How important are Mentals when signing a youth player?

Fairly straight-forward, how much to you take into consideration a players mental attributes when signing him for your youth team? Are the essential? Or do they generally develop fairly well with a good mentor- regardless of what the attributes where when you signed them?

Thanks in advance

Depends on the league your in.

If i was in the Championships or Premier league then i wouldn't mind too much if some of the stats were below 10 as mentoring does help increase them as well as tactics training for some attributes.

For BSN/S team i don't expect anything to be over 10 so it's bonus if it is. I'd be looking at them as if they are good enough to go into my first team? As playing matches is the only way they will improve to good levels.

Things like aggression and bravery are hard/impossible to improve, so is being a big match player and being consistent.

To realise their potential certain mental attributes have to be there in the first place

Determination is key - without it they will never develop. Decisions and concentration(for defenders) need to be decent because they won't shoot up if there's nothing there.

Physical attributes develop fastest, then technique and the slowest of them all are mental attributes. So to me mental attributes are by far the most important.

A rule of thumb in my head when looking at talent is that a wonderkid gets +5 in all physical attributes, +4 in technical and +3 in mental. This varies a lot of course, but it helps visualize what the player could look like when he has reached his potential.

Determination is key - without it they will never develop. Decisions and concentration(for defenders) need to be decent because they won't shoot up if there's nothing there.

Actually, determination makes no discernible difference to player development The most crucial attribute is professionalism ( hidden ) . You can understand it from players personality.

I first look at his personality to see if he is professional or not . Then I look if the player has low mental attribute , I check if I have good player to tutor him to improve his mental abilities. If I have a nice tutor I sign the youngster.