Start with a leaky gym, a worn pitch and a handful of hopefuls. Six
divisions sit above you.
Find them
Scouting is a gamble
Send scouts to local schools, grassroots clubs and street football.
Every prospect has a hidden ceiling your scouts can only estimate —
so you might unearth a generational talent, or waste a season on a
lad who was never going to make it.
Develop them
Every week is a trade-off
Set the training focus and balance intensity against injury and
burnout. Upgrade the pitch, the gym, the analysis room and the
recovery suite. Watch a fourteen-year-old turn into something.
Play them
Match day, minute by minute
Give the team talk, follow the game as it unfolds, name your Man of
the Match — then hear what the local press, the visiting scouts and
the players' families made of it.
Sell them
The hardest decision in the game
The bigger clubs come calling. Sell now and fund the academy, or
keep him another season and risk injury, a plateau, or the interest
drying up. Agents take their cut until your reputation grows.
Survive
Wages are due every week
A running-cost economy with a parent club watching the books. Miss
the wage bill often enough and they'll sell your best player out
from under you.
Climb
Six divisions, promotion and the drop
Finish top two and go up. Bottom two and you're down. Name a
captain, take the board's season objective, and build something
that outlasts any one player.