Subject: When do people sell their trainees?

I was wondering at what age I should part with my trainees and buy new ones?

I believe the general rule of thumb is that trainees start to slow down in trainin speed at 23, so I try to offload about then. Some teams like the top Polish sides train older players though.

Obviously it depends on the quality of your trainees too, high talented ones will improve quickly through the years whereas less talented ones will slow down much quicker the older they are I think.

I'm going to keep my players till 24/25 years old (a few maybe 26/27). Then I hope to make a profit from my training as I brought them at 18/19. It would be nice to have a few good seasons of better quality players to help my team progress a little bit.

True but selling them at their peak .i.e 23 - 24 you get the best price and you can improve other areas of your squad therefore meaning you will have a more all round strength rather than just good strikers....does that make sense?

Just to reiterate wdp's point, players will generally start to lose their value when they reach their mid 20's, so it might be worth offloading them sooner.

I understand they are at their peak in terms of cash value @ 23ish, but I want my team to get a couple of good seasons out of my trainees before I sell them on (albeit at a slightly lower value).

There is a balance between the best cash value, as against the value you get from them as quality players to support your team

Thank you for the advice, I will certainly consider everything you have said

This is good stuff.

So if you sell at 23 the person buying is thinking that the player is at top of the training tree and not going to improve much.

If you sell at 22 then they think they have one more year of training. Which could be useful if the play is lacking say passing and you are not planning on training that?

Am I correct?
(edited)

Sometimes, but it is very risky at that age because pops will be so slow and you might not make any money when you come to sell the player. In my opinion, depending on what series you're in has a bearing on what age your players turn from "trainees" to "first team" players. Some of my players that are trainees are first team players...and a couple of seasons ago, i was pulling people straight from my YS that would go straight in my first team.

I think this is different for better, more established teams, trainees become first teamers at a much later age. If you are a fairly new manager, i think it would be pretty hard work to keep most of your trainees for 5-6-7 seasons due to financial constraints, and i don't think it is the best way to do it financially for a lot of reasons.

If you are selling a 22yo player that is say a MID and he only has poor passing he is not going to fetch you an awful lot of money.

In the Prem I'm training players until 26 in some cases - younger ones simply aren't good enough. In some cases I've bought trainees who are 22 or 23 as I need the skills to be high in the first place to be able to play them. Top quality players still sell for loads at 22 and 23 because people are willing to carry on training them and are able to put them in the first team. For lower level players I'd sell when they're younger to maximise the profit, especially if you have better or equally skilled reserves or are having a crap season in the league.

I train to 22/23 ideally but then keep going for the best and flog the others near to a peak value.
The best I train until 25/6 or forever perhaps