The FM22 Youth Academy Challenge

[Daddy]

9 minutes ago, WhiteCat33 said:

Ugh I know, rather than it just being spend 120M to buy a slot in the MLS see teams like Union Omaha get rewarded with promotion for embarrassing MLS sides and dominating their league.  

What's funny is the concept of earning it instead of buying it would resonate very well here I think. At least I can enjoy the fact that my local(ish) team, the Philadelphia Union, have developed into a really good organization. (localish in that they play in Chester, south of Philadelphia and I live in suburbs north of Philadelphia. my closest team in that Zealand DB would be the Bethlehem Steel)

[libbyshuss]

Croatia

Premier Division

2040/41

Season Summary

now this is more like it! before christmas i rarely look at the league table and thought we were doing rubbish. We'd win 2 and then lose an annoying one and I kept focussing on the defeats. Turns out winning 2 and losing 1 can get you up to second place! After christmas we cemented that second place by going on a frankly bonkers run of only 1 defeat in the final 12 games. We were great! and by finishing second we've qualified for the Champions League for the first time! yay us!

lovely stuff!!!!!

 

Players

The main reason we were so good in the second half was Mario Serti 38B. After losing our star forward last season i ws desperate for a replecemnt. I wasn't sure Serti was the man with only 1 goal from his first 5 matches but luckily I persevered with him because after that he turned into a superstar! So much so that......

Very nice! obviously he is now thinking he's too good for us...

The best XI looked like this. Worryingly previous top 50 wonderkid Niki Vukoja 34B is showing serious signs of turning into Dele Ali. Thta's his second underwhelming season in a row, after three seasons where he was just sublime.

Hrvoje Jurkovic 36A wanted to leave last summer but I decided to play hardball with him and it worked - he signed a nice new contract! He's also a regualr inthe Croatia national team now, winning his fifth cap towards the end of the season

Wonderkids

Still none officially but.....

Number 1 baby!!!!

Youth

yeah yeah, a golden generation, blah blah

 

no-one really jumps out. The star grad is ok, but nothing really exciting really. Except those starting attributes are pretty good for a winger tbf

 

Finances and Upgrades

Still got the Europe money from last season so a couple of improvements were approved

Career

 

 

[JAwtunes]

5 hours ago, PequenoGenio said:

One more question: the @Daveincid files. It's ok to use them or not?

If its the realism pack then this might be a problem because he says he has altered lots of things that can have quite a big impact on this type of save, like nation youth ratings.  I haven't used one of his rebalancing db since FM20, but in my opinion the changes he makes are generally sound and not intended to give an advantage to any teams/leagues/nations etc., but rather just to correct what look to be some anomalies in the vanilla db and fill gaps etc.

One for the gaffers... @darren1983 @XaW

[iamnobody]

2023 Season Youth Candidates

 

Not good is the only way to describe it

 

 

I did get some pure strikers which isn't bad, but I don't think any of these are going to have a huge impact on the first XI.  I need to give my HoDY at least 3 years to see if anything good comes through though.  

 

Season Preview

Not too bad all things considered.  While I am expected to go down the odds aren't terrible across the board.  

 

 

 

 

[Daddy]

2025/26 Season Review:

This season the terrible form stretch happened in the second half. Jan was fine, only one loss, but lots of draws. It was the precursor. February 7th, a 1-0 win, was the teams last win of the season. All draws and losses for the rest of the season. If not for the solid first half we'd have been relegated. I tried a few tactic variations, played virtually everyone. It just didn't matter. We also went out early in the cups which hurts financially. Fortunately the new board member/owner has pumped a few hundred K to keep the team afloat.

It's $74,317 not $74. I'll fix it, but too lazy to recapture. The cash injections have been enough to get coach classes approved for the whole staff, but not enough for any other upgrades.

Youth Intake:

The strongest, current ability intake we've had. The context is these players are at best National League South standard. Most are standard for the league below. The player quality on the squad makes the stars misleading. I'm certainly not complaing about getting better players than I currently have though.

2026/27 Season Preview:

Basically the plan is to survive. Most of the expensive legacy players are gone. Just three left. I'm hoping saving the money will help keep finances positive without needing the injections and hopefully I can start investing soon. 

[WhiteCat33]

3 hours ago, Daddy said:

What's funny is the concept of earning it instead of buying it would resonate very well here I think. At least I can enjoy the fact that my local(ish) team, the Philadelphia Union, have developed into a really good organization. (localish in that they play in Chester, south of Philadelphia and I live in suburbs north of Philadelphia. my closest team in that Zealand DB would be the Bethlehem Steel)

Yeah from the fan perspective for sure, just wasn't financially viable initially hence why they have the single-entity mess.

Your distance to Union reminds me of when I lived on the north side in Chicago and the Fire played in Bridgeview. Sure it was my city but it was probably 1.5-2 hours in the car each way to the game as it was on the full other side of the city w/o mass transit linkups. Only reasonable way to go to the stadium was to do pub-to-pitch packages from Chicago bars that bus you both ways. That stadium is so dumb, basically bankrupted the town too and Fire's new owners paid millions just to leave and go back to Solider Field. They would be a team that would be forced to get their act together cause you know they would get relegated, at least once instead they go out and spend stupid high salary for Shaqiri because of the DP player financing *Rant over*

I'm in Madison now so we have a League 1 side, who i saw last night and they pack over 4k into a tight 5k stadium every match so its a fun atmosphere even if they aren't MLS level quality.   

[Daddy]

7 minutes ago, WhiteCat33 said:

Yeah from the fan perspective for sure, just wasn't financially viable initially hence why they have the single-entity mess.

Your distance to Union reminds me of when I lived on the north side in Chicago and the Fire played in Bridgeview. Sure it was my city but it was probably 1.5-2 hours in the car each way to the game as it was on the full other side of the city w/o mass transit linkups. Only reasonable way to go to the stadium was to do pub-to-pitch packages from Chicago bars that bus you both ways. That stadium is so dumb, basically bankrupted the town too and Fire's new owners paid millions just to leave and go back to Solider Field. They would be a team that would be forced to get their act together cause you know they would get relegated, at least once instead they go out and spend stupid high salary for Shaqiri because of the DP player financing *Rant over*

I'm in Madison now so we have a League 1 side, who i saw last night and they pack over 4k into a tight 5k stadium every match so its a fun atmosphere even if they aren't MLS level quality.   

Not sure if other countries abuse their citizens they way American sports teams do with stadium financing, but it should be a crime. I love the Madison kits, I've seen a bunch, they're very creative looking. For me to get to the Chester, where the Union play, it's a 90 minute drive. If they played at the Linc in South Philly it'd still be a an hour plus. Traffic sucks, and our public transportation here is awful. My one visit to Chicago almost 20 years ago left me impressed with their transit system. (I saw Ozzfest 2004 I think it was)

[WhiteCat33]

26 minutes ago, Daddy said:

Not sure if other countries abuse their citizens they way American sports teams do with stadium financing, but it should be a crime. I love the Madison kits, I've seen a bunch, they're very creative looking. For me to get to the Chester, where the Union play, it's a 90 minute drive. If they played at the Linc in South Philly it'd still be a an hour plus. Traffic sucks, and our public transportation here is awful. My one visit to Chicago almost 20 years ago left me impressed with their transit system. (I saw Ozzfest 2004 I think it was)

Chicago has a good (for US) transit system. The issue is where they built the stadium. Its South West of the city on the other side of the Midway Airport, which is the terminus of the Orange Elevated Line. So you have to take the train to the airport and then wait for event busses to drive you another 20-30 min to the stadium. So it is technically do-able by public transit, just not pleasant in my experience if you're from the north side.

Yeah I agree the public stadium funding is deplorable. Wisconsin essentially took money out of the Universities to fund the Bucks new stadium. Sure its nice (been to a couple concerts there) and they used it to 'revitalize' the deer district, but its hard to see its 250M couldn't have been better allocated. And that's nothing compared to the Football Stadium projects. Chicago is begging the bears to stay putting out 2.2B renovation proposals to keep them, which is nuts and then there's the whole Buffalo stadium project. The leagues here are set up so teams can put pressure on cities that 'we'll leave if you don't make us stay'. At least the MLS is getting over their soccer specific stadium agenda, so we can see more teams ground-sharing in existing NFL stadiums. 

Madison's marketing and merchandizing is exceptional, and the 3rd kits look as good in person as you'd think. It helps when the ownership group includes a Bucks Owner and a couple Minor League Baseball owners who built it up from the start with great gear. Its hard not to stop in the shop and pick something up after the match...

Edited August 25, 2022 by WhiteCat33

[SkiIIs]

Season 2025/26 - Super League 2

We found our level here in the second division.  A small blip towards the end of the season didnt ruin what was a strong year for the club, meaning we're back in the top division where I no doubt think will put in a better performance than last time!

Strong preview again:

Good intake however personalities arent as good as last years:

Oikonomopoulos (defined as top of the economy) has good physicals for this level in a position that is badly needed:

Edited August 26, 2022 by SkiIIs

[Siepe1990]

So after 3 weeks of holiday in which I played quite a lot actually but with limited access to internet, here's a triple year update from

Season 4 - 6 (2025/2026, 2026/2027, 2027/2028) (all images)

Season 4 (2. Liga): way back in season 3 we manage to finish a decent 5th place in the 2. Liga, which actually was a disappointment after finishing 3rd and missing out on the Bundesliga through the play-offs in the 2nd season. This year however, everything went according to plan. Half-way the season we were tied for first place with Fortuna Dusseldorf and I was quite encouraged by our overall play. We managed to keep up the good form throughout the remainder of the season, sadly missing out on the title on the last day but gaining straight promotion to the Bundesliga nonetheless. Our overall good form was underlined by winning both the German U17 Player of the Year (Yura is from my 2024 Youth Intake) and the German U19 Player of the Year (Baar from the 2023 Youth Intake, Schubert in 2nd place is from the 2022 Youth Intake). My Youth Intake from this year finally included a very promising striker as well as a promising GK, which will come in handy in the long term when my current GK starts declining.

Honorable mention: my man Schubert, from the Class of '22, has won the European Golden Boy for his performances in this season!

Season 5 (Bundesliga): my first season in the Bundesliga wasn't going to be an easy one. After a decent pre-season we only managed to win 1 in our first 6 matches, which had me dangling somewhere around the relegation zone. I remember I played around a lot with our tactic, since the one we used in the 3. & 2. Liga simply wouldn't cut it here - we played a Vertical Tiki Taka, which is all well and nice playing against lesser and slightly better teams, but we were now facing teams way beyond our capabilities. I did stick to the Vertical Tiki Taka, but switched back from using wingers (too offensive) to playing with a larger midfield and running backs. This turned out well over the course of the season and we found ourselves at a decent 14th place, a whopping 12 points clear of the relegation zone. I continued to play a lot of youngsters and received credit for my work once again: the German U17 Player of the Year (1st place Lenz (Class of '26), 2nd place Miller (Class of '25)) and the German U19 Player of the Year (Kammlott, Class of '23) were once again mine.

Honorable mention: further proof of Lenz' quality came when he was voted NxGn # 1 - he's labelled the 'new Jürgen Klinsmann', so curious to see how he'll turn out.

Season 6 (Bundesliga): I hoped to build on last year's decent finish and was strengthened in that belief by our perfect pre-season (6 friendlies, 2 draws and 4 wins). Our start however was identical to last year with only one win and I was starting to fidget with my tactics again. Wingers, no wingers? 3 man midfield, or 2 man with a AMC? 4 or 5 defenders? My players are so versatile that I can play any number of tactics, but what was the right one? My lack of goal-scoring really troubled me, but whatever I tried, I couldn't get them firing. But then of course, a Vertical Tiki Taka isn't meant to score tons of goals, only to wait patiently for a clear cut chance - and my conversion rates are with the top of the league. I finally decided to stick to one formation: a 4-1-3-2 DM Narrow, with a marauding wing back on the left (Kammlott, Class of '23, retrained from Winger to Wing Back), compensated with a Carrilero on the MCL, and a Mezzala on the RCM combined with a defensive back on the right. This formation seemed to work, as we started picking up narrow wins, a lot of draws and only a few losses (and we weren't completely destroyed by Bayern, Dortmund and the likes). We finished a very promising 10th, once again 12 points clear from the relegation zone but also only 7 points below the European Places. As a testimony to our continued Youth Development, we won the German U19 Player of the Year for a 3rd time in a row, this time with Yura, who had won the U17-version in Season 4. My Youth Intake keeps on flourishing and giving me talents, very curious to see who'll turn out to be a real star in years to come.

Honorable mention: Tim Lenz, NxGn #1, the 'new Jürgen Klinsmann'... I'm starting to have my doubts if he's really all that. He's stats have not been going up as much as I'd hoped, but he did manage to score a whopping 18 goals this season in 33 matches which, for a 17/18 year old playing for a relegation candidate is very decent indeed.

 

Facilities: these are become really insane... I've got Excellent Youth Facilities, Excellent Academy Coaching and Exceptional Youth Recruitment - which is on par with AFC AJAX and only slightly below Benfica (they have State of the Art Youth Facilities). Currently work is being done on our Training Facilities which should help us out as well. Our brand new stadium (built in 2024) is now being expanded already since we had a 99% sell-out ratio last year - no surprises there.

Proof of no Transfer In

[darren1983]

15 hours ago, JAwtunes said:

If its the realism pack then this might be a problem because he says he has altered lots of things that can have quite a big impact on this type of save, like nation youth ratings.  I haven't used one of his rebalancing db since FM20, but in my opinion the changes he makes are generally sound and not intended to give an advantage to any teams/leagues/nations etc., but rather just to correct what look to be some anomalies in the vanilla db and fill gaps etc.

One for the gaffers... @darren1983 @XaW

Firstly sorry for late response, am away currently so not really checking forums right now, but with regards to the question I've not seen or looked into the files enough to really understand what they do but if they change things like nations youth ratings then I'm leaning towards them not being eligible for this challenge. Unless @XaW has some experience with it and knows more than me I'm gonna say they can't be used for now.

[Neo_Geo]

VV Katwijk Season 14 (2037/38) Season Review

So I came back to Katwijk, my chat with @thomas_eand seeing how he was losing his best players too made me snap out of feeling sorry for myself with the final loss and after 3 seasons in Malta I'm going to switch up again and keep going.

Competitions

Spoiler

Eredivisie

7 times consecutive winners and won it unbeaten once more

Super Cup

Won the super cup again albeit on penalties after a 2-2 draw with Ajax

 

Dutch Cup

Won the dutch cup again for another domestic treble with a convincing 4-0 win over FC Groningen in the final

 

Champions Leauge

So the big question, did the squad manage to keep going with the progress despite losing Milovanovic over the summer?

Group Stages

Spoiler

Comfortable enough in the end but it included a 9-0 win over Roma (hence the remarkable goal difference!)

First Knockout Round

Spoiler

Drew Man City......again

Beat Man City.....again

Quarter Final

Spoiler

Drew Atletico Madrid

Semi Final

Spoiler

Next up were PSG, lost to them a few seasons back so this was the big test

By this point Breinburg was essentially a god!

Final

Spoiler

So back to the final once more to face Barcelona two weeks after the last Eredivise game, so what do I do?

I only go an arrange a friendly against Barcelona one week before the final that gets televised as well 

I thought why shouldn't I scope them out in the best possible way given how close I got last season and losing a star player?

So the dress rehearsal went well

We led up to the final with no further injures although Telgenkemp (11EliteA) was just coming back from a 3 week lay-off so he wasn't quite up to speed.

So, did we win?

Spoiler

You probably guessed with the level of detail that we did indeed win and we won it in STYLE!

A thoroughly deserved win with Thomas hitting the bar no less than twice in the last 10 minutes before netting the goal that killed off any hopes of a comeback.

Up 3-0 in the first 20 minutes and cruising, even losing Boukhari to injury didn't stop us from lifting the trophy with an all Dutch starting XI and subs!

For those that are interested I've uploaded the 11 starters and 3 subs that won it VV Katwijk Champions League Starting XI and Subs

EDIT: I forgot to mention that we broke the record for most goals scored in a season and Breinburg broke the record for most goals for a player too

In terms of the Dream Team we also made up over half of it

 

 

Youth

Spoiler

The youth intake was probably one of the most low key of the save however it did give me a central midfielder that I have been looking for some time

 

Players

Spoiler

Breinburg continued to be the main man and holding onto him in the summer and January transfer window was pivotal in the success this season, just look at the stats!

Had it not been for resting him in the Eredivisie games by not starting him I'm sure he'd have hit over 50 goals

I'm especially pleased the challenge is complete given the 

Club

Spoiler

Nothing changed with the club other than the planned training and youth facilities upgrades being completed.

Here is the club info at the end of the challenge

Manager

Spoiler

Having completed the challenge I also managed to top the Dutch Hall of Fame as well as make it onto the Scottish Hall of Fame in 10th place

I also managed to stick the boot into Mark van Bommel once again as he was in charge of ADO Den Haag and I just loved beating him in this save, the guy is a tool

Next Season

Spoiler

Probably back to Malta now that I have laid my ghosts to rest

For the challenge completion here are my manager stats to show zero players signed in my 14 years in charge, if you need anything else let me know @darren1983

I thoroughly enjoyed the challenge overall and I'm glad I went back for another crack at it as I was damn near done after coming so close. Quite fitting that the winning goal was scored by the same player that nearly won it the previous season.

In terms of the Youth Players developed the starting line up in the final was all made of players classed as Elite in the Youth Intake Review for that season with all but 3 subs, who were Top talents, were also Elite. In terms of NxGn you can see how we dominated it for the past few years

Time to get back into the saddle in Malta!

 

Edited August 26, 2022 by Neo_Geo

[JAwtunes]

I don't normally post you youth intake when it comes in, but I have been getting so pi**ed off with my crap team and constant dips in form that I was so chuffed to see we actually have some players that can instantly increase the quality of our first 11.  Also, first time I remember getting two GKs in my intake.

this intake has softened the blow of me falling out with my captain. I kind of lost my cool and fined him 2 weeks wages for yet another crap performance (5.7 this time).  He didn't take it well... so his days are now numbered!

[Neo_Geo]

19 minutes ago, JAwtunes said:

I don't normally post you youth intake when it comes in, but I have been getting so pi**ed off with my crap team and constant dips in form that I was so chuffed to see we actually have some players that can instantly increase the quality of our first 11.  Also, first time I remember getting two GKs in my intake.

this intake has softened the blow of me falling out with my captain. I kind of lost my cool and fined him 2 weeks wages for yet another crap performance (5.7 this time).  He didn't take it well... so his days are now numbered!

Come on now Oscar, 5.7 isn’t really a quiet match is it? That’s just an awful performance riddled with mistakes 

Decent looking trio in the prospects even if their personalities aren’t quite what you’d be looking for. I love getting the spine of the team sorted so it’s good you have got part of that with Young and Afful though with an asymmetrical formation like yours the concept of a spine to the team probably isn’t as evident as something like a 4-1-2-1-2 diamond, 4-1-3-2 or 4-3-1-2

At least one of the trio is a right winger if Tami continues to spit the dummy.

[JAwtunes]

13 minutes ago, Neo_Geo said:

Come on now Oscar, 5.7 isn’t really a quiet match is it? That’s just an awful performance riddled with mistakes 

Decent looking trio in the prospects even if their personalities aren’t quite what you’d be looking for. I love getting the spine of the team sorted so it’s good you have got part of that with Young and Afful though with an asymmetrical formation like yours the concept of a spine to the team probably isn’t as evident as something like a 4-1-2-1-2 diamond, 4-1-3-2 or 4-3-1-2

At least one of the trio is a right winger if Tami continues to spit the dummy.

Tami is dead to me lol

Yeah, personalities are a little off but with level headed they are ok ish. Honestly I just want good CA at the mo as we have awful facilities and can't actually improve our players much.

[Daddy]

@Neo_Geo congrats!

[br00kster]

Getting nervy now after my past indiscretion, but a Parent Club to garner extra income (not loans) is acceptable?

Edited August 26, 2022 by br00kster

[JAwtunes]

@Neo_Geocongrats 

[The7Striker]

22 minutos atrás, br00kster disse:

Getting nervy now after my past indiscretion, but a Parent Club to garner extra income (not loans) is acceptable?

If you dont get any loan players from them, you can.

@Neo_Geo congrats 

Edited August 26, 2022 by The7Striker

[WhiteCat33]

@Neo_Geo what a return, congrats on the completion! Glad Malta was the break you needed to line up the perfect run. 

[Neo_Geo]

1 minute ago, WhiteCat33 said:

@Neo_Geo what a return, congrats on the completion! Glad Malta was the break you needed to line up the perfect run. 

If my season were a trick shot in pool I feel it would be this

Absolutely everything fell into place and Breinburg was in the form of his life (won the Golden Boot after my last post as well).

I think Wakaso would have been off at 2040 so I was running out of time as I don't think I had another defender of that calibre coming through. I was really fortunate Breinburg wasn't chased more in the summer and January window and when Bosma left last year Van Dijk stepped up and was more than solid.

Saying that I was still punching WAY about my weight but I think thats what this challenge is all about.

[WhiteCat33]

26 minutes ago, Neo_Geo said:

If my season were a trick shot in pool I feel it would be this

Absolutely everything fell into place and Breinburg was in the form of his life (won the Golden Boot after my last post as well).

I think Wakaso would have been off at 2040 so I was running out of time as I don't think I had another defender of that calibre coming through. I was really fortunate Breinburg wasn't chased more in the summer and January window and when Bosma left last year Van Dijk stepped up and was more than solid.

Saying that I was still punching WAY about my weight but I think thats what this challenge is all about.

Breinburg earned eternal glory with that performance against top class opposition. Now what will be your Malta Trick-Shot!?!

[dcayton9]

America De Natal 2032 Season Review

Transfers: Prior to the season, we lost our bright spark Janiel 07A. We were able to cut our losses there though, and our only other departure was Lua Cleyton 07E. (below) He was nothing exciting and despite 4 stars of potential, he was never going to make the cut here and no team would take him on loan.

Spoiler

Cups: This year was the beginning of fixture overload. It was already tough, but now with continental football as well the season is near eighty(!) matches. Luckily, instant result exists, but isn't the best option for squeezing out the best possible results. Still, another Potiguar State win, semifinalists in the Copa Nordeste, and an underperformance in the Copa Brazil, exiting in the second round. In the Copa Sudamericana, our newest competition, we failed to escape the group where only the top seed makes the knockouts, but a hard draw with Penarol (Uruguay) and Jaguares (Colombia) was the cause.

League: This season felt harder than last, with a much more competitive relegation zone and an inability to get a tactic working. Still, through peaks and troughs I worked out another 13th place finish. Hopefully next year won't be a fight for survival, and we can really start pushing up the table, but I can't get too far ahead of myself.

Facilities: With the TV money raking in from Serie A along with installment fees from transfers, we're really swimming in the cash now. We were able to afford two training facility upgrades, and are now owners of superb training facilities. One last step to state of the art and it can't come soon enough. Regarding youth facilities, I'm not sure if my game glitched but there hasn't been an option to upgrade them for a season and a half. This is a real disappointment, as I want to work towards the best in everything, but it also may be something about my board not having the "Work towards best youth system in the country" objective. 

Spoiler

Youth Intake: Since changing HoYD to Marcio Ebert, our current man in charge, our youth intakes have been on fire. This season, the preview came through which certainly excited me, since those are all key positions.

However, after getting the actual intake in September, I think this could qualify as a true golden generation. Even though some have poor personalities, I think many of them will develop into top prospects. Time will tell, but back-to-back 2.5 star players in youth intakes is something special.

Three Stars:

• 2032 Player of the Season, Alan Pedro 06C: Alan Pedro is truly a top class center-back, and though his passing skills to play out from the back are slightly lacking and he's not the best aerial presence, his strength and defensive ability makes him rock solid at the back. He was the highest rated player in the league for my team at a 7.07, and I'm working on securing him to a longer contract to ideally avoid his unavoidable unsettling when the larger teams come in for him.

• 2032 Breakthrough Player of the Season, Damiao 09D: I had high hopes for Damiao long term, but I did not think he'd be pushing for a starting role before he was 18. Though not the most solid defender, his excellent physical attributes mean that I'll ideally be able to play quite a high line and work out a high-pressing system with these two at the back. With age, hopefully his mental stats will increase and it's an added bonus that he can cover at left-back too.

• 2032 Hot Prospect, Tcheco 11A: Though a natural striker, it is hard to justify that looking at his attributes. I am torn between molding him into a top class pressing forward to lead the high-pressing system I want to run, or shaping him into an elite ball-winning midfielder. Open to suggestions if anyone has them, but I am just looking forwards to seeing what he becomes.

Looking Ahead: Next season, we'll hopefully be able to implement our style of play in some games, as it's our third in Serie A and we're getting stronger. It's been tough solely playing on the counter and relying on our keeper's excellent performances or poor opposition finishing to win games. Overall, this is the first time I feel that I have the prospects in the development line that can take the team to the next level, and I'm excited what we'll look like four to five seasons from now.

 

[Neo_Geo]

17 minutes ago, WhiteCat33 said:

Breinburg earned eternal glory with that performance against top class opposition. Now what will be your Malta Trick-Shot!?!

Probably this one 

[WhiteCat33]

Mellieha Sports Club
Season 15 2036 – 37 Malta Premier League
Competitions | Squad | Transfers | Finances | Club Info
 

Continental Qualification

Dinamo got their revenge on us this year and were the ones to advance into the Champions League demoting us down to the Euro Cup. Honestly its fine, we are set with money now (43M in the bank) so the hope is in the Euro Cup my younger players can get better ratings thus progress more as we continue to farm reputation for ourselves and Malta.

Spoiler

Euro Cup Group Stage

Our draw gave us teams that were challenging, but not impossible like we've been seeing in the Champions League: Sporting CP, Hibernian & Legia. We were in the fight for the group till we lost ot Hibs away. Then a draw with Sporting 2-2 to end it saw us finish 3rd, down to EC2 we go.

Spoiler

Conference League Knockouts

We got the Icelandic Breidbalik in the first round and though we beat them it wasn't the convincing victories they should have been. We had injuries taking out our star American playmaker Salas 10b & our striker Attard 10a, so its no surprise our offense wasn't the same.

Second round we drew Montpellier, which was a fair draw considering who was left. 2 years ago we had Marseille who we tied 2-2 and lost 2-1, so I knew this would be difficult. As I mentioned above, we had our 2 top offensive players out injured and it showed as we played even matches, but couldn't convert into goals. I pushed to try in the second match and we got punished for it and knocked out.

Spoiler

Squad

The squad is pretty well settled at this point, so figured it was worth highlighting the first team. I play a 4-1-3-2 Narrow with dual Mezzalas. Therefore I have a ton of central midfielders

Formation:

Spoiler

Players

Spoiler

Goalkeeper:  Kurt Psaila 04c is our 'old man' and captain. He's the epitome of a GK who has the minimal CA in the ideal attributes to be effective even in continental play. Then my 2 others are similar ability, just different distributions and see rotational play. I'm waiting for an intake GK to appear who will move us to the next level. 

Fullback: I use FB(A) and its pretty important for my formation that they are decent going forward. My two older FBs came in years 7 & 8 and have been starters their whole career, but the shining star is last years Buhagiar 14a who is developing like mad and has already surpassed both of them. My 2nd most promising young talent at the club.

Centerback: The most promising  young player is certainly Deguara 11e. He has the makings of a fantastic CB and we've locked him down to a 4 year + 3 extension contract w/o release clauses.  He's joined by Paul Mallia 08j, who is good for now but with only 6 natural fitness I am prepared for a limited career.

DM Playmakers: Brandon Salas 10b & Debono 11a are my either footed DM/CM players who can play basically any of the midfield positions and be the best options. The third rotation for DM is R Formosa 09b, but he'll soon be replaced by one of the youngsters as they develop.

Mezzalas: F Formosa 9d on the right and E Graham 13c on the left have been my most recent starters and are natural CAMs I've dropped back. However, I have many Wingers I've moved in that are less skilled but have speed that are my normal subs off the bench for a late push in matches. Due to them all but Graham being right footed Debono 11a sees some action as Mezzala 

Strikers: Attard 10a & Sultana 08i have been the dominant pair since we lost our NxGn rated player. Both had injury problems this season, which gave young Briffa 13c some much needed game time and he has done well. We really do need that star fast striker again though.

 

Youth Academy

Spoiler

Preview: Looked Golden...

Intake: Underwhelming...

Here’s our elite talent. Does give us a fast player with flair, but he’s missing so much else with Balanced/Outspoken hard to see how he’ll develop to challenge for a Striker spot

Best looking to me is actually this lower potential AML. Could make a decent rotation Mezzala if they are under-rating that potential.

Thoughts

Another year grinding in Europe. Hopefully in 2-3 years we can start getting foreign affiliates to add depth to our intake pool. Also at that point I'll probably be looking to move onto a final HOYD who has actually good attributes, unlike our current one.

 

Edited August 26, 2022 by WhiteCat33

[Streetpete]

After reading a lot in here, I have started my own save. I first did a trial run with Huelva, to get a feel of the challenge, and next time I wanted to try in Germany.

After holidaying I found that Chemnitz were a possibility and its a team I had kinda forgotten, but remember playing with back in FM12 so they were an obvious pick.

The squad looked pretty decent with a lot of players and also money in the bank which is always nice. 

Manager is Franz Deimann, since that seems like a good German name 

Lots of players with potential,  but most of them not too great for now. 

 

Well lets get to what really matters:

 

Season went well especially towards the end with 9 out of 10 wins, so next year we are playing in the 2. Liga and will see how we can get on there.

Other thing that matters is of course the youth intake, and it wasnt the best even though it says the classic golden generation, but dont think many of these will make it into the team, especially with all the players we already have.

We also got youth facilities upgraded and youth recruitment and I got badges so not too bad.

 

[Daddy]

2026/27 Midseason Review:

The bad form to close last season continued to start this season. Then our striker got hurt for two months. I still have hopes of survival, but it's going to be tough. The good news is we're at least turning profits, but barely. The loan payment for the stadium I inherited is killing our chances to get more staff or facilities upgrades. 

Intake Preview:

I would love for the striker to be good enough to take over soon. 

[darren1983]

16 hours ago, Neo_Geo said:

VV Katwijk Season 14 (2037/38) Season Review

So I came back to Katwijk, my chat with @thomas_eand seeing how he was losing his best players too made me snap out of feeling sorry for myself with the final loss and after 3 seasons in Malta I'm going to switch up again and keep going.

Competitions

  Reveal hidden contents

Eredivisie

7 times consecutive winners and won it unbeaten once more

Super Cup

Won the super cup again albeit on penalties after a 2-2 draw with Ajax

 

Dutch Cup

Won the dutch cup again for another domestic treble with a convincing 4-0 win over FC Groningen in the final

 

Champions Leauge

So the big question, did the squad manage to keep going with the progress despite losing Milovanovic over the summer?

Group Stages

  Reveal hidden contents

Comfortable enough in the end but it included a 9-0 win over Roma (hence the remarkable goal difference!)

First Knockout Round

  Reveal hidden contents

Drew Man City......again

Beat Man City.....again

Quarter Final

  Reveal hidden contents

Drew Atletico Madrid

Semi Final

  Reveal hidden contents

Next up were PSG, lost to them a few seasons back so this was the big test

By this point Breinburg was essentially a god!

Final

  Reveal hidden contents

So back to the final once more to face Barcelona two weeks after the last Eredivise game, so what do I do?

I only go an arrange a friendly against Barcelona one week before the final that gets televised as well 

I thought why shouldn't I scope them out in the best possible way given how close I got last season and losing a star player?

So the dress rehearsal went well

We led up to the final with no further injures although Telgenkemp (11EliteA) was just coming back from a 3 week lay-off so he wasn't quite up to speed.

So, did we win?

  Reveal hidden contents

You probably guessed with the level of detail that we did indeed win and we won it in STYLE!

A thoroughly deserved win with Thomas hitting the bar no less than twice in the last 10 minutes before netting the goal that killed off any hopes of a comeback.

Up 3-0 in the first 20 minutes and cruising, even losing Boukhari to injury didn't stop us from lifting the trophy with an all Dutch starting XI and subs!

For those that are interested I've uploaded the 11 starters and 3 subs that won it VV Katwijk Champions League Starting XI and Subs

EDIT: I forgot to mention that we broke the record for most goals scored in a season and Breinburg broke the record for most goals for a player too

In terms of the Dream Team we also made up over half of it

 

 

Youth

  Reveal hidden contents

The youth intake was probably one of the most low key of the save however it did give me a central midfielder that I have been looking for some time

 

Players

  Reveal hidden contents

Breinburg continued to be the main man and holding onto him in the summer and January transfer window was pivotal in the success this season, just look at the stats!

Had it not been for resting him in the Eredivisie games by not starting him I'm sure he'd have hit over 50 goals

I'm especially pleased the challenge is complete given the 

Club

  Reveal hidden contents

Nothing changed with the club other than the planned training and youth facilities upgrades being completed.

Here is the club info at the end of the challenge

Manager

  Reveal hidden contents

Having completed the challenge I also managed to top the Dutch Hall of Fame as well as make it onto the Scottish Hall of Fame in 10th place

I also managed to stick the boot into Mark van Bommel once again as he was in charge of ADO Den Haag and I just loved beating him in this save, the guy is a tool

Next Season

  Reveal hidden contents

Probably back to Malta now that I have laid my ghosts to rest

For the challenge completion here are my manager stats to show zero players signed in my 14 years in charge, if you need anything else let me know @darren1983

I thoroughly enjoyed the challenge overall and I'm glad I went back for another crack at it as I was damn near done after coming so close. Quite fitting that the winning goal was scored by the same player that nearly won it the previous season.

In terms of the Youth Players developed the starting line up in the final was all made of players classed as Elite in the Youth Intake Review for that season with all but 3 subs, who were Top talents, were also Elite. In terms of NxGn you can see how we dominated it for the past few years

Time to get back into the saddle in Malta!

 

Well done, sometimes taking a short break and returning can help, it did with my attempt last year, have added you to the HoF 

[thomas_e]

VV Katwijk

Season Summary 2032 - 2033

First Champions League spot secured, but another key player lost

 

A very solid season for us as we secured our first CL spot, finishing 2nd behind PSV. The Dutch teams havent done well in the CL over the last couple of seasons so its only two teams that qualify. We could have won the title this season, but some really stupid losses after horrendous defensive mistakes meant that we finished 4 points behind PSV. We did beat PSV in the 30th round of the league, at least proving to ourselves that we are good enough to compete! 

 Some of our young players have developed exceptionally well this season, especially our striker Martijn Klooster. 24 league goals and a player that can create goals out of nothing! 

As usual we are loosing another key player on free transfer. This time it is our midfield general Marvin Eberwein who is leaving for Wolverhampton.... We have several players in the team that doesnt want to renew their contracts, i just pray that CL football will change their mind. In all the 5 times I have completed this challenge I have never experiences this much difficulty in negotiating contracts with players and it is proving a tough challenge. Losing players is part of the challenge, but our best player every season? Tough! It's good to have @Neo_Geo showing me the way! Massive congrats, great effort!!!! 

 

Season Summary

      

 

Key Players

      

 

Youth Intake

      

 

 

 

Edited August 27, 2022 by thomas_e

[libbyshuss]

Croatia

Premier League

2041/42 (season 20)

Season Summary

A really frustratingly inconsistent season in the end. But first, the Champions League!

Champions League

So, how did we do in our very first champions league campaign? not so good it turns out....

oh. well, at least it meant we'd qualified for round 2 of the Europa League!

Europa League

So how did we do? A little bit better! all the way through to the league stage where we got a couple of amazing results. Including beating Leeds at their place! But in the end we just couldn't make it out

Europa Conference League

But finishing third in the Europa League group is almost as good as winning the conference league group, as it qualifies you for the first round of that competition! Where we lost to Southampton

But still 'twas a fun European adventure!

League

Really annoying, we suffered from serious European hangovers quite a lot....

But 5th should get us into the conference league next season so at least we get to have fun in Europe again.

 

Players

I don't want to point fingers but the fact Mario Sertic 38B spent almost the whole season sulking about wanting to play for a bigger side really didn't help matters. 24 goals from 43 games isn't the level I was expecting from him and although he won his first international cap it was still an underwhelming season from the lad

You can see how frutrating performances were this season from the really low average ratings throughout the side. Only 2 over 7!!

 

Wonderkids

First time with two on the list! Sertic 38B wasn't a surprise but it was really pleasing to see Matej Kristanovij 40B in there. He's a promising midfielder who pushed our Hungarian legend Hrvoje Bognar 27C out the side. I have high hopes for him!

 

Youth

My best youth preview yet. Look at all those As!!!!

Even better, the intake was as good as I'd hoped. Not only a good number of 4 star potnetial but really good determination and personalities throughout!

Star graduate is clearly Patrik Radosevic. He looks unbelievable!

 

Finances and Upgrades

Loadsa money from europe so another upgrade to youth and training facilities was granted!

Career

[JAwtunes]

 

 

Cardiff Corinthians - Season 4 (2025/26) Review

Competitions

We had our best ever season finishing in the championship playoff group for the first time (top six in the league before split) and finished fifth in the league, ahead of Colwyn Bay - the best supported team in the Welsh league in my save with an average attendance of 609 (over 150 more than TNS in second).

The most impressive achievement was victory in the European playoff.  The top three teams in the league automatically qualified for Europe and then the teams from 4th to 7th competed for a final place in the Europa Conference League.  I am hoping that this will help bring in some much needed money and hopefully push up or reputation and home crowds.

Spoiler

League

League Records

Cups

Players

This is how we lined up this season.  It was the first season Tom Gunson failed to hit double figures (I think he will slowly start to be phased out).

Spoiler

First Team

The Fans Player of the Year and Young Player of the Year yet again went to McCaul in the centre of our defence.

Spoiler

Youth Intake

We were told to expect another 5-star Golden Generation again this year (as per all of our previous intakes).  This was the best so far, with ~6 players ready to go straight into the first 11 and three that were as good or better than my star players.

Spoiler

Intake Preview

Intake

Facilities and Youth Spend

We moved into our new stadium (a 1500 capacity 500 seater stadium in Cardiff.  We also managed to convince the board to improve out Junior Coaching right at the end of the third season (from Average to Adequate)

Spoiler

Youth Coaching

Records

SUMMARY

WALES National Team

Wales are currently 4th in their World Cup Qualification group and I don't think they will be able to reach the World Cup now.

Spoiler

Spoiler

Edited August 27, 2022 by JAwtunes

[_JHTB_]

Enfield Town Season 17

SkyBet Championship – 18^th 

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

Following our promotion we did manage to keep hold of all our players, although, we did receive our highest offer for our players as Ken Cover 13 attracted bids towards the £2m mark – not worth selling for that.

League

We kicked off the season in emphatic fashion beating Huddersfield 3-0 though we were more so clinical than better than them. Unfortunately, the momentum from last season was soon cut out as former keeper Andrei Lefter 10 (unfortunately he's leaving Hull on a free transfer so our 50% of next sale is out the window) put in a player of the match performance in our second game to allow Hull to beat us 2-1 which saw us have some tough form not winning again for another 8 matches. In truth, the season on the whole we were pretty much just sitting above the relegation zone, having some bursts of good form before bad form took over but we never actually found ourselves in the relegation zone all season. Eventually we did secure our survival with 2 games remaining ending the season 6 points clear of the drop.

Cups

We didn’t win a cup game this season, bowing out at the first opportunity in both the League Cup and FA Cup.

Youth Intake

A much better intake this season with one player who goes straight into first team contention and a few others who don’t look too far short from providing us with options.

Gareth Sullivan 17 – Looks very adept at as a full back with his attributes, he does need a bit of improvement of course, but looks to have a good base to provide us with a very capable player in the future.

Harley Fisher 17 – Is probably better suited to being a central midfielder to striker, but I’m hopeful with his mental attributes he can provide a good supporting role up front in the future.

Curtley Lumley 17  - We don’t actually have a lot of depth in attacking midfield, so Lumley is a welcome prospect

Toib Bostwick 17 – Another welcome player in a weaker position, has a bit of developing to be doing, but he looks like he could be a good left wing back option for us.

Key Players

Ed Stevens 13 – Ever consistent performer for us always one of the best players on the pitch even if we are losing the game. I’m worried we’ll lose him this summer as he has what seems like half of the MLS interested in him. He does have a release fee of £1.8m but that’s only for domestic clubs in the division above so we aren’t forced to sell him aboard at least.

Josh Mohammed 11 – A good season for Mohammed managing to keep 7 clean sheets but also being the league leader in expected goals prevented.

Juan Calero 11 – Calero since we turned professional has played almost every league game for us, this season no different, missing just 3 games as he managed 7 assists in the end for us.

Infrastructure/Looking Ahead

As mentioned last summer we did get the go ahead to improve our youth facilities, however since then we’ve lost a lot of money throughout the season being at our worst place in terms of balance since we started.

Next season the goal is pretty much to replicate this one, hopefully securing survival a little sooner. Next season I am looking to bed in some players who were out on loan to be first team players which will hopefully ultimately serve to improve the quality of the first eleven as they develop.

Notable Landmarks

Stephen O’Brien 1 – New club record holder for overall league appearances with 623 surpassing the 614 recorded by Muhammadu Faal.

300 Appearances

Martin Parker 10 – Becomes only the 6^th youth player to reach the 300 mark for the club though there are two more that should reach it next season. He’s coming towards the end of his first choice life at the club.

200 Appearances

2 players passing the 200 mark for the club, though both were fairly close to the mark last season regardless. The latter suggests he has a ‘dislike of the club’ and only a year left on his contract so will likely be sold if he has any suitors this summer.

Juan Calero 11, Lee Brown 11

100 Appearances

Ken Cover 13 – Now passed 100 appearances and would have potentially been the 3^rd season on the bounce he passed 20 goals had he not picked up a couple of medium term injuries towards the end of the season.

 

Edited August 27, 2022 by _JHTB_

[br00kster]

AEPS Aiolikos Mytilinis aka Wind

2025/26 Season Review

Our first season in the top flight kind of blew, with us struggling to take a firm hold on games and generally scoring. We found the gulf between ourselves and the top teams was often massive, meaning there were a lot of one sided affairs which really affected our goal difference come the end of the season.

Greek Super League

A solid 8th place finish, despite an embarrassing -16 goal difference and total 27 goals scored. We had a really tough run during the season when an injury crisis hit and went on a 10 game winless run.

 

Greek Super League (Relegation Group)

Our survival was never really in doubt and with players returning, we gave a solid performance against the lesser teams in the league despite dropping a place in the overall standings (due to our horrendous goal difference).

To really drive home our struggles this season, two players top scored with 8 goals (Bourous and Marakis), our top assist maker only managed 4 (Bourous) and our highest average rating through the season was our goalkeeper (Charalabis). To top it off, we're struggling to renew our better player's contracts without a low minimum fee release, so we'll be trying to ride their current deals out for as long as we can, although Marakis and Koutrobilas wanting new deals in Summer with a £750k and £1.5m release clause respectively.

 

Greek Cup

A poor showing saw us lose our first game in the Fourth Round against a much stronger Panathinaikos side.

 

Youth Intake

My Head of Youth Development continues to do a stellar job, with a bumper Youth Preview.

And while there were no real 'stand out' players compared to the previous intakes, this year's recruitment saw some much needed squad depth (although some decent Personality traits) given a few of our original players are slowly declining and on their way out. Next season is going to be very transitional given a number of previous regulars are leaving at the end of their contracts to free up some wage budget.

The two stand out youth prospects are Kotsaris, who will hopefully not only give some much needed height to my small team, but will hopefully help in the goals department (already scoring 8 in 5 for the u19s), and Salapatas, who will likely join our CM ranks.

 

Finances and Facilities

Our finances are a mess. A real mess. Although we're still waiting for any sort of prize money for the league, despite us already paying out to the squad. This is despite an increase in TV rights, a sharp increase in season ticket sales and a partnership with Tottenham announced.

As a result, small (cheap) improvements were on the agenda much like previous years, which saw two upgrades to Youth Recruitment and surprising agreement to Junior Coaching. Our youth recruitment rose to 3.5 stars and we'll hopefully see some more talent come through the ranks soon.

Despite our financial woes, our Board felt it was necessary to build a new stadium, although the financial implications of this have yet to be confirmed. This is likely a wise move given we top the average attendance by capacity in the league at 98%.

 

Finally, confirmation of no transfers made and one out. I tried to get some fees for other fringe players leaving at the end of their contract, but unsurprisingly no nibbles.

 

Up the Wind! On to season two in the top flight, let's hope we can see a few more goals.

[Daddy]

welp.

Didn't matter what I did formation wise. Talent was too poor, and lack of coaching/training due to the stadium financing meant it was never going to happen. 0-3 in England. I'll try again, but not next. I want to try something different. 

[laur.tnse]

@darren1983

hello mate, just found this challenge and I'd be quite interested in giving it a go, but I do have a few questions:

since my favourite club is in the Romanian 1st div., would it be fair if Holiday Man would be on holiday until said club drops out of playable divisions?

alternatively, would it be allowed to play as Holiday Man and sabotage the club, playing 0-5-5 formation or something like that, intentionally driving the club to lower leagues? subsequently taking over as Myselfthemessiahsaviour ?

(given my past FM22 experience over a handful of saves, aforementioned club, FC U Craiova, currently is a yo-yo club, or, as we call it here ABBA - however, there's a nice story tied to the club, marred by corruption and treason) - (also, true story, they did manage to get back into top tier in reality, starting from 4th div and using mostly academy players up to 2nd tier)

I'd fancy being allowed to try it under these (negotiable) terms.

[br00kster]

6 hours ago, Daddy said:

welp.

Didn't matter what I did formation wise. Talent was too poor, and lack of coaching/training due to the stadium financing meant it was never going to happen. 0-3 in England. I'll try again, but not next. I want to try something different. 

Ah, that sucks, sorry! Board always quick to pull the trigger, short memories.

[Neo_Geo]

7 hours ago, Daddy said:

welp.

Didn't matter what I did formation wise. Talent was too poor, and lack of coaching/training due to the stadium financing meant it was never going to happen. 0-3 in England. I'll try again, but not next. I want to try something different. 

@Daddy Sorry it ended it up like that, there's always that point where the save starts to be become easier (not easy) but you get into a rhythm and you get some momentum but its not always possible to get there before something like this happens.

England is definitely the hardest, I'm saving my main attempt for it for FM 23 I think (that or the ultimate challenge).

How about trying one I had recently been looking at (mainly because Qairat Almaty dumped me out of Europe - spolier), Kazakhstan https://www.fmscout.com/c-fm22-leagues.html?id=8230

It's a polar opposite from England as it only has two tiers.

It should be eligible as well since two teams get relegated from the First Division.

The schedule is similar to Scandinavian nations in that it runs from March to November (making it easier in theory to qualify but harder if you stay in Europe past the turn of the year).

Holiday to 15th December 2022 to get the change of season, here are the two teams that were promoted when I ran the simulation:

 

[Daddy]

6 hours ago, br00kster said:

Ah, that sucks, sorry! Board always quick to pull the trigger, short memories.

Well I got relegated out of the game lol. It happens.

3 hours ago, Neo_Geo said:

@Daddy Sorry it ended it up like that, there's always that point where the save starts to be become easier (not easy) but you get into a rhythm and you get some momentum but its not always possible to get there before something like this happens.

England is definitely the hardest, I'm saving my main attempt for it for FM 23 I think (that or the ultimate challenge).

How about trying one I had recently been looking at (mainly because Qairat Almaty dumped me out of Europe - spolier), Kazakhstan https://www.fmscout.com/c-fm22-leagues.html?id=8230

It's a polar opposite from England as it only has two tiers.

It should be eligible as well since two teams get relegated from the First Division.

The schedule is similar to Scandinavian nations in that it runs from March to November (making it easier in theory to qualify but harder if you stay in Europe past the turn of the year).

Holiday to 15th December 2022 to get the change of season, here are the two teams that were promoted when I ran the simulation:

 

England is definitely the hardest to break through. I actually have something different started up that I'll be posting soon. I have a few countries in game I want to try (or try again in some cases) before I start messing with downloading countries.

[WhiteCat33]

 

Mellieha Sports Club
Season 16 2037 – 38 Malta Premier League
Competitions | Squad | Transfers | Finances | Club Info
 

Continental Qualification

We very nearly blew qualification against a surprisingly strong Dun Streda from Slovakia. They beat Dinamo to face us and ended up playing Euro Cup group stages after it took 10 penalties after ET for us to advance. Then it always feels to get one over on Maribor after my long Slovenian campaign this cycle, and we advance back to the Champions League!

Spoiler

Champions League Group Stage

CL draws when you're in the 4th pot are never kind, but man this one was brutal. Barcelona and Juventus are top 6 favorites to win, and Marseille have been a truly difficult opponent we have faced multiple times now. The progress in the squad is the fact that we were able to beat OM 2-1 at home and draw them 1-1 away, which sees us actually advance into the Euro Cup with just 4 points and a -11 GD. We are no where near the quality to play against the giants, but we are improving against the 2nd rung clubs.

Spoiler

Europa League Knockouts

We draw Celtic, who we have failed to beat in our last 2 draws against them (CL Group stage & EC Knockouts). More of the same this year, where we fail to even score against them so are eliminated in the First Knockout.

Spoiler

Youth Academy

YI Preview

Spoiler

Youth Intake

Spoiler

Well I got a potential fast Forward sadly he can’t shoot, but will at least be better than my current fast options.

Actually got a foreign player this time, and if I used wingers he would be good but he can’t pass or defend so not sure what his use will be

Francesco Gatt 15a: I got the mentality upgrade message and he's gone form Balanced to Ambitious! Now I have two 16 year old quick prospects, hopefully one can develop into our quick option.

Spoiler

Club Improvements

The best part of our clubs structure is that we have biennial elections for our chairmen. While they can get re-elected, I've only had them win second terms and our current chairmen was on his second. The election came and we got a new Chairmen Jospeh Giglio and guess what?? The bug makes the chairmen elections actually exciting!

Spoiler

So you betcha I got that upgrade

Also even though our stadium is brand new its under the size required for Continental competitions, so we only use it for league matches. With our success I pushed for an expansion, which they agreed to. At the end of the season we learn we'll get another 3k seats, so its still small at ~9k but its progress.

Spoiler

Thoughts:

It wasn't pretty in Europe this year, but we have money are increasing our reputation & players are steadily improving. Next season will probably be a clear-out of maxed out older players to make room for the young talents to get more game-time. While the tops of our intakes are thin (which I expect playing a small nation) my HOYD is doing his best to keep me happy with 3 years now of good combination Elite Talents. 

[DrJones]

De Treffers 2029/30

The mighty Treffers has done it! What a season! We secured our promotion with one game left, to be honest there were never a real struggle and we had the lead almost the whole season. Despite the complete lack of good defenders we actually managed to keep the opponents away from our penalty area. Next season will be a real struggle for sure and I expect some real spankings by Ajax and the other big clubs.

Squad

There are no OGs left in the starting XI next season, the squad is very unbalanced with great offensive players and some horrendous defenders for eredivisie.

Key Players

With the useless defenders this guy really has to deal with a lot of crap, and he is really over performing in my eyes. I hope he is ready for next season..

Ahh, the classic combination of china and new zealand in football, what a joy to watch!

We don't deserve this guy.

Youth intake

Finally! A centre-back

History

[Daddy]

FM20 was my first time playing the game. I started with recently promoted Weymouth, got them to L2 before moving on to other games. I decided to check FM Reddit one day and saw the journeyman challenge and decided to buy FM21 and give that a whirl. I destroyed the finances of a Northern Irish team and was fired by a team in Ukraine. I was really bad at the game. My third team was where I figured it out. PSIS in Indonesia. I thought it would be fun to try the Youth Challenge in Indonesia. I don't have very high expectations of lasting long here, but for at least, hopefully, a few seasons it'll be a fun change of pace. 

The team is pretty bad with no real good facilities (other than a decent stadium). I had actually picked a different team first, but I guess they were too remote because I couldn't schedule a single friendly. 

Intake happens in March and season runs from June to the end of the year. A big help because I don't think I'd have enough non gray players without it. 

This may be a one and done, but I guess we'll find out soon enough.

[SkiIIs]

Season 2026/27 - Super League 1

A much better performance in the top division than last time, reaching the same amount of points from 33 games in just 7 games, despite losing the first 3 of them. Just need to consolidate a little before being able to bridge the gap between the top clubs and the rest.

Finances are just getting worse and worse and and there's no letting up until we break into Europe which i dont see happening quite yet.  Rumours are that the chariman is thinking of moving aside so we'll see what happens in that space.

Despite having no money, was able to twist the Board's arms for some improvements and no have average youth recruitment and excellent junior coaching.

Somehow, my u19's won their league again which probably tells you about the quality of the opposition more than the quality from us. 

Youth preview was a good one:

The intake was better than i have seen so far, slowly slowly I can see the benefit from the small improvements.  Problem we're having is due to the quality of coaching and training/youth facilities we're not really able to develop them much one they come in.

Basina is the pick of the bunch and will be a straight starter next season.  We're losing two starting midfielders (one due to age the other thinking he's too good for us) so this couldnt have come at a better time!

 

 

[Fugado]

Maybe a dumb question but why do you people edit the newgens names? I guess it is easier for you to identify their intake's year and so their age. But what about the letters? Is it really helpfull?

Thanks and keep on with these extraordinary saves!

Edited August 29, 2022 by Fugado

[Neo_Geo]

9 minutes ago, Fugado said:

Maybe a dumb question but why do you people edit the newgens names? I guess it is easier for you to identify their intake's year and so their age. But what about the letters? Is it really helpfull?

Thanks and keep on with this extraordinary saves!

There’s no set rule for it, but certainly the year or season helps you identify at the end of the save the players that came through for you i.e. what years actually were a golden generation.

In Holland I liked to include if there were elite, top talent, good or decent as it gave an indicator of how good the HoYD was at identifying the elites at the time of intake.

As for the letters I guess that’s just more about making them unique, but it’s maybe the part of it that’s least helpful.

[XaW]

On 26/08/2022 at 09:59, darren1983 said:

Firstly sorry for late response, am away currently so not really checking forums right now, but with regards to the question I've not seen or looked into the files enough to really understand what they do but if they change things like nations youth ratings then I'm leaning towards them not being eligible for this challenge. Unless @XaW has some experience with it and knows more than me I'm gonna say they can't be used for now.

Been away a few days, so I'm also late to this. If we were to allow any files, I'd say Dave's files would be the first, however, once we open up "custom files that change X, Y, and Z", then it would be hard to allow some, but not others. So I agree, Darren, I don't think these types of files are allowed, in the same way we don't allow the editor for other uses, even to fix bugs. The only custom files allowed are leagues created as closely as possible to real life, and with at least two tiers containing promotion/relegation.

4 hours ago, Fugado said:

Maybe a dumb question but why do you people edit the newgens names? I guess it is easier for you to identify their intake's year and so their age. But what about the letters? Is it really helpfull?

Thanks and keep on with this extraordinary saves!

It's just flavour, and completely optional. I personally use this format

<name> <year of intake><potential rating my assistant>

Ex:

John Smith 22b

So the best rated will get a, the next will get b, and so on. Just to see how close or off my assistant really is. It has shown me to be very careful to trust the stars. I've had 5 star talents become nothings and retire at 20 without a club, and 2.5 start talent players become mainstays in a world cup national side. So having a k or an m become great highlight this.

[Daddy]

1 hour ago, Fugado said:

Maybe a dumb question but why do you people edit the newgens names? I guess it is easier for you to identify their intake's year and so their age. But what about the letters? Is it really helpfull?

Thanks and keep on with this extraordinary saves!

I also find it useful, especially deeper in saves when they're all newgens, to know which players are the youngest on my bench and on the field. It's easier to know who to give some playing time to for experience, and when a highlight happens you can see what class and rating they're from. 

[libbyshuss]

3 hours ago, XaW said:

It's just flavour, and completely optional. I personally use this format

<name> <year of intake><potential rating my assistant>

i do the same only with my potential rating rather than the assistant. It's interesting to see just how bad my initial ratings of those intakes are.

It's also influenced me to not be too hasty letting young kids go with only 2/3 star PA as well

[WhiteCat33]

@Fugado I use the season number instead of the year, but the same idea. I tend to play in smaller nations (recently Malta & St Vincent) and the nicknames make it easy to see how well my academy is filtering out into the other clubs and bringing up the level of players in the league. Because of this I'll nickname and take all the way down to the trash players just giving them an 'x' suffix  when I'm in the later stages of the save where money becomes a non-issue. Also once you sell players it makes it easy to search them as you can type in "02a" and the player will be top of the list. Only downside is it can sometimes bug the kits of 1-2 players in the game engine where colors get inverted. 

 

[Daddy]

1 hour ago, WhiteCat33 said:

@Fugado I use the season number instead of the year, but the same idea. I tend to play in smaller nations (recently Malta & St Vincent) and the nicknames make it easy to see how well my academy is filtering out into the other clubs and bringing up the level of players in the league. Because of this I'll nickname and take all the way down to the trash players just giving them an 'x' suffix  when I'm in the later stages of the save where money becomes a non-issue. Also once you sell players it makes it easy to search them as you can type in "02a" and the player will be top of the list. Only downside is it can sometimes bug the kits of 1-2 players in the game engine where colors get inverted. 

 

that's what screws up the kits? I've always wondered.

[XaW]

And now to something completely different. Uruguay!

Relegation based on average points per game over two seasons huh...? Because why not!