Frequency of players wanting improved contracts

[04texag]

I have a team of 22-24 year olds who are all high potential players. They all keep wanting every year to get new improved contracts. I'll have them sign new five year deals and they are all making first division talent or star level money, but they still will want more.

Does anyone have any advice, am I not structure the deals well enough? Are there any tips to minimize this occuring?

[Lamias]

That's occurring to me as well. Most of my team is 22-25 years old, and every year they want a new contract. I too made them sign for 5 years and gave them good salary and bonuses, but they still want new contracts "to reflect their abilities". Their contracts already do that. 

 

It's a bit irrational IMO. I understand that if you get better, you deserve a better contract. But this can't happen every year. Which team renews each player's contracts on a yearly basis? They would all go out of business.

 

Any tips would be welcomed.

[parsdaft1982]

I always tell them "there is plenty time remaining, so there will  be no contract offer". Always seems to work for me.

[04texag]

3 hours ago, parsdaft1982 said:

I always tell them "there is plenty time remaining, so there will  be no contract offer". Always seems to work for me.

Do they accept this? I'm always afraid of making them mad....i'm a doormat

[CFuller]

3 hours ago, parsdaft1982 said:

I always tell them "there is plenty time remaining, so there will  be no contract offer". Always seems to work for me.

I tried this on a couple of occasions, when two recent signings requested new contracts after a little over half a season. On both occasions, they came back and said, "It's about my wages, not my contract length."

To be fair, one of those players had been signed on a very low salary from Colombia (€9,000 per week in Serie A) and quickly became a regular, so I gave him a new contract that trebled his pay. The other one was more reasonably paid, so I stood my ground with him for a bit longer, eventually relenting when he started 'asking to leave'.

Since then, I've not had any problems with players asking for new deals shortly after signing their current contracts. Players do develop pre-concerns about wanting new contracts, but they don't actually go as far as defending new deals. I find that if the dressing room atmosphere is good, and you have strong relationships with the players, they will often back down when you speak to them about those concerns.

[santy001]

Anecdotally I've found this is enormously influenced by my own behaviour.

If you establish a trend of negotiating much lower than demands, and refusing to negotiate outside of times set by yourself (end of the season or not now) you will find a lot will fall into line after a couple of years. There are definite risks to this, unsettling morale and other issues so you have to pick your battles in some regards but it can be worthwhile. You need to be willing to sell and replace though, because you are deciding that nothing is more important than the team you want to build at that point.

The flip side is it's a lot easier to keep on top of morale, but it does seem to snowball that players keep wanting more new contracts and more players want them. It's generally a lot more harmonious though, and if the club can afford it - why not? 

[FrazT]

I also have found that as the save develops, telling the player that they have plenty of time left on their deal will almost always work.  I never give in and in the long term will build up your reputation.

I really also wish there was an option in the player's contract page to propose a wage reduction based on their performance in the last game, given how often they ask for a rise when they do play well.

[parsdaft1982]

13 hours ago, 04texag said:

Do they accept this? I'm always afraid of making them mad....i'm a doormat

Most of the time it works, on the very rare occasion, they ask to leave and I let them. I dont give in to player power lol

[Lamias]

For me it's 60-40.

 

Out of the 5 players that want a new contract, 2 of them didn't accept the "plenty of time" response and told me it's about their wages. Now they want to leave.

[turnip]

I've got a few players who have been at the 'wants a new contract' phase for a couple of years. Every so often, my Captain/Vice-Captain comes to me and lets me know they're getting antsy. I pop in and ask "What's up?" and the player's all "Naw, it's cool boss, just seeing your face makes me feel happy". 

Honestly, it feels too easy from here (he says, not complaining in the slightest).

The only issue has been when I've wanted to send one of those players out on loan, which they won't agree to until they get a new contract.

[bar333]

Contracts in general are the most ridiculous and worst they've ever been in FM.

First of all the frequency as you say is utterly absurd. They're not worth the paper they're written on, players don't have a shred of respect towards the contract they agreed to. FM19 is a world where players basically expect to sign a 5 year deal and within 2 years their wage will be tripled or quadrupled from their starting wage having renewed every year at the very least.

Then there's the negotiations, and agents just feel less patient than ever. The first thing I'd love to know is who exactly came up with the concept of an agent not revealing his demands? When you couple it with the insane impatience of agents you get ludicrous scenarios repeatedly. Am I seriously expected to believe that clubs sit down with a player and his agent to discuss a new contract and the interaction looks like this -

Agent: Not telling you what we want, not even a ballpark. Make me an offer and I damn better like it.

Club: Erm... okay. How about 50k per week?

Agent: I hate your offer so much I'm not even willing to negotiate. Here's my offer, make one tiny change to it and we walk.

It's just far too common seemingly for me to trigger the nonsensical "Your offer is too far for me to negotiate", like who does this? Are we children at a playground? People walking out of negotiations... what, out of spite? 

I've just taken to saving the game before every contract negotiation, every time I take a chance and don't do it I instantly regret it and remember why I laid down this rule for myself. Save, see what numbers he actually wants, then reload and make a closer offer so he doesn't walk away immediately.

 

[Piperita]

For my 2nd league team it actually worked almost perfectly.

I had three rules:

• Almost all players play according to their squad status
• At the end of the summer window I am at 0 transfer money and close to my wage limit
• A balanced squad with good dynamics

Until I secured promotion, two players asked for more: An ambitious Rotation player who turned into a Key Player. And my captain with 16 months left who was coveted by a Bundesliga team. 

Otherwise nothing. The players played and stayed silent. But once I clinched promotion and had five million more budget, they all wanted their reward for the season.

In my opinion that was the perfect season in that regard: Players came forwards with reasons: Ambition, better status, alternatives, influx of money. I am seeing how it will work a league up. I guess my holdouts will ask soon as they earn far less than the median now. But otherwise I have hope my approach will work again! 

[Lamias]

7 hours ago, bar333 said:

Contracts in general are the most ridiculous and worst they've ever been in FM.

First of all the frequency as you say is utterly absurd. They're not worth the paper they're written on, players don't have a shred of respect towards the contract they agreed to. FM19 is a world where players basically expect to sign a 5 year deal and within 2 years their wage will be tripled or quadrupled from their starting wage having renewed every year at the very least.

Then there's the negotiations, and agents just feel less patient than ever. The first thing I'd love to know is who exactly came up with the concept of an agent not revealing his demands? When you couple it with the insane impatience of agents you get ludicrous scenarios repeatedly. Am I seriously expected to believe that clubs sit down with a player and his agent to discuss a new contract and the interaction looks like this -

Agent: Not telling you what we want, not even a ballpark. Make me an offer and I damn better like it.

Club: Erm... okay. How about 50k per week?

Agent: I hate your offer so much I'm not even willing to negotiate. Here's my offer, make one tiny change to it and we walk.

It's just far too common seemingly for me to trigger the nonsensical "Your offer is too far for me to negotiate", like who does this? Are we children at a playground? People walking out of negotiations... what, out of spite? 

I've just taken to saving the game before every contract negotiation, every time I take a chance and don't do it I instantly regret it and remember why I laid down this rule for myself. Save, see what numbers he actually wants, then reload and make a closer offer so he doesn't walk away immediately.

 

 

I completely agree with all that you say. I do not understand this feature at all and I save before contract negotiations as well...

[Heywood JaBlowme]

Changelist 19.2.0

- Changes to situations when player would demand new contract

 

This is supposed to be save game compatible but there has been no change whatsoever. Has anyone started a new save to see if it's working?

[BadanieLuck]

It's completely over the top. I have players who just joined and asking for contracts 2(!) games into the season, followed by 3-4 players over the next couple of weeks. Some of them just got a significant raise. Almost half of the squad has 'Feels like he deserves a new contract' as a pre-concern, although most of them are on good long term contracts.

Am 25.12.2018 um 01:41 schrieb bar333:

The first thing I'd love to know is who exactly came up with the concept of an agent not revealing his demands? When you couple it with the insane impatience of agents you get ludicrous scenarios repeatedly.

This! Asking the AssMan to suggest a contract is almost pointless as his offers are very poor and always result in agents getting pissed off immediately.

In general AI lack common sense badly.

[04texag]

Seems like a lot are having issues similar to mine. Any thoughts or feedback from SI?

[Enos]

This happens to me all the time.  Even with players who just got a new contract within a year.  Needs to be tweaked.