Player Morale Issues with Manager to Manager Interaction

Something that has bothered me for some time is the huge player morale impacts that can often be experienced from normal manager to manager interactions.

Now I'm not referring to "mind games", as rises and falls in player morale based on pre-match, post-match and match related media comments, are all fair enough as I see things currently.

What I am concerned about is that simply by praising an AI manager, even one in a completely different league or country, more often than not, I see that my own players react quite adversely.

For example, I recently praised the manager of one of my feeder clubs. My reasons are simple and also "advised", because I want to maintain a good relationship with that manager, should I wish to bid for any of his players, given he will be more approachable and willing to negotiate more favourably. This idea also applies to any manager that you wish to interact with. That's something that's widely accepted in the game.

What I find difficult to understand and accept that whilst doing this recently, two of my players, both of whom are "Model Professional", suffered changes in morale from "Superb" to "Very Poor", simply because I had praised another manager. The manager concerned was managing a club in an entirely different country and at a far lower level. How should such generalised interaction have such a drastic impact on my own players, especially if they're supposed to be "Model Professional"?

I could understand this sort of drop in morale if I was praising the manager of a rival club, a competitor in my own division, or a manager that a player didn't like, but the manager of a club they have no interest in whatsoever, I can't understand at all.

Perhaps the weighting of player reactions to simple and mundane managerial interactions should be altered a little. It's not as if you would see Rio Ferdinand or Wayne Rooney throwing a hissy fit, just because Alex Ferguson praised the managerial ability of someone who he considers a friend or respects is it? A good recent example, even though the teams were due to face one another in the FA Cup and could also be considered local rivals, would be Sir Alex's praise of David Moyes and what he's acheived at Everton. Did we hear much from the United players in response to this? Would they really have cared as much as they seem to in the game? My thought would be "no they don't".

All in all, I think that morale responses in the game are pretty good, insofar as they can make a difference either way. When it's in relation to mundane matters, I think it's very wide of the mark.

Please don't take this as a rant. It's just an observation of mine regarding an issue that I feel is poorly weighted at the moment and maybe needs a little attention.