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ha, you assume I have any kind of intelligence I have been thinking about getting relegated again tbh... 2 little guys had the same idea as me and I'm not in first position

I wish there were some sort of guides or help that could make my journey easier

True, I've had 2 youths promote to all 90's when their youth ratings were less than 90.
One was 86 rated and is now a 90 rated player, the other was 79 rated and reached low 80's before I sold him as I couldn't seem to get him any further.
I've also had 90's rated youths turn out to be 80's rated players.
It just seems to be the luck of the draw

I dont know when my scouts last found a youth worth putting in the academy But I know that was only a 40 rated 14 yo because I was getting desperate, and that desperation proved true as my academy which once had 7 youths in it, now has just two. Scouts never find anything rated above 40, and anything that is rarely above 40, has stats all over the place, so is no use having in the academy anyway I've tried being very specific, and also very general, but they come back each couple of days with dross. If it carries on I might as well furlough my youth coach as he will have noone left to actually train
I've had barren spells before, but never for this long, very very strange.

I was going to make a post the other day about my long hunt for a midfielder - took me at least seven or eight searches by all four scouts to turn up even one worth looking at, and at 24/24/26 even he is a bit of a gamble.

Generally it seems to me like good quality midfielders are harder to come by, but maybe I've just had bad luck.

Though I can't complain too much, I do have a full academy currently and six of them have potential to reach 90+. I've got one player about to age out and he will be a disappointment, having stalled at 68. Ah well, he might pay for another stand - if he accepts promotion of course.

The game has kind of stagnated for me right now and I am waiting for my youths to promote to inject a bit more life, the first one up is 17 and currently rated 82, I may keep or I may sell and expand??

I'll admit my second team felt a bit like that as I was waiting for my youths to come through - when you don't have any fresh blood to train up nor money to buy, and you're playing caretaker teams things can drift a bit. But once they start promoting you can see your APR increasing and you get to ease your old dross out. It will be a glorious day when I have the backup to pay off Stockdale.

82 youth rating might give you a 70+ FAs player, I'd be minded to keep.

I've found much the same in the last few months, Andy.

Thanks stripey, I feel the game needs a tweak.
I'd rather have more youths for everybody, because it will improve everyone's teams and make it more competitive, or people will flood the market with good to very good youths, and that in turn will bring down transfer fees to buy those players.
Like I say, I've never been in this situation, every couple of weeks a 40+ rated would turn up, but now when that happens, they'd be terrible to promote with mixed stats.
One of those in my academy is 17 as well, so due to promote/not very soon.
I love the youth acdemy, a key part of the game for me, especially my 2nd team where the youths have to be Guinean, funnily enough, I have plentiful youths there with being country specific!

I too have had a lot of dross come through recently but that's OK. I tend to recruit 13 or 14 year olds anyway and leave them in until they turn 18 so they have 4 seasons in there. So to keep my academy productive I just need one youth with potential to turn up every 28 days. Given that good youths often turn up in twos or threes, I'm happy to go a season to a season and a half without recruiting anyone before I start stressing about it.

As with everything in IAG, patience is the key.

Tell yourself that about injuries, FS!

Yes, I'm being as patient as possible while waiting for the frequency of injuries to be reduced

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I'm patient, nothing for 3 months is beyond patient.
Just had all my scouts out recently, they found 19 youths in age from 11-17, they were rated 5-33, with a solitary one rated 48, but his FAs varied from 19-65, so no use at all, plus he was 16! They'd better be like buses, because I need 3-4 just to keep the academy going...

I'm pretty sure the game balances out the availability of good players to provide an even spread across the game, but it does seem that the harder you try to find a gem... well, it's a bit like watching paint dry...

After the major youth update a few years back, I managed to develop & sign 7 high quality players and these turned my fortunes around, but it "seems" that because I did so well early doors with developing youths, now I am really struggling to get them and some of the balanced youths I have now, are a bit of a disappointment in terms of where I expect them to be.

My 90+ players will need replacing in due course and that will be a massive drain on my finances if I have to start looking to the transfer market like I am now. I still think the youth setup is the way forward, but it's a real ball ache trying to find decent players right now.

Well, what do you know - search after search after search for midfielders and it takes me nearly a season to find someone. Second search for a defender comes back with a 75/74/78 13 year old.

Tell me I'm not just imagining this?

You're not just imagining it. It happens a lot. Farquharson and Avare in my squad both turned up in my scout reports on the same day (I was splitting my scouts between keepers and defenders at the time).

Had a bit of a heart in mouth moment yesterday when I got the old contract renewal reminder message that then told me that my only youth coach was retiring in 5 days. Am I mistaken in thinking that your academy shuts down if you don't have a youth coach? Needless to say, a quick 1-day vacancy was sent out and I'm negotiating with a replacement who's rated higher than my current guy but has a much lower player potential rating, but he'll do the job for now so long as my prized youths don't leave en masse...

I think there's a short grace period before the youths all disappear, 5 days is the number that comes to mind.

There is a grace period but it's actually 10days to hire a youth coach before the youths leave the academy.

I have sent my scouts out looking for youth players all season, and so far they have not even came close to finding one for me to put in the academy.

And that's a constant 4 scouts looking, plus another 2 for half the season.

My first youth to promote from the academy today, Archibald Sivers, what do you think?

Very nice.