Football Manager 2023has been released and continues the tradition of allowing players to live out their fantasies as they tackle the in-depth managing of their favorite football teams. However, one of the difficult parts of managing is always looking to the future of the team, and constantly building a youth side around the team that can take over in years to come.
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It can be especially difficult to get to grips with keeping a youth side strong as players constantly move up to the adult squad. Buteven if a squad looks goodon paper at first glance, there are always improvements that need to be made to create a future for any team.
Check The Infrastructure
No manager canbegin to build a strong youth teamif there isn’t enough support going on behind the scenes. For this reason, players should start out by checking whether the board has been putting enough funding into the searching, training, and keeping of young players. If this isn’t going on to anything at the right level, it needs to be made a high priority for the board.
Saying this, it isn’t easy to get the board on-side at a smaller team, as current results will always matter more to them than the potential for future ones. Make sure the youth facilities are especially up to scratch but try to make sure the influx of new youth players has the right funding and the opportunity to bring talent to the club in the first place.
Progression To Adult Squad
The best tactic for a small team or one without a lot of funding goinginto youth trainingand youth facilities is to try and bring a few youth players to the adult squad as soon as possible. This will only work for a limited selection of the most promising youth squad players, but it can help massively in bringing about a few new key additions to a squad that isn’t going to have the money to keep a youth team well-trained and funded.
While bigger teams may not feel the need to do this as regularly, it can be hugely useful anyway to bring players to the main squad and allow them to get a feel of how it will be to play at the top level. Transitioning from a youth team to an adult team is often difficult and takes some time, so it is best to prepare for that eventuality early and help the best young players adjust to life in the big leagues.
Loaning Youth Players Out
Young players maynot be ready yetfor a proper run in the adult squad of the team. However, especially for bigger clubs, the best policy may be to loan these players out to an adult squad of a smaller team in a lower league. There, exceptional youth players may be able to flourish without managers having to take such a chance on throwing them into the deep end at a high league level.
Related:Beginner Tips For Football Manager 2023Be careful about the depth that the contract entails about their game time and position, players will not grow properly if they are not being used in their best positions at the loan club. They could also be loaned out and underused, but all of these things can be tackled when they are initially loaned out by putting stipulations into the contract.
Training
Football Manager 2023allows players to go in-depth to an incredible degree with their talent. Even youth players will be given detailed reports about their training and how they are progressing. By tailoring the style of their training to a certain position (as youth players will be more malleable about position changes) a manager can get the best out of them and help their growth massively.
It can be hugely difficult to get this right off the bat and consistently for an entire youth squad. It can get frustrating to see potentially great players getting wasted time after time, but players should remember that in the real world most youth playersfall by the waysideand don’t end up playing at the highest level. It will take time to start finding the right ways to train certain players, but it is just another skill and the knack for it can be learned with patience.
Sign The Wonder Kids
The best move to improve a youth team is, as is often the case with football, the most expensive way. Instead of developing homegrown talent, the option is there tohunt out the wonder kidsalready playing at an exceptional level for other teams. It might seem like a lot to spend on children and teenagers, but to do so is to practically guarantee future success for a much more reasonable price than trying to bring the same players in five years later when they’re worth tens of millions.
The best youth players can behard to keep track of,so inFootball Manager 2023try looking for ones like Antonio Silva (Benfica), Andrey Santos (Vasco De Gama), Fabio Maretti (Juventus), and Adam Wharton (Blackburn Rovers) to start with. There are many others and high-level scouting will find hidden gems for managers, but to improve a youth team for less money it will take careful training precision and a lot of time spent by the manager.
