No future for England?

6th season into the game and no good english talent to speak of. nobody to replace any of the old guard in midfield. havin to play gerrard still with either noble or wilshere. neither are great tbh compared to other countries we are struggling. im man utd manager too and have 5/6 world class youngsters from Argentina, same with brazil. not to mention they still have messi, higuian, aguero etc. other european countries are fairing too badly too with new youth talent. thr prem is still the best league overall but no great/good players despite very good youth academies from the big teams and below.

Anybody else found this? i know im not hugely far into the game but rooney and co wont be round too much longer

During a save I had not so long ago England really failed to produce good players. They had one stand out target man who had fantastic attributes, and that was it. Failed to qualify for four consecutive tournaments.

I'm a month away from World Cup 2026 as England, and the state of the team is pretty bleak. All 3 goalkeepers are RL players and over 32. My best striker has Finishing 13. On the plus side, I have 1 world-class CM and a world-class DL. The best MR is 2nd/3rd choice for a mid-table Premiership team. I think I'll struggle to get them past the quarter-finals.

So yeah, from my experience things aren't about to get any better - but everyone's save is different, right?

Sometimes it happens like that. I've noticed a nice mix of different countries producing talent across my saves. Maybe give it a couple of seasons and see if the fallow years pass?

not got 1 good player yet. not world class anyway. shelvey is ok good passing, off the ball but other than that not much too him. still playing young, lennon, rooney as front 3. bent and defoe on bench. only delfounseo has come thro as being decent as a fwd. 19gls in 18caps

ye not gonna quit save or anythin just quite annoying! lol

ye not gonna quit save or anythin just quite annoying! lol

Haha, yeh, it can get like that! Just keep at it, especially at a club like Manchester United. You're bound to unearth a gem at some point!

Try throwing some of your less promising prospects into games too and see how they cope. I've had some player's coaching reports and star ratings change drastically after being given chances in the first team over a season or so. Sometimes beneath the stats there's a great player waiting to be unleashed!

I have a 25 year old striker with some great stats who decided to play for Portugal instead of England because England were playing a 35 year old Rooney up front on his own.

dont u think that this maybe the fault of ai managers? they just seem happy to keep players in the reserves for seasons on end. as soon as they need another player for the 1st team they just go and buy one. i have lost count of how many saves where wilshere and lansbury get stuck in arsenal's reserve team and end up rubbish due to lack of playing time. that is just 1 example

dont know who lansbury plays for but wilshere plays for wolves on mine now. they are mid-table prem side. most of my players play for mid-table sides except players who play for me like rooney,rodwell, walker and naughton

finding it hard to meet the league rules/euro rules on player selection due to no talent coming through either

Interestingly, I'm about half-way through the fourth season of my current save and as well as managing Granada CF in Liga BBVA, I'm also managing the Ivory Coast national side.

I've just had a quick look at young players coming through for my national team, compared to those coming through for England. Fortunately (for me ) there's actually better youngsters coming through for the Ivory Coast, than there seems to be for England.

Prominent sources of these young Ivorians seems to be ASEC Mimosas and Africa Sports National, both being teams native to the Ivory Coast.

By no means a scientific examination of the point raised, as it's still fairly early into my save. I do tend to scout heavily for regens though and I think I've managed to sign five of the best ones in my save so far. By "best", I don't necessarily mean that I know their CA/PA ratings, because I don't use scout utilities or anything like that. I look at what scout reports tell me about potential, along with the distribution of technical, mental and physical attributes, for positional and role suitability.

Of those five regens, two are from Denmark, one from Libya (actually from Misrata and has certainly "revolutionised" my midfield!! ), one from Turkey and one from Spain.

What I do wonder though, is how much weight AI teams place on CA/PA ratings for players, over attributes. I've seen some very talented young players not getting first team football, thus not developing properly. I often tend to snap up players who look reasonably good, get them training and playing for my youth team for a spell, then send them out to my feeder clubs. Some of these pretty average seeming players turn into good players, their reputations rise and they're either good enough to keep, or sell on for a large profit.

I doubt the AI is anywhere near as adept at doing anything remotely close to this though. One reason why I often chuckle at the "AI cheats" comments, because there's so much more we're capable of doing, compared to the game AI.

ye not gonna quit save or anythin just quite annoying! lol

it is. But I'm not sure what is more annoying. Wonderkids w/ 180 Potential constantly coming from obscure African countries like Botswana and Gabon. Or. Big 5 European countries (and a lot of other European countries) rarely producing top-class new gens.

I took charge of England on my Luton save in 2020 they had a great team it's became very poor now though and ive just got the sack after the 2033 confederations cup

Seems to be a reflection upon the current state of English football. Whilst playing FM I do try and do my little bit to help and keep a few youngster on the bench for every game from that particular nation, for example if I managing AC Milan, keep a few of the best young Italian players on the bench until they are good enough for the first team. Of course the AI managers never play like this and ruin things a little.

I've found in the past, if I went for a midfield duo, that Wilshere and Rodwell worked as a pairing, as a creative player and a defensive midfielder respectively. With Shelvey and Josh McCreachen being pretty good also. I've generally had good regens come through as well. One on game, I holidayed 10 years, took over Liverpool and found this gem sitting in my CM spot.

http://i54.tinypic.com/264tfyr.jpg.

So if he was a wonderkid when he was say 17-18, he'd have been able to replace Gerrard around about 2015-16, at least as a prospect for the future.

2028 in my game and England's 1st 11 is pretty strong, with two world class FCs, a world class DR and the best keeper in the world bar none. The central midfield and the other defenders are also very solid. Weakness is on the wings. The left winger plays for Real and has a good reputation, but looks a little lightweight. The right winger is very average. Neither of the full backs offer great attacking options out wide either, so the team is a little unbalanced.

The reserve keeper has previously won the World Keeper of the Year Award and is 1st choice for Barca, so great cover there. Central midfield and the forward line also have good back ups. However, the reserve defenders are lacking and the back up wide players very poor.

Yeah, I think it's one of the classic knee jerk SI reactions to people complaining on the forums. Over the years people have complained that England produce too much talent, so what's bound to happen on this version?

I'd certainly say this is not the case in my save. Probably in a better position to see the new talent though as my club nly has players from UK & Ireland in it. In 2016 but already got a regen AMC/SC who is quality already and can improve. Also got a very good young SC signing at the end of the season. Lots of other high potential young regens who I'm starting to bring through.

The only problem I have is the current England managers unwillingness to play many of my players for some reason. Nikos Louka (the AMC/SC) is one of the highest rated players in the Premiership this season but has not been called up. Likewise for Jonjo Shelvey who was player of the season the year before. But I will admit without my club not much young talent coming through apart from perhaps at Arsenal and Man U.

In 2037 and there are barely any good English players since regens started, thankfully I buy youngsters aged 16-17 so the homegrown rule don't really matter, in fact, I signed England's best player, captain and top goalscorer.....and he's my 3rd choice striker. I find France and Spain produce the best players regularly. Mainly France though, I have about 8 French internationals.

I find if you are playing in England, your best chance of getting a world class player is to bring them through yourself.

I am Derby manager in 2022 and have 3 world class English players. A left back, a left winger and a centre forward who is absolutely amazing. I bought the left winger aged 17 from Everton for £2m but the other 2 came from my academy.

The left winger in particular went from about 60 CA to 170 CA at my club.

some of my best regens have been english whilst managing in scotland, 4 of them are now full internationals, although i did sell 3 of them before that happened. Haven t noticed england struggling for players really.

Managing in Hungary I've noticed that overall England are very poor in terms of regens this version. Whilst France is swimming in talent England has maybe 2 fairly good players and a whole heap of rubbish ones. Currently in 2024 England is slowly turning to complete crap.

Wait, you're saying that your game is failing to produce (m)any real world class English players and you think it's broken?

Up to about 2019 now and I don't think I've had any of note through my own academy, but I've poached a few reasonable ones and a couple stars. My squad's pretty well mixed, as are the world class players, and there's some top American players kicking about in my game!

Both my RB's are top England international regens and they're only young. Still at the stage where Phil Jones is pretty good though.

Wait, you're saying that your game is failing to produce (m)any real world class English players and you think it's broken?

Hmmm... you have a point...

Maybe England is just rubbish!

Just to counter what people are saying on this thread, I had a 15 year save and 3 of the top 10 players in the world were english. Basically, in the old games English players always seemed to be some of the best and if that doesn't happen everytime now it is ok with me. A little variety is a good thing.

Not as far into the future on any of my saves as some people are, but on my longest running Newcastle save there are a few really decent English regens coming through. I've snapped a couple up, but the main problem (and some folks have mentioned it already) seems to be the AI teams not developing them, or even playing them. There was a young winger called James Downing on my save who was rated as having 4.5 stars for potential when I first scouted him when he appeared at Burnley. 2 seasons later and they'd barely played him so I snapped him up.

I've noticed on several saves so far that in the first few years nearly all the best regens seem to be coming from Africa, especially from Egypt on my games. One one save they've produced several potential world class fullbacks in just a couple seasons, still never seem to do well at the World Cup though

I'm about to start the 2020/21 season and the state of English regens is shocking, I was England manager for a while, but now all the real players are retiring, you literally have to scour the Championship and League 1 for decent players so I quit.

My Norwich side, which is now amongst the best in the world, only has 1 English player in the 1st team squad, and he's a back up player, majority of my squad are Russian, Dutch or Brazilian.

Also, whilst I would love to have more English players in my squad, my academy, which is apparently amongst the best in the world, hasn't produced on single player in 12 seasons worthy of the 1st team, and I have tried my best to bring a few through.

year 2037 and the most expensive is £8 million. 17 out of the 23 players are under £4.5 million ....quite disappointing.

Prominent sources of these young Ivorians seems to be ASEC Mimosas and Africa Sports National, both being teams native to the Ivory Coast.

IRL, ASEC Mimosas is known for that (I don't know about the other).

About the topic, I'm in 2013/2014 with Aston Villa and I didn't noticed anything yet (And the national team isn't doing it bad at all, they are 1st in their group for the WC qually). I had a regen called for the U-19, but he has a 3 star potential, so not the greatest player of all. But managing Argentina, I saw some promising regens and also some of the newgens developed very well. Spain too. I got a regen GK with a great future from Hercules. For the moment he's doing pretty well, and I have some other regens that were there before I arrived to the team that have a good future.

I've just resigned as England manager in 2022 having won 2 consecutive World Cups and a European Championships. There are some quality English regens on my game, but they are almost exclusively from either my club (Chelsea) or Man Utd. There's 1 player who came through Arsenal's academy, and 1 player who started at Birmingham before I signed him. Other than that, it's ageing stars or regens from me or Man Utd. So there are quality players, but they're only from 1 or 2 clubs.

The main problem seems to be goalkeepers, Hart is about to retire and on my save there are no decent goalkeepers coming through. I've now got a 16 year old English goalie who could be good, but isn't ready yet. No idea what my successor (Steve Bruce) will do about that.

In most of my saves the english national team seem to have about the same strenght as it did in the beginning of my save. (Usually not playing in UK league but having it playable). There's on average one very good player every year. (And very many decent..!) I often see arguments that there's not as many good english regens as there should be, but I say there is! Too many in fact.. I compare to my own country, Sweden, and how they are doing in the big tournaments. In the 2000's England has never gone through the quarters in either WC or EC. Sweden has almost the same result just not being qualified as many times, (1 or 2 less..) I know regens has a lot to do with league rep. and swedish league is rubbish, but there are coming out ten times more good regens in England than Sweden...!! But my point is, people saying England has no future are wrong, they're performing at the same level as now and most of the times better. I think most english players are overrated.. Yes Rooney, Lampard, Gerrard and Terry is good. But I would choose lots of players before signing them. English players are also overvalued, and that's the same problem IRL, so SI has in my opinion captured the standard of english leagues and nat. team in a very nice way, and I've seen them winning WC a couple of times!

What about these English Midfielders:

Jack Wilshere?

Jordan Henderson?

Tom Cleverley?

Jack Rodwell?

Phil Jones?

Henri Lansbury?

All those must feature because they all start off as Good Players...

Wilshere's only average on my game disappointly. As is Walcott and Rodwell. Jones is pretty decent and Hart, despite some poor stats. The other ones aren't even in the squad.

Ivory Coast haven't produced any good players on my game which has lead to me crashing out of the cup of nations. Ghana on the other hand seem to be doing ok, but I don't know how many of those are regens.

Here are some screenshots and CA/PA of some English regens from my Brighton save in 2016. Not all of them have fully developed yet, but plenty of good players for England over the coming years.

First off by far the best England regen to come through so far, Nikos Louka

http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/5686/nikosloukaprofileattrib.png

Lee Goodwin

http://img18.imageshack.us/img18/9396/leegoodwinprofileattrib.png

Kyle Lambert

http://img585.imageshack.us/img585/9611/kylelambertprofileattri.png

Mark Hughes

http://img23.imageshack.us/img23/32/markhughesprofileattrib.png

Thomas Pilkington

http://img824.imageshack.us/img824/5057/thomaspilkingtonprofile.png

Tim Cox

http://img202.imageshack.us/img202/9456/timcoxprofileattributes.png

Nick Roberts

http://img94.imageshack.us/img94/5594/nickrobertsprofileattri.png

Steve Allen

http://img837.imageshack.us/img837/1994/steveallenprofileattrib.png

Ben Siegel

http://img856.imageshack.us/img856/1822/bensiegelprofileattribu.png

Tom Wallace

http://img21.imageshack.us/img21/8028/tomwallaceprofileattrib.png

Nick Roberts

Ian Daly

http://img43.imageshack.us/img43/9715/iandalyprofileattribute.png

Alan Stevenson

http://img844.imageshack.us/img844/6641/alanstevensonprofileatt.png

Liam Dunn

http://img837.imageshack.us/img837/2833/liamdunnprofileattribut.png

Chris Hillier

http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/9097/chrishillierprofileattr.png

dont u think that this maybe the fault of ai managers? they just seem happy to keep players in the reserves for seasons on end. as soon as they need another player for the 1st team they just go and buy one. i have lost count of how many saves where wilshere and lansbury get stuck in arsenal's reserve team and end up rubbish due to lack of playing time. that is just 1 example

No its not that, it doesnt help but the issue is not enough high PA english youngsters. In my save I did an extensive search for English newgens, I found 2 maybe 3 who might be wordlclass given the right career path. Where as France, Spain, Italy and Germany are producing so many that they have spare ones who arent even making the first team.

It also doesnt help that even mediocre english youngsters cost massive amounts of money.

It also doesnt help that even mediocre english youngsters cost massive amounts of money.

So they doesn't in real life!?!?

No its not that, it doesnt help but the issue is not enough high PA english youngsters. In my save I did an extensive search for English newgens, I found 2 maybe 3 who might be wordlclass given the right career path. Where as France, Spain, Italy and Germany are producing so many that they have spare ones who arent even making the first team.

It also doesnt help that even mediocre english youngsters cost massive amounts of money.

There are at least 5 english players in my game with PA above 180, more with PAs between 160 and 180. Hardly a shortage of talent.

I will say though that AI managers tend to stifle the growth of youth players, with only a few really developing as they should. Luckily I'm playing a game where i buy only British 7 Irish players so I have a lot of the better developed players and I'm developing my own players too.

In 2026 the most expensive England player is a little under £10 million pounds, and the average CA is probably closer to 140 or so. Brazil on the other hand have several 170+ CA players that can't even make it into the squad because they have so much talent. I have a champions league winning Truro side with 12 brazilians in it, because that's where all the talent is, you know the ironic thing though? only four of those are good enough to play for brazil, two decided to just play for italy instead, despite these players having ruled the world for a long time.

Brazil is supposed to be good, England isnt supposed to be wonderful, but Brazil just produces a ridiculous amount of talent, it's not even funny.

Edit: and I don't even have brazil loaded.

The thing is tho, how have England done internationally? If they have not been successful and Brazil have then of course Brazilians are going to be better, they will produce better players to start off with as well because they are ranked higher, much like in my game a few Scottish players are now deemed world class and sought after by the big teams, because Scotland is now 5th ranked in the world. If England have fallen in the rankings then the quality of the regens coming through will have dropped.

Just anecdotal but in the same game im playing England are ranked 2nd in the world and have 5 of the worlds best players in their team, their strike force is by far the best in the world and they have 2 centre backs that would walk into any team.

I'm just coming off the 2022 World Cup with England and my take on it is that the number of good regens coming through is fine, but it's the way they are developed by the AI that is the problem. The world class players who come through are fine as they will always get the game time they deserve but the issue seems to lie with the group of players who are not world class, just good players.

I had to take 2 Championship strikers and a number of average regens with me to the 2022 World Cup, my best players were one world class regen striker, 2 other good regens that I brought through at my club along with a group of 30+ yrs old players who were in the game from the start. I went out to a Brazil team that is just full of World Class players. The problem seems to me not the number of good young English players coming through but that they just aren't getting enough game time at the big clubs, i've seen countless regens who have come through at big clubs with the potential to be very good internationals but they just rot away in the reserves of these big clubs occasionaly spending a year impressing on loan somewhere before returning to do nothing the following season. I have also seen too many good young players who aren't at the big clubs then get snapped up for between 4-8m by the big clubs at ages 21-24 only to never play in the first team bar the odd cup game.