Staff wage demands - in particular those of ex-players

I have a feeling this will turn into a bug report, so please take the time to share your experiences.

So what are people's experiences with the wage demands of staff - particular those of ex-players, and even more in particular player-coaches who retire from playing.

It seems to me that regular staff wage demands are mostly acceptable - they increase a little every time depending on how much room you have on your wage bill.

ex-players who become staff on the other hand seem to almost double their wage demands at times. I've had one staff member go from 8k to 64k within 10 seasons for example.

But the worst are player-coaches who retire from playing - they continue to demand the wages they received while they were still playing. I had one player who'd been at my club from 16 to 36. I made him a player-coach in his last season and when he retired from playing he was still demanding £125k a week and wouldn't budge.

Is this the sort of thing you guys are experiences as well?

It is better waiting till they have left the club, then make sure you pick them up before anyone else. Their wage demands would be normal then.

The wage demands of staff is ridiculous in many cases. There are coaches with low reputation and little experience who demands £2000 or more from lower league clubs, the same as continental reputation managers with twenty years of experience demands of top clubs. There are very few coaches who demands less than a thousand pounds in the first season, forcing me to sign the same couple of guys every time I start a new game. I feel the problem isn't really that there are too high wage demands of coaches having 2.5 stars or more, but that there are coaches that can't coach, managers that can't manage and physios who doesn't know physioteraphy. I think that when you are employed in a Premier League club as a fitness coach, you should be quite good as a default and there shouldn't be a need to auto-sack the entire staff of any club you take over, apart from perhaps Manchester United, Arsenal or Chelsea. It is okay that L2 and lower leagues have coaches who aren't very good at what they are doing, but this is not a problem related to lower leagues only.

I have also had success with employing ex players after they have left the club and their wage demands appear to be not excessive then.

So there's a definite problem with the transition.

Will have to wait till one of my players is ready to retire and move to the backroom so I can get a savegame.

if they're still playing ans deciding to retire, when you offer the non-playing job, they will asking high salary as if they're still playing.

if you wait for them to leave when out of contract and approach them then, usually they will refuse to negotiate.

I suspect that I have been quietly acknowledging that there is an issue by deliberately not choosing to try and tie up players before they leave and accepting that it can be worked round after they left.

if they're still playing ans deciding to retire, when you offer the non-playing job, they will asking high salary as if they're still playing.

if you wait for them to leave when out of contract and approach them then, usually they will refuse to negotiate.

You shouldn't need to have to do this.

There should be a "staff wage on retiring" clause added to their contract - probably the easiest way of implementing it.

You shouldn't need to have to do this.

There should be a "staff wage on retiring" clause added to their contract - probably the easiest way of implementing it.

That seems like a good idea, perhaps the agents might interfere a bit though?

That seems like a good idea, perhaps the agents might interfere a bit though?

Usually when players retire don't they sack their agents just beforehand? I thought that's the way it works.

Anyway, if you release a player who plans on becoming a coach but asks for excessive wages while at the club would he always be interested in returning solely as a coach? In my save Del Piero was asking for 30K a week but when I released him he wasn't interested in coming back. Seems like I did something differently?

It is better waiting till they have left the club, then make sure you pick them up before anyone else. Their wage demands would be normal then.

Little problem: I found that if you let them leave, then they will not come back.

well I let a senior player in my Las Palmas game leave, and picked him up a while later. Maybe you will have to wait a bit. Of course, by then someone else could have snatched him up, but if he wants to come eventualy, paying a few hundre K once is better than 120k a week for eternity?

Definitely an issue here.

I've been OK actually.

I had Owen Hargreaves and David Wheater on ~£40k/week as players, then as they got older, they began to accept lower and lower playing contracts. I think Hargreaves' final year was about £18k, while Wheater was about £30k. Then offer them the role of player coach on a one year deal, keep them on that for 2 or 3 seasons, and each year they'll ask for a big reduction. By the time each of them retired, they were down to about £1k/week.

You've gotta be patient, and once a player is past 32, start renegotiating his contract more often.

That would be a workaround - something you shouldn't have to do.

I'd not really seen it as a workaround to be honest, it just seemed like the natural progression to me. It's practically equivalent to how players like Gary Neville and Gareth Southgate worked on their coaching badges before retiring from playing.

Except Gary Neville isn't being payed his last playing wage as a coach, which is what happens in-game.

Related question/concern, as it's come up a few times during my Chelsea career:

Vialli - I wanted to hire the Blues icon as a First Team Coach (not because I needed him, mostly for sentimental reasons). His initial demands were 8 million Euros annually (sorry - I work in annual wages, north American prejudice, I guess). I offered him $300k to be a 1st Team Coach and his demands dropped to 6 million Euros annually. I gave up after two more approaches yielded similar results. He's been unemployed all 6 seasons I've been at the Chelsea helm and recently retired from coaching.

Terry - I allowed Terry's contract to expire at the end of the 13/14 season after a successful and illustrious career at Stamford Bridge. After two seasons of free agency, he finally retires in spring 2016 and becomes a coach. I approach that same day with the same intentions I had with Vialli - get Terry inked as a 1st Team Coach. His initial demands are 11 million Euros annually for an Assistant Manager position. That would make him the highest paid staff member in the game (highest salary in the world is 9.5M Euros). I offer him 500k to be a 1st Team Coach. He refuses, and drops his demands to 10M - not budging after multiple counters from me (I offer him as much as 1.5M Euros, which would make him the highest paid staff member on the team apart from me). Not a week later, he signs with City as a youth coach making 44,000 Euros per year. Terry lists Chelsea as one his favorite clubs and I still have two players among his favored personnel on the squad.

Seems more than a little odd that Terry would refuse to consider any staff job from Chelsea paying less than 10M Euros, then turn around and take a lesser job for a lesser side for a fraction of what he'd been offered.

Am I the problem, or is there a flaw in the game design for players-becoming-staff?

Vialli was a manager. Of course he will want big paycheck as a non-manager. I doubt he will even sign as coach even though you succeed in negotiation. He will reject it eventually...

You shouldn't need to have to do this.

There should be a "staff wage on retiring" clause added to their contract - probably the easiest way of implementing it.

Very good idea, I've had this problem with a few player-coach transitions as well, though not all of them, many have taken reasonable wages (higher than most of my staff, around £10k) but some have demanded stupid wages and had to leave.