How Long Do You Train Your Youngsters?

[Ameniste]

What are your expectations of your youngsters? At what age do you decide that they won't improve anymore and needs to be sold to cut losses and on the other end, at what age do you buy them?

I'm in my 5th season and after 3 seasons the youngsters I bought finally making a huge impact. I'm in November with no losses at Newcastle. The achievements I find worthy:

Barcelona 2-0
Liverpool 5-0
Arsenal 2-0
Liverpool 3-1
Man City 6-1


The downside with what I did is that I basically sacrificed those 3 earlier seasons (in top 6 always but can't win against the big three in EPL). I'm afraid that I'll be subject to a cycle and do horribly between the time it takes for my "batches" of talents to mature.

Also I like to bring players in young (unless I need a certain position but even then they're young). As a result the average age of my squad is 21. I tend to sell my players once they hit 28-29 so that I reap the profits before they start going downhill. Do you guys agree with this strategy? (I have >$100M in transfer fees not used)

 

[Chico Nico]

Yeah that is a good idea, i normally sell players once they are 27 or 28 if not at most 29 because they reached their peak and even tho they might perform their best at that age, they will be less valued. I normally buy youngsters as early as 16 to 19 but very talented ones that have huge potential but lacking ability.

But you got to be careful of not to sell too many old guys as some of them are influential like captains and you need some experience in your squad So normally i keep one or two guys who are aged 28 or so which have high influence stat. This normally is either my Goalkeeper or a central Midfielder.

 

[shadowsc2]

Well, I train my youngster till they're 22-23 cause after that I never notice that they improve much, and I sell players above 29 or youngster highly valued but who haven't actually fulfilled they're potential(For e.g. i brought on free transfer a wonderkid called Hisham El-Samni when he was almost 20, developed pretty good but I sold him for about 11 mil euros cause he'll soon have 23 and he didn't develop much) I also rotate my squad so that youngster play in league/cups, and my best players in CL(I'm playing in Croatia and my youngsters squad is better than some teams in the league) and it's working very well.

 

[Vanjagl]

You should keep few mature players with high determination and professionalism to tutor youngsters. I always buy players like this:
1. season ( prefer to buy few young players to backup my key players, on position where I'm weak, i would buy anyone that's <30 and few "profit players". Profit player - never good for first team, just for sale)
2. season ( Sell one key player to bring one better and to give room to youngsters, and buy few regens)
3. season ( key season! - If I got some results, I buy 3-4 new players and combine them with few youngsters from 1. season)
4,5 etc. season ( just repeating actions from 1. ; 2. ; and 3. season)

I never buy player thats over 20 mill ( well rarely, only if i have the money, my finance are good and I have poor player on that position) and I tend to buy <5 mill regens when they show up. But I just love to buy some player with 2, 2 and half star potential and raise him for few season and then sell him for lot of money :wub:
Only thing is, I hate salaries and salaries hates me. I spend over 15 mill a week on salaries. So, I should get rid of greedy players, even tho they are key players.
This is solid financial tactic for any club

 

[Ameniste]

What the heck you do to have salaries of 15M. My salary is 2.2M per week and I have some world class players. Also I don't think I am as prudent as you. I've been regularly spending 25-30 mil to bring in either high potential youngsters or a fairly young player for a position I'm weak in.

My opinion is that I have to make some gambles. I lost something like 8M buying Rafael and then selling him because I wanted De Gea instead.

 

[Joel`]

I used to sell youngsters if they hadn't developed the way I liked by ~23. But then I had a young winger who hadn't shown too much by 23, and I was considering selling him, and then he started to develop rapidly and pushing for a first team place. The following season he's pushed Valencia out of competition almost and competing with Nani for a starting berth. I now like to show a bit more faith, if they have good reports, especially in the South Americans to allow them to settle.