Veteran players demanding automatic contract renewal after X matches

[el_manayer]

Hi, so I think this is highly unrealistic in many cases. I am trying to renew contract of 2 veteran players in Betis: Andres Guardado and Joaquin. We are in October 22, that means that the first is 36 years old and the second 41! Furthermore, the second is an absolute legend of the club, he loves it and he only wants to play there until he is retired. I want to renew them for personal reasons more than anything else, but obviously I plan to use them sometimes in the squad. Thing is, no matter how I face the contract negotiations (I reload multiple times to check), they demand automatic contract renewal after X matches. I guess this feature makes sense in some context, but not in either of this ones. Let's see them

This is Guardado. He demands automatic renewal after only 10 matches! So, without it, the contract would expire in 2024, he would be already 38 years in the Spanish first division. But, he would not sign unless I am basically forced to play him until 39. It is a practically forced 3 years contract on a 36 years old player. This does not make sense, and does not reflect the reality.

Then, this is Joaquin. Even if he demands automatic renewal only after 20 matches, he is 41! He basically wants a 3 years contract with 41! In real life, he has been renewing his contract yearly, always one year long, just to check if at the end of the seasons he is still performing. Unrealistic.

 

I am not sure if I should report these as bugs, if it does not happen to other people or if you guys think this is indeed realistic and I am totally wrong. I am here to hear your opinions. The worst thing is that they are not asking for it, it is a demand, I can not take that thing out of the negotation by any means, which I also feel unrealistic. There is also nothing about that in the pre renewal conversations with the agent.

Edited November 19, 2022 by el_manayer

[santy001]

They're old players who will be looking to maximise their earnings at the end of their careers. Typically this behaviour would be considered quite smart - if they're still able to perform and you're still giving them game time then they get rewarded for this. If they're no longer up to the level needed you can let them drift out of the team and their contract ends at the initially agreed date.

[el_manayer]

8 minutes ago, santy001 said:

They're old players who will be looking to maximise their earnings at the end of their careers. Typically this behaviour would be considered quite smart - if they're still able to perform and you're still giving them game time then they get rewarded for this. If they're no longer up to the level needed you can let them drift out of the team and their contract ends at the initially agreed date.

I still think that it is not realistic that I can't even negotiate that clause. As said, one of the players has been the last 3/4 years renewing his contract yearly, always 1 year length and without that kind of clauses. I kind understand it if the player <35 or so, but if they are older they can't demand to sign a contract of 2 and possibly 3 years. No 1st division club would accept that

[busngabb]

1 hour ago, el_manayer said:

I still think that it is not realistic that I can't even negotiate that clause. As said, one of the players has been the last 3/4 years renewing his contract yearly, always 1 year length and without that kind of clauses. I kind understand it if the player <35 or so, but if they are older they can't demand to sign a contract of 2 and possibly 3 years. No 1st division club would accept that

Possibly. It depends what personality their agent has as well. A lot of players in real life will defer to their agents. I quite often ask players to sack their agents if they are unwilling to negotiate things like that, but you can't always do that. But also, I find that those clauses are irrelevant anyway. If you're going to play them, it likely means they're good enough anyway for the extra year. If you don't play them, they will likely retire at those ages anyway. If you don't want them to stay the extra year, just don't play them in the second half of the season and they'll likely retire.