Contract negotiations - too realistic?

Hello, I'm playing the demo of FM2011 and have some questions/gripes with this contract negotiations feature. While I like the idea we can talk to a player in steps to create a contract, but it has a flaw for me. In order to find out how much a player is wanting I have to enter talks, now this is a problem when you need to sign players with more emphasis on financial commitments than player ability. I've not found a way to find out what the starting position of the negotiations, i.e how much the player wants.

Say I go to a player wanting 20k a week, but thinking this is too much and rather I go for someone cheaper and get more bodies in.

But in order for me to do this I need to know how much the players are wanting first, I can't go through the players that take my fancy and enter talks, because if I go player XY was best value for money, I can't enter talks with him because I had to enter talks just to find out what he wanted, which I had to end just to carry on searching. Or if I think, well in fact I'm better off going for the player asking for 20k because he is more value for money.

This doesn't seem possible at all any more. Also talks can go on for days, so it first appears that this only happens all in one day....

Please bear with my ignorance, I've never played FM to great lengths in the past and not to aware of its features.

Any ideas or suggestions, perhaps other people are unhappy about this as well?