Transfer confidence

This is another extension of the overall confidence problem, but fans don't seem to understand when a player is brought in as a prospect for the future, and is particularly annoying!!

agree. when i buy a youngster and sub him on for few last minutes of league games, his ratings of course are not good and fans are angry

Irrelevant. It's just cosmetic. I ignore most of this rubbish now and I enjoy the game a lot more. Hope it's fixed for FM09 as I'd like it to mean something.

I agree, it shouldn't just take into account the final rating, it should take into account how long the player spent on the pitch, squad status, ect. It is very annoying when the fans get annoyed when you're buying squad players (particularly when they're on the cheap).

It's extremely annoying, but usually they don't play for the first team until the year limit or so elapses and their name disappears from the signings confidence with it not changed from 'waiting till the play a few games'.

Irrelevant. It's just cosmetic. I ignore most of this rubbish now and I enjoy the game a lot more. Hope it's fixed for FM09 as I'd like it to mean something.

Is this a certainty? I mean, if I buy in a heap of youngsters and the fans are disgruntled with all of them, it won't contribute to me getting sacked, will it?

Everything in confidence contributes, but fans being disgruntled with one or two signings will have minimal effect. If they are disgruntled with 10 signings as well as player performances and your board are not happy with your progress in competitions etc then that will all add up to you getting sacked, but it is just cumulative - no-one is going to get sacked purely because of a few bad signings (or rather, what are perceived as bad signings)

The "Summary" line of confidence tells you the overall opinion, plus the longest green bar - e.g., the one specific item the board/fans are happiest with, plus the shortest bar - e.g., the one specific item the board/fans are most upset with.

So, if you're hearing how irate the fans are that your one-for-the-future hasn't panned out yet, just ignore it, it really is cosmetic as long as the overall summary line is positive.

As glamdring says, everything is weighted into the overall score, but I think the "maximum" is adjusted for each item, so its not like the weight equally. Standing in the League remains the single most important determining factor, so you're not going to get sacked for a couple bad signings.

Personally, I'd love to see some distinction between:

- youth players (Fans are excited at so-and-so's potential)

- cheap and/or Bosman backups (don't even show up on the "signings" sheet.)

- high-rep starters (Show up as currently)

- big-money signings (Show up as currently)

In that section - in fact, maybe youth players should be judged on their performances in non-competitive matches? Or if they have a splash debut, e.g., a goal off the bench, or lighting up some lower-division club in a Cup start or some such, maybe that gets mentioned.

If the report really really bothers you, send them out on loan or to a feeder club immediately, rather than involving them in senior matches, and you'll get the "Don't want to comment until he's made a few first-team appearacnes" bit instead of criticism.

Or just get thick-skinned about the Confidence section, that's what I did.

The thing about not having cheap or bosmans showing up on the screen is a good idea but also a bad one, as I love to read that my fans think my purchase of so and so was a fantastic piece of business, when I bought him on a free, makes me feel smug

This is another situation I don't like about this. I signed Goran Pandev for Man United. He got injured for 4 months before the season started. When he came back from injury, he was obviously 'severly lacking match fitness'. I was gradually getting him match fit by putting him on as sub and he was getting ratings of 6 due to lack of fitness and because he only had a few minutes in some of the matches. He has improved now and is getting goals and some 7 ratings but surely the transfer confidence should take these circumstances into account as well.

This is another situation I don't like about this. I signed Goran Pandev for Man United. He got injured for 4 months before the season started. When he came back from injury, he was obviously 'severly lacking match fitness'. I was gradually getting him match fit by putting him on as sub and he was getting ratings of 6 due to lack of fitness and because he only had a few minutes in some of the matches. He has improved now and is getting goals and some 7 ratings but surely the transfer confidence should take these circumstances into account as well.

Just out of interest, why didn't you play him in the reserves to get him back to fitness.

Just out of interest, why didn't you play him in the reserves to get him back to fitness.

I knew someone would ask that. I badly needed a third striker on the bench behind the starting front 2 of Rooney and Tevez as I like to take them off when the match is won in order to rest them. Saha seems to never be fit. I usually put players coming back from long layoffs in the reserves and in the long run that would probably have been better but I couldn't stay without a striker on the bench.