danej

What would you suggest would be an ideal U18 squad size?

Update, I just looked through my reserve sides. The "Reserves" side (roughly similar to U23 in England although no age limit) is ok, a 17 player squad. But the U19 squad is terrible. 37 players in it at the moment. A few will be sold, loaned out or released when possible. But still far too many. In order to have a U19 squad below 25-ish players I would need to have at least a 3 star PA limit at the moment, plus probably get rid of a few with a poor personality. I guess this highlights the idea that squad size should perhaps play a role. The bigger the squad, the more I suspect that player development is hamperede. Even 15-17 olds would be better off with a bit of game time I assume. Not least when they don't practice on match days etc. anyways. But I am no expert and know very little. Any input is appreciated.

As mentioned above: I am currently contemplating to also take into consideration squad size when deciding which youngsters to keep. Perhaps limiting the total number of players to as close to 16-ish as possible for each squad (not including loaned out players who aren't playing at the club). Based on the assumption that having much bigger squads might hamper the development of the players since competition for playing time is too fierce, too many players around for the limited amount of available playing time. Any input on this anyone?

Isn't it better to always give players full time contracts if possible? I always do that. I am certainly no expert at the game and this is possibly a bad habit of mine. But logically I would think that it hampers the development of a player if he is not on a full time contract. I imagine that for relatively poor youngster that I want to keep, it would be better to give them a one year full time contract to take a look at them, with an optional extension if possible. Yeah, the PA drop over time happens all the time to me. I guess that is normal. PA is what is achievable if everything pans out perfectly which it usually doesn't. I would think. At least that is what it's like for me, and I am fine with that. It would also be boring if many youngster reached their full 4.5-5 stars PA, the game would be very easy then. I have never seen the opposite, like a play drastically increasing his PA. But I trust you on that. Perhaps this comes down to my not being very experienced. I have probably only played around 15 seasons of FM in total so I am quite the noob I think. I also deliberately don't optimize player development, like I deliberately makes suboptimal strategic choices in most aspects of the game. Because I want a challenge, I want the game to be realistic and not too easy. The game is very easy if you know the game anx exploit it. Even a noob like me can easily do that. But it doesn't give me anything, just bores me. Speaking of which, I love my current Aalborg BK challenge. The 3rd season is drawing to a close. A have sort of stagnated. Will probably be the 3rd consecutive 2nd place finish in the league, behind dominant FC Copenhagen (København). I like that it is not that easy to dismantle FCK. In any case, I think that I will start to win regular league titles within a couple of seasons. My club has a developed economically well, I have improved facilities and have a lot of decent youngsters coming through. They are not great first team players now and won't be within the next year either, but eventually some of them will be great and/or can be sold for good money. Similar to external recruitment which has also given me some great young players. Think the average age of the first team squad is 23 and with plenty of good talents in the reserve sides or on loan as well. Interesting what you write about personalities. Perhaps I should have at least a 0.5-1 star higher PA threshold to take on youngsters with poor personalities. I have the same experience, they rarely if ever come good. My experience is also that playing time seems important, also for players aged 17 and below. The players that I field regurarly in my first team (could be mostly sub appearances) ususually develop much better.

Perhaps keeping 2 star PA youngsters makes economical sense if you have all round world class facilities. But I don't feel like it objectively makes sense at most clubs, including my current Aalborg BK. This is also due to mye subjective basic attitudes. I don't want to hoard players. I don't want to be perfectionist. I don't want to act according to fear of missing out on developing a decent youngster. I only want to keep a given type of youngers (for example those with 2 star PA, no more, no less), if it is overall a benefit to the club. In other words, that enough of those players will eventually become first team players or can be sold for money than all the wages I would want to pay the group of players over the years in order to keep them at the club and develop them. Regarding 2 star PA youngsters at Aalborg BK: I am pretty sure that I should hand out contracts to any of them. in my four seasons at the club, not one of those players have developed into anything useful. I have essentially tossed hundreds of thousands of £ down the drain by retaining such players. Regarding 2,5 star PA youngsters at Aalborg BK: Similar story as the 2 star PA players, but not as clear cut. I think I sold one player for 100k or something. Otherwise pure waste like above. So it still seems like those players might not be worth keeping. Another interesting aspect to consider is whether you want to have the same threshold regarding internal and external recruitment. I generally won't consider recruiting youngsters from other clubs unless they have at least 4 star PA. Because a lower threshold it would flood my club with youngsters with mostly useless, ressource draining youngsters. Perhaps another way of doing it is just picking the best ones, not having much more than 16 players in each youth squad (in Denmark there are two such squads, U19 and Reserves, similar to U18 and U23 in England). I suspect that having big youth squads also at least to a mild extent hampers the development of the individual players, since they can't all get a decent amount of playing time. Further input is greatly appreciated.

As the title implies - as a rather inexperienced Football Manager I feel like I have still so many questions and so few answers. Which youngsters to keep, to sell, to mentor? I would greatly appreciate any input from you experienced and knowledgeable managers out there. My ideas so far (I might abort some of these ideas in the future when proven wrong): Keep anyone who is good enough to be in your first team squad (your best 20-22 players depending on how many matches you play in a season). A no-brainer really. Keep anyone with Premier League potential. Probably also the ones with Championship potential because they can also often be sold for a decent fee if/when they will obviously never become first team players. Probably keep anyone where the PA in the coach report says: "Can improve a lot", no matter how poor their PA star rating. Because those players are a bit like lottery tickets, sometimes they develop tremendously and the PA star rating can improve over time. This probably also mean: Keep anyone at age 16 or 17 since their PA is often or always very uncertain at that age, they could come good. Sell anyone with PA 2.5* or lower (however this partially conflicts with point no. 3, I am uncertain which is better) Keep any youth intake player that the ass man suggest that you keep because you just never know, any one of them could come good (like no. 3). Keep anyone with a good personality, anything better than balanced. At least untill they are older and have League One coach report PA or lower. Like point 3 + 5. Keep anyone where the coach report says that they are consistent and/or like big matches. Like no. 6. Regarding youngster with sell on value: Keep them untill they have had at least one season out on loan. To see if they develop well. To judge whether or not you can grow their value sufficiently by subsequent loans in the following seasons. Regarding mentoring: Whom to mentor? Anyone your keep around, arguing that it might grow their CA, PA or sell on value? Only the best ones? Perhaps it is a more complex decision, it also depends how many decent mentoring older players you have available? I guess it is important to ensure that the best youngster get good mentoring, if necessary then sacrifice mentoring for second rate youngsters.