New Players: A Golden Gamble?

August 21st, 2008 by SM Dev (ste)

If you are a Gold Member and participate within the elite Gold Championships then you are fully aware how the tough the transfer market is in comparison to the standard setups. Therefore it is no surprise that when a young up-and-coming player is added to the database that there is a massive scramble for his signature, and sometimes the transfer fee involved could be well into seven figures.

Earlier this week as you are all aware (or should be) three young up-and-coming players were added to the database - namely Everton striker Jose Baxter and Manchester Uniteds Brazilian duo Rodrigo Possebon and Rafael da Silva. You will not be surprised to hear that there was a massive scramble for their signatures (in most setups with at least 12+ managers bidding for each player), and all three players went for fees well into seven figures!

Now I have used Jose Baxter, Rodrigo Possebon and Rafael da Silva purely because they have only just been added to our database, and I could have easily talked about Bojan, Toni Kroos etc instead. The point I am making is that there is always a mad rush for the signatures of these players in the elite Gold Championships (due to how tough the transfer market is), and the fees involved could raise a fee eyebrows.

However, the question is are these young up-and-coming players worth the gamble?

To answer this question you need to see both sides of the coin as on one side they could turn out to be a player like Bojan who was added as an 80-rated forward, and now 12 months down the line is an 89-rated forward and also part of the Spanish setup. However, on the other side of the coin they could turn out to be a player like Freddy Adu who was one of the most hyped teenagers to date (who was also added as an 80-rated forward - the same as Bojan), and to date has failed to live up to his full potential and three years down the line is only a 83-rated player.

Therefore going on the above two examples if you had paid (for example) £10 million for each player you would easily get that returned if you placed Bojan on the transfer list in either money or a player(s) and you would struggle to get that return for Freddy Adu.

Are these young up-and-coming players worth the gamble within the elite Gold Setups?

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12 Comments Add your own

1. joe birks | August 21st, 2008 at 2:49 pm

definately yes!!! if i was offered adu for 10 million in gold champs i would snap the managers hand off and grab adu straight away, as what is money, if youve got a nice kitty of 100 million sitting in your bank it isnt going to win you anything, but with a player in your squad, theres always the hope that they could turn into a decent player or even just a squad player. yes yes yes to buying supposed hot prospects
2. Liam | August 21st, 2008 at 4:49 pm

The problem in EVERY setup and not just Golden ones is that most managers ignore the need for a SQUAD. i.e i love to have 2 or 3 players for every position, and my first priority is to get at least 2 players for every position, over strengthening my starting XI.

Too many peopl spend ridiculous amounts of money on kids instead of strengthening their squads.
3. burs | August 21st, 2008 at 6:09 pm

thing is cash is worthless to most other managers in a GC, so its only real use is to get young players who they can loan out to a lower league club and when their rating rises they use them - as someone in a recently created GC who was lucky enough to get all 3 of the players previously mentioned I could use these players as bargaining chips to improve my squad in a few months time, so using some of that cash that may not get you a top player could be used to get an asset that can lead to getting a top player
4. joel mcfarland | August 21st, 2008 at 8:54 pm

i would rather buy a load of old players than have a young team because i think that the older players are experienced and plus very cheap like 4 my real madrid team i bought javier zanetti for just under 4mil very very cheap 4 a 94 rated player and he hasent let me down since.
5. Nath Van de Velde | August 22nd, 2008 at 5:52 pm

Older players definitly give your squad an immediate injection of quality, but they’re only short term solutions. If your looking to play in the long run (definitly in GC’s) Then you should find a good balance, strengthen your team for now, so buying older players or just top players mixed with future (risky) stars that you can keep for a longer time.

Basically its really just finding the balance between the two, and calculating the risk with the money you need to cough up to buy the player
6. Eza | August 23rd, 2008 at 3:54 am

i agree with Nath, old players are just short time, and if your htinking to play this game for a long time, then you should get hot prospects.
7. Avin | August 23rd, 2008 at 9:19 am

I agree with Nath also,
I continually get offers for Camoranesi, althought he isn’t valued highly i may get offers of 10 million for him. But this money is pointless because people only want ridiculous amounts of money for people who wouldnt sell for half that value in real life, so its too hard to even replace a 93 player with someone…in that RANGE of capability.

But it is true, older players are only short term solutions, as the person in my set up found out. He brought Turam for 4million and thought he was on a bargain. Next thing, he’s retiring at the end of the year…now what is he going to do?
8. timmy c | August 23rd, 2008 at 9:35 am

i agree with nath but in a gc i also find that buying free agents helps. I am saying this cause most of them r old for example cafu hakan sukur serginho nd many more but they help in gc’s as u get them cheap and they do for the time being.
9. Sam Hardy | August 25th, 2008 at 2:32 pm

i always buy the youngsters and then sell them for a good profit.
i got aguero, kaka, messi, ronalindho, naldo, hunterlaar, guardado, Suazo, Terry, Ferdinand, Rosina, Flamini, Buffon, Carson,
10. chris stuart | August 25th, 2008 at 4:28 pm

jose baxter is a quality player
11. Chris | August 27th, 2008 at 12:41 pm

I remember sending an e-mail to SM asking them to update their database by putting two young brazilian’s that Man Utd signed when they were 16, that was about 2 years ago… and suddenly they update the database after the sub in a premiership game.

If only they listened to my e-mail and put them in two years ago, while they were still playing in Brazil.

Annoys me that my scouting skills for young players was worthless since after 2 years after my e-mail they put them in after a high profile game, and now everyone knows about them…
12. Chris B | August 27th, 2008 at 2:45 pm

In response to Chris above, SM only add players after they’ve played a competitive game. The 2 Brazilians never played a 1st team game for Fluminense as they were frozen out when it was announced they were going to United. So therefore Rafael only just got added and Fabio is yet to be added.
If SM went by your proposal we’d be getting all kinds of players aged from 15 and under added as soon as someone writes about them