Am i the only extremely frustrated one with the contract negotiations?

The contract negotiations with players agents seem so pathetic, i am extremely frustrated with them.

First of all, there are agents that only negotiate for two offers and withdraw, with most agents withdrawing after 3. Now that is nowhere near the reality, because we have seem time and against negotiations between clubs and players taking place for HOURS and DAYS until a solution is found. They try and negotiate and negotiate, while in FM this is only a matter of seconds.

Secondly, there are some points players are way too stubborn upon. For example, i am just trying to buy Guardado for my Southampton, and he seems extremely stubborn at having a 8 million buy-out clause and match highest earner, i mean i am in the Premier League and have some world class players in the team who are much better than him, plus i am buying him for 7.5 million, so why on earth would i want to give him a 8 million buy-out clause. I tried giving him soooooo many benefits, even raising his requested wage, giving him a lot of bonuses for first team games and goals, as well as almost doubling his signing on fee and agent fee, yet he WITHDREW!

Next is unrealistic wage demands, a veteran back-up kind of player at his 35-36 years old still wants a 40-50k a week wage? Get real.

Anyone else having difficulties to deal with this?

Ya I hear where you're coming from. The first thing to look at when you get to the contract negotiation screen is the player's interest in joining you in the bottom right of the screen. If he only has a "slight interest", you're screwed - the agent will ask for sky high everything and will pull out quickly.

Guardado to Southampton sounds like fairytale land to be honest, what game year are you in?

The good thing is though, that once a bid of a certain value for a player has been accepted by a club, they will continue to accept that bid from you during that transfer window as long as you don't change the composition of it in any way (and continue to keep bidding once a week). You can open contract negotiations again about a week later if you really want to get the player by offering the same bid as before.

Players on high wages unwilling to take a pay cut, even if the move is beneficial is a real problem in real life football - look at Robbie Keane at the moment.

Gago from Madrid is the same on FM11, I had a bid of 1m accepted for him and he wanted 80K per week. I cancelled negotiations immediately.

On the min-fee release clause, if they ask for it you can't remove it totally. Try to negotiate a higher one instead, like 20 million, they might come back to the table willing to accept a release of 15m, which would be a fair price. Min fee release clauses aren't that bad - remember that a player is very unlikey to move again to another club within the same year that you buy him, even if another club bid the amount of the release. Once you're finished that season and the player sees that you're a club going somewhere, if you renew his contract he may not even want a min-fee release clause anymore.

Get rid of the match highest earner though, that's poison since you don't get the "new contract loyalty" and moral boost from a player who's wages increase automatically due to another player getting a bump up.

Yeh it's frustrating.

I was signing a player and he wanted his wages increased to 49,000 after 20 games.

I was all for it but I could only offer a wage of 70,000+

Which is ridiculous really, doubling his asked wages for no reason, I had no other option but to accept.

The whole buying a striker and having to pay them per goal is a joke too. You already pay his wages, you didn't buy a striker to hand out hotdogs.

The whole financial side of the game needs some serious work.

I dont think theyre too far off, i get agents asking for some crazy demands, be it ott wages or just too high wages for an older, but to be honest i dont give them it if they arent worth it, kind of like the real world.

i try to keep the wages bonues down, but if they demand 35k/week for a 19yo kid whos just came through this season, if i cant get it down and i pay it then he's worth it, otherwise he wouldnt get the new contract

The whole financial side of the game needs some serious work.

LOL, I'm sure every club in real life would agree with you there too! Agents = scum of the earth, "people" who used to be ambulance chasers are now football agents instead. I think they're represented well in FM11, kudos SI.

The financial side of FM as it is now gives a good representation of how unsustainable the current wage/bonus/signing on fee etc etc situation has become in reality in football. The game is being bled dry.

I read an article recently where Ferguson laughed agents out the room for demanding goal bonuses for strikers. In fairness, he's right.

But the game is too unrealistic financially. I'm paying a 19 year old 130,000 a week plus a goal bonus of 15k a game, and the chap scores about 2 or 3 goals a game. So he's nearly earning 200k a week!

Sorry - but something seriously wrong.

When I offered him a contract his agent said he wanted €45k a week

I put his wages to the "Current Wage Status" and it as like €150 a week.

So I topped that up to €1000 a week and thought that was fair for a 5 star rated 16 year old.

The agent came back demanding €130K a week instead and I couldn't lower it to the original demand of €45k a week.

So I signed him and I'm paying him €130k a week. He scores goals. But he's 19.

I read an article recently where Ferguson laughed agents out the room for demanding goal bonuses for strikers. In fairness, he's right.

But the game is too unrealistic financially. I'm paying a 19 year old 130,000 a week plus a goal bonus of 15k a game, and the chap scores about 2 or 3 goals a game. So he's nearly earning 200k a week!

Sorry - but something seriously wrong.

When I offered him a contract his agent said he wanted €45k a week

I put his wages to the "Current Wage Status" and it as like €150 a week.

So I topped that up to €1000 a week and thought that was fair for a 5 star rated 16 year old.

The agent came back demanding €130K a week instead and I couldn't lower it to the original demand of €45k a week.

So I signed him and I'm paying him €130k a week. He scores goals. But he's 19.

Well you obviously ****ed the agent and player off by offering to pay 150 quid a week to an obvious young star. No wonder they then slap you right back with a take it or leave it of 130k per week.

I've also seen such high demands from young players (usually from rival clubs) and you can get them down. If he asks for 43k per week I'd probably start by offering 15k per week and perhaps an increased sign on fee or wage increase after X amount of games.

Ouch!

Who's the player mate? If he's scoring 2-3 per game I'd like to give him a run.

130K p/w is a lot for a 19 yr old, but if he's producing the goods then it's worth it as long as you can afford to pay it, knowing that to keep him at the club long term you'll be paying him 250K p/w by the time he's 28.

A young player that came through the Genoa ranks. My lazio u20 played their u20 and I was trashed 5-0, and I looked at the game and that lad had 4 goals. So I scouted him.

Watch him score a cracker from the edge here, smashes the post and hits the side netting on the other side of the goal

(actually playing his old team there )

And Mr. T - his current wage was €150 a week and I offered €1000 a week.

Niiiiice. Biondi eh.

I have to ask you - is he a regen, before I rush home this evening to try sign him!

1k a week when he asks for 43k a week is still a slap in the face. I presumed (and still do) that you were buying the guy. His salary at his current club won't matter much. The agent and player feel he deserves to be paid well when he moves to your club, not like a run of the mill youngster. And considering the amount of goals you say he scores their demands are perfectly justified.

Usually I'll offer a little more than they are already on. And it's usually accepted.

The player is on €150 a week. At 16 to come to Lazio and the agent demand €45k a week is unrealistic.

I offered him €1000 a week (with a wage rise to €30k after 20 games (if I remember correctly)).

Which is a fair offer for a 16 year old who hadn't even got a game for his club yet at senior level.

But for the agent to come back and demand €130k a week was a bit of a shock. That's not how a negotiation works. You don't "up" the original demand if you don't get your way.

I don't think it's unrealistic at all. That wage demand probably also meant that he would prefer to stay at Genoa (are Genoa rivals with Lazio perhaps?). The only way he'd move was for crazy money, and they got annoyed by your lowballing offer and came back with a ridiculous one themselves. The same can happen when you make an offer for a star player. If a club then comes back and asks for 100 mil it's pretty obvious it's their way of telling you he isn't for sale and you should sod off.

I doubt they actually thought you'd accept their 130k per week demand though

I don't think that they thought anything.

Why is that every transfer window I get 10 teams trying to sign my little 17 year old from my U20's, I set it to reject all offers. And every week I get a report of 10 teams attempting to make an offer, does the AI not get the hint that I'm not selling him? This goes on all transfer window and is so annoying.

This is an extreme contract negotiation here that I'm on about with the guy I originally talked about.

I also get the same with other players. You go for any player, and offer a nice sum of €25m for say a 24 year old.

They want to join your team. So the agent says "€96k a week" and you say "Use Existing Contract" and discover he's on €20k a week. So I offer €40k a week. And then the agent comes back with €120k a week.

It's not low-balling - that's doubling his current wage.

And with the youngfella I was increasing his current wage x10 fold, that's not low-balling.

I suppose this is SIs first real go at agents and they might just have made them a bit too mean. I would imagine this will be tweeked with patches and newer versions to be a bit less like negotiating with a loan shark's cricket bat in the future.

I think SI have given it a great first go. In real life realistic, possible transfers and contract negotiations break down ALL THE TIME because negotiations fail. Sure they wouldn't walk away after two offers like some do. They would leave it open. Instead of having a hissy fit and leaving the negotiations they would say "Here is what we would like, come back to us later".

I had one with Phil Neville recently. He was 36, club captain and we'd just won a stack of trophies. He loves the club, morale is superb. I wanted to offer him a years extension based on loyalty and sentimentality, I didn't need him. I offered him 75% of his last deal and his agent wanted after two rounds of talks wanted another £3,000. That was just above the limit I could go to for his squad status of rotation so I went for that thinking they would accept. They rejected it and would never enter into talks again, eventually signing for Barnsley two divisions down for a third of the wages I'd offered him.

Foreign transfers in real life in particular are very difficult to finalise and very often talks will break down. If anything I think the game is too lenient as you can complete almost all deals successfully.

I don't think that they thought anything.

Why is that every transfer window I get 10 teams trying to sign my little 17 year old from my U20's, I set it to reject all offers. And every week I get a report of 10 teams attempting to make an offer, does the AI not get the hint that I'm not selling him? This goes on all transfer window and is so annoying.

This is an extreme contract negotiation here that I'm on about with the guy I originally talked about.

I also get the same with other players. You go for any player, and offer a nice sum of €25m for say a 24 year old.

They want to join your team. So the agent says "€96k a week" and you say "Use Existing Contract" and discover he's on €20k a week. So I offer €40k a week. And then the agent comes back with €120k a week.

It's not low-balling - that's doubling his current wage.

And with the youngfella I was increasing his current wage x10 fold, that's not low-balling.

But you lowballing his agent's wage demands. You can't really deny that...you can get away with it if they are agent-less, but not if they have an agent.

If you're a big club with money there's no reason his agent shouldn't be trying to ask a lot from you.

Do most agents hate you by any chance?

I don't think that they thought anything.

Why is that every transfer window I get 10 teams trying to sign my little 17 year old from my U20's, I set it to reject all offers. And every week I get a report of 10 teams attempting to make an offer, does the AI not get the hint that I'm not selling him? This goes on all transfer window and is so annoying.

This is an extreme contract negotiation here that I'm on about with the guy I originally talked about.

I also get the same with other players. You go for any player, and offer a nice sum of €25m for say a 24 year old.

They want to join your team. So the agent says "€96k a week" and you say "Use Existing Contract" and discover he's on €20k a week. So I offer €40k a week. And then the agent comes back with €120k a week.

It's not low-balling - that's doubling his current wage.

And with the youngfella I was increasing his current wage x10 fold, that's not low-balling.

But you lowballing his agent's wage demands. You can't really deny that...you can get away with it if they are agent-less, but not if they have an agent.

If you're a big club with money there's no reason his agent shouldn't be trying to ask a lot from you.

Do most agents hate you by any chance?

They're high-balling. He's on €150 a week and he struts in demanding €45k a week?

I'm right to say "no" but I'll increase his wages 10x or at least the agent could come back with a figure lower than €45k a week instead of tripling the original demands"

i'd settle for a negotiation of €10k a week but increase of wages if he plays 30 times and when he gets 20 goals. Or something.

Do you understand how a negotiation works

There are reasons why he's highballing, I can think of a few right now:

1 He's just come through the youth ranks of his club and would rather stay at a familiar place to develop without too much hype.

2 He loves his current club because he's supported it since he was 1 month old!

3 He doesn't want to leave his club to a rival.

4 The agent hates you.

5 He hates your club (I had a lot of trouble signing a wonderkid from Feyenoord to Ajax!)

Just a few examples. There are of course other things which will have an effect like his loyalty and ambition attributes.

Do you understand how a negotiation works

Well, obviously you don't ;-) Ending up paying 3 times their initial offer. As ya_ya_ya wrote you could have left the negotiations and make a new bet a week after. Quit often that's how it's done irl.

Well, obviously you don't ;-) Ending up paying 3 times their initial offer. As ya_ya_ya wrote you could have left the negotiations and make a new bet a week after. Quit often that's how it's done irl.

Yeh but I really wanted him. This isn't about my transfer negotiating skills. This thread is about how they are handled. And clearly the agent took me for a ride> I don't really care that I'm paying him so much. But it shouldn't get like that.

And about the list of reasons etc.

I'm sure that Rooney loved leaving Everton for Man Utd and got €45k a week off the bat!

Nah come on - something wrong with the contract negotiations with agents in the game. It's a bit ridiculous.

I dont normally complain but here goes. The thing that annoys me is when you do offer them 45K and they move to a lower rep/worse/awful team for 9k.

It is ridiculous, but since this is the first time SI introduced it, we can't expect wonders. This thread is just to let SI know of the complains and ask them to try and fix it.

I dont normally complain but here goes. The thing that annoys me is when you do offer them 45K and they move to a lower rep/worse/awful team for 9k.

Yup. That is daft. What should happen in that instance is the agent coming back to you. It could say, "Anders Limpar's agent Mike Wantalot has called the club to see if they are still interested in the deal discussed earlier this month" blah blah.

Do you think the offer of Key Player would affect his decision? Perhaps he doesn't want to be anything other than a key player???

the agent should come back with another offer though.