Any tips for playing hardball with a transfer request?

[Jpr]

I'm 2.5 seasons in with Ajax - De Ligt is worth £22m and has 2.5 years left on his contract.

I was getting bids of £60m in the summer window but kept rejecting them/negotiating to £100m. He got unhappy and wanted me to accept bids so I asked him to name a fair price and he wouldn't budge over £50m!  

I denied his request to leave but he then handed in a transfer request, he's now stuck on the transfer list with me unable to remove him and teams won't offer anything over £25m.

 

Anyone had a similar situation? Currently, the only option looks to be to let him run down to 1 year left and then sell him for a low price with a high % of future transfer clause.

[Just-Wool]

Pretty much sell now or for less later unless you can convince him to stay and sign a new contract during the period when the transfer window is closed.  This happened to me with my star player, Richard Tipple who is a 5 star potential 4 star actual winger at 19.

Liverpool and Chelsea were sniffing and offering 30m I told them 150m and they backed off, he complained for a while but never got to the stage of transfer request. In the winter I offered him a new contract, set a min fee clause at 150m and now he doesn't complain when i reject bids for him. It was close though, I had my captain talk him out of leaving and I spoke to him using the "why would you want to leave" option and he agreed.

 

Others have handed in transfer requests and I've rejected them as I don't sell my best players in winter, but by the summer they have usually calmed down and retracted it by virtue of the clubs they want to go to not being interested any more. Usually if it happens in the summer and I have a fair few options in my list I'll sell for as high as I can and replace with someone cheaper and younger.

[KlaaZ]

2 hours ago, Jpr said:

I'm 2.5 seasons in with Ajax - De Ligt is worth £22m and has 2.5 years left on his contract.

I was getting bids of £60m in the summer window but kept rejecting them/negotiating to £100m. He got unhappy and wanted me to accept bids so I asked him to name a fair price and he wouldn't budge over £50m!  

I denied his request to leave but he then handed in a transfer request, he's now stuck on the transfer list with me unable to remove him and teams won't offer anything over £25m.

 

Anyone had a similar situation? Currently, the only option looks to be to let him run down to 1 year left and then sell him for a low price with a high % of future transfer clause.

For what it's worth, I've had the same with Gravenberch for the past two seasons. Transferlisted him by request twice but after a while, he always asked to be removed from the transfer list. 

[LukasZ_VCF]

So you can't remove them manually from the transfer list ? is there a way it is blocked and you can't changed status?

 

I am thinking about playing Ajax but I don't want to sell young players only the ones 30 y.o. or more, that I can replace with someone the same or better....

I would like to build the team around them not to loose them so easily

[Liquid Cool]

1 hour ago, LukasZ_VCF said:

So you can't remove them manually from the transfer list ? is there a way it is blocked and you can't changed status?

 

I am thinking about playing Ajax but I don't want to sell young players only the ones 30 y.o. or more, that I can replace with someone the same or better....

I would like to build the team around them not to loose them so easily

Then you need to sign them up on long contracts while they're young, and add an "Optional Contract Extension By Club" for as many years possible when negotiating that contract. 

Then you can either reject their transfer requests outright, or just accept it and let them sit on the list - I don't know what's better for their morale. 

[LukasZ_VCF]

3 minutes ago, Liquid Cool said:

Then you need to sign them up on long contracts while they're young, and add an "Optional Contract Extension By Club" for as many years possible when negotiating that contract. 

Then you can either reject their transfer requests outright, or just accept it and let them sit on the list - I don't know what's better for their morale. 

I am aware of that and I am doing it at my Valencia save, but they are so good that you start to get offers for them in first season...and at the start I am pretty sure most of them don't want to negotiate contract since they have contracts that will end in 2021 or 2022

[s0ni42]

If you are at a smaller club I would recommend moving a player when interest first starts bubbling. This seems to be time to reap best benefits. Slap on some clauses to keep income trickling in over time.

reinvest money elsewhere, rinse and repeat. 

[Jpr]

He played terribly in all remaining big games of the season so I ended up selling him for £27m to Dortmund - with 45% of the next sale coming to us. They finished 4th last season so hoping they struggle and a bigger club picks him up for a good payday to me.

 

Now I have Dolberg unsettled by offers of £15m which is what he is worth, same for Van De Beek at around £12m.   Hope I don't get this whole situation again with these two, luckily I have them on longer contracts than I did De Ligt.

[puffascruffowitz]

Such is life at Ajax. The unfortunate reality is that no ambitious and highly talented player can reach their goals at Ajax. Like others have said I have found with small clubs that it's best to take the first good offer. Otherwise you get trapped in bargaining on a price with the player and it's always extremely less than what you're hoping for. 

[s0ni42]

FWIW I never negotiate the price with a player because he is much more stubborn than his suitors.i typically just tell him no and then start prepping for a deal at the next window. I found it better to keep player in dark on details of transfer until we have offer(s) completed

[fish18ish]

Once the player has handed in a formal transfer request is there any going back (eg. they'll back down when the transfer window shuts/ interest dies down) or are they then permenantly set on a move? Been playing hardball with Alfie Mawson and Ben Pearson in my Villa save as they are basically the spine of my team, but Alfie has now formally requested to leave and I feel like Ben is not far away. Will they back out of the stalemate eventually, or should I just bite the bullet and cash in while interest is high. Also, does a formal transfer request lower what interested clubs are willing to pay? 

In the past I've generally bowed down to the players' wishes and taken the cash before it gets to this stage, so this is uncharted territory for me. Help would be appreciated. 

[Haiku]

It's very important when you are receiving offers for players you don't want to sell, to set a non-negotiable value of lets say 200m. and click "negotiate", not "suggest". This way clubs will decline bidding and players rarely become upset. It's tricky when you receive a non-negotiable offer and you have no choice, but to reject it right away. Then is the bigger chance the player will become upset. I would talk the player about his value and will suggest the highest he'll accept, then I hope i won't get a non-negotiable offer of that or higher value. If I get lower offer I can easily negotiate to some crazy value and that won't hurt the player. It's disappointing that in this year's version when you agree to sell player for anything above let's say 5m, and you get an offer of 1m + goal clause, league appearances, cup win etc. and the combined value is over 5m you'll upset the player if you decline, although it's not fair, because the player might never activate those clauses and thus the money are not guaranteed.