Transfer Tricks - A Guide To Player Acquisition

A quick guide to very effective methods I use that not everybody may be aware of.

Transfer Rumours

First one is all about the Transfer Rumours tab - those tabloids come in useful!

So this is the first step - bringing up the Transfer Rumour screen.

Now I'm a high quality team, so I look to see who other high quality teams are interested in. If I was a lower team, I'd be looking at bargains; teams looking to snap someone up on a free transfer etc.

In this instance, Atletico Madrid are interested in a player I've never heard of. So I check him out.

And voila! I've found a Wonderkid.

This isn't a cheat or a underhanded way of transfer dealing. As the title says, Redknapp does it constantly; most recently with Eidur Gudjohnsen.

You can do this with foreign leagues that you aren't managing in too. To do so, go to the league table, click the News tab, then click Transfer Rumours.

Here I've looked in England. At the top, Jorge Rebola is targeted by Chelsea and is a top quality player. But the interesting one if you're a lesser club is Wolves looking at Gustav Svensson on a free. These are the bargains you'll look to nick in and snatch from Wolves to boost your squads quality if he's good enough.

You may have known this, you may not - if you didn't, this gives you a definite advantage in the transfer market.

Poaching Method Number Two!

This should be used exclusively during the transfer windows.

You can keep a track on who your rivals are interested in and hijack their deals if you feel the player is worth it.

Screenshot

Go to the opposition team screen, then click "Transfers". It will show all active negotiations.

You can check the failed negotiations if you wish, but the urgent ones are the ones with "Contract" - indicated they are in advanced discussion and the fee has been accepted.

Check the player - if you want to, you can make a bid, knowing the exact price it will take.

NOTE: DO NOT CHECK THIS if you're worried about possibly "cheating". It's a grey area in my opinion but still, just to make you aware.

Assistant Manager

Yeah, another one!

This one is fairly well known, but I may as well make this comprehensive.

Squad Screen > Assistant Advice > Get Team Report.

Usually, this will show your assistant recommending three players that will improve your team. A massive help - I think the skill of your Asst. Manager increases the quality of these "scouted" players, but it essentially makes your Asst. Manager a "super scout" for you.

Backroom Advice

Again, common way of approaching players.

Whenever your Assistant asks you to hold a backroom advice meeting in the news screen, there's a possibility your scouts/coaches will recommend players (both potential and of current ability) that can improve your squad.

With the promising players, this can be hit and miss - but scout them and see.

But usually, the players that could walk into your team are of decent quality. Again, very easy player scouting.

International Management/Assistant Manager

When you manage a club and a nation concurrently, you will get player reports from your national team Asst. Manager.

This is very, very useful later in the game when the regens pop up. You get reports on players you've never heard of!

QUICK TIP: Especially useful in Spain. You get player reports on young prospects, and they have minimum fee release clauses.

More @ The Away Stand

The 'phantom' bids you talk about, I have only used once.. to stop Valencia buying this amazing regen (best I have ever had, in any FM) for Portsmouth, but I couldn't afford him until the summer. They was trying to bid for him in January, but I had to do this 4 times!

But as a sidenote: Every time I withdrew and put in a new contract, he wanted £5k less every time! Was crazy.. Started off a £40k a week (still couldn't take him up on it) and then went down to £20k Maybe this is another way to get players on less amounts?

Also, great guide for people that may be struggling with transfers

thanx this was helpful

Got some advice myself, at the end of the season or start of the next check the relegated clubs and see if there's any bargains, got jenas to newcastle for cheap cause spurs went down.

I use all those tips mentioned too btw.

Got some advice myself, at the end of the season or start of the next check the relegated clubs and see if there's any bargains, got jenas to newcastle for cheap cause spurs went down.

I use all those tips mentioned too btw.

Holy crap

Spurs went down in first season?!

They are yet to finish anything lower than 3rd in any of my saves in the first season!

Holy crap

Spurs went down in first season?!

They are yet to finish anything lower than 3rd in any of my saves in the first season!

Yep. Crouch, defoe etc all transfer listed...

hahaha wow thanx guys

The transfer rumours thingy is excellent. Never thought of using that for my transfers, but it changed my way of buying players. Yes, I still buy players the "normal" way, but the transfers rumours works great. It determines what price I can get for a players and it's also a place to find bargains. Thanks, Tubey!

Some very good advice. I have looked at rumours before but it's usually to see who i am being linked with. I think i will start seeing what the other teams are up to to find some good players. Looking at other teams transfers was something I hadn't thought of doing, thanks for this.

Also, I never buy a player for upfront cash. I always do monthly instalments for 36 or 48 months. This way I will only use up a fraction of my transfer budget for this purchase, i.e. only the player's cost for the first 6 months or year or so.

I managed to buy 300m worth of players in 1 transfer window despite only having 100m+ transfer budget, and I still had 30m transfer budget available afterwards. There is however a maximum of 46m euro for monthly installments.

Still need to keep in mind though, that a loan is a loan, not free money, needs to be paid back. My transfer budget the following season had a significant cut, but at least I managed to buy all the players I want/need in 1 go, giving them a chance to blend and form a team.

very nice guide! i don't consider any of those cheating as you don't use editor. so it is legit. i will comment on the fact that in the backroom advice place, the players they suggest usually are baaaaaaaad!

But as a sidenote: Every time I withdrew and put in a new contract, he wanted £5k less every time! Was crazy.. Started off a £40k a week (still couldn't take him up on it) and then went down to £20k Maybe this is another way to get players on less amounts?

Don't know if the AI is smart enough for this, but maybe he thinks you don't want him because his wage demands are too high

Very nice guide. Simple and understandable.

The transfer rumour thingy hasn't even crossed my mind, so i find that good to know.

Thanks for some useful tips there

Hm, I was going to start a thread asking for transfer advice.

Psychic and useful.

Have always used the transfer rumours to scout players.

Any meeting with scouting suggestions I ask for the report as I do with any suggestions made by my Ass Man.

I like the phantom bid scenario will employ this on future saves.

Two things I do that haven't been mentioned by Tubey84 are: -

Scout all staff & players in my teams favoured personal.

At the start of every season I will trawl through all the European, African & South American national teams and scout any 'out of contract' players. (yes I know they will appear on a player search with filters set to contract expired, but my thinking is that they must be at least half decent to be in the international sqauds)

I've always ignored transfer rumours Nice wee guide Tubey.

Same here, never normally bother with them. Mainly because they usually link me with players that I have no intention of buying. I'd never thought to use it for finding players.

Great post.

You should be charging us for that, Tubey

And that grey area you mentioned is grey very literally

On a more serious note, you might want to expressly claim your copyright from now on.

Good thread Tubey- pleasant change from some recent others:thup:

And that grey area you mentioned is grey very literally

Couldn't help but notice that as well

Another trick you can use on the "phantom bid" angle is in a multiplayer game, if one team has a player they're trying to sell who has a few teams trailing him but no concrete bids, a bid from another human player (at about value) can start an avalanche of AI bids. This is not guaranteed to work, but I have used it prfitably a few times in various games with friends.

In multiplayer games you also get information about bids made by the other human users, so this too is a potentially valuable source of information. (though in fact I think we shouldn't get to see this as long as those guys are not on our shortlists)

Never thought about using transfer rumours to find players.

As someone said, it's worth scouting players from relegated clubs to see if they have any bargains.

I'm really surprised this many of you never thought of using the transfer rumours bit for transfer ideas.

I'm really surprised this many of you never thought of using the transfer rumours bit for transfer ideas.

Yeah, it's glaring obvious really, when i think about it.

I'm just used to ignoring them.

My little tip is similar to the recently relegated tip above.

Under your manager drop down menu, you will find "Jobs" which also has a second page called "job security". Selecting this page causes a little lag on my PC as the list is compiled, but then gives you a handy list of teams that can be organized by finances. I have found 'insecure' teams are good for raiding and if you find a good team that is 'bankrupt' then it is bargain basement time, they will accept silly offers for perfectly good players. I have even brought players in this way to play for half a season and then sell for a healthy profit (even a healthy profit after you take their wages into account).

My little tip is similar to the recently relegated tip above.

Under your manager drop down menu, you will find "Jobs" which also has a second page called "job security". Selecting this page causes a little lag on my PC as the list is compiled, but then gives you a handy list of teams that can be organized by finances. I have found 'insecure' teams are good for raiding and if you find a good team that is 'bankrupt' then it is bargain basement time, they will accept silly offers for perfectly good players. I have even brought players in this way to play for half a season and then sell for a healthy profit (even a healthy profit after you take their wages into account).

Such a vulture

But I do that sometimes too

Good guide

The one and only 'correction' I'd make is that Poaching Method #2 (seeing who your rivals are going for and offer contracts to them as well) isn't something that's strictly limited to the transfer windows - if you like that method, it's something to keep an eye on quite a lot because teams will bid to sign people on the bosman ruling within 3/6 months of their contract expiration date, where contract agreements can obviously happen outside the transfer window.

...and technically "Poaching Method #2" is the only poaching method you mentioned - transfer rumours are often a load of rubbish. Hell, I go in there to see who the papers are linking ME with signing, as more often than not they're players I've never considered buying at all

At the start of every season I will trawl through all the European, African & South American national teams and scout any 'out of contract' players. (yes I know they will appear on a player search with filters set to contract expired, but my thinking is that they must be at least half decent to be in the international sqauds)

Use the following filter:

"Contract Status is Expired"

OR "Contract Status is Unattached"

AND "National Team is Main"

AND "Nationality is African"

OR "Nationality is South American"

OR "Nationality is Central European"

OR "Nationality is Eastern European"

OR "Nationality is Scandinavian"

OR "Nationality is South European"

OR "Nationality is UK & Irish"

Just make sure you've got the ANDs and ORs correct and you're golden. The only "downside" to this filter is that it's not 100% foolproof, as it also counts secondary nationalities in the nationality check...for instance, I've just run that very filter in my game and it's listed someone with a few caps for The Philippines because he's got "British" as a second nationality. They could also be uncapped and in the national squad for a second nationality (e.g. I found someone who was English with Somali as a second nationality and he's been listed because he's in the Somali squad but he's still got "English" as his nationality because he's still uncapped, so at first glance you can mistakenly believe that the guy is actually an uncapped player in the England squad, which would be a HUGE mistake )

You can also expand it a bit by adding in players whose contracts are due to expire in 3-6 months, as those players can also be signed for free on the bosman ruling; they pre-arrange a transfer for when their contract runs out at the end of the season.

Some great tips here (both the OP and The Lambs). Can't believe I've never thought of these methods.

Never thought about transfer rumours this way ! Nifty !

very nice and helpful guide

I'm ashamed to say the only time i've used transfer rumours was when a player was rumoured to be joining me. He turned out to be a world class regen centerback under the age of 21, and pretty quickly reality caught up with the rumours.

Great topic this!

I don't know how many people know this but another great way of getting an edge in the transfer market, especially in the first season, is to not allow transfer budgets in the first window. What happens at this point is that AI clubs not only will not bid for players until the early-start/beginning of the winter transfer window but you might get lucky and pick up some players on the cheap because they were unsettled by the competition!

What I've noticed is that despite not being able to sign anyone, and not having any money, the AI will still declare interest for certain players. I managed to sign many players who were unsettled and transfer listed due to big clubs sniffing around for a fraction of what they would've went for had I tried signing them in a transfer window! Furthermore as the AI rarely ever bids outside transfer windows you don't face stiff competition (as you can ask for your transfer money as soon as the last transfer window ends - i.e. October) in signing who you want. This is a massive help for smaller clubs! Using this method I managed to sign Per Clijan Skjelberd, Vengard Foren and Yannik Djalo with a Romanian club whilst facing opposition only from Newcastle. Under other circumstance all of those players would've rejected my offers and would've went for bigger clubs!

Finally disallowing budgets for the first transfer window means that the AI won't be able to bid for running-out-of-contract-players in the summer time giving players the chance to snap up stars on bosman rules during the first winter transfer window.

Thanks for this, very helpful I will definetly be using some of these Poaching techniques to my advantage, it's what makes football so great, the heat of the transfers