Reasons for Walking Away

[Sandy Tait]

Something I'd dearly love to see in negotiations is the ability to explain *why* you're walking away from discussions. Say my player comes to me demanding a new contract and say I'm bonkers enough to agree, but right from the start his agent is insisting on there being a minimum-fee release clause that's far too low.

Now, I'm not about to risk losing a key player for such a low fee but I also don't want to break my promise to the player that I'd offer a new contract. Of course, I can just walk away and say "I promised to make an offer, it's not my fault you didn't accept it" but frankly that's a bit too confrontational, and the "I'm genuinely sorry, I promise to try again" is too far the other way. 

What I'd like to be able to do is have a drop down list or a pop up box when you hit "Walk away" that lets you pick some options: wage demands far too high, agent demanding a release clause, agent not being flexible over demands, etc. I get that with the number of reasons one might walk away from negotiations that this could be quite an ask, but it could probably be reasonably summed up into half a dozen options.

Additionally, when you walk away and then go back to speak to the player it would really help if there were another dialogue choice that isn't either a grovelling apology or telling them to jog on - "Look, I entered into negotiations with you/your agent in good faith but unfortunately we just couldn't come to an agreement. I'm prepared to restart talks if you/your agent can agree to be a bit more flexible."

 

(Actually, that last point applies to a lot of player interactions when you've "broken" a promise - you can either grovel and beg for forgiveness or tell them to get stuffed; there's not a middle-ground compromise option.)

[StewartAHannah]

yip contract negotiations lack flexibility and involvement, all or nothing. Similarly if you delegate contract negotiations I would like an option to renegotiate change accept decline etc.  

[Sandy Tait]

7 hours ago, StewartAHannah said:

yip contract negotiations lack flexibility and involvement, all or nothing. Similarly if you delegate contract negotiations I would like an option to renegotiate change accept decline etc.  

Yes! Always frustrating when you delegate it, the terms are rejected, and then you have to wait for ages before you can have a go yourself. Result for me is that I just never delegate contracts!

[StewartAHannah]

Its time FM moved with the times and gave our staff a mobile phone. Then whom ever you delegate to can send you a txt and and ask for a yea or nay answer  or some guidance? But then they could also introduce video conference calls so we can conduct transfers whilst sat on some exotic beach whilst on holiday.  

[Spedding]

Same with when you want to resign from a club could do with being able to say why your resigning 

[Sandy Tait]

On 29/08/2021 at 23:54, StewartAHannah said:

Its time FM moved with the times and gave our staff a mobile phone. Then whom ever you delegate to can send you a txt and and ask for a yea or nay answer  or some guidance? But then they could also introduce video conference calls so we can conduct transfers whilst sat on some exotic beach whilst on holiday.  

Oh I like the idea of, say, your DoF negotiating the contract but then forwarding the agreed terms to you for approval.

[Harper]

Reminds me of a suggestion I made a while back.

Basically, I think there could be more "pre-negotiation" interaction to gauge what the player/agent is thinking.
 

 

[Pezamaria]

Love this idea! 

[halfmanhalfgull]

On 14/09/2021 at 03:51, Harper said:

Reminds me of a suggestion I made a while back.

Basically, I think there could be more "pre-negotiation" interaction to gauge what the player/agent is thinking.

Yes. To be honest, we already get that when doing a contract with players from outside the club ("ask agent about availability") - so I agree there's no reason we shouldn't have it when doing a contract with players who are already inside the club. In many cases should already have some kind of existing relationship with their agents from having done their previous deal.

[Harper]

5 hours ago, halfmanhalfgull said:

Yes. To be honest, we already get that when doing a contract with players from outside the club ("ask agent about availability") - so I agree there's no reason we shouldn't have it when doing a contract with players who are already inside the club. In many cases should already have some kind of existing relationship with their agents from having done their previous deal.

Yeah, notice I wrote that feature suggestion in May 2019. Asking the agent about a player’s availability was introduced in October 2020. It was probably already planned, but I like to think that my post turned into Issue #4362 in the backlog and is one of the arguments or examples of the long term vision for development of agent/player interaction.

[Abdullah Patel]

Thanks for taking the time to raise this here. This is something which has already been flagged as a request within the community, so has already been documented and is part of our internal database of features for consideration. Like all features raised to us, it could end up rejected, or could after extensive design and development become a part of a future FM.