Numpty >>
sunday november 17 - 07:50, Edited
sunday november 17 - 07:53 It's a trade off between talent and higher starting skills.
Your average player with talent 5 and TC 10 will increase by roughly 4-5 extra skill points during those 4 seasons, which are spread across 10 attributes. So on average that's about 1/2 a skill point per attribute.
A highly talented player in a good FA will increase by roughly 7-8 extra skill points in 4 seasons. So on average that's about 3/4 of a skill point per attribute. However, at age 30 these will still be at or near their peak and very valuable so who would want to turn them into staff? But these will come with great skills when they are late 30s and ready to retire.
By contrast a staff member with a talent of 6 who is not assigned to a facility will improve one level on every skill every 4 seasons. An average 8 talented 30 year would improve all their skills by 1.33 if left unemployed for 4 seasons. That's obviously a faster rate of improvement than keeping them as players so is the better the long term strategy but if you need good skills quickly then buying older players is the way to go.