The FM22 Youth Academy Challenge

[XaW]

Consortium takeover!

So, loads of money then?

500 pounds... 500 POUNDS? Real difference indeed! 

[JAwtunes]

Izola - Season 6 (2027/28) Review

Amazing season.  The usual ups and downs in form and results but somehow we managed to outperform our xPTS and win the league.  A poor run in the cup and no continental football probably helped.  I am hoping for a bit of money through the CL games and hopefully an upgrade or two in out training facilities.  I am not expecting us to be able to retain our title but that's fine, this was somewhat unexpected.

On the pitch

First Team

 

Spoiler

League

Cup

Off the pitch

Youth intake - 4.5 star intake preview (excellent)

Spoiler

When the intake arrived it was described as a golden generation.  We did manage to increase our junior coaching budget between the in preview and intake arriving.

Top u19 prospects

SUMMARY

Edited December 27, 2021 by JAwtunes

[OlivierL]

4 hours ago, XaW said:

While I kind of enjoyed France, the full stop I've had for many seasons now, just killed it a bit for me. So I've decided to restart things in a much smaller country. Namely Luxembourg! Don't think I've ever managed here before, so I thought this could be a good place to try out.

So, why did I chose this club? Well, they came up into the 2nd tier (which is the bottom of the file I found), and I actually remember the name somehow. I had a look and found they were a top side in Luxembourg in the 90's, so I looked around and found out they played Rosenborg in the CL qualifiers 93/94, so that's probably where I know the club from. I even found an old YouTube video about it!

So, let's hope we can do something here in Luxembourg, I guess!

Good luck. A nation that is on my 'never played' list as well 

[JLAB]

Beira-Mar – Season 8 – 2029/30 – A £1.1M Asking Price?

Another winter period and another poor run of form. Losing to some of the best teams in the division is not ideal, especially when they come in consecutive matches. We just need to deal with it sadly enough. We did manage to win 2 on the bounce however.

Still, we're comfortably mid-table and looking like we could challenge for a top half finish. We're not in any danger of relegation, so it could have been worse.

In other news, Hugo Sandoval is looking to leave for a bigger division and I managed to agree a £1.1M asking price with him. I discuss that in more detail in my latest video.

JLAB's YAC with Beira-Mar Part 48

[Shankly84]

Really want to try again this year, but just can't make my mind up what nation to go in...

[Shankly84]

Are we allowed to play in add on leagues from custom databases? For instance Estonia or Cyprus?

Edited December 27, 2021 by Shankly84

[OlivierL]

32 minutes ago, Shankly84 said:

Really want to try again this year, but just can't make my mind up what nation to go in...

How did it end in Iceland/Haukar ?

[OlivierL]

24 minutes ago, Shankly84 said:

Are we allowed to play in add on leagues from custom databases? For instance Estonia or Cyprus?

YES if they have two or more tiers with relegation.  You have to pick a team that gets promoted in the lowest playable tier after one ( or more) years holiday.

[Shankly84]

2 minutes ago, OlivierL said:

How did it end in Iceland/Haukar ?

I didn't quite get ovet the line. Won the Europa and the Europa Conference, but never got past the last 16 of the Champions League. Was so close and loved every minute. Need another one now though...

[Makoto Nakamura]

I just want some good defenders. Please. 

[Daddy]

11 hours ago, libbyshuss said:

shocked!

was enjoying your playthrough, that is really unlucky!

 

8 hours ago, JAwtunes said:

That's tough, hope to see you back soon.  The form swing in this version certainly feels more extreme than the last version I played - I'm not enjoying it.

 

I'll definitely be back with a new one soon. I wanted to take a tiny break and do the whole signing players thing

I always liked the unemployed journeyman so I'll do a few seasons and then probably start a new Youth and alternate seasons.

[XaW]

XaW - Avenir Beggen - Season 2022/23 - Éierepromotioun

Squad | Transfers | Finances

So, our first season in Luxembourg went quite well. Our league position is a bit flattering after a very good finish, since we at one time looked closer to a relegation battle, than the upper half. The issue for us is that we can only give amateur contracts, so during the season we lost a couple of our best players. I also could never use any of the players from the intake, since the registration had closed. In the end we finished with 17 players in total. Looking forward to next season where I can have a full subs bench in every game! The fact that a couple of my players are retiring as well, makes the youth players likely to get loads of game time next season.

I had a consortium take over the club, but not much change. I did get the National C licence done, and I'm working on the National B. I've also managed to convince the board to some small improvements to junior coaching and youth recruitment, but it still needs further investement.

Coupe de Luxembourg: We lost to Mamer in the 2nd round.

Youth intake:

Any intake is good, but this was quite nice.

Ben Theis 23a looks like a rather balanced midfielder. Not excellent at anything, but well rounded.

Alessandro Ruppert 23b is a rather creative attacking player. I think he could be a good attacking midfielder for us.

Sérgio Gola 23c can finish, but not much more. Will probably be useful though.

Trophy cabinet

None

[v1n1akabozo]

Anyone playing in England would mind telling which are the exact names of the unplayable leagues directly below the 6th tier in order to get full squads? Their names are very chaotic and often change.

[DrJones]

Recreativo de Huelva 2026/2027 review

We absolutely dominated the league from start to finish, I did not expect such a great performance by the team so I am a little bit surprised to be honest. The players are decent and the squad is kind of good but to perform at this level trough a whole season is crazy. Has our Italian owner made some calciopoli-thing here in spain or could it just be that I am a true football genius like David Moyes? Either way, we are playing in la liga next season and I can not wait! I feel that we are ready and the only thing that matters is survival. Another fun thing for the fans is that we are going to face our fierce rivals Sevilla for the first time in many years.

Squad

There are going to be two players from the OGs left when we start next season, other than that I have to praise our Indonesian striker who really made the difference in many games.

Youth Intake

Vamos Recre!

[Makoto Nakamura]

2043/44 Youth Candidates

Well damn, Bruce Mackie has been in the form of his life this season scoring close to a goal a game, but it looks like he'll be replaced!

[OlivierL]

Africanos Bragança - Youth intake preview - Season 5 - Class 2027

This could be a very good one ! really need a good defender and everything else is always welcome.

[Makoto Nakamura]

2043/44 End of Season Review

Our league form faltered this year and we finish down in 4th but that doesn't matter because New Elgin are septuple winners! Junior Cup, Aberdeenshire Cup, Aberdeenshire Shield, Grill League Cup, McLeman Cup,Inter-Regional Cup & North Regional Cup Winners!!!

  

Overall Best XI

2043/44 Best XI

Craig Farrell (YP12n)

Liam McLeod (YP16m) - Darren Palmer (YP14f) - Grant Hill (YP12c) - Kevin Rae (YP15c)

Wayne Dunbar (YP13a) - Ian Kane (YP21d)

Iain Considine (YP15a) - Daryl Sturrock (YP18f) - Hamish Renforth (YP13b)

Bruce Mackie (YP12d)

[libbyshuss]

12 hours ago, v1n1akabozo said:

Anyone playing in England would mind telling which are the exact names of the unplayable leagues directly below the 6th tier in order to get full squads? Their names are very chaotic and often change.

There should be an option saying 'regional premier divisions'. I think its that one.

If not, then it's these 4 you need (they're the 4 regional premier divisions):-

 

edit: oops, sorry, those southern leagues are the ones below the premier divisions

these are the ones you really need

 

Edited December 28, 2021 by libbyshuss

[libbyshuss]

2057/58 (season 36)

Premier League

Season Summary

Started well, dodgy run in the middle, ended well

League - we went 4th in December with a 1-0 home win against Man UTD. Whcih obviously kicked off a run of 1 win in 12, which dropped us to 12th. The nadir was a shameful 2-0 home defeat to 18th placed Fulham. But the next week we went to Forest, who were 17th, and won 6-3. This kickstarted a run of 13 unbeaten that took us to the end of the season. With 1 game to go we were 5th, playing newcastle in 4th. Win, and we would have Champions League football next season! We were 1-0 up after 4 minutes, and held on until the 88th minute when they equalized. It finished 1-1, which did neither of us any good, as Spurs leapfrogged us both. So, a 6th placed finish in the end, which isn't too bad.

If I can keep that end of season form going into the new season, who knows?

FA Cup - out in a 4th round replay away to Chelsea

 

Players

So this season was all about Odita and Mancic. They were both so good they pushed the rest of the squads star ratings down!

Bransilav Mancic 54A - he surpassed all my expectations this season! I started him up front, and he did ok, but after christmas he exploded, at one point scring 15 goals in 9 games. Hopefully he's finally that world class striker I've been searching all this time for!

My third goldenboy winner as well. Hopefuly he fares better than the last two winners.....

Emanuel Odita 52A - Stalwart of the England midfield now! He singlehandedly drove Daniel Bennets rating down from 4.5 to 3.5! He looks amazing, especially if his mentals improve over time like they should

Karol Kovacik 52B - Well, he started the season appallingly, something like 6.5 average from 10 games, then broke his leg. D'oh. Came back at the end of the season and was a bit better but pressure is on him next season

 

Youth

Odita and Mancic even affected the youth intake! the preview was another 5* golden generation but then.....

once the intake came in it was only a good intake and 3.5 stars! bah.....

I've had that happen a couple of times before, always a little annoying.

First intake with this new HoYD I stole from Liverpool (for 5m!) as well. 20 determination, 20 youth potential, Determined personality and...... those personalities and determination ratings are disappointing. I think I might have to go back to a professional personality HoYD. The spread of personalities was much better with a professional HoYD. hmmmm....

Good news from the U18s though...

 

Career

 

[Makoto Nakamura]

We're getting a promising Centre-Back!!!!

[DrJones]

They laughed at us before the game, not so much after. Do not mess with Recreativo de Huelva!

[JLAB]

Beira-Mar – Season 8 – 2029/30 Youth Intake

So we've had an interesting time before our youth intake arrived, we can draw, but not score. It feels like our old weakness of not scoring goals is coming back again, and it's getting rather frustrating.

Despite our scoring problems, we are still able to say that we should be safe from relegation. Amora and Benfica B are already down, while we are 10 points clear of Louletano. So even if we were to lose our last 6 matches, we will be safe.

Our latest youth intake has also arrived, and it looks rather promising. Not a single really bad personality from a good player until we get to João Castro, which in itself isn't took bad.

Gustavo Freitas is a very versatile defender who can play in all three defensive duties, even if he is fickle, I will 100% take versatility.

António Vaz looks like an incredible right winger who I can turn into a superstar if I can develop him properly. His fairly ambitious personality should help him develop quickly.

The other really exciting player is Mário Rafael, who looks like a really balanced midfielder that can be really good if he develops.

In our latest video, I go over more of our intake, so if you are interested in those kind of videos, feel free to watch it.

JLAB's YAC with Beira-Mar Part 49

[OlivierL]

 

Africanos Bragança - Portugal - Youth Intake - Class 2027

Preview

A great intake with high determination avg. and 3 players scoring above 40% , great for this level / Africanos ! This is our best class .

   
Sanchez 27A had the best PA but the three that scores above 40 are Tavares 27H (future B2B or maybe i could use him as a IF ?) & Almeida 27B gives me new options up front. I received two good defenders with fairly pro Veiga 27G being my best option (maybe not tall enough) !

Edited December 28, 2021 by OlivierL

[andreidvb]

FM 22 YOUTH ACADEMY CHALLENGE

BOGNOR REGIS TOWN FC

SEASON 1 and 2 UPDATE

 

Happy holidays everyone and all the best for the new year.

Giving this challenge another go, hopefully it will be a third time lucky.

Profile

 

 

Season 1  2022-2023

15th place Vanama National League South

 

Summary

Squad

Transfers

Youth Intake

 

Season2 2023-2024

16th place Vanama National South

 

Summary

Squad

Transfers

Youth Intake

Edited December 29, 2021 by andreidvb

[OlivierL]

INTRO | S1 | S2 | S3 | S4

Africanos Bragança - Portugal - Season 5 (2026/2027) Review - 3rd tier - Liga 3

 

Squad| Youth Intake 27 | Transfers | Finances| Fixtures 1 | Fixtures 2

Liga 3 : After a very tough and weak season in the regular league, I started the relegation stage with two points less.In the last game I had to get at least a point against our rival and we won that game.I got a very good intake and managed to keep everyone so next year I hope to finish a bit higher in the league table and survive easier. I expect to be in this division for a few more years before I can compete for promotion.

Taça de Portugal: Lost narrowly in the third round against Vizela from LIGA NOS.

U19 : Our U19 finished 4th in the second tier and survived in the relegation stage.

Key Players

  

Pereira had a solid season at the back and Graça had a good season but this time only 6 clean sheets.

Academy graduate with most Appearances (This season)

Oliveira 24i played for the second season in a row the most games as Academy player.

Miscellaneous

New kits after our first promotion !

This was necessary because we have to pay back a loan of 250k

At the end of the season and with financed in red , the board accepted a new improvement after asking for it 10 times.

Aim for next season

After a good intake and retaining the basic team, I hope to finish a little higher in the regular league. With weak financial numbers it will be difficult to make the next step this year.

Cape Verde Watch

National Team | U23 Squad | U20 Squad

Cape Verde lost in the quarter final of the Africa Cup against Ghana . Ghana won the Africa Cup.

MVP Cape Verdean International

Season Facts

Edited January 9, 2022 by OlivierL

[OlivierL]

Africanos Bragança - Youth player Poached - 2- 7/6/27

The first one that got poached in 2024 came through the youth intake :

What a player ! but like in my Caley Braves save.. player that get poached never get the foreign nationality (Cape Verdean in this save, French in Caley Brave save) so they would never came through in my own intakes.. i reported this two years ago.

[Padders]

I swear to god this game is rigged

[thomas_e]

SpVgg Unterhaching

Youth Intake 2030

Another decent intake, not as good as last years, but still good! Some of the players lack a bit of determination which is a little worrying, but hopefully that can improve with time. 

 

         

 

[jepze]

 

I'm ready to start this challenge for FM 22. I'm starting at Gainsborough, and hopefully, we can get a good first year and a good youth intake.

Edited December 30, 2021 by jepze

[lewis999]

Season 3 Review - AFC Amsterdam

League Table

We managed to snag a playoff spot because of Jong Ajax and Jong Utrecht but we weren't really ready for it as we got beat by Go Ahead Eagles quite convincingly.

Youth Preview

We do need defenders and wingers so this is almost a perfect preview. Lets hope its accurate for that playoff push next year.

We also convinced the board to give us our last upgrade to the Junior Coaching which is massive for us going forward.

Well...We got a potential wonderkid in the shape of Italian Antonio Giordano! We're going to struggle to keep a hold of him. Alongside him we have a good LB in Koopmeiners which we needed badly. Very happy with the intake.

[lewis999]

Season 4 Review - AFC Amsterdam

League Table

Another playoff spot this season and another slight improvement which is all you can ask for in this save. Only 2 points off 6th shows the steps forward we are taking.

Another play-off loss against the 4th placed team and still not good enough to go up just yet.

Intake Preview

Another unbelievable preview with a 5* rating.

Youth Intake

WOW, WHAT AN INTAKE! I don't even know where to start with this one. Farre looks like a guy who is going to score a LOT of goals! Van de Looi is a very pacey wide man who will come in very handy! Chris Braber is probably going to be re-trained into the DM position!

 

 

[TheWillsy]

Can't resist giving this challenge a go every year, especially when reading through all the updates .

So here is my manager:

We are starting at South Shields, who are predicted 17th but have a good starting squad and decent fanbase so let's see what we can do 

[thomas_e]

SpVgg Unterhaching

Season Summary 2029 - 2030

Bundesliga survival

 

Looking at the table we had a great first season in the Bundesliga. Finishing 13th, well ahead of the relegated teams is great for a team tipped dead last. But still, we only won 3 out of our last 15 games and struggled miserably. We certainly cant be looking upward on the table for next season, all we can ask for is to survive! 

Our key player, Andrews Acquah-Agyemang doesn't want to renew his contract and has been saying for the last three years that he wants to see it out. I don't think he can play for a top side so I don't really understand why, but we will keep him instead of cashing in. 

A very positive highlight this year is Mohamed Ouni, our 16 year old central midfielder. He is one of the top global talents and lets hope that we can keep him. Extremely gifted and he has progressed a lot throughout the season! 

Playing the last few months of this season was a nightmare, I really hope that we can turn our form around for next season. 

 

Season Summary

      

 

Key Players

      

 

Key Talents

      

 

[thomas_e]

It's really strange that the commercial/sponsorship income bug still hasn't been fixed. We are now getting less commercial sponsorship income in the Bundesliga than we did when I started the save in the 3rd Bundesliga. 

This has been the same the last few FM's, the fact that this hasn't been fixed is crazy. 

[XaW]

XaW - Avenir Beggen - Season 2023/24 - Éierepromotioun

Squad | Transfers | Finances

First of all, it seems like I took over a geriatric ward here! After the first season I had 3 player retire and now 2 more are hanging up their boots. Oh, well, over to the football. We were so utterly close to a playoff spot this season after we had an amazing finish to the season. We hovered around the upper midtable for the most of the season, but towards the end Schifflange had a horrid time and the chasing pack with us along Alisontia Steinsel and Medernacht almost caught up. If Schifflange hadn't won their final match 1-0 over Union 05 we would have caught them and taken the playoff spot. So very close to potentially going up, but at least it looks promising for the future seasons.

A few of the youth players got a lot of match time this season. The best on is probably Alessandro Ruppert 23b. He played in the creative role behind our striker, and he was very often 3rd last on goals. So while he goals and assists are not amazing, he was a really good contributing factor this season. Scott Joachim 23g also got a lot of matches, but that's more due to the fact we don't have much in the left back department.

We had yet another consortium buy out the other consortium that took over the club last season, but this didn't invest much either. Still, I managed to get in some improvements to the junior coaching and youth recruitment. The board have stopped letting me take more coaching licenses since they are afraid I might leave. If I only could tell them, I intend to stay...

Coupe de Luxembourg: We lost to Union 05 in the 2nd round.

Youth intake:

This intake was much better than the first one. Also some nice personalities.

Jeff Wagner 24a is a promising defender, and we need some good defenders.

Karim Gautier 24d is the outstanding player of the intake. Looking forward to getting to use him.

Trophy cabinet

None

[Koetzer]

Ungmennafélag Njarðvíkur – season 2037

We were better than Villarreal at home, but unfortunately could only score once and finished the tournament on the same stage as a year ago. Our U19 team couldn’t pass the first playoff round once again, losing to Rosenborg.

Cups – we didn’t have extra games in summer, so could concentrate on domestic trophies and finally managed to win all four during the season!

Champions League – and we advanced to the playoffs for the first time! Saved both games against Milan with late equalizers, exchanged narrow wins with Benfica and even had a chance to win the group before the last matchday. PSG will be our next opponents, we hardly have a chance against them but who knows.

Youth League – another good group stage, and this time I will manually set the friendlies for our U19 team after returning from holiday (guess lack of match practice was the reason why they were struggling in playoffs).

Transfers – Eyþórsson left on a release clause (which is our new transfer record), luckily all other important players signed new contracts without it.

Squad stats – Þorsteinsson turned 30 but still keeps great form, he broke his own goalscoring record despite having less games to play than in previous seasons. Center-back Oskarsson and left winger Hjaltested made their national debuts this year.

Youth intake

Sigurgeirsson *37a | Tóth *37b | Júlíusson *37c | Guðjónsson *37d | Grétarsson *37e | Guðbrandsson *37f

A few seasons ago we signed affiliations with Hungarian MTK and Romanian Concordia (both teams have excellent youth setups), and the first link produced some results now. Tóth's playmaking skills already look impressive!

[Makoto Nakamura]

2044/45 Youth Candidates

What an amazing intake!!!

v

[aldojags]

@thomas_eOuni - ooft!!!

[OlivierL]

6 hours ago, thomas_e said:

It's really strange that the commercial/sponsorship income bug still hasn't been fixed. We are now getting less commercial sponsorship income in the Bundesliga than we did when I started the save in the 3rd Bundesliga. 

This has been the same the last few FM's, the fact that this hasn't been fixed is crazy. 

Didn't noticed that in my RW Essen save.  If you get into the Bundesliga , the sponsorship income isn't important anymore

[libbyshuss]

2058/59 (season 30-something)

Premier League

Season Summary

we were able to carry on our fantastic end of season form! This season our first 16 games returned 10 wins and 6 draws and put us second, one point behind Arsenal, heading into Christmas. Where we then promptly lost 3 out of 4 to drop down to fifth. Our form returned, but so did the draws and we could never quite gain ground. We ended the season on a little bit of a downer as well with only one point from the last nine. But this team have shown they got the ability to compete now, which is nice

FA Cup - our best run in years, all the way to the quarter final, where we lost a relatively easy home tie 3-2 to Derby. Bah.

Europa League - we were good! It was mainly the reserve team again but they performed really well. All the way to the semi-final!

 

Players

Mancic 54A is the real deal! after a few false starts its amazing to finally have a striker everyone else can be jealous of. He's gonna give me a chance of silverware if I can keep him.

6 ex-wonderkids in this starting XI now. I might not get a better XI than this if I played for 100 seasons more. Not that I'm gonna be putting that to the test.....

After no wonderkids in the last top 50 this was a nice surprise:-

Its doubtful either will be anything more than really good squad players but still. Fogarty is a nice surprise - he's been on loan at Coventry and performing really well. I suspect he'll be in the first team squad next season. Dobias was our Europa League striker and did really well. 9 caps for Slovakia already too, although his PA is only 2.5 stars at the minute.

 

Youth

Another good preview and underwhelming intake. So I sacked my expensive HoYD and went and brought back my old one. After all, he did bring me Odita 52A and Mancic 54A. Why did I ever sack him in the first place?

I suppose I shouldn't really be complaing about a 4 star potential, but honestly, his attributes at the moment are rubbish.

It was those awful personalities persuaded me to pull the plug on my HoYD. No more determined personality, back to professional I go!

 

Career

I made it smaller. It's stupid big now..... But look, our club reputation is now 4.5 stars!

[Makoto Nakamura]

2044/45 End of Season Review

We were so close! Aberdeen University fell apart so we claimed the league title on the final day and then we went and lost in the playoffs!

  

  

We'll be changing tactics again next season thanks to our latest intake.

Overall Best XI

2044/45 Best XI

Craig Farrell (YP12n)

Liam McLeod (YP16m) - Darren Palmer (YP14f) - Samuel Sesé (YP16k) - Kevin Rae (YP15c)

Justin Kelly (YP21a) - Ian Kane (YP21d)

Iain Considine (YP15a) - Ali McFarlane (YP18a)

Bruce Mackie (YP12d) - Richie Leslie (YP22a)

[DrJones]

Recreativo de Huelva 2027/2028 season review

We achieved our main target to avoid relegation pretty easy. I have to say that the difference between the top teams and the rest is absolutely insane. We had no problems with the teams that finished behind us but the with the other ones we really struggled besides the very memorable win at bernabeu against Real Madrid. The fact that we also played all the good teams in a row made the season even more strange. We finished the season by playing the top 6 teams right after eachother.

Squad

Key players

He has been with us since the third tier and is still going strong. Our most important defender that actually wants to defend. The other ones just want to attack and score like our strikers.

The big prospect att the club, he has developed a ton but his lack of ability to score and create opportunities for others is a problem. Hopefully that will change next year.

Already a true legend. Alonso always steps up with a goal when we most need it.

Youth Intake

Nice to get another swede here in Huelva, now we are two.

Vamos Recre!

[JAwtunes]

Looks like someone's had a Tycoon takeover!

[Makoto Nakamura]

Another centre-back!

[GylfiAsCharged]

This challenge always feels like the one I can't even come close to achieving every year, so going to get started in England I think, then try some other countries if I get sacked. Hopefully it doesn't come to that!

[JLAB]

Will do an update for the season review tomorrow, was playing through the season and got to the next youth intake before I realised what time it was.

[WhiteCat33]

RAAL La Louviere - Pro A 2042/43 (Season 21)

Season Review

Performance

While we did perform well in the regular season securing 63 points going 19-6-9 in the crazy competitive world of Belgian top flight that only got us 6th. For reference the season we got 4th we did it with 65 points.

We started the season very strong sitting in 2nd going into the October International Break only losing 1 of our first 11 games. Heading into the new year while we have done okay we slipped down to 5th 21 games into the season. We held 5th for the next two months with a 17-5-7 record with 5 games left to play in the season. Then I got real excited. We won two clutch 1-0 victories first Gent at Home and then an absolute stunning away win at Club Brugge. With these two wins we moved up to 4th with 62 points.

And then the team went off the rails. We had 3 major injuries in one week to starting midfielders and the subs didn't show up so we lost to 13th place Westerlo, got slaughtered 3-0 by Genk, and then drew to 15th place Beerschot VA. This dismal performance allowed both Charleroi and Club Brugge to leapfrog us up into European contention positions.

With Genk then wining the cup there was no true chance of actually getting into Europe from 6th place and it was a good thing as the awful form just festered from there. So even though it actually was a good season we went into the Summer holiday with a bad taste in our mouth with that end of season performance.

Here's our Team report though I actually swap the two CMs so Medved is the DLP and Cuny is a CM on Attack / Mezzala.

Transfers

We sold off a bunch of chaff in our reserve squad this year (Transactions). Alexandre Roland 33k - Backup AMR/CM to TOP Oss ; Ali Mejri 36c - Backup CB to Oostende  ; Xavier Meunier 34i - Backup CM to Oostende ; Abassee Yacoubou 37 - Backup CM to SC Cambuur ; and other youth players. 

We had one major transaction selling our starting AML Paul Baptiste 37c for his low 2.6M Fee release clause to Fortuna Dusseldorf. Honestly, I pushed so this would happen to lower our wage-bill as finances are a big issue for the club and we have at least 3 other players that can play AML reasonably well.

Totaled out to almost 4M in transfer revenue, which while okay isn't near enough to balance the budget.

 

Youth Intake

Preview

Intake

Lots of High Potential Here with good personalities. Will see how they develop. Not bad considering the preview we got. I kept the top 8 and tossed the rest.

First secondary Algerian in the mix as well, kinda hope he flips.

And I have 2 on the NxGn 2043 List

I haven’t really shown my Swiss player. He’s okay, his best attribute is his speed. He’s had 7 sub appearances this season, so I should try and play him more if I can. I have him focused on Attacking Movement so hopefully we can get those mentals into the reasonable range.

Finances

For anyone who's followed my progress you'll know finances are a real issue I've been having with this club. The only reason this season looks like we broke even is because the board pumped 4.7M into the club. Now while this is great in the fact that creditors aren't shutting the doors its an issue to actually progress the save. The payroll is so over because halfway through the season they cut 1.5M out of it, but there's not much I can do about it at that point.

What we are sitting on is a large amount of player value in the club...

Academy Reunion

Class of 2028 Reunion:

Spoiler

Didier Gaillard 28a – our first true Striker that played substantially for us having 245 appearances and scoring 96 goals, which while he was a player at the club was the Goal Record for the Club! He eventually was surpassed by our current Striker who is quicker and we let him go on a free in 2040. He then decided to move to Russia to play for Krasnodar, where he is a ‘regular starter’, but only plays 15ish games a season.

Wang Siyuan 28b – A Chinese second nationality AMR/FW who wasn’t ever quite good enough for us. He had 65 appearances for us over 4 seasons, then spent 2 seasons loaned out before we sold him on the cheap to Antwerp. He never really played there and then has bounced clubs in the 2^nd and 1^st Amateur Divisions till he was released over the summer.

Eric Lefevre 28c – Let go at 18 and went to player lower league at Knokke where he still plays on an Amateur contract making 219 apps and scoring 7 goals from CM/DM.

Jeremy Prost 28h – Let go at 18 and went to play lower league at Menen where he still plays on an Amateur contract making 297 Apps and scoring 14 goals as a CB.

Mohamed Gimenez 28 – Let go at 18 and went to play lower league at RFC Wetteren where he still plays on an Amateur contract making 322 Apps and scoring 14 goals as a CM.

Ilies Gaudin – Released to lower league Sint- Linaarts where he played 93 games from 28 – 35 before leaving for Ciney where he still plays making 223 Apps and scoring 20 goals as a CAM.

Jocelyn Tardy – Released to our lower league affiliate Stockel Foot where he still plays as a LB making 359 Apps and scoring 12 goals.

Francis Gillet – Also released to our lower league affiliate Stockel Foot where he still plays as a RB making 287 Apps and scoring 41 goals.

RAAL Academy Reunion Class of 2029: (tiny class)

Spoiler

Jean-Baptiste Olive 29b – Was a starter for us early in his career and then slowly drifted off the lineup as more capable CMs became available, though he always was a decent DLP for us offensively, he just had atrocious defensive stats so was somewhat of a liability in confronting dominant opposition midfields. He was part of the older cohort we released in 2040 and he decided to move to the Netherlands to play for FC Eindhoven in Keuken, where he had two good seasons before being released. He is currently a free agent, but wanted by Eupen in Pro B so he may return to Belgian football.

Lars Van Doorn 29d -A Dutch BWM/CAM who never played for us, but had 5 loans to lower league/Amateur clubs. We eventually released him with the bulk drop of 2040 and he moved to lower league Dessel where he still plays. He’s made a career 293 Apps, scored 44 goals and 45 assists .

Thierry Le Bars 29e – Another who never played for us. A CD/RB who we sold cheap to Antwerp where he never made an impact and was let go to our ground-sharing local club La Louviere Centre who yo-yos into the 1^st Amateur. He’s moved clubs a couple times always staying at that level making a career 210 apps, 11 goals 21 assists.

Ronathan Roux 29 – Released to the lower leagues where he bounced around clubs till he settled at Merelbeke in 2033 where he continues to play as a AMR having a career 314 apps, 48 goals and 10 assists.

Manager Thoughts

Had one CM and our RB get 1st and 2nd for Belgian Player of the year. And Prince as a Congo International won the Belgian Ebony Boot for best African Player of the year (Awards). I really think the team did as well as can be expected from this group of players versus the current competition in Belgium. I've played ahead through the first transfer window so rather than talking more here I'll do a follow up post.

 

Edited December 30, 2021 by WhiteCat33
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[WhiteCat33]

RAAL La Louviere - Pro A 2043/44 (Season 22: Transfer Special)

Situation in Belgium

Right now the Belgian Pro A league is without a dominant club. Both Charleroi and Club Brugge who have dominated the league the majority of the save are going through a rebuilding phase as they haven't quite replaced their true wonderkids they bought at the start of the save who are all now retired. This is coupled with Standard and Anderlecht returning to form as well as random clubs having one-off stellar seasons. Case and point Zulte Waregem were in 1st till the final month of the season when Anderlecht overtook them. Before this season they had rarely even made it into the EC2 playoffs with a couple 7th and 8th place finishes, but are typically a bottom half club. Had they maintained through the post-season Zulte would have been the 6th club to win the Pro A in 6 seasons. That is 1/3 of the teams in the league as champions, which is insane.

With the league losing positions in Euro Rankings as teams aren't wining EC2 anymore the nation's fallen down to 8th. Here we only get 5 total spots for play with 4 being awarded for league finish. The sad truth of my team is it is unrealistic to set expectations of consistent top 4 finishes in the league with the current matured first team. While they can and have beaten every team in the league they just can't string together the consistent victories against the top third necessary to confidently say we can make it to Europe.

This season was really my last attempt at it. I sold off all the extra players to get at least some money to at least stem the financial bleeding and utilized youth talent in the rotation positions instead and we almost did it, but fell short. The reason this is important is without making it to Europe we just can't afford the star players in the team as the sponsorship money just hasn't increased to match the ballooning salaries they require to stay at the club. And we just aren't producing sufficient young talent to offset their costs with transfers. From rough estimate it takes about 8M a year in transfers/Board investment to balance the books with our current wage bill. That's just not feasible. 

Transfer

So sadly it is time to cash in on a large chunk of my core star players. All of them want 30-40% raises to resign contracts when the club is -14M in the bank and 750k over wage bill with some wanting upwards of 1/7th of our entire payroll for their contracts. 

First to go was my lone Serbian Bozidar Dordevic 31i more to save his 377k p/a on the wage bill.

Next I made the choice to cash in on Prince Mabiala Ngoma 36e who is coming off a season of top recognition for his performance in the Pro A league going to Anderlecht for 6.5M.

With these two sales we have done more than last season, but still its just stemming the bleeding and it fulfilled the 'repair financial damage', but we're not done.

I sold 2 backups for 600k total. Both at that point where they just are constantly out on loan or sit in U-21 until a player got injured so even though they had low salaries the cash was nice.

Then came the two big CM sales. I decided to sell both of my starters:  Killian Cuny 35c to AEK for 9.5M and Luka Medved 33c to Dijon for 7.25M. Each wanted 900k p/a salaries, which we just straight up can't afford and hadn't budged from that all of the end of last season putting them into final year of contract territory. I didn't want to risk the chance of them leaving on a free so decided to cash in now on both. What this does allow is my 16 year old phenom who is #7 on NxGn to have an unobstructed starting slot in the CM. 

This pushes us just higher than our record with 24M returned to the coffers after selling 3 of our star players.

Finances

With these sales, the club went to +6M in the bank, though it also included some season ticket money and a Board investment. While this isn't enough to get them to agree to any upgrades it brings us back into the black, slashes the wage budget considerably which hopefully will mean it won't take big sales to bring the club back to even. Now we will have 2 years of rebuilding and waiting until Fabre turns 18 and he can be sold overseas. His resigned contract starting at the end of the season will extend to 2047 with a 46.5M release clause. It seems crazy, but I think there is actually a chance he may trigger it. Even if he does that money will be what will finally allow the club to get a much needed new stadium (We sell out most every game now) and finally push to top level facilities. [I'll do an edit to add screenshots as I can't atm]

Manager Thoughts

The game is going to be slow the next couple seasons as we rebuild and give our high potential youngsters opportunities in the first team. We will see how the kids do! I really did not see this big of a financial hurdle when I picked Belgium to play in for the YAC. It's very competitive (at least in my save), pays out no money for top flight play, and produces players who demand salaries competitive with other top flight divisions. 

[andreidvb]

BOGNOR REGIS TOWN FC Season 3 and 4 update

 

Season 3 2024-2025

18th place VANAMA NATIONAL SOUTH

 

SUMMARY

Squad

Transfers

Youth Intake

 

Season 4 2025-2026

16th place VANAMA NATIONAL SOUTH

 

SUMMARY

 

Squad

 

Transfers

Youth Intake

 

 

 

[Makoto Nakamura]

2045/46 Youth Candidates

Another very good intake and we would have a great centre-back partnership if we hadn't of lost Ryan McLean, now we need to just hold on to our better players.