Couple of Questions: Regens + Transfers.

Okay first some background info: I'm playing on patch 8.0.2 with (I think) ddt's for all countries so I would have a larger database (not sure if that's what it does but whatever ), and I always play as Newcastle United. I also play with attribute masking off.

By the way, I know some people will think I should put this in the Newcastle thread simply because I mention I play them all the time and also use examples from them, but this is a generic set of questions and can be applied to all clubs, so I think it is better of posting seperately.

1. When searching for players of age say less than 16, what attributes should you be looking for specifically for each position? The only way I've been able to effectively search for youngsters I generally simply order by age/value and go from there, but even then sometimes they are overprieced or their stats are just not up to scratch.

2. When buying players, is there a way to make it easier to nullify the ridiculously overpriced asking prices somewhat? I realise rich clubs have no incentive to sell their best players but when you compare club offers for your players with their asking prices there is a massive difference. Offers for your players range between 2mil-5mil above their valuation whereas asking prices can be above 100mil (Fabregas is one such person I was determined to buy but who arsenal simply priced out of reasonable proportions). I tried 50% sell on clauses and other additional things but it seems to really not make a difference. For example people can buy Van der Vaart for say 10 mil (From reading these boards this is the impression I get anyways) but I usually cant get him for less than 13-15mil. That extra 3-5mil would be extremely useful, especially if the 44mil you get at Game Start for Newcastle means you can buy 4 players at the 10mil price range which could otherwise cost 15mil, saving 20mil and gaining an extra 2 players.

3. Selling players. One of my biggest annoyances. I understand that people might not want to buy Nicky Butt because he sucks, but even when I got his wage down to 10-15k nobody even wanted him for free? Is there a way to increase club interest in players you want to sell? High wages aren't the problem since the first thing I do on a new game is to get wages at Newcastle down to reasonable levels (Such as 60k wages to 30k, 30k to 15k etc). However no matter how hard I try I not only cant sell the lesser valued players but the ones worth about 4million dont get accepted counter offers above 2million, what gives?

I generally look at physical attributes for young players because they will not change so much as they get older so if he has no pace at 16 he'll have no pace at any point. Mostly though I get the player scouted and see what my scout says about his potential and just take a punt. I look for the same type of attributes as I would look for in a player of any age for the same position, I'm just obviously less fussy about exactly how good those attributes are.

As for buying players, AI clubs always demand high amount and as for selling players it is always difficult to get rid of players you don't want. Hopefully that has been better tuned in FM09, although in many cases if you don't want the player then it is expected that no-one else does either.

Btw, I always groan when I see threads that start with "some background"! Often I can't be bothered to read background before getting to the pith of the question so putting the background at the end would be better, then those of us for whom the background makes absolutely no difference to the question can just ignore it

I just thought of another question, this time regarding the board blocking the departure of staff. Is it possible to circumvent this somehow, because dennis wise and vetere are both impossible to get rid of for like 4 seasons and are completely useless with rubbish scout stats.

Also, thank you for the reply

Dennis Wise shouldn't be "get ridable of" at all for you as manager should he? If he's the Technical Director then he shouldn't have attributes or anything - he should just be a goblin sat on the board causing trouble for you without you actually being able to interact with him!

Dennis Wise shouldn't be "get ridable of" at all for you as manager should he? If he's the Technical Director then he shouldn't have attributes or anything - he should just be a goblin sat on the board causing trouble for you without you actually being able to interact with him!

Unfortunately he's in as a scout, and a rubbish one at that

When i manage Newcastle i assign Wise to scout the next opposition , due to him being a manager and having decent tactical knowledge , i also send vetere out to scout europe , due to his ability to speak many lingos.

I just thought of another question, this time regarding the board blocking the departure of staff. Is it possible to circumvent this somehow, because dennis wise and vetere are both impossible to get rid of for like 4 seasons and are completely useless with rubbish scout stats.

Also, thank you for the reply

At first, the staff's "Date Joined Club" is the problem - You can't sack staff who has joined the club within the latest year, I believe.

After that the price of the termination is the problem. This price is determined by the staff's wage and contract length. Negotiate either down, and you might be able to sack.

ddt's for all countries so I would have a larger database

Irrelvant, but any ideas where you can download this?

Irrelvant, but any ideas where you can download this?

Can't remember where it was linked but I found a link somewhere on this board to a website which allowed you to edit and then download a ddt. Try searching google, might be able to find it.

I generally look at physical attributes for young players because they will not change so much as they get older so if he has no pace at 16 he'll have no pace at any point. Mostly though I get the player scouted and see what my scout says about his potential and just take a punt. I look for the same type of attributes as I would look for in a player of any age for the same position, I'm just obviously less fussy about exactly how good those attributes are.

As for buying players, AI clubs always demand high amount and as for selling players it is always difficult to get rid of players you don't want. Hopefully that has been better tuned in FM09, although in many cases if you don't want the player then it is expected that no-one else does either.

Btw, I always groan when I see threads that start with "some background"! Often I can't be bothered to read background before getting to the pith of the question so putting the background at the end would be better, then those of us for whom the background makes absolutely no difference to the question can just ignore it

Why should people post to your requests? You don't own the forums.

They can post what they like - I'm just making a comment that some people (me being one) often can't be bothered to read through lots of background before getting to the question. If the poster doesn't care about such things as people losing interest before they reach their actual question then that is fine

I just thought of another question, this time regarding the board blocking the departure of staff. Is it possible to circumvent this somehow, because dennis wise and vetere are both impossible to get rid of for like 4 seasons and are completely useless with rubbish scout stats.

Also, thank you for the reply

I thought that any staff that were at a club when you joined would always accept mutal termination? (I think that is one of the thigns the "Hint and Tips" thing says while loading).

Yeah, they always accept mutual termination at the start of your reign.

They will. I think the problem isn't that they joined very recently so that they can't leave, it's that they joined very recently and signed a 5 year contract so the mutual termination fee is astronomical.

Can't remember where it was linked but I found a link somewhere on this board to a website which allowed you to edit and then download a ddt. Try searching google, might be able to find it.

Found it

http://www.fmformation.net/downloads.php?do=file&id=1150

1. When searching for players of age say less than 16, what attributes should you be looking for specifically for each position? The only way I've been able to effectively search for youngsters I generally simply order by age/value and go from there, but even then sometimes they are overprieced or their stats are just not up to scratch.

Value is highly dependent on which league the player is playing in. Youth are no exception. Hence some expensive duds in the top leagues and cheap talents in the lower leagues. Better to sort by anything else really. Physical stats are good to start with, but there's no reason not to sort youth by the same (albeit lower) criteria that you'd use for adult players: Decent skills in their natural positions.

3. Selling players. One of my biggest annoyances. I understand that people might not want to buy Nicky Butt because he sucks, but even when I got his wage down to 10-15k nobody even wanted him for free? Is there a way to increase club interest in players you want to sell? High wages aren't the problem since the first thing I do on a new game is to get wages at Newcastle down to reasonable levels (Such as 60k wages to 30k, 30k to 15k etc). However no matter how hard I try I not only cant sell the lesser valued players but the ones worth about 4million dont get accepted counter offers above 2million, what gives?

How do you get 60k wages down to 15k? I'd like to know! Its generally agreed that selling players is somewhat broken in FM08. If you can manage to get them a lot of 1st team games (like over 70%) and a fairly high average rating, it should be easier. Admittedly this is daft, but it sometimes works if you have the space for the player.

Good Luck.

Thanks for all the replies guys, I appreciate it.

As for the wage cutting thing, you just set them to key player, reduce their wage down 5k from their asking price, remove signing on fee, then put goal and appearance bonuses up to max (usually about 20k), and when they accept, do it again. It's sort of a glitch I suppose but for Newcastle I decided that real life notwithstanding the absolute disgrace players having 60k-70k wages was unrealistic (Who said real life was realistic ) so I always do this. I think it tends to help selling players aswell so there is another incentive (Well it would be if I could actually sell them )

Yeah, I could see how it would make it easier to sell the player, if the game picks up on this. Good one Munimentum, and thanks.

1) You should look at physical stats first (this can rule out a bunch of players already), then relevant skills, scout reports, and possibly value while taking into account the league/club he's at.

2) Value (real sell value, not listed value) can fluctuate quite a lot even for the same player at the same club, it depends on how much he's playing, his squad status, happiness, the financial situation of the club, etc. If you look around often you can get bargains. Even very good players get transfer-listed at a fraction of their nominal value quite often, I've bought top players like Anderson, Ben Arfa, Fred, Montolivo, etc for around 5-7million. Look out for clubs with too many good players in one position (eg. if Arsenal buys a top striker who already has high CA, it's a good bet that at the end of that season you can get Bendtner for cheaper than usual because they will play the new guy and Adebayor, leaving Bendtner on the bench), or are financially insecure. The AI is the same, if a rich club (often Arsenal in the EPL) is eying your talented youngster, they'll easily bid 4-5 times his listed price.

3) Two main ways to get around this - find a way to play him often enough and try periodically throughout the season, or loan him out for as much as you can (in terms of percentage of wages) and try during the next transfer season.