In Football Manager, most players love signing wonderkids and seeing them go from young hopefuls to world stars who win the biggest trophies and individual titles.
For me, though, there is an extra joy in seeing homegrown players become superstars. Whether it is young players from the club’s academy or players you have signed at 18 and nurtured into stars, it makes no difference.
Homegrown players are vital to meet squad quotas
As we all know, homegrown players are vital to meeting squad-quota requirements in both domestic and European competitions. Without them, your squad looks rather thin on the ground.
This can be a big issue on FM26, as there seems to be a ridiculous number of injuries. So, that squad can start looking very thin if you don’t have enough players to meet the criteria.
In my early seasons playing the game, I sometimes use young players from the U-21 and U-18 squads. However, they don’t tend to be the best youngsters the club has to offer, as I already tend to have loaned out the best young players to help them gain experience.
Therefore, having homegrown players can be the difference between success and failure. Having homegrown players in the nation you are managing is good, but having players considered homegrown to the club is even better.
As we all know, each squad needs to have at least four players trained at the club and, overall, eight trained in the nation where you are managing.
I stockpile young players
As a manager, I tend to stockpile young players and use the loan system to help develop them. Many young players have release clauses, which are nowhere near their true value or their potential value in the future.
That gives any club with any budget the opportunity to nip in and sign these youngsters. This is how I build a successful team if they develop and become superstars, then great.
Once they are ready to be regulars in my first team, I play them in cup games, some league games, or regularly use them as substitutes. They gradually build up experience, and their stats grow.
Most experienced FM players will know when their young players are ready to be blooded in the first team.
However, if they have not developed as we had expected or lived up to their potential, they will be sold. This shouldn’t be difficult to do, as if the player was bought for a low fee due to a release clause, you tend to get your money back, or even make a profit.
It is very rare that I sign a young player and they leave at a loss. However, these things happen in football sometimes. If it happens often, though, you may need to rethink your recruitment strategy.
The right time to move players on
In recent saves, I have very rarely bought superstar players. I buy the odd top player to plug a gap in my team, where I don’t have a young player to fill it.
However, mostly my team is filled with bargain players who joined in their teens and then blossomed into highly promising players in their early 20s.
This approach can be highly successful, as you can bring these players into your team at low fees and then sell their predecessors for high fees, meaning you have kept the team’s quality while also maintaining your club’s finances.
One crucial aspect of this approach is knowing when to sell the player. My rule of thumb is that I wait until a player is 22, and if he is not good enough, I sell them.
This has backfired on several occasions, where a player with decent stats at 22 has moved on and by the time they are 25 their stats have unexpectedly shot up. That’s rare, but it happens all you can say is fair play for
I do tend to give my homegrown or English players more time to prove themselves. This has nothing to do with patriotism or favouring English players.
It is more practical. As previously mentioned, it is about meeting the quotas for homegrown players. However, I can’t say it doesn’t give me more satisfaction to see an academy player turn into a star than to see a player I bought at 18 or 19.
As we all know, developing wonderkids is one of the most important parts of FM26. If you get it right, it can be the key to establishing a footballing empire and make the game far more enjoyable.
What is your approach to developing young players on FM26? Let us know via our socials
