How do you escape the vicious circle?

The problem I always encounter when managing a smaller club is that before I can have success, my players want to move to a bigger club.

So I sell them and buy new players - mostly talents with potential - who of course need some time to develop to the level of my sold players. Some people may say 'If you have to sell a player, simply buy a better player' isn't as easy as one might think. As I said, my club is rather small, thus the sold players already exceeded the club's reputation - there is no way of getting players with even a higher reputation. How do you escape that vicious circle?

As Palace, Jose Fonte wanted to move club as he wanted to be part of a bigger team - I wasn't having any of that; I told him straight that he wasn't going anywhere and his response was positive, saying he liked how assertive I was! If a player gets unhappy though, I'd only consider selling the dude if he wasn't pulling his weight during matches, or if his poor ethic rubbed off on my other players... At the end of the day you're a manager, and you sometimes need to be firm.

How do you escape that?

Quite simply, you don't...

Every league has its Top Dogs, and if you're not one of them, odds are you're never gonna become one, unless

1) You got yourself a sugardaddy and start to attract players thanks to high wages instead of reputation, thus being able to be moderately successful and to build a new legacy (the Chelsea way, soon to be the City way)

2) You manage to clinch some minor trophies (or European Cups spots) thanks to good tactic/wise choices, so over time the team reputation will grow enough to attract and keep (for a while) better players (the Fiorentina way)

Other than that, you'll always have to deal with the dreaded Static League Reputation factor in FM, so unless you're already playing in a prestigious league [EPL, Liga or Serie A], your players will ALWAYS be keen on a move to Derby or AlbinoLeffe, no matter how well you're doing.

It's frustrating, but perfectly realistic. One partial solution is to focus on players' personalities. Go for players with high loyalty and low ambition, and put them on long contracts.

Don't sign ambitious players. Sign professionals and determined players. They are the ones who will take you to victory without ruining your squad morale with selfishness.

To highlight something RBK mentioned - if you're league has a reputation of less than around 16 you can forget progressing to a stage where you can keep players, they'll always want to move. If you're league has a decent reputation on the other hand, at least you have the chance of enhancing your club rep through competition performances - to match the reps of the best clubs in your league.

Thanks for the answers so far.

So the trick with e.g. the dafuge-challenge is (partly) that they play in England, their players are less likely to leave and thus they can build a great team?

I play as Ajax and I know the routine - every now and then my star players are attracted by big clubs and I have to sell them finally, becausethey get unhappy.

But there are some tricks as well.

At first, try to use your own youth players in first team. Of course, assuming that you have some youngsters that are talented enough. They are more bound to the club and/or personnel (coaches, youth coaches, you) so that they are not very fast to get itchy feet.

Secondly, don't sell the player that has listed your club as his "favourite clubs" and try to keep those players in your first team. Very often they even state that they have no intention to leave, when some rumour connects them to any onther club. Even if their level of football is getting too good for your club or division, they're easier to convince that you need them to develop the club further etc.

Thanks for the answers so far.

So the trick with e.g. the dafuge-challenge is (partly) that they play in England, their players are less likely to leave and thus they can build a great team?

Yes - 'theoretically' it's easier to build a powerhouse out of a minnow in the leagues with larger reputations, as your squad is generally more stable, with less people wanting moves to bigger clubs. As the league has a large rep there's nothing to stop you attaining the same status as Man U/Chelsea/Arsenal. Whereas with Feyenoord for example, you'll never reach the same heights as the English/Italian/Spanish/German clubs regarding reputation.

Another problem you encounter with this game is the reputation of the club you are at and the league you are in.

As Ajax, the in game reputation of their league is good, but not as good as say, La Liga. It won't matter that you might be winning everything, the big players will almost always want to leave for the biggest clubs in the best leagues.

As has been mentioned, you just have to try and remain firm, but fair with them. Unfortunately, because of these in-built reputations some players will not be happy until they get a transfer.

In my last FM08 save game I had guided Staylbridge Celtic to the Premiership and by 2032 we were the most successful league team in the world. This still didn't matter, players would want to leave me for the likes of Arseanal who might only finish 3rd or 4th in the league. It also didn't help that almost everythime a really big offer came in for a player, my Chairman would flog him off without letting me decide. I could slightly understand this in the earlier years, but towards the end I had more money that I could spend. Unfortunately it didn't stop the game from doing it because of reputation. Sometimes it doesn't matter what you do, it will happen anyway.

Sign your better players to the longest contracts they'll accept; that way you have the upper hand in convincing them to stay. I played an entire season with an "Unhappy" keeper, who then won the Swiss Keeper of the Year and ultimately decided that he wanted to stay. If he'd only had a year left on his deal, I'd probably have lost him on a free.

Also, don't get players that are too good for your league. If a player's rated at about 3.5-4 stars, he's probably not quite good enough to play at the top levels. This keeps other teams away from him.

Do a lot of praising so you can be one of the player's favorites; they're more open to listening to you that way.

Tutor the ambition out of your own youth team's promising youngsters.

Try to keep morale up as high as possible, and be sure to sell any player that doesn't fall in line. If everyone's happy at the club (partially a side effect of winning), players will be less likely to want to leave.

Never sell old players that are everyone's favorite; let them fade away at the club if you can. Selling them will just disrupt everyone...and be sure you know who on your team is interconnected with who. If everyone likes, say, a particular midfielder, than you should keep him around and give him some cup games or league games against bottom-placed teams.

An example would be Beckford. He was unhappy etc etc. And of course he has a lot of attention from higher leagues, (why I will never know because he isn't that good although he had a stormer against Tottenham) anyways we carried on playing him and hes been doing the business. Unfortunately we will lose him on a free in the summer!

I'm really fed up with this. I'm in 2026 and after making my from the 4th German League without problems, I find myself still stuck in the Bundesliga midfield. Due to their unhappiness I sold players for 200 mio in the last 2 seasons and had to fill up the gaps with youngsters. My team behaves strange (winning 1-0 against Bayern and 5-1 against Hamburg, then I lose 0-5 home to a team that is 20 pts away from a non-relegation spot. Those were consecutive matches). I'm not going to whine - I have already done this

What I will try now: Buy talents/good players and tie them to very long contracts, as some people suggested. I will not sell them before the winter transfer window prior to their contract expiry - unsettled or not. This way I should be able to accumulate some quality before having to replace the players. I'm eager to find out whether quality will win over happiness. I'll keep you updated.

I played an entire season with an "Unhappy" keeper, who then won the Swiss Keeper of the Year and ultimately decided that he wanted to stay.

Try to keep morale up as high as possible, and be sure to sell any player that doesn't fall in line. If everyone's happy at the club (partially a side effect of winning), players will be less likely to want to leave.

Don't you contradict yourself a bit here? You say, 'Only have happy players in the first team', but then your GK has been unhappy for a whole season and you fielded him though.

KOKI - when you take that strategy it can be wise to sign the player on the length of contract he wants, ESPECIALLY if other clubs are offering him contracts; then extend the deal once he signs. That way there's less risk of losing out on him to someone. It costs you an extra signing-on fee, but it can be worth the extra £330k or whatever in the long run

its a dog eat dog world....especially in a chinese by me where they serve Alsatian chow mein apparantly.

Don't you contradict yourself a bit here? You say, 'Only have happy players in the first team', but then your GK has been unhappy for a whole season and you fielded him though.

I guess I do, yeah. Ideally, I only keep happy players around, but in that particular instance (or season, I guess) I didn't have tons of choice. To be fair, though, his morale was superb most of the year even though he was apparently miserable.

As I said, I wanted to keep you updated. I maybe found a tactic to keep high-profile players at your small club. Here it goes, but no guarantee:

1. Tie the player to a long contract

2. As soon as your Ass Man observes that the player is 'making rumours about moving to a bigger club', transfer list him (don't offer to clubs)

3. If your player's determination skill is high enough (you should only buy high-determined players anyway), he should be 'determined to prove his worth to the team' the next day. This will prevent him from being unhappy for a while. Make sure you set a high transfer fee that no club will pay, so they will not unsettle the player by making bids for him. You can take him off the list after a while.

4. Renew and extend the contract from time to time while the player agrees in order to keep him happy and also ensure he stays at your club

Note: For this to work, your Ass Man should have a high Man Management skill, so that he tells you in time, before a player gets unhappy

By the way: I'm only halfway through my season 2026/2027 and I'm in 1st position (media prediction 14th) with pretty much the same team that messed up the seasons before. The things I changed: 1. I don't give team talks except for full time speeches. 2. I reverted the tactics to classic and placed all sliders in the middle.

Double post.