is it cheap to put buy back clauses when you sell your upcoming potential young stars

if they are really good i put them on loan but if money is tight (usually is with wages), i always sell them with clauses in case i can afford them again. does anyone else do this?

Barcelona just did this is IRL with Crosas who has joined Celtic. They can buy him back at any time in the next 2 years for £1.65mil.

I just wouldn't sell them, I'd sell older reserves who aren't so likely to improve (or might even be worse).

Not cheap. I always do it when I'm not 100% sure a young player will make it. Sell him for an immediate profit and let the other team worry about his development. Then if he does turn out good, I can just buy him back for a similar price to what I sold him for.

It's really difficult to answer your question because it completely depends on the situation.

There is a certain risk with a buy back clause, because what are you going to do when a player doesn't want to come back and rejects your contract offer? Yes I realize that wont happen very often since it are usually big clubs that sell players with a buy back clause, but still. It is worth some thinking through.

I rarely see the AI use buy-back clauses in selling or buying.

Makes good sense to me to do this if you think the player could becomea future star to include a buy backclause.

IIRC Man Utd had this clause in place when they sold Rossi to Villareal.

It's not cheap at all, it's actually pretty smart if the potential player turns out to be a star. Think of it as insurance for your transfer.

I do it anytime I choose to let a youngster go who might have anywhere near good potential. It is, as Arkim says, an insurance policy. However, I don't often excercise the clause, usually only in exceptional circumstances.

Quite often do this. Only ever recall using this once and that was on FM07 with a young chilean forward sold him to Valencia for £8M plus £1.5M after 30 apps. And 35% of next fee. Buy back fee was £10M, but with the 35% was only £6.5M. He only spent a season and a half at them too. Ended up making £3M on the deal in total.

A few things to help you make the most from this feature. After receiving a bid negotiate following these rules.

The future fee you'll be paying should always be as low as possible. So reduce the amount you want for him to a pittance.

Also you want as much as possible in case you decide not to buy him. So a 50% sell-on helps. Most teams baulk at 50%, but because you've also lowered his value down to way below what it's worth, value + 50% still = less than he's worth, so most teams will accept that too.

NOW add your buy back, so it wont get negotiated.

Then add a sensible amount after a international cap. Don't go mental. Couple of mill tops. This can be what screws your chances of it working so greed is bad.

Don't forget to add them indefinitely to the shortlist after they move, so you don't miss a chance to buy them back.

Now you've got a player off the wage bill who might turn out to be brilliant. If he does and you want him, bargaintastic. If he does but doesn't want to return to his old club, then you make a mint on the 50%.

Of course if he doesn't pan out for them, he wouldn't have for you either, so take on the chin and try again with another.

I usually do it if I've got three or four rock-solid first-teamers and some youngsters pushing hard for those places. By the time my guys have got too old, those prior sales are usually tearing it up. And available for 200k

Hope this helps.

VB