Ron_Swanson

December 2031 A lot of games so even the ones that don't usually are in match rotation got their chance and it ended up really well. Bad thing is our only loss was to the worst team in league, but that's ok. Big win in FA Cup, next round we're facing Birmingham City at home, they're in Championship so it will be tough. As I mentioned earlier I decided to cash out the clause. Intake preview - I really want that striker. Russell Griffin is still performing well but looks like he has reached his peak, maybe this time we'll get next scoring machine

November 2031 What a great month. We kept the spot in playoff zone, we advanced in both cups, but the EFL Trophy is not that relevant (lower income and horrible attendance) Buyout of Javaun Martin clause appeared, it's not much but I think I'm gonna take it. But the most interesting thing happened almost unnoticed. Check the spoiler

October 2031 It's going way better than I thought. Some big wins and we present really good offence in most games. Finances are tight but there's FA Cup coming soon so it will help in

September 2031 Two wins and two losses in league is ok, I'm happy with it. I squeezed some friendlies inbetween to see how it will affect finances. Currently it gives me 15k profit per game on average so it may be worth to continue. At the end of august we got offer for Javaun Martin. I've decided to let him go. He's improving very slow, physicals are rising but other attributes are almost the same as on intake day. And I have enough young wingers so it won't be a big loss.

Now it looks like this. I'm sticking with it because results are great and if it works don't touch it

August 2031 Good first games, just unlucky loss in EFL Cup where we had a 3-1 lead until 84th minute. What I really like so far is 4-digit attendance, if it will stay like this it can give us a nice financial boost.

Main tactic is pretty much the same with only minor tweaks, sometimes I use slightly different set ups, but I'm not a tactical master

July 2031 A standard set of friendlies to maximize profit. According to bookies we should be fighting relegation but we're not rock bottom with those odds. I offered new contracts to most of my players just to upgrade them from part-time contracts. Two issues with that. I must went above wage budget, there were a lot of 20% promotion pay raise clauses in previous ones that were activated so when starting negotiations I needed to offer even some more. And the second is that every youth contract that was 6$p/w automaticaly became 170$p/w (due to turning pro if I'm not mistaken).

It's always nice and rewarding in this type of challenge when you build team strong enough to eventualy compete with the biggest and wealthiest clubs. Good luck with your save @KGregory44

Usually I holiday first season and pick newly promoted team to do a proper youth academy challenge, but in this save I just chose the team that caught my interest as it's a custom database (link here) with no relegations in tier 10. Spain should be interesting choice, I saw some people doing this challenge with spanish clubs so it seems to be ok, no bugged finances or other issues. There's just one thing I don't like in that league - an obligatory minimum release clause so other clubs can buy your players easier, I try to exclude this clause every time I offer new contracts. But it's just my personal preference.

Yeah, goalies are often far away from record breaking transfers. But in England where you have some squad restrictions and work permits a very good player with home grown status can be very pricey. I hope he'll be one of those guys or at least I will get another chance to cash that clause

Thanks @KGregory44 Unfortunately the buyout of his clause was available for like two weeks and never shown up again so I missed that chance. His current value varies around 30-40mil and slightly rises, got a contract until 2035, he's at a fairly big team, still developing so it may not drop for a long time. That 4,4mil back then could be enough for upgrading training and youth facilities even twice, maybe I made a costly mistake, we will see. I hope it's not a lost case. If you want to try a youth academy only career, I think it's crucial to have at least decent facilities as soon as possible, invest any time you can afford it. That way you give yourself a chance to get better intakes. Another thing, keep your best players on very long contracts and renew them on regular basis so you won't get hurt much when a key player demands a trade one year before his contract expires, you have very limited squad options since you can't buy any replacements.

May - June 2031 Let's start with a squad overwiev. I still need more depth in most of positions, especially in defensive line, but overall it's a pretty good squad. Some of this guys are already to good for non-league football so maybe that promotion will make them a little happier and they won't be complaining about transfers so often. Season awards were handed and it's not a surprise that we got some after winning league. Four players in best 11, I'm little shocked with Jaydn Towers, he was my 3rd choice for DC and played when Glauco or Thomas had fitness/suspension problems but maybe now he deserves a starting spot. More individual awards in spoiler My U18s still dominating. There's a lot of potential, best ones are getting call ups for first team from time to time. Big loss over those two months but with no games there's no income, just a season tickets sell

Thanks @OleDK @TelcontarTargaryen I'm really excited about next season. From my previous youth academy challenge tries I found it to be easier once you get to this level than lower leagues grind. And it's time to update the topic title

April 2031 Nothing was sure until last minute of last game but we made it, we're going up to League 2 sooner than I thought. Hartlepool messed up their finish by drawing a lot and we were able to surpass them. Promotion means we can't be a semi-pro club anymore, so we are turning professional. More training sessions should gave our players better chances to improve. There are also some expenses I didn't plan, but it's just league regulations so I can't do much about it. 230k is not horrible but ut could be used for other upgrades. Hopefuly the league income will get us a lot more.

Youth intake - march 2031 The actual intake looks bad, very little potential. Only one player is elite talent and the rest... I don't know, I hope there's some misjudgement from HoYD but I don't have much hope for this group. This years best, he won't make into first squad now, I'll let him develop in U18 league. Nice potential and personality, looks promising but needs some time We cut the distance to 3 points, it ain't much but now only one match can make a difference. If we won against Stevenage we could be a leader already. Some heavy injuries, Biai is my first choice left winger and Crabtree-Steadman a rotation player who covers 3 positions so it will be difficult end of season without those two

Yeah, I still think it's funny. Always a 5* preview with golden generation label but when you look at positions breakdown it's something completely different

February 2031 Less league games so a chance to refresh fitness, it was a big problem for a while, the squad was very tired. Results were pretty ok, but we only got draw against Hartlepool

January 2031 Worst month so far, only 1 win. Guiseley and Hartlepool used this opportunity and pushed us into 3rd place but it's still very close. Cup run is over at 3rd round - it's a great result as we eliminated higher division teams twice but Luton were just too strong. Nevertheless we got a big chunk from gate receipts.

December 2030 We managed to keep a small points advantage despite tough loss vs Morecambe where I played with reserves just to have my best lineup fresh for cup game. And it paid off, another win while being underdog, next round we play against Luton Town. Poor intake preview, low grades, nothing to be excited about

November 2030 Few points lost in league so like others, we're 1 point ahead and that's basically what I want for rest of the season. We advanced to the next round of FA Cup, more money for us, in december we're facing League 1's Crewe Alexandra at Sixways.

October 2030 Amazing performancein the league, I think we're not gonna fall below that playoff zone and with a little bit of luck we could push for promotion. Pretty easy cup game against tier 8 Barking, next round we're facing Bradford City at their ground

September 2030 Just one loss against leading Guiseley. We present huge confidence in offence making us a playoff contender at the moment. Board is happy with the results so another contract extension with a nice pay raise

August 2030 Nice start, safe spot in upper half of the table

June-July 2030 We started preparations for this season, instead of doing all friendlies against U23s I played most of them with higher leagues first teams, including our new affiliate Coventry City - paying no fee for that game gave us a really good money. Results are very promising. We're considered as a mid-table team so pretty much the same that we achieved last season. If we keep our core players it's definitely doable. New budgets, after converting we ended with 10,2k for wages so still plenty of room for new contracts if necessary. Finances for june and july, we're keeping around 0, so not great not terrible