[EXPERIMENT]: If the whole world did the youth academy challenge

[cressidasmunch]

Basically, I have gone through the editor and returned:

a) all of the players of the top 5 leagues and

b) all players over 120 CA

to their first club which I defined as the club they made their league debut, excluding loans.

I have also set transfer embargoes for 100 years.

--

My original intention was to just load the top 5 leagues, but some of the best teams are outside those so I have loaded the top 7 leagues of Europe + Argentina and Brazil and will be running those and the continental competitions on full detail.

According to FM Genie Scout 24, the top 10 teams in the world are Barca, Real, Ajax, Benfica, River, Arsenal, Sporting CP, Villarreal, Valencia, Real Betis with teams like 2. Bundesliga side Schalke, Dinamo Zagreb, and RB Salzburg making the top 20.

In England: Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester United and Manchester City are predicted to finish top 4 with Luton, Burnley and Bournemouth predicted to be relegated.

Luton are entirely comprised of academy players except for James Justin and Admiral Muskwe, Burnley have a few more notable names including Kieran Trippier and Ben Mee, while Bournemouth are led by Danny Ings.

In Spain, the top 4 are predicted to be Barca, Real, Villarreal and Valencia with Alaves, Cadiz and Almeria predicted to be relegated. All three teams essentially dependent on their B and C team players.

In Serie A, the Champions League places are predicted to be occupied by Atalanta, Inter, AC Milan and Juve, with Monza, Frosinone and Salernitana all entirely comprised of their Primavera teams and all predicted to be relegated.

In Germany we see perhaps the most unusual top 4 with Bayern, Hoffenheim, Bochum and Bayer. Bochum are perhaps the most notable of those with for instance a midfield including Gundogan and Goretzka. They do lack depth though. The relegation zone comprising Union, Darmstadt and Heidenheim are also comprised of academy players.

In France, the top 4 are predicted to be Lyon, Rennes, PSG and Lille with a bottom 3 of Reims, Clermont and Brest. The bottom 3 in France are actually a lot stronger than in other leagues, particularly Reims who actually have a full first team squad.

So let's see how things go.

 

 

 

[MichaelNevo]

35 minutes ago, cressidasmunch said:

Basically, I have gone through the editor and returned:

a) all of the players of the top 5 leagues and

b) all players over 120 CA

to their first club which I defined as the club they made their league debut, excluding loans.

I have also set transfer embargoes for 100 years.

--

My original intention was to just load the top 5 leagues, but some of the best teams are outside those so I have loaded the top 7 leagues of Europe + Argentina and Brazil and will be running those and the continental competitions on full detail.

According to FM Genie Scout 24, the top 10 teams in the world are Barca, Real, Ajax, Benfica, River, Arsenal, Sporting CP, Villarreal, Valencia, Real Betis with teams like 2. Bundesliga side Schalke, Dinamo Zagreb, and RB Salzburg making the top 20.

In England: Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester United and Manchester City are predicted to finish top 4 with Luton, Burnley and Bournemouth predicted to be relegated.

Luton are entirely comprised of academy players except for James Justin and Admiral Muskwe, Burnley have a few more notable names including Kieran Trippier and Ben Mee, while Bournemouth are led by Danny Ings.

In Spain, the top 4 are predicted to be Barca, Real, Villarreal and Valencia with Alaves, Cadiz and Almeria predicted to be relegated. All three teams essentially dependent on their B and C team players.

In Serie A, the Champions League places are predicted to be occupied by Atalanta, Inter, AC Milan and Juve, with Monza, Frosinone and Salernitana all entirely comprised of their Primavera teams and all predicted to be relegated.

In Germany we see perhaps the most unusual top 4 with Bayern, Hoffenheim, Bochum and Bayer. Bochum are perhaps the most notable of those with for instance a midfield including Gundogan and Goretzka. They do lack depth though. The relegation zone comprising Union, Darmstadt and Heidenheim are also comprised of academy players.

In France, the top 4 are predicted to be Lyon, Rennes, PSG and Lille with a bottom 3 of Reims, Clermont and Brest. The bottom 3 in France are actually a lot stronger than in other leagues, particularly Reims who actually have a full first team squad.

So let's see how things go.

 

 

 

This will be very interesting to follow!

[cressidasmunch]

2023-2024

ENGLAND

Chelsea lead at Christmas, and continued their lead for the whole season. Chelsea were strong going forward, scoring 97 goals (the 3rd highest), but were resolute defensively, conceding only 20, the lowest in the Premier League. Chelsea played a 4-2-3-1 formation under Mauricio Pochettino where the 3 in behind the striker: Hudson-Odoi, Mount, and perhaps surprisingly, Jeremie Boga were pivotal to Chelsea's success, while Reece James led in defence, avoiding injury.

Rounding out the top 4 were Arsenal, Manchester United, and perhaps surprisingly Spurs given their best players besides Harry Kane were Harry Winks, Oliver Skipp and Andros Townsend. Man City qualified for the Champions League in fifth.

The relegated sides were, as per pre-season expectations: Luton, Burnley and Bournemouth, though Bournemouth creditiably almost survived despite relying mainly on academy players besides Danny Ings and Aaron Ramsdale. Luton were particularly abject, relegated winless with 6 points and a goal difference of -131.

Overachievers were Forest who achieved European football (in the form of the Conference League) despite only really having, at least in ordinary circumstances an upper Championship-level squad, though they did have depth. Sheffield United were, accordingly to the media overachievers (finishing 9th when predicted 19th) but really they had a reasonably solid squad, with Dominic Calvert-Lewin chipping in with 35 goals in as many starts, beating Harry Kane (Spurs, 27) and Danny Welbeck (United, 26). Calvert-Lewin would also win both prizes for player of the year.

Championship winners Leeds won the FA Cup (perhaps benefitted by an error where at least teams in inactive leagues can sign free agents, they brought Haaland in from the lower leagues of Norway in January, though he only scored 10 in 18 in the Championship), with City beating another Championship opposition in Sheffield Wednesday for the Carabao. Haaland was the only player brought in by anyone as far as I can see, and I'm hoping its a one-off and maybe we can kind of write off Haaland as a Leeds academy boy given his dad, if we don't see any more of these.

SPAIN

La Liga was topsy-turvy. At the half way mark, Athletic Bilbao and Villarreal were tied top of the table, with Villarreal going unbeaten. Bilbao collapsed a bit after Christmas, and it looked like Villarreal would win their first league title, but they would lose their last two games: to Osasuna and Girona, and ultimately Barcelona would win another title with Lionel Messi.

Messi was not the league topscorer however, only scoring 22, that honour would go to Barca's Abel Ruiz who fired 28, surpassing Diego Costa (Atletico, 24) and Gerard Moreno (Villarreal, 23). Messi would, however, win player of the year.

Rounding out the top 4 was Villarreal, Real and Bilbao, with Valencia slipping through to a Champions League spot in fifth.

La Liga did not have any great overperformers but while Alaves and Almeria were relegated as per expectations, Cadiz survived, their relegation spot taken by Getafe who were rooted to the bottom of the table.

Real beat 2nd tier Vallidolid for the Copa del Rey.

ITALY

Serie A was, like the Premier League dominated by one side, wearing blue. That team was Atalanta who won their first league title at a canter, with 96 points, pipping Milan and Roma in joint-second by 12. Atalanta were favourites on paper, though it might be a surprise exactly who was dominant for them, with a lethal front two of Piccoli and Gabbiadini scoring 45 between them in Serie A. Sassuolo who were 2nd at Christmas took the remaining place in the top 4 after a bit of a collapse.

Their Berardi (26) would win both top scorer and player of the year, surpassing Piccoli (25) and Immobile (Juventus, 24).

Juve and Inter would have to settle for Europa League football, though Juve at least won silverware, beating Serie B Spezia to the Coppa Italia, while Napoli led a pitiful title defence finishing 14th, though given that outside a few stars like Insigne and Meret they were almost entirely dependent on Primavera players, maybe a finish that high is still an achievement. Monza, Frosinone and Salernitana were relegated, with Salernitana pulling a Luton, 6 points and -126 goal difference, though at least they scored a win, 1-0 against Genoa.

Salernitana's squad was especially dreadful though, the worst in the top 5 leagues, their best player had a CA of 100.

GERMANY

Borussia Dortmund, despite having a pretty mediocre squad, lead the Bundesliga at the halfway point, surpassing a massively overperforming Eintracht Frankfurt on goal difference (who had a squad for the bottom half) and Bayern by a point.

But the Bundesliga season was a tale of two halves. Frankfurt collapsed and only finished 11th, while Koln who were only 6th at Christmas, stormed home and won their first league title since 1978. Koln's squad was solid but not spectacular on paper (upper-mid-table) so this was a great achievement. Bayern, Dortmund and Gladbach rounded out the Champions League places with Union, Darmstadt and Heidenheim relegated. Bochum finished a disappointing 12th despite featuring Goretzka and Gundogan in midfield and Bella-Kotchap and Klostermann in defence, though they did lack depth.

The top scorer race was a tale of smaller clubs, 7th placed Wolfsburg's Victor Osimhen winning it clearly with 29 followed by Werner (Stuttgart who finished 6th, 23), and Weiper (Mainz, 9th, 22). Osimhen was also player of the year.

Hoffenheim, who had a strong team led by Niklas Sule won the Pokal, beating Bayern.

FRANCE

PSG held a 3 point lead over Lyon at halfway, though again Ligue 1 was a little topsy-turvy. PSG had a bit of a collapse in the second-half, with Monaco storming to the title by 10 points in the end, thanks to one man, Kylian Mbappe who completely dominated the second half of the season. He would finish with 47 league goals in 34 matches, which accounting for the lower number of games, would be the most prolific season in modern football in a top league, surpassing Messi and Ronaldo's peaks. Diallo (Metz) and Kolo Muani (Nantes, both 25) would settle for tied 2nd, while Mbappe was, unsurprisingly, player of the season. It's a genuine achievement for Mbappe given Monaco have a decent side without him but not incredibly so, 6th strongest overall in Ligue 1 per FM Genie Scout. Lyon and Toulouse rounded out the top 4, Toulouse have a surprisingly strong side, no superstars but a lot of depth.

Rennes were an immense disappointment, the second strongest side in France on paper, led by Dembele and Camavinga and with a lot of depth could only manage 11th. Brest and Clermont were relegated with Lyon beating Ligue 2 Paris FC for the Coupe de France.

OTHER LEAGUES

A stacked Ajax side won the Eredivisie in an invincible season, and basically playing total football with no one standout, though Eriksen with 15 goals and 14 assists in 28 games must come close, while Benfica won the Portuguese League in a tighter race, Cristiano Ronaldo could only take Sporting to 3rd.

The next update will feature Latin America in greater depth given they were half simulated before the game started.

EUROPE

The last Champions League under the traditional format featured a lot of surprises.

In the group stage, Young Boys surpassed Sevilla and Union for qualification, PSV beat out Newcastle and Inter, Red Star Belgrade beat out Sociedad and Dortmund, Napoli finished bottom on 0 in a group with Shakhtar, Porto and Sparta Prague, a Dinamo Zagreb side with Modric, Kovacic, Gvardiol, Olmo amongst others finished 3rd in a group with Arsenal and Benfica, Man City and Milan eliminated Real while RB Leipzig were eliminated by their ostenible junior club RB Salzburg.

The semi finalists typify the new Europe. Arsenal defeated Porto while RB Salzburg defeated Young Boys. RB Salzburg dominated the final after going down early to Arsenal but despite 3 XGs only scored in the 90+3rd minute, taking the game eventually to penalties where Arsenal prevailed, winning their first European Cup.

In the Europa League, Real dropped down after finishing 3rd in their group and made the final, only to be beaten by FC Kobenhavn who staged an incredible comeback after going 2-0 to a double to Borja Mayoral, to win 3-2 thanks to a brace of their own from Rasmus Hojland.

Villarreal beat Gent to the Conference League.

So your 2023-24 winners:

ENGLAND: Chelsea (7th)

SPAIN: Barcelona (28th)

ITALY: Atalanta (1st]

GERMANY: Koln [4th]

FRANCE: Monaco [9th]

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE: Arsenal [1st]

EUROPA LEAGUE: Kobenhavn [1st]

EUROPA CONFERENCE LEAGUE: Villarreal [1st]

 

[MichaelNevo]

12 hours ago, cressidasmunch said:

2023-2024

ENGLAND

Chelsea lead at Christmas, and continued their lead for the whole season. Chelsea were strong going forward, scoring 97 goals (the 3rd highest), but were resolute defensively, conceding only 20, the lowest in the Premier League. Chelsea played a 4-2-3-1 formation under Mauricio Pochettino where the 3 in behind the striker: Hudson-Odoi, Mount, and perhaps surprisingly, Jeremie Boga were pivotal to Chelsea's success, while Reece James led in defence, avoiding injury.

Rounding out the top 4 were Arsenal, Manchester United, and perhaps surprisingly Spurs given their best players besides Harry Kane were Harry Winks, Oliver Skipp and Andros Townsend. Man City qualified for the Champions League in fifth.

The relegated sides were, as per pre-season expectations: Luton, Burnley and Bournemouth, though Bournemouth creditiably almost survived despite relying mainly on academy players besides Danny Ings and Aaron Ramsdale. Luton were particularly abject, relegated winless with 6 points and a goal difference of -131.

Overachievers were Forest who achieved European football (in the form of the Conference League) despite only really having, at least in ordinary circumstances an upper Championship-level squad, though they did have depth. Sheffield United were, accordingly to the media overachievers (finishing 9th when predicted 19th) but really they had a reasonably solid squad, with Dominic Calvert-Lewin chipping in with 35 goals in as many starts, beating Harry Kane (Spurs, 27) and Danny Welbeck (United, 26). Calvert-Lewin would also win both prizes for player of the year.

Championship winners Leeds won the FA Cup (perhaps benefitted by an error where at least teams in inactive leagues can sign free agents, they brought Haaland in from the lower leagues of Norway in January, though he only scored 10 in 18 in the Championship), with City beating another Championship opposition in Sheffield Wednesday for the Carabao. Haaland was the only player brought in by anyone as far as I can see, and I'm hoping its a one-off and maybe we can kind of write off Haaland as a Leeds academy boy given his dad, if we don't see any more of these.

SPAIN

La Liga was topsy-turvy. At the half way mark, Athletic Bilbao and Villarreal were tied top of the table, with Villarreal going unbeaten. Bilbao collapsed a bit after Christmas, and it looked like Villarreal would win their first league title, but they would lose their last two games: to Osasuna and Girona, and ultimately Barcelona would win another title with Lionel Messi.

Messi was not the league topscorer however, only scoring 22, that honour would go to Barca's Abel Ruiz who fired 28, surpassing Diego Costa (Atletico, 24) and Gerard Moreno (Villarreal, 23). Messi would, however, win player of the year.

Rounding out the top 4 was Villarreal, Real and Bilbao, with Valencia slipping through to a Champions League spot in fifth.

La Liga did not have any great overperformers but while Alaves and Almeria were relegated as per expectations, Cadiz survived, their relegation spot taken by Getafe who were rooted to the bottom of the table.

Real beat 2nd tier Vallidolid for the Copa del Rey.

ITALY

Serie A was, like the Premier League dominated by one side, wearing blue. That team was Atalanta who won their first league title at a canter, with 96 points, pipping Milan and Roma in joint-second by 12. Atalanta were favourites on paper, though it might be a surprise exactly who was dominant for them, with a lethal front two of Piccoli and Gabbiadini scoring 45 between them in Serie A. Sassuolo who were 2nd at Christmas took the remaining place in the top 4 after a bit of a collapse.

Their Berardi (26) would win both top scorer and player of the year, surpassing Piccoli (25) and Immobile (Juventus, 24).

Juve and Inter would have to settle for Europa League football, though Juve at least won silverware, beating Serie B Spezia to the Coppa Italia, while Napoli led a pitiful title defence finishing 14th, though given that outside a few stars like Insigne and Meret they were almost entirely dependent on Primavera players, maybe a finish that high is still an achievement. Monza, Frosinone and Salernitana were relegated, with Salernitana pulling a Luton, 6 points and -126 goal difference, though at least they scored a win, 1-0 against Genoa.

Salernitana's squad was especially dreadful though, the worst in the top 5 leagues, their best player had a CA of 100.

GERMANY

Borussia Dortmund, despite having a pretty mediocre squad, lead the Bundesliga at the halfway point, surpassing a massively overperforming Eintracht Frankfurt on goal difference (who had a squad for the bottom half) and Bayern by a point.

But the Bundesliga season was a tale of two halves. Frankfurt collapsed and only finished 11th, while Koln who were only 6th at Christmas, stormed home and won their first league title since 1978. Koln's squad was solid but not spectacular on paper (upper-mid-table) so this was a great achievement. Bayern, Dortmund and Gladbach rounded out the Champions League places with Union, Darmstadt and Heidenheim relegated. Bochum finished a disappointing 12th despite featuring Goretzka and Gundogan in midfield and Bella-Kotchap and Klostermann in defence, though they did lack depth.

The top scorer race was a tale of smaller clubs, 7th placed Wolfsburg's Victor Osimhen winning it clearly with 29 followed by Werner (Stuttgart who finished 6th, 23), and Weiper (Mainz, 9th, 22). Osimhen was also player of the year.

Hoffenheim, who had a strong team led by Niklas Sule won the Pokal, beating Bayern.

FRANCE

PSG held a 3 point lead over Lyon at halfway, though again Ligue 1 was a little topsy-turvy. PSG had a bit of a collapse in the second-half, with Monaco storming to the title by 10 points in the end, thanks to one man, Kylian Mbappe who completely dominated the second half of the season. He would finish with 47 league goals in 34 matches, which accounting for the lower number of games, would be the most prolific season in modern football in a top league, surpassing Messi and Ronaldo's peaks. Diallo (Metz) and Kolo Muani (Nantes, both 25) would settle for tied 2nd, while Mbappe was, unsurprisingly, player of the season. It's a genuine achievement for Mbappe given Monaco have a decent side without him but not incredibly so, 6th strongest overall in Ligue 1 per FM Genie Scout. Lyon and Toulouse rounded out the top 4, Toulouse have a surprisingly strong side, no superstars but a lot of depth.

Rennes were an immense disappointment, the second strongest side in France on paper, led by Dembele and Camavinga and with a lot of depth could only manage 11th. Brest and Clermont were relegated with Lyon beating Ligue 2 Paris FC for the Coupe de France.

OTHER LEAGUES

A stacked Ajax side won the Eredivisie in an invincible season, and basically playing total football with no one standout, though Eriksen with 15 goals and 14 assists in 28 games must come close, while Benfica won the Portuguese League in a tighter race, Cristiano Ronaldo could only take Sporting to 3rd.

The next update will feature Latin America in greater depth given they were half simulated before the game started.

EUROPE

The last Champions League under the traditional format featured a lot of surprises.

In the group stage, Young Boys surpassed Sevilla and Union for qualification, PSV beat out Newcastle and Inter, Red Star Belgrade beat out Sociedad and Dortmund, Napoli finished bottom on 0 in a group with Shakhtar, Porto and Sparta Prague, a Dinamo Zagreb side with Modric, Kovacic, Gvardiol, Olmo amongst others finished 3rd in a group with Arsenal and Benfica, Man City and Milan eliminated Real while RB Leipzig were eliminated by their ostenible junior club RB Salzburg.

The semi finalists typify the new Europe. Arsenal defeated Porto while RB Salzburg defeated Young Boys. RB Salzburg dominated the final after going down early to Arsenal but despite 3 XGs only scored in the 90+3rd minute, taking the game eventually to penalties where Arsenal prevailed, winning their first European Cup.

In the Europa League, Real dropped down after finishing 3rd in their group and made the final, only to be beaten by FC Kobenhavn who staged an incredible comeback after going 2-0 to a double to Borja Mayoral, to win 3-2 thanks to a brace of their own from Rasmus Hojland.

Villarreal beat Gent to the Conference League.

So your 2023-24 winners:

ENGLAND: Chelsea (7th)

SPAIN: Barcelona (28th)

ITALY: Atalanta (1st]

GERMANY: Koln [4th]

FRANCE: Monaco [9th]

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE: Arsenal [1st]

EUROPA LEAGUE: Kobenhavn [1st]

EUROPA CONFERENCE LEAGUE: Villarreal [1st]

 

Could you do any images? Personally I feel throwing images in breaks it up a bit better rather than just a load of text.

[cressidasmunch]

I set transfer embargos for every professional club in the game but for some reason there seems to be a bug where they only work for clubs in active leagues.

So eg Leeds and the other promoted clubs have come up without an embargo so unfortunately, I mightn't be able to run this

[MichaelNevo]

5 hours ago, cressidasmunch said:

I set transfer embargos for every professional club in the game but for some reason there seems to be a bug where they only work for clubs in active leagues.

So eg Leeds and the other promoted clubs have come up without an embargo so unfortunately, I mightn't be able to run this

Could you upload the editor data file here? I would love to run this experiment if you decide not to.