I've found a rather worrying pattern in an experiment I've been running.

I want to see how much young players can develop given optimum facilities.

I created a club in England with maxed out training facilities, youth academy and perfect coaches.

In the 2nd pre-season I brought in teenagers (often from Arsenal and other big 4 youth squads) and used FMM to up their PA to 200 (leaving their CAs unaltered).

My team has risen through the divisions and in 2011, 4 seasons on is in The Championship.

My results show that my players are developing their CAs at a worryingly homogonous rate.

After 3 seasons just about all of them have increased by between 36 and 46, or about 12 per year.

This rate of progress is the same for all positions, for first-team regulars, reserves and even Freds who came through my academy and have yet to see first-team action.

Furthermore, I've kept tabs on the players who have moved on. The results are the same. Some have gone to top clubs, and some to average ones; the CA increases are the same. Ironically, the biggest increase (51) is for a player who went to Cagliari (I'm running top Italian division) which has the worst training facilities and NO coaching staff!

How should we interpret these results? On the face of it, it suggests that training facilities and coaches have no bearing on player development, and neither does playing experience; instead PA is the sole determining factor. I don't want to believe that - can anyone offer some alternative analysis?

thats kinda odd. no matter what their status in the squad, they all show the same progression?! really strange!

sod's law, i believe??

unfortunately, i cant offer a different analysis, it would certainly seem as though only the CA is relevant, which is a bit worrying, not to mention strange. common sense would suggest those players being exposed to first team football, especially at championship leverl, would show a greater progression in their stats and CA... would be interesting to see some more results/opinions on this though...

We've only just begun the Championship season; they've come through Conference, League 2 and League 1. However, I'm monitoring an ex-player who is a first-team regular at Celtic, a Man U squad player with 20 caps for Norway [just bagged a £15 mill sell-on bonus for his 20th cap!] and an Everton player - all with te same rates of development as the ones still at my club.

i think, without a doubt, this is the most worrying/strange factor about the whole experiment. to me, it defies logic that all the players can progress at the same rate, given the different circumstances...

Can we get an official response about this? This is really worrying. I have a feeling this game isn't as complex and realistic as many think.