Can someone tell me where I am going wrong RE Transfers???

[rambos]

Hi all

Can anyone tell me where I am going wrong RE transfers in the game? Players/agents seem to be willing to join another team (usually of a similar reputation) for much less than they demand from me when I try and negotiate a contract.

To give a bit of background and an example:

I am managing Derby County and have my past experience set as international. Towards the end of the first season I am top of the league and already guaranteed to finish in the top two so will be a premier league club next season. Funds are tight but my scout finds an 18 year old Norwegian player rated at 4.5 stars who is a free agent after leaving a lower league Norwegian team at the end of their season – not a regen.

I attempt to offer him a contract and the player demands £19K plus large appearance, unused substitute fees, a 25% promotion wage rise, 10% annual wage rise, a wage rise after 10 games, a wage rise after 1st international cap and a large goal bonus. After trying to negotiate I realise I can’t get the demands down to a level I could afford so withdraw from the negotiations but keep him on my shortlist with a view to re-vist when I go up and see what my budget will be.

I then get a news item to say he has signed for Rosenborg so decide to take a look and see what he is earning with them. The contract is £1.8K p/w with £900 appearance fee and no other bonuses. (unfortunately I am not on my laptop at the moment so can’t post screenshots).

I don’t believe this is a bug but would really appreciate some feedback/info as to what I might be doing wrong for the player to demand so much from me then sign for another team for so little. I understand the desire to stay in their country of birth may be a factor but surely not one that would cause such a big difference???

Thanks

[Cougar2010]

For some players moving countries is a huge issue and reflected in the wages they ask for, especially for a younger player.

I don't know what squad role you offered him but to move countries for anything less than a first team place is not enough unless you pay them a huge wage.

In this case staying in his home country and playing for for of the highest rated clubs in that country has been a much bigger attraction for him despite the extreme difference in wage.

I wouldn't say you were doing anything wrong, its simply that you identified a suitable target but on closer inspection he wasn't interested in joining you. I suspect if you had waited until after the season end and you were viewed as a Premiership club you would have been a slightly more attractive prospect but I still doubt it would have been enough.

The bottom line is he simply doesn't want to move to England or perhaps even outside Norway at this stage of his career.

[Magnakai Haaskivi]

One way I get around that is with agent fees and/or player bonuses; I'd rather jack up an agent's fee on the front end, get a player to drop their wages or increase their contract length or drop their raise demands (or a combination of all three) than pay higher salaries. Paying more now for long-term savings makes sense, and if I jack up the player's bonus than I may owe him a balance if I transfer him out. Agent fees suck, but they're a good way to get things done.

Not sure if it would've mattered here, though. Sometimes you can get around it by offering big bonuses that aren't likely to be earned; if you're newly promoted, say, offer him a huge bonus for being in team of the year. He probably won't get it, and if he does you'll probably be happy to pay it. If he doesn't, he's cheaper than you'd have thought. Win-win.

[rambos]

Thanks for the responses guys, I did wonder if it was the reluctance to leave their country of birth but then I thought the difference shouldn't be quite that much. It does make sense though.

Interesting that you can use agents fees to get other demands lower, this is something I have sometimes done when making free transfers because you can justify a little more expenditure if you aren't paying a transfer fee but often the agent description would say "tries to get the best deal for both himself and his client". Does this still work for these agents?

[Magnakai Haaskivi]

Thanks for the responses guys, I did wonder if it was the reluctance to leave their country of birth but then I thought the difference shouldn't be quite that much. It does make sense though.

Interesting that you can use agents fees to get other demands lower, this is something I have sometimes done when making free transfers because you can justify a little more expenditure if you aren't paying a transfer fee but often the agent description would say "tries to get the best deal for both himself and his client". Does this still work for these agents?

If he's trying to get the best deal for him and his client, he's definitely open for some bribery through the bonuses. I'm not saying the guy will drop his demands from 10,000 to 2,500 just because you paid off his agent, but you can definitely make that number move in your direction by throwing money into different areas. Just make sure you do the math and verify that you're not spending more on fees than you would on salary, which would kind of defeat the point.

It's super helpful to get rid of obnoxious clauses agents try to throw on there, too; they'll sometimes drop the wage increases or give you an extra year. It's NOT foolproof; throw out a test balloon and see how the agent responds, and if it seems like a little agent fee money moved the salary numbers a lot than keep up with it. Sometimes it only moves the salary demand by a small amount, and in those cases it's probably more worthwhile to increase other fees (I'm in love with the "Team of the Year" bonus, personally, because it's a POSSIBILITY a player will earn it, but for most players it isn't LIKELY; he may drop wages to theoretically qualify for the bonus, though).

That being said, I doubt you would've gotten this guy in any case; my guess is he was passive aggressively saying he wanted to stay in Norway. He also might've been lured by the possibility of European football; worst case, Rosenborg probably qualified for the Europa League, whereas you're a relegation battler.

[borobadger]

If your desperate then a 50% sell on fee profit percentage will get them to lower the demands to next to nothing, although be sure to negotiate it out of his contract before you go to sell him

[conshaldo_bonaldo]

youve got to take into account the increased cost of living in a country where he hasnt got a home and no family or friends and no continental football. The game cant replicate real life but it makes some sort of sense, just not if you put it in most contexts, like the obvious one

[MichaelBrown]

youve got to take into account the increased cost of living in a country where he hasnt got a home and no family or friends and no continental football. The game cant replicate real life but it makes some sort of sense, just not if you put it in most contexts, like the obvious one

I very much doubt the cost of living influences a players decision. In this case, it was probably because a top domestic side offered a contract which was more persuasive than a random foreign club.

[trollie]

People are overthinking this. Bringing Cost of Living to a numbers game has no bearing on contract negotiations. The only reason he accepted the rosenberg offer is due to reputation and continental football.