[FM16] Partisan (adj) strongly supporting a person, principle, or political party,

[Number seven]

BTW, I think I read that you tried to sign Raul as a HoYD, earlier in the thread. Have you tried again, as you seem to have money enough? His personality would be superb at that role, if he hasn't retired.

[Jimbokav1971]

8 hours ago, Number seven said:

I checked this stuff with a mate of mine that has been a researcher. In the research guidelines it said at least at the time that ambition is how ambitious the player is (obviously) and that it can have an effect on players in matches, f.ex a very ambitious player can be triggered by an occasion f.ex a big match were winning will match his ambition.

Yes. I understand that's how it's meant to work. I'm just not convinced that it does actually work that way. Something else that should be considered in relation to this discussion is that there is a separate stat for "important matches". This would suggest that if you had a very ambitious player who had a poor important matches attribute, then the 2 attributes would be at odds with eachother almost as of the desire to do well would build to such a level that the player would be unable to cope with the pressure and the desire to do well would actually become counter-productive and would affect his performance negatively. I have seen evidence of this contradiction within the game.

[Edit]

(I'm not saying I'm right and everyone else is wrong by the way. I have just never seen evidence of it).

[Jimbokav1971]

12 hours ago, Number seven said:

BTW, I think I read that you tried to sign Raul as a HoYD, earlier in the thread. Have you tried again, as you seem to have money enough? His personality would be superb at that role, if he hasn't retired.

No, he's no longer in the game. 

We actually have a very small number of HoYD's with decent personalities.

There are 230 for example who are balanced, but 0 Model Citizens, 1 Model Pro, 7 Resolute, 5 Pro & 19 F.Pro.

I currently have Romanian, Pro, HoYD. 

I know we have discussed it somewhere, (possibly in a similar thread of not this one), but I would expect this HoYD to never produce a GK of quality. I will try to keep an eye on that. 

[The_Gato_In_Goal]

15 minutes ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

No, he's no longer in the game. 

We actually have a very small number of HoYD's with decent personalities.

There are 230 for example who are balanced, but 0 Model Citizens, 1 Model Pro, 7 Resolute, 5 Pro & 19 F.Pro.

I currently have Romanian, Pro, HoYD. 

I know we have discussed it somewhere, (possibly in a similar thread of not this one), but I would expect this HoYD to never produce a GK of quality. I will try to keep an eye on that. 

Is that because of the low GK stat? I've had this HOYD in charge for the past 11 years and in that time, 5 of the best prospects from each year have been GKs.

[Jimbokav1971]

That's what I was thinking yes. 

If I look at the 7 (Res) HoYD's that I mention above, their coaching GK attributes are as follows. 

2, 1, 1, 1, 1, 3 & 1. 

If I spread it to include the other positive personalities mentioned above then I can add the following to the list.

3, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 4, 2, 1, 4, 1, 1, 2, 3, 4, 2, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, & the very last one, (just to throw a spanner into the works), is 11. 

I wasn't expecting that and was all set to say something along the lines of.... Are we looking to score this value out of 20, or should we in fact score it out of just 4?

I am expecting that this bloke with a coaching GK attribute of 11 will have been a GK in his playing career, but despite the fact that he is a real player, (full name of Nikolay Georgiev Kirov, a Bulgarian born on 12th June 1975), I can find no trace of him so am unable to clarify. 

I'm not positive about this at the moment. It's just me "thinking". Could well be wrong and I will have to look into it more as I go, (probably in FM17)

[Bedese]

I'm really not so sure how much impact the HOYDs actually have in that regard. I've been tracking them on my save for quite a while and there's a slight difference in the two I've had, but it's not so noticeable that you'd go out of you way to prioritise personality/coaching stats over the stats needed to make a good HOYD.

[Jimbokav1971]

1 minute ago, Jupjamie said:

I'm really not so sure how much impact the HOYDs actually have in that regard. I've been tracking them on my save for quite a while and there's a slight difference in the two I've had, but it's not so noticeable that you'd go out of you way to prioritise personality/coaching stats over the stats needed to make a good HOYD.

Well my problem is that I can't even see a difference between a good HoYD and what appears to be a poor HoYD. What seems to be make someone good as a HoYD actually doesn't seem to make much of a difference. 

It's that that has got me looking at the smaller things. 

[Bedese]

1 minute ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

Well my problem is that I can't even see a difference between a good HoYD and what appears to be a poor HoYD. What seems to be make someone good as a HoYD actually doesn't seem to make much of a difference. 

It's that that has got me looking at the smaller things. 

Interesting... that's something I've actually never thought about. I tend to just go for whoever has the highest HOYD 'helpful' stats and not a terrible personality, so I've never really looked at how effective a 'bad' HOYD actually is in comparison.

[Jimbokav1971]

[Jimbokav1971]

We finally have a player on the shortlist for the World Golden Ball Award 2027.

Yes, I fully appreciate that he is not a product of our academy, but he certainly learned his trade with us and we are responsible for the player he has become. We have 2 strikers currently breaking into the 1st team with us who have a similar PA to his, (all 3 were 5.0PA), and that's the main reason for his leaving. I hope he keeps on scoring goals for fun and goes onto bigger and better things. 

[jaysdailydose]

On 4/23/2016 at 14:17, Jimbokav1971 said:

You don't really know me, but I've been reading a ton of your old posts, especially about San Marino -- and was trying to find out if you were still active for this version of the game.  I came across your memorial post for Kriss and I just wanted to say that this was a great way to honor an old friend.  Honestly, it's probably the coolest online memoriam I've seen outside of EVE Online, and I just wanted to post that you choked me up a bit.   

I'm loving what I've read here so far, and while I'm disappointed that the San Marino thread seems to dry up for this year, this is certainly a great read in exchange.  Thanks for sharing!

Excuse the edit, I've not quoted a message on here since the changeover and went tits up on that one.

 

 

 

 

[Number seven]

On 28.8.2016 at 17:48, Jimbokav1971 said:

Youth Intake Feb 2026.

It's really not a good intake, but it is certainly an interesting one. 

First of all we have a Uruguayan, (who is actually decent), but who has a shocking personality that I will have to address immediately. He does fit in the AMC playmaker slot that we are looking for more depth in though. 

Then we have not 1, not 2, but 3 players from mighty San Marino.

Because I don't really trust the reports that my Ass Man is giving me on Youth Intake day, (and by "don't really" I of course mean not even in the lightest, I have decided to look at things from a slightly different view-point. 

I think that the CA and PA ratings, (especially the PA ratings), are wrong, so what am I going to do to judge players on at this stage, (if I was managing a team where I was not signing each and every Youth Player, then what would I look at to try and get some more info so as to base my decision on?

Well money is a decent start, so let's have a look at that. As soon as these players sign a youth contract, (which is a very minimal investment), the players gain a "valuation". Let's look at the valuations of the above players when they sign their yth contracts.

Now assuming that the CA is correct, the value should run from the highest to the lowest in descending order, and any anomaly that stands out within this is likely to highlight an error in the PA.

1. (26a) £145,000
2. (26b) £39,000 
3. (26c) £110,000
4. (26d) £13,250
5. (26e) £18,250
6. (26f) £13,250
7. (26g) £30,500
8. (26h) £12,750
9. (26i) £13,750
10. (26j) £14,000
11. (26k) £14,750
12. (26l) £30,500
13. (26m) £115,000
14. (26n) £13,500
15. (26o) £42,000
16. (26p) £52,000

If we were to rearrange this in order of value, then this is what we are left with. 

1. (26a) £145,000
13. (26m) £115,000
3, (26c) £110,000
16. (26p) £52,000
15. (26o) £42,000
2, (26b) £39,000 
7. (26g) £30,500
12. (26l) £30,500

I wonder how many of you are surprised by that?

 

After reading this post I decided to sign up all my youth players in my Man Utd game. Those with the highest stars directly into a future full-time contract and then the rest on two years youth contracts. Unfortunately I didn't take a screenshot, but still I have an ass man with 20 20 for JCA and JPA, I have a few coaches with the same. Back to the point. In that youth intake there was one four yellow stars and one black star. One with four yellows. Then there was a couple of ones with one yellow and on black star, the rest was lower than that. After the contracts were signed, one of the ones with one yellow and one black changed uppwards. One of them a Zambian kid changed two three yellows and one black star, the other a Cameroonian kid changed to 2 yellow stars and 1 black. The best rated prospects were slightly lowered with half a black star. The players are rated the same by almost all coaches.

Anyway the game crashed on a certain date because of a Guniean league file. But I was interested to find more out more about how accurate the ass man reports  are, so I downloaded the Genie Scout (some might say it's cheating but I can't play the game anymore anyway). What I found out was that my Zambian kid starting with a yellow and a black star on youth intake day actually was the player with the highes PA at 178. The player rated 4 yellow and one black and the one rated with four yellow stars was actually over 20 points behind with PA of 155 and 154, then the Cameroonian kid was at rated at 120. Also players I've bought to the club with several 20 20 JCA and JPA rating them at 4 yellows and one black have differences. I bought Christian Pulisic and all my scouts rated him 4 yellow on black, all my coaches rates him the same, but his PA is 152 a lot lower than Marcus Rashfords 180 wit a rating of 3,5 yellows and one black.

My conclusion is that you have to trust your own instincts and maybe even sign up all the players from an intake, start with youth contracts, even the player who was rated lowest with a half star potential shows up with a 132 PA. I for sure will do that in my next game and then see how the develop over a few season. Even signing them with a three year contract isquite cheap if contracts are offered at Youth Intake date, and sale of those doesn't make it still covers the expences even if you have to release some of them.

[Jimbokav1971]

1 hour ago, Number seven said:

My conclusion is that you have to trust your own instincts and maybe even sign up all the players from an intake, start with youth contracts, even the player who was rated lowest with a half star potential shows up with a 132 PA. I for sure will do that in my next game and then see how the develop over a few season. Even signing them with a three year contract isquite cheap if contracts are offered at Youth Intake date, and sale of those doesn't make it still covers the expences even if you have to release some of them.

I'm not one to tell people how to play or what to think, but I'm delighted that you ran your own experiment and came up with your own answer to something I mentioned. 

[Jimbokav1971]

@jaysdailydose Thanks for the kind words. Apologies for my absence in the San Marino thread, but the 8 year sacking thing was a real deal-breaker for me. I must admit that I don't think I will ever go back to San Marnio again. I loved that save but I feel it's time for new adventures and there are so many other Nations to chose from. 

[jaysdailydose]

6 minutes ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

@jaysdailydose Thanks for the kind words. Apologies for my absence in the San Marino thread, but the 8 year sacking thing was a real deal-breaker for me. I must admit that I don't think I will ever go back to San Marnio again. I loved that save but I feel it's time for new adventures and there are so many other Nations to chose from. 

Absolutely!   It is just one of the saves I have going right now, as I'm on a backup machine while I wait for a new battery.

And no worries, you had just kept that challenge alive with leonavich -- but when I saw how the game did you, I totally understood, and Partizan is an excellent club to land at!

I'll definitely be following your adventures here!  I'm thinking of crossposting my newest save from my blog to the forum here, so maybe I'll have something for you to read soon, too! 

[Jimbokav1971]

Youth Day 2027.

There are a few different talking points here. 

• After a poor intake last season, we again got a 5.0 PA player through the intake. (Yes I know that he might only be a 4.0 PA player, but I'm a glass half-full type of guy and until such time as I can see what the PA actually is, I will always assume it is at the upper level). While this initially might seem brilliant, it must be tempered with the knowledge that we sold out best centre-half in the Summer, (he went to R.Madrid for a modest £17.5M). I could have kept him for longer but he wasn't a product of our academy, and it seemed a shame to keep him at the club when he was obviously going to go on and achieve big things and I am mindful that I want to see improvement in the NT too. 
   
• It wasn't just 1 centre-back that we got through either. When you look at the centre-half depth chart, there actually looks to be a 2nd player who initially looks like he might have an impact on the senior squad. 
  
  
   
• Something else that jumps out, (at least to me), is the professionalism of the squad. 
  
  3x (F,Pro)
  2x (F.Pro)
  
  I obviously still haven't produced a Model Pro, (and there is no Resolute this time), but 5 players out of 16 with that level of professionalism is impressive, especially when you consider that one of them was the "Kriss". 
   
• Although we have 5 players with differing levels of "Pro"  personalities, something I have mentioned before is that this doesn't mean the other player in the squad are any less professional at all. If we take (27e) Jovan Stupar (Driven) as an example, he is "Driven" because his Determination is 20 and his Ambition is between 10-20. If I look at his report however, it tells me that we have a "highly professional" group of players, and that this player is in a similar mould. That doesn't mean that he is "highly" professional, but it does mean that he is at the least reasonably professional. My HoYD is a (Pro) and in the intake message it told me that he had been a notable influence in bringing through such players as (27i) (Pro) & (27c) (Pro) with his coaching style and personality. We already know that his personality is "Pro" and his coaching style is "General"
   
• Something else that stood out to me is that we again produced 3 Sammarinese players and one of them, (27h), looks like he might be reasonable. (To be honest, even a 1.0 PA star player is playing for the Senior (SMR) as a teenager so anything at all seems to be decent for them at the moment.

(28a) Kriss Pavlovic (F/Pro) (2027).
 

• Although he isn't short exactly, (he's 6'1" at 16 years old already, his jumping and heading are just a tad weak for a centre-half and I will have to look at that within the early individual training to rectify. 

[Edit]

• It's also interesting that I commented quite recently that I didn;t expect this HoYD to produce a decent GK. I was obviously completely wrong as the 2nd best player in this intake, is indeed a GK. 

 

[Jimbokav1971]

Something I like to look at is the rPA of the players immediately after they have all signed the new Youth contracts. 

Well that's interesting. (27c) has immediately jumped from a 3.0 PA to a 4.0 PA. 

That can still be a little misleading though, so I like to do 1 more comparison. The player valuations immediately after the Youth contract has signed. 

I think this gives me some additional info with which to judge this intake on. I don't just "just" the valuation and I don't use "just the PA. I use everything I can get my hands on. 

 

[ssestig]

Loving the progress that you're making in Europe as well as the interesting way of looking at the 'changing' PAs of players before and after signing them to pro deals.

[Jimbokav1971]

5 hours ago, ssestig said:

Loving the progress that you're making in Europe as well as the interesting way of looking at the 'changing' PAs of players before and after signing them to pro deals.

I'm not sure we are actually making progress in Europe.

2015/16. Knocked out in the 3rd Qualifying round of the Champions League, (8-1 to Celtic), but did qualify for the Europa League Group stages, but only managed 1 single point from a poor group consisting of Atletico, Kobenhavn and Ludogrets as I played the kids in Europe and concentrated on the league. 

2016/17. Qualified for the Champions League Group stages but only collected 1 point from a group consisting of Man City, Valencia & Benfica. I again played the kids in Europe and concentrated on the league. (In the early stages I would have got sacked had I not won the league I think).

2017/18. Qualified for the Champions League Group stages, (on away goal), but collected 0 points from a very tough group consisting of Arsenal, AC Milan and Schalke. Yes, I again played the kids and concentrated on the league. 

2018/19. Knocked out in the 3rd Qualifying round of the Champions League, (6-4 to Olympiakos), but did qualify for the Europa League Group stages, but only managed to gain 4 points from a group consisting of Lyon, PSV & Panathinaikos. Yes, I again played the kids and concentrated on the league despite the fact that we could and probably should have got out of this group with 1st choice squad selection.

2019/20. Qualified for the Champions League Group stages, but collected 0 points from a ridiculous group consisting of Man. Utd, R.Madrid & Dortmund. Yes, of course I played the kids because even if I had played our strongest team, we would have still ended up with 0 points. 

2020/21. Qualified for the Champions League Group stages, but collected just 3 points, (from a 4-2 home win over Barca!!!), from a group consisting of Barcelona, Shakhtar & Galatasaray. Yes I played the kids and yes I somehow still beat Barca. (Absolutely no idea how or why).

2021/22. Knocked out in the 3rd Qualifying Round of the Champions League, (3-1 to Aktobe who are so rubbish that I had to check which Country they are from, it's Kazakhstan by the way), but did get as far as the 2nd Knockout Round of the Europa League. We got 7 pts from a group containing Leverkusen, Genk & Krasnodar, before beating Everton 5-3 in the 1st Knockout Round. We eventually lost 9-2 to Inter in the Europa League 2nd Knockout Round.

2022/23. We qualified directly for the Champions League Group stages this year as the Serbian coefficient grew, but again we were handed a ridiculous group containing Bayern, Atletico and AC.Milan. You guessed it. I played the kids again and our only points came from a 2-2 home draw with AC.Milan. 

2023/24. We qualified directly for the Champions League Group stages again, but once again we were given a ridiculous group containing Arsenal, R.Madrid and Marseille. We won the home tie against OM 3-2, but those were the only points gained. We missed 3rd place because OM beat us 4-7 in the other game. Yes, we again played the kids as I decided I would wait for a reasonable group before "going for it".

2024/25. For a 3rd year running we qualified directly for the Champions League Group stages by virtue of the Serbian structure coefficient, and when we were given a group containing Dortmund, PSG & & Roma, I decided that I might as well go for it, (by which I mean of course pick our strongest team and hope to finish 3rd and make the Europa Knockout Rounds), but although we took 4 points off PSG, we lost all the other 4 games and still finished 4th. I actually rested players in the preceding league games and still we didn't qualify for the knockout rounds.

2025/26. For a 4th year running we qualified directly for the Champions League Group stages by virtue of the Serbian structure coefficient, and I can tell you that my heart properly sank when I saw that we were drawn in a group with Bayern, Inter and Monaco. We were going to get zilch out of Bayern and Inter, but maybe just maybe I could squeeze past Monaco into 3rd. We beat Monaco 3-2 at home, but lost 3-0 away and didn't pick up any other points so it meant that we were destined to crash out at the Group stage for the 4th consecutive year, (despite giving it a proper go the last twice). I couldn't believe how unlucky we were getting with the group draws, but I guess that's what becomes of being a 4th seed. 

2026/27. Because we had not had to qualify for the previous 4 years, and had only collected 11 points from 12 matches, it meant that our coefficient had suffered and this took a toll on the Serbian coefficient and this in turn meant that we now had to qualify again for the Champions League Group stages. We did this, (by beating Rosenborg and Dinamo of Croatia, but then managed only 4 points from a group consisting of PSG, Porto and Napoli. (We beat Poro 4-2 away and drew 2-2 at home to Napoli. We are just not good enough to not finish bottom of a Champions League group.

These are the teams we have faced in the Champions League Group stages. 

Man Utd.
Man City.
Arsenal. (x2)
Bayern. (x2)
Dortmund. (x2)
Schalke.
Barcelona.
R.Madrid. (x2)
Atletico.
Valencia.
AC.MIlan. (x2)
Inter.
Roma.
Napoli,
PSG. (x2)
Monaco.
Marseille.
Benfica.
Porto.
Galatasaray.
Shakhtar

I think you would agree that lady luck has not been smiling on us in the draws.

 

 

[Jimbokav1971]

Tutoring.

We have 4 Model Pro tutors that I have been using to influence the rest of the squad. It's a laborious process and is not easy because in a lot of cases, the tutee is so far from Model Pro at the outset, that you can't actually tutor them with a Model Pro. You have to first tutor them with something more middle of the road, (depending on the player and personality in question). These 4 Model pro tutors are in the following positions. DC, DRC, MC & SC. There is a distinct lack of a Model Pro tutor for the wings, and also at GK, but my first choice GK's are Pro and Res so that's almost as good. 

Although I haven't managed to get a single player to Model Pro, we do have a number who are now Resolute. The reason that they haven't popped to Model Pro is that by the time they have got to Pro or Resolute they are either established 1st Team players, or I simply decide to tutor someone else. As the age of my squad continues to grow, there will be more and more available tutors and this should mean that I get things done more quickly and we can go all the way through to Model Pro.

 

[Jimbokav1971]

Elsewhere within Serbia, things also seem to be progressing. In real life, Serbia had no teams in the Champions League Group stages and no teams in the Europa League Groups stages. In game however, we have a full compliment, even if none were very successful.

 

[Edit]

I've just realised that there was a 4th team in the Europa League this season. 

Radnik Rosa finished 5th in the league last season and their reward was a 2nd Qualifying Round loss to Astra of Romania.

[Jimbokav1971]

Champions League Youth Cup success. 

This is really quite an achievement to win this trophy, (managed by the U19's Manager), with a squad/team 100% produced by our academy. In the past I have signed highly rated young players at a very young age, but I haven't signed a single "player", (other than non-playing "tutors" or players who were originally products of our academy, for 4  full seasons seasons now. 

It also seems as if our youngsters love a penalty.  

[jengaehassim]

Jimbo, you seem to get a lot of players from San Marino due to your nationality. Are they better than the average player from the national team?

I'm asking because I wonder if it would be viable to try to achieve something with a smaller nation by managing a strong club elsewhere.

[Jimbokav1971]

Laptop crashed last night and last save I made was just after the Youth Intake  I think so will have to replay the last few months so might miss out on the Champions League Youth Cup success. On the plus side, we lost yhe penultimate game of the season as I picked a team of kids and rested everyone for the end of season finale against Red Star.

Oh well. ?

[Ceching You Out]

13 hours ago, jengaehassim said:

Jimbo, you seem to get a lot of players from San Marino due to your nationality. Are they better than the average player from the national team?

I'm asking because I wonder if it would be viable to try to achieve something with a smaller nation by managing a strong club elsewhere.

That's an interesting thought. My guess would be that Jimbokav isn't producing the volume needed to change San Marino's fortunes, although they're probably improved.

[Jimbokav1971]

15 hours ago, jengaehassim said:

Jimbo, you seem to get a lot of players from San Marino due to your nationality. Are they better than the average player from the national team?

I'm asking because I wonder if it would be viable to try to achieve something with a smaller nation by managing a strong club elsewhere.

I responded to this at work this morning but the message seems to have vanished. Sorry. 

Yeah, I've had quite a few, as you would expect, but 3 in 1 season was a bit of a shock. The answer to your question is..... yes and no. Let me explain.

I have chosen to run a small database. The main reason being to improve processing time on my very average laptop. The small database is fine and I am happy podding along and I occasionally add in a Country in which I have added a feeder club, (so that my players play in an active league when I loan them out). Currently I have the following structures active. 

Belarus, Bulgaria, Romania, South Africa and Uruguay.

I have had other leagues active at various points during the save, (China for example), but as the affiliate link was a financial one, I decided to dispense with it. The Czech Republic and Croatia should probably be added, but I was waiting until the end of the season to make a decision on that. 

Although I chose the small database, (and knew what I was getting into), it has led directly to a couple of things which need to be considered at the outset of a save like this. 

• My players often go for far more money than you would expect, simply because there are fewer players around because the demand is higher.
• Because there are fewer players about, the demand for my players is higher which means that big clubs show an interest more often which in turn unsettles my players, causing them to be unhappy.

I made a conscious decision to chose the small database, but in hindsight I think it was a mistake. Yes it has given me more money, but our bank balance is currently £175M, and of course what can I spend money on if I'm not buying players and many of the players I do have were originally signed on such long-term contracts as to mean that they are often on a pittance.  If I now had to trade some cash for some happiness, I would do so willingly in a flash without a seconds thought, so I wonder if I might have been happier operating with a large database where my players will often leave on a free, but will be far happier signing new contracts at the club and staying put. 

Apologies, I've gone off on a tangent there. 

Having a quick look, I can see that I have had the following "foreign" players come through the academy under my tenure.

Portugal 1
Bosnia 5
Uruguay 3
Italy (was San Marino) 1
San Marino 5 
Argentina

In terms of the San Marino players, I will list them. 

(21a) Krissandro (SMR) (F.Sport) (2021) was obviously the best player, (by PA), from the 2021 intake. Although he was (SMR), he had (ITA) as a 2nd Nationality. He opted to play for (ITA) as a youngster and at the age of 22 he has just added his 1st senior (ITA) cap to his 19 (ITA) U21 caps. Although he's only 22, he's just about peaking and there doesn't seem to be much room for growth left. He's an AMR who has 5 years left on his contract so will be going nowhere. Had this guy been (SMR) only rather a dual Nationality, I have no doubt that even on his own he would have improved their results no end. He would have been significantly the best (SMR) footballer to have ever live. 

(22m) Canini (SMR) (F.Pro) is much further down the pecking order of the next intake and is significantly poorer. Although he is (F.Pro) now, he hasn't always been and this has significantly stunted his growth. He is 21 now and although he has never featured for (SMR) U21's he already has 34 Senior Caps. (That he is a striker and has yet to score is a little worrying). He has never played for Partizan, (and never will), but because of my links with San Marino I will be keeping him around and loaning him out. He is the standard sort of player you would expect of (SMR) origin, (although looking at him now, he has finishing 13, composure 11, heading 10, acceleration 13 and pace 11). He's certainly decent for (SMR).

(25l) Gorgetti (SMR) (L.Det) is a pretty rubbish DL if I'm honest. Although he is only 18 years old, he has already been capped at Senior level by (SMR) on 3 occasions, and was capped at U20 level before that. Although he is a Dual National, he was never going to get called up by (ITA) so he made the correct decision in opting for (SMR). 

(26n) Ugolini (SMR) (L.Det) is a decent(ish) centre-half. I say decent as in decent for San Marino. He hasn't played for Partizan and is unlikely to in the future. He doesn't have Dual Nationality and has already gained 4 Senior (SMR) Caps, (and scored a goal on his debut against Macedonia. He has a lot of improving to do but will stay a pro so who knows. Again I will be keeping him on and loaning him out, (as well as trying to get rid of that rubbish personality).

(26m) Gaetano (SMR) (L.Det) is a decent(ish) striker at San Marino level. He already has 4 Caps at the age of 17, (although no goals), and unfortunately there doesn;t seem to be a lot of improving to be done by him. I will still keep him around, but he's never going to be the new Andy Selva. 

(26l) Pasolini (SMR) (Unamb) is a reaosnable AMC and another who has dual Nationality. He has already made 2 senior appearances depite being only 17 years old and has a significant amount of improvement left to make. 

When the game crashed on me last night, I actually lost the last Intake too and had to go all the way back to November of the previous year, (which is a pile of poo). Looking at the pic of the intake a few posts back, there were 3 (SMR) players in it and 1 of them was particularly decent. What I did notice yesterday was that another one of the (SMR) youngsters had actually been poached by (ITA). I would have sworn it was Ugolini, but I have just looked and he's not a DN so it can't possibly be him. That means that it must have been the best of the 3 (SMR) from the intake that I've lost, (so his name is irrelevant). 

I'm not sure why I have suddenly got 3 (SMR) players in a single intake twice in recent years now. I've seen 1 and even 2 before, but I have never seen 3 before and I can't give you any reasons behind it. (My improved rep perhaps, but I don't actually even know if it has improved).

It will be interesting to see what the intake is like when it comes around again. I had a good one this year after a rubbish one the season before, so fingers crossed I get at least a decent centre-half or an AMC. 

[Edit]

In the 2027 intake which I lost with the crash last night, there were 3x (SMR) players, (1 of whom was poached by (ITA), albeit at only U21 level, and the rest were all Serbs. 

 

 

[Jimbokav1971]

2 hours ago, Ceching You Out said:

That's an interesting thought. My guess would be that Jimbokav isn't producing the volume needed to change San Marino's fortunes, although they're probably improved.

My initial reaction was that you were correct, but after doing a bit of a re-cap, I'm not quite so sure. In the last 2 intakes I have somehow produced 6 (SMR) players, all of whom would walk into the NT, (which is populated by grey players remember), and many of the Nations around that level will be at a similar poor level. If I was to just get 1 single (SMR) player every season then I honestly think it would have a significant impact on the (SMR) squad. Because I am tutoring everyone, (Jeez I hate to think of the lost tutoring as a result of this crash....)  there would have been improvement across the board and even, (and especially), in some of these poorer quality players. 

Something that probably deserves a comment is the personalities of the (SMR) players that I have produced. 

Krissandro has improved to (F.Sport) from something more negative, and I only couldn't improve him further because he established himself as a 1st team player at such a young age. (I've just checked and he came through as F.Sport so I didn't manage to improve his peronslity at all, (remember that we have a lack of tutors in the wide areas) 

It will be interesting to see if I get any (SMR) players through when I hit the intake again. 

[nie jem frytek]

22 hours ago, jengaehassim said:

Jimbo, you seem to get a lot of players from San Marino due to your nationality. Are they better than the average player from the national team?

I'm asking because I wonder if it would be viable to try to achieve something with a smaller nation by managing a strong club elsewhere.

Just search for "Big Club Small Country" thread in Challenges & Experiments subforum. Or maybe just quick the link I've provided

 

[jengaehassim]

Thanks for taking the time to write such a detailed answer, Jimbo.

Your view on the smaller database makes sense and it's probably correct. There may even be one more thing: FM tries to keep the db balanced, producing the same proportion of world class players. When you manage a club focusing with youth development like you're doing, though, the result is a disproportionately high ammount of players from Serbia among the best in the world (not really an issue, just less realistic).

About the SMR players, it depends on how likely a player like Krissandro is to appear (or even a not so great one). Most do help the NT, but a stronger push would be needed.

 

@nie jem frytek, nice! Will read it!

[Jimbokav1971]

If you are going to wear red boots, your 200th goal for the club better be a decent one. 

 

[abulezz]

I've had players that looked like sure-fire prospects end up with a 3.5/5 CA at their prime, and I've had sure-fire prospects stop developing really early in their career whose CA never surpasses 4/5 (some 3/5). 

At the same time, I've had 3/5 prospects end up being World-Class, and some prospects who look good end up being absolutely fantastic.

I would say, however, that my coaching staff seem to get it right about 75% of the time when it comes to identifying just how good prospects are going to be.

This has been a real fun read, KUTGW!

[Jimbokav1971]

Youth Intake Feb 2027.

[The_Gato_In_Goal]

Another Kriss it seems

[Jimbokav1971]

Youth Intake, (after signing youth contracts and listed by value).

[Jimbokav1971]

Youth Intake 2017 (ranked by PA after contracts signed).

I've shown you the initial pic, (as normal), and then I showed you the Youth Intake ranked by value after the contract had been signed. The big change was that (27l) Murraccini (SMR) (Casual) was only 12th on the initial list, but had jumped to 3rd spot on the 2nd list. I had assumed that this was related to a change in perceived PA, (PPA as I call it), but it seems more likely that it might actually be lined to CA looking at the 3rd picture.

This again shows the players ranked by PA, but also shows a more accurate CA comparison, (rather than all being 0.5 gold stars).

If I'm honest with you though, I am still looking at the 2nd picture and struggling to find a reason why (27l) is being valued higher than (27a) for example. 

I'm still a couple of months behind where I was in the game a week or so ago, (after the crash), and to be honest it's affecting me wanting to play the game. (Well that and the Ryder Cup and work and the impending release of FM17. I still have a month or so to go so I might banh out another season and then do a re-cap if I can get going again. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Youth Intake Feb 2027, (3rd attempt).

I've last the last 2 intakes that I have shown above as a result of crashes. The last one gave me a much-needed centre-half and the current one just gives me a not needed at all striker and he's not even a Serbian. 

After they have all signed youth contracts and ares sorted by value, it now looks like this. 

[Jimbokav1971]

I think I might possibly have made a mistake in selling this bloke. 

He was sold because although he is obviously very good, he actually didn't come through our academy and the longer he stayed at the club, the longer he would be stopping proper HG players developing to reach their potential. 

His International form is decent to say the least, and I think it's fair to say that he's not overly popular in Liechtenstein., (against whom he's scored 12 goals in 2 games). 

  

[Jimbokav1971]

As usual we are in a tough Champions League Group, (well it's my fault for resting so many players in the early years and not improving our coefficient earlier). Had I done so, then we would not be ranked bottom seeds and be up against Man City, Juve and Borussia Dortmund. 

We lost the 1st game 2-1 away to Dortmund, but we took the lead and it was a penalty that allowed them to level. 

We have just beaten Man City 3-1 at home with only 38% of the ball. 

[Jimbokav1971]

October 2027. 

The 23 man Serbian NT squad for Euro qualifiers against Cyprus and Estonia has just been announced. 

12 of the squad are Partizan players, (all of whom came through our academy). 

Another 3 players came through our academy but are now at other clubs. 

2 more players came through academies elsewhere before joining us as youngsters and moving on to other clubs. 

We have been responsible for developing 17 of the 23 man squad. 

[Edit]

The 23 man Serbian U21 squad for the U21 Euro Qualifiers against San Marino and Iceland has just been announced. 

4 of the squad are Partizan players. 

3 more of the squad are Partizan players who are out on loan at other clubs. 

1 more player came through an academy elsewhere before joining us and then moving on to somewhere else. 

We have been responsible for 8 of the 23 man squad.

[Edit]

Apart from the best players we produce each season, my squad tend to not get recognised too well in their early development. They don't play Senor football a lot of the time, (because I keep them at the club until they are 19), (so they are often over-looked at U19 level), and then the best players tend not to play too long for the U21's before joining the senior squad. I've got a few older players who have missed out on Caps recently because there are a number of U21 eligible players in the senior squad. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Vojvodina were taken over by a Tycoon and after storming to the Serbian First League title last season and beating us on the way to the Serbian Cup Final, (where they beat Red Star), they are the early pace-setters in the SuperLeague after 11 games. 

We play them next. 

[Edit]

We beat them 3-1 and normal order is restored. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Dec 2027. 

We finished Champions League Group E in 3rd with 6 points from 6 games.

We beat Man City 3-1 t home and benefited from an early sending off to defeat Juventus 3-1 away. We only failed to score once in the group games, (a 1-0 home loss to Juve), when it seemed as if we just ran out of skin and a lack of depth at this level was highlighted. 

I can't complain though. 2 wins from 6 group games is great. To finish 3rd is great. If we could have just drawn the home game against Juve then I think I would have been ecstatic with 7 points. 

We are lacking at centre-half at this level though. (To be honest we are lacking even at Serbian level now). I have 4 that I can rotate that our good enough, but as soon as one of them is injured, (or just tired or in poor morale/form), then I don't have an option to bring anyone else in. One of the Youth Intakes I lost a couple of weeks ago saw us bring in 2 good centre-backs and the other save I think had one. The save I ended up with after 2 crashes saw no centre-backs and a great but not-Serbian SC. I think in my younger days I might have done some serious damage to my laptop had this happened back then. 

Our youngest centre-back of the 4 is now 22 meaning that we haven't produced a DC better than 1.5 PA  in the last 6 years. We are desperate for a couple of big centre-backs and I'm just thankful that FM16 will save me from a slow and painful death at the back. 

The Europa League 1st Knockout Round has seen us draw Anderlecht and I would hope to get past them. 

The draw for the 2nd Knockout Round has already been drawn and if we get past the Belgians then we will play the winners of Ludogrets from Bulgaria  or Sporting Lisbon. I'm assuming that Sporting, (who won all 6 of their games in the Europa League Group stage), will beat Ludogrets and will hope that we can stop them progressing as they did in the last 2 seasons when they got to the Semi-Finals and Quarter-Finals, (beaten on each occasion by Man City). We are under-dogs, but I think we have a chance. 

[Jimbokav1971]

With the imminent release of the FM17 Beta tomorrow, (all things being well), I have decided that I really need to do a bit of a "Kriss" re-cap.

Meet the Kriss'. (Feb 2028)

#1. Kriss Macesic (F.Sport) (SRB) (2016). (Striker).

Season 1. 2015/16. 1 appearance after coming through the academy.

Season 2. 2016/17. 3 appearances and his 1st goal for the club, (against Benfica in the Champions League Group stage).

Season 3. 2017/18.1(1) appearances in a season where opportunities were extremely limited.

Season 4. 2018/19. 5(1) appearances, (mostly in Europe), but no club goals, (although 2 for Serbia U19's).

Season 5. 2019/20. (on loan to Indjija in Serbian SeperLeague). (Relegated). 22(9) appearances, 13 goals, 3 assists and 6 MOM's. He also scored 4 goals in 4 games for (SRB) U19's.

Season 6. 2020/21. (on loan to Indjija in Serbian First League). 31 appearances including 8 goals. 

Season 7. 2021/22. (on loan to Dinamo Bucharest in Romania). 6(23) appearances including 6 goals. 

Season 8. 2022/23. (on loan to Torpedo Zhodino in Romania). 12 appearances including 8 goals, 3 assists and 4 MOM awards was decent, and it was this form that encouraged me that he needed to go out into the big wide World. 

Transferred to Eintracht Frankfurt of German Bundesliga for £700,000.

Season 8. 2022/23.  12(3) appearances but just 3 goals and 1 assist suggested that the Belarusian league might be more his standard than the Bundesliga.

Season 9. 2023/24. 31 appearances including 10 goals, 4 assists and 1 MOM award. 

Season 10. 2024/25. 28 appearances including 21 goals and 4 assists.

Season 11. 2025/26. 31(2) appearances including 15 goals and 7 assists. (Surprisingly, a goal roughly every 2nd game but still only an average rating of 6.69.

Season 12. 2026/27. 27(2) appearances including 13 goals and 4 assists.

Season 13. 2027/28.  22(1) appearances including 9 goals and 1 assist. 

(16a) Kriss Macesic (2016) has developed well and has performed consistently since moving to Germany. His goals drove Frankfurt to the Bundesliga title in 2024/25 and then he was instrumental in keeping them up since then. he has agreed to sign for Borussia Monchengladbach on a free at the end of the season. This will be a step up in class as they are regulars in the business end of the Europa League. I'd like to say that I am quite happy with his development even if ultimately he didn't feature much for the club and was moved on to pursue a career elsewhere. 

[Jimbokav1971]

#2. Kriss Rat (F.Det) (SRB) (2017). (Left back).

Season 1. 2016/17. 1 appearance after coming through the academy.

Season 2. 2017/18. 18 appearances including 1 goal and 1 assist.

Season 3. 2018/19. 15 appearances including 1 goal and 3 assists.

Season 4. 2019/20. 29 appearances including 2 goals and 6 assists.

Season 5. 2020/21. 36 appearances including 2 goals and 7 assists.

Season 6. 2021/22. 30 appearances including 4 goals and 3 assists.

Season 7. 2022/23. 28 appearances including 1 goal and 10 assists. 

Transferred to BSK Borca of Serbian SuperLeague for £500,000.

Season 8. 2023/24. 33(1) appearances, including 1 goal and 2 assists. 

Season 9. 2024/25. 26 appearances including 2 assists.

Transferred to Radnik Rosa of Serbian SuperLeague for £300,000.

Season 10. 2025/26. 6(3) appearances including 1 goal. 

Season 11. 2026/27. (on loan at OFK Beograd in Serbian SuperLeague). 2(8) appearances. 

Season 12. 2027/28. 0(2) appearances. 

Kriss Rat (F.Det) (SRB) (2017) was one of my favoured players in the early stages of the save and while he maybe hasn't developed as well as other players, I think he did ok and unfortunately he just didn't have the PA of some of our other Youth products. In hindsight, it's a shame that he left BSK Borca, because he was playing well at a good level there and it would seem that little football in the past 3 seasons, (even at a lower level in 2026/27), will not have helped his development, (albeit he should have already been almost at his peak by then.

[Jimbokav1971]

#3. Kriss Vulic (F.Amb) (SRB) (2018). (Centre-half).

Season 1. 2017/18. 2 appearances after coming through the academy.

Season 2. 2018/19. 9 appearances and his 1st club goal was all we saw of him after damaged cruciate ligaments kept him out for most of season.

Season 3. 2019/20. 10(7) appearances doesn't sound great, but he has returned from a serious cruciate injury and I am happy to take things slowly.

Season 4. 2020/21. 18(3) appearances, including 1 goal is a decent return after his return from injury.

Season 5. 2021/22. 13(1) appearances, but at a pretty poor level so I decided to send him out on loan.

Season 5. 2021/22. (on loan at Radnicki). 9 appearances including 1 goal at a level significantly above that seen when playing for us.

Season 6. 2022/23. (on loan at Chiajna in Romania). 5 Cup appearances including 1 goal and 1 assist. 

Season 6. 2022/23. (on loan at ACS Poli in Romania). 15 appearances including 1 goal and 2 assists. 

Season 7. 2023/24. (on loan at OFK Beograd in Serbia). 34 appearances.

Season 8. 2024/25. (on loan at Cukaricki in Serbia). 22(9) appearances including 1 goal.

Season 9. 2025/26. (on loan at Cuckaricki in Serbia). 32(2) appearances. 

Season 10. 2026/27. 15 appearances including 2 goals.

Transferred to Eintracht Frankfurt in German Bundesliga.

Season 10. 2026/27. 13(1) appearances.

Season 11. 2027/28. 22(1) appearances including 1 goal.

Transferred to VfL Wolfsburg in German Bundesliga.

Season 11. 2028/28. No games played after another mid-season transfer. 

Kris Vulic (Bal) (2018) is a player that I feel I ultimately failed in terms of his development and reaching his potential. In hindsight I think I can lay the blame at the door of his personality and just highlight the difference in the development of this player, compared gto some who will come after and whom I manged to tutor to a better personality. His move to Wolfsburg is a positive one in that they are playing regularly in Europe after Christmas, however he has only been signed on a rotation basis so it remains to be seen how often he will feature. I found the management and in particular the development of this player, (or rather the lack thereof), particularly frustrating and the 2026/27 season, (before he was sold), was a last throw of the dice and was simply too little too late.