The FM21 Youth Academy Challenge

[Padders]

Season 11 - 2031/32

Another bottom 6 finish, 18th place again!

I did manage to use some of the money from the takeover last season to improve Junior Coaching and Youth Recruitement!

 

[Padders]

Season 12 - 2032/33

A lot better season and best since the first!

Started really well then the usual slump and finished mid season

Now actually got a striker that can bang some goals in for me! Durnin who got 42

Another awful intake!

[Padders]

Season 13 - 2033/34

Backwards step again, back down to 17th

Never got going and spent all season in the bottom half

Durnin had another good season with 53 goals!

Intakes have been so poor with 1/2 average players every year

[lewis999]

AO KAVALA I Season Review 2030/31

League | Championship Group | Cup Win |Transfers | Finances

The league campaign started a bit wobbly before we slowly got ourselves into 2nd position, we alternated between 2nd and 3rd for a few months before we hit top spot around February time. We were 2nd heading into the Championship stage when the league splits but because we aren't good enough to consistently compete against the teams at the top as our squad has a few holes in it we even went as low as 4th and then managed to, just in time, clinch 2nd spot. 

In the cup as shown above in the link we had a very hard 1st match up against multiple title winners AEK Athens and then after that every round was easier even the final and we won our very first domestic cup!

Youth Intake/Preview

Preview | Youth Intake

Zagliveris is the best player from this years bunch along with Ntavaris. Ntavaris is impressive because he is rated 4.5* potential against our best player and the leagues best player Paraskevas Tsalikis. I have had bids of 60m+ for him from nearly all the worlds best clubs and we probably only have him for 3 more seasons so hopefully by that time Ntavaris is ready to take his place.

 

Save Progress

Looking to win the title next season!

Edited June 30, 2021 by lewis999
More info

[Padders]

Season 14 - 2034/35

Absolutely nothing to report

16th

Awful intake

[Proffa]

That is some dedicated grinding there, Padders. 

Are the board's expectations always the same? (Avoid relegation?) 

[JLAB]

I have a new club president. He likes things are going at the club, so doesn't plan on changing anything. We are getting along quite nicely so far. He'll be around for a minimum of 3 years. Maybe we'll get another promotion in that time.

[Padders]

1 hour ago, Proffa said:

That is some dedicated grinding there, Padders. 

Are the board's expectations always the same? (Avoid relegation?) 

Yeah they are luckily

 

[Padders]

Season 15 - 2035/36

Out of absolutely nowhere, 2nd placed finish

Brillaint season

But unfortunately we lost in the Play Offs

Hopefully something to build on

[Padders]

Season 16 - 2036/37

Couldn't capitalize on the good previous season and slipped back into mid table

Yet another absolute terrible intake!

 

Edited June 30, 2021 by Padders

[JAwtunes]

11 hours ago, Padders said:

Season 16 - 2036/37

Couldn't capitalize on the good previous season and slipped back into mid table

Yet another absolute terrible intake!

 

COYS! Brackley are champions.

@PaddersI think you mentioned having played 50 odd seasons since your last save came to an unfortunate end.  Does that mean the season updates above were completed a few weeks back?

[Padders]

47 minutes ago, JAwtunes said:

COYS! Brackley are champions.

@PaddersI think you mentioned having played 50 odd seasons since your last save came to an unfortunate end.  Does that mean the season updates above were completed a few weeks back?

Yes mate that is correct

 

[Padders]

Season 17 - 2037/38

Spent most of the season in the top half, finishing 10th which is better and more consistent

Finances were really bad with over £1m in debt. Board took out £1m loan

Only one decent player in intake

[JLAB]

Atlético CP – Season 4 – 2024/25 Youth Intake Preview

The youth intake preview is both good and bad. It's good that we might be getting another striker and another goalkeeper who might be really good. But we need better centre-backs and central midfielder than we already do. So things are not looking as rosy as I wish for them to be.

[Padders]

Season 18 - 2038/39

We have done it, Champions of VNN with a massive 110 points!

Was top pretty much all season

Leighton Durnin scoring a brilliant 64 goals in 51 games

Second takeover cleared the debt

 

[Winski]

Our European season is over! We had a fantastic run in the Europa Conference League. We qualified as nr.1 for the Second Knockout Round. But Rosenborg won both matches with 3-2. So that's the end for this season. But I am very happy that we came so far.

And some more good news: we will get a new stadium!! Not sure how big it will be, but we definitely need a new stadium as our current one is just too small (1.200 with 300 seated).

And last but not least: Lorenzo from FMCustomKits made some beautiful new 2D and 3D kits for me.

 

[JLAB]

13 minutes ago, Winski said:

Our European season is over! We had a fantastic run in the Europa Conference League. We qualified as nr.1 for the Second Knockout Round. But Rosenborg won both matches with 3-2. So that's the end for this season. But I am very happy that we came so far.

And some more good news: we will get a new stadium!! Not sure how big it will be, but we definitely need a new stadium as our current one is just too small (1.200 with 300 seated).

And last but not least: Lorenzo from FMCustomKits made some beautiful new 2D and 3D kits for me.

 

You can normally tell how big the stadium is planned on being in the facilities page of the club profile. It gives you an idea of what size stadium that they are looking for.

[Winski]

17 minutes ago, JLAB said:

You can normally tell how big the stadium is planned on being in the facilities page of the club profile. It gives you an idea of what size stadium that they are looking for.

Thank you!

That should be big enough for now. We normally have appr. 4.000 of 4.500 fans at home matches in Europe(we normally don't play in our own stadium as it is too small for a European match).

[JAwtunes]

2 hours ago, Winski said:

Thank you!

That should be big enough for now. We normally have appr. 4.000 of 4.500 fans at home matches in Europe(we normally don't play in our own stadium as it is too small for a European match).

I think i remember seeing a 35k capacity stadium in an FM save.  That would take 10% of the total population to fill!

How are Grotta doing in your save?  I enjoyed a save with them last year.

[Winski]

1 hour ago, JAwtunes said:

I think i remember seeing a 35k capacity stadium in an FM save.  That would take 10% of the total population to fill!

How are Grotta doing in your save?  I enjoyed a save with them last year.

Grotta just won the Super Cup against my team.......

They are doing very good, they finished 2nd last season.

[Padders]

Season 19 - 2039/40

Relegated first season in VN!

Just missing out on staying up by 2 points!

[libbyshuss]

Brazil - Fc Mirassol

Season 20 - 2041

Serie A - 1st

Season Summary

What a season! It started with:-

State Championship - which we won for the second time, beating Santos in the final! It doesn't matter, but it's nice to win

Serie A - Winners! We started well and just kept going! We just ground out result after result, a huge amount of 1-0 wins and a lot of draws where we scored late equalisers. It feels weird though as it feels like it was a title that other teams lost, rather than we won if that makes sense. Weirdly anti-climactic after all this time but also a relief

   

Copa Libertadores - And we were within a whisker of completing the whole challenge! We got all the way to our first final where we met out old nemesis Internacional. They outplayed us and we were lucky to only lose 1-0. As if to rub it in they then beat us 3-0 in the league 4 days later. They're still better than us, I have no idea how they slipped up in the league tbh

FIFA World Club Championship - We qualified for this somehow? Dunno how. We were put in a group with Manchester United and only lost 1-0. IT gave me an idea of just how good this group are. They're good!

Copa Brasilia - out in the QFs. played the reserves as we had a league game two days after and lost 5-1. Not too bothered.

 

Players

Le29B - Absurdly consistent. Another great season - 22 goals and 23 assists from right wing. 28 now so in his prime.

Bibi 37A - the missing piece of the jigsaw. Finally, a proper striker. Now 20 and a wonderkid his strikes gained us so many points at vital times during the season. finished with 47 goals in 62 games, he's worryingly starting to think he should be at a bigger club

 

Youth

They promised me a golden generation adn then gave me this???

signed about two just to boost the personality of the squad.

 

 

 

 

[darren1983]

Just hit this nice milestone 

Won the game 3-2 after twice throwing away the lead  

[Deicide]

On 01/06/2021 at 15:02, Deicide said:

https://gyazo.com/88cf4f820800585e767ad035377a88c7

 

6 seasons in and he is by far the best prospect to come out of our youth system so far. Anyone else think he could do a job as a midfielder?

I doubt I'll will be able to keep him for for than a couple of seasons as a couple of Championship clubs are already showing interest. How much do you guys think I can get from him in a season or so?

https://gyazo.com/e450d7aaae782cd60a441c3b6c5917ec

 

Well, he's  only going to stay with us for 2 seasons after became unhappy when I rejected a 100k bid from Sheffield Wednesday. I tried to ignore his fit but when it started to affect the dressing room, I decided to see if we could get more for him and we surprisingly did. He opted to join Watford, who are are currently 3rd in the Championship, so I don't know if I'll get much from the 50% of next sale clause. Our first youth academy grad sale will give us a chance to upgrade our training facilities (currently rated as poor) for the first time. But for some reason the board rejected my request to upgrade our youth facilities (currently rated as basic).  Anyone know how much that costs?

 

I'll leave you with a screenshot from my top youth product from Season 6:

https://gyazo.com/3437557d62d6422ec257afaf4da69f0a

Hopefully I can hold on to him for more than a couple of seasons, but things don't look good as some L2 clubs are already showing interest.

 

[Winski]

This is probably the worst intake preview I have ever had

[Padders]

Season 20 - 2040/41

Mid table finish back in VNN

Started ok but then the usual drop in form and unable to turn it around

One decent player in the intake

[darren1983]

South Shields Season 2040/41 Review - Premier League

 

League - In a shocking turn of events I once again played around with our tactics this season, I have come to accept that trying to play total football isn't the right move but I have gone to a more possession based tactic and it worked, we dominated most games but were plagued at times by throwing away leads (3-0 up after 7 mins at home to Chelsea and drew 4-4, 3-1 up with 15 to go against Fulham and drew 3-3 are the 2 that spring to mind) and around the New Year we were in the top 7 and we really kicked on here, and going into the final game of the season we were 4th. A point away to Leeds would get us in the Champions League. We lost 5-2!  Missed out on GD but think Champions League would have been far too early for us, I was really only aiming for Conference League once it became clear we had a shot of Europe but I'll take some seasons in Europa for now. Star man was once again Mark Campbell 31A with 29 league goals this season. This man just scores. In the 2 seasons we've played him as a out and out striker he has 60 goals in 76 Premier League games. The one season where I kept messing with his role he still scored 17 but he is a machine. The worry is he wants to go to a bigger club, has 2 seasons on his deal but a has a 40m buy out clause and some clubs are sniffing around. I need to keep him.

FA Cup - Really poor in this, first game was a slightly rotated side but in the replay was our best 11 and we just didn't turn up. Would love to win a cup at some stage.

League Cup - A nice little run but not much happened

Transfers - loads of loans out now as we look to give people game time that we can't right now

Squad - getting there now. The young players are getting stronger and getting used to the level they're now at. We also have our first wonderkid Matthew Davies 38A who finished 3rd in the  NxGn award will look to give him more starts next season with the extra games we'll have thanks to Europe

Finances - Loads of money!! Got the Youth Academy up to level 1 now, got some more youth and training ground upgrades due before the end of the year too

Youth Intake - another poor one really. That's 2 in a row. 1 more and might time for a change in the HOYD

Kris Kalthhoeber 41A - with a bit of work he could become a decent player at DM for us
Andrew Gent 41B - can play wide or through the middle

Career Overview

Season		League		Position	Youth Recruitment	Youth Coaching		Notes & Achievements 

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
2039/40		Premier League	7th		Excellent		Exceptional 
2040/41		Premier League	5th 		Excellent		Exceptional		Youth Academy now Cat 1

 

[dkouv]

@Padders good to have you back; think I admire the perseverance of posting a write-up of each of the 50 seasons as much as that of completing the 50! Any sneak preview of where you are in year 2071?

[dkouv]

Cultural Durango – Season 4 (2024/25)

Segunda Division B Grupo II A season similar to the last one; we started well but then tailed off and spent most of the year in mid-table. A late surge during the run-in had us get tantalisingly close to the playoffs, but we drew and lost the two crucial games against playoff rivals Badalona and Llagostera which saw us finish 5th, 1 point less than last season and 2 points outside of the playoff spots.

Players: He is not rated as our best player but Syndou Diomande 02a is definitely the man - he is pretty much the only player at the club who regularly scores goals, with 24 this season. I have played other players in exactly the same position with absolutely no success, so the whole club form basically goes into tailspin if he gets injured or suspended - but he’s very consistent and hardly misses a game.

Other than him, untagged centre back Pedro Moreno has suddenly become our best defender, chipping in with plenty of set piece goals, and Erik Pascual 01d has been great in midfield scoring 10 and assisting 13. Our keeper Goikoetxea is still with us, and increasing his goal tally as he’s actually our best penalty taker, but in general many of the prospects are not developing so the squad is stagnating a bit.

Youth intake: I was promised full-backs, and I got… full backs! The thing is, my old HOYD wouldn’t renew his contract and our poor finances meant I could only hire a guy with JPA and JPP of 6 to replace him so I honestly have no idea how good any of these players are. Some of the defenders seem decent, but none are first team ready and I could really do with a striker to play alongside Diomande.

   

Facilities/Finances: Our training facilities got downgraded and we’re close to 300k in the red, so going backwards here

Transfers: nothing of note

Season    |  League            | Pos. |     Europe     |   Best player                 |  Notes
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2021/22   | Segunda B Grupo II |  9   |     n/a        |  Juanma Iparragirre (MC)      |
2022/23   | Segunda B Grupo II |  14  |     n/a        |  Lander Goikoetxea (GK)       |
2023/24   | Segunda B Grupo II |  3   |     n/a        |  Lander Goikoetxea (GK)       | Lost in playoff semi final
2024/25   | Segunda B Grupo II |  5   |     n/a        |  Syndou Diomande 02a (AMC/ST) | 


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
2023/24   |  Excellent    |  Fairly basic     | Adequate       |  Adequate     |  3000
2024/25   |  Excellent    |  Fairly basic     | Below average  |  Adequate     |  3000

 

[dkouv]

By the way, does anyone have any tips for managing a B club in Spain, in particular with regards to staff / training? I got a B team now but no coach wants to join or manage them, so I think my B team players are basically training without any coaches which is not ideal (not that my A team coaches are that good mind)

[Padders]

Season 21 - 2041/42

Another mid table finish

Season never really got going

 

[Padders]

1 hour ago, dkouv said:

@Padders good to have you back; think I admire the perseverance of posting a write-up of each of the 50 seasons as much as that of completing the 50! Any sneak preview of where you are in year 2071?

I will try get to close as possible to where I am in real time as soon as possible

Past 50 seasons now

[XaW]

Sooo... umm... I might give my hometown club another go.... I really think I can do it this time! 

[Padders]

Season 22 - 2042/43

Just missed out on the playoffs by 1 point!

Very mixed season with no consistency

Absolutely dire intake!

 

[JLAB]

Well this is ominous. I don't think we're staying up this season.

[Padders]

Season 23 - 2043/44

Another 8th place finish!

Missing out on the play off by 3 points this time

Was top mid season but the usual mid season slump and couldn't turn it around

 

 

[Padders]

Season 24 - 2044/45

Another mid table finish, 10th. Steady decline all season.

1,000 games

 

[libbyshuss]

FC Mirassol - Brazil

2042 - season 21

Serie A - 7th

Season Summary

Not the greatest title defence!

State championship - narrowly knocked out in the quarters

Serie A - we started as we finished the season before, just grinding out results. A few more draws than I'd like but 12 games in we were fourth and going along nicely. We then had a run of 12 games where we won 3 and lost 7 and all of a sudden we were 9th. There was talk of my sacking with a 50/50 split amongst the fans! ungrateful heathens! But our title defence was turning into a struggle to qualify for the Libertadores, it wasn't good. we rallied and got into the Libertadores fairly comfortably in the end but we were a long way off our title winning form

Copa Libertdores - The one I need! Breezed through the group again,  got Santos in first knockout stage. They won the first leg 4-2, we battered them in the second but couldn't find a second goal. A 1-0 win not enough and we were out

Copa Brazilia - Santos again! In the semis

 

Players

Carlos Cesar 35A - Might be the main reason our title defence was so poor. I spent two and a half seasins trying to get him to sign a new contract but he wouldn't. He had a 14.5m release clause i knew someone would trigger. Last season it was Atletico Madrid but he turned them down, this season it was Man City and he left. His value immediately went from 3.5m to 50m and he went straight into the Brazil squad. I knew he was good - it's no wonder we struggled losing a world class midfielder with no handy replacement

Bibi 37A - Another factor may be Bibi's injury hit campaign. He kept getting a series of niggling injuries. 46 goals in the 47 he played though

Le 29B - Another ridiculous season. He's 29 now, I'm going to cry when he retires.

Bae Sung-Hwa 31B - a couple of poor seasons pushed him down the pecking order. He's basically cover for Bibi and Le now. But he had his best season for years!

 

Youth

I had what might be my best preview yet! it was very exciting!

But the intake? Not so much....

 

Hopefully a couple will come good. After that slew of wonderkids a few seasons back its dried up a little.

Career

 

 

 

 

 

[Padders]

Season 25 - 2045/46

Really good season finishing 3rd

Went on great run not losing in 21 including winning 20 of them

Unfortunately the two teams above me finished on over 100 points!

And we lost in the Play Offs

Another takeover and another dire intake

[Padders]

Season 26 - 2046/47

Second place finish so another go at the play offs

The 93 points we got last season would have been enough to gain automatic promotion this season!

This time we managed to win the playoffs, beating Basford 2-1 in the final

Promotion back to VN

Durnin at 32 still banging the goals in for fun

 

[Shankly84]

So once again I've got a few seasons worth of updates to do, but I just wanted to share this. Season 39 and we add the Europa League to our Europa Conference win a few seasons early. Now for the big one!!!

[Padders]

Season 27 - 2047/48

Back into VN but relegated first time again!

 

[Padders]

Season 28 - 2048/49

Just missed out on automatic promotion.

Then lost in the Play Off Final with two goals disallowed 

Leighton Durnin retired 

549 goals in 676 games. What a record!

 

[Padders]

Season 29 - 2049/50

Another playoff finish but another play off loss

Another takeover

Very poor intake

 

[Tilling]

@Padders How do you get through so many games so quickly?!

[Proffa]

He has played them in advance.

[IOA]

Just started this challenge with Haringey Borough, can someone confirm that I can renew my current players contracts?

[XaW]

       

Follo Fotballklubb - Season 2022 (Season 1) Review

Table | Squad | Transfers | Finances

Back home again. For those of you who don't know much about this club, the club was established in 2000 as a way of creating a big team in the region of Follo, just south of Oslo. The issue with players from the area is that there were no big teams around, and to really try to become a good player, youths had to play for a team in Oslo and that's not ideal for the travel needed. So the local football teams went together with some local sponsors and created the club with the long term goal of becoming a bigger side. The other local teams would feed the best players into the club, and if those players became great and sold for a substantial fee, then it would drip a lot down to the local clubs. For a long while it looked promising and the team even reached the cup final and narrowly lost to Strømsgodset in 2010. A few years later the club started to have issues with money and the board resigned. So the club sort of failed, but are still the best club in the region, even if they didn't establish themselves as a top flight team.

So this is where I come in to the story. Being a local, I played for a few of the feeder teams of Follo in my youth, I imagine myself as someone who has been away from football for a while and because of some connections I got the role as the manager of the team, promising to focus on the local youth players. So even if I will only use players from the youth intake, I'll think of them as young players brought in from the other locals teams become they came through! A few of the team are affiliates in the game already, but I'll try to keep them and add the others if I get the chance.

So I took over the club after they got promoted from the Norsk Tipping-ligaen (4th tier). The team is quite good and from the start I can see we have some great potential in the team. I settled for a 4-4-2 since I'm quite familiar with the team in real life, and I want to take advantage of the key players. The season started quite nicely and we jumped straight into the battle for the top spots. Rosenborg 2, Odd 2, Molde 2, Bryne, and Notodden were in a big pile all with the chance of the win. The 2nd teams are unable to get promoted from this level though, so as soon as the 6 of us pulled away we only had to finish above either Bryne or Notodden to reach the playoff. Eventually our biggest competitors were Rosenborg 2 and Bryne. We managed to hold on though, and clinched it in the final match after beating Øygarden 3-0 away. So we are promoted as champions.

In Norgesmesterskapet we beat Stovner and Fredrikstad before we lost heavily to our parent team Vålerenga in the 3rd round.

Youth

Very happy with this as our first intake. Some nice personalities as well.

Piotr Mocarski 22a is a very nice player, but I rate him more as a midfielder than a striker.

Statistics:

Spoiler

A nice intake to start out the map.

2nd team:

They only played friendlies

U19 team:

In the Norwegian U19 Championship Oslo they finished 6th.

In the Norwegian U19 Cup they beat Orkla before losing to Stabæk in the 2nd round.

Records broken;

Most goals in a season: Ernest Rzepecki - 29
Most league goals in a season: Ernest Rzepecki - 23
Most goals in a match: Kristian Seteklev - 4
Most goals in a league match: Kristian Seteklev - 4
Most assists in a season: Islam Darlishta - 10
Most player of the match awards: Ernest Rzepecki - 9
Worst discipline: Christian Haug Mikalsen - 11 yellow, 1 red
Youngest player: Rune Sivertsen 22c - 15 years, 139 days
Fastest goal: Kristian Seteklev - 13 seconds
Oldest goalscorer: Islam Darlishta - 24 years, 307 days

Trophy cabinet:

PostNord-ligaen Avdeling 2 - 2022

[Shankly84]

4 minutes ago, IOA said:

Just started this challenge with Haringey Borough, can someone confirm that I can renew my current players contracts?

Yes, this is fine. You just can't sign new players.

[XaW]

3 minutes ago, IOA said:

Just started this challenge with Haringey Borough, can someone confirm that I can renew my current players contracts?

Yes, you can renew contract to players, but NOT loans. Any current loans must be terminated, and any transfers possible to cancel must be cancelled. Other than that, the players in the squads at the time you take over can be used as long as you want. But if they leave the club at any time they can NOT be resigned into the club. You are allowed to loan OUT players though.