Haha that's helpful.
I looked at those and for Costa he looks like the numbers are decent for someone his age but nothing suggesting stardom.
So really we want to find lists of up and comers from 2008-09 season.
Pretty much so. If a player delivered first half of 2009-10 they'll also be good. For example, I've seen Lukaku become world-class in that game based upon what he did that autumn. Another such example is actually former Red Danny Wilson but since he's at Rangers in the game he's not draftable since he's a Scottish-based player and only players from outside the Scottish league system at the time are able to be drafted. Not that there'd be a huge demand for SPL players among the 132 draft slots of the world's crême-de-la-crême
The playable nations in the database I'll simulate will be England, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Scotland, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland by the way, just so that was clear. I doubt these clubs will be able to poach many regens anyway due to the lowly staus of Scottish football, but at least that offers a more competitive playing field and more credible opponents in Europe to allow the game to have a 42 k-strong player database.
In either case selecting someone at 30 and they'll still last a good few years if they were world-class when the game started. It's a balance between top-heavy and winning early and low-heavy, potentially getting relegated and having to fight back later on. Merely looking for wonderkids won't cut it at all because if they don't get European experience and stuff they'll struggle to develop as well as they otherwise would. Remember that Scottish teams also had mediocre coaches compared to those in the big four leagues. Player development therefore ought to be a bit tough, which is why an older squad might actually work. Above all, this is a really interesting experiment for the game that I've been tempted to run myself, but it's more fun when other select players too
