The FM24 Youth Academy Challenge

[Neo_Geo]

So I got myself into a pickle with my up and coming star striker when his agent had the locked in incredibly low minimum fee, these contract negotiations were when the player wanted improved terms.

I dropped the wages way down so that I at least offered something and the talks fell apart. The player was unhappy and I said sorry and would go back to the table. I was looking to see where the resolve issues option was but it wasn't there, oh dear I messed up.

Or did I?

When presented with the minimum fee being locked in I stated that I was happy in principle but wanted to not go down the route of saying anything is non-negotiable and this happened:

This is probably the first time I've actually discussed a new contract for a player like this and it paid off so its another trick in the book for avoiding these minimum fee release clauses.

It might have helped that the agent appears to have a crush on me though

 

[Ron_Swanson]

Stal Stalowa Wola - Poland - PKO Ekstraklasa - season 6 - 2029/30

Long time no posting and as I am few seasons ahead it's time to catch up with updates.

Average intake, the player who looks most promising is DL Kamil Gawroński, rest of higher potential kids juts lacks better personalities

7th place again but this time we had to battle in the lower half of table. We've lost our best player Igor Michalski at the beginning of the season, Lech Poznać paid his release clause, but that created a chance for Łukasz Antonik promoted from u19 and he made the best out of it.

[SuperRedditch]

 

Leça FC
Season Nine - 2032/33
Liga Portugal Bwin - 9th

 

Catch-up post

 

 

This is my save from January. Having got sick of the scouting system in FM, I want to get back into this challenge - but there isn't really long enough before FM25 for me to start afresh. So I've jumped back into an old save.

The story so far - solid progress to the top division over 8 years, team is very poor for the level so every match is a struggle, not much money, need a few years for the newer, better intakes to develop.

Apparently we also got to the Cup Final this season, although I have no memory of it, lol. Lost 0-2 to Porto. Although looking at the fixtures, we had very favourable match ups.

Unfortunately, I completed this season back in January and just never uploaded it, so I don't have any intake screenshots or snapshots of players as they came through the intake. I can say, that the intake was the best so far (albeit that was a low mark to beat) although the CA of the players appears low, I hope they have higher PA than my current lot.

This is the star of the lot:

Screenshot was taken in November of the following season, so he's developed a bit.


Make no mistake, finishing 9th was a miracle. I'm second bottom in the next season nearly halfway through. It's a struggle.

 

Edited August 17 by SuperRedditch

[fries]

Premier League

2040/41 (season 17)

Season Summary

A short step back. We had our first season in the Champions League. But in the Premier League, we fell 4 positions compared to last season.

In the Carabao Cup, we had a good campaign but lost in the final to Arsenal.

In the Champions League, we managed to get through the league phase but lost in the round of 16.

My best player of last season, Burton, broke his leg in the summer break, and he was unfortunately not as great as before after his comeback.

No players' perfomance was outstanding this season. But I was happy with my topscorer Jamerson and Eze who was the replacement of Burton.

I had only 1 player on the NXGN list, my wonderkid Flynn. I do not understand why Panayotov and Williams were not on the list. Willams was on the list last season, and rated above Flynn.

The youth intake preview was great. 5 stars, two As, and a B.

The actual intake was okay given the great preview. 3 elite talent, but I am not that happy with the personalities.

I had no transfers of significance this season, only some loan-outs. Asamoah has developed well in Spain and he will maybe step in to the team.

Finances and Upgrades

No upgrade to report about here.

Next season
Next season, I want to qualify for European football again and develop a few of my young players. The step up to the biggest clubs are unfortunately massive right now.

 

[V50]

20 hours ago, WhiteCat33 said:

I'm happy to share, and hope it helps in your save! 

It currently doesn't have any instructions on how to use the spreadsheet, so documentation will be part of my project this weekend to get the spreadsheet done for Martinique.

With how I set up the game for Martinique [I already have the team & played pre-season] I think it's going to be way harder than Barbados, and you have seen my struggles here.

1. Financially Martinique is weaker than Barbados. Even in 2071 only the top 2-3 teams make enough money to remain professional. The rest build up big balances, go professional then go broke and revert to semi-pro.
2. Road View is in Bridgeview, which is a 100k person city in Barbados while any possible team to select in Martinique is from a village under 10k population. The one I got is a 2500 population surfing town.
3.  I enabled France, England & The Netherlands. All Youth Intake players are dual-citizen Martinique - France, so count as domestic players for French & Dutch clubs. The key to winning from the Caribbean is retaining 100% of your star intake players. It will be near impossible to do this in Martinique

But I can't resist the possibility of winning the French Cup from Martinique, so that's why I'm choosing the nation over a more viable country like Trinidad & Tobago. 

Martinique will definitely be a challenge! On the plus side no FIFA qualification matches for Martinique so less international matches you are forced to give players up for.

[Padders]

Season 160 - 2180/81 - SBC

Another midtable finish

Another not good enough performance

 

[Padders]

On 16/08/2024 at 11:36, DazRTaylor said:

@Paddersyou are still my hero.

[djsterry]

After getting sacked again I have decided to try the pentagon challenge (I'm going to attempt it as a youth challenge) on my fc united save, 

I had to add the leagues and wait for a job to come up so its took a while but I have a new club

[WhiteCat33]

An Injury crisis losing 3 star starters, 3 Disallowed Goals by VAR and an own-goal to top it all off ends the Barbadian dream. If it could go wrong this campaign it did, just unbelievably bad luck. Game is telling me its time to move on. Edit: Game wanted me to move on so bad it crashed as I went to take more screenshots. Heard FM.

1st leg

2nd leg

Edited August 17 by WhiteCat33

[v1n1akabozo]

@XaW

I'm a good 30 pages behind, so i haven't seem if you did this already, but would you mind sharing your retraining spreadsheet? If that's asking too much, how do you weigh attributes to calculate the proficiency in each role? A weigh of 2 for primary attributes and 1 for secondary, etc?

[Daddy]

Season 22 - 2044/45 - Champions League:

It seems I didn't take a pic of my schedule or the table. We were pretty comfortably midtable in the new league format. It was a challenging schedule, and the handful of matches we did lose were only by a goal. In the knockout we faced a Porto club we've struggled with, but we overcame a late equalizer to win in penalties. Our home leg against Leipzig ended 1-1. They took an early lead in the home leg, and after going all out for the tying goal they broke free and ended our hopes. Not for the first time we get knocked out by the eventual winners. We're close.

Season 22 - 2044/45 - Czechia - First Division:

I don't quite know what happened with Slavia Prague, but we were neck and neck more than halfway in with only one loss each. I think we're finally starting to run away with the league now. 

Misc Updates:

We won our first FA Cup. It's not a competition I've ever prioritized, but we just were on a roll last season and didn't lose many matches in general. 

Mostly a lot of loans and a little trimming of the roster.

I can't remember if I showed this last time. Top 10 setup in the world and still the board is unhappy about where it ranks.

Club World Cup?!?!:

I don't know how or why we're here, but here we are. May as well win it right?

Right.

Pretty favorable draw with a Chilean club and a MLS Club. Villarreal didn't put much fight up either.

Porto once again, but we handled them comfortably. Not sure what happened with the City match. Both clubs ended with like 0.8 xg. It wasn't an fm'ing but it wasn't exactly fun. Next up a Real Madrid club I was 0-5 against and we won fairly comfortably. I was expecting some weird ref bribery story to come out as ten minutes in they had a pen review, which wasn't given, and then as play resumed they were immediately given one which they converted. We were up 3-1 and they were given yet another penalty, this time the keeper came up big. A late goal made the score close at the end. In the final, we quickly built a 2-0, but in the second they got within one and we spent the rest of the match clinging to the victory.

I still don't know how we qualified, but I meticulously picked my roster to be starters who are not international players, squad players with diverse skill sets, and rounded out with a bunch of young players. I was able to rotate throughout and fitness was not a problem. I'm guessing the other clubs had both their top players out and poor fitness management to help me out.

Youth Intake:

This is an amazing intake. Our top prospect is a model citizen, and so is "Y45G" as well.

2045/46 Season Preview:

Have to win again. Ideally, comfortably and able to rotate a lot.

One of our better draws. If we're to keep building and push to win with a draw like this we need a top eight finish and get the first round bye and home advantage in round of 16. 

[Matsusipida]

IFK Lidingö season 26 | 2049 swedish premier division

No major sales during preseason. 

We started the season in swedish cup with a great run to the final. League season also started well and we were around 3rd or 4th place for most of the season.

In May it was finally time for our first ever cup final. We were the underdogs against BK Häcken who made it to the cup final fifth time in a row. In the first half Aydin Şahin 38A scored to give us the lead. Our lead lasted untill 79th minute when they equalled the game. extra time was goalless and penalties were waiting for us. Victory in penalties means we have won our first major title. It also means Europa League will be waiting for us this autumn.

 

Spoiler

League season continued pretty well and we finished 4th meaning we will be heading back to continental football next autumn. We occasionally had problems scoring goals and ended up scoring 13 goals less than expected. Europa league has started well with 4 wins from our first 6 matches. 

Spoiler

Squad

Jonas Schaaf 41E has been in good form in midfield. Joel Andersson 47A is our best defender and he luckily has a contract untill 2053 as he is unhappy and wanted by some big teams. Aydin Şahin 38A was again our best goalscorer with 11 league goals.

Spoiler

Spoiler

Youth intake

This must be the worst intake ever. Bora Altintaş 49A has potential nd height to be a target or even CD. Niclas Sletsöe 49C might have potential to be a fringe player at some point.

Spoiler

Transfers

Spoiler

A lot of upgrades this year

Spoiler

history

[XaW]

11 hours ago, v1n1akabozo said:

@XaW

I'm a good 30 pages behind, so i haven't seem if you did this already, but would you mind sharing your retraining spreadsheet? If that's asking too much, how do you weigh attributes to calculate the proficiency in each role? A weigh of 2 for primary attributes and 1 for secondary, etc?

It's mostly the same as the sheet in here:

In the end I settled on the same weight for both.

[djsterry]

14 hours ago, djsterry said:

After getting sacked again I have decided to try the pentagon challenge (I'm going to attempt it as a youth challenge) on my fc united save, 

I had to add the leagues and wait for a job to come up so its took a while but I have a new club

 

Mini Update for first season, took over the club with a few games to go and they were bottom of the league, cleared out a few poor players and sorted out contracts and got rid of all the staff.

 

Managed to get a few decent results and avoid relegation 

New Hoyd

and I managed to get improvements for youth facilities and recruitment as part of my package for taking the job on

 

I have inherited a couple of good youngsters

hopefully can achieve a comfortable mid table position next year and start building a good team, I'm very short in central midfield and my left back is old

[JD78]

Reading this thread motivates me to not give up! That's been tricky lately because it's been a bit of a slog. I had an enforced break of around 2 weeks due to holidays etc so I don't think that helped either. 

 

Forres Mechanics, now in Scottish League 1. 7 seasons in now and only 3 youth players are good enough for the first team. Also forced to use 2 youth players in central defence because my originals wouldn't stay so we're struggling this year. Bottom of the league after ten games. The board want us to avoid relegation despite us being huge odds on to go down this season! I was almost sacked last season but managed to survive on the last day with a lucky away win. 

 

I've had a few upgrades of the youth recruitment and junior coaching so I'm getting some good potential players coming through now. The trouble is that they will not improve! The u18s only play in a cup so I have to arrange friendlies for them. I've set it up for the assistant to sort that out but it doesn't seem to work. I do now have a reserve team too that play in a league so I can get them some 'competitive' game time there although they get a gubbing almost every game. The reserve team is an odd one. I was requesting a reserve team and the board always said no. Randomly a couple of seasons back the reserve team just appeared with a set of fixtures! Like I say though we get gubbed every game. In 2 seasons they have picked up 3 draws. Doesn't seem to help development at all and I think shows how poor my players are relative to the AI youth players. I've also tried carefully loaning out my players to teams that are fancied to do well in their league and promised to play them regularly. Again, very little development which is so frustrating! Everyone is part time and very low reputation so it's not helpful. The lack of youth improvement is my main frustration to be honest. It's hard to blood youngsters when they're so far off the standard of the original players. I would take a relegation for a season of playing the youngsters but I fear I'd get sacked. The reserve team has 1 member of staff and the U18s don't have any staff at all so this can't help. The board won't sanction any more staff at this time. 

 

Facilities and coaching badges have stagnated now. Board refusing to improve further until we progress further I presume. We do have a over 3 hundred thousand in the bank so money isn't an issue. 

 

I feel like we're treading water at the moment and need some of these young lads to get going! Or we need a ridiculous couple of players to come through and be first team ready. 

Good to hear everyone else's experiences and that keeps my attention on my own save. Thoughts were drifting to a new save this morning until I read here!

[SuperRedditch]

 

Leça FC
Season Ten - 2033/34
Liga Portugal Betclic - 10th

 

 

League

Struggling after 10 games, a good run of form after the winter break propelled us into a comfortable mid-table finish for the third season in a row.

 

Cups

Got to the Taça de Portugal final again, lost to Benfica this time: 0-3.

 

Benfica winning their *checks notes* 31st Taça de Portugal is hardly fairytale stuff, FM.


Squad

Got a couple of really promising players now; Bruno Thiago and Ruben Mestre. Neither had particularly amazing seasons but it's another year of development and the squad around them is very poor. The real star is Merival, who is refusing to negotiate a new contract with 1 year remaining, and may well end up as my first big sale.

 

Intake

 

 

 

 

All the Youth upgrades are really paying dividends now. A bunch of these will be in the first team squad next season. Especially Teixeira - how I've needed a full-back.

 

[kaivolax]

Season 1 Review

SC Westfalia Herne

 

Ditched the Offenbach save and went proper lower league using the German lower league database. Enter SC Westfalia Herne in 6th tier Westphalia-League/Staffel 2.

We started the season with only 11 players on amateur contracts. Managed to get 5 regen players under part-time contract but all the real players refused to negotiate a new contract. We lost one player in the summer window and another one in the winter window. Funnily enough there were contract offers for the 3 others as well even two tiers above us but they have been rejected so far.

 

League Table

https://imgur.com/a/ffvdDhL

 

We came 2nd 3 points behind the winner Soest who were preseason favourites (1.01) for promotion. Lost both league matches against them so a win from one of these games might have gotten us promoted. Lost to them in the lower league cup as well.

 

Season Statistics

https://imgur.com/a/E9fg3w0

 

Bingo card in Germany

https://imgur.com/a/oDN8N79

 

Season 2 we are predicted to finish 8th.

https://imgur.com/a/McvBgAC

[WhiteCat33]

5 hours ago, XaW said:

It's mostly the same as the sheet in here:

In the end I settled on the same weight for both.

Always a good read! I forgot you also add in 1/3 of the total attributes as an overall boost. My calculation is currently just flat average of the highlighted attributes without any weighting or boosting. With my separate category ability calculations I cover that player rounding out.

I've templated composite scores like the DNA others use but never implemented it. Might be something I rethink now 🤔 

Im playing in spreadsheets this weekend to get everything ready for Martinique. Definitely spending too much time tweaking new views, data packs and such for more immersion. 

Any chance someone has kitbasher lists for Caribbean leagues? I've slugged through Martinique T1 plus my team, but look to do Caribbean Cup & Shield teams. Was bummed my team only had 1st kit active in game.

I'm also pulling stadium and town images for Martinique and trying to match them as best i can. @V50 you have a secret stash of images by any chance? 

[XaW]

XaW - Kettering Town - Season 2024/25 (Season 1) - Vanarama National League North

Squad | Transfers | Finances

A really fun season back in England. We started really bad and went the first 5 matches without a single goal. From then on though, it changed for us and we started to pick up points. Sure, we were never close to troubling Scunthorpe or Chester, but we were eventually part of a pack chasing those two. It was a large group and a few losses or wins would drastically change the league position for most teams. Eventually though we secured a playoff spot, a huge achievement for a club with as few players as we had. The final position was a very solid 5th and we went into the playoff. There we beat Tamworth in the First round before Chester got the better of us in the semi final. So rather close, but no cigar.

FA Cup: We beat Ilkeston and Merthyr before we lost to Scarborough Athletic in the 4th qualifying round.
FA Trophy: We beat Barton Rovers and Telford United before we lost to Hartlepool in the 4th round.

Best players from the academy:

Terell Hopkins 25c - Got a few cameos as a sub, and even scored a goal.
Oluwaseyi Friday 25a - A very good left winger, but didn't show much yet.
Stuart Jordan 25b - Got a single sub appearance, and didn't do anything wrong.

New club records:

Most goals in a season - Bruno Andrade - 29 goals
Most league goals in a season - Bruno Andrade - 22 goals
Most goals in a match - Bruno Andrade - 4 goals
Most goals in a league match - Bruno Andrade - 4 goals
Most assists in a season - Bruno Andrade - 20 assists
Most clean sheets in a season - Billy Johnson - 10 clean sheets
Most player of the match awards - Bruno Andrade - 7 awards
Words discipline - Rhys Sharpe - 18 yellow cards, 0 red cards
Most league apps for the club - Gary Stohrer - 270 apps
Most league goals for the club - Tyrone Lewthwaite - 26 goals
Youngest player - Brian Samuel 25e - 15 years, 214 days
Oldest player - Lathaniel Rowe-Turner - 35 years, 130 days
Fastest goal - Tyrone Lewthwaite - 1 minute, 55 seconds
Youngest goalscorer - Oluwaseyi Friday 25a - 16 years, 63 days
Oldest goalscorer - Gary Stohrer - 32 years, 114 days

Got a few requests for improvements accepted this season.

U21s

They only played friendlies this season.

U18s

They finished 10th in the National U18 League North East this season.

FA Youth Cup: They beat Stowmarket and Hampton & Richmond before losing to Hemel Hempstead in the 3rd qualifying round.

Around the world

Youth intake:

Trophy cabinet

None yet

Player statistics:

Most apps for the club

Name			Nation		2nd Nation	Time at club	Apps
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Oluwaseyi Friday 25a	England		Nigeria		2025-Present	7
Terell Hopkins 25c	England		<N/A>		2025-Present	5
Brian Samuel 25e	England		<N/A>		2025-Present	4
Stuart Jordan 25b	Ireland		England		2025-Present	1

Most goals for the club

Name			Nation		2nd Nation	Time at club	Goals
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Oluwaseyi Friday 25a	England		Nigeria		2025-Present	1
Terell Hopkins 25c	England		<N/A>		2025-Present	1

Most assists for the club

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

Supporters:

YAC Bingo:

Summary:

[V50]

3 hours ago, WhiteCat33 said:

Always a good read! I forgot you also add in 1/3 of the total attributes as an overall boost. My calculation is currently just flat average of the highlighted attributes without any weighting or boosting. With my separate category ability calculations I cover that player rounding out.

I've templated composite scores like the DNA others use but never implemented it. Might be something I rethink now 🤔 

Im playing in spreadsheets this weekend to get everything ready for Martinique. Definitely spending too much time tweaking new views, data packs and such for more immersion. 

Any chance someone has kitbasher lists for Caribbean leagues? I've slugged through Martinique T1 plus my team, but look to do Caribbean Cup & Shield teams. Was bummed my team only had 1st kit active in game.

I'm also pulling stadium and town images for Martinique and trying to match them as best i can. @V50 you have a secret stash of images by any chance? 

Sadly not, barely get the time! 

[WhiteCat33]

Welcome to Martinique! I'm trying out a new light skin and may have spent a little too much time importing in Cities & Stadiums to enhance the experience.

Squad is fairly terrible as you'd expect, but has two good elements for the bedrock of the squad.

2 Professional & 1 Resolute starter! All are fairly young (17, 23, 25) so if I can keep them the top 3 influence players at the club it can help jumpstart professional development.

A striker who can shoot! Bad personality & he's inconsistent, so this could be an adventure but he's only 17 so anything can happen (if we can hold onto him).

Tactical Shape: 4 - 5 -1 because I have no other good strikers, and I wonder about our defense. We'll see how it goes.

Manager ; Transfers 

HOYD: Only one would sign onto our Amateur side, which is actually better than I'm used to this low in the Caribbean. Light-Hearted with okay working with youngsters isn't terrible. He will be replaced as soon as a Professional is willing to join.

200-1 Odds are bad, but not catastrophic. I expect it to be a rough campaign. Here's to not finishing last!

EDIT: Proof Finished last in sim-year. Also real clear I need to re-make the mini-icon...

Edited August 18 by WhiteCat33

[mschafer13]

Do most people here play all games or instant result?

[WhiteCat33]

Later in a save it is a mix of both for me. In Barbados I IR all domestic games and unimportant friendlies. Then I'd manage the hard friendlies to see how the team plays in preperation for the NACL matches which I always play. For Martinique I'll be playing the games these first few years to feel out the team.

[XaW]

8 hours ago, mschafer13 said:

Do most people here play all games or instant result?

I play all games, except duds at the end of the season unless I have plans on testing young players.

[XaW]

Let's see what happens, but I don't think I've ever had a tycoon takeover in this challenge before... and if I did, it's been a long time since it happened!

[Neo_Geo]

KUSTOSIJA ZAGREB FALL AT THE FINAL HURDLE AS HOPES ARE DASHED

An incredibly tightly fought title race went to the very last day as Kustosija played Dinamo Zagreb 3 times in a row to decide the Croatian Cup winner and League Winner. The title above tells you what you need to know, I lost the final league game (didn't matter as Hajduk won theirs and were a point ahead before kick-off) and then lost 2-1 on aggregate to Dinamo in the cup.

The immediate feeling was that I had wasted a golden opportunity.....the reality is this is the 4th season of the save and I've finished second twice (with a narrowing gap) and runner up in the cup twice. In addition we made the Europa Conference League Last 16 again after dropping out of the Europa League at the play-off stage. All in all a really positive season which saw me shift to me 4-2-4 wide formation with Ernad Petanjek Y1-A finding his scoring boots having a pressing forward alongside the poacher. That change lead to 83 goals scored in the league compared to 65 of the previous season.

We did manage to beat Hajduk three times; twice in the league (5-3 at home and 0-1 away) and 3-2 in the cup after extra time) and we are managing to take points off of Dinamo when I didn't have an injury crisis so there is definite progress being made.

In Europe we had some astounding results, none more so than the 6-2 away win at Trabzonspor where we managed a 5.02 xG with 55% possession, or the 7-1 home win against Besiktas which told a similar story (though the xG was not as high). I've opted to not play defensive and to remain positive and keep the front 4 on attack, sometimes it pays off and sometimes it doesn't but as the quality of player hopefully improves so too should the win ratio.

Overall the club is heading in the right direction with junior coaching and youth recruitment maxed out now and both training and youth facilities at or just above the midway point. Finances are going great thanks to European football and attendances still rise. I suspect there will be a new stadium in the next few years if we keep going like this especially since we managed to get 34,000 attending the home game against Valencia in the last 16 of the Conference League. We've broken into the top 10 in terms of domestic reputation and also into the top 100 ranked clubs in Europe based on coefficient so I am really pleased with the progress.

League Results
Domestic Cup Results
European Results
 

Youth Intake

A reasonable intake this year and finally there was a half decent looking left back coming through as I mentioned in my last update that this was an area I am a little concerned about (as well as in goal as my first choice keeper seems to have peaked). I've started to just offer contracts to the players I like then sign the recommended players based on the HoYD's recommendation meaning that a number of the intake are starting to not be signed up (always feels strange when I get to this stage as I'm so used to signing all 16). I think Dorjan Pirsic Y4-A is the pick of the bunch this year but I'm not sure how we fits in with my new formation, I may try to use him as a shadow striker where I'm looking to draw the centre backs out of position where they are sitting in.

Youth Intake Preview

Dorjan Pirsic Y4-A
Pejo Biscan Y4-A
Karlo Igor Mocilac Y4-A
Mislav Janko Krovinovic Y4-A
Fran Roko Milasinovic Y4-A

Club News

The big news for the club this year was the takeover and the subsequent public listing. The new board also asked about increasing the transfer budget and I wanted to get more coaches but the option was only to increase their wages and not their numbers so I just went with the transfer budget.

The previous chairperson continued to approve the improvements and I've got the go ahead for the final coaching badge course:

Continental Pro License Course
Junior Coaching Budget Increase
Training Facilities Improvement 1
Training Facilities Improvement 2
Youth Facilities Improvement

Not really club news but more country/league news, the Croatian First League jumped up 3 places and the coefficient rise has led to yet more good news on the European Places front. The previous Champions Path 2nd qualifying round place has been replaced with a Champions Path Playoff place next season.

Admin (Transfers)

Squad News

It was a good season for a few of the youngsters getting much increased game time and I have 3 players who are now first on the teamsheet in Ernad Petanjek Y1-A, Antun Perković Y2-A (who now wants to join a bigger club) and Hrvoje Dramać Y3-A with the latter 2 having now played for Croatia at U21 level, oddly Petanjek has only been capped at U18 despite his crazy goalscoring this year. On that note:

Europa League Golden Boot
Europa League Young Player of the Season

Here is how the squad profile looks at the end of season 4.

Here is the best 11 now showing my favoured 4-2-4 wide and the steady improvements in average rating:

Here are the player records (which are hard to get the numbers right as the all time appearances figure in the squad view includes loan appearances for other clubs!)

 

Bingo Card

Another 2 targets met and a realisation that one of these targets is impossible, Youth Player is League Young Player of the Season, as this award is not given in Croatia. I expect next season Youth Player with 50 club goals will be achieved, Continental Pro License and we'll see what else.

 

 

Next Season

I feel that things are going well at the moment but as a few of the youth players get better they are more unsettled as we still aren't seen as a big club yet. I've got the players tied down to fairly lengthy contracts but it will be Man Manager 2024 this season and possibly next to try and keep the balance.

On a tactical front I have a number of decent AMCs looking to break into the first team so I will probably have to look at retraining where possible to fit them in. It's always the problem of a 2 striker and winger formation as your central midfielders rather than having as many as 4 or in most cases 3, there are only 2 and usually only space for one creative midfielder. If these are the biggest issues I face then I really have no grounds to complain.

I would like to say I will target the league but it feels like the bubble is going to burst at some point even though we were agonisingly close this year and broke the record for highest points without winning the title.

[DazRTaylor]

Youth Candidates

Season 2027/28

Bury

 

It was another tremendous preview:

With another good intake too.  Seventeen players arrived, so one more than usual.

[Weed07]

Workington Reds - Season 1 2024/2025

Conference North

Season Summary

Looking over the club and team it feels like I've taken on the worst team possible for a challenge in England. The facilities are all almost as worse as they can get, my skin shows training facilities, youth facilities are rated as 2/20, junior coaching and youth recruitment are rated as 3/20 so I'm not expecting any decent players coming through until we can start upgrading them, the other teams that came up show much better that ours.

The playing squad is as expected rubbish, this is the same with most teams that come up with some better than others but we have 22 players to start with and all positions covered so it could have been worse, though shortly after we started one of the better players retired at only 30 for some reason, he would have been a star player too.

After a decent pre-season of friendlies we started the league well and in the first month we had won 3. drawn 3 and only lost 1 so early impressions were that we could do ok this season but after that our form and performances were all over the place which wasn't helped by me not being able to settle on a tactic, we were finding it difficult to finish the chances we were creating and conceding poor goals but we kept hanging around midtable and that continued right through the season, we never looked great but we never looked rubbish either and we ended up finishing the league in a respectable 13th place.

League table:

Spoiler

 

Youth preview:

The preview was ok, the first usually is with it being relative to the poor starting squad.

Spoiler

Youth intake and best players:

For a first intake it wasn't too bad, 5 top talents and 6 top talents. All got contracts this early on to at least add cover. I've put in screen shots on the ones I think may be good for the first team straight away

Spoiler

Best rated player was a much needed striker

Next was a good midfielder

An attacking midfielder/winger

A centre back good in the air but slow

And a decent keeper

 

Club Facilities never got any improvements, all my requests were rejected. This is what I'm working with:

Spoiler

Supporters Profile:

Spoiler

Transfers:

Spoiler

Some spreadsheet data, nothing like others just some basic info I collected

Spoiler

Season Stats

Manager Stats

Club Info

 

Final Summary

Overall a good season, mid table is more than I expected and I'm looking forward to next season where I can bring some of the new youth players into the first team and hopefully improve our league finish.

[DazRTaylor]

End of Season Review

Season 2027/28

Bury

 

League Table - League Fixtures 1 - League Fixtures 2 - League Fixtures 3

Promotion Playoffs

F. A. Cup - F. A. Trophy

Squad

Craig Hewitt - Sam Coughlan - Sam Vaulks YP27A1

Transfers In - Transfers Out 1 - Transfers Out 2

Youth Candidates

Cyril Donelon YP28A17 - John Fishwick YP28B18 - Mikey Cox YP28D20

Personal Contract

Season     Contract Start Date     Contract Expiry Date     Pre Tax Wage     Post Tax Wage
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
At start          24 June 2026             30 June 2027         £700 p/w          £550 p/w
2026/27         5 January 2027             30 June 2028         £725 p/w ↑        £575 p/w ↑
2027/28         6 October 2027             30 June 2029         £750 p/w ↑        £575 p/w =

Personal Coaching Data

Season     Reputation            Qualifications     Att  Def  Fit  GkD  GkH  GkS  Tac  Tec  Men  SeP  WWY  Ada  Det  PlK  YoK  LoD  PeM  Mot
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
At start   Minimal   (0.50*)     None                 1    1    1    1    1    1    1    1    1    1    5    1    5    1    1    1    1    1
2026/27    Minimal = (0.50*) =   None     =           3 ↑  3 ↑  1 =  1 =  1 =  1 =  3 ↑  3 ↑  3 ↑  2 ↑  5 =  1 =  6 ↑  3 ↑  3 ↑  1 =  4 ↑  4 ↑
2027/28    Minimal = (0.50*) =   National C ↑         5 ↑  5 ↑  2 ↑  1 =  1 =  1 =  5 ↑  5 ↑  5 ↑  3 ↑  5 =  1 =  6 ↑  5 ↑  5 ↑ 10 ↑  5 ↑  6 ↑

Club Facilities

Season     Training Facilities  Youth Facilities  Youth Level  Corporate Facilities  Junior Coaching  Youth Recruitment  Club Reputation
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
At Start   Great                Great                  2       Basic                 Adequate         Average            Local   (1.00*)
2026/27    Great     =          Great     =            2 =     Basic =               Excellent   ↑↑   Excellent   ↑↑↑    Local = (1.00*) =
2027/28    Excellent ↑          Excellent ↑            3 ↓     Basic =               Exceptional  ↑   Exceptional   ↑    Local = (1.00*) =

Season Record

Season         Played     Won     Drawn     Lost     Goals For     Goals Against     Goal Difference     Win Percentage
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2026/27          53        28       12       13         111              73                 +38              52.83%
2027/28          51        26        6       19         118              96                 +22              50.98% ↓

Overall Career Record

After Season   Played     Won     Drawn     Lost     Goals For     Goals Against     Goal Difference     Win Percentage     Time At Club
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2026/27          53        28       12       13         111              73                 +38              52.83%             305 days
2027/28         104        54       18       32         229             169                 +60              51.92% ↓           665 days

Transfer Sale Record

Date               Player                    Position               Club Sold To                 Country                   Transfer Fee
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
16 January 2027    Vic Matthews              Striker                West Bromich Albion          England                       £800,000

Trophy Haul

Season     Competition Won
--------------------------

Trophy Cabinet

League Titles
-------------

Cup Competition Victories
-------------------------

Career Overview

Season     Champions League    Europa League    Europa Conference League             League                             Position     F.A. Cup                    Carabao Cup        Achievements
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2026/27           N/a               N/a                    N/a                       Vanarama National League North        4th       Fourth Qualifying Round         N/a            Lost in promotion playoff semi final.  F. A. Trophy second round.
2027/28           N/a               N/a                    N/a                       Vanarama National League North        5th ↓     Fourth Qualifying Round =       N/a            Lost in promotion playoff first round.  F. A. Trophy second round.

Record Number of Appearances (Players From The Academy Only)

Season     Player                          Cumulative Number of Appearances
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
2026/27    Jack Aitchison YP27B2                         8
2027/28    Sam Vaulks YP27A1                            44

Record Goal Scorer (Players From The Academy Only)

Season     Player                          Cumulative Number of Goals
---------------------------------------------------------------------
2026/27    Jack Aitchison YP27B2                         2
2027/28    Sam Vaulks YP27A1                            24

Record Number of Assists (Players From The Academy Only)

Season     Player                          Cumulative Number of Assists
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
2026/27    Robert Thompson YP27E5                        1
           Paul Mason YP27G7                             1
           Jack Aitchison YP27B2                         1
2027/28    Sam Vaulks YP27A1                             9

Record Number of Clean Sheets (Players From The Academy Only)

Season     Player                          Cumulative Number of Clean Sheets
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
2026/27    No one                                            0
2027/28    No one                                            0

 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 23 by DazRTaylor

[Ronaldo Beckham]

So after 5 seasons with Aachen I have decided to quit the challenge for this FM. 

I ended up getting relegated and sacked in my 5th season and I wasn't in the mood to carry on with the challenge.

I appreciate you all following my efforts and good luck to everyone else who attempts this challenge.

[djsterry]

13 hours ago, mschafer13 said:

Do most people here play all games or instant result?

A mix depending on how my season is going if the season is dead ie no chance of promotion or relegation I will stick it on manager holiday. Once I’m in the top league I tend to play pretty much every game 

[Matsusipida]

16 hours ago, mschafer13 said:

Do most people here play all games or instant result?

I play all competitive games. I leave freandlies to AsMan

[Thebaker]

2037

Table | Squad | Transfers

Predicted to finish in the lower half of the table the team started on fire and by 12 games was 5 points clear. Suddenly the wheels came off and lost 5 of the next six to drop down to 3rd as Qviding sailed into the distance. Needed to win 7 of the last 8 to make the playoffs. In the playoff group the team needed the luck of the draw to win the group. In the playoff final the team faced Oskarhamns and lost the first leg 1-2 away being lucky to keep the score down after going down to 10 men. In the home leg the team needed a dominant 2nd half to win the match and gain promotion. The team had the best defense in spite of this being the weakest part of my squad.

The club finally entered the Swedish cup and faced D1S Vanersborgs at home in the 1st rd winning 3-2. In the 2nd rd the team faced D1E Osters at home but switched the tie for 15k and half the gate receipts (50k). Despite being 2nd best for much of the match the team came away with a 2-0 win. In the group stage the club were against Premier league Varnamo and Goteborg and D1E Helsingborgs, well beaten by the premier league teams the squad managed a draw against Helsingborgs to finish bottom of the group.

Finances increased markedly as result of the Swedish cup run and winning the playoffs which gets 40K even though finishing in any position in the league gets nothing! All board requests were still refused.

Johansson continued his progress as my top scorer. Veteran Sjoqvist and Athanasiou also contributed a lot of goals. Noren contributed many of the goals.

My HOYD who had been there from the 1st season left the day before the intake with the usual promising preview. He was replaced by a new HOYD. The intake was his parting gift with Edin not just the best in the intake but the best at the club. It was just a shame he is a CM or LW  as they are the positions where the team is strongest.

In the ten years since the 27 intake only 1 player is still at the club, Nilsson is my regular RB and has made  79 apps with 2 goals. Strom played 117 apps with 32 goals before leaving and then retiring. Burehed made 22 apps before leaving and retiring. Jensen made 20 apps with 2 goals but has since made over 100 apps at other club since leaving. Nordvall made no apps for the club but has made 100 apps for clubs since, The rest of the players quickly retired.

Spoiler

Youth Nationalities:

Continent			Europe			Africa			South America			Asia			North America			Oceania
Overall	208	100%	Country	#	%	Country	#	%	Country	#	%	Country	#	%	Country	#	%	Country	#	%
Europe	196.16	94.31%	Sweden	184.83	88.86%	Eritrea	1.5	0.72%	Uruguay	1	0.48%	Iraq	1	0.48%	Jamaica	0.83	0.40%
Africa	6.5	3.13%	Greece	2	0.96%	Gambia	1	0.48%	Chile	1	0.48%	Palestine	0.5	0.24%	USA	0.5	0.24%
Asia	2	0.96%	Bosnia	2	0.96%	Somalia	0.5	0.24%				Japan	0.5	0.24%
South America	2	0.96%	Turkey	1.5	0.72%	Niger	0.5	0.24%
North America	1.33	0.64%	Albania	1.5	0.72%	Nigeria	0.5	0.24%
Oceania	0	0	Italy	1	0.48%	Egypt	0.5	0.24%
			Serbia	1	0.48%	DRC	0.5	0.24%
			Kosovo	1	0.48%	Ghana	0.5	0.24%
			England	0.83	0.40%	Ethiopia	0.5	0.24%
			Finland	0.5	0.24%	Zambia	0.5	0.24%

 

Spoiler

Season

League

Position

Swedish Cup

Europe

Top Scorer

Top Assists

Attendance

Training

Youth

Junior

Youth Rec

Notes

2025

D2 WG

5th

Not entered

N/A

Arvidsson,Messaoudi (8)

Jensen(6)

261

Basic

Basic

Fairly Basic

Limited

2026

D2 WG

5th

Not entered

N/A

Keymer-25c (11)

Warmlov(6)

251

Basic

Basic

Fairly Basic

Limited

2027

D2 WG

6th

Not entered

N/A

Keymer-25c (10)

Lai(9)

261

Basic

Basic

Fairly Basic

Limited

2028

D2 WG

10th

Not entered

N/A

Keymer-25c (15)

Messaoudi (7)

241

Basic

Basic

Fairly Basic

Limited

2029

D2 WG

7th

Not entered

N/A

Strom - 27j (11)

Athanasiou -26p (7)

250

Basic

Basic

Fairly Basic

Limited

2030

D2 WG

9th

Not entered

N/A

Lai(12)

Noren -28k (5)

267

Basic

Basic

Fairly Basic

Limited

2031

D2 WG

8th

Not entered

N/A

Keymer-25c (14)

Lai(5)

277

Basic

Basic

Fairly Basic

Limited

2032

D2 WG

8th

Not entered

N/A

Keymer-25c (15)

Babatunde- 29h (6)

275

Basic

Basic

Fairly Basic

Limited

2033

D2 WG

5th

Not entered

N/A

Keymer-25c (19)

Sjoqvist(8)

289

Basic

Basic

Fairly Basic

Limited

2034

D2 WG

6th

Not entered

N/A

Strom - 27j (12)

Sjoqvist(7)

287

Basic

Basic

Fairly Basic

Limited

2035

D2 WG

1st

Not entered

N/A

Keymer-25c (16)

Noren -28k (10)

321

Basic

Basic

Fairly Basic

Limited

Promoted

2036

D1S

14th

Not entered

N/A

Johansson-29j (14)

Athanasiou -26p (5)

338

Basic

Basic

Fairly Basic

Limited

Relegated

2037

D2 WG

2nd

Group St

N/A

Johansson-29j (19)

Noren -28k (11)

308

Basic

Basic

Fairly Basic

Limited

Promoted

 

Youth Name	All time apps		Youth Name	All time Goals		Youth Name	All time Assists
Roger Gustafsson (25e)	289		Ted Keymer (25c)	126		Manolis Athanasiou (26p)	43
Mathias Sandin (25d)	275		Sebastian Johansson (29j)	40		Marcus Noren (28k)	43
Manolis Athanasiou (26p)	259		Manolis Athanasiou (26p)	39		Martin Tahiri (30i)	30
Ted Keymer (25c)	257		Milton Strom (27j)	34		Ted Keymer (25c)	21
Marcus Noren (28k)	179		Marcus Noren (28k)	33		Kingsley Babatunde (29h)	16

 

Edited August 19 by Thebaker

[scarp]

Hello there, has been a long time since I played any FM game - decided to jump right back in with some youth challenge.

I see there's some massive progress and so many players finished the challenge in later years of FM as compared to years before - well done!

I will start in Czech Republic, which I can see still was not finished  

As a side note - the club is currently a home to ex-first division player turned rapper, who decided to focus on rap and chill in Third Division  

 

Edited August 19 by scarp

[Neo_Geo]

Best of luck @scarp though @Daddy is 23 seasons in with the same team and doing really rather well and not that I want to jinx him I wouldn’t bank on Czech being incomplete for too long.

Last time I can think of two members completing with the same team close together was @thomas_e and myself completing Holland with VV Katwijk within a week or so of each other and thomas_e doing it in a shorter timeframe.

As long as you enjoy the journey and don’t mind someone else doing that team/country at the same time then go for it.

[libbyshuss]

Austria - 2051/52 - Premier League

Almost Perfect First Half of the Season ruined By Terrible Second half of the Season

I blame my holiday. At Christmas we were unbeaten and running away with the league, so I closed the laptop and disappeared to the Cote D'Azur for a week. Came back, and we finished the league stage with only 1 win from the last 5. And that form continued in the championship stage as well. Really frustrating!

 

We also lost the first 5 in the Champions League league stage so didn't even make the knockout rounds. Very poor!

 

Players

I have a decision to make. Fatih Heco 38A is our best player but is now 30 and has announced he'll leave on a free next season. He is so injury prone though, and our bank balance so bad, that I think I'm going to have to cash in on him. It'll be the end of an era though

you can see just how injury prone here. There's 32 matches in the league season, and he's never hit 30

The one success story of the season though was Adilson Rocha 48G - a promising winger but with only 2 star potential. But his attributes were pretty perfect for a winger and when that's the case I always give them a run out. He did really well, and his CA and PA improved as a result. 27 games on the right win with an average rating of 7.25 and 7 goals and 9 assists is pretty, pretty good!

i love it when you take a chance in these saves and it pays off

 

Youth

really promising preview.....

but the intake was elite-free again

Best of the lot was this fella

 

Finances

Could our season have finished any worse? Apparently yes, as just after it was confirmed that we hadn't qualified for the Champions League the board gave me this message

I'd be really surprised if I ever get the chance to improve the youth facilities again...

 

Career

So, Heco might be gone and I'm in the Europa League so I think i'll use the new season as a chance to blood some of the new youngsters. I haven't had a wonderkid for years!

 

 

[Daddy]

2 hours ago, scarp said:

As a side note - the club is currently a home to ex-first division player turned rapper, who decided to focus on rap and chill in Third Division  

 

I didn't know that fun fact. He stuck around for two more seasons for me before retiring:

[Koetzer]

Livorno | Season 2049/50 | Serie A (likely the end)

The league didn’t go well from the start, we only managed to finish 11th, but reached quarter-finals both in national cup and Conference League (conceded the decisive goal on 120th minute against Ajax, a much better team which eventually won the trophy against Man City in the final). However, one thing that concerned me during few last seasons is the lack of our youth players’ development, and I decided to look up the potentials. The result was quite sad:

Spoiler

The core of our squad are the players highlighted in red. What unites them all? They came through four consecutive intakes, from 2037 to 2040. 2037 was the year of our first promotion to Serie A and maxing out the youth coaching/recruitment with TV money, so an improvement was expected. But what happened in the next decade with perfect facilities, better staff and reputation? One good intake of 2044 (highlighted in blue), one real wonderkid from last year but all other players won’t be better than Serie B leaders. Replacing Bakkenes with a better personality (but less skilled) HOYD also was a mistake, I guess  

[scarp]

@Neo_Geo thank you for letting me know, @Daddy do you mind if I continue with the save?

[Neo_Geo]

26 minutes ago, scarp said:

@Neo_Geo thank you for letting me know, @Daddy do you mind if I continue with the save?

You’re far too polite sir, I wasn’t suggesting you were treading on his toes, I just know from my own experiences I like to do something as unique as it can be but that’s just me. Don’t let me talk you out of it 

[scarp]

Ústí nad Labem 2024/25

First season was quite tough as we started only with 19 players, out of which 5 were u19 prospects. We were playing around 12th place for the majority of the season as we could not rotate and quality just was not there. Towards the last third of the season we picked up fantastic form and ended up with 12 games unbeaten run, catapulting us towards upper half of the table only 15 points below play-offs. We absolutely lack quality in the defense and on the right wing, while we have very stacked central midfield. We have three decent and experienced strikers but none of them really enjoys playing my style of football. We had no outgoing transfers.

Key players: Tomas Kucera, Daniel Richter & Matyas Bunes

Youth watch: Lukas Rezac

[scarp]

9 minutes ago, Neo_Geo said:

You’re far too polite sir, I wasn’t suggesting you were treading on his toes, I just know from my own experiences I like to do something as unique as it can be but that’s just me. Don’t let me talk you out of it 

Yeah, same. But it's been a while that I spent already on this save, and as it's my first game in 4 years, I can't be arsed restarting just for the sense of uniqueness  

[Neo_Geo]

8 minutes ago, scarp said:

Yeah, same. But it's been a while that I spent already on this save, and as it's my first game in 4 years, I can't be arsed restarting just for the sense of uniqueness  

Every story is different so just because the club is the same doesn’t mean the save will be any less enjoyable for you or for the rest of us to read about.

I mean look at the Northern Ireland attempts, 90% of them are for Crewe United because it’s usually them or Belfast celtic that get promoted in the first season, we had 3 saves on the go at the same point not that long ago

[Padders]

Season 161 - 2181/82 - SBC

More mid table mediocrity 

[mschafer13]

Plugging away with not much luck. Promoted to the National League once and went straight back down. 

Unfortunately the board decided to turn semi-professional so...we're probably screwed for awhile.

[Daddy]

@scarp what @Neo_Geo is saying! I got lucky and got a tycoon early, so I'm looking forward to seeing your story play out!

[djsterry]

On 18/08/2024 at 13:15, djsterry said:

 

Mini Update for first season, took over the club with a few games to go and they were bottom of the league, cleared out a few poor players and sorted out contracts and got rid of all the staff.

 

Managed to get a few decent results and avoid relegation 

New Hoyd

and I managed to get improvements for youth facilities and recruitment as part of my package for taking the job on

 

I have inherited a couple of good youngsters

hopefully can achieve a comfortable mid table position next year and start building a good team, I'm very short in central midfield and my left back is old

2nd Season Update, just keep these brief until I really get into the save.

Mid table finish, Very inconsistent performances but to be expected as I have cleared out half of my established team.

There was a lot of bad personalities in the squad easily discouraged, slack ect so I shipped them out but I have left myself with a very young team

Unfortunately my best player wanted to leave but I got a decent price for him and to be fair I inherited him when I took over 

Good news was I managed to get the club to improve the training facilities with some of the money

The Board have decided to build a tiny new stadium for some reason

star man from this years intake 

 

[naterr]

Naterr Garcia - Barwell FC - 25/26

League

Well...I wanted a challenge!

We started off pretty well - and looked like we would get into the play offs but then we just dropped and couldn't score a goal for ages!

17th finish is good enough - the first few years the board was us to survive, so anything more is a bonus.

Again our XG was much higher than our position, we need better strikers!

Finances

There were rumours of a tycoon, but they quickly vanished.

We end the year with just £240k of the £450k we got last year in player sales. Surely this is a good thing right? The board must have invested in facilities...right??

Nope! They decided to spend £150k expanding the stadium by 500 to 3,000, really useful when we get about 300 per game!

Youth Intake

Another "Excellent" intake - but our team is so terrible it will look like this every time I bet.

Moore

Spoiler

Moore is more of a playmaker than a winger - but we don't really have need for that in the tactic...striker it is!

Competitions

FA Trophy 4rd round - and the 4th qualifying for the FA Cup - not sure we will get much further for a while!

 

humble brag....we have the top 5 players for most yellow cards!

Admin

[SuperRedditch]

 

Leça FC
Season Eleven - 2034/35
Liga Portugal Betclic - 5th

 

League

A real breakout season for us at this level. Comfortable the whole year, played some really fabulous stuff at times. We're starting to lose money every month again, so hopefully that Europa League money will make a difference. We're going on a European tour!

Cups

Shamefully dumped out of the Allianz Cup (top two divisions cup) in the first round. Lost in the Portuguese Charity Shield to Benfica in a match where we absolutely battered them, and got to the Taça de Portugal final for the third year running, facing Benfica again. No luck there either.

 

Squad

 

Managed to get Merival to agree to a new contract, with the caveat of a £6m release clause. The promising players from last year, now having had 18 months of Quickness training, are starting to play better and look the part. The intake from last season was the intake. The GK, DR, AMC and AMR immediately went into the first XI and by Christmas they were pretty much up to speed. We still desperately need DCs and DMs, though. Our better players are absolutely carrying the weaker ones. Case in point:

 

 

 

4 of my players in the top 10 of NXGN, and my star player winning Golden Boy. We have a weird mix of potential stars and low league cloggers.

 

Intake

 

 

 

A poorer intake this year. This lad is the single bright spot and is going to get thrust into the first team. It's sink or swim, my friend.

 

[Daddy]

That's wild lol