A historic meeting took place yesterday in Milan as the Borussia Dortmund and greatest ever Levante manager, Dario Saviano met with Top 100 boss Beddows.

Dario was supposedly flying in from Germany at the behest of the Levante fans to discuss the future of Salvo. A man who has reduced many Levante fans to verge of mental breakdowns and seen children in floods of tears over the last 3 awful seasons - with some even swapping their Levante shirts for Atletico Madrid ones...

In what has been labelled as a crisis meeeting by some of the right wing Top 100 media - Salvo a manager who has delivered back to back relegwtions and finds himself 10 points off the lead in Division 3 should be under pressure? What has gone wrong?

The left leaning Marsden press office though takes a more Liberal view - with infamous and superbly talented Portugese journalist Nuno commenting.

"Salvo can do what he wants - like Lazio - this meeting from Dario was all about attention! He loves and needs the attention - shit manager - can't even get Vinicius Junior playing properly!"

An agreement was allegedly reached that if Salvo fails to make the play offs as a minimum then Dario may ask Dortmund for a clause in his contract which means he can go back and "save" Levante - The top 100 admin authorities remain tight lipped however and have denied that should Salvo fail then a rescue team of Glen and Gav will be sent in to sell of all assets and invest in over 30s to ensure the glory days and promotions return to the mismanaged side.

My summary of a two month old WhatsApp group chat discussion on Admin's sudden decision to remove all contracts produced a stream of vile abuse, hysterical nonsense, and fact-starved diatribes from all the usual suspects on the Top 100 newsfeed. So much so that I had to delete the thread after a day.

That said, there was some wheat to be found among the all chaff, and here it is, again in summary form (and again with a little help from my AI friend).

There were some good suggestions made, which I'm not going to include here, as they were not directly about contracts. I hope to do a separate post on those.

Some managers do, some managers don't.

• Some managers value time at one club in order to build a team for the future, focussing on acquiring young talent with potential in the long term.
• Some managers value success in the league and cup competitions, focussing on acquiring higher rated players to help them do that in the short term.
• Some managers value trying to do both, as many are doing now and have done before.
• The problem with contracts from Season 16 onwards was that they created a loophole which was exploited to gain what many managers perceive as an unfair advantage. While it's important to be clear and restate that no rules were broken, the loophole allowed managers to decimate their first team for some of the most highly sought after but lower rated youth players, get relegated in two consecutive seasons and still not have their job reviewed by the "secret panel" because they won a friendly youth competition that was rewarded with a contract-free season in which to repeat the trick.
• Understandably, this has aroused very strong opinions and emotions. For some, it's great, clever, canny management and how Soccer Manager is meant to be played. For others, it's the antithesis of what Top 100 is supposed to be about - 100 active managers all competing to win every game.

History of contracts in Top 100

Top 100 is in its 20th season, and for most of that time, we have had contracts in one form or another, from Season 3 onwards with voluntary "stipulations", then from Season 10 with contracts for managers taking on a new club, and then from Season 16 we had the introduction of mandatory contracts.

The reason for the reintroduction of contracts in Season 10 was to make Top 100 "more fun, competitive and realistic", and as a result of a manager vote. Contracts were negotiated privately, but all made public once agreed.

Contracts were made mandatory from D16, but were imposed without negotiation, and not published. One perception was that these new contracts were designed to force lower rated teams to sell their most sought after youth players to the teams with the highest rated players, in search of better ratings to fulfill their contract obligations and avoid the sack.

In reality, we've always had a mixed group of managers - some adhering (or not) to self-imposed voluntary stipulations, managers who take new clubs negotiating their own (unenforceable) contract, and others preferring neither.

What changed was the number of managers having a contract (from none to 98), and from contracts (or stipulations) being voluntary and self-imposed, to mandatory and imposed without any negotiation.

What's clear is that we'll never have 100 managers agreeing on something this controversial.

Contracts for those that want them?

They wouldn't even need any input from Admin if one or more managers wanted to take on the responsibility for organising them (and they could include records of activity or anything else, if someone wanted to do that extra work), like Rahul used to with stipulations:

• Anyone who didn't want to have a contract, wouldn't have one.
• Everyone automatically sacked for being in the bottom three at the end of the season would continue to be reviewed as they always have been, contract or not.
• The contractors and the lifers could continue to mock each other's efforts, or - in an alternative universe - we could all just learn to live together, tolerate (or even appreciate) our different strategies. And be kind.

At the end of the day, it's only a game.

Almost two months ago, all manager contracts were terminated, and replaced by a new system whereby only managers finishing in the bottom four of their divisions will have their position up for review by the “secret panel” (bottom four, unless they won a contract-free season last season). The activity proposals were scrapped (for the time being, at least).

This caused a LOT of discussion in the WhatsApp group. Here’s a summary of the main points (with some AI help).

Contracts

Here are some of the pros and cons of the contract system:

Pros:

• It ensures that managers are held accountable for their performance.
• It encourages managers to be active and to participate in the game.
• It helps to create a sense of competition and excitement.
• It helps to create new job opportunities and to reward managers who have been successful.
• Manager turnover helps keep the transfer market active.
• It makes Top 100 more realistic.

Cons:

• Contracts were too easy on the big teams, and too hard on the lower division sides?
• Some managers want to stay at a team long term and build (or rebuild).
• Manager turnover at some clubs can be disruptive to the club's long term health.

Proposed changes

There is a lot of disagreement about the proposed changes to the contract system ((bear in mind that the activity proposals haven't been implemented).

• Some people believe that the changes are too subjective and will lead to more controversy, while others believe that they are necessary to improve the system.
• Some people are in favour of keeping the system as it is, while others are in favour of making changes.

The contract system (as was) is not perfect, and it could be improved.

What's important?

The most important thing is to have a system that is transparent and that is communicated clearly to all managers. This will help to ensure that everyone is treated fairly and that there is no confusion about the rules.

It is important to have a system that:

• is fair and objective, that does not lead to favouritism or discrimination, and that encourages managers to perform well.
• ensures that managers are held accountable for their performance.
• is flexible enough to adapt to changes in the game. The football world, and Top 100, is constantly evolving, and so the contract system should be able to evolve with it.

The best way to find a solution that is fair, objective, and flexible is to have a open and honest discussion about the issue. Together, we can find a solution that works for everyone.

Suggested improvements

The best way to address the cons of the current system is to make changes that will make it more fair and that will encourage more managers to participate. Some possible changes include:

1. Remove free seasons altogether. This would make it more difficult for managers to coast and would force them to perform well in order to keep their jobs.
2. Only give free seasons to teams that win trophies or finish in the top four. This would reward good performance and would help to keep the competition competitive.
3. Have simple, clear and objective expectations for performance and participation.
4. Give managers more time to succeed. Introduce a system of warnings and penalties for managers who fail to meet expectations. This would give managers a chance to improve their performance before they are sacked.
5. Provide more opportunities for managers to improve their teams (e.g., changes to squad cap rules, new rules on requirements to sell players who develop concerns).
6. Make it easier for managers to get back into the game after they have been sacked (maybe this happens already, but, for example, an offer of a club in Top 120).

These suggested improvements are designed to address some of the problems that have been identified with the current system.

For example, the current system does not do enough to encourage managers to be active and to participate in the game. The proposed changes would address this by requiring managers to meet certain participation requirements in order to retain their jobs.

These suggestions are also designed to address the problem of free seasons. The current system allows managers to get free seasons for completing certain tasks, such as winning a cup or finishing in a certain position in the league. This has led to some managers being able to build up a large number of free seasons, which gives them an unfair advantage over other managers. The proposed changes would limit the number of free seasons that managers can get, which would make the game more competitive.

These improvements would make the contract system more fair and would encourage more managers to participate in the game.

All of these proposals have merit, and it would be interesting and useful to keep this conversation going, and think about how these ideas could work in practice.

Please remember, these are not my thoughts, but a summary of the thoughts of several managers in the WhatsApp group who responded to the Admin post linked above in the opening sentence.

Please feel free to share your ideas in the comments below, or better still, write your own blog post.

Espanyol tomorrow face Chievo as they kick off in this seasons youth cup looking to progress from the groups.

last seasons losing finalist certainly have a team which should progress to the knock out stages.

Leonardo who spear headed last seasons campaign has moved to Italian giants Juventus. A new look attack sees Broja, Kalimuendo, Elanga and Almada tasked with producing the goods. Whilst Stiller who was pivotal in the sides run last season will be joined in midfield by Sarr.

At the back Martel has been brought in to partner Sangante who continues to improve and is seen as one very much to keep an eye on this season.

Japanese youngster Sasaki takes the reigns in goal and will need to be at his very best if Espanyol are to progress to the latter stages.

GIven the strength within the Espanyol academy, its mouth watering to think the likes of Ben Seghir, Fernandez, Rodriguez, Guler, Nkubu, Hartman, Gomez, Karpukas, Hansen, Chaibi and Simic are not part of this seasons roster, although as the competition progresses with updates, some of these are likely to come into play.

"We are really pleased with the squad, so many of our youth team are now getting first team experience and with the ones waiting in the wings we have the potential to be very strong in this competition for a number of seasons. It was a gamble to let Leonardo go, but we felt with Ben Seghir likely to come through in the next 12 months and having Broja here for the next couple of competitions it was a gamble worth doing. Given the recent capture of Rodriguez, we now have an abundance of riches in young strikers playing a big clubs and already making a real life impact."

"The intention is the players within this seasons youth team will make natural progression to our first team. We already have Almada, Stiller, Kalimuendo and Hickey getting regular first team action, and with young players like Smith-Rowe, Vieira, Ilic and Garcia already main stays in the first team set up at 22 its certainly going to get competitive. We always knew our un-planned promotion would cause us issues this season. Being in division 1 two seasons too early is a minor setback. However we have not changed the path/strategy. We will enjoy the lights of division 1 this season with the knowledge relegation is certain. We wont be trading our assets for aging ratings to get a stay of excecution in division 1. This would be counter production in my opinion. We are sat on a gold mine of talent and as that matures this team is going to become a real force. Its took us 187 games to get to this point, a lot of scouting, trading and hours upon hours of negotiations to build a team which i believe represents one of the most promising squads in the gameworld. We dont need to buy or sell and have ample players in all positions who can only get better."

"The youth cup gives us an opportunity to take a peak at the future, and although the trophy is very low on our priority list, it gives us a chance to see these players in action and build a picture of what the long term could look like"

Malcolm's stats consolidated (for Glen)

Understandably so some are concerned that the end of contracts means managers / some clubs wont ever become available and "clubs for life" would happen.

I'd hope that some managers would recognize when they weren't doing so well and when it is time to move on - but understand that isnt always the case.

Contracts were never going to make everyone happy and would never be perfectly fair. So our proposal to be discussed and then voted on.

A system of WARNINGS - admin would reserve the right to issue warnings to managers if they are underperforming at 3 points during the season - 3 WARNINGS over the course of 3 seasons would result in your job going to the panel?

How would this work?

Malcolm stats v in game activities - with a lot of leeway based on activity.

So how would you get a warning? Performances reviewed 3x a season - game 19, 27 and game 38. EACH PERFORMANCE REVIEW will equal a warning IF you are more than 5 places below your predicted.

EG: Game 19 - Dortmund are 11th (predicted 5th) - then they would get a warning. Game 27 - Dortmund are 13th they get a second warning, Game 38 - Dortmund are 11th they get a 3rd warning and job goes to panel.

HOWEVER we understand there is leeway and more managers might be doing for the gameworld/club so before a WARNING is issued the following will be considered.

1. Are DORTMUND prioirtising/trying in cups which justifies under performance in league? 1 point
2. Are DORTMUND active in the transfer market? Trying to improve? Make deals? 1 point
3. Are DORTMUND partaking in youth cup/world club cup? setting team correctly etc? 1 point
4. Are DORTMUND active AND interact on newsfeed/whatsapp/facebook/blog etc? 2 points

So Game 19 - Dortmund are 11th (predicted 5th) but they do ALL of the ABOVE they are 6th so to speak as they contribute to the gameworld, are active and work hard. So NO WARNING given.

How would it be administered and monitored? we have a state of the art spreadsheet to monitor it all. Each of the Top 4 divisions will be admined by one of the ADMINS who will be in touch after EACH review period for clubs in question. Division 5 would be overseen by all.

Please note BOTTOM 4 will still automatically go to panel at the end of the season UNLESS manager is on a FREE season. Previous WARNINGS given may be taken into account.

A sad day as after 200 caps, 91 goals, 69 assists, 24 MOM, 2x world cups winner medals and 1x runner up Mario Balotelli is to join a number of other Italians in retiring from the international side.

Season 20 will see many newly capped players as they look to the future.