Some FM2014 questions

[Salaq]

Hi everyone!

I've been playing FM2014 for a while. I'm still struggling a bit with it, mostly because I'm not the greatest tactician, yet I don't wish to do stuff like download premade tactics and browse player/wonderkid databases on the Internet. Well, at any rate, I do have a few questions that I'd love to have answered, just in case the information would help. I'm currently playing as Falkirk, and most of my questions will be about that experience, but I've also played a few other games before.

• While I'm having problems trying to curtail my wage bill and thus I have to loan out most of my youth players to keep it under control, I'm still interested in this one. As Falkirk, I have very good training facilities: "great" and "superb" for senior and youth facilities, respectively. What is better - should I train my players at home in the good training facilities, or loan them out to lower clubs with much worse training facilities where they can get actual match experience (because most of these youth players are not going to make it into my first team, barely any of them even into the first team subs, given that I'm making a push for promotion)? Or perhaps a mix of the two? I've thought that it might be beneficial to give them a loan spell or two, and then keep them home, but what do I know...
  
• For that matter, if I put a youth player into my senior squad, is he going to enjoy the effects of the senior training facilities, or will he continue to train in the youth facilities (which, in my case, are better) until a certain age?
  
• I've read that tutoring is quite important for training youth players. Should I constantly have my most promising players tutored by someone? I've also read that high determination and work rate are important on a tutor - how important are his age and his other skills, however? What kind of adverse effects can tutoring have on the mentor and the mentee respectively?
  
• I also have a constant problem with my finances, consistently in every game I've tried so far. (I usually try teams with finances comparable to Falkirk - not a top team capable of winning a top division right away, nor a lower-league minnow.) I know about the methods of hosting friendlies with the right teams and training youth players as moneymakers, but even the combination of these and my end-of-season winnings make my finances drop in the long term. Right now, I'm losing about 20M HUF, sometimes more every month with Falkirk (that is about 65k EUR). In comparison, I've been able to sell the backup keeper, Graham Bowman, for 7M, and the defensive midfielder Olumide Durojaiye for 5M HUF. My young midfielders can be sold for about 50-60M if I find a good buyer - I've almost managed to sell Conor McGrandles to Premiership team Hibernians with a "Loan Back until end of season" clause, which I think would have been a good deal, but he was unable to agree with the club on wages, so that fell through. Even so, it is clear that these sales cannot bring in enough money to slow down the financial decline, only stop it. With past teams, either the board eventually injected money to bail me out for a while, or I left the team eventually for one reason or another. What could I do to make some money? My regens will take years to become possible to sell, and the most talented regens aren't even on the positions I'm trying to have them play. I'm 2M HUF below my wage budget (around 18.6M wagebudget, 16.7M wages right now, with 7M transfer budget left over), and I don't think I can cut that any further or I'll be unable to contest promotion (I've already resigned myself to the playoff spots since it's 2nd season and Rangers are hogging the automatic promotion spot).
  
• Finally - I wish to buy FM2014 as a gift for someone, because FM2015 is a bit expensive at the moment for me and there are no sales on Steam or GamersGate right now. Is there any other way to get FM2014 than trying a reseller? I wouldn't mind buying from a reseller for myself, but it'd be very awkward if the recipient of the gift told me that the key turned out to be stolen, or that it was revoked some time down the road.
  

Thank you in advance for any help.

[samdiatmh]

- I prefer to loan players out for regular gametime, no matter what the club is - some prefer to keep them at their own club (best facilities, best chance) but then my squad is hard to break in to

- I thought the 'youth' facilities only applied to those not yet on a professional deal (ie under 17) but it might be if they're with the reserves/u18s (having remembered on FM12 when it was a customisable training schedule)

- (Although not true in real life) tutoring only really sees a benefit if they have a good personality (and determination) which can be useful for changing those younger players into what you want (determination of 20, and a good personality are two most look for)

- A common theme for lower league managers is to buy-low sell-high, hoarding up 100s of players (2* 3* or better) and then loaning them out, getting them off your wage budget and hopefully selling them on for a profit later - also, at that level, no one is a must-keep, so entertain the idea of selling your star players to keep the books on (and promote a youngster in his place, or find a cheaper alternative)

- With finding FM14 cheaply, you could always look at physical game stores (probably some copies lurking around) or look online - I've had no issues with G2A, but it's your choice here

[Sven.]

Personality is more important than determination in case of turoring. You want as many Pro Models as possible. There is a very good guide somewhere on this forum.

Are you sure that he will be happy with FM 2014 as gift? It's now a bit outdated... FM 2016 will be out soon. There are places where you can get FM 2015 a at reasonable price.

[Salaq]

Thank you for the responses. I'd be willing to sell my star midfielders (as I've mentioned, one such deal was almost secured already), although probably not all at once - the board is expecting promotion, and my approval rating is just hovering above 50%, so I'd rather not risk too much.

Hundreds of players, huh? I haven't entertained that idea before. Depends on how willing teams are to get them on a loan, though. Most lower teams can only afford a 60-80% wage contribution for the players I'm loaning out right now. I'll try raising players through loans however, see if it works.

Yeah, I'm sure he'd be happy with FM2014 as much as FM2015. I guess I could get the latter too, although unless I luck into a sale soon I'll have to buy it via a reseller if I want an affordable price anyway. Well, I guess I'll try my luck with G2A.