Are you sure about that? I've never seen undersoil heating cost anywhere near that on the game. Normally about £2m iirc. Have they not increased the stadium size as well?
The Telegraph thinks he is on £50k p/w
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/liverpool/8620614/Liverpool-agree-fee-for-Charlie-Adam-with-Blackpool.html
Remember Liverpool are the club that spent £35m on Carroll and £17m on Henderson. They aren't good with money.
A few years ago Sports Interactive said they had over 1,500 researchers, that number has likely expanded since then as the research team has grown.
In England they have two head researchers and then researchers down to tier 9 of the pyramid. The first 5 tiers in England pretty much all have an individual club researcher, beyond that the research is often done by a league researcher with some clubs having their own individual researcher. Abroad, most nations in the world have a head researcher, it varies in terms of structure below them.
Lots of anecdotal and published evidence suggest that they do.
This for example...
http://www.mirrorfootball.co.uk/news/Everton-using-Football-Manager-computer-game-article33798.html
It is hard for me to justify giving for example Jay Rodriguez a boost to his current ability when I've never seen him play in person. If when I get my file back I notice there is something factually wrong (like his height) rather than subjective (like his finishing) then I'll change it. I won't make any attribute changes for any Saints summer signings until the January window patch next year.
It isn't really a secret.
http://www.saintsfc.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10280~2777505,00.html
http://www.saintsfc.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10280~2808185,00.html
What is the point? You have a one in thirty eight chance of randomly guessing.
Not down to me, I didn't touch his ratings before he was sacked in real life. Researchers don't change the ratings of recently moved players/staff. Just as I won't change Jay Rodriguez for FM13 and will rely on the opinion of the Burnley researcher until the first data update in 2013 and I've seen Rodriguez play for myself.