Reputation too important?

For a long time people have suggested that reputation is too important when it comes to several key aspects of the game. Most importantly, in my opinion, is how this affects the way in which the AI behaves in the transfer market. I did a test recently in which I put 5 created 15 year olds in a Blue Square South club and gave them very low reputation. Even at the start of the game their stats were better than or at least comparable to the best real life youth players in the game (Bostock, Saivet etc).

I then holidayed for 5 years in the game and when I returned I was very disturbed to find that two of the -9 youths were still still with the same club (now in the BSP) despite posessing stats that would rival the likes of Theo Walcott. Another was playing for Redditch, another for Morecambe (now in league 2) and the final -9 youngster was with Shamrock Rovers in Ireland. All of these players have huge potential yet by the age of 20 none of them have been spotted by the AI despite the fact they'd all walk into most premier league teams already. It really makes no sense, how can Shamrock Rovers or Redditch have the scouting ability to see that these guys are quality but Manchester United, Chelsea etc cannot?

Now looking at the players the big four have signed in this period I am again worried by the state of the AI's judgment in the transfer marker and the games ability to reflect real life. In the 5 years the only signifigant player Manchester United have signed is Kim Kallstrom and their team has really started to crumble in general. Chelsea have signed Daniel Alves and Joe Hart (who hasnt played a single game because of Cech) whilst Liverpool have not signed anyone of any signifigance whatsoever. Arsenal seem to be a little bit more sensible, with Wenger at least favouring younger high rep players signing the likes of Toulalan, Montolivo and Tim Krul. However in real life Wenger is more regarded for signing more obscure youngsters and moulding them into superstars.

nice experiment. did that save run in full detail down to BSS?

I have found that AI teams have signed players based on reputation rather than potential, rather dissapointing as IRL, you allways find The big clubs scouting through lower teams youth, whereas in the game AI teams just buy any player who has a good season.

Good experiment. I too feel that reputation plays too much of an important role in the game but without knowing too much how it works, it would be hard for me to try and suggest an improvement.

it was well discussed that the big 4 don't spend money. In my save Chelsea is going to ride their aging players right into the Championship in 2016.

In FM 08 there was the issue of players becoming rubbish when they were 30, now they have an issue that players stay decent until almost 40 and it causes the AI to keep them and play them instead of finding younger and better alternatives. It's too bad they couldn't find a middle ground.

it was well discussed that the big 4 don't spend money. In my save Chelsea is going to ride their aging players right into the Championship in 2016.

In FM 08 there was the issue of players becoming rubbish when they were 30, now they have an issue that players stay decent until almost 40 and it causes the AI to keep them and play them instead of finding younger and better alternatives. It's too bad they couldn't find a middle ground.

But it's not just an issue with the big four, mid table teams like Spurs, Newcastle and West Ham are constantly scouting for young talent. A lot of Tottenham's current squad is made up from such scouting (ie Lennon, Huddlestone, Bale, Bostock, Danny Rose, Gunter etc) and recently Newcastle have been snapping up even more obscure but potentially quality youth players (Ranger, Spear, Tozer, Vucevic). The fact is that in my fairly basic experiment none of the -9 players were spotted by any team above league two despite having better stats and perhaps more impotantly, better potential than most premier league players of similar age.

nice experiment. did that save run in full detail down to BSS?

yes, oh and this is on 9.3

We are aware of this, it's something we are most definitely looking into, but generally players reputation will start fairly high if they have a decent CA/PA - the fact you've done it with custom players have skewed the results somewhat. However as said, getting clubs looking more intently at PPA is something we are aware of. Thanks.

That's good to hear. I think that this must be a quite a difficult issue to fix as the AI's ability in the transfer market has never been very good and has progressed very little (perhaps has even gotten worse?) since the days of cm 03/04.

An experiment could also be done to test the opposite; you could change the created players so that they have very high reputation but poor attributes. Can that be done? Maybe they will move to bigger clubs because of their reputation, but they obviously won't be good enough

An experiment could also be done to test the opposite; you could change the created players so that they have very high reputation but poor attributes. Can that be done? Maybe they will move to bigger clubs because of their reputation, but they obviously won't be good enough

This can be done I think, and I think it has been done in the past and like you suggest I think the high rep players still moved to big clubs regardless of their rubbish attributes.

Poor players with great reputation will be bought by big clubs.

In the 9.0.3 db a French lower league manager accidently got a World Reputation of 170 instead of 17, and big clubs are loving him despite his not very good attributes.