FM08 - Grassroots

One of the most pleasing features in Football Manager is watching some cheap young talent progress into a really good player. Ah, the power of Potential Ability! In FM, it is so easy to get caught up with current affairs, just as it is in real life, and forget about building your team for the future.

When I say "building for the future", I mean putting aside your battle with relegation, or your bid for European success and spending some time investing in young talent. Young talent is always good. It can provide so many things and more often than never, if you look in the right places, the talent can be pretty very cheap!

Arsenal - The new benchmark/yardstick/point of reference

Arsenal have a system, in a sense a 'life circle' for each youngster. Let me explain.

Ideally, the life circle goes like this:

1) A young player, normally under the age of 20 is bought a cheap price.
2) This player will usually enjoy most football in the reserves, whilst also providing a sound back up for the first team.
3) After a season or two, the player has gained enough experience to become a squad rotator or even in such cases, a first team regular.
4) The player is probably around 23+ and is a key player.
5) From the age of 28-31, the player is not quite as good and is sold a substantial amount. Usually to Spain.

However, if that happens with every youngster at Arsenal, they would have an amazing team. For others, it goes like this:

1) A young player, normally under the age of 20 is bought a cheap price.
2) The player enjoys most, if not all football in the reserves, occasionally getting some first team experience. Sometimes he is loaned out.
3) The player may eventually become a squad rotator. But he is usually sold by now, after he shown that he does not offer the team much.

Does this system always work?

Yeah pretty much. But it needs balance. Remember last season, or the season before when Arsenal were going through a 'transitional period'. This season, they have been prolific and it's all down the great balance:

Experienced players: Gallas, Toure, Lehmann/Alumnia, Rosicky and maybe even Gilberto.

Core of the team: Van Persie, Adebayor, Clichy, Flamini, Hleb and Eduardo.

Youngsters: Walcott, Denilson, Diaby, Bendtner, Fabianski, Hoyte etcetera.

There are a lot more youngsters and some of them will one day fall under the 'Core of the team' category. The present 'Core of the team' will become experienced players and the present experienced players will get sold, providing money for the new youngsters, and filling in any other gaps in the category.

In FM08

We can do this in Football Manager. It would be easiest to do it with Arsenal because you would just be following the process. But it doesn't matter what team you are, you can start playing this way.

How?

Scouting

Bring in as many scouts as possible. If I am not managing a big side, I know how hard it can be to find decent scouts, so this is what I attempt (using the search filter):

1) Search for scout with a high determination attribute, and decent judging potential/ability attributes.
2) Search for a scout with a high judging potential ability.
3) Search for a scout with a high judging current abilty.


This way, you can send Mister high determination on scouting trips and hopefully, because he is so determined, he will find loads of players. But! You need to check these players, whether they are good or not. You can use your other scouts for that.

Training

Remember, training is vital in helping young players to blossom into your next Ashley Young. Younger players, and the very youngest, should have training schedules based more on the physical side of the game; because their mentals will be progressing through experience and their technicals through natural ? ness.

Trick

If you have not heard of this 'trick', then pay attention. Okay, imagine you are managing Liverpool and your chief scout highly recommends young Jose Baxter of Everton. Now you really want this young fifteen year old, but Everton are going to make you pay big bucks for one of their players. But, with players like Baxter, who are on youth contracts, there is trick! Make an offer for exactly zero pounds. Nothing. Then Everton should negotiate with this offer, saying nothing + 10% of next sale. And that's a bargain. This 'trick' has worked loads of times?

Loaning/Tutorship

Granting your youngsters some kind of experience will help them develop their mental attributes. There are two ways do give them experience; the classic way, and probably most effective in some ways, is to send them out on loan. You need to think about their loan destination; make sure they are playing in the highest division possible whilst assuring they are going to a club where they will be a first team regular. I recommend letting players reach the age of 18 before sending them out on loan, otherwise, they will usually be going to a very low standard of football and will return claiming they would have learn a lot more by staying at the contracted club. The tutorship option can help players mature in more than on way:

1) Players may produce similar personality traits as their mentor, becoming more loyal, professional ect.
2) Players may mimic the high mental attributes of their mental. Usually mental attributes like determination, influence, work-rate etc.
3) Players may take on preferred moves that mentors also have.

But remember, just like choosing the right loan destination, you have too choose the right tutor for youngster. Make sure the tutor is a well respected member of the first team. Ensure he himself has high mentals and a good personality. If your youngster is say 'very unloyal' and your tutor is 'very loyal', your youngster must have great deal of respect for his tutor for them to get along. The outcomes can be very beneficial.

Experience

Remember too ensure your team has a good amount 25+ players who have gained a lot of experience through the years. Look at Arsenal this year; at most they will have about 5 of these players in their team. And three at the least. Two seasons before, they did not have enough of these players. The season before that, they had too many! There is fine line. This season, Arsenal and Man Utd have set the benchmark and have just the right amount of youngster and elders in the team. Look at your team, and compare it those of Arsenal and Mau Utd; not in terms of quality but in terms of 'balance'. You need a good amount of balance.