Idea: Youth Academy

You know that time of year (about 18th June?) when you are given a batch of youngsters, and your Ass. Man picks one as being the 'most promising'?

I was thinking, what if you could choose which players you want.

Say you are offered twenty (or so) 15-16 year olds from your local area. But you can only choose ten to be given a Youth Contract at your club.

This means you could pick the ones you like best, or the ones you think you'll need most in the upcoming seasons. This could remove the randomness of the 'Fresh batch of youngsters' you get each season.

The rejects? Who knows, maybe one will join your rival , he could end up proving you wrong.

It probably sounds like a rubbish reality show, but I think it could work well.

Great idea, it'd make the regen generation dates just that bit more interesting

I've got to admit, this is one of my favorite ideas that I've seen recently.

I've always thought that we, as managers, should have more to do with the youth players in our team. I'm not really sure how this would work though. Perhaps if you could get an invitation to a match where some youth players from your academy play in a match, and you can choose if you want to promote some of these to your U-18 squad, release them or keep them in the academy.

It could be like a trial game, just for youth players.

But yes, I would like something like your idea in the game.

A great idea as this is exactly what happens IRL. Post it in the ideas and wishlist thread. There is a link at the top of this page

A great idea as this is exactly what happens IRL. Post it in the ideas and wishlist thread. There is a link at the top of this page

Sure he already has this one - SI regularly scan the forums so surely it'll be tagged if they're interested in adding it

Fully support this idea, sounds great and will have me anticipating the regen dates more, kind of like trial days for LLMs...

Thanks for the feedback guys .

So, should I take this to the Wishlist?

A good idea this mate.

Take it to the wishlist.

I think you should be able to build youth camps across the globe

Ell69, do you mean like 'Soccer Schools' in different parts of the world?

You know that time of year (about 18th June?) when you are given a batch of youngsters, and your Ass. Man picks one as being the 'most promising'?

I was thinking, what if you could choose which players you want.

Say you are offered twenty (or so) 15-16 year olds from your local area. But you can only choose ten to be given a Youth Contract at your club.

This means you could pick the ones you like best, or the ones you think you'll need most in the upcoming seasons. This could remove the randomness of the 'Fresh batch of youngsters' you get each season.

The rejects? Who knows, maybe one will join your rival , he could end up proving you wrong.

It probably sounds like a rubbish reality show, but I think it could work well.

When your new influx of youth players is generated, you can immediately release any you don't want. You can also take charge of selecting who from your youth gets a pro contract when they're of age. So you can already choose which youth players you want from a pool. You can also choose from those that are generated without a club. Sorry to be the voice of dissent, but I really do not see what the difference would be to the current system.

I agree with those who have said they like this idea. It's something I had thought about in the past as well so it gets a

So you can already choose which youth players you want from a pool.

Really? How?

When your new influx of youth players is generated, you can immediately release any you don't want. You can also take charge of selecting who from your youth gets a pro contract when they're of age. So you can already choose which youth players you want from a pool. You can also choose from those that are generated without a club. Sorry to be the voice of dissent, but I really do not see what the difference would be to the current system.

You can release them, but you have to pay compensation. Fine for big clubs, but try being a BSP club on the verge of admin and groaning as another batch of useless players come in you can't afford to sack...

Ell69, do you mean like 'Soccer Schools' in different parts of the world?

Youth camps had me thinking of the SS youths and that kinda weird stuff...

Great idea, I've posted similar in the past, but you've put it a little more eloquently than I could!

I like this idea a lot.

It would be good if in a similar way to trial days you had two squads play each other and then you picked after that.

very good idea

Really? How?

The players that are generated in your club. That's a pool of players. The players that are generated without a club, that's a pool too.

You look at them and select the ones you want.

What the OP is asking for is a list of players from which you select the ones you want. What happens now is that you get a list of players, that you can select from or leave alone according to your whim. What's the difference?

You can release them, but you have to pay compensation

Even the sixteen year olds?

The players that are generated in your club. That's a pool of players. The players that are generated without a club, that's a pool too.

You look at them and select the ones you want.

What the OP is asking for is a list of players from which you select the ones you want. What happens now is that you get a list of players, that you can select from or leave alone according to your whim. What's the difference?

You don't look at them and select the ones you want. You get given a bunch of young players and do what you can with them. You get no choice who you get at all.

The difference is that you could watch a match with young players, and offer the ones you like the look of a youth contract.

Big difference, imo.

Even the sixteen year olds?

Yes. You may have to pay £5k for some, and that is a lot for a LL side.

You don't look at them and select the ones you want. You get given a bunch of young players and do what you can with them. You get no choice who you get at all.

The difference is that you could watch a match with young players, and offer the ones you like the look of a youth contract.

Big difference, imo.

So what you really want is a larger pool to select from, and some matches to watch before selecting? So you want the game to generate x amount of youth players, all unattached, and then enter into bidding wars with the other clubs to land the players you want?

Yes. You may have to pay £5k for some, and that is a lot for a LL side.

Can't say that I've ever noticed paying compensation when releasing a player from a youth contract. From a professional contract, yes, but never a Yth player.

I think you should get the option to get more youths if you put more money into that. I mean, if you look at for example Porto and Sporting, those teams have quite damn big youth squads.

I don't think selecting which youths you want would be good... But you should be given the choice whether you want any at all or not, since youth players can be a huge blow to a club with poor economy.

But, if you have good economy, I don't see why you shouldn't be able to put enough money into it to have atleast 30-40 players in your youth squad.

So what you really want is a larger pool to select from, and some matches to watch before selecting? So you want the game to generate x amount of youth players, all unattached, and then enter into bidding wars with the other clubs to land the players you want?

I said my idea above. Just for the club I am managing I would like;

- About 25 youth players to play in the academy from season 1. However many I take each season are replaced by new young players (roughly)

- To be able to watch small matches or get reports on some of these players, so I can choose which ones of the 25 I would like to take from my academy into my youth team.

- To have the option to either promote them, leave them in the academy or just release them (in which case they enter the normal game as a free transfer)

If the amount of young players brought into the academy was consistant and you were limited to taking 8 out a season then there would be the 25 players made at the start of the game, quite a lot yes. Then (a maximum of) 8 or 9 made every season to replace promoted/released ones. So, long term, it wouldn't be much more.

Can't say that I've ever noticed paying compensation when releasing a player from a youth contract. From a professional contract, yes, but never a Yth player.

I have noticed this. You also only get about 6 players a year, if you release all the bad ones you'll have 1 maybe two players in your academy. This isn't enough, so we should have the chance to choose more.

Love this idea, anything that benefits the long term enjoyment of the game (academy, newegens, etc)

I like this idea and also support the other idea of a trial match that you'd be able watch and pick out the youngsters that you think would fit in well at your club

Good idea Chewyfun, this would get the manager more involved with the club's youth set up for sure.

Ok, it's in the Wishlist. Would have done it last night but my Internet went down.

Thanks for the feedback guys

Ell69, do you mean like 'Soccer Schools' in different parts of the world?

Yeah so say I built one in brazil, I could get a pick of some of the youngsters and get them into my academy.I think it was on a different manager game years ago, cant remember

I think you should be able to build youth camps across the globe

This was on Total Club Manager 2004, but they never really used it to its full potential, i know SI would but i doubt they would take the risk in the next game, just my opinion, even though i like it, perhaps regional youth camps would be more of a possibility.

As for the main idea in hand, i like it, i think it shows a great deal more of realism and decision making, rather than the assman just doing it for you, you get to decide the future of the promising youth stars, a quick question though, does reputation play a factor in the ability of the players?

You know that time of year (about 18th June?) when you are given a batch of youngsters, and your Ass. Man picks one as being the 'most promising'?

I was thinking, what if you could choose which players you want.

Say you are offered twenty (or so) 15-16 year olds from your local area. But you can only choose ten to be given a Youth Contract at your club.

This means you could pick the ones you like best, or the ones you think you'll need most in the upcoming seasons. This could remove the randomness of the 'Fresh batch of youngsters' you get each season.

The rejects? Who knows, maybe one will join your rival , he could end up proving you wrong.

It probably sounds like a rubbish reality show, but I think it could work well.

Very good idea Perhaps this could be expanded into having some sort of trial day but for youth players which you could attend yourself of send your scout.

Yeah so say I built one in brazil, I could get a pick of some of the youngsters and get them into my academy.I think it was on a different manager game years ago, cant remember

Very good idea, it ties in with the ideas in this thread well, i think that it will be hard to implement but it would be a great addition that could be added to/expanded in the years to come. People were mentioning that they would like to see more real information in the game to do with their team, such as maps. This would be the ideal oppotunity to encorpoate maps into the game to see where your academies are.

Just to add another spin to this idea, why not have past players be able to run/set-up their own academies as another option instead of being a coach at your club. This is what Beckham will do when he retires aswell as promoting the game within the USA.

The past players could approach you with a youngster they feel could be the next best player in the world which they have at their academy.

I definately think that youth is the next big improvement that should be made in the game to be worked on througout the next decade

You know that time of year (about 18th June?) when you are given a batch of youngsters, and your Ass. Man picks one as being the 'most promising'?

I was thinking, what if you could choose which players you want.

Say you are offered twenty (or so) 15-16 year olds from your local area. But you can only choose ten to be given a Youth Contract at your club.

This means you could pick the ones you like best, or the ones you think you'll need most in the upcoming seasons. This could remove the randomness of the 'Fresh batch of youngsters' you get each season.

The rejects? Who knows, maybe one will join your rival , he could end up proving you wrong.

It probably sounds like a rubbish reality show, but I think it could work well.

I haven't read all the replies, but I love this idea. I actually proposed it myself back in FM07 and the thread was a huge success. (Purged in the move, though). I would love to have 30-40 14/15 year olds, then select the ones I want in my youth team, and perhaps pass on the rest to lower league clubs.

Excellent Idea!...One problem is you still have to control the amount of regens in the game!

A similar system used to be in the LMA games (99/00 or 2001) for the playstation - you'd have a list of youth players that you could promote during the season and any you didn't promote by the end of the season (or when they turned 18) would disappear and be replaced with new youth players next season.

In FM it could be done in two ways from the top of my head:

- As mentioned instead of getting the list of newly promoted players, your given a list of 15/16year olds and asked to pick which ones you want to give a contract to.

The amount of players you get to choose from could be determined by your reputation and facilities - higher rep or better facilities means more choice.

Possibility of an Academy director staff role to get a better selection.

Possibility of Club Knowledge affecting Nationalities.

At the start of the season you are given the list say with at least one player per common positions (or your formation) you are then given the scout/coach report from your staff or Academy Director with the predicted CA/PA and offer who you want a contract.

The limits on who you give a contract to could be down to wage budget, money, or just managers discretion - or boards discretion.

The players that you don't want can then either be made free agents or be removed from the game to keep the database size down. (possibly to make sure at least some regens stay in the game, a preset number are retained as freebies depending on how many players are offered contracts, so if only a few are offered contracts there would be loads of freebies waiting to be picked up.)

- An alternative is to use the current gray players that sit in your U18 squad.

No players are promoted and you are given a number of gray players for the season. (Possibly give them a different colour than the reserve/current grays so they are not confused - these youth ones have a PA determined at the beginning of the season in the same way as regens now.)

Throughout the season you are able to get reports on them or offer them a youth contract.

At the end of the season they are deleted and replaced by a new bunch next season (or to keep database numbers up some are promoted as free agents).

The main problem with these systems is making sure the correct number of regens are promoted/retained through the game - if too many are kept the database is going to grow, to few and there will be no players in the game.

You've also got to ensure a good spread of PA's are generated/retained.

Possibly also to make people take more of a chance have the predicted PA range rather large so say a player with a PA100-PA200 get reported as Premiership potential rather than PA100-120 League One, PA120-150 Championship, PA150-200 Premiership foe example.

You know that time of year (about 18th June?) when you are given a batch of youngsters, and your Ass. Man picks one as being the 'most promising'?

I was thinking, what if you could choose which players you want.

Say you are offered twenty (or so) 15-16 year olds from your local area. But you can only choose ten to be given a Youth Contract at your club.

This means you could pick the ones you like best, or the ones you think you'll need most in the upcoming seasons. This could remove the randomness of the 'Fresh batch of youngsters' you get each season.

The rejects? Who knows, maybe one will join your rival , he could end up proving you wrong.

It probably sounds like a rubbish reality show, but I think it could work well.

i also think that you should be able to go to other countries and get youth players. for example arsene wenger goes to brazil and gets a rivaldo or someone for the academy

i also think that you should be able to go to other countries and get youth players. for example arsene wenger goes to brazil and gets a rivaldo or someone for the academy

You wouldn't be able to do that as it would be against FIFA rules, unless the player was over 18 but then he wouldn't be an academy player.

Im loving this idea, fair play lad

how about your youth team manager occasionally showing you a young 9 year old he thinks could go all the way and if you choose to 'sign' him, then you will get yearly reports as to how he's doing

how about your youth team manager occasionally showing you a young 9 year old he thinks could go all the way and if you choose to 'sign' him, then you will get yearly reports as to how he's doing

No, this is too young. I like the idea of choosing which players come into your youth team, but aged 14 at least. Maybe even 15.

At 9 almost all of his stats would be under 5.

I think you should be able to build youth camps across the globe

Yeah add it on to the wishlist mate, sounds a great idea

I love it when a new batach of youngsters comes through (man that statement sounds a bt dodgy :o) and seeing if there are any potential gems.

This idea would make the process all the more interesting and involved.

I love it when a new batch of youngsters comes through (man that statement sounds a bt dodgy :o)

Erm... yes.

Yes it does .

I think you should be able to build youth camps across the globe

This is a decent idea too, would be great to set up scouting/youth systems globally (I'm sure its done in real life??).

Would again be a great addition to the game and youth system

This is a decent idea too, would be great to set up scouting/youth systems globally (I'm sure its done in real life??).

Would again be a great addition to the game and youth system

It is done in real life. Man Utd have scouting/youth systems all over the place. China,Brazil,Portugal etc and Ajax have them in South Africa etc.

Would be a great idea having a youth academy and having schools/camps around the world to develop young players at then offer them a trial or contract.

You could also be able to send them to different camps eg,

A Brazilian player needs a work permit before he can join you, you could send him to one of your academys in Belgium or the likes of to get a visa.

very good idea

This idea seems like a waste of time, the game currently has it right - a manager will very very rarely have an input on the players coming into the U18/19 squad from the youth academy.

And with FM09 you already have the power to dump who you don't want, and go scouting for all the players you do want.

This just adds something completely pointless and unrealistic to the game.

This idea seems like a waste of time, the game currently has it right - a manager will very very rarely have an input on the players coming into the U18/19 squad from the youth academy.

And with FM09 you already have the power to dump who you don't want, and go scouting for all the players you do want.

This just adds something completely pointless and unrealistic to the game.

Wasn't Benitez' contract delayed because he wanted more control over youth? Maybe it could be an option when getting a new contract.

I struggle to see the point of this idea. Are you simply suggesting more regens should come into your youth team each season? If so I totally agree with you, absolutely. As for discarding the ones you dont want, you just release them, it costs nothing as they are not on pro terms.

I don't see where youth acadamies comes into your point. Could you expand?

I struggle to see the point of this idea. Are you simply suggesting more regens should come into your youth team each season? If so I totally agree with you, absolutely. As for discarding the ones you dont want, you just release them, it costs nothing as they are not on pro terms.

I don't see where youth acadamies comes into your point. Could you expand?

If you have read the whol thread but still don't understand the idea then I don't think you ever will.

Yeah i've been playng Fifa manager 2009 a bit and it hsa this it's a nice feature

If you have read the whol thread but still don't understand the idea then I don't think you ever will.

You expanded further on your point, I wanted to hear what the OP was getting at.

On your point, would you have the academy listed below your Under 18 team, with specific coaches assigned? Or merely just a news item and a way of avoiding paying compensation. (I can't remember paying compensation to a youth player but I could be wrong)

As for watching kids in matches, whats the point as long as we can see their attributes!? If they have a high PA not represented in their attributes, it would not show anyway as a 16 year old!