I don't know if this issue has been offically identified for the next patch, as afew have been, but I think it needs addressing.

Older players (even world class ones) such as Makalee, Laursen, Crespo, Hypia, to name just afew seem to loose their stats far too rapidly I think.

These players are almost usless by the second season of the game afterthe 8.0.1 patch...yet in real life they are still going strong.

I feel that stats generally drop far too quickly currently and would be interested to see what the rest of you think and whether SI see this as an issue at all.

I'd also just like to point out this is my only complaint with FM, I feel that this is best version of the game to date and that the game generally fantastic.

This has been brought up before. Not all stats decrease that rapidly either, it's mostly the physical attributes that decrease quickly, also some of the mental stats increase as the player gets older and more experienced.

i agree. i always like a bit of experience in my youngish squads, and it is very rare that players older than 33 can still cut it in the first team. even 31 year olds stats seem to decline too fast.

It varies from player to player though. Cristiano Ronaldo still has 15 pace and most of his other attributes still looking very good as a 34½ year old at my FM07 Derby County team. Also Fred and James McFadden, both now 35 or 36, are doing a great job at Stockport in The Championship just as players like Dion Dublin, Barry Hayles, etc are in real life.

in all fairness, you say that they are useless by the end of the first season

we are not at the end of the first season yet, so they may well be useless

also, were these players used a lot throughout the season as, if not, this may have sped up their decline. I know that i played hyypia for about two seasons and he was fine until i stopped

That's quite a stupid comment, to be honest. Do you expent FM to predict the future of humanity? Botswana could be a world force in 2010, do you expect FM to mirror that in a world that is unknown? Lets be honest here, when a player gets to 30/31 years old, the Physical stats decline in the masses. There are a few examples where this is true to life, but there are also a few examples where its completely the opposite (Sheringham/Speed).

I never buy players over 28, and excluding the odd exception that happens once every 15 seasons, I'll never keep a player past his 32nd birthday. usually get rid of them by 30-ish.

I think the main problem is the AI doesn't value older players. I had a 32 year old as captain whose stamina had dropped quite a bit so he could only really play 1 game a week but he still pretty good in terms of skill, mental, average rating etc. though his pace was down to about 3. I resigned from that job and the new manager stuck him in the reserves, told him he wasn't needed and transfer listed him! I've seen loads of really good older players get left in the reserves or released when they could still do a good job in that division, e.g. Kevin Phillips, Lee Trundle, Steve Howard (went to league 2!), Lee Carsley etc.

Mental stats drop also. I see it with Inzaghi and Maldini, which isn't logical.

I agree this needs to be looked at, its just far too predictable. For example Fulham have just signed Litmanen at the age of 36, in football manager you would never sign anyone at that age to play in the premiership or probably even the championship.

Apart from the fact that all players seem to decline at exactly the same age, i think that their severe drop in performace could also be down to a couple of points;

Firstly that speed could be too important in the match engine.

Secondly attributes achieved by experience are not as important in match engine.

Either way i do believe in many cases, players in football manager (especially attacking) just decline too much after the age of 32. This ignores many past and present premiership players who can still perform at the highest level Giggs, Scholes, Bergkamp, Beardsley to name a few

The stats of Giggs and Scholes drop off fairly rapidly despite being 1st team regulars for me over the 1st couple of seasons. Dont normally keep players over the age of 32 but itd break my heart to get rid of those 2 or see them rot in the reserves.