Youth Development

How is everyone finding this on 09 (if you've played enough seasons)?

I have a couple of young players with great potential but they don't seem to be improving. On 08 I found it was mostly down to them playing 1st team football but despite getting a more than fair amount, their stats don't seem to be improving.

How is everyone getting along with youngsters?

in my game cardiff have 7 u21 players in their 1st team.

i'm leicester and have 2 england u19's, 3 u21's, one ukraine u21, one france u21 and one italy u19 all playing regularly. so yeah .. and one (joey mattock) attracting bids of 9 million from permiership clubs. i also have several (english) 17 year olds with potential on the fringe. all the english players came through my academy too.

re: them improving, their stats are rising. i spent a lot of time and money getting my youth academy upgraded and sorting out my coaching staff to all have min. 18 working with youngsters and everything 5 stars or more. not using tug's training or anything either.

I got a youth through at Clube Oriental de Lisboa in my second season, and at the start of the third all his technical stats had risen by 1, all but 2 (iirc) of his mental stats rose by 1 (his flair dropped by 1 but thats no biggy.) and his stamina, strength and jumping went up by 1. (his agility fell by 1, but again not a huge problem). I'd say thats quite good for the level he is playing at. Got his first u19 cap too.

He is on his own training schedule and played 23 games out of a possible 33 last season and did well.

Initial Profile

After 1 Season

My best one so far has to be this young right winger, he's been labelled the next Michel. (the Real Madrid legend)

July 08

August 09

I was hoping for somewhat faster development for a talent of his quality, but the poor lad was out for over five months with ankle injuries during the first season. - I still have high hopes for him though. And hey, at least he's changed his hairstyle for the better!

Have you asked NeptheZ (or however it's spelt) in the CSE Forum? He's dedicated a massive topic to this.

I found it a lot easier to develop youth in FM09 than FM08. So far I have raised about 5/6 good players, and only one turned out to be average. The youth's Personality and Determination plays a big part.

Have you asked NeptheZ (or however it's spelt) in the CSE Forum? He's dedicated a massive topic to this.

Ahh, no I haven't. Didn't even think to look in CSE. Thanks, I'll take a look now.

Thanks for the replies, I guess I need to look at my training and useless coaches

I think if you give players a good run in your first team they can turn good. Ive managed to get my players to be decent squad players and if they arent good enough I can generally get a fee for them.

I always aim to get a squad capable of being supported by the youth team after a couple of years.

I find top clubs are able to develop them too quickly actually. The great youths of Arsenal and Inter Milan are able to consistently play against the very best by the 2nd or 3rd season.

I got a youth through at Clube Oriental de Lisboa in my second season, and at the start of the third all his technical stats had risen by 1, all but 2 (iirc) of his mental stats rose by 1 (his flair dropped by 1 but thats no biggy.) and his stamina, strength and jumping went up by 1. (his agility fell by 1, but again not a huge problem). I'd say thats quite good for the level he is playing at. Got his first u19 cap too.

He is on his own training schedule and played 23 games out of a possible 33 last season and did well.

Initial Profile

After 1 Season

wow he cut his hair. LOL

didn know players' looks change as they grow

it's been that way in 08 as well. Quite amusing when I first found out too

To me it just seems like coaches make too much of a difference. In the test games I've had so far, the youth players aren't able to get much better at all. Of course, I haven't changed traning, it's just default settings, but without top coaches it seems that none of all the promising players I buy develop to anything more than average, despite a decent amount of first team experience.

I find it realistic that some young players won't develop too much if you play them too early in their carreers and they're not really on the same level as the other players. That way, first team experience is no guarantee at all. However, I'm a bit nervous that you will have to nurture all promising players with toturs, comments, top coaches for them to turn into anything. The top clubs don't have any problems though, but they also have a really high level amount players, managers and coaches.

Wow....the second haircut sure looks better tha the first.

Watch their developments closer to their birthday each year