Interest in my players - No bids

Hello,

I have constantly had interest in about 5 of my star players. This has literally been for the last 2 seasons. With the same clubs being interested.

I tried putting asking values ridiculously high so no one woul bid and they didnt.

I then decided that because my finances were poor, i would put the asking value to just above their value....still no bids.

I put their asking value to their actual value.....still no bids.

I then put their asking value to half their value......still no bids.

Why is it (And i have found this on more than one save) that clubs are constantly interested in players but never bid?

ANyone else found this?

PS: Just for extra info. I am 2nd in premiership, the clubs interested are the likes of, man u, chelsea, genoa (Who are very good in the game), OL, Real, Barca, Athletic madrid, Bayern.

Now as a test, i offered my players out, for high values (Around 15 million more than their value) and every single team big, although usually only about 5 mil more than their value.

I then loaded and as a test, resigned (I was in jan transfer window) and 2 of my star players were sold by the end of jan, with very high transfer fees. Around 2.5 times their value.

Is this a bug, or just a major flaw in the game?

Major flaw

I have the opposite problem, I'm getting too many bids for some of my players. I wish they would stop so my players would settle down and stop requesting improved contracts.

But yes, what you are experiencing doesn't sound right.

Teh thing is dafuge it is more annoying as they constantly get unhappy, as the clubs are bigger rep than me. So i still have to offer improved contracts, but dont get any bids

Major flaw

How do you conclude that?

All that shows is that the players are on the opposing managers shortlist, nothing else.

I have over a thousand players on my shortlist but I'm not planning on bidding on all of them.

If a minor interest is shown that means that a player is in shortlist of opposing manger (opposite manager may purchase any1 as per his choice thats why he keeps shortlist nah)

If a major interest is there then go to what exactly opposing manager said about yours player. Is he on radar or he is going to do anything.

Secondly with a higher price tag, the player rep increases and so the ability to command more wage. Hence, later that can be a problematic problem as few team will think of paying that wage(this is communicated to them via opposing scouts). And as yours player doesn't suits you other high ranking club who can pay the wage are skeptical.

Ok also,

The interest for each player has at least 1 or 2 clubs which are major constantly.

Also the clubs managers constantly release statements syaing they will try to sign, or they admire etc

How do you conclude that?

All that shows is that the players are on the opposing managers shortlist, nothing else.

I have over a thousand players on my shortlist but I'm not planning on bidding on all of them.

Because there are too few bids, too few big signings, way too little AI team building and the offers for players are way too low.

The game should assume that the human manager won't sell their star players for peanuts and a hug, and give proper bids even though there is a financial crisis in the world today and FM as a simulator should reflect this. The human manager wants to buy for 1x price or lower, sell for 2x price or higher. The AI managers does likewise and so the big clubs sign 10 promising youths a season and sometimes an established first team player - but rarely strengthening their team.

As always, one needs only to wait until the average quality of the teams becomes so low that you can dominate the world effortlessly since by then we will have made a superiour tactic and "beaten the game". I am tired of creating managers to go in and fix the aging, useless squads of the world's top teams only to have a sensible league table to look at. Si must fix this.

I've just purchased Ibrahim Afellay from Barcelona for £2.5m in the Jan window of the second season after he was transfer listed by Barca. The only club interested in him was Malaga, and they didn't even put a bid in when I went in for him. Not only is Afellay a good young player, a full Dutch international with 35+ caps, available for a ridiculously low fee, but he wanted only £40k per week in wages and small signing on fee. I cannot understand why a whole host of clubs weren't after him at that price, nor can I understand why there wasn't a single competitor for his signature.

This is a constant reocurrance in FM. IMO the transfer system is definitely flawed, the AI is not competitive at all in the transfer market.

If you want another example, I picked up Owen Hargreaves on a free transfer at the end of the first season with about 10 other clubs interested in him. Absolutely noone else even offered a contract. Irrespective of what excuses people on this forum might pull out of a hat in an attempt to defend the game, I think it's a tad silly that not one of those clubs who were interested in him (a quality player on a free transfer) actually even offered to bother a contract.

Hence the thread I started recently about AI managers and chairmen spending too much time at strip clubs and forgetting to put bids in for players.

How do you conclude that?

All that shows is that the players are on the opposing managers shortlist, nothing else.

I have over a thousand players on my shortlist but I'm not planning on bidding on all of them.

But do you have 1000+ players on your shortlist then blindly pick names out of a hat and put bids in for them? Or do you actually have designs and priorities in your thinking, including recognising who the good players are and when they're available for a bargain basement price?

For example, if you shortlist Wayne Rooney because you want to add a top striker to the squad (you shortlist him in the first place because he fits your plans), then later you see that he's transfer listed, willing to come to you, and well within your wage and transfer budgets, what would the reason be for not attempting to sign him? What would the reason be for any other club in the same situation to not offer him a contract? Do you see what I'm trying to say? Yes, you can monitor a player and decide not to go for him when he's available, but that doesn't mean you do it all the time and for every player that you've shortlisted, as happens in FM. We currently have a situation where there's virutally no competition between AI clubs for the signature of good players.

Look at this guys:

Di Maria transfer listed during the January transfer window, second season. Noone bidded for him, he isn't injured, nor has he had any significant injuries (2 injuries in the past 1.5 years, total of 6 weeks out). Only club with interest are Spurs (I'm NUFC). I can guarantee you that I can sign him for the bargain basement £8.5m price without anyone competing with me for his signature, either now (in February) or at the end of the season (if he's still transfer listed).

So what is the excuse for this if the game's transfer AI isn't flawed? Is he radioactive? Has he been cleaning the damaged nuclear stations in Japan? Has he been having too much baked beans for breakfast, lunch and dinner and so is producing smelly farts all day to make noone want a world class winger like this?

Sick of there being good quality players like this available for cheap yet noone at all bidding for him.

maybe his face would ruin the squad photo?

the AI bids are rubbish, I'm in the year 2015/2016 and if say, I bid 70 million for a 28 year old messi I instantly get negotiated to 150 million or something crazy. I then bid 90 million and same again happens. Ok fair enough, your not selling him.

I try buying higuain off real madrid who also were rejecting 80 million pound offers.

These are good offers, getting rejected, which is fair enough, the key point is they are good offers.

For my world class players - after signing pato for 50 odd million. I received an offer of 20 million from athletico madrid a year later. Why an earth would I sell a player for 20 million who I had just bought for 50 a year earlier?

Paulo Henrique - now the best midfielder on the game, initial offer of 45 million from barca. It's a joke of an offer, straight rejected - to which they came back with 45.5 million. If they are serious about buying the player, which they were, they would need to bid 80 million for me to even think about it, even then it'd be straight rejected, just like my two offers for messi and higuain for similar amounts were above.

And then I see screenshots above of Di Maria not getting any interest at 8.5 million. I believe I had a £30 million offer rejected for him. No consistency.

And then I see screenshots above of Di Maria not getting any interest at 8.5 million. I believe I had a £30 million offer rejected for him. No consistency.

He is transfer listed in my game though, which I'm sure would explain the big difference.

The trouble is, why aren't any of the AI clubs picking up on this "difference"? Di Maria would normally cost at least £30m if not listed, maybe 40/50 if Madrid were unwilling to sell, so at £8.5m there should be a queue out the door and round the corner of the street for clubs wanting to sign him.

maybe his face would ruin the squad photo?

If Liverpool can buy Dirk Kuyt, the star of Goonies, without worrying about the team photo, I think Di Maria should have no problems in that regard.

He is transfer listed in my game though, which I'm sure would explain the big difference.

The trouble is, why aren't any of the AI clubs picking up on this "difference"? Di Maria would normally cost at least £30m if not listed, maybe 40/50 if Madrid were unwilling to sell, so at £8.5m there should be a queue out the door and round the corner of the street for clubs wanting to sign him.

That difference has been there for years, maybe even in all CM/FM versions. If you buy a world class player from a big club, you need to pay twice if not thrice his "market value" to have the bid accepted. Once the "recently signed" period runs off, the other big clubs start sniffing again, and if they bid they bid market value not a dime more. That is of course a pointless waste of time and mouse-clicking. Of -bloody- course I don't sell my best players for less than what the AI would demand!! If I did I would run a terrible business! Buy for 45+ mills and sell for 15 to the same clubs - my continental or national rivals?

If one of my stars was valued at £30m and the AI managers would have the decency to give an acceptable initial offer (say, from £70m and up, depending on who bids), that would be a happy FM day indeed. I hope I will see that day.

Hello,

I have constantly had interest in about 5 of my star players. This has literally been for the last 2 seasons. With the same clubs being interested.

I tried putting asking values ridiculously high so no one woul bid and they didnt.

I then decided that because my finances were poor, i would put the asking value to just above their value....still no bids.

I put their asking value to their actual value.....still no bids.

I then put their asking value to half their value......still no bids.

Why is it (And i have found this on more than one save) that clubs are constantly interested in players but never bid?

ANyone else found this?

PS: Just for extra info. I am 2nd in premiership, the clubs interested are the likes of, man u, chelsea, genoa (Who are very good in the game), OL, Real, Barca, Athletic madrid, Bayern.

Now as a test, i offered my players out, for high values (Around 15 million more than their value) and every single team big, although usually only about 5 mil more than their value.

I then loaded and as a test, resigned (I was in jan transfer window) and 2 of my star players were sold by the end of jan, with very high transfer fees. Around 2.5 times their value.

Is this a bug, or just a major flaw in the game?

Probably means they don't think they'll move for some reason, maybe because your players are more than happy with the situation. Are these players club favorites or anything.

Just offer them out if you need money.

Also, don't worry, after this post in FM2012 we won't be able to survive 15 seconds without Man U bidding for our average youth players and essentially stripping our squads.

Probably means they don't think they'll move for some reason, maybe because your players are more than happy with the situation. Are these players club favorites or anything.

Just offer them out if you need money.

If a club is struggling financially, there would be bids flying in from everyone for bargain deals - the manager doesn't have to send out a distress signal unless it's a Portsmouth situation (where Grant basically said the whole squad was for sale). Even bids that are probably going to be rejected should fly in - the fact it's a bargain means that it worth considering either way.

I have the same problem. Plenty of interest and no bids. Still yet to sell a single player despite it being 2019. Verging on boredom in my save.

Ok also,

The interest for each player has at least 1 or 2 clubs which are major constantly.

Also the clubs managers constantly release statements syaing they will try to sign, or they admire etc

Check the rep of yours player and the wage he is demanding from other club,

the AI is just very poor when it comes to transfers. every year there are tons of amazing players available for free and the AI clubs rarely offer them a contract. then you get all these free players without any competition from the AI.

If you really want to sell, transfer list and offer at an increased value - if the interest is major (and the teams are big/rich enough), they'll be willing to pay.

this is the biggest area along with tactics that need looking at for FM12...unfortunatly I think SI have spent far too long working on things that are not important like media, team talks etc

If you really want to sell, transfer list and offer at an increased value - if the interest is major (and the teams are big/rich enough), they'll be willing to pay.

Firstly, when transfer listing a player and offering them out, only if you're lucky do you get bids coming in of max 1.5x times their value (or if you're very lucky you get 2x their value). This of course isn't good enough. Although it sounds nice to sell someone for 1.5 to 2 times their "value", the problem is that this "value" is grossly undervalued in the first place because thats how the game valuation works (the assumption is it takes a minimum bid of 3-5 times the player's value for a club to reluctantly sell a star player).

Secondly, this method of selling a good player actually ruins part of the game for me - why should we have to transfer list and "whore out" a good player just to get some bids? I have star players playing for me who I don't want to upset by transfer listing, but I would like to sell them for a realistic/big fee because of the prospect of being able to reinvest the money in a replacement who I'd prefer (or invest the money in number of positions). But I can't sell for a good fee because the AI never does anything beyond admiring the player via the media. So I'm stuck with a good player who I won't sell for a silly low fee. This is especially annoying when the AI will ask for 3-5 times the value for a equivalent star player I'd want from them.

it's like the D&R legend John Still says... a lot look, some enquire, few (or none) bid... maybe they are interested, but no so interested that they want to make a bid. maybe your player is 2nd or 3rd transfer choice.

The AI assesses transfers differently when a human manager is involved, they will happily bid well over the value for other AI players, as they will also allow players to leave for more reasonable fees. But the human player must bid far higher, and let his players go far cheaper. I think it was done to make the game harder.

The fact you resigned and suddenly 2.5x offers were received pretty much shows that, as the AI wasn't even offering the players out or transfer listing them and had no trouble getting huge bids.

How do you conclude that?

All that shows is that the players are on the opposing managers shortlist, nothing else.

I have over a thousand players on my shortlist but I'm not planning on bidding on all of them.

It is a major flaw because he resigned and as soon as his team became an AI team two players were transferred for huge fees. Even if everything else could be explained, the fact that AI teams pay each other more for players than they will pay human players is either a major flaw or SI's way of balancing the difficulty of the game. If it is the latter they should admit that.

The AI assesses transfers differently when a human manager is involved, they will happily bid well over the value for other AI players, as they will also allow players to leave for more reasonable fees. But the human player must bid far higher, and let his players go far cheaper. I think it was done to make the game harder.

The fact you resigned and suddenly 2.5x offers were received pretty much shows that, as the AI wasn't even offering the players out or transfer listing them and had no trouble getting huge bids.

Exactly. If this is a difficulty setting issue then we should be provided with the option to toggle it on or off. It should not be a mandatory, but unrealistic, part of the game.

It is a major flaw because he resigned and as soon as his team became an AI team two players were transferred for huge fees. Even if everything else could be explained, the fact that AI teams pay each other more for players than they will pay human players is either a major flaw or SI's way of balancing the difficulty of the game. If it is the latter they should admit that.

Its a myth, the AI doesn't pay more for AI players than human players. The human players that have issues with this are those that for whatever reason don't seem to grasp the options available and don't fully utilise them. I regularly sell players for 3/4/5 times their estimated value.

What isn't a myth is that human users don't receive as many offers overall "out of the blue" as AI clubs however as a human user you have the choice to instigate offers by offering players out.

Looking at the example - "As soon as he left two players were transferred for huge fees" Well just the fact that a manager left and a new manager arrived changes the playing field. Other clubs will look to use the change of management as an opportunity to target players just the same as I would as a human manager. All it then shows is that the AI manager did a better job of encouraging bids.

Whereas i agree there should be more bids forthcoming from the AI its still very possible to sell for huge amounts over the shown game value, i recently bought a regen for £250k and sold him for £9.5m two seasons later, infact i have not bought a single player and not made a huge profit when i have sold in my long term game, yes i usually offer these players out to encourage bids but i think thats as much to do with the huge asking prices i set for each player to discourage AI bids, i prefer to sell on my terms and when i want to.

The example shows nothing except a change in managment encouraged teams to take advantage and the blub chose to change things up.

I also make good profits buying players, developing them for a few years, and then selling them. But it is difficult to get twice their value whereas AIs often do. In FM 2010, it was far easier to sell players for big money. Also, there are numerous occasions where I transfer list a player who is "wanted" by a number of teams and I get no offers. When I get enquiries and respond by asking for anything more than the base price, the "offer" is withdrawn. When I get an unsolicited offer any attempt to bargain fails. On the other hand, a complete rejection often leads to a higher offer. There have been times when I have rejected one offer after another and the price kept going up. The problem is that this has never happened to me for a player I wanted to sell. Otherwise I would have waited until no more offers came in and then offered the player out for the maximum price that had been offered. (Next time it happens I will save so I can experiment.)

There are also some peculiar problems. I had a 24 year old english goalee rated at two stars for my team (so a good signing for a premier team--certainly better than the goalees several teams were using). I transfer listed him and there were no offers. I offered him to clubs at his listed value of $5.9 million and nothing. Eventually I sold him as a 25 year old for $1 million plus $1 million if he plays 30 league games. I suppose you could claim that the AI managers were cagily outwaiting me because they knew I would have to sell eventually, but I doubt the AI is that good. I have no idea why no one wanted him at a fair price but I think it is more likely to be a bug in the transfer system rather than some cleverly hidden brilliant stroke of realism.

Obviously, I cannot say that there are not ways to sell players for vastly more than their listed value. I am just saying that it does not appear to work regularly and consistantly and the AI seems to have no trouble making such sales.

There is definately something up with the way transfers are handled. It's something that I have only really noticed on this version. Ive had 3 saves so far on FM both around 15 years. And I am reasonably sure that this issue has exsisted on each one.

- I have not once had an offer over a players value, it is always a face value offer.

- As soon as you put an asking price on a player no transfers offers will come in

- The only way to offload players for any sort of profit is to offer them out (without transfer listing them). THe price you get for the player will vary, but there is always a ceiling on the offer, you will notice that a load of clubs come in and offer the same amount. You wont get anymore than this from any club.

- Transfer Listing a player, the AI bids will be of this value and no higher. Which is how it should be.

Signing players from other clubs, I thik works well. I get transfer listed players a listed price. I have to pay big money for the best players and usually the otgher transfers fall inbetween.

I haven't read the whole thread but I feel with you, glennuk. I had the same problem but I have a kind of workaround which makes my save more enjoyable (but that's just my opinion). Every time the AI comes in with an enquiry or a poor offer, I started to renegotiate the price via 'after league appearances' clause to a value that I find acceptable. If you set it to 'after 50 matches', the AI will usually pay very high prices. You can really abuse this clause and ruin your savegame if you overdo it, so be careful with that! But for me (as someone who always buys a lot of talents) my savegame is now far more enjoyable because my established players finally get bought for a reasonable price and make way for the youngsters. If you don't get offers but clubs are interested in your players, you can offer them out for €0 and then go to the transfer tab, select all clubs that made a €o-bid and then renegotiate the offer by giving your demands.

There does seem to be some issue with the transfer system in FM, however, I would place a couple of provisos in there.

1) A human manager is more likely to make lots of bids rather than picking and choosing players and be more willing to pay over the odds for a star player. I know in my case, I am likely to make a dozen or more bids in a transfer period to try and get the players to fit my team. not even in RL is this likely to happen.

2) An AI manager is more likely to do what happens in RL. Pick and choose his targets and not be suckered in to paying over the odds for a player. This doesn't explain the Di Maria situation being available for £8.5 million, it's possible that although we as Humans know that in RL he is an outstanding player, in FM he isn't as outstanding, otherwise why was he transfer listed or he doesn't fit into anyones plans.

We cannot expect the AI manager to operate in the same manner as a human. We as a species are impulsive, and make decisions that defy logic sometimes. That is difficult to program into a game. However, I do not think that the system is perfect by any means and I am sure something will be looked at to improve the system for FM12.

I've only updated to FM2011 recently and this thread is really putting me off continuing my first long term game. What's the point of trying to keep a club afloat if you cannot make any profit on your players? i've not managed a Prem club on FM11 yet but this thread has made me realise that i've not been able to sell any of my star players for any good profit even in league 2 ;and i don't mean millions, i just mean at least £25,000 more than they're worth for say, a League 2 30+ goal a season striker.

So i was wondering whether any experienced FM2011 players who have gone 30+ seasons on one save can confirm whether there is a definate lull in player bids and that is does positively affect the long term game enjoyment then i'll gladly go back to FM2010 this evening.

its very easy to make huge profits on players, its the only way i keep my club afloat

its very easy to make huge profits on players, its the only way i keep my club afloat

thanks for quick reply Milner

Not that i don't believe you but would it be possible to post a couple of your transfer screens or list a few example fee you received. so i can see this profits. Don't worry if you can't but i'm a suker for getting drawn into these fake "real" glitches debates :-(

Also do you have to instigate your big profit transfer or do the AI manager bid on their own?

So i was wondering whether any experienced FM2011 players who have gone 30+ seasons on one save can confirm whether there is a definate lull in player bids and that is does positively affect the long term game enjoyment then i'll gladly go back to FM2010 this evening.

There are a lack of bids "Out of the Blue" for your players but if you instigate transfers by offering players out you have few problems selling them. If you set asking prices and respond appropriately to media speculation you can easily sell players for more than their value but this does vary from player to player with some attracting more interest than others.

There are a lack of bids "Out of the Blue" for your players but if you instigate transfers by offering players out you have few problems selling them. If you set asking prices and respond appropriately to media speculation you can easily sell players for more than their value but this does vary from player to player with some attracting more interest than others.

Hmm, I suppose that's not too bad then. i just didn't want to end up with a team of 35 year olds cos i couldn't sell them for profit.

There are a lack of bids "Out of the Blue" for your players but if you instigate transfers by offering players out you have few problems selling them. If you set asking prices and respond appropriately to media speculation you can easily sell players for more than their value but this does vary from player to player with some attracting more interest than others.

Hmm, I suppose that's not too bad then. i just didn't want to end up with a team of 35 year olds cos i couldn't sell them for profit.

thanks for quick reply Milner

Not that i don't believe you but would it be possible to post a couple of your transfer screens or list a few example fee you received. so i can see this profits. Don't worry if you can't but i'm a suker for getting drawn into these fake "real" glitches debates :-(

Also do you have to instigate your big profit transfer or do the AI manager bid on their own?

i can do later on when im home if you really want them, the best i had was a regen bought for £250k, Sporting bid £9.5m for him, i have heaps of examples in that save of similar situations, as cougar says tho you may have to instigate the transfers, i usually wait until a player asks to leave for a bigger club, then offer out WITHOUT putting on the transfer list (very important) then accept the highest bids. I always have big asking prices for my players, if someone is worth £2-3m i ask for £10m, you wont always get £10m but you will get offers above their in game value. It will obviously vary from player to player but after a season or so you will get the feel for it.

I've only updated to FM2011 recently and this thread is really putting me off continuing my first long term game. What's the point of trying to keep a club afloat if you cannot make any profit on your players? i've not managed a Prem club on FM11 yet but this thread has made me realise that i've not been able to sell any of my star players for any good profit even in league 2 ;and i don't mean millions, i just mean at least £25,000 more than they're worth for say, a League 2 30+ goal a season striker.

So i was wondering whether any experienced FM2011 players who have gone 30+ seasons on one save can confirm whether there is a definate lull in player bids and that is does positively affect the long term game enjoyment then i'll gladly go back to FM2010 this evening.

I have sold a few players for profit in the lower leagues... my biggest transfer fee so far was £650k for Gauthier Mahoto (AI bid out of the blue) when he was worth ~£85k... I've just sold Oliver Norwood for £375k as he is OOC at the end of the season (he's worth ~£100k) I also had the board accept a bid for a young winger I had that was "too good to turn down" (I think it was around 3x his value IIRC) so don't let the scare stories put you off, the money is there for the lower league transfers even if it's not there for the major ones.. (they were all free transfers too )

thanks for quick reply Milner

Not that i don't believe you but would it be possible to post a couple of your transfer screens or list a few example fee you received. so i can see this profits. Don't worry if you can't but i'm a suker for getting drawn into these fake "real" glitches debates :-(

Also do you have to instigate your big profit transfer or do the AI manager bid on their own?

Personally I never buy a player with the sole intention of making a profit but I do try to get the best deal when I buy/sell a player.

I'm not at home atm but off the top of my head I have some examples. I took over a club mid-season and towards the end I decided to get rid of the wingers switching to a narrow formation. The club had five wingers, one could already play AMC while I retrained another. The other three I wanted to sell:

Player A) Flamboyant Turkish international winger, 28yo, highish wage, average performer, valued at around £2.5m with one year left on contract. I listed him around March for £10m and then offered him out later on. I received a few offers and he moved to a Spanish club for £4.2m.

Player B) 25yo French ML/AML, average wage, fringe player, valued at approx £1m. Listed him in March for £5m, offered him out and received 3-4 bids, he moved to Rangers for £2.7m.

Player C) 32yo Portugese international winger, high wage, valued at around £2.5m, one year left on his contract. Listed for £10m and offered out with no bids, offered out again for £5m with no bids, then offered out for £2.5m and received one bid. Sold to West Ham for £500k to get rid of his wages.

About getting good sales, reputation matters a lot IMO.

For instance on my current Albion Rovers save i'm relying a lot on young players released from top clubs which means they have a decent reputation already, so when it's time to sell i normally have a lot of teams interested, if it's a player that i got from some team with low reputation it's harder to sell him even if he's been doing good performances for my team.

On another save with Dresden i had a young CB from my youth team that was quite average but i loaned him a season to Panathinaikos, he played a lot for them including a few Champions League games and that seemed to boost a lot his reputation and i ended up selling him for 3.8M even though he wasn't really that great.

I'm not going to defend the game, because I agree with what people are saying here - and it isn't quite right.

But, it has definitely improved significantly since the last FM I played (2006), where I sold about 6 players in 13 season excluding free transfers. In FM2011 I've actually received several sensible bids for my players and have actually been able to buy players at what I consider to be fair prices.

When I talk about sensible bids, I mean 525k for my star player while in League 1 (several times his value); and 100k - 400k for decent players (a few times their values) when in the championship and league 1.

I do notice the AI buying far too many young players and keeping them forever because they have high PA, but never playing most of them so that they never develop properly (sending players on loan to league 2 will only help a premier league player so much). Or buying a youngster for a few mill, and then releasing him on a free 2 years later after 3 substitute appearances in the cup.

So i was wondering whether any experienced FM2011 players who have gone 30+ seasons on one save can confirm whether there is a definate lull in player bids and that is does positively affect the long term game enjoyment then i'll gladly go back to FM2010 this evening.

The transfers in FM11 are a major problem in the game imo, and you'll find many, many threads on the issue with many people complaining about it. There was even a thread on Lionel Messi being transfer listed by request and 0 bids/interest coming in for him a while back, and iirc another thread with a 28 year old Wayne Rooney released on a free and no attempts to sign him by an AI club (though iirc that was before 11.3). What you will find though is that some people are happy with the way transfers work in this games, fair enough for them, to me it feels like they just invent reasons for the AI clubs acting this way (e.g. in the Rooney/Messi threads the excuse was that supposedly their wages were too high and other big clubs couldn't afford them - which is BS imo as when using tools to look at the budgets of the bigger sides you can see a number of clubs that could afford him). But you might think the same way, so you won't know until you've tried the game.

In my experience, you do get a few decent bids here and there for the odd player, but they're ultra rare (and often only the same players tend to sell across multiple saves, e.g. Paolo Henrique, you can buy him for £20-25m at the start of a game and usually within 3 years you always get a £30-50m bid for him). Generally for most other players the AI just annoys you with their managers constantly admiring your player yet never making a bid. If you plan on selling a player at a specific time, there's nothing you can do to incite a bid other than to offer the player out (even if a whole host of clubs have major interest in your player) because of this lack of urgency the AI seems to have. When you do offer the player out, 99% of the time it results in AI bids of maximum 1.5 to 2 times his face value, and often for ridiculously crap deals like £0 up front and £7m over 48 months for a good player rated at £6m. Given that the AI clubs usually ask for anywhere in between 3 and 5 times the player's value when you try to sign one of their key players, this inevitably means selling players at far less then they should be worth within the game because you're forced into offering them out to get a bid. As such you can be stuck with a situation where you have a quality player who you'd like to sell and replace with someone else you've identified, but yet you can't sell them because you'll never get a worthwhile bid in for them by the AI (and you don't want to go down the route of offering the player out, which supposedly affects their relationship with you/morale at the club).

There are a host of other problems regarding transfers in FM11, not just involving selling players. For example, in one of my more recent saves, I had Di Maria at Madrid transfer listed for £8m in the second season, yet noone other than me and a solitary AI club had any interest in him. I ended up signing him with zero compeition, as the AI club which was interested never made an offer. A genuine world class winger available for cheap and very reasonable wages, and noone wants him other than one AI club who doesn't even compete for his signature. For someone like that the clubs should be lining up to sign him and fighting over each other to get his signature. This "complete lack of firm interest" happens a huge amount in the game, I see many good players available for very cheap prices but noone makes a move for them.

Even free transfer players - another example, I saw Owen Hargreaves released on a free at the end of the first season I think it was, still a full England international with excellent stats, and there were about 10 clubs with major interest in him (including the likes of Valencia, Arsenal, Aston Villa, etc etc). I offered him a contract (nothing unreasonable), and signed him without a single AI club offering him a contract. For whatever reason, these AI clubs were interested yet never made a move, even for free. There is no explanation why, many of these clubs could comfortably afford his £40k per week wages that I negotiated it down to and his injury proneness/serious injury list wasn't that bad. And remember that this is just an example, not an isolated incident, there's actually no need to go into why an AI club might potentially have not offered because it happens alot with many players.

Using external scout tools you can sometimes see clear evidence of there being big problems with the transfer system. I've seen Real Madrid and Barcelona have £100m+ budgets (and at least £400k room in the wage budget) year in year out and not spend any of it on a big signing to improve the first team. At best you'll get them spending £20-50m on like a dozen mediocre youngsters with decent PA. Again, some people on here defend the AI and say that these clubs don't really have first teams that need improving, but that's BS given that there's always a few positions they could spend big in to improve on someone or to add real depth, yet they never do. If you play over a 20 year save, without a doubt you'll find most of the big clubs like these waste away as they rarely make signings for the first team, making the game very easy in the long stretch (so not only do you get a lack of competition for signing good players available for cheap, but you also have the top AI clubs doing nothing but buying up all of the average talent out there).

But yeah, it's highly flawed imo, but whether these flaws bother you or not, you'll have to find out by playing the game. Some people judging by these forums are happy with the game being this way, others may not notice any issues as there are so many variables in play (such as what club level we are talking about - if you're non-league or in the lower leagues then it's not that big an issue that noone is going to spend £60m on your world class star player).

Offering them to clubs normally fixes this. Most times I offload players that way. Having said that the earlier in the season the better your chance. I found this to be a major problem with the game and you will get replies from everyone with different views (mine included). I have started using that editor FMRTE in cases where obviously world class players seem to sit on the books for one to two seasons. Also players you really want to offload I simply let their contract run out and use editor to add funds that I may have got from that transfer. Most would say that I have cheated badly but hey whatever makes the game playable for you. Most replies I have read around "selling players" is to cop it sweat and let contract end and or to use an editor to adjust lost revenue from players sitting on 80-110k a week and no bids.

I know the feeling all to well mate, I wonder if SI know how bad this really is? On another note buying players is just as crazy example; I have players asking for 100ks a week for playing crazy and a well known issue as well.

How do you conclude that?

All that shows is that the players are on the opposing managers shortlist, nothing else.

I have over a thousand players on my shortlist but I'm not planning on bidding on all of them.

Tell me you are joking, right? Not being able to sell an obviously good player for one to two seasons is a problem with this game.

I think offering players out is the only way to sell players. I recently sold 3 players for a combined £94.5 million but I had to offer them out despite a lot of interest from the AI there were no bids until I offered them out.