Good morning! Next up in our series of CM9798 listing is my take on what I would class as frauds.These are players who basically whenever I have them in my ranks they are dreadful. Put them in an AI team though and they are unstoppable. Somebody smarter than me might do the research on why that is one day, but until then, here we go…

8. Romario

I was so excited to sign Romario for Bologna, and who wouldn’t be? Maybe I was naive. His age meant he was past his best but if we look at the editor even now, 170 ability with a 198 potential should have been able to produce more than what we got out of him. It’s not just me either, he got 0 in 10 for Blackburn at the start of the American takeover save.

Probably past his best to say the least.

7. Ian Walker

Goalkeepers eh? Who’d be one. This could have been a number of Premier League goalkeepers who have thwarted me over the years. Dave Watson. Kasey Keller. Kevin Miller. I’ve given Ian Walker the title role though, all of these keepers have routinely pulled off Superman-esque performances against me but if I’ve ever had them on the books they have been absolutely hopeless.

6. Cafu

Like all fullbacks, they seem to struggle for average ratings. Cafu is no exception, despite being one of the best right backs of his generation if not all time. I suppose in 1997 he had only been to one World Cup and his ability is “only” 140. Contrast that to Roberto Carlos and his 186, but he’s also rubbish in my experience. Javier Zanetti is in the middle at 168…I can’t get a tune out of him either. Maybe it’s me.

5. Paul Scholes

There’s a lot to dislike about the default Man Utd team. For starters, they just play a basic 4-4-2 which if you try and do yourself, you’ll have no success with. What makes it worse is when Paul Scholes easily nets 30+ in that first season but if you have him, you’ll not have the same success. If you look at his attributes, it’s hard to know what to do with him. Maybe Fergie is just a better manager than me. This won’t be our last trip to Manchester today.

4. Patrick Kluivert

Routinely one of the world’s most valuable players, if you are “lucky” enough to have Kluivert in your ranks then prepare for disappointment. Chatting with some of the Blog Squad, we floated the idea that Dutch players generally are a bit underpowered, so let’s have your thoughts on that.

Anyway, Kluivert is routinely slagged on Twitter/X for being garbage but obviously he’s unstoppable for Milan. Welcome to the fraud list.

3. Dwight Yorke

Yorke at Aston Villa is good. Yorke anywhere else seems utterly useless. My best evidence of this is when I signed him for Bologna. He was absolutely hopeless as his goal scoring return shows.

More yellow cards than goals. Maybe I gave up on him too soon but his average rating was rubbish too.

2. Keith O’Neill

The stats Cole has, he should really be amazing. But as I found out in the Benfica save, he is dreadful. Maybe it’s the moving abroad thing but he couldn’t hit a cow’s arse.

There’s probably some science behind this but have you ever seen anybody be so hit and miss? Even after leaving me, 26 in 43 followed by 3 in 25. I’ve checked and they were Premier League both seasons.

Who are your CM9798 frauds? Let me know!

I started writing this and thought…this really isn’t that good, is it? So apologies if you share that opinion! Back next week with one final top 10 where we’ll be looking at the top 10 bargain signings. Have a great week!