Youth Development

Im manager of Manchester United and have the best training facilities and the best coaches i can sign.

I was wondering what peoples views are on players who are no longer classed as youth. Is it better to keep them playing in my reserves so they can benefit from my training or is it better to send them out on loan so they play 1st team football but with average facilities?

I always loan them out if i can but if no one will take them i just stick them in the reserves and use them for cup and easy league games.

I always loan them out to a club where I know they will get first team football and lots of it.

Before I loan them out though I generally try to tutor them with a professional first teamer with lots of experience, this is usually when they are 16-17, then tend to loan them out to either a feeder club or on the loan market.

I've been getting excellent results doing this.

Reserves if I feel they have potential, and loan them out to either the feeder clubs or clubs a couple of leagues below.

Send them to one of your affiliate clubs in the championship, if they will get first team football. I did this with a few of my young star strikers and after 2-3 years on loan they were ready for the big time

depends how many games you would give them in first team. if playing reserve football and around 10 games a year in first team then i would argue that it is better for there development than 25 games in championship or below. all depends likelihood of games whilst on loan, position played whilst on loan etc. every case is different. i tend to send them on loan for the full season with option to recall. then look at there games during preseason. if played majority in position i want them playing in then they stay on loan. if not i bring them back the majority of the time.