The FM24 Youth Academy Challenge

[WhiteCat33]

14 hours ago, XaW said:

I don't think so, but feel free to do so! I've done Europe and Africa, so perhaps my next success will be in another one...

For North America, you would have to do Mexico (if it's still available with relegation this year?), or use the Caribbean pack, and I expect that would be a hard one. Other than that I think it would be possible. Imagine doing it in ONE save where you just apply for the job of a recently promoted side, now THAT is the ultimate FM Challenge!  

Jamaica or Haiti wouldn't be nearly as hard as Barbados but there's always Central American countries when those databases get completed where it's much More realistic to challenge mexican teams 

[WhiteCat33]

Congrats @Colossus a nice early holiday completion, onto the next adventure!

[tobiahabramson]

Macclesfield Town FC

Vanarama National League 

Season 10 2033-34

Results

League: 3rd Place

League Playoffs

Semi-Final: Win 3-2 v. Eastleigh

Final: Loss 0-2 v. Newport County

FA Cup

Fourth Qualifying Round: Win 2-1 v. Blyth (National League North)

First Round: Win 4-1 v. MK Dons (League Two)

Second Round: Win 2-0 (replay) v. Eastleigh (National League)

Third Round: Win 1-0 v. Wigan (League One)

Fourth Round: Loss 0-1 v. Ipswitch (Championship) 

FA Trophy

Third Round: Loss 2-3 v. King's Lynn Town (National League North)

 

Overview

This was our first season back in the National League, and I had high expectations with the team I have so far been successful in building. All in all it was a fairly good year, we were predicted to finish mid-table, and ended up finishing 3rd with 84 points, going 25-9-12 and a +41 goal differential (Hereford won the league with a cool 100 points). We never really pushed Hereford for the title, but stayed strong throughout the season. The biggest problem we had was with fatigued players for the last month of the season - our bench is still not the strongest and rotational opportunities aren't all there at this point. In the playoff semi-finals we edged out Eastleigh with a 90+ minute goal that we probably didn't deserve. The other side of the bracket saw 5th place Newport County beating 2nd place Chester, so we had as good a chance as we were going to get at making it into the Football League - this year it wasn't meant to be, we played like absolute ******* in the finals and lost fairly easily 2-0 at Wembley. Once again I was was able to re-sign all my star players, so I am not losing anyone major. The board is already asking for a playoff finish for next season, so we will have to continue to produce at a good pace.

In the Cups, we had a good run in the FA Cup, beating two higher division teams before eventually losing a fairly close fourth round game to Ipswich, who ended up finishing 8th in the Championship. Between heavy league fixtures and an FA Cup run, I played an all reserves side in the FA Trophy and lost King's Lynn.

Tactic

Spoiler

Our key players this year have been the key players for a few years now. Our striker partnership of Diego Mustoe (13 Goals, 13 Assists) and Davide Santangelo (23 Goals, 3 Assists) continue to really produce and impress, with our off the bench striker Sean O'Connor also racking up the goals (17 Goals, 2 Assists). A key part of our recent success has been a shoring up of the defence - Left Back and Captain Keelan Fitzmartin has been a big part of that.

Spoiler

 

 In International news, we had several players called up u-18s and u-19s of Ireland, Scotland and Wales. We also had two more players get their first senior international caps this year, Bernard James (who was on loan away from the club) for Dominica, and squad player Vincent Siraj getting a call-up for Kenya. Our other senior international had his 21st cap for Antigua and Barbuda, but just wasn't progressing well enough for us - he accepted a transfer to the Antiguan premier league and will be leaving the club.

  

Youth Intake

All in all a mediocre intake. We had no players rated as elite talents this year, although a few of the top talents look promising, but are far off from the team. As a Canadian, it was really exciting to get my first Canadian youth intake, and I signed him solely for that fact.

Spoiler

All Time Youth Intake Maps

Edited December 24, 2023 by tobiahabramson

[karax268]

Çankaya FK 2029/2030 Season Review

On the Field

Fixtures prt 1 | Fixtures prt 2

A solid season of comfortable mediocrity. We were never in danger of relegation nor close to Europe. This gave me the oportunity for the first time to proper rotate and give multiple talents playing time. 

 

 Ziraat Türkiye Kupası

We embarrassed ourselves against 2nd tier Manisa. We had a good comeback to force extra time but promply wasted it again.

Squad

Player of the season: Yamaç Şahin 29a

My unambitious top prospect from last years intake wins it. 7 goals and 10 assists over 29 games played. He played as first backup for all my attacking players and made the most of those opportunities. 

Top Scorer: Talha Aydemir 

With 14 goals in 32 games he was back to his old self. With the team around him getting better he had more opportunities to shine and he did. He was key in out succes this year. Unfortunately this is the last season he plays for us. His contract is expiring and he asks for more than I'm willing to spend. Also, he is 32 and now actively blocking talent behind him. Sadly it is time to say goodbye.

He was with the team in the 4th tier and with me from tier 3 to the top flight. I think that is a fine carreer and I'll remember him fondly.

youth player of the year: Hikmet Genç 27a

The revelation of the season. I never Imagined he'd be good enough for the first team. technically the highest rating over the year, but I gave that award to Şahin 29a because he started in way more matches. A typical player to showcase why Physicals ares key in the game.

Youth intake

Another good intake with Furkan Dilek as the top talent. He will fit right into my CB rotation. 

Still no good personalities overall. I've found it very challenging to find a good HoYD in Turkey. I think it is because my club reputation is still low. Despite being in the top flight for four years now there are still some 2nd tier teams with a higher reputation than us.

Board

Finances | Transfers

 

We've had our first big player sell this year.

 

Once again Porto came for our top talent, but this time there was no release clause. I absolutely fleeced them. 7.5 is way more than he is worth and that 50% sell on clause may be worth even more.

Go out and develop little guy, i hope you do well.

 

With that money we funded new training facilities as well as Youth facilities. These will be completed early next season. for both it is the first time this save the board agreed to it.

No other improvements were made. I'm hesitant to push for more youth recruitment and junior coaching. The amount we spend allready is way more than our regular income can sustain.

 

Next season

I'm hoping for more of the same. Besides Talha, more legacy players are leaving now.

I have faith in these players, but they are still very young. While I think we will be better next year I suspect we will also be more inconsistent. The boards expectations are still to fight bravely against relegation, so I have room for error, fortunately.

 

[leyrtj]

5 hours ago, WhiteCat33 said:

Jamaica or Haiti wouldn't be nearly as hard as Barbados but there's always Central American countries when those databases get completed where it's much More realistic to challenge mexican teams 

Which Central American countries do you recommend? I was looking at Canada for North American but the Caribbean does look tempting after seeing the Barbados one.  

[leyrtj]

Lam Dong - Season 7 & 8 - 2026 & 207 - Vietnam - Wake Up 247 V. League 1 (Tier 1) - 7th & 6th

We continue to grind through the seasons quickly. The last three updates have all now been 7th and 6th in the league. Inch by inch.

However, in Season 7 we took a big leap, what could potentially be the key season in the save. Before I'd identified the cup as key. We're not going to win the league yet, but the cup prize money was higher than the league. Also, the cup was mid week so I thought if I could rotate for the league I could surprise a few teams in the cup. I certainly didn't expect to win it! We had an incredible easy draw. We played a top division club's B team in the quarter finals, and then a team bottom of our league in the semis. I was already happy as this was 300k in the bank already. We played Gia Lai in the final, a top 3 team. They battered us but, through a combination of missed penalties, disallowed goals and bad luck, it went to penalties and we took it. More money and qualification for the AFC Champions League (preliminary). We immediately got approved for more improvements in Junior Coaching and Youth Recruitment, and there's plenty left in the bank.

In Season 8, we played Yadanarbon from Maynmar in the second qualifying round of the AFC Champions League, and then got drawn against Goungzhou Evergrande in the Playoff final. Oh dear, I thought, but we managed to beat them 3 - 1. I looked at their team before and realized their team wasn't particularly fit. The game was in January, so I had 3 pre-season friendlies plus the previous match. They'd only played one friendly. In the Group Stage we went and we played against Urawa Red Diamonds, Busan Ipark and Chonburi, and we were shown what real football looks like. We did manage 3 draws along the way and pulled in another 500k or so from the competition. I then asked for another upgrade in Youth Facilities, and then saw it cost 575k, which was half my balance. I wonder if it is worth improving Training and Youth Facilities early on in the save? 

We put together another cup run in Season 8, reaching the final, but then lost out to Ha Noi FC.

Youth wise, Season 8 was much better than 7. A couple of players went into the squad and there's some decent looking youth. I'm guessing we're be mid table for another couple of seasons, so we'll continue pushing for the cup. I think we can get more improvements through this season, and I think we can challenge for the league in 3 - 4 seasons. 

[glennuk]

Firstly - Merry Christmas to all!!

 

Secondly! (please ignore the date, I am VERY behind on updates)

Which HOYD would you choose? My current one has produced some good crop but lately has been disappointing. However his reputation is better. Also one of my tactics is 442, so kind of nice.

My prospective new HOYD (below) has a better personality and attributes, but I don't play with wing backs (4-3-3 DM wide is my 2nd/3rd tactic).

[HenTheChicken]

Mumbles Rangers FC - JD Cymru South - 2024/2025

League Results

SURVIVAL!! Season was never exactly in doubt, but we went on a 9 game winless run from November to February after we lost our starting CB, zero particularly good players or stunners but we were the best out of the strugglers and it really showed with us putting in some exceptionally dominant performances over these relegated teams, so, happy, and a base to work off of.

CUPS

Honestly, less said the better, we just weren't great and it showed, had to focus on the league though because we knew it'd be a tough relegation battle.

 

Youth Intake

In a word - Disappointing, some star players but they don't play in positions the team provides as of now, which leads to a bit of a tactical issue, but I think I'll just retrain them as its not too big an issue, not enough CBs coming through so probably not a good season next year either.

 

Our star graduate is probably Robert Wheatley, our goalkeeper, honestly looks like he'll be with us for a good few years now, perfect for the SK role we play.

 

THE TACTIC AND HOW WE LINED UP:

 

[XaW]

21 hours ago, glennuk said:

YES!

I want to do it in each continent, but as @XaW said doing it all in one save would be insane (my computer may explode though).

When I succeed fail my attempt in Germany, I might have a look into doing it honestly, but I might do it with IR to avoid using the better part of the next few years. Using the Caribbean pack to pick out a few options and some Oceanic ones should make it good to go for me...

Edit: The one issue I see is that it might be hard to get a side that has never been up when you are far into a save... but I might give it a go at some point anyway.

[OlivierL]

3 hours ago, glennuk said:

Firstly - Merry Christmas to all!!

 

Secondly! (please ignore the date, I am VERY behind on updates)

Which HOYD would you choose? My current one has produced some good crop but lately has been disappointing. However his reputation is better. Also one of my tactics is 442, so kind of nice.

My prospective new HOYD (below) has a better personality and attributes, but I don't play with wing backs (4-3-3 DM wide is my 2nd/3rd tactic).

Always the one with higher pro and det. You can retrain your players because of the 'wrong' formation , but mentoring to give them a higher personality or det is much harder.

 

[glennuk]

15 minutes ago, OlivierL said:

Always the one with higher pro and det. You can retrain your players because of the 'wrong' formation , but mentoring to give them a higher personality or det is much harder.

 

Thanks. I was trending that way. I guess I struggle with being loyal to my staff at times

[JAwtunes]

Our first intake, after 5 seasons without an academy.  I have held off posting any updates as I wasn't sure this save would take off, but now we have an academy I am going to provide the usual info soon (probably at the end of this season).

Happy holidays all!

[HenTheChicken]

 

We are officially so back, these seasons will be going quickly as I'm semi pro and don't have much to do other than going through these games, honestly, we were unfortunate not to be in the promotion fight, we were thereabouts until January where we went 7 games straight without a win, sucks, but, the youth intake was good and when we had them we went 3 wins 1 loss against decent teams in the league, can't complain, can't complain.

League Performance

Spoiler

1ST HALF: 

2ND HALF: 

xG TABLE: 

 

 

 

Europe / Cups

Spoiler

Lol. No. 

 

The Squad

Spoiler

Youth Intake

Spoiler

training andy to become our new Treq

 

[PandaQC]

   

 

Minebea Mitsumi FC (Japan) - Season 5 - 2028

I feel like this year the club took a big step forward. After battling against relegation the past two years, the team is finally strong enough to finish mid-table. We were never in the danger zone. Therefore we were able to give playing time to young players. And those players are growing quickly. The future is bright. Looks like this save in under control now.

J1 League results

Spoiler

 

 Youth intake

Intakes are getting better and better as we improve our facilities. This year intake is excellent. 4-5 players will be involved in first team rotation straight away. Taiki Matsunaga 28.2 looks amazing. I will play him as a Segundeo Volente. Plus I get a backup GK in Atsuki Kato 28.9, which was a big hole in my squad this year. Those elite talents have way more potential than my "old" first team players. Meaning that in the long run my team should be way stronger. One little thing that bothers me: personalities. They are so so, even though my U18 staff is professionnal. Don't know if I can improve that.

Spoiler

Finances and facilities

A lot of good news on that front. We are now in the positive thanks to J1 League money, even if we account for the debt (we still have around 8M euros of debt to repay). Also, the club has been taken over by a member of the board. As a result the board is approving requests to improve facilities now, and we got a few of them ! This is a game changer and explains why our youth intake are so much better. Next step is to have the Youth Recruitment upgraded.

Current balance:

Spoiler

Squad

7 young players from the 2027 intake were part of the rotation ! And they did pretty good. Shin'ya Nishiyama 26.1 is improving very fast. He is already my best player, and still has room to improve !  More than 50% of my players are coming off the youth academy at this stage.

Spoiler

Transfers

Spoiler

Next year preview

Next year I hope we will finish mid-table again. I will involve young players from the 2028 intake as much as I can. Also we will continue to improve facilities to get closer to our J1 League competitors. This is our top priority. Get the best Youth Academy in Japan.

Recap

Edited December 24, 2023 by timo

[WhiteCat33]

8 hours ago, leyrtj said:

Which Central American countries do you recommend? I was looking at Canada for North American but the Caribbean does look tempting after seeing the Barbados one.  

Costa rica has the strongest clubs in Central America.  In my save I also have Honduras active and both countries regularly have wonderkids in the top 10 NxGn. Honduras doesn't keep its talent domestic like Costa Rica does, so has weaker clubs but has generated better players so has the better international performance winning Gold Cups and advancing in the World Cup.

As a human manager I'd think Honduras would produce an interesting challenge with top talent (for NA) but true difficulty of keeping them. Maybe with you playing there the domestic league would be stronger.

Only one I would avoid is Belize, which is mostly amateur. But I'd say Nicaragua,  El Salvador and Panama are all decent nations. Would be easier than Jamaica or Haiti to top Mexican sides but would still be pretty difficult.

If you actually want to complete the challenge from the Caribbean in under 30+ seasons I'd play in Jamaica. They start with the strongest domestic league and generate the best players out the gate. It will be an actual challenge early game to get to the top domestically,  but once you do the Caribean Cup will be yours every season and you can pivot towards the NACL.

Edited December 24, 2023 by WhiteCat33

[Anners]

Previous Post:

On 23/12/2023 at 00:13, Anners said:

Previous Post:

2053/54 Season Report

Club: Tranent FC (Scotland)
League: Scottish Premiership

League:

A much tighter affair, as Celtic show the league is still absolutely nuts by finishing 8th and getting nowhere near European football. I seem to be settling on around 60ish points every year now, so we don't need too much more to get another title I think? Here's hoping anyway!

Europe:

I'd say a fairly standard Europa League campaign here. Going out to a stronger team in Valencia, who then promptly got knocked out by eventual winners Tottenham. Frimpong nearly scored more goals (8) than he did in the league all year (10) as he seemed to be missing quite a few of the domestic games sadly. Still managed a solid 21 in 42 (3) games though. He is now 32 though, but isn't showing any long term plans. Very much hoping he'll want to become a staff member! Currently 64 league games off the Tranent record for most league appearances.

Youth Intake:

  Reveal hidden contents

 

You might be asking "Anners, why is this behind a spoiler tag?" Because it's utter filth is what it is. This is almost a completely perfect intake. The only way this could get better is if I actually got a 15 wonderkid who would go straight into the first team.

Mitchell (though he is only a 5'9 keeper... meh)
Tart
Redfern
Templeman
Rudden
Otto
Gordon
Robertson
Kerr

These were taken at the end of the season so a couple of the potential's have moved.

Other News:

We're back with a player on the NXGN list:

The next "Gareth McAuley" himself Steven Rice gets himself the #14 spot and will end up being on this list for a couple of years probably! Very much looking forward to his development.

We've also got another stadium expansion happening:

That'll pop us up to about 25k and we'll probably stay there for a few years as we didn't fill the 17k every time, but we still had 7 sell outs in the Premiership so a little more room wouldn't hurt too much!

And the penultimate point in my other bits of news - the current team salaries. As I'm obviously quite a bit in and there's now a very clear changing of the guard, a bit of extra detail for those following:

St Johnstone are still getting bankrolled by their Tycoon, but they are still massively struggling for great players, with only 2 appearing on the dream 11 on the season preview, with half the team being Celtic. Rangers are now very clearly in the chasing pack whilst Arbroath do seem to be over achieving quite impressively every year.

Our top earner is Douglas Fordyce on £13k a week with only Calvin Gilchrist (at £10k per week) the only other on double figures. St Johnstone meanwhile are paying 4 players excess of £50k per week, with 15 total being above £13k a week!

FInally, a bit of a note on the nation club coefficents:

Not entirely sure what's going on in Germany? English football completely dominating every year.

Full History:

  Reveal hidden contents

Last 5 Years:

If anyone does have anything they want to know, please feel free to reply. I'm always open to screenshots etc

2054/55 Season Report

Club: Tranent FC (Scotland)
League: Scottish Premiership

League:

Very poor season here, although it was like the league itself was split into 3 - European spots, Mid Table, Relegation. We get another different winner and the chaos continues. Although whilst looking at previous winners, I actually stumbled upon some very interesting information (particularly for anyone 6th or below as Arbroath did get European football).

This is the last 10 seasons and where the champions ended up. Does that make anyone that didn't get European football favourites? The last time Tranent finished 9th, we won the league the year after...

Europe:

Relatively easy qualification path here, including a club record 9-1 win over Servette which Fordyce scored 6 from the right wing, nearly all in the first half. I was actually incredibly disappointing not to get past Rennes in the Round of 16 as we beat them in the League Phase but just didn't show up in the knockouts. You can pretty much tell where we are as a team on the European scene at least - almost exactly where you'd expect Celtic/Rangers to be pretty much!

Youth Intake:

Again we get a few good prospects (our youth team is absolutely stacked with potential right now), although I'm not sure there would be an stand-out here. John Martin and Aleksander Zhelyazkov are the best 2 here (Sweeney's star rating confuses me here) with the latter the best striker prospect since Thomas Scott who will definitely hold "best player we've ever produced" for a while.

As I said above, the youth team is absolutely stacked right now. This is a screenshot of all players with 4 star minimum potential 18 and under that I've got at the club currently:

 

Spoiler

For reference, 3 stars is good/leading Championship players. We've finally got the depth behind us, now it's just developing the players the best we can. I said either in the last one or the one before, we seem to be gearing up towards some big years ahead.

Full History:

Spoiler

Last 5 Years:

[libbyshuss]

I'm putting my French disappointment behind me and jumping straight back in, heading to South Africa to try and complete the pentangle!

Two teams to choose from, but this lot looked the pick of the bunch. Quite a new club apparently:-

They have really nice youth facilities for a starting club in South Africa which should make the first intake a nice one. Which I'll need, as there' s only 12 players in the squad (with 5 in the youth squad, all silver rated!)

 

[leyrtj]

4 hours ago, WhiteCat33 said:

Costa rica has the strongest clubs in Central America.  In my save I also have Honduras active and both countries regularly have wonderkids in the top 10 NxGn. Honduras doesn't keep its talent domestic like Costa Rica does, so has weaker clubs but has generated better players so has the better international performance winning Gold Cups and advancing in the World Cup.

As a human manager I'd think Honduras would produce an interesting challenge with top talent (for NA) but true difficulty of keeping them. Maybe with you playing there the domestic league would be stronger.

Only one I would avoid is Belize, which is mostly amateur. But I'd say Nicaragua,  El Salvador and Panama are all decent nations. Would be easier than Jamaica or Haiti to top Mexican sides but would still be pretty difficult.

If you actually want to complete the challenge from the Caribbean in under 30+ seasons I'd play in Jamaica. They start with the strongest domestic league and generate the best players out the gate. It will be an actual challenge early game to get to the top domestically,  but once you do the Caribean Cup will be yours every season and you can pivot towards the NACL.

Thanks for the advice. I'd had Jamaica and Costa Rica on my list. I was looking at Canada as well, but there's not many teams on the official database.  

[V50]

4 hours ago, WhiteCat33 said:

Costa rica has the strongest clubs in Central America.  In my save I also have Honduras active and both countries regularly have wonderkids in the top 10 NxGn. Honduras doesn't keep its talent domestic like Costa Rica does, so has weaker clubs but has generated better players so has the better international performance winning Gold Cups and advancing in the World Cup.

As a human manager I'd think Honduras would produce an interesting challenge with top talent (for NA) but true difficulty of keeping them. Maybe with you playing there the domestic league would be stronger.

Only one I would avoid is Belize, which is mostly amateur. But I'd say Nicaragua,  El Salvador and Panama are all decent nations. Would be easier than Jamaica or Haiti to top Mexican sides but would still be pretty difficult.

If you actually want to complete the challenge from the Caribbean in under 30+ seasons I'd play in Jamaica. They start with the strongest domestic league and generate the best players out the gate. It will be an actual challenge early game to get to the top domestically,  but once you do the Caribean Cup will be yours every season and you can pivot towards the NACL.

To add to this, Haiti would also be reasonably straight forward. Trinidad has good prize money relative to the others, but football is important, not very important, so buck-for-buck youth facilities won't give as good I think

[leyrtj]

Lam Dong - Season 9 - 2028 - Vietnam - Wake UP 247 V. League 1 (Tier 1) - 4th

Probably back to only 1 season in each season report now rather than the two. We're no longer stuck in mid table it seems so I'm going to holiday a lot less, and seasons will take longer. 

We finished in 4th, our best position so far in the save. We started well and decided to prioritse the league over the cups. We didn't give up on the cup, but previously we were rotating the whole squad before a mid- week cup game, whereas this season we were rotating where we could without harming our chances in the league. We were knocked out early in the cup, as we had an away tie against a top flight team. In the league, the AFC Champions League place went down to 3rd and with two games left we were 3rd on goal difference. Unfortunately, we lost our penultimate game, then lost the last game away to the team in 3rd. Still, it marked a good amount of progress, and I feel in the next two seasons we can qualify for Asia, and an outside chance of challenging for the title. We gained two improvements in both Junior Coaching and Youth Recruitment, once in the off season and another at the end of the season when the league prize money came in. The facilities now stand at Exceptional Junior Coaching and Excellent Youth Recruitment. We're now lising 50k a month so will go into the red soon, so qualification for Asia will be pretty important.

Youth-wise, it was an okay group. The best player, Dinh Manh Dung (great silver beard), become our first choice striker immediately and he looks a good one. We now have 6 players in Vietnam U19s, so I feel things are progressing. 

 

 

[XaW]

 

XaW - Berliner Athletik-Klub 07 - Season 2025/26 (Season 2) - 2. Bundesliga

Squad | Transfers | Finances

Survival! It was on the final day, and we lost, but luckily for us St Pauli also lost so we avoided having to go into the relegation playoff! Honestly, we shouldn't have avoided going down, as the team is clearly not good enough to compete at this level. And the intakes haven't helped much other than provide some sub appearances, really. But since we stayed up, I'll take it! The payout we got at the end of the season also helps massively, as I hope I can get more stuff approved in during the summer and next season. This season they mostly denied everything and blamed it on finances, so now that argument is no longer valid. Now, onto a new season where I think we are in for a massive fight to stay up!

My top 3 pick of players this season are:

1. Luis Zwick - Our goalkeeper has been the best, that says it all, but he really had a good season and almost singlehandedly gained us points.
2. Kento Teranuma - Considering our issues scoring, he actually did fairly well for us. His contract is running out though, and he has so far refused to talk about a new one...
3. Cedrik Mvondo - Another player I might lose during the summer, but he did well in the defense this season and I would like to keep him.

DFB-Pokal: We lost to Mainz in the 1st round.

I got one improvement accepted this season:

Around the world

U19s:

They finished 2nd in the U19 Div. 2 Northeast this season and went into the promotion playoff this season. There they lost to Kiel, unfortunately.

Youth intake:

Trophy cabinet

None

Player statistics:

Most apps for the clubs

Name			Nation		2nd Nation	Time at club	Apps
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Stefan Stark 25b	Germany		<N/A>		2025-Present	2
Markus Langefeld 25c	Germany		<N/A>		2025-Present	2
Erich Engels 25a	Germany		<N/A>		2025-Present	1

Most goals for the club

Name				Nation		2nd Nation	Time at club	Goals
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
None

Most assists for the club

Name				Nation		2nd Nation	Time at club	Assists
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
None

Supporters:

Summary:

[darren1983]

10 hours ago, XaW said:

Edit: The one issue I see is that it might be hard to get a side that has never been up when you are far into a save... but I might give it a go at some point anyway.

Honestly, if anyone is crazy enough to try this as a pentagon in a single save I'd be willing to say that any club that starts off in an unplayable league is fine even if they've been promoted and relegated within the save. As long as they're a promoted side that season.

If that makes sense?

[chsot68]

I started my save yesterday as FC United of Manchester. Here are the screencaps of my setup and such.

I was a little wary of this particular save game due to there only being one 20 year-old 1 star GK on the roster, but the season got off to a pretty decent start with 8 points out of the first 5 games - above the 1 point per game ratio.

But then the worst (inevitable?) happened, and my GK got injured - out for 5-6 weeks!

I'm going to forge ahead and see what happens, but this may end up being a restart. Will keep the forum updated as it goes. 

Cheers!

-R

[leyrtj]

 

Lam Dong - Season 10 - 2029 - Vietnam - Wake UP 247 V. League 1 (Tier 1) - 1st - Champions!

And there's the first part of the challenge complete - Vietnamese League Champions!

After almost qualifying for Asia last year, i thought we had a chance of maybe challenging for the title. I'd noticed our position in the season predictions had started to improve a lot, and that is usually a good indicator. We started really well and were 2nd halfway through the season. Then we went on a run of 7 straight wins, and opened up a 7 point lead at the top. Despite losing to the 2nd place team Gia Lai, we managed to win the title with 2 games to spare. We also had a good cup run that saw us reach the final, but ultimately get knocked out by Hanoi FC, who've now won it 3 years straight.

We will go straight into the AFC Champions League Group Stage. One potential issue I see is that Vietnam's coefficients is now getting low meaning they have less places in Asia. If it goes much lower then the league winner would only go into the first preliminary round, and there are some good Asian teams waiting in those rounds. So I feel I need a run in Asia this season to keep the rankings up. That, and hopefully some of the Vietnamese teams will do well in the AFC Asian Cup. That cup seems to be split into 4 regional sections, so there's a good chance there.

Youth-wise, we're now fully maxed in Junior Coaching and Youth Recruitment following the prize money from the league and cup. There were some good Youth Candidates, with a couple maybe coming into the first team. The recent few years have seen a lot of striker but not many midfielders, so I might look at changing from a 4231 to a 442. We also had our first cap, with Truong Trung Sang making his debut.

[HanziZoloman]

Merry Christmas everyone here. 
I am sick and yesterday got some time off to continue Billericay rise to power (actual league two). 
Read some of the careers here which are amazing. Looking forward to the English updates Macclesfield, Dullwich and Co. Especially how you handle the financial aspect of becoming pro. I am in the 4th professional season and losing money which in turn prevents the current owner to invest in stadium or facilities. I am hoping for another turn over or the wonderkid prospect which can be sold for millions. Until then I cut wages and don‘t give any renewals to players demanding more than 850 per week. 

Edited December 25, 2023 by HanziZoloman

[dkouv]

Merry Christmas everyone!!!
 

Brora Rangers – Season 12 (2035/36)

Premiership We managed to keep up our high standards from last year! The start of the season was a bit difficult, juggling CL and league games, but once we were out of Europe and all the cups our form took a great upturn and a late surge up the table brought us all the way to 2nd, achieved by beating Rangers on the final day of the season.

Europe Our first foray into Europe, and we actually made it through two qualifying rounds to enter the CL group stage, thanks to some crazy high-scoring and tense games. Once there we didn’t do much, although we still managed to pick up £5m in extra prize money from 1 draw and 2 wins.

Players I managed to hang on to the want-away Irishman Tom Thomas 07a (AML/ST) (now capped by Ireland), but the star man is still Ryan Nelson 08c (DL), with plenty of goals and assists from wing back, and now 2 caps for Scotland!

Youth intake (preview) Not much depth, but I’m very excited by Owen Young 12b (DL/DMC), he covers a weak position for us and is ready for some sub appearances and cup games next season. There’s the usual star striker prospect in the mix as well.

  

Facilities/Finances A bonanza of upgrades after the CL money! I’m basically trying to spend as much as I can before the board waste it on a new stadium. So, coaching and recruitment are now maxed, youth facilities upgraded 3 times, and training facilities twice.

       

Transfers Sold a backup player for £600k, we’re definitely moving up in the world.

Season    |  League       | Pos. |     Europe     |   Best player                    |  Notes
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2024/25   | League 2      |  1   |     n/a        |  Andrew Macrae (ST)              | Promoted
2025/26   | League 1      |  7   |     n/a        |  Andrew Macrae (ST)              |
2026/27   | League 1      |  6   |     n/a        |  Andrew Macrae (ST)              |
2027/28   | League 1      |  5   |     n/a        |  James Wallace (ST)              |
2028/29   | League 1      |  1   |     n/a        |  Andrew Macrae (ST)              | Promoted
2029/30   | Championship  |  6   |     n/a        |  Tony Jukes 05a (ST)             |
2030/31   | Championship  |  8   |     n/a        |  Tony Jukes 05a (ST)             | Won SPL Trust Trophy
2031/32   | Championship  |  4   |     n/a        |  Tom Thomas 07a (ST)             | Lost in playoff 1st round
2032/33   | Championship  |  2   |     n/a        |  Tony Jukes 05a (ST)             | Lost in playoff 2nd round
2033/34   | Championship  |  1   |     n/a        |  Tony Jukes 05a (AMR)            | Promoted
2034/35   | Premiership   |  2   |     n/a        |  Ryan Nelson 08c (DL)            |
2035/36   | Premiership   |  2   |     CL group   |  Ryan Nelson 08c (DL)            |



Facilities
----------
Season    |  Coaching     |  Recruitment      | Training Fac.  | Youth Fac.      |  Stadium
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2024      |  Basic        |  Limited   	      | Basic          |  Poor           |  3000
2024/25   |  Adequate     |  Fairly basic     | Basic          |  Basic          |  3000
2025/26   |  Good         |  Average          | Basic          |  Basic          |  3000
2026/27   |  Excellent    |  Above average    | Basic          |  Basic          |  3000
2027/28   |  Excellent    |  Good             | Basic          |  Basic          |  3000
2028/29   |  Exceptional  |  Good             | Below average  |  Basic          |  3000
2029/30   |  Excellent    |  Good             | Below average  |  Basic          |  3000
2030/31   |  Excellent    |  Good             | Below average  |  Basic          |  3000
2031/32   |  Excellent    |  Good             | Below average  |  Basic          |  3000
2032/33   |  Excellent    |  Good             | Below average  |  Basic          |  3000
2033/34   |  Excellent    |  Good             | Below average  |  Basic          |  3000
2034/35   |  Excellent    |  Good             | Below average  |  Basic          |  3000
2035/36   |  Exceptional  |  Exceptional      | Adequate       |  Adequate       |  3000

 

[XaW]

This board....

[Gundo]

Frigg Oslo - Season One (2024)

Attempt number two at this challenge in FM24 went much better. We topped the league for much of the season, only to be beaten to automatic promotion by our only rivals to speak of, Lyn Oslo. To be fair, though, their starting eleven (and squad) is a lot better than ours – I think only a solid 4-4-2 and keeping morale so high helped us get so close (I didn't manage to **** off a whole bunch of players this time around). As a result of finishing second, we went into the promotion play offs: we suffered a 6–3 aggregate defeat against Fløya IL. It was disappointing but expected since we had failed to win any of our last five league games. Striker Ulrik Ferrer was the standout best player, and he eventually went on to become the team captain after undertaking a leadership course. Ferrer was the only player who managed an average rating above 7.00 over the course of the season.

Not really sure what to expect next season, although, I can say I'm ready for a few more seasons at this level before promotion.
 

 

[XaW]

14 hours ago, darren1983 said:

Honestly, if anyone is crazy enough to try this as a pentagon in a single save I'd be willing to say that any club that starts off in an unplayable league is fine even if they've been promoted and relegated within the save. As long as they're a promoted side that season.

If that makes sense?

Yeah, I think that's fair. I think I've found my calling after my German adventure comes to an end.

[JAwtunes]

8 minutes ago, XaW said:

This board....

These were my first 2 seasons.  I had to wait nearly 2 years to get my first request accepted

Feels harder than in previous versions to get that first coaching course.

[leyrtj]

1 hour ago, XaW said:

Yeah, I think that's fair. I think I've found my calling after my German adventure comes to an end.

I feel the same way. The only issue I have is I wanted to do North America with an added database. Is it possible to add a custome database during a game, or do you have to do it at the beginning of the save?

[libbyshuss]

South Africa - TS Sporting FC

National First Division (tier 2) - 2024/25 (season 1)

Season Summary

League Prediction: 15th

League Finish: 3rd (promoted through play-offs)

Well, i do like South Africa! We had such a tiny squad that the team picked itself - only 13 in the first team squad, one out for 3 months with a broken leg as well! I really like the fact they split the league up into 4 quarters, it makes for an interesting journey. First quarter we were great, finished 2nd, second quarter we had injuries and had to play silver star youths and suffered as a result, finishing 11th. Final two quarters we managed to avoid injuries and played our first choice team pretty much throughout and it meant we finished the season third and into the play-off league

we were brilliant in the play off league, winning the first two games to go 5 points clear after the other two drew with each other. It was almost impossible to screw it up from there but we tried our best with a draw and defeat in the next two. But those first two performances were enough!

 

Players

Player of the Season: Kyle Myeni - limited left winger but very effective at this level. i think the top division may be a bridge too far from him but our tactic suited him down to the ground as he got 7 goals and 17 assists

Top Scorer: Thabani Mthembu - 30 year old veteran striker who'd been capped twice by the national team really showed his class. 22 goals in 33 games in a two man striker force isn't too bad. Next season he'll lead the line in the top flight!

Most Assists: Kyle Myeni - I relied heavily on wing play and crosses into my two strikers this season so it's no surprise my two wingers topped the assists list. Myeni lead the way despite on paper being the weaker

The lack of options meant my tactic pretty much picked itself. I don't normally go quite as attacking as this but it seemed to work!

 

Youth

Having only 13 in the first team squad but a good intake was gonna be really important. Luckily the club started with pretty good facilities and the board allowed me to upgrade youth recruitment as well. The intake didn't appear, maybe it was because I got my HoYD too late

This is more like it! Look at all those greens! I signed everyone apart from one youth as they were all at least 2 stars potential. I'm going to have a lot more options next season

This fella may well be a starter - he's not far off as it is

 

Career

Can I stay up? last time I got a surprise early promotion it really didn't end that well!

 

 

 

 

[libbyshuss]

2 hours ago, XaW said:

16 hours ago, darren1983 said:

Honestly, if anyone is crazy enough to try this as a pentagon in a single save I'd be willing to say that any club that starts off in an unplayable league is fine even if they've been promoted and relegated within the save. As long as they're a promoted side that season.

If that makes sense?

Yeah, I think that's fair. I think I've found my calling after my German adventure comes to an end.

How would you go about becoming their manager though?

[leyrtj]

12 minutes ago, libbyshuss said:

How would you go about becoming their manager though?

I guess you could add another manager to manage that team, immediately resign, then apply with the original manager. Would that work? Would have to carefully plan the reputation. 

[V50]

1 hour ago, leyrtj said:

I feel the same way. The only issue I have is I wanted to do North America with an added database. Is it possible to add a custome database during a game, or do you have to do it at the beginning of the save?

Have to load the editor files at the start, but you can add the leagues later

[andershs]

Happy Christmas to all.

My 17-year old talent in defense, Cameron Bennett - 33A is attracting intense interest from all the top clubs in England.

Liverpool, Man City, Arsenal, Chelsea, Newcastle, Tottenham and Man Utd.

I have him on a contract for another two years, and am about to play in the Championship next season.

My question is: do I sell him with a sell on fee and hope that he gets sold at some point or do I battle for him and make him the focal point of team, risking, that he leaves in a couple of years anyway, but without having developed as he might have done at the top clubs?

I have reasonable cover in central defense. They are of course all poorer that Cameron Bennett.

Edited December 25, 2023 by andershs

[HanziZoloman]

vor 55 Minuten schrieb andershs:

Happy Christmas to all.

My 17-year old talent in defense, Cameron Bennett - 33A is attracting intense interest from all the top clubs in England.

Liverpool, Man City, Arsenal, Chelsea, Newcastle, Tottenham and Man Utd.

I have him on a contract for another two years, and am about to play in the Championship next season.

My question is: do I sell him with a sell on fee and hope that he gets sold at some point or do I battle for him and make him the focal point of team, risking, that he leaves in a couple of years anyway, but without having developed as he might have done at the top clubs?

I have reasonable cover in central defense. They are of course all poorer that Cameron Bennett.

He is really good especially his physics. But bravery 8 would make me sell him and the money will produce more of the same class. 
 

btw how did you manage the going professional part in England? I‘m deep in the reds since then and no signs for a change in sight. Cutting wages reduce the losses to some ten thousands a month.

[libbyshuss]

1 hour ago, andershs said:

My question is: do I sell him with a sell on fee and hope that he gets sold at some point or do I battle for him and make him the focal point of team, risking, that he leaves in a couple of years anyway, but without having developed as he might have done at the top clubs?

with these conundrums my head always says sell with the added sell-on (even if he doesn't get sold, you can sometimes cash in on selling the clause) but my heart always says keep, keep, keep!

I don't think there is a right answer - whatever you do is a bit of a gamble really. Keep him, he might sulk and refuse to sign contracts, upset the rest of the squad or be sold by the board - sell him, he might just rot in the new teams reserves depreciating rapidly.

good luck!

[darren1983]

4 hours ago, libbyshuss said:

How would you go about becoming their manager though?

That's a fair point I hadn't thought of, my instinct is to say you have have to hope it's a club that comes up with no manager but we don't have that rule normally so guess you'd have to add a manager to the side you want then resign and apply - if you've won a Champions league your rep likely be more than good enough to get the job if you apply I would assume.

[Ron_Swanson]

[FM23] Reymersholms IK - season 19 - 2041

Very nice intake, lots of 1,5*CA players and Johan Sundstrom definetely is going into rotation

Another survival, I'm just happy we avoided playoffs, because you never know. Eddie Nelen just keeps on with brilliant performance, I just hope that others will become so efficient and consistent.

Just around summer we got the clause buyout available for 3,2m. It was around 1/3 of his value but when going through IFK's transfer history there was only one huge sell for 15m to Liverpool, other than that they got 3-4m max so it was no brainer. Rather slim chance to get more if they sell him and that amount of money will help us immediately. So we got some crucial upgrades and most important, the board agreed to turn professional.

"Are you winning son? only 15 starts in his new team so rather regressing. In his age he won't become much better, I wonder if there's a lot of missed potential or maybe that's the best he could be?

[Riebow]

Olot UE Season Review (28/29)

League

Our first season in the Segunda Division was a resounding success. Despite being predicted to finish dead last we competed for the play-offs spots for the entire season. We were playing some very good football until around February, after that we were very inconsistent to say the least. Luckily for us so were the teams around us and we ended up finishing 6th and on the last play-off spot!

Play-offs semi-finals

Malaga just barely missed out on automatic promotion. We made matters worse and knocked them out with a 4-1 score on aggregate. We would take on Levante for the final promotion spot to La Liga!

Spoiler

Play-offs finals

Considering we don't have any player rated as a 2nd division player, we already vastly overachieved getting this far. And it got even more crazy: we hammered Levante 3-0 at home! Holy cow, are we really going up after only one season in the 2nd tier? With still our 4000 capacity stadium? Let's just stay calm, travel to Valencia and let's take care of business, right? RIGHT?!!!!! 

We've got FM'ed in the most brutal way. Levante absolutely humiliated us, delivering us our biggest loss of the save: 6-0... We definitely don't deserve to be in the top tier, but this is just cruel.

Spoiler

Copa del Rey

We made it to 4rd round, defeating top tier team Celta da Vigo on penalties in the 3rd. We welcomed our bigger brother FC Barcelona and gave them a good game. They knocked us out 2-3

Spoiler

Youth Intake

This time even the preview was bad... For the first time in 3 years we've gotten some elite talents! Adrian looks like a player and was noted as one of the most gifted players to come through our academies.

Spoiler

 

Spoiler

 

 

Transfers

Still nothing in, some loans out and some culling.

Spoiler

 

Finances and Upgrades

Moneeeyyyyyyyyy! 5.7 million ducats in sweet, sweet tv money. We didn't waste any time and improved our Youth Recruitment and Junior Coaching as much as possible. Our Youth Recruitment is now Excellent and our junior coaching Exceptional. We also splurged on some improved training facilities, although it cost us a pretty euro.

Best XI

Joan Maynau is indestructible. Our marouding left back is still churning out a 7.20 average rating at age 33. Genar Huguet is our rock in defense and perhaps even our best player. He's weighing his options and only has one year left on his contract so I might see to sell him. In midfield Aureli has become a star and a creative outlet in midfield. In offense Miguel Angel Ricart is our go to guy, but we lack some star power up front.

Spoiler

Next season

We've improved our recruitment and junior coaching massively. When I get the chance I'll imrove our youth facilities as well. We should get intakes from now on and hopefully get players we can get us in the top tier and beyond!

 

[Riebow]

He got injured how???!!!

[chsot68]

Just want to clarify a rule: Are we allowed to use greyed out players? I know we can't sign them, but unsure if I can use one. 

Thanks!

-R

[XaW]

3 minutes ago, chsot68 said:

Just want to clarify a rule: Are we allowed to use greyed out players? I know we can't sign them, but unsure if I can use one. 

Thanks!

-R

Yeah, that's allowed. Personally, I don't unless I have to in order to field 11 players.

[The_Gato_In_Goal]

 

SV Arsenal Aruba

I am still enjoying the Haringey save, but I couldn't resist coming back and seeing my Christmas present of the Caribbean leagues courtesy of @V50

I've decided to give it a go in Aruba and thanks to suggestions from @WhiteCat33 I loaded a bunch of leagues across North And South America and Europe to make it a more engaging challenge.

There is no relegation from the second tier in Aruba, so I took the team with the worst record from both groups and landed with SV Arsenal Aruba! Next step is getting some kits and a logo in the game.

The squad right now consists of only two players (both being poached away as we speak), with another six sitting in the reserves from the holiday season intake. It's gonna be a rough first season, but none of the other clubs around the division have full squads, so I imagine we can compete in the league.

We are an Amateur side with the worst possible facilities, so only up from here. Excited to get the ball rolling in CONCACAF again.

 

 

[WhiteCat33]

1 hour ago, Riebow said:

He got injured how???!!!

Next up he'll break his leg skiing...

[abirdc]

Guys, a confusion. What if the date I joined as a manager (league reset date), some signings have already been made by the previous manager, but the new signings have not joined the club yet as the transfer window is closed. Can I use them for this challenge?  

[leyrtj]

 

Lam Dong - Season 11 - 2030 - Vietnam - Wake UP 247 V. League 1 (Tier 1) - 1st

Well this was a fun season. After winning the league last year, we entered automatically into the group stage of the AFC Champions League where we faced Shanghai Shenhua, Ulsan Hyundai and Guirare Yokohama. I wasn't sure how we'd fare - we'd performed okay a couple of seasons back and we looking stronger, but this was better opposition. The group turned into one of attition with lots of draws early on. Then a home win against Ulsan put us top of the group with one game to go. We won that game and topped our group. We got a favourable draw in the second round and saw of Hachioji Tigre. In the Quarters we faced Shandong Luneng who thumped us 3 - 1 in the first leg. In the return at home we scored two early goals and I was believing but then they scored and deservedly went through. Still, a good run and signals good things to come. The only potential issue is that Vietnam's coefficient went down so I will go into the 1st prelimnary round next year.

We won the league eventually. We were heavily resting for the Champions League and lost some games we shouldn't have. But after it went to one game a week, we hit form and won with a game to spare. Nothing special in the cup. We had one "fun" cup game though. For the 3rd qualifying round we had 14 players away on international and 4 injuries, meaning we fielded 5 greyed out players. 

We've now become a club legend. Only one downer of the season was the board selling my left back. Nothing I could do. Any other position on the pitch I could've dealt with but I have very little talent there. Depending on how next season goes I might post again in two seasons.

 

Edited December 25, 2023 by leyrtj

[chsot68]

3 hours ago, XaW said:

Yeah, that's allowed. Personally, I don't unless I have to in order to field 11 players.

Thank you. I'm in my first season and my one and only GK  got injured for 6 weeks

[Gonner]

Austria Salzburg, Season 11, 2034/2035

 

Season Recap :

We move up two spots from what was our previous best-ever finish and end up second, right behind our rivals across town.

In the first phase of the championship, we had managed to carve up a significant gap to the 3rd and 4th-placed Austria Wien & SK Rapid, who were themselves quite clear of the rest of the pack, which was much more concentrated than last year, 3 points separating 10th-placed Ried from 6th-placed LASK.


This is how we begun the second phase : 


And this how we finished it ! You can see on the season recap that we lost the last two games of the year, this is mostly because everything was said and done after 30 games so I played youngsters for those games to get some much-needed rest. Which means that on that second phase we got 18 points over the first 8 games, with a home victory over Salzburg ! That was not enough to challenge for the title but we finished second comfortably. 

It is worth noting that since Austria progressed on the European League rankings, there are now 6 clubs that qualify for European competitions, with P6 figthing it out against the winner of P7 vs P8. 

In the Cup, despite getting past RB Salzburg in the semis with one of our two spring victories over them, we do not take advantage of it and lose to Austria Wien in the final.


For our third season in Europa League, I have to confess some over-confidence. We won 3-1 on the first leg of the 3rd qualifying round against a team from Denmark and I decided to rotate the squad somewhat because it is always crazy in August & September with games every 3-4 days... This backfired and we got eliminated on penalties. This meant we went back to Europa Conference, and boy, what a run !  


We easily get out of the first phase, drawing at home with the biggest name, Fiorentina. 


Then we get to play them again in the first round, winning twice by the slimmest of margins in high-scoring games. Next comes another Danish team that I do not underestimate this time around. I thought our run would end against Brentford, but to my surprise we won the first leg 5-1. I still sent the A team on the return leg that we lost 3-4. In the meantime, Turkish team Adana D.S. beat Twente on penalties so we were going to face them in the final.


AND WE WON !!!


Unlike the previous games, it was more of a defensive effort than anything else. Maurice Neumann, who is not a scoring machine, managed to get a brace on two shots from 15 meters away, the first one after a corner, the second one in open play. Adana were not dangerous for the vast majority of the game until the last minutes where they decided to throw all they could at us but Kovacic made some good saves on set pieces.

Transfers : 

Nothing major this year, Schulz was buried in the depth chart even before Mohr's quick progression, so bye bye.

Révélation

 

 

Finances : 

Révélation

I will probably stop talking about finances in my next posts considering we will have our new stadium which should bring higher gate receipts. Unless we exit early or do not qualify for Europe, we are not under any type of financial risk.

Squad :

Our favorite tactic was once again the classic 4-2-3-1, but 4-3-3 and 4-4-2 were also used during the year depending on sharpness and our analyst's recommendation. The best XI below does not really show how we played, Bauer was our Attacking Midfielder while Neumann & Mohr formed our midfield pair. Walter was our best striker. Our front trio was extraordinary, especially our wingers, Hartmann scoring 27 goals to go with 12 assists, while Ciric had 18 & 16 respectively. In the back, Beuth has trained to be a Left-Back and is not far from Bah's level now.

Admin & Facilities :

Révélation

We move in our new 20423-seats stadium with only good corporate facilities. The rest is maxxed out except the youth facilities who remain "superb", but I cannot ask my board for an improvement.

Bonus :

Révélation

We remain with the 6th best youth setup, with our most noteworthy graduates being Rakic, Saedi who both left us for Premier League powerhouses and Ciric & Beuth who are still with us.


Those two are also part of the 50 best wonderkids with Ciric winning the award and they are joined by Tim Mohr.


Our Europa Conference run brought plenty of accolades, among those were best player for Hartmann, best young player (and second best player overall) for Ciric as well as 7 guys in the squad of the season.



In the league this is a first, we never won anything before. RB Salzburg being so dominant they tend to get everything. Two guys in the first team, + Kovacic GK of the season.

Youth Intake : 

Three in a row for a preview that has full-backs as one of the best position but no left-back in the end. Somewhat disappointed to get "only" 3 elite talents, but all top talents have 4+ stars potential, some of them even being rated 4.5.

Jürgen Rabl : We do not have much depth at Attacking Midfielder since Rakic left us, so Rabl might come in the first squad sooner than later, he will be in the mix with Decker from last year.

Révélation

Christian Wurm :  After so many seasons with producing strikers, we are in a good midfield run with Mohr, Lopez & now Wurm. Mohr is being looked at by some of the best English teams so I believe his time with us is counted, which will make Wurm's progression a focus for me. 

Révélation

Daniel Böhmer : My oh my ! 3 Central Defenders in one intake, with Böhmer seen as the best. A little strength training could go a long way ! 

Révélation

Luis Bruneck : We now seem to be producing GKs every two years. Schwab (31) & Brandl (33) are battling it out to be Kovacic's replacement, both are seen to have more potential than Kovacic but are yet to reach his level. According to Reinaldo, Bruneck is supposed to be the best of the bunch.

Révélation

Florian Eder & Nikola Streiter:  Two right-backs, Eder seemingly more defense-oriented and Streiter more of a wing-back. Both only have 4-star potential, hard to see them battle it out with Beuth.

Révélation

Björn Eichner & Noah Zeller:  Nothing really to separate those two, Eichner gets the nod to be CD-2 thanks to his personality. I am in dire need of depth in the backfield so if all 3 central defenders end up being good it is a good problem to have.

Révélation

Marlon Austermann:  In what seems like a very defensive batch, we get a potentially good second striker. Free-kick taking abilities run short in my team so if that 11 can become a 14 or a 15 it could help Marlon a lot.

Révélation

 

7 years after :
A quick look at what our 2028 youth became. This was our last intake in 2. Liga, and I had been very optimistic at the time, giving nicknames and taking screenshots of 12 of them !

Let's get to the ones that are still with us.

Markus Bertram, CD : Back when he arrived I lamented the fact that you cannot play youngsters straight away in Austria, you need to wait for the next season to be able to register them. Well I was right about this, Bertram has been the rock of our defense since that time.

Révélation

Emir Imamovic, CD : I have to confess I was not as sold on Imamovic as I was on his colleague above but he has been a very pleasant surprise. He has been a starter in defense for lack of better options, but has held his rank thanks to his good mental attributes. 

Révélation

Armin Bauer, AM : He initially was an attacking midfielder, then turned more of a CM playing as an advanced playmaker with the eclosion of Rakic, only to go back to playing AMC when Rakic left us. I believe he is among our best players. 

Révélation

 

Peter Walter, ST : When he graduated from the youth academy I said that he would have his work cut out for him with the emergence of Gül & Götz before him as well as the presence of Dorfmayr. Well, all 3 regens ended up way better than Dorfmayr, Götz left for Italy and Gül, despite his attributes being better than Walter cannot seem to produce anywhere near his level, so Walter has been our starting striker for the past few years. He is also able to move to the right wing if needed. 

Révélation

Those who left us :
Mathias Erdl, CM left us for free at the end of his youth contract after a couple of apperances from the bench. He remained in Austria where he signed for midfield team TSV Hartberg, where he is a squad player. 

Denis Brauer, CM had signed for SK Rapid in January 2030 for 1.4M€ and I had wondered what they saw in him. Well, apparently what they saw did not materialize because he never made a first-team appearance, was loaned twice in Australia and ended up signing with 2.Liga side KSV 1919 where he is a solid starter. That is probably his ceiling.

Marcel Westphal, ST was signed by Austria Wien for 700K€ in January 2031, appeared in a grand total of 6 Bundesliga games over 4 seasons and was recently sold to Austria Klagenfurt (he might be trying to play for all Austria named teams) for 72K€ to play in 2. Liga.

The other players have had less success, Erkenbrecher left for free and joined Bregenz in 2. Liga, but has mostly played for their B team. Färber plays for a non-league team, Hübner has retired, Sciotto has joined our affiliate team SV Teifs in 2. Liga but plays mostly for their B team and Mustafic went back to his native Bosnia.

 

Game in a nutshell :

Edited December 26, 2023 by Gonner