Talent Development Stuck?

Since i like my way of managing a team to be of the long term, the best feeling is seeing a young unknown talent i got become a world class player.

However, in FM11 i took over Southampton and have since brought them to the Premier League in 2013, and despite getting some very talented youngsters, who my scouts said had the potential to become 5-star, keep getting stuck, no real improvements. I even have a great academy that keeps producing at least one talent who "could be the best of his generation", yet they seem to mostly get stuck in their stats, no real improvement.

I buy talents, and they stay the same even after a year or two. I even holidayed myself for 3 years and looked at my players, they were ALL STUCK AS I LEFT THEM, lets say 3-5% improvement in the whole squad.

Yes, i have top training facilities, i have the best training schedules i could get my hands on in this forum since im not really good at doing them on my own, and i do play them a lot, my average age of the squad is 21.

Any suggestions or ideas would be very appreciated...

Do you play them?

Do you play them?

Some of them are first-teamers, some of them are rotation, and some of them are U-18 players, even my U-18s aren't showing any big improvements. Two or three stats a year is not an improvement.

They need to play first team football to improve significantly along with having good training facilities & your coaches workload needs to be light.

Player wise determined, professional, ambitious players improve the quickest. Players with poor personalities will struggle to reach their potential.

Can you check how many first team games had they played in the 3 years you holidayed?

That may provide an answer, as Cougar says, plenty of first team action is crucial for development.

Can you check how many first team games had they played in the 3 years you holidayed?

That may provide an answer, as Cougar says, plenty of first team action is crucial for development.

That's a very good question. I never checked that and deleted the savegame as i wanted to continue my own. I should do it again tonight during sleep though.

What about my U-18 players? I can't be expected to play them much, though i have some largely talented players there. Southampton U-18 are first in their group with 10 wins out of 11 matches, and a goal difference of 32-2. They even did like this last year, yet the players improved very little if any. And i do give them at least 4-5 matches a season, especially in easy FA/League Cup matches, as well as important-less matches at the end of the season.

The thing that seperates the U-18's from first team is it's intensity level and the experience it provides by playing against high level opposition.

I would recommend sending them on loan to a lower league team rather than having them in the U-18's. This way they are palying demanding, competitive football on a regular basis.

That's a very good question. I never checked that and deleted the savegame as i wanted to continue my own. I should do it again tonight during sleep though.

What about my U-18 players? I can't be expected to play them much, though i have some largely talented players there. Southampton U-18 are first in their group with 10 wins out of 11 matches, and a goal difference of 32-2. They even did like this last year, yet the players improved very little if any. And i do give them at least 4-5 matches a season, especially in easy FA/League Cup matches, as well as important-less matches at the end of the season.

Well if they are winning their matches that easily it suggests that the games are too easy and they aren't being tested. To improve they need to be tested but the level shouldn't be so high that they play poorly all the time.

If they are that good they should be loaned out to a club where they will be played regularly if you aren't going to use them.

I had quite a few offers to loan them, where they would be used as valuable first-team members, but they were from League 2 and League 1, but the levels of their coaches, their team and their average training facilities made me think they shouldn't go there. Should i have let them go despite those facts?

I would say so, yes. First team action wins over coaches and facilities everytime for me.

As an example, I loaned Jack Butland from Birmingham, playing as St.Johnstone with poor coaches and facilites. However, he played everygame for me and his attributes improved greatly as a result.

On one of my other saves, Butland stayed at Birmingham and despite having significantly better facilities and coaches, he had hardly improved due to lack of game time.

I would only ever send out if they were to be deemed "valuable", in the same way Butland was valuable for myself as St. Johnstone.

What about if the offering team is very weak in their league, say expected to fight relegation. As i did try to loan Alex Chamberlain there for 6 months, he played first team but he really didn't have the best of times, because the team was playing poorly, also making him have weak performances. Should i try to avoid the bottom half teams then?

Thanks for all the help and ideas guys. :-)

I would try and stick to the better teams if you can xoonky as they are more likely to play better and have a higher morale which is always good for your loanee and obviously you want him to play well too. Don't be put off by poorer teams, however, as your loanee would be more valuable and could even become their star man.

First-tem football, loaning out and tutoring are the main factors for me. I have managed to sign some potentially good youngsters and turn some of them into world class players. Some haven't made it though, and end up rotting in the reserves until their contracts expire.

First-tem football, loaning out and tutoring are the main factors for me. I have managed to sign some potentially good youngsters and turn some of them into world class players. Some haven't made it though, and end up rotting in the reserves until their contracts expire.

Like everyone else has said, first team football is key so loaning out your youngster is pretty much key. Though, I only loan out youngster whose personality is good and who have high determination etc.

I had a youngster I sent out on loan who made no improvement whatsoever in the championship even though he had almost 30 starts and his average was about 7.1. After he returned, got tutored successfully, and went back on loan again he finally began to improve.

I just went about out-of-contract veterans and signed some very cheap ambitious/model professional/determined veterans i got my hands on in order to tutor my youngsters, do you think this is going to work?

And also, some of them don't seem to have the Tutor button available after i signed them, why would that be?

Yes, signing veterans with good mental attributes is a good idea. Most squads will have a few anyways, but they can only mentor a few at a time, and aren't always a personality match or have too high a determination to take on a youth at first. Having multiple options to tutor is a good thing.

Not sure about the lack of a tutor button. In previous versions I seem to remember it taking a bit of time before new players make the connection to existing players for the purpose of tutoring. That could be it...

If you're not a fan of loaning out, the best way to do it is to stay in as many competitions as possible and rotate youth in constantly. Play them in all cup competitions, meaningless league games (or games when you're heavy favorites), always have them on your bench for mop up duty, etc. I've developed a few world-class players without loaning them - but I had to force myself to play them consistently despite not being a first choice player.

Having to play an 18 year old on the first team in lets say Juventus? it happens, but it's sure a rare thing. My point is, it's not a logic mechanism, it hardly ever happens in big clubs, yet they develop great players.

I sometimes wonders if the coders ever been outside a basement.

I just went about out-of-contract veterans and signed some very cheap ambitious/model professional/determined veterans i got my hands on in order to tutor my youngsters, do you think this is going to work?

And also, some of them don't seem to have the Tutor button available after i signed them, why would that be?

If they got a certain potential, they feel too hardcore to take advise from anyone. I miss post 2010, it actually worked like a charm in 2009.

Having to play an 18 year old on the first team in lets say Juventus? it happens, but it's sure a rare thing. My point is, it's not a logic mechanism, it hardly ever happens in big clubs, yet they develop great players.

I sometimes wonders if the coders ever been outside a basement.

Urm isn't that what loans are for then?

But anyway lets talk about Juventus, the same Juventus that have two 19yos & one 18yo registered in a first team squad of 29 this season and the same Juventus that have no less than 23 players out on loan - Obviously higher in Italy as there is no reserve team football.

Urm isn't that what loans are for then?

But anyway lets talk about Juventus, the same Juventus that have two 19yos & one 18yo registered in a first team squad of 29 this season and the same Juventus that have no less than 23 players out on loan - Obviously higher in Italy as there is no reserve team football.

Ive also found it interesting that there isn't a reserve league in italy...

And its always a good idea to pick up veterans with good mental stats. Once I took over arsenal, the first two players I signed were beckham and riquelme.