FM17 Youth Academy Challenge

[darren1983]

Have finally finished my dissertation (well I hand it in tomorrow but it's all done and can't do anything more with it!) so am coming back to my save, oh how I've missed those infuriating boys

On a side note, Dulwich have a playoff of game in real life tomorrow night and it's the first time in a while they have a home game when I'm not going to a Brentford game so am tempted to go along as I kinda want a Dulwich shirt after this save  

[Virtual Male]

Oroshaza

2024/25

Manager Profile - Transfers - Finances

 

OTP Bank Liga - League Table - Past Positions - Fixtures

I'm unsure how I feel about the season as a whole really. The goals for the season were achieved (just) with the team once again securing a top 4 finish and qualification to the Europa League qualifying rounds but It feels like we never really got going this year. It was a year with high points totals, 5 teams including myself would have won the league 2 years ago with their points tally.... I think I feel a little disappointed because I know if one draw had been a win the league title would be ours for a second time.

 

Cups - 

• Magyar Kupa - A little disappointing to drop out in the 3rd round but it was against a very good team and went all the way to penalties.
• LigaKupa - I didn't put any focus on this one but got all the way the the semi's and looked to be through to the final but an awful semi-final 2nd leg display saw a 6-4 aggregate loss.
• Europa League - For the 2nd year running we've made it to the group stages after a fairly simple run in the qualifying rounds.. We got a tough groups and didn't do nearly as well as last year picking up just 1 win in the 6 games.... We also lost 8-0 against Atletico Madrid, a new Europa League record .

 

Transfers

No-one big going out this year, the only player to leave for money was a rotational center-back. One thing worth mentioning though is now the club only has players that have come trough the youth ranks, no-one is left from before this challenge started..... It does mean my oldest player is 23 though.

 

Squad

Although I'm a little deflated looking at the table, it was in all a pretty good season for the players, with 3 that stood well above the rest of the team.

• Csaba Juhasz - Another good season from out young midfielder, he's made himself a regular for the national team too, he averaged a 7.44 from 50 games this year and only looks to be getting better. One problem I have with him though is he's got an £800k release clause in his contract and has no intention of signing a new deal at the moment... If he goes it won't be a good thing but I'm sure we can replace him if it comes to that.
• Tamas Szalai - A new league rating record for the 18 year old with a 7.88 from 27 games, He's far too good for the club and league already and is only getting better. Best of all I've got him to sign a new deal that runs through till 2030 with another year based on appearances so it's basically a 6 year contract and has no release clauses at all!! He also won Player & Young Player of the year.
• Tamas Pajko - Before this season the most goals this guy had scored in a season was 18 in all competitions... He's had the season of his life and scored 44 in 44 leaving him comfortably our top scorer. I've had bid up to around £700k for him over the summer but I've rejected everything so far and It'll stay that way since he's one of our only 2 strikers. 

 

The Youth - Intake

I had a look at every teams junior coaching, youth recruitment, youth facilities etc. this year and it looks like Oroshaza are now the best club in Hungary for youth recruitment and development.. So that's nice . The intake was another good one, a couple of English players too, one of which was the best to come in this year.

• Eddie Cook - Already a decent player for the 2nd division, I imagine he'll get some minutes in the first team nest season and hopefully develop nicely and nail down a first team place over the next few years.... The team is stacked with really promising Center Backs now (I think I've got 5 or 6 that can develop into leading players for the division)

 

Summary

A few more upgrades leave our facilities looking like this, the stadium is also being expanded by a little over 1,000 seats bringing capacity up to 4,500. The finances have taken a hit this year with the club losing around £4m over the season, in part because I didn't sell anyone this year as well as upgrades to facilities and the stadium expansion, Hopefully we can get back the the group stages of the Europa League to balance that out a little this year. I'm expecting the team to be towards the top of the table next season and anything outside the top 3 I'd regard as a poor season... Hopefully I can keep hold of all my important players but I have a feeling that Csaba Juhazs will probably get snapped up because of his lowish release clause.

[XaW]

How I lost this match, I don't know.... (lost it on pens)

Solid season there, @Virtual Male! Only two points behind the title! After that groups stage again, you must be financially set now.

I've wanted to do the same with a couple of clubs earlier, @darren1983, but they are located so far away from me, that a trip only to watch them haven't been possible yet. One day, one day....

[vikeologist]

@Virtual Male I'm surprised you're losing money (even with the upgrades) given that you're appearing in the EL group stages. I guess one can end up massively over-paying players to make them stay. Do you feel that your team is getting better, or are you just hoping that the facilities improvements will eventually improve your squad?

@XaW If only one could share the stories of your and my players to the players themselves to show them what a stupid idea leaving is going to be.

I notice that your youth recruitment hasn't improved. Neither has mine, but I'm stuck at 'Basic'. Do we ever get the opportunity to improve it Also I don't seem to have the option of improving my Junior Coaching anymore, (though I was able to get it from Adequate to Average to Good early on). I guess it's tied to my club's reputation, but having got to the final of the cup last season, i'd have thought it would be better.

Zenit (who are the top reputation club in Russia) only have average youth recruitment, which seems strange. I'm worried that without (much) better youth recruitment, I'm not going to get the top level players I need to progress. I do have 20 players with 5 star potential, but that's probably down to how poor my players are generally.

@The Art of Drowning Hope the finances look up. Are you not losing many players, or having your board sell them over your head?

[The Art of Drowning]

@vikeologist  Kristinsson is the only one so far but we are still losing money at a fairly rapid rate so I expect more to come!  I sold our best striker at the end of the 1st season for £3k because he was about to leave for nothing anyway.

[XaW]

@vikeologist: Yeah, I have a couple of successfull ones, but some are much worse of after leaving. I would use that in discussions with players wanting leave if I could. I have not been able to ask for an improvement from the board yet. The option is just not there. I don't know if there's any caps or anything. Or it might be down to that semi-pro clubs can't have higher than the one I already have. I hope to go pro in a couple of years, so hopefully it will be possible then.

[vossmaj]

12 hours ago, vikeologist said:

I notice that your youth recruitment hasn't improved. Neither has mine, but I'm stuck at 'Basic'.

At Hunan every year the board proudly announced to improve Training facilities and the "new" target Level (I think it was 'adequate') was always the level it has been already before their great announcement. That got a bit boring and never led us anywhere... A bug maybe.

[darren1983]

16 hours ago, XaW said:

I've wanted to do the same with a couple of clubs earlier, @darren1983, but they are located so far away from me, that a trip only to watch them haven't been possible yet. One day, one day....

Sadly I've messed up my knee yesterday and can hardly walk today so not sure standing for 90 minutes is a smart move - I'm still really tempted though! 

Might just have to hope they win tonight so I can go to their playoff final like a really glory hunter

 

[GottaBeatThemAll]

 

I'm back at last for the 17 edition of this challenge i haven't been too active in fm17 this year but decided to get back into i've had a Spanish attempt go wrong thanks to a 15 winless games and a poor intake then a Belgium adventure with Liege that saw me win 2 out of 26 games getting fired just before intake but after this i realised i hadn't loaded the lower leagues up so i decided to try again with .... KVK Tienen Hageland a team that comes from Tienen (obviously ) which is known for being the sugar production capital of belgium so with the random fact over i'll explain how the season went but first here's my manager an older silver fox type ready for the challenges ahead.

Transfers Facilities Squad

Season Table at 24 Games End of Promotion Playoff End of season form

What a great season we started strongish doing well we had good scoring potential and my 442DM worked well against most of the Belgian 4123 a very common formation i also utilised a nice 3142 which i really wanted to succeed more but the sad truth was our best stretch of form came in 442 we had a superb spell especially my star player diouck who i'll talk about more in depth later firing us on our way and a brilliant return from the winter break which saw his strike partner Eboigbe shine like a star after being disappointing in the first half of the season and we were top from game day 24 to 29 we had done well never dropping near the relegation at any point in the season a fantastic achievement for myself i admit my challenges have an awful success rate for getting past the first season.

As you can see our form dipped massively after the intake ( coincidence ) maybe some of my players thought we didn't have to score to win so eventually at times i tried blooding in players but i hate doing this in dismal form so from going from end of the november to game 27 scoring more than two goals a game we went on an 7 game scoreless streak appalling for a team who's best players were our strikers we just stopped creating and our offensive consistently had poor ratings we had still gotten into the promotion playoffs something i never expected and i had a faint hope we would do well but thanks to our goal shy streak continuing we never looked close to getting promoted ( a blessing ?) as we never won a single game and our best challengers throughout the year Virton who only lost their first game near march time lost the promotion chase to La Louiverve a fellow new promoted side because they scored a 90th minute winner against us devastating for our title challengers who were the best team in the division but La Louiverve turned their form on at the right time unfortunately .

 

Positions- A Squad of only 16 players deserves individual reviews in my eyes with each player experiencing good form 

Gk- Hannes- A nice young keeper only 23 had a good season in goal with 15 clean sheets a potential keeper for years never disappointed in truth

Defenders

Boudadi- A very small right back with 15 tackling his good rating comes from splitting time away from right back to dm as a bwm which suited him really well i'm hoping his future lies there as he was too small to be my right back. 

Singh- A fellow englishman honestly was one of the draws to me for this club he's from Leamington Spa no clue where that is but still didn't stop me making him my captain a decent player never really shined as an individual but had a decent season

Verhamme-  The worst of my defenders but i didn't think he was too bad will hopefully improve as between our centre backs there was no star.

Carton- Very versatile the belgian milner did a job in every position he played but never truly shined or found a place in his positions he was always outshone eventually as he was too small for cb, too slow for rb and rm and not good enough in comparison to others in dm but still i'm glad i had such a versatile player in truth.

WIllems- a nice young cb made him my vice captain hoping he can lead the next generation but has some room for improvements but i have hope he will become a constant In my team next year.

Renson- a tidy left back who's our oldest player at 30 had a decent season but will hopefully be phased out in the coming season as he declines.

Midfielders

Weeghamns- Started really well as a rm but then shined as bwm during harouns when he went back to rm didn't suit him anymore as his 1 flair doesn't aid the attack in any way hopefully a stalwart as him and laically or my predictions for our future dm duo .

Lacolly-excellent season for him started out as bwm but eventually played dlp for most of it and he was instrumental in our form and despite only scoring twice they were excellent goals in top of the table matches very well done to the frenchmen.

Haroun- Good player before an injury knocked him down eventually came back during our bad spell  hope he isn't an unlucky omen! Just turned 30 as well might have to get suited to the back up role more now.

Freire- AM doesn't rate him but i like him he's versatile in our offensive options and scored some key goals and assists of which mostly came at the start of the season but he never did much wrong when he played.

Grancea- Highly rated and i like him a nice young winger but needs to dominate more and in our team our wingers are key hoping he can make the position his own as 4 players tried the rm position this season. 

Houze- Similar to Grancea only difference is he's the left sided version however he performed a lot poorer and will need to step up i'll give him the benefit of the doubt and hope for a better year next year.

Strikers

Constandines- Our resident Cyprus Under 21 Player only player on a non contract as he won't be a loss only played so much due to fluctuating form of his competition only scored twice disappointing as i like a goalscoring option of the bench.

Eboigbe- Started strong i thought he would be the better striker come the end of the season yet at the halfway point he had 2 goals in 16 but as you can see he went on a run of 14 goals in the next 22 games and considering he actually went 10 games goalless a very good recored hopefully we get mid season Ebo next year.

Diouck- Our best player by far won the golden boot and was named in team of the year very impressive but inconsistent for my liking has time on his side at 23 and is contracted to 2020 so hopefully he will be the firepower into the next levels.

 

Youth Intake - decent intake considering i forgot to hire a HOYD didn't want to spend the wages at the start of the season and bypassed my reminder i had set. I tagged eight players due to their potential but i will add them in next seasons post as i want to see who progress as i found this intake very raw with no well rounded players i had pacey wingers who had dribbling of 3! Best prospect seems to be the centre backs in terms of being ready to step up at least i gave the 8 players some game times but none truly impressed hopefully some can make an impact! I Also decided i  liked an idea someone from this thread gave me about keeping a track on players i released so i released a tiny Cm who looked appealing and tagged him 000 lets see if he can ever make an impact i'll only update if he makes progress elsewhere.

Notice- A couple of dual nationalities always appreciated especially my temperamental Moroccan i have no idea how i have these dual national players guess Tienen has a foreign background

Next Season-

Phase in more youths 

Recover from end of season form

Look to improve facilities 

Keep Key players 

[vikeologist]

Vikeologist's 2020/21 Chita Season Report

A relatively stress-free season.

With only 16 teams in the top division, and 4 of them falling into automatic or playoff relegation spots, one should never feel too safe.

With 10 games to go we were pushing for an European slot, but so were all the 12 top ‘safe’ clubs. I think there was just 6 points between the teams in 2^nd and 12^th, and Spartak on top were still within catching distance for the clubs immediately behind them. The 4 clubs at the bottom looked doomed, (although the 3^rd and 4^th bottom teams do usually beat the 3^rd and 4^th placed teams from the division below in the playoff). However, as I say, you can never take anything for granted. One of the bottom teams, Samara, went on a terrific run of success and actually finished above us. We weren’t actually safe until the penultimate match, picking up just one victory in our last 10 matches, but we never really looked in trouble, although we did end up in 12^th immediately above the relegation places.

So, we threw away a good opportunity in the league, and also in the cup. We wreaked revenge on cup holders and this year’s league champs Spartak, which left us an easy potential route to the final, till we inexplicably lost heavily to poor lower division side Torpedo Moscow in the quarterfinal. Very frustrating. It was eventually won by the Samara team who had the amazing end of season great escape, so maybe now they’ll have the money to stop being perennial relegation fodder.

Transfers – Only 1 loss, but it hurt. Bondarev was my best central midfielder, and the only tagged one. I wasn’t even given the chance to protest the transfer, but it did pay for further improvements to our training and youth facilities which are in the works. Our basic Youth Recruitment is really not good enough for a club of our stature, but as I’ve discussed, I’m not being given the option to improve it. (I do have the option of decreasing it even further which is crazy). Bug? Our Junior Coaching is now Excellent, but without better recruitment, there may be a limit to the potential abilities of our intakes.

Finances – I thought they were ok, but the new facilities have reduced our balance to almost zero. I don’t think there’s any real problems though.

Squad –

Top Goalscorer –  Razborov / Fomin  – 14. Given that my 2 starting strikers played almost every match, this is not great. Fomin is supposed to be by far our best striker, and I’ve agreed to find a new club for him, though I’m probably lying. However, given that he’s showing no sign of being a prolific goalscorer, maybe losing him wouldn’t be the end of the world. 37 career goals in 116 appearances so far. Still, he’s only 18, so hopefully he and his strike rate can improve, if he stays. None of the up and coming strikers have exactly set the world on fire in their few limited chances yet.

Best Average Rating Mikhail Prikhodko (YP3b) 7.14 My right back. A very good player.

 

Man of Match – Fomin – 4

MVP – Prikhodko. He picked up a bad injury this season, and we missed him, although I do have a lot of other very promising players in that position, and it was good for them to get some playing time.

Youth Intake – Only 4 players with the initial 5 star potential that determines tagging.

'Mickey' Borisov (YP5a) 3^rd in the depth chart behind 2 other youth intakees, and hasn’t seen a single minute of first team action yet. Hopefully somebody will offer me a lot of money for one of these 3, because otherwise Mickey will probably just stagnate. Had to give him a nickname as I have 2 Borisov's.

Dmitry Lazarev (YP5b). I was excited to welcome him to the squad. Fomin and Razborov are very similar types of players, short-arsed poachers, whereas Lazarev is a tall targetman, which I can see working very well with our wingback play. Instantly our number 3 striker, Dmitry saw 457 minutes of action without producing a single goal, and only 1 tackle. Early days though.

Alexandr Mironov (YP5c) Praise the Lord, a central midfielder, though, frankly I need more than 1. He mostly saw time as a sub, but he will be featuring heavily next season.

Vladimir Dmitriev (YP5d) Goalkeeper, and I suppose his development depends on whether our first choice keeper goes, and who wins the subsequent battle of the youths.

First Team Intake Players

Alexey Bedretdinov (YP3c) looks to have emerged from the pack to be our best central defender alongside our 28 year-old veteran Yarmolitskiy.

Komissarov, Artem Nefedov and Ruslan Kirillov all weren’t tagged, but have potentially benefitted from getting extensive first team action in central midfield, because there was (almost) nobody else, but they’re still not actually all that good yet.

Season	Division				Position	Notes										
16/7	National League				7th		Missed out on playoffs with 2 points from our last 5 matches.
17/8	National League				14th		Flirted with relegation all season, but it never got to see us naked.
18/9	National League				2nd		Automatic promotion.
19/20	Championship				14th		Avoided relegation in playoff.	
20/21	Championship				12th		Pushed for Europe until the final strait where we became a pushover.

 

[Gareth Winter]

On 26/04/2017 at 18:46, darren1983 said:

Have finally finished my dissertation (well I hand it in tomorrow but it's all done and can't do anything more with it!) so am coming back to my save, oh how I've missed those infuriating boys

On a side note, Dulwich have a playoff of game in real life tomorrow night and it's the first time in a while they have a home game when I'm not going to a Brentford game so am tempted to go along as I kinda want a Dulwich shirt after this save  

Haha I often think about doing that sort of thing. I used to buy a football shirt for a team for every country I visited. Maybe I should buy one every year for a team I manage on FM

[darren1983]

My return to the save hasn't gone well, feels like the end is coming

 

[GottaBeatThemAll]

Question for some of the more experienced members here where do you think this player will be best suited

Stef Aerts

Currently i play 442dm in my eyes he could be a decent deep lying playmaker because of his vision touch and technique but i also think he could do well as a deep lying forward or target man thanks to his height and strength and decent flair and vision, i know his finishing is poor for a striker but i'd be willing to work with that. 

anyways let me know where you guys think he could be best suited for i can't decide as i don't have a particular need in either position.

[XaW]

@GottaBeatThemAll: A very strong season there, very close to promotion. Regarding Aerts, I'm not sure. He has good vision and technique, but his passing need a bit of work for a playmaker type. His tackling and bravery, among other things, makes him lacking in the defensive part, but his finishing and dribbling is also lacking, so I'm not sure. Of course, a target man could be something if you use it. He is kind of a Jack-of-all-trades with his skills, so I think he can be formed to quite a number of roles. I know this is not a very good answer, but it's my two cents anyway.

@vikeologist: A solid season. Slowly crawling up the table now.

@darren1983: Ouch, a hard season there. Hopefully you can turn it around!

[XaW]

XaW - Íþróttafélag Reykjavíkur - 2024

Table | Past positions | Squad | Transfers | Finances

Finally an off season with no sales over my head, well, no sales at all, but that's how I wanted it. A couple of bids, but nothing big. As usual the season started with the Upper League Cup and we went through the group with ease and made it to the final without much effort. There we actually lost against FH. They are a tricky side, seeing as they are professional, while the rest is semi-pro. They can beat anyone on a good day, and this was a good day for them. A couple of days later we did win a a title when we beat ÍA in the Champions Cup. Not long after was our first match in the VISA bikar karla and we lost away to HK, a team from the second tier. I posted the game above, and I can't believe how we lost it. Anyway, that's it for domestic cups. In the league things went quite well as we took an early top, but FH was on the trail from the start and we didn't get any wide lead.

In Europe we had another go at Champions League and we got drawn against Cliftonville of Northern Ireland. We beat them 11-0 at home in one of the best games I've played in FM I think. In the away game we beat them 0-2 to progress to the next round were we drew Rapid Wien of Austria. A 0-1 loss away in the first leg gave us some hope, and we really had a great game when we beat them 3-0 at home to get to the playoff stage. Here we got an old rival, Celtic was back and we wanted revenge. I didn't actually have much hope, but the players did great when we won 3-2 in the home game. We were up 3-0 when we got a red card and Celtic hit a couple back. In the rematch I went full out defensive to contain the lead if possible. The match started with us taking the lead after only 3 minutes though, with a surprising counterattack. We tried to keep the ball, but Celtic pressed and managed to score two goals before half time. I had to go a bit more offensively and we managed to equalize. Then it was a tough fight, but we held on and the match ended 2-2. We went into the Champions League group stage! This was beyond my wildest dreams. After we beat Rapid Wien I knew we were in the Europa League and was happy with that, but this was an amazing bonus.

The group stage was drawn and we got draw into a group with Juventus, Galatasaray and PSV Eindhoven. Not the hardest group by all means, but we still are probably going to end with 0 points. The group stage goes into next season, so I'll have mini update when it's done. So far I have lost against Juventus at home (0-2) and Galatasaray away (0-1).

Edit: Mini update here! The group stage is done, and we finished 4th of course. Though we did get a single point, a very solid 0-0 draw at home to PSV. Very happy with the  effort, but it was far above our pay grade at the moment.

The rest of the season kind of got in the back seat with the European games going so well. We still did good since our backups are coming along nicely. It went to the final match though, since FH was at our heels the whole way. Before the final match we were only 2 points ahead of FH. We had a home games against UMF Selfoss, and FH had a home game against Afturelding. If we lost and FH won we would lose it, any other would give us the title. We did our job though and won it 3-0. FH somehow missed the goals and only go a 0-0 draw. Our 3rd title in a row!

We moved into the new stadium this season, so our attendances have skyrocketed and the finances got better. And our participation in the group stage of Champions League gave us more than £10M! We are finally going professional and I have gotten approved improvements to both youth and training facilities. I'm looking forward to next season!

The youth:

The youth intake this season was very good in regards to personalities. I'm still looking to improve determination and professionality, so some very welcome players. The best are probably Stefán Þór Ingason (YP24a). I think I'll make him into an inside forward on the left. A little low flair and vision, but still.

Season

League

Position

Upper league Cup

VISA bikar karla

Europa League

Champions League

Top scorer

Youth Coaching

Youth Recruitment

Training facilities

Youth Facilities

Average attendance

Season tickets

Achievements

2017

1. deild karla

1st

Runner up

Semi final

N/A

N/A

Stefán Þór Pálsson – 14

Good

Average

Adequate

Adequate

551

242

Champions

2018

Pepsi-deildin

8th

Group stage

3rd round

N/A

N/A

Róbert Kristinsson (YP17c) – 6

Good

Average

Adequate

Adequate

840

358

Survived

2019

Pepsi-deildin

1st

Group stage

Semi final

N/A

N/A

Darri Auðunsson (YP18a) – 21

Excellent

Average

Adequate

Adequate

1,034

383

Champions

2020

Pepsi-deildin

1st

Winner

Quarter final

N/A

2nd qualifying round

Róbert Kristinsson (YP17c) – 13

Exceptional

Average

Adequate

Adequate

1,502

821

Champions

2021

Pepsi-deildin

2nd

Quarter final

Winner

Playoff

3rd qualifying round

Viktor Örn Guðmundsson – 19

Exceptional

Average

Adequate

Adequate

3,242

1,069

Cup winners

2022

Pepsi-deildin

1st

Winner

Winner

Playoff

N/A

Brynjar Óli Þráinsson (YP20a) – 33

Exceptional

Average

Average

Average

3,088

1,076

Full domestic sweep

2023

Pepsi-deildin

1st

Winner

Winner

Playoff

3rd qualifying round

Brynjar Óli Þráinsson (YP20a) – 19

Exceptional

Average

Average

Good

2,493

1,274

Full domestic sweep

2024

Pepsi-deildin

1st

Runner up

3rd round

N/A

Group Stage

Guðmundur Sigurðsson (YP23a) – 25

Exceptional

Average

Average

Good

6,794

1,453

Got far in Europe

[The Art of Drowning]

Nice one @XaW surely that means a good chance of being professional now?

[The Art of Drowning]

So we were bloody awful in our first year up but just about survived, just look at our goals against column!  Went on a horrible losing run including one 7-0 defeat but just about stayed up right at the death:  table

Mathiasson was by far our best player again but got injured quite a lot, of course the inevitable has now happened:  Gone

On the plus side we had a nice intake

Gudjohnsen

Arnladsson

Viktorsson

Leifsson

[XaW]

@The Art of Drowning: Yeah, we became professional at the end of the season. I think it's mostly down to having a good bankroll before asking. I didn't find the top tier much harder than the second tier, but it could be differences. The only good teams in my games are FH, and sometimes Stjarnan. Arnaldsson looks like a gem! 

[The Art of Drowning]

Just got offered the Iceland job and the game crashed immediately after I hit reject

[Matty]

 

'The Bucks' announce Matt Trower as the man to lead them on their new adventure.

Manager Profile season 1

After winning promotion last year Dave Hopkins made the surprise decision not to extend the contract of long term manager Martin McIntosh who had been at the club for the previous 5 years. When asked about this decision Dave simply said "The club wants to go in a different direction, I feel that the way forward for a club of our size and stature is to build a firm foundation through the youth academy. Unfortunately Martin did not agree and demanded a substantial war chest to take the club forward. Matt came forward during this time and blew me away with his vision for the club, the money we will be saving from developing our own players will be better used to further enhance the infrastructure at the club starting with the youth academy."

A statement from Matt read, "To have the opportunity of starting out my career at a club with a chairman who has a clear vision, one that mirrors my own philosophy, for believing in the youth at the club is a great honour. This will be a great journey and I am glad I can lead it."

[GottaBeatThemAll]

 

A much tougher season in my belgian adventure we started the season off very well winning 2 out of our first 3 games by at least 3 goals and we drew against recently relegated beerschot but after that the 442 struggled mightily i would regularly have both strikes below 6.5 rating so i decided to join the rest of belgium in a 4123 formation which provided good results until the second stage of the season where we struggling to score again!! and i kept changing formation which i should know from previous attempts only leads to disaster so i went back to 4123 for the last 3 games and we won 2 lost 1 to finish 9th not the worst season just slightly disappointing in comparison to last years title challenge.

The season Aims 

Phase in more youths - Yes all 8 tagged youths saw game time

Recover from end of season form- Sort of we still had our struggles

Look to improve facilities- only improved junior coaching we're too much in debt to improve anything atm

Keep Key players- was never in doubt 

 

League Table Positions

Squad review- still doing a full review as i don't feel like we have a top 3 of performers yet we're generally a mix of average to poor performers this year. I think next season i will only review the youths that have made appearances and the new intake.

Goalkeepers- Hannes- Poorer season his positioning annoyed me at times and i felt we could have had more points without him hopefully he can bounce back even stronger next season.

Defenders- as you can tell we had a constantly changing back line but i felt it was similar to last year where we had a mix of positive and negative performers.

Boudadi- Much improved season and he spent majority at right back and his 7 rating perfectly sums up his season as he was one of the more reliable players.

Renson- as you can see from his tag he retired!! my only decent left back retired after getting an injury for 8-10 months through sprinting! most likely i will hire him as an assistant manager in the youths as his coaching stats are quite good he was having a good season as well with 7.13 rating from 13 games his absence allowed my youth left back some needed game time.

Singh- Captain fantastic this year he's mr reliable and was one of the constants in the team as he was ever present in the league and only missed one cup game.

Willems- disappointing from him in terms of appearances once he hit 25 he lost all his potential and became a leading player for the division below us admittingly i tried to preferred youths over.

Verhamme- similar to willems except he actually performed poorly despite being the highest rated cb still a good player to keep around as an experienced head and versatile defender.

Carton- My Milner did ok in his appearances but same issues as last year he needs to nail down a position as he's too much a jack of all trades and i can't see him breaking away from being the sub option

Greeff 185- My young left back who got 16 games thanks to renson, he did well i like his stats nice team work and work rate i have high hopes of him and he'll start next year as our main left back.

Joao Rodrigues 181- Our star youth i had loads of bids for him but the highest came to 15k in total which was never going to happen, he was called up by portugal u19s and u21s but never got on the pitch i really hope he can turn into our main cb next year. One concerning thing is his determination has dropped down to 12 over one season from 17.

Belle 182- started off the season playing well and nailed down the rb slot but once our form went poor so did he and boudadi came in and belle struggled for opportunities, i do like him but he's got competition thanks to the new intake will be interesting to see who comes out on top.

Midfielders 

Weeghmans- One of the first names on the team sheet when he wants too he can win games on his own with his driving ability and long shots he improved his stats from last year in terms of goals and assists and is definitely a driving force in the team

Lacolley- i expected more from him tbh still had a good season but he needs to up his game to scare off any youths from overtaking him.

Haroun-Not a bad player does well when played but i think he might be leaving as he wants £450 pw for backup player which went happen it'll be a shame as he's got good determination and tutoring potential.

Grancea- feels much improved from last year he obviously read my review last season as he stepped up to claim the right wing spot as his own but he's got competition in the youths now so will have to keep improving.

Houze- Same as Grancea but to a lesser extent.

Aerts 186- With the formation change playing him as a cm-a  he does ok in his appearances but i want more from him a little target from me is for him to be in 7's for next season.

Kristoff 184- Good player with decent pace but poor technicals he was fantastic in the youth teams and did ok in his appearances this year but with the best youth of the 19's being a right winger he'll have to translate his youth form to seniors fast so he's not forgotten.

Bart 188- Our first youth scorer in the 2nd game of the season i really hope he has a massive improvement in his technicals as he's good potential but i can see him only ever being a backup player due to his decreased potential unless he has a big stats improvement .

Verbist 183- good dm played well and do like him he's a bit of a kante player in my eyes and hopefully continues in the same form next season.

Attackers- as you can tell our offence was awful this year and i actually hated how inconsistent we can be in front off goals nobody can step up and play decent on a regular basis which is disappointing hopefully someone steps up next season.

Eboigbe- Poor year from him again and he could be leaving he's another asking for too much money and not playing well enough for it.

Djouck- Very disappointing from our best player on paper he would always play poorly but there was never any telltale reason for it i'm struggling with him and he wants 1k in his next contract i'm hoping for a big offer for him as he's such a let down.

Constadines-Probabaly deserved more games but he could only ever be a short term option nothing more he was more well known for his tremendous form in the un21s.

Greef-194 The first 19" player to play and he disappointed but i like the look of him and hope for a good season for him.

Devos-187- 2 goals in 11 games is poor but i think he'll be a top player one day as he's got good stats hopefully he'll improve his performances for next season.

Youth Intake- a nice intake seems to be more well round than last years class i forgot to indivually tag most of last years as well so imagine how i felt when i realised i hadn't tagged any of this years until a month or so after the intake. 

Nationalites

191- made on appearance nothing special in that game but he's already improved to be 2 star ca so for me he looks like a more well rounder version of 187 bart hopefully he can put some pressure on grancea for next year

192-  similar to 186 aerts except he's the smaller version needs to improve his passing and technique but he's got good physicals and good mental attributes to be a good cm-a

193- Barts 188 challenger a like his 16 flair unfortnutenly he got injured in the trial game i haven't been able to see what he's like in game but there's an open slot in lw for him in the seniors if he wants it.

 

195- Looks very promising similar to Joao from last year except for his very poor determination he has the potential to break into the first team next year it will be interesting to see if he can as he's now the 4th youth cb I've got but he's already ahead of 2 untagged 18"s from last year in terms of ability.

196- Belle's 182 challenger a dual international of albania he's doesn't have much to stand out in terms of his attributes the best thing about him appears to be his name!

197- High potential hopefully he can replace hannes bit on the small side and not sure about his rating in tendency to punch .

 

Next season Aims

Get some youths to be key players

get rid of deadwood and overpaid

Aim to improve on 9th position

 

[The Art of Drowning]

So we went into the final game of the season 2 points clear at the top of the league but with a much worse goal difference than 2nd place.   We knew only a win would do but it was a tough away match, we lost 4-0... 

Still 2nd place with 0 goal difference is quite something: Table

Our key man is Arnaldsson but he is another one who won't sign a new deal so he probably won't be here for too long.

We also had a good youth intake including:

Arnason

Michaelsson

Arnason 2

Geirsson

[XaW]

Good luck with Buxton, @Matty!

@GottaBeatThemAll: Tough season, but at least you got to blood some of the youngsters.

@The Art of Drowning: Very close call! At least you get a try in Europe next season. The title is also close next season.

[XaW]

XaW - Íþróttafélag Reykjavíkur - 2025

Table | Past positions | Squad | Transfers | Finances

We turned professional in the off season, so much of it was spent trying to get the players to sign full-time contracts. It should be quite easy, but I don't want the players to get release clauses for pennies. When most agents want those it's a struggle. There are still a few players on part-time deals due to this. Most notable of those are our top scorer Guðmundur Sigurðsson (YP23a), but I have hopes he will sign soon. We managed to keep hold of all the players I wanted this season though, but I've started on a tougher line with players. If they aren't looking to break into the main team soon and don't have a good personality or determination then you get kicked out. I think I've managed to stop the slow drop in determination we have had, or at least slow it further so it's not as noticeable. The season started with the Upper League Cup, as usual, and we got through the group stage without issue. Then we went all the way to the final against Fram Reykjavík from the second tier. We beat the 4-0 to give us another title. Then we beat ÍA in the Champions Cup a couple of days later.

The league started great as we went the first 7 matches without problem. However, in the 8th we lost away against FH. After that we went back to winning and kept it like that into the summer. In the VISA Bikar karla we beat Haukar, Fram Reykjavík, Breiðablik UBK and Þróttur Reykjavík to get to the final. ÍBV Vestmannaeyja was the final hurdle, and they managed to hold us to extra time before we won it. Three for three domestically. In the league we had such a big lead going into the final part of the season that it was all but mathematically done. We did lose another game though. In the home game against FH we lost to them again. They really are becoming our bogey team. We also drew away to UMF Selfoss, but other than that it was all wins. Becoming professional are starting to show already, I think. Our 4th consecutive title, and a full domestic clean sweep.

In Europe we started in the Champions League 2nd qualifying round against Shamrock Rovers of Ireland. 4-1 win at home and 2-0 win away showed us through. In the next round we played Qarabağ of Azerbaijan. 4-0 win at home, and 2-0 win after the long travel to Azerbaijan. In the playoff we drew Dinamo Bucureşti of Romania. We held them to 0-0 away, so I hoped we could clinch it in the home game, but it ended 1-1 to knock us out on away goals. This meant we went into the group stage of Europa League though, and here we drew Valencia of Spain, Panathinaikos of Greece and Hertha Berlin of Germany. We have played 2 matches so far, losing 0-1 at home to Hertha and losing 1-6 away to Valencia.

EDIT: The group stage is done, and we went out to no ones surprise. Just about everyone was surprised though, when we recorded 2 wins and ended on a very respectable 3rd place in the group. After losing the first two matches as described above we had two matches against Panathinaikos to play. First, in the home match we lost narrowly 1-2. We did come back great in Greece though as we beat them 3-1! The penultimate match was a trip to the capital of Germany, and we lost 0-1 to Hertha there. The final game was a home tie to Valencia. With nothing to lose I asked the lads to play our normal game and we somehow managed to win 1-0. Not very deserved, but I'll take in none the less! A very good European adventure for us, and it should help us in the seeding for the next seasons to come.

Financially we are very solid, the board payed of all our outstanding debt and the European TV money are coming in. The facilities are getting improved, but I don't have the option of improving the youth coaching and youth recruitment, but I hope I can improve it further.

The youth:

A solid youth intake this season, and one of the best is Garðar Sigurðarson (YP25a).

Season

League

Position

Upper league Cup

VISA bikar karla

Europa League

Champions League

Top scorer

Youth Coaching

Youth Recruitment

Training facilities

Youth Facilities

Average attendance

Season tickets

Achievements

2017

1. deild karla

1st

Runner up

Semi final

N/A

N/A

Stefán Þór Pálsson – 14

Good

Average

Adequate

Adequate

551

242

Champions

2018

Pepsi-deildin

8th

Group stage

3rd round

N/A

N/A

Róbert Kristinsson (YP17c) – 6

Good

Average

Adequate

Adequate

840

358

Survived

2019

Pepsi-deildin

1st

Group stage

Semi final

N/A

N/A

Darri Auðunsson (YP18a) – 21

Excellent

Average

Adequate

Adequate

1,034

383

Champions

2020

Pepsi-deildin

1st

Winner

Quarter final

N/A

2nd qualifying round

Róbert Kristinsson (YP17c) – 13

Exceptional

Average

Adequate

Adequate

1,502

821

Champions

2021

Pepsi-deildin

2nd

Quarter final

Winner

Playoff

3rd qualifying round

Viktor Örn Guðmundsson – 19

Exceptional

Average

Adequate

Adequate

3,242

1,069

Cup winners

2022

Pepsi-deildin

1st

Winner

Winner

Playoff

N/A

Brynjar Óli Þráinsson (YP20a) – 33

Exceptional

Average

Average

Average

3,088

1,076

Full domestic sweep

2023

Pepsi-deildin

1st

Winner

Winner

Playoff

3rd qualifying round

Brynjar Óli Þráinsson (YP20a) – 19

Exceptional

Average

Average

Good

2,493

1,274

Full domestic sweep

2024

Pepsi-deildin

1st

Runner up

3rd round

N/A

Group Stage

Guðmundur Sigurðsson (YP23a) – 25

Exceptional

Average

Average

Good

6,794

1,453

Got far in Europe

2025

Pepsi-deildin

1st

Winner

Winner

Group Stage

Playoff

Guðmundur Sigurðsson (YP23a) – 24

Exceptional

Average

Good

Great

6,940

1,529

Full domestic sweep

[XaW]

I also took a new review of the players in regards to personality, and this is what I got:

I think I can see the effect of the things I've done. I'm looking for more and more green here, and less red. In regards to determination we are getting much much better, but we still need an improvement in professionalism. I'm still looking for my first model pro youth, but I have hopes.

Some of this I think is due to my staff. I've been looking for good staff and so far I've gotten in a couple of very good ones:
U19 Manager
HOYD
U19 Fitness coach
Fitness coach
U19 coach
Coach

I have others, but those are the best ones. It seems to be slowly working, but I'll continue to monitor it in order to continue improving this aspect of the development.

[darren1983]

Dulwich Hamlet - Season 2019/40 - Championship

League - this was maybe my toughest season yet. Runs of poor form and injuries left us desperate, a change in formation was required and we found some form. We went from 1 win in 16 to 4 in 16 so that was progress! A game unbeaten run saw us briefly get out of the relegation zone, we then went 6 without a win (5 losses) saw us slip back in. At this point I pretty much gave up hope, suddenly we found form, lead by Richard Byrne (18A) we won our last 5 games and somehow ended 18th. Really not sure how this happened but pleased to stay up. In the cups we didn't do too much, 4th round of FA Cup and quarter finals of league cup. 

Transfers - no big losses, most players left and ended up at conference level which is about it.

Squad - they try their best but they're not good enough for this level, most are league two at best.

Finances - still really healthy 

Youth Intake - on paper it's a good one, 6 players with 5* potential 

Duncan Carr 23A - another CB but now that we've switched to 3 at the back we can give opportunities to more CBs

Leigh Chapman 23B - a solid striker, being retrained as we've gone strikerless this season

Ryan Richards 23C - promising CM, is needed as our better ones are old

Dan Darville 23D - can play full back either side

Michael Clough 23E - can play CM or AMC which suits the new tactic

Mohammed Musah 23F - winger but as we don't use them is being retrained

Career Overview

Season		League		Position	Achievements

2017/18		VNS		1st		Champions
2018/19		VNL		7th		
2019/20		VNL		14th 
2020/21		VNL		15th
2021/22		VNL		4th		Promotion via playoffs
2022/23		EFL2		22nd 
2023/24		EFL2		4th		Lost Playoff Semi Final	
2024/25		EFL2		22nd 	
2025/26		EFL2		19th 		
2026/27		EFL2		9th		
2027/28		EFL2		3rd 		Promotion!
2028/29		EFL1		3rd		Lost in Playoff Semi Final
2029/30		EFL1		13th		
2030/31		EFL1		8th		EFL trophy runner up
2031/32		EFL1		2nd		Promotion
2032/33		Champ		10th	
2033/34		Champ		16th 
2034/35		Champ		13th 
2035/36		Champ		11th 
2036/37		Champ		16th 
2037/38		Champ		11th 	
2038/39		Champ		15th 
2039/40		Champ		18th 

 

[vikeologist]

Vikeologist's 2021/22 Chita Season Report

A fairly boring season. For the first time we were entirely clear of relegation danger, and stood a chance of European qualification all season without it ever seeming likely to actually happen. European qualification was still a possibility until a bout 3 matches to go, and it would have gone to the final match if it wasn't for the fact that 2 rubbish teams made the final (1 of which knocked us out, lost in the final, and then were relegated) meaning that only the top 4 teams qualified for Europe via league placing.

Squad – The big development (for me) was that my team has transitioned from Fairly Pro to Pro. Some of the determinations are still coming down, but the squad personality seems to be having more positive than negative effects on the youngsters now.

Top Goalscorer –  Maxim Fomin (YP1d)  - 22

Fomin continued to develop. Unfortunately his contract is up in a year, and I doubt he’s going to stay. His strike partner, Razborov, only scored 6 goals. Admittedly I was giving a lot of chances to 2 young strikers, who I need to develop for life after Fomin. The 2 young strikers, Dmitry Lazarev (YP5b) and Sergey Masaev (YP4e) definitely are potentially a lot better than Razborov. Honestly I don’t think Razborov has really declined. I just think the rest of the team has improved. Masaev had the best strike rate behind Fomin.

Best Average Rating Fomin 7.12

Man of Match – Pridhodko (YP3b) – 5

MVP – Fomin. He’s our best player and it’s a pity that it doesn’t look as though there’s going to be any way to keep him. Imagine what he’d do is he wasn’t so unhappy at not being allowed to leave.

Youth Intake

Usually I give tags to all the potentially 5 star players, but this year there was only one. I initially tagged 4 of them, but honestly the 6d guy probably isn’t going to be retained beyond his youth contract, so now I only have 2 tagged. In part then this was a bad intake, but I think that the potential ratings are going down with the improvement of the team.

Anton Anuchin (YP6a) A central midfielder, which was excellent news. I haven’t managed to hold on to any of my (a) players for very long so far, but I offered Anuchin a generous initial contract, with a 2 year extension. I did put him straight into the first team, but at the end of the season he was relegated to being a reserve. However, he probably will be a first teamer next season, and with his set piece skills and professional personality, is valuable to me. I’m not going to get too attached though.

Renat Borodin (YP6b) Currently my 9^th best central defender, so he hasn’t got  anywhere near the first team so far. However, I have sent quite a few first team squad players in his position on season long loans, because they were getting restless for first team football, so he may get opportunities next season. Potentially my second best central defender, but I’m hoping that being on loan will light a fire under a few of his competition.

Transfers – The board made me sell last year’s promising left back youth 'Mickey' Borisov (YP5a), but then again, I have 2 better left backs, so I didn’t protest it. I didn’t get as much money as I would have hoped, but I can always hope for a large chunk of his next transfer.

Facilities - The board have approved improvements to youth training and coaching.

Here's where things stand

Training Facilities - Excellent (initially Average)

Youth Training - Great (improvement pending, initially Average)

Junior Coaching - Exceptional (initially Adequate)

Junior Recruitment - Basic (as it's always been, never having had the option of improving it). In the 6 years, my club's reputation has only gone from 2 star to 2.5 star, but I'm beginning to think that this is a bug. I really should be able to be better than Basic at this point. If it doesn't improve, and along with it the potential of my intakes, will I be able to complete the challenge? Hard to say. I'll just have to make sure I qualify for Europe and get my rep up to 3 star next season.

 

Season	Division				Position	Notes										
16/7	National League				7th		Missed out on playoffs with 2 points from our last 5 matches.
17/8	National League				14th		Flirted with relegation all season, but it never got to see us naked.
18/9	National League				2nd		Automatic promotion.
19/20	Championship				14th		Avoided relegation in playoff.	
20/21	Championship				12th		Pushed for Europe until the final strait where we became a pushover.
21/22	Championship				7th		Hopefully this was the boring season before the glory days start.

 

[vikeologist]

@darren1983 Like you, I have a lot of players who don't fit tactically into my system, (including, like you, wingers), so have to be retrained if I'm going to use them. However, sometimes I don't bother, because I've never really had a player become any good at a position that he's not suited for. Have you ever had a successful retrain? I'm tempted now just to keep training them as wingers, and then sell them when they're developed, but even the ones who improve don't seem to have their values go up, maybe because they're not notching many first team appearances unless they go on loan. I'd also like to keep them on if their personality might be useful, but I'm not sure this is actually a good idea. I have an 18-year old who's a pretty decent attacking right winger now, (in the Russia U20 team), with a professional personality, but am I really going to keep him around for 6 more years? What have you done with your wingers and other players in the wrong positions?

 

@XaW I wish I could see your personality reviews. I can see your other links. Why are your links for personality reviews different. Got to be honest. I don't fancy your HoYD's personality (or judging attributes) much. I appointed a resolute assistant U20 manager, and the only useful thing about him is his Resolute personality.

@Everybody else. Sorry to neglect you this time. I am following your exploits.

 

[XaW]

@darren1983: At least you survived! Hopefully next season will be better!

@vikeologist: For the in-game pictures, I use the built-in steam upload thingy. For the personality I used another image host, but it might not be accessible for you for some reason. Anyway, I uploaded it again to imgur here. Hopefully you'll be able to see it now. I don't fancy his personality either, but he was pretty much the best I could find. No professional, fairly professional, resolute, or otherwise was willing to join as HOYD. I might have been able to promote someone from within, but he got his chance now, so we'll see how the intake is next season. If it's bad I'll probably try to replace him. It seems you have established yourself as a solid mid-table team. A good run could possibly give you European football in a few season.

My issue with personalities so far is that the tutor needs to be 24 or older. The one I have at that age don't have the personalities I want to spread, so there's not much tutoring going on. The goalkeepers are getting tutored by my captain Daníel Kári Víðisson (YP18c) who are fairly pro and a determination of 9. Not ideal, but better than they had before.

The new season have started great. 5 games, 5 wins and 19-0 goal difference.

[vikeologist]

@XaW I love your spreadsheet. Does it fill in the hidden values automatically when you put in the personality and media handling. I don't really know how media handling reflects hidden stats. I think we're kindred spirits in our interest in this side of the game. I was thrilled when my squad personality changed to professional, and then horrified when it temporarily slipped back for a few weeks. I think that I will have to try to make sure that high potential players with bad determination are held back long enough to be tutored, although as I now only have 1 tutor, there's not much I can do about it for a while...

You think your tutoring situation is bad. (Having looked at it closely, I do accept that it is bad). I have 6 Professional and 15 Fairly Pro players, but not a one of them older than 20. Tutoring for the next 4 seasons is going to be entirely via a player with a balanced personality and a determination of 10, because that's all I have, and when he stopped tutoring a player this season, the young guy's determination , which had gone up by 2 instantly starting going back down again. I do think though that the players with low professionalism are the ones whose determination goes down. The young player in question does still have low professionalism, even after the tutoring. I must stress. I'm not cheating by looking at the hidden stats. Because of my squad personality, I can tell which players have low professionalism from their reports, though things have improved markedly. The problem is players with high determination and low pro, because I don't want to tutor them. Hopefully the squad personality will kick in at some point. It is already. My number of F Pro players is increasing nicely. It's just the dipping determination which is still a problem.

 

 

[XaW]

Ok, it's once again time for a review of the unfaithful ones!

Árni Freyr Tryggvason (YP16a) - History - Sold to KAA Gent for £205k in 2019. Still at Fram Reykjavík. They are promoted to the top tier now, but I still think he would rather play for us.
Darri Auðunsson (YP18a) - History - Sold by the board to Cardiff for £35k in 2020. Still playing for Cardiff. Broke his leg last season and was out for most of it, but are back for them in the new season. A players I wish I still had.
Kristinn Einarsson (YP17a) - History - Sold to Standard Liège for £2,1M in 2021. Was released in the summer, but haven't found a club yet. Ended with a single match for Standard Liège, so I won't say he has been much of a success since he left us.
Valgeir Hróðmarsson (YP19a) - History - Sold by the board to West Bromwich Albion for £220k in 2022. Played a bit for West Brom, but got loaned out to Udinese for a season. This summer he was released by West Brom (making us lose the sell clause), and got picked up by Stade Brestois in the French second tier. He would sit great in my team, but alas.
Sindri Hilmarsson (YP20b) - History - Sold by the board to Stoke for £225k in 2022. Still at Stoke, but don't play much for them. Still a great defender if somewhat short.
Hermann Ágúst Ólafsson (YP17e) - History - Sold by the board to Bologna for £275k in 2022. In a rotation role at Bologna, but into his last season now. Hopefully they will give him a new one or sell him for big money so I'll get payed more. A solid back, but I think we have better players now.
Jason Einarsson (YP21a) - History - Sold by the board to Watford for £275k in 2023. Still an amazing player. Got sold for a very low amount to Lyon by Watford. We got some money for it, but I think he should have commended a much higher amount. He is a fantastic talent I wish I still had.
Guðmundur Sigurðsson (YP23a) - History - Sold to Anderlecht for £2,5M in 2025. Sold him since he wouldn't sign a new contract and only had a year left on his current deal. Got a big amount of money for him, but I'd rather have kept him due to the lack of strikers in the squad.

[darren1983]

@vikeologist have had a couple of successful retraining's, namely c couple AMCs trained to IF's but other than that my better ones have come from training players to become natural at roles rather than positions. 

@XaW Happy to survive last season, really thought I was done for. This season is going ok, currently not involved in a relegation battle but table is so close that it could go either way.

[XaW]

@vikeologist. No I calculate it manually by this guide. I would love to have it done automatically, but I can't be bothered to make it. It shouldn't be difficult, but I haven't done Excel formulas or macros in a long time and would rather play the game than try. If I get the spirit over me, I'll do it and post it somewhere for you, but don't hold your breath.

As you I don't have enough suitable tutors as only my goalkeeper is good enough. I have a centre back that's professional, but his determination is only 6, so would rather him not drop the determination of the squad. I'm just waiting for the real good personalities are old enough to have a great impact.

[darren1983]

Inspired by @XaW look at his traitors thought I'd look back at my own big sales 

Andrew Acton (12A) - History - we got 1 season out of him before Sunderland grabbed him for £1.9m. He's hardly played in 11 seasons but would still be our best keeper

Ramer Gibson (20A) - History - came through with the tag of "best of his generation" we got 1 league cup game from him before the board accepted a £2.5m deal, not yet really broke through but still only 19. Played against us last season while on loan at Bournemouth.

Peter Evans (18C) - History - got a couple seasons from him, hasn't really done much for Leicester but would still walk into our team.

Rory Collis (17A) - History - our big sale. He met all the clauses so we ended up getting the full £31m for him, he's now a full international and doing well, looked to be getting interest from a couple of the bigger clubs last season so hoping he gets sold as we have a 40% sell on clause. Would love to still have him. 

[XaW]

Wow, you've had some great talents coming through, @darren1983! Collis is an amazing talent!

[darren1983]

@XaW yeah Collis is great, shame we got 1 season out of him when he was 17. Though his sale has funded our off field development, I got junior coaching up to exceptional as quickly as I could but since the Collis sale I've got our youth facilities up to excellent, got a level 1 academy and training facilities to average so fingers crossed we should be producing some more players like him soon. 

[darren1983]

Hate my chairman so much, Jan transfer window, on deadline day he sells our most promising player for £3m despite having over £30m in the bank. 

 

[XaW]

6 hours ago, vikeologist said:

@XaW I don't fancy your HoYD's personality (or judging attributes) much. I appointed a resolute assistant U20 manager, and the only useful thing about him is his Resolute personality.

I just had my youth intake, and I think he'll have to go. One of the poorest one I've had since the game started. Going to go staff hunting now.

5 minutes ago, darren1983 said:

Hate my chairman so much, Jan transfer window, on deadline day he sells our most promising player for £3m despite having over £30m in the bank. 

Ouch! I had a lot of those at the start of my career, but luckily I've been spared for it in the latter years.

[XaW]

I've conceded only 3 goals so far, but lost 2 matches....

[fabreth]

I have stopped my Lyn carreer for now. I managed to get promoted with a bit of luck, and guess what? No professionism... so I should start the Tippeligaen (1st tier) as the only semi-professional team. That is discouraging me, I hoped that reaching the 1st tier would automatically transform us to a professional team (like when you reach League 2 in England or Lega Pro in Italy).

Maybe I'll find motivation to try anyway, but for now I jump to other ongoing carreers, sorry..

[darren1983]

1 hour ago, XaW said:

Ouch! I had a lot of those at the start of my career, but luckily I've been spared for it in the latter years.

Just adds to my frustration. It's an annoying cycle - can't progress because our brightest prospects get sold before we get much out of them, but they get sold because we aren't progressing.  

[darren1983]

Dulwich Hamlet - Season 2040/41 - Championship

 

League - yet another frustrating season, for 2 thirds of the season we were a pretty decent mid table side, drawing a few too many and not scoring enough but then we, as we often do at some stage of a season, fell apart. Only 2 wins in our final 13 games (9 losses) saw us in free fall ending in our now customary lower half position. Main issue was scoring again, last season Byrne got 22 goals (16 the year before) but only 9 this year. Need to try and sort that with another tactical shuffle this summer

League Cup - Newport fell to our backups before we were outclassed by Premiership side Watford

FA Cup - woeful as we lost to a poor Wigan side

Transfers - Only big sale was Richards to Liverpool that I mentioned earlier

Squad - Same as usual really, Potts (19C) in goal, Kyriacou (19A) and Alexander (22C) are the only championship quality players  and all want to leave for a bigger club  

Finances - Still really healthy, which makes the enforced sales even more frustrating

Youth Intake - Our first as a level 1 academy was a little disappointing tbh. Some OK players tagged but not sure any will make it

Grant Shipperley (24A) - CM or DM, could have a chance if I revert back to the 433 I used to play

Mike Ridley (24B) - winger able to play either side, could become handy

Danny Campos (24C) - another LB, really only tagged him for his 2nd nationality being Peru  

Luke Egan (24D) - another keeper, could be solid with some work

Career Overview

Season		League		Position	Achievements

2017/18		VNS		1st		Champions
2018/19		VNL		7th		
2019/20		VNL		14th 
2020/21		VNL		15th
2021/22		VNL		4th		Promotion via playoffs
2022/23		EFL2		22nd 
2023/24		EFL2		4th		Lost Playoff Semi Final	
2024/25		EFL2		22nd 	
2025/26		EFL2		19th 		
2026/27		EFL2		9th		
2027/28		EFL2		3rd 		Promotion!
2028/29		EFL1		3rd		Lost in Playoff Semi Final
2029/30		EFL1		13th		
2030/31		EFL1		8th		EFL trophy runner up
2031/32		EFL1		2nd		Promotion
2032/33		Champ		10th	
2033/34		Champ		16th 
2034/35		Champ		13th 
2035/36		Champ		11th 
2036/37		Champ		16th 
2037/38		Champ		11th 	
2038/39		Champ		15th 
2039/40		Champ		18th 
2040/41		Champ		19th 

 

[XaW]

Let's see if I'm at all able to field 11 players.

18 players away on international duty is a bit much for us when we have a game to play.

[XaW]

I lost my whole season summary! 

I'll make a short one soon....

[XaW]

XaW - Íþróttafélag Reykjavíkur - 2026

Table | Past positions | Squad | Transfers | Finances

Ok, I lost my entire big summary, so this will just be a short one. Easy league win, but lost 4 games. Quarter final in the Upper League and winner of the VISA bikar karla. In Europe we beat Shamrock Rovers of Ireland and Sheriff Tiraspol before losing on away goals against FC København in the playoff for Champions League so I ended in Europa League. In the group stage I drew Inter, PAOK and Dinamo Bucureşti. I've beaten Inter at home and Dinamo Bucureşti away so far, and I'll update when the group stage is done.

Very poor youth intake, so I'm swapping out my HOYD if I can find anyone better

Season

League

Position

Upper league Cup

VISA bikar karla

Europa League

Champions League

Top scorer

Youth Coaching

Youth Recruitment

Training facilities

Youth Facilities

Average attendance

Season tickets

Achievements

2017

1. deild karla

1st

Runner up

Semi final

N/A

N/A

Stefán Þór Pálsson – 14

Good

Average

Adequate

Adequate

551

242

Champions

2018

Pepsi-deildin

8th

Group stage

3rd round

N/A

N/A

Róbert Kristinsson (YP17c) – 6

Good

Average

Adequate

Adequate

840

358

Survived

2019

Pepsi-deildin

1st

Group stage

Semi final

N/A

N/A

Darri Auðunsson (YP18a) – 21

Excellent

Average

Adequate

Adequate

1,034

383

Champions

2020

Pepsi-deildin

1st

Winner

Quarter final

N/A

2nd qualifying round

Róbert Kristinsson (YP17c) – 13

Exceptional

Average

Adequate

Adequate

1,502

821

Champions

2021

Pepsi-deildin

2nd

Quarter final

Winner

Playoff

3rd qualifying round

Viktor Örn Guðmundsson – 19

Exceptional

Average

Adequate

Adequate

3,242

1,069

Cup winners

2022

Pepsi-deildin

1st

Winner

Winner

Playoff

N/A

Brynjar Óli Þráinsson (YP20a) – 33

Exceptional

Average

Average

Average

3,088

1,076

Full domestic sweep

2023

Pepsi-deildin

1st

Winner

Winner

Playoff

3rd qualifying round

Brynjar Óli Þráinsson (YP20a) – 19

Exceptional

Average

Average

Good

2,493

1,274

Full domestic sweep

2024

Pepsi-deildin

1st

Runner up

3rd round

N/A

Group Stage

Guðmundur Sigurðsson (YP23a) – 25

Exceptional

Average

Average

Good

6,794

1,453

Got far in Europe

2025

Pepsi-deildin

1st

Winner

Winner

Group Stage

Playoff

Guðmundur Sigurðsson (YP23a) – 24

Exceptional

Average

Good

Great

6,940

1,529

Full domestic sweep

2026

Pepsi-deildin

1st

Quarter final

Winner

Group Stage

Playoff

Brynjar Óli Þráinsson (YP20a) – 36

Exceptional

Average

Impressive

Excellent

7,400

1,576

Do well in Europe

[GottaBeatThemAll]

 

What a season for the belgians we had a good season bouncing back from last year we had goals from all over luckily because our top goalscorer barely got into double figures. We were playing a lot of youths and managed to stay in the top 4 majority of the season and we ended up finishing 2nd on 51 points whilst league leaders Beerschot were on 58 and this is where belgiums flawed promotion comes into place as in the promotion stage 4 teams play each other twice with their points halved and the goal difference to 0 i think it's unfair for the leaders and last time out in this stage we didn't win a game so imagine my delight when we won our first 3 we then went onto draw our next 3 games but it didn't matter because a draw in game 5 was enough to secure our PROMOTION!!! Celebration times at Tienen as a long season is coming as history has shown the past 3 winners of the belgian amateur division have all been relegated in their first season in Pro league B

Past Positions League Table Playoff Table Facilities

Negative of this wonderful season was our ever growing debt which lead to the pesky board some of you have spoke off to come back and bite me as my best prospect 181 was sold for a measly fee i really liked him and he was actually ever present till the point he left so to lose him was devastating especially since he finally made his international debut! for one minute. This exit stung even more as only a couple days earlier his potential partner/replacement 195 left for a tiny fee he never played for me as i was hesitant to play two smaller youths at cb especially when we have 3 senior cbs already he was well ahead in his development and could've been fantastic i do hope he fulfils his potential despite his early exit.

Team of the Year Manager of Year

A very big shoutout to Jannick Weeghmans my star player and favourite he was a machine for us and in the play offs he played majority of the game against beershot in the 2nd game of the playoffs he played the majority the game with a damaged heel! The driving force of the team and undisputed first name on the team 

18" Intake every one got some games it seems despite be very raw technically they are ready for seniors as most are squad rotation and first team players

181 As mentioned he left hopefully his 40% sell on clause comes handy big miss for the team but we had others to step up into his absence and one player who impressed and has developed well over the past couple of years is this guy Chancel did well when played hoping he continues his development from the youths into the seniors.

182 Played 20 games this year as him and Boudadi shared game times he does well but has an eventual poor game still lacking technical ability but performs to a decent standard and i hope he continues to progress well.

183 For majority of the season he was really good i like his mobility and improved a lot in comparison to last year but again similar to 182 he lacks technical ability but didn't affect his performances.

184 needed more game time and he impressed in a short spell before eventually dropping off he needs to improve heavily as there's two younger youths much better than him, he did actually score in my eyes our goal of the season a first time volley from 35 yards.

185 Played 20 games but expected more from him and now he's got competition in 203, i like his high work rate and team work couple with brilliant fitness and i have high hopes that the next level will be good for him.

186 when he first arrived in our academy i wasn't sure where to play him but he suited centre mid very well and actually came third in young player of year very well done from him as he achieved my target from last season and achieved over 7 rating.

187 16 games and 5 goals decent return thats made him worse when one was a hatrick and other a brace so for 14 of the games he was goalless i struggle with his role as he's not a target man thanks to his jumping reach so hopefully he can start to develop as i'm desperate to have a consistent striker

19" Intake i had expected more from this intake as it was disappointing that an untagged player performed the best in their first full season i think next year will be this intakes big year in terms of making an impact in the senior team.

191 A physical star but very disappointing in his appearances as he failed to put an end product to his dribbling i hope he start to get the ball in the back of the net or he risks being overtaken by other youths and he's drawing interest so for hopefully theres no offers.

192 JLS got some decent games despite our best performing players being in his position i really like the look of him his mental and physical stats looks good unfortunately for him he came more into the team at the end of the season where the stakes were high.

193 made only 1 appearance and possibly deserved more but we have a lot of options in left wing so if he gets chances he'll have to step up he seems very similar to 184 so hopefully he can follow his trend of getting more games in his third year.

194 I like this player he's pacey a good finisher and a potential captain his rating was dragged down by poor performances where he missed chances but he gets himself in the right place which is a key thing for me so if he becomes clinical he could be my number one striker

195 Previously mentioned he's departed disappointed but wasn't a loss in the first team a bigger disappointed was his fee!

196 Made an appearance in the dead rubber last play off game a bit defensive and slow for my liking as a full back he's developed nicely as he's nearly on par with 182.

197 Bit on the small side for goalie very promising it will be interesting to see if he can break into the team.

Bram Verbrugen Developed really well and deserved a tag i initially didn't tag him as he didn't look better than either of the wingers of this intake but he developed really well and broke into the first team he mainly played as an inside forward on the wing and with 4 goals to show for it i look forward to seeing how he progresses.

20" Intake Very High potential and provides some competition for existing youths and hopefully some make an impact in the next season. 

Nationalites- a couple of congo's again but overall i'm happy with the personalities its a variety but with only one player with low determination and even a player who's driven with 18 determination it's shame he's an awful player.

201 looks like a potential star did well in his two performances

202 A centre back who is already on par with our other cb youths high potential.

203 finally a challenge for Greef i hope they can spur on a competition similar to boudadi and belle

204 looks good and good challenge for our resident dm 183 

205 very similar to 197 slightly lower potential but abhigher starting cpa for now he's the u19 keeper

206 has played well for the youths so far he has a lot of competition so will have to make sure his chances are taken 

207 read 206 

Season Aims

Get some youths to be key players- Yes more and more youths played 

get rid of deadwood and overpaid- Two players left at the start both retired and both weren't missed looking for more players to depart but i think we need as much experience as possible for next year

Aim to improve on 9th position- achieved without a doubt 

Next Season

Continue giving more game time to youths

Improve facilities and become professional

SURVIVE!

[Sn00gle]

Polonia Warszawa 2023/2024

League - Squad - Transfers - Finances

 

As I expected we were trying to survive. Two key players left  The Traitors Rafal Olesinski (YP18a) went to Watford for 650K and got only 3 caps then get on loan to USA where he play 6... Well we got money anyway but he is not playing at all there. Next one Jacek Sajdak (YP19b) 250K to Gornik Leczna playing only in second team. I can say 2 fallen star's from Polonia unlucky for them and for me. There was a small problem in middle of the season becouse I went on holidays to skip season break and my senior club loan me a player I couldn't make him back to them so I put him in second team and he never played as you can see. I think that our team have more staff then actually player's but  even witch such big staff from around the world we don't have a lot of great talent's and foreign one's. Our Facilities are much better since we start our journey I hope that allow us to back in next 3 season's to Lotto Ekstraklasa but first need to find out new tactic and fix team spirit.

Youth intake

Forgot screenshot 1 player was only tagged.

 

Bartosz Szczepanski (YP24a)

 

PS. Question to @XaW who in your team bring new players Youth Manager or HOYD? And you prefer more skilled working with youngstars and determination or judging potential and ability? What are your observation about this zone of club?

 

 

 

•  

  Season		League		Position		Achievments
  
  2017/18		PFD		11th			Survived
  2018/19		PFD		5th			
  2019/20		PFD		9th
  2020/21		PFD		2nd			Promotion
  2021/22		LE		8th		   	Survived
  2022/23		LE		15th			Relegated
  2022/23		PFD		13th			Survived

   

 

[The Art of Drowning]

League Table: So yet again we took it to the last game of the season and yet again we had it all in our own hands.  Yet again we finish 2nd   This time we went into the final game 2 points behind leaders KR with our final game being a home match against them, we could only manage a 1-1 draw so just missed out on the title.

I think we may have won it if we kept hold of Arnaldson, managed to talk my board out of accepting £300k for him but then more bids came in and I was in a position to negotiate.  Realistically I couldn't refuse the offer though and the money has come in very nicely as the board are now willing to upgrade our youth facilities.

Europe was a nice adventure where we easily saw off Dinamo Minsk and FK Ventspils in the first 2 Europa qualifiers before coming up against Everton.  We went ultra defensive and "only" lost 3-0 away, actually put up a great fight in the home leg too but lost that one 3-2.  Was a nice bit of a financial boost though.

Ulfur Arnar is our other top player, he is wanted by pretty much all of Belgium so I imagine it won't be long before he follows Arnaldson out of the door.   We are in for a struggle next season as we don't have any good strikers left, tempted to try a striker less formation.

Youth Intake is in, not a bad one but we now have about 7 right backs with good potential.  I think the player I have most hope for out of that list is Ingason.

[The Art of Drowning]

Just like that Arnar has gone, £375k rising to a potential £900k.  We have no good players left ffs

[Matty]

Buxton 2017/2018

 

So, 10 games into my challenge with Buxton and we lie rock bottom.  We have struggled to build up any consistency, when I feel that we are making progress we fall to a late goal, when we struggle to score we only lose by one and when we are firing in 3 in a game, so do the opposition. We don't have amazing current ability throughout the squad but the potential doesn't look too bad. The one player that does currently stand out for me in the opening part of the season however is a 16 year old lad called David Baldwin, he is described as a winger but due to lack of other options I have preferred to play him as a striker and he hasn't disappointed, at least not for a 16 year old anyway.

Players are of course unhappy with the standard of fitness training and the facilities leave a little to be desired. Financially we are currently projected to be £400k in the red by the end of the season and this hasn't been helped by getting dumped out of the FA Cup 2nd qualifying round by lowly Morpeth.

Not sure how the rest of the season will go, but I'm not hopeful. Unless I can find a rhythm and a tactical style that works with the players I have I feel the trap door is already creaking open.

We shall see.