fries

Well, same for me. I only have one player that is better.

WTF, a great player for my Championship side.

Thanks for the comments everybody! The funny thing is that I have used several formations in this save. I started with a 4-3-3/4-5-1. Then I got 4 promosing offensive talents (including Walters, Byran, Egan and Oliver) and changed to a 4-2-4 formation with two strikers and two offensive wingers. I had to sell Oliver and therefore changed my formation to a 4-3-3 narrow formation with three strikers. I played this formation in the promotion seasons from the National League and League Two. I sold Egan in the winter of my League Two season. Early in my League One season I therefore changed the formation to a 4-4-2/4-1-2-1-2 narrow diamond formation. I always try to use a formation that fits my players

League One 2028/29 (season 6) Season Summary My young players keep developing and performing. And as a team, we kept winning. Not the title this time, but another promotion. 3 promotions in a row. I have never experienced this kind of success before! We started by losing the first game of the season. Then we lost again to a League Two team in the Carabao Cup. In the next game, we won a narrow but undeserved victory. I though that this was our level and that we would fight to win games this season. However, after that, I changed the tactics to a 4-4-2 narrow diamond formation. And then we started winning. We also won the Papa Johns Throphy. My two strikers did very well. Byran scored 36 goals and Walters scored 25 while he assisted 19 goals too. The rest of the team developed very well and also performed good. The primary reason for my success in the last few seasons is my strikers. The first one, Walters, is regarded as the best player in the league. I just renewed his contract, but he has a rather low release clause. Another reason for my success over the past few years is Byran. So far he has scored 161 league goals in 190 league games and was my top scorer for the forth season in a row. A rising star and a good performer in the defense is N'Guessan. He has developed very well this season. Another promising and well performing player is Douglas. N'Guessan was my first player of this save to be on the NXGN list. I think this is the earliest I have had a player on that list. The youth intake preview looked great. Lots of A's and 5 stars. The intake was okay with some okay personalities. The five most promising players got a little game time in the end of the season was promotion almost was home. No significant transfers this season. However, Egan, whom I sold last season was sold to another club from Brazil. Furthermore, I sold the 50 pct. sell-on-clause we had on Mutombo. Finances and Upgrades I used the money from the Mutombo clause to upgrade the facilities. But the Mutombo money is also financing the youth set up which is quite expensive every month. Next season Next season, I hope to keep developing my players. I really hope to keep Walters. The promotions must stop now. The team is no near the Premier League level. I think we will fight to avoid relegation and maybe get a mid-table position.

The journey is the goal! I think most saves presented in here do not complete the challenge. I watch every game with the middle setting (can't remember the correct name as I don't have the game open), but with the fastest speed. However, I go much faster through a season than normal when playing this challenge. Primarly because you don't spend time on scouting and transfers. So the time between matches is limited.

Great advices from @thomas_e. I would like to add a few points. - First, renew contracts. When you take over your club, you typically have a few days to renew expiring contracts. That is the number 1 priority when you start a new save. This is the only grown players you have until the youth intake players grow older, so you have to keep and work with them a few years. - Develop your staff. The Youth Academy Challenge is not only about developing players. You also have to develop your staff. Focus on hiring staff that are young, have a good personality and who have low level training license. Sending your staff on trainer courses will significantly increase their skills. In a few seasons, you will have more talented staff compared to jobless staff that are willing to sign with you. - Fit your tactic to your star players. You only have a limited pool of players, why you have to play to their strengths. If you have a great attacking left wing back and a great defensive right full back, you have to utilize that and play with some asymmetry. If you have 3 very talented strikers, you have to play with 3 at the front. You cannot adapt your squad to your tactic, so you must adapt your tactic to your squad. - Believe in the youth. If you have two equally good players on one position, play the younger. He will develop to a better player. It will maybe cost you something in the short run, but in the long run it will pay off. - Retrain positions. When you are established as a club you have to plan a few years ahead. If you don’t have e.g. a great right full back coming through and you know you will need that in the future, you have to be proactive. Maybe a young central defender, winger, or central midfielder can fill that position. Then retrain their position. A great tip is that you can change the youth or reserve teams starting 11 on the last day before each game. In that way you can make sure that the player gets game time in the new position. - Let your star player be angry. If a player is locked down on a long contract you don’t have to sell him even if he gets angry. If he is important for the team and you don’t have a replacement just decline too low bids and keep playing him. Eventually he will maybe forget about it. Just don’t promise to sell unless you actually are planning to do that. - Sell with clauses. Early on, it is a great idea to include sell-on-clauses and maybe try to delay the transfer date to after the season, if you have to sell an important young player. The sell-on-clause can gain you lot of money later on if he gets another transfer, or maybe you get the opportunity to sell the clause early for a great amount. - Rest players in times of congested program. If your team depth is very narrow, you can probably secure that the players are fit in times of a congested match program by resting the most important players for a half or a whole day between matches.

Thanks! I think one of the primary reasons for the success of the tactic is the fact that my strikers have been at a high level compared to the league.

League Two 2027/28 (season 5) Season Summary I have never before in this challenge achieved back-to-back promotions. But this season it happened. South Shields are back-to-back champions. Another dream season. I continued using my 4-3-3 with three strikers. And the team continued to play as last season. The three strikers scored lots of goals and together win only 3 draws, it was enough to win the title. My 3 young offensive stars Egan, Byran, and Walters, played very well. Unfortunately, the board accepted a bid on Egan in the winter. But before he was sold, he did well with 8 goals and 4 assists in 21 games as my false 9. Byran scored massively 52 goals in 48 games. While Walters had the highest average rating with 7.55. He scored 27 and assisted 16 times. The rest of the team have developed very well this season and raised the level. N'Guessan and Douglas from the intake of last season will soon develop into new stars of the team. He is the bid on Egan that the board accepted. He was sold to Brazil in January. But to my suprise, he was on the NXGN-list when it was later announced. The youth intake preview looked great. Lots of A's and 5 stars. I was disappointed with the intake. No 5 stars players. However, Mäkinen can maybe develop into a rotational player in my defense next season. As earlier mentioned, I sold Egan. The only significant transfer this season. Finances and Upgrades I had no upgrades this season. But I think my youth recruitment and academy coaching are maxed. However, it has caused me some financial problems, as the expenditures for my youth set up have been above 2 mill. pounds this season. Next season Next season, I hope to keep developing my players. I am actually not afraid of relegation, as I think that both Walters and Byran have the quality to become top scorers also in League One. But we will see. I don't expect another promotion though.

You can just change the language every time you take a screenshot. It works well for me.

Well done. But I think you have to "document" your achievements with season updates in the thread. Mostly, because we like to follow each other's adventures. EDIT: I can see you posted this in the 22 thread. I don't know if that counts.

Vanarama National League 2026/27 (season 4) Season Summary My expectations this season were to fight for promotion and keep developing my players. Before the season I sold one of my four young offensive star players. I wondered how I could get the most out of the remaining three and therefore changed my tactic to a 4-3-3 with three strikers. The three strikers scored lots of goals, but we were also open in the defense. In the end, we scored massively 113 goals which were enough to win the title and promotion. The defense got better in the second part of the season as my defenders got better. My 3 young offensive stars Ergan, Byran, and Walters, played very well. Byran scored massively 48 league goals in 45 league games. While the two other strikers Egan and Walters had the highest average rating with 7.51. They scored and assisted a combined 30 and 29 respectively. Marcinkowski and Jordao developed very well this season. After this magnificent season, I thought it was a good idea to display my three strikers. First Byran. He played as an advanced forward in the center of the three strikers. He can finish, dribble, and run and his mentals are crazy. Fortunately, I have had no problems with him being unhappy. I think he will be appointed as my captain for the next season. Egan plays as a false 9 on the left. According to the season preview tab, in the end of the season, he was regarded as the best player in the league. However, he wants to move to a bigger club. With two years back on his contract, I can hopefully keep him for another year. Walters plays as a target man on the right. He also wants to move to a bigger club. With two years back on his contract, I can hopefully also keep him for another year. Not only my first team had success with my new tactic. My youth team also won their league and scored most goals. The youth intake preview looked great. Lots of A's and 5 stars. I was very happy with the intake. The personalities are okay. Both N'Guessan and Douglas will be rotational players next season. Douglas was the best player in my intake. He got a few games at the end of the season and played well. Oliver was as earlier mentioned sold for around £500K and a 50 pct. sell-on-clause before the season. I later sold the sell-on-clause for around £1.5M. However, no important players left the club this season. Unfortunately, my talented reserve keeper is leaving the club for free after this season. I tried to loan him out, but the only club that answered wanted him as a backup. I declined the offer and he was unhappy for the rest of the season, why it was impossible to renew his contract. Finances and Upgrades I managed to upgrade the facilities. I upgraded my training facilities once and youth recruitment twice. Personally, I managed to get the Continental Pro Licence Next season Next season I hope to keep my young players through the summer. The strikers should be good enough to play at the top of the league again. I have my doubts about the rest of the team. But in the end, it would be great if we can fight for the play offs.

Upgrades to training facilities and youth facilities will definitely impact your finances. I will check the other two when I get home today.

A better and allowed solution is to postpone the transfer date to after the season instead of a loan back.

A tip if you want to play in England with a specific team. In the dafuge challenge thread, the user G_D_K is kindly sharing different saves with almost every available teams.

Vanarama National League 2025/26 (season 3) Season Summary The expectations of this season were to develop some of my young players and get a midtable position. It started out very well. I had four young offensive players that developed very well in Ergan, Oliver, Byran, and Walters. Early on, I changed my formation from 4-3-3 to 4-4-2 (or maybe more of a 4-2-4) to fit all four players. It worked well. The classic striker pair Walter (the tall guy) and Byran (the fast guy) did very well and scored a combined 15 goals in October. Which meant that in the middle of November I was in the top 2 in the league. I really hoped we were able to fight for promotion. However, an injury to Walters and later to Byran and a very bad and young defense meant that we drifted just out of the playoff spots where we remained for the rest of the season. As you can see, we scored the most goals in the league. However, scoring a lot of goals is not enough if your defense sucks. As mentioned before the 4 offensive young players, Ergan, Oliver, Byran, and Walters, developed very well and played very well too. I hope I can keep them all for another season. Apart from the young offensive players, I have some old players with routine in the midfield, at the fullbacks, and in goal. However, the quality of the central defense sucks. Marcinkowski was my first choice and did OK. He is only 16 years old and I hope he can develop into a quality player next season. His partner was Harrison, who also is only 16 years old, but had an average rating of just 6.55. The youth intake preview looked great. 5 stars. I could really use the Centre-backs and I was promised three promising players. I was a bit disappointed about the intake. We had really invested in the facilities this season but no player was a stand-out. And a lot of the personalities are not great. I was promised three central defenders. I hope that Mukuna or Rowan can develop into a starter next season. Beck can maybe get game time in the central midfield, Fogarty can be a rotational player at the wing, Hansen is a great backup for Walters, and Sturgess is training to throw the ball long and flat. I let Hooper go. The top scorer of season 1. However, he cannot compete with the young guys. Finances and Upgrades After I got the money from the Mutombo sale of last season, I managed to upgrade the facilities significantly. I upgraded my junior coaching and youth recruitment twice in the fall before my intake, and I upgrade both the youth and training facilities. However, the training facilities also degrade before the season. I managed to get another two coaching badges and I am currently working on the Continental A Licence. Next season Next season I hope I can develop a few quality central defenders. I also hope to keep my young players through the summer. In the end, it would be great if we can fight for promotion.

How was my October? Pretty great I would say! My 17-year-old striker duo scored 15 goals combined in 5 league games.

Love your graphics!

Vanarama National League 2024/25 (season 2) Season Summary The expectations of this season was just to attempt to avoid relegation. And so we did. We were never really in danger and ended at a safe mid table position. The most important players of last season was JJ Hooper with 33 goals. But very shortly into the new season he broke his leg and I had to rely on much younger alternatives. Walters did OK with 16 goals and Egan and Byran also got some playing time and scored 10 and 6 goals. Liddle and Broadbent were a good pair in the defense but the backups are lacking. But Liddle has announced his retirement, and Broadbent does only want to sign a new contract in a staff role. Mutombo was a newgen that was already in the club when I took over. He has developed massively to 5 stars. But in January a few Championship and Premier League clubs were after him. I started by accepting a bid of around £500k. But after a few bidding rounds the final bid was £5m, a 50% sell-on-clause, and a friendly game. Most importantly, the transfer will go through after this season. With a contract only running another year and with no interest in renewing it, it was a no-brainer. A massive transfer for such a small club. Hopefully, he will continue to develop and I can cash further in later on. The youth intake preview looked great. 5 stars. I could really use the Centre-backs and I was promised three promising players. The intake delivered what was promised. Marcinkowski, Harrison, and Cable will very like be my three best Centre-backs in the coming season. However, must of the personalities were rather bad and non of the talents have 5 stars PA. The Mutombo transfer has not yet gone through. And I had no other transfers this season. Finances and Upgrades I managed to upgrade my junior coaching and youth recruitment in the fall before my intake. And I managed to get two more coaching badges and I am currently working on the Continental B Licence. Next season Next season is going to be difficult. I only hope to develop my young players and maybe get a new midtable position. Hopefully, the board will allow me to spend some of the Mutombo millions on some exciting facility upgrades.

Welcome! A suggestion from me is to change the in-game language to English when you take screenshots. It makes it easier to follow for people like me who only speak a little German.

Thanks! South Shields has it advantages with a very good squad, good facilities, and a full time professional setup. However, the season was actually quite stressful. The good squad entails high expectations, and I was very close to getting fired 4 times. I could really feel my seat getting hotter, but I liked how the board invited me to discuss the future instead of just firing me straight away. The real problems, however, will begin from season 3. After season 2 I will very likely only have two defenders back in the squad, my two fullbacks. So far I have had no useful defenders from the youth intake.

Vanarama National League North 2023/24 (season 1) Season Summary The board and supporters had high expectations before the season started. We should qualify for the FA Cup's first round and gain a playoff spot in the league. In the first part of the season, we had problems winning enough games. The opponents somehow often scored a late winner or late equalizer. We were in real trouble when we lost in the 4th qualification round of the FA Cup. Two players were furious and wanted a meeting with me (new feature??). I managed to calm one down and the other was sent to train with the youth and skipped off in January. However, the board and supporters were also very angry with me. The board asked for a meeting (new feature??), if I refused they would fire me. The meeting was about my future and if the club should have a new manager. I managed to convince the board that firing the manager was not in the club's interest and they should give me another chance. Soon after the tactics clicked and we started to play well. The season had its ups and downs, most ups. But every time the form was bad I was called into a new meeting with the board. In total, I had 4 meetings with the board about my future throughout the season. The board never seemed to forget how we apparently shamefully lost to a better-ranked team in the FA Cup. However, in the end, we had a very good run and managed to win a 2nd place in the league, with the most goals scored. We were ready for the play offs, and we manage to fulfill at least one of the board's high expectations. The playoff semifinal was against AFC Telford. A close game. But in the end a youngster from this years intake, Walters, managed to score a late winner. 1-0 and off to Wembley. The final against Darlington was again a close game. I trained setpieces in the week up to both the semifinal and final, and in the end, it paid off. My centreback, Liddle, scored a header after a corner which was enough to secure promotion. The most important players of the season was JJ Hooper with 33 goals and Doherty with 24 assists. Liddle and Broadbent were a good pair in the defense but the backups are lacking. This can really cause problems in the next season as all the central defenders are aging. Mutombo was a newgen that was already in the club when I took over. At the beginning of the season, we had a few injuries in the midfield and I decided to give him the chance in the first team. Throughout the season he developed greatly from 1.5 stars to 3.5 stars. I hope to see better performances from him in the next season. The first youth intake preview of FM23 looked great. 4.5 stars. I could really use the Centre-backs. However, in the end, only the offensive players seem to have what it takes. Walters is the most promising in my eyes. He got the chance at the end of the season and did very well. He scored 6 goals in 7 games where the most important was the winner in the playoff semifinal. I did not sell any other players than the angry player that complained about our failure in the FA Cup. Finances and Upgrades I managed to upgrade my junior coaching and youth recruitment in the fall before my intake. And I manage to get two coaching badges and I am working on the National A Licence. Next season Next season is going to be difficult. Many of my first team players are aging and the finances look very bad. I do not hope the board's and supporters' expectations are as high as this season. I have extended the contracts of the defensive backup players, but I hope the youth players can be backups in the offensive part of the team.

Started with South Shields as I have unfinished buisness there from FM21. The board expects play offs in the first season but I have some problems with the improved AI management. I have difficulties with holding a lead...

YESSSSS

That is unusual activity today

It must be a hint? When the cafe closes the beta will launch?