Strategy for training: late season team acquisition

[Kathmandu]

I just started playing HT a couple of weeks ago and now I am hooked. I just told my brother about it and he is going to register for a team. The earliest he could get his team would be week #12 of the season...conceivably it could be week #13.

Any thoughts about training programs for late season team acquisition?
Should he try to buy 17 yr olds late in season 23 to begin his training program? or should he buy his trainees at the start of season 24?

[Poli]

Hi kath, glad to see you found us! I'd go ahead and start training myself, but I find I'm often not the wisest of the bunch.

Best of luck!

[sterlingice]

I just started playing HT a couple of weeks ago and now I am hooked. I just told my brother about it and he is going to register for a team. The earliest he could get his team would be week #12 of the season...conceivably it could be week #13.

Any thoughts about training programs for late season team acquisition?
Should he try to buy 17 yr olds late in season 23 to begin his training program? or should he buy his trainees at the start of season 24?
I think he should get his 17yo passables now if for no other reason than because he'll have his pick of talent and it will be at the lowest price of the season. It's a big deal when you only have $300K, much more so than later on when you care more about getting a skill level ahead. Buy now, train stamina or set pieces in the offseason, and then get rolling next season with some cheap trainees.

Although thinking though this, it may be better only if he's a PM trainee and can squeeze in some stamina because buying 18yo passables in weeks 1-3 of next season will be just as good for striker or defender trainees. However, the earlier he starts, the more time he has to pick and choose who he wants.

SI

[JAG]

Interestingly, I started in week 13 of last season. What I did was to train keepers and use the keeper tool (hxxp://www.hottrick.org/hattrick_keeper_tool.php) to find 17 yr old passables that were close to solids, then train train train them through the offseason and into my current season. So far it's worked out ok, my main keeper just hit formidable last week. I agree with SI though, get the best level of trainee you can afford (probably 17 yr old passable) and get started (of course, if there are any trainable players on the team, that would be a great place to start training too).

[BlueMage]

If i were starting over, I would get a high passable 17 keeper, from the US. If it's possible to get a high leadership/personality guy, that would help a ton too. Then I would train him until he's 21-22 and switch training to something else. Tell him to buy backups at passable and sell them at outstanding or so. That's my two cents, b/c an amazing keeper helps at every level.

[Mr. Wednesday]

If you're training keeper, after your first batch, I think you're better off starting at solid and training for two seasons to magnificent or world class. If you sell out outstanding, you've only had one top-value skill transition to offset the period when you're getting relatively little market value per skill transition.

The only real negative to this strategy is that your income is spaced out a little more. As I said, it's not what you should do with the initial batch, I don't think, I recommend it thereafter.