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Football Manager 2011 Guide — How to develop youth and turn prospects into stars

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This section gave me a real headache, how to demonstrate the results of using all the tips on page 1, I decided to select two players from my Newcastle side and explain what I did with them year by year and how they progressed. Hopefully this will help with understanding the importance of using every tip on page 1 as opposed to picking two or three and forgetting the rest.

Yaya Sanogo‘s development

Probably my most successful signing ever on FM and this wasn’t just down to the forwards PA and CA. I had to do a lot of work on this kid and nurtured him into a legend at Saint James Park. Lets look at Sanogo‘s development year by year.

2012/13 — Signed at the age of 20 for £14 million. Sanogo had great physical attributes and looked like a deadly finisher. I brought him in and stuck the Frenchman into my ‘striker’ schedule, I was worried about his dribbling which at the time was just 11. Therefore I set his individual training to ‘dribbling’ in the hope he would improve that area specifically. Due to him joining in January, I could only offer 10 games and while the Frenchman did OK scoring an average of a goal every three games, he didn’t look dangerous. Below is what Sanogo looked like after joining Newcastle in 2012.

2013/14 — I was starting to see some results from Sanogo‘s individual training, but not just in the specific area of dribbling. As a result of improving in this area he started getting easier chances in front of goal and converted many more shots, meaning his finishing went up alongside other attributes. Sanogo converted 27 goals from 24 starts and this season was a real turning point.

2014-2020 — After Sanogo‘s first two seasons he had improved dramatically and in his third started ghosting past defenders and looked unstoppable. He was now 22 and playing a minimum of 30 games per season, also scoring more than a goal per game. We never looked back from here and Sanogo had secured a place in starting XI alongside the hearts of the Toon Army. Below is how Sanogo looked just before leaving the club. His dribbling attributes had jumped from 10 to 15 and I think training him in this area was what made Sanogo so dangerous. I offloaded him to Inter for £56 million in 2020.

The sacrifices I made for SanogoObviously Sanogo didn’t just walk into Saint James Park as our new number nine, I already had three quality strikers. To aid Sanogo‘s development I sold Araujo and decided to move the Frenchman up the pecking order one place. This allowed me to offer more game time and in the end I also sacrificed Paloschi.

Marcelo Santos’ development

The best regen I have ever developed on Football Manager is Marcelo Santos. The Spanish striker looked like he had superstar potential from day one, but there were a few concerns and I also knew game time could make him a world class player as opposed to just great. Lets see what measures I took to develop this kid.

2014/15 — Signed from Argentinos of Argentina, Santos joined for £2.3 million which was his release clause. At the age of 17, Marcelo looked great but not quite ready for first team football. His mental attributes left much to be desired and this could only improve on the pitch. I was also concerned by his pace and acceleration, so trained him individually on ‘quickness’. I gave Santos around 18 games in his first season and he scored an average of goal in every three games. Not great but I needed him on the pitch to develop his mental attributes.

2015 to 2018 — Still training Santos in the usual schedule with individual training set to ‘quickness’ he was improving fast. For the next few seasons I offered Santos more than 15 games a year but he didn’t do so well. It wasn’t until 2018 that his quickness really improved and his mental attributes shot up alongside the better performances. It was at this time I decided to take him off individual training to focus on his all round game. The screenshot below shows Santos after scoring 30 plus goals in 2018/19.

2018 to 2021 — Santos never looked back from that moment and kept improving as he got more and more game time. Every season he looks deadlier and the screenshot below shows him in 2021, probably the best player in the world I reckon…certainly the most expensive anyway. I have noticed that all my players make improvements as a result of game time…but it isn’t until they play consistently that they start to look world class. Santos played more than 15 games a season from the age of 17 to 22, then he stepped it up to more than 30 after turning 23 and that was when he became the best around.

Sacrifices made for Santos — When Santos first joined I had to rotate him with Sanogo as the backup striker to Paloschi. Maybe Sanogo could have grown faster with more game time, but this all ended with the sale of my then best player Paloschi in 2016. This opened the door for me to use Santos more and was the only reason for selling my best striker. I actually signed a young striker called Fernando with the potential to be similar to Santos. But after three seasons aged 21 I had to sell him. With Sanogo and Santos to nurture further, I couldn’t carry the other youngster and was forced to choose between them. My biggest sacrifice of all came when more youth was been raised and needed game time along with new signing Adams, I had to choose between Sanogo and Santos for who to sell and the legend Sanogo left Saint James Park so Santos could claim his place as our best striker and number 9.

Conclusion

What I have tried to demonstrate on page 2 is that it wasn’t all roses and happy times at Saint James Park, I made some big calls and had to let my best players go in order to raise my youth. If you have three great strikers and one young prospect but only one place up for grabs in your team, what would you do? If the answer is sell one or two of your quality strikers and give the prospect more chance to play then well done, if your answer was leave the prospect in the reserves then you’ll never raise prospects into superstars. You have to make big sacrifices and take risks, but it does pay off. I want to leave you with one last thought, only try raising the players that can be World Class. If you try and raise every single player to be the best they can be it won’t work as not everyone can get game time. You need to single out which players can be the best around and concentrate on them, also try and realise when you’ve made a mistake. If a young prospect isn’t improving at all then it may be time to let go and move on.

Well that’s about it for today, well done to anyone who read the full post and thanks for dropping by. I welcome any questions and comments as always and please vote for who I’ll manage next :)

Darren Smith: "Which team should I be managing next in FM 2011?"

  • Brighton (L1) (45%, 112 Votes)
  • Stoke (EPL) (21%, 52 Votes)
  • Leicester (CH) (17%, 42 Votes)
  • Reading (CH) (17%, 42 Votes)

Total Voters: 248

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68 комментариев

68 Comments

  1. Jack

    19 августа, 2011 at 13:52

    Awesome guide Darren, I will certainly be applying your principles when I finally get a computer that doesn’t crash when playing FM :p

  2. Mark

    19 августа, 2011 at 14:08

    Excellent guide. Well written and great examples. Gives me hope for the Ajax save I just started.

    • Darren Smith

      19 августа, 2011 at 18:25

      Good to hear Mark, I think if you know where to find the amazing 16 year olds and how to raise them you can run a club off peanuts :)

  3. Nicholas Phipps

    19 августа, 2011 at 14:55

    Nic guide and very interesting. Thanks for the training schedules btw and I’ll be using them :)

  4. Michael Grantham

    19 августа, 2011 at 15:06

    Hi Darren,

    Great guide and i think its really interesting to see how two of your best players have developed. The improvement in Santos’ mental attributes really is outstanding and i think you have proved hundreds of times that these principles work really well. I think you make a really good point about only trying to raise players who have the potential to be world class, and i think concentrating on those wonderkids in particular is the key to making them into surperstars!
    Finally, really sad to see your newcastle story come to its conclusion as it was one of my favourite stories ive ever read but i think you have picked a good time to start a new one and i cannot wait to read it!

    • Darren Smith

      19 августа, 2011 at 18:23

      Thanks mate, I wanted to talk about Santos because you can see his potential from the first screenshot but I’m sure many of us fail to get those amazing regens to their full capacity. Santos’ mental attributes would never have grown so fast without first team football and that is the underlining key for me. I am sad to see the end of my Toon story too, but lets hope for a great one in the future.

      • aaron

        24 августа, 2011 at 17:53

        i have 2 computers i do research on 1 play on the other so how do i look at your tactics

        • Darren Smith

          24 августа, 2011 at 18:50

          I would download the tactic on one computer and save it to a memory stick then transfer it into the correct FM file on your other computer.

  5. Johnny Karp

    19 августа, 2011 at 16:36

    I like how you put this together Darren, especially the second part where you show exactly how you did it at Newcastle. I have to admit that I might have been reluctant to sell Paloschi or Sanogo but such decisions were crucial for your ultimate goal of becoming the richest club in the world.

    • Darren Smith

      19 августа, 2011 at 18:20

      Thanks Johnny, there are so many guides on this subject that read the same so I wanted to make this different and more about my personal experience. I agree about Sanogo and Paloschi, any other save would have seen me keep them but as you mentioned my bank balance goal took over. In fact if it weren’t for that goal I would have never realised that no player is indispensable.

  6. Brennan

    19 августа, 2011 at 17:49

    thank you Darren it was worth reading every word, i hope i can raise some superstars myself, will see how it goes :D

  7. Kevin

    19 августа, 2011 at 21:52

    Darren — flipping brilliant!!!!!!!!!

    Now there’s a word (flipping) I haven’t used in years :) Now in my Cambridge game the board refuse to upgrade the facilities…jerks!

    • Darren Smith

      19 августа, 2011 at 22:24

      ;) Thanks Kevin, I use that work now and then but tend to receive a lot of banter in turn :)

      I didn’t start to upgrade my facilities with Newcastle until 2015 after we’d already won three EPL titles. I honestly don’t think you can develop world class youth until you are in Europe. What I did is do anything and everything (including going into debt) to gain European qualification and a title challenging side. Then when the squad was solid I brought in potentially brilliant players and did as you see within the guide….but I didn’t follow my own rules until the squad was good enough to sustain ourselves with the big boys. At the end of the day unless you’re one of the best teams, you may struggle to get the superstar potential players. However you can apply this guide to players who could become ‘good in the EPL’ etc.

      • Kevin

        20 августа, 2011 at 10:03

        Thank Darren!!!
        I wasn’t expecting a detailed reply — appreciate you taking the time to share some further insight into your game.
        Cheers!

  8. Adam D

    20 августа, 2011 at 01:19

    Hi,
    Loved the Newcastle story, got a couple of question related to youth developement.

    1 — There’s no mention of older player mentoring young ones. I’ve heard some people saying it’s essential, others saying not that important, what’s you opinion? (going by the lack of mention in this article I’m guessing the latter)

    2 — (this one really only applies to UK clubs) Some countries, for example Brazil, have rules in place that under-18s can’t sign for clubs outside the country. If a scout uncovers a good player who is very young (like 14,15 or 16 years old) then chances are they wont get a work permit. Would you suggest:
    — making the deal straight away to sign them when they turn 18 and then loaning them out to a work permit feeder club (where the training may not be as good) when they finally arrive.
    — Or waiting till their closer to 18, where you get a bit more time to watch them, might be more likely to get a work permit (so they can stay at your good training facilites and get regular games against good opposition), but have a high chance of another club spotting them and getting their signature first. (Not sure, but in the past it has appeared to me like Spanish and Portugese clubs can ignore the «no transfer till 18 rule when it comes to South American players)
    — Or something else?

    • Darren Smith

      20 августа, 2011 at 09:16

      I’ll try and answer your questions in order mate.

      1 — Tutoring does help but mainly for a player to learn a peers style as opposed to raise attributes, but you can control how he develops his style of play anyway. I personally just listen to my assistant in the backroom meetings but don’t touch tutoring unless its recommended. If you pair the wrong players up the kid could reject the opportunity and offend the older star.

      2 — To be honest I have never had the opportunity to sign a player without the ability to play him. What usually happens is when they’re 15-16, the deal won’t officially go through until they reach a certain age, meaning they stay with their club and join yours when they turn 18 etc. This is the best way around it as most Brazilian clubs do well in raising youth anyway and that way you can get the player at a knocked down price and avoid him being poached by other clubs.

      • Nathan

        26 августа, 2011 at 19:22

        I found that tutoring one of my young players increased his determination a lot (well it jumped by about 2). If it works it could help quite a bit.

        • Darren Smith

          26 августа, 2011 at 20:53

          It is certainly a good tool but I haven’t mentioned it specifically as I find it more personal choice due to varying results.

  9. CsAtlantis

    20 августа, 2011 at 06:18

    Tutoring should get a mention, it’s a good way to try to pass on special moves to the younger generation, should work fine as long as the tutor and the youngster play in the same role

    I think it would be easier to get to grips with youth development by starting at a club which has better youth facilities at the start, there are plenty around, even clubs in League 2 like Crewe have great youth facilities

    Santos development as been nothing short of epic, what a player he ended up as, a true complete forward in every sense (eh, his tackling is 7, but i don’t think a striker schedule would have much defending training……..)

    • Darren Smith

      20 августа, 2011 at 09:09

      Yeah tutoring could have been mentioned but to be honest, I have never used this as a method of aiding youngsters development. I do now and then when its recommended by the assistant but don’t go searching for connections. It would be easier starting at a club with good facilities but to be honest I don’t think a youngster can start really developing until they’re in full time training and playing matches. Luckily that starts at 17 so you shouldn’t lose more than 1-2 years there.

  10. George Dobson

    20 августа, 2011 at 11:06

    great post Darren it definatly helps me.Santos devolpment has been incredible and its also taught me that you have to make sacrifices in order to make your youngersters the best they can be. I will use eveything in the post.

  11. Rob

    20 августа, 2011 at 19:45

    fantastic post yet again Darren, looking forward to using this is my game. With the training schedules would you put a very defensive Def Mid and a very attacking Att Mid both in the Cent Mid training category? thanks a lot
    Rob.

    • Darren Smith

      20 августа, 2011 at 22:04

      Thanks Rob, I hope this will help. I generally put all midfielders into the cent mid schedule whether they are DMC CM or AMC. There may be a better way around this but that’s the way I went with NUFC.

  12. tom

    22 августа, 2011 at 08:12

    I was just imagining a strike force of your Paloschi and Sanogo…then i saw Santos…Wow!!!

    Thanks for including Sanogo…his improvements are awesome…and so quick! He starts the game with very modest stats…but with potential…but the speed at which he improves is amasing!

    Fanatstic read…and I eagerly anticipate your next story…quick question…will you be implementing your youth to gold policy? Or with FM12 on the horizon is it win at any cost? It’ll be interesting to see.

    Keep up the good work!

    • Darren Smith

      22 августа, 2011 at 12:51

      Thanks Tom, I’m glad you liked it and I agree, Sanogo, Paloschi and Santos is a mouth watering prospect…probably the best strike force I’ve ever managed. As for the new game it will be win at all costs without been daft. I don’t want to drag my team into debt but if I feel we can recuperate the cash because of a certain players ability then I’ll be spending as much as is allowed.

  13. Laxeyman

    22 августа, 2011 at 11:16

    Good guide Darren, very interesting, and the way you develop youngsters is amazing, Santos and Sanogo improved no end under your tutelage. I need to get my board to upgrade my youth facilities, and after seeing this I’m gonna try straight away :)

    • Darren Smith

      22 августа, 2011 at 12:51

      Thanks mate, I hope this applies well to your game and you can get some use out of it.

  14. darren

    23 августа, 2011 at 13:28

    Hiya Johnny, i cant figure this out and i was hoping you could help me? how do you set individual workloads for youth players? or for just youth players in general?

    cheers, Darren

    • Johnny Karp

      23 августа, 2011 at 13:34

      Go to your youth team > training > schedules and edit the work load for the schedules that you want (assuming that you have assigned your players to those schedules before that).

  15. Sibo

    25 августа, 2011 at 06:00

    Firstly, since I forgot to comment (I think), this is a brilliant post and I will find it really helpful for raising Sunderland’s youth prospects! :P

    A question, if I may, I currently have Danny Welbeck on loan. He is a natural striker but I am going to play him as an AML with the inside forward role, should I put him on the forwards or wingers schedule?

    Also, he has got 9 for passing and crossing, which of those would you say is more important to focus on with individual training? (In case you need to know, I will play Gyan upfornt and he is equally good with his head and his feet.)

    Thanks Darren! :D

    • Darren Smith

      25 августа, 2011 at 12:00

      Hmmm, that is a difficult one. but my thought process is Welbeck is a natural striker and therefore should be able to improve his finishing faster than passing…so doing the individual training on his finishing would probably have more benefit. I reckon his finishing will be more important in the role you are using as well.

  16. Nathan

    26 августа, 2011 at 19:20

    Nice guide, nice to see how your players developed. I’m playing a Liverpool game, bought a gk off Genk for next to nothing and gave him a few games, he played amazingly so I sold Reina for 30 mill after 1 season :) Hope I won’t regret that.

    Also noticed Robinson and Suso’s potential ability going up with game time (and playing well, including Suso scoring a screamer vs Man U at 17 yrs old). Hope to see them develop well. Oh yeah, I bought Sanogo so I have a bit of a conundrum: who do I develop more out of Sanogo and Lukaku? Quite amazed that his speed increased so much in your game, hope that happens to Lukaku in mine, as he is deadly. Sanogo is more of a Y2G prospect as I got him for less than 10 million.

    Interested by the workload of your training schedule, as I got some from this website with a lower workload… I’ll try these out and hope my players don’t get overloaded. I increased the aerobic and strength training of my schedules over the preseason and was pleasantly surprised by the result, so it’s something i’ll probably do a lot.

    • Darren Smith

      26 августа, 2011 at 20:55

      Thanks mate, glad you like the guide. You have some excellent players there and my recommendation is to try and raise both Sanogo and Lukaku. You could rotate them in the cup competitions and see who develops best. With regards to the workload, it can cause problems among 5% of the players but just adjust them to training with less workload and you’re sorted.

      • Nathan

        27 августа, 2011 at 01:27

        sorry Suarez, you’re gonna have to go… pity though I like him.

        Is it normal that all the best Spanish prospects come from Real Madrid? I manually searched for regens in Spain and the only 4-star potentials with high determination are in Real Madrid… the only club no one wants to leave :( (not even Barca’s famed La Masia produced anything good). Guess I’ll wait and see what Brazil has to offer in January… Also got Thiago and Santon on free transfers, that’ll prob be at least 50 million profit when I sell.

        • Darren Smith

          27 августа, 2011 at 12:24

          I too found most of the Spanish talent came from Real but keep your eyes peeled as Rayo and Barcelona can provide some quality also. Brazil and Argentina are by far the best for producing young talent on the regeneration day, I usually get at least two regens a season from those two countries.

  17. Carl

    31 августа, 2011 at 22:54

    An excellent guide Darren. I have also read your financil guides which were detailed and easy to follow and I would really recommend them to everyone.

    I want to try and apply this on my game but my main problem is selling players at a good price in order to create room for the younger world class prosepct. For example I have a younger player who is a 4* propsect at Chelsea but I need to get rid of either John Terry, Alex or Ivanovic to make room. How would you do it?

    I believe this is a vital part of your philosophy because if you need to provide game time for a youth prospect (sonogo, santos) and sell a world class player (paloschi), then you need to make profits on your purchases to gradualy increase your bank balance. You can then sign young world class prospects cheaply and the cycle continues.

    Also, how did you manage to sell Sonogo for almost 60 million?

    • Darren Smith

      1 сентября, 2011 at 18:31

      Thanks Carl, selling players is very simple but you must play them regularly. Without first team football no one will be interested and their potential sale value will decrease drastically. So when you have played these guys I suggest offering one out to all clubs at more than double his value. Only do this near the start of the transfer window though as this is when clubs have the most money.

      Getting this down to tee and selling players at the right time is tough but will make you rich.

      I got £60 mill for Sanogo because I played him all the time and his value eventually rose to £29 million…I then offered him to clubs for £70 million and despite a few crap offers Inter came in with £60mill. That was that. :)

  18. L

    2 сентября, 2011 at 10:48

    That’s a nice guide, Darren, will be using your training schedules to try to train the youngsters. I’m currently playing Legia in Poland League, been winning the league and consistent qualification for champions league for 6 seasons, the training and youth facilities are the best now, but the youth recruitment ( currently «above average» ) option in the boardroom request is still grayed out. How do you get to improve the youth recruitment network? Thanks.

    • Darren Smith

      2 сентября, 2011 at 11:50

      Thanks mate, as for the youth recruitment you just have to wait for the board to open that option in the boardroom. Other than that you could try getting some good youth coaches, signing the best scouts with knowledge all over the world and making links with clubs in foreign countries. All of this would widen your scope.

      • L

        2 сентября, 2011 at 13:09

        Been doing as what you’ve suggested, Darren, my scouts are roaming around different regions, and always seem to be the first to find some talented youngsters, for eg. currently, been buying many talented goalkeepers from africa, now many want first team football .

        Also, my club is currently renting the stadium at 150k/year since I first started the game, is it recomended to buy the current stadium or build a new stadium? Thanks :) .

        • Darren Smith

          2 сентября, 2011 at 18:39

          Good to hear all is going well mate. As for the stadium I am not sure which would be best…I guess it depends on your finances as a new stadium would cost more than buying the current one. If the finances are healthy and your stadium has a capacity of less than 35,000 I’d suggest building a new one.

  19. Nicholas Phipps

    24 сентября, 2011 at 06:33

    Just a quick question, which schedules do you put your defensive midfielders on? I’m never quite sure whether to put them on the DC or the CM one and I was just wondering what you did

    • Darren Smith

      24 сентября, 2011 at 07:55

      Hey Nick, I always put DMC’s in the CM schedule. Mainly because a DMC will have the attributes required defensively and adequate training for them within the CM schedule, but its vital to ensure they get the right amount of technique and passing etc. There’s no point in having a great DMC that wins every challenge but can’t then pick out a pass :)

      • Nicholas Phipps

        24 сентября, 2011 at 10:05

        Ok Thanks :)

  20. Josh-Legg

    27 сентября, 2011 at 18:30

    Hey, absolutely brilliant read, i previewed your financial control post and im hoping it will teach me a thing or two,as my financial control is abismal…..

    Anyway, I have just started a game in the french league as Stade Rennais FC…may have heard of them before, and i guess its kind of cheating, but they have state of the art youth facilities and every facility you can think of :D …. so i am hoping with the help of your guide, and a little bit of my own intuition…i can break the top 4 in the french league and become world beaters :D….thanks again mate!

    • Darren Smith

      27 сентября, 2011 at 18:38

      Thanks Josh, I hope the guide does help a lot. As for my finance guide, its giving tips while I analyse my finances with Newcastle and as I write I explain where and how I can make drastic improvements. If you can relate that back to your own team it should work wonders.

  21. Josh-Legg

    27 сентября, 2011 at 18:47

    Yeah :) my wage budget atm is just over 200k which obv isnt too bad….but this sid eis fullof amazing young talents,just got to find the superstars….

    Already upset my best centre back :( although tried your trick when he requested a transfer and offered to clubs for double the price….valued at £2m….so i offered to clubs for 8m….and hey presto £7,25m to napoli….should tie me over :p also my fabulous scouts have spotted a strong african 18yr old to replace him so fingers crossed…anyway enough blabbering thanks again bud

  22. joycey360

    26 октября, 2011 at 13:06

    awesome guide! just a heads up even if you knew already Arsenal, (obviously) Watford (I know, you must be thinking wtf?) and Ajax have the most promising youth prospects in my opinion. Planning for some steals when Watford’s guys turn 19! Hopefully by then my little Burton Albion team will have gone up a few leagues and they might actually want to come!

    You can check out my story at: http://burtonalbionfootballmanager.blogspot.com/

    Thanks :)

    • Darren Smith

      26 октября, 2011 at 18:27

      Thanks mate, all those clubs do have a decent setup and some very nice talent for sure.

  23. Louis

    27 октября, 2011 at 09:35

    Darren, i’ve always been a sceptic of this Steam malarky. Now, i have new FM12 and have played it few times (I’m Arsenal, and I’m slightly miffed that I’m not struggling!!). Anyway, i can’t play the game as Steam says it is unavailable! It is doing my head in. I only played it yesterday! Steam is working and connected to the net, yet FM wont start! HELP!!!!!!

  24. Louis

    27 октября, 2011 at 09:42

    Also, when is regen day? and how do i easily search for these??

    • Darren Smith

      27 октября, 2011 at 11:58

      OK mate, well I’d suggest you’re trying to play the game using your Internet connection so go into Steam, click the word ‘steam’ in the top left hand side corner and then click ‘go offline’. Now try loading the game again and let me know what happens. As for the regens they shouldn’t be much different form FM11 so check this post https://www.footballmanagerstory.com/2011/05/football-manager-how-to-find-the-best-regens/ Until I’ve done testing I can’t make a post for this info in FM12. Hope this all helps mate.

  25. Barry

    6 февраля, 2012 at 20:53

    Hi Darren, thanks for the guide, I was just wondering if when you say give them 15 games per season you mean 15 starts or will 15 sub appearances suffice?

    • Darren Smith

      6 февраля, 2012 at 21:02

      No it needs to be 15 starts, using them in the easier cup competitions is best as getting them in a match where they can perform well will boost their development too as opposed to playing them in games where they are out of their depth.

  26. Daniel

    24 февраля, 2012 at 22:12

    Hi Darren, I played Luuk de Jong as the lone striker in a 4-3-3 last season after acquiring him on a free at the end of 2011/2012. I am Tottenham and I tend to play with Modric, Bale, Lennon and Van der Vaart/Eriksen so I could probably play Torres up there and still win the league, which I did anyway in 2012/2013. He scored 14 goals in 28 premier league starts and 1 substitute appearance adding 3 CL goals in 8 starts(and 3 subs). Although these numbers are good, I can’t help but feel the rest of the Tottenham team played a part in this, and I was wondering if I should splash out on a new striker, (I will probably bring enough money in after winning the prem) which will probably mean I’ll be serious Champions League contenders, because De Jong hasn’t advanced greatly in his attributes. He is almost 23, do I stick with him?! His potential is there, but is it too late to reach it?! When I did play Adebayor (I loaned him again in 12/13) he was amazing, (16 goals in 16 starts in all comps) but I was reluctant to play him because I wanted to develop De jong. Thanks in advance!

    • Darren Smith

      25 февраля, 2012 at 12:35

      I’d suggest going on for a true wonderkid like Fierro to be honest, and maybe rotate him with De Jong.

  27. Mohammad Sadek

    3 марта, 2012 at 17:11

    I think you can only play them in the reserves .

  28. billy

    13 июня, 2012 at 00:25

    hey darren nice article, which should i use your training schedules here or Maestro Ugo’s Training Schedules

  29. lotanna

    31 июля, 2012 at 16:06

    have erick, fierro, kadlec…..but my fierro hasn’t had much playing time over the years..now hes 20 with finishing of 13…and myy youngsters have caught up….is there any hope for him yet???

  30. Rohan

    15 сентября, 2012 at 06:45

    After Reading Page 2 of this Excellent Post on Youth Devlopment, I Really would like to Read your Newcastle Story from FM 2011 if you can provide me the Link.
    After Reading the Scarborough/Charlton Story again while you were on ur Break, I would be very much interested in the Newcastle Story as well…..
    Thanks

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