This is all well and good...but...

Ok, i've been 'lurking' on these forums long enough, i've not seen a thread about what i'm going to post on in this, so I had to sign up to make my point, hello everyone.

Right, so, my point is, *drumroll* have SI sorted out the transfer system yet?

My point being the hugely inflated prices a player of FM09 had to pay in order to land a player (naturally i'm talking about the ones without a release clause).

You've only to look at the summer's final day of the transfer window in the UK, where the highest deal done was about £4.5m for David Dunne.

I have a confession to make. I tried out the latest CM10. Aside from it being plain AWFUL and too clunky and irritating for words, pretty much the only redeeming feature (for me) was the fact you could buy decent players for what seems to be a more realistic price.

As i said, i TRIED CM10 out, with the likes of Man City and Liverpool, just to give it a go. I was able to sign David Villa for a mere £45m. Admittedly that's still vast, but on FM09 you'd need nearer £75/80.

I'm sure there must be some agreement here that the prices in FM09 for most of the 'household names' in the Prem, La Liga or Serie A were hugely inflated, and that was even before Senor Perez and Man City joined us this summer.

I'd be very grateful for any clarification as to the status of this. Don't get me wrong, i'm very excited about FM10, i've been reading the updates from Miles and am counting the days till the release, but this has been a real annoyance for me on FM09.

Cheers.

i actually think fm09 was an improvement compared to previous years.

i found that clubs were more willing to negotiate with you now.

and also you just have to look at cristiano ronaldo's 80m move to madrid to see that over inflated prices happen irl

We know no more than you do.

I don't see many big-money deals on deadline day- but, using your own rules, last year two £30m deals were done on deadline day in England. FWIW I bet I could get a player like Dunne for £4.5m.

CM10's transfer market is worse than FM09's. Liverpool don't get offered Gary Neville for £1m on FM.

but on FM09 you'd need nearer £75/80

75 to 80 quid for David Villa? I'd say thats a bit of a bargain!

I know what you mean though. The excuse on the forums is usually something "youv'e had to bid so high because team x dont want to sell player y". Well, lets see, Ronaldo sold IRL for 80 million yet in FM i hear stories of people bidding over 100 million for him and still not being guaranteed of signing him. Another transfer annoyanve is the AI knowing the minimum of what another AI team will accept as a bid. Many times i've had a bid accepted only to be undercut by an AI team, and their bid gets accepted aswell.

i actually think fm09 was an improvement compared to previous years.

i found that clubs were more willing to negotiate with you now.

and also you just have to look at cristiano ronaldo's 80m move to madrid to see that over inflated prices happen irl

I realise that Cronaldo's move was inflated, but that's very much a one off, any others you can think of this summer window?

Adebayor - £25m - not really over inflated, you'd struggle to wrestle him from Arsenal on the game for less than £40m

Lescott - £22m - is pretty overinflated, but English players always are.

Anyway, my main annoyance (that embarrasingly i don't think i included in my original post) is that 'the computer' could easily buy the same player you're after for considerably less that you will have your bid accepted for. This is regardless of whether you're a rival team or someone from another league.

Just struck me that such a below-average game such as CM10 could get their transfer system so much more spot on than FM09 was.

Its not that the prices are over-inflated, its that the clubs don't want to sell, but quote an astronomical figure at which point its worth their while.

Just because a player's value is £4 mil doesn't mean that a player's value to their club is £4 mil. Someone like Danny Murphy is worth more to Fulham than his skill set suggests.

Ronaldo is good example of this: He isn't worth 80 million, but was worth 80 million to United (and Real).

Someone like Danny Murphy is worth more to Fulham than his skill set suggests.

Yeah but they'd sell him for 6 million most likely. Anyway, the prics in 09 are inflated. I feel that CM are better in this respect as their player values are more realistic (70 million for messi, 30 million for silva) but you only have to bid about the value and your bid will be accepted. (thats my experience anyway)

I realise that Cronaldo's move was inflated, but that's very much a one off, any others you can think of this summer window?

Adebayor - £25m - not really over inflated, you'd struggle to wrestle him from Arsenal on the game for less than £40m

Lescott - £22m - is pretty overinflated, but English players always are.

Anyway, my main annoyance (that embarrasingly i don't think i included in my original post) is that 'the computer' could easily buy the same player you're after for considerably less that you will have your bid accepted for. This is regardless of whether you're a rival team or someone from another league.

Just struck me that such a below-average game such as CM10 could get their transfer system so much more spot on than FM09 was.

Kaka, Benzema, Alonso, Barry, Valencia, Zhirkov, Johnson.

Lescott's transfer is very inflated, and it has nothing to do with him being English.

The computer has the same restraints as you do, however, it is more sensible with it's transfer targets.

Seriously? CM10's transfer market is really, really bad! Man United want to get rid of Giggs and Neville for peanuts! I've seen Puyol bought for £5m!

We've all seen users signing players for huge fees which is unrealistic but that is down to them.

The two main reasons for these massive fees IMO are:

A) Users don't negotiate enough with the AI teams.

B) Users don't plan in advance and unsettle players.

If you work ahead and unsettle transfer targets over a period of time the prices are much more realistic.

Yeah but they'd sell him for 6 million most likely.

I doubt it. Look how much it took for Wolves to sign Kevin Doyle. £6m! Fulham are a Premiership club, and won't sell Murphy for a fee like that. £8m would be closer.

Oh, a few smaller scale "inflated" transfers: Stephen Hunt, Tommy Smith, Andrew Surman, Greg Halford, Matthew Mills. Mills and Hunt are average Championship players, yet went for £2m. Halford is too, yet went for a similar amount. Smith is a "good" Championship striker- £1.8m. Surman's side got relegated, but he moved for over a million.

Ronaldo is good example of this: He isn't worth 80 million, but was worth 80 million to United (and Real).

Sure he's worth 80 million, if a team's willing to buy him for that money, he's worth that amount. Simple economics, really.

I do think further improvements can be made to the system, but in its current state it's better than any previous version of FM or CM.

I've had games where I've built a winning side with free transfers, and others where I've spent £100millions, but on the whole I find dealings quite realistic.

Originally Posted by silva_gunner

Yeah but they'd sell him for 6 million most likely.

I doubt it. Look how much it took for Wolves to sign Kevin Doyle. £6m! Fulham are a Premiership club, and won't sell Murphy for a fee like that. £8m would be closer.

Which if we say is realistic from a base value of 4 mil represents an inflation of 100%, meaning that Silva would go from 35 mil to 70 mil.

And remember, SI strive for a realistic football world, its not game where every problem has a solution....unfortunately. Sometimes a player is just too expensive.

I think the problem here usn't over inflated prices, but the values we can see being far too high. This is what i was trying to get at in my other post. If Ronaldo cost 100m and his value was 80m no one would complain, but as its 30mil we aren't happy

For me, household names are over probably over inflated but if you scout around you can usually get lesser known top class players for fair fees. You just need to negotiate.

"Fixed" will be a relative term. No, it won't be "fixed" because there will still be people who have objections about it no matter what SI do. It is impossible to have a perfect system.

Some will say £45million for David Villa is okay, I would say it's too low unless his club have either financial problems or a better striker in the team (or a target in mind), especially since his club are a CL club and the only clubs who could afford £45-60million are also CL clubs.

In FM09 if a team really didn't want to lose a player they would quote £100million simply to see you off. Something I do in order to fend off AI clubs. It's perfectly acceptable, and if that doesn't change I won't be too disappointed.

What I hope changes is the negotiating.

Me: £5m?

AI: No, I want £10m

Me: Okay, what about £8million?

AI: No, I want £12million.

Me: Fine, be like that. £10million it is.

AI: Actually, I think I'll hold out for £15million.

I really, really hate that.

What I hope changes is the negotiating.

Me: £5m?

AI: No, I want £10m

Me: Okay, what about £8million?

AI: No, I want £12million.

Me: Fine, be like that. £10million it is.

AI: Actually, I think I'll hold out for £15million.

I really, really hate that.

Yeah me too

Me: £5m?

AI: No, I want £10m

Me: Okay, what about £8million?

AI: No, I want £12million.

Me: Fine, be like that. £10million it is. The point is that here you go down with your price, if you go up that fast and easy, it means you have a lot of money to spend.

AI: Actually, I think I'll hold out for £15million.

I really, really hate that.

The truth is, most players don't really know how to negotiate.

The truth is, most players don't really know how to negotiate.

No, it's the game.

Sometimes that happens but more often than not if you negotiate from a fair figure, the other team WILL come down. It has been only on rare occasions on FM09 for me that they have asked for higher and higher.

Sometimes that happens but more often than not if you negotiate from a fair figure, the other team WILL come down. It has been only on rare occasions on FM09 for me that they have asked for higher and higher.

Really? I've actually never seen it come down.

Usually when I hit this cycle, I just withdraw offer and then offer it again.

I also agree with the AI knowing the other AI's real asking value.

Hardly realistic that the AI accepts another AI's bid that's at least a few millions lower.

Also agree that the household names are heavily inflated.

Often the big names need 100M+ and all the current record transfers are smashed within a season.

My final issue is that when the AI tries to buy your player, they never offer inflated price.

And when I tell them to look somewhere else, my very loyal players suddenly decide that want to listen to the offer and get upset with me.

I'm not going sell Vidic unless i get enough money to get me a good replacement, but that just does not happen in this game.

The truth is, most players don't really know how to negotiate.

I don't get it.

So you are telling me first offer 5 Million, they say they want 10, so you want me to offer 4M?

If that's how negotiation works, it's even more broken than I thought!

Wouldn't the AI just reject the offer if you go down? I know I would!

Really? I've actually never seen it come down.

Usually when I hit this cycle, I just withdraw offer and then offer it again.

Yea, I've had a great experience on FM09 negotiating, sometimes they still want too much but that's life.

I think it is pretty good as it is. First and foremost, this is a game and accumulating talent is extremely easy as it is. Making it even easier will feel stupid. I can transform Wolves to a top EPL team in 5 years. I don't really need it to be much cheaper.

If anything I would want the very highest quality of prospects to fetch a higher price.

I think the proper way to solve this problem would be to have real world financial feedback after awesome transfers IN GAME. I.e. if you spend 100 million pounds on a striker you should make up the money in 2-3 years time. IRL nobody spends millions of euros on players just for the fun of winning trophies, they do it cause it gets the club an upper hand in marketing, merchandising, etc.

"Fixed" will be a relative term. No, it won't be "fixed" because there will still be people who have objections about it no matter what SI do. It is impossible to have a perfect system.

Some will say £45million for David Villa is okay, I would say it's too low unless his club have either financial problems or a better striker in the team (or a target in mind), especially since his club are a CL club and the only clubs who could afford £45-60million are also CL clubs.

In FM09 if a team really didn't want to lose a player they would quote £100million simply to see you off. Something I do in order to fend off AI clubs. It's perfectly acceptable, and if that doesn't change I won't be too disappointed.

What I hope changes is the negotiating.

Me: £5m?

AI: No, I want £10m

Me: Okay, what about £8million?

AI: No, I want £12million.

Me: Fine, be like that. £10million it is.

AI: Actually, I think I'll hold out for £15million.

I really, really hate that.

ive never had this. but i know alot of people have. its rather strange because i cant identify with it. this is how i get it.

me: 10mill

AI: 45mill

me: 14mill

AI: 45mill

me: 17mill

AI: 35mill + 10% sell on

me: 20mill + 10% sell on

AI 37mill

me: 22mill + 10% sell on

AI 37mill

etc

etc

if the AI doesn't come down to what i deem acceptable then i move onto other targets. sometimes the AI comes down quite dramatically after a long and drawn out negotiation and they can sell for 27mill after initially wanting 45mill.

i find they are more willing if the negotiations take place a few days before transfer deadline.

i think the problem is more about the AI not paying inflated prices for my players. I bought a player once for £40m, within six months other teams were offering me £10m for him, but never more than that. I rejected obviously, which made this player upset and asking to leave.

i think the problem is more about the AI not paying inflated prices for my players.

They do. I bought a player at the start of the season for € 17m. 6 Months later I've received an offer for him for € 37m.

i think the problem is more about the AI not paying inflated prices for my players. I bought a player once for £40m, within six months other teams were offering me £10m for him, but never more than that. I rejected obviously, which made this player upset and asking to leave.

I suspect either/both his asking price & value in the transfer status screen was set at around £10m.

Lescott would not have been sold for £30m let alone £22m if he hadn't asked to move. Everton would have held out for a stupid offer from city as they didn't really want to let him go.

Abebeyor was simular, he said he wanted to leave after city showed an interest so arsenal had to let him go for a realistic price. If he was happy and Arsenal wanted to keep him they would have quoted £40m as they knew city would either pay it or leave their player alone.

Dunne was no longer wanted by city so they let him go for a resonable price. In the game if a player is no longer wanted or wishes to leave you can get him for a good price.

You've only to look at the summer's final day of the transfer window in the UK, where the highest deal done was about £4.5m for David Dunne.

lol has nobody realised that he means richard dunne? and not david dunn lol. I just thought that was funny.

Anyway , I agree there are still a few things that need to be adjusted but FM09 is still the best version of the transfer market so far. I'm pretty sure the negotiating thing was the problem in 08 and was fixed for 09, i know i havent had it on 09 but 08 it happened no end! I found they did slowly come down a bit but u still had to work a little they didnt just give in which was good. Definately agree that AI knowing the price is bad and for me its probably the worst part( in terms of realism) at the moment apart from the bugs(co-own bug, low release clause bug)

i think the problem is more about the AI not paying inflated prices for my players. I bought a player once for £40m, within six months other teams were offering me £10m for him, but never more than that. I rejected obviously, which made this player upset and asking to leave.

i think its more to do with the AI teams valuation of the player and your valuation.

now does that mean you over valued the player or the AI under values him? could be a bit of both to be honest

but i did buy a young nigerian attacking player from hoffenheim for £12mill once.

sold him 3 years later for £13mill although 10% of the profit went back to hoffenheim, and then 1 year later barcelona bought him for £37million.

there are a few other problems with player valuations that i can see though.

i bought curtis davies for £11mill at the begining of the second season. after that his valuation has settled to £6million. despite being the first choice centre back for liverpool for the next 4 seasons.

i bought david bently for £12million and his price has also settled to £6million despite being a regular for the last 4 seasons.

i also note that players dont seem to what a pay rise any more. the last contracts i offered to curtis davies,david bently, marquinhos,trejo, none of them wanted a pay rise and were happy to have about 35k a week.

they are all top players who are regulars in my team.

fine my team are quite successfull but that shouldn't stop them from wanting more money.

I completely disagree and think this years transfer system is brilliant. For example, on my game I bought the best centre back in the world (probably) from Inter for just £34million. He had no release clauses or anything. It just took a few things to get him for so cheap. Firstly, I praised him to get on his favoured personnel list. Then I declared my interest in him (had to do it twice so didnt get him till january), I placed a bid for him and then kept increasing it until he was annoyed my bid was rejected. I placed one more bid and it was accepted. Without this I would have had to pay probably double what I did. Irl, this was similar with what happened with Lescott.

You've got to remember, the AI managers dont wont to sell their players to you, so you're obviously going to place a high bid to tempt them to sell their player.

I tend to just stick to LLM where in the most part, transfer fee's don't exist

When trying to sign Ribery, I had:

Me: £12.5m

Bayern: £16m

Me: £14m

Bayern: £26m

Me: £16m

Bayern: £26m

really annoying.

Even though I don't normally get many issues I had a strange one last night.

Enquired about a 17yo DL from Udinese, skills fairly poor but good potential and low value of 100k.

They came back with an offer of 175k + 25% next profit clause.

I made a bid accepting their terms but they then came back with another offer wanting 250k + 25% next profit clause :confused:

Seemed a bit strange but I got him for 250k so happy in the end.

ive never had this. but i know alot of people have. its rather strange because i cant identify with it. this is how i get it.

me: 10mill

AI: 45mill

me: 14mill

AI: 45mill

me: 17mill

AI: 35mill + 10% sell on

me: 20mill + 10% sell on

AI 37mill

me: 22mill + 10% sell on

AI 37mill

etc

etc

if the AI doesn't come down to what i deem acceptable then i move onto other targets. sometimes the AI comes down quite dramatically after a long and drawn out negotiation and they can sell for 27mill after initially wanting 45mill.

i find they are more willing if the negotiations take place a few days before transfer deadline.

While I don't doubt you, I have never seen it before.

In fact, I don't think I ever got any negotiation 35M away from their initial asking price before (uesually just rejects me).

They basically want you to increase your price by 350%!

Anyways, good to know someone has success negotiating, hopefully a theory will pop up eventually

I have found a way round it. Just cancel the negotiation and go back in with an offer of £1million less than the original AI demand. They usually accept. If you can afford it of course.

Me: £5milion.

AI: £10million

Me: 7.5million

AI: £15million

Me: Cancel

Continue one day

Me: £9million.

AI: yeah okay

Welcome on here, OP

In my opinion, SI have got it quite well, especially comparing the transfer fees to FM08 where they were really over the top. Of course there are still things to be improved but (also in connection with the overall financial model which leads to a bit too much money being in the game which then goes into transfer fees) that's always the case.

If the transfer fees were reduced for FM10 then it would in all fairness be too easy to accumulate a very good squad when still having so much money on our hands like in 09.

However, I sometimes wonder if there isn't a misconception. In FM there is no such thing as a definite 'no'. Like there is none irl.

When you get approached for your star player who you don't want to sell you might say no, no matter what. Or you say, well for a ridiculous amount of money you can have him, but usually no one ever bids that (though City sometimes does ). That's exactly what the AI does. They just don't want and need to sell, so why should they? They only agree if you offer insane amounts.

Same with ManU and CR irl, they only let him go for € 94m. Valencia rejected, debt-ridden as they are, € 55m for Villa last summer.

So when you have to pay THAT much you should just take it as a 'no' which it actually is unless they find someone stupid enough to make them rich. Perfectly realistic, I'd say.

Besides all that, there are several things that have stuck around for ages and no one fixes them year after year.

- A club offers you a player for $0. You answer back "yeah, ok". They tell you the price is too low.

- Although you have plenty of money in the salaries budget, you can only offer a 50% of loan wages.

- Nobody cares about player A. you make an offer for player A. 30 teams offer as well. 1 team, 2...? Sure. 20-30? Come on.

- You make an offer for player A, team comes back with counter-offer; you agree...they take it as an offer and not a response to their counter offer, and they still want to negotiate some more.

- It is almost impossible to swap players within a transfer offer.

I had a weird one yesterday where I offered a bunch of players to clubs for free, only to get the message that X clubs weren't interested because the asking price was too high.

Hadn't seen that one before.

People only use transfers in game to show their side of the debate. Here are some to show my side of the argument.

Jagielka £5.5 million from Everton to Sunderland

Lescott £11.5 million from Everton to Sunderland

David Silva £16 million from Valencia to Barcelona

Higuain £6 million Real Madrid to Shakhtar

Gago £5.5 million Real Madrid to Villarreal

Van der Vaart £7 million Real Madrid to Sunderland

Michael Carrick £11 million Man Utd to Spurs

Should the game also be programmed to stop transfers like this, as in relation to real life they are very unrealistic. The biggest transfers I have ever made are.

Wayne Rooney £83 million Man Utd to Barcelona

C. Ronaldo £85 million Man Utd to Barcelona

Fernando Torres £62 million Liverpool to Valencia

Franck Ribery £35 million Bayern Munich to Barcelona

Fernando Torres £51 million Liverpool to Sunderland £51 million

Steven Gerrard £60 million Liverpool to Man City

Ashley Young £34 million Aston Villa to Arsenal

Leo Messi £78 million Barcelona to Arsenal

Kaka £50 million AC Milan to Barcelona

I do not consider these transfers to be too over the top in relation to real life.

At the end of the day I have a striker that is valued at £7 million for my Nantwich Town team and I would not sell him even if I got offered £50 million as he is that key to my side. My main player is worth £34 million and I would not sell him for £150 million as replacing his talent is impossible. The AI is saying we don't want to sell but if we had to this is how much we would want.

The truth is we are the reason these over inflated prices appear as some of us are willing to pay it.

I suspect either/both his asking price & value in the transfer status screen was set at around £10m.

Unspecified. Actually I've just remembered this example was on FM08, so a bad example.

People only use transfers in game to show their side of the debate. Here are some to show my side of the argument.

Jagielka £5.5 million from Everton to Sunderland

Lescott £11.5 million from Everton to Sunderland

David Silva £16 million from Valencia to Barcelona

Higuain £6 million Real Madrid to Shakhtar

Gago £5.5 million Real Madrid to Villarreal

Van der Vaart £7 million Real Madrid to Sunderland

Michael Carrick £11 million Man Utd to Spurs

Should the game also be programmed to stop transfers like this, as in relation to real life they are very unrealistic. The biggest transfers I have ever made are.

Wayne Rooney £83 million Man Utd to Barcelona

C. Ronaldo £85 million Man Utd to Barcelona

Fernando Torres £62 million Liverpool to Valencia

Franck Ribery £35 million Bayern Munich to Barcelona

Fernando Torres £51 million Liverpool to Sunderland £51 million

Steven Gerrard £60 million Liverpool to Man City

Ashley Young £34 million Aston Villa to Arsenal

Leo Messi £78 million Barcelona to Arsenal

Kaka £50 million AC Milan to Barcelona

I do not consider these transfers to be too over the top in relation to real life.

At the end of the day I have a striker that is valued at £7 million for my Nantwich Town team and I would not sell him even if I got offered £50 million as he is that key to my side. My main player is worth £34 million and I would not sell him for £150 million as replacing his talent is impossible. The AI is saying we don't want to sell but if we had to this is how much we would want.

The truth is we are the reason these over inflated prices appear as some of us are willing to pay it.

Well you managing those sides that had the transfers?

I think the issue is that transfer is unrealistic when it involves the players.

AI to AI transfer is quite normal.

The gripe I'd have with transfers is when and a computer player have a bid accepted, and the player joins the computer team even though they're offering hundreds or even thousands of pounds a week less in wages. Or if the club they join is in a lower league. I suppose that's the joy of managing an unfashionable club I suppose!

It can also be a bit annoying if you bid for a player, and then the goalposts keep moving. However, that's probably because your bid has aroused more interest in the player and as demand for the player increases, so does the amount the selling club wants.

Other than that I think the prices are usually fine. As a selling club if it was a player I wanted to keep, I too would want the maximum amount I could fleece out of the buying club.

There are also plenty of bargains to be had, and ways to unsettle players so that a club could be forced into cashing in. Having a good relationship with another managed can help. I bought a guy (I think it was Jon Joe O-Toole) from a club Paul Ince was managing. O-Toole was transfer listed for about 11 million, but Ince accepted about 7.5 million because of our friendship (and probably because the player was unhappy and no one else had made any bids).

My only real gripe is when I discover a player that not a soul has interest in.

His value will be something like 450K and so I'll bid something like 600K and advance. The next day I get reports of 3 other teams bidding 600K for the player and having their bids accepted yet the AI has countered my offer of 600K with an offer of 1 million and 25% of his future profit or something ridiculous like that. It makes me wonder what I did wrong, but at this point I simply tell the AI to shove it. This very thing happened to me last night when I was playing as Dnipro and trying to buy a Croatian newgen.

Oh well, there's more fish in the sea. I just accept it and move on.

Besides all that, there are several things that have stuck around for ages and no one fixes them year after year.

- A club offers you a player for $0. You answer back "yeah, ok". They tell you the price is too low.

- Although you have plenty of money in the salaries budget, you can only offer a 50% of loan wages.

- Nobody cares about player A. you make an offer for player A. 30 teams offer as well. 1 team, 2...? Sure. 20-30? Come on.

- You make an offer for player A, team comes back with counter-offer; you agree...they take it as an offer and not a response to their counter offer, and they still want to negotiate some more.

- It is almost impossible to swap players within a transfer offer.

Being assaulted by 30 teams when you bid for a player NO ONE KNOWS about is truly infuriating.

"Fixed" will be a relative term. No, it won't be "fixed" because there will still be people who have objections about it no matter what SI do. It is impossible to have a perfect system.

Some will say £45million for David Villa is okay, I would say it's too low unless his club have either financial problems or a better striker in the team (or a target in mind), especially since his club are a CL club and the only clubs who could afford £45-60million are also CL clubs.

In FM09 if a team really didn't want to lose a player they would quote £100million simply to see you off. Something I do in order to fend off AI clubs. It's perfectly acceptable, and if that doesn't change I won't be too disappointed.

What I hope changes is the negotiating.

Me: £5m?

AI: No, I want £10m

Me: Okay, what about £8million?

AI: No, I want £12million.

Me: Fine, be like that. £10million it is.

AI: Actually, I think I'll hold out for £15million.

I really, really hate that.

Which is what Spurs did with Sunderland over Darren Bent this summer, and it went on for weeks and weeks.

"Fixed" will be a relative term. No, it won't be "fixed" because there will still be people who have objections about it no matter what SI do. It is impossible to have a perfect system.

Some will say £45million for David Villa is okay, I would say it's too low unless his club have either financial problems or a better striker in the team (or a target in mind), especially since his club are a CL club and the only clubs who could afford £45-60million are also CL clubs.

In FM09 if a team really didn't want to lose a player they would quote £100million simply to see you off. Something I do in order to fend off AI clubs. It's perfectly acceptable, and if that doesn't change I won't be too disappointed.

What I hope changes is the negotiating.

Me: £5m?

AI: No, I want £10m

Me: Okay, what about £8million?

AI: No, I want £12million.

Me: Fine, be like that. £10million it is.

AI: Actually, I think I'll hold out for £15million.

I really, really hate that.

Yep definitely agree - the negotiating should be improved. I think overall the transfer prices are ok - when a club really doesn;t want to sell it asks for inflated transfer fees, true of real life. Unsettling players, bidding when a club is desperate to sell or is in financial trouble, good scouting, they're all important to getting players at the right price.

Well you managing those sides that had the transfers?

I think the issue is that transfer is unrealistic when it involves the players.

AI to AI transfer is quite normal.

I was in charge of the buying club in everyone of those transfers.

Negotiating can sometimes be annoying but when I signed Rooney from Man Utd for Barcelona it went like this.

I bid £45 million

They want £115 million

I bid £55 million

They want £105 million

I bid £60 million

They want £100 million

I bid £70 million

They want £90 million

I bid £75 million

They want £85 million

I bid £83 million

They accept

I have had this happen more often than not. The thing that annoys me sometimes is I will bid £5 million, they want £5 million upfront and £3 million over 6 months, I bid £7.5 million total, they want £5 million upfront and £4.5 million over 6 months. From my experiences as soon as monthly payments come into it the AI loses its head and changing the prices up instead of down to come to an agreement.

I have not had this happen much at all without the monthly payments. The Rooney example was exactly the same as what happened when I went for Ribery, Ronaldo, Torres and Steven Gerrard.