Reviving broken down contract talks

[Majick]

In 2022 I have the chance to sign 33 year old Gareth Bale, who's still so far beyond anyone else in my team I'm happy to break the bank to get him. Real accepted my offer, and I came to the contract screen...

...and realised belatedly that the option to have Real contribute to his wages is one of the clauses in the transfer section.

I offered Bale everything I could; Adjusted by transfer:wage ratio, maxed out his appearance/goals/sub bonuses, everything, but still came up way short and his agent walked on me.

I went back to Real and got a deal going where they pay 2/3 of his wages and we pay 6m or so for him. With that setup, we can cover the rest of his wages for the season.

Problem is, Bale now won't enter negotiations with me. I understand why - we seemed to mess him around first time around, but that issue has now been resolved. If he won't at least listen to the offer we can put in front of him, I have no way of reviving this deal.

The fault is mine, I accept, for entering negotiations without covering the wages issue up front, but I can't recall a time I've ever had to use that clause before, so it had completely bypassed me that it was in the bid section, and not something I could add in during negotiations. In the past, when I've been trying to sell players to clubs who can't afford their wages, they've never approached me and say "Yes, we'll buy this guy but you pay half his wages". It's always previously been the player saying "I've agreed a deal and will leave, if you make up the difference in my wages".

So, this is something I'd like to see tweaked in future games, either by allowing a 'last-ditch' offer to be made after an initial round of talks has broken down, or by allowing clubs to negotiate transfer fees, wage contributions etc. alongside the player negotiations. The latter would be realistic given that, in today's transfer market, players routinely agree deals before or during the negotiations with clubs anyway.