Mechanics of AI choosing which contract offer to take

[Bunkerossian]

Recently bought FM 20, and came across a thing that probably happens often, but I've just now become aware of it. A transfer listed player was very interested in joining my club, but also had other offers. I did not accept the initial demands, but fairly soon managed to get his agent to accept this (he had not lost much of that patience bar). End outcome: he went to a club which gave him less wages, and had no CL to offer. I actually tested several offers, to see if increases in wages changed his choice. They didn't.

Does someone know what are the greatest deciding factors for AI of players/agents when choosing offers? How does the AI work in this instance?

For further information, the player in question was Santiago Arias, and I am playing as Valencia.

Edited July 12, 2020 by Bunkerossian

[Spanner]

Had the same issue when try to sign a big free agent. 
By big i mean Christan Eriksen who ran down his contract at Spurs.

Offered him the world and i really went for it.
He signed for PSG and for a lot less than what I offered him.

In conclusion:

1. Maybe the agents are full of rubbish.
2. Maybe the player wants to leave the league.
3. Maybe the player has a favourite club (e.g. Barca) or 'desire to play in ??? (for example Bundesliga) and if they are bidding with you ...game over in my experience.

Its a tricky one to understand or explain.
My conclusions are just from my experiences in the FM20 game. 

[HUNT3R]

It's difficult to say what happened unless you make a direct comparison. Who are you managing (ok, we know it's Valencia) and who is the other club?

- In terms of the contract, wages after tax and appearance bonus... what did you offer and what did they?

- What was the Playing Time on offer from both teams?

- Which of the two is in a better league and which has the better players?

- You say they don't have CL football to offer. Do you?

If I really want a player and I know there's a fair amount of competition, I try to sweeten the deal by giving a higher agent fee (if I can afford it) to hopefully add that little extra incentive to take my deal.

What's your relationship with the agent like, btw? 

[Bunkerossian]

2 hours ago, HUNT3R said:

It's difficult to say what happened unless you make a direct comparison. Who are you managing (ok, we know it's Valencia) and who is the other club?

- In terms of the contract, wages after tax and appearance bonus... what did you offer and what did they?

- What was the Playing Time on offer from both teams?

- Which of the two is in a better league and which has the better players?

- You say they don't have CL football to offer. Do you?

If I really want a player and I know there's a fair amount of competition, I try to sweeten the deal by giving a higher agent fee (if I can afford it) to hopefully add that little extra incentive to take my deal.

What's your relationship with the agent like, btw? 

The estimate after scouting Santiago Arias (Atl. Madrid) was that he'd ask between 26.5 and 35 thousand pounds weekly. I actually was ready to go above that (40k), but when the negotiations on wages began, his agent wanted something like 50K p/w. A lot of bonuses, including a 3 million signing on fee. I think the agent fee was 500k, but not sure. It was highlighted red, and I had to reduce the agent fee. I tinkered with certain options, and soon (after 1 more round of negotiation), the agent agreed.

Playing time: regular starter, from both me and Wolves. When he agreed to their offer, he had the same team status as I had offered him. I'm not sure what the other offers were like, obviously. I know Ajax and Club Brugge also placed bids.

Wolverhampton vs Valencia. I think I have better players.

I am in CL Groups. I had even offered a 1M+ bonus to Arias should we get to Quarterfinals.

I wanted Arias since his projected wages would be far less than a player I have on loan (Florenzi). Club finances could do with improving (board vision generally focuses on sustainability), thus, I was aiming to reduce wages. So, yes, I wanted Arias when his name popped up in the scouting tab. His agent was obviously trying to get attention.

Since I had only started the game, and it was my first transfer window, there was no relationship with the agent, bad or good.

Edited July 13, 2020 by Bunkerossian

[HUNT3R]

Nothing stands out to me, so not sure why he chose Wolves over you.

[Bunkerossian]

10 minutes ago, HUNT3R said:

Nothing stands out to me, so not sure why he chose Wolves over you.

How much of an influence do promises before the main negotiations have? I had included long term club goals and preferred player position, besides the player status. I'm fairly new to these mechanics, so I'm not sure if something else is usually supposed to be offered.

Also, does being the first one to bid for a player have any positive impact on the likelihood of signing him? Sounds silly, but I want to check. I don't know who had bid first, but it wasn't me.

Edited July 13, 2020 by Bunkerossian

[enigmatic]

Other stuff that can matter include preferred clubs, league standard (unlikely to be an issue here), language and country (in your favour unless he had a future plan to play in England) and rivalries (doubt it with Athletico). Reducing the agent fee isn't going to help but shouldn't make that much difference if your deal is better in other respects

You don't have details on what signing on fee or addons Wolves offered do you?

 

[IbrahimAliMaher]

Don't know if this is the case in FM20, but in FM19 there is a rating of the player's interest levels in the various clubs who have him shortlisted prior to negotiations. I've found that the player invariably ends up signing for one of the clubs he is most interested in, regardless of terms offered. In fact I messed around with this just to see what would happen if I just agreed to a player's initial request and they STILL went to the preferred club, just the terms he got at the preferred club were better for him. What I would read into this is if the player gets a halfway decent offer from his pre-preferred option, he will use the other negotiations as a stick to beat the preferred club with to improve his terms.

Having said that my scouts alerted me to a free agent young prospect playing in Iceland, who had been on-loan at AC Milan in their youth team for a year for €250k per month. His favoured option was Milan, so I just chucked a contract offer at him mostly agreeing to what he wanted as I didn't think he'd accept. To my surprise he then did accept my offer, so it's not completely cut and dried 100% of the time it seems!

[GoldenGoal]

This has been problematic for a long time. I just offered 38.5k per week to a german player of Wolfsburg and he took Koln's offer instead (he earns 17.5k per week at Wolfsburg).

I'm Monaco, third place in Ligue One and Koln is on Bundesliga Second Division. Wolfsburg is 3rd on the Bundesliga One and he was transfer listed.

I am not at continental football this season because the team was placed at 11th last season but we have a good chance of qualifying this season.

I can't see how much Koln will pay him because he's going at the end of his contract, but surely there's no reason for him to take Koln's offer?

Scout says he's good at adapting so it shouldn't be a issue over prefering to stay in Germany.

[Neotropolis]

4 hours ago, GoldenGoal said:

This has been problematic for a long time. I just offered 38.5k per week to a german player of Wolfsburg and he took Koln's offer instead (he earns 17.5k per week at Wolfsburg).

I'm Monaco, third place in Ligue One and Koln is on Bundesliga Second Division. Wolfsburg is 3rd on the Bundesliga One and he was transfer listed.

I am not at continental football this season because the team was placed at 11th last season but we have a good chance of qualifying this season.

I can't see how much Koln will pay him because he's going at the end of his contract, but surely there's no reason for him to take Koln's offer?

Scout says he's good at adapting so it shouldn't be a issue over prefering to stay in Germany.

Just because his adaptability is high, doesn't mean he wants to move to a different country. Maybe he has a preference to play in Germany, or for Koln? Having things like favourite teams or personnel could also sway his decision to move there over choosing you.

[GoldenGoal]

7 horas atrás, Neotropolis disse:

Just because his adaptability is high, doesn't mean he wants to move to a different country. Maybe he has a preference to play in Germany, or for Koln? Having things like favourite teams or personnel could also sway his decision to move there over choosing you.

I have checked him with the editor, besides speaking german he has good french language skills (6/10), he has no liked or disliked clubs (so no preference or hate over Koln and Monaco).

He has 3 favorite personnel, 2 are in Wolfsburg and 1 is retired.

So yeah I see no reason why he would choose second divison Koln over first division Monaco. I'll have to wait until the end of the season to see how much they offered him which might be the reason for it.

[Neotropolis]

23 hours ago, GoldenGoal said:

So yeah I see no reason why he would choose second divison Koln over first division Monaco. I'll have to wait until the end of the season to see how much they offered him which might be the reason for it.

Could be the contents of the contract offer. It could also be that they just don't want to move country.