The FM22 Youth Academy Challenge

[The_Gato_In_Goal]

We did end up picking up some results, beating the Nicaraguan side home and away and splitting the matches with the Costa Rican side.

This meant our finances looked even healthier, but it was not enough to turn pro.

[WhiteCat33]

1 hour ago, The_Gato_In_Goal said:

Ah i know that rejection screen well, you're into the Reputation Grind now

I see you got a T&T team in the final of the CCC, have they started to eclipse the Jamaican teams in your save? 

You're doing very well in the NACL, Chivas are a tough Liga MX team to get. Are MLS teams starting to try and poach your players yet for stupid low values?

[Daddy]

16 hours ago, glennuk said:

@Daddy - this is the year that Karpaty win it all!!

nope

[The_Gato_In_Goal]

1 hour ago, WhiteCat33 said:

Ah i know that rejection screen well, you're into the Reputation Grind now

I see you got a T&T team in the final of the CCC, have they started to eclipse the Jamaican teams in your save? 

You're doing very well in the NACL, Chivas are a tough Liga MX team to get. Are MLS teams starting to try and poach your players yet for stupid low values?

The Jamaican teams have been weird. The league must be a dogfight because the best Jamaican teams rarely qualify for the CCC. The T&T team making the finals was more of an upset; I believe they knocked off Jamaican side Mt. Pleasant in the semis as underdogs. I'm nowhere near competing with any Liga MX or MLS side in the NACL. and even the best Central American sides will still beat us handily. The only clubs trying to bid £0 on our players have been from T&T so far, and we've mostly been able to reject those offers without the players kicking up a fuss. I imagine once the big North American sides come calling it will be more difficult.

[The_Gato_In_Goal]

 

Survivals FC - Youth Intake - 2031

It's actually a bit of a relief to see a "worse" intake. Only a few with 5* potential is a testament to how much our squad has improved over the last 2-3 seasons. It would've been nice to get one starter from this bunch, especially since we don't have the ability to develop any of these youths despite their great personalities. After seeing mostly Unambitious personalities throughout the save, it's a bit of a shock to see a second Resolute in two years and five Fairly Professional. We also got a player from the Dominican Republic! He's not great, but it's a sign that our reputation is growing so much that our excellent youth recruitment has the ability to reach across the Caribbean now.

 

[The_Gato_In_Goal]

Will have the season review up later, but we did manage to repeat the CCC and I got this message when I asked to turn pro.

Not an outright rejection! I went to discuss it with them and told them we need to be professional to raise the profile of the club and enhance our reputation.

They bought it and away we go. Now keep in mind "beginning of next season" actually means two seasons. The CCC is played so late that we finish the competition in October, well after the league season. So November 2032 is one year and one month away unfortunately. It will be nice to add some cash to our balance this year in the NACL before turning pro though since I'm not sure how well our finances will hold up.

[JAwtunes]

Thought this might be of interest (I just noticed it on Steam)

https://www.footballmanager.com/the-byline/dispelling-10-common-football-manager-misconceptions

Spoiler

This might mean a change in how the intake used to work.  The comment from Seb isn't directly related to HoYD influence building over time, but I had always (probably wrongly!) thought that this meant the intake was generated on intake day.  Just thought I'd share this too as some may not have seen this as it a bit old now.

 

[Makoto Nakamura]

2023 Youth Candidates

A 5* player doesn't mean much here, but this is still a good intake with a professional personality as well!

[Makoto Nakamura]

This might be the favourite thing I've ever seen after a board takeover.

 

Edited August 11, 2022 by Makoto Nakamura

[The_Gato_In_Goal]

24 minutes ago, JAwtunes said:

Thought this might be of interest (I just noticed it on Steam)

https://www.footballmanager.com/the-byline/dispelling-10-common-football-manager-misconceptions

  Hide contents

This might mean a change in how the intake used to work.  The comment from Seb isn't directly related to HoYD influence building over time, but I had always (probably wrongly!) thought that this meant the intake was generated on intake day.  Just thought I'd share this too as some may not have seen this as it a bit old now.

 

The largest potential impact if this is true is HOYD turnover. It's possible to get stuck in a vicious cycle if you're sacking your HYD every couple seasons.

[XaW]

22 minutes ago, The_Gato_In_Goal said:

The largest potential impact if this is true is HOYD turnover. It's possible to get stuck in a vicious cycle if you're sacking your HYD every couple seasons.

Yeah, it still works how I do it. I keep improving slowly, but when I have a Perfectionist or similar I stick with them for a long time, unless I see a Model Citizen or something!  

This is my current one (and the best I could find in VNN):

But I would replace him with someone better in a heartbeat... So for me, it's more of when you get in a seemingly good one you need to stick with it.

[Makoto Nakamura]

2023 End of Season Review

There definitely appears to be a gap in quality between teams here and I'm just grateful to have stared up, we had a rubbish finish to the season but we finish eleven points clear of the relegation zone! Unfortunately we didn't get any cup runs this season.

2023 Best XI

Rama Reis

Osório Ribeiro - Elias Vítor - Husen Pinto - Sandro Amaral

Fagio Sanches - Leopoldo Feliano

Martinho Amaral                                    Rivaldo Santos

 

Gaspar Pereira - Angiso Ribeiro de Almeida 

[XaW]

Got a new striker in the intake and he had a good debut...

Some way to introduce yourself!

[BigJack]

Vanarama National League 2029/30

Competitions

Overview

National League - League Table

I was hoping for a run at the play offs and we started well before again dropping off like the first 2 seasons at this level and sat 12th going into December. I made a couple of tactical adjustments and we started to pick up points and a run of 17 wins from 20 games saw us going into the last day just 1 point behind leaders Newport. We bagged a 3-0 win against Fleetwood as they drew 2-2 with South Shields to hand us a fairy tale title on the last day of the season.

F.A Cup - An absolute dream run to the third round where we landed a lucrative away trip to Old Trafford. The gulf in class was evident as we lost 9-0. I did rest the majority of my first 11 as I was focused on the league. Due to a sell out crowd we managed to get £1.3m from this tie which really put us in a comfortable position financially

FA Trophy - A run to the 5th round was ended Bromley.

Playing Squad

Transfers    Squad

The team have performed absolute wonders and I could show most of them. Losing our best winger last summer saw Sheils 29b come in and replace him and although he isnt quite the player Ekman was, he did well. The key point to this years form was Puukka 28c, who was brilliant and ended the season with 20 goals. Black 24a also played a huge role with 18 goals.

One big loss for next season will be Burke 25e. He has been instrumental for us and leaves for free, but with a 50% Sell on after I failed to convince him to sign a new deal. Its a huge loss but we have a couple of youngsters who I am hoping can step up and fill the void.

 We have also failed to earn anything from Ekman 24b moving to Norwich last summer with the same clause as Burke 25e, he has been sold to Northampton for £5k.

Youth Development

Intake 

Promotion saw the board upgrade our Youth Level from 4 to 3 and we also had our best intake for a while. Our best players from this intake are:

McAteer 30a

Atherton 30b 

Moore 30c

Finances and Facilities

Finances    Facilities

Promotion meant we have finally turned pro and I requested and got an upgrade to our Training Facilities whilst the board automatically expanded our Stadium to 5900. We have been selling out quite a lot so I am hopeful the extra seats wont go empty.

Edited August 11, 2022 by BigJack

[WhiteCat33]

 

Season 9 2030 – 31: Pre-Season Continental Qualification & Transfers

Continental Qualification -- MR: https://imgur.com/a/DNSwJdw  Teams: https://imgur.com/a/4AjMZCl 

We are back into EC2! The big upset to get us through was the first victory against FCSB of Romania. We just had a fantastic first-half away getting 3 goals before they could adjust. Then when they came to us we did just well enough to keep our goal advantage and advance. Actually drawing Sparta Prague 3-3 at home could have been a victory as we gave up 2 goals in the final 10. They showed they were the stronger side away and that's when we got dropped down to Euro Cup where we got the luckiest draw of all time HB from the Faroe Islands. Literally the easiest team still alive in any competition. A simple 7-1 Agg victory saw us into the Playoff Match where Olympiacos of Greece stomped us silly. But again I didn't care as the loser of the playoff goes into the EC2 group stage.

Spoiler

Transfers

Well it happened. Apparently, all Australian teams were the first to notice the Maltese Machine? So much for adding Italy to get them to take him. They came looking after the FCSB matches, and Western United put their bid in after the Sparta Prague Matches. As my last non-contract he leaves us high and dry on any fees which hurts. Even though the rest came bidding  after his 4 goal Haul against HB, he went with Western Utd. Here's a farewell look at the fastest man from Malta:

EC2 Group: Maybe we can get some wins against the Cyprus team? Going to be rough especially as we bed-in a new striker. Regardless we got our $3.47 M payday so the club will hopefully let me do an upgrade.

 

 Club Improvements:

On their own the board upgraded our scouting range to all of Europe!

And we will be getting our 4th YF upgrade. This leaves $2.1M in the bank, which should be plenty to keep us financially safe for the year.

@JAwtunes The turnover secret killer is real. I had that issue in Slovenia with HOYDs randomly retiring / getting poached every 5 years, which played havoc on the quality of my later players. I hope I can hold onto my current Professional HOYD for as long as possible. You can actually see when a player joins the Youth Candidates hidden team if you look at their Career Milestones and select "All", for example Sean Caruana 02a:

So for him it was 4 years before he appeared in my 2nd intake (but 3rd for the club). Not sure how much of their PA / Personality is set at that point or later, but it is interesting how long they actually spend in the youth teams before appearing. That's some serious lag before you can start judging a HOYD. 

Edited August 11, 2022 by WhiteCat33

[Neo_Geo]

1 hour ago, XaW said:

Got a new striker in the intake and he had a good debut...

Some way to introduce yourself!

Very di canio-esque

[JAwtunes]

@WhiteCat33thats a great spot, thanks for the heads up.

[Makoto Nakamura]

2024 Youth Candidates

More fairly pro players coming through and for the first time we have a player not from Dili!

Edited August 11, 2022 by Makoto Nakamura

[V50]

2 hours ago, XaW said:

Yeah, it still works how I do it. I keep improving slowly, but when I have a Perfectionist or similar I stick with them for a long time, unless I see a Model Citizen or something!  

This is my current one (and the best I could find in VNN):

But I would replace him with someone better in a heartbeat... So for me, it's more of when you get in a seemingly good one you need to stick with it.

Reputation also matters - a reputable HoY can attract players and help poach/counter poaching.

[The_Gato_In_Goal]

3 hours ago, The_Gato_In_Goal said:

Will have the season review up later, but we did manage to repeat the CCC and I got this message when I asked to turn pro.

Not an outright rejection! I went to discuss it with them and told them we need to be professional to raise the profile of the club and enhance our reputation.

They bought it and away we go. Now keep in mind "beginning of next season" actually means two seasons. The CCC is played so late that we finish the competition in October, well after the league season. So November 2032 is one year and one month away unfortunately. It will be nice to add some cash to our balance this year in the NACL before turning pro though since I'm not sure how well our finances will hold up.

As soon as the league ticked over a few days latter I got this message. So much for a year later.

EDIT: And while we're on the topic, I've attached my current HOYD. The Fairly Professional personality is about the best I can do right now. He is about to get a raise up to £100 p/w on a full-time deal. @V50's point about reputation is interesting. I wonder how much the HOYD matters compared to club reputation. My gut says that club is much more important.

Spoiler

 

Edited August 11, 2022 by The_Gato_In_Goal

[Daddy]

2039/40 Season Review:

A second season with no losses, and I think out sixth in a row league win. Second half saw the team a bit more banged up which led to a handful of draws and allowed Metalist to keep it close until the end.

We got past Juventus fairly uneventfully, but Man City was a different story. We were without a few key players due to injury, and it was really felt on defense. Weirdly we struggled at home to score in the knockouts and racked up on the road. 

This time I didn't lose to the eventual winners, or even the the runners up. Still, I take solace in that I keep getting knocked out by top 10 global type teams here, and not blowing it against lesser opponents. We're close. 

Just a bunch of loans. 

Youth Intake:

Just an okay intake. The personalities weren't tremendous either. After two full contracts I've moved on to a new HYOD. Just to help shake things up if I haven't completed this challenge by the time his first class comes through in a few seasons.

2040/41 Season Preview:

I have to try to win the domestic cup to keep the owner happy. In league I'm aiming for that 30-0 season. 

This seems like a great draw. I've yet to play any of the teams. Atalanta is a consistent top 4 team in Italy, so they're in the Champions League Group Stage, but they've not won a Serie A league yet this save. Oostende has become the Belgium team of the 30s, rattling off seven straight league championships. However, when they reach the Champions League Group Stage they're the group's punching bag. Astana is the top club it seems from Kazakhstan. In this save they have reached the group stage once and lost all six matches. I expect to win this group.

[Makoto Nakamura]

2024 End of Season Review

A great end of season sees us up in 4th as the best of the rest and as twice cup finalists and now cup winners as well!

2024 Best XI

Charles Lay (YP2e)

Osvaldo Costa (YP2c) - Celestino De Aroujo (YP2h) - Nelson Soares (YP2m) - Sandro Amaral

Fagio Sanches - Leopoldo Feliano

Rivaldo Santos                                    Antonio Pereira (YP2a)

 

Gaspar Pereira - Angiso Ribeiro de Almeida 

[XaW]

 

XaW - Hyde - Season 2023/24 - Vanarama National League North

Squad | Transfers | Finances

A bit back down to earth this season, compared to the almost promotion last season. But it's not surprising to me, we did lose a few of our best players before the season as they wouldn't sign new contracts. So I had to throw a few youngsters into the side, that were not all that suited to it yet, but that's the name of the game in this challenge, I guess. Still, upper mid-table is nothing to scuff over when we are predicted bottom. So we go again and see if we can slowly improve year by year. At least the board accepts some of my requests, so now it's a waiting game for the talents to improve and new ones to come in.

FA Cup: We beat Stafford Rangers, Warrington, Scarborough Athletic, and Dartford before losing to Sunderland in the 2nd round. At least we got a pretty penny from it.
FA Trophy:  We lost to Brackley Town in the 2nd round.

U18 team:

They finished 5th in the National U18 League North West. In the FA Youth Cup they lost to Spennymoor in the 1st qualifying round.

Youth intake:

Trophy cabinet

N/A

Player statistics:

Most apps for the clubs

Name			Nation		2nd Nation	Apps
-------------------------------------------------------------
Robbie Brown 23f	England		Scotland	44
Fraser Bickerdike 23h	England		None		43
Carwyn Watson 23c	Wales		None		25
Dean Neal 23l		England		None		14
Chris Attard 23d	Malta		England		10

Most goals for the club

Name			Nation		2nd Nation	Goals
-------------------------------------------------------------
Joe Swinglehurst 24e	England		None		3
Fraser Bickerdike 23h	England		None		1
Mark Gascoigne 23g	England		None		1

Most assists for the club

Name			Nation		2nd Nation	Assists
-------------------------------------------------------------
Fraser Bickerdike 23h	England		None		5
Robbie Brown 23f	England		Scotland	3
Mick Halligan 23a	England		None		2
Mark Gascoigne 23g	England		None		1
Zach Hubbard-Morton 24c	England		None		1

[DrJones]

De Treffers 2026/27

A beginning of a new era at Treffers, I had thoughts before the season to play a few more youngsters and when it was clear that the newly promoted team Rijnsburgse were absolutely useless I decided to play even more of them. We are nowhere near to be promoted in the coming seasons but the positive thing is that we've been able to upgrade youth coaching and recruitment over the past years and we're getting a few decent players in every intake now.

Squad

There will be at least five youngsters in the starting XI next season. The big concern is the lack of good defending options.

Youth Intake

A decent intake overall, nothing extraordinary but a few good ones. Mr Afkir is probably the best and will get minutes next season.

[BustaRaymes]

*FM20*

Littlehampton Town 2053-2054

Sky Bet League Two

We're up! It took us 34 years to get from the regional 9th level to the 3rd level, and our game starts to look like football.

I didn't expect to cruise to League One so soon, but quite a few players are ready for a higher level. Just need to hold on to them.

 

Squad

Quinn is the new starter in goal. He's decent but will be punching above his weight in League One. Hope to find a new goalie in the next few years.

Lapeña is still with us, athough clubs have been pulling at him for a while now. Getting better and better.

Clewlow is one of the examples why I didn't expect to go up. He's our captain and best CB, but he lacks the quality to help us grow further.

Fletcher had me blindsided. He came through as a fullback last year, didn't make my preview (2,5-3,5 potential) but as soon as I started playing him as a ballwinner in midfield, he developed really fast. His potential is now shown as 4-5 stars and he is our best midfielder.

Houston develops like a dream. I played him mostly as a DLF, but he also has a few games at AMC when switching tactics. Will lose him eventually but enjoying it while it lasts.

 

Transfers

Due to our finances the board decided to sell Van Heusden halfway through the season. Coulibaly wanted to leave as well, a nice fee and sell-on to San Jose was enough for me.

 

Youth intake

Not unhappy with this. Henry is a pacy winger who could be a squad player before too long with that personality.

Jones fits in our system and he's tall. Seeing as how often our wingers get in front of goal to get on the end of crosses, I'm curious to see if his height will help him out.

David may well be undervalued by the coaches. When turned into a complete attacking fullback I can see us getting a lot out of him.

 

[JAwtunes]

 

Cardiff Corinthians A.F.C - Introduction

I have decided to give the Welsh league a go.  I haven't played in Wales since the early/mid 2000s when I had a interest in Bangor City after accidentally watching a game when on holiday and buying their away top (I thought it was their home one at the time :))

There are so many options available in Wales due to the wide pyramid but I've decided to go with Cardiff Corries.  I was very tempted to go for the new Bangor phoenix club that has strung up as a result of the bizarre things happening at Bangor City.  This could be an interesting one for anyone looking at Wales (https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0017qvx)

Beginnings

Cardiff Corinthians, know as Cardiff Corries in game, were formally constituted on 22 July 1898.   The Corinthians did take the field before July 1898. There are reports of Cardiff Corinthians, …a newly formed touring team, playing …their initial match… at Bonvilston on Boxing Day 1897.  The team was created by the members of the Cardiff Alpha cricket team as a means to keep fit and occupied during the winter season.

It is thought that the team were named after the famous Corinthians team formed in London in 1882, with an emphasis on the principles and sportsmanship and fair play.

One of the earliest known photos of the Cardiff Corinthians (possible from 29 Jan 1898).

Competitive Records

The Corries have spent all of their existence as an amateur side and in the lower leagues in South Wales.  As such, I haven't yet been able to find any records for most appearances or goals scored.

The club have recorded the following achievements.

Facilities

The club play their home games at the Riverside Ground located to the north-east of the city.  The ground has a capacity of about 1000 (though this shows at 2,500 in game).  I am confused as to where the ground actually is as I can only see cricket pitches an a golf course in the online maps  I think perhaps their ground is the football pitch shaped area in the middle, apparently there is seating for 20 at the stadium (according to FM anyway.  What the mapping does seem to show is that the club, wherever they are, are probably still quite close to their old cricket roots, which is cool.

Apparently (according to the clubs twitter page) this stand opened in late 2021, so the seating capacity might now be closer to 100 now.

Today

This will be our league for my first season at the club.  We are predicted to finish around mid-table at the moment, but as always at lower levels, teams will stock up on loads of freebies so this could slip a bit (hopefully not too much)

Right - time to go and retire Holiday Man and get started.  GL all!

Spoiler

In trying to find out where the hell their ground is I did manage to find that they're very close to this little piece of history .

[Daddy]

Good luck in Wales @JAwtunes

Wales is on my list to eventually try due to there being such a large amount of Welsh settlers locally during the colonization. There is an area known as the "Welsh Tract" West and North of Philadelphia. Copied from Wikipedia:

The area is now part of Montgomery, Chester, and Delaware counties. Many towns in the area still bear Welsh names. Some, such as North Wales, Lower Gwynedd, Upper Gwynedd, Lower Merion, Upper Merion, Narberth, Bala Cynwyd, Radnor, Berwyn, and Haverford Township, are named after places in Wales. Others, such as Tredyffrin and Uwchlan have independent Welsh names.

[The_Gato_In_Goal]

 

Survivals FC - End of Season - 2031

Squad | SLFA First Division | Transfers | Pernal Williams 30A | Romiel Lawrence 27B | Jackson Williams 29E

Not too much excitement in this post, since the real news is that everyone has to get new contracts after turning pro. We did drop points this year (and lots of them). I'm not sure what happened in the league campaign, our performances were slightly less dominating offensively and our defense struggled. We had many matches in which the xG finished over 2 to under 0.5 in our favor, but the opponents scored their 1 or 2 shots on target. I will reexamine the tactic during the offseason while I set up the staff and training in anticipation of becoming a professional club.

 

[Neo_Geo]

Good luck @JAwtunes I think you’ll need it

One of my first attempts was there and whilst it started well the amateur contract situation and constantly having to improve the non-contract for key players was frustrating.

[The_Gato_In_Goal]

The slightly altered tactic made us much more competitive against better sides. I think it will make us less potent in league matches, so if we start dropping points I will switch up to a more aggresive version for domestic matches.

EDIT: We're still having ~2.5 xG to the opponents ~0.5 every match and winning about 60% of matches. I've determined it's not about the tactic and it's more about how weak our GK and defenders are compared to the rest of the squad. The preview for next intake says we have "elite" prospects at GK, full-back, and defensive midfield, so hoping that pans out and the DM can be trained as a center back (since we have no prospects coming through there). I'm wondering how much of this trend is up to the HOYD. Perhaps his Vertical Tiki-Taka style and 4-4-2 diamond narrow formation is responsibly for the multiple physically-gifted central midfielders we've brought through in the last three years, but the lack of quality defensive players.

Edited August 12, 2022 by The_Gato_In_Goal

[JLAB]

OFK Beograd - Season 10 Winter Break

The extra games we had to deal with as a result of making the Champions League made our schedule busier than we are used to. We did have a horrid November, but we did end up claiming points against Ajax and Juventus, even if Gladbach destroyed us 4-0 in both fixtures against them. We didn't enjoy ourselves in a lot of matches in the first half of the season.

After 21 matches we're currently in the top-half, but we do have an opportunity to finish in the European places once again. We just need to make sure that our squad is fit enough to do well, since we've already been knocked out of the Serbian Cup and the Champions League.

Speaking of the Champions League, we made quite a bit of money from both the gate receipts and claiming draws against Ajax and Juventus. We failed to score a single goal in the group stage sadly, but we did better than we were expecting to be doing.

Our youth intake preview is one full of promise. We've been promised a good goalkeeper, two CBs, a CM and a ST. So hopefully we will be getting some good players in our next intake.

JLAB - OFK Beograd - Season 1 | JLAB - OFK Beograd - Season 2 | JLAB - OFK Beograd - Season 3 | JLAB - OFK Beograd - Season 4 | JLAB - OFK Beograd - Season 5 | JLAB - OFK Beograd - Season 6 | JLAB - OFK Beograd - Season 7 | JLAB - OFK Beograd - Season 8 | JLAB - OFK Beograd - Season 9

[JAwtunes]

2 hours ago, Neo_Geo said:

Good luck @JAwtunes I think you’ll need it

One of my first attempts was there and whilst it started well the amateur contract situation and constantly having to improve the non-contract for key players was frustrating.

Already regretting it mate . I had forgotten why I avoid amateur clubs... until now. I've already lost my best players and am offering them new non-contract deals when offers come in but it keeps failing. I'm sure it used to be easier to pull that move off a few yrs ago. Perhaps my team is too low in rep. Seriously considering picking a new team, but would prob have to be in Tier 2. 

I'll stick it out to the end of the season and see how I feel. Might even get relegated, which will make the decision easier!

[Makoto Nakamura]

Another lovely upgrade!  

[The_Gato_In_Goal]

1 hour ago, The_Gato_In_Goal said:

The slightly altered tactic made us much more competitive against better sides. I think it will make us less potent in league matches, so if we start dropping points I will switch up to a more aggresive version for domestic matches.

EDIT: We're still having ~2.5 xG to the opponents ~0.5 every match and winning about 60% of matches. I've determined it's not about the tactic and it's more about how weak our GK and defenders are compared to the rest of the squad. The preview for next intake says we have "elite" prospects at GK, full-back, and defensive midfield, so hoping that pans out and the DM can be trained as a center back (since we have no prospects coming through there). I'm wondering how much of this trend is up to the HOYD. Perhaps his Vertical Tiki-Taka style and 4-4-2 diamond narrow formation is responsibly for the multiple physically-gifted central midfielders we've brought through in the last three years, but the lack of quality defensive players.

This is my strongest lineup for a CCC match. It exemplifies the need for defensive quality.

[WhiteCat33]

1 hour ago, JAwtunes said:

Already regretting it mate . I had forgotten why I avoid amateur clubs... until now. I've already lost my best players and am offering them new non-contract deals when offers come in but it keeps failing. I'm sure it used to be easier to pull that move off a few yrs ago. Perhaps my team is too low in rep. Seriously considering picking a new team, but would prob have to be in Tier 2. 

I'll stick it out to the end of the season and see how I feel. Might even get relegated, which will make the decision easier!

I do not miss that stage in Malta. Wales sounds worse than Malta though, the AI wasn't particularly aggressive my early seasons. Hope that Youth Intake comes with a few games left in the season to stay alive!

[JLAB]

OFK Beograd - Season 10 Youth Intake

So we only had 6 more games before the youth intake arrived and we drew most of them. We did lose more games than we won, but given we want to finish in the top half, that is still not good enough.

We are still in the top half after 27 matches, but there is still a possibility that we could finish in the bottom half in the save season we were in the Champions League Group Stage.

We did just get our latest youth intake, and I had a feeling that things could be getting better for us with 4 exciting talents turning up this intake.

Igore Petrovic is the most exciting of the talents to arrive, and I am hoping that he can provide us with most needed depth in CM.

Zoran Jankovic is another exciting goalkeeper, but he still needs a lot of work to be considered someone I'd start.

We did get a CB, but not two of them, which is a shame. Still, if Vermezovic could get taller and improve his attributes, I'd be happy.

The last player of interest is Blagoje Miletic, who is either a winger or a striker. He has good physical attributes, but he still needs to improve a lot.

While all of this was happening, we were also improving all of our facilities. Now we have the Champions League money, I will take full advantage of it and ensure the club keeps getting better and better on and off the pitch.

JLAB - OFK Beograd - Season 1 | JLAB - OFK Beograd - Season 2 | JLAB - OFK Beograd - Season 3 | JLAB - OFK Beograd - Season 4 | JLAB - OFK Beograd - Season 5 | JLAB - OFK Beograd - Season 6 | JLAB - OFK Beograd - Season 7 | JLAB - OFK Beograd - Season 8 | JLAB - OFK Beograd - Season 9

[WhiteCat33]

Season 9 2030 – 31 MPL Premier League

Performance

EC2 Group Stage - Here I had little hope especially after we lost our star striker in qualifying, but we actually won a game in Tel-Aviv! A draw away in Cyprus sees us just get 4 points while Red Bulls smoked the entire group

Spoiler

League - Champions again pretty easily

Spoiler

Cup - Did the Treble again

Spoiler

Squad

Transfers

Youth Academy

YI Preview

Youth Intake

What an Intake! I love the wall of Fairly Professional for my best prospects. We also get our first South American! Sadly we don't use wingers at all...

Another Caruana striker who is amazing! In my head-cannon this is Sean Caruana 02a’s younger brother, what a family. This is an absolutely wicked setup for an Advanced forward from this level of club and he is Fairly Professional to boot so I'm hoping for some development.

Also this new HOYD really brings in the CM/CAMs, here is the best of three that are all in the top group and Fairly Professional. The depth is welcome as I play 3 CMs and 1 DM so I can never have too many.

Club Status: I figure its worth showing where we are at now with our facility upgrades. I've been able to prioritize the YF as we are at the stage where we will only hold onto players for 3-5 years before they get poached, so no need to work on Training Facilities. Club is in good financial shape

 

 

Edited August 12, 2022 by WhiteCat33

[The_Gato_In_Goal]

 

Survivals FC - Youth Intake and Mid-Season Analysis - 2032

Starting with a mid-season analysis about our first few months as a professional club. I was not ready for the increase of injuries that came with full-time training. In years past, I carried a ~21 man squad and fully rotated the team between continetal and league competitions when fixture congestion got bad. Next year, I'm going to have to integrate more players into the first team to deal with injuries.

Compare the previous image (with slight injuries not included) to the next one. This season, a majority of our injuries have come in training, and they have been more numerous than last, in which more came during matches.

 

However professional training does allow me to see the fun green arrows of improvement for the first time this save. Before this year, our intakes were judged on the CA of the players coming through. Nobody could improve at the club, so personality had little impact on rating our intake, and PA didn't matter (not that any of the staff could determine PA with any accuracy).

The development of first team players this year enlightened me onto the variable "ability gap" among different youths coming through the intake. Since we maxed out junior coaching, we had good odds that some youth would join our club with high relative CA. On the other hand, St. Lucia's importance and youth rating is so low that our upgrades to youth recruitment don't have equitable impact on our overall youth PA. This causes some of the "stars" in past intakes to effectively have a negligible "ability gap." That is, their CA is almost maxed out to their PA by the time they come through the intake. To exemplify this, look at the cases of the best two players at the club, Romiel Lawrence 27B and Eden Janvier 30B.

This is the development all-time of Lawrence 27B. He has an Unambitious personality, with 6 Determination. It's possible that his Professionalism hidden attribute is relatively high, but having low Ambition and Determination should hamper his development somewhat. Compare this to Janvier 30B, who has a Professional personality and 13 Determination. He should be improving much quicker than Lawrence 27B on paper, even with the 3 year age gap between them. As anecdotal evidence, Lawrence 27B has been improving his attributes this season, while Janvier 30B has remained at a similar level. Also, note the decline in physical attributes for Lawrence 27B compared to the slight increase for Janvier 30B. I've noticed physical attributes are most affected by the lack of consistent training as a semi-professional side. This makes sense when you consider the age from 15/16-18/19 is when you see the most physical development in players, and Lawrence 27B is now 20 and had no opportunity to consistently train during those formative years.

The main culprit for this difference in progess in my opinion is the "ability gap." I believe that Lawrence 27B has lots of room to grow, while Janvier 30B is already at his potential. So, effectively, the Professional personality is "wasted" on a player who does not have the ability to develop meaningfully.

Another development of turning professional is, of course, dealing with other clubs' interest in your star players. I have not ran into any MLS or Liga MX sides interested yet @WhiteCat33, but sides from the Saudi League and the UAE have stirred up discontent when I reject their pitiful offers for my stars.

Now onto the intake armed with new knowledge about the "ability gap" and the fact that my backroom staff still do not have the attributes necessary to accurately judge PA. I'm hoping that Tyler Marshall 32N has more potential than the staff see in him due to his Professional personality. Similarly with Leo Lastic 32P since I desperately need a central defender who can develop well. Other than that, the personalities are pretty substandard, and the "star" GK promised has low CA and an uphill battle to develop effectively.

[Daddy]

2040/41 Midseason Review:

The undefeated run keeps going but the perfect 30-0 dream has died. I've started moving on from some of the guys in their late 20s and early 30s that are in backup roles. They're still solid players, but a bit unhappy as backups. Plus, they've reached their potential. Maybe the younger guys moving into the backup roles only ever develop to that level, but as of now they still have potential to grow, so I don't want to have them stagnate. 

I was confident in winning the group. I thought we had a good shot to win all six matches. However, to not give up a goal until late in the final match was a lot better than I expected. We took care of business and not at the expense of league/domestic cup play.

Rennais is a team that has always been in the mix for some European competition, and have qualified for something three of the last five seasons. They got out of a soft group that was dominated by Real Madrid with the lowest points to qualify for knockouts. We faced off a few years ago in the Europa knockouts and we won on aggregate 5-3. I'm expecting to win here and move on, and hopefully win the damn thing this run.

Intake Preview:

A bit underwhelming, where the two A rank positions are one I don't use, DM, and one that's super deep, AMC. 

[WhiteCat33]

@The_Gato_In_Goal The Oil Money teams are the first to come especially once you produce the national team. Like Australia for me in Malta those teams like picking up small nation national team players. I loaded up my St Vincent save, and here are what my star players look like wanted by clubs. I never had trouble pushing away MLS teams as they underbid my players, and even if they got unsettled it usually didn't last too long. Its the Saudi teams you have to watch out for as they will bid stupid money for middle level talent triggering the Board to auto-accept. That's why I always kept a healthy bank balance at the club.

Charlie Quashie 24b is my only good youngster who is starting to get wanted by MLS teams. He's a decent all around midfielder, but not exceptional at anything really.

Theon Jeffers is old now, but when he was younger every MLS team was chasing him as he was lethal as a wide playmaker before he slowed down due to injuries. Now he's my false nine to leverage that creativity.

And Jellando Westfield 17a though isn't wanted right at the moment will get wanted by all the MLS clubs every transfer window as he's a solid CB

Same with Azinho Anderson 19g. This guy was my lone Model Citizen, though he downgraded when he got a little older. Azinho is the exemplar how the perfect personality makes a player as his attribute increase was astounding. He started as a 1* CA ; 3* PA player (hence the "g") and just out-developed everybody. I attribute the low potential at intake due to my awful coaches. 

Not sure how far back in the thread you've read, but this article was shared and is an actual legit analysis of the value of Professionalism, Ambition & Determination in youth player development: https://fmstats.com/2022-03-14-ambition-determination-professionalism/ But of course some players can just be duds, which is part of what I enjoy of the challenge, especially in these small countries where you have to make-do with non-ideal options till the 'player of a generation' appears. St Vincent has me playing a 36 year old RB because he's still my best option. 

I agree having played in St Vincent the low youth-rating & low population of the nation really limits what you get in terms of players. A "good" intake for me at the end had 2 elite talents, with hopefully 1 making into the team as a starter. I stopped playing St Vincent as I hit a 7 year dry-spell in getting talent in the team, which led me to look for a new save. I have to say my Malta intakes are already surpassing what I was seeing in St Vincent, especially this last years intake, which is an interesting comparison.

You got professional a little quicker than I did (2036) congrats! It happened the exact same way for me, where they said that same prompt and finally I could make them see reason. Now to stock up on those FT physios to keep your players from breaking  

 

[JAwtunes]

@WhiteCat33That seems like an excellent study you have linked above. I think I first saw it on a reddit group a while back and was pleased to see the findings are broadly consistent with what others have been showing for many years now. 

I actually first created my SI forum account at the time I started to get really interested in the various hidden attributes that influence Personality and Media Handling descriptions (Dec 2012 apparently).  I stumbled across a great post by Nocuous and wanted to get involved in the discussion back then.  There were posts on the forum and on other fan sites around that time (so 9-10 years ago) that seemed to be showing the importance of Professionalism in player development, more so than Det and Amb.  There was one in particular that was similar to the one you linked on a fan site, but I cant find it now.  

).

[JAwtunes]

I've decided I hate my teams badge - it looks like someone created it in their lunchbreak using Paint.

I have no idea how to create a decent badge so I did a quick google search and found that someone much brighter than me has created a transparent custom badge for the club. What a result!

Real - 

 

Custom - 

Sorry for the spam.  I'm done for now as off to watch the mighty Villa. UTV!

[The_Gato_In_Goal]

 

Survivals FC - End of Season - 2032

Squad | SLFA First Division | Transfers | Pernal Williams 30A | Romiel Lawrence 27B | Eden Janvier 30B

Our CCC run was a bit more nervy, as we lost and drew to Gustavia in the groups, but still managed to make it through on goal difference thanks to a massive 7-0 win in Bermuda. We lost our first leg in the quarters and drew the first leg in the semis, but were able to turn it around both times. Then we romped the Guyana Defense Force in the finals because of course we did.

A key development in the second half of this season was the emergence of Romiel Jones 31B as a solid center back when we needed someone to step up (especially as a left-sided one). His Resolute personality is great and I hope his PA is high enough that he's not already close to maxing out.

This year was a test year to see how our finances would hold up with professional contracts and the like. I was pleasantly surprised to see that we didn't actually lose any money. The monthly expenses of turning pro are still under the monthly expenses of our youth setup, which has been in place for 3-4 years now. We just had a takeover, and the new chairperson wouldn't let me ask for facilities upgrades, but hopefully we can look to improve those later in the offseason. We still have Basic youth and training facilities.

[WhiteCat33]

3 hours ago, JAwtunes said:

@WhiteCat33That seems like an excellent study you have linked above. I think I first saw it on a reddit group a while back and was pleased to see the findings are broadly consistent with what others have been showing for many years now. 

I actually first created my SI forum account at the time I started to get really interested in the various hidden attributes that influence Personality and Media Handling descriptions (Dec 2012 apparently).  I stumbled across a great post by Nocuous and wanted to get involved in the discussion back then.  There were posts on the forum and on other fan sites around that time (so 9-10 years ago) that seemed to be showing the importance of Professionalism in player development, more so than Det and Amb.  There was one in particular that was similar to the one you linked on a fan site, but I cant find it now.  

).

I definitely use that post whenever I forget what the ranges are for personalities, while SI have added new ones since then the vast majority and most prevalent are in there. 

I like the new badge BTW, much better for sure. I take this to mean you haven't gotten sacked yet! 

[libbyshuss]

Croatia

Division 2

2032/33 (season 11)

Season Summary

Back to normal. At the hlafway stage we'd only lost twice, to the team unbeaten in first. It pretty much stayed like that all season. in the end we got our record points score, one that would see us promoted most season, but had to settle for second again. Gorica were the professional club relegated last season - it's a pattern!

but at least we're back on the right track!

 

Players

They're looking much better as they get older!

Most annoying thing this season was the clubs sniffing around my 4 star prospect striker Popovic 28C. The coaches assured me he was a potential top league striker but he was disappointing again. I kept asking for add ons, I kept being rejected until:-

no chance for me to protest! I didn't mind losing him as he'd been total crap for 3 seasons now but the lack of a sell-on was annoying

especially as.....

goddamit board, you sold him!!!!

anyway, Popovic went and his replacement, Milan Cordas 30C, did way better than he ever did!

Igor Petrovic 31A and Zdenko Mijokovic 30B are the key to my succes though. Both top division level already at 18 and neither showing signs of wanting to leave yet. If I keep hold of them I got a real chance.

 

Youth

Still gtting the crazy good youth intakes, which is nice. It's got to pay off sooner or later!

Bit annoying, as I don't use DM or WM! But they'll hopefully be retrainable

Another really nice intake. Lots of potential and lots of nice dtermination/personalities as well. I'm happy!

The star is this lad. He'll probably be retrained as DC, i haven't totally decided yet. That passing attribute makes him a great candidate for a DLP though

 

Career

 

 

[Makoto Nakamura]

2025 Youth Candidates

Another very good intake!  

[JAwtunes]

3 hours ago, WhiteCat33 said:

I definitely use that post whenever I forget what the ranges are for personalities, while SI have added new ones since then the vast majority and most prevalent are in there. 

I like the new badge BTW, much better for sure. I take this to mean you haven't gotten sacked yet! 

Haha, nope not yet. I was on a A+ rating when I last played last night. we started playing pretty well. I haven't lost any more players and the intake preview looks great. I'd love to be able to stick with it as I've never managed to with an amateur team before.

[Daddy]

2040/41 Season Review:

Really good season. As things got congested with Champions League and the domestic cup I wound up basically sacrificing a match and had our first loss in league for almost two calendar years. 

Winning the 8th league in a row put me as the top American coach.

Cleared out some of the older backups to make room for younger players.

Rennes was tough on the road, but in the end we won fairly easily. The Arsenal matchup concerned me as we had never beat them. However, we never really let them in. Villarreal gave us a pretty good scare. We had faced them before but split our matchups. Still we got through and led us to another rematch with Liverpool in the finals. 

Very tight match, as you would expect. Trading goals back and forth and then a cross in bounces off a defender and in and put us up for the first time. We get a late penalty to clinch it and complete the challenge!

What's next? I'll take at least a few days off to play other games and a little bit of the journeyman save I have going too. Then I'll be back, probably with England. 

[JAwtunes]

@Daddy. Congrats on the win. Your journey was a great one to follow. 

[Neo_Geo]

Superb @Daddy

You could see this coming for a few seasons, glad you got it over the line.