I am speaking from the viewpoint of a European competition team (UCL/UEL/UECL) but it can be applied for domestic competitions.
Given the format of the new European competitions, there are a lot of qualifiers during the summer transfer window. This means that there is a lot of movement of players between clubs and a lot more competition squad registration deadlines for these qualifiers. Additionally, leagues around the world have differing start dates.
I request that after:
A) It's confirmed that the user's team has qualified for the next round/ A league match is on the calendar within 7-10 days And;
B) A contract offer is under consideration by a player and their agent from the club in question (meaning contract terms discussions are already done)
That the Manager of the team can request that a contract decision date be set around the competition squad registration deadlines.
My idea of this is that it is a discussion with the agent where you can approach and request that a decision deadline be set.
The manager could also state why the contract decision date is being requested e.g for an important league path round or a big game coming up.
Reactions to conversation can be based around:
A) Transfer willingness
A Player extremely interested in moving to the team is more willing to accept the contract deadline vs a player who is dubious who would not appreciate this request.
B) Player / Agent relationship
More centred around agents, or even players if there is a prior relationship. An agent who has a friendlier attitude with the manager is more willing to table this with their player compared to one who doesn't like the manager. This could add depth/ importance to agent relationships mechanic in game.
C) Player hidden attributes
A bit of a long shot here. Since moving clubs usually is a major decision for most players worldwide, players with higher pressure attributes would be more willing to entertain this discussion versus a player with lower pressure attributes who would negatively react to being given deadlines for such a major decision.
When this discussion happens, it could work in two ways:
A) After discussion, the player/agent will come back after 24hrs with an inbox message saying they accept/ reject the decision deadline and then the contract decision comes in on the set date if accepted. If rejected then contract decision time will be as normal.
B) Depending on discussion reactions, no accept/ reject message is sent but instead on the stated contract deadline they either come with contract acceptance/rejected inbox message or an inbox message stating ( The player has decided to take more time considering the offer due to 'xx' reasons.)
Reasons I came up with for contract deadline to be refused by player/agent:
A) Player is considering many contract offers.
B) Player is not fully convinced about the country Standard of Living
C) Player is unsure about Standard of League
D) Player is unsure about standard of team.
E) any other mechanic that escaped my mind etc.
It was in my head that offering increased promises e.g more playing time, set piece taker etc. could encourage the player more to accept the deadline. If not this; then when giving the reason the contract decision deadline date is made a new promise is created ( in this instance for a UEL League Path round 3 game): Player has been promised they will play in the UEL League Path round 3 game. Can also apply to a domestic cup competition that is early in the season.
During the discussion, the contract decision deadline can only be set within 72hrs of the Competition registration deadline, and negotiation takes place to be pushed to either 48hrs or 24hrs before competition squad registration date.
Finally: SI Games can decide whether accepting the contract deadline affects players decision on accepting the contract itself. For me it makes sense that bad reactions from discussion would lower chance of them accepting the contract on offer. (This would limit players taking advantage of this request thus adding to balance)
This could also lead to outgoing players being made to also have a contract decision deadline because of incoming transfers whose finances are affected by that outgoing player. This is an entirely different can of worms.
I wanted to include a discussion pathway but i decided my post is long enough and that could cone further down the line.
I brought this up because an overseas star player took their sweet time on a contract and missed both the European and Domestic League deadline dates.
I hope this can be discussed fruitfully and if this is not realistic, I'm happy to concede.
If this already exists, I guess we live to learn.
Signed,
Kiagoalski.
To make this clear, here is the pathway of the screen I am talking about: Squad Planner > Report > Comparison. Since this compares the attribute average of the squad compared to the rest of the league, let us select an individual player that we would be interested into comparing with the rest of the league. I ask for this because: 1) Currently we can only filter between goalkeepers, defenders, midfielders and attackers. Given the specificity of roles in football this is too wide a scope. 2) Makes it easier to do a direct comparison of a player and the rest of the league rather than trying to memorise their attributes. 3) Makes it easier to focus on attributes that are relevant for the role the player has in the team. 4) Football Manager may include a player who the manager considers a midfielder as a defender and it would skew the data and misrepresent the squad quality. 5) Makes it easier to compare the quality against league average of a squad player vs an important player for the team. Signed, Kiagoalski.