Logan's Run Squad Policy?

[CaptCanuck]

Maybe not 30yr olds (film reference in the title), but apropos of nothing I was wondering if folks had any policies/rules - loose or strict - for managing your squads in relation to player retention, contracts, age and the like? Any best practices for managing the player pipeline? Maybe out of necessity if you're a develop and sell club, because you like bringing new players through, or you try and maintain some kind of salary structure.

I'm 7 seasons in and barring the keeper and some of my original players, I'm finding that I am pretty happy to sell a player once they hit the magical age of 25. It's largely for two reasons: to keep the wages down and to let shiny new 20yr olds replace slightly less shiny 25yr olds. I also have a couple excellent scouts that find me the occasional class Brazilian or elsewhere in South America, that you can get in on a decent wage, re-up for proper money, but then move on before their 3rd and priciest yet contract, which really helps with the turnover. And generally speaking I think I'm doing pretty good bringing quality young players in and still winning things.

The one downside is not having a one club man who is there for 12 years or so. Seems about 6-7yrs is my max. I've been renewing 18 months out typically, say Dec '26 for a contract expiring in June '28, but if I wanted to try and hold onto players till 27/28, are there any patterns I should look at in redoing contracts?

[Sherkey]

For me, it depends. I tend to send my players out on loan until they're about 22-23 (in most scenarios) so that they also get regular game-time. When they're back in the squad, I sell the incumbents for good money and plug in the younger players. I try to have a wage limit of around 400k $ p/w for my highest paid stars. I find the bigger problem to be game time, as players start expecting to start a lot more, so managing that becomes a pain sometimes.

Generally tend to sell players around the age of 27-29, as after that, they tend to decline slightly. There are a few exceptions, but mostly, this tends to be the scenario. The exceptions tend to be players who I cannot replace easily (Trequaristas and the like). I also tend to give out higher loyalty bonuses in lieu of a lesser wage. Part of the reason why I'll most likely not get Mbappe, as he is on 1 Mn $ a week (I could afford him, I think, but I hate breaking the wage structure).

Edited September 16, 2020 by Sherkey

[CaptCanuck]

10 hours ago, Sherkey said:

For me, it depends. I tend to send my players out on loan until they're about 22-23 (in most scenarios) so that they also get regular game-time. When they're back in the squad, I sell the incumbents for good money and plug in the younger players. I try to have a wage limit of around 400k $ p/w for my highest paid stars. I find the bigger problem to be game time, as players start expecting to start a lot more, so managing that becomes a pain sometimes.

Generally tend to sell players around the age of 27-29, as after that, they tend to decline slightly. There are a few exceptions, but mostly, this tends to be the scenario. The exceptions tend to be players who I cannot replace easily (Trequaristas and the like). I also tend to give out higher loyalty bonuses in lieu of a lesser wage. Part of the reason why I'll most likely not get Mbappe, as he is on 1 Mn $ a week (I could afford him, I think, but I hate breaking the wage structure).

What kind of ratio do you have with the bonus to weekly salary? IIRC for a 100k/week player I think I'm giving them around a 3mil bonus. I'd have to check later to be sure, but if that could be used to mitigate the weekly (I know it's all coming out of my budget in the end, but still), I could look to push my sell-player-age up to 27 instead of 25.

[Sherkey]

2 hours ago, CaptCanuck said:

What kind of ratio do you have with the bonus to weekly salary? IIRC for a 100k/week player I think I'm giving them around a 3mil bonus. I'd have to check later to be sure, but if that could be used to mitigate the weekly (I know it's all coming out of my budget in the end, but still), I could look to push my sell-player-age up to 27 instead of 25.

I don't really have one, but for me, my bonus tends to vary basis the wage I want the player to accept. So, depending on the demands, for a player on 70-100k a week, I might have about 4-5 Mn as bonus, if I was able to reduce on his base wage.