Jimbo's Thread (aka [FM20] Nordicland - The Northener Diaries.)

[Deisler26]

This sounds awful. I'm sorry to see your save go down

[Jimbokav1971]

14 minutes ago, Deisler26 said:

This sounds awful. I'm sorry to see your save go down

The problem here is that how do any of you reading this know that you are not having exactly the same problems in your game? 

If any of you have the in game Editor then suggest you check yourself. 

[Toffle]

Hi Jimbo!

Have you checked if it reproduces on new saves?

[Thebaker]

2 hours ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

The problem here is that how do any of you reading this know that you are not having exactly the same problems in your game? 

If any of you have the in game Editor then suggest you check yourself. 

I saw this problem in the beta and reported it, still happening in new saves. Lowestoft is an example i have seen, no idea if it is just certain teams or not. There seems to be a lot of annoying bugs still at the moment.

[henryzz]

If it is just cosmetic then it is annoying but manageable. If more than that I wouldn't suggest any youth saves until it is fixed.

[Jimbokav1971]

1 minute ago, henryzz said:

If it is just cosmetic then it is annoying but manageable. If more than that I wouldn't suggest any youth saves until it is fixed.

It's absolutely NOT cosmetic. 

[Bigshow1]

I've noticed something about this last year. Thought I had topped out junior coaching and recruitment yet the option to ask for improvements came up again. Asked the board and they agreed to more improvements. Maybe its just the level description that's dodgy so just play as usual and keep asking for those upgrades.

[Jimbokav1971]

1 hour ago, Bigshow1 said:

I've noticed something about this last year. Thought I had topped out junior coaching and recruitment yet the option to ask for improvements came up again. Asked the board and they agreed to more improvements. Maybe its just the level description that's dodgy so just play as usual and keep asking for those upgrades.

I think that might just be the fact that the top level of Coaching and Recruitment had 2 sub levels, (where as Facilities had just 1 I think). This is different though. 

I am hoping that this is just on hold and that I will be able to return to it once the SI boffins work their magic. 

[Jimbokav1971]

I'm not sure if the recent update has resolved my issues, but while there has been a FM20 update, there has been no such update at all for FMT20. 

As a result I'm going to swap back to this save for a while and see how I get on. I'm not hating FMT, but I have been really keen to get back to the full game. I just don't feel fully immersed in my FMT save. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Youth Intake. Sep 2028. 

This intake came through before I stopped playing the save. It's not a good one, but what really stands out is that rather than the usual 16 player and nicknames starting at (28a) and finishing with (28p), there are 19 (NINETEEN) players in this intake and the nicknames of course go to (28s). 

It's easy to be quite dismissive of what appears to be a pretty rubbish intake, but we have to remember that the PA stars could be very misleading.  

[Jimbokav1971]

Sept 2028.

Premier Division. Malmö FF are obviously one of the big hitters so it's not really a surprise that we lost to them, but to win 2 out of the other 3 games is decent. 

EURO Cup. I wasn't really sure what to expect here, but it's all going swimmingly so far.

Confidence. The expectations here are quite modest, (mid table finish and reach 3th qualifying round of EURO Cup), so that would explain why we are thought of so highly. 

Facilities. Youth Recruitment is at level 10 in the editor, but still showing at Exceptional here. Maybe it will update over time. 

Finances. We've already got more money in the bank than we have had at any time over the last 5 years. Our playing squad still needs significant investment and there is absolutely no guarantee of playing in Europe again next season, (we need a top 5 finish and are 5 points adrift at the moment). 

[Jimbokav1971]

There is nothing wrong with this match engine! 

 

[Mr_Demus]

Glad to see you pick this back up.

 

My career game has brought me to Akropolis IF. How are they doing?

[SRL88]

Nice start in Europe 

[Jimbokav1971]

4 hours ago, Mr_Demus said:

Glad to see you pick this back up.

My career game has brought me to Akropolis IF. How are they doing?

I was always coming back, I'm just not sure how long I will be back for this time, (because I don't think it's for good). 

I love playing FM, but there seem to be serious issues with FM20 at the moment. I'm not completely sold on FMT20 either and that means that I'm torn between the two and even considered going back to FM19, (but you should never go back). 

Anyway, this is how Akropolis are getting on. 

[Jimbokav1971]

24 minutes ago, SRL88 said:

Nice start in Europe 

Yeah. I've been away from the save for too long though and I can't remember anything about the squad and it doesn't help that we have 105 player at the club. 

I think I need to focus on the league rather than Europe. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Nov 2028.

Premier Division. 6 league games this month with just 1 win and 2 draws, but each of the 3 losses  were by the 2-1 scoreline. The results aren't good, but I think this might be largely down to me being a little muddled. 

EURO Cup II.  I really don't care what happens here. We have already exceeded expectations just by getting here so it's all a bonus. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Youth Recruitment update.

The powers at be think that the problem is caused by a complication in the formulae that creates the Youth Recruitment rating being skewed by the impact of affiliate clubs. 

The problem with that conclusion is that SK Orebro have not had a single affiliate at any time during the save, (and we are now in Nov 2028). I have explained this "error" to the powers at be and hopefully they will look at the saves I uploaded weeks ago. 

I had to argue twice to get the board to agree to this upgrade, but we got there in the end. 

The board were happy to update the Youth coaching. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Nov & Dec 2028.

Premier Division. Our league season petered out a little but we still achieved the mid-table finish that we were tasked with. 

EURO Cup. Quite often I would have rotated the whole squad and instead selected a starting line-up based purely on PA, but with about £0.5M for the win and our finances stretched, it seemed to make sense to go for the money. 

Club vision. 

Finances. 

New records.

[Jimbokav1971]

Jan, Feb * Mar 2019.

Swedish Cup. We're in the Final. This isn't the 1st time this club has been there. We were Swedish Cup Champions in 2019 and have been Runners Up on 2 further occasions. (2015 & 1988).

EURO Cup II. Of the 16 teams left in the competition, 6 are Nordic and ourselves and 2 others represent Sweden. 

Finances. 

Transfers. 

New record. 

Edited December 5, 2019 by Jimbokav1971

[Jimbokav1971]

Apr 2029.

Premier Division.

Confidence. 

Finances. 

[Jimbokav1971]

May 2029.

Premier Division. 

Swedish Cup.

New record. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Sweden gain Champions League place. Jun 2029.

Things are developing nicely in at least 1 Nation in Nordicland.

How many EURO Cup II places we had in the past or will have in the future is not mentioned. 

In order to find the information, we have to click on the qualifications places, where the info us shown. (I have reported this as a bug, bit if this is happening to you then please also add your report). 

Edited December 5, 2019 by Jimbokav1971

[Jimbokav1971]

Big bid. Jul 2029. 

Well it's big at least in relative terms. 

£4.7M might not seem that much, but if you look at our financial history over the last 5 seasons you will see how much of a difference it will make. I would personally have much preferred £3.5M + 25% and a friendly, but I can't really complain about a deal like this. We're nowhere near the stage that I can refuse an offer like this and the board were 100% right to accept it. 

(27a) Sjöberg (2027) *.

By far the best player we have produced and VERY much the exception. 

[Edit]

Would you believe he snubbed Inter! 

Edited December 5, 2019 by Jimbokav1971

[Jimbokav1971]

Jul 2029.

Premier Division. A good month with just 1 loss and even that was accentuated by a 1st half sending off. 

Confidence. 

[Jimbokav1971]

1 hour ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

Big bid. Jul 2029. 

Well it's big at least in relative terms. 

£4.7M might not seem that much, but if you look at our financial history over the last 5 seasons you will see how much of a difference it will make. I would personally have much preferred £3.5M + 25% and a friendly, but I can't really complain about a deal like this. We're nowhere near the stage that I can refuse an offer like this and the board were 100% right to accept it. 

(27a) Sjöberg (2027) *.

By far the best player we have produced and VERY much the exception. 

[Edit]

Would you believe he snubbed Inter! 

Subsequent bid. Aug 2029.

I've sort of resigned myself to the fact that he's going, and now it's all about getting a good deal. 

The board didn't accept £2.8M up front, so I'm countering with £3M up front, £1M in installments, £1M after 50 league games, £1M after 1 International appearance and of course a friendly and 25%.

Napoli tried to get him on the cheap, but I managed to get Bayern and Juve/Zebre to come back in with what I have suggested. (£3M up front + £3M in add-ons + 25% and a friendly).

Dortmund have tried to hijack the deal with a straight cash offer of £5.5M, but I have the option to protest. 

I know we lose out on 25% of a future deal ans possibly lose £0.5M in add-ons, but £5.5M is a ridiculous amount of money and I'm not going to even protest. Instead I'm just going to let the player decide. 

I'll tell you what I have just noticed though.....

I know all about the "protest" button, but "ask to renegotiate transfer" is brilliant and something I have wanted to see introduced for ages. 

It's pretty basic, but I like this.

I'm obviously going to choose a sell on clause. 

While this improvement is great, as usual it doesn't seem to have gone the full hog. 

The board have just agreed that they should re-negotiate a £5.5M deal from Dortmund to include a sell-on clause because of the players age, but then the very next day they accept the same deal for the same player without the clause! It's like the conversation the previous day hasn't happened! 

In any case, the player took it out of our hands and joined Bayern. 

Finances, 

Facilities. 

With our improved financial situation I argued for and got acceptance for a couple of upgrades. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Aug 2029. 

Premier Division. We've won 8 of our last 10 league games, losing only to Hammarby IF and a ridiculous 9-goaler against Djurgårdens IF. That's great form considering the strength of our squad at the moment. 

Swedish Cup. After making the Final last season, it's making me take more interest in this competition. 

Confidence. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Youth Intake. Sep 2029.

Another rubbish intake. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Sep 2029.

Premier Division.

Confidence. 

New record.

[rodesire]

What a purple patch of form!

Would you rather go to europa league group or conference league playoffs next summer?

[Jimbokav1971]

4 hours ago, rodesire said:

What a purple patch of form!

Would you rather go to europa league group or conference league playoffs next summer?

Thanks, we were indeed in good form. (I went slightly more attacking and it paid off). m

I think I would be keen to play in the EL2, (Is EURO Conference what it's called in real life?)

Looking at which Nations get teams in which round for EL2/Conference, it will "hopefully" be like shooting fish in a barrel. 

7th best teams from 4 biggest Nations + 6th best German team come in at Playoff stage. 

I think that "reduction" in quality is something I quite like at this stage. I really don't care though. European football is really just a money thing at the moment.
 

[Jimbokav1971]

Oct & Nov 2029. 

Premier Division. @rodesiremight have been talking about which European competition we wanted, but the reality is that we will have none again after our form deserted us and we took a dismal 2 points from a possible 12 over the last 4 games to completely implode. (I have been advised by @withnail316that the correct term to use in these circumstances is "Hibsing" it).  I would like to say that I rotated the squad and played youngsters or this and that, but in actual fact we were 2-0 up at Kalmar and just capitulated and were then never in it against Göteborg. 

The table doesn't lie though and although I would say that we had a good season, we will have to wait another season, (at least), for European football. 

The Qualification table suggests that we have 6 places now, (but I'm not sure when that starts now), and even then we finished 7th rather than 6th anyway. What I'm hoping for, (I haven;t checked yet), is that we will get the spot for the Cup as beaten Finalists as Malmo have already qualified for the Champions League as League champions. This used to be quite common but I think much more prestige is given to league placings now and qualification places seem to reflect that. I will just have to wait and see I think. 

Finances. 

Facilities. I don't really know what level my facilities are at. I know what the game says, and I haven't been able to reconcile this at all with what teh in game editor shows me, so I have decided to just go with it and accept that I haven't a clue what level anything is at, (but that it's likely to be rubbish), and just keep upgrading until I either can;t upgrade anymore or can't afford to upgrade anymore. The fact that these upgrades cost £825,000 & £950,000 would suggest that they are currently "middling" at best. The money from the sale of "star" players doesn;t last long when you need to upgrade everything.

[Jimbokav1971]

47 minutes ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

Facilities. I don't really know what level my facilities are at. I know what the game says, and I haven't been able to reconcile this at all with what teh in game editor shows me, so I have decided to just go with it and accept that I haven't a clue what level anything is at, (but that it's likely to be rubbish), and just keep upgrading until I either can;t upgrade anymore or can't afford to upgrade anymore. The fact that these upgrades cost £825,000 & £950,000 would suggest that they are currently "middling" at best. The money from the sale of "star" players doesn;t last long when you need to upgrade everything.

Dec 2029.

A little bit of sucking-up goes a long way right?

It's more than that though. I know that some of you might have seen the following thread in the Bugs forum, but if you haven't and are interested in Youth Development then it might be worth a look. 

There are a few posts in there from SI staff that offer for for thought. It's not straightforward at all by the looks of it. 

I know that I have upgraded both Junior Coaching and Youth Recruitment a few times, so I am happy with whatever level they are at, (although will keep upgrading), however I know that either our Youth Facilities or Training Facilities, (or both), have been downgraded once, however we are currently in the process of upgrading both. From reading between the lines this season I think I'm going to concentrate on Youth Facilities now where it's a choice. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Mar 2030.

Exceptional Youth recruitment? Yeah right. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Apr 2030.

 

[Jimbokav1971]

Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr & May 2030.

Pre-season went ok. It's all really about fitness for me. I don't care about the result and it's all about fitness, (and hopefully qualifying for the Cup).

Swedish Cup. We finished 2nd in the Cup mini-league and unfortunately didn't progress. 

Premier Division. It was a tough start with an away trip to Malmo, and a 4-0 defeat probably highlights the gulf between them and where we are now. 

I would love to know how the "form" column on the league table works. It shows that we have won 3 and lost 1 of the last...... 5 games. (Is Matt Hancock in charge of the stats here?)

I guess it's off to the Bugs Forum again. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Big sale. Jul 2030.

Daði (ISL) * had a minimum fee release clause (Foreign clubs), so when the bids started coming in for him I was keen to make sure that I arranged a % of next sale even if it meant selling him for slightly less than the £2.2M clause. 

Finances. 

[rodesire]

That's a great early sell, shame he had a release clause though

[Jimbokav1971]

3 hours ago, rodesire said:

That's a great early sell, shame he had a release clause though

That's the down-side of letting the DoF find players and do the deals. In the past I have simply refused to sign players who's agents insisted on a minimum fee release clause, but I've decided to embrace the fact that we will develop player and then sell them on more recently. It different for products of our Academy, but for players we bring in, good luck to them when we get a big bid and move them on. 

Either way, bought for £110,000 and sold for £2M + 25% + a friendly just 19 months later is good business. He's immediately valued at £5.25M at Bayern.

[Edit]

The other thing that I have to be a little careful of is that although I love Iceland and those from Iceland, and am happy to sign any Nordics in this save, there is 1 significant rule within teh Sweden Premier Division that I will have to be careful of. 

I've fallen foul of this a few times already and have had to go and re-select the squad again. 

I have 1 Dane, 3 Finns, 7 Icelandic and 4 Norwegians currently at the club, (after Daði (ISL) * leaves). (No Faroese yet I'm afraid). I need ti make sure that I don't being in too many non-Swedes or I won't be able to play them and their development will be stunted. That being said, Iceland looks great for a bargain at the moment. 

Edited December 8, 2019 by Jimbokav1971

[Jimbokav1971]

Jul 2030.

Premier Division. AIK smashed us after the mid-season break, and I think it was my fault because the players weren't fit. I am going to have to start managing pre-season/mid-season and creating additional friendlies for our large squads I think. 2nd place in the league gets us into the Champions League Best Placed 3rd Qualifying Round which is 1 round before the Playoffs. 

Confidence. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Aug 2020.

Premier Division. We've only lost 1 of the last 21 league games and are unbeaten in 10 games in all competitions. Despite that, we still trail Malmo and and Hammarby are only 2 points behind us. 

Swedish Cup. A win and a clean sheet and we are through to the next round. 

Confidence.

[Bobsled]

Form is looking good right now, CL should definitely be possible.

I was a bit sad when you left Karlskrona but I am now in my second season in Superettan (D1E) as a semi-pro side and that is as frustrating as you thought it would be.

[Jimbokav1971]

2 hours ago, JonasAjax said:

Form is looking good right now, CL should definitely be possible.

I was a bit sad when you left Karlskrona but I am now in my second season in Superettan (D1E) as a semi-pro side and that is as frustrating as you thought it would be.

Yeah, it's taken a while to re-build and get us on a sound footing, but now things are looking decent squad-wise, (although we are weak on both flanks), and as soon as either the DoF or I are able to bring in some quality/depth in those areas we will really kick on. 

Not being in Europe is absolutely a blessing in disguise this season, (even though it was by accident rather than design), and assuming I can add the required depth on both flanks I would expect us to be far more able to challenge on both fronts next season. Where we finish this season isn't an issue for me at all, (just so long as we qualify for Europe). 

Top 2 qualify for Champions League Group stage now. (That would be brilliant). 
3rd qualifies for Best Places 3rd Qualifying Round. (Not keen on that at all).  The risk here is that we would lose the first game and not qualify for anything. The opposition here also seem likely to be decent. Not keen on this at all. I will be trying to finish 4th rather than 3rd if that's what it's looking like come the end of the season. 
4th qualifies for EURO Cup Group stages. (Happy with that). 
5th qualifies for 3rd Qualifying Round of EURO Conference. (EURO Conference is better than nothing). 
6th qualifies for 4th Qualifying Round of EURO Conference. (EURO Conference is better than nothing).  

With regards to FK Karlskrona, I think it would have been fine to stay there if I hadn't set out with the specific goal of playing a Journeyman save. To keep banging away with a Semi-Pro club at that level just seems not in keeping with the nature of the save though. 

They have become a bit of a yo-yo club, albeit at a higher level than they were initially, although they look likely to avoid relegation this season, so will remain in the 2nd tier.  

Interestingly, their facilities look great. 

But actually aren't. 

[AceAvenger]

Jimbo very well done with this save, your threads keep me going during the duldrums of daily work routine. KUTGW! I'm planning on doing a save in the Nordic region after the winter update, with Tromsø, so I can start in the 2020 with the database as accurate as possible. 

Does the DoF do all your transfers? I never knew he could be trusted to find all these gems. Also that youth facilities bug is appaling, have you checked under the hood to see if your facilities have actually increased with the upgrades you've gotten?

Edited December 9, 2019 by AceAvenger

[rodesire]

Excellent and exceptional at 6 and 5 respectively, damn, this bug just keeps on giving 

[Jimbokav1971]

8 hours ago, AceAvenger said:

Jimbo very well done with this save, your threads keep me going during the duldrums of daily work routine. KUTGW! I'm planning on doing a save in the Nordic region after the winter update, with Tromsø, so I can start in the 2020 with the database as accurate as possible. 

Does the DoF do all your transfers? I never knew he could be trusted to find all these gems. Also that youth facilities bug is appaling, have you checked under the hood to see if your facilities have actually increased with the upgrades you've gotten?

Thanks very much. 

I don't care in the slightest how "up to date" a database is, because I don't really feel invested in a save until about 4-5 seasons in and by then I usually have nothing but Newgens anyway so does it really matter? 

With regards to the DoF transfers, no he doesn't do all of them, and I reserve the right to veto all deals. He is tasked with finding players and bringing them in, but I'm meant to be negotiating the deal and then confirming the deal. If the deal is of a low value then I will quite often just let the DoF do the deal and I will do the player contract, and for the bigger deals I will get involved in the purchase too, but especially where the initial fee is very low, I am actually quite happy to give the selling club a % of next sale. I think it's the right thing to do both in real life and in game. 

If often veto players that my DoF tries to sign, but I also look for players myself, (by sifting through the scout reports). In FM19 and FM20 I'm also really getting good value out of the Request DoF suggestion option. 

To anyone who hasn't seen this before, you can ask the DoF to give you suggestions, (a max of 3 at a time), based on Transfer type, (Transfer, Loan, End of contract, Free Transfer), as well as position and role. Even if you ask for the advice and then just get your scouting team to scout them and then make a decision after you have a full scout report, (or offering them a trial when they are a free transfer), then it's something I find really handy. I particularly like the Free Transfer and End of Contract options. 

I don't sign players that I either haven;t scouted or who haven't come in on loan, (unless of course the DoF arrives with a deal out of the blue and it looks really good). I need to get the info from somewhere. I don't mind taking the advice from either the DoF, the Ass Man, or the Scouting team. He often tries to bring in some right rubbish, (which I then veto and cancel the deal), but when he brings in someone good, (and he does occasionally pull one out of nowhere), then I'm only too happy to take advantage. 

I hope that makes sense. 

With regards to checking "under the hood" and looking at the facilities, yeah I have been trying to keep an eye on it but maybe not communicating it that well to you lot. 

What we started off with, (I think), was 11, 10, 10, 10, 10. (At least that's what it was the 1st time I checked). yeah, I've gone back and looked and this was the 1st that I have posted in the thread. 

And this is what it is now after at least 1, (and possibly 2), downgrades too. 

We can ignore Corporate Facilities, (I really must find out how and what they impact at some point), so we have gone from 11, 10, 10, 10 to 12(+1), 10, 17(+7), 15(+5). 

Training Facilities +1.
Youth Facilities no change. 
Junior Coaching +7.
Youth Recruitment +5.

In the past, it was all really about Junior Coaching and Youth Recruitment. In FM19 things were meant to have been changed to make Training and Youth Facilities more influential, (equally so now), with the other Facilities, but I didn't agree that this was working that way. I do believe now that this is the case in FM20 now though. The problem I have with this, (just a problem with this save rather than the way that it works per se), is that Training Facilities are really expensive and Youth Facilities are pretty expensive so it's hard to upgrade them when you are a club of a certain stature. I think I've done well to get the Facilities up as much as I have, but I've hardly made a dent in the top 2 and these are holding me back. As a result I am less than impressed with the Youth Intakes, but I at least understand why and know what I need to do to fix it. Unfortunately though it just comes at a price that I'm not able to afford. 

I hope that clarifies things. 

[Jimbokav1971]

7 hours ago, rodesire said:

Excellent and exceptional at 6 and 5 respectively, damn, this bug just keeps on giving 

Yeah. I was pretty peeved at 1st, but I think we just have to accept that FM20 is not as "clean" out of the box as FM19 was. We can either carry on playing and just accept it, (hoping that they fix it soonish), or we can go back to FM19. I have decide to accept it, change my mindset, (I'm checking progress using the in game editor), and just get on with it. 

I think it was made worse by the fact that the bug was such a complete surprise to me and I had been blindly accepting of completely wrong information. I was really annoyed and frustrated at the time. The way I look at it now though, if we want the bugs to be fixed, we need to keep playing it so we can find them. Especially the way I play and the way I look at things, I'm likely to find bugs that others don't notice.

I can't very well complain that they don't fix them if I'm not finding them and reporting them. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Sep, Oct & Nov.

Premier Division. We managed to hold on and finish 2nd rather than 3rd and as a result we will qualify directly for the Group Stages of the Champions League together with the enormous financial windfall that comes with that. 

New records. 

Overall Best XI. 

Finances.

Goal-scoring GK watch. 

Awards.

Edited December 13, 2019 by Jimbokav1971

[rodesire]

That's a huge result, very well done!

[Jimbokav1971]

55 minutes ago, rodesire said:

That's a huge result, very well done!

Yep. 

The improved Swedish ranking now offering the Runner Up in the league straight through to the Group Stages is huge. 

I haven't looked at it in great detail yet, but the introduction of the EURO Conference has been significant in our rise I think. Where as you wouldn't usually see Nordic clubs in the latter stages of the Champions League and EURO League, Nordic clubs have won the EURO Conference 3 times out of 8, (Malmö FF in 24/25, AGF in 26/27 & Djurgårdens IF in 28/29, while also contributing the Runners Up on 3 occasions too).