youth academy doesn't suck

[scrim]

I've always thought the youth academy was a bit hard done by reading through this forum. Sure, you don't always get a useful player, but you can sell the free one for a decent amount, about as much as selling out your stadium 6-7 times over. Not bad considering the small cost of building a youth academy.

Anyway, I'm at level 5 now. A top 5 star 18 year old costs $7-10m and I got my two free players from my level 3 junior pitch this morning.

As usual I signed the free 2 star guy, an 18 year old striker, and he is on the market now at around $800k.

Now I seem to remember getting a 4 star guy with a special who costs 21 tokens for the other player. But this time it was a 18 year old 3 star DC/R (who will easily make 4 star before the end of the season, needs 16 more skill points), which was exactly the position I would need to get a player for at the start of next season after the retirement of one player, and a 2 star guy I have had since the start of my game who is still getting 7s and 8s every game but I'm worried wont be able to cut it as a 1 star player in level 6. This youth player only cost 12 tokens - is this normal now? I couldn't see his $ value so I wasn't really sure how good he was, but anyway I've got 40 or so tokens, so I said **** it and signed him.

Turns out he is worth $4.18m and is a fast trainer (improved 22% from a normal stretching training), so he is going to be a useful squad player for me for the next few seasons. If I had spent the tokens on a bank investment, 25 tokens would have got me $7.2m ($288k/token) or 28.8m for 85 ($339k/token), Even if I sold him straight away, this guy would net me $350/token. And if I bought a decent young squad player with that bank investment money it probably would have cost me 5-6 tokens in an auction anyway...

So, did I get lucky or is this the new norm?

[dv8r]

It does suck. We wait for a few weeks and cant even sign both. The amount you sell the free player is nothing but pocket money tbh.

[Joshiko]

i agree with you. once i thought that young academy sucks but after hearing some cases in this forum and making some calculations and comparisons on my own, now i revise my view

[Ryanch]

I think it should cost less tokens...
free player is useless

[scrim]

Err I did just sign both. And for 12 tokens I get $800k and a solid player worth $4m, which is better than you could get for 12 tokens in any other way at level 5. Or you can sit on your hands and not sign the second player and get money for nothing by selling the free player. How is that useless?

And people say it isn't realistic that you have to pay for players from your youth academy, what a load of rubbish. Do you think clubs in real life just build a facility, a kid walks in and a professional player walks out? That it didn't take millions in investment and thousands of man-hours in scouting and coaching on top of building the facility. Think of the 12 tokens as the investment, except you can choose to make it at the end rather than having to gamble up front like all clubs do.

[dv8r]

For value, signing the token player is a huge waste of tokens. Why? 4 star player for 12-24 tokens, I can buy my own 5 star fast trainers for 1-3 tokens on auctions.

Free player is useless at lower levels.

[July Fourth]

Youth academy is only useful to players who are at the top level at their servers where the transfer market has a player list of 3* players only, Other than that it's only ever any use to sign the 2* free player and sell him immediately to a manager 3 levels below you because they see the 2* youth player as a 5* player.

[scrim]

Yes, but that will set you back $7-10m in level 5. Even if you win all 3 competitions you will only get $25-30m, once you take out wages, contract extensions, construction etc you'll only have enough for 3 players. If you're getting money from bank investments (which I don't, I haven't bought any tokens or done any surveys or whatever), then from my experience this morning, signing the token player and selling him immediately gets you more money anyway.

and you regularly get 5 star 18 year olds in auctions for 1-3 tokens? You're taking the piss, right? On my server you'll be lucky if you have change from 10 tokens (I think 6 is the top level on my server, never seen a 7)

and how is money from the free player you sell useless? you didn't have to do anything...

[July Fourth]

Yes, but that will set you back $7-10m in level 5. Even if you win all 3 competitions you will only get $25-30m, once you take out wages, contract extensions, construction etc you'll only have enough for 3 players. If you're getting money from bank investments (which I don't, I haven't bought any tokens or done any surveys or whatever), then from my experience this morning, signing the token player and selling him immediately gets you more money anyway.

and you regularly get 5 star 18 year olds in auctions for 1-3 tokens? You're taking the piss, right? On my server you'll be lucky if you have change from 10 tokens (I think 6 is the top level on my server, never seen a 7)

and how is money from the free player you sell useless? you didn't have to do anything...

I can get 18 year olds for 1-3 tokens as well, as you say your the second highest level on your server, you don't have any managers 3 levels above you to sell their useless 2* youth player to you as a 5* player in your level, Thats why you can't get any 18 years for 1-3T because they are not available to you.

At lower levels of the game I signed 5* older players to keep transfer costs down.

[scrim]

hmm ok that makes some sense. But why isn't there still serious competition from other people at or around your level for these players? Going on a tangent to the youth academy thing...

Since only half the teams ever get promoted it must get to the stage when entire leagues are full of good, highly active players.

In a theoretical server of 10000 players, 5000 get promoted to level 2 in season 1, 2500 to level 3 in season 2, 1250 in season 3 etc... The number of teams at the highest level has to be halved every season, so there must be a point where even good players don't get promoted. Then as new players coming in later get promoted and join them, there should be many more teams with active players in lower tiers than in the top tiers. Or have I missed something?


And did I get lucky with a youth player worth more per token than a bank investment? Because if not and that is the norm, then signing the token player makes financial sense even if it is just to sell him off straight away. It doesn't matter what you're spending in tokens in an auction... you will run out of money to spend on new players without bank investments or player sales after buying 3 or 4 top players in a season, right? I have been limited in the transfer market this season not by a lack of tokens, but with a lack of transfer funds after splashing out on 3 top players despite only failing to make semis of CL/Cup a couple of times in my 4 1/2 seasons.