[Suggestion] Transfer Timeline

[Butlee]

Ultimately just an idea to visually represent transfers at the club.
It can really be expanded on (beyond what my little image shows) depending on the effort to code it. I've explored the options in the post below.

What:

I propose a new graphic that shows us when players in our current Senior Squad have been transferred into the club (and for how much) in a timeline format. 
Below is one I mocked up for my time as AS Monaco in 2028.

In hindsight I should have put the main window "Winter" up top. And the colour scheme and layout in general aren't too important - it's all about the concept.

 

Why:

For starters, I think any kind of modern-looking graphic or means of analysing our squad is a positive addition to FM. It's not specifically Data Analysis, but it's still the kind of analysis that comes along as general Data Science becomes more and more involved in sport these days. I think just any kind of lean into that side of things matches the direction FM is going in (ie, moving with modern football), so the argument of if it's mostly graphs-for-graphs-sake doesn't really matter. 

Secondly, and this might be minor or major, it's kind of a cool historical way of looking back over your career at a club. I often like going back and remembering what good/bad signings I made when I arrived, or how we got into trouble because we let X player go, or how much money there was/wasn't being thrown around then. Basically, every save in FM creates a kind of story and this is a kind of different, easy way to relive that story like nostalgia.

 

My other major reason - the reason I want it - may be a little too meta, or fanciful, but hear me out.

When I arrive at a club I feel that understanding the history of where the club is today and how they got here are really important to helping me manage the squad. And that's not just league position and financial resources and/or why they replaced their last manager - it's got a lot to do with the players that are here, the expectations they've had over time compared to what those expectations are now and how those kind of things effected decisions that were made. If I can (and here's where I may or may not just be a bit fanciful) understand why certain players were signed at certain times, or the situation certain players have been in at the club (say first team, backup etc..) in the years leading up to when I arrived, I can better manage them going forward.

It might be easier if I explain some of the examples from above, to share my meaning:

I arrived at the club in August 2028 for reference...

<> Cesar, who arrived in 2027 for 93M, clearly expects to be one of our key players at AMC. Which becomes relevant when I look at signings like Dybala and Ca' who we picked up in their early 20's and whom also play AMC. 
<> Players well into their 30's now, like Marquinhos, Semedo & Maycon, are probably happy enough to leave the club. It's not like they've become club heroes in their 2 year stints.
<> Whereas someone like Fabinho, signed in 2014 - well we'd do well to let him see out his career at the club.
<> Guys like Jesus (signed 2023) and Cutrone (2024) have been fighting over the striker spot for years - and we haven't signed a striker since.
<> We signed Lato in 2023, and since then we've signed 3 new potentially starting DL's (Maycon, Cucurella & Abdel Wahab), so there must be something up with Lato.

And maybe that's all just a bit silly and who really cares and you can learn all this stuff in other ways etc... but personally I think that's interesting. I can see some patterns and understand what the prior manager was thinking (he left to go manage Portugal, he wasn't sacked, so he was probably doing a solid job here). I can get an idea ahead of time what players see their values and roles as and I can make sure I'm ready to manage that.

It goes without saying that adding Dynamics to the FM18 mix gives even more of a reason to have stuff like this. Managing players and their expectations is a big part of keeping the squad harmony, and seeing the above visually can help you pinpoint problems (such as my AM problem with Cesar, Ca' and Dybala fighting for 1 spot). You can also see who the team leaders are, and know if they got there because of their time at the club, or just their sheer presence that elevated them up the pyramid in a short space of time.

 

Options:

The main one is the length of the timeline. I've sketched up basically 5 years back and a 'before then' column. It would really be up to how difficult this is to code to decide the limits there. In our perfect world it would stretch back to the year the game started - clearly all that info is still *there* in the save. You could use a horizontal scroll bar - I don't think anyone would complain about needing a horizontal scroll for a timeline.
But if you need set period, I think 5 years is a pretty good window - I'd say at least half of any club's Senior Squad would have arrived within a 5 year time span and if there are any specific players you're looking at you can still review them 1 by 1.

There are also a number of things you could do here by having filters. That all depends on how hard it is to code this kind of feature, but imagine if you could filter this similar to your Squad page, where changes happen 'live' based on check boxes. Maybe it would be more like check boxes but updated as if you were doing a player or staff search. Either way, a list of potential toggles (all are on/off and not all mutually exclusive).

<> First Team / Reserves / Youths 
<> Positions
<> Transfer In / Transfers Out (could be a toggle, or a check box or two tabs)
<> Players At the Club / Away From the Club
<> Free Transfers / Loans
 

And on top of that, maybe it can be presented with different info. Maybe the transfer price isn't important and we'd rather see the positions or nationalities (or "all the above") in the chart.

 

Conclusion / In Closing:

I'm not sure what people think? If anyone else read through this, would it be interesting? Helpful?

I guess the thing is - it seems to me like FM/SI wants to bring more and more visual aids to the game and this seems like a slam dunk of info that already exists, represented in a slightly different chart (having variety in the way you present information helps keep it fresh and easy to absorb), and it CAN be useful to managing a club. Especially when you first arrive. Hopefully it's an attractive idea.

[Neil Brock]

Reviewed so locked.