I can confess I am in the camp that thinks this is a pretty poor game for many of the reasons posted.

Lack of career progression just rounds it off for me. I am a "continental rep" manager (I am sure they must have heard of me in Spain!!) with Sutton now of Championship but even through resigning I cannot get a decent job, advancement. Meanwhile my players are all upset because they want to leave (invariably for clubs in lower divisions!!) because everyone ones them, but not little old me, what have I ever done

Lets go back to the match engine and watch my 35th shot of the game cleared off the line after a treble, double save block (yawn...)

It’s not necessarily the game, your players might be leaving because your not paying them as much as they can get with other clubs, what size of crowds your pulling, maybe your not doing well in the league?

In regards to career progression, your Sutton! Your not exactly going to get the Barca job, maybe you should try and get a job with a bigger team in a lower division team for a year try and win something then take the step up from there

For instance look at Peter Taylor ex premiership manager, caretaker England manager and he’s now managing non league,

Have you won anything?

How you get continental rep by only taking Sutton to the CCC?

How many CCC managers, who have not previously managed at a higher level, have been hired by spanish clubs?

If you think about this question it should clear up why you haven't been offered a job in spain.

Get a job at a smaller prem club and within a couple of seasons (or a couple of trophies) you should be linked with all manner of jobs.

I had continental rep by takin my mighty Burton team to the Championship, don't know how lol. I won every league to get there though, consecutively

Now 5 games into the Premiership after playin Man U, Arsenal then Liverpool in my first 3 games. Lost all 3 by a goal. Currently 11th place with 6 points after 5 games.

Just gotta keep them up lol

Just to say I started my carrer at Gateshead and have just got them into the Prem (2019) I over-achieved quite a lot on the way there and have just been offered the Man Utd job. Admittedly they're languishing in mid table but it's still an offer from a big club.

I'd lower your expectations to something a bit more realistic, it takes a long time to build your reputation, particularly if you left your starting rep as 'Automatic' or 'Sunday League footballer'.

By the way, I turned Man Utd down, I'm going no-where until Gateshead are the best team in the world.

My rep changed to Continental when I won Cola League 1 (I have won some other stuff (the minor trophies) which suprised me.

What has suprised me more is that Villa, Man City, and another Prem club all turned me down. I aint talking Barcelona or R. Madrid.

I'll look at player salaries - still suprised they want to go to clubs in lower leagues. This is rare?

My Career to date.

AFC Telford.
Nottm Forest.
Blackburn.
Portsmouth.

These are still relatively big clubs and will rarely look to appoint a manager who's still quite unproven and as yet has not managed in a top league. It's likely that they're able to find plenty of other candidates who they feel will be more suited to the job at the moment.

Which clubs players join is dependant mostly on the reputation of that club (represented by a numerical value in the database that goes up or down as you do well/badly)

However, it takes more than a couple of seasons to up a small clubs reputation to the same standard as bigger clubs who may have a history. So even though you might be playing in the league above some of these clubs, they still may have a higher reputation than you. Think Leeds, Nottingham Forest, Norwich etc. All teams with top flight backgrounds so in real life many players may prefer to play for these teams than Sutton, even if Sutton were in the Championship.

The strange thing then is that the game thinks your reputation is continental. I think this should not be the case.

Though I do agree, prem clubs should not all turn you down if your reputation is continental. Though the actual candidate that did get the job may have been an even better match (even higher reputation, or, for a cash-stripped/unambitious club, a lower reputation!)