Players still playing in later 30's

In my game I have Gerrard still playing regulary at 37, Lampard playing for Barca at 38, John Terry at 36 and Ferdinand at 39 (I think).

Is this just happening in my game or is it common. I know these players are good IRL but how good can a 38-39 year old centre back be? I know in my United team my oldest player is my keeper at 30 and I have replaced all of United's world class players with world class regens. Surely the AI should be doing this aswell or will Gerrard play until 50?

it really depends on a player, in my game(8th season) they are still playing too but they still have sensible psyhical stats and their great mental/tehnical stats keep them in the game

I will get some screen shots up when I get home for you to look at but still playing for Barca at 38-39 seems a bit unrealistic. I know Paolo Maldini is about 70 ans still playing for AC but he is a one off. Gerrards's stats have hardly decreased at all.

Pavel Nedved is 39 on my game and still Juventus captain. Only his physical attributes have decreased.

Funny because in 9.0.0 everyone was complaining that old people degenerated too quickly and anyone over the age of 34 went down almost instantly to being useless. I think they may have over-compensated.

If you've got evidence find the relevant bug thread and post in it.

Gerrard is a legend in my game too. He's 38 and still playng most weeks. Only stats that seemd to have suffered much are pace and acceleration with both at 10 now.

I bought him for 1 million aged 34 when Liverpool got relegated thinking I'd get half a season out of him, nice wee bonus!

how good can a 38-39 year old centre back be?

As good as Paulo Maldini

I think that SI have got it right, some players can keep playing well into their late 30's especially at the top clubs. However drop down to league 1 and you find that players do tend to deteriorate quicker. you would expect this though. The medical and fitness staff at Chelsea or Liverpool will be better than those at Leyton Orient

It's not much of an issue for centre-backs, especially elite ones like Ferdinand and Terry.

Lampard at 38 for Barca is a laugher, though.

You say that but if it was realistic would Tony Adams not be still playing for Arsenal? Maldini is 1 in a million and although it is possible than players are still playing at 38 how many times does it happen. I would understand if they were at a lower league club or even a lower Premiership team but still playing for Liverpool, Barca and Chelsea?

As I said I have easily replaced the best players at United with world class regens and it is strange that the AI doesnt. Also Gerrard has over 170 caps for England

Didier Drogba is 34 on my game and his attributes have hardly decreased. He is set to win the Champions Cup best player award.

You say that but if it was realistic would Tony Adams not be still playing for Arsenal? Maldini is 1 in a million and although it is possible than players are still playing at 38 how many times does it happen. I would understand if they were at a lower league club or even a lower Premiership team but still playing for Liverpool, Barca and Chelsea?

As I said I have easily replaced the best players at United with world class regens and it is strange that the AI doesnt. Also Gerrard has over 170 caps for England

Tony adams was a serious alcoholic for years - if you dont think this will impact on your fitness and longevity, then you probablyare as well.

Jermaine Defoe is 36 on mine at the min and the only real thing to go down his his pace from 16 to 12 but he still can finish

Tony adams was a serious alcoholic for years - if you dont think this will impact on your fitness and longevity, then you probablyare as well.

Good point well presented, probably a bad example!

Lots of players play on till there late 30's in serie a over the years, baresi,costurcurta, Marco Ballota, and Cafu are just a few

No this is a problem.In my game liverpool are still playing gerrard, keane, carragher who are all in their late 30's.This just doesn't happen very often.

Another example in 2016 in my game chelsea are a mid-table team because they have players who are gone well past it.

This needs to be looked at in the next patch.

I have quite a few older players in my Man Utd save. Van Der Sar, Giggs, Scholes and Neville are all into their forties and if I don't offer them a contract they're happy to hang around on month to month contracts. I don't have the heart to force them into retirement by free transferring them and they don't seem too pro-active in fulfilling their desire to seek non-playing positions. Considering their age they're actually quite good though; and in fact I think it's good to see quite a few more players willing and able to play on into their mid to late thirties. A 37 or 38 year old Gerrard actually scored in the World Cup :o

I remember seeing Sparky Mark Hughes still turning out for Newcastle at 50 in the Prem on one of my saves in the early 00's; absolute quality!

David Weir Of RangersIs 39

I do think that aging top class players being able to continue on a decent level is not a problem, perhaps if only a bit overdone. The real problem here is the fact that top clubs are not looking to replace their aging stars. Seeing a 38 year old Lampard playing for a Championship or lower Premiership team wouldn't bother me, seeing him turn out for Barca week in week out seriously would.

What I don't want to see however is SI going too far in the opposite direction again, in FM08 aging was terribly done. Anyone over 31 would be useless and no player over 33 could have any pace whatsoever.

I think though that with the training and diets that players are on nowadays allows a players career to be prolonged so I don't see how this is a bad thing at all

You say that but if it was realistic would Tony Adams not be still playing for Arsenal? Maldini is 1 in a million and although it is possible than players are still playing at 38 how many times does it happen. I would understand if they were at a lower league club or even a lower Premiership team but still playing for Liverpool, Barca and Chelsea?

As I said I have easily replaced the best players at United with world class regens and it is strange that the AI doesnt. Also Gerrard has over 170 caps for England

Without thinking too hard I can mention players who have had extended careers with top clubs;

Henrik Larsson (33 and signed for Barcelona. Man Utd thought he was good enough for a loan at 35).

Paolo Maldini (mentioned several times).

Franco Baresi (similar to Maldini).

Van der Sar (still number 1 at Man Utd).

Then if you look at some senior players aroudn the world that look liek they're going to prolong their careers well into their late 30's (Beckham being the most recent example).

I agree it takes a special player to play for top sides going into your mid/late 30's but it's hapenning more and more regularly, particularly with highly regarded players. Talent doesn't diminish with age, only fitness and athleticism. However, coaching techniques among the better clubs around the world are making it possible for players to carry on comfortably for an extra 3-4 years more.

I'd say its pretty good this year, Ronaldinho on my game has declined terribly and he's only 34, yet some other players who were worse than him at the start of the game are now better because they've aged better and lets face it, I think we all can agree some players like Ronaldinho are in decline now.

I wouldn't like them to take too much of a look at it, because it works pretty well at the moment. On Fm08 if I had Sorensen at 37 as my backup keeper, and even German Lux at 31 as my first choice keeper, they'd both be dreadful with the former probably league 2 standard.

There's many players out there who can carry on for a while, I doubt any of them will still be capable of doing it at 50 like stanley matthews was lol.

Yeah fm2008 was pretty bad regarding the decreasing stats as players got older.

O.K. but what about guys in their 40's still playing and looking for clubs with no intention to retire like these guys (i just pick few of known guys)

I mean come one who is the genius behind Beckham. Where the hell did you guys get the idea of giving this kind of mental att. to him. And to top it off at age 44 marking 17 yeah right talk about realism.

And currently the oldest player in my game

Because i can add only 4 pics per post here is 4 more of over 40 club.

And there is many many more of them but i just picked few of them. I'll try to find few former players as staff members if i'll have any luck.

I'm astonished you have this many players going on for so long... ljunberg was my first choice left winger in the first season and retired at the end of the season. Mental attributes actually increase with age as well apparently, so there is something to explain that partially.

Makelele, Melchiot, Gilberto Silva, Ljunberg & Tacconi have retired on my game and im 5 years behind you.

Also, ljunberg is mentally better there than he ever was for me lol.

is this what i have to look forward too?? my game is 5 years in and im seeing squads full of 35 year olds etc, jesus when will they fix this. it's been happening for years, and they still dont research and fix it.

I'm not seeing squads of 35 year olds really, Liverpool n Chelsea are quite cash strapped atm so their squads are ageing. But even so squad average ages are rarely above 25 in the premiership for me. None of those players are at top clubs, and I could see Beckham trying to mill around for quite a while.

Don't know what's your problem?

All these players have their physical stats at 1 (beside Natural Fitness which however doesn't have an effect on the match performance), and their tecnical also very bad. Their mental stats are quite good, yeah. Ok so Lampard knows where to run, what to do, wants to win always and everything, but he isn't ABLE to run anymore. So he will be bad for your team, just like IRL.

He would only benefit an Lower League Team as a man who stands on the field and tells the other players what to do, but that's all

i quite like this, it was always annoying on previous fms when great players stats would just hit bottom at 30+

and you get some people like Tugay who play till their 37 so why not Gerrard

gary speeds getting on too, but i think in his case its because hes got that whole immortality-highlander-lopping-off-sean-connerys-head thing going on

Don't know what's your problem?

All these players have their physical stats at 1 (beside Natural Fitness which however doesn't have an effect on the match performance), and their tecnical also very bad. Their mental stats are quite good, yeah. Ok so Lampard knows where to run, what to do, wants to win always and everything, but he isn't ABLE to run anymore. So he will be bad for your team, just like IRL.

He would only benefit an Lower League Team as a man who stands on the field and tells the other players what to do, but that's all

The problem is many of those players at the age of 37+ keep getting first team appearances for top clubs whose squads stagnate as a result while young wonderkids are being released on a free. If the transfer and team selection AI were any good there wouldn't be an issue.

Looks like there's nothing wrong with the way players are declining, but they should just retire WAY before they actually do.

People are looking at the amazing mental stats (with arguably comes with experience), but technically and especially physically they're really poor. Unplayable almost.

But yeah, the screenshots of players at age 40+ is a bit silly. Would be interesting to see their history - when did they stop playing regular football?

The problem I have is somehow that I doubt in 10 years time Gerrard is still going to be the best choice that Liverpool and England have for CM.

I had a look at Gerrard CA and it is 167, within Liverpool's 1st team squad they have 2 RM with higer CA and 3 CM with higher CA but he is still getting played week in, week out.

Within England there are a total of 4 CM and 3 RM with higher CA but he is still getting games, that is my problem with it.

I would not even call it a problem becuase if teams are not playing their best players then it is good for me but I still think it is an issue.

this is going off topic a lil bit but another nug that anoys me is players dont want to lern new moves. as a player they do what they are told, as manager we have the right to tell out players do what we want from them..

The problem I have is somehow that I doubt in 10 years time Gerrard is still going to be the best choice that Liverpool and England have for CM.

I had a look at Gerrard CA and it is 167, within Liverpool's 1st team squad they have 2 RM with higer CA and 3 CM with higher CA but he is still getting played week in, week out.

Within England there are a total of 4 CM and 3 RM with higher CA but he is still getting games, that is my problem with it.

I would not even call it a problem becuase if teams are not playing their best players then it is good for me but I still think it is an issue.

Gerrard will always play for liverpool if hes not retired coz he is the Idol of Anfield. It wouldve had to have been him that got found guilty of murdering Rhys Jones For them to start hating him. Useless scouse fool. Almost as overated as Rooney.

Players could just be made to retire between 35-40 to avoid this issue.

But I do like that good players are keeping their stats high even in their mid-30's. Good players rarely retire because they have become woeful, they make that choice when they start dropping a bit and cannot regain their former level.

Would be interesting to see their history - when did they stop playing regular football?

Here are screen shots of player histories from above SS

Oh BTW here is Stevie at his tender age of only 39

Liverpool is still playing with Mascherano and Torres. They are both at the age of 35 and Torres is still banging them in he has 7 in 7 in EPL.

may be we need an editor so we can retire these dead woods sooner ;0

To be fair, Torres is still good, and Shearer was still playing at that age, as have many other strikers in the past. He's lost his pace, which is reasonable.

Gerrard clearly tailed off and probably due to iconic/legendary status its one of the few reasons he stayed there, as well as AI clubs not being interested in buying players that old.

All in all, I don't see much of a problem, some of the players are dropping down leagues, the others have been featuring less and less over a few years then stopped appearing altogether, presumably running their contracts down. They haven't been frees for a long time it seems.

This definitely is a problem. Anyone who looks at the screens in this post and says otherwise should give their head a shake.

In my game, Drogba is still starting every game at 36 years old for Chelsea and they have not signed anyone to take his place. It is just dumb.

how do edit any player from fm09????????????????????????/.

This definitely is a problem. Anyone who looks at the screens in this post and says otherwise should give their head a shake.

In my game, Drogba is still starting every game at 36 years old for Chelsea and they have not signed anyone to take his place. It is just dumb.

In mine, he went to portsmouth in the championship at 34 and has become a bit-part player.