Transfer Market Poll

I would say the transfer market, buying and selling, player valuations, signings, etc is the most important, if not top 3 important things in a football manager sim..

How would you rate the current system?

The valuations of buying?

The valuations of selling?

The AIs ability in the transfer market?

The frequency of bids and transfers?

The contract demands of players?

The way players respond to a transfer and decision making?

Just the whole system in general..

And maybe some extra info if you feel like..

Start your post - Yes. if you like it,

No, if you dont or think it could be better..

and maybe some extra info on game set up (database size, number of leagues and size of starting club)

Thanks for your time

Somewhere between "Needs work in some areas" & "Pretty close to RL" IMO.

For the most part it works fairly well but there are some areas that could be improved - eg more recognition of player performances than using perceived CA/PA as viewed by AI staff, its still far too easy to hold onto good players & it still feels like it should be much more active with more player movements.

There are also knock on effects into other areas. AI squad building and the transfer market are closely linked, improvements in the squad building could see improvements to the market.

Transfer system is poor. Most of the time I have a half decent player who I don't want anymore, and no one will even make an offer for him, even when I offer him out for free. It's the equivalent of United offering out Valencia for free and not one club on the face of the planet wanting to make an offer

I definitely agree it needs looking at.

I'm not sure why this part of the game seems to have been in a limbo for the past few years. I think it would be much more enjoyable and add to the realism and immersion much more if they improved this area instead of seemingly being more focused on the rpg style multi choice question cutscenes that seem to have taken over.

I think it needs desperately looking at.

But I'm trying to figure out why this experience seems different from person to person..

I do believe though the setup of your game can impact how this part of the game performs and how you will experience it..

What also could be a factor is starting lower league and working your way up the leagues.. Maybe by the time you reach a position in the game where you become more active in the transfer system this is the point in the game where it falls to pieces. The system deteriorates over time as real players retire and regens take over.

Where on the other hand if you started in the top leagues, and played 5 or 6 year it will behave quite normally and as expected.

I dunno, If I could figure out what cause it to break, it may help make it possible to get it to work.

Although it seems to have been talked about a lot more this version game setup has always played a role in the transfer market, especially in the early years of a save.

I remember testing different setups way back on FM06/07 to find a good balance in terms of database size, no of playable teams & active transfer market.

I would always recommend loading the smallest database you can along with a good spread of active playable leagues, the more you load, the better the experience.

When it comes to selling players you have to be realistic as well though. Take a random player, if you want to sell him why should a team buy him? they need a reason. What level is he suitable for? Can teams at that level afford his transfer fee/wages/contract bonuses? Have they got enough players of a similar quality in that position? Can they get a free transfer or player from another AI club of similar quality cheaper?

In real life only a minority of players move for a fee below the Championship in England with most moving for nothing or being released at the end of their contract.

It has to be the setup.

And I think you have nailed it.

I notice this issue major scale, I'm not talking just over expecting, or being over realistic or over demanding in what to expect. I'm talking there is no explanation or believable way this would possibly happen.. scenarios that would just never happen in reality.

I first noticed this problem about FM2010, it has only got worse each year.

2006/07/08 never had this problem.. or did they? I went back to FM2007 hoping to go back to a time when the transfers worked, and now I have a much more powerful PC than I did back then so I run the game at maximum, all leagues and all players and guess what? its the same problem the new ones have.

Over the years I have tweaked my settings to give me maximum players and only loading leagues I need to improve performance. This must be having a negative effect on the transfer market.

Hmmm, I'm not sure why this would have the negative effect it does, but I can see why it might not help things.

Having too much stock and not enough demand is going to have an impact in some way.

Its stupidly difficult to sell players

I don't think anyone has claimed it's perfect. Given it's AI thinking of course it can always be improved and that's something we're always looking to do. The 'Offering' to clubs is difficult as so many different factors come into it - if a club thinks a player won't join them, they won't even bother approaching; if a player's wages is more than they can afford ditto; if the club already has those slots in their club filled (say they already have two players of a close standard in the same position) then it's unlikely they'll make an approach. It's not like real life in the sense of you offering out a player for nothing (which of course rarely happens in real life anyway) and everyone signing him because they think there's a future profit to be had.

The balance given the AI and making it playable for the user (and not too easy to suck up every great player, as the user will ALWAYS be smarter than the AI) is extraordinarily difficult. With every version we get closer, but of course it could be improved, and hopefully will be. By the time we get to 2021 we'll give away a free accountant and agent with the game

I had a save, (possibly FM2012 but this could be pretty much any fm as its always the same) but this is the most extreme example I have that sticks in memory..

I pick a None league club, usually Bromley. I load as many players as possible.. then I set off trying to turn them into a premier league super power.. it could take 20+ seasons. A lot of hours invested..

This save Probably 15 - 20 years in and I finally get to the premier league.. over those years I probably have had half a dozen bids, all laughable, ridiculous bids.

Top league goal scorers of my over achieving lesser club receiving no interest or not a single bid no interest from anyone. Eventually they get old and leave on a free. Probably sit without a club for a year than disappear. I wouldve snap them up if I was a lower league club..

Young players I know are far too good for me and if I was a bigger club would be trying to snap them up.. nothing..

I have been 15 years in a save without selling a single player, and its not for the lack of trying.

I bid for AI players.. bearing in mind they think its acceptable to offer me something like 10k a month for 5 years for a player worth 5 million who is rated as indispensable..

They expect in return 25million for a back up 28 year old left back valued at 2.5M?

I bid for a championship striker valued at 5M and they want 35million.

And its just endless examples of this.. this is not one off behavior, this is the norm.

I decided to retire and a new manager took over and in 3 months he managed to do what I couldnt do in 20 year, sell some players, then he spent a fortune on some absolutely shocking players in return, they probably sat in the reserves for their entire contracts, which is often what the AI does with their new signings.

So would how I set up my game be causing this.. because this is not a lie, nor an exaggeration.

Something else I noticed, with contracts,

say for example a player is on £1K per week. you offer him 5K, he refuses, he wants 30K, you refuse, he happily signs to a lower club than you for £750.

That happened a lot. Anybody else seen that?

As you don't play FM14 which version(s) are you quoting references from? because as Neil has said it hasn't remained unchanged version to version.

FM2012, is where that example comes from. I explained that in the first line. So its actually after the changes this seems to be worse. 2013 was no better and going back to 2008 and 2007 on my current PC in the last year has created a similar situation there 2.

Which is why its probably like cougar said, set up related.

I have FM2014, I have not played it. I have been waiting for the last patch, which I have learnt over the years is for the best,

I'm reading that this issue still exists for some people on 2014, which was expected as its been like this for years for me.

I want to create a situation where this is least likely to happen, cos as I'm sure you are can appreciate.. you have to invest a lot of time in a save to get to a point where you will see if this is a problem or not. Especially starting lower league and working your way up. I would feel a lot of time wasted if after a 10 year save it was starting to become apparent that the transfer system is off.

Which is one of the purposes of the poll.

The poll I admit in its early stages show more people are having a problem than arent. Would their be a link in the set ups between those that think its not great that is different to the set ups of people who think its fine.. or even a link in the playstyle? starting lower league, maybe.

Then again if the solution is to run a small database, I'm not entirely sure I'd be happy to do that.

I do have quite a lot of problems selling useful but not star players. Even on frees.

Something else I noticed, with contracts,

say for example a player is on £1K per week. you offer him 5K, he refuses, he wants 30K, you refuse, he happily signs to a lower club than you for £750.

That happened a lot. Anybody else seen that?

Yeh, this is the most annoying and does happen far too often imo, the reasons given for it's occurrence are fairly lame and I don't buy them could definitely be improved.

Yeh, this is the most annoying and does happen far too often imo, the reasons given for it's occurrence are fairly lame and I don't buy them could definitely be improved.

What is the explanation for that?

I'm going to assume that its too add a difficulty level, and like Neil said to balance it for the AI. And the fact that when I resigned an AI manager who took over my club sold lots of players I could not get bids for..

But then in the next breathe they tell you that the AI cant tell the difference between AI and human. So I dunno.

The transfer preferences stuff still ruin the transfers for me, playing in germany. You can buy people from brazil now, but nobody based in africa will be willing to negotiate. They need to revert back to before the december patch where the transfer preferences did not impact the user's team. Fine if you want to stop the AI from buying players from certain places for whatever reason, but it's incredibly frustrating to have players from low reputation clubs in low reputation leagues on starvation wages refusing to negotiate with a top-division european club. There may be reasons certain nations don't customarily buy players from africa or asia or the americas, but it's not because they can't(barring registraiton/work permit restrictions, which don't exist in germany) and not because those players don't want to play there

If your searching for a perfect transfer market that is just like reality your always going to be disappointed with it however I think it's at best it can be. It's hard to code something just like real so I would be happy way it is and it has improved each year.

Players that are not key players are valued far too highly. I should not be quoted £50m for Evans in the first season.

Players that are not key players are valued far too highly. I should not be quoted £50m for Evans in the first season.

What is the explanation for that?

I'm going to assume that its too add a difficulty level, and like Neil said to balance it for the AI. And the fact that when I resigned an AI manager who took over my club sold lots of players I could not get bids for..

But then in the next breathe they tell you that the AI cant tell the difference between AI and human. So I dunno.

Nothing like that, you just get asked to suppose there might be personal reasons etc, etc for the player to make such a decision.

I think it happens because there just isn't a mechanism to compare and evaluate offers in the contexts which apply in game. i.e. your offer isn't compared to AI offers, each is treated independently.

TBH I don't think I have enough knowledge of the real life transfer system/market to give an answer

I agree it is too hard to sell players. And that the transfer fees other clubs demand are usually much higher than their prepared to pay. Also, there is an unrealistic inflation of transfer fees demanded after a couple of seasons, lots of players who cost a lot more than 80 million. On the other hand, no other club ever bids more than 50 million for your players, no matter how good or renowned they are.