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By recommendation I am creating a new yet ever so similar challenge; 'Give All Youth A Chance'.
Aim
To take a team who were previously unplayable in the game from the Blue Square N/S to the dizzy heights of Premiership football & Champions League glory : without bringing in any players or staff.
The Rules
Load ONLY the English league, with Blue Square N/S selected (obviously), large database, attribute masking ticked.
Place yourself in the game as an unemployed manager until the 19th June 2008. I like to call myself 'Pizza Face'. At this point you'll be able to select a team PREVIOUSLY unmanageable in the game.
Retire 'Pizza Face' as manager.
Add a new manager. Make sure previous experience is set to Sunday League footballer and continue selecting your team. Ensure any nationalities (first/ second) set are truthful and not in place solely to help generate future footballing talents.
It is now your choice to decide upon your new squad within the Blue Square North/South. The list below gives a very brif indication as to the difficulty level of every team. The higher rating the easier the team. Please be aware aquiring any team sub 900 reputation is very rare.
Isthmian Premier
AFC Hornchurch 900
AFC Wimbledon 1350
Ashford Town (Middx) 650
Billericay Town 1100
Boreham Wood 950
Carshalton Athletic 900
Chelmsford City 1250
East Thurrock United 600
Folkestone Invicta 700
Harlow Town 600
Harrow Borough 750
Hastings United 600
Hendon 900
Heybridge Swifts 850
Horsham 800
Leyton 700
Maidstone United 800
Margate 1100
Ramsgate 850
Staines Town 800
Tonbridge Angels 850
Wealdstone 700
Northern Premier
Ashton United 750
Buxton 850
Eastwood Town 850
Fleetwood Town 1000
Frickley Athletic 850
Gateshead 1200
Guiseley 1200
Hednesford Town 1300
Ilkeston Town 1050
Kendal Town 900
Leek Town 900
Lincoln United 850
Marine 1250
Matlock Town 1150
North Ferriby United 950
Ossett Town 900
Prescot Cables 1000
Stamford 1000
Whitby Town 1100
Witton Albion 1250
Worksop Town 1200
Southern Premier
Banbury United 800
Bashley 600
Bedford Town 1000
Brackley Town 400
Bromsgrove Rovers 700
Cheshunt 600
Chippenham Town 900
Cirencester Town 750
Clevedon Town 750
Corby Town 650
Gloucester City 800
Halesowen Town 900
Hemel Hempstead Town 800
Hitchin Town 1000
King's Lynn 1100
Mangotsfield United 850
Merthyr Tydfil 1100
Rugby Town 600
Swindon Supermarine 450
Team Bath 552
Tiverton Town 1000
Yate Town 650
Continued....
You may only move clubs unless you are fired / resign.
In this instance you must take over a new team that satisfy the original criteria or restart from June 08.
International management is forbidden until the challenge is complete.
There are no restrictions on assigning feeder/parent clubs.
You are not allowed to sign anyone during the challenge! Staff MUST be introduced internally.
You ARE allowed to include foreign nationalities in your squad providing they are promoted through the youth setup. If you have installed a coach that is foreign but has also played\ been eligible for your squad earlier on in the challenge then this is acceptable providing no transfer has taken place EVER.
No external utilities such as FMScout should be used and the database should be unedited. Should SI release a data update, this would be allowed but is not not essential. It is advised that you should update using the latest patch as this should enhance your gaming experience.
Rules for this Thread
Player naming is allowed. (This is a warning for those of you who do not wish to see this)
Discussion on tactics is allowed. (This is another warning for those of you who do not wish to see this)
Screenshots for anything are encouraged.
When you join the challenge, could you post a screenshot of your manager's profile on the 19th June.
Progress of your club should be documented using this thread, we want to hear the story of your club all the way through. Please keep us updated, even if you are doing really badly.
At the end of every season, could everyone post some kind of season review, including at least a screenshot of a league table and the clubs transfer page. If you give this a title in bold it makes it a bit easier to pick out.
How to Post a Screenshot
While in FM, press the 'Prt Sc' button (usually next to F12 on your keyboard).
Open an image editing program such as Paint and paste the image
Save the file as a JPEG
Upload the image to an image hosting website such as Photobucket or Imageshack
Post the direct Url to the image here.
Enjoy the game.
(Some rules have been borrowed, edited, used and manipulated to make this happen...my apologies where necessary, thank you all, I love FM)
To kick off the new challenge I've moved my old post, where it is now much more relevent. To give you some indication as to how I am doing at the moment terrible would be a vast understatement. I'll update 10 games in, so one match up to go. I'd rather not but that's life, time for a CHANGE you'll all be shouting!
In order to give myself a fighting chance I’ve reloaded the game numerous times and come up with a team that has produced thirteen under 18 players. I was relatively impressed by the standard of players available although having generated 3 keepers and 5 strikers I am coming to the conclusion I might have preferred a more even distribution . These under 18’s will form the nucleus of my squad along with the fairly decent grey players I can make use of.
My new batch of youngsters has produced a Norwegian striker who I fully expect to be competing for a first team place even at the tender age of 16. Anders Tysnes as you can see isn’t all that but shows promise in my makeshift long ball strategy standig nice and tall at 6'3 already. Let’s give these youthful lads a chance!
Having taken over the Guiseley squad and moving all but three under 18’s to the first team I began snapping up as many half decent grey players as I could totalling seven including my current captain Adrian Graham (20 yrs old, relatively determined and influential).
I arranged four pre season friendlies before the big kick off to judge my small squad and determine the strongest eleven. My results were encouraging, so much so I am actually feeling a little confident going into the season. My concerns are however that the board expect to much of me... to finish in a mid table position. From experience that’ll need me picking up quite a few more than 40 points which has proven a problem target to date….as I said 7-0 etc. I seem to be getting a little success by playing a rough game, long ball tactic through the middle of the park so I am going to go with my heart and stick with it for the opening encounter.
The final pre season match was debatably our best of the four eclipsing the 1-1 draw with Blue Square Premier side Southport. Goals from Tysnes and Forbes secured a 3-1 victory against Team Bath which was such a big relief having had disappointed fans for all the other fixtures (over demanding I feel). Although we have been scoring goals we aren’t creating very many chances at all and I already fear one or two injuries will seriously put any chance of success in the balance. On a small bright side our first team 16 year old keeper Howard is looking invaluable closing down attackers with real conviction. Keep it up!
- We struggle to avoid relegation let alone the reach clubs expectations
- The squad is stretched sooner rather than later resulting in a big dip in form
- Tysnes or Crittenden is club top scorer
- My young stars (average age 16) suffer with fatigue towards the end of the season drastically ruining all hopes of success!
The 10th league fixture has been played and now only 32 matches remain to save the club from almost certain relegation. The challenge is so much more difficult than I had considered bearing in mind we had an intake of 13 youth players. We currently prop up the league with only 1 point on the board from the 30 played for so far. A match against Burscough produced the 0-0 bore draw away from home. With only flashes of Blue Square North standard football I am beginning to think the challenge is over before it ever really began. The league table is the only positive to draw upon, working in our favour as we sit 6 points off ‘safety’ pace (a small run of form perhaps to save the day?).
The team have been playing individually consistent 6’s & 7’s but with little group uniformity. A great first half often leads to a disastrous second with a defender/midfielder/keeper making the game changing schoolboy error. This coupled with my out of form strikers (all 5 of them) has dampened even the smallest glimmer of hope I once had. In an attempt to shore up the defence I signed up another grey player who looks to be fairly ok. As with most grey players I find there is always a catch, whilst technically he looks ok all physical attributes are non existent which could force me to play even deeper than I am doing.
Tactically I don’t seem to have cracked what works best for the squad as with no wide players (and none worth signing) I have been almost forced to play direct, long ball football through the middle of the park making use our faster strikers. This is an area I’ll continue to tweak in the hope that I can develop something that takes into account our defensive frailties without neglecting our NEED for much more firepower. Hopefully with games the young strikers will find their feet before it’s too late.
Our last match saw us take on Hyde; a mid table fairly attacking outfit. After getting off to what appeared to be a great start (Richard Rivers scoring within the second minute) our game plan was quickly foiled by the 38th minute seeing us go down 3-1 at home.
The form of our best keeper Darren Howard has been questionable and it’s come to the point where I am about to tell him to buck his ideas up or risk his place, which obviously I don’t want to do. Hopefully if he can put in some solid performances it may inspire some confidence in our shaky defence.
Rather unexpectedly the board appear to be fairly understanding at the moment but I still worry as they did set the mark; finishing mid table so I anticipate unrest if we don’t pull our finger out soon and string some results together.
In summary we haven’t enjoyed the start to the season at all and it is about time to make changes, hopefully for the better. Over the next ten games I’ll be looking to pick up at least 15 points exploring every possible avenue open to help put the club back on track.
FM 08 GAYAC 
. These under 18’s will form the nucleus of my squad along with the fairly decent grey players I can make use of.
Linear Mode
