Poor AI squad building means the game gets significantly easier after the first few season

Ok I have responded in, and started many threads about the AI transfer dealing, team selection, youth development and its impact on the long term game. I don’t remember an SI staffer responding to any of them. So In hopes of either being told there are big changes in store for FM13 or being told to stop bugging them I’m listing every thing I can see wrong with the AI in FM and how it causes the game to become depressingly easy in the long term.

1 Over all there isn’t enough transfer activity.

Teams aren’t aggressive enough in the transfer market it not uncommon to start a game and see teams retain the same first team for three or more seasons before someone is replaced as a starter.

2 AI managers don’t build balanced squads.

Yes in real life it happens some times teams end up with too many CBs or no natural left wingers but when it happens there is normally a reason. In FM teams will stockpile players in a position where they have more then enough competition while never attempting to target any one to fill a gap in a position that their preferred formation utilises. And worse the same manager will do this for multiple seasons.

3 AI managers buy players badly suited to their tactics.

Each AI manager has a style of football they favour but because their buying decisions are based on player’s reputation and CA\PA they will buy talented players who are badly suited to the style of football they play. You can see teams playing long ball football to a strike force of small mobile poachers or trying to play beautiful football with two powerful ball winners in the middle of the pitch.

4 AI managers are inflexible in their choice of formation and will hammer square pegs into round holes.

AI managers have preferred formations and they don’t deviate from them even if a much better player then they currently have becomes available. EG a manager who has 442 and 532 as preferred formations will not play a 4411 even if they have access to a natural AMC who is head and shoulders better then their other players. They will either play him out of position or not play him at all.

5 Established players remain first team regulars long after they have started to decline.

Far too often the stars of top teams will play on well into their thirties and retain their starting places making the teams much weaker then they were initially.

6 The AI fails to develop its youth team prospects.

Linked to five above, The AI is unwilling to give playing time to good young prospects. It will put out full strength teams in the opening rounds of cup competitions and meaningless European league games when it has already qualified.

This leads to the often seen situation of good players making only a handful off appearances into their mid twenties before the established stars retire and suddenly they get first team football.

6b The AI fails to develop its youth team prospects.

The AI doesn’t train its young players very well. It can’t look at the attribute spread of a RB and decide his poor crossing and dribbling mean he would do better retrained as a MC. It can’t find the young striker who is a physical powerhouse but has poor heading and put all his individual focus training into heading in order to make him into a good target man.

I’m sure other people can think of other things that could be added to that list. And if you to are getting fed up with the way the game gets markedly easier after a few seasons as the real squads are replaced please respond and if we're lucky we might get some acknowledgement from SI that there is a problem.

I’d have posted this in the bugs forum but strictly speaking they’re not bugs and as they are all problems that have been around since CM1 it feels a bit pointless.

I agree with all these things, exactly the same in fm10 and previous versions to. I think the first one btw is due to the ridiculous low transfer and wage budgets. Seriously some of those should be higher than they're.

This is a topic that has come up time and time again, and rightly so IMO. The biggest step FM can take is a more robust AI. Probably easier said than done,but I'd really like to hear from SI on this

7 AI managers cant build squads that meet competition rules.

The AI seems completely blind to a players home grown status and will happily build a squad that is unable to field a team in European competition with out starting the U18s. Making competitions that enforce these rules even easier then domestic ones.

Agreed with all of this. People complain about this non-stop in here, and so they should. This is my only issue with the game- it's a big one! I usually have to nanny teams and do their transfer business for them using FMRTE but this become way too complex after a few seasons.

I have said this before too, but I'll say it again in this thread, then:

I think the solution of these problems lies in implementing more detailed player type descriptions which in turn can be used by both us and the AI to find players suitable to their tactics.

Right now, the TC lists a few key attributes for each role which the player employed in that role should excel in for him to do efficiently what he is supposed to. If that list included ALL attributes instead - in the form of a player type description in his Personal screen- , our competitive advantage vs the AI would be evened out. I can see at a glance how well a player will play in my tactic. The AI managers can't.

7 AI managers cant build squads that meet competition rules.

The AI seems completely blind to a players home grown status and will happily build a squad that is unable to field a team in European competition with out starting the U18s. Making competitions that enforce these rules even easier then domestic ones.

To be honest, thats the most pathetic issue with the AI...

I mean SI go through the trouble of creating the competition rules the way they should be and then their AI completely ignore such things.

It's one thing if the AI isn't robust enough to determine which player is a better or how to train a prospect. But for the AI to completely ignore nationality, home grown status, or the international competition rules is border line game breaking.

To be honest, thats the most pathetic issue with the AI...

I mean SI go through the trouble of creating the competition rules the way they should be and then their AI completely ignore such things.

It's one thing if the AI isn't robust enough to determine which player is a better or how to train a prospect. But for the AI to completely ignore nationality, home grown status, or the international competition rules is border line game breaking.

Not to mention that there is a bug that makes:

A. Players who should have had HG-nation (or even club) does not get it when they have been three years at the club or in the nation.

B. Players who are bought as u18 players and somehow become Home-grown are not recognized as such in the European Registration screen.

Doing a quick player search in my game there are 16 players home grown in spain that is worth 5 mill or more, 34 that is worth 2.5 mill or more.

this is so true after playing to 2032 since about 2018 its been so easy, fair do i have an amazing team but rest of the teams just dont build a team to win, spurs built a really good team then i took there best striker than after that i realised all these good players were about 30 so few seasons later they had nothing

I agree with everything said here.

The problem was there in FM10.

It was there in FM11.

Will it still be there in FM12? The silence from SI says it all.

This thread should be kept alive until next year, when development of FM13 begins. They can't ignore it anymore - especially now Manage Anywhere is here and more people begin playing longer saves.

Without question, the AI in FM is the series biggest fault.

Its a shame to create what appears to be a deep game, giving us options in scouting, training, player development, coaches etc.. then simply make long terms games silly with extremely poor team AIs.

Isn't it the same with most other games though? There's only one difficulty level in FM, and once you've played the game for a long time, you get better and the AI becomes inferior to you. Other games put in harder difficulties usually by giving AI some kind of advantage over the player. Maybe FM could be like that, but I don't think people would like it. If you want a real challenge, go play against other people.

Isn't it the same with most other games though? There's only one difficulty level in FM, and once you've played the game for a long time, you get better and the AI becomes inferior to you.

The AI's inability to build sqauds is the sole reason the game becomes ridiculously easy, its nothing to do with the manager.

Other games put in harder difficulties usually by giving AI some kind of advantage over the player. Maybe FM could be like that, but I don't think people would like it.

I would love this, but i doubt it will ever happen.

If you want a real challenge, go play against other people.

I would if SI hadn't closed down FML.

Said this in another thread and thought instead of typing out my thoughts again, I'd just copy and paste what I'd love to see.

at times, then I find it easy so I wouldn't change to say an 'expert level' for every game but having that option would be excellent. What I mean by say an expert level is that every part of FM gets taken into account. In my current save, I'm 30 seasons in with Sutton United. I've won everything and still have and pretty much all I do is click through the season, buy the best young players at the start of the season and etc...AI never seems to improve. I even sell my best players in peak years and weaken my squad each year!

Expert mode would cover things like, training schedules and what are done in them affects players and teams more, scouting, instead of scouting for 1 match and having a report that is 99% right telling you a perfect recommendation of how good a certain player will be, far more scattered results, which means developing a player, well firstly scout may have got it completely wrong and there is just little potential in the lad. Or sending certain players out on loan is good for them/bad for others, not sure about individual tutoring and how realistic that is? some lads benefit from being exposed early, some don't. Depending on hidden characteristics. At the moment, it feels like I can buy the best youngsters and make them all into the player I want them to be, where really, it's so much different and less predictable.

Expert mode has AI teams constantly improving, changing tactics, building teams. Instead of me having a tactic for 15 years that never fails, I have to tweak it regularly to keep performing, tweak it even for matches because I know if I just go into a game with the same tactic, the AI will smash me because they have improved so much and built a great team. Rather than me feeling like I have an ultimate undefeatable tactic even with players who maybe are the best in the world but aren't stupidly above the rest. Finding the right players to settle in has far more effect, personality clashes, team building etc....i.e. expert mode covers every aspect and if you want to be successful at the VERY TOP, you have to everything right, in terms of regular/expert mode at lower divisions, there should be difference but not huge but at the very top, it should be about then being a top manager. I don't think winning the league with just about anyone after so many years because you have bought the best players is that difficult.

To be fair, I understand that's extremely difficult to do I imagine, having such a change in difficulty but it would be good in the future. I'm sure people who spend loads of time on FM to do everything right, as much as they strive for success on the game, they do it so well on the game they have stupid success. For example my mate who does everything, reads everything tactical etc...he wins everything with teams like Spurs within 3 years. He's done lower league games and won the Prem in 4 years with Ipswich. He says it gets to the point he don't want to be that successful, he'd rather struggle a lot more than he's doing.

Thankfully for me, I don't spend as much time doing every part of FM so my results are mixed bag so when success comes, I am far more happy with it but you can see why people would want it harder and at times I do. In reality, I have a few tactics that I could pull out and win things but I don't have full success because I regularly try different things, different tactics never done before etc...but could you imagine someone in the Prem just changing their tactic because they know it's too easy with a certain tactic? apart Guardiola who's probably getting fed up

so yes, I'd like the difficulty raised to stupid levels at the very top end of the game, meaning only the most thinking FM managers about can achieve success on the 'expert level' and I think that would provide a great challenge for many on the FM boards and they can't complain because they have the 'moderate' level to fall back on.

Apart from that, I'm interested and look forward to the new aditions, especially adding playable leagues.

completely agree with this.

also, AI managers play the same formation no matter what. no matter what the circumstances the AI manager always plays the same formation and seems to have no idea how to change things.

example 1: AI manager is playing 4-4-2 and is up by 3 goals by the 80th minute, the AI manager never goes to a more defensive formation such as 4-1-4-1 or 4-5-1. they only change to 4-2-4 when they are losing in the 80+ mins. they never make any tactical subs.

example 2: in spanish supercup, i am osasuna playing against valencia. 1st leg valencia win 4-0( played the reserves) with a 4-4-2. second leg, despite having a huge advantage and my team being much stronger, AI manager plays same formation and loses 5-0.

The Ai squad building is unbelievably poor, real and barca have failed to get 80 points in la liga for the last three seasons in my game, and i am only in 2019. in 8 seasons, real has only made 1 big signing(paulo henrique) and barca only 2( david silva and arturo vidal). they both have tons of money yet dont buy anyone and their squads are full of 30-35 year old players.

there are so many problems with the AI it needs a complete overhaul. unfortunately, SI are too busy making a new tutorial.

I agree with you guys.

Here's the thing though. SI would never say this themselves, but there's no incentive to fix these problems. Changing the game to maintain it's quality for long term saves will just make people less likely to buy a new FM every year, not to mention taking away resources that can be used to improve more obvious aspects of the game that WILL make people want to buy the new game.

I think the way to address this is to have an option to import databases from older versions of FM into the next year's version. That way people who are mostly into long term saves will still have incentives to buy each new FM version, especially if they fix all these things that we hate.

there are so many problems with the AI it needs a complete overhaul. unfortunately, SI are too busy making a new tutorial.

This annoys me, how long can it take to write a tutorial? Give one person a year to do it on top of his regular work and it would be easily completed. Or give someone dedicated to the task a week, it cannot be much more than the manual with some interactivity and a few jazzed up descriptions.

I would settle for FM11 with a whole new AI system instead of all of the features announced so far for FM12. Sure the play anywhere feature is amazing and something the game has needed for years but if the AI is so poor that playing the long career game becomes pointless then the feature may as well not be there.

All ive wanted for the last 3 games is better AI.... IS THIS TO MUCH TO ASK FOR........?????

I agree with you guys.

Here's the thing though. SI would never say this themselves, but there's no incentive to fix these problems. Changing the game to maintain it's quality for long term saves will just make people less likely to buy a new FM every year, not to mention taking away resources that can be used to improve more obvious aspects of the game that WILL make people want to buy the new game.

I think the way to address this is to have an option to import databases from older versions of FM into the next year's version. That way people who are mostly into long term saves will still have incentives to buy each new FM version, especially if they fix all these things that we hate.

I think you're right. Improving the AI will create two problems for SI...

1.. the game will have much more longevity. Thats bad for making £££ if more people play older versions longer.

2.. a lot of people who like taking non-league clubs from the bottom to the top and dominate Europe won't find it easy anymore - and will complain en mass.

I think one way this problem will be solved is if someone creates a third party program that allows us to quickly improve AI clubs players after each season - so we're effectivley doing the AI team building for it. FMRTE is actually good for doing this, you can improve rival clubs' players and give them wonderkids and balance their squads by ammending players positions etc but it takes up so much time its not really viable unless you're really dedicated and want your long-term game to keep challenging you. But something like FMRTE that allows us to improve as many clubs as we like with a few clicks would be ideal. Also your idea of importing older databases sounds good too except wouldn't the same problems arise after the first few seasons again?

I take over big clubs which are underperforming almost every season after I have reached the state of unending domination. I won't get much competition anyways, since the AI managers are utter failures, but at least they usually improve their performances in their home league.

There are two reasons I am not enjoying career/journeyman games and that is:

a. watching the AI manager destroying everything I have built up over x seasons in a matter of months

b. getting rid of all the staff and players in my new club over and over is a chore

I think the only way this problem will be solved is if someone creates a third party program that allows us to quickly improve AI clubs players after each season - so we're effectivley doing the AI team building for it. FMRTE is actually good for doing this, you can improve rival clubs' players and give them wonderkids and balance their squads by ammending players positions etc

Ive done this before but editing loads n loads in a save isnt good i had a game that wouldnt go pass a certain date never had that b4 using FMRTE and not had it since ive stopped.. After spending 12 years building a team it really ****ed me off.... NEVER AGAIN

I take over big clubs which are underperforming almost every season after I have reached the state of unending domination. I won't get much competition anyways, since the AI managers are utter failures, but at least they usually improve their performances in their home league.

There are two reasons I am not enjoying career/journeyman games and that is:

a. watching the AI manager destroying everything I have built up over x seasons in a matter of months

b. getting rid of all the staff and players in my new club over and over is a chore

I used to do something similar - add a 2nd, 3rd, 4th manager etc at the end of every season and use them to go in a improve rival clubs by wheeling and dealing in the transfer market for them, hiring better staff for them etc. But I found using FMRTE to give them wonderkids and generally improve their squads was a little easier. But again, its not ideal and can be unstable as mentioned.

The biggest problem as i see it is that the biggest clubs often sign way to many useless players. The best teams usually tries to get rid of any unwanted players, and don't sign players that they don't intend to use. Of course there is flops all the time, but they should at least try to sell them on. As an example, in my save game in 2024, Barcelona has five strikers in their first team squad.

Striker 1 Started 22 league matches last season. 29 years, 105k wages.

Striker 2 Started 10 league matches last season. 29 years, 52k wages.

Striker 3 Started 7 league matches last season. 29 years, 62k wages. (Can also play on both wings.)

Striker 4 Started 1 league match last season. 28 years, 33k wages.

Striker 5 Started 2 league matches last season. 25 years, 25,5k wages.

There is also a 25 year old 36,5k striker in the reserve team.

The team is playing in a 4-4-1-1formation. Surely they should see that they don't need at least striker 4 and 5, even though they are really great players. If those two was sold for their marked value, Barcelona would get 5 million+free almost 60k in wages. It's not much, but if they do this in every position, they should get a lot of money out of it. If they instead of signing that many backupplayers, signed one or two really great players, and used more of their juniorplayers as backup for the backup, they would benefit greatly. This tendency, you find in every team. I have a feeling, the AI is looking at the players CA/PA to see if he should be transfer listed/signed, but they really should look more into what they need. It looks really weird, when a lot of players score 10 goals in 10 matches, but don't get any more matches because the competition is to big.

Ive done this before but editing loads n loads in a save isnt good i had a game that wouldnt go pass a certain date never had that b4 using FMRTE and not had it since ive stopped.. After spending 12 years building a team it really ****ed me off.... NEVER AGAIN

Had the same thing happen to me a month ago and finding it hard to start a new save now

The biggest problem as i see it is that the biggest clubs often sign way to many useless players. The best teams usually tries to get rid of any unwanted players, and don't sign players that they don't intend to use. Of course there is flops all the time, but they should at least try to sell them on. As an example, in my save game in 2024, Barcelona has five strikers in their first team squad.

Striker 1 Started 22 league matches last season. 29 years, 105k wages.

Striker 2 Started 10 league matches last season. 29 years, 52k wages.

Striker 3 Started 7 league matches last season. 29 years, 62k wages. (Can also play on both wings.)

Striker 4 Started 1 league match last season. 28 years, 33k wages.

Striker 5 Started 2 league matches last season. 25 years, 25,5k wages.

There is also a 25 year old 36,5k striker in the reserve team.

The team is playing in a 4-4-1-1formation. Surely they should see that they don't need at least striker 4 and 5, even though they are really great players. If those two was sold for their marked value, Barcelona would get 5 million+free almost 60k in wages. It's not much, but if they do this in every position, they should get a lot of money out of it. If they instead of signing that many backupplayers, signed one or two really great players, and used more of their juniorplayers as backup for the backup, they would benefit greatly. This tendency, you find in every team. I have a feeling, the AI is looking at the players CA/PA to see if he should be transfer listed/signed, but they really should look more into what they need. It looks really weird, when a lot of players score 10 goals in 10 matches, but don't get any more matches because the competition is to big.

I have just edited the database. I went into all the biggest clubs in the world (those who I thought were most likely to have good managers) and gave the managers 20 in Buying Players, 20 in Squad Rotation, 20 in Spend Transfer Budget On One Player, 15 in Signing Young Players For First Team and 15 in Signing Domestic Players.

I hope that will help.

did you improve the CA of the manager before doing that?

I have just edited the database. I went into all the biggest clubs in the world (those who I thought were most likely to have good managers) and gave the managers 20 in Buying Players, 20 in Squad Rotation, 20 in Spend Transfer Budget On One Player, 15 in Signing Young Players For First Team and 15 in Signing Domestic Players.

I hope that will help.

If that works and AI managers start building decent AI squads I'll be delighted, but what happens when those managers leave the gameworld through retirement and are replaced by regen managers and ex-players who won't be as good as the ones you've made? Again will this only a temporary fix before the inevitable happens?

I have just edited the database. I went into all the biggest clubs in the world (those who I thought were most likely to have good managers) and gave the managers 20 in Buying Players, 20 in Squad Rotation, 20 in Spend Transfer Budget On One Player, 15 in Signing Young Players For First Team and 15 in Signing Domestic Players.

I hope that will help.

You might want to deal with any crap Chairmen while you're there.

If that works and AI managers start building decent AI squads I'll be delighted, but what happens when those managers leave the gameworld through retirement and are replaced by regen managers and ex-players who won't be as good as the ones you've made? Again will this only a temporary fix before the inevitable happens?

Could use fmrte for that.

I have just edited the database. I went into all the biggest clubs in the world (those who I thought were most likely to have good managers) and gave the managers 20 in Buying Players, 20 in Squad Rotation, 20 in Spend Transfer Budget On One Player, 15 in Signing Young Players For First Team and 15 in Signing Domestic Players.

I hope that will help.

Interesting, how has it worked for you or are you not that far into it? And by biggest clubs does that literally stretch to top 2 Spain, top 4 England, top 4 Italy etc? Because surely all the smaller clubs would just get left behind and we'd never see an end to the dominance.

But if that works then i'm all for it. The issue is balance- afterall, even Fergie makes some gash signings.

I have just edited the database. I went into all the biggest clubs in the world (those who I thought were most likely to have good managers) and gave the managers 20 in Buying Players, 20 in Squad Rotation, 20 in Spend Transfer Budget On One Player, 15 in Signing Young Players For First Team and 15 in Signing Domestic Players.

I hope that will help.

Things I think that effect AI squad building the most are...

Manager Ability

Current Ability

Potential Ability

- these need to be really high (~200) as whatever attribute points you enter will be scaled depending on these values. I'd put them both at 200 if you're planning on making the following catergories all 20's.

Tactical Attributes

Buying Players

Judging Player Ability

Judging Player Potential

Man Management

Working with Youngsters

Squad Rotation

Tendencies

Spends a lot on Youth Players

Signs a lot of Young Players for the first team

Will use Young Players in low priority cup matches (this should help the development of young players who would normally be left to rot)

Will fit players into preferred tactic (this should encourage the manager to buy players he actually needs and not just anyone)

Erismus, have you tried this and if so what are the results so far?

Erismus, have you tried this and if so what are the results so far?

Not yet. I'll give it a go tonight. I'll probably edit the 20 premiership managers to all have 200CA & 200PA and give them 20 points in the catergories I listed. I'll holiday 6 seasons then compare their squads to a 6 season save I already have. Hopefully enough managers will stay with the same club so I can make an accurate comparison.

I'll post the results when its done

Yes that's the thing. SAF retires early in the game usually, only to be replaced by Christian Gross or some other bollocks.

That's a great idea Erimus, was thinking of doing the same thing but i wouldn't want to steal your thunder now.

Yes that's the thing. SAF retires early in the game usually, only to be replaced by Christian Gross or some other bollocks.

I'll make him 20 years younger for the test, along with Wenger.

That's a great idea Erimus, was thinking of doing the same thing but i wouldn't want to steal your thunder now.

Well BiggusD got the ball rolling. I think its worth a try too as the more who test these things the better idea we'll have wether it'll make a difference or not

How long does it take you to holiday 6 seasons incidentally? And what DB are you using, is it updated?

Perhaps a good idea to give them all loyalty 20, aswell as ticking the 'will retire after current club' box, as that makes sure they stay. Wenger usually goes to Spain during the first season, but this makes him stay at Arsenal.

How long does it take you to holiday 6 seasons incidentally? And what DB are you using, is it updated?

Perhaps a good idea to give them all loyalty 20, aswell as ticking the 'will retire after current club' box, as that makes sure they stay. Wenger usually goes to Spain during the first season, but this makes him stay at Arsenal.

It'll take about 1 hour per season. I'm using the WALLY13 update (from fm-base.co.uk) that was released 3 days ago so it's probably the most up to date database there is at the moment. I've merged it with one of my own that has full club names in (just a cosmetic change).

I'll upload the save game and link it on here tonight or tomorrow when its finished then people can take a look for themselves and see if the AI squads are any better.

Nice one, thanks. I'd like to see some squads 3 seasons in aswell if not too much trouble.

Interesting, how has it worked for you or are you not that far into it? And by biggest clubs does that literally stretch to top 2 Spain, top 4 England, top 4 Italy etc? Because surely all the smaller clubs would just get left behind and we'd never see an end to the dominance.

But if that works then i'm all for it. The issue is balance- afterall, even Fergie makes some gash signings.

I changed more managers than that. At least half the Premier League and top third in Germany, Spain, Italy, France and Brazil. Some in Russia, Ukraine, Portugal and in the Netherlands.

I guess that if a big club replaces one of their manager, and the replacement is not modified, I would have to take the chance on using FMRTE. I have just started at Southampton, so we will see.

Holidaying could be another option. I could set one test game going while at work tomorrow.

I changed more managers than that. At least half the Premier League and top third in Germany, Spain, Italy, France and Brazil. Some in Russia, Ukraine, Portugal and in the Netherlands.

I guess that if a big club replaces one of their manager, and the replacement is not modified, I would have to take the chance on using FMRTE. I have just started at Southampton, so we will see.

Holidaying could be another option. I could set one test game going while at work tomorrow.

Nice one! I'll let my game holiday overnight. I've decided to edit about 200 of the current highest reputation managers so even if there's a lot of sackings and managerial changes, it shouldn't effect the outcome too much since clubs will hopefully replace the outgoing manager with an equally good incoming manager.

2 AI managers don’t build balanced squads.

3 AI managers buy players badly suited to their tactics.

6 The AI fails to develop its youth team prospects.

Agree. Indeed, I often see teams getting AMCs and wingers and then play a flat 442 which doesn't suit any of those players. Also I see many players signed and released after 2 or 3 seasons after making zero appearances.

I agree completely with the OP, really hope SI can improve on the AI.

The biggest problem for me is definitely is how incredibly easy it is for me to sign amazing players over my SI counterparts. with just one report card i can see how good they are and how good they will be. wouldnt it be a lot cooler and more interesting if my scout said a player would be the next steven gerrard but turned into the next bruno cheyrou? because it happens to the best!

SI: sort it out

I have had games where Arsenal and Man Utd (in particular) have gone through 2 or more seasons without signing anyone. It gets to the point where their 30+ players retire and they are left with players who started in their reserves filling in, as a result their teams struggle. As a secondary consequence teams like Everton or Wolves, or Stoke or even West Ham (in their first season back up) can be in the top 5.

I can understand how this may happen over time naturally, but - as we've seen in real life this summer - Man Utd would go out and sign a bunch of players to replace the retiring players and this isn't reflected properly in the game.

When I get below par players in the youth system I release or sell them, when the AI get them they retain them.

That's a side issue to all this, the quality of youth through the top academies isn't really good enough. I have a top youth academy with top training facilities and - using FMRTE I admit - their potentials are mostly 90-120, which isn't good enough. Nowhere near for a top Premier League side. I am not expecting a team of 190+ players, but if you want the game to keep refreshing then it needs to do it properly. Occasionally you will get a gem, which is great, but it's very much the exception. And I can scout the awesome prospects and sign them but the other teams don't do it.

I've improved 245 managers - these include all the managers from the following top divisions; England, France, Germany, Italy, Holland, Portugal, Scotland and Spain, plus some high-rep out of work managers, and all the managers in the English Football League.

This is what I improved on each manager:

Their CA is 200

Their PA is 200

The following managerial attributes and tendencies are now between 16 - 20 :

Buying Players

Judging Player Ability

Judging Player Potential

Squad Rotation

Working with Youngsters

Spends a lot on Youth Signings

Signs a lot of Youth Players

Will use Young Players in Low Priority Cup Matches

Will fit Players into a Preferred Tactic

I'm hoping the 245 improved AI managers will now buy more players of sufficient quality (judging player ability & potential), and rotate their squads more often so younger players and fringe players get match practice and therefore improve.

AI managers should also buy more youth and younger players and help develop them (working with youngsters) and by rotating and playing them in minor cup competitions.

They should also try and fit their best players into the managers preferred tactic instead of leaving them out of the first 11 all the time (eg. too many world class AMC's not getting a game, hopefully now they will?).

Thats the theory anyway.

I haven't had time to holiday enough seasons to see if the AI clubs have improved so if anyone wants to give it a try and start a long term game and let us know if AI squads remain strong for more than just the first few seasons, you can download the database here...

[Deleted - updated version will be uploaded shortly]

This is the wally13 summer transfers update + my own full club names update, and now the improved AI managers update all merged into one. So its quite large and may take a few minutes to load into your editor or when you set up a new game using it.

Disappointing !

See the reply of Miles on Twitter :

gregianjohnson Greg Johnson

@milessi with the AI's ability to build teams & squads in the short/long term can it analyse strengths/weaknesses like assman 'team reports'

50 minutes ago Favorite Retweet Reply in reply to ↑

@milessi

Miles Jacobson @gregianjohnson the AI has the same tools that human managers do. Always has had.

Disappointing !

See the reply of Miles on Twitter :

gregianjohnson Greg Johnson

@milessi with the AI's ability to build teams & squads in the short/long term can it analyse strengths/weaknesses like assman 'team reports'

50 minutes ago Favorite Retweet Reply in reply to ↑

@milessi

Miles Jacobson @gregianjohnson the AI has the same tools that human managers do. Always has had.

But does he use them?