How much potential ability should a youngster have to keep him at the club?

[danej]

How do you approach this?

 

It is a complex issue. Personally, I lean more and more towards a strict, selective policy. Keeping rather few, only top talents. Kicking most youngsters out of the club, avoiding hoarding second rate youngsters at the club.

 

To be more specific, as a rule of thumb I sell/release most if not all youngsters who don’t at least have PA to play in a 3.5 star league or higher (except for youngsters that are needed in the first team squad, you obviosly need a senior squad hehe).

 

By 3.5 star reputation leagues I mean the top leagues in countries such as Scotland, Austria, Belgium, Portugal, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico. Besides the obvious big leagues which all have a 4 star reputation or higher.

 

My impression is that youngsters will most often not end up having a significant sell on value once their PA drops to a 3 star league level or worse.

 

Along the same lines, my impression is that it will most often not yield a worthwhile, significant profit to keep hold of such second rate youngsters and do the typical development regime, finding them good loans once they hit the age of 18 etc. Often you can’t get the potential loan club to pay all or most of the wages anyway, which means expenditure. And as mentioned I feel like such mediocre youngsters will rarely end up having a meaningful sell on value anyway.

 

At the same time I do like to keep enough youngsters around to have a decent sized squad size in at least one of the two reserve/youth squads that most clubs have. So that any top class youngsters can get meaningful match experience without getting dragged down by poor greyed out team mates who have a negative impact on team results and everbodys match ratings.

 

However, my impression is that I can achieve this goa of having a big enough youth team squad in a smarter way then just keeping all the best youngsters around.

 

More specifially, to fill out one of the reserve/youth squad, I typically use third rate youngsters on low if any wages. I keep youngsters around who are willing to either be on non contracts (for lower league management), or players who are willing to have «Emergency backup» status and corresponding very low wages (for professional clubs, perhaps at League One level or higher).

[crusadertsar]

It's not about the potential ability as much as the actual quality of player. Examine his attributes and see if he can be useful to you. Star potential can be very misleading and is influenced by overall quality of your team. I assess all of my youngsters and if they don't fit my club DNA then I get rid of them even if they have high potential. A player who has 5 Determination and 4 Teamwork is not gonna get that much better even with 5 star potential. At the same time I have had 2.5-3 star potential youngsters who developed to have important roles in the team. Mind you, I am playing region-specific, Basque-only save so I tend to get milage from players that other FM players would long get rid off. 

Edited December 19, 2023 by crusadertsar

[danej]

38 minutes ago, crusadertsar said:

It's not about the potential ability as much as the actual quality of player. Examine his attributes and see if he can be useful to you. Star potential can be very misleading and is influenced by overall quality of your team. I assess all of my youngsters and if they don't fit my club DNA then I get rid of them even if they have high potential. A player who has 5 Determination and 4 Teamwork is not gonna get that much better even with 5 star potential. At the same time I have had 2.5-3 star potential youngsters who developed to have important roles in the team. Mind you, I am playing region-specific, Basque-only save so I tend to get milage from players that other FM players would long get rid off. 

I don't talk about star PA for the player, but the league level of his estimated PA. As mentioned in OP. I agree that a youngster with a relatively poor PA star rating might still be a top talent worth keeping. It depends, not least on the general quality of your first best first team players who anyone will be compared to yes.

And yes, my impression is also that personality matters a lot. Youngsters with a mediocre or outright bad personality rarely develop well is my impression.

Edit: Guess what I was trying to say in OP is: Even if everything else suggests that you should keep a given youngster at the club, it might still be better to bin him of if his PA is just not good enough. He might turn into a Championship or League One level player one day, but so what, such players rarely rise to a good sell on value.

Edited December 19, 2023 by danej

[Cloud9]

On 19/12/2023 at 05:35, danej said:

I don't talk about star PA for the player, but the league level of his estimated PA. As mentioned in OP. I agree that a youngster with a relatively poor PA star rating might still be a top talent worth keeping. It depends, not least on the general quality of your first best first team players who anyone will be compared to yes.

And yes, my impression is also that personality matters a lot. Youngsters with a mediocre or outright bad personality rarely develop well is my impression.

Edit: Guess what I was trying to say in OP is: Even if everything else suggests that you should keep a given youngster at the club, it might still be better to bin him of if his PA is just not good enough. He might turn into a Championship or League One level player one day, but so what, such players rarely rise to a good sell on value.

If you can afford a youth system, develop players that you think you can turn a profit on or who you think will be useful to your system of play. I look at personality/consistency and the attributes they have now. 

Your whole squad doesn't need to have 5 star potential for them to be useful to you, squad players who can do different things or are just dependable are important.

[De Nile]

I don't really care where he is going to be in future, I'm concerned what he can do for me right now. It's no certainty whether the said player will even reach his potential but for now if he has good attributes and can hold his own in the team(i.e. good personality) then it is easier to help development because when it comes to matches I can bring him on knowing he can decipher situations on a same level as his older teammates, that's the first thing . CA comes second, it gives more hope than PA (in a sense it is less unpredictable) and helps me with giving out contracts. 

Edited December 26, 2023 by De Nile

[whatsupdoc]

3.5+ stars I'll keep in my reserves or loan out. 

4 stats I'll give playing time to un the first team. 

 

Anything below that I list as unwanted.