The FM20 Youth Academy Challenge

[Fastbasher]

Congratulations @Diego D10S. Great progress.

[Fastbasher]

@filipefm20. Did you have a recent save game you could go back to?

Sometimes you can reload and play through a crash or other dodgy things.

[Fastbasher]

2029/30 Annecy FC season review - French National 2-D Division

The League

On the surface, it looks like just another mid table position. But since there are now six Ligue 1 reserve teams playing in our division, it was only the freakishly good performance of Moulins Yzeure Foot that prevented us from being promoted.

The squad is progressing well. We have about 5 or 6 players that could compete in the French National League.

We had a great cup run, reaching the quarterfinal without playing a single club in the top 2 divisions. Then we got thumped by AS Monaco. Unfortunately the money was not good enough to progress much, but we did break our attendance record.

 

The Players

Alaa Saibi YP24c was player of the season, young player of the season and top scorer with a massive 27 goals.

Julien Rodriguez YP27f was this years youngster that made the step up to the first team.

Maxence Chapuis is retiring after 12yrs with the club. This season he broke Kadi's league appearance record with 352.

The youth intake continues to produce some players with promise.

 

Transfers

 

 

 

[ATW]

15 hours ago, ATW said:

Just left the winter break and forgot to update.  So here we are

 

Mantova January Update 2020/21

 

Youth Candidate intake advice:

Meh

League Table

Not going to plan

I've been sacked after losing the playout match

Where next?  hmmm

[ATW]

So here I go, second attempt at this challenge.  This time I am in Spain - taking charge at CD Toledo.

 

My Profile on Day 1

Toledo 2020/21 Squad

Toledo General Info

Toledo Facilities

 

I have also a B team and Under 19 side but not players in either. 

 

*EDIT* Didn't realise I had a player on trial - I've binned him.

 

 

Edited December 8, 2019 by ATW

[Makoto Nakamura]

14 hours ago, schnauzer said:

Ah I see - can you not add players from regional divisions before you start?

They’ve got a few good players, particularly Rasulo who could probably play in League 2

Nope, this is FMT's advanced setup option:

[Makoto Nakamura]

AS Vitré (French: Amicale Sportive de Vitré) is a French football club based in Vitré, Ille-et-Vilaine. It was founded in 1907. They play at the Stade Municipal, which has a capacity of 3,500. The colours of the club are yellow and red.

For the 2017–18 season the club plays in the Championnat National 2, Group D.

I've had no influence over these transfers since I started on June 19th.

 

We have a first team and a reserve team, with players!!

 

[filipefm20]

Got fired of maniaspor in Turkey after 7 games, retrying in Belgium

[XaW]

<icon not found>

Youth intake 2021

Any intake would be a great intake, but this was quite something. I got in some fullbacks, and two great talents.

An amazing striker with one drawback, he can't finish...

Great physicals and a professional personality, and the coaches rate him.

[SpS_Zen]

il y a 2 minutes, filipefm20 a dit :

Got fired of maniaspor in Turkey after 7 games, retrying in Belgium

Only after 7 games :o This is rough. I guess it is due to our manager reputation when we start without badges.

[filipefm20]

1 minute ago, SpS_Zen said:

Only after 7 games :o This is rough. I guess it is due to our manager reputation when we start without badges.

Predicted to finish mid table but managed to lose the first seven matches.

[Vipertitan]

got sacked on my save in Bulgaria so decided to try again in wales will post later today one who i got  

[filipefm20]

After getting sacked from turkey i decided to try this in Belgium. The team i chose eas Lienen and there is alreadya regen there that can make a mark for this team

[ATW]

Toledo 2020/2021

Mid-season update. 

Youth Candidate Information

As for the campaign, sitting just above relegation, fighting off what it seems the media wanting me sacked every week

 

Edited December 8, 2019 by ATW

[XaW]

Went down on the final day due to a loss to Montalegre. 

While I failed again, I learned a lot this season and I think my team did quite well with only 2 defenders.

[XaW]

Back to my roots.

[OlivierL]

On 07/12/2019 at 13:12, XaW said:

Taking a break from it. Trying to relearn tactics from scratch in Portugal. I thought I had the gist of it, but I found out my old tricks aren't working anymore.

ok good luck ! i'm in my third (and first season in first division) season and 4th after a very bad start  but then i didn't lose in +- 9 games.

+- 9 games to go but IR will stay up !

[XaW]

Youth intake 2020

I had almost forgot you get an intake before the season starts in Norway. Not much exciting things here.

Jonas Holm 20a is the best of a rather poor bunch.

The only other player worth mentioning is Tore Neset 20c, a decent defender.

[jstu9]

2 hours ago, filipefm20 said:

After getting sacked from turkey i decided to try this in Belgium. The team i chose eas Lienen and there is alreadya regen there that can make a mark for this team

Good Luck with Tienen! I am on my 10th season with them. I think I still have one player still with the team that is actually real player (Willem Loman). I will be curious to see if you can any better than I have.

[Diego D10S]

I forgot to mention another awesome news in my post.

At the end the season the board suggested new Club Vision. Adding my playing style and developing youth as the Club Culture.

So now the club culture is exactly how I want it. I didnt expect that as it has looked like it wouldnt change much.

[OlivierL]

30 minutes ago, Diego D10S said:

I forgot to mention another awesome news in my post.

At the end the season the board suggested new Club Vision. Adding my playing style and developing youth as the Club Culture.

So now the club culture is exactly how I want it. I didnt expect that as it has looked like it wouldnt change much.

is ' developing  youth ' something u can request  or negotiate  ? I can't find this  

[vikeologist]

10 minutes ago, OlivierL said:

is ' developing  youth ' something u can request  or negotiate  ? I can't find this  

Should happen naturally if you're doing this challenge. You can't request it, AFAIK.

[Kazushi80]

congrats @Diego D10S Getting promoted so fast in italy is a big achievement

[Makoto Nakamura]

2020/21 End of Season Review

Fixtures 1 - Fixtures 2

League Table

It was disappointing to go out in the 5th Round of the French Cup but the team that beat us almost got promoted to Ligue 2 so we can't complain and we were surprisingly strong in the league finishing way up in 7th, beating all expectations but with FMT have much smaller youth intakes (which happen on season reset day) the path ahead is only going to get more and more difficult.

Team Awards & Team of the Season - Stats

Club Review

Transfers

Squad

2020/21 Best XI

 

Kévin Aubeneau

Vincent Guibault - Junior Assoumou - Olivier Guéguen - Steven Da Veiga

Eliott Sorin

Briac Ménoret - Kévin Amourette

Glenn Le Gall                                                      Yven Moyo

Mickaël Jager

Edited December 8, 2019 by Makoto Nakamura

[Makoto Nakamura]

Yikes I don't like these intakes.

[Fastbasher]

@Makoto Nakamura. At least when they come in at 14, you have a couple of seasons say in their development before they can play in the first team.

Again, a very mature beard for a 14yr old.

 

The picture of the town is great. And I laughed when I saw your top scorer was Mick Jager.

[Diego D10S]

2 hours ago, OlivierL said:

is ' developing  youth ' something u can request  or negotiate  ? I can't find this  

No you cant. But seem like if the board is happy with you they add stuff depending on how you manage the club and style of football.

Like it should be I think, but I'm very happy it actually works that way  

[Diego D10S]

2 hours ago, Kazushi80 said:

congrats @Diego D10S Getting promoted so fast in italy is a big achievement

thx alot. abit of luck ofcourse, only had to sell one player and getting that striker.

but I will take some credit, feeling I do alot of things correct. 

[filipefm20]

5 hours ago, jstu9 said:

Good Luck with Tienen! I am on my 10th season with them. I think I still have one player still with the team that is actually real player (Willem Loman). I will be curious to see if you can any better than I have.

I almost lost Lomen because he had no contract but he is preety good and have a decent potential, he is the best CB of my back 3 so far

[XaW]

Lies! The guy were clearly onside!

In other news, things are going great here in Norway. 10 matches left and we are first, but only a single point ahead.

[OlivierL]

 

IR Reykjavik - 2022 - youth intake

Preview :

This time no wingers, more DC's and MCs. I'm losing for sure one good player and that's a young striker.. so i would loved to get one decent striker.

The intake :

i'll sign 10 of this intake. A good goalkeeper and central defenders . The guys in orange will be retrained.

Best prospects :

 

.

 

 

[schnauzer]

Is Spain a difficult nation to do this challenge in? I haven't seen any attempts there!

 

What are the downsides of playing in Spain, Germany and Italy? Is there an issue of club presidency changes in Spain / Germany for example?

Edited December 8, 2019 by schnauzer

[darren1983]

I think with Spain the issue is getting out of the lower league, from memory the playoff system is pretty brutal with loads of sides going for only 3 or 4 places I think (I may have that completely wrong, been a while since I've been in Spanish lower leagues) in Germany think the only real issue is that the first couple seasons are tough to survive as your youth intakes come in at 15 which is nice as gives lots of scope to develop them but they can't play in your first team till they're 17 so you're stuck with your starting squad for at least 2 seasons really.

[filipefm20]

End of season 2020/2021

With the goal of this season being avoinding relegation, i managed to finished in 11th. My run in the cup was also good, being eliminated in the sixth round by anderlecht. The board agreed to improve the youth facilities but the intake was still nothing special, despite Jensen, Boon and desmet seeming like promising player.

 

 

 

Edited December 9, 2019 by filipefm20

[schnauzer]

43 minutes ago, darren1983 said:

I think with Spain the issue is getting out of the lower league, from memory the playoff system is pretty brutal with loads of sides going for only 3 or 4 places I think (I may have that completely wrong, been a while since I've been in Spanish lower leagues) in Germany think the only real issue is that the first couple seasons are tough to survive as your youth intakes come in at 15 which is nice as gives lots of scope to develop them but they can't play in your first team till they're 17 so you're stuck with your starting squad for at least 2 seasons really.

Thanks!

I’ve decided I’m going to have another go at the challenge, which will start tomorrow.

I’m going to take inspiration from XaW and delve into Norway. I’ve played in Sweden before taking FC Linköping from the 4th tier To becoming Swedish champions before and had great fun, so I’m excited to play in Scandinavia again!

@XaW as a Norwegian do you have any team recommendations? I’m assuming also it’s going to be incredibly difficult to win the champions league in Norway!

Edited December 9, 2019 by schnauzer

[Fastbasher]

2030/31 Annecy FC season review - French National 2-D Division

The League

Promotion achieved with a 5th placed finish. We were easily the best of the non reserve teams. This team is coming of age and I have a good feeling about next season. The reserve teams with their multi-million pound bench players are better than the French National division teams and we held our own in a lot of games against them. We've also won 3 out of 3 games against National division teams in the Cup in the last two seasons.

Our midfield, attack and keeper are all good players for the National division. It is only the defense I am worried about. I'm actually retraining a DM and Right Back to play as Centre Backs.

 

The Players

Alaa Saibi YP24c was once again the Player of the season, young player of the season and top scorer with 24 goals. He also got his first cap for Tunisia and has been called up to the national team for the African Cup of Nations.

Abdelhadi Amara YP24b broke our club record for the most clean sheets.

The youth intake once again showed promise, with Nicolas Renucci YP31d being good enough to go straight into the first team. Since our chairman sold our promising young CB, I brought Renucci in to play as a DM and moved our existing DM to the vacant CB position.

 

Transfers

Our record sale was broken when our chairman sold Rodriguez for 32k against my wishes.

 

 

[XaW]

3 hours ago, schnauzer said:

@XaW as a Norwegian do you have any team recommendations? I’m assuming also it’s going to be incredibly difficult to win the champions league in Norway!

Well, the "fun" thing in Norway is that the 4th tier is visible, but not playable, kind of like the one in France and Romania, so it's not like just holiday for a year and see what happens (although that is possible). Here you can actually decide on what team you want and then "save scum" in order to get that team promoted from their "3. divisjon" league. Since there are 6 regional divisions (I think), you should have a lot of options. I chose Follo, because their stadium is about 5 minutes away from where I live, so it's the closest to me, geographically, that have a possibility of getting promoted. And they have a focus on youth in real life (albeit to hover up all the talent in the local even lower tiered clubs, so I can't really emulate that), so it kind of fits.

As for what club you want, well, there are a lot of team to chose from. Wikipedia have a nice overview where you can see all the teams and their location here:

https://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/3._divisjon_fotball_for_menn_2019#Lagene (it's in Norwegian, but the different "avdelinger" (divisions) just contain info about the team name, geographical location and stadium)

Here are a couple of the teams I would recommend and why:

FK Tønsberg from "Avdeling 2" - They were created in 2001 as a joint team from about 20 local teams in the city of Tønsberg, Norway's oldest city, founded some time before 871. It's the 10th biggest city in Norway and they don't have a team playing in any higher tier as far as I know.

Lyn from "Avdeling 2" - They used to be a great team before they became broke and folded in 2010. They were the club Chelsea bough John Obi Mikel from in the shambles that contained Man Utd and a lot of Nigerian agents. They also were one of the earlier clubs of Ighalo of Watford fame. They were a historical great club, and still have the attendance record in Norwegian football with officially 35k in 1946, however it's alleged that as many as 60k saw the game.

Norild from Avdeling 2 - This is a very bad team, and you would struggle to both get them promoted, but also play them. So why suggest them? Well, they are from the FAAAAR north of Norway, but they do have some history of producing good footballers. The notable ones are Sigurd Rushfelt, who have the scoring record in the Norwegian top tier, as well as having played in Birmingham and in Spain. The other one is more familiar to English people in Morten Gamst Pedersen who played for Blackburn for 9 years and most know him for the poorest attempt at a dive in the history of football.

Those were the ones who stood out to me when looking through the teams possible.

And, yes, it will be really hard to win the Champions League with a Norwegian side, and for several reasons. Firstly, Norway play their seasons from spring to winter, so it really doesn't match up to the European cups. The other, is of course, that Norwegian football isn't that good at the moment and teams pretty much only do the qualification rounds in the European cups with Rosenborg as the notable exception. They were pretty good in the 90s when they reached the knockout rounds of the Champions League a few times, but other than that Norwegian football doesn't make many much way in Europe.

So there, a much longer post than I had intended. Hopefully usable for something!

[Fastbasher]

42 minutes ago, XaW said:

Well, the "fun" thing in Norway is that the 4th tier is visible, but not playable, kind of like the one in France and Romania,

Can you actually continue playing in the 4th tier if you get relegated into it?

[XaW]

12 minutes ago, Fastbasher said:

Can you actually continue playing in the 4th tier if you get relegated into it?

I don't know, and I don't hope to try it with Follo!

[andyus]

2 hours ago, Fastbasher said:

Can you actually continue playing in the 4th tier if you get relegated into it?

Yes you can continue playing if you get relegated. 

Was playing as Brodd IL and got relegated, and continued playing in the 4th tier. But in my save there was a bug with finances.

Upgraded training and youth facilities and didn't lose any money but when i got promoted to 3th tier again the finances got lower when i upgraded stuff.

[endtime]

How does that team from Vadso get to away games? Even with regionalised leagues it's 800 km to Tromso, and I don't think a tiny club from the 4th tier can afford to charter planes on a regular basis.

[SoulStealer]

1st season in the 3rd tier in swedish football i have kept us up

youth wasnt worth mentioning

losing my master gk on a free. Doesnt want o sign a new deal.

[XaW]

1 hour ago, endtime said:

How does that team from Vadso get to away games? Even with regionalised leagues it's 800 km to Tromso, and I don't think a tiny club from the 4th tier can afford to charter planes on a regular basis.

I think I read somewhere they get their games scheduled so they have to fly down to Oslo as rarely as possible. That is also why they are playing against teams from the Oslo region, so they don't have to travel more than a plane ride.

I also had to google a bit for this, but I found that teams in the top two Norwegian leagues have something called "seriekassen" (literal translation: league cash register). For every match in the league teams contribute 5% a certain amount(changed some years ago) of the income from every game to the FA, the FA then distribute this to team to cover league expenses in general down the league pyramid. However, this often provide a surplus and this means clubs in the lower tier with higher than average travel costs can apply to get refunds from the "seriekassen" to cover parts of the expenses.

This is kind of how the higher tier teams give something back to the grass roots, and I expect Norild to get some funds from it.

Edit: Oh, and I expect they are using the normal flights available for everyone else and just adapting to those times.

Edited December 9, 2019 by XaW

[thomas_e]

27 minutes ago, XaW said:

I think I read somewhere they get their games scheduled so they have to fly down to Oslo as rarely as possible. That is also why they are playing against teams from the Oslo region, so they don't have to travel more than a plane ride.

I also had to google a bit for this, but I found that teams in the top two Norwegian leagues have something called "seriekassen" (literal translation: league cash register). For every match in the league teams contribute 5% a certain amount(changed some years ago) of the income from every game to the FA, the FA then distribute this to team to cover league expenses in general down the league pyramid. However, this often provide a surplus and this means clubs in the lower tier with higher than average travel costs can apply to get refunds from the "seriekassen" to cover parts of the expenses.

This is kind of how the higher tier teams give something back to the grass roots, and I expect Norild to get some funds from it.

Edit: Oh, and I expect they are using the normal flights available for everyone else and just adapting to those times.

You are correct. Clubs that have to travel more get more in support. Also, teams do not keep the income for ticket sales in the Cup. That money goes to the FA and in return the FA cover travel cost for Cup games. 

[schnauzer]

9 hours ago, XaW said:

So there, a much longer post than I had intended. Hopefully usable for something!

Wow, great post mate thank you!

I did think about doing Lyn but in the end I thought I'd start as a team with smaller infrastructure - I went with Finnsnes IL. For those who haven't heard of them, they are located in the North of Norway - close to Tromso. I quite liked the colour that they play in. I also think it would be cool to make a true northern rival for Tromso, who seem to dominate the Troms region of Norway.

 

The "save-scumming" to get Finnsnes took a fair while and we have the division's worst pre-season odds at 150-1 so I think it could be a reasonably difficult season, but thankfully I guess that if we do get relegated the 4th tier then becomes playable (how handy is that?!). @XaW what is the standard of newgen players like in Norway? I'm on the lookout for the next Haaland, Ajer or Berge 

 

[schnauzer]

Our first intake preview comes through before on my first day! Seems ok, we shall see...

[XaW]

Good luck with Finnsnes @schnauzer! I actually played with them in FM18 or something in a journeyman save I had. Played them for about 3-4 seasons and got them to the 2nd tier before Tromsø poached me and I lead them to Norwegian glory. Enjoy your stay in northern Norway, were there is midnight sun in the summer and eternal darkness in the winter, way above the arctic circle!

[XaW]

I gotta say, Follo starts with some really good players.

I mean, look at those guys, I haven't seen players that good in FM20 before! Granted, I've played at lower levels, but still.

[schnauzer]

7 minutes ago, XaW said:

Good luck with Finnsnes @schnauzer! I actually played with them in FM18 or something in a journeyman save I had. Played them for about 3-4 seasons and got them to the 2nd tier before Tromsø poached me and I lead them to Norwegian glory. Enjoy your stay in northern Norway, were there is midnight sun in the summer and eternal darkness in the winter, way above the arctic circle!

Thanks pal, do you think it will be the football or the weather conditions that drive me crazy first?  

I can tell already that it is going to be tricky to balance finances here just as it is in the English leagues! Have you had any issues with Follo?

[XaW]

7 minutes ago, schnauzer said:

Thanks pal, do you think it will be the football or the weather conditions that drive me crazy first?  

I can tell already that it is going to be tricky to balance finances here just as it is in the English leagues! Have you had any issues with Follo?

Going down...

Oh, and definitely the weather!

Edited December 9, 2019 by XaW