Signing Regens at a low rep team?

[legenary1]

Hi guys,

Have done a search on here and Google and haven't found anyone talking about this yet; how do you sign regens if you're a low reputation team? It's all well and good playing as a team in the top division and picking up these regens but if you're a struggling team, it's a different kettle of fish.

I'm managing as Afan Lido in Wales and, I've tried to sign well over 100 regens/youth players that have been released by their club or have appeared in their national sides youth setup and hardly any have even let me offer them a contract.

Am I missing something or do I just have to accept that regens/youth players aren't going to want to come to sheep-friendly Wales?

[CityAndColour]

Sometimes if you leave it until a couple of months into the season, they'll be more likely to sign if they haven't found another club. Also, anyone with a reputation higher than 'regional' you can probably forget about.

But realistically you probably do have to accept that a lot of players, epsecially youngsters, probably don't want to come to Wales.

[Canaries Fan]

It's usually relatively easy to snag rejects from the lower levels of English football. You just need to look for reasonable targets, not ex Chelsea or Bolton players.

[phnompenhandy]

Are you full-time pro or semi-pro? What wages can you offer? Is it worthwhile some kids moving from London on the package you offer? If the package is a part-time one you're only going to attract regens/youth who live locally.

[hluraven]

In FM13, it is now very unlikely to get foreign-based players to move country for a part-time wage. You would need to target players released by Welsh clubs rather than English I suspect.

[Neil Brock]

Pretty much what hluraven said.

[PsycoOo55]

It`s important to make your club Full Professional.. If you do that, its easy to sign regens all over the world.. With my save with Bangor City from Wales I got talents from Honduras to Spain to Nigeria:)

[AytchMan]

As a manager trying to keep his head above water in the sub-basement of football that is Norn Iron 2, I can write the book on futility. Nevertheless, you can always get newgens; the problem is getting good ones. It takes a lot of scouting, reviewing of atts and stats and, equally important, proper timing. Players with longer contracts (even the kids) will rarely come play for us. Our best signings come from two sources: players with expiring contracts and kids undiscovered by anyone else. On occasion, we can also get excellent young amateurs from other clubs on free transfers; the AI seems not to protect them as well as it should. But the key is putting in the hard work because it's a numbers game: the more players you can identify, the more you'll have a shot at signing.

[mixmkz]

You just have to look carefully, I love signing players with 2.5* stars but with descriptions '...could become leading star in the EPL'. They usually only have local or regional reputation. Once they sign for my 8 season in a row winning EPL team, suddenly they become 4* players. Most of them end up better than the 4* player that came out of my academy too.

[Black_Waltz]

Managing in Wales is hard. I'm unofficially trying Gundo's European Adventure challenge in FM13 and I'm having a similar problem with you. I'm managing Barry Town and to cap the problem attracting regens, I can't even win the league to get Champions League money and become Professional as Bangor City got there before me. TNS and Bangor are now the Celtic and Rangers of the Welsh Premier League, signing all of these magnificent English youth rejects, while I can't sign anyone better than I already have. It's a tough spot!

[legenary1]

@CityAndColour, I have accepted it now after spending lots of time trying, lol.

@Canaries Fan, I'll check them out, I've got the big leagues loaded on 'view-only'. I found that to be a useful technique in the lower leagues of England. Thanks.

@phnompenhandy, semi-pro, and that's a very good point! Board not willing to let me turn pro just yet, I have had a similar save before, so that makes sense as to why I could get better players from further away, thank you! Re wages, I can offer max £280p/w.

@hluraven, thanks, good point.

@PsycoOo55, thanks, a few of you seem to say the same thing, I agree. How did you Bangor save go? Or are you on a different save now? I find Wales so addictive and challenging; it's the perfect league.

@AytchMan, I feel your pain, brother! I've done pretty much the same thing, I have a shortlist of players from the national teams u18,u19,u20 & u21 sides, that I've manually gone through and clicked add to shortlist from each of the national teams from every continent, time consuming but worth it imo.

@mixmkz, I have been doing just that, trying to pick up local talent, which hasn't worked out too badly thus far. The reason I'm so curious is because a lot of people on here and YouTube seem to find a lot better regens a lot quicker but having read all of your answers, I realise why now.

@Black_Waltz, I really want to manage Barry Town; they're history is amazing! I've found using a 4-5-1 attacking as 1 tactic and a similar counter-attacking tactic for another works well. As Afan Lido I've finished 3rd, 2nd & 1st in my first three seasons, every year so far the winner of the league has had 73 points (~2.3ppg) which is a reasonable total, the problem I've found in previous attempts in Wales is that if TNS or Bangor have a beasting season, they'll run away with it. Stick with it, my man, and you will reap the rewards in years to come, no doubt.