I decided to fast forward my season (don’t worry for those who care for such things I’ll be revealing my results and 4-2-3-1 tactic’s performance in the coming updates) towards March 2026. A month that is very meaningful for many fans of Football Manager. Especially those, who like me, care a lot for one particular aspect of the game – youth development. Because for those managing in Spain, that is when the annual youth intake takes place (youth intake dates vary for different European leagues but usually happen between February and April).
I love developing new talent in Football Manager games and for that reason youth intake day, when the new class of academy graduates is revealed, is akin to unwrapping gifts on Christmas day. Some “gifts” are better than others but at a club like Real Sociedad it’s almost guaranteed there is always an elite prospect to look forward to. And it is even more exciting when the game labels a whole intake class as “golden generation”.
But firstly, I thought that the occasion of our first youth intake, would be a fitting occasion to explain my save’s Cantera Philosophy, or Real Sociedad Youth Development Philosophy if you will. I modelled it closely on Ajax’s famous T.I.P.S. evaluation method. So let me explain that first.
Ajax, renown for its youth development, has a lot of kids and teens going through its academy every year. Many drop out or are sifted out by the chief scout. Usually, an Ajax youth player is a member of Ajax’s Cantera/Youth Academy for only one year. An average of 30 out of almost 200 youth players drop out after one season. Unsurprisingly, Ajax academy staff implement a rigorous selection procedure. This procedure takes into account the four distinct spheres of young footballer’s development.
These are outlined via professional opinions and set down in detailed scouting reports, before the youth player is graduated from the academy and moves to the club’s youth squads and eventually to Jong (“Young”) Ajax – Ajax’ B Team. The report, which is continuously updated, follows the successful Ajax player from his early academy days to u19 and B team and eventually all the way to the senior Squad. The criteria of this report nicely fit into the easy to remember acronym T.I.P.S., which stands for Technique, Insight, Personality and Speed.
T.I.P.S. follows your basic model of a strengths and weaknesses analysis. The strengths outlined by T.I.P.S. have stuck closely to the famous Ajax culture of developing young footballers to be very well-rounded in all spheres, particularly technical, mental and physical. And even social/communal. This is as to be expected. Ajax’ heritage of Total Football requires Total Footballers, and this involves very high standards indeed. Such strict pursuit of excellence regularly brings in a high yield in terms of the number of young players who succeed in making the grade at Ajax and go on to have great world-wide careers. So lets examine T.I.P.S. criteria more closely, for I am using a very similar method at La Real.
T is for Technique. Ajax youth players must be comfortable in control of the ball in both offensive and defensive situations.
I is for Insight and Intelligence. The ability too see potential plays and to think ahead. Good vision is part of it. Basically involves the player’s footballing, spatial intelligence. Essential for playing in a Positional Play system. Best footballers are inherently aware of both where the ball is and where teammates are.
P is for Personality. A youngster must demonstrate good communication skills with other players and staff (foundation for good teamwork), leadership, creativity/flair and bravery, be receptive to his fellow players, and be able to work in a disciplined manner. All of these have a potential to develop through player’s career but of course he has to start with a certain level already in order to get these “social” skills up to the standards required by the First Team. It is the tough truth, but I really don’t want anti-social borderlines and fickle “primadonnas” on my team. Real Sociedad is a team, not a collection of stars. And no player is bigger than the team.
S is for Speed, which is essential for every Ajax player. Speed off the mark (acceleration), mobility, and speed over long distances (pace).
The Ajax scouts are always on the lookout for academy applicants with good starting I,P and S, because these are very difficult to influence. Technique (T) is the only element which is seen as improvable and can always be improved via academy training. Insight and Intelligence on the other hand are more of a natural talent and not as easily learned. Hence it is a high-priority scouting criteria. Likewise, Personality is naturally not as easily learned or changed. Another important selection criteria. Speed is another high-priority criteria and can be developed to a certain extent but not to the same degree that technique can be learned. Physically slow players are usually filtered out early at the academy level.
So in the nutshell, in order to have have a successful path beyond the academy and u19 team, Ajax academy graduates need to be technically gifted (with room for improvement), intelligent in their footballing, possessing positive personalities, and with good basic speed.
So how do I apply T.I.P.S. to Real Sociedad and its youth “Cantera” academy, historically one of the best in Spain, in my FM26 save?
I think it is best shown via some examples when analyzing a new batch of youth intake newgens. Before I start however, there is one important idea to keep in mind. When it comes to sifting chaff from the diamonds, it’s not an exact science and there are never any guarantees. What appears to be a star potential player at the start, might never develop to be good enough for your team. And a measly 3 star potential youngster could flourish and become an irreplaceable cog in your XI. All FM26 newgen young players start as “diamonds in the rough” who need some improvement in one or more areas outlined by T.I.P.S. The trick lies in realizing who can still improve via some mentoring or focused attribute training. And who is never going to be good enough, no matter how much training effort you devote to him. There is only so much contract room for players at your club and you cannot retain every single prospect you find.
“Negative” personality youngsters are usually the ones I get rid of the soonest. But even there, I have to be careful and methodical. There are some youngsters with “negative” personalities who can be improved to become better team players. Some but not all. If they have relatively high potential (I usually use 3 star potential as a cutoff line for youngsters to be considered interesting), then I don’t automatically write off any negative personality (ex: fickle or unambitious) players. BUT if by the time they are good enough to be considered First Team subs (usually once they become Reserve team regulars with 2-2.5 ability stars) they are still fickle, ect, then they are gone from my club (via loans usually).
Okay then. Before we move to the intake, let’s examine my current best youth prospect and how I score him via T.I.P.S. He is already 20 years of age and has had a few years of development at the club already. This will hopefully give us a good comparison point of just how good the “golden” Class of 2026 is.
Typical T.I.P.S. Prospect Example
First, I wanted to show you a profile of an exemplary youngster whose development has followed the T.I.P.S. philosophy to a T. One who moved up from academy to our B team and demonstrates the kind of attribute distribution and potential growth that I look for in all my young prospects.
Just from a quick glance at Tomy’s profile, we can see that he checks of T of T.I.P.S. already. Especially with above average values in Passing, Technique, Marking, Tackling and First Touch. Similarly his I is very good overall. Here we see a great distribution in some of the “slow to improve” attributes like Determination, Workrate, Vision, Decisions and Teamwork. Composure and Anticipation need some work but I can improve those steadily with alternating “Attacking Movement” and “Final Third” individual training sessions. Tomy’s P is “Fairly Determined” and is a great personality for a 20 year old. S (Speed) is probably his weakest sphere and one that will need most improvement. Nevertheless, his physical attributes are not weak overall. One of Tomy’s biggest advantages is his Acceleration of 15. It is definitely better than average and gives him very good speed off the mark. Carbonell’s Stamina of 12 is also a positive, seeing how it’s an important attribute for BBM (his best role). It’s a good starting point which can be improved on.
Overall, Tomy Carbonell gets a high grade in his T.I.P.S. assessment – possible 4 star potential with very good Technique, Insight and Personality and good level of Speed (with potential for improvement). Tomy is already a great player for our B Team and foresee him possibly breaking into the First Team squad as an impact sub in a season or two. If not that, then a loan move away to a league that can better accommodate his increasing salary and offer more competitive environment than our own B Team.
Now that we have a better understanding of how Ajax-style evaluation method works, I will use it in the following section to analyze some standout intake players and see how they fit the TIPS system.
La Real’s first intake had some pretty high expectations for me, and I do not think it disappointed.
Honestly, I never dreamed that my first season with the club would give me a golden generation already. It’s like Christmas day arrived very early in March 2026.
Diamonds in the Rough
So without further ado, let’s welcome the class of 2026 and evaluate some youth intake academy candidates to see whether they make the grade a la T.I.P.S.
At first glance it is indeed a strong group of candidates. As is the case with especially good youth intakes, dictated by the total value of their combined potential ability (PA) scores, the game has decided to label it a “golden generation”. And it is definitely a better group than most FM intakes. I would say that 9 out of 16 players here are interesting enough (and have at least 3 star potential) to merit entry-level contracts, which honestly is very good indeed.
Ibon Sola M/AM(R), ST(C), Possible roles – Channel Forward, Wide Forward
Firstly, the undisputed diamond of the bunch, is Irun-native (town east of San Sebastián) Ibon Sola.
Ibon Sola is undeniably our top prospect and the only one who easily passes all four T.I.P.S. evaluation criteria, despite still being 15 years of age.
Technically, he already has good levels of Dribbling, Finishing, First Touch and Technique. In terms of Personality he is also excellent with Resilient personality. “Resilient” is actually one of my favourite personality types in the game, and is rather underappreciated. Every FM manager loves Model Citizens and I get it, they make great well-rounded players. They are also very rare. But I love to have the more common Resilient players on my squad, especially for those important Cup and European matches. Basically, “resilient” means the player has exceptional level of “pressure” hidden attribute and relatively high (>14) determination. A real “clutch” kind of player who will occasionally score that last minute game-winning goal for you. Additionally, it usually means an above average consistency. So Sola’s P = definite pass. Mentally, Ibon also possess excellent Insight. This is evident in his above-average Decisions, Determination, Flair, Teamwork and Workrate. His S (Speed) is likewise quite good for his age, with Acceleration and Agility of 13 and Pace of 12. Just looking at his profile, you can tell that Ibon has the potential to develop into a very mobile, technical and intelligent striker or wide attacker. A perfect example of just the kind of player we want to succeed at the club.
Bonus Points: Ibon is the only one of the Class of 2026 candidates to already have individual traits. His traits are the two that you can see in the image above plus the third one(and very useful one for an attacker – “Does Not Dive Into Tackles”). Additionally, this intake class has an uncommon number of “two-footed” (proficient with both feet) players and Ibon is no exception.
Hector Aguirre GK, Possible roles – Ball-Playing Goalkeeper
Next there is Hector Aguirre, a very good goalkeeper prospect who hails from Hernani, a town of 20,000 residents and 9 km south of San Sebastian. At 15 y.o he passes 3 out of 4 criteria. Unfortunately his Technical side is not as strong I would like (although 14 in Reflexes is very good since it’s very important for keepers and tends to develop slowly). On a positive side, he has 4.5 possible star potential and still young enough to improve the key keeper attributes (most of which are close to 10 value). His current strengths are his Personality, Intelligence and Speed (which is still important for a keeper especially in my tactic where I tend to favour sweeper keepers because of our high defensive line).
Adrian Zabala D(RL), Possible roles – Fullback (more defensive)
Next in line, is the first of several fullback prospects in this class. 16 y.o Adrian Zabala is from Baracaldo (municipality in Biscay province in Pays Basque and suburb of Bilbao). Firstly, I am very happy that we poached one right from under the noses of our fierce rivals from Bilbao! The pleasure is doubly sweet because he looks to be a very good prospect indeed. Adrian scores high on Intelligence, Personality (fairly determined), Speed and his Technique is more than decent with above average, for 16 y.o., Crossing, Marking and Technique. With focused training of his key technical attributes, Adrian will develop into a good defence-minded fullback for us. He is also comfortable playing on both flanks.
Endika Redondo DM, M/AM(C), Possible roles – Second Striker, Channel Midfielder
Another youngster from Irun. At 15 years of old Endika possess an interesting distribution of attributes. His T, I, and P are above average with some good values in select attributes. I also consider “Balanced” personality to be a positive, since with good mentoring it can still be moulded into even more positive personality. Low determination attribute is more concerning but it too can increase via influence from mentoring group and positive squad personality (Real Sociedad’s is Professional). Endika’s only obvious weakness is his low-scoring S (Speed) criteria. With the exception of Balance, he does not possess very good physical attributes. And unlike Technique, physical attributes are somewhat slower and harder to learn. But I am still willing to sign him on and emphasize his physical training sessions. Hopefully he can eventually become, if not fast, then at least not slow. Due to his current attributes I foresee him developing well towards a more offensive second striker type, a bit like a less-technical version of our current SS role 1st choice, Brais Mendes.
Mikel Olaizola, M/AM(R, L), Possible roles – Winger, Wide Midfielder
Hailing from Sestao in Bilbao metropolitan area, Mikel is another youngster that we poached from Athletic Club’s turf. His biggest strength is without a doubt his S category – where he has 15s in both Acceleration and Agility while Pace and Balance are almost as good. A naturally fit and highly mobile athlete. His Technique and Intelligence were just good enough for a passing grate. Both can be improved on. Personality is another strength because Mikel is already a Fairly Determined 15 year old. His technique, dribbling and ability with both feet has already raised a few eyebrows in our scout department and here’s hoping that he can continue to improve to become a more than a speedy winger for us.
Adrian Intxausti, D(LC), DM, Possible roles – Fullback (more defensive)
Finally a San Sebastian-born candidate who is hoping to join his hometown club! Adrian is another fullback prospect. His natural position is a CB but I see him as more for a defensive fullback simply because his strength and heading are rather poor. He is comfortable with both feet (bonus since he could be trained to play on both flanks) and quite technical with good values in Marking, Passing, Tackling and Technique. Mentally he is quite strong in his Decision Making, Bravery, Teamwork and Workrate, so he passes his I criteria. In the speed category, Adrian has advantages in his speed over long distance (Pace). His Balance and Jumping are also good so physically he is already at a good starting point. In terms of his Personality, Adrian passes with a good Balanced personality. So overall Intxausti is another good fullback candidate who might not have as much potential as Adrian Zabala but might nevertheless develop enough to compete for First Team spot.
Galder Lekue, D/WB(R), Possible roles – Fullback (defensive)
At 3 star potential, Galder is a bit of a wildhorse bet. He MIGHT very well reach his potential with 3 star ability (or even outperform it with any luck). Or he might not. I am willing to give him a chance because of his positive (Fairly Professional) personality (P) and above average T and S scores. His footballing Intelligence is one area where he could benefit from mentoring and disciplining (and already has good innate levels of Bravery, Decisions and Determination to help him in that). Another San Sebastian native he joins my other two fullback candidates in hoping to eventually be good enough to fill that one more defensive fullback slot in our tactic (on our left flank at the moment).
So there you have it! A very exciting group of Basque youngsters and perchance a few years down the line, some will become future stars for this Real Sociedad club. Hopefully this update gave you a glimpse into my Ajax-inspired youth recruitment and development philosophy. It is not guaranteed to find every single potential star prospect but it helps me to at least discover the ones that most match my club culture and tactical DNA. That is any youngsters who are mentally strong teamplayers who can also play our technical and at the same time physically demanding, style of football.
The Gaffers Lounge 
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