@mattmid: I faced Bayern on the 27th fixture, they were still many points ahead of us, and at half-time I was winning 1-4. They were playing with all the usual starting-11 players, but all of them seemed sluggish and...I gotta say, though it's a football game, they didn't look like they wanted to play a football match. After halftime their pride must've been hurt or something as they began to showcase a more competitive spirit and the match ended 4-3.
I don't know if they were still in the WEFA Championships, that could have been a factor for their latest performances too.
Gutierrez is so much fun to play with. He's my perfect kind of striker: complete, no weaknesses, and a tireless fighter (has reached 90 stamina).
Later on I'll make a post with all the details, but the good news is that I was indeed able to sign a very good defender for our side. The thing is, as you put it, you never know what you're getting. Even if a player has a wonderful statsheet at 17, you don't know how he'll develop.
@Special4988: Like Matt said, winning matches increases the amount of EXP a player gets. I can't confirm it but I also suspect it's possible that individual performances also affect it. Then, depends also on the pre-season training you might apply to each player. For example at this point I only focus on Libermann's defense stat - haven't changed his "defense" training for many seasons - and now, though he's beginning his decline, he's still evolving his defense attribute.
The player development graphs have predicted downfalls of guys like Macco for example but he's still holding on to his statsheet, not evolving but not declining either at 33. Individual training + team success (more wins, more EXP) + playing often (to get more EXP) + playing well (?) is a combination that heavily affects player development.
Regardless, I'd always encourage betting on Gutierrez. You can see clearly he starts out as a player with an interesting statsheet, all you have to do is give him minutes. What I did was putting him on the starting-11 from day one instead of Hamsun/Castolo/Huylens and the bet paid off.