How picky are you over buying new players?

N.B. I don't want a massive list of your signings, so please keep player naming to a minimum.

How picky are you about who you buy?

Do you just do a filter on your price range and choose someone who has a few key stats in the position they're playing?

Do you go mostly by scout recommendations?

Or are you more thorough?

Personally I'm so overly picky about who I buy, I make Martin O'Neill look like he's on supermarket sweep.

The minimum I look at before buying someone is: Stats, Full scout report, previous season history, personality and then price range. Unless someone passes all 6 of my criteria based on those categories, I'm not interested in buying them.

It has left my squad somewhat smaller than others, and I don't play in the reserve league because I haven't got enough players to regularly field a team.

How picky are you?

I'm probably not as picky as I should be. My first port of call is always to filter a list and see which players I might be able to afford. A lot of my signings tend to flop because I'm not discerning enough.

Now and then I have a pop into transfer rumours to see who's being linked with my team (or when journos ask me at press cons). I'll have a look at them and if they look decent I'll try my best to get them, especially since I'm Rotherham and need anything I can get. Depends on what level I'm playing at, really.

I'm more of a youth only kind of manager so i can't afford to be too picky. I need to see good physical stats and a smattering of talent in key areas. Also i refuse to pay to much, it's rare that i will break the £10 mil barrier unless the player is young but will fit straight into my first team anyway.

When i'm buying an older player i tend to be more picky about wage setups than anything else. I'm very conscious of monthly outgoings.

I rarely sign players over the age of 25. Having said that, I did sign Riquelme (31) because I thought he was exactly the kind of player I needed. I was right. He's been a big success for me.

Ditto I usually prefer young players I can mould to my tactics a-la-Wenger.

I don't buy anyone expensive tbh.

One of the biggest mistakes a lot of people make with FM is not buying the right stats.

FM is just a spreadsheet, so if your players have the right stats for what you are asking them to do you will win more often than not.

Just because someone is valued at 20 million doesn't mean they can do the job.

Ditto I usually prefer young players I can mould to my tactics a-la-Wenger.

I don't buy anyone expensive tbh.

One of the biggest mistakes a lot of people make with FM is not buying the right stats.

FM is just a spreadsheet, so if your players have the right stats for what you are asking them to do you will win more often than not.

Just because someone is valued at 20 million doesn't mean they can do the job.

Interesting that you should say that about stats. I signed Riquelme to play as a defensive midfielder sat in front of my back for, and I've set him up to sit deep and spread passes about. On the game, he's described as an attacking midfielder and he doesn't even have defensive midfielder as a secondary position, so you might think it wouldn't work. But the thing is, his pace and acceleration have pretty much gone, so I was never going to play him in an attacking role. Thing is, he's been absolutely perfect for what I wanted. It was a risk at £14million for a 31 year-old, but I guess he just has the right stats for the role.

I played him as AMC in my Man City 9.1 game with a couple of good passers behind him the little triangles were ripping teams apart.

Scout report/Attributes/Age

They are the 3 main things that influence by decision. History isn't as important for me, unless they've been absolutely terrible, because they could have been played out of position or in a system that doesn't work for them.

Playing Aris Salonica my transfer budget is minimal, so I need to look for young players in the 20-22 y.o range that are about to 'break out'. My Chairman always sells Toni Calvo for $5 million so I need to wait for the beginning of the second year to assemble a highly talented team with high consistency, concentration, work rate, strength, decisions and determination/

LB - Taijo Teniste for about $200k is all I buy when I start a new name as I don't have a back up and he gets better and better.

Second year:

AMC - Andrea Russotto on a free transfer

CB - Silva or Prietto on a free transfer

RM - Michael Cia for about $150k

AMC - Rok Kronaveter for about $500k

FWD - Damian Le Tallec on free transfer

Toni Calvo is such a good player that is a shame he always leaves, but Michael Cia is equally as good and left with some cash in the kitty for mid season transfers whenever I shall get there

I go by scout reports.Unfortunately,I dont have the time,and patience for combing all my scouted players.Just sort them out,to see who I can afford

It depends who I'm managing and what my budget is. I'm more prepared to take a gamble at a big club that has money to spare than I am when managing in LLM or at a smaller top flight club.

I always make sure all targets are scouted - if possible in 3 matches and I check their ability stats make them the kind of player that would fit into the side. I rarely buy more than 2 or 3 players every season because it takes me ages to vet potential targets.

Filter on value, so I know which I can and can't afford. Then let my scouts do the rest. After the scout has made a report, I have look at the stats. Age doesn't matter to me.

I'm playing as Weymouth at the moment (I started unemployed ) and just go by the frees/contract ending, transfers and loan list, with "Filter out unrealistic targets" ticked.

I can pick up most transfer-listed players on a free, especially if they're from teams in higher leagues.

Any highly recommended scouted players are also looked at and brought depending on stats, then value, I need to slash my wage bill tho, its £5k over budget atm!

i only buy 1 0r 2 a season so the team can settle in easier, because imo the team is more important than getting loads of new players.

I'm not picky at all since I'm already at at team who is financially troubled and has a reputation that only locals would play for. When I do get the opportunity to sign players (and I mean not free agents ), I mainly look at stats and performance history, combined with scout reports. If they interest me, I start negotiating.

I am extremely picky when buying players. My current game I am struggling to buy as I cannot find anyone who will improve my team for the right price. I will over-use my scouts especially when spending a lot of cash but I feel I am quite successful with my signings. Dont normally sign more than 2 players in a season and I do go for younger players so I can make them into greats.

If my scouts dont find a player I wont sign him, from there I sign the younger better players.

I rarely sign players over the age of 25. Having said that, I did sign Riquelme (31) because I thought he was exactly the kind of player I needed. I was right. He's been a big success for me.

A certain Mr A.Wenger should take note. Experienced pro's can be vital to a team

I sign atleast 5 youngsters every year and thats about it.

I play LLM-style, so I always use my scouts and go by their recommendations. Every player rated 5 stars or over by my scouts goes on my shortlist. Usually I filter out all the players with contracts and see if I can find good players on frees or on loan as I rarely have any transfer money.

I also don't filter on age since I need all the good players I can get. You can sometimes find some aging veterans with good technical skills that no longer have the physical skills for the higher leagues and might be willing to drop down to the lower leagues.

bought benzema for juventus for 80 million. because i could do. top scorer, top assists, top MoM's.

basically, i'm a value for money man. I scout around for the best players for the positions that i need and if there are a few that i am mulling over i tend to go for the cheapest, never sacrificing ability though. Also, if there is a player that is unbelievably good i will buy him even if i have talented players in their position. I never pay over the odds for players, it isn't worth it. Wait a season or two as his contract runs down and his club values him less than before

I'm very picky about a player's attributes, but I only scout him if I can't see all his attributes. It may have backfired because in my current game my most expensive player so far (and in the clubs history I think) is very inconsistent.

I am cheap. I absolutely detest getting stuck with bad contracts so i usually buy young players and develop them or player close to expiring contracts. That said i tend to manage lower level teams so i couldnt afford to spend on players any way.

I genererally buy more experienced players (27+) as I am a lower league manager and experience is important down there.

the longer the game goes on the pickier(is that a word?) I get, at the start of the game when I am rebuilding the squad I make compromises by signing players who are lacking in some department in their stats and players in their thirties to get me through a season or two so I could replace them later with better players.

atm I am in my 4th season and I only sign young players under 1m to provide back-up and to sell for a profit later on because it's very hard to find players who fill all my criteria. I cancelled the 10m transfer of Eric Caner when I found out he is left foot only .... but was otherwise perfect for me.

and since I play in smaller league (Ukraine) I dont mind breaking the bank to sign the perfect players for me like Levan Kenia(although eventually couldn't sign because I couldn't offer him enough wages but did offer 12m for him and 27k a week(current wage 110k for the whole club..) with 1.4m sign on fee- and I average only 6-8m profit per season) because it is hard to find good players willing to come to Ukraine.

I tend to buy decent players who are playing in poor leagues, teams like Steaua, Fenerbache, AEK etc. You can always find good talented players in these leagues, and their more likely to make the switch if your in one of the top leagues i.e. Spain, England, Italy.

I never buy expensive players .. I manage Gremio so i don't usually have a lot to spend unless i sell a player or two.

I always have like 5 scouts with 20 JPP and I only buy players that my scouts say could be 5-7* with age range 14-22 unless i need quick backups or replacements.

I am massively picky. I will not buy anyone over the age of 29. If I don't like their name - forename or surname - they're out! I will never buy anyone just to make up the numbers, or anyone that my scouts see as only "decent" quality.