Should we always be able to offer a contract?

Before we start I should say that I realise offering a contract to Wayne Rooney whilst managing Auckland City would be pointless. However this part of the game really annoys me, I had an offer accepted for a talented 16 year old and our clubs are rivals which means he will not listen to a contract offer. The thing is he is currently earning £9 a week that's not a typo he earns under a tenner a week. I would be willing to offer him £10,000 a week he is that good I can pay up to £18,000 a week, so why can't I? I could pay his agent close to £1 million.

For me this just does not make sense there are certain times when you should be able to offer. His club have accepted it and I think if that happens between two clubs at the same level then we should at least be able to offer terms.

This frustrates me too, having money to burn doesnt really help because the game doesnt let you make the money work for you. Know if you offer a Messi 500k a week and he turns it down fair enough, but Im sure he'd at least hear the sugar daddy out

In Brazil I've found the opposite. A rival player wants to move to me according to the media when I spoke about bidding for him. Yet his side won't even consider accepting a bid due to us been rivals

If the team accepts your offer, he should listen unless he is very faithful or plays many years there and wants to close his career with that team - unless of course there is a reputation gap.

I think the effect rivalries have on transfers needs to be toned down immensely, and the game should also allow a massive amount of money available make players more willing to listen to you. I'm not sure always being able to offer contracts is an ideal solution, but it's certainly much better than what currently happens.

Rivalries is one of the dumbest features in FM (regarding transfers)

i couldnt get Juan Mata to speak to me in FM11 when i was Real Madrid and he was at Valencia due to rivalry, but guess what SI, he actually started in Real Madrid academy ffs, ofc he will speak to them now he is proven

i have a wonderkid at Hearts and when i moved to Rangers David Moyes (my replacement at Hearts) somehow couldnt realise he was the best thing to come from Scotland for a long time even tho my poodle can spot this. But guess what, he wont join me because of rivalry. So St Mirren takes him for 800k and low and behold one season later i can speak to him at St Mirren but i had to pay 3m for him.

I try bid for Parma and Roma players as Juventus manager (after making them succesful team again, league champs, CL regular etc) but no they dont want to speak to me either

Sort it out pls SI, getting sick of the whole overly powered rivalries, for someone like me who wants to keep a high domestic count in my team is uber hard to sign players, even tho they move to non rival of lower stature and i can sign them one season later...

Of course. Nothing is stopping you from emailing the agent directly with an offer.

That said, youngsters move around all the time - for good reason, since they aren't paid that much and therefore are less likely to move to a club that pays them less (how low can you go?). I don't think any 16-year-old won't listen to any offer, even from a rival - it could be beneficial for him to move at such a tender age.

Of course. Nothing is stopping you from emailing the agent directly with an offer.

That said, youngsters move around all the time - for good reason, since they aren't paid that much and therefore are less likely to move to a club that pays them less (how low can you go?). I don't think any 16-year-old won't listen to any offer, even from a rival - it could be beneficial for him to move at such a tender age.

That is what annoys me, no 16 year old would not be willing to listen to an offer than can add three 0's to the end of their current wage.

You should always be able to offer a player money regardless of the difference in reputation. Money talks. The default screen should be 'You'll have to make my client an amazing offer.'

The chances of a David Beckham to Los Angeles, Nicholas Anelka to Shanghai, Samuel Eto'o to Anzhi (etc etc) are almost zero. They'd simply never happen on FM and that's stupid.

Additionally it'd be nice if you could talk to the board about blowing your wage structure out of the water for the sake of truly special player.

You should always be able to offer a player money regardless of the difference in reputation. Money talks. The default screen should be 'You'll have to make my client an amazing offer.'

The chances of a David Beckham to Los Angeles, Nicholas Anelka to Shanghai, Samuel Eto'o to Anzhi (etc etc) are almost zero. They'd simply never happen on FM and that's stupid.

Additionally it'd be nice if you could talk to the board about blowing your wage structure out of the water for the sake of truly special player.

this, i completely agree

Absolutely. Its ludicrous that this isn't possible since they introduced agents...

I find this very annoying too.

Sometimes if a very good player can be had on a free for example, I might be prepared to offer stupid amounts to get them at my club, but I'm not even allowed to. imo you should always be able to offer a contract, even if their interest is 'None' or 'Dubious', you should be allowed to offer one.

Look at Anelka for example...Money moves players.

You should always be able to offer a player money regardless of the difference in reputation. Money talks. The default screen should be 'You'll have to make my client an amazing offer.'

The chances of a David Beckham to Los Angeles, Nicholas Anelka to Shanghai, Samuel Eto'o to Anzhi (etc etc) are almost zero. They'd simply never happen on FM and that's stupid.

Additionally it'd be nice if you could talk to the board about blowing your wage structure out of the water for the sake of truly special player.

None of those transfers would have happened in FM, add me to the list of people asking for the utterly unrealistic 'will never talk to you' feature removed from the game.

I think the Anelka and Eto'o transfers are ones that sum up why we should always be able to offer big contracts that should sometimes be accepted by greedy players. The Gyan loan deal is also a good one as in real life the loan move increased his wage.

Isn't money also what have (eventually) made Man City a major player in the Premier??

They didn't exactly build a reputation on merit, but instead bought increasingly high-profile players, until they were able to get anyone they wanted. But reputation-wise (at least based on merit) wouldn't rival the likes of Man U, Inter, Milan, Bayern M etc.

I doubt what they have done in RL would ever happen in FM, as they just wouldn't be able to sign Tevez or Aquero or Silva etc., no matter how much money they threw at them.

* Double post *

Isn't money also what have (eventually) made Man City a major player in the Premier??

They didn't exactly build a reputation on merit, but instead bought increasingly high-profile players, until they were able to get anyone they wanted. But reputation-wise (at least based on merit) wouldn't rival the likes of Man U, Inter, Milan, Bayern M etc.

I doubt what they have done in RL would ever happen in FM, as they just wouldn't be able to sign Tevez or Aquero or Silva etc., no matter how much money they threw at them.

Good point even if we managed a similar reputation club on FM that had a tycoon takeover we would not be able to sign players like Yaya Toure, David Silva or Sergio Aguero.

Totally agree - also Samba moving wouldn't happen in the game, this has to change but can't see it happening in the new update

Good point even if we managed a similar reputation club on FM that had a tycoon takeover we would not be able to sign players like Yaya Toure, David Silva or Sergio Aguero.

You probably would. The Robinho transfer wouldn't have happened, but a transfer listed player at a big club (Toure) and a player transfer listed due to financial trouble (Silva) would be realistic targets for a Europa League team with buckets of money. Aguero only came after qualification for the CL.

On past FMs, I signed Robben and De Rossi about the time when Man City signed Silva and Toure.

Anzhi, Shanghai, and gulf clubs are better examples IMO.

Interesting point that StormenDK raises though, that buying very high profile players for your league should raise your reputation much quicker than it does right now (does it actually raise it at all?).

I'm finding that a problem on my recent game. I'm very far down the English pyramid (Level 8) and have built a title-tilting side around a nucleus of quality part-timers who should be playing at least a few divisions higher.

But even though these 3-5 players are obviously good enough to outclass the rest of the league and are high enough rep to attract the attention of League 2 (!!!) teams, it hasn't affected the media's rating of my chances whatsoever. Every game they still predict that I'd get walloped. This has been the case even towards the end when 3 of my attacking players have over 60 goals between them.

If the system is going to continue to be based around reputation then surely signing high reputation players should increase a club's reputation significantly. At the moment the media in FM seems to base their predictions on club's prior performance and status and little else.

Compare that to real life, where Man City were the punters favorites from the word go, even though they only scraped a top 4 spot last season and only recently ended a 35-year trophy drought by winning the FA Cup.