What do I do now?

[PatrickReynolds]

For FM24, I thought I'd go back and revisit my very first FM save. The Pandemic brought me to FM, so my first save was with Hamburg as I tried to take them out of the BL2. Like most first saves, I was sacked. Ok, pick yourself up, learn the game and continue on. Four years later, and I'm not over the 'unfinished business' I have with Hamburg. I set out to right the wrongs of the past and actually set a goal for what I want to accomplish with the save, and how I intend to do it. Bring Hamburg back to winning a European cup, while playing the fast, direct attacking football Germany became known for in the past decade. I created filters for my club DNA! I started setting up a scouting network that would serve me well when we got back into the BL. You can guess where this is going...

10 games in, everything is going to plan. Fighting for top spot in the league, playing some good football. Then a certain Bakery Jatta comes and knocks on my door. He thinks he deserves a new contract. Ok, I think to myself, I can understand where he's coming from. But, I'm looking at his mentals, and he just isn't up to the standard that I'm expecting of our future Bundesliga standard. So I try to put him off. Hooo-boy...

He's pissed, and as an influential member of the squad, I've just tanked the team morale. Suddenly our 8 game unbeaten streak becomes 7 without a win. Bad morale begets bad morale and they're telling me I've lost the room and to take a hike. I hang on as long as I can until a heavy 3-0 defeat just before the winter break. Don't let the door hit you on the way out. 

I've still got unfinished business, what do I do? Restart a new Hamburg save and give them whatever they want in the first year? Take over another German team and show them they were wrong to sack me?

For now, I'm going back to my FM23 Journeyman... 

[Troops]

My thoughts would be carry on. Get another job and work your way back up, maybe even with a view to returning later in the save.

Speaking from the position of someone who has had trouble with dressing room harmony problems there is a couple of pieces of missing info here though. What is your reputation like in comparison to the players? & What is your level of discipline attribute? If you started the save with both of those things being low then to some degree this was waiting to happen. Things may be different if you re-started the save and your manager profile had both of these things significantly increased. I like taking a hard line too but it's a double edged sword early in the game, the trade off of increased discipline is often outweighed by the inevitable team cohesion problems. The smallest of issues can often lead to disharmony, I had it over a team talk where I criticised the players following a home loss to the team bottom of the league. I was about as close to losing the whole dressing room as you could be, my solution (eventually) was to release the biggest trouble makers on a free transfer and praise the remaining players whenever they did anything remotely good (played well/trained well etc..), every training session had some stated increase to either happiness or cohesion. I got through to the end of the season and most players didn't see a contract extension. Reset. Go again.

The bigger club you are managing the less likely that kind of solution is an option for you but as soon as he starts moaning I'd transfer list and offer out for any price, just get rid of him, no matter the cost, free transfer him if possible and the others will soon forget he even existed. You could perhaps have tried to delay on contract negotiations but it's a risky strategy, start off by saying you'll offer him one at the end of the season, if that doesn't work (it rarely does) then say you will offer him one, wait until the last day of the promise (set a reminder), make sure you don't meet his demands, when he re-approaches apologise and reopen talks, wait until the last day of the promise and fail to meet his demands again, when he re-approaches tell him you promised him a contract but not what he was asking for. It may end up with the same outcome but it's delaying tactics whilst you work out how you offload him without upsetting everybody else. 

[PatrickReynolds]

@Troops I started with the recommended experience for the job, so had a Continental Pro License, but a 1.5 star reputation and most of my players were 2 star rep. My discipline was 9, so sounds like I was always going to run into an issue with the squad eventually. I just hoped I'd get through the season with a promotion to prove my worth!

Anyways, as you were typing, I was continuing on just to see what was out there. As fate would have it, the Dynamo Dresden job was available, which was my second ever FM save while I was still trying to figure things out! Narrative! A couple other 3. Liga teams interviewed me, but my eyes were always on the Dresden job, which they offered me! So, now I'm tasked with taking them from mid table and seeing if I can get them back to the promotion places. They were projected to win the league, but have been underperforming, so kinda sounds like my previous situation, but this time I hope to be the savior. The board is only expecting mid table now, so looks like I'll have a couple seasons to achieve promotion. Time to bring Dynamo Dresden back to the European stage...just might take a bit longer than Hamburg.