Are the wages in FM22 out of control?

[Davey Boy]

I have a player who is currently on 90k wages and lucky to even be on that much to be honest and is a squad player at most, yet while trying to renew his contract he wants 230k? I know i can negotiate but damn that's still a huge pay rise he's asking for!

 

 

[JordanMilly]

It's probably because:

1) You have a lot of money in the transfer/wage budget, and he wants a substantial pay rise because he believes the team can afford it, particularly given his value of £75-90m; or

2) He doesn't really want to resign with Newcastle, and is giving you the amount for what it'd take for him to stay, rather than move on.

[DarJ]

Or you might have other players on huge wage 

[phd_angel]

Your post headline says one thing, but you are actually complaining about one player.

In any case, yes, I do think wages in FM are quite inaccurate across the board.

[Mike J]

What are your other players earning? If he thinks he's as good as other players who are earning £200k+ then he'll want parity. He could also be unhappy with whatever squad role he's been offered so wants more money to compensate.

[mibsweden]

I set a Max salary I am willing to pay. For my Roma team it is 15 million euros per year. 

[Jonthedon26]

Ye the wages are wild in this version. I got promoted with Birmingham City, got a modest transfer and wage budget and I put a personal cap on wages but I am struggling so badly to sign players as they all want crazy money. One player i tried to sign who had 2 years left on £3.3k per week contract at an average Dutch club wanted £55k per week despite being very interested in joining me. I offered £35k (my personal cap) and he rejected the contract...no other clubs were interested in him. That is just one example of about 15 I have experienced since getting promoted. I understand that joining a premier league team players would expect a wage hike, but some of the requests are totally crazy. 

[teej9]

On 12/01/2022 at 08:38, Jonthedon26 said:

Ye the wages are wild in this version. I got promoted with Birmingham City, got a modest transfer and wage budget and I put a personal cap on wages but I am struggling so badly to sign players as they all want crazy money. One player i tried to sign who had 2 years left on £3.3k per week contract at an average Dutch club wanted £55k per week despite being very interested in joining me. I offered £35k (my personal cap) and he rejected the contract...no other clubs were interested in him. That is just one example of about 15 I have experienced since getting promoted. I understand that joining a premier league team players would expect a wage hike, but some of the requests are totally crazy. 

The best is when they then sign with another team for 10k. 

[phd_angel]

3 minutes ago, teej9 said:

The best is when they then sign with another team for 10k. 

[santy001]

My wage bill will balloon monstrously when I'm building a team up to its first successes, getting the early PL wins/CL wins my wage bill can end up hitting close to £5m per week. 

Once I'm an established club at the top level my next goal then turns to saving as much money as possible, negotiating down wages to brutally low levels and long contracts. Re-negotiating early to keep players locked into 5+ year deals with conditional & optional extensions. It will usually come down below £2m per week and I'll criticise, overrule and stamp down anyone who tries to demand more. Eventually it reaches a point where players back down either as soon as I begin the player interaction or after the first response.

Getting a 23 year old locked into an effectively 7 year deal is entirely possible, and if that's below £100k per week then its good news.

[frank_olaf]

I'm at the start of my second season as Man Utd and Luke Shaw wants a new contract. His current wage is £150k/week and he is asking for £400k/week which seems quite extreme. Essentially he is asking to be be the tied second highest earner at the club (after Ronaldo and tied with De Gea). He had a good first season but not spectacular. He is already the highest paid full back at the club and is in line with other full backs in the league (a few are higher and a few are lower).

[ImDaWeasel]

Wages are out of control in real life. Pay up, sell or run the contract out. 

[Spurs08]

If you can get someone better who's going to be cheaper, sell him and do that. If not, he's entirely correct in his demands. I'm guessing you've given monstrous contracts to other players rather than replacing them, and that will lead to your squad wanting parity.

[Sharkn20]

Ask Barcelona how is like having players who won't go to other teams for less money...

Or understand why everyone wants to play for PSG or MCity in real life...

Nothing out of the day to day stuff here.

Finances has gotten out of control in real football.

The key is to recycle players every two to three years. Use them like cards. Buy low, sell high, rinse, repeat. Don't fall in love and look for new gens.

Edited January 17, 2022 by Sharkn20

[Baodan]

On 14/01/2022 at 20:55, teej9 said:

The best is when they then sign with another team for 10k. 

Naturally you cant get the same wage at Troyes as you can at PSG. He looks at what you're paying and ask for something comparative, just like he will do when he later signs for Troyes for much less when he's out of options. 

[teej9]

9 minutes ago, Baodan said:

Naturally you cant get the same wage at Troyes as you can at PSG. He looks at what you're paying and ask for something comparative, just like he will do when he later signs for Troyes for much less when he's out of options. 

lol. Yes. That is how the real world works. I am sure of it. When a player has 2 contracts sitting in front of them, we'll even use your example in this one, one from PSG at 55k p/w and one from Troyes at 10k p/w, he will accept the 10k p/w and reject the 55k p/w because PSG pays higher wages.  You realize that is the opposite of how the real world works yes? 

[achortagus]

Wage demands vary though. 

In my experience, when I am trying to sign a player with an expiring contract on 30/6, highest wage demands are around January. Then they slowly go down. And if the player is eventually released and becomes a free agent, his demands are way lower, and get lower as time passes by. Usually, lowest wage demands are in the end of the window.

But then, by waiting, someone else could sign him. And if there are more clubs interested, his demands may actually rise. 

I ususally scout the wanted player often (even if i know him 100%), to see the current wage demands. I can usually sign him around the average of what scout says.

Also, i often give the player 20-30% of future transfer fees if I want to really lower his wage demands. I know that i can loose money this way, but if i am not planing to re-sale him, it doesn't hurt. 

And if we are talking about buying someone, unsettling him can help you a lot. If you make him to want to leave his club, he will be willing to be paid less, in order to get out of there.

Regarding renewal of contracts, i find it that lowest demands are usually around November.

[Baodan]

1 hour ago, teej9 said:

lol. Yes. That is how the real world works. I am sure of it. When a player has 2 contracts sitting in front of them, we'll even use your example in this one, one from PSG at 55k p/w and one from Troyes at 10k p/w, he will accept the 10k p/w and reject the 55k p/w because PSG pays higher wages.  You realize that is the opposite of how the real world works yes? 

In this example he's on a contract at an average club Dutch club and you're trying to buy him as PSG. To your dismay his wage demand is excessive and you end up not buying him because of it. He is not wanted by other clubs at that time, so that's not a factor in this equation and we'll assume that's true once again when Troyes tries to buy him later.

He ends up signing with Troyes at much lower wage and to me this seems fairly logical. 

Edited January 17, 2022 by Baodan

[KingCanary]

On 12/01/2022 at 16:38, Jonthedon26 said:

Ye the wages are wild in this version. I got promoted with Birmingham City, got a modest transfer and wage budget and I put a personal cap on wages but I am struggling so badly to sign players as they all want crazy money. One player i tried to sign who had 2 years left on £3.3k per week contract at an average Dutch club wanted £55k per week despite being very interested in joining me. I offered £35k (my personal cap) and he rejected the contract...no other clubs were interested in him. That is just one example of about 15 I have experienced since getting promoted. I understand that joining a premier league team players would expect a wage hike, but some of the requests are totally crazy. 

I've found similar. Bid for a midfielder from Brazil on £13k p/w, no other suitors, wouldn't consider anything below £90k p/w.

Similar with an 18 year old from Denmark, on £1kp/w right now, discussions wouldn't go below £35k, talk broke down, a week later he's signing for FC Kobenhaven for £7k p/w. Barmy.

[Baodan]

59 minutes ago, KingCanary said:

Similar with an 18 year old from Denmark, on £1kp/w right now, discussions wouldn't go below £35k, talk broke down, a week later he's signing for FC Kobenhaven for £7k p/w. Barmy.

It's probably a pretty talented player you're trying to sign and he'll want to be payed in accordance with his talent, role and general pay level of your club and league. You're most likely not managing a club comparable to FCK, so why would it bother you what they end up paying him?

[KingCanary]

1 hour ago, Baodan said:

It's probably a pretty talented player you're trying to sign and he'll want to be payed in accordance with his talent, role and general pay level of your club and league. You're most likely not managing a club comparable to FCK, so why would it bother you what they end up paying him?

The issue is simply that it looks odd when a player on £1k p/w won't even discuss a move to the Premier League unless he's getting a minimum of £35k (so 3400% wage increase) but will then happily sign a deal for £7k elsewhere. 

I get the player might think to ask more from a club in the Premier League than a club in the Danish League and that is fair. But 5x more than he ends up accepting is very weird.

[Baodan]

42 minutes ago, KingCanary said:

I get the player might think to ask more from a club in the Premier League than a club in the Danish League and that is fair. But 5x more than he ends up accepting is very weird.

What does a squad player get payed on average in the EPL and what does a squad player on average get payed in the DSL? I expect that number to most likely be larger than 5x and I assume that's why the player has such high demand regarding wage when considering a move to the EPL.

It may not seem right or fair but it does appear to be working as intended by SI. While I may not necessarily agree with it, I do see the gaming logic behind it. 

 

[Sharkn20]

What is the minimum wage for PL players?? It should be in the rules.

[woodsy1983]

5 hours ago, KingCanary said:

I've found similar. Bid for a midfielder from Brazil on £13k p/w, no other suitors, wouldn't consider anything below £90k p/w.

Similar with an 18 year old from Denmark, on £1kp/w right now, discussions wouldn't go below £35k, talk broke down, a week later he's signing for FC Kobenhaven for £7k p/w. Barmy.

There is a thing in game where players might not want to move abroad unless for silly money. The Denmark example, maybe he wants to stay in Denmark so playing for their biggest team is ideal for him. Although he would consider a move to the prem if very high wages were being offered.

[jere_d]

On 10/01/2022 at 23:08, JordanMillward_1 said:

It's probably because:

1) You have a lot of money in the transfer/wage budget, and he wants a substantial pay rise because he believes the team can afford it, particularly given his value of £75-90m; or

2) He doesn't really want to resign with Newcastle, and is giving you the amount for what it'd take for him to stay, rather than move on.

Quick question how do Players know your budget?

I find it really annoying that just because I've been sensible with wages and have a lot left over every new contract or renewal is exploiting.

Surely Players should judge the demands based on the wages in my squad no?

[JordanMilly]

On 19/02/2022 at 14:45, jere_d said:

Quick question how do Players know your budget?

I find it really annoying that just because I've been sensible with wages and have a lot left over every new contract or renewal is exploiting.

Surely Players should judge the demands based on the wages in my squad no?

The same way the press, players and us know IRL - these things are often very poorly kept secrets, and for certain teams (like IRL Newcastle now), it's not as if they don't know that the owners and team are loaded.

[jere_d]

21 hours ago, JordanMillward_1 said:

The same way the press, players and us know IRL - these things are often very poorly kept secrets, and for certain teams (like IRL Newcastle now), it's not as if they don't know that the owners and team are loaded.

Idk about that my friend I’ve never seen a press report on how much wage budget a team has left.

I’ve seen players wages been stated yes and the wages paid in the past compared to what’s paid now but never accurate values of how much wages are left to spend.

these assumptions are only based on new owners or past spending. But adjust your wage to transfer budget and suddenly every player knows you have more to spend. How does that make sense?

 

[MrPompey]

I think we could do with some insight here from SI. Could the reasons for player wage demand be one / combination of the following

1. Wage structure within club per player importance

2. Fellow player / new players getting a larger salary

3. Club Reputation change

4. Player Reputation change

5. League Reputation Change

5. Today's world of greedy players

6. Other factors

One of the most annoying things I see is players demanding higher, often 60-100% higher salary, especially post promotion not getting it or advising he is now a better player than when he signed the contract yet happy to join another club on far lower wages than asked for before.  A club thats not their favourite or that much different in reputation. Understandable for star players or players on the way to potential stardom but not so for average players. Not expecting SI to confirm the answers but understand some logic / process that the AI may consider

Its been a common theme for many versions, it "feels" its got worse

 

[MrPompey]

On 17/01/2022 at 09:07, Baodan said:

In this example he's on a contract at an average club Dutch club and you're trying to buy him as PSG. To your dismay his wage demand is excessive and you end up not buying him because of it. He is not wanted by other clubs at that time, so that's not a factor in this equation and we'll assume that's true once again when Troyes tries to buy him later.

He ends up signing with Troyes at much lower wage and to me this seems fairly logical. 

I disagree Im afraid. He would realise he wont get a better deal so even if his starting request is high, if its not met you would think he will come lower and still double his wage at worst. Why turn down double then accept so much lower elsewhere. It certainly doesnt work like this in real life

[Baodan]

@MrPompey - Surely you've played enough FM by now to know that stuff like wage doesn't stand on its own in a vacuum?

[MrPompey]

1 minute ago, Baodan said:

@MrPompey - Surely you've played enough FM by now to know that stuff like wage doesn't stand on its own in a vacuum?

Of course, you need to look at my earlier where i detail what could be impacting factors  Many people are questioning if its an issue. It would be nice to hear from SI if they think its happening on purpose and what the factors or if its something that needs investigating. 

Do you think its an issue or that it mimics real life?

[Baodan]

14 minutes ago, MrPompey said:

Do you think its an issue or that it mimics real life?

I think it's something that could be tweaked and probably improved upon, but largely mimics real life.

 

20 hours ago, MrPompey said:

One of the most annoying things I see is players demanding higher, often 60-100% higher salary,

I usually lock up young players on long and very low paying contracts. It's therefore no surprise that their new wage demand see a dramatic increases of over a 1000%, once they get to renegotiate their contract.

If I buy a player from a poor country with a pitiful average wage, it's also no surprise when that player demands exponentially larger than his current. After all it's usually in line with the average wage in my league/club and usually connected to the amount of money I have free on my wage budget.

Even bad players can get away with big demands when the good times gets going. 

[MrPompey]

45 minutes ago, Baodan said:

I think it's something that could be tweaked and probably improved upon, but largely mimics real life.

 

I usually lock up young players on long and very low paying contracts. It's therefore no surprise that their new wage demand see a dramatic increases of over a 1000%, once they get to renegotiate their contract.

If I buy a player from a poor country with a pitiful average wage, it's also no surprise when that player demands exponentially larger than his current. After all it's usually in line with the average wage in my league/club and usually connected to the amount of money I have free on my wage budget.

Even bad players can get away with big demands when the good times gets going. 

In my opinion some of the FM wage demands are greater than you would expect in real life. In addition there are the inconsistencies in players turning negotiated salary increases of 2 to 3 times current then signing a contract for another club on 1/3 of that offered where the club is of same or lower stature. It just wouldnt happen. Players in most cases would take the big money offers

In terms of your young player contract tips I also add in relegation clause plus a club held 1 year contract extension option. At bes

t you get a 1 year extension on same wage, if you have to sell the player then having an additional 1 year contract increases their value and hopefully future transfer fee

[diLLa88]

Meet Alan Velasco. Argentinian winger, joined during the winter transfer window of 2025/2026. After having spent 9 whole months at the club and contributing to 2 goals and 6 assists (!) he believes is starting to feel he deserves a new contract.

Alan is already the top earner of the whole team:

His new wage demands:

Cool

[Baodan]

In real life most players would have (pre-concern) is starting to feel he deserves a new (better*) contract. 

It's up to you how to deal with it and we're by no means forced to act on a pre-concern like in your example.

[diLLa88]

7 minutes ago, Baodan said:

In real life most players would have (pre-concern) is starting to feel he deserves a new (better*) contract. 

It's up to you how to deal with it and we're by no means forced to act on a pre-concern like in your example.

Oh don't get me wrong, I won't act on it as it's ridiculous considering the circumstances. He is still locked in for another ~ 3 years. The demands just seem unrealistic to me after 9 months of fairly average performance and already being the top earner. Must have forgotten he joined Famalicao instead of still being at Chelsea.

Edited February 23, 2022 by diLLa88

[Baodan]

3 minutes ago, diLLa88 said:

Oh don't get me wrong, I won't act on it as it's ridiculous considering the circumstances. He is still locked in for another ~ 3 years. The demands just seem unrealistic to me after 9 months of fairly average performance and already being the top earner. Must have forgotten he joined Famalicao instead of still being at Chelsea.

They are a greedy bunch for sure, but that again seems to mirror real life rather well.

[afailed10]

Trying to play realistically in this game is impossible.

I'm on 2027 and it's impossible to renew contract with first team players after a few successful seasons. I'm managing Porto, paying this guy 80k per month. He's happy, I'm on his favs but he asks for a wage of +700k (!!) per month. Not just him, any other first teamers ask similar amounts. I'm losing all of them for free although I have a transfer budget close to 500 million.

Sure perhaps players know how much we have in the bank but surely they'd also see debt and the monthly balance? makes no sense

 

PS: he just signed for an europa league Ajax for 120k per month... while he was asking 700k per month to stay with the current UCL holders and favourite club...

PS2: setting wage budget to the minimum helped to lower demands!

Edited March 29, 2022 by afailed10

[DarJ]

58 minutes ago, afailed10 said:

he just signed for an europa league Ajax for 120k per month...

I think they will accept less sometimes less if you offer them less 

[afailed10]

22 horas atrás, DarJ disse:

I think they will accept less sometimes less if you offer them less 

Even with my rep maxed and positive relationship with the agent I have very little room. But reducing wage budget he only asked for +300k pm instead of +700k which is decent.

[LokiValfar]

Some of the demands are rather mental.

Spotted a 16 year old on my usual look around the teams with the best youth facilities on intake day and he wanted £400,000 a week and to be a star player...

Unsurprisingly I told him where to stick it.

[danej]

On 17/01/2022 at 14:45, KingCanary said:

The issue is simply that it looks odd when a player on £1k p/w won't even discuss a move to the Premier League unless he's getting a minimum of £35k (so 3400% wage increase) but will then happily sign a deal for £7k elsewhere. 

I get the player might think to ask more from a club in the Premier League than a club in the Danish League and that is fair. But 5x more than he ends up accepting is very weird.

 I agree. This seems to have been an issue with FM for many years. I wonder what SI actually thinks of this. Whether they consider it a bug that they so far haven't been able to fix (seems unlikely). Or whether they intend the game to work this way (seems sort of stupid and thus also unlikely). Both options seem silly but they can't both be wrong I assume. Am puzzled what the heck is going on with SI, why they leave this broken wage mechanic in place year after year. Should be very easy to fix if they wanted to.

[danej]

On 22/02/2022 at 15:31, MrPompey said:

I think we could do with some insight here from SI. Could the reasons for player wage demand be one / combination of the following

1. Wage structure within club per player importance

2. Fellow player / new players getting a larger salary

3. Club Reputation change

4. Player Reputation change

5. League Reputation Change

5. Today's world of greedy players

6. Other factors

One of the most annoying things I see is players demanding higher, often 60-100% higher salary, especially post promotion not getting it or advising he is now a better player than when he signed the contract yet happy to join another club on far lower wages than asked for before.  A club thats not their favourite or that much different in reputation. Understandable for star players or players on the way to potential stardom but not so for average players. Not expecting SI to confirm the answers but understand some logic / process that the AI may consider

Its been a common theme for many versions, it "feels" its got worse

 

Excactly. It seems wrong of SI if they won't release such info. If they did, they would have a better dialogue with their customers because we could easier suggest changes if we now the present state in more detail.

[Bojanbbz94]

On 17/01/2022 at 12:21, Baodan said:

It's probably a pretty talented player you're trying to sign and he'll want to be payed in accordance with his talent, role and general pay level of your club and league. You're most likely not managing a club comparable to FCK, so why would it bother you what they end up paying him?

I think in real life an 18-year-old in the Danish league would understand that signing a contract with a club in a major European top-flight league, even on a lower wage than he would ideally demand at that level, is an unbelievable opportunity for career development and progression. He'd be playing at a much higher level, and if he plays well over the course of a  3 or 4-year contract that gives him a big opportunity to demand more wages at his new club, or to move on as a Bosman while still at an age where he could be demanding big wages for many years to come.

Very few young players would turn down a move to a major European league early in their career, and the game should reflect that. It's just such a huge opportunity to develop yourself and fulfil your ambitions at a very early stage of your career. Turning down such a transfer only to then move (within the same transfer window) to a club in the league he is already playing in, for significantly lower terms than he was previously offered to play in a higher reputation league, is plainly bizarre.

[Baodan]

@Bojanbbz94 You're adding way too much real life stuff into this game mechanic issue. The EPL has a much higher wage budget than the Danish Superliga, therefore SI has made it so that especially highly gifted players will demand more when those clubs come knocking. It matters very little what they're currently earning.

After the negotiation fails, the player resets and now re-evaluates his options. FCK may then be the best of the rest and he'll demand an outrageous amount of money from them, relative to what they're already paying (much less than the EPL club offered because they're no longer a factor).

On a side note potentially playing Champions League with FCK is much more attractive than U18/U21 matches for Everton, Southampton or West Ham. In general the EPL is infamous for being a bad place for young players looking to develop into first team players.

  

[Bojanbbz94]

3 hours ago, Baodan said:

@Bojanbbz94 You're adding way too much real life stuff into this game mechanic issue. The EPL has a much higher wage budget than the Danish Superliga, therefore SI has made it so that especially highly gifted players will demand more when those clubs come knocking. It matters very little what they're currently earning.

After the negotiation fails, the player resets and now re-evaluates his options. FCK may then be the best of the rest and he'll demand an outrageous amount of money from them, relative to what they're already paying (much less than the EPL club offered because they're no longer a factor).

On a side note potentially playing Champions League with FCK is much more attractive than U18/U21 matches for Everton, Southampton or West Ham. In general the EPL is infamous for being a bad place for young players looking to develop into first team players.

  

I'm not disagreeing with you about the game mechanics. But that dissonance between the way that a teenager would rationally react to a massive transfer offer irl and the way they the game functions is what frustrates people. If the game is currently not doing a great job of reflecting what people to perceive as realistic, then I think it's reasonable for players question that.

Having situations where players consistently turn down higher wages at x club because that clubs has a higher overall wage bill / the league is wealthier only to end up signing a contract with y club on significantly lower terms is silly. Players and agents should recognise that in making overly-demanding contract requests, they are playing a game of brinkmanship that they are going to lose.

[MrPompey]

I think the logic is strange. On gaining promotion one of players wanted an increase from 6 to £22k/w and his agent would close negotiations at anything less. I then performed a test by editing his salary a month or 2 later to 8k from 22k then started contract negotiations and he was happy to accept £12k, perhaps I could have gone even less

 

[kevkel]

What's the wage spread on your regular starters as per agreed playing time max and min? Also what's the wage of the highest earning squad player as per playing time?

Although you are saying he's a squad player at most, but your coach is telling you he's a regular starter in his prime years and his actual playing time is saying he's playing enough to be regarded as a regular starter.

So he thinks he's good enough to be regular starter, he's playing regular enough recently to be considered an actual regular starter and  your coaches say he should be a regular starter.

 

[Lioncourt]

20 hours ago, Baodan said:

@Bojanbbz94 You're adding way too much real life stuff into this game mechanic issue.

On 23/02/2022 at 06:29, Baodan said:

I think it's something that could be tweaked and probably improved upon, but largely mimics real life.

 

On 23/02/2022 at 08:16, Baodan said:

In real life most players would have (pre-concern) is starting to feel he deserves a new (better*) contract.

 

On 23/02/2022 at 08:26, Baodan said:

They are a greedy bunch for sure, but that again seems to mirror real life rather well.

[isignedupfornorealreason]

Remember, you can always reject their demands.

 

Don't offer them a contract. Don't offer them a pay rise. There's always younger, hungrier talents out there to buy.

Don't get yourself an Anthony Martial, a player who is awful and you can't shift.