Career KTS Does it with the locals

[kts365]

Introduction

So you may have noticed the updates on my 1k have dried up after I equalled @BatiGoal 's record. That is because I have been messing with this little career.

I will be taking over a club where I will not be able to use any of the contracted players who are at the club to begin with. I must sell/release/demote these players. 

From now on I am only allowed to use players from the youth/reserve team who I give contracts and youth players who are promoted at the beginning of each season (local players).

The Career

"LOCAL BOY TAKES MANAGER JOB

Young Scottish manager Talent's Homegrown (awful I know) has gotten all of his requisite coaching certificates and has managed to take over his local club.

Unsatisfied with the currently contracted players at Annan Athletic, he has stated that he wishes to build a dynasty at the club using all the local talent he has at his disposal.

He has torn the first team apart and proceeded to promote youth and has held trials for local players."

The New Players

There were, let's be honest, slim pickings in the reserve squad to pick from but we must do what we have set out to do. A local team, for local people.

Goalies

Spoiler

Defenders

Spoiler

Midfield

Spoiler

 

Attackers

Spoiler

So there are the players. I'll be honest, the coach didn't think much of them. Some seem to have a lot of potential, but they'll take some pushing to meet it. 

This lot will take some whipping into shape. 

See how they do in season 1 in the next update....

[Brenty92]

This should be very interesting to follow!! Just so you know you tagged this as chat not career.

bring on season 1

[kts365]

2 minutes ago, Brenty92 said:

This should be very interesting to follow!! Just so you know you tagged this as chat not career.

bring on season 1

I do that every time haha. But I normally notice before anyone else.

[Granit Xhaxa]

Tried something similar myself but it never really took off but I still hope you the best

[kts365]

4 minutes ago, Granit Xhaxa said:

Tried something similar myself but it never really took off but I still hope you the best

I'm determined mate. Hopefully the poor quality in Scotland will make it easier

[KennyMiller27]

Good shout man,and good luck!

[mcandrew003]

Excellent career idea mate, best of luck!

[veerus]

How many of these were existing reserve players and not grey players? The amount of 3+ star players you have is unreal. I gave up searching for grey stars after two seasons yielded exactly zero prospects. 

[AndersJ]

Looking good and as something rather new! Great idea

[kts365]

38 minutes ago, veerus said:

How many of these were existing reserve players and not grey players? The amount of 3+ star players you have is unreal. I gave up searching for grey stars after two seasons yielded exactly zero prospects. 

They are all greys. When I said reserves I basically meant the greys in the reserve squad.

Also bear in mind this is a poor head coach's opinion and his ratings will shift drastically depending on form, development and other factors. Fingrrs crissed these guys come good but so far there are only 3-4 true stars in the team at the current Scottish league 2 level. The rest are really below par.

Update coming soon on season 1.

[Scratch]

This will be really interesting to watch. I'm like @veerus though - I have had zero luck with grey youngsters. Some have good starting Attributes, but I've rarely (in FMM 2017) had one with a PA more than a half star and they have never developed at all. Looks like you're off to a pretty good start though! I guess this probably works better in the lower leagues. 

Anyway, good luck, hope you smash it.
 

[Taff]

After your huge success with your greyed out striker last year dude, I'm confident you can work miracles here 

[Jens]

Very interesting concept. I used to have at least one long term save per year with my local team where I never bought anyone, but relied on players coming through the ranks. Your idea goes even further though  

[kts365]

Thanks for all the support guys. Hope I can make a good career of this.

[kts365]

Season 1

Now Mr Homegrowns career starts aproper. Team built he sets off to prove Annan have the best local talent in Scotland. This begins with Ladbrokes League 2, and any cup games along the way. 

First off there were injuries and the team was forced to recruit to cover. 

So, onward. Unfortunately I forgot to take many screenshots of this season but we will make do.

The betfred cup. Annan have drawn a difficult group, but that is to be expected at this level. 

The team did manage to pull together  to take down the significantly bigger St. Mirren. They were however still knocked out of the cup at this stage.

The Scottish cup went just as well, with Ayr smashing them 3-0 in the third round.

They did do a little better in the challenge cup getting through a couple of rounds.

Only to be narrowly beaten by the much better Dunfermline side. 

Sonlets see how the league campaign went for this group of youngsters.

3rd and they unfortunately got beaten in the playoff by Forfar. Who then wasted their opportunity to be promoted by losing the next round. Damn wasters.

Who were the star local youngsters?

The forwards appear to be the stars of the show this first season and were helped along by the wingers and midfielders. However, a swift look at the league shows us that they failed to score many goals in the league and concedes fewer than anyone else in the league. Making the defenders the real stars here. Shocking, I know. Yet still the only award this season was....

YPOTY for Stephen Queen.

So there is season 1. Probably about as good as expected for the inexperienced team. Onward and upwards next year please.

 

[mcandrew003]

A good year all things considered mate, and a solid foundation to build on. Hopefully we see some of those youngsters mature and grow next year, and I can see promotion on the horizon!

[kts365]

41 minutes ago, mcandrew003 said:

A good year all things considered mate, and a solid foundation to build on. Hopefully we see some of those youngsters mature and grow next year, and I can see promotion on the horizon!

I totally agree mate. There apears to be potential there in quite a few players. We may have to wait a few years before any stars really emerge but fingers crossed.

[BatiGoal]

These sort of challenges always remind me of my Torino save where I had to build an entire new team after that heart-breaking loss in Superga air disaster where one of the best Italian sides ever lost all its players. Goosebumps everytime I write that sentence.

Goodluck mate!

[kts365]

15 hours ago, BatiGoal said:

These sort of challenges always remind me of my Torino save where I had to build an entire new team after that heart-breaking loss in Superga air disaster where one of the best Italian sides ever lost all its players. Goosebumps everytime I write that sentence.

Goodluck mate!

Did you post a thread mate? I'd like to see that.

[BatiGoal]

17 minutes ago, kts365 said:

Did you post a thread mate? I'd like to see that.

I certainly did. Been a while but still safely buried in the archives cabinet

Il Grande Torino

Cheers mate!

[kts365]

Season 2 New Prospects

After a safe but fruitless first season Mr Homegrown is looking to build upon his squad's strengths and cover their weaknesses by signing up some fresh young local talent.

From the youth academy there are 3 prospects.

First is young right winger/attacking midfielder Declan Murphy

Hopefully, with his blues in crossing, dribbling, pace and movement; coupled with that good teamwork attribute, he will provide plenty of good balls from the right wing.

Next up is a young fullback who can play on either wing, Adam Adams. A bad name beaten only by Neville Neville.

Not great at first glance but the blues and green are in decent areas. Tackling, teamwork and decisions will help on the defensive side meanwhile the pace and stamina will allow him to bomb forward if he wishes. 

Finally from the academy we have  a young centre half in Martin O'Hara.

Again he looks pretty poor but closer inspection shows us that his blues are in good areas for a centre half and he is only 1 off a blue in positioning and tackling so should easily get blues across almost all of his important attributes.

So those are the academy graduates.

To add to these there was a player promotes from the reserves.

Goodfellow was really just brought up as a backup across the middle and right. 

So with this squad Annan are set to push forward with season 2. Fingers crossed this season will improve on the last. 

Update coming later.

[kts365]

Season 2

Team in tow Talent's Homegrown attempts to outdo last year's exploits and aims for promotion and a decent cup run for a league 2 team. The season begins with the betfred cup group matches and Annan are drawn in a group with:

Dundee United (Championship)

St Johnstone (Championship)

Stranraer (League 1) 

Montrose (League 2)

A tough group but they were at least able to upset St Mirren last year. How did this league phase go?

Aaargh second, they came so close to upsetting group winners St Johnstone, drew against Dundee United and beat the other two teams. This does look good going forward as the team can clearly mix it up with better squads.

Speaking of bigger and better teams Annan took a trip to the real big boys this year in the Scottish cup. Drawn away to Celtic, how did they fare?

I believe thoroughly beaten is the term for that, and with that defeat Annan crashed out of the cup, but what a day out for the travelling fans!

Onto the challenge cup, where the team did quite well last season. How did it go this year?

Only the third round this year before succumbing to Stenhousemuir.

This leaves league 2 it's self. Could Annan gain promotion this year? Well they did finish 4th, with Forfar winning the league, after a mid season lull. This still left a chance with them playing a league 1 straggler in the play off semis.

And it is their old friends Ayr. Let's see how this played out over 2 legs.

Annan were thoroughly dominated in the first leg but managed to hold on to a clean sheet. Could they take the away leg?

No! They gave a much better account of themselves, going for the win they needed butntgey could not get the ball in the net. 

So let's analyse the league table.

Again not many goals at all but defensively looking tight compared to the opposition in the league. They really need to hit the back of the net more.

This is reflected in the individual player stats. Top three rated players are defenders followed by the two forwards sharing 30 goals equally. Is it the tactic or are the strikers just not good enough. Questions the manager will have to look for answers for if next year is to be a success.

Speaking of success he was at least rated as the second best manager in the league.

Maybe next year he'll prove the best.

[mcandrew003]

Another solid year mate, enjoying this career. The lads are getting better, although hopefully you get some high quality graduates next year. Good luck!

[Granit Xhaxa]

Well done on the progress made but they could be a long way left.

As for the players I would have thought that young strikers would have been better than young defenders due to the necessity of experience that defenders need.

[veerus]

So you ARE mortal after all...  After your 1K this year, I expected promotion in the first season.  

You have failed me for the last time, admiral....

(kidding ofc) 

[kts365]

7 hours ago, mcandrew003 said:

Another solid year mate, enjoying this career. The lads are getting better, although hopefully you get some high quality graduates next year. Good luck!

Keep an eye on the next update mate ?

added 0 minutes later

7 hours ago, Granit Xhaxa said:

Well done on the progress made but they could be a long way left.

As for the players I would have thought that young strikers would have been better than young defenders due to the necessity of experience that defenders need.

I agree normally you'd think the young defenders would struggle for consistency.

[kts365]

3 hours ago, veerus said:

So you ARE mortal after all...  After your 1K this year, I expected promotion in the first season.  

You have failed me for the last time, admiral....

(kidding ofc) 

Haha. I am but a mortal man. If you want to see my immortal phase look up my 2grey challenge from last year mate

[kts365]

Season 3 New Prospects

So after last year's youth success (I forgot to mention how well O'Hara did) my coach believes we have a good crop this year.

I promoted them all and those star ratings look half decent to brilliant.

We Will start with 2.5* potential Grady

Well he isn't exactly lighting my interest up here but at least he has a little pace, stamina and passing ability. He also has a few 9s there which could improve his prospects by getting into the blues. Fingers crossed on this one. 

Next is Robert Booth. A RB/CM guy.

Definitely worse. That stamina stat! Really needs to improve a lot. A. Lot.

Finally we have the high potential of Elliot Garden.

Ok so this guy was listed as a "target man" maybe in a few years? As it stands he looks like he has a long way to go, but who knows how he will improve?

So the academy prospects aside I again raided the reserve team. 

I saw 2 guys who may be the answer to my troubles up front. 

These guys are almost clones of each other. I am liking where those blues are and the 8s and 9s too. I particularly like the pace. As my other strikers are red in that area (except Garden).

So there's the prospects for this season. You may be wondering how i have taken so many players on. Well I released a few first year prospects who didn't make the cut. I will do a follow up on them in each update to see where their careers go.

[mcandrew003]

Some decent prospects there mate, looking good for the future. Bring on season 3!

[veerus]

Reserve team RNG does seem to reuse its seed or something. I've often noticed similar players generated together. In your case here, it's a blessing.