This game would be perfect if we could sell players!!!

[robbie.owen]

Hello,

I am Liverpool.

In season 2, I have set the following players to 'not needed', placed them on the transfer list and offered out at zero value.

Andy Carroll
Steven Gerrard
Joe Cole
Alberto Aquillani
Connor Coady
Jay Spearing
Suso
Stuart Downing

No offers whatsoever!!!!

This is absolutely crazy!! A 35m pound player offered to every club for free and they don't want to know!!

Steven Gerrard offered on a plate and no takers!? Downing, in his prime, decent first season, worth 9m, no interest for free!?

Please don't offer an excuse of wages being too high - there would be massive interest in all of these. Especially from the likes of QPR who are paying Barton 80k.

There is a serious issue with offloading players in this game.

I was using Liverpool to get used to the new features before I started a journeyman type career game. I have completely lost the desire as it is virtually impossible to play the transfer market.

Opinions?

[AcidBurn]

Downing, Carroll and Gerrard should be easy to move the rest always seem to end up transfer listed for a long time. How much money are Gerrard and Cole on? they are the only ones I could see having a problem with wages the rest no chance. I have seen Carroll move to Spurs before and I signed Spearing.

I didn't have much trouble with Sunderland or Valencia selling players making £40 million with each team at the end of the first season.

[Nottingham Forest]

Have you considered their wages? There is no problem with selling players and the system is perfectly good. The problem you have is that clubs who are interested and that Carroll would be willing to join can't afford him. Andy Carroll is probably a mid table to Europa League team quality of player. How many teams who are mid-table/fighting for Europa League could actually afford his basic £70k a week wages and the bonuses he would probably want.

There aren't many clubs who would be interested in Gerrard due to his age and loyalty to Liverpool. Liverpool's rivals in the Premier League would be the only teams that could afford him and I couldn't see Real Madrid, Barca or any other top European side being interested in him due to his age and wages.

Spearing and Coady are both average players and Spearing's on alot of wages for one of the clubs who may be interested.

Suso is on at least £10k and is ok.

Wages are a big factor in players moving. Could you see Steven Gerrard leaving Liverpool for Bolton and taking a £80k wage cut.

[McCarney]

Got rid of everyone of them for decent money myself except Gerrard and Downing and i wouldnt want to sell them two.

[Nottingham Forest]

AB, Carroll's on £70k a week in FM. Realistically who can afford that at the start of the 2nd season in FM? I could name about 5 clubs and they would be Chelsea, Man United, Arsenal, Man City and Spurs. Four of those clubs would be immediately ruled out due to Carroll not being as good as what those clubs have and Spurs may be interested but it depends what formation the manager plays at Spurs. Assuming it's still Redknapp, I couldn't see him moving for Carroll.

Downing and Cole are on high wages too.

[robbie.owen]

Have you considered their wages?

Yes - I would expect clubs to still offer a contract and the player to ask me to pay the difference.



There is no problem with selling players and the system is perfectly good.

There blatantly is and it's obviously not!! No offers at zero value for a list of top class players!!



The problem you have is that clubs who are interested and that Carroll would be willing to join can't afford him. Andy Carroll is probably a mid table to Europa League team quality of player. How many teams who are mid-table/fighting for Europa League could actually afford his basic £70k a week wages and the bonuses he would probably want.

A team like QPR could match his wages. Other teams could offer less and the player could ask me to pay the difference. Liverpool paid £35 million for him - do not defend the fact that no clubs are interested in him for free!



Wages are a big factor in players moving. Could you see Steven Gerrard leaving Liverpool for Bolton and taking a £80k wage cut.

If I approached Bolton with the offer of Gerrard on a free, I would expect them to at least offer him a contract?

[Nottingham Forest]

In real life, a team like QPR could probably afford him. But on FM each clubs have budgets and they probably can't afford.

Alot of clubs would probably be interested but as I've said if Bolton came in for Steven Gerrard, realistically, they could probably offer him £50k a week. Now, if and it's big if Gerrard accepted that deal, 9 times out of 10 no Liverpool manager would agree to pay £80k of Gerrard's wages.

[robbie.owen]

[QUOTE=Nottingham Forest;7307408]In real life, a team like QPR could probably afford him. But on FM each clubs have budgets and they probably can't afford.

Fair enough, but what you are saying is that in real life, this would be ok, but it can't happen on the game.

I feel that there would be genuine interest in every one of those players listed. Teams like PSG and Milan would be all over Gerrard, not to mention that Russian team that signed Eto'o.

I completely understand that that this is not working on the game due to wages. Something needs to be tweaked to reflect what would actually happen.

[AcidBurn]

AB, Carroll's on £70k a week in FM. Realistically who can afford that at the start of the 2nd season in FM? I could name about 5 clubs and they would be Chelsea, Man United, Arsenal, Man City and Spurs. Four of those clubs would be immediately ruled out due to Carroll not being as good as what those clubs have and Spurs may be interested but it depends what formation the manager plays at Spurs. Assuming it's still Redknapp, I couldn't see him moving for Carroll.

Downing and Cole are on high wages too.

More than those five I was paying Adebayor 150k a week at Sunderland in the second season, on FM10 I was paying half of Kaka's 195k a week with Blackburn. What's Downing on?

[robbie.owen]

Downing is on 90k

[Nottingham Forest]

That's FM11 though AB. The offering of players wages has changed for FM12 meaning that you can never drastically go over your wage budget unless you use your transfer budget and move it across. So if you have £40k wage budget left, I'd assume you can only offer £40k. I know it's like that for lower league teams so I don't see why it would be any different for higher league teams.

[Motherlover]

I've had no problems selling players. However I do agree that smaller clubs max wage restrictions are far, far too low. Small, very ambitious AI teams should be more regularly able to splurge wages on a marquee player, ala Beckham for LA Galaxy or Eto'o for Anzhi.

[jase19]

i've had problems selling players as liverpool as well. tried to offload cole and couldn't for 3 years. ended up retiring. tried to sell downing and couldn't. was able to offload aquilani for like 4.5m over 48mo, didn't care that it was a crap deal, just wanted to get rid of him finally.

[Chief232]

I struggle to sell players too. In my Chelsea save nobody was interested in Kalou for more than 1 million pounds. I mean surely he would go for quite a bit more than that IRL.

Also, I doubt many players would stick around completely unwanted just because no other club matches their inflated wages. You have the odd example of that here and there (Bogarde) but really, many players are actually interested in playing football in reality..

[AcidBurn]

That's FM11 though AB. The offering of players wages has changed for FM12 meaning that you can never drastically go over your wage budget unless you use your transfer budget and move it across. So if you have £40k wage budget left, I'd assume you can only offer £40k. I know it's like that for lower league teams so I don't see why it would be any different for higher league teams.

Do the AI get lower wage budgets than us or do they not have the ability to swap transfer money to wages? As Sunderland on FM12 second season I paid Adebayor 150k, Gervinho 90k, Podolski 90k and I got Spearing for 30k a week any team in the EPL can offer 30k even the newly promoted ones. Take out Joe Cole and Gerrard and if the rest really cannot be sold due to wages then there is something seriously wrong with FM.

[MakaveliPT]

there's def something wrong with the AI transfer ability and it ain't about no wages, i loaned sanogo to udinese on 2012 for the entire season, he was the 3rd most lethal striker in europe, when he came back i couldn't loan him for 0% of the wages and 0 asking price, how ridiculous is that? the only time i saw AI being agressive was chelsea tryin to buy papadopoulos from me for 55 Mil but then again he's the best dc on the game right now, we would have to pay what? 150 Mil for that? it's plain stupid, ya should expect teams like man city be on top of ur worldclass players like hounds

[Ventricity]

it's not just transfers, it is also hard to loan talents to decent clubs. i suppose that can be about wages too.
but the transfer issue is really annoying, because the main issue when i want to sell a player is because of his high wages doesnt reflect his quality. but realistically, if you offer a player like gerrard for free, paying his high wages shouldn't be that hard for any club that would be willing to pay a transfer fee otherwise. as you know, a player's market value is usually set to his wages and the length of his contract. so signing a player for free then, the amount saved in transfer fee can realistically be spent on his wages. I couldn't even sell cassano for free when managing milan, and he was only 30yrs with 88k wages.

[Äktsjon Männ]

but realistically, if you offer a player like gerrard for free, paying his high wages shouldn't be that hard for any club that would be willing to pay a transfer fee otherwise. as you know, a player's market value is usually set to his wages and the length of his contract. so signing a player for free then, the amount saved in transfer fee can realistically be spent on his wages.

Exactly! If clubs like Stoke can spend £10m on Peter Crouch on top of his wages it makes absolutely no sense that no-one would take on Steven freaking Gerrard for free. £10m over 3 years for example is £70k p/w!

[Le Tissier's Nose]

I don’t buy into the “it’s their wages” argument.

In real life (which the game is supposed to reflect) good players offered for free would be snapped up even with high wages – because there is no transfer fee involved, which makes up for it! I appreciate there’s a Wage Budget that’s separate from the Transfer Budget, but in real life (which, again – the game is supposed to reflect) interested clubs would take into consideration that they’re getting a player worth a lot of money (let’s use Carroll as the OP’s example) – bought for £35m only last year – for free. Therefore high wages would be acceptable because you could take a large chunk out of your transfer budget.

So, in simple terms, if a club like QPR offered Carroll £100,000 p/w on a 3 year deal, that’s a total of £15.6million that they’re paying out over that contract (not including bonues etc.) That is the equivalent of buying him for say, £8m, and paying him just £48k p/w. And that would be seen as a superb deal by most decent teams standards!

And like the OP said further down – clubs like PSG, Anzhi, Milan… they would be all over Gerrard even with his age, and whatever the wage. Even some MLS teams would come in. To receive NO offers for that list of players is ridiculous.

[Things Could Get Messi]

Only player I have had problems selling at Aston Villa is Brad Guzan but thats probably because hes a goalkeeper. I can see the only problems you may have therefore is the wages the players are on.

[Miladin]

Most "problems" with player selling is tied to game mechanics. To simplify - if you offer your players during season (outside of transfer window time) you'll get zero offers most of the time. Key is to know when you can offer them to other clubs.
I've found out that usually it's best to offer them to other clubs at around 1st of July (and few weeks in), and on 1st of January (and few weeks in). Transfer listing and then offering sometimes doesn't work - players need to have their value set to undecided, and shouldn't be listed for loan. If you offer them that way they'll be automatically transfer listed and should attract offers.
Important thing is to never offer them for too much - for example Carroll won't go for 30 million pounds, but if you offer him for much lower you'll sell him. Younger players or those that have low value you can offer for a bit more than their transfer price. If you offer players at a too high price, you cannot offer them again for next 3-4 weeks since you'll get no interest from other clubs. It's like game remembers too high prices/wages and resets this every few weeks when you can freely offer them again.

[BiggusD]

there's def something wrong with the AI transfer ability and it ain't about no wages, i loaned sanogo to udinese on 2012 for the entire season, he was the 3rd most lethal striker in europe, when he came back i couldn't loan him for 0% of the wages and 0 asking price, how ridiculous is that? the only time i saw AI being agressive was chelsea tryin to buy papadopoulos from me for 55 Mil but then again he's the best dc on the game right now, we would have to pay what? 150 Mil for that? it's plain stupid, ya should expect teams like man city be on top of ur worldclass players like hounds

This is the core issue. It is not the clubs that do not want players, it is the players who have a very very narrow band of reputation to which they would want to move clubs.

While in real life Bendtner went from Arsenal to Sunderland, this would never happen in FM because the gap between Arsenal's reputation and Sunderland's is too large, and therefore he would not even consider moving. This is especially stupid in regards to loan moves, and your Sanogo example is a very telling one. Since he did well in Udinese his reputation likely increased greatly and the following season his actual ability and his perceived ability (the reputation) didn't match up. So clubs that he would want to play for had no use for him since he wasn't good enough, and clubs that would be good for his development would have too low reputation for Sanogo's soaring ego.

What is missing is a better self-awareness code than the simple catch-all that is reputation. I believe all these transfer issues would have been fixed if players were aware of their own CA and PA star ratings compared to their own clubs and in the league as well. This way, a 1,5 star CA 4 star PA youngster in a club with two 3-star CA and one 4-star CA players occupying three spots over him in the hierarchy would want a loan move to a club where he would be 1st or 2nd in line in his position, and the club played in a leauge where he would be considered a decent or good player overall. Those are the two criteria for a loan move - club and player reputation has nothing to do with it!

Reputation is a simple shortcut that SI should try to replace with something more sophisticated and realistic.

[bolulu]

Whatever the reason, this issue of inability to move players out is a serious negative for a lot of folks' view of the game.
It grieves me when I make good players available (even for free!) & no one comes in for them. In fact, I have almost given up trying. I just offer them for decreasing amount a couple of times, then set them as available for free; then shunt them into the reserves for the rest of their time with me.
It's a ball-breaker!
Anyone know if SI are addressing this?

[jase19]

the one thing you guys are missing though, when talking about things like gerrard to stoke, is that gerrard would probably have 0 interest in playing for stoke. it's hard to get higher reputation players to play for lower reputation teams.

[bbuullddoogg]

IRL if Liverpool offered Gerrard for free there would be a massive list of clubs that would come in for him. One obvious one that springs to mind is Tottenham. Imagine how fast the wheeling dealing Harry (who I’m convinced actually enjoys buying cheap players more than he enjoys coaching) would come in for Stevie G. Quicker than you could say “Scotty Parker”. And Tottenham would totally be able to pay his wages when they’re paying nothing for him. Chelsea & City would likely come in too, as well as about 30 other clubs.

FM has ALWAYS been hopeless when it comes to selling players. Why they enjoy making this so hard for us is beyond me.

[jase19]

IRL if Liverpool offered Gerrard for free there would be a massive list of clubs that would come in for him. One obvious one that springs to mind is Tottenham. Imagine how fast the wheeling dealing Harry (who I’m convinced actually enjoys buying cheap players more than he enjoys coaching) would come in for Stevie G. Quicker than you could say “Scotty Parker”. And Tottenham would totally be able to pay his wages when they’re paying nothing for him. Chelsea & City would likely come in too, as well as about 30 other clubs.

FM has ALWAYS been hopeless when it comes to selling players. Why they enjoy making this so hard for us is beyond me.

believe it was chelsea that almost had him a couple times but he ended up saying no.

[robbie.owen]

believe it was chelsea that almost had him a couple times but he ended up saying no.

He said no because he was Liverpool captain and their star player. Decided to move to another club for money and then changed his mind.

If Liverpool offered him out to clubs for free, stripped his captancy and put him in the reserves, he would leave!!

Is this going to be addressed?

Like an earlier poster said - it's a game breaker.

I have given up trying to sell anyone at Liverpool now.

I have just bought a new right back for Liverpool for 16m - it would be lovely to recoup a couple of million by selling a prime (31yrs) Glen Johnson, but again, can't get a penny for him!!!!

I have given up trying. I have Johnson, Cole, Agger, Jose Enrique, Downing, Suso and Aquillani just sitting in the reserves, waiting for their contracts to run down.

Selling players has been an issue for a few years now with this game, but never this bad. It really takes the enjoyment out of it, and there is absolutely no realism in this. Remember, all I am asking for is to give them away!! God forbid getting a few quid for some of these world class players.

I know a lot of people have had success selling players, (I even managed to sell Kuyt and Adam) but there is a serious issue here.

Can someone from SI comment - I have seen a number of threads on this now.

[Koki]

the one thing you guys are missing though, when talking about things like gerrard to stoke, is that gerrard would probably have 0 interest in playing for stoke. it's hard to get higher reputation players to play for lower reputation teams.

But Stoke should at least try and make an offer... it would be okay for me if I'd receive a message that Gerrard has denied the contract offer made by Stoke.

[robbie.owen]

But Stoke should at least try and make an offer... it would be okay for me if I'd receive a message that Gerrard has denied the contract offer made by Stoke.

Absolutely - there should be 15 clubs in the premiership (and 50+ clubs worldwide) that would bite your hand off. They should all offer their best wage and leave it up to Gerrard. Gerrard could ask you to substadise part of the wage if he is taking a pay cut.

Remember - he is being offered on a free!!! We should be able to sell him for 15m, and some people are actually debating whether or not we can find another club who wants him for nothing!!!

[Chicha_14]

I haven't had any issues selling players in FM12. My current game with Arsenal I've sold players at double there value a far few times.

Andre Santos - £5m
Chu Young - £5m
Koscielny - £10m
Bendtner - £5m
Vela £7.5m
Gibbs, Coquelin & Djourou - £2.5m
Arteta £10m
Diaby - £5.5m
Vermaelen - £15m
Sagna - £15m
Chamakh - £7.5m
Fabianski - £4m

Total - £97m

All these have been in the last 2 summer transfers windows. Also I've sold a fair few for £2m.

[Sunndaihann]

Chicha, what patch are you on ? i'm really struggling to sell players. I'm Porto and in real life Chelsea are willing to offer 20M for Pereira, but in the game i offer him out for 6M and nobody wants him. I actually agree, selling players on FM2012 is stupidly hard and that makes no sense .

[RBKalle]

I'm even struggling to LOAN OUT young and promising players, as well as getting rid of ok aging players who would still be regulars at mid-table level...

Normally I'd think most newly promoted clubs would be extremely happy to get a couple of 18-20yo kids with good potential for free, instead nobody's interested in my young prospects, and the only alternative to Reserve Team football is a forced loan to the affiliate club one division below, which isn't going to benefit them much I suppose.


Like every year we've got a very unbalanced transfer market... some years ago it was impossible to fend off all the "suitors" of our players, be them stars or prospects or average joes, then we complained and it's once again impossible to sell players unless they're really really "popular"

[WulfgarDK]

Just checked the bugs forum (transfer and contracts) and there are 0 posts there concerning the topic.
Its clearly not a problem or a bug, and only a handful of people are experiencing this.