Player retirements

[Lillywhite Dean]

Why do so many players in FMH retire at such a young age? I see so many players retire at 32. Unless someone is battling with an injury, most players play on to 36.

I have noticed this a lot, and in my current game, I tried to see if I could find any decent players who were without a club (I'm currently managing in the Blue Square Prem on a tiny budget). I saw so many players who were 32, without a club but refused to sign a contract due to their planned retirement.

[Steve10s]

I've had more than a few players stay on until their 36 or even 38, I know I kept Gary Cahill until his 38th and he played amazingly right until the end.

[Lillywhite Dean]

I'm not saying that all players retire at 32. I've just noticed that there are many who do retire at that age and it seems odd that these players, where some have pretty good stats and indicate no obvious explanation as to why, retire at an age that is very young in the modern game.

I've seen Craig Bellamy play on until 38-39. Herman Crespo was out of contract at 36. So I know it can happen.

[manufan2010]

Do you play them alot? Could be that they dont get played enough?

[hyrussk71]

Players who play even a handful (4 games or so) can improve their chance of playing longer.
I've had players retire at 30 before cause they were never being played but it's not very common.

[Lillywhite Dean]

In my current career, both Mikel Arteta and Joe Cole retired from the game at 33. Very, very unlikely that would happen.

[Lillywhite Dean]

Arrghh.. I know it only seems to be me whinging about this but I'm finding this so frustrating.

In my current game save, I signed 33 year old Ricky Lambert on a free after he was released from Southampton. Despite my assistant manager saying he wasn't worth signing, I decided I knew best and signed him on a two year deal. Well my better judgement was vindicated as Lambert scored 36 goals helping my side to the League 1 title. Once the season was over, Lambert decided that he was too old to play professional football and would retire at the end of the season. Now as he announced this at the end of 2014-15 campaign, I thought this meant retiring at the end of 2015-16 campaign. I looked at his stats and they were all still good. Even his stamina ability was of a decent blue rating. I decided to offer him an improved two year deal which he accepted. I then thought, no more worries about retirement. Once I hit 'start new season', one of the first news items to appear in my inbox was Ricky Lambert announcing his retirement from professional football.

Why? He is 33 or 34, has good stats, and just signed a two year deal. It doesn't make any sense!

[rafafloripa]

You need to go to his personal profile, and click on the "retiring at the end of season" sentence. Then, you can ask him to reconsider. If he denies, oh well

[manufan2010]

You need to go to his personal profile, and click on the "retiring at the end of season" sentence. Then, you can ask him to reconsider. If he denies, oh well

Thanks - Vidic is 39 and he is staying on - never new that, thanks

[Lillywhite Dean]

You need to go to his personal profile, and click on the "retiring at the end of season" sentence. Then, you can ask him to reconsider. If he denies, oh well

Ditto - I never knew that either. Thanks for the advice.

Now where's the button that asks a player to come out of retirement.. like with the Paul Scholes situation

[rafafloripa]

No problem lads, glad I helped

[tlyne]

Here's my sad retirement story. I was playing with Celtic, my favorite team, and in 2014, I signed Zlatan Ibrahimovac in midseason. He's one of my favorites. He played a few games. got hurt and retired at the end of the season.