Reserve and U18 leagues

Will FM10 have the proper Reserve and U18 league status, where you can actually view how they are performing in their respective league.

As far as I can remember you could do this in previous versions of FM except they appear to have taken that option out for FM09 so I was wondering if it would be returning for FM10.

You could do it in FM09, it's just for some reason (possibly an error in the coding) it didn't show their place at the top of the screen when you viewed your reserves/youth team. All you have to do is cycle the competitions until you find the right division, or go into their fixtures and follow the hotlink to their league.

Now what I want to know: are there any plans by SI to replace the generic reserves and u-18s leagues with the actual existing reserves/youth football pyramid?

I'd love reserve and youth-leagues with promotion and relegation rules. It isn't clear to me why I am in poule X with a couple of other teams. Of course the leagues are made so your youth and reserve players can play matches, but I think that a promotion/relegation possibility makes more clear which youth system is doing well and which one isn't.

Incorporating realistic reserve and U18 league would be a great idea.

Do reserves & youth leagues in RL have promotion & relegation??

I thought they were done by region.

Do reserves & youth leagues in RL have promotion & relegation??

I thought they were done by region.

Maybe in England, but in Holland there are normal promotion and relegation rules.

You could do it in FM09, it's just for some reason (possibly an error in the coding) it didn't show their place at the top of the screen when you viewed your reserves/youth team. All you have to do is cycle the competitions until you find the right division, or go into their fixtures and follow the hotlink to their league.

Now what I want to know: are there any plans by SI to replace the generic reserves and u-18s leagues with the actual existing reserves/youth football pyramid?

Ah okay, that's cool. Thanks I shall try that

Do reserves & youth leagues in RL have promotion & relegation??

I thought they were done by region.

No, there's very much an existing promotion and relegation system for English reserve and youth football. There's the Premier Reserve League which is fed by two regional leagues, each with parallel divisions, and there's a Premier Academy League which is fed by four parallel divisions of the Football League Youth Alliance. I think the problem for SI is that it gets somewhat more broken up after this point, possibly leaving a number of clubs without reserve/youth representation and certainly outside of the structure, but personally I cling on to the hope that if they can make up the extant "9(?) parallel divisions" idea they can make up a way of appending to the RL structure.

Also, to make it a bit more confusing, there's an entirely separate Reserve league - the Pontin's Holiday League if it still has that sponsor - which is entirely independent of the other reserve league yet receives submissions from the same teams I think. It's not like clubs have two reserve teams, they just enter two reserve leagues at the same time. Certainly I know Man City does that, I'm not sure if that's an anomaly or something.

But yeah, there's reserve and youth pyramids in England. The other problem is that I don't have the first clue how the other countries manage it, and SI may find that hard to research too...

But yeah, there's reserve and youth pyramids in England. The other problem is that I don't have the first clue how the other countries manage it, and SI may find that hard to research too...

Yes, but every country has it's own researchers, so it shouldn't be too hard I think.

Yes, but every country has it's own researchers, so it shouldn't be too hard I think.

I guess. I'm just not sure how obscure this information is in, say, Wales or the Ukraine.

Short sighted clubs like Tottenham have scrapped their reserve team.

Short sighted clubs like Tottenham have scrapped their reserve team.

The other difficulty of having a reserve/youth structure is that as it stands, you can opt out of entering a team into these leagues. Fm2009 was definately limited to require the exact number of teams in each league (you couldn't just add Celtic/Ranger to the EPL for example, you had to swap them in). I would not like to have to create the code that automated the league structure every season based on how many teams actually entered. It was hard enough for us humans to do it in FML.

The dutch youth league for example is filled with non-playable amateur teams, so that shouldn't be a problem. The only thing is that you shouldn't be able to relegate from the lowest available youth/reserve league because in that case, your youth/reserve team doesn't have any sense.

By the way, the dutch reserve league has influence because 2 reserve teams are entered into the Dutch cup. I haven't taken the time to look how it is decided in the game (maybe the first 2 teams in group 1???)

Short sighted clubs like Tottenham have scrapped their reserve team.

Stockport don't have a reserve team either, and it has massively helped the structure of the club

It has enabled young players to be 'fast-tracked' from the youth team to the first team, enabling them to get a lot more first team games rather than playing in pointless reserve games. We do have an 'Under 21 Development Squad' in place of the reserve team, but it doesn't enter a league, and friendlies are arranged throughout the season, mainly against non-league first teams.

I always axe my reserve team in FM after the first season. Why would I want to pay the wages of players who are old enough to be in the first team, but not of the required quality?

Stockport don't have a reserve team either, and it has massively helped the structure of the club

It has enabled young players to be 'fast-tracked' from the youth team to the first team, enabling them to get a lot more first team games rather than playing in pointless reserve games. We do have an 'Under 21 Development Squad' in place of the reserve team, but it doesn't enter a league, and friendlies are arranged throughout the season, mainly against non-league first teams.

I always axe my reserve team in FM after the first season. Why would I want to pay the wages of players who are old enough to be in the first team, but not of the required quality?

Well, morale? fitness? too old for youth team, but still developping for first team? Some good reasons I think.

Well, morale? fitness? too old for youth team, but still developping for first team? Some good reasons I think.

If a player is still developing but too old for youth team, I try to ease him into the first team playing him a few games at a time, and a few from the bench. I don't see the need for a reserve team, and neither does my club

Short sighted clubs like Tottenham have scrapped their reserve team.

Not shortsighted at all. Spurs don't have that many players in their Reserves squad on their webpage and playing too many games as a youngster burns them out and increases the risk of serious injury as they are still growing. Spurs will simply arrange friendlies when required.

Mind you they'd probably need to arrange quite a few as Spurs have a huge squad - such is the trigger-happiness of 'Arry.

Reserve Football is a must....

Remember what happened to Newcastle's youth development a decade ago when Wor Kevin got rid of the reserves in his first spell in charge. At the top level the reserves is a must as you are carrying a squad too large to keep happy in order to compete on two fronts and if you like cups a third.