatic promotion spots - by 2 goals! 

So, this save is anything but boring:- 3 promotions and 2 relegations so far in only 5 seasons!

 

Players

 

Player of the Season: Florent Esor 25A - Still not entirely sure how I've held on to him. Played all season slightly out of position at central midfield. He's a much better AMC but my squad is so thin and threadbare I have no other choice but to play him there. He was great - 19 now and just signed a new non-release clause 5 year (+3 optional extension) contract. Woo hoo!

Top Scorer: Saiba Dabo - my perennially underachieving striker finally comes good! well, scores over 20 in a season for the first time. A legacy player, the only reason he's anywhere near the first team, let alone the squad, is my relatively poor youth intakes so far.

Most Assists: Andrea Berti - my Belgian legacy youth, now 20 and a really important member of the team. Can play on either flank, which is enormously helpful, and can chip in with goals as well. Asked to leave just before I triggered his 3 year contract extension, so he's not the happiest of bunnies right now. Maybe he shouldn't have signed it then!

Youth

I am so desperate for a good youth intake right now! I dream of one of those where it's elite talents as far as the eye can see but they are eluding me this save. I need more improvements, which is why getting promoted again was so important. It's all about the money!

This years preview was encouraging.... apart from all the descriptions!

The intake didn't look great, but the elite talent is called Virgile Christ so that's alright with me! Other than that, unambitious personality and fairly run of the mill. Only 2 top talents as well - it's a pretty meagre bunch all told. 

 

Career

Can I stay up is Ligue 2 this time? Unlikely with our squad it has to be said, but the youngsters are coming on well so you never know.

Edited December 21, 2023 by libbyshuss

[dkouv]

Congrats @XaW and @thomas_e, impressive stuff!! I see it didn't take long for one of you to jump straight back in

[dkouv]

Brora Rangers – Season 10 (2033/34)

Championship What drama! We started off on fire, racing into a 9 point lead at the top of the table by December. But after Premiership teams unsettled most of our players in the January window, our form took a dive and we slipped to second by losing 3-0 at home to Falkirk, who went up to 1st, in the 2nd-to-last game of the season. I thought our fate was sealed but they bottled it, drawing on the final day, and we won, sending us up as champions on goal difference!

  

Players The squad is pretty well balanced now, with the only glaring weak spot being at right back. Our star man Tony Jukes 05a (AMR/ST) had an awesome season with 21 goals from the inside forward position, and Kyle Hoban 08b (DC) was great in the first half of the season before becoming unsettled and letting us down a bit in the second.

 

Youth intake (preview) The first disappointing intake of this save, though it looks like there could be a decent defender there in Josh Gilmour 10a (DC), who I might retrain as a right back.

  

Facilities/Finances A million in the red and they cut our wage budget just as we have to offer professional contracts… Still, these are very much rich world problems now

No transfers in, and holding on to my prized assets for now.

Season    |  League       | Pos. |     Europe     |   Best player                    |  Notes
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2024/25   | League 2      |  1   |     n/a        |  Andrew Macrae (ST)              | Promoted
2025/26   | League 1      |  7   |     n/a        |  Andrew Macrae (ST)              |
2026/27   | League 1      |  6   |     n/a        |  Andrew Macrae (ST)              |
2027/28   | League 1      |  5   |     n/a        |  James Wallace (ST)              |
2028/29   | League 1      |  1   |     n/a        |  Andrew Macrae (ST)              | Promoted
2029/30   | Championship  |  6   |     n/a        |  Tony Jukes 05a (ST)             |
2030/31   | Championship  |  8   |     n/a        |  Tony Jukes 05a (ST)             | Won SPL Trust Trophy
2031/32   | Championship  |  4   |     n/a        |  Tom Thomas 07a (ST)             | Lost in playoff 1st round
2032/33   | Championship  |  2   |     n/a        |  Tony Jukes 05a (ST)             | Lost in playoff 2nd round
2033/34   | Championship  |  1   |     n/a        |  Tony Jukes 05a (AMR)            | Promoted


Facilities
----------
Season    |  Coaching     |  Recruitment      | Training Fac.  | Youth Fac.      |  Stadium
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2024      |  Basic        |  Limited   	      | Basic          |  Poor           |  3000
2024/25   |  Adequate     |  Fairly basic     | Basic          |  Basic          |  3000
2025/26   |  Good         |  Average          | Basic          |  Basic          |  3000
2026/27   |  Excellent    |  Above average    | Basic          |  Basic          |  3000
2027/28   |  Excellent    |  Good             | Basic          |  Basic          |  3000
2028/29   |  Exceptional  |  Good             | Below average  |  Basic          |  3000
2029/30   |  Excellent    |  Good             | Below average  |  Basic          |  3000
2030/31   |  Excellent    |  Good             | Below average  |  Basic          |  3000
2031/32   |  Excellent    |  Good             | Below average  |  Basic          |  3000
2032/33   |  Excellent    |  Good             | Below average  |  Basic          |  3000
2033/34   |  Excellent    |  Good             | Below average  |  Basic          |  3000

 

[schnauzer]

Kettering Town FC   -   Season 1 (2024 / 2025) Review   -   Vanarama National North

 

League Performance

A respectable mid-table finish in 12th position. I am pleased with this as the team is quite limited and we only had one central defender, who amazingly stayed fit all season! We were quite good in the first half of the season and looked good for a play-off run at times but wins were much harder to find in the latter half, and we ended up closer in points to going down then up but safe nonetheless.

I had been hoping for a good intake to bolster a fairly weak and ageing squad but what we got was very disappointing. Kettering have some reasonably strong facilities for the level so this was a bit of a surprise. I now have a HOYD with a model professional personality so hopefully better results will follow.

 

FA Cup - Out in the first game with a dismal 5-2 home defeat to Alvechurch. A shame to lose out on one of the main ways to make money at this level!

FA Trophy - Out in the 3rd Round as we came up against higher division opponents in Boston and narrowly lost 2-1.

 

Squad - Obviously a lack of quality in this squad and it could become more challenging next season as Ellis Myles, Rhys Sharpe and captain Gary Stohrer are getting older and so far no defensive replacements have been found in the intakes. Using a 5-2-2-1 has worked well to give a solid defence and getting some goals on the counter. O'Shane Stewart and Tyrone Lewthwaite have been crucial attacking options as the other forward Sam Bennett has been useless. The holidayed season did gift me with 2 useful youth players in Isaac Mohammed and Vernon Pashley - who managed to net 11 goals! I've locked down midfielder Huw Dawson on a 4 year deal after he improved quite a lot this year; I don't think he would be up for a new deal next season, so good to get it done. We badly need a good intake next year though, and I will simply just be targeting survival in the division for the 25/26 season. 

 

Players of the Season

1. O'Shane Stewart - 20 goal contributions and a consistent performer.

2. Tyrone Lewthwaite - Scored 17 vital league goals. Managed to lock him down to a new 2 year deal.

3. Gary Stohrer - Captain and consistent. Had to convert him to CB as the only other one was Lewis White.

      

 

Rookie of the Season (1st full season)

Vernon Pashley - What a season for the youngster. Only played him initially due to gaps in the squad but he became a valuable player and played in both the DM and AM roles in my 5-2-2-1 system. Has a driven personality but not developed much yet though unfortunately.

 

Youth Intake - Despite some 5 star potentials the actual levels of the players is very poor. Jordon Haystead's physical attributes could make him an okay winger, but Elvis Gyamfi looks the best of the bunch to me and could get a fair amount of game time next year in the AM role.

      

 

Transfers - Just some poor players who had been on non-contract deals moving on.

 

Finances - Looking quite good, particularly after we upgraded youth rec and junior coaching this season. Our attendances are about average for this level but our playing budget is slightly under. Our facilities got downgraded mid-season so that will cost a fair chunk to restore unfortunately.

 

Other Updates - Studying for the National A coaching license. Training facilities got downgraded mid-season but improvements were made to youth coaching and recruitment.

 

League Finish History

Y24/25 - VNN - 12th - 60pts

Facilities

Training Facilities - Below Average,     Youth Facilities - Below Average,     Junior Coaching - Adequate,     Youth Recruitment - Above Average.

Average league home attendance & Number of Season Ticket Holders

Y24/25 - 813 (128)

[fries]

Sky Bet Championship

2032/33 (season 9)

Season Summary

A great season, that ended with a promotion to Premier League!

We played very well at the beginning of the season. But we were close to throwing it all away with 5 games without a win. But we managed to win the last two games and secure promotion.

We scored a lot of goals. But we also have the worst defense in the Championships. It is going to be interesting how that will end in Premier League...

As our goal score could indicate the strikes played really well. The only 4 players with an average rating above 7 are my strikers.

Frederick is, by far, my best player. Both by attributes and by performance. He was topscorer in the league for the second year in a row. However, he is not going to follow the rest of the team up to Premier League. He has not been willing to renew his contract in a few years. So now he is moving to Saudi... It is going to be difficult without him.

He has been great for my team in a few seasons

The youth intake preview was okay. "Only" 4.5 stars and one B.

The actual intake was okay, maybe a bit disappointing. Where Sinclair is by far the most talented player.

 

Kadeem Jamerson was on the NXGN list for the second time. He is the one labeled as "the next Michael Owen". I think he will play more and hopefully develop well now that Frederick is moving. Jamerson will now be the 4th best attacker instead of the 5th best, and we play with 3 in front.

I had no transfers of significance this season. I had a few loan-outs.

 

Finances and Upgrades

I did not manage to get any upgrades. But the youth category rating was improved to category 3 and the board is increasing the stadium capacity. This season we played at Craven Cottage. Hopefully, I will manage to get a few more upgrades next season with the inflow of Premier League cash.

 

Next season
Next season, I will try to survive. But at least I will be financially secure and hopefully get a lot of upgrades of the facilities.

 

 

Edited December 21, 2023 by fries

[leyrtj]

 

Lam Dong - Season 1 - 2020 - Vietnam - LS. V League 2 (Tier 2) - 5th

We took over newly promoted Lam Dong, near Dalat in Vietnam. Only one team is promoted from the third tier so there wasn't much choice. There were 14 players in the squad, and with some retraining we were able to put out a decent team. Predicted to come 11th with odds of 18 - 1, we finished comfortably in mid table. With only 22 games in the league, we raced through the season without much incident. We're already in debt, and have had no increase in Youth Recruitment or Junior Coaching, so not sure how this will go. We had an okay youth intake. Lots of 5 star potential players but that's more to do with our low levels that talent coming through. It will allow us to put out a whole squad next season.

I'm copying the transfer history as well as the club signed one player. However, this was on the 19th December and I joined on 22nd December as shown in the manager profile. 

 

Edited December 21, 2023 by leyrtj

[OlivierL]

Good job @thomas_e and @XaW . Impressive!  I'll try to restart this weekend 

[Daddy]

2031/32 Season Review - Belgian Third Tier - Season 8

During the previous offseason, I convinced the board to go professional after selling some big clauses off. I figured I'd have three years to get promoted before we went broke again. I did not realize I'd have to go the whole year before it kicked in. A very hot start had me feeling optimistic. Then we went into a bit of a slump and I noticed the money was not going to hold up for three years. I decided since I wasn't getting promoted it was about making tweaks to my tactic to deal with the fact that we're solid defensively, but struggle to score. It took a bunch of tweaking but I like where things settled into for a promotion or bust approach for the upcoming season.

Mostly trimming some fat and loaning out some players to get minutes. However, the one that hurt was losing my striker at the end of the January window. He wasn't a prolific scorer, but he was a team leader in goals. 

No big star this year, but that also means I get to keep my players more than 4 games

2033/34 Season Preview:

As stated above, the goal is promotion. Failing to get promoted puts staying professional in jeopardy. 

[XaW]

XaW - Berliner Athletik-Klub 07 - Season 2024/25 (Season 1) - 3. Liga

Squad | Transfers | Finances

First season in Germany was a big success, but it sure didn't look like it initially. The first 10 matches provided 3 wins, 1 draw, and 6 losses, and it looked like we were in for a relegation scrap. Going towards winter we found some form and climbed up to mid-table just as the winter break happened. After that, however, we really found form and racked up the wins. The last 10 matches of the season was amazing as we won 8 and drew 2 times to clinch one of the promotion spots! Sure, we are 4th, but since the II-teams can't be promoted, we are essentially 2nd after Hallescher. I think the team slowly got more and more used to the tactic and when they really got the hang of it we were cruising. Now, the next season will be tough, as I think this promotion is a bit premature, especially seeing that the intake wasn't really anything special. Hopefully we can get in some money next season and start to improve the club.

My top 3 pick of players this season are:

1. Nicolo Avellino - Amazing season in defense, and also scored quite a lot at set pieces.
2. Cihan Uçar - A really good season in midfield for us. Runs all day long.
3. Ahmad Rmieh - You know I love a marauding left back, and here I have one. 9 goals is also amazing from left back, even if he goes forward a lot!

DFB-Pokal: We didn't compete in it this season.

Around the world

U19s:

They finished 4th in the U19 Div. 2 Northeast this season.

Youth intake:

Trophy cabinet

None

Player statistics:

Most apps for the clubs

Name				Nation		2nd Nation	Time at club	Apps
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
None

Most goals for the club

Name				Nation		2nd Nation	Time at club	Goals
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
None

Most assists for the club

Name				Nation		2nd Nation	Time at club	Assists
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
None

Supporters:

Summary:

[unfocused_alex]

Season 28/29 - Bradford PA - All Over 

After 5 seasons at the bottom end of the Vanarama North, we have succumbed to relegation and unfortunately the end of my time here.

It'll be a short write up as I'm quite gutted, but we just weren't good enough for the level. It was made more frustrating as I felt like we may have started to click with players getting to a more first-team-worthy-age.

In January we sold Darryn Bemrose to Swansea for £75k to try and better the financial situation, however it didn't really help much and as the finances grew worse, so did the performances. We closed the season off with 10 defeats on the trot and unfortunately could not salvage a third final day survival. 

I can't help but think of the players and how they could've developed with more funding from the board, let alone my own coaching development. 

We may return with a different country in future, we'll see! 

 

[leyrtj]

Lam Dong - Season 2 - 2021 - Vietnam - LS V. League 3 (Tier 2) - 1st - Promoted

Being on holida, only 22 games a season, no scouting or transfer. You can fly through the early seasons. I've also started holidaying a bit in the second half of the season when it's obvious what the league position will be. Makes the early save grind a bit easier.

Anyway, a very nice season. The quality isn't great at this level, and our excellent dynamics made the difference. We won our first 5 games, then there were no majors incidents from there. We did get one updgrade in Junior Coaching and Youth Recruitment. And another load of 5 star potential youngsters helped to fill out the squad. the only negative was accidentally selling my best defender. I refused a bid from a team and then clicked quickly through, before realizing the board had accepted a bid on my behalf. 

[The7Striker]

Congrats @XaW and @thomas_e 

I lost my save in Kids Tampa, after accidentally deleting it, along with some older ones 

[darren1983]

 

Been doing my own little pentagon challenge (which I've been blogging here if anyone wants to read) but I've missed doing the youth side and also miss building a side up. I'm planning to alternate between the 2 saves in order to avoid my usual one save burn out and with time over the next 10 days or so (I hear it's some kind of holiday? ) I figured now's a good time to start back on this.

Here is my starting profile

Back to the original plan of Dulwich Hamlet

We have a small starting squad so this could be fun but being professional gives a little leg up in the first few years with being able to train players 

Edit: why are gifs posting as images now? 

 

Edited December 22, 2023 by darren1983

[Colossus]

Sociedad Deportiva Leioa

2036/2037

 

Season Review

Competitions | League Table | Transfers | Schedule Part 1 | Schedule Part 2 | Schedule Part 3 (Europe)

And with this amazing season, the challenge is completed. We were just so consistent during the entire season, improved massively on defense and kept a very good attack. I thought that we were 2 years away, but sometimes you get surprised.

 

Team Stats

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

Team Stats

It is a flawed team, but more than good enough for the Champions League, I guess!

 

Team of the Season:

GK – Oier Ruiz

RB – Inaki Eguaras

CB – Lucas Leguizamon

CB – Aritz Melendez

LB – Iker Celihueta

CDM – Aimar Galan

CM – Gorka Pascual

CM – Alex Goikoetxea

RW – Jesus Vallejo

LW – Aitor Marco

ST – Ander Martin

S1 – Endika Herrero

S2 – Jon Angulo

S3 – Diego Lacruz

S4 – Javier Munoz

S5 – Koldo Garai

S6 – Joseba Goti

S7 – Jean-Luc Gerard

 

Youth Intake

Rest of the Players

GK – Iban Sola

RB / CB – Manuel Ruiz

LM / LW – Javier Alcalde

CAM – Ricardo Aranburu

ST / CAM – Alberto Lorono

 

Other Stuff

Yearly Progression

 

Manager Attribute Progression

 

Youth Player Stats

Gora Leioa!

@darren1983

 

Edited December 22, 2023 by Colossus

[Daddy]

Congrats @Colossus

[leyrtj]

Lam Dong - Season 3 & 4 - 2022 & 2023 - Vietnam - Wake Up 247 V. League 1 (Tier 1) - 7th and 6th

Managed to complete 2 seasons in one day. I don't think I've done that since the old CM days. As mentioned previously, there's only 26 games in the season, one cup which is mostly only 2 or 3 games at the moment, and no scouting/transfers obviously. Also in both seasons it's been pretty obvious we'll come mid table so I've holidayed a lot of the second half of the season. Finally, Vietnam's reputation is still low, so nothing really happens - very little media or anything. 

Last season (season 2) we got promoted to the top flight. With only 1 team going down for sure, and one going into a playoff, I thought we had a good chance to stay up. We played a lot of pre-season friendlies, and had good team dynamics and form at the start of the season. We lost our first two games, but then played well, and were never in danger of going down. Mid table is fine for now. We struggled for money again, but a cup run netted us around 100k but we were still in the negative. 

Going into season 4, we guessed we'd be mid table again, so I decided to prioritse the cup. The cup gave the most money, and a fluke victory would get us into the AFC Asian Cup which would be more money. Unfortunately, we had a bad draw and got knocked out early. We finished 6th, mid table again. 

At the end of season 4, the prize money from the league put us at 80k in the bank, and we were able to get more improvements. Only our second in the save so far but we're up to Average Junior Coaching and Fairly Basic Youth Recruitment. Before this, we had a couple of really nice youth players come up. I think Truong Trong Sang is the first player from the academy that might be part of the first league winning team. Slowly, the youth is taking over the team. I still think we need a couple more improvements to get enough good players to win the league, so a cup will be needed at some point. 

 

[Anners]

Previous Post:

On 19/12/2023 at 20:01, Anners said:

Previous Post:

2052/53 Season Report

Club: Tranent FC (Scotland)
League: Scottish Premiership

League:

Solid third position, but as you can see the form ended a bit poorly. Although there was a reason for that! Quite a standard season - though we struggled at the start and at the end, 60 points is a decent return on our usual output on a season.

Europe:

Due to the 5th placed finish last year, we got into the Europa Conference League. We were getting a bit of help throughout the draw, when we had former Tranent man Lennon Walker doing a couple of draws:

We were clearly phoning in some favours in Europe this year. So how did it actually end?

This will have to do instead of the "Tranent wins the Europa Conference League" as I was a bit too excited apparently!

A fairly simple run here - although I didn't expect to get past Leicester (who in fairness actually finished 16th in the Premier League, so was a decent time to face them!). 

Final here:

  Reveal hidden contents

A name that I'd not actually mentioned much - Frank Bell - had the game of his life. Opening the scoring and then adding a 2nd through a 30 yard free kick. He's actually improved immensely over this season, though I think with moving Robertson back to DM (as you can see in the screenshot above in the spoiler), it's meant Bell's got more and more game time over the past couple of years and forms a nice little trio in midfield with Cairns and Robertson.

Youth Intake:

A couple of good prospects in Rice and Jukes here - with a central defender quite badly needed we've actually ended up with 2! We're actually looking quite good for prospects in maybe 3 or 4 seasons, so I'll expect a bit of a muted next couple of years possibly.

Facilities:

We have a new stadium built! I'll give the page here for an update as it clears a lot of things up:

Full History:

  Reveal hidden contents

Last 5 Years:

2053/54 Season Report

Club: Tranent FC (Scotland)
League: Scottish Premiership

League:

A much tighter affair, as Celtic show the league is still absolutely nuts by finishing 8th and getting nowhere near European football. I seem to be settling on around 60ish points every year now, so we don't need too much more to get another title I think? Here's hoping anyway!

Europe:

I'd say a fairly standard Europa League campaign here. Going out to a stronger team in Valencia, who then promptly got knocked out by eventual winners Tottenham. Frimpong nearly scored more goals (8) than he did in the league all year (10) as he seemed to be missing quite a few of the domestic games sadly. Still managed a solid 21 in 42 (3) games though. He is now 32 though, but isn't showing any long term plans. Very much hoping he'll want to become a staff member! Currently 64 league games off the Tranent record for most league appearances.

Youth Intake:

Spoiler

 

You might be asking "Anners, why is this behind a spoiler tag?" Because it's utter filth is what it is. This is almost a completely perfect intake. The only way this could get better is if I actually got a 15 wonderkid who would go straight into the first team.

Mitchell (though he is only a 5'9 keeper... meh)
Tart
Redfern
Templeman
Rudden
Otto
Gordon
Robertson
Kerr

These were taken at the end of the season so a couple of the potential's have moved.

Other News:

We're back with a player on the NXGN list:

The next "Gareth McAuley" himself Steven Rice gets himself the #14 spot and will end up being on this list for a couple of years probably! Very much looking forward to his development.

We've also got another stadium expansion happening:

That'll pop us up to about 25k and we'll probably stay there for a few years as we didn't fill the 17k every time, but we still had 7 sell outs in the Premiership so a little more room wouldn't hurt too much!

And the penultimate point in my other bits of news - the current team salaries. As I'm obviously quite a bit in and there's now a very clear changing of the guard, a bit of extra detail for those following:

St Johnstone are still getting bankrolled by their Tycoon, but they are still massively struggling for great players, with only 2 appearing on the dream 11 on the season preview, with half the team being Celtic. Rangers are now very clearly in the chasing pack whilst Arbroath do seem to be over achieving quite impressively every year.

Our top earner is Douglas Fordyce on £13k a week with only Calvin Gilchrist (at £10k per week) the only other on double figures. St Johnstone meanwhile are paying 4 players excess of £50k per week, with 15 total being above £13k a week!

FInally, a bit of a note on the nation club coefficents:

Not entirely sure what's going on in Germany? English football completely dominating every year.

Full History:

Spoiler

Last 5 Years:

If anyone does have anything they want to know, please feel free to reply. I'm always open to screenshots etc

[darren1983]

1 hour ago, Colossus said:

Sociedad Deportiva Leioa

2036/2037

 

Season Review

Competitions | League Table | Transfers | Schedule Part 1 | Schedule Part 2 | Schedule Part 3 (Europe)

And with this amazing season, the challenge is completed. We were just so consistent during the entire season, improved massively on defense and kept a very good attack. I thought that we were 2 years away, but sometimes you get surprised.

 

Team Stats

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

Team Stats

It is a flawed team, but more than good enough for the Champions League, I guess!

 

Team of the Season:

GK – Oier Ruiz

RB – Inaki Eguaras

CB – Lucas Leguizamon

CB – Aritz Melendez

LB – Iker Celihueta

CDM – Aimar Galan

CM – Gorka Pascual

CM – Alex Goikoetxea

RW – Jesus Vallejo

LW – Aitor Marco

ST – Ander Martin

S1 – Endika Herrero

S2 – Jon Angulo

S3 – Diego Lacruz

S4 – Javier Munoz

S5 – Koldo Garai

S6 – Joseba Goti

S7 – Jean-Luc Gerard

 

Youth Intake

Rest of the Players

GK – Iban Sola

RB / CB – Manuel Ruiz

LM / LW – Javier Alcalde

CAM – Ricardo Aranburu

ST / CAM – Alberto Lorono

 

Other Stuff

Yearly Progression

 

Manager Attribute Progression

 

Youth Player Stats

Gora Leioa!

@darren1983

 

Congrats 

[karax268]

@Colossus Congrats

 

It's the season of completions

[Winski]

Congrats @Colossus! 

[chsot68]

Hello All!

I am jumping on the train to try out this challenge, starting now! I'm going to go with England, because why not?

Wish me luck!

[libbyshuss]

France - FC Fleury '91

2029/30 (Season 6)

League: Ligue 2 (tier 2)

Predicted: 18th

Actual: 18th

I don't think I've ever had such a mad save as this one. I knew I was in trouble when we lost the first 2 games 5-1 and 5-2. But we recovered and by mid-December pulled ourselves out of the automatic relegation spots and were in good form and good morale. A nice cup run had helped as well. But in the 18 remaining league games, we managed to win a grand total of ZERO, finishing rock bottom. 

The board weren't best pleased..... but gave me 5 games to save my job (with only 2 games of the season left). It helped that their expectations were incredibly low to begin with

 

Players

Player of the Season:- Quentin Vogt - this shows how bad we were! A journeyman legacy defender was our best player with a huge 6.90 average rating

Top Scorer:- Saliba Dabo - 16 Our legacy striker actually did ok this season, but I got fed up with his constant moaning and am sorely tempted to start with a 16 year old with raw potential up front next season. At this stage I don't really have much to lose!

Top Assists:- Loup Herviou - 9 Probably the only legacy player still in the team I actually still like! 

I still don't have any full backs so am forced to still play my weird formation

 

Youth

I managed to get an upgrade to our youth recruitment this season, but sadly too late to affect this little lot. Actually, it was a pretty good year for us this year!

best of the bunch? this fella

 

Career

Edited December 23, 2023 by libbyshuss

[glennuk]

Congrats @Colossus and @thomas_e 

Some impressive careers here for sure.

Had a random thought, has anyone ever done all continents in the YAC Challenge?

EG:

I have done 1 and hope to complete another this year:
England (Done) - Europe
Japan (Hope) - Asia

Would then need to do
Africa
S America
N America
Oceania or Australasia or whatever it's calling itself these days

[XaW]

Congrats @Colossus! Well done! 

[XaW]

1 hour ago, glennuk said:

Had a random thought, has anyone ever done all continents in the YAC Challenge?

EG:

I have done 1 and hope to complete another this year:
England (Done) - Europe
Japan (Hope) - Asia

Would then need to do
Africa
S America
N America
Oceania or Australasia or whatever it's calling itself these days

I don't think so, but feel free to do so! I've done Europe and Africa, so perhaps my next success will be in another one...

For North America, you would have to do Mexico (if it's still available with relegation this year?), or use the Caribbean pack, and I expect that would be a hard one. Other than that I think it would be possible. Imagine doing it in ONE save where you just apply for the job of a recently promoted side, now THAT is the ultimate FM Challenge!  

[leyrtj]

2 hours ago, glennuk said:

Congrats @Colossus and @thomas_e 

Some impressive careers here for sure.

Had a random thought, has anyone ever done all continents in the YAC Challenge?

EG:

I have done 1 and hope to complete another this year:
England (Done) - Europe
Japan (Hope) - Asia

Would then need to do
Africa
S America
N America
Oceania or Australasia or whatever it's calling itself these days

I've actually set myself this challenge. The Pentagon Youth Academy Challenge perhaps? So far, I've completed Africa and am working on Asia at the moment. I think I will try to add Oceania as well. 

XaW - I love the idea of doing it in one save, Only thing that stops me is that the computer processing speed would slow down a lot.

Would be great to have a 5 continent completion leaderboard for the motivation.

Edited December 23, 2023 by leyrtj

[darren1983]

Season 2024/25 Review. National league South

 

League - Was an excellent season. We started off well and found ourselves in a 4 way battle but Eastbourne really fell away and ended up being a proper 3 way fight between us, Dorking and Chelmsford (Who started so poorly they were 23rd after 6 games) felt like Dorking were going to run away at one stage but we dragged them back and went top after 30 games and never looked back despite the odd stumble. 42 league goals from Danny Mills along with the goals and assists from Anthony Jeffery (who we're gonna miss next season unless I can get him down from his 3.4k a week wage demands) fired us to glory as we won the league. The top 4 would all have finished top last season which is mental. 

FA Cup - Had a great run in this, making the 3rd round for the first time (I think) beat league one Wycombe but the 2nd round replay with Torquay was crazy. We were 2 down after 60 mins so I threw 3 17 year olds on to rest players for the league and 2 of them scored to turn it around as we got 2 injury time goals to win. Frank Lampard's Championship Coventry City were way too good for us though.

FA Trophy - We did OK, tried to use this for fringe players but we had such a small squad we didn't really have fringe players. Chelmsford beat us 9-8 on pens for the fun

Transfers - None in but of the 3 we lost the first 2 would have been much needed squad depth this season so that hurt

Finances - The cup run and getting nearly 3k every home game has us looking good

Youth Intake - The preview didn't excite me much but it turned out good

Keston Gray 25A - striker, like the look of him, not got all the tentpoles I look for but has enough. Made his league debut in the final game after we had the title wrapped up
Stephen McAllister 25B - always nice to have a keeper early
Kerian Murdoch 25C - a nice looking CB. Also made his league debut already
Sam Shanley 25D - more of a DM than a playmaker but added depth in that area
Allan Pelletier 25E - a left footed French box to box player? I'm in love! Another that got some time on the pitch in the final match
Shahed Pirone 25F - right back and became the clubs youngest ever player in that final game

Career Overview

Season	League							Position	Youth Coaching	Youth Recruitment	Youth Facilities	Traning Facilities	Notes & Achievements
							
2024/25	Vanarama National League South				1st 		Average		Good			Basic			Below Average		First coaching badge

 

[glennuk]

1 hour ago, leyrtj said:

I've actually set myself this challenge. The Pentagon Youth Academy Challenge perhaps? So far, I've completed Africa and am working on Asia at the moment. I think I will try to add Oceania as well. 

XaW - I love the idea of doing it in one save, Only thing that stops me is that the computer processing speed would slow down a lot.

Would be great to have a 5 continent completion leaderboard for the motivation.

YES!

I want to do it in each continent, but as @XaW said doing it all in one save would be insane (my computer may explode though).

[glennuk]

Rein Meer AKA ReinBerg - Season 6 - Japan J3 League - Mid Year Review & Youth Intake

League

We are once again one of the most attacking teams in the league, which I like to keep as our identity. We do concede a bit, but not sure if that is just tactic, or the fact that our defenders are our weakest part of our team.

Youth Intake Preview

A strong preview. We could really do with a good full back and a central midfielder so hopefully the intake comes to fruition in those areas especially.

Youth Intake

Another good intake with some exciting players throughout. EIGHT elite talents is what I need to see. 

A few decent personalities in here too. Any player that is already at 2 * ability, is one that could well make some first team appearances this year.

Top 3 - Youth Intake 6

Takuya Ogasawara (YP06A)

A full back is an area of need. So getting a Fairly Professional RB with good current ability and huge potential ability is a boone for the club. Starting off with decent physicals and good in most areas, apart from worryingly low dribbling. I like my full backs to have the ability to overlap and put in crosses. Hopefully we can improve the dribbling, as he has a ton of potential overall.

Fumiya Ono (YP06B)

A midfielder who is decent all around. Nothing pops out as being amazing, but I like that he has the ability to attack and defend (with 10 tackling). His physicals are pretty poor, but usually that can improve quicker than other areas of weakness. I will probably train him as a Deep Lying Playmaker. Definitely one for the future though, as he has a way to improve.

Shohei Imamura (YP06C)

A right winger who has a left foot. I do play with a mix of winger/inverted wingers, so having him cut in with his left may be something to work on. He has GREAT acceleration for his level and hoping that along with his strong dribbling will get him through at the J3 Level.

Other News

Another upgrade at Junior Coaching means our facilities are slowly getting to a good level. With Excellent Junior/Academy Coaching

Since the above screenshot I also got my LONG awaited improvement in Youth recruitment. Look at all of those requests

 

[dkouv]

Congrats @Colossus, nice one!

[libbyshuss]

France - FC Fleury '91

2030/31 (season 7)

SACKED!

Adventure over. After getting relegated last season the board gave me a challenge of 8 points from the enxt 5 games to save my job. Which would be fine except we still had 2 games of Ligue 2 left, which we duly lost. 

So, I needed to win the first 3 games of the season to survive. 

We breezed through the first 2, and was breezing the third when they equalised in the 93rd minute to get me sacked. Gutted!

I kinda feel like I was stitched up though - the board sold my best player behind my back just before that third game!

 

Ah well, we wouldn't do this challenge if it didn't have some element of jeopardy to it. 

As I'm completely obsessed by it i'll be jumping straight back in as well. I like th eidea of the pentagon challenge - I've only got Africa and North America left to complete, so I might head off there next.

Just got to decide whether to use a downloaded database or vanilla......

[glennuk]

Unlucky @libbyshuss. You had the biggest yoyo career I have seen in this challenge. Was following with interest. 

Hoping to see you get that pentagon soon

[dkouv]

Brora Rangers – Season 11 (2034/35)

Premiership A pretty incredible season. After getting promoted on the last day on goal difference, I wasn’t expecting much. But after losing 5 out of the first 6, we went on this amazing run which never really ended until the end of the season, and we finished 2nd! I think our ppg was actually not that different from the Championship last season; no idea what to make of this.

Players So it turned out that all these youngsters in our £110k/month Championship youth setup were actually pretty good. Once we went pro and they started playing in the Premiership, some of them developed really fast, and now I actually have a squad core of decent Prem-level players. The star man was undoubtedly Ryan Nelson 08c (DL), who managed to score 11 goals from attacking wing back (including some penalties), even managing a hat-trick in one game - what a monster!

2 players on the wonderkid list too, though unfortunately our “Scottish Mbappe” is not actually that good. Tom Thomas 07a (AML/ST), the next Evan Ferguson, is pretty good, and is refusing to sign a new contract, so he might go for his release clause soon.

 

Youth intake (preview) Pretty poor again, I hope to finally start improving those facilities in the next year.

  

Facilities/Finances The Premiership prize money finally put us (just about) in the black; I doubt we’ll qualify for the CL group stage next year but even a Europa league group would set us up nicely for some upgrades.

No major transfers; now that we’re in the Premiership some of my players have pretty high valuations so I would be ok selling some of them.

Season    |  League       | Pos. |     Europe     |   Best player                    |  Notes
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2024/25   | League 2      |  1   |     n/a        |  Andrew Macrae (ST)              | Promoted
2025/26   | League 1      |  7   |     n/a        |  Andrew Macrae (ST)              |
2026/27   | League 1      |  6   |     n/a        |  Andrew Macrae (ST)              |
2027/28   | League 1      |  5   |     n/a        |  James Wallace (ST)              |
2028/29   | League 1      |  1   |     n/a        |  Andrew Macrae (ST)              | Promoted
2029/30   | Championship  |  6   |     n/a        |  Tony Jukes 05a (ST)             |
2030/31   | Championship  |  8   |     n/a        |  Tony Jukes 05a (ST)             | Won SPL Trust Trophy
2031/32   | Championship  |  4   |     n/a        |  Tom Thomas 07a (ST)             | Lost in playoff 1st round
2032/33   | Championship  |  2   |     n/a        |  Tony Jukes 05a (ST)             | Lost in playoff 2nd round
2033/34   | Championship  |  1   |     n/a        |  Tony Jukes 05a (AMR)            | Promoted
2034/35   | Premiership   |  2   |     n/a        |  Ryan Nelson 08c (DL)            |


Facilities
----------
Season    |  Coaching     |  Recruitment      | Training Fac.  | Youth Fac.      |  Stadium
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2024      |  Basic        |  Limited   	      | Basic          |  Poor           |  3000
2024/25   |  Adequate     |  Fairly basic     | Basic          |  Basic          |  3000
2025/26   |  Good         |  Average          | Basic          |  Basic          |  3000
2026/27   |  Excellent    |  Above average    | Basic          |  Basic          |  3000
2027/28   |  Excellent    |  Good             | Basic          |  Basic          |  3000
2028/29   |  Exceptional  |  Good             | Below average  |  Basic          |  3000
2029/30   |  Excellent    |  Good             | Below average  |  Basic          |  3000
2030/31   |  Excellent    |  Good             | Below average  |  Basic          |  3000
2031/32   |  Excellent    |  Good             | Below average  |  Basic          |  3000
2032/33   |  Excellent    |  Good             | Below average  |  Basic          |  3000
2033/34   |  Excellent    |  Good             | Below average  |  Basic          |  3000
2034/35   |  Excellent    |  Good             | Below average  |  Basic          |  3000

 

[leyrtj]

Lam Dong - Season 5 & 6 - 2024 & 2025 - Vietnam - Wake UP 247 V. League 1 (Tier 1) - 7th and 6th

Well, not much has happened since the last update. We've managed to play another 2 seasons in a day.

We continued to finish mid-table these two seasons. No cups runs in either season unfortunately - first we were knocked out by a Division 2 team. That one really hurt as that would have put us into the Semi Final, and a guaranteed 100k. In Season 6, we came up against a good team. The Youth was average in both seasons. one left back came straight into the first team but, other than that, I only took the good personalities to fill out the squad. We got another increase in Junior Coaching and Youth Recruitment. We've gone up to 1 star reputation. Also, the prize money in the league has gone up. Slowly, I feel we are making progress, but it's inch by inch. 

 

 

[Colossus]

9 horas atrás, XaW disse:

Congrats @Colossus! Well done! 

 

10 horas atrás, glennuk disse:

Congrats @Colossus and @thomas_e 

Some impressive careers here for sure.

Had a random thought, has anyone ever done all continents in the YAC Challenge?

EG:

I have done 1 and hope to complete another this year:
England (Done) - Europe
Japan (Hope) - Asia

Would then need to do
Africa
S America
N America
Oceania or Australasia or whatever it's calling itself these days

 

12 horas atrás, Winski disse:

Congrats @Colossus! 

 

16 horas atrás, karax268 disse:

@Colossus Congrats

 

It's the season of completions

 

20 horas atrás, darren1983 disse:

Congrats 

 

21 horas atrás, Daddy disse:

Congrats @Colossus

 

5 horas atrás, dkouv disse:

Congrats @Colossus, nice one!

Thanks everyone. This year's game feels a lot easier for some reason, I don't know if it's our teams playing a lot better because of the ME (I saw some truly beautiful team goals) or the lack of rotation of the AI

[HenTheChicken]

We are so back.