Squad regeneration

I don't really want to moan & usually leave small issues, but the transfer problems in this game are so significant they are beginning to ruin the game for me, for the first time ever!

I got promoted to the premier league with Boreham Wood after 10 or so seasons, and stay up in the 1st season, finishing 14th. I then buy 6 or 7 new first team players to improve the team! However, the ones who I've replaced in the squad, even those who achieved a high average rating & are 'wanted' by various clubs, receive no offers at any price (even for free). This means I now have a reserve list of around 35 (20 of whom were first team in the PL or CH in the last 2 seasons). This is highly unrealistic, you just have to look at QPR who managed to ship about 5 or 6 on one deadline day last month IRL.

I think this desperately needs to be sorted in the next patch, with a more realistic & frantic deadline day possibly being able to help, as more clubs would be trying to look for players until the end of the window. I really hope this issue is resolved, as it is the only major issue making the game unplayable in a long term save IMO.

Don't tie your players down on such long contracts. Whenever I'm managing clubs that aren't challenging for the League, I would never give an interim player, that will help me along my way to becoming top team in the league, down to a contract longer than his usefulness will serve - that way you don't start hoarding players that your not going to play.

Their wages are the key here, especially if they had "top division wage rise" as part of their contract, they are unlikely to get any offers from lower division teams as they will have Premier level wages.

Have you offered them out?

Most of the players we are talking about are on less than 5k a week as I made sure that clause was kept out, so I'm sure most of these CH sides that claim to be interested could afford the wages.

To the first point, I got the last 2 promotions in successive seasons, which was a surprise. Also I signed them for longer as I didn't think my realistic transfers would grow in quality so much after 1 season in the league. However, IRL players who still have a year or 2 on their contracts do receive offers, especially if they are 'wanted' by the club. The game's transfer system is poor on 2012, never had a problem before. I don't think I should have to sign every player on a 1 year deal, just so I can get rid of them when they become surplus. Are you saying I should accept losing every single PL/CH standard player on a free transfer?

Yes, every window twice. Once for half of their price, 2nd for free. I also offer youngsters out on loan, they moan about wanting 1st team football then reject every loan offer, even though loan offers are few and far between too!

What happens when you offer them out then?

You sometimes get reasons why clubs aren't bidding.

Welcome to the reputation hell.

It usually has a variety of reasons. Some clubs saying they can't afford the asking price (sometimes for fee's between 0-100k by CH clubs) some the wages (under 5k a week!), some say no sufficient interest by player, even though they are begging to leave.

For the loan players, there is hardly ever interest 1 or 2 out of 20 players maybe get an offer. These players are all at least league 1 standard and I'm offering to pay the wages. Also players say they want first team football, you say I'll look to loan you out, to which they agree. Then they reject loan deals from top championship clubs or teams in European competitions!

Welcome to the reputation hell.

Some of the clubs offering the loan deals have the same star club reputation as me! And the players are young without 1st team football so there's aren't 'too big for the club' or anything like that.

Most of the players we are talking about are on less than 5k a week as I made sure that clause was kept out, so I'm sure most of these CH sides that claim to be interested could afford the wages.

To the first point, I got the last 2 promotions in successive seasons, which was a surprise. Also I signed them for longer as I didn't think my realistic transfers would grow in quality so much after 1 season in the league. However, IRL players who still have a year or 2 on their contracts do receive offers, especially if they are 'wanted' by the club. The game's transfer system is poor on 2012, never had a problem before. I don't think I should have to sign every player on a 1 year deal, just so I can get rid of them when they become surplus. Are you saying I should accept losing every single PL/CH standard player on a free transfer?

This is pretty much exactly what I am saying actually. I don't see the players commodities that are brought and sold, I don't expect to see a return on my investment in them, so not so caught up when teams aren't buying them - especially at lower teams, even low-premiership. I see them as my ticket to reaching the next level - so I am not worried that I'd be losing three or four players on a free transfer when I know that they would only be replaced when I gain promotion by players that will be brought in to improve my squad.

These said players can always have their contracts renewed and extended if you are not going to gain promotion for example; a case that you are making, with the opposite being that you gained two unexpected promotions. I think it's unrealistic to continually look for parallels between FM and real life, after all Football Manager fundamentally is a simulation; it's not going to have every finite detail nailed to a tee. So be it that the transfer system might be a little less than satisfactory, but you may just need to learn to take safeguards against it. What's better, giving a player a rolling-one year contract in which you know he will be of service, and you are going to be gaining value for your money from him, or gaining promotion with said player on a 4year deal not being able to be sold; your going to waste and lose out more money in the latter.

Far too many threads about people moaning about transfers, when there are countless previous threads on the same old topic.

Some of the clubs offering the loan deals have the same star club reputation as me! And the players are young without 1st team football so there's aren't 'too big for the club' or anything like that.

Numerically reputation ranges from 0-10000, and there's only 5 stars, so same star might as well be a difference of 1000-2000 rep points. League reputation also plays a big part on whether a young player would go on loan. Once his reputation hits a certain number, the young player just refuses to go on loan to a lesser league or any club at all.

I understand that, however, they advertise this as a 'realistic' simulation, and this is something that needs to be made more realistic. It was never a problem until 12.1! Also, as many including those from SI have stated, reputation is a massive issue on the game, which is poor but doesn't make it unplayable as a realistic football simulation. This, however, does in my opinion, as you can't develop youngsters from under 18's to 1st team without 1st team football at your club, which encourages you to just buy ready made players. That isn't realistic for most clubs.

I understand that, however, they advertise this as a 'realistic' simulation, and this is something that needs to be made more realistic. It was never a problem until 12.1! Also, as many including those from SI have stated, reputation is a massive issue on the game, which is poor but doesn't make it unplayable as a realistic football simulation. This, however, does in my opinion, as you can't develop youngsters from under 18's to 1st team without 1st team football at your club, which encourages you to just buy ready made players. That isn't realistic for most clubs.

In real life, how do you expect clubs to develop their players from U18's to become first team players without playing them in the first team - by playing them in the first team. Same as in FM, no problem there. Granted most of your academy intake will not be up too scratch, but that will be the case even at all the top academies. So therefore you need to scout around other clubs to find prospects that you can develop through your club - instance being Paul Pogba of Man U, brought in from France then developed.

In real life, how do you expect clubs to develop their players from U18's to become first team players without playing them in the first team - by playing them in the first team. Same as in FM, no problem there. Granted most of your academy intake will not be up too scratch, but that will be the case even at all the top academies. So therefore you need to scout around other clubs to find prospects that you can develop through your club - instance being Paul Pogba of Man U, brought in from France then developed.

You missed out a key step in the middle there, they go on loan to other clubs and get 1st team experience. Wilshere & Sturridge played in the bolton team before Arsenal & Chelsea. Szcezney played for Brentford for a season before becoming a PL goalkeeper, theres 100's of examples. Fact is most young players undersatnd they have to get 1st team experience at lower reputation clubs, this is not reflected at all in the game!

I agree with OP here.......I have a 18 year old striker who is already a good championship player but i have way too many strikers so i decided to flog him off.

To my amazement, nobody wanted him except Sheff Wed but they refused as his wage was too excessive.....350 quid a week too much ????

come on get serious!!

Exactly my point, I accept some players stay and play in their own first team, i have them too, my whole 11 is under 23! But you can loan more than 1 out of 20 youngsters at your club, for no wages with decent ability. There is no question here, it's just unrealistic!

I think there are two main problems with transfers this version. I'm usually not one to moan and I still find the game very enjoyable.

Problem 1: When the demo came out, there was an "opposite transfer problem". If you chose a Scandinavian league, 75 % of all players in the highest league would be sold in the first transfer window. This was due to the small database in the demo, and it was said that the problem would be non-existent with larger databases. This leads me to believe that the larger the database, the harder it will be to sell players. And since most of us want lots of players, we chose the largest databases we can. That coupled with an overproduction of high PA players, which means all top teams already have more than enough quality players for their level, means that most clubs really aren't in need of new players and can pick up free ones if they really need to.

Problem 2: This is related to reputation. As mentioned earlier in this thread, it's almost impossible to loan out youth players. Their reputation will allways be too high to play in the lower leagues. This worsens the transfer problem, as lower clubs wont make bids for higher clubs players, as they know the players will reject the contracts anyway. I've often experienced this, as when my players get approached by lower reputation clubs (usually reserve players whose contract is running out), they reject it, thinking they should have better terms. Even had this with reserve players rejecting contract from teams in my league.

One of these problems alone might not be highly noticeable, but together they can cause annoyance. One fix I would think it to chose a medium database when creating a new game. I know I will be doing this, if I ever start a new game.

(I myself am actually partly befitting from this. I play a youth only save, and I think the large custom database I chose at the beginning is the reason I got to keep many of my best players who would have gone on earlier versions )

My game is just england & scotland with small database! Despite this you are absolutely right. There's a mass of American, Brazilian & Eastern European newgens. The standard is so much higher 10 years in. Both of your points are spot on about too much good talent & the reputation problem. They lead to massive issues with transfers/loans between 2 clubs.

Lots of threads on this and I think that shows that there is an issue. Lots of suggestions it is to do with the reputation. For me it takes a fun part of the game away - the cut and thrust of the transfer market. I bought a number of players as a lower league Belgium team. Striker was getting 25 goals a season - and then I got promoted and had to bring in more quality. So I transfer listed my striker (about 23 I think he was then and on about £400 a week). Nothing. This striker was proven in the lower leagues and had a value of 50k. I resorted to offering him out on a free. Nothing. So in the end, I just let his contract run out. I wouldn't expect a same division team to bid, but the league below where he scored all those goals - surely yes? Wages weren't an issue, no transfer fee - but nothing.

I'm about 4-5 seasons in and battling for top position and in Europe. Since I began, I've had one offer for a player. I've managed to move about 6 on at stupidly low prices. 5 seasons between an unknown team and starting to be a regular in Europe and only ever had one bid for a player. Very disappointing and I don't think it's either realistic or fun..

Yeah, the fun of wheeling & dealing and re-shaping the squad has gone this year. I've had one club offer for 1 player, and they offered the same price every 2 days for 2 weeks!

You missed out a key step in the middle there, they go on loan to other clubs and get 1st team experience. Wilshere & Sturridge played in the bolton team before Arsenal & Chelsea. Szcezney played for Brentford for a season before becoming a PL goalkeeper, theres 100's of examples. Fact is most young players undersatnd they have to get 1st team experience at lower reputation clubs, this is not reflected at all in the game!

Feeder clubs? The old move to affiliate option..

On feeder clubs - 5 seasons in a row I've tried both options.

When I've selected the club they couldn't form an agreement, yet when I left it to the board, every season they haven't found a suitable link, so frustrating! Only one I have is a conference north team from the 3rd season!

Coady; everything you've said is absolutely spot on!

Getting players sold, or out on loan, is almost impossible indeed, you can't even give away good quality players in this game.

My reserve teams are constantly full of unwanted players that are listed as "accept all offers - Zero fee" and I never, ever, get shot of them. I get sick of youngsters turning down the few loan offers I receive for them.

Clearly though, lots of players here manage to get around this problem; maybe it's just you & I!

Maybe it is manageable, but that isn't the point. If a good quality player on low wages is offered on a free transfer to a club that is interested in him, how can he not receive an offer. The loans get to me, it discourages long term games, hence this year all of my saves have got stuck after a few years!

This is an issue that has never been sorted out for at least 3 FMs. Highly unrealistic and ruins long term saves for me.

I'm not on these forums all the time, so I could easily be wrong - but in all the threads I've read about this issue, I have yet to see any comment from SI. Even if it was to say they didn't think there was an issue. It would be good to know concerns have been noted.

What also makes this ridiculous situation worse is that every time the idiots I am offering for transfer get a couple of loan offers; they always turn them down for a number of reasons. I then re-offer for transfer at a much lower fee. What happens? The same stupid teams offer to loan the same stupid guy. He always turns them down again for exactly the same reasons. Excuse me; but although there may be a way around this, the fact that this continually happens in a game (....sorry; simulation) that is supposed to be entertaining, is pathetic!

This has to be an example of a dumb nerd doing the programming, or... dare I say it.... a bug. Yikes!

Places head between knees to wait for the smarter gamers here to call me a poor player.

I think that first of all what a player is earning at your club may be less than what he expects to earn with his next contract given that he has just completed a season in the premier league with a high average rating. This means that while on the surface he may seem cheap to actually get him to drop to a smaller club may be difficult. It may also that he doesn't want to leave without at least staking a claim for a spot in the squad. Does he have "determined to prove his worth" in his personal tab.

I also believe that the timing of selling players matters a great deal. Had I been in the OP's position I would have offered my players immediately after the season finished and before other clubs had spent their transfer budgets on other targets.

For whats its worth I rarely have problems loaning youth players as long as they have a squad status of hot prospect or below. If they are back up or rotation players then they never want to go out on loan it seems.

There are however without doubt some flaws in the transfer system that are perhaps related to the now infamous reputation system.

It gets better after a couple of seasons in the PL and your reputation rises though until then it's going to be hard to offload players.

Also a lot of clubs just seem poor after 10 seasons, most of the teams that come bid for my players do it on installments and a lot of them don't make offers because of the asking price being "too high".

After 3 seasons in the PL, I have won both domestic cups & got to the qtr finals in my first europa league season. Despite this, my club reputation 'dropped slightly' in my 1st two seasons (inc the 2nd, in which I won the FA Cup), and only improved 'slightly' in the 3rd, I'm still only 2.5 star reputation! It doesn't take a genius to work out that this just shouldn't be happening.

Also, as an experiment, I started a new game with Man Utd and offered every player out for their value, I received offers for just 6 players! I then offered those with no offers all for free, and received only 5 more! Players such as Hernandez, rafael, carrick, welbeck & lindegaard could not attract any offers for £0! This test took me less than 20 minutes with over 20 leagues loaded, could SI not have done this before they released the patch? I've never been critical of them before this thread, but this is a silly mistake for a game made with a high level of general quality.

After 3 seasons in the PL, I have won both domestic cups & got to the qtr finals in my first europa league season. Despite this, my club reputation 'dropped slightly' in my 1st two seasons (inc the 2nd, in which I won the FA Cup), and only improved 'slightly' in the 3rd, I'm still only 2.5 star reputation! It doesn't take a genius to work out that this just shouldn't be happening.

The reputation "dropping slightly" in the news story is actually weirdly incorrect. I have logged this as a bug, and also used FM Scout to check out what was actually going on, as I have taken AD Parla in Spain to better positions in the league season after season and every year I was getting the dropped slightly news item. It seems for some (currently unknown) reason reputation is dropping throughout the season for my club (and probably yours) and then when you finish in a good position it is jumping up on reset day. Though personally I don't think it is climbing enough, I have spent 4 seasons as predicted 22nd in the Liga Adelante even though my league finish has kept improving (10th, 7th, 3rd...), it seems that the building of reputation has become a lot harder.

With Transfers though I don't seem to be having the same problem you do, I have managed to sell off most of my reserve players each season, through either dropping their price, loans etc, and I don't do anything I would see as weird. Though I am generally offering most of them out in May/June as soon as the season ends or straight after the end of a transfer window in preparation to cut my squad size in the next window. I have also found that if a contract will expire in July that I can generally sell them in January (Do it before they become available for free) for ³/₄ to twice their value depending on how good the first half of their season was, yes it means you lose them 6 months early, but this is standard in real life as well with clubs making sure they cash in. I agree there are issues as others seem to be having them, and a couple of the guys who haven't received offers for me have been baffling, just hoping I can help provide an answer.

I agree, everyone knows there is a serious problem with reputation in the game. In terms of selling players, I think a frantic transfer deadline day would be both more realistic & help players move on dead wood towards the end of the window. Although, this would only be possible if the AI can be prevented from buying so many high value players for no reason at the very start of each window! This leaves most top clubs with a 100% used wage budget, and poor options in cetain positions of the squad

ther building of reputation seems linked to cup qualifications, i won the title in 3 seasons from the championship (promotion, 7th, 1st). and now have reputation of the big 4 sides. clubs are sniffing around my players (man city are interested in wilfried) yet the players i wish to sell i can't.

i also noticed on transfer deadline day, liverpool put a bid in for bale, it was instantly accepted and transfers offered before i could even bid.

I just won the league in my 4th PL season, as well as the Europa League. Finally got to 3.5*