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FAQ on Youth Academies

Written by markT05

I've listed a number of questions asked on the Maltese forum about Youth Academies which were asked by various users and were answered by RavenJ_BSHI and myself.

Can you list, in point form the steps needed to have a successful Youth Academy?
eg.
1) Add 3 scouts - select large regions?
2) Join a league - large one or does not make any differences?
3) Set training primary and secondary (your suggestions)

1) 3 scouts are perfect, so you can refuse a scout proposal if the youth is too old (17) or weak overall level.

2) Any difference. But if you enter a 4 teams league, when you finish the league you can enter in another 4 team league before 7 days. Making this you earn time of training for your youth players.

3) For the first matches, primary and secondary training it's better to be set as individual. So you force your scout to give more details as possible about the skills of your players. Obviously, change positions to your players to understand the stars they make if you don't have info about a specific skill. Remember that for wingers and forwards your player will make a high number of stars simpler than the other positions, so don't be so happy if you see a 6 stars winger or a 7 stars forward, can be everything but normally is nothing.
(RavenJ_BSHI)

Is it normal to get so little info in terms of knowing what skills each youth academy player has?

Yes, it's normal. You'll see sometimes you'll have a lot of info and sometimes very few or useless info. You must be patient, nothing more! :-) (RavenJ_BSHI)

One other question - this week I promoted a player suggested from one of the scouts. When this is done you cannot see the reports of the other 2 scouts?

Yes my friend. When you accept the first scout proposal, unfortunately you can't see the other! This is the reason that if you are in doubt about a player, it's better to accept instead of refuse him, because you can't change your decision!
(RavenJ_BSHI)

I would like to have some professional tips on how to deal with youth academies ... having some good players coming through but do not have the best knowledge on what training to give, what and where to scout, number of scouts, how to discover all their abilities, when to promote, who to let and not to let in the academy and at what ages, etc...
I would also need some training tips to make players pop levels as fast as possible in playmaking since I play with a 3-5-2 formation. What type of trainer is best for doing such? ... Does club ranking effect the players coming through the youth academy?

a) On scouting - I usually scout for players according to the current training I am giving to my players in the academy. Do not use 'Any kind of player'. Where to scout I don't know exactly how it works but I usually scout in the biggest regions. I don't know if it makes any difference. Number of scouts has to be 3 so that you have more choice of players every week. If one scout doesn't find a good player, maybe another one will. You have to phone your scouts every week. If you have reached the max of 16 players in your academy, find your weakest player in your YA and fire him.

b) Discovering their abilities - Here one has to be lucky that the coach shows the relevant skills of the key players in your academy. On the other hand you have to make sure that you rotate your players. For example if a player gets 3 stars playing as a defender, the week after play him a midfielder, if he again gets very few stars, try him in a different position.

c) Promoting a player - When a player reaches his maximum in his main skills it is time to promote him. When you start scouting 15 year old players in your YA with very good skills you would want to train them in your YA and promote them at 17 years 0 days. Remember you cannot promote players before they are 17 years of age or haven't played at least for 16 weeks in your academy.

d) What ages? Never allow players who are 17 years old to enter your academy. They are useless. On the other allow every 15 and 16 year old for now. Then when you start reaching a certain level in your academy you can start choosing who to let in or not.

e) On training in the Academy you should NOT stick to one training 'forever' but change training according to your best prospects in the academy. Hence if you are now training playmaking and your scout finds a 15 year old who can reach solid scoring it is advisable that you change to scoring training.

f) In the academy there are no types of trainers.

g) No club ranking has nothing to do with the players coming through the YA.
(markT05)

How much should you keep changing positions of players. I've played 5 matches since the start of the academy.

With regards to training. I'm primary Defending and secondary Individual. I'm noticing that I have got practically all the information regarding defending on the majority of players. Should I change training to playmaking, scoring etc ... , so that I gather more info on other skills of the same players?

If you found some interesting players in the other position, than change secondary training. If not, if you keep individual as the secondary training it's simplier to find info about the skills of players that play in other position. Obvisouly, it's just 5 weeks, it's a lot of time. For example, if an player played as an IM and made 3 stars and you don't know his skill level, it's useless to le thim play there since you discover his level, because it will be very low. Normally, in 4 weeks you can discover all players positions, in 5 i think you can make the final decision about the training to make.
(RavenJ_BSHI)

Is it always advisable to promote the players which would have reached their max potential from the youth academy?

Yes of course, there is no need for them to stay in the academy. Even if they are not good players and you are not going to train them or sell them, fire them to make space for newer and better talents. When you have very young talents make sure that they reach their maximum by the time they are 17 years 0 days old so that you get the best out of them (training wise or selling price wise).
(markT05)