Youth Loans

I remember in FM09, I loaned off a few of my most promising youth players to lower tier clubs, while playing in the Premier League. They came back, and never played nearly as well. I could have sworn several stats went down, regardless of whether or not they felt it was benficial or not. It seemed as if loaning players somehow made them worse, and giving them a start every so often was much better for their development. That, and the lack of good training while on loan. Is this problem still around? It was one of the worst things I found in the game, as I couldn't keep playing the same squad, there was too much rotation going on. And it's completely the opposite of what occurs in real life.

Thanks in advance.

how is it the opposite? Its exactly what happens in real life? It isnt a problem, squad rotation is exaclty what the cups etc are for. If you loan a player to somewhere with low training facilities and rubbish coaches then, as they are young and still learning, this is where they are getting taught and their skill level obviously wont be as high, you hardly need to be fielding a different 11 every game, you will find that most of your youth players may look promising but turn out not to be, again just as irl, so weed them off and keep the good ones for cup etc until they are ready to be full time bench players then first team

Well of course you use them in cups. I can remember one particular player that had stats a bit less than the starter. I would rotate him in like every 3 or so games, and he did alright. Then I did a half season loan, because it was just me wanting him to be great, and he didn't really deserve to be starting. His stats weren't improving, so I figured regular first team play should do it. I pulled him back in January (injury), and he did better for a bit. Then inexplicably, his stats started dropping significantly (he was a defender, marking went from 18 to 15, and tackling from 15 to at least 13). and with it his play, and my 18m investment in the 19 year old. He spent the entire loan playing for a decent Championship club. Why should he come back with worse stats and playing worse?

so his stats dropped after he came back to you? How long was he out for?

Oh, no, that was misleading. I took him back because my normal starter got injured for a couple of weeks. Typical FM .

Yeah i always wonder if you send out Youth (even though they play in your reserves and you have top coaches/facilities) if they improve better/faster playing First Team football at some 2nd tier league side.

What I find important is that the teams actually want him. Its more effective loaning the player out to a team that asked for him rather than a team responding to offers. Otherwise I don't like loaning them out to teams that play too far below my level unless its a short term loan.

Yeah i always wonder if you send out Youth (even though they play in your reserves and you have top coaches/facilities) if they improve better/faster playing First Team football at some 2nd tier league side.

Studies were done on this for FM09 in the training forum. Basically first team experience is the most important factor for improving CA/attributes. However, the level is factored in, so playing 5 levels below probably won't make any difference. Also winning improves the player more than constantly losing at the loaning club.

The best thing is to get a balance - have a kid tutored for say 4 months at home, out on loan for 4 months then maybe a few subby appearances for your first team.