Should aging be reversable? :p

I apologise for the inanity of the title, but it seemed appropriate.

I was just reading a thread about someone whose player's going on the decline at 24. It occured to me that sometimes this happens. Furthermore it occurred to me that sometimes this happens, and then the player recovers what they lost.

A case in point in my mind would be Ronaldo (the real one). Having seen his career stall and suffer, he's currently having a great time at Corinthians in Sao Paolo, and playing very well. He's still only 32, and there are growing calls for him to be returned to the Selacao. (Curse my lack of a keyboard which offers the squiggly things that Portugese requires.)

Should it be possible for certain players to have a second wind as it were? The Teddy Sheringhams and Ronaldos of this world seem to me impossible in FM, and it would be amazing for them to happen again.

Players can still have a 'second wind' as you put it, it's just it depends on the quality of football/opposition. Ronaldo isn't really past it at 32 yet either he can still be used at a good level on FM at the start.

Ronaldo got 20 league goals in season one for Corinthians before they sold him on my Internacional save.

Well what I mean is that there's been a clear improvement in him as a player since he returned to Brazil.

Should the game reflect that possibility?

Well what I mean is that there's been a clear improvement in him as a player since he returned to Brazil.

Should the game reflect that possibility?

How do you decide who can or can't have this second wind though? How do you reflect this in the DB? How can you measure which player is likely to have a second wind or not?

Main improvement in relation with Ronaldo is because he's now injury free and they have got him into shape because he's never lost his ability he just gained too much weight and is made of glass sadly.

If you take another player Beckham, he can be extremely useful until his late 30's even early 40’s depending who you are on FM.

isn't it just that he's playing in an inferior league - no disrespect meant.

isn't it just that he's playing in an inferior league - no disrespect meant.

Seems disrespectful to me, the simple answer to that is no. Are you wearing your EPL glasses?

(Curse my lack of a keyboard which offers the squiggly things that Portugese requires.)

The ç character? It's ALT-0231 (on the numeric keypad).

The game does allow a "second wind" or "clear improvement" in aging players, but it requires careful man management of condition and match experience as well as allowing Physical attributes to decline and redistributing the available CA into Mental attributes. In this way you can replicate the real life phenomenon of physical decline being negated by experience, composure and footballing intelligence.

What you cannot do is prevent decline across the board. The natural rate of decline for physical attributes is much higher than other attributes and is nigh on impossible to reverse for even a season once it begins in earnest.

How do you decide who can or can't have this second wind though? How do you reflect this in the DB? How can you measure which player is likely to have a second wind or not?

Main improvement in relation with Ronaldo is because he's now injury free and they have got him into shape because he's never lost his ability he just gained too much weight and is made of glass sadly.

If you take another player Beckham, he can be extremely useful until his late 30's even early 40’s depending who you are on FM.

Well random chance perhaps...?

I've no idea how to code it in if I'm honest, but I do think some old players prove themselves to be far more than merely extremely useful...

isn't it just that he's playing in an inferior league - no disrespect meant.

Not really, no. He's playing much better than he has done in quite some time.

The ç character? It's ALT-0231 (on the numeric keypad).

Cool. Should be helpful if I ever need to insult my one Portugese friend.

I was just reading a thread about someone whose player's going on the decline at 24. It occured to me that sometimes this happens.

Could you kindly point me to this thread? One of my young stars just had a massive decline on 7 stats at the age of 23 and I am a little concerned.

Thanks!

EDIT: NM - found it. THanks.

You have a good point. It seems too often that players just get worse and stay worse in Football manager, when sometimes players really can get this second wind.

Though, sometimes it does sort of appear in FM 2009.

For example, in my game Lampard at Chelsea. At 34 his career looked done and dusted at Chelsea. He suddenly got a bit better again and played onto 39 years old. From the age of 35-37 he was playing far better than he was from 32-33.

In my team now, Walcott has had the same thing. At 26-27 he was the best thing since sliced bread, having signed for the club at 24. When he hit about 29 years, he began to fall out of favour and began to get worse as a footballer. A young English super star, Lewis Brazil had taken his role in the team and wasn't letting it go, and further poor performances from Walcott when he had his chance left him on the outer. However, at the age of 31, after I had already considered selling him off once or twice (had him transfer listed) something unusual happened. He had become slower than in previous years, but he began to be more consistant and for some reasons, just finding goals, goals and more goals. He actually once again worked his way to first choice, despite not being as quick as he was (down from 19a-18p to 17a-16p), yet the overall quality of what he was producing, and in fact a few attributes such as crossing, dribbling, creativity and such had gone up, not to mention his performances overall. Now 33-34 odd years he's still going strong, not quite the player he once was, but still producing when required.

Maybe that comes again back to the difference between young players and old players. The difference between a 34 year old with many years of top flight experience and a young player with bags of talent.

At the end of the day, how the players attributes look shouldn't be your major concern anyhow, but rather how they're performing.

If you want to help reverse the decline of a younger player, or better manage the attributes of an older player, take a look at the following thread...

A Closer Look at Training.

Some very good discussion about broader training and individualised training schedule use.

I think the history of FM has seen older players have a bad run as their stats decline a bit, and be somewhat unfairly dropped forever as a result - worse still, players who don't play any worse but get dropped anyway. I've certainly had players return to form after a bad season in their early thirties and go on to star for years to come because I boldly stick by them, and likewise I've seen Ronaldo situations with older guys getting serious injuries and me thinking "well that's the end of him", but then through sticking by them allow them to return to form. Maybe the game is now overcompensating a bit with all the geriatric superstars who don't seem to ever decline, but I think it's a step in the right direction.

Seems disrespectful to me, the simple answer to that is no. Are you wearing your EPL glasses?

I sure am

It seems that now he's happy and fit the goals are coming back, whereas at Milan he was never properly fit.

The brazilian league is a strange one though - players get snapped up at a young age to come over to europe and some return at 30+ to play for their old clubs. It's rare that a player is ever at his peak whilst playing in Brazil purely for economical reasons, an who could blame them. I think i read somewhere that brazil exports more footballers than any other nation.