A common complaint in the SI community right now is that not enough young players are getting opportunities to play and realise their potential, which results in AI squads being dominated by older players as you get further into a save.
I think that is largely because young player reputations don't rise quickly enough, and that reputation is weighted too heavily when it comes to squad selections. After further investigations, though, I also have suspicions that the AI's logic for developing, loaning and transferring younger players is seriously flawed.
I've run a holiday save for two seasons, with the top two divisions in England, France, Germany, Italy and Spain all loaded. I've found a couple of high-level newgens who haven't realised their potential because of what appears to be some odd AI logic (in terms of transfers and/or player development).
2024/2025: Mirco Sforzini makes his Serie A debut for Napoli aged 15, playing another eight games.
2025/2026: Sforzini spends the second half of the season on loan at Bari in Serie B but does not play. He returns for virtually the whole of the following season and plays nine league games.
2027/2028: He returns to Napoli and is part of their first-team squad but does not play any competitive matches for the next two seasons. It appears that Sforzini did not play ANY matches at all in 2028/2029 - not even friendlies or Under-20s games.
2029/2030: Benfica sign Sforzini for £26million - more than four years after his last top-flight match. He features sporadically in the Primeira Liga for the next three years, enjoying his 'best' campaign in 2031/2032.
2032/2033: Despite still not being a first-team regular at Benfica, Sforzini is bought by Premier League champions Manchester City for £45million. He then plays 25 league games (more than half his previous league appearances for Napoli, Bari and Benfica) as City win the league again in his first season.
A few questions need to be asked here:
- After showing some early promise, why does Sforzini not play a single competitive match for two seasons between 2027 and 2029? Why was he not loaned out again, or at least demoted to the Under-20s, where he could still have got at least some gametime?
- Why did a club of Benfica's stature pay £26million for a 20-year-old player who had not played a competitive match for over four years?
- When he was struggling for opportunities at Benfica, why did Sforzini not push for a loan or a permanent transfer to get more first-team football?
- Why did Manchester City pay £45million for a 23-year-old who had played 48 league matches in his career?
2026/2027: Liverpool sign teenage midfielder Gustavo Bratke for £8million after two years in the first-team at Cuiabá. He makes seven Premier League appearances off the bench in his first season.
2027/2028: He makes one Premier League appearance (again off the bench) and plays in two cup games.
2028/2029: Over the next three seasons, Bratke does not play a single league game, and makes a total of 16 cup and continental competitions. He suffers quite a few injuries during this time, but they are mostly slight knocks, and nothing more serious than a twisted ankle.
2031/2032: Despite playing little competitive football over the last 3 or 4 seasons, Bratke still gets a £31million move to Hoffenheim, where he finally establishes himself as a regular starter. He is now 26, and almost half his all-time career league appearances have come in the last two seasons in the Bundesliga.
Again, questions need to be asked:
- Why did a player of Bratke's quality go three years without playing a league game between 2028 and 2031? Yes, he did feature in the odd cup and European game for Liverpool during this time, but why did they not loan him out or sell him - and why did he not pursue a move?
- And just like Manchester City in the example above, why were Hoffenheim prepared to pay so much money for a player who had hardly played any competitive matches recently?
I've uploaded five save files from various points of my simulation. In Sforzini's case, this includes saves from July 2027 (when his Napoli wilderness years began), July 2029 (before his move to Benfica) and July 2032 (before his move to Man City).
If anyone else has more examples like the ones above, then please feel free to share them. And mods, if you have to move this thread to a different sub-forum, then please do so.
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