WhiteCat33

Now the bar is officially set for what a Crewe lifer can accomplish. Is anyone close to surpassing him on either record? I hope he at least get Icon status for the club

Luke Farrell's Luxembourg Odessey Of course, Farrell's second attempt at crafting his unique youth academy wouldn't be straightforward. What Chairmen Bob Schiltz failed to mention was that ASL Porto had been served by FC Porto with a cease-and-desist due to their 'homage' to the Portuguese giant's crest and name. So even though everything at the club still says ASL Porto if you look at the fine print of the paperwork "legally" he has signed for ALSS Luxembourg. Fearing that he is in-fact signed for the ghost of a defunct club Farrell searched through the depths of the Luxembourg Football Federation's website and was thrilled to learn that in fact ALSS Luxembourg is in fact a real club that is in the South-East part of Luxembourg city near the rail-yards: FLF Extranet. However there is a problem... ALSS Luxembourg, as a club also exists and are in the 1st Division. And it becomes crystal clear they are the "new" ASL Porto when you find their facebook, which is the "ASL Porto" FB rebranded: AS Alss Luxembourg | Facebook. Not to mention they both share the same facilities at the Stade Boy Konen. And if you check the Global Sport Archive, they are also registered there as having the ALSPorto as a historical logo and playing current fixtures AS ALSS Luxembourg - Soccer - Team Profile - Results, fixtures, squad, statistics - Global Sports Archive. So it seems in fact he has signed for a defunct club will the hits never cease for Farrell?!? He's just a simple man who wants to create the Portuguese National team out of Luxembourg, is that too much to ask for? There is hope though (if the mods will allow it) there is another ALSS Luxembourg splinter organization that has dedicated themselves to "Street Soccer" while also drawing from the same Portuguese community that Farrell seeks to cultivate. While their main team plays in the Futsal league, it seems to Farrell that these renegades have taken over the open ASL Porto banner to take their high flair attacking football onto the grass pitch. ALSS | Luxembourg | Facebook. If they are allowed onto the grass it will be an all-out attacking style of play, where goals galore are demanded by the ravenous fans! Totally understand @XaW if this club is a no-go, just figured I'd give it a shot! Luxembourg is fighting me, maybe I really am the villian @The7Striker @jepze My one piece of advice is don't under-estimate the power jump between the Division of Honour and the BGL League. I found it very difficult to handle their teams defensively, and with 4+1 relegation spots I couldn't get above the waterline. I would avoid promotion until you are fully confident in your back-line. I went in with a Division 1 level team and they just got murdered. I probably needed 2-3 more years in Division of Honour before I would have been ready as the final intake did give me some CBs but they still weren't very good.

Intro: Luke Farrell is pissed following his cruel sacking at the hands of the ungrateful ASRL Fels Board. This former player of English T7 side FC Guiseley, brought the tiny Portuguese-Luxembourg side up 4 promotions in just 7 seasons to the topflight of Luxembourgish Football and saw 5 of his players featured in Portugal’s U18 & 19 squads. Even with a bright future of youngsters, and a club for the first time becoming financially solvent all his accomplishments were instantly forgotten by the Board following their topflight relegation. Before he could even reach the locker-room his pink slip was signed, and he was cast out. One would think such an up-and-coming coach would return to his homeland to ply his trade – as his own former club is in desperate need of a new direction - yet Farrell has unfinished business in Luxembourg. He has been captured by not just the forests and hills, but the tenacity and determination of the Portuguese immigrants whose communities blend their ancestral homeland with their beautiful villages across the principality. While Farrell vows never to return to ASRL Fels, they are not the only amateur side from a Portuguese Community he can lead to glory. There is one team whose ambitions are stated in their name and desire heights never before seen by any Luxembourgish squad: Introducing AS Luxemburgo Porto, who dare to become the most reputable Porto on the planet & to have more club-trained players in the national team setup! [And yes, I think 'technically' the red & black part is their badge, but the first image is of this photoshop on an FC Porto badge as well as can be seen on their jerseys in the news article]. In 2017 ASL Porto gained promotion to the Division 1 via playoffs, through a season of record defensive performances. Their Coach, Nuno De Almeida Costa, was quoted as saying “The club has not known the D1 for 33 years. The merger dates back to ten years ago. One thing is certain: the committee has ambition to spare. We don't want to stop at D1. I'm an ambitious coach”. Sadly, these ambitions were never realized as this ‘height’ wouldn’t last. In the following years ASL Porto have tumbled down the Luxembourg pyramid till in the Summer of 2023 they sat the bottom of the bottom in Division 3: Start: In comes Luke Farrell, the lower-league addict who the ASL Porto board have entrusted with the future of their side. I mean, how much worse could it get?! While AS Luxembourgish Porto have a small supporter's section, they are highly motivated, and their passion sways the board so Farrell will have to watch himself this time and not tempt fate again if he'd like to keep his job! Squad: While his squad is predominantly youngsters who were hastily scavenged from the youth fields around the club there are two senior players who have been brought in by the chairmen in their disastrous 2022-23 season. The first is a 31 year old Kosovan CD, who makes good decisions in his marking: And the second is a super fit Luxembourger LM who has a bit of acceleration still in him: With this meagre squad Luke Farrell is hungry for redemption, and to show the world where the best Portuguese Footballers hail from!

@The7Striker @libbyshuss It really does seem like the board is less forgiving of relegation in fm23. Here I thought a quick pop up into the topflight we could right our finances and build some experience, but sadly they crushed the dream of my Luxembourg Portuguese Academy! Pulled an Icarus and got ahead of myself with how strong our offense was. Now if I'm in the same situation where I could get a surprise promotion, I may purposefully sabotage it to stay in a lower division longer. Might be simulating seasons again for Luxembourg D5. There is a certain club that would make for a great Portuguese Academy Comeback:

A.S. Rupensia Lusitanos Fiels Season 7 202-2030: BGL Ligue (Tier 1) Well, we couldn't do it our defense was horrendous this season and we just didn't have the players to make it better. I was called in by the board twice during the season. The first was in December after a 9 game winless streak, which we snapped with our only good run of form during the season to make them happy again. The second time was March where I had to make the 1-month promise. Luckily, we had just 2 games and we won and drew which was sufficient to pacify the board. Then we reached the end of the season where we were in a relegation battle, but were in an okay position for the relegation playoff: Unfortunatley we picked up just 1 win in 4, which set up a final day showdown with Junglinster who we had to beat to get to the relegation playoff: They score first in the 29’ off a botched header by my CB and that is one of only 3 highlights in the first half. The 3rd being an offside equalizer by us that was rightly called back. Halftime I try to inspire the troops. That and subs do nothing and while we have 15 shots we only put up .58 xG showing how low quality our chances are and we lose 0-1 and are relegated ☹ Question now is will we be fired? This was harsh. We were rated by the media 16/16 with 600-1 odds, so relegation was almost a certainty and the board initially just had 'fight against relegation', but at some point during the season up'd it to 'relegation playoff' so sacked us. Real bummer as I was enjoying this save. 0-2 in Luxembourg already this cycle.

I find at the low levels like in Luxembourg it can be dangerous to use too many instant results as its more about 'morale manager' than anything else. With that said, due to the fact I didn't have any staff I did use instant results for all the U21 matches because I didn't really care about a full grey team / my reject players. While i will use instant results with the 1st team its only in seasons where I'm more of a mid-table threat. Otherwise I'm a key highlight player as well. Other thing I do (especially for Luxembourg) is holiday through weeks where nothing is happening instead of spaming the spacebar.

GL at Guiseley its a great club for the challenge especially with that 3 Youth level & facilities. Did your Zambian player get a work permit? I could never get him one so had to release him when I started. At least for me Trenerry wasn't injury prone, as well as has good potential while being very young for a starting GK. Should give you some cushion till you can develop your own GK in the youth ranks. Look forward to watching your progress!

A.S. Rupensia Lusitanos Fiels Season 6 2028-2029: Luxembourg Promotion d’Honneur (Tier 2) Matches | Squad | Transfers |Facilities | Finances | Supporters Competitions: Cup: We did better this year getting to the 3rd Round! League: PROMOTION!! 2nd of 16 I guess I lied when I said we would chill in this division. It's all because of my new intake striker who was basically unstoppable and worked great with my two wingers. We had the same bad run of form in the late fall, but then recovered after new year and really just notched point after point. To be fair, its not like there was a runaway winner of the group considering the champion had 10 losses. With 4 guaranteed promotion spots there is a lot of shuffling happening in Luxembourg and this year we are on the up. Youth Academy: Youth Intake Preview: Focusing on the center of the pitch, which is fine by me Youth Intake Best Prospects Best XI Youth Products Highlights Club Infrastructure Nope we still broke Coaching Badges Nothing but here's the coach Thoughts With another of my youth prospects getting a callup for Portugual's U19 and us getting promoted it is time to switch up the leagues. When I start these lower-league saves I always enable just the league I'm managing but have players added throughout Europe to populate a healthy amount of players (60,000 for this game). Due to how this challenge is shaping up to be a dual Luxembourg & Portugal save, I think it's only right to replace the dropped lower-leagues with the top 2 Portugal divisions this summer.

Apparently not in Luxembourg, but that will just be better for me later on when players then are choosing between the two smaller nations for their international future. But that is decades off...

No kidding! That's utilizing a lot of the top clubs.

It sure is, but at least the teams around you are all pretty bad and start with similarly thin rosters. What helped me was delegating the staff hiring to the chairman as he actually found most of my staff members. Granted that still took over a year to happen. Not sure if view-only generates staff members (I didn't think it did). Not sure how many Luxembourgish staff members nations like Belgium or France will generate though.

There he is already in the Top Young Player Odds. Is he your first to be listed there in the Premiership? Nice on loading the football league in England, I'm sure that's helping build up Larne and the other top clubs who pick up NIR players out of English academies. With my Luxembourg save I think I'll be adding in the Portuguese leagues once I'm a top-flight side.

Sure is on the Youth Intake front, that's a fantastic FB you got there! He'll be fighting to go to England once he's 18.

Thanks, I'm thrilled with this set-up myself! I'm pretty sure you're correct about the Youth Rating, but that makes it actually a challenge to topple Porto & Benfica! I'm pleasantly surprised I'm also getting your Capo Verdeans in my intakes. I take that's just a natural element of Portuguese intakes to get some periodically?

A.S. Rupensia Lusitanos Fiels Season 5: Luxembourg Division of Honour (Tier 2) Matches | Squad | Transfers |Facilities | Finances | Supporters Competitions: Cup: Man we suck at cups. We lost again in the 2nd round this time going all the way through a penalty shootout League I'm very happy where we ended up, right at the points I targeted at the start of the season as no one has ever been relegated with 38 points. The league format has 2/3 of the games in the fall with one game a week even when the cup is happening so we took a morale spiral when things didn't go our way. Thankfully in the new year we have our U21's as a punching bag to get our offense back into form as games are only every other week. Because we still are Obscure with 0.5* Rep I literally can't get anyone domestically to play friendlies against us other than the U21s, which is annoying, but we made do. Youth Academy: Youth Intake Preview Youth Intake Ah the joys of actually having a HOYD! Best Prospects Best XI Used mostly the same squad except my original 01 striker who just couldn't cut it at this level so I moved Dione Chixaro 01n, my fast winger, into the PF role, and he did well enough though both Strikers went through scoring droughts. Also changed my CM on defense and RB who both did well enough this year but are easily replaceable with the new talent arriving. Youth Products Highlights Club Infrastructure None, we are -100k in debt now. Coaching Badges No coaching badges, but my chairmen actually found me Fairly Professional U21 Head & Assistant coaches! We are basically full staff now for a non-contract side: My coach: Love how his WwY is going up so much, didn't see that happen to my coach in England. Thoughts @DazRTaylor Glad to see the database is out and you're onto your next Andorran Adventure! @jepze Welcome to Luxembourg! I've really enjoyed this low-level league, and I hope it's the change of pace you're looking for. I'll be interested to see what nationalities your club generates and how you find the micro-nation experience. If you're like me and didn't load any leagues be ready to take years to get any staff members. In my transfer link at the top you'll see I've already begun the great purge of players now that we have a useful academy. I'll be slimming down the squad significantly in the next few years especially since we are a financial wreck. Those 30 p/w Youth Contracts add up. Objective is probably to remain in this division for 2-3 more years to mature the squad before we challenge for top-flight. Really only a couple of my players are rated at the level of the league below us, so I have a lot of development to do. How's Luxembourg doing? better than us. We aren't gaining any reputation it seems as we are one of only a handful of Obscure clubs left. So 'technically' we are now 95 / 102, guess we need to win some titles. And with our shock Portuguese youth internationals we now have an Academy International tracker! Will my Luxembourgish club become the best Portuguese Academy in the world!?!

This save is something else! Cristina 03b actually played the whole game against Hungary, so its not even like they are just depth on the team. So much for that 'improved AI Managers', selecting 2nd Tier Luxembourg amateur players for national team inclusion Edit: The U18 isn't as spectacular as he's literally the only real player on the team. But still begs the question why just him? My LB is also Portuguese & U18 and plays just as much but wasn't taken. However the U19 my player is 1 of 4 based in Luxembourg. Progres and the other two are top flight sides that get the Conference league positions.

HAHA what in the world?! I checked and Porto has a full U19 squad as well as the other Portugal clubs in continental competitions. Are you really telling me these two are in the top 40 of U19 Portuguese players in the game? If my Cape Verde players got callups before Luxembourg I wouldn't have been shocked, but this? My DLP A rotation RM

A.S. Rupensia Lusitanos Fiels Season 4: Luxembourg Division 1 Serie 2 (Tier 3) Matches | Squad | Transfers | Finances |Supporters Competitions: Cup: 2nd Round - We really aren't a cup team. League: 2nd of 16 - PROMOTION! Things really clicked this season as our starters improved just enough to keep us in the top 4 all season. I simed less matches to make sure any loss didn't become a run due to morale issues. We missed out on the title by just 1 point in the end, but US Esch deserved it as they beat us both times this year. Still trophy-less, but 3 promotions in 4 seasons is what we need. Youth Academy: Youth Intake Preview Youth Intake Best Prospects TBH none worth showing for now. Best XI & Team Report Youth Products Highlights Head of Youth Development OMG FINALLY it only took 3 Years! Very much a 'beggars can't be choosers' situation here. Now we will see if given a few years he can give me players who aren't just completely trash. Club Infrastructure None Coaching Badges None Thoughts We are headed to the Division of Honour (T2), where we will start seeing clubs with Part-Time contracts instead of just non-contract / amateur. If we hold onto our players (big if) we might have a decent chance of surviving. I have a hunch though that we will lose a few of these starting players who are the only talents in the club. Luxembourg came back a little and our finances are not good

I took a bit looking and the rule is in one of these pdfs in German or French. I got through the first few and couldn't find the suspension rules. Fédération Luxembourgeoise de Football - Lois du Jeu (flf.lu)

A.S. Rupensia Lusitanos Fiels Season 3: Luxembourg Division 1 Serie 2 (Tier 3) Matches | Squad | Transfers | Finances | Supporters Competitions: Cup: Rinse and repeat, again out in the Second Round League: Very comfortable midtable finish which is perfectly fine with me. Youth Academy: Youth Intake Preview: Youth Intake Best Prospects Best XI Youth Products Highlights Club Infrastructure No change Coaching Badges No change. This also includes the fact we still haven't found a HOYD so I'm stuck with my GM finding my players. Adds a whole additional layer to the challenge. Gives a real meaning to boosting reputation up from Obscure Thoughts I'm actually surprised to see some development with my first team players. I have them all signing new non-contracts at the end of the season so we will see if I can do the next leap-frog before they're poached. I had one 00 player poached, but weirdly he decided to go down to a T5 team instead of play with us and he was in our first team rotation. How did Luxembourg do this year?

Tenshi is who made the tier 3 Luxembourg one I tried. Before you get too far I'd recommend checking the yellow card rules. In their Luxembourg database they had it set so after 2 yellow cards you got a game suspension for each yellow card. Timo has a more regular suspension structure

Bummer on the sack, that brutal of a season is what has me scared about pushing Guiseley up too quickly into the football league. I'm using one of "@Timo@" 73 created leagues for Luxembourg. I'm pretty sure any of theirs would qualify for the challenge as there is a real effort to replicate faithfully the real league structures as well as monetarily accurate payments. There are a good number of African nations in the list for you to explore. Most often you'll have a bottom league w/o relegation, so you'll have to take the last placed team after the sim season. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2885983553

A.S. Rupensia Lusitanos Fiels Season 2: Luxembourg Division 2 Serie 2 (Tier 4) Matches | Squad | Transfers | Finances | Supporters Competitions: Cup: Second Round - Same story, won first game lost second game. League: 4th of 14 PROMOTION! On the final day of the campaign we made a three goal comeback to win 3-1 to securely guarantee us the final automatic promotion spot. Overall it was a good season with only one really bad stretch in the fall where things got bad and I tossed some complaigning players who weren't good enough. Enough U21 friendlies and I got morale back in line. U21 Division 6: Champions Our rejects won their group! I'll be bringing up all of these top performers to the A team and this will be my typical pathway I think. Unfortunately my normal stats-view doesn't work with the U21 with how the matches register but thats fine. Youth Academy: Youth Intake Preview Youth Intake Best Prospects Best XI & Accolades Youth Products Highlights Of the Year 1 Players 5 are in the starting lineup. Again stars are meaningless right now but I do really like my RM and Striker from this group Club Infrastructure Perk of promotion is the Club has gone Semi Professional! Maybe I can actually find a HOYD or Assistant Manager now! For signing contracts I'm sure I'll lose all my young talents because that dumb "Training Facility" promise is locked for everyone. I hate that new "feature" to this year's edition. So dumb. Coaching Badges Finished the one I started last year Board Takeover In the final month of the season the chairmen decided to retire and then just after the season ended we got a consortium interested Thoughts Boom back-to-back promotions and out of Amateur life. All clubs in Luxembourg are Semi-Pro so we are now on equalish footing with everyone. I expect to struggle in the next tier as our two experiences with Division 1 sides were not pleasant. This save is so fast, but I'd really like to get a HOYD or like an Assistant manager or anybody half-decent? Not a good year for Luxembourg on the world stage sees everything drop to a new low. Just more runway for me to build the nation!

I had 14 I think with Guiseley. Good luck!

Think about where you want your challenge to be, and which tier of nation you want to manage in. Top leagues, mid-level or low/micro nation. Do you enjoy long seasons working your way slowly up the ladder into the richest league on the planet, then go to England. If you want a shorter climb to the top-flight Germany sets you up with pretty strong set-ups in the 3rd Bundesliga while still having the monsters to slay at the top when you get there. Portugual has been popular for many as a mid-level domestic league with great intakes. Midlevel I played a fun save in Slovenia last cycle bagging two Euro Cup trophies, and other countries in the region like Slovakia & Serbia can be great saves. Be warned though most have a minimum age of 17 for registration so the first 2 years will be really hard as you won't be able to play your intake players. Isreal is another option. Then the micro which is what I enjoy more. For me isn't so much about actually getting on the leaderboard, I like the impossible tasks in tiny countries to get my team competitive on the continental level and bring their natoinal teams out of obscurity. Lots of fun stories to be had. Last year I played over 30+ Seasons in St Vincent (Caribbean) and Malta as some of the tiniest nations through downloaded databases. And you can see I just started Luxembourg, while I also have an England save I'll switch between. EDIT: I should mention DON'T play in Belgium or Scotland. The first has the worst finances in the game, and is not suitable for a first attempt and Scotland has major youth bugs. Denmark had contract issues last year (but may be fixed now?) and France has weird stadium hopping bugs for promoted sides.