Reality Check on Transfers

What's the biggest difference between what you have offered a player and what they signed for another team for? I (as FC United in League Two) offered a player £1,100 p/w, £350 p/game, £150 p/goal, a few other bonuses and he ended talks pretty quickly. To be fair, he was asking for £1,800 p/week originally. And he signed to another club for £525 p/week. Bonuses were roughly the same or worse - I had promotion bonuses and release clauses while they gave him relegation pay drops instead! Crazy. Wouldn't mind it if SI spent a little time working on realistic transfers rather than "one rule for here, one rule for there". He signed for a Spanish team, being a Spaniard, but to drop that much money?

I'm sure I remember some insane pay hikes some players were willing to take even when I was winning the Champions League in prior instalments of Football Manager. Any good stories?

Some people prefer life in their home country a lot more! If we're being ultrarealistic, overcomplicating things and taking the "reality check" to extreme levels not simulated in the game then.....

You could argue that a Spanish player may not want to leave friends and uproot his wife and kids for the sake of an extra 1k a week - especially if it took him to one of the higher tax thresholds we have in the UK. Maybe his personal finances were good enough to turn down the move because he'd already paid for his dream home in Spain and the property prices and cost of living are maybe much greater in England and would have put them under more financial strain than just staying in Spain for £500pw. His missus may have had a very well paying job/successful business in Spain.

1k a week is sometimes not that much money.

Or perhaps he's agent had low patience/high demand stats?

No agent. And £1k more may not be much to someone earning £20k per week, but surely to someone making £500p/w it's a pretty big deal? =o

I think the reason he opted for the other guys may have been (along with being Spanish) that the player would get to play in the Spanish second division while with me he's basically in the fourth division. And their training facilities are probably a lot better than mine...