Is there no sentiment left anymore.

Today i have taken the heartless step of putting 2 of my longest serving players, aged 28 and 31, on the transfer market. They have been with me on our meteoric rise through the division but, these days, they are very rarely getting a game, although when played they don't let me down. I now have better, younger players who will only get restless if they don't get a game.

So on my assistants advice they are going to have to go. I think he is right as they are starting to clutter the place up a bit now, but, i do it with regret!

I may well get rid of my Ass Man as well because he is a callous, heartless, unsentimental old < insert own words here >

I know how you feel. I won the league three times in a row with Spurs after six years there and my Ass Man told me to sell Robbie Keane so I sacked him

Maybe you can ask them to be a coach, or your new assistent?

Van Der Sar agreed to become a goalkeeping coach on my Manchester United save

I always feel like a giant nasty evil bad person extraordinaire when I do this. Sadly, given my preference for younger... err... that's not going to sound right, erm, given my youth policy I find myself doing it way too often. Do I keep you, 28yo centre back who has been with me since the humble beginnings in the Championship, or do you make way for the eighteen years old prodigy who is already a better player?

Its really hard - in previous games I used to keep them on. I remember playing a 38 year old Alan shearer, despite the fact he could barely manage 20 minutes without needing a defribulator!

Now, with wages rising astronomically, I dont have the same sentimentality I used to. I remember resigning Michael owen at half his wage (about £10K...) because he loved the club so much and thought I was great.

Now a 31 year old Arshavin wants a pay rise to £80K to stay on another year + £1.5million in signing on fees, he will only sign a 1 year extension at a time and hes asking for 10K more each year. Bugger that, theres the door.

Playing as Tottenham i feel that King is the only player i'll consider keeping, partly because he's English and playing as an English team i like to keep the English players around. The same applies for Puyol, whenever i've played as Barca he's the one player that can demand anything i'll always keep him, and when he dies bury him in the penalty box so he can carry on defending. You'd hope though that the game would have some sort of coding which recognises players like these love of the club and would mean that they'd play for free if you'd keep them (have had it in earlier incarnations of FM and CM before or so it seemed).

I usually have a Wednesday game. For the past few years, Marcus Tudgay has been that player. Always keep him around if I can.

i once sold club legend and bought him back a year later

I never let any of my long serving players go, regardless of their wage. Playing as R Madrid, it helps because I have an extremely high wage budget.

So, when the player hit 30+, I ask them to become a coach, gk coach etc, and if they do, I sign them up as player/coach. Eventually, i sign them up as my coaching team. Right now, I have Casillas and Xabi Alonso on my coaching team, and they spent like 2 years each w/o getting any game or maybe 1 or 2 a season lol. I did sold most of the original squad (just about 75% of the original lol ) in the first few season, but whoever played over 30 year of age stay with the club

I even have C Ronaldo on $135,000 p/w wage bill. I really hope he would become a coach but unfortunately, he says no And same for Pepe.

As for firing ass man, I did exactly the same :-D My ass man first ask me to drop Caneles from the 1st team squad after 5 seasons in then recommend me to sell Sergio Caneles, so I just fire him and replace with a new guy.

Running into this problem at the moment with Earnshaw at Forest. It's a matter of money at this point, I just signed on a 24 year old who is better at similar wages... and Earnshaw only wants more. Can't run a business like that can I? I'm not at a big club with infinite wage bill so these are things I have to consider.

I'm running his contract into his last month just now to see if I can try and sign him up for less money. If I can, then I will sell Blackstock on for sure. If Earnshaw won't budge on his wage demands, sorry buddy, out you go.

Playing as Tottenham i feel that King is the only player i'll consider keeping, partly because he's English and playing as an English team i like to keep the English players around. The same applies for Puyol, whenever i've played as Barca he's the one player that can demand anything i'll always keep him, and when he dies bury him in the penalty box so he can carry on defending. You'd hope though that the game would have some sort of coding which recognises players like these love of the club and would mean that they'd play for free if you'd keep them (have had it in earlier incarnations of FM and CM before or so it seemed).

The game has this to a small extent. When I offered out two of my older players who had helped me achieve a lot of success, they were unhappy telling me they really didnt want to leave the club. Furthermore in confidence, your board's fans are unlikely to accept the selling of players who have served the club well for a long time as I have found out a few times.

One of my favourite things about FM is filling the backroom with ex-players.

Always raid the free transfers for 35 year old + players in the hope of convincing them to stay on. My reserve team is full of them.

I hate it when I'm forced to make these decisions. The worst part is where you sell them at not-so-old ages because you have too many kids coming through in that position. Especially if they have done nothing wrong.

Sometimes the players make it easy by underperforming quite badly throughout the season, but it's when they do well when it hurts.

I sold a winger-striker (he's a lot like Thomas Müller - German, winger-striker, good attitude, good work rate, technically sound, attributes don't tell the whole story, etc. etc. etc) after one of his better seasons - I had to, because I had lots of wingers coming through and he was getting old.

The only old folks that last throughout the career with me are the best players or those who have come through the academy - because there's a reason they've been around for so long.

I've got a 38 year old Rivaldo playing in the reserves for my Newcastle team. I usually bring him on for a bit in pre-season matches and in one of them he scored a sublime chip after all my other attackers had failed to hit the target. Showing them how to do it!

I keep the legends around for their name and tutor experience. It's a shame the game regards such players as worthless, because I think a few Rivaldo shirts would be sold if he really went to Newcastle

I usually either encourage them to become coaches/assistants or whatever so they stay at the club. If that fails, keep them on for a little bit [if I can afford it if they are asking for 50K plus no thank you] and have them tutor the younger players.

Personally, I had a dream-team of a backroom with players like Giggs, Fortune, Ole Gunnar Solskjær [few more ex-pros... seem to mostly be Man Utd] as my coaches and assistants. I signed a 38 year old Tim Cahill in that game as well with the sole purpose of making him my assistant one day.

http://footballmanagerdiary.blogspot.com/

Well IRL, we dont have the attribute reading at the hand... So trusting the experience over the youth, we generally choose the older player and believe in them more as they have stayed over the time...

Now with the FM we know the attribute, and the experience counts nothing (except for some mental stats); so when a academy produces new players who have better stats, that becomes a huge problem about what do to with the old players (esp. if he ends up asking for huge wages without playing).

Some changes that I would like in the next versions of the game are (so that i don't loose my good players who are icons; i lose them coz they charge more, perform less or are surplus):

1. Addition of the something to reflect the experience; mental stats are not sufficient; I have seen loads of Regens with high mental attributes.

2. Players who loves clubs agreeing at the smaller wage. O'shea won't go to other club as he loves the club and is loyal; then why cant he accept a lower wage, I will then keep him at club maybe in the reserves.

I find it difficult to leave them out of the team, let alone allowing them to leave the club! Slowly phased Carragher out of my defence even though he was past it, then managed to upset him while trying to sign him as a coach and he left. Still hasn't got a job 4 years later. Similar with Stevie G, gradually phased him out of the team until the season before last where he made just 1 start, the final home game of the season as a little send off. managed to sign him as a coach and he is very good. Torres is now in decline and I still play him every now and then. Hoping to persuade him to be a coach as well, would form a good coaching team with Stevie.

Got rid of Sammy Lee though, he is a long servant of the club but not the best AssMan.

I've had some difficult decisions to make since promotion to League Two. Had a couple of good foreign players who've been with me since the Blue Square North. Although in their mid to late 30's, they weren't ready to hang up their boots for a coaching role yet, so I had to let them move on.

It was a combination of signing better players and the English League Two squad registration rules, making it necessary for me to actually start having some English players for a change.

That said though, Norwegian Jo Tessem and Brazilian Viola made the transition from being players to coaches with my club. They were 37 and 40 respectively though, when I signed them in the BSN.

If possible and if their coaching attributes are good enough, I always like to have former players in my backroom staff. Unfortunately it seems, the ones you would think would get good coaching attributes, always end up being utter pants.

Edit: Two of the older players I let move on, I sold to Gillingham in League One, after turning down bids from any League Two clubs, so I didn't have to face them.

So... who did I get in the FA Cup second round?

That's right, Gillingham!

In FM10 I've got an Arsenal save in the year 2026, and Cesc Fabregas was still performing for me right up to the age of 36. In fact in 2022/23 he made 13 league starts, scored 1 goal and made 7 assists. Very handy. I kept him on for a couple more years until he retired even though one of my new star players disliked him and then I gave him a coaching role. And when England came calling for me I made him my assistant.

What did my loyalty earn me? Well, after one year on my Arsenal coaching staff, Mancini offered him the assistant's job at City and he frigging left! They were our main rivals for our entire time together and he defected. Traitor!

I keep my players until they're not performing any longer, regardless of their age or what they've done before (except in Cesc's case because he was just incredible for me). I still have Aaron Ramsey at 35 - his stats haven't degraded too much and he's a handy backup. There have been exceptions - players that wanted a new challenge, players that I could see were going to decline rapidly rather than gradually and/or I got a good offer for.

I don't mind keeping older players in the squad, but only if they're doing the job. I rotate a lot and blood the youngsters alongside them. Then gradually the youngsters minutes increase and the older guys minutes decrease, before they're put out to pasture. I do like keeping my ex-players with me in coaching roles if I can, but not if their stats aren't good enough.

So I am sentimental to a point, but also realistic. Players move on, times change. Just gotta go with it.

So many times that i keep that old guy around that i know deep inside he isn't good enough for this level but he's been with us all the way up.

I actually should mix more youth and experience in my squads.. i end up not having enough tutors for the young players that start breaking into the team.

I've had some difficult decisions to make since promotion to League Two. Had a couple of good foreign players who've been with me since the Blue Square North. Although in their mid to late 30's, they weren't ready to hang up their boots for a coaching role yet, so I had to let them move on.

It was a combination of signing better players and the English League Two squad registration rules, making it necessary for me to actually start having some English players for a change.

That said though, Norwegian Jo Tessem and Brazilian Viola made the transition from being players to coaches with my club. They were 37 and 40 respectively though, when I signed them in the BSN.

If possible and if their coaching attributes are good enough, I always like to have former players in my backroom staff. Unfortunately it seems, the ones you would think would get good coaching attributes, always end up being utter pants.

Argh! My summer plans are up in smoke. I just realised you have to have four players trained in England for the matchday squad in the BSP... Where am i possibly going to find some good English players from in two months?!

Cheers for the heads up, Heath.

/Back on topic

My recent experience is a bit left field... I took over at my club and in the first season i've had to get rid of a player who's played for the club for 8 seasons, since he was 18 years old, because he ain't good enough. The club only has two icons, and he's one of them! You know he didn't even play for me that season, except twice, and one of those games he fired in a thunderbolt from 25 yards. He seemed like a nice guy. The lad didn't even play under me and i feel bad about letting him go. The fans aren't happy but then i won the league in my first year, so i can do what i like! I should have probably given him a send off in the final home league game though as we'd sewn up the title by then. I totally forgot.

I'm fairly ruthless. I have a plan. If you're not in that plan you're gone. And sometimes I like to change that plan. So if I decide I want to let a couple of younger players be regulars, sorry established players, you're gone.

A player has to be integral for me to keep them beyond the age of 30. They have to be superb to make 32 years old. For an outfield player to go beyond the age of 32 in my squad they have to be flawless. The only player to achieve that honour whilst I've managed in the top flight of a league was Maxim Tsigalko, who netted 36 goals at the age of 32 to make keeping him another year a must.

In my current save, Phil Jagielka will be unceremoniously sold in January at the age of 31, and Tim Howard is a sub 'keeper at the age of 34. The next oldest is 29.

I'm considering actually keeping a steady side for a change though to see how much of a bank balance I can rack up, so two signings a season max for the next four or five years!

I would agree with your ass man if it was me. Soon as players hit around that 30 mark I'm looking at the next player for there position.

I never let any of my long serving players go, regardless of their wage. Playing as R Madrid, it helps because I have an extremely high wage budget.

So, when the player hit 30+, I ask them to become a coach, gk coach etc, and if they do, I sign them up as player/coach. Eventually, i sign them up as my coaching team.

same here, though I am At. Madrid LOL

also, I like older defenders more than younger ones. they are more experienced and reliable, though sometimes slower. They really bloom after 26, like Diego Godin for example. I still have him, he is 31 now and plays great, many clubs now want him, including Man. Utd, though when I started the game he was just 24 and quite error prone. maybe it's just me, but I never had luck with young defenders, they always get team in trouble, so I keep my defenders in game until they are 33.

I'm very ruthless on FM and regularly sell, release on a free, **** off my past key players once they're on the verge of becoming too old. Hardly ever feel any emotional about it. FM lets you easily get away with mean things that would be very very tough to do in real life, I mean all you have to do is two brainless clicks on the mouse, now compare that to telling someone face to face they're unemployed!!

I know how you feel. I won the league three times in a row with Spurs after six years there and my Ass Man told me to sell Robbie Keane so I sacked him

Keane didn't show Spurs that loyalty when he went to LP. Came back and did nothing.

I gave Didier Drogba a job as a youth coach during the first season, he now manages my reserves and is now a 1st team coach, couldn't bring myself to let him wear another shirt. Frank Lampard wont sign as a coach so his now 38 and plays the odd 10 games a season. Benjani Mwaruari, is a must signing for me, mainly cause I'm biased and think his the greatest Zimbabwean to ever grace the prem since Bruce Grobbelaar and John Terry is now a youth coach, England Captain, Chelsea Captain and Youth Team manager for me

Once I am established at the club and have had a couple of years to bring in some good youngsters who are then bedded in i'm afraid sentiment goes out of the window with me.

Purely for the reason that 31 and 32 year olds will very rarely take contract extensions at even the same, let alone lower, wages. There is no way I am giving Elmander for example a pay rise at 32 and bunging his agent half a million in the process. It's not that I wouldn't like to keep some of the older players-they often perform very well even when the ass man tells me they are going off the boil - but if I can get 750k for him and cut my wage bill by 35k a year and save agent fees as a trade off for not having Elmander as back up for an extra year then it's a no brainer.

The average age of my first team is now 24 after 5 years at Bolton and I think it will go down to about 22 within another 5 years. I can either have a team of the best young players in the world or a team of average 30 year olds with maybe 2 star players for my wage budget (although that is going up quick as I rise up the league)

I would like to keep the old stars as coaches but I gave it up as I found they were just asking, again, for too much relative to their abilities. You can find good coaches on a grand a week if you look for them and no star player that i've ever asked to become a coach has ever gone anywhere near that low.

same here, though I am At. Madrid LOL

also, I like older defenders more than younger ones. they are more experienced and reliable, though sometimes slower. They really bloom after 26, like Diego Godin for example. I still have him, he is 31 now and plays great, many clubs now want him, including Man. Utd, though when I started the game he was just 24 and quite error prone. maybe it's just me, but I never had luck with young defenders, they always get team in trouble, so I keep my defenders in game until they are 33.

Yeah That's right... I feel that the Goalkeeper, one of the central defender and deep lying play-makers should be Old Wine in any team of the mine. They compensates for the mental attribute in the younger teams...

The main problem with keeping those old legends at the club is that you can't give them much playing time due to their rapid decline. After so many editions of FM, the rate of decline for those extremely professional players still seem not right. Van der Sar played as the first choice GK for me in the first season and he dropped from a 3 and half star rating to a 2 star rating GK despite playing in almost all high key games. Checked his CA and it dropped by more than 20 pts in a season. How can you expect to play those legends if you want to win anything? Same stories with Scholes, Giggs and Neville. Most people will just go for the simple way to either free transfer them or shift them to the backroom staff. Any people have any ideas what attribute affects the rate of decline? I read some people say it is natural fitness but it does no justice to these model professionals who have poor natural fitness to replicate their inability to play every game of the season but still being able to maintain a high level of performance for certain key games.

same here, though I am At. Madrid LOL

also, I like older defenders more than younger ones. they are more experienced and reliable, though sometimes slower. They really bloom after 26, like Diego Godin for example. I still have him, he is 31 now and plays great, many clubs now want him, including Man. Utd, though when I started the game he was just 24 and quite error prone. maybe it's just me, but I never had luck with young defenders, they always get team in trouble, so I keep my defenders in game until they are 33.

Hmm... I completely have the reverse effect on my team. In one season, I have a 19-21 y/o old defensive line except my RB with Sergio Ramos, because with Pepe, Cavalho, Casillas, Xabi alonso, etc getting old and Marcelo isn't that good of a player. I signed so many 16 y/o defenders in my 2nd and 3rd season that I have abundant to choose from. So, I just overhaul the entire defense with the kids coming out from U19s, starting from my DMC, 4 defenders and GK. Of course, it's not as stable as the original squad at the beginning but after a season, the capable ones confidently claim their 1st team spot. Now, I still have a relatively young defensive line with the oldest being 24, but last season, they just allow 8 goals in the league. Of course, I have Casillas, Xabi and Cavalho on my coaching staffs and they tutored a lot, so I guess that helps.. maybe :) Even with the others that I didn't use, they are all head hunted by all the big clubs like Barca, Man U, Arsenal, Inter, etc, and I sold quite a few of them.

As for my offense, I don't have much luck with youngsters at all. None of my offensive squad perform as well as I expect them to be. They only start to perform well around age 23-24, and peak at 28-32. As few examples like C Ronaldo started his record scoring at age 31 and 32, and Yaya Sanogo just become unstoppable at 28 (he's completely useless before age 24 on my save, can't score a goal to save his own life even though I sign him on the 1st season and have him in my 1st team squad). The trend continues with all my young signing, where my MC only start to mature and start assisting instead of running around on my pitch at age 25, and my new strikers can't perform at all before age 22. So, I usually have to patiently wait for them for 3 or 4 years after they get out of my U19s.

I guess in 10 years time, I can see my entire staff is filled with these youngsters I'm currently using :-D because I don't have the heart to just sell them, especially some of them actually come out of my own youth academy.