Developing Youth players, an experiment

[cms186]

Ok, a few years ago ( possibly FM 08 ), i did a thread on developing youth players, i didnt play 09 or 10 much, but i thought id try continuing the experiment for FM 11. I thought i would try the experiment with a top flight club, and settled on Valencia in the Spanish Preimera Liga ( as i kind of follow them irl ). I will use 3 groups of 4 youth players, one will play in the Valencia u-19s, one will play in the Valencia Mestalla team, which is the reserve team, who currently play in Segunda División B grupo 3 ( which is the third tier of spanish football, so unlike English reserves, they play in a competitive league ) and the 3rd group will play on loan at Alcorcón ( who i gained as a feeder club in the first season ). I will be using FMRTE to monitor their progress. Currently, Valencias facilities are: Training Facilities 16, Youth Facilities 15 and Alcorcóns facilities are: Training Facilities 10, Youth Facilities 8

All 12 players are roughly equal in potential ability and there is a roughly even spread of CA between the three groups, though obviously there are some variances, here they are:

i have taken a screenshot of each player and will update this at the end of each season:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/23719078@N04/sets/72157627068760525/

I will do a monthly update on how each player is doing, how much they are playing and what their CA is doing, along with any large attribute increases, and a larger seasonal update with individual screenshots, as you can see, im currently in january, so the next major update will be in 6 months!

If you have any requests or questions, please feel free to ask. The reason i havent included any players in the Valencia first team right now is simple, they arent good enough atm and as this is also a save game i plan on enjoying, i dont want to get sacked like what happend in my last version of this ( if anyone remembers ), i could cheat and edit them so they are good enough, but theres little point in doing that, so i will monitor their process and if they get good enough ( Cepedo looks like he could be there in a season or two ) I will integrate them then. I do have a couple of youth players in the first team ( Eden Hazard and Phil Jones ) but they are already well developed and not really relevant to this experiment

[Wilson123]

Good stuff mate, very interested in following the progress

Will you tutor any of the remaining lads that don't go on loan?

[heathxxx]

Will be interesting to see the different results based on where they're playing and at what level.

4th season into my Granada CF save, I have Hércules in Liga Adelante and Lokeren in Belgium as feeder clubs. I've sent a lot of my youngsters to each of them.

I've also got around ten players at 20 or younger in my first team squad. Obviously there's no substitute for first team football when it comes to attribute development and growth. They've increased extremely quickly over the last season or so.

Roussillon is one I'll keep my eye on with your experiment though, because with me he didn't develop anywhere near as well as I would have hoped.

[cms186]

Ok, i have got through the first month so, as promised, here is the first update:

As we can see, several players have made big strides in development in just one month, here is a comparison:

Alcorcon
Name         Age  Pot   CA1  CA2
Caracciolo    16  180    85   86
Cepeda        17  180   117  119
Bah           17  179    79   81
Jese          18  179   102  103

Mestalla

Abubakar      18  189    88   89
Isco          19  184   100  100
Alessandro    15  181    80   83
Roussillon    19  180    98   99

U-19s

Alcacer       18  185    96   96
Gray          16  183    66   68
Ferraioli     17  183    72   73
Azevedo       16  178    72   74

2 players have not progressed at all ( alcacer and isco ) isco did not feature in any games, but alcacer played in 3, so he must just have had a bad month! As for the others, Abubakar and Roussillion have played 4 games, Azevedo and Ferraioli have played 3, Cepeda and Gray 2 matches and Bah, Caracciolo, Jese and Alessandro have all played no games as of yet. This does seem a bit strange at first glance, as the two who played the most have only progressed 1 CA point, whilst Alessandro has progressed 3 points and not played at all! but its only the first month, and Alessandro is the youngest of all 12 players and has a lot of room between his CA and PA, but it will be easier to spot patterns in another month or so.

[cms186]

Update 2! here it is:

and here is the progression chart:

Alcorcon
Name         Age  Pot   CA1  CA2  CA3
Caracciolo    16  180    85   86   87
Cepeda        17  180   117  119  120
Bah           17  179    79   81   82
Jese          18  179   102  103  103

Mestalla

Abubakar      18  189    88   89   90
Isco          19  184   100  100  100
Alessandro    15  181    80   83   84
Roussillon    19  180    98   99   99

U-19s

Alcacer       18  185    96   96   97
Gray          16  183    66   68   70
Ferraioli     17  183    72   73   76
Azevedo       16  178    72   74   75

The appearances for this month are:

4: Roussillon, Cepeda, Abubakar

3: Alcacer, Gray, Ferraoli, Azevedo

2: Jese, Isco

1: Alessandro

0: Bah, Caracciolo

Although its probably a bit early to be making judgments on patterns, its clear atm that the younger players are progressing quicker, Isco ( again! ) and Roussillon have not progressed at all, despite both playing games ( roussillon is the starting left back, Isco has made 2 sub appearances, despite being better than his rivals ) and these 2 are the oldest youth players in this test, Alessandro is the youngest, and made his first appearance for the Mestalla team ( becoming the youngest player to appear for them, and their youngest ever goalscorer! ) but unfortunately he picked up an injury, otherwise he might have progressed even more. Its good to see more players getting games, only 2 players have 0 games this month, as compared to 4 players this month.

For the next month, i will release the direct competitior for Iscos place in the starting lineup, to see if starting games can kick start his development

[cms186]

Update 4:

Alcorcon
Name         Age  Pot   CA1  CA2  CA3  CA4
Caracciolo 16/17  180    85   86   87   88
Cepeda        17  180   117  119  120  122
Bah        17/18  179    79   81   82   83
Jese       18/19  179   102  103  103  104

Mestalla

Abubakar      18  189    88   89   90   91
Isco          19  184   100  100  100  100
Alessandro 15/16  181    80   83   84   85
Roussillon    19  180    98   99   99   99

U-19s

Alcacer       18  185    96   96   97   98
Gray          16  183    66   68   70   73
Ferraioli     17  183    72   73   76   78
Azevedo       16  178    72   74   75   76

Games Played:

6: Roussillon, Cepeda

5: Jese

4: Gray, Alcacer, Abubakar, Azevedo, Ferraoli

2: Alessandro

0: Isco, Bah, Caracciolo

This update is actually a little longer ( in so far as i overshot my monthly update date by 4 days ) so includes an extra game for most players ), 9 of the players are establishing themselves as first teamers for their respective teams ( remembering Alessandro was recovering from an injury at the start of this month ), however, bad news for one of those players, Abubakar has injured himself and could be out for up to 2 months with ligament damage, its a shame for him cos he was flying with 7 goals in 12 games. Bah and Carraciolo cant seem to buy a game at Alcorcon, but this could be useful for Control purposes. Isco seems to have completly stagnated and Roussillon is in danger of going the same way, i will interact Isco and tell him to do better in training, see if this has any effect on him, he has said he will try to do better, lets see if he does!

[Camb0dia]

I remember it being mentioned that once an individual gets too good for the league his development becomes stunted, could that be happening with ISCO?