The FM24 Youth Academy Challenge

[dkouv]

11 hours ago, HanziZoloman said:

you must have been deep red financially speaking. 

Nah, £480 million in the bank and counting thanks to the lovely PL TV rights  

[mpm2342]

Crewe United 2045 Season Update

Season 21 Update:

Repeat winners of the league, hopefully the start of a trend. Linfield is the only challenger who is close.

We had a great year in the Champions league surprising everyone, including me, by making it to the league phase. That earned us a lot of money which was put to good use in upgrading facilities. We should have enough bankroll to max out the training facilities now. The youth facilities will have to wait until the board gives me the option to ask for it.  The club is now ranked 63rd in Europe and should be inching closer to getting to 3 star reputation.

Transfers:

Spoiler

Youth Candidates:

We got a monster in this intake: Neil Smith will step right into the starting lineup with a CD rating of 65 which, for context, puts him near the top of League One CDs. The rest of the intake has a bit of promise to try and develop..

Here is Neil Smith 44 a for you to all drool over . Hopefully I can convince him to stick around for a while.

Nice mix of personalities especially for the two who are most likely to make it: Smith and Graham.

All of this intake were from Northern Ireland, so no change to the country distribution. I am trying something now that we have lots of cash... hired scouts and assigned one to each continent to scout young players to see if having scouts out there makes any difference to the intakes. Have asked once about affiliates, but only got Northern Ireland options, so am waiting for our reputation to hit 3 stars before asking again, so we should have a few years to see if the scouts bring anyone in.

Millar and Sweeney are first squad starters so should continue to pile on the goals.

Squad Update:

Smith in at CD is the biggest change, but nice growth from Truslove, Morgan and Hamilton.

The starting squad has now passed L2, so I have updated the comparison chart to target the Eng Championship. Once the squad gets there they should be competitive in the Champions league with outside shots at winning it.

Bingo

We are now have 2 players on the Northern Ireland national team

[Nottingham Forest]

Having secured another promotion I thought it would be fair to share some of the better youths I have. Hopefully I can keep most of them. 

 

 

 

[Nottingham Forest]

Sorry not sure how to lessen the sizes.

[DomD]

@mpm2342 Neil Smith is ridiculous! Too bad about the fickle personality. Have you had any luck changing those through mentoring?

[darren1983]

Just catching up

Congrats to both @Weed07 and @dkouv for finishing. Have added you both to the HoF 

[djsterry]

12th season update 

We end up having a freak season and finish in 4th place, I got a good start to the season and rode the wave all year, great morale no moaning all year etc.

My chairman instantly decides to unsettle the team by selling my rb for 800k (I don't have a replacement)

Also sells my best cm for 800k. Nothing worse than having a money hungry chairman selling my players for peanuts

 

Good new though as I win the first silverware in the clubs history winning the Chinese Cup.

Managed to get a couple more upgrades but the intakes have remained poor, Maybe one of the experts can tell me how it works with quality of upgrades compared to the nation rating etc. I would say I'm getting English league two quality players with exceptional coaching and facilities. I know club rep can play a part but will I continue to get poor players because I'm in China? 

Hopefully things will pick up as quite frankly these poor intakes every year are just getting a bit grim and eventually I'm going to end up getting relegated

 

[mpm2342]

1 hour ago, DomD said:

@mpm2342 Neil Smith is ridiculous! Too bad about the fickle personality. Have you had any luck changing those through mentoring?

I have had some luck with mentoring and have a couple of mentors on the job already who can boost the negative parts of fickle.  Hoping it works, though a fickle personality can still grow fine, he just won't want to hang around with high ambition and low loyalty.

[Thebaker]

39 minutes ago, mpm2342 said:

I have had some luck with mentoring and have a couple of mentors on the job already who can boost the negative parts of fickle.  Hoping it works, though a fickle personality can still grow fine, he just won't want to hang around with high ambition and low loyalty.

He is a great player and to be fair fickle isn't the worst personality, slightly positive to my way of thinking. How do you work our the hidden attribute average since i thought Fickle has a loyalty of 4-6

Edited Monday at 18:52 by Thebaker

[OlivierL]

On 19/10/2024 at 17:55, Weed07 said:

Workington Reds  - Challenge Complete

Firstly I want to apologise for a lack of updates, I posted my first season update but then just started blasting though seasons and I kept meaning to post some updates but kept putting them off and then as the seasons went on I had too much to update and wasn't sure how best to do it, individual season updates seemed daunting to write up so I put them off more and now I've completed the challenge without posting any updates so again apologies for not updating as the save went on.

Anyhow, now its complete I figured I would do a write up on what's happened.

So, the save started off ok with a 13th placed finish in the Conference North in the first season and the second we were worse as we finished lower in 15th place but then in the 3rd season we managed to finish 2nd missing out on top place on goal difference but we did win the playoffs so it only took 3 seasons to get promoted from the bottom division.

The Conference National however wasn't as easy, we finished 20th in the first year surviving on the last day on goal difference, then 16th where we again survived on the last day, we finished 16th again the season after but surviving with a few games to go before a surprise 7th placed finish but losing in the playoff first round and then it was back to surviving relegation with only 1 game to go as we finished 19th.

At this point I was wondering how we were going to progress, we had played 8 seasons but had every request to improve facilities, recruitment and coaching rejected and our intakes were rubbish but we then had a takeover and the new owners agreed to invest in youth recruitment and junior coaching, just what we needed. The first season after the takeover we finished 17th and also had youth and training facilities upgraded, the season after we finished 7th and had our youth recruitment and coaching increased twice and we were starting to see the benefits as our intakes were getting better and after 8 seasons in the Conference National league we finished 2nd and won the playoffs and after 13 years we had made it to the football league.

I thought at this point things would get harder but actually that didn't happen, as we went full time and we continued improving facilities our players attributes started shooting up and in our first season in League Two we finished 19th but were never in danger of relegation and we maxed out our youth recruitment. I also decided to change tactics to an attacking tactic because we were getting better attacking players than defensive players and I decided we would just try to score more than we conceded and it work as the next year we finished 2nd and got promoted scoring 108 goals 40 more than the previous season.

This is the tactic I created and used from this point forward, I trained my players for the roles rather than switch roles for the players

  Reveal hidden contents

Our first season in League One, like in League two we were never in danger of relegation and finished 14th, we maxed out our junior coaching and made £5m through player sales which was much needed as we were losing a couple of million a year mostly through the youth set up. Then like in League Two we pushed on and got another 2nd placed finish to gain promotion in only our second season at this level.

Our first season in the Championship continued how our last ended as teams couldn't cope with our attack and we scored 127 goals, we also conceded 71 as out tactics of just scoring more worked better than expected and with 2 games to go we were top with the title in our hands but we bottled it and ended up finished 2nd but at the first time in this league we were promoted and we have now gone from the Conference North to the Premiership without winning a league, we had finished 2nd in every season we were promoted, we hadn't done anything in any cup either as all focus had been on the league games.

By now I couldn't believe how easy it had been going up the leagues after going full time, every year I expected us to struggle but we overachieved and I was convinced we would have problems in the Premiership but it didn't happen as in our first season we finished 11th, then in our second season we managed to finish 5th and won the FA Cup, our first ever trophy. The 5th place finish also got us a place in the Champions League as England were given an extra place.

In our third season I again thought it would be hard as we now had the Champions League to manage too but again we done better than expected, much better in fact as in the league we finished 3rd and were in the title run right until the last game of the season but even better we won the Champions League, I don't know how but we avoided the best teams and had some massive wins, I thought we were out when Arsenal beat us 4-1 away in the quarter final first leg but we often scored goals for fun and beat them 5-1 at home after extra time, we also lost 2-1 away to Porto in the semi but had won the first leg at home 3-1 so got to the final where we beat Inter 2-0 but it could have been more as we dominated the game and we won the Champions League at the first time playing in it and it seemed too easy.

Then the next season we completed the challenge as we won the league, it went to the last few games and with 2 to play in was between us and Arsenal with them having the advantage as they were ahead of us on goal difference but they dropped points away to relegated Wolves throwing away a 2 goal lead to draw so our win took us top and we won our last game to confirm the league win, we lost in the Champions League semi that season but with the previous seasons win and now the league win that completes the challenge.

Its taken 20 seasons but we won the Champions League in 2043 and the Premiership in 2044 and I honestly thought it would take a lot longer, I'm surprised at how easy it got once we went full time, it took us longer to get out of the conference leagues (11 years) than it did to go from League Two to Premiership winners (9 years).

There was a couple of things that helped:

1) despite playing FM for over 30 years, I didn't realise how big an impact resting players between games has, I've always rotated players but I've found during this save that if there are 4 or less days between games that resting my starting 11 from training between games meant they would be fit for the next game, this meant that I was able to play my best 11 every game except for injuries which was good because outside out best 15 players we didn't have a lot of quality.

2) with not spending money on signings I pumped all money into wages and I kept renewing my best players contracts each year giving them a pay rise to sign for 5 years plus 3 year club options so that I could keep them and ward off any interest, I also used the tricks with either getting the DOF to negotiate a contract and then changing it myself to remove release clauses by giving them a lot more money or talking to the agents and removing non negotiables from it which meant I rarely had to give release clauses at a cost of higher wages but it meant I didn't lose many players I wanted to keep.

I also think that playing an attacking tactic worked better than it should because every season we were favourites to finish bottom and our reputation lagged behind our ability which I think means teams will be more likely to attack us thinking we are an easy win which plays into our tactic of just trying to outscore teams rather than trying to defend as we can exploit the space they leave in their defence attacking us.

Overall this has been one of my favourite ever saves and something I didn't think I would be able to achieve having tried and failed several times before.

Heres some spreadsheet data:

Club Info:

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Season info:

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Manager info:

  Reveal hidden contents

Manager profile and history:

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My best players:

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GK and our only Wonderkid

Best centre back

Our captain and dlp

Our dm

Our vice captain and goal scoring attacking midfielder

Our striker, won NxGN award 1st place and Golden Boy

The rest of the players are average, decent players but nothing special

I want to shout out to this player, hes the first player I have ever had thats played at every level for a club i've managed, hes the first thats played over 500 games ever for me and he has scored at every level too. He came in the first intake and was our star striker for a lot of years.

  Hide contents

To summarise, I've loved this save, I'm actually a little disappointed that it ended a lot sooner than I thought it would and it seemed to get too easy, much easier than I expected it to be and I'm not sure where to go from here, I might continue playing it as youth only, I may start signing players or I might retire the save and try something new but I'm pleased I have been able to complete it, especially with a club thats local to me.

Edit - Forgot to add screenshots of the wins so added below:

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i like the Litherland 25A story, great that you kept him in the squad and he scored in the championship and EPL

good job! 

[mpm2342]

48 minutes ago, Thebaker said:

i thought Fickle has a loyalty of 4-6

I have fickle with loyalty of 1-14, but could well be wrong on that one.

Agreed as well, fickle is a decent to good personality for me as ambition can drive the growth.,,, provided they stick around

[djsterry]

30 minutes ago, mpm2342 said:

I have fickle with loyalty of 1-14, but could well be wrong on that one.

Agreed as well, fickle is a decent to good personality for me as ambition can drive the growth.,,, provided they stick around

I think fickle is okish, Unambitious is the one I hate they just never get going 

[Neo_Geo]

44 minutes ago, mpm2342 said:

I have fickle with loyalty of 1-14, but could well be wrong on that one.

Agreed as well, fickle is a decent to good personality for me as ambition can drive the growth.,,, provided they stick around

I took determination and ranges of ambition and professionalism for each personality and came up with a lower and upper “drive” value. Then ranked my squad by these values to tell me who was most likely to develop.

[djsterry]

if this lad wasn't my only cb over 2 star ability he would be getting binned, hate when this nonsense starts 

[XaW]

XaW - Cardiff Draconians - Season 2030/31 (Season 7) - JD Cymru Premier

Squad | Transfers | Finances

In one way, it was very much like last season, as we retained the cup and finished on the same points as last season. In another, we lost far less matches and drew a lot more. So I think we are taking a fair few strides as a club. We still have a little bit of a way to go, but we are getting there. This season we also got our first taste of European football, and we did better than I expected, even if we didn't didn't get that noticed by anyone not looking for us. The youth intake also gave us an amazing attacker who scored 14 seconds into his debut and ended that match with a hattrick. In the 5 matches since he came through, he scored 7! So I really hope he can continue that into next season and perhaps give us a shot at the league title.

Welsh Cup: We beat Gresford, Mumbles, Denbigh, Afan Lido, Bala Town, and Rhyl 1879 to retain the cup.

Nathaniel MG Cup: We beat Llantwit Major, Penybont, Swansea Uni, and Buckley before we lost to Aberystwyth Town in the final to finish as runners up.
Challenge Cup: We lost to Clyde in the 3rd round.

Europa Conference League: In our first European go we beat Milsami Orhei of Moldova before we unsurprisingly lost to Sigma Olomouc of Czechia in the 2nd qualifying round.

Best players from the academy:

Osian Beattie 30a - An amazing season from our goalkeeper, and even got 6 goals to his name. He is our best freekick taker! Also capped for Wales u21s!
Leon Pearce 30d - A great season at left back and is developing nicely.
Barry Cresser 29c - Quite a lot of goals from out wide in a good season.

New club records:

Most assists in a season - Leon Pearce 30d - 14 assists
Worst discipline - Leon Pearce 30d - 6 yellow cards, 2 red cards
Most league apps for the club - Kieran Jones 25a - 159 apps
Most league goals for the club - Juddy Ngoma 27b - 56 goals
Fastest goal - Lloyd Kinsey 31a - 14 seconds

A few improvements accepted this season.

U19s

They finished 4th in the Cymru Premier Development League (South) this season.

Welsh Youth Cup: They beat Aberystwyth Town before they lost to Bala Town in the 3rd round.

Around the world

Youth intake:

Trophy cabinet

JD Cymru South - 2025/26

Welsh Cup - 2029/30, 2030/31

Nathaniel MG Cup - 2027/28

Tier 2 League Cup - 2024/25

Most apps for the club

Name			Nation		2nd Nation	Time at club	Apps
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Kieran Jones 25a	Wales		<N/A>		2025-Present	203
Jayden Burns 26a	Wales		<N/A>		2026-Present	180
Juddy Ngoma 27b		England		DR Congo	2027-Present	155
Jon Davies 27a		Wales		<N/A>		2027-Present	147
Hans Nyeck 28a		England		Cameroon	2028-Present	114

Most goals for the club

Name			Nation		2nd Nation	Time at club	Goals
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Juddy Ngoma 27b		England		DR Congo	2027-Present	74
Hans Nyeck 28a		England		Cameroon	2028-Present	35
Bradley Gregory 25c	Wales		<N/A>		2025-2030	32
Jon Davies 27a		Wales		<N/A>		2027-Present	21
Michael Brown 27e	England		<N/A>		2027-Present	21

Most assists for the club

Name			Nation		2nd Nation	Time at club	Assists
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Kieran Jones 25a	Wales		<N/A>		2025-Present	25
Ryan Davies-Margetson 27d Wales		<N/A>		2027-Present	24
Nick Davies 28d		Wales		Northern Ireland 2028-Present	22
Jon Davies 27a		Wales		<N/A>		2027-Present	21
Rob Davies 29b		Wales		<N/A>		2029-Present	18

Supporters:

YAC Bingo:

Summary:

[naterr]

on behalf of Barwell FC I would just like to thank the Scheduling gods for such a lovely opening 6 fixtures for our first season back in the Premier League...

#SackedByOctober

[Traldon]

First Youth Intake Preview

 

 

To be honest, not looking to horrible, we get the keeper we really need as well as a winger
Plus getting a good striker early cant be bad

Edited Monday at 22:06 by Traldon

[RCola1]

Formartine United FC - Season 1 - Cinch League 2 - Scotland

 

This is might 4th attempt at this challenge in Scotland. Formartine United is located in a small village in Aberdeenshire. After a rocky start, the first season went well. We finished 6th, solidly mid-table, and I already convinced the board to update youth facilities and coaching. The youth intake was also pretty good. I hope to implement a tactical style in the coming season.

 

 

 

[Trainspotting90]

Finally, after 3 years, we're promoted to Serie C

 

[Trainspotting90]

This is my career, now.

[Thebaker]

@XaW good progress, what HYOD do you have to keep getting these 4 or 5 star players through. Also is it just me or are there seemingly more welsh players coming through and less other nations?

[LDB]

MATERA

Season 2 Mid-Season Update

December 2025

Serie C - Group C

Things are going way better than expected, if we don't experience another morale disasterclass in the locker room we should stay easily in the current division. After 19 games out of 38, we have 32 points, 1 less than we had last season at the END, and our pacey winger Danzi is currently our top assist, with 5.

Also the teams that get promoted from the unplayable Serie D, like Brindisi and Latina  this year, are pretty weak so it makes it easier for us to just survive for these first seasons.

Off the pitch our first Youth Facilities improvement is almost completed and the board is paying for my licenses, currently studying for the National A one.

Also got our Youth Intake preview and we might get a decent keeper by the looks of it, with another "golden generation" flagged preview

.

Time to go to work in the real world now  

 

 

 

[Padders]

Season 193 - 2213/14 - SBC

Another playoff finish, 4th again!

BUT!

This time we won the play offs

6-3 on aggregate in the Semi Final and 1-0 in the Final

We were actually 3-1 down in the 1st leg of the Semi Final with 5 minutes to play

[Thebaker]

@Padders i hope you can stay up this time.

Its a shame you never recorded youth nationalities, i reckon you must have had over half the countries possible come through.

[Traldon]

How do i get my badges, if my board always says this?

Edited Tuesday at 11:01 by Traldon

[djsterry]

15 hours ago, djsterry said:

12th season update 

We end up having a freak season and finish in 4th place, I got a good start to the season and rode the wave all year, great morale no moaning all year etc.

My chairman instantly decides to unsettle the team by selling my rb for 800k (I don't have a replacement)

Also sells my best cm for 800k. Nothing worse than having a money hungry chairman selling my players for peanuts

 

Good new though as I win the first silverware in the clubs history winning the Chinese Cup.

Managed to get a couple more upgrades but the intakes have remained poor, Maybe one of the experts can tell me how it works with quality of upgrades compared to the nation rating etc. I would say I'm getting English league two quality players with exceptional coaching and facilities. I know club rep can play a part but will I continue to get poor players because I'm in China? 

Hopefully things will pick up as quite frankly these poor intakes every year are just getting a bit grim and eventually I'm going to end up getting relegated

 

13th season update 

Unfortunately I was correct and the season ends in relegation, just one of them seasons that I couldn't make anyone happy.

Dressing room was basically in revolt and I was lucky to cling on to my job. 

I'm going to take this opportunity to clear out a few players and rebuild with better personalities in the squad. 

I really need a cm to come through that's what killed me last year after the chairman sold my cm I just got destroyed in the midfield.

 

[karax268]

Nazarenos Season review 2024/2025

Finances | Supporters | Transfers

 

First Team

Fixtures part 1 | Fixtures part 2 | Position graph

First season has come and gone and things went great. A fourth place finish in our first season in the fourth tier. 

Things didn't start smoothly, we were second to last after 15 matches. I began to have some doubts if we could salvage the season. But we found our groove then. we went six wins in a row and eight unbeaten to finish a comfortable 11 poits above the relegation zone.

The cup was over before it truly started.

These were the guys to do it. with special mentions for:

Francisco Mota: best player this season

Gonçalo Estrela: (shared) topscorer

Andre Carvalho: most assists

 

Youth Team

 

The U19s had a good season. Especially considering there were only 5 non-grey players in the team

 

25A | 25B | 25C | 25D | 25E | 25F | 25G | 25H | 25I | 25J | 25K | 25L | 25M | 25N | 25O | 25P

 

The Youth Preview was great and the result didn't disappoint. Lopes 25C will go directly to the first team. Hopefully I can get his determination up.

 

personal

No facility upgrades this season, but I did get up to a national B license and am studying for my A

Summary

[Neo_Geo]

19 minutes ago, Traldon said:

How do i get my badges, if my board always says this?

Generally you just have to keep trying, eventually they buckle.

Now that you know the board are like this (sometimes they are very agreeable to it and never refuse it) wait for the right tune to ask the next time. If you get board performance as B+ or higher I find that’s a good time to ask.

[Thebaker]

1 hour ago, Traldon said:

How do i get my badges, if my board always says this?

depends on what their feedback rating of you is, i tend to only ask for things when its at A and preferably the finances are in the black as well.

[HbG93]

Seasonal Review 2037/38

The Table

After getting really close to automatic promotion. We really let ourselves down in the playoff stages. Fingers crossed my team is left alone, so that we can secure promotion soon. We had a very fun run in the Coppa Italia! Granted this was also helped by the fact we faced Perugia in the quarter final. Granted they had the bigger laugh in the end by promoting through the playoffs.

The Squad

The squad is looking pretty solid. Plenty of handy defenders with Turini 35c now leading the charge. Pedone 36a is by far our best player, and I have no doubt that without a promotion he will leave us. Class of 2037 added Fagnocchi 37c and Andrejz 37b into the team. Other than that Fagnocchi 33k joined the squad after spending time away on loan. Mantineo 30d and Pedone 36a not only both made Serie B team of the year, but also individually won Goalkeeper and Player of the year.

Player Spotlight

M. Nardella 34b has become a fine striker! His mentals could do with some more work and that trait of his is rather questionable. However this is without a doubt the guy who will shoot us into Serie A. Pedone 36a is already a monster of a player. The only criticism is the lack of dribbling and finishing. At the elite level more athleticism would be welcome but for Serie B he's crushing it. I am only able to keep clubs away by using FM trickery during the transfer windows. I fear I will end up losing him for free, but I refuse to let him leave before he helps us get Serie A.

Transfers

Not much of note here really. Our defender pipeline is really good so letting go of Di Carlo 33a was quite easy. I suspect another defender gets sacrificed next year as well. 

Youth Intake

A weaker intake this time around. Cantamessa 38a is one too keep an eye out for as I would love more left-footed defenders in my team. Kusi 38b has a good personality, and could become a handy specialized advanced forward. I'm really hoping for more wingers in the future, as it's easily our list competitive area.
 

[Skora11]

53 minutes ago, HbG93 said:

A weaker intake this time around. Cantamessa 38a is one too keep an eye out for as I would love more left-footed defenders in my team. Kusi 38b has a good personality, and could become a handy specialized advanced forward. I'm really hoping for more wingers in the future, as it's easily our list competitive area.

If you are looking for wingers I would say train Kusi there as looks like he could develop nicely in that position.

[Neo_Geo]

1 hour ago, Skora11 said:

If you are looking for wingers I would say train Kusi there as looks like he could develop nicely in that position.

Yup,  dry good shout with the pace, dribbling and near double figure crossing.

[djsterry]

14th season update 

Straight back up in first place, a mini clearout, a new captain and vice captain changed the club.

My best player has just signed a new contract and things are looking a bit more positive for the cub, 

Hopefully can keep this group together and add to the poor defence, very short at lw as well.

Lets hope I can stay up this year

[XaW]

7 hours ago, Thebaker said:

@XaW good progress, what HYOD do you have to keep getting these 4 or 5 star players through. Also is it just me or are there seemingly more welsh players coming through and less other nations?

Yeah, I think the reason is that most of my players are only rated as good for the tier below, and I’ve increased the youth coaching to max already. Most of the players will never be able to play for us even with 5 star potential.

And, yes, we are getting more Welsh players than before, but I have no idea why…

Might be a few days before I post more, as I going on a short vacation.

[Padders]

7 hours ago, Thebaker said:

@Padders i hope you can stay up this time.

Its a shame you never recorded youth nationalities, i reckon you must have had over half the countries possible come through.

Can't see it 

Yet again stupid results, dominate games and don't win, last minute goals conceded 

No wins in 10 

Out in L1 Banbury in the cup

Reading only point in 9

96th min to lose the game

Battered Fleetwood and drew

[Nottingham Forest]

Just had Reading come in and somewhat bluff me. 
 

They have met my value for Kavanagh Barrett YP2b. I asked for £1m plus 50% of next sale. He wants to go. I wanted the deal that go through at the end of the season but they’ve said they want it immediately.

Photo added for context.

[Neo_Geo]

@Padders how can you not be tempted by a new save by now?

Is it just impossible for you to give up after all this time?

[Winski]

Ungmennafélag Selfoss
Season review
Season 2 | 2026
Besta deildin

Transfers | Affiliates | Facilities | Finances | Manager Profile | Club overview

What. A. Season! Incredible. I don’t have any other words for it.

This save is one of those rare ones that when you start the save, you immidiately feel that it’s a good one. That it’s a good match. Everything just clicks together!
That’s the case with this save. I feel so at home at Selfoss. The club, the kit colours, the squad. The squad is one of the main reasons why it’s such a good save. I didn’t really checked the players before I started the save. I only saw that it was a large squad, but I didn’t check the players. But the overall quality is high, for Icelandic levels. Quite a young team, almost every player at the club is homegrown, so a lot of academy players. So that’s very helpfull with the registration-rules in Iceland, as you need a minimum of 8 players trained by the club. I’ve got at least 15 players who are trained by the club. So yeah, that’s very, very useful.
And like I said, the overall quality of the players is really good. Most of them are in the age of 19-23, so a lot of room to grow. And they really fit into my 4-3-3 tactic.

Having said that, let’s talk about the season. It’s my second season at Selfoss, and the first season for us at the highest level on Iceland.
And we won EVERYTHING! Well, not a European cup ofcourse, but we won every single price on Iceland. So a Quadruple!!   We won the Super Cup, the League Cup, the Cup and the League. Un-be-lievable! And that in just our second(!!) season!
I can’t remember a save that started this good. Like I said in the beginning of this post: everything clicks together!
I love it

Europe
So next season we will play Champions League. Talking about European football; we had quite a good run in Europe this season as well. We won against Aris in the Conference League Second Q. Round. In the Third Q. Round we won against Ilves. But in the Fourth Q. Round we found our Waterloo against Slavia Praha. So we won our first European matches this season! And the money was, again, very, very welcome!! We now got almost €2,5M positive balance, so I hope that our board is willing to become a professional club. They recently rejected my suggestion to do so. But I’ll keep the money on the bank and I’m not using it for upgrading the facilities. I first want to become a professional club.

Youth intake
The preview looked promising, and the intake didn't dissapoint!  Lots of nice talents in this intake, a real golden intake. I think that a lot of them will develop into first team players for us.  And we even got a Dutch player, and an Italian player!

Spoiler

Upgrades
We were able to upgrade our Junior Coaching and Youth Recruitment once. No upgrades on our other facilities yet.
But at the end of the season, our board came with the news that they want to build a new stadium! We are now renting a stadium, but they want to build a stadium in our home town Arborg. When I check the Facilities-page, the planned capacity will be 8715 seats. If that will continue, it'll be the biggest club stadium on Iceland!

Progress

[Traldon]

First Youth Intake Time



Pretty decent tbh, Cris Seaborne might be a good Inside Forward for a few years



Also say hello to our only keeper for the next year, no more greyed outs



I am gonna sign everyone tho, just to boost the numbers, and maybe some of them are useful

[Defensive]

vor 3 Stunden schrieb Neo_Geo:

@Padders how can you not be tempted by a new save by now?

Is it just impossible for you to give up after all this time?

Why should he give up? To be honest he is the only guy who has some interesting challenge here at the moment. Its supposed to be a challenge thats the point of it all. I would stop the save if i would be one of these guys with 8 or 13 elite talents because whats the point then- when you have so many talents every player in the world would complete the challenge in the next few years, where is the fun in that? Winski will win the Champions League in the next 2 or 3 years because thats always the same pattern when you came this far. Its actually already done at this point. Or the people who have already completed it multiple times. I would actually congratulate Padders for having by far the most interesting save. :-)

Edited Tuesday at 22:26 by Defensive

[Neo_Geo]

31 minutes ago, Defensive said:

Why should he give up? To be honest he is the only guy who has some interesting challenge here at the moment. Its supposed to be a challenge thats the point of it all. I would stop the save if i would be one of these guys with 8 or 13 elite talents because whats the point then- when you have so many talents every player in the world would complete the challenge in the next few years, where is the fun in that? Winski will win the Champions League in the next 2 or 3 years because thats always the same pattern when you came this far. Its actually already done at this point. Or the people who have already completed it multiple times. I would actually congratulate Padders for having by far the most interesting save. :-)

I think you probably misread the tone of my post, I'm just amazed at his lasting power for going so long, I'm curious if the thought has crossed his mind as I'd never have had the lasting power to go probably even 10% as long.

It is the one post that when it comes up we all hope that its good news of promotion and staying in the premier league.

EDIT: I was in two minds to post this bit however I think that your points about "Every player in the world would complete the challenge" and "Its actually already done at this point" is perhaps a little unfair and belittles the achievements of completing the challenge.

 

Edited Tuesday at 22:57 by Neo_Geo

[Traldon]

Season 1 Dorchester



A great first season honestly, especially concidering we didnt have any keepers till april (Big shoutout to my greyed out keeper for keeping some of the goals out).
We lost in the first round in the playoffs 2-1, but we didn't expect to even be there, so that's fine.
In the FA Cup, we reached the Fourth Qualifying Round, where we lost to Woking.
Cris Seaborne 1b also already scored his first goal.

Transfer Screen


 

Squad

[Neo_Geo]

TOP FLIGHT DEBUT FOR CONWY AS TNS CONTINUE LEAGUE DOMINANCE

Our first season in the Cymru Premier was a tough battle but an enjoyable one as we finished a clear second after losing steam towards the end of the season in the league. TNS in this save have not suffered a complete collapse and won their 5th title in a row by 13 points and a vastly superior goal difference. They did however mess up in the cups allowing me to capitalise and win both the Nathaniel MG Cup for a consecutive season and our first every JD Welsh Cup. Winning the Nathaniel MG Cup in a nearly empty big stadium was quite the experience!

We were good this season, just not quite good enough to really push TNS all the way. We still scored a good number of goals but once again conceded far more than I would have liked. The number of times we threw away a solid win or a 3-0 turned into a 3-2 in the last 10 mins was not good for the heart rate. 

I moved to a more conventional formation with a 4-2-4 now that I was able to field a left back and my first choice left winger. In terms of youth players breaking through there were 3 main players with a 4th making more appearances towards the end of the season. Bryant YP-1A (SC), Morris YP-1A (MC), Murray YP-1A (DL) and then Davies YP-1A (MC) later on.

Small increase in average attendance and season tickets and the good news is that the finances improved after our first year in the top flight. The Nation Club Coefficient improved one place to 48th but there is a long way to go for this to improve to the level it needs to be at.

 

YOUTH INTAKE

This was the year of wingers and fullbacks, not that I am complaining given our AMR is close to retiring and is deteriorating quite rapidly. We got a standout on the right wing in the shape of Englishman Jahzeel Mahfood YP-2A.

 

Best of Intake

Spoiler

  

I've resumed my use of my spreadsheet which now has calculated that 7 of the Year 2 intake are in the top 10 potential players at the club, so moving in the right direction.

I've also started to track the average change in technical, mental and physical attributes which probably won't give much insight at this stage given we have a few ageing players who have seen their status decrease since last season but I intend to track it and see how effective the training and coaches are (at this stage its a case of taking who we can get rather than being able to be picky given our reputation).

CLUB NEWS

3 coaching courses approved this year again, incredible that in some saves you fight and fight and fight but they were happy to let me get them here so I am now sitting on the Continental B license after 2 seasons.

Junior Coaching and Youth Recruitment were once again the focus as the funds really aren't there for any facility increases but the board were steadfast in rejecting these all season long due to the projected deterioration in our finances. After winning the Welsh Cup the little bit of prize money surprisingly made them approve the Junior Coaching budget increase but not the youth recruitment.

No news of potential takeovers or anything of that kind, we did lose our assistant manager who took over Carmarthen in the Cymru North which is a shame as I felt he was a really good assistant for this level. I've continued to stick with 1 assistant, 1 fitness coach and the HoYD for now.

 

SQUAD NEWS

A couple of players retiring in the form of Alex Darlington and John Owen and I suspect I will be seeing some others leave at the start of next season as their current ability is not much better than that of the youth players and they must take priority at this stage. As such it could be a transitional year for us so I'm not expecting a repeat of last years 2nd place and cup wins, surviving and seeing improvement in our new First XI will be the focus.

The Best XI shows the same pattern with my teams, strong up top, midfield ok, right back decent then the central defenders below 7. Jones in goal did play very well this season though apart from a couple of absolute clangers! Hillier returned from his broken leg and scored an impressive 29 goals and youngster Bryant YP-1A managed to get a 1 goal every 2 games average in a very encouraging first season. 25 goals from the wingers was a good return as well but surprisingly more assists came from my DLF and DLP rather than the wide areas.

 

BINGO CARD

Surprisingly no one spotted my error in my season 1 update where I had stated I won a domestic and continental treble! (We won a treble but it wasn't including continental obviously). Now that this has been removed we did add another SEVEN targets being met this year:

 

NEO_GEO'S FINAL THOUGHTS

This season was a real bonus to get into Europe (to face Inter Club d'Escaldes of Andorra in the first qualifying round of Conference League). The intake was strong on the wings but I need to see best how to fit players in this year to see improvements but at the same time try to get the results to stay in the top half of the league.

It's ticking along very nicely and I am enjoying the length of the season as its not too short nor too lng.

[Nottingham Forest]

Whoever else said they hate unambitious personalities, I’m in agreement. 
 

I’ve got a couple of youngsters who’ve been with the club for a few years now but I can’t mentor them and they just won’t improve. Not giving up on them yet but suspect at 19/20 they may well be a lost cause. 

[Thebaker]

33 minutes ago, Nottingham Forest said:

Whoever else said they hate unambitious personalities, I’m in agreement. 
 

I’ve got a couple of youngsters who’ve been with the club for a few years now but I can’t mentor them and they just won’t improve. Not giving up on them yet but suspect at 19/20 they may well be a lost cause. 

unambitious is poor but when combined with low determination rarely do the players improve.

[libbyshuss]

Austria - 2062/63

Still Plugging Away in Austria, Still no Nearer to Champions League Glory

Bit of  a strange season this one as I had my first morale crisis for about 20 years. It's my own fault really, I thought i could keep 3 excellent right wingers happy and ended up making none of them happy. Things improved after sending my 50 cap experienced winger on loan to Marseille at christmas but it was too little too late. A second successive trophyless season!

 

I'm going to keep going because this batch of youngsters have the potential to be the best yet, led by this fella in midfield

 

I could really do with a bit of luck in the Champions League though

Edited Wednesday at 08:30 by libbyshuss

[djsterry]

15th season update 

Excellent season where I finished 2nd to the MIGHTY Beijing, relegation really helped the team and I come back with a bang

Beijing will be tough to topple though 

Youth Intakes have improved I'd say I'm getting one good player per intake now, Villa Dalmine this is not

But the standard in the league isn't the same I have 3/4 good players in the team now and 2-3 decent with 4 pub players.

Any injuries or suspensions to the good players and I tend to lose so I need some better squad players coming through.

Gao Wenda is my best player by a long stretch

But then my best defender is

So very much a mixed bag in terms of quality.

The usual grumbles are coming out from the players, not enough depth in certain positions and think they need to be playing with better players etc.

I will hold them until they give in and sign a new contract or sell very last minute as my red finances swallow up any sales anyway.

Facilities need an upgrade but that will have to wait.

lets see what the next season holds

[djsterry]

4 hours ago, Nottingham Forest said:

Whoever else said they hate unambitious personalities, I’m in agreement. 
 

I’ve got a couple of youngsters who’ve been with the club for a few years now but I can’t mentor them and they just won’t improve. Not giving up on them yet but suspect at 19/20 they may well be a lost cause. 

Yeah it was me, I have got to the point where I will rarely take them unless the stats look unreal from the start. Id much rather have a mercenary etc. 

[HanziZoloman]

Am 21.10.2024 um 22:17 schrieb djsterry:

if this lad wasn't my only cb over 2 star ability he would be getting binned, hate when this nonsense starts 

Well his latest flaws were back in the future 

[HanziZoloman]

vor 17 Stunden schrieb Neo_Geo:

@Padders how can you not be tempted by a new save by now?

Is it just impossible for you to give up after all this time?

Separates the men from boys 

Edit: I am also in two minds posting this. I don’t care much about how anybody is taking the challenge and I have tons of respect for those finishing it. It is the most challenging way to play this game, especially England or all those worldwide minor leagues but I won’t distinguish between anyhow. I’d like to see some of those superstars like @Rashidi or @crusadertsar doing it  
but (please forgive) there is a voice in my mind which does say sometimes, “oh come on, stick to your save man, take the challenge.”
But I know it’s somehow unfair because the fun is the most important part. In the end all those stories are different and really impressive in their own way. The Earl wouldn’t mind anyway. 

Edited Wednesday at 12:38 by HanziZoloman