ri916's FM15 Youth Academy Challenge

[Braumiller]

Nice season Shakes! Very nice youth intake. Mind if I ask if you could post of screenshot of your HOYD? Interested to see if his coaching style is fitness. You have some very nice pacey players and testing a wild theory

Hmm, as with most things this is hard to tell if by chance or not. My strikerless season was going nicely, hanging around 6th-8th early on and then it fell flat and then just imploded. 3 very unimpressive draws, including 2 in the FA Cup Qual 2nd Rnd to a non league team and then 2 horrendous losses (1-7 and 0-4). Usually I try to ride these patches out, changing out players with low morale etc, but this time I ditched the strikerless and installed a new tactic.

And this happened;

Instant turn around!

Is FM15 a lot more unforgiving / punishing for not switching things up to try and change your fortunes?

Anyone else had similar instances of this?

I usually roll with 3 version of the same tactic (my usual, an attacking/chasing version and a 'shut up shop' version), but definitely going to have at least 1 completely different tactic installed and ready to switch to now, just in case.

Going forward I think I am working on the completely untested, unverified premise of a poor 3+ game run = tactical change.

[druvo]

Jambo98 - Shame about your strikers.

Shakes - Good season. And nice to see you finally got a promising midfielder.

Braumiller - I've changed tactics a lot this year and I've found that it usually leads to postive results in the beginning but I haven't been able to keep it up. So you might be on to something with your new premise...

[druvo]

Lyra - Season 19/20 (5)

Transfers

League

A good season where we played some nice football at times. We hit some good form in the end of the season and won the 5 last games. Thanks to that we qualified for playoff because Heist and Sint-Niklaas won each of the "periods". Heist went straight up to division 2 as champions, Sint-Niklaas to playoff together with 3rd placed Verviers and 4th placed Lyra.

In the quarter finals we managed to see off Verviers after extra-time in the second leg. A goal in the 97th min by Lespagne and a penalty in the 120th by Van De Weyer gave us the win. In the semi-final we faced KV Kortrijk from the second division and it was no contest. They were much better and beat us by 6-2 in the first game and the tie was over.

Cups:

Bad year. Lost to a fourth division side in our second game.

Finances

Nothing new here. We keep making huge losses which means no upgrades.

Top players:

1. Mohamed Berradi (18A): After letting go of my 2 senior defenders before the season started I wasn't sure what to expect. Much thanks to Berradi (and his partner Gilles Munch) we only conceded 42 goals in 34 games. Lowest yet, by far.

2. Alexandre Lanclas: Nowhere near his best season but still very important in my young team.

3. Gaetan Lambreghts: Another good season by my rightback. Unfortunately to him he will not get a new contract because I have two very promising youth-players for his position (Convalle and Bertrand).

Youth intake:

Once again not a bad intake. Many promising players. No really promising wingers though and I may have to abandon wingers soon.

Screve Mangonga (20A): A goalkeeper with a decent potential. My current goalkeeper is getting old so I will have to give a youngster the nod soon. Maybe Screve?

Luc Cornelis (20B): Another promising central defender. I believe it's now my strongest position with 4 good players/prospects.

Aldrich Tshimanga (20C): Looks like an interesting DM. Will also put him on MC-training for more versatility.

Sven Pauwels (20D): Pretty fast striker. I have been experimenting with a 3 striker tactic due to my lack of good wingers so he will definitely get some chances.

Previously tagged youth:

Lahcen Saidi (16A): Very happy with Saidi. Started all games where he was available and is still improving.

Ben Van De Weyer (17A): Despite some pretty good attributes it's not happening for him.

Simon Roger Ndongala (17B): 12 goals in 16 starts (+ 11 subs) is pretty good for a young striker. Not developing as fast as some other prospects though.

Aaron Van Den Eynde (18B): This guy is developing nicely but isn't scoring much. He also tends to get injured all the time.

Dries Convalle (18C): Got some playing time this year and with Obbers not getting a new contract he will be first choice next season.

Ali Hajji (19A): Played 17 games (starts + subs) and did well. With my other midfield prospects I'm not sure how much he will play next season. Probably not high enough potential.

Léon Dierckx (19B): One of the players being picked ahead of Hajji. Seems to be a fast developer.

Murphy Mulumba (19C): Spent the year with the U19-team while re-training to MC. Not sure.

Goals before season:

*Safe mid-table while playing more youth players -Success

*Upgrade something - Fail

Next season:

*Playoff

*Upgrade something

[shaddw]

I decided to start my youth challenge in England.

King Leonidas is going to lead his Spartans all the way to the Premier League!!!

My profile

Facilities

General Club Info

My squad

We are predicted to finish 18th so our goal will be to avoid relegation. The squad is mostly young so I am looking forward to them improving under my guidance. Our key player this season will be the 22 year old striker, Dan Maguire He has nice pace, acceleration, determination and finishing.

Goals for the season:

Avoid relegation

Hire a Head of Youth Development

Upgrade youth facilities

Upgrade youth improvement

[v1n1akabozo]

I've been analysing my last attempt on this challenge on FM 14 and decided to try a few different things for this year.

1-Junior Coaching: Managed to get it to exceptional on the 6th division (most likely because i got stuck until 2023/2024) but i didn't see any benefits in the long term. Yes, the decent players from the intakes used to come with better initial attributes but hence their potential remained 'low' it turned out to be a major factor for our finances to be always negative. This year i'm not upgrading Jr. Coaching in order to keep the Finances stable.

2-Staff: For some reason i was always asking the board for more coaches, and in the end the ratings were quite decent, but once again, i raised the running costs of the club way higher than the incomed did, so it might have been not the best strategy.

3-Handling the youth: I had quite a few players that got gaming time very early and won their places in the First XI. One in particular did very good (from the FIRST instake!!!), but i should have sold him instead of agreeing on his contract demands. I never did that, nor prepared a decent substitute, in fact, i totally screwd up my salary budget in situations like that and when he didn't want to sign a new contract i found myself without a replacement and lost him for peanuts.

Income

Expenditure

So this year i'll follow some new directions.

I won't upgrade Jr. Coaching this much, as you can see it cost me almost 360k PER YEAR, and i didn't enjoy much of its benefits.

I'm not hiring that much of staff as it cost me almost 200k per year. One HOYD (the better i can), one Physio (the cheapest i can get, and if i can't i'll see what happens when i get none) and one assman to help rating the youth.

Not getting any scouts would have cut another 60k, that's no negligible money.

Set up the mindset that until i get reputation enough and enough gate receipts, i'll have to raise the kids and sell them for the first offer that appears when they start asking for too much money. Always paying attention to the possible replacements.Shouldn't care this much on getting up too soon if i won't be able to cope with the higher level.

Paying MUCH MORE attention to the bonuses. They cost me another 140k!!!

Hiring less staff and leaving the Jr Coaching as it comes in the beginning, plus handling better contract negotiations could have helped me to save at least 600k. Which would mean a loss of mere 100k in that season. Losing that much each season is reasonable because any decent cup run can fix that, and i think the priority of this challenge is to aim for upgradint the Youth Network, be it for stepping up the squad and selling in order to upgrade the facilities or to help with the squad.

In the mentioned season i only lost 300k because i had one offer of 400k for my best GK and he wanted to leave, othewise it'd have been a 700k loss, and there's no way i can win this challenge with finances like that.

[Jambo98]

Havent had much chance to progress my game over the weekend, but did do my squad analysis with some interesting results. Below is the results based on % suitability to each role (Similar to braumiller - probably same formulas!). One thing that jumps out is that for some reason most of my defenders are suited to the "Defensive Forward" role. To me, this is an anomoly based on the game highlighting the wrong attributes as key for this role. Second image is my table after i zero out everyone other than actual strikers for that role.

There are few pointers i had missed during my save so far.

1) My fullbacks are rubbish basically

2) Webster has been a starting centre back for 2 years, but would be better suited to fullback.

3) Leslie, an untagged youth, is actually my second best CB

4) Russell, another untagged youth who has barely had any game time, is actually my best DLP(d)

5) Scott Johnson i had thought was my best winger, but is actually better suited a central role (although retraining required as he is not even awkward in those positions)

6) Jamie Campbell(YP01a) is actually better suited to a winger than a striker, which is where i have been playing him. In actual fact, he is not very good at anything....

7) Patrick Martin, my main scorer, can literally play anywhere. A real swiss knife in terms of attributes, and his suitability for AP(a) might give me an option as i seem to get good strikers through my intakes often.

[v1n1akabozo]

Did you actually type all players and their attributes or extracted them somehow? I'm quite sure in the previous versions it was able to export a player in XML.

As for the formulas, a 100% rating means all highlighted attributes are 20, plain and simple?

[Jambo98]

Did you actually type all players and their attributes or extracted them somehow? I'm quite sure in the previous versions it was able to export a player in XML.

As for the formulas, a 100% rating means all highlighted attributes are 20, plain and simple?

Had to manually type each players attributes into a seperate sheet. It doesnt take all that long if you split screen and have good hand eye coordination. Better yet if you had dual monitors. From there its just a few formula's to spit out the ratings and conditional format them.

Yes, my method for this was that 100% would mean 20 in every highlighted attribute. Fairly easy to work out.

I also have another tab which takes the average number for the highlighted attributes for the role. That one is a little scary as it shows just how bad my players are. Almost all my players average less than "10" in the key attributes for there best roles. None average above "11".

[padula]

U.D. Alzira - Season 1 (2015/16)

Manager Profile| Transfers | Facilities

Competitions

Segunda División B - 16th (Results for first and second half of season) and survival via relegation play-off

Copa Del Rey - Knocked out in first round

Copa Federacion - Knocked out in first round

Season Review

Huge relief to stay up on away goals in the relegation play-off match having spent most of the season in the relegation zone. There were some hugely demoralising runs, including a spell in October/November where we lost 8 games in a row, but we survived! The first team squad of 18 players was hugely stretched all season by injuries to key players, often forcing me to play greyed-out players. First choice keeper Vicente Flor managed to injure himself in training 5 times over the season, ruling him out for almost three quarters of the season and I really struggled to get a first choice defence starting at any point in the season. The football played was unashamedly direct and defensive as we struggled to score goals (My two first team strikers failed to find the net until November and April respectively), and conceded a league high 14 goals from corners. After a lot of tinkering, I eventually found "success" with a 4-4-1-1 formation which aimed to be as solid and difficult to break down as possible with very little attacking intent.

Star player goes to Bangaly Keita by virtue of being the only player to play in every league game and being competent in a number of positions. He edges out inconsistent winger Nico, who contributed 8 assists but was, from memory, dreadful for a lot of the season.

My finances are looking a state, currently 250k in the red despite staying well inside my wage budget and having no huge expenditure on facilities. Will just have to hope for a cup run next year, or an increase in attendances.

Managed to get improved junior coaching agreed to as part of contract negotiations which is a definite positive

Youth Intake[/U]

Not a brilliant selection, but to be expected given our meagre facilities

Juanma Lopez is the most highly rated by the backroom staff, but so far he's spent most of the last 2 months on the injury table.

Blas Osia looks to me the pick of the players and has already played a few times for the first team. He has nicely balanced attributes and could make a decent striker or midfielder.

The progress of Carmelo and Carlos is worth tracking, but they're unlikely to ever really make the grade.

Hopes for 2016/17

*Survival above anything

*For some of this year's youth intake to establish themselves in the first team

* Finances to improve

[v1n1akabozo]

Corby Town FC - Challenge Attempt #1

I'm putting a lot of effort on this attempt since this is the last Club i played in FM 14 (which save i abandoned because i couldn't help the will to play the new game) and i usually create bonds with all the sides i struggle. On FM 14 it took me almost 7 seasons to get promoted and i'll do my best to minimize that. At a first glance Corby seems to be an average start: Basic Jr. Coaching and Youth Recrutiment are kind of the standard for the small sides. Despite that, they have already a Youth Level 4, which can help a little. Kettering and Stamford, the rivals, are below the 6th tier, a bit of a turn down so we'll have to create new rivalries. The biggest issue regarding Corby Town is that the supporters are extremely cheeky. With 180 ticket holders, i don't expect that the gate receipts will help us in the foreseeable future like what happens when we take charge of FC United.

With 19 players, albeit big, the squad doesn't have enough depth. A lot of central defenders, a single natural striker, single natural CM and some oldies including 38 years old Sam Aiston, that despite the age have somewhat good physicals.

As i stated in a previous post, i'll try to minimize expenditures and try to get a better Youth Recruitment ASAP. The team is predicted to finish 20th, so the season will be all about staying up and giving as much time as possible to the kids as long as it doesn't cost us a relegation.

For the initial stats, i tried one approach of maximizing physical training including 15 on determination, so the board are more likely to accept my requests.

Manager Profile - Previous Transfers - Senior Squad - Facilities - Finances

Season Goals:

- Avoid Relegation;

- Introduce as many youths in the team as i can;

- Minimize losses with the new finacial approach;

- Upgrade Youth Recruitment;

[Shakes]

Nice season Shakes! Very nice youth intake. Mind if I ask if you could post of screenshot of your HOYD? Interested to see if his coaching style is fitness. You have some very nice pacey players and testing a wild theory

Don't think he fits that theory: Lee Phillips. The two players that came through that the game mentioned fit his philosophy were both untagged strikers, Lewin Morris-Sanders and Ally Gibson. Previous HoYD was Anthony Riviere.

Don't know if changing tactics helps, but I do know form/morale is huge, I felt when in good form we were a decent chance (at least at home) to even the best sides in the league, out of form we'd struggle to beat the worst. I even tried arranging a couple of friendlies to crap teams to boost morale during a little break, and we only barely drew them both. Definitely feel like I need to find a way to grind out a couple more away games and avoid falling into a slump. Probably why my starts are usually good - I arrange a powder puff series of friendlies leading up to the season, so the squad thinks it's on a roll and wins to start with.

May be worth installing a 4-4-1-1 or a 4-4-2 to mix it up though, I'm not really using the other slots at the moment (I do change mentalities, but it's not a huge deal to lose a little familiarity).

v1n1akabozo - I'm not sure you'll make money with that approach. I'm currently spending only half my wage budget, and that alone is as much as all the money I bring in for the year. Selling players doesn't help because they're worth peanuts (my best player is valued at 5k ... I can lose that in a week or two). Basically I think you're going to lose money, may as well let the board deal with it and focus on keeping your players and hopefully moving up the leagues to a place where you can make money. Keeping a squad on a budget seems better in FM15, players actually negotiate their demands.

druvo - Getting real close now, next season might be the one. GKs tend to take ages to develop, so probably need to decide if Mangonga is the one to invest in.

Jambo98 - Good work, certainly helpful in unearthing players who could be best used elsewhere. A grain of salt probably needed when comparing players to each other - remember that a one footed player will have better attributes for the same ability level, but either footed players will be better when forced to use their bad foot. Also those hidden attributes like consistency and ability to handle pressure make a huge difference. But supposedly they improve with age, so if a guy has the stats maybe giving him playing time to get more consistent is worth it in the long haul?

[v1n1akabozo]

Shakes - I'm not expecting to make money, i just want to lose less haha. Will try to pay only for what i need, because i feel all those extra coaches and tons of jr. coaching increases weren't worth the money. If i can keep player wages under control with the minimun needed staff without 'wasting' jr coaching in such an low level maybe it can work. Just trying some different from the 2014 approach (that didn't work at all).

[Shakes]

My point is that losing less doesn't really help you - if the board chips in 100k a year or 1 million a year to keep the club afloat it really makes no difference, you're not getting upgrades to facilities either way. If you're going to lose money you may as well lose big!

[Jambo98]

Shakes - Yeah the comparison is not the entire story, have to somewhat consider current ability (best you can with such rubbish Ass Man at this level!) and things like PPM. I think the footedness issue is less prevalent now, infact might have been fixed. Im sure i read that either footed no longer effectively eats up CA points.

Doing that exercise has led me to make a couple of positional changes and so far its paying off, the season already looking better than the last 2. Very early days yet though, and the dreaded unbreakable slump will hit soon im sure.....

[Shakes]

Oh yeah the PPMs are a killer to watch out for, I'm wary of giving some of them to players because they kill flexibility. I think the big thing that let me finally get over the hump in my FM13 save was figuring out I'd tutored most of my midfield into having the "gets forward whenever possible" PPM! The original guy had a great personality so it spread like a virus as his students came of age and gave it to everyone else.

[Quacky]

1) My fullbacks are rubbish basically

This is something I always see at low levels of the game, I keep them purely as defensive players at the start. To be an actual full back you need to be a pretty decent player and theres no way players at low levels can defend and have some attacking ability. Only later on higher up the leagues I use tactics where I let them go forward.

[tparsons23]

Clachnacuddin F.C.

Here's my first go at this challenge. I've tried defuge's before as well as playing in England, so I wanted to somewhere different with this one. Onto to Scotland! I forgot some of the SS from the initial start date, forgive me on that.

Profile

Facilities

Squad

Finances

Transfers

I've had a decent start to the season so far, sitting mid-table with 11 points from 7 matches. I also reached the 3rd round of the Challenge Cup by beating 2 League 1 sides before falling to Cowdenbeath from the Championship. Unfortunately, the prize money for this competition is peanuts, but the results themselves are encouraging.

Season Goals:

- Avoid Relegation

- Find suitable tactics

- Introduce youth after 1st intake

- Try to keep finances in the black

[Jambo98]

Good luck in Scotland tparsons23 - It's proving quite a challenge for a couple of us thus far!

I am having a bit of success with probably the one tactical instruction i have never before used in any FM. Long shots used to be the bane of my life. But in this years version, i was few up watching Albion Rovers and Montrose players hit 20 - 30 yard screamers through my keeper. Figured if you cant beat em, join em. I added "shoot on sight" TM to my tactic and i have had a bit of joy from it, a few long shots flying in from own players

[Jambo98]

Sweet mother of jesus......

After conceding more than 100 goals in the league (i think over 120 overall), i have now just gone and earned the "Parked the bus" achievement for the first time ever in FM....that was uh, unexpected!

[Braumiller]

Sweet mother of jesus......

After conceding more than 100 goals in the league (i think over 120 overall), i have now just gone and earned the "Parked the bus" achievement for the first time ever in FM....that was uh, unexpected!

Given the current ME, I would consider this a bigger achievement than finishing this challenge! Damn. I am happy with a whole 45 minutes of not conceding

[Quacky]

The park the tank one will require some serious luck to get, or more likely playing in a pretty small nation with a team that is built far beyond it for champions league AND luck. Conversely all the consecutive matches scored in ones are quite easy.

[Jambo98]

Given the current ME, I would consider this a bigger achievement than finishing this challenge! Damn. I am happy with a whole 45 minutes of not conceding

I know, in the end i made it to 7 games and 70mins without conceding. Its not like i went mega defensive either. I have a 442 and start every game on "standard" and the big difference this season is i am adapting much more during games. I was probably guilty of letting games run on in the background as i watched telly or surfed t'web. I change when i go 2 up, or one up if its late. I also changed my keeper but he is hardly a world beater now!

As is the way with FM, and this challenge in particular, something will be alone shortly to bring me back to earth with a bump im sure.........

[padula]

U.D. Alzira - 2015/16 Season

Manager Profile | Transfers | Facilities

Competitions

Segunda Division B - 16th and survival via relegation play off | Results- first half of season & second half of season

Copa Del Rey - Knocked out in first round

Copa Federacion - Knocked out in first round

Season Review

Achieved the main goal of survival, just. We managed to cobble together a little bit of form towards the end of the season, picking up wins against some of the weaker teams in the league but generally the season was a long hard slog. There was a particularly demoralising streak of 8 consecutive losses in October/November time where we just couldn't stop conceding. I struggled to find a tactic that worked at all, experimenting with 4 or 5 different set-ups without much success with any of them, but eventually settled on a functional counter attacking 4-4-1-1, which seemed to shore up the defence a little.

The first team squad of 18 players was stretched by injuries to key players throughout the season. The first choice keeper missed three quarters of the season with 5 different injuries and there was rarely a game where I could field a full strength team.

Stand out performers were probably Bangaly Keita and Javier Mallol by virtue of being basically the only two first teamers who weren't injured for months at a time. Mallol was especially useful as he plays equally well at right or left back. Further forward, left winger Nico contributed 8 assists but was wildly inconsistent and my 2 first team strikers didn't manage a goal between them until mid November.

The finances look a state, currently 250k in the red. But with no real way of cutting costs, I'm just gonna have to hope for a change in fortune via a cup run or possibly an increase in attendances.

Youth Intake

Not a brilliant intake, but to be expected given the meagre facilities. Hopefully next year will be better as I managed to get junior coaching improved as part of contract negotiations.

Juanma Lopez is rated as the best prospect from this year's intake but I don't really see it. Since arriving he has spent most of the time out injured but will feature for sure next season.

Blas Osia looks to me, the pick of the bunch. He has nicely rounded attributes and could make a decent striker or even central midfielder further down the line. Already made 4 sub appearances for the first team.

Carmelo might be worth tracking, and will certainly get game time next season due to the lack of first team centrebacks.

Striker Carlos looks half decent, but isn't highly rated by the backroom staff.

Ambitions for next season

-To stay up

-For a couple of youth products to establish themselves in the first team

-See an improvement in finances, somehow

[Joaquimorais]

Maidstone United FC - Challenge Attempt #1

Manager Profile - Previous Transfers - Senior Squad - Facilities

[Braumiller]

Good luck Joaquimorais

Ok, I am officially buying into the 'you need to switch tactics to break out of a slump' line of thought.

After the previous instance earlier in the season (post #205), I have been rolling with a fair amount of success after sticking to the tactic I changed to.

Well, inevitably we hit another rough patch. Not just result wise, but we performed real badly as the stretch went on.

So at the yellow line in the pic below, I switched back to my original tactic and boom!

The 3-3 draw was against a very inform team and was a great team performance.

The 5-1 win was probably our best performance of the year, and their goal came in the last 5 mins.

[Jambo98]

Good to see ever more people starting this out

The calander has just flipped over to 2020, and there is something very wrong with this league table......

[Quacky]

I'm sure you can try to prove me wrong but once I had a team able to win that league there really wasn't much of a step up in quality to league one.

[Braumiller]

Dulwich Hamlet in youth intake pace shocker

Now, granted they have major weaknesses elsewhere for the most part, but I have a little pace to play with.....

[brugi82]

I hate you guys so much... I'm still playing my FM14 save with Real from Portugal (Shakes I'm looking at you ). Won 3 Portugese titles so far (20 seasons in), but CL seems so far away... I can consistently get to 1/4 finals, but some European clubs like Man City, PSG, Atletico Madrid are on a completely different level...

And now you are all struggling with low level English divisions... And I love that kind of torture... Terrible players, terrible pitches... I failed challenge in England 3 times in FM14 and now I feel that I have some unfinished business...

Please guys convince me to continue my FM14 save. I want to buy FM15 and go back to England for this challenge, but I know its going to be bad for my mental health

[Sanno11]

I couldn't fight the temptation to go to Sweden and will start my adventure there with Solvesborgs GIF. I already feel a lot more excited about this team. Founded in 1915, they have never threatened the higher divisions, being relegated from the 2nd division in 2013.

I have to admit one of the most important reasons for choosing Solvesborgs was their squad size. For the first season I will have 19 players (compared to 12-15, in all the other promoted teams).

The required info:

Profile[/url]

General Information

With all the talk of finances above I have a question for you all.. Would you accept , in the first week of your challenge?

To give some context, his actual value is around 6k, he is the best CB I have and there is no replacement. However his contract expires at the end of the season and he will not enter negotiations.

[Jambo98]

I'm sure you can try to prove me wrong but once I had a team able to win that league there really wasn't much of a step up in quality to league one.

Not sure i totally understand your posts, are you playing the challenge this year?

[korvalis]

Sanno11:- I would say no, like you said you don't have a suitable replacement. Another option would be to try and hold on to him to the mid-season transfer period, though you run the risk of a much lower, or no, offer as he'd be closer to be able to leave on a free transfer, but this would give you time for training somebody as cover.

[XaW]

This shows how my season is going so far. I'm heading for relegation unless I can somehow turn this around. We lost our best defender during the summer(he wouldn't sign a new contract), and apparently he was the one holding the defense together.

[Quacky]

Not sure i totally understand your posts, are you playing the challenge this year?

I'm not doing it with youth academy but I am managing in Scotland. My team that was able to win league 2 was easily good enough for high mid table in league 1 without any changes.

[Brizza]

Who called out my strikerless addiction earlier in the thread? Damn you!

Hello!

Funnily enough, I checked back to this thread after seeing the strikerless one in the download section. It does feel weird seeing you playing with strikers...

[Shakes]

I hate you guys so much... I'm still playing my FM14 save with Real from Portugal (Shakes I'm looking at you ). Won 3 Portugese titles so far (20 seasons in), but CL seems so far away... I can consistently get to 1/4 finals, but some European clubs like Man City, PSG, Atletico Madrid are on a completely different level...

I took 36 seasons to complete in FM13. You're over half way there!

[Braumiller]

This game / challenge is unbelievably cruel

[shaddw]

Blyth Spartans - 2015/16

Vanarama Conference North – 19th

Results 1 Results 2

League

What a season! We lost our first game 6-3, and that was a sign of things to come. We had the league’s worst defense. We let in 113 goals and finished with a -41 goal difference. This is despite the fact that our striker Dan Maguire finished 2nd in goalscoring with 25 goals. We went on a 6 game unbeaten run in December after I decided to switch my tactics. This run was stopped dead in its tracks after we suffered a 10 – 0 loss against Hednesford! We then lost 7 of the last 8 games to finish the season which is a bit worrying. I think I am too used to managing higher level clubs and playing attacking football. I will definitely need to create a better defensive tactic. Our strikers are scoring goals, so once I figure out a good tactic we should be in much better shape.

Youth Intake

A couple of really good prospects, none of them defenders

Harry Cob – MR/MC – Speedy player with good determination. Will be training him in a central midfield supporting role.

Graham Hawkins – ML/DL/STC -- Very fast player with a good work rate. His finishing will need to improve as I will be training him in a striker role.

Goals Before Season:

Avoid relegation: Success, we built up a nice point cushion with our 6 game unbeaten streak which carried us through to the end of the season.

Hire a Head of Youth Development: Accomplished. Hired a nice guy with 14 in Judging player potential.

Upgrade youth facilities/recruitment: Fail – Doesn’t look like I will be upgrading anything till I get promoted and start making a profit.

Goals for next season:

Allow less than 75 goals scored against us.

Finish in 16th place or better.

Give some playing time to the youngsters. (Maybe sub them in after we are losing by more than 3 goals )

[v1n1akabozo]

Give some playing time to the youngsters. (Maybe sub them in after we are losing by more than 3 goals )

As far as i know putting them in such an frustrating situation will do more harm than good m8. Maybe using a 'no pressure' shout, but i'm not sure

[Joaquimorais]

Good luck Joaquimorais

Thanks

i'm brazilian, sorry for english

[Braumiller]

Dulwich Hamlet

Season 3 Review (2017/18)

League Table | League Positions Graph | Squad Stats | Transfers | Finances

Competitions

Conference South : 3rd - Results 1 | Results 2 - Lost in Playoff Final

Player of the Year

Easily Danny Stenning. Excelled in the Half Back role, our set piece specialist was a constant thorn in the oppositions side. 10 goals and 22 assists helped him to the Vanarama South Player of the Year award. Worryingly, Danny is one of two players who will not enter into contract talks and his deal ends this summer

The cornerstone of the team, he is potentially a HUGE loss.

Season Review

A season of ups and down almost ended on the biggest up available.

Skipping to the end of the season, we entered the last day of the season just out of the playoffs in 6th place, and facing the newly crowned champions. Thankfully they had taken their foot off the gas and a win for us saw us vault all the way up to 3rd (a draw would have seen us miss the playoffs altogether.....).

Playoff semi finals against Staines and the away leg was only 3 days after the final league game. I had to rest 3 first teamers and we lost 2-1. The second leg at home was a different matter. A full strength team put on a show and we ran out easy 4-0 winners. Onto the playoff final, where 2nd place Aldershot were the opponents, so the one-off game was at their place.

A thrilling, gutting game ensued.

0-0 at half time, with us both having a goal disallowed.

57th min, we go 1-0 up

60th min, 1-1

61st min, we have a goal disallowed!

63rd min, we go 2-1 up!

75th & 77th min, double gut punch and 3-2 down

Game over....

Youth Intake

By far our best intake so far! 5 tagged and finally a little bit of pace available.

Kenny Brand (YP 03A) - The best potential of the intake, but a bit of a tweener right now. Very poor crossing and vision for a wideman and so he may become a central midfielder.

Andy Woodall (YP 03B) - PACE! Out wide as well! Currently fairly one dimensional, but it is a dimension I have been missing. Will be getting games next season.

Richard Gordon (YP 03C) - Third wide midfielder in a row, and again some (relatively) good pace! May be the player to force Kenny Brand (YP 03A) into a central role

Dan Garston (YP 03D) - A striker who needs obvious training on his finishing. That aside I like his work rate, off the ball and composure. Has road blocks ahead of him, but should be a good youth forward and then after that you never know.

Adam Parkin (YP 03E) - The lowest of the tags, but Adam has the potential to be the most vital addition this year. A left sided centre half who will get as many starts as he can handle next year.

Miscellaneous

A heartbreaking season, but finally one where is began to feel like a youth challenge season. The standout was definitely Terry Harvey (YP 02A). Playing in a Roaming Playmaker role, Terry played well above expectations. He ended up starting 31 games this year, assisted on 12 goals and chipped in with 5 of his own. Still only 16, Terry is the first of our youth products to make an impact on the first team.

Nickson Roberts (YP 01D) is also appearing more regularly and new intake guys Adam Parkin (YP 03E) and Andy Woodall (YP 03B) are also now in the mix.

Wages continue to fall, as senior guys leave and young kids step up.

Down to 4.4k p/w right now, but currently losing 1.1k p/w during the summer due to 2 retirements and 2 refusals to sign new contracts for now.

As a result, we only lost 45k for the year, which is better than the previous two years of 100-125k loss per year. Wages will start rising again as I have to start resigning the youths to bigger contracts.

Season 4 Targets

* It has to be targeting the playoffs again at a minimum, although this might be tough if Stenning does not sign a new contract

* Upgrade something

Trophy Cabinet

empty......

[Joaquimorais]

I am the only one here that is going well in the league?

[Shakes]

shaddw - Any survival is a good start no matter how slim. Getting the goals down under 75 will be tough, and you probably will have to sacrifice scoring to do it. Youth intake looks quite promising though (but as always the worse your team is, the better the youth intake looks in comparison!)

Braumiller - Ouch, tough luck! Sometimes players have a change of heart and agree to talk at the last minute, keep badgering Stenning in case he does. Brand looks a bit of a lottery, professional and likes big matches, but inconsistent and injury prone ... hopefully the good trumps the bad.

Joaquimorais - If you are don't curse it by posting about it until the end of the season!

[Joaquimorais]

Shakes

hope not :D

[Braumiller]

He's gone.........

[Shakes]

Started season with 13 points from the first 5 games. Crash. Back to square one. I now have 7 points instead.

[Gundo]

Enjoying reading all the write ups in here, can I ask did anyone have any problems with staff adverts in the job centre and lack of interest ect. I have placed adverts for scouts and head of youth development only to get it coming back saying no 'interested applicants' or something to that affect.

Just to say I have started up a save in the European Adventure thread, but with these youth only guidelines also. So I will likely spend a fair bit of time in here now getting plenty of tips off you guys.

Keep up the good work all.

[Shakes]

So much for the change tactic is the way to break a form slump theory.

Gundo - I usually just filter for candidates. Found for youth team managers people wanting a "manager" job often didn't want to take it so I ended up advertising and got responses there.

[bl0u6344]

Enjoying reading all the write ups in here, can I ask did anyone have any problems with staff adverts in the job centre and lack of interest ect. I have placed adverts for scouts and head of youth development only to get it coming back saying no 'interested applicants' or something to that affect.

Just to say I have started up a save in the European Adventure thread, but with these youth only guidelines also. So I will likely spend a fair bit of time in here now getting plenty of tips off you guys.

Keep up the good work all.

Hi Gundo, I had quite a bit of trouble with HOYD and ended up just doing a general search and hiring the first person to walk past the stadium that looked half competent. Had no problem with the scouts though, had plenty of enquiries and hired Ronnie Rosenthal, had to being a liverpool fan to be honest!

[Gundo]

Cheers shakes and bl0u6344. I try not to use the search thing. I have tried poaching staff from lower league clubs, but they don't tend to have scouts and HOYD in Norway.

Currently have my Assistant assigned to bring the youth candidates trough and he has decent enough attributes in the relivent areas, so might just see who he brings through.