Need help attracting players to come

I've finished 6th twice the past 2 seasons in the prem with Wednesday. I've got an upgraded stadium, great training and youth facilities, a good squad and a healthy bank balance to boot.

I'm now on the lookout for players capable of taking me to that next level and into the top 4, however I'm having no luck at all trying to attract players of this level to come.

I've had bids accepted for all of the following, and all have immediately been not interested in coming: D Criscito, M Cassani, E Cavani *drools over the prospect*, I Akinfeev, T Gaurch, S Jovetic and A Ramsey.

Now out of all of them Ramsey was the only one on the transfer list (top quality players very rarely are), but I always make sure the players I aim for aren't currently at top class teams and so some surely should be attainable.

I'm sure you guys all know the teams these players play for. Why have they still got no interest in coming to a top 6 club playing european football with good young players?

Is there any ways to try and attract them? I've tried the 'admire player' and 'declare interest' options but they've never come to any good with me.

Club reputation I believe is the main thing. Reputation takes time to build up and to be honest the players you mention are top class and you would have trouble attracting them at better clubs than yours.

I would look at young up and coming players personally as they generally have lower expectations (they will cost you less and demand lower wages as well). Use your player search and filter out players say over 22 and concentrate on younger players who you can mold.

In order to get established foreign players to consider coming your club has to have world reputation at least close to their current club ones, and your world reputation has to be high enough.In addition , your maximum allowed player wage has to be high enough to at least match what he is earning at the other club.

Also , check if they have someone from current club as their favorite(or club itself), if they do they are less likely to move.

Check their personality , if it's "fairly loyal" or something similar then it's also reason why they don't want to move, even if you have sufficient reputation.

Hopefully this helps.

It does help, thanks guys. My reputations still national despite playing in europe for a year, so it clearly must be that which is putting these top players off and something which I need to improve hopefully this season.

All their current teams have national reputations too apart from CSKA which is actually continental, but mine's clearly not high enough which makes sense I can't sign top foreign players.

I'll have to look more from british based teams and continue to focus on younger players for now. Hopefully they can get me into the champs league which should then enable me to attract these monsters.

You need to win titles. Finishing highish in the Premier League won't increase the club's reputation fast enough.

So try to win the Europa League, FA Cup and League Cup. That is what you can do with a 6th place which can take your reputation to the next level. Also, signing 3,5, 4 or 4,5 PA star teenagers is much cheaper and easier than signing established continental rep/Leading PL players. It just takes some time (3-5 seasons) before they reach their potential and improve your team.

I got Bournemouth from BSP to EPL title signing only Home nation players(my own rule). It took me 10 years (plus first 4 with AFC Telford) but it was very enjoyable.Focus finding players in Scotland and Ireland(if you loaded them), they should have plenty of players that are good enough.

Also , recently relegated teams from EPL are rather eager to cheaply sell their players to you at the begging of the new season in order to lower their wages.You really don't need big names till you play at least one season in CL.

You need to win titles. Finishing highish in the Premier League won't increase the club's reputation fast enough.

So try to win the Europa League, FA Cup and League Cup. That is what you can do with a 6th place which can take your reputation to the next level. Also, signing 3,5, 4 or 4,5 PA star teenagers is much cheaper and easier than signing established continental rep/Leading PL players. It just takes some time (3-5 seasons) before they reach their potential and improve your team.

Thanks, im thinking I might actually focus on cup competitions this year as my board are only asking for a respectable league finish.

As for signing up and coming youngsters though, yeah its a great idea and I have found a couple (brazilian kids). Whats the most effective way of finding them though? Simply scouting countries/continents?

Thanks, im thinking I might actually focus on cup competitions this year as my board are only asking for a respectable league finish.

As for signing up and coming youngsters though, yeah its a great idea and I have found a couple (brazilian kids). Whats the most effective way of finding them though? Simply scouting countries/continents?

If you want to play fair and square, yes scouting is more then enough.Other then that you can use one of those "helper" programs to find them, but i never had any need for that in , oh about almost 20 years of playing CM/FM.Just have in mind that it will take a time for them to adapt in new country(if they ever do)

Is there a thread/document listing good, young available lesser-known players worth signing?

Is there a thread/document listing good, young available lesser-known players worth signing?

Yes in the Good Players & Team Guide forum

It's like others have said, and unfortunately raising the Rep. of a club can take time. The best way to do it is to win trophies and get European football (preferably Champions League) every season. You can of course attract one or two big names if you just happen to be mega rich and can offer them golden contracts (ala Man City), but usually it's all about timing. I'd suggest Shortlisting any big name player you'd have an interest in then enabling the "Ask assistant to filter unrealistic targets" option in your Shortlist screen and checking the Shortlist every couple weeks (especially near transfer windows) to see if any interesting names crop up.

I should say another option is to sign some of the player's favourite personnel. It's a small chance of helping, and you probably shouldn't sign anyone you don't need, but it can sometimes spark interest if you have 2 or 3 of his favourite people at your club. Really though I only ever do this for someone who's truelly world class and hard to sign.

The other thing as mentioned is to look at their current contract, if you can't at least match it (though with lower rep you'll probably want to better it) your unlikely to interest most high rep players.

Thanks, im thinking I might actually focus on cup competitions this year as my board are only asking for a respectable league finish.

As for signing up and coming youngsters though, yeah its a great idea and I have found a couple (brazilian kids). Whats the most effective way of finding them though? Simply scouting countries/continents?

You find a lot of youngsters if you have a scout report from the youth league in that country. However, there's a drawback and that is that the scout doing this will not build up scouting knowledge in that nation! I think that the drawback outweighs the benefits because you will ultimately have more scouting knowledge from that nation if you sign a scout from that nation and set another one (or two) to roam the respective continent.

I set:

1 to Next Opposition + scouting players out on loan

1 to UK&Ireland

2 Central Europe

2 Eastern Europe

2 Southern Europe

2 South America

1 Central America

and the rest to World, while trying to make sure that I have as many countries and continents represented among my staff as possible. I also always scout all the players that my staff recommend me to scout, even though I know who they are. In addition I regularly ask my International players if they could recommend a signing.