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ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Daniel Monksfield Dan is the 16 year old founder of Aid The Boss, a popular Football Manager 2011 blog which focuses on serving the community with tips & downloads. Hes been an active FM player since CM 03/04 and has a wealth of game experience.

Thomas Levin With 10 years of CM/FM blogging under his belt, Thomas is the owner of FM Pundit, an awesome FM11 blog which focuses on the strategic part of our beloved game. He has developed a reputation around the community and can be seen on many of the forums, helping out all with his advice on tactics, transfers, finances and strategy.

With special thanks to Jordan Cooper Jordan is the site owner of popular Football Manager website FM-Britain - The Home Nation of Football Manager Tactics. You can also find him on twitter @getsacked

Copyright aidtheboss.com and the individual authors, 2011. No part of this guide is to be reproduced without prior permission from the copyright owners. Football Manager is a registered trademark of SEGA and Sports Interactive Games. Football Manager is owned and operated by SEGA and Sports Interactive Games

CONTENTS
1 - Developing a FM2011 Youth Team Introduction 5 Training .5 Tutoring . 6 Loaning Out Youngsters ... 7

2 Getting the Most Out of FM2011 Scouting Utilising Scouting Staff . 10 Spotting the Best Youngsters 11 Quick Scouting Tips 14

3 Best Players Goalkeepers .. 17 Defenders 18 Midfielders 20 Strikers 23

4 Wonderkids & Future Stars Goalkeepers .. 25 Defenders ........................................ 25 Midfielders 27 Strikers 29

5 Freebies & Bargains Free Players .. 32

6 Action Plan FM2011 Action Plan & Useful Resources 36

DEVELOPING A YOUTH TEAM


We all love to find that hidden gem or wonderkid in Football Manager, thats one of my favourite things of the game. So, youve found a wonderkid, or signed some great youngsters from the wonderkids section, theyre guaranteed to turn out to be the best player in the world right? Wrong. There are many, many factors involved in developing youth players if you want them to hit their potential ability. Potential ability you ask? Every player on FM has a CA (current ability) and PA (potential ability) scored out of 200 points. Current Ability: The higher the figure the better the player, CA ranges from 1-200 and is calculated from the general score of attributes a player has. CA will increase as a player becomes more developed and will usually decrease when a player is past his peak and his attributes will start to drop. Potential Ability: Another hidden stat in FM, PA also ranges from 1-200, this shows the ability a player could reach with the right development. Again, the higher the stat the better a player could be. Players can also be assigned a negative PA in the editor. This means that every time you start a new game, the players with a negative PA are randomly assigned a PA within a range.

- 10 = Random PA between 170 and 200 - 9 = Random PA between 150 and 180 -8 = Random PA between 130 and 160 -7 = Random PA between 110 and 140 -6 = Random PA between 90 and 120 -5 = Random PA between 70 and 100 -4 = Random PA between 50 and 80 -3 = Random PA between 30 and 60 -2 = Random PA between 10 and 40 -1 = Random PA between 0 and 30

TRAINING
Setting up the right training schedules for a youngster is vital, but can be quite difficult. You have to find the right mixture of pushing them to improve their attributes, but not over-doing their workload at the same time.

Look at a players attributes and specifically the areas that you want them to improve in. For instance, Neymars shooting on FM2011 isnt the greatest, so you might want to up his shooting regime in the training schedule, whilst lowering his workload on ball control if you think that its good enough. For those who dont know how to create training schedules, click onto the club your managing, underneath the tabs navigate to the 2nd last button titled Training and you will be presented with an indepth training screen. Go to the bottom and click new schedule, and get underway working on some awesome schedules to help develop your youth!

For those who cant be bothered creating their own schedules, check out the SI Games forums for already made schedules available to download.

TUTORING
Tutoring is a great way to quickly develop youth players, it allows a more experienced member of your squad to nurture a youngster at your club and allow the younger player to pick up the traits and PPM of their tutor. On FM2010 I had Aguero tutoring Romelu Lukaku and this done wonders, I pretty much instantly saw big improvements from Lukaku, and he picked up 2 or 3 of Agueros world class PPMs! Tutoring lasts for a set period of time. It takes exactly 180 days from start to finish to tutor a youngster, and in this time they will adapt to the experienced players way of playing. Make sure you pair players up well! The only way a tutoring programme would finish early is if there was a personality clash. Tip: Make sure you keep an eye out on both players personal status, every now and again, players can have a personality clash, and if you carry on the tutor programme it will harm the youngsters player development. To tutor players in Football Manager 2011, click on the profile of the player you want to tutor the youngster, and then click have private chat. Navigate down to Development and you will see the tutoring option. Once pressed, you will see a screen like the one below:

From my personal experience, picking a specific option will not have a big impact on how it goes, but I always go for the first option as a senior member. because I think this gives the senior player some responsibility and they will react positively to this.

LOANING OUT YOUNGSTERS


When developing the young players of today to become the future of your club you take good care of them while they are in your walls. But on strategy of developing these players quicker is to send them looking for first team experience elsewhere. Therefore you will want the same level of care taken in your players away from the club. It Is good to evaluate the side they are leaving for just as much as you would evaluate your own training schedules. Will your player get into the first team? Gaining first team experience has to be the most important aspect of loaning a player out. If the player isnt going to get regular time on the pitch then they will be better staying with you Controlling yourself how much time the players gets into the first team. Consider where they are going to fit in to the squad you send them out too. How good are the other players in comparison to your own? When sending your players out for free you will want something in terms of value back.

Send players to playable leagues The way that Football Manager works is when processing none playable leagues, or those not on full detail it will generate results based mainly on reputation of the clubs involved to save processing power and data size. The lack of detail that the game processors in terms of data will effect the development of the loanee, so the more detail goes through each game the better it will develop your young players. Training facilities Sending a player out on loan you will want him to develop much quicker then he would if he stayed at home. Young players once they hit 18 or 19 will be looking to gain first team experience and quickly accelerate their attributes. The better the training facilities are the more likely it is that their attributes will rise quicker. To send them to a club that has much substantially poorer training facilities then you may be counter productive and better staying with you. Coaching Staff You will want to trust that your young players are in expert hands when they are away from the club. Taking a look at the coaching staff before you allow the player to leave can give you an idea of how many stars they will have in training. It is most important that they have a balanced team of coaches that will allow development in different areas for your young players. But if you spend a lot of time developing your own coaching team, you dont want that time wasted with the young player out to substandard coaching elsewhere. I think that it would be great if you were able to gain friendships and connections with other coaches, interact with them to ask the coach to concentrate on the development of certain areas when training your player. This may work as a real pull factor when you want to loan people yourself, making agreements to take good players on in order to use the expertise at your club, another way coaching could be improved. Affiliation links It is handy to consider all of the above when looking for feeder clubs for your side. Having a variety of feeder clubs to loan players out to could make it much easier to work in your own player development strategy. Sending different levels of ability to clubs in different leagues. If these clubs are able to offer balanced coaching with reasonable training facilities to develop a young player, giving plenty of first team action to your player it is much easier to handle the strategy using affiliations. Loaning players can be a considerable benefit to the clubs that get an extra player to bolster their squad. But loans should also have a benefit for you, to help squad management and development when looking for long term success.

The two obvious and most efficient ways to scout for young talent in Football Manager is to send your club scouts out, or to search for the players yourself. In this section, we have put together some short, useful tips for effectively scouting young talent.

UTILISING YOUR SCOUTING STAFF


Scouting is essential whether you are at the top or the bottom of the footballing world. Yet so many of us seem to disregard it and just use the player search for our players or we sort out all our scouts and then dont listen to them at all. 1. Scouts are more than just two attributes The most vital thing for any and every scout is his mental stats. A select few Mental stats at that, the first stat Im going to say is vital is a scouts adaptability. Adaptability comes into effect when you send a scout to a country that he has little to no previous knowledge of. A scout with higher adaptability will settle into his new country or region quicker and crack on with his reports a lot quicker. A scout with lower adaptability will obviously take longer to settle and he will take longer to produce reports of quality. So if you do bring in a scout and you have him scouting a region or country he has no previous knowledge of or little knowledge of, give him time. Dont keep changing his assignments every two minutes, he will do a much better job if you actually give him a chance and allow his knowledge to build. Determination is also vital for a scout. The determination stat determines a scouts dedication to his job and his dedication to finding you good players. A scout with higher determination will put more effort into looking for players and more effort into compiling reports on players. On the flip side a less determined scout will obviously not put as much effort into finding players and compiling the player reports. This doesnt mean that a scout with 20 Determination will find a host of world beaters in his first few months of scouting. That depends on other factors such as his Adaptability, Judging Player Potential (JPP), Judging Player Ability (JPA) and his country knowledge. 2. A scouts knowledge of a country is vital For two main reasons; 1. Players appearing on the player search from that country 2. The quality of a scouts reports from that country Generally a scout will be more effective in countries that he has knowledge of, but a scouts knowledge can increase if the scout is based there for a while. The better scouts knowledge the better your clubs knowledge, this means that more players from those countries will appear on your player search. A scout with a higher knowledge will also be able to dive straight into scouting the country, whereas a scout with less knowledge will obviously take more time as he will naturally have to take time to build his knowledge of the country.

Say if you are managing in the Premiership you should try and get scouts with 14/15 + for these areas. In the Championship try 13/14 +, in Leagues One and Two try for 11/12 + and when in the lower leagues try for 10 and up. Obviously this wont always be possible so eliminate stats you wont need, for example you wont really need a good JCA stat if you have your scout just looking for U18s and if you cant scout foreign countries due to managing a small club you wont really need a high Adaptability stat. But make sure you always have at least one good scout, they can make or break you as a manager.

Now we can touch upon assignments for scouts. If you are looking for youth players make sure you assign your scout to specifically look for U18s, U17s or U16s. If you fail to do this your scout will obviously be wasting his and your time by looking at players over that age bracket and he will spend less time looking for young players. If you cant scout foreign countries and you are managing in the low leagues it is worth having your scout just scouting your own nation with no specifics or scouting the next opposition if you feel your backroom staff dont give detailed enough advice, but if you have more than one scout then it is worth having one of them scout the top divisions reserve league. In doing this he could find prospective loan signings and cheap transfer signings. In my opinion it is well worth getting as many scouts as you can. I like to have the majority of mine scouting in regions for players U18, I only have a few scouting in domestic leagues and I have one scout scouting the next opposition. Having too many scouts scouting competitions wastes them I think, as they seem to collect fewer reports than they would scouting a nation or a region. Having one scout scouting the next opposition will help you a lot when deciding on your tactics for the next game, you can find out your opponents weaknesses to try and exploit them and their strengths so you can try and counter them.

SPOTTING THE BEST YOUNG PLAYERS


Before you can put together a good youth team you first need to know how to spot the talent of tomorrow. As in the real world, much of spotting a wonderkid can be trial and error. Some will make it, some will become squad fodder or sold on. But here are some of the key attributes and information to look out for when picking up a player for the future. Work Rate It might pay to take attention to the articles from One-FM who put together a series of experimental training articles. The first of the experiments looks at the effect of work rate. Using their figures we can see the significant difference between two identical players, but for one with low work rate and one with a high work rate:

Although not a test with much scientific merit it gives us an insight to how the game behaves, other variables that we cant control can also have an effect on the development, such as first team football, training facilities and injuries. But nevertheless the difference between the two players is significant and shows how work rate can affect your young players. Work rate within games, given the player has the right physical strengths can be a fantastic attribute allowing a player to try their best throughout the game. But he will also have the same attitude in training putting 100% effort each time, to improve his own game. It is Debatable that Nani is the player Ronaldo could have been, but only for Ronaldos work rate he is now regarded one of the best players in the world, training hard in training to reach his potential. Determination An attribute that will determine how hard a player will commit themselves to the cause, but also to their own success. Tied to hidden attribute such as ambition. Determination will help professional players from being complacent and hopefully pull them through training to work harder and better in their careers. This time using my own experiment and numbers we see the influence of determination. Both players starting the game off in exactly the same way apart from one with a determination of 20 and the other of 1.

Both started at Everton until our Low Determination player went to Manchester United a season in and spent several seasons on loan before finding himself playing at Barcelona. But he broke into first team late and but even in the peak of his career struggled to get a game for Barcelona. Whereas High Determination stayed at Everton for many years waiting patiently for his chance which he grasped with both hands, gaining many achievements before moving to Arsenal. Although Low Determination was playing for the more reputable clubs, High Determination was truly the better player, with the greater achievements and as you can see from the graph determination does go along way for high and sustained ability. Low Determinations attributes were of one of a world class player, but High Determination was better in each attribute, picked for more games, played consistently better and had double the caps Low Determination had. Suggesting it is an important attribute for a successful professional. Scouting Reports In terms of player attributes we will assume that you already know which areas you will want to see a decent foundation in relation to a players position. For example a ball winning midfielder you will want to see good tackling. Good training and tutoring could help mould a players attributes to best suit his role.

Good scouts that can spot talent are vital if you are looking to spot the best young players. Scouts will be able to sift through the hidden attributes in order to give you the best scouting reports that give you enough information to keep you thinking, saving you the time of scouring through the database. Scouting will give you an impression how a players will fit into your side and if he will make it. Personality similar to work rate and determination as many of these are interlinked and can be a key indicators of how your side is going to get on with each other, how or what they are motivated by. Many professional sides will want ambitious, professional players who arent going to cause too many problems in the dressing room or need little to keep them going in big games. The personality of your squad will be determined about how you wish to play the game. Taken from the hidden attributes, the best scouts will be able to give you good comparisons between players you already have at the club and assess their potential ability and how they compare to your current crop. This is where the scout reports could be vital. Be careful, your scout isnt always right and some of the most unlikely players can become incredibly useful in your team if played to their strengths and CA/PA figures arent always the be all and end all. But sometimes the players that promise the most may never make it. This not only shows the value of good mental attributes for youngsters but for every player, determination and work rate are two attributes that can hold providence in the youngest of players and

as you can see from the graphs, capturing a players with good mental attributes can help find the most able players. Dont forget the power of player tutoring, put the right formula together and you can also develop these mental skills that will ensure a bright youth development.

QUICK SCOUTING TIPS


My personal favourite method of scouting is searching countries with high production of awesome wonderkids (Brazil, Argentina etc.) and scouring some of the clubs in these countries for hidden gems. This is an awesome method for finding out talented youngsters that nobody will have heard off, and getting them before anywhere else. I often find hidden gems at the age of 15/16 years old in the squads of Brazilian clubs such as Santos. I recommend trying this out every now and again because some of these clubs can produce a fine quality of youngsters. However, it will be tricky to obtain work permits and you may have to wait a season or two to sign the player. Regen Dates Something Ive always found interesting is the dates that regens are created in Football Manager. If you dont know, regens are randomly created players within a save that are created to make sure there isnt a shortage of players. As the years go on, all of the top players will retire and this means new players must come through the academies. Here are the regen creation dates in FM11. These will be useful because it allows me to know exactly when the regens are created, and gives me a chance to pick up the 15/16 year old wonderkids or hidden gems before all the other teams can, and allow me to attempt to develop them into world class players! 01.01: Chile 02.01: Brazil 05.01: Iceland, Republic of Ireland 07.01: Finland 10.01: Colombia, Singapore 15.01: African teams (all but South Africa) 20.01: China PR, Norway 28.01: Peru 14.02: Belarus 09.05: Costa Rica 10.05: Honduras, Jamaica, Guatemala, Panama, Nicaragua, Netherlands Antilles, Suriname, St Vincent, Guyana, Grenada, El Salvador, Cuba, Bermuda 07.06: Azerbaijan, Bosnia & Herzeg., Estonia, FYR Macedonia, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Montenegro, New Zealand, Georgia, Andorra, Albania, American Samoa, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Vanuatu, Armenia, Malta 20.06: Australia, Croatia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Israel, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, Wales 25.06: Austria, England 29.06: Slovakia 30.06: Belgium, Czech Republic, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Cyprus, Indonesia, 01.07: Bulgaria, Slovenia, Romania

07.07: Denmark, Netherlands 10.07: Serbia, Spain 15.07: Argentina, South Africa, India 20.07: Mexico 29.07: Poland 01.08: Uruguay 20.08: Mali 19.09: Barbados, Bolivia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Venezuela, Trinidad & Tobago 01.12: Sweden, Hong Kong 09.12: Canada, Iran, Iraq, Japan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkmenistan, U.A.E, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Macau, Yemen, Thailand, Tajikistan, Syria, Sri Lanka, Philippines, Palestine, Pakistan, Oman, Northern Mariana Islands, Nepal, N. Korea, Mynamar, Mongolia, Maldives, Macau (China PR), Laos, Kyrgyzstan, Jordan, Guam, East Timor, Chinese Taipei, Cambodia, Brunei, Bhutan, Afghanistan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, 15.12: Malaysia, 27.12: Russia, Sth Korea, U.S.A

GOALKEEPERS
Goalkeepers are often looked past in Football Manager, but a good keeper could be vital in your teams performance. They are the rock of the defence and a good goalkeeper could prove valuable throughout the season as he saves shot upon shot. Rene Adler 25 - Bayern Levekusen - 6.5m Hugo Lloris 23 Lyon - 8m Igor Akinfeev 24 - CSKA Moscow - 6.5m Manuel Neuer 24 Schalke - 5.5m Guillermo Ochoa 24 - Club America - 1m Sergio Asenjo 21 Atletico Madrid - 3.5m Doni 30 Roma - 4.2m Salvatore Sirigu 23 Palermo - 3.7m Joe Hart 23 - Man City - 4m Samir Handanovic 25 Udinese - 3.3m Ralf Fahrmann 21 - Wolfsburg - - 1.3m Stephane Ruffier 23 Monaco - 3.6m Andrea Consigli 23 Atalanta - 1.7m Matej Delac 17 Vitesse - 3m David De Gea 19 - Atletico Madrid - 3m Vincenzo Fiorillo 20 Spezia - 775k

DEFENDERS
Central Defenders, are the core of your defence and a good CB can be pivotal in your teams season. Wing Backs can also play a great part in your teams success, but depend a lot on your tactics. Tweaking your tactics plays a big role in the responsibilities of your players and setting up the right roles for defenders can improve your clubs performance.

Left Backs Aleksandar Kolarov 24 - Man City - 19m Gareth Bale 20 Tottenham - 6m Federico Balzaretti 28 Palermo - 5.25m Domenico Criscito 23 Genoa - 5.75m Marcelo 22 - Real Madrid - 6.75m Fabio 19 - Man Utd - 4.5m Luca Antontini 27 Milan - 4.9m Mattia Cassani 26 Palermo - 4.9m Michel Bastos 26 Lyon - 7m Diego Renan 20 Cruziero - 3.4m Joe Mattock 20 - West Brom - 2.1m

Right Backs Davide Santon 19 Inter - 5.5m Rafinha 24- Genoa - 4.7m Darijo Srna 28 Shakhtar - 6.75m Lassana Diarra 25 - Real Madrid - 7.5m Lorenzo De Silvestri 22 Fiorentina - 4.5m Rafael 19 - Man Utd - 4.5m Cesar Azpilicueta 20 Marseille - 5m Alexandr Anyukov 27 Zenit - 6.25m Daniele Bonera 29 Milan - 5.25m Sebastian Corchia 19 - Le Mans - 1.5m

Centre Backs Nicolas Otamendi 22 Porto - 3.2m Mamadou Sakho 20 PSG - 5.5m Jan Vertonghen 23 Ajax - 3.2m Lucio 32 Inter - 6.25m Giorgio Chillieni 25 Juventus - 9.75m Nedum Onuoha 23 Sunderland - 3.6m Felipe 25 Fiorentina - 4.6m Mirel Radoi 29 - Al Hilal - 2.7m Federico Fazio 23 Sevilla - 3.4m Sami Khedira Stuttgart Marc Muniesa 18 Barcelona - 2.5m Micah Richards 22 - Man City - 4.7m Gerard Pique 23 Barcelona - 14.75m Breno 20 -Bayern Munich - 3.9m Thiago Heleno 21 Cruzeiro - 2.8m Cristian Zapata 23 Udinese - 4.3m Simon Kjaer 21 Wolfsburg - 4.6m Rafael Miranda 25 Maritimo - 850k David Luiz 23 Benfica 2.9m Thiago Silva AC Milan Gerson 17 Gremio - 450k Kyriakos Papadopoulos 18 Olympiakos 2m Nelson Rivas Inter - 4m

Naldo 27 - Werder Bremen - 5.25m Vincent Kompany 24 - Man City - 4.9m Gonzalo Rodriguez 26 Villarreal - 3.4m

MIDFIELDERS
Well what can we say about midfielders? Holding the defence together and tearing the opposition apart, a good midfielder really can do wonders. This list is targeted for those with a bit of money, but we have added in some awesome players who can be picked up for well under 10m. Left Mids Juan Angel Albin 23 Getafe - 1.9m Zoran Tosic 23 - CSKA Moscow - 4.4m Juan Manuel Vargas 26 Fiorentina - 7.5m Antonio Cassano 27 Sampdoria - 15.25m Ibrahim Afellay 24 PSV - 2.3m Sebastian Giovinco 23 Parma - 6.25m Stevan Jovetic 20 Fiorentina - 8m Mirko Vucinic 26 Roma - 12.25m Danny 26 Zenit - 5.5m Franck Ribery 27 - FC Bayern - 14.5m Mesut Ozil 21 - Real Madrid - 9.25m Angel Di Maria 22 - Real Madrid - 6.5m Adam Johnson 22 - Man City - 7m Santiago Cazorla 25 Villareal - 7.25m

Right Mids Jess Navas 24 Sevilla - 10m

Yoann Gourcuff 23 Lyon - 9m Arjen Robben 26 - FC Bayern - 19m Pedro 22 Barcelona - 9m Simone Pepe 26 Juventus - 6.75m Jose Sosa 25 Napoli - 6.75m Theo Walcott 21 Arsenal - 6.5m Marko Marin 21 - Werder Bremen - 4.4m Steven Pienaar 28 Everton - 3.6m Stephane Sessegnon 26 PSG - 4.2m Simao 30 - Atletico Madrid - 3.7m Aaron Lennon 23 Tottenham - 5.5m Maxi Rodriguez 29 Liverpool - 5m Alexis Sanchez 21 Udinese - 7m Chinedu Obasi 24 - FC Bayern - 4.9m

Defensive Mids Daniele De Rossi 26 - Roma - 12.75m Felipe Melo 26 Juventus - 6.75m Jeremy Toulalan 26 Lyon - 8.5m Miguel Veloso 24 Genoa - 6.25m Etienne Capoue 21 Toulouse - 3m Moussa Sissoko 20 Toulouse - 5.5m Mohammed Sissoko 25 Juventus - 8m Lorenzo Crisetig 17 Inter - 850k Bastian Schweinsteiger 25 Bayern - 10.5m

Ever Banega 22 Valencia - 5.75m Lars Bender 21 Leverkusen - 3.4m Fernando Gago 24 - Real Madrid -3.5m Claudio Marchisio 24 Juventus - 7.75m Ignacio Camacho 20 - Atletico Madrid - 775k Tinga 19 Palmeiras - 2.6m Sandro 21 Tottenham - 8m

Attacking Mids Pablo Piatti 21 Almeria - 3.6m Sofiane Feghouli 20 Valencia - 1.5m Stefan Defour 22 Standard - 1.8m Diego 25 Wolfsburg - 6.75m Marek Hamsik 22 Napoli - 9.25m Axel Witsel 21 Standard - 1m Joao Moutinho 23 Sporting - 3.8m Carlos Eduardo 22 Rubin - 5.5m Paulo Henrique 20 Santos - 3.8m Ismail Aissati 21 Ajax - 2.5m Riccardo Montolivo 25 Fiorentina - 9.25m Alan Dzagoev 20 - CSKA Moscow - 6m Miralem Pjanic 20 Lyon - 6m Toni Kroos 20 - FC Bayern - 5.5m Renato Augusto 22 - Leverkusen - 4.2m

STRIKERS
The match-winners, the game deciders, the boys that possess the lethal touch. These are some of our favourite strikers on Football Manager 2011. Admittedly, they are all quite expensive; however, if you want a world class striker that will rocket your team to success look no further! Gonzalo Higuain 22 - Real Madrid - 17.75m Sergio Aguero 22 - Atletico Madrid - 16.25m Mario Balotelli 19 - Man City 24.5m Pato 20 Milan - 15.75m Karim Benzema 22 - Real Madrid - 10.75m Goran Pandev 26 Inter - 10.5m Edinson Cavani 23 Napoli - 8.5m Marco Borriello 28 Roma - 8.5m Bojan 19 Barcelona - 7m Ezequiel Lavezzi 25 Napoli - 7.5m Edin Dzeko 24 Wolfsburg - 7.75m Fabio Quagliarella 27 Juventus - 9.5m Alexandr Kerzhakov 27 Zenit - 7.25m Juan Manuel Mata 22 Valencia - 6.75m Thomas Muller 20 - FC Bayern - 6.5m Lisandro Lopez 27 Lyon - 6.25m Robert Acquafresca 22 Cagilari - 6.5m Amauri 30 Juventus - 7m Mario Gomez 24 - FC Bayern - 6.25m Jeremy Menez 23 Roma - 6.25m Rodrigo Palacio 28 Genoa - 6m

After doing a bit of research and visiting many football manager forums, I have put together a list of some of the young talents in Football Manager 2011. This list has taken me a couple of hours to make. Finding that youngster that turns out to be amazing is one of the best aspects of the game, and in my opinion makes you a very proud manager. The players are grouped in positions and I have highlighted my personal favourites in the list.

GOALKEEPERS
Matej Delac 17 Vitesse - 3m David De Gea - 19 Atletico Madrid - 2.8m Vincenzo Fiorillo 20 Sampdoria - 775k Alphonse Areola 17 PSG - 650k Luis Guilherme 18 Botafogo - 450k David Ospina 21 Nice - 2.7m Zacharie Boucher 18 - 675k Andrea Seculin 19 Fiorentina 650k Sinan Bolat 21 Standard - 600k

DEFENDERS
Davide Santon 19 Inter - 8m Cesar Azpilicueta 20 Marseille - 4.9m Fabio 19 Man Utd - 4.4m Diego Renan 20 Cruzeiro - 2.9m Mamadou Sakho 20 PSG - 5.25m Nicolas Otamendi 22 Porto - 3.2m Gareth Bale 20 Tottenham - 6m Chris Smalling 20 Man Utd - 7m Rafael 19 Man Utd - 4.9m

Marc Muniesa 18 Barcelona - 2.1m Phil Jones 18 Blackburn - 3.9m Mark Beevers 20 Sheff Wed - 725k Sebastian Corchia 19 Le Mans - 1.5m Loic Nestor 21 Le Harve - 1.2m Breno 20 FC Bayern - 3.8m Mario Fernandes 19 Gremio - 3.3m Ezequiel Munoz 19 Palermo - 3.1m Tamas Kadar 20 Newcastle - 2.3m Kyriakos Papadopoulos 18 Schalke - 1.7m Danny Wilson 18 Liverpool - 2m Joe Mattock 20 West Brom - 2.1m Serge Aurier 17 Lens - 2.1m Guillermo Burdisso 21 Roma - 2.4m Leonel Galeano 18 Independiente - 1.7m Mateo Musacchio 19 Villarreal - 4.1m Mathias Jorgensen 20 FC Kobenhavn - 1m Daniel Carrico 21 Sporting - 3.1m Jerome Boateng 21 Man City - 10.75m Romario 16 - Vitoria - 375k Ryan Bertrand 20 Chelsea - 2.5m

MIDFIELDERS
Coutinho 18 Inter - 5.5m Adem Ljajic 18 Fiorentina - 4.3m Franco Zuculini 19 - 3m Bebe 19 Man Utd - 7.5m Lewis Holtby 19 Mainz - 4.2m Georginio Wijnaldum 19 - 2.9m Sandro 21 Tottenham - 8m Steven Defour 22 Standard - 1.8m Martin Galvan 17 Cruz Azul Aaron Ramsey 19 Arsenal - 5.25m Marko Marin 21 Werder Bremen - 4.4m Carlos Eduardo 22 Rubin - 5.5m Giuliano 20 Internacional - 3.9m Sotiris Ninis 20 Panathinaikos - 2.5m Henri Saivet 19 Bordeaux - 2.4m Misrolav Stoch 20 Fenerbace - 3.7m Zezinho 18 Santos - 1.9m Sergio Canales 19 Castilla - 5.75m Fabian Delph 20 Aston Villa - 4.6m Clement Grenier 19 Lyon - 1.7m Gael Kakuta 19 Chelsea - 1.6m Miralem Pjanic 20 Lyon - 6m Oscar 18 Internacional - 1.8m

Toni Kroos 20 FC Bayern - 5.5m Fausto Rossi 19 Vicenza - 725k Jonjo Shelvey 18 Liverpool - 1.7m Jack Rodwell 19 Everton - 5m Haris Vuckic 17 Newcastle - 1.6m David Petrucci 18 Man Utd - 950k Lorenzo Crisetig 17 Inter - 850k Jack Wilshere 18 Arsenal - 5m Gai Assulin 19 Free Agent - 0 Tinga 19 Palmeiras - 2.6m Nuri Sahin 21 Dortmund - 4.4m Marco Verratti 17 Pescara - 700k Diego Perotti 21 Sevilla - 5.75m James Rodriguez 18 Porto - 550k Vladimir Weiss 20 - Man City 3.8m Ryder Matos 17 Fiorentina 1.3m Douglas Costa 19 Shakhtar - 3.7m Levan Kenia 19 Schalke 3.1m Alex Teixeira 20 Shakhtar - 3.7m Willian 21 Shakhtar 3.8m Mesut Ozil 21 Real Madrid - 9.25m

STRIKERS
Mario Balotelli 19 Man City - 24.5m Victor Moses 19 Wigan - 2.5m Nile Ranger 19 Newcastle - 3m Nathan Delfouneso 19 Aston Villa - 3.8m Jonathan Cristaldo 21 Velez - 1.8m Neymar 18 Santos - 5.5m Bojan 19 Barcelona - 7m Daniel Pacheco 19 Liverpool - 3.4m Iker Muniain 17 Athletic - 3.8m Guilherme 21 Dynamo Kyiv - 4m Yannis Tafer 19 Toulouse - 2m Andrej Kramaric 19 Dinamo - 950k Dentinho 21 Corinthians - 3.2m Keirison 21 Santos - 2.6m Mattia Destro 19 Genoa - 1.8m Romelu Lukaku 17 Anderlecht - 1.3m Eden Hazard 19 Lille - 5.75m Son Heung-Min 17 HSV - 3m Borja Baston 17 Atletico Madrid 1.5m Khouma Babacar 17 Fiorentina -3.8m Yaya Sanogo 17 Auxerre - 1.9m Abel Hernandez 19 Palermo - 9.25m Thomas Muller 20 FC Bayern - 6.5m

Alberto Paloschi 20 Parma - 5.75m Federico Macheda 18 Man Utd - 4.9m Pato 20 Milan - 15.75m Daniel Sturridge 20 Chelsea - 4.8m Carlos Vela 21 Arsenal - 4.75m Tomas Necid 20 CSKA Moscow - 2.3m Jose Baxter 18 Everton - 1.2m Vaclav Kadlec 18 Sparta Prague - 950k Lacina Traore 19 Cluj - 975k Deniz Naki 20 St Pauli - 2.1m Cheik Gueye 18 Free Agent - 0 Leigh Griffiths 19 Dundee - 250k

Do you prefer managing lower league teams or clubs with a low budget? Look no further than this list! I have collected some top players in FM2011 who you can pick up for absolutely nothing! Some of them could prove tricky to sign (specifically the more well-known), but its definitely worth a shot as you have nothing to lose! Rivaldo Brazil 38 Robert Pires France 36 Ebou Sillah Gambia 30 Tomas Locatelli Italy 35 Jeremie Aliadiere France 27 Sylvain Wiltord France 36 Salva Spain 35 Christian Giminez Argentina 35 Julio Cruz Argentina 35 Dida Brazil 36 Michael Rensing Germany 26 Sylvinho Brazil 36 Ibrahima Faye Senegal 30 Liam Rosenior England 25 Abubakari Yakubu Ghana 28 Rigbert Song Camerron 32 Jose Goncalves Portugal 24 Jay DeMerit USA 30 Enzo Maresca Italy 30 Marko Babic Croatia 29 Bernard Mendy France 28

Kader Toure Togo 31 Patrick Muller Switzerland 33 Szilard Nemeth Slovakia 32 Pape Diop Senegal 35 Fabian Carini Uruguay 35 Jacek Krzynowek Poland 34 Stern John Trinidad 33 Nashat Akram Iraq 25 Tony Sylva Senegal 35 Ervin Skela Albania 33 Mustapha Hadji Morroco - 38

To summarise the book, we thought it would be cool to put together a mini action plan on helping you become a better manager, including all of the tips you have picked up in this book in a summary format.

FM2011 ACTION PLAN


1. Start your game and sort your formation out, choosing who you want to keep and who needs to go 2. Send your scouts out and browse South American clubs for hidden gems 3. Use scout reports to get feedback from your staff, and sign any youngsters you believe have potential 4. Decide which youngsters you will be loaning out, and which youngsters will be staying 5. Choose the club you will be loaning them out to carefully 6. Set up effective training schedules for your youngsters and use tutor programs to get the best results 7. Give your youngsters first team football every now and again, bring them on in dominant games etc. 8. Tweak your tactics until you decide on the one best suited for your squad 9. Fast forward 3 or 4 seasons and all your youngsters are world class, and you will be the best club in the world, hopefully!

USEFUL RESOURCES
Here are some awesome Football Manager resources for you to check out to even further your knowledge of the game and become an even better manager. Ultimate FM Walkthrough Guide My review of the monster 132 page walkthrough guide for FM2011. Its an awesome e-book packed with even more hints & tips, with in-depth guides to analysis, touchline instructions, and scouting dynamics. Definitely worth a read. FM-Britain Home Nation of Football Manager Tactics. FMB is a wonderful website with the very best tactical articles. If you want to know more about the tactical side of FM, and outsmart your opponents in the game then FM-Britain is definitely recommended. FM Pundit Along with FMB, this is another one of my favourite Football Manager websites. FM Pundit is a blog which takes a unique approach at the strategic side of FM2011. Not just by telling you what to do but by offering discussion, advice and opinions about the game which can aid your own decision making.

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