Greatest Piece of Business

With the new game only being a few weeks away, I decided to call time on my FM10 career game and unistall FM ready for the new and fresh FM11. The last thing I did though before "retiring" from football management, was possible my greatest piece of management business. Something Lord Sugar would have been proud of.

I brought a young regen striker by the name of Martin Brown, English, 19, but most importantly he was only brought as back up. He cost me £250k from Port Vale for my mediocre Blackburn side. Played him in a Carling cup game he scored a hat-trick, so I played him in a league game, scored twice, so he started to get a more regular place in the first team. After two seasons he had played 62 games in all competitions and score 63 goals.

I decided to offer him a new contract of £75k a week from his current £20k a week contract, he refused. So with six months left on his contract I decided to offer him to clubs for an ambitious £50m. To my surprise, Real Madrid came in at 45m, So as you can imagine I snapped there hands off. He signed 1 week later. This made the career save for me, and I've never seen a sale profit like it ever, and I've been playing since 05.

Has anyone else seen or done anything similar in the game.

D4L (p.s. sorry if I waffled on)

45M for a 6 month contract? Great Business but surely Madrid could have just got him to sign a pre contract?

That is exactly what I thought, and was expecting no more than say £10m for him at most, I guess it shows flaws in the transfer system slightly as this wouldn't happen in reality but hey, Its only a game.

what year were you in

45M for a 6 month contract? Great Business but surely Madrid could have just got him to sign a pre contract?

great point and i was thinking exactly the same thing, it makes no sense for Madrid to offer to £45 million but hey well done for getting that big profit ive been no were near that!

Very similar story as my current last save with Arsenal. I bought an english regen for 1m from West Brom and he went on to become a worldwide world-class midfielder worth 35m. I had him for 8 years till he was 25 and in the end he wanted a new challenge so decided to slap a price tag of 60m on him and offer him to clubs. A.C Milan came in the next day with the asking price so he went. One of my best pieces of business on FM10 without a doubt.

[playing FM09] can't quite match you on the figures, but maybe more impressive on the rapid turnover - I spent £4m on a 23-year-old Australian striker who had a good first season at PSV after transferring to them from AaB, intending that he play the glamorous role of second backup to my lead two. Due to injuries he played quite a lot, getting 18 goals across all competitions. Real Madrid were interested at the end of the season, so I boldly offered him out at £30m and was surprised to get the full offer straight away. And off he went.

I also signed a 14-year-old Portuguese attacking midfielder from Braga for £875k - he was so clearly destined for stardom I let him take Fabregas' youngest player record. I let him stay on the fringes of the team for a few years before giving him a year on loan at Everton aged 20, after which I decided he was ready for the first team. After six seasons of that he asked for a transfer, and so angry was I (you coulda been a real club legend, kid) that I immediately transfer listed him, got a £36.5m bid from Milan, and accepted. I've had a few others along those lines, as I'm sure we all have - buy em young, breed em well, sell em high - but none with quite that much of a profit margin.

(my somewhat naughty business practice of selling players who need development time for relatively low fees but with an equal buyback price, and then taking advantage of that clause after a couple of seasons of growth, shall go unspoken.)

some nice profits

Not so much a monetary profit but I signed an irish 16 year old DC for 100K. Now he is 32 and has over 650 premier league matches for my leeds team and 118 caps for ireland.. He went straight into my starting lineup at 16..!

what year were you in

I finally "retired" my game in 2038

Not really a "business" piece...but my greatest moment was re-stocking the Canadian national team with players I signed for Toronto FC. Every foreign player I signed in the initial season (2009-MLS) eventually earned a cap for Canada, and I didn't have to spend a penny to acquire them- they were all frees.

Eventually sold the CB for $6 million+ to a Spanish side...

my current saved game with Liverpool am on season 2029/2030 and my star striker Luis is scoring for fun. Bought him for 2.2m 8 seasons ago and now valued at 33m. Was going to sell him in 2 seasons once he hits 29 but thought no, bugger it, going to keep play him till he retires.

Back on the Zealot Clan on CM01/02 I paid £45,000,000 for a young Argentine striker for my Tottenham side, three times the amount I had ever paid for any player on any version of any game before.

Over the next ten seasons he led my team to my first ever Premier League title (followed by three more) and two Champions League titles.

Best acquisition I've ever made. Still not paid anywhere near that much for a player since!

I suppose my best sale, not in terms of sheer profit but in terms of percentage turnover, was that of a 17 year old Italian DC regen I bought for $35,000 as QPR in FM09. Two years later I sold him for $12m, an increase of 35,714%.

I remember ages ago on an old version of FM, possibly even Cm, Guti was available to sign on a pre-contract from Real, which I promptly did. Then about a month after he joined me, I got an offer of 10 million for him from, guess who.......Real Madrid. I took it without a second thought, I'm not missing out on a quick profit like that!

Also, on FM 10, in my long term save, brought in a quality right back on a free transfer from Arsenal after his contract expired, as part of my plans to rebuild Liverpool as a major force(Which I succeeded in doing by the way). Got an offer of £24m for him in January from Lyon, bit their hand off and took it. Then spent 15 million on his superior replacement.

Brought in a DM/CB a few seasons later on a free, then sold him on for 15 million in January to Valencia, was a good player.

Other than that, I've not really done anything quite that good. Most times I sign a top player on the cheap, I keep hold of him, and it's only when I leave the club that the next manager sells them.

Nowher near as profitable as OP - but these are my two favourite recent ones:

Best pieces of business? Probably in FM10, signing Jan Blazek for newly promoted (to the Championship) Norwich for £60k. He banged in 30 goals and fired me to promotion as a result.

In all games, I signed this young Norwegian regen on FM08. I just happened to find him when I was searching for a particular player who had been released. He too had been released on a free from some Scandinavian team. Anyway, signed him up and immediately had interest from Chelsea, Real Madrid and Man Utd. I sent him out on loan and the next season kept him in my team. He had some stonking performances and I had three bids of £35mil in January for him.

I had A lwb/lm/alm a brazilian called aberyto, i sugned him something like 1.8 mil for newcastle and he had 1 yeear left of his contract and refused to sign another so i offered him to clubs and man city came back with a 50 mil bid......which I accepted

Back in 08 I bought a player, Mika Aaritalo from TPU Turku. Was the best buy in the game, could play anywhere in midfield and upfront and only cost 200k! His stats, however, were way above this from the start and could easily be sold for 15 mil plus. Don't know if this guy was well known or not as I wasn't active on the forums back then.

Anyone else buy this gem?

And then in 2009 there was Vaclav Kadlec. Oh Vaclav, you just didn't want to stay at St. Johnstone did you? Signed him for free at the start and got his stats up big time, turning him into one of the best! Then he started complaining blah bigger team blah before he moved to an Arabian side for 4.5 mil. Then he came crawling back for the same price. Again does amazing for us, the fans love him, have won the CL for the first time and SPL numerous times but is still not bloody happy so I have to sell him to Roma for 15 mil and then a year later he's banging them in for Arsenal after being bought for 24 mil. Was no chance of getting him back to the Saints after that.

A nice piece of business all the same.

Steve Marlet on a free to Wrexham.

47 goals? Epic.

Also, Jermaine Jenas to Championship team Forest in my first season for most of my budget (1.7m). Cycle forward 5 seasons and over 200 appearences (And averaging 7.3, not world beating but for 1.7m?)

That is exactly what I thought, and was expecting no more than say £10m for him at most, I guess it shows flaws in the transfer system slightly as this wouldn't happen in reality but hey, Its only a game.

Well, ManCity bought Nigel de Jong for almost 20 million Euros in winter 2009 when he had a minimum fee release clause of 2 million for the summer of the same year. Not quite the same dimension as 50 million, but stuff like that does indeed happen in real life, although very rarely obviously.

probably my swedish regen bought for my Farsley Celtic team in fm09. Cost me nothing but a friendly and left for 30m after 4 or 5 good seasons

I think it is a definite flaw in the game.

1) I have scouts with 19-20 judging potential ability who I tell to scout all the best youngsters every year and they quickly identify who is going to be a star.

2) On their 17th birthday I come in and sign them.

3) They become amazing.

4) I keep the best and sell the rest.

It's too easy. Clubs should NEVER be selling off future stars at such easy prices.

My best regen signings on my current save are all Turkish, the most I have paid for one was 750k.

After five seasons they are all valued over £15m, my GK is World Class and is valued over £30m. I've had a couple of good English DEF regens but nothing more to shout about.

Other than that, I'm quite proud to pick up Yoann Gourcuff on a free as he refused to sign a new contract. He's been really good for me

Best was FM09, got Leo for Southampton for £22m before the new season started, sold him in the January transfer window for £44m. Was annoyed at the time as he was my best player (board sold him ). But looking back was a nice bit of profit!

I've got a regen now, paid £10m for him, he has just started making first team starts at 15, loads of big clubs are after him, but he wants to stay at Southampton for now. When someone asks what I would sell for I say £40m, just in case.

That's exactly what I meant with my post. Why are other clubs not coming in for them?

for example, my scouts identified an English kid at Dundee United - they had just paid 350k for him - and told me he was going to be leading player. He didn't look it at the time but I though 1.5 million why not.

18 months later (I played him a lot- stats exploded) he has just won his first England cap (still only 19) and he is now worth 57 mill!!!! apparantly!! Every top team wants him - utter insanity!

That's exactly what I meant with my post. Why are other clubs not coming in for them?

for example, my scouts identified an English kid at Dundee United - they had just paid 350k for him - and told me he was going to be leading player. He didn't look it at the time but I though 1.5 million why not.

18 months later (I played him a lot- stats exploded) he has just won his first England cap (still only 19) and he is now worth 57 mill!!!! apparantly!! Every top team wants him - utter insanity!

Uh, pretty much every season clubs of the top leagues land some bargains. This time around Shinji Kagawa of Borussia Dortmund probably takes the prize. Incidentally they reportedly payed 350k for him

Also, Jack Cork to Swansea on a free after he was released by Chelsea a few seasons into the game. Peter Crouch in Fm08 for 1.75m as well, epic signing.

I bought a Real Madrid regen defender for 200k pounds. Two seasons later, I sold him back to RM for 20 millions.

Uh, pretty much every season clubs of the top leagues land some bargains. This time around Shinji Kagawa of Borussia Dortmund probably takes the prize. Incidentally they reportedly payed 350k for him

Yeah, but it's not that the top clubs miss ONE player.

I can sign EVERY promising 17 year old EVERY year without ANY competition at all. Why are the top clubs not identifying the top talent and snapping them up?

I'll go with 2 of mine. Didn't sell them but they were awesome. 3 seasons in I'd just achieved promotion to the German 2nd Division with Darmstadt who were unplayable at the start so in my 1 season in charge I had achieved promotion. I was looking for a goalkeeper as I was wanting to build a good team based around a defence that wouldn't concede. I saw Hans-Jörg Butt in Bayern's reserves and was able to get him fro 500k. I then won promotion to the Bundesliga. Then he took me to midtable and to win the German Cup in my first season of top flight. He then retired and coached Silviu Lung Jr into being an absolute beast along with a few awesome regens. Some guy.

Another was a regen called Fabrizio Guidoni. After being released by Barcelona he ended up in Portugal. He was doing well there and I needed a back-up striker. I thought I may have spent too much by purchasing him for £10 million. Anyone who has seen me post this screeny will know exactly why he was worth that money. Along with scoring over 20 goals in his first season, he did this:

He is a saint.

I can sign EVERY promising 17 year old EVERY year without ANY competition at all. Why are the top clubs not identifying the top talent and snapping them up?

Not using FMRTE or some similar tool I can't. Without a flotilla of 50+ scouts I doubt you can either. Unless you have like 5 countries loaded only that is

Not using FMRTE or some similar tool I can't. Without a flotilla of 50+ scouts I doubt you can either. Unless you have like 5 countries loaded only that is

No cheats needed. With 2-3 top scouts you can quickly identify the best players - they might get duds but they NEVER miss the high potentials.

So, I can sign every 17 year old with promise in the leagues I play (which I do) and I know for sure I am signing up future star players - too easy.

Great bits of business, but in response to the first questions, it is revealing one of the floors in football manager. If a players contracts runs out in six months, they will declare strong interest in him and wait, not fork out 45million for a minimum of 6months playing time. silly fm

I signed a player for about 2.5m and then sold him to a club for 50m with a 50% thingy for next sale.

Then a few years later I noticed he had a sell on clause of 50m - so I bought him for 50m - so I got 25m of that back.

So I sold a player in his youth around 21 and bought him back at around 28 in his prime. So basically I loaned him out to another club for 6 years for about 25m

Signed AMC Ricardo Montolivo for free for Man U and 1 yr later he's valued 20M.

And yesterday I have just accepted a Milan bid of 40M for him, so if the deal completes I'll receive 40M of net profit just for smart scouting!!! (money which will bring Javier Pastore to Old Trafford

Yeah, but it's not that the top clubs miss ONE player.

I can sign EVERY promising 17 year old EVERY year without ANY competition at all. Why are the top clubs not identifying the top talent and snapping them up?

If you setup your scouting network properly to specifically find youngsters you will find many of them before other clubs. I set it as general so I don't find as many youngsters. The AI aren't set to scout every youngster around the world.

This is competition for youth signings in my save.