Ajax – When The Real World Meets Football Manager FM14

[tomtuck01]

Interest in Menig? who is chasing him

That's how you run a club though with low wages

It's great to see Meleg shaping up to be a decent DLP and with 89% pass rate. I'd be happy with his overall contribution considering he must be in and out a lot so doesn't get a proper run in the side.

It's only minor interest from Fulham. They've no chance of signing him - his value is £11.5million and it'd take atleast three times that to think about offloading him.

I was pleased with Meleg too. And yes you're quite right, his appearances were fairly irregular so he did well when called upon. With a regular place in the team he'll do even better I'm sure.

EDIT - The Netherlands squad for the European Championships has just been announced and I've got six players in there; Siem de Jong, Mitchell Dijks, Stefano Denswil, Mickey van der Hart, Kenny Tete, and Queency Menig. I'm so proud.

[manutdfan1999]

cleon how has lucas andersen and van rhijn developed for you

[Cleon]

It's only minor interest from Fulham. They've no chance of signing him - his value is £11.5million and it'd take atleast three times that to think about offloading him.

I was pleased with Meleg too. And yes you're quite right, his appearances were fairly irregular so he did well when called upon. With a regular place in the team he'll do even better I'm sure.

EDIT - The Netherlands squad for the European Championships has just been announced and I've got six players in there; Siem de Jong, Mitchell Dijks, Stefano Denswil, Mickey van der Hart, Kenny Tete, and Queency Menig. I'm so proud.

De Jong!!!! Pfft no matter what he does for me he doesn't get called up

You had any decent regens ome through the ranks yet?

[Cleon]

cleon how has lucas andersen and van rhijn developed for you

[tomtuck01]

De Jong!!!! Pfft no matter what he does for me he doesn't get called up

You had any decent regens ome through the ranks yet?

It's fairly rare that he gets called up, but he had a good run of form at the end of the season which got him into the squad I suppose.

Hmmmm decent regens? I've had one or two.................

Easily the best three to come through the system. Lieftink and de Bruin will be outstanding players and are part of the reasn why I am happy to let Eriksen go. Gehring may well be a very good player too if I manage to develop him right.

[Justified]

Great thread Cleon!

It's funny how "old boys" have started getting more into training then tactics, myself included. Now that after 3 seasons I got Liverpool where I wanted them (yes at the top so no need for "relegation jokes" ha!) I started to look towards the future and after being sick and tired of poor regens coming through the academy I strengthened the U18 with no less then 9 players spending i total 18m (2m average per player is not too shabby either) and releasing the sh*te that's come through recently.

Now the reason I'm posting is because I need your opinion...

I play a 4-2-3-1 system and obviously I'm looking to train him to play in the AMC role. Now the AMC role for me is a cross between Trequartista / Shadow Striker so obviously I have to work on his finishing because his other attributes are quite good (reminds me a little of Deco ). What I've done at the moment is put his positional training on ST because my theory is if he has ST as a position, his attributes will be spread between the AMC role and ST role rather then just AMC and it'd be easier for me to train his finishing. What do you think?

[Cleon]

Hey Justified long time no speak

Which striker training are you giving him? I'd be tempted to put him on the deep lying forward one to work on his finishing, first touch, passing, technique, anticipation, composure, creativity, decisions, off the ball and balance. Then he'd be working on his weaker ones in the list while improving also his strongest attributes. It covers everything you need. The downside is teamwork and workrate wont be trained so he could end up a selfish AMC. Which isn't always a bad thing depending on how you are set up etc.

[Justified]

Hey Justified long time no speak

Which striker training are you giving him? I'd be tempted to put him on the deep lying forward one to work on his finishing, first touch, passing, technique, anticipation, composure, creativity, decisions, off the ball and balance. Then he'd be working on his weaker ones in the list while improving also his strongest attributes. It covers everything you need. The downside is teamwork and workrate wont be trained so he could end up a selfish AMC. Which isn't always a bad thing depending on how you are set up etc.

What I meant was he's on Positional Training "Striker" to train him in that position. At the moment I only have Heavy training on Finishing. Preferably I don't want low teamwork and work rate but if I can get his finishing up a bit I might be tempted to train him in the Defensive Forward role to get those attributes up

[Cleon]

What I meant was he's on Positional Training "Striker" to train him in that position. At the moment I only have Heavy training on Finishing. Preferably I don't want low teamwork and work rate but if I can get his finishing up a bit I might be tempted to train him in the Defensive Forward role to get those attributes up

Depending on what you set the general team training on though will determine what emphasis will be on which attributes when you use the normal positional one. So be wary of not setting it too high especially if you've changed it from balance.

[Rashidi]

JUSTIFIED! Hey ;-)

[Justified]

Rash - Hey, you alright?

Cleon - At the moment the U18's are training on Ball Control, flicking between Average and Low depending on fixture scheduling. But my initial question was/is if he is retrained to AMC/SC will increases in his attributes spread more into a AMC/SC role or will it make no difference if I just keep him as an AMC? Obviously I'll trial and see myself but if you've already got experience in this then would save me time

[Cleon]

Rash - Hey, you alright?

Cleon - At the moment the U18's are training on Ball Control, flicking between Average and Low depending on fixture scheduling. But my initial question was/is if he is retrained to AMC/SC will increases in his attributes spread more into a AMC/SC role or will it make no difference if I just keep him as an AMC? Obviously I'll trial and see myself but if you've already got experience in this then would save me time

If you leave a player without setting an andividual role then he will only train the attributes for his natural role. So in your case it would be the AMC one he would train. Also leaning him a new position would use up loads of CA and waste points if you had no intention of playing him as a striker, so it would be a total waste

[manutdfan1999]

cleon have you had any good regen come trough your own academy yet?

also this thread has inspired me to do something like this with swansea

[Eztikz]

I have to say, the newgen development in FM13 is insane with the Ajax facilites, never saw something like that in FM before

I started my Ajax save a few days before the old thread was made with the goal that I will concentrate on the youth development so I can sell them when they turn 25-26, but most of them reached their peak at 20 :O

these two are probably the best youth players I've ever had:

Kuipers

2018 when he got generated

2019 when he went into my first eleven

2021 this is him now, I would love to have the FM12 sliders back to I can make him lose a bit speed so I can up his Flair and creativity

Schonewille

2016 when I got him

2018 when I started to retrain him to LB

2021 probably the best fullback I've ever had, it's a shame that the Elftal has an even better LB who got generated at Schalke

I also got a good utility man and a solid right winger

[Rashidi]

If you leave a player without setting an andividual role then he will only train the attributes for his natural role. So in your case it would be the AMC one he would train. Also leaning him a new position would use up loads of CA and waste points if you had no intention of playing him as a striker, so it would be a total waste

Interestingly i get them to learn new positions when they are between 15-17. As long as by the time they are 18 they have learnt the positions its fine. I need to show nick dobsons screenshot and matias lamas ones, both learnt new positions when their CA was low but their PA was still 5. Now for example Meuweesen another young player of mine whos 23 i think is 5 star for CA and 5 Star for PA. Will link his ss when i am home, my sexy female driver needs a kiss.

[Woady]

This is probably a bit of a stupid question but I cant seem to find an answer anywhere else in the thread...

When deciding on who to sign and use as a tutor, is there any particular reason not to find someone as low as a league 2 player who still has a professional attitude? I see most people talking about quite high reputation players being used as tutors, is it even possible to tutor someone using a low rep player?

[Cleon]

This is probably a bit of a stupid question but I cant seem to find an answer anywhere else in the thread...

When deciding on who to sign and use as a tutor, is there any particular reason not to find someone as low as a league 2 player who still has a professional attitude? I see most people talking about quite high reputation players being used as tutors, is it even possible to tutor someone using a low rep player?

The player you want to tutor must have a lower rep than the tutor. It doesn't work if the tutor has a lower rep than the player you want to tutor, he cannot tutor him.

[Woady]

fair enough thanks. looks like im going to have to wait until my wage budget is a little higher before i can find any decent tutors lol

[Rashidi]

Its time for a merger between the Stafford and Ajax Academies :-O

[interesti88]

This is Campbell;

Wow have to say I'm extremely jealous Cleon. At 22 his potential has dropped dramatically for me to 2 and a half stars, in retrospect I wish I had taken pics of young players then have pics of them at their max potential, would have been sweet.

So far in my Newcastle save my biggest achievements have been Luke Shaw, James Ward-Prowse, and Will Hughes all 3 of them have progressed immensely for me but none of them have been called up to the England national team and that is what I'm trying to achieve with all the youth players I bring into the first team.

[Cleon]

Wow have to say I'm extremely jealous Cleon. At 22 his potential has dropped dramatically for me to 2 and a half stars, in retrospect I wish I had taken pics of young players then have pics of them at their max potential, would have been sweet.

So far in my Newcastle save my biggest achievements have been Luke Shaw, James Ward-Prowse, and Will Hughes all 3 of them have progressed immensely for me but none of them have been called up to the England national team and that is what I'm trying to achieve with all the youth players I bring into the first team.

I've got James Ward-Prowse on my Sheff Utd save

I think he got called up for England at the end of my last season which would be 2016/17 I think.

[PnyX]

Don't you just love it when they earn their first cap and cup running back to you with bucket loads of thanks!!!

[Cleon]

Don't you just love it when they earn their first cap and cup running back to you with bucket loads of thanks!!!

I have a Brazilian regen on my Sheff Utd save who socred 4 on his International debut when the AI called him up

[interesti88]

I have an American newgen who won the American Young Player of the Year award 3x in a row now and won the American Player of the Year and won the European Golden Boy award in 2018, he thanked me and I felt so proud.

[Cleon]

It's fairly rare that he gets called up, but he had a good run of form at the end of the season which got him into the squad I suppose.

Hmmmm decent regens? I've had one or two.................

Easily the best three to come through the system. Lieftink and de Bruin will be outstanding players and are part of the reasn why I am happy to let Eriksen go. Gehring may well be a very good player too if I manage to develop him right.

Not quite sure how I missed these earlier

I think Gehring is great too. He's already better than Babel

Some really good proespects those players though

[manutdfan1999]

you had any good regens cleon

[Cleon]

you had any good regens cleon

Loads, I posted some in the thread.

[tomtuck01]

Not quite sure how I missed these earlier

I think Gehring is great too. He's already better than Babel

Some really good proespects those players though

I just reckon you don't love me enough so were doing your best to ignore me.

I've got a few other very good young players knocking about, but these three were simply the best I've had to come through my own youth system.

[Cleon]

I just reckon you don't love me enough so were doing your best to ignore me.

I've got a few other very good young players knocking about, but these three were simply the best I've had to come through my own youth system.

You started to sell off any of the original squad yet?

[tomtuck01]

You started to sell off any of the original squad yet?

There have been a good few, the more notable ones being Eriksen, van Rhijn and Vermeer I'd say. The next couple of years will see a few more go I imagine.

[C4R1S08]

Cleon & to others, how do you know what to train your players in at certain times and for how long? How do you know that a player who is a natural winger is actually best suited as a wing back for example? I am not sure which things i should be looking for in a regen or young player to know if they will be any good and worth individual training. Should they have pace & acceleration and good dribbling for you to spend the time trainng them as a winger for example? Whats attributes do you consider important when deciding a regen can make it at your club? Can you give any advice regarding this aspect?

Thanks

P.S

I'm enjoying this save lots, into my second season, i have not had to sell many players, only the fringe players that i think would never get a game, but now alot of the players are wanted by other clubs, like Eriksen, Fischer, Toby, Djiks - All attracting big clubs but all have contracts until 2018 - Fischer is going to be a world beater - My only issue with this team is the stamina & workrate. The team is quite tired come half time, we are 14th overall in the league stamina wise and roughly the same for work rate, this has cost me a few games due to players being in the low 80's by halftime & 60's by full time - To try and counter this i have stopped players from closing down so much but nothing seems to help, you got any advice?

[Cleon]

Cleon & to others, how do you know what to train your players in at certain times and for how long? How do you know that a player who is a natural winger is actually best suited as a wing back for example? I am not sure which things i should be looking for in a regen or young player to know if they will be any good and worth individual training. Should they have pace & acceleration and good dribbling for you to spend the time trainng them as a winger for example? Whats attributes do you consider important when deciding a regen can make it at your club? Can you give any advice regarding this aspect?

I use 3 month rotations to build up the core of his attributes for the position he'll be playing. As for how I decide if someone can be re-trained or not that's easy. If you have a winger who is excellent at tackling and has other attributes for the fullback role then I retrain them. The same if they had attributes for a playmaker or something else. You can view what attributes are needed for which role in the game already so its easy tbh.

I'm enjoying this save lots, into my second season, i have not had to sell many players, only the fringe players that i think would never get a game, but now alot of the players are wanted by other clubs, like Eriksen, Fischer, Toby, Djiks - All attracting big clubs but all have contracts until 2018 - Fischer is going to be a world beater - My only issue with this team is the stamina & workrate. The team is quite tired come half time, we are 14th overall in the league stamina wise and roughly the same for work rate, this has cost me a few games due to players being in the low 80's by halftime & 60's by full time - To try and counter this i have stopped players from closing down so much but nothing seems to help, you got any advice?

Well we have the same teams and I don't suffer this issue. Make sure you have a proper pre-season and get people fit. Make sure your players are always fit during the season, this means making people available for reserve games if they aren't playing games for the first team. And don't play in an aggressive high energy game if you are experiencing condition issues. Also make sure you rotate often and drop players for less important games etc. That bit is mega easy to do in Holland.

[tajj 7]

A great thread Cleon, very interesting read.

It has given me inspiration to get back into the game after a little break and I am going to take the lessons learned here and apply them to Southampton (my favourite club) as they have a similar set up to Ajax and it is a stated real life ambition of the chairman to have 50% of the first team made up from academy graduates.

Just out of interest I see you mention several times that 'your style of play' is a pressing one, I am interested in replicating this as it it is Pochettino's style which he has recently implemented at Southampton. Are their any tactical realted threads you could point me to that may help with this. My aim is to have an indentity of playing style and tactics stamped throughout the club and develop young players that will fit in the club's philosophies much like Barca.

[Cleon]

A great thread Cleon, very interesting read.

It has given me inspiration to get back into the game after a little break and I am going to take the lessons learned here and apply them to Southampton (my favourite club) as they have a similar set up to Ajax and it is a stated real life ambition of the chairman to have 50% of the first team made up from academy graduates.

Just out of interest I see you mention several times that 'your style of play' is a pressing one, I am interested in replicating this as it it is Pochettino's style which he has recently implemented at Southampton. Are their any tactical realted threads you could point me to that may help with this. My aim is to have an indentity of playing style and tactics stamped throughout the club and develop young players that will fit in the club's philosophies much like Barca.

I use a slightly tweaked version of this Understanding Your Tactic - The Discussion to fit the Ajax way. All I did was read up and watch them play then altered it to suit

[tajj 7]

I use a slightly tweaked version of this Understanding Your Tactic - The Discussion to fit the Ajax way. All I did was read up and watch them play then altered it to suit

Cheers.

(14 pages )

[Cleon]

Cheers.

(14 pages )

Aye, you've been away far too long

[tomtuck01]

Got a 32 year old Robin van Persie to join the club as a rotation player. Aside from the fact he'll be a very tutor, he's also still very good.

[Cleon]

Got a 32 year old Robin van Persie to join the club as a rotation player. Aside from the fact he'll be a very tutor, he's also still very good.

Good signing, he tends to always get released at 32 on all my games. What wages did he ask for?

[tomtuck01]

Good signing, he tends to always get released at 32 on all my games. What wages did he ask for?

Waited until he had actually been released so he wasn't asking silly wages. He asked for around £30,000 p/w but got him down to £20,000, so still within my wage structure.

[Argente]

Clean, are there any positions you find harder to train than others? I have great difficulty with strikers because I'm just promoted into the Premiership and my youths really don't cut the mustard yet. I want them to develop but I still need to win enough to stay up. To do that I need to score but my young strikers aren't up to that yet. Then again, if I don't play them they don't really develop because my training facilities are crap.

For example

Not good enough for Premiership but a top quality prospect. Any thoughts?

[tajj 7]

I have a question on scouting assignements, I have got a whole section of new scouts in and sent them out to various countries to find youth players (i.e 17 or under) but they have done them in like a day. How do I get them to just keep going and looking for talent? Do I need to make the areas more general and then have them roaming?

[Hazza22299]

The player you want to tutor must have a lower rep than the tutor. It doesn't work if the tutor has a lower rep than the player you want to tutor, he cannot tutor him.

THAT, right there will help me invaluably. I did not realise this, you learn things all the time on here

[Gary_Parker]

I have a question on scouting assignements, I have got a whole section of new scouts in and sent them out to various countries to find youth players (i.e 17 or under) but they have done them in like a day. How do I get them to just keep going and looking for talent? Do I need to make the areas more general and then have them roaming?

Did you send them to countries that were high up in their "familiar" list? I.e an English scout to scout England? This may be the issue if you have...

I normally send them to regions so they can roam or competitions where I know they'll finish at a set date (or close to).

[tajj 7]

Did you send them to countries that were high up in their "familiar" list? I.e an English scout to scout England? This may be the issue if you have...

I normally send them to regions so they can roam or competitions where I know they'll finish at a set date (or close to).

yeh I think that might be it, i'll get them roaming a bit wider.

[tomtuck01]

THAT, right there will help me invaluably. I did not realise this, you learn things all the time on here

Christ you couldn't have read the thread very well - its been stated countless times already.

[lewis999]

Cleon quick question or anyone else who has experience with this but, whats the best way to improve a players teamwork ability? At the moment i'm putting all my AMCs and Wingers on inside forward training, even a striker. Is this how you would do it or is there another way? Or am I wasting my time as it improves with age and I should be focusing my time elsewhere.

[nonleague]

A truly inspiring thread.

On a side note, I have a couple of questions regarding coaches.

1) If I employ coaches for my 1st team, will they be able to have any influence on my U18 side?

2) Do you have a list of the required attributes for each specialist coach, ie, Ball Control requires, Technical, Mental....

This is the list I have but I know that it is far from complete and I had failed to have 4.5-5 star coaches because of this

Shooting - Tech Attacking

Attacking - Attacking Technical

Defending - Defending Tactical

Ball control - Technical Mental

Tactics - Tactics

Thank you in advance.

[Rollcage]

Probably already been covered but, how do I improve teamwork. My 4* PA 19 year old DM/CB has 9 for teamwork. Should I cut him loose?

[C4R1S08]

Well i'm just into the second summer, i went unbeaten in the league last year, won it by 11 points, best attack and second best defence in the league. The players have came on nicely, Fischer finished top goalscorer with 27 goals for me in all competitions, but Wellington Nem, Eriksen, De Jong, Sigporrsson & Babbel all finished with more or close to as near makes no difference in double figures. I did have a few injuries to the younger players last season, Tete was out for a while, Rhjin went out for a few months so was without my 2 Rbs for about 3 months, Tete came back strong. Denswill has now formed an excelllant partnership with Toby and will be first team next season. Van der Boomen & Sporkslede have been sharing the DLP role in DMC with De jong & Eriksen the midfeild Linchpins. Strangely, Vermeer, who i have been trying to replace for the last two seasons, won goalkeeper of the year again, i don't know how as he has been rubbish and makes silly mistakes and his distribution is shocking.

I have had a new intake of youngsters who i will upload for you to check out, plus will show the difference/improvements in the original young ones like Denswill, Hart, Fischer etc

A lot of the older players that i brought in for mentoring purposes have left, but i have a few more coming in on low contracts based on appearences they will never make, They all have good personalities and a number of PPM's - These will train the new batch of youngsters.

I think im going to loose a few players this season, i may have to as i only made a profit of 1.5mill last season, which considering i haven't bought anyone other than Nem & a few loan players & contracts low - Highest being £26,500 for Eriksen but i got knocked out of the champions league qualifying rounds by Juve as i was 2nd in the lague on my first season, so all that money dried up, so this season i really need a good cup run and maybe start looking at getting rid of a few players such as Babbel & Moisander. Hopefully i can keep a hold of Fisher, Eriksen & Denswill as these are the key players for me.

Cruijff has decided to retire, so i am considering promoting Gilmar Francisco to Assistant Manager what do you think?

My main problem throughout this game has been fitness, so i may need help with preseason prep - So far i have them on High Intensity Fitness and Focusing on Tactics - I also have 10-12 friendlies lined up against weaker opposition, have played about 5 already and won by big margins so Morale is quite high - Is this the right way to do it?

Im in work at the minute, i will upload pictures of the new/old youngters when i get home and maybe you can let me know how diffeent they compare to your players.

[tomtuck01]

Highest being £26,500 for Eriksen

Pah, that's massive it that!! £20,000 p/w for the win!