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Selling aging stars: dealing with remorse and gratitude


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So, after almost ten years of stellar achievements, some of the key players of my Rosenborg have turned 30 (or 31/32), and while still good enough to be first team regulars [especially in the league], it's almost time to go for the generational turnover...

The problem is, as stupid as it sounds, I kinda feel "guilty" for offering around the men who helped the team to become the #1 club in the world...

They are getting older, and starting to drop a bit, but they're not just the random backup you can offload for 1M and thank you...

On the other hand, I've been carried away with signing younger (foreign) players, so the squad needs a lot of trimming down, both for economical (wage bill) and youth development (they need to play) purposes.

Am I the only silly one who kinda feel sorry and bad for showing the door to half of the teams All Time Best 11?

Should I keep them around til they retire just out of gratitude?

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I usually keep them as tutors if their wages aren't too high, I don't offer a new contract and keep hinting at them getting a managerial/coaching role. Other than that just phase them out over time and they'll agree it's time to move on and let the youngsters come through.

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I just sell them whilst there is still interest from them in other clubs.

"will sell for right price" on transfer speculation helps here too as it occasionally promts a reasonably priced offer, and it doesn't affect player moral as badly as 'offer to clubs' does.

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Except in a few cases, I always sell my players when they reach 28-30 assuming I have a good players to replace them. Yes, there is a bit of guilt but I make sure I praise them at thier new club (it helps a bit...)! There is a number of advantages to doing this though, you will still get a huge transfer fee and at this age they are normally amongst your highest earners so you get a huge finnancial boost.

For example on my current save with Everton, I've just sold now club legend Romelu Lukaku at the age of 29 for £56million, not to mention his £110,000p/w wages, this was after about 500 apps for the club and over 250 goals over 11 seasons. This is one of many players I have done this with and as I've got a great stream of youth this is working fantastically seeing huge profits each year, it did take me a while to get to this stage though. Rodwell, Coleman and Fazio are the only players I've kept on into thier extreme old age!

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I hate doing this too.

I have quite a complicated way to decide what to do with club legends.

I make all my decisions about them when they turn 30.

If they have been a key player for 6 years or more then I will look at them and decide if they are good enough to keep playing at the top level. If they are good enough then I will keep hold of them if they are good enough to get into my match day squad, if they are not quite good enough for that anymore then I will sell them BUT only to a club in the same league as me but who are worse than me, so he still gets plenty of time on the pitch.

If they are good enough for me to keep then I will keep them till the end of their career, even once they decline so far that they are nowhere near good enough for my team, and I will still give them a match whenever I can, cup matches, substitute against weaker teams, and so on, until they retire, because I would rather see them finish their career at my club rather than drop down the leagues and finish playing well down the leagues.

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If they have served a while I will let them retire at the club and hopefully look into coaching. The added bonus is most of my squad are determind and/or professional so are quite glad to accept reduced contracts when they start declining. If they are on large contracts and still want that current wage and I have no real use for them, then I will sell them or they can leave on a free. Somehow them leaving on a free seems more morally correct as it's up to them haha.

Mind you this is only for loyal servants to the club as Mackemforever states in the above post.

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You're certainly not alone here! I'm managing a club in Burkina Faso who started with one really solid (generated) midfielder, Salif Zanga, and he practically carried the side during my first few seasons. He's now approaching 34, and due to his diminishing physical attributes, is more of a bench player six seasons in. I'm hoping to keep him on as a member of the backroom team once he retires, but in the meantime he's still getting interest from bigger clubs than ourselves, even though he's happy enough to stay.

So, while my hopes are that he'll stay with us until he hangs his boots up, should he show an interest in a move abroad I will honour his wishes and allow him to leave. Got to love the attachment that FM can give you to clubs and players though .. even if they're generated. :)

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What the heck is that German doing as your Ass Man?????? Does he really, REALLY like pasta? :D

Montella was not keen on becoming assistant at that point in time, and Alberto De Rossi spent some time away befor i managed to poach him back home, so I promoted my scout, Legat, since he had very good attributes for the job, while leaving Montella in charge of coaching the youth team (a job he have done to prefection, wining with the u20 every year since i put him in charge)

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will let this image speak for itself, sadly Tonetto was poached by Hoffenhiem, then went on to manage Siena, geting sacked...and now he manage Juventus

[snip]

You could play 4-2-3-1 with that... Oh, wait, that's not your first-team squad.

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I just payed 25 million for a 28 year old that was my star AMc and all tiem favorute player ever on CM or FM.. is that to much for a 28 year old?

I once spent £80 milj on a 29 year old David Silva back on fm08, still rate it as one of my best signings since he was exactly the player my team needed

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most players i sell at 29/30 as their value only drops after that age and of course they start slowly going down in terms of ability. however i do get attached to players so i do keep some much longer. at ajax i cant see myself selling stekelenberg, emmanuelson, aissati, suarez or falcao unless they demand to leave

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You could play 4-2-3-1 with that... Oh, wait, that's not your first-team squad.
id only need doni as gk coach then...but well it does look like a pretty decent team

Cassetti - Juan - Samuel - Chivu

Pizarro - Brighi

Taddie - Totti - Perrotta

Montella

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I try to keep some of the players who have really made an impact on my club until they either retire or when they dont accept the offer of a new contract. I see no point in selling players when they get to 30/31, my star striker is Yaya Sanogo and he is approaching 32, he scored 30 league goals last season with an average rating of 7.81 and this season he has got 12 goals in 13 games with an average rating of 7.92. I see no point in selling him just because of his age, on FM08 i definetly would have sold him because his stats would have dropped so dramatically by the time he was 31 that he would have been awful.

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No!

Always gotta feel for the player. Not so much if its a club legend there before I was, but defo for one of my own.

I cash in on most players over 29 who will rake in more than 10m on my Arsenal save, Sagna just left for a nice 27.5m.

Feel sorry for Song on mine. Brought in Fellaini, Song Unhappy at not playing all season, and then while Fellaini is suspended Song goes and gets the winning pen against Barca in CL final!

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I've kept players for way longer than they deserve, simply because I don't want to sell them and especially don't want to play against them if possible (sad face). I have a bad habit of often not selling anyone over 32 - if I don't want someone in my team, I usually jettison them before they hit 30 as this makes me less guilty. :(

One player I kept for a long time was a 40-year-old right-winger whom I persisted in playing on the right on the odd game. Hopeless there with absolutely no pace but his technical and mental attributes were top notch, making him a perfect playmaker on the right or the odd appearance through the middle, especially on the break where he would easily find space, pick up the ball and smack it long to a runner. Best right-winger I've ever had - a phenomenal player whom I've never come close to replacing.

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I try to keep the really big stars as much as I can, preferably seeing them retired while they are with me.

I put them in reserves, loan them out, and I always can find few 1st team matches to play them to keep their moral up, like cup matches against lower league teams, or when you guaranteed to (or not to) win the league I always play them in the rest of the matches etc.

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