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I have been told that 25 is too old to train a player. As they get older, it takes longer for their skills to pop. But I wanted to get a clear answer on this, if there is one. At what age does it become not worth it to keep training a player? I mean, where exactly is the cut off? Is it still viable to develop a 24 year old? Thank you in advance, if someone has a definite answer.

It depends. If a player has been trained from age 18, and has pretty high potential, there's often plenty of reason to continue training past 24 and even for some elite/NT players, for many seasons after that. If it's a guy with the same skills as a draftee, but high potential, and age 24, it's not really useful to train him since he'd never reach the potential and an 18 year old with less potential and similar skills would train much faster and become a much more useful player.

The main thing to keep in mind is that if you see a 24 year old with low skills but Hall of Fame potential, that's not all that useful - you'd much rather an 18 year old with allstar potential and the same skills, since he'll get better faster.

LOL, I was afraid to the "it depends" answer. It always depends, doesn't it? :)
On one end of the spectrum, you could have one player who is so gifted that it is worth it to burn down the rest of the team so that you can get everything you can from that one player. On the other end of the spectrum, you could have a player who's potential is rated highly, yet his skills are low enough that he's just not ever going to be anything. But where is the middle ground? Let's say a player has a potential of "superstar" or "MVP", and his skills are right about where they should be for his age. At what point does it become not worth it to train him any further?

Last edited by Kronin at 5/30/2015 11:31:11 AM

In my personal opinion, the key to training is having a cycle pattern where your main trainings slowly turn into your secondary trainees (Or just not the main focus). This allows them to still get pops that help them but allows you to develope younger players at the same time. This might help you as well:

Here's a list of training speed for each age:

18 100.0%
19 95.0%
20 88.0%
21 78.0%
22 70.0%
23 60.0%
24 51.0%
25 42.0%
26 35.0%
27 27.0%
28 21.0%
29 16.0%
30 11.0%
31 7.0%
32 5.0%

Let's say a player has a potential of "superstar" or "MVP", and his skills are right about where they should be for his age. At what point does it become not worth it to train him any further?

You'll likely never get anyone to agree on this but I would say based on the actions of 90% of BB, around 24-ish is when people stop training players. There are numerous reasons for this though. Sometimes the players cap by 24. Some managers like to train guys for U21 so they sell them at 22 and start over. Some people just like to see pops and you see more on younger guys. Others get board and want to start a new build and experiment. There is lots of reasons.

The "It depends" answer is the truth. I don't mean to take your thread on a tangent but rather than ask at what age do I stop training, I think the real question should be what potential player do I need to be training in the first place. Personally, I see no reason to buy a player with higher potential than you have the capability to cap. If you cant afford a capped MVP potential build then why in the hell are you paying a premium for the higher potential? Lower division managers are captivated by the idea of high potential but the reality is a majority of the trainees in the game NEVER reach their potential so all that premium paid is a complete waste.

I'd love to see more D.IV (in the USA anyway) capping ~PAS potential players that can be great core players for their franchise than wasting a stack of cash on HOF guys and either wasting them away or training them up to the point they can't afford them and having to sell them off.

This post helps alot. I may end up going homegrown sooner now than expected earlier.

Is this percentage relevant in the present training advancements?
If not what would be your estimates for todays % number, cheers mate

If I’m not training 18-19 year olds I am still training something. They could be 23 or 28, as it doesn’t matter at that point. It will always be 2 position training and if I get a few pops in a season for the group that I’m still working on, I’m ok with that. But I’m not paying for a top trainer in these situations, and I’m usually trying to compete in the league that I’m in. You should only pay for good trainers and doctors when you are training your 18-19 year olds with high potential. I’ve probably done too much blabbing here but if you have a 28 year old big man and his inside defense goes from 16 to 18 in a season, it was better than not training anything at all.

Last edited by AIRFORCE1 at 1/17/2022 11:49:53 PM