Club-Grown Team

Has anyone tried keeping their team without purchasing players unless they started in your academy and just raising the youth team into the first team slowly?

I am planning on doing it with Watford on 2010 as they have probably the best youth academy in England. Whether the developers of the game know that or not. im not sure.

Difficult as doubt your academy alone will allow you to produce a viable Premiership team. Even Man Utd in the 90s bought in some stars.

However, what I often do is only buy 15-17 yr olds who can become "home grown" under the rules so eventually my team is fully "home grown".

That I would consider doing as I don't think enough of the players coming through would challenge. I may add some club favourites along the way. So home grown players and club legend/favourites just to help the transition.

This is difficult to do with Southampton who are widely regarded by top teams and top managers as 1 of the best youth academies in the country. We've sold more players to top teams in recent years that have come through our academy than any other team, apart from last season it was 1 or 2 players a year being sold to Premiership teams that had come through our youth. (Walcott, Bale and Baird being 3 players I can think of off the top of my head all being sold within 18 months of each other iirc)

Doing it with any team would be VERY difficult so good luck if you choose to do so!

I think doing it with Watford would actually be fine, despite by name I am a watford fan using a friends account, and they have an academy that will most certainly keep you in the championship for as long as need be.

I highly doubt it will survive the Premier League, but I think anyone with a Youth facilities of 20 can probably survive League One, possibly the Championship.

Also, whether Watford have the best academy in the country is also up for debate.

Difficult as doubt your academy alone will allow you to produce a viable Premiership team. Even Man Utd in the 90s bought in some stars.

However, what I often do is only buy 15-17 yr olds who can become "home grown" under the rules so eventually my team is fully "home grown".

I plan to do this with Chelsea when I receive FM10. And since our squad's average age is so high, it makes sense.

I agree, I think it would be very difficult to do it. I'm currently playing around with Arsenal and over my 10 years at the club I've had too few "own products" good enough to challenge for a spot on the first team. There was one year where I got 3 16-year olds up that was expected great things of, but only one of them is a regular in my side now and the 2nd one is just about good enough as a squad player and the third one I'm trying to sell...with no luck I might add! Think the best option would be, as mentioned, to bring in a few 16-17 year old players with potential and get them to be home grown according to the rules.

I highly doubt it will survive the Premier League, but I think anyone with a Youth facilities of 20 can probably survive League One, possibly the Championship.

Also, whether Watford have the best academy in the country is also up for debate.

We have 10 Academy products in our first team atm and we built and developed our own School for kids and teenagers to go to with the major lessons being Sports and Football. It's called the Harefield academy. The latest successful player from our Academy is Ashley Young and we have player coming through such as Ross Jenkins, Lee Hodson, Scott Loach and Dale Bennett.

But I can understand why you find it debatable.

Well if you look at, say, West Ham, who have produced the likes of Tomkins, Stanislas, Collison, Noble and Sears as well as former Hammers like Carrick and Joe Cole...

I'm having a go at it in my East Belfast game at the moment. Currently my left back (wanted by over half the Premiership, eep), right midfielder and one of my strikers are "club-grown". Then there is a goalkeeper I've had since he was 18, a 17 year old right back, a 19 year old centre back, an 18 year old centre midfielder, a 20 year old midfielder I've had since he was 18, and a 29 year old striker who has been here since the age of 20. It's a squad with a lot of continuity.

Well if you look at, say, West Ham, who have produced the likes of Tomkins, Stanislas, Collison, Noble and Sears as well as former Hammers like Carrick and Joe Cole...

Yes but thats because they have had a good academy for about 15 years. Watford have only had their School for about 2-3 years. It will be a while before we get results like West Ham and better.

What I think I'll do with the FM10 editor is take over a team in a VERY low tier (league rep 1) and give it top facilities. Start with a bunch of 16-year olds with high potential and take them all the way. By the time we're promoted to a competitive division they should have gelled and matured and still have more than a decade in them.

Phnom, even the most unambitious player will want out of your club after a few years in.

Has anyone tried keeping their team without purchasing players unless they started in your academy and just raising the youth team into the first team slowly?

I am planning on doing it with Watford on 2010 as they have probably the best youth academy in England. Whether the developers of the game know that or not. im not sure.

I always try to do this when I play with Man Utd, but my ambitions make me too impatient and I always end up buying a few really expensive players, before January.

I plan to do this with Chelsea when I receive FM10. And since our squad's average age is so high, it makes sense.

Not the way things are looking now you won't be.

It's a very difficult challenge, because firstly you're unlikely to get a fantastic prospect every season and secondly, they won't always be in the positions you need

The longest game i've had has been until 2019 with Barcelona, during that time a few "best of their generation" players were promoted, 2 of them were Goalkeepers

What I think I'll do with the FM10 editor is take over a team in a VERY low tier (league rep 1) and give it top facilities. Start with a bunch of 16-year olds with high potential and take them all the way. By the time we're promoted to a competitive division they should have gelled and matured and still have more than a decade in them.

I'm (almost) doing this in FM2009 as we speak! The only difference is that I created the team in the BSS and won it with a bunch of 16-year olds and I'm currently 9th in the BSP in December 2009.

General consensus is that, although we'd like to think we could do it, it's unlikely without some luck in terms of regens.

I like those odds.

Not the way things are looking now you won't be.

Lol, well I mean going for all of the trophies with the aging squad. And while the 18month ban is imposed I'll arrange future transfers of young starlets.