retired_joyflash

When I look at the Fm forums, mostly you lads talking about young stars.

So why (only) buy players below the age of 30.
I now the need of a younger players in the squad, but his it not necessary to have a little bit exercise in the 3 zone's of the pitch.
Don’t think I don’t want younger players, you need them, more then older players. But I don’t understand the vision from example my assistant mangers to don’t get:

Van Nistelrooij ( on a free transfer by Liverpool!!!!, much, much better den Crouch, Kuyt, Voronin)

I now you can buy this lad anyway, but do you only buy young people??

Cheers,

Santheman Holland

Smokey3957

because when a player reaches 30, his stats fall very quickly. it's a little unfair imo, i'm sure hernan crespo will still be able to play football next year, but on fm he is useless in 2008/09. hopefully this will be addressed in fm09, i used to have a few 30-somethings in my squads just to balance it out. now, i barely have a 29 year old player.

retired_mssa007

Well it totally depends which team I currently am.

When I started at Workington - I could not be choosy. Age was not an issue with any of the player I tried to sign.

Now I am at Arsenal, I like to buy young for nothing, let them develop - then sell them on for a larger fee unless they are real stars. This allows me the funds to buy 2 or 3 top-class players a year to try and get me back into the Premiership!

retired_channer06

Bang on about them falling drastically. Drogba at 33 and Anelka also 32 are absolutely pants now. I can sort of see why Anelka might be because he's lazy. Also 31 year old Ronaldinho is now only CA 162/PA 192??

Even goalkeepers stats drop drastically when they get to about 32/33. Even though Van der Saar is still world class, in the game Man Yoo replace him after a season with who we would consider an average keeper IRL just because his stats fall so dramatically.

The only older keepers that are still quite good on my game are Buffon and Jaaskelainen.

retired_leila_g83

I always go for the youngsters for two reasons. Firstly the aforementioned issue of players becoming decrepit as soon as they turn thirty, hate this as it makes it hard to keep a player for nostalgic reason such as turning them into scouts. Secondly the fact that you can make a good profit off them if you can pick up a cheap youngster.

retired_marcias

I almost always set all my scouts to search for players under 23, but I sign some older players when I am searching myself. At lower league level I often sign an experienced (e.g. 35 years old) free player who may only play for 1 season, but at higher level I only rarely sign anyone 30 or above.

I signed a 29 year old Juan Roman Riquelme for Werder Bremen because I am a huge fan and his attributes were still superb and he has won Player of the Season for us for the last 2 years and still looks perfectly good for a 3rd season at least.

deantibbetts

I usually only go for players under 24, but i'm starting my second season as VFB Stuttgart and with no CL football etc it's hard to attract anyone other than cheap older players. I brought in Makoun on a free and he's done well so far, no pace, but still has good stats elsewhere and is averaging 7.23 (he's 34 btw).

retired_kkmax96

In the game and IRL I don't think it's a particularly good idea to buy players who are over 30, depending on the status of the team. If you are lower league, then the experience of a 30something centreback can be invaluable, for example. however, any team that wants to build for the future should be looking at youth. IRL look at the trouble that Chelsea have had and will continue to have as they try to replace the likes of Carvalho, Makalele, Drogba, even Ballack. They may spend millions on high quality replacements, but they will take time to gel. Compare this to United's set up. They have a few older players, but they've been there for a while, the basis of the squad is young and will grow and improve together. Finally, look at Bolton, it worked well for a while: Hierro, Campo, Speed, Okocha, all played well but they needed replacing and now Bolton are up sh**ty creek. In the words of Whitney " I believe the children are our future..."

retired_cassandrasue

The eldest player who I've had as a first team regular is Ochoa. He was just about 35 when I replaced him. Apart from that Vidal was still amazing up until this season (apart from the fact he became more psychotic!), I let him go this season at the age of 34. The most recent aging player is Carroll, who because of a massive drop in stats over the off season after his record breaking 55 goal season made me begin to think that he had done his dash (31 at the time). But as always he proved me wrong early on banging in 10 in 10 before tearing his calf muscle. Again that was the end of the world, but wait, he came back to score 21 more goals after January bring his total to 31. This season now going on 33 he's still my top striker and leading my England line up! I'm think I'll keep him on until after the world cup, not sure how long I'll keep him for Derby though. He's on 12 in 13 matches for this season already and he's 1 off equaling Rooney's record of 83 goals for England (in 148 games) in just 86! Speaking of records he also this season beat Bloomers scoring record for Derby (in FA cup and League matches) of 332 recently too.

I think the big problem is that the moment we see declining stats we think: "The end is near!" and either sell them, drop them of otherwise. I did that with Makoun. At 33 he was more than capable of continuing but with Veloso at the club his position went from rotation to reserves fairly quickly. Then the same thing happened with Veloso. At 33 I just went too old despite his continuing performances.

deantibbetts

I agree, I had Milito at the age of 35 playing in the Champions League final for Barca and in a previous save I had a 36 year old Mexes averaging over 7. I think people have read on here that the player has to be sold when they hit 33 and so everyone does it, whether the player is good enough or not.