Every game with in-app purchasing I have ever played and visited forums for, I've seen the usual moans about paying players, and players hailing themselves because they don't spend anything. I mean,play it whatever way suits you, why should it bother you what others do? The token players help keep the game online, if Nordeus weren't making anything from the game they'd give up supporting it, it would eventually be pulled. SO be thankful, in a way, to the token buyers, because they are helping to keep your game free
And, yeah, good for you for doing it straight, but big deal eh? It's a management game! Real world managers deal in tonnes of money, they would never have the players they do have without a big budget. The top teams at least. Do you frown upon Real Madrid, because they spend more than other teams?
Anyway, I did the first season without spending, finished 5th. I had worked out training, and was already on the way to upgrading a number of my players. I sold on a good chunk of that original squad and bought in clever. I have bought 4 scouted players, just because I wanted to ... I am killing the other teams in my league 2 - and i'm sure they are thinking "huh, he'd never beat us so easy without those scouts" ... wrong! Even if I put out a squad without those scouts, I can beat the next best team 3-0, and I have done. I bought token players because the market has been awful for me, there are never any decent young players with any decent specialties for me to buy, so I use the scouting to get particular skills. This is more important to me than stars. Some of my original default squad players are as good as the ones I scouted.
I would have been waiting forever for a decent AMC with special abilities, for example. So I scouted one with shadow striker abilities. He's brill, and I'm happy with the purchase. I'm not so worried about this season, more building for the next, where I know it's going to get a lot tougher.