Buying quality players

Hello,

I am very kind of new to this game (only played one season with Valencia in Laliga).

Anyways, I am getting ready for the Champions League. I fear that my team is simply not good enough. I have budget of ~45 million euros. The problem is that I can't find quality players (3.5 star of higher) at reasonable prices. The teams ask for 2 or 3 times the value of the players. To add to the dilemma, I have a lot of reserves which I want to sell. But even at 75% of their value, very few want to buy them. I realize that all this is a recipe of long-term inviability.

Is there something I am missing? Again, I just bought FM a week ago, so I am very new. Please help!

Thanks and regards.

Hello,

I am very kind of new to this game (only played one season with Valencia in Laliga).

Anyways, I am getting ready for the Champions League. I fear that my team is simply not good enough. I have budget of ~45 million euros. The problem is that I can't find quality players (3.5 star of higher) at reasonable prices. The teams ask for 2 or 3 times the value of the players. To add to the dilemma, I have a lot of reserves which I want to sell. But even at 75% of their value, very few want to buy them. I realize that all this is a recipe of long-term inviability.

Is there something I am missing? Again, I just bought FM a week ago, so I am very new. Please help!

Thanks and regards.

First thing you need to know is that the star ratings that your scouts are giving to players are not absolute, but rather relative to your current squad (and to some extent, league) so a player that your scouts rate 3 stars is actually a very good player. That same player if scouted by a lower league team would probably come out as 5 star. If scouted by Barca, he may come out as 2 stars.

Secondly, it sounds like you are making the same mistake that 99% of FM players make which is trying to buy players that are not for sale. You will end up paying massively inflated fees for these players. If you look around the forums, people come here and moan like hell about how "unrealistic" it is that they had to pay €200m euro for Messi, but the fact is that in real life, managers don't pursue players that they don't have any realistic chance of signing (e.g. Messi!), whereas FM players do.

Have a look at the transfer list and scout the players on there. If someone comes up 3 stars and the club is asking a reasonable fee, consider going for them.

If you pop onto the good players forum, you will see a lot of players who are suggested as good buys.

Many of these are youngsters who become wonder kids, but you will also find the occasional established player who far out plays his ability.

If you pop onto the good players forum, you will see a lot of players who are suggested as good buys.

Many of these are youngsters who become wonder kids, but you will also find the occasional established player who far out plays his ability.

:confused:

Yeah and while you're doing that, nip over to the tactics forum and download a tried and tested tactic to guarantee success. Also remember to implement the corner cheat. Oh and download FMRTE and Genie Scout so you can give yourself unlimited funds and find all the best players in the game with only a couple of clicks!

robzilla gives good advice (he his first post, going abit silly there in the 2nd one - Let Lambs be lol)

robzilla gives good advice (he his first post, going abit silly there in the 2nd one - Let Lambs be lol)

Sorry forgot the sarcasm tags

The problem you have is that clubs don't want to sell their stars, in the same way that you probably wouldn't sell your star players.

Try praising players and making a low bid every couple of months. Sometimes you can unsettle players enough that they ask to leave and the club are forced to sell them for a lower price, but most of the time the player is happy at the club, so leave him alone and move onto other targets.

Also, look at recently relegated teams

I've gotten quite a couple of good players from relegated teams before

Like the relegated teams suggestion above, you can also circle like a vulture any team that is in financial trouble.

They tend to have to throw away their players for very small fees.

You can sort teams by finances by clicking your managers name on the selection bar to get the drop down menu, select 'jobs' and then click the 'jobs security' page and finally click the finances column header to sort. Any one listed as bankrupt is fair game in my opinion.

Picked up a few bargains over the years that way.

You generally get time to scout the players out fully as the other teams do not seem to make a move for them until you make an offer.

On top of all that, paying twice the market value can still mean you are making a good deal. Don't get over-influenced by the market value. If you think that 10m for a player is a good deal, then go for him, no matter if the shown market value is 3.3m, 6m or 12m.

If you are already playing half a season, you could try to sign players whose contracts expire in summer. They'll usually come in for free, but probably you'll have to pay higher wages if other - better - clubs approach the player, too.

Don't go on the star ratings, I rarely use this system. You need to look at what players stats are good for what position in your team, do they fit into the way you play? For example, I have won most things, and my star striker's star ratings are on about three, but he fits into the way I play perfectly. If I bought a striker with five stars, I can safely say that if he didn't have the right stats for the position, he wouldn't score nearly as many goals or do as well as my striker with three stars.

Some really good ideas coming in here. I'd never thought of checking club finances for bankrupt clubs. Nothing like kicking 'em when they're down eh!

Best advice i can suggest is scouting all the youth players, tournaments that you can. As said previously, don't take the scout star rating's as exact.

I've got a regen on my save at the moment who was rated at 1 star with the potential to reach 2.5 or 3 stars depending on the scout. He's a defensive central midfielder who has just won me the Champions League Final by slotting 2 past Chelsea and setting up a third and now everyone and their granny are trying to sign him.

Likewise, i've signed several 4.5 star players for big money and found they didn't fit the system of my team and i ended up losing loads of money trying to get rid of them and off the wage bill.

Youth players is the way to go, and also handy for going into European football with the Home Grown rules that apply.

Anyways, I am getting ready for the Champions League. I fear that my team is simply not good enough. I have budget of ~45 million euros. The problem is that I can't find quality players (3.5 star of higher) at reasonable prices. The teams ask for 2 or 3 times the value of the players. To add to the dilemma, I have a lot of reserves which I want to sell. But even at 75% of their value, very few want to buy them. I realize that all this is a recipe of long-term inviability.

Do you have patch installed? This was an issue with 10.1 version.

Also look at players contracts. A player in the last 12 months of a contract is a lot cheaper than the same with who has just signed a new 4 year deal.

Unsettle the players, make them want to leave. That will force the club to sell at a reasonable price

Also signing players whose contracts are expiring is the way to go. Keep an eye on the list of players from 31st December

Hello,

First of all, I must apologize to everyone for the late reply. I completely forgot about this post (too busy in university).

Thank you all for the excellent advice. I greatly appreciate it. I really do.

One great and persistent problem has indeed been selling players and sometimes I have to offload 2 - 4 million euros worth of players for even 10% or less or their value. Praczy, where do I get this patch to resolve this problem? I have a Mac.

Once again, I greatly appreciate everyone's help and this great community in general.

Hello,

First of all, I must apologize to everyone for the late reply. I completely forgot about this post (too busy in university).

Thank you all for the excellent advice. I greatly appreciate it. I really do.

One great and persistent problem has indeed been selling players and sometimes I have to offload 2 - 4 million euros worth of players for even 10% or less or their value. Praczy, where do I get this patch to resolve this problem? I have a Mac.

Once again, I greatly appreciate everyone's help and this great community in general.

At the top of this page there is a link to "Patch 10.3", simply click that, and on that page there are many different links for the patch, depending on your type of computer and how you installed the game

the star system is, as others have pointed out, relative and doesn't really illustrate how a player will perform in your team.

i've had 2 star players playing consistently well and 3 or 4 star players that i had to get rid off because they were useless in my team.

more important than stars is to read what your scout says about the player in his report (weaknessess and strengths), how he plays (prefered moves), the attributes of course, and if he will fit into your tactical scheme.

The transfer list is where it's at.

I love seeing the message in the confidence tab that "<Insert player> is making a mockery of their transfer fee with some fine performances." Brings joy to my heart. But seriously, transfer list and checking up on player's contracts are key. I've gotten Gourcuff, Robinho, Akinfeev and Balotelli on frees before. It just depends on their happiness. In the save I'm currently playing, Abou Diaby is sitting on that list for a rather impressive price of 2.5m GBP. Not really a "quality player", but for that price....

Robzilla does not give good advice at all IRL top clubs are ALWAYS going after players from top clubs who ARE NOT ON THE TRANSFER list. Scout the player first then you will know how much you may have to pay. If there is no price quoted by your scout in his report then the chances are you won't get him so check his report first.

Robzilla does not give good advice at all IRL top clubs are ALWAYS going after players from top clubs who ARE NOT ON THE TRANSFER list. Scout the player first then you will know how much you may have to pay. If there is no price quoted by your scout in his report then the chances are you won't get him so check his report first.

Oh yes he does.

Well why rob do players at top clubs move to other clubs, it's because money talks. Kaka was not transfer listed at Milan and was still wanted by them but money talked because Madrid payed over the top for hime

Well why rob do players at top clubs move to other clubs, it's because money talks. Kaka was not transfer listed at Milan and was still wanted by them but money talked because Madrid payed over the top for hime

:confused: I think you need to read my post again. When did I say that players at top clubs don't move to other clubs and where did I say that only transfer listed players can be bought?

What I actually said was "In real life, managers don't pursue players that they don't have any realistic chance of signing" and that if you go after players who are not for sale "You will end up paying massively inflated fees for these players".

By bringing up the Kaka deal you are actually proving my point it is a perfect example of a club pursuing a player who was not for sale and ended up paying over the odds for him.

Any other example you want to bring up? C Ronaldo maybe? Oh no wait, he was not for sale and Madrid had to pay a massively inflated fee to get him...

keep Villa, silva and mata and youl be okay.