Can anyone explain the strange managerial appointments?

Wenger retires from a brilliant Arsenal team, so they hire Alex Mcleish, who got Birmingham relegated a few seasons ago.

Mancini gets the sack, replaced by Aguirre, who get's sacked, replaced by Tony Mowbray.

Stuart Pearce takes over from a retired Harry Redknapp at a much improved Liverpool.

Villa replace Roy Hodgson with Michael Owen.

And it goes on and on and on. But why does the AI insist on such choices?! What is it? :confused:

Comic Relief ?

it's your tactics

It's realistic.

I had a great one on my game. Shearer had been given the Blackburn job, then for the next six months I was constantly getting news stories saying that he was on the verge of the sack. All of a sudden the Chelsea job becomes available and they give it to Shearer! An unproven manager who was having an awful time at his club suddenly gets given one of the biggest jobs in the country!

In my save Mancini gets sacked by Man City because they were mid table.

He then gets the Chelsea job straight away.

He's managed to take Chelsea to a mid table team too. He then gets the Man City job again.

Just plain daft.

Oddest one I saw:

Ricardo Gardner entering his first managerial job at AC Milan as a 36-year old.

Not sure how common it is but Mike Phelan took over at United on mine after Ferguson. Mcleish took over Chelsea and Gary Neville is now managing Blackburn at 36.

It's something to do with the change in position of the earth in relation to the stars which has meant that everyones Zodiac sign is now wrong so it has thrown everyones judgements out.

In my Norwich save there is alot of managers just jumping from Premier League job to Premier League job, often when the teams are almost identical in players and league position.

It's happening all the time, in my save John Mensah took over AC Milan at 33 years old, was his first job in management. And I could continue...

Sounds the same as my game. Avram grant has now managed, and been sacked by, Chelsea three times, and every time a top premier league player retires they walk straight into premier legaue management jobs.

How to explain that?

I suspect it's all about Reputation [here we go again... almost every flaw in the game seems to come down to Reputation having too much weight on AI's decisions]

Famous managers with high reputation will be hired by every Top Club with a vacant spot, regardless of such moves being far from likely in real life (due to rivalries, loyalty or whatnot).

Famous retired players will get prestigious jobs earlier on due to their reputation (not that unlikely looking at Mancini, Donadoni, Van Basten and Rijkaard to name a few...) despite them being totally unproven.

Well-respected Assistant Managers can even get good jobs at Top Clubs just living off their experience and reputation (real-life and game-acquired) at another Top Club.

What I can't quite understand is why mediocre clubs or even national teams will hire newgen managers while there's plenty of real-life adequate managers sitting at home... Or human players with ok credentials to work there.

Strange things do happen in real life as well (altough not so often). I remember Frank Rijkaard becoming coach of the national team with no experience as a manager. Get's them to the semi-finals of the european championship loses very unluckily with due to missed penalties and he resignes. After a year he starts to manage Sparta in the Dutch league. He is the first manager who got Sparta relegated, so he quits. Then after a year he got the Barcelona job!? He did very well at Barcelona, but it's a strange career.

Ricardo Gardner was also the manager of AC Milan on my game.

Ian Goodison, a 40 year old, just retired, Jamaican footballer, became manager of United because they got taken over by a businessman who had links to Jamaica. Right. He's won the league twice in a row though.

Also, does anyone know why Ian Goodison, or Sir Alex before him, always has no opinion on me despite the fact I suck up to them every few months?

If it is down to reputation, then it doesn't explain why MCleish get's the Arsenal job in 2013-He's been out of work since getting sacked by a relegated Brum. It doesn't explain super ambitious City owners giving the job to Tony Mowbray. There is no ryhme nor reason. There is no issue with Shearer taking over Blackburn, with Allardyce taking over W.Ham or Everton, or Chelseas hiring Mancini(who by the way worked his way up to Inter via Samp and Firoentina, where he had done good work), etc. These are acceptable and accountable.

The problem is it also messes the game up because you have shoddy managers in top positions. There's no justification for it, and hopefully SI can sort it out because while i can't speak for anyone else, i think it's a major flaw with the game.

If

RL is full of ridiculous managerial appointments, i.e.

Pardew replacing Hughton at Newcastle

Brian Laws getting the Burnley job

Liverpool appointing Dalglish who's been out of football for a decade when Martin O'Neil was available for free

Inter appointing Leonardo

The list goes on...

If it is down to reputation, then it doesn't explain why MCleish get's the Arsenal job in 2013-He's been out of work since getting sacked by a relegated Brum. It doesn't explain super ambitious City owners giving the job to Tony Mowbray. There is no ryhme nor reason. There is no issue with Shearer taking over Blackburn, with Allardyce taking over W.Ham or Everton, or Chelseas hiring Mancini(who by the way worked his way up to Inter via Samp and Firoentina, where he had done good work), etc. These are acceptable and accountable.

The problem is it also messes the game up because you have shoddy managers in top positions. There's no justification for it, and hopefully SI can sort it out because while i can't speak for anyone else, i think it's a major flaw with the game.

If

Probably those shoddy managers were the only ones available at that point in time...

That's also due to the dreadful (non-existing?) AI managers mobility.. The only changes of staff take place only when a manager gets sacked (or retires), otherwise the FM universe is populated with Guy Roux-like figures who'll just stay at the same club, through thick and thin, for decades.

In FM you can't have Mourinho leaving after winning the Treble, or Ancelotti leaving after having won every trophy available... You don't even have mid-table clubs' chairmen changing managers as often as they change their underwear just for the sake of it...

Basically the contracts are there just to offer the human player some sort of "choice", while in terms of AI managers they mean diddly-squat...

So with Arsenal losing Wenger the game just went for the "best" free agent available, even if it was just McLeish... while in real life they could have hired him as temporary caretaker while trying to hire someone better for the upcoming season... But in the game that's not gonna happen, so he'll stay at Emirates until he does so poorly he'll get fired. Adn then another mediocre one will take his place.

Reputation+woeful managers' "market" = terrible appointments = game getting ridiculously easy

Reputation+woeful managers' "market" = terrible appointments = game getting ridiculously easy

Yes, this is the crux of the matter. I don't mean to be whiney, but it is a major issue for me. I don't know if SI are aware of it or not. Some appointments are funny, but in the end if they are taking the challenge away from the game by appointing terrible managers, seemingly randomley, then it needs to be addressed.

Ricardo Gardner getting the Milan job having never managed before, surely this can be categorised under the bug list?

RL is full of ridiculous managerial appointments, i.e.

Pardew replacing Hughton at Newcastle

Brian Laws getting the Burnley job

Liverpool appointing Dalglish who's been out of football for a decade when Martin O'Neil was available for free

Inter appointing Leonardo

The list goes on...

No mate, these are not the same at all, please don'y try and brush it under the carpet. Your examples have no real foundation in this context.

Pardew was a leftfield choice but has premier league experience and also some mild success to go with it. Newcastle are about his level.

Brian Laws who the hell cares about Brian Laws. Burnley needed a manager asap and why not Laws?

Daglish is a caretaker manager with a huge connection with Liverpool, the fans and some players. It would also have been alot cheaper than M'On, and they needed to have someone in place while surveying their options, as MON would be too much of a commitment.

Leonardo i agree was a strange choice, given his Milan connection and relative faillure there, but in the middle of the season they may have been a bit desperate.

As i say, these bear no comparison to a shoddy Alex McLeish getting the Arsenal gig, who could afford £2m compensation for a better manager(hell even MON is still out of work). Nor do they compare to City giving Tony Mowbray the job. Just think about it logically. They probably don't even know who Mowbray is, and in the save he had only achieved promotion with Boro and a subsequent relegation battle.

Let's face it, the appointments are random as they come, and make the game less competitive.

In my save Mancini gets sacked by Man City because they were mid table.

He then gets the Chelsea job straight away.

He's managed to take Chelsea to a mid table team too. He then gets the Man City job again.

Just plain daft.

Yeah, the amount of managers Man City and Chelsea get through in my game would be realistic....if it wasn't just a long-term merry go round of Mourinhio, Mancini, Aguirre etc getting about 3 bites of the cherry at both clubs over 5-10 years.

Plenty of top players got decent jobs with zero experience:

Klinnsman

Van Basten

Guardiola

Mancini

Zola

Shearer

No mate, these are not the same at all, please don'y try and brush it under the carpet. Your examples have no real foundation in this context.

Pardew was a leftfield choice but has premier league experience and also some mild success to go with it. Newcastle are about his level.

Brian Laws who the hell cares about Brian Laws. Burnley needed a manager asap and why not Laws?

Daglish is a caretaker manager with a huge connection with Liverpool, the fans and some players. It would also have been alot cheaper than M'On, and they needed to have someone in place while surveying their options, as MON would be too much of a commitment.

Leonardo i agree was a strange choice, given his Milan connection and relative faillure there, but in the middle of the season they may have been a bit desperate.

As i say, these bear no comparison to a shoddy Alex McLeish getting the Arsenal gig, who could afford £2m compensation for a better manager(hell even MON is still out of work). Nor do they compare to City giving Tony Mowbray the job. Just think about it logically. They probably don't even know who Mowbray is, and in the save he had only achieved promotion with Boro and a subsequent relegation battle.

Let's face it, the appointments are random as they come, and make the game less competitive.

Ok, some of the appointments at top clubs may be a little screwy but I'd still maintain there is some justification for this based on RL.

Pardew's record is: Scraped West Ham up via the play offs, had one good season, then awful. Got Charlton relegated, not good enough to get them out of the champ. Then gets sacked by Soton in league one, I'd hardly say that makes a mid table prem side 'his level'.

Laws set Wednesday on the course to relegation from the champ then lands a premiership job? Random.

Dalglish hasn't managed in over a decade and is completely out of touch, Liverpool have enough money since the takeover to appoint a decent manager.

Inter are champions of Europe and have their pick of managers, so they choose a guy who failed at their biggest rivals with limited experience?!

I also forgot Fat Sam, who has a good track record of keeping talent limited sides up, and was replaced by Steve Kean who has precisely sod all managerial experience (and pretty limited playing experience for that matter too).

I wonder if it's pre programmed as I've seen Phelan at United, Shearer and then McCleish at Chelsea and Pearce at Liverpool.

I struggled with Cardiff and Hull then Rangers offered me the job. In 3 years I had never won any Manager of the Month awards and only had one Dutch Cup to my name then Rangers who are looking for 5 in a row offered me the job. If Rangers appointed someone with that record in real life I would bin my season ticket.

Edit: Apart from me, the worst is probably Drogba getting the Bolton job, as his first job in football when they are still in the PL.

Mancini just got sacked on mine only to be replaced by the mighty Curbishley. Couldn't believe it.

In my game (in 2022), 18th place Liverpool sacked Noel Blake, who then hire Quique Flores...from 1st place Arsenal, who then quickly appoint Blake as manager. No one in the right mind would go from 1st place to 18th. I don't care if it's Blackpool in 1st and Man Utd in 20th midway through the season. And this is Liverpool and Arsenal, two teams who haven't regressed so much in the 10 years in my save.

It seems like in FM, no AI manager has the guts to say 'no' to a job offer.

I struggled with Cardiff and Hull then Rangers offered me the job. In 3 years I had never won any Manager of the Month awards and only had one Dutch Cup to my name then Rangers who are looking for 5 in a row offered me the job. If Rangers appointed someone with that record in real life I would bin my season ticket.

Edit: Apart from me, the worst is probably Drogba getting the Bolton job, as his first job in football when they are still in the PL.

Tell me what Alex McLeish done before he went to Rangers, Scottish first division title with a recently relegated hibs side wasnt exactly hard.

Also what had Walter Smith done before he became manager of Rangers for the first time, coach at Dundee United and Assistant to Greame Souness before hand, also there another inexperianced manager to manage the club.

Also whos likley to take over from Smith when he retires?

No offence but seriously when did we ever appoint a well proven manager? Paul Le Guen, how did that go?

I have had some wierd ones including things like Gary Neville managing Chelsea and England (not at the same time but the same save), Ferdinand managing West Ham 6 months after retiring, RvN managing PSV, Deco at Liverpool, Zambrotta at Udinese; I like that alot of players become managers at top clubs it adds an extra level of intrest.

started to see a lot of managers going back to their old clubs now, like Moyes/Everton and Mancini/Man C etc, certainly did not see this happening on earlier versions and not realistic imho

Inter are champions of Europe and have their pick of managers, so they choose a guy who failed at their biggest rivals with limited experience?!

Who else was available in the middle of the season? Which Top Manager would have left another Top Club (contractual issues notwithstanding...) to join an Inter side in need of a serious overhaul?

I'm quite sure Inter have a plan for the 2011-12 season, and in terms of caretaker manager, Leonardo is a brilliant choice.

Also, saying Leonardo failed at AC Milan is a very debatable statement... Given the circumstances (aging squad, zero quality additions) he did a terrific job. If anything he "failed" because he wasn't enough of a Yesman and didn't let his Chairman have his way all the time.

P.S. Indeed, AC Milan's appointments in the last two seasons are almost FM-level odd, but they are part of a "project"... It was no secret there were better managers around, but the club are either looking for a Pep of their own, or are just gettin cheap...

FM clubs just don't seem to be able to recognize awful managers from good ones.

Not sure how common it is but Mike Phelan took over at United on mine after Ferguson. Mcleish took over Chelsea and Gary Neville is now managing Blackburn at 36.

As a follow up to this a season later, Neville was fired pretty quickly and Big Sam took over Liverpool only for the news that he is on the verge of being sacked coming through every week. Wenger now manages Sevilla and just signed a striker I was chasing (only sounds strange when you consider I'm Salisbury in the BSP and this was a League 2 level player).

I've had Mick McCarthy and Sam Allardyce at Chelsea. Grant has been back too. Mancini left City to get the job as well, but then sacked him, ad he then went straight back to City

Steve Bruce is Real Madrid Boss. Christian Poulsen was briefly Barcelona Boss.

Bolton took on Ivica Olic after he retired(after a season with me), which wasn't so surprising, but then he got the Inter Milan job.

City Hired Berbatov, after Grant and McCarthy

sergio ramos at kendall town.

enough said.

In my game Wenger quit Arsenal after beating me to the league title at the end of the first season to go to Atletico, with Quique Sanchez Flores going the other way. Mancini was sacked and Aguirre came in, Shearer took the Fulham job after Hughes was sacked, yet I get a news item every week that he's on the verge of the sack.

Real sacked Mourinho for finishing second and Inter sacked Rafa at the end of the first season, with Rafa going to Real and lasting half a season. OK maybe those two aren't that unrealistic, it's Real after all.

Steve Bruce replaced Slur Alex at the Mancs when he retired two seasons in, while Hodgson, out of work since I took over Liverpool at the start of the game, winds up at Tottenham after brown envelope retires.

Think there's a few more either strange or merely ones in there, but I'm at work and can't remember them off the top of my head.

A few from my Chelsea save in 2018

Van Der Vaart at West Ham, Phil Brown at Liverpool, Joe Cole (doing very well!) at West Brom, John Carew at Reading, Thierry Henry at Wolves (my personal favourite that is), and Dimitar Berbatov recently sacked from Birmingham. Also saw Harry Kewell get sacked from Hull, Lampard take Watford down to league 1 before getting sacked, Heskey taking Preston from the Championship to League 2 and still keeping his job!

what i found slightly weird was Harry Redknapp leaving a Spurs side who were in 2nd place, 3 points behind the leaders in Decmeber of the second season and moving to a struggling Man City side who were currently 13.

David Moyes was the real beneficiary because he moved from Everton to Spurs

Strange things do happen in real life as well (altough not so often). I remember Frank Rijkaard becoming coach of the national team with no experience as a manager. Get's them to the semi-finals of the european championship loses very unluckily with due to missed penalties and he resignes. After a year he starts to manage Sparta in the Dutch league. He is the first manager who got Sparta relegated, so he quits. Then after a year he got the Barcelona job!? He did very well at Barcelona, but it's a strange career.

Didnt exactly do brilliantly at Galatasaray either.

Tell me what Alex McLeish done before he went to Rangers, Scottish first division title with a recently relegated hibs side wasnt exactly hard.

Also what had Walter Smith done before he became manager of Rangers for the first time, coach at Dundee United and Assistant to Greame Souness before hand, also there another inexperianced manager to manage the club.

Also whos likley to take over from Smith when he retires?

No offence but seriously when did we ever appoint a well proven manager? Paul Le Guen, how did that go?

Alex Mcliesh was Scottish and done well in the SPL before we appointed him so it wasent like we had just wenout and appointed sum random working in the English lower leagues. You have left out Dick Advocaat from your list, he was an experienced manager as was Paul Le Guen. Are you trying to say Le Guen was a nobody when he came to Rangers? Walter Smith spent years working with the man who changed Rangers from a struggling team in the 80's to signing players like Terry Butcher.

As for Ally, I dont think we should have offered him the job a year before Walter had even retired.

November 2012, Fiorentina sacked Mihajlovic; possible replacements are Roy Hodgson and Gianni de Biasi (who's bad enough already), but the third name is none other than the 81yo legend Vujadin Boskov

Oh, now Udinese and Genoa sacked their managers too, and alongside already debatable names like Giampaolo, Ballardini and the ubiquitous de Biasi there's this man...

Pietro Ruisi

Now I don't really know how this was possible, but the mere idea of an obscure Level 5-and-lower manager being even remotely linked to a Serie A club, a Top 10 club, is beyond laughable...

I suspect the slightly biased Italian Researchers are at it again, but absurdly high reputation or not, the game should take into accout the fact this guy, at 55, has no history at a reasonably high level...

Managerial appointments are weird indeed, but i think this could be overlooked if managers had better values in the mental area, or perhaps those values should increase more drastically over the years as they get more experience.

Newgen managers and appointments are two things SI should invest more time in getting them closer to reality.