The FM21 Youth Academy Challenge

[Fadedaf]

Starting again with Inverurie Locos from Scotland! hopefully this time goes better!

[Fadedaf]

sacked again! my tactics are apparently hopeless in the first season of this challenge

[vikeologist]

Vikeologist's 31st Folkestone Intake Report and 27th Intake Review 

The intake doesn’t look great, and it certainly could have been better, but the top prospect has a media description of ‘promising’, which hasn’t happened much. The ‘b’ prospect is a goalkeeper, which is useful because it’s been a few years since we’ve had a good goalie come through.

There could be a few decent players here, but always, I don’t need decent.

Brett Evans 31a – His low determination shouldn’t be a problem in itself, but honestly I don’t think any aspect of his personality is great.

One of the problems with having a ‘Driven’ squad is that I don’t really know how professional they are, because the determination drowns all other aspects of personality out. I think that my most professional players have now started to decline and left the club.

Maybe it’s not a problem. I have 7 Resolute players and 5 Professionals in my first team squad, but mentoring in the U23 and U18 squads is a faeces show. I miss the players I kept at the club on pay for play (where they never played) contracts for 15 years just because of their personality. Basically full-time volunteer mentors.

Abdulrahman Zayed 31b – Despite his name, this goalie is Irish, but Libyan second nationality. This is relevant because the last thing I need is for all my goalies to bugger off to the ACON at the same time. My current starer is a New Zealander, so even if he loses his place at some point, I need to hold on to him.

--------------

 

So, 4 years ago, this was the entirety of what I wrote about the intake.

Quote

 

When I saw the intake, I wanted to quit the challenge. It’s not so much that it’s bad, but that with vastly improved facilities, I’ve now had 3 bad intakes in a row.

Since ratings are based on a comparison to the quality of your squad, I’m not sure if intakes really do go in cycles, or it just seems that way, but this is a crushing blow.

I can’t even. Really I can’t.

 

So, was my despair justified? Let’s find out in my YP27 Review.

Jack Robinson 27a -  He’s been in 15 matches, but only 1 this season. He’s not terrible. He’s my 3^rd string left back, and of either of the top 2 are out, I usually stick someone different on the sub’s bench. Maybe I need to send him on loan.

Abdul Gueï 27b – Also in the first team squad, but has never played a minute for us. Just narrowly outside getting chances in the first team as either a central defender or a central midfielder (which he’s equally adept at) because there’s other players my coaches think are just a little bit more promising. I need to find a way to give him a chance.

Mike Close 27c – A decent centre back, but not going to become good enough for us. Transfer listed and will leave at the end of the season if I can’t persuade someone to take us off our hands earlier. I’d like to rid ourselves of his light-hearted personality.

Daniel McMahon 27d – Lower ability, higher potential than Close. He’s not going to get any chances with us. Freshly transfer-listed.

Dan Jones 27e  - So here’s why you can never wrote off an entire intake. My striker who emerged last season with 26 goals in 32 matches and won the European Golden Boy for 2051. As might be expected, he’s finding it tough in the Premier League, but has developed well. Safe to say he’s light years above anybody else from this intake. He came in with a Fairly Pro personality, and only 5 determination, but obviously that wasn’t a problem after a few fines. As other people continually point out, there’s a very obvious correlation between personality and development. (He’s Resolute now). He was starting to get itchy feet so I’ve offered him a new contract.

Edited June 18, 2021 by vikeologist

[LazyBandit]

I've been reading and enjoying these challenges for a few years now but hadn't decided to give it a go until now. I've decided to go with FC Locarno in Switzerland.

FC Locarno Season 1 Review (2021/22)

 

Table

We start our save in the Swiss Second League Interregio Group 4; the 5th tier of Swiss football. After a rough preseason in which we didn't win a game I struggled to come up with a formation that I though would suit us well. However I eventually settled on a 4-4-1-1 and it seemed to work pretty well. So well in fact that we managed to win the whole league in our first season, which I was definitely not expecting. It was lucky that we had no major injuries as well. We started out the save with a whopping 16 players available, however one eventually requested to be released and two more signing with other teams, leaving us with only 13 players available for about 6 months. Needless to say the intake couldn't get here fast enough.

Youth Intake Preview

I was very excited to see this because we needed players, and we needed them yesterday. I'll take it.

Youth Intake

Several players good enough for the first team already, multiple positions of need being filled, and a wide variety of nationalities. I would've liked to have seen some better personalities, but overall I'm very happy with this intake.

Luan Mustafa - Boris Javet - Hamza Allagui

Squad

We have a more complete squad now that we've had our intake, so I expect to be able to breather a little bit easier next season. While we're on the subject of squads, something I found interesting is that we don't have our own U18's or U23's, however we do share an U18 affiliate with FC Lugano.

Transfers

Progress

Our biggest concern going forward in this save is the finances. We are currently spending more money then we earn, and I'm concerned it will only get worse. In fact when I signed a new contract with the club, one of the requirements is that we repair the club's financial damage, starting at the end of the 23/24 season. But that's a problem for future me. All in all a fantastic season for us, I was not at all expecting promotion in our first attempt. However there is a part of me that wonders if we were promoted too early. I expect next season to provide us more of a challenge, but we're up for it.

Edited June 18, 2021 by LazyBandit

[Crayam99x]

Been involved in this challenge a tad bit before and can't wait to get started again. Already have some seasons done and might post here soon.

Took me a couple weeks to read this whole thread from page 1 to 136 but I'm back up to scratch 

[Crayam99x]

We are Yunior City. Belarus. Tier 9.

Game setup --- Tier 9 reputation --- 2020 season last placed finish --- Squad

Edited June 18, 2021 by Crayam99x

[Fadedaf]

 

Third times the charm, here I go with East Kilbride! 

[dkouv]

Cultural Durango – Season 2 (2022/23)

Segunda Division B Grupo II Damn, that was one tough season. We lost three of our four best players on a free over the summer, but somehow our great spring form still had me expecting at least a top half finish. True to that, we started great and went as high as 3rd in October. But then we went on a terrible run which saw 5 defeats and 2 draws in 7, and soon were all the way down in the relegation zone.

The rest of the season was spent bobbling about just above the relegation places, until we faced fellow strugglers Haro and Terrassa in two of the final games which would decide our season. The Haro game was pretty mad, we went a goal down, equalised, had a man sent off all inside 12 minutes, but luckily they also went down to 10 and it stayed 1-1 keeping us above relegation, spots and we managed to smash Terrassa 4-0 in one of the few great performances of the season to keep our place in the division.

  

Players: It kind of says it all when your best player is a 17 year old goalkeeper, but Lander Goikoetxea stepped up to fill the space of the departing Errasti, and is already so good that he wants to leave for a bigger club. Center back Roberto Azkargorta was the only player to average above 7, and the rest were all pretty rubbish. A couple of the youngsters are developing well (neither the a or b prospects, funnily enough), but the rest are stagnating, and I'm really short of left backs and defensive mids.

 

Youth intake: A good one by the looks of it, and we finally got some strikers, one of whom is a non-Basque from the Ivory Coast! Syndou Diomande 02a goes straight into the first team, and Urko Gomez 02b is not far off either.

  

Facilities/Finances: We are more than 100k in the red, and wage budgets are getting ever tighter, no talk of any upgrades or coaching courses either of course.

Transfers: none

I’m thinking of restarting this save because I realised that adding the players from European teams in the CL has made the database have too many players, which means that all of our best players who left us last summer ended up retiring because nobody wanted to sign them…

Anyone has any tips for the kind of set up they are running to keep the transfer market realistic? Medium database with no extra additions + no other countries loaded, or 1 extra country?

Season    |  League            | Pos. |     Europe     |     Notes
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2021/22   | Segunda B Grupo II |  9   |     n/a        |  
2022/23   | Segunda B Grupo II |  14   |     n/a        |  


Facilities
----------
Season    |  Coaching     |  Recruitment      | Training Fac.  | Youth Fac.    |  Stadium
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2021/22   |  Excellent    |  Fairly basic     | Adequate       |  Adequate     |  3000
2022/23   |  Excellent    |  Fairly basic     | Adequate       |  Adequate     |  3000

 

[XaW]

    

Lusitânia Açores - Season 2025/26 (Season 5) Review

Table | Squad | Transfers | Finances

This season was simply excellent. We have settled in a 4-1-4-1 version that seems to work rather nicely and the biggest issue I've had with it so far is that it struggles against the most defensive sides. So there is still something to work on. As the season went on it was clear we were in a 3 way fight for the top spot. Marítimo B and Moura were the other two teams who wanted to win the group. The battle was tough, but in the end we manage to hold on to that first place spot to go into the playoff for promotion. As it turned out, all 3 of us qualified due to the high amount of points, so I would have gotten into the playoff even if the other caught us.

In the playoff, we first beat Condeixa, who had won Group C, then we faced Merelinense. They had just narrowly dispatches our old enemies Moura after finishing 2nd behind Berço in the Group A. So it seems that Group A and our group (E) are the best ones. We beat Merelinense and thus clinched the promotion! In the other semi final Marítimo B beat Berço to face us in the final even though we both are already promoted. We crushed them 3-0 to claim the trophy and we can go into the new Terceira Liga next season.

In the Taça de Portugal we lost to Praiense in the 1st round.

Youth

Well, this was quite poor. I had expected more, so this was rather disappointing.

Xavier Gorgita 26c is the best of the rather poor bunch.

Statistics:

Spoiler

Added Angola and Nigeria this time around.

Trophy cabinet:

Campeonato Nacional - 2025/26

[vikeologist]

Vikeologist's 2051/52 Folkestone Season Report

Relegated straight back down in our first season in the Premier League.

For the first half it looked as though we might survive, but it’s the nature of the game that about halfway through the odds are recalculated, and for teams like us, that’s always a problem. We won just one match in the second half of the season.

Even though we weren’t down until the penultimate match, I’d basically resigned myself to relegation much earlier. However the other teams remained tortuously catchable.

I’m not sure that relegation is a total disaster. I suppose it depends whether we manage to come straight back up.

Some of my players developed well this season, but some were a real disappointment, both in performance and development. However we have more money and better facilities. The question is the extent to which I should stick with the players who underperformed in the top division.

Top Goalscorer – Dave Jackson 21b – 19

Given that we finished bottom of the table, this wasn’t a bad tally. We have a few very promising strikers, but Jackson remains the best.

Highest Average Rating (minimum 10 matches played) – Chris McPeake 25c – 6.96

I’ve done a fair few of these season reports over the years, and I don’t think I’ve ever had a season where none of my players averaged over 7. McPeake is my goalie. He is narrowly my best goalie according to my coaches, but Mohamed Sesay 26c is supposed to have more potential. There’s a good chance I switch to Sesay next season.

Man of The Match – Chris McPeake 25c / Dave Jackson 21b - 3

Most Valuable Player– Dave Jackson 21b

In a way, perhaps our most valuable player is my right winger James Jennings 21g who was injured for a long time, returned and immediately picked up another serious injury. He only played 6 matches. Without his injury we’d have done a lot better. We have a super promising right winger, 16 year old Harry Richards 30c, but his current ability is still very low.

 

Most Appearances (Regens) – Jason ‘Nepotism’ Ramsay 1a – 719

Nobody current anywhere near.

Most Goals (Regens) – Michael Morgan 9a – 463

Ditto.

Barry Ramsay 29k (Son) Update

Supposedly now at Vanarama National level, but no club has ever expressed an interest in him. No longer the worst player at the club, although my noticing that one of my players is even worse than my son is a guaranteed way to be sold or released. Goodbye, Daniel Nicholson 28e.

My 27e became the European Golden Boy. 28e probably won’t.

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
30/31	VNL South		12th		Second half slump into mid-table disappointment		David Smith
31/32	VNL South		7th		Lost in S/F of playoff					Ellis Andrews 2c
32/33	VNL South		9th		Didn't threaten playoffs				Ellis Drake 10a
33/34	VNL South		2nd		Lost last 2 matches of season and 1st playoff game.	Michael Morgan 9a
34/35	VNL South		4th		Knocked out Playoffs 1st round on penalties		Michael Morgan 9a
35/36	VNL South		6th		Knocked out in Playoff semifinal			Michael Morgan 9a
36/37	VNL South		5th		Knocked out in Playoff semifinal			Giorgos Kragiopoulos 11a
37/38	VNL South		1st		Won the league by a mile. 17th time lucky.		Michael Morgan 9a 
38/39	VNL National		1st		Back to back comfortable promotions			Jack Collett 13a 
39/40	League 2		2nd		Won last 5 matches securing automatic promotion.	Jack Collett 13a 
40/41	League 1		11th		Pushing for promotion most of the season		Jack Collett 13a 
41/42	League 1		5th		Lost in playoffs semifinal				Michael Morgan 9a 
42/43	League 1		8th		Losing streak, winning streak and then injuries		Kevin Spencer 17d
43/44	League 1		7th		One place outside playoffs.				Kevin Spencer 17d
44/45	League 1		12th		Outside playoffs all season. New stadium.		Pete Larkin 18d
45/46	League 1		2nd		Promoted last day of the season. 			Dave Jackson 21b 
46/47	Championship		20th		Plummetted near to relegation zone			Dave Jackson 21b 
47/48	Championship		15th		Terrible start but mid table safety after that.		Steven 'Shamrock' Larkin 21d 
48/49	Championship		14th		Good start but dropped away from playoffs.		Liam Carter 25d 
49/50	Championship		15th		Boring & disappointing season				Dave Jackson 21b 
50/51	Championship		4th		Promoted through playoffs.				Ross Gethins 22c
51/52	Premier League		20th		Won once in 2nd half of season and relegated.		Dave Jackson 21b

 

[The_Gato_In_Goal]

On 22/05/2021 at 12:09, The_Gato_In_Goal said:

Cashed out on this clause to put us in the black for the first time in this save. Unfortunately, we will be in the red again in a month and the board refused to improve anything. As long as the player does not sell for more than 3.5 million (currently valued at 300k at age 20, has started a few matches in the Spanish top flight) in the future, activating the clause now was a good decision.

Unfortunately, I ran into a bug where the player histories disappeared. I decided to reload back to a point where I still had the histories and play through again (only had about 4-5 months to make up). This time through, Abel Limón (24c) did not get as much playing time at Vallecano in the top tier and I did not have an option to cash in on any clauses. So, our finances are back to being insecure.

[The_Gato_In_Goal]

Marchamalo - Youth Intake - April 2029

Just a few high potential players at the top this year, although good personalities on the majority of those with higher potential. Getting a couple players at ST (C) will help; as of now, our attack relies heavily on Carlos Alberto (24a).

Spoiler

Spoiler

Rafael Calderón (29a) is tall, quick, and can dribble. With a Fairly Professional personality as well, I will try to give him playing time next season to boost his development.

Spoiler

Josué Guerreros (29c) looks the most first-team-ready out of all the prospects. Not sure if I will retrain him as a Mezzala or keep him playing AF (A). A Fairly Ambitious personality will hopefully come with serviceable professionalism.

Spoiler

Fran Uranga (29d) may have a tough time breaking into the first team as Charles Adebombo (28e) came through last intake and is our starting GK.

Spoiler

Lahcen Ahannach (29e) is a bit raw currently, but 18 bravery and 14 jumping reach means he has a potential spot at D (C) in the future. A Fairly Professional personality should help him reach first-team level.

Spoiler

Julien Gaillard (29h) is in a very similar position to Ahannach (29e), but his Professional personality may see him outpace the Moroccan.

[libbyshuss]

Season 15 - 2036

FC Mirassol - Brazil

Serie A - 5th

Season Summary

After the step forward last season this felt like two steps back in the end.

State Championship - Winners! It all started so promisingly. We won our first ever state championship! it's a pointless thing to win but being able to beat the likes of Sao Paulo, Santos and Palmeiras on the way to the title really got me excited for the forthcoming league season

Serie A - We started well enough but two silly defeats in our opening 9 games meant we were three points off the top. If we could stop the silly defeats we would have a great chance. However, we just got inot a pattern of following a great result with a really stupid one. Winning away 5-2 against the top of the table side followed by a 3-0 defeat away at the team in 18th, things like that. it was really frustrating and in the end we were clinging on to the qualification spots for the Libertadores. A good finish definitely helped but doesn't hide a disappointing league season.

Copa Libertadores - Another disappointment, We breezed through qaulification to be drawn against America of Brazil, a mid-table side who were struggling in the league. We were at home in the first leg and drew 2-2, despite being the stronger team. In the away leg we absolutely battered them and somehow lost 3-1. So we were out in the 2nd round in really disappointing circumstances againsy a much inferior side

 

Players

Zaguinho 24A - he's 28 now but still resisting all attempts to replace him with someone younger. A really impressive season from left wing. Only managed 35 games because of injury but 20 gaols and 8 assists isn't too shabby.

Everyone else was a bit rubbish, especially Bae Hung-Swa up front. I've really struggled for a goalscoring striker since Rafael Silva hit 50 in 2025

Jeferson 26A - i lost this right back ages ago when his domestic release clause was triggered. Ah well, nevermind i thought. Look where he is now!

 

Youth

So, not the greatest youth preview ever but some encouraging green text

 

The intake was.... interesting. I'll only sign 3 of them, 4 at most, but Vinicius looks interesting

 

 

Career Progression

 

 

[JLAB]

Atlético CP – Season 3 – 2023/24 Youth Candidates

So my first intake as a Terceira Liga team and I like to think it was a good one to say the least. Plenty of talent who could either play now or in the future for the team.

Going from top to bottom, we have Fernando Sousa, who my backroom staff adore for his potential. If he becomes anywhere close to being as good as his potential implies, we have a really exciting talent on our hands, even if he is temperamental.

Zequinha is our first Brazilian striker to arrive and he immediately becomes our 3rd best out and out striker in the team. Elvis is more of an AMC or CM for me, so Zequinha is an exciting project to work on, even if I am now playing with DLFs these days.

Paulo Vidal being an CM who can play as a DM and an AMC is really useful for me. He gives me plenty of options going forward. His potential does just as much for me too.

Rodrigo Franco is an AMC who I see more as a striker, for he is one of two strikers that was promised to me. How I end up using him remains to be seen.

Paulo Ventura I will train to be a Right Winger further up the field for the versatility going forward. I need that extra depth.

Speaking of that depth, Paulo Semedo provides me with that extra depth, as he can play as an inverted winger in a role that I sometimes will switch between inverted wingers and normal wingers. It's a nice option to have.

Feliple Eugénio is a nice option to have and someone that my backroom staff believes can be made into an AMC. I can see why, but I'm not using AMCs right now, but will be option to the option in the future.

Luís Rodrigues is a winger who provides me with an extra option going forward. An inverted winger who can play up and down the line is a rather nice option to have.

That being said though, it's not as nice as Noberto who is natural in both roles and is also a normal winger. Someone I will aim to use going forward.

[Crayam99x]

We are Yunior City. 2021. Youth Intake.

We got 2 upgrades to Youth Coaching and we got our first youth intake. Although we don't have any staff and I'm bad at reading attributes, resulting in the most pacy players from this intake going into the first XI. For the first time ever I'm not having to use about 8 greyed out first teamers every match. Let's see how we fare in our first season in Tier 9 of Belarus.

Upgrade I --- Upgrade II

[Diego D10S]

                                                                                        Season 2024 / 2025

                                                                                 1st in Serie C / C - Promotion

                                                                                  Serie C Super Cup Winner

 

Perfect timing for promotion. I think the players are ready.

Got alot of good talents so far and they are just bad enough to not attract interest from bigger clubs.

Finances have been very bad from the start and still are. Hopefully Serie B will bring some income too.

Nothing special in the youth intake but some good talent that will be useful.

 

 

GL ALL !!!  

[LazyBandit]

FC Locarno Season 2 (2022-23)

 

Table

Because we had just been promoted I thought this season would be more of a challenge for us but it actually went pretty well. We were only a few points off the top two spots most of the season, however with about 5 games to go the whole team seemed to forget how to score. I kept the same formation I used the previous season and it worked well, with us conceding the least amount of goals. Finishing 4th when the expectation was simply to avoid relegation is a success to me. With us now in the 4th tier, we were able to play in the Swiss Cup for the first time.

Swiss Cup

We made our first appearance in this save in the Swiss Cup and were drawn against Luzern, who are 3 divisions above us, in the first round. It went about as well as I could expect it to. We lost but we also made decent money off this one match, so I can't be too mad about it. Hopefully next year we have a bit of a deeper run to help out with the finances.

Youth Intake Preview

Plenty to be excited about with this intake.

Youth Intake

Another solid intake this year. Loads of potential, various nationalities, better overall personalities, and the best players are from Liechtenstein. What's not to love?

Marcel Corti - Daniel Schultz - Vincenzo Doldur

Squad

Now that we two intakes worth of players I can start getting rid of some of the players that were here when I arrived. I've also been trying to get the owner to fund our own U18's team so we don't need to share one with FC Lugano. But also some I can trim down the size of the first team squad. So far though no luck.

Transfers

We had plenty of teams bid on some of our players this year, however none bid any actual money. So no movement out this year.

Progress

Unfortunately we weren't able to get promoted this year, but I'm hoping we can do it soon. The finances this year didn't drastically get worse, but they certainly didn't get any better. And this division not having any prize money does not help. I've also tried to get the owner to improve any of our facilities, but he's not interested in it. So for the next while we're just stuck at adequate.

[XaW]

     

Lusitânia Açores - Season 2026/27 (Season 6) Review

Table | Squad | Transfers | Finances

Well, this is a change of a season! Going from a 22 game season to a 46 game season is quite something! We actually handle ourselves quite well, and we were rarely crushed, but the quality is a bit better overall. Still, the major issue this season was fitness due to the increase in games. So I had to rotate quite a bit, and to be honest, the backups are not quite fit for this level. So as soon as I had to fit in a few of the backups, we struggled badly against most other teams. When we could start the first 11 though, we were a match for anyone. So a mid-table finish in our first season here is more than acceptable and I think it's something we can build upon.

The main issue for the team is clearly the financial side. We are losing a lot of money even if I'm under the wage budget, and the board do pump in some money here and there. The attendances are improving slowly, and the commercial side is growing, and I try to keep the costs low, but we still lose a lot. The drain is "Other" and "Non-footballing costs", so don't think it's something I can do much about. The annoying part of it, is that I'd love to improve the youth coaching a bit, and I'm not able to ask for anything (I'm still on NO BADGE!). No clue how I can turn it, so we'll solider on.

In the Taça de Portugal we got a bye in the first round and then lost to Real in the 2nd round.

Youth

Argh, the intakes are not good currently!

Kevin Fialho 27a is the one light in a very dark intake. I got a lot of wingers though, so I'm thinking about making him into a striker...

Statistics:

Spoiler

Spain and Switzerland added to the list this season.

Records broken;

Most goals in a season: Maxime Riviere 22f - 19
Most league goals in a season: Maxime Riviere 22f - 19
Most clean sheets in a season: Kevin Clemente 22m - 10
Worst discipline: Victor Molinier 22h - 11 yellow, 3 red
Most league goals overall: Maxime Riviere 22f - 47
Fastest goal: Matheus Henrique 25a - 22 seconds

Trophy cabinet:

Campeonato Nacional - 2025/26

[JLAB]

Nothing truly prepares you for that huge jump in games between the two divisions. From having to arrange friendlies to maintain match sharpness to then having so many games that you need to rotate, it's a huge culture shock when it hits you in the face @XaW

[XaW]

7 minutes ago, JLAB said:

Nothing truly prepares you for that huge jump in games between the two divisions. From having to arrange friendlies to maintain match sharpness to then having so many games that you need to rotate, it's a huge culture shock when it hits you in the face @XaW

Yeah, it was quite the change! I think I had two games a month from January on the last season, and this time I had 8 games in January alone! A bit of a shock, but games are fun!  I do need some better intakes soon to get in some better backups, that's the main issue with the squad this season, the drop off is too big!

[JLAB]

19 minutes ago, XaW said:

Yeah, it was quite the change! I think I had two games a month from January on the last season, and this time I had 8 games in January alone! A bit of a shock, but games are fun!  I do need some better intakes soon to get in some better backups, that's the main issue with the squad this season, the drop off is too big!

Are you predicted to be bottom of the table too?

[XaW]

Just now, JLAB said:

Are you predicted to be bottom of the table too?

Yeah, just rolled over to the new one, I'm 451.00, the second lowest is 151.00...

[JLAB]

3 hours ago, XaW said:

Yeah, just rolled over to the new one, I'm 451.00, the second lowest is 151.00...

I'm lucky enough to just be 250-1 this season, the next lowest is also 150-1.

[darren1983]

First season in the Premier League is proving to be a real battle, I've played about 10 matches over 20 hours this weekend mainly because I'm putting so much effort into the tactics to try and deal with the fact we're so far above our weight right now. Think I have maybe 4 players of Premier League quality in my squad  

[darren1983]

29 minutes ago, darren1983 said:

First season in the Premier League is proving to be a real battle, I've played about 10 matches over 20 hours this weekend mainly because I'm putting so much effort into the tactics to try and deal with the fact we're so far above our weight right now. Think I have maybe 4 players of Premier League quality in my squad  

I mean come on  

[Proffa]

1 hour ago, darren1983 said:

First season in the Premier League is proving to be a real battle, I've played about 10 matches over 20 hours this weekend mainly because I'm putting so much effort into the tactics to try and deal with the fact we're so far above our weight right now. Think I have maybe 4 players of Premier League quality in my squad  

Hmmm, I noticed from your screenshot earlier that Everton had been relegated. In my game (10 seasons) they are very good. Their last positions are (1st, 3rd, 3rd). Out of 8 PL games, I've won them once.

[darren1983]

12 minutes ago, Proffa said:

Hmmm, I noticed from your screenshot earlier that Everton had been relegated. In my game (10 seasons) they are very good. Their last positions are (1st, 3rd, 3rd). Out of 8 PL games, I've won them once.

Yeah they've been up and down this past 10 years (am in 2039 right now) relegated twice and a 2 top 8 finishes. Currently top of the Championship but quite a margin so I expect them to be back soon. 

[vikeologist]

2 hours ago, darren1983 said:

First season in the Premier League is proving to be a real battle, I've played about 10 matches over 20 hours this weekend mainly because I'm putting so much effort into the tactics to try and deal with the fact we're so far above our weight right now. Think I have maybe 4 players of Premier League quality in my squad  

You have Premier League quality players! Boy, you're at a considerable advantage over my sole doomed campaign.

My 3 best players are 'Good players for most Championship sides'.

[darren1983]

1 hour ago, vikeologist said:

You have Premier League quality players! Boy, you're at a considerable advantage over my sole doomed campaign.

My 3 best players are 'Good players for most Championship sides'.

Yeah must have seemed like "first world problems"  

[Winski]

I will do an season update later, when the season is finished. But I wanted to share this: we qualified for the Group Stage of the Conference League! Totally unexpected, because I never thought we could win against Osijek and/or Elfsborg. But somehow we managed to win against them!

 

And the money we earned is VERY welcome, because for most of my time at this club we didn't have any money. We were always in the red numbers. So for the first time in years, we are are in 'black' again!
I directly invested the money ofcourse...

I'm very happy with this!

 

[XaW]

      

Lusitânia Açores - Season 2027/28 (Season 7) Review

Table | Squad | Transfers | Finances

First and foremost, we survived, still the most important thing for us. However, we took a fair step backwards in placement and points compared to last season. I don't really know exactly why, other than that we for some reason conceded a hell of a lot more goals this season around. I don't really why this happened, as we have mostly the same players and they are now a year older, and hopefully better, and I'm running more or less the same tactic. I guess it could be the curse of the 2nd season, but my main issue is to tighten up the defence and don't allow so many goals in the future. Still a bit of a slog going through all these matches, and we struggle quite a lot with fitness and injuries, so that is also a factor in why we have issues.

The finances keep pulling deeper into the red, and I'm trying to do whatever I can to bring in money, but the board refuses to get a senior affiliate because who wants money when we are in debt, huh?

In the Taça de Portugal we got a bye in the first round and then lost to Desportivo das Aves in the 2nd round with a team with a lot of youngsters since I tried to rotate a bit. Not doing that again, because the cup is one place I might get some more money from.

Youth

Slightly better than the last few, but still not a very good intake.

A true striker is apparently rare at this level, so João Serpa 28a is a much welcome sight.

Statistics:

Spoiler

South Africa and Ukraine got added this year.

Records broken;

Worst discipline: Victor Molinier 22h - 23 yellow, 1 red
Most league goals overall: Maxime Riviere 22f - 63

Trophy cabinet:

Campeonato Nacional - 2025/26

[JLAB]

ACN Siena 1904 - 2043/44 Youth Intake

Our latest youth intake with Siena was an interesting one, but while it was good in some areas, it was also disappointing in other areas too.

Marco Mattera is an interesting talent, but comes into a position as a striker and winger where we have multiple talent already there and needing game time. He's talented, but it's not idea either.

I've been needing a new CB with great potential and having a young Brazilian in Vander Lúcio who could play in that well, and as a RB and a DM too is very useful indeed.

We have another LW who can play as an AMC which is nice. Unfortunately, despite his potential, I can see him struggling to make it to the first team any time soon.

Being a fullback in this side is very unfortunate at the moment, with Margiotta and Deluigi being under the age of 20 and being players I want to make first-team fullbacks for the foreseeable future. Bonechi is very unfortunate here.

Mattia De Gennaro has potential to be a decent Serie A player in the future. Right now, that is not what we want, but he can provide cover if we ever needed that and he develops enough. He just has a lot of competition for the role however.

Oussama Parigi has the same problem as Mattia De Gennaro. He has potential, but has a lot of competition for the role he is good at playing, with so many players having more potential than he does in the positions he can play in.

Nicola Farinazzo has the unfortunate situation of being good in a position that is crowded with competition. The CM and AMC positions is just littered with players.

Ariel Luna is actually a nice surprise for me. He hasn't got the best potential in the world, but can play in the DM, CB and RB roles, making him a very useful player for us. It's just a shame he's fickle though.

Oliveiro Lecchini is another useful player who can play in 3 different positions. It's just a shame for him that those positions have so many players that have much better potential than him.

Edited June 21, 2021 by JLAB
Forgot to cover a player who's screenshot was far too big as a result.

[JAwtunes]

On 18/06/2021 at 14:52, LazyBandit said:

I've been reading and enjoying these challenges for a few years now but hadn't decided to give it a go until now. I've decided to go with FC Locarno in Switzerland.

FC Locarno Season 1 Review (2021/22)

 

Table

We start our save in the Swiss Second League Interregio Group 4; the 5th tier of Swiss football. After a rough preseason in which we didn't win a game I struggled to come up with a formation that I though would suit us well. However I eventually settled on a 4-4-1-1 and it seemed to work pretty well. So well in fact that we managed to win the whole league in our first season, which I was definitely not expecting. It was lucky that we had no major injuries as well. We started out the save with a whopping 16 players available, however one eventually requested to be released and two more signing with other teams, leaving us with only 13 players available for about 6 months. Needless to say the intake couldn't get here fast enough.

Youth Intake Preview

I was very excited to see this because we needed players, and we needed them yesterday. I'll take it.

Youth Intake

Several players good enough for the first team already, multiple positions of need being filled, and a wide variety of nationalities. I would've liked to have seen some better personalities, but overall I'm very happy with this intake.

Luan Mustafa - Boris Javet - Hamza Allagui

Squad

We have a more complete squad now that we've had our intake, so I expect to be able to breather a little bit easier next season. While we're on the subject of squads, something I found interesting is that we don't have our own U18's or U23's, however we do share an U18 affiliate with FC Lugano.

Transfers

Progress

Our biggest concern going forward in this save is the finances. We are currently spending more money then we earn, and I'm concerned it will only get worse. In fact when I signed a new contract with the club, one of the requirements is that we repair the club's financial damage, starting at the end of the 23/24 season. But that's a problem for future me. All in all a fantastic season for us, I was not at all expecting promotion in our first attempt. However there is a part of me that wonders if we were promoted too early. I expect next season to provide us more of a challenge, but we're up for it.

What does ...(TAC) mean next to your player names?

[LazyBandit]

2 hours ago, JAwtunes said:

What does ...(TAC) mean next to your player names?

It just stands for Trained at Club. The league I was in required a certain number of players be trained at the club. TAC was added to help with player selection

[libbyshuss]

2037 - Season 16

FC Mirassol - Brazil

Serie A - 7th

Season Review

A really promising but ultimately really disappointing season

State Championship - Back to normal and our regulation quarter final exit , this time to Palmeiras. It felt sort of comforting

Serie A - this is the one we want! 2 defeats in our first 4 games wasn't an ideal start but we went unbeaten in the next 5 to go top 4. We managed to hang on to the coat-tails of the top 3 for the first two thirds of the season and were still only 5 points behind with 13 games left. But it was a struggle, we were grinding out 1-0s and lucky 0-0 draws to stay there so it ewasn't a huge surprise when the wheels fell off our title challenge. It was quite a spectacular fall though, those last 13 games only returned 3 victories and in the end we were fairly lucky to hang on to a Libertadores place.  Only 47 league goals shows you exactly where our problems lay.

Copa Libertadores - I love this competition! We were great again and cruised through to the semi-final against Flamengo. They usually get the better of us but we've been getting closer recently. Unfortunately the semi-final came in the middle of our terrible run of form and we were powerless to stop them going through 3-0 on aggregate.

Copa Brazil - I will never win this competition. We lost both legs to Botafago, who suck. It was really frustrating.

 

Players

So who was to blame for our poor season?

Vitor Hugo 32B - Not Vitor, what a legend. I was surprised he wasn't third wonderkid after last season and even more so after this season. He was our player of the season from centre back, a complete legend. Will be key to any challenge next season

Bae Hung-Swa 31B - A strange one. Second disappointing season in a row from our first ever wonderkid. But our plummet in form coincided with him getting a two month injury so maybe its not all his fault? But he definitely under-performed and has me thinking striker doesn't really suit him. We had a run of 5 wins in a row and he didn't score or get a rating above 6.5. His value also went from 9.25m at the start of the season to 7m at the end of the season which isn't a good sign. He really needs to up his game.

Ricardo Jesus 31D - our second wonderkid had a terrible season. Really poor. Took over up front when Hung-Swa got injured and scored 1 in 10. he was really poo. I have a striker who scored 62 in the reserves..... Might be time for a change up front.

 

Youth

My prayers have been answered! Not one but two proper strikers promised!

And the intake itself? looking good!

 

Bibi looks great. I'd have liked a better personality but I can't complain too much. I've been so low on proper specialist striker youths, it's been silly. Hopefully now I can move forward with a proper striker! Straight in the first team squad for this lad

 

Career Progression

[theBlackPrince]

FC Jazz Pori - Finland Ykkönen - Pre-Season 1 - 2021

Jazz hire Benjamin          Overview          Manager Profile          Season Preview          Finances          Squad

Newly promoted Ykkönen side FC Jazz has shocked the Footballing World (ok, ok maybe 2 journalists in Pori) by announcing unknown English manager Charles Benjamin as their new manager. Not speaking a word of Finnish, will he even be here long enough to learn any of the language? He will have a tough time when there seemed to be Finnish Managers which much better resumes. 

Club History

FC Jazz was established in 1934 as Porin Pallo-Toverit (PPT for short) by 18 young men who had previously played football in the local sports club Pyrintö. In 1992 PPT changed its name to FC Jazz. The name was inspired by the Pori Jazz festival, which is one of the most popular Jazz festivals in Europe which has attracted over 150,000 people visiting the festival.

FC Jazz do have some proud history, winning two Finnish championship titles in 1993 and 1996. They have played a total of 8 games in Europe between 1997 and 2001, facing such teams as Feyenoord and PSG. The club was relegated to second tier in 2004 and the first team was dissolved 2005 as a result of financial problems. The Youth section, FC Jazz-juniorit (FC Jazz Juniors - Since 2010 FC Jazz-juniorit has been again known as FC Jazz) had separated from the league in 2002 and in 2006 started in the Finnish 6th division.  Two years later FC Jazz-juniorit was promoted to third tier Kakkonen, which is the lowest national level in Finnish football. In 2013 they would gain promotion to Ykkönen until 2016 when they were relegated back to Kakkonen.

2020 would see them once again promoted to Ykkönen and looking to cement their place here before trying to move up to the Veikkausliiga. Is Charles Banjamin the right man to lead them to glory and back to Europe? Only time will tell and word on the street is, he only wants to use the clubs own Youth Academy to achieve this...

 

Facilities

It could be a long time until it is full but FC Jazz play their home games in the 12,600 seater Porin Stadion. It once held a World Cup Qualification game in 1986 as Finland beat Northern Ireland 1-0 in front of 8,155 fans. The facilities are adequate across the board for training facilities, youth facilities, junior coaching and youth recruitment. 

 

Edited June 21, 2021 by theBlackPrince

[Proffa]

Being from Finland, I'm looking forward to your updates, theBlackPrince. 

[Zdnap_]

 

Season 2022/2023

The season went really smoothly, nowhere near relegation, but also way off promotion. Only 5 draws, so we either won or lost, while scoring and concceding a lot (2nd in both rankings). Is that a real Bruce Lee quote : "A man strikes you, make him bleed. He makes you bleed, you break his bones. He breaks your bones, kill him. Being hit is inevitable, strike back twice as hard." ? That's our new motto.
The other promoted teams did well too. Our hero Exaucé Andzouana ended as our player of the season again, but our defense was very limited, especially in the air (our second best DC was a silver stared one...).

Spoiler

Our team didn't change much.

Spoiler

Staffwise we got a new HoYD, Moritz Hartmann, fairly professionnal, but with suiting tactics. And we also got Sami Hyypiä as Assistant Manager, pulling the whole team to a Professional mentality on hiw own !

Spoiler

The real highlight of ou season was one of our regen, Mirbek Eraliev, the Kirghiz genius that could play with us if there wasn't this u17 rule in Germany...

Spoiler

Statswise we were ultraclinical (so many one on ones on the counter), and allowed way less goals than expected. We barely led the yellow cards rankings depite being a clear leader in fouls. Our passing completion ratio was only 76%, nearly 10% less than than Kiel, with barely more than half their number of passes, and 42% of possession.

Spoiler

 

Finances got a bit scary at one time and I went easy on the demands to the board, but the prize money is high so everything went well in the end.

Spoiler

 

 

Season 2023/2024

The season went really well. Only 3 losses in the whole season, with a bit more draws though with adjusted tactics. Some bad spells of Bochum and Dusseldorf left us way in the clear at the top of the division, despite losing twice to Kaiserslautern.

Spoiler

Once again our hero Exaucé Andzouana ended as our player of the season, and the best goalscorer in the division (and second in assists).

Spoiler

Our whole squad was very young at the start, and is still getting better, especially the DC that did okay this season.

Spoiler

The regens didn't seem as good, with a Low Determination goalkeeper and an unambitious striker. Sami Hyypiä disagrees with our HoYD about Nils Weingartner, a spirited DC with good physical attributes, and thinks he is worth 5*.
Mirbek Eraliev is developing really well. Our other prospect Timon Schäfer wen from Fickle to Ambitious and is developing way better than expected.

Spoiler

We were even more lethal than last year, but we mostly defended better, mostly in the air.

Spoiler

We finally started playing in our new stadium. And instantly started to expand it... Financially we went even lower than last year, but once again ended the season higher thanks to the insane prize money.
At the end of the season our captain Timo Brauer and vice-captain Massih Wassey will leave us.

Spoiler

 

 

Season 2024/2025

This was the very worst season of my life. The stress made me actually stop playing for 2 months at the end. This relegation battle went way too close, and was way more intense than any other battle I was in. Thankfully Bochum and Hannover went half the season with no managers and stayed at the bottom. Hannover ended the season with a string of bad results that left me battling with a collapsing Augsburg to stay above the playoff spot. They even posoned us, but we still overcame ! Winning against them 3 days before the end, with Leipzig and Bayern to go, shouldn't have been enough, but they couldn't win in the end and we somehow stayed up, barely.
The cup went way better, and we reached the finals beating 2.Bundesliga teams and Köln.

Spoiler

Most players are still progressing, but some of our best player are starting to go downhill, despite not being that old.

Spoiler

Our regens look way too good to be true, but with mostly bad personalities. Eraliev and Schäfer are really progressing well.

Spoiler

Our stats are still like before, but worse everywhere.

Spoiler

We actually won some awards, with Eraliev and Schäfer ending up as 1st and 2nd best german u17 players of the year as soon as they were allowed to play. The funny thing is that we are still playing aginst Kelvin Ofori every year, and that he still scores against us. This guy is my Nemesis.

Spoiler

Financially we have all the money we need despite a low turnover. Our payroll is ridiculously low, despite our players asking for nonsensical wages, wit some conflict midseason with my backup striker that I decided to let go and left out of the squad the whole second half.

Spoiler

This year it is Leon Demaj that will leave us, after a string of bad performances angering the fans and ridiculous wage demands (he went from asking over 1 million to 57k at his next club).

 

 

Season 2025/2026

The season was kinda weird, with hard matches packed at one point, and the "easy" ones at the other. With good team talks the dynamics didn't dip too much, and the season went smoothly, despite us not having much more points than last year. The bottom five were really low in points and never threatened me.

Spoiler

Our hero Exaucé Andzouana declined physically and played very little in the second half. Thankfully Schäfer is becoming a really good player for me. Emre Aydinel is also still progressing, and has been selected as our player of the season.

Spoiler

Our squad has improved, and we have a legendary scout.

Spoiler

Our regens are looking really good. Garinyan has crazy physical stats but is only Fairly Determined. Alves is good everywhere, very versatile, and Spirited (which is good-ish right ?). Kuta is Professional and has some interesting stats for his position, hopefully he can get better physically.

Spoiler

Weirdly we scored less because we had even fewer occasions than last year, but defensively it was way better. Weingartner really made a difference for us.

Spoiler

Our Kirghiz genius is still progressing, and even picking up Man of the Match in Germany U20 matches. And yet no one wants him. Not that I am complaining, he is refusing any new contract since the first, and even bullied me into accepting a realease clause.

Spoiler

Nils Weingarten is really progressing well and has become U17 German player of the year (and ou HoYD didn't think he was 5* potential).

Drilon Demaj is leaving us like his brother did, to make space for our younger strikers. So is our hero Exaucé Andzouana, sadly but necessarily.
Somehow Banza was my best passer. With a passing stat of 4.

Spoiler

And Kelvin Ofori is still my Nemesis.

Spoiler

 

Season 2026/2027

This season was amazing, Schäfer really stepped up, and Hofmann has become way more reliable at the front. Weingarten was incredibly solid, our very first defender with an above average score I believe. We qualified for Europa League quite easily (Drotmund won Champions League, Frankfurt Europa League, and Schalke the new one). We once again reached the Cup finals, but suffered a slightly disapointing defeat against Wolfsburg.

Spoiler

The young generation is really taking over my squad, but my goal Peitzmeier is still performing really well, and Aydinel too. But in the end Schäfer had a stratospheric 30 goals 15 assists season and was naturally named player of the season, and German U19 player of the year.

Spoiler

Some regens are looking good, but their position is not really the one I need right now, so I don't expect much.

Spoiler

 

Our defensive stats are starting to normalize, we are not the busiest anymore. Our attack is still pretty lethal, but we shoot a bit more, which explains our two strikers being on the Goalscorer podium. I think we are fouling even more though. And Bayern still scores more than us.

Spoiler

Some awards

Spoiler

I am Manager of the year !

Spoiler

And my Nemesis didn't score against us !!!

Spoiler

Evolution so far :
(Not sure everything is exactly in place, I tried to use the screenshots and my memory to fill it)

Now :
Some big players were released, like Huseyn Bulut or Hermann Banza.
Luca Falk Menke, Plautz, and Peitzmeier are the only initial players that remain as regulars in my team. Here's some of my players :

Spoiler

Finally Dortmund is sniffing around Eraliev. Will I be able to go high enough to keep hiM ? I will certainly try to.
Do you have any idea how to make Danilo Lasogga progress ? He's stagnating a bit despite a good personality, much playing time, and much progress room.
And here's how my club is developing :

Spoiler

By the wayit seems like I'm one of the only one who is a big fan of my chairman, Amen. He doesn't sell my players, and accepts nearly everything (except adding more coaches, I have no idea why).
And now I require your help for a decisive choice.
Do I keep my HoYD taht brought me Eralieve Schäfer and Weingarten ?
Or do I go for a Model Citizen Foreigner ?
Does it matter that he doesn't know about Germany ?
Do the tactical and playing style matter much ?

Spoiler

 

[darren1983]

Season 2038/39 review Premier League

 

League - Really was one of my toughest seasons ever. Just trying to stay up was such a battle. We actually started well, only lost 1 of our first 8 games before a 6-3 loss away to Arsenal We then didn't win for 3 months dropping from 9th to 18th, lot's tactical tweaks all season but we found some form in Jan and Feb only losing once in 2 months and getting points on the board which turned out to be vital as we then lost our last 8 games of the season. 6 of those losses were by a single goal and 4 of them came from shots from long range so it was fine margins but not great form. In fairness our final 4 games were Tottenham, Liverpool, Man City and Chelsea so pretty brutal really. We were saved by the goals of Mark Campbell 31A his 31 goals meant he finished 2nd top scorer in the league (Liverpool striker had 42 in 30 ffs ) it baffles me he only has 7 Scotland caps as this was his 6th straight season. and still only 23, of 20 or more league goals and yet he's not even in their squad right now. Special shout out to Aksel Collet 35A as well, really stepped up this season and 15 assists (many were balls to Campbell) shows just how much he did.

FA Cup - a decent run to the quarter finals was helped by playing Championship clubs all the way. First time we played a Premier League club we lost in extra time (this cup defeat started our end of season losing run)

League Cup - lost on pens to a Stoke side we struggled with in the cups this season

Squad - the quality really isn't there but we tried hard. Our main issue is at the back where we let in 70 odd goals and the fact I used 3 different keepers during the season shows I struggled here. Full back is a real worry, we have a very good, on paper, right back but he just never performs while we've not had a decent left back for about 5 or 6 seasons now and still have none coming through.

Transfers - none in and most out were on loan

Finances - I do love the Premier League money. This comes after expending our stadium, a youth upgrade to level 2, training facilities and youth facilities upgrades at the end of the season as soon as our league status was secure

Youth Intake - a "Golden Generation" isn't something I expect at this level but can't argue with 4 5* players really

Devante McCaldon 39A - I see him best as either a IW or IF cutting in
Stefan Nesbitt 39B - Same here really, not sure he's got it to be a ST but as a wide option? Probably
Nathan Thompson 39C - Needs work on his technicals but a nice option at CM
Graham Hodges 39D - is it even a FM21 intake without a solid keeper option? I do like the look of him though, double figures in all the area's I like in a keeper 

Career Overview

2021/22		VNLN		5th 		Adequate		Adequate		First coaching badge
2022/23		VNLN		2nd 		Adequate		Good			Promoted via playoffs, FA Trophy runners up
2023/24		VNL		16th 		Average			Excellent 		2nd coaching badge
2024/25		VNL		12th 		Average			Excellent		3rd coaching badge
2025/26		VNL		6th 		Average			Excellent		Promotion via playoffs
2026/27		League Two	1st 		Good			Exceptional		Promotion as champions
2027/28		League One	11th 		Good			Exceptional
2028/29		League One	14th 		Good			Exceptional
2029/30		League One	7th 		Good			Exceptional
2030/31		League One	1st 		Good 			Exceptional		Promoted as champions. Completed all coaching badges
2031/32		Championship	18th 		Excellent		Exceptional
2032/33		Championship	8th 		Excellent		Exceptional
2033/34		Championship	7th 		Excellent		Exceptional		Training ground upgrade, Academy up level 3, new ground announced
2034/35		Championship	6th 		Excellent		Exceptional		Lost in playoff semi finals
2035/36		Championship	9th 		Excellent		Exceptional 
2036/37		Championship	11th 		Excellent		Exceptional		Moved into new stadium
2037/38		Championship	3rd 		Excellent		Exceptional		Promotion via playoffs
2038/39		Premier League	16th 		Excellent		Exceptional		Youth Academy rating from level 3 to level 2

 

[vikeologist]

@Zdnap_ I think normally you should definitely go with a Model Citizen HoYD.

I'm not aware that domestic knowledge comes into it. Maybe it does, and someone knows different; perhaps you since you raise the issue. 

The tactical formation could be a factor though. Like I use a 442, and my HoYD, who is a Model Citizen, prefers a fairly different formation, so I do get some players who I can''t play in their natural position. But then again, I don't know how different that would be if I had a HoYD who used exactly the same tactics as myself.

I believe that personality is key. In my relatively narrow experience there is a huge correlation between personality and development, that seems to me to exceed how much playing time they get, but you suggested that your squad is already professional, and the HoYD F Pro. It's not like my HoYD trots out immediately M Pro and M Citizens, so changing your HoYD won't make a huge difference. The people who need to change HoYDs are I believe those in the early years of a challenge with a 'Balanced' HoYD with a truly horrible personality. 

I think yours is a low risk low reward decision, because you're probably in a good spot already.

Are all of your intake in the exact positions you need? It certainly can be a pain retraining  your high potential players in a position they're not natural in. 3 of my first XI are still 'out of position', but not badly so, 

[Winski]

Íþróttafélag Reykjavíkur
End of season 2025 review
League Table | Competition overview | Finances | Facilities | Transfers | Youth intake | Club Overview | Manager Profile

 

Wow. This was a fantastic season! We won the league in our very first attempt!! So we will play Champions League football in 2026! Beside that we won the Supercup (Mjólkurbikarinn) and lost the Cup-final. An amazing season!!

The European campaign is still going. As I posted before, we qualified for the Group Stage of the Conference League. And as you can see on the screenshot of the Competition Overview, we lost our first 2 matches against Hammarby IF and Feyenoord.

 

Best player this season was by far Skúli Eggert Kristinsson. He scored 37 goals in 33 matches. His stats aren't that great, but with his speed and finishing he's a great player in this league.

Some other players that helped us to win the league:
Magnús Þór Þorsteinsson 24a. Best player of 2024 intake and already one of my best players. Some good clubs are interested in him, so I don't know how long I can keep him. But loot at his passing skills... that's outstanding for this level.

Brynjar Brynjarsson 24b. The second best player of 2024 intake, and also one of my best players. He scored 21 goals in 31 matches in his first season. Fantastic.

Einar Bjarnason 23c. He is also one of our best players. Very important for us with his goals and assists.

Youth intake
Again a very promising youth intake. Jón Ólafsson 25a looks like a very decent prospect, he will go straight into our first team squad. But there are more promising talents in this intake. I think that at least 3 or 4 of them will play for us sooner or later.

 

 

[XaW]

       

Lusitânia Açores - Season 2028/29 (Season 8) Review

Table | Squad | Transfers | Finances

This season was more of the same, but we did manage to improve upon the conceded goals and climb a few spots up the table. We are in a sort of limbo currently, so we need something to happen. At least the first team is becoming stronger and the backups are also improving to the point we are no longer helpless if we have a few injuries. We do have some positions where the backups are too poor, but the general feeling is that we are improving, albeit slowly.

Financially, we look better, but only because the board invested quite lot of money this season. We don't have an organic growth, and that is something we need to work towards. Also, do you know what don't pay? Going far in the cup...

In the Taça de Portugal we got another bye in the first round, then beat Padroense, Vilafranquense, Fontinhas, and Académico de Viseu before we lost to top tier Portimonense in the 6th round.

Youth

A decent intake with a few good talents.

Alexandre Le Goff 29a is a nice left winger with some nice attributes.

Statistics:

Spoiler

The one guy who are Tanzanian-Zanzibari helps fill out countries this season!

Records broken;

Most goals in a match: Kevin Fialho 27a - 4
Most goals in a league match: Kevin Fialho 27a - 4
Most league goals overall: Maxime Riviere 22f - 79

Trophy cabinet:

Campeonato Nacional - 2025/26

[Diego D10S]

                                                                       Season 2025 / 2026

                                                 7th in Serie B - Knocked out in first playoff round

 

Great first season i Serie B. Started really shaky but in second half of the season I started to look very solid.

It alot of devolopment left in this squad so future is looking bright atm.

Youth intake was pretty good again. Cheikh Thioub looks like he could become something special.

 

 

GL ALL !!  

[JLAB]

Atlético CP – Season 3 – 2023/24 Season Review

So my first season in the Terceira Liga was a lot more comfortable than I was expecting it to be. I was concerned that we were going to struggle throughout the season, especially when I realised just how many goals I was conceding. Though once we changed tactics and formation, we were able to start drawing games we would have lost otherwise. So by the time we finished the season, we had only lost 3 games with the new formation.

This is the tactic that I changed to partway through the season. We only lost twice, but we also only won 6 times and drew the other 9 games, so it's good defensively. We kept 12 clean sheets in 18 matches with it, where with our previous tactic we only kept 7 clean sheets in 33 games, so a massive improvement there.

Going forward for next season, the board have given me a wage budget that was 4 times bigger than my previous wage budget, so it's telling me that they have a lot of confidence in my work.

Our defence is looking solid, the club's reputation is improving, but I haven't been able to afford the finances to convince the board to improve any facilities at the club so far, which is far from ideal. We did make the Taça de Portugal 6th round though, which has led to every player and myself getting clauses for winning the Taça de Portugal in the next 3 seasons... I wish I was joking.

If there is one thing that I have managed to do, it is convince the board to let me study coaching badges. I finished the National A Licence this season and am studying for the Continental C Licence going into the summer. So my reputation of 2.25 stars might actually be bigger than the club's 2.5 stars soon if things continue the way they are. It's a nice situation to be in for that regards, it'll almost make me bigger than the club too...

Edited June 23, 2021 by JLAB

[XaW]

        

Lusitânia Açores - Season 2029/30 (Season 9) Review

Table | Squad | Transfers | Finances

Ugh, this is turning into a real slog. We once again finished close to the bottom, but it looked so much better for a long while. We were close to the middle for a long while, but the 2nd half of the season was just horrible. Of the 26 last matches, we only won 4. We got quite a lot of draws, but we just struggle to win matches. Onto next season!

Financially, the board have stopped investing and we are deep in red now. Not an easy situation.

In the Taça de Portugal we beat Angrense before losing to Estoril Praia in the 2nd round.

Youth

This intake was at least an improvement on the last few years. Some nice talents here.

Pedro Guerra 30b is a real winger. Quick, stays wide and crosses.

Statistics:

Spoiler

We got Mozambique added this season.

Records broken;

Most league goals overall: Maxime Riviere 22f - 97

Trophy cabinet:

Campeonato Nacional - 2025/26

[VinnyChilds]

Season 2021/22

After a belated start to our campaign, we finally got underway. Assessing the limited options on hand, we alternated between a 4-2-3-1 and a 4-1-2-3 for most of the campaign, mainly settling on the former. To say it was a mixed affair would be an understatement, hovering closer to the relegation spots than was comfortable early on before settling in to a lower table placing. The one bright spot of the opening season was our unexpected progress to the 3rd Round of the FA Cup, but sadly for our finances, our only reward was a home tie against West Ham who made short work of us. The board was delighted with our staying clear of a relegation fight, allowing me to invest some of the money raised in the Youth setup across the board. The first of our youth intakes shows a bit of promise, but nothing to trouble the first team in the short term:

With a settled line-up and a first campaign under our belts, we look forward to progress in the seasons ahead.

and on a personal note, I got the first two badges on the ladder under my belt, having built something of a reputation for myself by issuing plenty of warnings for bad performances, reflected in the Discipline stat!

[vikeologist]

Slightly unusual press conference question.

Next day the match

So, yeah. No idea what Dave Read did last time, but I've no problem with him now. Great bloke.

[JLAB]

ACN Siena 1904 - 2043/44 Season Review

Another season has been completed and by the end of the year I was just fed up with my Siena side that hasn't made any significant progress and for the first time in four seasons, has failed to finish in  the top half of the table. It made me doubt the quality of my side and my managerial skills that I was just losing game after game after game. This is despite the fact we managed to beat Juventus and Inter Milan on consecutive matches.

If there was one thing that I could be happy about, it was the fact that we managed to get an affiliate in the form of Australian side Western Sydney Wanderers, where we could get youth players coming through our youth intakes from Australia and we would be getting a major benefit to all merchandising sales as a result of our presence in Australia.

Still, after 23 seasons with Siena and 11 seasons in Serie A, I'm finding myself wondering if it is time to let go of this save and move onto other things and just focus on my Atlético CP and NEC saves that I've been playing, instead of my Siena save. It's been 8 months on and off I've been focusing on the Italian side, so maybe I need to keep my mind off of them for the time being...

[vikeologist]

1 hour ago, JLAB said:

 

 

Still, after 23 seasons with Siena and 11 seasons in Serie A, I'm finding myself wondering if it is time to let go of this save and move onto other things and just focus on my Atlético CP and NEC saves that I've been playing, instead of my Siena save. It's been 8 months on and off I've been focusing on the Italian side, so maybe I need to keep my mind off of them for the time being...

Can understand the frustration if you're not progressing, or even going backwards, with your facilities maxxed out. (Mine are still quite far from that point, so there's always hope, specifically the hope that wants to kills me).

Do you think it's the players or the tactics? (To use my oversimplified measurement, how many of your first XI are considered by your coaches to be Serie A players?)

Edited June 24, 2021 by vikeologist

[JLAB]

2 minutes ago, vikeologist said:

Can understand the frustration if you're not progressing, or even going backwards, with your facilities maxxed out.

Do you think it's the players or the tactics? (To use my oversimplified measurement, how many of your first XI are considered by your coaches to be Serie A players?)

I think it's my players. According to the new league predictions, we're still the 17th/18th best team in the division, so we've been massively overperforming. Only 5/6 players are considered either decent or good Serie A players.