The FM22 Youth Academy Challenge

[craigcwwe]

Would I be eligible to partake in this challenge using a club from a downloaded DB? At like level 12 of the football system in that country or is that not allowed?

[XaW]

1 minute ago, craigcwwe said:

Would I be eligible to partake in this challenge using a club from a downloaded DB? At like level 12 of the football system in that country or is that not allowed?

Yes, if it's a real league, created as it is (or at least close enough) to mirror how the real league is. So no fantasy leagues or the like.

Of course you have to take a team promoted into the lowest possible tier after a season. If the lowest tier doesn't have relegation, you have to holiday a season and take over the team that finished bottom of the lowest tier.

[Tush]

40 minutes ago, XaW said:

The first season is often the hardest because of exactly what you are experiencing now. At least with an intake you should have more or less a player at each position, however horrible they may be!

Yeah I wish I can gather some points until then and make a miracle comeback to save the team from relegation, but it has to start happening soon, not like this 

[XaW]

3 minutes ago, Tush said:

Yeah I wish I can gather some points until then and make a miracle comeback to save the team from relegation, but it has to start happening soon, not like this 

Ooof! That's a tough start to the season! Hope it turns around for you!

[WhiteCat33]

Soo this happened:

I can't blame the guy, but this puts us in a world of hurt. Time for 16 year old GK Time

He's 'worse' than my backup, but not by much considering what I have here. He was one of those unambitious with 1 Determination players.

Was hoping for one year before this happened so he could play Pro B to work into competitive games, but nope

[Tush]

Looks promising, maybe it can save me because we have 2 points from 17 games, only 13 games to go and at the moment teams safe from relegation have 18 points 

[Daddy]

Youth Intake Preview:

For some reason dev center only showing one player from last year, so I used this chopped up email.  This early and with absolutely no depth in the roster I'll take everything they send our way. There's no dire need of anything right now though as the team is performing way ahead of expectations.

Chile Cup Break:

The season pauses for a few weeks while the early rounds of the Cup take place. The squad seemed to really take to the style of play (slow, controlling possession, but tight press on defense). I've had to deal with some injuries and suspensions and the lack of depth has turned a 1 goal win into a draw o, but I'm definitely not worried about relegation! With expectations of only making it to the second round I expected to have some time off to heal the team up, but the team has gotten hot and now made it to the Quarter Finals. 

[OlivierL]

19 hours ago, Habituz said:

Mine just average of attributes combinations with some also averaging in combinations, coloured from red - yellow - blue for 1-20, then the top corner attribute score determines which get bold+italics and I set it to level I'm playing i.e. Vanarama North is 10, but as aiming for promotion set it to 10.5, once in Vanarama i'll set to 11.

Giving an example Endeavour is Agg, Bra, Det, and Wor, Physical Presence is Bal, Str, and Endeavour, Dribbling Ability is Dri, Tec, Cmp, Awareness (On Ball), Decisions (On Ball), Focus, Endeavour, Mobility, and Physical Presence.

very interesting, and do you use it like me to decide which youth to sign after intakes and on what to train them? And also for composing your squad or what do you do with it? 

[XaW]

3rd consortium, perhaps?

[Habituz]

32 minutes ago, OlivierL said:

very interesting, and do you use it like me to decide which youth to sign after intakes and on what to train them? And also for composing your squad or what do you do with it? 

Usually use it to help me understand what my squad is good at, sometimes also if a player is great or bad at something I use it to give a personalised role/instructions ie Shaw in my save has awful mobility so has roles/instructions for when he needs to cover players, usually dm or dc, sometimes rb. I played possession style as my squad had good passing, control with below average shooting and heading so want good chances to compensate. Youth wise, I'm still figuring out how it can help me, but trying to see if using it to guide individual and role training at under 18s level is good or not this game.

[OrToDaRy282]

Meet the new manager of Chertanowo Moscow!
I saw this club DNA and I was sold!
@Darren 1867: Russia 22 may for new teams, 27 june new date.
 

Edited January 2, 2022 by OrToDaRy282

[JAwtunes]

4 minutes ago, OrToDaRy282 said:

Meet the new manager of Chertanowo Moscow!
I saw this club DNA and I was sold!
@Darren 1867: Russia 22 may for new teams, 27 june new date.
 

Nice. They were relegated last season so became eligible for the challenge this year.  tbh i thought we would see quite a few Chertanovo saves - perhaps the cold winters are putting people off!  GL.

[jepze]

Jepze - Edinburgh College - Season 2024/25

 

Squad | Transfer | Finances

The first season in tier 7 was great. We were figthing for promotion in the start of the season, but a bad run in the start of the new year and in the end of the season cost us a top places in the league. But to secure the spot to next season was the most important thing we could do. Now we're goind to develop our players a bit more. I'm just started a little mission to remove all the players, there not from our academy, but some of them are key players in there positions, so maybe a little bit more time, before we only got players from the academy. The players is developing slowly, but they er getting a bit better every week, but it's hard to get the best of the talents on the bench in the starting XI, because there is a big step from the bench to the starting XI qualities. Otherwise we won our first cup. There is 2 trophies in our carbinet now.

One the finances side, we are just growing our balance, but the debt-payment on 17K DKK a month cost us, that the finances only makes around 100K profits every season and the debt is down to 1,3M DKK now. Hopefully we can go semi prof soon, get some coaching badges and get bettere youth recrutting and junior coaching.

The HoyD said, "We are getting a golden generation", for the 3rd time in a row. When i looked at the players, i can't find the gold in the generation. 

Four of the players are going directly into the senior sqaud and getting some game time from the bench. The first one is Gregor Bremner, who is a clinical striker, but he is missing some pace to be really dangerous.

Second one is a new backup goalkeeper. Mikey Lally got some decent stats in handling and reflexes, but still needs to develop a bit, to be our new nr. 1.

The two last players in the first team squad isn't something to celebrate for, but they fill the bench and will get a little bit of game time.

Manager statistics

Edited January 2, 2022 by jepze

[Makoto Nakamura]

Not holding out much hope here.

[TheWillsy]

South Shields season 2: 2023-24

A decent first season at national league level, as we never really looked like going down but didn't trouble the top end either. This meant as we went further in the FA Vase we could focus more of our attention on this, and we were able to make to the final where we narrowly beat Notts County for our first piece of silverware!

Our intake preview looked okay again, with four and half stars:

However the intake wasn't great, and the personalities were poor again so I've brought in a new model citizen hoyd for next season.

We also had a fan takeover at the end of the season, which was actually quite dissapointing because the old owner was happy to upgrade the youth coaching and recruitment twice again, and was putting in money to cover losses too. We are also losing our goalkeeper (captain), and one of our midfielders on frees who are two of our best players. We don't really have anyone ready to step up, especially in goal, so next season could be a lot more of a struggle.

Edited January 2, 2022 by TheWillsy

[JLAB]

Beira-Mar – Season 9 – 2030/31 A New Tactic

So between December, January and the beginning of February, we only picked up 2 victories from 7 matches. We lost more games than we won and it disappointed me. However, our last game we decided to try a new formation.

The table see us just 6 points clear of the relegation playoffs, showing that the 2 wins we picked up were indeed, very important for our survival. We need to pick up more victories if we want to continue our survival.

As for the new tactic? This was what we ended up going with. I found that I had great strength in depth in my midfield, and that I wasn't using it to the fullest extent.

It was when I looked at this screen that I realised that I should be using my CM and AMC roles more. It's helped that my Great DM can also play as a CM, so it makes sense in the long run.

For more information as to why I made the calls that I did, feel free to watch my latest video down below.

JLAB's YAC with Beira-Mar Part 54

[thomas_e]

SpVgg Unterhaching

Youth Intake 2031

 

Another intake without spectacular talent, but still plenty of promising players. Andreas Fahrner has the potential to become class! 

 

         

 

[Koetzer]

Ungmennafélag Njarðvíkur – season 2038

It’s hard to match the opposition when several of their players are valued more than our whole club As for our U19 team, it seems like match practice really was the main issue in recent years as now after a set of friendlies they reached the Youth League final, only losing there to Braga (quite disappointing after destroying two big German teams).

We conceded only three goals in the league, two of them when our first choice goalkeeper missed a game with injury.

Cups – three finals against KR, and all three ended 0-0 after 90 minutes. They took two pre-season trophies, but we were better in the main one. 

Champions League – it was a much harder group than last year, so we could only hope for 3rd place and it wasn’t easy even after a confident away win. Shakhtar then surprisingly defeated Chelsea, so we had to get at least a point to overtake them and did it in our 4th game against PSG this year. Unfortunately, our key defender Steingrimsson suffered a serious injury in this game and will miss all the knockout stages, which will start against Monaco (it's second time when we face them on the same stage and actually fourth year in a row when we start against a French team).

Youth League – won the group, as usual.

Transfers – only sold backup and reserve players who were easy to replace.

Squad stats – this season marked the change of generations at front, Guðmundsson is now the first option while Þorsteinsson missed several months with hip injury and started declining   Eliasson and Þorbjarnarson made their national debuts, increasing the number of our academy graduates in the national team to 11. It’s interesting that they have to compete for the place in starting eleven, because second central midfielder spot is reserved for Ulfarsson who finished the season with a new assisting record and average rating of 8! 

Youth intake

Roşca *38a | Hjaltested *38b | Antoníusson *38c | Viðarsson *38d | Pálmason *38e | Pálsson *38f

Another top midfield prospect from our foreign affiliate (btw we added two more links recently, Shandong and Wellington Phoenix - initially commercial ones, but both with exceptional youth recruitment and negotiated for youth affiliation later) and a good (though unambitious) left-back who isn’t much worse than our starter on this position.

Unfortunately other Icelandic clubs don’t help us in keeping the national rating higher, and we are going to have a very busy summer again

[XaW]

XaW - Avenir Beggen - Season 2027/28 - BGL Ligue

Squad | Transfers | Finances

It's kind of strange, but in some ways I think we had a better season than last this time around. But looking at the table, it's not exactly mirrored there. We finished 3 spots lower with one less point, but we score more and conceded less than last season. The main reason we are not higher on the table is because the players are to inconsistent yet, I think. Just about the whole squad are aged 16 to 19, so very few experienced minds keeping their cool. But it's understandable, and I think we are on the right path. No Europe next season, but I hope we can go back there in the near future.

Since pretty much everyone in my squad is now a player from the youth intake, I'll change to just highlighting the best. Mathéo Tressy 26a is the best talent at the club, and our undisputed key player. His deal is good for 2 more years (plus 2 for extention), but I have no hope in keeping him longer than that. He will move at some point, but I just hope I can get a sell-on fee when it happens. Lyon and Monaco are already sniffing around him. Paulo Alves 26f is the main goalscorer of the team, and the coaches are really rating him now. Simão Nova 26k is our goalscoring goalkeeper and has so far 9 goals to his name.

I've finally gotten a new coaching license as I finished the Continental C. The board have so far refused to approve another. The financial income from Europe gave me a chance to improve both the youth and training facilities. They are still very bad, but it's a start.

Coupe de Luxembourg: We beat Swift Hesperange and Jeunesse Canach before we lost on pens to Etzella in the Quarter final.

Europa Conference League: In our first go in Europe we managed to beat Armenians FC Noah before we faced a much bigger side in İstanbul Başakşehir of Turkey. We fought hard and held them to a draw at home, but away we were nowhere near their level and got knocked out in the 2nd qualifying round.

Youth intake:

Another strong intake, with some great talents.

Yann Scheilz 28d is a very promising midfielder, and he has very good physical attributes.

Luke Bartholomey 28e is more well rounded, and I think he might be useful.

I'm very excited for Jeff Hilbert 28g. Two-footed and some nice distribution of attributes.

Tomislav Jakupovic 28h is another great defender, and he even is quite fast compared to our other defenders at least.

Trophy cabinet

Éierepromotioun - 1 (2024/25)

Coupe de Luxembourg - 1 (2026/27)

[XaW]

Just had our first player to get an international cap! Paulo Alves 26f started for Luxembourg in their friendly 6-0 win over San Marino. Scored a disallowed goal after only 8 minutes, but couldn't find the net any more. Did end up with an assists though!

[SoftyPants]

Been wanting to do this challenge for some time now. Since Santa was kind enough to give me FM22, it's time to get cracking. I'll be heading over to Denmark. Seems we've a fair bit of work ahead. I don't expect this to work on the first go, haha.

The facilities are actually quite nice so there's potential if (and that's a BIG frackin' 'if') we manage to survive the storm.

Here's ol' me.

 

 

[OlivierL]

3 hours ago, Koetzer said:

Ungmennafélag Njarðvíkur – season 2038

It’s hard to match the opposition when several of their players are valued more than our whole club As for our U19 team, it seems like match practice really was the main issue in recent years as now after a set of friendlies they reached the Youth League final, only losing there to Braga (quite disappointing after destroying two big German teams).

We conceded only three goals in the league, two of them when our first choice goalkeeper missed a game with injury.

Cups – three finals against KR, and all three ended 0-0 after 90 minutes. They took two pre-season trophies, but we were better in the main one. 

Champions League – it was a much harder group than last year, so we could only hope for 3rd place and it wasn’t easy even after a confident away win. Shakhtar then surprisingly defeated Chelsea, so we had to get at least a point to overtake them and did it in our 4th game against PSG this year. Unfortunately, our key defender Steingrimsson suffered a serious injury in this game and will miss all the knockout stages, which will start against Monaco (it's second time when we face them on the same stage and actually fourth year in a row when we start against a French team).

Youth League – won the group, as usual.

Transfers – only sold backup and reserve players who were easy to replace.

Squad stats – this season marked the change of generations at front, Guðmundsson is now the first option while Þorsteinsson missed several months with hip injury and started declining   Eliasson and Þorbjarnarson made their national debuts, increasing the number of our academy graduates in the national team to 11. It’s interesting that they have to compete for the place in starting eleven, because second central midfielder spot is reserved for Ulfarsson who finished the season with a new assisting record and average rating of 8! 

Youth intake

Roşca *38a | Hjaltested *38b | Antoníusson *38c | Viðarsson *38d | Pálmason *38e | Pálsson *38f

Another top midfield prospect from our foreign affiliate (btw we added two more links recently, Shandong and Wellington Phoenix - initially commercial ones, but both with exceptional youth recruitment and negotiated for youth affiliation later) and a good (though unambitious) left-back who isn’t much worse than our starter on this position.

Unfortunately other Icelandic clubs don’t help us in keeping the national rating higher, and we are going to have a very busy summer again

Great prospect that Rosca 38a guy ! 

[jepze]

Reports for the next intake is just coming in the door. It looks great, but nearly the same as the 4 first ones. The players with A is normally only 1-1,5 star rating. Hopefully is this one better, when they come to the club in March. 2 good CM's is great to see. Right now we only got 1 good CM and 2 AMC who plays in the CM roles. The good CM is original a DM, so it's fantasti to se we got 2 players here.

 

They also says, that there are coming a okay winger. Maybe a formation change will come when the intake is coming to the club.

Edited January 2, 2022 by jepze

[Tush]

The board has given me a month to make things look better and gain some confidence

19 games played, 2 points from them, 24 goals scored and 72 goals conceded, I have to get the intake now because with 10 real players and no strikers, there's not much I can do 

[LazyBandit]

FC Bern Season 2 2025/26

League Table

Squad

I expected us to have a bit better of a season, but I couldn't have imagined this! Not only did we gain promotion, but we did it in by scoring a goal on the final kick of the final minute of the final match of the season. Thanks to last season's intake I was able to switch to a tactic focusing on wing play, and it clearly worked out. We started off hot and never really slowed down, but so did Ajoie-Monterri. We were trading first and second all throughout the season but in the end we pulled through in storybook fashion.

Intake Preview

Still not great, but I'm not in a position to complain. Striker and left-back are our pressing needs in terms of positions.

Intake

Much better than last year's intake. A few player who will instantly be coming off the bench for us some decent personalities. Overall I'm pretty pleased with this year's crop. All but Pires were signed.

Shkodran Jonuzi - Vincenzo Muci - Martin Meyer - Rudolf Mensah

We added 7 new countries in this year's intake.

Countries: 13/227 (5.73%) - Regen Intake Map

Upgrades

I finally managed to convince the owner to upgrade both the junior coaching and the youth recruitment.

Conclusion

This was an incredible year for us. We managed to get promoted, in dramatic fashion, at least a year earlier than I expected us to. Next season however I suspect won't go nearly as smoothly. But progress is progress, and I hope to continue building on this with our upgrades.

[Tush]

It wasn't meant to be  I may try to holiday it again just to see if the team gets more players so it would be playable, but using 2 grey players in all matches and only grey substitutes made it basically impossible for me to make it. If there is the same amount of players again (most probably), then I will look for other country I think, don't really want to manage another city team in my home country, it wouldn't feel as good if you know what I mean 

[thomas_e]

SpVgg Unterhaching

Season Summary 2030 - 2031

Good Bundesliga progress

 

Our second season in the Bundesliga and we made some good progress. Last season we started off really well, but ended the season dreadfully. I feared the worst for this season and my fears came true at the start of the season. We won only 2 out of our first 12 first games and we were looking set for a miserable season. A change in tactic and set-pieces really did the trick and we managed to turn the season around really well. We struggled a lot with injuries this year and I think if we had kept our players fit we could have finished in a European spot. In the last round we still had a shot at finishing 7th and making Europe, but it was fair enough that we didn't, we didn't deserve it after our miserable start. 

Hopefully we can progress even more next year! We got more improvements to our facilities this season as well and we are looking more and more like a solid Bundesliga club. 

 

Season Summary

      

 

Key Players

      

 

Key Talents

      

 

Edited January 2, 2022 by thomas_e

[Tush]

Attempt #2 with some different players - FK Inter Bratislava (founded in 1940)

Manager profile | Squad | Club general info | Facilities | Finances

 

Okay, after last failed attempt this one may or may not go well, I really would like this time to survive until Youth intake. Squad has kinda similar depth as last time. I have 11 real players and rest will be fielding grey ones for substitution or in case one gets suspended/injured. Not a great outlook but a man can hope that this bunch have it in themselves to survive for one season and start building from there!

Wish me luck, off to scraping points I go! 

[libbyshuss]

2060/61

Premier League

Season Summary

Another goos season where we just ran out of steam

Champions League - got to start here! We got quite a tough group with Barcelona, Benfica and Reims but were brilliant in the group stage and won it easily

The first knock out round gave us a really nice draw against Genk. A good 2-2 away draw was folllowed up by an easy home win

Quarter final draw was even nicer. Home to Clermont Foot! I have no idea how they even got this far, they haven't been taken over by a billionaire or anything. But still, there they were!

So into our first ever Champions League semi-final! We drew Roma, who were currently top of Serie A and knocked Arsenal out in the last round. It was a tough couple of games but....

Into our first ever Champions League Final!!! We would be underdogs as the opponents were Manchester City who we haven't quite caught in the league yet. And it proved a bridge too far....

       D'oh!

 

Premier League - sadly with our champions league adventure our egue form suffered. I ended up playing youth teams either side of the semi finals to protect the first team and results went a bit south. In the end, by prioritising this years Champions League we missed out on qualification for next years, which is a bit annoying. But I had to go for it!

 

Players

Our best XI. Mancic leading the way again

Branislav Mancic 54A - He's 6 foot 6! With a jumping reach of 18! I love him. Oh and this year.....

 

Youth

The youth team are still doing really well!

 

And this years preview was encouraging

 

But the intake nearly made me fall off my chair! check this fella out!

 

I don't think I've ever had anyone through the youth system that good at intake before. He's ludicrous! And a model citizen to boot as well!!! 

I gave him his debut in a league game while he was still 15 as well, cos why not? look how good he is! and....

Honestly, this lad is straight into the first team squad for next season. My own little Fabregas!

 

Career

I reckon I still got about 5 or 6 seasons left to complete this challenge before I run out of steam. I got this Argentinian database I'm dying to try out, down to fourth tier and everything!

[jepze]

Jepze - Edinburgh College - Season 2025/26

A new season was a head of us, and the board would accept us to avoid relegation, and the odds on us winning the league was 34 to the start, but got higher when the season got on. First we got a takeover again in the club. Last was in May 2024, but the new one takeover at June 2025.

They wouldn't pay out our debt at 1,15 M DKK, and the wouldn't let us use some money on our traning facilities, which get downgraded.

Otherwise in the club, we got another trophy around marts in this season. It was another cup and the money was good for the economy in the club.

The season comes to an end, and the league was very tight in the top, where we fight for promotion. The league table before the last match was this,

We need a very big victory or a big loss for Blackburn Utd. After 23 minutes, we got a penalty and Connor Laird scored, so we were even in the top of the league on points.

Right before the half, Delkeith Thistle scored against Blackburn. We were on top with oonly 45 minutes of football left in this season.

We doubled our goals in the 48 minutes with another goal by Connor Laird.

Unfortunately Blackburn United scored in the 81th minute. Back on the 2nd place. Rigth now, i was sure, that we were going to play another season in Tier 7.

BUT... 6 minutes later, Dalkeith Thistle scored again! 1-2! We were back on the top! 3 minutes to go! Let's go Thistle, Let's go!

AAAAAAAAAAND.... We are the Champions!!!

Squad | Transfer | Finances

And we got our first overall XI! It comes here.

The HoyD said, "We are getting a golden generation", for the 4th time in a row. When i looked at the players, i can't find the gold in the generation. 

Nothing os going to the First Team right now, but maybe in the future, but we need to get some first team qualities players, if we want to go away from an amatuer club to semi prof and to get better coaching, facilities and recruitments.

Manager statistics

[thomas_e]

1 hour ago, libbyshuss said:

Career

I reckon I still got about 5 or 6 seasons left to complete this challenge before I run out of steam. I got this Argentinian database I'm dying to try out, down to fourth tier and everything!

You have to see this through mate! Charles Khumalo will be the last piece of the puzzle to get you over the line i'm sure! That being said, I completed the challenge in Argentina last year myself, it was a great save, really enjoyed it! 

[JLAB]

So this is going to be a preview of my youth intake that I'll be showing today. Safe to say, it's promising.

[Tush]

Looking much better than last attempt where I had 2 points from 20 matches 

[OrToDaRy282]

Due to a power outage while my save was being saved my save file is corrupt!? Even my back up doesn't want to load anymore. Anyone of you had this?


Further stuff:
Training? Do you create your own schedules? How do you train? I'd like to hear your stories!

[jepze]

15 minutes ago, OrToDaRy282 said:

Due to a power outage while my save was being saved my save file is corrupt!? Even my back up doesn't want to load anymore. Anyone of you had this?


Further stuff:
Training? Do you create your own schedules? How do you train? I'd like to hear your stories!

This is for FM 2018, but maybe it can help you, https://www.footballmanagerblog.org/2018/07/fix-corrupted-football-manager-save.html

And when i get to prof, i'll make the training for my team, but at amatuer state, we nearly got 1 training a week, and i don't care about it, but set the individual training :-)

[OlivierL]

Africanos Bragança - First International call-up - 13/11/28

Our first academy player that has been called up by Cape Verde ( U20).

Happy that this is happening because i really couldn't understand that my players didn't received any callups, many of my first team players are better as most U23/u20 selected Cape verdean players. But they were only selecting players that are playing in the Cape Verde first division.

 

Edited January 3, 2022 by OlivierL

[Vespertine]

Ton Pentre - JD Cymru South

I've long been an admirer of this challenge and have spent hours pouring over the annual threads right back to the original one almost a decade ago. I picked up FM just after Christmas in the sales and started immediately with Ton Pentre in the Welsh second tier, however didn't sign up to post initially as I wasn't sure I'd stick it out. That was 4 seasons ago however so we're picking this particular career up a few years in (don't worry, you haven't missed much!) 3 games into season five. It's rejuvenated my love for FM after I barely played 21 or 20 (12, 15 and CM0102 were my faves) so although completing the challenging itself in Wales is highly unlikely it will be interesting to see what I can (or more likely can't!) achieve.

Story so far

22/23

23/24

24/25

25/26

 

The overall headline is not a lot exciting has happened! We've never got quite close enough to challenge for promotion and other than in 23/24 for an 11 game losing run actually had us level on points with the relegation places after 27 games, 3 wins from our last 3 propelled us into the top half of what was a close league. I finished 25/26 very strongly with 9 games unbeaten and I've taken that into this season with three wins from three so far.

Our Heroes

Mostly academy players at this point, not all received tags but due to us not being able to offer anything other than month to month contracts I've had a lot of my original squad poached over the last 4 years. That said we've come a long way from only having 11 players and no keeper in season one, which our first intake standout Foulston now the star of the show.

The Admin

 

I don't have a screenshot from the start of the career as I didn't originally intend to post though this shows in the top right that I started with Sunday League experience and (still) have no badges.

 

 

 

Edited January 3, 2022 by Vespertine

[Daddy]

2022 Season Review:

Team came out of the Chile cup beaten up and tired and were never really able to regain any semblance of form. Regardless, smashed the expectations of fighting against relegation. Also overperformed in the Chile Cup making it to the Quarter Finals.

No transfers as expected, and also talked the team into improving recruiting.

2022 Youth Intake:

Y22C immediately moved into starting role, and Y22A saw some time as backup striker. Otherwise some depth to hopefully grow into the team as a few players from the legacy squad will be nearing retirement in the next few years.

2023 Season Preview:

I suspect a similar season to the last. Low expectations from board and media, but I think we'll aim for mid table.

 

The club also started up a B team.

[JLAB]

Beira-Mar – Season 9 – 2030/31 Youth Intake

So our new formation is picking up points against teams below us, but not so much against the better teams in the division. Still, we're picking up wins, and that's all I can ask for.

The table makes things look a lot more comfortable now that we've picked up all of those victories.

However, when our latest youth intake arrived, I was greeted by a sight that I was never expecting. An incredible young talent that was already good enough to be considered the best player in my squad.

Meet Álvaro Leal, perhaps the best 15-year-old centre-back that I have ever seen. He is a monster who can become something else if he can develop. Between himself and Fedele Landi from my FM 21 Siena YAC save, I have produced some really impressive 15-year-old centre-backs over the years 

For comparison's sake. This is Fedele Landi. Who is the better centre-back at the age of 15, Landi or Leal?

To show off some other exciting young talents, we have Gary Williams.

Simon Reed could be a really good centre-back if he wasn't so unambitious and weak in some areas.

Bruno Lasca I've decided I want to make into a centre-back, he has the attributes I need as a centre-back. He's also 6'6"

Miguel Rodrigues is also an exciting centre midfielder, who could play as a DM or an AMC

Fernando Raínho is also another exciting left winger.

My latest video shows off our latest games and some of the ways we have been scoring our goals. As well as my reaction to Álvaro Leal's arrival.

JLAB's YAC with Beira-Mar Part 55

[SuperRedditch]

Well, here goes.

I played about 11 seasons of this challenge in FM21, as Real Jaen in Spain. I loved it, got to LaLiga but pesky IRL commitments got in the way of far more important matters like Football Manager and I had to put the save on hiatus - ended up just never going back to it.

I've read the entirety of the thread over the last day, and the endeavours of @libbyshuss in England have me hooked. So I'm doing my classic save, the team I'm named after, Redditch United.

Profile

I've taken The Reds to Premier League domination before, a few times, but I've never done it as a Youth Challenge. It's insurmountable, I probably wont finish, but these things are more about the journey anyway, right?

[Habituz]

End of Season Review

Season 2023/24

South Shields F.C.

Season Summary

Season went great right up until last game, I quickly got 2nd in league and mostly stayed there bar a few times I made 1st. Made playoffs, lost in the finals. So another season in the bottom league.

Season Details

League Table - Finished 2nd

Spoiler

League Fixtures

Spoiler

Cups - Made the 4th Qualifying Round in FA Cup again, but only the Fourth Round in FA Torphy

Spoiler

Squad Dynamics - Good but nowhere near as good as last year.

Spoiler

Transfers - Nothing this year

Spoiler

Youth Candidates - Realised I only took a screenshot of the email so not as detailed as last years

Spoiler

Thanasis Kardakaris YP24a - Highest Potential but worried by unambitious

Finances - Still ok, but making a slightly loss over season.

Key Players

Top Scorer with 29 Goals, Highest Average Rating at 7.64, Joint Most Assists at 13, Most Man of the Matches at 16 - Ntumba Massanka

Joint Most Assists with 13 - Jordan Hunter (was solo most last year)

Stats of everybody who played in 1st Team

Spoiler

Next Season

Aim is to win the league, and skip the playoffs

Personal Coaching Data

Season     Reputation            Qualifications          Att   Def   Fit   GkD   GkH   GkS   Tac   Tec   Men   WWY   Ada   Det   PlK   YoK   LoD   MaM   Mot
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
At start   Minimal   (0.25*)     None                      1     1     1     1     1     1     1     1     1     7     1     1     1     1     1     1     1
2022/23    Minimal   (0.75*)     National C Licence        5↑    5↑    1     1     1     1     6↑    5↑    6↑   10↑    1     5↑    5↑    5↑    5↑    6↑    6↑
2023/24    Minimal   (1.25*)     Continental C Licence     9↑   10↑    3↑    1     1     1    10↑   10↑   10↑   13↑    1     8↑    8↑    8↑   18↑   10↑   10↑

As you can see Level of Discipline shot up this year.

Club Facilities

Season     Training Facilities  Youth Facilities  Corporate Facilities  Junior Coaching  Youth Recruitment  Club Reputation
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
At Start   Adequate             Adequate          Basic                 Average          Fairly basic       Local   (1.00*)
2022/23    Adequate             Adequate          Basic                 Average          Fairly basic       Local   (1.00*)
2023/24    Adequate             Adequate          Basic                 Average          Fairly basic       Local   (1.00*)

No change yet.

Season Record

Season     Played     Won     Drawn     Lost     Goals For     Goals Against     Goal Difference     Win Percentage
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2022/23      55        29       13       13          91              49                +42              52.73%
2023/24      54↓       34↑      11↓      9↓         110↑             46↓               +64↑             62.96%↑

An improvement

Overall Career Record

Season     Played     Won     Drawn     Lost     Goals For     Goals Against     Goal Difference     Win Percentage
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2022/23      55        29       13       13          91              49                +42              52.73%
2023/24     109        63       24       22         201              96               +105↑             57.80%↑

Career Overview

Season     Champions League    Europa League    Europa Conference League              League                   Position             FA Cup                FA Trophy     Achievements
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2022/23           N/a               N/a                    N/a             Vanarama National League North         4th       Fourth Qualifying Round     Quarter Finals     
2023/24           N/a               N/a                    N/a             Vanarama National League North         2th↑      Fourth Qualifying Round      Fourth Round↓     

Record Number of Appearances (Players From The Academy Only)

Season     Player                         Cumulative Number of Appearances
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
2022/23    Finlay Proctor YP23a                       8
2023/24    Finlay Proctor YP23a                      34↑

Record Goal Scorer (Players From The Academy Only)

Season     Player                    Cumulative Number of Goals
---------------------------------------------------------------
2022/23    No one                                 0
2023/24    No one                                 0

Record Number of Assists (Players From The Academy Only)

Season     Player                    Cumulative Number of Assists
-----------------------------------------------------------------
2022/23    No one                                  0
2023/24    Finlay Proctor YP23a                    4↑

Record Number of Clean Sheets (Players From The Academy Only)

Season     Player                    Cumulative Number of Clean Sheets
----------------------------------------------------------------------
2022/23    No one                                     0
2023/24    No one                                     0

 

Edited January 3, 2022 by Habituz

[OlivierL]

Africanos Bragança - Youth intake preview - Season 7 - Class 2029

My wishlist was : a leftback and goalkeeper. This is really urgent because two first teamers are going to retire soon.

And a first team winger/striker and a central defender. That is all i'm asking for  

And this preview seems to cover it all.. if the A's are for real this time .

[The7Striker]

So, after my Norway save crash dump i decided to try this again...this time in Bulgaria.

 

@darren1983 Start Date is June 18th

 

Lets be honest...this is going to be hard 10 players and 0 staff 

 

You better do your job good 

Edited January 3, 2022 by The7Striker

[GylfiAsCharged]

On 30/12/2021 at 16:53, GylfiAsCharged said:

Okay, time to give this a go.

Three key players immediately want to let their contracts expire in a couple weeks' time, including our only senior goalkeeper. Not an ideal start, especially given how weak our new number one is...

The squad is pretty threadbare except up front, where we have three strong options. I'll be keeping things very simple with a 4-4-2 in order to get two of our strikers on the pitch at all times, and Tyler Harvey is a decent midfield option too so I could include all three in my lineup.

As a newcomer to the challenge I guess I can't expect a better starting squad than this, and I'm grateful for the strength up front. I guess I just need to scrap for survival for a few years as we try and build some squad depth from future youth intakes.

A factor which may prove an obstacle to investment in youth infrastructure is the board's insistence on building a new stadium in their five year plan, I'm hoping I can get a few improvements in alongside the new ground.

As expected, my first attempt has been an absolute car crash. I've not been sacked yet but we have been relegated with half a dozen games left to play, rooted to the bottom of the table. Funnily enough I couldn't work out a tactical system that made the most of my threadbare defence and utterly hopeless goalkeeper who at one point left me speechless in an interaction...

No, your 6.2 rating hasn't been bad at all, and yes we deserve to be rock bottom. At the time I looked into his stats and worked out his save percentage in the League to be 51.23%. He was conceding every other shot on target!

Unable to get any kind of consistency out of a team simply not cut out for the level, I decided to have some fun and go a bit more gung-ho with my approach. Greenhalgh was an absolute sieve in goal after all, so we'd need to score loads to pick up points. This culminated in a record-breaking goals conceded tally of 125, while we outscored all but three teams in the league, including the runaway leaders Eastleigh. I had strikers score 22 and 19 goals respectively as we were effectively the class clowns of the division.

I'd hoped this decent youth intake would be able to patch my squad up but realistically I always knew I'd never last long enough to meet them.

I'm not giving up on the challenge and am wondering if I made an obvious mistake in my game setup to start with such a ridiculously weak squad. I did make sure to load players from the seventh tier, so that won't have been the problem, but it seemed impossible from the start really. Going to try another European country, so heading to Germany's lower leagues where I've not managed before for a change of scenery. 

[Pompeyboyz]

@GylfiAsCharged I am sure if you asked one of the Mods, they might be able to change your username if you are that regretful 

[Tush]

Hanging in there, 6 games to go, just 11 "real" players this will for sure be one of toughest seasons I passed if we manage to survive!

[Tush]

Looking good but only time will tell how accurate the PA stars are  at least I will have real players to use in main team and substitutes and not use grey ones ever again  season is over soon, detailed images of prospects will be there in summary

[DazRTaylor]

@XaWFrom memory you had a good save in Wales.  I am thinking about Brickfield Rangers.  Is the league fun?

[XaW]

6 minutes ago, DazRTaylor said:

@XaWFrom memory you had a good save in Wales.  I am thinking about Brickfield Rangers.  Is the league fun?

Yeah, I had a good one in FM20 (I think, could have been FM21). Quite quick seasons, and I remember I really liked it.

[SoftyPants]

So, we've reached the waning days of 2022 and I'm still hanging on to my job. And not just that, we've actually had a pretty decent campaign so far. Sure, the fans (what few hundred we have attending our games anyway) are bored to tears, but I could give a ****. We're not out of the woods yet, but with four games to go until the division breaks into promotion/relegation groups, we stand a fair chance of making it to the upper group.

As far as I can tell our better than expected results (the press pegged us at deal last) are due to three things. First, I was lucky enough to have a decent squad at my disposal. Second, the Danish 3rd division is so low rep that even with no badges and no experience the players think I know what I'm doing. This does makes me wonder why the hell I haven't quit my real job and moved to Denmark. Third, our nihilistic direct counter-attack style really has worked quite well. We implemented it at day one and never looked back.

But the real reason I'm here is to post a preview of our upcoming youth intake. Yay! Looks like we got some strikers on the way. That's good, because we're going to need them. We've only scored 17 goals in 18 games in division three. That's very little, but so is the amount of conceded goals, which stands neatly at 13. Since the club has 'adequate' academy facilities I'm not overtly surprised that our intake looks this good, at least looking at it from the low low level we currently reside in. Anyway, I've enjoyed myself immensely and am quite hopeful that I will survive the crucial first year of the challenge. See you folk in the trenches!