As a manager, you’ll find yourself interacting with players on a daily basis. Not just interaction through the direct interaction module detailed in this section, but in more minor manners, such as promoting a player from the reserve team into your senior squad. A majority of these are carried out from options found within a player’s Actions. They are described in the coming pages.

 

11.13.1.      Squad Menu - Move Players Between Squads

This option allows you to assign players to various squads, most typically a Senior, Reserve, and Youth team. As manager, you have the ultimate say in the development of a player and it’s up to you to decide when a player needs to be tested further, or when he’s not ready or performing at a higher level. You can also assign a player to a team for a period whilst he recovers from injury in order to allow him to regain his fitness at a lower level where performances and development can be considered more important than the result.

 

You can also make a player available for the reserve team if he is part of your senior squad. Often you may want a youngster to be part of the first team and to be training with them but not have room in your matchday team for him. To keep his fitness up, happiness in order, and development continuing, allowing him to play for the reserves will be a positive benefit.

 

11.13.2.      Squad Menu - Change Training Schedule

This option acts as a shortcut to allow you to quickly change the training schedule a player is on rather than going through the Training screens.

 

11.13.3.      Squad Menu - Move to Affiliate

If your team has an affiliation and the terms allow players to be loaned between clubs, you can designate a loan to such a team from this option. It acts as a suggestion to the player, who has the final call on whether he moves or not. His decision will arrive in your Inbox usually inside 24 hours of asking him to move.

 

11.13.4.      Transfers & Contracts Menu - Offer to Clubs

If you no longer want the services of a player or your hand is forced into selling him, you can offer the player out to teams your Assistant feels will be most suited to the player’s ability and reputation. You can configure the terms of any potential sale in as much or little detail as you like, and can exclude any rival clubs should you not want to strengthen a hated opponent.

 

If any team decides to take you up on your offer, you will receive a formal bid from them in your Inbox.

 

11.13.5.      Transfers & Contracts Menu - Set Transfer Status

This screen allows you to set the squad and transfer status of a player. You can determine his role from this list of self-explanatory options:

• Indispensable to the club
• Important first team player
• Used in a squad rotation system
• Backup to the first team
• Hot prospect for the future*
• Decent young player*
• Not needed by the club

(* only eligible for younger players)

 

This can be set for any member of the squad, but for those you wish to sell, you can move on to set your instructions for handling transfer offers, including desired fees and whether the player is ‘officially’ on the Transfer List.

 

Once you’re happy with your changes, hit ‘Confirm’ to apply them.

 

11.13.6.      Transfers & Contracts Menu - Offer New Contract

Offer your player a new contract from this option. Please refer to section 12.4 for information on offering contracts.

 

11.13.7.      Transfers & Contracts Menu – Release on a Free/Mutual Termination

If you no longer want the services of a player at the club and can’t shift him on to another team, you may want to release the player from his contract and make him a free agent. If you decide to do this, you will have to pay off the remainder of his contract, unless you agree a mutual termination with the player. Should he also want out of the club, offering him the chance to leave the club in a mutual agreement for a lower payoff or completely free of charge may be successful – but it will not be in all cases and you may end up merely making the player more stubborn and make things harder for you as he takes offence at being asked to leave.

 

11.13.8.      Scouting Menu - Comparisons

Take two players, similar positions; maybe they differ in age, height and weight, whatever. They’re comparable. Football Manager™ allows you to take two players and compare every facet of their game.

 

The default behaviour for the Comparison section is to offer a comparison to a player you have recently viewed, so if you are intending to compare two players, click to the first player’s profile screen, then the second, then choose ‘Compare With’.

 

The comparison has three different screens, selectable from the tabs menu. By default the ‘Attributes’ page is loaded, where their biographical information is compared, then their attributes matched off against each other. The player on the left has one colour bar; the player on the right has a different colour. The more of a bar displayed represents a better attribute – although the numerical value is also displayed.

 

Using the comparison feature will allow you to make well-informed judgment calls on places in your squad between players or deciding on potential new signings.

 

This section also contained the ‘Create Filter from <player> option, which is described in more detail in section 4.4.1.

 

11.13.9.      Interaction Menu – Private Chat

You can interact with your players in the various manners described throughout this section but in terms of actual one-to-one discussion, the ‘Interaction’ section allows you to comment to or on any of your players in private, and to make a public statement about a player playing elsewhere.

 

The scope with which you can operate is vast, covering a player’s personal situation, his contract, his performances, almost anything about the club and the way things are going.

 

For more on interacting with your own players, and indeed the game world at large, please refer to section 4.1.3.

 

11.13.10.    Interaction Menu – Start Preferred Move Training

You have the option to ask any of your coaching staff to discuss a player adopting a specific preferred move to add to their arsenal. Perhaps you have a player with a high Free Kick Taking rating, and would like to encourage him to take these free kicks from long range. Similarly, you might have another player who has good pace and anticipation, ideal for springing the offside trap, and would like him to focus on this during training.

 

To do so, begin a conversation with a member of your backroom staff and select the appropriate option from the list of Preferred Moves under the ‘Topic’ heading. A response will follow, and typically the process of incorporating this into the player’s training schedule will begin.

 

Preferred Moves can also be removed – another player might have a preference for running down the left flank, but hasn’t got particularly good dribbling skills and is right footed. Therefore it makes sense to try and remove this from his game, which can be done in the same manner as outlined above.

 

Over the course of a few months, these players will do their best to adapt to your request and eventually you will receive an indication of success or failure in their task.

 

11.13.11.    Interaction Menu – Discipline Player

You probably don’t want your players walking all over you. They need some form of discipline. Exactly how much depends on your tendencies and how much trust you want to place in your players, but if any of them step out of line, you can discipline them to the tune of an official warning or one/two (maximum) week’s wages.

 

Players can only be disciplined if they’ve committed a misdemeanour. If they act unprofessionally, are violent or are dismissed during a match, or simply haven’t put in the performance you expect them to, hit them where it hurts – their wallet.

 

Be warned, however, excessive punishment can lead to you garnering a negative reputation and your players won’t like this – and eventually your board won’t either. Fine too many players at once for a debatable reason and you’ll be hearing from your superiors. Manage it well, and you’ll have a squad that keeps in line.

 

11.13.12.    Interaction Menu – Set Nickname

This allows you to give a player a nickname. This will alter his name wherever it is displayed in the game, but in network/internet games, only the local user who has set the nickname will see it – all other users will see the player’s real name.

 

If you want the nickname to disappear, select ‘Remove Nickname’.

 

11.13.13.    Interaction Menu – Keep History After Retirement

If you wish to retain a player’s career history once he has retired, ensure that this option is enabled. For more information on how this feature works, please refer to section 7.8 of this manual.

 

11.13.14.    Subscribe

Add this player to your news subscriptions in order to receive all news regarding him by clicking on the star  icon, turning it gold.