Does club owner type affect player wage demands?

As this is my last save, i thought i'd give Man City a whirl before shelving the game and a problem I'm encountering each and every time I offer a contract, is the insane wage, signing on fee and clause demands.

Being someone that doesn't tend to play cash rich clubs, i find it hard accept astronomical wage demands regardless of who I'm signing or how much cash is in the coffers.

now, the reason for asking is players i've signed in previous saves, for reasonable wages, now want wages around £150k and upwards.

For example;

3rd season in, i attempt to sign M'Villa, club accepts my bid (along with Napoli's), I offer him a contract and he wants:

£160k (least he would accept was £120k)

20k appearance fee (wouldn't budge)

£7m signing on fee (wouldn't budge)

So i tell him to do one, then he accepts Napoli's offer of £54k-a-week

Having won two league titles and got to the CL semi's, Napoli are lower ranked than myself (they finished 15th) and aren't in any Euro competition. I'm also in a more prestigious league. He was also very interested in joining my club, so it wasn't down to his reluctance.

This isn't just restricted to the above player, it's happening all the time. Players going to other clubs for considerably lower wages than what they're demanding from myself.

Due to the expenditure, there's never more than 26m at any given time in the bank, so they can't be calculating their demands from my bank balance.

It's all about reputation, funds and how well you've done in the cups in my opinion. As you've done fairly well, he must be able to figure out that you've got some money to spend. It's also down to reputation. As you have a bigger rep, then you should in theory have more money. Another possible reason is his agent is able to see how much you've been spending on transfers. Also, does his agent represent any other players you have? That could be another reason.

None of my players have the same agent. Simply makes no sense turning down 98k, regardless of his initial demands, only to move to a club like Naopli for around halve the the wages i was willing to offer, yet he wasn't willing to accept as he wanted £120k or no dice.

I'd also state players irl do have preferences and some have turned down good contracts to join a certain club for personal reasons, but we all know this isn't the issue here, as the AI isn't intelligent enough to do something like that of its own back.

part of the problem with City is their crazy wage budget and the fact back up players and players not needed are on huge sums of money, so when you go to sign a player for the 1st team they will want to be paid more than your back up players, so with the likes of Bridge and Bellamy on £90k a week any player signed for 1st team football is going to want more than that. He will sign for Napoli for less because he will be on a par with their 1st team players.

i find that a lot of players that move to the english premier league are on a lot more money. somebody who i would call average for the division can still often be on 50k a week. i think it could be to do with the league as well as the club you are if im being honest.

Remember when Ian Wright was in the press throwing a strop and complaining that Shaun Wright-Phillips was "being mugged off and treated like a youth-team player" because Man City wouldn't offer him a pay rise on his £80,000 a week contract?

There's no way he could command in excess of £80,000 a week at any other club (although QPR, with all their money, might just have been stupid enough to pay him that much), but as soon as the £100,000 a week contracts started being handed out left, right and centre, every player thought he was worth one.

Offering a player £50,000 when you pay the tea lady 60k is insulting- like if you found out that everyone in your office was earning twice as much as you: even if you were more than happy with your wage before, it'd **** you off.

I think the tycoon owners do make a big difference.

I had a brief go at a game where my club in the Isthmian (IIRC) had a tycoon owner, and I signed a couple of players from premiership youth teams for approx £800k, and they were asking for £20k per week and more. One of the players I signed in another save on a youth contract at £5 per week wanted several thousand to sign for my tycoon club. One of my players was signed on £500 per week, and when we got promoted he kicked up a huge fuss and wanted £10k per week.

The owner must've been the main factor, since no other players were on big contracts - they were all on the bog standard Isthmian wages.