Contract Lengths Decreasing?

Has anybody ever had the contract lengths they can offer players decreasing with each season?

I'm managing Leamington and in preseason for the 4th year in the Skrill North. I realize that on semi-pro levels single year contracts might be a bit more common. But, I started my save being able to offer 3 year contracts. New chairman comes in midway through 2nd season, gets a bunch of directors in (no idea why)- and then I could only offer 2 year contracts.

Fine, apparently chairmen do this. But, when I then got into preseason just now, I discovered that I can only offer 1 year contracts to the very same players I was able to offer 2 year contracts to about a month ago. Is this a bug? Or is there some possible explanation for this?

It's extremely frustrating considering how difficult it is to hold onto talent on this level.

Any thoughts?

Sounds realistic to me relative to real life football. It's rare at non-league level for players to be retained for >1 year. Even as high as League 1, few players will be on contracts longer than 2 years.

I'd say it's part of the challenge at lower league level in FM, ie the point you make about difficulty in holding on to talent at that level. Basically players at that level will, in my experience, just accept the highest offer they get each summer. So, if you have good players but not the biggest wage budget, you're going to see high player turnover.

But the issue isn't whether players are willing to stay on or not. They usually are (with larger wage demands of course).

It's just that the contract lengths I can offer these players is decreasing with each consecutive year! If my save had simply started with an option to only offer 1 year contracts, I could understand...but to start with 3 years and go down to 1?

Ah...it seems to have resolved itself now. Might just have been a glitch.

I'm back down to 2 year contracts.

Can chairmans be persuaded to increase the contract lengths we can offer players?