B teams in FM11

Mostly been playing FM10 in the Spanish leagues (specifically Athletic and their B Team). I have managed to get the B Team system working quite well now but only after making a few changes to the database during the game to reflect the situation more accurately (in my opinion).

Just wondering if anyone from SI could let us know if there are any changes to the system planned for the new release? Here are the main issues I found:

Wage drain: if you have any players on high wages for example promising teenagers who are not ready for the first team but deserve a good contract to keep them around (low for La Liga but high for Segunda B, say €5k) they drain the B team's limited budget very quickly. The team suffers as a result, finances become 'insecure' even if part of a richer club, player morale drops due to being at a small unsuccessful club.

Solution: Set up the A Team to pay the B Team an 'annual fee' as if it is an affiliate from China etc. This acts as the B Team wage budget. I have staggered this for each club based on the size and wealth for each club. Barca and R. Madrid each pay their B team €2m a year, Athletic, Valencia, Sevilla and Atletico pay €1m, Espanyol, Deportivo, Villarreal and Zaragoza €700k, Betis, Mallorca, R. Sociedad, Racing, Malaga, Tenerife, Las Palmas and Osasuna €400k, etc. Dont know if this breakdown is really accurate but it has allowed the B teams to sign a few players and keep themselves strong enough to stay in the Segunda B level at least, since the game makes them pay their own players instead of using their parent club's resources.

Poor training: The B team players lose out on training improvements because they have their own coaches and training facilities.

Solution: I agree that the B team should have separate coaches and training schedules because they are run as a separate entity as far as staff is concerned, but every club I have looked up for this has the B team training incorporated into their academy setup as they are basically a further step up from the youth teams (who also have their own coaches and schedules). In FM this would mean clicking the 'shares facilities' button. On the team info screen the Barca B team, for example, now also has 'top training facilities' mirroring those of the A Team, which is how it is in real life.

As i said, these are just things I have changed personally, they dont make a huge difference to the game but if you are playing in the Spanish league it is a big part of the football system and in FM it will really affect how the players in the B teams develop. Its also important to make these changes for every club or it becomes unfair in favour of those whose stats have been changed (so I had to make those changes for 30 clubs!). With that in mind, im interested to know if SI has changed the database for these B teams at all?

PS dont know if the German 'II' clubs have the same issues. Think most other countries have a 'reserve' setup where the budget and training of the backup/younger players stays linked to the main club?

PPS please feel free to move this to a more appropriate forum!

also one more thing. if you take a team from third division with no reserve second team and lets say you win the spanish league then a second team should be created

Thats true, Villarreal were nothing 20 years ago, now their A team are always in the top half of La Liga, their B team is one of the best around (7th in Segunda last season!) and they have a C team as well. It should maybe be an option to create a B team, like adding feeder clubs. Would be difficult to code into the game tho.

Really though I am asking about the existing B teams, since I have found their interaction with the A teams in the game could be much better, even using the existing 'affiliated clubs' features in the game.

I really agree with this. If I may, I have a few additions myself.

The player should be able to hire the B team staff. As it goes now, B teams have bad staff since they are "small lower division clubs" and you can't higher your own staff since you don't have control over the club. I think that all the club (first team, B, C/U18) staff should be one staff but you should be able to indicate which team you are hiring them for when you are offering them a contract. Perhaps like we already have first team and youth coaches we can have reserve/B team coaches. Maybe there should be a staff role called B team manager as well, just like caretaker manager. I am not sure whether or not the player should hire the manager though. I don't think the first team manager does so in real life, but I don't think international managers hire U21/U19 managers either yet you can do so in the game.

Rather then have the first team pay B/C teams a fee, they should just share the same budget. (This would mean all clubs get a budget increase, though.) One balance and one wage budget at least. The B team can have its own transfer budget.

As mentioned earlier you should be able to ask for B teams or C teams.

I think it is too late to implement this for FM2011 (unless it already has been, unlikely) but please take it into consideration for FM2012.

I think it should be done the same as in other leagues. So the B team and the A team and the youth squad all have the same wage budget, the manager of the A team does transfers for all the teams, the manager hires and sacks staff for all three teams, and he can even "Manage" all three teams. This is the way it is done in FM in all other leagues so why not in the Spanish ones?

It's not even fair this way because you can't use your B team the way for example Ajax uses their reserve team as a bridge between their A team and their youth team.

also one more thing. if you take a team from third division with no reserve second team and lets say you win the spanish league then a second team should be created

http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/216138-Board-Request-Create-B-Team

I avoid B team management since my FM09 experiences with it ...

It was incredibly frustrating.

Signing players for the B team was impossible, as the A team manager was constantly cancelling contract offers, even though the "1st team manager controls contracts" was unchecked.

There didn't seem to be a way to utilise A team players, even with the "players can move freely" setting enabled in the affiliation rules.

B team players were constantly unhappy because they werent getting enough games ..... even though they had played in EVERY match for the B team.

It's the little things that really colour your views of a game, and it all left me with an impression that SI don't really pay attention to small details.