Neo_Geo

I find in this type of save it’s super important to manage your staff yourself as personalities are super important as well as favouring staff with working with youngsters. If I have an assistant at the start I look for HoYD, fitness coach and a general coach using staff search, sorted by rating. If I don’t have an assistant I put out an advert for them and the physios but wait til they are in place before looking for the coaches. Then every year as you lead up to contract expiries just take a peek at the staff search again to see if you have any better options.

You can do a staff search with a custom view that shows the rating, preferred formation, personality and playing style like I do (see below): Also I believe that it takes a number of intakes for the current HoYD to have an impact so you could have a model citizen HoYD in the first season but you probably won't see the full effects until a few intakes later.

New adventure began over the weekend in Northern Ireland with Ballymacash Rangers... Waited until seeing if a) it wasn't a total disaster (as reworking my infographic templates takes a bit of time) and b) I felt something about the club, league and country.......looks like its sticking for now Youth Intake Preview Youth Intake Top 5 Season Review Better than expected given I only had 15 players for most of the season and lost my main striker in January due to work permit rule changes. Definitely punching above our weight, the route one counter attack formation did seem to pay dividends and I got really lucky not to have many injuries (though my ML kept getting booked and sent off so he missed about 8 or so games). We made the play-offs and narrowly missed out on the final appearance against Carrick but to be honest this squad would have been demolished next season if I had achieved promotion so I was relieved in a weird kind of way. In the cups I think we could have performed better given I was put out in 2 cups in home ties, I think losing 2-1 away to Larne from the division above is more acceptable than the other two cups at home against teams in my division. Newry City actually won the play-off against Carrick so it'll be interesting to see how they and Annagh United (0W 1D 3L) get on next season in the Danske Bank Premiership. Off the field, I managed to get the board to agree to Recruitment and Junior Coaching improvements though neither resulted in a change to the star grading. The intake was pretty decent with 3 of them now playing in the first team (changed to a 4-3-2-1 narrow at the tail end of the season as the aforementioned ML was suspended for a couple of games) and with my new personality graphic you can see that there whilst we had a number of positive personalities (a larger percentage than the current squad) there are a fairly sizeable number of negative personalities so I will probably look to move these one when the next intake comes through. I'm determined with this save I'm going to focus on having a squad with really solid personalities. The board also let me get my first badge and start the course for the second so par for the course for the save. Not too much else to add on the save at this early stage. Next season I want to concentrate on identifying the good prospects and getting them more involved in the first team, I'm not going to push for promotion as hard as I can as again I just don't see this squad being anywhere near the level it needs to be as the original squad members just aren't strong enough to carry the youth prospects at a higher level so I need to develop the youth for a few seasons. I'm not bothered by this at all as the save is just 2 tier so its not a big delay in the grand scheme of things and the one thing I learned from my Czech Republic save (and I suppose I saw it even during my success with Chiasso) is that I need to focus on bringing through the youth in a broad and shallow approach rather than getting 1/2 players excelling then they outgrow the club because none of the others improved with them.

I think it’s a cop out from SI. If you are a club legend, adored by the fans and delivered loads of success, trophies and money the you should be able to request it and give the board an ultimatum if they refuse.

@WhiteCat33 stupid board I had a couple of thousand waiting list at chiasso but18k is just ridiculous, they clearly don’t know how to run a football club. The youth facilities issue is just incredibly annoying, in my opinion it should always be visible as you should always be able to request it,,if they don’t agree then fine. Such a shame to invest that much time in it for it to go that way, definitely take a breather from it and come back later

It’s some hit but I don’t know what his counterpart is up to…..is he a centre forward playing in goals

I might look that up, thanks EDIT: going to try the editor file but only run from League 2 and up meaning I can use one of the promoted sides as I would have done with Vanilla, I'll then see if the U18s is working at that point. Don't really fancy a Tier 10 club just yet

Loaded up Scotland to see if the issue still existed and it does, was all ready to start with East Kilbride. I'm guessing its probably going to make things a lot harder that you essentially have to have all your youth players in the main squad otherwise they get zero training as you can't get staff. For a challenge that focuses on youth development it seems like a complete blocker......shame.

welcome @Academia_FM, good luck in Egypt

Czech Republic run over.... I guess losing 3 first choice centrebacks in a calendar year isn't going to do many favours for my defence. We had horrendous luck with injuries early on in the season and our the morale plummeted with the results, then players asking to leave and not being happy about it caused the rest of the squad to lose faith. Injuries then continued and the mid-season break did no favours this time round and it was just too much to continue. Lots of promising talent but they were a couple of years away from being ready to play alongside each other at this level. Now I'll be looking where to go next (Back to Enfield or another country?) Anyone know if the u19s issue in Scotland is fixed yet?

Start of Season 7 went well for me, Marek (Elite4) asking to leave, not happy to wait for an offer, players complaining to me for not letting him go. I offer at £10m + 25% profit and a few bids come in, but the board accepted an offer from Betis because its too good (was worth around 7m overall but it did have a percentage sell on). For some reason I couldn't protest it here but then Bayer Leverkusen come in with £7m, it gets accepted and this time I CAN protest, so I do and I say to re-negotiate to get a sell on, they agree, and I'm told it has been re-negotiated to include a sell on. A few days later he agrees to move: There is no sell on, so did they try to negotiate and fail but I was incorrectly told that it was included? Anyone else had something similar? Pretty gutted as I didn't really need cash now and I think he'll be a massive success as he already has 4 caps for Czech Republic at 17

Youth Intake Preview Youth Intake Top 5 Season Review A solid season following last year's scare and given I sold Didenko (Elite3) in the summer to Man City then Ali Erta (Elite3) to Porto in the January window we did surprisingly well. Goals conceded rose to 40 which is understandable but we still have issues with our goalscoring, we sold Cincala (Elite3) to Chelsea as again he wasn't happy, his contract was up at the end of the season so I cashed in. I also sold his sell on clause for an additional £4.39m bringing his total fee to £7.89m with a further £2.5m if he makes a single international appearance. I have England as view only and he hadn't played a single match, not even in the cup so I can see him running his contract down there and I was surprised to see the fee that high so I grabbed it at the end of the season and requested training facilities upgrade and improved youth recruitment, the board agreed to both. Kostl (Elite4) looks to be a very promising striker and with our intake giving 3 additional Elite strikers we have the numbers for the future, its not a case of getting them good loans or game time to see who will make the grade. I don't think Kolodziej is going to be good enough in the long run but for now he's chipping in 10+ goals a season and he trains really well. Marek and Kostl both appeared in the NXGN this year but luckily not top 10 as that would probably get more interest in Marek especially. I was pretty relieved in a way we didn't make the European qualification spot because it was far easier this season dealing with the rotation than it was last year and the sales have given us the finances to keep us comfortable for a few seasons. Marek (Elite4) wants out and wasn't even prepared to wait for a club to bid, he wanted to be listed and make the move happen. So far Sparta Prague (surprise surprise) are the only team that appear interested. I have a couple of good looking prospects in Brown (Elite6) and Prozchaka (Elite6) but they are some way off (though I did get Brown playing a few times towards the end). I also have Hlavica (Elite3) from the same intake as Didenko and Ertas but he is my spineless warrior so I can't see him ever making it properly (though he is playing fairly well). The goal for next season will be to develop the better quality youth that are close to first team and get loans for as many of the rest as I can and look to finish in the Championship group again.

Would be nice to have a map of the world with countries currently being played but that’s a maintenance nightmare

SI need to sort this out, 3 team leaders come to me complaining that I shouldn't sell Didenko, I said selling him would weaken us so why would I do that. Now those same 3 players are complaining that I sold him because it makes us weaker......that is just ridiculous!

Another season start and another sale, disappointed to lose him but I saw it coming....his training dropped A LOT and other teammates weren't happy with me turning down bids so I buckled. What do you all think? Good deal or not?

Intake Top 5 Season Review I thought this season was it, I was already thinking where am I going to next as we went on an awful streak of results in the first half of the season leaving us bottom of the league at the mid-season break. We had a 5-0 loss to Sparta Prague with the players offering a refund to the fans, I had manager support in the red, morale way in the red and it seemed there was no end to it. The break came at the right point and it allowed my tired squad to get fit once more and with Europe and the FA Cup no longer part of our schedule we could focus on getting consistent starting Xis in the league and it resulted in us not only surviving but ending up winners of the play-off stage (7th thru 10th play-off in semi final then final and the winner I think gets a bye in the FA Cup next year to 3rd round). We did also manage to win the Czech-Slovak Super Cup against Trnava (who we played in the Europa Qualifiers shortly after this game). It was pretty comfortable with a 3-0 win to add to our trophy cabinet, I thought we were in for a great season...... The trouble all started with the sale of Adamec (Elite2) to Man Utd after he made it clear he wanted to leave, he was never going to sign a deal and I wasn't confident of getting into European Group Stages (of Europa or Conference) so I offered him out for £2m and Man Utd came in, no sell on though which was disappointing but in my Chiasso save a number of these players didn't move or their contract expired so it might not be too bad. Also in his last match he scored the hat-trick against AEK to get us into the Playoff round meaning we were at least in the Europa Conference Group. So this meant a decision had to be made, go back to playing one of the original players (now 28) who was only 3 star current ability or change formation. I opted for the latter and initially started with a 4-4-2 diamond narrow but results in the league (despite an opening day 2-0 win against Lisen) were not good as we lost the next 5 games conceding 11 goals in the process. We got a win against Slovacko then another 5 games without a win (2 draws and 3 defeats). Needless to say something had to give and I ended up changing to a 5-2-1-2 WB as I had Didenko (Elite3), Marek (Elite4) and also Ertas (Elite3) who had been on loan in Turkey last season and had progressed nicely. The results were still bad and we fell to the bottom of the league. I made a few tweaks to the tactics over the break and pushed low block to a mid block and the line of engagement to standard as well as just saying "to hell with it" and going positive for each match rather than changing it every game. It started to take effect 3 games after the break (by this point we were on a 7 game winless streak including the 5-0 loss to Sparta Prague with board and supporters rating me as a C at this point) however we went on a 6 game unbeaten run with 4 wins and 2 draws, after that loss we then went unbeaten to the season end.....it was quite the sprint finish and it gives me a bit of hope for next season. The one big worry for me is Didenko (Elite3) is now wanted by Liverpool, PSG, Inter and Juventus so there is little chance he will be here after the summer window. He's contracted fore the next 3 seasons so I should be able to get a good deal, the worry is who will replace him in my 3 man CB formation! League Results During this season we also saw a takeover of the club but no investment (shock horror) however they did want to focus on developing youth at the club whilst the old regime wanted us to sign players. Everything off the park is going quite well with improvement to training facilities this year thanks to the sale of Adamec and European money and we are still over £4m for the new season. The intake wasn't great this year and I think only the right back will be of any immediate use, will just have to monitor the others' progress in the U19s or on loan. I expect another fairly tough year but it shouldn't be as tough as this season given fewer fixtures without Europe. It gave us a financial shot in the arm but it wreaked havoc with my players' fitness levels. I need to look at improving my sports scientists and physios I think.

Youth Intake Preview Youth Intake Top 5 (I put the above on Imgur given I had my season updates flagged for approval since I added the intake top 5) Season Review So the season started off badly with David Cisar (Elite2) kicking up a stink about playing with better players, he had some support and I just didn't want to get involved with that again. I moved him to U19s to "cool off" but had to bring him back to play as we struggled for early season form, he scored and then Sparta Prague made an offer (not a great one it was just over £1m with money after minimum appearances, goals and a 40% sell on clause for profit from next transfer). So I let him go and we have struggled for goals this season with only 36 (one a game) but fortunately our defence was much stronger conceding only 27 so we got lots of narrow wins and losses. However, we did win the FA Cup with a true FM special, two rather fortuitous goals against Sparta (the last was a belter, IWB Leixner cuts inside and beats two players and shoots from outside the box and here is me thinking "That's curling into the far post" then it hits a defender "Oh great", but there is our old reliable Kubusek to be the quickest to react and fire it home then we withstand pressure for the last 5 mins to hold on for the club's first ever FA Cup win. That win gets us into the Europa League League Path Qualifying Round 2 and also we play Spartka Trnava in the Slovakian Super Cup! The sales of Maslej and Cissar definitely helped financially but we are still in the same sort of trajectory so I'm super pleased that we are in Europe as there is the potential for lots more income. On the squad front I have Strnad (Elite1) and Adamec (Elite2) both wanting to play with better players (the former is contracted for the next 2 seasons the latter is just 1 so I may have to look to move Adamec on if I want to get any money for him). The worry for me is I tried a different formation and it just didn't really click, so if I sell Adamec I have very few options in the AMR/L positions. Perhaps I will just hold onto Adamec if we progress enough in Europe and just hope he comes round to discussing a new contract. This is probably the most crucial season of the save (excluding the first as that's always the toughest).

Not overly surprised and like I said even had it happened there was probably a 0.0000001% chance of any investment

I knows it’s a different country but in Czech Republic my u19s were in the league in my second season in the top flight, they had spent 3 years without being involved in a league

More Youth Details (Preview and Intake Top 5) Season Review A great first season in the top flight, never really in any danger of the drop and to miss out on Europe by 1 place was tough to take because it might have made the difference between keeping my star player Josef Mašlej and selling him (last year of contract and I was in the red until sponsorship money came in). We shouldn't really be running the youth facilities at this level with the income we have but I'm hoping I can keep afloat with a few sales here and there whilst we steadily get attendances up. The cup was again a 3rd round exit at the hands of a first division club so no signs of progress there. We had our first NxGn entry this season with Cisar (Elite2) who ended up being the Young Czech Player of the Year as well: In terms of the intake this season Didenko (Elite3) has already played towards the end of the season as Kodad is no longer a first choice at centreback. None of the other players have featured as of yet but I have moved Ali Oner (Elite3) into the top squad too. This season is going to be interesting because I really only had Mašlej on the right and 2 of the 3 AMR/L back-ups have left the club so I'm dabbling with a 4-4-2 diamond narrow and retrain Adamec (Elite2) into an advanced forward who stays wider and crosses more often to Cisar. If I'm lucky it'll work, if not I'll have to play one of the back ups at AMR and hope for some promising youths as I'm not convinced by the ones I have at the club already. Interestingly as the season came to a close I got this news item: It usually doesn't come to anything and even if it does I've never seen it happen with any kind of investment but the floating the club on the stock market is an interesting twist to this. I'll post any updates on this before the next full season update.

@libbyshusscongrats on the title win, now for the next trophy

Dvorak - great as a ball winning DM, then considered his options at end of first season. I tried to move him on, no one interested so favoured one of my year 1 youths and demoted him to u19s for the season, at the end of the season he was willing to talk again and with one of my other DMs retiring I figured I’d offer him a new deal. He’s doing relatively well in the first division. Netolicka - first choice keeper since the start of the save and has won me a number of points in the top division. He’s not reached his potential yet despite 2.5 years as first choice keeper though. Silhart isn’t a player that I had maybe he was sold before I took over (assuming he was there from the off) I can’t recall if Leixner was already there or if he was signed before I took over but if you do have him then playing him as an inverted left wingback has served me well. He’s doing well still and is now considering his options and complained about moving to a bigger club (dropped it now but still not talking and into his last 6 months of his contract) When I get back on the save tomorrow I’ll have a look at those that were there at the start of the save and let you know how they fared. Cverna I believe was there and he retired after season 1 but is now u19s assistant which was a nice touch.

Thanks a lot Sparta Prague.....this will really help my battle of staying up in the First Division

You can select to add key staff when you start the game and I think that means when a team gets promoted and playable for the first time there are staff but I usually start afresh, day 1 you put out the job adverts for the key positions. Did Kubušek leave before Vitkovice were promoted? He was instrumental for me in the first couple of seasons.