Old career-mode habits are how a save goes broke in the first window. The game has changed the prices, the ratings and the injury rules. Last year’s method does not carry over.
A teenager with 88 potential used to be a bargain you could stack. He is now priced closer to real life. Selling a veteran to fund three of them is the first mistake the new database punishes.
Looking a player up on an outside site used to tell you the ending. It does not, once form can move the number.
EA Sports FC 27 career mode plays differently from last year, and the guide to seven mistakes starts with recruitment. Signing nothing but wonderkids no longer works. Young players carry transfer values closer to their real fee, so they cost more and are harder to land.
Older players are cheaper. One or two long-term targets a window is the realistic version. Not every signing needs 88 potential.
That is the Kroupi problem in miniature. He is the top young striker in the game, rated 80 with 88 potential, and Bournemouth will not sell the real player in January either. Endrick is 79 with 88 potential. Myles Lewis-Skelly is already in the Arsenal squad at 78, with 87 to come. Max Dowman is not in the game at all until he turns 17 on 31 December and signs a professional contract.
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The second mistake is using last year’s growth rules. Dynamic overalls mean a rating can rise or fall on form and happiness. A veteran in a good run can play above his starting number. A youngster who is not playing can drop. Sign for the tactic and the form, not the age on the card.
The third is trusting an outside database over your own scouts. AI clubs now have dynamic potential, so a player’s ceiling can move inside your save. A website screenshot from launch day will not match the squad you are negotiating with in season three, especially if you have deeper simulation turned on.
Injuries have been reworked too. A minor knock no longer forces the player out. You can start him and risk a worse one, or rest him and get him back faster. That is the nearest the game gets to a Tzolis call. The real hamstring is about 20 days. The virtual one is a decision the manager finally has to make.
The rest of the seven are variations on the same theme. Do not play FC 26 inside FC 27. Prices, potentials and fitness have all moved. An Arsenal save that buys every 87-potential teenager in October will be short of a centre-forward and a wage budget by Christmas.