Player wants to leave club! Do you let him?

We all have had players wanting to leave club. I've been always wondering if there is a right or wrong thing to do here.

Let's say you have a key player who wants to leave the club. You have huge clubs bidding for him (i.e. Barca/ManU/Inter/etc). If you don't let him go he gets unhappy usually. If you do let him go you lose one of your best, if not the best player. My question is, will not letting him go affect his performance? Will it interfere with squad harmony? What are the most negative consequences? What do you guys do usually?

Let's hear it!

na, i tell him to stay and then he wants transfer listed. Then i put his value through the roof so nobody buys him. Come the end of the season he changes his mind and wants to stay. At that point he gets a new 5 year deal. Then about feb the following season we do the same thing all over again. It was annoying but it worked. The player in question was Allan McGregor. This happened 3 season in a row for me.

His performances were fine for me.

As much as it might hurt its the way football business works. You rebuild time and again. One example is Fernando Torres. Atletico Madrid didnt want to sell him and made him captain, something Torres himself disagreed with. However they sold him and with the money rebuilt the team and brought in one Sergio Aguero. So that's what happens as good as you are you have to rebuild time and time again!

I have had a rule for years, If a player wants to leave, I let him go. No point having a half hearted player. Much to my disapointment just had to let Van Persie go to Real Madrid for 20m because he wanted a new challenge.

If it's decent money and the player has done a good service for me I let them go, if its a bigger club.

His performances will depend on his personality. Professional players should still perform well, but unprofessional ones or ones with a generally flaky personality will probably not perform as well.

In FM07 I have probably over half my Greenock Morton squad wanting to leave. The good ones want to go to a bigger club while the decent ones want more first team football. The rest are crap and know it so they are happy to stay The situation may be better in FM09, but it was a nightmare in FM07 at a club like Morton in the SPL. We have boatloads of cash so we signed some good players, but they get itchy feet after a year when they realise they are big cheeses. In those cases I often find players start to dislike those who are kicking up a shindy about wanting to leave and that can be bad for squad harmony. I have ~7 players who all state that they don't believe Player X leaving the club would affect our performances (Player X being one who wants a bigger club). Generally I am ignoring all the squad disharmony and the team are still playing well.

I didn't notice such big problems in FM08, but I tended to be at bigger clubs. At Bremen I kept fending off bids for some of my key players - they got unhappy, but only for a short time and then were happy again.

and I am sure sergio was at madrid before torress left, so they didnt buy him with the money!

Prove me wrong lol

i am newcastle an first season come jan we were just above the drop zone and martins has lost confidence in my ability an owen wouldnt sign a new contract and i didnt want him leaving for free so what was i to do ??? well the only thing i could sell them !!! very risky as selling the only 2 players who scoring very little but just enough to keep our heads up BUT i offered them out at ridiculous prices an what do you know man city came in 20 mil for martins an villa yes villa came in with a 25 mil offer for owen so i had the chance to rebuild the whole squad so sometimes it is useful to sell the best .

i let them go before its to late remember better to get some money than none because with that money you can buy another player

Get rid of him. I've always had the philosophy, both in game and out, if he wants to leave and we can replace him then he can go. I don't want a player at my club who doesn't feel priviliged to be there.

It seems most ppl would get rid of him. I'm gonna add an extra dimension to hear your thoughts.

What if the player who wants to leave is a 18 year old wonderkid and has a very bright future ahead of him? What if he was touted as the next Kaka/Ronaldo/Raul/etc ? And to make it even more interesting, I'm gonna add two more cases. First case, a wonderkid who came out of the club's academy and second case, a wonderkid who you bought and played for 1-2 seasons.

Personally if it was a player who played a few seasons (3-4 at least) for the club I would let him go and try to replace him as soon as possible. I am very reluctant when it comes to letting my young promising talents/wonderkids go. I love nurturing youngsters and turning them into world class players. I'm more likely to sell youngsters who I bought than youngsters who came out of the academy though.

Thanks for the input! Keep it up!

If a player wants to leave my team because of a club with higher reputation is bidding for him, than he almost always leaves as I really can't do much to stop him, especially while I'm a lower league Eastern European team (usually 90% of the time in my FM games). It makes no difference whether he's a star player or a wonderkid. It sucks either way, but the money definitely helps as well and I just move on. I look for freebies and someone who would be willing to actually join my team (which again is a big barrier in LLM).

It's difficult - it really depends on the circumstances. Just like IRL, I'm much more reluctant to let people leave in January as it's not so easy to replace them.

I'm also reluctant to sell players who just can't be replaced e.g. I have a £37m offer for Ribery from Real Madrid, but there aren't many, perhaps not even any, players who are both awesome and flexible in position that I can buy even with that money.

Aguero arrived at Atletico just before Torres was sold, the club knew he was a replacement for Torres as they had already agreed a deal with Liverpool. In fact the two didnt spend much time together and as soon as Torres left they brought in Forlan. The money gained from the Torres deal paid for Aguero, and Forlan, with Forlan being on a bonus per goals scored deal, the same agreed with Torres at Liverpool except for a lesser amount. Atletico took out a loan for Aguero on condition that the Torres deal would cover the loan, which it did.

I usually set the transfer date to the end of the season - this means that they don't disrupt my current season and it gives me a lot of time to find a replacement.

For me if anybody wants to leave the club im managing, I just get rid of them, cant be doing with someone thinking there bigger then the club!

Well I have learnt now to keep my players because after a while they always become happy again.

I have lubomir michalik at Leeds i won league 1 and came 12th in the championship the next season and he wanted to leave to a bigger club, I kept playing him and he became happy after another season

For me if anybody wants to leave the club im managing, I just get rid of them, cant be doing with someone thinking there bigger then the club!

its not always about them thinking they're bigger than the club. Its sometimes about them wanting a new challenge. That is not the same thing, I find a player can be convinced to stay if you can convince him you share the same ambitions. I think your statement is a tad to hasty.

Well I have learnt now to keep my players because after a while they always become happy again.

I have lubomir michalik at Leeds i won league 1 and came 12th in the championship the next season and he wanted to leave to a bigger club, I kept playing him and he became happy after another season

I get that all the time with Fryatt when im Leicester. After the first season he was fine but once I failed promotion he wanted to move on. I just ignored him and played him all the time untill he was happy. Then after some team puts in a bid for him he gets the ar$e and wants out again, so I sold him to Birmingham, where he spent the rest of his time in the reserves

Idiot

its not always about them thinking they're bigger than the club. Its sometimes about them wanting a new challenge. That is not the same thing, I find a player can be convinced to stay if you can convince him you share the same ambitions. I think your statement is a tad to hasty.

I can see what your saying, but if a player wants to move on, for any reason, I just sell them on. Cant be doing with all the transfer requests and stuff.

any player who doesnt want to play for the club is sold IMO, players under 20 i jack on 45% of next fee, 20-25 i ask for 30% of next fee and 25+ i ask for 20% of next fee, it works and means i get paid if i develop a player

I placed a 50 million quid price tag on Gerrard & Torres at my first day at the club...seems to stop unwanted folks sniffing around and unsettling them...I could never let them go (well, not for the next 3-5 years anyway)

thing is for £50m a piece, so £100m in total i could easily build a better team or get two players in of equal or better quality. its all about having back up options to me

We all have had players wanting to leave club. I've been always wondering if there is a right or wrong thing to do here.

Let's say you have a key player who wants to leave the club. You have huge clubs bidding for him (i.e. Barca/ManU/Inter/etc). If you don't let him go he gets unhappy usually. If you do let him go you lose one of your best, if not the best player. My question is, will not letting him go affect his performance? Will it interfere with squad harmony? What are the most negative consequences? What do you guys do usually?

Let's hear it!

If you get a definitive answer give Sir Puceface a call - he'll be very grateful!

Depends on the player. I had a Man City game last year where I developed Nedum Onuoha into England's starting rightback and won a couple League titles and a Champions League. He got bored and Real Madrid came looking. They offered 20 mil, and at that price I couldn't say no. I was able to buy Antonio Barragan and another RB and still have money left over.

Then already this year as Reading, Wigan was looking to pay 3.3 mil for Bobby Convey, who I like but who was going to be on the bench behind Stephen Hunt and Sebastian Larsson on the wings. I was able to take that money and bring in some central midfield and defensive line depth. Same with my young goalkeeper. When Juventus, Citeh and AC Milan are snooping around a Championship keeper (who is the backup to start), I milk them for all their worth and let them go.

I like for once player who love club and like me as manager, who enjoying his football to say he dont want to leave and he dont care about bigger club interest. just once. please.

Depends if I realy need him in the team, or that I can make a huge profit by selling him, e.g.:

Bought sall for £300k, sold him for £20mill 3 seasons later.