How can I give my young players the best chance of progressing?

What are the main factors that we can control as managers to ensure that any young players we have get the best chance of reaching their potential ability?

I know match experience is one of the key factors, as well as attempting to tutor the player to give him the sort of personality that drives him to success (ambition & professionalism etc.)

I would also guess that training facilities perhaps make a difference. Making sure that these are invested in and as good as possible surely helps?

What other factors are there that can we control? I want to give my youngsters the best chance of reaching their potential!

Thanks for any help.

Play them in a few first team games if you can. I usually play them in cup games against lower league sides. Loan them out to decent teams making sure they will get first team play not act as cover. As soon as their around 19 at least give them 10 games a season and hopefully they'll have enough ability to play more games in the first team.

id say play them in as many games as possible. I for instance play all youth players in the League Cup wether its against luton town or Chelsea. If they lose 5-0 against chelsea it could be a good thing as they will hopefully learn from that. if not then i must look at myself to see why lol.

Games games games.

The others things help shape a player but the game time is key.

make sure they have a good training schedule (advice in tactics and training forum) tutoring from key players and game time.

unless a player is very low on a key attribute (strikers with appalling finishing a good example) i'd avoid individual training focus as it takes away too much training time.

game time is important. if they are not good enough for your first team then get them oout on loan

The three points you made in the OP are the essential elements for player development, as well as coaching of course.

Maybe using media interaction at the right times could help with the players confidence and determination to do well for you?

I read a quote from Wesley Sneijder the other day. Mourinho once said to him mid-season "Wesley you look tired, take your wife and child on holiday for a few days'. Sneijder took his family off on a sun holiday for a few days and coming back refreshed he said of Mourinho "I would kill now for this man".

Would be nice to be able to create that bond with our players

I think it was SFraser that once said that not only they should play.. but they should have good games to help their development.

So if a youngster is not good enough for your first team but you play him anyway(something i really can't help doing lol) he will still develop but not as fast as if he was constantly playing good.

I echo what has been said above. This what i tend to do:

Good youth coaches and lots of them if allowed

If sending out on loan check to see it they are acting as cover or first team. There's no point loaning out a youngster if they are going to sit on the bench elsewhere. Always put a recall clause in so if they aren't getting games you can bring them back early.

As well as league matches I arrange extra friendlies for my reserves so that they are playing at least once a week, usually twice a week though. ( depending on how often the first team are in action)

In Cup matches or against weak opposition I give at least one promising player a start.

I make sure i have a least one youngster on the bench so if i'm crusing in a game I can bring them on for half an hour or so.

If one performs particularly well in the reserves or u18 for the next first team game I sometimes stick them in from the start and say pick up from where you left off. This can be risky, but if it's the right player at the right time the rewards can be great.

Always trawl through foreign nations u18 and u21 squad. I try to bulk up my reserves/u18 with any players that might have a half decent chance of becoming any good. Even if not good enough for my level, might be able to get a profit out of them!

What I want to know is what effect actual YOUTH coaches have:

1. Suppose you have a great coach who you want to have available for the first team, but looks like someone who’d be great running the U18s – EG: excellent motivation; discipline; determination; man management; tactical knowledge (for taking charge of matches) and working with youngsters. If you put him in charge of the U18s would the fact that he isn’t officially a youth coach detract from anything? Should you always have a youth coach as head of the U18s?

2. Does the quality and reputation of your youth coaches affect the quality of regens you might get, even if the head of your U18 team is a high quality/reputation coach, but not with the official job title of “youth coach”.

youth coaches only work with youth players. first team coaches only work with the first team.

general coaches work with both.

i'm not sure if there is a benefit to having seperate youth and first team coaches, but i generally aim to sign general coaches

"youth coaches only work with youth players. first team coaches only work with the first team.

general coaches work with both."

Ya don't say!!

Who'da thunk it.

I always only hire coaches and then assign them to both the first team and U-19, maybe it's an habit out of playing in lower clubs that don't allow many coaches but i've never divided my training staff into first team and youth coaches and it doesn't seem to really hinder their progress.. i could be mistaken though.

Completly agree with signing young internationals since even if you can't give them playing time in your first squad they will still develop and get match experience from those internationals U-21 or U-19 qualifiers.