wana_be_seal

Hi to all,

I'd like to raise an issue and I believe this is the proper forum since it has to do with players and teams they play for,

I am managing Real Sociedad (expecting to be sacked due to a bug, but that's another story) which is located at San Sebastian, Spain, in the Basque country.

I've been there for 3 seasons now, and I am facing the second player who is experiencing difficulties to settle in.

The first one was a player called Yann Schneider who under-delivered in his first season then came to me and said he is fully adapted after one year.

Since the next season just started I still have to wait if this is true.

I know there is an attribute about adaptability for players, but I was wondering what would make a French man hard to adapt in the Basque country?

I mean, he's not going to play in the Arctic, although Basque language is hard Spanish and French are close and both are known in the place such as the cultures which are both Latin. Not to mention the Human Development Index which should be close.

Weather shouldn't be a problem just like social/economical standards, language and culture, well...

I reckon if the game uses some kind of political factor to make it more difficult - say to go to places where there are strong political situations such as the Basque country or Israel, perhaps?

I thought about the size of the city, but with 200k+ people San Sebastian hardly is a too small city specially for a guy who played in a team from a small French town.

Having said that, my new unsettled player is even more puzzling.

Miranda. A Brazilian, well, he may have had a hard time to adapt to Europe when he first arrived but at my game he was bought from Fiorentina after 3 seasons in Europe, 2 with the Italian club.

Florence is not a huge city (though beautiful).

Europe, once you get used to it, should be a lot better than Brazil given the social/economical conditions - again he's not playing at the tundra.

After all, what I am trying to guess is:

- Is there a reason why Real Sociedad/San Sebastian is a tougher team/city to settle in?

- Are there factual correlations between a player's adaptability and where he will play in reference to his conditions/history?

I mean, if I get a Brazilian playing in Norway, well, I understand. The same with a Norwegian coming to play in Brazil, due to the weather.

Perhaps a suggestion is that this attribute for adaptability changes over time in a player's career?

Does anyone know if that happens nowadays cause I am really keen to understand why a player at 28-29 years of age having played in European medium cities would find hard to settle in San Sebastian (except if there's in fact an increasing difficulty factor given the perceived political tensions over the Basque country, which I wouldn't agree to, by the way).

Could anyone more experienced clarify me on such issues?

And, of course, does anyone know how to accelerate someone's adjustment to a place?

Just praising him after games would help?

Cheers and thanks,
Rodrigo

wana_be_seal

Oh, and about Miranda - with the amount of money he's earning in my team he could bring all his family and a personal cook to do a feijoada (Brazilian beans dish) every weekend..

retired_mas2354

Not sure wether its a factor in the game ( pretty smart if it is though) im sure that as a rule of thumb Real Sociedad only sign players who are born Basque natinality with the odd exception like John Aldridge. I know this is deffinetly the case for Athletic Bilbao.

wana_be_seal

Hi Spineles,

Currently Sociedad IRL has some foreign players from Argentina, Serbia, etc.

They already had Brazilians and the most succesful coach they had was Welsh.

Having said that, you're right in the fact that they do value Basque players strongly and have a very prominent youth system.

But Athletic is more restrictive than Sociedad, that's for sure.

It should be a real challenge to manage in Bilbao, as it must be in Chivas from Mexico to a lesser extent since there is plenty of Mexican talent in the game nowadays.

I'd still love to have some input from SI whether settling is dependent on the city/country the team is located or only based in the player adaptability and chance.

Cheers,
Rodrigo