In my case, buying players from friends DO work.
On top of that, I'm beginning to love this new update: I bought this morning a 18 year old AMR/ST fast trainer with one-to-one SA for 40 tokens, which is basically a bargain compared to a recommanded player (I would have got the same at 19 years old for 79 tokens at best). I just had to add the money on top but with 5 billions in the bank, who cares ?
We just need to ge used to it and keep our eyes wide open.