AI teams offering derisory bids for top players in human-controlled teams

This may not be a bug per-se, but it's an issue that I've noticed for several iterations of FM now.

No matter what the ability of my players, their form, their rep, or their listed value, AI teams will offer derisory bids for them. For instance, England international striker, 25 years old, scoring a goal-per-game, valued by the game at £16million, and I've had three bids for £1.6million or lower, and always in instalments. It's often top teams such as Chelsea, Man City, Arsenal making these bids too, so they have the cash, and the player is clearly wanted at a high level.

Over the years playing FM, I've basically given up on selling players, with the vast majority of my players that do leave doing so on a free transfer.

I know the in-game valuation, like any valuation, is a best guess, but the bids I receive are ridiculous.

Does anyone else have this 'issue'?

Yes. Said the exact same thing myself for years now. The core of the game is going backwards.

I got a 2 million bid for a 3 million player. Ended up selling him for 8.5 million.

That was an one time exception:

Normally when I negotiate, they withdraw their bids. That's why I asked in another thread "what is the best policy in selling players"

What makes it worse is they think an offer well under valuation for your key player is acceptable but in return think you should offer well over valuation for a player who cant even get in their team. Its like they are playing a different game to the human.

It makes it even worse when your player is upset you rejected their pathetic offer, plays terribly till he can leave on a free, and then the club that made a bid didnt even take him for nothing and he ends up going to a lesser club.

I used to fear contracts running out or players being poached because of agressive AI but because of how docile the AI has become over the years, not interested in getting involved with human players I play without fear of that, wait until it runs out before renewing. You can play for 20 seasons going all the way up the leagues and not get a single bid, none that you wouldnt laugh at anyway, leading goal scorers, players far too good for you, I had the leading goal scorer in the premier league once, couldnt even give him away for nothing.

But on the positive side, now we have a manager face, so thats progress Shame 90% of the regens have mohicans now.

What makes it worse is they think an offer well under valuation for your key player is acceptable but in return think you should offer well over valuation for a player who cant even get in their team. Its like they are playing a different game to the human.

It makes it even worse when your player is upset you rejected their pathetic offer, plays terribly till he can leave on a free, and then the club that made a bid didnt even take him for nothing and he ends up going to a lesser club.

I used to fear contracts running out or players being poached because of agressive AI but because of how docile the AI has become over the years, not interested in getting involved with human players I play without fear of that, wait until it runs out before renewing. You can play for 20 seasons going all the way up the leagues and not get a single bid, none that you wouldnt laugh at anyway, leading goal scorers, players far too good for you, I had the leading goal scorer in the premier league once, couldnt even give him away for nothing.

But on the positive side, now we have a manager face, so thats progress Shame 90% of the regens have mohicans now.

It's hardly surprising that they want to pay less and receive more - wouldn't you? And if he's behaved unprofessionally and played terribly, that also seems like a very good reason for them to re-evaluate and not be so interested in him.

It's a problem I've never faced at all. Im genuinely quite baffled sometimes at how the AI often throws money away or pays seriously inflated prices (obviously this isn't limited to the AI buying just my players though).

I'm 9 seasons in with Norwich, and after my first City took Redmond off me for £60m, cash upfront. He had a good season but nothing ground breaking. I think he's still there now, and he's never been a regular starter.

It's a problem I've never faced at all. Im genuinely quite baffled sometimes at how the AI often throws money away or pays seriously inflated prices (obviously this isn't limited to the AI buying just my players though).

I'm 9 seasons in with Norwich, and after my first City took Redmond off me for £60m, cash upfront. He had a good season but nothing ground breaking. I think he's still there now, and he's never been a regular starter.

Indeed - I believe it's a mismatch between the logic the AI uses in deciding whether a transfer is worthwhile or not, and deciding whether or not to actually pick the player in the team.

I sold James Mcarthy for 35-45 mil to man city end of first season

Also Danny Da Costa brought for 3 mil getting offers 15-20 million one season later

I find it hit and miss. At times I get offered more or the estimated value and can negotiate a little higher (both regular starters and bench \ out of form players), and other times I get well below, even if they are regular starters and playing well.

I sometimes find it odd who and how people are transferred. Recently I came across the 2B issue in FM14 and clubs were poaching players due to administration kicking in. Some were going for well above the estimated value, whilst others were well below. Even though my star player and captain was wanted by every major club from Spain to England, not one team even put in a bit for him.

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There's nothing wrong with no longer enjoying a game the same way you used to.

You could say its rather complacent and arrogant to pass judgement on the game without playing it. The level of hyperbole attached to your post though does detract from any potential merit your post has. The transfer system is always going to be a little confusing and unusual at times though, that's just how it goes with football transfers. I genuinely haven't encountered issues with selling players for reasonable sums on FM this year.

For most of my players, I have a 'value' set for them. This is basically how much I'm willing to sell a player for. I'd say ~50% of the time, the AI will open with a bid that - with add-ons - will come close to that value. Most of the time, that bid isn't something I'd accept outright, either because the add-ons are rubbish (ooh, 20% of profit from next sale), or just because I reckon I can eke out a bit more from them. So, I'll re-arrange the various fees (and change the '% of profit' to '% of next sale'), crank the overall value up a bit and I usually get a positive response.

But, sometimes, I get an offer that's way below the value I've got set for the player. I assume the AI is scouting my players and getting a vague estimate of the value I've set and possibly it can think that I've just slapped a massive price-tag to avoid bids, but anyway. If I'm willing to consider selling the player and I'm not irrationally annoyed at that moment, I'll counter with the sort of value I want.

Sometimes, the club will come back and offer more or less that figure: in one example, Real Madrid bid £9m for a striker, I replied with £40m and they straight away offered a structured deal for a little more than that. However, sometimes they don't: in a different example, Man City kept bidding £9.75m plus a few add-ons worth less than £5m for one of my midfielders, and the only thing they would 'improve' was the '% of profit' clause. I assume they just didn't have the money to improve - or they wanted to unsettle my player. In that instance, Real Madrid (again) bid for another of my midfielders, so I sold him and gave the other guy a new contract.

One of the most annoying things about the game. You try to buy a transfer listed player. You pay what the team wants, no negotiations at all. You have a player the computer wants to buy(who you dont want to sell), you set a value to try to deter bids. Nah, they'll bid what the game values the player at. Thus you end up with unhappy players because you wont accept stupidly low bids for them.

Team in sending a low-ball offer in to try and get lucky SHOCK.

Try negotiating, rather than throwing your hands up after one offer and saying how awful it all is.

For most of my players, I have a 'value' set for them. This is basically how much I'm willing to sell a player for. I'd say ~50% of the time, the AI will open with a bid that - with add-ons - will come close to that value. Most of the time, that bid isn't something I'd accept outright, either because the add-ons are rubbish (ooh, 20% of profit from next sale), or just because I reckon I can eke out a bit more from them. So, I'll re-arrange the various fees (and change the '% of profit' to '% of next sale'), crank the overall value up a bit and I usually get a positive response.

But, sometimes, I get an offer that's way below the value I've got set for the player. I assume the AI is scouting my players and getting a vague estimate of the value I've set and possibly it can think that I've just slapped a massive price-tag to avoid bids, but anyway. If I'm willing to consider selling the player and I'm not irrationally annoyed at that moment, I'll counter with the sort of value I want.

Sometimes, the club will come back and offer more or less that figure: in one example, Real Madrid bid £9m for a striker, I replied with £40m and they straight away offered a structured deal for a little more than that. However, sometimes they don't: in a different example, Man City kept bidding £9.75m plus a few add-ons worth less than £5m for one of my midfielders, and the only thing they would 'improve' was the '% of profit' clause. I assume they just didn't have the money to improve - or they wanted to unsettle my player. In that instance, Real Madrid (again) bid for another of my midfielders, so I sold him and gave the other guy a new contract.

People should read this post. It's perfectly possible to get more than you expected for a player if you put some work in. You know, like clubs would do in real life.

In my experience, AI teams go down one of two paths. Say you've got a highly rated player, Johnny Bloggs. He's "worth" (FM valuation) £20m, but his worth to the team is far more than that. Two teams are interested, Team A and Team B. Team A goes down path number 1. They put in an offer in installments of £10m. That's ridiculous of course, so you negotiate it to a point way above what you would probably accept. Team A then immediately pulls out of negotiations, because to be honest, they weren't ever that up for buying him anyway. Team B puts the same small offer in, you counter with the same. But they then put in a second offer. It's still nowhere near what you would accept, but it's a starting point. That's the key part to look out for in my opinion - if a team counters your counter-offer, then you can usually get them to pay markedly more than they initially put down. Sometimes way more than you initially expected. And another important thing to note is that if they refuse to give you what you want, don't be afraid to walk away. I had a protracted transfer saga for one of my players when I managed in Gibraltar. A club came in twice, neither time really getting to a value I was happy with. I stuck to my guns, demanding a fee close to £100m (Ballon D'Or winning striker). On the third negotiation, they eventually raised their bid to £90m+, and he was on his way.

One of the most annoying things about the game. You try to buy a transfer listed player. You pay what the team wants, no negotiations at all. You have a player the computer wants to buy(who you dont want to sell), you set a value to try to deter bids. Nah, they'll bid what the game values the player at. Thus you end up with unhappy players because you wont accept stupidly low bids for them.

See above. You paying exactly what the team wants with no negotiations is a deficiency on the human side, not the AI. They're being smart and trying to get the player for as little money as they can. There is absolutely nothing stopping you doing the same.

I find that it really helps if the player has played a lot of games. It's difficult to sell redundant players especially if your database is too large. A lot of the times there is a cheaper alternative available which makes it difficult to sell.

I often loan out players to attract attention and then off load them after the loan has ended.

Regards Hugo

Three simple words...

Supply and demand

@ OP

What team are you playing as?

How many leagues do you have loaded in the game?

How big is the database?

The answers to those questions will have a huge impact on the transfer market.

I don't say that the game is perfect with respect to transfers because it's nowhere near that but is working as intended.

What would you suggest to make the transfer market better that wouldn't unbalance the game?

Clearly they should have something when you create your game that warns you when the combination of database size, number of leagues chosen, etc. is going to harm the realism of the transfer market. Or change the way the game handles the transfer market.

Also...the AI actually makes offers for your players? Weird. That's never happened, and I'm in the middle of my third major dust-up with a player over a transfer offer from another club that hasn't actually materialized.

Three simple words...

What team are you playing as?

How many leagues do you have loaded in the game?

How big is the database?

The answers to those questions will have a huge impact on the transfer market.

I don't say that the game is perfect with respect to transfers because it's nowhere near that but is working as intended.

What would you suggest to make the transfer market better that wouldn't unbalance the game?

Portsmouth, 2021/22 season, and I'm 2nd in the Premier League.

England down to Conference N/S.

Large.

Interesting comments above that perhaps the database:leagues loaded ratio has an impact.

Clearly not everyone is experiencing the issue, and finding that the transfer system works for them. It's not failing to play the system, as some have suggested, it's obvious that for some people, for whatever reason, they are experiencing the issue I am. Others are not. If the issue doesn't affect you, please don't assume that those it does impact on are just playing the game incorrectly.

I struggle to sell players I do not want, and almost always have to offer for free to get rid. That is one problem. A second issue is the utter lowball bids for my top players, from top clubs, that do not end up being negotiated upwards. To date in this game, I have not sold a player I hadn't originally intended to (i.e. offered out/listed) because an offer came in that matched their valuation. To offer, as per my example £1.6 million with another say £1 million in add-ons, for a player the game reckons is worth £16 million, is an England international, and scores 25+ a season, is not realistic, and wouldn't happen in real life.

I struggle to sell players I do not want, and almost always have to offer for free to get rid. That is one problem. A second issue is the utter lowball bids for my top players, from top clubs, that do not end up being negotiated upwards. To date in this game, I have not sold a player I hadn't originally intended to (i.e. offered out/listed) because an offer came in that matched their valuation. To offer, as per my example £1.6 million with another say £1 million in add-ons, for a player the game reckons is worth £16 million, is an England international, and scores 25+ a season, is not realistic, and wouldn't happen in real life.

Are you exaggerating the difference there? If not it is best to raise any of examples such a huge difference in offer to value with SI by providing them with a copy of the save. Ideally just before the bid is made.

Portsmouth, 2021/22 season, and I'm 2nd in the Premier League.

England down to Conference N/S.

Large.

Interesting comments above that perhaps the database:leagues loaded ratio has an impact.

Clearly not everyone is experiencing the issue, and finding that the transfer system works for them. It's not failing to play the system, as some have suggested, it's obvious that for some people, for whatever reason, they are experiencing the issue I am. Others are not. If the issue doesn't affect you, please don't assume that those it does impact on are just playing the game incorrectly.

I struggle to sell players I do not want, and almost always have to offer for free to get rid. That is one problem. A second issue is the utter lowball bids for my top players, from top clubs, that do not end up being negotiated upwards. To date in this game, I have not sold a player I hadn't originally intended to (i.e. offered out/listed) because an offer came in that matched their valuation. To offer, as per my example £1.6 million with another say £1 million in add-ons, for a player the game reckons is worth £16 million, is an England international, and scores 25+ a season, is not realistic, and wouldn't happen in real life.

Well given your setup it is hardly surprising that you are having these issues. You have a very limited choice of clubs for the player to go to. Realistically, only the very top clubs in the Premier League are going to be interested. Foreign clubs aren't really going to want to sign him given the over inflated value that English players tend to have (no doubt he is probably unlikely to want to move somewhere else anyway due to the likely lower wage and lower prestige of the league...in the game you can't get better than playing in the EPL). Therefore you only have the top teams which will be willing to make an offer such as Arsenal, Man City and Chelsea which you mention in your OP. Then you further compound the issue by having a large database, given that, they can lowball you as there is only so many players they can sign (25 squad size limit) and they have a huge amount of choice which drives down the price.

I'm not stating that you are playing the game incorrectly (there is no such thing) but you haven't helped yourself by playing the game with the setup as you have. To improve the situation it may be worthwhile adding some of the top leagues in Europe so that you begin to increase the options you have for selling your players. I understand the frustration as I wish that inactive leagues would participate better in the transfer market but that isn't quite how it works at present. When you look at the factors which drive transfers (money, place of birth, reputation) unfortunately none of those are in your favour which makes what you want exceptionally difficult given your setup.

Unfortunately clubs from inactive leagues cannot be all that active in the transfer market because that will significantly increase the amount of data that the game has to process & as such negates the main reason for running a smaller league setup which will always be game speed due through cpu performance.

Unfortunately clubs from inactive leagues cannot be all that active in the transfer market because that will significantly increase the amount of data that the game has to process & as such negates the main reason for running a smaller league setup which will always be game speed due through cpu performance.

Absolutely correct. Then of course the question becomes how can the situation be improved? The problem is that more calculations give a better simulation but they also lead to poorer game speed. Therefore to get a better simulation and avoid the issues that the OP mentions you either are going to need to wait until CPUs are more capable to process the increased calculations quicker or somehow simplify the calculations so they don't require as much processing power.

Simplifying the calculations isn't ideal as it worsens the simulation leading to events like the OP mentioned. Additionally, given that Moore's Law is no longer valid the likelihood of CPUs becoming quick enough in the next few years to negate the increased calculations is remote (unless some game changing discovery is made). This unfortunately leads to the conclusion that things aren't really going to get much better with respect to AI and transfers anytime soon. The last major improvement in this aspect of the game was support for multi-core processors which happened a few years ago (no doubt a complicated transition for SI which required a lot of work) but since then nothing else which is understandable given the plateauing of CPU speed.

Are you exaggerating the difference there? If not it is best to raise any of examples such a huge difference in offer to value with SI by providing them with a copy of the save. Ideally just before the bid is made.

Nope, that is an exact example.

Absolutely correct. Then of course the question becomes how can the situation be improved? The problem is that more calculations give a better simulation but they also lead to poorer game speed. Therefore to get a better simulation and avoid the issues that the OP mentions you either are going to need to wait until CPUs are more capable to process the increased calculations quicker or somehow simplify the calculations so they don't require as much processing power.

Simplifying the calculations isn't ideal as it worsens the simulation leading to events like the OP mentioned. Additionally, given that Moore's Law is no longer valid the likelihood of CPUs becoming quick enough in the next few years to negate the increased calculations is remote (unless some game changing discovery is made). This unfortunately leads to the conclusion that things aren't really going to get much better with respect to AI and transfers anytime soon. The last major improvement in this aspect of the game was support for multi-core processors which happened a few years ago (no doubt a complicated transition for SI which required a lot of work) but since then nothing else which is understandable given the plateauing of CPU speed.

Thanks Barside and Pheelf though for shining some light on this. I accept the limitations that you point out with the game set-up, with just one country's leagues, but I still expected a higher degree of interaction from foreign leagues on things like transfers, i.e. 'global' activities, with 'domestic' items like detailed matches, relationships etc, being reduced. Perhaps even a note when setting up the game saying "warning, this will have XXX impact on your game" would be useful.

This answers my question pretty much. Thanks.

After starting a new save it's worth looking over clubs from inactive, the more clubs that do not have a 25 man squad the leas involved that nation will be in the transfer market.

The logic being that if a club stars with more virtual (grey) players than real players then they do not need to sign real players as the virtual players fill that need.

The problem with a warning is that the impact is not guaranteed & human nature will see folk stress their system to get rid of the warning.

I have a 31-year-old midfielder at Chelsea, when I took over he came in with the "I want to go to Atletico for a new challenge" and since he's 31 and pulling down $250k/wk, I said if they came in with a valid offer, I'd let them talk to him. Atletico never came in with any interest. Pre-season the next year, FC Barcelona comes in with a bid $10 million under his value and $20+ million less than asking price, which I declined...because I didn't consider it a valid offer. He throws a fit, admits that although it wasn't Atletico, HE felt it was a valid offer...but it wasn't, especially since other teams want me to pay 10x-20x value. Now, the promise is showing as broken, even though it was a different team than the team I agreed to, and the bid was NOT a valid bid, and I've got an angry player for not letting him go for a fire-sale price. Note: at no time was he transfer listed, the only thing I agreed to was a bid from Atletico, which never happened.

I have a 31-year-old midfielder at Chelsea, when I took over he came in with the "I want to go to Atletico for a new challenge" and since he's 31 and pulling down $250k/wk, I said if they came in with a valid offer, I'd let them talk to him. Atletico never came in with any interest. Pre-season the next year, FC Barcelona comes in with a bid $10 million under his value and $20+ million less than asking price, which I declined...because I didn't consider it a valid offer. He throws a fit, admits that although it wasn't Atletico, HE felt it was a valid offer...but it wasn't, especially since other teams want me to pay 10x-20x value. Now, the promise is showing as broken, even though it was a different team than the team I agreed to, and the bid was NOT a valid bid, and I've got an angry player for not letting him go for a fire-sale price. Note: at no time was he transfer listed, the only thing I agreed to was a bid from Atletico, which never happened.

Sounds like the player is an arsehole. The optimum probably would have been to negotiate the Barcelona offer as best you could - how much was it for? In truth it was probably worth giving up on a few million dollars to move him on, keep your squad harmony in tact and get him off the wage bill, especially considering that he's paid so much just waiting an extra half-year to sell him costs at least $6.5M in wages.

Sounds like the player is an arsehole. The optimum probably would have been to negotiate the Barcelona offer as best you could - how much was it for? In truth it was probably worth giving up on a few million dollars to move him on, keep your squad harmony in tact and get him off the wage bill, especially considering that he's paid so much just waiting an extra half-year to sell him costs at least $6.5M in wages.

His value at the time was $35 million, I was asking $48 million (because I'm not giving away a 4-star player at Chelsea for peanuts) and they come in with $25 million and conditions (which because I had it set at "refuse offers below asking" and the total offered was less than $48 it was automatically rejected.) I probably should have set it at "let me hear the offers", but he hadn't had any interest for six months, it was summer break, and quite frankly I had forgotten he wanted to leave. I just don't want to hand a fan favorite and a long-time player to a continental competitor.

And now, my best left winger, Walter Cordero, valued at $46.5 million is mad because I didn't let him go to Napoli for $25 million. If it's going to cost me $50 million to replace him (with a lower-rated player), I'm not going to sell him for $25 million. I bid $15 million on a prospect rated at 1.5 stars (current value $750,000), the club comes back with $58 million. C'mon, let's have just a modicum of fairness here.

Sounds like the player is an arsehole. The optimum probably would have been to negotiate the Barcelona offer as best you could - how much was it for? In truth it was probably worth giving up on a few million dollars to move him on, keep your squad harmony in tact and get him off the wage bill, especially considering that he's paid so much just waiting an extra half-year to sell him costs at least $6.5M in wages.

Especially in the premier league, i don't mind selling players for less than they are worth if it is just going to destroy my squad harmony if i wait for a good offer. The money in the league is already ridiculous.

This may not be a bug per-se, but it's an issue that I've noticed for several iterations of FM now.

No matter what the ability of my players, their form, their rep, or their listed value, AI teams will offer derisory bids for them. For instance, England international striker, 25 years old, scoring a goal-per-game, valued by the game at £16million, and I've had three bids for £1.6million or lower, and always in instalments. It's often top teams such as Chelsea, Man City, Arsenal making these bids too, so they have the cash, and the player is clearly wanted at a high level.

Over the years playing FM, I've basically given up on selling players, with the vast majority of my players that do leave doing so on a free transfer.

I know the in-game valuation, like any valuation, is a best guess, but the bids I receive are ridiculous.

Does anyone else have this 'issue'?

Just my 2 cents on this.

From a practical angle, I always spend time setting my player valuations for 2- 3 times higher than their current value. I do this for all high-performing players and players that have clubs interested in putting transfer bids in. By doing this, I find that it prevents clubs from putting in the massively under-valued bids like you describe, and usually their starting value is much closer to their actual valuation.

With regards to selling player on this version of FM, I have had everything.... from mega-profits, to just acceptable deals, to selling players for below their valuation. I actually find this realistic and enjoy it. Not all players in my point of view, should be easy to transfer, particularly selling squad players is always difficult, but I agree with that. IRL sometimes it is difficult to sell on players as well, so I think that should be reflected in the game. To make the mega-profit deals that you want though, I think you just have to be savvy with the transfer system and realise in which situations it is possible to do so.

I have a 31-year-old midfielder at Chelsea, when I took over he came in with the "I want to go to Atletico for a new challenge" and since he's 31 and pulling down $250k/wk, I said if they came in with a valid offer, I'd let them talk to him. Atletico never came in with any interest. Pre-season the next year, FC Barcelona comes in with a bid $10 million under his value and $20+ million less than asking price, which I declined...because I didn't consider it a valid offer. He throws a fit, admits that although it wasn't Atletico, HE felt it was a valid offer...but it wasn't, especially since other teams want me to pay 10x-20x value. Now, the promise is showing as broken, even though it was a different team than the team I agreed to, and the bid was NOT a valid bid, and I've got an angry player for not letting him go for a fire-sale price. Note: at no time was he transfer listed, the only thing I agreed to was a bid from Atletico, which never happened.

I've seen this exact thing in my game. I get that he'd still be upset. I don't get why it's a broken promise.

His value at the time was $35 million, I was asking $48 million (because I'm not giving away a 4-star player at Chelsea for peanuts) and they come in with $25 million and conditions (which because I had it set at "refuse offers below asking" and the total offered was less than $48 it was automatically rejected.) I probably should have set it at "let me hear the offers", but he hadn't had any interest for six months, it was summer break, and quite frankly I had forgotten he wanted to leave. I just don't want to hand a fan favorite and a long-time player to a continental competitor.

And now, my best left winger, Walter Cordero, valued at $46.5 million is mad because I didn't let him go to Napoli for $25 million. If it's going to cost me $50 million to replace him (with a lower-rated player), I'm not going to sell him for $25 million. I bid $15 million on a prospect rated at 1.5 stars (current value $750,000), the club comes back with $58 million. C'mon, let's have just a modicum of fairness here.

I don't want to be harsh, but I think the first thing you need to do here is forget the notion of fairness. No, other clubs aren't going to be fair, they're going to try to get the best deal possible for themselves. And certain Club A is not going to care about what Club B said to you regarding a different player.

With conditions included I'm guessing you were offerred around value price for a player who is highly paid, ageing and publicly wants to leave. If you'd negotiated rather than outright rejected, it may well have been improved. That on the face of it is perfectly reasonable and it would seem far more sensible to let him go rather than keep him given the issues.

As for Cordero, sounds like he's trying to force a move. Again - he doesn't care if you can replace him easily, whether the offer's fair or whatever. He's just decided he wants to leave and he thinks this is going to increase the chances of that happening, either by lessenning your resolve to keep him or by attracting interest from other clubs who may make bigger offers.

Finally, in the case of ridiculous negotiations like that, it's effectively the club saying "He's not for sale, but if you want to offer something ludicrous we'll listen". In previous games your offer would just have been rejected, but people complained that was unrealistic because every player has a price hence this. Have you made any attempt to unsettle him? Is his contract running out soon? If the player wants to stay and the club want to keep him then you're going to have to offer a lot to change their minds - what would you do if someone was trying to buy a highly-rated youngster from your team like this?

Handling this kind of thing is part of being a manager. Teams are putting in bids that are too low on purpose to try to unsettle the player so they can sign him for less in the future. I do this frequently, sometimes it works and sometimes it does not. It is not anything out of the normal really.

In the Jan transfer window of my current save I had two of my star players completely unsettled by teams bidding for them. One player had a bid from Real Madrid which was not good, and they withdrew. He complained for a new contract, I refused, he sulks. Nobody else bids for him in this window. He sits out a few weeks to understand he is not in charge, and I eventually renegotiate his contract since he did deserve one.

Player two is the linchpin of my midfield. Bayern came in with serious interest, and they negotiated up to 70 million in the end, all things told. Now I simply did not want to lose thie player in January, so I stuck to my guns and held out for stupid amounts of money. Eventually Bayern give up and the player is unhappy I did not let him leave. We have a conversation about him staying and being important and us winning the UCL (apparently in two seasons, I could not promise it this). He is still unhappy, so he goes and sits out a few weeks until the end of the window. At this point he says he is sorry, and I reintegrate him.

There are also time when I have to sell a player because he either will not get happy or is causing moral issues in the dressing room. In that case I would rather offload him and bring in someone else than have him upsetting my players. That is when it works.

Currently I am trying to unsettle a wonderful regen from Southampton who they really do not want to sell. He has 18 months left on his contract and is unhappy that Southampton refused a ****** bid from me. He has thus turned down two contracts and I expect that come the start of the new season when he has 12 months left he will be available for relatively cheap (for his skill level). If not I will try to keep him unhappy and get him on a free. It really can work both ways.

If they were being really clever they should just offer £1, then another £50 over 15 year, or would that be ridiculous. Where do we draw the line, Its broke, its not realistic, clubs do not offer deriosry bids to opposition managers in reality. There is such a thing as respect, and not wasting peoples time making a bid thats insulting to football fellow proffesionals and the player. It the player had better IQ he would be insulted by the bid and wouldnt consider them anyway, not kick up a fuss cos somebody offered a bag of crisps and a gift voucher for bhs in an attempt to unsettle him .

I'm sure Liverpool were thrilled to get the £40,000,001 bid from Arsenal for Luis Saurez. Nothing disrespectful about that in any way.

How do you know bids like these aren't made? I doubt every single bid that is ever made for any player ever is made public.

In this game they would bid 5mil, paid over years, and it would be from a championship club, the player would get upset, you sell him for 5 mill just cos you cant be bothered for the torrent of questions mini game

If they were being really clever they should just offer £1, then another £50 over 15 year, or would that be ridiculous. Where do we draw the line, Its broke, its not realistic, clubs do not offer deriosry bids to opposition managers in reality. There is such a thing as respect, and not wasting peoples time making a bid thats insulting to football fellow proffesionals and the player. It the player had better IQ he would be insulted by the bid and wouldnt consider them anyway, not kick up a fuss cos somebody offered a bag of crisps and a gift voucher for bhs in an attempt to unsettle him .

I think you are being a bit over dramatic with your response. The transfer system isn't perfect by any means but it's nowhere near being broken. You want an example of a broken transfer system, play FM12 where you could sign a player on a free in the summer transfer window and sell him for millions the next January making a ton load of money in the process, rinse and repeat your way to an absolute fortune. If anything this version of the transfer system is the most realistic yet and as a result, things that you could get away with previously (unbalanced game setups) you now get penalized for.

I'd be interested to know what team your playing as and how your game is setup (database size, number of leagues)? I ask as that could explain exactly why you are having problems in the transfer market

You mention that you couldn't give away your top goalscorer in the Premier League for free but you give no context.

What was the players wage? What was the players nationality? Was the player transfer listed? Was he a young upstart or a veteran? How long did he have left on his contract? What is the players reputation?

The answers to all of the those questions have an impact on whether a team would consider him a viable target for transfer.

I think you are being a bit over dramatic with your response. The transfer system isn't perfect by any means but it's nowhere near being broken. You want an example of a broken transfer system, play FM12 where you could sign a player on a free in the summer transfer window and sell him for millions the next January making a ton load of money in the process, rinse and repeat your way to an absolute fortune. If anything this version of the transfer system is the most realistic yet and as a result, things that you could get away with previously (unbalanced game setups) you now get penalized for.

I'd be interested to know what team your playing as and how your game is setup (database size, number of leagues)? I ask as that could explain exactly why you are having problems in the transfer market

You mention that you couldn't give away your top goalscorer in the Premier League for free but you give no context.

What was the players wage? What was the players nationality? Was the player transfer listed? Was he a young upstart or a veteran? How long did he have left on his contract? What is the players reputation?

The answers to all of the those questions have an impact on whether a team would consider him a viable target for transfer.

I'm not sure I can really talk about it anymore, its not really welcomed. I did go into more detail on another thread about my save. And, Yeah, maybe it is a bit dramtic I suppose, its maybe just as a balance to the fierce defence a little

I like to play realistic, I dont sign players on a free to sell them in 6 months time, Ive only really tried to sell players that wanted to go. For me this has been the least realistic as at least in previous years the AI tried to poach your best players, now they lack that ambition, I'm trying to keep hold of my best players and this year has been the easiest of them all as they have no interest, or make bids you laugh at. You worried the AI would try to steal them in previous versions, then the board would sell them over your head. If the AI wanted my players they could, we cant afford to keep them, they are on pocket money wages, I'm a little fish, but they make so little effort and bids we can easily refuse we dont have a problem keeping hold of players.

Even my board arent selling over my head cos they laugh at the bids too. In previous FMs which I thought the transfer market wasnt great the AI could tell you had a good player once in a while and tried to steal him. I would be worried about minimum release clauses, contracts running out or the board accepting bids they cant refuse, and I knew they would end up being worth a lot more if they did sell. But this year for whatever reason its not an event. I dont expect to have a conyevor belt of players and money making, I wouldnt want that.

I dont find bids we can happily refuse as clever AI trying to get players on the cheap, most of the time they dont care less about getting these players and I think very low bids just show how little interest they do have. I have never had a player poached in 11 seasons, baring in mind as wealdstone climbing up the leagues I should be constantly fending off poaching bigger fish, Teams below are trying to poach, the littler fish are trying to nibble out of the little bit bigger fish. It just seems upside down to me.

Got back to back promotions from league 2 to the championship with largely the same squad and some I bought while in the conference, surely bigger clubs would make an attempt to steal some of these players that were playing in a much lower league than they should be, on next to nothing wages.

I'm not sure what the situation is, is it too goldilocks now the events to make a transfer viable, so there isnt enough situations. Or some kind of reputation problem with climbing up leagues or not playing at the highest level. My best players who say they are good championship players or can be good premier league players can barely attract minor interest from league 2 clubs who are well out of the golidlocks zone,

I had a player who was rated as a good championship player, good stats, he wanted to leave, I offered him out for free got nothing, I offered him out on loan and got two bids from league 2 clubs and that was it. Which he laughed at and refused.

I guess you were not being genuine when you said you'd drop this line, please stop repeating the same post in different threads & instead please provide evidence of these events to SI so that they can investigate why they are happening in your save.

Thanks.

I find the same thing happening to me in my Newcastle save.

More that often Janmaat, Anita and Sissoko are subject of bids from Liverpool, Chelsea, etc.

Starting offer is always, and without exception below value, and by at lease 1m£. And always in installments and game bonuses.

In the new update, Newcastle have spent the entire budget on players, so finances are not optimal.

But that does not mean that I am willing to let my key players go at less than value price, when the players I replace them with costs 3 times their value.

I play with English leagues down to league 2, but with at large database, incl. all players from top tier clubs in Europe and South America.

My players are not sold on the cheap, so they find themselves on the bench until the window closes, unless I get a bid of at least 150% of the value cash now, or 200% with add ons.