Well if he is going to build from scratch get op players yeah and then get better players I would personally start off with a prem team there really and cheap asf now
Build a cheap BPL team like so (This is mine, has a lot of pace)
I've gotten too division 1 without being relegated or staying in a league for more than 1 season.
Just build up coins by playing games
those EAFC points can help too cuz you get the additional multiplier bonus at the end of the game. as you work your way up you can unlock more and more. the starting is really easy to earn coins.. you just gotta keep playing.. make a cheap squad with players that are around 800 coins on average and you'll manage.
Podlski cf,eto st and gold English players bought cheap enough will make you coins.find 7 to 10 players that sell easy keep buying and selling Them for 200 coins profit easy money..
Ehh, I'm about about 5k with no players since I bought a lot of packs (Waste of money). Anyways, I do know the general concept of buying low and selling high, but it seems like every time I buy someone low they never sell high. For example, I was buying David Villas about two days ago when I had 30k, I was able to buy about 10 of them with a decent formation(they all had a 4 in the back) for about 1k. I went on ultimatedb.nl and it said he sold for about 2k, so I though I scored, but in actuality I had trouble selling them for even 1.1k-1.2k. With EA tax, I'm really not making a big profit considering how long it takes just to get the 100 coin profit. I also tried another method of buying rare golds for 600-650 and selling for about 1k-1.1k and for some reason it doesn't work in this FIFA, even though I've made over 40k using that method in FIFA 12.
It seems like everyone uses autobuyers or gets their coins unfairly. Not sure if its just me, but I really cant get this trading thing to work in FIFA 13. The only reason I had around 30k is because I got a pretty bad TOTS player in a pack I opened (forgot his name, worth about 25k).
All the tips you guys gave are great, but I don't even have money to get a "decent" squad to actually start playing games...
People cant really get coins unfairly. They buy them or trade or in some cases use auto-buyers. Every one has to start from the bottom. Just make a bronze 100 chem team and you will win by using the handicap advantage.