The FM24 Youth Academy Challenge

WhiteCat33 · August 27

@Neo_Geo spreadsheets are developing splendidly! Very much a fan of your new spreadsheets to join the data club. I've followed squierl_plays python saves, and it's a smart choice of a base code to start your tool. Much cleaner than my excel madness

I'll be interested to see how you feel about your weighted role ability calculations over time. While I have kept the totals separate for the two colors, I haven't applied any weighting myself. Others have mentioned a non-highlighted abilities boost, which I'll be considering for my next version.

For Hidden Attribute calculations I am just doing a very basic restricted range based on the "highest low" and "lowest high" for Personality & Media Handling. I am not doing the huge number of special cases, and have a lot of work to do if I want to properly calculate it, but this gives me a very simple estimate.

Potential is the big unknown, which keeps me hooked into this game.

Personality_MH.xlsx

aldojags · August 27

@scarp Nice to see Dob getting a mention, I played as them in the european challenge, so basically what you're doing, only I was allowed to sign players

I eventually won the Champions League 2036 I think it was, I loved this save.

I won the premier league in my 2nd full season of the save, was weird, my team wasn't much to write home about when compared to Olimpijia in the beginning but I had so much early success and just dominated.

Here's the write up from my final season if you're interested! Keep up the good work - Europe already with no signings, amazin! I noticed you had Klemen Justin and Dino Zenkovic, they 2 were UNREAL for me first 2 seasons, both had double digits goals and assists, I held onto them for years just out of sentimentality, couldn't lose them even though they never got a sniff in later years

https://community.sports-interactive.com/forums/topic/579135-fm24-global-less-england-small-club-to-big-club-challenge/?do=findComment&comment=14378439

Edited August 27 by aldojags

RCola1 · August 28

Season 4 East Kilbride F.C. (Scotland)

Another season of struggle. I finished 8 out of 10 a flirted with relegation. My best player, a "tricky" winger was injured half of the season and kind of doomed us to a difficult season. The youth intakes are becoming much better and I hope to engineer a new possession based style to take advantage of them.

hyrule_king · August 28

19 hours ago, Neo_Geo said:

Latest addition to my spreadsheet is to include an export and a tab for training.

This looks at the attributes for each training focus value and simply averages these to give an overall rating out of 20. This means you can easily see the areas that are lacking for a player that training can directly influence, its then up to you whether the area that is lacking is relevant for the role they play in:

For my other sheets and colour scales it was all about relativity between the players and their roles i.e. what role is Player A best at, who is best at Pressing Forward Player A or Player B? The top of that scale is the highest player rating for a role or the highest rated role for a player and that should show up as Dark Green.

For the table above this is showing the scale of 1-20 so only when a player has strong associated attributes to training focus will it show as green rather than showing the highest value as green overall.

This gives me a very good view for the squad as a whole and I can clearly see that for the likes of long throws we have one average player and the rest are lower quartile.

I think this is the best formatting for training as it shows me clearly where the team is lacking and where I can directly influence this with focused training. Similarly if I just want to look at one particular player I can then make a decision from here rather than trying to remember which stats are related to which training focus' (I remember a number off by heart but not all)

The only thing its missing is where I can see for the role I want to use them in the training focus areas that matter, I may well work on that a bit.

What code in excel do you use to work out the IFB and IWB? , not updated my roles spreadsheet since they were added

fries · August 28

Premier League

2041/42 (season 18)

Season Summary

A great season. The best so far. On the last day of the season, we had the chance to be champions. We "only" needed both Arsenal and Man City to lose their last game and to win against Tottenham. Unfortunately, nothing of that happened.

But overall I was very happy with the season. The team overperformed and we only lost 4 league games, including no lost games in the league from the middle of December until the last game of the season.

In the Europe League, we lost to Chealse in the Quarter Final. We rotated the starting 11 throughout the season in this tournament as I was focused on the League.

My team has lots of depth but my top players are not elite.

This season I had 7 players with a rating above 7. A few of them, Heritage, Eze, and O'Halloran played exclusively in the best 11 in the League, while e.g. Sinclair, Mustafi, Young-Min, and Asamoah played mostly on my "second 11" in other tournaments and as substitutes.

I had only 1 player on the NXGN list, my wonderkid Flynn. I had hoped Webster and Sears would be on the list too.

Flynn has developed to be my best player, on paper. And he forms a great midfield pair with Heritage, and with Sinclair and Godwin as reserves.

The youth intake preview was okay. 4.5 stars, a singe A and C, but the rest were E's.

The actual intake was as expected. 1 or 2 elite talents, but I am not that happy with the personalities.

I sold a few players this season. Wallace had not developed enough to play a role on the time. While Karakas, Nembhard, and Asante was old and declining in abillities.

Finances and Upgrades

No upgrade to report about here.

Next season
Next season, I will try to play my chances in both Champions League and Premier League. And maybe put my focus after Christmas on the tournament where the chances of success are best.

Koetzer · August 28

House of Billiards | Suriname | Season 2025

As I expected at the end of last season, this improved squad was able to win promotion quite easily (the final step was the hardest though, we lost two potentially title-winning games in a row).

Cup

Defeated two teams from a division above and only lost to the top league champions Robinhood. Inter Boskamp eventually won promotion, so probably we'll have a chance for it next season.

Squad stats

Waal remained our top goalscorer, the top four youngsters from last year’s intake complete the attacking line (Maatrijk missed quite a lot with injuries though). Defense remained our weakness, but the new intake should make the squad more balanced and prepared for D2.

Transfers – Rocky was our best player at start, but wasn’t good enough even for the bench now.

Youth intake (preview)

Now we have decent squad depth on most positions (and probably will change to 4-3-3/4-2-3-1 with a lot of good midfielders).

Our chairman certainly likes youth development! Hopefully at some point we will be able to build better facilities too.

Neo_Geo · August 28

3 hours ago, hyrule_king said:

What code in excel do you use to work out the IFB and IWB? , not updated my roles spreadsheet since they were added

I use the green and blue attributes suggested by the game and apply a 5 and 3 times weighting for each of these as a starting point.

Here is the IWB and IFB:

Role	1v1	Acc	Aer	Agg	Agi	Ant	Bal	Bra	Cmd	Com	Cmp	Cnt	Cor	Cro	Dec	Det	Dri	Ecc	Fin	Fir	Fla	Fre	Han	Hea	Jum	Kic	Ldr	Lon	L Th	Mar	Nat	OtB	Pac	Pas	Pen	Pos	Pun	Ref	Sta	Str	Tck	Tea	Tec	Thr	TRO	Vis	Wor
FB_IFB	0	0	0	3	3	3	0	3	0	0	3	3	0	0	3	0	3	0	0	3	0	0	0	5	3	0	0	0	0	5	0	0	3	3	0	5	0	0	0	5	5	0	3	0	0	0	3
FB_IWB	0	5	0	0	3	3	0	0	0	0	5	3	0	3	5	0	3	0	0	5	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	3	0	3	0	5	3	5	0	3	0	0	3	0	5	5	5	0	0	5	3

Neo_Geo · August 28

Ok, you can tell I have a week off as I've completely caught the bug and can't seem to stop myself.

The last addition was the training ratings and I hinted at having a look at being able to focus on the training needed for the role I want the player to play in.......well I've been busy today

At the right end of the training sheet where I see the attribute averages for each of the training focus values (my last post) I have now added the desired role i.e. the role I want this player to play in my team (I've just put this as the full list of positions to choose from rather than cross referencing with the values used for the sheet with the roles that fit my tactic as I think it's not a great idea to shoehorn every player into just the roles you have as sometimes you may want other options (for example I may want to train up a few inside forwards if I come up against as team where I want to overload the centre of the park as they play on the wing a lot).

Anyway, you select the desired position and the columns to the right are then filled in with values. These values are calculated by using the weightings for that selected role against the attributes associated with that training focus. For example for a fullback defensive positioning is 4.3 (5 for marking and positioning and 3 for decisions giving a weighting average of 4.3). I then subtract players attribute average from 20 and multiply by the weighting average to give me a "priority" score out of a possible 95 (so if they score 1`for everything and all weightings are 5 then 20-1 = 19 *5 = 95) to a possible minimum of 0 if all scores are 20 or the role you have selected has no attributes associated with that training focus.

Once these are calculated the max value is retrieved and the focus columns shows the optimal column to get the player training in for that given role (again all based on attributes).

So in general the sheet shows where work needs to be done for players if I want to play them in that particular role, so an obvious one is Karl Borg Y1-B who if I want to play him in his strongest current role based on his attributes I really need to work on his attacking movement as it is ranked at priority 91.5

Here is that player:

Most likely a lost cause considering he has low determination and very poor technical and mental skills. So the one it suggested for the AMC_AM role was to get him training on attacking movement as this was highlighted as the worst for that role based on his attributes. The attributes for it are Off the Ball, Anticipation and Decisions (so 3, 1 and 1 giving an average of 1.67). The weighting for this training for an AMC_AM is 5 (5 for each of the attributes), so we have 18.3(rounded to 1 DP) multiplied by 5 which is 91.5.

The only tricky thing is that since there is SOME data that I have added in the spreadsheet that is relative to the row (player) in question if the order of the export changes I may get corrupt data.

I don't see a way around this other than keeping the last spreadsheet to cross check because if I sell players or their position changes then the order of the players in the export will change too. There is no way to get the preferred role included for the player to get it to show in the filter view.

One thing that might interest some people (as I didn't know this) if you sort by one column first (say position) you can then do a secondary sort by SHIFT + CLICK on the column you want as the secondary. I ordered my export using position first then age thinking it won't change year on year until I remembered new players join, current players leave and then sometimes the positions will change if a player retrains successfully.

Next its on to thinking about how to determine a rough potential (most likely using the upper transfer estimate, the coach rating with a pinch of salt and then sprinkle in the personality to give an idea of whether they will reach the potential).

This will probably all be obsolete when FM 25 comes out :lol:

hyrule_king · August 28

2 hours ago, Neo_Geo said:

I use the green and blue attributes suggested by the game and apply a 5 and 3 times weighting for each of these as a starting point.

Here is the IWB and IFB:

Role 1v1 Acc Aer Agg Agi Ant Bal Bra Cmd Com Cmp Cnt Cor Cro Dec Det Dri Ecc Fin Fir Fla Fre Han Hea Jum Kic Ldr Lon L Th Mar Nat OtB Pac Pas Pen Pos Pun Ref Sta Str Tck Tea Tec Thr TRO Vis Wor

FB_IFB 0 0 0 3 3 3 0 3 0 0 3 3 0 0 3 0 3 0 0 3 0 0 0 5 3 0 0 0 0 5 0 0 3 3 0 5 0 0 0 5 5 0 3 0 0 0 3

FB_IWB 0 5 0 0 3 3 0 0 0 0 5 3 0 3 5 0 3 0 0 5 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 3 0 5 3 5 0 3 0 0 3 0 5 5 5 0 0 5 3

Ok, that's a different way of doing it.

Mine is an average of all the key attributes, so it looks like this :

=AVERAGE($C$9,$C$10,$C$11,$C$17,$C$20,$E$8,$E$10,$E$12,$E$14,$E$16,$E$18,$E$19,$G$7,$G$8,$G$9)

So that is F9 pulled from a table like this

RoamingPlaymaker · August 28

Decided to give this a go, season simmed and I've taken the Kettering Town job

Edited August 28 by RoamingPlaymaker

Neo_Geo · August 28

1 hour ago, hyrule_king said:
Ok, that's a different way of doing it.

Mine is an average of all the key attributes, so it looks like this :
=AVERAGE($C$9,$C$10,$C$11,$C$17,$C$20,$E$8,$E$10,$E$12,$E$14,$E$16,$E$18,$E$19,$G$7,$G$8,$G$9)
So that is F9 pulled from a table like this

There will be no exact science to this, I literally just followed the game's model of what each role should be like and ranked the green attributes higher than the blue using weighting.

If you decide that the blue attributes are just as important then your approach of taking the average will be exactly what you need.

I expect I'll tweak this over time as it's likely the out of the box model SI have may not be an exact match for what I look for in these players. Say for instance you value work rate and stamina for every midfield position as you want a really hard working engine in your team then I can just tweak the weightings for these and it will adjust the ratings accordingly.

WhiteCat33 · August 29

I reuploaded my spreadsheets onto MediaFire: https://www.mediafire.com/folder/pnhcnqse9adoz/Aug24

I've made these sheets with legacy formulas, so they should work in any modern form of Excel (2008+). There are no macros & no external links so are fully safe.

The "CA-RA Calculator" is the Excel + View for what I've been posting on here to analyze my YAC save. "WhiteCatStats" is a player performance statistical comparison tool. I'll start using that spreadsheet to evaluate player performance in my forthcoming season update. If you want to see how it works you can check my old STLC Moneyball Career:

CA-RA Calculator

Contents:

Blank vs MTQ: Blank has been cleared out of all but 1 each of data for Opposition, Team & Youth as examples. MTQ has 2024 - 2029 data for my Martinique YAC. I have left Benchmark Data in the Blank version; however, it isn't implemented. Blank version has the England Bingo, while MTQ obviously has my custom Martinique Bingo.

Importing the view: Copy "WhiteCatStats - Current Ability v2.fmf" into your FM24/views folder. Should appear when you import view

View will be Name, UID and then all the attribute values. Final columns should be City of Birth and Nation of Birth.

To Export Data of Your Team: CTRL+A & CTRL+P to print the screen. Print as Web Page

Note: My spreadsheet does not sort, so I tend to pre-sort the squad by AssMan's evaluation of player ability before switching views.

Save the file like so: Naming Convention is important

To import the exports into the spreadsheet open the webpages in excel. You can then either drag-drop them into the spreadsheet or use the move-tab option. [Make sure the tabs retain the proper names]

I tend to place the raw data at the end of the significant list of sheets.

Level One Analysis:

With your data imported go to the first sheet "Summary". Top left is where all the selection cells are. Baby Blue will auto-populate to show your Team, Nation & League. Yellow are the cells you alter.

C4: Data Type - Nation is not implemented.

C5: Year - Choose your year. Should be in order from 2023 - 2071.

C6: Opposition # - Only applicable for the "Opposition" selections. Instead of year it uses numbers 1 - 20.

C7 & C8 Minutes - Sets the minutes threshold for players in the "Reserve" and "Starter" groups. Used for Tables.

C9 Formation - Not implemented (would be used for Best XI selections)

Simple Hidden Attribute Tool:

I usually hide Columns W - AF (All Position Role Ability Averages) setting up the selections for a basic hidden ability calculator. Like in Column C, cells U4 & U5 have a list of all Personalities & Media Handling options to select from. This doesn't limit for what combinations are possible in-game. This is a basic estimate. There are multiple special rules specifically based on Determination values that I haven't implemented. Remember Controversey lower is better, the rest higher is better. Full table found in "Personality+MH".

Summary Table: C15 - AL99

Should look familiar from my annual updates.

Tables Sheet:

International Player Tables:

Players with any Main Team Apperances: B2 - O35

Players with U20/U21 Apperances: Q2 - AD35

Top 10 & 5 tables: AG3 - AW53

The 4 Top 10 tables find and sort the Career Appearances, Career Goals, Current Ability & Max Role Ability. Note Career Appearances & Goals isn't limited to your club, but all competitive fixtures played at all clubs.

The 5 Top 5 Tables are based on the current season data included in the dataset. This is Minutes, Goals, Assists, Player of the Match & Average Rating. I also include the player's best position (AssMan Opinion) and Name.

Current Ability & Role Ability Tables: AZ4 - BO51

There are 2 versions of every table. The first includes repeated players, meaning each player is included in the average for all positions the game exports them as capable of playing. The second has players only in their best position. Note this is irrespective of to where they played minutes.

This is the table effected by your decision for "Reserve" & "Starter" minutes. Changing the value will dynamically alter the sample selected for each average. Best XI is not fully implemented.

Level Two Analysis: Team & Youth Graphs

To create the graphs, you have to export each year's analysis into secondary datasets. I purposefully have no macros in this document so this requires manual Copy/Paste. I've put all the relevant sheets together with color codes.

First, go to the Export Data Sheet: For the Team & Youth graphs you only need to focus on the Row 4 data. Follow the instructions. Important bit is to paste special values only. If you forget it will be all weirdness.

TeamOutput

Most of the graphs should auto-adjust based on the years included in the data. Determination & Pressure/Big Match don't and will require manual data-selection to reduce the ranges. All of the graphs use data exported into the secondary dataset starting row 33. The 3 bar-graphs will automatically select the last entry in the list, so make sure you paste the year data in order. Max years for graphs is ~70, but you can always modify the data-ranges if you have a Padders-level save.

YouthOutput

Unlike the Team, most of these graphs don't automatically adjust (I'll fix later) and will require modifying the displayed data ranges for each graph if you don't want white space. The Table in AH4 - AT4 draws directly from what is entered in the "Summary" page and is not referencing the secondary data-set.

Level Two Analysis: Youth Nationality

This requires creating a Youth Intake Player database. The Purple rows are the first 16 players, which should correspond to a standard intake. You can tell "Team" is selected here because of how far beyond it goes. The process is the same just to the "Intake Database" sheet. I've started the dataset at Row 20 even though I haven't done any graphs/analysis yet.

YouthNation

This is a very rough sheet. Top Left is the automatically populated nation Table. Shifted over and down is a pie-graph of the same data (with offsets included which creates the weird partial values). Then the 3 horizontal bar-graphs utilize the Youth Intake Database to list Cities of Birth for the First 3 Nations. The Vertical Bar graph is city of birth for the currently selected team. Note: Column BG has 3 letter abbreviations for most countries in the world. Of course, FM has some odd 3 letter nation abbreviations so some of these may need to be changed. I've changed some as I've experienced players missing, but remember I play in the Caribbean so this probably has multiple errors.

Level Two Analysis: Benchmark Graphs

This is a newer "feature" I'm still feeling out. You can look at the 50-year change for Caribbean nations that I activated from my Barbados save. All that is implemented right now is MinYear & Max Year. I did 7 graphs for CA and just 3 for RA. Data can be found in "CA-Benchmark-Data" & "RA-Benchmark-Data". Sheets use identical formulas, just inserting CA or RA values.

My current save isn't really conducive to developing this out for the full game population, but I will be implementing a targeted version for the selected nation.

Hope this helps others on their YAC journey! Message or comment if you have any questions/issues

WhiteCat33 · August 29

4 hours ago, Neo_Geo said:

There will be no exact science to this, I literally just followed the game's model of what each role should be like and ranked the green attributes higher than the blue using weighting.

If you decide that the blue attributes are just as important then your approach of taking the average will be exactly what you need.

I expect I'll tweak this over time as it's likely the out of the box model SI have may not be an exact match for what I look for in these players. Say for instance you value work rate and stamina for every midfield position as you want a really hard working engine in your team then I can just tweak the weightings for these and it will adjust the ratings accordingly.

FWIW I use a similar methodology, just haven't implemented weighted sums yet.

I just don't know how I'd be able to decide how much more to weight the "main" attributes over the "minor" ones. I can see the logic of your 5 to 3 weighting, but would be curious how different your values are between a flat vs weighted value.

I've been toying with the idea of Archetype Percentage Boost/Demote for 2-3 attribute groups like Speed, Endurance, Intelligence etc. Idea would be if the Avg is between 10-12 its neutral. Then a 1% boost in RA per point avg up and a 1% reduction in each point below. Would have to set a max boost probably.

This would be an alternative to weighting, as it is essentially weighting based on what I determine core important attributes for any successful footballer.

So much can be done with Role Ability, it's a lot more subjective than Current Ability. Makes for many hours in spreadsheets!

Edited August 29 by WhiteCat33

WhiteCat33 · August 29

Etincelle Macouba – Martinique Youth Academy Challenge

2029 Season 5 – Martinique Trophee Gerrard Janvion R1

Past Updates:

Spoiler

Will update eventually.

League Performance: 5th Place Finish

We had a great season considering the dearth of quality in the squad. Our first XI could beat all but the top 3 teams regularly, and our final position is justly deserved. The gap between the league and Club Franciscain is significant.

Spoiler

Domestic Cup Performance:

Coupe de Martinique: Third Round

Less impressive than last year, got knocked out by Club Colonial 2-0.

Spoiler

Coupe de France (Martinique): Semi-Final Defeat

This cup is at the start of the season (as it's a preliminary for the Coupe de France) and we carried our 6-0 start into the cup to propel us to a Semi-Final. Again, it was Gold Lions who defeated us in a thriller 3-4.

Spoiler

Club Franciscan

Yes, that is a domestic Treble for Franciscan. The whole team is much better than everyone else in the league. Additionally, they have that spark of a lethal striker (for this level). He scored 42 goals in 32 competitive games this season for 70 goals in 110 league games his entire career.

Spoiler

Squad:

CA & RA Excel Player List:

Team is still my GK, CD and then everyone else. You'll notice my backup GK (who never played) is the #3 CA.

Spoiler

CA & RA Team Tables:

The comparison with C.F. is stark. CA Squad: 72 vs 31 ; RA Squad: 54 vs 46. Our Goalkeeper is the only player at their caliber, no one else is remotely close.

Spoiler

Player Highlights:

Morgan Berger GK - I get one season to enjoy a fantastic goalie before he leaves us. By the time he was ready to come back to the table for a contract I got the dreaded "squad isn't good enough". I'll be stunned if he doesn't get stolen this summer. He was genuinely the 2nd best GK in the league this year at only 17.

Spoiler

I haven't updated my Stats Sheet for FM24 and the GK analysis was buggy to begin with, so bear with me. The other highlighted GKs are from the Top 3 finishing teams, Club Franciscain's starter is the first GK. He worked hard compared to the other top GKs, which makes sense as he didn't have the quality defense in front of him.

10 Shutouts is the 2nd highest this season. For the starter GKs (Top 3 in list) he also has the 2nd highest Clean sheets / 90.

Julien Mace STC - Even with terrible consistency and marginal (at best) attributes Mace did surprisingly well for us. He shouldn't be this good with the attributes that he has, but somehow he's got that nose for goal.

Spoiler

For movement and chance creation he was nothing special, but that's fine as he's a lone poacher-style striker.

Here are the strike-statistics and he did well. 70% Shooting percent with a 40% conversion rate is in the upper echelon for the league. He managed 1.07 Gls/Game which was second only to the monster Andy Santiago. What I like to see is he almost 2x the xG well overperforming for the chances he was given.

Nicolas Bauduin CD - Was glad to get him tied down to a contract as he will be a fixture in our backline for a while. As our 2nd highest rated player

Spoiler

CD is the hardest position to compare player performance as it's the most common secondary competency for players. For the top 3 teams there are 20 players and we have 5 from our team. I'll look at our 5. The first player Marlick Tarrieu was Baudin's partner at CB. Yahann Gilbert was a BWM-DM.

Baudin wasn't as good as Tarreiu in the air. He wasn't awful, but needs to improve his heading certainly.

On the ground both had poor tackling and presses (but that is always low due to FBs & DMs in the dataset). Best part was his passing % was high due to us building out the back.

Transfer Activity:

Will update when I lose my GK

Best XI:

Up to 89 App. for an Academy Graduate. Somehow our striker still managed to bag 17 goals, which is way better than I expected.

Spoiler

Head Coach:

Mr. Manager got another coaching badge.

Club Improvements:

I did another bump to JR Coaching to reach "Excellent" & "Good" Recruitment. I did this knowing it is long-term not viable for the budget, but I wanted to supercharge our first fully contracted intake. Facilities.

Youth Academy:

Head of Youth Development

Same.

Youth Intake Preview:

Very happy with all the A's after splurging on the JR Coaching Upgrade

Spoiler

Youth Intake:

HOYD didn't disappoint providing us an upgrade across the board. Everyone was an Elite talent, with most rated as top players for the team. Personalities were fairly neutral, but few negative ones so I'll take that.

Spoiler

YI Best Candidates:

Lot's of highlights. No one is a stud like our GK, but provide us with upgrades to the entire midfield & a number of defensive positions. Shame no striker.

YA Excel Analysis:

Spoiler

Not a positive datapoint here.

However, the money was well spent providing a dramatic upgrade to the depth of quality in the intake. Produced our #2 rated player as well as the best group of 2-5 talents. Not bad!

Personality distribution is pretty decent. Another season of Low Determination replacing Unambitious. Not surprising considering my HOYD has 5 Det.

I'm okay for GK to take a break for a while to let the rest of the team shine.

Academy Tables:

Spoiler

#2, & #6-8 are all from this intake. Moving in the right direction for sure.

Academy Internationals:

We got our first Youth players called up to Martinque! Our Cm Bilal Catteau & rotation CD/DM Mathieu Pastor. We are a ways off a senior CAP.

Spoiler

Summary

We did fantastic for the first season up with our skeleton crew. This year's intake will become the core of the long-term squad as they all got 3+3 contracts. I'll be ruthlessly cutting out the poor players in the squad both by ability and performance with the exception of my couple Professional players for mentoring. I'll be sad to see my GK leave and rob us on a transfer, but I have hope he migrates to France and makes a name for himself in Europe. I'll be following his career this save.

Youth Academy Challenge Bingo & Trophy Cabinet

Just added "Avoid Regulation" this season, but that's fine.

Edited August 29 by WhiteCat33

hyrule_king · August 29

Season 1 review

Recording 2024-08-29 144705.mp4

Edited August 29 by hyrule_king

Neo_Geo · August 29

@hyrule_king what team are you managing, I can’t quite see the logo :lol:

scarp · August 29

On 27/08/2024 at 21:03, aldojags said:

@scarp Nice to see Dob getting a mention, I played as them in the european challenge, so basically what you're doing, only I was allowed to sign players

I eventually won the Champions League 2036 I think it was, I loved this save.

I won the premier league in my 2nd full season of the save, was weird, my team wasn't much to write home about when compared to Olimpijia in the beginning but I had so much early success and just dominated.

Here's the write up from my final season if you're interested! Keep up the good work - Europe already with no signings, amazin! I noticed you had Klemen Justin and Dino Zenkovic, they 2 were UNREAL for me first 2 seasons, both had double digits goals and assists, I held onto them for years just out of sentimentality, couldn't lose them even though they never got a sniff in later years

https://community.sports-interactive.com/forums/topic/579135-fm24-global-less-england-small-club-to-big-club-challenge/?do=findComment&comment=14378439

@aldojags nice, great job you've done with Dob! I agree fully, I also thought I could beat even the best team straight in the second season, even without signings. I think now it may get tougher for me as I am not getting good enough youth, but the money from Conference League will surely help in the long term.

For me Klemen Justin performs very well, but at the start I had 4 great players for two positions and Zenkovic is usually a substitute for me - even though based on CA he would be star in any other position than on the wing, where I prefer Justin or Sipek.

You must tell me how you managed to sign kovac for 900k, what a beast!

scarp · August 29

NK Roltek Dob 2027/28

It was a decent run in the league, although this time we were nowhere close fighting for Europe. In Conference League we first played Kí from Faroe Islands that we managed to comfortably beat, but Vojvodina was on another level for us, even though we played really well in the first game and were up 2-1.

In League Cup we played really well and made it all the way to the final, where we faced the best team in the country - Olimpija. They beat us comfortably which meant no European football for us next season. As fasr as our team goes, the best player this season was Zenkovic who was previously mostly back-up. Sipek is already 32 and seemed to be quite on decline. Also Gosak might have had the last starting seaosn in him, unfortunately we do not have any replacement. Rest of the team is still okay age wise, but still no talents to replace old players. Filipovic became 17 and he's our best hope, already playing for Serbian u18.

Key players: Jaka Kasnik, Dino Zenkovic & Tim Zidan

Transfers

Horrible youth in-take

We also announced new Stadium plans, with the planned capacity of almost 11 000, great increase form current 273 spots. Our facilities significantly downgraded this year almost across all items.

hyrule_king · August 29

4 hours ago, Neo_Geo said:

@hyrule_king what team are you managing, I can’t quite see the logo

sorted

naterr · August 29

Naterr Garcia - Barwell FC - 28/29

League

Well...this was crap!

To be honest, we were lucky to get this high! We were in it until the final day but it wasn't meant to be!

Youth Intake

Not great! 4 star quality (the highest PA) is probably just good enough for the Vanarama South/North so....damn.

Adjei

Spoiler

The coaches do not rate him at all but a fast winger who can dribble...seems good enough for me!

Stadium

The board decided the stadium needed another upgrade - £700k!!! Half of it was paid by the grant given, but £350k from our finances really hurt. The board have been handing us money to keep the club running for the last few months of the year.

Competitions

Player ratings epitomise how well we did this year - Bevan is the "standout" but I think he wants to leave soon

Admin

My contract was running out this year - so when we got relegated I was a bit worried, however a month before the end they offered me a new deal, so the challenge continues!

Neo_Geo · August 29

Ok, I've been trying out some ideas around potential today and I've realised that the absolute value of a player's potential is not the goal, its about understanding who at the club is worth spending time and effort on developing more than others.

This led me to a ranking based system which ranks players on a number criteria:

Lower Drive (Based on Determination and lower range values for Ambition and Professionalism based on Personality)
Upper Drive (Based on Determination and upper range values for Ambition and Professionalism based on Personality)
Upper Transfer Value (ranked based on the highest estimated value but this is messed up for Semi Pro given youth players have value and when they go to non-contract it goes to zero so I have commented this out unless we go Pro)
Average Attributes (Looks at all attributes that apply to goalkeepers or outfield players, trying to do this for specific role is really tough unless I edit the HTML rule with the desired role to then use in the calculations)
Attribute changes by category (GK, Technical, Mental and Physical changes from the previous year the better the overall attribute delta the better the ranking - however as I am still in season 3 when I started this I will need to wait until season 4 end to compare season 3 and 4)

I then combine the ranks (additive) and the idea is the lowest score overall is the highest ranked potential player. When I ran this I was finding older players featuring at the top of the list and at some point when I filter out the non-youth players (I will probably do this for season 3 and 4 for Kercem Ajax) and run this for a few seasons the older players should really start to fall down the list. To do this I added age * 3 to the combined ranks score (essentially for each year difference another 3 is added to the overall ranking so the young you are the lower this will be and the bigger the age gap the wider this will be).

This is just a first stab and as with the other elements it needs data and analysis over many seasons to start to see whether its any good or not.

This image is the potential sheet and whilst it still lists the Transfer value its not actually included in the calculation at this moment. I have not added the previous year attribute averages as that would have required this export to have existed at the end of season 2.

The ordering is going to be a pain here when having to manually add values in, so I may well paste the data from the HTML file ordered by name, sort the previous year by name, copy and paste and patch any differences in personnel and then sort once more by the ranking. It's not ideal but for now it will do (I can always include a csv export which is then used to be read in the following year if I can be bothered to do that!)

I tried to include the potential rating by my assistant which would have formed part of the rankings however they don't appear in any format of exporting from the game and I'm not manually keying a decimal representation of the star ratings (after 4/5 intakes there might be as many as 60 players!).

What I have found with this so far is that someone like Michael Attard YP-1A (also changed my naming convention so that I can easily filter out all youth players from the non-youth players) had the best overall average attributes and at the moment is a 4.5 star CA and 4.5-5 star PA player, so why does he rank 17th? It's related to his personality which is Unambitious. I can clearly see he is a good player for me but as far as developing beyond where he is its not as likely as the likes of Josef Borg YP-2A who is Professional and still boasts decent average attributes (and is a year younger).

Here are those two players:

Attard YP-1A

Borg YP-2A

Attard certainly has the better current ability according to the coach reports but you can see the training effects on Borg.

What are the general thoughts here would you rank Borg as being the potentially better player or Attard (in which case the potential ranking needs some work).

I think if these were professional contract players the estimated value would play a part here but perhaps I need to weight the current attributes a little more, if I multiply that ranking by 2 Attard YP-1A comes out in 9th rather than 17th:

That is literally changing a 1 to 2 in the code to have quite the change, so I need to get more seasons under my belt now and see what the real indicators are that I should be weighting higher than the others.

I promise I'll just be playing the game tomorrow rather than doing Python/Spreadsheet fiddling!

Neo_Geo · August 29

@naterr glad the board didn't sack you as that would have been really harsh.

libbyshuss · August 30

Austria - 2054/55 - Premier League

Wels Finish Disappointing Season By Winning The Domestic Double

So why disappointing? Well, it's all about the Champions League and we went out in the quarter finals, hammered by Newcastle. And because I took my eye off the ball and my two best players (now 30 and 31) announced they want to explore their options at the end of their contract next year.

So, despite running away with the cup and league it ended up being kinda frustrating as i feel as far away from a CL win as I ever have

I'm gonna struggle without the top 2. They are 'considering their options' so you never know, they might change their mind. I think I had a player do that once

Youth

So a good youth intake is more important than ever! and it looks...... ok. An elite talent at this stage is never a bad thing!

The flair and determination on Winter makes me think he might make it

Career

It might be time for another transition season or two.... plus, I'm overdue a wonderkid. Not had one since Mika Dampflin 44A and he's been really disappointing

HanziZoloman · August 30

Season 2073/74

Just finished above the line. Had troubles the whole year but managed to stay on top and avoid relegation. The team took a big shift from old stars to new prospects. Loric Kalala, James Graham and Taner Subasi left or called it a day. Others were not given a new contract, "one has to be more courageous", if the old generation does not develop anymore they need to make space for new faces. From the former team which stayed in Championship for so long only Winger Dominic Youngs and Striker Tom Moore got a new contract. The Season went scrappy but some spells of form in December, January and the last five matches secured the main target, avoiding relegation.

Nothing else matters.

Spoiler

Great update @fries

crazyman @Neo_Geo & @WhiteCat33

hyrule_king · August 30

Season 2 review

naterr · August 30

15 hours ago, Neo_Geo said:

@naterr glad the board didn't sack you as that would have been really harsh.

They nearly did at the beginning of the season!

scarp · August 30

NK Roltek Dob 2028/29

We were playing good football through out whole season, even flirting with top3. In the end we managed to reach Europe after one year pause, which should help our struggling finances (due to Stadium construction). In League Cup we failed already in 2nd round after fully rotating the squad. Jaka Kasnik had another splendid season and carried us forward, I am worried about our striker though, as pantelic was very quiet all season long and we have noone else.

Key players: Jaka Kasnik, Dino Zenkovic & Tim Zidan

Youth in-take: Saso Horvat, Matic Poglajen & Jernej Pesa

Transfers

Amazing youth in-take

Finally we got a decent in-take! Looks like HOYD change bears fruits.

Edited August 30 by scarp

WhiteCat33 · August 30

19 hours ago, Neo_Geo said:

That is literally changing a 1 to 2 in the code to have quite the change, so I need to get more seasons under my belt now and see what the real indicators are that I should be weighting higher than the others.

I promise I'll just be playing the game tomorrow rather than doing Python/Spreadsheet fiddling!

But fiddling in spreadsheets is so fun!! Great take on potential, adding more depth of overanalyzing our semi-pro teams A dimension I'd consider would be Minutes Played/Avg Rating. With how big of an impact quality playing time has on development 18+ it's a facet I'd track. You could then compare effectiveness of loaning players vs rotational minutes at your club. M

I wish the game gave avg. Training Rating for the season instead of just current training rating. That would be an amazing datapoint to have in determining player development.

This type of longitudinal player-development is on my bucket-list for analysis, as I currently just do squad-level. I'm tracking your developments with interest, so don't play too much FM now

Neo_Geo · August 30

THE GREENS FINISH RUNNER UP IN TOP TIER IN SEASON 3

Once again this squad keeps surprising me as we managed to sneak a 2nd place finish drawing 4-4 with Floriana on the last day of the season to finish second on goal difference. That said we were second for almost the entire second half of the season and at one point were only 4 behind Hamrun Spartans!

We conceded more than 1 goal a game but managed to maintain a healthy 2+ goal a game scored average which ultimately gave us the GD advantage over Floriana. Surprisingly the 5 losses were not 2 to Hamrun and 2 to Floriana plus another. We only lost one to each of these but twice to Hibernians (one time was 2 days after another game as the scheduling is bonkers, 4 weeks without a game then 3 in the space of 6 days!)

All European places are conference league 1st qualifying round except for the champions of course and I don't expect anything from this at all next season, any money we can get from it will be put straight into the Youth Recruitment and Junior Coaching.

In the cup we got put out by eventual winners Valletta in the Quarter Finals and to be honest the way the league fixtures played out I was somewhat relieved to not have further fixtures to add to the weird congestion. I'd love for the board to move to another stadium that was a dedicated stadium so that I can just play the fixtures as they should be but this could be some way off.

EDIT: Forgot the club & competitions image

Youth Intake

A superb intake, most likely the HoYD and the first round of improvements starting to come through as the preview looked very promising and the actual intake did not disappoint:

Top 5 Elite Talents

Spoiler

Bartolo looks a fantastic player for this level already and there is a lovely balance to the players that can come straight into the first team next year. DC, DR, DM, AMR and AML. The strikers aren't the finished article from the intake and both look like they are going to be best as Poachers but I'm all for strengthening the squad across the board.

Really nice to have a French player of seemingly good quality come through so its not a full Maltese XI next year.

I said I'd hide the spreadsheet stuff in case no one wants to see it, so here it is:

Spoiler

First of all I opted to just export the youth players as the original cast are starting to get older and are pretty much at their potential so I want to focus on the players starting their journey.

I then filtered the YP-3A intake for the potential to see how they look in insolation (though the ranking was made for all 48 YP players at the club).

Of the 5 players I highlighted only 3 are shown in the top 5 ranked players from this intake with Gerard appearing lower due to his Balanced personality and Magro being much lower due to poor current attributes. The fickle personality has 15-20 ambition which is great but the professionalism is 1-14 so if its lower end then Magro may not develop that well. I decided that when season 4 ends I need to see the changes in personality as that might give an indication as the where the ambition and professionalism actually lie i.e. narrow the range a bit more).

In terms of the Year 3 intake 5 of the top 6 at the club are from this year so by those measures its a good year.

For how the new youth players fit in my current tactic here is how it looks:

What is abundantly clear to me from this is that I have one Pressing Forward at the club so to use the other players I either need to train them (but the gap is quite sizeable) or play them in their best role as a striker and tweak the front line a little to accommodate them.

The keepers certainly won't be challenging for a starting berth but Cauchi is coming through with a 37 in the winger role which is good (the crazy thing is that Roderick Bartolo's attributes for the same role has him rated as 42.7!) On that note in terms of attributes matching with roles in my tactic he is one of the strongest but not in the role I intend to play him in. The training sheet below (cut out a number of columns to just focus on the training focus ratings and suggested focus) shows where to focus on with him:

In other words Bartolo has very good attributes for other roles but what is stopping him from being ranked more highly as a central defender is his strength. I'm hoping that by focusing on the top ranked players, arranging their training and then checking the following year on their role ratings it will have improved. I am then hoping to factor that improvement into the potential calculations i.e. use season X improvements from season X-1 to show the updated potential at the end of season X.

I know I'll have missed things or not set the right positions but over time it should become more and more second nature to sort these things out. A worrying trend can be seen above where the attacking movement and final third is poor for my strikers and for the wingers the crossing and ball control is quite weak too.

Club News

A solid year as far as the off the field elements were concerned as the Youth Recruitment and Junior Coaching increases were approved following the lovely, lovely prize money for finishing second:

I was able to get a further 2 coaching badge courses approved as well meaning I am now studying for Continental C license.

Here are the transfers for the season:

Squad News

I have decided to focus my attention on the youth players using my new spreadsheet and for the full squad I will continue to track the overall depth and experience using the in game features.

Here is the Best XI from this season:

An obvious drop off in terms of average rating compared to the Challenge League but this is to be expected.

The quality of the intake this year has had a significant impact on the current player's rated current ability as can be seen in the squad depth:

The experience matrix shows Wayne Borg move into the experienced bracket and luckily Cauchi YP-3A came through this year as a ready made replacement (upgrade in fact) on the right wing as Wayne's skills are starting to falter due to age.

In terms of the Best XI for next season this is what the coaches reckon I have:

What's encouraging is that the potential of Attard YP1-A and Xereb YP-1A have remained at the 5(ish) potential even with the new additions this year. I think it's more likely I will play Gerard at DM, Xereb at MC and then Josef Borg YP-2A in the AMC role as I move away from Saliba at DM.

Bingo Card

Another 2 targets met by avoiding relegation from the top tier and Michael Attard YP-1A reaching 62 appearances for the club.

Neo_Geo's Final Thoughts

Incredible season and some foundations are now starting to be put in place to get this club producing the best Maltese talent. The intake was really promising and starts to build a little bit of quality in some of the areas of the park that are currently lacking. European football (albeit most likely two games) is a real bonus at this point but who knows what might happen.

Enjoying the save thoroughly and I have real intrigue over the way the players develop over the coming seasons and how my spreadsheet will track them.

Edited August 30 by Neo_Geo

hyrule_king · August 31

Sacked near the end of the 3rd season at Dover. Wasn't even relegated/

Koetzer · August 31

House of Billiards | Suriname | Season 2026

I’m furious, how could we lost the final game instead of recording the perfect season? Anyway I’m eager to see how this team is going to play in the top division.

Cup

Santos finished 4th in the top division and this game happened before the youth intake which was really good, so I think we can aim at least for a top half finish.

Squad stats

Waal had another great season, not sure if he stays a starter for the next season as we got a better striker in youth intake but will be a useful targetman option. Pinas impressed as a box-to-box midfielder and also was our first penalty choice.

Transfers – we lost three starters in a week after securing promotion and turning semi-pro. I can understand our best assistant Maatrijk who went to the top tier a bit earlier than us, but Augustin and Klinker preferred an amateur team to our part-time offers :idiot:

Youth intake (preview)

That’s a certain golden generation, ten players with 5* CA!

Stekalo · August 31

LEÇA FUTEBOL CLUBE (PORTUGAL)

SEASON 3 - 2026/27

YOUTH CANDIDATES

ELITE | João Sampaio | Miguel da Silva | Rodrigue Ndong |

Personal Contract

Season        Contract Start Date       Contract Expiry Date    Pre Tax Wage     Post Tax Wage
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
At start          29 June 2024             30 June 2025          €43k p/y           29k p/y
2024/25           26 December 2024         30 June 2026          €43k p/y           29k p/y
2025/26           25 November 2025         30 June 2027          €16,75k p/y        12,75k p/y
2026/27           28 May 2027              30 June 2029          €141k p/y          77,5k p/y

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    1    1    1    1    3    3
2024/25    Minimal   (0.50*)     None                 3↑   3↑   2↑   1=   1=   1=   4↑   3↑   3↑   1=   7↑   1=   3↑   3↑   3↑   2↑   5↑   5↑
2025/26    Minimal   (1*)        None                 4↑   4↑   2=   1=   1=   1=   5↑   4↑   4↑   1=   7=   1=   4↑   4↑   4↑   2=   7↑   6↑
2026/27    Minimal   (1*)        None                 4=   4=   3↑   2↑   1=   2↑   5=   5↑   4=   1=   7=   1=   5↑   4=   4=   2=   8↑   7↑

Club Facilities

Season     Training Facilities  Youth Facilities  Corporate Facilities  Junior Coaching  Youth Recruitment  Club Reputation
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
At Start        Good (12)          Average (10)       Fairly Basic        Adequate (10)     Average (10)       Decent (2*)
2024/25         Good (12)=         Average (10)=      Fairly Basic        Adequate (11)↑    Average (10)=      Decent (2*)=
2025/26         Average (11)↓      Average (10)=      Fairly Basic        Good (14)↑        Average (10)=      Decent (2*)=
2026/27         Average (11)=      Average (10)=      Fairly Basic        Good (14)=        Average (10)=      Decent (2*)=

Season Record

Season     Played     Won     Drawn     Lost     Goals For     Goals Against     Goal Difference     Win Percentage
2024/25     39        26        6         7         96               51                +45               66,67%
2025/26     33        13        9         11        55               50                +5                39,39%
2026/27     31        14        6         11        57               44                +13               45,16%

Overall Career Record

After Season   Played     Won     Drawn     Lost     Goals For     Goals Against     Goal Difference     Win Percentage     Time At Club
2025/26          103       53      21        29          208            145                +63                51,45%              1064

Transfer Sale Record

Date               Player                    Position               Club Sold To                 Country                   Transfer Fee
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Trophy Haul

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

Trophy Cabinet

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

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

Career Overview

Season     Champions League    Europa League    Europa Conference League       League               Position   Playoff   Relegation   Portoguese Cup
2024/25           -                  -                      -             Campeonato de Portugal      3        2              -          Semi Final
2025/26           -                  -                      -                 Liga 3                  3        6              -          2nd round
2026/27           -                  -                      -                 Liga 3                  7        -              2          4th round

Record Number of Appearances (Players From The Academy Only)

Season     Player                          Cumulative Number of Appearances
2026/27    Huber Bats                                     81

Record Goal Scorer (Players From The Academy Only)

Season     Player                          Cumulative Number of Goals
2026/27  Huber Bats                                   10

Record Number of Assists (Players From The Academy Only)

Season     Player                          Cumulative Number of Assists
2026/27   Huber Bats                                  8

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

Season     Player                          Cumulative Number of Clean Sheets
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

resurectedja · August 31

FM23

Catania - Season 8 – 2030/2031

The season started with a bunch of staff members demanding much bigger wages, usually double what they were previously on. This meant that I parted ways with the majority, including my HoYD. Our new intake guy is Lubambo Musonda. Good personality with decent stats, hopefully adding licences will improve his attributes in the near future. We were predicted to finish 15^th. I was optimistic about the season, especially how good the previous one left. But from the start it was an epic nightmare. Thats why I didn’t post much. The combination of living in the part of the world were you get daily highs of 37,38 C combined with everything going wrong and frustrating me life out of me lead to a 20 or more days gap between updates. Vicedomini, our only Serie B level midfielder got a 3 month injury 5 days before the start of the season. Rao our new starting LB missed the first month. Savoia missed the first month and a half and was seen at a bar on the night before his first game of the season. And the xG gods really left us from the sixth round. There were so many games, like 8 or 9 where we had the better xG, even by goal and we would still lose by 2 or 3 goals. I felt completely hopeless and paralyzed. We had a 12 game win-less streak after we started the season with 2 good wins. The worst was the game against Modena. Losing 5 0 at home with an extra man. They had an xG of 1,3, ours was 3,41. Reggina was similar, 2 0 loss, xG was 2,7 to 0,64 in our advantage. We won a few games after that. But slid again and had another 6 game win-less streak towards the end of the season. So towards the end of the season, both our xG and xG against were in the negative by double digits. So what does the game do? We win our two last games 5 0 and 6 0. And now it seems we only missed our xG for by 4,5 goals. But thats ****ing ******** and idiotic attempt at leveling out a statistic. In the end we conceded 12 goals more than we should and finished 14th.

The youth intake preview was also our worst one yet. It only promised 3 A rated youngsters, a FB, CD and MC. I am already stacked with FB on either side. Shockingly, for the first time in the save, we had a better intake than the youth preview. Instead of 3 we got 5 elite talents. Baglieri could very well be our goalkeeper of the future. Rough mentals but great technicals. Balanced personality is tricky. Franzoni can play along the right side, equally well in all roles. Training him as a invereted winger since he is either footed and I have right backs to spare. Confident he will take over from Mora given his Fairly Professional personality. Vasallo is a raw but all round talented midfielder with offensive tendencies and a good personality. Ballerini cant dance but he will be a very good left footed central defender with plenty of work rate. Chierchia is the star of the intake and only one with 1.5 stars. Very athletic and hardworking, but horrific personality combined with low determination. Happy how it turned out, especially if Baglieri develops into a starter caliber keeper.

We made our first big proper sale of the save. Savioa’s release clause of 3,7 million was triggered. He has made 140 league Apps for us and will be greatly missed, as he was by far our best player over the last 3 seasons. I immediately spent like a third of that on youth facilities. First facilities update as well! Money has been tight. Over the last few seasons we have been losing around 200-300K a year, except for that one season where we went far in the cup. That gave us an extra 800K or so to stay in the green. We should be in a good place with this amount of money. Hopefully I get to improve them youth facilities more. The senior training facilities are at a high level already. Will really miss Savoia in the next season.

Esposito ran the show this year. He was our leading scorer with 18 and most creative player with 7 assists. This also means he was our best rated player with 7.12.

Bledar Daci is our first newgen international after he got a call up from Albania. Hes still on loan btw.

Filipo Esposito made the Serie B Team of the Month for August and May, Savoia made it in January and May, while Minotti made it in November, Mora made it in February and May, Lo Cascio made it in May as well. Luca Minotti won the U19 Player of the Month for September and November, Assumma won the same award for January. Marco Cali won it in February. Lo Cascio in May.

Lo Cascio won the Scopigno award for best newcomer. Savoia was the Young Player of the Year. Mora made the Team of the Year.

mschafer13 · August 31

2051 and I'm still stuck in the National League. Been here for 10 years now, never really getting close to playoffs even.

No real great youth this year, so next year isn't looking much better. I don't quite know what to do to get out of this rut. Board won't spend money on youth recruitment because we're broke. But we can't earn more money unless we move up. But we can't do that unless we have better players to compete!

We've been under takeover rumors for the past 3 seasons, so I think my only hope is to keep plodding along in the National League until a takeover actually happens and, cross my fingers, the new owners agree to spend some money on youth.

scarp · August 31

NK Roltek Dob 2029/30

So far our worst season and we were nowhere close fighting for Europe. We also lost in 2nd round of the League Cup. In Conference League we actually played well, first we comfortably beat Sutjeska and afterwards we almost overcame Hajduk Split, which is much bigger team than we are. We currently have only one decent CM out of 3 positions so we are massively struggling. Filipovic is developing nicely but it's not showing on the pitch. We have no back-up for our aging players and no depth, but at least we are starting to get decent youth in-takes.

Key players: Jaka Kasnik, Dino Zenkovic & Ozbej Kisovec

Youth in-take: Marijan Mijatovic, Andrej Valencic & Robert Cankar

Neo_Geo · August 31

Spending some family time today so didn't get much progress made.......but I made new kits for Kercem Ajax, what do you guys think?

The home kit has a proper 90s poppers feel to them with the kappa logo strip along the shoulders

Daddy · September 1

For what will probably be my final attempt for FM24 I'm going to give England another try.

Neo_Geo · September 1

9 hours ago, Daddy said:

For what will probably be my final attempt for FM24 I'm going to give England another try.

It's weird being at this point again so soon and this time its the end of an era with the game changing significantly.

Best of luck with Dulwich sir

p.s. their kit colours are a belter for custom kits!

Edited September 1 by Neo_Geo

scarp · September 1

@Neo_Geo I really like the home kit! by the way, what significant changes will FM25 bring? I am out of the loop.

mpm2342 · September 1

Crewe United 2029 Season Update

Season 6 Update:

We won the league in a very tight battle and achieve promotion to the NI Premiership. Hopefully we can begin a long run in the top division.

Once again we did not get any facilities upgrades, but that will happen once we can start to make some money. The club reputation stayed at 1 star, but moved up to National.

Transfers:

Spoiler

Youth Candidates:

Another good intake with a number of players who can be in the rotation lineup for the first team

Elliott, Millar and Higgins will get some 1st team play time - target 15-20 games along with some mentoring to try and improve their ambition. Weir could develop very nicely with high ratings in the three key attributes.

Overall, the intake has a poor mix of personalities, so now that we are in the top division, it is likely time to start looking to replace our HOYD. He is a professional, but the intakes are indicating a lack of ambition.

Not much interesting in the nations of the youth - added Portugal as a secondary nation is the "highlight"

The core group of youth from the 2024 intake still dominate the leaderboard. Brady will likely get passed in the upcoming season.

Squad Update:

Here is how the squad is rated heading into next season. Delaney is retiring which will open up playing time for Szymczak.

The squad only improved 0.2 overall heading into the upcoming season. Mostly due to Delaney retiring, but also because a couple of players declined forcing a bit of shuffling in the starting 11. With the updated target now the NI Premiership, we are a long way away from it and will have a tough time staying up this coming season.

Bingo

Two more turned green.

scarp · September 1

NK Roltek Dob 2030/31

Great and very important season for us! Firstly because of a lot of investments into stadium and facilities we are running out of money very fast and we needed another qualification to Conference League. perhaps more important fact is that we finally started a slow rebuild. We have two great midfielders in Zajc and Horvat who both were starting whole season and played on Kasnik's level. Ivanovic is slowly replacing Turk (our first proper academy player) and Poglajen is starting to show up for the AMR position. Also Filipovic finally started playing well and his CA ability reached 4.5*!

Key players: Tian Pantelic, Klemen Justin & Saso Horvat

Youth in-take: Alen Oblak, David Kompara & Darko Kovacevic

Youth in-take

Our starting DM for past 6 years - thanks for everything!

dkouv · September 1

Poole Town – Season 16 (2039/40)

Premiership. A solid first season in the top flight, we managed to avoid relegation and even finished roughly in midtable. Our form was very erratic though, going up as high as 5th in mid December and only recording 4 more league wins in the remainder of the campaign, I sure hope it's not a sign of things to come next year.

Players Our attackers underperformed this season, and midfielder Dylan Sultana 12c (DM/MC/AMC) was key, glueing together the side and nothching up 9 goals in the process, while center back Mike Foy 09c (DC) helped keep things tight at the back.

Youth intake (preview): A good intake with a very promising looking goalie Mehdi Mas 16a and a decent striker prospect Ben Austin 16b, but the personalities are pretty poor.

Facilities A youth and training facility upgrade, plus a small stadium expansion.

Transfers: nothing of note.


Season    |  League        | Pos. |     Europe     |   Best player                    |  Notes
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2024/25   | Vanarama South |  10  |     n/a        |  William Butler (GK)             |
2025/26   | Vanarama South |  3   |     n/a        |  Filbert Owusu-Antwi (ST)        | Lost in playoff final
2026/27   | Vanarama South |  15  |     n/a        |  Filbert Owusu-Antwi (ST)        | FA cup 3rd round
2027/28   | Vanarama South |  1   |     n/a        |  Sean Young 02b (AMC)            | Promoted
2028/29   | Vanarama Nat.  |  23  |     n/a        |  Filbert Owusu-Antwi (ST)        | Relegated
2029/30   | Vanarama South |  4   |     n/a        |  Sean Young 02b (AMC)            | Promoted via playoffs
2030/31   | Vanarama Nat.  |  5   |     n/a        |  Danilo Russo 04a (AMR)          | Lost in playoff semi-final
2031/32   | Vanarama Nat.  |  5   |     n/a        |  Danilo Russo 04a (AMR)          | Lost in playoff 1st round
2032/33   | Vanarama Nat.  |  1   |     n/a        |  Danilo Russo 04a (AMR)          | Promoted
2033/34   | League 2       |  2   |     n/a        |  Tom Grant 05a (ST)              | Promoted
2034/35   | League 1       |  1   |     n/a        |  Tom Grant 05a (ST)              | Promoted
2035/36   | Championship   |  10  |     n/a        |  Sean Young 02b (AMC)            |
2036/37   | Championship   |  7   |     n/a        |  Jamie Owen 09a (AMRL)           |
2037/38   | Championship   |  5   |     n/a        |  Jamie Owen 09a (AMRL)           | Lost in playoff final
2038/39   | Championship   |  1   |     n/a        |  Jamie Owen 09a (AMRL)           | Promoted
2039/40   | Premiership    |  12  |     n/a        |  Dylan Sultana 12c (DM/AMC)      |


Facilities
----------
Season    |  Coaching     |  Recruitment      | Training Fac.  | Youth Fac.      |  Stadium
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2024      |  Fairly basic |  Basic            | Poor           |  Poor           |  2500
2024/25   |  Average      |  Fairly basic     | Poor           |  Poor           |  2500
2025/26   |  Average      |  Fairly basic     | Poor           |  Poor           |  2500
2026/27   |  Average      |  Average          | Poor           |  Poor           |  3000
2027/28   |  Adequate     |  Above average    | Basic          |  Poor           |  3000
2028/29   |  Adequate     |  Above average    | Below average  |  Basic          |  3000
2029/30   |  Adequate     |  Above average    | Below average  |  Basic          |  3000
2030/31   |  Good         |  Good             | Below average  |  Basic          |  4000
2031/32   |  Excellent    |  Excellent        | Below average  |  Basic          |  4000
2032/33   |  Exceptional  |  Exceptional      | Below average  |  Basic          |  4000
2033/34   |  Exceptional  |  Exceptional      | Adequate       |  Below average  |  5500
2034/35   |  Exceptional  |  Exceptional      | Adequate       |  Below average  |  5500
2035/36   |  Exceptional  |  Exceptional      | Adequate       |  Adequate       |  6377
2036/37   |  Exceptional  |  Exceptional      | Average        |  Average        |  6377
2037/38   |  Exceptional  |  Exceptional      | Good           |  Good           |  6377
2038/39   |  Exceptional  |  Exceptional      | Great          |  Good           |  6377
2039/40   |  Exceptional  |  Exceptional      | Superb         |  Excellent      |  5000

scarp · September 1

NK Roltek Dob 2031/32

Another great season in the bag! We were sitting on third place for majority of the season, but our best player Zenkovic got injured for 5 weeks towards the end of the season and without him we lost some important games. This time we went one step further in Conference League, after winning against quite tough opponents AEK Larnaca and Viking. LASK was a bit too for us, especially because of no depth we had very tired players.

And this time we do not stop here! We had quite easy draw in Slovenian Cup, making it comfortably all the way to the finals, where we faced Maribor - and became Slovenian Cup Winners! This also means we will play Europa League next season, which should bring us even more needed finances!

Key players: Dino Zenkovic, Darko Mitrovic & Saso Horvat

Youth in-take: Anze Kastrevec, Zan Majer & Timotej Florjancic

Youth in-take

Daddy · September 1

4 hours ago, Neo_Geo said:

It's weird being at this point again so soon and this time its the end of an era with the game changing significantly.

Best of luck with Dulwich sir

p.s. their kit colours are a belter for custom kits!

For the several previous years of attempting in England, Dulwich was always one of those teams I wanted to play as. Both because of the color and I always viewed them as a measuring stick for whatever reason. I spent the afternoon trying to get Horsham promoted (I describe myself as being "from" Horsham, Pennsylvania), but I watched a full WWE show and got bored with all the Holidaying lol.

Daddy · September 1

This is the first time I've seen an emergency injury meeting.

scarp · September 1

NK Roltek Dob 2032/33

As you can see at the top of the screenshot, this has not been an easy season for us, but in the end we managed to equalize our best ever final position. We struggled massively with squad depth and fitness due to games in Europe but thankfully the league was very even this season, which gave us opportunity to climb back towards the end of the season. Tian Pantelic had his best season yet at the age of 31 while scoring 29 goals and 8 assists for us - and he's been playing in Third Division in 2024! Saso Horvat quickly rose to become our best player and he's a level ahead of everyone. Unfortunately he wants to leave and as he's unhappy he has not been performing up to his standards towards the end of the season. In League Cup we lost in 3rd round. Now about Europe...

We started very strong in Europa league by smashing Hapoel beer Sheva who were the favourites and then dispatching Asteras Tripolis in similar matter. In the last qualifying round we faced Midtjylland who were a step ahead of us and beat us comfortably.

To pass into group stage we had to beat Hammarby and to my surprise we managed to snatch a win in Sweden and then manage to hold onto a draw at home.

This must have been it, I thought.. But we actually managed to go through the group stage after beating Haka, HB and drawing with Asteras Tripolis and Tobyl.

We absolutely destroyed Rapid and move to next round, where we beat Hearts at home and I was getting hopeful.. but in the end they got the better of us.

Key players: Tian Pantelic, Saso Horvat & Franci Novak

Poor youth in-take

Neo_Geo · September 1

SECOND PLACE ONCE MORE FOR THE GREENS AS THEY MAKE EUROPEAN DEBUT

This season we proved that the first season wasn't a fluke.....or that the improvements via the intake were enough to cement our position as 2nd best team in the country.

Finishing 5 behind Hamrun and and 13 ahead of Floriana felt like positive progress from the previous season and we even managed to beat Hamrun 4-0 with 3 games to go to keep the fight alive but Hamrun won the last two games (as did we) and the title was retained by the only professional team in the country. A lot of our goals came from the wingers this year and at the start of the season Wayne Borg retired meaning new AMR Marlon Cauchi YP-3A really stepped up and broke the league's highest average rating record in the process.

I started to let some of the original players go who were at 1 star current and potential and this trend is likely to continue into next season as our transition to becoming a better team continues.

In the cup we only made the quarter final again as we got FM'd at home by Marsaxlokk but again knowing this would allow the focus to return to the league games I wasn't too bothered and from a financial perspective the league money and European money made up the lions share of the inbound finances this year.

On that topic our European run lasted 6 games. A 6-2 aggregate win over KF Teuta of Albania followed by a 6-3 aggregate win over Dudelange of Luxembourg set up a 3rd qualifying round tie with Norwegian outfit Tromso who proved to be far too good for us beating us 4-2 in each tie for an 8-4 aggregate win. This was far more than I expected or even hoped for from our first appearance in Europe and the money was absolutely fantastic as the finance graph shows below:

Average attendance continues to rise as does our reputation so its all heading in the right direction.

Youth Intake

Another superb intake as the level of graduate stepped up once more. The preview looked good and the intake didn't disappoint:

The bar is raising with each passing season which is quite strange as you see last years top players now become mediocre in the eyes of the coaching staff but I'm certainly not complaining.

Elite Intake

Spoiler

It goes without saying Vella is the standout a 5 star current potential and professional personality. This year had a number of players who were classed as ball winning midfielders so I'm looking at training Vella as a BBM midfielder instead.

Spiteri in goals is rated much higher than my first choice keeper for the last 4 years but the attributes don't appear that much better. Armenia striker Adamyan will most likely become first choice striker next season as Michael Attard YP-1A is not keeping up with the ever increasing current abilities of each subsequent intake.

Once again here are the spreadsheet views of the intake and the 4 years of youth players still at the club.

Spoiler

Potential ranking for the current intake

Once again an intake that seems to agree with the latest potential ability ratings and as expected Steve Vella looks like a really promising player. The top 10 is made up of 6 from YP-4. 3 from YP-3 and one from YP-2.

As this is the first season where I have attributes from the previous season I can look at the progression/regression of YP-3:

Andrew Abilla had the best percentage change with a 3.88% increase to average attributes and he played 35 games in total with an average rating of 6.80. Cauchi, Gerard and Vince Attard improved nicely and they had a decent number of games between them (Gerard and Cauchi were regulars whilst Attard was an impact sub).

The top ranked player from last season, Bartolo, regressed in the technical attributes but improved a little in mentality and physical and Vella saw a regression as well.

It does appear that players regress in the technical department which may point to needing better technical coaching (I did ask for another coach as was allowed one who has 11 technical training so it might help next year).

Club News

A great season with regards to improvements off the field as 2 rounds of Junior Coaching Budget Increases and Youth Recruitment Improvements were approved. In addition a training facility upgrade and youth training facilities upgrade at a cost of £95k and £190k respectively makes for some great progress in season 4.

Coaching courses continue to be sanctioned with the Continental A license now being studied.

I'm not sure when/if the board will make the suggestion of turning pro but I'd imagine I'd need a few more seasons of money from Europe and league prize money before they consider it as the end of next season is showing as £177k.

Squad News

4 of my players are getting included in the Malta U21 squad (Attard YP-1A, Cauchi YP-3A, Vella YP-3A and Bartolo YP-3A so that's really encouraging at this stage. As I mentioned before Borg retired and I've had to contend with many players who were previously star or important players now becoming squad players and not being happy. I fully expected them to leave when I said I'd have to let them go as they are out of contract but they stayed, then bids came in during the January window and fully expected them to leave......they didn't. That means I will have a large squad next season but not necessarily a happy one. A rare benefit of the semi professional status club is that you can release players whenever you need to so as long as I start to get replacements come through I can allow the original players to start to leave the club slowly.

We had our first bids for youth players for fees from Hamrun as they targeted Pascal Gerard YP-3A and Andrew Abdilla YP-3A where they offered decent sums of money relative to their transfer values but luckily they were happy to stay and no bids have been made since Gerard signed his non-contract deal.

Here is the Best XI from the season showing a few more averaging over 7.

Here are the squad depth images:

Next seasons XI according to my HoYD:

AML and AMC look like the areas that have a lower level of ability.

Country News

I've added this section to track how the nation is doing (both international and club).

The biggest news this year was an improvement to the coefficient ranking meaning that 2nd place in the league will now provide a place in the 2nd Qualifying round of the Europa Conference.

This was then reverted at the end of this season as Malta were overtaken by Luxembourg and Belarus.

Malta made the European Championships Qualifying Play-off Semi Finals losing 2-0 to Slovenia.

As I was writing this up and continuing the game I got this call-up message in the inbox:

4 of the YP-4 intake have been called up without kicking a ball for the first team.

Bingo Card

I realised this year that I missed marking off 3 targets last year so its a bumper year this year as I now have 17 targets met.

Neo_Geo's Final Thoughts

A really solid year where we have consolidated 2nd place in the league with a greater margin than last year between ourselves and Floriana in third. The intake once again looks to have an impact on the strength of the first team next season with further improvements to the Recruitment and Junior Coaching being made.

The size of the task ahead of me would be huge if I was focusing on actually completing the challenge but for now I am just focused on getting the club to a point where they can become professional and look to take over from Hamrun as the top Maltese club. That feels achievable if we continue to progress as we have been but for now I am just enjoying having this adventure.

Edited September 1 by Neo_Geo

HanziZoloman · September 2

Am 31.8.2024 um 21:02 schrieb mschafer13:

2051 and I'm still stuck in the National League. Been here for 10 years now, never really getting close to playoffs even.

No real great youth this year, so next year isn't looking much better. I don't quite know what to do to get out of this rut. Board won't spend money on youth recruitment because we're broke. But we can't earn more money unless we move up. But we can't do that unless we have better players to compete!

We've been under takeover rumors for the past 3 seasons, so I think my only hope is to keep plodding along in the National League until a takeover actually happens and, cross my fingers, the new owners agree to spend some money on youth.

Know what you‘re Talking about. I‘ve eben there more than 20 years. I‘ve found a proper preseason makes a huge difference in the Performance of the players

Koetzer · September 2

House of Billiards | Suriname | Season 2027

I didn’t expect breaking into the top three in our debut season, but we exchanged wins with Leo Victor and simply destroyed Robinhood (6-2 and 3-0)! Only Inter appeared way too strong for us (2-6 and 0-4), still they only had a two point advantage in the end.

Cup

Sadly lost the semifinal with almost 3 xG and only two shots on target from our opponents (and SNL actually did the same thing in our league game too).

Squad stats

Marcelencio Waal – his aerial ability was enough to be a star on this level too! He scored 100 goals in 110 games for us and earned the club icon status.

N.Pinas *25a – also managed to keep his form on a higher level.

Y.Pinas *26b – missed the final month with injury, but set the club record in assists anyway.

Transfers – we sold the first player for money (surprise as he was a backup at best).

Youth intake (preview)

Bynoe *27a | Pinas *27b | Esajas *27c | Muringen *27d | Donald *27e

This time we didn’t get many players ready to be starters, however Bynoe had 1+6 in five last games of the season.

We also got the first international callups this year, and there surely will be more with the quality of latest intakes.

mschafer13 · September 2

The year is 2053...After 12 years in the National League, we're finally going up to League 2!

I finally realized my midfielders were terrible and came up with a tactic that totally ignores them. Worked! We were predicted to finish 22nd, so not a bad season.

Decent intake this year...potential to be a golden generation (lol) - will it be enough to not get automatically relegated next season though? Fingers crossed.

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