What are your house rules?

[Dreambuilder]

 

What are your game house rules when playing?

Mine are:

• When your transfer budget is depleted, don't buy players using future instalment fees only. Perhaps not more than 20% future transfer fee if really necessary.
• Don't sign free transfers just to sell and make money.

For me, the excitement and immersion of the game goes away if I don't stay close to realism! I just had one game where I bought all the best talents in Scandinavia in a month without a transfer budget. Then got bored. Not doing that again.

Edited June 29, 2020 by Dreambuilder

[pebsykid]

Though I primarily do one team saves, even if I am doing a journeyman save I focus on signing players from that nation. In my current Sheppey United save, I have taken it a step further by focusing on players from the Isle of Sheppey. If I have to dive into the transfer market and their is no local LBs for example, than I extend my search Kent. Once I am in the football league, I reckon I will then also extend it to England.

As you may of guessed, another house rule/my style of play is to focus on youth and to give anyone who isnt absolutely awful a chance. I have been really focussing on retraining players who perhaps dont suit their natural positions or suit another role and wont make it in their current one due to squad depth. 

Also like yourself, I dont sign free transfers just to sell for a profit. I don't enable the in-game editor just in case it tempted me to cheat; though now that I have gotten into kit making I may enable it on future saves so I can add new kits, etc. 

Edited June 29, 2020 by pebsykid

[Dreambuilder]

Yeah, no in-game editor for me neither. I also have the house rule of primarily scouting the home nation plus neighbouring countries. Secondarily rest of the world.

Edited June 29, 2020 by Dreambuilder

[BuryBlade]

All my saves are one club saves so every decision has to be made with the club’s best interests at heart. The main rule for me therefore is I don’t like to spend big on transfers and I limit wages to 100k a week, regardless of how big the club/budget gets. 
Yes this means I miss out of players and often have to sell players before their prime, but I begrudge paying the ridiculous wages.

[interesti88]

Don't use any external scouting systems to check CA/PA or anything else under the hood.

[Norfair]

For me, when I offer players what I envision to be their last contract with the club, I don't want it to increase by any % per year. They will already be on a high wage at that point and offloading them at 32-33 will be tricky if their wage demands are too high.

[Norfair]

4 hours ago, interesti88 said:

Don't use any external scouting systems to check CA/PA or anything else under the hood.

Same. This would ruin the immersion completely for me.

[KingCanary]

34 minutes ago, Norfair said:

Same. This would ruin the immersion completely for me.

I used to do this but have stopped myself for FM2020 as it makes it far too easy and I've found the experience much more enjoyable. 

[Grifty]

Tall players. I love buying tall players

[Sloak]

10 hours ago, Grifty said:

Tall players. I love buying tall players

This. My ideal line up is a bunch of giants.

[Federico]

Never ever buy spanish or french players/staff. If they're already at my club, trying to get rid of them asap.

[Darien]

43 minutes ago, Federico said:

Never ever buy spanish or french players/staff. If they're already at my club, trying to get rid of them asap.

Why? 

[thatdamgood]

Other then the 'obvious' no in game editor EVER

 

-No unused sub fee 

-No yearly wage increase

-no sell on fee 

 

Outside of that..game on.

[Grifty]

16 hours ago, Sloak said:

This. My ideal line up is a bunch of giants.

In my current team, both centre backs are 6'4" +, left winger is 6'7", Strikers are 6'6" and 6'2". My right winger is 5'5" though...

[KingCanary]

Don't sign staff over the age of 55 as I can't be bothered with replacing them after retirement. 

I also really fight to try and keep individual wages below £100k a week for as long as possible, even if this means multiple players on £99k p/w + various bonuses. No idea why. 

[Etebaer]

Well, i too do not buy Free Players (or any other) to make Profit of them - but if i can not longer have them contracted i do try to get a good transfer deal bcs i usually manage lower league Clubs with very small Budgets and need every income.

I do not look for known good Players i memorized but only use what my Scouts and the Transfer List show me as available Players.

I allways design my own set of Trikots and unfortunately the game has an attitude not to apply the GK Socks (and i mean never do so) and then i Restart bcs that annoys me the more Seasons i play.

When i start a Career i try to start with the smallest possible Manager Wage bcs i found it also affects Staff and Player Wages and adds some additional challenge to it which means i sometimes start a new Career quite often until both Wage and Trikots match my "House Rule".

[Marko1989]

I sort of cheat in every game of mine but I have some rules

I hate injuries. And if for example one of my favourite players gets injured for 3 months, I let him be injured for only one month and then I remove his injury in the editor. So, I don't let my players be injured for more than a month. But, when it is the time to take the injury off from my player, as a sort of punishment, I must go to league injury table in which I currently play and remove injuries for other teams wherever the important player is injured for a long time.

[Butlee]

When I'm playing journeyman, especially as you start getting into the upper echelons of football, I try to avoid signing players that I was managing at my previous club.

Most common example is finding that gem teenage superstar, then you move to a slightly better club in the same league, and it's tempting to go get that kid again. But my house rule is 'new club = new adventure' and I won't go re-buy them.

 

Other 'soft' challenge is more a stylistic thing - when I sign for a new club I try and make do with the squad they have with just a few smaller changes. I don't like joining a new club and instantly transferring in/out half the playing roster. So the challenge is turning someone(who just go fired)'s junk into something decent. And after that first season where most folks have had a go at impressing me, then I ring in the mass-changes.

[Nobby_McDonald]

Our house rules when I'm playing FM...

The wife watches some **** like Emmerdale or Real Housewives.
My daughter is in bed.

That's it. Simples.

[Icy]

I play LLM mainly and follow it's rules, but basically just use common sense and avoid doing anything that I consider unrealistic and that wouldn't happen in real life, for example having 50 players on trial, or being in the 4th tier league getting 10 loans from the 1st tier, unrealistic contract offers, etc.

But the truth is that most of it is being handled better and better by the game itself, like the limit on salaries that you can offer when you are over the budget, the scouting limitations by the board, etc.

[xray1324]

Rely on the Director of Football to find new players to scout, and sign only players under 22.

[Spanner]

On 07/07/2020 at 18:26, Marko1989 said:

I sort of cheat in every game of mine but I have some rules

I hate injuries. And if for example one of my favourite players gets injured for 3 months, I let him be injured for only one month and then I remove his injury in the editor. So, I don't let my players be injured for more than a month. But, when it is the time to take the injury off from my player, as a sort of punishment, I must go to league injury table in which I currently play and remove injuries for other teams wherever the important player is injured for a long time.

I understand that everyone can play the game as they wish too, me included. I play straight-up! But…apologies Marko1989 your cheat/way of playing is below the belt.

……To manipulate players injuries, that is mad crazy. Players are the biggest commodity in the FM game. Therefore, your cheat will have the biggest of effects. IF you enjoy it, great but I have to ask…how do you feel when you have ‘won’ a competition?

I never knew what the editor was until I joined this forum.
I can see it give you a lot of power, extra privileges and it seems you have control over many areas of the game.

It’s like back in the day when people would use a cheat-code to get to the last level.
For example, Sonic the Hedgehog……. Sure, you can use the cheat-code and jump directly to fight the last boss to complete the game. However, in my humble opinion, the pain and frustration of managing a football club is directly linked to the true joys of it.

[Spanner]

21 hours ago, Nobby_McDonald said:

Our house rules when I'm playing FM...

The wife watches some **** like Emmerdale or Real Housewives.
My daughter is in bed.

That's it. Simples.

High 5 to that mate.
....exactly the same as you wrote and i have a cold one next to my computer.

[oblongata21]

I play with the in-game editor, but I dont use it to change attributes or CA/PA and stuff, only change the player name.

In terms of rules, i only buy young players, very few veterans unless there is one that fits in the team thats a free transfer

[Marko1989]

On 14/07/2020 at 20:52, Spanner said:

I understand that everyone can play the game as they wish too, me included. I play straight-up! But…apologies Marko1989 your cheat/way of playing is below the belt.

……To manipulate players injuries, that is mad crazy. Players are the biggest commodity in the FM game. Therefore, your cheat will have the biggest of effects. IF you enjoy it, great but I have to ask…how do you feel when you have ‘won’ a competition?

I never knew what the editor was until I joined this forum.
I can see it give you a lot of power, extra privileges and it seems you have control over many areas of the game.

It’s like back in the day when people would use a cheat-code to get to the last level.
For example, Sonic the Hedgehog……. Sure, you can use the cheat-code and jump directly to fight the last boss to complete the game. However, in my humble opinion, the pain and frustration of managing a football club is directly linked to the true joys of it.

I don't know did you understand completelly what am I doing. 

Yes I know I am cheating. First time I did that in FM 2012. I played one save just to buy one player. I was saving money for couple of seasons, and when I bought him, immediately after one day he got injured for 6 months. My save was ruined. 

How do I feel when I win the competition? I feel the same. I will not remove player injury if I am playing some finals for example, if that one month of injury has not passed. 

I also lost some competitions because of that. I remember Higuain in Juve was injured. We were battling for the first place and since I had to remove Higuain's injury, he was insane and Juve won the title thanks to him, and I finished second. 

And do you know why I feel the same? Because sometimes injuries in fm are not realistic at all, sometimes there are too many of them etc. So In my mind, I am just making the game more enjoyable for me. And I am also removing the injuries for AI players so there is some balance. 

Also, in FM 2019 player development was so poorly done, that in-form wonderkid woud get his attributes decreased instead of increased, wonderkid winger would get worse at dribling and better at marking because of stupid attributes relocation, and when you see that attributes decrease and + if he gets injured for a long time, you are losing a good player. So, as I said, I am just making the game more enjoyable for me even this is cheating. 

Edited July 16, 2020 by Marko1989

[WillHoward42]

I always disable the first transfer window (adds more realism for me)

I will always sell a player, before I buy a player for a specific position (I used to have a bad habit of inflating squad sizes and started being very strict on this)

Only sign newgens I plan to fit into the first team (will never sign someone to loan out and eventually sell for profit)

I guess I just do what I can to make it feel as 'real life' as possible.

Any other tips on this would be great!

[Kingstontom88]

Two players for every position - even heavily versatile players will have a cemented role, I like to know who is best where and keep them there

Don't sign players over the age of 28

Hire a DOF - leave all staff contract renewals and new staff appointments to him - apart from Assistant Manager

Any youth intake that has players with potential as below 2.5 stars are not signed permanently

New signings never start the next game unless injuries make it a necessity

Only loan players to clubs that will use them as first teamers at the minimum

Any negative chat with a player means they don't play the next game, no matter their form or stature in the team

League is always priority - not matter the opponent in the cup (unless semis or final) sees a heavily rotated squad

[Spanner]

7 hours ago, Marko1989 said:

I don't know did you understand completelly what am I doing. 

Yes I know I am cheating. First time I did that in FM 2012. I played one save just to buy one player. I was saving money for couple of seasons, and when I bought him, immediately after one day he got injured for 6 months. My save was ruined. 

How do I feel when I win the competition? I feel the same. I will not remove player injury if I am playing some finals for example, if that one month of injury has not passed. 

I also lost some competitions because of that. I remember Higuain in Juve was injured. We were battling for the first place and since I had to remove Higuain's injury, he was insane and Juve won the title thanks to him, and I finished second. 

And do you know why I feel the same? Because sometimes injuries in fm are not realistic at all, sometimes there are too many of them etc. So In my mind, I am just making the game more enjoyable for me. And I am also removing the injuries for AI players so there is some balance. 

Also, in FM 2019 player development was so poorly done, that in-form wonderkid woud get his attributes decreased instead of increased, wonderkid winger would get worse at dribling and better at marking because of stupid attributes relocation, and when you see that attributes decrease and + if he gets injured for a long time, you are losing a good player. So, as I said, I am just making the game more enjoyable for me even this is cheating. 

Hi,

I appreciate your reply but you are affecting the biggest commodity in FM ...the players.
Without the players, there is nothing.
The game is all about the players and what we can do to get them on the pitch and help them perform to their best, when on it.

You can try to justify it as much as you like. However, you are manipulating the game to the point where it’s not a game its 100% your fantasy. 
FM19 is not the same as FM20 so you can't use a previous game justify what you do now in FM20 because the game develops every year.

Also making it fair for the AI is not a good excuse…… let’s be honest, 1-month is nothing for an injury. I have had many players out for longer than that.

As I said, enjoy the game but I am shocked by how you ‘play’ the game

[Marko1989]

2 minutes ago, Spanner said:

Hi,

I appreciate your reply but you are affecting the biggest commodity in FM ...the players.
Without the players, there is nothing.
The game is all about the players and what we can do to get them on the pitch and help them perform to their best, when on it.

You can try to justify it as much as you like. However, you are manipulating the game to the point where it’s not a game its 100% your fantasy. 
FM19 is not the same as FM20 so you can't use a previous game justify what you do now in FM20 because the game develops every year.

Also making it fair for the AI is not a good excuse…… let’s be honest, 1-month is nothing for an injury. I have had many players out for longer than that.

As I said, enjoy the game but I am shocked by how you ‘play’ the game

Well mate, I enjoy the game more like that and that is all. There is not a single thing in this game that is realistic so then why would injuries be realsitic. But anyways, I do understand you and your negative thoughts about this

[Spanner]

4 minutes ago, Marko1989 said:

Well mate, I enjoy the game more like that and that is all. There is not a single thing in this game that is realistic so then why would injuries be realsitic. But anyways, I do understand you and your negative thoughts about this

I am not negative. I am netrual...its just i don't understand how you play or why you play that way based on the basic ideal of the game and what you are changing.

Anyway, i am going to play call-of-duty and be invisibile and guess what!?... you can't kill me .....great fun, awesome.

[Tajerio]

7 minutes ago, Spanner said:

I am not negative. I am netrual...its just i don't understand how you play or why you play that way based on the basic ideal of the game and what you are changing.

Anyway, i am going to play call-of-duty and be invisibile and guess what!?... you can't kill me .....great fun, awesome.

Completely absurd comparison. CoD is multiplayer, which means cheating comes at the expense of other humans. In a singleplayer game like FM, no one else beyond the player is affected (unless he starts bragging about how well he does while cheating, which is not what's going on here). There's no need to play the fun police.

[Spanner]

1 minute ago, Tajerio said:

Completely absurd comparison. CoD is multiplayer, which means cheating comes at the expense of other humans. In a singleplayer game like FM, no one else beyond the player is affected (unless he starts bragging about how well he does while cheating, which is not what's going on here). There's no need to play the fun police.

i don't play CoD ...i was joking.

Fun police ...ok, but if your rules-of-play are so absurd, then i can comment.
As i said in previous comments. enjoy the game and have some fun. The game is for all to play in their own way. 

Question i asked him was how can you feel like you won when you control the biggest asset in the game.....in essence, i am confused.
Its like being Westham manager and having a cheat code for 'as much money as you like' .......not realistic is it. 

[BuryBlade]

13 minutes ago, Spanner said:

i don't play CoD ...i was joking.

Fun police ...ok, but if your rules-of-play are so absurd, then i can comment.
As i said in previous comments. enjoy the game and have some fun. The game is for all to play in their own way. 

Question i asked him was how can you feel like you won when you control the biggest asset in the game.....in essence, i am confused.
Its like being Westham manager and having a cheat code for 'as much money as you like' .......not realistic is it. 

He/she pays for their game, and can therefore play it how they want. What they do inside their FM universe is limited to their FM universe. It doesn’t affect you in any way so why does it matter?

[Marko1989]

48 minutes ago, Spanner said:

i don't play CoD ...i was joking.

Fun police ...ok, but if your rules-of-play are so absurd, then i can comment.
As i said in previous comments. enjoy the game and have some fun. The game is for all to play in their own way. 

Question i asked him was how can you feel like you won when you control the biggest asset in the game.....in essence, i am confused.
Its like being Westham manager and having a cheat code for 'as much money as you like' .......not realistic is it. 

Both of your comparassions are absurd. Cheat code for money.. I'm not buying players with cheating or making my team stronger, I am still playing with players I bought on a regular way. And do you realize how rare this even happens? Sometimes for a whole season I don't have a player injured for 3+ months so I don't have to remove any injuries. 

'not realistic is it' 

 

Man not a single thing in this game is realistic. From goals, to tactics, transfers, etc. If it was realistic, we would not be able to win leagues and european competitions with lower league teams. 

Edited July 16, 2020 by Marko1989

[Viking]

Only one rule: "Reloading is okay".

[Spanner]

51 minutes ago, BuryBlade said:

He/she pays for their game, and can therefore play it how they want. What they do inside their FM universe is limited to their FM universe. It doesn’t affect you in any way so why does it matter?

It does not matter for me and I know it will not affect my save.

I will not change the way I play the game (straight-up).

I just asked why / how ... it does not make sense. It's confusing. 

 

[Spanner]

23 minutes ago, Marko1989 said:

Both of your comparassions are absurd. Cheat code for money.. I'm not buying players with cheating or making my team stronger, I am still playing with players I bought on a regular way. And do you realize how rare this even happens? Sometimes for a whole season I don't have a player injured for 3+ months so I don't have to remove any injuries. 

'not realistic is it' 

 

Man not a single thing in this game is realistic. From goals, to tactics, transfers, etc. If it was realistic, we would not be able to win leagues and european competitions with lower league teams. 

Ok. Good luck with your save and non-long term injured squad.

Play as you wish and enjoy.

[DementedHammer]

Back on topic.

I always start with a lower league team. Usually a semi-professional team so that I can have some form of squad retention. 

When I join a new team, for the first season, I won't buy any new players unless there is a critical gap (I once joined a team with no central midfielders). Instead, I'll try to come up with a system that attempts to get the best out of the existing squad. That gives the existing players time to prove themselves. After that, I normally try to buy/loan a maximum of 2-3 players per season, and slowly improve the squad over a number of years, rather than buy and sell players en masse.

I also like to give older experienced players their last hurrah by integrating a mix of older, more talented players in the more static positions with younger, more athletic players covering or running off of them.

Edited July 17, 2020 by DementedHammer

[yolixeya]

My house rules are to play the game how I think it's meant to be played. That means with attribute masking, no reloading, no use of editor or some scouting tool. If I find exploit don't abuse it etc. Those are hard rules, everything else is just a preference.

3 hours ago, DementedHammer said:

I also like to give older experienced players their last hurrah by integrating a mix of older, more talented players in the more static positions with younger, more athletic players covering or running off of them.

In my save, 35 year old Bernardo Silva has just been voted fans player of the season even though his pace and acceleration are both below 10. It's so rewarding.

[Nobby_McDonald]

On 14/07/2020 at 19:54, Spanner said:

High 5 to that mate.
....exactly the same as you wrote and i have a cold one next to my computer.

It's rare I drink these days. I'm 42 now and I did too much of that when I'm a younger. A cold one for me in middle age is normally a can of Pepsi Max.

[Draakon]

I usually play an Ajax long-term save with "youth only" policy - no outside transfers, except from feeder club in case I have the "match bid" option agreed (because, that's the whole point of those feeder clubs).

While "youth only" policy is pretty common (there are number of saves and career posts about similar saves here in this forum), I also have a principle that I allow the player to leave when a suitable bid comes in. Ajax has always been a stepping stone to bigger leagues and if a big club comes with a good bid, I'm usually accepting it. That leaves me in a dump from time to time, as there might not be suitable player ready yet to take the first team place, but that's the thing.

Thirdly, I don't pay over £50,000 p/w salary for any player, whatever my finances or wage budget says. Let's keep things sensible.

[Spanner]

20 hours ago, Nobby_McDonald said:

It's rare I drink these days. I'm 42 now and I did too much of that when I'm a younger. A cold one for me in middle age is normally a can of Pepsi Max.

Hahahaha..... You can have whatever cold drink you like as long as you enjoy it  

 

[Prokopije]

No signing players over 25 y.o. , no players over 30 y.o. in club (unless they're club legends, than can stay till retirement).

If I'm in poor club than I sign only freebies, even if I have some transfer budget.

[wetfred]

My house rules. Only sign staff through adverts, only buy players my scouts find and recommend, never reload ... bad team meeting, ruined negotiations learn and move on. No downloaded tactics, if I’m using a player as a backup don’t tell him he’s a starter...always looking for new rules that make it a bit harder but still fun.

[CaptCanuck]

Interesting thread from this new (as of Covid) FM player :-)

I guess we have two different types of rules: club rules and game rules. Stuff around editors and seeing max potential and the like I didn't know was a thing till here and don't have any interest. Anyways...

- Game rules:

• After going through the first half of my preseason friendlies and saving with my 'real results', I will replay them while trying different tactics out. Maybe I need to watch full matches, but going straight through a 6 or 7 match preseason isn't enough for me to decipher the impacts of changes. Assume I'll get better at identifying them the more I play.
• Now where I do feel a bit of a cheat is with 'blank' contract negotiations. I have restarted a couple of those, I know I should live with the consequences, but do any real negotiations go like that? Especially when you get two widely varying estimates from the scout and DoF. It's just a game yes, but I find that scenario a real head scratcher.
• And for kicks after I complete the preseason, I run through it again to see what kind of 'bizarro world' I could have been living in, like Mbappe to City instead of Liverpool, different Euros winner, I keep waiting to see Pep take over a club again (he's been the Spain manager for 4 seasons)... As a pedant and 'rumourmill' reader I genuine enjoy seeing the offseason machinations, so once isn't enough!

- Club rules:

• Sign no one over 25, with most players being 20 or younger
• Let Lewis Dunk see out his career, but otherwise move players on by 29 at the latest
• No renegotiating contracts until the 18 month window
• Sell players who really don't want to stay
• Be as thrifty as possible (currently have 170mil transfer kitty and 1.2mil in wages available)
• Rely on my scouts only for outside Europe
• No 'stat protecting'. ie - if a player could be top of something or win something individually, don't do anything to promote/protect it. Play the matches and what happens, happens.

Edited July 27, 2020 by CaptCanuck

[Spanner]

17 minutes ago, CaptCanuck said:

Interesting thread from this new (as of Covid) FM player :-)

I guess we have two different types of rules: club rules and game rules. Stuff around editors and seeing max potential and the like I didn't know was a thing till here and don't have any interest. Anyways...

- Game rules:

• After going through the first half of my preseason friendlies and saving with my 'real results', I will replay them while trying different tactics out. Maybe I need to watch full matches, but going straight through a 6 or 7 match preseason isn't enough for me to decipher the impacts of changes. Assume I'll get better at identifying them the more I play.
• Now where I do feel a bit of a cheat is with 'blank' contract negotiations. I have restarted a couple of those, I know I should live with the consequences, but do any real negotiations go like that? Especially when you get two widely varying estimates from the scout and DoF. It's just a game yes, but I find that scenario a real head scratcher.
• And for kicks after I complete the preseason, I run through it again to see what kind of 'bizarro world' I could have been living in, like Mbappe to City instead of Liverpool, different Euros winner, I keep waiting to see Pep take over a club again (he's been the Spain manager for 4 seasons)... As a pedant and 'rumourmill' reader I genuine enjoy seeing the offseason machinations, so once isn't enough!

- Club rules:

• Sign no one over 25, with most players being 20 or younger
• Let Lewis Dunk see out his career, but otherwise move players on by 29 at the latest
• No renegotiating contracts until the 18 month window
• Sell players who really don't want to stay
• Be as thrifty as possible (currently have 170mil transfer kitty and 1.2mil in wages available)
• Rely on my scouts only for outside Europe

Your game rules are interesting as I have never heard of such a quantified method involving pre-season. Its very interesting. I personally hate pre-season games but your method if how-to-maximise them is intriguing.

Bullet point 2 regarding the negotiations and them being head scratching is very true. Some of the situations I have had, have left me utterly confused and scratching my head.

Your club rules are as you would like and its your own way to play / manage your club.

[Aksi92]

I just love getting players on free. Doesn't always sell them for profit of course. Okay I never refuse 100m offer, thats my minimum for top class players. Rejected 95M offer from Barcelona for Odegaard this season.

I'll put the screenshots in a album.

Other rule is rotating all squad for cup and Europa League matches. Even if its final.

[CaptCanuck]

9 hours ago, Spanner said:

Your game rules are interesting as I have never heard of such a quantified method involving pre-season. Its very interesting. I personally hate pre-season games but your method if how-to-maximise them is intriguing.

Bullet point 2 regarding the negotiations and them being head scratching is very true. Some of the situations I have had, have left me utterly confused and scratching my head.

Your club rules are as you would like and its your own way to play / manage your club.

Ya I've had some negotiations where I paid a lot more than I'd expected, but at least they set their stall out. The flying blind is silly.

I have had to punt one of my previous club rules: no 100k/w players. I've realised now that I am in May 2024 in the Premier League, I'm going to really struggle to not be a 'selling club' and do that.

[HCFC87]

I guess I have a number of house rules:

1. No yearly wage rises. To anyone. Ever.

2. Low contracts. I never give players more than say £80k a week, and usually keep them below £50k. I'd rather sell someone than give them a higher wage. I bump up the bonuses to help get contracts this low, which I'm happy to pay for since it means the player is contributing well.

3. Simple transfer deals. No mega complex structures to be paid over a number of years.

4. Centre backs must be at least 6'2", ideally 6'4" and above

5. No wingers. I want the width to come from the wing backs.

[fivetwelvepony]

My next save, my rule will be no hidden info or external scouting. I started using the hidden information for the first time about seven or eight years into my current save. Using genie scout I discovered some 18 yo Uruguayan right back with 167 PA  somehow available on a free. I took the trip to South America to sign him, and lo and behold there were Chelsea, Manchester City, etc etc already there vying for his signature. At that point, I decided that using it was justified, since these clubs were acting as though they had it installed too. Now after a few more seasons, I see how it makes things too easy. It is really really hard to give up though. I wish I hadn't even installed it or the in-game editor.