[edindie]

I’m playing FM10 and am starting my 3rd season with Newcastle. We’re in the prem and I’ve not made too many changes to the original squad. However, I’ve got a lot of decent CMs including I a few I want to try to bring through (Donaldson is actually decent in this save!), all good so far.



My problem is that I don’t want Nolan and Smith any more, they’ve never played well for me and are on a lot of money. However, I have a lot of young players in the squad and no-one really with that much influence in the first 11. Should I be wary of getting rid of these two, by far and away my most influential and experienced players in the side? I think I have the youngest squad in the prem with the only first 11 players over about 23 being the keeper (25, influence 14) and Van der Vaart (signed 6 months ago, think he’s about 28 and influence 13 or so).



Normally I would be very wary of getting rid of players of this type, but neither of them have been first team for the 2 seasons I’ve played so far; Nolan plays poorly when he’s captain for the day (Stephen Taylor is the usual captain) and my ass man comments that my squad doesn’t like it when Smith is captain.



What else should I consider when making my decision? I can’t really afford to bring in another player just to add experience (unless you know of any cheapish right midfielders!).



Any thoughts, comments or suggestions are welcome!

[deacondakin]

I'm not sure how the influence of non-playing squad members works. I’m interested to know.

Even if they do not play, you could use them to tutor younger players to hopefully groom a replacement with high influence (try offering a new contract and see if they will take a wage drop). Or, you could risk selling one or both, which will free up money to bring in an influential player to replace them.

I wonder what happens if your captain gets too old to feature regularly and you want to name a new captain. Is that a bad idea? Will they recognize the need to step down?

[edindie]

I had Nolan as my captain (influence about 19, high teamwork, professional, established first teamer) for the first season and Taylor as my VC; Nolan never really played that well but played about 30 games. The second season I switched it round with the young ish Taylor (who has influence of 15, been in the squad a long time too, not the best teamwork) as my captain. Taylor played really well in season 2 and the squad vastly overperformed, although first season in the premiership always means they do better than they should (due to never getting complacent perhaps?).

So it seems that Taylor is the better captain despite most things pointing towards Nolan being so.

Anyway, I decided to get rid of Nolan as he doesn’t really offer anything as a player that other squad members don’t have whereas Smith can be an (ineffective) bulldog in midfield. Nolan’s off on a year long loan for effectively 100% of his wages. It will be interesting to see how we perform in the second season in the prem. I’m hoping for top half, although I’ve been given the minimum target of Europe!

I tried offering Smith and Nolan a new contract but interestingly neither would accept anything less than what the other was on. There’s a other players at Newcastle on a lot more than them and they’re not friends so I’m not sure why they’ve stated this. Interesting that they have though! I wonder if Smith will accept a lower contract now Nolan’s off on loan…?

[deacondakin]

Just out of curiousity, does anyone know how players in your squads effect others if they are not first team regulars? I know they can tutor players, but do they help the team as a whole in training or are they just an old player taking up wage budget?