Improvements to the Loan system in FM

Something that I've noticed consistently in FM is that the loan system seems a little underdeveloped compared to the transfer system. Since I managed a lower division club this game (and used loanees extensively), I've noticed a number of problems with it, some minor, some that could be considered exploits really. Would love to see SI tackle these issues in future games.

1) Clubs are open to essentially zero negotiation regarding loan deals.

If I wanted a player on a transfer, clubs let you negotiate. There's a decent percentage leeway on demands and what you can eventually get them to accept (plus all the extras in the deal etc). With loan deals, this does not happen. If a club wants £1000 p/m, they will outright refuse any offer lower than that (apart from maybe £950)

As an example, Man City wanted rid of Jovetic in my game, and loan/transfer listed him. With no-one else in for him other than me, surely they'd see 50% wage contribution as better than keeping him in their reserves? But nope, they wanted 100% of his wages or nothing, and ended up keeping him in their reserves all year.

2) Loan requirements are predictable.

Offer a player backup or less and he won't join. I therefore offer every single loanee rotation status, as this will make them join and give me the option to not play them regularly.

Also, I can ALWAYS take off the recall option (does the AI ever use it anyway?), and keep on "can play in cups and against parent club". I've never had an AI club request any of those options be used/not be used. Surely they'd like the option of recalling a player sometimes?

3) The 2 year loan system is completely broken.

In FM 2015, I've consistently been able to loan players for 2 years (with no option of recall). This has led me to be able to keep players on my books 2 years in advance, and updating the loan at the start of the next year. Their parent clubs seem completely fine with this, seeming to not take into account whether they'll want the player at all in a year's time.

With this method, I've been able to keep players on loan for 3-4 years while their contract runs down at their main club (again, the parent club doesn't seem too bothered by this), allowing me a potential free signing once they hit 6 months remaining on their contract. Which brings us to point 4.

4) Clubs don't seem to care about loanees' contracts.

I loaned a Granada player from them for 2 years, then extended that loan after the first year for another year (so he always has 2 years remaining). Then once more. Then his contract was running out, so I signed him on a free. During that time I paid 0% of his wages and £0 in fees. The first season's loan made complete sense for me and Granada (a young player needing experience), but 3 years down the line Granada should've demanded wages or something.

Some players, once they approach the end of their contract, have a new one offered by their parent club whilst they're on loan at me. If they accept it, I immediately offer to extend their loan with 0% wages, and their parent accepts again! They want to keep the player, but they don't care if they spend that time on loan whittling down the contract again, only to let them go for free at the end of it!

Another player I recently loaned had a future fee agreed with his parent club of £4m (they refused any negotiation lower than that at all). He just hit 6 months remaining during his 1 year loan, and I've had him agree to sign for me on a free transfer.

5) Clubs don't take the future into account at all

Clubs seem to want a certain wage percentage dependent on which league you're in. In the lowest league they wanted 0% of wages (for youngsters), then after promotion they wanted a bit more, then in the top division they want 100% (with no negotiation, as in point 1). This is okay, bar the lack of manoeuvrability. However, they don't seem to realise that I may be promoted soon/ At one point I was top of the league just after the final round of games had been played.I made a few loan extension offers, and the club made demands based on my current (just completed season).

This was most obvious in the case of a loanee I had from the top division side. I offered to extend his loan, but couldn't afford the wage demands (my parent club had loaned him me for 0% but then forgot I was a feeder club and demanded 100% for an extension, strangely), so I had to let his loan expire. Upon promotion, the club refused to loan to a team in the same division. At no point did the parent club care about this during previous proceedings, despite my impending promotion!

6) Clubs seem to forget how good their loanees are.

I loaned a hot prospect from a club and had him win player of the year for me on 0% wages. Since I'd been promoted in that time the club wanted his whole wages paying for an extension, which I couldn't afford at the time. However, the second he returned to his club they were unwilling to loan him out again due to his first team commitments! In the space of a day they'd gone from a loan extension (and had that been accepted, a constant 2 year loan extension) to first team player.

7) Too many loanees doesn't seem to have any negative consequences

Granted, I'm not sure whether this is a problem at all and how it would play out in reality. But I assembled a squad of 23 loanees and 2 contracted players whilst in the lower divisions. This allowed me a wage expenditure of £500 a week whilst gaining promotion. Yet the fans didn't care, the board didn't care, and the players all played as well as they'd have done for a parent. How a team full of loanees would actually work I have no idea, but it'd be good to have some criticism from fans for a lack of contracted players or something.

8) Can't offer to loan outside transfer windows

Edited this in after someone reminded me of this - you can offer to buy players for transfer at any point, but for some reason offering to loan those same players is restricted to transfer windows. Why can't players make loan bids to go through at the transfer window start? It means that I can't even find out if a player a) is available for loan, and b) wants to join me until the transfer window has actually opened. This also affects how the shortlist works, as filtering by realistic loan signings finds nobody outside of a transfer window, allowing zero preparation beforehand.

There's probably other issues I've forgotten. The jist of it is that I can currently keep players on loan for years without their parent club caring at all. If I loan someone who looks decent, I can instantly keep extending their loan and try to get their contract to run out. Clubs don't seem to care about a lack of a recall option and let you own their player for practically nothing, having your cake and eating it. It's been this way for a few years too, but the 2 year loans have really shown how broken the system is. I can have a played for cheap wages, no bonuses, no agent fees, with a possible future fee agreed if he plays really well and his parent club don't let me extend, and if his contract doesn't run out in the meantime!

Wholeheartedly agree, FM has been left behind as the real life loan market has evolved & the way it works in FM could do with an overhaul to bring everything up to date.

Excellent post, I totally agree. This needs quite a bit of an overhaul. The loan market, especially outside from England (in Italy e.g. loans are much more common, basically every beyond mid-table team consists of loaned players, I suppose the reason is the financial situation), has changed a lot.

And apart from that, the mechanisms in FM don't work as well as they should: I was able to loan Valencia from ManUtd for a year. He was awesome for my team, so I wanted to buy him. Problem was: He demands too much. So instead of buying him, I renew the loan agreement at the end of the season (which the other team N-E-V-E-R declines). Next season, I do the same. I do it so often until his contract runs out and I get him for free (and with less demands).

Teams shouldn't renew loan deals for their loaned out players unless 1. there's basically no chance to sell him anyway so they are better off saving at least the wages or 2. he is young and talented and will benefit from the loan deal.

Hurball: That's one of the better posts I've seen here.

Just to add one more thing to the list: I'd like the ability, when loan listing a player, to specify right from the start his squad status and what sort of fees I might want, and an option to automatically reject lesser offers. The squad status one is particularly annoying, I'll list a player and I keep getting all these nonsense offers for rotation squad status. When I've got top youth and training facilities, loaning out a player to a club just so he can sit on their bench makes no sense to me. It only makes sense when he's going to get honest-to-goodness game time. I know I can set status and terms if I actively offer out the player, but I feel like it should be there even when just listing the player.

Another nice option to have would be something like, "Only consider offers from clubs in these divisions (or higher)." If my player would be a decent player for Championship sides, I don't want League 2 sides spamming my inbox with loan offers.

All great points that i totally agree with!

Another one is the fact that it is impossible to make loan offers to some players at all.

For example, there are often players who are rotation status and hardly play, but its impossible to make a loan offer. Then when i declare my interest to sign him on loan, the manager agrees it would be a great idea, but i am still unable to make the loan offer !! So annoying

Hurball: That's one of the better posts I've seen here.

Just to add one more thing to the list: I'd like the ability, when loan listing a player, to specify right from the start his squad status and what sort of fees I might want, and an option to automatically reject lesser offers. The squad status one is particularly annoying, I'll list a player and I keep getting all these nonsense offers for rotation squad status. When I've got top youth and training facilities, loaning out a player to a club just so he can sit on their bench makes no sense to me. It only makes sense when he's going to get honest-to-goodness game time. I know I can set status and terms if I actively offer out the player, but I feel like it should be there even when just listing the player.

Another nice option to have would be something like, "Only consider offers from clubs in these divisions (or higher)." If my player would be a decent player for Championship sides, I don't want League 2 sides spamming my inbox with loan offers.

You can kind of achieve this through offering them out with the fees/wages chosen, but I agree that choosing those whilst listing him would make far more sense and stop the stupid loan offers the AI love to throw at you from time to time.

I realised another point from you - when trying to loan out players the AI seem unwilling to negotiate at all (same as when trying to loan from them). If they offer you 80% of a player's wages, and you try to get 90%, they'll often withdraw from the deal completely! No renegotiation, no "non-negotiable" attempt at their first offer. They just abandon the deal... Nothing like the transfer process at all.

All great points that i totally agree with!

Another one is the fact that it is impossible to make loan offers to some players at all.

For example, there are often players who are rotation status and hardly play, but its impossible to make a loan offer. Then when i declare my interest to sign him on loan, the manager agrees it would be a great idea, but i am still unable to make the loan offer !! So annoying

I think this is due to being outside a transfer window. Which I meant to mention in my opening post but forgot (!) - you can offer to buy players for transfer at any point, but for some reason offering to loan those same players is restricted to transfer windows. Why can't players make loan bids to go through at the transfer window start? It means that I can't even find out if a player a) is available for loan, and b) wants to join me until the transfer window has actually opened.