Isnt far from having the required potential.....

Does anyone know what this actually means and is it better than "has the potential to be as good as"

"isn't far from having the required potential to be better than".

Since this indicates that a player can't be better than, surely they can only be as good as, then what does it actually mean. Trying to focus on youth development but find this statement just confusing me.

Which is actually better?

Thx a lot

Don't think one would be better. They seem to say the same thing really. If I had to go with one then I would choose 'isn't far from having required potential', this implies that with hard work they could be better rather than being just as good.

I'd say that "has the potential to be as good as" means that the player that you are looking at has a potential ability of, lets say, 150 the same the current ability as Player X that you currently own.

"isn't far from having the required potential to be better than" would indicate that they have a potential ability of around 145 meaning that they are close to being better than Player X is they are developed correctly.

Personally I'd say that "has the potential to be as good as" would be the best one to go for. Just my opinion.

maybe they indicate that a player that is: "has the potential to be as good as" has a fixed potential that he can't go above, using the example above, 150.

and "isn't far from having the required potential to be better than" could mean that they don't have a fixed potential, like these -9 and -10 players people are always on about, and he has the potential to be better with the right work...for example 150-180 or whatever the range is...

maybe they indicate that a player that is: "has the potential to be as good as" has a fixed potential that he can't go above, using the example above, 150.

and "isn't far from having the required potential to be better than" could mean that they don't have a fixed potential, like these -9 and -10 players people are always on about, and he has the potential to be better with the right work...for example 150-180 or whatever the range is...

That would make sense, but all the players who were -9's etc get given their potentials when the game starts. Everyone has a fixed potential as soon as the game starts.

Well then maybe it's just a little variation to add some interest

It could be that they more accurately determine the potential of a player when they say "has the potential to be as good as" and with the other one, they just know the general range it is in, could be worth testing it out with different levels of scout.

Does anyone know what this actually means and is it better than "has the potential to be as good as"

"isn't far from having the required potential to be better than".

Since this indicates that a player can't be better than, surely they can only be as good as, then what does it actually mean. Trying to focus on youth development but find this statement just confusing me.

Which is actually better?

Thx a lot

Both of these are only used in comparison to another, they are not indicitive of an actual potential. If the original player is useless then the player being compared is also useless, if the original player is Kaka then they would be possible world beaters.

isn't far from having the required potential to be better than - means his potential ability is slightly less than the original players current ability.

has the potential to be as good as - means his potential ability is about the same as the original players current ability

I'd say that "has the potential to be as good as" means that the player that you are looking at has a potential ability of' date=' lets say, 150 the same the current ability as Player X that you currently own.

"isn't far from having the required potential to be better than" would indicate that they have a potential ability of around 145 meaning that they are close to being better than Player X is they are developed correctly.

Personally I'd say that "has the potential to be as good as" would be the best one to go for. Just my opinion.[/quote']

I've always understood it to be like this.

The problem is that saying he isn't far from the potential to be better than would seem to indicate that he DOES have the potential to be better than the original player? Surely if the players potential was lower than the original player then it would say something like "Isn't far from having the required potential to be as good as..."? That would make more sense, the fact that they include the word BETTER would indicate that they can be just that...better...

Thx so far. I can actually give a couple of examples

Stekelenburg is my keeper. Asenjo has the potential to be as good and silviu lung jr the potential to almost be better than.

aissati is my midfield left. Rodney sneijder has the potential to be as good and Brek shea the potential to almost be better. As far as I know sneijder and shea are -9 potential players so that doesn't affect it.

Thx for any more ideas.

The grammer is a little lax in places, but FM has always been a bit preschool in that respect.

I'd go with the player with the better attributes, and scout reports all round. A higher PA means nothing with the wrong mental/hiddenm attributes.

Just to put some numerical basis behind the descriptions.

I've scouted 65 players with a Scout who has a Judging Ability and Judging Potential of 20/20.

I've found that on average there is a 13.4 point difference between player X and Y when the Scout says Player X isn't far from having the potential to be better than Y

There is a 21.04 difference on average when the scout says Player X is someway off having the potential to be better than Player Y

I haven't found enough reports saying Player X has the potential to play a similar level to Player Y to be able to give a decent average yet.

I'm hoping to add a lot more players to the list to get a bigger sample size and also to see why players who have equal PA's are not considered to have the same future by my Scout. Maybe hidden attributes comes into effect here.