having problems motivating himself to play for you

So I am manager of Saarbrucken, and I have achieved promotion from the 3rd to the 2nd div after 2 seasons, and now am playing in Div2. However almost all my players are "having problems motivating himself to play for you", even the ones that have been almost a permanent fixture in my team for the last 3 seasons. Will that ever get away, after I start winning (hopefully) some serious stuff. And is that a problem? I mean most of them still perform well, however the new faces are not giving their best. Should I sell them or give them more time? I managed to get Zeman, who I had in a previous save with Atalanta and was amazing, now after 5 or 6 starts does not even average a 6. And I also got Verpakovskis on a free, good ratings overall but cannot perform. I am not too worried about them since I think it takes time to blend in my team, I am more worried with the "having problems motivating himself to play for you". Any replies very much appreciated

Just be patient. Until you actually win something, all the players will hate you. If you won the league second season it is strange that they didn't start believing you, though.

Well I did not actually won the league, I placed second but it was an over achievement cause we were predicted 14th. Well most of the new players are being sold, at a profit of course.

That explains why they don't trust you yet. Mere promotion won't give you a high enough reputation bonus.

Yeah winning is everything. It's quite unfortunate really. You get a bonus for promotion and another bonus for winning, but the bonus for promotion isn't enough. Over the last few saves since I worked this out I have been purposefully dropping play-off promotions because it's worse for my career in the long-term. Have been losing so that I can win it the next year.

To put it into context I played a game with Harrogate I won the play-offs in the BSN and then play-offs again in the BSP. Applied around was only linked with lower end BSP teams.

With Welling I won the BSS and won the BSP, I was offered the Portsmouth job as the top League 1 team that year and ended getting the Hull job as a mid table championship team after winning league 2.

I agree that winning is everything, and in a way it makes sense. Well I would be glad though to scrape through the 2nd Div and go into the Bundesliga, I m sure my reputation will increase!

Your starting reputation also factors in how your players respect you. They're more likely to be motivated for you if your reputation is set to "International Footballer" rather than a lower one. But it shouldn't matter that much if your managing such a small club.

Yeah I know I started as Sunday Footballer to make it a bit more realistic. Well I got rid of the new players that were not performing, and the others are performing well, 1st season in Div 2 and I am 6th, so I will not change anything yet. Thanks for the advice guys