Delegate training to Assistant Manager

Would anyone else like to see the ability, within Manager Options or Training screens, to delegate training to the assistant manager (or first team coach, or whatever)?

I've been playing Football Manager since Championship Manager 01/02 on the Xbox. I have played every game in the series since then, usually getting them on release date. I, like many people here, will have put 1000+ hours in over the years to this series, which I still enjoy each year.

Yet still, after all this time, I am rubbish at training. I am not only rubbish at it, but I get no enjoyment from it. None at all. And yet it is entirely the manager's job. Surely there are some clubs out there, somewhere in the world, where the assistant manager, or the coaches decide the training schedule?

We can delegate arrangement of friendlies, the playing of friendlies, team talks, press conferences, contract renewals, the entirety of the reserve and youth squads, and even the selection of players for the first team to our coaching staff. We could even get our youth or goalkeeping coach to pick our entire first team lineup for the Champions League Final, if we wanted. We can get our entire backroom staff to give us detailed reports on individual players within our squad, and sometimes the assistant manager will give information on whether he thinks a younger player would benefit from being linked with a more experienced player. We can get our assistant manager to filter out any players or staff members which might not be interested in signing for us when looking at a list of them, and he gives us information on whether he thinks a player will be a good signing on that final, contract negotiation screen. In match, the assistant manager gives us tactical feedback on everything from how well a player is playing and if a tactical system is working well in general, to if he thinks that my striker is used to closing down players a little more than I am asking him to, or if my defender should have his passing distribution bar tweaked to one side a bit.

So with all this assistance we allow players (some of which is realistic, some of which is not), why not allow training to be handed down, too?

Currently the closest thing to automating any part of training at all is Training>Coaches, and selecting "Auto assign all", which merely chooses which coaches will work on which training categories. It still leaves us with default training schedule. Sure, I could go onto the Tactics and Training forum and download stuff from there, or spend ages reading information on how to do training well, but learning how to do it well still wouldn't make me enjoy it any more, and downloading a training schedule is not something some of us want to do (just how some are okay with downloading tactics or looking on the good player guide, and others are not).

I understand that I may well be alone amongst experienced players of the series in being rubbish at training (and not enjoying it in the slightest), but surely I'm not alone in wishing that the option to automate was available to those who desire it?

Seems like a sound and practical option to have.

Probably because it is one of those areas of the game that defines a manager like signings, tactics, motivation etc. If you could automate training then there would be no point to it. Sure you would delegate in real life, but in real life you would also get tactical advice and knowledge from your coaching staff.

Anyway, why not just spend some time tweaking a few basic schedules and use them in your save? I get on fine with 5 basic schedules myself, one attack and one defence schedule for Aerobic and Strength and a goalkeeper schedule, and I switch players between them at different stages of their careers. It's not perfect but it is simple and effective.

Probably because it is one of those areas of the game that defines a manager like signings, tactics, motivation etc.

Surely nothing defines a manager more than his squad selection, yet we have an "ask to pick" option that allows our coaching staff to choose the lineup for us. Obviously it's not something that most of the experienced players would choose often (apart from, for me, when joining a club I'm entirely unfamiliar with, such as in my current save where I have just started a job in the Belgian Third Division), but we wouldn't exactly recommend getting rid of the option.

Like I say, even if I did read up on tactics and learn to be good at it, or even just tweak a few basic settings and use those, it wouldn't make me enjoy it any better, and I would always have it in the back of my head that I'm still not getting the most out of training as I would if I brought in a good assman and put him in charge while I concentrated more on the matchday and signing sides of things.

Obviously I'm not wanting the option to manually handle training to be taken away; that would be insane. I'm just thinking that a lot of people (especially beginners) would be able to take advantage of being able to delegate something which might be too complex for them, or just not interesting to them, as in my case.

Also, I might be misremembering but I seem to recall the option having been there at one point in the past, in at least one edition of the game. I might be wrong though.

There is nothing for the AM to be assigned to.

GoalKeepers are put into the default GK training routine

Outfield players are put into the default "General" training routine

This happens automatically as soon as you have signed them. This would only be viable as an option if the default training schedules were more complex (ie FM05).

I agree totally, it would be a great option. I'm pretty lazy I just assign the coaches and leave it at that, its a one time deal at the begining of the game...having the assistant manager tweak from week to week would be a great addition. That way he could assign players to fitness only when they come back from injury or intense training for the players left behind on a international week.

I never change my training, always just leave it as it is and click 'auto assign' for what areas my coaches focus on.. just a pointless part of the game to me

There is nothing for the AM to be assigned to.

GoalKeepers are put into the default GK training routine

Outfield players are put into the default "General" training routine

This happens automatically as soon as you have signed them. This would only be viable as an option if the default training schedules were more complex (ie FM05).

Teams being managed by AI are not limited to the default formations. Team talks delivered by AI do not always use the default team talks (i.e. giving the entire team the same team talk). There's no reason why an assistant manager, when handling training, would need to only use the default training schedules.

Of course, the quality and style of their training when training is delegated to them could be determined by their own stats and personalities. An attack-minded assistant manager with good man management and motivation attributes would be good at bringing the best out of your strikers through training, whereas one with a high Working With Youngsters attribute would be better at knowing how to nurture that promising youngster, and so on.

Edit: Oh, and an assman with good Fitness attribute might be good at knowing how to handle training a player recovering from injury, making sure not to overwork him and so on, as kjb360 mentions above.

Edit 2: Oh, and how did I not notice? "Level of Discipline" attribute would almost certainly be useful.

There's bunches of attributes that backroom staff have which would take on far more meaning if you were the type to delegate training to an assman. Currently a lot of those attributes are geared towards being a manager (some of them even seem to be geared toward's a manager's training, interestingly), and they could take on other uses if you were the type to delegate training.

Obviously I would never recommend making delegation of training mandatory (there are plenty of players here who get a lot of enjoyment and satisfaction out of manually handling training), but having the option there, it seems, would be beneficial to many.

AFAIK, the AI use the default training programmes (General and GK). So asking your assistant to take care of training would be pretty pointless.

I would definitely like to see an option to delegate training, it is a v dull part of what is after all a game.