Squad conflicts, fines, youth development.

Squad conflicts

There can be many reasons for conflicts in your squad, and you should take them all very seriously. Looking for a speedy resolution can be more then rewarding, especially since these problems can start to affect other squad members as well. If you are having wantaway players conflicts with the more loyal personnel are guaranteed, so it will take some well thought consideration which actions to take. Other conflicts can be easier to solve. Some examples:

Tutorship conflicts. Tutoring is an essential tool to achieve or sustain the desired squad personality and to raise quality youngsters. However, occasionally it does not work as you have hoped since tutor and pupil may clash. If this results in a mutual or one-sided disliking, there are several quick solutions. If money does not matter, offer a new contract to the tutor. If the transfer period isn’t over yet, farm out the pupil on loan to another team. If it all went wrong and you cannot afford one of these solutions, think about releasing the pupil, unless you are very sure that he may be highly talented. Tutorship is essential in developing quality players, and the chances to get something out of those who reject to learn are rather slim then brilliant.

Wantaway players. Certainly the most difficult conflicts to solve, since most of those players will refuse to enter any contract talks or demand wages that are far above any reasons or wage limits. Moreover it is very likely your loyal players will clash with them and force you to offer more and more new contracts to appease all parties, which can cost you a lot of money. But the major problem is that those wanting away are rarely the worst players of your team, so you will have to make a very difficult decision at this point. Sometimes it does help to reassure those with media feedbacks stating that you want the club to progress and need those players to build something, if things get too annoying you may use sparingly the option to fine them for unprofessional behaviour. They also will suffer in morale and keep you busy with giving feedbacks and team talks to keep their form.

At most occasions I decided to keep those players at any costs, but in fact there are several serious arguments speaking against this. They may not perform again at the same level you have seen before – while there may be very good offers at the same time which will not come back if their performance starts to suffer from bad morale. At several occasions I finally managed to transform the club into something they considered to be a good place, sometimes after several years, but until then I also have been able to attract players, which have been in fact far better. So it may be worth taking the cash at many occasions and eventually reach your goals easier with a close-nit squad.

Problems to settle in the area or country. It does not really hurt too much if this happens to a squad player, but you may get concerned if this is your new young ‘next Rooney’ (or worse, after several years the first player to have higher potential then Rooney…) and a raw diamond for the future of a whole club: send him on holiday and hope it does help in the long run, give him a tutor from his country, and if nothing else helps, send him on loan. If you have scouted him well and you are sure about his potential, it should be worth the effort all the time.

Competition worries. If you do not care much about keeping those who are worrying, you can give them harsh feedbacks. If you want to keep them nevertheless, try to reassure them giving mellow feedbacks. Some say that this is stupid and players are appeased far too easy, but looking at real life clubs, it is often not that far away from reality.

Personal problems. For some reasons you hardly can ease those in the long run and the player should be allowed to move. If you have found a way how to solve these problems, please let me know.

Fines

SI introduced a new feature to handle fines easier: there is a kind of hidden advisor system only allowing you to fine a player if something has occurred that justifies handing out a fine. Additionally you are restricted to the related kind of fine, which is certainly a very good improvement and can prevent many wrong choices or accidental fines, which can seriously harm your relationship to a player. To my own surprise I noticed this way that you can fine players for flirting with other clubs in public, but I yet do have to find out if this does make any sense in the long run. I hardly can imagine it does have a good effect in the long run, at least you should restrict the penalty to one week. I was even more surprised that this fine has been accepted as well.

There have been some comments stating that you only could use a certain ‘number’ of fines before getting the sack at a club. I seriously think this is completely irrelevant for FM 07 and 08, simply because of two reasons: according to my knowledge, this only occurred in previous instalments, and even there only after a massive use (or better abuse) of fines. Additionally, I have always been using fines as described here for FM 07, and I really never had to fine frequently if following this method.

There is a reason why you can fine players. It is amazing to read all the posts “player x got five red cards a season and is banned for most of my games”.Of course it is good to have some players with aggression in your squad, but you have to keep them at bay. Usually in every season you will reach a point where the big sending off starts, and if you don’t react, it will develop into a flood. If you react, it is over before it has begun.I simply follow this route:

• 2 weeks fine for one red

• 2 weeks additional (after the player reacted) if it was violent behaviour
• 2 weeks for missing training
• 1 week if for yellow/red if I was too stupid to substitute or set down on easy tacking
• 1 week for a 5 performance of key players
• 2 weeks for a 4 performance of key players

You will notice that most professional players will accept their fines and try to improve in future. Occasionally and if you are lucky, you will receive a message from your assistant manager letting you know that your fine has led to a major improvement in your player’s attitude.
There will be some testing needed, but I am confident this approach of handing out fines will significantly reduce any trouble and hold water for FM 2008.

Youth development

It is impossible to elaborate this in detail, and this will be done in the squad management articles of the FM-Britain Tactical Bible when they are updated for FM 2008, but the old rule still is valid: tutoring comes first, mental tutoring is more important then acquiring player preferred moves, first team experience should come if they have learned enough from your available tutors. The new feature is that good youth coachs and assistants can suggest a possible tutor now, depending on their competence regarding judgement and youngsters. However, you still should verify if this is the best choice, both regarding PPMs and mentality.