Season ruined by big time charlies

At christmas, my star striker, right mid, centre back and left back all got in huff with me not letting them go. Unable to offer them new contracts big enough to convince them to stay, they have put in 6.0s for the rest of the season, and I finished my season with teadious 0-0 draws, finishing me outside playoffs. IF theyd stayed keen, we'd have been promoted for sure.

Next time, I will sell anyone who asks to leave.

I can often have the opposite results of you.

My centre back was being scouted by Juventus but I didn't want to sell. He's been playing out of his skin and once he calms down, new contract.

Next time praise them more and keep playing them regularly and maybe get them to tutor someone. After a while they'll become happy and offer them a new contract with a big clean sheet/goal bonus so they'll become hungry again

thanks, i will give that a go.

Sorry to butt in - do performance related bonuses really have an effect on a player's motivation? Has this really been proven that it is actually coded into the game?

If it's "Wants to join a bigger club" you either need to actually get promoted or somehow finish way better than you are currently doing, or sell them. I've never seen a single player (out of the dozens and dozens I've see with that problem) ever get "happy" again.

Sell them, find someone better. It's a shame, but SI don't leave you much choice. 1 or 2 you can keep without much effect on the team, but if you start to get 3, 4, 5, 6 players with this, your squad harmony will drop and you might as well get it over with.

I had to rebuild my squad 4 times in the years spent in League 1 and the Championship.

i4n37: I gave a high league bonus for my Southampton team when I took them up to the Prem (was trying to make them more motivated to stay up). Currently in Feb, and some players still have a PR tag saying excited about getting high bonus. Couldn't say for sure if this has made a difference, but am 8th atm, so I think it has.

i4n37: I gave a high league bonus for my Southampton team when I took them up to the Prem (was trying to make them more motivated to stay up). Currently in Feb, and some players still have a PR tag saying excited about getting high bonus. Couldn't say for sure if this has made a difference, but am 8th atm, so I think it has.

Update -

I have my chap who is 20 years old, in league one. Currently "Championship" with potential to be a top premiership players. At christmas all the offers come in. He scores something like 17 in 24 in all comps, with bags of assists and basically makes up for some wowfully inadequate signings I've made in midfield.

All the offers come in, he gets upset, and doesn't score more than a couple of goals for the rest of the season. I stuck him in the reserves and he scored a hatrick and created a 7-0 (out of charector for my lightweight reserves).

I now notice, now that I am resigned to ca$hing in on him, that his potential is no longer "premiership". So rather than getting £1mn for him, I'll probably get £100k for him.

Maybe others will learn from my misfortune. I have about 5 others who will all be sold. Basically a complete first team clear out required. :-(

My advice - if you can't get them to sign a new deal, sell em!

One think you can do is negotiate the Bid to End of Season the AI accepts this most of the time, the player would be happy to be moving to new club so at least your season is saved

If it's "Wants to join a bigger club" you either need to actually get promoted or somehow finish way better than you are currently doing, or sell them. I've never seen a single player (out of the dozens and dozens I've see with that problem) ever get "happy" again.

Sell them, find someone better. It's a shame, but SI don't leave you much choice. 1 or 2 you can keep without much effect on the team, but if you start to get 3, 4, 5, 6 players with this, your squad harmony will drop and you might as well get it over with.

I had to rebuild my squad 4 times in the years spent in League 1 and the Championship.

Some of them will get happy again for about a week, normaly happens to me when the player has been transfer listed by request for a while, no one makes a bid so eventually they ask to come off the transfer market and are happy for a week or so until they randomly decide they want out again or someone declares their interest. If you are lucky you can get them to sign a new contract whilst happy and then everytime they are not unhappy offer them a new contract and you may be able to keep them for a while, unless people actually bid for them.

The players that fall apart after demanding a transfer you drop and sell when you can.

If it's "Wants to join a bigger club" you either need to actually get promoted or somehow finish way better than you are currently doing, or sell them. I've never seen a single player (out of the dozens and dozens I've see with that problem) ever get "happy" again.

Sell them, find someone better. It's a shame, but SI don't leave you much choice. 1 or 2 you can keep without much effect on the team, but if you start to get 3, 4, 5, 6 players with this, your squad harmony will drop and you might as well get it over with.

I had to rebuild my squad 4 times in the years spent in League 1 and the Championship.

I've dumped a few players in the reserves for a season. Other clubs lost interest and they withdrew their transfer requests. I then signed them to looooooooooooooooong contracts.