Yes, that spending hours to find players replacing sold ones is exactly what I want to minimise (guess most want less too), so keeping more players (hence selling less and also buying less) would make our life less miserable in that first weeks of seasons.
FT in auction is hard to get and costs close to 50T for a really good one, if it does pop up. I settled for my new 19yo 100% GK with 1-on-1 stopper @37T via recommended player too, because GK FT with SA is nearly non-existent.
What I did at start of season 5 was:
Buy a few 19/20yo 92-95% costs 12-15T each
Put 30-40 greens for each to boost them to 6* (they would finish season with 112-115%)
Keep them to start of season 6, and use 30 greens for each in day 1 to boost them to close to 6*
Cycle continues until finding FTs to replace them. Their best attributes will exceed easily 140%+ with focused training, hence a better player in their designated position than a better-average player used for 1 season, or even a new power-trained FT
97% DMC/DC from start of season 5 (will retire this season - though I really would like to keep again if not for draw)
https://ibb.co/jTjz5bG
New 18yo ML/DL/DC FT power-trained to 120%
https://ibb.co/LtV98dZ
Skill & Stat comparison
https://ibb.co/J5hxpSr
You could see, with 2 full seasons more of focused training on defence (header always tends to be a lot higher because of team bonus training which involves lots of headers, hence not a bad idea to invest a few more T if with aerial defender SA), even a new power-trained 120% FT cannot meet that 97% attributes. Opponents tend to under-estimate and would not check carefully on a 100%- DMC on paper, when the player is a de facto 130% defender in attributes.
I feel what 14 players with a 50T budget is via auctions because I did the same thing from season 2 to 4, hence the suggestion as I also got so fed up with bidding for 12+ players from day 1 to 7 = staring at the auction like nuts, especially before first-11 is settled. That’s more than fine though as long as we are prepared to put in the effort in the auctions.
Just play at our own way as long as we enjoy it.