Back-up goalkeepers becoming unhappy- Unrealistic

No matter what club you are, lower league or champions league, it's not possible to keep you number 2 and 3 goalkeepers from becoming unhappy and wanting a move. Even if you are the top team in Europe, have a world class goalkeeper, and you purchase a 36 year old unattached goalkeeper on a 2 year contract with 'back up' status, he'l become unhappy after a couple of months and start handing in transfer requests.

I think the game should be coded so 'back-up' for a goalkeeper means just that, and they don't become unhappy for the duration of their contract.

I'm not saying that goalkeepers never become unhappy irl, but they certainly are alot more patient and after all this is a game, so i'd rather have no unhappy number 2's than every single one handing in transfer requests!

yeah I hate this. I just let them grow unhappy, sell them, get a new one, and repeat the process.

yeah I hate this. I just let them grow unhappy, sell them, get a new one, and repeat the process.

I think most of us would do the same, but surely the game could be coded so we could keep long term number 2's. Irl look at at Cudicini at Chelsea for 10 years or so before Spurs came in and Steve Harper still at Newcastle despite only playing 100 games or something in his career

My 21-year old backup hasn't complained once in 4½ seasons

My 21-year old backup hasn't complained once in 4½ seasons

He's still a youngster, give him a couple more seasons!

There are very few players IRL who would happily sit on the bench for the majority of their careers. Harper and Cudicini are rare examples. Most players after a while will try to seek a move elsewhere to actually be playing football...

yeah I hate this. I just let them grow unhappy, sell them, get a new one, and repeat the process.

Yeah i completely agree with this. Happens all the time mate!

There are very few players IRL who would happily sit on the bench for the majority of their careers. Harper and Cudicini are rare examples. Most players after a while will try to seek a move elsewhere to actually be playing football...

I agree except for goalkeepers, especially at top clubs. Load up a new game and look around some of Europes top clubs, and I bet you find a host of back up keepers that have benn there for a number of years, but a few months into FM and they are handing in transfer requests

Cudicini wasn't very happy to be on the bench as well. Hence the move to Spurs.

Harper has already planned a career outside of football (he's taking refereeing lessons). Given leaving must be a big surprise for him.

Unless your name is Winston Bogarde I don't think you'd like to sit on the bench every week too.

Tony Warner did that for quite a while at Liverpool.

I agree except for goalkeepers, especially at top clubs. Load up a new game and look around some of Europes top clubs, and I bet you find a host of back up keepers that have benn there for a number of years, but a few months into FM and they are handing in transfer requests

Can't quite find any to be honest.

Having looked at the backup keepers of 'top clubs':

Man U -Foster/Kusczak (young)

Arsenal - Fabianski (young)

Liverpool - Itandje/Cavalieri (young/recent)

Chelsea - Hilario (fairly recent, rubbish anyway)

R.Madrid - Dudek (backup from one club to another)

Barca - Pinto (fairly recent signing)

AC Milan - Kalac (pretty rubbish also)

As you can see, most 'backup' keepers are either young, or they're recent signings hoping to dislodge the first choice at some point, or they're too rubbish to be relied upon anyway, and are to be used in emergencies only.

I shouldn't have given real life examples! Think more logically, your managing a club with a top class number 1 keeper, you go out to get some experienced cover, find an unattached keeper in his mid thirties with no interested clubs and offer him a 2 year contract on 7k a week as a 'back up'. He is delighted to accept knowing that first team opportunities are severley limited yet he hands in a transfer request a few months later...

Can't quite find any to be honest.

Having looked at the backup keepers of 'top clubs':

Man U -Foster/Kusczak (young)

Arsenal - Fabianski (young)

Liverpool - Itandje/Cavalieri (young/recent)

Chelsea - Hilario (fairly recent, rubbish anyway)

R.Madrid - Dudek (backup from one club to another)

Barca - Pinto (fairly recent signing)

AC Milan - Kalac (pretty rubbish also)

As you can see, most 'backup' keepers are either young, or they're recent signings hoping to dislodge the first choice at some point, or they're too rubbish to be relied upon anyway, and are to be used in emergencies only.

Look a bit harder, you have just listed the ones that disprove my theory!!

Look a bit harder, you have just listed the ones that disprove my theory!!

Okay then...

Juve - Alex Manninger. He's been travelling around Italy looking for first team football. I wonder how he ended up at Juve

Inter - Francesco Toldo. He's retiring anyway, after spending most of his career as a glittering number one.

Valencia - Cesar. Left R.Madrid to seek first team football. Ended up at Zaragoza, then Spurs. Now at Valencia to seek, well, first team football.

Nobody realistically expects to spend their entire career on the bench. They will want to move sooner or later. It's only a matter of when.

If I want a backup keeper I would go for a young, promising one, letting him be my reserves number one to keep him match fit.

I don't have a problem, but then I give my back-ups games in the cups and against relegation fodder, just like RL managers tend to do.

The balance needs to be better than it is. Almost all second choice keepers in the game become unhappy within a season but looking the Premier alone you can see that some keepers are happy to be back-up for a number of reasons - that's not to say they'll sit on the bench for years, but they'll take their chances for two seasons or so.

You have players who should become first choice (Foster), some that could become first choice in years to come (Fabianski), those seemingly content to be long-term back-up (Al Habsi, Ashdown, Taylor), those for whom the Premiership is a step ahead of them (Brown, Duke), those whose team's first choice isn't set in stone (Middlesboro, Tottenham), those picking up a final payday before retirement (Kiely, Zuberbühler) and those who really aren't good enough for the level of team they're at but get a chance at winning trophies that they won't have elsewhere (Kuszczak, Hilario).

The game merely treats the unhappiness of goalkeepers exactly the same as it would, say, a central midfielder. But surely goalkeeper are realistic enough to know that being second choice doesn't bring the 10 starts and 10 sub appearances that a back-up outfield player might get.

Either the squad status needs to be refined to have fresh options for goalkeepers or keepers need to have a more realistic level of contentment factored in.

Totally agree with this. For that reason I've got rid of all my 'second choice' goalkeepers and have youngsters in the squad instead. I've got a 20 year old lad that came through the academy and while he's not a world beater he can manage those lesser cup ties just fine and will probably not lose games single handedly against good oppositions either. Still would like the possibility of having an established second choice keeper that doesn't want to leave if he's not played every other week.

The downside to this is I'm now constantly being offered useless keepers by every single goddamn club in the game. Still, it's less tiresome than having to deal with them whining all the time.

I don't have a problem, but then I give my back-ups games in the cups and against relegation fodder, just like RL managers tend to do.

I do this as well and it works a treat. I think its especially good to do this with the latest patch since it appears to me that my first choice keepers fitness\condition seems to go down quite rapidly as the season progresses.

I was substitute goalkeeper for Wycombe academy for 2 years, i didn't complain but thats because i was just psyched to have a good chance of becoming a professional footballer. I didn't, surprisingly, but the backups in this game shouldn't get unhappy as they are already playing probably 2-5 games a season, but if we went really realistic, the subs could asked to be loaned out for around 3 months, to actually get first team football experience.