Is Keeping My Player Worh The Cost?

I have included a screenshot of the player in question and as you can see both his attributes and match stats are excellent. I was lucky enough to be able to sign him in the first place and he has been prolific so far. His goal record is incredible and he is the main reason I have been performing so well this season. In order to sign he demanded a £27M release clause and I have no doubt that a big club will activate that in January. With only 5 days to go until the transfer window open now is my chance to take action.

I can offer him a new contract where he is happy to increase his release clause to £50M (he does not seem interested in removing it completely). My board will only allow me to spend £46.5k p/w on his wages so I've had to tempt him with bonuses. Most I am fine with, however, he wants a £45k appearance fee and a £45k goal bonus. Given that he plays every game and scores a huge amount of goals this will undoubtably incur large costs to me. My balance at the moment is £15.5M so it is pretty healthy. I am unaware of any way to increase the restrictions the board has placed on his wages but increasing this could mean I could bring some of the bonuses down. Is this added cost worth it to keep him or is there a way to raise the wage limit (my wage budget has been adjusted to max)?

You can use the sliders to move all the money out of your budget into your wage budget, that'll give you more room in the wages section, especially as you aren't paying any money to "sign" him.

EDIT: Didn't read the last section, can you get rid of any dead wood in the window / get rid of some staff that aren't worth keeping? Ask the board for more wages if you haven't already.

There is very little deadwood at my club so that is not an option. I have just under £100k p/w left in my wage budget so I don't see why it would be a problem to let me give him say a £20,000 wage increase. If this was real life the board would make an exception and I think this should be reflected in game.

I would say he's worth it if you think he will be the crucial difference between success and mediocrity, unless you were really set on revamping other areas of the squad.

I have no doubt that without him we won't finish anywhere near our current position. I do want to improve other areas of the squad but not massively so I think my budget in the summer should cover it. Are the bonuses of 45k massive compared to other Premiership players?

Keep him, he's only 22, maybe his value will rise and you can get more money on him

I could, even if I do manage to raise his release clause to £50M it wouldn't suprise me if teams submit a bid of that amount, he's cruising as top goal scorer.

I'd take my chances and if some-one offers £27million then so be it. His goalscoring record is awesome no doubt but strictly sticking within my wage structure is, for me at least, is more important than any one player. Its a tough one though.

If he's as prolific as you say then there's no chance I'd be paying someone £45k per goal (and appearance). I don't know if you are in the Champions League yet or anything but if you're not then that is a huge expensive for the club to be spending on one player.

Perhaps trying 'locking' the bonuses on a much smaller number, £15k each say, then see if his agent will bump up some other clauses or add some in.

I know it's a huge cost but without him I know we'll finish around 5 places lower in the league than we would with him. That extra prize money could cover the cost. Due to the board restrictions I have pretty much maxed out the other clauses (not huge amounts). It was hard enough to get him to give up the match highest earner release clause (I would have just let him keep it as he'll probs be my highest earner for a few years if it wasn't for the bug which makes this clause faulty).

As you can see I'm Brentford and finished a few points higher than the relegation zone last season so things were a bit of a struggle. I was lucky enough to acquire this guy and he has taken us to the nextl evel. We still get beat by most of the big teams but put up a good fight against all the other teams. He regularly scores 5/6 goals in games that we win.

He has just beaten my goalscoring record for a single season and it's only December.

If it was me I'd leave it until the Summer to offer him a new contract. If a team comes in and matches his £27m release clause, then get someone else, or at least good enough to cover until end of the season. If you can make it through Jan without selling then offer him a contract at the end of the season. If he hasn't lowered his demands (and he might because you may get a better wage budget to up his weekly wage), then I'd look at selling him on before his contract runs out. I personally couldn't pay someone £45k per appearance and per goal, on top of his £45k a week wage.

But anyway, let us know what you do!

I would leave his contract as it is. You may end up losing him for £27m but then im sure you could re-invest this money on a re-placement or two. Paying him such high bonuses will harm you in the long run, you may gain extra money fro finishing higher but all of a sudden a couple of injuries to other players could result in you having high scoring games and then you paying him loads of money but not winning games.

The way he is scoring will result in you paying £6m per season just on bonusues!

Would love to see how the rest of your squad look, who else is scoring and creating?

If it was me I'd leave it until the Summer to offer him a new contract. If a team comes in and matches his £27m release clause, then get someone else, or at least good enough to cover until end of the season. If you can make it through Jan without selling then offer him a contract at the end of the season. If he hasn't lowered his demands (and he might because you may get a better wage budget to up his weekly wage), then I'd look at selling him on before his contract runs out. I personally couldn't pay someone £45k per appearance and per goal, on top of his £45k a week wage.

But anyway, let us know what you do!

Thanks for your input! I'll give it some more consideration over the course of the day. Being of fairly small reputation, it's hard for me to attract players of such calibre, which is why I feel so lucky to have acquired him. His performances could also mean that I can acquire similar level players in the near future. I don't have many other options in terms of signing a replacement, there is nobody currently on the market for an affordable price who would even come to my club and put in similar performances. I've never had a player consistently turn out 10.0 ratings but he's done this a few times now.

The way I'm defending him you can probably tell that I want to keep hold of him but I do agree with you when you say it is just too much money in bonuses.

I've thought of another option but it may not be possible. As you know, in January you can adjust you expectations - mine is currently set to the lowest. Being mid table I feel confident about increasing which would increase my budget by a considerable amount. I have 2 questions: would this make any real difference in the amount the board will allow me to pay him and if I offer him a "take it or leave it" does he have to sign it there and then (giving no clubs a chance to sneak in for him)?

I would certainly extend the contract, even taking the figures into account.

Doing the math, he surely would make a heck of a lot of money. That's 2.5 million a year in basic wage plus up to 4 million in bonuses. However, looking at the rl rates, this seems to be totally okay for a striker who just ribs the EPL to pieces, maybe even fairly cheap.

With him on your team, you should be able to refinance the guy via the sporting success and the according TV prize money and additional gate receipts from additional cup rounds or even from European Cup competitions he might make you reach singlehandedly.

Also, should your club at a certain point not be able to bear the expenses on him anymore, you would surely be able to sell him for more than the current release clause. The difference in income between that current release clause and the possible future transfer income would very likely exceed the additional cost of the contract extension. I.e. this construction should actually MAKE you money, assuming that one day you would just have to sell him.

That added to taking advantage of his truly stunning performances for a year or two longer would for me definitely turn the scale towards signing that new contract.

hth

I would leave his contract as it is. You may end up losing him for £27m but then im sure you could re-invest this money on a re-placement or two. Paying him such high bonuses will harm you in the long run, you may gain extra money fro finishing higher but all of a sudden a couple of injuries to other players could result in you having high scoring games and then you paying him loads of money but not winning games.

The way he is scoring will result in you paying £6m per season just on bonusues!

Would love to see how the rest of your squad look, who else is scoring and creating?

The rest of the squad is decent but not great, my main weakness is defence but I should have the resoruces to improve that in the summer. He gets plenty of assists as well as goals too.

I would certainly extend the contract, even taking the figures into account.

Doing the math, he surely would make a heck of a lot of money. That's 2.5 million a year in basic wage plus up to 4 million in bonuses. However, looking at the rl rates, this seems to be totally okay for a striker who just ribs the EPL to pieces, maybe even fairly cheap.

With him on your team, you should be able to refinance the guy via the sporting success and the according TV prize money and additional gate receipts from additional cup rounds or even from European Cup competitions he might make you reach singlehandedly.

Also, should your club at a certain point not be able to bear the expenses on him anymore, you would surely be able to sell him for more than the current release clause. The difference in income between that current release clause and the possible future transfer income would very likely exceed the additional cost of the contract extension. I.e. this construction should actually MAKE you money, assuming that one day you would just have to sell him.

That added to taking advantage of his truly stunning performances for a year or two longer would for me definitely turn the scale towards signing that new contract.

hth

Thanks, that has put my mind at ease a bit. Do you have any reponses to my 2 questions in my above post?

No definite ones, I'm afraid.

An increased overall budget may cause the board to allow a higher wage limit for individual contracts, but the logics behind that have not yet been researched in depth on here, as far as I'm aware. Anyway, if you feel confident that this guy will keep you up at the level you are at currently, it's surely worth a try.

I never issued a take it or leave it offer, so I cannot tell whether the guy would have to make a decision straight away. If you don't mind reloading you could try it out. Otherwise you should still be able to live with the possibility of him being poached by a big club. The transfer fee could well be used to get in 4 replacements who would bring your squad to the next level as a unit. Having signed this hero, you are on the winning side whatever happens...

I guess I'd try to make sure he accepts the offer rather than trying to get it through at speed at an increased risk of losing him.

I was horrified at the bonuses at first but then looking at his average looking wage it made me rethink it.

46.5k per week

45k per game

45k per goal

If find a decent player to rotate him with you can keep his bonuses down but it could still be potentially 100k+ per week. If there's any easy games leave him on the bench, if you're easily beating someone sub him off so he can't score more. It's just one more thing to think about.

Ideally you wanna hang on to him til he's 27 (if you can keep up with his wages) then sell for mega money.

Does locking the bonuses at 20k/30k and giving him highest earner clause and increased wages after 30 games help? If possible, throw in as much money in agent fees as you can. The agent fees are often the deciding factor when stupid things are requested.

Personally I would look at the club you are and the calibre of player you have. Assuming you play the game pure and don't use any third party scouting tools , you may never have this quality of player again. If you recently without him finished just above relegation and now have this guy doing great for you I would look on him as irreplaceable .

Pretty much being guaranteed to stay in the top flight with this man aboard is surely financially worth renewing his contract in my opinion. I just feel he is worth an awful lot more than 27 no matter what club he is at. If you get a cup run say and land European football that's him paid for.

personally I would renew his contract with the 50m clause and keep him , if it turns out to be crippling you financially at least you can sell him for a price you dictate , not the other team !

I was horrified at the bonuses at first but then looking at his average looking wage it made me rethink it.

46.5k per week

45k per game

45k per goal

If find a decent player to rotate him with you can keep his bonuses down but it could still be potentially 100k+ per week. If there's any easy games leave him on the bench, if you're easily beating someone sub him off so he can't score more. It's just one more thing to think about.

Ideally you wanna hang on to him til he's 27 (if you can keep up with his wages) then sell for mega money.

Does locking the bonuses at 20k/30k and giving him highest earner clause and increased wages after 30 games help? If possible, throw in as much money in agent fees as you can. The agent fees are often the deciding factor when stupid things are requested.

Personally I would look at the club you are and the calibre of player you have. Assuming you play the game pure and don't use any third party scouting tools , you may never have this quality of player again. If you recently without him finished just above relegation and now have this guy doing great for you I would look on him as irreplaceable .

Pretty much being guaranteed to stay in the top flight with this man aboard is surely financially worth renewing his contract in my opinion. I just feel he is worth an awful lot more than 27 no matter what club he is at. If you get a cup run say and land European football that's him paid for.

personally I would renew his contract with the 50m clause and keep him , if it turns out to be crippling you financially at least you can sell him for a price you dictate , not the other team !

I managed to get him to come to a fair agreement in my eyes. Got his bonuses down to 13k each but a Relegation Release Clause of £10M has been added. I feel that is fair and I'm confident of avoiding relegation this season.

I managed to get him to come to a fair agreement in my eyes. Got his bonuses down to 13k each but a Relegation Release Clause of £10M has been added. I feel that is fair and I'm confident of avoiding relegation this season.

Nice one , well done matey !

hes 22 keep him and he will be worth a lot more in the future. Failing that pay the wages and if hes still touted after and its hurting your balance that much, sell him and replace.

I managed to get him to come to a fair agreement in my eyes. Got his bonuses down to 13k each but a Relegation Release Clause of £10M has been added. I feel that is fair and I'm confident of avoiding relegation this season.

Wow! Amazing improvement compared to the previous deal

Congrats on securing his services for longer

I usually set the relegation release clause to 0. If I relegate for any reason, that's one of those games and I'd rather start a new one than take so many steps back - would set my plan for world domination back 4-5 seasons! Also, I have never experienced an AI club paying the release clause of any of my players, regardless of quality and form. Setting it to 27m is a safe deal as long as your Brentford team isn't the best in the country (or the world) - the club's reputation is so low currently that no AI club will consider paying that much for any of your players because they won't have high enough reputation either. Another clause that means a lot to the players and their agents is the Team of the Year bonus. It is also a bonus that is rarely ever paid out and even if you max it out for all your players, the likelyhood of having to pay out more than one or two is very small. It is also better to restrict the release clause to foreign teams since players usually have higher reputation at home than in the world.

Arsenal submitted a big of £30M in January so they would have activated his release clause if it had remained the same. I feel a lot better about giving him the new contract now.

I'm now in the summer transfer window and he's racked up and equally impressive amount of goals this half of the season. He was considered the best striker in Europe with his goalscoring points equalling almost double that of the player in second place. He was top goalscorer in the Premiership, I'll get exact figures later and maybe some screenshots. His value has improved by £1.5M since I signed him so hopefully this will continue to increase.

He scored something like 75 goals for me in the season in all competitions so hopefully with an improved squad he will get even closer to the 100 mark in the coming season.

Arsenal submitted a big of £30M in January so they would have activated his release clause if it had remained the same. I feel a lot better about giving him the new contract now.

I'm now in the summer transfer window and he's racked up and equally impressive amount of goals this half of the season. He was considered the best striker in Europe with his goalscoring points equalling almost double that of the player in second place. He was top goalscorer in the Premiership, I'll get exact figures later and maybe some screenshots. His value has improved by £1.5M since I signed him so hopefully this will continue to increase.

He scored something like 75 goals for me in the season in all competitions so hopefully with an improved squad he will get even closer to the 100 mark in the coming season.

Getting a bid

Imagine....