Youth Policy

Hello all,

I was just wondering what everyone's youth policy is.

Do you just get all decent youngsters you come across so at least a few might make it and if not you can sell them on?

Do you only get youngsters you feel have a good chance of making it in your squad?

Do you not bother with youngsters, only looking to buy for now?

Personally, i am mainly the 2nd policy. I will only buy a youth player if i feel he has a high chance of breaking into my first team. if there are other good youth players on free transfers though, i will snap them up.

For regens, if my 20 JPP scout says they will be a leading prem player and 4*+ potential rating, and they are english, i will tend to get them. if they are foreign, then they also need 5* potential ratings, as i would prefer my squad to be english based.

Im interested to see everybody elses policies

This is more for GD.

I buy i lot of kids but i tend to try and get a good balance of domestic players in, my dream is for an all UK eleven without compromising quality.

I have an adsiction to buying youth, and end up with reserve/youth squads full of excellent prospects that will never get a game. It makes me a lot of money, but it's unrealistic.

I'm like Elrithal - one of my priorities is building for the future. I send out my scouts to scoop up a stupid number of teenagers - up to 30 per season, then prune a dozen or so each year. Only 3 or 4 will break into the first team squad every year, so the reserves end up with over 50 youngsters aged over 18 but under 21. I don't make much money from selling the excess since by definition they ain't worth much. I can't help it; I can't discipline myself just just acquiring four or five per year!

I follow the second option. The trouble is that i find so many good ones, they never get a first team game, so i loan them out to clubs in the league below me to get experience. They come back with greatly improved stats, a good reputation and first team football under their belt. I never tutor either as most players don't learn very much. The system works really well and i now have 5 regens in my regular first team in Season 3 at Wycombe in the Championship and 4 more on the fringes of the first team.

I depend on coach reports and on my own ability of judging their stats etc.

I try to get in about 10 youngsters every season, the number is depending on the strength of the unhidden attributes. If I'm lucky, the hidden attributes are strong, too, so those players are playing in my starting formation (this is only possible as I'm playing in lower leagues only).

I try to sign only players on a free transfer, since my transfer budget has been about 0,-- all the time. If possible, I only sign players from my club's nation (currently English, which makes the search essentially easier).

I'll only buy youngsters who may become better than my first team regulars.

I buy i lot of kids but i tend to try and get a good balance of domestic players in, my dream is for an all UK eleven without compromising quality.

Ah yes, i've tried that on 07.. had 9 in the starting line up for England, but then injuries kick in and I never had a full 11 of star players, often only able to play for 5 or 6 of them. Always had a few out around major international competitions regardless... always get a strange injury in training.. when they weren;t training

i buy players that will improve the under 18s and have a chane of either making first team or being sold at a profit,

the most i spent on a youth player was £2.3million for a regen to play for my under 18s (hopefully make first team) whos rapid, shame hes just broken his leg, and his only decent stats are physical (i love round the GK ppm)

i buy great youths but buy them in abundance and never play the half of them although id like to

I bring in a lot, usually when they are young and don't cost much. Some make it through, some don't but I would rather sign a player for half a million who I then had to sell 3 or 4 years later for around the same price or making a small loss, than not signing someone who was then worth 20 million and a world class player in 5 years time.

I also often sign young players so that other teams can't get them (providing they are not too expensive, I wouldn't shell out a million on a player I had no intention of developing into a first team player).

Does cause headaches though, as currently I have 4 talented young leftbacks aged between 15 and 18 and they unfortunately aren't all going to make it into the senior team. Similar problem with goalkeepers too.

I buy a lot of talented young players. I think I've slightly overdone it with the number of strikers I have in my current team though...

I get a scout wit JA20, JPA20 and let him toddle off around the under 18's. Anyone he reccomends i get him to scout again and again, if the reports are still good then i snap them up. Once i have them, their age decides what i do with them :-

16 - 18 - In my under 18's

18 - 20 - Reserves or off out to a feeder club

I tend to bring them back at 22ish, maybe before if they are looking decent enough and they can play cup games/sub appeaances.

I buy a lot of talented young players. I think I've slightly overdone it with the number of strikers I have in my current team though...

I had this problem a while back, started buying on scout reports alone and didn't take into account whether i needed the player or not. I ended up with about twelve youth strikers.

I buy a lot of talented young players. I think I've slightly overdone it with the number of strikers I have in my current team though...

I once bought so many South American promising youngsters (playing as Fiorentina), by the time they got to be 20-22 years old, I ended up playing them all at the same time against the weaker teams. Ended up selling a lot of the older stars. Still have the save game somewhere (up to year 2024 or thereabouts).

I tend to buy in far too many youngsters too, and can never play them all as my squad is just too big. I even how two line ups now, home league games go to my best youths whilst the other games are usually my proper first XI. Very much squad rotation Rafa style!

I tend to buy in about 2-5 youngsters a season all of top quality.

I never really get far enough with games to progress from there though.