Idea to Fix Manager Reputation Issues

How to fix manager reputation and silly job appointments.

As a long time player career game player of FM, an ongoing frustration of mine has been the frustrating, and often absurd, way that FM does managerial appointments. For those that don't know already, manager appointments work on a reputation system whereby managers are appointed based on a reputation as comparable to the club. There is a great thread on this from a few years ago that really explains how the process works (If anyone could find it that would be great, I tried)

The reputation system has a number of problems. First and foremost, it only changes significantly if you win a trophy or promotion or get relegated. Even with these events, the change only occurs upon promotion or relegation and therefore leaving a club the game before being officially relegated avoids the negative impact.

Because of the above, FM fails to recognize over/under achieving to any significant degree. Rather FM changes your reputation on a game by game basis based on how you did versus how you were expected to do. Having monitored my reputation in this and past FMs, I can say that a manager expected to get relegated can avoid relegation and still have

his reputation decrease. Likewise, a manager in charge of a team expected to win promotion outright can miss promotion and still have his reputation increase.

In addition to the above problems, FM creates random managers with absurdly high reputations for having no football experience and these manager regens take over high profile jobs, stifling the normal low to high growth of managers and limiting the opportunities for high profile ex players to become managers.

The solution is to make reputation realistic, i.e. based on actual performance on a year to year basis. Although it would require an overhaul to the FM system, I believe such a thing is necessary to move the game forward.

Basically, every league position would give a set number of reputation points. Finishing 7th in the EPL, for example, might be worth 5500 reputation points. A manager's actual reputation would then be based on a manager's previous seven years (or whatever is deemed appropriate) with more recent years weighted more heavily. Example: Most recent year 25%, 2nd year 20%, 3rd and 4th years 15%, 5th and 6th years 10%, 7th year 5%. Cups would also have reputation points with competition points balanced based on each competitions relative reputation.

Additionally, these points could be increased or decreased based on over-achieving or under-achieving. Maybe an additional .5% to 1% per spot over or under achieved. Taking my previous example of the manager finishing 7th in the EPL for 5500 points, if the manager was expected to finish 12th, he might get a 5% gain giving him an actual value of 5775. In contrast, were the manager expected to finish 4th, he might lose 3% giving him an actual value of 5335.

This system would reward managers who are overachieving and properly punish those who are underachieving, creating a more believable world of manager hiring/firing.

During a season, I would think that once the season is a third complete, the current season would replace the oldest season. Moreover, clubs could use this system to do realistic firing based not only on the most recent season. A club might expect a manager to have a reputation greater than 6000, for example. Even if the manager had one bad season, if his previous seasons with the club were such that his reputation remained above 6000, the club may be less inclined to fire him. A few more poor seasons, however, and the reputation would obviously drop as the good seasons were replaced.

Assistant managers, coaches, etc.. could gain a percentage of the manager's reputations (75% for the Ass Man maybe) which would properly place them in jobs that were the next step up in managerial terms, but at an appropriate level club based on past experience.

Finally, such a system allows a great deal of flexibility. Say a club wants a manager who speaks the national language: such a club might view any manger without such as 10% less reputation. Same for things such as champions league experience, play style, deep cup runs, etc…

In sum, I want a system that doesn't allow a manager to be repeatedly sacked for underperforming and allowing said manager to continually get similar jobs. At the same time, such a system would have clubs sign up and coming mangers who are over-performing.

Just a few thoughts I have been holding for a while. Tired of losing a job to someone who has not had any managerial experience.

Just thought I would add to this thread with some of the manager appointments I have seen in my current game:

Mike Newell - Left Grimsby (sacked?) in 2009, and it wasnt until March 28, 2012 when he got manager job at Wrexham in the Blue Square Premier. He lasted six months until being sacked (Sept 25). So of course he is the perfect manager for LEAGUE 1 Wycombe on Jan 1, 2014!

I think reputation does increase (maybe not significantly) without winning titles. A quick summary of my career.

I started as a Sunday League manager.

2011: Swedish 4th division, nothing spectacular. Mid table with a mid table team.

2012: Same as above, same team - didn't achieve anything.

2013: Improving and sitting comfortably in the top half of the division. Gateshead then approached me (May) after they had a bad season, finishing 17th so sacked their manager.

13/14: Media predicted 15th, playoffs for most of the season but slipped up and went from 9th to 12th on the final day. Nominated for Manager of the Season

14/15: Finished 8th at Gateshead, nominated for Manager of the Season, linked to football league clubs.

15/16: Resigned in Jan, sitting around 8th but couldn't break into the playoffs so was frustrated.

15/16: Ended up at AFC Telford, dropping down a division. Won 29% of my games so didn't renew my contract.

16/17: Offered the Stevenage job (League 2)

So I was overachieving at Gateshead and the game recognised this, and I am now managing in the Football League without achieving anything significant.