the WE hit can make the player really limited in future development unless he was either really high WE (so the loss doesn't lower him into un-improvable territory) or it was really low (and he wasn't going to improve anyway, meaning you recruited him for his current ability - in which case you'd have probably played/started him...) As a general rule I try to keep all my promises, but I know there is a school of thought that goes the other way...promises mean high reward (signing better kids or signing kids more easily) and you gamble that he'll stick around and not become useless...