Whether or not to Upgrade Youth Recruitment Level

[duesouth]

A bit of a niche Youth Recruitment level question.  Having played until 2044 in FM19, managing to complete the San Marino Challenge - I've now started an FM21 save with FC Vaduz and the Liechtenstein National Team, again trying to grow club and country and win the World Cup.

With San Marino Calcio, I got the team into Serie A and then with the increased TV money, went straight to getting everything youth related to maximum.  With FC Vaduz, Europe is open far earlier in the save because of the Liechtenstein Cup, and so I have some cash to invest from year one.

In both challenges, I'm not that interested in youth prospects coming through who are not going to be eligible to play for the NT - so Italian prospects with San Marino Calcio and likely Swiss prospects with FC Vaduz.  It got me to thinking about my Youth Recruitment level - and whether I should leave it at a lower level or keep asking the board to improve until it's at maximum.

In the case of a small country - be it San Marino, Liechtenstein or Andorra - where the club is the biggest team in its own country, it should attract the best homegrown prospects almost without trying.  If I increase youth recruitment, I'm assuming the range increases and I might get in more prospects from outside the country.  On the flip side, should I get lucky and a top talent comes down the pipe, would a lower youth recruitment level leave me more open to poaching?  Or even not help with getting decent intakes?

I know this is a niche question with what are niche challenges - but I find so much more enjoyment with these challenges and so am trying to get as good at youth development as possible.  I'd be very interested in any thoughts around this part of the game mechanics.

[Brother Ben]

great question and the best way to find out, I guess, would be to change the value in the editor and run a few tests

[XaW]

I don't think there's been any official confirmation regarding this, but as I have understood things, youth recruitment is "how far the net is cast". So a low youth recruitment will have more local players than a high one. The probability of getting a better player is higher when you have a bigger pool to pick from. It also depends on how good the teams around you are in regards to the recruitment, since the higher reputation clubs will have "first picks" so to speak. In game that would be the probability of a great player ending up in a higher reputation club vs a low reputation club. So having a higher recruitment level will allow to compete for better players a bit further away.

So if you want most local players to come through, I think a medium recruitment as well as trying to get the reputation higher than any other team in the general area (both inside and outside your nation) if possible. That way you have a wide-ish net and the highest likelihood of getting any good players from your local area and/or nation.

This is not confirmed by SI, simply my understanding of things though, so don't take it as canon.

[Daveincid]

vor einer Stunde schrieb duesouth:

youth recruitment, I'm assuming the range increases and I might get in more prospects from outside the country.

youth recruitment only counts in it's Nation. There seems to be some hardcoded factors which calculate foreigners in a youth-intake as well as some you can influence a bit (affiliated clubs etc.)

Cheers

Daveincid

Edited April 28, 2021 by Daveincid

[XaW]

2 minutes ago, Daveincid said:

youth recruitment only counts in it's Nation. There are some hardcoded factors which calculate foreigners in a youth-intake as well as some you can influence a bit (affiliated clubs)

Cheers

Daveincid

Actually, we have gotten this from SI:

Quote

Youth Recruitment
The Club’s recruiting of Juniors, those of home and foreign origin.

So there should be some impact on how likely you are to get foreign newgens based on youth recruitment (could be a small percentage increase or something).

[Daveincid]

vor 2 Minuten schrieb XaW:

So there should be some impact on how likely you are to get foreign newgens based on youth recruitment (could be a small percentage increase or something).

Down to my interpretation this is meant to be the hardcoded part which calculates a certain percentage of foreigners in it's youth intake. (I guess it's down to real-life-stats of foreign citizens in a Nation). For example in Switzerland you have a lot of swiss-albanian or kosovo-newgens, but Albania/Kosovo isn't close to Switzerland.  The City "Basel" sit's just at the Border to France and Germany, but even with the highest Youth Recruitment you don't get that many french or german newgens. 

Cheers

Daveincid

[duesouth]

@XaW @Daveincid Thanks for the replies.  Having maxed everything out with my FM19 save, I might try getting it to a medium level and see what happens and compare to my experiences with San Marino.  Thanks again.

[kandersson]

If I remember correctly from past saves, Vaduz youth intake has mostly 100% Liechtenstein players anyway so I'd suggest upgrading recruitment as much as possible to improve quality of players. To maximize your chances of getting good regens outside of your club I'd suggest to load USA league (especially a DB with lower/youth leagues) as for some reason those clubs/academies are able to produce the occasional Liechtensteiner newgen now and then!

[FrazT]

I would have thought that, if your club has the funds, there would be no downside to bettering any part of the club infrastructure.

[duesouth]

10 hours ago, kandersson said:

If I remember correctly from past saves, Vaduz youth intake has mostly 100% Liechtenstein players anyway so I'd suggest upgrading recruitment as much as possible to improve quality of players. To maximize your chances of getting good regens outside of your club I'd suggest to load USA league (especially a DB with lower/youth leagues) as for some reason those clubs/academies are able to produce the occasional Liechtensteiner newgen now and then!

Oh, wow, pretty random - but thanks so much for the info, will get that loaded tonight!

[herne79]

There is no down side to upgrading facilities however having said that - you can have the best facilities in the world but you'll still be in San Marino / Liechtenstein / Andorra.

This is from SI:

Quote

The Clubs with the best Youth Recruitment will generally pick up the best Junior talent from that Nation first, the scale of that talent being determined by the Nation Youth Rating and Game Importance.

Source

In other words, don't expect to get many (any?) great players from minor (in footballing terms) countries who haven't traditionally produced them.  But the small chance of getting one will increase with better facilities.  Better facilities and staff may also help you get decent newgens from countries other than your own, but expect the majority of your intake to be local lads.  Your club's reputation will also be important as the clubs with the highest reputation have a higher chance of getting the best newgens.

So upgrade your facilities but I'd also suggest keeping an eye on other country's youth intake dates and snapping up 15/16 year old newgens from those countries for free (well, less compensation) before they get signed to youth contracts by their clubs.  And any decent newgen you get / sign, make sure you not only give them a youth contract but also immediately get them to sign a future professional contract to avoid poaching.

[duesouth]

Thanks for the reply @herne79.  Even deep into my San Marino save I wasn't getting great intakes.  I kept going after winning the World Cup and being ranked 13th in the world and that next intake was still awful.  So I did assume it was linked to the reputation of the San Marino League, which was still pretty low -  Serie B or C type standard (which was way up from the original starting point).

That really spawned this question on how best to squeeze as much possible out of intakes in my FC Vaduz/Liechenstein save (no idea why I do this to myself!!).  I have access to Europe right away in this one because of the Liechenstein Cup, so I should have a fairly decent income because of it and be able to invest quite early in facilities.

Thanks again.

[kandersson]

4 hours ago, duesouth said:

Oh, wow, pretty random - but thanks so much for the info, will get that loaded tonight!

Also, you should try to get some reputable senior affiliate clubs and (when you have the option after a few weeks) 'negotiate existing affiliation' to send young players to train at those clubs so they can maybe produce a Liechtensteiner newgen in the future (make sure to make those clubs' leagues playable to maximize chances). Old SM tricks .

Edited April 29, 2021 by kandersson

[Britrock]

I don't know how long it takes to get Liechtenstein nationality (or if it's even possible) but isn't it worth casting your net as wide as possible so that players that are good, but not quite good enough for their own national team, can change nationality and play for your NT? After over 10 years in Greece I've had 4-5 players change their nationality to Greek to get in their NT, changing from Belgian, Spanish and Portuguese among others.

[duesouth]

Just now, Britrock said:

I don't know how long it takes to get Liechtenstein nationality (or if it's even possible) but isn't it worth casting your net as wide as possible so that players that are good, but not quite good enough for their own national team, can change nationality and play for your NT? After over 10 years in Greece I've had 4-5 players change their nationality to Greek to get in their NT, changing from Belgian, Spanish and Portuguese among others.

Thanks for the reply.  With San Marino, the qualifying period was 30 years - so wasn't part of the plan - but you're right, it should be in this case.  I can also try to sign young players who haven't been capped (likely anyone who has been wouldn't sign for us anyway) and if I can keep them for long enough can switch.

[Britrock]

4 hours ago, duesouth said:

Thanks for the reply.  With San Marino, the qualifying period was 30 years - so wasn't part of the plan - but you're right, it should be in this case.  I can also try to sign young players who haven't been capped (likely anyone who has been wouldn't sign for us anyway) and if I can keep them for long enough can switch.

Wow, 30 years!? And I thought 7 years was a long time in Greece!