Football Manager 2021 Review: 9 Ups And 3 Downs

3. Youth Products

Football Manager 2021
SEGA

While the Football Manager franchise has long established a youth system for teams, that system hasn't always brought major results for FM fans.

By that, it means that you can have the very best youth system and youth facilities imaginable in place, yet you may find yourself going years at a time without turning out even a semi-decent prospect. In Football Manager 2021, though, that seems to have changed.

In FM21, if you have a strong youth system in place then you'll be rewarded with more genuine prospects than in years before. Rather than March proving to be a depressing time of the year as you realise that your new influx of 16-year-olds is full of utter garbage, FM21 seems to serve up young players who have a legitimate chance of making it all the way through to your first team if handled correctly.

To pinpoint a massive change in the approach to youth prospects is a tough ask, but the bottom line is that Football Manager 2021 seems to reward those managers who opt to fully invest in the youth element of their football club.

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Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main day job, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is co-host of the Fearless in Devotion podcast, which won the Club Podcast of the Year gong at the 2024 FSA Awards.