You always remember the first time....

question to the guys that have been in this the longest.

When did the PtCr's start getting what they are today?

ie John Barnes England international back in the day was something like 92 88 and now a top end Chamionship player can be as high as 95 95 or 94 94?

when did it all change?

will,

the top skill in the game used to be 6. this was up until around the millenium or just after maybe when paul changed it to 9. if you had a player with a 6 in anything that was top notch. players with a 4 skill was a good premiership player, and was the marker for what you'd want in your team. even a 3 wasn't terrible. whereas now a skill of 6 is a good premiership player with 5 being the absolute minimum. so, though ratings have gone up, that coincides with paul making the gap in skill level wider, which would make it relative to the PTCR if PTCRs were accurate. whats actually happened to the game is that the skill gap between a top class and good premiership player has got wider, but the PTCR's have not.

the rating system probably should have just stayed as it was so that anything in the 90s is world class. and keep everyone else below that level. if it were me, id reserve skills of 8s and 9s for ratings of 90 and over and everybody else no more than 7. a rating is just a rating at the end of the day but i must say i preferred it when it was easy to know what rating a player should be.

basically the old system was:

84 current rating - premiership player
85 current rating - fringe international - squad member
86 current rating - international (david batty was a 9086)
88 current rating - regular international
90 current rating - world class players
above 90 - superstars. there were very few of these. alan shearer was a 9696, Rai was the only 9999 in the game for a long while as previously mentioned.

the way i interpret things we currently are:

99 - world class (debatable for many)
97 - regular international
95 - international
94 - fringe international or squad member without a cap
92 - premiership
90 - lower premiership
88 - championship
86 - league one?

This is probably going to date me but we I took on Plymouth in season 4 (having been promised Spurs) Alan Smith was by far the best player in my team (he would have had a CR of 86 or possibly 88 then. Not even sure if I knew any of the other players - maybe I had an 84 or two but most were 82 or less (All to the best of my knowledge).

I think the first player I signed was Brian Laws (I think, might have been another Forest defender) for 1.5m! But it was a complete mess of a deal. The other manager, who didn't last very long thankfully, flogged him to me as a PM when he was actually a defender (a full back if I remember correctly). His argument was that he had the skills to play there. Paul sorted things out though by moving him on an unmanaged team. I only just survived relegation from the second tier division (Div 2 I think) in my first season although I did take on a club in bad shape and midway through the season. No bonuses for a new manager in those days either!

One of my best early signings was a Brazilian 4'11 left winger called Elivelton. Paul gave a Brazilian team a tour of Britain and at the end you could bid for the players, highest bid wins. I think I paid £2m for him. Later, as a result of this tour, I had Roberto Carlos in my team too.

I remember that tour thing dan from my time in Game 4. Liverpool had Roberto Carlos, who were managed by my mate Ryan Lucas. I remember being annoyed cos the tour only applied to english clubs. I think paul did it to increase the player base in england due to the english rule? something like that anyway.

I remember my days managing Sheffield Wednesday in the late 80's/early 90's, with John Sheirdan and Paul Telfer the mainstays of the team. Remember newing Alex Manninger, Darko Kovacevic and a few others, and somehow ending up with Claudio Cannigia for a while! Happy days!

I rember buying Marcelo Salas from an unmanaged Chillien team for about 7 or 8 Million, he was a great signing and when I got hold of him I constantly reviewd him until Paul put his rating to 90. First 90 rating player I ever had.

Back in those days it was your target to get a first team of 86 cr with a few 88's and then you knew you had a very good team.

one of the kovac brothers for 150k, think nico, on another note, last week i got rid of both seedorf and raul who were in my orginal squad, 11 years in my team, class players over that time. It was slightly sad to see them go, an era of the game and strangly my life has moved on. (no tears fell though).

I think nelson cuevas was my first signing at schalke. Or might have been pedro munitis not sure.