The FM23 Youth Academy Challenge

[JAwtunes]

I'm in the unfamiliar position of having to convince my board to cut back youth recruitment spend.  I thought they would just accept it.

oh well, that's me told

Spoiler

and youth coaching too!!

 

Edited August 15, 2023 by JAwtunes

[Ronaldo Beckham]

Biggest transfer fee received for the club for a talented youngster but a youngster we can live without. 

A very good deal with lots of add ons including a 40% profit on next transfer.

[reggaeboy81]

Do you guys bother with a scouts or a scouting team? does it effect youth intake? ive not employed any scouts to save money, only have HOYD

[Johnny Ace]

2 minutes ago, reggaeboy81 said:

Do you guys bother with a scouts or a scouting team? does it effect youth intake? ive not employed any scouts to save money, only have HOYD

Nah, they don't affect the intake but they're useful for scouting opposition 

[Ronaldo Beckham]

12 minutes ago, reggaeboy81 said:

Do you guys bother with a scouts or a scouting team? does it effect youth intake? ive not employed any scouts to save money, only have HOYD

I have no scouts or recruitment analysts etc. I have no idea if it affects things but I just didn't see the point in having them.

 

[Ronaldo Beckham]

I managed to get rid of Carlos Edu(YP6) in the end for a nice fee and 30% profit on next transfer.

I just wanted him out of the club with his issues.

[reggaeboy81]

 

SEASON 2 - 2024/25 - SURVIVAL

Another season of successfull survival, and an improvement on last season. started off brilliantly, i actually belived it could be a year of promotion, but a drop off inthe second half of the season put an end to that. A good youth intake see's us a with some good squad players hitting the team next season. Also up to continental B coaching badge and learning the A licence, the club are backing your boy! U18'S won the league too!

                                      wins           draws          losses          GF           GA           Points     POS

SEASON 24/25             18                  11                17               69            61             65            14TH

SEASON 23/24             15                  11                20               65            72             56            16TH

 

[hello brother]

Evening all. Horribly late getting started with this (both in the sense that it's August, and in the sense that I've been playing FM for donkey's years, and I suspect I'll probably have made a mistake. But here's a first attempt. Here's my manager, newly appointed at Weston-super-Mare, on the 25th June. Why Weston-super-Mare? They've got a newgen by the name of Sunday Monday. Decision made itself, really. I'll update semi-regularly, and hopefully will manage to not run the club into the ground, and avoid only the second relegation in their 136 year history. No pressure, then.

 

Manager on league reset day: https://imgur.com/PAE4pfm

 

Wish me luck!

 

UPDATE: Sunday Monday looks an absolute PLAYER (personality aside). I've added a screenshot of his stats into the above imgur link.

Edited August 15, 2023 by hello brother

[HanziZoloman]

vor 12 Stunden schrieb JAwtunes:

I'm in the unfamiliar position of having to convince my board to cut back youth recruitment spend.  I thought they would just accept it.

oh well, that's me told

  Inhalt unsichtbar machen

and youth coaching too!!

 

Why would you do this?

[HanziZoloman]

vor 6 Stunden schrieb hello brother:

UPDATE: Sunday Monday looks an absolute PLAYER (personality aside). I've added a screenshot of his stats into the above imgur link.

Can’t find that dude but sounds awesome 

[JAwtunes]

23 minutes ago, HanziZoloman said:

Why would you do this?

It's costing loads and we don't make much money in Indonesia.

[HanziZoloman]

"Billericay you are my fate. I will not rest until you rise." Earl of Grey

Season 13 - 35/36

Every Ricay player wants to wake up in the morning and look and be like Rhys Platt. He is the ultimate Ricay man and again he hit 20 goals. Just have a look at his stats.

Never had a more reliable player like him.

Spoiler

But this year some players took a next step especially after we changed from our beloved 433 into a 4231 to create those cool boxes (De Zerbi) which everyone is talking about lately. It worked fine. Regarding the players, left winger Inih Sole (IFs) added 15 goals and 10 assists to his name, the Earl was impressed. Right winger Josh Maxwell (18yo) contributed 4 goals and 7 assists and AMC and italian youth international Achref Ghouma delivered 7 goals and 6 assists. Key to our success and overachievement are also our fast wingbacks who added 15 assists.

 

Spoiler

 

The U18s won their 9th league win and will be strengthened by a bunch of talented youngsters. This years intake has been promising.

The Earl is happy especially with the tactical changes which led to a strong season finish including a 4:1 dismissal of league winners Ebbsfleed United. The squad is still young but there are some leaders. Rhys Platt of course with a resolute personality, Ghouma is resolute as well and spirited Edon Janata (25). 

"We want to challenge for promotion next year, we want to finish 9th-7th" claims the Earl despite of course being relegation candidates number one.

 

Spoiler

 

Edited August 16, 2023 by HanziZoloman

[Ronaldo Beckham]

Finally got a young prospect of mine in the NXGN list.

[Ronaldo Beckham]

Salamanca UDS Season 7 Youth Intake

Another lovely youth intake with 8 x Elite Talents and 3 x Top Talents. 

9 Spanish, 1 French and 1 Moroccan.

Zanella looks like the best prospect I have had so far with his attributes being very good. Him also having a Resilient personality will help him.

[XaW]

12 hours ago, reggaeboy81 said:

Do you guys bother with a scouts or a scouting team? does it effect youth intake? ive not employed any scouts to save money, only have HOYD

I usually employ one scout to get opponent reports. When I get into Europe and gets loads of money, I usually get in as many as I can just to increase scouting knowledge just in case that improves our range of intake (in additon to youth recruitment of course).

[Shankly84]

Tried this one again in the Faroe Islands completing about 22 seasons (without uploading). Even though I finally won the league a couple of times, in Europe wasn't happening. Time to try one last go on this version and hopefully keep on top of the screenchots and season updates.

This time I am off to Hungary! Am I correct in thinking no one has completed with Hungary yet?

 

[Shankly84]

First things first... some new kits 

[XaW]

On 12/08/2023 at 17:41, XaW said:

Welcome to the top flight....

We've improved!

[XaW]

1 hour ago, Shankly84 said:

Tried this one again in the Faroe Islands completing about 22 seasons (without uploading). Even though I finally won the league a couple of times, in Europe wasn't happening. Time to try one last go on this version and hopefully keep on top of the screenchots and season updates.

This time I am off to Hungary! Am I correct in thinking no one has completed with Hungary yet?

 

Hope you complete it! Hungary on my list of places I want to complete the challenge in. I had a lot of fun with Budafok many years ago, but they are in the 2nd tier and thus unplayable to me now...

[HanziZoloman]

vor 1 Stunde schrieb XaW:

We've improved!

[tomay]

Würzburger Kickers
End of Season 15 Review
Season 2037/38

Only good intake with 1 elite talent.
Signed 11/16 players. 43 players in U19 and II team. Need to do more harsh selection, 9 left wingers is bit too much.
intake
intake-all
ML Valentin Brömer - GER

Table
League - predicted 16th, finished 4th with 68pts (+11)
First round - Great round. 4th, 33pts.
Second round - Best round ever. Kept 4th place, 35pts. We managed to keep good form, avoid injuries and rotate well the squad in all competitions.
DFB Pokal - semifinal - crushed 0-7 vs RB Leipzig (Cup Winner)
Europa League - semifinal - lost vs FC Köln (UEL Winner, 6th in Bundesliga).

Key moments
First ever win against mighty Bayern. Our stats with them are now 1w-2d-19l.

Transfers - Transfer history screen is useless. Sold players are not listed on this screen because i move them into my second team and sold them from there (WK II team has amateur status).
Departures

Stats
Presence of youth players in the main team (all 22/22 players) with stats.
Two debuts this season.

Personal Coaching Data (last 3 seasons)

Summary (last 3 season)
We still have only 2 sport scientists (head and normal) and constant injuries problem. Board doesn't even want to talk about it, meanwhile opens another place for scouts to 10.

 

[tomay]

Anyone knows how to shorten pre-season?
I have always 5 weeks and game doesn't give me option to choose.

[reggaeboy81]

has anyone every completed this challenge in mexico yet?

[libbyshuss]

Aachen FC - Germany

2061/62

Bundesliga Champions - 2051, 2055, 2061

DFB-Pokal Winners - 2061, 2062

Champions League Winners - Not yet!

Season Summary

Another good season only ruined by club captain, and 30 year old grown man, Mario Gartner throwing his toys out the pram when I questioned why he'd want to leave such a settled dressing room. So he's leaving at the end of the season, as it was the only way to rebalance the morale!

So his little tantrum ruined our league chances but after 40 yuears of comical under-performance in the cup we only went and won it for the second year running!

Champions League 

Again we start as underdogs with bookies quoting 500-1 for us. And so it showed as we struggled through the league stage and then got knocked out by Arsenal in the playoff round

 

Players/Youth/Pascal Meier

Pascal Meier - now 34 and his scoring rate has dropped, although he still won the top league scorer. 966 total club goals now!

youth - a really good preview and possible intake! I do like a 5 star preview/intake!

 

THREE elite talents at this stage is unreal! But none of them actually look any good so.....

Wonderkids

Another one!

 

[Ronaldo Beckham]

Salamanca UDS Season 7 Review

]

Competitions

A slightly better season then last season but not by much so it feels like a disappointing season. I wanted us to get a mid table finish this season. The only plus is that I stayed up again which is good.

Best Player

Ivan Varela(S5YP7)

Varela was my top scorer after starting mid season for us and he done really well. Hopefully next season he will score more with more games played for him.

Honourable mention to Vangelis Panagopoulos(S4YP1) who was amazing again in goal for us. I don't know how much longer I will be able to keep this player as he has been in a few England Under 21 squads recently so I will make the most of him while I can.

Squad Overview

How are former players doing?

Carlos Edu has had the most game time but playing in a lesser league. I am hoping in a few years time that Ivan and Ivan Zarate will start getting first team football and become superstars.

Transfers

A good season for us on the transfer market with us making £16m from sales which is the most we have ever made.

Hopefully I can beat that soon.

[Novafluff]

I dont know if this question has been up, but it seems like after first season hungarian 2nd division cuts down from 20 to 18 teams which mean there are no promoted sides. So i guess you need to simulate two seasons?

[Novafluff]

Ended up having to simulate 3(!) seasons in Hungary as it first went from 20 to 18 teams and then 18 to 16 but now it stayed at 16 so we finally had som promoted teams in the league. Out of three teams we chose Szolnok as they had adequate facilities comapred to the basic of the others. Goal is to stay up

 

[Ronaldo Beckham]

3 minutes ago, Novafluff said:

Ended up having to simulate 3(!) seasons in Hungary as it first went from 20 to 18 teams and then 18 to 16 but now it stayed at 16 so we finally had som promoted teams in the league. Out of three teams we chose Szolnok as they had adequate facilities comapred to the basic of the others. Goal is to stay up

 

Good luck buddy. I hope you have an enjoyable save.

 

[Novafluff]

Worth noting is that the club had agreed transfers for two players on my joining date so these will not be used and will try to get rid of them 

[Ronaldo Beckham]

I have broken my biggest transfer fee received record.

I am getting a nice bank balance now cashing in the clauses as I have no faith in the AI manangement on FM being able to get these top players sold to bigger clubs so from now on as soon as I get chance to cash in on a clause I will do it straight away but also shortlist the player to see if they get sold eventually.

 

[aldojags]

On 15/08/2023 at 22:05, Ronaldo Beckham said:

I managed to get rid of Carlos Edu(YP6) in the end for a nice fee and 30% profit on next transfer.

I just wanted him out of the club with his issues.

has Switzerland got lots good nightclubs for him I hope!

[aldojags]

what do you guys do for poor training performances?

 

I'm 3 seasons into my save, I have decent standing now at club being pretty secure for most my time, decent morale, but i still have 2-3 players every week, usually senior pros, with sub 6 rated training performances.

 

I give them the whole "beckon with hands" "you need to better at training" regime, they all seem happy with it, then same again next week. Most of my coaching staff have level of discipline about 15, and motivating above 10.

My youth prospects usually are highest rated for training too.

 

but its annoying, u cant fine them can u for it?

 

 

[Johnny Ace]

That'll be bad Professionalism, Ambition or Determination for your senior pros  @aldojags, don't let them mentor your kids 

How sub 6 are the ratings? Like low 5's I think you can fine them, higher 5's warn them. I started fining people and they fell out with me 

[aldojags]

like 5.8 territory, i warn them every time.

 

Ok I may need to stop the mentoring then! what a minefield this is all is :-)

[Ronaldo Beckham]

2 of my players just made the NXGN Top 50  List. 

Varela being rated as the 3rd best player in the list is really encouraging to see.

Guy Bell who was 35th in the list is another great player in the making and hopefully he will either become a club legend or get sold for a big fee sometime.

Former player Yaya Goh(S6YP2) also got on the list at number 10. 

Edited August 17, 2023 by Ronaldo Beckham

[Johnny Ace]

12 minutes ago, aldojags said:

like 5.8 territory, i warn them every time.

 

Ok I may need to stop the mentoring then! what a minefield this is all is :-)

All part of the fun!!

I usually have the ass man set the groups then delete the ones where the mentor has low determination, then when the kids start picking up bad habits, I delete those groups to end up with the good mentors 

[Ronaldo Beckham]

Salamanca UDS Season 8 Youth Intake

As always an awesome youth intake with 8 x Elite Talents & 2 x Top Talents.

8 x Spanish, 1 English and 1 Argentinian.

[Novafluff]

I ended up starting over even thou it started good in Hungary it seems for me that i need to play with Sweden as i have always done in this challenge. So starting with Högaborg BK, same club as last year. The club that brought through Henrik Larsson the Celtic legend.

 

[tomay]

Würzburger Kickers
End of Season 16 Review 2038/39

Back to excellent intake with 3 elite talents.
Signed 8/16 players. Best talent linked below.
intake
intake-all
ST François Wilhelm - FRA. Finishing 6, surely he will be great striker.

Table
League - predicted 13th, finished 6th with 64pts (-4)
First round - Very good round. 5th, 32pts.
Second round - Same as first one, 32pts.
DFB Pokal - 2nd round - shaming away deafeat 1-4 vs Augsburg (Bundesliga 2).
Champions League - knockouts - lost 1:1,0:5 vs RB Leipzig (Bundesliga Winner). I hate them more than Bayern, they are always in the way to disturb.

Key moments
That is how you lose CL spot.

Transfers - Transfer history screen is useless. Sold players are not listed on this screen because i move them into my second team and sold them from there(WK II team has amateur status).
Departures

Players stats
Presence of youth players in the main team (all 22/22 players) with stats.
Three debuts this season.

Personal Coaching Data (last 3 seasons)

Summary (last 3 seasons)

Edited August 18, 2023 by tomay
fixed link

[XaW]

 

XaW - FC Vestsjælland - Season 2029/30 (Season 7) - 3F Superliga

Squad | Transfers | Finances

Relegation! A tough pill to swallow, but we just weren't good enough this season. Surprisingly, we technically both scored more and conceded less than last season, but it wasn't enough to stay up. I think we have a shot at bouncing back up next season, but it all depends on how many players I'll lose. The vultures have started to circle, and a few had relegation release clauses in their contracts, so this summer might be another punch to the face... At least we'll continue on and with the players I have now started to accumulate, I think the foundation of the club has really started to get solid.

This season's intake was again great! Lots of talented players, and a few are already good enough for the first team.

And the board accepted a few more of my suggestions for improvements this season.

DBU Pokalen: We beat Holbæk, HB Køge, and HIK before we lost to Brøndby in the quarter final.

Around the world

B Team

For the first time they didn't finish bottom of the Autumn season, so that's progress! And the same for the Spring season. Small steps and all!

U19s

They retained the Danish U19 First Division this season!

Youth intake:

Trophy cabinet

3. Division - 1 (2023/24)

(U19s) - Danish U19 First Division - 3 (2027/28, 2028/29, 2029/30)

Player statistics:

Most apps for the clubs

Name			Nation		2nd Nation	Years Active	Apps
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Morten Ellehave 24b	Denmark		<N/A>		2024-Present	201
Tyler White 25a		Denmark		USA		2025-Present	166
Henrik Thomsen 26e	Denmark		<N/A>		2026-Present	142
Jan Dilling 26d		Denmark		<N/A>		2026-Present	118
Claus Thomasen 26c	Denmark		<N/A>		2026-Present	100

Most goals for the club

Name			Nation		2nd Nation	Years Active	Goals
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tyler White 25a		Denmark		USA		2025-Present	17
Henrik Thomsen 26e	Denmark		<N/A>		2026-Present	10
Carsten Pedersen 29g	Denmark		<N/A>		2029-Present	9
Casper Bredahl 24c	Denmark		<N/A>		2024-Present	4
Jan Dilling 26d		Denmark		<N/A>		2026-Present	4

Most assists for the club

Name			Nation		2nd Nation	Years Active	Assists
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Morten Ellehave 24b	Denmark		<N/A>		2024-Present	23
Claus Thomasen 26c	Denmark		<N/A>		2026-Present	19
Jan Dilling 26d		Denmark		<N/A>		2026-Present	10
Claus Holmbjerg 28e	Denmark		<N/A>		2028-Present	6
Tyler White 25a		Denmark		USA		2025-Present	5

Supporters:

Summary:

[JAwtunes]

@XaWouch. Intakes have been decent, so hopefully a rebuild, if needed, will be possible. How are the finances looking?

[Johnny Ace]

Your U-19s scored 117 goals in 30 games!!! And only conceded 23  The future is bright @XaW 

Meh, relegation, you get used to it in the YAC Good chance to bring in some guppies and the players will have better performances  

[XaW]

10 minutes ago, JAwtunes said:

@XaWouch. Intakes have been decent, so hopefully a rebuild, if needed, will be possible. How are the finances looking?

Finances are decent (and also a screenshot of it is in the post! ), but I guess we might lose a bit after the relegation. Hopefully, the players can actually play well now that we are a tier down, as most had horrid seasons, evident by the highest average rating for a first-teamer was 6.68....

6 minutes ago, Johnny Ace said:

Your U-19s scored 117 goals in 30 games!!! And only conceded 23  The future is bright @XaW 

Meh, relegation, you get used to it in the YAC Good chance to bring in some guppies and the players will have better performances  

Yeah, the kids are doing well and just won their 3rd consecutive U19 title, so it's growing well! Just need to bring that into the first team!

[XaW]

Also. ****! 

Apparently, poaching youngsters can be done without compensation here in Denmark.. Noted!

[Johnny Ace]

That can't be right! 

[Brentmeister]

Hey, @XaW do you still have a save file for Dorchester that you mentioned a few months back? What about a file for Bury Town?

[Ronaldo Beckham]

Salamanca UDS Season 8 Review

Competitions

A better season then last season with us getting a mid table position and our highest league placing ever. 

We are starting to build up a bit of momentum. I am hoping for us to get higher up the league next season.

Best Players

Ivan Varela(S5YP7)

Varela had a decent season but considering he played more games this season he didn't score many more goals then he did last season. 

Hopefully he goes on to become a profilic goalscorer.

Alejandro(S5YP5)

An outstanding playermaker but unfortunately because I wont buy anyone he wants to leave to play with better players and with 1 year left on his contract I had no choice. 

I offered him out and had a few decent offers with addons etc.

He ended up signing for Santos Laguna.

My highest transfer fee received ever at the club. The money keeps coming in.

He will be missed.

Squad Overview

My next best prospect is Andrea Zanella(S7YP1) who come through our youth system last season and has already become a first team regular and has got 9 goals from 17 games for the season.

He will probably break my transfer fee received record soon.

Previous players Yaya Goh(S6YP2) played 11 games for Servette this season with no goals, 2 assists though and an average rating of 6.99.

Carlos Edu(YP6) also playing for Servette has done really well this season with 9 goals, 2 assists and an average rating of 6.90.

The other players I have sold onto bigger clubs have not played many games for them and mostly played youth and reserve game football.

Transfers

Some decent fees received this season with £15m coming from player sales.

 

[Ronaldo Beckham]

I was sensible to cash in on them transfer clauses.

If I had left the transfer clause I would of probably got less then a million. When I cashed out the clause ages ago I got £5m from it so I am chuffed I made the right decision.

 

[WhiteCat33]

 

Barbados YAC: Road View Start Post

It's been a minute, but I'm back with another YAC attempt. I've been playing a no-attribute save only allowing myself Caribbean signings, and ended up with 2 Barbadian regens + Jamie Bynoe-Gittens in my offensive rotation, so thought why not develop my own Barbadian stars!

Aim is to best my St Vincent Run last year reaching the NACL Quarter Finals in 2044 and then losing the Semi-Finals in extra time the following season, before I abandoned the save due to lack of young talent / departing stars. Who knows maybe I'll actually complete the challenge for once?

This time I've chosen a larger nation (250k Pop vs 110k Pop) with a much stronger domestic league which even starts with 2 Professional clubs in the top division (a rarity in the Caribbean). Hopefully this will lead to a higher domestic threshold than I had in St Vincent to prepare the team better for facing Liga MX and MLS teams in the NACL. I've played one season, and I think this one will stick, especially with the first intake!

Because most North American leagues are on calendar year schedules you can start the game at 1/1/2022. The Barbadian season runs from February - July with Youth intake happening in Mid-August.  In V50’s database, Barbados has 3 tiers with the bottom league not having relegation so the last placed team will be my club, shame Road View doesn’t have a badge or basically any digital presence. They share a field with a bunch of other Barbadian teams in a sport complex.

Head Coach is my go-to American.

Road View starts as an Amateur club projected to finish last again.

Odds aren't with us, but down at this level good man-management and reasonable tactics can overcome a lot.

Edited August 18, 2023 by WhiteCat33

[WhiteCat33]

Barbados YAC: Road View FC

Season 1 [2023]

Start Post |

Formation

I went with a relatively simple 3-4-3 here due to the club being loaded with CBs. It did mean playing people out of position at WBs, but it's not like they would have been much better as FB anyways. This got tweaked during the season to be more offensive with Balanced/Positive mentality and a simple Poacher up top.

Squad

The key to Barbados lower leagues is to have 2 full squads to rotate players as the matches are on average every 3 days, hence such a large team. As you can see from the CA calculations, they are all terrible but at least I started with a lot of able bodies to throw onto the pitch.

Best XI

 

League

The issue for us this year was our strikers. We had a good looking one in pre-season, but he got the dreaded negative development random event going from balanced to casual and failing to score a single goal competitively forcing me to test out some pretty poor alternatives. No one managed to score more than 8 goals, so its only with our strong defensive performances that we fought for the final playoff spot. Going into the final day of the season we just needed to win, and our GD would push us ahead of "Kick Start". Of course, in the 85' we concede a penalty, which our opponents convert resulting in a 1-1 draw.

Matches:

Spoiler

Cup

We drew the best team in Barbados (which is Professional) in the 2nd round, so were bounced

 

Head Coach

Started and Finished my first Coaching Badge.

Club Improvement:

I got both JR Coaching & Youth Recruitment Upgrades as well as the original Chairman stepped aside for another director to take over. No financial boon though.

 

HOYD:

Youth Intake Preview:

Youth Intake:

Great Intake for this level

No F’in way a Model Citizen in year 1?! First one I've gotten in FM23, and of course its too early in the save to really take advantage of it as well as plays the position of the best player in the squad.

Top 3 Players:

Jason Browne: another AML. He's just okay IMO. 

Ricardo Manning: both our 17 year old GKs did well this seasin, but are both unambitious so don't have a long future. Reflexive and tall with some jump and agility is at least something.

Romario Browne: Mr Model Citizen. With the striker struggles he will be retrained as an AF as he can kind of shoot and has good movement. 

Youth Intake Tables:

I like to track CA, Nationality & Personality in my intakes and use excel spreadsheets to do it. Being a Caribbean Island intakes will be 95%+ domestic players, but since its an ex-English territory a few players will get English nationality. I expect some American secondaries as well in time. I've hired exclusively Fairly Professional & Fairly Ambitious staff for the club, so hopefully that keeps our Positive personality % up.

Statistics Manager

We only had 1 standout performer and that was my AMR Jason Chandler. He was easily the best winger in the league, granted he played only half the games (as I rotated heavily). Thankfully he was a good goal-scorer because our strikers sure weren't. While his chance creation was low, basically everything else is as good or better than the league average & Top-3 clubs AMRs (though there weren't many in the dataset)

His Percentile scores showed how he really did perform fantastically for the league.

Best part about Chandler is that he has Perfectionist personality and is 23 so soon will be a great mentor for fairly professional youngsters:

 

 

Summary Tables:

Edited August 18, 2023 by WhiteCat33