Lack of Harmony?

[Kewell08]

Hi.
I've just taken over a French club which shall not be named in the interests of FMS.
Anyway, suffice to say that this club is in 16th place in its division and wants to win. I sign my contract and head to the squad screen to see something pretty weird to me.

There are thirty-six players in the first team squad which is worrying enough by itself. Of those players, though, ten have a "Slt" icon next to their name and every one of them is the same. Some of them also have "Feels the team may be underachieving" but the predominant one is "Worried/dismayed by the lack of harmony at the club." There is also one of these in the Reserves.

What does this actually mean? I was on holiday until I was appointed so I can't see the full media history and there is nothing immediately apparent on the news page.

A look at the previous manager's media history doesn't give me much either; only one criticism of form but I can't see why that would cause this. None of the players have any media history at all.

So what does this actually mean? I don't want you to tell me how to fix it; I'll figure that out for myself. But what caused it to be so widespread with no obvious cause?

[Goofus]

Well, at least you have a good story for now, eh Kewell?

Anyway, to fix it I think you just have to keep winning matches and praise your players more often. The lack of harmony could be due to a few players trying to leave.

[Wakka]

Well, at least you have a good story for now, eh Kewell?

Anyway, to fix it I think you just have to keep winning matches and praise your players more often. The lack of harmony could be due to a few players trying to leave.

unfortunatly that doesnt help much on fm2009 usually i just sell those players cuz they are the cause of the lack of harmony.

[Kewell08]

As I say, there are ten...

[Nomis07]

So what does this actually mean? I don't want you to tell me how to fix it; I'll figure that out for myself. But what caused it to be so widespread with no obvious cause?

That's quite a tough question, it's difficult to answer without giving you the ways to fix it It's a knock on effect of the players who are unhappy because the club in underachieving, their disappointment and unhappiness had rubbed off on other players who have become unhappy because so many other players are unhappy.

An example would be working in an office and two people become sad because the business isn't doing so well, they then pass this sadness onto some other people and before you know it you will have people who are unhappy because so many people seem to be unhappy.

[Mizan123]

the same happened to me i was playing as man utd and i just won the champion league and the english league and everyone morale was superb,i notice that quite a few players had a slight concern and when i clicked on the button it said "Worried/dismayed by the lack of harmony at the club".

possibly a bug?

[Arkim]

I am suffering from lack of harmony as well. We are overachieving in our league and everything is going fine so far. However for some reason, there are a few players who are concerned about the lack of harmony in our team. Now, I could understand this if the team was underachieving and there were players in the team who disliked each other, but when some players have each other listed on each others' favored personnel screen and as I mentioned, the club is overachieving (flying high in 4th place while we were predicted to be relegation contenders), it seems a bit strange. Not to mention, morale is usually not lower then "Good".

I don't like to use the term "bug", however I do think that this feature needs to be looked at and toned down in the way it affects teams for 9.3.

[SSGTroyer]

I feel one of the more overlooked aspects of FM is Personality.

I refuse to sign players who aren't to some degree Professional or Determined. I'll take a Balanced youngster if I think his attributes are good enough, and then mentor his personality a bit, but for the most part...everyone needs to have a similar personality, or conflicts develop.

Time is also a big part of squad harmony. Signing lots of new players to a squad can destroy a locker loom, especially is popular players are sold in the process, or there becomes too much competition for a first-team spot. A poor Captian can also be a major influence.

A player doesn't have to complain to the press have his opinion vexxed. There's no way to know a player's attitude is heading south, though, except for maybe his morale being "Very Good" when one might think it should be "Supurb", but there are many reasons this could be.

In short, I'd check out the various personalities on your squad. See how many different ones there are, and pick a few of the "bad apples" and get them gone. Then, make sure you have a good Captian, settle on a starting XI and get them on the pitch for three months or so. If you achieve as expected or better, you'll start to see things turn around. But keep in mind, getting a squad that "would die for each other" can take years...

EDIT: Your in-match AssMan report/advice in (new for FM09!!! ) can be a good indicator of who the outsiders are...