Neo_Geo

@DazRTaylor Wringe looks decent as a free kick taker at 16, I never seem to get higher than a 10 for free kick taking. Also the mercenary personality is seen as a negative by the game (when you order the squad by personality it groups it alongside unambitious etc.) however I treat it as a positive one given it has high ambition and often a high determination, they are however unloyal which isn’t great in this challenge but even when I have loyal players they jump ship as soon as they can

LIMAVADY STABLE YET UNSPECTACULAR FOURTH SEASON More Youth Details Youth Intake Preview Youth Intake Top 5 Season Review Season 4 done and dusted with an improved league finish of 5th, highest points tally, scored more, conceded less although our average ratings only have one player above 7 and of course its Guba (Elite1)! In the cups we made the progress I was hoping for reaching 2 finals but losing both and being put out away to Linfield 4 seasons in is not something to be ashamed of. I've been guilty of chopping and changing the formation a bit this year and now with a new AMC who looks pretty decent I may go for the classic 4-2-3-1 formation though Stephen Anderson (Elite3) bagged an impressive 23 goals this term so perhaps a two striker formation is still the way to go. Guba won both the player and young player of the season (as well as the Belfast Ulster player and young player of the season so I'm really dreading when his contract is up as it doesn't look like there is any interest outside of Northern Ireland and Linfield so far have offered peanuts for him. He's contracted for another 2 and a half seasons but his reason for not talking is the quality of the squad which I don't see changing that dramatically in that timeframe. The intake was very pleasing this year with 14 elites and 2 top with 15 players signed up. The main talking point is a model citizen Portuguese right winger which was a surprise to see given my HoYD's so far in this save haven't had amazing personalities (Fairly Loyal, Balanced and now Sporting) but I am not complaining. Aguilar (Elite4) also has the added bonus that he's actually better than my first team options at present so he finished off the season playing as first choice. I also had an upgrade on the left wing, left full back, centre back and goalkeeper. The one thing I think will stunt my progress is the training facilities as Matthew Jones (Elite1) proved when he went on loan to Haverfordwest in Wales where they have below average training facilities whilst I have basic and he was showing signs of improvement that I just wasn't getting here. Until we can get into Europe I don't see me being able to get the board to agree to improving the facilities and the finances probably won't be helped by this piece of news..... Repayments have started on the loan and are £10k a month, which is reasonable but I do think it will mean each season we will make a loss until European football can be obtained (or selling players). The board did agree to improving the Junior Coaching and maxing out the Youth Recruitment so I'm hoping in the next couple of years I'll see an improvement in the quality of player coming through. Next Season's Aims I'm happy with the position the club is in at the moment, whilst I'd love to qualify for Europe we can't maintain a winning run long enough to get in outright and the team at the moment seems to bottle the big occasions (I was outclassed again in the European Place Play-offs by Cliftonville who I finished above in the table). We seem really capable of beating the teams at the lower end of the table but still get drubbed by the big teams in the league so I will look to continue the steady progress that we have shown.

@XaW they just keep calling to you don't they Good luck

LIMAVADY SURVIVE WITH EASE IN DEBUT DANSKE BANK PREMIERSIP SEASON More Youth Details Youth Intake Preview Youth Intake Top 5 Season Review An unexpected end to the season where we qualified for the Championship Group in our first season in the top flight. We were 7 points ahead of 7th place but 10 points behind 5th so we are very much a mid-table side based on this seasons performance. Our chairperson decided that £29k was too good to turn down (we are now on around £160k) for last years Sar Graduate, Robert Mulgrew (Elite2), which led to ,e rethinking my formation into a 4-3-3 DM Wide. We had the 4th worst defense conceding nearly 2 games a game on average (this was due to a few spankings from Linfield and Glentoran) but we did have the 5th best attack which was largely down to Pavol Guba (Elite1) who is now in the Slovakia national squad but has yet to play. I can trigger a 2 year extension with him but then he'll be off, he believes the squad isn't good enough (and he's right as he is WAY above the rest). In the cups we were awful with 3 (albeit narrow) defeats to lower league opposition and I really felt we could have done better but there was a spell before the turn of the year where we were playing twice a week every week for about 2 months and it knackered my first choice team leaving me with really poor alternatives. This years intake should help give me some more options for rotation. Off the field the youth recruitment reached the penultimate step (I class as 5 stars with the top one being 5 purple stars) and Junior Coaching is now up to 3 stars as I look to get another Guba next season! A new HoYD, new head physio, new assistant manager, new fitness coach sees a much needed improvement to our medical and footballing departments. The board have also announced plans for a new stadium as we are currently groundsharing with rivals Coleraine due to the restrictions around stadiums to play in the Danske Bank Premiership (our average attendance was over our old capacity with a couple of large gates at home to Coleraine and Linfield which helped our finances this season). Much of the old guard are now at 1 star current ability with a couple of exceptions so we have nearly fully transitioned to Youth Intake only in the starting XI after 3 seasons which was much earlier than I expected. I let Pomeroy go as he was wanting £200 p/w and I just haven't been using him given his 1.5 CA and PA being lower than some of my youth prospects who were on far less. Next Season's Aims On the whole the save is progressing nicely and another season like this one (but doing better in the cups) to consolidate our position in the league would be great. I know the clock will be ticking for Guba (Elite1)'s departure so I probably only have a couple of seasons left before his contract expires (unless there is interest and the offer is good enough to let him go).

Seems to be that the best route to unlocking the max youth level is your club rep, so if you can get into latter stages of Europa league rather than the champions league playoff and you can win it you may feel more benefit from that. Keep going

@Daddy that is a harsh one. Did you even get to intake preview?

@HanziZoloman i’d lean towards a pressing forward on attack, the lack of pace for me would be a killer for an advanced forward and he has decent work rate, natural fitness, determination and aggression as well as having the first touch, finishing and dribbling although composure and off the ball is a little low which would put me off him being a poacher but then it depends on who his strike partner would be. He’s scored 8 in 12 starts and 8 sub appearances in the league which given you have struggled a bit for wins is impressive. I’d say if you have someone that is obviously a poacher I’d play them alongside Waite as a pressing forward on attack. As @Johnny Ace says you are stuck with the players that come your way, it’s up to you to experiment and find out what works for each player (don’t just blindly go with stats because remember the level you are playing at) . Once you know their strengths and weaknesses you can then find formations that work….also don’t discount asymmetric formations as that can sometimes give your players the best chance of performing.

@Sn00gle your save is on final approach, please make sure your seat backs and tray tables are in their full upright position. Make sure your seat belt is securely fastened and all carry-on luggage is stowed underneath the seat in front of you or in the overhead bins. Thank you. it’s looking good as your summary table shows a clear line of progression in europe and domestically, your now at that stage where you’ll just get more and more momentum, money, better staff, better players until it’ll all come together in one magical season

Thanks Mr Chairperson It's imperative I stay in the division this year so the chairperson sells my star graduate from last season for less than the prize money of finishing bottom.......what a clown.

its every 9 games, so I managed to get it 3 times in the first season (£1.27m! for nothing essentially). One tactic might be to stay in the division to improve facilities as unless you get into Europe or have a really good fanbase (think you said your stadium was 10k so you have a solid foundation) then its easy money.

LIMAVADY SEAL DRAMATIC LAST DAY TITLE WIN More Youth Details Youth Intake Preview Youth Intake Top 5 Season Review Well this is what I was after with a new save leaving Austria behind, we bossed the league and were 7 points clear at the start of the Championship Group and I was feeling really confident of our chances of winning the title. We beat Ballyclare 3-1 in the opening Championship Group game....excellent as they have been tricky to play against. Then we lost 3-1 away to 3rd placed Carrick before losing 4-2 at home to H&W Welders leaving Ards 1 point behind. Dergview at home next which we were leading 2-1 until an 87th minute equaliser whilst Ards were winning 1-0 away to Ballyclare thanks to a penalty so Ards went top by 2 points and it came down to the final match....away against Ards: At 1-0 O'Flaherty cleared a ball off the line and I was praying to the FM Gods to hold on before we the good old over the top, missed DC header, sole striker breaks through on goal and finishes in the 89th minute so surely thats it now? Nope a diagonal long ball over the top for Pomeroy drifting out wide before laying it across the face of goal for player of the season Guba (Elite1) to slot it home and send our away support crazy (all 2 of them! ) The cup performances were much like last year and we were unlucky against Glenavon (got 4 injuries in that game to key players with 2 of them out for 2 months and really threatened to derail the season) but outclassed against Coleraine and we got FM'd by Dergview but until we have a sure footing in the Danske Premiership I don't really care about the cups (there is more prize money for finishing league position than winning the Norther Irish Cup the only thing that is of benefit there is stature and of course a place in Europe) Financially we were better off this year staying in the black and when the new sponsorship deal was announced at the end of the season I was able to request (and then fight for) the youth recruitment upgrade. The current squad is looking decent at the moment with Guba (Elite1) being the standout and being touted for a call up to the Slovakian squad, the rest of the squad is of about the same ability so its nice and balanced provided I keep players fit. The intake this year was decent and gives me further options and the ability to let go of some of the original squad members who just aren't that good. I have the same HoYD for a season and then if we stay up I'm hoping that the club reputation may increase a little and I can get a better quality HoYD in. Next Season Aims Don't get relegated

Yeah it allowed me to invest in year 1 in youth recruitment and junior coaching as I got 3 of them Then you get promoted and it's like

@aldojags make sure to use as much home grown talent as you can in the 2nd tier as you get a £409k bonus for naming 12 Austrian players in your matchday squad for 9 games in a row: This was a massive help to me with SAK 1914 and I was sad then when I got promoted it wasn't there. Good luck.

@MWE good luck with the Kilby. I started a save with them recently and was nearly in the premier league before I accidentally got rid of the save whilst clearing up my many, many attempts that I didn’t take further than season 1. Also the inability to hire staff for the youth team wasn’t an issue at first because my intake just went into the main squad but I can see it becoming an issue 6 years or so into the save. Hopefully you can work around it (unless by some miracle SI actually sorted it)

We’ll done @grff great turnaround (speed of save) Part of me misses a normal save too but I feel like I’ll be so out of touch for scouting and signing players now and will just resort to youth production but sign key players when needed

ROESIDERS SURVIVE LOUGH41 RELEGATION BATTLE COMFORTABLY More Youth Details Youth Intake Preview Youth Intake Top 5 Season Review Back in Northern Ireland and it wasn't as good as my season with Ballymacash Rangers where I finished 3rd but we comfortably avoided relegation in the end and were very nearly in the Championship group until awful form hit. The finances are probably my biggest concern right now as I've lost around £40k in one season and signing the youth players in March hasn't helped matters. I have 1 player leaving and 2 retiring who were all on non-contracts so its not going to make a massive difference (though 2 were first team players and both were getting more money than the youths that will replace them). Formation wise I started with a flat 4-4-2 direct counter attacking formation but as the season progressed I realised I was being too defensive and moved the wingers up into a 4-2-4. Alex Pomeroy is probably the reason I survived as he was the top goalscorer in the league and could mostly be relied upon and given the intake has given me a DLF / PF who has 4.5 star current ability I think next season we could be on to a winner as far as a striking partnership is concerned. The weakest positions for me right now are GK and MC and whilst I have 5 star potential players for these positions they aren't going to hit the ground running. My HoYD is already leaving as he got too greedy for our allowed wages so whether he will have any impact on the youth setup will remain to be seen. Off the field there were no improvements made due to the poor finances (I didn't even bother to ask) but I did manage to get two coaching badges under my belt before we dropped into the red, with only 99 season tickets sold and a capacity of 550 we aren't likely to generate much income so I can see this being the stumbling block in the save. However, this news story popped up towards the end of the season (though it was followed up eventually by one that the story was not to be believed) and I've yet to have a takeover with any kind of investment. The intake was nice with 11 elites and 5 tops and 1 player who stood out yet it was central defender Mick O'Flaherty (Elite1) who has made a big impact with an average rating of 7.22 in 6 starts in the league and he has professional personality so I'll be looking to cement his place in the starting line-up next season. Next Season Aims I'm looking to improve upon the league finish and perhaps get into the Championship Group continuing to develop (and in some cases retrain) the most promising youth from this intake.

Never seen it myself and in this save it’s annoying. At times I wish there was a way to have a transfer embargo placed on your team because then all of the gameplay relating to transfers would disappear “So Neo Geo the transfer window ends in a few days, can we expect any deals before then?” No, I’m doing a youth only challenge and you’ve asked me the same question the last 6 transfer windows, moron” Make sure you adjust the budget to make as much of the funds be used for wages rather than transfers and just try to negotiate it out of the vision every opportunity you get (though I’ve never been successful removing any more than once or twice in this version of the game).

@Johnny Ace I did a quick test where I set Man City and Wrexham to have the following:: Junior Coaching - 1 Youth Recruitment - 1 HoyD - Every attribute to 1 including reputation Here are the intake previews: Man City Wrexham Man City's intake is similar to yours in Sweden but even Wrexham managed to get a better preview despite having the worst HoYD and facilities possible. When the intakes came in this is what they got: Man City Wrexham At face value they look the same but what about the underlying stats? Man City Avg CA Main Squad - 147 Avg PA Main Squad - 163 Max CA Main Squad - 188 Max PA Main Squad - 195 Avg CA Intake - 45 Avg PA Intake - 66 Max CA Intake - 72 Max PA Intake - 97 Avg CA Difference - 102 Avg PA Difference - 98 Wrexham Avg CA Main Squad - 89 Avg PA Main Squad - 113 Max CA Main Squad - 108 Max PA Main Squad - 135 Avg CA Intake - 28 Avg PA Intake - 40 Max CA Intake - 41 Max PA Intake - 53 Avg CA Difference - 61 Avg PA Difference - 95 So what does any of this prove? Well for starters the intake preview for City is bang on the money as the CA and PA are significantly lower than the main squad. Wrexham on the other hand had some Cs yet the max CA and Max PA are also significantly lower than the main squad, so the HoYD got the preview wrong and oversold it a bit. The PA difference is about the same for each but the CA difference is dramatically larger for Man City (as you'd expect) therefore is this why we got the 7 Es and 1 F versus Wrexhams 2 Cs, 2 Ds, 4 Es and 1F? I can't help but think there was a bug in your save since I have given the clubs the worst possible platform for producing/recruiting youth players and even then only Man City with the gulf in quality between the two had a similar preview to yours and then you had it 3 years running! Just what did you do to anger the FM Gods so much......did you play Career Mode as manager in FIFA?

You have certainly angered the FM gods over something Your theory may be on the right track. Lets say your squad is on average 70/200 current ability and your intake has 50-70 as the top CA then that’s probably classed as As, whereas if your current squad was 120 and the intake was 50-70 then unless your HoYD is awful at judging potential you’d expect no As. I’m exaggerating the differences here just to illustrate the point. Do you agree with the ratings these players were given with regards to the 3 intakes so far i.e. no decent looking players? It would be interesting to run some tests on this taking varying quality of squads say from vanarama north/south up to the likes of Man City and give them all equal HoYDs and all equal junior coaching and youth recruitment and just increase these to see what happens. Id be tempted to say there is an element of randomness to it but 3 years in a row seems too much of a coincidence

The game has had enough of you after complaining at all the AMCs and it’s now saying “You don’t like AMCs then how about no players of decent quality……EVER!” Joking aside I’ve never seen it at that level consistently, I assume you’ve checked your junior coaching and youth recruitment as well as HoYD and none are at the bottom of the scale? Maybe with Sweden it’s super competitive for youth players

Good shout, I’ll bear that in mind when my first intake comes in

I usually pick the tactics around the squad available, so it means my formation is quite fluid based on the intakes I get and players sold etc.I don’t mind retraining SCs into AMCs and vice versa or AMCs into MCs but I don’t often do wide players into central or vice versa unless the winger looks to be good in front of goal. I enjoy the tinkering with tactics but you’ll very quickly know who are your go to guys in your initial squad so play to their strengths where you can. In one save I had a good aerial striker and a quick winger, so I just focused all my attacks down that flank with floated crosses and it served me well until my intakes started to come through and I changed to two up top with an AMC. I don’t think there is a one size fits all with tactics and some squads just aren’t capable of defending with everyone behind the ball, super disciplined and hard tackling so for those ones you go on the offensive and look to put score opponents, similarly if you are awful up top but strong defensively then counter attack and play for set pieces and try to make the most of those. When it does come off it will be all the more rewarding

So I've shelved my Austrian save as I had been out of the mix for a few days and getting back to it the prospect of trying to out-do Red Bull again with the signings they had made in the summer just wasn't doing it for me any more, but I may well go back. I have unfinished business in Northern Ireland and with it being the last of the British nations to be completed I fancy having another go.... Limavady United Nothing really of note with this team other than their bizarre story regarding loaning Carlos Tevez from Man City... I've gone a few months in now just to see that its not a total disaster and whilst my squad is threadbare I reckon I might just be able to survive the first season.

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