Mikenevo's [FM15+FM16] Keep It Close To Home Challenge

[raeburn]

I'm giving this a try in FM16 with Crystal Palace. Since they are a London club, there's a pretty big pool of players to choose from, but my long term aim will be to complete this challenge using only players from Croydon. Right now, Jason Puncheon is the only first-team player from Croydon, so the captaincy is his. Dwight Gayle and Adrian Mariappa are fellow Londoners, so they'll be guaranteed a first-team spot. Everyone else (hopefully) will be replaced with Londoners by the start of the second season. I'm planning to let the other British players stick around for the first season, but all of the foreign players will be off in the first window.

[Motlhen]

I've just started this with Spurs! Took me a while to setup but the link below is for a shortlist file that'll be useful for anyone using a London-based team in FM16.

https://www.mediafire.com/?4lwigql9ehp90bx

The potential starting XI for an all-London team is incredible (minus maybe GK):

Rob Elliot

Luke Shaw

Steven Caulker

Steven Taylor

Chris Smalling

Keiran Gibbs

Nathaniel Clyne

Jack Cork

Mark Noble

Ruben Loftus-Cheek

Jordan Ibe

Jonjo Shelvey

Harry Arter

Jake Livermore

Michail Antonio

Moses Odubajo

Benik Afobe

Grabban

Jermain Defoe

And that's not to mention Kane, Mason, Townsend, Pritchard & prospects such as Josh Onomah and Kyle Walker-Peters. Plus the odd Joe or Ashley Cole and anyone else I've missed/not seen yet.

Should be interesting to see how much activity is possible before gameweek 1!

[Schiavone]

Anyone still giving this thread a go?

The more I look at this sort of challenge, the more I like it.

As a LLM it can be the perfect mix of a Youth Academy challenge and the rules to only sign local lads. With the YA challenge it can be very nervous to make no progress for a couple of seasons but with this challenge you are able to do some minor transfers.

Thinking about giving this a go in Italy or France.

[Schiavone]

Don't forget, you don't have to have it all set up in just 1 season. I've heard that the staff you have has an effect on the players who come through the youth ranks, so I'd consider removing all foreign staff and looking for staff from the local area. I've even gone as far as making sure my assistant and head of youth development are both from Manchester.

This post about the staff is a very helpful tip! I only search for local staff in that case and don’t focus on their attributes. I already introduced it in my game where possible at the moment.

[Schiavone]

USL Dunkerque - “Bienvenue dans le Nord”

I have taken over as the new Dunkerque manager in France. Me is Thomas Cabaye, a Sunday league footballer with no coaching badges. USL Dunkerque was founded in 1909 and always played in the lower divisions. Not that long ago they made the step up to the National, the level where I join the club. Home matches are played in the Stade Marcel Tribut with a capacity of 4200. The financial balance looks good with 717.744 in black but unfortunately the club is leaking money… expected to be heavy in red numbers at the end of the season. Facilities to start with are as followed:

- Below average training facilities

- Basic youth facilities

- Basic junior coaching

- Basic youth recruitment

Heading into this challenge means that all my signings and youth players must be born in the Nord department. In my first season I’m trying to rebuild the team as much as possible with locals. Starting this game the local lad counter is only 5 out 23 players meet the criteria of being a Nord player. Because the club is a bit smaller, new signings are pretty difficult so it will be a heavy rebuilding task. Surely in my first season in charge I’ll have to play the other available players as well. Since expectations are just trying to avoid relegation, the huge step up in the leagues probably isn’t short term. Not a problem, I’m not a quick fix and a bigger chance that we can go up when the club is a bit more conform the criteria.

As a start I already looked up my potential signings. I listed for about 60 places of birth and this gives 123 players that meet the criteria. Of course not all of them are interested in joining the club. Nevertheless I’m scouting them all so that when there is an opportunity to sign some players I can go for that option. As a little side note I like the fact that we’re at the border with Belgium. This gives a unique "outside of the box French players". Next to that I think youth development will be important as well. But I have to shift in my staff for that which is possible after my first season.

I hope some people join this thread with their developments.

[Forest]

anyone had success with this? Really the hardest challenge i tried so far

[Schiavone]

I see it as a mix between a youth challenge and a home grown heroes challenge.

I like the concept, it's difficult but not as difficult as a youth only challenge because you have extra options.

I haven't continued my game at the moment since no one else is playing it and/or posting about it.

[Forest]

Well yes, there are some extra options but for me personally it´s more difficult than the Youth Challenge. But i would love to see a story or a reports from someone who did it. I like challenges, and this one is a real difficult one

[tomo.irons]

Just about to start one with AFC Wimbledon. Would it be the county of Surrey and Greater London or Just Surrey.

So far, with just Surrey it looks quite a hard task.

[Schiavone]

USL Dunkerque - December 2014

National

In competition we are in a decent position. We won 7 and lost 8 games which sees us 9th in winter break. Since we were expected to battle against relegation this is a very nice result. We had a very bad September - October period but the games outside these months were more than decent. Strikers Dossevi and Dorizon were the main goal contributors.

Coupe de France

In the Coupe de France we were eliminated by fellow National outfit Sedan in the 8th round. This competition wasn’t a particular highlight but we met the expectations.

Squad

Next to that is the squad transition and rebuilding progress. We started with only 5 players matching the criteria (Saint-Louis, Senneville, Muraglia, De Parmentier and Huysman). During this first half of the season I was able to sign Hazebroeck born Bob Cousin and Valenciennes born Yannick Lacam on a free. Both are already introduced in the squad and will feature more. Heading towards the winter transfer window it’s money time to sign some extra players for the coming season and to ship some others out. Since the season will end fine I’m glad that I can focus on that. Hopefully I’ll start my 2nd season with a core of Nord players.

[TheEarl]

Anyone besides Schiavone still doing this?

[Schiavone]

Hi, TheEarl. I hope Forest himself is taking a gamble on this

For tomo.irons: I don't know how all parts of London are implemented in the game as place of birth? If you want to "micro manage" you can go for detail. Otherwise I think just London is fine itself. As long as you enjoy the game, everything is fine by me!

For myself, I'm not a quick game player. But I can take time for making bigger updates. In here I will keep it more general. Maybe I can add more detail in an FMCareer story or so? Still a bit doubting about that.