Don't you just love it when the kids step up!

Wow... This season has been getting better and better.

Not only has my previous best young striker finally taken up his role as the spearhead of the attack and ran with it, but now my £6 mil 15 year old of a couple seasons back has finally began to show what he's capable of.

Over the previous seasons he's had 2 goals and 5 goals in about 10-15 appearances for the first team, not a bad effort from a 15 year old/ 16 year old. Well now it's january and he's just hit 11 goals in 18 apps, including 5 goals in the Champions League group stage!

What about everyone else, any kids setting the place alight?

What about everyone else, any kids setting the place alight?

There's plenty in Belfast.

in my second season with man city, i decided against trying to buy huge players for huge money and started playing some younger players. i play 1 upfront with santa cruz and evans rotating and evans is making me think of selling big santa...it's great stuff!

I signed a young central defender from a lowly Spanish side as a 16 year old on a free and pretty much forgot about him as he developed in the Under 19s. Only when he was promoted to the seniors as a 20 year old did I see he'd become a world-class defender already! Instant key member of the squad and hit 7 goals last season (also my free-kick taker) and has another 7 this season and wanted by Real Madrid, Barcelona and AC Milan. Also recently got his first cap

I found a 16 year old Greek centre back, scouts said he would be a good Premiership player. Signed him for £100k and got Thiago Silva to Tutor him. 2 years later I am selling Silva and Steven Taylor and this Greek kid is amazing, already captain of the Greek team at 18 with nearly 20 caps. He is worth £8m at the moment but turned down £21m for Man United.

I've signed about 8 players under 17 so far in my current Newcastle career, all of whom are int eh reserves or u18 squads. I've had one or two of them had to step up to the first team mainly because of injuries or suspensions but none of them have really sparkled yet. I dont really expect them to either as their stats arent amazing but do show potential.

I'm also conscious of over playing them, I'm of the believe (right or wrong) that playing them too often when they are young reduces their career potential (they tend to burn out before their time), or at least it certainly effects their resilience to injury. Just my opinion based on a the last few releases of FM.

Quite a lot of talented youth at my Lyon game expecting them to make the step up in the 4th season tbh one an English regen won me a game recently in his first full start with two goals

i signed a young fullback from Glentoron (sp?) who is 15 for 3k with notts county. My scout report said he will be a good player in the future and in my first season my first choice left winger myles weston was injured and i could not loan anyone else in because i had loaned in too many players and my parent club Villa were not offering out many players so i let my young lad have a few games and after 5 appearences in which he became the clubs youngest player and youngest scorer, he had 2 MOTM games and had 3 assists. now im struggling to keep him as clubs keep offering money to buy him.

I found a 16 year old Greek centre back, scouts said he would be a good Premiership player. Signed him for £100k and got Thiago Silva to Tutor him. 2 years later I am selling Silva and Steven Taylor and this Greek kid is amazing, already captain of the Greek team at 18 with nearly 20 caps. He is worth £8m at the moment but turned down £21m for Man United.

not kyriakos popadopoulos by any chance? he has got bags of potential but not world class on my save then again he obviously has a minus PA so he could be better on others

At the other end of the spectrum, I took over Hyde in my game in the Blue Sq North 3rd season and they had a bare bones squad with no money and right on the edge of their wage budget. I had no choice but to promote 5 youth players to cover the scarcity in the first team squad, half way through the season and 3 of them are first team regulars with one a regular on the bench.

I think youth players who make the step up do well initially at any level, momentum of breaking into the first team set-up etc, but then the higher up the leagues you are the harder it is for youth players to keep it up.

I was gutted when Joe Cole got injured and was out for the season but my youngsters are even better. I might play my older players in the cup and save my youngsters for the league

I've had a couple of U18s make the fringes so far in 09 but none broke into the starting XI. The average age of my squad is 23 anyway and its quite large at the minute so it quite hard for them, I've only one of the fringes so far. In 08 I had a regen called Charlie Bell who pretty much saved me from the sack. He was a DM but basically covered all across the back four, played as an attacking midfielder, winger striker and even in goal once. Scored 18 goals in 4 months, 10 assists and 12 MoM. Now he's 24 and wants a transfer!

i love it even more when old timers retire but they dont lol

I bought a 19 year old Romanian striker who went straight into the first team when I was in the championship and he got 32 goals in 39 games, then helped us survive in the prem with 20 goals in 40 games which although not prolific was still a good return. Last season he helped my Crewe team finish 4th when he fired in 20 in 34 games. He was bought for 600k and is now worth £10.25 million, I hope I never have to sell him as I want him to break the scoring records and become a club legend.

bongani mahlungu

was scouring the free transfers and saw hed been released by a south african team

so went for him sent him to wp feeder

got 25 in 33

brought him back

put him in the youth

looked he was on fire so i gave him a chance in a league cup match

scored 2 and hasnt looked back

got 9 in 8 and bojan and pato cant get a look in

im celtic in the epl

finally looking to break the top 4

There's plenty in Belfast.

all too true:D