Career Tree's "Football Factory" (all Youth coaches) - 30yr epic!

[BatiGoal]

Great development overall, Treehouse, lots of green before they even hit 20yo. Sounds like you're really enjoying this career, understandably so, don't think there's anything more fulfilling than seeing those kids become world-beaters. 

[Paul186]

Another couple of great seasons slowly making progess with the England squad, but perhaps you sould have gone for the Scotland squad it seems it might be easier to achieve.

[Mr Tree]

It's the year 2034, and in honour of Mr Tree's sensational 15 years in charge of the greatest club in the world, which has seen them finally take their place at the top table where they truly belong, the club are hosting a star-studded gala evening where you can MEET THE PLAYERS!!

As you're all no doubt very aware, the manager is far from a tactical genius, so he sticks to his tried and tested 4-2-2-2:

(quick note: now that we're top-notch, i have wing-backs and a sweeper keeper and we're playing "Look for Overlap" and "Work into box" after too many games where our dominance didn't lead to a clear win...)

This leads to some distinct groups of players, as shown below...

 

Goalkeepers

As always, the academy churns out hundreds of goalkeepers, so no need to recruit here (despite no specialist goalkeeper coach). Stevens became super-awesome during a loan spell - that's why i've made the distinction in the last two columns, to show how often lads are away on loan etc.

 

Right-backs

Streich has been good, but Aarons is slowly forcing his way in - and then to be fair, Sturdy came through with a strong claim for first-choice RB last season.

 

Left-backs

Not really sure now why i signed de Castro - probably Piccini was injured and i didn't quite trust the other two enough (Naismith was out on a crucial loan spell).

Another quick note: I normally like my full-backs to be androgynous... Wait, that's not the right word... Ambivalent? Amphibious? Play on both sides, y'know. But it just hasn't worked out with these ones...

 

Centre-backs

Last year got a bit ropey - Bailey had bad injury problems (2 or 3 two-month injuries), Blackett fell apart for some reason, and Pedro has just never really been the hundred-million man he was advertised to be. But Dyer and Goldthorp look to have good potential...

 

Defensive midfielders

What a trio - Archie Cole is more than fantastic, but only third-choice! He didn't really take his chance while Mooney was sent away on loan last year, so it might be time to give up on him and find a young pretender...

 

Attacking midfielders

Gerson the king, and just look at the production line - everyone wants to be a number 8 these days

 

Wingers

 

Again, i always try to make these guys light-green on both sides, just for the sake of flexibility. Yao, my longest-serving player, refuses to retrain to go on the right, but i can bear it - although thinking about it, ALL of these sods prefer the left side. I did have an academy lad who was left-footed and preferred playing on the right, but he's just not broken through and he's on his way out... Hahn was actually a natural number 10, but he had dark-green on the wings and yellow in centre-midfield, so i retrained him for the wing spots and obviously, he's doing a great job.

 

Strikers

Sevilla well and truly got me with hundred-million deals in consecutive summers for flops! Otherwise, the top two have just been sensational, and the next two have been more than decent!

 

There's a bit more flotsam and jetsam within the squad, youth rubbish basically, but that 35-man squad features six players with 250+ appearances for me and 18 who've played more than a hundred games for the bees! There's 14 academy graduates, and the other 21 cost me just over 650m between them (4x 100m players skewing that!). The total squad value now is, i think, 1.75bn. (btw i really think they should add that stat somewhere in the game, it would be interesting )

Feel free to request screenshots or other info. Otherwise, I hope that was slightly interesting, and as promised, i'll be back with a "Where Are They Now?" look at all my youth graduates soon

Edited April 23, 2020 by Mr Tree

[smoggy90]

Some great in depth info there mate and career is going great. Congrats!

[Mr Tree]

cheers @smoggy90 - and sorry, thanks to @BatiGoaland @Paul186for their comments yesterday and their continued support 

i meant to share this too - this is the progress of the "number of players in the England squad" metric. Number of players on the left, season number along the bottom...

 

[BatiGoal]

During my Amateur career it got harder and nearly impossible towards the end to get anyone out on loan. Have you noticed any differences as you're progressing? 

[Mr Tree]

25 minutes ago, BatiGoal said:

During my Amateur career it got harder and nearly impossible towards the end to get anyone out on loan. Have you noticed any differences as you're progressing? 

Not really mate - I have so many that I can always easily shift five or six - but I still have the age-old problem of offering quality young players out for free and getting no nibbles, which is immensely frustrating. Some of my lads, in real life I'd be saying "tell your fucking agent to find a fucking club cos you need to be playing to develop, and you're not gonna get games here". But sadly that option isn't there

[Mr Tree]

Where Are They Now?

Given the foundations of this save, it's only fair and right really to have a look at the graduates of my youth academy...

The first crop (from the start of season 2) have just turned 30, so let's go through them all (don't worry, my employer happily paid for the time it took me to do this ) down to the lads who've just turned 20 - any younger and, well, they've not got far yet!

The academy reached top level in season 4, but as you'll see, that's not done a great amount with regard to the quality I'm getting through. Of course on the plus side, these lads should all get at least three years with five gold youth coaches, so we should be able to maximize their potential...

Let's see how we've got on...

Season 2 youth graduates:

Remarkably, we start with a total dud - neither of these lads are still in the game!! I found all the other players during the course of this, but not these two! On my previous "Where Are They Now?", Berkeley-A was languishing in non-league but Dutton-K had at least carved a career out in... Scotland... I mean, it's better than nothing... Or perhaps not!

 

Season 3 youth graduates:

Spoiler

Here we go, straight in with a Silver! And he went on to earn lots of money and play for an England, so I guess he's gone alright...

The rest of this class did alright too:

Season 4 youth graduates:

Spoiler

A bit more unspectacular class here... I gave up on Todd early, needing something better quicker, but he's done well for himself...

Fraser hung around for a while and had a couple of good seasons:

Mills is on his way to being a Brummie legend...

Nadesan with a few greens and no yellows, but I never could get him past a backup role...

And, err, this guy:

Can't win em all. This guy's done a little better after getting similarly nowhere close with me...

Season 5 youth graduates:

Spoiler

My only ever gold, no longer plays for me - didn't want a new contract recently, so sold him to a rival and don't care, we smash them all the time anyway...

Mooney's been great for me... But I might have found a good replacement for him now, hmm...

Blackett's still here too...

Barker's another one doing the biz at Brum:

Another keeper, so so many...

This guy's development was curtailed by a long-term injury, bless...

And I barely even remember these two, but they've done alright for themselves...

Season 6 youth graduates:

Spoiler

A poor year, with none really making an impact at my club...

Season 7 youth graduates:

Spoiler

Loved Uche but he never took his chances, so I had to move on:

Vose took over as my number 1 in his teens and won the EPL and UCL - legend. But he got overtaken himself, so he moved on...

Gippo was unlucky too, clearly good but not quite good enough for me...

I don't remember Mason even getting close with me, and he doesn't look like he developed too much...

And Irwin, definitely not:

Season 8 youth graduates:

Spoiler

Two silvers, nice!

Well one is my number 1 now...

And the other... Had his moments, but couldn't quite do enough to stick:

I liked Penn but never quite enough:

Hep has joined Wes to give Brizzle City a pretty decent wing combo:

Season 9 youth graduates:

Spoiler

The class might not look much, but Aarons has come along really nicely and, spoiler alert, makes the World XI in Season 16!

Krakue is my reserve keeper for now...

And apparently this guy was there too...

Season 10 youth graduates:

Spoiler

I gave up on Taylor quickly cos that Technique was giving me nightmares:

But Joseph's done pretty well for himself:

Mason will be moving on soon after a horrible last season:

And Roberts looks a bit naff and plays in Scotland now:

Season 11 youth graduates:

Spoiler

Bleurgh - only two came to join me. Bromley's done alright, and he hangs around being a useful spare reserve backup...

And the new keeper just seemed unnecessary so he was quickly moved:

Season 12 youth graduates:

Spoiler

That silver at the bottom is this guy:

He has been coming along nicely, but those stats look a bit poor for last season (includes a lot of sub appearances) :

Kidby is the current "future GK":

And Sturdy's trying to challenge at RB:

I hope that was interesting - thanks for reading!

Edited April 24, 2020 by Mr Tree

[BatiGoal]

Congrats, you're the new owner of the record of Update With Most Screenshots 😁 

Very interesting stuff I must say tho. Great to follow the boys and seeing what's become of them. Some look absolutely phenomenal. I'm so doing a challenge like this, no doubt, just not sure if I can find the time to post it. 

[Kun Aguero]

Love the update about youth graduates. Even those that start with 2-3 stars turn out to be some quality gems. I usually never promote those below "silver", probably need to change my approach after seeing this. Great job! 😄

[Mr Tree]

5 hours ago, BatiGoal said:

Congrats, you're the new owner of the record of Update With Most Screenshots 😁 

Very interesting stuff I must say tho. Great to follow the boys and seeing what's become of them. Some look absolutely phenomenal. I'm so doing a challenge like this, no doubt, just not sure if I can find the time to post it. 

Cheers mate - it was a bit of a labour of love but it was interesting for me to go through them all, and I'm glad that at least someone else found it interesting to look through!

Back to smashing everyone, now

oh btw, it was 98 screenshots overall 😮 and while I'm on numbers, to address a point you made the other day, I currently have 18 players out on loan 😮

Edited April 25, 2020 by Mr Tree

[Mr Tree]

1 hour ago, Kun Aguero said:

Love the update about youth graduates. Even those that start with 2-3 stars turn out to be some quality gems. I usually never promote those below "silver", probably need to change my approach after seeing this. Great job! 😄

Cheers mate - maybe, but yeah I'm really maximising their ability too, I'd say, with all the youth coaches, mentoring and loan spells...

[Mr Tree]

Back to the game, although I'm sulking a bit cos P$G knocked me out in the Champs League quarter-final. Brentford, Barcelona and P$G have had quite a tussle going on at the top table of European and world football over the last 10 years, so it sucks to lose to them. Plus most games I'm just aimlessly smashing teams with regens, so meh... Might do the Liverpool challenge, it might freshen things up for me a bit and I like to join a trend just after it's peaked...

Also, P$G then lost to Juve, who lost to Dortmund in the final?!?! I didn't even lose to the eventual winners, but I lost to the team who lost to the team who lost in the final - that's not a thing!

And my numbers in the England squad didn't go up. So boo-hiss to all this...

Seasons 16 & 17

Always nice to get a silver, but not much else...

He was warming up nicely by the end of his first season:

But his name is Dior so, there's that...

We smashed it all (apart from the boring cup) :

Possibly my favourite game of the season, beating Brumscum, with a late winner and then an injury-time penalty miss from an ex-player of mine

Squad overview... The Duke is great as a third striker, but whenever he gets a run in the team he bottles it

Two of Europe's best three in there - finally some recognition!

As well as this, nice!

Although "several" means "four", apparently...

Some of the Rising Stars:

But now, every year, there's some **** who just refuses to sign a new deal, with no reason provided. I got bored of it, might list them, might let them walk when it expires, but when the notification comes that XYZ has six months left on his contract, I just click "assistant renews" now... Well, this knocked me off my seat!

That's what, £600k+ a week! I can afford it (although it's a bit steep for a reserve CB), but I can't offer it myself! Stupid game...

10 past or present England players at the end of the year - my seven in yellow plus Small, Thornton and Kinnear:

Another year, another silver...

I'm still getting this message at the start of the year!

They think I don't have "stature"? After this?

Ok...

The tide is turning, it seems - got my first ever World Coach of the Year podium...

And we had a great year:

Apart from the bloody Champs League. I was 3-0 up at home before it all went wrong...

Squad overview. Hahn had an awesome year:

And we still have two of the best three in Europe:

But who's this Goldthorp lad with 9 goals?

He's my awesome up-and-coming Centre Back 😮

However, a backward step here - just nine, my seven plus Thornton and Kinnear:

Thanks for reading

Edited April 30, 2020 by Mr Tree

[Paul186]

Unlucky, with the England players surely they need a better manager, perhaps a job for Mr Tree.

[Mr Tree]

Right, got a little series of posts here, starting with a quick summary of seasons 18, 19 & 20.

Season 18

Dominant:

Spoiler

A couple of promising young'uns:

Two 40+ strikers, noice:

Richie Rich was well on his way to establishing himself as first-choice AP:

Cordoba has quickly barged his way through to become an essential part of the IF rotation:

Goldie looks like he's gonna be a foundational piece for years to come:

And Cogdog showed some good signs in his first season:

Got through a classic on my way to the FA Cup win:

Neither side had their shooting boots on in the UCL Final, but my big centre-back got his head on one for the win:

Two of Europe's top three:

But a shocker with England, as we somehow sink back down to five - Mooney and Kinnear my only exes:

 

Season 19

A shocking group of youngsters:

But an awesome year:

Spoiler

Yep we finally can call ourselves world champions:

And our domestic dominance was such that we had the three top scorers, plus number 6 is on loan from us (and yes, number 7, funny)...

And we bulldozed Europe:

But we bizarrely lost in the FA Cup, with quite a strong team too (because the first team had a rest and the reserves played the day before, so all the usual second-string I'd have called on were tired). Shore is an ex-bee. Dunno what happened, couldn't stop them...

We had this victory over the hooped scum to console us, though:

Toby retained his crown:

Squad overview:

The Duke knows how to score, but whenever he gets a run of starts he falls apart! Super Mario's starting to struggle a bit too...

But Rich had 21 goals in a cracking season:

And his backup was doing well too...

Or so I thought, but I'd listed him by midway through season 20

Good news on the England front, as they finally seemed to notice me:

So we were back up to 9 past and present bees in the squad by the end of the season, with my six joined by Blackett, Kinnear and Walker-Peters. Bit disappointing to see that my one gold youth graduate, Thornton, has apparently fallen off the radar

 

 

Season 20

We gained a silver...

But we lost a club legend, with Bails refusing to discuss a contract and showing no interest in returning once released:

He spent the whole season without a club, before signing for Arsenal one year later. Bloody Arsenal....

Spoiler

The Duke scored the winner in the World Cup final:

But we had a poor year, with Arsenal handing us our only league loss, winning the Community Shield, and knocking us out of the Champions League after beating us 2-1 at home.

Not really sure why they have a hold on me, they finished 6th! Brighton finished 2nd... And I've scored 24 goals against them in our last four league games, winning 7-0 and 5-0 at home and two years in a row going to the Withdean and winning 6-3... Bizarre!

Finally won this for the first time

Squad overview... Goals well spread around... (Super Mario was sent out on loan after becoming increasingly inconsistent)... Toby fell apart towards the end of the season, playing poorly in both legs of the Champs League... (He and up-and-coming striker Milambo are ex-Arsenal, hmm...)

9 in the England squad again, 6 yellows and one blue (Reed is mine out on loan), and Blackett and Thornton (he's back!).

 

 

Manager profile after 20 seasons:

 

So like I said, I have a plan - I'll be back soon to just show the players I have in my first XI, and then there'll be another post asking for help........ Thanks for reading!

Edited May 19, 2020 by Mr Tree

[Dagion]

Goldthorp looks a-ma-zing, what the hell. Really curious to see him in 5 years! Also curious about the update? Keep it up Tree 👍

[Paul186]

Great update but it is a bit like buses waits ages for 1 season update then 3 turn up all at once.

[Mr Tree]

Cheers @Dagion and @Paul186, much appreciated! Goldthorp and Duncan are almost like Terry and Lampard regens, except they can't be......

Anyway, just wanted you all to have a quick look at my first-choice team. The plan was to show you simply "the team that started the Champions League final", but I didn't get that far

But to be honest the team pretty much picks itself at the moment.

I'd appreciate if any of you could point out any deficiencies you see, etc, although I think any extra to be squeezed out of the team is probably mostly from the tactics / formation (which I'll get to)... But all feedback is very welcome

 

Goalkeeper

Academy graduate with 123 appearances for the bees (71 goals conceded). Criminally underused by his country, but forced out the quality Jeff Stevens, another academy graduate who's currently being paid 6x as much to be the reserve!

 

Defence

Academy graduate with 342 appearances for the bees - he's scored only 8 goals, with none in the last three years, but he does have a total of 89 assists.

Signed for £35m from Ajax two years ago, he's already forced his way into the 1st XI.

Academy graduate with 184 appearances now for the bees (and 27 goals!) - broke into the rotation in his first year and has been fantastic ever since.

Signed from Nice for £7.5m back in 2035, he's slowly worked his way to the front of the queue, playing 80 times overall so far. Hopefully he'll form a good partnership with Goldie for many years to come now

 

Midfield

A grizzled vet now, signed from Milan for £14.5m 10 years ago. He's played 338 games for us, with 62 goals and  71 assists. I use him as my BWM, which I appreciate may raise some eyebrows

Academy graduate who's now made 277 appearances for the club, scoring 64 times and providing 59 assists.

Bloody legend, signed from Wolfsburg for £1.6m back in 2026. He's provided 268 assists and added 130 goals in a glittering career, with 511 games so far for the bees.

Relative newcomer who's forced his way in after signing from Dortmund for £5.25m 5 years ago. He's scored 33 goals and provided 40 assists in 131 appearances for the club so far.

 

Attack

Kid who I signed from Spurs for £30.5m when he was 17, he's been out on loan a fair bit to develop but he's finally making his mark now, with a stirling finish to 2038/39 potentially forcing my man Super Mario out of the team

Signed from Arsenal for £106m as an 18-year-old, he's been worth every penny, winning numerous major awards. He's scored 240 goals in 333 appearances for the bees so far.

 

Thanks for reading! I'll be back soon to discuss how to take the save forward...

Edited May 20, 2020 by Mr Tree

[BatiGoal]

Looks a very tough 11 to beat. Age/experience wise very balanced too 👍 

[Mr Tree]

Cheers Bati! (still happy to hear any input from other Vibe elders if they see areas for improvement?)

The Future Of The Save

I think whatever I was trying to investigate with this mix of coaches has been "proved". What conclusions can we draw? (Reminder: I don't actually bother to fiddle with the training, I leave the assistant to do it)

 - There's no negative effect from having too many youth coaches, but no strong positive effect either.

 - Youth coaches are strong all-rounders - in 20 seasons I haven't had a single "needs more specialist training" message or similar.

 - A top youth setup and great coaches doesn't guarantee you an incredible supply of youngsters, but you will get a fair few decent players.

 - I would recommend always mentoring a player in his first year, and probably trying to loan them out while they're developing too - it seems to have a strong effect.

Does that sound about right? Any more?

 

 

So where do we go from here? I'm well set up with a job for life with the best club in the world, and a strong squad. But still, I've never been able to hit the heights some of you manage.

I think the biggest drag on my performance is probably my formation. I'm tactically unadventurous... I have tried a few things, but I generally get spooked quickly by a bad result or performance and revert back to what I know... my classic 4-4-2 (with the two wingers up as inside forwards)

So I'm thinking, for the last 10 years, I'm gonna try some of the best formations out there - sticking with them for the whole year, and seeing what I learn and if something might come off (ultimate goal being to perhaps join the 100 club?!?)

I can trawl the forum and search specific users' posts, if needed, but I'd be grateful for anyone who could save me the time and spoonfeed me a submission I'll list them here as we go...

Cheers!

Edited May 20, 2020 by Mr Tree

[FuddledFox]

 @Ashez and my Gegenpressing tactic was killer in FMM18 and the beginning of FMM19 so I would love to see if it still gets results this year.

 

[BatiGoal]

55 minutes ago, Mr Tree said:

- A top youth setup and great coaches doesn't guarantee you an incredible supply of youngsters, but you will get a fair few decent players.

That's what I was most interested in hearing / knowing. Perhaps multiple youth coaches helps them mature faster. Altho they still might be tied to their 'age' to ensure the game remains "realistic" and won't have youngsters mature too fast. Interesting observations there and it's a type of save (final save) I'm considering. 

1 hour ago, Mr Tree said:

So I'm thinking, for the last 10 years, I'm gonna try some of the best formations out there - sticking with them for the whole year, and seeing what I learn and if something might come off (ultimate goal being to perhaps join the 100 club?!?)

Looking at your players they look tailor made for my Classic Batigoals (2017) formation. Only question: does it still work? 😂 

[JamesVilla]

This looks like a cracking chance to try some of the older, favourite formations and potentially find something amazing for this years game. 

Good luck!!

[broodje kip]

We should start with the legend first

[Mr Tree]

blimey, what have I done! I think I need a lie-down after trying to read the gegenpress!

Three awesome submissions there - I might have to be careful about the order so that the squad can transition successfully from one to another, but we'll see.

I could tag many, so no offence if I don't, but I'd definitely be interested if @Ian and @AndersJ have any suggestions?

[AndersJ]

22 minutes ago, Mr Tree said:

blimey, what have I done! I think I need a lie-down after trying to read the gegenpress!

Three awesome submissions there - I might have to be careful about the order so that the squad can transition successfully from one to another, but we'll see.

I could tag many, so no offence if I don't, but I'd definitely be interested if @Ian and @AndersJ have any suggestions?

Its a Long thread for an old dad of two girls, to read. How can i offer my service Don Tree? Could i make you an offer you cant refuse 😎?

[Mr Tree]

35 minutes ago, AndersJ said:

Its a Long thread for an old dad of two girls, to read. How can i offer my service Don Tree? Could i make you an offer you cant refuse 😎?

Aye sorry, just today's post (earlier) mate, but for the last 10 seasons of this epic I'm looking to test various tactics to expand my knowledge etc. I will do a season each with tactic.

I play a basic 4-4-2 (with wingers pushed up), and I get easily put off when I experiment, so hopefully with my kick-ass team, I can get over the hump here...

You have any favourite tactic, at the moment? I know you're a bit of a guru when it comes to this

[AndersJ]

2 hours ago, Mr Tree said:

Aye sorry, just today's post (earlier) mate, but for the last 10 seasons of this epic I'm looking to test various tactics to expand my knowledge etc. I will do a season each with tactic.

I play a basic 4-4-2 (with wingers pushed up), and I get easily put off when I experiment, so hopefully with my kick-ass team, I can get over the hump here...

You have any favourite tactic, at the moment? I know you're a bit of a guru when it comes to this

I havet had a bigger crisis of tactics than i have now :)! Playing Blyth Spartans. Currently in championship. Are you only looking for 442 s ?

[Mr Tree]

7 minutes ago, AndersJ said:

I havet had a bigger crisis of tactics than i have now :)! Playing Blyth Spartans. Currently in championship. Are you only looking for 442 s ?

no, I'm quite open to moving away, I have a strong squad that should be able to adapt...

But no stress if nothing occurs to you, I was just curious

Edited May 20, 2020 by Mr Tree

[Dagion]

Not sure if anyone made a tactic like that, but being a fan of the 3 at the back I would like to see one with 3 at the back and 2 defensive mids.

Preferably also an ML and MR and then two AMC's and a lone striker. Just like the shape of that, but never get any good ratings for DMC's..