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Oh yeah, he'll be a decent player for me and he's only 16. Can't complain too much I suppose.

Now fingers crossed my other prospect promotes when he turns 18 in a few days.

Another all 90s youth promoted, another disappointment. Good start to the season

Dread to think what he'd have turned out like if I'd promoted him at 82 rating like I was thinking of.

Is that Zenitani?

That's him

Also, I'm not talking to you after this weekend...

I've had a few of these too recently, very annoying when you think you are getting a superstar and he turns out to be pretty average.

You guys are getting spoilt. If you don?t want him I?ll take him off your hands on a free!

My first ever all 90s from the YA! Now it's a question of whether to sell or to develop with my quite inadequate coaching team!

You would probably do better to sell. You could get 2 or 3 decent players from money you make on an all 90s player.

A couple of months back I mentioned this youth and asked for your opinions / predictions on how good he could become. Well, the results are in.

Unfortunately I have no youth to show you all as he did not promote (my fault as I had a full squad) but here is a summary of his final season's progress.

S52 D16 improved 54 --> 58
D23 improved 58 --> 62
D30 improved 61 --> 71
D37 improved 71 --> 75
D44 improved 75 --> 79
D51 improved 79 --> 83
S53 D2 improved 83 --> 92
D9 improved 92 --> 97

A final rating of 97 (96/96/99)


Predictions were:
Chyperhondriac: 87
Stripey: 79
AndyP: 64

So, the best estimate (not including my own prediction) was Chyperhondriac! Well done.

Very interesting, Roland! One of those late developers. It's a pity that you weren't able to hang on to him.

Oh to be so sanguine about not promoting an all-90s youth! His last minute improvement is giving me hope about the not-so-advanced 16 year olds in my academy at least.

Oh believe me, I'm annoyed at myself.
I bought a player maybe I shouldn't have and filled the squad. Then, I didn't get round to listing a player in time, I was pretty busy with other things and just didn't get a chance to. Add to that, I wasn't sure exactly which day he was turning 18 (it was of course the earliest of 3 possible days) and well, he just disappeared while my listed players still had a day to go before leaving C'est la vie.

So there are two things to learn from this:
1) Don't be stupid like me
2) Be patient with youths, sometimes they are worth waiting for.

Having moved to the Oberliga nearly two seasons ago, and starting with a dreadful squad in a club ranked around 940, I've had to start from scratch, which has been interesting. Most of my squad are red-barred at around 20-25 rating. Luckily, I started with almost 50M in the bank, which was a nice surprise, so I've made one or two modest purchases on the transfer market, but I've been sending out my scouts (five of them) every week since I took over the club. Good finds have been few and infrequent, but tonight there were two nice surprises - a nicely balanced 14 y/o defender at 40/41/42 and a midfield 14 y/o gem at all 61s. Nice to see that the youth generator produces the goods for lowly clubs.

Wow, a 14 year old at 61's! That is good. I could do with a few of those myself. They should help get your club moving, although obviously it's going to take a while.

Good luck with that (not so) new project, Stripey2nd..

Good to see lower clubs getting possibly great youths, interesting to see how good they get. Sounds a bit like my experience, nothing for seasons and then two come at once.

They both sound promising.

Nice little all 90+ FAs promotion this evening - Nabil Daham

Very tasty!

Just promoted Idrissa Ndour, a Senegalese sweeper rated 98 in the academy.

He's number 7 from our academy with all 90s stats... well happy.

Here's another guessing game after Roland's last youth... Hason Gonzales joined at 14 rated 55, then did nothing for over a season. A few days off 16 he started to pull his finger out and now just after his 17th birthday he's rated 63/63/60->62.

At 15 he was a "great kid" but the season after he was "a bit of a puzzle". One more renewal assessment due in nine days.

Any bets on where he'll end up?

87/87/82