Rick87

Having a clearer pathway between the England youth teams into the senior squad would help, having them all play the same formations and such as the senior side, etc. Maybe introducing rules like Bundesliga has regarding homegrown players, four trained in the country and four by that club to encourage better youth development rather than big clubs just buying English players to sit on the bench to meet a quota, or farming them out on endless pointless loans, wasting their career.

Day One Here is a look at the club in terms of its facilities, they are certainly not great and will need improving if we are ever to progress into the upper reaches of the game here in Scotland, but to do that we will need to earn some money, and to do that we will need to attract supporters to King Edward Park. That's where I come in! Presently, I am the only staff member at the club, so I will need to recruit a physio and at least one other coach. On the playing team, only eighteen-year-old goalkeeper Domanic Duffy is a real player, the rest are generated, I will need to try and bring in a few new faces to bolster the squad to help us compete at the right end of the table. This league is amateur, except for Stranraer's reserves, who are evens to win the league. The board wants a top-half finish, which I think is certainly achievable. In addition to the SoSFL, we are also competing in three cups; The South Challenge Cup, most recently won by Spartans, is for clubs in the Lowland League and its three feeder leagues. The South of Scotland League Cup is just for the twelve clubs in our division, Abbey Vale currently hold it. and the Scottish Junior Cup is open to all clubs at tier six or below, the current champions are Ayrshire-based Crumnock Juniors. The squad has already played two pre-season games whilst managerless, I have three games to try and get things right tactically before the season kicks off away at Wigtown.

Deutschland for me. Why are Scotland on the list? Wishful thinking?

Three eligible jobs were available on day one, Mid Annandale, Lochmaben, and Abbey Vale. All three clubs compete in the South of Scotland League at step six of the Scottish system. All three offered me an interview, but in the end, I opted for Mid-Annandale, for no reason other than liking the kits and badges better. Full Name: Mid-Annandale Football Club Nickname: The Mids Founded: 1877 (Originally) 1959 (Reformed) Ground: New King Edward Park, Lockerbie Capacity: 1,000 League: South of Scotland League 2022/23: 6th of 12 New King Edward Park Sadly, the small town of Lockerbie in Dumfries & Galloway is known worldwide for the terrorist bombing of a Pan-American aircraft in December 1988, which killed all 259 people on board the plane and eleven residents of the town due to the falling debris. The football club traces its roots back to 1877, it however folded and reformed several times before the current incarnation was established in 1959, at the time called Lockerbie Boys Club. They maintain a strong rivalry with Lochmaben FC as well as Upper Annandale. Both of whom we will play in the league this season. For those who don't know much about the football system outside of the SPFL, there is no automatic promotion route from the tiers below, the only way to go up is via several rounds of play off's, making it more difficult for smaller clubs to gain in stature than it is South of the border in England. We are in the South of Scotland Football League at step six. The winners of the three divisions feeding into the Lowland Football League enter a three-team round-robin to decide who goes up. Similarly, in tier five, the winners of the Highland and Lowland leagues have to play off for a single promotion berth to League Two. Hopefully that all made sense! Twelve clubs are competing in the SoSFL in 2023/24; As you would expect in a regional league, all the clubs are clustered fairly close together, us being the most South-Easternly, about fifteen miles from the English border. So that's a bit of background about the club and the league we will be participating in. In my next update, I'll have a look at the facilities and the players I have on day one.

Good luck with Stoke, I was always disapointed that Wesley didn't work out at Villa, though with those wages I expect you might try and cash in on him.

So onto my own challenge; I live in Cumberland, close to the border with Scotland, so I have a few options both North and South of the Solway Firth, though none of them will be easy to turn into Champions League contenders! I've started with England expanded down to level nine and Scotland down to Scotland to the sixth tier, there was no need to go lower as there are no eligible clubs for me below that. I'm going to start off unemployed and see which, if any of these jobs are available. The goal of this challenge isn't to take a single club all the way up the ladder, I can hop between clubs as my reputation grows or if I get fired, but whilst always adhering to the 30 mile rule. So, without any further ado, let's get going!

Greetings all, I've made this for my own personal amusement, however if anyone would like to join in they are most welcome to do so! Challenge Aim Very simple, starting with no coaching badges and Sunday League experience, you must acheive Champions League glory, collecting a glittering assortment of trophies along the way. The Hard Part Not so simple, You must acheive this with clubs based within 30 miles of your home. This will obviously be easier for those who live in big cities and have numerous large clubs with big budgets and great facilities. For those who live rurally, this may require you to download league expansions to open up the lower tiers. I personally use and recommend England - Level 10 by Lional Messi, Scottish Pyramid by william nicol and Wales Level 10 by FMUpdates (Part of a megapack) If you have moved from one area to another, I leave it completely up to you which locality you will represent so long as you stick to the 30 mile rule. The Even Harder Part You may only use players who fulfill the local criteria; * Were born in a town within 30 miles of you * OR Came through the academy of a club within 30 miles of you. * OR Currently, or in the case of free agents, most recently, played for a club within 30 miles of you. If you are unsure about all the clubs in your vicinity, https://www.footballgroundmap.com/grounds/nearest is an excellent resource that will show you clubs from all tiers in England, Scotland and Wales. (I'm not sure about anywhere else) Good luck and have fun representing your hometowns, developing new local stars and bringing pride to those around you. You hometown hero you!

Glad that Varga is ok. Poor game other than the last 10-15 minutes, plenty of heart but no quality.

Good luck, Finland doesn't seem to crop up here very often so it's quite interesting to see.

I've just read through this, I find it quite interesting as I've really tried managing in Japan, I did load up a save once but the editor data I was using was very incomplete which put me off taking it any further. Nice update presentation, keep it up and hope you can turn things around.

Interesting idea, as a lover of old school rough and tumble football, I hope you do well. I find all this play out of defence, sideways passing stuff boring as hell. I like the presentation of your updates too, keep it up!

I've re-started this, this time I've got Brentford. I was quite surprised to see them down in 19th, with only three points in the bag so far. it certainly shouldn't be difficult to guide them away from relegation. The biggest question is if I can keep hold of Toney, once he returns from his ban, He has interest from Saudi Arabia and Newcastle. A fairly kind run of fixtures to start off with for me;

This is from the FM23 thread, I assume it's the same for this year

Football clubs, like the mighty empires of history, rise and fall during the relentless passage of time. Some clubs have remained a constant feature at the fore of the game for a century or more, cramming yet more silverware into their cabinets year after year. Some have had spells of success before falling upon hard times and seeing their stars fall. Others, it seems, are doomed to forever play the role of supporting cast in the great show. This challenge is for those unfashionable clubs, the perennial also-rans, always the bridesmaid, never the bride types. Challenge Aims - Get your chosen club into the top flight of their nation -Win the national cup -Win the top flight -Guide your club to Champions League Glory! Eligibility Rules - Your club must never have played in the top flight of their nation, This means ever, not just since 1992 if playing in England. - They must never have won a cup competition that is open to top-flight clubs. Lower league cups such as the FA Trophy or Football League Trophy do not count. - To find out the highest division a club has played in, go to their history and open the records tab. If they haven't reached the top before, check their history and make sure they haven't won a top cup before, if they haven't, you're good to go! Other Rules - Reputation and coaching badges are up to you. I would suggest ticking the 'suggest reputation/badges based on club' boxes. -No use of In-game editor and no saving and reloading to gain more favourable results. -You can play in any country that has promotion/relegation, so long as your club meets the eligibility criteria above. -No need to restart if you're sacked, Just wait until one of the other eligible clubs becomes available. -Fell free to combine this with other challenges such as youth academy, big fat goalie, or Dafuge. Eligible clubs 2023/24 England / Wales Championship Plymouth Argyle, Rotherham League One Bristol Rovers, Burton Albion, Cambridge United, Cheltenham Town, Exeter City, Fleetwood Town, Lincoln City, Peterborough United, Port Vale, Shrewsbury Town, Stevenage, Wycombe Wanderers League Two AFC Wimbledon*, Barrow, Colchester United, Crawley Town, Crewe Alexandra, Doncaster Rovers, Forest Green Rovers, Gillingham, Harrogate Town, Mansfield Town, Milton Keynes Dons, Morecambe, Newport County, Salford City, Stockport County, Sutton United, Tranmere Rovers, Walsall, Wrexham *Slightly contentious issue here, Wimbledon did play in the top flight, but technically this is not the same club. National Leagues Anyone except Oldham Athletic I'll add eligible clubs from other countries to this post if the challenge starts to take off. Good luck all

I've decided to explore level ten a bit and give this a try, I've chosen my old hometown club, Sutton United (Not to be confused with the South London club of the same name who are in the National League) United are from Sutton Coldfield in the North of Birmingham, they have been around since 1947 but have always struggled to attract much support due to their proximity to Premier League Aston Villa who drain most of the potential fanbase in the area. There are also several other non-league sides within a five-mile radius in the tiers above United, who further drain support, chiefly NPL side Sutton Coldfield Town who are just half a mile away. United are currently in the Midland Football League - Division One. My profile - Club Information - Initial Squad Media Predictions - Finances The board want us to finish in the top half of the table, which seems a fair and realistic expectation. A run in the FA Vase would be nice, some prize money would help strengthen the club's position. I'm not bothered about the League Cup and will probably use it to rotate and give my fringe players a chance. Initial squad;

A little late answering your question mate, but if you, or anyone else is looking, I highly recommend the FusionDB which makes the Italian lower-leagues playable. Including Serie D, where you can find Victor San Marino in Serie D, Group D.

Wow, I've tried this a few times, and I've never seen Man U in 19th. You definitely have a good shout at completing the challenge with them.

It's the Rensie skin mate, link

After struggling to settle into a save so far on FM24, I've decided to have another shot at this challenge. Here's my profile; After reloading at least fifty times, I've finally got my local club, Workington Reds, to come up! Initial Squad - Finances - Media Predictions - Club Facilities - Squad Heirarchy Borough Park, near the mouth of the River Derwent. Reds are promoted for the second consecutive season, after winning the NPL D1NW play-offs in 2022/23. Shockingly, they went and did the same thing in the NPL Premier as well. The media has us odds on favourites to finish bottom in the National League North and make an immediate return to the NPL. I will be doing all that I can to ensure that doesn't happen. Finishing 20th or above is my only personal aim for the club this season, and we can build from there next term. The club have been members of the EFL in the past, they spent almost 30 years in the 50s, 60s and 70s, in divisions four and three, achieving their highest ever finish in 1965/66, finishing fifth in the old third division. They were eventually deselected from the league (this was back when there was no promotion and relegation from regional leagues into the EFL, and clubs had to be elected to the league) I would love to return them to the professional ranks eventually. I also want us to finish above Carlisle and Barrow so we can claim to be the best team in Cumbria!

Monday 23rd October 2023 — Liam Lightfoot is suspended for tomorrow's visit of Endmore KGR to St. Mungo's Park, in comes young Andy Hudson in his place. Andre Tamplin returns from his suspension at left-back, with Karl Brown dropping to the bench. Tuesday 24th October 2023 — A thumping victory where we were at our creative best, both wingers getting in on the scoring a hat-trick for right-back Ashton Powell, the 16-year-old certainly isn't much if we just look at his attributes, however he keeps popping up with goals, five goals in as many goals for the youngster which is giving me a selection headache between him and Adam Walton whose form convinced me to give him his first Cumbria cap two weeks ago. Wednesday 25th October 2023 —No particularly outstanding performances from the Cumbrian players in action tonight. Friday 27th October 2023 — Karl Brown is back from the bench to cover the suspension of James Morrison in defence. Liam Lightfoot is also back in the line-up in place of Andy Hudson for the Gosforth game. Saturday 28th October 2023 — A highly frustrating afternoon against struggling Gosforth. James Earl missing an early penalty set the tone for the game, we had chance after chance to establish a lead, but constantly failed to capitalise. Gosforth took a lead against the run of play when some slack defending allowed Jared Brown the space to finish. We had many more chances to equalise, but again we couldn't avail ourselves of any opportunities. The red card to Liam Lightfoot really didn't help matters when he flew in two footed after only just returning from suspension. That defeat sees us miss out on going top of the division; Sunday 29th October 2023 — Four goals for Max Brown as the reserves beat our closest neighbours Wigton 6-2. Next Week — Just the one game next week which should help us recover from the packed recent fixture list, we entertain eighth place Millom at home.

Best of luck with this, I too have struggled to stay motivated during saves this year, leading to several unfinished challenges. Thankfully, I seem to have settled into my Cumbria build a nation now. I like your idea of a using the top 100 countries rather than all 200+, I just can't be bothered with places like Antigua, Aruba and Kiribiti on some partially complete editor data with no badges, graphics or kits. Anyway, best of luck again. I will be following.

Good luck, had some nice visits to Bath in the past, so I've a soft spot for the city.

Monday 16th October 2023 — Michael Williamson scores twice for Cumbria's Under-21's against North Macedonia, unfortunately it's not enough to win as the youngsters go down 5-4 at home. Tuesday 17th October 2023 — Adam Walton has suffered a training ground thigh injury, he will be out for two weeks. - Ashton Powell comes in at right-back to replace the injured Walton for tomorrow's game at Kendal County, my only change from the defeat to Kirkby Stephen last time out. Wednesday 18th October 2023 - Back to winning ways after defeat last time out. Whilst we didn't have that much of the ball, we made it count much more than County, fashioning some great chances. It took until the 72nd minute for one of those chances to ripple the net. Sean Law arriving late in the area to slam the ball in from twelve yards, the midfielders third goal of the season. Friday 20th October 2023 — Getting ready for the 25-mile trip to Greystoke tomorrow, my scout advises me the opposition lack pace and are poor at marking, so I've tweaked the roles in my usual 442; Adam Main will pay as a deep-lying forward, looking to drop off and fashion chances for himself and Jackie Millburn up front. My hope is that him being deeper and being told to hold the ball up will draw the defenders out of position and allow Millburn and the wingers either side of them to have more room to operate. — The media are questioning whether midfielder Taylor Charters deserves to keep his place in the national team. He's only started once for Carlisle this season and looks to me as if he would benefit from a loan to get regular football. Saturday 21st October 2023 — An absolutely stellar first half an hour as we tore the hosts to pieces. My tactical tweaks paid dividends as Adam Main scored the opener just three minutes in when he was at hand to cap a fine team move from close range. Jack Millburn doubled up eight minutes later with a 25 yard screamer, his third of the campaign. Sixteen-year-old full-back Ashton Powell, who you may remember, scored a last gasp equaliser in the Visit Cumbria cup game against Kirkby Lonsdale recently; was again on the scoresheet when his sixteenth minute drive went in off the post. Karl Brown, who was being forced to play at left-back rather than his more natural central defence role, due to Andre Tamplin being suspended, scored a stunning 25 yard strike. Greystoke did improve after that and managed to half the deficit, but we had enough control to prevent any serious concerns of a comeback and hold on for an important three points as we reclaim third place in the First Division. Sunday 22nd October 2023 — The reserves lose 1-0 to Burneside. — Here is the weekly round up of Cumbrian players in action; Next Week — Another double header this week as we host both Endmoor and Gosforth at St Mungo's. Both of those sides are languishing in the bottom half of the table so I'm hoping we can take advantage of our game in hand and climb to the top of the First Division for the first time this season.

Interesting, I've not heard of Real Bedford before. Good luck, I do like a good LLM story.