Just an idea...feedback very welcome!

although man city havent quite signed the players they were expected to in real life, there is a possibility they still will e.g. trezeguet. and a lot of people know that in fm, trezeguet would not move to man city. a simple fix would be to raise man citys reputation, however this would mean they were given an unrealistic predicted finishing place. this then made me wonder whether there should be two types of reputation, one club reputation and then say transfer reputation. this would then mean you could have a club such as man city or qpr in the championship, who could attract the sort players they do in real life without being massively overrated. what do peole think?

I think if Man city did spend the kind of money that they would need to in order to bring several players in of the quality Trezeguet, Robinho etc that the expectations of the board and the fans would be increased and they would expect the club to be competing with the big guns at the highest level. I think the game already reflects this fairly accurately, ie dont spend a lot = more time/leniency from the fans/board, go on a spending spree though and if the squad doesn't start to gel quickly and produce the goods on the pitch the manager gets it in the neck.

Well the thing is, Man City have so far failed to attract anyone at all.

And I think this is more to do with the manager; his preferred style of play, his lousy B grade network of agents, reputation on the continent etc.

If Jose Mourinho or Zico were in charge at City, do you think they'd be struggling to sign Craig Bellamy?

So if anything the club's desirability should be tied as much into the manager as it is the finances.

I think the transfer system is fine the way it is, I'd rather not add more complication to it.

But then the CM93 transfer system was the best, you click "buy" and you just got a message saying "they accept", bish bash bosh.

Well the thing is, Man City have so far failed to attract anyone at all.

And I think this is more to do with the manager; his preferred style of play, his lousy B grade network of agents, reputation on the continent etc.

If Jose Mourinho or Zico were in charge at City, do you think they'd be struggling to sign Craig Bellamy?

So if anything the club's desirability should be tied as much into the manager as it is the finances.

Very much agree with this. Would also add that the managers nationality helps sign players as wel as personality etc eg Scolari signing Deco at Chelsea

I think the transfer system is fine the way it is, I'd rather not add more complication to it.

But then the CM93 transfer system was the best, you click "buy" and you just got a message saying "they accept", bish bash bosh.

More of a piff paff poof man myself.

Does geography come into as well, it's been said a few times IRL that players won't go to clubs who although are in the top league are situated in (how to put this politely?) less than desirable places. One I can think of the top of my head was Nugent not going to Sunderland after rumoured pressure from his partner that she wanted to be closer to London which I think prompted the comments from Keane about WAGS and shopping.

Does geography come into as well, it's been said a few times IRL that players won't go to clubs who although are in the top league are situated in (how to put this politely?) less than desirable places. One I can think of the top of my head was Nugent not going to Sunderland after rumoured pressure from his partner that she wanted to be closer to London which I think prompted the comments from Keane about WAGS and shopping.

I think it does. I have seen in FM that some players want to leave to go to a more 'metropolitan area'

Some players might not want to move abroad either because of language barriers and culture differences

Well the thing is, Man City have so far failed to attract anyone at all.

And I think this is more to do with the manager; his preferred style of play, his lousy B grade network of agents, reputation on the continent etc.

If Jose Mourinho or Zico were in charge at City, do you think they'd be struggling to sign Craig Bellamy?

So if anything the club's desirability should be tied as much into the manager as it is the finances.

thats a good point.

although isn't that there in FM already? i believe its more difficult for us to brings in good players if our rep isn't that good. so either its not working quite as well as it should, or their managers rep is too high.

Yes, manager rep is already included when it comes to signing.

Obviously the degree of influence it has on the process is not proportionate to the outcome.

Mark Hughes has, for example, a Continental reputatation in FM 09. Which is un-earned and patently at odds with reality.

He is not on a par with Claudio Ranieri or Rafa Benitez imho. His past record of managing a mid table bruiser outfit does not qualify him to enter the same company as a European Cup winner and a man who has worked for over twenty years on three continents; speaks four languages and has the network of agents and scouts and league knowledge Ranieri does.