My new revolutionary idea which has taken youth development to a new level!

Ive always start a new game with man utd and look to build a good reserve and youth team.

after many attemps of trying this, i decided to improve this. I created a team in europe (Greece to be exact) and put them in the b league of greece. I named the team man utd (gre) and created a new stadium with 25000 seater with top facilities and youth development. I then affeliated this team and allowed players to move freely between the clubs and have the same board. (like real madrid and castilla) i have then sent my players that have got good potential to this team to gain good first team experience and the opportunity to impress me!! (this replaces the reserves)

the idea come from barcelona who do a similar thing in south/north america i read recently.

it allows me send any player away without the worry of them not wanting to move to the team. and who knows my team could be winning the greek leagues before i know it! they have there own manager who has brought in there own players so no need to monitor.

let me know your thoughts....critism! am i cheating?!

ps this is just a game...!! but within 10 years i see clubs like man utd adopting this method irl which will help develop lesser countries and help give youngsters the opportunity to develop and mature...!!

Yes, this is cheating. You added a team for the sole purpose of improving your own players while the option to loan your players to affliated clubs already is available.

Man United had Antwerp as a feeder club before to whom they loaned young players

It's your game, you can do what you like to it. It is a bit annoying when players go on loan somewhere and then never play, you've solved that problem.

As far as I'm aware Man Utd have a team like this in Brazil, Desportivo Brasil.

They send Brazilians players there to be coached and get English lessons.

I would like this implemented into the game along with training camps and academies across the world but whether or not SI will introduce this is another question

yes your right (hence the five young brazilians coming over to play preliminarily for fc twente then onto man utd). im 6 months into the season and its seems to be really succesful. all my fringe player such as gibson orbetan and morrison seem to be playing regularly and providing good performances.

the problem with feeder teams is that not all players are interested in moving and therefore spend more time warming up the benches. you do lose out on loan money...but when ur man utd this aint really the top concern!!

i would definately recommend it if your into developing good young player with top clubs and your starting again!!...its brought a new excitment to my game!!

am i cheating?!

Hmmmmm ?? If you have to ask, then you already know the answer, don't you?

But, I'm curious as to why you title this thread as a "revolutionary" idea? I mean, anyone can use an editor. Nothing revolutionary here at all.

Hmmmmm ?? If you have to ask, then you already know the answer, don't you?

But, I'm curious as to why you title this thread as a "revolutionary" idea? I mean, anyone can use an editor. Nothing revolutionary here at all.

well...i didnt think too much about the title and it was the first thing that come to my head...! although its in the editor im assusming not many people have tried it hence the idea!!

i personally dont think it is cheating...just creating a new way to keep me entertained in the latter years of the game when my reserves have dried up and devoping young players isnt so easy!!

do YOU think its cheating?

i see many threads where people are fed up with the reserves only having 6/7 players...and therefore no longer registering them to a league...

I feel this is cheating as you have added a club to benefit your players development. The 'non-cheating' way of doing this would be to have an affiliate club I suppose. Nonetheless it is an interesting idea and of course it's your game so you can play as you please

I actually think it's kind of a cool idea, something I might try. Did the Greek club completely replace your reserves, or just add them as an affiliate with 'move free' ticked?

Can the Greek team sell your players? How often can you move players between the 2 teams? Do your players lose the home-grown status when you send them to Greece?

I've done something similar. I have no problem at all with anyone calling it 'cheating' and I don't make any posts bragging about my achievements. It does add immense pleasure to my FM experience. However, I prefer to think of it as my 'back story' and I invite you, toml86, to think the same way.

In my backstory I've taken over FC United. The club has built up a global cult following amongst fans and players sickened by the cynical greed in the game and in the world. I like to think of it as 'St. Pauli without the prostitutes'. Investors who have bought into the vision (literally) have given us state of the art training facilities and a youth recruitment programme. Another part of this backstory is that the club's unofficial nickname is the "'Fugees" because it has become a magnet for talented refugee youths, hence I have kids from Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Somalia etc who got British citizenship.

In practice, this means that I use an editor to tamper with these kids. I make myself and FCUM 'favourites', and give them long contracts. Then I tamper with their attributes. What I do is increase their PA, and give the loyalty and determination attributes between 16-20. However I don't change their CA, so a CA25 player stays at 25, and because some attributes were knocked up, others plummet. So I've started off in Level 7 with a squad of kids aged from 13 to 18 (with 4 older players) who are physically very weak and technically utterly hopeless, but who have great potential, great facilities and in the vanguard of a global experiment with lots of good will.

Like I said, call it 'cheating' - no problem. But I'm not using the editor to simply make a player score more goals or to give the club more cash; many of the lads have consistency, concentration or decision attributes of ONE - that doesn't change. I lost the FA Trophy cup final in the last minute of extra time - that doesn't change. What I've done is I've created an alternate reality, a coherent vision, a STORY in my FM universe. I feel as if I know every single one of these players - the lives they escaped from, their dreams, our mutual bonds of loyalty and respect. It's MY WORLD and I love it. As I say, I won't brag about it - here I'm just describing it because I think it helps answer the OP's question. I do recommend to anyone who's getting a little jaded of FM to make their own backstory and immerse themselves in it - it can be very personally rewarding.

I dont understand why you would even ask " am i cheating"

Its your game and have as much fun with it as you can.

If you feel guilty for cheating, you could always remove some money from your own club. As if you paid for the changes you made so to speak.

it was only about 10 years ago i first did things like this.

you achieve an unfair advantage over other teams in your league though.

as others have said, it may be better to use your reserves, feeder clubs or manage in Spain and utilise the B team.