thomas_e

Yeah, he is absolutely crazy. He really improved over the last 12 months as well, going from a top player to a world class player. In the Eredivisie he was like a kid two years older than the rest in a schoolyard. He just took the ball and ran with it!

Thanks

I did, but I got very lucky! Double Katwijk, I like it!

VV Katwijk Season Summary 2035 - 2036 A third consecutive Eredivisie title, a striker with 36 goals in 26 league games and a penalty shoot out win in the CL Final!! CHALLENGE COMPLETE! After last season we lost Willem Dekker, one of the best players in the world, if not the best player. I suspected that we were several years away from competing in the Champions League with the absence of Dekker, but we pulled off a miracle! A combination of fantastic individual performances and a tactic that really suited the players led to a season far beyond my expectations. Having a striker like Martijn Klooster of course helped. 36 goals in 26 league games and 15 goals in 12 games in the Champions League.... wow! We started pretty slow and with two losses in the first four league games I was a little bit worried. We picked up speed however and together with Ajax we soon pulled away from the rest. I really enjoy playing in Holland, but the overall quality of the competition is pretty low to be fair! When you have world class players like Martijn Klooster it is easy to simply run over the competition. Klooster is really fast and with a direct counter attacking style we dominated game after game. We won the league with 7 points, but we rotated quite heavily at the end of the season, trying to save our key players for the CL knockout games, as well as minor injuries, and we suffered some losses because of that. Overall I would say we controlled the scenario and I was always confident I would secure the title. In the Champions League we had a really good draw, facing Lyon, Benfica and Stuttgart. We won the group with 5 wins and 1 draw. In the first knockout stage we faced Atletico Madrid. The first game finished 2-2 in Madrid, and we got some help when Atletico got a man sent off after 61 minutes (they were 2-0 up at that point). We easily beat them 3-0 at home in the return leg. In the quarter finals we faced Chelsea and we progressed to the semi finals after two even games. 1-1 at Stamford Bridge and a narrow 1-0 win at home secured the win. In the semi finals we were up against Liverpool and in the first leg we pulled off our best game ever. We beat Liverpool 4-1 at Anfield. The last three goals came in the 74th, 82nd and 85th minute! We went through after a return leg that ended 2-2, 6-3 on aggregate! We met Manchester United in the final, a fantastic team with some crazy talented players. We actually didn't play a very defensive game as I feared a cautious approach would mean that the entire game would be played in our penalty box. We started really well and our 18 year old defender Varney Roberts gave us the lead with a great header in the 24th minute. Man Utd equalised in the 49th minute and the rest of the game, including extra time, didn't really contain very much action. We made quite a few defensive substitutions at the end of the game, but with a really quick offense we were always a threat on the counter. We won the penalty shootout 5-4, our right back Jawad Raki scoring the winner! I honestly didn't see this coming. I had a hope I could complete the challenge within 4-5 seasons, as we have some talented players coming through, but completing this season was never in my mind. Really, really happy with this one and I can recommend Holland as a nation to play the challenge in! @darren1983 - challenge complete Season Summary Key Players Tactics used

Thanks!

VV Katwijk Season Summary 2034 - 2035 Back-to-back Eredivisie champions, a solid Champions League run and the end of the Willem Dekker-era *In Holland you have to holiday for three season before you get promoted teams, thats why 2024/2025 is the first season A very good season for us both in the league and in Europe. It helps when you have probably the best midfield player in the world! We won the Eredivisie in very comfortable fashion, beating Ajax with 20 points! We have several good players, but having Dekker as an AM averaging a 7,52 rating says it all. Combining that with Martijn Klooster up front who scored 28 goals in 26 matches we were unstoppable. Now Dekker is heading to Dortmund and that is the very soul of the team leaving us. Dekker picked up a 7 week injury in the spring and even though we performed well domestically without him you could really notice that he was gone. He has been the ultimate driving force of our attack and he will be sorely missed! Dekker, Klooster and a couple of other players have impressive stats, but as always with this challenge we have several below average players. Having a player like Dekker also meant we could punch above our weight class in the Champions League. We didn't lose a game in the group stage, but we still finished behind Real Madrid. We beat Besikas twice, but a terrible draw against FC Copenhagen meant we finished just short of first place. That didn't stop us beating PSG in the first knock-out stage. A big achievement for a small club, winning 3-2 at home and a massive 2-1 win in Paris. Unfortunately we got knocked out in the quarter finals against Man Utd. A goalless draw at home in the first leg and a 1-2 loss away. I was a little disappointed as we never really turned up in Manchester, but it was still a great run. Unfortunately, with Dekker leaving, I don't see us competing at the same level in the Champions League for the next few years. We have a great talent replacing him, but he is only 17. The youth intake was night and day. Overall it was absolute garbage. The stats were good, but terrible personalities, mostly 2-5 in determination (despite having a great HOYD on paper). But then we have Jamian Griet, a potential superstar, with 20 in determination as well. He could we world class within a few years! Season Summary Key Players Youth Intake

For the third January in a row we lose our best player. Richard Joseph and Marvin Eberwein were key players, but they cannot even compare to Willem Dekker. He will sign for Dortmund and make more in the first 2-3 days than he has in Katwijk for 5 years. For me he is probably the best player I've had on this challenge and I have played this challenge consecutively for a few years now! There was no chance of keeping him, but I dont regret not cashing in on him this summer. Dekker is by far the biggest reason we won Eredivisie last season and that we have progressed from the group stages of the Champions League this season unbeaten.. in a group featuring Real Madrid. 7,55 in avg rating from an AM position after 14 league games is crazy good. Luckily one of our top talents in the U18 squas is an attacking midfielder, but overall our quality will drop massively without Dekker in the team. I will have him for 6 more months. In a few weeks time we are facing PSG in the first knockout stage of the Champions League, and our strategy will be the same as always: get the ball to Dekker, the rest of the midfield: tackle and run! Repeat!

Thanks, I am really enjoying the save these days! Yes, he is extremely important, I have never had a numer 10 playing like this. It almost makes me believe we can do something in the Champions League and maybe an advancement from the group stage can make him stay! When we met PSV last season we won 4-0, he played to a 10.0 rating without even scoring a goal... unplayable!!!

In many ways, yes, I should sell him. But the offers that have come in this summer has been quite low, as you would expect when a player only has a year left on his contract. I will wait around for a bigger offer, but if not we will give our best in the Champions League and then it certainly helps having him around!

VV Katwijk Season Summary 2033 - 2034 Champions of Holland! We managed to secure our first Eredivisie title in a season that saw Ajax and PSV Eindhoven start the season in miserable fashion. After 10 games they were both closer to the relegation zone than the title race. This gave us a great start as we came out of the starting blocks like a rocket! In the second half of the season we were far less impressive which was strange, considering that we didn't have any CL games after the Christmas break, having been knocked out in the group stage. We struggled with injuries at times, not necessarily to our best players, but we simply dont have good enough players on the bench! Two-three players out with injury means a whole different team on the pitch quality wise. We had a really tough CL group, facing Atletico Madrid, Bayern Munchen and Lazio. We finished with only two points, drawing twice against Lazio and finishing bottom of the group. I have played this challenge a lot, so for me to say that William Dekker is the best player I've had on this challenge might be a bold call, but I am still saying it. Just wow!!! He is absolutely incredible. The only major downside is that he has one year left on his contract.... I hoped he would renew after the league title, but so far he isn't interested. I might actually considering selling him this summer. We have money, but we dont have Premier League/La Liga money. We will not win the CL next season, far from it, so we still have a long way to go! Luckily we have a couple of good attacking midfielders in the U18 team, but Dekker will prove irreplacable! Martjin Klooster is the other big star in the team. He had a crazy good season and is the kind of striker that can win games even when the team isn't playing that well. 29 goals in the league says it all. Absolute class! In Holland there is only one spot in the CL group stage, with the runner-up having to go through qualification. I hope Ajax makes it through as we need to get more points for Holland on the board in Europe! Season Summary Key Players Youth Intake

I usually get really annoyed when the board accepts an offer over my head and I always protest it. I understand its part of the game, but sometimes I think they accept stupidly low offers. I would say they go back on their decision maybe half the time and they did this time. But not really sure if I wanted them to change their mind or not!! William Dekker is a world class midfielder, but he only has 18 months left on his contract and refuses to renew. We have £12 million in the bank at the moment, £111 million from this transfer would have meant financial security basically for ever! We are top of the league in January, hopefully Dekker will bring us a title! Crazy stats! He just started playing for Holland this season. 4 caps and 4 goals... He is on 180 pounds per week.....

VV Katwijk Season Summary 2032 - 2033 First Champions League spot secured, but another key player lost A very solid season for us as we secured our first CL spot, finishing 2nd behind PSV. The Dutch teams havent done well in the CL over the last couple of seasons so its only two teams that qualify. We could have won the title this season, but some really stupid losses after horrendous defensive mistakes meant that we finished 4 points behind PSV. We did beat PSV in the 30th round of the league, at least proving to ourselves that we are good enough to compete! Some of our young players have developed exceptionally well this season, especially our striker Martijn Klooster. 24 league goals and a player that can create goals out of nothing! As usual we are loosing another key player on free transfer. This time it is our midfield general Marvin Eberwein who is leaving for Wolverhampton.... We have several players in the team that doesnt want to renew their contracts, i just pray that CL football will change their mind. In all the 5 times I have completed this challenge I have never experiences this much difficulty in negotiating contracts with players and it is proving a tough challenge. Losing players is part of the challenge, but our best player every season? Tough! It's good to have @Neo_Geo showing me the way! Massive congrats, great effort!!!! Season Summary Key Players Youth Intake

Yes, I always do that on this challenge. Usually get three years, but sometimes only two.

Yes, I do give some players mimimum release clauses, mainly because they demand it themselves, but I am losing players when their contract expires.

We have now started to lose one of our best players each season. Getting really difficult to make any progress at this pace. Players wont even talk about a new contract so this will just keep happening.

A fantastic GK intake, I actaully let Timon Fikkert go on a free this summer, der Zouwen will go straight into the starting eleven. Surprised to see you left the Katwijk save after a runner-up CL finish, but sometimes it could be good with a break. If I keep losing our best player each season I will grow frustrated aswell!!

VV Katwijk Season Summary 2031 - 2032 First European finish, but losing best player on a free A really good season, finishing in 4th place. This means we will have a shot at the Europa League so thats great! This was a big step from last years 11th place finish, but im not surprised. We promoted a couple of really good youngsters and the players are progressing nicely. A HUGE worry now is that we are losing Richard Joseph, by far our best defensive player on a free transfer to Newcastle. The way things are going now the same thing will happen with Marvin Eberwein next season and I fear we will struggle to make progress like this! I pray that Eberwein will renew his contract, otherwise that is two huge gaps that needs to be filles in two seasons. Season Summary Key Players Youth Intake

Really dissapointed to lose our star defender Richard Joseph. He came out of nowhere in the 26/27 intake, instantly becoming our best player by far. He has refused to sign a new contract and I knew before this season that we could either sell him or lose him on a free. I decided to keep him, mainly because we really need and secondly, these things usually work out. Not this time though and it was obvious he wouldn't renew. A big shame as we have had a fantastic season so far and this will be a big loss in the upcoming years.

VV Katwijk Season Summary 2030 - 2031 Comfortable mid table finish After barely surviving last season the team had gained valuable experience ahead of the 2030-31 season. We finished 11th place, but I actually think we could have finished higher up the table with a little bit more luck. We have some obvious weak spots in the team, hopefully some youngsters that will be promoted in the summer can fill those gaps. A big issue is that our star defender Richard Joseph is entering the last year of his contract and he doesn't want to renew. The dilemma now is to sell or not to sell. I will probably keep him as I dont have anyone ready to replace him. Next summer the same issue will arise with Marvin Eberwein, so we need to improve next year to convince him to stay. Willem Dekker, who is also pictured below, is really a crazy talent! Season Summary Key Players Youth Intake

Good, just dont want any game breaking glitches!

What kind of regen facepacks are people using? Has there been any technical issues with any of them?

VV Katwijk Season Summary 2029 - 2030 Eredivisie survival *note: the reason the first season is in 2024-2025 is because of rule changes in Holland, so there were no relegation for the first three seasons A quite surprising survival in our first year in the Eredivisie. Overall we were really bad, but against the bottom 5 teams I think we performed brilliantly. I dont think we lost a single game against our relegation competitors and that was key to ensure enough points. We promoted a couple of players to the first team and we will do the same before next season. I am quite comortable that we will stay up once again and hopefully the players will improve with more Eredivisie experience! General Summary Key Players Youth Intake

VV Katwijk Season Summary 2028 - 2029 A surprising promotion *note: the reason the first season is in 2024-2025 is because of rule changes in Holland, so there were no relegation for the first three seasons My FM motivation hit an all time low and I haven't played the game since april. Picked it up again today and finished the 2028/2029 season with Katwijk, which ended in a very, very unlikely promotion. I see that @Neo_Geo is having some great success with Katwijk these days, I think I will be very lucky if I can stay in the league. We were predicted to finish last place in the Eerste Divisie, so a 2nd place was way more than we could have hoped for. We also didn't play well to be honest, but we were really lucky throughout the year. Even if we go down, which we probably will, the year in Eredivisie will help our finances. Season Summary Key Players Youth Intake

Aaah, I see. Thank you!

Maybe there is something I am not getting, but isn't Hønefoss part of the league system when you start in Norway? I am playing in Holland, but did a season holiday in Norway just to see what teams came around and on my save Hønefoss got promoted to the third tier, not the fourth tier which is the lowest playable league.