Challenges A Diamond In The Rough

[Scratch]

You were a top manager at a top club, but one of your young players committed a heinous social media crime and your blind support of him lead to you losing your job and becoming unemployable. Now, after several years, Oxford United have given you a chance to restart your career.

Upon arriving at the club, you notice a young player who shows all the signs of being the next Messi. The only problem is he is extremely unprofessional, super lazy, and has a long long way to go to realize his full potential. Not many think he will make it, but you are sure he is a diamond in the rough, just waiting to shine. Are you right? Or is this just your history of misplaced trust in young players repeating itself?

Note - This challenge is a little different, because everyone must use the same save file. Download this and move it to your saved games folder: fm_save4.fms

 

The Player

He's not much to look at, but somehow you can just tell that if life was Football Manager, this player would have a PA of 200, just like Messi. The problem is he'd only have a CA of 20, meaning he is far from ready to play right now:

Probably the bigger problem is that his Professionalism and Work Rate attributes would only be 2:

 

This lad's gonna be trouble. It's not all bad though - the lad is very rarely injured, good at set pieces and penalties and generally reasonable apart from his professionalism and laziness problems. And that potential...

 

The Challenge

Take young Johhny and level him up as much as you can over 5 seasons and try to maximize his goal contributions (goals and assists). There will also be a 10 season leaderboard if anyone wants to keep going and really maximise him.

Your final score will be the sum of:

• Johnny’s goals (from all competitions) scored under your management
• Johnny’s assists (from all competitions) provided under your management

General rules:

• No unlockables
• No cheating, no reloading, etc.
• No scouting apps
• Own formations 
• Transfers, etc, allowed
• ITN goals don't count

The approach:

You don't have to stay at Oxford. You can apply for a job at any other club and take him there - just remember that goals and assists are only counted under your management, so you will need to screenshot the totals at the time you leave Oxford and at the time he arrives at the new club, etc. Oh, and you are not allowed to release him from Oxford before you move, you must buy him fair and square.

You can play him in any position you like - he may say he does not want to retrain any further as a striker, but he will. Will you play him as an IF? Or a shadow striker? Or up front? Will you develop his Crossing so he can get assists from corners? Or his Aerial so he score them? Or something else entirely? It's up to you!

Oh, young Johhny only has a year long contract, so you may want to tie him before he improves too much.

 

Thanks, and good luck! 

Edit: To be clear, young Johnny is not a real player, he's one I've created for this save, which is why we need to use the same save file. He has CA of 20, PA of 200, Professionalism of 2, and Work Rate of 2.

 

Leaderboard (5 years)

• 413 contributions by @Dai_ (205 goals, 208 assists) - Link
• 333 contributions by @Scratch (177 goal, 156 assists) - Link
• 322 contributions by @Scratch (286 goals, 36 assists) - Link
• 268 contributions by @StuartM (238 goals, 30 assists) - Link

 

Edited May 24, 2022 by Scratch

[broodje kip]

6 minutes ago, Scratch said:

You were a top manager at a top club, but one of your young players committed a heinous social media crime and your blind support of him lead to you losing your job and becoming unemployable. Now, after several years, Oxford United have given you a chance to restart your career.

Upon arriving at the club, you notice a young player who shows all the signs of being the next Messi. The only problem is he is extremely unprofessional, super lazy, and has a long long way to go to realize his full potential. Not many think he will make it, but you are sure he is a diamond in the rough, just waiting to shine. Are you right? Or is this just your history of misplaced trust in young players repeating itself?

Note - This challenge is a little different, because everyone must use the same save file. Download this and move it to your saved games folder:  fm_save4.fms 51.44 MB · 0 downloads

 

The Player

He's not much to look at, but somehow you can just tell that if life was Football Manager, this player would have a PA of 200, just like Messi. The problem is he'd only have a CA of 20, meaning he is far from ready to play right now:

Probably the bigger problem is that his Professionalism and Work Rate attributes would only be 2:

 

This lad's gonna be trouble. It's not all bad though - the lad is very rarely injured, good at set pieces and penalties and generally reasonable apart from his professionalism and laziness problems. And that potential...

 

The Challenge

Take young Johhny and level him up as much as you can over 5 seasons and try to maximize his goal contributions (goals and assists). There will also be a 10 season leaderboard if anyone wants to keep going and really maximise him.

Your final score will be the sum of:

• Johnny’s goals (from all competitions) scored under your management
• Johnny’s assists (from all competitions) provided under your management

General rules:

• No unlockables
• No cheating, no reloading, etc.
• No scouting apps
• Own formations 
• Transfers, etc, allowed
• ITN goals don't count

The approach:

You don't have to stay at Oxford. You can apply for a job at any other club and take him there - just remember that goals and assists are only counted under your management, so you will need to screenshot the totals at the time you leave Oxford and at the time he arrives at the new club, etc. Oh, and you are not allowed to release him from Oxford before you move, you must buy him fair and square.

You can play him in any position you like - he may say he does not want to retrain any further as a striker, but he will. Will you play him as an IF? Or a shadow striker? Or up front? Will you develop his Crossing so he can get assists from corners? Or his Aerial so he score them? Or something else entirely? It's up to you!

Oh, young Johhny only has a year long contract, so you may want to tie him before he improves too much.

 

Thanks, and good luck! 

Edit: To be clear, young Johnny is not a real player, he's one I've created for this save, which is why we need to use the same save file. He has CA of 20, PA of 200, Professionalism of 2, and Work Rate of 2.

 

 

Wow, Scratch. Sounds very fun here.

[broodje kip]

Not a bad start 👀

[StuartM]

Great challenge @Scratch , I like this idea a lot!

[Scratch]

6 hours ago, broodje kip said:

Not a bad start 👀

Damn, you gonna beat me at my own challenge? 🤣

[Bad Robot]

I love the idea of this challenge! I will probably end up following the player around clubs rather than him following me. I don't want to hold him back 😂

Unfortunately got injured in his 3rd game for me. Only 2 weeks out.... I am going to try and retrain him as a TF and hope he gets on the end of everything. 

[Dai_]

I'll give this a go soon. Great idea, fair play! 

Only downside is that you've made the manager English. That is horrendous. 🤢🤮😡

[Scratch]

5 hours ago, Bad Robot said:

I love the idea of this challenge! I will probably end up following the player around clubs rather than him following me. I don't want to hold him back 😂

Unfortunately got injured in his 3rd game for me. Only 2 weeks out.... I am going to try and retrain him as a TF and hope he gets on the end of everything. 

Yeah, I think that's what I love about this one. I just finished the 3rd season and have had a different tactic and different role for him each season, but I want to start again and go even more different, like trying him as a TF and trying him at a different club etc. I might play this one several times...

[Scratch]

3 hours ago, Dai_ said:

I'll give this a go soon. Great idea, fair play! 

Only downside is that you've made the manager English. That is horrendous. 🤢🤮😡

Thanks.

Yeah, I originally had the manager as Australian, which would have been a lot better obviously, but then I added the back story about the manager being disgraced and I thought "he can't be Australian, everyone knows we'd never f*%^ing say anything f*%^ing inappropriate for f*%^'s sake". So I made him English... 

Same thing with young Johnny. I originally had him as Australian but with high Professionalism and Work Rate. But that was too boring, so I made him unprofessional and lazy to make it more challenging - but then he wasn't Australian anymore, because we're hard workers who never do anything wrong. Then I realised he must have been English...

to all my English mates! But you know I'm right! 🤣

[broodje kip]

On 03/04/2022 at 19:05, Scratch said:

Damn, you gonna beat me at my own challenge? 🤣

Revenge is best served cold 😎

[Tammy lois]

I love the idea of this challenge  i would give this a go after my exam by may👍

[Bad Robot]

I'm 30 games in now (December.) I'm still finding this an interesting challenge as usually I just loan all my youngsters until they're ready for a place in the team. Johnny has 7 goals and 0 assists so far. He's slowly improving but still a liability 😂

I've been starting him when he's fit but starting to think I should have just approached it more logically and brought him off the bench until he's ready. Still training him as a TF but his aerial is going up slower than all other attributes, hoping they get a boost! Interested to hear how others are progressing. 

[StuartM]

I've been overplaying him and had the odd good game (so more assists and similar goals) but I've also been struggling with my tactic... I suspect I will restart 😂 but may keep this save as a mess around... I've also been training him as a striker

[Dai_]

7 minutes ago, StuartM said:

I've been overplaying him and had the odd good game (so more assists and similar goals) but I've also been struggling with my tactic... I suspect I will restart 😂 but may keep this save as a mess around... I've also been training him as a striker

I'm the same. Using my first go as a tester. His returns (so far) are quite good, I feel but it's hard to know what I should be getting out of him.

[Scratch]

3 hours ago, Bad Robot said:

I'm 30 games in now (December.) I'm still finding this an interesting challenge as usually I just loan all my youngsters until they're ready for a place in the team. Johnny has 7 goals and 0 assists so far. He's slowly improving but still a liability 😂

I've been starting him when he's fit but starting to think I should have just approached it more logically and brought him off the bench until he's ready. Still training him as a TF but his aerial is going up slower than all other attributes, hoping they get a boost! Interested to hear how others are progressing. 

I played him in the first season too, but played him as an IF as I figured it would have less impact on the team if he was running around uselessly out there. He levelled up decently, but still had a pretty quiet season compared to what I'm used to.

I think next time I'll experiment with training him as a TF and bring in an Aerial mentor as well (but probably still play him as an IF at first).

[Scratch]

2 hours ago, StuartM said:

I've been overplaying him and had the odd good game (so more assists and similar goals) but I've also been struggling with my tactic... I suspect I will restart 😂 but may keep this save as a mess around... I've also been training him as a striker

So far (season 4 just finished), I still can't settle on a tactic. I've used a different one each season! In season 4, out of desperation, I went to the TT Baster, hoping more goals overall would translate to more contributions for him. It was his best season so far, especially after I tweaked it a bit, but It's really hard to tell what sort of numbers are good.

[Scratch]

2 hours ago, Dai_ said:

I'm the same. Using my first go as a tester. His returns (so far) are quite good, I feel but it's hard to know what I should be getting out of him.

Yeah, I'm the same, hard to know if the numbers I'm getting are average, lower than they should be or actually pretty good! 

I should write up my effort, but in the meantime I'll post my numbers in a sec

[Scratch]

Okay, I'm 4 seasons in now. I really should write up my effort, but in the meantime here are my numbers in case it helps. I honestly don't know if these are good, bad or indifferent, but here they are:

As I said above, I've used a different tactics in each season. Season 1 was pinching the odd goal from the IF position and levelling up (pretty decent for L1 by the end). Season 2, he was a T in the AMC position behind a TF. Season 3 he was alone up front as a P or T, but with a TF who could play in the AMC position acting as an AM behind him, Season 4 he was a P or T between two TFs (later PFs) in the TT Blaster.

He really stepped it up in season 4 as you can see, but he's looking pretty good now attribute wise. Aerial is still only 12, but Crossing is up to 18 and I've been using him on Corners since day 1. I guess I need to change tactic again next season, but we'll have to see about that.

[Scratch]

@FuddledFox - we haven't won the EPL yet, or the UCL, but we picked up this one and we dedicated the win to you.

Let me know when you're free and the lads and I will bring the cup round to yours for a few drinks. It holds more that you'd think.

[Dai_]

2 hours ago, Scratch said:

Okay, I'm 4 seasons in now. I really should write up my effort, but in the meantime here are my numbers in case it helps. I honestly don't know if these are good, bad or indifferent, but here they are:

As I said above, I've used a different tactics in each season. Season 1 was pinching the odd goal from the IF position and levelling up (pretty decent for L1 by the end). Season 2, he was a T in the AMC position behind a TF. Season 3 he was alone up front as a P or T, but with a TF who could play in the AMC position acting as an AM behind him, Season 4 he was a P or T between two TFs (later PFs) in the TT Blaster.

He really stepped it up in season 4 as you can see, but he's looking pretty good now attribute wise. Aerial is still only 12, but Crossing is up to 18 and I've been using him on Corners since day 1. I guess I need to change tactic again next season, but we'll have to see about that.

Judging by your first season, mine is going very well. I did give him a bit more credit than expecting him to "run around useless" though (😂) and have thrown him in at the focal point as my playmaker & no.10.

[Scratch]

10 minutes ago, Dai_ said:

Judging by your first season, mine is going very well. I did give him a bit more credit than expecting him to "run around useless" though (😂) and have thrown him in at the focal point as my playmaker & no.10.

There you go. You have to back your players! I just figured his CA was so low he wouldn't do much for the first few months at least or maybe half a season.

[StuartM]

I did have this one but it was a bit of an outlier:

@broodje kip is keeping his cards close to his chest after a stellar start!

[broodje kip]

12 hours ago, StuartM said:

I did have this one but it was a bit of an outlier:

@broodje kip is keeping his cards close to his chest after a stellar start!

I was a bit busy lately actually 😅

[Scratch]

17 hours ago, StuartM said:

I did have this one but it was a bit of an outlier:

@broodje kip is keeping his cards close to his chest after a stellar start!

That's great. I don't think I've gotten him to score 4 at any point so far.

You can never tell with Mister Sandwich @broodje kip. It could be he's going REALLY great and keeping it quiet so he can serve his revenge cold later, just the way he likes it. Or maybe it's going so terribly he can't tell us (in which case he'll probably say he's been too busy to play it). I wouldn't be surprised by either.

added 0 minutes later

4 hours ago, broodje kip said:

I was a bit busy lately actually 😅

Wait a minute...

Edited April 9, 2022 by Scratch

[broodje kip]

2 hours ago, Scratch said:

That's great. I don't think I've gotten him to score 4 at any point so far.

You can never tell with Mister Sandwich @broodje kip. It could be he's going REALLY great and keeping it quiet so he can serve his revenge cold later, just the way he likes it. Or maybe it's going so terribly he can't tell us (in which case he'll probably say he's been too busy to play it). I wouldn't be surprised by either.

added 0 minutes later

Wait a minute...

Oh well Scratchy lad, you know me well  

[Scratch]

I'll write this up sometime, but I got to the end of the 5 seasons:

Didn't reach his peak. Couldn't settle on a tactic (went with something new for first half of S5, but no assists, so went back to TT Blaster for second half). I'll try again sometime and try train him in Aerial. 

BTW, I gotta say I hate Man City. We were a point in front of them going into the last weekend, but we drew and they won, so they took the League by 1 point. Then they beat us in a crazy 5-4 FA Cup Final that could have gone either way, meaning we didn't win anything: 

[Dai_]

That's a really good total! Well done mate.

On 5k wages too! 🤣

I've just finished season 3 and I'm also struggling to settle on a formation that suits. I'm finding myself just moving Johnny from CAM when his goals drop to CF when his assists drop, depending on how his last performance went. 

I also wish I had aimed some training at his aerial ability earlier. 

I'm Enjoying it though. Which is the main thing.

Edited April 11, 2022 by Dai_

[Scratch]

11 hours ago, Dai_ said:

That's a really good total! Well done mate.

On 5k wages too! 🤣

I've just finished season 3 and I'm also struggling to settle on a formation that suits. I'm finding myself just moving Johnny from CAM when his goals drop to CF when his assists drop, depending on how his last performance went. 

I also wish I had aimed some training at his aerial ability earlier. 

I'm Enjoying it though. Which is the main thing.

Thanks mate. I'm happy enough with the numbers he got, but expect someone to smash that at some point!

I went to offer him a new contract at one point in the last season or two, but he wanted a lot, so I said nope and backed out gently. He never got upset by it, so we just went along like that.

Anyway, glad you're enjoying it, that indeed is the main thing! Good luck! 😄

 

[Bad Robot]

Putting up some big numbers there! I thought I had no hope in keeping up. I moved to Hull midway through season 1 and had to spend £5.25 to bring Johnny with me. Nearly all my transfer budget on an out of form and unprofessional youngster who only had 7 goals and a 6.6 average rating at that point. In the Championship/2nd half of the season something just worked and he got 5 more goals but 16 assists. Still not moving up in aerial though...Not sure he will ever be a TF. Maybe he's just vertically challenged!

Excited for what he can do in his 2nd year even though his stats still look awful.

[Scratch]

1 hour ago, Bad Robot said:

Putting up some big numbers there! I thought I had no hope in keeping up. I moved to Hull midway through season 1 and had to spend £5.25 to bring Johnny with me. Nearly all my transfer budget on an out of form and unprofessional youngster who only had 7 goals and a 6.6 average rating at that point. In the Championship/2nd half of the season something just worked and he got 5 more goals but 16 assists. Still not moving up in aerial though...Not sure he will ever be a TF. Maybe he's just vertically challenged!

Excited for what he can do in his 2nd year even though his stats still look awful.

Ouch, spending all your money on Johhny must have hurt. I think I'll try to move next time, but hopefully to a top club. The Manager has a pretty good reputation, so should be able to get some decent jobs. From memory though, it can be hard to move unless you actually resign, in which case it seems more clubs will consider you. Bit of a risk though! I wouldn't mind moving to Serie A - although I'm not sure what the work permit situation is for Johhny. Lots to consider!

His height is 1.83 metres - or rather that was the height of the player I edited to create Johnny and I left that the same (the save file has everyone's height and weight, but doesn't show it anywhere in the game). So he's not particularly tall or short. Not sure how that will affect whether he trains in Aerial or not. SI Games have consistently said height is not used in the game, and I believe that when it comes to working out who wins a header - I think that will just be down to Aerial. But I've always wondered if tall players are more likely to level up in Aerial than shorter players... But who knows!

EDIT: Forgot to say good luck for season 2. So - good luck! 🙂

Edited April 12, 2022 by Scratch