Questions for those who are a fair way into FM09

Hi people,

Just want to ask a couple of things for people who have got far enough into 09 to answer - other people feel free to add your own questions and hopeful the helpful ones out there will answer.

Having played 08 for a few seasons, and enjoyed it, there were a couple of little nagging things. Just wondering if they have been sorted out or changed in 09.

1. Player status and happiness.

When you sign a player, and he asks for a contract with his status as 'back up', it was annoying when, three months later, he started crying about playing in the first team. He just asked to be considered as back up!

I understand players wanting to play, I know thats realistic, but it happened too quickly. if they wanted first team footie they shouldn't have accepted the contract in the first place.

even worse was when it was a keeper, and the back up said the first choice keeper was 'a vital part of the team'. But it didn't stop him winging about playing in the team did it? So therefore the self appointed back up keeper was demanding to replace a player he thought was essential to the teams success.

so has this kinda thing been improved?

2. Player unhappiness (again)

When you did something to upset a player, I found it a bit much it took them so long to get over it. Once I either gave the wrong team talk or forgot to do it, and two players were unhappy I wasn't giving enough credit to the team. They were both regulars in a very successful team. yet this lasted months. Don't you think they would have got over it a bit quicker, like in a week or two? Has this been improved?

I'm not that far into my game at the moment but i did sign a Serbian GK in the summer. He wanted to be a backup player, and that's exactly what i wanted to use him as. After letting him play in the English League Cup he's very unhappy. He wants to play matches. 5-6 months later (right now in my game) i've accepted an offer from Leverkusen for him. He wanted to be a backup player; i intended to use him as that. He's been playing every reserve match and league cup match. But he's out the door now.

To your No.1. It seems they get unhappy very fast when they demand status backup. There had been reports about this player being unhappy for about 3 months. Half of the time he has been at my club, and i'm Arsenal. And this GK was pretty crap from the beginning

To your point No.2; no idea. Haven't really paid attention to it.

Regarding #1, I think that's due to the player having a high 'ambition' attribute, which is a hidden attribute. As such, it's a reflection of human nature - some people are impatient and have a high opinion of themselves, especially kids on ridiculous contracts with agents and night-club tarts fawning over them!

I've very few people unhappy for not playing. I do try to loan a lot of the reserves, only keeping the younger ones, which usually don't complain much, if at all. I only had a Dutch guy, Affelay, which used to complain a lot. Was shipped out ASAP.

Apart from that, I try to keep a relatively small first team squad (max. around 26) and try to rotate as much as possible.

Also, if the player has a high "professional" stat (hidden stat) he'll usually not complain.

both issues remain in fm09 i'm in 2017 and as soon as you get an unhappy player, bar selling them he stays unhappy.