The FM24 Youth Academy Challenge

[WhiteCat33]

CA Calculator Files: Pushed for screenshot space in the above post. I'll edit this with instructions tonight when I have time.

WhiteCatStats - CA Calculator.fmf CA Calculations v5 -BLANK.xlsx

[XaW]

 

XaW - Follo FK - Season 2028 (Season 5) - OBOS-ligaen

Squad | Transfers | Finances

Wow, what a season this was for us. Even though we didn't finish top of the league, we still played very well all through the season, and eventually got into the playoffs. There we beat Mjøndalen in the semi final and Sandnes Ulf in the final. That qualified us for the final...final. There we narrowly beat Viking to clinch the (hopefully) final promotion I need to worry about. Next season will be more about just beating the drop back down. As soon as the promotion was secured, the board jumped on and turned us professional!

Finally! This is excellent for us! Now I just have to start the job of getting everyone to sign full time deals!

As usual, I'm slowly adding the youth players to the team. The best youth players this season were:

• Herman Bratseth 26a - Our talisman up top, and also our main source of goals. Had an excellent season with almost a goal a game.
• Kenneth Gjøsund 26c - Saves just about everything expected of him, and sometimes much more. A very solid goalkeeper.
• Kristian Bernt Børve Larsen 27d - Not many goals or assists, but all of them were very important ones. A real clutch player.

Norgesmesterskapet: We beat FC Oslo, Aalesund, Mjøndalen, Kjelsås, Rosenborg, and Molde to reach the final! That has only happened once in the clubs history, and we repeated it. Well actually, we outdid it as we beat Bodø/Glimt to claim our first ever cup win! This also means we are heading into the Europa League next season! Quite the amazing run for us.

Around the world

2nd team:

They only played friendlies this season.

U19s:

They finished 2nd in the Oslo Kretsserie G19 this season.

NM G19: They beat Halsen and Notodden before they lost to Kongsvinger in the 3rd round.

Youth intake:

Trophy cabinet

PostNord-ligaen Avdeling 2 - 1 (2024)

Norgesmesterskapet - 1 (2028)

(U19s) - Oslo Kretsserie G19 - 2 (2024, 2026)

Player statistics:

Most apps for the clubs

Name				Nation		2nd Nation	Time at club	Apps
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Omar Brødholt 24b		Norway		<N/A>		2024-Present	106
Glenn Sigurd Ruud Irgens 24c	Norway		<N/A>		2024-Present	106
Herman Bratseth 26a		Norway		<N/A>		2026-Present	86
Oscar Vainio 26b		Finland		Norway		2026-Present	74
Kenneth Gjøsund 26c		Norway		<N/A>		2026-Present	64

Most goals for the club

Name				Nation		2nd Nation	Time at club	Goals
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Herman Bratseth 26a		Norway		<N/A>		2026-Present	48
Omar Brødholt 24b		Norway		<N/A>		2024-Present	13
Kristian Bernt Børve Larsen 27d	Norway		<N/A>		2027-Present	9
Simen Borge 27c			Norway		<N/A>		2027-Present	5
Glenn Sigurd Ruud Irgens 24c	Norway		<N/A>		2024-Present	3

Most assists for the club

Name				Nation		2nd Nation	Time at club	Assists
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Herman Bratseth 26a		Norway		<N/A>		2026-Present	12
Oscar Vainio 26b		Finland		Norway		2026-Present	10
Omar Brødholt 24b		Norway		<N/A>		2024-Present	9
Kristian Bernt Børve Larsen 27d	Norway		<N/A>		2027-Present	7
Glenn Sigurd Ruud Irgens 24c	Norway		<N/A>		2024-Present	4

Supporters:

Summary:

[Winski]

Well done, @XaW! And what a nice player, Bratseh 26a! Good luck next season in the Eliteserien

[DomD]

I'm thinking of doing this in France. Is there anything I should be aware of? Is there anything different since you can have 4 tiers running but only take charge of a team in the 3rd tier? Is that still the case after holidaying for a year, I take charge of one of the teams promoted into the 3rd tier?

[Winski]

22 minutes ago, DomD said:

I'm thinking of doing this in France. Is there anything I should be aware of? Is there anything different since you can have 4 tiers running but only take charge of a team in the 3rd tier? Is that still the case after holidaying for a year, I take charge of one of the teams promoted into the 3rd tier?

That's right indeed. You can basically pick a team from the 4th tier, and save scum until it gets promoted. But that can cost some time. You can also just holiday one season and pick a team that's promoted to the 3rd tier.

[thomas_e]

Energie Cottbus

Season summary 2028 - 2029

An unexpected promotion! 

 

Our fourth season in the 2nd Bundesliga and the last for at least a year! We secured promotion through play-offs, beating Union Berlin on away goals (2-2 on agg). We were really good this year and compared to last season we finished really strong, winning some key games at the end to stay in the promotion spots. 

Our young striker went from scoring 5 goals in 27 games last year to scoring 17 goals on 33 games this year, making a huge difference in our ability to win evenly played games. 

A big worry though is that big clubs are starting to bid heavily for our players, not suprprisingly they are very interested in Michael Greif. 18 years old with 11 goals and 11 assists from a CM position says it all, he is the heart and soul of this team! 

I am very worried about us in the Bundesliga next season. We are far from ready and to be honest I think I would have preferred another year in the 2nd Bundesliga. Hoepfully we can put in a decent battle and not losing any key players along the way. 

We had a medium/medium minus youth intake. After a poor intake last season I hope we are due for a golden generation again soon! I still cant get any upgrades to my youth training facilities, even though the club now has producing players from our academy as a strategic goal. This game really doesnt make sense sometimes. 

 

Season Summary

          

 

Key Players

          

 

Key Talents

          

 

[The_Gato_In_Goal]

Great update @WhiteCat33

Never encountered the World Cup money either, even while managing some small nations. Obviously, the expanded World Cup does wonders there. Interesting idea for the HOYD, he looks special if it ends up working out.

[Neo_Geo]

I honestly don’t know how the guys who racked up 20 or 30+ seasons in England keep going.

Struggling to get the time in on it and feeling the gap between intakes is just huge. Really unsure if I will ever get enough time to complete England

[WhiteCat33]

1 hour ago, The_Gato_In_Goal said:

Great update @WhiteCat33

Never encountered the World Cup money either, even while managing some small nations. Obviously, the expanded World Cup does wonders there. Interesting idea for the HOYD, he looks special if it ends up working out.

Thanks! I had to look it up online and the money fits. My 3M is 1.5x - 2x what currently is the case as FIFA pays ~$10,000 per day for each player. For 20+ years in the future that seems a very modest increase (for Football payments). Since we were out at the group stage I probably only got 7-10 days of payments, but since 20/26 of the Barbados national team are my current players [with 3 more as former players] that is around 150k per player for the tournament. Not bad eh!?

Wish there was an inbox notification about it, but I didn't notice any. I know they got clobbered but I'm still shocked my players got the national team to the World Cup already. If Carrillo keeps playing till 35-36 he's got 2 more World Cup's in him and at 44 Goals in 42 CAPs he will be essential. Hopefully by then I'm on the Hall of Fame and can take over the national team and lead Barbados to Glory!

 

[Ikthop]

9 hours ago, The_Gato_In_Goal said:

 

Surely the poor intake is made up for by a player from Brunei 

Agreed. Newgens from obscure (football) nations is one of my favorite things in FM. So I'd say this is a great intake 

[OlivierL]

1 hour ago, The_Gato_In_Goal said:

Great update @WhiteCat33

Never encountered the World Cup money either, even while managing some small nations. Obviously, the expanded World Cup does wonders there. Interesting idea for the HOYD, he looks special if it ends up working out.

Idd great detailed update . Good work @WhiteCat33

[Brentmeister]

I see morale and player interactions are as stupid as ever

[Neo_Geo]

Taken a look around and wanted to find a country:

1. Not yet completed
2. More than 2 divisions (but not 6 like England)
3. Around 30 games a season
4. A good youth rating from previous seasons

This has led me to attempt Denmark and with a real lack of variety in the promoted teams I have opted for Bronshoj Boldklub:

 

The Wasps are based on Copenhagen and have actually won the top flight twice, the last time in 1992 as well as being runner up in 1993 and 1995 so this is a team that were fairly successful 30 years ago, a little bit of a fallen "giant".

Tingbjerg idrætspark is nothing special, unlike some of the stadiums that a few saves in the thread boast, but the key attraction here is the reduced number of games (22 in the normal league plus 10 for promotion/relegation phases) in comparison to England's 46 games for 5 leagues and 38 in the top flight and it hasn't been completed either. Based on them being an amateur club I checked the FM23 editor to see if they were set as always amateur (didn't think they would but wanted to be certain I wouldn't have a hard block on this save) and they are only set as amateur, still not an easy task.

Really hope that I can find enough time to get through the shorter seasons so that I don't lose the motivation to continue.

I will most likely tweak the bingo card I devised for England to suit the Danish league structure as well as see to a few changes I had thought of in the first place.

 

[lewis999]

On 03/11/2023 at 20:38, the_hdk said:

Transfer History

Well this was improvement. 3rd place and we ware actually in teh run to an upset, but we got too many injuries at the end of teh year and fell off teh fight. Still we qualified for Asian CL!. Cups was worse this year. First of all we had to sell our star striker TANAKA. In the end he went to TOTTENHAM for EUR 11,5 mln. Record sale for JAPAN. With the money I poured it into training facilities that already imporved twice and third is on its way. For some reaosn i'm not getting chance to improve youth facilities and I fear its the same bug/feature we had last year where the chaiman doesnt have bug enough youth skill. TANAKA had not a great start in England, with only 6 games and 1 goal played, but he finally became the first striker of Japan and has now 6 caps and 4 goals. He is now worth 44-54 mln! I feel a bit robbed.

Anyway, TANAKA was replaced by KAGAMI who did great. 23 goals in 38 games. Won the TopScorer. And the new attacker in first 11 is IMAZEKI, who had an amazing rookie season with 21 goals and 10 assists. Another rookie was a wing back KANAI, but he did not improve as much as ai had hoped and stays at 2,5 stars ability. With 6 players at 4 stars in ability we are doing great. Lets hope we can keep teh core and build further form there. The offers for my players are becoming annoying though. Makes the game very tedious.

Braga with an upset in Portugal. and Urawa Red gets both the League and Asian CL. First Japanese club to win it in my save. so far.

Anyway, I wanted to give a shout out to our Brazilian, ERNESTO PAULO, scored 9 goals...all headers. Just look at him (below). 1m90, he is a giant in Japan. I'm happy I retrained him to play in the center. His Heading is only 9....but his Jumping Reach is 19!!!!! 19!!!! with 1m90....our own "Força Aérea Brasileira". thats just insane :D. I'm doing everything to train his heading. all our corners go to him!

Sale of TANAKA

TANAKA shortly after the sale. HE made his debut for Japan in teh next game.

KAGAMI became our second player to make his debut for Japan.

YASUDA intake 2031. Seems promising, but once in my team...well they ware not so good. Only one 4 star and rest was meh. Third strike for YASUDA. I need a better HOYD.

Best of the bunch in the end. KANAYA. Decent physicals. Love the tackling. If he was faster I would retrain him to a wing back. Lets see. Could end up replacing KOZAWA in the Center.

And our thrid foreign player. A South Korean, SONG JUNG. I give him little chance to make the first team, but you never know.

 

 

Which newgen pack are you using? They are great.

[Virtual Male]

Well that's not ideal....

[Mahzun_Savas]

Radcliffe

Season 1 Youth Intake Preview

 

[Mahzun_Savas]

Radcliffe

Season 1 Youth Intake

An very good intake. Excited to have a DM, RB and DC as elite talents as those parts of the squad need reinforcements.

 

 

Interesting mix of nationalities with Nigerian, Norwegian, Bulgarian, Gambian, French, Northern Irish and Kosovan players.

[Brentmeister]

Belgium and the financial bug have won.

I'm losing 1.3m a year, my facilities are actually getting worse, my players are not developing, I can't hire decent staff because I have no money, I can't renew player contracts for the same reason, so my best 3 players are all opting out.

This is despite us sitting comfortably in the playoffs.

Frustrating.

[Mahzun_Savas]

Season 1 2024-25 End of Season Review

It was a solid season which started off poorly. We were in the relegation zone in the first part of the season so I needed to change tactics which lead to much better results for the rest of the season. Losing the last 4 games of the season meant we fell down the table a little but still met expectations of a midtable finish.

Season Results 1   Season Results 2  Season Results 3

We did not do much in the cups, certainly caused no upsets.

FA Cup Results

FA Trophy Results

We had a fairly stable squad with few injuries which was fortunate and we had just enough depth to cover when needed.

How we lined up

Our best players were the starting wingers, 16 year old Jordan Swan and Brad Jackson.

Our top scorer was Ewan Bange who started the season as third choice striker but established himself in the team when given the chance.

Our main keeper for the season became 16 year old Kean Quansah. He wasn't great but better than the 20 year old keeper I started the season in goal.

Midfielder Josh Hancock scored vital goals from central midfield 

There were, of course no transfers in but a few out unfortunately.

I was able to complete my Nation C and B licences and I am currently studying towards my National A licence. 

Mahzun Savas Profile

There were no upgrades as the clubs financial position was not good enough. Hopefully that will change.

Next Season

Jordan Swan refused to sign another contract and it will be a big blow to lose him. Our back up left back has retired and club captain wanted a totally unreasonable new contract so will leave the club as well. 

That means we have a first XI that is quite reasonable but will rely on the new intake plus a couple of players from the 2023/24 intake as back up, 

Still I will be disappointed if we do not improve on the 16th place from this year, a playoff spot may not be realistic but one can dream,

Edited November 5, 2023 by Mahzun_Savas

[Neo_Geo]

I think I know why I fail to complete a challenge now......I seem to enjoy picking a team, creating kits, setting up spreadsheets, bingo cards etc. 

Lego decided they wanted a domestic team to sponsor who would help promote good values for children and who better than Bronshoj Boldklub who have made a pact to only play players that come through their youth academy. (Also the black white and yellow of the logo works really well with the home kit )

Now that this is out of the way its time to see how much of a season I can get through in a single sitting.

[unfocused_alex]

Bradford (PA) - Update 2 - End of 24/25 Season 

I spent a lot of time bedding in training schedules and I reckon in a few years we may start seeing the fruits of all the labour. 
The aim being to develop youth players who are adept at a higher tempo pressing game. With development based more on technique, intelligence and hard work with core attributes being: 
- Anticipation 
- Decisions
- Teamwork 
- Technique 
- Stamina 
- Work rate 
- Aggression

I've bought coaches in who would hopefully begin the process and lay the foundations for the future generations. (That's the idea at least!) 

Realised pretty early on in the season that it'll likely be a bit of a slog and that the above may be a bit pointless implementing at a non-league club. So it'll be implemented with our youth and as they enter into the first team we'll adapt and move into the style.

Our players weren't really looking up to it in the early stages of the season, so a pragmatic approach was needed and a larger focus on set-pieces. After the rocky start, we settled on a mid-block 4-2-3-1 and although shipping some goals we looked a lot better and put ourselves about. 

Competitions

Spoiler

League

We had a fairly inconsistent season when it came to results. We performed fairly well in games and stuck to our style, overall I'm pleased we stayed up and found a level to build on. Never really worried about the drop in the end.

FA Cup

Not the greatest run and frustratingly outplayed Gateshead, so a shame not to make it to first round proper. 

FA Trophy 

Yeah, best not to mention this one...

 

Club Info 

Spoiler

No upgrades as the board was just not interested in upgrading anything. Cheers lads

Interesting development over the summer... 

Ah.

Well hopefully they'll actually allow me to do a coaching course at some point!

 

Manager Profile

Spoiler

Going into the new season, you can see I'm clearly learning on the job...

Finances 

Spoiler

Wage Structure 
I've implemented a stronger stance on wages to help the financial situation out. Cut a fair bit of deadwood off the squad going into the new season and now run things a cool £2.7k under the wage budget. So room to allow bigger contracts when I need to lock a player down.

 

 

Class of '25 

Spoiler

Looking alright for some youth prospects! 

Kucera certainly being the best of the bunch. Slots into our tactic and with plenty of pace. I'm sure he'll do some damage at this level.

Boom!

Youth Involvement

Spoiler

Notable Moments of the Season 

Spoiler

- 16 year old Oran Couchman scoring in the 92nd minute to win against Blyth
- clawing back a 3-3 draw in stoppage time against Buxton 
- surviving!

 

On to 25/26!

Spoiler

- Ideally, this year would be a year clear of relegation threat and begin to bed in the youth and really get the tactic bedded with the youth too. Would love to see a solid representation of youth across the year. 

- finish the season in profit if possible! 

- perform far better in the cups

 

[kndrx]

Macclesfield Town F.C.

Youth Intake 2027

[The_Gato_In_Goal]

12 hours ago, Neo_Geo said:

Taken a look around and wanted to find a country:

1. Not yet completed
2. More than 2 divisions (but not 6 like England)
3. Around 30 games a season
4. A good youth rating from previous seasons

This has led me to attempt Denmark and with a real lack of variety in the promoted teams I have opted for Bronshoj Boldklub:

 

The Wasps are based on Copenhagen and have actually won the top flight twice, the last time in 1992 as well as being runner up in 1993 and 1995 so this is a team that were fairly successful 30 years ago, a little bit of a fallen "giant".

Tingbjerg idrætspark is nothing special, unlike some of the stadiums that a few saves in the thread boast, but the key attraction here is the reduced number of games (22 in the normal league plus 10 for promotion/relegation phases) in comparison to England's 46 games for 5 leagues and 38 in the top flight and it hasn't been completed either. Based on them being an amateur club I checked the FM23 editor to see if they were set as always amateur (didn't think they would but wanted to be certain I wouldn't have a hard block on this save) and they are only set as amateur, still not an easy task.

Really hope that I can find enough time to get through the shorter seasons so that I don't lose the motivation to continue.

I will most likely tweak the bingo card I devised for England to suit the Danish league structure as well as see to a few changes I had thought of in the first place.

 

A good choice of team! Hopefully you can not stall out as consistent Champions League quarterfinalists like I did.

[WhiteCat33]

2 hours ago, Brentmeister said:

Belgium and the financial bug have won.

I'm losing 1.3m a year, my facilities are actually getting worse, my players are not developing, I can't hire decent staff because I have no money, I can't renew player contracts for the same reason, so my best 3 players are all opting out.

This is despite us sitting comfortably in the playoffs.

Frustrating.

Pretty disappointing after at least 3 years SI can't rebalance the finances there. Its an interesting country to play in.

[Neo_Geo]

1 hour ago, The_Gato_In_Goal said:

A good choice of team! Hopefully you can not stall out as consistent Champions League quarterfinalists like I did.

I'll be happy to survive the first season as a starting point 

I take it this was in FM23 thread, might have to go and read up on your adventures

[the_hdk]

14 hours ago, lewis999 said:

Which newgen pack are you using? They are great.

I create my own with Midjourney. Its an AI tool that creates images. There are some videos on youtube how to use it for FM. IF you have any questions please let me know. 

[V50]

2 hours ago, WhiteCat33 said:

Pretty disappointing after at least 3 years SI can't rebalance the finances there. Its an interesting country to play in.

We could rebalance that ourselves as a community - it's likely a matter of raising ticket prices and TV revenue a little higher. If we could agree as a community something appropriate it would make it workable. 

[MaxeyN17]

Unfortunately I am having to restart this challenge as my save has corrupted and the one uploaded to Steam is a season and a half behind for some reason.

Not sure if I'll be doing it in Sweden again but will let you all know when it begins!

[OlivierL]

3 hours ago, WhiteCat33 said:

Pretty disappointing after at least 3 years SI can't rebalance the finances there. Its an interesting country to play in.

I reported this as a bug (like i did on FM23) and this year somebody is working on it, specific on the wages and he thinks this should solve it. He could not confirm if it was going to be fixed at 6 november.

[lewis999]

3 hours ago, the_hdk said:

I create my own with Midjourney. Its an AI tool that creates images. There are some videos on youtube how to use it for FM. IF you have any questions please let me know. 

I'm guessing you have to pay monthly for the ability? I can put the faces inside the game with the config file etc. It was just more about how you sourced them as they look really good.

[DazRTaylor]

Despite being in such a great position with Bury, I may park it for a while.  I will come back to it but I want to try a save where I sign players too, so dafuge for me.

Current season in the Championship is going very well.  Nine league games remaining and we are solidly in mid table and already have over fifty points.

[The_Gato_In_Goal]

I'm getting pushed to my limits with the GK injury bug. We just instantly lose games when I have to play a 16 year old in goal and Zamani keeps getting hurt.

We'll have missed him for 8 games out of 20 this season when his wrist finally heals. And he's missed over a month in each of the past 4 seasons.

[Neo_Geo]

8 minutes ago, The_Gato_In_Goal said:

I'm getting pushed to my limits with the GK injury bug. We just instantly lose games when I have to play a 16 year old in goal and Zamani keeps getting hurt.

We'll have missed him for 8 games out of 20 this season when his wrist finally heals. And he's missed over a month in each of the past 4 seasons.

I’m actually shocked at this list of injuries……but only because there is a hamstring injury.

The amount of GK arm related injuries trying to catch the ball is just beyond ridiculous. I’m really surprised they didn’t find it during internal playtests

[JAwtunes]

8 hours ago, Neo_Geo said:

I think I know why I fail to complete a challenge now......I seem to enjoy picking a team, creating kits, setting up spreadsheets, bingo cards etc. 

Lego decided they wanted a domestic team to sponsor who would help promote good values for children and who better than Bronshoj Boldklub who have made a pact to only play players that come through their youth academy. (Also the black white and yellow of the logo works really well with the home kit )

Now that this is out of the way its time to see how much of a season I can get through in a single sitting.

I'm exactly the same mate 

This team is actually on my list and I've made kits for them too, along with B1909, NB Bornholm, IF Foroyar and a team called Snekkersten IF in Denmark. They've all got kits now in the game as I have flip flopped between them all for he last few weeks!

I really like the fact that Bronshoj have a great website with lots of info about previous players. I find it easier to immerse myself in the save when that's the case. Good luck with your save 

[Perre8]

Season 2 - 2026/27

FC Wacker Innsbruck

 

Intake preview

Actual intake

 

3 best players from that intake

 

upgrade!

 

League table

best progression

 

We are getting closer to the top spot for promotion. I won't mind staying a couple more seasons in this league, because this way i can finance any upgrades with the "Osterreichertopf" rule

 

[the_hdk]

2 hours ago, lewis999 said:

I'm guessing you have to pay monthly for the ability? I can put the faces inside the game with the config file etc. It was just more about how you sourced them as they look really good.

sadly you do...but atm I create like 100 faces a week so its worth it.

[WhiteCat33]

Well this will be an interesting cup final....

[Neo_Geo]

Danish Bingo time!

[Neo_Geo]

1 minute ago, WhiteCat33 said:

Well this will be an interesting cup final....

Wow!

[WhiteCat33]

7 minutes ago, Neo_Geo said:

Wow!

Gold Cup Don't Care about your leagues! I was lucky there wasn't a youth tournament at the same time otherwise I'd have to use grey players...

[officiallydeej]

Dulwich Hamlet - Vanarama National League South

I'm back to give this another try! I was going to hold off for a while but reading this thread has pulled me right back in. I've still yet to complete this challenge or even compete in the Champions League beyond the qualifiers, but I like what I have seen of FM24 so far and I'm hoping this could be the year I finally manage it.

I've chosen Dulwich Hamlet for my first attempt. Possibly not the hardest of the English teams due to their geographical proximity to London and decent starting facilities, but make no mistake I don't expect the early seasons to be easy. We only have 20 players, 4 of which are goalkeepers, 4 that are over 33 and 6 that are only 16. A lot of the other existing first teamers are either almost or over 30 too, so expect to see a lot of turn over and initial consolidation after the early intakes.

Looking forward to this, let's get started.

 

Edited November 6, 2023 by officiallydeej

[michiganhugefan]

Berwick Rangers Season 2 Summary
Transfers||Finances

Around December we were Top of the Table. Of course then in the 2nd half we forgot how to play defense and things feel apart. Still a solid season as we were able to get a lot of our youth better integrated to our team and there were definite improvements over our season 1 performance. Some of our best performers are set to leave this summer so building that base for next season is crucial.

Competitions

Spoiler

 

Scottish League 2

As I said earlier we were top about halfway through the season but fell off in the 2nd half but still finished in 6th place, which is a success for a team once again picked to finish in 10th in the preseason. 

Viaplay Cup

Was hoping we could maybe sneak a result against Ayr or Greenock, and we weren't too far off which could have seen us through to round 2. Still a cup performance that I'm pleased with.

SPFL Trust Trophy

Good performance by our guys to see us into the 3rd round. And we were 10 minutes away from a penalty shootout before Dunfermline got their winner.

 Déjà vu as we were 10 minutes from a replay with Dunfermline in another cup but they scored late to bounce us from it.

 

Honors

Spoiler

Once again, no league wide honors other than a Manager of the month for myself. We did have some other noteworthy events as we had our first call ups for youth national teams.

Seasonal Best 11

25a and 25h were my entrenched starters at their position for the entire season. 25k stepped into the Striker role once Khyyam went down with a long term injury. Unfortunately he then also got injured near the end of the season because he was giving a decent amount of scoring. Jude Bonnar was our Player and Young Player of the Season according to the fans, but him, Khyyam, and Binnie (our 3rd CB) are all leaving after the season, so obviously a big hole to replace on the right side.

Overall Best 11

24b still being in the starting 11 at Left Mid is pretty comical, he's played there a handful of times. 25a, 25k, and 25h also enter the overall best 11, with 25j and 25b onto the bench.

Youth intake 2026

Spoiler

Another good exciting intake. Although we didn't sign everyone from this one, didn't think another GK was necessary for the squad as we're carrying 3 over to next season (in before I eat these words when all 3 get injured)

Already got in some game time. I worked to get him more fitted to playing the DR role instead of WBR and it's very possible he is the starter when the next season rolls around.

Fits nicely into the backup CAM role. So he'll be doing what Alex Harris had been doing this past year. May be worth training him at CM to give him some versatility. Would take the sting out of 25a departing a little bit, as Scottish Championship sides seem to be sniffing around (although I wont let him leave without a fight). He scored on his debut.

Right Mid is a place where it would be iffy for him to be getting game time at the moment. We have Graham Taylor there, as well as 25d. He seems raw and may need some time to develop into himself even with pretty solid physicals.

Excited to get another CM option into the team. 25g really disappointed me this season when he had to fill in when Andrew Lind was out. Hopefully 26d can be a better resource as I'd rather give someone else a shot than 25g next time such a situation arises.

Very much needed at the time the intake happened as Khyyam was out for the season and 25k had recently been injured. I don't love the Low Determination Personality but hopefully it can be mentored out of him (Graham Taylor, my starting MR, has a mentoring group to try to get all the young guns off the terrible personalties, and has had some success with certain 2025 graduates). On the plus side, in 4 starts to end the season he had 3 goals and 1 assist.

Really enjoy the versatility there, as a bench player to cover 3 positions we use that are fairly different than each other.

Gotta admit, I do love a massive center back. His mentals seem pretty good and while he won't be starting league games any time soon, fingers crossed, I think he is probably our number 3 or 4 at this point.

One for the future, although with Bonnar leaving the ML depth chart probably has him as the 3rd best on our team. and he can cover at MR too if called upon. One for the U18s for now.

Not loving the physicals or the unambitious personality but hopefully yhat can be worked on and he does have some nice points that could bode well for him in the future. Not one for the present though.

Left Back is definitely a place we could use cover, Blair Sneddon will be moving up to ML for next season (and probably leaving the club at the end of his contract as he is unsettled). 25j will probably step into the DL role, but 25o and 26j here will probably need to be called upon to back him up and sub on late if needed. DL is one of our positions with least depth.

More CB depth, hopefully he grows a few more inches, could be more of a DM/MC retrain at this height.

Another possible ML option for the future, hate the personality.

Another CM option, possibly for later, or will just be out of the club in a few years.

We're pretty well set at DR, with Thomson, 25c, and 26a all better than him. covering both DR and DC could have some value and I think he's got some nice ratings, but the personality is bad, so maybe if we can work on that while he probably plays in the U18s that could be nice

Signed him against the wishes of my HOYD because I just want more left side cover. Need to train him to play either ML or DL since I don't use Wing Backs. break in case of emergency basically.

Let his trial run out without signing him.

 

Tagged Prospect Updates

2024

Spoiler

Gonna be brief with 2024, 24b is the only one who I think realstically has a future at the club, and 24d is leaving on a free because I'm letting his contract run out

Even with my Striker issue this year he came on once during stoppage time this entire year. Not expecting anything to change before his contract runs out this next year

Good versatility kept him on the bench though he rarely needed to come on. I may keep him beyond this next year but I think he'll probably also be leaving.

An unfortunate casualty of my team just being way better and having way better options. He's probably still a killer off corners but he'd be too much of a liability to play otherwise and will probably be gone after next year.

He's being let leave on a free transfer this offseason. I tried to sign him as the youth team keeper but he wanted more money and longer term than I thought he deserved, so unless that changes before May 31, he's out the door.

Never played, never developed, gone after his contract runs out.

Gone after next year

With our good depth at DR, no place for him and he'll be gone when his contract runs out.

 

2025

Spoiler

Already one of the best at the club. Missed some games due to being on the Serbian U19 team. Other than that his 10 goal and 10 assist contribution is greatly appreciated. He had Scottish Championship interest, even with some coaches coming to watch him play. I'm hoping we can hold onto him for a bit as he's more useful than whatever amount we'd be underpaid for him.

Will probably be our starting GK at the start of next season. Already played in about 30% of the league games this season.

Our backup DR. Gave cover off the bench, wasn't anything spectacular and may be pushed out of his playing time by 26a coming into the team.

Mentored him off his Unambitious personality. Been our backup MR all season and will continue in that role next season.

Played a little bit this season, we're weak on the Left Side so he'll probably be our best ML depth piece for the season

Didn't play this season, but could see time at MR for sure.

Was forced into starting when Andrew Lind went down and played very poorly. A midfield depth piece but probably going to be in line for less of an important role until he proves he can handle the first team.

Probably the surprise of the season, cemented themselves as our 2nd CB early in the season when given a chance and never let go of it.

Got a little playing time as our 4th CB and will probably continue in that vein next season, although with more CB options, might not be making the bench.

Nice surprise at Left Back and was appointed Vice Captain. Will probably step into the starting role with the departure of Bonnar. I can't begin to tell you how much I appreciate his player trait when watching the team play lol

The other biggest surprise of the season, he was actually cooking before he went down with a torn thigh muscle. Once he had to start games he was reliable for a goal a game it seemed. Unfortunately with him going down and 26e playing well at the end of the season he may not get the same amount of opportunity next season, although I think he at least deserves to be on the bench going forward.

Didnt get any game time this season, still one for the U18s

Another one still for the U18s

Played in one match, another one who is probably destined for the U18s and then a cut, but could develop to be okay.

With the way he can cover both Right and Left Backs he could get fringe playing time. Went off on Loan this season.

Probably not amounting to much and staying in the U18s

 

Hopefully we can push on like we did this season and keep improving, maybe contend for that 4th place area that comes with a playoff spot.

[DazRTaylor]

Youth Candidates

Season 2033/34

Bury

This is more like it!

I was expecting more, though one elite talent is one more than last year.

[HanziZoloman]

wow just one weekend not "here" and everybody got promoted (joke). Congratulations to all those great updates, I've read just a few of them.

My intakes are really not good but what matters more is, they all want full-time contracts in EFL2 anybody experiencing the same?

[the_hdk]

Transfer History

Our 9th season was difficult. First time we played in Asian CL so that added some games at the end of teh season that cost us some points. But we ware far from the championship. KYOTO SANGA after two years 2nd finally win their first title. We still qualified for the CL...I Think. Still overal not a bad season, but it could have been so much better. Stars of the year ware IMAZEKI, who scored 32 goals and became TopScorer. ERNESTO PAULO, who still refuses to become Japanese. And KAGAMI who had a worse year this year but still great with 15 goals and 13 assists.

We lost half way KUGAWARA our wing back to Porto for EUR 2 mln only. I forgot about the min fee release clause and IU didn't extend his contract.

FATI with his second ballon d'or. And City with their 4th CL win. Al-Hill brings their CL total to 6 in Asia.

Lost Cup Final

Sadly we lost the final. We got off to a good start but FC Tokyo was just quick in response and after that closed the door.

CL games are weird and the level is very skewed. In our first year in Asian CL we played against Fortis from Bangladesh and it caused two record games.

Sale of KUGAWARA

After three failed Intakes I decided to get a new HOYD. Welcome SIMON, who one year played ona  load in Netherlands at FEYENOORD.

NEW HOYD

SIMON Intake 2032

Not a great start for Simon. Not even one Elite! Bad Intake.

Best of the Bunch, yet another striker....we need midfielders! SAITO is unambitious, and was not very good skills. At least he is quick.

 

[fries]

27 minutes ago, HanziZoloman said:

wow just one weekend not "here" and everybody got promoted (joke). Congratulations to all those great updates, I've read just a few of them.

My intakes are really not good but what matters more is, they all want full-time contracts in EFL2 anybody experiencing the same?

I just give them what they want. Especially the biggest talents with ok/good personalities. Of course you can/should leave out low potential players with bad personalities. How are your finances?

[HanziZoloman]

vor 49 Minuten schrieb fries:

I just give them what they want. Especially the biggest talents with ok/good personalities. Of course you can/should leave out low potential players with bad personalities. How are your finances?

Thank you @fries finances are ok. We‘re making big losses every month but sold two of my best prospects which gave us some room financially. 
 I accepted the U21 league invitation and that’s a huge amount of money ever month I believe. Just need a U18 it wasn’t necessary I believe.

[thomas_e]

I feel like this game is 50% football manager and 50% dealing with crazy behaviour. Players are complaining about everything, way more than previous versions.

My set piece coach got an offer from another club. I told him that I appreciated him and wanted him to stay. He got absolutely furious.... OK! 

[the_hdk]

8 minutes ago, thomas_e said:

I feel like this game is 50% football manager and 50% dealing with crazy behaviour. Players are complaining about everything, way more than previous versions.

My set piece coach got an offer from another club. I told him that I appreciated him and wanted him to stay. He got absolutely furious.... OK! 

yeah I agree and during transfer periods...dealing with all mad people becuase you declined offers....yeah I'm going to agree to 400k offer for someone who is worth 1-4mln. sure..its boring and takes away a big part of the fun for me. its a chore.

in other news....today full version is lauched? what time do we expect it?

[thomas_e]

45 minutes ago, the_hdk said:

yeah I agree and during transfer periods...dealing with all mad people becuase you declined offers....yeah I'm going to agree to 400k offer for someone who is worth 1-4mln. sure..its boring and takes away a big part of the fun for me. its a chore.

in other news....today full version is lauched? what time do we expect it?

4 pm UK time