FM11, FM12 and the modern transfer options

Please could someone explain all the available transfer contractual options both in real life and how these are implemented in FM. The recent podcast touches on the Bojan deal with interesting information. There have been times in FM 11 when I have stuggled to work out how to do some of the following: Recall from loan (where allowed), buy back, and how many matches constitutes being a regular selection player - 75%, 50%, 40% of games?

With regards to recalling a player from loan, you can only do this if the club he has been loaned out to has not paid you a loan fee. Even then you have to make sure the 'recall from loan' option is selected, otherwise he will remain at the club until the loan contract expires. In real life, West Ham loaned Robbie Keane from Spurs last season, and probably paid a fee. At no point can Spurs then recall the player. These 'high profile' loans usually command a fee. Loans involving 'parent' and 'feeder' clubs, ie an up and coming youngster going to a smaller club for match experience, often dont. Mainly because the feeder club can't afford to pay a fee, but also because the parent club may need to recall such a player if they suffer injuries to the first team squad.

Buy back essentially means that once the player is sold to the buying club, the selling club can, at any time, buy the player back for the agreed price. So in reality a bigger club may sell a promising player to a lower club for £2m as they dont see him getting much playing time. Included in the deal is a £5m buy back clause. He signs a 5 year contract with his new club, so at any time during those 5 years (or any extended years that player remains with that club) the original club can buy him back for £5m. So for example if that player then becomes brilliant, and potentially worth more than £5m, the original club always have the option of buying him back for £5m. So in real life, I believe the Bojan transfer has a buy back fee, so at any point whilst Bojan is at his new club, Barcelona can buy him back for the agreed price (as long as the player then goes on to agree personal terms obviously)

As for what constitutes a 'regular selection player', tbh its the first time I've ever heard of that!

With regards to recalling a player from loan, you can only do this if the club he has been loaned out to has not paid you a loan fee. Even then you have to make sure the 'recall from loan' option is selected, otherwise he will remain at the club until the loan contract expires. In real life, West Ham loaned Robbie Keane from Spurs last season, and probably paid a fee. At no point can Spurs then recall the player. These 'high profile' loans usually command a fee. Loans involving 'parent' and 'feeder' clubs, ie an up and coming youngster going to a smaller club for match experience, often dont. Mainly because the feeder club can't afford to pay a fee, but also because the parent club may need to recall such a player if they suffer injuries to the first team squad.

Buy back essentially means that once the player is sold to the buying club, the selling club can, at any time, buy the player back for the agreed price. So in reality a bigger club may sell a promising player to a lower club for £2m as they dont see him getting much playing time. Included in the deal is a £5m buy back clause. He signs a 5 year contract with his new club, so at any time during those 5 years (or any extended years that player remains with that club) the original club can buy him back for £5m. So for example if that player then becomes brilliant, and potentially worth more than £5m, the original club always have the option of buying him back for £5m. So in real life, I believe the Bojan transfer has a buy back fee, so at any point whilst Bojan is at his new club, Barcelona can buy him back for the agreed price (as long as the player then goes on to agree personal terms obviously)

As for what constitutes a 'regular selection player', tbh its the first time I've ever heard of that!

Thats odd Im sure I saw a clause about being regularly selected, forget the exact wording, but cannot find it now. Must have dreamt it! Good points about loan, could have been a fee paid but no visible "non recall" clause that tricked me, that would make sense. I have to say though in the FM12 podcast the suggestion is that Bojan's buy back clause is actually a device for his new club to return him if he is no longer wanted rather than the previous club pro-actively returning him. I always thought in line with your post. Official clarification would be good.

The only thing I can think that may be what you're referring to is in the contract negotiations where players can ask for a wage increase once they reach a certain amount of league games for the club?

You can always check whether you received a fee for your loans by going to your transfer history screen, it'll tell you there. If you dont see a fee, you must just have forgotten to choose the 'recall from loan' option.

As for Bojan...that sounds like a 'sell-back' clause (ie the player has failed and they dont want him anymore so the original club sell him originally saying 'we guarantee he'll be a success, else we'll buy him back for £Xm'), never really heard of that before!

Thats odd Im sure I saw a clause about being regularly selected, forget the exact wording, but cannot find it now. Must have dreamt it! Good points about loan, could have been a fee paid but no visible "non recall" clause that tricked me, that would make sense. I have to say though in the FM12 podcast the suggestion is that Bojan's buy back clause is actually a device for his new club to return him if he is no longer wanted rather than the previous club pro-actively returning him. I always thought in line with your post. Official clarification would be good.

I have not heard the podcast, but a normal buybuy (say for example in the case of Oriol Romeu) is that Barcelona have an option to buy him back if they want.

In the Bojan deal Barcelona have to buy him back unless Roma pay them €28m. They are totally different things.

Did the FM podcast say the Bojan type clause will be in FM12?

I thought the Bojan deal was that Barca have the option to buy him back but if Roma block that then they have to pay the extra transfer fee, so in essence if Barca do not take up the option Roma do not have to pay anything extra?