libbyshuss

Season 2 - 2024/25 Championnat National Season Summary A really good season on the pitch, in the league at least. We started really well with only one defeat in the first 8. We drew 4 though so we were never top, but still. A run of 5 wins in 6 just after christmas put us 3rd and within touching distance of a promotion place but we then went on a 6 game winless run and our form totally fell apart. We limped to a seventh placed finish which, to be fair, is still over-achieving for us a first round cup exit again. I could do with a cup run really. Players The biggest success of the season was in the first XI. I promoted a couple of youth players already, such was my desperation. I don't normally like promoting players until they're 19/20 but I had nothing better. Most of the youth players performed really well and made some really positive improvements too. Stephane Sorin 24B was the pick of the bunch. Played AMC and was consistently one of the best performers. He's still only 16 but already one of our most important players. 8 goals and 4 assists from 21 games is a cracking start from the lad. 7.37 average rating makes him our second best performer as well! Lots of arrows in the right direction as well! AND a great personality. i love you Stephane! Alexandre Labousse 24A - He's earmarked as a future striker for us but filled in at right wing for the season. He was so good whenever I played him he became first choice for the second half of the season. and he was also great, 8 goals and 4 assists from 19 starts. Another one that will be first choice next season. Both jumped form 2* CA to 3.5* during the season as well, which is always lovely to see! Youth So after such a good intake last season I was really looking forward to this one. Would it be as good? Well, no..... not bad! not quite as many A grades as last year, but 3 is still pretty good. intake was ok but only two elite talents a little disappointing. Their personalities were only just ok as well (light-hearted and temperamental, which i hate the most!). I only signed about 4 in the end. Finances and Upgrades So this is the most worrying. I was well under the wage budget at only 13k a week but we still managed to lose around 800k over the season, which is totally unsustainable. And worryingly we seem to have lost any competition prize money, whereas we got loads last season And it also meant that having no money the board would not sanction any improvements at all. Which is really upsetting when.... this happens! So it's going to be a difficult challenge and realistically I'm going to have to cash in on a couple of those really good looking youngsters already. or pray for a takeover... Career

As far as I could tell they're still not playable. I'd have been more than happy to start down there but what can you do? actually, i can go check again! edit: yeah, fourth tier unplayable. Boulogne were promoted from fourth tier after 1 season, they're currently playing down there in real life. It's all above board i promise!

Season 1 - 2023/24 Championnat National Season Summary Boulogne are an interesting challenge. They were in the top French league as recently as 2009/10 but have freefallen since then and are now semi-pro, albeit back in the third tier. You'd hope their starting facilities would befit that of a team so recently in the top league but they're really not. Even weirder, and possibly a bug, rather than playing in their own stadium in Boulogne, that holds 10k, they are homeless in the game and playing at a stupid little stadium in a tiny little village miles away called Cormontreuil. It's very odd but what can you do? i've started with worse! The starting squad were ok but on the old side. The bonus was the four 4 star potentials in the youth squad. But the worry was that the Championnat National is being reduced from 18 sides to 16, and with 4 feeder leagues it meant there were 6 relegation spots in a league of 18! That worried me a little bit, particualrly as we were predicted to finish 17th. It was a really close league, with often only 3 or 4 points between 5th and a relegation spot. A good run after christmas of 5 wins out of 6 pulled us out of trouble and we managed to stay there. But I have no idea where this team sits in terms of promotion/relegation for next season, particularly as more of those youth players are going to have to be promoted to the first team Youth A really nice preview and intake! Are my starting squad that bad? Probably! The intake could have been better in terms of determination but I really can't complain at this stage. I really like the range of nationalities though, I do like a cosmopolitan squad Finances and Upgrades We're losing money hand over fist, which is upsetting cos ideally I'd go professional soon as I can. It emant no matter how good a run we were on the board would not budge on any improvements off the field. The only thing they'd do is support my first two coaching badges. It's a start! I quite like this new supporter thingummy. Gonna keep an eye on that, particularly as they seem quite influential at Boulogne! Career

that's really interesting, shame we can't even try in half those nations. Did we find out if South Korea is available for the challenge this season or not?

I've never tried France. Bring it on!!!!

@darren1983 I'm back again! heading to France - reset date is June 20th!

2030/31 and England So i took the England job after the world cup. They got a good squad but a worrying lack of stars under the age of 25. First game? Away to Belgium, who won 2-0! Other than that though it was a good season with my new striker I promoted scoring 12 in a run of 4 games. We'll see how the Euros go next season Borrusia Dortmund I applied for a few jobs (Arsenal, PSG, Flamenco) and got interviews but not one offer. And then, in March, along came Dortmund. They'd sacked their manager while they were 3rd in the league, in the Quarters of the Champions League and Semi finals of the domestic cup. They had an amazing squad, still had Bellingham and Moukoko at 27 and 26, and three wonderkids to boot. Seemed too good to be true! And it was, as I manged to balls it right up. 6 league games, all I needed to do was finish 4th to guarantee Champions League foortball next season. So I managed to lose 3, draw against the team bottom of the league and finish 6th. Beyond awful. Champions League? Beat Lyon 7-3 in the quarters, draw 3-3 at Old Trafford in the semi first leg only to lose the second leg 3-1. gah. And then Bayern beat us 1-0 aet in the pokal Honestly, it was a shambles. I'd sack myself but for some reason the board are giving me a chance. I need to start the next season strongly or I'm for it.

I'm still plugging away but not much to report on in the last 4 seasons! 2027/28 After leaving CT All Stars in South Africa in July I applied for loads of jobs, including Mamelodi Sundowns, who would have been a real upgrade, but got no offers. So I kept going and it wasn't until November i got two offers. The team 5th in South Korea's top division, or Brest, who were bottom of Ligue 1 in France. I went for Brest, figuring Brest is best. I also applied for, and got, the Ivory Coast job afte the ACoN in January. and Brest were bottom but had a decent squad. The only issue it was an old squad so it would need major surgery in the next couple of seasons. I managed to steady the ship and we put on a nice run in the new year to finish mid-table. Ivory Coast had a good squad but it was mainly friendlies and a couple of World Cup qualifiers (for 2030) 2028/29 and After euro 28 I got 4 offers from European teams, Belgium being by far the best. I couldn't resist it! A great season for Brest! I brought a couple of younger players in who performed really well but we were up against it in terms of transfer funds and wage budget. Still, we managed a 6th place finish and European qualfication! But i'd need to do something drastic to improve more 2029/30 and After our 6th place finish I decided to gamble. Sold our best two players for combined £60m and went on a spending spree. It paid off and we went unbeaten from January to finish second behind PSG. Two of my signings turned out to be wonderkids, which is always nice. Belgium qualified for the world cup easily! 2030/31 and World Cup! we lost to France in the semi-final, then after i got offered the England job? did I take it or stick with Belgium? Brest were annoying. really inconsistent in the first half, better in the second and only managed third after winning the last two games. Frustrating as PSG had their worst season in years. They still won the title, obviously, but lost 7 times on the way. Anyway, Brest were annoying me so I quit at the end of the season. I had 4 star reputation, just been to a World cup Semi-final, should be no problem getting a top job right? right? anyway, four seasons and no progress in the challenge! its looking unlikely i'll do it before FM23 to be honest.... Career

Season 2025/26 South Africa Premier League Season Summary So, I signed a new contract for another season! And we we were great, finishing third. I got offered a job at Mamelodi Sundowns - they had 10x the wage and transfer budget! But I did manage to get another coaching badge, which is nice, and a reputation of 50%. Whoop! So, that's it. I'm leaving the All Stars and seeing what happens next. I can't see me catching the top teams here any time soon. Career Summary Manager record What's next? Resigning and seeing what happens! I loaded up all the top leagues in Europe as well as Brazil, Argentina and so on so plenty of chances

South Africa 2023/24 and 2024/25 2023/24 I joined with 10 games to go and the All Stars top of the Championship. It was gonna take something special for me to screw that up. and I didn't, guiding us to a comfortable title win. Woohoo! and another trophy for the cabinet, albeit one that doesn't count for the challenge 2024/25 So up to the premier league, where we were favourites to go down. Trouble is, we have a ridiculously low wage budget, by far the lowest in the league. So the squad had to be trimmed and we went in with around 16 first team players. Some decent free signings made it a balanced team though, and our striker was easily good enough for a higher team. We started ok, hovering around 11th or 12th for the first few months and then hit a nice bit of form at the end of the season to finish 6th. which was better than I expected! trouble is, with that small wage budget, I have a feeling I've already taken this team as far as I can. My contract is up.... do I quit or sign a new one? Career

Turns out Malaysia isn't quite as impressive as I thought it was! I have around 10 leagues in Asia, South America and Africa loaded and South Africa was the only one where I was even given a second glance. To be fair, I only waited a month or so, but it was still around 15 applications ignored! so when South Africa came knocking I couldn't ignore it. And even then it was in the Second tier!!! Cape Town All Stars! Who, in real life, will not exist from next season as they move to Johannesburg and rename themselves All Stars! But, for now, they sit top of the Second Division so I have an excellent chance of picking up another title. Here's the league when I took over:-

Kedah FA Malaysia 2023 Season Summary Almost a perfect season! My tactics of stealing as many of last years best players as I could paid dividends! To be fair the quality of Malaysian top flight football is very low so with three good foreign players you're kinda set really. The ace in the pack was their striker who scored 21 in 25 for them last season. I nabbed him and he got 35 in 31. Even so, I wasn't quite prepared for an almost unbeaten season! We won the league at a canter, both domestic cups and made it to the Asian Conference League final as well, where we lost to a Kuwaiti side Still, can't complain. My reputation is up to two stars (35%) and I've got my first three coaching badges too. Future Plans So I think that's as far as I can go in Malaysia. They're too weak domestically to challenge for a champions league against Korean, Japanese, Chinese sides. So I'm gonna leave when my contract runs out and see where 2 star reputation takes me! Career challenge progress!

Kedah FA Malaysia 2022 a successful first full season. first two coaching badges, improved reputation an the first cup under my belt! we finished second in the league but were never really in the race - Selangor FA led from the start after winning their first 9 games. Malaysia is a little like China though - only 4 foreign players allowed and they are always far stronger than the homebased players. So it was nice to do this against them in the Cup Final The plan is to hang around, nick as many players off Selangor as I can and win the league. Then see what's around - I don't think Malaysia is strong enough to win the Asian Champions League tbh Career Challenge Progress

yeah, i remember. My training got downgraded and it was easy to request. Youth downgraded twice and no option to improve it popped up. I even waited a few months as well. It's really annoying bug/feature for this type of save, particularly in places like Croatia. I guess it might pop up again sometime but could be years!

Hit a brick wall with Belisce - same problem a lot of people have had this year with the youth facility 'feature'. Without improving it I can't see how I'm gonna improve. So I'm gonna go try Ultimate challenge for a bit until FM23 comes around. I may come back to Belisce but probably not, it's starting to annoy me!

Season 1 - Malaysia Pretty much the dream starting job for me came available in May - Kedah FA in Malaysia were 1 place and 1 point above relegation and are, on paper, one of the best Malaysian clubs out there. I couldn't fail, surely? As a bonus, they have a great badge too! In the end it was quite easy. A win and 2 defeats were followed by 5 wins on the bounce and safety. We got to the semi final of the second cup as well, setting us up nicely for a push for both next season. A nice short review for a nice short season for me! Foundations have been laid!

bit late but i need a little break from the youth challenge before FM23 so here i am! i loaded up leagues in India, Malaysia, South Korea, Canada, South Africa and a couple of other non-european places. I'll add Europe slowly over the next couple of seasons. So, after a restart, I've been offered a job in Malaysia, halfway through their season. Can I save Kedah FC from relegation? I got 8 games to do it!

yeah, same thing's happening to me. It's a 'feature' apparently to do with the hidden ratings of your chairman or something. really annoying though! edit: oops, @the_hdk beat me to it with a better explanation to boot. That'll learn me to reply without checking the rest of the thread first!

yeah, i tried it a couple of versions ago. Didn't get anywhere near completing it but really enjoyed it. Adding/removing leagues makes it so much easier now. It's very different to the youth challenge as its the ultimate journeyman save, and i've been missing them a little bit so I might be joining you with trying the ultimate challenge again before heading back to youth. (I think my downfall last time I tried was going to the big leagues first rather than starting somewhere small in Asia/Australasia)

Croatia Premier League 2048/49 Season Summary League - ran away with it again and it was never really in any doubt, except for a weird run each side of the winter break where we lost 4 out of 5, including losing at home to the bottom 2 in consecutive games. luckily it was just a blip and normal service soon restored Champions League - We were seeded first! But there were teams like Real Madrid seeded second and AC Milan third so there was still every chance we'd get a crazy difficult group. As it was we got Servette, Real Oviedo and Gladbach, none of whom struck fear in our hearts. So we went in to the first game, home against Servette, full of optimism. Obviously, we lost it! But after that, we were great and qualified as group winners! Seeded for the second round also means nothing - we got PSG! They were far too strong for us but still, baby steps and that! Players Best thing about our Champions League run is it made our better players happy and willing to sign new contracts! Nenad Bubalo 41B, our best player, suddenly decided he was happy to stay after all and signed a new release fee free contract! Almost as good as winning the Champions League! For the first time I feel confident about holding on to our better players. Looking at the best XI at least half are way too good for the Croatian League realistically, and easily among the best players in the league. The young defenders are coming on nicely as well. Youth The problem with such a strong squad is youth intakes start looking disappointing in comparison. We've not had a golden generation for a while and there's little star potential in the U19s at the minute. I need a good intake! Really encouraging preview! 5 stars, golden generation, 3 As - happy with that Three elite talents at this stage is very pleasing. 3 stars is rated by our coaches as a leading player for our league! But it's all down to personality and determination..... Really disappointed by Velimir Plum - temperemental is by far my worst personality type. Other than that it's a really pleasing intake. I'm also pleased to see my affiliates coming through with a Czech and Uruguayan player in the intake! I mean, they're no good, but still see nice to see them! I signed about half of these players in the end, its our best intake for a few years with a really good range of personalities. Finances and Upgrades Stupid technological advances meant both our training and youth facilities dropped a level. The board happily agreed to improve training but there's till no option to even ask for a youth upgrade. I need a takeover or I'm gonna be stuck cos of the new 'feature' Career

I use an instant result skin - it really speeds the game up

Croatia Premier League 2047/48 Season Summary Easily our best season yet - i love it when a plan comes together! League - we absolutely ran away with it. It was weird though, we couldn't put together a run of more than 5 games without losing. But between those defeats we were amazing. From christmas we were around 15 points clear. Domestic Cup - we won this too! we won the double!!! Champions League - So this is the one! We needed to qualify for the group stage by beating Club Brugge and Sporting Lisbon, which we did quite easily winning home and away. So who did we get in the group stage? Barcelona, Liepzig and Southampton. Surely that gives us a chance? Well, yeah, but results went against us. Even though we beat Liepzig 4-0 at home and got a 1-1 draw at the Nou Camp we still finished bottom of the group. D'oh... Players Easily our best team so far. Interestingly the two best players are players that at 18/19 I couldn't see getting in the first team so sent out on loan where they really blossomed. Nenad Bubalo 41B - I turned down a £79m offer for him from Bayern! No release clause but only 2 years left on his contract and he has no intention of signing a new one so far. Shame, as he's the best player I've ever had! 22 goals, 14 assists, 7.54 rating - all with his morale in the red because I wouldn't let him leave! Milan Ilic 42B - My top striker who started the season with a 20m release fee. I managed to increase that to 37.5m in August and then doubled his wages in December with the release fee removed altogether. and he's happy!!!! Those two made the rest look ordinary and they're really not! a 3 star player is described as a leading player for this division, which is lovely! Wonderkids I got another one! Marincic 43C at left back suddenly popped up as a wonderkid! Youth So I sacked my HoYD after 4 disappointing intakes in a row. I now have an English HoYD, which will be interesting to see if I get more English players as a result. I also now have three afiliates giving me chances of youth players - Urugauy, Czech Republic and China! Preview was really good! intake was really not..... 5 star golden generation! Oh, maybe not..... Only signed the top 3 and they all had rubbish personalities and determination. Very disappointing in the end. Career

Croatia Premier Division 2046/47 Season Summary A frustrating season. Before the season started we lost our best player Patrick Radosevic 42A for 33m - he's now 30th best player in the world apparently! If that wasn't bad enough 3 others threw their toys out the pram when I turned down offers for them, so all my time in pre-season was spent fighting fires. It sent morale plummeting. league - we did ok, considering, but we drew far too many matches. we were still looking on track for a Champions League place when 3 dodgy results sent us crasing down to fifth with two to play. against the sides in first and second! so obviously we won them both, had other results go our way, and stole second! Champions League - eeep. I thought we might have chance as we got a favourable draw. Straight into the group stage with Genoa, Monaco and Manchester City. I was hopeful of picking up a couple of good results but it turns out we could barely scrape a draw and finished bottom of the table Players So how did we fill the gap left by Patrick Radosevic 42A? With Milan Ilic 42B! Turns out he's a wonderkid too! albeit one with a very small release fee of 20m and PSG sniffing around... He is interested in signing a new contract, but only with a smaller release fee! I don't think we'll see him much longer, sadly Youth So after two terrible youth intakes I could really do with a good one. Preview was promising! 5 star golden generation promised! Which didn't materialise but as a consolation prize two elite talents with fairly professional personalities. Lovely stuff! physicals need a bit of work but there's some nice technicals in there. Finances and Upgrades So we got loads and loads of money, thanks to the Champions League. Still no sign of being allowed to upgrade our Youth Facilities though so I got a couple of affiliates in instead, including Liverpool FC of Uruguay. We have so much money that we have this absurdity with our wages:- lol! Career

Those kits are amazing! your best yet! i need to get that up and going again, some of the kits you'd get were great

holy moly! Hertha Berlin just triggered the release clause for my best player. £33m! looks like they got a bargain....