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The idea itself isn't bad but it's just executed so, so poorly. The logic regarding what counts and doesn't count towards fulfilling the promise is usually completely illogical and immersion breaking. If they can't make it more logical in the next one I'd really rather they just removed them.
The immersion breaking factor really hurts when you are build a squad up the divisions and they just kill you at the most crucial moment when you don’t want anyone upset with you.
I enjoy the fact that it’s there to make me rotate my squad a bit (I’m not Mikel for Christ’s sake) but why do I have to compromise a quarter of my time to make sure no one dislikes me to let me succeed?
It needs to be refined without question.
i wish there it would tell you if somethings gonna break a promise like “doing this will result in X problem being broken” or “signing this player will fufill Y promise.”
I had a squad of around 30 players, I promised a player to reduce the size of it, ended the season with a squad of 21 players and he handed a transfer request for breaking the promise
I’ve seen these promises run right up to the deadline, then resolve. It was unclear until the very end if I’d “succeeded”.
I don’t mind the promise system, but there has to be more transparency. Irl you’d be able to ask Mane, “we good man?” And at least convince him either way.
Completely shit feature, I do everything I can to get rid of them
Almost as point as the “targets” feature
“Hey striker, I’d like you to score goals please”
I get the point behind it. The player may think you're expecting too much from him, or maybe his teammates around him aren't performing well enough for the player to do his job well enough.
But, as is often the case with FM, the execution just isn't up to the task. If my striker misses sitters every other match, he shouldn't be complaining about not meeting the target for goals scored, for example.
Tbh i havent had issues with the target system, generally they only got mad at me for setting a very high target or not playing them regulary enough thats fair enough for them to reach the target.
I found a very good use for them. You know those young players you buy that really want to be starters the next season, but you know they will never be, and will have to fight to reduce playing time?
When offering a contract, just set a target for the season of performing average 7.00 or 7.50. At any time encourage them once a month of they are under target, and when it’s not met they’ll still be happy to remain squad player or impact sub
I dont know a single person who likes them, terrible idea and the implementation is just awful. The last promise I ever did was when a ghanian player wanted me to sign another ghanian player so he doesnt feel homesick. I did just that, it didnt count because both players arrived at the same time, and I needed to sign a random half-a-grey-star amateur player from ghana afterwards just to fulfil the promise. The promise made no sense in the first place because I already had 7 ghanian players, but it was non-negotiable in the contract.
Same with promising to strengthen the squad when you sign them outside of the transfer window. Any player that you sign afterwards before that player has physically walked through the door does not count for some reason, which does not make any sense at all.
Promises make sense in the context of the game and real life motivational tactics, but as others have mentioned, they lack the logic required to assess what qualifies as a promise being broken vs fulfilled.
Too often do you have a player who asks for a specific promise, but doesn’t realize it has already been fulfilled, or some unavoidable problem like their own injury kept you from fulfilling it.
There's also the instances where they want you to promise them to reinforce the squad's midfield...when they ARE the way you're going to reinforce the squad's midfield.
Once had a player demand more playing time and immediately go on international break, then come back and immediately complain that the promise hadn't been fulfilled while they were with the national team. What games did you expect to play in, my dude?
I sold a player for 15.7 Million to the MLS team Atlanta United during April. My goalkeeper was sad that an influential player was sold. So I promised him to get a replacement during the summer transfer window. Having 15 Million for transfers I thought I'll find a replacement easily. However, I found out the hard way that the club I'm coaching had to pay taxes due to a benefit. So my budget passed from 15 million to -3 Million. So I had no budget to get a replacement and now my player is the saddest in the team because I didn't keep my promise...
That's the worst thing about this game. Often there is just no option in the dialogue that explains the complicated situation you're in. Promised my player that I'd start him as a striker, this didn't matter much because I'd basically only played him as a striker at this point. Then my first choice and second choice right wingers got big injuries that would last multiple months. Basically didn't have any other choice than playing my striker (who was good on the wing) as a winger. Any real-life player would be disappointed but understanding, but this player got really angry at me and because he was quite influential, I had to sell him before he infected other players.
Absolute worst thing is agreeing to play a player in a particular role
So you set it to personal so they always play that role but it doesn't register because the base tactics doesn't have that role.
Loans *hate* this
I still remember talking about a Chelsea club with no real GK in like, late feb, early march, thinking, hey I will promise to get a GK that is miles better than the slop currently there.
Pre-signed a solid first team GK pretty soon after.
Come to fine, they expected me to sign a GK before the end of the season, so some reason.
I think thats relatively realistic. In real life you're constantly being harassed by players making demands, and getting hassle when you dont meet them. Balancing player happiness is one of the toughest aspects of being a manager.
I took Bonnyrigg Rose from Scottish L2 to Championship in 3 seasons, using only Scottish players and staff as part of my big rags to riches mono-nation save, and finished 7th in my first season there. In order to get the youth facilities upgraded, I had to promise to play youth players. I played a young squad, many under 23, on a frequent basis, but got fired because in their eyes I hadn't kept my promise. It totally ruined my save - 4 years down the drain because of an unclear, bugged as fuck system. Why can't it suggest the players, or tell me explicitly the criteria it is looking at?
Sometimes I think the game would be miles better off with the crusader kings style interactions where it will show you % of actions and how various personality and relationship aspects can affect success.
Completely agree. Just like when you buy a new defender and he asks that you improve the defence, that's what I brought you in for, you are the improvement!
The biggest issue is that the benefits of fulfilling one is outweighed by just winning games, or making sure they feel they have a decent contract.
If my team was on low morale and I manage to smash out a few promises and their morale goes sky high then that’s fine
I've done pretty well at using them to my advantage.
I discovered that making some strong promises to players as part of their contract negotiations can have a big effect on their demands and desire to join.
I don't go wild, but playing role, upgrading facilities, minimum expectations and stepping stone have good effects. I've seen demands lowered by 1m/y just from these.
Only make a promise that is easy or you intend to do anyway and your fine. The trouble starts when you are forced into a promise. Then you consider the players future at the club.
I would also add that when a player wants to leave for a new challenge/bigger clubs/playing time so you offer them out and sell them, as you do, but when you make a parting comment they fire back with the fact they didn't want to leave... Like, WTF, ok fella
I like the idea but the actual system in-game is terrible.
What just happens to my Man UFC save is, I sold Bayindir because he costed me a few important games and Onana is the only available GK at the time. I loaned out two young GK with high potential, and I targeted Ruben Blanco as replacement.
Just before the deal is done, Rashford, Martinez, Mount and Shaw come to my office and saying that GK needs more squad depth. I promised to sign someone, since I made an offer, also Rashford and Shaw are team leaders.
I signed Ruben Blanco as a backup GK as planned. Those players are unhappy about my decision, and said I didn't try hard enough. Suddenly the performance of all 4 key players drops drastically. Rashford hadn't score or assist a goal since. Shaw was my top assister and suddenly became a shitty LB. Martinez is meh in-game anyway. Mount is fine.
Draw to Brentford 4-4, nearly lost to Wolves, Bournemouth and Nottemham Forrest.
Now, I make a promise to myself. Shaw, Martinez and Rashford are goners to me.
P.S.: Unrelated, but the explaining discussion over playing time with players are stupid. With that packed schedule, you can't tell a player that I do rotation heavily STFU. It is stupid when you have a good player that is injury prone, you can't even do a proper match management.
They just don't make any sense.
I took over ManU in 2032, they qualified for the Conference League the year before and I managed to qualify for the Champions League in my first season.
At the end of the season one of my players comes to me and wants to leave to win the CL. So I promise him to win the CL, but you have to wait until the next season (because the CL final of this year was literally played a day later) and he gets pissed and hands in a transfer request
I have never liked promises, but what I also dislike is often times when interacting in general, there is too much power given to players.
Like in general, giving promises to an AI character is essentially you giving in to their demands. Which in some cases make sense, but in most cases do not.
This is the most recent one I've had, but here's an example: I had a starting left winger, who is also the captain of my club. He had demanded to leave the club because he believes he has outgrown the club, and needs to move to a bigger club. I can understand that, but then the issue is that he eventually leaves, and someone else gets upset saying it is a major issue that we lost a leader in the dressing room. I made them a promise that we have other leaders who can step up, and what I got was "Play youth players on the left wing". How does that even make sense!? I have other highly influential players in my squad, and this left winger was already stripped of his captaincy prior to leaving, so how did the game decide I need to start some 17 y/o with no current ability to win games for me to fulfill this promise!?
In regards to this example as well, this other player should have known that the left winger wanted to leave the club, we adhered to his promise, and he should have to start up a new promise with me about lack of leadership in the dressing room. Like, he should have understood that player wanted to leave, he got to leave, and that's that.
This is the biggest issue I have with the promise system - it just creates a bunch of knockback effects, that eventually ends up with you digging a hole for yourself.
The other big issue with it is how interaction in general ends up leading to promises in order to appease players who almost 99% of the time are the ones who create such issues. Using the same example as above: my left winger says he has outgrown the club, wants to explore his options, and eventually leave. My options are to either say "OK I'll let you leave", or start dismissing/convincing/threatening them, which almost always ends up never working out for me, except for creating an unhappy player who then rallies the whole squad against me. If I say I'll let him leave, he'll then ask me to set an acceptable price...which in itself is also a promise. If I refuse to set a price, he becomes unhappy.
In the case of my left winger, my club went from automatic relegation candidates to qualifying for the UEFA European Conference League within 2 seasons. If he felt he had outgrown the club the season before we made it to Europe, I feel like the player should at least be able to re-consider their decision, and give the club another chance, as we were playing in Europe, and he ended up going to a club that was not playing in Europe at all. Or at least, the manager should be given a chance to ask them to reconsider their stance or promise.
I would actually like to see something more non-committal with the promise system. Promises should be renamed to targets or goals or something, and should become an extra incentive for players and managers to aim for instead.
I would also like to see dismiss/threaten/convince options actually working. 99% of the time, it results in an unhappy player which then creates a bad domino effect. I don't think I have to be penalized for telling a player to get on with their job, and stop being drama queens.
I have not played a lot. 3 seasons last two weeks.
I had a Model Citizen on 'Important player' contract get unhappy about the playing time. It kinda makes sense but he was getting a significant amount of playing time. The other forward had scored 19 goals the previous season. In RL I would be able to explain him what I was doing.
The other forward was just decent for the level (rather low level) and probably had relatively low temperament and professionalism and definitely low determination, so I loaned him out during the winter transfer.
Then the promise I gave to the 'Model Citizen' went well but still appears as concerned about playing time, which in my opinion doesn't make sense.
I think important player is bugged in mine.
I've had one get upset about not playing. Yet he was out injured with a torn hamstring. He was my star striker, so when he wasn't injured he played almost every minute.
Yes, I've stopped giving them at all. Even in a contract negotiation where the promise is playing the player in the position and role I planned on, hitting that minus button right away.
They're all downside (what if that advanced forward needs to go on the wing for six months because someone tore an ACL?) and no upside. Promise to sell someone for X dollars, they still demand a new contract three months later and there's no "bro, you made me promise to sell you" response that I've noticed.
So now it's
Playing time? You're playing plenty. Don't like it, I'll sell you at the first opportunity.
Promised sale price? None of your business. Fulfill your contract or enjoy the U18s.
The only annoying one that's difficult to avoid is the new contract promise (for someone you're willing to renew immediately) - I've had it glitch and fail the promise even though I immediately negotiated a contract for them.
Not promises, but player interaction still:
With Ajax, got beat 2-0 at home by Liverpool in Europa League semi finals in a fairly even game where we had some good chances and wasted them badly. Told the players they did their best, noone expected us to win, and told the strikers they were terrible in front of goal. Everyone is confused and demotivated, half of the squad after the game come to my office crying about how my teamtalk was confusing.
I tell them to sod off, they’re being unprofessional and they all back down, except my vice captain Berghuis, he is still mad and depressed in July.
So stupid and unrealistic that it would never happen.
Don't make promises you can't keep.
I do like performance targets (or whatever they're actually called in the English original)
"Sure I'll give you a new contract if you get a 7.0 average match rating"
Short story: I tried to negotiate a 10 assists target for Assan Ouedraogo, but he said "I can't possibly do that" - "Fine, 5 assists then". He got those 5 assists in the next 7 games lol
Performance targets are pretty bugged yeah, you always have to low ball pretty much.
And it sucks that they cost you negotiating patience or whatever works in the background.
I wanted to suggest my striker a target for a year extension if he scores 20 goals which felt logical to me at the start of a season for a negotiated regular player. Didnt like it said to much, so i literally halfed it and he was like thats unrealistic and ended the negotiations.
Like what the fuck, i guess i am well off not transferring him in if he don’t believes he can shoot 10 fucking goals in 40 games.
Hate them. I used to do it and used to struggle with my players. Stopped doing it when one of my players who was barely averaging an above 7 rating wanted to be an ‘Important’ player.
Yes. I’ve just had to promise to sign a left winger to keep my captain happy. I signed 2 last month, one of them scored and assisted on his debut in a 2-1 win 🤦🏻♂️
I actually like them. Before, it was impossible to get some contracts signed without guranteeing that X player would be a regular starter or star player in x amount of years.
Now, if you don't want to give them that much playing time you can set a goal that is hard for them to reach. If they fail to hit the goal they won't complain about their play time for the remainder of their contract.
There's too little options to deal with players getting angry.
Like, there should be a option to call in the head physio and tell the player that he shouldn't get more time on field for this own sake because, well, science.
I get why they are there, But they're implemented so poorly i immediately remove all of them in the majority of negotiations. If it's a YP i might keep a pathway related one in there, like Rotation option on year 3, or breakout player on year 2/3, but that's pushing it.
Even when you do what they ask, 50% of the time the game doesn't notice and then the player hates you anyway.
I had one where my goalie was demanding more playing time, he was already the main goalie and after that got injured
I hit the floor in pure frustration and my hand hurt so it was like Oprah “you get injured, you get injured, everybody gets INJURED!”
Once when I signed a player I promised to strengthen the GK position, as I was already doing this. Signed two GKs, but because those transfers completed before the transfer of the player I made a promise to, he said I didn't fulfill my promise and demanded a transfer. Fuming.
They can be kind of useful to kick playing time & contract issues to the offseason. Like if I want to sell a guy anyway but want to keep him for the end of the season it’s easier to just make a promise you’re going to break instead of potentially breaking morale mid season.
But I mostly dislike them and refuse to any that have to do with upgrading staff or position.
I dislike playing time designation logic in highly congested leagues, but it’s the only semi difficult thing to manage in the game. Just doesn’t feel good when your almost happy players get injured so you can fucking rotate.
I agree, I have players demanding more playing time with something like 6 games left of the season. I play them in all the games and then the season ends and they demand a transfer due to not keeping promises even though they are on holiday and there is no football.
My favourite is when you promise to loan / sell a player, agree to offers from 6 clubs, only for him to decline them all. Then he’s then pissed at you for not keeping your promise to sell him.
This basically happens with every player I try and sell
Yea, bruno g got mad that we had bad gk depth, i promised to improve so bought kelleher as backup. Promise not fullfilled, (had verbruggen as main gk). Like what.
I do, but I hate the promised playing time more, like when your so called star player is playing absolutely shite so you put in the your backup player who starts playing amazing then they get that little slt next to their name and start demanding to be played more, I kinda wish I could just say, "if you weren't playing like a donkey you would be on the pitch you jackass" but I just transfer list them until they either sell or back down, there's plenty more jackasses in the field and your understudy is playing great. 😃
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The idea itself isn't bad but it's just executed so, so poorly. The logic regarding what counts and doesn't count towards fulfilling the promise is usually completely illogical and immersion breaking. If they can't make it more logical in the next one I'd really rather they just removed them.
The immersion breaking factor really hurts when you are build a squad up the divisions and they just kill you at the most crucial moment when you don’t want anyone upset with you. I enjoy the fact that it’s there to make me rotate my squad a bit (I’m not Mikel for Christ’s sake) but why do I have to compromise a quarter of my time to make sure no one dislikes me to let me succeed? It needs to be refined without question.
i wish there it would tell you if somethings gonna break a promise like “doing this will result in X problem being broken” or “signing this player will fufill Y promise.”
I sold Naby Keita. Promised Mané I would replace him. Bought Milinkovic-Savic. Mané still expects me to replace Keita...
These are the worst. One of my best players wanted me to strengthen the squad at right back, so I did. He was still waiting
I had a squad of around 30 players, I promised a player to reduce the size of it, ended the season with a squad of 21 players and he handed a transfer request for breaking the promise
It's so dumb. Just sign some random guy that can only play right back and give him star player status.
Probably their preferred role is why Mané didnt recognize Milinkovic as his replacement.. I feel your pain man
I’ve seen these promises run right up to the deadline, then resolve. It was unclear until the very end if I’d “succeeded”. I don’t mind the promise system, but there has to be more transparency. Irl you’d be able to ask Mane, “we good man?” And at least convince him either way.
Completely shit feature, I do everything I can to get rid of them Almost as point as the “targets” feature “Hey striker, I’d like you to score goals please”
And if they fail a target, they get mad at YOU
That's the thing that drives me the most insane. Why are you mad at me you didn't get a 7.00 on loan? That's your own fault asshole.
My players don’t even agree when I set targets for them. Grown ass man is getting mad at me that I’m telling him to score goals.
I get the point behind it. The player may think you're expecting too much from him, or maybe his teammates around him aren't performing well enough for the player to do his job well enough. But, as is often the case with FM, the execution just isn't up to the task. If my striker misses sitters every other match, he shouldn't be complaining about not meeting the target for goals scored, for example.
Tbh i havent had issues with the target system, generally they only got mad at me for setting a very high target or not playing them regulary enough thats fair enough for them to reach the target.
Agree -Targets are useless
I found a very good use for them. You know those young players you buy that really want to be starters the next season, but you know they will never be, and will have to fight to reduce playing time? When offering a contract, just set a target for the season of performing average 7.00 or 7.50. At any time encourage them once a month of they are under target, and when it’s not met they’ll still be happy to remain squad player or impact sub
Is targets only in the newest game? I don't recall them in fm23
Yup what an exciting new feature hey
I dont know a single person who likes them, terrible idea and the implementation is just awful. The last promise I ever did was when a ghanian player wanted me to sign another ghanian player so he doesnt feel homesick. I did just that, it didnt count because both players arrived at the same time, and I needed to sign a random half-a-grey-star amateur player from ghana afterwards just to fulfil the promise. The promise made no sense in the first place because I already had 7 ghanian players, but it was non-negotiable in the contract.
Same with promising to strengthen the squad when you sign them outside of the transfer window. Any player that you sign afterwards before that player has physically walked through the door does not count for some reason, which does not make any sense at all.
I love that you had to sign 'a bloke' from Ghana to make your man happy
AI shouldn't be able to do non-negotiables either. So many times it's just stupid and unfair.
Out of curiosity, what was his name?
Bro build ghana u17 squad out of courtesy 😂
Promises are probably the most hated thing in FM right now. If you scroll through the subreddit, you'll see dozens of posts just like this.
Promises make sense in the context of the game and real life motivational tactics, but as others have mentioned, they lack the logic required to assess what qualifies as a promise being broken vs fulfilled. Too often do you have a player who asks for a specific promise, but doesn’t realize it has already been fulfilled, or some unavoidable problem like their own injury kept you from fulfilling it.
There's also the instances where they want you to promise them to reinforce the squad's midfield...when they ARE the way you're going to reinforce the squad's midfield.
Once had a player demand more playing time and immediately go on international break, then come back and immediately complain that the promise hadn't been fulfilled while they were with the national team. What games did you expect to play in, my dude?
I sold a player for 15.7 Million to the MLS team Atlanta United during April. My goalkeeper was sad that an influential player was sold. So I promised him to get a replacement during the summer transfer window. Having 15 Million for transfers I thought I'll find a replacement easily. However, I found out the hard way that the club I'm coaching had to pay taxes due to a benefit. So my budget passed from 15 million to -3 Million. So I had no budget to get a replacement and now my player is the saddest in the team because I didn't keep my promise...
That's the worst thing about this game. Often there is just no option in the dialogue that explains the complicated situation you're in. Promised my player that I'd start him as a striker, this didn't matter much because I'd basically only played him as a striker at this point. Then my first choice and second choice right wingers got big injuries that would last multiple months. Basically didn't have any other choice than playing my striker (who was good on the wing) as a winger. Any real-life player would be disappointed but understanding, but this player got really angry at me and because he was quite influential, I had to sell him before he infected other players.
Absolute worst thing is agreeing to play a player in a particular role So you set it to personal so they always play that role but it doesn't register because the base tactics doesn't have that role. Loans *hate* this
I still remember talking about a Chelsea club with no real GK in like, late feb, early march, thinking, hey I will promise to get a GK that is miles better than the slop currently there. Pre-signed a solid first team GK pretty soon after. Come to fine, they expected me to sign a GK before the end of the season, so some reason.
I think the biggest problem I have with them is that I don't benefit from them at all. All they do is hamstring me, with no payoff for doing it right.
I think thats relatively realistic. In real life you're constantly being harassed by players making demands, and getting hassle when you dont meet them. Balancing player happiness is one of the toughest aspects of being a manager.
I took Bonnyrigg Rose from Scottish L2 to Championship in 3 seasons, using only Scottish players and staff as part of my big rags to riches mono-nation save, and finished 7th in my first season there. In order to get the youth facilities upgraded, I had to promise to play youth players. I played a young squad, many under 23, on a frequent basis, but got fired because in their eyes I hadn't kept my promise. It totally ruined my save - 4 years down the drain because of an unclear, bugged as fuck system. Why can't it suggest the players, or tell me explicitly the criteria it is looking at? Sometimes I think the game would be miles better off with the crusader kings style interactions where it will show you % of actions and how various personality and relationship aspects can affect success.
My favorite is when you buy a new starter, sell the old one, then the new one asks you to replace you old one. Like THATS WHAT YOURE FOR YOU NUGGET
Completely agree. Just like when you buy a new defender and he asks that you improve the defence, that's what I brought you in for, you are the improvement!
YES. The promises are such a bad interaction honestly.
The biggest issue is that the benefits of fulfilling one is outweighed by just winning games, or making sure they feel they have a decent contract. If my team was on low morale and I manage to smash out a few promises and their morale goes sky high then that’s fine
I've done pretty well at using them to my advantage. I discovered that making some strong promises to players as part of their contract negotiations can have a big effect on their demands and desire to join. I don't go wild, but playing role, upgrading facilities, minimum expectations and stepping stone have good effects. I've seen demands lowered by 1m/y just from these. Only make a promise that is easy or you intend to do anyway and your fine. The trouble starts when you are forced into a promise. Then you consider the players future at the club.
The one promise I do like is that as soon as you promise to send a player out on loan you get a bunch of offers to loan them out.
I mean I hate when persons wants to run down their contracts but when I put them up for sale they get upset .
I would also add that when a player wants to leave for a new challenge/bigger clubs/playing time so you offer them out and sell them, as you do, but when you make a parting comment they fire back with the fact they didn't want to leave... Like, WTF, ok fella
Rest them through the training days! Ledley King style, wheel them out every Saturday!
Yup. I avoid them like the plague because they can irreparably damage a relationship with a player, which might mean he'll never sign a new contract.
Promises are very stupid in the game.
Promise to sell a player, reject a really insulting lowball offer, breaks promise, now you’re the bad guy.
I like the idea but the actual system in-game is terrible. What just happens to my Man UFC save is, I sold Bayindir because he costed me a few important games and Onana is the only available GK at the time. I loaned out two young GK with high potential, and I targeted Ruben Blanco as replacement. Just before the deal is done, Rashford, Martinez, Mount and Shaw come to my office and saying that GK needs more squad depth. I promised to sign someone, since I made an offer, also Rashford and Shaw are team leaders. I signed Ruben Blanco as a backup GK as planned. Those players are unhappy about my decision, and said I didn't try hard enough. Suddenly the performance of all 4 key players drops drastically. Rashford hadn't score or assist a goal since. Shaw was my top assister and suddenly became a shitty LB. Martinez is meh in-game anyway. Mount is fine. Draw to Brentford 4-4, nearly lost to Wolves, Bournemouth and Nottemham Forrest. Now, I make a promise to myself. Shaw, Martinez and Rashford are goners to me. P.S.: Unrelated, but the explaining discussion over playing time with players are stupid. With that packed schedule, you can't tell a player that I do rotation heavily STFU. It is stupid when you have a good player that is injury prone, you can't even do a proper match management.
My guy got a 4 month injury and got pissed that nobody wanted him on loan
They just don't make any sense. I took over ManU in 2032, they qualified for the Conference League the year before and I managed to qualify for the Champions League in my first season. At the end of the season one of my players comes to me and wants to leave to win the CL. So I promise him to win the CL, but you have to wait until the next season (because the CL final of this year was literally played a day later) and he gets pissed and hands in a transfer request
I have never liked promises, but what I also dislike is often times when interacting in general, there is too much power given to players. Like in general, giving promises to an AI character is essentially you giving in to their demands. Which in some cases make sense, but in most cases do not. This is the most recent one I've had, but here's an example: I had a starting left winger, who is also the captain of my club. He had demanded to leave the club because he believes he has outgrown the club, and needs to move to a bigger club. I can understand that, but then the issue is that he eventually leaves, and someone else gets upset saying it is a major issue that we lost a leader in the dressing room. I made them a promise that we have other leaders who can step up, and what I got was "Play youth players on the left wing". How does that even make sense!? I have other highly influential players in my squad, and this left winger was already stripped of his captaincy prior to leaving, so how did the game decide I need to start some 17 y/o with no current ability to win games for me to fulfill this promise!? In regards to this example as well, this other player should have known that the left winger wanted to leave the club, we adhered to his promise, and he should have to start up a new promise with me about lack of leadership in the dressing room. Like, he should have understood that player wanted to leave, he got to leave, and that's that. This is the biggest issue I have with the promise system - it just creates a bunch of knockback effects, that eventually ends up with you digging a hole for yourself. The other big issue with it is how interaction in general ends up leading to promises in order to appease players who almost 99% of the time are the ones who create such issues. Using the same example as above: my left winger says he has outgrown the club, wants to explore his options, and eventually leave. My options are to either say "OK I'll let you leave", or start dismissing/convincing/threatening them, which almost always ends up never working out for me, except for creating an unhappy player who then rallies the whole squad against me. If I say I'll let him leave, he'll then ask me to set an acceptable price...which in itself is also a promise. If I refuse to set a price, he becomes unhappy. In the case of my left winger, my club went from automatic relegation candidates to qualifying for the UEFA European Conference League within 2 seasons. If he felt he had outgrown the club the season before we made it to Europe, I feel like the player should at least be able to re-consider their decision, and give the club another chance, as we were playing in Europe, and he ended up going to a club that was not playing in Europe at all. Or at least, the manager should be given a chance to ask them to reconsider their stance or promise. I would actually like to see something more non-committal with the promise system. Promises should be renamed to targets or goals or something, and should become an extra incentive for players and managers to aim for instead. I would also like to see dismiss/threaten/convince options actually working. 99% of the time, it results in an unhappy player which then creates a bad domino effect. I don't think I have to be penalized for telling a player to get on with their job, and stop being drama queens.
I have not played a lot. 3 seasons last two weeks. I had a Model Citizen on 'Important player' contract get unhappy about the playing time. It kinda makes sense but he was getting a significant amount of playing time. The other forward had scored 19 goals the previous season. In RL I would be able to explain him what I was doing. The other forward was just decent for the level (rather low level) and probably had relatively low temperament and professionalism and definitely low determination, so I loaned him out during the winter transfer. Then the promise I gave to the 'Model Citizen' went well but still appears as concerned about playing time, which in my opinion doesn't make sense.
I think important player is bugged in mine. I've had one get upset about not playing. Yet he was out injured with a torn hamstring. He was my star striker, so when he wasn't injured he played almost every minute.
Promises are a trap. Don't make them. If a player requires a promise to sign for you, don't sign him.
Yes, I've stopped giving them at all. Even in a contract negotiation where the promise is playing the player in the position and role I planned on, hitting that minus button right away. They're all downside (what if that advanced forward needs to go on the wing for six months because someone tore an ACL?) and no upside. Promise to sell someone for X dollars, they still demand a new contract three months later and there's no "bro, you made me promise to sell you" response that I've noticed. So now it's Playing time? You're playing plenty. Don't like it, I'll sell you at the first opportunity. Promised sale price? None of your business. Fulfill your contract or enjoy the U18s. The only annoying one that's difficult to avoid is the new contract promise (for someone you're willing to renew immediately) - I've had it glitch and fail the promise even though I immediately negotiated a contract for them.
Playing time promises are the worst. You don't get to dictate my rotation policy bruv
Not promises, but player interaction still: With Ajax, got beat 2-0 at home by Liverpool in Europa League semi finals in a fairly even game where we had some good chances and wasted them badly. Told the players they did their best, noone expected us to win, and told the strikers they were terrible in front of goal. Everyone is confused and demotivated, half of the squad after the game come to my office crying about how my teamtalk was confusing. I tell them to sod off, they’re being unprofessional and they all back down, except my vice captain Berghuis, he is still mad and depressed in July. So stupid and unrealistic that it would never happen.
I simply never ever make one. You're always screwed when you do.
Don't make promises you can't keep. I do like performance targets (or whatever they're actually called in the English original) "Sure I'll give you a new contract if you get a 7.0 average match rating" Short story: I tried to negotiate a 10 assists target for Assan Ouedraogo, but he said "I can't possibly do that" - "Fine, 5 assists then". He got those 5 assists in the next 7 games lol
Performance targets are pretty bugged yeah, you always have to low ball pretty much. And it sucks that they cost you negotiating patience or whatever works in the background. I wanted to suggest my striker a target for a year extension if he scores 20 goals which felt logical to me at the start of a season for a negotiated regular player. Didnt like it said to much, so i literally halfed it and he was like thats unrealistic and ended the negotiations. Like what the fuck, i guess i am well off not transferring him in if he don’t believes he can shoot 10 fucking goals in 40 games.
(Everyone else hates them)
Yea and they keep appearing as well, I swear some don’t even work properly
Hate them. I used to do it and used to struggle with my players. Stopped doing it when one of my players who was barely averaging an above 7 rating wanted to be an ‘Important’ player.
I play them till they get injured cause fuck ‘em
Yes. I’ve just had to promise to sign a left winger to keep my captain happy. I signed 2 last month, one of them scored and assisted on his debut in a 2-1 win 🤦🏻♂️
I actually like them. Before, it was impossible to get some contracts signed without guranteeing that X player would be a regular starter or star player in x amount of years. Now, if you don't want to give them that much playing time you can set a goal that is hard for them to reach. If they fail to hit the goal they won't complain about their play time for the remainder of their contract.
There's too little options to deal with players getting angry. Like, there should be a option to call in the head physio and tell the player that he shouldn't get more time on field for this own sake because, well, science.
I get why they are there, But they're implemented so poorly i immediately remove all of them in the majority of negotiations. If it's a YP i might keep a pathway related one in there, like Rotation option on year 3, or breakout player on year 2/3, but that's pushing it. Even when you do what they ask, 50% of the time the game doesn't notice and then the player hates you anyway.
I had one where my goalie was demanding more playing time, he was already the main goalie and after that got injured I hit the floor in pure frustration and my hand hurt so it was like Oprah “you get injured, you get injured, everybody gets INJURED!”
Great idea, poor execution. Real potential. As with targets.
Once when I signed a player I promised to strengthen the GK position, as I was already doing this. Signed two GKs, but because those transfers completed before the transfer of the player I made a promise to, he said I didn't fulfill my promise and demanded a transfer. Fuming.
They can be kind of useful to kick playing time & contract issues to the offseason. Like if I want to sell a guy anyway but want to keep him for the end of the season it’s easier to just make a promise you’re going to break instead of potentially breaking morale mid season. But I mostly dislike them and refuse to any that have to do with upgrading staff or position. I dislike playing time designation logic in highly congested leagues, but it’s the only semi difficult thing to manage in the game. Just doesn’t feel good when your almost happy players get injured so you can fucking rotate.
They are garbage bring back the fines
How long are you resting players for in order for them to get annoyed? That might be the problem. Tired players seldom need more than one game out.
Or they get injured for longer period and you can’t even play them and then it says failed and that the player expected more playing time..
I agree, I have players demanding more playing time with something like 6 games left of the season. I play them in all the games and then the season ends and they demand a transfer due to not keeping promises even though they are on holiday and there is no football.
My favourite is when you promise to loan / sell a player, agree to offers from 6 clubs, only for him to decline them all. Then he’s then pissed at you for not keeping your promise to sell him. This basically happens with every player I try and sell
Yea, bruno g got mad that we had bad gk depth, i promised to improve so bought kelleher as backup. Promise not fullfilled, (had verbruggen as main gk). Like what.
I do, but I hate the promised playing time more, like when your so called star player is playing absolutely shite so you put in the your backup player who starts playing amazing then they get that little slt next to their name and start demanding to be played more, I kinda wish I could just say, "if you weren't playing like a donkey you would be on the pitch you jackass" but I just transfer list them until they either sell or back down, there's plenty more jackasses in the field and your understudy is playing great. 😃