Please, Marko… (Youth Academy)

Tue 10th Mar, 2026 20:02
@Kiwi - I'm not 100% sure right now, but I think the "late" development stage starts at 21-23 y.o. and ends at 24-26. There are 3 starting possibilities for all 3 types - early, normal, late. Other two, (early and normal) start earlier and ofc, end earlier. Second development stage always last for 3 seasons. When it ends, if the player trained regularly or mostly regularly (without skipping too many trainings), he should reach let's say about 75-90% of his potential. So if his rating is 30 (for example) at the end of 2nd dev. stage, he will probably reach 32-36 until age of 30. *Just guessing, don't stick hard to every digit :)

Tue 10th Mar, 2026 20:14
I agree that, in the long run, the best players will come from the academy. My concern is that if things continue like this, the average quality of players in the game may end up decreasing over time.

For example, if a player joins at 15 years old with a rating of 6, it will take a long time for him to reach something like a 25–30 rating. By then, most of the players from the initial squads in the game will likely have already retired.

My suggestion would simply be to slightly adjust the academy system by increasing the probability of getting players with a higher starting rating (not necessarily in every scouting round) as the academy level increases. Another option would be to reduce the academy maintenance cost while keeping the current system as it is.

Wed 11th Mar, 2026 00:30

I'm in agreeance to this though in my mind I would think
an Academy of say 5 could get an average type player
I have Academy L 5 and have one above Avg player 3 others at below average players
Yet to confirm there true pot as I scout players I need (T/L lists youths)

So with my info and academy level vs training grounds Vs Finances = I'm slightly losing Money , how ever pending my finish position this levels out that lost to a positive amount.

So (back on topic) the players I have and in my mind.
I think will get to what Marko has mentioned in his post 30-60 rating for those youths once they peak or have peaked with my current setup.

I'm enjoying this game and its challenge.

Fri 13th Mar, 2026 17:39
how often does the academy have correct in there guess on the potenial on players? and also the scouts kind of sucks when you never can have 100 % scouts imo

Sun 15th Mar, 2026 14:01
I understand that the game offers various types of strategies, the problem is when the rules, or rather, the parameters, are not clear. This makes it really difficult to establish a strategy that makes sense, and it was only possible to discover in practice that investing in youth academies makes no sense at all for the current parameters, which are still unclear, but in practice prove to be a terrible investment, since the players found have no different potential than those found by low-level youth academies.

I believe that something should be changed, either the game manual, to make clear what parameters are adopted in relation to the growth of the youth academy, or to have a real difference between the youth academies, because today, the players recruited are mostly of low potential, that is, they are not even good enough to compose a squad.

PS: If the choice is indeed to change the manual, it is a great pity and loss for those who started the game hoping that investing in infrastructure could be beneficial in some part of the game, even in the long term.

Mon 16th Mar, 2026 15:22
I was so stupid to think that investment in the club ( youth and trænings Ground ) would help me grow.
Now I have sold almost all good players, so I wont go bankrupt Very soon… I was to offensive..

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Tossefinn

Mon 16th Mar, 2026 20:11
So far, these have been my youth intakes at academy level 7:

Rat 7 = Below Average
Rat 12 = Above Average
Rat 4 = Very Poor
Rat 6 = Very Poor
Rat 8 = Below Average
Rat 6 = Poor
Rat 12 = Above Average
Rat 3 = Very Poor

Totally discouraging...😒

Mon 16th Mar, 2026 22:31

Hard to say at the moment but as it is , yes we're all in the same boat with Quilty.
Your Oa avg is 7.25
My OA avg was 8.85 L5 Academy,
I started them with lowest OA (When I called them into squad to get my Avg)
7 players with reasonable scouting* (not completed however* 4 scouts )

Thu 19th Mar, 2026 09:46
I wanna offer my 2 cents on the topic, given that I am applying different strategies with my teams. The best youth pulls (starting rating/potential) came from my Brazilian team, at lower academy levels. I didn't have money for big free agent signigs and sponsor income in 2nd or 3rd level of competiton, along with league awards was just enough to finance level 5 academy and level 4 TC. I dont even have money atm to expand stadium even tho I can fill 5k more spectators easily. I am barely above negative balance.

On the other hand, with my team in UAE, I spent 60+ millions on new players, had nice starting team too, and I am in 1/2 final of Champions league. I stopped at level 5 youth academy, level 4 training center. The biggest diference is the sponsorship income as I can finance everything with ease at level 5-6. I don't plan to go above that as I don't see the benefit with my current team. I gain less fans per win as most of the teams in the league are bots, compared to Brasil. I will rince and repeat and collect as many trophies/wins/spectators as I can. God knows what will happen in 3-5 seasons but I don't think that waiting for a lottery miracle is the proper way to play at this stage, it is just too slow and you will fall behind.

Thu 19th Mar, 2026 09:54
In short, I would rather gamble on the random match engine( by stacking as much 30+ rating players as possible), than burning 4m a week (30+m a season) on a random lottery ticket. I just don't like the odds to go all in with that strategy