The Kids Are Alright Season ∞

It’s the manager that has problems…

First of, I have to say I love the idea of this sort of save. It can be fun, and interesting, and a lot easier if you choose a country with really good youth recruitment and a bevy of decent teams to choose from. There are a couple of problems inherent in this sort of save though.

1. The game doesn’t know you are doing a Youth Only save, and the feedback and actions of the board and fans can be detrimental
2. If you aren’t playing in a big country, or a big team in a small country, the path to success is longer, and that where we are in Romania.

I last posted season 11. I have played up to season 22. And I can tell you right now what the next 30 years in the save are going to look like should we keep playing: More of the same.

There are a few problems we are dealing with, that with time and the application of a little application, can be overcome. But all of these problems are a series of interlocking, overlapping circles, some bigger than others, with less overlap, but they all have to be done at or near the same time for us to be going forward.

Case in Point:

We have more academy graduates playing than any other team in Europe. Are some of them Elite talents? Yes, Rocky Jivan (Class of ’34) had the potential to be one of the best M(C)’s in the game IMO. He went to PSG for €3.4M, never broke into the 1st Squad, had a season with PSG 2 where he had 3 goals and 16 assists, went on loan to Rapid Bucharesti, then left on a free to go to Ludogorets. Is he still a good M(C)? Yes, I would bet he’s in the 130 range as a player, but his potential was probably 150-160.

Nikolay Tuntev came thru as a 2 star PA Strike in the Class of ’35

Three years later, he left for PSG at €3.2M. Had 3 good seasons on the PSG 2 squad, had a season on the first team where he scored 8 goals in 7 appearances, but he’s their 4th option.

Radu Aldea (Class of ’35) went to Inter, so did Alin Munteneau and Dennis Mocanu (Class of ’35 as well), Andrei Voice (Class of ’36) went to Juve, Iulius Tarcea (Class of ’38) went to Milan, and that’s just internationally. I’ve had several player move within smaller clubs for decent money as well, although quite a few have ended up staying in Romania.

The reason for all these good young players moving are interlocked.

1. The minimum Fee clause is set by the agent, and they are very attainable for other clubs. I tried setting Jivan’s clause to €20M, and his agent countered with a locked offer for €3.2, which I had to accept or he could have left for a lot less. I could have taken it off and tried to get more money, but that’s a shake of the dice I am not willing to take.
2. We are one of the best clubs in Romania, Top 3 even, and while our reputation has grown, it’s still Regional. While we have been performing well in Continental Competitions, a Semi Final loss in the UECL, Europa League Knock out Round Losses, Europa League Group losses, and a couple of UECL Round of 16 losses, there have also been years we haven’t qualified.
3. The Country rating as a whole has improved, going from 65th to a high of 32nd before falling back recently to 40th, as the other clubs in Romania have not had the success that we have had.

This sets up a cycle that is particularly troublesome to deal with:

1. Good player comes thru Youth intake
2. Good player gets Senior Team starts Early, sometimes when 17 y/o, also gets International appearances on the Youth Squads
3. Good player develops, signs new contract with minimum release fee locked by agent.
4. Team plays in Europe really well, Player gets noticed
5. Team with Better Reputation makes offer to player, meeting release clause, Player leaves, often sits on 2nd team, and then leaves for another club.

To break this cycle, we need to

1. Grow our reputation, and countries reputation
2. By getting good, young players, and developing them
3. Holding onto them for more than 3-4 years to build up a quality squad that will get us the wins we need
4. While sending out other players to other teams in the country to get them inproved as well so the country rating can improve as well

Which we can’t do because teams with a better reputation currently get all of the good, Young Romanians.

Is it a cycle that can be broken? Yes, I believe so, but it’s not something that’s going to happen overnight, it’s a 30 year project, at least.

And I don’t have the interest in hitting the ‘Auto Resolve’ button for the next 30 seasons while playing the European games. That doesn’t hold any interest for me. I haven’t touched this save in almost a month, and when I loaded it back up again, I saw the familiar names, and just…eh. I knew this was going to be a challenge when I started it, I just wasn’t aware of how big a challenge it was going to be, and that’s my fault. It’s been fun, but near the end it was getting frustrating, and that’s just no way to play FM, so I am going to set this save aside.

I appreciate all of you who have followed along, and for the foreseeable future I will have some more content coming, mostly related to screenflow and scouting.

Thanks,

Jellico

Bonus content:

Teodor Drăgan, the best Romanian Player in the game. CFR Cluj, Class of ’30, to Porto for €5.25M in 2035, then PSG for €72M in 2038. First International Experience, Romanian U21 squad at age 17, where he won goal of the tournament. 2036/37 Champions League Young Player of the Season, FIFA Best U21 Men’s Player the same year. Blue is 13-16, Green is 17+, and I would bet most of those blues are 15 or 16