Rikulec

Greetings from Tallinn! As I mentioned before, I've finally arrived here for a study visit at the FCI Levadia academy (with some contact with the first team as well). Today was the first day and I'm really impressed by the methodology they're implementing and the direction they're trying to go. Obviously it's going to take time, but this could be a very interesting club to follow.

Some winnable games in Europe.

Congratulations on winning the cup! The money should give you a much needed boost as well.

Thanks for the kind words, glad you've enjoyed my updates. We do have some good players indeed, although in general many coaches (and Polish people in general) have a very peculiar way of thinking and speaking about football. They tend to largely focus on defensive play and generally ignore many trends that can be observed in the biggest European leagues. Maybe my own way is a little bit skewed because of the way I gained my knowledge, but I just can't relate to the typical Polish perception of the game.

Thanks for sharing your experience @cruise_control, was a great read. Best of luck in your coaching career! I've also been coaching for almost seven years now, and the journey also started with FM - or CM, to be precise. A gaming magazine in Poland came with a full version of CM 4 in 2006, and I got hooked straight away. My knowledge of English helped me a lot, especially in later years when I found these forums and started to read about tactics, expanding my knowledge in areas that not many people in Poland really explore. We're unfortunately a very backwards country in terms of our approach to football, luckily FM pointed the way for me and inspired me to pursue a coaching career and try to do things my own way. I've got the UEFA A licence now, I work as an assistant coach in a semi-pro senior team and if all goes well, I might be able to go fully pro and move abroad in a couple of months. It's been a fantastic and rewarding journey so far, I can't imagine doing anything else for a living!

What a season, over 100 goals scored in the league as well. Congratulations.

That's still lower than what I'd expect Lechia to have with the sort of results you're achieving. Given the potential of the city alone, I'd say you should already be averaging something between 25-30k for regular league games and sell out for the big ones and obviously Europe.

Brownlie looks like a proper generational talent.

Well done getting to the promised land!

Making good progress there, both in terms of results on the pitch and the quality of your intakes.

Alright, confession time. If you remember my previous FM24 save, you'll also remember how it started with the Latvia U19 national team and how fresh that felt to me, and then the whole journey that followed, involving climbing through the ranks of Latvian football and then other European nations as well. I really enjoyed that, it was pretty much the first time I managed to have such an unrestricted journeyman save work so well for me. You may also remember that the success was largely based on a variant of 4-3-3 I came up with that seems to be almost an exploit in the current match engine. Nevertheless, I went with is as it was something I had legitimately put together myself without any external help, copying known exploits, etc. Now, you may have already noticed that this save has been going down a very similar path, starting with managing a youth team and using the same tactic. Since the beginning I've been open about my intentions of trying to regain that enjoyment I felt in the initial stages of my previous save. Well, now it's time to admit that it simply doesn't work for me. It feels more like doing the same thing over again, more of a chore rather than something to genuinely enjoy. It has unfortunately missed the point. It also doesn't feel right to suddenly change course and restrict myself from using this tactical approach or whatever, especially having already played through a few seasons. At this point I hardly have any motivation to carry on with this save at all, even if it's in a part of the world that's really interesting to me, both in terms of football and culture. I simply can't replicate the feeling I've tried to go for. I have a couple of ideas for different saves that could potentially reignite that spark in me, both based on tactical ideas, challenges, and explorations that would be something largely different from what I've done so far. It's quite likely that I'm going to create another thread in a few days or so. In the meantime, thank you all for following and commenting on this one. Take care, and see you soon!

Erkki Karpela's Management Career - Pre-Season - 2026 - Pärnu JK Vaprus Friendlies Close to perfection. We also beat teams from Latvia and Finland. Transfers Three players were signed by the previous manager. Raimond Mets - a fairly decent backup for the left back slot. Andri Rõõmus - not a player I would have signed. Aleksandr Alteberg - same as above. Giovani Yapi - a good creative player to improve our midfield, although his lack of pace might be a bit problematic. Moreover, Mathias Villota has been promoted from the U21 side.

Maybe you're right, but I don't think I'm a Youtube kind of person. That kind of stuff requires a bit too much time and effort, especially combined with all the stuff related to my work. Good shout though, maybe at some point in the future, who knows?

I've already posted this in my current career thread, but I know there are some people who are not following it at the moment but are nevertheless going to be interested to hear that, so here goes. In May I'm going to Tallinn for a six-day study visit at FCI Levadia. I'll be observing the training process and games of both the first team and the academy. My mentor is going to be the academy's head of methodology and I'll be meeting him daily for various presentations and discussions as well. It's still up in the air whether I'll be going alone or as part of a group, although I'd very much prefer the former as it would give me much bigger access, potentially even including the opportunity to get actively involved in some training sessions. With the end of the season approaching, it may not be a bad idea to expand my network! Happy Easter, FMCU!

Happy Easter everyone! I'm currently at home to spend some time with my family, so it's going to take a couple of days before I properly dive into my new club. In the meantime, I have some exciting news for you that's very much related to this thread. In May I'm going to Tallinn for a six-day study visit at FCI Levadia. I'll be observing the training process and games of both the first team and the academy. My mentor is going to be the academy's head of methodology and I'll be meeting him daily for various presentations and discussions as well. It's still up in the air whether I'll be going alone or as part of a group, although I'd very much prefer the former as it would give me much bigger access, potentially even including the opportunity to get actively involved in some training sessions. With the end of the season approaching, it may not be a bad idea to expand my network!

Szczepankiewicz looks decent already with a nice attribute spread, he could develop into a quality player.

Thank you!

They didn't wait very long to make the offer. I got my wage up to £250 p/w, here we go! Erkki Karpela's Management Career - New Club - Pärnu JK Vaprus A change of club means that Erkki Karpela has to quit his job as a PE teacher and relocate from Tallinn to Pärnu to become a full time football manager. Club Name: Pärnu JK Vaprus Nickname: - Year Founded: 1922 Status: Professional Stadium: Pärnu Raanastaadion (2,501 capacity, 1,501 seated) The squad is large, larger than it needs to be really. A little bit of trimming here and there should help the club's finances as well. Our best players at the moment appear to be Gaudentas Ralys, Magnus Villota, and Kristjan Kask. Nothing out of the ordinary in terms of board expectations. Given the quality of the team, we should be able to avoid relegation without getting too involved in the battle, I believe.

Pärnu Vaprus came back to me just a day after I applied for the job, which is usually a good sign. Last season they finished 8th in the top division and are generally a relegation-battling side. Let's see what comes out of this.

There's one club in the Meistriliiga that has just become available and would be the perfect stepping-stone, fingers crossed!

Before the resignation I finished my coaching course.

I handed in my resignation at the beginning of the new year. The job hunt begins!

I'm using ranelsinna's file from the Steam Workshop, the only thing I changed was making a few U21 teams playable. We can register a maximum of 30 players for the league, 27 of whom have to be trained at Estonian clubs, which effectively leaves three foreign player slots. No specific non-EU rules. There is a U19 team as well, they play in the U19 league; only Flora and Levadia have their U19 teams in the senior structure. There are no specific restrictions for players moving between teams, but anyone who I'd like to use has to be registered either for us or the first team, and we can only register players during a transfer window. The first team sometimes makes some players available to us, but more often than not they'll use them on the same day anyway, which means they can't play for us; probably a slight bug there. Thank you for following the thread!

Three league defeats in a row at the end of the season push the first team down to 5th for the first time since the start of the save. They also couldn't make an impact in Europe, losing twice to Shamrock Rovers. However, they did make up for it by winning the cup for the second time in three years. The best part of it is definitely the scoresheet of the final game with two of our boys securing the trophy. And how did the academy graduates do? A breakthrough season for the Kosovan Rron Zeneli, who's also coming along really nice in terms of attribute growth. A regular starter in the league, he also made a few contributions up front. Fingers crossed he can keep his place in the team! Evgeny Nefedov has now become a proper star! 12 league assists is the joint best, and let's not forget that he scored the first goal in the cup final as well. To add to that, he's also scored his first goal for the national team. What a season! Kevin Timofejev has been a solid option off the bench in the league, but it's actually the cup where he truly outshone everyone. He became the competition's top scorer with a massive 11 goals, 4 of which he scored for us (is playing for two teams like this even allowed in real life?). Surely a player to watch. Tauri Stepanov has become a full time starter in the league, although his performances have been a little bit disappointing so far. He seems to be developing nicely though, especially in terms of his mental attributes, which look as impressive as ever. Hopefully the next season could be a breakthrough for him. Unfortunately it's another disappointing season for Artur Kesküla, who's been struggling to break into the first team (which probably shouldn't be that surprising, considering he's playing in the same position as Nefedov). I think it's time either for a loan move or for a switch to the U21 side. Andreas Kask has been fast-tracked into the first team and I'm not sure it was a good decision. Like Kesküla, he doesn't seem to be quite ready for this level, as shown by both the number of league appearances and the average rating he got. A full proper season with the U21s could do wonders for him, I feel.

Ouch, harsh end to the season.