[The FM24 Youth Academy Challenge]

Congrats @XaW!! 

 

[The FM24 Youth Academy Challenge]

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

          

 

[The FM24 Youth Academy Challenge]

Nasser Al-Khelaifi, the owner of PSG, just bought our club. Didn't see that coming! 

[The FM24 Youth Academy Challenge]

I offered a bunch of players on loan on July 1st and the excact same "bug" happened this year. All 100+ bids are for fringe players status. Every single one of them, irregardless of how good the player or club are. 

This game is so full of bugs, yet it's the most polished game so far according to SI 

[The FM24 Youth Academy Challenge]

Very happy with my coaching staff. Combined with A-level facilities these coach ratings are pretty good for development! 

 

Senior team

 

U19 team

[The FM24 Youth Academy Challenge]

Energie Cottbus

Season Summary 2036 - 2037

Back to back Bundesliga titles, but no Champions League progress

 

So we managed to secure our second Bundesliga title in as many years, despite only winning 10 out of 18 games in the second half of the season. We won the league with 72 points, a number of points that only once since the start of the save would have been good enough to win the league! Gladbach was actually sitting top of the league for quite some time and in the end they did beat Bayern out of the last CL-spot! 

In the Champions League we managed to progress from the group stage, but to be honest we never played really good. We do struggle against top teams and I do think we need to promote a couple of our biggest talents and just wait for them to become good enough. We have three-four weak links in the team that simply make us struggle against top-tier opposition! We managed to beat Milan comfortably 4-1 in the first knock out stage, before getting knocked out by Inter in the round of 16. Two tight games saw us take the tie all the way to penalties, but we lost 3-2 in the shoot out and that was it! 

We will never win the league again if we dont step up our performances, this much I know! 

We had a pretty good intake, but as last year it was good because of one stand out player, Marius Henriksen. He looks like he can become a top-tier winger! 

 

Season Summary

          

 

Key Players

          

 

Key Talents

          

 

 

[The FM24 Youth Academy Challenge]

Energie Cottbus

Season Summary 2035 - 2036

A fantastic season! Bundesliga title and Champions League semi finals!

 

A really great season and our first Bundesliga title! A campaign that went down to the wire!! We played really good from start to finish and key players really stepped up this year. We started well and with Leipzig and Leverkusen struggling early on, it was us, Dortmund and Bayern who found ourselves with a gap at the top of the table. In the Champions League we got an easier fixture list than last year, which gave me the opportunity to rotate a bit and still be compatible. In the end we finished just inside the group of teams qualifying for the first knock out stage. 

During spring we suffered quite badly in the injury department, and this didnt really give me a lot of optimism, but we managed to perform really well, albeit with some luck here and there! We knocked out Leipzig in the first round comfortably, before beating Barcelona 2-1 on aggregate in the next round. Barcelona got a man sent off after 30 minutes in the first leg, if not for that we would probably have gotten eliminated. A really fatigued Milan side in the quarter finals gave us two tough games, but we won on penalites after a 1-1 stalemate. Liverpool in the semi finals were too tough for us, beating us 4-1 on aggregate. Fair enough, it was a great run! 

In the league we were really great in the spring and the last game against a top was home against Dortmund in the 27th round. We won 5-0 and Dortmund didnt have a single shot on goal! All looked great, but 5 rounds before the end of the season we lost 2-0 against our rivals Hertha Berlin, a huge blow!! I though our chances for the title was blown, but then in the second last game of the season Bayern lost 1-0 at home to Frankfurt!! 

In the last round of the season we were two points ahead of Bayern and we faced Fortuna Dusseldorf away. We only needed a draw, but at half time we were down 2-0 and Bayern were 2-0 up at Gladback. A fantastic second half at both venues saw us drawing 2-2 and Gladbach scoring twice against Bayern, seeing us win the title with two points! 

Really happy and really surprised about this title! Now all the focus is on finishing top 4 and fight for a Champions League title. I think we are far away from doing this, but having secured the title this gives me the opportunity to play young talents like Alessandro Foresi in the Bundesliga. 

Our youth intake saw a big talent in Sam Downey, but he was the only player worth signing, the rest were afwul! 

 

Season Summary

          

 

Key Players

          

 

Key Talents

          

 

[The FM24 Youth Academy Challenge]

Two games in to the season I am almost losing the dressing room, riots! We have played two games, beating RB Leipzig 3-2 away and Frankfurt 5-0 at home. But is the backup goalkeeper good enough? Not according to 15 of the players who are absolutely outraged. 

This was supposed to be the most polished FM ever? 

[The FM24 Youth Academy Challenge]

Really happy with the number of affiliated clubs we have been able to get over the last few years. We are now represented in Belgium, France (x2), Poland, Portugal, Sweden, Netherlands, Romania, Norway, South Korea and Australia. 

Really easy way to get better intakes. 

     

 

[The FM24 Youth Academy Challenge]

 

When you have brought a club through the divisions you obviously have the boards trust, but for other top managers the Bundesliga is brutal! 

Nagelsmann has now been fired three times in four years!! 

 

 

[The FM24 Youth Academy Challenge]

Energie Cottbus

Season Summary 2034 - 2035

First serious title charge

 

Our first season combining Bundesliga with the Champions League and it was a hectic one. We did our best Bundesliga season yet, but getting forced to rotate a bit we fell well short in the Champions League. We got knocked out in the league round, but we did have some good games along the way and the experience was very important! 

Bayern Munchen won the Bundesliga with 7 points, which seems comfortable, but in reality it was a battle all season long between five teams. Bayern, Dortmund, Leipzig, Leverkusen and us fought it out, but in the end Bayern were too strong for us. 

We promoted a couple of players to the first team and one of them, Maik Schulz, is a special player. A tall, but still tecnical striker, he could be our Didier Drogba in a couple of years. Our top scorer for the last 5 years, Marco Stumpf, is a really good striker, but he is also very capable of playing in midfield, so in February I moved him down to midfield and promoted Schulz into the first team. He didnt score in his first 10 (!) games, but he finished the season with five goals in his last six games, and I have big hopes for next season! 

We had a fantastic intake preview, but the reality werent that great. The only highlight was Jochen Cramer

 

Season Summary

          

 

Key Players

          

 

Key Talents

          

 

[The FM24 Youth Academy Challenge]

Energie Cottbus

Season Summary 2033 - 2034

First top three finish!

 

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

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

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

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

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

 

Season Summary

          

 

Tactics

     

 

Key Players

          

 

Key Talents

          

 

[The FM24 Youth Academy Challenge]

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

[The FM24 Youth Academy Challenge]

Energie Cottbus

Season Summary 2032 - 2033

League progress, two great cup runs and key player leaving

 

Our first season playing in Europe and we did really well with the increased workload. I decided early on to trust the whole squad and it really paid off! I subbed basically all 10 outfield players for all the Europa League games as well as the domestic cup. The reserves really stepped up and it got us all the way to the semi final of the Europa League! We met some surprisingly weak teams along the way, but it was still way better than expected. Chelsea obviously got too strong in the semi final, beating us 6-2 on aggregate. In the cup we won the whole thing, only using the primary startes in the final against a weak Mainz team. A great 4-0 win and our first trophy!! 

In the league we managed to do one better than last year, finishing in 5th place. Once again we hit a really poor run of form at the end of the season, and this probably cost us a Champions League spot. Honestly it doesnt matter that much, we are better suited for the Europa League! 

Unfortunately this was the season when we are saying goodbye to our by far best player, Michael Greif. He is leaving on a free and will leave a big gap. 14 goals and 9 assists from central midfield, crazy! I have a replacement, but we will be a much weaker side next year. 

 

Season Summary

          

 

Key Players

          

 

Key Talents

          

 

[The FM24 Youth Academy Challenge]

Well, this sucks, but a part of the challenge. I have always lost a couple of key players doing this challenge, but I have had very few 5 star players when in the top division. Greif will leave on a Bosman deal at the end of the season. 

We are losing our best player by far and I dont really have any replacements for him. A big setback indeed!! 

 

     

[The FM24 Youth Academy Challenge]

Energie Cottbus

Season Summary 2031 - 2032

First European league finish, but the end of the Michael Greif-era is getting close

 

Our third season in the Bundesliga and we already qualified for Europe, something I didnt expect before the season started. We played really well all year and took some big steps in the right direction, both offensively and defensively. I integrated a couple of youngsters into the first team and it really improved the team, both in quality and in depth. A big key on this challenges for me is not just the obvious improvement when replacing a player, but it also strengthens the bench, a much needed element in this stage of the challenge! 

We actually had a chance of a top 4 finish, but we faced Leipzig, Dortmund, Bayern Munchen and Bayer Leverkusen over the last 6 games of the season and we lost all four games heavily. I am a little bit suprised that we seem to have no chance when playing the top teams away. I am of course not expecting to beat Dortmund or Bayern away on a regular basis, but it seems to be the norm that we are losing 4 or 5-0. Bit frustrating, but part of the challenge! 

Next year playing in Europe will be a new and exciting challenge! With Bundesliga only having 18 teams it's not as demanding as it is in England, but who really wants to play Europa League? I will probably limit loans to a degree for next year (not that loans are working properly on FM24 anyway) to get more squad depth. The goal will definitely be on the Bundesliga. 

Our superstar and maestro Michael Greif now only has one year left on his contract. I have basically given up on renewing it, he wants to play for a better team and is wanted by teams like Real Madrid, PSG and Bayern. It sucks, but on this challenge you always lose a couple of stars along the way. He will definitely not be sold, he will stay out the remainder of his contract. 

 

Season Summary 

          

 

Tactics 

     

 

Key Players

          

 

Key Talents

          

 

[The FM24 Youth Academy Challenge]

Energie Cottbus

Season Summary 2030 - 2031

A great mid table Bundesliga finish

 

Our second season in the Bundesliga and we performed far, far better than I could have dreamed of. We finished in 8th place, just shy of a European spot. To be fair I am happy we didn't qualify for Europe, we are certainly not ready. Overall I would say that we are too good to be relegated, but we overperformed massively this season. Our striker Marco Stumpf went from 8 goals last year to 16 goals this season and that certainly helped. 

We didn't really have any periods of really good or really bad form, we were overall pretty solid. Making solid progress a lot quicker than expected, but I fear what will happen in 24 months when Michael Greif's contract expires. He doesnt want to renew and he is the heart and soul of this team. Probably a top three player under 23 I've ever had on this challenge, he is a world class playmaker. I just hope I can get him to renew! 

We also had a really good intake to complete a great year! 

 

Season Summary

          

 

Key Players

          

 

Key Talents

          

 

Tactics

     

 

[The FM24 Youth Academy Challenge]

4 minutes ago, Virtual Male said:

They're not no, I backed it up just before I added them.... From what I've been able to find out (and been told by someone who seems to know what they're on about) it doesn't appear to be a common issue, but definitely worth creating that extra 'just incase' save before you add them as pending.

I hope I haven’t made a huge mistake now! But luckily the leagues arent added before the end of the season, so I can at least make a backup then. 

[The FM24 Youth Academy Challenge]

4 hours ago, Virtual Male said:

After thinking that I'd lost the save to it corrupting and having a sad afternoon I remembered why I backup my important saves externally. I lost a month or so but nothing that changes anything worth noting, still the same intake etc. I've no idea what caused the save file to die but after some googling I've seen that there's been people having some issues when adding playable leagues after the start of a save (which is something I'd done) so I assume that's what did it.

Would be great if other people who have added playable leagues as they go all along can report on how its working out. 
 

I just added 4 new nations (playing in March 2031), as I am preparing to play European football in hopefully 4-5 seasons. Only having the one league when playing European football is such a big advantage it basically should be mandatory to have several key nations loaded. But big trouble if the save is corrupted!

In your backup save, do you have the new leagues added?

[The FM24 Youth Academy Challenge]

Beating Bayern Munchen for the first time when doing this save in Germany is always a milestone. Doing it with three players in the starting 11 that was there at the start of the save makes it even better. One of them, Timo Bornemann, even scored. 

[The FM24 Youth Academy Challenge]

Anyone know if loan managers do anything in this version? Increase chances of loans at all? Or if its just an "empty" role like earlier versions. 

[The FM24 Youth Academy Challenge]

A 3 month injury, an 8 week injury and a 3 week injury in the first week of the season. I get that injuries have been a little bit on the conservative side in previous versions, but this year is brutal! 

[The FM24 Youth Academy Challenge]

Anyone else struggling to loan out players? It just seems so random which players get loan bids during the transfer window. 

[The FM24 Youth Academy Challenge]

My sponsorship income is now lower than it was when I started the save 6 years ago. We have went from 3rd Bundesliga to the Bundesliga.. I just dont get how these things aren't fixed yet. 

[The FM24 Youth Academy Challenge]

Energie Cottbus

Season Summary 2029 - 2030

Bundesliga survival

 

Our first season in the Bundesliga and we managed a very respectable 12th place. A great 5-0 win over Koln (who played with 10 men for 80 minutes)  in the last game of the season got us ahead of Hoffenheim on aggregate. It was a season with a lot of losses, but we were never in the relegation zone at any point! A fantastic 2-2 draw at home against Dortmund in the season opener gave me a lot of optimism and we even went unbeaten for the first 5 games of the season. That obviously didn't last, but I think we wer fantastic to stay in the league.

The team is now basically a few hugely talented and gifted players, combined with several players that wouldnt even be considered by a 2nd Bundesliga team. The usual Youth Academy Challenge team that is!!!  

I hope we can build on this season and survive another year! 

PS! This challenge is certainly made easier by the broken AI, especially with a lot of the opposition teams involved in European football. The lack of squad rotation by the AI doesnt make this the polished game we were promised, it is borderline broken. 

 

Season Summary

          

 

Key Players

          

 

Key Talents

          

 

Tactics Used