Jimbokav1971

Transfer income. Jul 2050. For quite a while now I haven't been concerned at all about our finances and as a result haven't put much effort into generating income by selling players. My thinking was always that if I was really in trouble I would just sell 1 of our big players for £50M and we would be fine again. Obviously we haven't spent that much on players over the years, (only being able to re-sign products of our Academy), but there have been a few. The player sales haven't been enormous either, (although there is a £31.5M deal in there). The amount of income we have generated by player sales was reasonable in the early seasons of the save, but hasn't exploded like I expected it to, (and I think that's down tome not putting in the effort). I plan on changing that now. We will be looking to maximise profit from fringe players wherever possible. A potential solution to our financial concerns would be accepting a deal such as this, but I don't think this is the answer at all because while it does bring in a lot of cash, it also significantly weakens our best starting XI. The way forward is to maximise profitability from the fringe players in our squad.

We've had 2x 1st Team stadium upgrades in 2 years and a completely new B Team stadium. It is sometimes not easy to see which stadium is being upgraded. I thought the new Stadium was for the 1st Team initially. These are the Liga Bwin stadiums for the new season. Our capacity has been reduced while we complete the 2nd upgrade that will eventually give us a 39,514 capacity, (which will be the 4th largest in the Country, behind only the Big 3). These are the Liga Portugal 2 SABSEG stadiums for the coming season. It's bigger than Benfica B, Porto B & Braga B. Guimaraes B & Sporting B are both in the 3rd tier, (and it's bigger than them too). Apart from 2 different upgrades to the 1st Team 1 after the other I can't really complain too much. The new stadium for the B Team is a little weird, but I don't have much experience with B Teams before this. B Teams are run almost completely as a another entity, and although they took out a loan for the B Team stadium, we don't have a loan showing as outstanding for that, (although we do have a £13M loan for the 2nd 1st Team stadium upgrade). Instead, we just get an income line for all the B Team income, and an expenditure line for all the B Team expenditure. Last Season the B Team income was only £2.9M. Last season the B Team expenditure was £8.4M. That gives us a shortfall, (net cost), of £5.5M for the running of the B Team over 1 season. That initially seems a lot, but with the new stadium now having lower maintenance costs and a higher capacity, I would hope that the net figure is lower next season, (although we will be servicing the debt created to purchase the new stadium now so perhaps not). Our Finances have sat around the £100M+ mark for a long time, but over the last 2 years or so they have really been hit hard. 2x 1st Team stadium upgrades and 1x new B Team stadium will do that for you, but 2 of these were paid for by taking out loans, (even if 1 is hidden by being held by the B team). So far in this save 've kept our top players at the club for as long as I possibly could, before letting them leave on a free. It has got to the stage where I think I need to look at either selling our big players 1 year early, (not ideal), or making more of an effort to sell our fringe players. I think this is the route that I will be going down because we're now producing so many players of Liga Bwin standard. I must admit that I am looking at the finances scree far more often than I used to.

I have a stadium named after me, but it's the B Team stadium. I have never managed to do this before in FM so I should be happy, but it's the B Team stadium!

Squad list. GK. 1st Team. (31g) Simões (POR) 6'1" missed too many penalties last season and he wasn't unhappy, (at least his happiness said he wasn't), but I noticed that he was always 1 of the Team Leaders coming to me about players not being allowed to leave, (yet it never showed on his happiness screen. I will keep someone else to play for the U23's and to provide back-up, (probably (47l) Bento (POR) 6'0" looking at it now). B Team. (50c) Ako (FRA) (GPE) 5'11" isn't ready for the B Team yet, but pushing him up early will hopefully accelerate his development. DL. 1st Team. (36b) Sousa (POR) * will be 1st choice and 17 year old (48c) Bronze (POR) 5'11" will play for the B Team and provide some back-up. (36f) Antunes (POR) SELL is 29 ands being a pain so I'm going to get rid of him for some cash while he still has 12 months on his contract. B Team. (43g) Lavado (POR) will be 1st choice in the B Team. [Edit] I have sold (43g) Lavado (POR) so need someone else in the B Team. (50i) Faria (POR) is too young to go out on loan so I will probably look to him, although (48m) Ba (SEN) (FRA) is another option. DR. 1st Team. (36c) Mussagi (POR) (MOZ) * will be 1st choice and has just been offered a 4 year contract. B Team. (47j) Fernandes (POR) & (45f) Basto (POR) will play for the B Team but also step up to the 1st Team when needed. (42e) Crespo (POR) * will be loaned out to Liga Bwin or another top tier somewhere. DC. 1st Team. (45e) The Gimp (ENG) 6'3", (41d) Hussein (TAN) 6'5" * & (39c) Salgueiro (POR) 6'4" DC will play in the 1st Team. B Team. (50a) Amarante (POR)(CPV) 5'10 & (48b) Teixeira (POR) 6'3" * will play for the B Team. (47b) Santiago (POR) 6'0" & (46h) Carlos (BRA) (POR) 6'1" will go out on loan. ML & MR. These positions are hard because there are so many players to look at and consider. ML. 1st Team. (32b) Moucheira (POR) has been a regular starter for the last 16 seasons, but he's 34 now and only managed 7 goals and 9 assists last season. Someone else needs to start most games. In fact, his CA has now even dropped below 100. He shouldn't be playing at all! (43b) Antunes (POR) looks like he's the best option at the moment. (40g) N'Da (CIV) ML is 26 now so his development will be slower. B Team. (47a) Soares (POR) is pretty raw at 18, but will definitely feature at some point. (46d) Osório (POR) is quick and certainly in the mix. MR. 1st Team. (41a) Gil (POR) * will be 1st choice and he is already maxed out at 152 PA. (42a) Salazar (POR) is maxed out at 120 PA but I'm thinking of loaning him out, (because he can't improve), and giving game-time to someone who will improve. (46c) Kulwa (TAN) MR is a righty, (but not right only), but he also can't cross so I think playing inverted on the right will need to be an option but I'm not overly keen on that so will probably loan him out. B Team. (44b) Andrade (POR)(CPV) 4'11" probably isn't good enough to play for the 1st Team yet so I will keep him in the B Team. MC. 1st Team. This is an easier area to select players because we have some really strong players that almost pick themselves. (44c) Ogbu (ENG) (NGA) * and (40a) Sérgio (POR) *, (maxed out at 170 PA), will be the 1st choice pair. (42d) Poejo (POR) and (36a) Cruz (POR) *, (maxed out at 150 PA), will be the 2nd pair. B Team. (47k) Tavares (CPV) and (44l) Teixeira (CPV) (POR) will start for the B Team. SC. (32g) Ramos (POR) has been 1st choice striker for the last 14 seasons but the time to ask him to step back and give the youngsters a go is now. 1st Team. (44a) Simões (POR) * scored 21 goals in all competitions last season and he will partner with (41c) Abrantes (POR) * (10 goals last season). (45c) Rosa (POR) * has scored 86 goals for the B Team over the last 5 seasons & he will play with (41g) Amaral (POR) *. (32g) Ramos (POR) will provide depth but is unlikely to start games. B Team. (47d) Fonseca (CPV) (POR) will be partnered with (47g) Ezequiel (ESP). (46b) Pereira (POR) will partner (45d) Cadete (POR). (50l) Bartlett (ENG) will stay in the U19's at least for the 1st half of the season.

Booo! I'm not here for you winning games! I'm here for the job searching!

Rankings. Jun 2050. European competition rankings. European club rankings. Nation clubs coefficients. Qualification Places. We personally haven't been doing well in Europe in recent seasons, and I'm guessing that our fellow Portugese clubs haven't being doing well either. Champions League. Benfica were Runners Up in 2035/36. Europa League. Porto were Runners Up in 2024/25. Sporting were Runners Up in 2-26/27. We were Champions in 2042/43. Porto were Champions in 2044/45 over Benfica who were Runners Up. Porto were Champions in 2046/47. Benfica were Champions in 2047/48. Europa Conference. Guimaraes were Champions in 2027/28. We were Runners Up in 2030/31. Gil Vicente were Runners Up in 2032/33. We were Runners Up in 2033/34. We were Champions in 2034/35. Gil Vicente were Champions in 2039/40. Sporting were Champions in 2040/41. Benfica. 2049/50. Champions League 1st Knockout Round. 2048/49. Champions League 1st Knockout Round. 2047/48. Europa League Champions. 2046/47. Champions League 1st Knockout Round. 2045/46. Champions League 1st Knockout Round. Porto. 2049/50. Champions League 1st Knockout Round. 2048/49. Champions League 1st Knockout Round. 2047/48. Champions League 1st Knockout Round. 2046/47. Europa League Champions. 2045/46. Champions League 1st Knockout Round. Belenenses. 2049/50. Europa League 2nd Knockout Round 2048/49. Europa League 1st Knockout Round. 2047/48. Champions League 1st Knockout Round. 2046/47. Champions League 1st Knockout Round. 2045/46. Champions League 1st Knockout Round.

Why are Portugal under-performing? Jun 2050. I've long been wondering why the (POR) National side are under-performing and I think I've just cracked it. In 2040 they lost to both France and Serbia in European Championships qualifying and then to Italy in their Nations League Group. In 2042 they lost to Greece in the 3rd Round of the World Cup Finals and then to Spain in their Nations League Group. In 2044 they lost to Spain in the Quarter Final of the EURO's and then lost to Bulgaria & England in their Nations League Group. In 2045 they lost to Hungary in a World Cup Qualifier. In 2046 they lost to Spain in the World Cup Semi's and then lost to Mexico in the 3rd placed Playoff. They also then lost to France in their Nations League. In 2047 they lost to Spain again, this time in the Nations League Final. In 2048 they lost to Spain again, this time in the Semi-Final of the EURO's before also losing to Bulgaria in their Nations League Group. So in truth they are doing ok, but they just keep losing key games. 25 year old (40a) Sérgio (POR) * recently collected his 50th Cap for (POR) so I looked at where he had been playing. He's 5'7" and not only are they playing him as a centre-half, but quite often they are playing him as a non-nonsense centre-half. He's a great little player, but what he's not is any kind of centre-half.

Season Summary. Jun 2050. Liga Bwin. The 3 losses we suffered in the league this season were away to Benfica & Guimaraes and at home to Porto. I would love to go unbeaten at home next season. (32g) Ramos (POR) scored 23 goals in 27 league appearances, but due to injury, (and missing 7 games), he missed out on the Golden Boot by just 3 goals. Liga Portugal 2 SABSEG. We lost 5 of our opening 8 games, but as always we came good in the 2nd half of the season. (45c) Rosa (POR) * top scored with 20 goals in 27 appearances, but only because I couldn't get a good loan for him in Liga Bwin. UEFA Champions League. I aimed for 3rd in the Group and everything went ok in qualifying, but we should have smashed Osasuna in the 1st leg and it cost us when we didn't. UEFA Europa League. Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira. The 1st of 2 trophies we won this season. Taça da Liga Allianz Cup. The 2nd of 2 trophies we won this season. Taça de Portugal Placard. I am sick of Leixoes! Portuguese U19 First Division Group B. 4 is quite a lot of games to lose at this level. Portuguese U19 First Division Championship Group. But we improved in the 2nd half of the season as our young players developed. Interestingly, although (50l) Bartlett (ENG) only came through the intake in late March, he scored 17 goals in 11 appearances between then and the end of the season. UEFA Youth League. I'm not counting this as a trophy won. 18 year old (47d) Fonseca (CPV) (POR) top scored in this competition with 11 goals. Portuguese U23 Premier League South. Portuguese U23 Premier League Championship Group. Taça Revelação Sub-23. What a shambles we make of this each season.

May 2050. Liga Bwin. We won our last 2 games meaning that we finished the season with 9 wins on the bounce, (15 unbeaten), and only lost 3 league games all season. In some respects that's a decent season but I'm not happy. We were 2 pts off Porto, (who also lost 3 games), but we were a whopping 9 pts off Benfica who only conceded 15 goals all season, (which is obviously ridiculous). Goal-scoring GK's. (31g) Simões (POR) 6'1" finishes the season on 11 goals, but he failed with 6 of 16 penalties. (40c) Teixeira (POR) 6'3" contributed 8 goals this season, (2 for the 1st Team and 6 for the B Team) Records. I think the time for (32g) Ramos (POR) is almost over. The injuries have taken their toll this season and both his pace and acceleration have suffered. He won't be starting next season as 1st choice. Facilities. We've just spent £29M on an upgrade of 7,928 seats, just 12 months after spending £15.5M on an upgrade of 6,370 seats. Finances.

I think it's both actually. We were top goal-scorers last season, (with 74) but are 7 goals behind Benfica this season despite scoring more goals (83), (so actually goal-scoring was ok this season). Defensively we have conceded 28, 29 & 23 in recent seasons, but have conceded 31 this season. Benfica conceding just 15 this season is ridiculous. Braga conceded 13 about 15 years ago and Porto just 12 a couple of years before that. We've really struggled with injuries to key players this season with both (31g) Simões (POR) 6'1" and (32g) Ramos (POR) being out with multiple injuries and of course we lost (35a) Paulo Júnior (POR) * and (42b) Felizardo (POR) 5'10" DC from central midfield this season meaning that our 2nd midfield pairing were really raw, (but obviously we will be better next season for the experience). We've been weak at full back this season, (due to injuries again), and 17 year old (48c) Bronze (POR) 5'11" has made 13 starts in all competitions. Again, the positive side of this is that his development will have been accelerated so it's not all bad. This season has been very much one of consolidation. our 2nd midfield pairing have come on leaps and bounds and our wide players have had significant development time too.

Apr 2050. Liga Bwin. This looks impressive form, but it's all a little too late. We might be 3rd, but we're 20 pts ahead of 4th with 2 games left to play. Benfica have lost just 1 game and drawn 4 over the full Liga Bwin season to this point. That's pretty hard to compete with. Goal-scoring GK's. Finances.

Looks for pass rather than attempting to score PPM. Apr 2050. (50l) Bartlett (ENG) has come through the Academy as a pretty decent looking AF but with a PPM that doesn't really fit with the role he will be given. The obvious answer, (as suggested by @turnipis simply to get him to forget about the PPM and this was my initial reaction. But after thinking about it I wondered what this PPM would look like for this player in this role. This player isn't going to be a superstar so this isn't really about this player. It's more about how PPM's actually work rather than how we think they work. I'm an enormous fan of PPM's, but I think a lot of us, have ideas of what PPM's do, that often bear little resemblance to what they actually do, and a lot of it is based on the name/wording, (as is the case with personalities). Looks for pass rather than attempting to score. That reads like the player will have a golden opportunity to score but will pass up that opportunity in favour of a pass to someone else. In actual fact when you read the detail of the PPM, it simply "increases the chances" of the player opting to do this and "the success of the decision will be based on the players attributes". That actually sounds brilliant to me. If he's an intelligent player then he will pass when a teammate is in a better position. That's what we want isn't it, especially from someone in this role? So I have done 1 post already that showed that he's pretty prolific in the U19's, (as you would expect), but I want to delve a little deeper. Coimbra U19's v Belenenses U19's. The phase of play I want to focus on here is the ccc that he created in the centre of the area which resulted in an assist and a goal when you might have expected a shot on goal. He starts with the ball in the penalty area but his back is to goal so he can't shoot, so he lays it off to the left hand side before receiving the return pass, and when he does he is facing the goal and you would expect a shot, (although there are 2 defenders trying to block him), but actually he just touches it off to his right where the player can shoot with no defenders in his way. I don't think this is a common looking goal at all. It's certainly not something I have seen from my AF's, (most of whom would have shot there). I'm not saying for a moment that this is always going to be a positive result like it was here, but I think there is an opportunity here for this PPM to be a positive when linked with this role rather than the negative that most of us probably think of initially. (Like I did). It's the only example of a pass like this that I have found in his games this month, (with positive or negative results), but I'm going to keep an eye on it because I think this could be really interesting. His composure attribute is 8 and his decisions attribute is 10. That's pretty decent for a 15 year old.

Brilliant stuff @_Ben_ Lets be honest here, (without being too critical of FM), but that's sort of where I expected the Data Hub to be long before now. If anything I expect the FM World to lead the real World in terms of data analysis, because that's basically what it is at it's core. Instead it seems to lag badly behind. It's an area that SI could literally explode and improve, but for whatever reason things seem to happen in cycles and by the time they are introduced they are already out of date. There has been a fair bit of talk in the Premier League related this year of partnership goals scored with Kane/Son breaking the Lampard/Drogba record, (I think), and the way that modern full-backs now perform in attacking areas, (especially the Liverpool lads). SI could absolutely hammer this area to death and make it mind-blowingly good with, (to my mind at least), limited real effort because the info is already there. It just needs to be extracted and presented. For years, (actually it's more than a decade), I've wanted a top 10 ALL TIME appearance, goal-scorer, assister etc etc list for all competitions. The info is already being calculated. All they have to do is extract it and present it again. It seems an area that is such an easy win. I would love to follow you on Twitter too if you tweet about FM.

I'm really keen to keep an eye on (50l) Bartlett (ENG), and even more so after you commented about getting rid of the PPM. (I was really hoping someone would so this so thank you). Our B Team have just played out a 0-0 draw with someone, (and he started the game), so it caused me to look at his performances for the 1st time. Youth Candidates. U19's. B Team. His performances for the U19's have been pretty spectacular, but then again we win almost all the games at that level so it's no real surprise. 9 goals and 2 assists in 6 appearances, but look at those key passes!!! 15 in 6 games. It hasn't been replicated for the B Team as yet, but you wouldn't expect it to because he's nowhere near that level at the moment. Anyway, I'm still not getting rid of the PPM, but I'm obviously interested to see how it impacts performances. I don't think places shots is an option, but takes ball round GK and runs with ball often are certainly things I will consider once knocks ball past opponent is in the bag.

March 2050. Liga Bwin. 2 wins is ok, but the league is over and we just have to make sure that we finish 3rd rather than 4th, (because 4th doesn't qualify for the Champions League this season). We're 7 pts behind Porto in 2nd but also 7 pts ahead of Guimaraes in 4th with 7 games remaining. We've just conceded FAR too many goals this season. UEFA Europa League. What an awful performance in Europe, (again). Goal-scoring GK's. Finances.

It was a bit weird actually because initially I was a little underwhelmed. What I do is filter out the other squads and allow trialists to be shown and then show by my Youth Intake custom view and then sort by PPA. When I did that I was met with 0x 5.0 PA players and the initial reaction when that happens is always . Then I nickname all the players (ranked by PPA) and only then do I switch to the CA/PA view which gives me the real numbers. It takes a little while to nickname 16 players and all the time I'm thinking, "another bloomin wasted intake", and then I see the CA/PA..... I think it's fair to say that the dogs were a little startled by my reaction. The other thing is, as good as the top 2 PA's are, possibly the bigger deal is that 10 of the 16 players have a PA that suggests that they will play at Lige Bwin level. That's a LOT.

That's exactly my thinking too. Most of the time in the way he will be used there won't be an opportunity to pass so I don't think there will be a negative impact from the PPM. The chances are that everyone will be thinking like you and nobody in their right mind would have kept this PPM with this type of player in the AF role. I think it's worth keeping and looking at simply because I think there's a decent chance nobody has ever done it before, (because it's so stupid).

NxGn 2050. (48c) Bronze (POR) 5'11" is #6 on the list and at 17 years old has 2 more years to move up. (47k) Tavares (CPV) is #17 on the list and has 1 more year to move up. (46c) Kulwa (TAN) MR is #29 on the list but he will be too old next year.

@fc.cadonilinked me to the above Youtube account and I've only had a look at 1 video but I've been really impressed actually. The video I looked at concerned the impact of (Pro), (Amb), (Det) and Morale on player growth with is pretty relevant to this thread and I really liked it. It's only 14 mins long and he deals with 4 slightly different topics and even came up with a conclusion that surprised him, so rather than ignoring it or just blindly accepting it, (he was using quite a small sample size), he actually created a test to work out if the experiment was correct or if his initial assumption had been correct all along. He was absolutely being "Driven by the evidence". It's well worth a look. The chances are that you will already know how the (Pro), (Amb) & (Det) tests turn out, but the Morale thing is a little different so might be worth checking out.

I will have a look at that at some point. Thanks. Do you mind if I ask if that's your channel @fc.cadonior just someone you like watching?

Youth Intake. Mar 2050. What are we looking for? ML & MR. This is probably the weakest area of the team. Put a top end player on both flanks and I think we could take over the World. GK. (31g) Simões (POR) 6'1" is 34 now and we really need to start developing a replacement. DL. (36b) Sousa (POR) * & (36f) Antunes (POR) * are both 29 now and there is nothing outstanding coming through to replace them. DC. We've got a few decent young centre-backs, but nothing spectacular. MC. We've got 3 really good MC's, but 1 of them is 29 & we need a replacement for him + 1 other to make 4 ideally. Another Golden Generation, (but aren't they all?). The 1st thing that jumps out at me here is that there are no 5.0 PA players. The 2nd thing that jumps out at me is that we have 5 different Nationalities in the top 6 players! So what have we got? A short centre-half who has time to grow to be a normal size centre-half. An inverted right winger. A GK. I'm loving the Nationalities & 2nd Nationalities. I'm liking the (Det) values too. There are not many high values, but importantly there is only 1 in single figures. In my opinion (Det) doesn't have to be high. It just shouldn't be low. Obviously linked to the (Det) values, I'm quite liking the personalities on view too. Rather than being good personalities, they aren't bad personalities. (4x F.Pro + 1x Pro) The 3 players at the top of the PA list also have decent CA. Now let's see if the HoYD is lying to me? (Of course he's lying to me. He always lies to me). Oh wow. If anything he has undercooked it! 2x players at 160+ PA, (both of whom have CA of 80+) Isn't it weird how many times the player with the best personality always seems under-valued in the reports and is better than suggested? (50l) Bartlett (ENG) Wow. 10x players with 120+ PA. (I think that's a record). We have some low starting CA for players with decent/good PA. I'm going to have to get to work on them. I have a DM, AMR, AML, AMR, DM & another AML. While this is a great intake, what's the favoured formation of the HoYD? This isn't what I expected! There are quite a few players worth showing you here. (I think I will show you everyone with 130+ PA). I would love it if (50a) Amarante (POR)(CPV) 5'10 declared for (CPV), but I can't see it happening. REALLY like the look of him. I've been desperate for a good GK and I like the look of (50c) Ako (FRA) (GPE) 5'11" even if Aerial ability/height is a concern. (50d) Fitas (POR) looks great and yeah I wish he was a lefty rather than a righty, but he can still play there at a push. I know that having a fully "either footed" player pays a cost in terms of CA, but I don't know how that works in just making the weaker foot less weak? (50l) Bartlett (ENG) came through and was ranked the 12th best by PA. In actual fact he ranked the 4th best by PA. Is it my imagination or are the better personalities often under-appreciated in the initial intake report? I like the "likes to beat offside trap" PPM even if I don't have that much experience with it, and my 1st reaction to seeing "Looks for pass rather than Attempting to score" in a player like this is one of abject horror, that is quickly replaced by curiosity. I wonder how a player like this playing in a way I play that left-sided striker, would represent that PPM within his playing style. I'm tempted to not remove it just to see what he would create.... (I am serious about that). Other than that I really like him though. I like (50g) Martins (POR) (FRA), and he even already has 1 of the 4 PPM's that I like my DLP's to have. He looks like quite a balanced player. (50f) Loris (LUX) (FRA) 5'10" is the 2nd striker! They're like buses! He looks pretty raw though and I'm not overly keen so we will see how he develops. (50j) Lopes (CPV) (POR) looks decent and has (CIV) as his 1st Nationality so hopefully he will declare for them pretty quickly. I will obviously play him on the left rather than the right. He's certainly got some areas that need working on though. (50h) Mickaël (POR) (FRA) is slow for a winger, so early crosses PPM might be a good idea here. I actually really like the look of him despite the lack of pace. I won't try to fix his lack of pace. He will never be quick but I will ask him to cross early as a workaround and maybe make him more a WM than a winger in terms of where we build his attributes, (especially with the long range passes PPM). (50i) Faria (POR) is a left back. A proper left back! I don't mind that he isn't going to be amazing. I'm just happy that he might be decent and actually looks reasonable already. (50b) Pablo (ESP) looks really good, and it's only when you keep looking that you eventually find his achilles heel which is his poor workrate. I will just stick him on Endurance as his additional focus and that should hopefully get it to a manageable level by the time I'm looking to play him. It's such a shame though because I really like him. I think that's possibly the best single intake I've ever had in FM.

Haven't looked at any of his videos properly yet, but clicked briefly on one and absolutely loved what I saw. Really like the look of that. You linked me to an account rather than 1 particular video though, so if there is 1 video in question then feel free to link again. From what I have seen I don't have any issue with his stuff being posted in here. Whether he's right or wrong doesn't matter. He's going about it completely the right way.

I don't mind Youtubers telling us what they think, (and even getting things wrong occasionally), but I do mind them peddling blatant lies. In the instance you describe it's actually quite an awkward experiment to run, (but I'm going to add it to the list anyway because I think it's a decent question that needs answering). If I was to give my opinion it would be that U23 experience should be greater than U19 experience, (but not by loads), and it's the reason many U23's go out on loan. If you aren't playing competitive football by the time you are 23 you should be asking yourself if you are at the right club (imo). Filling out the squads is a no brainer to me. I would be peeved if that didn't make a difference. I have added this to the list on page #6. 18. What is the difference in terms of development, between a player spending a season in the U19's and the same player spending a season in the U23's?

I "think" it's too simplistic to say that there is a cut-off like that, but without running an experiment it's hard to quantify, and I would expect the results of any experiment in this area to be open to significant amounts of interpretation, (which is not really the idea). Rather than using the words "more important", I think there is more control that you can exert over the development of a younger player, (such as PPM's and additional focus), but if a player is ready for Senior football at 17, (and that involves a loan elsewhere), then I think there certainly isn't a hard and fast rule to say that he will develop better playing for the U19's at home rather than the 1st Team at a lower level. I would love to do even a very basic/limited experiment in this area so I will add it to the list. [Edit] I have added the following to the list in page #6. 17. In terms of player development is there an experiment that we could run that would compare development of players who stayed in the U19's, players who were given a couple/few outings in the 1st Team, and the same player going out on loan at a lower level? @Mandy42

I'm not one usually to link to my own threads, but in this instance I don't know of anyone playing the same way that I am in this save. I'm managing in Portugal and playing Youth Only and now have a B Team playing in the 2nd tier in Portugal. Obviously competing with the likes of Porto, Benfica & Sporting is tough when you are playing Youth Only, so I have to work hard to develop more players than normal. In addition to that, I have decided NOT to game the personality game where you put lots of effort into mentoring players with poor personalities into better personalities. (Basically it's been done to death by people better at it than me and the other thing is I'm just too lazy). I'm playing Youth Only and messing about with my GK upfield and not mentoring players in order to make the game more of a challenge. We've only recently been given a B Team, (we're in 2050 now and I still haven't won the Liga Bwin), and for a while I was just keen to batter the opposition and field the strongest side I could in the B Team but now I have a different strategy. Let's just ignore the 1st Team squad because they won't play for the B Team anyway, but after them we have the players who are good enough to play for a Liga Bwin side but who are not good enough to get in our 1st Team so they go out on loan. Then there are the players who are good enough to play in the Liga Portugal 2 SABSEG, so I send them out on loan to another Liga 2 side. Then we have the players with high PA, (I'm playing this save and looking at the PA so I know the difference between PA and PPA), who aren't quite ready for Liga 2. These are the players I want to build a squad with. We often lose many of the 1st half of the season games, and then come strong in the 2nd half as the players have half a season playing at this level under their belts and are improving rapidly. We've won the title in 3 of the last 5 seasons, (finishing 2nd and 6 the other 2 seasons), and sit 5th with 9 games remaining this season. I can't begin to tell you how beneficial I have found the B Team. Enormously!!!! The thing is though, I still have to use it correctly, (and I wasn't to start off with and I don't think a lot of people do). I've actually found it really challenging trying to manage the different squads in this save. 1st Team. B Team U23's U19's Then we have our affiliates, (we have 7), 2 of which are in playable leagues. Deciding who goes in what squad and making sure that there aren't too many players in their position in that squad and that they aren't either too good or not good enough for that squad is tough when you have so many players. (102 players contracted at the moment). There are absolutely players I failed to develop properly, (especially in the early seasons of the save), and even now there are players that I fail with. There was a high profile example of a really good Italian GK who had the dreaded (L.Det) (Unamb) mix and it just didn't work with him. Don't get me wrong, he turned out ok, but he was well short of his PA in the end, (CA 123 PA 158 right now). That's a flippin enormous failure in my book. I think you might really get something out of having a little look at my thread and looking at the comparisons between the PPA ratings (the stars), and the actual PA, (the number). Even though you know they are not the same, you might be surprised by quite how different they can be. Something that I think a lot of us fall foul of, (especially those of us who play Youth Only saves), is that we start developing a player and we invest maybe 1 or 2 years into him and then someone comes out of the intake 2 years younger than him who has better PA, so we then concentrate on the younger guy and the 1st bloke sort of falls by the wayside. I take a leaf out of Southampton's book in that they don't just try to develop 1 player, (or even 1 player in each position), they have an absolute conveyor belt of talent that means as soon as 1 player is sold the next 1 just steps in and it's business as usual except for the big pile of cash they've been given. It's hard, but try and develop every player to the best of your ability, (or just cull them). I have a little trick that I use and it involves putting a "." at the end of a players name if I have decided they don't have a future at the club as a 1st Team player. They might be kept around to flesh out the U19's or the U23's, but every time I look at them I know they're just a filler and I don't care about their development. Everyone who doesn't have a "." after their name is a potential star and I have to put the work in with them. There will of course be players who jump the queue though. I currently have a 17 year old right back who has a PA of 155 and as well as 30(1) appearances for the B Team, he has already played 16(1) appearances for the 1st Team. By playing him "up" at a level before he's actually ready, I have advanced his development. Yes of course there is a balance to be had here and if you play a player too much too young, then the chances are he will pay a price at the back end of his career. I haven't just concentrated on this right back to the detriment of the other right backs who came through intakes before him though. The chances are we will lose him, (by about age 26/27 at the latest I think), and I need to have other options because I can't just go out and buy someone to replace him. Yes I might get another good right back in an intake after him, but there is no guarantee so I have to plan accordingly. As a result I have 2x 18 year old DR's 1x 21 year old DR, 1x 22 year old DR and a 23 year old DR. Once I have developed them I will either loan them out or sell them to generate income, but the big thing is I have to develop them 1st so that when and if I do need to go and buy someone, I will know that I have these 5 right backs that I have developed to a level that they can all come in and do a job for us. Is it hard work? Yeah, it bloomin is, but it's just the nature of the save and whether it's any more or any less hard work than looking through pages and pages of scout reports I'm not completely sure. It's just different.