The best way to keep a player without upsetting him?

Theres a few ways of keeping a player, one of the ways is saying "Hand's Off" in transfer speculation but if the player will likely want to leave it only upsets them. I heard that boosting an offered transfer fee up by 30/40mil keeps the teams away and that worked for me in 08 but that just upsets players on me now.

If I put their asking price up to 50mil (Max I can atm) will that stop teams bidding for them or will I forever have to work with upset players?

Its a real pain in the backside when half the champions league teams are declaring interest and telling my players they have bags of ability... they know they have the ability!! I keep telling them! but it almost shatters any good start to my season when I have, on average, 3 to 4 first team players wanting to move to a bigger club. One regen was upset the entire season and scored half as many goals as he did the season before because he wanted to move back to Germany/A bigger club.

I had the same problem, when after 7 years I finaly made it to the EPL, 7 or 8 player of my team were unsetled by speculation and every major club in Europe made bids for them. I only managed to keep 2 of them, built a descent squad with new players, then January transfer window came, the same story.

Problem is, they get frustrated even if I dare to negotiate their tranfer bids (reasonable negotiations, i.e a 30-40% adding to their value). One temporary solution that I found to make rivals withdraw their bids without upsetting my players, is to negotiate a part excange deal. I usually request one of their star players for a part/ex seal, their withdraw, but keep coming back, again and again. Maybe this will help you, at least till the next transfer window.

Thanks i'll try this next time I get a bid.

I just got a message from my assistant manager saying one of my want-away players is asking for a new contract. He's been in 14.5k a week for a whole season now but couldn't give him a new contract as he wanted away. Think I might be able to keep him now, or at least slap a few more £'s on his transfer fee if my hand is forced and I have to sell.

I lucked out and got to keep a good winger because he got hurt while I was in the process of selling him (at his request). He broke his leg, which meant the transfer was scuttled; I then jumped on him while he was down, signed him on a five-year deal that paid him boatloads more cash, and he's happy now.

a way i find if a player is saying he wants to be allowed to talk in the offer screen is to stall the offer and go and offer the player a new contract. If he willing to sign a new contract then when the offer comes round after the stall he wont want to leave (this works at decent prem clubs when there offers from abroad clubs like Real madrid etc)

Now that xx11 mentioned it, there's also the possibility to offer back-to-back contracts to players that are wanted. You must do it as soon as you realise the ineterst of other clubs, before they make a bid, that is. The good thing is that maybe the player is willing to renew his contract two or three times in a row, requesting almost the same wage (and you can reduce the signing fee to almost 0)!! As a result the clubs withdraw their interest, but this can only last for a couple of weeks, till we have the same story.

The bad thing is that it's completely unrealistic to have a contract offer with identical clauses accepted over and over again, even if it's to your favour.

This works for me. When a team make an offer for your player, say 5million, i negotiate this back (as non-negotiable) for an amount i don't believe they will pay. Say ten million. This works most of the time except when you reject an offer for anything above double the players value. I'm sure the key figure not to reject is double (though it might be more) of a players value, then they will become unhappy.

I lucked out and got to keep a good winger because he got hurt while I was in the process of selling him (at his request). He broke his leg, which meant the transfer was scuttled; I then jumped on him while he was down, signed him on a five-year deal that paid him boatloads more cash, and he's happy now.

Questionable man management, hehe.

Questionable man management, hehe.

I know, I felt guilty, like I'd gotten him to sign when he was all doped up or something.