Players being unsettled

[BrianMunich]

Managing as Everton and having big problems with a few players being unsettled. 

I have Tom Davies signed until 2023, but rejected bids from Man City in summer of 2019. Now I am at January 2020, no club has come in since, but his morale is still abysmal and still pissy that his move was blocked. He was progressing at an amazing rate last season, and whilst his stats are improving in training, his performances are not where they should be. 

I noticed this first couple of games, and then removed him from squad to u23 team until a few games ago. 

I also have Real Madrid in for Moussa Dembele. He is contracted until 2024, and has been my star for last 18 months, top scorer in the league, and one of the highest performers too, but since I rejected any move his performances have been awful.

I am top of the table and should win the league for 19/20, and targetting Champions League next year too. I want to involve these guys as they are potentially two of my key players, but cant afford too if their morale is shot, and always showing frustration in games.

I wont sell them, they dont have release fees, so unless their valuations are met, they can rot in reserves until they get over the fact I am rejecting bids.

How do others go about this situation? How long will it take for them to change stance? Surely winning games, and involving in the squad should boost their mood. 

I really think there should be a ability to talk to the player to appease the situation after a few weeks/months. Tom Davies is a proffesional personality,but still acting like a ...... 7 months down the line.

[22764636]

I have the same problem in my save... my players always want to move to bigger clubs and this is down to the reputation which is low to some other clubs (read City, Barcelona, Real Madrid, etc.) despite the european wins. I have had players with very low morale for almost 1 year before their morale went up again but just because the teams involved weren't interested in them anymore. In this season I had another player unhappy because he wanted to leave, after 5 months he dismissed his unhappiness and few days after started again because wanted to move to Barcelona and he is not even in my starting XI all the times. Moving forward I will start selling these players when and if acceptable bids will come in and will invest the money in other players.

if they say they want to move because they could get a much higher salary elsewhere I ask myself whether they are worth an increase or not and in the conversation I tell them to talk about how much money he wants and then go to offer a new contract otherwise I tell them that if an offer comes in of an acceptable value I'll let him go.

In your case, since they are 2 key players I will keep using them and eventually they will either improve in their performances or settle down and as a consequence their performances will improve... for me it's a win win

[MrPompey]

Yes as above like many players dreams of a bigger club and bigger wages can unsettle them for a while. Regular football in a successful side can turn him around...patience is the key, maybe a few months

IRL look at Costa doing a runner, will be interesting to see how Sanchez at Arsenal and Courtinho at Liverpool fair given neither got the move they wanted. Ultimately players need to be playing well to be wanted so in FM and IRL thats the key if they want to remain a good purchase option if indeed they still want to get sold

[BrianMunich]

Dembele dropped his problems quite quickly, but once Real Madrid unsettled him his form took a nose dive for some reason. His morale was abysmal for a few weeks, but soon raised once he was played - but barely scored, something like 20 in 30 games before, and 5 in 20 after. 

May have found a trick, got to a summer transfer window, and Tom Davies was still unhappy about a move blocked nearly 12 months ago. He'd played around 10 games the season before, and managed to get a England call up for the Euro's. I got a inbox saying Madrid were interested once again, so offered him up for loan. Sent him to Galatasary for a couple of days before recalling him, then as soon as he got back he dropped his problems finally. So much so he's now willing to enter contract talks! 

So that's amazing what a couple of days thinking time in Istanbul can do!    

[santy001]

I've found playing them through their unhappiness is just generally the best way. I tend to load contracts up with optional extensions, and final year appearances once players are on the limit of what I feel comfortable paying them. It means a 1 year contract can potentially be a 5 year, and a 5 year can potentially be a 9 year contract. I usually go for a 3 year + 2 year option on most players I sign past 25, but different contracts work for different players. 

While you could for example keep a 17 year old tied down to a 9 year deal on like 20-30k a week, you'd be running the risk of him being unhappy and leaving in his prime which would be a waste.

[Guest]

16 hours ago, BrianMunich said:

Dembele dropped his problems quite quickly, but once Real Madrid unsettled him his form took a nose dive for some reason. His morale was abysmal for a few weeks, but soon raised once he was played - but barely scored, something like 20 in 30 games before, and 5 in 20 after. 

May have found a trick, got to a summer transfer window, and Tom Davies was still unhappy about a move blocked nearly 12 months ago. He'd played around 10 games the season before, and managed to get a England call up for the Euro's. I got a inbox saying Madrid were interested once again, so offered him up for loan. Sent him to Galatasary for a couple of days before recalling him, then as soon as he got back he dropped his problems finally. So much so he's now willing to enter contract talks! 

So that's amazing what a couple of days thinking time in Istanbul can do!    

Interesting exploit, hopefully SI will plug that one.

[Alekos]

This is an issue since previous versions of the game as well and still is not fixed..

In my save I took Wolves while they were relegated to League 1..Two players were unhappy because of relegation..I won the league and promotion to championship still there were unhappy because of the last years relegation.

I won promotion to Premier along with championship title(2 titles in a row) still those guys unhappy because the team was relegated two years ago...Their contracts were expiring, tried to renew, they kept rejecting and they went on free transfers...Total unreal..

Forgot to mention that those players were always at my starting eleven...Seemed that the relegation was too hard for them to forget no matter that we were at the Premier... 

[DarkSleeper]

4 hours ago, Alekos said:

.Seemed that the relegation was too hard for them to forget no matter that we were at the Premier... 

That stuff scars u for life...

[bluearmy19]

Players being unsettled is a big problem, I am in my second season at Chelsea, and Willian is unsettled as PSG came in for him and he wanted to leave 'as they offer high wages', I could easily solve the problem by giving him a new contract, but it's a matter of principle and I don't want to give out a contract that's not earned, and simply because a club came in for him... so anyway, I benched him and didn't select him for a few games, morale was p1ss poor.. a few games down the line I started to bring him on as a sub and while the morale improves in-game, as soon as it's done it's right back down to Very Poor. Now for the actual problem, I had enough of it so I put him in the reserves, as soon as I do it, he's at my door demanding to know why.. and all the responses are just plain dumb and useless. I can't tell him to improve his attitude and morale otherwise he's not getting a sniff, responses are only saying that his performances have not been good enough, or he has to earn his place in the team.. all of which are rubbish and make the scenario even worse...

[XaW]

While I agree this is an annoying situation, it's still a very valid way modern football actually is. As has been noted above, Coutinho, Costa, Van Dijk and others have gone to a more or less strike to get their move. This is a situation just about every club in the world might face, just look at Neymar this summer who would (probably) have done the same to Barcelona if PSG hadn't payed his ridiculous clause.

I do think we as managers should have more options available to us when interacting with players who are being unsettled though. We have gotten the discussion about a "fair price" where you can promise the player you will sell him for a set amount should the bid come, though in my opinion the players are a bit too steadfast in regards to their own price. I would like a couple more possibilities to be presented for us in this regard, though the most annoying thing is when actual bidding starts. The following is how one of these went for me:

Day 1 morning: AI club bid £10M, I reject it
Day 2 morning: AI club bid £10M, I reject it.
Day 2 evening: AI club bid £10M, I negotiate it to £50M because I really don't want to sell unless it's silly money
Day 4 morning: AI club withdraw their bid.
Day 6 evening: AI club bid £10M again, I negotiate it to £50M because I really don't want to sell unless it's silly money.
Day 7 morning: AI club withdraw their bid.

Repeat the same for the rest of the transfer window, including 5 times on deadline day. I was going to report this in the bug forum, but there were several bug reports regarding the same already so I just let it go. Now, I don't mind the club having another go after I reject or negotate, but I think that realistically if I have rejected/negotiated a bid of £10M several times the AI should either increase their bid OR leave the player be. Or try to entice the player even more so the player press the club to accept it. At least not give the same bid tens of times in a short timeframe when the rejection is as clear as it is.

[HUNT3R]

1 minute ago, XaW said:

While I agree this is an annoying situation, it's still a very valid way modern football actually is. As has been noted above, Coutinho, Costa, Van Dijk and others have gone to a more or less strike to get their move. This is a situation just about every club in the world might face, just look at Neymar this summer who would (probably) have done the same to Barcelona if PSG hadn't payed his ridiculous clause.

I do think we as managers should have more options available to us when interacting with players who are being unsettled though. We have gotten the discussion about a "fair price" where you can promise the player you will sell him for a set amount should the bid come, though in my opinion the players are a bit too steadfast in regards to their own price. I would like a couple more possibilities to be presented for us in this regard, though the most annoying thing is when actual bidding starts. The following is how one of these went for me:

Day 1 morning: AI club bid £10M, I reject it
Day 2 morning: AI club bid £10M, I reject it.
Day 2 evening: AI club bid £10M, I negotiate it to £50M because I really don't want to sell unless it's silly money
Day 4 morning: AI club withdraw their bid.
Day 6 evening: AI club bid £10M again, I negotiate it to £50M because I really don't want to sell unless it's silly money.
Day 7 morning: AI club withdraw their bid.

Repeat the same for the rest of the transfer window, including 5 times on deadline day. I was going to report this in the bug forum, but there were several bug reports regarding the same already so I just let it go. Now, I don't mind the club having another go after I reject or negotate, but I think that realistically if I have rejected/negotiated a bid of £10M several times the AI should either increase their bid OR leave the player be. Or try to entice the player even more so the player press the club to accept it. At least not give the same bid tens of times in a short timeframe when the rejection is as clear as it is.

Did you give reasons for rejecting?

[XaW]

1 minute ago, HUNT3R said:

Did you give reasons for rejecting?

Yep, "The bid is too low for our valuation", or something along those lines.

[HUNT3R]

1 minute ago, XaW said:

Yep, "The bid is too low for our valuation", or something along those lines.

I'm guessing it's "The offer isn't good enough"? To clarify, I'm talking about giving the other teams a reason for rejecting, since that was your issue.

[XaW]

Just now, HUNT3R said:

I'm guessing it's "The offer isn't good enough"?

Ah, yes, that would be the one. I don't have the game open at the moment.

[bluearmy19]

3 hours ago, XaW said:

While I agree this is an annoying situation, it's still a very valid way modern football actually is. As has been noted above, Coutinho, Costa, Van Dijk and others have gone to a more or less strike to get their move. This is a situation just about every club in the world might face, just look at Neymar this summer who would (probably) have done the same to Barcelona if PSG hadn't payed his ridiculous clause.

I do think we as managers should have more options available to us when interacting with players who are being unsettled though. We have gotten the discussion about a "fair price" where you can promise the player you will sell him for a set amount should the bid come, though in my opinion the players are a bit too steadfast in regards to their own price. I would like a couple more possibilities to be presented for us in this regard, though the most annoying thing is when actual bidding starts. The following is how one of these went for me:

Day 1 morning: AI club bid £10M, I reject it
Day 2 morning: AI club bid £10M, I reject it.
Day 2 evening: AI club bid £10M, I negotiate it to £50M because I really don't want to sell unless it's silly money
Day 4 morning: AI club withdraw their bid.
Day 6 evening: AI club bid £10M again, I negotiate it to £50M because I really don't want to sell unless it's silly money.
Day 7 morning: AI club withdraw their bid.

Repeat the same for the rest of the transfer window, including 5 times on deadline day. I was going to report this in the bug forum, but there were several bug reports regarding the same already so I just let it go. Now, I don't mind the club having another go after I reject or negotate, but I think that realistically if I have rejected/negotiated a bid of £10M several times the AI should either increase their bid OR leave the player be. Or try to entice the player even more so the player press the club to accept it. At least not give the same bid tens of times in a short timeframe when the rejection is as clear as it is.

When a player signed a contract, he lost the right to have a say in what price the club accepts, in my case a few posts above, Willian wanted to leave for PSG coz of higher wages, and came to me to talk about it. I said if they bid £55 mil he's free to leave, but obviously he thought that valuation was unfair and wanted it lowered to about £44 mil, I wasn't having any of it and he became unhappy with very poor morale. You can see by the difference of just 25% that I wasn't being unreasonable. Anyway afterwards, I dropped him to the reserves because his performances fell off a cliff, and he was unhappy all the time with very poor morale. Then he comes to my door demanding to know why I dropped him, the list of responses given to me were laughable, not one addressing the problems he's been causing for the weeks leading up to the incident.

[HUNT3R]

1 minute ago, bluearmy19 said:

When a player signed a contract, he lost the right to have a say in what price the club accepts, in my case a few posts above, Willian wanted to leave for PSG coz of higher wages, and came to me to talk about it. I said if they bid £55 mil he's free to leave, but obviously he thought that valuation was unfair and wanted it lowered to about £44 mil, I wasn't having any of it and he became unhappy with very poor morale. You can see by the difference of just 25% that I wasn't being unreasonable.

We can't know this with what you provided. But again, you're the manager - if you don't want to sell - don't.

[bluearmy19]

On 9/19/2017 at 19:58, HUNT3R said:

We can't know this with what you provided. But again, you're the manager - if you don't want to sell - don't.

My point was they bid £44 mil and my demand was £55 mil, which is only 25% higher than their original offer, thus my statement, I wasn't being unreasonable, say for example demanding double or at least 50% more than what anyone was willing to pay. There are no other factors in my decision making. If I got a good price I would've let him go.

About the last bit, yes I can try to keep an unhappy player, with very poor morale, but that's not good for anyone. Then when I drop him to the reserves for having p1ss poor performances and terrible attitude, he comes to my door demanding to know why I put him there, and none of the three responses available to me address the problems he's been making for the past month and half, nor his attitude, or terrible performances.

[Blitz-Matt]

A club Everton's size (how successful are you?) isn't likely to hold on to amazing players by rejecting offers.

Try negotiating to an insane value, if they withdraw the fallout is easier to manage (in my experience); who knows, they might agree to a silly amount.

Unless you've won something consistently since you started you might need to accept you're a 'selling club' for the time being.