Help Couple of newbie questions regarding FMM26

[AngryNephew]

Hey all, I need some advice/help from more experienced players regarding FMM26. I was wondering, if I am managing top club like Arsenal with 4.5 or 5 stars youth/training facilities, if I have a young wonderkid, for example Eichhorn, who is 15, should I keep him in my reserves squad so he can train in top facilities and get mentored etc, and get some playing time every now and then, or should I start loaning him out asap? Is there any benefit in keeping him in reserves, esp if he will be getting barely any play time (if any)? If yes, then how long do you keep young wonderkids in your team training before letting them go on a loan or just incorporating into rotation/first 11? Till they are 18? Longer? Also, when it comes to training, both wonderkids and older players, should I stick with intense training or keep it balanced? I usually keep everyone on intense unless they are coming off injury (those rehabilitating from injury I put on easy till they are ready), and then I keep older players 30+/32+ on balanced. Is that correct way to do it or am I missing something?

 

Cheers!

[leedsunited87]

What I personally do is, loan them out for a season or 2. Gives them games, plus they improve massively over, say a 2 year period 

[TenAdrian]

5 hours ago, AngryNephew said:

Hey all, I need some advice/help from more experienced players regarding FMM26. I was wondering, if I am managing top club like Arsenal with 4.5 or 5 stars youth/training facilities, if I have a young wonderkid, for example Eichhorn, who is 15, should I keep him in my reserves squad so he can train in top facilities and get mentored etc, and get some playing time every now and then, or should I start loaning him out asap? Is there any benefit in keeping him in reserves, esp if he will be getting barely any play time (if any)? If yes, then how long do you keep young wonderkids in your team training before letting them go on a loan or just incorporating into rotation/first 11? Till they are 18? Longer? Also, when it comes to training, both wonderkids and older players, should I stick with intense training or keep it balanced? I usually keep everyone on intense unless they are coming off injury (those rehabilitating from injury I put on easy till they are ready), and then I keep older players 30+/32+ on balanced. Is that correct way to do it or am I missing something?

 

Cheers!

For youngsters I personally keep youngsters for physicals and personality(mentoring) developement at the club for as long as needed and then loan out if theyre not needed in 1st team at the moment. 

Spoiler

Btw for physicals to develop well at the club get some fitness coaches! 2-3 is best

And for intensity. I keep first team players at balanced  and those that are expected to play and are needed at that level. Injury prone players that are needed on low. And youngsters on intense. 

[AngryNephew]

14 hours ago, TenAdrian said:

For youngsters I personally keep youngsters for physicals and personality(mentoring) developement at the club for as long as needed and then loan out if theyre not needed in 1st team at the moment. 

  Hide contents

Btw for physicals to develop well at the club get some fitness coaches! 2-3 is best

And for intensity. I keep first team players at balanced  and those that are expected to play and are needed at that level. Injury prone players that are needed on low. And youngsters on intense. 

Do multiple Fitness coaches still matter? Cause from what I have read here and esp as it is now shown on training units, dont you kinda need Att/Def specialist coach to develop further? I have been doing 1Def/1Att/1Fit/1Youth and me as motivational setup? And how do I know what trait/personality will young player pick up from the mentor?

[leedsunited87]

36 minutes ago, AngryNephew said:

Do multiple Fitness coaches still matter? Cause from what I have read here and esp as it is now shown on training units, dont you kinda need Att/Def specialist coach to develop further? I have been doing 1Def/1Att/1Fit/1Youth and me as motivational setup? And how do I know what trait/personality will young player pick up from the mentor?

Depends on what you want out of the game. Me personally as a manager, I build my team around youth. Very rare I have a player older then 30. Just how I manage. I normally have myself either attacking/youth, 1 coach as attacking/youth. 2 fitness coaches and 1 motivation coach << this one is for my Youths coming through. Normally 9 times out of 10 the youth player starts with determined etc

Regarding mentoring, you need a good player with, determined, loyal, etc etc that way when there mentoring, they normally pass this on

Also! I have 2 squads saved, one for main matches like league, 2nd string which includes Youths, they play Cup matches, occasionally I will put them on the subs bench, if winning by 3/4 I will bring them on for experience 

I hope this helps in some way 

Edited February 1 by leedsunited87

[MikeF]

You can mentor players up to 21 I believe so always send them out on loan first as they’ll get the biggest improvements by playing proper games. Then when they’re ready to be around the first team squad, grab them a good mentor for finishing touches. 
 

My only exception to this would be when you have a lazy or unprofessional player *who is improving due to the team dynamics* (eg becoming more professional or working harder under the guidance of senior players). Keep them until their professionalism or work rate increase and then farm them out. I find dynamics change more when younger. If they’re rebelling against the club culture or refusing to improve (or you don’t have A in team dynamics), bin them   

Edited February 1 by MikeF

[AngryNephew]

55 minutes ago, leedsunited87 said:

Depends on what you want out of the game. Me personally as a manager, I build my team around youth. Very rare I have a player older then 30. Just how I manage. I normally have myself either attacking/youth, 1 coach as attacking/youth. 2 fitness coaches and 1 motivation coach << this one is for my Youths coming through. Normally 9 times out of 10 the youth player starts with determined etc

Regarding mentoring, you need a good player with, determined, loyal, etc etc that way when there mentoring, they normally pass this on

Also! I have 2 squads saved, one for main matches like league, 2nd string which includes Youths, they play Cup matches, occasionally I will put them on the subs bench, if winning by 3/4 I will bring them on for experience 

I hope this helps in some way 

Thanks a ton both to you and @TenAdrian for answer! Exactly what I needed. So loan players out for couple of season, coaching as you said as I also like to buy youth and develop them, might be my favorite part of the game, and mentor should be determined/loyal. Noted!

 

Cheers!

[PriZe]

7 hours ago, MikeF said:

You can mentor players up to 21 I believe so always send them out on loan first as they’ll get the biggest improvements by playing proper games. Then when they’re ready to be around the first team squad, grab them a good mentor for finishing touches. 
 

My only exception to this would be when you have a lazy or unprofessional player *who is improving due to the team dynamics* (eg becoming more professional or working harder under the guidance of senior players). Keep them until their professionalism or work rate increase and then farm them out. I find dynamics change more when younger. If they’re rebelling against the club culture or refusing to improve (or you don’t have A in team dynamics), bin them   

This is solid advice. Mentoring can actually run longer than 21 as well, I think the threshold is more like 24, but that’s just from what I’ve seen in my saves.

At the end of the day though, game time is everything for youngsters. The ones I really want to develop quickly and keep for my own team, I almost always bring them on for around 20–25 minutes. If you’re winning most of your games, those minutes really add up in post game xp and you can see some very nice growth from it.

[Petertr]

Yeah, its 24.

With young players, if their CA isn't high enough they'll not get games anyway. So it comes down to if they're good enough to get games as to whether to keep&mentor, or loan to improve and mentor later

tbh, I find finding a mentor really hard in this game - possibly because my first team squad is always so heavily skewed to young talent anyway

[AngryNephew]

On 01/02/2026 at 20:44, PriZe said:

This is solid advice. Mentoring can actually run longer than 21 as well, I think the threshold is more like 24, but that’s just from what I’ve seen in my saves.

At the end of the day though, game time is everything for youngsters. The ones I really want to develop quickly and keep for my own team, I almost always bring them on for around 20–25 minutes. If you’re winning most of your games, those minutes really add up in post game xp and you can see some very nice growth from it.

If someone like Nwaneri for Arsenal is in question, what would be better: keep him with my team and bring him behind Saka for like 20-30 mins every game, plus start with reserve 11against weaker opponents, or should I just loan him out for couple of years before I decide what to do with him so he can be first 11 in some other club? Development wise Im asking mostly.

 

  

On 01/02/2026 at 13:21, AngryNephew said:

Thanks a ton both to you and @TenAdrian for answer! Exactly what I needed. So loan players out for couple of season, coaching as you said as I also like to buy youth and develop them, might be my favorite part of the game, and mentor should be determined/loyal. Noted!

 

Cheers!

Good to know my man! Great info! Cheers!

Edited February 3 by AngryNephew
Another reply

[PriZe]

@AngryNephew I’m not sure how old he is, but this is the general rule of thumb I use with youngsters.

If my second team is playing in a decent league, like Segunda in Spain, I usually keep players at the club until around 20. That gives you control over mentoring and training, which I’ve found helps shape their development way more than a random loan does.

From about 20 onwards, it depends on their level. Either they start getting minutes in the first team, like you suggested, or I loan them out if they’re not quite ready.

By 21 or 22 it gets a bit ruthless. If they’re not good enough to seriously push for starts by then, I’m usually looking to sell and reinvest.

Big exception is of course PA. The proper 5 star potential kids develop quickly, so you can involve them earlier and skip a step or two. Those are the ones that suddenly force their way in way ahead of schedule.