Wednesday 13 January 2010

Youth academy

I haven't given an update for a while so I figured it was about time I gave one. I haven't actually done much on the game behind the scenes for a few months due to other things taking priority however, this week, I have started to get back onto it.

I am currently working on the new youth academy idea that I want to bring into the game. Instead of having one list of players per country that managers sign one from every 10 weeks or so I am wanting to give clubs their own academy with up to 6 players in it.

How I see it working is that all teams start with an academy of 0 players. Players are added to the academy by making a request - this request can even include a player name although they will be rejected if silly or unrealistic. Once a request has been made it will then be up to me to manage these but when I accept or reject them (only if a suggested name is bad) the manager will be notified and the player will join the academy. Up until this point, the request can be cancelled by the manager.

Once in the academy a manager can pay a weekly fee of between £200 and £20,000 per player towards their training. The more paid, the better the players will become, although not all will become superstars. It is therefore up to each manager to work out how many players they want and how much to pay. Anything between 1 player at £200 per week up to 6 players at £120,000 per week. The financial status of your team will also dictate what you can do and the value will automatically be lowered if finances can't afford the current level.

The players will be 16 or 17 when they originally sign and can stay in the academy until they turn 20 at which point they will automatically leave. Players can be promoted to the first team squad any time once they have been in the academy for at least 10 weeks - this may increase in the future but I'll match the current situation to begin with.

While in the academy players can be trained to play in certain positions - this position can be changed whenever a manager wants until they player is promoted when a final position must be selected. Each week the player will be trained according to their selected position.

Players can also be kicked out of the academy as and when a manager requires to either save money or because they aren't improving as the manager hopes.

I think this covers it all but feel free to fire any questions at me.