What kind of manager are you: a keeper or a seller?

This discussion is inspired by the constant debates between me and my friend. It's usually in regards to key players and very promising youngsters, and whether they are kept or sold (for a price we are happy with).

As it is, he's a keeper and I'm a seller.

An example I will give is my former striker Liam Smith (regen). I bought him from Wigan for £48.5m as he was an absolutely beast striker, English (which I always try to buy) and was more than good enough to start for my first team despite being only 19-years-old.

As I expected, he absolutely bossed it for me over several seasons, having a very impressive ratio in relation to goals scored in games played.

One season, we had a bad one and he came to me saying he wanted Champions League football. I tell him I will sell him if I get a bid matching my valuation.

As expected, a fair few clubs initially were interested. After offering him out for £80m, only three clubs were left interested: United, Liverpool and PSG. As I'm in the PL, I had no intention of selling him to Liverpool or United. After some constant negotiations, PSG finally offered me £67m, straight-up. No installments, add-ons or such.

This is where the debate comes in. He was worth around £30m, give or take a couple a couple of million, at the time. I decided that £67m was too good to turn down, whereas my friend said he would have kept him no matter what.

So, what side of the fence are you guys on? Do you simply refuse to sell your best players no matter what, or are you always willing to sell if you believe the price offered is right and will benefit you?

P.S.: I'll upload a picture of his attributes and his stats from the 'Career History' tab - when I get on my laptop - just so you can get a better feel of the whole thing. It's worth noting his attributes are even better at PSG than they were with me, but they were still top draw whilst he was a Shrewsbury player.

As promised (the photos are a tad blurry, but nothing too bad):

Liam Smith

And these are his stats, with his Shrewsbury career highlighted.

I'm a keeper until a point. If a player is older and replaceable, he goes.

I'm a keeper but to a certain point. If a huge offer comes in, and i have someone who could take his role, i'll sell him.

I never sell any players.. almost.

There is just no need in the game. Transfers are so easy and they need to fix this.

Since, if you are good at transfers, you are like, a light year better than the AI teams at building squads.

Took millwall to Champions league title in 4 seasons

Just get to know south america, and you will sign cheap beasts, argentina ,brazil

I never sell any players.. almost.

There is just no need in the game. Transfers are so easy and they need to fix this.

Since, if you are good at transfers, you are like, a light year better than the AI teams at building squads.

Took millwall to Champions league title in 4 seasons

Just get to know south america, and you will sign cheap beasts, argentina ,brazil

I might buy a person from South America on the rare occasion, but I try my best to have as many English players as I can. I like to think I am doing virtual England a helping hand by trying to consistently produce quality English youth.

Of my 28 player squad, I have 18 English players, with another 2 being Welsh.

I always take a few things into consideration before selling key players. Firstly, how much money. If the player is one of the best in the world then i'll be looking for a hell of a lot of money for him straight up and look to squeeze more out of the club with add-ons. Secondly, wages. Secondly, replacements. Although it may not be possible to buy a player as good as the one i'm selling, i'll still need a top quality player to come in and make sure my team still performs. Age is the next thing. If the player is coming towards the end of his prime playing days (i usually use 28) then i'll be more willing to sell as younger players will start coming through who can replace him and his value will start to decrease. Then one of the final things i will use is how long he's been at the club. I'm quite a loyal person, i can't bring myself to change clubs all the time in fm, and with players if they've been at the club since they were 16/17 and have gone on to become an icon or club legend, then as long as they player still has something to offer i'll keep them until i can get them to join the coaching staff and i'll keep them there for as long as possible even if they're rubbish

Depends on the club I'm managing. In most cases I tend to sell if a very good offer comes in. However, if I'm at a rich club that doesn't need the money (eg FC Bayern) I tend to keep the player because I'm not dependant on getting the money when I already have 100M in the bank.

I'm a Keeper, especially if that player has being my top scorer for the past ten years, I grow too fond of that regen to let him go

Generally I'd say I'm a seller but that's because a large part of my signings are bargains when players with obvious potential are unhappy, out of contract or transfer listed so I get a huge profit for them. In the case of Liam Smith, I wouldn't have felt good about selling him, though, as the initial outlay for him was so high. But then again, he was unhappy and would've probably kicked up a fuss so I can definitely see why you might sell him.

Traditionally a keeper but I like to sign youngsters and develop them so rather than stall a players development if he is (or has the potential) to be as good as the player in demand, out with the old, in with the new.

I'm a keeper with my wonderkids. However if I find a better wonderkid then I will sell the current one. Generally I like to keep 2 players per position. I will also develop wonderkids solely to sell them at a later point or sell them to a team I like.

A keeper to the point where I will be playing players out of their depth in higher divisions, purely because I am loyal to those who got me there and I love setting appearance records.

I like to sell depending on competition to make the game more challenging because as someone said the AI isn't the best at squad building. I also don't sift through clubs on regeneration dates in order to also make it more challenging. Yes I still get good regens but I sometimes have to pay anywhere between 2.5 to 8m to get them.

Overall I am a sellen and I will definitely consider a sale around the tip of a players peak career as I will have someone entering their peak and others approaching their peak so I like to keep rotating through. I think it's exciting developing new talents and shaping tactics with new talents I have recruited or had come through my youth. Also the selling at tip of peak is inline with my first about competition which is keeps the longevity in this game for me.

How much are you keepers salary for your top players? I'm not sure if I should be handing out 10mil contracts to some of my players who were named top 11 players of the world. Their contract is almost expired.

I generally try to hang onto my "home grown" players if they have potential, and I keep a fairly large squad of "prospects" that I develop or loan out until they reach significant value. If I don't have a place for them in the squad by their early 20's, I sell them off so as to keep my budget "transfer neutral". Besides, I enjoy managing against players I developed in the Champions and internationals. I prefer not to have potential "key players" sitting on the bench waiting for a chance that might never come, and it keeps unrest to a minimum.

I am mainly a seller, as I almost exclusively play lower leagues, but some players tug at my heartstrings and I won't ever sell them unless their salaries exceed their usefulness.

I am a seller in fm15. I used to always be a keeper on previous versions of fm but not this time around. I signed a 4.5 star potential regen for 15m. He turned into a world class player and was in my first team. PSG bid 64m for him and I let him go. Same for Kingsley Coman who was a smasher in advanced playmaker, always scoring. City bid 60 odd million for him too and I accepted.

Keeps the team fresh and allows me to change formations. Before when I was a keeper I would get to attached to a tactic that worked and a set of players who were good. I am enjoying this way now. Selling Lucas Moura for 40m and buying Bale with 100m. Its an ejoyable way to play.

I sell if I have a replaceent in the wings, otherwise I am a keeper. Most players on my team end up being kept, so in all, I am a keeper.

Keeper, unquestionably (well depending on finances but I won't sell a key player on high wages lightly). In a strange way it almost gives me an appreciation of chairman interference (in moderation and for a sensible enough threshold) given the transfer income which would otherwise be lacking can be very good financially. I probably wouldn't last long on FM15 though with that approach given all the unhappy players.

He's old I would have sold as i probably would have the replacement their already

Mostly a keeper, but since I'm also a 100% sandbox LLM that likes to start low, being a keeper is a bit hard for around the first decade in each new save. (or team, since not all saves will start well and you might get sacked 2-3 times before things work out.)

I'll lean more towards a keeper, as I like to keep hold of my cult heroes but I'm pretty quick to sack off the rubbish players

Seller. I enjoy knowing that I can sell anyone anytime and still be the most successful manager every season. I think that's badass. Oh, you want my start striker for 70m? Go ahead, I'll just promote a youngster and win everything again anyway.

In fact, I usually end up playing by house rules where I only sign 17 year olds or younger, and must sell the 3 oldest players in my squad, every season, no question asked. I end up making +100m NET every year, without hiccup. The owner must appreciate the billion pounds I bring into the club within less than 10 years.

I try to keep key players to my squad where possible but there are a lot of factors that I will consider if I'm getting interest in good players. I guess it depends on the stage of my career. I often start L2/L1 and try to work my way up the leagues either with a team or by accepting job offers for bigger clubs. As such, I do tend to drag some key players with me from club to club, but in many cases I've got budget restraints or bigger clubs unsettling my young ambitious stars so it's often the best option to sell and just try to broker the best deal possible for the club so I can replace them with a player who is on less money or younger and less likely to demand top level football.

Once I do reach EPL (or equivalent), and I'm on my way to dominating the league I try to hang onto those key players (setting them as indispensable, setting reasonably high player valuations, offering long, lucrative contracts, paying regular tributes in the media to them and basically treating them like stars) that I build by squad around.

However if I have a younger/cheaper (wages) player on my short-list and/or suitable cover for the player already in my squad, for the short-term, I will accept decent transfer offers for any player. I do insist that they are only sold for my valuation though - which is usually a fair price and has to be in excess of what the players replacement will cost me.

I have noticed that its much better for the team to have a good spine of players that are long serving for a club and really helps with implementing new tactics and mounting serious silverware challenges though. I hate large influxes of new faces at a team and the months of getting them bedded in and gelling within the squad.

I'm both.

I keep players that are going to play. But sometimes I buy players just to flip them for profit.

No one is irreplaceable, but I do like to keep quality players that are home grown. I don't mind selling if I know I am capable of signing a new player for a similar price, who has similar/better stats, but home grown players are usually a bit more rare to come by, so they stay put .

I'll sell, always - with the exception of complying with home-grown player rules and that sort of thing.

I like my youth team to be an academy that services not just me but teams further down the pyramid too. Every player no matter how bad will be given a pro deal taking him to his 18th Birthday. I will give him mentors, I will look at his skills and try to improve something to give him a chance of playing some level of football. At 18 if he is not good enough for my team or any team a league or two below I will either release him and hope he finds a new club or give him a 1 year deal and continually offer him to other clubs with a 50% sell on clause.

If he is not bad for the league or two below I will give him a 2 year deal and loan him out for the first season before again trying to sell him with a 50% sell on clause.

If he is good enough or potentially good enough for me he gets as long a deal as possible (including the options when possible) and I either move him to the 1st team or try to loan him out until he is ready for the first team.

From 18-24 is my 'Sell if the price is right' age group. I'll be looking for 2-3 times the players value upfront and a 50% of any profit sell on clause.

Once a player hits 24 I'll be too attached to him, and even if I have gone up through the leagues and he is now surplus to requirements I'll keep his contract ticking over until he wants to leave.

I am in my 6th season with Gillingham now and last season I sold 3 clauses and received money from 2 others which moved my bank balance from 1.5m to 4.8m

i was a keeper, but when you get that massive offer and you can get a replacement for basically nothing or can replace him with a promising youngster ready to start games, its hard to reject

I'm mostly a keeper. I like to keep players who have been with me for a long time even if they aren't that good and don't play much. I do sell players if they've been with me for only 2-3 years though if i have better replacements.

Keeper. In fact I'm so much a keeper that any player who has reached retirement at my club gets a youth team staff roll.

I tend to try and have a team in mind for 3-5 years down the line, and then will buy and sell around trying to get those players. If I ever get my "dream" team, they will all stay and not be sold until they reach 31-32.

Of course every now and then a beastly regen comes along and I have to go through the agony (which can sometimes take days) of deciding what to do.

I sell any time I get a good enough offer, you can always buy someone better for a lot less. Exception of course if there is no-one better, and even then I will take the cash if I can use it for facility/stadium upgrades.

With this example given, I'm a seller. I'd never keep a player if he wants to move on.. I'll either not play him, or sell him - regardless of how good he might be.

I think overall though the idea of getting a young starting 11 and sticking with them for multiple seasons is very appealing.

I used to be a keeper but over the past couple of FM instalments I have begun shifting to a seller. The offers for some of my young talent are

impossible to refuse on FM15. Receieved bids for De Sciglio and El Sharaarawy in the region for £35 million for each player and with the amount of talent now available for cheaper it is just business sense to move people on.

I'm more of a keeper. In the first maybe 2nd season, I get rid of crap, try to buy 7-8 core players and buy/develop loads of youth.

After that, I become a keeper. I probably do 3 or 4 transfers per season for the 1st team and a couple for my youth team, if I find anything worthy.

I have some rebuilding do, however, I should also have a massive budget to work with. My transfer budget currently stands at £355m. I am waiting on these departures:

Contreras (LM) to Flamengo - £20m

Jafari (CM) to Real Madrid - £39.5m

Trifonov (CM) to Real Madrid - £48.5m

Utaka (ST) to Fulham - £54m

Let the spending begin!

I guess, I'm a buyer...

If a buy Naymar, then he is replacing someone on the team, so I might as well sell them to avoid issues.

I hunt for talent and grow them, if they bump an older player off the play list, the older player gets sold, but again it's due to buying that players get sold.

We are getting to the January transfer window and half my team is on the wanted list, but it's very unlikely anyone will get sold. Not enough money in the club to drown the club in hot prospect players, so I don't have a clear surplus. Not happy with the depth of my main team, so selling would create dangerous holes.

I sold an accidently club legend (he kept ending up playing well in the matches that matters to get you fan status, do to better players being out with injuries), but I sold him anyway, so not much of a keeper.

I am a seller, but I keep my best players until they are around 32-33.

If a player cannot crack the first team/bench and is easy to loan with a high value, I will usually sell them.

I usually sell my youth that I know that can't make the first team, when their value seems very high.

I like to pick up good players on free transfers and use them on a rotational basis and sell them at a high value, the next season.