Tag: FM Youth Only

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

The Kids Are Alright Season 11

Chin up, old boy, it could be worse…

As much as I love this save, I have to admit we are in the phase where our performances are going to vary wildly, and there are multiple reasons for this, but the primary reason is that we are a young team, our average age is 21, and the Ability Curve of the ability of the squad is a bit…pronounced. We are good enough to win the League in Romania, and beat some other European clubs, but we aren’t in a position to compete with the bigger European Clubs on a consistent basis because we do not have the team to do so, we are waiting for the Youth Academy to produce it. Which means going forward, instead of the medium to big leaps we used to get to where we are now, the next few years are going to be only incremental improvements, or no improvements at all, or in some cases, stepping back a bit.

This season was one of those cases…

There were some bits of good news though:

And some Middling News:

The biggest loss here was Fieraru (Class of ’31). He has the ability to be a solid striker, either a #2 on our squad, if I ever switch to a Two Striker Formation, or a good player on a lower club. He had one year left on his contract, and Rapid pushed hard for him, and he wanted to go, and nothing could keep him here. Secreteanu (Class of ’26) was a solid option on the left side, but I have equally capable younger players who can take his place. Butoiu (Class of ’31) I had high hopes for, as did the Youth Coaches. The next 4 years he barely improved. Stancu (Class of ’25) has had a solid career for us as our D/WB(L), but Sepsi’s offer was too good to pass up, and I have younger capable replacements.

I was hoping for a good European run this year. I knew we weren’t going to go far in the Champions League, and also felt pretty confident that if we fell to the Europa League, we could do a credible job there, and if for some reason we fell to the Conference, thats fine, we could do a credible job there to. The preseason started well, the friendlies were good, the season kicked off, and we shat the bed.

I played mostly rotated sides in the friendlies, especially once I saw who we were playing in our CL Qualifying game. I needn’t have worried. Midtjylland’s quality was apparent from the first whistle, they scored their 1st goals in 10 minutes. And if beating us 4-1 wasn’t bad enough for our home crowd, they beat us 4-1 in front of their home crowd as well…where they scored in the 1st minute. If you take into account the 6-2 drubbing Cluj gave us, also at home, we lost by a 14-3 aggregate score in those matches….to face Mechelen in the Europa League. I don’t have Belgium loaded, but they fished 4th I think, because they didn’t show up in the 1-3 slots, and while we did well to hold them to a 1-1 draw, 16 y/o Rocky Jivan (Class of ’34) clawing the draw back for us in the 81st minute, a Stancu own goal and all around poor effort meant we lost in the 2-1 away match. So we fell to the conference league, where we met our new nemesis: Austria Wien. A 4-3 aggregate loss late, and we were out of Europe.

It has been our worst European performance to date…

I would like the think our lackluster efforts in Europe, with a heavy dose of yelling by me, spurred the guys onto start doing well. Or maybe they just didn’t want to play in Europe, I am not sure.

We went the entire month of September without conceding a goal, which was a good accomplishment. A close loss followed by a last gasp win was too exciting for me, I called it a night after those two matches, as we find ourselves part of a group of eight or so teams that could finish 4th or 12th, and noone would really be surprised with either result. Not losing in November was also nice, but the wheels wobbled in December, and we went into the break mid table. It was going to take quite a bit for us to make our way back into the Top 6.

And we stumbled just enough at the end to finish 7th, and go into the Relegation Group.

So Of Course we turned it on, lost only the one game, six shutouts and PK’s against FCSB see us finish 8th, and claim another European spot. We’re going to do better next year.

The Youth Intake

Last years Intake was really good, Jivan, Oprea, Mif, Vieru, Croitoru could be a Golden Generation. Jivan at 16 is already playing for the Romanian U21 squad, which is both good and bad. This years intake preview got my hopes up, but then:

Alin Munteneau

His Bravery is the standout attribute, but his Aggression, Tackling, Fitness and Work Rate are nothing the laugh at either. I suspect a lot of his “Average” scores are in the 9-10 range, and if he doesn’t meet his 4 1/2 star potential, he should still become a very solid midfielder.

Dennis Macanu

How a person with Good Determination and decent Teamwork can be Unsporting is a mystery, I am pretty sure it means his ‘under the hood’ attributed are pretty meh. He has a good foundation to build on, the problem is I have quite a few players that can play at D(L). At this point the best course of action is to get him into a good mentor group, then get him as many games as possible, maybe a loan spell or two, and see where we are in 5 years. But his potential isn’t enough for me to outweigh the Personality.

Alin Oltean

If he improves his Stamina, Strength, Concentration and Positioning, I think Oltean could have a long term future at the club, despite the Injury issues. What I am hoping is that he’s not another one of those players who comes in with their CA at 70, and their PA is 85. Another one to keep a closer eye on.

Nikolay Tuntev

The question isn’t “How Good is Tuntev going to be?” but rather “How good is Tuntev going to be before he leaves for ‘Gr€€n€r’ pastures. He’s only been eligible for a few months, yet already has a Bulgarian U21 Call Up, and a goal. I think he has wonderkid (160+ IMO) potential, and we are going to do what we can to get him there. I strongly suspect he will be getting first team playing time next season, and honestly, with his physicals and Ball Control attributes, and his overall Attacking Attributes, I don’t think we would be hurting the squad. Clearly the best of this years good intake.

Alexandru Olteanu

His Attacking and Possession attributes are already on the right side og good for the most part, if his defensive skills pick up, to where he is merely ‘Average’ as opposed to ‘Bad’, I think he’ll be a great DLP. As it stands, he has a couple of other players ahead of him on the depth chart, but they bring more issues to the table than Olteanu does. And having to many good players for a position is a problem I think a lot of FM managers would love to have.

Vlad Bălan

At 6′ 2″, he already has the height for the position, and while his Fitness is currently lacking, his solid physicals and defending means he has a good foundation to build on, and the Fairly Determined personality will help him there. He has a little bit of an injury problem, but that doesn’t worry me. What does is that he’s currently 8th on the D(C) depth chart, and how do I shepherd his growth to try and make sure he gets a chance at starting for us?

Teodorescu had 17 assists. 17 Unambitious assists to go with 8 Unambitious Goals and 3 Unambitious Player of the Match awards. If only her were a bit more ambitious…

Despite the teams overall performance, the players as a whole did really well IMO. I love that were aren’t relying on one or two players to do everything for us, and we had quite a few youngsters get some playing time, and contributing. It’s something we need to keep on doing, especially if we want more success. Our European campaign this year was a disaster, I am hoping we will do better next season. The last couple of Youth Intake have also been very good, I am hoping that’s a trend that’s going to continue.

Until then, we’re going to keep plugging away, and hoping and praying we keep the rock in front of us.

Thanks for reading!

The Kids Are Alright -Season 10

A TIPPING POINT?

Ten seasons in, and I would be hard pressed to argue were aren’t exactly where we want to be. In addition to moving up 134 places to the 132nd position in European club ranking, we have improved behind the scenes, with secure finances, State of the Art Training Facilities, Excellent Youth Facilities, the best coaching group in Liga I…the only thing really holding us back is our reputation as a club, which currently sits at 2 1/2 National. That means we are still missing out on some of the better coaching options out there, especially at the youth level, because they do not want to come here. Don’t get me wrong, what we have is pretty good, but I know there are better out there. But we have a good, young, capable roster, and even though the pundits don’t believe in us (Again, the predicted a bottom half finish, this time 11th), I think we are poised to start doing some good things.

Selling one of our better youth prospects was not part of the plan though.

Vasile Ion (Class of ’30) is probably the first legitimate wonderkid (140+PA) player we’ve had come thru the ranks.

If I am being honest, I don’t think it’s his play for us that caught everyone’s attention, but his International and Continental play. 7 appearances as a 17 year old, 11 as an 18 year old, he’s easily the best young Romanian DM in the game. A few of the local clubs started asking about him last season, then some of the neighboring clubs, but in this years winter transfer window, a lot of big clubs started getting involved, when Napoli came and made an offer that I couldn’t refuse. Could I have gotten more money for him? At the time, probably not. And they offered him on a loan back until the end of the season which came in handy. I suspect the 40% sell on will as well…or it would, if we were buying players. A lot of the extra money is tied to international appearances, and I don’t think we will see a problem in getting them.

Transfer wise, the only real surprise was Rareş Florea going to Chindia for as much money as he did. I don’t think he worth anything nearing that amount, but never interrupt another club when they are making financial decision that are in your best interest. The only other ‘Out’ of any consequence was Rareş Florea, but Voluntarii can afford to eat the fee should he not pan out. Given the recent injury rating he’s picked up and his underwhelming loan spell last year, I don’t think he’s going to get much better.

Schedule wise, I think we actually did ourselves a favor by not qualifying for Continental football this season, as it means fewer games, and lets us concentrate on League play. And Holy Hell, did we get off to a really good start:

We played horribly at Arad, so a draw was not an unexpected result. The draw at Craiova was expected as well, the loss against FCSB not so much, but everyone in a Politehnica kit had a bad day that day. Our victories though, 4-1 against U Craiova, 2-0 against Rapid, 3-0 against Cluj, these are all solid to very good teams, and we handled them quite well. We are still using the 4-1-4-1 DM WB Asymmetrical, everyone knows it, is comfortable and familiar with it, and teams are still having issues dealing with it. I wanted to do well in the Cupa României this season, the board wanted us to get to the latter stages, and being in a somewhat weaker group certainly helped. It allowed me to rotate for some of the matches, and start some very promising youngsters.

Other than the loss against Craiova, at home no less, we kept up our winning way. Hlinca in particular is having a very good season as the DLF, well on his way to another 20+ goal season. Voicu (Class of ’26) has settled into the AM(C) role quite well, and Alexandru is having an excellent season between the sticks, well on his way to averaging less than a goal a game. Wins against Dinamo and Cluj, shutting out Arad in the return match, and a Quarter Final win in the Cupa României, we went into the winner break on a high.

That high continued until the League split. If not for the fact Universitatea Craivoa had an even better first half of the season (13/2/0 to our 10/4/1) we would have been in first place. But this is Liga I, and sometimes, the are strange things afoot.

THE YEWT

I think this Intake has the potential to be the best one of the save so far, not in terms of how many players we recruited, but how many of them are better than 120PA

Rocky Jivan

The only reason(s) Jivan might not get some starts next year are because he’s 16, and he’s 127 pounds soaking wet. After that, whats not to love? A left footed BBM DM/M(C), with Good Balance, Work Rate, Flair, Technique, Finishing, and a Bravery (17 minimum) that speaks of a Napoleon complex of “I don’t care I am 5’7″ I’ll kick you ass every day of the week and twice on Game day” attitude. And he’s got a Professional Personality. The question isn’t how good a player will Rocky be, the question is considering what we see is the basement, how high cam we go, and how long can we keep him before other teams come calling?

If Vasile Oprea‘s Possession and Physicals can catch up to his Attacking skills, he’d will be a very good attacking option. As it stands, at the moment he’s one of several in a somewhat large pond looking to take over if/when Hlincu leaves. Being Fairly Professional will certainly help.

I am not sure how to pronounce Mădălin Mif. If he and Oprea were combined into one player we would have a very good AM(C) on out hands, as it stands Mif has DLP written all over, Decent Attacking skills, Good Possession skills, and not that mobile. If his Defending skills were any better, or at least had the potential to be much better, he would be a great D(C). However, the lack of defending skills, his physical deficits, and the Unambitious personality mean he probably wont reach his potential, no matter what positions he’s playing.

As If Cristian Vieru joining the large pond that is our striker depth, the Low Determination is an additional anchor around his neck. Which is a shame, because I think after Jivan, he has the best base in terms of starting skills. I think if he does develop, it will probably be at an AM(C) sort of player. Cosmin Croitoru is in the same boat, but something tells me that the difference between Croitoru’s CA and PA is not that great. That said, other than Jivan he’s probably the one player from this intake who’s going to get first team playing time sooner rather than later.

Rocky Merişanu will probably forever be known as “The Other Rocky” from this years intake. He has a solid foundation to build off of, the question is how high. His personality says “Not as High as it Could be.” I suspect he will be a squad player at best, but the potential to be more IS there. Vasile Mihai is a player I think is undervalued by my scouts and coaches, even with the Unambitious personality. His Good Defending skills, Good Physical skills, Technique and Passing are intriguing, at least to me. Part of me suspects that he’s rated as low as he is because they believe the areas he’s already low then are not going get much better than they are now. Tudor Ungureanu is a decidedly average player at the moment. That is not a bad thing, as I suspect all of his Orange skills are on the low end, but should his Fairly Sporting personality not be a hindrance, he could be a serviceable squad player.

I’ll be honest, I am not sure whats going on when it comes to the League phase. Craiova went in 1st place, lost two games, drew one and won the rest, while we drew 4 and lost 1, while winning the others. That put them 5 points ahead in the Playoffs, yet somehow, in the League table, we pipped them by 2 points to win 1st place and a UCL spot, but Craiova are the Champions(?)

Granted, we needed some luck to win/not lose a couple of these matches:

But the good news in all of this was not winning the League (possibly), or qualifying for Champions League Football again, it was winning out first Domestic Trophy by beat Craiova in the Cup Final! Woohoo, something tangible to hang our scarf on!

Dumitru Hlinca has a fabulous season, Player of the year, new average rating record, 35 goals across all competitions, he’s really hit his stride, and he’s not the only one.

Răzvan Teodorescu set a new record with 24 assists across all competitions, Voicu had a solid season with 19 goals and 7 assists, Neagu and Alexandru had fine seasons as well, and I really think we’ve turned the corner with regards to where we can finish. Admittedly, finishing top third is good, but as we have seen in the past, so is finishing top of the relegation group. Going forward, European football has to be the goal, no matter what competition it ends up being, no matter how we qualify for it. The other thing I am interested in seeing is how well our next few Youth Intakes go. If they are the same…quality as this one, I think we will be very happy. These “lower” personality profiles are still disturbing though. Although we have seen some players grow out of them, the fact they are showing up with them, especially in the number of players that have them, is still disturbing. Until we can bring in a better HOYD though, we are stuck with the one we have.

Thanks for Reading!

The Kids Are Alright -Season 9

Stepping back to take a step forward.

I will admit, everything lined up well for us last year. Getting to the Round of 16 in the UECL was quite the accomplishment, but as optimistic as I am, and overly so at times, I wasn’t expecting a repeat performance this year. I wanted us to do well, place well, and try and qualify for European Football again, but it was going to be tough.

This is Jaroslav Verdal. U Craiova 1948 spent €19.25M in transfers, he was €9.5(12.5)M of that.

Nassim Chefra, a very good deal at €350K for Farul:

Universitatea Cluj paid €1.3M for Milan Precupanu (Class of ’25):

and they paid just €49K for this fellow:

And UTA Arad paid €500K for this young midfielder:

Will I have players this good? Eventually, I mean, I HAD Precupanu, but he left for greener pastures, and then left again for even greener pastures. The issue is, we are a good, young team who is getting better in incrementally small steps. I’d love to use my €7.1M Transfer budget and 1.1M in available salary to improve the squad with some great younger players, but I can’t. What I can do is develop what I have, sell them for a goodly sum, and keep getting in Youth Players to replace them, which is possible, but is it probable? I think so, even when the decks isn’t exactly stacked in our favor.

The team literally had 10 days of vacation before having to report back, then it was friendlies, and before we knew it, the season was upon us. The only ‘loss’ in the transfer window was Lucian Ilie (Class of ’28), who went to Voluntari for €175K. I think he is the type of sale that is going to be common going forward, a good young player with potential buried on the depth chart, like 9th on the depth chart:

He’s a 3 1/2 to 5 star Potential player, and he had a good loan spell last season. The issue is I have Five players ahead of him who are 2-3 star CA, and 4 to 5 star PA already ahead of him. I was trying to loan him out again when Voluntari made the offer, and a somewhat larger salary with the promise of 1st Team playing time beat out my offer, and he left.

They season got off to an…well, it started.

We absolutely bodied Sloboda Tuzla in the Qualifying Round, but then drew with an Average Sepsi squad. Losing to botrh Cluj and Farul isn’t unexpected, but one of those games should have been a draw, and losing to Dinamo Bucureşti 4-0, as much as I want to blame it on the number of games we have been playing, was just a gut punch. They are a solid squad, but we’re better than putting up a donut on the scoreboard. We were 3-0 down after 18 minutes, i think the overall average for the club was a 6.2…just bleh. The upside was that while we were doing our best to crap the bed in the Domestic games, in Europe we were doing unexpectedly well again. Beating BATE Borisov on aggregate was very nice, and I thought we were going to be out when I saw we were playing Guimarães. However, we held them to a 1-1 draw at home, and an unfortunate own goal by a young newgen player gave us the 2-1 win at their house, and we made it to the League Phase, where honestly, we got a bit of a gift draw:

Rapid Wien and Celtic were the only two teams I Was worried about, luckily they were both traveling to us so that was a bit of a leg up…

Galaţi and Csíkszereda are teams that are going to be fighting relegation. The fact we beat one and lost to the other with the exact same squads that were well rested and preapred is a statement as to how the season was going. And again, our Cupa României group was a bloodbath, as we won just one game, drew 2 and lost 2 with a negative goal differential….

The UECL was going as expected though. In real life, Shkupi is a decent North Macedonian Squad, and Pyunik is a decent Armenian squad, in the game they are full of greyed out newgens that didn’t really have a chance, and it was reflected in the scoreboard.

November and December was….frustratingly good.

Drawing with Celtic and Molde, who with Rapid Wien were the three teams in the group I was worried about, was very good, especially as both player their best starting XI. Gorica is a decent Croatian squad, yet they went 7-0 (against Semi Pro Breiðablik, who has to achieve supremacy (IYKYK), the 0-0 at Brighton, 0-1 at St. Gallen, 1-0 at Maribor, 0-0 with us, and 0-0 at Viking…and they finished 16th(!). We finished 5th, but the other Romanian Squads in the League also did very well:

5th, 7th, 10th and 12th, that will surely help the Country rankings at the end of the day, I hope.

As frustrating as November and December were, January and February was worse:

Eleven games without a loss is nothing to sneeze at, but 4 wins and 7 draws might be worth a sniffle or three. And some of those game we deserved to lose, Cluj in particular. It seemed as if once we equalized we were content to play for the draw, and no matter how much I yelled, threw bottles, and berated them, their “Give a Damn done broke”. We staggered into March needing to put our best foot forward to avoid being in the relegation group, but we tied our own shoelaces somewhere along the way:

I knew after playing the the first time around Rapid Wien was a good squad, and the obviously studied us because they picked us apart in the 2nd game, and we tumbled out of the League. The goal was now to tray and get to the top of the relegation group and fight for the European spot again, but losing to U Craiova put that thought to bed. The rest of the season was us trying not to lose and to avoid a relegation scrap, because honestly, I am not sure which team would have shown up had we been in that position.

We did just enough to avoid the Relegation battle. You would have heard my sigh of releif, if not for the wailing and gnashing of Voluntari fans. They not only lost 6 of their Relegation Group games, winning and drawing two apiece, they were forced to play in the Liga I/II Relegation Playoff, where they drew 1-1 the first match, they were 3-0 up, gave up 3 goals in 12 minutes, and then lost on Penalty Kicks. And the coach still has his job, so far…

Final Standings:

And the remaining Romanian clubs did pretty well in the Conference:

And that should help a bit.

The Youth Intake was deceptively good. I say deceptively because while we have some great potential, I suspect at least one, if not more of these players is already near their PA. Oddly enough, this was not considered a “Golden Generation”:

The Best:

PAUN is…intriguing. He’s probably destined for a AM?IF role, but his strength and Work Rate being in the red are worrisome, as is his Decision Making, Composure, Anticipation and Finishing. If I can get him some U19 game time and some loans spells, he should develop enough to cosnider some starting XI time, but that’s getting to be a tougher task to juggle. The Injury Proneness is a worry as well.

BEZERCU is everything Paun isn’t, and that’s a bit worrisome, because of all the players in this years intake, he’s the one I think is the Chimera. I hope I am wrong, as his Physical and Possession attributes are a solid foundation to build on, and his Attacking Attributes aren’t that bad either. If he develops, he will be quite a solid player.

I can’t pronounce his last name, but ANDREI looks to be the best of the bunch, until that glaring “UNAMBITIOUS” personality jumps out at you. Granted, we already have a few players on the starting XI turning in good performances with that personality type, but that just tells me they’d be even better players if they were at least, say, Balanced…Andrei is probably the best all around youth player this intake, I graded him lower because of said personality, and I don’t think he cares…

MILAN and Andrei might be cousins, given how I can’t pronounce either of there names the same way twice. He has the making of a prototypical D(C), but again that Low Determination personality is a killer. You can’t teach height though, so maybe some mentoring and the like can get it improved, and he can become a quality contributor.

The Rest:

Again, Personality dragged these two players down the scale. Of everyone who came in thru this years intake, Drăguşin is the most ready to play, with good Defending Skills, Good Attacking Skills, and Good Technique. If his Quickness was to really pick up, he’d be a great Winger, but as it stands he’s already a capable WB. I think he has one of the highest ceilings in this years intake, but again, that personality…

Bucur is the other player I think is near his PA already. As much as I would love for him to top out as say a 4 star BBM, I suspect his attributes are on the low end for each color, which means improving won’t get him out of that range all that often either. As an example, his Stamina is probably and 8, and it will top out at 12, his Off the Ball is 9 and will top out at 11 sort of thing…

All that said, next years intake had better be pretty good in the Personality department, o my HOYD (Fairly Professional, Outspoken yet Reserved) is going to be looking for a new job.

The team did take a step back this season. I don’t think there is one overarching reason for it, but a lot of smaller reasons that when taken together, show why. A Busy schedule, Injuries in the second half of the season (Alexandru, Teodorescu, Voicu and Hlinca all missed at least 6 weeks), and better competition means we have to work a little harder going forward.

In Other news, we have three left from the starting squad still getting regular game time, how long that lasts I am not sure, but as next season is our 10th, it might be worth it to see who, if any, of the youth players that have left have become contributors on their new teams.

Thanks for Reading!

The Kids Are Alright -Season 8

You Too Can Lose, and Still Be a WINNER!!!

This year, it was a tale of two seasons. The first season we were Brilliant. The second season, less so, as a packed schedule, injuries, fatigue and the like conspired to bring us down a few pegs to midtable mediocrity, but the puppet masters behind the scnes forgot one thing:

This is the Romanian Liga I, and finishing Mid Table is not, as they say, “A Bad Place to be…”

The roster has slowly been sorting itself out the past few seasons. Older players who were here when I started have developed and have a place in the starting XI or on the bench, younger players who have started to develop have earned their place on the starting XI or on the bench, the Youth Team is well stocked, which means the the left over players on the huge roster we have are either:

  • Youth Players biding their time on the U19 squad, improving and getting ready for their chance at the First Team.
  • Older players who are capable backups but not full time starters.
  • Players young and old who will never see the starting XI
  • Players young and old who think we are still too small a team and want to move onto to bigger and better challenges.
  • Players who came thru the Youth System looking like Tarzan, played like Jane because our personnel at the time were not the best judges of Potential, and might never see a starting XI in Liga III…

The players we let go in the transfer window are in the last two categories.

The only real “loss” in this list is Eusebiu Iacob (Class of ’29), a AM(C) who can play the left and up top as striker. Physically Good, Technically OK, Poor everywhere else, his Unambitious Personality didn’t help, but somehow, in 11(6) appearances before he left, he had 5 goals, 2 assists, and a 7.25 rating. I tried to get to stay, but nooooo, Petrolul Ploiești in Liga II was a better option for him. Koszma (Class of ’28), never showed any big improvement, despite being one of the better graded players in that class. I suspect he is one of those Youth players who comes in at 80 CA, and his PA is 95…

UEFA Europa Conference League Football. That’s a mouthful, but it gets even better when you realize that because of coefficients and other things, we start in the League Path Second Qualifying Round, which is like 3 phases away from the Group stage…which means our European Journey started in July, against Zorya.

Man did we get off to a good start. I would love to take credit, but the fact of the matter is, I think it’s the formation. It’s one we have all seen before:

We are Attacking Wide, Overlapping and Focusing on both flanks, passing it into space, playing for set pieces, counter when possession has been won, distribute to flanks, and play a mid block with a standard defensive line. The only additional PI’s are for the positions, the WB’s aim their crosses at the Target Forward, as do the Wingers and the AM(C). The AM(C) runs wider with the ball, and thats really it. I’ll tweak it during the games if need be, but I am also not the sort of guy who watches on extensive highlight to spot such things. My philosophy, on this save anyways, is that if its working, don’t mess it up by tinkering.

Anyhow, we gopt off to a very good start, in the League and in Europe. Beating Cluj in the opener was nice, and although Zorya made a game of it the first leg, we put them away in the second, which meant we were facing CSKA-Sofia in the 3rd Round. Well, goodbye Europe, nice knowing you.

Except we beat them, 3-2 on aggregate. And we celebrated, until we saw POAK as our next opponent. Again, goodby Europe, nice knowing you.

Except we beat them, 6-2 on aggregate. Granted they had a player sent of in the 71st minute in the second game, but we were already 3 goals up at that point. And during all of that, we were winning all of our games in Liga I. Yes, we lost to Farul 1-0, but that was a Marin Own Goal, so technically we scored the winner…just, you know, not for us…

I would have thought we’d have fallen off a bit in October, after all 7 games in 31 days is a hard schedule, almost Brazilian really, but FCSB’s 2-0 against us was well earned, and Arad’s 3-2 was really a 3-0, we just got lucky on two goal late, they were made we beat the in the Cup 3 days earlier.

Beating PAOK got us into the League Phase, and out opponents there were:

  • KF Shkëndija, a good Macedonian Club
  • Nordsjælland, from Denmark
  • Royal Antwerp FC, from Belgium
  • Botev Plovdiv, from Bulgaria
  • Havnar Bóltfelag Tórshavn, from the Faeroe Islands
  • Genk, from Belgium

I figured we would win three and lose three, but if we could win three and draw one, maybe we could eke into the next stage. That plan worked out well in September an October, as we beat Shkëndija and drew with Nordsjælland (they scored in the 88th minute to deny us the win), meanwhile we were doing well enough in the Cup Group stage to get to the next round there.

November the wheels started to wobble. December they fell off…

We didn’t have any injury issues, the squad was just tired I think, and I rotated a little bit more than I should have in some games. The “good” news, if you can call it that, is that in our losses we weren’t getting blown out, which meant our differential was OK.

In all of this, we drew with Plotdiv, beat Havnar, and lost to both the Belgium squads, which meant we had 2 wins, 2 draws, and 2 losses, good enough for 8 points, 22nd overall. Onto the next round! Goodbye Europe, nice knowing you!

Zurich, Bodø/Glimt, Hajduk Split, Molde, Rapid Vienna, and we get…Tobol Kostanay??? OK then…

January and February were rough. The 5-1 win against Voluntari totally set me up, and again we were losing. Close losses, but still losses. The only bright spot, oddly enough, was our 5-3 aggregate win against a pretty decent Kazakhstan team. The downside to that win?

Facing Borussia Dortmund in the Round of 16…

We actually got ourselves right in Liga I during March. The only disappointment was the loss to Dortmund, but lets be honest, they are better than us, even with a rotated side. And we did get some luck in the draws to get here, but still getting to the Round of 16 is quite the accomplishment, and can only help us and the league going forward.

Youth Only saves are unintentionally cracked…

On the Youth Intake Front:

Eh, not too bad…

Angel Saizu is Physically solid, his Attacking Attributes are not too bad, an he already has good First Touch and Technique. Also in his favor, he can play up top in 3 of our formations positions.

Adrian Boncoi is going to be a midfielder, he just does not have the Physical attributes (or the size) to be as DLF up top. However, with his solid Attacking and Possession attributes, including the Good First Touch, Technique and Flair, he has DLP written all over.

Dragoş Butoiu is (hopefully) the best prospect of this Intake. From an Attribute point of view anyways, I am not sure how well a 5’8″ 134 pound D(C) works, probably as an M(C) or attacking DM probably, but given that he is brave enough to charge thru a metal door and aggressive enough to keep trying, he could be a good player in the future. He’s a growth spurt away from being very good IMO.

Robert Thoma has the Stamina, Work Rate, Decision Making and Aggression to be a very good Wingback. Everything else says he’s going to be on the end of the bench unless he improves by leaps and bounds the next few years….

If I could somehow meld Harold Tranculov and Butoiu together, I’d be happy. As it stands, Tranculov looks like he’s going to be one of those players who does his job well enough to not get noticed, always turns in a solid performance, and when he does something extraordinary you will be like “wait, he’s on the team? As a Starter?”

Our December thru February run ensured we finished out of the top six, but this is not necessarily a bad thing, because if you finish top of the Relegation group, you get to play for European Football. Totally not a bug…

We blitzed out way thru the group, a loss at Dinamo the only real blip. They then took us to penalties, which we won, and then we crushed FDCSB in the Final, meaning that again, we qualified for Conference League Football.

Some other good pieces of news:

Our Training and Youth Facilities were also improved, and we now have the following:

Our Best XI this year was very good, Hlincu in particular:

And because we aren’t buying any players, our finances are strong too:

On the player side, there were several good performances, and a few surprising ones.

First up, Tiberiu Alexander gained a full star during the course of the season, and he had several great saves, and a lot of good games, and he was injury free thru out. As much as I would like him to be the long term keeper, I suspect he, like many other players, will catch another teams eyes, and be swayed by their reputation, if not their money.

Răzvan Teodorescu again had a very good season, which makes me wonder how much better a player would he be if he had a better personality?

What I do like is that we are not relying on one player to get it done for us. Yes, Hlincu has 32 goals, but we 5 players with double digit goals, and 6 with 5 or more assists. Almost everyone is improving, albeit some more slowly than others, we have a clear hierarchy of who’s who in almost every position, the only thing that can screw that up now (other than me) is other teams coming in and poaching my players. Which is going to happen sooner or later.

For the team being, we are going to enjoy our seven days off, and start preparing for the next European campaign.

Now is when the save is going to start getting very interesting and cool.

Thanks for reading!

The Kids Are Alright -Season 6

I am not too worried about this…yet…

One of the thoughts lingering in the back of my mind since the start of the save is “What if we become to successful to soon?” In many saves this isn’t something to worry about, but in a Youth Save (for many teams anyways), it is because if you are at a smaller club, when you get good Youth players who perform very well early in their careers, teams with more, be it reputation, money, and the like, will come calling for them. And they will leave, because despite the fact you are a brilliant Head Coach, the clubs has good facilities, good finances, and a growing reputation, you do not have the name, brand, continental or worldwide recognition and reputation to keep those players local. Case in point: Darius Niculcea. Perhaps the best player from the ’25 Youth Intake, he was forced into the starting XI for a variety of reasons, and he performed very well. So well that Napoli came and offered us €500K. And since he’s left, he sat on the bench for a year, and then went on loan for half a season to Bari, where he was OK. Would he have been better of staying here for another year or two? Maybe.

But my point, and I swear I am getting to it, is that really good young players who leave early hurt the club more than they help. We need to be winning, we need Continental competition games not for the money, financially we are on very solid ground:

but we need the to increase our stature in the game. This leads to a cycle of good youth players coming in, helping the team to succeed, then leaving while their replacements may not be as good as they are. As a result, a short, rapid rise to small success becomes a long, slow gradual increase to modest success, and then glacial progress to great success.

This is going to be a long save I think, unless the FM Gods smile upon us and gift us not only with great Intakes, but great success as well. I don’t believe we have had a ‘Great” Intake yet (I don’t care what the game says) but we have had some good ones, and some good, solid players have started to shine. Like Marin Neagu, Class of ’28.

The one thing that has worked in our favor is that our success has allowed us to recruit better domestic based coaches, and our success, and lack of player related expenditures, has left us with healthy finances and a board willing to spend some of that money on things we need. Like a new stadium, which we should be moving into the summer of ’30. And Facilities Improvements:

My goal this season was to finish around 8th. There are a couple of reasons for this:

  • It avoids a Relegation Fight.
  • It outs us near the top of the Relegation Group.

Why is this important? Because in Liga I 7th thru 16th go into the Relegation Group. In that 10 team group, 9th and 10th are automatically relegated. 7th and 8th go to a Liga I/Liga II Playoff.

And 1st and 2nd Play for European Football:

The winner qualifies for the Final:

And because of the whole “Half Points, then Full Points, etc rules, you end up with tables like this:

It’s possible to finish 1st in ‘Overall’ points, but now ‘Win’ the League.

Yes, it makes my head hurt too…But the goal is “Mid Table”, in that we finish high enough in the relegation group to challenge for European Football. I Can just hear my first talk of the locker room.

“OK, we want to be good, but not too good, and by that I also mean we can’t be too bad either. OK? Sparkling Mediocrity, that’s what we are aiming for this season, got it?”

I think they listened a little bit too well.

I don’t know that I could get those results again if I tried. And it’s not like we were playing for the draw either, a few of those games we had to come back from a deficit. Răzvan Matiş is turning into quite a good AM(C) in the Asymmetrical formation we are playing, despite the fact he hates big games.

The two biggest surprises so far are Dumitru Hlinca (Class of ’27) and Răzvan Teodorescu.

Hlinca’s Attacking Attributes have all improved to at least 13+, as has his First Touch. And I suspect that those attributes that haven’t changed were most likely on the low end when he arrived, and are now at least a point higher. World Class? No. World of ‘Good for this level of Football’? Yes.

Răzvan Teodorescu was part of the Class of ’24, right before I took over. Attribute wise, for this level of football, he’s Bril. But…

That UNAMBITIOUS personality just….gah…The thing is, he had had close to double digit goals and assists the last couple of seasons (9/4, 9/9, and 8/7), and I bet if he were to be, I don’t know a little more DRIVEN, he’d be 12+ in each category. As it is, a lof of his passes are either the 1st or 2nd in the route to the goal.

So, we weren’t exactly flying high, but slow and steady. Ahead of us lay the dread days of October, and did we let them get to us.

82nd Minute goal for Botosani and their win. 83rd minute goal by Rapid Bucharesti for their win. Arad, 3 goals up after 25 minutes played. With our earlier result, there was a 3 way tie for our Cupa României Betano Group Stage:

This was not the midtable finish I was looking for….

The year ended, and then began again, about the way I expected. Unexpected was beating Farul, expected was Arad scoring in the 1st minute then parking the bus. The Loss at Bucharesti ensured we would not make top 6, and it was a big sigh of relief when we thumped Sepsi to finish in 7th place.

Meet the New Youth, almost the same as the Old…

Only six player from this years Intake Worth Talking about I think. And their personalities were all over the place again as well…

Mercenary isn’t a bad personality to have. It’s not a good one, either, but if we show our loyalty to and provide Costi Popescu with opportunities, we increase the changes he will stay with us long term. His lack of Fitness and Strength is glaring, but he is Quick, Agile, his Attacking Skills are pretty solid, as is his Technique. I don’t think he will be a Striker for us though.

Being Unambitious on the other hand, almost certainly guarantees Andrei Laszlo will never be as good as his PA. The same can be said for Răzvan Teodorescu, who despite his already good attributes could be even better if he were just Balanced. Andrei will be given opportunities though. How long and how many are up to him though.

Branimir Feti continues our streak of players with Low Determination. And that’s a shame, because he’s a very solid player even with a DET that is <7, and could be a very good DLP/Carrilero type of player. For the time being he’s merely “Meh”…I hope he can see what Răzvan Teodorescu is doing and act accordingly, but I’m not going to hold my breath.

Vasile Ion has the best opportunity to be the best player out of this group. Not because he has the highest PA, or because he has a ‘Fairly Professional’ personality, but because he can play 3 positions we have a need at. He will probably be the first to get a decent amount of playing time out of this group.

I think whatever hopes I put in Alex Tănase, he will fall short of them. I am pretty sure that all of his attributes are on the lower end of the scale and he lost a star from when he came in to when we signed him. His versatility might save him, his injury proneness and horrible Possession attributes probably won’t.

Doru Vancea actually gained a star from the Intake to when we signed him. He’s probably got the best CA of all the Youth players from this year, but that could mean his ceiling is not the much higher (comes in at 80, tops out at 100 sort of thing). He has DLP written all over him, whether he wants to believe it or not. I think he has the best long term potential at the club, maybe not as a full time starter, but definitely as a back up/ squad player off the bench.

Our relegation Group battle went almost exactly to plan.

We beat up the teams at the bottom, beat most of the teams we were supposed to beat, and didn’t have a lot of “unexpected results”. The game at Csíkszereda was a draw until the 89th minute (blast and damn), and I knew we were in for a long day at Rapid Bucharesti when the first goal was an own goal by Ilie Formagiu…that loss hurt us, but beating Sepsi put us at the top of the group, meaning we got to play Universitatea Cluj in the first Playoff Game.

While the Shot’s and On Target are similar, we were clearly the better team. It was frustrating not to get more than the one goal we had, although the 2nd goal looked like a winner until the woodwork jumped up and saved it. Four days later we played against Farul Constanţa at their house for the right to go the Conference League.

The bossed us, as much as any team can in a 1-0 Extra time goal victory. All of our Attackers were sub 6.7, and it was Vasiliu (Class of ’28) in goal that stopped it from being a route. How he ended up on a 7.1 is a bit mind boggling, seeing what he faced and stopped I think it should have been higher. But if we are being honest, Farul Constanţa is simply a better team. I have mentioned it before, but if this wasn’t a Youth Only save, we would be the New Farul, bringing in Youth Players from across the region, training them up at our impressive facilities, and moving them on for profit. Heck, they are loaning players in From places like West Ham to fill positions, we can’t do that. We made them earn it, and as trite as that sounds now, I’ll take it.

The League Table ended up thusly:

FCSB won the Cupa României, which is why they are going to the Europa League. But I will take a 9th place finish, now and for the next couple of seasons.

We had some very good performances this seasons as well, quite a few players I was hoping would take it up to the next level did, some more than just one.

Matiş getting 23 goals as an AP on Attack is quite good, but it’s Teodorescu’s 12 goals and 18 assists that stand out for me.

There were several good performances from the rest of the squad:

Hlinca is becoming the player we thought he could be, in fact he was a big reason Matiş was able to score as much as he did, Dumitru was constantly getting doubled teamed and drawing defenders away from Matiş. Voicu had a good season off the bench, Vago had 2 goals and 10 assists from the M(C) position, Purcea was solid at D(R). The only position I had real concerns about was at Keeper. We let Rareş Murariu go at the beginning of the season and he retired. Our best options for replacing him were Nicolae Rotariu (Class of ’23, before I arrived), Tiberiu Alexandru (Class of ’25), Ciprian “Low Self Belief” Şandru, (Class of ’27) and Adrian Vasiliu, Class of ’28.

For some reason, Rotariu has never grown above two stars. There could be reasons for that, the best is that as the club has gotten better, so has he, but as star rating are based on the players at your club, he’s grown with the rest of the squad but not gotten better. He started 15 games for us, and ended up with a 7.21 rating. The good news is we didn’t hear a lot about him doing bad things. The Bad news is we heard nothing about him doing good things. Alexandru went on loan to a Liga II Club, started 18 games and allowed 18 goals, and the club he went to was relegated…Sandru and Vasiliu are the same age, and while on paper Sandru is the better keeper now, I think Vasiliu will be the better overall keeper, which is why I gave him starts this season. Next season the job is his to lose.

I just hope my faith isn’t misplaced.

All in all, a good season. I think the days of relegation worries are behind us, and there are very few players from the original squad left. The question now is can we fend of those teams coming after a Matis or Dumitru, can our youth players develop accordingly, and can we possibly, maybe just do enough to get European Football?

The Kids Are Alright -Season 3

The Glasses Just Make Me Look Smart…

I’m going to be 100% honest here: In game, I am about 10 seasons ahead of what I am posting. There are a couple reasons for this: 

  • I started this during the Winter break
  • Youth saves are very fast to play thru, especially when the time sink you enjoy, Scouting, isn’t a factor
  • I am having fun with it, and sitting down in the AM and logging off in the PM on a weekend realizing you just went thru four full seasons and aren’t exhausted is a good thing. Isn’t it?

That said, I still have no fricking clue how the Promotion/Relegation Groups in Liga I work, so lets see if we can figure this out now:

1st thru 6th Qualify for the Playoff Group.

7th thru 16th go to the Relegation Group.

Liga I Championship Group Rules
Liga I Relegation Group Rules

Half points plus point plus carry the 1 and…..my head hurts. Seriously.

What I have learned is not only can you finish 1st in total points and not win the Liga, you can also finish last in points and not be relegated. For the teams at the very top and very bottom in a year where the points difference between them and their nearest competitor isn’t all that close, it doesn’t matter. 6 teams in the Championship group separated by 10 points? It matters…

This season was going to be brutal. The pundits picked us to finish 15th, and that was optimistic I think. I am pretty sure they are taking into account possible transfers, but without any of those coming in, were stuck with who we have, and who we have is a bunch of mediocre (for this level of football) players, and some potential. What we lack is a Striker, or three. Sburlea started for us last season, and was the very definition of ‘Meh’, and the available options I have aren’t any better. Brădău has the potential, but his personality is really holding back his development, and I think throwing a young, unproven striker into the fray in an effort to tray and stave off relegation is not a good recipe for success. 

So I went back to a 4-3-3-0 Strikerless.

The results were about what I expected.

My philosophy in situations like this is as follows:

  • Do not play to ‘Not Lose’
  • Draws are much better than losses
  • If you lose, try to make it close

The first half of the season, we were mostly successful in following that:

In a nutshell, we were losing to the teams who were most likely going to bet us, drawing the teams we had a chance with, and beating the teams we were supposed to beat, with few surprises really.

The draw and win at Craiova was nice, they have a very good squad. UTA Arad, Voluntari. Sepsi OSK are also strong, but the league is Farul Constanţa’s to lose. They are the club we aspire to be in a few years, Excellent Youth Facilities, Excellent Training Facilities, Exceptional Youth Recruitment, and Good Academy Coaching, and because FCSB lost so many players, including their best youth prospect, they aren’t running away with anything like they did the year before. The other good news was that our goal differential was not that bad either, and at the end of the year, we were in 9th place, with 19 points from 4 wins, 7 draws and 4 losses, with a -2 goal differential.

Our biggest issue was lack of offense. Sburlea had definitely fallen off, but young Răzvan Teodorescu, who I believe was in the Youth Intake the year before I joined, was having a solid season despite his Unambitious personality. Darius Niculcea had made the D(R) slot his to lose, and had also improved by quite a bit as well. We went into the break fairly confident we weren’t going to be in a relegation fight.

I am not sure it’s coincidental, but when the League splits in MArch into the two groups, that’s right around the time the Youth Intake happens. 

I thought going itno the New Year we may have had a chance to stay midtable, but 6 of our first 8 games were against teams at the top of the table, and it showed. I thought we would eke the draw out against Sepsi OSK, but they got two late goals quick. Winning two games and drawing FCSB was also nice, but we ended up in the Relegation Group, and that wasn’t a surprise.

A Decent Intake?

5 Elite Talents and 5 Good talents are nice, but what I am looking at are positions, and I am very satisfied with this intake. Another potential future keeper, two young choices at Striker, winger options, Midfielder options, this is a solid intake for us. We’re going to look at just the top 10.

The Best

Ciprian Şandru is the 3rd Youth Intake Keeper that has come across as 5 star Potential, and with Nicolae Rotariu (Another good young 5 Star Potential Keeper), that gives us 4 with talent. The question is which one develops first, and while my gut says Alexandru is going to be the best one of the bunch, I am going to rotate the others in as best I can and see how they do. Ciprian is already a solid young keeper, his attributes are a great foundation to build upon, and if his Keeper attributes increase accordingly, he can be a solid keeper at this level.

Radu Chirilă has a lot going for him. Already having good Endurance attributes, his Bravery and Balance are also good, and I suspect that most of his attributes that are in Orange would turn blue, if not for the fact he is Unambitious. Yes, he’s 4 1/2 star potential, but he has to want it, and his personality ensures that getting there is not going to be easy. At All.

Ionuţ Oltean is what I call a ‘Feast and Famine’ Youth. Where he is good, he’s actually pretty good. Where he’s bad, he’s very bad, and there’s not a whole lot in between. Unless his Attacking Attributes improve dramatically the next couple of years thru training and playing time, he’s not going to be a winger, but his lack of height and weight makes him an iffy midfield prospect IMO.

Of this years Intake, I am most happy with Dumitru Hlinca. Already having Excellent fitness, Good Flair and Technique, and with most of his other Passing Attributes already solid, he would be a great Targetman if he could jump and head, but as he can do neither of those, he’s going to be a DLF. His potentail may not be as high as the others, but he will be on the pitch before anyone else, because I need a decent striker up top.

Already 180 pounds and 6′ 6″ at 16, Eduard Nanu is a man among boys. Here’s hoping he’s not one of those player’s who is a “Look Like Tarzan, Play Like Jane!” sort of player. Physically he is already solid, and his Defending Attributes are solid as well, but I can’t help thinking as solid as he is now, he’s not going to get that much better.

The Better(ish)

Eduard Sevaciuc’s PA is based on a world where everything goes perfect. The fact his Physically lacking is something his Attacking and Possession Attributes might help cover up, but his lack of good defending attributes at this point means he would need to work hard to become a serviceable M(C)/DM. His casual personality all but ensures that will never happen.

From and Attribute standpoint, Dafin Ilie (II) and Remi Şurpanu are similar, and where one is lacking the other is good. Ilie has the best potential to be a full time starter IMO, rather he has the best chance because his lack of height, Injury proneness, and Unsporting Personality means he will most likely not get much better than he already is. Physically speaking, Remi is the better of the two, and he’s also better at all three center field positions…but his Personality is also dragging him down as well. I’d feel beetter about these 5 players if the personalities were anything in the middle of the pack, but this Casual/Unambitious/ stuff is just…awful…

Dan Dascălu has a solid foundation to build on. The question is what is he building? I think he could be a winger with about a 110-120 PA, which for this level of football is very good, but his Attacking Attributes would have to improve by leaps and bounds for that to happen. It’s it possible? Yes. Is it probable? I doubt it…

Last but not least, well mostly least, is Cristian Dumitrescu. He is definitely the first instance of “He looked so good from the stands, but on the pitch he’s mid.” I’ve seen. He came in at 3 1/2 stars potential, and now he’s 2-2 1/2. That tells me where he is now, he’s not going to get that much better without some help, and as yet another player with an Unambitious personality, he’s not going to utilize that help.

All told, not the best Intake really. This whole personality range is frustrating, as my current HOYD has a Balanced one, but the past 3 Intakes I’ve had ~15 Unambitious, ~4 Unsporting, a Low Self Belief, a Temperamental, and a Casual…yikes…

We were headed towards the Relegation playoff’s, then we thumped Petrolul 6-3, and drew our next to games to secure 12th place overall. We did just enough in the Relegation group to finish 5th, which put us above FC U Craiova, and they ended up being relegated because they lost in the Playoffs. But in the overall standings, they finished a place higher than us.

A reminder to not take the ‘post season’ lightly. 

Although, it could be worse, they could be UTA Arad, who finished 2nd overall but last in the Championship group, meaning they missed out on European football.

Performance wise, as one would expect from our finish, the team was average. No scorers in double digits, not assists in double digits, two of our best young players already out the door, and already some older players I am ready to move on as well.

I coached my 100th game, the board still hasn’t let me go on a coaching course, and while our finances are solid, we have to rent a new stadium to play in because the current one we are renting does not meet league requirements:

Next Season? I expect more of the same. This is that point where the older players I had when I took over the squad are going to start moving, some of them even if they don’t want too. The question is do I have capable replacements for them, and in many cases the answer is “We Shall Find Out.” As long as we don’t stumble, we should be fine. 

Should.

The Kids Are Alright: Season 2

Don’t Rock the Boat

As I mentioned previously, this is my second attempt at a ‘Youth Only’ save, the first was with a club in Croatia. In that save, we did not make it out of the 2nd Division, and as a result, the club went semi-professional. 2nd year we got promoted, the owners would not let us go pro, so the 3rd year we barely avoided relegation. 4th year we were still semi pro, and the Youth Intakes had not been good enough yet to produce any wonderkids that could help us, some solid talent but no ‘Good/Great’ Talents, and halfway thru the season, on a losing streak, the owners demanded 9 points from 6 games that included Dinamo Zagreb, Hadkuk Split, Rijeka, Rudes, and Slavan Belupo, and 4 games later I was shown the door. The kicker to all of this was that the club was secure in it’s finances, the decisions to go Semi Pro was made under the hood, and so were the following decisions to not go pro again. Did not being professional hurt us? Not as much as I wanted it to in hindsight, the one thing it really affected was training, as two sessions a week is not and never will be as good as seven sessions a week. And it could be some internal biases at play, but the Romanian Lower Leagues just seem to be more ‘solid’ than the Croatian ones. Then again, with as many lower leagues division as Romania has, maybe they should be.

The goal for this season was to improve on last season. Having finished 5th last season and losing in the Promotion Playoffs, improvement could mean a couple of things:

  • Finishing higher than 5th and get promoted
  • Finishing higher than 5th and NOT getting promoted
  • Finishing 6th and getting promoted.
  • Finishing 6th and NOT getting promoted.

Seeing how this save is going to take at least a couple of decades, I am OK with any of those results, as long as we finish top 6. What I am looking for this early in the save are continuing solid gameplay by my veteran players, improvement in the youth players, and improving the staff as we go along. Including me, as I currently have no coaching qualifications whatsoever.

CHANGES

We played a 4-3-3 Strikerless season because we had to, I felt that at the time we did not have any good options up top, and while it did the job for us, in that we made the playoffs and weren’t relegated, it lacked offensive punch.

I had a couple of options to play up top, and if we are being honest it was really a choice between “The Evil of Two Lesser’s”. At least that’s what I thought at the time. However, the transfer window hit, and that when things got very interesting.

Eventually losing Coperu and Duma is not a bad thing, as I think I have Youth Replacements for them. Aurel Vlaciu though, is a 19 y/o with 4 star CA and 4 1/2 star PA, and with playing time he will see that last 1/2 star. And for some reason when Gloria Buzău made their offer he not only went for it, when I declined it initially so did the locker room. In a case of “FM being FM” I am pretty sure I will see the full 180K I moved him for, but of course the moment he showed up at Gloria Buzău his value went to €425K – €1.4M. His leaving means one of the current youth players will get their chance.

Also, in looking to see who could replace him, I noticed something in the Romanian Squad rules: As long as a player is under contract, they can play. Yes, the League has a rule that “Only Players Registered for the Competition may play” but right above that? “Domestic Under-22 Players are eligible to play in ALL Matches.” And whats the vast majority of my squad going to be going forward? Domestic Under-22’s. 

Competition Registration Problems: Solved.

My Striker Problem: Also Solved, but not really. I am calling it a push.

This is Sabrin Sburlea. 5′ 8″ of UNAMBITIOUS 141 pounds who has potential. Will he ever see it. To quote him “Eh, maybe…”

Red: 1-7 Orange: 8-12 Blue: 13-16 Green: 17-120

His Attacking attributes are very good, and I suspect the ones in Orange are in double digits. His Decision making is also very good, and his Ball Control Attributes are average. Physically, for this level of football, I would say he’s above average except of course in jumping and strength. So why is he UNAMBITIOUS? If there’s one thing holding him back, that is it.

We needed a good start to the season, and we got it:

Sburlea scored in each of the first three games, and our first Liga II loss came against Gloria Buzău, although admittedly it could have been against Viitorul Cluj in the Cupa României Playoff.What stands out to me in all of these games is that with the exception of the Buzău and CSM Reşiţa matches, all of our losses were by 1 goal. Now, Liga II may not be a world class League, but with a couple of exceptions everyone is on a pretty level playing field I think, and that our team of mostly Younger players is doing well is a good sign. Of course, having a solid keeper like Rareş Murariu between the sticks also counts for a lot.

Sometimes ‘Solid but Unspectacular’ is what you need.

To be honest I forget what was happening in January and February, European Cup maybe (?), but we did not have a lot of Liga II games.

The only real heartbreak in this was the Quarter Final Loss to FC Argeş in the Cupa României. We had played them close all game, only to run out of gas in extra time. 

Iannis Malama, their young winger, was all over the field, and not only had the two goals, but both assists on the other goals, and a ton of dribbles and progressive passes. He’s the first positional player I have seen ever get a 10.0 in quite a while.

The Youth Intake

One thing I have to constantly remind myself is:

  • The Level of Football we play at is at best Mid. That is not neccesarily a bad thing.
  • The quality of person we have at HOYD and coaching is at best, above average at this point in time
  • While we have better than average facilities, if by some miracle we do get a ‘Copil Minune’, the odds of us holding onto him long term are nil.
  • The players we have coming in are being judged against who they are joining. 5 star potential is all well and good until you realize the best player on your team, the 5 sta one, may at best be 110 CA…our of 200.

That said, there were no surprises in this years Youth Intake, in fact I thought it was about middle of the road, until I saw the Personalities of the kids we recruited:

Of 16 Recruits, the Personality Breakdown is as follows:

  • 7 Unambitious, including our “Best” Recruit
  • 1 Each of the following:
    • Fickle
    • Low Determination
    • Low Self Belief (It’s been awhile since I have seen this one)
    • Fairly Sporting
    • Resilient
    • Fairly Professional
  • 3 Balanced

That’s…horrible. Now, being Youth Players on a Club that’s in a Youth Only save, they are going to see a lot of game time, and hopefully (and you know what they say about hope) may develop to get close to if not meet their projected PA. But Unambitious, Fickle, Low Determination and Self Belief is not the way to get there…

The Best

If it weren’t for his Personality, Vasile Mihăescu might be very good. As it stands, he may merely be good, but that’s OK. Physically he is already quite solid, like wise Defending where the only area he is lacking is Aggression. His Attacking Attributes are probably what you would expect for this level of football, average at best, although he has good Technique. His Passing, Crossing and First Touch are what will probably convince me to retrain him at DM, although I suspect his role Versatility may come in handy at some point.

If Florin Ilie can overcome his personality traits, I think he can be quite good for this level of Football. Physically speaking, he is quite solid, yes his strength is low but that will come up as he gets older (hopefully). And while 5′ 11″ is by no means short, for a D(C) it is on the small end, which is probably why his Aggression and Bravery are both high. He’s lacking where you would expect all young D(C)’s to lack, Possession attributes, and Finishing Attributes. He will most likely be a started in a few seasons.

Călin Rus looks to be one of those players who will be 16(16) at the end of the season, with a 6.7 rating, a couple of goals and assists, and maybe a player of the match. He can play a number of positions, which makes him valuable in that regard, but we will have to track his progression the next couple of years to see how he grows. 

William Brădău is supposed to be a striker. But I can’t quite shake the feeling that all his red attributes are closer to 3 than they are to 7. He has ‘Advanced Forward’ written all over him, expect for you know, the positioning, Stamina, Work Rate, Determination, and his personality. Part of me says that if I were confident his passing, vision and positioning would come anything close to a 10 or better, I could retrain him as an AM(C), maybe an En Ganche, and use him that way, but I rarely play with an AM(C), and I don’t think William will have a lot of double digit attributes when all is said and done.

THE REST

I can’t put my finger on it exactly, but Ilie Brădău bothers me. It’s not that he’s already pretty decent Physically speaking, or that the rest of his attributes really aren’t all that bad considering his a 15 y/o kid at a club with better than decent facilities but only OK coaching, in a country that’s also just OK at producing ‘Good to Great’ talent. He has the potential, heck they all do, but something tell me that in every Youth Intake there’s one player who will look like Tarzan, and play like Jane, and I think he may be the one, I don’t know why though

Of the others, Stanislav Sporin has a good Physical foundation to build on, but his Attacking and Possession have to increase for him to even be a starter.

Andrei Codrea could also be a contributor at some point down the road as well if his Attacking and Possession attributes improve, but I suspect many of them are going to stay in the red, or that the ones I need him to improve won’t.

Eusebiu Voicu is probably the one from this group that is worth really keeping an eye on. 6′ 4″, 163 pounds at 15 (!) what sets him apart from the others is that in many of the areas where they are bad, he is merely average, which means his floor is higher than theirs, and he will be able to contribute sooner rather than later.  Add in that he can play any of the attacking midfield positions and he becomes even more valuable to the squad. In this years intake, I bet he will see the field more than others initially, the rest depends on development. 

As Youth Keepers go, nothing really stands out about Denis Sbenghea other than his reflexes and Handling. He is going to need a lot of playing time, but to be honest I am not sure if he can get it here, which means going out on loan. And if he disappoints there…

If Teofil Stoian had any sort of ‘Average” or better Personality, I think he could be one of the better players in this Intake. especially as he can player either side of the defensive backlines. That said, I think what we see of him now is what we will have in a couple of years as well.

So, the Liga II Playoff are the top 6 teams, and they play every other team twice. The teop 2 teams are automatically promoted to Liga I, 3rd and 4th Place go to the Liga I/ Liga II playoffs. Interestingly, because of how the rules work, you can finish 1st in the Playoffs, but not with the League Overall. 

We did OK until the Unrea Dej game, when a late penalty gave them the win, against Petrolul Ploesti the whole team did their best to lose, the average as like 6.4; we had 3 shots to their 10, we should have lost. We also should have lost to FC Argeş, but thanks to a 90th minute goal by Avrămescu we didn’t, we merely drew, which was enough for us to finish 4th in the Playoff group.

Our opponents were Politehnica Iași, who finished 12th in the league overall, but 7th in the Relegation Group. A Decent squad, with a couple of good players, they beat us at home 1-0. We needed some help to get by, and we did, in the form of Rareş Murariu

A Matiş goal answered their first goal, then Avrămescu scored to equalize the aggregate, and it was off to extra time. He scored again in the 98th minute, but Anghel equalized for Iași in the 105th minute, and it was off to PK’s. Turcoveanu kicked it right to a waiting Murariu, and then with their last chance Ilie kicked it wide and Murariu blocked it.

We are going to Liga I…

The squad as a whole was solid, there really weren’t any standouts:

Matiş’s 10 goals led the way, Sburlea also had 10, and Vlaicu had 5, butt he oddity to me anyways is Bassong’s 10 assists from the D(L) side. The Candian International was solid, but he’s also been making noise about moving on. There were a couple of surprises in the best XI:

Two of last years Intake, Niculcea and Simedru, became full time starters frankly because they were better than the other options I had at those positions, and both had very good seasons to improve on.

On the business side of things, we improved a little:

And financially we are doing very well:

The nice thing about a lot of players on Youth Contracts or First contracts is that the payroll will most likely never exceed 60% of whats available, likewise as we aren’t spending any transfer money, there’s not a lot to worry about there.

Our chances next season? Not good. We will definitely be in the Relegation Group. What we need to do is finish high enough that we aren’t part of the the automatic drop of the playoffs, and I don’t how possible that is. Another decent Youth Intake certainly wont hurt either.

And the fun keeps coming. Thanks for Reading!

10 “Smaller” Clubs for Youth Oriented Saves

Youth Oriented Saves and Youth Only saves are quite popular in Football Manager, and as with all Football Manager saves depending on the team you choose, your Youth save is going to be Easy (Chelsea, Barcelona, Sporting, Ajax) or Hard.

Several things affect a clubs Youth Intake:

  • The Club’s Youth Recruitment, which is how far away from the club a player could be pulled in from.
  • The Club’s Youth Facilities, which are separate training facilities for the Youth Team
  • The Club’s Academy Coaching, who are coaches you can’t hire.
  • The Club’s Country’s Youth Rating, the higher the more likely it is to generate good youth players
  • Your Head of Youth Development. There’s a bit to unpack with this. A HOYD with a high Scouting PA will better identify players with potential. The formation he favors will affect what positions he tries to recruit for, and last but not least, his personality will affect the youngsters brought in. The more “positive” a HOYD directors personality (Professional, Determined, Driven, Fairly Determined, etc) the more likely the youth players he brings in will also have a positive personality.

Some club’s have Youth Development Philosophy, that is they try and recruit the best young players they can to their Youth Academies, develop them so they are ready to make appearances for the Senior Squad before they are 21, and are then moved onto “Bigger Clubs” for profit. Dinamo Zagreb in Croatia, Altinordu in Turkey, and PSV are good examples of this. Other Clubs choose to develop within, and keep the players they develop. The best example of this is Barcelona and their La Masia Academy.

Following are ten clubs (and a bonus club) that in my opinion are good challenges for a Youth Oriented Save. They aren’t from the biggest Leagues, and they may not be the “Best” teams in the league they play in, but they are all capable of winning them. Eventually. While they do not possess the best in every Youth related category, they have the capability to produce some very good youth players, making a youth save with these clubs a challenge, but not an impossible one, and there are a variety of stories to build around each one as well.

1. Lech Poznan (Polish Ekstraklasa)

Lech Poznan had had somewhat of a renaissance starting in the 2010’s, winning the League in 2010, 2015, and in 2022. They were knocked out of the Champions League this year in the First Qualifying Round by Qarabag, and look to compete for a European spot again this year. Youth wise, they possess the following in terms of Facilities and Recruitment:

  • Training Facilities: Great
  • Youth Facilities: Great
  • Junior Coaching: Good
  • Youth Recruitment: Exceptional

In addition, the club is financially secure, has a philosophy of wanting to sign U23 players, and is in my opinion actually helped by the Ekstraklasa League which stipulate that U22 domestic players must play 3000 minutes of match play or the club will be fines 317K Euro’s, which when you consider that winning 1st place nets you only 1.44M Euro’s can be quite the penalty. However, this is offset by a League rule that will award the top 5 clubs 127K-634K Euro’s based on U21 minutes played, and by International appearances any player on the squad makes. Can you fill all 41,620 seats in Lech’s stadium, and lead the best Youth Prospects in Poland to an Ekstraklasa Victory, and beyond?

2. Hibernian (Scottish Premiership)

Hibernian haven’t won the League since 1952, but they did win the Scottish Cup as recently as 2015. The clubs current philosophy is geared towards a Youth Oriented save, they want to sign players under the age of 21 to develop, they want to develop players within their system, and they want to maintain the quality of youth system they have, and it is a very good system. Facilities and Recruitment wise, Hibernian has:

  • Training Facilities: Excellent
  • Youth Facilities: Excellent
  • Junior Coaching: Excellent
  • Youth Recruitment: Excellent

Hibernian has three things going against it: Celtic, Rangers, and League Work Permit rules that make it very hard to sign talented foreign youth players to sign for the club. While the Leagues payout is not big, 1.19M to 3.56M Euro’s, the club’s finances are in Okay condition, and qualifying for any European competition is additional prize money for the coffers, which currently means finishing 5th or higher when the season ends. Can a Scottish Youth Movement beat the Old Firm? Play Hibernian and find out.

3. Basel (Swiss Super League)

In my opinion Basel is one of the more interesting “Bigger” clubs to try and do a Youth Oriented Save with. From a historical point of view, Basel has won the League 20 times, the last in 2017, and has finished 2nd four times in the last five years. The League itself is a top 20 League, with clubs like Grasshopper, Zurich, and St. Gallen all being very competitive. Under the hood though, things get a little bit…strange.

If you win the Swiss Super League you receive 3.69M Euro’s in prize money, which covers slightly more than half of the 6M Euro annual rent Basel is paying the city for using St. Jakob Park. I am almost positive that fee is not a typo. Despite that discrepancy, the clubs finances are in good shape, and Facilities and Recruitment wise they possess:

  • Training Facilities: Excellent
  • Youth Facilities: Excellent
  • Junior Coaching: Excellent
  • Youth Recruitment: Exceptional

Staying in the black financially means not only winning, but winning in European competitions as well. The question is can you do that with a team of Youth Players and fending off the likes of Zurich, Grasshoppers and others for those European places?

4. MŠK Žilina (Slovak Super Liga)

Žilina have won the Super Liga 7 times since 2000, and while the league itself may not be the biggest, the region is well known for turning out quality players. Like most leagues in a country the size of Slovakia, winning does not pay out bigly, only 115K Euro’s. That said the League itself is strong enough that finishing 3rd or higher guarantees European Football, and 4th thru 7th place participate in a round robin format in which the winner also qualifies for European Football, and while the club is OK financially speaking, any success in European competitions would be helpful. Facilities and Recruitment wise, MŠK Žilina has:

  • Training Facilities: Great
  • Youth Facilities: Great
  • Junior Coaching: Good
  • Youth Recruitment: Excellent

While that setup alone is good enough to guarantee Žilina will see some quality potential comes thru its doors, the one advantage the team has over its local rivals is its direct affiliation with MŠK Žilina Africa Football Club. The Ghanaian club is a direct affiliate, giving the Slovakian club an additional leg up when it comes to recruiting talent. Benson Anang is the best example of this, the Ghanaian International started for the club in Accra, then moved to Žilina in 2018 and has been a solid defender for the team since. With those facilities, the countries love of Football (over 400K players registered) and a pipeline to some potentially great Africa Talent, can you take a Youth Oriented team to the top?

5. NK Lokomotiva Zagreb

For the longest time after World War Two Lokomotiva bounced around Croatia’s lower leagues. Then in 2007, they had back to back to back promotions to the top flight of Croatian Football, the First Football League. After finishing in 2nd place in the 2012-2013 season, they have finished between 4th and 6th place in each the following seasons. Teams like Dinamo, Hadjuk Split and Osijeck have long dominated the region, even when playing as part of the Yugoslav First League, and for Lokomotiva to now be competing with them year in and out is quite the accomplishment. Additionally, Croatia’s standing in world football is such that the top 4 teams in the 10 team League qualify for European Football, so the opportunity for extra income is certainly there. The club has a policy of signing U23 players, and the League itself does not have any onerous work permit rules, other than a 6 non EU player limit, and the matchday squad having at least 6 players trained by a Croatian club. Facilities and Recruitment wise, NK Lokomotiva has:

  • Training Facilities: Good
  • Youth Facilities: Good
  • Junior Coaching: Excellent
  • Youth Recruitment: Good

At first glance those may not look great, but when you consider that the club is financially stable, and good Youth Recruitment covers Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia, Italy, Austria, Hungary and Italy, the quality of Youth players they are going to bring in is very high. With a good HOYD, and judicious investment, good recruits at Lokomotiva can become great young players at Lokomotiva, and you can use them to dethrone Dinamo and Hadjuk before selling them off to bigger clubs and reinvesting that money again.

6. Hapoel Be’er Sheva (Israeli Premier League)

Be’er Sheva returned to the top of the Israeli Premier League in 2015, winning back back to back titles, and also became a constant presence in European competitions as well, with their 2016-17 campaign being a highlight. After beat Sheriff Tiraspol and Olympiacos, they lost to Celtic and fell to the Europa League. In the Group stage they beat Inter twice, drew with Southampton twice, and lost to Sparta Prague twice, eventually losing to Beşiktaş. All that European football comes in handy, because the payout for winning the Israeli Prem doesn’t cover the 325K a year Be’er Sheva is paying in stadium rent. What they have done with a lot of those winnings is reinvest it into the club, which has:

  • Training Facilities: Great
  • Youth Facilities: Excellent
  • Junior Coaching: Good
  • Youth Recruitment: Excellent

The club has Okay finances, and the League rules are interesting in that in order to foster playing local players, squads that register 5 or fewer players receive a payout at the end of the season. U19 players are also automatically eligible for play in all matches, which works very well with a club that wants to sign/develop young players and then sell them for a profit.

7. FCV Farul Constanţa (Romanian First League)

Romanian Football legend Gheorge Hagi founded FC Viitorul Constanța in 2009, and after spending the next three seasons in the lower leagues of Romanian Football, were promoted to the top flight. They finished 5th in 2016, qualifying for European football, and won Liga I in 2017. Hagi had set up an excellent Academy after founding the club, and many players who won the League in 2017 were graduates, in fact the teams average age of 22.2 years were the youngest champions in Europe that year. However, in 2021 Hagi and Ciprian Marica, the owner of Farul Constanța, announced that they were merging. Viittorul disappeared in the process, Faul took their spot in Liga I, the team was rebranded as FCV Farul Constanţa, and the only things left of Hagi’s original club were the grounds the team played on, and the academy and youth system, and what a system it is:

  • Training Facilities: Great
  • Youth Facilities: Excellent
  • Junior Coaching: Good
  • Youth Recruitment: Exceptional

The team is financially secure, which bodes well for them because Liga I does not pay out a lot of money, only 138K for winning the league. Additionally, Romania’s stature in the game has fallen to where the league only gets 3 European positions, so developing and selling players for profit is one way FCV Farul can stay solvent. But what if you didn’t sell them internationally, but to other clubs in Romania? Could you build the nation, and the club, and achieve Europeans success again?

8. Danubio Fútbol Club (Uruguayan Primera Division Group A)

Founded by Bulgarian brothers and named after the second longest river in Europe, Danubio has had some success in Uruguay, winning the league 4 times, but what they are known for is developing talent. In a League that also has the likes of Peñarol and Nacional in it, Danubio has developed no less than 16 players who have made at least 50 appearances with the club and/or 30 with the National team. In a 16 team division, finishing 8th or above will get you Continental Football, and while the various Copa’s may not pay as much as their European ‘Cousins’ do, and with a league rule that sets a 3 foreign player limit in the playing eleven, developing and keeping quality youth players will go a long way to the club’s financial stability. Danubio would be a great club to build a story around because not only do they have fierce rivalries with Nacional and Peñarol, and that the Clasico de los Chicos Derby with Defensor Sporting is very competitive, but the clubs priority is to sign Youth players, and to develop and maintain the best Youth System in all of Uruguay. To help them do that they have:

  • Training Facilities: Adequate
  • Youth Facilities: Average
  • Junior Coaching: Excellent
  • Youth Recruitment: Exceptional

Much like Lokomotiva above, while Adequate and Average are not the best, investment in those areas will have immediate payoffs as Uruguay has one of the highest Reputations in the game, as well as a very good Youth rating. Can you find the talent, develop it, and dethrone Peñarol and Nacional?

9. Suwon Samsung Bluewings (Hana 1Q K League)

Baseball used to be the most popular sport in South Korea, until the 2002 World Cup, when as a Co-Host Country South Korea made it all the way to the Semi Finals before losing to Germany. Prior to that electrifying run, players such as Cha Bum-Kun had represented their country very well in Europeans competitions, but after 2002 players such as Park Ji-Sung, Ahn Jung-Hwan, Lee Young-Pyo started playing with top European teams, and today players such as Hwang Hee-Chan and Son Heung-min lead a new wave of talented South Korean players in top flight Leagues. More than a few of them started their careers at Suwon Samsung Bluewings. A Club that has had some past success, winning the domestic League 4 times, the Korean FA Cup 4 times, and the Asian Club Championship twice, Suwon has fallen off a bit since clubs like FC Seoul and Jeonbuk Hyunadai have started winning on a regular basis. That said, Suwon still has some very good facilities and coaching:

  • Training Facilities: Good
  • Youth Facilities: Excellent
  • Junior Coaching: Good
  • Youth Recruitment: Good

Financially secure, and with South Korea having one of the higher youth rating in the game, Suwon Samsung Bluewings has a great opportunity to find and develop the next generation of great South Korean footballers. The question is, can it hold onto them to achieve domestic and Asian success, or will they leave for bigger clubs in foreign leagues?

10. Stabæk (Norwegian First Division)

Of all the clubs in this list, Stabæk has some of the best youth facilities and coaching, Norway has one of the better reputations in the game, and their Youth Rating is very good as well, having produced several world class players over the years. Despite that, due to financial difficulties in the 2010’s, the club has bounced back and forth between the top two divisions, and in 2023 they were promoted out of the 2nd tier and back into the Eliteserien, the top Tier of Norwegian Football. For the moment they are financially OK, but they do have some issues, such as their stadium not being in the best shape. Facilities and coaching wise Stabæk has:

  • Training Facilities: Great
  • Youth Facilities: Excellent
  • Junior Coaching: Excellent
  • Youth Recruitment: Exceptional

Another issue facing them is that the Eliteserien has some very good teams in it, Italian Giant slayers Bodø/Glimt, Rosenborg, Viking, Molde, and Vålerenga are all quit capable of winning the League, and more often than not all five teams are competing for one of the top four spots that guarantees European football. Playing Stabæk and getting them to the top of the Norwegian League, and potentially to the top of Europe with primarily homegrown talent is going to be a long save, but success will be worth it in my opinion.

The Bonus Challenge/Club: Retrô Futebol Clube Brasil

Founded in 2016 by a businessman in Pernambuco, Brazil, Retrô FC’s mission is to remove children and adolescents from vulnerability, giving them a place to learn, develop, and grow through organized football. In less than six years they’ve achieved promotion and in 2022 (well, December of 2021) they start in Group C of the Brazilian Fourth Division. You’ll have to download a database to play them, I suggest Riddler’s Brazilian League download from Steam. Playing in the 46,154 seat Arena de Perambuco stadium, Retrô FC has the following facilities:

  • Training Facilities: Good
  • Youth Facilities: Great
  • Junior Coaching: Adequate
  • Youth Recruitment: Above Average

Nicknamed Fênix, Retrô FC is looking to sign players under the age of 23, grow the clubs reputation, and maintain a top 2 finish in the Division. Promotion out of the Division is difficult, and could take some time. But consider the challenge: You are coaching a club who’s main goal is to find and develop Brazilian youth players, some of the best players in the world. Can you find them, develop them, and more importantly keep them long enough to climb your way up the ladder, into the Campeonato Brasileiro Série A? Can you beat the likes of Palmerias, Santos, Corinthians and Flamengo, and win the Copa Libertadores as well?