FC United of Manchester *Youth Intake Challenge* Hardcore
 

a few days ago on youtube i was scoping out some FM guides for entertainment and educational purposes and i came upon a challenge that intrigued me. a youth challenge where a player is only allowed to use youth players from his own youth system (and the original players he starts with). this challenge has always intrigued me in the past when i would think about it but i never considered doing it until i saw the *how to* on youtube.

Basically you load up a real low league pyramid, select a team and bump up all the youth facilities up to 20, then start the team.

i selected FC United of Manchester, they are in the Northerm Premier premier, which is 1 league below the Skrill N/S. Ive always wanted to play a FC United save but never got around to doing it. this is also the 1st time i ever edited the database.

im starting tomorrow, gotta clear out some dead wood. my wage budget is only 144k, and im currently spending 134k. i wont need scouting so i can concentrate all cash on avoiding going broke due to the high standards of my youth facilities. my 1st team training facilities are average. the youth generated when the game started for my club is up to the standards of my great facilities, so winning a few promotions early shouldnt be a problem. what will become a problem from people who've done this before is when you hit the full time professional clubs and it becomes real hard. my goal is to win the EPL and Champions league with 100% FC United academy players. wish me luck, im going to need it


PS 1 of my generated players already has a league club eyeing him

Sounds fun. I'll be reading. Good luck!

Now this is a tough challenge. Should be a great read.

im trying to get use to the contracts down in the lower leagues. hard to sign guys to part time deals

currently trying to sign all my "promising" youths to part time deals instead of non-contracts.

lost 1st preseason game vs Moracambe, lost 0-1, but considering they are a L2 team i cant complain. not that i ever complain about preseason results

1. Win the Northern Premier Premier
2. Win the FA Trophy
3. Win the Skrill North
4. win any cup competitions not known yet in the LL
5. Win the Skrill Premier



1. Become fully professional
2. avoid getting relegated from League 2
3. Win the Johnstones paint trophy
4. get promoted from league 2
5. get promoted from league 1
6. Play at a EPL team in a Cup competition
7. avoid going into administration


1. Get promoted to the EPL!
2. Build very own Stadia
3. Avoid relegation from EPL
4. Improve training facilities up to top lvl
5. Beat Man U in Old Trafford
6. Qualify for a European Competition
7. Win the EPL
8. Win the Champions League
9. Win the Euro Cup
10. Win the League Cup
11. Win the FA Cup
12. Dance on Man U's grave as we surpass them in reputation

FC United was founded by Manchester United fans angry at the Glazer owners purchase of the club.

FC United play at Bury's home ground, Gigg Lane. it has 11,313 seating so it will do up into the Championship. then it will be necessary to build new grounds

Derby have offered one of my young players a contract. i will be compensated 6k plus future fees if he leaves. thats going to be a recurring problem until i can become fully professional. hes only 16 years old but has 7 championship clubs sniffing around.

Holywell. we win 7-2. now thats more like it

my 1st league game
@ Blyth

we win 3-0

Derby sign my defender for 6k. but theres also a 15% future fee attached so im hoping to get more $$

i have a good young team full of youth players. and i have depth full of non contract players that only get paid when they play

also learned you only get 3 bench players in this league

thru our 1st 5 games we are 4W 1L

Ingles has 5 goals and Little has has 2 offers made for him (both from Brighton) but since hes locked up for 2 more seasons im going to try to hang onto him for this yr. he hasnt complained about being refused a move yet

1/4 thru the season and were in 1st place. we also won the FA cup 2nd qualifying game. heres my best players so far

Cullens rating is 7.8 so far. is attracting interest


Little 7.45 and is attracting interest also


Ingles 7 goals. called up to Welsh U-19


Daniels 7 goals, 7.88 rating

Ridiculous how good those players are for the level you're at.

No wonder clubs are after them hard.

Love what you're doing here, keep up the good work.

yes, they were generated with the clubs new youth system when the game started to fill out the roster. it was mentioned that you need to do that or you might be stuck in LL hell forever. most will be sold in a year or 2 anyways for minimal $$ due to my lvl. Little is already refusing to sign a new deal so i might have to sell him in the offseason and i barely got ingles to even sign a part time deal. my best regen was already poached before i got a game with him

heres the guy that was poached from me. damn i could sure use him, i only have 1 LB worth playing and he might get poached from me soon

Kings Lynn have been right on my ass all season so far, so it was nice to finally meet them and see whats what.



as you can see we continue to kick some ass in the "league". we also handily beat Skrill Premier team Nuneaton in the last FA Qualifying round. we draw another Skrill premier team in the 1st round.

heres something i didnt expect but heard about. were getting lots of money from grants, and were very healthy financially. those both came as suprises after playing so often as league clubs where you lose maybe half a million a year. so far this season were in the black over 500K with 258K from grants. i dont even know what that means.

holy.... maybe this has something to do with it



we have 3000 club members which pay 15k year. never seen that before

anyways heres the current table




dola, i swear i saw 2 of my guys do the robot after scoring in the Kings Lynn match

my rampage thru the NPP continues. we finally lose in the FA Cup 2nd round vs L2 team Hartlepool.

i manage to sign most of my best youngsters with 6 months left right before the new year

were just too good for this league, but that is expected. i havnt lost any of my youngsters this january.

were 12 points clear of 2nd place with 16 to play. a month to go before we get a fresh batch of youngsters. we dont need reinforcements this year, but we will soon.

we get into March before we lose another game



youth intake next. ill post as soon as they pop up!

Sweet jebus!

and we just got promoted after winning our last game!



Bricknell one of my best new players above, has only 3 determination. ill need to work on that ASAP

Great job and a question (never used the editor) Are these teams all on the game, you just need to make the league playable?

wow Bricknell is taking to the mentor well. hes already jumped 2 determination in 20 days

i dl the 3 divisions i added from the steam workshop. the game goes down to the Skrill north/south. the divisions i dl are the 3 that feed up to those divisions

won the division with games to spare

heres the best player from this years youth intake. how long do you think before a bigger club poaches him?

Let's go Red Rebels!!!

My main FM 2012 game is them... but they got up to bsn before I played them.

final standings. our youth setup drops to lvl 2 catagory

clubs are already licking their lips and making offers for Gamble and Bricknell. my 2 best regens last march

the new season is right around the corner. im going to let all my old staff's contracts run out. they arnt any good and ill only need to replace a few guys. several championship clubs have come asking for 3 or 4 of my guys so far, but none have made much of an offer so i deny all of them. My club is expecting me to win the division this year! so much for room for error. we are rich for a semi pro team. my budgets are 400K in salaries (yearly) and 141k transfer kitty. since im not bringing in FA or transfers i can move all that to salaries if i need more $$

just now starting the next season. i let some of the less usefull vets leave the club, and i manage to keep beating off approaches from Championship and the odd EPL club for my youngsters. my team is full of 5 star teens.

our 1st game is @ Brackley and we introduce them to our backhand. we win 4-0


there are 22 teams in the league, and we are playing in the FA trophy this year and will do rotation to make sure all my youngsters get PT this year. that along with u-21 and u-18 my kids will get lots of PT

im considering asking the board to go professional. there are a few full pro teams in this division, and we have over 1 million in the bank. i could have asked earlier but i cant now

darren gamble, the prize of my youth is being tracked by 3 PL teams

we drop a turd against Altrincham and lose 2-3. i start to worry that maybe this division will be tougher than expected.

but then this happens

we go on an ass whoopin roll and kick some ass



heres the current table

our fans getting full of themselves. were playing a skrill premier club at home and they expect an easy victory. seriously they are above us in leagues!


edit. seems i was mistaken, they are in the same league

we continue our winning ways



but the real news is whats happening in the FA Cup

we play L1 team MK Dons and beat them 2-0!

but up next in the FA Cup we get a home game vs PL club Stoke!

were still in the FA Trophy also

good news and bad news (sort of)

we play Stoke in the FA cup 3rd round and tie them in the 1st leg! we led for most of the game but they tie it late. the good news is we then get the replay @ Stoke and that means a big payday. we still lose 0-2 but collect 400K for the trip

we sell our top youngster Gamble to Everton for 250K, 20% and a friendly. also he gets loaned to us for the remainder of the season

we keep rolling thru the BS North



were still alive in the FA Trophy

i wish i could deliever a little more drama to the season, but were just beating these semi-pro teams one after another.

we got a little excitment in the FA Trophy 4th round vs BSP Salisbury. they went 2-0 up on us and i was getting nervous. we luckily scored 2 late goals to force a replay, where on our own turf we curb stomped them 5-0

fresh batch of newgens

Love this idea!

wow just won the Skrill North! that was fast.

we do the double and win the FA Trophy, beating Dartford 4-0

seasons over



ill do a full preview for next season and show all the players of note

Team Preview. all 1st teamers included. plus my best and brightest youth teamers

Goalkeepers
Allen- 2.5/4.5 stars


Spencer- 1/1 stars


Rightbacks
Burton- 3.5/4.5 stars


Kenyon- 1/4.5 stars

Leftbacks

Cullen- 3.5/5 stars. he refuses to sign a new contract. will likely sell


Threlfall- 2.5/4.5


Centerbacks

Little- 4.5/5 stars. PL potential


Ifil- 2.5/4 stars


Howarth- 2/4.5 stars


Molyneux- 1.4.5


Burns- 1.5/4 stars

Midfield

Brooks- 3.5/5


Wilkins- 2.5/5 PL potential


Bricknell- 2/4.5 stars


Gray- 2/4.5 stars


Higgins- 1/3.5


Wilson- 3/5 stars PL Potential


Midwood- 3.5/5 stars. PL Potential and most sought after

Wingers

Marsden- 3.5/4.5 stars


Rawcliffe- 1/5


Robinson- 2.5/5


Smart- 1/4 stars


Whitehall- 2.5/5

Fowards

Ingles- 3/5 stars


Kent- 2.5/4.5


Ofori- 1/4.5 stars


Potts- 2/5 stars. PL Potential

started the season

i can see the difference in quality very easily. all the games have been harder. i even blew a 3 goal lead at half! were still winning the league but it will be much closer this season. i could easily have many fewer points right now

i have a question for those that are following. in the future should i allow myself to buy former FC United players that left the squad?

I would suggest that you could buy any player who achieved HG status with you. That feels in the spirit of the Hardcore nature of the challenge.

Agreed with Barkeep49

kk, ill keep track of my sold players to see if any come available in a few years

as for the league, weve widened up a gap between 2nd place despite having more losses half way thru this season than i did all last year in the Skrill north



im going to sell 2 of my best players because their contracts are running out in 6 months. ST Inles and LW Robinson are both 19 and getting looks. plus im deep enough in those areas to let them go get full time training. Inlges is leading my team in scoring but he needs to move on to fully develop. same with Robinson. i have better potential guys behind them that will take up the slack

in the FA Cup we beat several skrill and non league teams to reach the 3rd round! now we face PL club Ipswich at home. we will likely lose but should be a decent payday. i hope we can tie and then go to their place for a larger payday.

we are also still winning in the FA Trophy and into the 3rd round

i know it might seem like this season is easy, but the scores have been misleading. weve had to pull out many late game wins because other teams are playing us tough. once we score 1 in the 80th min to take the lead we might score another later to seal it. in past seasons we would have scored 2 in the 1st half and win easilt, not as much this year. i still expect to win the league but its been more nailbitting. ironically the cups have been easy for me

we lost to Ipswich in the FA cup, but we did sell out the stadium 11313 capacity

and its january, time for the bi-annual attempts to plunder my team from championship clubs

the easly season struggles have given way to an easy path to league football. our team has played great since we sold 2 of our best performers

Were in our 2nd straight FA Trophy final, hoping to get my 2nd trophy. im in march, ill post the new youth as soon as they come in

not as deep as previous youth classes, but several promising players. Bingham the CB looks like he could be pretty good. i also just realised theres no GK in this class. thats easily my thinest spot on my squad. i have 1 good gk (Allen), but the rest are roster fodder

we beat Northampton in the FA trophy final to win back to back FA Trophy's !

We won the skybet premier easily. after looking at my youth intake players it looks better than previously thought. the 2 central midfeilders are considered Championship calibur and look pretty good. also CM is now easily my deepest area so i might sell Brooks the oldest one

FC United finaly turn proffesional and i quickly try to sign everyone to full time contracts. unfortunatly 2 of my guys, 2 of my best refuse to sign new contracts. CB Little and forward Potts wont sign new contracts. ill probably sell them

Unless its against the spirit of the challenge, sell them with a buyback price.

no it isnt, didnt think of that. but i dont think im in an position to do that.


update.

i sold DC Little for 225k and 25% future.

i got some good news and bad news. the good news is my hot young forward Potts whom i thought i had to sell, turns out he just didnt want to resign so soon after signing his last contract. so i can hold onto him and resign him to a full pro deal in a few months and can hold onto him. he look real good and can lead me to the PL if i can hold onto him.
now the bad news. GK Allen my best GK gets injured for 3 months right before the season starts. old vet Spencer from the original squad will have to take over. hes rated only 1 star but has solid gk attributes.

1st game of the season. the board is expecting me to finish in the top half of the table!

Oldham comes to town. we fall behind 0-2 by the 30th min and we aint lookin good, looking out of our depth and getting bossed around. but then we compose ourselves and start dominating the game and turn this shit around. we come back and win 3-2 in our 1st League 2 game of the season

league cup match vs Fleetwood. they sit in league 1 but i know they arnt a regular up that high. this is a winnable game

well its more winnable when you dont give up 2 PK's and you put some shots on target. only 4 of 19 shots were on target. we lose 0-3

After a rough start to the season we start getting healthy and start winning. young 5 star AMC Wilson is leading the way.



but not all is rosy. my 2 starting wingers, Marsden and Whitehall have both come to me asking to leave to move up to bigger clubs. i tell them ill sell them after the season and they settle down and wait. i dont have the depth to play my best formations without them so i might have to change things up once they leave

while we lost in the 1st round of the League cup, we won the 1st round of the Paint trophy 5-2 vs Wrexham

injuries all around! we just had a game where 6 players got hurt! i currently have only 15 1st teamers healthy for the next game

we continue to play in the league, but Southend is running away with the league. we won in the paint trophy and the 2nd FA cup round. thats what ive come to talk about, we just drew Man City at their place! that will be a huge payday and i need it. since going pro my expenses have increased a boat load and i am now losing money due to my youth facilities

Depending on how much money you have.. you should look to get the facilities upgraded.. but apparently you're already losing money..

yea. when i was semi pro my facilities wernt costing much. but now that im pro my youth facilities are costing about 250k a month!

4 of my guys have already made noises about wanting to move to bigger clubs, i see now that its going to be hard to keep them. when they were part time i never got a "i want to move to bigger club" but its happened 4 times in 6 months since going pro. 2 of my 5 star youngster said it. Wilkins a DMC/MC and Wilson MC/AMC. at least they are in deep positions. i have 3 or 4 4star+ in my youth that play MC so im deep there. its wingers and goalkeeper that im thin at

ive adopted a wingerless formation so ill be ready if i run short of wingers.

up next, FA cup @ Man City.

we lost as expected vs Man city, but bring home 775K, my half of the gate receipts :) . that wipes out 75% of my losses for the season

weve just won our 10th straight league game to finally claim top spot in the table!

i sold MC Wilkins to PL Norwich to make room for other MC. he wanted to leave and nows as good as time as any.

in the JPT i got revenge against Fleetwood who knocked me out of the league cup. i beat them 5-0 at their house. we still have the 2nd leg to play but they dont stand a chance in hell now

the winning streak

new incoming class. still no great keeper. but damn look at Robinson

weve creeped into 1st place but just by a hair! we could win the 2nd division still :)



we have 8 games left, including games against Chesterfeild and Southend, the 2 squads im fighting for the league. we also have the JPT final vs Oxford coming up in a few games

we just tied Chesterfield, we dominated them but couldnt get the ball in the ol' onion bag. southend jump over us to take 1st

we win the Johnsons Paint Trophy, beating oxford 3-1
Potts gets a Brace

@ Doncaster we draw 1-1

we fall to 3rd in the league



but we have games in hand to make up, plus we clinch promotion to the 1st league!

we beat Crawley 4-1, and move up to 2nd. 1st place Chesterfeild also won, bastards.

4-2 win over Dag & Red

nipping on the leaders heels

Vs Grimsby

we win 4-1

@ Southend

we fall behind 0-2 and then 1-3, but then make a comeback and tie 3-3

we beat Kiddermiester 1-0 they fought tough but we scored a late goal

last game of the season, @ Swindon

they spank us around the pitch, but due to our lead we end up winning the league on goal difference

Woot !

well onto the offseason. i promised to sell my 2 starting wingers. i do have 2 guys that can fill in for the LW with ease, but my backup RW arnt very good, they have good potential but arnt very good looking. i also resigned AMC Wilson. he was my 5 star player that i promised id get promoted to keep. he has PL potential according to my staff. he wanted 66k a year, easily doubling my next highest pay for now.

holy fudge cow!

its the beginning of the month and my club has been offered a buyout of DMC Wilking buyout clause ( hes the MC i sold in January that was 5 stars). Norwich are offering 2.61 million to buy out his 25% future fee. ill have to do some calculations to see how much he would have to sell for to get higher than that. brb

he would have to sell for over 10.6 million pounds for me to make more on a future fee. im going to cash in now since were expected to lose $$ this season and i dont want to be forced to sell my other top youngsters before i want to. also i have doubts he will get more than that in a leter date (crosses fingers)

so in the end i sold him for 2.8 million, plus i still have a friendly i have to cash in

just an update on my progress

wow, christian Ofori a player whos been with me since the beggining, has his contract running out. he isnt great and hasnt improved much recently. well im letting his contract run out to make way for hot young prospects. hes rated 1.5/4 right now. Sheff Wed just offered him a contract, a PL club. theres also 4 or 5 Championship and PL clubs looking at him. hes never been looked at before in all him time here and he isnt particularly good (IMO) he must have lots of untapped potential

just sold a pair of strikers

19 yo Beesley for 100K 25%. he wasnt improving as fast as i hoped and i needed to make room for other strikers.

15yo targetman Taylor. my staff thought he was a 4 star. he had solid abilities but im loaded at striker and he was scavanged by PL Blackburn. got 35% future fee coming for him though

fudge me! queit a few people dont want to resign with me, im forced to take offers for them. MC Gray and LB Cullen get sold right at the transfer deadline for a nice bundle.

Cullen sells for 400k and 15%
Gray for 300K and 20%

start to the season



hopefully we will get better as the season progresses.

we got bumped out of the League cup by Championship team Burnley. but we are into the JPT N Quarter finals

AMC Wilson,DMC Brooks and DC Bingham are my best players so far

we have 4 wins, 2 draws and 1 loss the last 7 league games



we beat Notts County in the FA Cup 1st round. we get lucky and draw another L2 team Leyton Orient in the 2nd round

we also beat Port Vale to get into the JPT north semi final

due to fixture congestion, injuries and int callups weve been going deep into the depth chart. luckily i am fairy deep with young players

we smoke Southend in their house 5-2. nice win against a fellow promotion candidate

6 wins and 1 draw. could we possibly get promoted this soon?



we do unfortunatly get bumped out of the JPT by bradford, but were playing a reply of the FA Cup 3rd round against Rochdale in our house. we should win that game, we should have won the 1st, they got lucky we only scored 1 goal

crap my only good GK, Allen just got sidelined for 5 weeks :(

i give GK Day starts while Allen is injured, he playes ok, cept for his 1st 2 games where he gives up 3 goals in each game and loses both, including the FA replay vs Rochdale

but after those poor results we get back on track and he plays well and we start winning. were on a long unbeaten streak of 9 games (all league) and have opened up a huge lead in the league



up next is the youth intake. i really want a GK so i have a good backup, and a good RW

Lamb is a stud, hes already my best RB. Kern should be a good CM. GK Greenwood only shows a 3.5 stars right now, but he looks like he could become a good gk

It looks like the game gives you almost all central players on the youth intake. Do you think to is worth trying to train guys to go out wide?

if they had the right abilities i would right now, but none have the right "winger" attributes like pace, crossing ect. most are box 2 box types. it better to retrain AMC's to be wingers because they have more overlap in abilities. right now im just trying to maximize their potential.

i have a 4-1-3-2 formation with all cantral midfield players, 1 dm and 3 cm's. it hasnt been as sucessful as my 4-2-3-1

more good news, i just signed Greenwood, and they scouts now think hes 4.5 star potential :)

and some bad news. DM/MC Brooks, my best CM whos been with me since the begining has signed with Hibernia. he wanted to move to a bigger club and woulndt resign with me. luckily i have about 4 or 5 4star plus CM waiting to take his place