To be able to develop young players from the youth academy through real matches, training sessions and changes of position… so that they can join the first team already well-trained. In IRL, no first team plays with a player from NG 5. It would be interesting to be able to manage both the professional team and the youth team simultaneously without having to prioritise one over the other.

It’s obviously an excellent idea. In fact, it had already been suggested.
However, what I think will bother the MDJ is that there would no longer really be any obligation to train players.

Your proposal effectively means we’d end up being a ‘B team’.

At the moment, we have to keep training sessions in reserve in case a young player gets injured, and make sure they play at least every other day...

It’s a good idea, though. If you’re managing a match in the CDF, you also have to deal with injuries and those infamous transfers. At the moment, when you have too many players, you lose players from the CDF because you can’t take them off; being able to sell them would be good too
But realistically, in the CDF with managed matches – quite frankly, I’m all for it. This is a management game, and at the moment the CDF runs itself.

I think this is a good suggestion. Of course, we’ll need to set some rules, such as not being able to transfer more than one or two players per season, or taking into account injuries, or arriving late for training, and so on. I think this could really liven up this module.

Well, these days you can still develop players and have a competitive team. Obviously, if you’re absolutely determined to try and do everything at once, it doesn’t work. But that’s also the case in real life, since you’re comparing it to real life. Teams focused on development make different choices, whilst teams that want to win everything give young players less playing time.

We now have a compromise that I find interesting.

(Especially as there are fewer restrictions on bringing through young players; there was a time when not bringing a junior through in the year he turned 17 was a major handicap, but things are more flexible these days.)

These days, nobody pays any attention to the junior league run by the youth academies, as the format is haphazard (not everyone plays the same number of matches, etc.).
Why not organise a proper home-and-away league, where the matches could remain as they are – that is, a random simulation based on potential and positional distribution – and at the end of it, the D1 junior champions could add +1 potential to the young players of their choice from their squad?
A player can only benefit from this advantage once; if the club goes on to win the championship several times, it should use its bonus on another junior player.
This is a minor improvement that can easily be implemented and would lend some credibility to the CDF junior championship.

I’m in favour of

simply improving the youth academy in terms of age groups.

At the moment, when a player joins the academy at 14 or 16, and is promoted at 17, they’ve all had the same training.

A 14-year-old player who has spent three years at the academy should be better than a 16-year-old who has just arrived at the academy and is promoted at 17 or 18.

Nicolas

I’m all for it,

Apart from keeping track of the percentages (friendly matches, league fixtures, futsal), the CdF competitions are of zero interest.