I tried to post this in the Bug Tracker but for some reason it just wouldn't post.
I started a game as a test in the Turkish league with all players from the top division in Europe loaded into the game as well as all international players from other continents to get a database with approximately 51K players. This should hopefully provide sufficient players in the market to fill the appetite of Turkish clubs.
All clubs in the Turkish Super League and Turkish 1. League are subscribed to the continent scouting package, which should allow them to see sufficient transfer targets.
My primary goal in running this test was to try to understand why Turkish lower divisions erode in player quality a few seasons into the game.
Below is a table which shows the number of players in each CA range as of September (post transfer window close) in 2023, 2024, 2025 and 2026.
So the 170 row shows the number of players with CA between 170 and 179; 160 row shows the number of players between 160 and 169 etc.
<< See uploaded screenshot AI_Player_Hoarding_Table_1.png >>>
The table to the left shows evolution of the total number of players in the active divisions.
The main observation from this table is the fact that the number of players with 110-149 CA declines quite significantly.
The table in the middle shows the evolution of the total number of Turkish players in the active divisions.
The 110-119 range declines, the 130-139 range increases, everything else pretty much stays as it should be.
The 1-60 range, I'm not paying too much attention since this is a result of the newgen explosion as the game progresses.
On the right is a table which shows the evolution of the total number of Foreign players in the active divisions.
The decline in the 110-149 range we observed for the total arises from the decline in foreign players.
So essentially Turkish clubs aren't signing players from abroad.
Is it merely a financial issue? Not really. Most of the clubs have a portion of their wage/transfer budget remaining.
They could also use the loan market to supplement their squads, bringing in players who aren't going to be getting much playing time at stronger clubs.
But this doesn't appear to happen. Where are these players that could potentially be signed by these clubs, on permanent transfer or on loan?
Let's examine this.
The table below shows the best 30 clubs. On the left is the best 30 in 2023. On the right is the best 30 in 2026. I am only taking into consideration the best 25 players at the club.
Mean shows the average CA of those 25 players.
Std shows the standard deviation of CAs of the 25 players.
Min shows the CA of the 25th best player at each club.
<< See uploaded screenshot AI_Player_Hoarding_Table_2.png >>>
Avg Diff column shows us the CA difference of the same ranked clubs.
For example in 2023 R. Madrid's best 25 has a CA average of 153.7 and they rank first in the world.
In 2025 Man City's best 25 has a CA average of 161.4 and they rank first in the world.
The first ranked club has improved by 7.8 CA.
However this improvement isn't a result of better players in the starting 11.
It's a result of better players who would be deemed fringe players in the squad.
The weakest player in the top club's 25 player squad has gone up from 115 CA ot 140 CA.
The second club's weakest player has improved from 113 to 147.
The third weakest club's player has improved from 116 to 139.
On average, the best 30 clubs have improved an average of 4.8 CA points for their 25 player squad.
And the weakest player of these 30 clubs have improved an average of 18.5 CA points.
Should these players on the weaker end of the squad be content with their fringe player status, instead of going elsewhere to play more regularly?
If we extend this list to the top 50 clubs, the average CA increases by 4.3 points for the 25 player squad.
The weakest player in the squad is higher by an average of 15.5 points.
When the top clubs hoard players, the lower divisions start to lack quality as the game progresses and it only takes a matter of 2-3 seasons for this to happen from what I can see.
This also impacts the makeup of squads in the game. Stronger clubs (ie. those with a higher CA average for the 25 players) end up with less dispersion in quality while weaker clubs end up with more dispersion in quality, contrary to what we have in the database.
Table below shows the average standard deviation for groups of 25 clubs.
<< See uploaded screenshot AI_Player_Hoarding_Table_3.png >>>
1-25 shows the average standard deviation of the best 25 clubs' squads.
Note that in 2023 these clubs have the highest standard deviation, meaning the spread of CAs in these squads is quite large on average.
That is, you can have a squad of 25 where the weakest player is 115 and the strongest player is 190, for example.
By 2026, the standard deviation is quite a bit lower.
When we go down to the 76-100 ranked clubs, in 2023 the squad spread is relatively narrow.
So you basically have a squads where the weakest player is 115 and the strongest player is 140.
By 2026 the standard deviation is quite a bit higher.
If I were to extend this to the 1000th best club, in 2023 the standard deviation in CAs will be around 7-8 while in 2026 it will be around 12-14.
I haven't done the number crunching for this using this data but anecdotal evidence tells me the result in the table above will persist.
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