retired_dropship-dvd

Apologies if this has been asked before but I've been noticing this issue with many of my youngsters. I typically sign 6-7 "Pot A" starred players that are under 18 and then let them develop with my youth/reserve team. I sold a few of them recently due to them being surplus to requirements and then I had my scout check them out again, out of curiosity. Now the scout (he's the same one that scouted this player in the first place and gave him a 7 star potential rating) gives him a 3 star potential rating. The report says that the player is not far from having the potential to be as good as player X, the current player in my squad.

I have read that a player's potential rating (not the scout's evaluation, the hard -9 or whatever value) does not change. If that's the case, how does a 7 potential star player drop to just 4 stars, which means he'll never be much better than my current players?

I know for sure that my current players aren't all world class superstars so relatively, the youngster should still have the potential to be much better than my current players. And my youngsters have avoided injury and have had decent loan experience/training, so their apparent decrease in relative potential isn't due to those reasons.

I guess what I'm trying to figure out is that if a youngster is evaluated by my scout to have world class potential (7 stars), how is it possible that 2 years down the line when I sell the youngster he only has average (4 star) potential? And remember these star ratings are all from the same scout. ALso, the player that the youngster is being compared against in the scout report is the same one from the earlier scout report, so the relative comparison is the same in both the old and current scout report (and this player has actually gotten older and slower since then, so if anything, his CA should be lower). Hopefully I'm making sense!

retired_mssa007

His potential will differ depending what level the team is at.
ie. He might have potential of 6 if you're in the Championship
But potential of 3 if you get promoted to the Prem.

elpea117

My understanding is the star ratings are relative to the players you already have. If a guy has 7 for potential it suggests that you have pretty rubbish players in that position and if you get a new guy whos better, the stars for other players will go down as a result.

retired_dropship-dvd

That would make sense but the player in his position that he's compared against is hardly a world class player. I would think that if a scout gave a player 7 stars for potential, that player had to be absolutely special.

Or maybe it's because when I first scouted the player, the players I had in his position were not very good so when the scout compared anyone against those current players, most of the targets would get 7 stars. Now that my team has improved, the scout's judgment of who deserves a 7 star rating has to be more restrictive - so only a very few players could now be perceived as having the potential to be "twice the player" etc.

It's hard for me to tell because I'm playing a lower league and my team isn't full of world class players, but for those of you who do have really great players in your squad, is it rare to get 7 star ratings for scouted players? If you already had superstars at that position, wouldn't the scout limit the potential star rating to just 3 or 4 stars, which is the equivalent of saying the scouted player has the potential to be as good as, but not significantly better, than the current player?

Or have any of you rescouted a player after they've left your team to see how the scouting report has changed? I'm curious to see if anyone has noticed the same results.

retired_halfshell69

Injuries may cause a players PA to drop i believe (or serious ones anyway - e.g. ligaments etc) - otherwise it could just be your scouts or you assman are giving you dodgy info.

retired_dropship-dvd

So I downloaded FM Scout and checked my ex players, both from before I signed them and after I had sold them. Sure enough, their PA stayed the same.

What's odd is his Pot A value was 182 when I first signed him. My best striker had a Cur A of 151 at that time. Therefore, my scout was correct in saying the player had the potential to be much better than my best striker, hence the 6 or 7 star rating.

When I sold the player (he wanted too high of wages), his Pot A was still 182 and his Cur A was 155. I had also just signed a new striker with a Cur A of 159. So relative to the new striker, the player I had just sold had a slightly lower Cur A but his Pot A was still higher than my best player's Cur A. That must mean my scout is an idiot because he thinks the player I had just sold is only a decent signing and that he only has the potential to be as good as my best striker currently is. That's annoying, he's my only scout with a 19 in judging potential. Looks like I'll need to hire a new scout.

retired_MamaLea

1. Players are compared to the status of your club, necessarily your players or your division. Therefore, a Man U scout would measure a player on a harsher scale than a Fulham scout even if the best striker at Man U was the same PA/Ca as the best striker at Fulham.

2. The change in the stars can be a result of two things: the status of your team has increased or your scout has "re-evaluated" the player. The scouts, in this years game, are far more realistic (less accurate) than in previous versions even with 20/20.

retired_dropship-dvd

Thanks for the info - that definitely makes sense because my club has increased in status quite a lot since I first signed the player.

I'm tempted to start a new game as a manager for a top team like United. It'll be interesting to see how my scout will rate players. A 7 star rating should be very, very rare. So let's say I'm scouting wingers and the scout compares them to Ronaldo. Since Ronaldo is a top player, I would expect all but a few of the scouted players to receive 3 stars or fewer - the equivalent of saying that they don't have the potential to be better than Ronaldo. It would be very rare to encounter any player that would receive a 5 star or greater rating as that would indicate that the player had the potential to be much better than Ronaldo.