Wage demand changes in 1.3

Let me post a quote first to make my point

#3 – Older Players
Here is where we approach the most contentious change in the wage structure, for a long time the forums have been full of requests to lower the wages and fees associated with signing older players. Changes were brought in to address this issue previously, but they haven’t been working as they should. The main reason for this was a bug which meant players wouldn’t ask for their true wage demand, it would get stuck somewhere in between. This bug was affecting both ends of the wage scale younger players weren’t asking as much as they should, older players weren’t asking for less.
Along with the bug fix, that should see a more dramatic decline in the expected wage of older players, there have also been further adjustments to make signing older players both more attractive and more affordable. Signing-on fees will now reduce for players from the age of 30 onwards: At 30 it drops to 8 times wage, 31 to 6 times, 32 to 4 times, 33 to 2 times and from 34 years of age or older there will be no signing-on fee for players.
The expected drop in older players wage demands, even if they have been playing well they will demand 5% less per year from the age of 30 onwards and even if their contract is set to auto-extend they will lower their current wages by up to 20% if the basic wage demand is less than their current wage.

Having posted that, look at the picture I posted. Red squares on left are new wage demands for players over 30, and right is current wage demands. Where is the incentive to having older players? By incentive do they mean incentive to pay a lot more for players with a lot lower resale value??? I don't understand the need SI has to sugar coat their changes, pisses me off more than if they just said: "Hey, we'll raise your wages because you morons have too much cash, HAHA suckers!"

Zoah's youth

So as I mentioned before this was my first time playing youth competitions and as I had to put together a team to start I ended up with a lot of players which I did not have much time to look at. Overall I have been very happy with my team and they have been performing quite well really. Here are some of my youngsters:


Everaldo (18,GK - 57.8%) I bought him pretty early without JP but I am very pleased with the purchase. He's been very solid keeping my team in good standing.


S. Garcia (18, DC - 60.4%) Not sure how I found this guy, but he has been an amazing purchase showing consistency in his performances and amazing development. He's my tall man in the back, making sure I don't concede.


Vaca (17, DC - 61.8%) Amazing youngster, has shown potential and his development has really been looking promising, this guy may be my pick to keep him up to my Senior team. This guy is sort of a all around good DC, having some presence in the air and great speed (pace -14, Accel -16).

Thiago (19, DC - 51.7%) More experienced DC in my youth team but he hasn't been playing as much as my young guys, I might be looking to offload him by the end of the season.


C. Ribeiro (16, DR - 57%) He was my first pick for DR and I was lucky to pick this guy without JP. He's a strong and defensive minded FB, which I have even been playing in my senior team with huge success, and he's only 16 years old.



Miranda (19, DR - 56.6%) It is unfortunate I have been having to rotate between Ribeiro and Mirando since they are both amazing and I just can't figure out who's better. Ribeiro might end up better mostly cause he's 16, but Mirando will for sure be a great player in senior football. Miranda is a more all around FB with a lot of strength, Stamina and Work Rate. He will certainly give wingers a hard time as long as he's in the pitch.

M Haben (17, DL - 56%) I had a lot more time to pick out my DL since I loaned one from Ashley's Cefn Druids during the first week of the season. Therefore I was really looking hard for a player that would perform and develop. I found the perfect player, and he's the 17 year old german Haben. This guy is a pacy but rounded player with amazing potential in terms of corner kick taking. Another possible option for my senior team.

Le (17, MC - 53.1%) Le was my first and only MC for a good while, he's definately a performer and a great player to put in the middle of the field. He's a bit more defensively oriented but his high passing, technique and first touch make him a very important player for creating great football.


D. Anisimov (15, MC/DM - 60.4%) This Russian player is my first 5* potential player and I bought him with very high hopes. Based on his first week I know I made a great decision with this guy. Despite only being 15 years old he's already been perfoming very well even in my U21 games. He's a very creative player with good inclination for being a defensively minded player. I often play him either as a MC-d or a DMC. He'll definately be trouble to my oponents in a few seasons.


JJ. Campos (17, AMC,MC - 54.2%) Campos has been my AMCR for most part of this season, doing a good job with some goals and assists. His agility and ability deep in the field does often come in handy for setting up my striker. He's 17 and I have a good feeling he'll be with my team for a while.

Danny Wood (17, MR,MC - 50.4%) This is definately one of those players which you look at his stats and you would never pick him for your team. Looking at his numbers now I dont know why I ever did picked him, but I'm glad I did. This guy is probably my most underated player. His lack of stamina makes him almost unable to play a full game well, however he's my secret weapon. In around 70% of my games Wood comes in during the beginning of the second half and more often than not he's the guy that makes the difference which allows Zoah FC to win. I hope he develops into his abilities, because he would likely be that cheap player in my senior bench who I always look for.

R. Moe (17, MR - 51.4%) This guy is my starting MR, I brough him into the team because of his promising potential rating. He has decent mental stats and good dribbling abilities, making him an obvious first pick however his performance is off and on, which makes him not as reliable as some of my other starting players.


J. Dark (18, ML/MC - 51.4%) He's my starting ML, and a pretty consistent one. He's also one of those players I didn't pick for his potential but he's been performing so well that his stats are going up almost as fast as my high potential players. He's definately a performer with his 16 pace, 16 accel and 14 teamwork.


S. Re (16, ML - 54.9%) This is one of my future stars. Right now he's a bit too young to show but his performance at 16 has been just as good as anyone else. This is a 4*pot player that will likely cause nighmares to a lot of teams in the future.


Drago (17, AMCL - 51.9%) Solid performance, and quite a few goals. This lefty works amazingly well with my lone striker formation and his influence and teamwork make him a great team leader.


JL Aizpurua (16, AMC - 53.5%) This guy has been off and on my starting AMC, often I play him as the AMCC in place of Fernando. He does score a lot of goals when needed and is a great team player. His 13 long shots rating also makes him extra appealing.


Bogdanovic (18, AMCL - 50.6%) He's not bad but I did have higher expectations of him. Works well as an AMC when I need him but I do consider him to be a bench player at this point.

Fernando (17, FC - 46.7%) According to my formula Fernando is only a 46.7% striker, according to watching this guy play he's much better than that. He plays as my lone striker and is my only stiker in the team. He's very fast and with great skills with the ball making him a deadly striker and my top scorer. He also has the highest number of matches in my youth team at this point. I'm very glad I picked him off of a friends team. He has flaws, I wont lie (concentration -2) but he also has amazing skills such as dribbling(13), Finishing(13), First touch(15), Accel(15), Agil(13), Pace(14), Technique(13).


Everaldo(GK), Miranda(FB), Haben(FB), S.Garcia(DC), Vaca(DC), Le(MC), Moe(MR), J.Dark(ML), JJ Campos(AMCR), Drago(AMCL), Fernando(St)
Subs- Thiago(DC), Ribeiro(DR), D.Anisimov(CM/DM), Danny Wood(MR), Re(ML), JL Aizpurua(AMC), Bogdanovic(AMC)

Regens, what to look for

I think one of the things in FML that has been the biggest mistery for me at this point is how to chose regens. I have started a database where I'm actually writting down a lot of the info so i'll have a better idea later on about picking good players. Over the internet I found a few tips that I can't yet say if they are good or bad, but it's a start:

- Sounds obvious, but always try to pick players that have high stats. A 5*pot player will never be a star if he has all 10- attributes. So the more 10+ attributes the better.
- Look in particular at relevant attributes, picking a striker with 18 tackling and 20 long throws won't get you very far.
- Attributes lower than 5 are bad, especially if these are important attributes. Make sure if your player needs these attributes, he will be able to develop into at least having a minimum amount that's reasonable.
- Determination and Workrate tend to be attributes managers often look at when buying youths.
- Some attributes will usually be low in young players so don't expect them to have super skills there. Some of these are concentration, technique, creativity, passing, off the ball and first touch.
- Pace, this one I have seen mixed opinions about. So I have read that young players with a lot of pace will develop into really fast players. On the other hand I have read that players with too much pace will have trouble developping all their skills because Pace uses up so much CA that it leaves little room to increase other attributes before reaching that particular players PA. I apologize if you don't know what CA (Current Ability) and PA (Potential Ability) really means.
- Similarly to the tip above, I have read that youths that can play with both feet or youths that can play a multitude of positions are also doomed to hitting an early peak. Apparently playing with both feet costs a lot of CA and each position a player is able to play will also diminish the number of "free attributes" that player has, meaning that an increase in more attributes will have a stunting effect on development quicker. Again, I apologize to any reader that doesn't know what I am trying to say, but I will put a short explanation on the bottom of this post.
- Stamina is often an attribute youths lack.

*Explaining CA and PA- So Current Ability is a value used in the FM games to describe how "good" a player is in terms of how high important attributes are in a particular player. Every player has all the same attributes, however they don't all count towards their CA. For example a CD will not have his CA increased by increasing his finishing ability for example, and these attributes are called "Free attributes". On the other hand, a DC will have his CA go up if he gains a point in tackling or marking. Every player has a CA value that changes over time and a PA value that doesn't. This means that every player will have room to improve until his CA reaches his PA. I mean that a player with CA of 95 will not get any better if his PA is also 95. There is no way to really know a player's CA and PA in FML but you can use their current attributes to get an idea of his CA and you can use "Potential" to ge an idea on a players PA, with some level of accuracy.