Resigning - small suggestion for FM10

I've never understood why the media events that occur after you resign from a club are so sparse. No matter how much of a legend you are at the club, when you resign, you get one news article saying that you resigned and who might get the job next. Resignations should be a much bigger deal in the media, especially if you're quite famous with the club.

There could be further news articles concerning the resignation. Some of the ones I've thought of off the top of my head:

Articles that..

-Debate the reason for resignation. Break down of relations with the owner, new challenge, etc.

-Interview club favorites and legends and ask their opinions

-Sum up your career as manager for the club and highlight the improvements/failures you brought about while manager

-Speculate where you'll head next

-Interview players to gauge their reactions to the resignation

and so on..

I've had to resign multiple times, and even with big clubs, I only get one news article. Is it like this for everybody? The only time I've ever had more information was when my assistant manager decided to follow me to my new club.

Absolutely right. Good idea

You could spend 20 years at a club and be summed up by... so and so are the prime candidates to takeover.

Spot on.

In particular, I think we ought to see the relationships built up a little bit.

In my ideal vision, there would be relationships between:

- Manager and fans

- Manager and chairman

- Chairman and fans

If done well, this could really build tensions around a team.

For example, you might lay the blame for the club's poor performance on the miserly wage budget your chairman has given you.

You could slag off the chairman for selling your star players on a "Too good to refuse" bid.

You might be able to "Issue an Ultimatum" publicly, via the media, in addition to the "in private" version currently available to you.

Each of these might cause the fans to increase their support of you / distaste for the chairman .. but should also cause the chairman to dislike you .. though he might decide to modify his behavior if your relationship is good enough OR if the fans support you enough.

I could certainly imagine getting to a point where I'm at complete loggerheads with my chairman, but the fans love me and want the chairman out .. could be very interesting!

Opposite might also be true - you could get some visible indicators of your relationship with the chairman getting better, e.g., when you issue a "Not interested in the Barcelona job" declaration, possibly even reaching the point where the fans demand you out, but the chairman stays loyal to you.

Resignation / sacking would then be the final chapter .. giving you one last chance to tell your side of the story. You might slag him off one last time - lowering your professionalism even further and making it yet harder to get another comparable job, but giving you a vicarious thrill for it ... or you might offer an olive branch.

Spot on.

In particular, I think we ought to see the relationships built up a little bit.

In my ideal vision, there would be relationships between:

- Manager and fans

- Manager and chairman

- Chairman and fans

If done well, this could really build tensions around a team.

For example, you might lay the blame for the club's poor performance on the miserly wage budget your chairman has given you.

You could slag off the chairman for selling your star players on a "Too good to refuse" bid.

You might be able to "Issue an Ultimatum" publicly, via the media, in addition to the "in private" version currently available to you.

Each of these might cause the fans to increase their support of you / distaste for the chairman .. but should also cause the chairman to dislike you .. though he might decide to modify his behavior if your relationship is good enough OR if the fans support you enough.

I could certainly imagine getting to a point where I'm at complete loggerheads with my chairman, but the fans love me and want the chairman out .. could be very interesting!

Opposite might also be true - you could get some visible indicators of your relationship with the chairman getting better, e.g., when you issue a "Not interested in the Barcelona job" declaration, possibly even reaching the point where the fans demand you out, but the chairman stays loyal to you.

Resignation / sacking would then be the final chapter .. giving you one last chance to tell your side of the story. You might slag him off one last time - lowering your professionalism even further and making it yet harder to get another comparable job, but giving you a vicarious thrill for it ... or you might offer an olive branch.

I agree with everything you've said. Adding in relationships like that would make the game much more interactive and interesting.

Another thing I just thought of:

If the fans want you out and you resign, maybe the next time you play that club, the fans can heckle you throughout the game. This could somehow be tied to the confidence and motivation of the players. The opposing team could feel motivated to fight for their club when the bad manager (you, the player) returns.

That might not have made sense the way I typed it, but it felt like it made sense in my head. I'd like to see more of a relationship between the manager/fans and manager/chairman. That definitely would be interesting.

Pretty good idea mate

I understood you, Dregganor - depending on how you'd left things with the fans, you might get different receptions when you returned to the stadium. If you'd left with a very bad relationship with the supporters, you'd return as a villain, booed and heckled throughout, maybe even with media buildup pre-match about how the players were looking forward to facing you.

On the other hand, if you'd left as a club legend, you might return to a heartwarming reception - I imagine this is less the case if, say, you'd left as a Chelsea legend and came back managing Arsenal but say if I'd taken York City as far as I could, resigned honorably, and wound up managing Ajax later on. Out of fondness for my old club, I might schedule an away friendly in pre-season, and the fans might be very happy to see me.

Plenty of fertilizer for the imagination there, certainly!

Yep good idea, i think the whole media side could be improved.

This along with the attendance graphs are 2 top ideas that should go in FM2010, but only if SI implement them well.

This could be tied in with the relationships you build with the journalists.

If you wanted is issue a Public Ultimatum you might pick to speak to a journalist you have a good relationship with to get a better slant on the story like when you want a new stadium it could be reported that you are doing the right thing for the club as they clearly need to expand to compete. If you pick the wrong journalist you might get the same Ultimatum presented as you trying in influence aspects of the clubs policy that you should be staying out of. If you release too many public Ultimatum then you would get a reputation with the press as being someone who like to complain publicly which could lose you the respect of your players.

Or when you leave the club depending on how much certain journalist liked you would depend on what sort of news article you got. From a journalist who liked you they would highlight the positives aspects of your career. Star signings, youth players you moulded into world class players, interviews with players who have you on their favourites list, comments from other managers who like you ect.

From a journalist who you had a poor relationship with they will play on the negative aspects, failed big money transfers, poor performances/league finishes, players/other managers you had fallen out with ect. Possibly suggesting the reason that you had left was because you had lost the dressing room (even if this wasn't true) or that you had got too big for your boots trying to control every aspect of the club.

It would add far more satisfaction to a long career game, I remember leaving the England post after winning 3 consecutive world cups and 2 European championships and all I got was one article saying who the next manager was likely to be. If any England manager did that well in real life their would be Knighted and an official day of mourning called when he left the job.

Very good stuff, James!

I could totally imagine seeing news stories presented with the journo's "byline", possibly even to the point of getting two different descriptions of a match. My arch-nemesis Rupert Wormwood claiming that the reason we lost was my utter tactical ineptitude and misguided second-half substitutions .. while Ellen Michaels, whom I have a good relationship, plays it down as a couple of unlucky breaks and a mistake by my central defender.

They would definitely write two different summaries of my career, the day I resigned or was sacked!

Going back to relationships:

Depending on the type of Chairman, he would react to things differently. A few jeers from the fans might cause a weaker Chairman to give you a warning. Maybe some Chairmen would want to get on the right side of the fans, and bow in to pressure from them to sack the manager.

Your first press conference would have a big effect. Saying that you see the club as a stepping stone for you would really put off the fans.

There should be options to give targets in press conferences, such as "we have a five year plan to get two promotions" or "sticking around in this division for a few years wouldn't be such a bad thing". This of course would have a huge effect on the fans. Most want instant gratification, but broken promises may cause more damage in the long run, and successful plans would be a great boost to the relationship.

And a real life example:

At Stockport the manager is very upset with the current board. But he is such a legend at the club as a player and a manager that he is almost untouchable. He has got himself into this position through very clever media interaction. His programme notes take sly digs at the board, and in the board's programme notes they take digs as well. There is obviously no working relationship between manager and board, and this is clear to the fans.

Because the fans love him so much, the board know that they will be very unpopular if they lose him. He can demand more money for himself or to buy players with and they would struggle to say no. At the moment there is a media blackout from the manager, and the fan's relationship with the board is at breaking point.

This whole story is just to show the complexities of these relationships. This really needs a lot of time and effort put into it to make it work. It also has to be linked closely with better press conferences and manager interactions.

As a sidenote a media blackout may be another idea. This would have a huge effect on board and fans relationships with the manager. But if timed right it could put you in a very strong position. Or it could get you sacked.

Quality ideas. Would love to see them implemented.

Sorry to sound stupid, but is a media blackout where he chooses not to speak to the media, or where he's forced by the board not to speak to them?

Sorry to sound stupid, but is a media blackout where he chooses not to speak to the media, or where he's forced by the board not to speak to them?

Good point, I was thinking of the manager refusing to speak to the media, but a board imposed blackout could also be an idea. An ultimatum could follow I suppose.

Good stuff this.

I'd like to see supporters / players / even pundits, support a manager if it's rumoured he'll be replaced in a takeover. I've been sacked twice as part of a takeover, even though i've been really sucessful beforehand.

Would be good to see.

I'd like to see supporters / players / even pundits, support a manager if it's rumoured he'll be replaced in a takeover. I've been sacked twice as part of a takeover, even though i've been really sucessful beforehand.

Definately, and maybe seeing players getting unhappy or concerned at the new regime if you've been sacked. Or if a billionaire comes in, like at City, it would boost some players so they would strive to prove themselves worthy, and some players looking for a move because of the competition for places.

A list of fantastic ideas, lets just hope they are being looked at :thup:

Good idea think it should be implemented into fm 10. If you are a manager with a decent repuation or at a high rep club you are likely to get a lot more coverage. When John Collins resigned from us in real life is a good example of what you say should be implemented. On sky Sports and bbc scotland they had interview with JC with his reasons supposidly not getting backing + selling of better players, interview with chairman saying he would have given him full backing and then supporters, players, pundits views. Personally I think this would add to improved interaction in fm. Though interaction i feel could be improved quite a bit tbh. Good ideas .

Top class example, jld123, precisely the direction I'd love to see that going.

You're right, of course, that it would have to be handled with care, as getting it wrong could leave the game bitterly unplayable for many.

However, I would love to see it - the counter-example where its wrong in FM is dafuge's classic tale of woe, where, after taking Braintree Town from all-grey-players to solid mid-table E.P.L., a 25-year process, he was sacked in a board takeover.

I'd imagine that situation to be exactly where the board/manager/fan/media relationships would come into play for us. Dafuge might be a club legend, ensconced on the Favoured Personnel list, and if he'd been clever might have two or three local journalists in his corner. The new chairman might come in with an already-negative relationship with the manager, but some sympathetic stories from his favourite journalists might engage the fans in a "Save dafuge" campaign. It would be absolutely heartwarming to the player to see his achievements and effort rewarded in that fashion.

The "save the manager" campaign then might save his job, with the new chairman publicly relenting. For a time. Though that one "Devious" journo who has never liked him might set about undercutting him...

I like all these ideas. Hopefully SI is taking a look

Agreed. Another problem I have notice when resigning is that no matter how successful you seem to be once you resign you become the clubs most disliked person (if you look using a real time editor or scout etc).

I have resigned from clubs after having a hell of a lot of success and become hated by them for it. I just dont get it. If Alex Ferguson resigned tomorrow would Man Utd hate him more than anyone? Even if someone like David Moyes left Everton tomorrow I doubt he would be hated and if so it wouldnt be more than Everton hate Steven Gerrard, Wayne Rooney etc.

Perhaps if there is more interaction as to why you are leaving then you might not be so hated. For instance, if you are leaving for a new challenge abroad then you would probably still be admired. Whereas if you said you were resigning to take charge of a rival club then you may be hated.

I have noticed this for a few years in FM. Anyone else?

i just think si have a bit of a problem on their hands. each year there having to improve the match engine and perfect it as well as trying to add new features. there are so many good ideas i have read on these message boards that probley wont be seen for ages. the whole relationship between manager and club and the manager and media needs to be redone to add variety but invariably if they concentrate on adding some of the good features people have mentioned someone will moan that the match engine isnt good enough etc etc. but this sounds like a great idea. lets hope we will see it soon

Agreed. Another problem I have notice when resigning is that no matter how successful you seem to be once you resign you become the clubs most disliked person (if you look using a real time editor or scout etc).

I have noticed this for a few years in FM. Anyone else?

Yeah, if that's the case, it is flat out wrong and needs changing.

Can't say that I've noticed it, personally, as I don't use editor/scout programs, but its been mentioned numerous times on forum from respectable sources.

I thought the most disliked person thing was well-known; I'm lead to understand it's there so AI clubs don't sack a manager, have another one, sack him and go back to the first one, ad infinitum...

Well, that's at least a reasonable explanation for it, but surely it oughtn't apply to the human manager if we aren't sacked?

it comes up if you retire.

Fantastic ideas. Lets hope they read some of this

I agree with everything you've said. Adding in relationships like that would make the game much more interactive and interesting.

Another thing I just thought of:

If the fans want you out and you resign, maybe the next time you play that club, the fans can heckle you throughout the game. This could somehow be tied to the confidence and motivation of the players. The opposing team could feel motivated to fight for their club when the bad manager (you, the player) returns.

That might not have made sense the way I typed it, but it felt like it made sense in my head. I'd like to see more of a relationship between the manager/fans and manager/chairman. That definitely would be interesting.

Along with fans heckling you it would also be nice for players that you sell that take parting shots at you, or leave the club after you didn't want to sell, or basically ending on bad terms and similar to get boo'd by the crowd for maybe the first season or so. Might be tough to implement, but if they ever got round to improving the sound this would add another dimension to it.

Some great ideas in this thread anyway

Yeah another thing could be to challenge the new manager to a fight to the death

Along with fans heckling you it would also be nice for players that you sell that take parting shots at you, or leave the club after you didn't want to sell, or basically ending on bad terms and similar to get boo'd by the crowd for maybe the first season or so. Might be tough to implement, but if they ever got round to improving the sound this would add another dimension to it.

Some great ideas in this thread anyway

8.55am is abit early for you Muncherdave......or are you still up from last night

On topic - Love some of these ideas and would definetly like to see them implemented in some way or another

Excellent idea from the OP. Another interaction idea that really would benefit us FMers in terms of immersion.

Yeah another thing could be to challenge the new manager to a fight to the death

haha

8.55am is abit early for you Muncherdave......or are you still up from last night

On topic - Love some of these ideas and would definetly like to see them implemented in some way or another

I got an early night last night for the first time in months. The birds actually tweeting when I wake up instead of when I'm going to bed is so much better. Must be because I didn't fire up FM last night

You know, even if when you resigned you just got to pick from a few options to state why you are resigning would be a big improvement and wouldn't take much to implement I wouldn't have thought.