The FM21 Youth Academy Challenge

[SoSolidSnake]

Can't believe I got so much for one of my players! I suggested £2.5m with 50% of next sale as a joke, assuming they'd just cancel bid, but they negotiated, so I tried a non-negotiable at £2.6m and they accepted! I'll finally have a bit of money, I can't believe it. 

Time to upgrade some facilities I think.

[ravenation]

Gainsborough Trinity

5th season. 20th place Vanorama national - FA cup 3rd round - FA-trophy 4nd round

Extremely hard season. Best moment were our 5-0 defeat away to Middlesborough in 3rd round of FA-cup. We earned almost 200.000 euro on that defeat and in general our luck with home games in the FA cup has made us a lot of profit this season. Our gate income has gone from 244.000 to 592.000 Euro this season.

The money has been invested in upgrade of Youth Recruitment, Junior coaching, extra coach for U18 and upgrade of Youth level. This is what we need for long term succes!

The league was extremely hard and I think we just nailed it due to our new 16 year old goalie, that i gave the chance after a horrible start to season. Absolutely stunning average.

Youth intake looks fine. Unfortunately many bad personalities we need work on.

Next season we have to go for midtable finish!

Our only concern is strikers - JAck Dillon didnt develop as hoped this season.

[jmonfu]

43 minutes ago, Armeniar said:

 

Here's some progress in the early stages  

Pity I cannot play you..................you are not even in my division

[Cheez3y]

Oh boi 

Im scared.

 

[DazRTaylor]

53 minutes ago, dillonbarrett1997 said:

Never been so interesting in a fm challenge. Gonna start after work, but real question is where? Thinking England for the long grind but also like managing in less reputable nations. Any suggestion?

The bigger nations, such as England, Spain, Germany etc take longer to reach the top flight but once there, once you qualify for the Champions League, you have a chance of winning it.  The smaller nations don’t take as long to reach the top flight but you may never be in a position to complete the challenge.

Also, how long a season do you want?  Iceland, Norway, Sweden are quick whereas the likes of England take ages, but the players can develop quicker as a result.

Final thing to consider, is how many tiers do you want?  If you are new to the challenge, then I would say stick to out of the box.  ie, the leagues the game start with.  In which case England is the lowest with six tiers.  Germany only has three and some of the promoted sides have decent enough facilities and a real chance of survival.

[keeper#1]

South Shields 2031 Youth Intake Preview

Another potential Golden Generation and one that is chock full of fullbacks and a "great prospect" in goal.  The bad news is the midfield and forward lines looks lackluster but we shall see in March.

[dillonbarrett1997]

17 minutes ago, DazRTaylor said:

The bigger nations, such as England, Spain, Germany etc take longer to reach the top flight but once there, once you qualify for the Champions League, you have a chance of winning it.  The smaller nations don’t take as long to reach the top flight but you may never be in a position to complete the challenge.

Also, how long a season do you want?  Iceland, Norway, Sweden are quick whereas the likes of England take ages, but the players can develop quicker as a result.

Final thing to consider, is how many tiers do you want?  If you are new to the challenge, then I would say stick to out of the box.  ie, the leagues the game start with.  In which case England is the lowest with six tiers.  Germany only has three and some of the promoted sides have decent enough facilities and a real chance of survival.

Yeah stuck I’m between England for the long grind up the leagues or somewhere like Norway for the quick play and building a smaller nation. 
A long challenge is something I’m looking for/used to since I’ve managed anywhere from Austria to Zambia (funny thing is I’ve actually  managed in Zambia on fm17)

[Cheez3y]

114 Minute!

 

[Cheez3y]

End Of Season Review 2024 - OBOS-Ligaen (2nd tier)

Media Prediction

Dropped from 14th to 15th.

 

Coaching Badges: Cont. C Licence + Cont. B Licence

Over the year we got 3 more players, which are gettin some international football.

Bachleda got called up for U19 Poland and Green is gettin his chance for England.

Also we got our first senior capped player in Said, he decided to play for Palestine.

 

Games:

Braathens Cup

Again we lost in the 3rd round vs KFUM Oslo.

 

League Part 1 + League Part 2

Despite having a bad spell in the last 3 months, we finished 6th place.

And we got ourself into the playoffs.

 

We beat Sandes in pens and smashed Kongsvingar away.

We managed to hold a draw at home.

In the away leg we went down 0:1 in the 31. minute.

So I decided to yolo it and we got a 1:1 in the 75. minute.

Then I parked to bus and this happend....

 

 

Top 5 Regens

 

Lets see if Viggo wants to sign a new contract or he goes in the offseason.

[Shankly84]

Not a bad start to the season! We have a goal difference of +19 after 2 games!!

[Armeniar]

 

Well, if we start getting these kind of goals in our favour... Loving France until now  

[XaW]

First world problems, I know, but I have too many good goalkeepers!

The top two are the main ones, and I'm unsure who to use. McGurk 30d has been first choice lately, but now my coaches rate Murray 29e higher. There are also 3 talented ones out on loan and another 16 year old that looks promising.

They are really close, and I'm thinking about seeing if I can sell McGurk 30d since he is valued so much, and then start Murray 29e while the others get some more loans. Here are Collins 31e vs Cook 31b:

Not far off the other two either... A bit lower in the mentals, but they are younger as well. Any thoughts?

[OlivierL]

12 minutes ago, XaW said:

First world problems, I know, but I have too many good goalkeepers!

The top two are the main ones, and I'm unsure who to use. McGurk 30d has been first choice lately, but now my coaches rate Murray 29e higher. There are also 3 talented ones out on loan and another 16 year old that looks promising.

They are really close, and I'm thinking about seeing if I can sell McGurk 30d since he is valued so much, and then start Murray 29e while the others get some more loans. Here are Collins 31e vs Cook 31b:

Not far off the other two either... A bit lower in the mentals, but they are younger as well. Any thoughts?

If u send a screenshot of all their attributes (profile screen) i'll put them in my excel just to check what that spreadsheet says  

[XaW]

1 minute ago, OlivierL said:

If u send a screenshot of all their attributes (profile screen) i'll put them in my excel just to check what that spreadsheet says  

Spoiler

 

[keeper#1]

There's no such thing as too many good goalkeepers.

[Shankly84]

2 minutes ago, OlivierL said:

If u send a screenshot of all their attributes (profile screen) i'll put them in my excel just to check what that spreadsheet says  

Can you do mine? I've put one in who I sold, as I had too many. I'm just curious.

 

[GylfiAsCharged]

Fethiyespor 2022 Youth Intake

Some iffy personalities in there, but my U19 team is currently only a few players deep so I signed up a good batch of the 2021 intake. Three players stand out in both current and potential ability.

Mustafa Yener is a diminutive attacking midfielder who looks like the perfect heir to Turgay An, my 34-year-old playmaker with 15 goals and 16 assists in 33 appearances for me this season, but is starting to deteriorate attribute-wise. His 20th appearance of the season triggered an automatic one year extension in his contract, which I would have sought regardless.

Young centre-half Tayfun Yesil already stands at 6'4" tall, and looks almost ready to take over from another 34-year-old in my first eleven, Sabri Turgut. My defence is thin regardless so this kind of reinforcement is very welcome. 

The third is of course young goalkeeper Mustafa Dag. He's already tall enough for senior football, and you guessed it, my current number one is also 34 years old. He's not showing signs of slowing down and is my club captain, but Mustafa could well be his long term replacement. I like his 15 determination and think he can be our future number one, but it could take a while, and hopefully we ascend a league or two. 

As expected the youth candidates beat my current U19s, and I'm encouraged at the quality of the intake despite me not managing to get any improvements made to our youth infrastructure since taking over last summer. Another interesting point is that my club's elections are upcoming, and thankfully the main challenger supposedly doesn't want to change too much. I don't know how frequent these are, but I just hope that they don't mess with the long-term stability of this youth-only project.

Edited December 29, 2020 by GylfiAsCharged

[Steveh171]

1 hour ago, keeper#1 said:

There's no such thing as too many good goalkeepers.

I've noticed I get alot of good goalie regens relative to my level. I probably have about 5 prospects right now! 

Other thing I've noticed is strikers with low finishing, all my regen strikers with taranto have had an average finishing stat of 7. Most of them came through with 4 finishing or something.

had two outliers at 12/13 so maybe it is realistic.

Edited December 28, 2020 by Steveh171

[danielclouston1]

La Roda CF - Spain

So I just could not get into my last attempt in Germany so trying in Spain with La Roda FC.

Game Setup

Profile

Edited December 29, 2020 by danielclouston1

[thomas_e]

Sacachispas FC

Copa Libertadores Update 2030

CHALLENGE COMPLETED

 

A very unexpected, but a truly great win in the Copa Libertadores! A 5-0 win in the final against league rivals River Plate, the team we have struggled the most against in the league!! 

The domestic league and the Copa Libertadores doesn't correlate with each other, so we started off the season with the first knock out stage of the Copa Libertadores. 

We faced Gremio in the first knockout stage and since we won our group stage the first game was away. 2-2 away and a 3-1 win at home saw us through to the quarter finals. Next up was Flamengo and even though the Brazilian teams are better than the Argentinian teams they were struggling in the league and it was obvious in the first game at home that we were the team in form. A 3-0 win gave us a great result for the return leg, a game that ended goalless. 

In the semi final we faced Boca Juniors. A really good team that we often struggle against in the league, especially away. We won the first game at home 1-0, a decent result, but I feared it wasnt enough, they usually beat us with more than one goal in the league when we face them away! The game was intense and very evenly played, but they managed to score the only goal of the game in the 52nd minute and it was straight to penalties at the final whistle. We have only one single player with more than 9 in penalty taking attribute and I feared the worst! We somehow managed to score on all 5 and when Boca missed their last penalty we booked our ticket to the finals! 

Facing River Plate in the final we were underdogs, but they had found themselves in an unusually bad run of form. 4 losses in their previous 8 games is very unusual for a team of their quality. When playing the final we were 16 rounds into the domestic league, with us sitting first and River in 6th place, 8 points behind us. But I still didn't expect us to absolutely smash them 5-0 in the final! A hat trick from our star striker Leonardo Moustafa was the icing on the cake! We scored in the 27th, 53rd, 59th, 62nd and 80th minute and we completely outplayed them. What a way to win it! 

That is the challenge completed as I won the domestic league two seasons ago. I will end the save here and start in a new country (obviously on this challenge). I can really recommend Argentina, I will do the challenge again here on FM22 I think! 

Thanks @darren1983 for making FM 10 times more fun! 

 

Season Summary

          

 

Key Players

          

 

 

Edited December 29, 2020 by thomas_e

[keeper#1]

Congrats, @thomas_e

[danielclouston1]

La Roda CF

Season 1 (2021/2022) Spanish Segunda Division B Grupo 3 - Pre-season Report

Facilities | Transfers | Season Preview | Finances | Board Expectations

Tactic 

We are going to set up with a 442 this season, in the hope of retaining possession and working the ball into the box.

Squad

Here is our squad for this season, it is severely lacking in depth and with one or two injuries and/or suspensions then I may need to use greyed out players at some point within the season.

Pre-season Friendlies

Nothing spectacular here, beat the teams we were expected to and lost to the ones we were expected to.

National C Course

The board have already agreed to send me on a coaching course.

 

I will come back with the youth intake preview when it is time. For now, lets see what we can do!

 

Edited December 29, 2020 by danielclouston1

[dillonbarrett1997]

What leagues do you guys usually load up? Custom database? 

[Sn00gle]

9 hours ago, XaW said:

First world problems, I know, but I have too many good goalkeepers!

The top two are the main ones, and I'm unsure who to use. McGurk 30d has been first choice lately, but now my coaches rate Murray 29e higher. There are also 3 talented ones out on loan and another 16 year old that looks promising.

They are really close, and I'm thinking about seeing if I can sell McGurk 30d since he is valued so much, and then start Murray 29e while the others get some more loans. Here are Collins 31e vs Cook 31b:

Not far off the other two either... A bit lower in the mentals, but they are younger as well. Any thoughts?

I had same in my Polish save that's anoying and not helping at all in this challenge you might only try to loan them in case that they value will go up and try to sell them.  Anyway maybe I'll do last season updated before change to FM21 with my Polish season that I finished yetsterday after some time.

[OlivierL]

6 hours ago, thomas_e said:

Sacachispas FC

Copa Libertadores Update 2030

CHALLENGE COMPLETED

 

A very unexpected, but a truly great win in the Copa Libertadores! A 5-0 win in the final against league rivals River Plate, the team we have struggled the most against in the league!! 

The domestic league and the Copa Libertadores doesn't correlate with each other, so we started off the season with the first knock out stage of the Copa Libertadores. 

We faced Gremio in the first knockout stage and since we won our group stage the first game was away. 2-2 away and a 3-1 win at home saw us through to the quarter finals. Next up was Flamengo and even though the Brazilian teams are better than the Argentinian teams they were struggling in the league and it was obvious in the first game at home that we were the team in form. A 3-0 win gave us a great result for the return leg, a game that ended goalless. 

In the semi final we faced Boca Juniors. A really good team that we often struggle against in the league, especially away. We won the first game at home 1-0, a decent result, but I feared it wasnt enough, they usually beat us with more than one goal in the league when we face them away! The game was intense and very evenly played, but they managed to score the only goal of the game in the 52nd minute and it was straight to penalties at the final whistle. We have only one single player with more than 9 in penalty taking attribute and I feared the worst! We somehow managed to score on all 5 and when Boca missed their last penalty we booked our ticket to the finals! 

Facing River Plate in the final we were underdogs, but they had found themselves in an unusually bad run of form. 4 losses in their previous 8 games is very unusual for a team of their quality. When playing the final we were 16 rounds into the domestic league, with us sitting first and River in 6th place, 8 points behind us. But I still didn't expect us to absolutely smash them 5-0 in the final! A hat trick from our star striker Leonardo Moustafa was the icing on the cake! We scored in the 27th, 53rd, 59th, 62nd and 80th minute and we completely outplayed them. What a way to win it! 

That is the challenge completed as I won the domestic league two seasons ago. I will end the save here and start in a new country (obviously on this challenge). I can really recommend Argentina, I will do the challenge again here on FM22 I think! 

Thanks @darren1983 for making FM 10 times more fun! 

 

Season Summary

          

 

Key Players

          

 

 

Great job ! u did it again  

[JAwtunes]

 

Widzew Lodz (FM20)

Season 2 (2021-22) - Youth Intake

A poor youth intake but there are one of two that may make a mark on the first team.  The top prospect (in terms of PA) is Unambitious and Volatile/Media-friendly, a combo hiding terrible Ambition and average Professionalism.  This, along with 3 Determination, will likely mean he will never make the grade. 

P Klepczarek is probably our best academy intake this year.  With 1 star ability and 2-3 star potential he doesn't look great but with his personality and MH style (which could hide low to very high Ambition and Professionalism, fingers crossed its the latter), along with 11 Determination, I am hopefully he might be able to feature for the first team on day.

 

[XaW]

7 hours ago, thomas_e said:

Sacachispas FC

Copa Libertadores Update 2030

CHALLENGE COMPLETED

 

A very unexpected, but a truly great win in the Copa Libertadores! A 5-0 win in the final against league rivals River Plate, the team we have struggled the most against in the league!! 

The domestic league and the Copa Libertadores doesn't correlate with each other, so we started off the season with the first knock out stage of the Copa Libertadores. 

We faced Gremio in the first knockout stage and since we won our group stage the first game was away. 2-2 away and a 3-1 win at home saw us through to the quarter finals. Next up was Flamengo and even though the Brazilian teams are better than the Argentinian teams they were struggling in the league and it was obvious in the first game at home that we were the team in form. A 3-0 win gave us a great result for the return leg, a game that ended goalless. 

In the semi final we faced Boca Juniors. A really good team that we often struggle against in the league, especially away. We won the first game at home 1-0, a decent result, but I feared it wasnt enough, they usually beat us with more than one goal in the league when we face them away! The game was intense and very evenly played, but they managed to score the only goal of the game in the 52nd minute and it was straight to penalties at the final whistle. We have only one single player with more than 9 in penalty taking attribute and I feared the worst! We somehow managed to score on all 5 and when Boca missed their last penalty we booked our ticket to the finals! 

Facing River Plate in the final we were underdogs, but they had found themselves in an unusually bad run of form. 4 losses in their previous 8 games is very unusual for a team of their quality. When playing the final we were 16 rounds into the domestic league, with us sitting first and River in 6th place, 8 points behind us. But I still didn't expect us to absolutely smash them 5-0 in the final! A hat trick from our star striker Leonardo Moustafa was the icing on the cake! We scored in the 27th, 53rd, 59th, 62nd and 80th minute and we completely outplayed them. What a way to win it! 

That is the challenge completed as I won the domestic league two seasons ago. I will end the save here and start in a new country (obviously on this challenge). I can really recommend Argentina, I will do the challenge again here on FM22 I think! 

Thanks @darren1983 for making FM 10 times more fun! 

 

Season Summary

          

 

Key Players

          

 

 

Great job! 

[Padders]

13 hours ago, XaW said:

First world problems, I know, but I have too many good goalkeepers!

The top two are the main ones, and I'm unsure who to use. McGurk 30d has been first choice lately, but now my coaches rate Murray 29e higher. There are also 3 talented ones out on loan and another 16 year old that looks promising.

They are really close, and I'm thinking about seeing if I can sell McGurk 30d since he is valued so much, and then start Murray 29e while the others get some more loans. Here are Collins 31e vs Cook 31b:

Not far off the other two either... A bit lower in the mentals, but they are younger as well. Any thoughts?

Think there is something wrong with the amount of keepers you get through on intakes. I’ve had the same. Must have had 3-4 Premier League/Championship quality keepers in 20 years while being in non league 

[DazRTaylor]

The new preview is in.  It is ok I guess.

[DazRTaylor]

It is happening again.  I am top of the league, going really well, then lose four on the spin for absolutely no reason.  I just have no answers as to why.

[Padders]

2 minutes ago, DazRTaylor said:

It is happening again.  I am top of the league, going really well, then lose four on the spin for absolutely no reason.  I just have no answers as to why.

Sooooo frustrating isn’t it!

[andershs]

I know this might not be the correct thread for this.

But I have a general question regarding training.

I have set up the training as shown below. Assistant is responsible for general training, and I take care of individual training.

Still I am receiving updates on players that are training for new positions that I do not recall having asked them to train.

Am I missing some setting or is the positional training part of the general training? As I recall it, this was not the case in FM20.

 

 

[JLAB]

A good centre-back and a good striker? A goalkeeper isn't mentioned and neither are any full-backs. Wing-backs are mentioned, so it makes me curious to see what we might get this season after our upgrades facilities.

[shaunvamos]

17 minutes ago, andershs said:

 

Someone's a cycling fan...  

[andershs]

5 minutes ago, shaunvamos said:

Someone's a cycling fan...  

Indeed. Grande Alberto 

I really miss him in todays races 

[shaunvamos]

4 minutes ago, andershs said:

Indeed. Grande Alberto 

I really miss him in todays races 

I haven't really followed cycling the last few years, but the generation he was a part of (and Cadel Evans being Australian) was the reason I started paying attention to the sport. 

[Shankly84]

In the 28th season, we finally make it into the Champions League group stage!

[Shankly84]

1 minute ago, Shankly84 said:

In the 28th season, we finally make it into the Champions League group stage!

Tough group!!

[thomas_e]

@Shankly84, that is an understatement!! 

[DazRTaylor]

Youth Candidates

Season 2027/28

SV Babberich

A similar sort of preview to last season and just like last season, the intake quality is poor.

[DazRTaylor]

I am so demoralised with this save right now.  I have no clue how to turn the club around.  I may park it for the time being and try somewhere else.

[OlivierL]

15 hours ago, XaW said:

  Reveal hidden contents

 

Murray , Collins and mcGurk for me

[XaW]

6 minutes ago, OlivierL said:

Murray , Collins and mcGurk for me

Thanks, I assumed as much! Just going to let McGurk and Murray duel it out for now and loan out Collins for the time being and see if he can challenge any of them in the long run.

[vikeologist]

Vikeologist's 2029/30 Folkestone Season Report

I finally found a tactic that seemed to be working.

With 4 matches to go we moved into a playoff spot.

Then our goalie, Henry Newcombe, picked up a season ending injury (his first significant injury in my 9 year save).

So my regen backup, Jack Solly 1e, was thrust into the line-up after 8 years on the bench. I had played him in the occasional match at the end of seasons when there was nothing to play for, and he’s not terrible, but Newcombe is one of our best 2 players. For all of Smith’s goals, I could have made Newcombe my MVP every year. I just took him for granted. I’m sorry, Henry.

Nonetheless we limped into the playoffs with a match to spare. Our first time in the playoffs after 9 seasons.

 

Playoff First Round

Spoiler

 

Dartford      4-3              Folkestone

It looks as though being the away side, we didn’t get any of the match income, which is a blow.

A last minute winner from Dartford after our left back was issued a straight red. It didn’t help his chances of keeping his place next season. It might be time to take the leap and commit to a regen in his spot.

It might have been very different with our first choice goalie, but it was interesting to see his likely successor in action. I really need to have him work on his distribution.

I’m cautiously optimistic for next season. Hopefully we can at least reach the playoffs from now on.

 

 

Playoff Semi-final (if applicable)

 

Spoiler

 

Playoff Final (if applicable)

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

Top Goalscorer – Ellis Andrews 2c – 39

A new winner after 9 seasons. David Smith had picked up 2 long term injuries last season, and for most of this he didn’t seem to be the same, although I kept faith. In the end, Smith scored a respectable 25 (323 for me in total), but Ellis picked up the slack and had a break-out season.

Highest Average Rating (minimum 10 matches played) – Ellis Andrews 2c – 7.22

Once again, I only had one player above 7.

 

Man of The Match – Ellis Andrews 2c / David Smith – 8

Most Valuable Player– Ellis Andrews 2c

Obviously though, an honourable mention for our injured goalie.

Most Appearances (Regens) – Lachlan Cook 1b – 392

Most Goals (Regens) – Ellis Andrews 2c  - 116

Season	Division		Position	Notes							MVP										
21/22	VNL South		18th		Steered clear of relegaton thanks to good start.	Callum Davies
22/23	VNL South		16th		Only 2 places better, but a lot more points.		Henry Newcombe
23/24	VNL South		18th		Big step backwards in points.				David Smith
24/25	VNL South		15th		Consistently mediocre.					David Smith
25/26	VNL South		14th		Just outside playoffs for most of the season.		David Smith
26/27	VNL South		16th		Otherwise known as the year 1AD (After Discipline)	Ellis Andrews 2c
27/28	VNL South		19th		Narrowly avoided relegation places all season		David Smith
28/29	VNL South		15th		Tried different tactics. Didn't find a magic bean.	David Smith
29/30	VNL South		7th		Lost playoff semifinal, but a great improvement.	Ellis Andrews 2c

 

[ANGL]

11 hours ago, thomas_e said:

Sacachispas FC

Copa Libertadores Update 2030

CHALLENGE COMPLETED

 

A very unexpected, but a truly great win in the Copa Libertadores! A 5-0 win in the final against league rivals River Plate, the team we have struggled the most against in the league!! 

The domestic league and the Copa Libertadores doesn't correlate with each other, so we started off the season with the first knock out stage of the Copa Libertadores. 

We faced Gremio in the first knockout stage and since we won our group stage the first game was away. 2-2 away and a 3-1 win at home saw us through to the quarter finals. Next up was Flamengo and even though the Brazilian teams are better than the Argentinian teams they were struggling in the league and it was obvious in the first game at home that we were the team in form. A 3-0 win gave us a great result for the return leg, a game that ended goalless. 

In the semi final we faced Boca Juniors. A really good team that we often struggle against in the league, especially away. We won the first game at home 1-0, a decent result, but I feared it wasnt enough, they usually beat us with more than one goal in the league when we face them away! The game was intense and very evenly played, but they managed to score the only goal of the game in the 52nd minute and it was straight to penalties at the final whistle. We have only one single player with more than 9 in penalty taking attribute and I feared the worst! We somehow managed to score on all 5 and when Boca missed their last penalty we booked our ticket to the finals! 

Facing River Plate in the final we were underdogs, but they had found themselves in an unusually bad run of form. 4 losses in their previous 8 games is very unusual for a team of their quality. When playing the final we were 16 rounds into the domestic league, with us sitting first and River in 6th place, 8 points behind us. But I still didn't expect us to absolutely smash them 5-0 in the final! A hat trick from our star striker Leonardo Moustafa was the icing on the cake! We scored in the 27th, 53rd, 59th, 62nd and 80th minute and we completely outplayed them. What a way to win it! 

That is the challenge completed as I won the domestic league two seasons ago. I will end the save here and start in a new country (obviously on this challenge). I can really recommend Argentina, I will do the challenge again here on FM22 I think! 

Thanks @darren1983 for making FM 10 times more fun! 

 

Season Summary

          

 

Key Players

          

 

 

Congratulations!

[Sanno11]

Nuneaton Borough Season Review 2029/2030

Vanarama National League - 19th position - League table

FA Cup - lost in 4th qualifying round

FA Trophy - lost in 5th round (0-2 Flyde)

This season was a bit of an ordeal,  but ultimately we survived. Going in, it definitely felt like we were not ready and nothing I did would over the summer would bridge the gap in quality. In the opening few weeks, we were able to pick up wins at home, this was enough to account for our poor away form and keep us out of the relegation places. When the home form faltered, things got bleak. I felt confident in survival after 36 games, we had a 10 point cushion. However, we did our best to throw this away. Eastleigh and Bath found form when we lost ours and it was only a 4-3 home victory against Gateshead that secured our safety. It feels like we are out of depth and we'll do well to just survive for a couple of years until our playing squad grows in quality.

 

Playing squad

A very tough year for the players. I would say only three players stood out, Our goalkeeper Robbie Thompson, Midfielder Spencer Molyneux and Striker Richie Ransome. When it made sense I gave the most talented of the recent youth intakes playing time, hoping that this pays off in the long run. We are still painfully weak in defence, with no real options coming through. I am still using the same two centre backs from the original squad. 

 

Youth Intake

No sign of any great defensive talents here, but perhaps a couple of players that could make the grade eventually

Steveroy Richards (30a)

Tyrell Acton (30b)

Benn Astley (30c)

 

Finances, Facilities and Transfers

No upgrades at all this year, everything remains steady. Still no interest in any of our players.

[vikeologist]

Never have I ever... 

Lost a player because he wouldn't sign a new contract.

Had a prospective regen poached

Had an offer made for a player that the board accepted over my head

Had a loan offer for a player

Had any kind of sell-on clause offered to me for a player.

Had a regen with more than 1.5 PA at arrival.

 

There's a lot of positives to being a club with rubbish facilities.

 

There's a few almosts as well.

1 application for an U18 coaching job.

1 player sold for a transfer fee. (£275). 

 

Reasons I've offered new contracts to regens

They're really good

They might be really good in the future.

They're not terrible.

They might not be terrible in the future.

They're always going to be terrible, but they're the best central defender / left winger I have.

They have a Resolute Personality

They have a Professional personality.

I honestly don't know how that guy got a new contract. None of the above apply. Why is he even here?

 

 

Edited December 29, 2020 by vikeologist

[Flashman\'s School Days]

Wuhan Three Towns - Season 2025 Review

Manager Attributes - Characteristics

Transfers - Fixtures 1 - Fixtures 2

China Super League

 

Spoiler

A 12th placed finish, bettering our 14th placed finish from last season but with 5 less points.  The season started well with only one defeat in our first five games and Xu Chen 21b scored 10 in the first seven.  That is where the patch came in though which started us on a bad run of only 2 goals in the next nine games, it seemed like the chances we were scoring pre patch were no longer going in regularly and we were also getting less of the chances too.  I think the reason for this is we got a lot of chances by putting balls over the defence.  I tried to change tactics to a 4-2-3-1 near the end of this run and we were 5-0 down against Shanghai in the first half so I had to change again to a 4-4-2 which did us well for the next few games, managing to pick up a couple of wins and a draw.  Unfortunately we then got an absolute spanking against Hebei who beat us 7-0 despite having 8 shots on target and and xG of 0.98 compared to us having 9 on target and an xG of 1.11, sometimes I find there is nothing you can do except let it happen.  We then saw out the season with two wins from the last eleven, coming against Changchun and Guizhou but we competed quite well in the last seven just being undone by a teams with vastly superior players to us.

In the cup we managed to scrape a 0-0 against a team two leagues below and beat them on penalties before being knocked out by Hebei.  Not too disappointed as the prize money for every round except the final is less than my striker's goal bonus.

Squad

 

Spoiler

Before the season started we lost Guo Yucheng 21c to Zhejiang for £1.9M rising to £3M.  He was unhappy and wanted to go on the transfer list because I promised him a new contract which broke down twice but then on third time we managed to come to an agreement but it didn't take him off the requested transfer list and the board accepted the bid above my head.  It was disappointing because he had a become a good first team regular last season and he made a grand total of 0 appearances and is now wanted by other teams and the board didn't negotiate a sell on clause.  Talking of sell on clauses, the player the board sold in the second season for £2M, Feng Shaobo 21a, was sold by DL Pro to Guangzhou R&F for £10M rising to £14.5M but of course they hadn't agreed a sell on clause, he's also now made 2 appearances for the China senior squad. 

For the fourth season running Yusup-Ali won the league goalkeeper of the year and made the starting line up for the league team of the year, he also won his first fan's player of the season.  Xu Chen 21b was again runner up in the top scorer for the league but also won the local top scorer award, he missed some time in the middle of the season with injury and we really noticed his absence which doesn't bode well because he now wants to leave for a bigger club.  Zhang Liang 22g came in as a first team regular and did well alongside Wei Mingfei 22d who also now wants to leave for a bigger club.

After reading the great discussion here a few weeks ago about fining players for poor performances, I was able to do A LOT of fining meaning that the determination and work rate has rocketed up.  Ma Jian'gang 22f lost 10 determination in one go due to off field events but due to fines its gone back up 4 points since then.

I mentioned last season that my full backs were hardly ever playing well but post patch it seemed to get even worse and I'll lose the left back because he wants more money than I can offer him, this isn't that much of a problem because the best player in the intake was a left back.

Youth Intake

 

Spoiler

Another "Golden Generation" but not the greatest in terms of potential rating, the two left backs that have come through are in my mind already the best two left backs at the club. Here's a few of the better players from previous intakes not already mentioned and the three best from this year's intake.

Guo Qi 22h - Liu Weihao 23i - Qiu Pengcheng 23g

Zhang Zhibo 25a - Zhang Zhou 25b - Li Han 25c

Finances

This is the first season where we've spent the entire year not in debt but this is because we sold Guo Yucheng at the beginning of the season, it carried us through despite losing a load every month.  Unfortunately because we are losing so much each month our projection is woeful viewing and this has meant we have always been considered insecure financially, not even a sniff of a coaching course for me let alone a facility upgrade.  We had 4 more season ticket holders this year which means we still have less than 800 and we are about to move into our brand new 30k capacity stadium.  The only positive I can see from having this stadium is that we will double our sponsorship money with the stadium sponsorship.  We are still bottom of the sponsorship table with £425k and the next lowest is £4.6M and there are 12 teams in the league below with more than us.

Next Season

The plan is just to keep grinding and hope for the best because at the moment I don't see any light at the end of the tunnel, bringing in no money and even when we sell a player for a few million it doesn't even allow me to take a coaching badge; I'm not sure where the progression is.

[thomas_e]

Having a difficult time finding a new team! The teams promoted to the 2nd tier in South Africa had a bug that the facility page didn't show, it was just blank. This didn't happen to every team, but all the interesting ones. 

And after holidaying for two seasons I now realise that there are no relegation in the 2nd tier in South Korea 

[v1n1akabozo]

@XaW 

I've been mostly lurking for the past 5 years and there are a lot of gems of knowledge spread across the pages like when you guys discussed how you evaluate players, the personality handling guide, etc. Wouldn't be nice if someone glued them all in a pastebin to be edited into the first post?

Also, if that's not asking too much, could you post again the link to the personality guide i mentioned before? I think i'll do that pastebin myself later this week.