Free Players

Just a quick gripe / looking for any possible explaination and maybe a suggestion on a change for FM15 to so with free transfer.

Basically I think there's a small issue with free players and their interaction when they don't have a club.

As a bit of a background this came on my current save in which I'm playing as Waterford United, I've got them into the Irish Premier League and we're pretty established but as with all of us I'm constantly looking for better players and there have been a few who have been available that would have improved the team as free transfers such as John O'Shea and Keith Andrews.

Now the issue is that due to the reputation of the team they wouldn't join which is fair enough, but after 6-7 months and with no one even trying to sign them they still refused to talk to me and then retired.

All I'm saying is that surely after a so long of being without a club they should at least talk to the smaller clubs before retiring

This bugs me too! happens all the time in my non league clubs, my striker of 6 seasons and 126 goals left because I couldn't offer enough wages £25p/w less damn it! & 7 months later no club and still won't reduce his demands and I'm sure from past experience like yourself he will retire, he's 24

Long term issue in FM and IIRC it was supposed to be largely fixed for FM14 where players will lower their demands as they're unemployed for longer. It's important to note that lower level players would probably have other jobs theoretically and as they are less likely to make a full time career out of football it's not unusual to see a significant hiatus or even early retirement. What I'd like to see but it'd take a miracle to implement is to see a player put his career on hold and disappear only to return a few years later and revive his career.

Yeah well my club is currently part time so I'm not expecting players to join straight from leaving big clubs but as another example Luca Toni has been unemployed for 2 seasons and still won't listen to me at all.

But having said that Jon Daly just left Rangers and did join but only because I've qualified for next seasons Euro cup qualifying places

Players will lower their demands over time but there is a limit, how many former Premier League players, let alone a former Man Utd player have ended their career in the lower leagues or a much lower standard league than where they spent most of their career?

For me the OP's expectations need to be reassessed with these examples.

Edit: Expecting Luca Toni to even considered talking to Waterford Town is a case in point, aside from some very rare cases where a club owner has a personal relationship with a former elite level player this would be very, very, very unlikely to be even remotely likely of happening.

That's a great point Alex and I completely understand where you are coming from and can see the logic of it but on the flip side would they really sit around for 2 years unemployed?

Also what's the situation with players from the other end of the spectrum in terms of players who aren't Elite and are basically unknown such as 17-18 year olds in the u18s for the smaller Asian, African and American nations? As these players have no reputation

That's a great point Alex and I completely understand where you are coming from and can see the logic of it but on the flip side would they really sit around for 2 years unemployed?

Also what's the situation with players from the other end of the spectrum in terms of players who aren't Elite and are basically unknown such as 17-18 year olds in the u18s for the smaller Asian, African and American nations? As these players have no reputation

Would you want to leave your home to play for a lower league team in another country? That probably has something to do with it.

Would you want to stay playing for nothing on an unattached contact or play for a club actually paying you and who are in the Euro cup (albeit te qualifying rounds)

Would you want to stay playing for nothing on an unattached contact or play for a club actually paying you and who are in the Euro cup (albeit te qualifying rounds)

High rep, plenty of money in the bank, approaching retirement.

I think I would rather stay in my home country then move 6000 miles away to play in a really low level league tbh.

High rep, plenty of money in the bank, approaching retirement.

I think I would rather stay in my home country then move 6000 miles away to play in a really low level league tbh.

Cheers for the sarcastic unhelpful response, I was actually referring to the 17-18 years olds playing for amateur clubs on free contracts rather that the mega rich players

Cheers for the sarcastic unhelpful response, I was actually referring to the 17-18 years olds playing for amateur clubs on free contracts rather that the mega rich players

Thought you were talking about Luca Toni??

Similar applies to amateur players as well though. How many of them want to up roots, move thousands of miles away from their families to play in a low level league for relatively low wages? Its rare IRL and therefore should be rare in FM.

EDIT

It also begs the question how are you finding these players given your scouting range will be Europe at the very max, more likely UK & Ireland.

Thought you were talking about Luca Toni??

Similar applies to amateur players as well though. How many of them want to up roots, move thousands of miles away from their families to play in a low level league for relatively low wages? Its rare IRL and therefore should be rare in FM.

EDIT

It also begs the question how are you finding these players given your scouting range will be Europe at the very max, more likely UK & Ireland.

Have you actually read his posts? He explained this. He just looks at U-18 national squads. Which is pretty realistic as U-championships are often broadcasted in TV.

Have you actually read his posts? He explained this. He just looks at U-18 national squads. Which is pretty realistic as U-championships are often broadcasted in TV.

I have and it isn't clear from his post that is what he does.

But even so they are still outside his scouting range which is a fairly good indicator that they aren't interested in joining.

The bottom line is he is trying to exploit the system and getting annoyed when FM won't let him.

Michael Owen.

Where is the problem?

You are managing a part time club from league with no reputation and expecting that you will get luca toni who were earning like few millions per year even after two seasons without a job!?! Are you serious?? In real life you couldn't even attract no name irish player from other side of the country!! Why would he join you? He is (lets say) 28 years old, have job, wife, kids & home and you expect him to leave it and come to your part time club in other side of the country?? It's nonsence!! But unfortunately this happens in fm and thats the reason why LLM is so unrealistic in fm and we see stories that san marino or gibraltar clubs are dominating champions league...

I agree that high rep players rarely go and play for lower league/rep teams.

But one thing really annoys me. In lower leagues or small countries we can't really sign, for example, African or Asian players. Not even the crappiest ones! But in real life most of them would jump at the opportunity of playing in Europe and show what they can do in a small club hoping to catch the eye of a scout from a bigger club. For example, in the Portuguese lower leagues there is a fair amount of African players and even Chinese! But in game it is “impossible” to sign a player from outside Europe when you are in the third tier, for example! Even if they are earning 25€ per month and you can offer them 1500€ or 2500€ (Great wage for Portuguese standards, imagine in their countries) they aren’t even interested in talking with you!

Seems to be working as designed in the OPs case. I believe at the start of this thread there was reference to players asking for too much money when first going on the free transfer list but, as a member of SI has confirmed here, their wage demands do drop over time which is happening. Case in my most recent MLS game being Scott Parker and Gareth Barry coming over to the USA after being released - 25K+ initial, 3 months later 10k+, eventually lowering those demands to 4K

Cheers for the sarcastic unhelpful response, I was actually referring to the 17-18 years olds playing for amateur clubs on free contracts rather that the mega rich players

The British government wouldn't allow a work permit anyway. Also under 18 players are forbidden from moving nations unless within Europe, unless they're are certain agreements between countries or their parents move them there for whatever non football reason (unless daddy is a footballer and signs overseas). This is a FIFA rule and has been in place for years.

That's the second time you have referenced LLM in a thread that was not discussing the LLaMa style of play, I'm struggling to see why you once again felt the need to make that connection.

You can't take criticism or what?

My response was about issue what he had and only my last sentence was about llm and if you struggling to see connection, then there is no suprise why it's so unrealistic!