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Operário dos Açores – Season 1 (2023/24) - Campeonato de Portugal I decided to give the challenge a go in Portugal this year, and was tempted to start in the Azores islands. Not like I’m there in real life I guess, but still, the thought of living in what I assume is an idyllic village on a paradise-like island is a nice distraction. Campeonato de Portugal We started off great and were in the playoff spots around Christmas, but once the players got tired our form dropped off massively. Still finished a respectable 5th. Although, that's only 5 spots and 8 points above relegation places, this league is tough! Players: Apart from not having a left back, the first 11 seems decent for this level, but some of them are really ageing and there is ZERO depth. Paulo Bessa did well, banging in 25 out of our 50-ish goals this season. Youth intake: Looks terrible despite some 4.5* PA players, hope this is just a blip and not a trend. Facilities: Managed to upgrade youth coaching and recruitment, but our basic youth facilities seem to be holding us back. Hope I can upgrade coaching at least one more time next year to give ourselves a chance of getting out of this division. No transfers Season | League | Pos. | Europe | Best player | Notes --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2023/24 | Campeonato Gr. D | 5 | n/a | Paulo Bessa | Facilities ---------- Season | Coaching | Recruitment | Training Fac. | Youth Fac. | Stadium ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2023/24 | Average | Above average | Average | Basic | 800

IGNORE: just a stupid Mac security thing, had to enable permissions for Steam in settings... Anybody else having the disc write error below? Using a Mac. Can't install the update because of this, tried restarting steam/Mac/clearing cache/verifying game files, nothing seems to help.

Congrats @toshimitzou1, amazing achievement! A proper tactical masterclass there in the end, think that was needed to win the CL with an Icelandic team

@libbyshuss Congrats on completing, I'm impressed you managed to jump straight back in! Good luck in Croatia

Thanks! Just loaded up an old backup file (I started buying players in the save after completing), and looks like just 2 of the starters, and 4 out of the 25-man squad are from BCN. But a fair few more are from the satellite towns like Gava, Badalona, Hospitalitet etc. So maybe around half the squad are from the greater Barcelona area once you count these in. Still, it's a more diverse bunch than I thought it would be!

@aldojags Thanks! The personality change thing seems annoying... I think in this FM squad personality seems very important, at least from my experience, although I didn't have any changes as drastic as that. I'd say it may be worth raising in the bug forum or on feedback thread, maybe SI changed something under the hood and overcooked it a bit. @darren1983 Thanks! Looking at the HoF, quite a few completions over the last few FMs, nice to see! @JLAB I tried this in Sweden twice and it was lots of fun, the league sizes are small so you can fly through the seasons, and the quality of the regens is pretty decent. I think Serbia has the highest potential for newgens, there are always these amazing Serbian regens popping up in all my saves. But probably money is harder to come by in the Serbian leagues, I haven't managed there though.

@JAwtunes @Daddy Haha thanks, so maybe watch this space ))) I was already getting tempted looking at the England Level 10 database, but don't think my computer can handle that... But then, if I delay until FM23 maybe I can do this challenge without the youth facility bug, that would be a treat! Not sure I can wait that long though...

Funnily enough, the option to request a youth facility upgrade appeared a few days after I won the CL - so the board were just waiting for me to complete the challenge before giving in )) £600m in the bank and all... And the upgrade before this one was right after I won the league for the first time :z Maybe it's to do with reputation increasing, or board confidence jumping, don't know... I hope you manage to upgrade yours before then!

@toshimitzou1 @Daddy@glennuk@libbyshuss@Winski@XaW@JAwtunes@BustaRaymes @JLAB Thanks! I'll keep following your saves on here for sure )) It does feel great to have completed - I was starting to doubt it as the team wasn't improving much, and I kept on losing those crucial CL knockout games. But then we managed to beat our CL nemeses Man Utd and Man City one after the other, and get one over our domestic rivals Real Madrid in the final (which was weirdly one-sided, even given the sending off). So it was a bit of a fairytale ending in the end ))) Now of course I'm itching to get into another challenge, but maybe I'll try buying some players for Sant Andreu or doing a journeyman save for a change. @glennuk You're right, I was actually complaining in the beginning of the save about personalities not improving, but they do look pretty good in the end. I don't think that much of it is down to mentoring, I only had one mentoring group and haven't seen that many mentoring notifications. I think it's partly because professional players develop so much better, so if you wait enough seasons you have many of them in your squad. And then I think there's some kind of threshold effect, once you get enough professional players your squad personality improves and everyone else starts becoming more professional. E.g. even my legends Hontoria and Badije, the two 30-year old centre backs changed their personalities from fairly determined and balanced to resolute and fairly pro, just in the last two years of the save. So I think in this FM you just have to be patient and reach some kind of critical mass of professional players in the squad. I also did a purge of players with poor personalities the season before last and think it helped. Other than that, professional coaches, giving out fines, and not signing too many players from the youth intake with bad personalities help, but I'm not sure how much (apart from the fines, I think in the season I got relegated my players' determination went through the roof!)

Sant Andreu – Season 17 (2038/39) Europe A very easy CL group saw us finish first again, but then we drew PSG in the last 16. I was fearing the worst, but we absolutely dismantled them over the two legs, 3-1 away and 4-1 at home. Another tough draw next in last year's runners up Man City. Last time we played them they beat us 5-0 in the Club World Cup. We lost the away leg 2-0, so I thought we were out. But then came a brilliant home performance, we went 3-0 up after 60 minutes and eventually won 4-1 in extra time. Was good to see us create so many chances, that’s something we’ve really struggled to do against the big teams in the CL. Onto the semis, and it didn´t get any easier with Man Utd, the team who knocked us out last year. But our team really turned up for this one, winning 2-0 at Old Trafford and dominating the home leg despite only winning 1-0. Onto the final, first time in the save. And who awaited us? Real Madrid. Have to say, as a Liverpool fan I was properly nervous and excited for this one, not sure I could handle another CL final loss to them, even in FM! And luckily I didn’t have to )) They had a man sent off in the 9th minute and we absolutely destroyed them, 2-0 but it could have been 5 or 6. So, our first proper run in the CL in 4 years, and we went on and won the thing! Challenge complete! I must say, beating City, ManU, and then Real in the final made this my most satisfying FM save for a long while. La Liga 103 points and 1st place again, unstoppable. Players: So, what was our CL winning team? Goalkeeper: Miroslav Nikolic 11b - he really came on this season, we finally have a proper class keeper Fullbacks: Josema 10d and Marc Rosanas 09a - probably our strongest position in terms of depth and quality, these two can both defend and attack very well. Center backs: Guille Arribas 11a finally started playing as his stats would suggest this season, and Brian Hidalgo 12i is the lowest rated player in the team but his height is invaluable. Center midfield: We have Aleix Garcia 06a as the defensive minded midfielder, great mentals and determination, and hardly misses a game. Further up we have Roger Nieto 12c the creator, and Nicoas Paz 09c the attacker. Wingers: Luis Miguel Pastoriza 12a has developed amazingly, and Jaume Soler 08f keeps on playing well. Striker: Vicente Esparza 11c, his finishing went up from 8 to 10 and I think this made a huge difference in those CL knockout games. Stars of the season: Nicolas Paz was our best player with 18 goals and 12 assists from midfield, but probably the reason we won the CL was that we got a proper striker and keeper in Esparza and Nikolic. Player of the save: Aaron Hontoria 01a (history), our first proper defender, key player, mentor, and still a useful squad option in this final season. 492 club appearances in 17 seasons, what a legend! Have to also give a shout out to Muhammed Badjie 03b (history), club captain for the last 10 years and still a first choice centre back this year. 125 caps and 3 times AFCON winner with Gambia, too. Transfers: just letting some squad players go. Facilities: the board said I failed their objective to “develop the best youth system in the country”, presumably because they are still refusing to upgrade youth facilities )) But honestly, who cares! Season | League | Pos. | Europe | Best player | Notes --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2022/23 | Segunda RFEF Gr. III | 1 | n/a | German Fassani (ST) | Promoted 2023/24 | Primera RFEF Gr. I | 2 | n/a | Aaron Hotoria 01a (DC) | Lost in playoff semi 2024/25 | Primera RFEF Gr. I | 3 | n/a | Aaron Hotoria 01a (DC) | Promotion through playoffs! 2025/26 | La Liga 2 | 9 | n/a | Aaron Hotoria 01a (DC) | 2026/27 | La Liga 2 | 1 | n/a | Sergio Mulero (ST) | Promoted 2027/28 | La Liga | 19 | n/a | Aaron Hotoria 01a (DC) | Relegated 2028/29 | La Liga 2 | 1 | n/a | Muhammed Badjie 03b (DC) | Promoted 2029/30 | La Liga | 11 | n/a | Manel Blay 05a (MC) | 2030/31 | La Liga | 5 | n/a | Manel Blay 05a (MC) | Qualified for Europa League 2031/32 | La Liga | 4 | EL Semi | Moisés Nieto 07c (MC) | 2032/33 | La Liga | 2 | EL Semi | Manuel Ristori 02c (AMRLC) | 2033/34 | La Liga | 1 | EL Winner | Ivan Deniz 04b (ST) | League + Europa double 2034/35 | La Liga | 1 | CL Semi | Manel Blay 05a (MC) | 2035/36 | La Liga | 1 | CL last 16 | Muhammed Badjie 03b (DC) | 2036/37 | La Liga | 1 | CL last 16 | Jaume Soler 08f (AMRL) | 2037/38 | La Liga | 1 | CL QF | Luis Miguel Pastoriza 12a (AMRL) | 2038/39 | La Liga | 1 | CL WINNER | Nicolás Paz 09c (AMRLC/ST) | Facilities ---------- Season | Coaching | Recruitment | Training Fac. | Youth Fac. | Stadium ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2022/23 | Average | Average | Average | Average | 6,557 2023/24 | Adequate | Good | Average | Average | 6,557 2024/25 | Adequate | Good | Adequate | Average | 6,557 2025/26 | Adequate | Exceptional | Adequate | Average | 6,557 2026/27 | Excellent | Exceptional | Average | Average | 6,557 2027/28 | Exceptional | Exceptional | Good | Great | 6,557 2028/29 | Exceptional | Exceptional | Excellent | Excellent | 6,557 2029/30 | Exceptional | Exceptional | State of art | Excellent | about 15k 2030/31 | Exceptional | Exceptional | State of art | Excellent | 24,042 2031/32 | Exceptional | Exceptional | State of art | Excellent | 30,503 2032/33 | Exceptional | Exceptional | State of art | Excellent | 30,522 2033/34 | Exceptional | Exceptional | State of art | Excellent | 30,522 2034/35 | Exceptional | Exceptional | State of art | Superb | 30,522 2035/36 | Exceptional | Exceptional | State of art | Superb | 30,522 2036/37 | Exceptional | Exceptional | Superb | Superb | 30,522 2037/38 | Exceptional | Exceptional | State of art | Superb | 30,522 2038/39 | Exceptional | Exceptional | State of art | Superb | 30,522

Sant Andreu – Season 16 (2037/38) Europe The CL keeps eluding us. We topped our group and deservedly got through a tough round 16 against Inter, but narrowly lost to Man Utd in the quarters. It’s no shame losing against them of course, but we actually were the better team during the tie and deserved to go through, just our finishing and goalkeeping letting us down again, same story over the past three seasons. La Liga Barcelona gave us a good run for our money but in the end they finished second on 98 points and we finished first on league-record 103. We beat them in the cup final too just to rub it in. Players: The squad was stagnating a bit and I decided to try and bring through some youngsters, who all developed well. We now have a fair few wonderkids in the squad, with defender Guille Arribas 11a rated highly but playing badly (short centre backs really don’t get very good ratings for me), and winger Luis Miguel Pastoriza 12a earning player of the season at 19. The emergence of Vicente Esparza 11c gave me some hope to end our dearth of good strikers, but even though he plays well we’re really paying for his finishing of 8 in those knockout CL games. Youth intake (preview): Good preview, absolutely terrible intake. Don’t think any of them will make the first team, but I signed a fair few just in case. Transfers: Nothing special. Facilities: Still no youth facility or stadium upgrades. Season | League | Pos. | Europe | Best player | Notes --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2022/23 | Segunda RFEF Gr. III | 1 | n/a | German Fassani (ST) | Promoted 2023/24 | Primera RFEF Gr. I | 2 | n/a | Aaron Hotoria 01a (DC) | Lost in playoff semi 2024/25 | Primera RFEF Gr. I | 3 | n/a | Aaron Hotoria 01a (DC) | Promotion through playoffs! 2025/26 | La Liga 2 | 9 | n/a | Aaron Hotoria 01a (DC) | 2026/27 | La Liga 2 | 1 | n/a | Sergio Mulero (ST) | Promoted 2027/28 | La Liga | 19 | n/a | Aaron Hotoria 01a (DC) | Relegated 2028/29 | La Liga 2 | 1 | n/a | Muhammed Badjie 03b (DC) | Promoted 2029/30 | La Liga | 11 | n/a | Manel Blay 05a (MC) | 2030/31 | La Liga | 5 | n/a | Manel Blay 05a (MC) | Qualified for Europa League 2031/32 | La Liga | 4 | EL Semi | Moisés Nieto 07c (MC) | 2032/33 | La Liga | 2 | EL Semi | Manuel Ristori 02c (AMRLC) | 2033/34 | La Liga | 1 | EL Winner | Ivan Deniz 04b (ST) | League + Europa double 2034/35 | La Liga | 1 | CL Semi | Manel Blay 05a (MC) | 2035/36 | La Liga | 1 | CL last 16 | Muhammed Badjie 03b (DC) | 2036/37 | La Liga | 1 | CL last 16 | Jaume Soler 08f (AMRL) | 2037/38 | La Liga | 1 | CL QF | Luis Miguel Pastoriza 12a (AMRL) | Facilities ---------- Season | Coaching | Recruitment | Training Fac. | Youth Fac. | Stadium ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2022/23 | Average | Average | Average | Average | 6,557 2023/24 | Adequate | Good | Average | Average | 6,557 2024/25 | Adequate | Good | Adequate | Average | 6,557 2025/26 | Adequate | Exceptional | Adequate | Average | 6,557 2026/27 | Excellent | Exceptional | Average | Average | 6,557 2027/28 | Exceptional | Exceptional | Good | Great | 6,557 2028/29 | Exceptional | Exceptional | Excellent | Excellent | 6,557 2029/30 | Exceptional | Exceptional | State of art | Excellent | about 15k 2030/31 | Exceptional | Exceptional | State of art | Excellent | 24,042 2031/32 | Exceptional | Exceptional | State of art | Excellent | 30,503 2032/33 | Exceptional | Exceptional | State of art | Excellent | 30,522 2033/34 | Exceptional | Exceptional | State of art | Excellent | 30,522 2034/35 | Exceptional | Exceptional | State of art | Superb | 30,522 2035/36 | Exceptional | Exceptional | State of art | Superb | 30,522 2036/37 | Exceptional | Exceptional | Superb | Superb | 30,522 2037/38 | Exceptional | Exceptional | State of art | Superb | 30,522

Thanks - I think it's 4 in a row now! Yeah it's weird, both Real and Barca are taking turns to be off-the-pace with random teams like Alaves, Zaragoza and Betis getting CL qualification and competing for the title. Looks like they really didn't manage to use their financial advantages well, and in Europe it's the English teams + Bayern and PSG dominating.

Sant Andreu – Season 15 (2036/37) Europe We got a much trickier group containing Benfica and Juventus, last year's quarter-finalists and runners-up respectively, but managed to just about top the group. The last 16 saw two very frustrating games against Dortmund, who beat us 3-2 with a 96th minute winner in the home leg, and drew 1-1 in the away leg despite us dominating and winning the xG 3-1. So another disappointing showing in the CL this year, I hope our luck turns before too long. La Liga A much smoother journey than last year, we won the title easily and also won the Spanish cup. With all these titles and no CL success we are really becoming the Man City of Spain, just without the oil money. Players: The squad is improving slightly but not much, with quite a lot of depth in defence and midfield. A couple of youngsters really came through this season, with Roger Nieto 12c and Marc Rosanas 09a becoming first-team regulars in centre mid and full back positions. Brian Hidalgo 12i also excelled after being recalled from loan at Zaragoza who didn’t play him - he has a lower star rating than our countless short centre backs but plays much better than all of them. The main issue is that we’re really lacking a good goalie and striker, I’ll try to move Nicolas Paz 09c upfront to see how he does, as our regular striker Ivan Deniz 04b only managed 9 goals in 30+ apps this season. And the less said about our keeper in some of those CL games the better... Youth intake (preview; intake overview): Looks like an amazing intake, 2.5* CA is a decent La Liga player and we got 6 elite talents! Unfortunately most of them play at full back which is already the strongest position in the squad, and there are no striker or keeper prospects in sight. Transfers: Nothing special. Facilities: Still no youth facility upgrade, and training facilities got downgraded. Season | League | Pos. | Europe | Best player | Notes --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2022/23 | Segunda RFEF Gr. III | 1 | n/a | German Fassani (ST) | Promoted 2023/24 | Primera RFEF Gr. I | 2 | n/a | Aaron Hotoria 01a (DC) | Lost in playoff semi 2024/25 | Primera RFEF Gr. I | 3 | n/a | Aaron Hotoria 01a (DC) | Promotion through playoffs! 2025/26 | La Liga 2 | 9 | n/a | Aaron Hotoria 01a (DC) | 2026/27 | La Liga 2 | 1 | n/a | Sergio Mulero (ST) | Promoted 2027/28 | La Liga | 19 | n/a | Aaron Hotoria 01a (DC) | Relegated 2028/29 | La Liga 2 | 1 | n/a | Muhammed Badjie 03b (DC) | Promoted 2029/30 | La Liga | 11 | n/a | Manel Blay 05a (MC) | 2030/31 | La Liga | 5 | n/a | Manel Blay 05a (MC) | Qualified for Europa League 2031/32 | La Liga | 4 | EL Semi | Moisés Nieto 07c (MC) | 2032/33 | La Liga | 2 | EL Semi | Manuel Ristori 02c (AMRLC) | 2033/34 | La Liga | 1 | EL Winner | Ivan Deniz 04b (ST) | League + Europa double 2034/35 | La Liga | 1 | CL Semi | Manel Blay 05a (MC) | 2035/36 | La Liga | 1 | CL last 16 | Muhammed Badjie 03b (DC) | 2036/37 | La Liga | 1 | CL last 16 | Jaume Soler 08f (AMRL) | Facilities ---------- Season | Coaching | Recruitment | Training Fac. | Youth Fac. | Stadium ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2022/23 | Average | Average | Average | Average | 6,557 2023/24 | Adequate | Good | Average | Average | 6,557 2024/25 | Adequate | Good | Adequate | Average | 6,557 2025/26 | Adequate | Exceptional | Adequate | Average | 6,557 2026/27 | Excellent | Exceptional | Average | Average | 6,557 2027/28 | Exceptional | Exceptional | Good | Great | 6,557 2028/29 | Exceptional | Exceptional | Excellent | Excellent | 6,557 2029/30 | Exceptional | Exceptional | State of art | Excellent | about 15k 2030/31 | Exceptional | Exceptional | State of art | Excellent | 24,042 2031/32 | Exceptional | Exceptional | State of art | Excellent | 30,503 2032/33 | Exceptional | Exceptional | State of art | Excellent | 30,522 2033/34 | Exceptional | Exceptional | State of art | Excellent | 30,522 2034/35 | Exceptional | Exceptional | State of art | Superb | 30,522 2035/36 | Exceptional | Exceptional | State of art | Superb | 30,522 2036/37 | Exceptional | Exceptional | Superb | Superb | 30,522

@OlivierL Congrats, a great story and achievement winning this with a Cape Verdean team! Tempted to try them myself in the next go at this challenge...

Running into this in my youth challenge now, season 16 with a small team, after 3 la ligas in a row we have £500m in the bank and a £1m/week salary cap, think next season I'm gonna hit the limit... Also we keep making profits every year so the salary cap doesn't make sense even if you don't count the £500m in the bank. Weird how all these bugs are still in the game in its final version, like this and the youth facility bug which are both potentially game breaking. Have to say I find this rather unsatisfactory.