Ri916's FM 12 Youth Academy Challenge!

[marty78]

@mack4life - Superb promotion and if your good enough to get autmoatic promotion from League One then you should be good enough to stay up and consolidate in the Championship.

@lwillis - Welcome to the challenge first of all. That is a superb first season and I get the feeling you won't be in the bottom league very long. If you set up pre-season cups instead of normal friendlies it will earn you more money that will help to upgrade facilities. Junior coaching is the easiest to upgrade and will help massively with the quality of the intake.

[lwillis003]

Sounds like a perfect opportunity to teach your kid about the highs and lows of football management!

*Posted sneakily from work!*

Haha cheers mack, although I tried to teach him about football a few days ago - being in goal - and he tried to stop the ball going into the net using a wand, the ball gently rolled into the goal... I don't have high hopes for his future footballing career but there's still time!

@mack4life - Superb promotion and if your good enough to get autmoatic promotion from League One then you should be good enough to stay up and consolidate in the Championship.

@lwillis - Welcome to the challenge first of all. That is a superb first season and I get the feeling you won't be in the bottom league very long. If you set up pre-season cups instead of normal friendlies it will earn you more money that will help to upgrade facilities. Junior coaching is the easiest to upgrade and will help massively with the quality of the intake.

Thanks marty. I'd had a Junior Coaching upgrade in the January before that intake - forgot to mention it! Went to interact again this season and the only option I had was to cut back on Junior Coaching - hmmm...! However I have got new youth facilities planned for completion shortly after season 2 - around November 2014 IIRC. Hopefully should get some real results out of the youth system now!

[marty78]

KINGSTONIAN SEASON 21 UPDATE - 2032/33

Season objectives - Top half (achieved)

Achievements:

Premier League - 7th

Euro Cup - 1st knockout round

FA Cup - 3rd round

League Cup - Quarter final

FA Community Shield - Winners

A good season but I had to pretty much give up on the cups and Europe as they took too high a toll on the team. I didn't qualify for Europe next season and thats probably for the best. For the first time ever I have filled my profile bars and am considered world class. Our facilities are really coming along and finances are still very healthy despite dividend payouts of £12m.

No transfers.

This years youth intake has two tags and they are Ben Saunders (YP21a) and Jermaine Beadle (YP21b).

___________________________________

SEASON 22 EXPECTATIONS

My expectation - Top Six

Board expectation - Top half

Media prediction - 9th

I'm hoping that without the distraction of Europe we can kick on into the top six but it is a big ask.

[Pjotas]

Absolutely ****ing devastated!!

[Pjotas]

FC United of Manchester - Season 5 - 2016/17

I am left absolutely furious after this season. We had a really good year, in the play offs almost since day 1. We took the lead and it felt secure. In hindsight I now know that we lost the title with two home draws against Guiseley and Lowestoft. Still, we went into the last two games with a five point lead. Drew away at Solihull and just needed to remain unbeaten at home in the last game against Darlington. Instead we were humiliated, losing 0-3 and could never recover in the play offs, crashing out against Nuneaton, 1-6 on aggregate. Granted, I did go a bit bananas and push forward in the end making the difference seem bigger than it actually was... To sum up... ****!!

League Table

Transfers

Youth intake

A decent intake with two players standing out. They have also been tagged as Clive Groves - YP9 and Andrew Tyson - YP10

Previous tags

I think i've been kind of fuzzy about my youth tagging, so here's a run down on the players...

Callum Myler - YP1 - Has played this year on a monthly contract and still has no interest in resigning. Will probably leave soon...

Gethyn Porter - YP2 - A good and solid year, but I'm still waiting for him to really dominate midfield for me.

Tom Broadhead - YP3 - A better season for my best midfielder. Hoping he will develop even more during next year.

Brett Harper - YP4 - Good year again, but was frustratingly poor in front of goal in the last two months.

Mick Huntington - YP5 - Solid defender who had a good year but made a few too many mistakes...

Sean Strong - YP6 - My number one choice in defense as well as club captain.

Ángel Arévalo - YP7 - Fantastic season. By far my best player this year.

Kristian Gilks - YP8 - Good defensive midfielder and probably my most consistent performer.

No upgrades this year. Our junior coaching is still excellent. Our finances are back on track though.

Player of the year

Ángel Arévalo - YP7 of course. Absolutely brilliant, and will improve a lot next year I hope.

Youth player of the year

Same as above.

Cups

FA Cup - Much better this year. We advanced to round 2 were League 2 side Hartlepool narrowly defeated us.

FA Trophy - Also better. We lost in round 3 to BSP side Chelmsford but gave it away due to fixture congestion.

Next Season

A great year that would have been fantastic if not for how it ended. Next year the only goal is promotion of course. If not, it might very well be my last year in charge of FC United...

[Bobbins71]

Try again... don't know what happened earlier....

I'll be giving this a go with Chester City.

Manager

Appointmenthttp://i328.photobucket.com/albums/l326/Bobbins71/KevinOKeefeNews_Inbox.png[/img]"]

Facilities

http://i328.photobucket.com/albums/l326/Bobbins71/ChesterInformation_Facilities.png[/img]"]Chester start with some good players and youth, probably the "easiest" team to take in the challenge?

[marty78]

Chester start with some good players and youth, probably the "easiest" team to take in the challenge?

I would imagine so yes as they are professional but only initially as that will balance as teams climb the leagues. It will still be a hell of a challenge though. Best of luck.

@pjotas - Thats really unlucky but you should feel confident of winning the league next time round.

[Pjotas]

Cheers Marty. I really hope you're right...

[mitjamvp]

Hey guys, i started this challenge aswell, but as i am a one-save-game-guy, i started with Boreham Wood in 2024. Is that ok?

I was promoted first season through playoffs and i am currently in my second season, sitting in 8th place in BSS Premier after 6 matches.

[marty78]

Well it is up to Ri196 really but as long as you adhered to the rules in the opening post I don't see any problems. You would of needed to add a new manager so as to have sunday league reputation though and can't continue with a manager that has already built rep as that will make it easier to start with.

[mitjamvp]

aha, well the thing is i did start with the worst possible experience level, but my reputation is now Worldclass.. I guess i will just keep the challenge for myself then

[Pjotas]

I have tried yelling, comforting, fining, demoting, kicking, screaming even hitting on this tired looking lad and finally it paid off... He scored on day 1 on a penalty and now a hat trick. That is just how frustrating this season has been so far...

[Braumiller]

Well, I have been MIA from my Weymouth save for a month or so due to my new job and it is now looking like my old HD might be toast. Going to be a couple of weeks to see if my tech buddy can save any data (including my Weymouth Premier League save).

About ready to jump back into FM12, so looking to start up a new youth challenge.

Should get a chance to read through the thread tomorrow, but wondered if any of the following teams have been played with?

Billericay

Canvey Island

Hastings Utd

Hitchen

Matlock

North Ferriby

Stafford

St Albans

Going to avoid a Weymouth repeat attempt, time to retry with a fresh team. Preferably a brand new team to this thread.

[Braumiller]

Ok, got my new game set up and going with Stafford Rangers this time around.

Quick question / clarification.

As can be seen by the screenshot taken below, the previous set up has arranged a transfer before I came along. Some 34yr old DC joining us on July 1st 2012.

Do I treat him like a true Stafford player? Ignore him and leave him in the reserves?

PreArranged Transfer

As you can see by the date, it is June 24th 2012 and the game is still under the control of my Holiday Manager (before I took control).

The other piece of business was in the contract stage and it got cancelled as I took control.

Not going to get into pre-season stuff until tomorrow, so just going to set up my training and tactics before crashing for the night.

Immediate positives and negatives from surveying the starting scenery.

Positive - 34 players at my disposal!

Negative - No corporate facilities and no youth facilities!!!

[ri916]

Nice to see you back Braumiller! It's a shame if your Weymouth save cannot be recovered but you can still cross your fingers. Stafford looks like a tough challenge with no youth facilities but if you can address that quickly it shouldnt affect you too badly.

As for me I think I'm back with St Albans. IICR I have just finished season 6 so an update will be coming

Edit: Dont expect to much, there's a reason I took a break from it.

[Nottingham Forest]

Stafford is a tough challenge. I failed with them. You definitely need to get the facilities improved. I didn't have as many players at my disposal when I was them.

[ri916]

St Albans- Season 6- 2017-2018

Targets for this season:

- Getting into the playoffs NO- What a shock?

- Improving junior coaching + something else. NO- only JC

Finances- We are still comfortable with over 400k in the bank after youth facilities upgrades.

Facilities- We managed to improve junior coaching again to exceptional.

League Table- This time we got into 15th place so one place up from last year. I’m not even going to set playoffs as the target this time it will just be a top 10 finish.

Squad – Adam Howe impressed until he was injured so he didn’t improve much. Now only has good BSP potential. Same story for Samuel Bah but he didn’t lose too much CA from his injury.

Tagged Prospects

Another decent year with 2 very good prospects coming through

Warren Hazell YP08- He is a ball winning midfielder with Leading League 2 potential.

Anass Hadir YP09- A solid striker without great potential.

Transfers- I’m clean!

Targets for next season

- Getting into the top 10

- Score more than 60 goals in the league

  Season       League           Position            Achievements                 Top Goalscorer (Goals)    Player of the Season  
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------                                        
 2012/13       BSS               16th               Staying up                    Sakho Bakare (12)           Paul Heaton    
 2013/14       BSS               12th               Improving                      Paul Heaton (15)           Sean Shields
 2014/15       BSS               14th                 None                         Paul Heaton (11)         Anton Blackwood
 2015/16       BSS               16th                 None                         Joff Harris (17)         Anton Blackwood
 2016/17       BSS               16th                 None                        Sakho Bakare (18)           Sakho Bakare
 2017/18       BSS               15th                 None                       Adam Howe YP07 (13)         Adam Howe YP07

[Pjotas]

ri916 - As a fellow struggler, it's good to see you back. Things will pick up for you, I hope

[marty78]

ri916 - As a fellow struggler, it's good to see you back. Things will pick up for you, I hope

I wouldn't say you are strugglers at all. This challenge is incredibly tough and until you start to reap the rewards of facility upgrades it can feel like walking in treacle. When you start getting youngsters with league two potential in the lowest league then it is just a matter of time until they kick on and start climbing the leagues. There is also an element of luck with the strength of the starting squad and the quality of the intakes.

Good to see you back Ri196 and I'm sure if you score your target 60 goals that will be enough for the play-offs if you defend well. Exceptional junior coaching makes a real difference.

[Tactic Master]

Unlucky Ri, I'm suprised your youngsters haven't helped you improve yet? Best of luck for next season!

I completed my first season in the Premiership, but I still haven't posted an update, will sort that out as soon as I can. I've started my new season though and i'm using Tiki-Taka football

[Braumiller]

Nice to see you back Braumiller! It's a shame if your Weymouth save cannot be recovered but you can still cross your fingers. Stafford looks like a tough challenge with no youth facilities but if you can address that quickly it shouldnt affect you too badly.

Thanks!

Any call on what I should or should not do with the guy I have inherited as a future transfer at Stafford?

(see post 2254 above)

[ri916]

Thanks!

Any call on what I should or should not do with the guy I have inherited as a future transfer at Stafford?

(see post 2254 above)

sorry. I did intend to answer your question but it got lost in my post. I have no problems with you using that player if you want. Similarly, I would blame you if you didnt want to use him

[Pjotas]

FC United of Manchester - Season 6 - 2017/18

Having so nearly won the title last year, I had high hopes going into this season and we started well enough. Soon we completely lost the ability to score though as we

crashed through the table. A lot of tactical tweaks and experiments followed until I felt things turn around. For the first time in six years my tactic felt good and from the Harrogate game things went in the up. A great run in, almost thrown away on the Oldham game, but we managed to grab a play off spot and this time entering on a high.

We beat Chester 5-2 on agg. giving us an away Play off final against Stalybridge. They were the better team in the first half where we failed to even have an attempt on goal. In the second half Gethyn Porter - YP2 broke the deadlock though before Ángel Arévalo - YP7 fired us to the Blue Square Premier!!

League Table

Transfers

Youth intake

I missed to take a screen of the youth intake because I got very, very excited about this lad. Meet Kirk Monaghan - YP11, he has already made his England-U19 debut (missing the play off final doing it) and have Championship clubs bidding already. I will try to hang on to him as long as possible, but will probably fail...

Previous tags

I think i've been kind of fuzzy about my youth tagging, so here's a run down on the players...

Callum Myler - YP1 - Finally signed a new contract, and do get the odd game..

Gethyn Porter - YP2 - Gave him the role of AMC and am retraining him. That made him explode and together with Ángel and Brett, they perform small miracles.

Tom Broadhead - YP3 - A nightmare of a year for Tom. Torn a calf muscle twice and has declined. Hope to have him firing next season again.

Brett Harper - YP4 - Good together with Getyn and Ángel, useless without them...

Mick Huntington - YP5 - Lost his starting position to another youth, Mick Field.

Sean Strong - YP6 - My number one choice in defense as well as club captain last year, now number three. Will get games.

Ángel Arévalo - YP7 - Fantastic season. By far my best player this year. Was injured for three months, and boy did we struggle at the time.

Kristian Gilks - YP8 - Good defensive midfielder and again a very consistent performer.

Clive Groves - YP9 - Good season from the youngster earning a regular place in the process.

Andrew Tyson - YP10- Decent season, mostly as a sub.

Junior coaching upgraded again and training facilities in the making. Facilities

Our finances are listed as insecure but in the black :confused: Might have a little something to do with this though...

Player of the year

Ángel Arévalo - YP7 again. Absolutely brilliant and the one who brought us to BSP.

Youth player of the year

Clive Groves - YP9 - A great first season.

Cups

FA Cup - Absolutely useless...

FA Trophy - Useless...

Next Season

We finally broke through but next year will be tough. Hoping we can stay up, nothing more, nothing less...

[marty78]

KINGSTONIAN SEASON 22 UPDATE - 2033/34

Season objective - top six (failed)

Achievements:

Premier League - 7th

FA Cup - 6th round

League Cup - 4th round

I was hoping to get back into Europe as I think my squad is stronger than last time but it was not to be. We were very close but a six game run without a win towards the end of the season put paid to those ideas. Player of the season is club captain Solomon Izuchukwu who has established himself in the England squad over the last couple of seasons and becomes the first of my youngsters to do so. A couple of others have been capped but only once or twice but time is on their side. I do have internationals from some smaller nations when players have dual nationalities.

No transfers.

This years youth intake has only one tag but apparently he is the next Ashley Cole so its not all bad. He is Brendon Champion (YP22) so lets hope he lives up to that name.

________________________________________________

SEASON 23 EXPECTATIONS

My expectations - top six or qualify for Europe via cups.

Board expectation - top half finish

Media prediction - 7th

Hoping to push on into European competition as soon as possible as that is the next stage for this team. I still think Champions League qualification is some years away though judging by the top teams squads. I was offered the Man City job last season with £111m transfer budget and £4m a week wage budget. My wage budget is less than £400,000 a week so thats some difference. I am also joining the Big Euro Nation challenge but will also be continuing this challenge at the same time. It will be longer between seasons though obviously.

[marty78]

@pjotas - Congratulations on promotion and good luck in the BSP.

[brettney1980]

Northwich Victoria Season 4 2015/16;

Even though the youngsters are improving and getting plenty of game time we are still one of the weakest teams in the league and the finances are getting worrying (how far into the red can we go before gettying a points deduction!? - Thats what i predict will se us relegated). We managed to finish 1 place above our usual 20th although we did get 1 point less than last season so it's a step back in my book.

Look no Transfers|Squad Stats|Finances|BSP Table

Youth Candidates: YP4a is a LW but since we don't use wingers i'll retrain him to play AMC Steve Underwood Profile|Report YP4b is a RB or CB should be good enough to get plenty of game time this year even with the many RBs we have Uchenna Onovo Profile|Report

How did our YP's get on?

YP0 Derek McMullen Was used mostly as a sub can fill in anywhere along the back 4 plust DMC.

YP1 Will Bright Another versatile player very rarely played up front (his main position) looks like he'll be leaving refuses to even discuss a part/time contract.

YP2a Kit Andrews If it wasn't for Lewis Thomas would be first choice LB already.

YP2b Chris Nixon Plays best as Treq behind the front 2 will be battling McManus and now Underwood for game time.

YP3a Stuart McManus Yet another Treq thats come through one of 3 that will have to fight it out for the spot.

YP3b Brian Carr Isn't improving like i thought he would. Charalabidis has stolen his thunder at CB.

YP4a Steve Underwood Managed a couple of starts will hopefully retrain well into AMC.

YP4b Uchenna Onovo 3 stars awesome ratings.

.. And an honorable mention to a guy i somehow missed putting a tag on but he's been our fastest rising star ... Meet Lefteris Charalabidis!

Cups;

FA Cup: Knocked out in the 4th Qualifying rd by a much poorer team .... And we were hammered!

FA Trophy: A great run made the semis.

[Rebs]

Fancy a new challenge to get the interest levels back up - seems a tough challenge but I'm going to give it a go. Just starting to holiday now!!!

[ri916]

Brettney-I think things will get better if you keep going. Your youths are improving every season and they will soon be good enough to lead you into the football League.

[Tactic Master]

Marty, unlucky on not achieving your objective, but 7th is still brilliant because this challenge is very hard Best of luck for next season!

Glad to see your back with the challenge again Ri

[Rebs]

So...After holidaying for a year I have decided to take up the challenge with FC United.

Will keep everyone updated with progress as I go...I've selected all the rules and regulations as in the op...just never posted screenies before so don't want to start trying tonight - will do in future...but want everyone to know I am ambiding the rules! Not really a challenge if I'm not!

[lwillis003]

Have an update or 2 coming today - just finished season 3 so I'm a bit behind!!

[Bobbins71]

Chester season 2012-2103 Season 1 - Bobbins71

BSN - Champions 1st Place

FA Trophy - 3rd Round, beaten by Alfreton.

FA Cup - 1st Round, beaten by Preston

A successful 1st Season with us somehow becoming champions despite being rubbish for the 2nd half of the season and losing the last few games. More of a case that those around us were not very good. Next season promises to be a real challenge. I'm under no illusions that it's going to be a struggle.

Squad - Some players declining but I did blood the 4 youth players I though were pretty decent quite a bit this year. Special mention to Sean Miller (YP0d) who scored lots of goals this season. The other youth players I started with also did well with Craig Hulse (YP0a), Joe Ormorod (YP0b) and Jordon Grace (YP0c) all doing well. The established pro's such as

Jamie Redford are key to survival this year.

Finances are OK after I organised the "Battered Cup" which was televised.

Facilities, have upgrade to my Youth facilities at £325K to be completed October 2013 to look forward to.

Transfers; Who buys players nowadays!

Youth intake was not so great. A couple of potentially decent defenders but no much to write home about. Neil McCann (YP1a), Marcus Cottrell (YP1b) and Nathan Ryan (YP1c) are promoted to the first team.

Targets: Stay in the BSP and try and get some cash. Really need a good GK as well as I didn't get one with my youth intake.

[lwillis003]

End Of Season Report - 2013/2014

Northwich Victoria - Blue Square North

Another pre seaon with some decent money spinners - came out with around £300k. But god it was awful - lost almost every game even against the morale boosting games. Highlights include 0-0's against Brum and Bradford.

Slightly lost the plot with transfers this pre-season, played through summer straight after my players annoyed me by messing up the promotion effort - in my opinion - by moaning throughout the season. So when their contracts came up for renewal I wasn't too sympathetic to demands for more money, letting 8 players go in total, 7 of them were in my senior squad and 1 was a youngster at the start of my career with the club.

I didn't leave objectives last season - so:

- promotion

- games for youth

- cup run!

Blue Square North | FA Cup |FA Trophy| Transfers | Youth Intake Squad

Blue Square North

10 wins in our first 12 games saw us flying to the top of the league. Our performances were not as good as last year and we were scraping most of our wins by the odd goal but they were all points!

Our almost perfect league suffered when we began our cup conquests, first on our mission to win the FA Cup was Bradford PA and the inform Trickies dispatched them 2-0. However an embarrasing defeat against Ashton left us out at the 3rd Qual round (sorry for no screenshot!). We faired SLIGHTLY better in the FA Trophy, distpatching Skelmersdale and high-flying BSP side Wrexham, before losing to an out of form Mansfield. We won this early season match against Halifax, pretty much like most of our other wins - slightly lucky - but this one was the first where the YP's lead us to victory. Proud moment!

We suffered with injuries to our 2 main strikers, Shaun Goodhall and Michael Clarke throughout the season, so I'm amazed at our league form.

Things were looking strangely exciting for us after this massively impressive win (I consider the Stockport squad to be of League 2 standard - why they're at this level I don't know!). So a title race is on the cards. Or we could just pick up 7 points from the last 6 games and scrape the play-offs - yeah far better idea!

Play-offs

Semi first leg

Well I told you they were a better team. I was gutted to draw Stockport - and annoyed with them for not running away with the league like they should have. We tried to play fairly attacking in this game to start with but there was no point - just sit back and hope for the best - which was a 0-0.

Semi second leg

I'm slightly disappointed not to sneak through but we defintely didn't deserve it with shots at goal a laughable 4 to us and 55 to them over the 2 legs. To get to penalties was quite frankly shocking. Better luck next year!

A bit underwhelming after a stunning start but our steam ran out towards the end of the season and we were just holding on by the end.

Player of the year was left winger Nathan Woolfe, who, with an average rating of 7.00 and suffering several injuries just showed how ordinary we were this season.

Youth Products

A better youth intake this year and some players who might just be able to make an impact in the league fairly soon. Really torn over which players to give the YP tags too but I settled on Dave Howard (DMC), Aaron Dodd (DC) and Aaran Smith (AMRC). We finally have a back up goalie but I'm worried about our left wingers - 3 wingers at the club - 2 aging and all 3 always get injured.

*Forgot screenshots of the old youth players!*

• Greg McGinn (YP01a) - Played consistently well when given the chance to be fair - DC looks a very competitive spot in our squad however.
  
• Wayne Bayliss (YP01b) - Made 36 appearances over the season due to injuries to our main guys up front. Scored 11 - filled in OK alongside another youth.
  
• Darren Melia (YP01c) - Again, made an awful lot of appearances, coped fairly well and I like the look of this guy to be honest - should be solid.
  
• Dave Howard (YP02a) - Some solid sub appearances - will get chances next year.
  
• Aaron Dodd (YP02b) - Is a good player but not ready just yet. Might get some games next year.
  
• Aaran Smith (YP02c) - As above.
  

I will update this section tomorrow with YP stats tomorrow!

Code:

Season         Division      Position      Achievement          FA Cup        FA Trophy 
2012/13        BSN           2nd           Play-off finals        2nd Qual      4th Round 
2013/14        BSN           4th           Play-off semi's        3rd Qual      2nd Round

Almost certainly left some screenshots out so let me know if I need to include anything else!

[ri916]

Bobbins71- Well done on promotion first season with Chester! and welcome to the challenge mate

lwillis003- Unlucky mate, you were unfortunate not to get promotion this season. Next season may have to be a rebuilding year if you have let so any players go but I'm sure you'll cope.

[lwillis003]

Thanks Ri, I've already played that season so I won't give anything away apart from that we had a very impressive pre-season and my no.2 striker (and identified as our key man at the start of the season preview) was injured for the first 4/5 months of the season. Quickly followed by Wayne Bayliss (YP01b). Strikers are going to be an issue by the looks of it!

Bobbins - cracking first season. Hopefully if you keep things tight you can stay up and then start to move up the BSP - best of luck!

[Braumiller]

Ok, finally got my new version of the game up and running. After a little more obsessive reloading of the save just before the new teams arrive I have decided to go with Canvey Island. They fit my usual profile for picking a team, not a boring kit of red, blue, white or combination thereof

I have to say, after 14+ years at Weymouth in my first game, I had forgot all about the squad shuffling that goes on in the first year or two

Currently I have an FC at MC, two wingers retraining to FC and alternating starts, a DR retraining and playing at DM and a subs bench made up on a GK, three DC's and a youth FC who has nice potential but 1.5 silver youth stars for ability

Still, over-performing going into November, so just getting ready for the fall from grace and winless festive period!

[ri916]

good to see you back Braumiller! good luck with Canvey Island

[Pjotas]

First season in BSP is over and was a good one, missed out on the play offs on the last day, but still good enough. Don't have time to update as I will go on a two-and-a-half-week holiday now. Will continue in a while though. I won't quit this until I have succeeded

[Corvinul]

Hi guys, I'v decided to give this a try too earlier today. I took over at Lowestoft and all went surprisingly well until January of the first season, at one time reaching the 3rd position. I had a really small squad, they were exhausted, and it resulted in a run of loses and draws that saw us finishing a disappointing 16th. But that's not the worst part. This season is absolutely horrific. It's mainly my fault because I released most senior players and brought all of the 15 and 16 year old kids into the first team. I am currently 21st with 2 W 1 D and.... 7 L Probably gonna get the boot but i'll fight till the bitter end

PS: Fraizer Campbell plays for Blyth Spartans on loan from Sunderland!

[Hypanimz]

Hey people. Im back for another go at this challenge. Just setting it all up now and then i will try to find a southern team to play as. Looking forward to it

Im playing as Weymouth. Wish me luck!

[Braumiller]

Season 1 (2012-13) - Blue Square South

Ok, so back in business and managing newly promoted Canvey Island in the BSS!

Manager profile

My division by division targets are the same as my Weymouth game, 4 seasons per division.

Season 1 - Survive

Season 2 - Consolidate

Season 3 - Challenge

Season 4 - Promotion

So, this year with Canvey Island was all about settling in, figuring out personnel, getting their long term training sorted, beginning long positional retraining projects out and trying to steal points wherever possible so that we could try again next year.

Someone didn't tell my players about that!

Entering December we had hit stride and 2nd place in the league. True to form, we then stumbled badly with a run of half a dozen games without a win and a trip down to 10th place.

Once we had recovered our form and conditioning (after being stretched way too think over the festive period) we managed to lose just 2 games from the second week in February until the end of the season. This was good enough to finish 4th in the league and get into the play-off picture!

Play-off semi final first leg began fantastically. Up 3-0 just before half time, we conceded on the stroke of HT. We then raced back out into a 5-1 lead and it all looked very comfortable. I gave a couple of my youth intake a run out for the last 20 minutes and we managed to concede twice and gave Bromley hope for the second leg. Fortunately this was false hope and a Bromley OG gave us a 1-0 win and 6-3 aggregate victory. In the other semi final the form team of the BSS, Truro, beat 2nd place Sutton Utd, handing us a home fixture for the play off final.

The team then provided a nerveless performance a 5-1 victory handed us the biggest surprise promotion ever.

Next year is going to be a monumental challenge, as this Canvey Island team overachieved in the BSS. The BSP is going to be very tough, especially with none of our first seasons youth intake providing any immediate first team players. With the tightness of the league at the end of the year, I was no able to give as many appearances to the youth intake kids as I prefer and so they will have to have a trial by fire in the BSP.

Youth Intake Season 1 - 2012-13

A decent batch of projects who could become squad players, but nobody who screams "first team"!

League Table

End of Season Squad Stats

Results (part 1)

Results (part 2)

Manager of the Year Award

Top Goalscorer Award

Transfers!!

Goals for Season 2, 1st season in the BSP;

* Survive

* Develop more squad players from the youth intake

* Continue to retrain players in new positions to provide cover and flexibility

[matts8]

How are you meant to keep good finances in the lower leagues?! My costs just spiral every time i try this

[marty78]

Arrange pre-season cups against the best teams you can

[ri916]

Braumiller-Congratulations on promotion first season! That's a brilliant effort with Canvey Island.

[Braumiller]

Braumiller-Congratulations on promotion first season! That's a brilliant effort with Canvey Island.

Thanks, although it might prove to be too big of a jump, too early in the challenge.

4 games into the BSP season and we are dead last and have lost all 4 games.

Going to be a long season (I hope, as that would suggest I wasn't relegated by Christmas! )

edit: Just drew my 5th game, so I have points on the board. In true "going to be a long season" style though, I was 2-0 up, pegged back to 2-2 and then I missed an 80th min penalty.....

[toonbalmy87]

Unlucky Ri, I'm suprised your youngsters haven't helped you improve yet? Best of luck for next season!

I completed my first season in the Premiership, but I still haven't posted an update, will sort that out as soon as I can. I've started my new season though and i'm using Tiki-Taka football

i used that from day one Tiki-Taka football even though i hate it

[Bobbins71]

Chester City Season 2: 2013-14 - Bobbins71

League Position 5th - Promoted via playoffs

League Pg1 | League Pg2 | League Pg3

FA Cup - Knocked out first round by Aldershot

FA Trophy - Knocked out first round by Chelmsford

A fabulous season. Totally unexpected to achieve a 2nd promotion in succession. I bumped around the upper mid table most of the season, doing very well and feeling satisfied for long periods, but at no time did I think we looked like being challengers. I harboured hopes of sneaking into the playoffs but never thought I'd get promoted. My players had other ideas.

In the league I put out a swashbuckling 4-3-3 formation and really went to try and outscore the opposition. In defence I had 3 youth products in the back 4, two 16 year olds and a 17 year old and they were not really up to football at this level - at the beginning. We scored so many goals but conceded like crazy. However, my defenders came on leaps and bounds as the season progressed and definitely got better, none more so than Neil McCann (YP1a) who was a rock at the centre of defence and should be a mainstay for years to come. 7 youth players saw regular game time this season, a great platform to build on in the future seasons. Its also great to start receiving messages from your coaching staff telling you how well they have developed! Special mention to Sean Miller (YP0d) who scored lots of goals and was the league's top scorer. (I inherited him as a Youth Player in the squad when I started. Don't know if he has random stats but he developed really well for me.)

Finances took a battering despite organising cup competitions at the beginning of the season. However, the playoff final and prize money corrected the financial situation a little. Look at the two finances pages between the week of the playoff final.

Finances Before | Finances After

Youth Intake was great this season. Considering that I have only had 1 increase to my Youth Facilities in 2 seasons and 1 increase in Junior Coaching the quality of Youth was much better than last time. 4 players get immediate promotionsto the Senior Squad. Special mention goes to Adam Taylor (YP2a)| Report - he's already better than my current strikers (better than Sean Miller (YP0d) the leagues top scorer) and is rated as potential Premiership quality! A fantastic prospect! I placed him into thefirst team immediately and he scored 14 goals in 9 games and was influential in the run into the season end, giving me the extra quality to get into the playoffs and beat better sides. He knocked in 2 goals on his debut against Kiddiminster and 2 goals in the playoff final against Wimbledon AFC. Getting a player this good so early is tremendous! Wonder how long I can keep him? Questions for the forum - how would you train & develop him? How do I keep hold of him?

I think our season is epitomised by this result. Score 5 away from home, Adam Taylor scores 4, we conceded 6.

Transfers - It saves a lot of time not having to look at the transfers side of things. :-)

Youth Squad not immediately promoted (some of these are pretty good)

Youth

Starting

Craig Hulse (YP0a) | Report

Joe Ormorod (YP0b) | Report

Jordon Grace (YP0c) | Report

Sean Miller (YP0d) | Report

1st Intake

Neil McCann (YP1a) | Report

Marcus Cotterill (YP1b) | Report

Nathan Ryan (YP1c) | Report

Neil Collins (YP1d) | Report

2nd Intake

Adam Taylor (YP2a)| Report

Marc Owen (YP2b) | Report

James Osula (YP2c) | Report

Eddie Knowles (YP2d) | Report

Finances | Wages under control but losing money despite the small wage bill and large attendances.

Facilities new pitch relayed as the surface is terrible.

Squad - will let some of the established squad players and fringe players leave now. Squad is starting to be dominated by youth. Will still look to Jamie Rainford, Anton Sarcevic and Chris Smith to lead the team next season.

Season 3 promises to be very interesting! The squad is definitely ahead of the planned curve right now, I would have said that we stand no chance, because I didn't think we would be good enough this season in the BSP, but my inherited youthand 1st youth intake players had plenty of game time this year and will be better next season. The addition of Adam Taylor and others from this seasons intake might mean we stay in League 2. Adam is definitely good enough at this level.

Season 3 Objectives

Stay in league 2

Good Cup Run / Increase revenue somehow

Improve Junior Coaching

Improve Training / Youth facilities again if possible.

[Bobbins71]

How do I add I the "code" boxes into a report?

[ri916]

I wish Murphy the best of luck in his career and hope that he might consider returning to us one day if we can secure a position in the Premiership in a few years time.

You do know that you cant buy players, even ones that have come through your youth system right?

[Bren_D]

So I holidayed until the 23rd and... forgot to save the game before moving on and Weymouth didn't turn up in the BSS. So the ever so original choice of Chester it is.

http://i45.tinypic.com/34npcog.jpg

I tried the similar challenge to this set in foreign leagues, but a season was long enough to put me off Brazilian lower league football for life, so here I am.

Time to go and look at my squad.