Amazingly over the top transfer fees......

[bc1sjw]

Okay, I realise I'm Man City and that teams will take me for a ride because they know we are loaded, but I'm into June 2011 and I find the below a bit ridiculous! With Viera on his last legs, I'm letting him go at contract end and decided I wanted a more attack minded central midfielder so (tried) to sign the below players:

1. Mikel Arteta: Valued at £6m, I offered £18m and they said they would be willing to deal at £25m. I pulled out and Milan sign him for £17m.

2. Diego (Wolfsburg): Valued at £6.2m, I've offered up to £20m for him and they are willing to deal at £31m.......but unrealistic no?

3. Cesc Fabregas: Valued at £35m, I've offered £80m and its still rejected. Fair enough, thats probably realistic

4. Yoann Gourcuff: Valued at £11m, I offer £35m and they say they are willing to deal at.....£70M! WTF?? (I pulled out funnily enough)

5. Marek Hamsik: Valued at £7.5m - I eventually have a bid of £35m accepted but is that not a bit over the top, 5x player value?

6. Luca Modric: Valued at £7m, I offer £17m and Spurs will deal for £25m.....looks like I'm going to take it as hes the only one on this list it appears i can sign...still over priced!

7. Javier Pastore: Valued at £6m, they are looking for £40m!

8. Jack Wilshere: Valued at £6m, I offer £20m and they are willing to deal for £44M.....WTF?

9. Andriy Arshavin: Valued at £11m, I've offered up to £45m and its still been rejected.

Some of these fair enough, Everton prob didnt want me to have Arteta, Arsenal kept Fabregas despite all interest last season. But being told I need to offer 5x initial value for Diego, Hamsik and Pastore? The fee for Wilshere is a tad expensive for someone who has barely started their career, and surely Wenger would except £45m for Arshavin in real life.

Gourcuff is just pure LOL! So out of 9 potential targets I end up only having a chance of getting Modric?! I;m the richest team in the game as well - how the heck would you be able to sign anyone if you were a lesser team?

How the heck you meant to sign players when they are looking for 6 times the value? I can sign promising/younger players from the championship or premiership fine, and my only senior signing in my firat season was Zaccardo from Lasio which was good at £6m.......I'm finding this a tad frustrating.

Anyone else experienced this or is this just a werid game I've got?

[Carmi88]

all the players u listed are a integral and valuable member of the teams, nothing bizarre about it.

high price = not wanting to sell

[Tubey84]

Pastore and Gourcuff aside, every other thing in that list is plausable.

As you said initially, it's simply teams taking Man City for a ride when they're bidding for key players.

[celebritykiller]

Arteta, Modric & Pastore sound spot on. I'm happier with this transfer system than the last patch one.

[Bicycle]

I thought I saw this somewhere else http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=822763&sec=transfers&cc=5739

[haz32]

Also, how long do they have left on their contracts? If your top player is secured on a 5-year contract, why would you sell them, even for an incredible amount of money?

[Tubey84]

I thought I saw this somewhere else http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=822763&sec=transfers&cc=5739

I think it's outside the range of plausability for the club to request £40m when he's rated as £6m in-game. The problem is that he should have a higher asking price in-game - after one season he's worth around £15m so he should be worth that to begin with.

[haz32]

I think it's outside the range of plausability for the club to request £40m when he's rated as £6m in-game. The problem is that he should have a higher asking price in-game - after one season he's worth around £15m so he should be worth that to begin with.

You know what they say about hindsight...

[Tubey84]

You know what they say about hindsight...

Aye I know, I'm not saying SI should get every single one right - but the reason I'm saying it's implausable is because a demand of £40m on a £6m-rated player is incorrect.

Take the fact it's Pastore out of the equation, just call him Player A. Player A is worth £6m. Normally you'd expect a bid of around £25m to be irresistable for that player, so for the club to ask for £40m in-game would be a tad unrealistic. £30m would be the limit for me.

[themadsheep2001]

Aye I know, I'm not saying SI should get every single one right - but the reason I'm saying it's implausable is because a demand of £40m on a £6m-rated player is incorrect.

Take the fact it's Pastore out of the equation, just call him Player A. Player A is worth £6m. Normally you'd expect a bid of around £25m to be irresistable for that player, so for the club to ask for £40m in-game would be a tad unrealistic. £30m would be the limit for me.

i can see where you are coming from. This may be a stupid question, but can the AI see the player attributes? or do they see the star rating? apart from things like contract length and form, i just wonder what other factors it takes in to consideration on transfers.

To be honest cant see much wrong with the prices the OP is talking about, Pastore excluded. As for gourcuff, im reserving judgement since the op pulled out before negotiating further, but at 35 million already, its seems a bit high.

[ife]

7. Javier Pastore: Valued at £6m, they are looking for £40m!

Funny, Man city just bought him in my game in 2014 for £39.5m. Also, if in his scouting report your scout says the club will have no intention to sell, you better be prepared to convince them with a lot of cash.Monaco want me to pay 12m for a 16yr old 1m valued gk wth a CA of 1/2 star.

[haz32]

Aye I know, I'm not saying SI should get every single one right - but the reason I'm saying it's implausable is because a demand of £40m on a £6m-rated player is incorrect.

Take the fact it's Pastore out of the equation, just call him Player A. Player A is worth £6m. Normally you'd expect a bid of around £25m to be irresistable for that player, so for the club to ask for £40m in-game would be a tad unrealistic. £30m would be the limit for me.

But you have to take situation into account. Losing a player of Pastore's ability is going to be a much bigger blow to Palermo than to a bigger club as, even with tens of millions to spend on a replacement they're never going to attract a player of similar ability.

[bc1sjw]

Fair enough guys - I'm a bit out of the loop having not played since FM 08. I used to always work in the "2.5 rule" - you need to offer 2.5 times more the value unless they are an amazing player.

As everyone seems to be in agreement here it looks like I'm in the wrong - fair enough You can see they are all top tier players I'm looking at and the obvious is the clubs prob arn't interested in selling. Still think its a tad unrealistic...Gourcuff, Wilshere and Arshavin - come on! As one poster has said they're initial value should be increased.

Looks like its Modric for me then - he better be worth this £25m I did want Eden Hazard also, his fee was reasonable but he also chose Milan over me. Half wondering if i should save my money, resign Viera for another couple of years and sticjk with what I've got.....but City are totally lacking central creativity, too many non attack minded players!

[Sheva Elite]

1. Mikel Arteta: Their valuation would have just changed for some reason. You too would have been able to buy him for £17m if you bid at that time.

2. Diego (Wolfsburg): Yep, that is very silly. The very max they'd ask for IRL is £20m

3. Cesc Fabregas: Yeah, he is pretty much invaluable to them. Especially if selling to a rival

4. Yoann Gourcuff: Yep, also silly. They'd probably sell for no more than £30m IRL.

5. Marek Hamsik: Als silly. They'd probably want £20m max.

6. Luca Modric: Sounds about right. He is a top player and one of their key players. Plus Man City are a rival

7. Javier Pastore: Valued at £6m, they are looking for £40m! Thats about right. £30 is probs more realistic.

8. Jack Wilshere: IRL he is meant to be amazing so could be about right. On the game though, I just sold him in 2013 to Everton for £1m. Hes crap.

9. Andriy Arshavin: Why do you want someone so old? Anyway, IRL Arsenal would take £20m at absoltue max.

[Sheva Elite]

Also, yeah, your targets are very poorly chosen.

You should be looking at Pastore, Paolo Henrique, Neymar, Eden Hazrd, and a couple of others I cant remember.

[bc1sjw]

Also, yeah, your targets are very poorly chosen.

You should be looking at Pastore, Paolo Henrique, Neymar, Eden Hazrd, and a couple of others I cant remember.

Neymar is a striker, its central midfield I want. Couldn't get Hazard and I'm not paying that for Pastore. No idea who Henrique is but I'm guessing I'll have to pay about £50M for him

[Sheva Elite]

I said Neymar cos you could have him on the left and shift Silva into AMC, or retrain Tevez for there or something.

Anway, Henrique should be available for a maximum of £22m and he is one of the very best youngsters about.

[haz32]

1. Mikel Arteta: Their valuation would have just changed for some reason. You too would have been able to buy him for £17m if you bid at that time.

2. Diego (Wolfsburg): Yep, that is very silly. The very max they'd ask for IRL is £20m

3. Cesc Fabregas: Yeah, he is pretty much invaluable to them. Especially if selling to a rival

4. Yoann Gourcuff: Yep, also silly. They'd probably sell for no more than £30m IRL.

5. Marek Hamsik: Als silly. They'd probably want £20m max.

6. Luca Modric: Sounds about right. He is a top player and one of their key players. Plus Man City are a rival

7. Javier Pastore: Valued at £6m, they are looking for £40m! Thats about right. £30 is probs more realistic.

8. Jack Wilshere: IRL he is meant to be amazing so could be about right. On the game though, I just sold him in 2013 to Everton for £1m. Hes crap.

9. Andriy Arshavin: Why do you want someone so old? Anyway, IRL Arsenal would take £20m at absoltue max.

Likely your original bid caused him to become unsettled, meaning Everton would be more willing to sell.

[Wiitastic]

I worked out you need to offer clubs just over 4x the players value, so if a player is valued at 10m then 40m+ is needed to be offered

[Tubey84]

i can see where you are coming from. This may be a stupid question, but can the AI see the player attributes? or do they see the star rating? apart from things like contract length and form, i just wonder what other factors it takes in to consideration on transfers.

To be honest cant see much wrong with the prices the OP is talking about, Pastore excluded. As for gourcuff, im reserving judgement since the op pulled out before negotiating further, but at 35 million already, its seems a bit high.

I think the AI go solely by CA and PA.

It would be interesting to know whether the quality of the Scouts hired at the club make a difference to how often they buy "properly". I doubt it makes a difference to the AI though.

[bc1sjw]

I worked out you need to offer clubs just over 4x the players value, so if a player is valued at 10m then 40m+ is needed to be offered

Well thats definitly not the case if you look at what I've been offering in the first post - some clubs looking for 6 and 7 times player value.

[prome]

Looks fine to me. It would be ridiculous if the players would actually be sold with the current "shown" values. Maybe the shown value should be adjusted to correspond the actual approximate selling price.

[pezza1]

I think the main problem the OP is having is that your initial bid is way too high. If you come in with a bid 2 or 3 times the value of the player from the get go the selling club is going to think "hang on a minute, they must have some cash, lets take them to the cleaners!"

With certain players (e.g. Fabregas) you are just unlikely to get them anyway but someone like Modric you may have a chance but maybe just offer up something like 10 million initially rather than 17 million. The selling team may tell you where to go but also they may expect that you are bidding low to begin with and ask for more. In this case they will either just reject the offer or they may ask for more money but they are not as likely to ask for 25 million after a bid of 10 million compared to an opening bid of 17 million!

[martvez]

Asking prices are ridiculously over the top.No way any of this players would be worth so much in real life(except FF).

[bc1sjw]

I think the main problem the OP is having is that your initial bid is way too high. If you come in with a bid 2 or 3 times the value of the player from the get go the selling club is going to think "hang on a minute, they must have some cash, lets take them to the cleaners!"

With certain players (e.g. Fabregas) you are just unlikely to get them anyway but someone like Modric you may have a chance but maybe just offer up something like 10 million initially rather than 17 million. The selling team may tell you where to go but also they may expect that you are bidding low to begin with and ask for more. In this case they will either just reject the offer or they may ask for more money but they are not as likely to ask for 25 million after a bid of 10 million compared to an opening bid of 17 million!

I get you Pezza, not sure if they AI works that way but thanks - worth a shot!

Also thinks for the heads up on Henrique - just bagged him for £17m! Although I'm not too keen paying a 21 year old whos only played a few seasons £100k a week when he was £33k previously but hey ho.....

[Robioto]

1. Mikel Arteta: Their valuation would have just changed for some reason. You too would have been able to buy him for £17m if you bid at that time.

2. Diego (Wolfsburg): Yep, that is very silly. The very max they'd ask for IRL is £20m

3. Cesc Fabregas: Yeah, he is pretty much invaluable to them. Especially if selling to a rival

4. Yoann Gourcuff: Yep, also silly. They'd probably sell for no more than £30m IRL.

5. Marek Hamsik: Als silly. They'd probably want £20m max.

6. Luca Modric: Sounds about right. He is a top player and one of their key players. Plus Man City are a rival

7. Javier Pastore: Valued at £6m, they are looking for £40m! Thats about right. £30 is probs more realistic.

8. Jack Wilshere: IRL he is meant to be amazing so could be about right. On the game though, I just sold him in 2013 to Everton for £1m. Hes crap.

9. Andriy Arshavin: Why do you want someone so old? Anyway, IRL Arsenal would take £20m at absoltue max.

It's all well and good doing this but in reaility you don't really have a clue about what clubs would and wouldn't accept, this is just speculative.

[Romanista.]

Okay, I realise I'm Man City and that teams will take me for a ride because they know we are loaded, but I'm into June 2011 and I find the below a bit ridiculous! With Viera on his last legs, I'm letting him go at contract end and decided I wanted a more attack minded central midfielder so (tried) to sign the below players:

1. Mikel Arteta: Valued at £6m, I offered £18m and they said they would be willing to deal at £25m. I pulled out and Milan sign him for £17m.

2. Diego (Wolfsburg): Valued at £6.2m, I've offered up to £20m for him and they are willing to deal at £31m.......but unrealistic no?

3. Cesc Fabregas: Valued at £35m, I've offered £80m and its still rejected. Fair enough, thats probably realistic

4. Yoann Gourcuff: Valued at £11m, I offer £35m and they say they are willing to deal at.....£70M! WTF?? (I pulled out funnily enough)

5. Marek Hamsik: Valued at £7.5m - I eventually have a bid of £35m accepted but is that not a bit over the top, 5x player value?

6. Luca Modric: Valued at £7m, I offer £17m and Spurs will deal for £25m.....looks like I'm going to take it as hes the only one on this list it appears i can sign...still over priced!

7. Javier Pastore: Valued at £6m, they are looking for £40m!

8. Jack Wilshere: Valued at £6m, I offer £20m and they are willing to deal for £44M.....WTF?

9. Andriy Arshavin: Valued at £11m, I've offered up to £45m and its still been rejected.

Some of these fair enough, Everton prob didnt want me to have Arteta, Arsenal kept Fabregas despite all interest last season. But being told I need to offer 5x initial value for Diego, Hamsik and Pastore? The fee for Wilshere is a tad expensive for someone who has barely started their career, and surely Wenger would except £45m for Arshavin in real life.

Gourcuff is just pure LOL! So out of 9 potential targets I end up only having a chance of getting Modric?! I;m the richest team in the game as well - how the heck would you be able to sign anyone if you were a lesser team?

How the heck you meant to sign players when they are looking for 6 times the value? I can sign promising/younger players from the championship or premiership fine, and my only senior signing in my firat season was Zaccardo from Lasio which was good at £6m.......I'm finding this a tad frustrating.

Anyone else experienced this or is this just a werid game I've got?

the only problem is the arshavin one. the others are all fine

[ToonArmy-Tom]

Just look at it from the position of trying to sell. I can't be the only person whose put a 50mil fee on Phillip Lahm because I don't want to sell him?

Anyway isn't there a load of variables... relationship to the manager, players relationship to either manager/team, squad status, contract length, salary, how likely the board are to jump in and accept a lower bid etc.

[deltablue]

I do think it can be a little excessive across the board (Had over a 10x fee in the Ukraine, admitedly the initial valuation of 80k did seem generously low and the actual 1.2M price wasn't so bad considering what I'd have expected the game to charge, valuation aside, especially for a really excellent 17yr old), you get 3-4x a lot in smaller countries (wheras irl most places are far more sensible with valuations than england). Even for biggest clubs and biggest players surely 60M would do for almost (Yes, I know about Ronaldo but even that should be close to the very max) everyone. However as someone who very rarely agrees to sell anyone in my first team plans (let alone key players) unless its financially required or to avoid losing someone for nothing, its still more than I'd let the AI do, at least if you have the money and are willing to use it you can get your man. Plus if you look hard enough there'll usually be players with far less of a markup or at least with a surprisingly low valuation that even a usually inflated price is manageable.

[ashbag]

Reputation, squad status, potential, easy to replace, club's financial status are also probably factors.

[Sheva Elite]

It's all well and good doing this but in reaility you don't really have a clue about what clubs would and wouldn't accept, this is just speculative.

I do have a clue. It's called following the sport.

[Cougar2010]

Okay, I realise I'm Man City and that teams will take me for a ride because they know we are loaded, but I'm into June 2011 and I find the below a bit ridiculous! With Viera on his last legs, I'm letting him go at contract end and decided I wanted a more attack minded central midfielder so (tried) to sign the below players:

1. Mikel Arteta: Valued at £6m, I offered £18m and they said they would be willing to deal at £25m. I pulled out and Milan sign him for £17m.

2. Diego (Wolfsburg): Valued at £6.2m, I've offered up to £20m for him and they are willing to deal at £31m.......but unrealistic no?

3. Cesc Fabregas: Valued at £35m, I've offered £80m and its still rejected. Fair enough, thats probably realistic

4. Yoann Gourcuff: Valued at £11m, I offer £35m and they say they are willing to deal at.....£70M! WTF?? (I pulled out funnily enough)

5. Marek Hamsik: Valued at £7.5m - I eventually have a bid of £35m accepted but is that not a bit over the top, 5x player value?

6. Luca Modric: Valued at £7m, I offer £17m and Spurs will deal for £25m.....looks like I'm going to take it as hes the only one on this list it appears i can sign...still over priced!

7. Javier Pastore: Valued at £6m, they are looking for £40m!

8. Jack Wilshere: Valued at £6m, I offer £20m and they are willing to deal for £44M.....WTF?

9. Andriy Arshavin: Valued at £11m, I've offered up to £45m and its still been rejected.

Some of these fair enough, Everton prob didnt want me to have Arteta, Arsenal kept Fabregas despite all interest last season. But being told I need to offer 5x initial value for Diego, Hamsik and Pastore? The fee for Wilshere is a tad expensive for someone who has barely started their career, and surely Wenger would except £45m for Arshavin in real life.

Gourcuff is just pure LOL! So out of 9 potential targets I end up only having a chance of getting Modric?! I;m the richest team in the game as well - how the heck would you be able to sign anyone if you were a lesser team?

How the heck you meant to sign players when they are looking for 6 times the value? I can sign promising/younger players from the championship or premiership fine, and my only senior signing in my firat season was Zaccardo from Lasio which was good at £6m.......I'm finding this a tad frustrating.

Anyone else experienced this or is this just a werid game I've got?

and how much effort did you put into any of those offers?

Were those your initial bids? If so why so high?

Did you speak to the player/media before making any offers? If not why not?

Did you scout them at all?

Transfers take time, effort & planning just like in RL. Plan in advance, put in the effort and you'll sign the players at prices you deem to be reasonable.

That said you also have to accept and be able to identify that some players are either not available or not available without significantly overpaying. Reasons could range from length of contract to club/player reputation.

[Sheva Elite]

I think the main problem the OP is having is that your initial bid is way too high. If you come in with a bid 2 or 3 times the value of the player from the get go the selling club is going to think "hang on a minute, they must have some cash, lets take them to the cleaners!"

With certain players (e.g. Fabregas) you are just unlikely to get them anyway but someone like Modric you may have a chance but maybe just offer up something like 10 million initially rather than 17 million. The selling team may tell you where to go but also they may expect that you are bidding low to begin with and ask for more. In this case they will either just reject the offer or they may ask for more money but they are not as likely to ask for 25 million after a bid of 10 million compared to an opening bid of 17 million!

AI definitely doesn't work like that. They just have a fixed price that they will sell for. Once a bid comes in at that level or higher, they accept. Doesn't matter how rich the other club is either. They only ask for more from rivals or clubs in the same country sometimes.

The way to get the best value is to make non-negotiable offers in increments. Say you big for Pastore. They'll accept a minimum of say £20m. If you bid £18m, they'll demand £25m or something. But if you do it non-negotiable at £18m, then £19m, then £20m. You'll eventually get to the minimum point they'll accept. Then obviously you change it so you pay it over 48 months which they dont seem to mind.

[Cougar2010]

I think it's outside the range of plausability for the club to request £40m when he's rated as £6m in-game. The problem is that he should have a higher asking price in-game - after one season he's worth around £15m so he should be worth that to begin with.

He possibly has or the club haven't set an asking price - the OP has quoted "Value" NOT "Asking Price" there is a significant difference between those.

[Lord_Seifer]

Didn't Pastore just sign a 70m release clause IRL?

[martvez]

Didn't Pastore just sign a 70m release clause IRL?

It's one thing to sign,it's a whole other thing to get someone to pay it.

[bc1sjw]

and how much effort did you put into any of those offers?

Were those your initial bids? If so why so high?

Did you speak to the player/media before making any offers? If not why not?

Did you scout them at all?

Transfers take time, effort & planning just like in RL. Plan in advance, put in the effort and you'll sign the players at prices you deem to be reasonable.

That said you also have to accept and be able to identify that some players are either not available or not available without significantly overpaying. Reasons could range from length of contract to club/player reputation.

All players had already been scouted. I spoke to the media bout some of them yes, but its not really required for all.

I probably had about average 3 bids for each player.

The Gourcuff one is just lol - would never happen in real life, I doubt the Arshavin one would either. Players current value really needs to be increased. If a player is worth £11M and a club are looking for £70m then his initial value should be closer to the £50m mark. For example Tevez only seems to be worth around £10m in my game yet City paid around £30m for him - hes had another amazing season for me topped with last season I really think his value should be around the £45m mark. Same with Balotelli/Silva - both players signed for £25m and had awesome seasons for me yet they are only valued at £10m.

A agree on the whole variables thing though - clubs not wanting to sell/importance/contract length etc.

[Mike J]

The problem here is a combination of two things, I think.

First, the valuation we see on their profile is artificial. You don't get one IRL and it seems fairly meaningless in the game, though serves as a decent starting point for determining ho wmuch to offer. Having said that, I usually go by my scout's valuation, not the one I see on the player's profile.

Secondly, the game doesn't seem to understand the concept of a player not being for sale. So instead of being told a player isn't available you'll get these inflated prices quoted in negotiations. I'm sure most of us, especially if we're managing a top team, have players we literally would never sell. The AI sort of does but goes about telling us this in a stupid way.

Annoyingly this doesn't seem to work the other way. I've had the AI constantly making bids equal to a player's value when he isn't transfer-listed and is on a long-term contract.

[Cougar2010]

Secondly, the game doesn't seem to understand the concept of a player not being for sale. So instead of being told a player isn't available you'll get these inflated prices quoted in negotiations. I'm sure most of us, especially if we're managing a top team, have players we literally would never sell. The AI sort of does but goes about telling us this in a stupid way.

and the people to blame for this are all those users that complained 2-3 years ago that no player should be "Not for sale" and that every player should be able to be purchased at a price.