Youth academy screen shot

Now that the youth academy has been finished I thought I'd let you have a quick view of what it looks like on the site and give you the chance to ask any questions about it.

It may be tweaked slightly from this should I find anything it needs but it's unlikely.

As you can see there are 3 players currently in the academy with one having been requested and awaiting approval - this one has a cancel option should the manager change their mind about the extra player BEFORE he is approved.

For the 3 players in the academy there are options to release or promote them once they have been in there at least 10 weeks. Their current position for training can also be changed.

Finally there are options to request another player (the name isn't mandatory) and to change the amount spent every week on their training.

I hope you can see that this is a vast improvement on the current 'youth' system and that there are many advantages.

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.