by MaddFM.
During his time coaching in the famed Ajax youth academy, Dennis Bergkamp was once quoted as saying that “The only team that needs to win is the first team. The youth teams don't need to win, they just need to make their players better”. When speaking of youth football, former Scotland international player and football coach John Collins once said “Winning games is for the coaches ego. It should be about developing technically, gifted footballers”. A quick visit to the Southampton academy website tells us that the club’s mission is as follows:
“To produce a first team year-on-year made up of 50% Academy graduates who are world-class in their technical ability on the field and behaviours off the field competing on the European stage”.
So what does this tell us? As Football Manager enthusiasts - perhaps nothing new, as we for years have invested countless hours combing through obscure youth leagues and focusing on building and enhancing the quality and output of our annual youth intake in-game. That said - it’s also fair to say that our first team’s exploits generally take front and centre when it comes to how we play FM, with youth production often a side project as we look to dominate and conquer within our save universe.
For some of you, hopefully that all changes now. If you are still on the hunt for your first main save in FM24, then you may have come to the right place as we take a look at the Youth Academy challenge in Football Manager, whereby the premise is to specifically take charge of a club with the primary intention of building and maintaining a world-class youth academy, producing players internally to be ready for promotion to first-team football, or alternatively developed and sold on for profit which in turn can be pumped back into your youth facilities accordingly.
Of course, it would be easy to look at some of the more well-known clubs in terms of having world-class academy setups in place - the likes of Manchester United, Arsenal, Manchester City, Bayern Munich, Barcelona, AC Milan, Real Madrid, Benfica and the aforementioned Ajax all are among the first to spring to mind when we think about top-tier youth academies globally. We could also wax lyrical about Athletic Club de Bilbao whose entire model relies on internal youth production to propel their first-team sustainably, but that in itself is a whole other save concept entirely. Instead, we bring you a selection of slightly less-renowned clubs who pride themselves on their academies and have a track record of elite player production to prove it - some of which may be familiar to you, some of which you may just find surprising.
Here are 6 clubs to manage in Football Manager who have a clear history and pedigree in terms of producing elite talent via their youth academies; Part II and 6 more to follow soon 👌.
1. Le Havre (France)
Based in the North-West of France in Normandy, Le Havre Athletic Club are steeped in French football history, participating in the first ever French Championship in 1894 and becoming the first non-Parisian club to win the Championship in 1899. That said, the club has never won what is now known as Ligue 1 with their last major trophy coming in 1959 when they won the Coupe de France defeating Sochaux after extra-time.
In terms of academy production, Le Havre have a sturdy reputation in terms of notable graduates wherein the likes of Paul Pogba, Riyad Mahrez and Dimitri Payet all learned their trades in the Le Havre youth system as did the likes of Lassana Diarra, Loic Badé, Steve Mandanda and the three Mendys (Edouard, Ferland and (sigh) Benjamin).
Fast-forward to present-day and Le Havre have returned to Ligue 1 after winning the Ligue 2 title, and therefore are in the top tier of France when we load up Football Manager 2024; with Great Training and Youth Facilities, Good Academy coaching and some room for improvement in terms of Youth Recruitment, Le Havre make for a highly challenging but intriguing challenge as you look to battle with Ligue 1 heavyweights PSG, Monaco, Marseille and Lyon both on and off the pitch to secure and produce some of France’s best future talents.
2. VfB Stuttgart (Germany)
If Le Havre are flying high after returning to the top tier, then Stuttgart fans are flying higher judging by the start they have had to the 2023/2024 season, sitting in 2nd place at the time of writing with 6 wins from 7 games largely thanks to 13 (yep) goals from star striker Serhou Guirassy. Recent years have been somewhat of a rollercoaster for Stuttgart - winning the Bundesliga in 2007 (largely thanks to some homegrown talents whom we will touch on shortly), then being relegated in both 2016 and 2019 before returning to the top tier in 2020.
In terms of that homegrown talent - that Bundesliga win was largely fueled by academy products Mario Gómez and Sami Khedira who both went on to make big money moves to Bayern Munich and Real Madrid respectively, and though they have twiced dropped down a division, they have continued their successful production line through the likes of Serge Gnabry, Joshua Kimmich, Timo Werner, Antonio Rudiger and Bernd Leno - all German internationals who again went on to bigger and better things post their emergence at Stuttgart.
In FM24 Stuttgart already have Excellent Training Facilities, Great Youth Facilities, Good Academy Coaching and Good Youth Recruitment - a ready-made recipe for a youth academy challenge, made all the more interesting by the fact that the likes of Bayern and Dortmund are increasingly spending on first-team ready players rather than producing from within. Advantage Stuttgart ✅.
3. Brescia (Italy)
It can be easy to label Brescia as some kind of retirement home for players approaching the end of their careers having seen the likes of Roberto Baggio, Pep Guardiola and Mario Balotelli all moving to the Stadio Mario Rigamonti towards the twilight period of their football journeys, but there is far more to Brescia than meets the eye if we truly take a look under the hood in terms of former youth players and academy production. Although the club has never won Serie A previously and have been languishing in Serie B since they were relegated in 2020, the club has long been a stalwart of Italian football and more importantly, the production of footballing talent either side of their neighbouring rivals in Milan and Bergamo.
Let’s talk midfielders; in 2004 the club signed a 17-year-old Marek Hamsik and a year later he was making his Serie A debut, which teed up a future move to Napoli where he became one of the most influential and explosive attacking midfielders in the division. In 2018, an 18-year-old local boy by the name of Sandro Tonali led his hometown club to the Serie B title, quickly outgrowing the club before securing moves to Milan and then Newcastle where he became the most expensive Italian player in history. He wasn’t the first local hero to make a big impact at Brescia however - that mantle was first taken by an even bigger name who at 16 became the club’s youngest ever player: one Andrea Pirlo, and the rest as they say is history.
Added to that list are recent FM wonderkids such as Sebastiano Esposito and Lorenzo Lucca and Brescia are teed up to be one hell of a save in FM24, not only challenged with developing their academy but also restoring them to the higher echelons of Serie A 🚀.
4. AZ Alkmaar (Netherlands)
Since winning the Eredivisie in 2009 ending a 28-year wait since their first and only league title in 1981, AZ Alkmaar have enjoyed a lengthy spell of successful league campaigns, qualifying for European football every season bar two and firmly establishing themselves as the “best of the rest” outside the big three of Ajax, PSV and Feyenoord. This has directly impacted their internal recruitment and youth production wherein they have consistently developed players into their first team and subsequently sold on for large transfer fees.
Teun Koopmeiners (Atalanta - €14m), Calvin Stengs (Nice - €15m), Myron Boadu (Monaco - €17m), Tijani Reijnders (Milan - €19m), Owen Wijndal (Ajax - €10m) - the bar is high at AZ even if their model is to cash in on their best assets rather than try to retain them and compete with the aforementioned big three in the Netherlands.
Top scorer for the past 3 seasons Vangelis Pavlidis looks set to be the next big-money departure however in FM24 he is a clinical finisher at a club possessing Superb Training and Youth facilities along with Excellent Academy Coaching and Youth Recruitment; the Eredivisie is always a hotbed of talent in FM, and balancing this with the constant reality of losing your best players to bigger clubs poses an excellent challenge as save adventures go.
5. S.C. Braga (Portugal)
Braga are similar to AZ in my eyes in terms of their wonderkid production being more recent than historical as is the case with some of our other recommendations. Up until the early 2000’s their most notable academy graduate was Tiago Mendes who went on to feature for the likes of Benfica, Chelsea, Lyon, Juventus and Atletico Madrid, but what is even more interesting is that since the same period, they have relentlessly improved and maintained their league finishes all the way through, from a world of mid-table mediocrity throughout the 90s to consistent European qualification over the last 20 years, peaking with their best ever league finish in 2010 when they finished 2nd behind Benfica.
Since then we have seen an abundance of homegrown talent produced through the Braga academy, all of whom largely moved on to bigger and better things whereby the likes of Pedro Goncalves (Sporting), Pedro Neto (Wolves), Francisco Trincao (Barcelona), Pizzi (Atletico Madrid), Vitinha (Marseille) and David Carmo (Porto) all come through the Braga ranks before advancing to pastures new.
With the Portuguese perennially dominated by the likes of Sporting, Porto and Benfica, leading Braga to compete and overthrow these is always a challenge but a history of producing top talent combined with good facilities for doing so makes for a tempting challenge in FM24.
6. Southampton (England)
We couldn’t really leave them out right? Southampton’s record of producing elite talent far surpasses their on-field success having been relegated three times in the last 20 years - somewhat perplexing for a club who up to 2005 had featured in every Premier League season since the competition’s inception in 1992 with back-to-back Europa League qualification in 2015 and 2016.
Again we are looking at a club who are clearly operate a produce/buy low and sell high model (gone are the days when Matt Le Tissier was a one-club player) - in recent seasons we have players such as Gareth Bale, Ben White, James Ward-Prowse, Tyrone Mings, Theo Walcott, Adam Lallana and Nathan Tella all pass through the Southampton academy, a huge improvement from a time where the Saints’ main notable graduates could be counted on one hand as we saw the likes of Kevin Phillips and Wayne Bridge both start their careers in Southampton.
In FM24 we find Southampton in the Championship following relegation in the 2022/2023 season but still maintaining Premier League level Youth and Training facilities in comparison to the majority of their rivals in the division. Even a fraction of the club’s previous player development would be deemed successful for this side, but there is only one way to find out 👀.
There you have it - 6 clubs to manage in Football Manager whereby their Youth Academy have been notorious in producing elite level talent and therefore the onus is on you to continue this work and take their academy to new heights hitherto unknown. With the full version of Football Manager 2024 dropping on Monday 6th November 2023 (and early access likely dropping a couple of weeks before this) - it’s time to get our saves ready, however if you are not yet convinced then fear not, Part II will be released shortly and will contain another 6 suggestions who each have their own pedigree and track record of successful youth production, and therefore are worthy of your consideration before you launch your first big FM24 adventure. As the saying goes - PROGRESS NEVER STOPS.
Thanks for reading.
Interested in being a guest writer for 5 Star Potential? Drop us a message on Twitter or reach out to MaddFM directly.
