Football Manager 2013

I've tried grooming replacements, but they just whine constantly about not getting first team football and ask to be put on transfer and then ask to be taken off a week later.

When you sign them are you signing them as a "promising your player" or "rotation" or "backup" or whatever? If you sign them with a "first team" or anything like that in his contract, he will complain for sure, if he doesn't get 1st team action.

All the replacements I am grooming are young and out on loan, in my reserves, or warm my benches. They never complain because I have them set to "promising young player" or "backup" or whatever

I try to sign them as that but they usually refuse. Even that bloody 17 year old whom I just ended trading away. Arrogant prick.

If you sign someone promising them first team action, they will complain when they don't get it. Maybe the players you are signing as "future first team members" are too good - if they are demanding first team action as a part of the contract.

You could try sending them out on loan though - if there is a promise of first team football instead of a just a cover role. That might make them happy enough.

Yeah putting them on loan seems to be working, as long as I can find a good club for them. I have a few of my best players who are 30 and I'm trying to get some young replacements for them.

Make sure to only accept loans that promise first team action, not "first team cover". I would also pay attention to the "ability to call back from loan" clause, but if they're so young they can't compete for a first team place, you might as well ignore it. Then again, there could be an emergency..

For a person who's new to soccer, what ages are players in their "prime" so to speak?

About 27-28 for outfield players.. 26-29?

A year or two more for centrebacks.. I would say in the modern game fullbacks should be lumped in the first range

Goalies, hard to say, but a couple years more than centrebacks still.

Those are of course all broad estimates, real life, and not FM.. not that I think that FM has different ranges, but..

warpus said:

About 27-28 for outfield players.. 26-29?.

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28-31 I would say is most players prime...although they still have good value until 33/34 depending on your tactics (not $$$, but in terms of performances). Goalies you can keep playing with them not getting much worse until 37 or so, but 34 is probably their last year in their best form.

Every player is different though, I wouldn't get rid of them purely based on their age unless you notice they play worse, availability of younger/better players can change a lot in a year, although once you get through 5 years or so you shouldn't have a problem with having the money to buy replacements, assuming top level leagues there.

Of course I end up buying all the good young players and play them week in week out, and consider a player at 28 old enough to be sold (even if hes my best player in that position), so bear that in mind.

Sometimes the AI makes bizarre choices for new managers. Aberdeen hired the former manager of Inverness CT. He had just been fired by Inverness CT because they got relegated. He lasted from June until November as manager of Aberdeen before being fired.

Mat93 said:

28-31 I would say is most players prime...although they still have good value until 33/34 depending on your tactics (not $$$, but in terms of performances). Goalies you can keep playing with them not getting much worse until 37 or so, but 34 is probably their last year in their best form.

Every player is different though, I wouldn't get rid of them purely based on their age unless you notice they play worse, availability of younger/better players can change a lot in a year, although once you get through 5 years or so you shouldn't have a problem with having the money to buy replacements, assuming top level leagues there.

Of course I end up buying all the good young players and play them week in week out, and consider a player at 28 old enough to be sold (even if hes my best player in that position), so bear that in mind.

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Yeah, the ranges are a bit different in FM.. Mine were real world estimates. I have a very young team and prefer younger players over old. Younger players are a bit overpowered in the game, or at least can be. You can totally take the Premier League by storm with a group of 19/20/21 year olds, if you play your cards right. That would never happen in real life.

Maniacal said:

Sometimes the AI makes bizarre choices for new managers. Aberdeen hired the former manager of Inverness CT. He had just been fired by Inverness CT because they got relegated. He lasted from June until November as manager of Aberdeen before being fired.

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The sometimes head-scratching random things that happen in the game make it a bit more interesting.. IMO.. You never know what to expect

Just finished my 1st season with AS Roma. I made no signings in the summer but picked up Arshavin on a loan in January and a young CB from Brazil "the next Thiago Silva". I've got Destro joining officially in the summer (his contract had run down). I managed to finish 2nd, satisfying the board and getting a champions league place despite De Rossi my star player being out for about 5 months cumulative injuries! I hoped I would get a ton of money for my transfer budget like 10m or maybe even more but i got 1.1m . This is a tricky but very fun game...

Since there was a bit of FM chat in the other thread I thought I would bump this...

I've been playing FM2014 quite a bit lately and am curious whether other teams will offer me a job as manager or if I would have to declare an interest first? I'm in my fifth season and have taken Lincoln City into League 1 so would have thought some other clubs would be interested.

Did see a reasonably odd manager move where someone moved from MK Dons (1st in league 1) to Blackburn (20th in league 1). It does sort of make sense as Blackburn should have better long term chance of getting into the Premiership.

In terms of other teams, Chelsea have won practically everything whilst this season Manchester United are in the relegation zone. Curious who tends to win in other people's games.

Aston Villa was dominating English football for 5+ years in my mega game, but that was in the 2020s. Chelsea never do well for me in FM2012, they always end up as a mid-table team or slightly better.

Ok, so another question. I am a manager for a Chinese First Division Team (1 1/2 Stars), and my team could potentially be looking at promotion to the Super League (2 or 2 1/2 I think). It's the middle of the season, however, I could jump ship now to a larger and current Super League team.

Is it better for me to finish out the season with my current team, or should I just jump ship now? Is there any negativity of leaving a team during their season that could haunt me later?

Dell19 said:

In terms of other teams, Chelsea have won practically everything whilst this season Manchester United are in the relegation zone. Curious who tends to win in other people's games.

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In my Dynamo Kiev game Wayne Rooney ended up joining Stoke City at age 29 where he goes on to fail to score for 12 hours of competitive football.
Most of my games are fairly ordinary. Usually one of the big teams like Chelsea or Arsenal will fall out of the top four into the top seven.

Spurs tend to do very well because the game highly rates some of their players like Eriksen, Holtby, Lamela, Soldado even if they haven't all cut the mustard in real life. I saw Tim Sherwood win the league a few times.

<nuke> said:

Ok, so another question. I am a manager for a Chinese First Division Team (1 1/2 Stars), and my team could potentially be looking at promotion to the Super League (2 or 2 1/2 I think). It's the middle of the season, however, I could jump ship now to a larger and current Super League team.

Is it better for me to finish out the season with my current team, or should I just jump ship now? Is there any negativity of leaving a team during their season that could haunt me later?

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I rarely play games where I move clubs. I always stick with one team till I get bored with it.

However, in my experience moving to a different club won't harm your image in the future. It is up to you - do you want to get to the Super League by honest graft with your current team...or take the path of least resistance and join a top club? I prefer the slog.

Dell19 said:

In terms of other teams, Chelsea have won practically everything whilst this season Manchester United are in the relegation zone. Curious who tends to win in other people's games.

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The strangest non-human-related result (no human coaches, no players developed by humans involved) I saw was in a long lower league game I did. Argentina won four World Cups in a row. Then they lost the final in 2030 to that classic powerhouse, Wales.

I guess the longer the game goes on the weirder the results are likely to be. United did escape relegation in the end whilst Spurs won the league which follows what a few other people have said.

Played another season and got my first interview offer. It was for Oxford who did finish above me in the league but our squads at the time were very similar. I'm still in League 1 but have 6 players rated as good championship level players.

Like someone mentioned earlier in the thread, young players seem to be over powered. I think part of the issue is that young players gain performance too easily. The AI seems to rarely go after free agents which makes playing the transfer market a little too easy sometimes. In the off season I sold a defender for 1.7 million who wasn't willing to a sign a new contract, then just before the season started I was able to sign an even better defender on a free transfer (I already had a good replacement so sold a second defender for 500k).

The most amusing transfer was selling Nicolas Brooks for 1.1 million as a 17 year old to Burnley whilst in League 2, loaning him back for that season, then a couple of seasons later loaning him again when in League 1 and then signing him basically for free at the end of that season.

i've completed my first season at benfica and i won the league and the taca de portugal. my team easily scored the most goals behind the fearsome threesome of oscar cardozo (st), lazar markovic (amc), and nicolas gaitan (aml?)

it's a lot of fun. i'm picking up some high-upside south americans (eder alvarez balanta) while selling maxi perreira (old) and ezequiel garay (25 million).