[FM24] Turning a bunch of kids into the next Greek heroes - Youth Only in Greece

[BillHoudini24]

Seasons 2038-2039: Summarising the (almost) breaking point of the save - The reign of terror is over, but at what cost?

I have to be honest here. I almost quit the save. I felt I hit a lengthy plateau, getting youth intakes with players unfit for my philosophy, while AEK would just not go away, winning every league title since the start of the challenge. Luckily, reading the adventures of others over at the FM24 Youth Academy Challenge, as well as @_Ben_, @Punch, @CJ'43 and @Jimbokav1971 reignited the flame and inspired me to continue, at least until FM25 comes out. This is all fine and well, but some pretty serious challenges remain:

• I simply cannot be competitive in all competitions. Playing league, cup and European games continuously until March is killing my squad. I either have to rotate the team and lose ground early on, or squeeze the life out of my 14-15 best players and run out of juice by the time we compete for the league title in the Championship Playoff Group. So far I have been going with option no.1, resulting in getting left behind in the league. That's the result of my philosophy to always have 24 players at most and so far, I have been paying the price for it.
• For the past 18 seasons, I have gotten 3(!) players with significant Pace/Acceleration who were also capable of playing at our level. This restricts me to a great extent, as I have been wanting to play a high defensive line and press all over the pitch, which is a tactical suicide with my squad. But more on that on the next post.
• Similarly, all my leading figures in the first team have mediocre personalities with Determination ranging from 11 to 14, resulting in being bad influences for the newcomers who see their Determination and personalities worsen over time. This creates a feedback loop that stops me from improving the squad's personalities or even creating a Mentoring group strategy.
• Finally, I am not getting any set piece specialists through the intakes either. My best takers are in the range of 9 to 12, so we rarely score from free kicks, execute mostly short corners and pray to all the Gods during penalty kicks. Making no external transfers means that every detail counts more than ever and those details certainly hurt us.

Some important updates to get you up to speed:

AEK's reign of terror is finally over! After 17 straight league titles, AEK slipped and PAOK was there to be the first team other than AEK to win a league title in this save. We were close for most of it but ran out of steam when it mattered. I felt we were so close, so missing out on this chance was when I almost gave up.

Panionios' all-time leading scorer and captain for more than 10 years, Giannis Lazaridis, left the club after 16 years of service, 197 goals and 55 assists. Not bad for the 7th best player of my first intake (according to my staff at the time). He wanted to play more and I could not stand in his way after all he did for the club of his life. He's having a tough time in Cyprus, but I hope he can enjoy the nice weather and food before coming back to Athens as a staff member for us.

We can remain hopeful for the future though. Our best-ever academy product, Thanos Barkosis, is back at the club after a decent career in Europe. He played in the Premier League, Serie A and Ligue 1, before coming back to Panionios and replace Lazaridis as our captain.

The future is looking bright for a few of our recent academy products. Kouvidis is already a starter at 17 and had 13 goal involvements in his first season. He had a Resolute personality on intake day but unfortunately, the rest of the squad already brought him down a notch.

Kozakis is another player I am excited about. A tall striker who can also play as an AMC and AML, with already decent Mental Attributes for his age. He has the potential to be one of our best attacking player ever produced.

Finally, we made our biggest ever sale, with constant troublemaker Bajrami leaving for 17M to La Liga 2 team Rayo Majadahonda. He's unhappy there as well, which tells you everything you need to know about him. He was complaining about EVERYTHING. Wanted a new contract every year, sided with every player who was not playing, demanded to start in every game, etc. He's the best creative player we have produced, but his output was not worth the constant morale challenges he created for the rest of the team.

The club is in a great place financially and structurally, but the board will not let me max out our Youth facilities.

I'll try to stick with bi-monthly updates as soon as we completely catch up, as a way to slow down my gameplay and pay attention to more details.

 

Edited July 13 by BillHoudini24

[Punch]

Youth saves are hard work.

Not just from a motivation perspective, but as your progress up Leagues, it becomes harder to produce a constant stream of players to continue moving the club forward.

It's all about continuing to make small steps. Upgrade a facility, upgrade recruitment etc, which can sometimes be a battle with your Board to get approvals.

Don't forget to keep an eye out for staff upgrades, as better coaches, lead to better training, which leads to better player development.

I read in someone else's thread some time ago, that replacing your HoYD can take up to 5 years to show improvements, so it's not an instant process.

It's all bout taking those small steps, and being patient.

As an example, in my Guernsey save, I am now 22 seasons in, and am lucky to produce 1-2 players per intake that will make it to first team level, and I have had intakes where none of the players made it to first XI level.

And above all, have fun. It's a game, you're supposed to enjoy it. 

[Sheriff7]

Congratulations for the league mate! Huge achievement for Panionios! Every save is difficult to keep your motivation through years and especially these types of saves. Just think all the work-hours you spend for it and the time you have to spend for an fm save nowdays. At least that's what I do. 

[BillHoudini24]

1 hour ago, Sheriff7 said:

Congratulations for the league mate! Huge achievement for Panionios! Every save is difficult to keep your motivation through years and especially these types of saves. Just think all the work-hours you spend for it and the time you have to spend for an fm save nowdays. At least that's what I do. 

I didn't win it, just finished first before we split into the playoff groups After that PAOK was just too good and their 3-4-1-2 has been my kryptonite so far. Getting to that point though is a big step forward regardless. I still remember the first 4-5 seasons when we barely survived relegation.

Unless I get a golden gen soon, we're at least 10 years away from properly challenging for the league. Winning the UEFA Conference seems more likely right now.

12 hours ago, Punch said:

Youth saves are hard work.

Not just from a motivation perspective, but as your progress up Leagues, it becomes harder to produce a constant stream of players to continue moving the club forward.

It's all about continuing to make small steps. Upgrade a facility, upgrade recruitment etc, which can sometimes be a battle with your Board to get approvals.

Don't forget to keep an eye out for staff upgrades, as better coaches, lead to better training, which leads to better player development.

I read in someone else's thread some time ago, that replacing your HoYD can take up to 5 years to show improvements, so it's not an instant process.

It's all bout taking those small steps, and being patient.

As an example, in my Guernsey save, I am now 22 seasons in, and am lucky to produce 1-2 players per intake that will make it to first team level, and I have had intakes where none of the players made it to first XI level.

And above all, have fun. It's a game, you're supposed to enjoy it. 

I probably have a board without a huge focus on youth development, since the facility upgrade options are not even available anymore. We're the best academy in Greece by far, but not having maxed out Youth Facilities is becoming more and more of a hindrance.

I was not frustrated with our slow progress, but with the monotony of having AEK winning the league every single year. This is finally over though, which helps keep things interesting.

Doing this in the English leagues is absolutely insane, congrats on your patience!

[_Ben_]

You're absolutely smashing it - don't let you tell yourself otherwise! Some of the players you've developed are really high quality and you've absolutely put your stamp on the club. Keep going  - I implore you!

[BillHoudini24]

2 hours ago, _Ben_ said:

You're absolutely smashing it - don't let you tell yourself otherwise! Some of the players you've developed are really high quality and you've absolutely put your stamp on the club. Keep going  - I implore you!

We keep on going! After a Euro 2024 inspired tactical adjustment, we might be on to something.

[BillHoudini24]

Season 2040: PAOK is here to stay, battling against different systems and my key takeaway from Euro 2024

Slowly catching up with the present, as AEK have finally fallen off a cliff and PAOK establishing themselves as the next "team to beat" for the Greek title we have been chasing for almost 10 years. This short update will focus on:

• PAOK's interesting tactical choices, where they kill games off with the popular 3-4-2-1, following Southgate's dark arts;
• My tactical adjustment after a few years of stagnation, inspired by Nagelsmann's Germany.
• Our up-and-coming Greek stars.

PAOK, the tough nut to crack from northern Greece:

PAOK has been managed by the Czech Jan Sykora for the past 5 years. During this time, Jan has implemented (and dare I say perfected) his preferred 3-4-2-1 system, with a holding midfielder and a destroyer combination in the DM area, plus a killer striker up front.

He has been quite successful with this formation, winning two league titles and two Manager of the Year awards. The main reason behind his success is Pedro Barrero, a striker who seems to have our number lately. He's good in the air, he's fast and he doesn't waste any chances. Proof of that is his 106 goals in 5 years in Greece, becoming the league's boogeyman after Erabi's retirement.

By having 3 defenders and 2 relatively static midfielders, PAOK overloads the sides offensively while trying to create dangerous moments for Barrero. Once they score, it's quite easy to put bodies behind the ball and control the game. Most of our games have had less than 15 shots total and less than 3 key highlights. Quite boring if you ask me, but Sykora must be loving all this success.

But enough with PAOK and Sykora. We've been at each other's throats lately, but I have a feeling that he might be leaving without allowing me to get my revenge. Where does this leave us?

Time to face the music - Tactical adjustments:

Since I lost my best winger, we have been lacking pace in the attacking areas. My ideal strategy for this year would be to create a 3-2 pattern with a Libero, while my AMR/L provide width. A fundamental aspect of Youth Only Saves is that the reality is never ideal. In this case, it means that we cannot play like this, because our wingers are slow and thus, I need to find other ways to get attacking width.

That's where Nagelsmann's Germany comes in. It was the team I liked watching the most during this year's Euros and I thought they were the best team besides Spain. In addition to that, they combine a nice 2-2 pattern with Kroos dropping next to the CBs (Half Back), while the Full Backs provide width. With a bit of tinkering, I ended up with the following shape:

Sarris is playing the role of Kroos, distributing the first pass, while supporting the CBs defensively and our main objective is to get the ball to the front four, who basically have the creative freedom to do as they please. I am using a mid block because my CBs are not the fastest in our league and I don't know when that will change. Pace has been eluding me since the start of these intakes.

We ended up having a decent season after the change, going the distance against the Big 4 and Atromitos, a team with the second-best academy in Greece after ourselves. We had the same number of losses as champions PAOK, something that allows me to be more optimistic considering that now we will have an entire pre-season to work on the system and refine our approach.

Looking ahead - Panionios next gen:

After a few lucky intakes that gave us our main core for the next years, progress has stagnated a little bit, or maybe I got spoiled. Our current biggest prospects are the following:

Nontas Piperas might be our next keeper. He's already good enough to be a starter for Super League 2 teams, so he's out on loan to get some proper experience. I hope he does well, because GK is currently one of our weekest areas.

Evgenios Kolofotas looks promising, but his personality and low determination are reasons for concern. Without proper mentors, there is not much we can do, other than hope for a slight increase towards 7-8. Other than that, he has the potential to be at least a squad player, covering two positions in our system (DM-AMC).

Having talked about Pace a lot lately, Zavalis might be one of the answers to our problem. His Composure and Decisions are horrible, but his Physicals and overall profile look pretty decent for 15 years old.

We almost got to the present, so the next post will be probably a bit more action packed, with our efforts to qualify for the 2041 UEFA Conference League.

Edited July 15 by BillHoudini24

[_Ben_]

5 hours ago, BillHoudini24 said:

We ended up having a decent season after the change, going the distance against the Big 4 and Atromitos, a team with the second-best academy in Greece after ourselves. We had the same number of losses as champions PAOK, something that allows me to be more optimistic considering that now we will have an entire pre-season to work on the system and refine our approach.

Certainly a positive after a season of change. Your shape looks interesting! I’m guessing the job is to get advanced players into the dangerous areas - zone 14 - and then to crash the box? 

Obviously, the heat map does it a bit of a disservice - does it make a proper 3-3-3-1 in build up?

[BillHoudini24]

21 hours ago, _Ben_ said:

Certainly a positive after a season of change. Your shape looks interesting! I’m guessing the job is to get advanced players into the dangerous areas - zone 14 - and then to crash the box? 

Obviously, the heat map does it a bit of a disservice - does it make a proper 3-3-3-1 in build up?

I was planning to have a post dedicated to tactics, so thanks for the assist

I decided to change my tactical approach to achieve the following objectives:

• Get more out of my wide players. Having slow (for our level) wingers was proven counterproductive for the past 2-3 seasons.
• "Hide" my lack of game changers in the CM/DM area. We have good players there in terms of build-up, interceptions and overall ground coverage, but they're far from elite, or even great creative players.
• Take advantage of our large number of players in the AMC area. All of them can play on the sides, or even as CMs, but as you will see below, having them attack the space from that area helped them make the next step in their development.

During the build-up phase, we create a 3-1 shape with our Half Back dropping deep to create a 3-man defence.

Then, either by playing the ball forward, or by making interceptions in dangerous areas, we create situations where 4 players overwhelm the central areas of the pitch.

Our most common passing patterns are as follows - DC(L) and HB are moving the ball to our main creators. The AF is pretty isolated by default, the ideal would be to have a CF or DLF to participate more in possession:

As a result, we defend as a narrow 4-2-3-1:

But we attack as a 2-5-3, having a square between DC and DM, the AMC as the facilitator and AMC(R), AMC(L) + Striker attacking the box as soon as we get an opening:

Some very high-level stats from the first 2 months of the season - We are a team with more attacking options, while we hustle a lot defensively to create havoc during the opponents build-up phase:

This has resulted in a very promising start of the season, with plenty of goals scored, while looking solid in defence:

This tactical change has led to some players exploding this year:

Litainas has been a decent, if not underachieving winger, who is having the time of his life as an AMC(R). He already has 9 goals and 2 assists, with major European teams monitoring him, including PSG, Atletico Madrid and Real Madrid.

Apostolou is having a breakout year as well, using his Pace to influence our game in both ends of the pitch. He already has 7 assists, leading our team in the Greek Superleague and the UEFA Conference.

Our captain Barkosis came back from the Premier League to lead the side to new heights and he's been doing exactly that. A great leader, with 2 goals and 6 assists, being a constant headache against any formation. He has the football IQ to know when to stay wide and when to cut inside.

It's too early to predict where this season is going, but we're having fun on the pitch and we seem to get more out of every player.

 

Edited July 16 by BillHoudini24

[_Ben_]

2 hours ago, BillHoudini24 said:

During the build-up phase, we create a 3-1 shape with our Half Back dropping deep to create a 3-man defence.

Lovely shape! How press resistant is your DM? My pragmatic manager-self would worry that, if he's going to be the focal point of your build up - and, honestly, why wouldn't you with the attacking threat ahead of him - but I just worry that, if he's even a little lightweight, he'll get targeted and crunched!

Obviously, a million times harder in a youth only save, though!

[BillHoudini24]

23 hours ago, _Ben_ said:

Lovely shape! How press resistant is your DM? My pragmatic manager-self would worry that, if he's going to be the focal point of your build up - and, honestly, why wouldn't you with the attacking threat ahead of him - but I just worry that, if he's even a little lightweight, he'll get targeted and crunched!

Obviously, a million times harder in a youth only save, though!

Managing in Italy definitely has had an effect on you!

Against most teams, we are fine, despite my midfield's lacklustre Passing attribute. Luckily, they're strong lads so we're focusing on counter-pressing in the rare event of losing the ball in dangerous areas.

 

Season 2040, Part 2: Don't get your hopes up!

We are in good form, beating all teams we should be beating and doing so in style if I may add! October was literally perfect, but then we came down to earth against fellow league leaders AEK and Panathinaikos. The only positive I can find there is that we played them away from home, so might be able to catch up later in the season.

Besides Litainas who's been on fire since the beginning, I tried my second striker as a DLF(S), in my attempt to unlock low blocks and he's currently giving me a headache for the starting striker spot. Perdikis was an underperforming striker for us in the role of the pure goalscorer, so when I received a 10M offer from Alaves I didn't hesitate for a second to move him on. A few years later, he was willing to return as a Squad option, only now he's more suitable to the way we play. This year he already has 10 goals in only 7 starts, providing us with a different player profile for those stubbornly defensive teams.

Speaking of underperforming players coming back into form, Tsiribis had a few tough years playing as a winger, with his lack of Pace being a glaring weakness. He was able to reinvent himself as an AMC, providing 7 goals and 3 assists so far, albeit against weaker teams.

We've surprised ourselves in Europe, qualifying with two games to spare. Again, the level in the Conference League is not the best, but going far in Europe is definitely not a given for us.

In Greece, the situation is more complicated. PAOK seems to be back to normal after tearing the league apart for 2 years, while AEK, Panathinaikos and Olympiacos seem to be our main rivals.

Youth Watch:

It's a consolidating year for Kouvidis, who's getting used to the demands of first-team football week in and week out. I want to see more from him in terms of pure output (2G, 4A), but he's doing well in facilitating those around him, which is his primary objective.

In defence, Vonortas is back after 2 years of getting first-team football in Greek SL2 and the second tier of Belgium. He's the pleasant surprise so far by becoming our third CB, offering a reliable option in easier games.

Finally, Tsangaris is also a byproduct of our loan policy. Inspired by Chelsea FC, we loan everyone over 18 years old who has some potential but will not find any game time in our current squad. Most of them end up released or sold, but occasionally a player will improve enough to get a chance. Tsangaris spent 4 years on loan in SL2 teams, getting approximately 110 games as a starting GK. He's now our starting keeper with a 7.10 avg rating across all competitions. He won't improve any further, but he's a good option while we wait for the next big GK intake and he might become our first mentor if he doesn't get influenced by the squad's personalities.

 

Edited July 17 by BillHoudini24

[BillHoudini24]

Season 2040, Part 3: The comedown

Even though I never had such a good start before, I knew that we could not afford any long periods in mediocre form, as the top 6 in Greece are always quite tight. Unfortunately, playing in 3 competitions was proven too much for us once again. For most of the regular season, we seemed to do well against everyone besides those around us on the league table. That was until February when 4 losses in a row completely derailed our season.

Luckily, we had other competitions to cheer us up and motivate us to finish the season as strong as possible. In the cup, we are through to another final since 2037/38, where we face SL1 relegation candidate Volos. Dispatching the SL1 overachievers of the season Levadeiakos (currently 2nd) and the powerhouse that is AEK gives me a lot of confidence. Massive chance for me to get another trophy to our cabinet. Cup specialist? Let's not jinx it!

In the UEFA Conference League, we've been almost flawless, finishing top of the league table and reaching the Semi-Finals where we face Augsburg, who are currently 6th in the Bundesliga. This is our best-ever European campaign, after a couple of Quarter Finals in the Europa League.

With all that being said, here is our current situation:

There really is not much to complain about. We are battling against the Big 4 and a giant-killer Levadeiakos and we're still in for 2 trophies. I don't expect us to reach the final against Sevilla, but I'd be disappointed to lose the Greek Cup.

Meanwhile, I am getting close to 1000 games and rejected the biggest job offer of this save.

The next post is about a very exciting youth intake and the last stretch of our busy season.

Edited July 20 by BillHoudini24

[_Ben_]

49 minutes ago, BillHoudini24 said:

There really is not much to complain about. We are battling against the Big 4 and a giant-killer Levadeiakos and we're still in for 2 trophies. I don't expect us to reach the final against Sevilla, but I'd be disappointed to lose the Greek Cup.

I think you're doing amazingly! What's your record like in Europe? I've forgotten!

[BillHoudini24]

14 hours ago, _Ben_ said:

I think you're doing amazingly! What's your record like in Europe? I've forgotten!

Things are looking up indeed, assuming that I won't have a busy summer with teams hunting down my best players.

We only started to play regularly in Europe quite recently, but we've had a few successful campaigns.

Europa League:

Lost to AC Milan in the Quarter Final (2035/36)

Lost to RB Leipzig in the Quarter Final (2037/38)

Lost to Roma in the Round of 16 (2040/41)

 

UEFA Conference League:

Lost to Hertha Berlin in the Round of 16 (2036/37)

Lost to Augsburg in the Semi Final (2041/42)

 

No Champions League football as it's a privilege for the league's top 2. However, our consistency in participation helped increase our reputation, keep the club financially healthy and keep our best players, as more often than not, the clubs interested in them were not playing continental football.

Edited July 21 by BillHoudini24

[BillHoudini24]

Season 2040, Part 4: The Legacy continues

It was a busy and difficult season at times. Besides the fixture congestion, we also had a huge wave of injuries around the middle of the season, with our captain Tsiribis being out for 8 months with cruciate ligaments. He was a big loss, as he was our first rotation option to our 3 starting AMs. He is back now, without a big dip in attributes, so I hope he can retain his status.

Despite all the setbacks, we were able to win our third Greek Cup, in a one-sided final against the already relegated team of Volos. The highlight of the final was Marios Antoniou's goal, he is an 18-year-old midfielder already knocking on the first team door, with a season total of 3 goals. He got his chance during the injury crisis and never went back to the U19s.

The highlight of the tournament for us was the penalty shoot-out against AEK in the Semi Final. When it mattered most, our next big thing Akis Toptidis stepped up and scored his penalty, becoming the youngest player to ever play in the competition.

He already looks fantastic and could easily play for the first team, but I don't want the rest of the squad to bring down his Determination and Personality. For that reason, I am sacrificing short-term gains and I will be waiting for him to get promoted once he's less likely to get influenced. He is already our best set piece and penalty taker.

This cup win was the reason I was included in the Greek Managerial Hall of Fame. I am 5th on the list, but everyone above me has retired, so I hope I can finish the save at the top spot.

It was a season of records in general.

Giannis Antonis had a "Lewandowski" moment and scored 4 goals in 11 minutes in a league game against Volos.

Apostolou was a creative force at left Full Back, providing 18 assists, edging out our vice-captain Barkosis who had 17. He used to have a Driven Personality as well, but got worse due to early first-team football.

Tsangaris broke a 15-year-old record with his 22 Clean Sheets, before leaving for 8(+3)M to Nantes in Ligue 1. He was pretty good and consistent, but we had a major return in his position, so it was time to move him on.

 

We ended up having a good turnaround in the league, getting to 3rd place which got us direct qualification to the Europa League group stage. AEK is back, hopefully not for long.

Finally, besides Toptidis, this year's intake had our first player who is not Greek, or Albanian. Mattia Ambrogio is an Australian-Italian, by-product of our agreement with South Melbourne FC. He needs a lot of work, but I think we will have a very dangerous attacking side in 2 to 4 years.

During the pre-season, it was time for some changes in the first team squad, while maintaining our loan army. But more on that on the next post.

Edited July 21 by BillHoudini24

[_Ben_]

Firstly - congratulations on the cup win!

52 minutes ago, BillHoudini24 said:

He already looks fantastic and could easily play for the first team, but I don't want the rest of the squad to bring down his Determination and Personality. For that reason, I am sacrificing short-term gains and I will be waiting for him to get promoted once he's less likely to get influenced. He is already our best set piece and penalty taker.

What are your developmental thoughts on him? That speed off the mark and technique are great but does lack a little mentally. Obviously - he's insane for 16 so that is an over-reaction to his slight lack of roundedness! Any traits you think would benefit him down the line?

53 minutes ago, BillHoudini24 said:

Finally, besides Toptidis, this year's intake had our first player who is not Greek, or Albanian. Mattia Ambrogio is an Australian-Italian, by-product of our agreement with South Melbourne FC. He needs a lot of work, but I think we will have a very dangerous attacking side in 2 to 4 years.

Particularly with him looking a very different type! I think he could be the left sided AM in your shape, personally. Not fast (again, overall, not for his age) but can drift into pockets and put the ball into the net. I think he's great!

The future looks so bright for you.

[BillHoudini24]

1 hour ago, _Ben_ said:

Firstly - congratulations on the cup win!

What are your developmental thoughts on him? That speed off the mark and technique are great but does lack a little mentally. Obviously - he's insane for 16 so that is an over-reaction to his slight lack of roundedness! Any traits you think would benefit him down the line?

Thanks! Having 3 out of 3 in finals is very uncharacteristic in my 18 years of playing FM, I'll definitely take it!

I am not particularly concerned about Toptidis' Mentals, those seem to sort themselves out with a bit of time and game experience. I'd like him to grow a bit in height so that I could finally have a Complete Forward, but he seems quite well-rounded already.

As a general principle, in the first year of development, I follow a generalist approach, so I train every player in the role of their position that covers the most attributes. As time goes on and they start to develop, I opt for more specialist roles and individual training schemes.

In terms of traits, I'll probably start with "Moves into Channels" and take it from there, depending on how he does in terms of Finishing, First Touch and Technique. "First time shots" would be interesting in case his Composure doesn't increase. His main problem is that he's somewhat injury prone according to the staff reports, but so far so good.

On the positives, he had a goal in the UEFA Conference League, becoming our youngest ever goalscorer and this year he already scored in the Europa League. He broke a 65 year old record!

1 hour ago, _Ben_ said:

Particularly with him looking a very different type! I think he could be the left sided AM in your shape, personally. Not fast (again, overall, not for his age) but can drift into pockets and put the ball into the net. I think he's great!

The future looks so bright for you.

 

My vision for Mattia is some kind of "Thomas Muller" profile. A seemingly invisible player who suddenly gets in dangerous areas for a goal or assist. Being slow and not particularly tall will probably be a problem at the top level, but I hope he can become a player that shines through our system.

Edited July 21 by BillHoudini24

[BillHoudini24]

Season 2042, Part 1: The grass is not always greener on the other side

We started the transfer period with only one transfer, the return of the best keeper we ever produced, Kosmas Daras, after a disastrous adventure with Brentford in the Premier League. He was eager to leave back then, but now he was even more keen to come back. We paid half the price we sold him for, the definition of good business.

At the same time, besides Tsangaris who left for Ligue 1, it was time to say goodbye to one of our most reliable soldiers, Christos Samaras. The most promising player of the 2030 youth intake, he had a decent career with us, as shown by his almost 300 appearances (11G, 20A). His playing time was getting less and less, so it was time to move him on. Getting 2M from Ligue 2 team Troyes was more than enough.

He is replaced by Polydoros Toumasis, who spent the last two seasons tearing up the Greek Super League 2, with 26 goals and 18 assists. He is currently doing well as an AMC rotation option.

The rest of the transfer window was spent in trying to loan out the army of players (currently 20) that are not ready to play for the first team, but are too old for the U19s.

We are being criticised by the media about our "Chelsea-like" practices, but it's the only way to determine whether these players can play a role for us or not. Most of them will be sold soon, but two of them have the potential to return and fight for their place in the club.

Fontas Chaniotis is a tricky winger on a budget, I hope he can improve his Mentals by playing in Bundesliga 2, one of the toughest leagues in Europe.

Tolis Christogeorgos is a "Morata" type of player, not particularly gifted technically, but with great Mentals and decent Physicals. His window seems to be closing with Toptidis and Ambrogio coming up, but I have a feeling that he might develop into a decent utility player for us.

 

We had a fantastic start to the season!

If I could choose a game to lose points, it would be away to Genk. Getting equalised in the last kick of the game was annoying, but being perfect in the league more than makes up for it.

AEK had their manager poached by Brentford at the worst possible time for them, as they didn't complete any meaningful transfers and started the season with a caretaker manager.

Our great start is a result of Antonis' 7 goals in the league, Litainas' 4 goals and 2 assists, along with the obscene creative output by my fullbacks, who have a combined 8 assists.

To wrap this post up, Thanasis Sarris broke the appearance club record, with 461. It was a record that lasted almost 80 years, held by Panionios legend Stathis Chaitas.

Thanasis has been with me since our only season in the Greek Superleague 2, back in 2025. He has slowed down quite a bit, but he's still a reliable option at Half Back and a good presence in the locker room.

Edited July 21 by BillHoudini24

[BillHoudini24]

Season 2042, Part 2: Everybody stay calm!

Winning the league is one of the major goals of this save. Greece might not be a top 5 league, but the big 4 (Olympiacos, AEK, PAOK, Panathinaikos) spend a lot of money every transfer window compared to the rest of the teams, have big stadiums that they sell out consistently and play in some European competition every year. I still remember the huge distance we had to cover when we got promoted to SL1 back in 2025.

I am aware of the power of the jinx, but this might be the year. We've been unplayable in the league and not just with teams outside the top 6, but against the big guys too.

Big wins against our nemesis PAOK, but also did the double against Panathinaikos and Olympiacos, while surviving at home against AEK. Outside of the derbies, we've had some very high scoring games against teams of the relegation group, excluding the freak home loss against Kalamata. I cannot complain though, with 66 goals for and 20 against, we are running away with the title.

In Europe, I started rotating the squad quite a bit once I realised our chance to write domestic history, so unfortunately we have to play two extra games to determine whether we'll continue our adventure in the Europa League or not. We don't have the squad to be contenders at this level, so our focus is 100% on winning Panionios' first ever league title.

Our narrow 4-2-3-1 with a Half Back has been working wonders. We have been able to combine having a distinct goal scorer in Antonis (17G, 3A), with a very fluid system where every player is contributing.

My fullbacks Barkosis and Apostolou have a combined 5 goals and 22 assists, being our main creative outlets, while Abazi (9G, 6A), Perdikis (9G, 3A) and Litainas (11G, 8A) are feasting with all this open space we are able to create through constant movement.

Litainas has had his head turned by huge Real Madrid, Barcelona and Juventus bids, so I promised to sell him after this season. His current value is around 60M, so I hope I can get a record transfer fee for him once we become Greek champions. He will be a major loss for us, he's currently in the top 3 players we've ever produced.

Youth Watch:

It has been a year with less experimentation, but there are still some prospects that have been able to play a big part in our current form.

• Kouvidis has made a step up compared to last year, becoming our facilitator at 19 years old. He has 5 goals and 3 assists in a connecting role and I am sure he will continue improving.
• Nontas Piperas is our big GK project for the next 5 years. He got a chance when my main keeper got injured for 2 months and since then he's been playing in our cup competitions. Definitely one to watch for the future.
• Stratos Anapliotis seems to be the first decent CB we produced after almost 10 seasons. He has been involved in the main squad a few times and has done well. I hope he continues his progress, as we are running out of quality CBs.

I could not wrap this up without our biggest talent. Akis Toptidis is already a Superleague 1 striker at 16 and has managed to score 8 goals in the small cameo appearances that I've given him this year. I don't know if he has the potential to be a Champions League striker, but he's definitely on his way to becoming the best Panionios academy product. It will be very difficult not to play him next year, but with Antonis and Perdikis being on fire at the Striker position, I am having doubts about the next steps for Toptidis.

We also have an interesting upcoming intake, about time we get another good midfielder!

 

Edited July 25 by BillHoudini24

[Sheriff7]

This should  be your season! Great opportunity to win the league!

[naufal husain]

Can't wait for next update. Definitely my favorite threads right now

[BillHoudini24]

On 24/07/2024 at 00:33, Sheriff7 said:

This should  be your season! Great opportunity to win the league!

Definitely, we never started a season like this and the timing is great since most of the big 4 seem to be rebuilding.

3 hours ago, naufal husain said:

Can't wait for next update. Definitely my favorite threads right now

Thanks man, glad you like it! It's my first proper youth-only save. I tried the same in Wales 7-8 years ago, played 5 seasons and then lost the save files.

I don't know if I'll stick to it until a Champions League win, having 10 nations loaded has made that a bit too difficult for me, but I'll definitely try to win a Conference or Europa League.

[BillHoudini24]

Season 2042, Part 3: In the end, it was worth it

I vividly remember our first 7-8 seasons in Greece's top flight. Losing 5 to 10 games in a row every start of the season, barely surviving, scoring less than 30 goals, you name it, we experienced all the miserable things that make a relegation challenge exciting. At the same time, the big 4 were playing in Europe, signing players that cost as much as our entire club, upgrading facilities, and expanding/changing stadiums. I thought the distance was too big, I thought that we would never rise to their level.

Luckily, I was wrong. 2042-2043 was our season. We had 2 losses before I started giving game time to squad players. I wanted to reward everyone because it was the first time I got something from every player in the first team. We went into the playoffs with a 17-point lead and just that one freak loss against Kalamata, I think that tells you everything you need to know. Olympiacos and PAOK had shocking seasons, which definitely helped.

We would be the bottlers of the century if we lost the league under these circumstances, but we didn't. Panathinaikos finished the season brilliantly, but it was too little too late to catch up with us.

We clinched the league with 3 games to go, after that it was party time.

A bittersweet moment was when I saw Lazaridis' comments about me. Unfortunately, he retired recently after two years of vacation in Cyprus, but I would have gladly taken him in, just to celebrate the title with us. He is our all-time leading scorer and one of our best players after all.

After a miraculous year such as this one, it was normal to dominate most awards.

Apostolou had a fantastic season offensively, with 2 goals, 14 assists and 13 clean sheets, proving he's one of the most well-rounded fullbacks in Greece. The Greek National manager continuously snubs him, but this might change moving forward.

Toptidis needs his own section, but there is no better time to talk about him. He only played 7(5) games in the league, but scored 7 goals and had 2 assists. At the same time, he had 7 goals in 5(1) cup appearances and 1 goal in the Europa League. The crazy part? He's still 16. He might be the one to break Lazaridis' record if we are able to keep him at the club. I've never had a newgen like this before, especially in Greece.

Abazi had a normal season for his standards, I think his all-time high average rating is a result of having better players around him, rather than his own performance. He has developed nicely, despite losing 4 points in Determination since being promoted to the first team.

Same story in the Greek Player of the Year awards:

Litainas was absolutely brilliant once again, despite being unhappy for most of the year. I promised to let him go and I think there is no better time than that, he gave us his all. From being an underwhelming third option winger, to Greek League and Cup champion. His 16 goals, 10 assists and 7.45 average rating show clearly that he was our best player. His value has dropped significantly compared to January, but I'll see how much I will be able to get for him.

Signing Barkosis back from Sunderland was the spark that started it all. Our vice-captain is almost the perfect player. Never seems to put a wrong foot, never complains, while putting up crazy numbers. He finished this season with 5 goals and 15 assists. He's 29 now, but remains the starting right back for Greece, with 71 appearances. I don't know how long he can continue like this with 10 in Natural Fitness, but I will never force one of our legends out of the club.

Speaking of legends, I finally made it! Another major goal of this save is accomplished.

Remember when I said I have a chance of topping the Hall of Fame table? Never mind, I was looking at the Greek Managers' section.

Finally, as I already spoiled above, we are back-to-back Greek Cup winners, getting our total up to 4! It was a proper thriller against Atromitos, one of our bogey teams due to their insanely fast attacking line. With the score being 2-2 towards the end, I was getting ready for extra time, when Litainas came out of nowhere to score probably his last goal for Panionios, giving us the domestic double!

Next year we will be playing Champions League football for the first time. I am excited about that, but since there is no chance of winning it, it still feels like a filler season. Before retiring this save I have one last goal, which is to win a European trophy. We were very close 2 years ago with the Conference League Semi Final, but now that the board expects us to challenge for the league, I don't know how we'll end up down there again without getting in trouble.

Edited July 26 by BillHoudini24

[naufal husain]

That was truly well deserved 

How's your Europe journey?

[BillHoudini24]

3 hours ago, naufal husain said:

That was truly well deserved 

How's your Europe journey?

Thank you! It was the first time we played on a different level compared to the rest of the league and I am excited for the future, once our next gen is ready to be at least in the squad rotation.

We only started to play regularly in Europe quite recently, but we've had a few successful campaigns.

Europa League:

Lost to AC Milan in the Quarter Final (2035/36)

Lost to RB Leipzig in the Quarter Final (2037/38)

Lost to Roma in the Round of 16 (2040/41)

Lost to PAOK in the Knock Out playoffs (2042/2043)

 

UEFA Conference League:

Lost to Hertha Berlin in the Round of 16 (2036/37)

Lost to Augsburg in the Semi Final (2041/42)

 

So far we've been a yoyo club between these competitions so I've started to know them pretty well. Europa League tends to have 2 to 3 giants of the game every season, so winning it or getting far is a matter of luck more than anything else.

The Conference League is far more manageable, but our recent League positions make it impossible to play there. I believe I could win this in the next 5 seasons, but my board would be furious because since winning the Greek Superleague title they increased their domestic expectations significantly.

The next season is our first Champions League season, I am looking forward to seeing the overall level of the competition and the distance we would have to cover in order to be something more than just a punching bag for the big teams.

Overall, having more than 10 nations loaded in a youth-only save is nice for realism, universe creation, and all that, but makes it way more difficult to challenge for European competitions. Realistically, I'd need at least 20 more years for a Champions League push and I am already looking into retiring this save. I missed scouting, recruiting players, changing clubs, etc.

Edited July 26 by BillHoudini24

[Deisler26]

On 25/07/2024 at 08:12, BillHoudini24 said:

Season 2042, Part 3: In the end, it was worth it

I vividly remember our first 7-8 seasons in Greece's top flight. Losing 5 to 10 games in a row every start of the season, barely surviving, scoring less than 30 goals, you name it, we experienced all the miserable things that make a relegation challenge exciting. At the same time, the big 4 were playing in Europe, signing players that cost as much as our entire club, upgrading facilities, and expanding/changing stadiums. I thought the distance was too big, I thought that we would never rise to their level.

Luckily, I was wrong. 2042-2043 was our season. We had 2 losses before I started giving game time to squad players. I wanted to reward everyone because it was the first time I got something from every player in the first team. We went into the playoffs with a 17-point lead and just that one freak loss against Kalamata, I think that tells you everything you need to know. Olympiacos and PAOK had shocking seasons, which definitely helped.

We would be the bottlers of the century if we lost the league under these circumstances, but we didn't. Panathinaikos finished the season brilliantly, but it was too little too late to catch up with us.

We clinched the league with 3 games to go, after that it was party time.

A bittersweet moment was when I saw Lazaridis' comments about me. Unfortunately, he retired recently after two years of vacation in Cyprus, but I would have gladly taken him in, just to celebrate the title with us. He is our all-time leading scorer and one of our best players after all.

After a miraculous year such as this one, it was normal to dominate most awards.

Apostolou had a fantastic season offensively, with 2 goals, 14 assists and 13 clean sheets, proving he's one of the most well-rounded fullbacks in Greece. The Greek National manager continuously snubs him, but this might change moving forward.

Toptidis needs his own section, but there is no better time to talk about him. He only played 7(5) games in the league, but scored 7 goals and had 2 assists. At the same time, he had 7 goals in 5(1) cup appearances and 1 goal in the Europa League. The crazy part? He's still 16. He might be the one to break Lazaridis' record if we are able to keep him at the club. I've never had a newgen like this before, especially in Greece.

Abazi had a normal season for his standards, I think his all-time high average rating is a result of having better players around him, rather than his own performance. He has developed nicely, despite losing 4 points in Determination since being promoted to the first team.

Same story in the Greek Player of the Year awards:

Litainas was absolutely brilliant once again, despite being unhappy for most of the year. I promised to let him go and I think there is no better time than that, he gave us his all. From being an underwhelming third option winger, to Greek League and Cup champion. His 16 goals, 10 assists and 7.45 average rating show clearly that he was our best player. His value has dropped significantly compared to January, but I'll see how much I will be able to get for him.

Signing Barkosis back from Sunderland was the spark that started it all. Our vice-captain is almost the perfect player. Never seems to put a wrong foot, never complains, while putting up crazy numbers. He finished this season with 5 goals and 15 assists. He's 29 now, but remains the starting right back for Greece, with 71 appearances. I don't know how long he can continue like this with 10 in Natural Fitness, but I will never force one of our legends out of the club.

Speaking of legends, I finally made it! Another major goal of this save is accomplished.

Remember when I said I have a chance of topping the Hall of Fame table? Never mind, I was looking at the Greek Managers' section.

Finally, as I already spoiled above, we are back-to-back Greek Cup winners, getting our total up to 4! It was a proper thriller against Atromitos, one of our bogey teams due to their insanely fast attacking line. With the score being 2-2 towards the end, I was getting ready for extra time, when Litainas came out of nowhere to score probably his last goal for Panionios, giving us the domestic double!

Next year we will be playing Champions League football for the first time. I am excited about that, but since there is no chance of winning it, it still feels like a filler season. Before retiring this save I have one last goal, which is to win a European trophy. We were very close 2 years ago with the Conference League Semi Final, but now that the board expects us to challenge for the league, I don't know how we'll end up down there again without getting in trouble.

Best of luck in the CL. I found it was always best for the first few qualifications to play the backups in the tournament and save the first team for the league

[BillHoudini24]

2 hours ago, Deisler26 said:

Best of luck in the CL. I found it was always best for the first few qualifications to play the backups in the tournament and save the first team for the league

Thanks! Luckily the Greek champion qualifies directly for the Group Stage. We already have enough games as it is

[_Ben_]

25 minutes ago, BillHoudini24 said:

Thanks! Luckily the Greek champion qualifies directly for the Group Stage. We already have enough games as it is

Eight more games is eight more opportunities to develop your youngsters! Good luck for the season ahead!

[BillHoudini24]

Season 2043, Part 1:Dealing with pressure

There were 3 reasons I took a short break from this save:

• Having to sell my best player Litainas, after having promised him that more than 6 months ago, knowing that his departure would weaken us significantly.
• Having no real hope of doing anything of note in the Champions League, even though we qualified directly into the Group Stage.
• Having to deal with significantly increased board/fan expectations for the first time since I started this save.

Turns out I was right for all 3 of those elements.

During the summer transfer window, we had to say goodbye to our most loyal soldier, Sarris, who wanted a new challenge and more playing time at the twilight of his career. He would play max 5-8 games for us moving forward, so I didn't think it was right to keep him at Panionios. One of the last "one club men" in football was no more. He ended up playing more than 500 games for us.

At the same time, Litainas was becoming more and more unhappy and once I saw how indifferent he was during our first games, I knew it was time to cash out. Roma was willing to pay 30M to make him their starting left Winger, so now, Litainas broke our transfer record and is no longer a Panionios player. It's an absolutely huge loss that I don't know how to mitigate.

Panicking from the lack of a player ready to step up in his position, I took a big gamble and signed back our ex-player and known troublemaker Bajrami. I hope the four years he spent struggling in La Liga 2 and Serie B put some sense into him, because he is our only hope.

Exciting times in the Champions League, as we have never played at this level of football before and looking at our draw, we can aim for a win and/or a couple of draws.

Luckily, we got our first win against the Slovenian champions, Olimpija Lublana, with Toptidis scoring, making him the first player in Panionios history to score in all 3 European competitions.

This is where the trouble begins though, as we have been struggling at the start of the season.

This doesn't look like a title-contending form, not even top 2 which is the board expectation. And to put the icing on the cake, Litainas is leading the first wave of criticism against me.

I am a club legend, so I wouldn't worry too much right now, but I am getting ready for a tough season ahead.

Edited August 9 by BillHoudini24

[_Ben_]

6 hours ago, BillHoudini24 said:

There were 3 reasons I took a short break from this save:

• Having to sell my best player Litainas, after having promised him that more than 6 months ago, knowing that his departure would weaken us significantly.
• Having no real hope of doing anything of note in the Champions League, even though we qualified directly into the Group Stage.
• Having to deal with significantly increased board/fan expectations for the first time since I started this save.

Turns out I was right for all 3 of those elements.

This is the ebb and flow of this style of game! I'm hoping that, despite your struggles, you're still involved as I've enjoyed following.

[BillHoudini24]

20 hours ago, _Ben_ said:

This is the ebb and flow of this style of game! I'm hoping that, despite your struggles, you're still involved as I've enjoyed following.

Exactly! Luckily, besides those hardships, there are also little things here and there that push you forward.

For example, last year I already knew Litainas would be leaving, so I started activating project "Chaniotis 2044".

Chaniotis was a decent looking winger, but nowhere near close to first team football. I was very lucky to receive a loan offer from Darmstadt in Bundesliga 2, so he spent a year playing in a very competitive league.

This year, he came back, was forced to swim in the deep and even though his numbers are not spectacular (1G, 6A), he's showing great promise.

At the same time, another very young striker announced his name on the biggest stage. Oustabasidis scored in our home loss against Benfica (2-3) during the Champions League Group Stage, making himself the competition's youngest ever goalscorer. It was also his Panionios debut.

Later in the season, the FM gods probably felt I needed an extra push to keep going, so they gave me this intake for 2044:

Two very promising strikers in Tsaouselis and the randomly Polish Wojcik, giving us enough depth for our next-gen striking force.

Psoras is already developing very well and has the potential to be the next starting DM(S) in our narrow 4-2-3-1.

Finally, Richard Sellwood is another gift from our Australian affiliation, but he will have fierce competition to face, as the previous intake produced 3 very good AMCs.

 

So, not everything is bleak, we are still in it to defend our domestic double, but having to challenge for everything domestically moving forward makes it difficult to give these young players early opportunities.

Edited August 10 by BillHoudini24

[Deisler26]

I like Wojcik, but he’ll require some serious training

[BillHoudini24]

9 hours ago, Deisler26 said:

I like Wojcik, but he’ll require some serious training

He has the potential to be a factor for us moving forward for sure, especially since half of Europe's best teams are after my wonderkid.

He scored 30 goals across two seasons, he has been ready to start for a while, I just didn't want to bring his Determination down by having him in the first team full-time. He has a 583M release clause, but when Milan, Inter and Juventus think he can break into their first team sooner than expected, it's a matter of time before we receive a huge offer for him.

The biggest achievement of last season though was the following:

After 10 years of being stuck with Excellent Youth Facilities, the board finally agreed to take us to the next level. This will allow for better players and even better development between the ages of 15 to 17.

[BillHoudini24]

Season 2043, Parts 2 and 3: Showing what we're made off

This season was a totally new experience for me, the club and the kids. My main observations for this one, but also for the ones coming:

• I don't particularly like playing with the pressure of winning everything domestically. Usually, I play as the underdog on FM and once I reach the top, I move on to the next club or save. So, being in this situation moving forward will be a challenge, both for pulling it off every year, but also doing it while giving enough opportunities to the next-gen of Panionios players.
• Champions League is the definition of deep waters, we are way off being relevant at this level of European football.
• We are getting 2 to 5 good prospects every year, so it's a matter of remaining patient. It's been a minute since I had a good fullback coming in, but we made it so far, I'm sure we'll get lucky at some point.

Going for maximum suspense, I'll start with our first-ever Champions League campaign.

We made history by winning a game and getting our first points at the top level of European football. We also had 3 close calls against Benfica, Southampton (PL top 4) and Napoli, but our lack of experience and my rotation cost us a chance of getting into the knockout qualifying round. Long way to go, but at least we made a positive record with one of our latest prospects becoming the youngest ever goalscorer in the history of the competition.

Vasilis has improved since then, but his Mental Attributes and Stamina need a lot of work to push him over to the first team. The plan is to loan him once he turns 18 and see how far he can get before turning 21. I am cautiously optimistic, the only issue is that we need the strikers to be more well-rounded if we want to make it to the next level.

Moving onto the Greek Cup, we had another lucky year, only facing PAOK on our way to a three-peat.

The final against Niki Volou looks closer than it actually was, we were up 3-0 with a heavily rotated side, starting a 16-year-old at AMC.

Finally, our main goal: Having a successful Super League title defence. It was way closer than last year, but we showed incredible determination to overcome our mediocre start of the season and winning our second league title.

It was totally deserved, since we went undefeated in the Championship playoff group against Olympiacos, AEK, PAOK, Panathinaikos and Atromitos, the five best teams in the country.

I am a long way from the top of Greece's Hall of Fame, but the top 3 is within reach. AEK's reign of terror for 15 years can be seen here as well, with Almeyda, Thelin and Croci-Torti dominating in the top 10.

Our captain and starting right fullback Barkosis was the player of the season, with 3 goals and 16 assists. He wants to leave but agreed to do so only if his 17M release clause is met, but it's definitely a concern with our lack of options in his position. He has the potential to become our most influential player ever if he stays.

Saying that Bajrami proved me wrong would be an understatement. Not only he became a Perfectionist, but he also put up similar numbers as Litainas, helping us forget the latter's departure to Roma. 11 goals and 6 assists is by far his best-ever season and I think he can be even better.

I've mentioned Toptidis too many times already, but he deserves it. 17 goals without being a proper starter, scoring and assisting in the toughest games. Keeping him long-term is probably wishful thinking, but why not if we become a Champions League regular?

Our two last interesting nuggets:

The (football) love of my life came calling to lead the post-Klopp era. I would have jumped at that opportunity in another universe, but we have a job to finish with Panionios.

The board is developing crazier and crazier expectations, top 2 in the league and Semi-Final in the Cup, we basically need to be flawless from now on.

With our Youth Facilities catching up with the best in the world, I hope we can get into the final stretch of this adventure that has lasted 21 in-game years and 937 games.

 

 

Edited August 10 by BillHoudini24

[naufal husain]

how's your loan army? any potential first teamer or no?

[BillHoudini24]

11 minutes ago, naufal husain said:

how's your loan army? any potential first teamer or no?

I did a major clearout during the summer break, selling players that had some value but would never make it into the first team.

This left us with a smaller list of players to be loaned out:

Out of those 13 players, I can only see 3 of them becoming something between fringe to squad options for the first team:

Fivos Kozakis looked way more promising on intake day, but was quickly overshadowed by Toptidis and the 2043-2044 intakes. He's tall with decent Technicals-Mentals, but his lack of speed will be the reason why he won't be playing much if not at all for us. He had a cracking season in the division below with 15 goals and 5 assists.

Our first Australian newgen has similar issues. Can strike a ball, moves into the right areas, but his Physicals are letting him down. 3rd-4th striker option is the best case scenario right now.

Georgakopoulos case is such as shame. Could have developed into a luxury player at no.10 for us, but his complete lack of Determination and his Trait seem to be too much to overcome. I hope I can get some cash for him in the next two years.

Occasionally, a player will prove me wrong and develop plenty while on loan, but I don't see it happening with this group of players. I would describe them as the middle period between our last golden generation and the next.

[_Ben_]

1 hour ago, BillHoudini24 said:

I remember being so excited about him! Shame he hasn't quite kicked on. Unless I've got the wrong Aussie here?!

- - -

Huge congrats on the league win, almost against all odds! How do you see the summer panning out?

[BillHoudini24]

1 hour ago, _Ben_ said:

I remember being so excited about him! Shame he hasn't quite kicked on. Unless I've got the wrong Aussie here?!

It's the same guy! I was right there with you on the excitement, but he either had a low ceiling or my non-state of the art youth facilities played a part in his lack of development. He's running out of time, but the show must go on.

On that note, we have a new Aussie, Richard Sellwood of the class of '44. His already decent Physicals are a cause for some optimism, but with 8 at Passing and 6 at Vision he'll struggle to get into the team, I might be playing with the three AMCs but the competition there is fierce.

1 hour ago, _Ben_ said:

Huge congrats on the league win, almost against all odds! How do you see the summer panning out?

We might not be scoring 4 and 5 goals left and right, but we are having our longest unbeaten run in the club's history. I didn't even notice until after game 23, but unfortunately I cannot find that news item on my archive.

The summer was mostly quiet, which is a good thing in this kind of save.

We only replaced our 3rd striker option Perdikis with Pavlos Nitis.

While Perdikis was a more all-around option that worked in multiple roles in our system, I needed to have a backup option that could score a bit easier. Hopefully, Nitis will be just that, who came back to his boyhood club after a huge career spanning all across Europe's top leagues.

The other interesting summer developments were in the U19s staff department.

1) We lost our U19s manager to our feeder club PAS Giannena and he seems to be on his way up to German clubs.

We replaced him with Sam Lavelle, who seems too good for this role, as he's already on Lincoln City's radar, who are struggling in the Championship.

2) We finally found an ex-academy product that might be good enough for our staff. Pantelis had a respectable career as a CB for us, before moving to Cyprus for almost 10 years. His high Determination and Working with Youngsters were the reason I offered him his first non-playing job. Let's see how he develops.

 

[naufal husain]

8 hours ago, BillHoudini24 said:

 

 

 

for sure nitis brings you alot of money 

[BillHoudini24]

Season 2044, Part 1.5: Ups and downs, as it should be

This one is one of the most strange seasons I can remember in this save. Consistent enough domestically, surprising ourselves in Europe, while our U19s are developing into a golden generation despite a lot of upper management changes.

Starting with the league, it is safe to say that we have been doing quite well.

Running away with a third straight league title would be a safe assumption at this point, but that's not the case. And that is because Niki Volou out of all teams are having the seasons of their lives, showing that last year's cup final was not a fluke. They're not only keeping up with us in terms of points, but they're also a very attacking team that scores a lot, achieving quite a high Goal Difference. As far as we are concerned, we could be a bit more adventurous with the team mentality tactics-wise, but I always start games on "Balanced" and go from there depending on how each game goes. We also started working on two way more attacking systems for easier games, but I don't think we are that much better than the rest of the league yet to give them a proper shot mid-season.

In the Greek Cup, three times in a row was as far as we could get. A shocking second leg against Volos was enough to see us out of the competition, with two leading players missing their penalties. The board is not happy at all about this, but I think it would start getting boring if we won everything domestically year after year. Ultimately, it's on me. I rotated the side in both games and paid the price. That's the reality of having to play so many games with a relatively small squad.

Moving on, we've been Europe's surprise this year, being close to qualifying for the Round of 16 in the Champions League, and doing so in style!

We had our revenge against AC Milan for knocking us out of the Europa League's Quarter Final 3 years ago, while shocking Salzburg and Bayer. If we didn't have that narrow loss against Leipzig, we would way more comfortable. Now we need another miracle against a properly revived Southampton and the always dangerous Dortmund.

The rest of the interesting nuggets, for now, are about our wonderkid Toptidis and our youth development.

Akis is wanted by Europe's best teams once again and I'm worried again that we might lose him too soon. He's also our first ever player to be nominated for the European Golden Boy award.

On that note, we've been slowly establishing ourselves as a proper football academy, with 50 of our academy products making it into Europe's top-flight leagues.

Finally, we had to change U19s manager for a second time in the last 12 months, with Lavelle getting his chance in the Championship.

I was not too sad about that though, since we were able to replace him immediately with someone way better. Let's see how long we can keep Garri on the coaching staff.

Let's wrap this up with a wish: we might be getting our much needed fullback after all

Edited August 12 by BillHoudini24

[BillHoudini24]

BREAKING NEWS:

Please Akis, don't have your head turned by Liverpool, Man.Utd, PSG and co, I don't want you to rot in their reserves before coming back to give us our European trophy.

Edited August 12 by BillHoudini24

[naufal husain]

Akis lose 1 determination 🗿🗿🗿

[BillHoudini24]

8 minutes ago, naufal husain said:

Akis lose 1 determination 🗿🗿🗿

I've tried to keep it at 19 for all this time, but since he got promoted to the first team it was a matter of time to get influenced by the rest of the squad, since he's not yet a leading figure in the locker room.

As long as it stays above 16, all good.

[Deisler26]

Fingers crossed you, at least, get to bring back Akis on a season's loan if he does go

[BillHoudini24]

2 hours ago, Deisler26 said:

Fingers crossed you, at least, get to bring back Akis on a season's loan if he does go

I am almost through the winter transfer window, so far so good. His insane release clause (583M) might be playing a part in that, but I'm definitely in countdown mode. Getting him on a short term loan will not particularly help at this point, as I believe we need quite some time to contend for the Champions League and I don't see anyone beating us in the league so that we can drop down to Europa or Conference.

Nonetheless, I am 2-3 seasons away from another golden generation getting integrated into the main squad:

Every name appearing on this screen has the potential to be a proper squad player at the very least. I expect 5 of them to end up as leading players for us at some point in the next decade.

[BillHoudini24]

Turns out our wish will have to wait for a while.

I knew this intake would be somewhat limited and that's ok, we can't expect to get 4-5 starters every year, but I hoped the star of the intake would be the fullback.

Instead, we got a very promising keeper, which is quite unfortunate, since we already have 3 keepers that could play as a starter for the next 10 to 12 years.

Alvertos has some attributes that already stand out in terms of Reflexes, Handling, and Positioning while having a great personality. I have a feeling that he might create a nice selection headache for me in a few years.

Stergios would be an exciting prospect, but his lack of Pace will be a problem moving forward. Unless he becomes an outlier in Physical development, I don't see him making it in Panionios.

Fontas was the fullback that was promised on the intake preview. His Technicals are already pretty good, but he's a terrible athlete and his Mentals are not good enough to compensate. Similar to Stergios, unless he proves me totally wrong, I don't see him replacing our existing fullbacks.

After 2 seasons of great intakes, we come back to earth, which is normal but also a bit disappointing, considering our Reputation and Youth Facilities improvements.

Edited August 13 by BillHoudini24

[naufal husain]

10 hours ago, BillHoudini24 said:

Stergios would be an exciting prospect, but his lack of Pace will be a problem moving forward. Unless he becomes an outlier in Physical development, I don't see him making it in Panionios.

Fontas was the fullback that was promised on the intake preview. His Technicals are already pretty good, but he's a terrible athlete and his Mentals are not good enough to compensate. Similar to Stergios, unless he proves me totally wrong, I don't see him replacing our existing fullbacks.

After 2 seasons of great intakes, we come back to earth, which is normal but also a bit disappointing, considering our Reputation and Youth Facilities improvements.

I once had a full-back with low acceleration and pace attributes, ranging from 6-8. However, he developed quite well over 5 seasons, and his attributes increased to 11-13. While it's not amazing, it's decent enough, at least for that level on that time. It seems you just need to.......pray a bit more 😅😅😅

[BillHoudini24]

14 hours ago, naufal husain said:

I once had a full-back with low acceleration and pace attributes, ranging from 6-8. However, he developed quite well over 5 seasons, and his attributes increased to 11-13. While it's not amazing, it's decent enough, at least for that level on that time. It seems you just need to.......pray a bit more 😅😅😅

Going up to something between 11 and 13 would be good enough, at least for the level of the Greek Superleague. For reference, here are the first team fullbacks at the moment:

Our vice-captain and probably my favourite player in this save, Thanos Barkosis. He is already 31, so I am expecting he will start slowing down soon. In the five years after his return to the club, he has 70 assists across all competitions. Probably irreplaceable, at least without divine intervention by the intake Gods.

Polydoros "The Speed Demon" Apostolou. His strong athletic ability, combined with his Dermination are the reasons for his incredible creative output, as he already has 75 assists before turning 25.

After those two, we see a big drop in quality. Zisis for example, even though he's quite versatile and has no glaring weaknesses besides Dribbling, is far away from Champions (or even Europa) League level.

Finally, Vissarion is a centre-back at heart, but his comically low Jumping Reach forced me to keep him strictly at left-back. He's a decent utility option though, so no complaints here.

 

Edited August 14 by BillHoudini24

[naufal husain]

yeah that's quite big gap, especially from Thanos to Zisis, for sure it needs big upgrade, and I can see Vissarion is very reliable option for rotating Apostolou, at least for league games.

If Thanos can mentor Fontas, I think his mentals will improve a bit quicker

[BillHoudini24]

8 hours ago, naufal husain said:

yeah that's quite big gap, especially from Thanos to Zisis, for sure it needs big upgrade, and I can see Vissarion is very reliable option for rotating Apostolou, at least for league games.

If Thanos can mentor Fontas, I think his mentals will improve a bit quicker

I also have this guy developing nicely lately, so we are not completely screwed. The issue is that both my systems (4-2-3-1 narrow and 3-4-3 in the style of Xabi Alonso) demand a lot from the fullbacks, so we can't just put someone there hoping that the rest of the squad will cover for him.