libbyshuss

that might be it. i always struggle a bit when i get to that stage, which makes sense i guess. We're basically playing the youth team as the first team then.

Lyra Lierse - Belgium Jupiler Pro League - 2039/40 Another strong season from us saw us finish 6th in the league stage and then manage 5th in the Champions Stage, meaning we qualified for the Europa League. Which is nice! We went so successful in our first European adventure though, going out in the Conference League qualification round 4 Youth Another very nice intake! Career So far so good!

yeah, crossed my mind! but i'm slightly more in need of midfielders at the minute which i was why i was thinking mids but you never know, he's definitely got potential there

Lyra Lierse - Belgium Jupiler Pro League - 2038/39 Started the season poorly, with only two wins in the first 8, but finished strongly going 11 unbeaten. It meant we finished 5th and qualifies for the Champions Group, starting only three points behind the leaders! But despite starting with a 3-0 win over Club Brugge we were poor in the championship group, only winning one of our remaining 9 games. It meant we finished 5th which put us in a european Playoff with the winners of the Second Phase group. We won that 4-2 so European football is ours next season! Players Top Scorer: L de Pauw 26C (21 goals in 39 games) He's 28 now! kinda nice seeing a player from that long ago still rocking it in our first team, especially as i've tired to sell him on more than one occasion. it's Belgium, you have to! Player of the Season: Adam Vandenheede 30C (7.46 in 42 games) I love players like this! Bang average on paper, never looks for a move, not really coveted by other teams, yet is so consistent, turning it on week after week, season after season. AWonderkids We got our first official wonderkid! And first player to be capped by Belgium as well! Funniest thing is Ive agreed to sell the lad five times, and each time he's rejected the contract and stayed with us! He has a 22.5m release fee so as soon as anyone offers anything close I add a 50% sell on and accept. And yet he's still with us! Youth A ridiculously good intake, but also one that poses more questions. 6 elite talents is unreal at this stage, but only one of them is a natural in a position I actually use. so.... either position re-training or new tactic in a few seasons. I haven't decided what yet. Best of the lot is clearly this lad, who looks like he could be unbelievable in a few seasons. I either switch to a 4312 using an AMC or retrain him as an MC. either way he's a future first teamer. look at him! Finances so I managed to sell one of my top prospects for 18m at the start of the season. Sad to see him go but in Belgium you have no choice really. Once the money came in, rather than let it slowly dribble away I talked the board into investing instead So we were looking relatively settled financially! so what do the board do at the end of the season? Announce a stadium upgrade they will be financing with another 6m loan. that's 18m worth of loans now, at 170k a month repayments! The finances here make it such a different challenge to elsewhere... Career Into Europe we go! It's only the conference league but it's a chance to give my younger squad players some invaluable experience. And it's another step forward, another source of income. Things are starting to look up!

Lyra Lierse - Belgium Pro Jupiler League - 2037/38 League finish: 7th Second Phase finish: 1st Really good season in the end, despite a poor start. We narrowly missed out on getting into the championship group but headed into the second group in first place. We were really good throughout and finished first, heading into a european play-off with Charleroi which we lsot 3-2 to a 91st minute goal so for the second season we miss out on European football by a goal! Youth another really good preview and intake, which is just as well given the rate we're losing players Finances This is where the real challenge in Belgium lies. The board have a habit of requesting a negative transfer balance and I always try to get it removed only this time around they would not let me. So..... we started with a transfer budget of -2m I had to raise £2m, which wasn't too hard, so I set about narrowing the squad down and sold ten players over the summer for a total of 3m. Only the board did not release any of those funds to the transfer budget, so it still stood at -2m! which meant, during January.... But they never release any of the funds to the transfer budget, so I can never clear it! So i had no choice but to hawk my best players around so i could get a decent price and sell on rather than have the board sell them for peanuts. Noah Dannemark 33B went to Standard for 3m +50% sell on, and the board released 150k towards the budget! Chris Kabeya 34B wanted to leave and I manged to get a £13m + 50% offer in from 4 clubs and he rejected them all! and the board accepted a loan offer from Gent and off he went! I got away lightly in the end..... but honestly, it's things like this makes Belgium so difficult and frustrating but also a real challenge. Career

Lyra Lierse - belgium Pro Jupiler League - 2036/37 League Finish: Second group phase: 3rd Croky Cup: runners Up A frustrating season where we spent most of it in the relegation group spots only to win our last 4 league games to qualify for the second phase. We saved our best performances for the cup getting to the final only to lose to Standard Liege. Players Top Scorer: A Vandenheede 30C (32 goals in 44 games) Player of the Season: A Vandenheede 30C (7.47 AR in 44 games) Ridiculously good, which is weird cos when you look at his attributes/transfer value he looks really, really average. But he consistently performs at a really high level. I love it! Wonderkids Not sure if he'll be a real, proper wonderkid but he does look a really good prospect Youth After two really disappointing intakes i could really do with a good one. And i think i got one! Finances And my stupid board sold him for 60k with no sell on! Aargh! god, i hate them! Career

Lyra Lierse - Belgium Pro Jupiler League - 2035/26 League finish: 6th Championship Phase finish: 6th Really good season for us, took me a bit by surprise. We finished 6th which meant we qualified for the championship group. The top 6 teams are put in a league togerher and their points halved. they then play each other twice and the winner is champion. So, bizarrely, we had a shot at both the title and Champions League qualification! We won three of our ten games in the championship group and missed out on the European Play-off game by 1 goal! Players Top Goalscorer: L de Pauw 26C (24 goals in 36 games) Got himself injured for the last few games of the season and we missed him. Easily our best striker now and, at 26, our most experienced player Player of the Season: A Vandenheede 30C (7.21 AR in 28 games) Nowhere near as good as he has been in previous seasons but still good enough to be our best player My best XI is looking both very good and very young. It's quite exciting! Youth I was very excited now we've maxed out youth intake but both the preview and intake were really disappointing... Finances During the summer I got a message that Monaco triggered the minimum release fee clause of my 18 year old left back Lewis Niro 32B. At 8.75m, I wasn't too upset about losing any future fee clause. Plus, he was only a left back So I had a choice: do I keep the money and stay financially viable for a couple of season or do I spend it all on as many upgrades as I can? Well.. I asked for a training facility improvement and the said no, only to come back to me a few days later and ask me this:- yes. yes it is what I want. So it meant I finished the season in the red again but looking much, much better off the pitch. I still need to sell to survive though, annoying as that is. Career

it is weird but it's also how I tend to do it. If the legacy players don't have stupid wages I usually keep them around as subs/squad players but more often than not my entire first team XI is under 21 at that stage depends, but if he's better or as good as your starting keeper then I'd play him. My first team keeper at the minute is only 17, purely because his potential far outweighs my old keepers CA. Sometimes it really pays off to throw them in the first team really young and you can only really tell by playing them! (my 17 year old keeper is averaging over 7.0, i'm happy with that!) I do it just like you do! the only difference is for those rotational players with high PA I'll send out on loan when they're 19/20. I like to keep a few rubbish players around just for squad depth as well as I'd much rather send a 19 year old 4 star PA player out on loan where he'll play regularly than on my subs bench. My subs bench tends to be the older players or lower PA players I also send out 2 and 3 star PA players out on loan if I have a fairly big squad - every now and then one comes back with a 4 star PA and become a really useful first team player 15-18 year olds stay in the youth squads unless they look really, really good Please do! I love following other peoples saves in this challenge - you get some really interesting stories I had a fun save in Croatia a couple of years ago

Lyra Lierse - Belgium Jupiler Pro League - 2034/35 League finish: 13th Relegation playoff group: 1st Another relegation battle we comfortably survive. We're slowly improving but still susceptible to long winless runs, which really don't help with a relatively short league. Players Top Goalscorer: Adam Vandenheede 30C (20 in 38 games) Player of the Season: Adam Vandenheede 30C (7.42 in 38 games) I'm so glad he rejected that contract from Mechelen and signed a new one with us. He was superb for us this season, much better than he looks on paper. so good in fact that he won this award:- :- always nice to get a golden boy! wonderkids still no official wonderkids but.... had a really good breakthrough season for us with 14 goals and 9 assists in 28 games Youth So, best preview yet couple with the worst intake yet. What's that about? Still lost my star ratings too! Top 4 prospects were all wingers, which is fine except I don't use wingers! none of them look good enough to persuade me to change either Career

i think 25 is OK. I've started the challenge with far fewer players! Some people have had to play grey players as they haven't had enough to make a full XI so 25 isn't bad at all. It will sonn increase once youth intakes come in as well.

Lyra Lierse - Belgium Jupiler Pro League - 2033/34 League finish: 8th Second phase finish: 4th A nice, boring season. Easily avoided the relegation group. Only negative was when we got to the silly second phase we were a bit rubbish and only won twice. In all, two victories in the last fourteen games is making me a little nervous for next season Players Top Scorer: Leandro de Pauw 26C (20 goals in 37 games) Player of the Season: Leandro de Pauw 26C (7.23 rating from 37 games) Officially our most valuable player. Now 24, coming to the limit of his potential, he's perfectly balanced between being a good Pro Jupiler player, but not good enough to attract any attention from abroad. Perfect player for a Belgian save! Wonderkids Adam Vandenheede 30C - I tried to sell him in the offseason as he was considering his options, agreed a deal for 250k with Mechelen but he rejected their terms. So I figured I'd keep him another season, massage his ego a lot, and hope he wants to sign with us at the end of his contract. I'm glad he did because:- Technically not a wonderkid yet but my first appearance, and winner, of the NXGN list. Nice! Also appearing on the list, at number 27, was Axl Thil 30A - no 19, still at Nice, and capped 3 times by the Belgian national side. I am still livid at my board for selling him frorm under my nose for a measly 61k Youth I've still lost the star rating you get for youth previews and intakes. No idea where it's gone! I'd give them both 5* though - maxxing out youth recruitment is a magical thing in Belgium! five elite talents is pretty, pretty good! best two, once I'd signed them, were these two. Look at those values already! very excited about these two! I have a full squad in both U21 and U18 now and the wage bill has crept right up so we're going to need a clearout this summer I think. Finances Not great tbh. But also, could be a lot worse considering where we are. But no improvements look likely in the near future. Career As long as i can stay in the Jupiler Pro I might have half a chance in Belgium. We'll see

Lyra Lierse - Belgium Pro Jupiler League - 2031/32 League Finish: 13th Relegation Group finish: 1st My worries about our poor run at the end of last season were well founded as it took us until October 31st to win our first league match. Luckily we'd drawn more than we'd lost so we weren't completely cut adrift at that point but it was still worrying. We then went on a run of 7 victories in 12 games to put us mid-table and within touching distance of survival. So obviously we went on a 6 game run without a win to finish the season and find ourselves in the relegation play-off One thing I really like about Belgium is the end of season mini-leagues. the top six go into a championship play-off, middle six into a pointless play-off and the bottom four into a relegation play-off. We keep all our points, play each team twice more, and the bottom two get relegated. second place go into a play-off against a team from the division below whilst the top team stay up. We were favourites to stay up with our 4 point advantage, and after we beat STVV in the first game that became 7 points. in the end we won 3, drew 2 and lost 1 to stay up quite easily. S Players Top Scorer: Leandro de Pauw 26C (21 goals in 38 games) A much better second season from our top striker. He's settled into the top division nicely, seems settled and happy. what could go wrong? Player of the Season: Adam Vandenheede 30C (7.18 in 34 games) Still only 18 and now winner of two player of the season awards. Scored 20 goals this season too. With 18 months left on his contract he also let me know that he'll be considering his options when it expires which leaves me with two choices. Keep him and risk losing him on a free or sell him for peanuts but with a 50% sell on. I have a couple of good youths waiting for a first team chance so it will probably be the second. Youth Another nice preview and intake! Weird thing is, I've lost the star rating for the preview and intake and I don't know where it's gone! best looking prospect is this fella:- Bit of work to do but really nice starting physicals, apart from the fact he looks like he's pull a muscle picking up a box of cornflakes Finances So, not too bad. Another couple of prospects sold and another couple of future transfer clauses too. Our best keeper prospect went to Porto which was upsetting but you got to play the long game in Belgium. Best thing is the board agreed to another couple of improvements. We do still have those two massive loans still to pay off but we should be moving into our new stadium for next season. I've still got to sell players to survive but this should guarantee a really good steady income of quality youth prospects. Career

Lyra Lierse - Belgium Jupiler Pro League - 2031/32 League finish: 12th The aim was to stay up and somehow we did it. we had an ok start, winning the odd game here and there to go mid-table. Then December came, we lost to the teams in 15th and 16th and also went out the cup to the team bottom of the third division. From then on it was a struggle and it was only a couple of lucky results that managed to get us 12th, and out of the relegation group So we went into the middle group, meaning whatever happened we'd be safe. Which was lucky, as we didn't win one of those 10 games. All in allm out last 30 games returned a measly 3 victories - keep that up and next season will be a disaster! Players Top Scorer: Leandro de Pauw 26C - 13 goals in 28 games Difficult season for our top striker where he missed the last two months due to injury. Still by far our most potent threat up front. Player of the Season: Adam Vandenheede 30C (7.15 AR in 24 games) I was getting desperate so gave the lad a chance. He doesn't look much, attribute wise, but his physicals are really strong. Plays as a pressing forward and managed 11 goals as well. Very interesting to see how he might develop Youth A very nice preview and intake again! Belgium is a disaster zone in relation to finances but a lot of fun with the intakes best prospect looks this fella here. I think I'm gonna retrain him as either an MC or striker - not sure which yet Finances Unbelievably, the board allowed me a couple of upgrades this season! Its so important I stay up in the Pro League Axl Thill 31A Update So, that superstar 5 star youth player I got? That the board sold from out under me for only 61k, without any well ons? look at his value now.... It's really difficult not to rage quit while playing Belgium... Career

we'll all be gutted! that is completely ridiculous if they do sack you. good luck!

Belgium - Lyra Lierse Jupiler Pro League (tier 2) - 2030/31 League finish: 5th Playoff winners - promoted! Both a hugely successful and hugely frustrating season! we were wildly erratic on the pitch, at one point winning 6 in a row only to then lose the next 4, including against both teams at the bottom. We managed to get into the playoffs though where our amazing form returned to get us promoted to the top division! sadly the money isn't quite EPL levels so we've still got worries there... Players Top Scorer: L de Pauw 26C (19 in 36 games) interesting season in that he was completely settled all season and seemed to want to play for us, which was nice. He's become our most important attacker in the front three Player of the Season: Friedrich Mukanya 27A (7.32 rating in 28 games) Interesting one, as I always had Mukanya pegged as a future member of the front three. But I was desperate for midifleders and he was accomplished there so he got put there out of necessity. But he can score and assist there and soon became our best midfielder. having him natural in both positions makes him a hugely valuable squad member too youth Another very nice intake! the preview didn't promise much though. Hopefully they'll be even better in the top division next season! Looks like I'm stuck playing 4-3-3 narrow for a while with Lecomte. He looks like he could be special! Finances And here it comes..... So, with a week of the January window left the board sent me this message:- I hadn't managed to raise 518k through players sales - though i had tried! nobody was biting. But now it was open season on all our players. Luckily, I only lost two as i only got three offers, and one i managed to persuade to sign a new deal with us. But the most upsetting deal.... Yep, they sold my superstar youth prospect for a measly 61k with no sell on!!!! I couldn't believe it! I completely understand why people quite Belgium so much - it's infuriating! Oh, and his transfer valuer now he's at Nice? 7-11m!!!!! goddammit board! a week later, the damage done, i get this:- brilliant! thank you! but there's more. Our stadium isn't up to standard so the board announced a new stadium So that's another 11m loan to add to the 10m loan we already have. The finances here are screwed! Career

Lyra Lierse - Belgium Challenger Pro League (tier 2) - 2029/30 League finish: 8th Well, this season perfectly encapsulated why Belgium can be so frustrating! First season in the second tier, and due to a quirk where 4 of the sides cannot be promoted due to being affiliated with clubs in the top tier, our mid-table finish actually qualified us for the play off stages! And once in the play off stages, we were suddenly fantastic:- so we got through to the final, against the team who won the relegation play off for the top division. So 3 of my best players decided to get injured and another had to go on international duty..... So close to an unlikely promotion from a mid-table finish! i love Belgium! so how do the board reward such as successful season? by announcing this:- aargh! i hate belgium! Players Top Scorer: Leandro De Pauw 26C (21 goals in 34 games) Player of the Season: Leandro de Pauw 26C (7.34 in 34 games) A busy season for our star man! pre-season I signed him up on a 6 year contract, 1 week later the board accepted a stupidly low £400k offer from toulouse, a week after that he rejected it, only to then decide he wasn't happy with us after all! But despite all that he performed on the pitch and is now rated a Jupiler Pro League player, so it's unlikely I can hold on to him for much longer Youth A lovely preview and a very exciting intake! look at this! Axl Thill!!!!! Jupiler Pro League quality at 15???? possibly my best ever intake player! shame he's a left back, but what can you do? He immediately insisted on a 4m release clause so he'll be cashed in as soon as i get a decent offer with a 50% clause. He could be the saviour of this save! Career

Belgium - Lyra Lierse National First Division (tier 3) - 2028/29 (season 5) yes, we did it! I was hoping for a better season as a few of our youngsters were rated as division 1 and 2 standard by our coaching staff, which is always a good sign. and a good start followed by an amazing autumn (17 match unbeaten run!) meant we were never out the top 2. When it looked like we might slip up and blow it we recovered by beating the eventual champions 3-0 at home. It was a pivotal game, although we did lose the final game to blow our chances of the title. Players Top Scorer: Karim Pitlyk 29B (33 goals in 35 games) A great season from my right winger turned striker. His pace is just too much for tier 3 defences and his finishing and composure have come on hugely. Really excited to see what he can do in the second division. Player of the Season: Leandro de Pauw 26C (7.40 rating from 38 games) One of the reasons I thought we might have a chance this season. The coaches rated him as a decent Jupiler Pro League player, which was a bit of a surprise. But then, he does look pretty good so who am i to say? He's on a nice long contract as well so the money would have to be good! Other than that, our main problem is defence. Up front we look amazing, midfield solid, defence like tissue paper. It's a bit of a problem as the youth intakes keep throwing attackers at me! Youth So, do i get the defenders i so badly crave? Well, maybe.... Weirdest thing was an intake that claims a golden generation with not one elite talent in it. Which I hope says more about how good de Pauw is than how good the intake is. Forgot the actual intake screenshot, but it did say potential golden generation! with this lot? finances Still awful, still losing money hand over fist, still having the board bail us out every couple of months. So I still have made no improvements and not even got my first coaching badge yet either. Something mad needs to happen soon or we'll go bust. Not sure whether this is a good or bad thing financially but as a result of promotion:- Career

Lyra Lierse - the purgatory that is FM Belgium First National division (tier 3) - 2027/28 League Finish: 12th Another season of treading water, but the team is now almost exclusively youth intake players and therefore stupidly young. Players Top Scorer: Kamil Patylik 25B (19 in 36 games) Not quite as good a season as last season but still our top scorer. Only two years left on his contract so realistically i've only got one more chance to get promotion before I have to sell him Player of the Season: Yannick Tshibwabwa (7.36 rating from 32 games) One of the prospects from the U19 team when i took over, he is now looking like a phenomonal talent. Missed a few games halfway through the season to go to Afcon and sit on the Congo subs bench Finally got his full debut at the end of the season. Another one with only 2 years left on his contract that i'll probably have to cash in on Youth Another nice preview and intake! only thing keeping me going in Belgium is the conveyer belt of talent Finances well..... this isn't a huge surprise The board too out a 10 year 3.8m loan which buys us a little more time to make something happen, but the 35k a month repayments aren't a huge help tbh and then at the end of the season we get this..... and there's nothing we can do about it career It's frustrating here, but I knew that before I went in. Hopefully we'll get a lucky break soon but it's difficult to see where from to be honest.

Lyra Lierse - Belgium National divison 1 (tier 3) - 2026/27 (season 3) League finish: 11th Our worst season yet, but being that it was with by far our youngest squad so far it's not really too much of asurprise I guess. At one point we hit second but our inconsistency saw us slip further and further down Players Top Scorer: Jordy Peffer (22 in 35 games) now 30, he's been eclipsed by our burgeoning youth talent so will probably be a sub for the upcming season. Shame as he knows where the goal is! Player of the Season: Kamil Pytlik 25B (7.29 rating from 29 games) Breakthrough season for our Polish right winger, who I play as a striker. He'll probably be sold pretty soon! Youth I need a steady flow of good youth intakes if i can make a go of this save. this one looks pretty good, but without any obvious standouts Finances Yep, as bad as you'd think. Going part-time makes extending contracts difficult as nobody wants to sign a new contract on worse deals. I had to wait until the very last minute before extending contracts and risk losing players for nothing. Luckily nobody went, and the only one who was looking like he wouldn't sign i managed to sell for peanuts + 50% future sell on. But if this save is going to work in Belgium it will take a few more hundred of him to pay off. It really is a long term save this one! Career looks like it's going backwaards, and financially it is. But the squad is crammed with decent potential so who knows?

Yeah, the wages are nuts for the level we are at. It would make a lot more sense if all the clubs were semi-pro down there. Not sure how it is in real life though. Although I thought they'd dropped the 'amatuer' name from the league in real life so not sure why the name is still there in FM.

Lyra Lierse - Belgium First National Division - 2025/26 (season 2) the madness in Belgium continues! on the pitch we made a slow start, which by the end of the season was really annoying as we went on a 12 game unbeaten run to finish the season. With the points total we got we would have won the league last season, but this season it only got us 6th. So twice we were within touching distance of promotion, which would hopefully be a huge help amongst the financial madness going on here Players Most pleasing thing was how well all the young players i was randomly throwing in the side did. Both my youths and the legacy youths did their part and the future looks bright. on the pitch at least.... Top Scorer: Nio Eerdekens 16 in 33 games found him in the U19 squad when I took over the club. Gave him his chance this season and he took it with aplomb. Plays on the left hand side of my three man attack as a pressing forward. i do like my pressing forwards. Player of the Season: Seppe Kil (7.31 average rating) legacy midfielder, now 32 with only 1 season left on his contract. i won't be able to afford to renew so he'll be on his way. His experience has been vital though! Youth whoops, forgot to screenshot the intake! pretty good though, three elites which is ok. Especially as I wasn't expecting too much from the preview. No A grades! Finances honestly, they are crazy! we lost bucketloads again and then the board informed me after the season ended we had to go semi-pro to save money. I can see why so many quit Belgium, but I'm gonna see if i can break it.... I'm barely spending a thing on wages :-/ Career

oh that's interesting! whenever I have had problems with players throwing their toys out the pram they've always been fickle!

Lyra Lierse - Belgium Belgium National League (tier 3) League Finish: 7th Croky Cup: Round 6 On the pitch, a really good first season. The league was ridiculous, the closest title race i think I've ever been involved in. with 5 games to go the table looked like this:- four points separating the top 10! we went into the final game of the season with a chance of automatic promotion, lost it and finished 7th! Players A really nice, big squad helped. The older legacy players really don't want to stay though, but that's ok as their wages are too high anyway! The youth squad was nicely stocked when I took over which helped as I had to use a fair few of them. The best XI:- Next season will have a lot more 16 year olds by necessity though. Be interesting to see what difference that will make Youth One of the nice things about Belgium is with a decent youth recruitment you're almost guaranteed some excellent youth players. and so it proved! Only issue is nonce of those top 6 have decent personalities. Ouedraogo is fickle and I hate fickleness!!! Finances No surprises I knew it coming into it though so I can't really complain. But it really is absurd! I have to sell around a £1m worth of players a season just to break even, and at tier 3 that just isn't going to happen. Signing youth players isn't something to take for granted either - they often ask for £400 a week for a starting contract, which at 15 in tier 3 is just bonkers. So I can't take risks on those 2 star youths really either. Plus, my training facilities have got worse and there's no way we can afford to improve them. Career Dammit, belgium is going to kill me isn't it? The finances are bonkers!

just look at Luton Town!! it wasn't that long ago I was standing behind a bit of rope watching us struggle to a 1-0 win away at Eastbourne Borough!

After doing this challenge in loads of different countries, I have found getting out the VNLS/N is by far the most difficult challenge of all. Most of us don't have your patience and jack it in after a handful of seasons floating around seemingly getting nowhere.