The Academy of Football

[LBond1]

Recently I've been seeing a lot of people on here showing off the young players that they've developed. I've never really been able to do this to the extent that some of you have.

So i was wondering what's the best way to train them? Should i be asking a senior team member to tutor them? Should i be regularly changing their individual training focus? Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. I'm currently working on a West Ham save and I'd love to be able to help them live up to their legendary 'Academy of Football' nickname.

Also buying wonder kids from other teams is always very expensive so what's the best way of finding cheap/free youth players with high potential? By this i mean should i be regularly hosting trial days and things like that?

Any advice on scouting is also appreciated. My chief scout currently sets assignments for my scouts but i was wondering if i should be doing that myself so i can look for the sort of players i want, I've never tried it so i'm unaware of what i can actually tell them to do.

 

[FootballManagerG0D]

any youth player who has a lot of potential should be tutored by a senior player with a high determination, no lower than 17 if possible. Then keep them in the U18's until they get too old, and then bring them into the senior side, and play them for 20 minutes when you're up big or play them in cap one cup games if you don't think it's an important comp. Get good coaches at senior and youth level. Don't loan out to clubs with bad facilities. I prefer not to loan out at all

 

[Scotty98TR]

Tutor players when they have a low determination, that is the main attribute it increases. It can also increase other mental attributes, as well as occasionally passing PPMs learnt by the tutor to the tutee. However, if the tutor has a lower determination, it can mean that the tutee's will drop!

When setting you player's training focus, decide before hand which attributes you want to increase, then select the focus which covers the most of them, rather than just selecting whatever role you use your player as.
(For example, if I have a striker who I play as a poacher, but I want to improve his heading and strength, then I would select his focus as either an AF or a TM, rather than as a poacher!)

I set all the training as soon as everyone is back from holiday, and then I go through every player's training again in January to see how they are progressing, sometimes changing the focus. Every now and then I will change a players focus more frequently, mainly because I can't get all the attributes I want to train under 1 focus.


What I do, and what is the most effective (Although also the hardest and longest) way to find hot prospects is on youth intake days of the main countries (Football Manager 2013 Regen Dates):
Click on the globe drop down menu>Go into Transfers>World> then at the top right change 'all transfers' to 'youth intake', then go through every player there, or at least through the players of the main clubs.
Trial days are mainly for lower league clubs who can't afford to scout players, you will extremely rarely get half-decent players throught them, so I wouldn't bother.


I let my chief scout set the assignments, but I still occasionaly set one myself. The only thing to make sure to have a few scouts scouting is the international youth tournaments!

Hope this helped

 

[LBond1]

Tutor players when they have a low determination, that is the main attribute it increases. It can also increase other mental attributes, as well as occasionally passing PPMs learnt by the tutor to the tutee. However, if the tutor has a lower determination, it can mean that the tutee's will drop!

When setting you player's training focus, decide before hand which attributes you want to increase, then select the focus which covers the most of them, rather than just selecting whatever role you use your player as.
(For example, if I have a striker who I play as a poacher, but I want to improve his heading and strength, then I would select his focus as either an AF or a TM, rather than as a poacher!)

I set all the training as soon as everyone is back from holiday, and then I go through every player's training again in January to see how they are progressing, sometimes changing the focus. Every now and then I will change a players focus more frequently, mainly because I can't get all the attributes I want to train under 1 focus.


What I do, and what is the most effective (Although also the hardest and longest) way to find hot prospects is on youth intake days of the main countries (Football Manager 2013 Regen Dates):
Click on the globe drop down menu>Go into Transfers>World> then at the top right change 'all transfers' to 'youth intake', then go through every player there, or at least through the players of the main clubs.
Trial days are mainly for lower league clubs who can't afford to scout players, you will extremely rarely get half-decent players throught them, so I wouldn't bother.


I let my chief scout set the assignments, but I still occasionaly set one myself. The only thing to make sure to have a few scouts scouting is the international youth tournaments!

Hope this helped

Thanks mate, this is really helpful! Just a quick question; if i raise a youth players determination through tutoring will he then be more determined to train harder therefore developing more?

 

[Scotty98TR]

Thanks mate, this is really helpful! Just a quick question; if i raise a youth players determination through tutoring will he then be more determined to train harder therefore developing more?

Sorry for long time for reply, it didn't show up as anyone quoting me :S

To answer your question, yes. A player with a higher determination is much more likely to reach his potential, aswell as the usual benefits such as working hard and responding better to going behind in matches, etc. You should always try to increase a players determination before anything else, as he will develop quicker!

And no problem mate

 

[TJD07]

Tutoring is something you should be doing. Look for players with the following personalities to be tutors Model Professional, Professional, Ambitious, Resolute, Spirited, Perfectionist.
The following are all increased/decreased by tutoring based on the tutor and his personality. (Most important are in bold)
Determination, Adaptability, Ambition, Controversy, Loyalty, Pressure, Professionalism, Sportsmanship, Temperament, PPMs


Determination is something you'll want a lot of in your team, generally 15-16 is great anymore is a bonus. A highly determined team will win more and lose less because they'll fight for those tough results. Also on what Scotty said, Determination doesn't actually effect how well a player will train unless something has changed recently.


Professionalism, the most important stat for your future greats. Use your model professions to tutor them to get this as high as you can. A player with high professionalism will train better and be much more likely to hit his PA quicker. Most people confuse this with determination, someone did a very long test on it before and I can't for the life of me find it. Higher professionalism also means players are willing to train harder, if you see someone complaining about training levels it's a sign theirs is low.

PPMs, some you can't teach players so to pass them on this is the only way, also the tutor can pass on a few of them at a time. Great for trying to get your young ST set up with the right PPMs as quickly as you can.

Ambition is also quite important and plays a role in player development and their personality, another good stat to increase.


Training focus you can do in a couple of ways, the way I tend to do it and have had best results is the following.
Right as you get him determine what type of player he is going to be and what his future role will be, then highlight all the key attributes for that role. Then make a note of the lowest 4, pick one put him on heavy and leave him for 3 months, then switch to the next, do that for all 4.
That should usually boost up those weak areas quite quickly if you have solid training facilities and staff. From then you can either repeat the same steps or if he's improved enough or is old enough (17/18) switch him to a focus that covers all those areas best. Then just start rotating him in as often as you can and for as long as you can.

Once you can't tutor them no more and they're all perfect little beacons of future hope either thrown them into your team or loan/sell them. Then repeat for the next set.

 

[WarroOxford]

Sorry to OP for hijacking the thread, just a quick question about the tutoring. Is it possible the tutoring can 'go wrong'? I've seen messages where it says 'insert player name' has not gained anything from learning from 'insert player name' or something similar, but can it actually have an adverse effect where stats may even go down if the tutoring has gone wrong?

I've never heard of such a thing, but thought it be wise to check before I go mental with the tutoring.

 

[Scotty98TR]

Sorry to OP for hijacking the thread, just a quick question about the tutoring. Is it possible the tutoring can 'go wrong'? I've seen messages where it says 'insert player name' has not gained anything from learning from 'insert player name' or something similar, but can it actually have an adverse effect where stats may even go down if the tutoring has gone wrong?

I've never heard of such a thing, but thought it be wise to check before I go mental with the tutoring.

However, if the tutor has a lower determination, it can mean that the tutee's will drop!

As I said above, it can. If players personalities are nowhere near the same, then a players morale could drop. If the tutor has lower determination or other hidden mental stats, then the tutee's could drop as well. Only ever happened once to me, but I guessed it would happen before it did (He still had a really high determination but he learnt PPMs which is what I wanted )

 

[TJD07]

Sorry to OP for hijacking the thread, just a quick question about the tutoring. Is it possible the tutoring can 'go wrong'? I've seen messages where it says 'insert player name' has not gained anything from learning from 'insert player name' or something similar, but can it actually have an adverse effect where stats may even go down if the tutoring has gone wrong?

I've never heard of such a thing, but thought it be wise to check before I go mental with the tutoring.

It can and will, it's pretty much always down to using someone either with a worse personality or one that is wildly different to the one of the person being tutored. Most of mine I tend to do in stages, I'll set up certain people to tutor first leaving my best tutors for last or for the really good prospects.

 

[LBond1]

Thanks guys, this is all very helpful!

I have a slight issue with one of my younger players, Ravel Morrison, at the moment. He doesn't try hard in training (12 determination) therefore isn't developing. I've tried getting Nolan (19 determination) and Joe Cole (16 determination) to tutor him, both agreed but Morrison refused to work with them. I think he has potential but at this rate he'll never live up to it!

View attachment 352864


Not sure he's worth the hassle, I've looked at him on other saves (5/6 seasons into the game) and he's attributes are hardly any better than the ones above (second season).

 

[Scotty98TR]

Thanks guys, this is all very helpful!

I have a slight issue with one of my younger players, Ravel Morrison, at the moment. He doesn't try hard in training (12 determination) therefore isn't developing. I've tried getting Nolan (19 determination) and Joe Cole (16 determination) to tutor him, both agreed but Morrison refused to work with them. I think he has potential but at this rate he'll never live up to it!

View attachment 352864


Not sure he's worth the hassle, I've looked at him on other saves (5/6 seasons into the game) and he's attributes are hardly any better than the ones above (second season).

I wouldn't bother with him to be honest, although in real life he has changed and apparently works hard now, when the game was made he was much the same. On FM14 he might be good

 

[LBond1]

I wouldn't bother with him to be honest, although in real life he has changed and apparently works hard now, when the game was made he was much the same. On FM14 he might be good

I think i'm just going to keep him and Rob Hall as rotation options, although Morrison is doing well for me atm.
That shows how realistic the game is really, in real life there were a lot of worries he wouldn't live up to his potential due to his attitude

 

[Henry8597]

Thanks guys, this is all very helpful!

I have a slight issue with one of my younger players, Ravel Morrison, at the moment. He doesn't try hard in training (12 determination) therefore isn't developing. I've tried getting Nolan (19 determination) and Joe Cole (16 determination) to tutor him, both agreed but Morrison refused to work with them. I think he has potential but at this rate he'll never live up to it!

View attachment 352864


Not sure he's worth the hassle, I've looked at him on other saves (5/6 seasons into the game) and he's attributes are hardly any better than the ones above (second season).

He doesn't improve much, he's just a pain in the ****. I suggest getting rid and concentrating on other youngsters.

 

[LBond1]

He doesn't improve much, he's just a pain in the ****. I suggest getting rid and concentrating on other youngsters.

He's a decent rotation option, not taking up much of the wage bill and is worth next to nothing so i'm going to keep him as back up.

West Ham don't seem to have any good prospects on the game, which is a shame really since in real life there's quite a few promising youngsters.

 

[celt]

I wouldn't bother with him to be honest, although in real life he has changed and apparently works hard now, when the game was made he was much the same. On FM14 he might be good

It changes in different circumstances, for example, look at Leigh Griffiths for Hibs, his attitude is awful but in a way it makes him better and work harder because he is cocky and wants to be the best.

 

[LBond1]

It changes in different circumstances, for example, look at Leigh Griffiths for Hibs, his attitude is awful but in a way it makes him better and work harder because he is cocky and wants to be the best.

So far that doesn't seem to be the case with Ravel, unfortunately.

 

[Scotty98TR]

It changes in different circumstances, for example, look at Leigh Griffiths for Hibs, his attitude is awful but in a way it makes him better and work harder because he is cocky and wants to be the best.

That is called being determined to be the best. Ravel Morrison used to be the opposite, he thought he had already made and thought he was better than he is.

 

[LBond1]

Tutor players when they have a low determination, that is the main attribute it increases. It can also increase other mental attributes, as well as occasionally passing PPMs learnt by the tutor to the tutee. However, if the tutor has a lower determination, it can mean that the tutee's will drop!

When setting you player's training focus, decide before hand which attributes you want to increase, then select the focus which covers the most of them, rather than just selecting whatever role you use your player as.
(For example, if I have a striker who I play as a poacher, but I want to improve his heading and strength, then I would select his focus as either an AF or a TM, rather than as a poacher!)

I set all the training as soon as everyone is back from holiday, and then I go through every player's training again in January to see how they are progressing, sometimes changing the focus. Every now and then I will change a players focus more frequently, mainly because I can't get all the attributes I want to train under 1 focus.


What I do, and what is the most effective (Although also the hardest and longest) way to find hot prospects is on youth intake days of the main countries (Football Manager 2013 Regen Dates):
Click on the globe drop down menu>Go into Transfers>World> then at the top right change 'all transfers' to 'youth intake', then go through every player there, or at least through the players of the main clubs.
Trial days are mainly for lower league clubs who can't afford to scout players, you will extremely rarely get half-decent players throught them, so I wouldn't bother.


I let my chief scout set the assignments, but I still occasionaly set one myself. The only thing to make sure to have a few scouts scouting is the international youth tournaments!

Hope this helped

I've been using the regen dates guide to scout the countries on the youth intake days and when i try 'approach to sign' those on youth contracts they ask for wages of at least £3,000 and a squad status of rotation even though they're about 14-16.. Am i doing something wrong or is this because when you approach them your offering a pro contract instead of youth so they expect pro wages?

 

[Scotty98TR]

I've been using the regen dates guide to scout the countries on the youth intake days and when i try 'approach to sign' those on youth contracts they ask for wages of at least £3,000 and a squad status of rotation even though they're about 14-16.. Am i doing something wrong or is this because when you approach them your offering a pro contract instead of youth so they expect pro wages?

They often ask for around that, but you can normally get it down to maximum £1.5k a week (that's the really good one's aswell), and can usually get them onto hot prospect. If they are an expetionally good young talent then give them rotation and just drop the squad status, usually they are fine with it

 

[LBond1]

They often ask for around that, but you can normally get it down to maximum £1.5k a week (that's the really good one's aswell), and can usually get them onto hot prospect. If they are an expetionally good young talent then give them rotation and just drop the squad status, usually they are fine with it

I wasn't able to get any of them down that much or even to hot prospect. In the end i offered them low wages and put in a clause to it goes up after a certain amount of league appearances as i won't be using them for a few seasons.

Is there anyway of increasing the chance of bringing in better players through my own youth intake days? I'm in the process of upgrading the youth facilities, don't know if that makes a difference.