Advice On Lower League Transfer Needed.

I signed a young lad on a free transfer after he had been released by Aston Villa. I watched him in a England Trialist match and his performance persuaded me to offer him a full time contract (rare for my club AFC Telford) as I thought he was one for the future. After an injury to one of my starting centre halves early on in the season, the young lad came in and never looked back. I'm near the end of the season now and looking at promotion (top by 5 pts with 7 games to play). I've noticed that number of clubs, from higher divisions, are now sniffing at my very promising DC who is only valued at £5K. I have him tied down to a 2 year deal so he ain't going nowhere on a free. I currently have £130 K in the bank and I'm losing on average, around £4k per month, although I'll get money at the end of the season for cups and league. My question is, how much would be to good an offer to turn down. I was thinking around about £50 K + 25% sell-on clause. Is this to much or not enough. I'm finding it much harder to proper appreciate the true value of lower league players (lowest I've played before this game is League One and I usually play in the Prem with a top side). Your help would be much appreciated. Cheers.

I know player naming is not allowed but if you cropped off his name from a screenshot and posted it, it would be easier to asses, along with a coach or scout report please.

Hope that helps.

My perspective, from about the BSP level, is that 250k is my "Too good to refuse" level.

That does depend on a couple of things, notably, whether or not I have similar quality players at the same position, and how much he's costing my wage bill.

Still, you can get to 250k in a couple different ways - initial transfer value, payments over 24 months, "Arrange Friendly" clause with a big enough club, and even up to 50% sell-on clauses.

From the screen shots, this player doesn't look like he's quite up to that level, TBH, something more like 100k over 24 months might be the "Too good to refuse" level for him, specifically. (Due to his middling Jumping, Natural Fitness, Determination, Team Work, Positioning, and First Touch.)

Any value below that, you're going to want to weigh on its individual merits and your financial situation. Your finances sound ridiculously strong to me - I'm 100k in debt with a loan to repay, and hemorrhaging money monthly - so I wouldn't think of yourself as in a "Need to sell" situation.

However, you may wind up forced to sell him if he decides he's too big for the club - I'd try to tie him down for a third season now, while you still can .. you might also be advised to try and maneuver him into naming you or the club amongst his "favorites" (via team-talks and media manipulation), if you want to retain him.

Given his professionalism and Full-Time status, its probably also worth making him his own personal training schedule, if you haven't already, to focus on bringing up those weaknesses I mentioned earlier.

Thanks for the advice Amaroq. Fortunatley I'm already on his favoured personel list (probably because I rescued him from the scrap heap). My coach seems to think he could cut the mustard in League Two and I would like keep him, its quite satisfying brining a young player through and getting the maximum out of their limited ability. At the moment I have only one other DC who is as good as he is, though he is getting on a bit now and my coach would disagree with me. Overall I think I will keep him, I just wouldn't want to miss out on a really good offer for a player of his ability, at the end of the day everybody has their price! Another added bonus is that he is only on £95 per week with a £5 apperance fee (Full Time Contract!).

One more question if I may: At what point should I make the club a full time proffesional club, i.e no part time contracts and will the board indicate to me something along these lines?

at that level which i am playing now i normaly offer all my players who could get me up full time contracts the rest who dont have a future at the club i releaase on a free because it is quicker to get rid of them and i like working on a nothing budget...

but its helpping atm because im 5th in bsn and the bookmakers thought that i would struggle against relegation and all i done was bring in free players no loans and 1-2 buys

Thanks for the advice Amaroq. Fortunatley I'm already on his favoured personel list (probably because I rescued him from the scrap heap). My coach seems to think he could cut the mustard in League Two and I would like keep him, its quite satisfying brining a young player through and getting the maximum out of their limited ability. At the moment I have only one other DC who is as good as he is, though he is getting on a bit now and my coach would disagree with me. Overall I think I will keep him, I just wouldn't want to miss out on a really good offer for a player of his ability, at the end of the day everybody has their price! Another added bonus is that he is only on £95 per week with a £5 apperance fee (Full Time Contract!).

I think he is fine for BSP and a squad player for League 2. Although if you continue with the good practice of scouring the free transfers, you may find that you can improve far beyond his ability pretty soon. I would leave it at 2 yrs. contract if I where you, if he does some progress extend it when he has 7-8 months left on his contract since contract offers can't be made to players in other clubs with more than six months left on their contracts so I doubt anyone will steal him from you as long as the offer is good enough.

One more question if I may: At what point should I make the club a full time proffesional club, i.e no part time contracts and will the board indicate to me something along these lines?

You can still have part time contracts all the way to the EPL, but I think key players on the BSP should have pro contracts, all first teamers on L2 and all out pro except your U18s on L1.

Hope that helps.

at that level which i am playing now i normaly offer all my players who could get me up full time contracts the rest who dont have a future at the club i releaase on a free because it is quicker to get rid of them and i like working on a nothing budget...

but its helpping atm because im 5th in bsn and the bookmakers thought that i would struggle against relegation and all i done was bring in free players no loans and 1-2 buys

I'm the same really, although I don't mind the odd loan deal, though it is hard to persuade any real quality to drop down that low. Hopefully with my promotion (just finished the season as champions) that will change playing in the BSP.

I think he is fine for BSP and a squad player for League 2. Although if you continue with the good practice of scouring the free transfers, you may find that you can improve far beyond his ability pretty soon. I would leave it at 2 yrs. contract if I where you, if he does some progress extend it when he has 7-8 months left on his contract since contract offers can't be made to players in other clubs with more than six months left on their contracts so I doubt anyone will steal him from you as long as the offer is good enough.

You can still have part time contracts all the way to the EPL, but I think key players on the BSP should have pro contracts, all first teamers on L2 and all out pro except your U18s on L1.

Hope that helps.

Yeah thanks for the advice. I've only given full time contracts to 7 players who I intend on keeping for next season, the rest are all free to leave and (luckily for me) the majority are out of contract, so no compensation to be paid. I'm going to be a busy boy during pre-season as I'm going to have to assemble a whole new squad almost. I managed to get Wigan as a parent club in March so hopefully they will be able to help me out with some tidy youngsters for the forthcoming season.

Any tips on how to get some big friendly's to earn a bit of extra coin?