Signing players is still soooo flawed

Tried signing Carlos Tevez at the end of a season as he was without a club, I'm Bristol City, and finished 4th in the premier league.. He was very interested in joining my club, even had him on trial for 4 weeks.. Tried offering him a contract but after loads of haggling he wouldnt accept anything under 91k p/w. The highest paid player in my club is 20k p/w. The next day he joined Boca, looked at what they were paying him 14.5k p/w... WTF!?! Now I know they are on his preffered clubs but come on!!!!! He was very interested in joining me, and Tevez is one of the most money grabbin players out there! He accepted over 6 times less.

This is just an example it happens so much in this game, it needs sorting out

you might wanna get into an editor and check his contract, sure he might be only getting 14.5k a week but he might have a 120k per week after 20 games which i doubt but hey.. anyway try to check his clauses, if there are none or lower than yours then yes it might be some flaw.

That's strange.

The only thing I've noticed wrong with signing players, was on my Sunderland save.

I tried to sign a free agent and it said 'I'll have to make it a good offer as he's not that interested in joining'

Offered him the highest I could and he rejected, so I adjusted my transfer budget on to my wage budget. Then offered him £140k (I think) a week, a £12 million signing on fee and a £12 million loyalty fee and he rejected it.

No appearance or goal bonuses or yearly wage rises etc, just a flat wage of £140k with £24 million in signing on fees!!!

I wouldn't have finalised the deal if he accepted, I just wanted to see if he would sign for me.

He was only rated at 3 and half stars, and had just been released from a £44k a week wage at Valencia.

yeh well it's just as weird as when ur trying to get a player that doesnt wanna join ur club and u declare interest on him on the press and he says "i would take it on consideration if a proposal was made" u do the proposal and he still doesnt wanna talk Lol

It happened on fm11 and its still not fixed for this year. Player's seem happy to accept a lot less to go to poorer league's but if you manage a club in a rich league like England then they expect the earth and often won't even compromise. It's almost as if a player has a minimum price for each club and won't go there unless they offer at least that ammount so they often end up going somewhere for much less.

yeh well it's just as weird as when ur trying to get a player that doesnt wanna join ur club and u declare interest on him on the press and he says "i would take it on consideration if a proposal was made" u do the proposal and he still doesnt wanna talk Lol

scout them a few times and wait a little, they will eventually join.

I can't see how this is flawed at all, in real life South American players often take massive pay cuts to go back to their favourite and first clubs. Riquelme even played his first season for no wages at all when he returned to Boca, I believe Veron did the same going back to Estudiantes. If they stayed in Europe, on the other hand, logically they'd expect the going rate for European clubs as they have no emotional tie.

As we speak Tevez has considered the possibility of leaving City and going back to Boca, although even a 90% pay cut sadly puts him still out of the club's reach. The fact FM reflects this and gives these clubs a bigger weighting over say a Bristol City is a great feature.

The underlying issue is one of our "old friends" we've seen for many years now...

too many quality free agents after the first/second season...

Actually I suspect the tweaked negotiation/interaction system has increased the amount of players who refuse to negotiate/sign a new contract and end up leaving the club when the contract expires, while not many clubs run to offer him a new contract while he's still at the old club...

Tevez might as well be expensive and complicated to handle but in real life I'm sure some clubs would approach him during the final months of his contract to sign him on Bosman...

A paycut may be necessary, a lot of negotiating sure, but the amount of good players [ie. first team material for domestic top league, be it EPL or Veikkausliiga] that end up unemployed and are just there for you to sign is way too high...

As usual, you could be a mid-table side and be able to rebuild your starting eleven with Free Transfers only...

The underlying issue is one of our "old friends" we've seen for many years now...

too many quality free agents after the first/second season...

Actually I suspect the tweaked negotiation/interaction system has increased the amount of players who refuse to negotiate/sign a new contract and end up leaving the club when the contract expires, while not many clubs run to offer him a new contract while he's still at the old club...

Tevez might as well be expensive and complicated to handle but in real life I'm sure some clubs would approach him during the final months of his contract to sign him on Bosman...

A paycut may be necessary, a lot of negotiating sure, but the amount of good players [ie. first team material for domestic top league, be it EPL or Veikkausliiga] that end up unemployed and are just there for you to sign is way too high...

As usual, you could be a mid-table side and be able to rebuild your starting eleven with Free Transfers only...

This! By far my biggest problem with FM for years. If you survive the first couple of seasons, you never, ever, have to buy a player.

I posted this problem years ago and all the SI fanboys on these boards started making up excuses. Its plain and simpley flawed. I eventually get the players i want but the majority of players i try to sign are on maybe £400 a week, they ask me for 25k. I stick to around 12 - 15k and negotiations break down. They either stay with their current club which is ridiculous or they move to another club for maybe 8k. It happens time and time again regardless of my club or stature.

This is an issue I have seen time and again but have now concluded the following.

When offering contracts WE the "player of the game" must meet the demands of the player and his agent or we lose out in signing him.

The AI has a trick up it's sleeve, "Player X demands money to move", "Agree to pay player X £20,000 for the next 3 years".

So in the Tevez example in th OP, Tevez is being payed £14.5k by Boca but maybe City are still paying him £100k per week.

Thats how I explain it to myself so I don't get annoyed anyway.

The underlying issue is one of our "old friends" we've seen for many years now...

too many quality free agents after the first/second season...

Actually I suspect the tweaked negotiation/interaction system has increased the amount of players who refuse to negotiate/sign a new contract and end up leaving the club when the contract expires, while not many clubs run to offer him a new contract while he's still at the old club...

Tevez might as well be expensive and complicated to handle but in real life I'm sure some clubs would approach him during the final months of his contract to sign him on Bosman...

A paycut may be necessary, a lot of negotiating sure, but the amount of good players [ie. first team material for domestic top league, be it EPL or Veikkausliiga] that end up unemployed and are just there for you to sign is way too high...

As usual, you could be a mid-table side and be able to rebuild your starting eleven with Free Transfers only...

The first and most serious issue here is the fact that AI drastically reduces the average squad size over time. But the DB size remains constant meaning there will be a lot of players that the AI simply cannot find a space in the squad for. A good example in my game is this guy:

Not a world beater but an absolute top class player for any Swedish top division club (and other clubs on that level) who would bother to sign him up. But none of them are willing to offer him a contract. In fact he was just released from one where he'd comfortably be the best keeper. He's a regular for the Swedish U-21. His wage demands are nothing silly - he wants £1k p/w from me and I could pay that easily - and the wage budget at my club is comfortably the lowest in the league (Swedish Premier). But apparently every team already has their GK spots sorted so they're not interested in bringing another one in. So he'll linger around before inevitably retiring at a young age.

Then there's the reputation issue. The range of clubs that match a players reputation is simply too narrow meaning a lot of them won't sign for clubs that they realistically could consider when their options are drying up. It's a question of balance of course as a little tweak could end up in Beckham playing in League One. But it needs improvement so that when you offer a player a chance to continue his career they would be more willing to take the step down just to keep playing and eventually move back up the leagues if they keep performing.

You also need to take attractiveness of the club (including its location in the world etc) into account.

If a club's attractiveness to Tevez was a tree, Boca would be up the top in the leaves, while Bristol would be lying on the ground, half-covered in mud.

Yes, well the underlying issue of too many free agents are still there. Unattractive or not, just about any club is better than having to give up your dream when your in your prime... right?

Yes, well the underlying issue of too many free agents are still there. Unattractive or not, just about any club is better than having to give up your dream when your in your prime... right?

The problem, in my eyes, is what you've mentioned first there - these sorts of players shouldn't ever get as far as a free transfer. The only real examples of this happening in real life with big players are those who are already joining another club at the end of their contracts.

The underlying issue is one of our "old friends" we've seen for many years now...

too many quality free agents after the first/second season...

As usual, you could be a mid-table side and be able to rebuild your starting eleven with Free Transfers only...

Spot on. Didn't play FM11 much but with FM10 I took Oxford from the BSP to winning the Premier League without every buying a single player as every year there were always lots of quality free agents to choose from.

Now in FM12 coming to the end of my first season with Sampdoria in Serie B i've got several quality players joining on 1st July on frees....

Especially with the agents touting them around now.. you don't even have to put any effort in to find these players.

The problem, in my eyes, is what you've mentioned first there - these sorts of players shouldn't ever get as far as a free transfer. The only real examples of this happening in real life with big players are those who are already joining another club at the end of their contracts.

Agree with this too. It always amazes me that so many clubs let talented players leave for nothing. If it becomes apparent that a player in the last year of his contract wont sign a new deal, then they should sell him in the January transfer window and get a fee for him.