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Cheers, fellas! All depends on my youth coaches, of course, and they're only as good as my CR allows them to be....

From what I can gather, it is pointless clubs with low rated youths having an academy as it is just too expensive with no real prospect of getting any money back. You could if your youth is in the academy pay over 100k per season so 700k from 11-17 year of age and when they promote they wont even be worth 300k or even sellable. I doubt smaller clubs with staff (youth coaches & scouts) would ever produce a youth worth 5 million even so even though I have a full academy I personally think it will be a loss making venture.

Prophet of doom! Why not tell us all about your academy youths, and share how they actually get on? It would be helpful reading.

I had a 48-rated DF decline promotion today. He would have hopefully trained up decently and sold for ~4m as he was both-footed.

He's been replaced by a 29-rated 13 year old STK with fairly even stats. Hopefully he trains up well!

If I don't find any more youths in the next little while and have to promote someone early, I'll be promoting Novas ( 68 ) in a couple of weeks and REAAAAAAALLY hoping he joins. I'll keep you all updated

I only (half) understood the final sentence.

I currently have 4 of my promoted youth players in my squad, one of which is a regular starter, all training really nicely, only 2 red bars between them. Earlier this season I sold one of my youth players for over 9M. I have a nearly full academy with a top rated striker at 63, down do a 28 rated 13yo defender. I have 3 scouts permanently on youth hunting duties, I reckon 3 or 4 times a season they?ll find me someone worthy. I tend to offer contracts as soon as they turn 16 and have less than a week left in the academy, I don?t spend to keep them longer. I?ve regularly been surprised at how the stats are after promotion, my theory is that they have a set of ?full youth potential? stats, so even if they accept promotion early, they are given attributes consistent with their potential, not necessarily with what they show at the time of promotion. No proof to back that up, but if you look at Osofisan, his stats don?t really tally with that of a 38 rated youth.

It?s the youth academy that?s kept my finances alive, I don?t think there?s any science to it, I just think it?s a numbers game. If you get more youth reports, you?ll get more decent youths. If someone refuses promotion (as one little brat did yesterday...!) no drama, just wait for the next one. For me it?s the aspect of the game I probably enjoy the most.

What a refreshing post.

Got to disagree, if you keep sending out scouts you will eventually unearth some gems. I have 5 scouts and keep sending them out as soon as they return. Most of the time they come back with rubbish but you have to be persistent, a couple a season is reasonable. I only search for 11-15 yr olds.
Most of my squad comes from the youth academy, only 4 have been bought and I've made a lot from the few I have sold.
Just keep trying.

I agree with the last couple of posts... The youth academy is a big money maker for those that are patient. I am currently focussing 70% of my time on the YA in order to help try and promote 2-3 youths per season that can either become squad players rated 60-70 or can be sold on for profits north of 5m per player. This will then help replace some of the ageing squad players.

There are many flaws with the youth system and its not perfect at all... however with patience it can still become a big part of a clubs long term plans.

I only ever search for 11-15yr olds also and simply search for a position that i haven't got much of in either the YA or first team squad. Generally you only need 2-3 goalkeepers and 3-4 strikers whereas you need 6-7 defenders and 6-7 midfielders in the first team squad ideally. Therefore more often than not i am searching for defenders or midfielders and use all 6 scouts to do that every time.

I tend to send all my scouts with the identical search criteria. I figure if i send 4 scouts to the same contry to look at 16-17 year old midfielders that at least one of them should find something decent.

Just had my first ever player sneak on to the 70s in my youth academy, just turned, recently turned 17, also have a 68 rated which is now my 2nd highest.

please let them promote when the time comes

Nice! Good luck with the promotion, fingers crossed it goes according to plan. I'll be interested to see what the FAs look like with a youth who is that good.

Good luck! What was the timing (re contract remaning) on the rotter who turned you down?

so from what I am reading it does not really matter at what rating your scouts are. A club with highly rated scouts wont necessarily find better youths than a team with a scout only rated 30 ish and then it goes to youth coaches, so my club who has youth coaches rated in 30s can train an 11 year old upto be a gem just as well as a team with youth coaches rated much higher.

The difference with higher rated scouts is that they spend less time searching, so, over a season, they will come up with more results, meaning the chance of returning with decent youths is greater.

5th mission - zilch.

Hah - you should be using my scout! Only brought one in, but a 13-year-old midfielder 39/40/42 has come to join Kamome.

ok fair enough but then what about youth academy coaches. At smaller clubs they still produce and train little unknowns into world class players, take Vardy for example, he was banging them in at Fleetwood town who were in the then Conference league before making the switch. I doubt smaller clubs can do this here. Maybe youth coaches should all have the same skill set and ability.

Does Fleetwood Town make the same number of Jamie Vardy's as Barcelona does? Or Arsenal? How many world class players has Forest Green produced? How about Walsall?

It's impossible to compare real player careers to IAG players, I think. For example, Luis Suarez, Virgil van Dijk and Arjen Robben all played for Dutch Eredivisie side FC Groningen at the start of their careers. Suarez and Van Dijk werd bought. This would never happen here as they would be directly picked up by IAG's Barcelona and Liverpool counterparts. Robben came from the academy, but it's impossible for an IAG mediocre club to produce such a quality player from it's academy.

And to be honest, I think Barcelona just creates a lot of Bojan Krkices