[The FM21 Youth Academy Challenge]

Amazing the commitment on this.

I just blew the cobwebs off my Taranto save after taking an FM hiatus for a few months.

Think I'll be going at bit slower this time so I dont burn out again.

 

[The FM21 Youth Academy Challenge]

Some ups and downs already very early in my season. So before the season starts my board decides to sell my best, and only competent defensive midfielder, and i couldn't protest! £47M in the bank after this, just what we needed.

Had this guy from Serie C too, despite all of his whinging and moaning about wanting to move to a better club every few years.

But on the flipside. After getting smashed in our first 2 games by Sassuolo and Atlanta. We've won 4 in a row and scored almost half the goals we got last year!! Beating Napoli, Benevento, Spezia and Udinese!! 23 points to Safety, no thanks to my board.

 

 

[The FM21 Youth Academy Challenge]

15 minutes ago, Padders said:

Well the honeymoon period is well and truly over

Won first two games, then got hammered NINE by Palace

Fined every player two weeks wages! Disgraceful performance

Need another new tactic

Maybe play a bit less offensive against the top teams?

drop the defensive line / mentality and pass into space. Worked wonders for me!

 

[The FM21 Youth Academy Challenge]

Taranto 31/32 Season Review

We survived! I knew before the season that over 35 points should be enough for survival. We hit my target with 3 games to go, in style with a 1-0 away win at 2nd place Ac Milan! We were 2000-1 to win the league before the season started predicted 20th with 19th on odds of 350-1.

This was by far my hardest season with the club. We really struggled and only scored 28 goals. This was offset by our relatively solid defence which kept us in most matches. I really had no idea of what games we would win/draw/or lose. Half of my wins came against teams in the top 10 which really makes no sense. This screenshot below really summarises our weird results. We also went on a 13 game streak without winning where we racked up a lot of our draws. 

Below is my top scorer Adorni, which shows the lack of quality we have upfront. He's essentially a non-league striker with champions league physicals! I have a striker with 4 higher finishing but he's too slow to compete as a lone striker. This guy is actually the 2nd best finisher in my whole team, despite me having a lot of chance conversion in my training! Over half my starting 11 are rated as Serie C standard when I do my team report..

Youth intake was alot better this year, I've got 3 reasonable prospects with 2 wide players and a potential new CM.

 

Got all my facilities planned for upgrade now, so re-investing all the funding. Bank now has £30m sat in it so no worries about finances for a long time.

 Transfers

[The FM21 Youth Academy Challenge]

1 hour ago, Cheez3y said:

Managed to get a late draw in the first leg.

 

Then this happend in the return leg at home....

 

 

 

 

 

I go to bed, I cant do that today.

Insane!! and so fast too. Good luck!!

[The FM21 Youth Academy Challenge]

3 minutes ago, Padders said:

Yes I wasn't sure to start the new season last night, but played that Chelsea game

Couldn't go to sleep on a loss so played next game and we beat Swansea 2-1

Loading up the save now for some play today! Here goes..................

Never had odds of 2000-1 to win the championship before!

[The FM21 Youth Academy Challenge]

10 hours ago, Padders said:

Welcome to the Premier League 

I've still not had time to start my season, dreading it tbh. Looked at the comparison screen and were rock bottom on everything except jumping!

[The FM21 Youth Academy Challenge]

30/31 Season Review

After a change of formation from 442 to 433, we finally got ourselves promoted to Serie A! We managed to reduced our goals conceeded significantly and kept the same scoring antics at the opposite end which essentially got us promoted. Most of our good form came in the first half of the season with us going on a 18 game unbeaten run. 

The second half of the season was much harder, with the board deciding to sell our number 1 goalkeeper. We were top for most of the season but I lost my joint top goal scorer to a knee injury and one of my best young midfielders to a 10 month ACL injury. This meant we stumbled over the line but thankfully our early season form, combined with Verona being in equally as bad form meant we got promoted. 

The real stand out performer this season was Roberto Florez. With the change to 433 it finally meant I'd use him as a playmaker and he really flourished. Contributing just below a third of my teams goals.

Youth intake was awful. Worst one I've had so far. Probably due to the overall squad being better now, but the personalities were terrible as well. I'll look into replace my HOYD now were in the big league. This is the best player in terms of personality and ability and he's miles away from making it. 

So next season, I'm praying we can stay up. Not particularly confident of it, but the money were going to get will sustain us for years if we come back down. I've forgot to track my progress over time so filled in as much as I know/remember.

 

Transfers

 

 

 

 

[The FM21 Youth Academy Challenge]

1 hour ago, Pelz said:

The google reviews are pretty spot on tbh - most of them, and a very damming article about the pollution etc, came well after we had visited - just fancied a look at all the potential Greek history, museum etc before mooching to Venice. Ahh those were the days, lucky to get to a trip to Tesco Express let alone Venice at the moment!

It really was a drab and dreary affair - extremely disappointed and genuinely felt unsafe for large parts; and I’m a 6ft3 bald bloke with a Vikingesque beard!!! 

These reviews of taranto are exactly why I picked them! 

What better than to make a poor city with a pollutant steel factory nearby a powerhouse of Italian football! 

That and I watched the Maradona documentary the day before picking them which had alot of symmetry as Naples was considered an awfully poor place, full of disease and ran by the mafia.

[The FM21 Youth Academy Challenge]

17 minutes ago, Padders said:

Yeah that the problem. Happens regularly until you get to the top level

Did you try protest the transfer?

Wasn't given the option. The worst thing was I saw the bids and thought no chance they'd be accepted when i was rejecting 2-3M for one of my midfielders.

At the end of the day its not the worst, my back up 18 YO just played a 7.8 and kept a clean sheet so it seems like its business as usual for us! Just frustrating as he was genuinely Serie A level.

[The FM21 Youth Academy Challenge]

2 minutes ago, Padders said:

How much money have you got in the bank?

I was minus a million to be fair. Finances in Italy are awful. I have to sell a player every year, but we were on such a run I was hoping I could get to summer and assess where we are to see if i needed too or not. 

[The FM21 Youth Academy Challenge]

FM winds me up sometimes! Board have accepted a bid for my best goalkeeper and sold him on deadline day. We're top of the league they're in 11th in Serie B. Unbelievable!

 

[The FM21 Youth Academy Challenge]

Taranto 29/30 Season Review 

A season that promised so much but we ultimately got nothing out of in the end. We managed to finish 1 place higher in 8th place. It was an extremely close season and one of fine margins with the gap between 1st place and 8th place being 8 points. We went on quite a drawing streak after we burst out of the starting blocks, so we really could of got automatic promotion this year if we had lady luck on our side.

Again I can't help but feel we conceded far too many goals to stand a chance of going up. If we can get reduce our goals against to below 1 per game then we should stand a chance, so I'll  be tweaking my tactic again before the start of next season. We went into the mix of the play offs, beating Bari in the first game but then falling to eventual play off winners Empoli over 2 legs. It really was a league of anyone who could beat anyone this year which did make it extremely exciting!

In terms of youth intake it was my poorest yet overall in terms of personalities, but the two highest rated players certainly look like prospects. Mariani looks great and can play in 2 problem postitions for me, CM(D) or right back! Perfectionist personality too so i hope it doesn't disappear like it has done on some many of my other players. 

Pietro Vincenzo is the other. Could be a fairly decent all round midfielder. 

So for next season, i'm hoping we can push again for promotion. I have a few teams sniffing around some of my best players, and they're starting to become unsettled. My worry is if these guys leave I don't really have the youth coming through to displace them easily in the team. It could easily set me back 3-4 seasons from getting into Serie A. I actually accepted an 8.5M bid for my best midfielder but he rejected Genoa. He still won't sign a new contract stating overall squad level doesn't match his ambition, but I have 2 years left on him so I'll have to worry about shifting him next season. 

I've also now got my Continental B badge! No changes to youth recruitment / junior coaching as there maxed and no players sold to fund any upgrades of out good training facilities and below average youth academy. 

Transfers

 

 

[The FM21 Youth Academy Challenge]

55 minutes ago, jmonfu said:

Am I the only sadistic person to watch the game on Comprehensive?  It takes longer but I am noticing so many more things rather than watching on Extensive or Key

I watch extended, comprehensive is a bridge too far for me haha 

[The FM21 Youth Academy Challenge]

Our first season in Serie B was very tough, but a strong run to the end meant we finished 9th.  We started off playing the teams that would mostly finish in the top half for our first 8 games. This was an extremely big step up in competition considering most players in the other teams were worth the value of our whole squad. This lead to us having a very poor first half of the season, whilst we adjusted to life without our 2 best players that essentially got us promoted us last year.

This was further exasperated with the sale in January of my then top scorer Arcangello Divella to newcastle for £3.8M and a 50% sell on clause. The club has had poor finances since day 1, and i've decided to gamble on him really pushing on at a much better club and getting us a cash windfall in a season or two. He was our top goalscorer with 13 by january, and a big loss to the team. It's worth noting since he's joined Newcastle his personality has changed to perfectionist so I really think I made the right call! I needed some money at the club to demand higher fees for other players, so Divella was sold to move the whole club on further forward. 

However as the season wore on, i adjusted my tactic to be less attacking and the results started to roll in. We won 8 of the last 12 games, drawing 2 and losing the other two in that time. This propelled us from 17th position to a top half finish. I essentially dropped the defensive line to stop balls over the top, lowered the mentality to balanced as we kept taking too much risk and being caught in possession, and instructed the team to play out of defence so we would stop lumping it long from goalkeeper restarts.

This good form also coincided with rise of Roberto Flórez 28A. I tried to let him develop in the youth team for the first half of the season but once he came in he really helped us dominate the middle of the park. Another regen in Tobia Tombirino 28D, who i've actually fined into having a perfectionist personality, has helped fill the void of Mangione. He does have a lot of interest though so i pray i can hold onto him. 

So anyway whats the intake like? Well we've got an ok intake, with one real prospect i'm excited about. 

Arcangelo Zambetti 29A - Not gonna lie, looks like the perfect forward for how i play. Already gave him 3 appearances off the bench and he's scored 2! Driven personality too so hoping he can fire us to a better position next year.

Gian Nicola De Santis 29B- Right back, needs work on his pace but looks like a  quality prospect.

Fabio Vantaggiato 29C- Would an intake be complete without a striker with poor finishing?

Also managed to get myself to National A coaching badge with the bit of money we have, and upgrade our training facilities. 

Transfers

 

 

[The FM21 Youth Academy Challenge]

1 hour ago, keeper#1 said:

There's no such thing as too many good goalkeepers.

I've noticed I get alot of good goalie regens relative to my level. I probably have about 5 prospects right now! 

Other thing I've noticed is strikers with low finishing, all my regen strikers with taranto have had an average finishing stat of 7. Most of them came through with 4 finishing or something.

had two outliers at 12/13 so maybe it is realistic.

[The FM21 Youth Academy Challenge]

23 minutes ago, Sn00gle said:

@Steveh171 The way I understand this is that if you upgrade facilities that will allow your players to get their max PA while playing in your team after they change contract from junior to senior. I think as well that helps more for players that don't play in first 11. 

Upgrating youth will help you to get better quality intake that means that even if they are not so good some clubs in game will think about them as good players to take as they are young and have some potential and abilities. That will let you develop your Club.

Yeah I thought training facilities would be the way. I'm maxed on our junior coaching / recruitment so.

Thanks for confirming my thoughts!

[The FM21 Youth Academy Challenge]

Out of interest do you guys upgrade training facilities first or youth? 

Lost my best remaining forward (again) but as were in serie B I managed to get 3.9m which massively helps!

[The FM21 Youth Academy Challenge]

4 minutes ago, JLAB said:

I'll give that a go, thanks for the advice.

No problem! It can be situational, I toggle with mine all the time to target weak areas of the other teams

You might also wanna think about having a bwm(d) as your holding player player in the cautious one as they have the always close down pi. Basically meaning you'll lose your defensive shape as that player will be chasing everyone. unless you want that of course!

Might also want to think about about an attacking role in the 3 midfielder's in the positive one too, so you have someone going into the space created by the dlf(s)

 

[The FM21 Youth Academy Challenge]

5 minutes ago, JLAB said:

That's where the attacking width currently is. We're letting the wing backs push up into the open space and they're the ones that are constantly crossing the ball in.

Ye I meant the tactical instruction, as it just makes it even more concentrated in the middle, making your players really crowd the middle. Its changed since last year where it used to make them more attacking, but it instead just makes your players gravitate to that part of the pitch. By doing that you'd drag the opposition in the middle of the pitch to try and defend you, opening up the flanks even more for your fullbacks.

[The FM21 Youth Academy Challenge]

3 hours ago, JLAB said:

A.C.N Siena 1904 2026/27 Season Preview

The bookies almost feel kinder to us this season than that have in previous years. The odds that we've been given is the kindest that they have ever presented us with, even if they still predict we'll finish in the bottom five and in the relegation playoffs this season. Even if we've been close to finishing in the top half in three of my first five seasons in charge of Siena, I'm still taking things one step at a time with the idea that we could have a bad run of form which would end our season faster than we'd like to admit, especially if our board decides to sell one of our better players again.

I've got two tactics in mind, both laid our very differently, but both with a similar idea in mind. Both of the formations rely on the full backs playing as wing-backs that will roam up and down the flanks, with three central midfielders taking control of the middle for extra strength in the middle of the park.

The similarities end there though, for the formation on the left requires us to have three centre backs, with the two full backs doing their business, though they were originally wing backs in a 5-3-2 WB formation, instead of a 5-3-2 formation. We're looking to pass the ball shorter, force the opponents outside, which having a lower line of engagement with the idea of hitting our opponents on the counter attack, as we don't have the pace to defend a high line. 

The formation on the right however, relies on us pressing the opponents to hard that we will get the ball back quickly, but with the high line, if we're slow, we're not as likely to be able to respond to high balls over the top. What I did know was that the front two did work for us last season, with Rokas Krusnauskas scoring 21 goals last season, even if he didn't get any assists. So I know that a Pressing Forward will get me goals, but it's more about making sure that we can do better defensively too.

With the three strikers on show being players that my team is recommending that I use, but with Rokas despite being my top goalscorer being the one to miss out due to Scarpato being much better as a Pressing Forward, and Fofana my most recent young striker coming in through my latest intake, I wonder if I do need to start pushing out the striker that has consistently scored 10+ goals every season, or if I need to be more patient with him and slowly ease Fofana into the first team as the Deep Lying Forward or not. The opportunity to rush Fofana into the first team is tempting, but I feel that trying to ease him into the first team is probably the better idea overall.

Ayoub Fantozzi, despite being my best player in the squad is the one player that I can see myself without come the beginning of the season due to the fact that he only has a single year left on his contract, is attracting interest from bigger clubs and he is refusing to sign a new contract, which even when he was willing to talk, wanted to put a minimum release clause of just about £300K in his contract. To me, I'd need more than that kind of money and would require a 50% profit of the next sell to even consider selling next season. It's a shame that he can't see why I'm wanting around £800K and not the peanuts kind of money he's wanting to leave for, especially with Mazza having yet to play a single league game since he left us too.

Carminati is easily my first choice centre back without a question, but with Nicotra and Carlucci I feel that I have a defensive partnership that will eventually become my number one choice going forward. Going forward I can't just rush Carlucci into the first team (despite showing him as one of the CB options for the formation previews) because I don't think he's good enough at the moment, however being only 15, he's got plenty of time to grow into a really good talent. Can we be really productive going forward? Absolutely. It's just a matter of developing the players who are coming through and being more consistent.

Have you thought about focusing play through the middle with those two tactics? might free up the flanks for your wing backs to push up and make you really dominate the middle 

[The FM21 Youth Academy Challenge]

First 2 games against me in Serie B have had an XG against of of 3.00.

More results like this though please! Not sure I can handle more seasons of our goal being under siege. Completely FM'd parma haha

[The FM21 Youth Academy Challenge]

7 hours ago, Padders said:

Yes the amount of late goals conceded is ridiculous, doesn’t matter what you do. As from my update, two lates goals in two separate games cost me promotion

Yeah it pisses me off, I don't like overly attacking tactics. But every game I knew when I was 2- 3 up the team would almost always score a goal in the last few minutes. Even in my season to remember you can see in 2/3 games  it was all goals conceded in the 85th+.

Last year I got wrexham up with something like 32 clean sheets. Absolutely no way I could dream of that this year!

[The FM21 Youth Academy Challenge]

Season 27/28 Update

Promotion! We carried on our form from the tail end of back year and absolutely stormed the league. It only took me 7 years and a god of a regen at centre back, but we finally found a winning formula that suited the players. We finished top comfortably by 12 points. We also finally managed to conceed on average less than a goal a game. A stat I think would be higher was it not for the ******** amount of goals that seem to be scored in this game after the 85th minute mark, now matter how defensive or if you just stay with the same tactic.  I also won the Serie C cup, something I have not even bothered to write an update about the entire time as I never made it past the group stage at all each year. We beat Pisa in the final 4-2 on aggregate, with apparently our goal of the season being scored in that game.  And off the back of all this i'm now a club icon! It was also one of my weirdest Saves by the fact my top goalscorer in the league had 9 goals, my team had a really even spread of goals due to my tactic. We also lost our top goalscorer in january!

However promotion did come at a cost, prior to the season I knew my best centre back would be leaving at the end for strasbourg. I also lost my best left winger, a regen in the holiday season, to empoli in serie A. I've also now lost the best regen I've ever had to Lecce in Serie A, for 450k + 50% of profit. I had to sell him in january as the board accepted bids of 650k for him, so i offered him to his preferred team he wanted to for less but with a sell on a clause. 

The biggest miss out of these is Mangione at centre back! He was a rock and averaged 7.28. It's a real shame as I thought that him and Casula could of stayed in the team well into Serie A, but I guess that's the fun of this challenge. We have sell on clauses for all of the above, I have high hopes for Casual and Mangione. 

So now the youth intake, It was really good in terms of personalities, but not so much in terms of ability so we will have to wait and see. We also have a columbian midfielder as our top talent!! Still lacking a striker, as i'm using the striker that i had originally at the club still as my main goal scorer. 

Roberto Flórez - A playmaker, really excited about this guy as he has a professional personality. High hopes for him in midfield. 

Anthony Calia - Decent all round midfielder, potentially back up / replacement for D'agostino.

Luca Spinosa   - Nice winger that can grow into the void left by Montrone leaving. 

 

Top performing players this year (excluding mangione): Giancarlo Pratesi 22A(GK), Riccardo Olivetti 26H(RM), Cristian D'agostino 27C(CM-D), Arcangello Divella 27B(ST/IF-A), Paolo Serafino (ST)

 

Tactics, Transfers, Squad

 

 

[The FM21 Youth Academy Challenge]

26/27 Season Review

Well this is my final catchup review, and another strange season. I had my moment where i tried to be a visionary and set us up with a new 5-2-3 formation as opposed to my classic 4-4-2. This really did not work out well with us having a record of 1W-7D-2L after the opening 10 games. I then went back to 4-4-2 which made us basically win or lose every game. 

It was at this point I need to talk about 1 player from the previous intake. On my above screenshot he didn't even make the top players. Mangione single handledly made my defence inpenetrenable. Not sure what our coached were feeding this guy, maybe horse meat, but holy **** he exploded into best centre back in the league.

This guy basically carried us from flirting with relegation to sneaking into the play offs, we snuck in on the last day after victories against the teams around us in the run up. Everything seems to be clicking!

However, its not all good news. The rise of Mangione caught me off guard and he refused to sign a contract. With 1 year left I made the decision to sell to strasbourg. I get to keep him until 2028 so he should be able to stomp the league next year. 

So the youth intake? The final piece of the puzzle for me in midfield was answered, with a proper defensive player. Cristian D'Agostino goes straight into my starting line up.

So that's me all caught up. Our formation, form and squad depth really clicked at the back end of last season. So i'm hoping with the last season of Mangione we can use him to carry us up the table, and potentially into Serie B.