Promise - Reduce squad size

[wazza]

I have promised my team at the beginning of the season when I took over the club to reduce the size of the squad.  I started to do this and the players icons turned green as they were happy some progress had been made.

On the last day of the transfer window I bought a couple of players and 2 of the existing squad who wanted the squad size reducing turned to yellow and it said that they expect me to make more effort to reduce the squad size, however the Jan transfer window slammed shut so I could not get rid of more players and I have until end of May to fulfil the promise.

I have since sent squad players out on loan during the remainder of the season to reduce the squad size.  It is now the end of the season and I have 14 days left to turn the yellow icon back to green,  I have mutually terminated the contracts of players who contracts where due to expire in the 1st team, u21 and u18s to help reduce the squad size.  These players are still on a yellow and want me to make more effort to reduce the size of the squad despite me now having released two 1st team players and around 8 - 10 U21 and U18 players.  I am not sure what else I am to do to fufil this promise.  I have had U21 and U18 players on the transfer list but despite clubs been interested no one would actually bid for them except 1 or 2, which as mentioned led me to terminating there contracts.

The end of the promise date is 30th May, I have also around 5 players on loan and these players loans cannot be terminated until 31st May which is the day after the promise is due to be fulfilled.

I would have thought that loaning players out and terminating certain players contracts would help fulfil this promise, but it appears that it means that you have to actually have a bid accepted for the players. to fulfil this  What if no one will buy your players as in my example above when they are transfer listed so the only way to get rid is to terminate the contract to reduce the size of the squad

Any advice on what else I can do as I do not really want to transfer list any more players out my squad as I see a place for them now the other players not required have finally been released

 

[gunnerfan]

Just curious why you would have made this particular promise to the team in the first place. I could possibly see making it to the board as a condition of being hired, but the team? Personally, I've become rather allergic to the idea of making any promises to players at all, particularly those that can't be precisely measured (e.g. promise to strengthen the midfield).

[Maviarab]

Fix it by removing the idiots who aren't happy.

[wazza]

58 minutes ago, gunnerfan said:

Just curious why you would have made this particular promise to the team in the first place. I could possibly see making it to the board as a condition of being hired, but the team? Personally, I've become rather allergic to the idea of making any promises to players at all, particularly those that can't be precisely measured (e.g. promise to strengthen the midfield).

Because the squad was huge to start with over 30 first team players and it needed reducing anyway. The players approached me in the 1st team meeting with them and 5 - 6 players who were team leaders / highly influential in the dressing room wanted it to happen.  I knew the squad was large and needed trimming so agreed to it as I did not want to upset the harmony of the dressing room as I was just appointed at a higher rep club than my sunday league rep.  Its taken me a full season to get the dynamics to say that none of the players have no opinion of me rather than opposes me.  None of them still fully agree with my appointment despite guiding the team to the play offs when we were supposed to finish mid table

I felt at the time if I agreed to something that the team leaders / highly influential players wanted it would help me win over the dressing room and knew myself that the squad size needed reducing.

 

In my eyes I have reduced the squad as I have released players / loaned them out making the squad smaller, so do not get why the players - who are two of my best players in the team 4.5* are concerned about it, especially when one has played the majority of the matches in the season so the large squad has not affected him and the other who was injured for 6 months started playing once he gained match fit and again became a first team player 

Edited February 13, 2023 by wazza

[wazza]

47 minutes ago, Maviarab said:

Fix it by removing the idiots who aren't happy.

Thought of that but the 2 players play all the time and are two of the best two players in the team

[gunnerfan]

1 hour ago, wazza said:

Because the squad was huge to start with over 30 first team players and it needed reducing anyway. The players approached me in the 1st team meeting with them and 5 - 6 players who were team leaders / highly influential in the dressing room wanted it to happen.  I knew the squad was large and needed trimming so agreed to it as I did not want to upset the harmony of the dressing room as I was just appointed at a higher rep club than my sunday league rep.  Its taken me a full season to get the dynamics to say that none of the players have no opinion of me rather than opposes me.  None of them still fully agree with my appointment despite guiding the team to the play offs when we were supposed to finish mid table

I felt at the time if I agreed to something that the team leaders / highly influential players wanted it would help me win over the dressing room and knew myself that the squad size needed reducing.

 

In my eyes I have reduced the squad as I have released players / loaned them out making the squad smaller, so do not get why the players - who are two of my best players in the team 4.5* are concerned about it, especially when one has played the majority of the matches in the season so the large squad has not affected him and the other who was injured for 6 months started playing once he gained match fit and again became a first team player 

Makes sense when you put it that way. Further evidence that the player interaction module needs serious work.

[Weston]

Post in the bugs forum so they can work on fixing these broken interactions. Use the editor to remove unhappiness from players who are incorrectly upset about promises you've objectively fulfilled in good faith unless you think it's somehow a realistic depiction of a terminal malcontent being impossible to satisfy regardless for some reason. If certain players keep coming to you with problems demanding promises in the first place, then consider selling them so they stop poisoning the lockerroom.

[thecaveman]

On 13/02/2023 at 09:27, wazza said:

Thought of that but the 2 players play all the time and are two of the best two players in the team

But they are not irreplaceable are they. Bet you can find similar or better players  for less than you get for selling them.

Idea - Move some of your bloated squad to the U23's and remove them from training units as well.