MASSIVE Contracts!

[Gregs_Gooners]

Anyone else find that players get pretty greedy?

I'm selling players more often now because as soon as they're first teamers they are want 100k+ on wages!

I can afford to pay them but realistically I want to be making money each season rather than losing it! What happened to loyalty and playing for a team that you love haha

[Jibby123]

Says the Gooner.

Joking aside, it's a bigger part of the game now. I definitely have to keep an eye on some, move them on if they're making mad demands (no matter how much it hurts ) and give that dream regen a miss because he's taking the pee.

[mr. president]

it's awful. youngsters at the age of 18 who didn't play a second wants 15k-20k pounds a week. players who gets 40k a week wants 150k.

[Richard76]

Certainly needs addressing. That and totally inflexible wage demands.

[Ackter]

If you can afford to pay them, they demand to be paid what you can afford. The more money you have, the more greedy the players will get.

[Richard76]

If you can afford to pay them, they demand to be paid what you can afford. The more money you have, the more greedy the players will get.

But how can a player possibly know what your wage budget is and how close to it you are?

[Ackter]

They don't know exactly, but they'll have a good idea of the financial status of the club.

[The Raconteur]

Certainly needs addressing. That and totally inflexible wage demands.

That's what annoys me more, (which takes the thread off topic), but I could handle inflated wage demands if there was some give-and-take involved.

[iknowniknuk]

I get weird appearance fee requests, upwards of 14k per game (im Liverpool), but then i increase their weekly wage by 1k or 2 to offset it and it works most of the time

[GJF82]

Players ask for far too high wages tbh. I've got Tim Krul currently on 30.5k a week for me and wants a new contract. He then refuses to budge from wanting 130k a week, five times more than what he is already on.

[South-Side]

The most annoying thing is that in contract negotiations in 80% of the cases it became impossible to get rid of the pesky promotion percentage. Everybody is fixed on 25% percent and they won't negociate. So in my Rangers save, you end up with a player which had a decent salary in the 3rd division to having almost 80k when you reach the premier. And as much as i want to get rid of him, his big salary won't allow me to sell. In the good case i end up paying a part of his salary just to get him off my squad.

This inflexibility in negotiations is very stupid. it has transformed negotiations , which were balanced until fm 13 to a situation of take it or leave it. You can't go low very much, and with the salary bumps in 2-3 years a player which you will probably have to let go as he's not higher league material ends up with and astronomical salary. Promotion increase of 25% cumulated with yearly increase of 10% ads up to a bump of 35% per year...too bloody much !

[GazzP]

Just use the lock button when negotiating, I've been able to get players wanting £100k p/w down to below £80k etc. I got Hatem Ben Arfa down from £105k p/w demands to £75k p/w (saving £1.5m a year, five year contract = £7.5m) by giving him another £400k in loyalty bonus and £250k extra agent fee and a slightly higher appearance fee, so in total I'd save nearly £7m over the length of the contract.

It also never hurts to chuck another 25% on the agent fee, remember, it's the agent accepting the contract, not the player.

[scott MUFC]

i tried that when DDG wanted a new contract, he wouldn't budge off 105k.... over double what he was on. unless he got a 5% yearly rise.

[easternhawk2]

A lot of the time, I Offer players relegation release clauses of around 100K, seasonal goal bonuses(that has bitten me in the bum a few times) and other clauses that I know will be hard to achieve. The players assume they will get them, you cut their wages, you're sorted.

[BiggusD]

It is easy to see how unrealistic these increased wage demands really are when attending staff meetings. Several times a year I get adviced to sign a new contract with most of my players because they are "making noises" wanting an improved contract. The fact that they have years left on their current contract, which on some occasions were signed a month or two ago, seems not to matter at all.

Luckily, I have yet to experience a player not agreeing that bringing it up was a bad idea, but I fear what happens once all those players have a year left of their contract and I want to extend. So far I have been able to keep them within reasonable bounds by giving them minimum fee release clauses and other non-wage bonuses, but if they go from the current 30-ish to 150 in their demands they're history...

[JB1979]

I have just quit my game due to losing a player on a free transfer, who was asking me for £25,000 + bonuses etc - i could only offer him just over £10,000 wage plus some lower bonuses. I could sort of accept it as he clearly had the potential to be a Premiership striker. However, he leaves on a free to Dundee UTD (we have just been promoted to the premiership) and when i look at his wages on the 1st July at Dundee he's on 3.2K a week - the very same wages he was on with me at Tranmere. Anyway i'll load up in the bugs area - but i'm fuming atm as offered him nearly 4 times as much to stay.

[bigman]

blame sky!

[Richard76]

I have just quit my game due to losing a player on a free transfer, who was asking me for £25,000 + bonuses etc - i could only offer him just over £10,000 wage plus some lower bonuses. I could sort of accept it as he clearly had the potential to be a Premiership striker. However, he leaves on a free to Dundee UTD (we have just been promoted to the premiership) and when i look at his wages on the 1st July at Dundee he's on 3.2K a week - the very same wages he was on with me at Tranmere. Anyway i'll load up in the bugs area - but i'm fuming atm as offered him nearly 4 times as much to stay.

Seen that happen a few times in my game.

[Bradley21]

I have just quit my game due to losing a player on a free transfer, who was asking me for £25,000 + bonuses etc - i could only offer him just over £10,000 wage plus some lower bonuses. I could sort of accept it as he clearly had the potential to be a Premiership striker. However, he leaves on a free to Dundee UTD (we have just been promoted to the premiership) and when i look at his wages on the 1st July at Dundee he's on 3.2K a week - the very same wages he was on with me at Tranmere. Anyway i'll load up in the bugs area - but i'm fuming atm as offered him nearly 4 times as much to stay.

This is the worst thing about the game at the moment if you ask me, players demanding the earth to stay at their current club, quite often a club they apparently favour, while accepting peanuts at any other club who makes them an offer.

It makes absolutely no sense and is surely one of the most irritating bugs ever.

[isignedupfornorealreason]

This is the worst thing about the game at the moment if you ask me, players demanding the earth to stay at their current club, quite often a club they apparently favour, while accepting peanuts at any other club who makes them an offer.

It makes absolutely no sense and is surely one of the most irritating bugs ever.

Has always been around.

It's just about bearable at the lower leagues where there's a high turnover of players anyway. The trick I find is to sign them on VERY long contracts and renew early, generally with 2+ years left on the contract. That way you have options such as threatening them or offloading them.

Alternatively you can maintain a high turnover in the higher leagues by recruiting the youngsters and using them to replace the 100k pw guys.

[Al_Pacino]

In the top leagues I've found (after reading advice on here) that adding a buy-out clause usually helps to bring contract demands down. I usually go for the £80M that was mentioned.

If someone bids that much, they can happily have the player and I'll buy a few more

[RobertPage]

The wages in my opinion are definitely rising too high. Players are often asking for massive wage increases which means having players for long periods of times at the club will eventually mean they will be expecting massive wages which you either have to pay or sell them

i have sold many players due to the fact i like to keep my wage budget under control and have felt the amount of money many players ask for is simply un realistic. Players constantly are wanting to go from £30k PW to £80K per week and it doesn't impress me one bit

[Ukchris]

The most annoying thing for me currently is youth players. I search for regens to add to my U18s, 15-16 year olds who've never played a game. They should accept £500 a week as a good deal, maybe £2.5k if they already have some ability, but every one I try to sign demands £14,500 a week as a Rotation status! They're 15 years old and currently not even League 1 quality. I have first team regulars on less than that.

[Bradley21]

Has always been around.

It's just about bearable at the lower leagues where there's a high turnover of players anyway. The trick I find is to sign them on VERY long contracts and renew early, generally with 2+ years left on the contract. That way you have options such as threatening them or offloading them.

Alternatively you can maintain a high turnover in the higher leagues by recruiting the youngsters and using them to replace the 100k pw guys.

I know it has, but not to the extent it is this year. This year it's become a lot more noticeable, and a lot more irritating.

The point is though that we shouldn't have to replace players with youths if we don't want to because our players are demanding the earth to sign new contracts. If the player outgrows the club or his wages are so high the manager/club can't/won't pay his demands then by all means he can move on, but not for dramatically less wages than he wanted to stay at a club he supposedly wants to stay at.

That's what people are mad about more than anything else, the fact that a player can demand 90k to extend a contract, break off negotiations when you refuse, then sign on at ANY other club, regardless of size/rep, for 50k. It makes no sense and it only infuriates people, it's actually unfair as well.

[BiggusD]

The most annoying thing for me currently is youth players. I search for regens to add to my U18s, 15-16 year olds who've never played a game. They should accept £500 a week as a good deal, maybe £2.5k if they already have some ability, but every one I try to sign demands £14,500 a week as a Rotation status! They're 15 years old and currently not even League 1 quality. I have first team regulars on less than that.

This probably depends on how much you pay to sign them and/or the how much the top earners of your club gets a week.

[Ukchris]

This probably depends on how much you pay to sign them and/or the how much the top earners of your club gets a week.

I don't think that's it, as my top earner is at £26k a week and most senior players between £15k - £20k. We're talking 4-star rated experienced players in a lower Premiership team on the lowest wage bill in the league by far. No fresh, untrained youth should be asking for £14k.

As for how much I sign the youths for, some are direct to contract talks as they're only on £55 youth contracts, others being bought for £10k from Scandinavian teams. I'd previously signed two 16 year olds for over a million each with an eye for the future and as both were raw and untrained they came for pretty much no wages, so transfer fee wasn't a factor there as it hasn't been in previous years.

If a young player already has ability I don't mind paying more, that's to be expected - I bought a 17 year old who already played in the Championship the year before and would rotate straight into my first team at 2 star current rating and was happy to pay him £9k a week, no objection there as he's already playing first team football and as a youngster is still asking for less than more senior players.

The issue is with the completely raw 15/16 year olds who sure, might have 4 star potential 6-7 years down the line but currently sit on silver star ability, nowhere near the first team if I was in a lower league never mind the premiership, yet they demand ridiculously high wages and refuse to talk with a squad status of anything less than 'Rotation'.

[fmFutbolManager]

Just to add further weight. Robben as a free transfer wouldn't take any lower than £33k a week from me. Signed for FC Groningen on £16,250 a week.

[BiggusD]

I don't think that's it, as my top earner is at £26k a week and most senior players between £15k - £20k. We're talking 4-star rated experienced players in a lower Premiership team on the lowest wage bill in the league by far. No fresh, untrained youth should be asking for £14k.

As for how much I sign the youths for, some are direct to contract talks as they're only on £55 youth contracts, others being bought for £10k from Scandinavian teams. I'd previously signed two 16 year olds for over a million each with an eye for the future and as both were raw and untrained they came for pretty much no wages, so transfer fee wasn't a factor there as it hasn't been in previous years.

If a young player already has ability I don't mind paying more, that's to be expected - I bought a 17 year old who already played in the Championship the year before and would rotate straight into my first team at 2 star current rating and was happy to pay him £9k a week, no objection there as he's already playing first team football and as a youngster is still asking for less than more senior players.

The issue is with the completely raw 15/16 year olds who sure, might have 4 star potential 6-7 years down the line but currently sit on silver star ability, nowhere near the first team if I was in a lower league never mind the premiership, yet they demand ridiculously high wages and refuse to talk with a squad status of anything less than 'Rotation'.

I have experienced this too, but then I paid 5+ millions for them. It might be some unbalance in the game, but it could also be that they are not that interested in signing, or that their Ambition is extremely high. In FM12 I only experienced that with a Very Ambitious (20 Ambition) French youngster I signed for a record fee (£8m I think). I managed to play him enough to keep him calm nevertheless.

[scott MUFC]

this happened in FM12 as well, i tried to sign Tevez wanted 100k he went off to argentina on 10k a week.

and yes newgens you try and sign from other clubs at 14 15 or 16 wanting 8k/w contracts sometimes you cant even offer them that much due to the type of contract.

[M.U.F.C....TSVR]

Funny 1 here - Ibrahimovic's contract was expiring at Milan (this is fm12 btw), so I thought sweet, snap him up. At 32 he wanted £300k a flippin week! When I saw that I was stunned! Seems ridiculous but he's probably on £400k a week at PSG haha

[dafuge]

Contract negotiations are definitely hard work on this game. I dread to think how much a squad would end up getting paid if you kept them at the club for their entire career.

[JB1979]

I have added an actual example in the transfer and contracts bugs forum. If anyone has similar saves that show players signing for teams for significantly lesser contracts (remember to look at bonuses etc) for similar reputation clubs could you add it to the post or create your own.

Thanks

[Richard76]

Here we go again, my 3rd choice striker (on £21k per week) flatly refuses to take a penny less than £135k per week to sign a new deal.

I went to £80k per week.

Now on £60k per week at another club.

[kpsia518]

there is "a secret way" to hackdown the price...:p:p

Chinese ppl is the best bug finder...

Lucas Ocampos golden ball winner,in my team ManUtd....only 50000 pound per week.

[Emmeth]

Is it also real that a good Championship League player average is valued 10-15M and earns around 150k per month ?

To me it seems to much considering we are not speaking about average money for a Premier player....

[William.Hua]

One of my bench player who erans 30k/w wants 80k/w new contract.

And finally got 30k/w when he is sold to other teams.

[eric1000]

Here we go again, my 3rd choice striker (on £21k per week) flatly refuses to take a penny less than £135k per week to sign a new deal.

I went to £80k per week.

Now on £60k per week at another club.

yup, definately needs fixing. Agent fees are sometimes out of whack as well. I had one agent asking for a fee of 250k when I was a championship club, not many championship sides could afford to line an agents pocket to that extent.

[RobertPage]

Contract negotiations are definitely hard work on this game. I dread to think how much a squad would end up getting paid if you kept them at the club for their entire career.

Exactly, i would love to know if anyone actually has a save where they have had a player at the top level playing for their club all their career. I can only imagine wages would be over 200K if the player is a key player

[Emmeth]

Exactly, i would love to know if anyone actually has a save where they have had a player at the top level playing for their club all their career. I can only imagine wages would be over 200K if the player is a key player

Good question, I am deeply curious as well to know that, anyone ?

[soccer.joel]

It is frustrating that they demand big wages of alot more than they used to

[hashassin]

Good question, I am deeply curious as well to know that, anyone ?

well, i was in Arsenal for six seasons (2017-2023) and had wilshere there... when i started he was on 140k, when i was leaving, he was on 1 year contracts (32yo) worth over 200k... and wages over 200k are normal now in BPL in 2025 (i went to AC Milan, my best player earns 95k)... top 4 teams have few players with ridicolous wages... but, i guess you have to take inflation and stuff like that into account as well... 10 years ago it was all much, much cheaper, wasnt it... i think that in this case SI got it right, players are getting more greedy, and are offered more money as years come and go...

[mixmkz]

Wage demand is pretty ridiculous but no one on my Arsenal team earns more than 200k a week. Neymar, after renewing his 5 year contract, increased his salary from 105k to 120k. Cavani just signed his last contract for me at the age of 31 and kept his wage the same at 135k. Wilshere, who began at 50k, extended his contract to 80k and is possibly on his final 5 year contract now at 100k a week.

It seems that players are generally content at over 100k a week and do not push for 200k unless they really don't want to play for you. When I first began negotiating contracts with Neymar and Wilshere, Neymar wanted 185k and Wilshere wanted 135k, they took my first counter offer of 120k and 100k.

[hashassin]

maybe im too soft on them... ehhh, thats how it is when love is involved...

[JB1979]

I dont have an issue with them demanding massive contracts, its when they refuse to negotiate down (i.e. they are on 35k p/w they say they require 100k p/w you suggest 80k p/w), then leave on a free transfer to a club, with similar status, and player role - for much less in salary e.g. 40k p/w. Which begs the question why wouldnt they accept your offer.

I have raised it as a bug in the transfer and contracts bug forum, with a save game example, but as of yet no one has replied. If anyone has any examples of the above could you post in that thread. Its the only way it'll get looked at. Thanks. Link

http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/342818-Player-signing-on-a-free-for-much-less-wages-than-would-re-negogiate-contract-for

[Rupert1105]

Another trick that works is put the "Year extension after X games" clause in then they stay on the same wage forever

MWAHAHAHAH

(Edit: wage not age )

[treble_yell_:-)]

I dont have an issue with them demanding massive contracts, its when they refuse to negotiate down (i.e. they are on 35k p/w they say they require 100k p/w you suggest 80k p/w), then leave on a free transfer to a club, with similar status, and player role - for much less in salary e.g. 40k p/w. Which begs the question why wouldnt they accept your offer.

I have raised it as a bug in the transfer and contracts bug forum, with a save game example, but as of yet no one has replied. If anyone has any examples of the above could you post in that thread. Its the only way it'll get looked at. Thanks. Link

http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/342818-Player-signing-on-a-free-for-much-less-wages-than-would-re-negogiate-contract-for

It's been like that forever. Players would rather stay club less than take a wage cut, especially older players.

It's also incredibly difficult to get pay as you play deals, I know a lot of clubs pay their youth a modest weekly wage, with a large appearance fee on offer for breaking the first team, it's rare for a player to accept a deal like this. Same for older players, I've offered pro's on the verge of retirement massive appearance fees + a modest wage only for them to innevitably come back asking for a proper weekly wage + the appearance fee originally offered.

The whole financial model surrounding young/old players is horrible, and the contract module needs to be more robust in general.

[fmFutbolManager]

Has anyone tried taking control of two teams and seeing what his demands are with the second team?

[hashassin]

Another trick that works is put the "Year extension after X games" clause in then they stay on the same age forever

MWAHAHAHAH

the only thing missing from the post is <finger-pyramid of evil> http://s3.roosterteeth.com/images/Peanut_Dude4e02d1cc8796c.jpg

but on serious note now, never thought about that, thanks for the clue, good sir

[Target Practice]

I've found that players are willing to take a significantly lower wage if you include a minimum fee release clause. It doesn't even have to be that low - I managed to haggle my 27yo first-team centre-back down to £35k from £52k simply by adding nothing more than a £20m minimum fee release clause. He's only worth about £8m, and if someone came in and offered me £20m for him, I sure as hell wouldn't need a release clause to make me accept it!

[Richard76]

Has anyone tried taking control of two teams and seeing what his demands are with the second team?

Next time it comes down to sign on or leave I will save my game and let the player sign for another team.

I will reload and offer an identical contract and see what happens.