[FM19] US Granville (youth academy only)

[Winski]

US Granville

 

I recently started a save game with US Granville. The choice of the club is quite simple: during my holiday last summer, I fell in love with the region Normandy. We were on a campsite near Granville, so I saw their stadium almost every day. That’s were the idea started to start a savegame with them in Football Manager.
First some background information about the club, thanks to Wikipedia.

 

History
Union Sportive Granville, commonly referred to as US Granville or simply Granville, is a French football club based in Granville in the Lower Normandy region.

 

The club was founded in 1918 and currently plays in the Championnat National 2. This is the fourth tier of the French football league system behind Ligue 1, Ligue 2, and the Championnat National. Granville share a partnership with nearby professional club SM Caen.[2]

In season 2015–16 they had a fantastic run in the Coupe de France, eventually losing in the quarter finals against Olympique Marseille (0-1).
In 2018, Granville beat Girondins de Bordeaux 2-1 in extra time, on 32e of Coupe de France.

Youth only
This will be a Youth Only based save. I allow myself to buy back academy players who I’ve sold. But I won’t buy any other players.
Although I’m inspired by the likes of @optimusprimal82, @Jimbokav1971 and @_Ben_,I will not post very detailed posts as them. I would really like to, but as English is not my native language, it’ll take too much time to write them. So I’ll just stick to short updates with a lot of screenshots.
My mail goal: win the Champions League with US Granville. I know it is possible, as I won the CL in FM17 with IR (Iceland).

I’m currently managing in the second season. In the next post I’ll show you how the first season went. From then I’ll regularly update during the season.

 

 

[Jimbokav1971]

You would never know that English wasn't your native language. 

Good luck, 

[Winski]

Season 2018/2019

As I mentioned in my first post: I already played the first season.

It all started with this. In the first couple of days I took these screenshots. As you can see, the club hasn’t won anything, according to FM. We’ve got some basic facilities and a stadium with a capacity of 1.500, with only 250 seats.

The colour of the kits are the same as IR, which is a nice coincidence. A this point I didn’t have any real kits. I also couldn’t find then on internet. So I asked Request A Kit(@requestakit) on Twitter if he could make soms kits for US Granville. He came back to me with these beautiful kits:

 

These kits look really stunning!

League
The odds were not great. But with these low expectations, there was no real pressure to start this adventure. But it went completely the other way. With the help of @optimusprimal82. I’m using his Mentality Masterplan, as well as his set of tactics. Or at least his approach to use the tactics. Really, really helpful.

After a great run in the competition, it was clear that I would gain promotion, as the reserve-team couldn’t promote. But it was not sure if I would do that as champion. The reserves of PSG and Nantes were also in the race for the title.

But we did it! We are going up as champions! It was a great season as we only lost 4 games, drew 6 and won the rest.

Cup
In the 9th round of the Coupe de France, we had an unbelievable win over Amiens: 3-0.

But in the 10th round, the dream was over. We lost 1-2 against Nice, but we could keep our head up high. We could have won this game.

Youth intake

The first intake was a good one. Although I can’t use the youngsters before their 17th birthday. Assana has been touted as the best one from this intake:

Next season
Well, after such a great season, I really hope I can continue this form. But I really don’t know the strength of the National. The finances are quite bad at the moment, so I really hope to earn some money in the Coupe de France.

 

[optimusprimal82]

Great start! Good luck next season, be interested to see how you adapt to the higher level - will you go with conventional wisdom and defend for your life, or try something a little more radical (like I am right now) where you take the game to the opponent (high risk = high reward!)?  

[Winski]

7 hours ago, optimusprimal82 said:

Great start! Good luck next season, be interested to see how you adapt to the higher level - will you go with conventional wisdom and defend for your life, or try something a little more radical (like I am right now) where you take the game to the opponent (high risk = high reward!)?  

Thanks!

Definitely the second option! I'll always take risk, even against a way stronger opponent. 

The start of the season is very promising, but more about that in my next post. 

[Deisler26]

How gorgeously simplistic are those kits?? Fabulous!

Good luck with this!

[Winski]

Season 2019 / 2020

I'm about halfway the season. The results are way better then expected! It's my first season in this league and allready playing for a promotion place.

Let's compare it to the season preview, and the odds...

 

I really don't know if my players can keep this form, but I really hope so.

One thing that I'm a bit worried about is our financial state. It is almost impossible to make money at this moment. And with this balance, I can't ask for upgrades like youth recruitment of junior coaching budget, or even coaching badges.

The best result so far is a 3-0 win against AS Nancy, the club of my fellow Dutchmen Guus Hiddink. Their red card helped me a bit, but we really outplayed them. A nice detail in this match: my goalkeeper Verplanck scored his 4th goal of the season! I decided to let him take all my direct free kicks. Last season he scored 3 league goals. This season he already scored 1 league goal, and 3 in the cup. What a hero!

 

 

[optimusprimal82]

Going well, although the fact I suspect your goalkeeper has a better scoring ratio than my strikers makes me extremely sad... 

[Winski]

Let's show you some screens of my best players at this moment. Let's start with an overview of my current squad.

I'm currently trying out a new skin; the newest version of TCS'19. Before I used Keysi Rensie's skin and probably I'm going back to that one. But for now I'm trying this skin out, so the screens look a bit different then I posted before.

The first one that I want to mension is my goalscoring keeper Florian Verplanck.

It's a very solid goalkeeper and the best one at the club. I've got a decent youth prospect in the U19 squad, but he's far from ready for first team football. So Verplanck will be my number one for the years to come.

Then my two most important midfielders: Dylan Beaulieu and Jordan Blondel. Beaulieu is my playmaker and the most important midfielder at the club. Blondel is my attacking midfielder and very important with his goals. I rate them both very highly and I really hope that I can keep them for as long as possible at the club.

Then onto my wingers. These are the brothers Théault: Tony on the leftwing and Robin on the right. They are both very important with their assists and good teamplay, and find eachother very easily on the field.

If you want to see something specific, please ask me and I'll make a screenshot of it.

 

[Winski]

Although the result was a bit dissapointing(3-3 against Cholet at home), my goalkeeper scored another goal with a freekick:

 

 

[upthetoon]

21 hours ago, Winski said:

Although the result was a bit dissapointing(3-3 against Cholet at home), my goalkeeper scored another goal with a freekick:

 

 

That's amazing.. Wow. 

[Winski]

Season 2019/2020

After 25 games, I'm still in the running for a promotion place. I really didn't expect that at the start of the season!! With only 9 games left, I really, really hope we can finish at least 3rd. The first two places means direct promotion. The 3rd place means promotion playoffs.

 

Youth intake

This intake was labeled as a 'golden generation'.

I'm very happy with this intake! These guys were the best three, rated by their potential ability:

The player I'm most exited about is Renard. He looks very decent with only 14 years of age.

 

[Winski]

Almost end of season 2019 / 2020

With only a couple of matches to play, the season comes to it's climax. We had a good run in March, although the result against Niort was a bit disappoiting. We were way better, but we scored only one goal. And the only goal was scored by my goalkeeper... But overall I'm happy with the results.

April started awful, with a unexpected defeat against Béziers. The most important match will be the last one against Rodez. You'll see why in the table.

With only 4 matches to play, my aim is to finish second. That means direct promotion to Ligue 2. That's why the match against Rodez is so important. Hopefully I'll come up with good news in my next post!

 

[Winski]

Only one match later:

Concarneau, Rodez and Niort all lost their matches. So with 3 matches to go, I'm even in the running to become league champion!

[optimusprimal82]

Good luck - squeaky bum time from here on in!  

[Winski]

It looks like Concarneau can't live up against the expectations! They lost again, this time against already relegated Pau. Niort and Rodez both draw their games. Man, o, man, this is going to be a climax, unbelievable.

[Winski]

What a great result against Le Mans! That means that we qualified for the playoffs!

Let's see what Concarneau will do against Bourg-Péronnas.

Jeeez. What is going on here?! Concarneau lost AGAIN!! For the 3th time in a row!!!

So we will go into the last round of the league as the number one!!!  And we'll have a very difficult away match against Rodez. So we can finish 1st, 2nd or 3th. Champion, direct promotion or playoff football. What will it be?

 

[Winski]

So these are the fixtures for the last round of the competition.

 

Let's take a look at the results.

A very disappointing result against Rodez. We really failed. But: we finished second!!! Tours managed to become champions, but I don't really care too much. We are going up, we are going up!! What. A. Season!!!

And probably the most important one:

This is a huge, huge step forward for the club and I'm very happy with this!

That's it for today

[Winski]

Season 2020/2021

So there we go. Ready for a long, long season in the League 2. And for the first time in history as a professional club! After reneweing almost all of the contracts within the club (players, staff), I hired some new staff members. But I still couldn't upgrade the youth recruitment and the junior coaching budget because we still lack the money.

Let's first take a quick look at the Overall Best Eleven, and the season review of last season.

As you can see in the screenshot above, our stadium is 100% full. But we can't upgrade our stadium, so we still need to play in our very small stadium.

The commercial summary of last season showed some good improvements:

And this message was also VERY welcome:

Unfortunately we won't receive the money in one time. But still: very welcome. Hopefully during the season our financial siuation will improve because of this and I can finally upgrade some stuff.

As you can see, normally we won't have any chance to compete and we should prepare for a hard relagation battle this season.

The first six matches showed indeed that it is going to be a very, very tough season...

 

The thing I'm happy about is that in none of the matches we were really outplayed by the opponent. Mostly in our home matches, we were the better team in terms of possession and chances. So I hope that in the next months we will be able to finally win some matches.

 

 

 

[Winski]

Season 2020 / 2021

Finally I've found some time to play FM19 again.

September and october were great months! We secured our first win in this league against Laval on 9/11. And in october we didn't lose a match! We won 2, and the drawns were a bit unlucky as well.

So this is the table after 14 games:

A very respectable 12th place, 8 points above the relegation-positions. This is above my expectations, and I really hope we can maintain this!

[Winski]

I'm sorry for the irregular updates. Busy, busy, busy.

First season (season 20/21) in League 2 went unexpectedly well! We managed to finish 5th, and qualified for the playoffs.

But in the first round of the playoffs we couldn't win against Lille. Which is not a shame at all.

Biggest surprise this season was a 4-0 win against champion Caen.

Youth intake

Not a bad intake, some nice talents. But their personalities aren't great.

The best ones:





Commercial Summary

Improvements



I'm very happy with these improvements. I finally had the chance to upgrade because there wasn't a debt anymore.

Season 2021/2022 preview

Still the lowest ranked team. Auxerre and Brest got relegated, so we've got a very strong competition this year.

[Winski]

The start of season 2021/2022 went surprisingly well. We are on top of the table halfway the season!!

I really can't believe this, but hopefully we can maintain our form and continue winning matches.

[Winski]

Things are going very well so far

Thanks to one of my acadamy-talents: Adama Fall.

Fall was playing in de Reserves, even in the beginning of this season. But he scored a lot of goals there and developed very well in training. So I gave him a chance in the first team. And he delivered from day one. He'll be in the first team for the years to come.

 

[Deisler26]

[Winski]

Youth intake 2022

I think we can be very happy with this intake.

A lot of players with potential. These are in my opinion the best ones from this intake:

I'm most happy with the last one; Gaudin. I think he is my best prospect so far in this save. Hopefully he'll develop into a great player for us.

Results/fixtures and table Ligue 2

February was a mixed month. We had a beautiful win against Montpellier in te Coupe de France. In the next round, which is also the next game, we face Lille. In the Ligue 2 we lost against Auxerre and Ajaccio, but our last match against Dunkerque was fantastic.

When you look at the table is looks like we definitely qualify for the playoffs. But I really, really hope that we can finish 1th or 2nd! Fingers crossed...

[Winski]

Takeover

Ah, this is nice!

After some failed previous attempts, there is finally good news. Local investor Michel Landreau bought the club. And more important: he's directly investing in the club!

This is so important for the club, because we almost didn't have any money in the last years to invest. At the beginning of this season there was some money to upgrade the training facilities, youth recruitment and junior coaching. And when I signed a new contract, I asked for an upgrade for the Youth facilities, which the board accepted. But we couldn't ask for stadium expansion because there was not enough money for that.

Now we've got almost 3M on our balance. Time to invest!

Well, it is at least something. These are our current facilities:

We are still playing in an unbelievable tiny stadium. So every expansion is welcome.

League Table and results

We lost against Lille in the Cup. A bit harsh because they scored the equalizer in 95th(!) minute. And then we lost after penalties...
The results in the league were better. After 30 matches we're 3 points ahead of Lille. But more important: ten points(!!) more then number 3 Nancy. So with only 8 matches to go, it really looks like it will happen: promotion!

[Winski]

Granville U19 just had this massive win over Marseille U19. What a victory!!

MotM was the only 14 year old Antoine Lorenzi.

I tagged him as 22f, but it looks like the 2022-generation is really a golden generation. This Belgian lad has definitely some potential, allthough his technical attributes aren't that great at the moment. But whe'll see how he will develop!

[Winski]

Man, this is going to be really exciting! Now I'm this far, I really, really want to win the Ligue 2. That would be an unbelievable achievement when you look at the quality of our squad. A bit like Leicester City a few years back, but then a level lower.

[Winski]

PROMOTED TO LIGUE 1 !!

In a direct confrontation with title contenders Nancy we managed to gain promotion after a great 5-2 win. What a match it was!! Ligue 1 here we come!!
Now we only need to play 3 more matches. Could it lead us to champions of the Ligue 2??

[Winski]

We are the Champions!

WOW. What. A. Season! I never thought that we would promote this fast. Just 4 years after we started this adventure, we may play in the Ligue 1 !! It is going to be VERY tough next season. But it feels great that we achieved this, also with 8 points more then Lille.

Last results

Player stats



This is really nice: Adama Fall 19g became topscorer of the Ligue 2, while Blondel is 3th on the list.

He had such a great season: 28 goals overall is just fantastic. He also had his first U20 cap, which is also the very first international cap ever for one of our own youth products.

Reserves
Our reserves also had a very good season en became champions of the National 3 Groupe Normandie.

 

[Winski]

Season review 2021/2022

Best Eleven
Where is Adama Fall 19g? I really don't understand why he isn't in this overview at all


Best Eleven overall

Awards

 

Awards are nice, but more important: we will get a new stadium!

So yeah, we will leave Stade Louis Dior and move to Granville Stadium in 2023. A 15k stadium with under soil heating. Sounds nice! And a big step forward for the club. Next season we need to play in Roazhon Park:

And beside that, the board also invest in training- and youth facilities:

 

 

[Winski]

End of season 2021/2022

What a beautiful season it was. And together with our team, also Lille and Auxerre promoted to Ligue 1. 
We sold 1.447 shirts, with Beaulieu and Blondel als the most popular ones. Our income from sponshorships is only 273k, so a lot of room to grow here.

Start of season 2022/2023

Nice!! That is a lot of money for our club. Let's take a look at our finances.


A positive balance of 2M. We've got 4M transfer budget, but we will not use that. I already put some of the transfer budget in our wage budget. So if it is necessary I could give my players big contracts.

I'm very happy the board was willing to accept these upgrades.

Well, it is no surprise that our chances this season are quite low. I also do not know what to expect from this league, so I'll just see how it goes.

[Winski]

Well, the start of the season went as expected: very difficult. We're now in October and are just above the relegation-spots. October was also one of the busiest months I've ever had. The reason for this busy schedule is WC 2022 in Qatar. There are no matches in November and December, so we had to play a lot of matches in October. With our small squad this was almost impossible to do. We lost 3 matches in a row, but then we had a streak of 5 matches unbeaten.

I just hope that we can finish above the relegation spots, but it will be very difficult.

 

 

[Winski]

Oh, but this is a surprise! One of my players has been called up for the WC 2022!

He is my left Wing Back an one of my best players. What a surprise!