[FM18] Dragan my feet through the Balkans: A Kosovan Youth Challenge

[shaunvamos]

Following the inclusion of Kosovo into FIFA and UEFA, and the confirmation of their presence in European club competitions this year, it was only a matter of waiting for FM18 to come out so I could have a go at this unexplored territory. Well, thanks to @claassen and his amazing efforts activating unplayable leagues this is now possible. The usual youth challenge rules apply, no signing players, only players that come through the youth academy. The goal is to make Kosovo a major player in European club and international football. I'm not sure how difficult this will be compared to my previous youth saves in Andorra and other members saves in San Marino and other countries. But I think the football importance is in a better state in Kosovo than in those two and other smaller nations. That being said, it will still be a tough time!

Club Name: KF KEK-u

City: Obilic

Founded: 1928

Status: Semi-Pro

Training Facilities: Adequate

Youth Facilities: Adequate

Youth Recruitment: Fairly Basic

Junior Coaching: Fairly Basic

 

 

I have chosen a team in the Kosovan second division, to add a little bit extra to the challenge, however their facilities are a pretty decent starting point. We are predicted to finish 4th, so lets see how we go! I'll put up a squad analysis once I hire some staff.

[shaunvamos]

Squad Analysis

Goalkeepers

Not a lot of depth here as we only have one keeper in the entire squad. However that 3* PA might lead to him becoming a solid player, but I expect to ship plenty of goals with this sort of quality.

 

Defenders

Defence looks pretty strong, with 4.5* veteran Kukaj expected to be a key player for us this season. Unfortunately the 2 5* potential players here are both here on loan from top side Prishtina. But there's a good blend of youth and experience here.

 

Midfielders

There's a lot to like here in midfield. Plenty of solid options and a couple 5* prospects that are actually contracted with the club. Fair few wingers here though, and the problem is that I'm not planning on using wingers so I'll have to work around that somehow.

 

Attackers

Here seem to lie our biggest strength. Our top 3 have the potential to be a real attacking force, and there's some nice depth too. As well as a 5* 16 year old striker too. 

 

Here's a view of our top 3 players:

 

 

 

 

They look fairly decent, it's more than I've ever had starting off in Andorra!

 

 

[Deego619]

Hodaj looks great for that level, he should score buckets for you.

Also, in my QPR save I've had a few Kosovan regens come through who were really good, so the potential is definitely there. 

[shaunvamos]

10 minutes ago, JDeeguain said:

Hodaj looks great for that level, he should score buckets for you.

Also, in my QPR save I've had a few Kosovan regens come through who were really good, so the potential is definitely there. 

QPR really? Did you have any staff from Kosovo or have it as your nationality?

[smp20]

Glad Kosovo are now able to compete in CL on FM18, this should be good! Some reasonable players too, though I have no idea what the level is like.

Hopefully the NT job will come up soon.

[shaunvamos]

29 minutes ago, smp20 said:

Glad Kosovo are now able to compete in CL on FM18, this should be good! Some reasonable players too, though I have no idea what the level is like.

Hopefully the NT job will come up soon.

Thanks for following, always been a big fan of your youth saves! Yeah I think the standard is fairly high, a couple of players in the first division in the national team and they aren't too shabby, so progress may be steady and also may not involve me which could make things a lot easier in the long run. The national team from memory have been strong in past games, I remember a few instances in FM17 where they qualified for the Euros quite early on.

[shaunvamos]

Glad to see this has been fixed up for this years FM, we have now moved up to average. 

[shaunvamos]

Kosovo have elections for their chairmen, and we got a new one. Luckily, I survived, and the option was there to upgrade youth recruitment. I thought I'd try my luck....

 

 

Perhaps the best progress I've ever had in a first season in a youth challenge. Above average YR and average JC now.

[shaunvamos]

2017/18 Youth Intake Day

Couple of decent prospects here, will be interesting to see how they develop. I'm keeping everyone above 3* PA and also the ones below 3* PA with favourable personalities.

He doesn't look too bad, decent technical stats. That determination needs work though.

Whilst he's not great, the potential is there and we need another keeper as a backup.

 

Good technical stats, will be interesting to follow him along too.

 

[shaunvamos]

2017/18 Season Review

 

We exceeded my personal expectations here, as i expected to be around 5th. We were a bit goal shy at the start of the season, but I tweaked the formation to make it a little more attacking and we were well on our way from there. Our defence was spectacular, very much a wall at the back.

 

Key Players & Best Eleven

 

 

Solid season in the midfield from Drilon, it's imperative we hold on to him if we want to stay up next season. His efforts this year resulted in him becoming fans player of the year.

As a couple of people on here predicted, Hodaj was a beast for us this season, both scoring and assisting for us, topping both charts for our team. It will be interesting to see how he goes against better opposition.

Pira was also great for us from the wing, and was among our highest assists.

 

Other News

Big increase. 

In Europe, Trepca 89 beat Linfield (NIR) 5-1, before losing 3-1 to FH (ISL) in the 2nd Qualifying Round of the Champions League.

Prishtina lost 2-0 to Jagiellonia (POL) in the Europa League 1st Qualifying Round.

It looks like there's only 2 places in Europe, for the champions and the cup winners. Hopefully that's going to change as the teams do better, otherwise this save may be over before it begins. I remember last year Gibraltar had the same problem, but hopefully not here.

The national team most of their matches, but beat Malta 4-0, drew with Switzerland and also had a win over Macedonia.

Next year hopefully we stay in the top division, maybe a nice cup run.

 

 

 

 

[shaunvamos]

 

Progressing nicely.

[shaunvamos]

Youth Intake Day 2019

Couple good prospects, but only 4 worth tagging this year. 

 

He looks okay. Will be training him at CM because we don't use DMs. 

Another player with high PA, but will be trained at CAM because I don't use wingers. Looks nice and quick though.

[shaunvamos]

2018/19 Season Review

Predicted to come dead last this year, we exceeded my expectations again and managed to finish 4th! Quite potent in front of goal, we just have to fix up the defence back to the way it was last season. We did pretty well against the clubs that finished above us, going 1-1-1 against each of them. Given that we've held on to all our good players it may not be completely unlikely to even challenge those 3 next season. 

Key Players

Breakout season for Krasniqi, as he was our top scorer and had the highest overall rating. The national team selectors must also see something in him as he has 2 U21 caps to his name.

 

Dragusha was another big contributor to our successes, topping the team's assist charts and scoring a fair few too. He's one of our most important players and I was relieved to sign a new contract with him.

 

Drilon was once again solid in the midfield, and has also switched allegiances from Albania to Kosovo, playing in a youth international. Was difficult getting him to re-sign, but I managed to negotiate a deal for $300/w less, so he's here for another 2 years. Life is good!

 

Other News

Feronikeli beat FC Santa Coloma (AND) and Lincoln (GIB) 7-0 in the CL Preliminary Rounds, before losing 5-0 to Qarabag (AZE) in the 1st Qualifying Round. For some reason that put them into the Europa League 2nd qualifying round where they beat Dinamo Tbilisi (GEO) 2-1, before finally losing 4-2 to APOEL (CYP).

Flamurtari entered the Europa league in the prelims, beating Vikingur (FAR) 7-0, before losing 3-2 to Olimpija Ljubljana (SVN) 3-2.

These are great results for a country of this stature and will hopefully raise the coefficients to get some extra places.

Kosovo as a national team did really well this season, narrowly missing out on winning their Euro League Div D group, thanks to 8-0 and 5-0 floggings of Andorra, as well as convincing victories over Liechtenstein and Latvia. They've also gotten off to an unbeaten start in the Euro qualifiers, with 1-0 wins over Kazakhstan & Wales.

Mexico won the 2018 World Cup, defeating England in the final 1-0. Notable performers include Romania, who reached the semis, defeating Brazil & surprise quarter finalists Australia,  who topped their group containing Argentina, Italy & Holland to get there. Underachievers included the latter two in Australia's group, Chile, who failed to make it out of their group as well. France, Portugal & Argentina all failed to reach the last 8.

I think even if the European places are static it will be alright because it adds even more to the challenge and we have to be at the top of our game week in week out to deserve a spot. I think thats a nice way to look at it.

 

 

[shaunvamos]

Guess this answers my question. Disappointing.

[shaunvamos]

 

More good news.

[shaunvamos]

2020 Youth Intake Day

The improved junior coaching and youth recruitment has helped here, with 8 tagged players. We get an influx of defenders, which is much needed as we are severely short there, only 3 CBs. 

Solid addition to defence, he can play either WB or CB, which we are desperate for. Might be a bit too short for CB though.

I like the look of him. Tall, with good technical stats to start off with, I'll be hoping he develops quickly.

 

[shaunvamos]

Remember earlier when I said we were severely lacking in depth in defence? Well it's resulted in this:

I guess in hindsight this is a good thing, given the fact that the European places appear static, and hopefully that will be fixed next year. But this does not spell the end of the challenge, I will start this again in a new country in the Balkans. Stay tuned...

[shaunvamos]

Take Two

After my massive failure as a manager in Kosovo, I have decided to relocate to a country situated in the Balkans, also with a very low coefficient. Montenegro.

To try and get as much of a head start as possible to boost the country coefficients, I have chosen the reigning champions, Buducnost, from the capital Podgorica. What made my choice easier is the fact that 'Buducnost' translates to 'the future', which is what we are trying to build towards through the use of home grown youth players. Here's some info:

Name: FK Buducnost Podgorica

Year Established: 1925

Status: Professional

Reputation: National

Nickname: Djetici (think it translates to baby, so maybe there's that youth reference again)

Season Ticket Holders: 950

Media Prediction: 1st

Stadium: Pod Goricom (17,000 all seater)

Training Facilities: Good

Youth Facilities: Good

Junior Coaching: Adequate

Youth Recruitment: Extensive

National Team Rank: 114th

I've chosen the same manager as the one I had in Kosovo, hopefully I'll have some more success and longevity in Montenegro!

 

[Sheriff7]

Static??Why the made it with Gibraltar last year and they fix it because it was bug!!Anyway good luck in Montenegro...

[shaunvamos]

15 hours ago, Sheriff7 said:

Static??Why the made it with Gibraltar last year and they fix it because it was bug!!Anyway good luck in Montenegro...

Thanks!

[shaunvamos]

Squad

Keepers

We have a wealth of options at keeper, which may lead to me having to sell some, but that depth will help when fixtures start to get congested.

Defenders

 

Once again a lot of depth here, I have no idea what Drincic is doing on loan, he's our best CB, hopefully there's an option to recall him. Tucevic, Malesevic and Bozovic look good for the future as well.

Midfielders

This is where we look weakest, with no one having CM as their best position. However, the DMs can play higher up the pitch so that's a positive. 

Attackers

Up front is where we are strongest ability wise, but we may have to unload the wingers, as I won't be playing with them. Sekulic looks promising though, especially with that personality. Here's our top 3 players:

 

 

[shaunvamos]

I was forced to change my formation in the preseason to more suit my players, as our initial form wasn't great. So i went from a 5-3-2 WB to an attacking 4-4-2, given the fact that we have so many wingers, and our results started to look better. We went into our opening competitive fixture against higher regarded Ludogorets with some optimism, even though I thought we'd be still be outclassed. 

Whatever I changed, it worked! But I knew it wouldn't be enough as we travelled to the away fixture. Even so, I still kept the same tactic with no intention of backing down or parking the bus.

 

This was incredibly nerve wracking, but what a game! We scored to make it 2-1and ahead on away goals, and then with 9 to go they made it 2-2. I thought it'd be over but then Nikac had other ideas, scoring in the 88th and sending us through on away goals. What an amazing way to kick off this save!

 

 

Off to Israel now, I think they're tougher than Ludogorets, but at least we go into the Europa League when we lose.

[shaunvamos]

We had a lead away but couldn't hold on to it, and then failed to take the rest of our chances. I'm not too disappointed though, as I'm still getting used to how we play, and I wouldn't want to be thrown into the deep end too early.

 

Nice addition to our finances.

 

Out of all the teams we could've gotten (Maribor comes to mind) we get bloody AC Milan. At least this means no European group competition early, just focus on the league.

[shaunvamos]

I expected to lose, but I didn't expect it to be this close, let alone a win against a team like this! Bodes well for the future if we are this strong so early.

More finances added.

[akademix17]

Awesome stuff, the Balkans are always a great idea!

[shaunvamos]

Now up to good junior coaching.

[shaunvamos]

3 hours ago, akademix17 said:

Awesome stuff, the Balkans are always a great idea!

Thanks, there's so many options here with producing talent, hoping to turn Buducnost and Montenegro into a talent factory!

[shaunvamos]

This is crazy, only one miss from 50 attempts. A couple players had 3 attempts from the spot!

[andychar]

Great effort in Europe. Unlucky in Kosovo. Would have been interesting to see what you could have done. Good luck in Montenegro!

[shaunvamos]

1 minute ago, andychar said:

Great effort in Europe. Unlucky in Kosovo. Would have been interesting to see what you could have done. Good luck in Montenegro!

Thanks! Yeah it's disappointing but hopefully it's fixed for later editions. 

[Bedese]

When you say static European places, what do you mean exactly?

(And good luck in Montenegro! )

[mark1985]

Hadn't considered Kosovo before! Will add it to the list. Good luck with this!

[shaunvamos]

12 minutes ago, Jupjamie said:

When you say static European places, what do you mean exactly?

(And good luck in Montenegro! )

It looks like no matter how high the coefficients for Kosovo, there will always be one place available in each competition. It rose 10 or so spots in the nation coefficient list and there were still 2 places available, where places like San Marino still had 1 CL and 2 EL spots even though they were dead last.

10 minutes ago, mark1985 said:

Hadn't considered Kosovo before! Will add it to the list. Good luck with this!

Thanks!

[deltablue]

Good job running Milan close. 

[shaunvamos]

1 minute ago, deltablue said:

Good job running Milan close. 

Thanks, was completely unexpected this early!

[mark1985]

43 minutes ago, shaunvamos said:

It looks like no matter how high the coefficients for Kosovo, there will always be one place available in each competition. It rose 10 or so spots in the nation coefficient list and there were still 2 places available, where places like San Marino still had 1 CL and 2 EL spots even though they were dead last.

Thanks!

Shame to see you get sacked. Was the Kosovan national team available to manage off the top of your head? Better luck in Montenegro though

[shaunvamos]

2018 Youth Intake Day

This is possibly the first time I've ever had an opening intake with no one worth 5* PA. That being said some quality did come through. Lets take a look:

 

Some decent starting attributes here. He's a little short though, hopefully he grows. 

 

We have way too many keepers, so it'll be hard for him to make any sort of impact I think.

He looks good. Very good. I'll be training him at CM as we don't use CAMs, which is a shame really, he would make a good shadow striker with that finishing.

[shaunvamos]

Just now, mark1985 said:

Shame to see you get sacked. Was the Kosovan national team available to manage off the top of your head? Better luck in Macedonia though

Off the top of my head, yes it was. Thanks, but its Montenegro not Macedonia Close though!

[mark1985]

4 minutes ago, shaunvamos said:

Off the top of my head, yes it was. Thanks, but its Montenegro not Macedonia Close though!

Edited it as soon as I realised it. D'oh

[Sheriff7]

Great first year in  europe  mate..

[shaunvamos]

2017/18 Season Review

An easy league win which came off the back of an 18 game undefeated start to the season, and we just built from there. Once the comp was won I started blooding a few of the youngsters and we still did pretty well.

In the cup we lost in the final to Mladost, but not a big deal, I mostly rotated the squad for cup games so to get that far was nice.

Key Players

Ilija got our highest average rating for the year as part of a defence that was virtually impregnable during our unbeaten run.

Our defence is again highlighted with our GK. Conceding only 24 in 32, as well as getting a clean sheet in over half his starts, it was a great season for Milan.

Shifting the focus a bit higher up the pitch, Milovoje was our top scorer. The tally doesn't look like much, but then he didn't really have to score many because we were so solid at the back. 

 

Other News

All 5 of our defenders including the keeper were in the team of the year.

Zeta lost 6-1 to Jagiellonia (POL) in the Europa 1st QR.

Mladost beat Bala (WAL) 5-0 before going down 6-2 to Sturm Graz (AUT) in the EL 2nd QR.

Sutjeska beat Videoton (HUN) 4-3, and then beat Zira (AZE) 3-0 before their run was ended in the EL 3rd QR after a 7-1 defeat to Austria Wien (AUT).

Mixed results for the national side, finishing 4th in their WCQ group and a strange loss to Albania, but still moved up to 66th.

 

 

 

[shaunvamos]

13 hours ago, Sheriff7 said:

Great first in your european year mate..

Thanks mate, hoping to build from it!

[shaunvamos]

Based on our performance last year, this should be comfortable.

[shaunvamos]

Pretty straightforward, our wing play was amazing to watch.

This is a much bigger challenge, but they only beat Differdange from Luxembourg 5-0 so who knows?

[shaunvamos]

I honestly didn't expect this. We went up 2-0 early away and I thought, hold on this might be a massacre. But that was all we scored that game and Legia managed to peg back a goal. Still, they had to win 3-2 or by more than one goal to win so I was quietly confident going into the home leg. When we scored early, I was all but certain we were through, even when they equalised. One goal later and we were through! 

 

This is interesting, because they beat Red Bull Salzburg, and I thought they would've been the stronger team. We will have to wait and see. 

[Sheriff7]

I smell European group stage...

[akademix17]

Ajde, ajmo! As they say in that region! On the verge of history, I don't think that any Montenegrin club has reached any group phase in Europe, someone correct me if I'm wrong...

[shaunvamos]

12 hours ago, Sheriff7 said:

I smell European group stage...

You have a keen sense of smell

10 hours ago, akademix17 said:

Ajde, ajmo! As they say in that region! On the verge of history, I don't think that any Montenegrin club has reached any group phase in Europe, someone correct me if I'm wrong...

Not until now...

We've done it! Group stages of European competition. Scoreline was very flattering, as we dominated possession in attacking areas, but 1 in each leg was enough. 

 

We will probably lose this, but we are in the groups anyway!

[shaunvamos]

The Champions League fairytale is over, but not before an incredible performance. We went ahead at Eindhoven but their greater class showed as they came back. I was still hopeful as we had that away goals lead but we just couldn't find the net after some frustrating close calls. Still, we have the Europa League to look forward to. 

 

 

I feel like the finances have increased this year for the playoff.

 

[shaunvamos]

 

This is a very ugly group.