[A-League] AI doesn't understand Marquee signings...

I'm currently in 2025, managing Melbourne Victory in Australia's A-League, and over the past in-game decade I've noticed disturbingly unrealistic behaviour from my AI rivals when it comes to signing new players, particularly (in fact almost exclusively) those available on free transfers.

For those who are unfamiliar with the league rules, the relevant things to note here are that there is a salary cap is in place, though each club is permitted two additional players ("Marquee players"; at least one of which must be Australian) whose wages do not need to fit within these limits.

And that brings me to the problem: AI clubs seem to be far too willing to offer anyone and everyone a marquee salary, even when they already have two marquee players at the club, and often when the player doesn't even request that much! This results in countless incidences (I'm guessing well over 50 per season) all season long where the player agrees terms, then the transfer is immediately cancelled as there is no free marquee position at the club. To make matters worse, often when I approach these guys they aren't actually requesting wages this high, and indeed often their demands are very low because they've been out of contract for years (despite accepting a copious number of these botched marquee contracts) because no AI club is able to understand how to sign them up. There is a wealth of decent Australian talent in my game without a contract, constantly being approached by multiple A-League clubs on marquee contracts which are then cancelled, who seem irreparably locked in this state until they eventually give up and retire.

Why could this be happening? My best bet would be that, due to the league's increase in reputation (it's now the #1 league in Asia and my club challenges for the Club World Cup most seasons), clubs are richer and more ambitious and the marquee salaries are actually very low compared to all other aspects of the current in-game A-League economy, so clubs seem to decide that they may as well make a very generous offer. It's as if they fail to make a simple check when they're considering signing someone that (a) his demands are such that he NEEDS to be paid a marquee salary (they should, wherever possible, try to convince a player to accept a standard contract), (b) that he would be one of the two most important players at the club and thus that allocating him one of the very limited marquee positions is indeed justified, and, most simply and importantly © that they do actually have a slot free to accommodate this new marquee player!

I hesitate to be melodramatic but this really is threatening to ruin my long-term game. Other clubs in the league are falling behind, because rather than signing up all these good Australian free transfers for ~$1-4k per week and challenging me for the title, they're trying too hard and ignoring the league rules, and in doing so are preventing themselves from signing anyone at all! I've seen from their few transfers that succeed (these are usually the first marquee attempts after the last marquee player has left the club) that these clubs are impressively ambitious with their signings and definitely have the cash to improve their on-field performances significantly. It really has become quite comical receiving these scores of emails that read "[Player] deal falls through: [Player]'s proposed transfer to [A-League club] has been cancelled. [A-League club] cannot have more than one Marquee player in the squad" and it's also frustrating as the Australian manager having so many talented players without a club for years as they're unable to sign a legitimate contract.

With this aside, I want to take this opportunity to say that SI have done a fantastic job with the A-League this year. I remember playing it the first time it appeared in FM with all sorts of issues, and it has improved significantly since then. With this issue sorted, and possibly some more dynamic rule changes as the league ages (eg. salary cap increasing; signing players from clubs in the same league), I think it could be near perfect.

edit- Wow, epic slab of text. Sorry...

SI don't care. They never get it right and keep dismissing our issues year after year.

I have a feeling it is the mechanics of the game being based on the 'usual' transfer rules rather than based on what an A-League manager would do i.e. offer a regular contract first and the marquee only for the genuine marquee players such as Brett Emerton or Harry Kewell.

It makes it hard to get into the game when you know their is an issue as big as this. Kind of sucks.

It doesn't affect La Liga or Serie A in the slightest, where I am currently in the year 2034. Opposition squads are strong, AI makes pretty good moves in the offseason, sometimes they overpay for leftbacks, but nothing serious. I notice that opposing managers feel the best way to beat my young squad is for them to field an old squad! I'm not so sure about that, but I am happy to continue to use the physical aspect of our game to continue our domination!

It makes it hard to get into the game when you know their is an issue as big as this. Kind of sucks.

I noticed in one of my saves (before the last update) that Brazilian teams were constantly attempting to sign players on loan (I noticed when the player in question was on my short list) who the 'selling' team had no interest in letting go on loan and so were constanstly refusing. It got a bit annoying having regular news items on transfers that were never going to happen.

It doesn't affect La Liga or Serie A in the slightest

Unless I'm mistaken, neither La Liga nor Serie A have a salary cap or marquee signings. The issue here is the AI management's "understanding" of these limitations when signing new players, so citing leagues without these particular rules is somewhat irrelevant.

I would really appreciate a formal acknowledgement of this issue. As it stands, enjoyable A-League careers are effectively capped at approximately 10 seasons (depending significantly on dynamic league rep) as the FM experience is hugely diminished thereafter due to a frustratingly unintelligent AI.

...and the first free transfer of the new window has gone through:

Sydney FC decided that, given one of their marquee positions had been vacated in the last week by an outgoing player, they would replace him with an unremarkable Turkish left-back who has played intermittently for a couple other A-League clubs in the last 10 years, making him the second highest paid player in the league.

And who is the highest paid player? A rather average Australian right midfielder who made a handful of A-League appearances as a teenager, before moving to New Zealand where he played at semi-pro level for the best part of a decade, before being signed as a 28 year old by Adelaide United.

It seems they don't even have the ambition any more. Not only are these signings glaringly thoughtless and downright stupid, but that marquee position is now occupied by a mediocre player for the next 2 years, preventing any chance of the club actually using that rule for the purpose intended - ie. to sign genuinely good players - and ensuring that I will be mail-bombed with news about canceled transfers for the same period.

I play in England but have the A-League loaded and subscribed to, and quite often there'll be a good Australian player available on a free. So it will basically cycle through the whole league, every side will agree terms and then the transfer will be cancelled as they don't have a marquee spot. Give it a few months and this will start over.

Used to happen with teams not being able to afford the transfer fee. They'd bit, agree terms, transfer cancelled. They'd then bid again a week later, terms agreed, transfer cancelled, and so forth.