Realising 17 year olds on their birthday, harsh ????

So, every season you get a bunch of new youngsters come into the club 9 times out of 10 they are sh*t. But you forget about them until its their 17th birthday and you have to offer them a contract. Obviously they are not good enough and you don't want their smelly, spotty, under age drinking ass hanging around the club making the top stars feel unwelcome so you release them on a free on their birthday. Anyone else feel sorry for the poor lads when you do it ? Or do you sometimes like me and say ' Here we are son the best birthday present you'll ever get ' and give them £4/5000 ???

In some ways, yes - when I get that notice, I do guiltily take a look more closely at how they've performed and even if I thought they weren't going to make it before, I often end up giving them one then.

Just did that with one of my youngsters, who is touted the next Xavi (but then again I've had 2-3 of those, and they've turned out to be the next Keith Andrews instead). I don't think he has a future at my club but he's scored 9 in 9 from attacking midfield so far, so he deserves it.

Hahahahahahaha.

Yes, I always release crappy players when they turn pro and yes, that is on their birthday.

I always feel a little guilty, then realise its just a game.

I go shopping for talent after it so its all good im making other fired 17yr olds happy

They all get released on the first day of the new season for me because I don't like 17 year olds having $4000 in one hit

But shopping for them is great

So, every season you get a bunch of new youngsters come into the club 9 times out of 10 they are sh*t.

And the rest of the time they are utterly utterly useless (and I'm being nice here). I use these dates to release all my youth players. As soon as I get the message "Player A has reached his 17th birthday, and as such....." I click contracts>release on a free and forget about them.

I don't think it's harsh, I think it's the players' fault for being rubbish.

I feel guilty and I know they're crap but no-one ever gave me 4K when I was 17 for being a crap player.

I sometimes look to see if anyone else picks them up on a free ... usually not

Just a bit different story , i offered contract to a 17 year old and bring him to 1st team ( i am playing top club in Greece so i can do that ) , he played 10 games as a starter at first season and got a far better contract as rotation player on his 18th birthday , guess what , he is content to stay at the club ....and we are not talking about a super talent ; if i had him released he would have end up in a mid table club or staring in division B .

We are not harsh, life is a female dog.

Personally I keep lots of youth and try to sell them 1k is a profit in my eyes

Personally I keep lots of youth and try to sell them 1k is a profit in my eyes

Despite the thousands that you've spent raising them in the youth system?

Dont care if its their birthday if they aint good enough they aint good enough

i always offer then to end of season and then i try and get rid of them for the 50% next transfer fee and let them leave for free

Despite the thousands that you've spent raising them in the youth system?

Well just think of this ok you spend say 4.000 a yaer on he's wages ,then another 4,000 for kits balls electric bill, etc ,

But!!!!

If out of 20 rubbish 17th year old players you keep them til 20-21 years of age and sell only 1 for 300.000 euros then it's worth it.

(It mainly works at big clubs where you can sell players for this kind of money)

In lower leagues maybe it's harder to get profit from them, but still you might never know what happens

If they arent good enough then its just tough. I wont have them clogging up my youth and reserve teams, simply out of sentiment. They can always go join Glenn Hoddle

I remember cruelly keeping one of my talentless youngsters on FM2009, and repeatedly loaning him out to various different clubs for a laugh to see how badly he'd do, and how many different clubs he could notch up.

In the end by the age of about 21 he'd played for about 10 different clubs, and had an appalling goalscoring record (He was a striker).

He could probably be described as an FM version of Trevor Benjamin, especially as I was managing Leicester.

I remember cruelly keeping one of my talentless youngsters on FM2009, and repeatedly loaning him out to various different clubs for a laugh to see how badly he'd do, and how many different clubs he could notch up.

In the end by the age of about 21 he'd played for about 10 different clubs, and had an appalling goalscoring record (He was a striker).

He could probably be described as an FM version of Trevor Benjamin, especially as I was managing Leicester.

10 clubs? I could only get as far as 5 before he refused to go on loan any more, although admittedly he was pretty good (not good enough for my team, though).

When I'm at a decent club in a high league I always offer my youngsters a contract, as long as the wage budget isnt an issue. Most top league teams have good youth facilities and therefore your youth crop are fairly good - even if not good enough to make it at your club most will reach league one/championship level. What I always do is let them stay in my u18's and reserves for a couple of seasons watching their progress as young players stats drastically improve and therefore its difficult to tell without FMscout etc. how good they are actually going to be.

Once they hit 19/20/21 I can make a better judgement on them and by then their value has increased thanks to a couple of 1st team experiences and a bit of stat improvement, its then a good idea to offer them out at reduced asking prices but with heavy sell on percentages - they always get snapped up and occasionally you get the odd one or two who go for big money in future transfers - netting you upto 45% of that kitty and its all just profit for you.

10 clubs? I could only get as far as 5 before he refused to go on loan any more, although admittedly he was pretty good (not good enough for my team, though).

My player was useless, probably Blue Square Premier at best. I started to have difficulty loaning him out after about 3 seasons of 3 loan spells per season in England, so I then sent him to my Norwegian feeder club which he accepted.