Also don't forget that if the 19 yr old player is ahead it actually saves you some training time as well. You could get more pops in his 18th year which could make the 18 year old guy a better player, but you are getting the extra skills on the 19 yr old for free without having to train him.
So yes there are definitely cases where the 18yr old is way better:
- on the transfermarket (19 yr olds sell really bad imo)
- if you want to get him to the U20
- if he has a really high cap and you want to get everything out of it.
But if you are a team that cannot afford really high level players in the future going for the 19yr old might not even be that bad.
Personally I want to try to get players in the U20 and I want to train players with high potential to their max and have them stay with me forever. But that's not everyones goal.
bit messy writing, hope the core of my point comes across.
Crunchy! If you eat fast enough