Suggestion: Training Grounds / Youth Academies / Training Camps

I think we should have proper training grounds in the game with more information about the facilities. It would be good seeing what teams train on public parks and what teams have their own training grounds or rent facilities from the council or universities etc.

Expanding on this we could include academy options like information on whether they are residential and that sort of thing. Even having FA owned academies and invites to trial days.

The good thing is that these don't need to be limited. We could expand even further and have situations where teams like Ajax have academies in various different countries.

Building up from the lower leagues you may have situations like this...

- Train in local park

- Rent facilities from council

- Build own basic facilities

- Build more advanced facilities

- Create Youth Academy

- Create Youth Academy in foreign country

Obviously the costs involved in running this stuff will be quite substantial the higher you get and the youth academy in a foreign country would probably be the most expensive.

What do you guys think? Obviously the manager wouldn't be able to decide all this stuff but should be a natural progression the bigger a club gets.

Surely this whole thing is covered in Training and Youth Facilities isn't it? And also there is a function where can approach the board to improve training and youth facilities within the game already.

Surely this whole thing is covered in Training and Youth Facilities isn't it? And also there is a function where can approach the board to improve training and youth facilities within the game already.

Is that not a bit limited though? With this then things like Casa Italia, Clairefontaine, England's National Football Centre and the Glenn Hoddle Academy can be implemented properly. It opens up the possibility for clubs to setup these in other countries and possibly develop local links and affiliations with a club in that area.

It would add a lot to this area of the game and link up with other features like scouting, training, trial days and feeder clubs.

Hmmmm....yeah I see where your coming from tbh, but these are features that aren't necessarily dealt with by the manager, and by adding these you are starting to roam into the realms of FIFA Manager where you can build things like medical centres and club shops.

Be interested to hear other peoples thoughts though.

good idea and would like to see it in the game.

I think its a great idea

Hmmmm....yeah I see where your coming from tbh, but these are features that aren't necessarily dealt with by the manager, and by adding these you are starting to roam into the realms of FIFA Manager where you can build things like medical centres and club shops.

Be interested to hear other peoples thoughts though.

I'm not suggesting that the manager would be building or deciding these things. But it should be a natural progression if a club gets more money that they will improve their facilities and expand their scouting network and look into foreign based academies. All this sort of stuff should happen and the manager should be able to push for it and possibly make suggestions on where foreign academies are located. Ultimately though, the final decision should be taken by the chairman / board.

This could also happen in reverse. If a club has all this stuff and they go into debt, get relegated then they could sell off their facilities if they are costing too much to run and they need the money. I think that would be quite interesting.

This could be a great addition to the game. Like you said,

"Building up from the lower leagues you may have situations like this...

- Train in local park

- Rent facilities from council

- Build own basic facilities

- Build more advanced facilities

- Create Youth Academy

- Create Youth Academy in foreign country

Obviously the costs involved in running this stuff will be quite substantial the higher you get and the youth academy in a foreign country would probably be the most expensive."

One of the problems in FM2008 was that clubs would get a lot of money and do nothing but sit on it or spend it all in one player and, the more money they had, the bigger the price would be... If there were this option, there would be a more realistic approach to the financial side of the game. Not only that, having this option could give you more options in the game, i.e. interaction with the board, press and managers.

Mourinho said he would only sign a contract with Chelsea if they were to make superb training facilities, this could appear in the contract (renewel or not);

You could have a better relationship with the youth national managers or those who bet on kids too (Dario Gradi for example);

There are also clubs that like to promote youth players that would prefer spending their money on such facilities rather than buying expensive players (Ajax, Auxerre, Arsenal, Boca, River, Sporting), etc..

Yeah, I mean look at this scenario. You take over as manager of Empoli and find yourself doing well in Serie A after a couple of years. The bigger clubs are buying your best players and you are not spending all the money you bring in on replacements as you can get cheaper options. You've got some money going spare so you ask the board to improve the training facilities and open a youth academy. Once that's up and running you get a couple of stars coming through after a few years, which you then sell on for a lot of money. This money is then invested in a youth academy in Sweden. After this has been up and running for six months you form a relationship with a club in that area and send a couple of your promising youngsters from your U20 team to play there on loan. In pre-season you go on a tour of Sweden and are based at your Swedish academy and play a friendly match against your affiliated team and a couple of local clubs.

You will eventually get graduates of your academy come over to Italy and play in your U20 team and if they are good enough it's up to you to promote these players to the first team. It should also be possible that those players who didn't quite make it from your academy find themselves snapped up by your affiliate as they will have knowledge of these players through your team.

That's just one potential scenario that would be great to have thrown up.

Hmmmm....yeah I see where your coming from tbh, but these are features that aren't necessarily dealt with by the manager, and by adding these you are starting to roam into the realms of FIFA Manager where you can build things like medical centres and club shops.

Be interested to hear other peoples thoughts though.

you said the F word why would you mention that disease on these gracefull forums

you said the F word why would you mention that disease on these gracefull forums

It was a fair enough comparison but the intention of the idea isn't to go down that route and leave much of the control in the hands of the chairman / board and only allow the manager the power to suggest. You never know, if you've taken a team up the divisions and they are looking at a foreign based youth academy then they might give you the choice of three. That would be quite cool.

But it's not good to say, yeah, I'm going to build a youth academy in Afghanistan and just go ahead and do it.

A few weeks ago, there was a thread about the naming of the new stadiums in FM2008. People would get Farnborough or alike up the ladder, becoming champions of the world 5 times in a row, and would have a 75k seated stadium with their name - wich IRL happens very rarely... and after the person dies.

The suggestion that arouse was very clever, very similar to real life, but hard to apply - the cities would be divided in boroughs and the stadiums would be named after them.

In this case, the same concept could be applied, but instead of city boroughs, it could be applied to national regions.

A small london club could start by training in the local park, get promoted and rent facilities from the council, then build their own facilities (in London), start a local Youth Academy (in London), and eventually start other national Youth Academys (say, Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol) with Youth Academys in foreign countrys.

As a Sporting fan myself, I know that's what my club is doing; every region in Portugal has, or ultimately will have - that's the idea at least - a local feeder club that pick local kids, test them, where the best of them will go to Lisbon while the others stay there. Mind you, it's a feeder club in the form of a local academy, not as an affiliate that only gets player loans.

My (other) 2 cents on the subject...

Yeah, a lot of training grounds are named after the region or something like that. Maybe the researchers could provide a list of possible names or something too.

Not up to date on how things work in Portugal but it seems a bit overkill if they have academies in different regions of Portugal. If it's just agreements with clubs and they have an input on how things work there and get the pick of the best players then I can understand that. Don't think they would be classed as academies would they?

I think in principle, this is an absolutley wonderful idea, and to reply to a comment where its going into FIFA territory to build medical centres and things, I dont think that is true, Because big clubs like man utd have tremendous onsite medical facilities at Carrington better than some private hospitals, whereas team like AFC Telford have the St johns ambulance and local NHS hospital!

Telford Train on a local council leisure centre, Man Utd train at one of Carrington, one of the best training facilities in the world. I understand that it is blanket covered in training facilities and acadamies on the info screen, but it could be expanded on in a very big and very very positive way. The idea of setting up a foriegn clairefontine like acadmey that is linked to local clubs to promote younger players through a local affiliate club is quite exciting, if incredibly difficult to code properly. As they say in World football it comes in cycles where the best youth players are found. investing money into top quality facilities abroad could make this game even better than it is, The problem for me is I cant put into words whats in my head, whereas the more articulate people can. Better still good game makers can take our best ideas and convert them into real substance in games!

It was a fair enough comparison but the intention of the idea isn't to go down that route and leave much of the control in the hands of the chairman / board and only allow the manager the power to suggest. You never know, if you've taken a team up the divisions and they are looking at a foreign based youth academy then they might give you the choice of three. That would be quite cool.

But it's not good to say, yeah, I'm going to build a youth academy in Afghanistan and just go ahead and do it.

I think you would have to scout the local region itself fully before being allowed to do anything there, and probably have an affiliate there too, Why not Afghanistan? You never know where the next hotbed of talent will come through!!

I think scout feedback of an area in this instance would be beneficial, if he goes out to say Afghanistan, and he feels theres no point in setting an acadamey up there then he should give a report why, and on the other hand if he goes out and scouts Brazil he should come back in a hard hat and workers overalls, trowell in hand asking you when you want him to start work!

Thats providing hes a good scout, poor scouts may come back and give you bogus info and say Afghan is the place to be for the modern up and coming footballer

Good idea. It would deepen the interaction between the board and manager, and also improve realism. Would love to see this explored.

Yeah, I mean look at this scenario. You take over as manager of Empoli and find yourself doing well in Serie A after a couple of years. The bigger clubs are buying your best players and you are not spending all the money you bring in on replacements as you can get cheaper options. You've got some money going spare so you ask the board to improve the training facilities and open a youth academy. Once that's up and running you get a couple of stars coming through after a few years, which you then sell on for a lot of money. This money is then invested in a youth academy in Sweden. After this has been up and running for six months you form a relationship with a club in that area and send a couple of your promising youngsters from your U20 team to play there on loan. In pre-season you go on a tour of Sweden and are based at your Swedish academy and play a friendly match against your affiliated team and a couple of local clubs.

You will eventually get graduates of your academy come over to Italy and play in your U20 team and if they are good enough it's up to you to promote these players to the first team. It should also be possible that those players who didn't quite make it from your academy find themselves snapped up by your affiliate as they will have knowledge of these players through your team.

That's just one potential scenario that would be great to have thrown up.

would love if this would be the case.

I think you would have to scout the local region itself fully before being allowed to do anything there, and probably have an affiliate there too, Why not Afghanistan? You never know where the next hotbed of talent will come through!!

I think scout feedback of an area in this instance would be beneficial, if he goes out to say Afghanistan, and he feels theres no point in setting an acadamey up there then he should give a report why, and on the other hand if he goes out and scouts Brazil he should come back in a hard hat and workers overalls, trowell in hand asking you when you want him to start work!

Thats providing hes a good scout, poor scouts may come back and give you bogus info and say Afghan is the place to be for the modern up and coming footballer

Yeah, I'm sure scouts could be used to, er, scout the areas first and come back with potential choices. This would have to be a very careful choice as well as these things are only going to happen very rarely and you shouldn't really be allowed to just go ahead and get several of these setup in different countries at the same time. Should be years between them.

"Yeah, a lot of training grounds are named after the region or something like that. Maybe the researchers could provide a list of possible names or something too.

Not up to date on how things work in Portugal but it seems a bit overkill if they have academies in different regions of Portugal. If it's just agreements with clubs and they have an input on how things work there and get the pick of the best players then I can understand that. Don't think they would be classed as academies would they?"

(Sorry, I don't know how to quote...)

It's not a local Sporting academy per say, I agree... perhaps it's best to make a small description to what happens with Sporting, wich, unfortunately, is unable to be replicated by the game:

Sporting has local affiliated clubs - and sometimes, some kind of former-player kids academy, wich seems to have become a fashion over here - who perform tests every year to kids up to a certain age. These tests are promoted as "play for Sporting", with Sportings scouts attending, who choose the best.

They continue to live with their parents and train in their local clubs, only with a different type of training, given by Sporting, and come to Lisbon to play for Sporting in the weekend.

They come to Sportings Academy when they are 14, 15 years old, and live there if their parents don't come to Lisbon with them.

As for naming regions (and I might mislead you there) you could have an academy per region on your country, with the regional capital as base.

Portugal has 11 regions, so you could have an academy in Lisbon (Extremadura region), then one in Faro (Algarve), and so on.

Sorry for the continuous big posts...

Cheers.

Hmmmm....yeah I see where your coming from tbh, but these are features that aren't necessarily dealt with by the manager, and by adding these you are starting to roam into the realms of FIFA Manager where you can build things like medical centres and club shops.

Be interested to hear other peoples thoughts though.

I completely agree with this. Let's stick to the football side of game, to the real manager's job.

I completely agree with this. Let's stick to the football side of game, to the real manager's job.

Did you even read the suggestion? I don't want the manager to be able to build anything. These should all be things that happen as clubs get bigger.

Surely this whole thing is covered in Training and Youth Facilities isn't it? And also there is a function where can approach the board to improve training and youth facilities within the game already.

This might be right and so far I simply assume the indications given as translating to the suggested idea.

However, even if it was just cosmetic, it would be a nice addition. If you could then ask for a more specific improvement in one of the categories it would also add something to the game.

Did you even read the suggestion? I don't want the manager to be able to build anything. These should all be things that happen as clubs get bigger.

Agreed Of course that's the board's business, just as suggested

hey guys not sure if this has been mentioned but i think implementing training camps would make the game more better an realistic. you could have them in pre season and be able to pick variety of different destinations which all do different things (eg fitness, defending, attacking etc) and overall help boost squad harmony and make players gel. and depending on your clubs finances the destinations vary and your pre season friendlies are local clubs from the area of your camp.

thoughts and feedback?

hey guys not sure if this has been mentioned but i think implementing training camps would make the game more better an realistic. you could have them in pre season and be able to pick variety of different destinations which all do different things (eg fitness, defending, attacking etc) and overall help boost squad harmony and make players gel. and depending on your clubs finances the destinations vary and your pre season friendlies are local clubs from the area of your camp.

thoughts and feedback?

sounds a very good idea:thup:

perhaps we could be able to view trianing in a match engine format....where you can show individual players where you want them to run to/place shots...target set pieces where you want corners/free kicks aimed at zones where you want players closed down etc etc....dont know how feasable that is but would make coaching fantastic:D

Did you get this idea from FIFA Manager? Because it sounds like something it probably has. Training is training, and until the current training module changes in FM I don't see any point in this sort of gimmick where it matters where you train.

And a definite no from me for any training involving the match engine.

hey guys not sure if this has been mentioned but i think implementing training camps would make the game more better an realistic. you could have them in pre season and be able to pick variety of different destinations which all do different things (eg fitness, defending, attacking etc) and overall help boost squad harmony and make players gel. and depending on your clubs finances the destinations vary and your pre season friendlies are local clubs from the area of your camp.

thoughts and feedback?

I think this idea is indeed feasible, especially with the importance the game places on squad harmony these days. This could also tie in neatly with pre-season friendly tours of countries that is already in the game.

Perhaps having the destination determine the effectiveness of some particular aspects of training such as defending, attacking or tactics could be a tad unrealistic as it should not matter.

However, having a variety of options available depending on which country you visit could indeed be worked upon, finances being one if you were to visit a populous country where you could do a lot of marketing and possibly even affiliate yourself with a club there in the meantime. Or perhaps choose to hold the training camp in a high altitude country to build up on fitness levels. Those are plausible scenarios.

I like this idea, not so much the bonus to defending or attacking etc, but for helping the team gel.

I want my team to go to spain for 2 weeks training.

I pick the camp, inform my ass man and tell him I also want several friendlies with teams in spain. It would help with the team gelling because the players would be forced to be with each other, instead of just training and going home. It would help new players ease into the team better.

But it could also cause problems as players with different personalities spending to much time together could cause friction and damage team moral and start to ungel the team.

I'd detest this, too much needless crap in the game that needs to be cut out in my opinion

you saying that if it helped with the team gelling and pre season fitness you would not use it? Even if it was just the case of going into your fixture list, clicking "arrange training camp" and then picking the destination?

And then your ass man would arrange friendlies for you.

Two birds with one stone

A good idea maybe (or not), but as previously mentioned, what's the point in all these aditions and ideas if there's no improvement to the core, to the training module itself? It's like having to choose a hotel to spend the night with Rosseane Bar. OK, it might be a good idea (or not), but wouldn't you prefer Jenna Jameson instead?

The op only touched on it having an affect on the players stats, I think he was more leaning towards the team gelling side of things which has become quite important in fm

sounds a very good idea:thup:

perhaps we could be able to view trianing in a match engine format....where you can show individual players where you want them to run to/place shots...target set pieces where you want corners/free kicks aimed at zones where you want players closed down etc etc....dont know how feasable that is but would make coaching fantastic:D

this is the only thing that missing in FM. definitely support this 100%.

i like it

good feature to put in i say

Training needs some work to make it mmore transparent, visible, and targetable and less of an area based number bumping exercise.

As for watching them train...for the love of god why?

Lets get important things like match engine and the training module up to scratch.

Colourful idea, not sure it belongs in FM where most peoples concern is the players and the matches.

I really like the idea of taking your team away for training camps for a number of reasons, mainly to boost morale but I am sure other reasons could be incorporated. We quite often hear about teams (mainly Premier League, admittedly) going away for warm weather train; this is carried out mid-season and generally not too far afield i.e Spain. This could be added to the Boardroom options and would be made as a request to the Chariman. I am not too sure when teams could do this (international breaks would mean alot of players would be away, but teams definitely do this)

Also, I am quite fond of opening up academies across the world in order to get a look at the best young talent. I'm sure many clubs do this? You'd have an option for a Youth Academy manager, to be based in Brazil, once the academy is built - a kind of extension to Feeder clubs etc. Again, mainly an option for 'bigger' clubs, but surely a great way of expanding and I am sure many clubs have something similar?

Sorry for not posting this in the suggestions thread but I feel a few good ideas get lost in there.

Seems a good idea and something that I have thought about before. I know FIFA Manager has a similar feature (even if the game itself is useless!) which was often useful for getting fitness levels up during pre-season pre-season or, as you said, to raise morale amongst the squad mid-season.

Dont think this is just something for "big clubs". In scandinavia, russia and other countries with winter breaks the teams almost always do this. And there is an option to go "on a tour in a country", I dont think it does anything though, except from acting as a "planning tool" for the country you do it in. Havent tried this in 09 yet so cant say if some new events happen, however.

This has been discussed many times, and from what I've read (and I agree) people seem to think it would be a good idea. However, how to implement it is anther matter. Also, how much effect it will actually have on the game.

Will it be just cosmetic at first?

Will it influence your club/country/youth?

Will it be bugged to hell and annoy more than please?

I suspect it will be on SI's list for discussion, but probably low priority.

Nice thought, though.

Again backpackant, such a cosmetic option is already ingame? Or am I not understanding this suggestion?

I agree with this, would be a good addition. However, SI really need to get the current areas perfected before trying anything new.

This might be a FIFA manager feature, but to be completely honest, this is a must have for FM.

I believe this could play a big part in the game and i would love to see this in the game.

Awesome suggestion and i sincerely hope that SI consider it

I agree with this! This would be a good addition to the game! I hope that SI implements this on FM 2010!

Also, I am quite fond of opening up academies across the world in order to get a look at the best young talent. I'm sure many clubs do this? You'd have an option for a Youth Academy manager, to be based in Brazil, once the academy is built - a kind of extension to Feeder clubs etc. Again, mainly an option for 'bigger' clubs, but surely a great way of expanding and I am sure many clubs have something similar?

Love this idea, would be great to have it in the game if it could be implemented to work correctly.

with the view to training, SI should look at what the competition are doing with training http://gamereactor.co.uk/grtv/?id=4210 i think some of the features in the new CM should be looked at very long and hard, having a free kick editor is a great idea!!!!!!!!

I like this. It would probably get me remotely interested in training, which I currently couldn't be arsed to deal with.

Good idea. it is a little bit FIFAMish, but the youth camps are one of its best features, along with the very attractive match engine graphics thingy.

I love the idea of buliding 'youth camps' abroad, giving these youngsters guidance from a young age and progressing them into the squads. Its the only feature on FIFA Manager that I like. Top idea Christian Vieri 32!

i like the idea of the foreign youth academy, but i also would suggest that players in the current youth acadamies should come in earlier. IRL players join up with professional acadamies at 11 ish so why not FM? the manager (or youth manager if the manager chooses) could decide whether they deserve a YTS.

it'd make for a bigger database but more opportunities of poaching the best youngsters

Molywop; the only problem with that would be the gap between real players and regens. All 'real' players must be 16 due to child protection laws. This means There will be a 5 year gap or a lot of regens from the start. The extra volume of regens would make the file a lot bigger.