FM17 Youth Academy Challenge

[MadCatPT]

Blyth Spartans - 2020/2021 - Vanarama National League North

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

Season:

Typical start to the season with me getting up with the big boys and then injuries and/or struggling to break teams when they close up against us and we drop down. This year Jarrett Rivers didn't get injured, but just stop scoring, and with ours mains forwards injured/struggling or both, we never where close to the playoffs for most of the season even if we where safe.

So when our youth candidates brought a smallish, unbrave forward that had unbelievable finishing I went all in on him, so changed my tactics to a 4-3-3 and bloodied the youngster, after 6 games and 2 goals, with the team getting ready for a too late for the playoffs spurt of form, he was injured, along with most of my forwards, so from 5 I ended the season with one healthy forward as our form crashed.

Finances:

We are on the verge of getting sustainable. Our sponsorship at the end of the season jumped from 15k to 80K! And with the new tactic some of my big earners (also the lowest determination guys) will probably be shown the door. I'm still dependent of cash injections/cup runs, but will go between being in the black or in the red during the season.

Future:

Next season I will change tactics, will probably not fight for promotion, but hopefully will pave the way for my finances being stable enough for me to get the Youth upgraded and start getting more quality youth so I can go up. My initial plan was to spend around 5 years on each division before going up and it seems I will fail that plan, so will push the objective for promotion more 5 years, so the plan is to gain entry to the Vanarama National before the 2027/2028 season begins.

Main concerns is the lack of cover/replacements for my GK and CD, if these are gone injured by any length of time I could struggle a lot.

[Velodromè]

Førde IL season 2: 

Youth intake - Eikeskog - Myklebust - Dyrstad - Akstun - Fjordholm - Sandvik - Berge - Zetterdal

A decent intake this season, with Myklebust as the leader of the pack. He does not have the best personality, but he has decent pace and uses his left foot, so he will be retrained as a left winger. Fjordholm has potential, but a bad personality with low determination makes me doubt his future at the club. The others I have posted above are players from last years intake, where Eikeskog was the best one, but hasn't really developed at all since then. Zetterdal on the other hand, has stepped up his training and will be a regular starter next to Attila this season. I don't have high hopes for the rest of them, but Dyrstad has a good personality, so I will probably keep him around for the years to come. 

Second Division Group 2:

Part one

During the preseason I played control most of the time, deploying veteran Alexander Ødegaard as a advanced playmaker in midfield. This seemed to work in preseason, even though Ødegaard had some problems with his stamina. We dominated most games in the beginning, but could not score the goals we needed to win matches. In addition the higher defensive line in control made us a bit more vulnerable to counter attacks. 5-6 games in to the season we reverted to a more careful, direct approach and again got results, with striker Øystein Myrkaskog leading the line. Half way in I discovered that even with our struggling start, we weren't that far of the top of the table, so heading in to the second half of the season it was still everything to play for. 

Part two

In the second part of the season we tried a 4-4-2 to make use of the finishing ability of youngster Richard Rødsand up front. This worked pretty well for a while, with six wins in a row and us catching up with league leaders Notodden. Heading in to the away game at Notodden we were head to head, and six points ahead of the rest, but a narrow loss at Notodden disrupted our form. When we lost again to Lysekloster and 14th placed Steinkjer, we had to focus on getting 2nd and a play off spot. Thanks to a mistake from the goalkeeper of Hønefoss in the final match we made it, on goal difference. In the play off we were drawn against Alta, a team thought to be superior to ours in every single way, but we had a plan to put up a fight. We started at home, playing the counter attacking 4-3-3 with wingers, and did our stuff really well. We carved them open 5-6 times, but every time we were let down by our finishing. Especially the young Myklebust had a bad day in front of goal. What usually happens when a team misses several clear cut chances is that the opposition score, and this was no exeption. Goalkeeper Lillevik, normally a reliable guy when it comes to dealing with crosses in to the area, fumbles a cross into his own net. 1-0 to Alta, and a difficult task in the away leg. The away leg started in the worst possible way, with Alta taking the lead after 2 mins. We struggled in the first half, but we managed to hang on until the break. At halftime we changed to 4-4-2 and pushed up more, trying to put more pressure on Alta. This resulted in an equalizer, just after the start of the second half. At this point I actually belived this could go our way, we just needed another goal. A minute later, not so much. Straight from kick off Alta attacks, and Vegar Braathen made it 2-1. Again we need two goals, but we only manage to get the one, through striker Myrkaskog. A good game, but the howler from Lillevik in the home game combined with the poor finishing cost us in the end. Still, a pretty good season, being tipped rock bottom again. 

Next season: 

The plan for next season is to get rid of as many of the low determined "old" bunch as I can, to get the squad personality moving in the right direction. Next season I don't think I will sign all the recommended players, just the ones with decent determination and good personalities, provided we get some. With Eikeskog not having developed the past two seasons, Zetterdal is now the leading man of the academy. Zetterdal has done well during the season, and the partnership between him and Attila is very good at our level. On the left wing Myklebust has done well, and during the season Per Egil Flies got introduced to the team at left back, making remarkable progress according to my assistent. Many of the others, especially Eikeskog, have been told to step up their training level and make som progress if they want to stay much longer. Remains to be seen if it helps. Wishlist for the future is a good striker, capable of replacing Myrkaskog, who is in his thirties, and a goalkeeper capable of replacing Lillevik.  

 

[Shakes]

Pontassolense - Season 1 - 2018/19 Campeonato de Portugal Prio

First Phase | Relegation Stage | Taça de Portugal | Squad | Transfers

Well that was certainly a ride! Things started awfully, losing the player the ass man rated the best to a broken leg in the pre-season. This set the tone for the first phase of the season, a number of players had multi-month injuries and with a squad of 14 to start with that made life very tough. At one point we had 9 fit players to choose from. Unsurprisingly we didn't do too well in the first phase, finishing 10th (ie dead last) in our group. Annoyingly we only ended up on 15 points, which due to rounding when carrying 25% forward meant we only got 3, putting us dead last of our relegation group and at a disadvantage before we even got started.

To this point I'd toyed with a 4-4-1-1 and a more counter attacking 4-1-4-1 version, and I made the decision I wasn't going to die wondering, I'd play risk/reward and go for the scoring of the 4-4-1-1 rather than the stability of the 4-1-4-1. When you're behind you need wins not draws to dig yourself out of the hole!

Unfortunately just when it looked like we were getting healthy our captain went down with a cruciate injury in training, which subsequently caused him to retire prematurely at 32. Just what a thin squad needs! Also our goal keeper broke a finger ... this was a huge loss given he eventually was named keeper in the division team of the year (there are 80 teams in our division, so quite the achievement). Luckily after the youth intake came through so we could at least put a bad but better than nothing young kid in there to hold us over.

The relegation playoffs were a case of us getting the results we needed against the teams we needed to get them against. We lost 5 of 6 against the top three teams that were clearly in another class, but managed a solid 5-1-2 record against the other 4 who were were actually competing against to save ourselves on the last day. It was definitely touch and go - despite winning out we didn't control our own destiny and needed our good friends over at Real to beat a team on the final day to get us to safety, but at the end of the day nobody cares how you stayed up just that you did!

Youth Intake

In the battle of quality vs quantity this is definitely quality but it's exactly what I needed. (19a) Tito Câmara is a defensively minded DM/MC joining a team that has plenty of attacking wide players and nothing solid in the middle. Oh and just as an added bonus he's two footed and has a good personality. He went straight into the starting lineup and even managed to score a fluke goal on debut, he's clearly a good luck charm. Needs some Wayne Rooney hair plugs but you can't have everything can you?

The rest of them don't have the potential to be much but having some depth is a relief.

Next Season

Survival will be a battle again for sure. However the first phase being discounted to 25% points means that it's probably a good chance to experiment a bit more tactically, I definitely feel like if I can get our chance conversion a little higher and the number of goals we're giving up from set pieces a little lower it's going to be a lot less scary a ride next time around.

	Division	League	Cup	Goals	Assists	Rating	Profit/Loss
2018/19	3rd	10th / 5th	2nd Round	Anton (14)	Anton (8)	Nova (7.26)	23,270

[Shakes]

@smp20 - Now you're just making the rest of us look bad. 

@MadCatPT - It's a slog but any year you get a five star project you're making progress.

@Velodromè - Interesting approach trying to cull the personality of the squad, personalities seem far more infectious this year, so maybe there's something to it.

[Velodromè]

@Shakes I have to try something to stop the fall in determination among the players. At the moment I can afford to use/sign players with the right personality/level of determination instead of just the ones that have the highest CA/PA rating. The left back, Flies, a professional, was only rated 3 grey stars when I gave him a run in the first team and after a month he was rated 2,5 yellows. This will be a lot harder to do if we get promoted, but that's not a target yet.   

[MCPlay]

@smp20 Wow, winning the CL after just 8(?) seasons is incredible. Congratulations from us in Wales, insane achievement

[MCPlay]

Season 18

European Qualification Wrap-Up

Fixtures

After easily beating Jelgava of Latvia, we drew the hardest possible draw in the third qualification round. We were seeded, but somehow still ended up darwing Legia Warzawa which is a strong team from Poland. After a nervy 2-1 win at home, we travelled to Warzawa with a small advantage. We went up 1-0 and held on for a 1-1 draw which took us to the Play-Off. For the first time we were seeded here aswell, but there didn't seem to be too much difference between the quality of seeded an unseeded teams. We drew the swedish team AIK, which is a potent foe with a couple of really good swedish internationals. An early goal saw AIK win 1-0 at home. After the end of 90 minutes in Wales, we were up 1-0 thanks to a goal from Jacob Davies 10D. This meant extra time, where Jacob popped up once again, to see us through to the group stage with a 2-1 aggregate win!

We drew Bayern, Atletico Madrid and CSKA Moscow. A tough draw surely, but maybe we can pip CSKA for the third place?

 

[MCPlay]

@Velodromè I had the same problem in the start of my time at Haverfordwest, but after cutting ties with a lot of veterans with low determination. After that the squads personality changed to fairly professional, which meant that my youngsters got more professional over time instead of losing determination. Seems to be a decent approach, even if it means that you lose a bit of quality in the squad

[darren1983]

@smp20 well done. Putting us all to shame here. 

@MadCatPT I feel your pain, I was lucky enough to get out of National South 1st time of asking but when you're this low down it can be a slog at times.

@Velodromè nice first season there, big fan of the idea of moving on the players with poor personality, I myself will often give young players with a good personality a chance in the team over someone slightly better but with a poor personality.

@Shakes well done on the 2nd part of the season, first half sounded brutal at times

@MCPlay another tough champions league group, good luck on grabbing that 3rd spot.

[XaW]

Ok, seeing as I gave up on my dafuges go due to the Brexit-bug, I'm back here. Loading up Portugal now. I had some luck there some years ago, so I'm hoping for something similar this time.

[MadCatPT]

44 minutes ago, XaW said:

Ok, seeing as I gave up on my dafuges go due to the Brexit-bug, I'm back here. Loading up Portugal now. I had some luck there some years ago, so I'm hoping for something similar this time.

Brexit-bug?

[Muttley84]

@smp20 Something is seriously wrong in Lovech. I mean Champions League winner already? My two Greek Cups and Europa League groups sound like child's game now... Congrats anyway. ?

[Tush]

Just a quick update/insight into how I'm faring - I'm just-just hovering above the relegation zone (4 teams get relegated from 16).

Playing with 3 grey players every match is...very frustrating, I have only 9 contracted players, just wanting to play as many of them makes me play a very weird formation. Hopefully I will be able to survive until the intake.

[XaW]

26 minutes ago, MadCatPT said:

Brexit-bug?

I started the game in the Beta and it was affected by this.

[XaW]

Anyway, I'm the new manager of Imortal! Let's see if we can live up to that name.

[SouthernGeordie]

Hi guys, enjoying follow everyone's stories!! Well done to all so far!!

I'm starting this challenge, on FM16, but don't worry I won't be filling up this topic! 

Just a quick question, I want to start in France, what league do I look to join as reading back on last years some have started in National and some have started in the CFA leagues. I don't want to cheat and thought someone might know! 

Thanks in advance!

[Tush]

Almost got sacked due to poor results, but after the long awaited intake, I now play with real players and got some results to keep me at the club.

[smp20]

Cheers guys, I'm going to do a big proper update of the season at some point soon. But I'm thinking I took the easy challenge with Litex and may look to complete the challenge somewhere else. Where's the toughest? Northern Ireland?

[Vevi]

29 minutes ago, smp20 said:

Cheers guys, I'm going to do a big proper update of the season at some point soon. But I'm thinking I took the easy challenge with Litex and may look to complete the challenge somewhere else. Where's the toughest? Northern Ireland?

You will dominate local league after few seasons in this kind of leagues.

IMO toughest is England. Never saw someone finish this challenge in this league.

[Tush]

31 minutes ago, smp20 said:

Cheers guys, I'm going to do a big proper update of the season at some point soon. But I'm thinking I took the easy challenge with Litex and may look to complete the challenge somewhere else. Where's the toughest? Northern Ireland?

Starting in Northern Ireland is very tough because the players are on non-contracts and teams snipe players like crazy. All the way through season they are able to sign your players and you can end up with empty spots. England for sure is a huge challenge also.

[smp20]

Just now, Vevi said:

You will dominate local league after few seasons in this kind of leagues.

IMO toughest is England. Never saw someone finish this challenge in this league.

It takes a while to get there in England, but once you are in the Premier League you're on the up due to the cash. I've done it with Bury Town and Dulwich Hamlet on previous FMs so I think I'm going to go somewhere new .

[smp20]

3 minutes ago, Tush said:

Starting in Northern Ireland is very tough because the players are on non-contracts and teams snipe players like crazy. All the way through season they are able to sign your players and you can end up with empty spots. England for sure is a huge challenge also.

That could prove to be a big challenge indeed, I'm thinking that NIR might be the way to go.

[smp20]

This is the kind of place I'm thinking of....

[MCPlay]

@smp20 I started in Northern Ireland, and gave up after one season. Players were leaving left and right and i couldn't cope with it. Would be awesome to see you give it a go!

[Chantu9Y]

First Vienna FC 1894 Season Review 17/18

The season ended well but still somewhat disappointed on the drop off. As expected, injury once again reared its ugly head and wreaked havoc on my squad, forcing me to play a lot of greys and players out of position (sometimes both applied). What I didn't expect was how poorly Shibany was going to play in the second half of the season. After his blistering start, he began to garner interest from several top flight German clubs (I rejected them all). Unfortunately he began to feel the pressure of fame and absolutely caved in. There were times when he could not hit a lake if he fell out of a boat in terms of accuracy, missing complete sitters. Without his skills, we eventually dropped and settled for 4th. Now here is where I'm absolutely outraged. After a great year, defying expectations, we have increased our Finances by more than twice their original. And then the board hits me with This. What the heck?! They did try to compensate by sending this Out. Not really sure how this pans out for us, does anyone have any thoughts? Anyway, they won't upgrade any of our facilities now. I had two players up for awards, with Emmerling a Finalist and Shibany Winning top goal scorer. Here are the FVFC Golden Boys:

Goalkeeper: Kostner is our only keeper so the award is his for the taking. Solid as always.

Defender: Fritsch was a rock in defense in the second half. He did a great job keeping us in games.

Midfield: Emmerling his 18 assists were massive for us. He was our player of the year with 7 goals to boot.

Forward: Shibany it goes to show how dominant a first half he had that he could only muster up 4 goals in 4 months and still win top goal scorer. He still has potential if he could get his mind right.

Now for the moment I've been waiting for, the youth intake. Definitely a defensive class but look good overall:

Hubner- a much needed cover in central defense. We can stop playing people out of position and give him some game. Has potential

Steffen- the pick of the lot. Bags of talent and will definitely play next season. Worried about his injury proneness though

Starke- finally some goalkeeper cover. Will be interested to see how he develops. 

Hass- another piece of defensive cover. Will also give him a go to help develop

 

 

 

[Tush]

Season 1 - 2017/2018

Second division - 12th

Manager | Club | Facilities | Squad | Transfers | Finances

Youth intake | Competitions | Fixtures 1 | Fixtures 2

 

Manager: Not much has changed, I gained some experience and I am currently studying for National C Licence

Club: The value of club dropped below our loan, this is due to us losing money every month, so unless we start finishing higher in the league, this could continue.

Facilities: The only change is that we have moved back into 566 capacity STaRZ stadium, which doesn't really hurt as we weren't getting more attendance anyway.

Squad: Finally, FINALLY I am not resigned into using grey players and the youngsters can enjoy playing for the first team from the first day they are signed up 

Transfers: No transfers in, no transfers out (the only visible "transfer" is a woman I'm signing as U19 coach

Finances: Financially we are a little into plus, this will change in the following season.

League: Avoided relegation by one point, works with me  Throughout the whole season we were competing for the safe spot.

Cup: We were kicked out of the Cup in the first match, so there's not much to say.

Fixtures: The matches were very tough at start, due to having only 9 contracted players and having to use 3 greys in each match, but after the intake in March things finally started to look better for us.

 

Youth intake: Good intake, the youngsters have nice potential ability from the first look. Some of them are already playing for seniors.

Jozef Jancovic (YP01a) - good defender with great potential, I am using him for substitution at the moment, because I have no other defenders to use.

Jozef Kovac (YP01c) - great starting ability and nice potential, looks like he might become first choice goalie in the upcoming years

 

 

Goals for next season: Survive again! After how close it was this season, this is the only realistic goal at the moment

 

[Shakes]

@XaW - My team relegated your team this season. 

@smp20 - The non-contracts until top league in Northern Ireland makes it pretty hard to feasibly retain a squad. Also there's lots of cups and so the season is even more games than England. On the other hand I think soft domestic leagues are a big advantage in the game as it stands, being able to continuously win big is huge for morale and morale seems to matter so much ...

@Tush - Congrats on making it to the intake! Looks like you got a solid one too.

[Dan BHTFC]

SELKIRK FC - SEASON FOUR - 2020/21

Scottish Cup - Betfred Cup - Challenge Cup

 

League Table:

A bad season for us, we struggled badly, we just can't push up to challenge the top half, we need some good Youth intake soon!

 

Squad:

We have a good sized squad with a couple of good players but we do lack quality where it matters.

 

Transfers:

Finances:

We need a cup run soon to boost our money so we can start upgrading.

 

Youth Intake:

Some good prospects but nothing special.

 

Season		League		Position	Achievements

2017/18		SPFL2		10th		
2018/19		SPFL2		9th		
2019/20		SPFL2		8th 
2020/21		SPFL2		10th

 

[Peter G]

I holidayed in Germany and forget to do a certain something with a file. Whoops.

[Chantu9Y]

First Vienna FC 1894 18/19 Season

At the beginning of the season I had high hopes that we would be pushing for promotion. Now I see that this will be one of survival. I should have known something was wrong when my head scout left us for the greener pastures of one of our rivals in Vienna. We managed to sign a higher rated scout, which was great, but the good news lasted about a week before our goalkeeper Kostner decided he would not resign with a year left on his contract, our starting right back pushed for a transfer to the same club, as well as our top striker Shibany following suit! Why they all wished to go to the same rival team, I can only attribute to a twisted conspiracy, but the supporters and I are fuming. Two good things did come of this: Between the two of them, we made 1.75 mil in profits (too bad the board doesn't seem to care about upgrades :/ ). And now we are definitely starting all the youngsters but Starke (although he will get some playing time to prepare for the eventual loss of Kostner). The preseason was rough, injuries again ruining our lineup throughout. Our goals this year are simple, to attempt a nice cup run to gain more money and to survive the season until some more youth can be injected to boost our squad. Until the mid season report...

[XaW]

10 hours ago, Shakes said:

@XaW - My team relegated your team this season. 

Heh, I noticed. Still, I was looking around for a team and decided I wanted to take real life into the equation when selecting a club. So, where in Portugal would I want to live? Not in any of the biggest cities (Porto, Lisbon, etc), and not inland since, you know, beaches and stuff. So that's where Imortal showed up. Albufeira is located on the southern coast an hour drive from the Spanish border. A rather shabby stadium with running tracks around it makes the whole experience something I'm looking for. And of course the name is so close to immortal, so I can probably use that in some puns along the way.

[XaW]

Edit: double post

[Muttley84]

Greek Youth Adventure - Season 7

Untill I saw @smp20's update I was thinking we were doing pretty good. Now I'm having second thoughts though, and those are backed by our performance in the League where we finished a poor 7th place this year. The bright side is we are becoming the regular winners of the Greek Cup, which I don't mind that much as it guarantee's us a place in Europe. Speaking of that, we got our first points in the Europa League this season, with a win and a draw against Copenhagen, Liverpool and Lazio proving to strong for us. 

Not all roses there, as a transfer clause saw us lose our best player in the beginning of the season for a cheap Transfer, followed by a series of medium and long term injuries of our key players. We did managed to turn things around in the second part of the season though, with the most players performing good, and Season Awards to our young players.

Personally, came second in the Manger of the Year race, got an job offer from Olympiakos, board refuses to upgrade anymore facilities but made improvements to the youth development.  Finances looking pretty good, and we actually had a pretty large and decent Youth Intake this year.

Lacking a bit of motivation right now, and playing this alongside another career till I find the shape again.

[Sanno11]

Ilkeston FC Season 3

League| Squad | Finances|Transfers| Youth Intake|Results

Season Overview

The season began slowly and without any real conviction. A change in system did not have the desired effect and although we carved out a few 1-0 wins in the opening 5 games, the warning signs we there. I went back to 4-4-2 and we became more dangerous going forward. The season progressed positively enough and we comfortably in the top half of the table, frustratingly close to the playoffs. A good run of form in the new year (4 wins from 5) shot us up into 4th place and the dream of promotion was back on. To my frustration we only managed to pick up 1 point from the next 5 games, it was like groundhog day, we would play well enough but had no luck and missed chances. I, rather recklessly decided to try something completely new (narrow system), this time I was fortunate and it paid off. We went on a great run of 6 wins from the last 8 games, with our fullbacks playing exceptionally well. We ended the season in fourth place.

Playoffs

The semi final was against Bradford PA. Our good form started with a win against them, I changed nothing and ground out a 1-0 win on aggregate. Not convincing but enough.

The final was against Darlington who had finished 5th. It was a quiet and tense game,  I stayed out of the way and in two second half minutes the game was won, two goals scored, both by youth players. It finished 2-0 to us and we were Promoted.

 

Top Performers

Ross Hope (YP18b) An injury free season in which he flourished, 23 goals and 10 assists. He is now rated as having the potential to reach League 2 ability. He just signed a new 2 year contract and will be vital in our bid to survive next year.

Steven Mullarkey (YP18e) Recorded a new league recorded of 20 clean sheets this year. Has developed incredibly well and is now rated as my best player.

Max Thornberry A player who I was trying to phase out just kept proving me wrong, best average rating of the squad and fans player of the year.

 

Youth Intake

The first disappointing intake we have had so far, I will give my HOYD more time though as he is exceptional for our level.

George Howard (YP20a) A strange mix of full back and winger, being good at neither and the PPM of likes to shoot from distance, means he is nowhere near the first team.

Glenn Leverock (YP20b) Has an OK personality and some positive mental stats, weak technically and physically but will have a chance as my main BWM is over the hill.

 

Club overview

A few things to report here. A random and welcome news item popped up, the most successful former Ilkeston player moved to Celtic and we got 10K, Che Adams.

The promotion stirred my board to action and due to our ground not being adequate they made some decisions. The good, moving to a Coronation park a local stadium that holds 5500 and we only pay a nominal amount of rent. The bad, they have invested 2.4 million into a new stadium, that will hold 4386 and is named after a former boss, Great.

Summary

A really positive end to the season and with youth prospects becoming more and more important to the first team it is looking good. We just need to survive next year, that's it

 

 

[Velodromè]

Do the personality of the youth players affect the squad personality, or is it just the first team players? 

[MCPlay]

Season 18

League Table | Transfers | Season Review

Dafabet Welsh Premier League

13 in a row. We inexplicably lost in the 7th game of the season against a team who had 1 point, ending my unbeaten streak at 90. We lost another game later in the season and drew 4 times, making this our worst point tally in 7 years.

Cup runs

Won the Welsh Cup. Lost the third round of the MG Cup after a penalty shoot-out against Airbus. They have now knocked me out of this cup twice in a row, and also managed to beat me once in the league this year. They might be ready to stabilize themselves as the second best team in Wales. They also won a european tie last year, good news for welsh football.

Champions League

Fixtures

After losing the first two matches against Bayern and Atletico, it was two pointless teams that met up in Moscow. It was a real thriller, were the goals came in quick succession. We went up 2-3 in the 86th minute, only to see them immediatly hit back and make it 3-3 in the 87th. But a 90th minute winner for Jacob Davies 10D, saw us grab a crucial 3-4 win, and a great chance to advance to the Europa League. We played another fan-friendly match against them in the opposite fixture, witch ended 2-2. They now needed to grab at least 4 points in their last two games to pip us from the third place, but Bayern and Atletico proved to be too strong for them, and even though we lost our games aswell, we ended up third in the group with 4 points.

In the Europa League we had a though draw against Sevilla, we fought bravely but after 2-2 at home, we didn't have luck on our side in Spain, and lost 2-1.

A good european effort this year, were we accomplished our goal of grabbing the third place in the group.

 

Youth Setup:

Youth Intake

Matthew Rees 18B

After two horrible intakes, we got a good one. Well, not a good intake, but a good player. We desperatly need full backs but for some reason we are getting showered with strikers. All my other attempts at this challenge in the last years have been almost completely devoid of strikers, but here I am getting too many to handle. Matthew Rees 18B looks like he could become special though, and I inserted him into the starting line-up at once. Huw Price 4A is a legend, we have started to move away from him as a full-time starter, which opens up a spot for Matthew. Maybe he can become my Danny Roberts?

Big Fat Goalie Challenge:

Owen 14B scored 5 of 7 penalties and 0 free kicks this year. He is now rated as my best free kicker, so it was disappointing not seeing him scoring a single one. His goalie skills are still developing well, and he is a regular on the bench for the national team.

Dave Owen 14B - 27 Goals. 5 this season.

 

Longevity Challenge:

The aim in this Challenge is to get players to 1000 appearances for the club. We're currently playing just over 50 games a season, so it will require an incredibly injury-free player 20 Seasons to do it.

Most appearances:

Huw Price 4A - 550 appearances - 39 this season

Emyr Boyle 2D - 496 Appearances - 4 this season

Ones to watch:

Dafydd Davies 7A - 475 Appearances - 46 this season

Callum Hart 12A - 251 Appearances - 51 this season

Rory Cooper 12B- 227 Appearances - 51 this season

Peter James 14A - 158 Appearances - 39 this season

 

Peter James 14A has started 3 games for the national team, and looks to be our best player. A great central defender in spite of his weak jumping reach, he is the welsh Cannavaro.

 

Danny Roberts Challenge

The aim in this Challenge is to get a player to score 1000 goals during his career, national team goals count.

Most goals:

Huw Price 4A- 381 goals in 550 games. 14 goals in 39 games this season. He isn't really good enough to keep being a full-time started, and will have to adjust to being an impact sub for the rest of his career. But we will never forget what he did at the peak of his powers, and the whole club is where it is today because of his otherworldly performances against FC København so many years ago. We have started building a new stadium, and if the board knows what it's doing it should be named after the legend.

Jacob Davies 10D - 320 goals in 263 games. 56 goals in 44 games this season. Several injury niggles kept his goal tally down, but he still had a way better season than last year. However I'm starting to realize he can't get to 1000 goals, and if the rookie shows his mettle, Jacob might have to move over to the supporting striker role.

[Pippadoc]

GF 38 - Youth Intake 2018

A solid youth intake to start off the challenge. We've added some solid players that will fit into our current formation, we won't be able to use any of these players until they turn 16 next season. But from next season I'll be looking to give plenty of game time to some of the better players from this crop. I've tagged 4 players from this intake, and there is a couple of other players who could end us a reasonable squad players. 

Jeremy Amestoy (YP18A) - Amestoy is a fantastic prospect, the only question is how to develop him. We currently use a Target Man (Support) and Advanced Forward (Attack), at 5'8" he doesn't really fit the mould of a target man but with decent passing ability he may be wasted as an Advanced Forward. I might look to develop him into a Deep-Lying Forward to try and get the most out of him. I'll look to give him game time as soon as he turns 16.

Julien Mercier (YP18B) - Getting central defenders is definitely necessary with us using a 3 centre back formation. Mercier is another highly rater prospect, but he certainly has a lot of developing to do to reach his potential. I'll also be looking to give him game time when he turns 16, but until he develops a bit more it will only be appearances from the bench.

Julien Guillaume (YP18C) - Guillaume is another promising centre back, again with a fair bit of work to do before he will become a starter. I'll likely try to give him some game time as well, but I'll prioritise Mercier for now to try and ensure one of them will develop well at least. 

Yaya Fane (YP18D) - Our final prospect is a central midfielder. He will likely have to wait a while to get some game time as Horjak (YP17A) will be getting the majority of first team action I can give to developmental prospects. I'll likely look to develop him into a Central Midfielder (Defend) as he certainly isn't the creative type to fit a playmaker role.

[Velodromè]

Førde IL season 3: 

Youth intake - Squad - Fixtures - Stats - Review

Another decent intake with some determined players who will join the first team immediately. With Reksten coming up through the ranks Erlend Moen Taule, our usual right winger with a determination of 3, will be offloaded to a new club. Not sure about what to do with Sindre Kjos-Wenjum. His jumping reach is only 6 and his determination is only 3, so I am not sure about playing him as a central defender, but he will get some playing time during the season. Hopefully we will get the squad personality on the right track so his determination improves instead of dragging the others down. Loving the determination of Bernt Kvam and Holtvik, who both will be in or around the first team. I am just hoping that they keep their level of determination through the season.

The squad:

As you can see, we don't have any suitable tutors or potential tutors in the current squad. Attila is the new team captain and by far the best defender in the squad, but his determination is very low, so if I get a determined (12<) central defender with some potential, he might be going. Same is the story with goalkeeper Lillevik and the strikers Kvalvågnes/Myrkaskog. Lillevik is our best goalkeeper by some distance, but lack of determination/personality means I am hoping for a replacement.  

The season: 

Things were looking good after the first five games, but from there on in we struggled with finding the back of the net on a regular basis, again. We got the points, but still have som work to do before we are ready for a promotion. After getting hammered by Egersund it was pretty obvious that a play off spot was the best we could hope for. The home game against Nest Sotra was the highlight of the season, but from there it was disappointment all the way to the end. If we had won our final three home games we would have reached the play offs again, but we weren't good enough this time.

Table

[Peter G]

Does anyone know the date to save for the French reload? It says the June 20th on the first page but it looks like the winner is decided before then?

 

Has anyone got a save from the date of reload as I would like to be ESSG.

[Pippadoc]

@Peter G they came up in my save. Here's the link. 

If you fully load up the CFA then the games will be played out as the season goes on, so you would need to fully holiday a season again to get new teams. That save is the day before the leagues reset, so holiday for a day and you'll be able to take control of Sannois

[XaW]

XaW - Imortal - 2017/18

First Phase | Promotion Stage | Squad | Transfers | Finances

Ah, Portugal, and the beautiful southern town Albufeira on the Atlantic coast. I'm here, but not as a tourist or to bathe and get tanned. Rather I'm here to put the town on the map of European football. At least in the long run, that's the plan. Let's see if this small town of only 13k inhabitants can produce some of the best talents and if I can nurture them well enough. When I took over the club we had some glaring issues with the squad. Notably, only one single goalkeeper, but even more pressing; no strikers! Now, how to solve this? Either a "no-striker" tactic, or retrain and misuse someone for a while until we get a youth intake with a striker. I chose the second path, since my tactic skills are somewhat lacking. I can make a normal one, to a certain degree, but strikerless formations and such is beyond my abilities. I'll leave that to @Braumiller (I hope I remember correctly when I remember you doing that a year or two ago?) and his fellow kin. Anyway, one of my players was a winger who was too poor to be a main choice, so he was now our striker. Due to injuries throughout the season, many players got a match or two at unfamiliar positions. Such as a winger playing central midfielder, right back and striker in the same match! As the season started we started out quite well. My slow 4-5-1 turned out to be problematic for opponents to break down, and we were part of the top of the table after a couple of narrow wins along with some draws. União de Madeira ran away early though, and they are way to good for this level as evident by their 3 conceded goals in 18 matches! When the matches were done I was very surprised to find us at second place. This qualified us for the promotion stage, and we were safe from relegation! Here we were up against other teams who had placed top 2 in other groups in the First Phase. This turned out to be quite hard for us as we got only a single point in the first 4 matches. After that we got our youth intake, and we managed to improve our form, since we now had subs! In the end a very good 7th place here was much more than expected. I'm very happy with the season, and we did much better than expected.

In the Taça de Portugal we lost at the first hurdle against GD Bragança in the 1st round.

The youth:

This seasons youth intake was just amazing, but it kinda would be no matter.

New players:

João Carvalho (YP18a) - A very good central midfielder. Went straight into the main team. Got his first goal as well.
Régis (YP18b) - It's very good to get a talented goalkeeper early on. Since we only have one he will be second choice already. Got a game due to injury.
João Hugo (YP18c) - A promising central defender. A bit poor jumping reach, but we are working on it.
Duarte Pita (YP18d) - Another central defender, but this time of the more defensive type. Going to get some matches.
Hélder Rodrigues (YP18e) - Ahh, a striker. Goes straight into the team.
Franclim Carriço (YP18f) - Technical winger I hope can do well for us.
Selton (YP18g) - Promising midfielder who I think will play quite a lot.

 

Season	|         League	      |     Position	   |    Europe	  |      Top scorer         |    Achievements
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2017/18	| Campeonato de Portugal Prio |     2nd/7th	   |      N/A 	  |    Ivo Candelas (7)     |   Reached the promotion stage

[Shakes]

@Sanno11 - Nice promotion. I don't mind the look of Howard, if you're playing narrow a full back who is a winger (and so tends towards more attacking attribute development) is a good thing. Also shoots from distance isn't the curse it used to be years ago, they don't blast it every time they get the ball and can see the goal anymore.

@Velodromè - I think you're the test case to see whether youth team can influence the senior team or only the other way around.

@MCPlay - First world problems when 1 loss makes it the worst season in 7 years. I agree that Rees looks like a contender.

@XaW If you don't need any of those kids send them my way!

[Braumiller]

Season 02 2018-19

The Season As It Happened....

Preseason
The focus this preseason was all about getting more solid.  We did nicely going forward last year, but defensively we were not the best.  We tinkered a little, but settled on the simpler solution of less cavalier fullbacks/wingbacks and have my defensive midfielder be more, well, defensive.

September 2018
We had a nervy start to the season, which made me worry about the tactical tinkering.  We lost 0-1 on opening, despite dominating.  Then we drew 2-2, conceding a very late goal.  Then we got a shot in the arm, playing Haverfordwest in the cup.  They were newly promoted and just had the misfortune to run into an early, angry TNS losing 9-0!  We beat them 5-0 in the cup to give us a morale boost, which helped kick start the league campaign as well.

September 22nd 2018
My GK gets injured again, this time with a fractured wrist for approx 2 months.  And this time, we have a youth GK at the club!  In at the deep end kid!

October 16th 2018
James Loveridge returns back to training from his cruciate ligament injury slightly ahead of schedule (7 months, instead of 11!).

October 21st 2018
Curse the injury gods!  James Loveridge made a cameo return for 27 minutes in a league game, but Michael Shrimpton 2018-A went down injured with 7 minutes to go.  Damaged Achilles and out for 5-6 months!  He has been immense in the middle of the park early on, 3 goals and an assist in 6 league starts with a 7.61 average rating.....

November 20th 2018
Our MG Cup run and defense comes to a disappointing end in extra time in the semi final against Bala

March 4th 2019
Cash injection of 80k from the board, brings us back to just 3k in debt

March 5th 2019
Youth Candidates 2019! There is a lot of potential in this years intake, although that reflects on the current squad as much as the kids!    There are also two standout trends in this intake.  Left-footedness (11 out of 16 are left footed) and height (12 of 16 are 6 foot or taller!).  Again, the overall determination levels are worrying, and my tutoring options are extremely thin as well.  I think this is now officially something to keep an eye on.
Simon Martin 2019-A - A decent looking left back.  He will be hard pressed to pass our current left back anytime soon, but he is instantly his backup and only a tweak away from starting week-in, week-out
Scott Saunders 2019-B - The first of a bunch of DC's this year.  There will be a lot of competition between them for games.
Dean Martin 2019-C - Can play naturally anywhere across the back four, which may turn out to be useful!
Marc Osbourne 2019-D - A tall central midfielder, who can play higher up the field as well
Jonathan McFenton 2019-E - Natural at both DC and DL
Alex Edwards 2019-F - Another central defender!
Gareth Robinson 2019-G - Finally a little variety!  A natural striker who can also play out wide on the left.  Will be retrained as a Shadow Striker, but in a pinch can fill in at ML going forward
Leighton Pearson 2019-H - Will be stuck behind Thomas Silva for a while for the ML spot, but when we gets a game this kid has a cross on him!

April 13th 2019
Our run in the Welsh Cup end at the semi finals.

April 20th 2019
With a fantastic 3-0 win over Llanddudno and with 1 game to spare, we assure ourselves the first taste of European football in this new era of the clubs history by securing 2nd place in the league!  We started the Championship group split games during a rocky patch of form, but we have finished strong!

May 12th 2019
The day after the end of the season and it was a busy one.  We gained a new sponsorship for our main kit, now bringing in 16k a year.  With this boost to the bank balance (it pushed us, along with the 12.5k for our league finish, up to 17.5k) to talk the board into a Junior Coaching upgrade!  They had turned us down twice during the year due to finances, so it was good to get this in!  We then tried our luck with going Professional, but they were having none of it

Our starting XI is now featuring a lot of youths.  Of the non-youths, 3 are just 22 years old and performing great (Joe Jones (DC), Matthew Long (DL) and Jamie Latham (MC)).  Thomas Silva is our driving force out on the left and should be for a while (now 26 yrs old).  Luke Bowen is now 31 and I am going to begin phasing him from starting XI to the bench.  Jamie Rewbury is 33 and his time is up.  It will hit us harder than the others I think, as our youth replacements are very raw at DC, but it has to happen at some point!

End of Season Screenshots
League Table
Results
Transfers
End of Season Awards
* Player of The Year 1st Place - Thomas Silva (70%)
* Player of The Year 2nd Place - Jordan Martin 2018-D (15%)
* Player of The Year 3rd Place - Rob Martin 2018-B (9%)

Season 03 Targets
* Consolidate as the 2nd team in the league behind TNS
* Perform well in the early round(s) of the Europa League
* Continue the youth movement

[Braumiller]

@smp20 wow, huge congrats!

[Braumiller]

1 hour ago, XaW said:

but strikerless formations and such is beyond my abilities. I'll leave that to @Braumiller (I hope I remember correctly when I remember you doing that a year or two ago?) and his fellow kin.

Trust me I am by no means a tactical manager....  I got lucky 3 or 4 years ago with a strikerless formation that clicked and I have struggled since.  My current tactic is 90% someone elses, with tweaks to take into account how poor my players are compared to those that the tactic was created around

[QSF25]

How does name tagging works?

Name(age)(prospectletter)seasonofappearence?

[Braumiller]

1 minute ago, QSF25 said:

How does name tagging works?

Name(age)(prospectletter)seasonofappearence?

Dealers choice

This year I have just added YEAR-ProspectLetter myself.  Previously I have used (SeasonNumber-ProspectLetter).  Whatever you like the look of  

[Shakes]

14 minutes ago, Braumiller said:

Trust me I am by no means a tactical manager....  I got lucky 3 or 4 years ago with a strikerless formation that clicked and I have struggled since.

Ugh tell me about it. I haven't had a tactic that I've felt really good about since they nerfed dribbling in an early FM14 patch.  It's so hard to get consistency these days, it feels like random elements are a much bigger part. I remember in FM13 I'd load up my test international save to play with tactics and if I was onto a good thing it'd look good every time I played the match. Now I can do the same thing and one game we'll have 25 shots to 5 and the next it'll be completely reversed. It's become a much more frustrating game, I used to love to tinker with tactics, now if something sort of works I'm scared to touch it!

In fairness in real life I'm an Australian rules fan and I don't even watch much soccer so maybe it's realistic that I'm not any good at the tactical side of the game. 

[QSF25]

any tips for this challenge? 

 

I guess i wont be needing any scouts.

Released all loans since I want my player to have more play time.

[Shakes]

@QSF25 - The biggest tip is club selection matters. Pick one with good facilities unless you want to play in hard mode because there's no guarantee you'll be able to increase them. I never use scouts, maybe someone who changes their tactics to counter the opposition may find some use in them. Loans I would consider on a case by case basis, if you had a great player for a season it might be worth keeping them just to ensure you get a foothold, the first season is often the most dangerous for relegation.

@Braumiller - Well done on the season BTW, nice intake, makes you wonder if the kids are so good in Wales why the clubs are all so rubbish.