Dam them Agents and their fees!

Hi

Just want to check something out. I know that some people are not enamoured with agents in the game. However they are a reality.

What I do not get is that some agents will walk away from a deal if you do not offer them some exceesive fee. I have reached position(s) whereby I have got the player sorted but the Board will not allow me to go over a certain amount for the agents fee. Say 1.4mill max agent wants 2mill or 2/5mill. So, as I cannot go any higher I put in the best bid as final and non-negotiable as that is the position I am in.

The agent then walks away. So not only has he turned down 1.4mill his player who got more or less what he asked for is out in the cold? I assume this must happen in real life as well. I can only assume it is down to the agents personality?

I am not asking for a change to the game as I have been successful in other transfer bids just this particular aspect I find erksome

Do many of you find this a common occurence when trying to sign players?

Cheers

I've never found it personally, although I do get slightly irritated when agents refuse to let me speak to their player at all!

It's ridiculous when an agent wants a few million quid, but the player wants 1/3 of that. You can afford the wage and the player's signing on fee but there's nothing you can do about the excessive agent fee, meaning you lose out on the player. It's really detrimental to the game imo, and that's what FM is, a game, and sometimes the tedious (and downright ludicrous) realistic aspects of modern football shouldn't be allowed to get in the way of the enjoyment

I don't want to get into the old "game vs. simulator" debate again, but I think SI are trying to replicate reality as much as possible, and hope people get enjoyment from playing a game so well modelled on real life. Which does mean some people may be put off by such depth and at times, realistic frustration.

I don't want to get into the old "game vs. simulator" debate again, but I think SI are trying to replicate reality as much as possible, and hope people get enjoyment from playing a game so well modelled on real life. Which does mean some people may be put off by such depth and at times, realistic frustration.

I agree with you, it's just that, that one aspect is frustrating when your so close to signing a player you really want. As you say it is close to real life but some of those agents do bring your blood to the boill

If you could release a press statement saying you tried to sign him but the talks stalled because of the agents demand, then that might add a frisson of tension between the player and the agent?

I can't comment on what agents are like in 11.3, but in the previous patch it was very well-documented that agent fees were exceedingly over-the-top. There was a thread posted sometime in January (I think) where someone was saying that he couldn't stump up the £15m that an agent was demanding for Fernando Torres to move to Real Madrid, while in real life between Oct 08 and Sept 09 Man City signed 20 players (including the likes of Carlos Tevez and Emmanuel Adebayor) and their spending on agent fees over that whole year was reported to be only £12.8m.

The whole contract negotiation system could do with a bit of tweaking. It's a bit of a shame that the 'real-time' negotiations (which was a nice new feature) show just how static the AI is when it comes to this. It's not much of a negotiation a lot of the time, is it?:

Agent: "My client wants £100,000 a week in wages"

You: "I'd be prepared to offer him £50,000"

Agent: "What? I can't go below £90,000"

You: "£60,000 then"

Agent: "Did you not hear me? £90,000 and nothing less"

You: "£70,000?"

Agent: "£90,000"

You: "£80,000"

Agent: "£90,000. You're starting to **** me off now"

You: "£85,000, final offer"

Agent: "...OK, £85,000 might be acceptable. I'll get back to you in a few days"

Improving the actual negotiation is something I hope is on SI's list of things to do for FM12, and you'd think that making agent fees more in line with reality (given how often people have moaned about it all year) would be pretty high up on their priority list.

i just find it weird that a lot of the time the agent wants a better fee than the player. The player has just maybe scored 30 goals in the season, won player/top goalscorer of the year but is wanting a tiny sign on fee while the agent is asking for **** loads. Its like who's the person doing all the work here lol

Improving the actual negotiation is something I hope is on SI's list of things to do for FM12, and you'd think that making agent fees more in line with reality (given how often people have moaned about it all year) would be pretty high up on their priority list.

What, not fixing them in 2011, seeing as we have all already payed for 2011 and the last patch broke things even worse. As you say, people have moaned all year so its not like there hasnt been time to address this.

I've found it's easier (ie cheaper) to pay off the off the Agent (but LOOK at the agent ATTRIBUTES, what I'll describe works on some jackhole with a Fee 17/Patience 3, not necessarily say a patience 15/fee 8 agent.)

Say the initial demands are 2 millie/year for four years plus 250k for player and 500k for agent (so, 8.75M for four years services) + some random goal/appearance/team of the year bonuses.

1. Jack up the bonuses (the AI calculates it as a % increase I think) but if the kid only plays 30 matches/year max and is a FB appease them by doubling appearance from 1.5k to 3k (it's only 45k to you of a 8.75M contract, but it makes them feel better)

2. give the agent one mil, player 300k and I bet you a dollar they take a 1.1-1.3 million/year (saving you a couple million over the four year period).

If they have the low patience/high fee attribute combo, I've gotten away with countering w/ 35-40% of inital wages and have it been accepted.

(oh, and offer them absurd 100M min-fee releases, or $0 relegation releases when your battling for honors, that is worth quite a bit in lowered wage demands...)