[FM24] Turning a bunch of kids into the next Greek heroes - Youth Only in Greece

[BillHoudini24]

Hi everyone! I'm a long-time reader of this forum, but I've never had my own thread, so let's change that.

This will be part career updates from my Youth Only save in Greece, part tactical/club DNA discussion. Since I've already played 6 seasons, we'll have to pick things up from where I am now, which is the end of the 2029 season.

The team had a crazy run at the beginning of the save, achieving promotion two years in a row, going from the third division to the first without any issues. Since then, things have stagnated. The main reason is that quality-wise, the jump from the second to the first division has been enormous and my squad is comprised on average by third division-leading players.

Season 1 (promotion to the second division):

Season 2 (promotion to the first division):

Since I was promoted to SL1 (2025), I was always involved in the relegation battle. Most of the time we would be mathematically safe by the time we played the relegation group at the end of the season, but last year was our toughest yet. We barely escaped only because the teams below us were even worse.

At the same time, I lost my best winger to Juventus,

Spoiler

a winger prospect to a relegation rival

Spoiler

and now my main left back is asking for a better challenge.

Spoiler

 

Now that I covered the career update part of this post, I'll lay down my thoughts about tactics and as a result, club DNA, because without transfers, every part of the club structure will play a role on whether we'll succeed or not.

Before my wingers became unhappy and left the club, I was playing different variations of a 4-3-3 vertical tiki-taka. It worked wonders in the divisions where we were the better team in most matches, but we couldn't pull it off with the big boys, even before the departures.

 

Since then, I've been trying to find a way forward and now that we are heading into the off-season, it's a perfect opportunity to revamp our tactical approach.

Needless to say, the squad is not good. We're not particularly athletic or technical. The mental attributes are alright, but not really better than average.

 

My best players per position are the following:
GK - Skafidas: Our goalkeeper since the start of the save. I've been very unlucky with the intakes GK-wise, but I hope there is a replacement coming up. To be fair to Skafidas, he has performed quite well in the first division, but if we want to take the next step, we need a better goalkeeper, who will be able to participate in the build-up as well.

Spoiler

Wing Back - Xygoros: Same story as Skafidas. He has been with me since the start of the save, he was incredible in the lower divisions, but now in the Super League he's just ok. We need better wing backs with pace, who can create something by crossing.

Spoiler

Centre Back - Manikas (26e): One of the best players who came through our academy so far. Great personality, great physicals and mentals, I hope we can help him develop a bit more technically and we'll be set for a few years. He spent 6 months injured last year which stopped his development.

Spoiler

Midfielders - Sarris (25d) + Flessas (25c): My best players in terms of attributes and overall development. Sarris is our defensive pivot and Flessas is our creator. The goal is to keep them and build the team around them.

Spoiler

Spoiler

Forward - Lazaridis (23g): Finally, our striker. Without him we wouldn't be in the first division, as simple as that. He's scoring as much as he can with the minimal service he's getting, he never complains and he was pretty low in the intake order when I got him. I wish he was a bit more all around, but we have to work with what he have.

Spoiler

This brings us to the short, medium and long-term aims for this save (and thread):
- Change HYD. The current one is Greek and has decent attributes, but hasn't really delivered considering our extensive youth recruitment. (short term)
- Establish a new style of play, better tailored to our "strengths", which will function as a stepping stone for the future. (short/mid term)
- Further improve the main and the youth facilities. (mid term)
- Qualify to the European Qualification group. (long term)
- Establish a new club DNA, based on the Cruyff principles. (long term)
- Become a top 10 football academy. (very long term)

 

Thank you to everyone who read all this, I'd be glad to read your suggestions about tactical adjustments with a team that is predicted to finish dead last every season and about establishing a "creative" club DNA only by using Youth Intakes and staff.

Edited February 4 by BillHoudini24

[BillHoudini24]

Season 2029-2030

Same old, same old. Some big wins here and there, stretches without any wins and then turning on the style during the relegation play offs.

The only difference this year was that we made a step further on the Greek Cup, reaching the semi-final, where we fought bravely against Greek giants Olympiacos. They ended up lifting the trophy on a rare win over AEK.

 

Just when things were looking a little bit better financially, the board decided to build a new stadium and get a huge loan, meaning that we won't have any facility upgrades for the time being.

 

As I said in the first post, one of this season's goals was to come up with a new tactic that would suit us better. I opted for a modern 4-4-2, using roles that are not physically demanding. We still had a lot of harmless possession, but we did better than last year, so I think I am getting somewhere.

 

The next two posts will be about this year's intake, the best performers and the most improved players.

Edited January 11 by BillHoudini24

[Sheriff7]

Good luck mate! A very interesting choice you made there,a club with big history. 

[BillHoudini24]

12 hours ago, Sheriff7 said:

Good luck mate! A very interesting choice you made there,a club with big history. 

Thanks man! It's not going well for a while, I expected to have a European qualification by now The jump from SL2 to SL1 is truly crazy. Even teams outside of the big 6 can spend a bit of money and get 2-3 good foreign players every year.

Let's see how long it will take to play in the Conference League.

[BillHoudini24]

Season 2030: Reasons to be optimistic

As you probably read in the previous posts, things have stagnated for my youth Panionios team. But lately, there are a few reasons to be hopeful. Say hello to the "Promising Bunch", 6 players who are going to be the backbone of this team for the next phase of this save, the one where we stop being a relegation fighting team and start moving towards European qualification.

 

Defenders:

We start with Thanos Barkosis (29a), the most promising player of the class of 2029. A fast and all-around wing back who could potentially do a job for us even in midfield. Due to my lack of right-wing players I started playing him as soon as I could register him. In 17 league games, he had a goal, an assist and averaged 6.8. Not bad for someone who turned 16 during the season.

Next up, we have another very promising player, Jo Papakonstantinou (30b). He's the second best of last year's very promising intake. He also seems quite versatile in terms of attributes and I decided to develop him as a Ball Playing Defender or Half Back. If everything goes well, he will become essential in the way we want to play.

Last but not least, Isaak Chalimourdas (27c). A little bit older than the rest, but he looks like he can contribute a lot as a left back. He's the best athlete on the team, which I think helps him hide his technical issues. Last year he had 3 assists in 28 games and averaged a respectable 6.83. I hope he can improve a bit on his technicals. Another point for his positional versatility.

 

Midfielders:

Here we have two players, one that is still too young to play in the main team and one who has surprised me a lot. Starting with the young one, Christos Samaras (30a) was leading last years intake as the most promising player. He could already play for the men's team, but he needs to improve his physicals. I have very high hopes for him.

Now, let's go to the curious case of Makis Skamantzouras (26h). According to my staff, he was the 8th most promising player of his year. His attributes don't say much, but he's been a very consistent contributor, all his goals were worldies (and important). Last year he had the highest average rating in the league for our squad, with 6.96 I don't know how much more he can develop, but he's definitely a player I want to keep on the squad moving forward.

 

Forwards:

Same story as the previous section. We have a promising star and a player who came out of nowhere to save us from relegation. Our promising forward is Orfeas Perdikis (27a). He was the best of his class, scored on his professional debut and I had the highest of hopes for him. Since then, 2 injuries have delayed his development and now I am starting to worry that he will be one of the first failures of my academy. So far he had 3 goals and 1 assist in 36 games. He's currently a squad player.

Now let's go the player that impressed me the most lately. Pavlos Nitis (28h) was a 3 star potential in 2028's youth intake and my staff were against signing him. I saw a nice attribute distribution and I decided to give him a chance. He started improving immediately. Scored a lot in the youth teams and during an injury crisis I promoted him to the first team. He hasn't left the starting eleven since then. He has 12 goals and 4 assists in 36 games and he was the reason we stayed up last year, when my captain and main forward Lazaridis (23g) was unhappy about our lack of depth at left midfield ().

 

In the next post, I'll show you how bad this team really is compared to the rest of the league, my troubles with squad personalities and an update on the 2030-2031 season.

Edited January 12 by BillHoudini24

[Sheriff7]

You are in a only youth save man. You must have patient. 

[BillHoudini24]

Reasons to be optimistic pt.2

 

It seems that we are doing something right at youth level. Our U19 team won their first league title. Sign of better days ahead? I hope so, because for the main team the season has been a complete disaster. We spent the entire season in the last places of the table and even got last at some point. But more on that later.

 

In the meantime, am I such a bad tactician and the roster is underperforming, or I'm just impatient, expecting miracles with a bunch of second division players?

As you can clearly see, probably the second. We lack the technique and pace to play proper attacking football, we lack the Determination and Work Rate to go into a "Simeone" direction and we're horrible at set pieces, so we get no easy goals from anywhere.

 

Honestly, I do not know how we have survived in the first division all these years, but I think our luck is running out. Nitis had an amazing season despite being unhappy for most of it and he's definitely the reason that our torture continues. I am 100% sure he's leaving us this summer though, as Europe's best 11 teams are after him. Luckily, he has a 10M release clause, so I hope we can fix our financial situation through him.

 

Talking about finances, we sold our 4th choice CB for 2M +50% (Next sale), as he let me know that he wouldn't renew his contract. This is our second highest sale so far. 7 Jumping Reach in a league full or crosses and set piece teams is just a liability.

 

Lastly, our right-back has been included in the list of the 50 best young players. First time for our team, this boy will go far! I hope he stays, but I am already trying to find a replacement, just in case.

[BillHoudini24]

Bittersweet moment for the club:

On one hand, we make our biggest ever sale and we sent a Panionios academy product to the great Manchester City.

On the other hand, he was our best striker who saved us from relegation with 19 goals and 2 assists in 26 games. His replacement will determine our survival this year. In his Panionios career, he had 55 games and 28 goals.

Good luck Pavlos!

 

 

[FunnySeaSider]

Very interesting save so far mate! Looking forward to seeing how this develops. This could very well end up being a Build a Nation save with Greece 

[BillHoudini24]

4 hours ago, FunnySeaSider said:

Very interesting save so far mate! Looking forward to seeing how this develops. This could very well end up being a Build a Nation save with Greece 

Thanks man! You might be right, progress is so slow that I might end up feeding players to the rest of the league over the years. Maybe I can get the Greek national team job in the future.

[BillHoudini24]

Season 2030-2031: One step forward, two steps back

 

There is no way around it, we had a horrible season, while AEK makes it 9 in a row!

Our leading goal scorer Lazaridis (23g) (72 goals in 211 appearances) had a nightmare of a season with just 2 goals. Luckily, Pavlos Nitis (28h) had a breakout year, saved us from relegation while unhappy and got his dream transfer to Manchester City.

He led us in a fantastic run when it mattered the most and we survive for one more year!

The first intake of the new HYD was meh at best, still bad personalities despite him being a Perfectionist, but let's see how they develop.

 

So far, my favorite is Lykogiannis (31b). I hope he can help us sooner than later, we need every decent player we can get.

 

The next post will be about the busy off season, where we loan out a dozen players and try to replace Nitis internally either through players, or tactical changes.

Edited January 13 by BillHoudini24

[BillHoudini24]

Pre-season break: Replacing Pavlos Nitis (28h), or back to Super League 2

 

Replacing someone who just provided 21 goals will always be hard, especially in a "youth-only" save. But we have to move on quick.

We started by loaning out a dozen players, either because they're too old to play with the U19, or because they have no place in my rotation. Our only transfer is a Panionios graduate who has 16 Determination. He's not good enough to play anymore, but I hope he can help us out by mentoring our strikers.

 

The money from Nitis (28h) transfer go straight into the club, establishing very good facilities. I think we're going places, as long as we don't get relegated.

 

In the first international break, our starting right wing-back gets called up for Greece's main squad at only 17 years old. No wonder, since he's been great for us already.

[BillHoudini24]

Mid season update (2031-2032): The return of the king

 

I don't want to jinx it, but this looks like our best season yet. We're creating more and better chances, while being tight at the back. We have won games against other relegation candidates and got some nice draws from top 6 teams. AEK is running away with the title once again, going for their 10th straight! They've replaced Olympiacos as the dominant force in Greece.

 

The main reason for our great season is Giannis Lazaridis (23g). After a horrible season last year, he comes back with a bang to say "Nitis who?!"

In 15 games he has 7 goals, 8 assists and averages 7.31. The king is back at his best and so are we!

 

He even made Orfeas Perdikis (27a) look good, a high regarded prospect that was starting to look like a flop. Orfeas is having his best season yet, with 5 goals and 2 assists. Together, they're leading us to a season with minimal drama.

 

I probably shouldn't pay too much attention to these, but after all the upgrades, this looks rather disappointing...

Edited January 13 by BillHoudini24

[BillHoudini24]

Season 2031-2032: Drama free on the pitch, drama galore off the pitch

 

Finally a season where we didn't worry about our survival. Giannis Lazaridis (23g) had his best season yet, leading us to safety by providing 13 goals and 12 assists, averaging 7.11. Alongside him, we had Kostas Flessas (25c) and Andrianos Sivilias (24b) on a breakout season, offering 10 and 9 assists respectively.

 

One pleasant (but also weird surprise) is Vissarion Drabalis (28b). He had 6 goals and 2 assists, playing as a box-to-box midfielder or as a Pressing Forward. One season wonder or a valuable squad member? It remains to be seen.

Speaking of player development, Orfeas Perdikis (29a) is starting to earn his place in the squad, with 7 goals and 3 assists.

 

AEK won their 11th straight league, I really don't know when they're going to fall off. They just destroy everyone with ease. We did a good job in the playoffs, getting a record high 44 points!

 

Off the pitch, things have been crazy. We had a second big sale, as Barkosis (29a) was too good to be left unnoticed. He signed for Inter, but we got good money, a next sale clause and a loan back for a year. I'm sad we lost him but I knew this was coming.

 

Our youth intake was not very good once again and the trend of bad personalities continues. I am optimistic for a couple of them, but again, time will tell.

 

Finally, we got new owners, but nothing really changed. We now have secure finances because of the big sales, which allowed us one further upgrade in the training facilities.

 

We need a few of the youngsters to make a step up, if we want to keep improving in the league.

Edited January 14 by BillHoudini24

[BillHoudini24]

Panagiotis Xygoros: Last man standing

Panagiotis is the last player from the original squad. He was our starting right back until Barkosis (29a) came along. His versatility is the reason he's still a valuable part of our squad, covering right-back, left-back and right mid.

During the off season, it was time to honor his contribution to Panionios, with a testimonial friendly.

I think he still has a couple of seasons left in him, but now that Barkosis (29a) has a year left with us on loan, we need to start developing the next starting right-back.

Thank you for your service Panagiotis!

Edited January 15 by BillHoudini24

[BillHoudini24]

Youth Intake 2033: The gods have smiled upon us!

Finally, after years of drought, we get a good goalkeeper, who's also a Perfectionist! We also got 2 more midfielders, but we were covered there already. Now we're missing some wingers and a striker.

Edited January 16 by BillHoudini24

[BillHoudini24]

Stop the count!!!

[Sheriff7]

5th place and an ECL ticket looks achievable

[BillHoudini24]

On 17/01/2024 at 18:47, Sheriff7 said:

5th place and an ECL ticket looks achievable

Spoiler alert, it wasn't meant to be, but we made a big step forward regardless! More in the next post.

[BillHoudini24]

Season 2033-2034: Getting closer, but still no cigar

This season was a bit of a weird one. Giannis Lazaridis (23g) was not scoring anymore, same as Orfeas Perdikis (27a). With my strikers struggling, anyone would assume that the season would be challenging, to say the least. But what happened was quite different.

For the first time since the start of the save (season 11 overall, season 9 in the first division), we managed to qualify for the Championship Group. There we were clearly outplayed and out of gas, but at least we didn't have to worry about relegation.

At the same time, our academy work seems to be working at all levels. The U19 team were crowned champions of Greece!

The Development Center is a sight to behold, with many players being almost ready for the jump to the first team.

For that reason, it was the first time in 11 years that I had a clear-out transfer window during the summer. Players with a bit of potential left on loan once again, but I also sold and released quite a few players.

It was also time to sell Orfeas Perdikis (27a) abroad to Alaves, as the money was truly insane for a striker with  less than 25 goals in 6 years .

 

Youth Prospect Watch - There are many reasons to be optimistic for the future, I'll show you 3+1 of them:

Napoleon Veroutis (33f): Great athlete already, can play on both sides and doesn't have an atrocious personality. I lack depth in his positions, so he's going to play soon.

Polydoros Toumasis (33c): Same youth intake, maybe even more promising as a player. Great technical ability, but he needs to improve a lot, as we're pretty much stacked in midfield right now.

Potis Mingos (34d): I have very high hopes for this kid. He looks like our next starting pivot or BPD for years to come. Great personality and already pretty versatile attribute distribution. I might start playing him as soon as he turns 17.

Elidon Bajrami (34e): The "plus one". He's quite promising as well, but I don't know if he can offer more than my existing options. He's also weak and small, which doesn't allow me to play him up front. Let's see how he develops.

 

During the off season we had some interesting things happening. Firstly, I had my first offer from a national team, as Austria came in calling. I didn't even consider it, I'll probably try to manage Greece later in the save, but it's not time yet for international management.

Finally, Greece U19 had a decent campaign in the Euros, which resulted into having a Panionios player in the Dream Team!

Alkiviadis is already a starter in my main squad, playing both as a Winger and as an Inside Forward. In his first year in the first team, he had 5 goals, 4 assists and averaged a 6.90

Edited February 4 by BillHoudini24

[BillHoudini24]

Seeing that long yearly updates are not very engaging for most people, I decided to switch into more regular updates. I hope that can increase participation, but also help me play the game slower and pay more attention to detail. The save is getting at a point where I need to slow things down and focus more on player development. For now, let's get into the final yearly update.

[BillHoudini24]

Season 2034-2035: Our best season yet, Panionios has finally arrived!

Last season we made it into the Championship Group for the first time. This year I felt the pressure of repeating this feat, but things turned out to be a little bit easier. Giannis Lazaridis (23g) was once again the undisputed starting striker and after changing his role into an Advanced Forward, he had a hell of a year! The Panionios captain scored 19 goals and provided 4 assists in 33 games getting us into the 3rd place and the qualification to the Europa League! At the same time, PAOK chocked massively in the playoffs, basically handing AEK yet another title (13 straight). At this point, I really don't know when they'll stop winning.

In the cup, we had another decent campaign, but ended up losing to Olympiacos, after two close matches.

The U19 team continues to prove that we are the best Greek academy, by winning their second title in a row. Definitely a good sign for the future, but I'll get to that later.

This year's youth intake was a very good one, as we finally got not just 1, but 2 promising strikers.

 

Giannis Antonis (35b) looks like the real deal! Determined, promising technicals and not a midget, I think he's going to be our next number 9.

Giorgos Apostolidis (35d) looks useful as well, but his Determination worries me. It will be interesting to see how they develop. They'll both get plenty of chances, since we're quite short on strikers.

Ardit Abazi (35c) is a very promising wide player, who will probably become our starting Inside Forward. He's Determined and his technicals look quite good already.

Finally, I couldn't leave out the most promising player of this intake, at least according to my staff. He looks great already, also Determined and will be able to play all over the central areas of the pitch. He's being retrained as a Ball Playing Defender.

 

I will wrap this up with my first "Manager of the Year" award. It was a defining year in my attempt to win everything with a bunch of kids from Athens.

Edited February 6 by BillHoudini24

[BillHoudini24]

Season 2035-2036: Part 1, Preseason struggles and formation tinkering

It was a rather uneventful preseason transfer-wise. Luckily all our best players wanted to stay and no major sides were interested in them. For that reason, I proceeded in renewing contracts and loaning out players aged 18-20 that are not yet at the main squad's level. This means that we have to keep an eye on 14 players, playing mostly in Greece's second league.

The only exception is Faton Basha (29b), who's going to play in Belgium's first division. He was quite promising back in 2029, but midfielders from later intakes seem to have developed better and faster. I hope we can get some money for him next year, after a good season in Belgium.

After playing a 4-3-3 (4-1-2-2-1) for years, I thought about trying something else, which is generally not the best idea after having your most successful season in the save. Anyway, I tried the following system in the preseason, which was similar in terms of instruction with what we were doing before, just pressed higher.

Needless to say, it didn't work as planned. Too many shots, not enough quality chances and very leaky at the back.

Against Turkish side Altinordu, we won thanks to a last minute goal by our Segundo Volante, but it was alarming that we conceded 2 goals with the opponent having just 0.26 xG.

Similar game against Lokomotiv Plovdiv. They scored with 5 shots (1 on target) and 0.64 xG. Meanwhile, we had 23 shots but not really any clear cut chances. We equalised thanks to a long shot by one of our 17 year olds that took part in the preseason tour.

On the last "serious" friendly before the start of the season, we got battered by relegation candidate OFI. Same situation, low quality shots and 4 goals conceded on 1.68 xG. That was it for me, I cannot risk finishing outside of the Championship Group in the league, especially in a year with increased matches because of our European qualification. So I went back to my tested and trusted formation of the previous years. It is largely based on a Rashidi video about Positional Play, so I take no credit for it.

 

The first month is going to be difficult. We play against league hegemons AEK, the falling giants Olympiacos and we have the Europa League playoffs in between.

I am not very optimistic based on what I've seen during the preseason, but to be fair to the team, our main squad keepers were injured.

[BillHoudini24]

Season 2035-2036: Part 2, Got thrown in the deep, did we manage to swim?

End of August was challenging. The priority was to get into the Europa League group stage, mostly to keep our finances safe. After that, it would be nice to not get battered by AEK or Olympiacos. Morale is always important, but this year with all these extra games, it's going to be crucial.

 

Away against AEK (Greek Super League):

It was a very weird game to start the season. AEK was dominating in the first half, but our goalkeeper Tzanoulinos (25a) kept us in the game. Then in the second half, Sivilias' (24b) heroics started. 2 goals by cutting inside, the first one was a wonderful chip over the AEK goalkeeper. Our vice captain Akis Kontopidis (28c) scored his first goal for Panionios, after 6 years of drought! It would be fair to say that we had a lucky start of the season.

Away against Hajduk (Europa League Playoffs):

Another tough away game, this time against Hajduk Split. It was a very close game, with no team really taking any risks. We finally got our break, when Sivilias (24b) scored a nice goal after... yeah you guessed it, cutting inside from the left wing. Qualification in the group stage is now in our hands.

Home against Olympiacos (Greek Super League):

What a month, another difficult game! Olympiacos might not be what they once were, but it's still a team that spends a lot of money and has a squad with more quality than ours. Our team was quite tired after the mid-week game against Hajduk and Olympiacos took advantage of that. We were dominated for most of the game, which was reflected in Olympiacos drawing first blood with a header in a 2v1 situation. Luckily, Sivilias (24b) was able to get a penalty for us, which the Panionios skipper Giannis Lazaridis (23g) was able to convert, despite his 6 Penalty Taking, which is btw the highest in the team. After the penalty we did better, but didn't have any major chances to get the win. I'll take the draw considering our schedule.

Home against Hajduk (Europa League Playoffs):

August was clearly Sivilias' (24b) month! Another crucial goal, despite not liking big matches, taking the pressure off us. Hajduk proved hard to beat, but our box-to-box mid Makis Skamantzouras (26h) arrived late in the area and with a nicely placed shot gave us the win and along with it, 3.4M euros for our participation in the group stage.

We are going up against some serious teams, which makes me afraid for our morale during the season, but let's try to stay positive. We're in our first continental competition!

 

MVP of the month - Andrianos Sivilias (24b): Who else would it be? Andrianos scored 4 crucial goals in 4 games, outperforming his 1.79xG by far. This is also reflected in his 7.55 average rating. The funny thing is that we had a difficult summer, as he was demanding a crazy new contract, which I ended up giving him after 2 rounds of negotiations, because we would be way worse without him. Will he keep it up?

 

Edited February 10 by BillHoudini24

[BillHoudini24]

Season 2035-2036: Part 3, juggling domestic and European games for the first time, how did we do?

September was a mixed bag of results. We played 5 league and 2 Europa League games, and we had 2 wins, 1 draw and 4 losses. It was difficult to keep playing my best players and unfortunately the rotation options (mostly kids or underdeveloped players) were not up to the task. If I have to find a positive, it would be our position in the league. But more on that later.

 

Away against Aris (Greek Super League):

We started the month well, playing a good game against newly promoted Aris. A screamer from Mantzoros (26a), a set piece goal from Manikas (26e) and tap-in from Lazaridis (23g) were more than enough to give us the three points.

Away against Atromitos (Greek Super League):

Horrible game, we only had pointless possession and we were never in the game. Made it too easy for a struggling Atromitos side.

Home against OFI(Greek Super League):

Remember OFI? It was the team that beat us 4-1 during preseason. Before the game OFI was 3rd and I was worried we'll have a difficult afternoon. Fortunately, two quick goals by the Panionios captain were enough to put us in the driver's seat and we never looked back. Tsiribis (31a) made it 3-0, he deserved a goal after a very complete game. He ended up having 1 goal and 1 assist.

Home against KRC Genk (Europa League):

Our first ever Europa League game was against a strong Genk side. We started magnificently with a classic Sivilias (24b) goal, but then our starting right back got sent off and the momentum shifter dramatically. Robin Mirisola did a number on us, scoring 4 goals against 10 men. What would have been if we played 11vs11? We'll never know.

Away against Volos (Greek Super League):

The most frustrating game of the month. We had two goals disallowed, they score a very soft penalty and we missed 3 clear cut chances. It's one of those days I guess. I blame this on the mid-week game and the loss of morale.

Away against Partizan (Europa League):

This was another low quality game, but I cannot complain since it was very close. A draw would be more fair, but our lack of authority in set pieces came back to bite us.

Home against Levadeiakos (Greek Super League):

An even game against a Levadeiakos team that pushes for the Championship Group every year since 2031. Rotated the side again and lost 2 points because of it.

 

You might have noticed a scoring problem. We didn't forget how to score, we just lost Lazaridis for most of those games with a knee injury. Sivilias came back to earth after a great first month, so here we go.

Despite not winning as much, things are not so bad. Yes, we have 0 points in big boys Europa League, but that was to be expected. We might have had 2 points with a bit of luck, but it didn't happen. In the league we are doing pretty well and I think we'll be ok in the end. It's interesting that Olympiacos, AEK, PAOK and Panathinaikos are struggling at the same time. Maybe it's time for a new Greek champion?

MVP of the month - Giannis Lazaridis (23g): Our captain managed to score 3 goals while playing half the games, which tells you everything about the rest of the players and the month we had. He's back from injury soon, so I hope we can get back on track.

Edited February 10 by BillHoudini24

[BillHoudini24]

Season 2035-2036: Part 4, Player development after 12 years and time for staff decisions

A post without any matches played, or any players shining, or me complaining about our schedule . Instead, I will try to write down my thoughts about player development in FM24 after playing 12 (and a half by the time of this post) seasons of pure youth development. First I am going to talk about how I handled individual training so far, then we are going to have a look at my squad personality problems and finally, it might be time to change youth staff, after more than a decade of having a stable structure.

 

A) Philosophy around individual training - Or in other words, what worked for me since I started playing FM back in 2006:

I just realised I've been playing this game for 18 years, Jesus! Anyway, as you can imagine I've seen most changes in the training department and I have been using a combination of methods:

1) Training players in the position I want them to play, example - Ardit Abazi is one of the most promising players from last year's intake. The plan is for him to be the successor of Sivilias as an Inside Forward (AML). On intake day he was Ineffectual as an AML and natural as an AMR, so since then I've been training him in the role and side I plan on using him.

2) Training players in the role of their position that trains the most attributes, meaning the most versatile role. I usually do this with players that I believe have a lot of potential and want to get the most out of them, example - Potis Mingos was the fourth most promising player of his year according to my Youth staff, but I quickly realised they were wrong. He rose through the ranks already in the first year, evident by the fact he has played 43 games while only being 17 years old. I use him in 3 different positions, as he's at least accomplished as a CB, DM and MC. With all that in mind, I ended up training him as a Box-to-Box midfielder, as it's the most versatile role in midfield and trains attributes that Mingos will find useful in any role he might play, such as Passing, Tacking, Anticipation, Decisions, Pace and Strength.

For many years, that would be it for me. If you exclude the occasional trait, I wouldn't touch anything else in the Training tab. I was particularly scared of giving my players Additional Focus, to avoid unhappiness issues and injuries. I might change it this year thought, after seeing a worrying trend that will be showcased with the following example:

Alkiviadis has been a good performer for us, as expected from my staff on the 2031 intake day. The issue is that I've been training him both as an Inverted Winger and Inside Forward for 4 years, without seeing any increase of his physicals. Maybe his potential is limited and it's already being "spent" in his Technical and Mental attributes, but he's only 20, so I am starting to believe that I should put players in an Individual Focus in cases of development like this. Alkiviadis is not an exception by the way, but probably the rule. Same issue with Set Piece attributes (Corners, Free Kicks and Penalties). None of my players has an attribute higher than 12 in any of these, so I might have to start training them separately.

 

B) Squad personalities and the limits of mentoring in Youth Only saves:

All these years I've known that the Head of Youth Development (and the Youth Staff in general) influence intake personalities. For that reason, I hired the best personalities I could find as a struggling Greek team, around 6-7 years ago.

On top of that, I also have a Perfectionist HoYD.

Despite all that, my main squad's personalities can be found below:

Understandably, this takes away any chance for mentoring groups. All my established players, think Team Leaders and Highly Influential Players, have anything between 8 and 12 in Determination and Balanced/Ambitious/Unambitious personalities. The result of that over the years is worsening the personalities of all the young players that get promoted in the first team. Most of them have lost 1 or 2 points in Determination. My next starting goalie was promoted in the first team as a Perfectionist and now is just Fairly Determined.

And that brings me to my last point of this post and maybe the hardest, since I get attached to these lines of code/pixels on a screen.

 

C) U19 Manager and Head of Youth Development - time for a change:

I have been working with my U19 Manager, Wouter Corstjens, since he retired as a professional player back in 2025. 10 years together, he was the one playing the next stars of the Panionios squad. Back then he seemed like a bargain for a newly promoted team and has never wanted to leave. His attributes are great and he has a Resolute personality. Then why change, you might ask. His preferred formation is totally different from what we play in the first team and his team selections have always been a bit weird. Nonetheless, he won 3 league titles with us, so if I decide to change, I'll keep him as a coach for the first team.

Finally, my Head of Youth Development is Stefan Johansen. He also joined us after he stopped playing professionally and brought us quite a few good or useful players with decent (or even better) personalities.

The issue with him is that he likes 4-4-2 and 4-2-3-1, we play none of those formations at the moment, but it would be ok if he had 4-2-3-1 as his first formation. The second issue is that 16 on Working with Youngsters and those 6s in Player Judgement. I believe that as a Europa League team now, we can find someone better. I'll make a shorter post with possible replacements for both.

Edited February 12 by BillHoudini24

[Thrashead]

Is this the end of the story? 

[BillHoudini24]

On 09/03/2024 at 20:14, Thrashead said:

Is this the end of the story? 

Thanks for your interest in my thread!

I am taking a break from this save (and FM tbh) due to time limitations, but the save will continue soon. I am too curious to see if we can properly challenge the Big 4.

[KrKAlex]

I caught up with the story. It was a very nice read, looking forward to read what is coming in the future :).

If you manage to get a national title, you will become a legend for the club . And who knows what comes next at the continental level ... !

[BillHoudini24]

10 hours ago, KrKAlex said:

I caught up with the story. It was a very nice read, looking forward to read what is coming in the future :).

If you manage to get a national title, you will become a legend for the club . And who knows what comes next at the continental level ... !

Thanks for reading all this! 

I think we are getting closer, the finances are good and every intake has 2-3 good prospects. 
 

It’s probably going to be league title first, I struggle when playing knockout matches. 

[BillHoudini24]

Season 2035-2036: Part 5, Sooooo, where were we?

Thanks to your interest and a long break from FM's hardcore mode which is the Youth Only Challenge, I was able to come back and continue. It would be a shame to quit now that we have a decent core of players and at least 5 upcoming youngsters. After every long break, I open up the save and I am completely lost. How's the team doing? Who are the in-form players? Should I be getting some more playing time to a breakthrough prospect? In short, where were we?!

This post will be mostly about catching up with you and the save. We'll look at how we finished the 2035-2036 season in Greece, Europa League, while re-introducing our key players and top prospects.

 

A) Greek Superleague and Cup - Competing in the league with increased reputation and more games due to European Qualification:

Playing in Europe for the first time definitely had a negative effect during the "regular" season. I cannot blame the team for getting eliminated early in the Cup, AEK is just unplayable. 13 out of 13 league titles and 5 out 13 cups during the save. They have truly replaced Olympiakos as the "team to beat" in Greece.

Luckily, we were able to find some form during the play-off stage, which helped us in getting a ticket for the Europa League qualifiers. Playing in Europe is crucial for our reputation and cash flow. Having the youth and training facilities of this level is becoming more and more expensive. The same applies to keeping core players.

B) Europa League - A first time to remember:

All those years of waiting were definitely worth it! Our first European campaign was one of the reasons why I am still playing this save. We played against Hajduk Split in the playoffs, winning both ties (0-1 and 2-1), which meant that we would play in the Europa League! There, we were able to hold our own with famous wins over Copenhagen, Maccabi Haifa and Red Bull Salzburg. But our best result was a 1-1 draw with Newcastle, a club with plenty of resources but no top 4 finish in the last 10 years.

But this was only the beginning! After getting into the Knock Out playoffs, we managed to get past Rennes and Wolfsburg, finding ourselves in the EL Quarter Final against the mighty AC Milan! They proved too strong for us, but there is no shame in losing 4-0 to the team that ends up winning the trophy. I could not have wished for a better campaign, we will definitely use the money and reputation moving forward.

C) Panionios Player Watch - Key Players and Top Prospects:

I'll make sure to re-introduce all the main players moving forward, but this is a good opportunity to present the players of the year and the exciting prospects.

Giannis Lazaridis: The Panionios skipper, a product of our first-ever intake was our most important player for another season. His leadership, alongside 21 goals were crucial in a season with very high stakes.

Andrianos Sivilias: Our pacey number 10 was electric during the early stages of the season. He singlehandedly carried us to the Europa League group stages, then fell off but still contributed in the important games. He ended the season with 16 goals and 10 assists, which is by far his best ever.

Alkiviadis Tsiribis: Across Sivilias, we have Alkiviadis. A player who can play all across the AM line, but does not really excel anywhere from an attributes perspective. Nonetheless, he had a breakout season with 4 goals and 15 assists, while playing in various roles (Winger, Inverted Winger, Inside Forward, Attacking Midfielder). Teams from the Championship and Bundesliga 2 are interested for quite a while, so let's see if I can keep him long-term.

Potis Mingos: Let's talk about our brightest prospect. 18 year-old Potis is a versatile player who can play across CB-DM-CM. He's already good enough to start in most teams in the league and I hope that's just the beginning. His creative numbers were nothing to write home about, but in his defence, he mostly played as a "destroyer" in our midfield, or as a CB. Eredivisie clubs have been knocking on our door, but he doesn't seem interested. He has a 20M clause.

Kosmas Daras: The goalkeeping prince that was promised! I spent almost 10 years with mediocre GKs, but it was worth the wait. Kosmas is a perfectionist fella, he's constantly improving, but he still needs a lot of work with his feet. He will be our starting GK for the next 10 years, unless a better player comes along...

The next season will be about consolidating our new league stature while getting experience in European competitions. There are plenty of players who are about to get first team football, so stay tuned!

[KrKAlex]

Looking forward to what is coming up next season! Love this save.. ! Could you maybe update us on your tactic? 

[BillHoudini24]

2 hours ago, KrKAlex said:

Looking forward to what is coming up next season! Love this save.. ! Could you maybe update us on your tactic? 

I am writing now the off-season update, major tactical update incoming.

[BillHoudini24]

Season 2036-2037: Part 1, a busy off-season for Panionios - staff changes, new tactic and upcoming youth promotions

This was one of the most exciting off-seasons I had in a while. It was finally time to restructure my youth staff based on what I wrote in Part 4 of last season. It was also time for a new, more fluid and ambitious tactic since our players have become good enough to challenge for the top 3. Finally, I'll show the players I expect to make their first appearances with the club, ages ranging from 16 to 18. Note that I am a bit forward in the save, so ages and stats/goals will reflect that in the screenshots.

 

1) Youth Staff Changes - Corstjens was promoted from U19 Manager to First Team Coach, Johansen was let go from his HoY position and we upgraded our youth staff after 7 years:

As I wrote in Part 4 of last season, I was thinking of switching things up regarding the youth staff. Corstjens was a great manager and youth developer, but his preferred formations were a dealbreaker, at least if we wanted to get the maximum of the youth setup. He was part of the team for 10 years though, so I couldn't just fire him. He got promoted to First Team coach, reuniting with a lot of the players he led to 3 championships in 10 years.

His replacement definitely needs development, but he just finished his playing career and there is a foundation to work with. Van de Vrie comes from my favourite football culture, the Dutch one. He likes 4-3-3 DM wide and 4-4-2, He's Determined (19) and works great with youngsters (19). He's also very young, so I hope he can improve with further coaching badges.

 

Youth Development was another situation. Johansen was proven to be quite good at influencing the youth intakes, most of my best prospects came from his period at the club. The issue was his Player Judgement and the 16 at Working with Youngsters. He was good, we are appreciative of his time in Nea Smyrni, but now as a club that plays in European competitions, I thought we could do a bit better.

Here comes Steve Kean. I usually don't hire people that old, because they usually retire after a couple of seasons, but I couldn't pass the opportunity for Steve. Preferred Formations, check. 19s in Determination and Working with Youngsters, check. Decent Player Judgement and extensive Greek knowledge, check! I am still waiting for this year's intake, but I believe he will improve upon the already great intakes of the past 3 years.

2) New tactic - I can finally play very fluid tactics, got inspired by the best O-zil to the Arsenal and created an Arsenal 2024 tactic, even thought I am a Liverpool fan:

I have been reading Ozil's Twitter posts for a while now and I was very eager to return to Very Fluid tactics since this was what I was mainly doing in the previous FM editions. So far it was not possible, because I believe you need at least decent players for the league's level to play like that.

So I used what Ozil has been preaching about on Twitter as a starting point to make my own version that would be better suited to my team's limitations.

In terms of instructions, not much deviation from Arteta's principles, beautifully outlined by Ozil. The only difference is that I use a Mid Block, as my defenders are the weakest link since forever and I don't trust them playing very high on the pitch with a pressing tactic.

Similarly, I replaced the Roaming Playmaker with the Segundo Volante. Both roles are very physical, but with SV I ask less from my midfielder, which is good because he's not Odegaard. Having two players in the DM area offers nice stability and support to the defenders.

The last difference is the striker's role. Arteta and Ozil use a Complete Forward on Support, to keep all the attacking players closer together and increase attacking fluidity. I cannot do that with my current forwards, most of them are closer to Advanced Forwards, so I made the change to accommodate for that. Lazaridis still participates a lot in our attacking phase, just less often.

Spoiler alert, the tactic has been quite successful so far.

 

3) Prospect Watch - an overview of our youth players that will get gradually promoted in the first team during the season:

The off-season is a perfect opportunity to see how my youngsters improved during the last year and check whether we have some potential first team players. Since the latest updates on everything youth-related (staff, facilities, etc), the intakes included plenty of players that could potentially make it as part of the next Panionios core, either as starters, or as squad options. Today I'll show the three more exciting ones.

Pantelis Koutsogiannis - One of the top prospects from 2034, Pantelis looks like he's going to make it into the squad this year. He plays as a DM(S) or SV(S) and his athletic ability along with his already mature mentals make him a standout performer in high level games. He's going to play a lot this year, as the midfield positions are very demanding.

Elidon Bajrami - The best number ten we got through an intake in the last 9-10 years. He still has things to work on (Finishing, Dribbling, Agility), but I believe he's our next number ten, going ahead of Kostas Flessas who was a starter for the last 7-8 years. I like Elidon because he can produce the unexpected and this is what I love about the no10 position.

Napoleon Kasnakidis - Another Perfectionist intake product, leading me to believe that the days of the bad personalities on top prospects are behind us. What can I say about Napoleon? He's the one I am most excited about. He's getting tall and strong already, he's decent technically, has great mentals and his physicals are constantly improving. He will definitely be a starter both as a CB and as a DM(S).

In the next post, I'll probably share a mid-season update, while giving short descriptions of the most important games that we'll play until then. Will we get into the Europa League again? Will we establish ourselves as a top 3 team in Greece?

Edited Friday at 08:45 by BillHoudini24

[Sheriff7]

Welcome back mate. 

[BillHoudini24]

Season 2036-2037: Part 2, the kids are doing alright but can we keep it up?

A busy summer for us, as we needed to hire new staff, decide on the 2036 roster and be ready for the Europa League playoffs against the always dangerous PSV Eindhoven. Thanks to our league position we only had 1 round in order to get to the Europa League group stage. But can we do it?

 

1) Europa League - Tough draw against PSV, a true test for the kids from Nea Smyrni:

As I wrote in a comment above, I am not the best manager in knock-out games. It has always been like this since 2006. I tend to overthink and either change things up before the game to play the opponent and not our game, or panic in the first sign of adversity and allow way more risk than usual. After 18 years, I decided to stick with my philosophy and not adjust. We will always play our game and we'll either go through now or wait for next year.

The first game summed up our lack of experience at this level, despite last year's heroics. PSV went ahead in the first (!) minute of the game, but after that, it was all Panionios. We equalised quickly with Tsiribis and dominated all game. Unfortunately, they found a counter-attack in the 87th minute and made us pay for our missed chances. Needless to say, I felt like we were robbed, but our display allowed for some optimism.

The second game was a completely different story. Ramirez gave them an early lead and that just mentally killed us. We couldn't impose ourselves in the game and PSV was in complete control. 18-year-old Litainas scored his first European goal in the 81st minute, giving us some hope, but it was too little, too late. This year we are going to play in the Conference League, but I believe we failed ourselves in this tie overall.

In the UEFA Conference League we'll meet our parent club RB Leipzig, Greek fallen giants Olympiakos, Marseille, Feyenoord, Real Sociedad and Wolves. All those teams could easily be playing in Europa League. Am I saying this to feel better about our earlier failure? I leave that up to you

2) Greek Cup - Is this the year? Is this our chance to get our first trophy?

With AEK and PAOK getting eliminated in Round 5, it was just us, Olympiacos and Panathinaikos fighting for the trophy. Finally, the FM gods blessed us with some good draws and we were able to rotate the squad, play very young players and combine that with our best Cup run, reaching the final against Olympiacos.

Those Cup games against opponents mostly from the second division were a perfect opportunity for some debuts.

Kasnakidis was just 16 at the time, but he played like a much more experienced player, "forcing" me to promote him to a squad rotation option. He will probably be further promoted to a starter next year.

Litainas was another player who shined during our cup run. He had 2 goals and 2 assists in 6 games, showing that he can challenge Sivilias and Tsiribis for the AMR/L positions.

Finally, Makropouliotis made a big step up this year, which also started during our cup run. We are pretty stacked in DL, but he looks like he's the best of the bunch. The only issue is his Jumping Reach, but I cannot ask for the perfect player here. We are playing what we are being dealt.

3) Greek Super League - Trying to stay near the top while playing in all these different competitions:

I think we are reaching a plateau in the league. AEK remains unplayable, they spend ridiculous amounts of money on players and they can't seem to make any bad recruiting choices. PAOK is our boogey team, while Olympiakos and Panathinaikos are struggling. The only way to further progress is to develop some CBs and ideally a striker. Those are the areas I think we are behind, but being between 2nd and 3rd position is good enough for now.

Player of the season so far:

Lazaridis obviously heard my striker complaints and decided to go up a gear. He's having a crazy year with 29 goals and 5 assists in all competitions. He's currently the top goalscorer in the league with 16 goals and he's 18 behind reaching the 200 career goals milestone. With our lack of options in his position, I am sure that he'll get there. This year he turned 30 and considering his low Natural Fitness, I believe we're seeing the beginning of the end for the most iconic Panionios player of the save (so far). I hope we can actually win something while he's still playing, but time is running out.

In the next update, we will focus on the Greek League playoffs, our Conference run and the Cup final against Olympiacos.

Edited Sunday at 11:12 by BillHoudini24

[BillHoudini24]

Breaking News:

Lazaridis - officially a club legend!

 

Edited Sunday at 11:29 by BillHoudini24

[Sheriff7]

Great try in Europe mate. Excellent work generally.