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FM18 All-European (Less England) Small Club to Big Club Challenge Introduction Welcome to a new chapter in the history of the ‘Euro Nation’ Challenge, born out of the recent history of the highly successful Gundo’s Challenge and the Big Euro Nation Challenge that spawned out of it. Originally set up as an alternative to the hugely successful Dafuges Challenge for FM06, Gundos Challenge offered an alternative for people who wanted to play in another European country. The Big Euro Nation Challenge followed for FM08 and, like Gundo’s Challenge, has had some fantastic stories over the years. These threads have always been hugely popular and successful thanks to those who played, and who still take part, in the challenges. Some of the stories are legendary, and hopefully more of these will be born in this, and future, versions of the game. The premise of the challenge is the same, and simple, to start with a previously unplayable club and taking them all the way to a National Title and then on to winning the European Champions League. With a variety of leagues, styles of play, different rules, and many different locations for your clubs there can be a lot of variety throughout the thread, providing a great atmosphere and stories for our users to become immersed in. General Challenge Info Possible Countries Austria Belarus Belgium Bulgaria Croatia Czech Republic Denmark Finland France - June 20th Germany Greece Holland * Hungary Iceland Ireland * Israel Italy - July 30th N. Ireland - 25th June Norway - January 13th Poland Portugal Romania Russia Scotland Serbia Slovakia Slovenia Spain - July 10th Sweden - December 15th Switzerland Turkey Ukraine Wales * Holiday for two seasons not one. League Reset Dates Austria - 13th June Belarus Belgium Bulgaria Croatia Czech Republic Denmark Finland France Germany Greece Holland * Hungary Iceland Ireland * Israel Italy N. Ireland Norway Poland Portugal Romania Russia Scotland Serbia Slovakia Slovenia Spain Sweden Switzerland Turkey Ukraine Wales The Rules A) Game Set-up 1) Load One Nation Only (All Available Divisions within your nation) 2) Your choice of Database Size (Large Recommended) 3) NO Edited Databases of any kind 4) Customising Database You can add players to the database up to a limit of 100,000 in total in order to add more depth to your save and also add more difficulty down the line. Suggested Adds Players from Top Clubs/Top Divisions (Europe or All Continents) - This increases the challenge at Continental Level Players Based in your Nation - This can add up to 50% more players to your game Players Based in your Region (Central Europe/East Europe/UK & Ireland) - This can add extra players likely to join your club There will be a file correcting the club/competition names, I will advise use of this. NO other additional customising is allowed. 5) Attribute Masking should be Enabled 6) Disable Ingame Editor (Please do this) 7) Optional Ticks Add Key Staff (This will give you a Scout, Physio & Ass Man by generating them if your club is without) Add Players in Playable Nations (This will ensure all clubs have a minimum number of players, generating them if needed) The extra levels of detail that you can change while in the game are up to you, as they shouldn't make a difference. B) Steps in the Game 1) Add an unemployed manager; you will not use this man to manage your club. I like "Unemployed Man or Holiday Man" 2) Go on holiday until the reset date of your chosen nation (Should take about an hour) TIP - Changing Detail Level to None will make it go faster. (Remember to change it back afterwards) TIP - Saving on the day before this date may give you a better choice of teams by reloading the game then going on holiday for one day, I would strongly recommend trying this. 3) Add a new manager - Use yourself, or a created character to help build a story line a) Personal Details - Your Choice b) Tracksuit vs. Trainer - Your Choice c) Past Experience lowest Possible (Generally Sunday League) d) Coaching Licenses lowest Possible (None) e) Other options are up to you TIP - If you add the language of your country of choice it will make it easier at the beginning TIP - Training now includes you at some level depending on your abilities. 4) Choose to take over any club which has been promoted to the bottom playable league of your nation. TIP - Easiest way in FM17 to see this is on the "Season Review" screen, showing the "Promoted Clubs" TIP - You can confirm your club by checking the Domestic History's page for not being at this level since start of game 5) Retire your unemployed manager. 6) Manage your club to National Title & European Champions League Victory 7) Completing the Challenge. C) Signing of Players 1) You must be able to scout them TIP - You don't actually have to scout them, just be able to TIP - You can check your scouting range on the Scouting page 2) Alternatively (If you can't scout them), you must bring them on a trial first 3) You are able to sign anyone sent to you via Agent Offer TIP - Make sure you screenshot the Agent offer 4) In later versions you can get your DoF to find players, he will bring in players not in Scouting Range, these are also allowed. TIP - Grab a screenshot of your DoF signing them D) Posting 1) Player naming is allowed. (This is a warning for those of you who do not wish to see this) 2) Discussion of tactics is allowed. (This is another warning for those of you who do not wish to see this) Expected Updates We have minimum expectations when it comes to a first up post and also in the end of season updates. The Bold pages are necessary for everyone; the others are some suggestions that will get others interested in your posts and following your club. All other screenshots are welcome and encouraged, but we please ask that the majority are posted as links, because lots of pictures can make the page very slow to load. First Post: Domestic Leagues History (Club) Profile (Manager) Overview (Club) Squad (Club) End of Season Updates: Transfers (Club) - This is so we can see the ins & outs League Table (Competition) Squad (Club) Information (Manager) Profile (Manager) Information (Club) Profile (Players) Progress of your club should be documented using this thread; we want to hear the story of your club all the way through. Please keep us updated, even if you are doing badly. If you title your end of season report in bold this makes it easier to identify. Everyone will be supportive, and really get into your game if you give more detail. E) Other 1. If you are Sacked 1. You can Restart from the beginning or; 2. Continue your game and pick a new club (Under Same Rules) at the end of the next season or; 3. Add another Euro League/Remove Current League, holiday a whole season and continue 1. You can still only have one nation running at a time 2. Once the league becomes active you MUST holiday a full season 3. The club must be one of those unplayable from the beginning 2. No Restrictions on Parent or Feeder Clubs 3. International Management allowed from FM14 forwards (But you cannot start as an International Manager) The use of any external utilities and editors (Such as Genie Scout or FMM) are prohibited. As of FM14 there are also unlockables, these are also prohibited, please don't use them. It would be appreciated if you also ticked the box at the start which prevents the use of the ingame editor. How to Post a Screenshot 1) While in FM, press the 'Prt Sc' button (usually next to F12 on your keyboard). 2) Open an image editing program such as Paint and paste the image 3) Save the file as a JPEG or PNG 4) Upload the image to an image hosting website such as Photobucket or Imageshack 5) Post the direct URL to the image here. Alternatively using ALT + F9 in game saves a screenshot to your user data folder. (You can also edit this in the shortcuts options) The Euro Nation Motivational I would like to thank all of you who choose to participate in this thread this year, and to wish everyone taking on this challenge the best of luck on a long and hard journey to managerial success! I have personally had a number of hugely enjoyable saves over the years, first in Gundos challenge and then latterly in the Big Euro Nation Challenge. The atmosphere and support these threads have historically offered is key in making the thread, and your saves more enjoyable as I can testify to. I and some of the other regulars of these threads are here to help for the new challengers and hope everybody that participates contributes considerably to the thread. There is nothing better than getting immersed not only in your own game but providing the encouragement to other people's attempts too. Remember we are all fighting the same battle - to defeat the AI (and uncover fabulous newgens!) - Therefore it goes without saying that any form of cheating will be severely chastised. Don't do it! I know that it is painful to lose a European Final or to lose the title on the final day (I have been there myself on more than one occasion) but eventual success down the line is all the sweeter for those defeats. Good luck to all the participants – Here’s to a successful (and enjoyable) version!!

Football Manager 2019 time! And I'm going for Pentagon Challenge (again). People have done it in the past, same old rules, credit to whoever first came up with this hardcore challenge. I'm not sure when I last did it (like in 2015 or something), but I don't have it saved, so here goes a new version in 2019. Aim Win the 5 continental trophies (European Champions League, South American Champions League, Asian Champions League, African Champions League, North American Champions League) in one save. I'm also going to make this even harder by adding the World Cup. Rules No adding new managers. No in game editors. Attribute masking to ensure you actually scout people. Start unemployed, Sunday-League experience, no coaching badges. The bars are up to you. Database, I'm going large and adding as many leagues as possible. I do suggest that you add the lower divisions, Asian, African and North American leagues first and add the top divisions, European leagues, and so on later. *Custom Database for adding more leagues is allowed Have fun!

AIM - Slow personal ascension through the lower leagues of England RULES - Start the game unemployed and load English leagues up to or past the Vanarama National League. Take over a team in the Vanarama National League and only move to the next league after Winning the League multiple times. You start at the Vanarama National league, win it multiple times, then move on to the Skybet League 2, win it multiple times, then move on to Skybet League One. As you can tell by now, winning a Lower League multiple times brings in some interesting conditions. Yes, you guessed it. You have to win the Vanarama National League, resign, sign for another Vanarama National League team, and win the league again and continue the process. When you win the League the required number of times to qualify to the next league, you can choose to a) Go into the Next League with your promoted Club or b) Take a job at a club that is poised to play in the League you have now qualified for. No save game editors allowed. No scouting programs allowed. Player attribute masking on/off is up to you. This Challenge comes in two Tiers- The Gold Challenge and the Platinum Challenge. The Gold Challenge requires you to win each League in the 5 English leagues twice, starting from the Vanarama National League and going up a League after winning it twice, up until you win the Premier League twice to finish the challenge. The Platinum Challenge requires you to win each League in the 5 English leagues three time (3x) , starting from the Vanarama National League and going up a League after winning it three times, up until you win the Premier League three times to finish the challenge. Promotion through 2nd place finishes and playoffs do not count - Your aim is to win all the leagues, multiple times, in order. You must turn down job offers at clubs in leagues you have not qualified for. Loaning players from affiliated clubs is allowed. At the start and of every season you post a screenshot of your squad list. A Screenshot of some of your favourite players, and a screenshot of the final table. You are basically the Jose Mourinho of the Lower Leagues, chasing trophies at all cost even it means putting the future and financial health of your current club in peril. A few tips and interesting dynamics of such a challenge - Pushing the financial limits of your club knowing you just need to win the league and you can resign.

Hi, and welcome to another Northernpilgrim career thread. Unlike previous efforts, this time I need to provide a little explanation as to the inspiration behind my career thread. So who was Amerigo Vespucci? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amerigo_Vespucci and what on earth does this have to do with Football Manager 2019? Manager I've set myself up as a 30 year old Italian with the name of the famous explorer, Amerigo Vespucci, after which North and South America are named. I will begin with no coaching badges, and the minimum level of experience The Challenge The challenge is to win the top division in all playable South American Leagues, as well as the Copa Libertadores, Copa America and the World Cup, the last two of which must be won with a South American national team, can only be won after all the leagues and continental club trophies have been won, but do not have to be won with the same nation, although they can be. The leagues must be won in order of reputation, starting with the lowest, which is the Peruvian Primera Division, and the whole challenge must be completed before Amerigo Vespucci turns 58 (he died aged 57). Below is a full list of the leagues in order, which I'll update as the challenge progresses (I'll hide it to avoid spoiling things) The Starting point

So I was messing around with a mate (or attempting to) in Draft, and we bailed because we couldn't get a connection. When I returned to the main screen, there was two new buttons below the four main modes, one was Challenges and the other was a mode to play online in a draft with a prebuilt club (didn't remember the name). I was intrigued by these and clicked onto the Challenge mode, and it changed the skin to a black screen. I returned to the main menu and poof, the buttons were gone. Has anyone else seen these and is there any talk from SI about these features yet? I use no mods so there is nothing which could do this externally. I didn't get a screencap and haven't been able to get it to show again, but if I do i will get a picture.

Having spent time on the battlefield during the Spanish Civil War, it's fair to say Orwell could be correct in describing Sport as the modern alternative to war. Every nation has their team, every person has their nation... but what if your nation isn't an independent one and is only able to participate in unofficial friendlies? Tensions have risen recently regarding the proposed independence of Catalonia. Since the fight remains unsettled by the ballot, maybe it can be won by la pilota. This is the story of Catalunya's journey to World Dominance via the World of Football. In what has been seen as a sign of support for those fighting for Independence, Third Division Hospitalet have imposed a Catalan only rule, which is set to remain unbroken until Catalonia gain independence, though exceptions are set to be made for individuals who have attended academies and studied in the Catalan Regions. Former Barcelona and Ajax defender, Ologuer Presas, famed for traveling to a Spanish national team training camp to inform the coach that he did not want to play for the Spanish National Team has been appointed as their new manager. He is set to speak to the club hierarchy regarding what they believe to be towns and cities outside of recognized Catalunya that fall under the new club rules with some areas of France and Italy potentially being on the club's radar. At the beginning of their journey, Hospitalet boasted an impressive 9 Catalan eligible players [*], including two former Espanyol players; Cristian and Christian Alfonso. One of the club's original Catalan contingent also included former Barcelona B defender Dani Fernandez.

Re: Tactical Challenge #3 - Strikerless by herne79 "The Challenge Using any team you like (create your own club if you want to) create a successful* tactical system which does not use a "striker" ie., nobody placed at either the STC, STCL or SCTR positions in the Tactics Creator. * By successful, you should aim to at least meet (ideally exceed) both your start of season media prediction and your Board's expectations. " This started out as a much smaller write up that was going to be part of that thread but it sprawled and I feel like it could make more sense as its own thread. So here is my take on creating a strikerless tactic. The Team NYCFC - New Yorks newest and technically only team! Yes, I'm taking on this challenge in MLS. I chose NYCFC and MLS because of it being a league that has rules restricting the players I can have, making the tactic more important. As well I thought the makeup of the team suited a strikerless system so that made them my choice. The Players There are a few key players that are going to make a strikerless tactic work. First among them is world cup winner David Villa. He will be the "striker" in this system. His goalscoring ability will be crucial, but also his technical and creative ability. He might not have the most amazing playmaking attributes, but at an MLS level, it is quite good. Another key player for the team and for this tactic is Maxi Moralez. The Argentine is the most creative player on the team and will be able to play in the midfield and be 2nd on the depth chart behind Villa for the "striker" role. The Tactic The tactic takes influence from herne79's own tactic for the challenge but in a much different league and with a different team. This tactic seeks to create by having forward running midfielders getting past the "striker" into dangerous areas, and by having the "striker" enter the box unseen and pounce. the differences between my tactic and herne79's are in the tempo and action I think. herne79's tactic was set up to counter-attack and take down larger foes. however with NYCFC that wasn't going to work as we are one of the larger teams in MLS with a high reputation and expectation. So I needed to find a way to take that idea herne79 implemented and apply it to my team. This is what I first came up with. Control - I wanted to and knew that the team would need to take charge of games and be more attacking to take on opponents who would sit back and look to frustrate me, so I opted for a control mentality to make the team naturally play quicker and having a more attacking mentality. Fluid - I wanted the team to be broadly split between to units, the attacking one consisting of the front 5 and a defensive one consisting of the back 5, this was to ensure we wouldn't be caught out on the counter and to bring balance to a team that was going to have a lot of attacking duties. Team Instructions - The team was going to play out of the back, moving the ball upfield purposefully not hopelessly, and work the ball to the dangerous players on our side. That instruction coincided well with work into box, as we don't have any height in our offence and wanted us to work the ball into good goal-scoring areas, not hopeless crosses and wasteful shots from distance. The last attacking TI was, pass into space, this was added to help exploit the space the created by the "striker" coming off the line and creating space. The only defensive TI was close down more because I prefer my defences to be more proactive. Player Roles/PI's - GK - (D) - Distribute to Centre Backs Rb - Wb (s) Cb (both) - CD (D) Lb - Fb (s) - Get further forward DM - BWM (D) RM - IW (A) - Sit Narrower, Roam from Position CM - CM (s) - Get further Forward, Roam from position CM - CM (A) - Move into Channels, Roam from Position LM - W (A) AM - Treq Expectations - My team was predicted to do well this season, predicted to finish 3rd overall and win the Eastern Conference. despite being predicted to do so well, none of my team was considered to be the best in the league at their position, and the team (like most MLS teams) lacked depth in defence. Pre-Season During Pre-Season I used the tactic above and it went fairly ok. We lost our first match despite domination possession. The rest of pre-season got better though, despite some bad performances by reserve players costing us many goals conceded, I felt confident going into the first game of the season. So the first game of the season came as quite the shock... Beginning of the Season - The first game of the season was against Orlando City SC. I was feeling Confident off the back of pre-season and felt that we could take on a new look OCSC who were without Kaka after he retired and had a lot of new players, and we were predicted to win the game quite easily despite being away from home. The Actual result was not to my liking though We lost 1-0 off a goal from a corner and were not able to generate any offence the entire match, achieving only 1 shot on goal and only 41% possession. Something was not going right. The next few matches didn't go much better. We were alright defensively but our offence was not clicking at all. we won 3 out of 5 and drew the other 2 so nothing was dire, but I knew the team could do better, and that 2 of those wins was down to my team having better players than the opposition, not due to the tactic. I knew changes were needed. Adjustments - I noticed during the analysis of my matches that my left winger (Rodney Wallace) was receiving many more passes and having way more touches than my two keys players, Villa and Moralez. Almost at times, he was having as many touches as the two of them combined. Now, this would be great if I wanted a tactic with flying wingers sending crosses into big goalscoring strikers. But this tactic didn't have a striker so something needed to change there. first changes came to the left side of midfield. I switched Wallace from a W(a) to a WM(a) with the PI to dribble more as he is very good at beating his man, and to roam from position. The next change was to Moralez, switching him from a CM(a) to a MEZ(a). This allows him more creative freedom and has better link up play with the Left mid. That was all for positional changes but TI changes were needed as well. The TI's needed to be reworked to make the team better at breaking down opponents and to better utilise our key players. Thus I added exploit the middle, to focus the play through the centre where Villa and Moralez are. I also got rid of play out of defence to hasten our passing and make us more direct, and added low crossing since we had no height in our attack. To the defensive ti's i added tighter marking to force more turnovers and to stop the oppositing being able to pass through us. All these additions really helped quick off a great run for the team and we started scoring. For a closer look into that, we will look at my 4-1 win over Columbus Crew SC.

There are obviously 32 teams in the world cup and it's frankly world cup fever right now! So I am going to load up the "real" groups of the Russian World cup and see how far I can get with each of the teams. Some teams are obviously better than others. With the likes of Brazil and France going to be easier then Panama or Saudi Arabia! I will use a random wheel to decide which teams I use and begin from there. And if anyone wants to play along and try it with me these are the settings I am using. Steam Workshop Golden Flame's real world cup. I have Japan and Germany playable. I am starting the game in Finland the April 2018 start and I have loaded all international, top players and national reputation players from every continent (roughly 80,000 players). I am setting these rules: 1) Scoring system. Eliminated 4th in group = 1 point (you tried!) Eliminated 3rd in group = 2 points top 16 knocked out = 4 points Quarter Final Knocked out = 6 points 4th place = 7 points 3rd place = 8 points 2nd place = 10 points World cup winner = 12 points! 2) No save scumming, you get 1 attempt per nation. If you cheat, shame on you! 3) No using the same tactic for every team. Don't be lame. ----------------------- https://www.randomnamepicker.net/spin-wheel Set the 32 nations and let destiny await.

Welcome to my new save where I am attempting to win the League and Cup double in all 51 available nations on the default database of the game. All my updates will be in graphic form with a small bit of writing after. Above are the base aims and rules of the game. The next post will be list of nations, their allocated number and also the random list of numbers allocated by Random.org.

So, I started a British Steel Challenge. I'm a few seasons in so this update will be a brief text only update. Worcester: I started the challenge off in the Vanarama Conference North with the club Worcester. I struggled with a 4-4-2 and switched to a 4-1-2-2-1 and ended up dominating games. I also developed a 4-2-4 tactic to catch teams off guard. Realizing my quality of players weren't great enough, I brought in a general manager. The GM brought in multiple loan players who performed phenomenally for me. This brought me into the playoffs which I won handily. Charlton: Miraculously, Charlton's manager resigned to take over another club and I was allowed to take over. They were still technically in league 1, but they had already secured promotion. This means I was able to take over a championship team in my second season. With the help of Billy Clarke (18 goals, 21 assists, 7.56 rating) I secured 1st place in the championship using the 4-3-1-2 formation. Charlton year 2: Now I'm in the EPL and bring in two perfect fits into my system. Although Tony Watt (33 goals previously) and Josh Magennis (19 goals 11 assists previously) were great, they didn't even have good enough stats to be successful Championship strikers. Therefore, enter James Wilson ($7.5 million) )and Andy Carroll ($1.1 million). In their first season Wilson scored 31 goals and 20 assists in the league and Andy Carroll scored 22 and assisted 18. Other notable signings include, Ryan Gauld (on loan later purchased for $25 million 16 goals 13 assists ~7.6 average rating), Liam Moore (7.43 rating), Reuben Loftus-Cheek (previously on loan brought in for 5.5 million average rating 7.19), and George Thorne (free 11 goals 7 assists 7.54 average rating). All in all, I finished 6th with the most goals in the league. In addition, I won the FA cup. Charlton year 3: I was set to win the title if I improved the back line. I brought in Joe Gomez ($30 million). All is good right? Wrong. I screwed up. I lost sight of what was important and made the following transfers out, Ainsley Maitland-Niles (bought for 0 sold for $80 million), Ruben Loftus-Cheek (bought for $5.5 million sold for $45 million), and James Wilson (bought for $7.5 million sold for 50 million). I had some serious money to play with and some major gaps to fill. To replace Maitland-Niles I brought in Lewis Cook for 15 million. To replace Loftus-Cheek I brought in Will Hughes for 45 million. Finally, to replace Wilson I brought in Ben Woodburn ($110 million), Daniel Sturridge (free), and Theo Walcott (free). Zoom forward to where I am today and you'll see I won the league and the EFL cup. I have won all I can win in the Championship and Premiership. Therefore, I look forward to where my travels take me next. Trophies: FA Cup (2), EFL Cup (1), EPL (1), Community Shield (1), Championship (1) Manager Stats: Badge: Continental A Fav Formation: 4-3-1-2 Career Stats: 205 Games Played, 510 goals scored, 225 goals conceded, 134 games won, 35 games drawn, 36 games lost. Total Career Earnings: $1.7 million. Transfers: $303 million spent, 210 received. P.S. I brought in a 19 y/o Ukrainian Striker set to arrive next season (don't worry I am not using him) as it was a great deal for a great player and Andy Carrol, Sturridge, and Walcott and close to retirement. I do this because I want to see Charlton do well.

Hello All, for years I have been over on the challenges and sign up threads usually doing the Defuges challenge and the occasional youth academy challenge. I thought now I would start a different challenge and post my progress in here. Inspired by the Basque challenge I've decided to do a regional save with my own spin on it. Being raised in the South London area before moving to Australia 10 years ago I've decided to start a Dulwich Hamlet save where I can only sign and loan players who have come through my academy and academies from the south London region. There are four professional clubs in this region which consist of Crystal Palace, Millwall, Charlton and AFC Wimbledon. As Dulwich are not playable at the start, I will holiday for the first season and take them over at the start of the second season after they are promoted to the Vanarama National South. My Profile Starting with lowest possible attributes and reputation The Club The Team and Key Players We have a decent starting eleven but lack depth will be looking to bring in a few loans from the professional south London clubs and see who i can pick up on frees from the released youth players. Staff Will more than likely release all staff and bring in my own over preseason. Will post my next update before the first game of the season.

Back in the day my brother, my mate and I used to play a three player save on every version. I'd be Liverpool, my brother would be Arsenal and my mate would be United. Infact, we still do this! But one time, on CM03/04, something really special happened. My mate went the whole season as Man Utd only conceding 9 (NINE) goals. Sure he only scored 61, but he still won the league with 89 points. It was actually one of the very rare times ever were we got the top three. Thankfully I still have the screenshot to prove it: Now I know the game was very different back then, and for all I know there could have been some match engine problems that meant it was a little easier to defend, but nothing can take away from the fact that only conceding 9 in a whole season is incredible. I mean, look at the second best defensive record: 5th place Blackburn who conceded 27. That's three times as many goals! So here's the challenge for FM18 - can you replicate this amazing feat? Can you go a whole season and concede less than 10 goals? No editing, no cheating, no controlling every team you face - please be honest. I'm hoping as a community we can create a tactic that is defensively solid. To be honest I'm not too bothered if it's an all-conquering, 1-0 every game, league-winning title at this point. I just wanna know if repeating the 9 goal season can be done. So let's here your thoughts and see your tries. I plan on starting a game and setting everything up and saving it as a master file, then saving it with a different name to actually play the game, and then once I reach the dreaded 10 mark, delete that game and start again from the master. Constantly tinkering the tactic with every new save I create. Who do you think the best team is to try it with? Or do you fancy a challenge and want to play your game as normal and just try to complete the challenge with every new season? That's my plan once I've had a few saves to get the tactic close to what I hope to achieve. Once it's looking defensively sound and I'm making it past Christmas (it's 26th November and in real life United have conceded 6, City 7 and Burnley 9) without hitting 10, I'll start a "proper save" and try to concede less than 10 every season as I play through them. Surely it's only a matter of time, right? Hopefully others can join in and we can share ideas, formations, tactical instructions, recommended players and more.

The Europa League, the 2nd best club competition in Europe and one that is often mocked by English football fans, that is, until it offered a way into the Champions League. Inspired by @ManUtd1's Nearly Men thread with the Champions League I've decided to do the same, but with the Europa League, as well as the European Championship. 60 clubs have reached the Europa League Final, and of these 60 clubs 32 have never won it and my aim is to win the Europa League with these 32 clubs as well as any more clubs that become eligible as the save develops and progresses. As well as the Europa League there are currently 2/4 nations that have made a European Championship Final and not won it, Belgium and Yugoslavia. For the purpose of this save Yugoslavia has become Croatia, Serbia and Slovenia since they're the only playable leagues out of the box. Europa League Finalists: Benfica (1983, 2013, 2014) Athletic Bilbao (1977, 2012) Espanyol (1988, 2007) Borussia Dortmund (1993, 2002) Olympique Marseille (1999, 2004) Wolverhampton Wanderers (1972) FC Twente (1975) Club Brugge (1976) Bastia (1978) Red Star Belgrade/ Crvena Zvezda (1979) AZ Alkmaar (1981) Hamburger SV (1982) Videoton (1985) Köln (1986) Dundee United (1987) Stuttgart (1989) Fiorentina (1990) Roma (1991) Torino (1992) Casino Salzburg/ RB Salzburg (1994) Girondins Bordeaux (1996) Lazio (1998) Arsenal (2000) Alavés (2001) Celtic (2003) Sporting CP (2005) Middlesbrough (2006) Rangers (2008) Werder Bremen (2009) Fulham (2010) Braga (2011) Dnipro (2015) European Championship Finalists: Yugoslavia (Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia) (1960, 1968) Belgium (1980) Here's the leagues I've loaded, it should cover all the bases but I'll add and remove leagues if and when necessary.

So I am currently playing a save where I am doing the 0-51 challenge. For those of you who don't know what this is, the challenge is to win the top league in every playable country in the league. I was playing when I though it would be a good idea to share my save with the community. In this save, 5 countries will ne loafed at any one time, and when that country has neen completed, it will be replaced, at random. I have not allowed myself to leave a country until I have won the league, the US being an exception. I didnt fully understand the rules of the MLS, so i have disregarded that. currently loaded countries are: Belgium, Brazil, Croatia, France, and Germany.

As you could imagine this is not related to Stalin's famous economic plan, it's my FM18 project with PNE, the historical English club well known for their invincible season back in 1888-89, now I'm going to bring back those glory days to Deepdale, I set a quite ambitious goal for this challenge, winning the Champions League in five years from the start of the game. A promotion in 1-2 season would be highly needed, then I'll have 4-3 years to qualify and finally win he UCL, not easy and probably it will take more than five years but if you aim high you won't shoot your foot off... I'm using the last official database to play this. Quick facts Transfer budget: 2.5M euro Wage budget: 11.3 M Deepdale stadium: 23.400 all-seater Great training facilities Average youth facilities and recruitment I started the save some days ago and I'm in February while I'm writing this opening post, so a quick recap regarding our transfers is needed, I only spent 575k, but in January some big offers arrived for two of my players: Jordan Hugill (St) and Ben Pearson (Dmc), I was glad to sell Hugill cause he was only a rotating option in my squad but I refused the money for Pearson, surely one of my best players and a leader in the dressing room as well, unfortunately the board accepted the 20M (could become 26) offer from Leicester and sold him. After that some young players joined PNE on loan, I'm going to test them carefully and see if they could have a future here. Anyway the team is still competitive as we're doing well in the league with my 2-4-4 tactic, our current style of play is mainly focused on scoring more than our opponents and the overall record confirms that: 78 goals scored in 34 games (51 conceded). We're leading the Championship right now even if is still a tough affair with many teams really close, I really hope to avoid playoffs (I hate them...) but everything could happen here. Thanks for reading and feel free to ask if you want to know more, more updates will follow here and on twitter: @Armchair_Gaffer , by the way, the title of this thread is an obvious homage to sir Tom Finney, a true PNE legend.

FM17 San Marino International Challenge Hello and welcome to my first FM story where I will be taking on the extraordinarily tough challenge of San Marino. I was tempted to wait for a database and do this challenge with club and country but I couldn't wait to get started. In case you don't already know, the San Marino Challenge is where you take the San Marino international team (and usually the San Marino club in the Italian Serie D) and: 1. Take the international team off the bottom of the rankings to World Cup and European Championships glory 2. Guide the club to Serie A and go on to win the division as well as the UCL title. As you can probably tell, this challenge is VERY hard and will take a lot of time and hard work. We will get battered at the start, but hopefully some good regens and well-trained tactics can help us on our way to glory. I have already done a few games (hint: it's not gone too well) and I will upload screenshots of those games once I have completed a full year of fixtures. From then, in between dafuge's challenge, (I know- two challenges...) I will play this career and continue to update you every in-game year. Also, Hopefully you enjoy reading my story and we can face the good- and bad- times together SAN MARINO- THE ROAD TO GLORY BEGINS! P.S. If you want any screenshots of the game, just ask and I'll be happy to provide them

The Liechtenstein Challenge - FC Balzers & Liechtenstein NT I have decided to take on the Liechtenstein challenge. It is similar to the San Marino challenge but with Liechtenstein (obvs). What's the deal? Basically, I start off as manager of FC Balzers and the Liechtenstein NT. Balzers are a semi-professional team that play in the fourth tier of Switzerland and so I am using a database that unlocks the Swiss leagues down to that level. The aim is to achieve European domination with club and world domination with country. The first important thing to note here is that a Liechtenstein team cannot qualify for Europe by winning the Swiss Super League, nor are they eligible to enter the Swiss Cup. The only route to Europe for a Liechtenstein team is by winning the Liechtenstein Cup. The competition isn't particularly fierce (apart from FC Vaduz who are in the second tier of Swiss football) and winning that will gain you entry into the first qualifying round of the Europa League. But what about the Champions League? You can't call yourself the best team in Europe if you don't compete in the Champions League. Well, there is one way into the Champions League for a club from Liechtenstein... you have to win the Europa League. Those with a keen eye will note that Champions League football cannot be played two years in a row, unless you win it. For example if you won the Europa League in 2018, and then in 2019 got knocked out of the Champions League group stage for example, unless you finished third in your group to get back to the Europa League, in 2020 you would be back in the Europa League due to winning the Liechtenstein Cup or winning a European competition being the only route you can take. Ok Ok, I understand, but why should I follow this thread, it all sounds a bit like the San Marino Challenge. It absolutely is similar to the San Marino challenge but the difference is the San Marino club side can get entry into Europe by their league position once in Serie A. Another point to make is that the San Marino club side play in Italy so once you reach Serie A and start to do well, attracting good players is easier because the stature of the league is top 5 in Europe. The Swiss league is a lower reputation and so toppling Basel will be difficult but the real challenge will be growing a team based in the Swiss league into world beaters and persuading the next Messi or Ronaldo to come and play against Basel, Grasshoppers and Young Boys every week. So what's the plan gangsta? Get FC Balzers up to the Super League as soon as is possible. If I could somehow manage to win the Liechtenstein Cup early on then a qualifying round or two of the Europa League would really help me to kick on financially and should also grow the reputation of the club. Once I am in the Super League I can start getting those youth facilities upgraded. By the time I start to get good regens, the strong Liechtenstein NT players will likely be long gone so I just want to keep them ticking over for the time being. Aims and Objectives FC Balzers - Win promotion from 1 Liga to the Promotion League (COMPLETED SEASON 1) - Win promotion from the Promotion league to the Challenge League - Win promotion from Challenge League to the Super League - Turn professional - Win the Liechtenstein Cup (COMPLETED SEASON 3) - Win Swiss Super league - Win Europa League - Win Champions League - Win World Club Cup - Become the number 1 club side in the world Liechtenstein NT - Win a competitive match (COMPLETED SEASON 3) - Qualify for European Championship - Qualify for World Cup - Win European Championship - Win World Cup - Become number 1 ranked in the world Season 1: 1.Liga (1st (Promoted)), Liechtenstein Cup (Runners-up) Season 2: Promotion League (6th), Liechtenstein Cup (Runners-up) Season 3: Promotion League (3rd), Liechtenstein Cup (Winners)

This is my first ever update thread, despite having been a member of the forums since 2004. I have been playing the game since the first Championship Manager on the Amiga, but in recent years have struggled to get into a save. I love adding as many leagues as possible, and getting everything "just right", but then when I sit down to a save, I rarely get past pre-season or the first 10 games or so. This year has so far been slightly different, me starting a game on the Beta and sticking with it until the 4th season which I thoroughly enjoyed. However, since the new patch I arrived, I have been attempting to get into a new save, and failing. I have spent the last few weeks lurking on this forum (and others) and reading other people's career threads and enjoying them, and being insanely jealous at the fun everyone but me seems able to have. Then I decided that I would try and share my career and see if this inspires me to stick with the save. Not only that, but because of the "grass is always greener" attitude that seems to constantly result in me starting again, I have decided on a challenge which a) has a clear and defined goal, b) is unlikely to result in me ending up at the same club for too long, and c) is massive. The challenge is to win 28 competitions, some specific, and some region specific. Using claasens excellent league pack, I have increased the number of leagues in the game to 103. These have then been divided up by region, as below. I plan to win one top division per region & then move on using the add/remove leagues feature; 1- Middle East & Central Asia (Iran, Israel, Kazakhstan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Uzbekistan) 2- Indian Ocean & Oceania (Australia, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore) 3- The Far East (China, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Thailand) 4- North Africa (Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Sudan, Tunisia) 5- Southern & Central Africa (Angola, Congo, DR Congo, South Africa, Zambia) 6- Western Africa (Cameroon, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal) 7- North America (Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Trinidad & Tobago, USA) 8- South America (Northern) (Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Venezuela) 9- South America (Southern) (Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay) 10- UK & Ireland (England, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales) 11- Former USSR (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Estonia, Georgia, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Russia, Ukraine) 12- Former Yugoslavia (Bosnia/Herz, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Slovenia) 13- Scandanavia (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden) 14- Southern Europe (Albania, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Greece, Turkey) 15- Austro-Hungaria & Eastern Europe (Austria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia) 16- Benelux, Germany & Switzerland (Belgium, Germany, Luxemborg, Netherlands, Switzerland) 17- South Western Europe (France, Italy, Malta, Portugal, Spain) As well as a competition from each of these regions, I aim to win the following competitions; Continental 18- AFC Champions Leage 19- African Champions League 20- NAM Champions League 21- Libatores 22- European Champions League International 23- World Cup 24- AFC Nations Cup 25- Cup of Nations 26- Gold Cup 27- Copa America 28- Euro Cup of Nations Bonus 29- O-League 30- OFC Nations Cup Rules; Randomize Regions All leagues within region as playable, all others as View Only Start Unemployed with Sunday League Rep & no badges, Take first job offered Cannot Leave Region until National League won Cannot Start in New Region until all leagues added/removed date has passed (Leagues will disappear completely after removal & don't turn view only, which will hopefully help keep the game reasonably quick as the save ages) Can move clubs within a region Champions League to be "played for" when in the final region for that continent - so if the final European region I end up in is Scandanavia, I HAVE to win the European Champions League with a Scandanavian team. This means that the roll of the dice will really influence the difficulty of the challenge. Also, as there is only one North American region, I would expect to see my reputation get something of a rise if I leave that region having won the North American Champions League early in the game. Can choose a manager of any nationality - I will be creating a fictional manager for the save born in one of the countries of the first region to make getting a job a little easiser. It is also worth noting that I play quite slowly, so the thread is unlikely to move particularly quickly . I'm also pretty terrible at the game which will no doubt contribute to the time this takes So, with this in mind, the dice has been rolled and number 15 means I will be going to one of these countries first; All other leagues are view only, running a large database including all current internationals, Players from top & top division clubs with national and continental reputation, as well as players from clubs in continental competitions. This leaves me with around 107,000 players. So, with all the will in the world, Maciej Nemec, a 35 year old Polish/Czech who admittedly doesn't look very good on it, begins his journey!!

I will be doing this again for FM17. The basic idea is for us as a community to find as many in-game media comparisons as possible. The rules will be the same as FM16: The most important thing is no player naming! The player can be a real player or a regen and does not have to be on your team. If the player is a real player, please avoid showing any information that could identify him. Remember these are media comparisons and not teammate comparisons. My first example is below. The list will be in the second post of the first page and then near the top of every page afterwards so check it to see if your player has been found before posting it. Only the first person to find a given comparison will be given credit. Please provide a screenshot of your find. I prefer embedded images and one player/image per post. If you find a player that the media compares to a regen in your save, those count too and should be posted here. It is generally cool to be able to see the regen that the comparison is made with, especially if he is a star player in your save. The following will be considered cheating and not allowed (honor system!): Editing a screenshot to insert a media comparison that was not actually generated by the game. Using the editor to add a player to a nation's list of famous players (the game itself does add new players for media comparisons) Editing a player's ability to cause the game to create a media comparison that would not happen naturally. Happy hunting!

The idea for this challenge is simply: Win every top flight domestic league, starting from the least reputable competition to the highest. (I have downloaded Claassen's hugely impressive set of extra nation's so I can really start right at the bottom.) The reputation of each competition can be found in the editor - I will provide an extensive list (incl. all of Claassen's nations) if there is enough interest in this from others. This is the first ten (where the number represents a reputation value out of 200 for the domestic top flight): 2 Kiribati 2 Northern Mariana 7 Guam 7 Bhutan 12 Tuvalu 13 American Samoa 15 Liberia 20 Tonga 20 Zambia 20 Mali So I have loaded the bottom two nation's, Kiribati & Northern Mariana, as both of their top flights have the same reputation. (You can load as many as you want at one time, but must stay in order.) In this case, it is up to you which you try to conquer first, but to move on to higher reputation leagues, you should've won both top flight division titles! I will add the next most reputable nation's leagues, Guam & Bhutan, when it is a possibility that I could move up to one of those nation's by the start of the next season. Start out with a no-qualifications, Sunday league rep manager and unemployed. Apart from that, there are no other rules. Just to try to enjoy a successful, multi-national save in every corner of the globe! I'll be posting my progress here!

You're a recently retired professional & international. You've spent the time since retirement studying for the most prestigious coaching qualifications available. It didn't matter how old you were or where you're from, it was time to start applying for a job. But with no previous experience in management, where would you start, who was going to want you?! Last year's Champions had a vacancy. Applying wasn't going to do you any harm. Besides you'd only gain from any experience the employment procedure throws your way. A couple of weeks later you were contacted for an immediate interview at the Champion's home venue. Upon arrival, you're surrounded by familiar faces - you remember trying to count the accumulative number of trophies & medals the room had collected over the years past. You exchanged small talk with a few ex colleagues and even an icon of yours as everyone shuffled into a row of seats before a small podium - all had applied for the same position as you. As if you weren't nervous enough already. "Welcome all. We'll keep this short and simple. You must be willing to sustain at least a single trophy per season, every season from the year of employment, without spending a penny whilst accepting every single monetary incoming bid. A club such as this, a club such as mine, should have enough pulling power to negotiate free transfers for players whom continuously possess enough quality to sustain success whilst maximising a positive cashflow." You received a glorious smile as the owner stepped down from the podium with his arms outstretched in glee. You were the only person who hadn't moved for the exit doors. Had you're inexperience accidentally landed you this job, or are you truly the only one up for the challenge? To clarify the rules: - You're manager can be of any mix and match of stats, experience and nationality. - You must take over last year's champions, from whatever nation you have chosen to load. (Yes it's okay to load multiple nations.) You can also travel as far as you like into the future before starting the challenge. - You MUST accept any bid of any value for ANY of your players. Remember the Owner is always watching! - Each year you must win at least one trophy. (Super Cup, Domestic League, Continental & Domestic Cups etc.) - EVERY incoming transfer must come on a free. (Agent fees don't count.) This makes sustainability a challenge. - You lose the challenge if you don't win a trophy over an entire season OR you are sacked for other reasons by the more reasonable board members. (- In the spirit of the challenge, you should only offer new contracts to current players outside of any transfer windows! The reason for this is with money in > money out, your wage budget could become quite hefty, and offering ridiculous money to players to get them to stay isn't what this challenge is about.) If you're interested, please post updates. I've started this challenge myself in Germany after holidaying a single season. Inevitably I ended up managing Bayern, but into my second season as manager and the squad has drastically changed and the challenge has truly begun! I'll post a more thorough update of who I've lost and the replacements I've managed to bring in if there is enough interest.

Hey, Saw some of the previous comments and topics to do with challenges and I was just interested to find out some teams I could manage ? Can really never get into a save. Was thinking about RB Leipzig, would be interested to hear some more! Thanks

San Marino Challenge Hi guys! I know this is hardly a new idea, but I've been interested in trying this challenge for a while. Several years ago on another forum I documented my rise through the ranks with Luton, and while I haven't done something like this (documenting it, I mean) since then, I thoroughly enjoyed it last time, so I figured I'd give it a try. I generally prefer to play FM by starting with a low tier team and trying to bring them as high as I can, so this kind of challenge is right up my alley..... if a fair bit harder than what I normally tend to do. Just a couple of notes before we dive in so that anybody who's interested knows what to expect: I'll be updating mostly month by month, and the updates will sometimes come every couple of days, and sometimes have a gap of a couple of weeks, due to other responsibilities. I've always been kind of of the mind that FM is just about the worst game for viewers, but I may stream some of my exploits at www.twitch.tv/pengwin_sc (I'll probably stream really big matches and put a disclaimer in the update when there's a big one coming). For those of you not familiar with the San Marino Challenge, let me fill you in. Essentially, I'll be attempting to accomplish the goals listed below. I've listed out the standard goals for this challenge, but if anybody has some cool ideas for other things I could shoot for, feel free to let me know and I'll consider aiming for them as well. I'll check these off as they're completed. Club Goals: - Take San Marino Calcio to Serie A - Win Serie A - Win the Champions League - Win the Champions League with a squad comprised of purely San Marino nationals National Goals: - Achieve a top 100 global rank with San Marino - Qualify for a major tournament with San Marino - Win the European Championships with San Marino - Win the World Cup with San Marino - Achieve rank 1 globally with San Marino So, onwards to adventure! And victory! Well, probably a lot of losses, but EVENTUAL VICTORY!

I want to create a challenge to reflect the currrent setup at dagenham and redbridge who have no invester and could face administration, can anyone help?

Welcome to the FM17 Sister City Challenge inspired by the FM16 challenge by Stonewall458. To complete the challenge you must win the league title with one team from all of the sister cities (with a playable team) of your starting teams city. For example, if you selected Porto you would have to win the league title with FC Porto Liege (Standard Liege) Bordeux (Bordeux) Bristol (Bristol Rovers or Bristol City) Vigo (Celta Vigo) Crotone (FC Crotone) Brno (Zbrojovka Brno) Shanghai (Shanghai Shenhua or Shangai SIPG or Shanghai Shenxin) Recife (Sport Club do Recife or Santa Cruz or Nautico) To see the sister cities of your chosen city just check the cities wikipedia page.