The way players wanting new contracts is unrealistic

[Ventricity]

This is an issue that's been there forever in FM, but I find can be very unrealistic. I'm sure it's also tied to player's playing time?

I get that they want more money and more playtime. But usually the club is the one that should complain that a player don't want to sign a new contract if he is good. 

Take Reiss Nelson on my Arsenal save. He earns 90k punds a week. A decent salary for a squad player if not a fringe player. He has a long contract, probably signed recently. But after one year he wants a new contract. He has developed, but I find it unlikely that he would complain to the point of wanting to leave the club if this was real life.

The exact same situation for Kiwior, a good player who wants a new contract and even be a first team starter after one season in game. A bit unrealistic.

The fact is that they already have contracts and are professionals. If a player has developed alot and obviously has had his market value go up, then the club should be the one who tries to retain him. In fact it would make the game harder to manage, not only more realistic. How often do you see players have a tantrum and want to leave because of wanting a new contract? they want to leave because other clubs are willing to pay more. There's a difference here, doesn't mean they are unhappy.

 

[Damedius]

It's beyond ridiculous to have to give half of your team a new contact when they still have 3 or more years on their current deal. SI doesn't seem to care. They probably don't think there is any return on  investment. As you said, this has been the case for a long time and it hasn't been fixed.

Edited October 27, 2023 by Damedius

[Andy1979]

I haven't experienced this in fm 23. To say it's been a problem for ages is a tad unfair imo. I can't comment on 24 yet as I haven't got it as I don't bother until the proper game is out. Like it says it's early access and that's for a reason. If there was now issue then the full game would be out. 

[Dagenham_Dave]

I love how people know what goes on behind closed doors at real life clubs. I wish I had that kind of access. 

[kiwityke1983]

Getting promoted from L1 to the championship is my biggest headache with this.

Wage demands go from 2-4k per week to 15-25k per week and the player making the demand isn't even championship level ability wise and has years on his current deal to run.

So you either upset them and sell them, get lucky and they back down or give them a contract nobody in their right minds would give them (making them a millstone for years).

[Cobblers]

This is indeed a disappointing read.

I'd hoped we would have seen this updated.

I'm not willing to purchase the game if the same old issues remain. It sucks enjoyment from the game.

[Jono Cpfc]

this was a huge problem in fm23, and i see it happening in fm24!!! in my Atalanta save on fm23, i signed renato sanches to be a squad player on 45k a week which was reasonable, he played as a squad player, did ok nothing special, asks for a new contract 12 months later wanting 100k+ per week......... Now on my fm24 save, Im playing as palace, and Eze has said hes gonna let his contract run and leave on a free, even though he has 18 months left, has no teams interested, plays every week, his morale is superb and is satisfied with training and everything, so why would he do that???? this stuff has to be fixed

[Damedius]

9 hours ago, Andy1979 said:

I haven't experienced this in fm 23. To say it's been a problem for ages is a tad unfair imo. I can't comment on 24 yet as I haven't got it as I don't bother until the proper game is out. Like it says it's early access and that's for a reason. If there was now issue then the full game would be out. 

Playing as Hamburger SV in FM23 after getting promoted to the Bundesliga, almost every player on my team asked for a new contract. Which means I had to over pay about half the players on my team or risk tanking morale or losing them. The last version of the game I played before 23 was 19 and I ran into the exact same thing then. So I'm not sure how long exactly this has been a problem. I only know that it has been a problem since FM 19.

[skybluedave]

I can live with this but the worst part is when half your squad get upset you've not given X a new contract. If it's confined to just one player then I could manage but when bunch of 1st teams down tools because of it then it's annoying

[Damedius]

18 minutes ago, skybluedave said:

I can live with this but the worst part is when half your squad get upset you've not given X a new contract. If it's confined to just one player then I could manage but when bunch of 1st teams down tools because of it then it's annoying

The worst part about it is that the options you have don't reflect what happened. I can't say "I offered him a contract that would increase his pay by 400% but he wanted an appearance fee on top" Or "He demanded that I make him an important player and only play in one position and in one role, which hurts the team."

I mean if you are going to put something as annoying as this in the game, then take the time to do it well. Instead we only have cookie cutter responses that don't reflect what is happening.

[Ventricity]

2 hours ago, skybluedave said:

I can live with this but the worst part is when half your squad get upset you've not given X a new contract. If it's confined to just one player then I could manage but when bunch of 1st teams down tools because of it then it's annoying

This is probably even worse. I've never heard this happening in real life. Why would half the squad be upset that another player didn't get a fat raise? Rather, they should be upset that the player is upset and wants to leave because he is an entitled brat. 

Whenever you have to talk to players about contracts or whatever it's a minefield. Press a wrong answer and the consequences are way overblown. I'm not autistic, I should be able to know what would be a reasonable answer, but aside from the obvious kicking the chair or bottle or whatever, is is really difficult.

[Neil Brock]

Few things to bear in mind here - if you've got let's say a squad player (Joe Bloggs) on £50k a week which they signed a year ago, then go out and sign another player that Joe Bloggs doesn't think is much better than him, but pay them £100k a week, Joe Bloggs will look at that and think they're being treated unfairly. Likewise the inverse, if a player is being paid poorly compared to their teammates, then they will get wider support if they throw the toys out when you refuse to give them a new contract. So try and be consistent with your wage structure where you can. 

Consider the wider ramifications of what signing players does to the current squad. They will look around the club and the league and see how comparable players are valued. Even if you sign say a Key Player on £200k a week, that sends a wider message to the squad on the scale of the salaries you're willing to pay. So even the backups will look at that and think this new scale should reverberate down. 

Likewise with playing at differing levels - expectation with promotion that all players may want an increase to closer to the league average, so plan accordingly in advance. And as for players letting their contracts run down - different players have different ambition and career goals. With an ambitious agent, they'll be encouraged to see those deals down, so make sure your key players never get into the last couple of years if you can help it - albeit that of course comes at a premium. 

[Mike J]

I think the problem is exacerbated by poor player interactions as well. It's really frustrating that I can't prepare a player for the fact he's only going to get a Squad Player status well before we get to contract negotiations. So he often gets annoyed when he's asking for an increase in both wages and playing time and that's the only point where I can tell him he's not going to get the playing time he wants via a conversation. It's also still too difficult to figure out the effects of upsetting a player by not giving them a new contract as well, so you're not sure if refusing their demands will lead to a player mutiny or one unhappy player for a few weeks. Theoretically their position in the social hierarchy should matter, but I've had situations where relative outsiders manage to upset the squad when they don't get their way. I think an option at the start/end of season team talk to discuss the financial ramifications of promotion or relegation would be good. Getting promoted from L1 to the Championship, for example, should give you the option to explain to the players that there's not much money for wage increases.

I have also had situations where players are happy on their current contracts and behave like regular human beings, only really getting annoyed when they enter the last 18 months of their deal of if the wage structure changes around them. Player personality does enter into it a bit.

[Jonthedon26]

7 minutes ago, Neil Brock said:

Few things to bear in mind here - if you've got let's say a squad player (Joe Bloggs) on £50k a week which they signed a year ago, then go out and sign another player that Joe Bloggs doesn't think is much better than him, but pay them £100k a week, Joe Bloggs will look at that and think they're being treated unfairly. Likewise the inverse, if a player is being paid poorly compared to their teammates, then they will get wider support if they throw the toys out when you refuse to give them a new contract. So try and be consistent with your wage structure where you can. 

Consider the wider ramifications of what signing players does to the current squad. They will look around the club and the league and see how comparable players are valued. Even if you sign say a Key Player on £200k a week, that sends a wider message to the squad on the scale of the salaries you're willing to pay. So even the backups will look at that and think this new scale should reverberate down. 

Likewise with playing at differing levels - expectation with promotion that all players may want an increase to closer to the league average, so plan accordingly in advance. And as for players letting their contracts run down - different players have different ambition and career goals. With an ambitious agent, they'll be encouraged to see those deals down, so make sure your key players never get into the last couple of years if you can help it - albeit that of course comes at a premium. 

Firstly, a great explanation and hopefully this gives people more insight as to why it happens. Whilst I agree with what you are saying, I don't think it happens in real life as much as it happens in the game, and in real life people have the ability to say "look we are doubling your wages after you requested a new contract". In game obviously that isn't an option. and communication is nowhere near as free flowing in game as in real life. If a club signs a star player on a huge wage, let's take Ronaldo for example when he first moved to the Saudi league although it is an extreme example, when he signed on his ridiculous contract, I doubt all the other players kicked off and starting demanding their contracts go up from £1k a week to £100k per week because the overall squad average had increased as a result of Ronaldo joining. It's always going to happen with some players, and I think it should happen in game with those that have certain personality types (unprofessional players), but the frequency it happens in game and the catastrophic effect it has on the whole squad is too much, in my personal opinion. 

[Ventricity]

41 minutes ago, Jonthedon26 said:

 It's always going to happen with some players, and I think it should happen in game with those that have certain personality types (unprofessional players), but the frequency it happens in game and the catastrophic effect it has on the whole squad is too much, in my personal opinion. 

This is the problem. the consequences need to be toned down. How about making the agent do all the commotion? 

Edited October 27, 2023 by Ventricity

[Freakiie]

28 minutes ago, Jonthedon26 said:

Firstly, a great explanation and hopefully this gives people more insight as to why it happens. Whilst I agree with what you are saying, I don't think it happens in real life as much as it happens in the game, and in real life people have the ability to say "look we are doubling your wages after you requested a new contract". In game obviously that isn't an option. and communication is nowhere near as free flowing in game as in real life. If a club signs a star player on a huge wage, let's take Ronaldo for example when he first moved to the Saudi league although it is an extreme example, when he signed on his ridiculous contract, I doubt all the other players kicked off and starting demanding their contracts go up from £1k a week to £100k per week because the overall squad average had increased as a result of Ronaldo joining. It's always going to happen with some players, and I think it should happen in game with those that have certain personality types (unprofessional players), but the frequency it happens in game and the catastrophic effect it has on the whole squad is too much, in my personal opinion. 

Ok, so the Saudi state comes in, gives a select few clubs billions of dollars, these clubs still have to field 5? Saudi players due to league rules and you honestly think the better Saudi players don't care? I honestly doubt that, those players now have a higher value than ever, as there are obviously very few good Saudi players, yet a couple clubs with near infinite money must field Saudi players and if these clubs want to look good internationally they obviously can't afford to field 6 foreign super stars and 5 Sunday league footballers, so they will fight for the best Saudi talent there is, massively driving up their price. Just look at the transfers, there were a couple of €10m transfers of Saudi players neither of us probably ever heard off and you think these players won't be receiving a massive raise? Sure, they won't earn like Ronaldo or Neymar, but I bet their new salary still dwarves whatever they earned previously.

[Jonthedon26]

1 hour ago, Freakiie said:

Ok, so the Saudi state comes in, gives a select few clubs billions of dollars, these clubs still have to field 5? Saudi players due to league rules and you honestly think the better Saudi players don't care? I honestly doubt that, those players now have a higher value than ever, as there are obviously very few good Saudi players, yet a couple clubs with near infinite money must field Saudi players and if these clubs want to look good internationally they obviously can't afford to field 6 foreign super stars and 5 Sunday league footballers, so they will fight for the best Saudi talent there is, massively driving up their price. Just look at the transfers, there were a couple of €10m transfers of Saudi players neither of us probably ever heard off and you think these players won't be receiving a massive raise? Sure, they won't earn like Ronaldo or Neymar, but I bet their new salary still dwarves whatever they earned previously.

Yeah I am sure there were some wage rises, and I am sure some people complained or thought they could get more elsewhere. I am not saying it doesn't happen at all. I am just saying in terms of FM. I find it very unlikely that a team will get promoted from L1 to the Championship and demand a wage rise from £5k per week to £25k per week, be offered £15k, turn it down, then the whole squad gets furious. I just don't envisage that happening regularly. Again, maybe with some unprofessional players it might, but this is a constant and regular thing on Football Manager and there is little way to avoid it or safely negotiate your way out of it, again in my personal opinion. 

EDIT: just had a quick look at Al-Nassr wage structure. 18 of the lowest 19 paid players in the squad are from Saudi Arabia, and their wages range from £9500 - £20k per week. Now I don't know if that is what they were originally on, or if some have received pay rises or anything since Ronaldo joined, but as I stated in my original post, it doesn't look to me like their squad players are all demanding £100k per week because Ronaldo is paid £3.5m per week. 

Edited October 27, 2023 by Jonthedon26

[Damedius]

2 hours ago, Neil Brock said:

Few things to bear in mind here - if you've got let's say a squad player (Joe Bloggs) on £50k a week which they signed a year ago, then go out and sign another player that Joe Bloggs doesn't think is much better than him, but pay them £100k a week, Joe Bloggs will look at that and think they're being treated unfairly. Likewise the inverse, if a player is being paid poorly compared to their teammates, then they will get wider support if they throw the toys out when you refuse to give them a new contract. So try and be consistent with your wage structure where you can. 

Consider the wider ramifications of what signing players does to the current squad. They will look around the club and the league and see how comparable players are valued. Even if you sign say a Key Player on £200k a week, that sends a wider message to the squad on the scale of the salaries you're willing to pay. So even the backups will look at that and think this new scale should reverberate down. 

Likewise with playing at differing levels - expectation with promotion that all players may want an increase to closer to the league average, so plan accordingly in advance. And as for players letting their contracts run down - different players have different ambition and career goals. With an ambitious agent, they'll be encouraged to see those deals down, so make sure your key players never get into the last couple of years if you can help it - albeit that of course comes at a premium. 

I appreciate what you are saying. However I just had a player ask for a new contract after asking for one at the beginning of the season. So he tears up a contract that still had 2+ years left on it, to turn around a little over six months later to ask for another, when he still has three years left on the one he just signed.. It's beyond ludicrous. If you could show me real life examples of clubs tearing up all their contracts and giving players new ones every season, I might understand. It seems completely unrealistic to me. Add into that the fact that your whole team might go on strike because one player didn't get a contract and it takes away a lot of the enjoyment from playing the game.

Edited October 27, 2023 by Damedius

[dunk105]

20 hours ago, Damedius said:

It's beyond ridiculous to have to give half of your team a new contact when they still have 3 or more years on their current deal. SI doesn't seem to care. They probably don't think there is any return on  investment. As you said, this has been the case for a long time and it hasn't been fixed.

Never seen this as an issue, if its a prized asset on form then a lot of real life clubs would extend contracts if the players form and stature has increased and they deserve to be brought in line with higher earners.

For lesser players in FM I normally promise them one at the end of the season if playing well (which most accept and doesnt damage morale), or if not I tell them they need to earn it. In the latter case if they dont improve I can now tell them that I will consider their future at the club, and will most likely also look at them as a position to refresh in close season.

Also havent seen any change in for the most part I can stick to a plan of renewing by choice when they have 2 years left.

Yes, of course it will sometimes not work like clockwork and I might see unhappy players but hey we are managing a club and its not always meant to go our way.

Edited October 27, 2023 by dunk105
forgot to put something

[dunk105]

3 hours ago, Neil Brock said:

Few things to bear in mind here - if you've got let's say a squad player (Joe Bloggs) on £50k a week which they signed a year ago, then go out and sign another player that Joe Bloggs doesn't think is much better than him, but pay them £100k a week, Joe Bloggs will look at that and think they're being treated unfairly. Likewise the inverse, if a player is being paid poorly compared to their teammates, then they will get wider support if they throw the toys out when you refuse to give them a new contract. So try and be consistent with your wage structure where you can. 

Consider the wider ramifications of what signing players does to the current squad. They will look around the club and the league and see how comparable players are valued. Even if you sign say a Key Player on £200k a week, that sends a wider message to the squad on the scale of the salaries you're willing to pay. So even the backups will look at that and think this new scale should reverberate down. 

Likewise with playing at differing levels - expectation with promotion that all players may want an increase to closer to the league average, so plan accordingly in advance. And as for players letting their contracts run down - different players have different ambition and career goals. With an ambitious agent, they'll be encouraged to see those deals down, so make sure your key players never get into the last couple of years if you can help it - albeit that of course comes at a premium. 

Agree, if anything its a little too easy to remove requests for X salary after X first team appearances when signing players which I'm sure many do like myself, and also to remove the % yearly pay rise.

So its worthwhile considering  I find to offer the basic wage to somewhere in-between the basic we can offer and their top request for a rise, do find by doing this that I am far less prone to players demanding rise after a year of good form and improvement, and I can generally stick to renewing contracts when they have 2 years left.

Also as said in my above post the situation can be managed for squad players in various ways, and also as in real life if my Star players with 3 years left wants a bump and is playing well I will as with real life clubs tend to choose to lock in these players. After all its just the salary rising as believe the loyalty bonus is reset as its based over the span of a contract.

And of course if I feel its too much to ask considering my budget then as with real life clubs I have a decision to make that perhaps I should sell.

Would be great if in future versions we could see amortisation included or displayed for making these kind of decisions, as we'd be able to see clearly the benefit to the club of extending the contract in terms of what it does to player value. Also for each tier of the squad planner see how wage budgets would be change should we drop down to our next best option etc.

Edited October 27, 2023 by dunk105

[Damedius]

13 minutes ago, dunk105 said:

Never seen this as an issue, if its a prized asset on form then a lot of real life clubs would extend contracts if the players form and stature has increased and they deserve to be brought in line with higher earners.

 

Show me real world examples and there should be a lot because of how common it is in game. Player asks for new contract at beginning of the season, I give him a new contract. Then he turns around six months later and ask for a new one. Again with how common this is in game, I should be reading maybe a couple hundred stories a year about players receiving multiple new contracts in the same year with several years remaining on their existing contract.

[Damedius]

4 minutes ago, dunk105 said:

Agree, if anything its a little too easy to remove requests for X salary after X first team appearances when signing players which I'm sure many do like myself, and also to remove the % yearly pay rise.

 

Two different things. A player is only going ask for x salary after x first team appearances if they haven't cracked the first team. We are talking about established players ripping up their contracts whenever they feel like it. Sometimes more than once in the same calendar year.

[dunk105]

8 minutes ago, Damedius said:

Two different things. A player is only going ask for x salary after x first team appearances if they haven't cracked the first team. We are talking about established players ripping up their contracts whenever they feel like it. Sometimes more than once in the same calendar year.

But that player could now be an experienced / much wanted player if the contract without the salary rises was offered at 21 and they are now 23 and performing well and have made leaps in their ability.

Still this can be managed, I had similar with Destiny Udogie who after his first season at Spurs wanted a rise from 60k ish to 200k, he needed a rise and I told him end of season. That then fitted in with my 2 years to go renewal.

Sitting on another 2 at the moment too, both are important players for me. Last season they both asked (they both arguably were underpaid in comparison to others), and I said no as they needed to improve which they accepted, they have improved and carried it into the next season and asked again and I said end of season:

Not suggesting its perfect but their are plenty of tools we can use to push back and manage these situations.

And really sometimes players will not accept this, but as i say its a management game and sometimes clubs will have to decide to move that player on if it doesn't fit what they as a manager want to spend.

Edited October 27, 2023 by dunk105

[dunk105]

15 minutes ago, Damedius said:

Show me real world examples and there should be a lot because of how common it is in game. Player asks for new contract at beginning of the season, I give him a new contract. Then he turns around six months later and ask for a new one. Again with how common this is in game, I should be reading maybe a couple hundred stories a year about players receiving multiple new contracts in the same year with several years remaining on their existing contract.

Ive never seen your example in game.

I said clubs will sometimes renew contracts for star players with 3 years left.

Ifs its such an issue then best to post it in the bugs forum with a copy of your save game as that will show the clear issue.

[Jonthedon26]

13 minutes ago, dunk105 said:

But that player could now be an experienced / much wanted player if the contract without the salary rises was offered at 21 and they are now 23 and performing well and have made leaps in their ability.

Still this can be managed, I had similar with Destiny Udogie who after his first season at Spurs wanted a rise from 60k ish to 200k, he needed a rise and I told him end of season. That then fitted in with my 2 years to go renewal.

Sitting on another 2 at the moment too, both are important players for me. Last season they both asked (they both arguably were underpaid in comparison to others), and I said no as they needed to improve which they accepted, they have improved and carried it into the next season and asked again and I said end of season:

Not suggesting its perfect but their are plenty of tools we can use to push back and manage these situations.

And really sometimes players will not accept this, but as i say its a management game and sometimes clubs will have to decide to move that player on if it doesn't fit what they as a manager want to spend.

Out of interest did you pay him the £200k per week?

[Damedius]

3 minutes ago, dunk105 said:

Ive never seen your example in game.

I said clubs will sometimes renew contracts for star players with 3 years left.

Ifs its such an issue then best to post it in the bugs forum with a copy of your save game as that will show the clear issue.

It's been like this for years. The last time I played before FM23 was FM21. Just start a save with Hamburger SV and take them to the Bundesliga. Your whole team will want new contracts even though some have 3+ years left on their contract. Play through the entire next season in the Budesliga and there is a high probability that at least one of them will want another contract by the end of season even though they just signed one.

[SergeiG]

I hope SI experience the same thing in their own company.

Their employees sign a contract, a year later they complain about wanting a new one with huge wages or they will go moan about it to the rest of the work force and you get an unhappy company that underperform or they pay 200K to some Scott Mctominay for doing an average job.

[ben_champ]

I've encountered this issue across numerous iterations of the game (including demanding a new contract 6 months after signing a long term deal) and usually it's the frustration of constantly dealing with it that drives me away from the each year's version. I think a level that would work is if players didn't start making noise about it until half way through their contracts.

 

e.g. 1 year contract summer to summer, potentially a player hints in January he's like a new deal.

       2 year deal, a chance they ask for an enxtension after the first year

       3 years, ask with 18 months left on their deal

etc.

Think this would calm down what to me is a frustrating part of the game which does seem over the top. You never hear it about more than 1 or 2 at a team in a season IRL. But it wouldn't just eliminate something that I accept does happen in real life, just not to the level it occurs in game.

A good compromise?

 

[SPrice]

Just got promoted with Lincoln City from League 1 to Championship. All but 3 players have come requesting new contracts. These requests are for players to get 5 or 6x their current wage. I talk them down 3 or 4K a week but it’s still left me £15K over my wage budget (this is my new Championship budget). 

On top of that - they all request unreasonable playing time even though they were a fringe or squad player throughout the season. I have 2 star players (not too bad) but 10 important players. There’s absolutely no room for negotiation either as they’ll immediately kick off, reject the offer and request a transfer. 
 

If I ever reject and say it’s unreasonable, they immediately go to the squad and complain who all go up in arms because my squad harmony is full. 
 

The only realistic bit is the agents refuse to help. 
 

This is a bug in the game and making it completely unplayable. 

[SPrice]

Just to add - I’ve never had it this bad before, playing every other years title. 

[chrisnlnz]

Player interaction are unrealistic, uselessness of staff is unrealistic, ME is unrealistic, tactics creator in unrealistic, low injury rate is unrealistic, ai squad management is unrealistic, regens attributes are unrealistic, regens having more facial hair than most grown men when they are 16 is unrealistic, transfers are unrealistic. luckily the regen faces in game are realistic though! give and take right SI?

[NineCloudNine]

IRL this would be the agent calling up the DoF or a club director and whining. It wouldn’t be the player demanding a chat with the manager and the squad insisting on a showdown team meeting. But FM is not a recreation of the football world, it’s a game which tries to include elements of the sport in ways which allow the player to be involved. 
 

The easy way to avoid this is to let your DoF (or whoever you decide) handle player contracts.

Edited December 19, 2023 by NineCloudNine

[Brother Ben]

On 17/12/2023 at 19:06, chrisnlnz said:

Player interaction are unrealistic, uselessness of staff is unrealistic, ME is unrealistic, tactics creator in unrealistic, low injury rate is unrealistic, ai squad management is unrealistic, regens attributes are unrealistic, regens having more facial hair than most grown men when they are 16 is unrealistic, transfers are unrealistic. luckily the regen faces in game are realistic though! give and take right SI?

I feel like you may be questioning the realism

[Vänsterback]

One other thing to add here. Are wages actually that known within a team? I get that players that are close friends or share the same agent knows what the other one earns. But is it reasonable that a whole squad immediately learn what their new teammate gets?

[NineCloudNine]

15 hours ago, Vänsterback said:

One other thing to add here. Are wages actually that known within a team? I get that players that are close friends or share the same agent knows what the other one earns. But is it reasonable that a whole squad immediately learn what their new teammate gets?

I think this takes things too literally. IRL players do not immediately go into the changing room and tell everyone the details of their contracts, leading to a rebellion and demands for a showdown team meeting.

But this is a way for the game to represent division and underlying discontent in a changing room. Contract wrangles, cliques, jealousy and gossip are a part of football. This is not an easy thing to include in a game which is essentially a big spreadsheet with graphics.

There are lots of things like this in the game - attempts to include an element of club management which involve the player but don’t turn FM into a reality TV show. I tend to agree that this particular module is pretty clunky, but “this doesn’t literally happen IRL” isn’t a good criticism, IMHO.

[Dagenham_Dave]

On 17/12/2023 at 19:06, chrisnlnz said:

Player interaction are unrealistic, uselessness of staff is unrealistic, ME is unrealistic, tactics creator in unrealistic, low injury rate is unrealistic, ai squad management is unrealistic, regens attributes are unrealistic, regens having more facial hair than most grown men when they are 16 is unrealistic, transfers are unrealistic. luckily the regen faces in game are realistic though! give and take right SI?

You forgot to add 'my expectations' into your rant there. Here to help. 

[chrisnlnz]

1 hour ago, Dagenham_Dave said:

You forgot to add 'my expectations' into your rant there. Here to help. 

Here to help, you're the person who puts more alcohol in the fire and says im here to help. Love to meet you someday irl

[NineCloudNine]

@Dagenham_Dave and @chrisnlnz no matter how righteous your cause, no matter who is right and no matter who started it, all everyone else sees is two blokes shouting at each other in the street.

[XaW]

@NineCloudNine is bang on. Please stop it both of you.

[Tfunk]

Players begging for contracts has been a problem for years now, so much for that improved logic huh

[duccio]

Notice that you can change contract start date (if more than 1 year is remaining on the current contract) before entering the proper contract negotiations. Offer a new contract in the beginning of a season, and set the contract start date to the end of that season. The player will request a little bit higher wage, but it will probably take at least two seasons before he will begin to pester about a new deal.

Edited December 24, 2023 by duccio

[Blarney]

This issue killed a Notts County save for me.  I got back-to-back promotions and had signed a lot of the players to new contracts the 2nd season I was in charge.  By the 3rd year - a single year after a bunch of new contracts were signed - about half those players demanded new contracts and the few that I didn't capitulate to created all kinds of problems in the club.  By the time I ended up giving in on most of them we were spending more than 100k per week as a League One club and I had a couple of players on contracts worth more than 10k per week.  There was no way it was feasible and we couldn't make near enough money to support it.

[NineCloudNine]

6 minutes ago, Blarney said:

This issue killed a Notts County save for me.  I got back-to-back promotions and had signed a lot of the players to new contracts the 2nd season I was in charge.  By the 3rd year - a single year after a bunch of new contracts were signed - about half those players demanded new contracts and the few that I didn't capitulate to created all kinds of problems in the club.  By the time I ended up giving in on most of them we were spending more than 100k per week as a League One club and I had a couple of players on contracts worth more than 10k per week.  There was no way it was feasible and we couldn't make near enough money to support it.

Your club’s reputation and probably the player’s reputation went up. Reputation is used crudely in several parts of the game to trigger behaviour and decisions which in real life would be much more nuanced.

What we can’t see is some number going up gradually until it hits a threshold which triggers a demand or an unhappiness or pre-concern notification. That always feels like it has come out of the blue but in fact will have been building unseen for a while. It’s a reminder that we are playing a massive spreadsheet with graphics, not real football.

That said, while some of the details you describe might be silly, the overall picture of promoted clubs struggling with wage bills is definitely real. Do you pay wages at the level of the division you are in, or at the level of your income? This is a genuine challenge.