Director of Football - role in FM

I know we have directors of football in FM but i would like to see them used....

For example, in real life, at Reading we have the manger and then a director of football (Nicky Hammond). The manager will pin-point the player(s) he wants and then tells Hammond to go and sign him - he will then go away and bid, bid again, negotiate, offer a contract to the player etc and then finally the player arrives. Would be good if we could do this in FM, similar to the ass man handling contract offers etc

I know some people like the buying part but you can still search for the players you want, just let the DoF do all the leg work in getting the player.

In real life managers generally dont negotiate with agents anyway, but its one of those poetic licenses that make the game better.

If in the game you wanted to manage that sort of thing and there was a director of football you would then have part of the game denied to you, cant see people standing for that.

Signing players is one of the bits of fm i love

To counter your idea,

in many cases it's the Director of Football/Sporting Director that lumps (sorry, buys) the players and the manager that has to fit them in.

I can see the threads now, My D.O.F has signed 8 goalkeepers and I've got 1 fit striker and he's 36

I completely agree that the role of club president and director of football should be massively expanded. If you want complete control over transfers you should have to pick your club carefully and before you move to a different club decide whether the new club would give you as much control, less or more than your current team.

For those clubs who it seems never allow the manager full control irl, I think that could be countered for the purposes of the game by you becoming so successful and desirable to employers that you can name your own terms when you sign with a club- degree of transfer control being part of the negotiations.

However, at a huge club, there should always be the possibility of the president presenting you with a player of his choosing-especially if it's an election promise (lets hope regular elections are in the new game for the relevant clubs)

In a recent interview in the Mail, Tony Adams said Alex Ferguson told him ''Don't pick your club, pick your chairman''.

I would love to see this change implemented in the game. You could still always manage the club of your dreams, but depending on circumstances you might have to earn the right to manage it in the style you'd like.

To counter your idea,

in many cases it's the Director of Football/Sporting Director that lumps (sorry, buys) the players and the manager that has to fit them in.

I am not a fan of the idea of having a director of football in the British game. I know they have them or at least something similar on the continent where the manger identifies targets and someone else goes out and does the negotiating but you only have to look at the fairly recent faisco at Newcastle United with Kevin Keegan & Dennis Wise to see how the whole concept just doesnt suit our game.

As sgrubb says part of the fun of FM is signing players yourself and I dont think this should be changed.

This is Football MANAGER, no Football Director/Chairman - but perhaps they are other games that could be developed?

I like it just the way it is.

With the additions that have been added to the game in the area of buying, and I guess selling players as well, I could very well see this become implemented in some ways in the future. Consider the whole negotion with agents aspect that has been added. Some might feel that their main interest lies with developing tactics and playing matches, so why not add it to the settings screen in the same way that you can pick you ass. manager to take control of training matches and press conferences. They might want to add at least two possibilities: one where the director of football/chairman etc. would be in charge of the entire aspect of buying and selling players, and one where you would just let them handle the negotiations, but otherwise you would be able to select players to buy and sell. This way you would be able to involve some of the non playing persons in the game and have their stats really matter. On the other hand, players could easily choose wether or not to use this option with a simple click of their mouse. On another note, I seem to remember that for instance sugar daddies do actually sometimes buy players over the managers head in the current versions of the game, so I guess that to some extent it is already implemented...

yeh would be good if it was a setting

everyone to their own

i could accept that but only as a choice. i like negociating, even though i'm not the best in the world at buying players

I am not a fan of the idea of having a director of football in the British game. I know they have them or at least something similar on the continent where the manger identifies targets and someone else goes out and does the negotiating but you only have to look at the fairly recent faisco at Newcastle United with Kevin Keegan & Dennis Wise to see how the whole concept just doesnt suit our game.

As sgrubb says part of the fun of FM is signing players yourself and I dont think this should be changed.

I know the fun part to some is signing players but having the option to employ a director of football to take care of certain transfers for you could be a good addition if thats what you want. As said at Reading its a case of the manager picking the player HE wants to sign and then the DoF doing the leg work to make sure that player ends up at the club. The whole what happened at Newcastle is the wrong way to use a DoF and maybe the game could do this..........then you offer the board an ultimatum of "its either him or me" and see who they decide to keep

At the end of the day it doesn't have to be a feature thats set in stone and maybe the board will consider you when looking to employ one OR you have control on if you want one or not....

I wouldn't like it. Buying and selling players is a big part of how I play the game (call me 'Arry if you like ), and I don't want to have to 'earn' that right in a game.

This feature could be introduced in the game with the option to turn off/on whenever players want (such as with the real player names). I don't think it would be SO hard to do this and besides it would add another layer of depth to the game. I also think this would make it nearly impossible to build "perfect" squads, as is the case now in FM. Basically every club in the game can build a 3 star or better squad in the game by just simply signing all of the best players they've heard about/previously scouted/whatever. This makes the game unrealistic, especially since the AI never does this.

If the game would have a football director that signs a PART of players based on the specific areas of the team the manager wants to improve then the effects would be two fold: the transfer market would be more realistically balanced with players being unable to best the AI through different maneuvers and the variety in player squads would be somewhat greater. I'm not sure how "real" this situation is in England or UK football, but as some others said the level of director interference could be set as a value, much like the chairman interference. However, while this sort of involvement is not prevalent in the UK (from what I gather) it's standard practice in most of Europe. The game should reflect this, as it would make things more challenging, squads more varied, it would make different contract clauses more common and the need to adapt tactics to players more prevalent. Finally, if this option would be limited to players that I've scouted, for example, it would make it impossible to "cheat" the system by signing players outside of your scouting area - hence, no more Genie Scout with the option turned ON!

I think some people are misunderstanding the point i am trying to make.....Directors of Football do play a big part in todays game and some managers like having them, some dont but the board insist on you using one etc. As someone said above it would certainly make you think about which club you manage and maybe part of the negotiation stage when a club wants you as their manager is for you to state you want full control on transfers, or that you want a DoF to do the leg work for you but you chose the targets etc.

But for those that dont want a DoF at their club.................simply dont employ one or ask the board for full control and then the game is the same as it always is for you.

I like this idea too. For eg, if you are moving to a club with a DOF like Spurs(before HR), you can request the chairman to scrap the system or if you are comfortable with it, you let the system stay.

For a DOF to work well with a manager, he could have an attribute called '(please fill in the blank as my vocab is poor)', if the attribute is low, he will not communicate with the manager and sign the player he deems fit for the club. But if the attribute is high, he will work closely with the manager and see what's his needs before recommending and signing the players.

But what about choosing teams at the start? Like, I want to play as Arsenal without worrying about a nannying DoF (for example).

But what about choosing teams at the start? Like, I want to play as Arsenal without worrying about a nannying DoF (for example).

You simply check the box to disable them.......or maybe the board ask if you would like one or not.

"This club has a DoF installed - would you like to keep him at the club? - Yes / No"

Its just when the game gets going and you start moving clubs it could be a factor on whether you take a job etc, as stated above.

If it is an option that can be turned off, then I wouldn't mind the feature.