Daddy

Well, this changes the outlook dramatically. Full suite of upgrades in progress and I'll be able to resign my players to full time contracts.

Season 3 - 2026/27 - Czechia - Second Division: As I feared it was a tough season. The bottom half of the table was very tight for most of the season. Fortunately, we ended the season playing three out of the last five against teams that finished below us. Even worse is being downgraded. This likely sets off a failure cascade. Nothing major to report here We are still building a lot of future depth. I have a good number of players over the last few intakes with the potential to push the club into the first division in a few years. We need them to develop. A full five-star potential is: "Decent First Division player." Three and a half stars is: "Second Division standard player." 2027/28 Season Preview: I think the team is good enough to stay up, but it'll be tough. Going semi-pro is also very tough.

Season 2 - 2025/26 - Czechia - Second Division: The team was fairly weak defensively and our better offensive players were very injury prone. I wasn't expecting to push for the top of the table but was hoping for better than 13th place. Regardless, we comfortably stayed up points-wise. When they finally weren't injured they were asking to leave. In addition to the Morale Manager sales, two players also retired. three of the four were still useful players for me. Early in a TC run as much as I'd love a superstar I'm looking for quality depth, and seeing the break down of the B & C Rated prospects in optimal positions for me was a relief. Currently: 2* = Good 3rd division player 4* - Standard 2nd division player That was exactly the intake I was hoping for. Players that are good enough to be backups with starting potential while we go through a few seasons of roster churn and development. 2026/27 Season Preview: Since the season turned over I've had two more starters force their way out, two players announce exploring options at the end of the season, and two others mad about one of the players from last season being sold instead of letting his contract expire (I got 16K two weeks before it expired, I am confused why they're mad). I remain cautiously optimistic despite the previous sentence and low expectations of the media and board. Might be a tougher season though.

Czechia - FK Viagem Ústí nad Labem (I'll be calling the club UNL for my own sanity as an American who only speaks Philly). I wanted to try Czechia and UNL had a pretty full squad and pretty kit colors. Season 1 2024/25 - Second Division: I would have posted the intro sooner, but I had questions and then decided to finish the season first, so what was expected? Survival. I felt confident. Then my confidence shook a bit. The team was not very balanced, very thin at defense, which gave me lots of squad depth unhappiness, which made it a morale manager for a while. An A rating for my strongest position wasn't what I was hoping, but an excellent rating with a lot of C players gave me hope it would be a deep intake. As hoped there's a lot of players with some potential and a few coming in able to help now. Some hard luck at the end where we lost a few close matches. Still a mostly comfortable first season. Two victims of morale manager. The club lost about $250K last year, but after all, was balanced out as the new season kicked in the finances are around $1.5M. I'm not going to be able to get upgrades until the club is profitable. My hope is I can slowly move the highest-paid players and have them adequately replaced by youth players. Most of the players are listed as "Third division" level players. Season 2 2025/26 - Second Division Season Preview: I'm hopeful of being safe. There are four players exploring options so things may get dicey. Three are starters and the fourth was starting until I got the message.

congrats @Riebow

@XaW @darren1983 I started up a new YC save last night, this was originally going to be the introduction post, but I noticed something strange and I want clarification if possible. I disabled the in-game editor on the setup of the save, but here it's showing it's both used and disabled. Unless there's another setting to enable and disable the editor is this just a weird bug and I'm fine here? I'm not that far into the save but the team is clicking and I don't want to start over if possible.

First day checking in a while, and I see this! Good job!

I have a backup save I may convert into a journeyman to see if just a little spending could put me over the top. Moneyball. I definitely feel hard done, but coaches are hired to be fired.

I thought I was going to top league too

Honestly stunned. I worried this season would be more difficult with three teams moving down, and it certainly was. The problem was dropping attainable points, and then morale just plummeted and we never could recover. The team didn't win a match after I was fired and were relegated in last place. I still think completing in Belgium is possible, but it relies on a lot of luck. Going to give the journeyman save some love until I figure out what challenge to try next.

2036/37 Season Review - Belgian Second Tier - Season 13 Another slow start. I had realized I went a little too hard on tactic tweaks and wiped them away and rolled out two new ones. Both tactics use the Genepress preset. I hired scouts and analysts and went next opponent scouting heavy, and once I found out their tactics and key players I decided what to do. If I faced a 2 striker formation I use the 5-2-1-2 DM AM and tell the two outside CBs to mark the strikers and a DM to mark the playmaker. If it's a 1 striker formation I use 4-2-4 DM Wide formation and tell one CB to mark the striker and a DM to mark the key playmaker. Then make specific tweaks depending on their playstyle (i.e., wing play I tell D to stop crosses etc). All that to say I went from bottom mid to the playoffs (helped by B teams not being eligible for promotion). Unfortunately, we matched up against one of the teams we struggled badly against. It wound up being a very respectable one-goal, on aggregate, loss. They went on to win the playoff and then beat the top division team to get promoted. No shame losing to them. Lost a player from the previous season's intake, which always frustrates me, but it's another potential big lottery ticket out there. Well, this is going to destroy the finances. No players immediately pushing their way up yet, but a very deep intake. Plus a player named Cool. I'll be quite hot if he forces a move out. 2037/38 Preview: Three teams coming down, it's happened two other seasons so far, makes things even tougher this upcoming season. My hope is with the team going full-time and more training we'll also improve. It's not promotion or bust, but next year may be if the finances get bad. I don't want to go back semi pro a second time.

I like the inclusion of reputation tracking in your updates.

Cursed image from 2036: There are players close to his salary, but he's the highest I've seen.

Big lottery ticket finally went through. Glad I didn't accept an early buy out for a fraction of that.

2035/36 Season Review - Belgian Second Tier - Season 12 Our first season in the second division and it was looking scary at first. The tactics used to get out of the third division were not good enough here. Another deep dive and adjustments and things settled in nicely and wound up comfy safe, and without that brutal start, we could have pushed for playoffs. I had a few players I didn't want to leave force a move. As much as I didn't want to weaken the squad the bad start messed with dynamics and I couldn't let more unhappiness torpedo the season and possibly the save. At least I have more good clauses. The new HYOD came in clutch here. Both a top-heavy and deep intake. Plugs some first-team holes and restocks the farm system. 2036/37 Season Preview: Now we find out if the tactic adjustment was a mirage and we have an up and down year, or I hit on things and we push up the table.

2034/35 Season Review - Belgian Third Tier - Season 11 Finally out of the third division! Got a little nervous that we were bottling it, but managed some good fortune on the final match day, and up we go. Nothing much to note here, so I'll use this space to say the TV money is 500K vs. 50K going up a division. I received a notification that ticket prices will be more expensive, but more are selling with a rise in club reputation. I don't think the team is profitable or anything yet, but I think less will be a loss. Some really good talent in there, but unfortunately a lot of borderline players are unambitious. The last couple of intakes were very unambitious. Consequently, I have a new HYOD with a Resolute personality. 2035/36 Season Preview: I just need to finish 14th to stay up and that's all I really care about this season.

Congrats @leyrtj

That sums it up. My best player from the last intake is a "First National Amateur standard player" according to the coach's feedback for current ability. That's the division I play in. He immediately began receiving transfer offers that I've been able to reject but with a promise to sell at the highest value I could get. $35K. The thing is I want to sell him to sustain the club. In 3-5 years for a few million. However, at 16 the value is super low. I'll get a good clause but the values don't increase fast enough and they get lost in the shuffle for the good Belgium clubs and most never develop. I have had one big clause come in which I now realize I spent poorly. I do have a big one out there now though. An 18-year-old, I got 6 games out of before, Brugge came in with a massive $8.5K offer. 50% profit clause, he's currently valued $39-49M. I'd have rather had the last two seasons of him in my first team and sell him now for $10M. If I turn down those offers they almost immediately go into Exploring Options so it's basically losing all these players for lottery tickets or keeping an unsettled team I lose for free.

They add some fund yes, but never enough to get out of the red and definitely not enough to improve anything or stay professional.

Thanks! I'm really tired of this division too

2033/34 Season Review - Belgian Third Tier - Season 10 (I think I misnumbered a previous update) What does it look like when you set the league record for draws? I needed to get promoted to hopefully stay professional. That didn't happen. Neither happened as the club is now semiprofessional again. A very good overall intake. Two players proving immediate impact and already fending off offers. Running a loan farm. One big sale, which I really didn't want to do, but it was too much and he wouldn't stay. There are a few good clauses out there waiting to trigger. 2034/35 Season Preview: The squad is mostly the same as last season record setting team. Hopefully, we move some of those draws to wins and maybe go up. This is a pivotal season for the club and the save in general. With the club going back to semi-pro I have a club full of players not willing to sign contract extensions. The end of the season may be a bloodbath. The lesson learned in Belgium is not to save the money to get and stay professional but immediately dump into facilities to max intakes asap to build rep and clauses. The problem is I get all these good players I lose for pennies. I'll be fine for this season, but the upcoming offseason is looming ominously. Edit: Forgot to include this. First time I've seen this, especially at the 3rd tier:

Congrats @Colossus

2031/32 Season Review - Belgian Third Tier - Season 8 During the previous offseason, I convinced the board to go professional after selling some big clauses off. I figured I'd have three years to get promoted before we went broke again. I did not realize I'd have to go the whole year before it kicked in. A very hot start had me feeling optimistic. Then we went into a bit of a slump and I noticed the money was not going to hold up for three years. I decided since I wasn't getting promoted it was about making tweaks to my tactic to deal with the fact that we're solid defensively, but struggle to score. It took a bunch of tweaking but I like where things settled into for a promotion or bust approach for the upcoming season. Mostly trimming some fat and loaning out some players to get minutes. However, the one that hurt was losing my striker at the end of the January window. He wasn't a prolific scorer, but he was a team leader in goals. No big star this year, but that also means I get to keep my players more than 4 games 2033/34 Season Preview: As stated above, the goal is promotion. Failing to get promoted puts staying professional in jeopardy.

congrats @thomas_e

congrats @XaW