Yeah, a lot of problems with the Academy. A few tweaks that wouldn't require much changes could make it more useful...

-18 year old Academy players wouldn't count for the 22 man squad. If you have 2 matches per day you kinda need the full 22 squad, which makes signing Academy players impossible without selling a player you are assumably happy with. Which leads to the second point...

-You should be able to play them before signing them. Currently we know more about players on the transfer market than about our own Academy players, which is silly. At the end of the season you'd have to sign them or they leave. This would solve potential problems with my first suggestion where you might start a season with 26 signed players (but only have room for 22.) As it is right now the Academy players are more like mystery boxes you take a chance on if you have extra tokens laying around.


I currently have 4 Academy players and do get an extra kick out of them playing well. Then again I'm 11th in the league and out of the CL and the Cup so it's not very often.