One thing that's always bugged me about FM...

[Nocuous]

It's not clearly a bug as it happens IRL, as other posts have mentioned.

It happens occasionally in real life. It happens ALL THE TIME in the game. In real life, a managers prior failures and sackings are taken into consideration. In the game it is completely ignored. People always go on about the 'old boys club' or the 'managerial merry-go-round', but that only goes so far. The game takes that concept to a whole new level. Okay, maybe it's not a 'bug' per se, but the way the game handles managerial appointments could be drastically improved to make it far more realistic. At the moment it feels like whenever there's a managerial vacancy at a club, the job goes to the guy with the highest reputation that's willing to go there which will mean someone who's just been sacked at another club, or a big name player that's recent retired.

[RBKalle]

I think some of you are mixing up two different issues in both real life and FM.

Of course an "average" top tier manager who has proven himself to some extent is still going to get hired around the same level despite a couple of disappoiting stints with some clubs.

Let's be fair, failing at a mid-table act or, much more commonly, at a relegation candidate is relatively easy but at the same time less devastating for a manager's reputation. All it takes is a string of poor results, an injury-ridden month, a run of subpar performances from the best player(s) and it's gonna be 9th place, 14th place or even relegation.

But in such scenarios the manager is sharing the blame with the board and the players... or he's getting off lightly because the expectations weren't that high anyway.

Unless he's been doing really really stupid choices, the "failure" will almost be forgotten and forgiven should another club of similar stature need a new manager.

On the other hand a disappointing spell at a Top Club may as well end before the season is over, and even if the manager somehow keeps his job til the end, there won't be much room for "ifs and buts".

Therefor even in FM it's not a huge issue seeing many managers sticking around the "peasantry" and the "petite bourgeoisie" of EPL clubs despite having rarely been impressive.

But when you see managers making the rounds of every possible Top Club of the country despite having won diddly-squat, just because the game rated them highly in the original db, then we have a problem.

Also there must be some difference between managers, even successful ones, resigning (think of Capello and Guardiola) and getting the axe mid-season due to shockingly awful performances (Gasperini at Inter, AVB at Chelsea)

But more importantly, I really hope SI have fixed the infuriating "musical chairs"-style turnover... Like: Wenger sacked by Arsenal, Villas Boas sign for Arsenal, Wenger joins Spurs.

[raymondafc]

He was also assistant manager for several months under Villas-Boas, and not to mention the fact he is a former Chelsea player and hence a fan-favourite of sorts. It's not that unusual to promote an assistant manager to a manager.

Another example would be the current Barcelona manager. And the previous one...

[BiggusD]

I think this issue will be solved the moment the AI managers actually have a clue what they're doing, and the club boards have both short-term and long-term plans "in writing".

[Kenco]

I think this issue will be solved the moment the AI managers actually have a clue what they're doing, and the club boards have both short-term and long-term plans "in writing".

So that will be the day after never then?

[BiggusD]

So that will be the day after never then?

Probably, but it shouldn't be. I can't understand how it could be such a huge task to let the AI use the tools we have at our disposal; after all those features are already in the game! FM13 will reportedly let AI managers use attributes too, for the first time. It is a step on the way to a better AI. If the boards around the world had a 10-year plan on where they see the club in the future, with a 5-year checkpoint instead of the current 1-year board expectations, and they had a yearly evalutation of progress in all aspects of success, you wouldn't be hired or fired based on immediate success. The AI clubs would hire a manager for several years at a time and only fire him if there is no progress after a few years or if there's a crisis. They would hire him based on more specific stats than just reputation; like playing style, control of money, player development (i.e profits from sales over time) and whether his preferred tactic can be used with the current squad. The only real-life effect of reputation is that it attracts bigger player names and thus more public attention - it should thus be of no consequence for clubs that have no transfer budget! For those, only skill and suitability should count.

[Kenco]

The one-year plan is a bit rubbish at the moment. I finished my last season as 'Untouchable' with 73% confidence, then the season updates and I drop to about 60% overnight, as if they've completely forgotten about my previous achievements.

[Robert the Spud]

TBH I don't think AVB will be successful in English football - seems to have very poor man management skills and didn't know how to handle the player power at Chelsea and there are rumours of more problems at Spuds - maybe Portugal has a different player culture that he could handle - or maybe players under him are happier when they are winning which would make any manager look good.... even Paul Ince

Well, that's nonsense really. Just rumours. He was excellent for Porto, and was too early for the Chelsea job. He's doing very well at Spurs. As for FM, his stats and PA are potential WC. No real reason why he should be failing so badly and so many clubs.

[QWERTYOP]

Not always the case. David O'Leary's still a young guy but i'd be surprised to see him in management again. In RL or FM world. Joe Royle always seems to find a new job sooner or later in FM world and that always makes me laugh.