I can't seem to select player's transfer status as 'back up'

What is going on here?

I'm going through my squad's transfer status settings and there are a few players for whom I simply can not set them as 'back up'. I select back up and press continue and the game will take me back to whatever I was doing. Then when I go back to the player in question the game has reset their transfer status to 'rotation'.

The only thing that I have been able to do with one player was to set him as a promising youngster, so I wondered if it was to do with age?

That idea fell flat with the next player who is aged 26.

I've tried putting the player in the reserves before setting the status, mainly in the thinking that perhaps being in the first team squad he can't be considered back up, but it just defaulted to 'rotation' again.

I'm at a loss here. I need players to know that they're not conisdered primary first team members but rotation will surely have them thinking there's going to be games from time to time.

I have a big squad and I need to shed players at the end of the season. I've tried to offload some players but no team ever wants them. This is rather dismaying to be quite honest.

I just had a thought, irritatingly after I submitted the OP. Could it be to do with wage?

The only players I seem to be able to give a transfer status of back up to are two players on non-contract terms. Perhaps there is a lower limit of wage above which players can not be given back up.

It's the only thing I can think of.

Have you tried getting them to sign contracts with 'back up' as a new squad status?

The idea seems to be that semi-pro clubs, who can have amateur or non contract players, should not be paying a wage to a player who will not be challenging for first team football.

The idea seems to be that semi-pro clubs, who can have amateur or non contract players, should not be paying a wage to a player who will not be challenging for first team football.

That's a good point. I do need to offload some players, but getting rid of them is hard work.

I find it hard to believe no one who tested the Conference prior to release decided to point out that offloading players in damn near impossible. Unless that is just super realistic.

Sorry to sound like I'm ranting but it is a bottleneck for me.

Had that same problem with Bryne, a Semi-Pro club now in the 2. Div.

A bunch of players were set to "Not needed", but when i took charge of the club i found that i needed a few of them.

Tried to change the squad status from "not needed" to anything, but nothing worked.

At some point it did work changing it, but i don't know why. Could it be because they signed new contracts? No idea.

What is going on here?

The problem seems familiar and I may have a hypothesis, but can I first ask which club you are managing?

Had that same problem with Bryne, a Semi-Pro club now in the 2. Div.

A bunch of players were set to "Not needed", but when i took charge of the club i found that i needed a few of them.

This is caused by the clumsy implementation in this year's game of operating status, contract types and squad status being strictly intertwined.

May I first correct you: Bryne are a Professional club. The problem which you identify, stems from the combination of Bryne's status and their factual squad having both F/T and P/T players (which I assure is correct). With no further configurations stated in the editor, this combination entails that your P/T players will not be identified as such. The consequences are these: a) your P/T players are listed as "Not Needed", b) you'll not be able to offer these players new P/T contracts (related visible bug: go to the Offer New Contract screen for one of your P/T players and press Existing Contract; his current contract will be shown as being F/T).

The first consequence is absurd, the second is not reflecting the matters of fact.

Is there any solution to this problem?

i) How about changing Bryne's status to semi-professional?

Consequence: it will then be the other way round, with F/T players not being recognized as such.

ii) How about editing the contract types of Bryne?

Consequence: Could work, with for example key and first team players set to F/T and rotation and backup set to P/T. You'll then be able to offer both F/T and P/T contract, like Bryne in fact do. The disadvantage will be unrealistically strict ranges of squad statuses. And are the preconfigured contract types dynamic over time?

It's a glaring, obvious bug. It has been reported and I would like to believe it has been identified and is being mulled over in the SI HQ for some time now. No idea how they didn't discover it at a much earlier stage.

This is caused by the clumsy implementation in this year's game of operating status, contract types and squad status being strictly intertwined.

May I first correct you: Bryne are a Professional club. The problem which you identify, stems from the combination of Bryne's status and their factual squad having both F/T and P/T players (which I assure is correct). With no further configurations stated in the editor, this combination entails that your P/T players will not be identified as such. The consequences are these: a) your P/T players are listed as "Not Needed", b) you'll not be able to offer these players new P/T contracts (related visible bug: go to the Offer New Contract screen for one of your P/T players and press Existing Contract; his current contract will be set as F/T).

The first consequence is absurd, the second is not reflecting the matters of fact.

Is there any solution to this problem?

i) How about changing Bryne's status to semi-professional?

Consequence: it will then be the other way round, with F/T players not being recognized as such.

ii) How about editing the contract types of Bryne?

Consequence: Could work, with for example key and first team players set to F/T and rotation and backup set to P/T. The disadvantage will be unrealistically strict ranges of squad statuses. And are the preconfigured contract types dynamic over time?

It's a glaring, obvious bug. It has been reported and I would like to believe it has been identified and is being mulled over in the SI HQ for some time now. No idea how they didn't discover it at a much earlier stage.

Might be that they are professional at the start of the game, but they were Semi-Pro when i was in charge.

Should probably add that i'm in 2015.

Not in charge of them anymore. Just got the sack not long ago

I see - I assumed a scenario in season one. But what kind of players were set as Not Needed in your game, were they F/T players?

The problem seems familiar and I may have a hypothesis, but can I first ask which club you are managing?

I'm managing Kettering in the Conference.

I see what you're saying in your second post. Kettering are a professional club so full time players will not be accepted as back up. Likewise part time or non contract players don't appear to be able to be set as anything higher than back up; a fact I have just noticed.

In other words if I want to sign a player as back up then he has to be part time or non contract. Like johnhughthom says a non-league club maybe shouldn't have players who are listed as back up due to wage constraints.

So what happens at a bigger club where everyone is full time and I do have a wage budget to have back up players on my books? I just checked out ManUtd in my game and they do have back up players.

I see - I assumed a scenario in season one. But what kind of players were set as Not Needed in your game, were they F/T players?

Yeah, sorry about that. Could've made that more clear from the beginning.

I don't know what kind of players, unfortunately. I never paid attention to it.

I just checked the contracts of the Bryne players a couple of minutes ago, and now they're on P/T contracts.

I can only assume that they were F/T players that were planned to be offloaded. But that is just a shot in the dark.

The bug thread:

http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/276971-DEMO-Cannot-manually-change-squad-status

I'm managing Kettering in the Conference.

I see what you're saying in your second post. Kettering are a professional club so full time players will not be accepted as back up. Likewise part time or non contract players don't appear to be able to be set as anything higher than back up; a fact I have just noticed.

The poppies. Well, I think your description of the situation in Kettering is accurate. Except that you probably won't be able to attach any player at all to a P/T contract - the option of offering a N/C will however be there. Ketting have their contract types for rotation and backup players set to default, thus they will reflect the contract types configured for the division: rotation players must be F/T, backup players must be N/C. Your researcher has stated that three of Kettering's players are on N/C, and they will therefore all be set as backup players in the game. Unfortunately, this means that you'll not be able to set any of your F/T players to backup, which is surely a bit rigid?

Does the AI then suffer with this problem, and is it a game breaking problem???

Does the AI then suffer with this problem, and is it a game breaking problem???

I don't know that it's game breaking, at least not in my situation. It's a hassle but I can get around it.

I've been reading the bugs forum post that was linked by pigfacemonkeyman and that seemed a good deal more damaging to a save. If full time players at a semi-pro club can not be assigned any status other than 'not needed' then that is a potentially damaging bug.

As for the AI I don't know. I can check a few clubs:

Barrow: Semi-Pro: majority of players are p/t on a variety of status settings, 1 player is n/c listed as hot prospect and 1 player is f/t listed as not needed (but he is on loan so may be not needed by parent club);

AFC Telford: Semi-Pro: 2 f/t players listed as not-needed, 4 n/c listed as back up, the rest are p/t but none of them back up;

Stockport County: Pro: All f/t, with no one as back up, except for one p/t player who is listed as not needed;

Grimsby: Pro: All players are f/t with some listed as back up;

Wrexham: Pro: All f/t, with none back up, except 1 n/c who is listed as back up;

Into the League:

Torquay Utd: Pro: All f/t with some back up

Bournemouth: Pro: All f/t with some back up

I think I can safely say it's only affecting semi-pro clubs with some f/t players or pro clubs with some p/t or n/c players. Larger clubs, that are pro and have all f/t players, don't seem as affected. It is definitely worst if a semi-pro club has a f/t player on their books.