anyone played 10 years + in FM09?

I just wanted to know how the AI squads looked after 10 years or so?

I remember this being a real issue in previous games where the AI teams were so thin and they were still playing 35 year olds and letting go all their wonderkids...

How's this look on FM09?

I'm in my 11th season now. Just having a brief look at squads...Man Utd have 4 players remaining from their original squad, Arsenal 5, Villa 0, Chelsea 3, Liverpool (me) 1. The oldest player in the EPL is Steven Gerrard, who has made 1 substitute appearance this season. I don't think it is as much of an issue any more. There is the odd player still knocking about, but not many at all. They generally retire any time after the age of 32 if they aren't getting enough games or are stuck in the reserves.

As for letting go of wonderkids, this doesn't happen too much. I stole a couple recently from relegated Leeds and Siena, but for the most part teams have been putting up a decent fight. Of course, if you have the money, you get the player.

I'm at the end of my 9th year.

Just recently have the AI squads started replacing the talent in their system. They went for a very long time playing their aging veterens and even though the losses piled up they never seemed to be interested in sighing anyone to replace them. Now that they are approaching 40 they have started spening soem cash to get better players. It is one of the worst parts of this game. Chelsea literally let their squad grow old and they are almost releagted now because of it. I find the teams that challenge me are the West Ham's, Everton's, etc...who have signed young players that turned into stars.

Seems like an old mixed bag - maybe the reputation factor is still an issue whereby reputation plays too much of a role and therefore managers continue to play ageing stars...

If that's the case then the new generation of players will have 'normalized' reputation and the AI will do a better job of squad turning down the line.

i think if your a fan of long term games, Si need to research this feature and bring it in line with the rest of the game... I rememebr on the last of the cm searies i used to edit the players as i went along, A, to keep big clubs big and B, to make sure there was a correct balance of young players and vetrans in the game..

Like some one pointed out ealier, if you have the money you can build the best squad, lets face it thats one area the AI suck!!

Good thread, would be interesting to see if database size has any affect on this too.

Disappointing if this is still the case. I always play for long-term games. I only ever play one game when a new FM comes out (unless a patch forces otherwise).

I play that same game until I get bored or a new FM comes out but the last few iterations have definitely got boring quicker than before due to this issue and my demands for the game being higher.

yep. Done it with Shaktar, spurs and everton!

I am in my 12th season for Man United, I only have 2 'real' players left, Liverpool have 3, Chelsea 1 and Arsenal 5.

But do those teams have a bunch of old players that they bought from somewhere else?

Just out of interest who are the best players on your long term saves?

And were are leeds united??

I am only 4 years in so not much help to you but Messi, Ronaldo etc are there - the same as in real life although there are some nice youngsters coming alondg.

What I am seeing is that teams are already being pretty crap in the transfer market.

Man Utd now only have 1 keeper of any worth. Their sub defender is called Pat King and is ****. Vidic, Rio, Neville, Scholes all still there and no youngsters in place to replace them. Berba is still there although only a bench player but he is getting old too.

Chelsea are still playing Drogba who is old and has dropped off considerably.

In 4 years time I think that both these teams will have brought in some more youngsters and stars to replace some of the ageaing players. No way Man Utd won't have something in place to replace Rio and Vidic in 4 years time.

Maybe it is worth running a simulation on this to see what happens 20 years down the line.

If this is the case i find it hard to understand why people holiday 10 seasons into the game before playing. I understand that they want a new challenge and clicking no real players just gives the current players a different name and nationality. A shame though but im sure SI will look into this for FM10

I am only 4 years in so not much help to you but Messi, Ronaldo etc are there - the same as in real life although there are some nice youngsters coming alondg.

What I am seeing is that teams are already being pretty crap in the transfer market.

Man Utd now only have 1 keeper of any worth. Their sub defender is called Pat King and is ****. Vidic, Rio, Neville, Scholes all still there and no youngsters in place to replace them. Berba is still there although only a bench player but he is getting old too.

Chelsea are still playing Drogba who is old and has dropped off considerably.

In 4 years time I think that both these teams will have brought in some more youngsters and stars to replace some of the ageaing players. No way Man Utd won't have something in place to replace Rio and Vidic in 4 years time.

I apologise for double posting, came back to this thread and forgot i already left a post

Maybe it is worth running a simulation on this to see what happens 20 years down the line.

A great idea i would love to do this but i dont think my comp is up to it. We would be waiting all the way till FM10 came out or it would crash at like the 10th season.

Anyone with a fast comp who is willing to do this interesting project?

I might run the simulation tomorrow whilst I'm at work.

Not sure how many seasons that will actually run but will be interesting.

Any thoughts on what leagues & setup I should run? Either that or sim from my current game which is already 4 seasons deep...

AI is utterly woeful, i'm 20+ years in and some of the teams i've seen - liverpool kept playing torres until he was late 30's and huntelaar until he was 39 - the worrying thing was that these weren't back up players - both were first choice CFs - it's also not like they had no money - they kept paying £20m+ on players and then not playing them.

Similar stories elsewhere, C Ronaldo played until he was 40 - he and rooney were first choice even when they were retiring - what did utd do? But a RB and a CB for a combined £45m and not replace the fwds.

The most worrying issue here is that these aren't exceptions. They are the trend.

It all makes the game stupidly easy after a few years - throw in the lack of good Gks (2 in the entire database with >170CA) and the AI just cannot compete with a human manager.

NB: This was with 9.2 perhaps this has been fixed in 9.3 but i'm not holding my breath, this has been a fault that's been around for a fair few years.

in 2020 with arsenal and England and have nine real players left on my team and with england i have six players left Steven Gerrard retierd in age of 39 and 164 caps

im in 2026 with sheff utd , regens are amazing, gerrard is liverpool manager and terry is tottenham manager

Im am in 2020 and the squads seem to be balanced, goalkeepers are a little weak though...

im in 2026 with sheff utd , regens are amazing, gerrard is liverpool manager and terry is tottenham manager

I'm in 2021 and so far there are great regens for every position except GK. Honestly, I don't know who to buy when Akinfeev retires.

Gerrard is in my Villa staff and Terry is a youth coach in Chelsea

In 2028 - and there is a lack of decent goalies, I have a fantastic regen from Benin, but he is now 31, and coming through there isn't much!!

Gerrard is Liverpool manager, whilst Terry is a youth coach at Chelsea.

Ben Sahar is Everton manager!

Torquay in the Blue Square Prem have Pato in charge with a Brazilian board backing him!

Im in same boat with Akinfeev. I have had no youth keeper (i.e. a 16yr old to my youth team) for 6 seasons now. There are NO decent keepers left in the game and im in 2022. There are far too many players which come to my youth team that are RIGHT WINGERS. I have 5 that i am meant to keep an eye on. Poor really :thdn:

Im in same boat with Akinfeev. I have had no youth keeper (i.e. a 16yr old to my youth team) for 6 seasons now. There are NO decent keepers left in the game and im in 2022. There are far too many players which come to my youth team that are RIGHT WINGERS. I have 5 that i am meant to keep an eye on. Poor really :thdn:

The most annoying thing with the GKs is that when i flagged this a year ago, SI said they were aware of this problem already. In FM09 beta testing we weren't given a long term game to test (no doubt in house testers were) so there was no way of us commenting on this problem.

It's a pity they have completely neglected to fix this quite major problem as the numebr of goals scored just keeps getting higher and higher making any attempt at a realistic game utterly fruitless.

I'd post this in the bugs forum but what's the point.

I've run a simulation all day today - I'm in the US so you guys won't hear anything until tomorrow.

We'll see how many years have progressed and I will update on my findings...

Here is a pic of my regen goalkeeper. Big things are expected from him.

I am in 2015 and there area lot of outfield players still playing past 35.

3 are 40 (2 outfield and who have made over 25 appearances each in 2015)

9 are 39

22 are 38

35 are 37

78 are 36

232 are 35

That is a lot of old players still playing - Chelsea still have Ballack playing for them at 38!

This is unrealistic!!

I got home and my flatmate had turned of my laptop so I had to start again today.

Wonder if SI have anything to say on this - it's been a complaint for a LONG time now in the series...

Also - It's not even just a case of being unrealistic - it makes the game boring after just 5 years or so as it becomes so easy if you spend a small amount of times taking young players from teams. By the time 2013 rolls around you have a team full of amazing 21 year olds killing the giant teams who are still playing 35+ year olds....

I'm into the year 2024 and most squads seem fine. A few players go on for a very long time but nothing unrealistic.

I'm into the year 2024 and most squads seem fine. A few players go on for a very long time but nothing unrealistic.

thats pleasing news

I got home and my flatmate had turned of my laptop so I had to start again today.

Wonder if SI have anything to say on this - it's been a complaint for a LONG time now in the series...

unlucky about the laptop lol. Maybe its hard to code in the game, but surly lowering the average retirement age of players will combat this.

I can run a few seasons overnight and then some more while I'm at work tomorrow. I'm getting a bit bored with my current game and I'm already 8 seasons in, so it won't take long to hit 10+ if I run some holiday seasons overnight and tomorrow.

Also - It's not even just a case of being unrealistic - it makes the game boring after just 5 years or so as it becomes so easy if you spend a small amount of times taking young players from teams. By the time 2013 rolls around you have a team full of amazing 21 year olds killing the giant teams who are still playing 35+ year olds....

I'm really surprised to see people are still complaining. Yes, this was definitely the case in 9.2, where I played a few seasons, then I switched to 9.3, continued my saved game, and withing 2 sesons I started seeing the effects. Except Ballack in Bayern, I haven't seen any player who is over 35 and still is a first eleven choice for any major team. I think this is fixed.

About the goalkeepers:

Some of the best regens I have in my reserve squad and U18 squad are goalkeepers. I'm not sure how people have a different experience here..?

Just got in tonight from work and the game is 10 years down the line. Man Utd have only 14 players in their first team squad!!

It's 2017 and Vidic, Hargreaves, Andersn and Tevez still starting - not entirely impossible but Hargreaves is starting RB at 36 and Vidic is 35 and Tevez 33. The next best RB and CB are Jack Smith and Mathew Hendley and they are both shocking, averaging in the 5s the last 2 seasons.

Without having to look through every team in the Premier League I can tell there is a problem across the board as Man Utd are second with a terrible squad and won the title last season.

There are a lot of old stars playing everywhere and whilst this is isn't necessarily a problem, most finish their careers at lesser clubs and not at the highest level. More worrying, however, is that there seems to be no youngsters in place to replace these guys when they finally fall completely off the edge or retire.

Bleventozturk: Of course people will complain about this - it's a simulation and most people are not in it for fast action short-term gaming. Maybe a sim needs to be run with 9.3 starting a new season. Mine is a 9.3 patched from a 9.1.

Would be great if SI commented on this - I've posted in Bugs forum offering to upload save file for them to take a look although I doubt there will be another patch...I'll continue to run the sim tonight and over the next couple of days and post some analysis over the weekend.

im about to start my 10th season and defending the prem crown with bolton wanderers very shocking indeed and how i gt this is i gt a new chairman who is mega rich £231M spent in the transfer window during 2013 adn thats how i gt my title i upload a scrennie soon to show my success

Nice! You must have had fun going on that shopping spree...

Just out of interest who are the best players on your long term saves?

And were are leeds united??

Leeds have been yo-yoing between the EPL and Championship for the last 5 or 6 years. As for best players, they are all regens who play for me!

Bleventozturk: Of course people will complain about this - it's a simulation and most people are not in it for fast action short-term gaming. Maybe a sim needs to be run with 9.3 starting a new season. Mine is a 9.3 patched from a 9.1.

I understand, I play the game same way, going long-term. And I was telling you that I'm into my 5th season now, and I saw a drastic change regarding this problem after installing 9.3.0. Teams actually started getting rid of their aging stars. I don't see many 30+ players in the national teams, and Ballack and a few more I've noticed, most of today's (2009) stars are either retired now (2013), or kicked into the reserve teams, or to weaker teams.

Another good thing I realized is that the big 4 teams, and ManCity, are continuously recruiting good and young players, and this way they remain strong, which is more realistic to me.

Apparently we both applied the 3rd patch to our saved games, and whereas it fixed my game, it didn't fix yours.

I will play a few more seasons, and see how it goes. I'm in my 5th season, and you are in your 10th. Maybe after 5 season my game will have problems too. But I hope not

I've holidayed a game until 2019 so I can log on as Buck Rogers. Haven't started it yet as I'm enjoying my old one in 2014.

I'm in 2016-17 and it's definitely been a problem in my game.

To consider the league form, the Big Four dominated until 2013-14, then Chelsea fell out in 2013-14, Liverpool fell out in 2014-15 (as Man City ended Arsenal's three in a row and four in five) and Man U fell out in 2015-16 (top 4 last year being Man City, Arsenal, Leicester (me) and Spurs, with Chelsea 5th, Man U 6th and Liverpool 13th and briefly in administration).

On another measure, Liverpool only signed more than three players in a season this year, Arsenal only signed more than two players in a season this year (and that's having just been taken over by a Finnish tycoon!), Man U didn't sign a single player till August 2010 (then not another until Jan 2012, then none between August 2013 and July 2015) and only Chelsea averaged three signings a season.

Maybe there'll be a sea change after this season (my first full one with 9.3.0)...