Neo_Geo

That's bloody harsh @Padders, I take it there was nothing you could pin the drop in form on and it was just the random awful run of form that this game can throw your way sometimes.

Ayrshire not really renowned for its football teams so quite the challenge ahead now with Celtic being utterly dominant. Would that best ice cream be Mancini’s by any chance?

I had completely forgotten about the date of birth when creating the manager, just so used to it being 1 year of simulation but at least I have a chance of seeing the 100 year old capping now as I doubt I’d ever have the persistence required to hit 60 years of this challenge!

The year is 2054 and Largs Thistle finally make it into the Scottish Lowland League... Yes I simulated out for 31 years to finally get Largs Thistle to the point where I could take over. Whilst this sounds like a pain it gives me a really unique starting point for a Youth Academy Challenge and with a team that actually mean something to me having grown up in Fairlie (a village one over from Largs) hence why I really wanted to get them to a playable position. The Town Largs is a town on the Firth of Clyde in North Ayrshire, Scotland, about 33 mi (53 km) from Glasgow. The original name means "the slopes" (An Leargaidh) in Scottish Gaelic. A popular seaside resort with a pier, the town markets itself on its historic links with the Vikings and an annual festival is held each year in early September. In 1263 it was the site of the Battle of Largs, in which parts of a Scottish army attacked a small force of Norwegians attempting to salvage ships from a fleet carrying the armies of King Magnus Olafsson of Mann and the Isles and his liege lord King Haakon IV of Norway, beached during a storm. Despite its diminished status as a holiday resort as times have moved on, much of Largs is still geared towards tourism. Largs is also home to the famous ice cream parlour Nardinis serving up frozen treats since 1935 where it was a must for anyone city dweller going "doon the water" (visiting Largs by paddleboat). Largs is also know for the National Sports Training Centre, the UK's first inclusive[clarification needed] residential sports facility and caters for both elite athletes and the local community in a range of sports and activities. It was indeed here where managers such as Sir Alex Ferguson, Jose Mourinho, Andre Villas Boas, Fabio Cappello, David Moyes and Brendan Rodgers took part in training spanning many decades. Largs Thistle FC Founded in 1889 The Theesel play at local ground Barrfields Park. Thistle have never played higher than the West of Scotland Premier (6th Tier of Scottish Football) with their highest ever finish in season 2010/11 completing the campaign in 5th place. Undoubtedly their finest moment came in on the 15th of May 1994 where, at Ibrox Stadium, they lifted the Scottish Junior Cup beating Glenafton by a single goal. I was actually one of 8000+ fans in attendance that day and whilst my memories of the day are not particular vivid I do recall the party like atmosphere on the train home from Glasgow to Largs! In 2010 they once again reached the final of the Junior Cup but lost this time to Linlithgow Rose 1-0 at Rugby Park. Memories of 1994 The Challenge This challenge will be like any other attempt for me in that I'm not giving myself any further restrictions than the original challenge however having simulated 30 years to the 60th anniversary of their greatest moment this challenge will have a distinctly different feel to it. To help set the scene allow me to share how world football looks like for the start of this Youth Academy Challenge in Scotland. The champions League has been won by a team from the Big 5 every year except 2 where Porto have managed to win it so things have not changed a great deal. The Europa League paints a similar story however Aberdeen won the competition in 2049 which may have helped boost the Youth Rating for the country. In the Europa Conference Rangers won this in 2050 just a year after Livingston were runners up in the same year the Dons lifted the Europa Cup. In Scotland each of the league season previews can be seen below: As with most simulations in Scotland Rangers are no longer one of the big 2 with Aberdeen being the second force in Scottish Football with Rangers last title win in 2023/24 with Celtic winning 25 league titles and Aberdeen 5. The other notable changes are teams like Queen of the South and Stirling now being in the Scottish Lowland League and Inverness Caley Thistle sitting precariously in League 2. The Scottish national side are 24th in the world and managed to finish runner up in Euro 2044 as the 2040s seem to have been a really positive time for the nation. The focus will not be on the nation itself it will be purely about overhauling Celtic as the top team before conquering Europe. The season preview has Thistle predicted to finish 9th however the squad that I have to do this with is rather limited in size and hasn't got a single central defender! And of course this wouldn't be a Youth Academy Challenge without the custom kits!

I suspect I know the answer to this but I assume that for getting a team promoted to pick for the challenge you are not allowed to have the division the club you want to play as as view only and save scum to get them promoted? I've been trying to get Largs Thistle promoted to the Scottish Lowland League but its just not happening and with the D10 pack from Timo the West of Scotland Premier is available so I was thinking it would be possible to view the league and save scum to get them to win the league and gain promotion. As much as I have enjoyed the Malta save I think I'd have enjoyed it more as a build a nation challenge rather than a Youth Only and I guess I'm looking for something I can potentially complete and with a team that mean something to me (grew up in a village near Largs) EDIT: I'm just going to simulate out season after season until they get up (they just don't seem able to get up in the first 2 seasons no matter how many times I reload)

It's set as a National Cup 1: I'll see what happens if I win it again

Good luck, I enjoyed managing them just got tired of the youth ruling. it’s a really strong starting squad, made a big difference on the field.

It was working fine, then I won the title when Hamrun drew their game in hand (last game of the season) and I won it, since then I’ve had no trophy presentation. Like I say it’s not a big deal unless it’s part of a bigger issue. Thanks anyway, looks like it’s just me

No crash takes place and nothing suggests it’s any different from previous times where I did see the presentation. The text commentary at full time says we won the title, then it just doesn’t load the presentation. The team talk then has the congratulatory options and when I exit the match the news is full of stories on it. I get the cup wins showing (super cup and national cup) but the league just seems to have stopped. I understand the year where I won it when I wasn’t playing but if my result leads to me winning the title at full time I would have expected it at that point. Its no big issue just wondering if anyone else had seen that happen (just worried it might be the custom DB by Timo for Malta causing issues and could be a sign of worse to come)

Has anyone else seen it where you stop getting the trophy presented when you win the title?

As a Rangers fan I am now content with my save

Got my wires crossed. After looking back I could see it was my Croatia save that was bothering me. I don’t think there was anything in Honduras in particular I just wasn’t feeling the connection I guess.

Congratulations @Shankly84 I’d carry on if you are enjoying it, also probably not that much time left to start a new save before FM25 (assuming you are buying it and assuming I haven’t just jinxed it for a 2025 release date now!)

I did a Honduras save a month or so go, there is a link to the custom DB I downloaded. The rules about playing youth players bothered me otherwise I’d have continued.

That's about as bad a goal to concede I have seen and in such an important game as well

2 MORE TITLES INCLUDING TREBLE AND 100% WIN RECORD SEASON Two seasons have now passed since my last update and season 7 and 8 resulted in 2 league titles and 2 trophies with a 100% win record treble in season 8 as we absolutely dominated the domestic scene. We're still not wiping the floor with Hamrun as I needed extra time to beat them in the super cup but we are now looking like the better side and against the rest of the league we are winning comfortably even with a spell of having 8-10 players injured. In Europe I had to include the moment I nearly qualified for the Champions League by beating Rangers at Ibrox 3-2 following a 1-2 loss at home 1 week earlier before losing on penalties. In both seasons we made the Europa league stage and the first year a solitary win over Puskas Akademia were the only points gained with a -20 goal difference. Season 8 was much better with 1 win and 2 draws with the win being a 1-0 home win over Besiktas! Here are the club and competition overviews for the last two seasons: YOUTH INTAKE I've changed my Head of Youth Development twice since the last update first brining in a Nigerian HoYD who was fairly professional and had decent attributes but I hadn't noticed he only had a National B licence and I couldn't get him on a course. I really thought I had messed up and he had the 1 intake that he oversaw (although it was likely Edward Bartolo who had the bigger impact on that intake as it always takes a few years to filter through). I then spotted at the end of season 8 we had moved up to be 2 star reputation and given at the end of season 7 I added Serie A and Serie B as view only in an attempt to get some more Italian staff appearing this chap was listed in my staff search: His working with youngsters is a little lower than I would have liked but he makes up for it in judging ability and potential as well as being a pretty solid coach, particularly compared to my current staff. Here are the two intakes from season 7 and 8: It's been an interesting couple of seasons as I am seeing previous "star players" now look far more average in comparison to those coming through. We still haven't reached the point where the intake are actually not better than the top quartile of players currently at the club. Players like Roderick Bartolo YP-3A have now fallen completely out of favour and even Steve Vella YP-4A who has been capped 15 times for Malta is falling behind those coming through. Top 5 Elite Talents from Each Intake As a result of the shifting ability some of the squad have become frustrated at the depth of the squad in defence and in particular its the fullbacks that aren't that great. The potential is there but the development is not. I've started tracking the average attribute changes year on year based on those that had been at the club for 1 year or more: I'm going to keep tracking this and see what the general trend is but if the lines in general stay in the positive then I'll be fairly happy. As the standard of coaches and training facilities improve I'd expect to see this improve as well. Spreadsheet Tables CLUB NEWS Since turning professional 2 seasons ago the club is going strong. Thanks to the European money I have still been able to upgrade the facilities whilst maintaining a healthy balance. The wages per week currently stands at £11,714 which given the European money it really makes little impact. The training facilities now sit at 12 with the youth facilities at 8 and both are currently in the process of being upgraded once more. The board have expanded my staff levels and this is now how the staff screen is looking: Kercem Ajax are really starting to dominate Maltese football. Transfers SQUAD NEWS The squad now contains no original players from the start of the save with only 1 survivor from the Year 1 Intake, Ishmael Falzon YP-1A who is a 2 star current ability and 2 star potential but is still able to contribute in this league with 13 goals and 2 assists from 10 starts and 17 sub appearances this season. He's one of those players who on paper shouldn't be playing for us still but he comes up with important goals so he stays on. The squad depth shows a distinct lack of quality at the fullback positions with the wingers also lacking depth. As I mentioned in the Youth Intake section I have good numbers in AMC so having a narrow formation might help out if the wingers become a problematic area going forward. You can see that Falzon YP-1A is the second best AML at the club still. I haven't moved everyone over to professional contracts as I suspect that a number of those who aren't on one will end up leaving in a year or two if the intakes continue at their current level. As the intakes come through each player that I decide to keep on gets a professional deal when they hit 17 so it will naturally resolve itself over time. I haven't had many successes with retraining positions but Alex Formosa YP-7A has managed to retrain to be an AML and is now accomplished in just under 2 years of training. I needed to get more cover at left wing and with a reasonable left foot he seemed a good bet. BUILD A NATION At a club level this is going quite well with the Maltese Premier League now ranked 51st which has risen over 6 years from 64th. The Nation Club Coefficient is 31st now which continues to rise and continues to improve the qualification places. Hamrun had a difficult season this year and in terms of Europe they were put out at the 3rd qualifying round of the Conference League 5-1 on aggregate to Cracovia. Balzan lost 3-1 on aggregate in the first round of qualifiers to Sloboda Tuzla of Bosnia and Herzegovina whilst Gzira United also lost in the first round on penalties to KF Teuta of Albania. As I haven't really been generating an abundance of talent that I can start to provide to the rest of the league via loans and sales I'm not expecting a lot just now however the one plus point is that Gzira are now also Professional meaning we have 3 professional clubs in the country. I really want to see Floriana improve and become the 4th professional team as I think that will help massively but they have been floundering in mid table with 7th and 8th place finishes over the last 2 seasons. At the national level the Euro Qualifiers didn't end that well for Malta finishing second bottom on 4 points in a group that contained Gibraltar (so not getting 6 points was disappointing). We now have the most players in the national squad with a similar story in the youth squads: National Squad: 10 / 22 U21: 10 / 23 U19: 8 / 23 U18: 1 / 12 In terms of caps Omar Spiteri YP-4A (GK) has 19 with Steven Vella YP-4A (MC) on 15. Still no international goal for any player coming through the youth ranks. BINGO CARD It's been quite a successful couple of season with 1/3 of all targets now met but we're definitely now entering the stage where only a handful will be realistically achievable: NEO_GEO'S FINAL THOUGHTS I think I preferred playing a couple of seasons and doing this update as it allowed me to just enjoy the game for a bit longer before writing the update (not that I don't enjoy it too it just takes a while to pull together). I'm having a blast with the save and enjoying seeing long term plans starting to take shape with improvements across the board from facilities to staff and seeing the results on the pitch improve to the point where we look very comfortable domestically and at least giving a good account of ourselves on the continent. I'm excited for seeing the new HoYD having an impact in a couple of seasons time and with the ever improving training facilities and staff I want to see more of the players start to bridge the gap between their current ability and potential. I've probably not utilised my spreadsheets as much as I thought I would, I tend to focus on the potential, the training focus and the attribute change ranking to see what players are pushing themselves and what players aren't. It is proving to be useful but I do feel it needs some tweaking (in particular the lower and upper drive weighting needs to be handled differently as a player that clearly doesn't have what it takes but has a personality that CAN have high professionalism/ambition scores highly in the upper drive meaning they appear higher in the potential ranking even though I know they won't make it so I do have to apply discretion to the rankings).

@mschafer13 no one has completed Northern Ireland yet, I’ve had two attempts at it but even though I had done well I stopped because of having to play so many games with all of the cups and having to play in the Scottish challenge cup every year. Best of luck

Yeah the Scottish league IRL needs a revamp, if you then draw a premiership team in the cup you can play them 6 times or 8 times if you get replays against them.

Little bit of a spoiler (as I am planning on doing 2 seasons before updating) but I was a breath away from qualifying for the Champions League proper after introducing myself to my fellow Bears at Ibrox with a 3-2 win only to lose on penalties

It's funny you should mention this. I was close to kicking my team, Rangers, down to the bottom tier of Scotland a la 2012, releasing all their players and doing a Scottish only save focussing on youth development where I could only sign Scottish players under the age of 20. It was going to be about building the squad in the right way and not the mismanaged way we have done it (particularly in the last 3 years). However I enjoy posting updates and reading those of others in this thread as its a great community and that's what made me ultimately go with a save I'm unlikely to finish just to see how much I can impact the fate of a nation just by developing youth players. If I had a place to post my progress I probably would have done my Rangers save (just purely because I am so disillusioned with the way the club is being run). I'll keep an eye out for your posts on the career thread if you do start......you might just make me want to start my own.....although now that I am talking about it I'm thinking a Scottish lowland league with a new team similar to FC United of Manchester or AFC Wimbledon as a rebirth of the club that still holds its traditional values..........

Well done @scarp first to complete Slovenia, awesome

KERCEM WATCH FROM THE SIDELINES AS HAMRUN PLAY FOR THE TITLE I love that this game still has the ability to surprise me and make me feel emotions that are akin to real life football. Over the course of the season there was little between us and Hamrun but I handed the advantage back to them with a poor 0-0 draw at home to Hibernians with 5 games to go. I knew there was little chance of Hamrun slipping up so I opted to be more attacking in every game and try to get a better goal difference. In the 5 remaining games I managed to improve the goal difference by 16 and closed the gap a little but truth be told Hamrun were scoring freely as well. I played my last match on the Friday beating Marsaxlokk 4-0 (A) and had to wait until Monday for Hamrun to play Valletta (A), here's how the table looked: 3 points ahead but 4 goal difference worse off and Hamrun Spartans just needed a single goal win to take the tile back from me. So I decided to watch the match and much to my delight Valletta took a 5th minute lead but I know Hamrun are strong in the final third so I was not celebrating at this point and I was right to as by 29 minutes Hamrun were now in the lead and peppering the goalmouth with shots. This was going to be cricket score. However, half time came and went with still a goal left in the game. Hamrun couldn't extend their lead but any highlights for Valletta were few and far between. I knew time was running out but Valletta just needed a goal to hand me the title. Injury time began and Valletta's subs gave them a shot in the arm as they started to push forward more but still couldn't score. They won a throw in on the left in Hamrun's half with less than a minute to go..... We participated in our first ever Super Cup and lost in extra time to Hamrun Spartans with the goal coming in the 120th minute, it was a sore one to take but I avenged that defeat 3 days later winning 1-0 in the league. In the National Cup we put out Hamrun in the quater finals with a 1-0 AET win which meant I had a path to the final, which we took and then played Gzira United in the final In Europe as expected the Champions League music disappeared just as quickly as it appeared as we lost3-2 on aggregate to Sheriff Tiraspol. AS it was a first qualifying round exit it meant the Europa Conference qualifiers once more where we won the 6 games in front of us against teams from Estonia, Montenegro and Belarus as we qualified for the first time into the League Phase. After that point it looks bad with 1 point gained and 5 losses but looking at each of the losses all but 1 were only by a single goal. It was strange to feel as pleased as I was even though we finished 4th bottom. Unfortunately Hamrun didn't make it into the League Phase as they drew Dinamo Kiev in the third qualifying round but only lost 3-2 on aggregate. It's pleasing from a nation perspective to see that we are making progress. We hit a significant milestone by turning professional at the end of this season and I have managed to get a few players on professional terms however Spiteri YP-4A and Vella YP-4A don't want to talk as they feel the squad needs significant strengthening. It's worth noting that these two players are the only ones who have full international caps, so they may be leaps and bounds above everyone else. Youth Intake A really good year for the intake which saw me get 2 central defenders who are upgrades on our existing defenders and I also got a left back that I have been waiting for years to come through. Now the only problematic area are the strikers. Top 5 Elite Talents Spreadsheets Club News The big (and only) news is that we have turned professional after I asked the board following the title win and they agreed to it. With nearly £3m in the bank I think we are quite stable but not yet at a point where I can be professional AND continue to invest in the facilities. We'll need CL money or years of Europa/Conference money before I can seriously invest once more as we make virtually no money from gate receipts, the league money is great don't get me wrong but in comparison to the facility improvement costs it barely makes a dent. Another promising aspect was the U21s winning their league: Kieran Kemp left to Taxrien which I was fine with and as of now there have been much reduced approaches for players at the club. Squad News As with last season I have released a number of youth players as I continue to get rid of those at the bottom of the pile: The most notable players being released are Ian Micallef and Thomas Ebejer who played 118 and 91 games respectively for Kercem Ajax. I also released Josef Borg YP-2A as his current ability and potential have plummeted due to the increasing ability of the intakes each year. He did play 78 times with 16 goals and 21 assists so he really did play his part but I have to keep moving forward. The best XI is looking fantastic now and with 2 really good centre backs coming through in this intake I am really hopeful of a full XI with an average rating of 7+. If I had a striker to match the ability of Vella and Camilleri I reckon I'd be absolutely bossing this league but Adamyan YP-4A is doing well enough with 23 goals in 29 games this season. Squad depth we look light still in CB, DL and SC but the other areas are starting to come through more now. I took the screenshot of the experience matrix before releasing Micallef and Ejeber which means we only have one peak player in Mifsud who will not likely be featuring a lot this coming season, I'll be pleased to see some of the youth players starting to move to the right in this chart. Next seasons XI has 4 players from this years intake appearing in it at CB (2), LB and AML which shows the intake quality continues to improve (I am now just waiting for it to reach its peak and then have decades of slogging away to get better quality coming through but thats what this save is about). Building a Nation I've opted for relabelling this section from National News to Building a Nation as I feel this is the point in the save where things start to move on this front. As I mentioned earlier we made it to the Europa Conference League Group Phase this year and Hamrun did the same last year. The coefficients have improved to the point where the second place in the league get into the 2nd Qualifying round of the Europa Conference. We have a long way to go but its encouraging to see at this stage that both myself and Hamrun are doing a decent job in Europe. Turning professional will hopefully open the door for our players going on loan to help other teams in our division and make the league stronger overall, but so far the only player I have managed to sign on a deal and try to loan out has been unsuccessful. From a national perspective Malta remain in 141st in the world and as predicted the two wins against North Macedonia were the only points picked up in the World Cup Qualifying as they finished second bottom. I hope to expand on this section in coming seasons. Bingo Card Another 6 targets off the list but I think it's getting to the stage now where it will slow down a fair bit. Neo_Geo's Final Thoughts We definitely got lucky this season with the title win but as I said we didn't fluke it over the entire season, we deserved to be where we were alongside Hamrun. With the additions to the squad I feel I will be much stronger overall, we only conceded 14 goals this year but with two centre backs and a left back coming through I think we might be able to shave off a few conceded goals. I do feel we are a quality striker away from being able to dominate domestically and whilst I should have zero expectations of games in Europe it's good to see we aren't being totally outclassed. At this stage I have no plans to alter my formation and the players coming through are being trained to fit with that formation. Going forward I am going to do 2 seasons per update to start to get through the game quicker as the updates still seem to take a while to do. Maybe SI will push back FM25 by even further so I have a chance of seeing this nation develop over a number of decades

Awesome achievement @fries

Normally I wouldn't post this but it feels like a VERY long time since I had a save with a national cap......first Maltese National Cap for Steve Vella YP-4A: Don't tell anyone but it was only for 1 minute as a substitute in a 4-2 loss to Kosovo

Awesome, thanks very much. I suspect in countries like Malta the released players are far more likely to vanish and get recycled so this will really help.