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 7

European Dreams…Because Conference League is still Europe

After a 3 Month delay, I blame missed payments to contractors, the new Stadium is finally open.

It’s a lovely stadium, there’s room for growth in the future, I couldn’t be happier with it. I also couldn’t be happier with the board, who waited until we were financially stable enough to pay for the thing. Unlike my board in my FM23 save…

Looks can be deceiving:

This looks impressive, until you realize as a Youth Only squad, at least 16-17 of our players are getting playing time here, and then there are all the players we have let go to other squads in country.

Transfer wise, it was a quiet year. I alluded to it in my previous post on the save, this and the next few years are going to be interesting in terms of player we move and player we keep. The two are not mutually exclusive, because I know in the future there will be player we want to keep but can’t.

We are at the point now where players who aren’t going to be on the squad I am more than happy to sell to teams in Country, especially if they can help the squad. There are no real surprises here, although I had Radu graded pretty high in the Class of ’27, his true colors soon revealed him to be middling at best.

As I expected/feared, who to let go and who to keep has been turning into quite the guessing game, especially with regards to squad death. It’s one thing to have a dearth of 5 Star PA players, its another when they are all in the same positions. As an example

Rotariu was my first choice to be the keeper of the future. He’s averaged about 8 starts a season, but I killed his development when I sent him on loan to CSM Deva and he started all of 11 games. Last year he started 13 and allowed 22 but had 5 shutouts. This year he had 15 starts and allowed 17 with 6 shutouts. He still has room to improve, but Vasiliu and Alexandru already have better GK related attributes, and of those two Alexandru is the better option, for now. But what if Alexandru is close to topping out? Can I afford to play Vasiliu? Rotariu isn’t going to get appreciably better IMO, but we need to balance giving the youngsters playing time while doing moderately well in the league. Luckily, there are loan options available, and I sent Alexandru out. The good news was that he was Hermannstadt’s starting keeper all season, with 29 games played, allowing 56 with 4 shutouts and 2 POM’s. It wasn’t enough to keep them from the drop, but if you were to see his defense, you would understand why he went out with two stars and came back with three. Barbu we will talk about more later, he’s from this years intake, but it looks like next year it’s going to be Tiberius as the First Choice, with Rotariu as the backup, if he stays.

This is just the keepers though. It’s becoming a fun problem to have in other positions, and it really does force you to spend some time looking at how players have developed over the season. In the past, with the Spreadsheet, that was easier to do. Attribute-less, its a lot more diving into data, and I like that, its one of the reasons I switched to the skin.

We started the season off on the right foot:

Our only Liga I loss happened at Sepsi, although to be honest we should have lost at Petrolul Ploiești, but the we also should have won at Craivoa and Arad. Hlinca has really improved since he started getting regular playing time:

Remember, 1-7 is Red, 8-12 is Orange, 13-16 is Blue and 17+ is green.

As we can see, he started out as a player who was at best near the top of Average, and now he is solidly Good, especially with the improvements in both his Physical and Attacking Attributes. He’s probably one of the better forwards in Romania, and considering he’s homegrown, that’s saying quite a bit, especially when you consider other teams are bringing in players like this:

On a FREE. From Cercle Brugge. But I digress…

One of the areas I was hoping to improve this year was in the Cup. The past couple of seasons we have either been left on the outside looking in or just blowing it, October is a pretty congested month, but one of the newer benefits we have is a decent amount of depth, so I feel more comfortable rotating the side against the lower league teams.

Another good run of games for us, including some very good wins against Dinamo, revenge against Petrolul Ploiești, and some questionable defense against Botoșani. In our Cup group we finished in 1st place on 11 points, which is quite good considering we we have finished in the past.

Our Cup ambitions came to a crashing halt against Craiova.

I went on the attack at the start of the second half, and we broke thru in the 62nd and equalized in the 77th minute, but before I could even set the instructions to protect the lead they scored. I swear I saw all my pixel players just sag on themselves.

We were flying high. The problem is Farul, Rapid Bucaresti and Cluj are all flying a little bit higher, but we entered the split in the Playoff Group. But before we got down to those games, the Youths arrived.

I have to remember this is ‘their’ definition of a ‘Golden Generation’. There are really, unless I am wrong, Four players to look at

Barbu, as we saw above, joins an already deep pool of Keepers. I think he’s one of those players whose ‘On The Cusp’ in a lot of attributes, where his GK Reactions are at least an 8, but I think they are closer to 12. Getting him playing time will be interesting, we need to get another affiliate, but I am willing to give him a shot.

Sergiu Fieraru. I am not sure why, but something tells me that Fieraru is not going to get much better than this. But that I mean he’s probably around a 80 CA player, and is going to top out at 90-95 no matter how much training or game time he gets. That said he’s a solid player, but I don’t have high hopes for him, especially if we want to grow as a club domestically.

I think Alexandru Dumitrache could be better than Fieraru, but the ‘Unambitious’ (Seriously WTF is up with this?) and the number of people in front of him is going to hamper him playing striker. What I may need to do is spend some time looking at training him and Fieraru in other positions. The good news is they are both already decent wingers as well.

Rareş Florea is the best of the rest, and I think he’s the opposite of Barbu, and all his orange attributes are probably 8 or 9. He has good First Touch, and Work Rate, but that’s about it. He’s going to really need ti improve the next few years on the II squad and on loan if he wants s shot at the starting XI someday.

All in All, a very ‘Middling’ Golden Generation.

We did a respectable job in the Playoff group, but as I mentioned before Farul was too far ahead to overcome. However, a 3 way race for 2nd Place developed, but our last two games kept us in 4th place overall on 55 points, while Bucharesti had 56 and Cluj had 57.

However…

Farul Constanţa won the Cupa României Betano, meaning the UEL 3rd Qualifying Round Match went to Cluj, and the UECL slots shifted down, meaning we are playing in Europe, starting in the 2nd Qualifying Round.

European. Football.

We will probably crash and burn but still, it’s a positive step forward for sure.

We had several very good performances, and more than a few of the youngsters are really stepping up.

Hlinca led the league with 25 goals. Matiş had a solid season, but it’s quite obvious he’s starting to fall off. Marincu had a solid season as well, but the first two surprises are Voicu (Class of ’26) and Vágó (Class of ’29) had very good seasons. That Voicu was primarily a bench player and was able to put those numbers up was very good to see. Neagu (Class of ’28) also had a solid season.

In a bit of surprise news:

And in some unexpected news:

Sure, the one save I am doing a Youth only save the board goes out, without my asking, and finds a senior affiliate who’s not really an affiliate for us…FML…

That said: EUROPEAN FOOTBALL!!! The next building block of many we need to to win it all. But I was quite happy with the season, it was already a success before we backdoored our way into the UECL.

Now how do I fix these Youth Intakes…

The Kids Are Alright -Season 5

Out with the Old…

There is good and bad with a Youth Only Save, and depending on what your point of view is some issues can be both.

No Scouting to worry about, other than next opponents
No Transfers to worry about, at least coming in
Squad depth can be an issue
Sometimes you are forced to play bad players because you have no other option.

The list can go on, but for the moment, these are the primary issues, and to be honest the first two not being a factor means I am breezing thru seasons, because I am not spending time on scouting.

But we are five seasons in now, and that means most of the older players I have inherited have gone, sometimes against their will, and there are quite a few Youth Players starting/coming off the bench. What does that mean?

This:

I tend to be pretty…agnostic when it comes to formations. Do I have preferences? Yes. Am I going to try and fit my squad into those preferences? If it means I will not be hurting myself or the club in the long run, sure. On the other hand, in order to get my best players on the field, if that means I have to go with something a bit….different, I will.

Circumstances didn’t exactly force me into this formation, or it’s mirror, but the fact is this let me get my best players, established and up and coming, on the pitch, and if we are being honest, for me it’s been a solid formation. When it works, it works, and when it doesn’t it doesn’t.

These are the base instructions, and I tend to be more of a pregame/in game manager when it comes to making changes.

Speaking of Changes:

Voicu is in an interesting position for me, he’s a young player with potential in a position I have some pretty good younger players, and getting first team playing time here was going to be iffy, so we sent him on loan.

In the January transfer window, there weren’t a lot of surprises. Sporin had lost a couple of stars, I blame the scouting department, and he wasn’t going to see a ton of playing time here. The fact his Attacking and positional attributes did not visibly change also tells me that if he was improving during training and the Youth games, it wasn’t by a lot, and if the needle wasn’t moving by a lot, he was probably close to his potential.

Florin Ilie was part of a good D(C) rotation, but being primarily a D(R) he was a bit miffed when we didn’t play the asymmetric that suited him best. When Craiova came asking about him, he wanted to go. After negotiating, I think we got a fair deal for him.

Brădău is similar to Sporin, a player with potential who after three years of training and some spot starts was over taken by other players. I think he could be a decent squad player, but hje wanted first team playing time. I don’t know that he will get it at Iași, but he will probably get more time there than he will here.

Everyone else who left was either an earlier Youth Intake player with no future here, or an older player in the same boat.

Predicted to finish 15th with 600-1 odds, I knew we were better than that. I was aiming for mid table, top of the Relegation Group.

We had all of a week before Training started, and we got to work on the new formation right away, and it started to pay off immediately:

The 4-0 against FSCB was nice, and I was happy with the draw against Cluj until for some inexplicable reason one of their defenders fouled us in the box on a corner kick, and Matiş tucked it away for the last gasp win. The loss against Gloria Buzău was frustrating for several reasons. One is that my guys assumed that because they are recently promoted and are the other relegation pick, they are a bad team, and as a result put in a halfassed effort, the teams average rating without Murariu’s 7.2 is a 6.2. The secondis that they assumed they could turn it on when they needed to, and when they did Gloria Buzău counterattacked and scored their second goal, and would have had a 3rd if not for a brilliant save by our keeper. Losing at Farul Constanţa is not a bad thing, truth be told they are the team we could be if we were also able to do transfers, but as it stands they are about 5 years ahead of us in terms of Youth development, but we will get there. Eventually.

September was great. We had a long break, came back primed and rested for a busy October, 8 games in 24 days sort of busy, and promptly crapped the bed. The good news was that two of the three teams in our Cupa României group games were lower Liga, so I was able to play mostly rotated sides, but at the end of the day, the 3-0 loss to Argeş left us 3rd in the Group, tied with them on 10 points, and they not only had the goal differential but the head to head.

We went into the winter break in 4th place, thanks to only losing the one game against a U Craiova squad that if we are being honest, could beat you 3-1 or lose to you 3-1 depending on which version of their team shows up, and I was thinking it would be nice if we didn’t have to play in the relegation group. Of course, finishing the top of the relegation group mean you get a chance to play for European Football, I am not sure why, the Romanian Football Association does things its own way because they can apparently…but I was riding pretty high, our Youth Intake preview was good, and we had 9 players called up for International Duty. I was feeling good, the team was feeling good, our chances were good, so of course we did our best to throw it all away.

We could have lost every game in February, we probably should have, but with the draw at Voluntari and the win at Chindia, we clawed our way back into 6th place, and into the Champions Playoff Group.

And then came the good news of the save:

Not too shabby, especially when you consider that at this level of football, and compared to our squad, 5 star is probably 115 to 125 Ability, and you can go far with a team made up of those sort of players. On the other hand though:

That’s 8 Youth Players with Horrible Personalities. And I think I have seen more players with ‘Low Self Belief’ this save than I have in any other save since I started playing FM.

Vince Vágó, Florin Vlădilă, and Robert Chiseliţă are the best of a good bunch of players. Vágó is already on the high side of Average when it comes to his Physical and Attacking attributes, and while his Defending Attributes are on the lower side, his Possession Attributes more than make up for them. He has DLP written all over him, and if his Composure and Movement Attributes come up, he could be a mainstay in the midfield.

Tiberiu Alexandru, Class of ’25, is the next Keeper in waiting, but Florin definitely has first team potential. The problem is how do I get rid of this whole ‘Low Self Determination’ Issue. I could try and get him in a good mentoring group, but he also needs game time to improve, maybe a loan when he’s older will help?

If it weren’t for the Low Determination and Injury Proneness, Robert Chiseliţă could be a very good D(LC) His Physicals are already solid, as are his Defending Attributes. His Attacking and Possession skills are lacking, but what else do you expect from a 16 y/o kid? If some of those Movement Attributes come up, he could also be a capable DM

Of Eusebiou Iacob, Victor Niţă, Lennart Meyer and Robert Hexan, I think the one who doesn’t belong is Meyer. Yes, his starting attributes are nice, but he came in at 4 stars and is now a 3-4 star sort of player. The fact the has has a Balanced personality is more than a little salt in the wound, because I think what we see with him currently is what we are going to get. On the other hand, Robert Hexan is one player who I think will be better than he appears to be. Yes, the Low Determination is a killer, but his Physical and Defending Attributes are quite solid, and he’s also solid with regards to his Composure, Decision Making, Anticipation and Technique, plus he has the one thing you cannot teach: Height. at 6′ 4″ and 165 pound already, he’ll be on the bench at 17 getting some first team playing time. Maybe we can play him into a better personality.

The season finished out a little better than expected. Yes we finished at the bottom of the group, but with exception of the Cluj match, we played pretty well, even in our loses. The highlights were beating Farul, who finished 2nd overall, and getting our revenge on Cluj. Craiova, the League winners, beat us handily, but that’s not unexpected. We finished the season in 6th place overall, a long way from relegation, and quite a few youth players had plenty of quality playing time as well. As for the new formation (and it’s mirror), they worked out quite well.

51 goals from our top 4 attacking players is very nice, Matiş and Teodorescu also chipping in with 20 total assists is also very good. Dan Pureca, starting at WB(R) most of the season, made the most of his skills by chipping in 10 assists as well. Of the squad we inherited when we took over, only a few are left. Marincu, Pureca, Matiş and Murariu are the last, and Murariu is probably going to be leaving soon. Luckily we have several good candidates to replace him.

In other news our new stadium build is going well, the club is happy, the fans are happy, I do not expect to see any big changes this coming season, and to be honest I would not expect another top 6 finish. But I have been surprised before…

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?