The FM22 Youth Academy Challenge

[XaW]

XaW - Knattspyrnufélagið Afríkuliðið - Youth intake 2025

An excellent intake, no wonder when we have so much invested in the youth setup!

This right back is just insane for this level!

[dcayton9]

@XaW @darren1983

As moderators, I guess you are the right people to ask. I had a player's release clause activated and he was loaned back immediately (without me agreeing as far as I can remember since it was a release clause transfer but maybe I just clicked through it without thinking). I honestly had forgotten he was on loan since he had been with me so long so took him for granted as a regular player, but two games into the league, I realized as he is technically loaned in it probably is a violation of the rules? I only used him for a few games of a cup competition that we are in and the two games in the league but I will terminate the loan immediately if this is a violation.

[XaW]

12 minutes ago, dcayton9 said:

@XaW @darren1983

As moderators, I guess you are the right people to ask. I had a player's release clause activated and he was loaned back immediately (without me agreeing as far as I can remember since it was a release clause transfer but maybe I just clicked through it without thinking). I honestly had forgotten he was on loan since he had been with me so long so took him for granted as a regular player, but two games into the league, I realized as he is technically loaned in it probably is a violation of the rules? I only used him for a few games of a cup competition that we are in and the two games in the league but I will terminate the loan immediately if this is a violation.

Yeah, loan backs are not allowed. If the board does it without your consent or because of a clause, try to cancel it and if you can't, then stick them in the reserves and forget they exists. Also no mentoring or anything with the player. Act as if they are not your club, really.

[dcayton9]

Just now, XaW said:

Yeah, loan backs are not allowed. If the board does it without your consent or because of a clause, try to cancel it and if you can't, then stick them in the reserves and forget they exists. Also no mentoring or anything with the player. Act as if they are not your club, really.

Was able to terminate the loan. Thanks for the fast response

[XaW]

22 minutes ago, dcayton9 said:

Was able to terminate the loan. Thanks for the fast response

No worries. Happy to help out.

[Diego D10S]

Got the sack after a awful season in Serie B. Promotion came too early  

But wasting no time, starting over with Sambenedettese.

 

 

GL ALL !!   

[OlivierL]

  

Njarðvik FC - Youth intake Season 2 - 2023

Youth intake preview

A very good intake again with a very good average determination and some good players with high CA already.  And we welcome the first intake player with a second nationality.

Spoiler

   

We got a great option for the leftback in Haraldsson 23C , a really needed striker in Gissurarson 23B and a good midfieler in Matthíasson 23G. Gunnlaugsson 23A has the highest PA and a good personality.

Edited July 1, 2022 by OlivierL

[glennuk]

Worthing FC - Season 20 - English Premier League - End of Year Review

League - 17th

We met our target. We were actually safe and 16th with two games remaining, but 1 point from our final two games saw us fall to 17th, which was our hope for this season. Scored 13 more goals than in our last EPL campaign and conceded 10 less.

Squad

I still don't think we have a Premier League level squad and the teams coming up next year are stronger than Blackpool and Forest. But we did have some pretty strong performers. Jean-Claude Kitoko (YP06A) isn't lighting it up, like he was in the lower leagues, but puts in a good shift and scores and assists semi regularly. Kirk Welch (YP13B) is better than his seasonal statistics suggest and is a workhorse in midfield (and now a Model Citizen) and Myles MIller (YP12C) still defies his low attributes to score a handful each year.

The Finances

We have all the riches (over 120mil in the bank) and not much to spend it on. Facilities are all top notch and expanding the stadium is taking forever.It is good to see we are now 3.5 star reputation, which puts us just at the bottom of the EPL rankings and slightly below one or two Championship clubs (Both of whom are getting promoted in Leeds and Newcastle).

The Accolades and a December to remember

All Worthing fans will remember December, where we had our best run and ultimately the form that kept us up. IN terms of Accolades, nothing special to see here.

The Future

In terms of the future we really now as just relying on good intakes to push us forward. We need those wonderkids to crop up, or for some of our youth players to have their 'growth spurts' and really challenge for a first team spot. It will be a harder season next year with Newcastle promoted (and expected to finish 7th) as well as Leeds who are pretty strong and a recent Premier League club.

[Daddy]

2027/28 Season Review:

Overall the season went as I expected. I thought we'd still finish in top 5 but it would be tighter. We got off to a bad start with schedule congestion, transfers, and injuries. I think  the team ran out of gas a bit at the end too. Still, back in Conference League so that's a good season. 

Lost three players I didn't want to this season. Really need to establish ourselves more to keep from just feeding other clubs.

Milan is interested and of course he wants to leave. He has a tiny release clause so I assume he'll be gone soon.

Youth Intake:

The preview looked stacked. At first glance this looks good. However, the personalities aren't great (which is first time it's bad outright bad like this year) and the skillsets don't really match my tactics. The guy I had was my original hire with a meh personality and didn't match up exactly to my formation preferences. So I got this guy:

I play 4231 but use 433DM as my backup tactic. His judging sucks, but Model Citizen sure doesn't.

2028/29 Season Preview:

I'm not worried about avoiding relegation. We didn't get hammered by the top teams this season either. I don't think we're quite ready to take over the league, but I'm still expecting a top 5 finish. For the Conference League we start in the Second Qualifying Round. Last year we made it to the fourth, so I'm hopeful we'll at least make it to the third as expected. The fourth qualifying round looks fairly brutal going back years past. Lot of good teams in there so it's a real luck of the draw. 

[_JHTB_]

Enfield Town Season 6

Vanarama National League North – 4^th – Lost playoff Final

Transfers – Fixtures (1) – Fixtures (2) – Squad – Table – Key Player – Hot Prospect

League

The season didn’t start well a heavy 5-1 home defeat to Gainsborough albeit with an early sending off and with only 2 wins from our opening 10 games I was fearing a relegation threatened season this time out. However, we then went on and won 7 on the spin to catapult ourselves back up the table. We had some weird streaks this season as after the 7 on the spin we went 4 without even scoring before getting revenge on Gainsborough by beating them 9-1. Interestingly that heavy victory actually started our inconsistent patch with no back to back wins for 3 months – though we were drawing frequently – and found ourselves in a battle for the final playoff space. In April we decided that we were a good team and won all 6 of our games to propel us to 3^rd in the league meaning a win on the final day against relegation threatened Darlington would see us qualify directly for the playoff semi-finals, alas, we lost and the first round it was that we entered.

We were drawn against Chesham who we’d had the better of during the league season but it was a fairly close game in the end our home advantage perhaps coming in clutch as after entering half time at 1-1 we scored directly after play resumed and held on for a 2-1 victory. The Semi-Final again was a cagey game this time with our opponents Hereford scoring in the 3^rd minute before we equalised and ultimately got the victory in the second half. Unfortunately, the final had us up against a Stourbridge side who have become somewhat of a bogey team for us winning 1 and drawing 2 in our 7 previous encounters. That wasn’t to improve after this one as they were clinical in firing themselves 2-0 up in the first 15 minutes at Wembley and we had no answer, they added a 3^rd in second half stoppage time to win 3-0 a hugely disappointing end to an otherwise positive season.

Cups

We were pretty fortunate in our FA Cup run this season facing lower ranked sides in all of the qualifying rounds before facing of against Divisional rivals in the 1^st – we won that game 1-0. In the 2^nd round we faced League One Accrington and we gave a good enough account of ourselves but ultimately lost 2-0; it was perhaps a little disappointing that we didn’t get a team with a bigger fan base to bolster the coffers more but we still benefited a lot from the cup run. The FA Trophy wasn’t quite as impressive we beat one divisional rival in the 2^nd round before losing to another in the 3^rd.

Youth Intake

Not the worst intake (though I forgot to screenshot it) a few high potential players but no-one who looks like they’ll be immediately challenging for a first team spot.

Sunday Nzekwesi 6 – As is the case with a lot of my intake he’s a striker who can’t finish and isn’t very fast. I’m hopeful he can perhaps develop into a supporting striker should I ever change to play 2 up top though there’s some thought process that he’s closer to being a centre mid than a striker also.

Reiss Bolawinra 6– Actually looks as though he could be a good midfield option with not awful passing and vision. Physically he is lacking quite a bit but I’m hopeful that is something that can improve a lot.

Tarell Thorne 6 – Physically as good as anyone we’ve had through so far although his technicals are severely lacking but I think there’s something there to maybe end up a squad player.

Past Intakes

I’m going to get rid of this section next season as we’re getting to the point where most our team is past intakes so should be noted in the key players section, or at least I’ll leave it for milestones.

Kieran Preece 1 – Preece had his best season for us so far with 13 goals and 8 assists in the league – his highest for both. He also surpassed 50 goals for the club which is a nice achievement. For much of the season he was unhappy due to us being relegated but thankfully he’s changed his tune.

Byron Cathline 3 -   Ever present for us this season he started out the season well but faded a little towards the end. 8 goals and 6 assists from midfield is nothing to be sniffed at though.

Andrew Yates 3 – Yates didn’t have a great season registering just one assist from fullback but he’s developing nicely and hopefully will establish himself on the hierarchy so I can leverage his Model Citizen personality.

Stephen O’Brien 1 – O’Brien has been a bit part player for most of the seasons so far but this season became a regular starter. He has some glaring issues in his game but did quite well for us in defensive midfield.

Brian Ibe 5 - Considering he had a 2 month injury, the numbers posted by Ibe in his first season were really good 5 goals and 11 assists made him not far off the leading assist maker in the team,

Key Players

Muhammadu Faal – Faal is going to be such a miss when he leaves or retires, consistently our leading scorer and also provides a good amount of assists for a lone striker. He has now surpassed 200 goals since the start of the save 150 goals ahead of the next best.

Jeremiah Gyebi  – A solid season at the heart of defense for Gyebi picking up 6 Player of the Match awards along the way. Unfortunately, like his defense partner Bray he decided that he wanted to leave on a free transfer due to us being relegated the season before. Both him and Bray will be huge losses severely weakening our defense.

Lyle Della Verde – Just an ever consistent performer in midfield for us. Naturally a winger but has never actually played there for us instead putting up good numbers of assists from midfield. He’s still young enough that we won’t see too drastic a decline so I’m hopeful he can continue to perform well.

Infrastructure/Looking Ahead

I capitalised on my good end of season form to ask the board to increase both the Youth Recruitment and Junior Coaching which they did so we are slowly improving that aspect of the club so will hopefully start to reap the rewards. My final coaching badge should be completing soon so that’s out of the way.

As mentioned Bray and Gyebi have both announced their intention to leave on free transfers (and Kiangebeni) – in hindsight I should have agreed to sell them at the start of the year as I doubt anyone would come in for them and they may have signed new contracts like Faal and Muleba did in the same circumstances. As a result, next season mid-table would be a fantastic achievement for the club but hopefully we can have another cup run at least to boost the coffers.

 

Edited July 5, 2022 by _JHTB_

[XaW]

XaW - Knattspyrnufélagið Afríkuliðið - Season 2025 - 3. deild

Squad | Transfers | Finances

Excellent season from the lads. We are moving up in the world, and things are looking good. Outside a small blimp towards the end, we had a very solid season with few bad games.

Bikarkeppni karla: We beat Reynir S. before we lost to Fjallabyggðar in the 3rd round.
League Cup B: We drew Viðir, Völsungur, Kári, KÁ, and Víkingur Ó in the group stage. We finished 3rd (randomly) in the group and got knocked out.

Trophy cabinet

3. deild - 1 (2025)
4. deild - Group A - 1 (2023)

[OlivierL]

 

Njarðvik FC - Review Season 2- 2023

New kits for our first season in the first tier and Europe.

Three match days before the end, we had not lost and we were eight points in advance. First we lost against already relegated Fjölir, not unexpectedly because the form of many players has been gone for a while. But then we lost at home after getting a red card in minute 12. at the end it was 1-1 , when veteran McAusland smashed the ball onto the crossbar, but on the counter-attack Fram scored the 1-2 and we got zero out of six. points.. The lead on FH was still 2 points, a win at nr.7 IA was needed. 

We lost again but...

FH couldn't win against relegated Fjölin .. so we are champions after three losses in a row !

 

Pepsi Max Deildin : A very good first season at the highest tier ! But we made it unnecessarily stressful. Still very proud of our first title at the highest level in a very tough season with a small squad

Meistarakeppni: We won our first supercup against IA with penalties.

Bikarkeppni: We beated IBV , KA and Fjölin then lost against Valur on penalties in the semi-final.

Lengjubikarinn: Again finished 3rd in the league cup group.

Europe: We beated Europa FC in the first qualifying round but then left the Europa Conference League in the second QF after St.Gallen was too strong.

U19: They won the U19b league and go to the U19A division.

Squad

We had more options this season but still a very thin squad & bench. Not sure if Diouck and veteran Mcausland will sign a new contract, at the moment they won't.

   

Smárason is again our number one and had a very good season with 9 clean sheets. McAusland was again the rock in our defence while Hermannsson was our machine in the midfield position.  Matthíasson provided again 10 assists and i'm going to put him in the AML position (now he played DL most of the time).

Transfers: We lost Błąkała on a free transfer so that is why i changed him with Smárason

Youth Intake 2023: Great intake with 3 or 4 first team candidates. 

Finances & Upgrades

Finances: we are in a very good position after our first European adventure.

Very good new, after our next season we will move to our new stadion with a 7846 capacity. This will be the biggest stadium in Iceland after the National stadium (15182 capacity).  We have to pay 44k every month so we need to qualify a few times more for Europa. 

Club & Season Facts

Next Season

 I hope to bring in three more youth players from the last intake and a lot will depend on whether I can extend McAusland and Diouck. Our poor form at the end of the season does worry me so I need to look at this further. Competing for the top four again is something I would sign up for.

Edited July 7, 2022 by OlivierL

[ANGL]

En 1/7/2022 a las 13:34, dcayton9 dijo:

There we go... Only 3 weeks into the transfer window and I've already lost 3 of my 4 best players to relegation release clauses. To those who have gone far or completed this challenge have you been through this?

Though I anticipated this in my prior post, I can't help but feel as though I'm back to square one having lost the best of players that I have developed and now have, arguably, a worse team than when I started because of this. Along with that, I suffered a training facility downgrade from bettering technology and my board refuses to even reinvest this transfer profit into new facilities.

I am thinking about starting over and seeing if I can make it work with another club in Brazil or elsewhere, but maybe this is just part of the process on the way to succeeding. 

In Brazil, I always exclude foreing clubs release fee clauses from negotiations, as I've lost a lot of players to them: at the time, its the first thing I do when negotiating new contracts.

As for your team getting worse yes, It happened to me all the time. A medium club from Europe cames, the player loses its mind, gets angry and wants to leave. Of course, you sell him as he would otherwise leave on a free, he spends 3 or 4 seasons playing very little there and then, he ends up in a team worse than yours in brazil again. You will be losing your best players again and again and again to mediocre teams from Europe - that's what I'm finding more frustrating (but also the beautiful part) of playing in Brazil.

[Neo_Geo]

VV Katwijk Season 8 (2031/32) Review

Competitions

Spoiler

Eredivisie

So here was the situation with 5 games to go, somehow managing to keep the wins coming despite losing my keeper in January

 

Despite outplaying PSV at home we lost 3-1 amd PSV closed in as did Utrecht.

A close call way to Heerenveen with a 3-2 settled the nerves again with 3 easy-ish games with 2 at home.

However we lost to Heracles 1-0 and now the gap with Utrecht was down to 2 points with 2 games to go

I knew that Utrecht had to travel to PSV on the final day so if I just got a result against RKC Waalwijk we'd give ourselves a real shot at winning the title and thats when we got exactly the result we needed:

Utrecht beat Fortuna Sittard 4-0 to take it to the last day, with Katwijk now playing Fortuna Sittard at home and Utrecht travelling to PSV with all 3 teams still in the running:

A win seals the title, a draw and Utrecht fail to win and the title is won.

So on to the last game of the season and the last game at Sportpark de Krom......would the stars align and give the old stadium one hell of a goodbye party?

Spoiler

 

PARTY TIME AT SPORTPARK DE KROM!!!!

(Except I never got my trophy presentation, I've never seen this in FM before so it was disappointing to say the last. I had 3d match engine and extended highlights and it got to the end of the game then displayed the stats and the players were walking around the edge of the pitch and no trophy )

Dutch Cup

Underwhelming overall as we were knocked out in the third round 4-3 away to Utrecht after Strikwerda left for Man Utd.

 

Europa League

First european campaign for the club saw an incredible group stage with us topping the group unbeaten (the first half of the season was just unreal)

We then drew Ajax (of all the teams) in the 1st knockout round and at this point we were top of the league but we had lost Strikwerda and Bijl so I needed to keep my key players (Sezer Y05EliteB, Comvalius Y05EliteD and Burger Y06EliteD) as fresh as I could, we got beat 5-4 on aggregate:

I'm delighted with the league stage and it was only a narrow aggregate defeat to Ajax and it allowed me to focus on the league once more.

 

Youth Intake

Spoiler

The youth intake this year gave me a couple of promising strikers and an unusually large number of left sided midfielders (not ideal when you play 4-3-1-2 narrow) however no one looks quite ready to play first team football (unless the summer brings a lot of player sales)

The goalkeeper was not up to scratch and I didn't sign him, so fingers crossed for next season.

On this topic this is the last intake under the original HoYD I appointed in season 1, to be replaced by Englishman Shawn Ashley. Although not my preferred formation (there was a real lack of narrow preferred formations for HoYDs) the fairly professional is perhaps better than balanced and the playing style is passing and vertical tiki-taka which aligns with my tactics. Next year should be interesting.

 

Players

Spoiler

So this year saw Comvalius Y05EliteD continue to get awards yet somehow no one has come in with the £10.5m fee I agreed to sell him for

Taking the top 3 in the NxGn was something I really didn't expect however all 3 are regulars and had outstanding seasons.

On another note I think our club captain Nelson Schutte Y02EliteA has peaked at 3 stars ability (potential and current now align)

Here's the best eleven from this season:

Really pleased that all but 1 managed to get over the 7.00 mark with only our new left back, Bodker Y07EliteE coming up short at 6.82

Transfers

As mentioned in a post a few days back the January window saw Strikwerda Y05EliteA (who was the highest rating in Eredivisie despite only playing until mid January) leave to Man Utd who met his minimum fee release clause and Bijl Y04EliteC got his move to AC Milan. I worried I would lose more so I'm just hoping I can get new contracts out following the title win.

Comvalius Y05EliteD is out of contract next summer so I need to decide whether to keep him and hope I can agree a deal before January or cut my losses and sell him and focus on bringing through the two new strikers from this years intake along side Bosma Y07EliteD who managed to bag 14 goals in 25 games in all competitions compared to Comvalius' 26 in 38). Can I ask people's opinion on this one, what would you do with him as he is unhappy (wanting move to bigger club) and has no intention of signing a new deal and no extension clause?

Jonckheere Y05EliteF wanted to leave as well but has since dropped this as we have improved (hoping the same happens with the others), he has a deal until 2034 but has a £26.5m foreign club minimum fee release clause that expires next summer.

Club

Spoiler

Obviously the new stadium will be ready for the new season, so it should provide a boost to our match day revenue and now with Champions League money and the £8m prize money it should offset some of the loan repayments.

Training facilities  are 4 star now with a further improvement on the way (just completed by the end of the season so now 4.5 star) and our bank balance now sits at £25 m

Manager

Spoiler

Nothing of note this year other than a new 3 year contract being signed and winning a consecutive manager of the year award.

Stats

Spoiler

Next Season

Spoiler

Obviously the big question mark is how many of these players I can hold on to over the summer, I'm not foolish enough to think they will all remain here therefore I have to have some succession planning, picking the players likely to take their place and get them game time as I still don't feel I have enough fringe players at a level to step in and expect to do well domestically again next season. I think that Strikwerda, Sezer, Burger, Jonckheere and Comvalius really carried us this year and we still look really weak in the full back position and now Schutte appears to have peaked at Centre Back as well.

Looking forward to the new stadium and Champions League games but that may change if I lose too many of my key players and still have a rookie goalkeeper.

 

[Neo_Geo]

It was clear he wasn't going to change his mind and his value is already dropping due to last year of his contract.

Opted for less money up front and 50% of the next sale (hopefully he makes it into the Dutch national team in the next season or two and gets a big money move).

Jonckheere also making noises once more about moving.....going to be a rough summer window!

[Neo_Geo]

Jonckheere now gone as well, despite the £26.5m minimum fee release clause he wasn't happy (Why agree to that in the contract in the first place???!!! So annoying), so ended up agreeing on £15m, but no one was prepared to pay it, he was unhappy, other teammates unhappy at how I treated him, he had to go before the window.

50% of next sale after £10m is ok but he's moved out of Europe so not sure on my chances of him getting a big move back the way.

So thats 4 first team players sold in the last 2 windows, long season ahead

[Vlach]

Youth Intake 2026

Well the preview suggested a good goalkeeping talent - quite sad in the end that that did not work out - goalkeepers are always crucial. Besides that i  consider this intake rather mediocre. Some nice personalities, but the players dont seem to be anything special right now. Will sign just those with nice character.

        -

        -

        - (Sorry lost other images of the intake somewhere in the cloud), and now its already later in the game.)

 

[Vlach]

Season Review 2025/26 - Bisceglie

 

To make it short - the luck we had in the last two season now was competely gone. Those of the original players which still remained underperformed, the youth was not ready. Therefor we suffered in many games, and ended up last place in the Serie B.

Of course almost all of those original players now wan to leave. And we have very bad finances, which means i will have to sell probably half of them. Next season in the Serie C will be hard as well, almost only youngsters left probably.

But the good news is: the board didnt sack me. They are not happy at all, but expect just from next season to end up in the relegation playoffs. That gives me and the kids in the club some time, which we will hopefully use well.

    - League

  

 - Transfers

    -

Finances

  

 - Best XI

  

 - Summary

 

(sorry lost some images in the cloud)

 

[LazyBandit]

FC Red Star Zürich - Season 1 (2023/24)

I've decided to give this challenge another go, and I once again find myself in Switzerland. This time I'm in charge of FC Red Star Zürich and we start in the Swiss First League Group 3, the 4th tier of Swiss football.

Facilities

I was surprised to see us have such good facilities for this level, with the Excellent academy coaching standing out. Hopefully this will provide us some good quality players.

League Table

I opted to play most of this season with a defensively solid formation and it seems like it was the right decision. We spent most of the season in 2nd or 3rd trying to catch up to Eschen/Mauren, but in the end they proved to be the far superior team. Since we won't have to deal with them next year, Ideally we'll be able to take our form from this season and carry on to the next one.

Intake Preview

We play with a 4-1-4-1 formation so it looks like we'll be getting reinforcements in spots we need. A DM would be nice, but I'm not going to be picky.

Intake

I like what I see here. We get a few players who are able to play right now, and some players with decent potential. Yannick Vitija is good enough to challenge for a starting role.

Antonio Romeo - Simone Angliker - Yannick Vitija - Vullnet Zubaku

Improvements

So the board decided to form a new affiliation with FC Rapperswil-Jona in the off-season. I didn't ask for them to do this, but I'm not complaining either. We won't be able to take advantage of loaning some of their players, but on the other hand we get an extra $23,000 a year. The board also didn't agree with me that we need to improve some of our facilities, but they're good enough for now I suppose.

Intake Map

We got 9 countries through our Intake this year

Countries: 9/227 (3.96%)

[Daddy]

Made it to group and got what looks like a fairly favorable draw. 

Unfortunately the same day we lose our wonderkid and best player due to the tiny release clause. I hate them.

[SkiIIs]

Season 2039/40 - Championship

After relegation from the prem, it was about setting ourselves up for the next prem push and hopefully having a better go at it once we get there. I turned over some of the previous stars that got us there in a push to get a more younger team going. This in turn meant we were inconsistent through the first half of the season but always still within playoff reach.  Second half of the season we found some good form and if it wasnt for a draw and loss in the last 3 games against relegation, then we would have finished second on top of Brentford.

Alas, still a really good season and into the playoffs we go with the first game at Hull away.  We copped a goal in the 5th minute however we then scored with our first 3 shots at goal. In a blockbuster game, we won 6 - 3 and had one foot in the play off final. Second leg i rested a few players who had yellow card bans hanging over their heads and drew the game 2 - 2.  Norwich beat WBA to be our opponents. In a nervy affair, we were leading 1 - 0 till late where parked the bus and made defensive subs however Norwich equalised late on and then were down to 10 men only a minute after. I was absolutely cursing when they went ahead in extra time but relieved when we equalised to take it to pens. We didnt miss a pen and they missed their 6th to get back into the prem.  An eerily feeling compared to last time as we're not ready to go back up in my opinion, but we'll enjoy the ride!

We got our second ever wonderkid listed at 25. This kid has what it takes to be a star and i played him regularly even though he wasnt rating well (long term play)

my first youth preview being in youth category 1 was a bit meh, dont really need another keeper or striker and have Gilbey as my left winger:

I am quite appalled at this intake.  My last two intakes have been quite good, this is hopefully an outlier.  I know people have said that scouts dont impact the intakes, but coincidentally i signed some African scouts this year (i have only ever had a chief scout only from England) as i have lots of cash in the bank now and funnily enough have 3 Africans in the intake.  Also a German potentially from the Jena link.

Next year i am bracing myself for another dismal season in the prem.  I have the same CB's and MC's as last time round so dont have any hope of staying up.  I will keep my attacking formation as going defensively didnt work last time, if we're going to go down, we might as well score some goals trying.

[_JHTB_]

Enfield Town Season 7

Vanarama National League North – 8^th

Transfers – Fixtures (1) – Fixtures (2) – Squad – Table – Key Player – Hot Prospect

This offseason we lost both our starting centre backs and two back ups in defensive midfield and central midfield respectively. Incidentally, none of the players who wanted to leave found a club and have now retired. We’ve also had our second ever ‘sale’ as Colin Reynolds 2 left to go play in Wales.

League

Not really a lot to say about the league overall this season, we were just very much inconsistent throughout the entire season not putting any sort of a run together at any point. Winning games we shouldn’t have won and losing games we shouldn’t have lost. In fact, the only real spell of form came as we won our last 4 games which was after the playoff spots had all been confirmed. So despite us only ending up 2 points from the playoffs we were not close to qualifying – 7^th just ended up getting 7 points from their last 10 games.

Overall, I’m very happy with the season as I was hoping for midtable due to a massive downturn in the quality of our centre backs from the season prior, so to be within 6 points of last season was a great showing.

Cups

This season in the FA Cup we were great although again the first couple of rounds saw us face lower league opposition and the 4^th qualifying round against divisional rivals. However, in the first round we were drawn against a League One Salford side who had beaten us 4-1 two seasons prior at the same stage. We were fantastic reversing the score from the previous game and winning 4-1 ourselves. In the 2^nd round against another league one club in Forest Green we weren’t as good ultimately losing 2-1, but overall very good performances in the competition. The FA Trophy on the other hand was an underperformance as we lost to lower league opponents in our first game.

Youth Intake

 

A sensational intake, with all but one player being considered an elite talent. I was expecting a pretty decent one but that’s because relatively our team is of worse quality so everyone should look better. That said we got a few players in this intake who are actually straight into the first team as starters and backups with a few more who might find themselves there by the start of next season.

Keir Jepson 7 – Immediately went as a starter into our first team. Centre back was a weak area for us and whilst he does need some improvement he has plenty workable attributes to make me think he could be a good long term solution for us there.

Giorgos Polykarpou 7 – Like Jepson he was promoted immediately to the first team though for now he’s more first back up at the centre back position. Like Jepson he does have some areas he needs to improve but overall a good option.

Stephen Collins 7 – Another defensive player in the intake Collins can play both on the left and right which meant he too was promoted straight to the first team to act as back up for both positions on the limited 5 man bench.

In truth nearly all of the players from the intake could have been highlighted here the 3 mentioned just happening to be in a position where they were needed immediately.

Key Players

Muhammadu Faal – Faal had a down season this time out which after scoring 28 goals and 10 assists in the league is a crazy thing to say but it’s true. He actually underscored his xG by 6 goals this season but was still by far our best player.

Jason Clarke 2  – His first season as our first choice centre back, aside from suspensions he was ever present in defence and had a really solid season. Whilst he’ll start the season as first choice he may find himself dropping down a little if the new intake have anything to say about it.

Lyle Della Verde – Other than physically, Della Verde somehow is still improving on his attributes at 34 and continuing to maintain himself as a very consistent performer for us. Only 9 assists this season but the whole team scored less so it’s still a good return. Unfortunately he’s set to retire this summer but I think it might be ‘Retire from professional’ sort of thing so maybe can retain him next time.

Infrastructure/Looking Ahead

Two upgrade in both Youth Recruitment and Junior Coaching, we’re now well on the way with the improvements and hopefully we can start reaping the rewards.

Next season I think I’ve got to aim for playoffs and ultimately promotion. We need to capitalise on a good intake whilst we’ve still got Faal to score goals for us and from the majority of this season we have a better defense for next term. If Della Verde has fully retired that will obviously be a big miss but I’m hopeful some of the upcoming players can do a job. We’ll also be losing our back up for left and right wing this summer as he wants a new challenge.

 

Edited July 5, 2022 by _JHTB_

[XaW]

XaW - Knattspyrnufélagið Afríkuliðið - Youth intake 2026

Another very strong intake for us with loads of talented players.

Quite strange attribute distribution, but if he works on the basics he can be really good.

[dcayton9]

America De Natal 2026:

Preseason: As outlined in my previous sad-boy post, we lost three key players to relegation release clauses. I was able to hold on to the last one, but my two key attackers and own version of N'golo Kante moved on to greener pastures. 

Cups: As they always play out before the season in Brazil, we start with them.

• We won the Potiguar State Championship, able to return to top form and win every match. This sounds impressive, but in reality it isn't too hard as 6 of the other 7 teams in the league are semi-pro or amateur teams and our only true competition is rival ABC FC but in beating them twice, we take the title back.
• We were semifinalists in the Copa Nordeste, which is the tournament between teams in Northeast Brazil. However, as we didn't win the state championship last season, we had to qualify through the preliminary rounds. We were handed an easy path to qualification, however, and in the competition proper, handed an easy group, so were able to advance fairly far, resulting in decent payday
• We reached the fourth round of Copa Brazil! This is the round of 16, and is absolutely massive for us. We were the last third division team left in the competition and pulled off an impressive two leg win through a 90th minute winner and penalties to advance past Sao Paulo, one of the giants of Brazilian football. We got knocked out by Palmeiras eventually, however the performances were particularly impressive as we were essentially even on xG over the two legs. We were named the "Biggest Overachievers" of the competition and raked in massive income through this run.
• Copa Brazil Performances / Review below:

Spoiler

Serie C:  We won promotion! The team started off strong, winning 6 and drawing 3 over the first 10 games. As the first stage of the league is only 19 games, this put us halfway to a first place finish. However, my team practically fell apart in the final 10 games, registering 3 wins, 2 draws, and 4 losses over the final 9. We stumbled into a 7th place finish, still making the second stage of the league, a promotion group where the top two of each four team group get promoted. We were able to finish the six matches with 3 wins, 2 draws, and 1 loss meaning we finished first in our group on goal differential and faced off against Avai FC for the Serie C championship. Things weren't meant to be as we got blasted in the away leg, and no forced offensive at home could bring us back. However, this promotion is still exciting as though my team is arguably worse than it was a season ago during our last effort at Serie B, we get another chance to make things right.

Overall Review below:

Spoiler

Facilities: First, our training facilities were demoted to adequate, rather than average at the start of the season, but eventually re-upgraded. This was disappointing for sure, and as mentioned earlier, we had relegation release clauses activated, resulting in a profit around £1,000,000, so my immediate thought was to re-invest it into the facilities. The board stood strong most of the season and firmly denied every month when I'd return and ask again. However, when I was in my best moment of form coming off of my Copa Brazil finish and just before slipping down the Serie C table, my request was accepted and we were able to make progress to return to our previous standard. While this wasn't an overall step forwards, it was an important part of maintaining ground. On the youth side, our youth recruitment was upgraded to the final level, exceptional. This seems to be the easiest one to get them to budge on, as they never seem to question it. They won't ever agree to junior coaching or youth facilities, so for now we'll have to settle for high PA youth, rather than ones that are immediately great.

Youth Intake: With our now-exceptional youth recruitment, I was hoping for plenty of 5-star prospects. I was slightly disappointed in that regard, but it is still relatively decent. Plenty of players in the attacking third is always fun, but I sorely need defense. I have no holding midfielder in the first team, my starting two CBs are 31 and 33, and my LB is 33. They are all quickly losing their legs and it's only a season or two before I'll have to let them go. Maybe it'll be retraining time for some players in the youth setup and move to an attacking wingback system. We'll figure it out in time...

Three Stars: In my effort to create more in depth updates, I am including a new section, where I present three players from the team, the season's key player (though I'll try to keep these different season to season), the first team breakthrough, and the A or B (or both) prospect from the intake.

• 2026 Key Player, Jarlesson 01D: The D player from my first official intake, Jarlesson quickly stepped up upon losing my legacy keeper and became the first choice at 17 years old. He's grown remarkably since then, was the only player of my unsettled stars to stay through relegation and make the return with us to Serie B, and makes many crucial saves. He was wanted by many Serie A clubs, but after promotion he has agreed to a new contract keeping him at the club for at least the next four seasons.
• 
•  
• 2026 Breakthrough Player, Tazio: Tazio wasn't even tagged, as I tag only the best five players in my opinion of each intake, but he's blossomed into the best player from his 03 intake (so far) . He played a bit in the previous season, but after star winger Fernando Arkyles sale, there were big shoes to fill, and Tazio certainly filled them. Playing mostly on the right, he provided a creative and goal threat cutting inside and made huge leaps in progression, with his potential reaching 5 stars and personality becoming resolute.
• 
•  
• 2025 Hot Prospect, Almeida 05A: Maybe the best attacking talent to come through in terms of current ability, Almeida looks like he could really become a complete forward. Aside from his weakness (quite literally, with only 4 strength), he doesn't seem to have many holes in his game and should be able to be a reliable option very soon for my first team. He is also only 15, a almost a whole year younger than most of the rest of the intake is, so fingers crossed, he could be a true wonder-kid. Further, he has a good personality, no obvious let-downs like lack of consistency or hating big matches, and is even fairly two-footed. I'm really stoked to see how he develops.
• 

Summary: I'm working on being more thorough with pictures and information during the updates, so I hope this post isn't too long, but critiques are welcome for things to include / leave out. Hopefully in Serie B we can survive, and I am working on rehauling my youth development pathway and training, so in the near future I will be posting on that. Until then, enjoy your youth saves and may you always get wonder-kids!

 

Edited July 3, 2022 by dcayton9

[Daddy]

Nice bounce back @dcayton9

[Diego D10S]

                                                                                                 

                                                                                             Season 2022 / 2023 Update

[Neo_Geo]

Another January window and another star player lost, my wonderkid from Season 5, 9 times capped for Turkey and 115 appearances for Katwijk has used his minimum fee release clause to join Bayern on the last day of the window (thought I was going to get through it with no major sales).

They came in with a package a day earlier for about £24m and since Sezer agreed to wait until a team met the minimum fee release I refused and he was ok, then they just offered the minimum fee. I doubt he'll move from there, if so it'll be towards the end of his career so I don't think the absence of percentage profit will make much difference here, who knows.

Luckily I had been playing his understudies a lot more as I thought this might be his last season with us and I think they are now ready to step in full time, likely to keep Schutte on the bench too.

 

 

[glennuk]

Worthing FC - Season 21 - English Premier League - Youth Intake Preview & Random News

England want me!

Wish I could accept.

Scouting

I know it is said to not make a difference, but I have the money to burn so I have started hiring scouts for the last few seasons. Start to 'wire the world'.

New Affiliate

Got a youth partnership with NEC, hoping to get some good dutch talent (I have had very few youth from Western Europe)

The Legend that was

We had a testimonial friendly at the start of the season and Jamie Herd (YP01A) my first sale of the save, my one and only Model Citizen (he changed to light-hearted) from the Youth Intake came to play and still scored 4 goals (he plays in the Scottish Championship with St Mirren). I honestly wish I had him now. He could start for me.

Youth Intake Preview

Looks a decent preview, really need some good CM and CBs so wish they were the A's. Seriously starting to get annoyed at getting good Goalkeepers all the time.

Edited July 3, 2022 by glennuk

[toshimitzou1]

The weakness of the Icelandic league is yielding further benefits - unlocking a tough achievement. Watertight at the back and able to navigate CL qualifying during the clean sheet run!!!!!!

Though shall not pass!

[SkiIIs]

2 hours ago, glennuk said:

Worthing FC - Season 21 - English Premier League - Youth Intake Preview & Random News

England want me!

Wish I could accept.

Scouting

I know it is said to not make a difference, but I have the money to burn so I have started hiring scouts for the last few seasons. Start to 'wire the world'.

New Affiliate

Got a youth partnership with NEC, hoping to get some good dutch talent (I have had very few youth from Western Europe)

The Legend that was

We had a testimonial friendly at the start of the season and Jamie Herd (YP01A) my first sale of the save, my one and only Model Citizen (he changed to light-hearted) from the Youth Intake came to play and still scored 4 goals (he plays in the Scottish Championship with St Mirren). I honestly wish I had him now. He could start for me.

Youth Intake Preview

Looks a decent preview, really need some good CM and CBs so wish they were the A's. Seriously starting to get annoyed at getting good Goalkeepers all the time.

had a little bit of a chuckle about the GK's, seems to be my thorn as well

[glennuk]

5 minutes ago, SkiIIs said:

had a little bit of a chuckle about the GK's, seems to be my thorn as well

The bane of my save. I currently have 4 who are at CA Championship or above. My best is a decent Prem player.

[toshimitzou1]

5 minutes ago, SkiIIs said:

had a little bit of a chuckle about the GK's, seems to be my thorn as well

 

Just now, glennuk said:

I currently have 4

In a similar boat. Seem to get a top GK every year! Got 4 - 5 in youth team as well as 3 in my main squad. Seems a little disproportionate....

[glennuk]

@skills and @toshimitzou1 and anyone else. On the GK note who would you set as your main keeper for the next few years...just out of interest.

[toshimitzou1]

1 hour ago, glennuk said:

@skills and @toshimitzou1 and anyone else. On the GK note who would you set as your main keeper for the next few years...just out of interest.

Off of a cursory glance I'd say Bass followed by Gumbs - Personalities are critical to me.

Q1. In coach reports what does it say about consistency for each of the four of them?

Q2. Ditto media handling style.

Edited July 4, 2022 by toshimitzou1
sic

[SkiIIs]

2 hours ago, toshimitzou1 said:

Off of a cursory glance I'd say Bass followed by Gumbs - Personalities are critical to me.

Q1. In coach reports what does it say about consistency for each of the four of them?

Q2. Ditto media handling style.

depends if you're playing sweeper keeper (which i do), in my case id probably go for Nagy as my main although i like the look of Gumps for the future for sure!

 

[Daddy]

2028/29 Midseason Review:

No real complaints here. I kept enough on roster to be able to handle the increase in schedule congestion. That's helped us stay pretty steady and have even beat Shakhtar for the first time. A definite step in the right direction.

A surprising 5-0 road result against Rennes get us into the Conference League. I had stated in a quick update before that I felt the draw was favorable, but I don't know the other teams/leagues well enough. How'd it go?

Dominance. Rjeka gave us big fights both matches though. Winning the group puts us into the second knockout. No clue who it'll be against. 

Youth Intake:

Not looking for anything specific this year, but will always take As in the positions we're getting them. 

[XaW]

XaW - Knattspyrnufélagið Afríkuliðið - Season 2026 - 2. deild

Squad | Transfers | Finances

Back-to-back promotion is nothing to complain about, but we did have a horrible end to the season for some reason. Next season we will be in the 2nd tier, and I think that's where our level are at the moment, I hope we can stay up!

Bikarkeppni karla: We beat KÁ before we lost to Kári in the 3rd round.
League Cup B: We drew Afterelding, Hörður Í., KÁ, Kári, and Magni. We finished in 2nd place in the group and got knocked out.

Trophy cabinet

3. deild - 1 (2025)
4. deild - Group A - 1 (2023)

[glennuk]

12 hours ago, SkiIIs said:

depends if you're playing sweeper keeper (which i do), in my case id probably go for Nagy as my main although i like the look of Gumps for the future for sure!

 

 

14 hours ago, toshimitzou1 said:

Off of a cursory glance I'd say Bass followed by Gumbs - Personalities are critical to me.

Q1. In coach reports what does it say about consistency for each of the four of them?

Q2. Ditto media handling style.

Thanks. Yeh Bass has been my main Keeper for years, apart from Injuries and actually I changed formation to try to improve on my 17th place finish (more on that soon) and ended up going with a Sweeper Keeper and swapping to Nagy. Either way Gumbs is the one I am more excited about for the future, he is on a two year loan deal to our affiliate Southend.

[glennuk]

Worthing FC - Season 21 - English Premier League - Youth Intake

I am starting to get a bit disenfranchised with the Premier League. I tried to change tactic to be a bit stronger and it backfired and we have been worse than last year. Unfortunately we have spiraled a bit, as usual, and morale is low. We look like we will get relegated, but have a hope of climbing out.

Youth Intake

It isn't terrible, but it is certainly not the best. Another Keeper, surprise surprise, a decent winger and some decent full backs. We had hoped for CM and CB, but none of those look great.

We have some absolute dire personalities in this intake too. Almost no redeeming ones. I think this is the most disappointing part of the intake.

Top 3 - Youth Intake 21

Note: I seem to have misplaced the screenshots for these guys, so these screen grabs are a few months later.

Jimmy Ngodzo (YP21A) - I have quite a few quick wingers, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing. We will work on the technicals, and the personality, but overall he isn't to bad. As my top prospect from this intake it is not saying much.

Reece Connolly (YP21B) - Another promising Keeper, which may actually be a good thing, as 2 of the 4 I have (all Championship Level) are thinking about leaving. Has some work to do and not the best personality, but could be someone to watch over the next 5-10 years.

Chris Macfarlane (YP21C) - Not got the highest potential, but I am always in need of decent CMs. Seems like a workhorse style CM and one who could fit into my Box to Box role. I hope the PA is actually 4* and with some mentoring and extra training he can make the first team.

In a season where things have not gone right, I had hoped this intake would bring a smile back to my face. Unfortunately it has not. 

[Diego D10S]

                                          

Got the sack again.

This time because the club is bleeding money so i effort to fix the financial damage I got rid of alot of established players.

Felt I did pretty good with a team full of youngsters but my little stunt didnt do much for the finances.

I will try do something different next time, but all these italian clubs a bleeding money

 

GL ALL !!  

[glennuk]

9 minutes ago, Diego D10S said:

 

I will try do something different next time, 

 

GL ALL !!  

Come to the glorious land of many games and many monies.....England!!!

[Daddy]

2028/29 Season Review:

First things first the league results. Disappointing to finish outside of European places in league. We spent most of the season bouncing between 5th and 6th, and an abysmal final match bumped us to 6th. 

Fortunately for us it really didn't matter. In league was up and down, but the team way overperformed in the Conference League. Winning the group going undefeated, and then a string of favorable draws. When we were matched with Roma I thought we were in trouble, but they were in the middle of imploding. Facing our second Ukrainian team in the competition it wound up being a comfy win to secure us a place in the Europa League group stage.

We were able to boost our own rep and Ukraine in general got a nice boost from all of the clubs doing fairly well in Europe. 

The Ukrainian Lukaku is the latest edition to the wonderkid list, and our former guy is sitting #1. Amazingly I wasn't hammered with transfer requests. I was able to get a new contract with a $9M Foreign Release. One of the higher I've been able to get. Easily affordable for the big clubs, but will help fend off a bit I hope. I did however lose something I wasn't planning on.

His release was at $6M. I have tens of millions in the bank not being spent (currently $74M), but the appeal of getting Chelsea here for a friendly was the kicker. If I bumped it or waited enough they would meet that release, but my missing a potential million dollars I get a sell out and maybe drive up fan attendance over all it's worth it. 

New Main Jersey Sponsor, so for my own immersion I''ve picked a new sponsor in KitBasher.

Youth Intake:

No one ready for the first team, but continuing to fill out that pipeline. The new HYOD hadn't had a full season, so these guys are still from the old guy. Some bad personalities. If the Potential Ability isn't three gold stars, the player better have a good personality or some really good attributes in there. Unfortunately there were some bad one and they went unsigned.

2029/30 Season Preview:

It'll be real interesting to see where we line up in a harder competition, but if we're quickly overmatched I'm going to move to focus on the league. We finished fourth a few seasons back and have regressed one place each season since. With the changes to qualifications, I'd like to see us get back to 4th at least. 

I love sushi. I saw a Sushi sponsor, so why not. 

[toshimitzou1]

Second seeds now!

Still a tough draw though:

Can't see us pipping Liepzig. More EURO Cup football to come though.

[glennuk]

Worthing FC - Season 21 - English Premier League - Yo-Yo

League - 19th

It was a pretty abysmal season. I had changed my tactics to try to get a bit more possession (last season we stayed up, but it wasn't the prettiest football). I guess I changed too much, towards the end of the season I went back to my past tactic and won 2 in a row for the first time in the season. Perhaps if I hadn't tinkered I would've stayed up again. It was a bit of a demoralising season, so I am going to spend a LONG time in the offseason looking further into my tactic, data, squad players, promising youth etc to try and do a big clear out/improve things.

Squad

No one has really impressed. The legend that is Jean-Claude Kitoko (YP06A) is very much slowing down at 31 years old.

The Accolades

Nothing much to report here.

Finances

We have a ridiculous amount of money, our sponsorships have been increasing, but unfortunately our reputation has gone back down to 3* after getting relegated.

Youth Poached Update

I only noticed this at the end of the season and OH how devastating it is! One of my poached players is worth over 30mil at 16 years old....and he is a CM which I need!

Season Preview & Facilities Updates

Our training facility was downgraded and the board would not reupgrade. Our 24,937 seater stadium has been completed (this was an expansion). We lost our affiliate links with Mladlost (Serbia) due to lower rep and Southend due to them being in the same division. We then got an upgrade approved to our stadium and it will be expanded by another 7,000+ seats.

For once we are not predicted to finish bottom of the league. This must mean our reputation has increased enough for us to 'truly belong' in the upper echelons of English football.

[LazyBandit]

FC Red Star Zürich - Season 2 (2024/25)

Squad - Tactic

Final Table

We did well last season, and the goal for this one was to try and keep that form going. We had sort of a slow start, and I began to worry that this year would be a bit of a disappointment. However we turned it around and managed to stick with the team in first. We kept chasing them, and it took until the final matchday of the season, but overtook them and managed to win the league. It was an incredible effort by the players, but in the end a little bit of luck was what we needed to win.

Swiss Cup

We managed to make it to the third round of this year's Swiss Cup, where we met BSC Young Boys. Naturally they smashed us 4-2, but I'm proud of the team for at least scoring twice against them. Lets hope next year's draw is more in our favor.

Intake Preview

Center-back is probably our biggest area of need, so I'm quite glad to see this. But really I'll take whatever I can get.

Intake

The overall quality of this years intake is much better than the last. I don't feel there are any true standouts in this crop, but there's some potential in a few of the new players.

Romain Kübler - Eren Maier - Mirnes Music - Radhamés Pérez

Intake Map

We added 7 new nations through the intake this year

Countries: 16/227 (7.05%)

Improvements

I finally managed to convince the board to let me take a coaching course in the off-season. All it took to convince them was winning the league. Our training facilities also took a slight hit however they're still Adequate, so I don't think it will make a huge difference. In a strange turn of events our academy coaching, which at the beginning of this save was supposedly Excellent, is now only Adequate. I never received a message saying they were being downgraded, so perhaps the Excellent rating was just a mirage all along.

[XaW]

XaW - Knattspyrnufélagið Afríkuliðið - Youth intake 2027

Love this intake! Lots of talents.

A good goalkeeper is exactly what we needed right now!

[BigJack]

I have given up on my attempt with Cray. The loan for the new stadium meant the club was running at a constant loss and I just couldn't make any progress on or off the pitch. I am going to restart the challenge, and this time with FC United.

Appointment

Manager Profile

[_JHTB_]

Enfield Town Season 8

Vanarama National League North – 6^th – Lost Playoff First Round

Transfers – Fixtures (1) – Fixtures (2) – Squad – Table – Key Player – Hot Prospect

Della Verde was only retiring from professional football so we did manage to tie him down to a new deal this summer (he did not long into the season pick up a long term injury so not fantastic for an aging player)       . There were no other unexpected changes to the squad.

League

I came into this season playing the exact same tactic as the season prior, hopeful that our generally improved squad quality would allow us to be one of the better teams in the league. Unfortunately. It didn’t go that way as we never really got going with some games even worse performances that those we put in for our disastrous season in the league above, although we were still hovering on the outskirts of the playoffs due to just picking up results in the other games.

As I wasn’t happy with how the team were playing I made the choice to change from 4123 to 442 which was a bit of a risky change given we’ve only ever had one consistent scoring striker since the start of the save. Regardless, the change was a positive one with us almost immediately going on a long unbeaten run of 15 games which ended up not actually propelling us up the table that much. From there on we were again back to inconsistency. But thankfully picking up more wins than any other results but it was still a huge battle to reach the playoffs. This season we recorded our highest ever points tally yet barely made the playoffs.

The Playoffs didn’t go well for us at all really, within a minute of kickoff we were down 1-0 before the rest of the first half was filled with very few highlights. A carbon copy of the first half start in the second as the same striker doubled their lead within a minute of the restart. We never really looked like getting back into the game but did get a late consolation goal to make it look like the game was closer than what was reality.

Cups

The FA Cup this season basically went they way of beating teams in lower leagues before losing to the team in a higher league, this time in the 4^th qualifying round, a shame we couldn’t keep up with the previous seasons in getting to the 2^nd round proper. We did have our best FA Trophy showing for a few seasons as we navigated to the 4^th round where we took National League Newport County to a replay but ultimately their quality won out.

Youth Intake

Even better intake than last seasons with every single player considered an elite talent although some that the coaches rate highly do have some areas of weakness.

Marcus Giles 8 – Has some really good attributes, but then also like nearly every striker we get in our intakes some not so great attacking attributes. I think he can develop into a good supporting striker for us even if he doesn’t immediately strike me as someone who will fire goals in at will. He did go straight into the starting XI once he’d signed his youth contract.

Jack Bird 8 – Another striker again with not great attacking attributes though not awful composure. He also has the bonus of having some acceleration speed, even if his overall pace isn’t the best. I don’t envision him being a regular starter any time soon, but he will make an able deputy I’m sure.

Ted Wakoma 8 – Actually looks like he could end up being a very good winger for this level with good attributes in the areas they’re wanted, he didn’t get the auto first team promotion, but I don’t think he’s far of the level to be considered.

Another fantastic intake where the majority of players could have been highlighted here and wouldn’t be at all surprised if the team in the next year or two featured vast numbers from this intake.

Key Players

Muhammadu Faal – Faal did have a dry spell midseason (which probably is what prompted the formation change) but once again our best player to make it 8 seasons out of 8 so far. Another 36 goals and 10 assists in the league and yet is still happy to renew his contract each season.

Jason Clarke 2  – Another solid season for Clarke, just a consistent performer in defense. There is some question on whether he will ultimately lose his spot due to him being unlikely to improve much more but another good season for the defender.

Kieran Preece 1 – Preece had his best season by far for us this year just falling shy of the 20 league goal mark from the right wing. I’m hopeful that this is an indication of what’s to come from him as it’s good not to be solely relying on Faal for goals.

Infrastructure/Looking Ahead

No infrastructure improvements this season due to our financial state but our youth recruitment and coaching is starting to show through the intakes.

In spite of it being a record point tally, I’m pretty disappointed with the season on the whole as we’re not really kicking on in comparison to previous seasons with us roughly finishing around the same spot and well, frankly going into season 9 in the same league we started in. With the new intake maybe now we can finally put together another good promotion charge next time out.

Edited July 5, 2022 by _JHTB_

[glennuk]

Good Luck @BigJack. England is a long slog but a fun one.

[Daddy]

This will be a good test to see where we rate.