I was looking over the player market earlier today and noticed there were a large number of people who seemed to be selling players not long after signing or resigning them.  This got me wondering, how many people are truly taking advantage of the ACE function in their PPM account.

What is the ACE?

ACE, or Automatic Contract Extension refers to the function where your team will automatically offer your players new contracts when their current one expires.  Generally, this is a good thing as most of us have players we plan to keep long-term anyway.  There are times however when we may have players who are on our team, but are not part of the future plans.  What do we do with them?  Scratch them game after game?  List them on the market?  Sure, they are 2 very viable options, however both of these run a major risk; the player not selling, and your team offering him a new contract when you didn't really want or need to spend money.

Managing The ACE

Before you can truly understand how to best manage the ACE you need an appreciation for how valuable this seemingly small feature is.  Thinking over the time you have been in PPM, when was the last time you fired a player (excluding players new from the Sports Academy)?  Do you remember paying a fee to do so?  You did, as would be expected if you terminate a players contract before it's due date.  Now think about WHY you fired that player.  Ask yourself, if you had held on to that player a little longer and simply let them leave after their contract expires, would you have paid that fee?  The answer naturally is "of course not!".

That is only 1 simple way the ACE can step in and help your team self-manage itself.  Here's another.

Have you ever had a player from the SA or from the market that you bought but were never sure if they would pay off?  I have a system which allows me to manage the skill of my players.  After i buy a player i turn their ACE to OFF.  Yes, i quite literally turn off the contract extension function of a player i just bought.  Does that sound a little crazy?  Maybe, but here's my reasoning.  I consider their first contract term a trial period.  The system will warn me that their ACE is turned off before the contract expires, so i have time to change it before it does.  If the player has played well, i turn the ACE back on and they become a fully fledged part of my team.  If i'm not happy, or if they have turned out to be a dud, i let the contract expire and wave them goodbye, OR i list them on the market if they are worth the time and effort.

Essentially I use the ACE to help me manage my team.  Do you?