Daddy

Season 3 - 2026/27 - England - National League South: Unfortunately, the team ran out of steam and we missed the playoffs. The final spot was ours for the taking but was not to be. We had a pretty decent cup run though and made some money. Not pictured, my best player from my first intake who refused to sign a contract and left on a free. While we were on that good FA cup run and with some cash in hand I was able to get a few upgrades. I wasn't expecting that this early. We'll see what happens. Nethercott is already getting some first-team action. This is quite a diversity of nationalities for this intake. 2027/28 Season Preview: It seems the expectations are being lowered. I'll raise them by saying I want to get back into the playoffs.

congrats @scarp

congrats @fries

Season 2 - 2025/26 - England - National League South: We were tied with points for first late in the season but ran out of juice at the end. We wouldn't have won the division but could have had a first-round bye. Regardless, we got wiped in the playoffs. Nothing special in the cups, I'd love to plug along deeper into the FA cup for a payday, but not going to burn match fitness on priority players with this thin of a roster and such a busy schedule. No sales, but three retirements. The first two were of emergency backup players so I didn't care. The last surprised me as it was my 35-goal-a-season striker who decided player/coach was too much and just went with coach inexplicably. There are no immediately standout players. Hopefully, Some will develop into nice players, but with no upgrades that may take some time. 2026/27 Season Preview: It seems the game thinks I'm lost without Danny Wells also.

I should have taken a picture of his attributes. I think I may have better attributes as a player than this dude, and a better personality lol.

Season 1 - 2024/25 - England - National League South: The first season is now complete. Some good talent was inherited, but we were very unlucky with injuries. Couple the thin roster with the schedule congestion and it was enough to keep us comfortably outside of playoff contention. Cup runs were brief and uneventful. I believe those moves were in place before joining the team. No clue who they are though. I was able to get coaching badges, but no other upgrades. I don't want to push too hard without more income anyway. I'm not sure I've ever seen "Other Talent" before. I didn't sign him. I did sign almost everyone else though. 2025/26 Season Preview: I'm going to have some fun with this color scheme (in the future I'll even allow myself the flexibility of black and white as third colors if needed). I hope the extra players from the in-take will reduce some injuries, but we'll see. I want to push for a playoff spot if we can stay relatively healthy.

This is the first time I've seen an emergency injury meeting.

For the several previous years of attempting in England, Dulwich was always one of those teams I wanted to play as. Both because of the color and I always viewed them as a measuring stick for whatever reason. I spent the afternoon trying to get Horsham promoted (I describe myself as being "from" Horsham, Pennsylvania), but I watched a full WWE show and got bored with all the Holidaying lol.

For what will probably be my final attempt for FM24 I'm going to give England another try.

Thank you all. Here's some club legends as requested: By the end he was overtaken, but he is our record goal scorer in a season and carried us in our early foray into Europe. Our club record in appearances. He was "Y25B" (I started adding notes because nicknames seem to fall off) We never had a keeper run away with things and establish himself as the dominant keeper. Gustafsson however took the helm for this last stretch and he won a lot of trophies. This is the guy that asked for 30M a year I think. I asked the board to negotiate just to see what they would do and he got 22M lol. He scores at an every-other-game pace. Ones that got away: These are the two players I hated losing the most. They wouldn't re-sign and for both, I was able to get some big clauses to help fill the coffers and get our facilities maxed. The future is bright for the club though: I'm sticking around for at least another season to see if I can't get the national team job also (the coach is retiring soon), and then turn it into a bit of a build-a-nation save.

Season 23 - 2045/46 - Czechia - First Division: I accidentally copied this link first so why not start with the FA cup? Wasn't a priority, but we're good enough to win even with a lot of rotation. Actually - 2045/46 - Czechia - First Division: We didn't get a trophy lift this year for some reason. We ran away with this. At the end of the season, I rotated as much as possible, but with heavy fixture congestion, injuries, and resting players we didn't focus too hard on the league. I may have buried the lede here a bit, but the league focus was secondary. Champions League: Challenge Complete! We had a favorable draw and pushed for the top-eight finish, but we fell one point short. For whatever reason we could not fully unlock again Nice, but fortunately, we played defensively sound and managed to blank them on aggregate. Newcastle was a favorable draw. They have developed into a Europa League Powerhouse but had no success in the Champions League, and have remained a 6-8th place premier league team on average. Man City remains Man City, but for whatever reason we play them tough. I hate winning on penalties, but I wasn't turning it down. Girona have developed into a team that consistently makes European competitions and regularly advances into the knockout rounds. However, we were the better team. A late goal in the second leg made the score look closer than it felt. I have to quickly pivot to tactics talk. Here's my default tactic: Nothing particularly fancy here. The only player instructions I have are on the WB's the shoot less often. As the match progresses I'll switch the mentality to positive or cautious (this is the only tactic I've ever had where cautious scores a lot). I'll peek the scouting report to see if the team plays cautious or balanced etc and sometimes go into a match other than Balance. In the continental competitions and against teams that are just better defensively I wind up going more direct, and don't play out of defense etc. I say all this because the scouting report for Bayern was this very defensive shape (one I struggle against) and a cautious mentality. I knew I'd have to go more direct, but with a more talented, cautious, tiki-taka team I needed to bring the chaos. Enter Yolo mode. My hope was to come out, sucker punch them and hope I can keep them at bay. Worst case, they quickly score and I go back to my normal tactic and hope to win normally. It wasn't a total FM'ing. The constant attack unsettled them, and we benefited! I had to geek out about the tactics a little. Final transfer screen. @darren1983 please add to the completion page

I'm glad you stuck with it! You cannot loan back players you sell. Once they leave they're gone. You can try to set the transfer date for later.

Very close. Hopefully today close!

That's wild lol

@scarp what @Neo_Geo is saying! I got lucky and got a tycoon early, so I'm looking forward to seeing your story play out!

I didn't know that fun fact. He stuck around for two more seasons for me before retiring:

Season 22 - 2044/45 - Champions League: It seems I didn't take a pic of my schedule or the table. We were pretty comfortably midtable in the new league format. It was a challenging schedule, and the handful of matches we did lose were only by a goal. In the knockout we faced a Porto club we've struggled with, but we overcame a late equalizer to win in penalties. Our home leg against Leipzig ended 1-1. They took an early lead in the home leg, and after going all out for the tying goal they broke free and ended our hopes. Not for the first time we get knocked out by the eventual winners. We're close. Season 22 - 2044/45 - Czechia - First Division: I don't quite know what happened with Slavia Prague, but we were neck and neck more than halfway in with only one loss each. I think we're finally starting to run away with the league now. Misc Updates: We won our first FA Cup. It's not a competition I've ever prioritized, but we just were on a roll last season and didn't lose many matches in general. Mostly a lot of loans and a little trimming of the roster. I can't remember if I showed this last time. Top 10 setup in the world and still the board is unhappy about where it ranks. Club World Cup?!?!: I don't know how or why we're here, but here we are. May as well win it right? Right. Pretty favorable draw with a Chilean club and a MLS Club. Villarreal didn't put much fight up either. Porto once again, but we handled them comfortably. Not sure what happened with the City match. Both clubs ended with like 0.8 xg. It wasn't an fm'ing but it wasn't exactly fun. Next up a Real Madrid club I was 0-5 against and we won fairly comfortably. I was expecting some weird ref bribery story to come out as ten minutes in they had a pen review, which wasn't given, and then as play resumed they were immediately given one which they converted. We were up 3-1 and they were given yet another penalty, this time the keeper came up big. A late goal made the score close at the end. In the final, we quickly built a 2-0, but in the second they got within one and we spent the rest of the match clinging to the victory. I still don't know how we qualified, but I meticulously picked my roster to be starters who are not international players, squad players with diverse skill sets, and rounded out with a bunch of young players. I was able to rotate throughout and fitness was not a problem. I'm guessing the other clubs had both their top players out and poor fitness management to help me out. Youth Intake: This is an amazing intake. Our top prospect is a model citizen, and so is "Y45G" as well. 2045/46 Season Preview: Have to win again. Ideally, comfortably and able to rotate a lot. One of our better draws. If we're to keep building and push to win with a draw like this we need a top eight finish and get the first round bye and home advantage in round of 16.

Season 21 - 2043/44 - Champions League: Since I've won the league a few times in a row, the headline story will be Champions League, so let's lead with that. It was not an easy draw, but to not qualify for the knockouts is a disaster. By xG we left enough points on the table to be why we got grouped. Unfortunately, I didn't take it well and started going crazy with the tinkering and that definitely cost us. Season 21 - 2043/44 - Czechia - First Division: We tried our hardest to blow this, and fortunately, Sparta didn't want to win either. As stated above I went too crazy with tactic changes and just confused the team. Youth Intake: Getting overloaded with strikers now, but it's not a bad problem to have. Misc stuff: Not much to the misc section for this update. 2044/45 Season Preview: I'm going back to a more basic tactic and hopefully, we get back on track to win the league comfortably and be able to focus on pushing in the Champions League This is a rough draw. Five of the teams I have a losing record against. However, most of those matches were close and I'm really deluding myself into thinking we're going to shock a few of these teams and make a deep run. I was wondering where Birmingham came from in this draw. I assumed they won a cup or something, but no they methodically built up into a decent Premier League club. I figured it might pique someone else's interest as well so I shared

Congrats!

Season 20 - 2042/43 - Czechia - First Division: Four in a row, but this was more about Slavia Prague absolutely collapsing and gifting us the league. With only five losses it's not like it was completely undeserved. An early slump to start the season put us in a hole that we almost couldn't climb out of. Alls well that ends well, but I wanted to win more comfortably. 2042/43 - Champions League: I was concerned with the draw that it would be tough to qualify, but we made a strong push for a knockout bye. Real Madrid and Barcelona stomped us, but we rebounded with wins against defending Champion League Champions Bayern and against two teams always in the European hunt in Inter and Brest. We get Brest again in the knockout round and take care of business—absolute heartbreak against Napoli. On the road, we took a 2-0 lead and led on aggregate, but they equalized in stoppage time and then took the final lead in extra time. They went on to win the whole thing. This is yet another sign that we're close. Youth Intake: In addition to the previously shared Phan The Hung I'm glad to see a keeper with some potential. Misc Stuff: Combination of loans and moving on from some players that wanted more playing time than I could give them. Cool to see, and I'm definitely missing the two players I couldn't keep. The 'Czech Kroupi'? It's neat to see where the world is in 20 years. 2043/44 Season Preview: I want to start running away with the league soon. Five peat and I want to lock it up earlier for once. A more manageable draw this season, but certainly far from easy. I want to win this soon. I'm raising expectations to get the top eight seed, get that bye, and rest some players. I think we're now capable of winning any season now, and not necessarily just by luck of the draw. We're competing with and winning against the best teams in the world now. An easier draw would of course help.

This is one of the most unique combination of nationalities and name of an intake player.

Congrats to @naterr! Between vacation and other games stealing my interest, I missed your completing the challenge. Season 19 - 2041/42 - Czechia - First Division: Three in a row, but this one came down to the wire. It was a challenging season with injuries and schedule congestion. 2041/42 - Champions League: We had a much tougher go of things last season, but we also had tougher draws. No shame getting knocked out by Real Madrid, but I wish we had at least scored a goal. Youth Intake: Another deep intake. Not sure there's a superstar in this class, but a lot of players that have First Division ceilings. Misc Updates: Loan factory opening up and did some roster trimming of players not good enough for first team that wanted to move on. I just found that funny. I don't understand how I failed this. I was hoping this wouldn't happen until I was a club legend to have a shot at a named stadium. Oh well. Since it mentioned the cost I figured I'd also capture my balance. 2041/42 Season Preview: I can't really win the league three years in a row and settle at hoping to challenge for the championship. The goal is to win it again, and this time more comfortably. This is a brutal draw. If we finish top 8 then I better win the whole thing lol.

Season 18 - 2040/41 - Czechia - First Division: Back-to-back Championships! We haven't quite pulled away with the league yet, but winning consecutive seasons while having the European competition schedule congestion is a great sign we're on the right path. 2040/41 - Champions League: My goal was to push to finish in the top eight to continue making measurable progress. From there I hoped to be competitive in the round of 16. This run exceeded expectations as we only had one clunker of a match, and it was against Real Madrid who dominated the league phase. We also had big wins against Bayern and Manchester United. After enjoying our bye we get matched up against Girona. Girona has developed into a Champions League regular but has not been able to beat out Real Madrid for the La Liga title. Our run ended in the quarter-finals against PSG but didn't look out of place against the eventual runner-ups. Youth Intake: Context: 2.5 Yellow Stars floor is "Decent First Division" standard player and 4 stars have a ceiling of "Leading First Division Player". Misc Updates: Not crazy here, trimming some fat and some loans. This was one of the last big transfers I let go through. Now that the club is an established Champions League team money isn't an issue, but that's one hell of a lottery ticket coming through. two new additions to the wonderkid list. 2041/42 Season Preview: Have to plan for three in a row here. Anything else would be a disappointment. A tougher group than last season, but I'm still expecting to push for the top eight again. I think we're now starting to hit the point in the save where with the right draw and some luck we could probably win the whole thing at any point, but could also crash out early just as easy.

I was just offered an Affiliate club that I completed this challenge with a few years ago

Agreed, but I have two counterthoughts. If it weren't for this challenge as that manager you might look for a loan back to where it may not be as unrealistic for them to want control of him but to let you keep developing him. The other counter I have is the "According to my coaches." He may be a higher standard than what they're skilled enough to tell you. OR he may just be delusional lol.