Transfers: Idiot's Guide (?)

I want to start a "manage medium-sized club to world domination" type saves. I'm quite good at the wheeling and dealing lower league stuff but just cannot get the hang of higher division transfers.

Basically, if I make an offer - buying or selling - the other club either slams the door in my face or bites my hand off. I once had 47 takers for offering a player and also wasted an entire transfer window without buying a single player.

And I get a lot of "fan fury at waste of money" messages.

Anyone got any really basic tips for setting a price or opening negotiations?

(Sorry for posting one of those annoying "use the forum search function, mate" threads but it didn't help.)

Don't really know exactly what your issues are but, I find in general using the "Ask assistant to exclude unrealistic targets" will save you a fair bit of time.

If theplayer is not transfer listed you will need to offer much more than the current value to be able to talk about contracts.

Thus, if you are a massive club, you can buy established stars.

If you're up and coming, you will probably need to spend big on younger prospects. Fans won't like it but in a few years all will be good.

Offering players to clubs - if they are Wanted they will sell. If they are good they will sell. I try to offer a fair bit, then if nobody bites at value then under value.

If they are crap and you offer $0, more often then not they won't sell even to lower leagues. They still have to pay the guy's wages I guess. Its probably unrealistic, I have tried to sell guys for 0, who would be good lower league players and nobody bites.

Anyway, and interim measure is to put them out on loan.

If you want to open negotiations, go befriend the manager of the player you want. They'll be more inclined to give you that player.

Using your scouts is generally useful as well. After one or two reports (depending on the quality of the scout) they will reveal about how much you will need to offer or if in fact you are no chance of signing the player

I don't have any specific examples of where I think I've paid too much or not maximized my profit.

Say there was a full back with an asking price of £5M, 2 year contract £500,000 a year, 30 years old.

Another club: How much should I offer?

He's my player: Another manager offers £6M: should I accept? ask for £10M but take £7M? or tell him to get lost?

At the moment I'm guessing random numbers and wasting time & cash.

I don't have any specific examples of where I think I've paid too much or not maximized my profit.

Say there was a full back with an asking price of £5M, 2 year contract £500,000 a year, 30 years old.

Another club: How much should I offer?

He's my player: Another manager offers £6M: should I accept? ask for £10M but take £7M? or tell him to get lost?

At the moment I'm guessing random numbers and wasting time & cash.

Some people seem to use the trick of offering players at low prices, then when the bids start coming in, then raise the price until only a handful are left, and then you know at what sort of level you can sell him.

In your example, try to 7-8 mill., if they reject, then go nearer their offer until you find the max. they are willing to buy for.

When you offer to other teams a player which you don't want anymore, offer him for a higher price than you would expect to sell him, maybe 4-5 millions more. Maybe you won't find a team that will offer you exactly that amount, but you can see how much a team is willing to spend for your player, more than you expected in first place.

The way I have found it easier to get the players you want in for cheaper or a farer price is a long drawn out process but it works ( I FIND ANYWAY ).

I first make an enquiry for the player i want if that club then come back and say no i then release a comment saying i m looking into signing the player then make a statement saying u admire his abilities !

if the enquiry is knocked back i then bid the players value if this offer is rejected the bid shall be increased by a million every time until we reach an agreement it does work but takes time also become friendly with the manager of the player also works .

selling players is simple if u dont want to sell then just keep rejecting it if you want a certain price ie player is valubule to your team but evry player has his price then name your price if the team doesnt wish to pay it then they can just go away until they wish to simple bud !

The key to turn a midtable act into a serious title contender can be summed up in three simple words:

Top Clubs' Rejects

Seriously... forget about long and frustrating negotiations for that 8M midfielder you'd end up paying 15M... money you'd never ever get back...

Just keep an eye on the players whose contract is expiring, then on July 1st just go pillage the Free Agents list, and you'll find a truckload of "rejects" you can sign for a relatively low wage, and who are more than adequate to lead your team to the next level.

After a player has been released by a Top Club, he'll be much more willing to join your team... something he wouldn't have done before, when he still thought he was top-flight material.

Seriously, I'm in my 8th season, and with the exception of a couple of signings in the first/second season, I only pay money to get promising youngsters (which I'll later sell for good money when they'll attract the interest of richer clubs).

Some seasons you'll find so many good players on Free Transfer you'll have to force yourself to STOP signing them...

Clubs are more open to buying players over longer periods, ie monthly installments. You'll always receive a slightly higher return for the player selling him this way. If you 'Offer him to clubs' from the menu option, then go to your Transfer Centre, you can see the clubs that you've offered him to and the price they're willing to pay for him. A good indication of how much interest is in him.

I had a 31yo Striker who i wanted rid of, offered him out for £8m, but the clubs were only interested in bidding £6m.

RBKalle has an excellent point above.

My current team (Newcastle season 3) contains Jo, Joe Hart, Vagner Love, Ruben De La Red and Vela. All of them I got for less than face value as they were no longer wanted by the club and were transfer listed. Ruben De La Red cost me nothing as he signed a contract for me at the end of his Real contract.

My current save has the awesome German Keeper whose name I forget (Rene?) transfer listed by request for 17.5 Million (his face value) I unfortunately can't buy him as he thinks Newcastle are too small for his ambitions. Irionically Man Utd are using my reject keeper and have not thought to sign him.

A few more tips I use:

a) When searching for players, sort them by the column that contains the little green, red of amber three words, such as 'wtd', 'inj' ect.

Any one you see with 'unh' next to them is not happy for some reason, they can often be picked up cheep by unsettling them.

b) Look in the Jobs section and sort the clubs by finances, you will see some teams in financial trouble, subscribe to them and scout their key players. the moment one of them goes in debt or even better bankrupt, pounce and get those players for a bargin price.

A lot of good advice in this forum, keep it coming guys.

Just to give the OP a better idea of what I mean, here's a list of players I got FOR FREE... Also, keep in mind I'm managing Rosenborg, so most of the high-end players are out of reach... If you're managing in EPL or similar, you'll be able to sign much better free agents.

* Dorian Dervite

* Tomas Pekhart

* Dusan Djuric

* Nemanja Matic

* Eggert Jonsson

* Winston Reid [yes, THAT Reid...]

* Andrea Russotto

* German Pacheco

* Igor Akinfeev

Plus like TWENTY Norwegian players, all good enough to be leading stars domestically and for the national team... I won't list them because I feel it would be a list of "never heard of him" guys.

And of course another dozen of newgens released by top clubs, more or less of the same quality of the real-life players listed above.

So, despite still investing on at least one good player per year, plus a bunch of cheapish [< £2M] youngsters, I've got a stunning balance of + £90M on in/out transfers in 8 1/2 seasons.

AI releases so many good players you won't even need to spend money unless you really want this or that player NOW...

The key to turn a midtable act into a serious title contender can be summed up in three simple words:

Top Clubs' Rejects

Seriously... forget about long and frustrating negotiations for that 8M midfielder you'd end up paying 15M... money you'd never ever get back...

Just keep an eye on the players whose contract is expiring, then on July 1st just go pillage the Free Agents list, and you'll find a truckload of "rejects" you can sign for a relatively low wage, and who are more than adequate to lead your team to the next level.

After a player has been released by a Top Club, he'll be much more willing to join your team... something he wouldn't have done before, when he still thought he was top-flight material.

Seriously, I'm in my 8th season, and with the exception of a couple of signings in the first/second season, I only pay money to get promising youngsters (which I'll later sell for good money when they'll attract the interest of richer clubs).

Some seasons you'll find so many good players on Free Transfer you'll have to force yourself to STOP signing them...

Best post in this thread. Lots of good players at top clubs that don't play at all, then end up unhappy. To add to this though, keep an eye on the fantastic players (as in they could be stars anywhere) at lesser clubs, they will usually quickly become fed up with being in a terrible team and want to move on. They will end up on the transfer list, usually at ridiculous prices.

If you're only a mid-table side, you will probably lose out to the big clubs on most of these. You never know when you will get lucky though. I've had van Der Vaart for ~6-7m GBP, and almost got Adler for 4m GBP, Eden Hazard for 5m, etc, etc. Akinfeev was on the list about two months later, for something like 8m.

Interesting...

What I'm, hearing is that I should stick with the wheeling and dealing, like at Cambridge Utd.

Ok, should I convert all my transfer budget to wages, use it to loan a couple of world class players or blow it all on one big transfer?

Interesting...

What I'm, hearing is that I should stick with the wheeling and dealing, like at Cambridge Utd.

Ok, should I convert all my transfer budget to wages, use it to loan a couple of world class players or blow it all on one big transfer?

I've never really overspent for a player and felt good about it after. Try taking the player you're thinking about blowing the whole budget on and using him as a template in player search. Often you can find someone cheaper.

Think of buying players who aren't for sale like buying a new car. You know you're going to get quality, sure, but the second you drive it off the lot it depreciates in value. Same goes with expensive transfers. After a season they'll be worth half what you paid for them at best.

I can't really find players which expiring contracts as I try to play the LLM way. So I don't use the player search. However, I hunt my players from 2 sources.

Source 1: Top club free releases. They are usually quite old and close to retirement, but you can usually squeeze 1 or 2 seasons out of them. They are pretty much class acts.

Source 2: Scouting the major footballing nations for young players. You might have to pay twice their estimated value. But if they turn out to be a future leading player, then all is well.