FM17 Youth Academy Challenge

[Jintro]

@Braumiller Scottish League reset date is 25th of june, but the team that can be promoted is chosen on the 6th of may. Some reloading may be required to get them through the relegation playoff.

[ashton321]

@officiallydeej its a bit of a favourite haunt for me on all FM games for some reason I love it here. I am pro here all clubs are which is a huge help

[Braumiller]

League Table - Squad - Results - Finance - End of Season Awards - Season Review - Injury Report - Transfers

League
We raced out of the traps after a sucessful preseason and won 7 of our first 9 games, this set the stage for the season.  After the red hot
start, we did enough to stay around the business end of the table.  We didn't actually string together consectutive wins again until the run
in, but it was here that we sealed a remarkable season, this time winning 7 of our last 10 games.  It was closer than it looks, with wins
over 2nd and 3rd in the final two games padding the gap.

Key Players
Daniel Hammel - 19 goals in 28 league appearances was key for us.  He often played better as the lone striker and our other strikers struggled a LOT for goals
Nils Winter - Switched effortlessly between both full back slots as needed, great versatility for us
Joy-Lance Mickels - Another key piece of flexibility, Joy-Lance played MR and up front as needed, chipped in with 12 goals mainly from right midfield
Tobias Mohr - Popped up with goals at key times, Tobias made the left midfield slot his own
Tobias Haitz - Rock solid at the back.  had to play a chunk of the season at left back, but he was first choice centre half when I was given the option

 

Domestic Cups
We were not in the cup this year

Europe
Nope!

Youth Development
There was none from myself, but our 4 youths from the holiday season all enjoyed a full season in the under 19s.  There are two very nice
prospects here, who will get first team action next season.
Dragan Marinkovic 2017-A - I really like this kid, and he has no glaring weaknesses.  Given our tactical layouts this year, he will feature
more at more at MC, but I like the look of him at my attacking left back spot as well.  Spent the year gaining the develop weaker foot
trait, and now we are retraining for DL.  Turned down offers in January in the 200k region for him
Bulent Demir 2017-B - The second of our promising kids I inherited.  I tagged him as second behind Dragan, but the other clubs seem to like
him more.  I turned down relentless offers in January for him, which started out around 50k and peaked on deadline day at 450k!!!
Intake Feb 2018 - Fresh blood!  None can play first team action in the coming year, but we can begin to mold them.  Five tagged.
Gianni Quercetti 2018-A - A great option for our 4411 formation, slotting in at AMC.  Currently retraining at MC to give fliexibility for
our 442 and 4141 variations
Kai Filipovic 2018-B - Nice to get an early youth GK option
Patrick Klinger 2018-C - A tall, slightly slow DC, who can fill in at MC as well.  Needs work on his defensive technicals.
Markus Hotze 2018-D - Similar to Klinger, but with different flexibility options at Sweeper and DM
Tomasz Jacek 2018-E - Needs work and also a decision on his direction.  Has options though.

Finances
We started with a healthy bank balance, but over the course of the year we continuously leaked money, approx 800-900k in total.

Infrastructure
Not much doing here.  I was able to ask for improvements several times and I got one junior coaching request approved.  Everything else was rejected due to either me being new to the club or the financial outlook.

Overall
The league performance elevates the season to be a great success.
On the pitch we used three very similar tactics, a 442, a 4141 and a 4411.  The 442 was our go to, but if we had any kind of lead in the second half we would go defensive and pull a striker off and drop an anchor man in front of the back 4.  It worked a treat and we were rewarded with the best defensive record in the league.  As injuries and suspensions took hold, we changed between the three depending on the warm bodies available!
The 4 youths being promoted to the first team this year gives us a squad of 22, so we should be able to field a full 7 subs for the first time!

Season 02 Targets

• Plain and simple, survival!  We have a small, but tight knit and capable core, so I am hoping this step up will not be too soon.

[Wavelberry]

I really struggled to get going in Germany mostly because when I tried to add the players from the league below there was none being added to the DB. All the teams I saw promoted were bare minimum in terms of players.

[ashton321]

Cracking first season in Germany there pal. 

[Sanno11]

Great first season Braumiller, very encouraging to win the league with a goal difference like that. 

Good luck next season.

[Muttley84]

Great stuff guys, trying to give this a go also for the first time besides my main career, been holiday the season in Austria and now reloading for 2 hours to try and get SV Austria Salzburg promoted. Really want to teach those RB greedy people a thing or two, but can't seem to get them promoted (most frequent SV Groding and First Vienna, which are pretty know and been in the first league before). I think I should settle for another smaller team if I dont get Austria :). 

"I'll be back!"

[ashton321]

Puchov - 2018/2019 - Slovakian 2nd Division

 

 

 

League - If there has ever been a case of a season of two halves this would be it. We got to the Chistmas break finsihing 3rd in the league and looking primed for a promotion run being only 1 point behind the top of the table. It seemed that we then got a Christmas hang over we only won 3 games and drew one other and this resulted in us being right at the bottom of the league and had a real threat of the drop. Only a win on the last day of the season saved us from relegation

Competitions - Decent this year got beat on pens by a team that we had chances to beat

Youth - Another decent intake, left wing back got games before the end of the year

Transfers - Just to show no one coming in

Finance - There is no money at this level

Stars

Milos Rieciciar - Decent season from a right back who also filled in on the right wing at stages

Michael Korney - Didnt start the season as a starter but by the end of the week, but by the end of the year as one of the first names on the sheet

Branislav Gambos - Another superb season from one of my main stars in the team

Next Year

I think we need to be safer next year. I am going to look to bring in some more of the youngsters into the first team. I think we may need to spend a few years at the bottom end of the league to build up our team

 

Story So Far

2017/18 - 3rd in Slovakian 2nd Division

2018/19 - 10th in Slovakian 2nd Division

[darren1983]

New game so a new attempt at this challenge this time with Castellon in Spain (Reset date is July 10th @Braumiller) 

 

Good luck to you all this year - I will attempt to combat the spending power of Real Madrid and Barcelona with a more pure town grown team (and no doubt fail miserably) 

[druvo]

 

Manager profile - Club info - Facilities - Finances

 

I'll attempt this challenge once again, this time in Romania. I still haven't completed it but hopefully this is the year. Team is called CS Ştiinţa Miroslava and they are based in Miroslava, in the northeastern part of the country, very close to the border to Moldova. The squad is filled with central players so my first task will be to decide whether to go with a narrow formation or do some re-training so I can go with my preferred winger-type formation.

Good luck everyone!

[Koetzer]

23 hours ago, Jintro said:

Some teams from the far-east of Russia might also be in the running. Last year Wick Academy came up regulary, a town of 7000 people in the far north of Scotland.

Spanish Ceuta or Mellila (actually based in Africa) can be nice options too.

[Jintro]

Well done @Braumiller. I used to follow Aachen from a distance as the stadium is only a 30 minute drive from here. (Never went when there was a game tough, it's on the bucket list.). It certainly is a club with Bundesliga-potential in terms of city and supporters. 2nd Bundesliga should help a lot with finances, plus you get to play some of the big names of German football already.

@ashton321 Bit of a disapointing season maybe, but slow growth is sometimes better. Next season your youths have an extra year of experience, and the first half shows you can do well in the league.

Good luck to all the other starters off course.

[darren1983]

15 hours ago, darren1983 said:

New game so a new attempt at this challenge this time with Castellon in Spain (Reset date is July 10th @Braumiller) 

 

Good luck to you all this year - I will attempt to combat the spending power of Real Madrid and Barcelona with a more pure town grown team (and no doubt fail miserably) 

Game crashed at half time of my first league game and of course I hadn't saved from the day before league reset as I forgot I turned the auto save off during holiday mode

Stupid of me but think I'll restart in either England or Germany now. 

[janesy20]

Back for another crack at it with my usual team RW Essen. 8 games in and about 5th in the table seems much easier this year. Looking to stabilize in 3. Liga for a few seasons get some decent youth intakes behind me. Will post progress at end of season good luck everyone.

[Shevchenko]

If someone is interested, this is the competition ratings of TOP divisions

 

Basically, the most hardcore in-game leagues are Wales and Northern Ireland. Bu since Wales has only 1 league in-game, it might be easy to quickly get into Europe and bring money to the club. So Northern Ireland with a 3-tier sctructure in-game has to be the most hardcore project

[Muttley84]

Sassari Torres

Always wanted to know if this challenge can be achieved in FM Touch also (don't throw your rocks at me, just don't have the time to play the full featured version anymore). So I'm gonna give this a try in Italy, mainly cause I last played there in FM05 I think (yes, I am that old). The reason for selecting this club specifically? Well, cool name (Torres), a nice logo, updated the kits to my liking and also a city big enough to host the next power-house of Italian, and soon European Football.

Manager Profile  -  Club facilities -  First team  -   Youths

The squad isn't that bad, a nice depth to it which can be important in the first years, a decent stadium also (12k) which should mean no need to invest in it for at least 5-10 years. On the downside, only Basic training and Youth facilities and no backroom staff (hence the no CA and PA in the screenshots below). But bearing in mind my 30+ careers with Steaua Bucharest, Bury, Port Talbot or Real Union de Irun, I am confident that I have at least the patience to try this one (hope I also find the time to update here, it's my first time trying this on SI forums). Do I have the skills? That remains to be seen. And anyway, it's not my name I put out there in the managerial profile, but a random Italian name like Vincenzo Iaquinta.

[ashton321]

Puchov - 2019/2020 - Slovakian 2nd Division

 

 

 

League - I have no idea what happened this year but for some reason it all seemed to click for me. We began really well we won 3 of our first 4 games and this put us right in the mix at the top of the league. It quickly became evident that I would not be battling relegation and it would be a promotion challenge for us. At the Christmas break we were in 2nd spot I was just really hopeful of avoiding a post Christmas collapse. When we returned from our break we only one of our intial 6 games and I was nervous. In the end I neednt had worried as everyone else fell to pieces. We regained some form and continued to push up the league table and we won the league and were promoted. 

Competitions - Nothing for us this year

Youth - Another year of decent players coming into the club, the centre midfielder has played a few games already for the first team

Transfers - Just to show no one coming in

Finance - Steadily getting worse and worse

Stars

Milos Rieciciar - Fast becoming first choice in my team had another superb season. 

Michael Korney - Another decent season from a reasonable player, I think this will be his last season as first choice as one of youngsters will take over

Vladimir Luhovy - First year that a striker has really come into his own for me. He had an excellent year and his goals meant we were promoted. 

Next Year

The single objective has to be stay up and not be relegated. I am hoping to bring in a few more youngsters into the first team.

 

Story So Far

2017/18 - 3rd in Slovakian 2nd Division

2018/19 - 10th in Slovakian 2nd Division

2019/20 - 1st in Slovakian 2nd Division

[darren1983]

So after many (around 3.5) hours of reloading I finally got the club I wanted....

 

 

 

The former Dynamo Berlin “won” 10 straight East German titles between 1979 and 1988 (I use “won” as they were assisted by some helpful referees upon instructions from the government) they were also the favoured club of Erich Mielke who was head of East Germany's Stasi (Secret police) 

After German re-unification in 1990, they were renamed FC Berlin in an attempt to re-package and distance themselves from their past. In 1999 they again used the name Dynamo by changing to BFC Dynamo (Berliner Football Club) but without their powerful fan and losing their best players to West German Bundesliga clubs they dropped down to the 4th and 5th divisions where they have pretty much stayed.

 

So why did I want them so much? Well I like a fallen giant and despite how they may have won their titles BFC they were a successful team, added to that they have fierce rivals in Union Berlin and Dynamo Dresden as well as many local rivals which adds to fun. The main reason though is the somewhat romantic idea of taking a former government team from East Germany and producing a town grown team to take on the local (well East German) big spenders in Red Bull Leipzig and the traditional power teams such as Dortmund and Bayern.

 

Me

Facilities

Squad

 

(there should be a badge if the club up near the top but it keeps getting removed when I submit my post  )

[MadCatPT]

Blyth Spartans - 2017/2018 - Vanarama National League North

League Table | Finances | Transfers | End of Season Awards | Season Review | Youth Candidates | Injuries

Summary:

After sizing up the squad, normal period of contract renewals and tactic planning. No remarkable youth, only one two star of potential. 

The squad was good, no holes, just some cover issues. The tactics I prepared was a 4-4-2, 4-5-1, 4-2-3-1. The 4-5-1 with a flat 5, in a counter mentality was my main tactic for the season, I was able to achieve a 11th place. The beginning of the season was very good, top defence of the league but a half-table attack.

Soon the results started getting more inconsistent and we started getting down the table, we made a nice run on the FA Cup, getting to the 3rd round, then we met QPR and we're trashed, it stated a big period of losses that made me get just 6 point above relegation, after it we slowly started recovering, and ended the season on a high note even with injuries mounting forcing one of the young players to start some games.

Future by position:

GK: Ross Dalton is the undisputed owner of the goal, after him not much to speak about, still has room to improve.

FB R:  2 good players with some room to improve, Alex Nicholson was the starter because Andrew Cartwright started the season with a long term injury, after he returned he was the starter.

FB L: Michael Liddle was the undisputed starter all season, there are other players that can cover, but must are best used in other positions.

D C: Nathan Buddle is very good, Emmanuel Kanteh is good and still has a lot of room to grow. Have to keep them as long as I can, the two backups are a sharp drop from these two.

M R: Daniel Emmerton was the starter, Reuben Dass covered for him on injuries.

M L: Sean Whelan was the starter until a long term injury, Reuben Dass covered and will start next year until Sean Whelan returns.

M C: Starters where Jarret Rivers and Matty Pattinson, they have tendency to pick some injuries, so lots of time for the backups, Michael Richardson was the main next man up.

DLP : Stephen Turnbull is the starter, Jarret Rivers had to replace him many times due to injury and yellow cards, the youngster Michael Montgomery 17b had to start the last six games of the season, he was just decent, but he still needs development.

DLF: Dan Maguire started and was able to score some goals, but his small stature (1,73m) made him limited, and soon the adversaries started mark him out of the game, so even with a contract dispute Louis Robles started playing, first without success but then he exploded, and ended the top goalscorer with 15 goals. 

Youth:

Michael Montgomery 17b has proven he can be a backup that is not a liability, so he will get some games as my midfielders are prone to injuries, hope he can keep improving and play better next season.

Chris Roberts 17a has a lot of promise, he has gotten some games from the bench, and when Louis Robles was injured, he played the final two games and was able to get his first goal. Will get some more games next season as the main backup for the DLF.

 

P.S. - Noticed I should have use 18 not 17, will change it latter.

[Braumiller]

Great season @ashton321, congrats!

Good luck to all those beginning their journey!

I might get my 2nd season completed tonight.  It is a completely different affair to our first season   I also have my first major (in hindsight) error to report 

 

[Shevchenko]

I envy you all, I'm the kinda guy that plays full flat 90 minutes and my seasons are sloooooooooooow...

[darren1983]

Currently having an injury crisis which has left me with 4 players out injured and having to play a left back at right back, a winger in CM and a 50% fit winger with no one but a keeper on my subs bench - and this is my squad for 2 seasons  

[MadCatPT]

Preseason started with my starter left winger out for some months, after 2 games, he is joined by top scorer, 2nd forward, best player/midfielder and 2nd best defender (even misclicked and sent to physio instead of specialist ).

[ghost of bury]

Reset date for Austria is June 6 (so save on June 5)! might want to holiday two seasons though, because SV Grödig come up every single time. They were relegated from the top flight to the third division this summer, and FM seems to predict them bouncing back pretty fast! Currently holidaying til 2018, hopefully something more interesting will come up!

[Muttley84]

Sassari Torres - First Season Update

League table - We started off to the campaign pretty good, but fall in the second part of the season to injuries and suspensions, and only managed to finish 17th in the League. Then we won a 2-legged play-out with Aversa Normann (Won 1-0 Away, Lost 1-2 at Home and remained in the league because we were the better seeded team in the classification - I guess the away goals rule doesn't apply here, but hey, no complains).

Squad - None of the youths I found at the club was able to break into the squad and become a regular, though we have some nice prospects in the goalkeeper and striker position. We will try next year hopefully to give them more minutes as we will be safer from relegation (wishful thinking). Settled nearly all season for a simple 4-4-2 and the best overall can be seen here.

Transfers - No activity here, besides a player leaving before I arrived at the team.

Youth intake - Only 2 players? Wtf? Maybe this challenge isn't suited for the Touch way of playing? And both of team in positions we already had a bit of a coverage, would have liked it more if I got some wingers or fullbacks.

Next year objectives - Finish above last year and get a better youth intake. So nothing I can control.

History
2017/18  - 17th in Lega Pro C - Not in TIM Cup - 3rd Round Coppa Lega Pro 

[Bradley21]

Will be joining this as manager of  Havelse in the German Third Division.

 

Not had much of a chance to look at my squad yet, but i only have two youths, both of which seem to be very poor.

[darren1983]

 

 

League Table - Graph - Squad - Finances - Transfers

 

 

 

 

 League - a real season of 2 halves here, we picked up 35 points from 20 games leading to the winter break (even wining our last 4 straight games before the break) but were were slow to come out and only won 1 of the first 11 games after the break. We were never really in any danger of relegation but also never really seriously threatened the promotion places. It was a solid season but pretty brutal at times with only 15 players (goes up to 16 next season as a youth player from season one becomes eligible) so any injuries (of which we had a few) or suspensions (shout out to Sascha Schunemann here with his 19 yellows and 1 red card in 33 games) really hurt us, there were many a time I had only a sub keeper on the bench and not even that when my 1st choice was injured. 

 

Cups - not in any

 

Europe - obviously not

 

Youth - the youth intake was alright with only 3 players tagged

 

 

Orlando D'Agostino (YP18A) - the best player by far, will see lots of game time when eligible as he play the same position I currently use Schunemann in. 

 

Kim Ujazdowski (YP18B) - the man who might be D'Agostino's partner in the middle (where we are lacking numbers) he might become a fav of mine simply for the fact he's from Berlin and is a BFC fan  

 

Phillipp Hoffmann (YP18C) not great but was tagged as need numbers up top, plus I'm like 99% sure I tagged him as I'm a Brentford fan and we have a German striker on our books called Philipp Hoffmann already 

 

Season 2 Target

Plan for next season really is to just carry on as I am, probably not good enough for much more than this season but it's a whole season now to try and get a few of this year's intake ready for first team football, would also be nice to do something about our finances which are awful. One thing to look forward to is that one of our fierce rivals in Dynamo Dresden were relegated so a couple of fierce derbies to look forward to.

 

 

[darren1983]

Congrats on your promotions @ashton321 & @Braumiller 

Good first season there @MadCatPT

Well done on surviving the first season @Muttley84 usually that's the toughest so hopefully a better 2nd season for you.

And welcome to Germany @Bradley21

[MadCatPT]

@darren1983 Nice background story and symbol. Good luck hanging in there until you can play the youths.

It's scary to play with so few players, any of them getting old or asking for high wages?

[darren1983]

1 hour ago, MadCatPT said:

@darren1983 Nice background story and symbol. Good luck hanging in there until you can play the youths.

It's scary to play with so few players, any of them getting old or asking for high wages?

Quite lucky with the players, oldest is 29 so that at least should give me some breathing space, only player that has asked for high money left a week after I took over (he was also 32) would have been nice to have had another option this season but that's part of the “fun” I suppose

Yeah once I settled on Germany I came up with the idea of being an East German club so looked at all the potential ones I could get and Dynamo's story really stood out for me, hence why I reloaded for over 3 hours (though I was pretty close to going with another Berlin side just when Dynamo finally turned up) 

[Muttley84]

Sassari Torres - 2nd Season Update

 

League Table  - Slightly better than last year, we finish in 15th and avoid the relegation play-out, but we stay in the 16-17th place for most of the season, only a good enough finish getting us trough. 

Transfers - Nothing going in here, but very important losing 2 of our best strikers and a central defender. All of them didn't agreed to contract renewal. Unlucky for them not being a part of this European power we are gonna be soon (where soon represents around 50 years).

Youth Intake - Starting to really think this is impossible to achieve on Touch. Only 4 players, 2 each for the position where we already had good depth. For now we have 6 leftbacks and only 2 centerbacks, so a bit of retraining is in order here. Board refused any upgrade this year so I don't see how things are gonna improve. (Sighs).

Best prospects: J Luppi (17b) - Really excited about him, he will get rotation a lot more this year. L Fusco (17a) - Will be our main striker this year, hopefully he can fill in that shoes. L Mereu (18a) - We already have better players in MC but will try and give him some playing time also.

History
2017/18  - 17th in Lega Pro C - Not in TIM Cup - 3rd Round Coppa Lega Pro 
2018/19  - 15th in Lega Pro C - Not in TIM Cup - 2nd Round Coppa Lega Pro 

[MadCatPT]

@Muttley84 Well my youth intake was like yours but with more garbage at the end, so the difference would be you would have crap backups.

Try to retrain as much as you can, and good luck.

[herne79]

Hi all, thought I'd get involved here this year.  I've been planning on starting a low league Italian save so this ties in nicely.

Why Monza?  For no other reason than I like Formula One, so why not make Monza the home of Italian football as well as motor sport.  Hopefully .

Club background - S.S. Monza 1912 play their football at the 18k capacity Stadio Brianteo in the capital of the northern Italian Province of Monza and Brianza, Monza (pop. c. 120k).  In and out of bankruptcy, Monza have never been higher than Serie B.  Time to put that right.

Starting point - League setup   Divisions loaded   Me   Club background   First Team squad   U20s   U18s

Media prediction is 17th (out of 20) with a Board expectation to "fight bravely against relegation".

Finances are ok, no debt with a bank balance of €507k.  Currently spending €34k a week on wages, which seems a bit high to me.

Facilities are also ok - average training; adequate youth; adequate junior; and average youth recruitment.  An 18k all seater stadium means I don't have to think about expansion for a very long time, although there is no undersoil heating (not good for Northern Italy).

So overall a decent enough starting point.  It could be a lot worse.

Forza Monza !

[BillHoudini24]

Ethnikos Piraeus 

Beta Ethniki 2016/17

Hello everyone!! I decided to take part in this challenge too (after dafuge's) so I can switch around when I get demotivated to play. :-D

Ethnikos Piraeus is the second biggest club in Piraeus after Olympiakos. They had a strong rivalry back in the 40s until the 70s, but unfortunately Ethnikos got in serious financial problems and ended up in the Regional Leagues. Luckily, they got promoted in my save, so I decided to manage them in this year's Youth Challenge. It's ideal, because Greece is a country with huge financial problems and that affected football too. No big money from promotions or TV Rights, no money from Cup Runs. The only way to get serious cash is to get a European spot in the Superleague (Greece's First Division).

It's a difficult challenge even though we have only two playable divisions, because the financial part is pretty devastating. I think it's gonna be fun and a good opportunity for some nice newgens. Unlike real life where we don't produce any real talent due to the lack of good facilities and Youth management, in FM I've seen great Greek newgens in past editions. Let's hope I get lucky this time around. Without further due, let me present you the club.

Club Informations | Squad | Manager Profile

 

[Emperor J]

I managed to get FC Sakhalin Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk in my first attempt in Russia (refresh date is June 20th), which I believe is the farthest eastern team I could think of as it's only 190km from Hokkaido in Japan.

This is my manager, 1st team, Under 21s and Under 19s. The rules of the Russian National League dictate a fee for registering a foreign player, of which I have inherited exactly zero. The only really strange rule is that it's 4 subs from 7 named instead of 3, and I need to finish 15th to avoid relegation.

And just to be clear, the previous manager decided to sign some players before I could take charge.

About the club itself, it plays in a 4200 all-seater stadium on a modern plastic pitch. Training facilities are rather poor because Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk is closer to Seattle in the States than it is to Moscow. 

This is my first real FM game in a while, so I'm expecting to get relegated here, but it's worth a shot, right?

[Sanno11]

@Emperor J I hate to be that guy, but your manager stats look a little too enhanced. For this challenge you need to:

  "4. Add a new manager with your chosen nationality and the lowest possible reputation and qualifications"

I am really interested by your team selection though, such a remote part of the world.

 

[Braumiller]

Really enjoying seeing all these early starts to the challenge!  Some very interesting ones as well

And @Emperor J, yep your starting profile is a rule breaker   Your screenshot shows your past playing experience is set to Professional Footballer, it needs to be Sunday League (and coaching badges set to None)

[Emperor J]

@Braumiller @Sanno11 Updated my post since I just took the defaults before . Fortunately I saved before I added myself the first time so that was literally all I had to change and I was only 2 matches into the season.

[druvo]

@Duroliponte - Solid first season. That intake will come in handy next year.

@herne79, @BillHoudini24 and @Emperor J - Good luck on your adventures.

[vikeologist]

@Emperor J A couple of years ago I briefly tried this challenge with Sakhalin, because as well as being close to Japan, it's also the closest eligible club to China. I think it's remoteness makes it a challenging club for this challenge. I really hope you can find success there, as it is indeed a very interesting club to play with, and the travel to and from matches would be an absolute freaking nightmare for everyone involved.

If I remember correctly a principle difficulty for me was that I essentially had no goalkeepers, and this was before the rules were (I believe) changed to allow the use of grey players. I certainly gave up pretty damn quickly due to some immovable obstacle.

[Bradley21]

So i've been away from home the last few days and have managed nearly four full seasons with my team. Naturally i haven't managed an update yet since i've been moving around a lot with travel, but i'll do it soon. I'm finding it extremely unrewarding at times though when what i presume to be a contract/player happiness bug is ruining my chances of actually building anything serious here.

[Sanno11]

@Emperor J I am relieved that you were able to solve the problem without losing too much. That could have been a nightmare. Good luck in your first season.

[druvo]

I got fired from CS Ştiinţa Miroslava after a horrible first half to the season. After 20 games we had four wins and were seven points from safety so I can't really complain about the decision. It certainly didn't help that our only left back picked up 5 red cards in 16 appeareances. Oh well, after failing in Romania I'll try my luck in Serbia instead!

 

 

Manager profile - Club info - Facilities - Finances

 

FK TSC Backa Topola is a club with an interesting history. It was officially created in 1913 in a town called Bačka Topola, (currently) located in the northern part of Serbia, near the Hungarian border. Back when the club was created this town belonged to the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the club even competed in the Hungarian league system for a few years during the second world war. In 2003 the club ceased to compete due to financial difficulties but thanks to a successful merger they were back in 2005. Both Dušan Tadić and Nikola Žigić have spent their first footballing years at the club so the base for youth development has to be there.

[MCPlay]

Hi guys. Trying this Challenge again, after an unsuccesful attempt in the Czech Republic last year. Started up in Northern Ireland and have played through a season. My club is considered semi-professional, but I can't offer anything but non-contracts. This has led to pretty much my entire team being snapped up by other clubs, which leads to this seeming pretty impossible. Anyone have any tips or advice on how to avoid losing my entire team? If not I Guess i'm going to have to find another place to start, as 13 of my best players have been "lost" 

[Shevchenko]

@MCPlay did you try to "force" (using lock) players to sign on weekly wages? If they want  a non-contract with 200 per appearance, you might try to offer a part-time contract and lock a weekly wage of 200-250. Usually works.

[MCPlay]

@Shevchenko Unfortunatly I am unable to offer part-time contracts at all. Only non-contracts. Though it was weird given the clubs semi-professional status, but I see that all the players in the division are on non-contracts. Still I think it's a bit weird that the other teams are so aggressive in signing my players, most of the players are even going to teams that are in the divisions below us even. Will probably restart in Wales if there are part-time contracts there. Sucks to have "wasted" an entire season though, was almost promoted aswell

[herne79]

March 2018 Update - Youth Intake Day

Fairly tough going so far (to be expected), but the league is pretty tight and only 4 points off the playoffs.

Finances are going downhill rapidly, despite tight control on the wage budget.  Total expenditure to date this season has been €2.1m, with player and staff wages accounting for about 53% of that.  Total income over the same period has been €1m, so this is not going to be sustainable going forward.  Cuts will be inevitable.

Transfers all relate to shipping out non-home grown at club players, with the last few remaining that I couldn't get rid of for love nor money coming to the end of their contracts at season end.  I also can't afford to simply terminate their contracts.  Hope that's not breaking the rules.

I completed my National C Licence, but the club can't afford to send me for my B Licence yet.  I did negotiate with the club to allow me to focus on developing youth, but again for financial reasons I can't develop any facilities yet.

The Youth Intake looks quite promising, and I'm hoping their Determination is going to help improve the club overall.  There is a bit of an issue in the squad with low Determination which is starting to have a bit of a negative impact.

Mouton   Conti   Beccaria  all look particularly promising, and I'll probably retrain one or two as wingers for my tactic.  Most of the others show decent promise as well and will be signed onto youth contracts.  I'll add in nicknames for them soon.

Overall then, the playing squads are alright, it's the finances that need attention.

Forza Monza !

[Jintro]

The Spartans FC

Profile | Facilities | Finances | Squad | Transfers

 

I wanted to give Scotland a go. After the Danish debacle the main goal was finding a team with a full locker room to at least have a bit of breathing space with injuries and suspensions. Brora and Cove Rangers were by far the most likely teams to come up, and had a full set of players. While trying to see if I could get a different team Huntly came up, and also had a full squad. As they were pretty rare I wanted to give them a go but stupidly forget to save before the first leg of the relegation playoff, which they lost 5-0. As I was not willing to spend this years FM reloading untill they won the return leg, I tried to make them appear a second time for the better part of an hour. Never saw them again.

During the reloading this bunch came up. They ticked all the boxes: Cool name, cool logo, and from a bigger city. So here I am again stuck with the bare minimum of players.

The Spartans Football Club are a team from Edinburgh founded in 1951 as a club for allumni of Edinburgh University, as they were no longer able to play for the university team. They play in the Lowland Football League and were the Leagues first champion in 2014 but did not compete for promotion to the Football League. They spend most of their time in the East of Scotland Football League, where they won 9 titles, the last one in 2011. They play in Ainsley Park in Northern Edinburgh.

I have played untill new year, and it's going suprisingly good. We've been in and out of the promotion playoff places since the season started. On the other hand, the league is very tight, with only a 9 point difference between the promotion playoffs and last place. Even if we hit a bit of a slump, with only last place playing a relegation playoff I'm optimistic about my chance to survive the opening season.

 

[Jintro]

@herne79 All in all a solid start to the challenge. Love your choice of team, that has to be one of the better logo's I've seen in this thread. I'm not sure if it's just something you prefer, but as far as I'm aware you can keep non-homegrown players untill they leave by themselves, as long as they are at your club from the start. No need to ship them out if you don't want to.

[darren1983]

Table - Graph - Squad - Transfers - Finances

 

League - I expected it to be tougher than last season's 8th place finish but this was brutal at times, injuries to our only striker and our best player just before the season started resulted in a slow start (no wins in our first 7 games) and we never really got going after that, we struggled to score goals while Breustedt was out injured, we picked up when he returned (he ended with 20 goals in 29 games) but after that our defence seemed to fall apart (to such an extent we conceded 10 goals in 3 games from just 11 shots on target) and we started to drop like a stone. With 2 games to go we were in the final relegation spot, in our final home game we managed to fluke a 1-0 win thanks to an own goal, this meant going into the final game we were 17th on 41 points 18th also had 41 and 16th on 42 so it was all on the final game. For one of only a handful of games we clicked and ran out 3-0 winners to secure our safety.

Youth Intake

Not the worst, and certainly better than last season's but still not great

Mario Achtert (YP19A) - an AM that, with some hard work, could develop into a key player 

Yanni Lorenz (YP19B) - wing back that is being trained to play FB in the hope he can attack from deep

Michael Taiwo (YP19C) - could be the DM we need 

Aboubacar Traore (YP19D) - left winger who could be an option in a position where we only have one real option right now

 

Next Season

We get to add to our depth at last as our first youth intake becomes eligible which should hopefully help us kick on next season and not to be battling relegation on the final days of the season.
Also try and do something about the finances as they are shocking and we're losing money all season.