glennuk

Rein Meer AKA ReinBerg - Season 7 - Japan J3 League - End of Year Review League After accumulating 40 points in the first 19 games, we picked up a measly 25 points in our next 19 games. We went through some runs which left me confused, we turned from the best in the league to worst. Losing against relegation teams and looking like one of the worst teams in all of Japan. This ultimately left us in 4th. Playoff Semi Final We got Sagamihara in the Semis. Although frustratingly we were drawn as the away team due to the bonkers rules here in Japan. We were not a good away team this season..... As expected we lost yet again in the playoffs. I really think it would have been different if we were the home team.. We got the early goal, before 2 goals against the run of play took the wind out of our sails. We did fight back, but couldn't get the equalizing goal. So I guess it is an Eighth season in the J3 League. Really feeling like the game is against me right now We are still the most potent attacking team and I am changing up a few things in defence to see if that will give us the final push we need. The Squad We are seeing some good progress from our youth players and Jo Song-Chol (YP05B) our North Korean international looks like he may be the next to leave, after I promised him we would get promoted (to stop him leaving this season). Mitsuki Kojima (YP04A) & Takeshi Maki (YP04D) are our new Centre Back partnership for this year and have both been progressing well. Toshimitsu Kaji (YP06D) has just become our first choice left back and Takuya Ogasawara (YP06A) has become a good rotation option at full back. Our best eleven now includes 5 academy prospects and I think that could be 6-8 next year. The good thing about staying in the J3 League is that I have plenty of years to improve the young players ready for the step up to the J2 League. We did get a few players in the J3 team of the year! Which is nice, especially as 2 of them are youth academy players. Finances The downside of years in this league, is my finances (with all the youth recruitment and junior coaching upgrades) is dwindling. I wouldn't be surprised if we lost a player or two this off-season which may help with the finances, but hurt my chances of getting promoted. Could next year be the year??? We do have a new contract! The bookies clearly don't think so!! Goodbye Jo Song-Chol (YP05B) Again my Chairman sold him from underneath me and I really think I could have got a lot more (plus a better future sale clause).

@leyrtj - don't leave us hanging. I want to see what Nguyen Van Son looks like? A mix of Van Persie and Heung Ming Son?

Rein Meer AKA ReinBerg - Season 7 - Japan J3 League - Mid Year Review & Youth Intake - Could this be the year? League We have been immense in the league. Everything seems to be clicking and we have been top for almost the entire season. We are 13 points above 7th place, so surely playoffs should be the very minimum aim for the rest of the season. Youth Intake Preview We got another good preview and it seems we have turned the corner into getting genuinely good players now. I could really do with a good goalkeeper as one of the only legacy players that is irreplaceable at the moment is our GK. Youth Intake So what did we get? We only went and got another great intake. No one who immediately will step into the first team, but a whole bunch of potential with 8 Elite talents! Top 3 - Youth Intake 7 Yuta Tabata (YP07A) - He will be trained as an advanced forward, as he has good passing and okay finishing (although that does need to improve). He has a Fairly Professional personality which is about as good as I have been getting. Hopefully this will help him reach his potential. He will probably not make the first team for a few years due to Striker being one of my strongest positions (with 3 good legacy players). Kazuya Ito (YP07B) - He may have a bit too much aggression, but his work rate and good physicals (for this league) point to a solid player. The fact that he could end up being able to play LB or RB is a big bonus and one that makes me think he will be a good rotation piece if nothing else. He is another one who won't be in the first team for a few years, but hopefully he will make it. Taisei Shibuya (YP07C) - He seems good all around for a young CB. IF he can reach his potential he could well be a starter. The biggest downside here is the mentals which will need some improvement if he is ever to be a regular in the first team. Other News We have our first International CAP! Of course it is none other than our North Korean sensation on the left Jo Song-Chol (YP05B) Here is a screenshot a few months before his first full cap. He has however decided he is leaving if we don't get promoted this year.....no pressure! In other news I have never seen this news item before and thought it was cool so wanted to share. How they got 13 million in debt (they just got relegated) I will never know!!

Rein Meer AKA ReinBerg - Japan J3 League - Season 6 - End of Year Review League At the end of the season there were only 8 points from 1st to 9th, with only 4 games left. We had been 2nd for a chunk of the season, but with some inconsistent performances found ourselves in the middle of the playoff spots. In our 2nd last game it was tense, but our North Korean youth academy player got us a winner in the 94th minute. We then ended up losing our last game and finished in 6th. Playoff Semi A tight and tense affair against Akita who ended up in 3rd. We were lucky to get a goal just before half time and in the second half we sat back while Akita, unsuccessfully, peppered our goal. Through to the Finals versus Ehime FC Playoff Final In this game I remember playing well and getting beat by a 94th minute goal. Unfortunately I did not remember to take a screenshot and by the time I realised I didn't take a screenshot it was too late, so here is the fixture list, years and years later (I play way more than I update). We lost 1-0 and were gutted as I honestly feel like this was the year, being 2nd for quite a few games gave us the hope of being promoted. Oh well....we go again. Squad It is now starting to look like a proper youth academy challenge with numerous Youth Academy players getting game time. With 6 players getting 25+ games it has been interesting to see their progress. Next year I want to integrate a few more. In terms of the best 11, it is clear that Jo Song-Chol (YP05B) is going to be our best academy prospect so far. He still has a way to go, but he has improved a lot so far this season and came up with important goals and assists during the last few games of the season. Kazutoshi Sasaki (YP04G) has been a bit of a surprise. After getting the starting job on the right he has gone from strength to strength and has chipped in with 5 goals and 9 assists, which is impressive for a player who I ranked as only 7th best in his class. A Sale Our form was slightly dented as our chairman sold our starting Deep Laying Playmaker Tatsuya Tanaka (YP04B) to a J2 League team, Kofu. I feel that I could have negotiated for more, as he has bags of potential and was playing well for us. Finance We are still doing okay in terms of finance. Although the recent upgrades mean that we are losing around 400k each season. So if we don't get promoted soon we may run into some trouble. Projection is that we will JUST be in the red at the end of next season. Other News Another Youth Recruitment Network upgrade. After asking for 6 years, I get two upgrades in the space of 12 months. We are now at a Fairly Basic Level.

Thanks. I was trending that way. I guess I struggle with being loyal to my staff at times

Firstly - Merry Christmas to all!! Secondly! (please ignore the date, I am VERY behind on updates) Which HOYD would you choose? My current one has produced some good crop but lately has been disappointing. However his reputation is better. Also one of my tactics is 442, so kind of nice. My prospective new HOYD (below) has a better personality and attributes, but I don't play with wing backs (4-3-3 DM wide is my 2nd/3rd tactic).

Unlucky @libbyshuss. You had the biggest yoyo career I have seen in this challenge. Was following with interest. Hoping to see you get that pentagon soon

Rein Meer AKA ReinBerg - Season 6 - Japan J3 League - Mid Year Review & Youth Intake League We are once again one of the most attacking teams in the league, which I like to keep as our identity. We do concede a bit, but not sure if that is just tactic, or the fact that our defenders are our weakest part of our team. Youth Intake Preview A strong preview. We could really do with a good full back and a central midfielder so hopefully the intake comes to fruition in those areas especially. Youth Intake Another good intake with some exciting players throughout. EIGHT elite talents is what I need to see. A few decent personalities in here too. Any player that is already at 2 * ability, is one that could well make some first team appearances this year. Top 3 - Youth Intake 6 Takuya Ogasawara (YP06A) A full back is an area of need. So getting a Fairly Professional RB with good current ability and huge potential ability is a boone for the club. Starting off with decent physicals and good in most areas, apart from worryingly low dribbling. I like my full backs to have the ability to overlap and put in crosses. Hopefully we can improve the dribbling, as he has a ton of potential overall. Fumiya Ono (YP06B) A midfielder who is decent all around. Nothing pops out as being amazing, but I like that he has the ability to attack and defend (with 10 tackling). His physicals are pretty poor, but usually that can improve quicker than other areas of weakness. I will probably train him as a Deep Lying Playmaker. Definitely one for the future though, as he has a way to improve. Shohei Imamura (YP06C) A right winger who has a left foot. I do play with a mix of winger/inverted wingers, so having him cut in with his left may be something to work on. He has GREAT acceleration for his level and hoping that along with his strong dribbling will get him through at the J3 Level. Other News Another upgrade at Junior Coaching means our facilities are slowly getting to a good level. With Excellent Junior/Academy Coaching Since the above screenshot I also got my LONG awaited improvement in Youth recruitment. Look at all of those requests

YES! I want to do it in each continent, but as @XaW said doing it all in one save would be insane (my computer may explode though).

Congrats @Colossus and @thomas_e Some impressive careers here for sure. Had a random thought, has anyone ever done all continents in the YAC Challenge? EG: I have done 1 and hope to complete another this year: England (Done) - Europe Japan (Hope) - Asia Would then need to do Africa S America N America Oceania or Australasia or whatever it's calling itself these days

Rein Meer AKA ReinBerg - Season 5 - Japan J3 League - End of Year Review League Some progress again, while it isn't in the playoffs we have improved over last season. Our end of season form was a bit disappointing as turning one of those losses (in the last two games) into a win and we would have snuck into the playoffs. We also had the frustrating dip in the middle of the season, not sure what went wrong, as it wasn't obvious injuries or anything obvious. Squad I mentioned in the mid year review that we have started to integrate some of the youth academy players and they have settled in pretty well. Mitsuki Kojima (YP04A) has established himself as our strongest Centre Back already at the young age of 16. Kazutoshi Sasaki (YP04G) was a nice surprise as my best winger this season, chipping in with a few goals and was the assist leader in the team. Tatsuya Tanaka (YP04B) has been very strong in the later half of the season and has become my starting Deep Laying Playmaker. Those 3 in particular have been regulars and have performed to a pretty good standard overall. So my 'Golden Generation' has definitely been a big boon to the team, AND they can only get better! Finances Still pretty comfortable on the finances side, partly as my board still keep rejecting any request I make to improve Youth Recruitment or Junior Coaching. Other News We did not ask for this, but we got a senior affiliate in Kawasaki Frontale. The annual fee will be nice and the friendly could be interesting in terms of generating some gate receipts. Hopefully they don't send us any loans, as if they do they will have to get cancelled or go in the reserves.

Rein Meer AKA ReinBerg - Season 5 - Japan J3 League - Mid Year Review & Youth Intake League We are doing much better this season and have been in and around the playoff spots for the whole season. We have started to integrate more and more youth players and I am excited about the potential in the team. Looks like Gunma are going to run away with the title. AGAIN we are the best attacking team in the league right now. Youth Preview After our great youth intake preview last year could we do it again? Yes...Yes WE COULD!! 4 As and 4 Cs Slightly worse than last year, but two very strong intakes in a row means that we could be gaining some momentum in the challenge! We could do with a couple of wingers (especially on the left), so that looks promising. Youth Intake So moving straight into the actual intake. What did it look like? Not quite as strong as last time with only 5 elite talents compared with 7 last year. However I am super excited about an Indonesian and North Korean. Hopefully the ReinBerg name is being spread far and wide! Also they both have potential to get into their national team soon! Top 3 - Youth Intake 5 Takuya Nishimoto (YP05A) I am very excited about an attack minded midfielder with a Fairly Professional personality. He could move into the first team straight away, as our CM is pretty weak in terms of squad depth. The legacy players I have are all 1.5* or 2* CA according to our coaches, so Takuya could fit into that group easily. The poor stamina and tackling does need to be improved (even for an attacking CM). Jo Song-Chol (YP05B) I debated long and hard about putting this guy as my A player. The professional personality is amazing. He has really good attributes for a winger, a natural left foot and all the potential in the world. I wouldn't be surprised if he ends up being my first to get an International Cap. I also have needed a refresh on the left wing, as I don't have any quality on the left (previous youth intake player Saito (YP02A) has not progressed much). So our North Korean winger is going straight into the first team and probably the starting lineup. Randi Purwanto (YP05C) An intake with 3 different nationalities as the best three players!!! What a day! Our last intake (intake 4) had two very strong CBs in so Randi does have a way to go before he can break the first team. He does however have good potential, good heading and tackling and really good work rate. Note: I signed all tagged. I am impressed and fortunate that the best players had the best personalities and the lower players had the worst personalities, it hasn't always shaken up like that for me in the past.

Love the dedication @Daddy. I may need to do the same next time I go on a bad run of form

Rein Meer AKA ReinBerg - Season 4 - Japan J3 League - End of Season Review - Hope? League Another season of regression in the league...BUT we have hope. My end of season form was pretty impressive 9 points out of 15 available. If I could continue that kind of form it is playoff place form. Of course that 60% ratio coincided with the youth intake which my anyones standards seems like it is a true golden generation, with multiple members of the intake starting or at least playing in the last month of the season. (Intake is the start of November). The Squad We are starting to integrate some youth into the first team now. I believe that next season I may have 3 or 4 of my youth intake (2 being in the most recent intake (YP04)) in the starting 11 and 6 in the squad. Mitsuki Kojima (YP04A) having a very impressive start to his ReinBerg career, with 4 starts and a 7.15 average rating. My Strikers have not been as good as in past season with my top scorer only getting 14, hopefully that is not a consistent problem, as I have had 0 good strikers come through the intakes (mostly wingers and defenders). Finances We are still okay with our finances, however this may be on the turn, as we are signing more and more players from the Youth Intakes and we have had two Junior Coaching upgrades this season. Upgrades Two Junior Coaching upgrades One in the middle of season 4 and one near the start of Season 5 (some spoilers in the below image )

@WhiteCat33 - Ahhh no I read the first post and thought "THIS IS THE YEAR". Next year!! Next year!!!

Join me in my seemingly never ending quest in Japan!!

Oh no @DazRTaylor- Starting with a new team?

Rein Meer AKA ReinBerg - Season 4 - Japan J3 League - Mid Year Review & Youth Intake League We have struggled in the league again and been around Mid Table. I was zooming through this season so much that I forgot to take my Mid-Year league table screenshot, but I at the midpoint mark (19 games played) we were 14th out of 20 Youth Preview We really need a good intake to ensure that this save was still manageable and luckily we finally got one! After 3 years of terrible intakes, I get one like this!! 4 As 1 B 3 Cs Considering my best previously has been a solitary C grade, I am more than excited about this intake. Upgrades Just after our Youth Intake Preview, we got another Junior Coaching upgrade. Youth Intake Moving on to the intake, would it be as good as the preview suggested? Yes...yes it would be!!! FINALLY!!!!! After having just 1 elite talent over the last 3 intakes, I have 7 in one year!!! Top 3 - Youth Intake 4 Mitsuki Kohima (YP04A) - Will most likely go straight into the starting 11, but I may give him a few bench starts to begin his time at the club. He is pretty much good all around, with a great personality and huge potential. The 20 teamwork is fantastic to see. I believe he could be a starter for my whole time in the J3 league and hopefully even make the step up to J2 level...if I can hold onto him. Tatsuya Tanaka (YP04B) - He may also be one who moves straight into the starting 11, but at least into the senior team. I will be training him as a Deep Laying Playmaker, he has a great personality, great passing (for this level), technique and first touch as well as vision. Yes he is small and weak, but hoping he will bulk up a bit as he gets older. Daiki Sugai (YP04C) - One who will take longer to get to first team level, as GK is one of our stronger positions. However with his personality and decent starting attributes, my hope is he will be able to make it the first team in 3-5 years. Obviously with this being my first good intake, there are quite a few I am excited about. So hopefully it will not just be the above 3 that we will see in the first team sometime soon. Note: I signed all tagged in the screenshot below

Wow that Model Citizen Keeper...could be a .....keeper Nice one @Anners

Rein Meer AKA ReinBerg - Season 3 - Japan J3 League - End of Season Review - The season of regression League It has been a bit of a slog. Losing our most creative midfielder (4* CA) and replacing him with a much worse, less creative player (1.5*CA) was always going to be tough. We are still one of the higher scoring teams in the league, but we just can't keep clean sheets. The amount of games I have been in where the opposition have a goal to draw the game, or win the game in the 85+ minute is crazy. I have tried all kinds of tactics to prevent this, but I think ultimately it comes down to having poor defenders. We were never in real trouble of being relegated and for a few short weeks thought I may sneak into the playoffs, at one point only being 5 points away from 6th, but an end of season run of no wins in 6 games put end to that hope. The Squad We don't really have many changes in the squad due to our poor squad depth and poor intakes so far. We could really do with a youth intake that provides first team ready players straight away. Our Strikers are still our strength although Ryu Joseph Hashimura spent a good potion of the season injured or out of form. As you can see I am trying to integrate some of my youth, but most are 0.5* CA or 1*CA, which I know is not everything, but in general they are much weaker than my legacy players. Finances We are doing okay on this front at the moment (especially as my board keep refusing upgrades!!). However our total sponsorship has gone down from 1.3 million per year to 950k, so that may be a bad sign for the years to come. Other News Hiroshima in J1 league want me as their manager. Flattering yes, even though of course I said no!

Well done @libbyshuss, slightly not happy for you as Haneda were the team to sack me on my first attempt In all seriousness, I love that you kept going through the slog. I thought the J League may be a breeze, but clearly it is not.

I am really behind on the updates. But man I am feeling the HUGE SWINGS of morale every season. Apart from the praise good training ratings, team meetings, team bonding training sessions etc. Any other tips? Let's just say I have been close to quitting this save when I go on these inevitable bad streaks after winning 5, 8. 10 games in a row.

Rein Meer AKA ReinBerg - Season 3 - Japan J3 League - Youth Intake So after an okay preview (but my best yet) would we finally get a few players who would jump into the first team? Would we get an Elite player for the first time? Yes we do! Our first Elite talent! Top 3 - Youth Intake 3 Masayoshi Murakoshi (YP03A) - Well he is my first elite talent, so I have to be impressed. However his physicals are clearly the standout and his technicals need some work. He will go into the first team as my sub right winger and hopefully he will show some steady improvement. The Strength and Crossing are a bit of a worry, but hopefully we can put him on some individual training to rectify that Koya Sumiya (YP03B) - Another winger, but this time with a good personality and some decent starting technicals. Not sure if he will ever make the grade, but I have some hope for the youngster. Kenji Kuroki (YP03C) - This intake is all about the wingers. Hoping one of them hits. The personality took him down to my C (3rd best fo the intake) player. If we can train that out, he has a good mix of being quick and having some decent technicals. His mentals however are WEAK! So 3 wingers, let's hope at least one of them breaks into the first team by the end of next season.

OH. Sorry I misread. That is odd. Probably a bug. I'd report it.

No but in Japan, I had to get youth recruitment first (I got it by increasing junior coaching, rather than by improving youth recruitment). So before I got the upgrade I did not have a youth intake preview etc. Could it be the same in South Africa?