Player Development not fixed? Old Players Stats do STILL decline massively !

(Firstly sorry if I did open an extra thread for this, but I think it is very important and maybe the other thread gets overlooked)

Made a test and took an editor to compare CAs in July and in December of some old players (most of Serie A as there are plenty old legends, was also playing with Serie A (I was unemployed however)

Name: JULY CA / DECEMBER CA

Del Piero (34 years old): 171 / 165

Cannavaro (35): 170 / 165

Materazzi (35?): 158 / 151

Di Natale (30): 169 / 169

Toni (31): 174 / 174

Nedved (36): 160 / 151

Corini (38): 129 / 116

Inzaghi (34): 154 / 140

Zambrotta (31?): 158 / 158

Maldini (40): 146 / 125

Nesta (31?): 173 / 171

Giggs (34): 155 / 150

v.d.Sar (38): 174 / 166

Scholes (33): 170 / 167

So you can see, there's still a huge CA drop for players over 34 years !!

I bet none of these 34+ players will be still first teamer after ONE season.

Take Maldini, after season one he should have a Ca of 104 !!

This should be the prove that SI again DID NOT FIX the Old Player Development part of the game !!

The CA drop is much too high for 34 years players with such a determination.

This again does mean, in FM09 there will be no valuable players over 34 years anymore, not to mention a possibility of an in-game-Maldini or even V.d. Sar, as every regen will massively decline at the age of 34/35 despite of his mental attributes.

I'm heavily disappointed as this is almost the same as in FM08. Maybe it has been slightly reduced, but you can't tell me that this does reflect RL.

I highly demand to further move the decline age forward / lower the decline rate, and to do so for patch 1 or 2 !

I don't see the problem. It's very noticeable in real life that Giggs has declined, and it'll just get much worse within the next year or two and he'll likely retire. There's a six month gap in your comparisons, and the decline isn't that big. What would you like to see, CA decreasing at 1 per year? So then Scholes would have a CA of 165 when he's 38?

which editor is available for FM09? Or is it like a private thing?

I don't see the problem. It's very noticeable in real life that Giggs has declined, and it'll just get much worse within the next year or two and he'll likely retire. There's a six month gap in your comparisons, and the decline isn't that big. What would you like to see, CA decreasing at 1 per year? So then Scholes would have a CA of 165 when he's 38?

Yeah, but giggs is still better than 80% of the other players in the premiership, its only his physical stats that have taken a knock, hes not as quick, and tires quicker, but hes still technically as good as he ever was and now he has better experience so better mental stats. I think it should depend on the mental stats of the player to begin with, giggs has for the latter part of his carreer and scholes lived well, kept the partying side down and have been great proffessionals which is why they have longer careers others who party all their careers shouldnt imo

I don't see the problem. It's very noticeable in real life that Giggs has declined, and it'll just get much worse within the next year or two and he'll likely retire. There's a six month gap in your comparisons, and the decline isn't that big. What would you like to see, CA decreasing at 1 per year? So then Scholes would have a CA of 165 when he's 38?

Look the problem for me is that the system is too heavily based on age and not on individual attributes.

For example: In FM09 there will be no Maldini/Cannavaro/Shearer/Del Piero REGENS as the system makes them decline too heavily when reaching a certain age (seems to be 34 or 35 depending on the player). This means it makes no sense buying a 32 year old legend as in 3 or 4 years he will be REALLY REALLY BAD. But players like Cannavaro, Giggs and Del Piero can still play high level football, even though they are not as fast as in their twenties.

I admit that SI has worked on these areas because (though I have no statistics from FM08) I have the feeling that until 34 years the good players remain relatively good. But there's still no chance for a late comeback like Del Piero did and does this season, and there's no chance for having a good premiership player with 35 or 36 years.

Apart from that, do you really think that in one year Maldini will be a decent League One player (CA= 104)??

which editor is available for FM09? Or is it like a private thing?

Go to the Editors Hideout, look for Joor's thread (like "FM09 Editor?" or something) and then there's an editor to download who can tell you CA and PA when you open the players profile in game and then ALT+TAB to use the program. Be aware as it's chinese, but it's easy to understand because you recognize the CA and PA very fast

I agree that the decline of some players is questionable whether SI have got it right or not. one thing that i notice is that inzaghi drops by 14 CA, when he's just been given a contract in real life to 2010!

i think the real issue here is definitely

This again does mean, in FM09 there will be no valuable players over 34 years anymore, not to mention a possibility of an in-game-Maldini or even V.d. Sar, as every regen will massively decline at the age of 34/35 despite of his mental attributes.[/Quote]

exactly right. i seem to recall in FM08 that barely any players whatsoever had prolonged careers, in some instances, players got to say 32 with no problems and then declined dramatically in 1 year (usually their last)

Yeah, but giggs is still better than 80% of the other players in the premiership, its only his physical stats that have taken a knock, hes not as quick, and tires quicker, but hes still technically as good as he ever was and now he has better experience so better mental stats. I think it should depend on the mental stats of the player to begin with, giggs has for the latter part of his carreer and scholes lived well, kept the partying side down and have been great proffessionals which is why they have longer careers others who party all their careers shouldnt imo

umm...Giggs has been absolutely disappointing during most games he's played, even last season. Not only is he invisible for most games but he makes a lot of mistakes too. Isn't he retiring at the end of this season? He's nowhere near better than 80% of premiership players anymore.

I don't see much wrong with the CA drops in the original post. Perhaps Maldini dropped a little too much, seeing as he's still a first team regular for Milan (but he's supposedly retiring at the end of the season anyway, so it doesn't matter too much for him. And he is 40!). Del Piero is 34, and only dropped by 6 CA points, which isn't bad going at all. I think you're overreacting a little.

This means it makes no sense buying a 32 year old legend as in 3 or 4 years he will be REALLY REALLY BAD.

Nobody would realistically spend big on a 32 year old anyway. It's ultimately the beginning of the end of their career. If they were a legend, it's likely they'd certainly start to deteriorate by the time their 35 (like Makelele and Thuram) anyway.

But there's still no chance for a late comeback like Del Piero did and does this season, and there's no chance for having a good premiership player with 35 or 36 years.

I can't think of a good Premiership player that is 35/36 years old.

Apart from that, do you really think that in one year Maldini will be a decent League One player (CA= 104)??

No, he'll be retired

Maldini is a special case really - I don't think there's quite been a player like him before (still really good, even at 40). And as such, perhaps the game shouldn't really be expected to take him as a general example. It's fair for the game to think that he'd deteriorate pretty rapidly.

For the record, I've never even heard of Corini.