Players won't motivate themselves under Monster Mane

I have a problem with one of my players where quite a few players can't motivate themselves to play with him as captain, the captain's name Monster Mane has 18 determination and 17 influence his personality Determined fits in with the squad - highly professional and he's a player who loves playing in the bigger matches.

He's currently in his 5th season for the club and is 24 years old. I believe the reason why some of the players dislike him is because he has asked to leave a few times as we're a small club on the up and all the top clubs want him and the unsettle him every transfer window with their non-stop speculation and declaration of interest, but every time I chat with him saying I believe this club can grow he agrees and gives 100% for the club also I offered him a 5-year contract which he accepted so I see no loyalty issue.

He has Swindon on his favoured clubs list and his good relationship shows he's pleased to be playing alongside Diallo a wonderkid who himself struggles to motivate himself under Mane, Diallo has 19 determination and is Professional his influence is 9.

Monster Mane is most likely the best player at the club and is the most ideal candidate for captaincy so I'm at a loss why my players cant motivate themselves, this is a similar scenario where Gerrard tried moving to Chelsea I see no Liverpool players failing to motivate themselves to play for Gerrard as it would be very unprofessional for them not to, so I'd expect my highly professional team to act the same.

This is the first time I'm actually considering using fmrte which I don't want to use but this issue is leaving me frustrated with no way to resolve it, if there was a way for me to lock em up in a cupboard until they get along I'd be satisfied. Does anybody have any thoughts on my issue or any other solutions?

Forgot to add that I'm managing Swindon

I usualy get something along these lines when a tutoring attempt has gone wrong.

Yeah I could understand that but Monster Mane hasn't been tutoring anybody as he's so young, I've also considered the issue of players being unable to motivate themselves because Mane is young but that doesn't seem to be the case as I passed the captaincy on a different game to a 24 year old with influence of 10 and there were no motivational problems.

Could certainly be related to his desire to move on, or those other players just don't share his professional approach and find it hard to get on with him. Admittedly, I'm making (logical?) guesses here.

All of my team have high professionalism so I can't see this being an issue.

ugh this issue is so annoying

Could certainly be related to his desire to move on, or those other players just don't share his professional approach and find it hard to get on with him. Admittedly, I'm making (logical?) guesses here.

Or the AI is just being dumb. It happens sometimes. I've learned to ignore some of the AI's behavior.

the issue is your captain really doesnt want to be at your club, despite the fact you got him to back down with the private chat all that shows is he likes you and the club enough to respect your stance and not force the issue, the sad reality is you will have to sell him sooner or later, or replace him as your captain. Him making noises about leaving will be having a bad effect on the squad.

the issue is your captain really doesnt want to be at your club, despite the fact you got him to back down with the private chat all that shows is he likes you and the club enough to respect your stance and not force the issue, the sad reality is you will have to sell him sooner or later, or replace him as your captain. Him making noises about leaving will be having a bad effect on the squad.

I'm sorry but this doesn't make sense I'm his favoured personnel and so is the club, he signed a 5-year contract when all the top clubs came and unsettled him, he is enjoying playing for the club and if I offered him a new 5-year contract I know he will accept... his morale is superb.

This is just like the Gerrard - Chelsea situation the top clubs will come in and unsettle my player, Monster Mane will be tempted to move to Barcelona who wouldn't?

But I shouldn't be forced to sell him because the AI have unsettled him. By your logic Gerrard should have been sold which is an obvious bad decision.

What's your captains morale like? good/bad? As for the rest of the team is it a recent change of captain or has he been captain for seasons?

his morale is superb. He was appointed captain at the start of the season from vice-captain and the squad's reaction was good.

maybe its because his name is so bad they dont wanna play with him ha

Or the AI is just being dumb. It happens sometimes. I've learned to ignore some of the AI's behavior.

True, though even then there should be a cause, even if one we think is off. I still suspect his disloyalty is the reason.

The majority of what your saying shows there shouldn't be a problem. The only thing that I can think of that is effective the other players to be motivated by your captain is the speculation that he maybe moving, the only other thing I canthink of is maybe his match performances and training levels.

If he has taking his foot off the gas because he thinks hes automatically first choice and is no longer putting in the work rate, could have a knock on effect.

I have pretty much come to the same conclusion that the motivational problems are caused by his loyalty and that he had his head swayed by the top clubs but my gripe is now that he's 100% settled already signed a 5 year contract willing to sign another 5 year contract why do the motivational problems persist?

Another example is Rooney wanting to leave man utd then signing a new contract I'm pretty sure that there are no utd players failing to motivate themselves because of Rooneys questionable loyalty if he were to captain them.

I guess the only way to rectify this is to use fmrte to change the relationship status of my team towards Mane to neutral to make it more realistic unless someone can persuade me with a good reason not to?

Aston Villa went through this with Gareth Barry, when he was supposedly going to Liverpool, he lost his way in training and matches has a result when the window closed and he was still a Villa player he gave 100% again but never had his Captaincy back after he lost it through the saga. I think the manager and players knew that we would be gone becuase of the size of the club like Villa compared to Liverpool even though he went to Man City for the bucks.

I think you have to be honest with yourself and realise whilst he has shown loyalty by signing a new contract, the speculation will come again and he will want to go again because the clubs coming in for him are bigger than yours. So it maybe better just picking a new Captain if you don't want to use FMRTE.

This is really frustrating they should make loyalty more dynamic/ever changing if it is already not so (doesn't appear to be) to stop players being unsettled every transfer window.

This is really frustrating they should make loyalty more dynamic/ever changing if it is already not so (doesn't appear to be) to stop players being unsettled every transfer window.

Just sell him like Arsene Wenger did with Fabregas.

Just sell him like Arsene Wenger did with Fabregas.

No, I think I'd rather keep one of the best players on the game and not be forced to sell. What would be the point of playing the game if you are forced to sell players you don't wish to. The money I'd receive from the transfer would be around £30m whereas I value him higher than £50m. Wenger's team are a shambles at the moment due to him selling his top players and not replacing them with players of the same caliber, I can't see them challenging for the title this season because of this.

What would be the point of playing the game if you are forced to sell players you don't wish to. .

Because most managers have to do this quite often. It is hardly an unusual occurrence and the game would suffer if these situations did not occur.

Because most managers have to do this quite often. It is hardly an unusual occurrence and the game would suffer if these situations did not occur.

Agree. A key challenge in FM is knowing when to give up on keeping a player versus when it is worthwhile working hard to keep him. Think of Ferguson's different approaches towards Rooney, Ronaldo and Stam.

Because most managers have to do this quite often. It is hardly an unusual occurrence and the game would suffer if these situations did not occur.

In this situation there is no right answer, I should not be forced to sell, it is a decision to be made by the manager whether the choice of action is the correct one only future results will tell. But this game seems to only leave you with one option which is to sell I don't believe it should be this way.

well you can keep him and see if results improve, but if he comes again asking to leave do not be suprised to see the same thing happen again. Not every player you sign will be yours for life, thats part and parcel with football, i have on a few occasions had to sell my best players, but there is always another player out there.

Just look back over the years of football. Many of teams have had to sell their best players many against fans and managers wishes. Aston Villa are a prime example, they are a team that has had a fantastic past but fell away due to Doug Ellis not throwing money at the club when they won the European Cup in 1981 or when they finished 2nd in 1992. How many players have they sold over the year that nearly everyone would want in their team. Dwight Yorke, James Milner, Gareth Barry, Ashley Young, at the time before he went off the rails Mark Bosnich, Stewert Downing to name but a few, do you think the Villa managers wanted to sell these players if they don't do well this season you can guarentee the Darren Bent will most probably jump ship.

And in a way you should be grateful that your Chairman doesn't just sell him without your input.

Just look back over the years of football. Many of teams have had to sell their best players many against fans and managers wishes. Aston Villa are a prime example, they are a team that has had a fantastic past but fell away due to Doug Ellis not throwing money at the club when they won the European Cup in 1981 or when they finished 2nd in 1992. How many players have they sold over the year that nearly everyone would want in their team. Dwight Yorke, James Milner, Gareth Barry, Ashley Young, at the time before he went off the rails Mark Bosnich, Stewert Downing to name but a few, do you think the Villa managers wanted to sell these players if they don't do well this season you can guarentee the Darren Bent will most probably jump ship.

And in a way you should be grateful that your Chairman doesn't just sell him without your input.

I totally agree with you that this happens but there are also times where clubs have refused to sell their best players for better or for worse.

*UPDATE* So get this...as expected all the big clubs have come in declaring their interest yet again and Mane decides he wants to move to a bigger club to which I finally caved in saying I will look to find him a suitable club as soon as I can. I offered him out for £50m a good price for this standard of player and as expected the top bid I received was a non-negotiable £30m bid to which I rejected stating the offer isn't good enough. I stripped Mane of captaincy and continued to offer him out for £50m...end of the January transfer window approaching I try for one last time for £50m, he still has major interest from 7-8 clubs...*continue game*...Monster Mane is really unhappy at recent attempts to move him on as he really wants to stay at the club...what do you make of that??

The thing with offering a player out is that it is unlikely for a bid to come in over the players valuation. What you should have done was take the captaincy off him and wait for a bid to come in because you prolem is that his team mates are not getting motivated by him anymore because he says he wanted to move. I know you value him at £50M but what is his actual value.

Offering him out showed that you no longer want him. Not I find a club as soon as I can (If they meet your valuation). The Offer To Clubs option should really only be used to send players on loan or when transfer listing a player because unless you untick the box that says automatically place on transfer list and set to no longer wanted, that will happen. If you just left him and waited for an offer the worst thing he would do would be to hand in a transfer request which would be after the window closed and most times I've noticed then is the player backs down after a few months before the window opens again.

He doesn't want to leave, but wouldn't reject a move to a big club. He loves the club but doesn't see his future with you and doesn't want to be forced out. Just a regular day out in Swindon.