glennuk

Yep poor guy gave the best years of his life to the club!! He has become a coach since then sooooo maybe there will be more to come????!?!?!?

Rein Meer AKA ReinBerg - Season 25 - Japan J1 League - End of Season Review & Youth Intake League - 3rd Our best finish yet. We didn't challenge for the top spot, as it was mostly a 2 horse race. However the top 4 here were so much better than the 'rest of the pack'. Hoping I can be part of this top 4 for the foreseeable future. What this does mean is CHAMPIONS LEAGUE!!! The Squad We kept a relatively similar first team to last year. Phil Cowley (YP18C) has been on loan at English clubs for the last 3-4 seasons, but was recalled due to the aforementioned sale of our best CB. Shun Tojo (YP21E) has bags of potential and claimed the starting LM spot and Daisuke Fukuoka (YP22C) has very quickly become our best striker and one of our best players, with 17 goals in 33 starts, chipping in with 7 assists and a 7.21 averaging rating. Not bad for his first year as a full time starter. Naoki Kato (YP06F) - Retires - Legend Undoubtedly my favorite player of this save. Naoki Kato (YP06F) retires as our leading appearance maker, club captain and someone who played well in all three leagues! Youth Intake We had been promised a good striker and not much else and that is actually what we got. Except it turns out we have two very good strikers. Everyone else looks pretty poor, but some of it is a sign that we have good players throughout the first team, reserves and U18s. Top 3 - Youth Intake 25 Fumiya Uchida (YP25A) A very good looking young striker. He can't jump to save his life, but that combination of Finishing, Technique, First Touch and Composure is great at 16 years old. Could be a special player if he reaches his potential. Takayuki Ohara (YP25B) Another good looking striker. Has a longer way to go than Uchida, but has a much better personality and is quite a bit younger. His physicals need the most amount of work, but at 15 he has plenty of time to improve those. Kenzo Kumagai (YP25C) Our CB Factory just keeps on producing. Another raw, but talented CB. We have so many now that my loan page is mostly just CBs with potential out on loan. His potential is currently not looking great, but I have had a few 2-3 star potentials (by coach report) that have gone on to start for me and I like the look of young Kenzo.

Rein Meer AKA ReinBerg - Season 25 - Japan J1 League - Mid Season Review & Youth Intake Preview League For the first time we were predicted to finish above the relegation places......so how did we do? We have been doing well again. Always in and around the top 6. Hopefully we can make a real title challenge this year, BUT Yokohama F-M are looking very impressive indeed, with an 8 point lead over 2nd and a 12 point lead over us currently. Tetsushi Yamauchi (YP20E) was our latest defender to get his head turned by a 'bigger' club. So he went off for 4.5Million and 50% of next sale. Youth Intake Preview We got a preview that is only salvaged by that solitary A rating. Hopefully that Striker will be good enough to make this a worthwhile intake. TAKEOVER!!!! Less exciting than the title. We have got taken over, but nothing really changed. No new upgrades, no youth facilities upgrade available etc.

Oh there's a few going around Social media. One was you have been kicked out of the champions league for fielding an illegible player

@darren1983 - Sorry to tag you, but do we have a list of available nations to try the challenge in? At least two leagues with relegation in the bottom league is the criteria right? Just wondering if we had a list anywhere that I may be missing. I thought it may have been the hidden table in the first post with the completed countries etc, but realized some of them aren't available for the challenge. Then thought it may be the countries listed. If not maybe we can crowd source one Mostly as I am thinking about my next save in Africa, North or South America and would like to try a league that hasn't been done, if any are left....

Is this the worst Own Goal, with a combination of being FM'd ever?!?!?! First look at the amount of shots Shimzu had, then look at the minutes of their goals, then watch the goal (open in full screen for best effect!!)! Streamable Link to HD Version here - much better quality. Yes they only had 4 shots on target and scored 5 goals, yes I dominated them, yes this has become a bit typical. mpg4il.mp4

Rein Meer AKA Reinberg - Season 24 - Japan J1 League - End of Season Review & Youth Intake League - 8th We continued to battle in and around the playoff places, but ultimately it was a disappointing 8th place finish. I went straight onto the next season and forgot the end of Season Screenshot so this is 5 months later (just in case it looks weird/you see the date) The Squad We are constantly trying to bring in those with 5* potential, or who we can see are going through a lot of improvements/progress in the training screen (green arrows and graphs). Both our CMs are new to the starting 11 and playing very well with 5* potential. Yosuke Tanaka (YP22B) is a great Goalie who has become number 1 at 18. He is my first player to be wanted by big European club though, so who knows how long he will stay. One of our new starting CMs Kentaro Ishikura (YP21D) even got the Best Rookie award! Poached Player Talking about big European Clubs. We had a poached player who is being linked with top Premier League clubs. Oh how we could have used him, he ended up at Arsenal! Goodbye to a Legend Toshimitsu Kaji (YP06D) has been one of my favorite players. My top appearances in terms of youth players and although he recently lost his place, he has been a great sub option and a mentor. Youth Intake We were hoping for CMs and CMs we got. This intake looks less stacked with talent and more focused on having a few VERY good looking players. Top 3 - Youth Intake 24 Taku Hoshi (YP24A) I am VERY excited about his potential. We have got two very good CMs that are young and just got in the first team, but I think Taku is bound to be in and around the first team while he is still a teen. Great stats all around with the exception of his physicals which need some work. Kohei Fokumoto (YP24B) Our CB factory strikes again (we actually got 2 good CBs in this intake out of 4 elite talents). Great personality, pretty good starting attributes with no key attribute under an 8. Will start working on the mental side of things with defensive positioning which should help with some of the flaws. Takashi Kawashima (YP24C) Another good looking CM, I don't play with a DM so will be retraining him. Another good personality too. Really excited by his potential but he is longer to go than the above 2 youngsters before he gets in the first team.

I think someone completed Germany this year, so I assume all is good with it. Edit: Just checked @komein svedu did the challenge with Carl Zeiss Jena and @thomas_e with Energie Cottbus on FM24 so should be ready to go.

Sorry to see that @SkiIIs - hopefully you will jump right back up next year. May be worth keeping those players (unless they get sold from underneath you) at least to get back up quick enough. May also help with the finances, as all of those upgrades add up to extra monthly expenses too. Also in my book, yes Slack is the worst personality

Rein Meer AKA ReinBerg - Season 24 - Japan J1 league - Mid Season Review & Youth Intake Preview League So far it seems back to normal. After last seasons horrendous performance we are back battling for the top 6. I think we are now at the stage where battling for those Champions League Places should be the norm. Still one of the best attacking teams in the league and slowly working on improving that defensive record. Too much money So I was losing multiple millions a year in Tax, so I thought why not ask to buy our stadium. maybe we will finally have the option to expand it if we buy it. So let's see how that goes. We currently have over 30 million in the bank so it shouldn't be a problem (hopefully). Youth Intake Preview After a relatively poor intake last season I was desperately hoping for a good one. Hirotada Asato, our HOYD, looks like he is back on form. A couple of new midfielders would be IDEAL!

Rein Meer AKA ReinBerg - Season 23 - Japan J1 League - End of Season Review & Youth Intake League We just had a bad season. Nothing much to say except our end of season form was our best form with 10 points in the last 5 games. Unsure what exactly went wrong, but going from 4th to 16th is just not good enough. On the last game of the season we just had to match Oitas result (as we had the far superior Goal Difference), which fortunately we did with a pretty comfortable 2-0 win away at Shonan. Squad We have been starting to blood in some new youngsters and Tetsushi Yamauchi (YP20E) has become our new star CB in the last few games of the season (after being out on loan). Yoshihiko Ichimura (YP19B) has also recently taken the starting RB role and has potential to keep growing. I truly believe these two changes are what contributed to our improved end of season form. Hiroshi Yamada (YP21A) our youngest regular starter in the first team has been a great replacement for the outgoing Seiya Wada (YP18B) and also has star potential. So although this season has been a failure, it has been exciting to see some of these youngsters get into the first team and show some real quality. Finances and Training Facilities Upgrade Luckily with our two big sales our finances were in great order. This allowed us to get another Training Facility upgrade. Even after the 5 million upgrade we still made a profit of 5 million over the course of the season. Youth Intake The preview was not promising at all and after our great intake last year, this one is not too impressive. Not many of the players here look like future starters, apart from the 3 listed below. Top 3 - Youth Intake 23 Naoto Sakai (YP23A) A great looking keeper and still my favorite player of the intake. The only pity is that we just got a strong keeper in last years intake. However I love the Resolute personality and having two strong keepers is better than none, which is what has been our reality for a number of years. Could be a great backup (currently 3rd choice already) and hopefully with a couple of years of improvement will be pushing to be 1st or 2nd choice at the club. Shin'ya Hara (YP23B) A player who doesn't immediately show a lot of promise, but I am struggling to have depth in the midfield, so maybe my B rating is more out of hope than expectation. A decent personality with some okay all around attributes. Lots of areas to improve and he may never make the first team, but let's hope he does. Katsunori Watanabe (YP23C) Our CB factory just keeps spitting them out. We always seem to have good CBs in our intakes and this one looks like he has a lot of promise The physicals immediately stand out as needing improvement, but I love the composure, work rate and especially his tackling. Is probably about 6th choice already at the CB position, but has potential. Will be in the youth team for a while and then loaned out when 18, will he ever make the first team....who knows, but again here is to hoping!

Rein Meer AKA ReinBerg - Season 23 - Japan J1 League - Mid Season Review & Youth Intake Preview League - 18th Disaster so far, we had the high of last year (4th) and haven't changed much, so I have no idea what has gone wrong here. I am literally baffled. Amazing NEWS - The Holy Grail!!! After not having the option for literally decades, I can now finally improve my Youth Facilities!!!! Player Sales Yoo Sung-Hee (YP19D) & Seiya Wada (YP18B) We sold both as neither were lighting it up in the league with their performances and the fees involved turned their heads. Both heading off to Korea also means they can't hurt us in the short term!! Youth Intake Preview We have what looks like our worst preview in many a year. Frustrating after the high of last years intake. Hopefully it will be better than it looks.

Rein Meer AKA ReinBerg - Season 22 - Japan J1 League - End of Season Review & Youth Intake League - 4th We were first at the mid way point but couldn't keep it up. We were even 2nd and 2 points off top with 4 games to go but only 4 points in those 4 games left us in 4th. Unfortunately it didn't even get us into the Champions league as the 4th spot goes to the winner of the all japan cup (unless they are already in the top 3). It is our best finish yet, so we can't be too disappointed, but I did feel like we could have won the league here!! The Squad A great season and I am getting more and more confident in growing depth up front and in the defence. We still need to bolster the midfield. Naoki Kato (YP06F) is our captain and least talented (by attributes) player, but is so consistent in his performances that he is keeping his starting spot. Haruhiko Ninomiya (YP14K) got a mention earlier and has continued to be a great marauding full back back, with plenty of assists, a goal to his name and a place in the J1 Team of the Year. Youth Intake We were hoping for a good intake and this may be one of our strongest yet with NINE elite talents. I signed all tagged Top 3 - Youth Intake 22 Toshiaki Nakamura (YP22A) A good looking CB to add to our list of potential heavy defenders. A good personality with an amazing starting work rate and tackling. No key attributes under an 8. The sky is the limit for this youngster. Yosuke Tanaka (YP22B) Has future starting keeper written all over him. Good attributes and not the worst height (which has been an option for many of our keepers so far). Is already the 2nd best keeper in the entire squad so could be getting some game time in cups relatively soon. Daisuke Fukuoka (YP22C) Very excited to see a striker with 16 finishing and 15 first touch at such a young age. Will almost certainly make it to the first team and could be a key player for us moving forward.

Its gutting to see those youngsters go on to big clubs and finally get their well deserved National Call Up. Hoping your next wonderkid is not long behind @Padders

Rein Meer AKA ReinBerg - Season 22 - Japan J1 League - Mid Season Review & Youth Intake Preview League We once again stormed out of the gates, but this time we have actually kept it up. Let's just hope we can keep it up for the rest of the season! This is all despite having to sell one of our best players in Naoki Tsujimoto (YP15B) - luckily that CB (DC) position is our strongest in terms of depth and youth prospects. Other News - Most Creative Defender Speaking of strength in defence, we play our LB on Full Back Attack overlapping our LM on Inverted Winger. The relatively new to the first team Haruhiko Ninomiya (YP14K) has been the most creative defender in the league so far this season! Training Upgrade Two years in the J1 League and the above sale put our bank balance over 10 million and finally the board allowed another upgrade, in our Training Facilities. Youth Intake Preview A decent little preview, hopefully we get that Attacking Midfielder, as we could do with some midfielders in general.

That 3 for Working with Youngsters would scare me off although he literally has the 'perfect personality'. Anyone better interested?

Rein Meer AKA ReinBerg - Season 21 - End of Year Review & Youth Intake League - 14th We flirted with the top and the bottom of the league, but ultimately it was just another lower mid table finish. Disappointing really as at the start of the year we looked like we could compete at the top of the table. The Squad We have started to integrate a few new players into the team as I am trying to target some of those with 5 * potential who can take us to the next level. We always seem to have a bunch of very good CBs (DCs), long may it continue but I wish we could spread the talent around a bit more. Finances A couple of years in a row in J1 does wonders for the bank balance. Pity my board won't let me spend it on anything Youth Intake An interesting looking intake with a couple of players who look very tasty indeed! I signed all tagged. Top 3 - Youth Intake 21 Hiroshi Yamada (YP21A) A very quick little winger and honestly one who is as good at 15 as anything (winger wise) we have in our first team right now. Could be a star, but the personality does worry me. Will work on Passing immediately and also train on Strength too. Excited as this may be one of the most promising players to come from the intake in a few years, Hironobu Okuno (YP21B) The physicals are not impressive, but the professional personality as well as pretty good starting mental and technical attributes means that he is one who has a good chance of at least making it into the first team, if not the starting 11. Shunta Nakayama (YP21C) Another winger, not quite as quick as his counterpart, and more raw in general. We need more depth on either wing so perhaps will be able to push his way into the first team while still in his teens.

Congrats @Perre8 and @dkouv Both really interesting saves!

Wow @SkiIIs both those intakes look amazing! Definitely some great prospects. I reckon you will be marching up the leagues soon enough if that kind of intake continues. What does your HOYD look like? Any chance of a screenshot?

Rein Meer AKA ReinBerg - Season 21 - Japan J1 League - Mid Season Review & Youth Intake Preview League - 12th so far We finished 12th last season and we are on course for a mid-table finish again. We have always been one of the best attacking teams in the league and our defence has usually been the worst, however that does seem to be improving slightly, possibly due to the glut of defenders we have got in the last few Youth Intakes. However this does not tell the full story, I was actually top of the league for four weeks, before I had a very poor run of form. The board even thought we were going to win the league for a while ' New HOYD Talking about Youth Intakes we have had a bunch of new HOYDs in the last few years, but I have ALWAYS had this guy on my shortlist. Welcome to Hirotada Asato he is definitely the best HOYD interested in joining and I have been hoping to land him for a couple of seasons now. He should be with us for the foreseeable future, as he has a great personality and strong attributes in key areas. Youth Intake Preview I fully understand that this intake is still from my previous HOYD, and there is also some weak intakes around the transition between two HOYDs. Hoping these C's are more like the 5 star golden generation preview, but fully ready for this intake to not be up to much.

Rein Meer AKA ReinBerg - Season 20 - Japan J1 League - End of Season Review & Youth Intake League - 12th We were soo much better than our first season in J1 League. A respectable 12th place finish and we rarely looked in danger of going back down. I feel at this point we should be aiming to slightly improve our league position each year, with the aim of the Champions League places in the next 3-5 years. The Squad We don't have the greatest depth to the squad, apart from at CB where I have four players who could start at this level. Naoki Tsujimoto (YP15B) has quickly become our most talented player, but is already looking at bigger clubs. Whether he stays for much longer is a big question, but if he does leave I have ready and willing replacements. Our standout performer this year was Takahiro Maehara (YP14B) who only became a starting striker during the course of the season. 16 goals and a 7.03 average rating is impressive and a big reason we stayed up this year. Finances & Average Attendance Record Our finances look very healthy and they should continue to improve as long as we are in the J1 League. Now if only my board will allow me to upgrade my youth facilities Our average attendance is also at a new high, but still amongst the lowest in the league (especially considering we have a 20,000 seater stadium). In general it is pitiful how little interest there is in the team from the local area. 101 shirts sold in our 20th season :0 I think in England you get that in season 1 of the Vanarama south!!!! Youth Intake We had another decent intake with SEVEN elite talents. Some of whom I am VERY excited about Top 3 - Youth Intake 20 Kyoto Shimokawa (YP20A) We seem to not often get CMs, so I was very excited by this youngster. He also seems to have pretty good attributes throughout, there is not too many glaring weaknesses, the mental abilities having a couple of 6's in key areas, but I feel that we can get this improved quick enough. Definitely potential first team player, and likely a first 11 player eventually. Masafumi Omae (YP20B) A driven full back, with very good tackling and decent mentals. That 19 Determination is also exciting to see! Definitely has some holes in his physical attributes and that should be the area we focus on first. Hiroshiro Taniguchi (YP20C) We have recently had a glut of strikers, so although I was tempted to re-train him as a CM, he looks more natural as an Advanced Forward to me. I am not keen on the personality, or the stamina and strength, so we will see if we can improve that in the next couple of years. More likely to be loaned out at 18 than in the first team, but who knows!! Other News A new partnership with Haneda (AKA FC Honda), who coincidentally I first tried this challenge with earlier in the year. This is important as they are in the J3 league, which means my youngsters will be able to get good competition as I use Haneda as a bit of a farm to loan players to. I also randomly got offered the South Africa national team job. I wish I could take it, but alas a rejection it is.

Rein Meer AKA ReinBerg - Season 20 - Japan J1 League - Mid Season Review & Youth Intake Preview League - 12th for now We almost have as many points as we did in our maiden season in the J1 League (33). We also have a game in hand over most of the other teams in the division and have definitely seemed more comfortable this time around. I have a quiet confidence that we can stay up this year. We also this year seem to have a knack for being a bit more tenacious and getting points from losing positions. (Example below) An example of our more tenacious spirit. We were the better team and even had two disallowed goals before we went down 2-1, we equalized and then found ourselves 3-2 down. However we kept fighting and got a couple of important goals in the last 10 minutes. I just feel like we have a bit more steel this season. Other News I am still regretting selling Masahiko Iwanaga (YP10H) all those season ago. He is now a leading player in J1 League and has two national team caps to his name. He was unhappy so I didn't have a great deal of choice and it probably helped us get to where we are in some ways. Our long serving captain Naoki Kato (YP06F) has become our record appearance holder. He should be able to get above 500 in his career, although may not ALWAYS be first choice anymore. Youth Intake Preview A solid if not spectacular preview. We are at the point now where we would prefer one outstanding player, rather than 3 or 4 very good players. So let's hope the Attacking Midfielder is a future star. On that note, we decided to make a change to our HOYD. It isn't much of an improvement (if at all), but I just felt like a change may be worth looking into. Good bye Min-Hyung Park & hello Song-Ho Na

Youth Intake - Season 19 Youth Preview We got a rather mediocre preview, but I am glad to see a glut of midfielders again, as we are still needing to improve that area the most. Youth Intake More than mediocre for SURE!! What a great intake. It has been a while since I have had 7 Elite Talents in the intake. Our South Korean HOYD finally brought us in a South Korean player too A varied mix of personalities in there too, not always the best personalities on the best players however. Top 3 - Youth Intake 19 Daisuke Shinoto (YP19A) A decent looking young winger, which is a position we are relatively thin on. A great personality in Resilient (and one I don't see too often). His technicals are actually pretty good to start with, however I do want to see some big improvements in his physicals, especially his pace and acceleration as I always prefer a quick winger. Has a way to go, but can definitely become a first team player in the future. Yoshihiko Ichimura (YP19B) A mercenary personality, which may see him not stay with us for the longest amount of time, but perhaps that is something we can train out of him. A little unsure about whether I am going to re-train him as a RB or as a RW. There is nothing especially impressive in his current attributes, but overall he looks like he has the chance to make something of himself. Yuki Ishida (YP19C) A very aggressive and brave youngster, with pretty good mental attributes. I also love the 15 tackling, however I often have these short CBs come through, which is always a bit of a worry. He can definitely make the first team as a rotation player, but has a way to go before he looks a sure fire starter.

Rein Meer AKA ReinBerg - Season 19 - Japan J2 League - End of Season Review & Youth Intake League - 3rd We didn't take the league by storm, but we also showed that we are too good for the J2 League. Playoff Semi We were for once the recipient of good fortune on the Japanese League Rules, and as the higher seed we go through despite drawing 3-3. It was a strange match, with us having most of the possession and looking comfortable until the 69th minute, which is just about where I went defensive and moved from a 4-4-2 to a 4-1-4-1. The last few minutes were definitely nervy, but knowing that we would go on to the final with a draw I was never TOO panicked. Playoff Final Again a bit of a strange match, but this time the opposite. We went down early, but fought back pretty well. When we went up 3-2 we moved to our more defensive 4-1-4-1 and held out until the end despite being peppered with a bunch of late shots. We are GOING UP!! The Squad We kept a very similar lineup to the team that got relegated last season. The main exception being the excellent Naoki Tsujimoto (YP15B) coming in at CB and having a great season and quickly improving to become my best CB within the space of the last 9 months. Masami Asano (YP11B) and Masafumi Nagata (YP13B) got 19 and 20 goals respectively. They have formed a good partnership, with Asano being the big (6 Foot 4!) tall poacher and Nagata being the hard working advanced forward. Finances We did spend a massive 3.7million on our training facilities upgrade, which is a huge part of our almost 4million loss this season. I am not worried though, as getting back up to the J1 league should fix that very quickly. Other News We also have increased our reputation to 2.5 stars, which is very nice to see indeed.

The huge slog of England always calls to me too!! Good Luck!