Young Striker dilemma

I have just won Serie C2 and been promoted to Serie C1. I have a 17 yr old striker I bought on a free when he was 16 and he is now worth £140k and Ass Man says he is my best player. I played him towards the end of my league winning season and he was ok but not brilliant as he is lacking in strength and a few other areas so figure he probably isn't good enough yet for Serie C1. Now I have managed to climb from the lowest tier of my save I decided to loan him out and have had interest from many teams in the league I am just leaving. I figure that a season playing regularly at that level would bring him on nicely.

However I have had an offer to purchase 50% of him from a Serie B team for £70k but am not interested. Also one of the team who have come in to loan him play in the 2nd tier of Spanish football and are a MUCH better level team than I am currently and say he will be an important 1st team player for them.

So

1. Do I loan him to the league below me to help him develop ( one of these clubs has ok facilities and a manager with very high stats in man management/motivation/youth )

2. Do I loan him to the Spanish team who have excellent youth facilities etc so that he can grow into a superstar and I can potentially reap the financial gain from this

3. Consider the 50% sale insisting on a much higher valuation

4. Realise I am missing a trick in that everybody thinks he is good enough now and put him in my first team this season and work on his weaknesses

Money is not currently an issue for me.

Any suggestions would be welcome

Keep him at your club. Put him in the first team for easier league/cup games... see how it goes and if he doesn't play well, loan him out

Ease into first team. I did with a young winger who bought to learn the game in the reserves. Participated in 12 games over 2 years then got his chance this season as a first team player and is currently top 3 in assists in the league and top 5 rating.

His stats are not amazing but good in key areas and he is a hard worker. I picked him up when Man City released him as a youth.

hard one if you loan to the spanish club i get scout reports on him AND keep an eye on how many games he is playing however he would be more likely to get games at a serie C2 club i know nothing about co-ownership in italy so cant help you there

Ease into first team. I did with a young winger who bought to learn the game in the reserves. Participated in 12 games over 2 years then got his chance this season as a first team player and is currently top 3 in assists in the league and top 5 rating.

His stats are not amazing but good in key areas and he is a hard worker. I picked him up when Man City released him as a youth.

The main problem with this is that there is no reserve league in Italy so he would be playing in U20's league when he wasn't playing in the odd league game for the first team. I think that a full season in the first team of a lower league could be potentially more beneficial

The main problem with this is that there is no reserve league in Italy so he would be playing in U20's league when he wasn't playing in the odd league game for the first team. I think that a full season in the first team of a lower league could be potentially more beneficial

I disagree, I was not saying put him in the reserves, I was just saying that I eased my player into the first team and it worked. I suggest doing the same. Ease him into the first team, he is probably ready for it and I think its worth the risk.

I disagree, I was not saying put him in the reserves, I was just saying that I eased my player into the first team and it worked. I suggest doing the same. Ease him into the first team, he is probably ready for it and I think its worth the risk.

Ok point taken. I will need to consider the fact that he is probably best suited to a poacher role and my main poacher is 21 and only been with me half a season and coming on nicely. Oh the trials and tribulations of football management!

Send him to Spain, if he gets enough games, he'll develop much faster there than in Serie C1, and as a loan player, his rep won't rise as much as a regular player, so he won't think he's too good for you when he gets back. If he's not getting enough games, bring him back and either play him yourself, or try for another loan at a higher rated league.

im playing in Scotland and my assistant arranges friendlies, since their is no reserve league in Scotland he seems to arrange a weekly friendly for reserves against fellow Scottish clubs, i presume this will work in Italy if u want him to have game time for your reserves.

Personally, if u think he will get 6.8 rating or above in Serie C2 i would loan him out, however u may find he rejects the loan which seems like some bug happening a lot to players i own.

Include in the deal a recall option so that if after so many games he isnt getting a high enough rating u can bring him back, but generally a rating of 6.8 in first team football is worth more than say 7.1 rating in reserves in my experience.

Also worth considering the standing of the loaning club, if they are top 6 team he will naturally get better ratings from having better players around him, if it is lowly team he will probably struggle.

In terms of the spanish team, i would say if he is good enough for them he is good enough for you, maybe u should keep him and only play him against the worst teams in your division or bring him on when u are 3-0 up etc, also play him in cup games if u have equivelent of say Johnstone paint trophy in Italy (i dont know how LLM in foreign countries works)

Send him to Spain, if he gets enough games, he'll develop much faster there than in Serie C1, and as a loan player, his rep won't rise as much as a regular player, so he won't think he's too good for you when he gets back. If he's not getting enough games, bring him back and either play him yourself, or try for another loan at a higher rated league.

Wasn't aware of the rep changing so hadn't considered that anyway. Although he is on hols at the moment his personal screen says that he thinks he is too good to be loaned out.......if I decide to keep him is he going to come back from hols with very poor morale and could this become an issue. In which case by offering him for loan then maybe I have left myself with no alternative now but to loan him or do you think any morale issues maybe short term if he does stay

My mistake, I thought there was already a loan offer on the table from Spain. Taking him off "available for loan" should sort the morale, but doesn't mean you can't still offer him for loan. It is starting to sound like the people saying just play him were right though.

My mistake, I thought there was already a loan offer on the table from Spain. Taking him off "available for loan" should sort the morale, but doesn't mean you can't still offer him for loan. It is starting to sound like the people saying just play him were right though.

Yes there is an offer from Spain on the table but I have yet to respond. So you definitely think if I decide to keep him and take him off available for loan then any potential morale issue will not materialise? Still in 2 minds about what to do as if I keep him he will not develop as well with my poor facilities but may make the difference between me making a mid table finish rather than possibly fighting a relegation battle......I do have a pretty good squad though as my ass man says my mid table prediction is attainable with this squad and he rates most players between 3 & 4.5 starts even in this new division.