Looks like people are right about the long term game.

Well I have seen quite a few people complaining that the game falls apart after 10 or so seasons and mine is going down the pan also.

The year is 2021

: John Terry just got the England job as his first manager assignment

: too many players are 35 years or older and still first choice for there team and still doing average rating of over 7.00 - Fabregas (35) - James Milner (35) - Torres (37) just under 7.00 - Alonso (39) - Rooney (35) - Tevez (37) - Cristiano Ronaldo (36) - Steven Taylor (35)

Those are only the players that currently play in England and are still playing in England. And I also know that when a player hits 35 his legs don't fall off , But the fact is these players will not be playing the highest level of football at this age. The odd one fair enough but this is just silly.

Shame because I could never bring myself to waste my time on only playing many short games

I've never had such problems with 09 myself.

I am missing the point here ....what do you want guys ?

FM yearly outputs lot of young good players / promises , so get rid of your grannies and you can continue to play for 50 extra years.

This is on FM09 yeah?

Simple reply to this is Ryan Giggs. 35 years old and just been nominated for the Ballon D'Or.

8 world class players still playing at a high level at the age of 35 is not a game breaker at all!

@ Grep - I don't understand , are you talking to the A.I ? Because they are the ones keeping them.

@ Machinegun - Yes

@ AliG - I knew ryan Giggs would be brought up straight away .. That is why I said "The odd one fair enough but this is just silly." .

And why are people not talking about CLEARLY the worst of these things ...

John Terry just got the England job as his first manager assignment.

This is on FM09 yeah?

Yes, seeing FM10 isn't released yet they couldn't be speaking about that

I've never had such problems with 09 myself.

Its a pretty obvious problem.

Im up to 2040 in my FM09 game and for the whole game is clear AI managers stick with their 30+ year old players for too long.

I for one don't find this to be that big a deal. Would it be nice to see older players forced to drop down levels as they age, but it isn't a deal-breaker for me. FM is easily the best football management game out there and the next best game of this genre isn't even close. Not being a fanboy here, just stating a point of fact.

@ Senorcoo

Yep I'm sure you would really struggle to find a member of these forums who don't believe FM is the best manager game out by a mile ... because it is , But that is not what the thread is about and is no reason to not post problems we have with the game.

I really, really don't see a big problem. Sure, some players tend to have long careers (basically the ones with really high natural fitness) but the big bulk of players will decline sometime after 30 and get dropped/retire. I'm up to 2028 in my game and the only aberration I've seen is that players with a legendary status at their clubs (Steven Gerrard for instance) get played well beyond their usefulness.

That Torres and Gerrard in my game were allowed to start games well past their prime was the main reason Liverpool now is a mid-table team in 2028. Same thing happened to Manchester United as well, with City and Arsenal actually doing a lot better since they had the sense to replace their old workhorses before it was too late.

@ Grep - I don't understand , are you talking to the A.I ? Because they are the ones keeping them.

@ Machinegun - Yes

@ AliG - I knew ryan Giggs would be brought up straight away .. That is why I said "The odd one fair enough but this is just silly." .

And why are people not talking about CLEARLY the worst of these things ...

John Terry just got the England job as his first manager assignment.

In no way am I using Giggs as my only explanation but you have only given 8 players all of whom are the best players in the Premiership. As you say they are still giving solid performances so having them in the team integrated with youth will give some much needed experience. Doesn't sound like an issue to me.

As for John Terry, there have been occasions when nations have been managed by rookie managers and former footballing legends. Jurgen Klinsmann and Marco van Basten immediately spring to mind and Germany and Holland are not small nations by any means. While John Terry being appointed manager of England is highly unlikely, it is not an unprecedented move. It is this unpredictability that keeps it a game.

A lot of what happens in real life is deemed unbelievable so much so that if it happened in Football Manager then it would be deemed unrealistic, e.g. Norwich 1-7 Colchester.

Sigh ....

OK I play many long term games and have never felt the need to comment on this before , but this game I'm having is flawed pretty heavily.

The thing that made me come and post here is something I have already highlighted twice in this thread

John Terry just got the England job as his first manager assignment

I'm guessing due to EVERYBODY only commenting on the players who are playing a few years longer than they probably should that is the only possible issue here , I myself thought the John Terry situation was the strangest one but its very clear now that nobody ells thinks this is a problem due to not a single comment on it.

I'm glad you guys do not work for the F.A or England would be @#% !

To be honest I don't see a big problem here either, agreed some AI managers keep their legendary players around too long but this also happens in real life.

As for the John Terry becoming England manager in his first assignment, look at Jurgen Klinsmann, Marco vanBasten and Diego Maradona all legendary players for their respective countries and as far as i can recall all got their first managerial appointment with their country.

I suppose it depends on John Terry's status within the game if he is an England legend then getting the managerial job is a possibility.

In no way am I using Giggs as my only explanation but you have only given 8 players all of whom are the best players in the Premiership. As you say they are still giving solid performances so having them in the team integrated with youth will give some much needed experience. Doesn't sound like an issue to me.

As for John Terry, there have been occasions when nations have been managed by rookie managers and former footballing legends. Jurgen Klinsmann and Marco van Basten immediately spring to mind and Germany and Holland are not small nations by any means. While John Terry being appointed manager of England is highly unlikely, it is not an unprecedented move. It is this unpredictability that keeps it a game.

A lot of what happens in real life is deemed unbelievable so much so that if it happened in Football Manager then it would be deemed unrealistic, e.g. Norwich 1-7 Colchester.

Much better post than you first

I don't make threads here thinking that I am 100% right and that if I say it's not right makes it ... Not right.

After reading this I do agree that although the ages players are playing too is not very realistic it is not a game breaker at all , And I never thought it was before I made this thread.

As for John Terry , You have a good point with Jurgen Klinsmann and Marco van Basten, So I guess it could happen.

In my game Frank Lampard became fitness coach at Bayern, now THAT is far fetched

i think to many players do play until they get grandfather rights but IRL some super stars manage to play into there late 30's Maldini, Giggs, G-Speed, Figo, Raul, not only are these players very fit, they are model profesionals and live and die football.. Colin Hendry played until he was old, as did Sheringham, Beardsley..

there do need to be a better balance than there is currently and the Ai do need to use better younger players and get rid of these old players, one thing that may fix this in FM10 is the fact top teams are paying millions for teenagers, so hopfully when a player has the potentiol to be world class they may get put in the team with expence to the oldies..

Surely John Terry being appointed manager of England in his first job isn't all that far removed from Glen Hoddle or Steve McLaren? Knowing the FA and some of their loonier moments when under pressure from the media - I don't think it's impossible. Especially when you look at how many top managers are English.

(I hesitate to say it, but maybe the BNP formed a government and made certain stipulations... OK, a BNP government would be classed as ridiculously unrealistic.)

glenn hoddle had been at swindon and chelsea, mcclaren at middlesbrough where he won a trophy. so it is a bit different.

It is different, but Hoddle was certainly a young and (as history shows) inexperienced, poor manager, while McLaren was hardly spectacular either. Can we say for sure that it's unrealistic that the FA won't take a punt on the best available English manager and that he'll be John Terry? How many of us, hand on hearts, would say that the FA isn't occasionally mad enough to do something like that?

i think to many players do play until they get grandfather rights but IRL some super stars manage to play into there late 30's Maldini' date=' Giggs, G-Speed, Figo, Raul, not only are these players very fit, they are model profesionals and live and die football.. Colin Hendry played until he was old, as did Sheringham, Beardsley..[/quote']

You're absolutely right and in every discussion I've seen on this issue no-one ever seems to raise the fact that this sort of thing will only increase in the future as new technology and methods allow players to stay in good physical condition for longer.

I can't be the only one who has heard of the Milan Lab and the work that Bruno Demichellis has done there. He has now followed Ancelotti to Chelsea and is in the process of setting up the same system there. It is inevitable that more clubs will try to emulate this approach going forward.

This is a direct quote from Carlo Ancelotti from an article in Saturday's Guardian:

"These days, with the preparation and the physical training we put in, and the work we have done on prevention [of injuries], the age players can play to will go up. When I played, 33 or 34 [was the end]. Now players can play at 36 or 37 without a problem."

If we are talking about games that are 20-30 years in the future, I for one think it is entirely reasonable that there will be many top class players till playing regularly into their late 30s. It may not be by design in FM09, but that is academic anyway now as FM10 is out at the end of the month.

On my 09 save things got a lot better when all the real players had retired. All the big clubs then had a good mix of regens.

It's a bit of a weird time to raise this, what with FM2010 just around the corner. FM09 certainly had some long term issues but they have been pretty well documented, so hopefully we will see some improvement for the FM2010.

It's a bit of a weird time to raise this, what with FM2010 just around the corner. FM09 certainly had some long term issues but they have been pretty well documented, so hopefully we will see some improvement for the FM2010.

Unless I'm missing something,where have these issues been documented ?

Things such as players playing on as first team choices when they're 35+, poor GKs and poor AI have been posted about in GD a fair few times, and probably other forums too.

This is a direct quote from Carlo Ancelotti from an article in Saturday's Guardian:

"These days, with the preparation and the physical training we put in, and the work we have done on prevention [of injuries], the age players can play to will go up. When I played, 33 or 34 [was the end]. Now players can play at 36 or 37 without a problem."

If we are talking about games that are 20-30 years in the future, I for one think it is entirely reasonable that there will be many top class players till playing regularly into their late 30s. It may not be by design in FM09, but that is academic anyway now as FM10 is out at the end of the month.

This.

When you consider that what Capello lists above is only likely to improve from now, it's not unreasonable at all to have more top players playing regular football into their late thirties.

On the other hand, the number of games top players play per season is unlikely to reduce any time soon, and is at a greater number than ever before. For this reason, player 'burnout' should perhaps be even sooner. It'll be interesting to see for how many years the current top young players can play 60+ games per season at the highest level.

My version of FM09 is unrealistic as well.

1. Boijnov broke his leg in his first match back after recovering from a broken leg

2. Juande Ramos became manager of Real Madrid and loaned in Faubert from West Ham

3. Sven Goran Errikson became Director of Football at Notts County

4. Newcastle United appointed Joe Kinnear

5. Another rookie manager, Maradona appointed at Argentina

6. The ball hit a red beach ball in a Liverpool match causing Reina to miss it

Oh and unrealistic players carrying on in the top leagues though they were over the hill in this version were Nedved, Cannavaro, Scholes, Van Der Sar, James and Giggs.

Pretty unbelievable.

The John Terry bit as England manager, I suspect comes about because the game doesn't really separate "playing reputation" from "managing reputation"; the F.A. was looking for a high-reputation manager to take over the national team.

I can only imagine what you'd say if Stanley Matthews was playing now, he played till he was 50 in top leagues and 60 overall. The older players that carry on such as Terry, Ronaldo and Rooney are still good at that age, just slower.

Can anyone say... David Beckham? Love him, hate him or whatever, he's still playing for his country and, soon once again, in Serie A.

He'll be 35 by the time it's world cup time. Some players are just powered like duracell bunnies. Also see: Giggs, Maldini and all the other players mentioned already...

Can anyone say... David Beckham? ... Some players are just powered like duracell bunnies. Also see: Giggs, Maldini and all the other players mentioned already...

Quite - this is because they look after themselves properly (and have the required dedication and professionalism to do it). Maldini and Beckham have both benefitted from the Milan Lab, as I have mentioned.

The John Terry bit as England manager, I suspect comes about because the game doesn't really separate "playing reputation" from "managing reputation"; the F.A. was looking for a high-reputation manager to take over the national team.

But again, this mirrors real life too, e.g. Maradona.

The old players are only being played because the regens reputation never actually meet the reputation of players like Terry and Beckham etc.

And to those claiming it wasn't a problem: it really was. There were too many players playing high level football after the age of 35. You can bring up the odd example, but, let's be fair, most players in the Premier League don't play to that age. The OP stated that 'there are odd examples' and he is right. There are simply too many in 09.

People just read what they want to read Peter.

People just read what they want to read Peter.

Yeah. If I was still playing 09, I could bring a ton of evidence to support my view but I uninstalled it

i think to many players do play until they get grandfather rights but IRL some super stars manage to play into there late 30's Maldini' date=' Giggs, [b']G-Speed[/b], Figo, Raul, not only are these players very fit, they are model profesionals and live and die football.. Colin Hendry played until he was old, as did Sheringham, Beardsley..

maybe not?

Bergkamp, Del Piero, Rui Costa, Rivaldo, Romario, McAllister, the list is endless really. Look at the premiership this year,

Giggs, Neville, Scholes, Van der Saar, James, Friedel, Ballack (33, will still be playing for chelsea for 2 years coz they cant sign a replacement).

Bergkamp, Del Piero, Rui Costa, Rivaldo, Romario, McAllister, the list is endless really. Look at the premiership this year,

Giggs, Neville, Scholes, Van der Saar, James, Friedel, Ballack (33, will still be playing for chelsea for 2 years coz they cant sign a replacement).

Underlined players are no longer playing consistently for their club, let alone their country. And the bolded players are keepers; we are not talking about keepers.

Underlined players are no longer playing consistently for their club, let alone their country. And the bolded players are keepers; we are not talking about keepers.

Neville and Scholes are not playing regularly for their clubs?? Are you joking? Neville played on Saturday against Bolton. Scholes has made 9 apperances so far this season and Neville has made 5 in total. The most apperances by a Man Utd player this year has been 9 (Rooney & Evra). So, Scholes and Neville are still regular players, todays game is all about rotation.

Neville has made two league appearances, one league cup one and one in Europe. That is not regularly.

Scholes has made four league appearances and one on Europe. That is not regularly.

At least get your facts right!

http://www.soccerbase.com/squad_season.sd?teamid=1724

Please enlighten us with the 'regular' united line up then

I both agree and disagree. I disagree on the fact that older players can't survive at the higher levels of football. I think they can and they do.

However I do agree that they never seem to drop down levels. On mine David James is 42, not very good but still wouldn't go to anyone below the top 6 of League One.

They are not playing regular football. I don't care what United play week-in week-out. Scholes is a decent shout in fairness but Neville isn't.

FM09's long-term play was a hundred times better than FM08 IMO. 08 had physical attributes dropping through the floor as soon as the player hit 32, and the newgens were usually not much better to start with. Perhaps 09 kept them a little TOO fit, so I expect FM10 to have hit a happy medium. Hopefully.

They are not playing regular football. I don't care what United play week-in week-out. Scholes is a decent shout in fairness but Neville isn't.

Anyone who says gary neville isnt a man U regular is being decidedly dim. Hes man united captain for goodness sake - they sole reason why hes missed 5 league games is that he was INJURED.

Anyone who says gary neville isnt a man U regular is being decidedly dim. Hes man united captain for goodness sake - they sole reason why hes missed 5 league games is that he was INJURED.

Has he played regularly this year? Then, to me, he is not a regular at the moment.

RE J.T. you could see the FA doing that couldnt you;)

and hows about a shout for Becks to be the manager of the British Olympic team?????

put a £1 on it worth a punt:thup:

Has he played regularly this year? Then, to me, he is not a regular at the moment.

He played the first 3 games of the year - got injured - got fit - and went straight back into the side.

Under your definition, torres isnt a regular for liverpool because he missed the last two games.

Neville has played two games out of nine. To me, he is not a regular.

Neville has played two games out of nine. To me, he is not a regular.

Hes played 2 full games and 20 minutes of another game in the premier league, 1 league cup and 1 'other' match (the bbc website doesnt say what that game was...) - so he has played 5 out of the 6 games that hes been fit for.

Im not arguing semantics with you - hes the club captain and hes played 90% of the games hes been fit for - what on earth would make him a 'regular' for you???

Have you got the games being played out in full detail. Just thinking that if the games aren't played out in full detail but just use reputation then these players never get found out and so managers keep selecting far beyond what they really should.

Just a thought might not be like this at all.