As I see it, and I have pointed out before, and naively hoped this tweak would open...
with a few modifications the Academy could be awesome IMO.
- lower youngster age to range 16-19
- change quality range to 3-5 star
- make price for promoting to first team max 10 token for a 5 star
- make a list to select between and or dump from academy
- try out talents in few games before promoting them