Player Development/Mentorship

[Skora11]

Following on from a Twitter (X) post from VFTT it got me wondering how people nurture youngsters through their youth academy and how they develop players. What is their overall strategy?

The View From the Touchline posted mentioned how they spend hours adding player notes and setting reminders to change training schedules for focusing on player development. It made me think that I spend nowhere near enough time in doing things like this. 

If you have a promising 16 year-old that has came through the academy do you take control of their individual training? Let them train with the senior time while making them available for the U18's. When do you send them out on loan/if at all? Do you specifically set their individual training to a role you think they will play when they are older, or do you focus on weak areas to make them more rounded and assume their already decent attributes will continue to improve? At what stage would you start giving them senior football etc etc..

Probably so many questions and a variety of different ways to do things, but what scenarios have you found garner the best results?

I personally just leave them in the U18's for a season or two to develop with little to no input from myself (which I probably know isn't the optimum way to do things). I may look to send them out on loan at 18 to a team that has good facilities and stipulate that they need to be a first team regular. If they have very high star rating potential I might slowly blood them into my senior team at 17ish, playing the odd game off the bench and some cup games. I will also have these players train with the first team, and include them in a mentoring group and generally assign individual training to a role that would be in my tactic and have earmarked that spot for them going forward. Am I doing it all wrong?

Would be good to hear a wide range of opinions on how others do things, and what kind of results they bring.

[Cloud9]

On 02/11/2023 at 08:28, Skora11 said:

Following on from a Twitter (X) post from VFTT it got me wondering how people nurture youngsters through their youth academy and how they develop players. What is their overall strategy?

The View From the Touchline posted mentioned how they spend hours adding player notes and setting reminders to change training schedules for focusing on player development. It made me think that I spend nowhere near enough time in doing things like this. 

If you have a promising 16 year-old that has came through the academy do you take control of their individual training? Let them train with the senior time while making them available for the U18's. When do you send them out on loan/if at all? Do you specifically set their individual training to a role you think they will play when they are older, or do you focus on weak areas to make them more rounded and assume their already decent attributes will continue to improve? At what stage would you start giving them senior football etc etc..

Probably so many questions and a variety of different ways to do things, but what scenarios have you found garner the best results?

I personally just leave them in the U18's for a season or two to develop with little to no input from myself (which I probably know isn't the optimum way to do things). I may look to send them out on loan at 18 to a team that has good facilities and stipulate that they need to be a first team regular. If they have very high star rating potential I might slowly blood them into my senior team at 17ish, playing the odd game off the bench and some cup games. I will also have these players train with the first team, and include them in a mentoring group and generally assign individual training to a role that would be in my tactic and have earmarked that spot for them going forward. Am I doing it all wrong?

Would be good to hear a wide range of opinions on how others do things, and what kind of results they bring.

This community specializes in how to develop youth if you're interested

In general, leave them in the youth setup until they turn 18 and then prioritize getting them game time after that. Personality around the youth team squad is a key factor for setting them up for successful development. 

[Skora11]

4 hours ago, Cloud9 said:

This community specializes in how to develop youth if you're interested

In general, leave them in the youth setup until they turn 18 and then prioritize getting them game time after that. Personality around the youth team squad is a key factor for setting them up for successful development. 

Thanks, will have a look. 

Might even join in the challenge!

[Dotsworthy]

I will look at all of the promising youngsters in the youth ranks and assign their individual training, rather than leave that to the Manager, as I feel they tend to lump players into weaker roles that only rely on a couple of strong attributes (no nonsense centre back or pressing forward). I will often pick one or two that are prime candidates for mentoring and add them to the first team training units so they can be mentoring while playing youth matches.

For training I let the managers do it and promote youth up to reserves whenever the HOYD recommends. It never seems to need much intervention from me on this part.

From 18 I loan out everyone I can. The main thing is the level of football they are getting. I tend to prefer regular starter at a league with a reputation in line with their ability, sometimes I will allow squad player, but I find if the league is view only with low game detail it seems to reduce subs and you can get burnt on game time. I also check that the managers formation is consistent with the role they want the player to play, as I've had issues with that before.