I feel a rant coming on...

Real Madrid own player purchased for €22M.

Player worth €22.5M

Time passes.

Madrid don't use player; player unsettled.

I show interest.

Madrid want €27M.

I offer €23M.

Madrid reject.

I make new bid: €25M

Madrid reject; they want €59M.

Time passes.

Madrid don't use player.

I make probing offer of €58M.

Madrid reject; they want €70M.

Madrid don't use player; player unsettled.

What would be the logic behind such a chain of events? I'm not a Madrid rival but they are clearly not interested in selling. But why? And why not just reject all offers instead of hiking up the price.

Time to turn off the computer before some loose object goes flying...

It's well known that the transfer system is naff. I've never seen anything as ridiculous as this, though.

Keep checking back in, though. Asking prices fluctuate through the game. I had Man City demanding £70m for Micah Richards, then £60m. Got him in season 4 for around £36m.

I expect Madrid can be picky because they're so rich.

I really hope they sort transfers out for FM09 - it's one of the biggest disappointments for me, and not easy to work around.

It's no more crazy than the transfer system in FML, which is 100% human controlled.

Scenario

Unsettled player (as he is not playing) with a market value of 375k. I offer 325k plus a sell on percentage. The manager aks for 500k with the same sell on percentage. I renegotiate for 425k plus a larger sell on. This is countered by a second 500k request, with the new larger sell on percentage, rather than the one originally requested, thus increasing the demands rather than actually negotiating. The deal is structured so I play 230k up front and 270k in one week. I can't afford this, so I offer 230k up front plus 90k per week for three weeks, which I will be able to afford plus the original 25% sell on amount that he first asked for, a drop of 8% from the sell on I suggested when I was offering 425k. Rejected out of hand.

Just natural though. Obviously they know you want the player there for he is in demand, and they can afford to ask for these massive prices.

Do what people do in real life: If they want too much for someone, just stop, and change your target. Simple as that.

Originally posted by NepentheZ:

Just natural though. Obviously they know you want the player there for he is in demand, and they can afford to ask for these massive prices.

It's not though. I could understand asking for a massive price but not when they ask for 27m get a higher bid, then ask for 59m. It's totally unrealistic.

I get this all the time. Mostly for younger players that I buy (because in FM08 - every player over 21 is too highly priced). I'll offer 1m they come back wanting 2m plus 40% sell on. So I do the natural thing and negotiate, then they suddenly up their price.

That not how it works IRL. This should be sorted for FM09 - the entire transfer market needs sorting out because in FM08, it simply isn't good enough.

The word I bolded there is something that never happens in FM. You can never negotiate because the other team always up their price if you dare to offer below what they ask for in the first place.

Even when you are selling a player, you tell them a price and they either say yes or no, they never negotiate (well, rarely at best).

I choose to believe that this is their way of telling you that they won't sell, like the way Del Nero does it.

I've elected to now only try to unsettle players and usually only bid on transfer-listed ones.

I'd like to point to the Ronaldo Saga going on at the moment, its kind of like that.

However when a player is useless to the team they shouldn't be priced out that way, it is strange when things like that happen.

oh and yes, I hate it when they appear to want to negotiate then just keep hiking up the price, even when the player is listed! What is up with that?