Reserves / Under 18?

[precator]

I am Chesterfield and when I sign young players they usually go to the reserves? If they are under 18, is it better for them to be in the U18 or keep them in reserves? I am new to Football Manager so i apologize about the questions.

[mrdanbartlett]

I'm an veteran player and even I don't know sorry. I personally:

- Keep those under 18 in the u18 squad unless they are good enough for the 1st team

- If a player looks promising but isn't good enough for my 1st team yet then once he is 18 I will look to loan him out*

-*but only to a club with good facilities and who will put him as a first team regular.

From my experience the only way to truely develop a youngster is to give them first team playing time.

For you at Chesterfield I wouldn't even bother with youth players who don't have massive potential, you will probably rarely get anyone coming through the ranks who you didn't buy but also you may progress through the leagues quickly - making what were good prosepcts average ones.

My main tip for you is to spend alot of time scouring the free's market, on july 1st go to each league (ones around you) - transfers - released players, and look through them all until you find some out of contract gems, sign them, sell the players they replace - helps keeps money coming in and improves the squad for free.

[Prodigy]

Much like what mrdanbartlett said.

If you think about it like this, the under-18 team play in the under-18 league, and the reserves in the reserves. Obviously the quality of opponents will therefore be different, so it entirely depends on how capable you think the player is. If you have a particular u18 who is bossing the league perhaps you could move them up for a better quality of play, however this is often a rare exception.

[Guest]

This^^

If I have a player averaging 8's in the youth team I'll look to test him in the next age bracket.