Examples of or can you develop poor prospects into first team footballers?

[MonagHusker]

I like the idea of the "diamond in the rough" or the rags-to-riches, underdog,Rocky cliche, especially if you have relatively week youth intakes.

I know in FM star ratings are only as good as your scout, but is it possible to take a raw 15 year old with low ratings and develop him through time to be a first team contributor? Do you have any examples?

What are some good starting attributes to look at? Any specific approach to take?

 

[JacobAnalyst]

I like the idea of the "diamond in the rough" or the rags-to-riches, underdog,Rocky cliche, especially if you have relatively week youth intakes.

I know in FM star ratings are only as good as your scout, but is it possible to take a raw 15 year old with low ratings and develop him through time to be a first team contributor? Do you have any examples?

What are some good starting attributes to look at? Any specific approach to take?

For me, the key things I'd be looking at are stats like determination, work rate and and their personality. Also if they have decent physicals, particularly natural fitness. The character/personality of the player is very very important. Determined, highly professional, driven - along those lines. Players with good attitude are more likely to want to develop and will maximise their potential the most.

Find a tutor! I think tutoring is an underrated aspect and really helps especially when trying to mould a certain type of player. It helps them pick up PPMs off of tutors too (I think). Of course, you can see whether their personalities match up when selecting tutors.

Playing time, needless to say, is so important. If you're loaning a player out, make sure that they play at the highest possible level where they will be a KEY player, at worst a first team player. If you feel they can fit in to your first team on occasion, off the bench or in cup games, go for it. If they are in the U18's but there is a chance for them to get a good amount of minutes in the U23's, put them there.

Hope this helped a bit!

 

[Bigpapa42]

I don't know that you are going to have many "one star potential to superstar" stories, because Potential Ability is always going to limit that to some extent. Your coaches and scouts can certainly be wrong on a player, but scouting stars are relative to your club and probably not THAT wrong very often.

I'm guilty of playing in the database a bit too much and knowing a bit too much about the CA & PA of a given data update. Takes away a bit of the mystery. I've often fallen victim to not bothering with mediocre prospects. The two and three star types who are never going to be truly great players. The PA is probably in the 120 to 140 range. That's not real high for a player in a bigger league, but I've realized over time that very useful players can still be developed. Versatile depth players and even just players to be sold on. Managing in Russia, where Russian players are required (6 foreign players max in the squad) means you need to develop as many as you can. And even a middling potential player can still be developed into a very useful depth player.

Jacob covered the basics - personality is key in a players development, and so is playing time. Determination used to be a factor in development, but now its down to Professionalism and Ambition. Determination is an on-field trait. Its a useful one, but a low determination player with good Professionalism and Ambition will develop more effectively than a highly determined one with the other two traits low. Although the overall personality of your squad will influence young players now, you still want to tutor. Veteran players with great personalities are vital. Good PPMs are a nice addition. Professionalism and Ambition are the priority, while Determination is a nice bonus.

Players need matches to develop. Playing in the reserves will only have so much value after a while. Look to blood them in cup matches and with sub appearances. I will loan them if I flat out can't provide that but I prefer to keep them so I have control. I know what kind of facilities and coaches I have.

Really going with youth is a full-on commitment. There will be moments when you have the need and the money to improve a position, but you may have to choose not to so that your young player will have the opportunity to grow into the spot. This presents a real conundrum if they aren't really developed compared to your overall squad level, and if you are an ambitious club. But if you want to fully commit to youth....

 

[MonagHusker]

Thanks for both of your replies! So helpful! Not enough hours in the day for FM!

 

[wkdsoul]

Depends on the team you are if you have messi in the first team and get a one star regen, his pa still might be 160-180, due to the scout comparing him to Messi you'll dismiss what you could have down the line.

I always look right to left on rookies, physical, mental then technical. They can be picked up easier, i think in that order so to have a good start base is key. Physical helps as they will prob be loaned to less technical and more physically dominated lower leagues during the development anyway.

 

[Bigpapa42]

Just to go a bit further, there is (to my mind) a difference between a poor prospect and a decent or better prospect with a poor starting point. A poor prospect simply doesn't have much room between where they currently are and their maximum potential. There simply isn't much room to improve. That doesn't necessarily make them a useless player - they might be reasonably developed for their age and still capable of the pitch. It just means they won't get better and there isn't really anything you can do to affect that. A prospect with a poor starting point just means that they aren't particularly well developed for their age but they have at least reasonably potential (which very much depends on the level being played at).

Like wkdsoul says, the level you play at is a factor and it affects scouting. Many of us have experienced finding a great prospect with a smaller or low level club, then bringing the same player into a player club in another save, only to find they aren't much of a prospect at a higher level. http://www.fm-base.co.uk/forum/users/147433/

 

[Dobrin]

The days when you could do such a thing are gone. And here is why.

First, they ruined the tutoring system. In previous versions of FM, you could take a young player with low determination and put him to be tutored by a senior with good stats. In FM 2017 almost every tutoring action is finishing with young tutee saying that he learned just a little form the senior. Sometimes he improved his determination with 2, but nothing else is spectacular. In fact, the tutee will hate the tutor, the tutor will hate the tutee and both will hate the manager, you. The tutoring thing will succeed only if both have the same personality, which is a stupid idea. The whole point was to take a lazy youngster and through tutoring to improve not only his stats, but his personality.

Second, they ruined the training. There is an individual training based on the player's position and role selected for him. Not mentioning that I have 4.5 stars coaches for every area and "superb training facilities", focus of training is Balanced with High intensity. Despite all these, not too much improvement could be seen even after 7-8 training months and matches, even for players with a real potential to grow. More than that, suppose I train a center back as Defensive Center Back and this means he will train only marking, tackling, heading, positioning, jumping, pace and strength, then I could see some improvement in passing, first touch, technique, but none in attributes needed for his role. What's the point of this? None, you want to improve some stats, but the game says: "no, I improved other attributes". Additional Focus is a bad joke. After few months the player will complain that the training is not producing any improvement. This "additional focus" is so bad broken that if you want to improve, lets say quickness of a player, you have to select stamina or something else and maybe the pace will rise. But if you ask for quickness you'll waste your time and you will tell the game what you really want and the game will have a different opinion and you'll never receive what you want.

So forget it, take good enough players, other way you'll grow a great beard before you'll see an youngster improving in those areas where you want.