one thing that i find helps is remembering that it is all judged against the current crop of players. also if you improve teh youth facilities, youth recruitment, youth coaches and scouts then not only will you find you pull in better regens but they will have tehir potential and ability rated properly. you have to bear in mind that it's the scouts that recruit the players at the start of teh season but it's the coaches that give you the reports on them when they are in you're youth team. so to get the best out of them you will need to have good training facilities (for youth if i haven't made that up), and coaches who have high potential and ability ratings aswell as high working with youths ratings.
the coaches are especially important as Coach A might have high ability and potential ratings and can tell you exactly how good the player can become but with low youth coaching he won't get the best out of them himself and Coach B could have high youngsters coaching but poor potential and current ability rating so whilst he can mould them into the best players they can be he won't necessarily be able to tell exactly how good that is until they actually peak/ become pro players.
also i think one reason why putting them on pro contracts helps is because that means they can have more time training with the senior coaches who at most clubs are better then the youth coaches because you're measured on the performance of the senior team and not the youth academy. the other is that they will be training with the senior players who are in the same squad as them and on the same training regime as them which probably helps then because they get extra time working with the pro's who already know alot about football and who would be training them. that's why i normally let my players retire at my club instead of selling them when they get old as i believe that if they train in the reserve's with my best/older youth players then they can pass on knowledge during training sessions which maay or maybot happen on fm but i like to think it makes a difference.
