[FM20] Irchester Utd. Tier 10. England. Home. Youth Only.

[James__Curtis]

This is some save! Just spent about the last hour reading through all 12 pages. Great going, KUTGW! 

[Jimbokav1971]

Just now, James__Curtis said:

This is some save! Just spent about the last hour reading through all 12 pages. Great going, KUTGW! 

Thanks very much @James__Curtis

[Jimbokav1971]

FA Cup. Jan 2039. 

We're in the draw for the FA Cup 5th round!

The only problem is that we have to beat West Ham in the 3rd Round first and then if we beat them, (I've rested the squad and am going to give it a right good go), we have to beat Arsenal in the 4th Round in order to get to Bournemouth in the 5th Round. 

The West Ham game has been postponed definitely twice and I think even 3 times now because of a water-logged pitch. The 3rd Round is usually played the 1st weekend in Jan I think, and we're going to play our tie on 19th Jan. 

Edited July 31, 2020 by Jimbokav1971

[Pompeyboyz]

Should get a decent chunk of money whether home or away from any of those  ties

[Jimbokav1971]

New Records. Jan 2039. 

[Jimbokav1971]

19 minutes ago, Pompeyboyz said:

Should get a decent chunk of money whether home or away from any of those  ties

Yep. We may not have beaten West Ham, but we had a full house at home and now get a trip to the London Stadium. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Big news. HUGE news. Jan 2039.

I've been trying to get a parent club for what seems like forever. 

Although the reason I gave the board was that I wanted to loan players without paying their wages, I don't actually want to loan any of their players, (because I can still only sign players that have come through our Academy), but there are other ways in which I can adapt this initial relationship at a later stage. 

Colchester are out because they don't want to give us any money.

Wigan have these facilities. 

Norwich have these facilities. 

Oldham have these facilities. 

I actually don't know if I can edit a domestic relationship to one that includes Academy products swapping clubs, (but that's obviously the aim). Norwich have the best facilities and are obviously closer geographically than Wigan. 

I'm just putting this in here to separate the 2 maps because it looked like 1 big map initially and confused the hell out of me. 

I'm going for Norwich and I will be trying to improve/extend the relationship where possible. I will have to do it quickly because I don't want the link terminated because I haven't taken any of their players. 

Edited July 31, 2020 by Jimbokav1971

[Jimbokav1971]

BOOM!  You can take the our fines from the whole save out of that! Jan 2039.

Spoiler

 

[Jimbokav1971]

Jan 2039. 

Conference National. It was a tough month in the league, but I'm not too upset because 3 of the 4 teams we lost to are in Playoff positions and with 2 games against West Ham, (and the 1st game getting postponed no less than 3 times), it played havoc with my squad selection. The flip side of this is that it afforded LOADS of opportunities to our youngsters. 

Cup games. I went with our best possible line-up against West Ham in the 1st game, but our rotated youngsters played the replay and a creditable 2-0 loss. 

I was under the impression that the away team got 50% of the gate receipts in the FA Cup, but I didn't get an announcement that we had broken our record. It does look like we did get the money though as our income from Gate receipts was £544,492 last month and we only took £293, 707 during the whole of last season. 

Finances. We're £2 pw over our wage budget. Funnily enough I'm no longer even a tiny bit concerned. Count that money up biatches! 

[Fosse]

Resigning any players?

[Jimbokav1971]

22 minutes ago, Fosse said:

Resigning any players?

I wish. If only. 

Before we received the £5M I had a bid of £150,000 accepted for (32e) Big Craig (F.Det) 6'6" *, but he wouldn't even negotiate terms. Instead he joined Sutton Utd who top our league. They paid him silly money in wages.

If I look at our shortlist, there are not many players on there who are interested. It's 1 thing having the cash. Quite another to be able to interest the player. 

I've just put a bid of £70k in for (31e) Josh Hill-Millns *.

[deez0r]

Cash should hopefully mean upgrades at the very least and potentially professional again! You are really making me want to jump back into youth only. I was thinking Crewe Alexandra!

[the_hdk]

what a brilliant career. Just read it all in one go today! My hat goes off to you SIR...please continue the great job!

[Jimbokav1971]

28 minutes ago, deez0r said:

Cash should hopefully mean upgrades at the very least and potentially professional again! You are really making me want to jump back into youth only. I was thinking Crewe Alexandra!

Yeah. The 1st upgrades are already lined up from even before the £5M, 

The costs are pretty minimal early on. 

I think the biggest benefit will be that we should be able to hang onto players for longer before selling them, (although we still will sell them). The board should be much less willing to sell young players for a pittance with £8M in the bank. 

Of course I will keep upgrading the facilities and I would also like them to may off the 2 loans, although experience tells me that boards are not very proactive where that's concerned. 

The other thing of course is that we're not actually playing at home. I=Our own ground didn't qualify for the league rules as we got promoted, so we are ground sharing with Kettering. I would obviously like to build our own ground in or around Irchester. 

The last thing of course is turning Pro. I will probably wait until the end of the season and ask them then. 

[Jimbokav1971]

35 minutes ago, the_hdk said:

what a brilliant career. Just read it all in one go today! My hat goes off to you SIR...please continue the great job!

Thanks very much. No plans to stop anytime soon. Just getting going really. 

[Thebaker]

7 minutes ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

The last thing of course is turning Pro. I will probably wait until the end of the season and ask them then. 

I think clubs only ever announce this sort of thing at the end of the season although the option to ask them should be available.

I'm expecting the next Messi to appear with the improvements in facilities.

[Jimbokav1971]

3 minutes ago, Thebaker said:

I think clubs only ever announce this sort of thing at the end of the season although the option to ask them should be available.

I'm expecting the next Messi to appear with the improvements in facilities.

I honestly think we have been producing some REALLY good players and it completely makes a mockery of how the game is supposed to work. When a player gets to 30 years old I'm going to check his PA and keep a record. 

I honestly believe that the system is still the same as it used to be, (in that Youth Recruitment largely deals with PA and Junior Coaching largely deals with CA). I guess we will find out when players start to reach 30. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Turning Pro. Feb 2039. 

Edited July 31, 2020 by Jimbokav1971

[Jimbokav1971]

Data Analysis. Feb 2039. 

[Thebaker]

1 minute ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

I honestly think we have been producing some REALLY good players and it completely makes a mockery of how the game is supposed to work. When a player gets to 30 years old I'm going to check his PA and keep a record. 

I honestly believe that the system is still the same as it used to be, (in that Youth Recruitment largely deals with PA and Junior Coaching largely deals with CA). I guess we will find out when players start to reach 30. 

The players you are getting would support that, there are other factors at work i'm sure but i have no idea what they are.  There have been several saves where i have produced better players (in terms of PA) at clubs when the reputation and facilities are much worse.

[Jimbokav1971]

13 minutes ago, Thebaker said:

The players you are getting would support that, there are other factors at work i'm sure but i have no idea what they are.  There have been several saves where i have produced better players (in terms of PA) at clubs when the reputation and facilities are much worse.

Oh don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that other things don't have any impact at all. I'm just saying that the significance of each is not the same, (which is what we have been told). 

Edited July 31, 2020 by Jimbokav1971

[Jimbokav1971]

Feb 2039. 

Conference National. After 4 losses in a row last month, we extended it to 5 before bouncing back to win the last couple of games. We sit 2 points outside the Playoffs with a game in hand on everyone except Port Vale above us. We still have 11 games to play so we are right bang in the mix despite our poor recent form.

Cup games. After good performances in the FA Cup, I decided to go strong in the FA Trophy and was surprised to see us go crashing out. In mitigation it came at the end of series of 8 games without a win that included only 1 draw. (Thank God that little run is over). 

[rodesire]

those two multi-million sales have just revitalised this save so much.  Looking forward to you developing your players now!

[Jimbokav1971]

5 minutes ago, rodesire said:

those two multi-million sales have just revitalised this save so much.  Looking forward to you developing your players now!

Yeah, I had to do a bit of work to ensure that the clauses were inserted, but once we started selling players with clauses I was confident that things would slowly turn the corner. 

What I wasn't expecting was that they would change so rapidly. 

[Jimbokav1971]

20 hours ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

Youth Intake preview. Dec 2038. 

I really want a striker. Just a plain old-fashioned striker who does not much else other than put the ball in the net. Quick would be good but just someone who can score. 

A striker! Please please please let him be good. 

Even the game things our Youth Intakes should be rubbish. 

Youth Intake day. May 2039. 

Squad by PPA. 

Nations already represented in previous intakes. 

New Nations represented in this intake. 

(39a) Harri Williamson (Pro) is not only a striker but a quick. I guess that means I have to sacrifice my first-born to the FM Gods. (I don't think he's going to be overly pleased). He can also dribble as well as being quick, and has a good personality too. I have high hopes for this lad. 

(39b) J F C (ESP) (Perf) is the 1st ever Perfectionist that I have had come through a Youth Intake in any issue of the game. (No, that's not a joke). He's also a short centre-half which might be a pain if I was in the Premier League, but as I'm in the Conference he looks brilliant. He could play in our best starting XI today and not look out of place. 

(39c) Mendoza (COL) (Bal) looks great. He won't be 1st choice immediately, but I don't think it will it will take him long. If anyone knows how we get a Colombian GK and a Bulgarian GK in the same intake then feel free to let me know. 

[RoguPL]

J F C looks beastly !!! very very decent.

 

Congrats on going pro !! Can't wait to see further sell on fees kick in and benefits of facilities upgrades 

[Jimbokav1971]

1 hour ago, rrozek93 said:

J F C looks beastly !!! very very decent.

Congrats on going pro !! Can't wait to see further sell on fees kick in and benefits of facilities upgrades 

Thanks. I think things are starting to move along very nicely indeed. 

[Jimbokav1971]

4th Fine of the season. May 2039. 

Hartlepool tried to go toe to toe with us in the 1st Round of the Playoffs, but their 5 yellows paled in comparison to our 7 yellows and 1 red as we kicked them off the pitch and battered them 1-0. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Mar, Apr & May 2039. 

Conference National. We finished the season with a great run of form, especially so when I really weakened the line-up in later games to ensure that everyone was fresh for the Playoffs. Finishing 5th was brilliant, but I think my late-season rotation, (more than normal), weakened us though and that cost is in the Playoffs. 

Playoffs. 

[rodesire]

almost there now! hopefully, you can get that new stadium with 8 or so mil still in the bank

[jcoll]

Great read Jimbo, the quality of players coming through Irchester over the years is seriously impressive. Glad that you've finally reaped the financial reward from them and hopefully once the facilities get upgraded and turn pro you'll be able to keep the income coming in and fly up the leagues.

[Pompeyboyz]

That was a fine season.  Built on the last and you have money in the bank now.

Hopefully pro status will be a push as  well as the training facilities too.

Can't wait to see what your next "golden generation" looks like 

[Jimbokav1971]

3 hours ago, rodesire said:

almost there now! hopefully, you can get that new stadium with 8 or so mil still in the bank

I'm going to wait until the next sell-on before asking for that I think. 

We have a capacity of about 4,500 where we are now, (ground-sharing with Kettering), and the longer I leave it, the more chance there is of me becoming an legend and having the stadium named after me, (which I've never had in CM/FM ever). 

I think 1 more promotion might be enough to make me a legend, and that might, (just might), get me a stadium named after me. 

[Jimbokav1971]

2 hours ago, jcoll said:

Great read Jimbo, the quality of players coming through Irchester over the years is seriously impressive. Glad that you've finally reaped the financial reward from them and hopefully once the facilities get upgraded and turn pro you'll be able to keep the income coming in and fly up the leagues.

It is, and I don't think it's by accident. I may not be developing to the level myself, but I think that I'm starting to prove that Youth Recruitment on it's own is a significant driver of Newgen PA. 

The save is very much about the player we produce and I would take a player winning a big award elsewhere ahead of success at the club. 

[Jimbokav1971]

2 hours ago, Pompeyboyz said:

That was a fine season.  Built on the last and you have money in the bank now.

Hopefully pro status will be a push as  well as the training facilities too.

Can't wait to see what your next "golden generation" looks like 

You're right. Every year is a continuation of what went before and while I'm a little gutted that we crashed out meekly in the Playoffs, there is absolutely no denying that the number of young players that we gave playing time to this season was ridiculous, (even by my standards). 

Just to clarify, the reason we keep getting "Golden Generations" is because we keep selling our best players. This season our best player was (37c) Komba (TAN) * who was on loan after being sold to Palace. The next best are (34d) Ritchie-Smith (Bal) *, (who has now played 5 full seasons for the club), and (39b) JFC (ESP) (Perf) 5'10" *, (who just came through the intake and is already attracting interest from the Spanish giants). 

(37c) Komba (TAN) * is already effectively gone. 
(39b) JFC (ESP) (Perf) 5'10" * will probably be gone unless I can get him in on loan afterwards. 
(34d) Ritchie-Smith (Bal) * will probably go if we get a decent bid. 

This all means that the level against which players are judged might be even lower next season than it was this season. 

[rodesire]

JFC will end up with 50 Spanish caps in 10 years time 

[Jimbokav1971]

1 minute ago, rodesire said:

JFC will end up with 50 Spanish caps in 10 years time 

I think he's going to be amazing or a complete dud. He's 5'10" so maybe they will convert him to something else if they sign him early enough. He will be staying at centre-half for me and made 5(1) appearances during the run-in at the end of last season. 

I signed him to a youth contract and someone else has signed him to a provisional Semi-Pro contract already, (wasn't me), so the Spanish big-boys can't gazzump us. I only found out when I went to offer the contract and noticed he already had one. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Season Summary. May 2038. 

Conference North Table. 

FA Cup.

FA Trophy. 

FA Youth Cup. 

Goal-scoring keepers. 

Overall Best XI. 

Awards.

Squad by Appearances. 

Discipline.

Finances. This is astonishing, but probably makes sense considering the financial situation.

In previous versions of the game, the AI hasn't worked very well in terms of clearing debt. It would seem that this is much improved. 

Facilities. 

Transfers. 

Tracker. 

Records. 

Edited August 2, 2020 by Jimbokav1971

[Jimbokav1971]

International recognition. Jun 2039. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Sell-on clauses. Jul 2039. 

We've got 14 clauses outstanding, 3 of which we have deals on the table for. 

(34b) Sam Siddons (Pro) * has just been promoted to to League 1 with AFC Wimbledon. He's only valued at £78,000, but his estimated cost is £230k-£650k. For us to make £190k he would have to be sold for £380k and I think that's quite possible so I don't think I'm going to accept the offer. I think there is the potential to make more via a sale. 

(34c) Guy Bacon (Driven) * was a regular in League 1 last season, although he didn't score many goals. It's only 30% profit rather than 50% sale, but either way, £40k is neither here nor there at the moment. 

(37c) Komba (TAN) *..... Come on. It doesn't matter how good he is now or how good he might become. They want to give me £6.35M for our 50% share of his re-sale value.  Do I have to tell you that I have accepted the offer?..... but wait. We don't actually need the money now, so what's the point in selling? Maybe he's worth more than this and I should hang on to the clause? If he goes for £20M in the future, (quite reasonable for a Premier League player), then we effectively lose £3.65M. Then again, maybe he breaks his leg tomorrow in a match and never plays in the Premier League?  I think I can afford to gamble a bit further into the save, but at this moment in time I think we need to take the money. I'm not overly happy about this, but we have to acknowledge that we are in the Conference National and we're not suddenly going to be in the Premier League. No, I think we need to take the money and keep taking the money. 

 

[Jimbokav1971]

New highest bid. Jul 2039. 

I priced our best players at £100,000 to put off low bidders and then upped them to £250,000 when we started receiving £100k bids. This is the 1st bit we have received for a player over £250k. 

He's our 1st choice DR and has 2 years remaining on a PT contract, (that I'm about to try and convert to FT and extend), so I have no desire to sell him. He looks decent if unspectacular, but Huddersfield are a Championship club so this is a significant bid. 

There are a few clubs interested in him but this bid was a little out of the blue. I've upped his valuation to £500,000 and we will see if that puts potential buyers off. 

[Jimbokav1971]

The gift that keeps giving. Aug 2039. 

We sold (33b) Dean Cooke (Pro) * to Woking for £3,100 plus loads of add-ons.

Woking then sold him to Blackpool for £30k plus add-ons, and we got 50% of that. 

Blackpool then sold him to Sheff Wed for £350k meaning that Blackpool had to pay 40% their profit to Woking and Woking had to give 50% of that to us. 

So we got paid, then we got paid again, and now we are getting paid again again, and it just keeps getting bigger each time. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Solidarity contributions. Sep 2039. 

One of our ex players (33b) Dean Cooke (Pro) * has just been sold by Belgian side Genk to Fulham for £10.5M. 

You can see that Wigan are entitled to 1% of the deal, (£105k), presumably for their part in developing the player. 

Off the top of my head, I think you have to have a player at your club for a minimum of 3 years under a certain age to qualify for these solidarity payments, (but I'm not positive). Although he was with us over 2 different seasons, on;t 1 of them was a full season so let's see how long he was with each club, (because this might be important in future). 

He was with us for about 5 years 8 months, but much of that was as a youth player and possibly it doesn't count until after he becomes 16 or something. 

Actually, I've just looked it up and it only involves in cross-border transfers that involve a fee. 

So we know why the fee was payable in this case, (Belgium to England with a fee), but it doesn't explain why we don't get anything.

The player in question is 22 years old now, so ourselves and Wigan should have received 2.5% each? Right? 

So Genk should have paid us 2.%% but chose not to and there is nothing we can do about it? 

That doesn't explain why they paid Wigan 1% and not 5% though does it? 

1% of £10.5M is only £105,000, but 5% is £525,000. 

We and Wigan should have been paid £262,500 each. No? 

Even if we include Genk as a development club, (because they effectively are in this case), and we split the money 3 ways with Genk keeping 33%, then ourselves and Wigan should have shared £350k. 

Either way, we should have received something. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Aug 2039. 

Conference National. Top goal-scorer last season was (32c) Declan Barry (IRL) * with 27 league goals and he has started in the same vein this season with 8 goals in our opening 5 games. He's very much our "main man" and will need to carry us for the next couple of years at least. 

Edited August 2, 2020 by Jimbokav1971

[Jimbokav1971]

Facilities. Sep 2039. 

[Edit]

Edited August 2, 2020 by Jimbokav1971

[Pompeyboyz]

is it too early to ask for more?

Great that you have increased in three areas too

[Jimbokav1971]

7 minutes ago, Pompeyboyz said:

is it too early to ask for more?

Great that you have increased in three areas too

I edited it to show that I immediately asked for an increase in Youth and Training Facilities again, (but had to fight for them), but I can't ask for anything else as yet. 

I'm tempted to ask to move ground now. What happens to our training facilities if we move ground? 

[Jimbokav1971]

1st fine of the season. Sep 2039. 

We might have been given 9 yellows and 2 reds (33rd & 78th min), but Walsall obviously didn't fancy it at all and we ran out comfortable 2-0 winners. 

[rodesire]

41 minutes ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

I edited it to show that I immediately asked for an increase in Youth and Training Facilities again, (but had to fight for them), but I can't ask for anything else as yet. 

I'm tempted to ask to move ground now. What happens to our training facilities if we move ground? 

pretty sure they're independent of the stadium. I had moved on previous fm versions without a change to any facilities.  If you're renting facilities and the club that owns them moves, there is no change either afaik.

[Jimbokav1971]

Sept 2039. 

Conference National. Top goal-scorer (32c) Declan Barry (IRL) * now has 10 goals in 8 games, but it's the performances of GK (33e) Lee Ward (NIR) (Bal) * who has scored 5 goals in 11 games that stand out with 2 clean sheets this month. We might not be smashing the goals in for fun at the moment, but we're looking a little better defensively.