FM17 Youth Academy Challenge

[AliG]

1 minute ago, Duroliponte said:

@Sanno11 Thanks! It feels like I've turned a corner now and hopefully most of my players would regard other Finnish clubs as a sideways step. Don't think I'll cope if Kalermo leaves before setting our goalscoring record (which is about 30)! Hope the Conference is treating you well.

@Pippadoc Yeah...it's quite a tough one. The tactic seems to work when we are massive underdogs, and is less useful when we only have a slight disadvantage. I think it might serve me well in the first season before it gets sussed out.

@Dan BHTFC All credit for sticking with this. I hope you find that wonderkid!

@GloryFan2002 Good to see an update for the other Finnish save. Weirdly the clubs have ever so slightly different short names on my save, must be a quirk of the names edit file I'm using.

@darren1983 Outstanding promotion and amazing progress!

@AliG Fantastic first season, great value for your two away fans at the Austria Lustenau match.

I hadn't even noticed that! I think I should refund their travel costs after having to sit through that!

[AliG]

23 minutes ago, JWVG said:

@AliG Wow, not bad. But surviving in the Bundesliga will be hard without transfers.

As you managing in Austria, can you sign an Assistent Manager? There seems to be a bug.

I've not tried to sign one as there was already one at the club when I joined. If he leaves then I'll give you an update.

[The_Gato_In_Goal]

 

SV Spakenburg - 2023/24

 

Jupiler League | League Table | Dutch Cup | Transfers | Squad | Facilities | Finances | Best 11 

It's finally the weekend, which means that I have no school and can freely play fm again. Anyways, this whole week we've been slogging to another 16th place finish (it's better than 19th to be fair). We finished well above relegation (at least by our standards), so things are continuing to look up. We switched to a 5-1-1-1-2 with WBs as well as a DM, a CM, and a AMC to accommodate our captain van der Wal (03b) and our hot prospect Bergkamp (06b). This year our youth kept improving noticeably as a result of our "good" training facilities that have another upgrade on the way. Financially, still solid even with upgrades. A pretty decent youth intake saw us get a good striker and another attacking mid to compete with Rob Bergkamp (06b). I almost forgot to mention how Kuijpers (04e) and van der Veen (04c) both had very good seasons and wouldn't sign new deals the whole season until the 3rd to last day before their contracts expired. I tied them both down for 5 years now. Also, Jan van der Heijden (01e) will finally be 24 next year, so we can start to put his model pro personality to good use as a tutor.

 

 

Class of 2024

Carlos Rijssel (07a) - Would be perfect if not for 5 vision, but we'll see who emerges in the AMC role with him and Bergkamp (06b).

Jos van Staa (07b) - Very nice looking striker with some good potential.

 

Class of 2023

Erik van Hoof (06a)

Rob Bergkamp (06b)

Gijsbert Loukili (06c)

Toine Ruijmgaart (06d)

 

Class of 2022

Daan Janssen (05a)

Brian Spaan (05b)

 

Class of 2021

Mitchel de Koning (04a)

Erdem Yiğat (04b)

Remco van der Veen (04c)

Koos van Halst (04d)

Mike Kuijpers (04e)

 

Class of 2020

Emre Taylan (03a)

Dennis van der Wal (03b)

Anouar Scholten (03c)

Sebastão Ntyamba (03d)

Antonio Werleman (03e)

 

Class of 2019

Kees van Berlo (02a)

Achraf Rahmani (02b)

Nathan Felomina (02c)

Hüseyin Boşnak (02d)

 

 

Class of 2018

Ed van den Beld (01a)

Jamal Chihab (01c)

Jan van der Heijden (01e)

 

2nd Nationality Watch

Morocco x6

Turkey x6

Suriname x5

Angola x2

Indonesia x2

Aruba x1

Cape Verde x1

Curaçao x1

Greece x1
 

 

Career Overview

Season    League            Position    Dutch Cup      Training Facilities    Youth Facilities     Junior Coaching     Youth Recruitment   Achievements/Notes     Top Scorer                  Most Assists               Highest Avg Rating 
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2017/18   Jupiler League    19th        2nd Round      Poor                   Basic                Basic               Fairly Basic        N/A                    Tol/van der Meiracker (16)  Tol (7)                    Tol (7.07) 
2018/19   Jupiler League    19th        4th Round      Basic                  Poor                 Basic               Fairly Basic        N/A                    Tol (17)                    van der Meiracker (7)      van der Meiracker (6.97)   
2019/20   Jupiler League    18th        2nd Round      Below Average          Below Average        Adequate            Fairly Basic        N/A                    Tol (13)                    Oostinjen (10)             Custovic (7.09)  
2020/21   Jupiler League    19th        2nd Round      Below Average          Below Average        Average             Fairly Basic        N/A                    Tol (14)                    Tol (7)                    van der Heijden (01e) (6.98)  
2021/22   Jupiler League    19th        3rd Round      Adequate               Below Average        Average             Fairly Basic        N/A                    van der Heijden (01e) (9)   van Berlo (02a) (5)        Veerman (7.06)  
2022/23   Jupiler League    16th        3rd Round      Average                Below Average        Good                Fairly Basic        N/A                    Tol (16)                    Oostinjen (8)              Oostinjen/van der Wal (03b) (6.91)  
2023/24   Jupiler League    16th        4th Round      Good                   Below Average        Excellent           Fairly Basic        N/A                    van der Heijden (01e) (14)  Oostinjen/Taylan (03a) (6) van der Wal (03b) (7.06)  

  

[Pippadoc]

Grenoble-Foot 38 - Youth Intake 2020

Another intake with some promising youngsters in, although this class is nowhere near as deep as last years. Importantly, we got a reasonable looking GK prospect which we had yet to get so far.

Jonathan Roman (YP20A) - Romao is a promising looking wing back. He has less potential than Kouyombo from last year's class, but depending on how the two of them develop he could become the starter in the future. His strong free kick taking stat is intriguing, if he becomes a starter he could become a real weapon for us. 

Jesus Romero (YP20B) - Versatility is excellent when you're limited to 5 bench spots, so a player who might be able to do a reasonable job on each wing is very useful. Whether he ever develops into a starter; I don't know.

Clement Teyssier (YP20C) - The best goalkeeper prospect we've seen so far, although he will never become as good as our current GK. Fortunately, Maubleu is only 30 so we have plenty of time to find a better prospect. 

[darren1983]

@AliG Congrats on the promotion. With regards to adding your club badge to the post, what I do is have the badge saved on my laptop, then click on the "choose files" option then add it. After the 1st time the picture should appear under the "insert other media option"

@The_Gato_In_Goal good steady progress again there. Like the look of Van Staa.

 

[Bubbles_DK]

A lot of updates since last time I was in here.

Good job guys 

I got tired of playing the same teams over and over again in Scotland, so I have decided to try the challenge out in Turkey instead.

The club I'm hopefully are going to succeed with is Altay. The club has some great facilities and the finances are nice to begin with.

Manager profile - Transfers and a nice large squad. There both youth and experienced players, so it will be an interesting try with this club :-)

 

EDIT:

I can confirm that the "reset date" in Turkey are 20th of June 

 

 

[GloryFan2002]

Sacked in the third season bottom of the table. Ari Hiltunen our hero ended up the villain leaving and making us really bad

[AliG]

@Bubbles_DK Good luck with Turkey! Hopefully the stadium won't feel too empty as you build your way up!

@GloryFan2002 Unlucky with the sacking. 

@darren1983 Thanks for the help, the logo is now in!

[Bubbles_DK]

20 minutes ago, AliG said:

@Bubbles_DK Good luck with Turkey! Hopefully the stadium won't feel too empty as you build your way up!

Thank you.

There are in average 1.500 watching the matches, so I cant even see the people in the stands 

[Peter G]

I'm guessing I wouldn't be able to just start as Guernsey?

[Soviet]

Am I allowed to extend the contracts of non-regen players already in team?

[The_Gato_In_Goal]

24 minutes ago, Soviet said:

Am I allowed to extend the contracts of non-regen players already in team?

Yeah, it would be torture in your first few seasons if you couldn't.

[darren1983]

Might be my longest save in a while 

 

[Bubbles_DK]

Altay season 2017/2018

League Table - Turkish Cup - End of season awards - Facilities - Finances - Transfers - Manager Profile

The League

We were in our first season seeded to end up at the 5th place. The board demanded a playoff spot and we delivered a 3rd place in the league. We were never really in competition for a higher position because we were trailing from the beginning.  Don't get me wrong i'm really happy with the final position 

The playoffs first round was against number 4. They were really never a threat and we won 4-1 over two matches. Next opposition were number 2 from the league. Unfortunately we came out short in a 3-2 defeat over two matches and we have to settle for another season in 2. division.

 

The Turkish Cup

We had an amazing cup run beating Fenerbache and Besiktas and went all the way to the quarter finals where Kayserispor stopped the run. They had clearly learned from the other teams mistakes starting youth and reserves.

The run gave us a nice boost to the economy, so we are well placed economy wise for another season in the 2. division.

 

The Youth

The first youth intake were alright or I'm actually a little disappointed but it's properly because I had to high expectations. 

I have chosen to highligt these 2 players:

Onur Boran - He looks like a real talent and a few top division teams have already been sniffing around. I don't expect to have him for more than a season

Volkan Yildiz - Looks like he can be a decent striker for the future. I will maybe give im som minutes to see if he develops enough.

 

Next season

I'm aiming for playoffs again. Hopefully a better intake and start to use some of them and release or sell the deadwood in the club.

 

 

[Braumiller]

Season 10 - 2026-27

The Season As It Happened.....

Preseason
The draw for the Champions League Qualifying was not kind, Celtic of Scotland in our first tie...
Away in the first leg and we played well but lost 0-2.  Home in the 2nd leg looking for a miracle and did not get it, losing 0-3 for 0-5 on aggregate.  So a much shorter European adventure this year!
Time to arrange some friendlies to get ready for the domestic season.
I have not had to use it for a few seasons, but get out the injury klaxon!  Mark Heyes 2020-B just damaged his achilles in a friendly and is out 5-6 months!

September 9th 2026
Well there goes any chance of an unbeaten run domestically!  A 0-1 home loss to Barry.  We were without a lot of 1st teamers who were exhausted from international duty.  3 kids had their debuts and it proved to be too many!  We are playing catch-up this year!

November 1st 2026
Ding dong the witch is dead!  A consortium led by Cardiff-based investor Steven Wilson have taken over Port Talbot!  He pumped 3.5m into the club (we had ~4m in the bank at the time, so not necessary but very welcome!) and our philosophies have been wiped clean (and they would not talk about changing them currently).  He immediately wanted a chat about setting a new transfer budget (sounds like he wants big names? ) but I talked him into new training facilities instead (1.8m at the end of the season!).  Looking at my staff list, the new Chairmans personality is 'Fairly Ambitious'!  Much better.

November 4th 2026
Our first senior call-up!  Steve Taylor 2021-A has been called up to the Rep Ireland  

November 28th 2026
What a strange game.  Away to TNS and we race into a 3-0 lead in the opening 13 minutes.  We add a 4th before HT and then proceed to pick up 2 straight red cards in the first 7 minutes of the second half!  Understandably TNS swarmed all over us for the remainder of the game, but somehow we kept them out!  A 4-0 away win at the enemy, with a couple of suspensions to come.

December 2nd 2026
2nd use of the injury klaxon this year  Leigh Taylor 2022-A is out for 6-7 months with knee tendinitis!  He just won the November player of the month award.....

December 9th 2026
The new chairman agrees to chat about philosophies and accepts my youth approach!  He previously had a minor dislike for it and a minor like for signing high profile players! (although it was not a club philosophy) 

March 2nd 2027
Youth Candidates 2027!
Barry Sherman 2027-A - I really like the look of this kid and he is making me wish I was not strikerless!  Lovely starting physicals, finishing & composure you wish for on a finished product (at our level) and bags of flair!  Tempted to turn him into my main MC, but his tackling puts me off.  So (for now at least) it is AMC retraining for him.  Hopefully I can find a tutor for him and get that Determination up.
Cai Cooper-Kingdom 2027-B - A good looking central defender prospect.  His main issue is that I have a lot of them.

March 13th 2027
Injury klaxon #3  Luke Gray 2025-A has damaged his achilles.  Out for 5-6 months.

March 20th 2027
Title winning at the enemies ground is fun!   A 3-0 away win at TNS gives us the title with 3 games to spare!

April 3rd 2027
Hopefully a sign of things to come.  I throw Barry Sherman 2027-A in at the deep end for a debut at AMC to help his positional retraining and he scored after 16 minutes!  This also gave him both Port Talbot and Welsh Premier League records for youngest scorer (16 years 48 days)

Random Notes / Thoughts
It feels like this is the start of the dynasty now.  TNS did not feel as troublesome and I was able to play more and more kids.
The club seem to be in good hands now, with an ambitious chairman and we are financially sound.
After 10 years of playing exactly the same formation for every game (although the roles and style have changed throughout) I am toying with the idea of a change....  Maybe in preseason and go from there.

End of Season Screenshots
League Table
Results - League / Cups
Transfers
End of Season Awards
* Player of The Year 1st Place - Ross Fisher 2020-A (34%)
* Player of The Year 2nd Place - Luke Gray 2025-A (28%)
* Player of The Year 3rd Place - Matty Jones 2024-B (23%)

Season 11 Targets
* Show better in Europe
* Retain Welsh Premier League
 

[GloryFan2002]

7 hours ago, Duroliponte said:

Argh, been offered just shy of a million for Kalermo from a Norweigian club, a week before the seasons starts. What on earth do I do? That's crazy money for a Finnish player...

Does he want to stay, if so counter and sell up for money or you'll lose your chance for that much. If not, don't, ruined my team when my star youth player left ended in my sacking

[Sanno11]

Ilkeston F.C Season 7

Vanarama National League

                                               

League| Squad |Transfers|Youth Intake |Fixtures 1 | Fixtures 2 | Finances

Season Overview

I started this season with realistic ambitions, as it felt like last time we were lucky to reach the playoffs. Disappointingly Connor Brindley (YP19c) took his opportunity to leave at the end of his contract and now plays for AFC Wimbledon in League 2.  We were still viewed as huge underdogs and favourites for relegation despite our improved reputation. We started slowly and found it tough to score. As the first half of the season progressed we found our rhythm and although it isn't pretty we became hard to score against and usually only needed a goal or two to win. We hit joint top in December and despite losses to fellow promotion chasing Kidderminster and Hartlepool still looked good. We hit a bumpy patch through January and February only winning twice in 9 attempts, which I will attribute to some key personnel being missing through injury. We moved into the final period still in promotion/playoff contention and had a kind fixture list. A few 1-0 wins got us to joint top again and a top of table clash with Tranmere. We were outdone, it finished 1-3 and with it I thought our title chances were gone. However Tranmere faultered and going into the last game of the season we were two points behind them.

We were away at Dover and Tranmere were away at Stalybridge, we need to win and for Tranmere to lose, anything else would leave us in the playoffs. We controlled the first half in our game and took a 2-0 lead by half time. However,  the score update popped up, Tranmere 1-0 up. The second half begins and it is all quiet in both games until, amazingly, Stalybridge 2 - 1 Tranmere pops up, Ilkeston move up to 1st place. Dover had noticeably improved in our game and managed to score from a corner, we had about 20 mins to hold on. I, without any shame brought 9 players into my half and shut up shop, which thankfully worked. No more alerts had popped up and so at the final whistle I quickly checked the league table and there it was, Ilkeston are champions.

To bounce back is amazing and a relief. I haven't set us up to be defensive but we only conceded 33 goals in 46 games. 16 of our 26 wins were 1-0!

 

Top Performers

Derek Gibbons (YP18c) : I have to acknowledge my goal keeper in this season. He had a record 22 clean sheets. He joined the team at the same time as Mullarkey so never played. He is weak in the air and allow crosses usually so he is vulnerable but he must be doing something right

Peter Havern (YP22a) : A really solid season for us, never spectacular but always reliable. We really missed him when he was injured for 6 weeks. We had good news that he no longer wanted to leave and signed a new 3 year contract, however the day after we won the title he asked to move to a bigger club, starting to dislike him.

 

Youth Intake

A pretty disappointing intake, I feel like our poor youth recruitment network is most likely responsible. I can imagine these getting a couple of chances but they will have a while in the U18s before they do.

Simon Harris (YP24a) A very underwhelming forward who has an OK personality and determination as his saving grace. Will need to show some huge progress over the 3 years he has.

Kieran Bradley (YP24b) A decent goalkeeper prospect which is really useful. Not a superstar but with time will replace Gibbons.

 

Club overview

We have had two new chairmen in the last 3 years, which I forgot to mention. The newest one is ambitious which is positive. No upgrades to report here and financially we are looking bad, thankfully with promotion I hope will return to a safer footing. Player development was underwhelming this year and worries me. My intakes haven't produced any stand out players since 2019, which is scary. All the best players (who have all left) were from the first two intakes.

Summary

Brilliant to return to the football league at the first time of asking, perhaps we are better than I thought we are. Next season is going to be just as tough, if we can start a little better next year I hope we can survive.

[Pippadoc]

@Sanno11 - great work to bounce back immediately, best of luck in League 2!

[darren1983]

@Sanno11 well done on bouncing back first time. Your team seems like it's gone in the same direction mine has with being tough to beat without ever meaning ti set up that way. Good luck in league 2, hopefully it'll go better this time.

[Braumiller]

Excellent season @Sanno11 - congrats!

[bdavies26]

Rot-Weiß Oberhausen - Season One

3.Bundesliga

League Table | Squad | Transfers | Youth Intake | Fixtures 1 | Fixtures 2 | Best XI

 

League

Finished our initial campaign in 7th. Interesting season for a team tipped by the media to finish 20th. After starting out strong by going unbeaten with 4 wins in our first 6, we slid down to 10th via four straight losses and six losses in eight games. However, the team bounced back and went unbeaten for nearly three months, finding ourselves in first place after matchday 21. Held on to first for six weeks before giving up the throne, but stayed in contention and were in first after matchday 31 before losing ground to finish out the season. My team couldn't find any semblance of form away from home, winning just two of our last ten away games. I couldn't find a tactic that worked away from home, which will be first priority if the team is to improve upon this past year next season.

Needless to say, the board and fans were ecstatic. I signed a contract extension through June 2020 midway through the season. 

 

Transfers

On the transfer front, I'd note that the signing of Kai Nakowitsch was a technical thing - when I came on as coach the game wouldn't allow me to offer him but he indicated he wanted to keep playing for us. Once his contract technically expired I signed him.

 

Tactics

Fiddled a little bit with a 4-4-2 at the beginning of the season before settling on a 4-2-3-1 Wide. Tried to play with a Standard Mentality at home, and hit teams on the counter away.

                    GK - D

DFB - D CD - D CD - D DFB - D

           CM - A   CM - A

W - S         AM - S          W - S

                 DLF - A

Finances

Pretty brutal. Not sure my board knows how money works so may need to take matters into my own hands here. I was well under their wage budget but bled money consistently throughout the season.

 

Key Players

Güngör Kaya - Kaya led the attack for much of the season, but interestingly enough was on the bench before demanding more playing time. He made the most of it, pumping in 15 goals to lead the team in addition to six assists and six PotM awards. Named Fan's Player of the Year.

Kai Nakowitsch - Named Young Player of the Season. Stalwart in the midfield. Lots more to come from this 23 year old.

Felix Haas - Started every game except one at defense before getting injured. Had an incredible 31 interceptions vs. MSV Duisburg on February 18.

Arnold Budimbu - Have to give a shout out to the one player on the team who earned an international cap this season. Budimbu was named to the preliminary DRC squad for the World Cup but not sure if he made the final squad yet.

 

Youth Intake

Not a ton here, but a few guys have potential. Unfortunately the player with the highest potential has a Casual personality so I don't  see him ever realizing his potential. On the dual nationality front, we got one from Serbia, one from Italy, one from Cameroon, one from Nigeria, one from Ghana, one from Albania, one from Turkey, and one from the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Nenad Scepovic (YP01a)

Matthias Konarski (YP01b)

Simone Pellegrino (YP01c)

Ingo Frymuth (YP01g)

 

Career Overview

Season      League         Position    Top Scorer    Top Player   Achievements
2017/18     3.Bundesliga   7th         Kaya (15)     Kaya (7.07)  Earned Nat C & Nat B Badges

Off-Field Progress

Season  Finances    Av. Attendance  Capacity    Training Facs.  Youth Facs. Youth Rec.     Junior Coaching
2017/18 (£696K)     4,328           21,318      Adequate        Adequate    Fairly Basic   Adequate

Next Season

• Mid-table finish
• Upgrade facilities

[Kazushi80]

Eléctrico F.C.

Season 2 – 2018/2019

Squad // League Table First Phase (1st) // League Table Promotion Stage (8th) // Transfers

 

Very good second season. As i wrote already in this thread, we had an easy group in the First Phase, so we dominated this stage – even with a lot of better teams in our division (but in other groups). But in the Promotion Stage we had no chance. Got battered sometimes. That was not good for morale, but we made money. We got over 300k price money after the season, so we're back in the green and me and my coaches can get better licences and we could improve the youth coaching.

 

Our biggest problem was (and still is). We have not a big goalscorer! Joao Gomes and Luizinho - both our strikers - scored only 9 goals. Our best player was again Rui Costa. Yes, he's retired to amateur football, but his technical ratings are still improving and he's a threat from the right wing with his creating of goalscoring opportunities. Luís Paulino (YP01a) was in his first full season a big help, too. The only youth player from our first intake who established himself as a first team regular will become our captain next season. He is young, but he could lead the team for many years. Unfortunately our great center back Rodolfo Machado left the club. The board decided to accept an offer from a professional club in the division above for the 198 year old talent. I had no chance with my protests...

 

The Youth Intake: Again a promising intake and with the needed goalkeeper. A few of the players made already first team appearences in the last games of the season and will be used as a rotation option in the next year, at least two i want to give regular first team football.

- Arlésio Marques (YP02a): Very good player for the left wing. Pedro Canas was very good the last two years, but since he's already 30, Arlésio will play in the next season. Only problem. Played with a flat 4 in midfield this season, so the pre-season will decide if we change the tactic or if he needs to adapt to play a little bit deeper on the left wing. But he will play.

- Joao Chinita (YP02b): We had no attacking mid this season and for a striker his finishing is far too bad. So i need to figure out what i do with him. In the first season i played him as a striker, because i didn't want to change tactics at the end of the season and he performed. After a goal as a substitute in his second appearance, he scored a hattrick in his first start. Maybe he can play striker even with this finishing?

- Bruno Vicente (YP02c): the next in our long line of defenders. Because we have so many talented and young players in his position he'll stay in the U19.

- Rui Leirião (YP02d): Same for him. Because he can play on the left side, too, he'll maybe can make a few first team appearences if needed because of injuries or suspensions.

- Daniel Carneiro (YP02e): The goalkeeper. He's not that good, but since we have no one good in this crucial position, he became our first choice keeper immidately. 3 clean sheets in 10 appearences (17 goals against him) is not that bad – because we played in the promotion stage against much better opposition. Will feature as first team goalkeeper most of the games next season.

- Luis Almeida (YP02f): Promising winger who will become the first choice after Rui Costa retires (hopefully not soon)

 

Next season i'll try to get again in the promotion stage, but that's far from guaranteed. Again we were lucky with the draw. We've no professional team in our group, but it's a little bit harder because the teams are really close together in the season preview and most of them are above us. And i'll try to develop a new tactic in pre-season. Maybe i'll switch from 4-4-2 to a 4-2-3-1...

[Bubbles_DK]

Season 2018/2019

League Table - Cup - End of season awards - Facilities - Finances - Manager profile

The League

It was really a season with 2 completely different half's. We started by winning a lot sitting on the top of the league with 9 points to 2nd place. Then the second half of the season my trustworthy 5-2-3 were beginning to fail. We went 7 games without a win and suddenly we were behind the top spot with 6 points. I decided that to change the tactic to a classic 4-2-3-1 with a deep lying forward paired with a shadow striker behind him. The change worked to perfection and we took back the top spot and thereby securing promotion in the 2nd season.

 

The Cup

Nothing really nice to tell about here. We won against a 1. division team only to be knocked out by a top division team.

 

The youth

2 youngster (regens from simulated season) got introduced to the first team. Mert Acar got introduced do lack of right back in the club. He looks decent but really needs to develop a lot. Hasan Koca got promoted to the first team because of some impressing football for the reserves.

 

Onur Boran got sold for 300K he was unhappy after I rejected a bid (20K) really missing with the harmony in squad. Had no choice but luckily we godt a nice 50% og next transfer.

 

The young striker Volkan Yildiz is progressing okay. I hope he will be ready for some first team football within 2 years. 

 

This years youth intake was a little better. Really happy to se one more striker and keeper with som potential. I will be crossing my fingers for some central defenders and a right winger next time.

Here are the guys I were mentioning above:

Fikret Gülen  - The staff are really exited about him, but if he is going to be a keeper at this club his reflexes has to improve a lot!

Serdar Özen - He looks like (according to the staff) future star to be. Personally I think he looks decent - The future will tell whos right.

 

Next season

The goal will be survival and perhaps introducing some more youngsters to the first team. 

[Soviet]

So, guys, how do you deal with the hard moment when you start switching to regens, but they are worse that the non-regens you had in team? Maybe promotion before stabilizing a regen-only team is not such a good idea after all?

[bdavies26]

Only keeper on the squad eligible to play (can't play for the first team in Germany until you are 17) just went down... Let's see how my team handles this.

[Bubbles_DK]

3 hours ago, Soviet said:

So, guys, how do you deal with the hard moment when you start switching to regens, but they are worse that the non-regens you had in team? Maybe promotion before stabilizing a regen-only team is not such a good idea after all?

Right now the difference isn't really that huge between the established players and the regens witch have been in the club a couple of years.

 

 

[Muttley84]

Greek Youth Adventure - Season 10

Can't really believe 10 years have passed since we set foot on the island of Crete. We managed in the meantime to become the no. 1 team here (sorry OFI) and constantly challenge at the top of the League and even gather some European (albeit short) appearances in the meantime. We have also won the Greek Cup a few times, but this wasn't our season as we again were defeated in the Quarter Finals by Panathinaikos. Europa League hasn't been to successful either as we finished 3rd, Schalke and Fiorentina proving to strong for us. To be honest though, we did sacrificed both of the competitions, using backup and rotation players in them to focus solely on the Greek Super League. And we did it!  It was a tight race, but in 2027 a scrappy draw was enough to make Ergotelis finally champions of the League for the first time in their history. Champions League football here we come!

We had enough quality in the firt team Squad to go all season for a 4-2-3-1 formation which saw us scoring lots of goals. D Kourothianakis 24a won the top goalscorer award, with T Andreadakis 19a having the highes average rating and most man of the match award, although his stats don't really recommend him. Special praise for S Vasilakakis 25b and G Stergiopolous 25e which besides having the best assists figures are the most wanted players in our team. Both won't sign new contracts, and luckly we have Vasilakakis for another 3 years, but Stergiopolous is entering his final year of contract and the Vultures are circling around him. Got offers up to 2m, but I won't sell even with the risk of losing the money.

A lot of Transfers out of the club, but the Youth Intake was satisfying allowing us to still have depth in both the first and reserve team. Financially we are going from better to better, with upgrades with both our training and youth facilities, with upgrades of our youth recruitment network. Club information looking pretty solid at the moment. Hoping our Champions League campaign will be a good one, don't expect to qualify for the knockout stages but get some experience to our players and don't get in the way of our League campaign. 

[Soviet]

Is loading more than one league really that bad? I like to add some for extra realism. I don't think it influences the regens?

[Kazushi80]

@Muttley84 Congrats to the title. looking forward to your champions league adventure.

[Pippadoc]

Grenoble-Foot 38 - End of Season Review 2019/20

Squad - Table - League Results - Cup Results - Transfers - Finances

Championnat National - 1st

Amazing season for us, we earned promotion and the title! 

We got off to a great start on the back of a favourable early schedule which saw us play two newly promoted sides in the first 3 games. We hit top spot after the 4th round of fixtures and never let go of it for the rest of the season. We did have a little blip in November, but we bounced back well with another nice little run of games.

We managed to clinch the title with two games remaining in the season. Really, we could have done it earlier, but we gave up too many draws early in the season. 

Much like last year we had a fantastic defense, giving up only 22 goals in 34 games (one less than we gave up last season). We improved going forward, which really needed to do, and ending up 51 goals (up from 32 last season). We had a knack of scoring early and going on to control a game from there. If we struggled early on, we scored some crucial late goals from set-plays and counter-attacks to get us big victories. 

French Cup - Knocked out in 9th Round

We made hard work of the early rounds this year, which was disappointing. I may have gone over board with giving the youngsters game time in the cup. We got a huge tie in the 9th round against Lyon. We were dominated through-out, but we stood strong defensively and almost kept them scoreless for 120mins. Unfortunately, it wasn't to be but that defensive performance gives me plenty of confidence for next season. 

Top Performers

Brice Maubleu (GK) - Another fantastic season from Maubleu, conceding only 24 goals in 37 games. My assistant seems to think he'll be a good Ligue 2 player, and at the age of 30,  so he should be our GK for the next few years. He has held over 50% of his saves this season which really helps us a lot by stopping teams from sustaining pressure against us. 

Maxime Spano (DC) - Spano continues to play excellently for us as our covering centre-back. Unfortunately my assistant no longer thinks he has the potential to improve, but he should still remain the starter next season. In the long term, I will be looking to replace him with some of our excellent young prospects.

Hugo Cianci (WBR) - After a down season last year, Cianci has returned to top form this year. He managed to score 5 goals and create another 8, although he tends to get a lot of yellow cards. He's one of the stars of the team and should be more than capable at the next level. 

Ibrahima Coulibaly (MC) - Coulibaly was great in the centre of the midfield. He created 7 goals and managed to score a couple to go along with it. Like Spano, he doesn't appear to have the ability to be the long term answer in Ligue 2, but he should be the starter for next season at least. 

Nicolas Belvito (ST) - Belvito had a great season this year and managed to remain injury-free, which was a big reason for us improving our goals scored this year. He is getting on a little bit, but his Target Man role should mean he can play for a couple more years. I'm hoping I can work in the younger strikers a little more, but it's tough to take him out when he performs so well.

Nicolas Crus (ST) - Back-to-back good years for Crus, he upped his output this season as well scoring 16 and creating 5 (all in league games). He doesn't appear to be a particularly good forward, but he has just enough in the key stats and he actually plays really well as a poacher. It will be interesting to see how he copes with the higher quality of defender we're going to see next year. 

Youth Watch

Mathias Horjak (YP17A) - For the second season in a row Horjak has been ever-present for us. He's developing well and hopefully will get a lot better when he gets to practice full-time. He should be a starter at the club for years to come.

Julien Clerc (YP19B) - Clerc got forced into the line-up when Mohamed, our starting WBL, went down with achilles tendonitis. He played well in his opportunities and the game time has really helped to accelerate his development. Next season he will become the starting WBL allowing Mohamed to play in his more natural DC or become a versatile substitute. 

Jeremy Amestoy (YP18A) - I really want to give Amestoy more starting opportunities, but with Belvito and Crus playing so well it's really hard to manage it. Him playing as a Deep-Lying Forward rather than Belvito's Target Man role is a challenge as well. Hopefully he can continue to develop next season and force me to give him more starts. 

Club Overview

Despite winning the league, we still lost over £200k this season. Hopefully with the increased attendances and maybe some TV revenue we should be able to finally turn a profit next season. 

We are turning Professional which should help speed up the development of our youth players. Additionally, the board are allowing us to hire an additional two coaches so we can specialise our coaching a little more. The cost of all of this might not help us turn a profit though. 

Facilities wise, with our current bank balance we're going to have to wait a while before we can get any improvements. On the plus side, the board did agree to improve our junior coaching in order to help with our 'Develop Youth' philosophy. We're now up to good junior coaching. 

Goals for Next Season

Survival! 

If we can finish in 18th and win the relegation playoff I'll be delighted with the year. I think we've got a decent chance as well. Over our three cup ties against Ligue 1 and 2 sides we've only conceded two goals and taken all three games until extra time at the least. If we can keep that kind of defensive performance going, hopefully we can steal some goals at times to get a few wins. 

[MackieStaggie]

Some good progress made by some on here, great work by @Muttley84, @Bubbles_DK and @Pippadoc on their respective titles

[Shankly84]

Season 1 - Ankara Demirspor - Turkish 3rd Tier

Starting Profile - League Table - Results 1 - Results 2

Transfers

 

Season Overview

After previously failing in the Russian league, I decided to start again in Turkey. I took over Ankara Demirspor due to the potential for a large fan base later in the challenge. We were favourites for the drop and it seemed I would have a job on my hands. The target for the season was to stay in the division and build a good solid tactic to move forward with. The season though started brilliantly picking up 4 wins and a draw from the first 5 games. Maybe promotion could be on the cards? Think again!! After a 1-0 defeat in the cup to a team in a higher division, we went on a run of 0 wins from 15 games. Depressing!!! We had played well in a lot of the games but we just couldn't get over the line. I was beginning to think this save could go the same as the Russian one when out of the blue a 4-1 victory away from home lifted morale. Three 0-0 draws on the bounce and then a 7 game winning streak. We was into the play-off positions with 4 games to go. Unfortunately 1 win, a draw and 2 defeats wasn't enough, but we finished the season in a very respectable 7th position only 1 point of the play-off positions. I was over the moon considering at one point it looked like we couldn't buy a win.

 

Youth Intake

The youth intake was a decent one, with Cimen and Ozturk looking like they can push for a place next season. I requested that the junior coaching be upgraded and was very disappointed with the boards initial response. They indicated that they would rather we used the transfer system as that would bring more instant results. Not the best response for the challenge!! After the conversation went back and forth a few times, they decided to grant my request. Hopefully that isn't a sign of things to come. Into the off season (again after a little persuasion) I managed to also get the youth facilities upgraded.

Next Season

So the plan for next season is to basically carry on from where we finished this season. I am weary though of getting promoted too early. I know that sounds silly but if the League above is a big improvement on the current division we could find ourselves completely out of our depth and I feel it could take a good few more years before the youth intakes start to show real promising players.

 

 

 

 

[darren1983]

Lots of progress here.

@Braumiller congrats on another title - power in Wales shifting now?

@Muttley84 Congrats on the title, what qualifying round for the Champions league do you start in? Assuming you don't go straight in to the group stage?

@Bubbles_DK Congrats on the promotion and the title with it.

@Pippadoc And to you! Congrats on promotion and the title.

@Shankly84 Good season there, so close to those playoffs. 

[The_Gato_In_Goal]

 

SV Spakenburg - 2024/25

 

Jupiler League | League Table (7th) | Dutch Cup | Transfers | Squad | Facilities | Finances (like 3.3M) | Best 11 

Better than last year. Now we're all the way up to 7th in the table. We actually almost made it to the second round of the playoffs, but after winning the first game, at home, 1-0, we had to play away to NAC and it looked like we were going through 1-0 on aggregate until we conceded in the 92nd minute to send the game to extra time, where we eventually lost on penalties. A heartbreak, but there's no way we would have gotten past the next 2 rounds after getting outshot in that game 34-2. Regardless, our youth players from the first 4 or 5 seasons are starting to become first team quality, but they're just getting benched in favor of 16 and 17 year olds that are already as good as them and have better potential. We kind of had a crazy year tactically with my making of the tactic more attacking (as seen by the monstrosity in the best 11) and then the youth intake (last 2 have given us a ST and an AMC both times)  forcing us to change to a 4-2-3-1 narrow with 2 DMs. That tactic seemed to work well as it gave us a nice, unbeaten streak towards the end of the season. Finances are good, and next season we will have enough money to ask for the final training facility upgrade that costs us 3.8M. I can't wait for our reputation to increase, so I can get the youth recruitment upgrades and finally get some cool 2nd nationalities. 

 

Class of 2025

John Lammers (08a) - Already can play SS 

Onur Şerifoğlu (08b) - Good finishing and dribbling and I think he'll be retrained as a SS to play in AMC.

 

Class of 2024

Carlos Rijssel (07a)

Jos van Staa (07b)

 

Class of 2023

Erik van Hoof (06a)

Rob Bergkamp (06b)

Gijsbert Loukili (06c)

Toine Ruijmgaart (06d)

 

Class of 2022

Daan Janssen (05a)

Brian Spaan (05b)

 

Class of 2021

Mitchel de Koning (04a)

Erdem Yiğat (04b)

Remco van der Veen (04c)

Mike Kuijpers (04e)

 

Class of 2020

Emre Taylan (03a)

Dennis van der Wal (03b)

Anouar Scholten (03c)

Sebastão Ntyamba (03d)

 

Class of 2019

Kees van Berlo (02a)

Nathan Felomina (02c)

 

Class of 2018

Ed van den Beld (01a)

Jamal Chihab (01c)

Jan van der Heijden (01e)

 

2nd Nationality Watch

Morocco x7

Turkey x7

Suriname x5

Angola x2

Indonesia x2

Aruba x1

Cape Verde x1

Curaçao x1

Greece x1
 

 

Career Overview

Season    League            Position    Dutch Cup      Training Facilities    Youth Facilities     Junior Coaching     Youth Recruitment   Achievements/Notes     Top Scorer                  Most Assists               Highest Avg Rating 
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2017/18   Jupiler League    19th        2nd Round      Poor                   Basic                Basic               Fairly Basic        N/A                    Tol/van der Meiracker (16)  Tol (7)                    Tol (7.07) 
2018/19   Jupiler League    19th        4th Round      Basic                  Poor                 Basic               Fairly Basic        N/A                    Tol (17)                    van der Meiracker (7)      van der Meiracker (6.97)   
2019/20   Jupiler League    18th        2nd Round      Below Average          Below Average        Adequate            Fairly Basic        N/A                    Tol (13)                    Oostinjen (10)             Custovic (7.09)  
2020/21   Jupiler League    19th        2nd Round      Below Average          Below Average        Average             Fairly Basic        N/A                    Tol (14)                    Tol (7)                    van der Heijden (01e) (6.98)  
2021/22   Jupiler League    19th        3rd Round      Adequate               Below Average        Average             Fairly Basic        N/A                    van der Heijden (01e) (9)   van Berlo (02a) (5)        Veerman (7.06)  
2022/23   Jupiler League    16th        3rd Round      Average                Below Average        Good                Fairly Basic        N/A                    Tol (16)                    Oostinjen (8)              Oostinjen/van der Wal (03b) (6.91)  
2023/24   Jupiler League    16th        4th Round      Good                   Below Average        Excellent           Fairly Basic        N/A                    van der Heijden (01e) (14)  Oostinjen/Taylan (03a) (6) van der Wal (03b) (7.06) 
2024/25   Jupiler League    7th         2nd Round      Impressive             Below Average        Excellent           Fairly Basic        N/A                    van der Heijden (01e) (15)  Bergkamp (06b) (9)         Kujipers (04e) (7.22)

  

[MackieStaggie]

So how about The Star......

Dalbeattie Star

Season 4 - 2020/2021
 

Squad

1st Team Keepers / U20's Keepers - Praying for someone to step up and challenge MacLeod as 1st choice keeper, but that's not going to happen any time soon.  Sent Frank Patterson (2019) out on loan for experience.

1st Team Defenders / U20's Defenders - Defenders are starting to get to the age where they'll start to lose some of their ability and stats, really need to see how I'm going to bleed in the youth.

1st Team Midfielders / U20's Midfielders - I mucked around with the midfield too much this season and suffered as a result, the youth players with high potential may not fit into the system I had hoped to go with so will be attempting to retrain into more suitable positions....a blow to my master plan.

1st Team Strikers / U20's Strikers - Lewis McLean couldn't replicate his debut season form but was hampered by niggling minor injuries which meant he never got a decent run going.  Thankfully Higgens managed to contribute a few goals this season.

Season Review

League Cup - Standard performance....did manage a win though, which was nice.

Challenge Cup - 1st round knocked out, a poor, very poor performance from us.

Scottish Cup - Got to the 4th round but didn't get that vital away game to Celtic or Rangers for the money, instead I lost to.........that lot there.....

League (1st Half/2nd Half) - 1st half started like normal and started to slowly eek out the wins but needed more as this was not going to do.  So into the tactics I go and start to tinker around with a few things, some forced due to injuries and some down to madness/genius (such is that think line).  If I could find a visual representation of that season would be this

Spoiler

 

 

The wheels didn't just fall off, they blew off in the most spectacular fashion.  By the end of the season I was 10th and going into the playoff relegation.  Remember the past 3 teams have gone down and I was not holding out much hope.  I was preparing my end of challenge post to be honest.

Playoff Leg 1 - Maybe the sacked post was a bit premature.  It wasn't pretty and by no way we where the best team but I'll take the win.  I virtually punched the ceiling when the winner went it.

Playoff Leg 2 - So I changed my formation to a 5-3-2 and plan to hit on the counter fast and hard, we were going to make this ugly as hell.  Somehow we go 2-1 up and by half time I'm confident my team can take this out so switch to a more defensive approach to the game.  Well Berwick where not going to make this easy and pulled it level on aggregate 4-4, I lose my patience and just go all out attack....if I'm going to lose this, I'm going to go out swinging at everything in sight.  Somehow Jamie Gillian scores and it we are 4-5 up on aggregate, celebrate the good times people I will survive, I was going to make it to the next seaso..... oh balls. Berwick score in the 90+2 min to put it into extra time. 

I'll be honest, the screen stayed on the team talk section for a few mins while I just stared in disbelief.  Extra time passed with no major incident and it was now in the luck of a penalty shootout.  This was less dramatic than the game as I win 4-1 in the shootout.  The Star survive relegation.

Youth Intake

Intake - I take on Darren McCutcheon GK, Robbie Jonstone DLC, Chris Wadge DRC, John Stevenson DM ML, Christopher McCall ML, David Jackson MCR, Gary Vance STK all with decent potential and replacing some of the original youth intake from the 1t season who will be let go at the end of the season.

Other Points of Interest

Finances - Not great, but not totally disastrous.  I don't have to scale back any of my youth coaching or recruitment yet so still somehow fighting in the challege.

Season 4 Aims

Re-atach those wheels.........somehow.

Results to Date

Season     League    Postion   Challenge Cup   League Cup   Scottish Cup   Traning Facilites   Youth Facilites   Junior Coaching   Youth Recruitment   Avg Attendance  
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2017/18    League 2  9th       1st Round       Group Stage  3rd Round      Poor                Basic             Adequate          Basic               185 (5% Full)   
2018/19    League 2  9th       1st Round       Group Stage  4th Round      Poor                Basic             Adequate          Basic               142 (4% Full)  
2019/20    League 2  9th       2nd Round       Group Stage  2nd Round      Poor                Basic             Average           Basic               151 (4% Full) 
2020/21    League 2  10th      1st Round       Group Stage  2nd Round      Poor                Basic             Average           Basic               138 (4% Full) 

 

[Braumiller]

Season 11 - 2027-28

The Season As It Happened.....

Preseason
Hmm, not sure if it was me or the opposition that beat my team....  Dundalk in the 2nd Qualifying Round of the Champions League.  Quite fancied our chances, even though they are also pro and in the middle of their season.  Well, we lined up in a new narrow strikerless formation that I have been thinking about for a while and we lost both legs 1-2.... Grrr.
Another few friendlies looked promising, but the nagging feeling of if we beat ourselves sticks.

August 21st 2027
Ok, so the league debut of the new formation was a little rosier!  7-0 away at Newtown, with David Phillips 2026-A bagging 5!

September, October, November 2027
The tactic was performing great and we have not lost a Welsh game yet this season.  I have however made a tweak to the tactic, dropping one of the 3 AMCs into central midfield to make it 3 MCs.  We break forward in numbers anyway, so it makes more sense to be more solid in the middle and have the extra man break forward when we have the ball instead of start 'upfront' and not contribute as much to winning possession.

December 18th 2027
Gobsmacked!  We lose our unbeaten record in the league due to a 0-1 loss at HOME to Barry.  13 shots (which is low for us) to 1!  They had 1 shot and won 0-1.  Just to rub salt into the wound, we hit the woodwork 3 times.....

January 23rd 2028
The league cup final and the legend of Barry Sherman 2027-A officially took off.  After initially retraining him as an AMC, I switched course and went MC with him when we tweaked the tactic.  He now sits in central midfield, alongside two more orthodox midfielders and then breaks his neck getting forward at the slightest whiff of an attack.   His striker attributes then kick in and devastation! :0  Anyway, cup final.....  Against Aberystwyth and 7 minutes in Liam Maggs 2021-D gets a straight red for a horror tackle.  Barry then puts the team on his back and scores a hat-trick on route to a 3-0 win!  If we keep hold of him for long, legend in the making.

January 26th 2028
3 days after the cup final, we play the first game after the league split and a rotated side smashes a jaded Aberystwyth 10-0!  Tying our record win in the process.

March 4th 2028
Aberystwyth must hate this seasons write up!  A 2-1 win at their place secures the title for us with 4 games to go!

March 7th 2028
Youth Candidates 2028!
Alex Veale 2028-A - Continuing our recent tradition of very nice looking strikers (with knowledge of positions we actually use!), Alex looks useful!  Pacy and looks to know where the net is!
Kyle Walton 2028-B - This kid has a great chance to play for us.  Can play DM, MC and AMC, which covers 6 of our 10 outfield spots in the new tactic.  Can pass a ball!
Alex Hall 2028-C - This kid will need a lot of work to make it, especially with other recent attacking options.  Needs positional retraining and a lot more composure
Miles Jardine-Leek 2028-D - Another versatile central midfielder.  MJL (as he will be known if he makes it) looks alright.

May 6th 2028
Welsh Cup Final time!  A boring game to be honest, but a 1-0 win against Connah's Quay sees the Welsh treble secured!

Random Notes / Thoughts
Another great domestic season, but again frustration in Europe.  After our cinderella run 3 years ago, we have fell at the 1st hurdle each of the next 2 seasons.
Our double facility upgrades were completed, with Training now at Average and Youth at Below Average!
We might start to have trouble with players outgrowing the league.  Last year Matty Jones 2024-B wanted to move to a bigger club and 3 times I rejected his transfer
request.  He was upset all year, but played well.  Well, early in this season he stated he was cool with things now!  We are still trying to get a new contract signed (his
agent wants all kinds of clauses and min fees) and we are down to his last month now...  I am going to have to accept the demands soon I fear.
Twice this year David Phillips 2026-A has come to me wanting to move to a bigger club, but two times my captain has talked him out of it!  I doubt I can continue to dodge
that bullet though.  I would also presume it is just a matter of time until Barry Sherman 2027-A comes a knocking....

Still not sure how I am going to approach this close season.  I have a lot of contracts coming for renewal and some of them are former players of the year.  Since we turned pro weekly wages have spiraled and I cannot keep everyone.  I think it might be time to let some of the former stars leave on frees....

End of Season Screenshots
League Table
Results - League / Cups
Transfers
End of Season Awards
* Player of The Year 1st Place - Barry Sherman 2027-A (40%) - 28 goals in 29 league games, predominantly from central midfield!  And only turned 17 on Valentines Day!
* Player of The Year 2nd Place - David Phillips 2026-A (31%) - 22 goals in 24 league games - still not accomplished at AMC and looking like he won't be   Still quality though
* Player of The Year 3rd Place -  Matty Jones 2024-B (18%)

Season 12 Targets
* League win
* A European victory!

[Braumiller]

@MackieStaggie - best use of the hidden tags ever

@Pippadoc congrats on the title

 

[Muttley84]

@darren1983 Actually we go straight into the Group Stage with Greece being 7th in the Nation Club Coefficients.

@MackieStaggie Congrats on keeping the stars up the sky

@Kazushi80 Thanks, looking forward also, although I don't have high expectations for the first year(s).

[darren1983]

@Muttley84 excellent, enjoy that money coming in man.

[Muttley84]

1 hour ago, darren1983 said:

@Muttley84 excellent, enjoy that money coming in man.

12.7 million cashed in already at the begging of the groups.  Sweet sound of money.

On the other hand, chairman sold my 2 best players 'cause the offers where to good to refuse'.  Sour sound of goodbye. 

[Soviet]

4 minutes ago, Muttley84 said:

On the other hand, chairman sold my 2 best players 'cause the offers where to good to refuse'.  Sour sound of goodbye. 

Did you tried the good old trick with telling board you're going to quit?

[darren1983]

1 hour ago, Muttley84 said:

12.7 million cashed in already at the begging of the groups.  Sweet sound of money.

On the other hand, chairman sold my 2 best players 'cause the offers where to good to refuse'.  Sour sound of goodbye. 

Bloody chairman - not had this yet but feel like my new chairman (from takeover last year) will do this when given the chance with his "easily discouraged" personality. It's a battle each time I ask for something already  

[Velodromè]

Transfer windows are a real pain in this challenge. Have stopped holidaying during preseason to be able to protest when the board tries to sell my best players. 

[darren1983]

Dulwich Hamlet - EFL1 - Season 2028/29

 

League - seems strange to say when looking at the table after our 1st season at this level but I'm annoyed/frustrated with 3rd. I've not lost my marbles, let me explain. Opening day we won 5-1 and I was all optimistic, as is our style we then lost the next 4 to make me panic, we found our feet and to our shock we discovered the jump from league 2 to league 1 wasn't as big as thought. We started to pick up wins and before I knew it we were pushing for promotion. With 7 games to go we even hit top spot. This is where frustration sets in. We then lost our next 3 before picking up a win before then drawing the next 2. Last game of the season we're away to Millwall while Bristol Rovers are away to Shrewsbury. They're 1 point clear with a better GD so we needed to win & hope they dropped points. They did. A 1-1 draw while we proceeded to throw away a 3-1 lead to draw 3-3 and miss out on auto promotion. Playoffs it was for us, our opponents? Millwall of course! 2 days before the first leg we lost top scorer Angel Weaver (09B) to illness. The next day we lost his back up Courtney Hall (05C) to injury. In the away leg they had 2 shots on target - in the 3rd minute and a miss hit cross in the 92nd minute. We lost 2-0. Home leg we did get Weaver back but he wasn't really at the races and we struggled to a 1-1 draw to lose 3-1. The fat Millwall went up was no consolation. During the season I managed my 600th game though.

League Cup - We gave Championship side Fulham a good game but they were too strong.

EFL Cup - for the 5th or 6th straight year we won1 and lost 2  

FA Cup - our best run ever. 4th round and away to Premiership West Ham but a near 50k attendance was what I wanted. We gave them a good game which was nice.

Transfers - usual players out that won't make it along with some loans for players needing game time.

Squad - no real change from last season

Finances - healthy, cup run really helped. I also managed another increase in our junior coaching after the West Ham game to move us up to exceptional.

Key Players

Nicky Wright (06B) - player of the season, we really miss him when he's out suspended or injured.
Ertugrul Orhurn (07A) - thought we would lose him this year as his contract was up at the end of the season and he wanted out, he removed his transfer request and I got him to sign a new deal
Angel Weaver (09B) - top score. He's my angel

Youth Intake - another solid one.

Andrew Acton (12A) - Could be the keeper we've been looking for
Jeremy Hallett (12B) - another CB. Good mental stats already
Danny Lewington (12C) - CM with good mentals
Emmanual Lawal (12D) - striker, not the best but solid starting stats

 

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

 

[Velodromè]

I hate this game. Thought I had made it with my protest in early january and managed to hold on to my leading centreback despite offers from a number of clubs, ranging from Rangers to Hapoel Ber-Sheva. Got through the transfer window in january and felt pretty confident about keeping him. Then, in late february, in steps the chairman. In the same news cycle I get the info about the bid and that he is sold for just £350 000, with no chance to protest. I reloaded back to the january window to try to negotiate the bids from Hearts and Rangers and got Hearts to pay £2 000 000 and 40% of next sale. I actually considered to redo the next month, but then I'd have lost a pretty good youth intake in february. Hate that I don't have the possibility to give the chairman and the board a piece of my mind. 

[Sanno11]

@darren1983 What a great season, I can't believe I can say this, unlucky you didn't achieve automatic promotion to the Championship!! If you don't mind me asking what are your facilities like now? I clicked your link and that song is stuck in my head now, so thanks for that : )

[darren1983]

@Sanno11 bar my youth coaching the facilities are pretty poor. Yeah feels strange to finish a season in 3rd & just miss to on auto promotion and feel frustrated, strange season. Weaver scored 23 goals this year and I sung the song after each goal  

[Soviet]

Sorry I didn't posted my manager pic, but I tried a lot of different leagues to find the one. I settled in exotic Poland. Also, I'm stealing the summary format from darren1983. His avatar looks mean but I'm not scared.

Gryf Wejherowo - I Liga Polska - Season 2017/18

League - great success right after promotion. To be honest I'm not really sure what happened because I had a team for mid-table at best, but I guess flat 4-4-2 can still work wonders. To be extra honest I'm not sure if we can survive in the top division, because it looks like the jump in skill seems to be pretty high. We'll see.

Cup - lost in first round, nothing to write about. Not too bad, it allowed me to focus on the league.

Transfers - nothing happening in first season.

Squad - had to do with what I had when I took over, which wasn't really too bad, as it turned out. Managed to give the youth a couple of games after the first intake and securing promotion.

Finances - insecure. We have a brand new stadium (too small for first division anyway...), which means loan(s). Furthermore, we're expanding youth AND training facilities (I just wanted to check if the board would agree...). Could have some issues here, but board is pumping money so far.

 

Key Players

Paweł Brzuzy - our right midfielder with poor stats and very good results. Fans' player of the season, best rating overall, etc. etc.
Adrian Bednarski - first choice DC, saved us a lot of trouble and even scored four goals.
Piotr Kolc - club legend (215 games) and a solid defensive midfielder.

Youth Intake - I'm very happy, never managed to get so many stars on a "normal" save

Jan Bledzewski (01A) - decent looking DC. Had a disastrous debut (provoked a penalty and made a huge error which lead to another goal) but I still like him. I have to.
Dariusz Polak (01B) - I'm trying to make him into a strong BWM, but he seems to bit more offensive. One goal and an assist in first two games - not bad. Even managed to score the goal of the season for our club. Bright future ahead?
Tomasz Dziadulewicz (01C) - I'm not using wingers, so he'll have to come down a bit.
Dominik Wydra (01D) - after months of shaking in fear I managed to get a second GK in March.

 

Career Overview

Season		League		Position	Achievements

2017/18		ILP		1st		Champions

*

It's my "first time" playing this challenge, so I have a couple of questions for veterans:

- Certain players are complaining that the training is too heavy, but they are not training a new position and don't have addition focus, so I can't disable anything to make it lighter. What do?
- Should I be making screens of youth on the day of intake or at the end of season, like above?
- Timeless question: loan or train at club?

[Pippadoc]

Welcome to the challenge Soviet, congratulations on a great first season!

Training wise, what is your team training level? I have mine set to low with position roles and individual focuses set for most players and don't get many players unhappy with training. If they are I just ignore them anyways.

I think screens of youth players is fine at either point, I like to do a separate post for my youth intake so I take screens when they first join. But screens at the end of the season is cool as well.

What level of club can you loan the players to? I kept my players at the club until this season after I have been promoted, I've now loaned a couple of players to teams in the division I just left. I would like to loan players to a lower league that doesn't fully generate it's fixtures. I try and fill my bench spots with youths if possible and give them some playing time wherever possible. 

[Soviet]

16 hours ago, Pippadoc said:

Welcome to the challenge Soviet, congratulations on a great first season!

Training wise, what is your team training level? I have mine set to low with position roles and individual focuses set for most players and don't get many players unhappy with training. If they are I just ignore them anyways.

That could be it, I'm using average most of the time.

16 hours ago, Pippadoc said:

I think screens of youth players is fine at either point, I like to do a separate post for my youth intake so I take screens when they first join. But screens at the end of the season is cool as well.

What level of club can you loan the players to? I kept my players at the club until this season after I have been promoted, I've now loaned a couple of players to teams in the division I just left. I would like to loan players to a lower league that doesn't fully generate it's fixtures. I try and fill my bench spots with youths if possible and give them some playing time wherever possible. 

Yeah, I still can't loan to a league I just left, maybe next season :).

Thanks for advice!