I'll have my training hall tomorrow and a new bunch of coaches

So all left unbought is the youth academy - how worthwhile is that as you get 2 guys a week to choose from anyway ??

Thanks

Most people seem to advocate avoiding the youth academy like the plague, and if you are still in your first year you might want to hold on building one for a while as the fully upgraded one costs $1.4 million plus 20K a week to maintain, but...

You do get better quality players, not in terms of talent, but in terms of physical skill (you get to see their physical stats and agilty first, before you choose), and their age (when selecting from 4 players there's almost always one or two who are 16). Also, their other skills are around 4-6 rather than 2-4, so they are more rounded as players to begin with.

Basically, they get a head-start in their skills, especially their physicals, and are on average a year younger.

All this means that when you train them, they get to a stage where they are competitive about 2 seasons earlier than other players, which is quite a big deal when you consider that top players generally only have about 6 good seasons in them.

So, yes, IMHO the youth academy is a serious option for a financially secure, slow-building team.

It is a big investment though, and the returns are not that tangiable. You have to realise that it will probably not pay for itself for 10 seasons, by which time you'll be 3 years older, maybe with a different job, a wife, children... or the game might not be here any more, the world might have ended, etc etc.

Yes, there is no doubt that it is the last thing to build, if at all.

And if you use it well, you might not only get the odd star player to keep but make a killing by selling a lot of very good players on the transfer market also.

My thinking now is that if I have the cash to buy it and/or upgrade it, and nothing better to spend that money on (a player in the transfer market), then I do it.

I like the idea of getting some great players from it. Most players on the transfer market are there for a reason - they're not really all that good. And the good ones cost a fortune!