The FM21 Youth Academy Challenge

[Tilling]

4 hours ago, vikeologist said:

In case people haven't seen it,some important information emerged on GD.

Basically, if you get a new HoYD with a good personality. you're not going to see the full effects of this for a few seasons. I didn't know before that your Junior players really are with you for a few years before they come through. When players are poached, I assumed the game was inventing them at that point, but it makes more sense that all Junior players, poached or not, actually exist.

This explains so much!!

[syemo]

How do some of you guys play so fast? Do most IR in these sort of challenges?

[Proffa]

I think XaW has multiple NASA-level computers, one for each save at least.

[XaW]

52 minutes ago, syemo said:

How do some of you guys play so fast? Do most IR in these sort of challenges?

I play with commentary only (2D while getting my tactic in order) on a very fast speed, so the games go by quite fast for me.

11 minutes ago, Proffa said:

I think XaW has multiple NASA-level computers, one for each save at least.

Haha, no only a laptop, but a decent one though.

[bond85]

Okay, so after the one miserable season managing HHC in Holland, I decided to try my luck in Italy and Serie C.

The club I chose was Siena.

Edit: the loan players pictured below went back to their clubs the day after the screenshots were taken.

 

Edited May 21, 2021 by bond85

[Rabbix]

... aaaaaaaaand sacked. Should have expected this since this team had basically no players, but hey, we beat Lugano? Once? Anyway it's time to reset next again

[bond85]

I finished the first season yesterday, and fortunately it went quite a bit better than my Dutch adventure.

I started the season losing my two most exciting prospects for free because they were transfer listed and also out of contract when I came to the club, It's probably a well known bug. This put me in an impossible situation, as they would not sign a new contract because they were transfer listed - and I could not take them off the transfer list because they were out of contract. Both of them teenagers (4,5 and 5 star potential), both would have been first team regulars. 

A quick review of my team told me that my goalkeeper is my best player, and I have two solid CB's, a good CM and a decent winger. I also have a somewhat promising left sided player who can operate at full back or in midfield, and one okay AM. In addition to this, I have three really old players on expensive three year contracts. Eros Schiavon (38) was the club captain, while Andrea De Falco and Marco Guidone, both 35 years old, started the season as team leaders. (Spoiler alert: I am now in pre-season preparing for season 2, and none of them are here now (well, except for Guidone, who retired and became a scout)). 

Anyway. The board expected me to finish in the relegation playoffs. In the Serie C, that means somewhere in the range of 16-19. 20th place means automatic relegation. The season preview placed me 18th, so my goal was simply to avoid relegation playoffs = finish in the top 15.

Halfway through the season I found myself in 12th place (7-3-9 (33-35) and 24 points). After this I struggled a bit, but after adopting a new tactic in February I finished the season really strong, winning seven of my eight last matches. That put me within reach of the promotion playoffs (places 2-10), but I ended the season in 11th place, one point behind Triestina who grabbed the last playoff spot. 

During the season I improved my Youth Facilities, Junior Coaching and Youth Recruitment, but a worry is that even though I am not even remotely close to spending my entire wage budget, I lose money every month. Rumour has it that a takeover could be on the radar, but my club-loving owner denies it. Of course he does.

Youth intake ("golden generation", they said) in the next post.

[Proffa]

3 hours ago, syemo said:

How do some of you guys play so fast? Do most IR in these sort of challenges?

I have a decent quad-core PC with SSD drive.

The game has top divisions from Italy, Spain, Germany and France selected as playable. And all (six) divisions from England where I'm playing.

I use mainly instant result but lately I have played most games, probably because Premier League - and now EURO Cup - offer a new challenge.

 

[bond85]

So, Siena Youth Intake 2021-22 (first) season:

Both players with the coveted five start potential are, of course, unambitious, and one of the two 4,5 star talents has low self belief. 

I signed all youth candidates because I wanted to let some of the oldest players in the squad go, and by the end of the first season all three aforementioned oldies had declined so hard they are no longer Siena players (two were released, one retired and became my new scout.

I am quite optimistic before the new season. I finished the first season strongly, and have my preferred starting eleven. The manager is studying for the third coaching license, so my reputation and trust is growing.

However, Siena's set vision is to sign players under 20 and under 23, and also to sign players and sell them for a profit. Well, there won't be any signings, now, will there! 

That, the fact I am losing money and that I might lose ANOTHER five star potential player, dampens my expectations a bit. My now 17 year old fullback, who played in almost half of my games as a 16 year old, signed his first professional contract - wait: his first professional NON-contract. So now he can leave on a free, and there are interested clubs circling. I check every day if he will be willing to discuss new terms, but HE JUST SIGNED NEW TERMS - REMEMBER? (FFS)

[XaW]

Happy for you Carl!

[DazRTaylor]

6 hours ago, syemo said:

How do some of you guys play so fast? Do most IR in these sort of challenges?

My PC is my vice in life.  I am medically retired from work, am teetotal on medical grounds, don’t smoke etc etc. So I spent a fortune on a then top of the range custom built PC, with 128GB of memory, two top graphics cards, a monitor that cost £800 on its own and it is my pride and joy,  it also means it processes very fast.  When I holiday in England for one season to enable me to pick a newly promoted side, it take less than six minutes to holiday the months needed.

[syemo]

I know I'm on a really old MacBook now. And processing isn't the quickest. Immersion for me is when you can get a few games played and progress quite quickly. Maybe not loads of seasons but quick enough, hard to get into the save when you know you'll lose most of the matches the first season or two. Might have to restricted it to the nation Im playing in I guess. Thanks for the replies 

[JLAB]

If there is one thing that is great about Siena in the first season, it's their amazing sponsorship of £2M at the beginning of the save, so some of the financial burden will be lifted at the beginning of each season.

 

[libbyshuss]

15 hours ago, syemo said:

How do some of you guys play so fast? Do most IR in these sort of challenges?

yeah, I tend to IR. Plus in these challenges I have far fewer leagues loaded than normal so the game processes a lot lot quicker too

[libbyshuss]

8 hours ago, DazRTaylor said:

  When I holiday in England for one season to enable me to pick a newly promoted side, it take less than six minutes to holiday the months needed.

wow, that is fast! i thought mine was pretty fast at 15 minutes or so!

[XaW]

         

Merthyr Town - Season 2023/24 Review

Table | Squad | Transfers | Finances

A much better season that the last two. This time we were even up and sniffed on the playoff spots at one time, but in the end we settled in mid-table. It's a world better than the relegation scraps we've been involved in the last seasons, and I hope this bodes well for the future seasons. But as long as we stay here in the middle next season, I'm more than happy with out progress.

In the FA Cup we beat Morpeth and Hereford before we lost to Barnet in the 4th qualifying round.

In the FA Trophy we beat North Leigh before losing to FC United in the 3rd round.

Youth

The previews are pretty good.

Not great personalities, but good potential at least.

Luke Davey 24e is a really promising defender. His pace isn't amazing, but most defenders here are much slower than him.

Statistics:

Spoiler

Added Switzerland, Portugal and Guinea-Bissau to the list of countries this time around.

Record Breakers:

Most goals in a match: Eli Phipps - 4
Most goals in a league match: Eli Phipps - 4
Most player of the match awards: Eli Phipps - 8
Most league goals overall: Eli Phipps - 63
Youngest player: Oliver Richards-Savage 24k - 15 years, 108 days
Youngest goalscorer: Oliver Richards-Savage 24k - 15 years, 108 days

Trophy cabinet:

None

[JLAB]

Atlético CP – Season 1 – 2021/22 Youth Intake Preview

So this might be the most depressing youth intake preview I've ever seen. The fact I've literally not been told rather or not my intake is actually going to be good leaves a lot to be desired.

[libbyshuss]

Mirassol - Brazil

Season 4 - Serie A

Finish: 18th (releagation)

Season Summary

Well, I feared we had been promoted to the top flight too soon and so it proved. We started well enough, 2 wins, 4 draws and 4 defeats from our first ten left us just outside the relegation spots, but i felt we had been unlucky in a couple of those draws and defeats and could be a bit higher. The winless run in the next 13 games wasn't unlucky though, and we found ourselves rooted at the bottom with only 2 wins from 25. we rallied pretty well in the back end of the season and put up a good fight, with 3 wins in the last 4, but it was too little too late and we go back to Serie B. Not the end of the world though as we go back a much better side and club. We'll be back!

Players

Rafael Silva - now 30 he just keeps getting better and better. 50 goals in 56 games in a team battling relegation is unbelievable really.

Once it looked like we were going down i decided to give a couple of the youth players some top flight experience. The best at the minute are:-

Walter Junario 22A - His stats weren't great with 2 goals and 4 assissts from AMC but he definitely improved with his game time. Hopefully next season will be better.

  

Raphael Vicincius 22B - Played 52 games this season, mainly due to his versatility. Made some huge improvements over the season as well and will hopefully be an important player for years to come. Being able to play in lots of positions is pretty invaluable really.

   

 

Youth

I was looking forward to this one as it was the first one with good youth facilities. I wasn't disappointed! The preview was encouraging enough with my second golden generation promised in a row

It looked promising but didn't quite prepare me for the intake itself:-

It might be the best intake i've had, not just because of the number of high potential players but because of the personoalities and determination with them as well. I'm really excited about the class of 25!

The best of the bunch was probably Richard. Not sure whether to train him as a winger or keep as a stiker yet

This fella looks promising too

I signed them both up as soon as I could. Just look at my proud face!!!

 

Finances and Improvements

It might not be premier league money but you still get a few million thrown at you for being in Serie A. I spent it all on improvements which should be finished in time for the new season. We're nicely set up now for the next few years with both quality facilities and a buttload of promising youngsters in the reserves and U20s. The future is bright!

 

[The_Gato_In_Goal]

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.

[vikeologist]

Vikeologist's 28th Folkestone Intake Report and 24rd Intake Review 

The most important thing was to get a good striker. The preview wasn’t that promising, but it did suggest that the top guy might be in that position, and the intake bore that out.

He doesn’t look fantastic, but he doesn’t need to be to be of use to me. The rest of the intake looks weak, and honestly it probably is, but I feel good about it just because of the striker.

Luke Charman 28a – This is he. Let me explain the situation. I have 2 good strikers, but beyond that is a morass of failure. Club legend Michael Morgan is 34 and on the decline, so my sub has been someone who was supposed to be promising; Jonathan Strudwick 25a. He has played 743 minutes this season, and scored 1 goal. That is the only goal he’s scored in his 36 career appearances for us.

Honestly his attributes look fine. He should be good. According to my coaches his weaknesses are that he doesn’t get stuck in and is inconsistent, but this is misleading. When I watch him, not only does he not get stuck in, he is basically a spectator. He is consistently nowhere to be found. He started the season with 5 star potential, but that’s dropped now. I’m ready to write him off, and finally I have someone to put on the sub’s bench in his place.

Luke is already at 2 stars which is what Strudwick still is, (he doesn't look as good when you compare the attributes, but as discusses, attributes aren't the problem with Strudwick), so it’s that rarity for an intake at this point in the challenge, a player who will get his chance straight away.

The rest of the intake does look useless. Most of the other top prospects will have to be played badly out of position. The entire intake is on the shoulders of Charman. However, our squad is short on good players, and this intake didn't really help our depth-wise.

 

YP24 Review

Jack Hercules 24a – Just as I needed a striker this intake, 4 years ago I needed a central defender even more, and Jack went straight into the first team. My worry was that he was too short at 181 cm, and he’s only grown 2 extra cm. To be honest, he’d probably be better as a central midfielder, but I haven’t had any good central defenders come through since, and he’s developed into a good player, perhaps because of first team action. I probably need a 3^rd central defender as much as I needed a 3^rd striker, but they don’t have a goals scored stat to make you notice when the young kids aren’t developing.

Paul Concannon 24b- Wasn’t going to get many chances as a right winger so I’ve developed him as a central midfielder, and he’s 4^th on the depth chart, so is in the first team squad and plays occasionally. (He’s actually my 10^th best central midfielder though according to the coaches. Half the first team are better in that position than him, despite playing in other areas).

Oliver Barfoot 24c – Decent goalie on loan for the 3^rd season in a row.

Baden Romain 24e – Sort of joint 2^nd string right back, so in the first team squad.

Honestly, apart from Hercules, there’s not much to talk about. I regarded this as part of my string of bad intakes, which stretches to about the last 6 now, but I did get one useful first teamer out of it, which stops it being a bust.

[thomas_e]

 

Rimini Calcio FC

Season Summary 2029 - 2030

Promotion! 

Long time since my last post, had to give FM a bit of a break, and I even forgot to post a summary of the 2028-2029 season. Last season we managed to finish 3rd, a big step up from 8th the previous season. Unfortunately we got knocked out straight away in the play offs, but it was still a good season! 

This season we wanted to fight for direct promotion and we really delivered! We won the league and secured promotion with three rounds left! 

We started the season really well and early on I thought we had a good chance of winning the title. We made a couple of changes to the starting 11, promoting some promising players from the U18 and they immediately delivered. We made some small tactical changes during the course of the season and to be honest each little change made us a little bit better. We finished the season with 41 in goal difference, scoring more goals and conceding less than anyone else, which tells a story of a great campaign. This was our 7th season in Serie B and it was good to finally secure the promotion. With our terrible finances we haven't been able to do any upgrades to our facilities and even though we will probably be relegated from Serie A this will give our economy a much needed injection! 

 

           

 

Edited May 22, 2021 by thomas_e

[Vlach]

Last Update FC United

 

Well, it came as no real surprise to me, our goalkeeper Lavercombe retired after his injury. 

 

And all i got left were the youth goalkeepers, no one ready for first team-football. We conceded every game way too many goals, because the young keepers most of the time didn't react or way too late. Well, in spring, after many many losses i was sacked. Too bad that in my early intakes there never was a goalkeeper whom i was able  to develop at least to a decent level.

Edited May 22, 2021 by Vlach

[bond85]

19 hours ago, JLAB said:

If there is one thing that is great about Siena in the first season, it's their amazing sponsorship of £2M at the beginning of the save, so some of the financial burden will be lifted at the beginning of each season.

 

Absolutely! It made it possible to spend £1,6m developing my youth facilities.

[Vlach]

FC Messina

 

Next try, Italy again. 

 

 

 

Prediction

 

Squad

 

[The_Gato_In_Goal]

Thankfully not my match, but Huelva certainly outperformed their xG

[thomas_e]

We weren't the only surprise team to gain promotion to Serie A this season. 

We (Rimini) were tipped to finish 14th place, we ended up winning Serie B. We got directly promoted together with Foggia (2nd place) ,who were predicted to finish 9th place.

And adding to the underdog joy, Casertana won the two leg play off final 4-3 against Parma, and they were tipped to finish 19th!! In the semi final they beat Sassulo 3-1 over two games, and they were tipped to finish 1st, with a very good squad! Casertana won the first 7 out of 8 league games this season. We faced them in the 9th round and smashed them 4-0. That was the end of their great run, but they managed to hang on to a play off spot and finished 6th, a fantastic season. How often do you see an AI managed team tipped to finish 19th place out of 20 teams gaining promotion? Crazy! 

It will be a very interesting relegation battle in Serie A next season...... 

 

[JLAB]

I have never seen that side get promoted to Serie A before. I thought Südtirol getting promoted was a shock to the system. Casertana might be an even bigger one than that.

[A_Sober_Paddy]

What determines the ability of pre-gens in game?

Also with regens?

Is it purely down to facilitates or is there more at play? Like tier within the league structure, reputation of club/league/nation?

[vikeologist]

7 hours ago, A_Sober_Paddy said:

What determines the ability of pre-gens in game?

Also with regens?

Is it purely down to facilitates or is there more at play? Like tier within the league structure, reputation of club/league/nation?

This is my understanding.

The reputation of the nation has an effect. Italy is always going to produce better players (on average)  than a tiny nation, even if you max out your facilities.

I'm not sure the reputation of the league has an impact on this, and I'm not sure about club reputation. 

Essentially the way to maximise your intake is through facilities, but that's only increasing your odds. There's a lot of chance involved.

[XaW]

8 hours ago, A_Sober_Paddy said:

What determines the ability of pre-gens in game?

Also with regens?

Is it purely down to facilitates or is there more at play? Like tier within the league structure, reputation of club/league/nation?

Have a look the opening post of this thread. There is a long list of things there.

[JLAB]

Atlético CP – Season 1 – 2021/22 Youth Intake

If there was one thing that I was fearing when I took over Atlético CP, it was the quality of the intakes I was bringing in. For my first intake, this feels me with a lot of dread. My worst ever intake on FM 2021. The worst part is, I mean that quite literally.

 

The only person that was of note in terms of potential was Caeiro, and even then, he was pretty bad. If he can even reach that potential, then happy days we might be able to celebrate something from this horrible intake.

Though being based in Lisbon and having to compete with Sporting CP and Benfica probably doesn't help us in the slightest.

[Ronaldo Beckham]

Aachen FC Season 9 Youth Intake

Another great intake. I am very lucky cos of the great facilities and coaching I have I can now produce some great players.

Here are my facilities and coaching.

It dents my finances each season but luckily the prize money for Bundesliga 2 is very good. I got 10 million last season for mid table finish which helps greatly with developing facilities.

Here are some of my top prospects.

Alban Deja(YP86) - German Central Defender

Mirko Altenbeck(YP87) - German Attacking Midfielder

Maxim Jensen(YP88) - German Right Back

Gerritt Bohman(YP89) - German Right Winger

Patrick Uth(YP90) - German Goalkeeper

Talking of youth prospects my first team is basically full of players that come through the youth system.

 

[XaW]

          

Merthyr Town - Season 2024/25 Review

Table | Squad | Transfers | Finances

This is what I would consider a breakout season for us as we moved over to the Southern region of the Vanarama regionals. I tweaked the tactic to give us more goals, and we did get a lot more goals, but we also conceded quite a few more as well. Still, it's a net gain, so I'll consider it successful. We had a good chance of making the playoffs, but we had a horrid finish where we lost 4 of the last 5 and slid down the table. It was a very good season though, and with a bit more experience I think we have a shot at pushing for a playoff spot.

I also got accepted a request for an improved youth level, and the board started building better youth facilities, and that will really help us down the line.

In the FA Cup we beat Wimborne, Rushall Olympic, Scunthorpe, Maidstone, and Blackpool before losing to Barnsley in the 3rd round.

In the FA Trophy we lost to FC United in the 2nd round.

Youth

The previews are pretty good.

Really good potential, but I need more ability really.

Alex Pembridge 25a is a very talented player, and his pace will make him a good winger for us.

Statistics:

Spoiler

Added Switzerland, Portugal and Guinea-Bissau to the list of countries this time around.

Record Breakers:

Most goals in a match: Adam Amos 22i - 5
Most goals in a league match: Adam Amos 22i - 5
Most assists in a season: Joshua Mannings 22k - 15
Most player of the match awards: Gareth Barlow 23d - 9
Most league apps overall: Kelland Absalom - 217
Most league goals overall: Eli Phipps - 76
Fastest goal: Carl Orchard - 23 seconds

Trophy cabinet:

None

[Ronaldo Beckham]

Aachen FC Season 9 Review

After 9 long seasons I have finally entered the Promise Land of the Bundesliga through an Automatic Promotion.

A lovely 2nd place finish and highly unexpected but finally my squad started to gel and I had a great goal scorer in Adekoya.

Samuel Adekoya(YP28)

My other stand out player is Ruud Van Leeuwen(YP23) who got 15 goals and was a Dutch Delight on the wing.

Transfers

My aim for the next 3 seasons is to just stay in the division. Anything else is a bonus.

 

 

[Proffa]

XaW, how did you manage to change the region? Or why did it happen? 

[JLAB]

It happens automatically depends on where the club is and who gets relegated from the National league. Some teams could be on the border of the North/South leagues and if enough "Northern" teams go down, they could be transferred over to the South league to make up the numbers.

[XaW]

12 minutes ago, Proffa said:

XaW, how did you manage to change the region? Or why did it happen? 

My club is located just around the North/South line between the divisions, so if more teams North of us are promoted, then suddenly the line is above us. So I guess I can swap between them based on what teams around us are in this tier.

Perhaps @JLAB put it better!

[Proffa]

That makes sense. I didn't know it can even happen in FM. 

[Padders]

On 21/05/2021 at 22:08, DazRTaylor said:

My PC is my vice in life.  I am medically retired from work, am teetotal on medical grounds, don’t smoke etc etc. So I spent a fortune on a then top of the range custom built PC, with 128GB of memory, two top graphics cards, a monitor that cost £800 on its own and it is my pride and joy,  it also means it processes very fast.  When I holiday in England for one season to enable me to pick a newly promoted side, it take less than six minutes to holiday the months needed.

Wow 6 minutes!

[Vlach]

Messina - Youth Intake 2022

 

Well, could have been worse, could have been better. I will sign all of them because i got not many youth players anyway, and two youth-squads to fill. Happy although that there is a talented goalkeeper

[Vlach]

Messina - Season Review 2021/22

 

 

First things first, i signed in my first week at Messina a perfectionist HOYD Later i was able to improve the youth recruitment.

The season had its up and downs, but after some good wins in fall I was quite certain that we will have a chance to be not relegated. And so it was:

 

The squad is good enough to give us for the next years a chance to survive in the Serie C - until hopefully some better youngsters arrive on the big stage. The two things that worry me are that the strikers are beginning to age and not very good at scoring goals - and that we have not many capable central midfielders. Oh, and generally we got some older important players - aas mentioned above i hope they still have 2-3 good seasons in them.

 

Key Players:

Joao da Silva - 7.1

Good young defender who is still improving a bit

Francesco Marone - 6.98

A reliable goalkeeper, with 23 years hopefully not too injury prone

Guiseppe Palma - 6.90

Our best midfielder. Capable of driving the team forward.

 

Competitions:

Spoiler

Finances:

Spoiler

Transfers

Spoiler

Best XI:

Spoiler

Records:

Spoiler

Summary:

 

Edited May 24, 2021 by Vlach

[vikeologist]

Vikeologist's 2048/49 Folkestone Season Report

We only improved by one league place, but it doesn’t tell the story of our progression. We were near the top of the table early on, but drifted away. With 5 or 6 matches to go and nothing to play for, I blooded a lot of my youngsters and backups. I’m reasonably optimistic for next season.

 

Top Goalscorer – Liam Carter 25d - 39

My 18 year old striker blossomed this season. I didn’t play him for the final matches of the season, or his tally would surely have been even more.

My other starter, Dave Jackson, provided a respectable 27 goals, and again, was rested at the end of the season.

I mentioned last year that Dave had been revealed at 22 to not like big matches, so I put him in a mentoring group with 2 more influential players who do, but it hasn’t shifted things. It’s possible that his pressure has increased by 1 or 2 and I can’t tell, but I think I’m going to have to abandon the attempt to correct this.

Having looked through the forum, it seems that enjoying big matches has nothing to do with mentoring, and can only be increased by actually playing in big matches. I didn't know this. I assumed it was to do with the pressure attribute. I've been doing mentoring all wrong. I've been quarantining my senior players who don't like big matches. Pointlessly.

As mentioned in my intake report, there’d been a dearth of goals behind my 2 starters. Resting my top 2 strikers meant that I could see who was my 3^rd best striker.

I thought it would be my most recent top regen Luke Charman 28a, and he did score 2 goals in 5 starts, but it turns out I had a good striker I didn’t even know about, Dan Jones 27e, who scored 4 in 5. As you can tell from his ‘e’ designation in an intake I bemoaned, he was supposed to have only 3.5 star potential when he emerged, but now his potential is up to 5 stars. He came out of nowhere.

Highest Average Rating (minimum 10 matches played) – Liam Carter 25d – 7.30

Man of The Match – Liam Carter 25d - 12

 

Most Valuable Player– Liam Carter 25d

 

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

I have 5 players, count them 5, who are first team starters from my YP 21 intake. They’re all around 22 years old, and it seems very possible that one of them may approach this record. They’re all in the 200s for appearances at the moment though. Even if they all played every match for the next 8 seasons, they probably wouldn’t break the record. We don’t usually play more than 50 matches a season at the moment.

 

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

Made 5 sub appearances, but didn’t add to his record. Again, this record isn’t in any danger for a while.

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 

 

[Proffa]

vikeologist, what tactic are you using? You scored so many goals but conceded a lot too.

[vikeologist]

1 hour ago, Proffa said:

vikeologist, what tactic are you using? You scored so many goals but conceded a lot too.

Yeah, I use attacking mentality. That's why, if a striker isn't scoring, or has one goal in his entire career as my nominal #3 had, it's a problem. I hadn't even noticed my goals conceded this season. I'm used to it, but 94 goals is the most for  while. In 23/24 I conceded 131 in the league alone.

 

[JLAB]

Atlético CP – Season 1 – 2021/22 Season Review

So our first season wasn't ideal. We won our last three games of the season to ensure we survived for next season in a league campaign that we had to were only six points clear of the relegation zone, which shows just how close we came to be relegated in the end.

I found myself selling one of my "better" players after he complained about lack of first-team football. Yet because of that I was said to solve my financial problems as a result of that. Who would have known?

As a result of getting my National C badge, I found myself improving rather nicely. I can see my reputation and ability getting better as we get more badges and winning competitions over time. 

Having only playing 26 games after getting to the 4th round of the Taça de Portugal only to lose to Liga NOS side Portimonense, we didn't improve any of our facilities or our reputation, but given that at one point we were looking like we were in a relegation fight and had a horrid start to 2022, I was much happier knowing that we might have finally found a system that helps the players out for our bid to try and get promoted to the 3rd tier next season.

[DazRTaylor]

Youth Candidates

Season 2030/31

Unió Esportiva Extremenya

We had another decent preview:

The intake was another good one with a few going straight into the first team squad.

[XaW]

           

Merthyr Town - Season 2025/26 Review

Table | Squad | Transfers | Finances

Steady improvements, and this season continues the trend. We finally got into the playoffs, but failed a the first obstacle, away to Eastleigh. Still, I'm more than happy with how things are going. The most important thing though, we got an improved youth category at the end of the season!

In the FA Cup we beat Swindon Supermarine, Darlington, and Morecambe before we lost to Gateshead after a replay in the 1st round.

In the FA Trophy we beat Histon and Basingstoke Town before losing to Boreham Wood in the 4th round.

Youth

The previews are pretty good.

This intake is really good. Lots of potential, but also some good ability this time. Not the best personalities though.

Owain Edwards 26e is a really good midfielder, and I think he can be really useful for us.

Statistics:

Spoiler

We added Belarus and South Korea this time.

Record Breakers:

Most goals in a season: Gareth Barlow 23d - 34
Most league goals in a season: Adam Amos 22i - 32
Most player of the match awards: Adam Amos 22i - 9
Most league apps overall: Kelland Absalom - 257

Trophy cabinet:

None

[Colossus]

 

Coutinho becomes our first player to earn a Youth Cap for Portugal, not bad!

[libbyshuss]

Mirassol FC - Brazil

2026 - Season 5

Serie B - 2nd

Season Summary

We started again with the state championship. I'm treating it like a pre-season and using it to experiment and try out youths and whatnot. Even doing that, we had our best state championship yet. We were great, finishing 2nd having only lost once. We lost in the quarter final on penalties but the run put us in great form and morale heading into the league proper. We started as we finished the state championship and at the halfway point we were 13 points clear having only lost once in 19 games. The second half of the season didn't prove to be as easy as we somehow contrived to throw away that massive lead to go into the final game of the season 1 point behind Botafogo who had hunted us down. No matter, our final game was against Botafogo! They hammered us 4-0.

Ah well, promotion was ours if not the title!

Players

Richard 25A - The pick of the bunch from that crazy 2025 youth intake. I gave him a chance in one of the state championship games and he scored on his debut. So  I played him again and he scored a hattrick. His third ever game saw him score after 19 seconds. I'd found a new hero! I might have got a little over-excited there as the rest of the season wasn't quite as good, and he went 10 games without a goal at one stage. Still, 8 goals in 18 games at 16 years of age isn't too shabby, I just need to manage him carefully I think. Look how happy he is scoring on his debut!

    

Luan 23A - The best of the 2023 intake, he turned 19 this year and got his chance in the first team. He took it and became our first choice keeper. Over 7 average rating as well, which isn't bad for a keeper. 4 star potential too, who knows how far he'll go

   

Youth

So after the amazing intake of 2025 I was looking forward to 2026 with even better youth facilities.

The intake promised another golden generation!

But the intake itself was a bit of a let-down. Two 4 star potentials, which isn't bad tbh. I'm usually more than happy with two 4 star peeps in an intake but.....

We'll see. I can't see any prospects for fast-tracking to the first team squad anyways.

Finances and Improvements

We finished the season with 1.5m in the bank, me taking my continental coaching license and both the training and youth facilities improved. We're in a much better position going into Serie A now - if we can stay up we should be able to make even more improvements. Or, I could end up yo-yoing for a few seasons like I did in Denmark back in FM20.

 

 

 

Edited May 24, 2021 by libbyshuss
I plum forgot the youth intake. The whole point!

[Brother Ben]

@libbyshuss love the player pictures!  Richard 25a looks absolutely delighted   

Edited May 24, 2021 by Brother Ben