Signing Superstars

I heard Florentino Perez say that he believes that signing superstars is the best way to make money, and that the huge transfer fees involved are offset many times over by the huge increase in revenue; I wish that this was replicated in FM, i know that you get a message saying that shirt sales will increase, but I'm talking about the literally 100's of million that are available from marketing in reality e.g Real were offered multi millions to play one match in the far east in the galatico era.

I wonder if it would be possible to have a marketing stat for each player, If you sign Beckham in the game currently you would not get the astronomical increase in revenue and profile that would come from the merchandising, increased sponsership, tour offers etc that could transform a club's finances in reality.

Also would there be anyway to involve sponsors in signing a player, as in adidas might be keen for an adidas sponsored club to sign adidas sponsored players and so on with nike etc?

well on the sponsership point, you would need to get licensing from niki and adidas etc in order to have them in the game, but you could have made up ones

then again this isnt really of a concern to the manager personally, more the hierarchy of the club

Finances for a big club are easy enough to manage as it is. I don't think its neccessary. People on these forums sometimes have billions in the bank after a few years.

Yeah but if you are a smaller club they are not that easy to manage. I think signing a past it legend who is 37 would bring in some merchandising increase of quite a bit even though the player might now suck.

i agree with harry and disagree with 9sublime.

having world-class players etc. should massively increase your merchandising income.

i don't think the game really reflects that at the mo.

and sublime how are these people getting billions after a few years without cheating?

maybe with barcelona or something it could be a vague possibility, i dont know.

with less bigger stadium clubs your income is ALWAYS subtracted by large shareholder pay-outs.

about man u. in real life surely they will eventually get taken over by someone else and their massive debt taken with them? never happens in the game?

Yeah but if you are a smaller club they are not that easy to manage. I think signing a past it legend who is 37 would bring in some merchandising increase of quite a bit even though the player might now suck.

can you give an example where that's actually happened in real life?

I'd be a nightmare for regens but... They're barely working as it is. You'd have people constantly moaning and crying: "I signed this regens striker for £40m and he's got 100 goals in two season. I only get £5m/year for him even though I think he's a super-star-bigger-than-Torres!"

All this stuff..

can you give an example where that's actually happened in real life?

Socrates playing a few games at about 50 for some low club. Had massive gates, huge coverage and boosted shirt sales.

Gazza went to a lower club for a bit as well.

Yeah but if you are a smaller club they are not that easy to manage. I think signing a past it legend who is 37 would bring in some merchandising increase of quite a bit even though the player might now suck.

can you give an example where that's actually happened in real life?

Bolton Wanderers

Socrates playing a few games at about 50 for some low

Yeah. Can't remember the name of the club, but I'm sure it's the one who is managed by the bloke that came up with the skills system for youngsters using a smaller football, then took it to Brazil. He made lots of friends with former Brazilian legends and they've often made guest appearances for his non-league club. I think Romario also had a stint there from memory.

Someone put me out of my misery by reminding me the name of the bloke and the club concerned, because I can't be bothered Googling for it at the moment

Just base it on reputation. I really like this idea as clubs have made huge amounts from the commercial side of their players, such as Madrid and Man Utd star players. I also like the idea of 'fake' named sponsors just to add more of a cosmetic element to the game.

Regens can easily become known as 'World Class XXXX', I have many in my long term save. Im presuming that in order for these players to be known 'Worldwide' and be described as a 'World Class XXXX' (eg. World-class fullback) they would have high rep. Once a player is signed with this high rep then revenue should increase more than it does. I also think its too easy for players to become know as world class, well in my experience. Maybe add another level to the reputation ladder or make it slightly harder/slower for players to gain rep. Most long term gamers will know that when one of these players hit their 30's they are known as a 'Legendary XXXX', so this could add further revenue and attraction as the player has been around for a longer time, he is known in all the parts of the world from lads in the pubs in England to kids wearing his top playing football in the slum of Nigeria.

Huge players could also bring an increase to club rep, for instance La Galaxy signing Beckham, I didn't know of such a team really, and even non football fans could have heard of the club.

I think awards need to be fixed in order for this to have full effect. World Footballer of the Year and so forth have some weird results.

I dont think this would advantage smaller clubs all that much on terms of the scale of revenue, but £10,000 extra over the year could be a lot to a small club; for example a small club cant sign Ronaldo, but they could sign a former 'World Class Player' and an ex-captain of a national team.

Yeah. Can't remember the name of the club, but I'm sure it's the one who is managed by the bloke that came up with the skills system for youngsters using a smaller football, then took it to Brazil. He made lots of friends with former Brazilian legends and they've often made guest appearances for his non-league club. I think Romario also had a stint there from memory.

Someone put me out of my misery by reminding me the name of the bloke and the club concerned, because I can't be bothered Googling for it at the moment

Garforth Town & Simon Clifford?

Yeah. Can't remember the name of the club, but I'm sure it's the one who is managed by the bloke that came up with the skills system for youngsters using a smaller football, then took it to Brazil. He made lots of friends with former Brazilian legends and they've often made guest appearances for his non-league club. I think Romario also had a stint there from memory.

Someone put me out of my misery by reminding me the name of the bloke and the club concerned, because I can't be bothered Googling for it at the moment

Garforth Town run by Simon Clifford.

I think they were rumoured to be signing Cafu recently too.

Yeah and the game Socrates played brought record attendance. I know he done it as the owner is quite important but still the impact of the players reputation generated high interest.

Garforth Town & Simon Clifford... that's them! Thanks

Oh and Socrates... always a legend... if not for the hair and beard, then his penalty taking style. Thought he was the bees-knees when I was a kiddy

(Just took a peek at Garforth in my game and although they're non-playable, there's no Brazilians there and Simon Clifford has no "Knowledge" of Brazil with regards to scouting. Perhaps that's something someone ought to take up in the "Data Issues" forum )

can you give an example where that's actually happened in real life?

when socretees .(i know thats not how you spell it ) went to play 1 game for garforth town

People do reach billions without cheating. If you reach 2 billion the binary code of the game can't deal with it and some of your balance is taken away as "future investment". You get it back if you go bust.

On my game, AI managed AC Milan have a bank balance of over 1 billion.

That Garforth town is a nice story, but hardly worth coding into FM, IMO.