The story of Martin Bergvold. Martin Bergvold, a central midfielder, with some ability on the left, greeted my arrival at FC Kobenhavn from the treatment table. He was badly injured, and I wouldn't see him in action until the second half of the season. And so I went about my plans with him as an irrelevance. I formed my midfield of Captain William Kvist as a ball winner, and Claudemir as a playmaker. And it worked. Really well. We were cruising to the title by the time Bergvold, a 27 year old established midfielder, was available again. So Bergvold stayed out of the team. He made one start and 2 substitute appearances, all coming when the title had already been wrapped up.

And so the new season came and the chance for a fresh start. But there were issues. My midfield setup worked. I didn't want to change it. Bergvold is a robust and decent player. But he can't tackle or mark, so I can't play him as a ball winner. And his passing and creativity aren't sufficient enough to be a playmaker. So the obvious decision is to sell him. But that decision was made less obvious when Claudemir's release clause was met, and he swanned off back to Brazil. So here we have Bergvold. Probably the 5th central midfielder in the lineup - a little too important to simply let go. But with no obvious place in the lineup. And on high wages (well, for a team in a financial crisis of sorts). He is a nowhere man.

What to do with Martin Bergvold? Here we come to the crux of the issue - that fears, from all angles, cloud my ability to simply stick him on the transfer list. Firstly, for reasons of politics. If I put him on the transfer list, and he kicks off, what happens if the rest of the squad follow suit. On FM10, I transfer listed Brede Hangeland in a game with Fulham, after he had complained for months about wanting a move away. And the squad, like the contemporary MENA nations, seized upon the chance for a revolution. Whilst all eventually calmed down, results plummeted. We slipped near to relegation, and I left the club ingloriously. What if that happens now?

There are substantial politically sensitive situations in Football Manager, and the decision to transfer list a player claws up many of them. If Martin Bergvold is suddenly needed in my first team - if a square peg is called upon to jump into a round hole - might this cause more ruptures within the team? Might he play poorly, and our form plummet? Is it more dangerous to keep him around, or more dangerous to try and shift him? I wish there were an easy answer. For the moment, he exists in a stasis - unable to make it into the first team, exempt from being shifter on (what if no club wants him? he's a good player, but his wages will always be a stumbling block). He is Schrodinger's midfielder.

This leads on naturally enough to the second issue - that of game theory. Game theory covers situations in a game where the actions of one player come down fundamentally to what he perceives that the actions, thoughts and knowledge of the other player are and will be. This most obviously manifests itself in something like chess, where the opponents strive, more than anything else, to telegraph their opponents and counter and pre-empt them, without giving themself away to their opposition. But it exists in football too. Most obviously in a penalty. The player taking the penalty is known to hit them to his left. The keeper knows this, so he thinks he should go left. But the player knows the keeper is good at saving them to his left. The keeper knows that the player taking the penalty knows this. Who has the advantage? Who is best positioned to telegraph their opponent?

I have fears along these lines in tranfer listing a player. If I put him on the list, will he kick off. If he is put on the list, will he immediately think to kick off, or to try and prove his worth. If I transfer list him, will the players galvanise against me? Or will the players galvanise for me? If I transfer list him - essentially - am I making the best move of the options available to me? Might the cost of getting it wrong be too expensive to write off as a mistake to learn from? It's all politics and game theory to me. Maybe I just think too much about these minutiae


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