DomD

The club offered me a new contract on Christmas day. It would be nice if they would upgrade the youth coaching.

The youth intake preview appears to be a mixed bag, we'll see what we actually get.

October - November 2022 Going into the match against Cracovia we were in very good form and held our own against a team from the top division. They needed a penalty to beat us. But results have dropped off since then. Hopefully the winter break will do us some good. I'm really curious to see how the first youth intake will look.

Another veteran bites the dust. He's been at the club since the 2012/13 season and I was keen to see if he could reach 80 goals for the club. The mark is now set for some youngster from our academy to hopefully someday beat. League goals 77, league appearances 302.

Well, this one was a bit wild!

Nice work getting promoted and a solid season in the 3rd division too.

September 2022 I thought that our purple patch had come to an end when we lost twice in 3 games, but luck seems to be on our side as the victories keep rolling in. After losing against Miedź Legnica in the league we were able to exact revenge in the Cup. That means we now get the reward of facing Ekstraklasa side Cracovia in the next round. Artur Pląskowski keeps scoring goals and is leading the 1. Liga charts.

July - August 2022 The first few friendlies had me concerned as the team seemed to have a hard time scoring. But by the time the season started things seemed to click and we won our first 5 in a row. Couldn't have asked for a better start, but will this last? Still getting to know my squad and the performances of Artur Pląskowski have been a pleasant surprise. He wasn't in my first team plans at first, but asked for more playing time. I was going to give him some minutes off the bench, but an injury and the hectic schedule that required rotation meant that he got to start several games. He has rewarded me by scoring in five in a row!

My season has started better than I hoped for (5 wins from 5), but now I got this news: There goes one of those veterans that I was going to rely on.

Yeah, for some reason the records section is blank in FM, but they have this:

Interesting career so far, following to see if the youth ever get you promoted 😏

Our facilities:

Forgot this info in my first post. The board want us to finish in mid table, but the odds makers have us in 16th, and the media in 15th. Seems like the board are being a bit unrealistic. This test run might not last too long...

My 10 season journeyman save is starting to feel a bit stale, so I wanted to try something different. I was always curious about a youth only save, so I'm going to give it a test run in FM22, at least until FM24 comes out. Decided to go with a club in Poland and I'm following the rules of the youth only challenges. So I created a stand in manager to holiday through the first season and see who was promoted into the 1. Liga (2nd tier). The teams I could choose from were, Stal Rzeszow, Chojniczanka Chojnice, and Garbarnia Krakow. Since Chojnice didn't have a manager, I decided to give them a go. Season 1 - 2022/23 - Chojniczanka Chojnice - 1. Liga (Poland) Club and Manager Intro The club is located in Chojnice, a small town in Northern Poland. In FM terms, the club is almost a blank slate. There was also no staff, so I had to scramble to hire as many as I could before the season stared. I placed adds for every position that the board allowed (except for the recruitment team). Early on in pre-season, I even had to take charge of the 2nd team games. My first HOYD: Squad: One thing that I didn't know about taking on a previously unavailable team is that you had to wait until the spring for your first youth intake. So for now I just have the 'originals' to work with. Although there are a few youngsters in that group that I hope will serve the club for a long time to come. We also have some veterans that we will probably rely on for a few more seasons. Obviously I'm starting as an inexperienced manager.

Season 10 - 2030/31 - Borussia Dortmund - Bundesliga (Germany) July - August (Early Season and Transfers) Despite being at a club with massive resources it felt like another frustrating transfer window. It seems like, instead of finding me some hidden gems, the scouts were pointing me towards really expensive players that wouldn't do anything to improve the squad. Ended up signing only 3 new players, all happened to be Argentinian, and two of them are GKs. Several transfers out had already happened before I got the job, all but one that I approved were loans. Not that there wasn't interest in some players, but I didn't want to let them go. It is incredible to me how much money a club like this can make just from loaning players out. Taking over at a club that won the title brings a new kind pressure. The odds and the media have us finishing 2nd. The board want us to challenge for the title. In the Champions League their expectations are to reach the first knockout round. The season got off to a bit of a rocky start against rivals Borussia Monchengladbach. But we're hammering the weaker teams.

In the end I couldn't resist the draw of such a huge club.

Part of me wants to stick with Greuther Furth. There are a couple of interesting signings we've made already and playing in the Europa Conference League should be fun. But... Earlier in the summer I was linked with the Juventus job after Frank Lampard was sacked there. I didn't apply or declare interest, but would have surely attended the interview if it was offered. They ended up hiring Roberto De Zerbi who was in charge at Borussia Dortmund. I couldn't resist that one and applied for the job. Very soon after there were stories saying that I was considered the leading candidate by the fans. No interview yet though and the bookies have Zlatan Ibrahimovic as the favourite.

Manager History (26 May 2030) Here is a snapshot of the career so far. It will be interesting to take Greuther Furth into Europe, but if a bigger club comes along with an offer, I probably won't turn it down.

Season 9 - 2029/30 - SpVgg Greuther Fürth - Bundesliga (Germany) Season Review Here are some highlights from the season review.

Season 9 - 2029/30 - SpVgg Greuther Fürth - Bundesliga (Germany) May We finished strong in the league, but the winning the German Cup was a step too far. Still proud of the lads and what they achieved this season.

Season 9 - 2029/30 - SpVgg Greuther Fürth - Bundesliga (Germany) April Other than the loss to Mainz it was very successful month. Getting to the cup final was entirely unexpected and that followed up by a win against Leipzig put is a great position with two games left to play in the league. But as you can see from the table, things are incredibly tight, with 3 teams that could overtake us easily.

We just can't win against Mainz. What the hell!

Season 9 - 2029/30 - SpVgg Greuther Fürth - Bundesliga (Germany) January - March Results picked up enough for us to consolidate a strong mid-table position while also making nice progress in the cup. Now for the run in and hopefully we can make a push for the last European spot.

Season 9 - 2029/30 - SpVgg Greuther Fürth - Bundesliga (Germany) November - December Once again we hit a mid-season slump. Some of these games were really close with us being the better side statistically, but it is the result that counts and these results aren't good.

Season 9 - 2029/30 - SpVgg Greuther Fürth - Bundesliga (Germany) August - October When Hoffenheim utterly outplayed us in the 2nd game of the league, I thought that it was going to be a rough start to the season. But thankfully results have picked up since then. The games are close but we're winning a fair share of them. Last season things took a turn for the worst in November, hopefully this time around we can avoid such a big slump.