_Ben_

Just had a nice playing session this today and thought I'd go back to a post, originally made by @tyler16 asking about my three best academy prospects when I moved to Groningen, which I detailed below: Here they are now: Their profiles are clickable... Two out of three products certainly isn't bad and way above the level that you'd normally expect - that'd be like twelve players from each intake making the first team! However, I'm kind of pleased that Swager hasn't made it. He's actually in Serie A now but his playing history shows that I was right to listen to my staff who told me he just didn't have the ability to handle the pressure of first team football. A loan at a third tier Portuguese club hardly did anything to ease that and, with the uproar that followed, I'm happy to see him move on. However, Escalona and Asante are proof that there is not one type of optimal development. Emile slowly integrated himself into the first team, making substitute appearances here and there against weaker sides - somewhat stat padding but also a great way to build confidence and get good match ratings. He's gone on to cement himself into the first team and plays plenty of football, rotating with Jonsson to pose a specific threat to defences. Alfred's history is somewhat different - some poor performances whilst easing himself into the team but then a successful loan spell at second tier Cambuur. Yet, at 21, many would think he'd be old to forge a way into the team and to continue developing but he has done that as well as coming back with nearly one hundred games under his belt and the ability to perform really well. Just another lesson for me to take into future FM saves... I now have the following academy graduates in my first team:

Thanks Shrew! I look forward to seeing your save: any ideas on where? Thanks Dan! As I alluded to when I left Russia - having the local knowledge of someone like you really helped me with the immersion of the save so huge thanks must go to you! Your journey through South America is really interesting and something that I had actually planned for this year, if I'd finished this save a few months back. Thanks! I wanted to start a new save but still can't put this one down, which makes me feel really good about it. In fact, I've just been gathering a few images for a little post about some youth players. I'm definitely glad I've wrapped up the formal side of the writing so I'm fresh and full of ideas for FM23.

Ahh, but you see - I'm a Villa fan so I'm all over this! All I ask is that you actually create a style of play and give opportunities to our young players, because that's what I've been missing! If you feel the need to bin off Carney, I'm not overly fussed, either! I was really tempted to start a save with Villa again for a month or so but I think waiting until the newer version - probably on the Beta - sounds like a better option. I can watch this from afar and enjoy, anyway.

Matryoshka: 2025-2039 All good things must end. The man from the south of Russia hangs up his boots following a marvellous career and I leave FM22 with my head held high. When I wrapped up my Swiss save, I said that it was my best game ever but that was actually a lie: this is it! I have absolutely loved learning about the footballing culture of Russia before my 'once in an FM career' move to a completely country. This FM provided me with some surprises - no more so than what happened during real life Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the in game changes that came from that: no European ties in our home country and no more competitive international fixtures. Mashuk: 2025-26 I vaguely remember some eleven months back taking charge at little Mashuk, based just up the road (in Russian terms anyway) from Ryzdvyany, the home town of Nikita. My plan there was to get my teeth into the game and learn about the mechanics of it without falling in love with a team. That was partially true and it was the lure of fallen giant Anji that was the main reason for me leaving. Mashuk were finally promoted to the second tier last summer but are sat rock bottom of the league and their first foray seems to be a brief one. Anji: 2026-28 A promotion in my first full season and my first chance to really get my teeth into a tactical style that would follow me throughout the save - with Arsen Kiselev running riot in the CM(a) slot and a young Raul Budonov, now a scout at Groningen, firing them in. I only spent a short time in the second tier with Anji, where they are some ten years later as another fallen club, Sochi came calling. Sochi: 2028-30 I loved my first two stops in Russia but hated the third! As I learnt more about the club and their (lack of history) as well as being faced by a ridiculously demanding board, I lost a little attachment to the save. In the end, the board demanded promotion and sacked me a year after winning the Kubok FNL - the second tier cup - and taking the side from the bottom of the table to finishing a respectable fifth. Ural: 2030-32 A big break happened though as Ural took a chance on me and I moved north east in search of promotion to the top tier. Armed with Ezequiel Ponce, another ex coach and now manager of Salernitana, we romped the league, going unbeaten and winning the cup, too. We threatened the European places in our first season in the top flight too before a bigger job came calling... Krasnodar: 2032-36 Moving back South to take the reigns of a really big club and one that had a board and ideology that I really brought into meant that my four seasons in Krasnodar were among the best ever. Two cup wins, a league win and several deep runs in Europe formed the cornerstone of a side that was built through clever recruitment and finding value in the undervalued to sit alongside a thoroughly thought-out playing time pathway for the growing number of top quality academy players. The likes of Martin Conberse, Alejo Zbrun and star-man Alex Barreto mixed seamlessly in with Iljas Zherabyatjev - who had been spotted playing well above the levels of a poor Excelsior team. This kind of deal became synonymous with my time at the club but I felt that four years was enough. Groningen: 2036-39 Moving to Holland meant that I could have a clean slate and a fresh start to really run with the methods I'd spent months on in Russia. Brining with me the brand of football that served me so well and fits my ideology so closely to real life, I turned Groningen into a dangerous counter attacking unit and, again, built heavily around clever acquisitions and development of youth players. Facing a foe of the level of Ajax is never easy and, had FM23 not been announced, I may have had a realistic shot of overturning them but we pushed them hard. I really found my feet with deeper thinking and tactical trials and tribulations and that came through as I think I've written possibly a million words in these updates but I was so engaged with this club - building it from the bottom up in terms of players and staff. There are so many things I've learnt and developed in my time here and will be taking them with me into all of future ventures. --- I will leave with a screenshot of a shortlist of ex-players, as a little clue for who my next manager may be as well as my favourite Groningen players: academy graduates Thijs Pander and Emile Escalona and bargain buy Dariusz Szkudlarek, who really showed the benefit of using statistical analysis to benchmark performances. I will be playing this on and off until a demo comes out for FM23 but taking a backseat from updating for a month or so will allow me to return fresher and full of ideas. I must thank everyone who has contributed and continues to contribute, read and get ideas as this is what makes me want to play and want to write the way I do!

Nothing mind blowing, to be fair. I am going to set out from the start to move countries - managing in a few places where there are historical ties to Empires as well as battles for power and ancient civilisations: Turkey and a link to the Ottoman Empire, Greece (albeit with their city states rather than an actual Empire) and then to Italy and the Holy Roman Empire. I'd considered looking at the Babylonians but the Iranian leagues aren't a huge draw and nor are the Egyptian leagues. I'll look to start low down in Turkey as I think there's only two Greek tiers playable at the start and then go from there. Are you planning on posting here for FM23? Will do!

I've had a change of heart... Given my really random playing time at the moment, I think that I'll wrap this thread up over the next few days with a nice summative post and then just play on in the background. It's been an insane edition of FM, where I've only had one save, and - although I tend to say this every year - it's been my best save ever. Because of that, I think one last post would serve it better - and everyone who I am so grateful for reading and contributing to it - than a series of half-soaked updates just because.

Well, this, for one... Then just a lot of stuff regarding my plans for FM23. It seems that most of the stuff out at the moment is about wrapping up FM22 games, save reveals or wish-lists, so I've just done some research into my plans for next year. I have been playing a little and will switch to - maybe - half season updates just so I can spend more time playing the game. I have also learnt to ensure that I've ticked all the options in the Development List to stop loanees playing against us: Thanks, Randel...