This part at least: I think that since he is a level below you, what appears to you to be a 105% overall quality team is a 125% team at his level. On occasion, the game interface will show you the as-is stats of a team or player without adjusting for the level difference. As you said however, when you restarted, the interface correctly adjusted his quality to reflect the level difference (as if his team had just promoted and lost a star).