Buying and Selling?

Does anyone else have a problem buying and selling?

I'm playing FM10 at the minute but FM11 was just as bad.

The AI never seem interested in buying my players, clubs that need money dont seem interested in selling.

I'm 11 seasons in and the only players I have managed to sell are ones that I offer out. Sometimes even they arent wanted. I'm sure they would be decent players for some clubs.

The AI never come in and try to tempt me to sell my best players. They have zero ambition or desire.

I went from blue square south to winning the premier league and not once did any one of my players want to move to a bigger club. I think I only got 2 in the whole time that were slightly concerned they werent playing.

I won the premier league with bromley, the leading premier league goal scorer was a 25 year old Italian who has been at the club 3 year, scored 26, assisted 16, with a continental rating. Valued at 7.5 million, on a contract of 18K a week. Not one club in the entire world is interested in him or has been.

I could go through the whole team saying a similar thing. Ocassional I get a bit of speculation news but thats it.

I got a defender valued at 4 million, I would probably sell him for about that, he barely played and he wasnt very good, hes unhappy because of competition for places, ac milan are interested. Will they make a bid? History says no.

I got a 19 year old wonder kid, nobody wants, I had a bid for what he is worth a year or 2 back that I rejected.

I had a few bids, 10 maybe, in 11 years, usually for exactly whet they are valued at the most. (And in payments over half a decade)

Then it comes to buying, which I think is actually more realistic, if only the AI followed the same rules. To tempt their players away I have to make an execptional bid and even if they could do with the money they think twice.

It makes for a really boring save, as I dont need to buy because I'm never able to sell so unless I give them away (which I tried sometimes and nobody makes bids) I might as well just stick with what I got which is exactly what the AI are doing.

Anyone else finding this or am I doing something wrong? Its kind of making me lose interest im my save at the minute.

Yes, selling players around their real market price, has always been impossible within FM.

If you sell a shining youngster you can sell him at a good price but why doing that ?

If you want to sell an average player you have to sell him at around 1/6 of his market price to get rid of him.

FM should balance more this aspect against the human player. That is cleary a trick to balance the AI vs the human mind, ok , but in this way that is too exagerated indeed.

If you are a manager of a Premier League club please refrain to comment in this thread because your rules are 1000 miles away from LLM ones.

Well, I thought it was because I was lower league, but it is no different in the prem.

Supposedly SI keep telling us the AI cant tell the difference between a human manager and an artifical one but that really cant be true. They obviously do something to make it harder for a human.

I might try a test where I leave the club and see if we manage to sell anyone.

I have found that it is easy to sell your players once all of them have Continental+ reputation. Then I can sell them for roughly twice the Base Value if I transfer list them. Before, when my Las Palmas team didn't have worldwide reputation, no AI clubs were interested at all, even if they could get (for them) quality players for free.

I have had only one reasonable bid for any of my players the 11 seasons of that save, and that was Barcelona bidding £38m for a world class striker of mine valued at £25m iirc. They were my main rivals so I wouldn't have sold him for any price.

All the other players I have sold throughout the years were on the transfer list, and the vast majority of those were offered to clubs.

As the OP says: the AI has no ambition, they are happy staying exactly where they are with the players they have, and this makes FM11 boring. I would prefer rejecting a bid every day over the absolute silence I suffer now...

One solution to the problem is to give all the clubs in the world Sugar Daddy via the Editor or FMRTE. Then they go shopping. Otherwise clubs like Real Madrid sign youngsters for 10 millions a year and let them rot in the reserves... and that's it!

So I resigned and went on holiday.

2 days later they hire steve bruce (who already nearly relagated Man U), another 2 days later Arsenal come in and buy that £4 million defender I was talking about for 10 million, I would have been over the moon with that, they also sell another defender for 3 million which I maybe might have rejected.

In 2 days steve bruce managed something I couldnt do in 11 years,

He also went out and bought 13 new players, 7 on free transfers, and £60 million on the rest.

Only one of those players would I have even looked twice at, the rest I wouldnt have even bothered signing when I was in league 1.

He has played 5 games and lost 4,

Thats another problem (which is probably linked), the AI dont seem to know what to look for in a player, which after a few seasons in makes them super weak.

I think its unacceptable they are messing around adding new features and stuff every year that dont work that well, yet still havent even got the basics right.

Again guys, Premier League FM rules are different from LLM ones.

If you are Manchester Utd the world is happy and fully of colored rainbows and you can sell players like penuts, if you are a League 2 team, even if you win the Champions cup for 3 times, FM will always consider you **** and you can't sell player or you can but only at 1/5 of their market price.

That's the golden rule

Yeh it's pretty difficult at any level to get a reasonable price - the AI only seems prepared to pay high amounts for young high potential players - though surely an already proven player would be just as attractive? (and probably cheaper given the massively inflated youth prices).

Yeh it's pretty difficult at any level to get a reasonable price - the AI only seems prepared to pay high amounts for young high potential players - though surely an already proven player would be just as attractive? (and probably cheaper given the massively inflated youth prices).

Correct, but I also guess that you never tried to sell an average player in League 1 or 2. Almost impossible , you can but you have to cut the price by 80% even if the player is 25 years old and even if he is an average player.

Correct, but I also guess that you never tried to sell an average player in League 1 or 2. Almost impossible , you can but you have to cut the price of 80% even if the player is 25 years old and he is an average player.

It took me till the premier league to sell a single player. They AI never stopped to think, 'hey look at this bromley team, they are expect to finish bottom but are top of the league, with the leagues leading goal scorer banging them in for fun, maybe we could have similar success if we stole their best players.

Wayne rooney is 36, still at man u. He scored 13 goals in the last 4 year, maybe it was time for him to move on.

Reina, liverpool GK. The 39 year old has been transfer listed for the last 2 year, sitting in the reserves and hasnt touched a ball in that time.

Its the same fate for all the big names that started the game, 99% stay at there existing club till late 30s.

In old versions pre fm2009 I used to worry how long of a contract my players had incase the AI came along and tried to steal the player for cheap or even get him on a free. On fm10 and 11 I sometimes dont even bother renewing until theres a week left. No one will sign them. I let some go on a free because they werent quite good enough for me but would be useful for someone else, check on them in 6 months time and they are still without clubs.

Thats how I got to the prem in the first place, buying good free signings that I'm the only person in the world to show any interest in.

It took me till the premier league to sell a single player. They AI never stopped to think, 'hey look at this bromley team, they are expect to finish bottom but are top of the league, with the leagues leading goal scorer banging them in for fun, maybe we could have similar success if we stole their best players.

Wayne rooney is 36, still at man u. He scored 13 goals in the last 4 year, maybe it was time for him to move on.

Reina, liverpool GK. The 39 year old has been transfer listed for the last 2 year, sitting in the reserves and hasnt touched a ball in that time.

Its the same fate for all the big names that started the game, 99% stay at there existing club till late 30s.

In old versions pre fm2009 I used to worry how long of a contract my players had incase the AI came along and tried to steal the player for cheap or even get him on a free. On fm10 and 11 I sometimes dont even bother renewing until theres a week left. No one will sign them. I let some go on a free because they werent quite good enough for me but would be useful for someone else, check on them in 6 months time and they are still without clubs.

Thats how I got to the prem in the first place, buying good free signings that I'm the only person in the world to show any interest in.

Ah man, you are on the edge, correct on exploiting FM weaknesses in a legal way.

That smart approach you use is good, I also had few excellent players acquiring them the very first day they hit the market on a free.

Anyway selling players on Lower Leagues is almost impossible, above all in a League where few hundreds of thousands of euros makes a consistent difference between living or dying.

It took me till the premier league to sell a single player. They AI never stopped to think, 'hey look at this bromley team, they are expect to finish bottom but are top of the league, with the leagues leading goal scorer banging them in for fun, maybe we could have similar success if we stole their best players.

Yeah, that's the typical AI behaviour we have to deal with, every single day of FM.

We must riot against the AI, sooner or later someone will do

Ah man, you are on the edge, correct on exploiting FM weaknesses in a legal way.

That smart approach you use is good, I also had few excellent players acquiring them the very first day they hit the market on a free.

Anyway selling players on Lower Leagues is almost impossible, above all in a League where few hundreds of thousands of euros makes a consistent difference between living or dying.

Have you noticed that since the last 2 fms where this situation got really bad its impossible to keep a lower league club out of the red?

You start off picking a non league club, they have about 250K in the bank, you reduce the wage bill by getting rid of dead wood, yet lose about 250k a year. Check out their transfer history and before the game starts they probably sold someone for over 100K, that will never happen when the game is going. First season without doing anything you will lose 250K.

First question is how did they manage to get that 250K in the first place, at the rate their lose money?

You get promoted a few leagues and even though you were staying well in the budgets find yourself nearly a million pound in debt and the board reduces the wages to less than it was when you started. If it wasnt for the board pumping in 250k every few months you would be bankrupt.

So if irl, non league clubs are losing 250k a year, how come they even exist anymore? They should all be gone. Only roman ambrovich types could afford to lose 250k a year.

So finances are far from right at lower level as well, which could have a spiral effect up the leagues causing nobody to buy. Maybe not though.

Have you noticed that since the last 2 fms where this situation got really bad its impossible to keep a lower league club out of the red?

You start off picking a non league club, they have about 250K in the bank, you reduce the wage bill by getting rid of dead wood, yet lose about 250k a year. Check out their transfer history and before the game starts they probably sold someone for over 100K, that will never happen when the game is going. First season without doing anything you will lose 250K.

First question is how did they manage to get that 250K in the first place, at the rate their lose money?

You get promoted a few leagues and even though you were staying well in the budgets find yourself nearly a million pound in debt and the board reduces the wages to less than it was when you started. If it wasnt for the board pumping in 250k every few months you would be bankrupt.

So if irl, non league clubs are losing 250k a year, how come they even exist anymore? They should all be gone. Only roman ambrovich types could afford to lose 250k a year.

So finances are far from right at lower level as well, which could have a spiral effect up the leagues causing nobody to buy. Maybe not though.

You touched a raw nerve.

I saw something similar when managing very low league teams, it also seems that higher the league is lower the problem you mentioned is visible.

The introduction of the what's so called " financial fair play " will somehow force SI to put more attention in the Lower League teams overall financial balance, even if there are many workarounds in the real life regarding this matter...

Told that, yes, at the moment your math is correct and Iam under the impression it will be like that also into FM12 but only mid terms simulations made by some forumers may get this picture sharper.

You touched a raw nerve.

Told that, yes, at the moment your math is correct and Iam under the impression it will be like that also into FM12 but only mid terms simulations made by some forumers may get this picture sharper.

The worst thing is though, finances and buying and selling were fine in fm2008, much better and realistic. I actually found it was harder to turn a lower league club into a super power back then than it is the last few FMs.

So they obviously made it less realistic to make it harder but in effect made it much more easier, unrealistic, and the biggest crime of all, less entertaining.

Since fm2008 its been backwards step after backwards step for a long term lower league manager save, which unfortunately is how I prefer to play it.

They only excuse for this is SI only bother testing for 2 or 3 seasons, and only top league clubs. That is the only reason I can think of.

They only excuse for this is SI only bother testing for 2 or 3 seasons, and only top league clubs. That is the only reason I can think of.

It's also certainly not the case.