Neo_Geo

Congrats @Barnsley, always impressive beating this in England

Bloody Dortmund again Having him on a long contract is one thing, keeping them happy is another thing altogether. Once he becomes influential just wait for the other teammates to say you should let him go, you then reluctantly let him go then the same players complain that you sold him

SAK 1914 END RB SALZBURG 16 YEAR DOMINANCE More Youth Details Youth Intake Preview Youth Intake Top 5 Season Review Well that's the first part of the challenge complete......and much sooner than I had expected. We kept pace with RB Salzburg during the first 22 games before the split only being behind by 2 points. The first 3 games of the Championship group were at home and we got 9 points from them and continued with that form only dropping points at home to RB Salzburg with a 1-1 draw, we were on fire with 24 goals scored and 8 goals conceded in the 10 games post split. A huge factor in this was keeping players fresh which given we had been knocked out of Europe and the FA Cup we just had the league games whilst RB Salzburg had 2 more games in Europe and made it to the final of the FA Cup where they LOST on penalties to FK Austria Vienna which drained then further. I have to thank Sturm Graz for beating RB Salzburg 3 times last season which was a massive contributor to our success. We clinched the title with a dominant 3-0 home win over Wolfsberger AC where Mark Taylor smashed this beauty away to start the party: So the final game COULD have been a decider away to RB Salzburg and had it been the result may have been different but we outplayed them in a 2-1 win to finish 8 points clear. I really didn't see us stopping them any time soon as they were up the top of the Champions League group stage and we just couldn't get a win over them in the league for a number of seasons so like I say a massive dose of luck with Sturm Graz and getting knocked out of the additional competitions really helped us. Off the park the Champions League money was put to good use finally upgrading both training and youth facilities to take us nearer to maxed out facilities. NXGN saw the top 3 positions taken by SAK players and Taylor making 12th. I played Taylor a lot this season as his upper transfer value is £16m that puts him in the same bracket as Kern (Elite4) and Bogener (Elite5) so I favoured him more than Matko (Elite3) this year who appears to be capped at 4-ish potential ability but still puts the goals away in the league. Bogener (Elite5) is now classed as a wonderkid making him the first of the save. In Europe we played Rennes and Besiktas in the qualifiers winning 7-3 against Rennes (crazy 5-2 away win!) and 4-2 against Besiktas. The group stages went better than I thought and we just missed out on the play-off places which in hindsight now seems like it did us a huge favour (not that I think we'd have made it any further). It's still a massive step up but it looks like some of the players are now happy-ish to stay and I think Taylor is going to be huge. The only problem area at the moment is centre back and with 3 elite DCs this year I'm hoping one of these might make the grade in the long run as we really need that higher level of player there to be able to make inroads in Europe. What's the goal next season then? Keep the squad together and continue to challenge for the title and do a little better in Europe (we don't have the qualifiers this year now . Onwards to season 8!

A little tip for anyone in a similar situation as me 7 seasons in regarding minimum fee release clauses. So we have the two options of working around minimum fee clauses in contract negotiations: Hire a DoF who does the negotiation for you and then you change the offer 1 day later Walk away from negotiations if the clause is locked in, advance a day and then resolve the issues with the agent stating they weren't flexible enough These are still valid but there is a spanner in the works......when the player wants a new contract and you get this screen: If you think there is a good chance they will look for a minimum fee release clause (you'll know when you know as you'll be at that part of the save where they want these fees still) then DO NOT discuss with the player saying you'll sit down to contract talks soon because it then means that option 2 above does not work. The reason being if you walk away from the negotiation you will upset the player that a promise was broken and you have to speak with them to repair it which means the option to resolve the contract talks with the agent is NOT present. I had this happen to one of my right backs and it took a long time for him to drop his concerns about promises being broken (luckily he wasn't an influential member of the squad). What I now do (and what I did for the Susterajter contract) is I don't do any of the options from the above (Discuss Contract with player, Ask agent to resolve and Ask influential player to resolve) and I go in to contract negotiations, where undoubtedly you have a the clause sitting there and locked in (for Susterajter he had £9.25m locked in), you can then do option 2 steps and get to the point where the contract is negotiated where you can remove it (or at least increase it) and then hopefully you get them to sign: In my case I really had to negotiate hard because he wanted over my max wage and I didn't want to lose control over bids that might come in so I added 10% sell on as the lower wage (even though he is responsible for 14.9% of the club's total wage bill now!) had to be countered in some way

Half way there @XaW

CUP WIN AND CHAMPIONS LEAGUE FOR SAK 1914 More Youth Details Youth Intake Preview Youth Intake Top 5 Season Review Delighted with the season as we not only won our first Austrian FA Cup in our third final appearance but we finished second to RB Salzburg and as a result qualified for the Champions League Qualifiers. It was a season where players started to realise what they have at the club and not only did they drop their concerns to leave but they also requested new contracts (the exception to the rule is Susterajter (Elite2) who at the end of the season asked to leave as he wants to win titles, agreed to let him go if a club comes in with £13.25m). That being said the season started with Dortmund trying to keep the unofficial feeder link alive: Given the players now at my disposal I changed to a 4-2-3-1 DM AM Narrow as I think it makes the most of our DMCs and AMCs and Matko up top managed to score 37 goals in all competitions so he seems to be doing just fine. League record against RB Salzburg last year was P4 W1 D0 L3 with For 4 and Ag 6 so we are still getting beaten but it's getting closer. Europe certainly took its toll as we have a decent second string but not strong enough to keep the pace with RB Salzburg. At the tail end of the season we also had a lot of injuries to AMCs resulting in changing to 4-2-1-2-1 (changed an AMC to MC) on a number of occasions and the cup final, although we were the better team, was a slog and we just got it over the line before playing Sturm Graz in match day 31 to book our Champions League spot. A huge part of our success was our defence with 17 clean sheets and only 22 goals conceded (RB Salzburg conceded 21) however up top we are 20 goals behind RB Salzburg so as our forward line continue to develop I'll look to get some more from them in addition to looking at getting the fullbacks to get further forward (but that relies heavily on the quality of the DCs and DMCs). As far as the squad is concerned its developing nicely. What is interesting is I am now seeing some of the previously rated 5 star PA shift to 4.5 star which I believe is happening because we have a couple of outliers as far as PA is concerned (suspect its Kern (Elite4) and Bogener (Elite5) who are now both 4 star CA). Matko (Elite3) despite scoring 37 goals is now showing as a 4 star PA which presumably means he's not far off peaking, so I'll have to see if Bremer (Elite5) or Taylor (Elite6) are likely to exceed this but it will be tricky with only the one starting slot so I am thinking Bremer goes on loan and Taylor is backup. We had 4 entries in the NXGN: In addition to this Streicher won the European Golden Boy award: Streicher also won the UEFA Europa Conference League Young Player of the Season award. Off the field the Youth Recruitment was maxed this year but no further upgrades to training or youth facilities (if I make Champions League proper I'll be kicking the chairman's door down to get them!) The new stadium came too late for season ticket sales so it will be interesting to see the numbers this year but the stadium and European football definitely help balance the books last season without the need to sell any players. Next season I would LOVE to make the Champions League proper but I'm not expecting it to happen as I enter at the League Path 3rd qualifying round and if I make it through that there is the play-off. Domestically I'd be happy to replicate this season and finish best of the rest if possible and continue to develop the talent at the club since it is going to take a huge effort to overthrow RB Salzburg (won the league title 16 times in a row now). The similarities of this save and my Vitkovice save are scary so I just hope it doesn't end up the same way with the team self destructing and me getting the sack!

SAK 1914 MAINTAIN THE STATUS QUO More Youth Details Youth Intake Preview Youth Intake Top 5 Season Review Another 4th place finish but due to FC RB Salzburg beating us in the Austrian FA Cup final we qualified via the league without needing the playoff this time around. The season started well with us comfortably winning our second qualifying round game in Conference League qualifiers before beating Rosenborg 2-0 at home, then Geiger (Elite2) left to Bayern Munich for £12m upfront, no extras and no sell ons (please don't let him be a wonderkid). It was exactly what I was dreading but at the same time the funds kept us in the black all season and allowed me to finally upgrade the training and youth facilities: Given the loss of Geiger and my back up not looking to great and record league goalscorer Stephan Dorfmayr now rocking a 2 star CA I decided to opt for a formation change and play 2 AMCs (one playmaker and one shadow striker) in behind an off centre Matko (Elite3). Given we finished 4th it looks like it worked however we scored 7 goals less than the season before but crucially conceded 6 goals less as well. Susterajter (Elite2) was great in goals again and despite knocking back (who else) Dortmund with a derisory offer he picked himself up for the first half of the season before complaining in November about playing with better players (as did Egle (Elite2)) only for him (and Egle) to both back down come the end of the January window when no further bids came in. It was another season with another round of players getting youth awards in Europe which made me very nervous though to date I haven't had any offers at the end of season 5 and I'm just hoping to get to September with the squad looking the same: Off the park I was really looking forward to getting a boost in season ticket sales however the new stadium has been delayed: The intake this year has provided Rene Bogener (Elite5) who at face value looks to be a real prospect in AMC (which works well with the new formation that I may adjust to a 4-2-3-1 DM Narrow next season) and given he hasn't kicked a ball and has a value of between £6.6m and £8.4m I'm thinking this kid is something special so I can't wait to get to work with him in the first team). The keeper and defensive midfielder also look good and at least I have a 5 star Elite striker to act as back up for Matko. This summer sees some of my more important players from earlier in the save leave the club: Hassanovic GK (104 appearances and 37 clean sheets for SAK), Gallei RB (144 appearances), Griessner MC (166 appearances 6 goals, 32 assists), Dorfmayr AMC/SC (165 appearances 46 goals). It would have been fitting to leave the stadium at the same time but September it will have to be. It's perhaps a risk letting these guys go but they are going to play less and less and their CA is now lower than most who play in their positions yet still command a pretty sizeable salary (£6.2 p/w for all 4). I'm keeping tabs of higher rated HoYD that I haven't yet approached, so Vogel will get at least another season to see who can unearth and I continue to improve the medical and coaching team. Next season it's kinda boring but I hope for a similar outcome as we are just looking to establish ourselves in the league. The one thing that is for certain in Austria is it will take a huge effort to overthrow FC RB Salzburg as they are player dealing at a very high level, just have to hope they sign some duds when my best talents come through but I feel it will be some way off and we may have to look at Europa Conference progress/success as a route to boosting our reputation enough to keep hold of the best players to then mount a serious title challenge.

I read an article earlier on Hagi and his work to try and get Romania back to qualifying for world cups again, so maybe a run there given it’s still not complete as well.

@libbyshuss that’s insane for a makeshift striker, you thinking of retraining him and making it permanent? I often tend to go on personality now with the 5 star (or as I call them 4.5 star given the white 5th star), if they have potential but have low determination, unambitious, low self belief etc. I tend not to play them unless I have to. No idea if I’ve ever let superstars go over this method but it’s served me pretty well.

Welcome @lamberti_p Good luck

EUROPEAN FOOTBALL BECKONS FOR SAK 1914 More Youth Details Youth Intake Preview Youth Intake Top 5 Season Review The obvious talking points are European football next season and the sale of Ludwig Wenzel (Elite2). Really taken aback by how well we adapted to the top-flight. I made a few minor tactical tweaks to the 4-1-2-1-2 narrow and by in large it seems to have paid off. This was despite losing Wenzel (Elite2) to Dortmund in January which I reluctantly agreed to given it was close to the £11m fee I said I'd sell him for and at that point we were £1m in the red (the top flight doesn't appear to make the same payments of £400k for 12 Austrian players in match day squad for 9 consecutive games and we certainly felt the pinch from that). Dortmund are proving to be a real pain the ass with them approaching us for Geiger (Elite2) about a week after they bought Wenzel (Elite2). They also want our keeper whilst Geiger is now wanted by AC Milan, Bayern and Porto as well as Dortmund. Geiger has a 3 year extension I can trigger once he hits 18 so contractually I have no issues keeping him and financially with European football I may not have to sell to maintain a positive balance, the question is whether I can keep him and the squad happy enough. Geiger is only in the "Other Players" category in the hierarchy whereas Wenzel had become influential so I might be able to just keep saying no for now (but saying that a stupidly high bid would allow me to start looking at upgrading the training facilities as well). The intake for this year was decent with a right back who can play with his left foot so I really need to get him retrained and playing there as my year 1 Elite player has stagnated at the same level despite playing over 70 first team matches for us. Another DC, MC and AMC works well for me given the narrow formation we play however no Elite striker means if we sell Geiger we might be short of quality up top (Matko (Elite3) has stepped in well but Weiss (Elite3) is only 2 star CA so Geiger really needs to stay whilst we gradually improve Weiss if we can). Personality wise it's starting to slip a bit and a few of the negative personalities are now in the first squad the issue being there aren't any of the older players with anything better than Balanced, so I will need to wait for the better personality youngsters to get to the point where they will have a significant impact on the others in their group. We had our first NXGN entry of the save (and Wenzel also appeared there after leaving for Dortmund in 31st Place) Wenzel had already won the European Golden Boy award which prompted the interest, bid and subsequent sale to Dortmund A poisoned chalice for me is the European Golden Boy in this save, it happened at Chiasso and Katwijk as well given they did so well that they ended up garnering too much interest. At the tail end of the season the board announced the confirmed plans for the new stadium which luckily is being FULLY funded by grants I think a near 14,000 capacity stadium will serve me well for a number of years unfortunately its another season of playing in the restrictive 3,000 capacity stadium which I think will see the season ticket waiting list move off zero this season. No international appearances yet but more and more are appearing in the U21s so its only a matter of time before the first cap is obtained. Just appointed Kolo Toure as new first team coach with Model Citizen personality as well as upgrading my fitness coach so its starting to come together off the field as well now. I'm hoping with HoYD starts to get some results this season with the Resolute personality and excellent attributes for WWY, JCA and JPA but time will tell. Next season I want to get as much money from Europe as I possibly can, keep a hold of my players as a result of the financial boost and attempt to finish in the Championship group again if possible leading into season 6 with the new stadium in place. Overall I'm delighted with the save but I need to be mindful of my Vitkovice attempt that failed after similar amounts of success.

It’s what makes the challenge all the more rewarding when these clubs come in for your players and they aren’t interested. You just have to hope you gave enough depth to survive until the next ones come through (no guarantees that they will). You may find you just have to pick one of the players to put your foot down with and let them go for nothing as it’s better to get them scoring goals for you than playing another player who is nowhere near ready to replace them. The trick is knowing which player to do it with, preferably not influential as that way you can minimise the detrimental impact to dressing room atmosphere. Just make sure if the players moan you always a) tell them the team will be weakened and b) how unprofessional they are for disagreeing with you (never removes the issue but it at least improves your discipline rating which means players are less likely to cross you in the future and will back down more if they do). I do love this challenge

@Johnny Ace got to be one of the most frustrating parts of the save when you get someone come through who essentially stabs you in the back because you won’t let them leave for pittance to sit in their reserves/youth team instead of bring a starter for you at 17. Oddly when you do a normal save and the shoe is on the other foot they never kick up a stink when the selling club say £60m please. I called this out a number of pages ago, really frustrating how imbalanced transfer AI is with negotiating as well. I haven’t completed my season yet but a sneak peak is that Wenzel (elite2) left for dortmund (a decent fee involved) then dortmund come in for my other main striker Geiger (elite2) and offer next to nothing, he kicks up a fuss and I’ve just told him to get on with it. My main centre back wants to leave as well and guess who are sniffing round him? Frustrating but it is realistic since teams like dortmund are good at getting young talent like this.

Pestering is the only way for me, as you start to get your determination skill up by “winning” a few of these request rejections it becomes a little easier. On the facilities side it’s always whether you gave enough cash but for junior coaching and youth recruitment you can usually get your way after a while. I find junior coaching has a better chance of being successful. Obviously I ask when board performance is in A category as if they are pleased with my performance at the time I ask there is a better chance of them agreeing. Either persevere or play Russian roulette and leak to press (if available) which I believe can lead to them backing down…….or you get an angry memo/email……..or you get sacked

Unlucky @Sn00gle if your defence tightens up a bit you should have the beating of Legia in the standings.

Player Interaction > Warn Player > “Don’t go skydiving, don’t go bungee jumping in fact just put yourself in bubble wrap when not training or playing if you want to stay at this club”

Awesome job @Barnsley sitting 18th after 5 games in I doubt you’d have anticipated such a contested run in for the title. I’m in awe of those that stick this challenge out that long (partly the reason I never seem to stick with an England save).

He must have known he was involved in a YAC save, saw a slide challenge for a 50/50 and he thought I’ll put my back into it. I’ve only seen that injury once before, in this save too, but it was for one of my Good talents so it wasn’t a massive impact (mine happened on the training ground so god knows what they were doing there!)

Some real nice progress there @SuperRedditch Samadashvili looks like one to build the defence around

SAK 1914 MAKE IT THIRD TIME LUCKY More Youth Details Youth Intake Preview Youth Intake Top 5 Season Review This time it felt right, the first season it always felt like we were punching above our weight, second season we weren't picking up enough points but in this third season it clicked and we not only won promotion but won the league on the final day of the season as well and in addition to this we beat RB Salzburg 1-0 on the way to the Austrian FA Cup final where we were pipped in extra time by SK Rapid Vienna. I changed formation in the pre-season to a 4-4-2 diamond narrow as it made the most of the AMCs and DMCs at the club as our wingers our awful, it also allowed me to play two up top which initially started as the Year 2 graduates Wenzel (Elite2) and Geiger (Elite2)however Dorfmayr made a return to the starting line-up and played exceptionally well scoring 17 goals however one of the main talking points was the contribution of Jonas Streicher (Elite1) playing as a shadow striker and scoring 16 goals. It was this type of form that attracted interest from SK Rapid Vienna but I was able to turn down the offers without issue, he then signed his professional deal and the interest subsided. Wenzel was on fire at the start of the season and scored a worldie that I had to share with the forum but he slowed down in the second half of the season but still finished top scorer with 19 in 31 and was 3rd in the league scorers chart. In defence Petrovic (Elite1) has made great leaps and now partners the incredible Boeckl (Elite2) who has taken to the team effortlessly. Central midfield is looking decent with Tobias Egle (Elite2) getting retrained as a Carrilero rather than his DMC position as Dettman (Elite2) will be deputising for the now 29 year old Daniel Raischl. Griessner continues to be a really important part of the midfield but I have high hopes for Behrens (Elite3) who came through this years intake. Off the park financially things have been hovering above £0 all season with us finally going into the red as the season ended (I only managed to get 2 payments this year as I must have made a mistake in one match and had less than 12 Austrian players in my match day squad). With the finances as they are I didn't ask for any upgrades but I did managed to get my Continental Pro License course approved so that is now underway. When the season ended the board announced under soil heating at a cost of £2m which is of course due to the Premier Division rules to have it installed but they also announced this Given we had 90% of the stadium filled during the league campaign the board are capitalising on our success and banking on more fans flocking to see a real football team in Salzburg and not the plastic club that is RB Salzburg. Our coach limit has increased and I've also managed to considerably improve the coaches at the club as well as a new HoYD for next season who I am particularly excited about: Our intakes have been pretty impressive so far but I think this HoYD is a clear step up from my last one. From this year we are definitely getting more depth and I think I'll have to actively look to loan some of the players out from Elite1 and Elite2 groups where the CA is not quite where I need it to be or where its not so obvious they "have it". All in all the save is going really well and I feel in a better position to handle the jump to the tier above now at the end of season 3 than I would have been in the first season when I nearly fluked promotion. I always have it in the back of my mind my Vitkovice save that was going ever so well with an FA Cup win and appearance in Europe before crashing to the ground. Would be nice to have a holiday to really get stuck into this but having to just use what time I have to squeeze as many games in as I can.

Saw that there, wonder if it will affect current saves or if you’d need a new save for the changes to be evident. For the benefit of those experiencing this issue right now in their save I hope it’s the former rather than the latter.

@Winski bad luck there. do you think you got promoted too quickly? I’ve had hit and miss with quick promotions in this challenge but my current save feels safer given my team is gradually getting to the required level rather than overachieving then crashing back down to earth.

So taking a small break from wallpapering to run a few games and match day 3 in the league saw this happen... Ludwig Wenzel (Elite2) scoring one of the most technically beautiful goals I have seen in this match engine EDIT: That was the winning goal in a 1-0 victory........a goal worth the admission fee for sure

@SuperRedditch nice job on the promotion Sirl looks fantastic, hopefully you can keep him happy long enough, promotion will help with that but Sparta Prague frustrated the hell out of me in my Vitkovice save as they kept unsettling my best players. As for promises I never make any promises, too many pitfalls in it even without any coding bugs.