benrollo

Yeah it's definitely another level to the challenge that is definitely really restrictive. I guess I'm hoping there's a sweetspot I hit (eventually) where players are actually willing to sign second deals with us because we are strong enough. But if they keep getting sold...will we get there? Going to keep with it for now but the feet are starting to get a touch itchy!

Very good of you to ask - go for it! I'd be interested to see how it goes

Thanks mate, appreciate it. Personalities really are a struggle at the mo (maybe it's a Belgrade thing :D) but we'll keep plugging away. And most importantly, congrats on completing the challenge!

We're going up! As if they were spurred on by recent successes in this thread, the Brodarac Boys played their hearts out on the way to a 5th place finish after the split for the final 7 games. Seeing as Graficar are not able to be promoted, we gladly took their place in the playoffs! The final pitted us against Kolubara, who have been in the Superliga for the last few seasons, but always flirting around the relegation playoff zone. We lost the first leg away 2-1, and quite frankly we were battered. Missing our best defender Dragan Radovic 24-4 through suspension clearly hurt us. Thankfully, he was back for the second leg, and we put in a much-improved performance to win 2-0, and secure promotion! For the third season in a row, Anto Vasovic (7.32 Avg) was our best player. But for the first time, he didn't score more than half our goals - rubbish. OK, he still got 21 goals. But he does appear to be on the decline, and has a couple of youngsters snapping at his heels. After Anto, Dejan Durovic 24-5 (7.06 Avg) played well out on the right wing. He had big boots to fill after we were pretty much forced to sell Dragoljub Tasic 24-1 (more on that in a second), and did a good job on the way to 9 goals and 7 assists. Mate Bagoly 25-1 (7.04 Avg) rounded out the top 3, having the kind of season I was hoping for when he came through the graduate class last year. So, Tasic. Basically, club option contract extensions still seem to be broken in Serbia. Very occasionally I can trigger one - seemingly at random - but it's just not an option to trigger it 99% of the time. So despite thinking I had 4 more years of Tasic, I actually only had 1. Teams were sniffing once he announced he was going to leave us at the end of his deal, so I had to sell. I got a measly £90k for him, but I did manage to get a 50% of next sale clause inserted. He's valued up to £1.8m as we speak, so I'm hopeful that will net us a few quid down the line. But basically, this whole paragraph is a moan at SI for them to sort out club option extensions. Let's move on to the new graduate class. We were once again promised a super looking class, but the end result was actually a little disappointing - at least from a current ability point of view. Hopefully there are some potential stars in here, but looking at the starting attributes of the class, it's our poorest one yet: There were 11 elite talents though, so let's take a look. Straight in as our number 1, which says more about our previous keeper than Goran. But I'm hoping he'll grow into a strong stopper. Honestly no idea how well anyone in this class will develop, but Milan has a long way to go to fit into either a wing or forward role. Actually a pretty decent base to start from, and hopefully Bagoly shares some of his central midfield magic with Marko. I won't even list the other elite players as there are loads, and none of them really look up to much! Off the field, we were in the red most of the season so improvements to the club were out of the question. I managed to get up to the Continental B license, but the board won't yet let me go for the next one. Here's my Overview. Right at the end of the season, I did manage to twist the board's arm to let us improve the youth recruitment, so that's a step in the right direction. Financially I'm in limbo basically until we sell a few more players, especially as we've gone professional now. Here's hoping I can at least get some decent money for them when the offers start rolling in (looking at you, Bagoly). Next season, we do absolutely everything we can to survive. The board only expect us to have a go at avoiding relegation, so hopefully my job will be safe either way. They have also inserted that wonderful expectation of developing players through the youth facilities, so that should buy me some time too!

Really inspiring to see this challenge getting completed! I'm doubling down on my playing time (wife and kids be damned!) in Serbia to try and join you guys

I've been using Power BI for mine. A basic spreadsheet with some simple tables behind the scenes and then Power BI does the rest really! A great bit of kit, albeit with a bit of a barrier to entry. Loads of videos out there explaining the basics though

Another year, another 9th place finish. A little more comfortable this year, as we secured safety with 3 games remaining. Easy. Anto Vasovic was once again our player of the season, and again he scored more than half our total goals (26 of 51). I managed to tie him down for another two years so hopefully he keeps on banging them in. After Anto, two graduates led the way which is great to see. Dragoljub Tasic 24-1 played a part in 13 goals (5 scored, 8 assists) on the way to a 7.01 average rating. Central midfielder Strahinja Starcevic 24-7 was third, taking advantage of a thin position to play plenty of games and put in a respectable 6.96 rating in 34 games. The real story of the season came in our academy class though. After another promising looking graduate preview, I was blessed with the best prospect (from a relative CA perspective at least!) I have ever had in Mate Bagoly. Oh mate, what a player. Page 1 -- Page 2 -- Page 3 Straight into the starting lineup obviously, Bagoly looks to be the real deal. Just his personality letting him down, but we'll see what we can do there. The Mates just keep on coming! Currently working on being a standard full back, this lad has a chance. Svonja needs to get stronger, but otherwise he has a decent starting point for a pressing forward. Joining these lads in the elite category were George Booth (half Scottish, no idea where that's come from!), Jovan Ilic, Milan Cermelj, Milan Lazic, Sasa Jolic, Miroslav Jovicic, Dejan Krstic, Slavko Majkic, Boban Dimitrijevic and Mihajlo Stamenkovic. Off the field, I managed to get my A license, but the board so far have rebuffed my efforts to start the next course. We didn't have a great deal of cash all season so upgrades were out of the question, and then we got hit with the downgrade to the training facilities at the end of the season. The board decided to add 300 odd seats to the ground which I don't mind, but the £200k we spent would have been very useful to work on a few upgrades. Next season we're gunning for a top half finish!

Sorry to revive this, but this problem still seems to be occurring, at least in Serbia in my save.

Back to Serbia, and back to last day survival! After actually only missing out on a top half finish on goal difference, we had to wait until the last day of the season to nick a win over Vrsac and secure another season in the First League. The club had a few really good looking players when I took over. Sadly, Vasilije Mijailovic had already agreed to join Radnicki in the Super League, and absolute God-like centre back Milomir Cvoric wouldn't sign a new deal. He would have made such a difference for us this season, with us having to rely on greyed-out players in at least a third of our matches at CB. Anto Vasovic was probably our best player left standing, and he scored more than half our goals all season (28 of 53) on the way to a 7.44 average rating. Beyond Anto there weren't too many strong performances, so we'll move right along to the graduates. As I mentioned when I took over at Brodarac, their facilities were of a good standard for this level. With our squad being so small, I was really hoping this head start would enable us to get some immediate contributors. The candidate preview promised many A's, although I was a little surprised to see a 4.5* class (so used to those 5* classes!). When the players graduated, I wasn't disappointed. Page 1 -- Page 2 -- Page 3. 13 elite talents! With all of these players, there is a fair bit of work to do to reach their potential, but I like the look of Tasic's mentals in particular. Without a real left-back for the whole season, I'm hoping Milos can retrain in the position to help us out. The half-Hungarian had one heck of a debut, and is already a regular in our back 4. We also had Dragan Radovic, Dejan Durovic, Marko Mrkic, Strahinja Starcevic, Milan Bogdanovic, Darko Jovanic, Srdan Milosevic, Mile Radic, Sasa Punosevac and Stefan Muratovic to round out our gaggle of elite talents. On top of our double Junior Coaching upgrade, I also managed to get both National C and B licenses completed. Next up - slightly more comfortable survival please!

Sacked in Belarus! I didn't grab a screenshot because I was sad, but ultimately the board wanted us to avoid relegation despite them and the fans expecting us to lose every single game! Belarus has beaten me for now, but I shall return. But first - and speaking of returns... We're back to Serbia! Brodarac only came up once in about 30 sims so I thought I'd try them. They have a tiny ground (500 seats), but do have average facilities so hopefully we can hit the ground running.

Safe to say it's been a productive weekend! It's also been one hell of a season, as we won the league on the last day. Until the 92nd minute of the season we were finishing second, but Slutsk came up with an injury time equaliser away to Lida that secured them a point, and us the title. Our title push was aided again by a strong attack, with Nikolay Kolyada (7.21 average rating) bagging 18 goals and our best rating. Semen Belyakov (7.15 average) scored 22 goals, but devastatingly I was not able to renew his contract after the board slashed our wage budget to less than our wage bill. By the time we'd secured promotion and a 300% wage budget increase, he had already decided to leave on a bosman. A real stain on our season that. The bigger story was at the other end of the pitch though. We ended up finishing with the best defence in the league - and a lot of that improvement has to be attributed to academy graduate Artem Udodov 23-2 (7.13 average) who had a really good debut season - even bagging himself a place in the First League Team of the Season. The 2024 graduate class again promised a strong bunch of players. However when they came through, I wasn't overly impressed. We had three 2-star CA players which will no doubt come in handy, but I think those assessments are more based on how weak our squad is (get me moaning about the squad after winning the league!) as opposed to how good these graduates are. With Belarus having the worst youth rating, and with our recruitment network being one city, I can't really complain too much. Page 1 -- Page 2 -- Page 3 Pavel Osipov 24-1 Igor Stankevich 24-2 Artem Yurchenko 24-3 What's interesting (to me, as a data analyst at least ) is that the average attribute total for a player in this class is around 12 points higher than last season, although our best player this year is not on the same level as last year (294 total points compared to 312). Good to see the average standard of the class increase at least. Off the field, not much happening. Whilst we had zero luck with any upgrades or affiliate clubs, I have managed to get my National B license and am currently working on the National A. FInancially we are in a bit of a hole, about £75k in debt even after the end of season income. Not sure how much money there is in the Highest League, but hopefully there's millions kicking about. Here's how my overview looks. Next season, we do our best to survive. The squad really isn't much to look at, but I guess my formation combined with some key attributes seem to have done the trick to this point. I doubt we can stay up, but it won't be long before we find out!

So here we are in Belarus! This was a pretty mad opening season really, and with 4 or 5 games to go it was actually looking like we might get promoted automatically. Sadly, injuries and suspensions mounted up, and our already thin squad ended up requiring greyed-out players at the most inopportune time. But it's a really solid start, and we build from here. Our defence all season was pretty rubbish, but we made up for it with a really strong midfield and attack. This is what a typical line up looked like! We ended up scoring the most goals in the league, but conceded more than any other team in the top 6. Registration rules in Belarus mean I'm not able to register my graduates until the following season, but thankfully some of our existing players worked out well. Dmitriy Malaschitskiy (7.09 average rating) led the way from central midfield, with Semen Belyakov (7.09 average rating) tying him for the highest average. Belyakov ruined many a clean sheet on his way to bagging 22 goals in 30 matches. Left winger Nikolay Kolyada (7.02 average rating) rounded out the top 3 as he provided 13 goals and 4 assists from the inside forward role. So on to the graduates. With very little depth and holes all over the place, I was just hoping for a decent class - and we ended up getting promised one of the 5 star variety. That was followed up with 9 elite talents, and a couple of much needed defensive players in the class! Page 1 -- Page 2 -- Page 3 Dmitriy Sakuta Really hasn't got loads going for him, but I think the coach summary shows just how much depth we're lacking! That speed should come in handy at the very least. Artem Udodov Now this was much needed. I had a player rated 2 grey stars who had to play 22 games at centre back, so I was just hoping there would be a central defender in this class who was at least semi competent. Artem seems like he's ready to step right in. Sergey Krivtsov Another much needed defender, and again someone who I'm sure will be in the starting line up before long. I won't share all the other elite talents, because honestly they aren't up to much. But it's sweet, sweet depth. Off the field, there isn't too much to report. Finances were poor, so I couldn't get anything upgraded. I did manage to get my National C license, so there is that. Here's my overview. Next season I'm not really sure what to expect. If we can't keep up our goalscoring, I'm not sure our defense is strong enough to keep us in tight games.

It's the excellently named Stenles Pinsk, and their even more excellently named stadium SDYuShOR. Let's see what we can do in Belarus.

I'm going to give myself a real challenge for my next attempt, and travel to Belarus. I appreciate there's a lot going on in the world at the moment and Belarus aren't exactly a country to be singing and dancing about, but seeing as this is a football management game, I'm just going to concentrate on these facts: > They have the lowest youth rating for an eligible European nation > I had a really fun save with (now defunct) MTZ Ripo Minsk in FM06 - bonus points for anyone who remembers Sergey Kisliy! Holidaying now to see who comes up

Thanks for the feedback guys, I definitely should have flagged the countries that are eligible for the challenge rather than just going through all playable nations when you fire up a new game! One for me to correct later

Whilst procrastinating about my new save, I thought I'd fire up the editor to take a look at nation ratings in FM23. Here are my findings! All Nations ratings 226 nations here. Not really sure if it was even worth grabbing all of these when only a quarter or so are playable, but here we are Playable Nations ratings 54 nations playable by default. Playable Nations yet to complete the challenge! Here's the juicy stuff. Who has the balls to fire up a Singapore save?! Also, fair play to SpS_Zen who holds the record for the lowest nation rating challenge completion (according to FM23 youth ratings at least!)

Thanks for the reply @libbyshuss, much appreciated. That's a real shame, but I guess it becomes part of the challenge! I am going to start fresh just to ensure I can add club options. Busy one with work today but I'm sure I can fit some planning time in!

Holidayed forward a year and still no option to upgrade the youth facilities Time to start a new one methinks. Farewell Zemun, your infographic legacy will live on

In Serbia, I couldn't request to upgrade my youth facilities past 'Good' in 2 seasons, despite having 7m in the bank

Cheers! Somewhat cynically I tried to pick a country quite high up on the youth ratings, and that combined with exceptional recruitment/coaching has paid off! The real challenge is keeping hold of them

Well that...was pretty crap. After my confidence in us being an established mid table side, it took until the final game of the season to secure a top half finish, and then we were crap some more after that. We just can't score goals, despite having a really impressive striker in Dorde Petrovic 31-1. He did manage 20 goals in all competitions, but too many times we were shut out, either drawing games we should have won, or losing games we should have drawn. I've gone back to the drawing board with the tactics to try and get more support in the final third, so hopefully next season will see us start to turn things around. Europe was...actually pretty good! We managed one of the best comebacks I have ever managed in a CM or FM game, turning around a 2-0 deficit against Legia Warsaw en route to making the Conference League proper! There, we didn't do too much and bowed out at the (massive) group stage, but we did manage this result along the way! We did make a few quid from our European adventure, but most funds came from the sale of one player. Goalkeeper Goran Dimitrijevic 30-1 was the subject of a number of transfer bids, and I knew the inevitable board sale was incoming. So I decided to go back to Manchester City with a mad negotiation - worth up to £6m after they had originally offered a million. They went for it! I was sad to see our starting keeper go, but those kinds of funds could go a long way! At least, they could if the board would let me ask for another youth upgrade (it's been the best part of a season now without the option coming up...please don't be another bug). So Goran has left us. Here's a look at our other notable departures: On to the youth graduates, and after a 5 star preview (it's barely worth even hyping that up at this point!), the class was pretty underwhelming with one exception, and he heads the list: Aleksandar Sladojevic 33-1 Yeah he's yet another winger, and he needs some work to learn the position, but he's got some freakish physicals and impressive technicals already. Sreten Muharemovic 33-2 I don't know what my Head of Youth Development is up to, but he seems to love a team full of wingers and strikers. Here's the latest from that production line. Aleksandar Marinkovic 33-3 Someone who knows how to play a position in our own half! Long way to go, you've heard this one before. Milan Milojevic 33-4 I'm not sure about the elite talent here, seems like he has a loooooong way to go. Let's see what our coaches can do with him. Off the field, we did manage to get our training facilities upgraded once, and then followed that up with another successful board meeting to get them upgraded again with some of the Dimitrijevic funds. They'll be done before next season, and will get us to 'Good' facilities for both youth and training. No idea why I can't ask to get the youth facilities upgraded again - not sure if anyone can shed any light on that?! Honestly some of the potential bugs are starting to stack up in this save, and making me wonder if I should continue. Not being able to trigger club options is absolutely massive - everyone in here knows how important it is to keep hold of talent for as long as possible when you can't bring new players in! If that is combined with no option to upgrade youth facilities any further, I may have to cut my losses. I'd be gutted to leave Zemun behind, but I would fire up another save and stick around here! I'll see how it goes over the next season.

Rushed home to fire up my Zemun save and see if the club extensions have been fixed... Edit: Can these only be triggered in the last year? DOUBLE EDIT: Should be trigger-able at any point

Been away for work since yesterday so I’m itching to get back tonight and check if the club option extensions have been fixed (for my save at least!). Fingers crossed for Belgium

European football is coming to the Gradski Stadion! OK it's the Europa Conference League, and OK we scraped it (and are still absolutely MILES behind the top 4), but this is huge! The final phases are becoming pretty routine now - the top 4 smash the bottom 4, whilst the bottom 4 look to nick points off each other. We just about managed to nick enough. On to the players, and sadly the board sold off another of our talents for the fourth season in a row. Milos Stojoanovic 29-1 was the one to leave this time, joining Milan in a deal worth up to £1.7m. The bright spot for us this time is the fact a sell on clause is included - that 20% of profit from next sale could be huge, seeing as he's valued at up to £34m already! Whilst we're on the subject of departed players, here's a look at the other players sold by the board so far: Back to our own players, and again there was a good showing from defensive players in my best performers. Ranko Vojvodic 24-5 (7.13 average rating) led the way, a real rock in the heart of our back line. Central midfielder and second-highest graduate appearance maker Branko Gligorijevic 24-3 (7.04 average rating) was in next, coming up with some big goals when we needed them. Goalkeeper Goran Dimitrijevic 30-1 was third with a 7.01 average rating. Having a keeper with an average over 7 tells the story of how much we had to rely on him I think. In graduate news, we were once again promised a golden generation. The graduating class was certainly pretty top-heavy, but that top is packed with potential contributors. David Zivkovic 32-1 Tasty! A few mentals could do with a jump, but it won't be long before David gets games. Marko Mitrovic 32-2 Another winger/forward with plenty of developing to do, but I think based on that value alone we could have a big talent here! Marko Spasojevic 32-3 And a third winger. Not entirely sure where he'll end up playing, but another high price tag tells me he's good. Filip Krstic 32-4 Only 5 elite talents so let's take a look at all of them. Bit of a no-nonsense CB in the making. Dorde Sarenac 32-5 I quite like the starting point Dorde is coming from as a winger, even if he's got a fair way to go. Not too much changed off the field, although our youth facilities were upgraded and are now 'Good'. I don't really know how much money there is in the Europa Conference League, but if we can make it through to the group stages (and that's a big IF I know!) maybe we can go for the next upgrade. Next season, priority number 1 is trying to do something in Europe. I feel like we're relatively well established in the Super League, but at the same time its going to take a miracle for us to even get close to the teams at the top of the pile. Would be nice if our board didn't keep selling off talented players to be honest.

Is there any progress or news on this bug? I've got this issue and I'd be interested to know if it is something that (a) will be fixed, and (b) may be save game compatible?