Laarko

Thing is, my experience this year is that "bigger" clubs are not as prone to buying my best players for big money. It happens... but not as often as earlier years (maybe its because of economic downturn or maybe I have fewer world class players that they like). Its perfectly fine if Chelsea or Real Madrid come and buy my best player for 50M€. I would get that. But instead, a lot of objectivly smaller clubs now hassle me constantly with low ball offers for my backup/prospect players I doubt would be succesful transfers for most of them. I would gladly sell some of these players to saudi for 20-30M € and get replacements, but instead I get Hamburg, Boavista and Reading bidding 2-4M € x 10-15 times each during a transfer window. I wish the AI could get that im in a financal position where selling these players for small sums isnt interesting after rejecting their bids 10 times.

AI transfer logic has always had room for improvement, this year though I feel I have to comment separately on it since SI claim AI recruitment has been revamped. I often play in smaller european leagues such as Norway, Sweden, Poland, Croatia etc, trying to make respectable european clubs out of their best teams. The problems below have more or less always been prolific in these countries, but this year I feel its far worse in the current state of the game. I often start every year managing Dinamo Zagreb and a few years in my save my young talents are, as always, starting to develop into serious players. At the same time the team is a serious Champions League-contender every season making it into the semifinals year 3. I still keep getting constantly bombarded with low ball offers from seemingly weaker clubs (albeit from bigger leagues sometimes). Almost every day during transfer windows 2-5 of my players are getting transfer offers from multiple clubs. AI clubs just dont seem to get when a player is not for sale. This was not always the fact earlier years. Another problem is recently bought players or players that have fairly recently renewed their contract getting offers from semibigger clubs and wanting to move despite the fact that they have barely broken into my first 11. They are also openly voicing their concerns in a way that is just not realistic and would not happen this often in real life. They also way too often get influential team mates on their side, ruining the team morale. The biggest problem of them all though is the extremely poor transfer decisions AI clubs still make. It is truly appalling and in the current state I would say game breaking. Three years into my save im dominating the domestic league and its just completely immersionbreaking to see my biggest rivals making all these bad decision trying to keep up. Its gotten to the point where im almost trying to help them out by buying 1 or 2 of their biggest talents and paying top top dollars for it. What to they do with the money? Well, my fiercest rival just bought a 33-year old Sergio Rico and a 32-year old Manolis Siopsis for a totalt of 25M (12,5+12,5) €. They would NEVER EVER pay this kind of money for any player IRL, let alone 2 has-beens that are not improving the team one bit. They also make a lot of free transfers which is fine, but its always really ****** players. I rarely if ever find one single transfer AI clubs make where I think to myself - "wow nice, a sensible sum for a good player that will undoubtedly strengthen them!". Big part of what makes the game feel too easy a few years in.

Enjoying the game more than last year, but I feel its partly because FM23 was so underwhelming. The tweaks done do make FM24 more enjoyable and the ME is lightyears better but there is still enormous room for improvement to say the least. A few examples from my current Dinamo Zagreb save that somewhat ruin the immersion: - My scouts are far too often recommending me unrealistic signings/too expensive players (30-60M € and 2-3x my max wage budget) - Signing quality players from my own league is ridiculously expensive (10-15M€) compared to reality, at the same time I have the feeling that quality players from top leagues are too easy to get as soon as they fall out of favor at their current club. This last part for me is a substantial part of the feeling that the game is too easy. - Second season I manage to beat Bayern in the Champions league. The ONLY question I get in the press conference after the game is about a fringe player sometimes playing in a "new role" - Still a problem signing bosman players that go to AI-cIubs despite me making the best offer. For example, I offer a generous contract to Alexander Aravena only to see RB Salzburg sign him for 1/5 of the salary. - My star players are way too sensitive about not getting enough game time when I rotate the team during some easier league fixtures. On the flip side, it seems like players also "react" faster to positive changes made.