massive_genius Posted December 2, 2008 Share Posted December 2, 2008 Is anyone else finding an awful lot of extremely good youngsters out of contract at big European clubs each summer, or is it just me? In the last two years, I've poached four 'sign at any cost' players - one of them a wonderkid striker who at 20 years old is already better than Saivet - and a load of 'definite purchase' ones who have the potential to develop into better players than my current first-XI choices for their positions. All of these youngsters are between 16 and 19 years old, and were in the senior squads of teams like Juventus, Barca, Milan, Real, Feyenoord and so on. They were all out of contract and I was able to just sign them up with their clubs generally making no attempt to keep them. It seems a bit imbalanced that every July I can just page through the top European teams and steal a large amount of world class youngsters for nothing. Has anything been changed to better reflect RL in terms of youth contracts for continental teams, meaning that midtable Premiership teams can now just swipe all the prospects from Europe on a yearly basis? I suspect it might be this, because so far I've been finding all these out of contract youngsters in Spain, Italy, Holland and France, and none in Germany or England for example. If it isn't this, I can only think it's a bug? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
massive_genius Posted December 2, 2008 Author Share Posted December 2, 2008 Just a few images to clarify the quality of player I'm talking about. Suárez MC from Real Madrid: sign at any cost. Coaches tell me he has the potential to be better than Fabian Delph (Delph is [PA edited out - suffice to say he's very good!] and has developed into England's first-choice MC in my game. This is high praise). ___________________________ Cazorla DC from Real Madrid: definite purchase. Coaches tell me has has the potential to be better than Santacroce. ___________________________ Torres WBL from Barcelona: definite purchase. Coaches tell me he is already as good as Gareth Bale and has the potential to far exceed his ability. ___________________________ Screenshot of signings made this year. Nearly all of them are of 'definite purchase' / 'any cost' quality: I haven't stopped looking yet either there might be more on the way. Edit: just realised I'd stated Delph's PA, apologies for that. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
massive_genius Posted December 2, 2008 Author Share Posted December 2, 2008 Just one last one, so that I can flash some actual stats and stuff. Luca Urbani: signed on a free last summer. Two-footed (left foot Very Strong, right foot Fairly Strong), a natural at ML, AML, MC, AMC and ST (!!), horrific ability for a two-footed player and my coaches tell me he still has a lot of room for improvement. I've been rejecting ~£20m bids from Chelsea, Man City and the like for him. It seems bizarre that players like this are sitting out of contract in the senior squads of the top clubs. And it's not like it's just the odd one every other year, there's droves of them. Shouldn't they be doing everything they can to hang onto world-beating youngsters like this? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SilentBob Posted December 2, 2008 Share Posted December 2, 2008 Nice managers name . Anyway, haven't really noticed this but thats probably because I'm still suffering in the lower leagues. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
phnompenhandy Posted December 2, 2008 Share Posted December 2, 2008 Interesting. Have others found this? Presumably you are using a 3rd party programme to find the best talent rather than scouting. If you are right, it looks like SI have solved the dearth of top quality regens in FM08 a few years in by going to far the other way. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
massive_genius Posted December 2, 2008 Author Share Posted December 2, 2008 Presumably you are using a 3rd party programme to find the best talent rather than scouting. Nope, I've never used them and I don't intend to start. I found the first one (Urbani) last summer, through regular old scouting. Confused as to why he was out of contract, I went to look at his club (Fiorentina) and saw that there was another youngster, nearly as good, also out of contract. I signed him too. Then I started to use the left and right arrows at the top to page back and forth through all the Serie A clubs and just signed all the out-of-contract youngsters I saw who my scouts rated as 'definite purchase' or better (and there were a lot of them!). After I realised how many great youngsters there were just sitting there available for free, I started looking through the senior squads of the top clubs from other countries. So far I've found amazing out-of-contract youngsters in Spain, Italy, Germany, and Holland. If you are right, it looks like SI have solved the dearth of top quality regens in FM08 a few years in by going to far the other way. I'm not sure that there are actually too many good youngsters - there were a lot of crap ones as well as the great ones - it's just that the top clubs seem perfectly happy to leave even their very best prospects hanging around with no contract, available to be snapped up by any passing club for free. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Atherton Posted December 2, 2008 Share Posted December 2, 2008 Its always been a weakness of AI that they don't really respect potential abilty. Although thos are great players there current abilities will be lower than the big teams first team squad i'd imagine, so are released as AI does seem to acknowledge potential abilit Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
massive_genius Posted December 2, 2008 Author Share Posted December 2, 2008 Its always been a weakness of AI that they don't really respect potential abilty. Although thos are great players there current abilities will be lower than the big teams first team squad i'd imagine, so are released as AI does seem to acknowledge potential abilit I agree up to a point: AI never rated PA as highly as CA so you were able on occasion to buy very high PA players from big clubs in the past. This is something else entirely though. I mean, never in FM08 or any version prior did you find heaps of future top-class players available to sign for free. And in reference to them being released because the AI doesn't recognise their potential ability, when I signed Urbani (at age 19) he was already as good as Saivet, and had scored 11 in 18 appearances that season in Serie A! Blindness to potential ability notwithstanding, his CA must have already been massive. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erithtotl Posted December 2, 2008 Share Posted December 2, 2008 Perhaps you should post this in the bugs forum? If it is a bug it's a bad one. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
karan316 Posted December 2, 2008 Share Posted December 2, 2008 United and Arsenal released Welbeck and Wilshere respectively on my game barely 2 years in. Both potential leading Premiership players. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mizan123 Posted December 2, 2008 Share Posted December 2, 2008 when i signed saivet it said that he was a free agent but i had to to pay compensation for about 6.25 million. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
CaptainPlanet Posted December 2, 2008 Share Posted December 2, 2008 It's already been acknowledged as a bug and is being looked at. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
massive_genius Posted December 2, 2008 Author Share Posted December 2, 2008 It's already been acknowledged as a bug and is being looked at. Wasn't aware, much obliged. Do you have a link? I can't see any threads about it from a quick look in the bugs forum. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
massive_genius Posted December 2, 2008 Author Share Posted December 2, 2008 Wasn't aware, much obliged. Do you have a link? I can't see any threads about it from a quick look in the bugs forum. Just a hopeful bump for a link. Try as I might, I don't find anything about this in the bugs forum. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
CaptainPlanet Posted December 2, 2008 Share Posted December 2, 2008 Sorry, can't find it now - but I definitely saw it somewhere Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
daveduerson Posted December 2, 2008 Share Posted December 2, 2008 Sorry, can't find it now - but I definitely saw it somewhere I think it was mentioned in this forum actually. Or perhaps that was the bug about good, but out of contract, players retiring prematurely. Either way, it seems the game isn't treating young players with good potential quite right. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ryknow Posted December 4, 2008 Share Posted December 4, 2008 I just did this recently with my Rangers game, half my youth are spanish because the big teams didnt protect their youth contracts. Got some good steals. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Les Girondins Posted December 4, 2008 Share Posted December 4, 2008 surely this needs fixing for the next patch? having the ai sign extended contracts on its better youth players is bloody essential to a balanced game no? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
schwefumbler Posted December 4, 2008 Share Posted December 4, 2008 My entire youth squad, 3/4 of my reserves, and half of my 1st team are filled with Spanish free transfers that are rated 5+ "stars" by my AssMan (19 Pot/20 Abi ratings). I am in the EPL. I have 2 scouts watching Spain at all times, it's sickeningly easy. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
massive_genius Posted December 5, 2008 Author Share Posted December 5, 2008 OK, this is just totally ridiculous. Onto the 2015 transfer window, and I'm doing my usual sweep of the European teams for free prospects. In amongst the ~10-15 youngsters I sign is this fellow, rated as 'a definite purchase'. I mean, seriously? A lot better than Radu? I was so baffled by this - and wanted to know exactly how good of a player it is possible to swipe for absolutely nothing in this fashion - that I downloaded one of the tools that allows you to see hidden player attributes (deleted it straight away afterwards, honest ), and looked this youngster up. His CA is 120 (he is already a competent Premiership squad player) and his PA is 198. When this guy reaches footballing maturity he will be, hands down, the best defender in the world. Obviously there is no cap on the ability of players that you can thieve like this, clubs will just let you sign up absolutely anyone. The dumbest part of the whole thing is that he actually rejected the first contract I offered him and I had to go back with an improved offer. At no point did Fiorentina offer him a contract themselves, they just let me take him. I'm really surprised that more noise isn't being made about this. It is a complete gamebreaker that I can sign literally all of the best prospects from Europe for free every summer. As someone else above posted, in a few more years my first team will be made up almost exclusively of free signings from Spain and Italy, and will most likely be the best club team in the world. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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