How many youngsters ?

I'm trying to get my start-up squad heading in the right direction.
After thinning the squad out I now have a complement of 9 players of age 18 & 19 year olds.Their CRSs are 8k,8k,10k,10k,13k,13k,17k (ex-academy), 19k (bought &) 21k (bought).
I am also considering promoting a couple of academy players on their 17th birthday.

Bearing in mind that I have just gone to Level 2 facilities , I have 24 training slots available.

Do I need to cut down the number of youngsters to maximise development on a smaller number or can I afford a certain number of them to grow at a slower pace?

Below 15k is going to take forever to train to a decent level on lvl 2s.

I like to think about it in stages. Your stage now is building a squad for div 4 survival. This will tend to mean a squad with a csr of 25-30k csr minimum, not always depending on div, but there you go.

Then, the next target will be winning div 4, which needs a squad of 50k minimum really.

35k youngsters (20-22) will slowly get to 50k with tt and igt, so they're good to go, and worth training for, and holding onto. So the question becomes how many youngsters can you get to this 35k stage. I'd say with lvl 2s you'd struggle to do more than 5 from decent starting points (15k+). But I could be wrong.

So. I'd aim to get 5 decent youngsters, concentrate on them (preferably skills you aren't tting, as once you're done, that's where they'll stay). The rest of the squad needs to be bought, but I'd say you could aim for 24-27 year olds at 30k+, as by the time they age out, you'll be looking to train up youngsters to an even higher level (or another round of 5x 30ks).

This should give you a solid team to survive 4, whilst having enough youth to know that your baseline players will keep ticking over into a div 4 winning side whilst you're concentrating individual nets on the new up and comers.

OK thanks Raggs.
trying to pick the bones !


Short term :
buy 5 24/27 yos 30k+ (funds permitting ) and bin similar number of my sub 15ks .
Bearing in mind that I'm still working on my original academy squad which is largely substandard,, find a couple of decent kids , promote and train hard.

Yep, looks about right. Train up 4/5 u20 players to 35k+ (not too much plus for now).

Remember, younger players train faster, so if you can grab some reasonable 17 year olds, not only will they last longer, but they'll get to a good stage sooner too.

One thing i would say, as its a sticky spot im in at the moment, is try not to have too many young players over some expereinced players. You only have a limited amouth of individual training and i like to use it on my young players until they get to about 25/27 then i stop the individual training (unless they are playing for england or summit which at the moment i have none) In my mind there is a certain level a player doesnt need to surpass if he is only playing at club level.