mattbuck

I have had several players, who are going to stay in the game and take up various roles such as managing and coaching. I encouraged them to do so, but after they retire they disappear from the game? Am i missing something here?

mattbuck

Also, i was unable to offer them a staff contract because it said they plan to retire on so and so a date, yet in there profile it says they are staying in the game!

spoonguardreturns

Not all retired players stay in the game even if they apparently want to. Probably for the same reasons as players don't become professional - they wanted to be coaches, but weren't very good at it and decided to do something else, or just retired before they were fully ready to become coaches.

Sadly, if, when they announce their retirement, they don't have any staff qualifications, they're probably not going to become staff (as far as I'm aware, please correct me if I'm wrong). So, if they're retiring, you won't be able to offer them a staff contract, and they'll go the way of the text message.

Ched

Yeah in game i've never seen someone retire, and then re-appear with a qualification (as shearer is doing now!) which is IMO a fairly poor miss by FM. IRL plently of players retire, then go off to get their badges etc and then return to coaching.

In FM it appears that "Retire" means bugger off to the bahamas indefinitely.

Chas (Psyatika)

I never understood why retired players just disappear completely from the game. I guess it's an issue of hard drive space? With save games compressed, i can't see it being too much of a problem to keep, at the very least, retired players with a certain number of professional matches (to get rid of the youth players who never make it).

If anything, make other teams' grey players unclickable (can't sign them anyway), and leave us the retired players.

spoonguardreturns

I was thinking that! We must have the same mind!

On a more serious note, yes, I would like to see players disappear for a few years, and gradually become coaches. I'd propose a sort of 'purgatory', a mid-point between playing and retiring, which players who are considering becoming staff (like in the case of the OP), exist in, unable to be signed, but clickable, and still in the game. Then, after a few months (or years), their long term future plans will improve to 'Hopes to achieve coaching badges soon', and they'd get the appropriate badges and become full-time coaches (or their hopes of becoming coaches would cool off, and the plan would say 'No longer wishes to become a coach', and then they could disappear from the database, as would those who expressed no interest in staying in football).

In theory, if there were enough of these players, it would be possible for them to replace, or at least reduce, the randomly generated regen staff who become coaches for lower-league teams, or randomly appear to manage a team.

Incidentally (and almost completely off-topic), do referees retire and get replaced? Possibly a fourth job option for ex-players would be refereeing, or would that be too unrealistic?