Rikulec

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.

Erkki Karpela's Management Career - Season Review - 2025 - Nõmme Kalju FC U21 Esiliiga Results (Mar-May) - Results (Jun-Aug) - Results (Sep-Nov) Competition Performance: Winners Well, I certainly didn't see this one coming! I was expecting a mid-table, maybe top half finish and honestly, if it hadn't been for an incredible run of nine wins in a row between June and August, we would have probably got exactly that, based on our form in the first and final third of the season. You have to take the opportunities that you get though, and we did just that. Winning any league while averaging less than two points per game doesn't happen very often! Estonian Cup Competition Performance: Quarter Final We fell just, just short of repeating our last season's run in the cup as well. On any given day we probably beat Saku Sporting seven or eight times out of ten. Bad luck. Squad (1) - Squad (2) The squad seems to be getting thinner and thinner with each passing season, especially in defence, where we have exactly four players for the four spots in our formation. On the other hand, the general quality of players seemed to have evened out at a decent level. Hopefully that means at least some of them will continue developing and make it to the first team. Player of the Season 1st - Stanislav Agaptšev - probably the biggest surprise of the season. He seems to have fallen from grace in the first team, which meant he spent a full uninterrupted year with us for the first time. It seems to have worked wonders to him, as his ball striking ability allowed him to net 14 goals in the league while playing in midfield. Some of those goals were absolute bangers as well! 2nd - Jürgen Saar - another good season from our young striker. This time he fell slightly short of the 20-goal mark in the league, but still managed to become our top goalscorer and generally was a reliable, fairly consistent player up front. Hopefully his personality doesn't hold back his development too much. 3rd - Sten Tragon - if you ask me how we were able to pull off a league win straight after promotion, I'll say that the numbers produced by our central midfield duo were a vital contribution to this. Tragon may not be rated too highly by the club coaches, but 7 goals and 11 assists in the league are certainly not to be scoffed at. His performances did tail off towards the end though, and he also infamously picked up a straight red card in the final minutes of the season against TJK Legion. Next Season In all honesty, I feel like I've achieved everything I could with this team, as proven by two league wins and two fantastic runs in the cup. My contract runs out at the end of January and I'm not going to renew it. As of now, the first team's manager also hasn't signed a new deal, which gives me a glimmer of hope that he may resign and I could be in the running there. Whatever happens, I should be getting my Pro licence any time now and it's time to look for a job in the top tier.

We're the first U21 side to win the Esiliiga since Flora's victory in 2015. This is also the first ever win for Kalju U21, the team's previous best ever finish at this level was 4th. Oh, and winning the third and second tier seems to be enough for me to enter the Estonian Hall of Fame.

Erkki Karpela's Management Career - November 2025 - Nõmme Kalju FC U21 Esiliiga Losing to Maardu wasn't exactly a glorious moment in itself, but Welco losing their game as well at the same time meant we were crowned champions with a game to spare!

Erkki Karpela's Management Career - October 2025 - Nõmme Kalju FC U21 Esiliiga An okay month, I'd say. We have a positive head-to-head record against Welco, which means we only need two points from our final two games to clinch the title.

This looks interesting! I love those saves that have a local aspect to it, I remember really enjoying playing as Unia Janikowo back when I coached one of their youth teams. Best of luck!

Erkki Karpela's Management Career - September 2025 - Nõmme Kalju FC U21 Esiliiga We had to rely on a late turnaround to beat bottom of the table TJK Legion and then got our arse handed to us by Welco. Thankfully, instead of falling to another end-of-season slump, we recovered brilliantly to record an immensely important win over Viljandi Tulevik. Our lead grows to eight points with just six games to go. Estonian Cup Why, oh why did we have to play them during our dip in form? A late goal took the game to extra time, where we actually had to come from behind to make it to the penalty shoot-out. No luck for us this time though. The run ends at the quarter final stage.

Erkki Karpela's Management Career - August 2025 - Nõmme Kalju FC U21 Esiliiga We extended our winning streak to nine games, which is a new team record. Unfortunately we finished the month by losing to late goals twice in a row. Nevertheless, we carry a five point lead at the top into the final round of games.

Erkki Karpela's Management Career - July 2025 - Nõmme Kalju FC U21 Esiliiga Now that is what I call consistency! We can't get promoted, but who says we can't win the league? Estonian Cup They had a few great chances in the second half, but they didn't take them. Oh well. We got Saku Sporting away in the quarter final. Could a repeat of last season's run be on the cards here?

The numbers FM produces are silly and way off the real life figures. For comparison, have a look at this season's stats from the Premier League taken from Wyscout:

Erkki Karpela's Management Career - June 2025 - Nõmme Kalju FC U21 Esiliiga Three very close games. We could have probably got something more out of the trip to Elva after they had a player sent off in the first half. Estonian Cup The leaders of the Esiliiga B put up a decent fight and the result flatters us a little bit to be honest. In the fourth round we get a chance to enact revenge on Harju for eliminating us two years ago.

Hopefully the first of many milestones!

Erkki Karpela's Management Career - May 2025 - Nõmme Kalju FC U21 Esiliiga Not anywhere near as good as the previous month, but this sort of form should still keep us well clear of the relegation places.

Erkki Karpela's Management Career - April 2025 - Nõmme Kalju FC U21 Esiliiga Boom! A perfect month, including two big away wins, and we rise up to 2nd with by far the best attack in the league. Estonian Cup Not the most spectacular of wins, but a win nevertheless.

Erkki Karpela's Management Career - March 2025 - Nõmme Kalju FC U21 Esiliiga A decent enough start, I'd say. The first two games were both fantastic performances, but afterwards we got picked apart by both our first team and the national team. With a weakened squad we still put up good fights in all three games we didn't win, unfortunately we just didn't have the quality to edge them out. Estonian Cup We should have had this done and dusted before extra time to be honest. A solid win over an Esiliiga B side. In the second round we got drawn against Tallinna Kalev U21, a game we should be winning.

Erkki Karpela's Management Career - Pre-Season - 2025 - Nõmme Kalju FC U21 Friendlies So close to a perfect pre-season. Transfers Aleks Sild, Andreas Kask, Mark Kangur, Vladimir Mikhailov, Daniil Karu, and Sergei Valtna have been promoted to our squad. I don't see Kask being with us for too long, he looks like a proper talent.

It's fine, it's a semi-pro contract.

I've got my first interview offer from a Meistriliiga club. However, for the sake of realism I don't want to go manage in the top tier until I complete my Pro licence. Interview declined.

Erkki Karpela's Management Career - Season Preview - 2025 - Nõmme Kalju FC U21 Board Expectations: Esiliiga: Mid-table finish Estonian Cup: Be competitive My Expectations: Esiliiga: The board are being really ambitious here. I just want to stay up. Estonian Cup: The further we get, the better.

And here's a massive step in our manager's career. The UEFA Pro licence will make him eligible to manage top tier clubs.

I've been rewarded for a great season with a new contract and a raise.

Another 4th placed finish for our first team, which again gives them European football thanks to Flora beating Tammeka in the cup final. For a large part of the season they were actually top of the league, but a disappointing collapse in the second half of the campaign cut their dreams short. A disappointing showing in the cup this time round, although they kind of made up for it by beating a Georgian side Saburtalo in the European qualifiers. And how did our boys do? Evgeny Nefedov is surely the pick of the bunch here. He's started in more or less half of all the first team games, most notably in all four in Europe. Five goals and nine assists to his name in all competitions, which is a decent return for a 17-year-old. Also, he's made no less than four appearances in the senior national team already! Looks like we have a real talent here. Tauri Stepanov is obviously way too good to be playing for the U21 side, as proven by recording 25 league appearances in the country's top tier in his first full season after coming through the youth intake. Four goals and two assists in the league, playing as an attacking midfielder in a 4-2-3-1. He's also played three times for the U21 national team, still yet to receive a senior call-up. Artur Kesküla looks like he could use a season at the Esiliiga level with us, to be honest. His attributes look a little bit too raw for top tier football, however he did get two starts and eight sub appearances in the league, recording two assists in the process. He did very well in his U21 debut though, bagging two goals in a 2:1 victory against San Marino. And finally, Timo Laur is another player who may not be good enough for the first team level yet. Only six league appearances and a rather poor average rating seem to back up this point. It's good that he's getting his chances though, still plenty of time for the youngster to develop.