Club Facilities Improvement & Detail

[letissierandhenryaregreat]

At the moment club facilities don't have much depth to them in game yet they hold so much importance. To add more specificity and skill to improving training facilities, youth facilities, youth recruitment and junior coaching, there should be different types of them and options of improving them. 

Training & Youth Facilities: In the modern game managers hold more influence over the training ground and the philosophy it can help nurture. Ralph Hasenhüttl at Southampton is a great example of this. In FM, you should be able to speak to your board to shape certain features of your club's training ground in line with the club philosophy you've agreed. For example, you might want the first team and youth team facilities to be more integrated or more separate dependent on your philosophy. In real life, at certain clubs the seniors and youths eat at the same canteen, use the same pitches etc. while at other clubs they don't. What you choose will have some impact on your club and the mentality of its players. Furthermore, there could be additional features to your training ground you can ask the board for such as certain rooms or departments relating to rehabilitation or recruitment, for example. What type of recruitment facilities you opt for will shape your recruitment method: will your scouts and analysts operate by video mainly or in-person? And how might that affect your recruitment? 

Junior Coaching: You can decide, in conjunction with your club board, how closely you want young players coming through to be coached to a specific philosophy and formation. If you intend to keep your formation and tactics long-term and are a strong believer in it, then you would want your junior coaching to relate more specifically to that. But if you're quite flexible with your tactics and constantly changing them over the years then you might be more relaxed about the specificity. You should also be able to dictate the coaching focus similarly to how you can control team training in-game. If speed and work-rate are two of your key focuses for junior coaching, it would help you play a high pressing game when they progress into the first team, for example. Obviously, as in real life, there will be many exceptions to the type of player you're trying to sculpt, but the majority of players coming through your academy will be heavily influenced by the focuses of your junior coaching.

Youth Recruitment: Elite clubs have satellite academies in different parts of their country and even abroad. Even lower league clubs in the UK will have development centres across a few counties. Your budget and decisions should help you shape where yours are based. A particular country might be attractive to set-up an academy in because they've got a high youth rating and the common traits of players from that country fit your philosophy and playing style. Perhaps a common language is a beneficial factor too. In your home country and abroad though the quality of players you're able to recruit for your academy should be affected by catchment area. If you're a lower league club in London, there will be much more talent available to you than clubs in other parts of the country, but the competition to secure that talent might be too much. The diversity of the area should mean you're more likely to get players with 2nd nationalities too. If you're a club in Devon for example like Exeter or Plymouth and a big club decides to set up a satellite academy in your area then you might notice an adverse effect on the quality of players coming through your academy. To prevent it from being unrealistic, there should be limits on how many clubs can have and it should be something it's hard to convince the board to do due to a large impact on your budget. 

[Luke Hume]

Reviewed so locked.