Future idea for FM, thoughts/comments encouraged

(I have placed this in the wishlist thread, but I thought I would put it out here for peoples thoughts, so I hope that is ok.)

With the amount of immersion in the game I sometimes forget things. I know that there is the ability to makes notes in the notebook, which I do, however I don't find it overly user friendly.

What I would like to propose is the addition of what I am roughly calling a future planning screen.

With the screen below (sorry if it is a bit on the large size), all the relevant information regarding the player is there, from abilities and ratings, home grown status and due dates, contracts and values, anyway you get the idea.

What the screen doesn't tell me is what my future planning is, what I am going to do at the end of the season or possibly the next transfer window.

Looking at a couple of players, Felix Lavigne 16 yr old GK, in 2016 he will qualify as trained at club. As the team plays in Euro Comps it is something I need to remember and take into consideration the rules regarding homegrown players.

Wes Brown and Leon Osman two great players whose careers are very much winding down, and Joe Dunn a young MC who will be trained in nation by 2015.

So future planning, and what I propose. For me it would be handy to have another column with a drop down menu with a list of selections.

To aid in my homegrown rules for Europe, Felix Lavigne might have "stay/keep at club", Joe Dunn might have "send out on loan" and Wes brown and Leon Osman might have "release end of season". Others may be sell for profit, release end of contract, look to transfer, retain as coach, currently a tutor, look to tutor, needs a tutor. Anyway you get the idea

As opposed to setting some of these in the transfer status, the future planning is not something set in stone and would have no impact on a player, it would simply be a planning screen with which you could analyse, change and adapt according to your season. It would provide you a screen with which you could see where you are going and what your thoughts are in one screen, and provide a simple way of organising ones assault on world football domination

Sounded like a pointless idea, but the more I read and thought about it, it actually sounds quite good, pretty easy to implement as well. I normally do this on scraps of paper so to have it 'in game' in an easier format than the notebook would be handy.

You can write all this down in the notebook can't you?

I think it would be pretty handy, I'm always losing my scraps of paper.

Speaking of things that take up scraps of paper, a way of allocating scouts to countries more easily would be great (I never scout regions as it seems to take longer than scouting all the useful countries individually). For example, being able to order the countries in Europe by league standard and tickboxing those that you want a particular scout to take care of.

You can write all this down in the notebook can't you?

Yes you can, and the notebook is a feature that I do use, I just don't find it very user friendly.

With the notebook, there is a limit of how much information can be placed in one message. So you would need to create several messages to cover all things in your team. Then depending on how many news items you save that come in, your notebook can be quite busy. So you then need to organise the notebook, so as to access the information that you want, by creating headings.

Now that that is all done, your are in your squad screen looking over your players and you decide, x player is past playing but I like him so will keep him as a coach. So you click on the appropriate button down and into notebook, filter depending on the headings you chose, find the appropriate note , click edit,. make your amendments, click view note just to make sure it is all good, then click back to your squad screen.

What I am thinking is, I am in the squad screen I decide x player is past playing but I like him so will keep him as a coach. I click views, select planning (or whatever it would be called), click the drop down on the player, select retain as coach, finished.

The bonus is that I can also see every other player in my squad and what my plans are for them also (as opposed to going through various notes in the notebook)

I'm not a fan of this idea personally. I don't need to look at a screen or a scrap of paper to know what my future plans are for a player, because I am so immersed in the game I find it's quite easy to know which players I plan to release, or which ones I am grooming for the first team in a few years. I just look at their name and instantly know what my plans are.

I tend to review these things as I go along, some players fall out of favour, others train well and suddenly become integral even though I had planned to sell them.

So it's not something I would need, ut I would have no objection to it in the game, as long as it doesn't affect anything in game and is simply for those with a poor memory!

Yes you can, and the notebook is a feature that I do use, I just don't find it very user friendly.

With the notebook, there is a limit of how much information can be placed in one message. So you would need to create several messages to cover all things in your team. Then depending on how many news items you save that come in, your notebook can be quite busy. So you then need to organise the notebook, so as to access the information that you want, by creating headings.

Now that that is all done, your are in your squad screen looking over your players and you decide, x player is past playing but I like him so will keep him as a coach. So you click on the appropriate button down and into notebook, filter depending on the headings you chose, find the appropriate note , click edit,. make your amendments, click view note just to make sure it is all good, then click back to your squad screen.

What I am thinking is, I am in the squad screen I decide x player is past playing but I like him so will keep him as a coach. I click views, select planning (or whatever it would be called), click the drop down on the player, select retain as coach, finished.

The bonus is that I can also see every other player in my squad and what my plans are for them also (as opposed to going through various notes in the notebook)

you could just click on the player's profile>notes and edit the notes there. For me it's the only way to use the notebook feature because trying to load the notebook takes f.o.r.e.v.e.......r. It desperately needs revamping so we can save to a specific sub-section from our inbox screen AND open the notebook either showing no notes or in the last view we had open.

Notes is a clumsy feature and shouldn't be used for these things - the moment you start to say, "why don't you just write it down?" is a possible sign that the game is asking you to do too much - you shouldn't need to use notes for things that should be easy to remember in reality.

Notes is a clumsy feature and shouldn't be used for these things - the moment you start to say, "why don't you just write it down?" is a possible sign that the game is asking you to do too much - you shouldn't need to use notes for things that should be easy to remember in reality.

I use notes for everything x42.. If it says "save as note" 999/1000 I save the note...

I can track a players entire career at my club from my initial scouting/recommendation right up to his retirement just by clicking on his notes.. I can see when he was injured, when he was MoM, when he played internationally, when he signed new contracts, etc... (plus any other notes I choose to add)

the notebook feature is a key feature for me, but it's in dire need of updating to the 21st century...

I use notes for everything x42.. If it says "save as note" 999/1000 I save the note...

I can track a players entire career at my club from my initial scouting/recommendation right up to his retirement just by clicking on his notes.. I can see when he was injured, when he was MoM, when he played internationally, when he signed new contracts, etc... (plus any other notes I choose to add)

the notebook feature is a key feature for me, but it's in dire need of updating to the 21st century...

Well, yes, but this usage of a notebook is nothing compared to what was quoted (future planning), that does not show up as an email message for "Save as note". And I'd argue that you shouldn't need to save a note for these things. What the OP is suggesting is that we have some way of condensing that massive screen down into a smaller, more efficient view - something that goes beyond notes, especially since you will want a tabular view for this, rather than a linear view of notes (which is tedious to the extreme).

Well, yes, but this usage of a notebook is nothing compared to what was quoted (future planning), that does not show up as an email message for "Save as note". And I'd argue that you shouldn't need to save a note for these things. What the OP is suggesting is that we have some way of condensing that massive screen down into a smaller, more efficient view - something that goes beyond notes, especially since you will want a tabular view for this, rather than a linear view of notes (which is tedious to the extreme).

Firstly thanks to those that have contributed

There does seem to be a bit of confusion about my OP, or possibly I am misreading peoples responses.

The screen in the OP I am happy with it, the reference I made about it being a bit large was to do with the posting of it, NOT the size of it with in the game.

The information contained on the screen I am also happy with, and, for the purpose of what I was thinking, is and would be relevant, as it is all necessary. When you look at a player you can see all the relevant information that is pertaining to that player.

What I am suggesting is an ADDITIONAL column, where each row within that column has a drop down button that contains a list of various options that one can select.

This screen then becomes a squad management/ reference tool enabling the user to get an overview of the entire squad and any future plans that you may be thinking.

This being more efficient than creating notes on each player, and, when wanting to view them, scrolling through each player reading and editing etc.

It has no bearing on player morale ( so you can change what ever you want )

It has nothing to do with email.

It has nothing to do with notes.