The £100mil+ Player Debate

[mikenevo]

I would love to know people's thoughts on paying £100mil+ for a player and whether they would even consider it. I will also be putting my argument across as to why some players are worth the payout in my opinion over various positions. I won't be using player names unless the transfer has taken place in real life.

Do I think a player could be worth £100mil+? The short answer is yes I do think so in this day and age, there is so much money in the game now that prices are heavily inflated and sometimes in order to improve your first team, you have to pay the price for certain players that are considered leagues above the rest.

Goalkeepers: No I don't think a goalkeeper would be worth spending £100mil+ on because I feel that you can get a top goalkeeper for much less. I would say £50mil maximum for me personally.

Defenders: I once paid £100mil for a defender 3 or 4 years ago and my reasoning was because he was the best defender in the world and could back up his hype on the pitch with exceptional consistency. Was he worth £100mil? Well I think so yes, I had the best squad in the world, but I didn't have the best defence in the world and he basically made the squad complete in that respect.

Wing Backs: In Fm16 I would say no as I feel that the wing backs are overpowered in the game with the correct tactics and you can make a mediocre wing back into a world class wing back with ease and for cheap!

Midfielders: Some people may disagree but I think Paul Pogba's transfer to Manchester United was a benefit to all sides and he's worth the money. Some people point towards the fact that he wont score or assist 30+ per season and I also saw someone touch on this point insisting that without those stats you can't win matches. Well yes in part that person was correct, but you also can't win matches without the unsung heroes either, the ones who are willing to do the dirty work as well as chip in with goals and assists. If you just used 10 outfield players solely to get goals and assists, you may score 5 but you will concede 10. Paul Pogba is the complete midfielder, he can do it all and that's not a tag you can use with very many at all, so his work elsewhere on the pitch allows those around him to thrive.

Wingers: Here is a position where I would fully agree that in order to be worth the money, they have to assist / score 30+ goals a season. A Cristiano Ronaldo type player would be worth £100mil+

Strikers: Most definitely a striker can be worth £100mil+ if he's able to score 40+ goals in all competitions each season.

That's my thoughts, what are yours?

[forameuss]

Pretty simple flowchart.  If I would want the player enough and £100 million is the price they want without being exploitative, then yes.  Otherwise no.

[mikenevo]

8 minutes ago, forameuss said:

Pretty simple flowchart.  If I would want the player enough and £100 million is the price they want without being exploitative, then yes.  Otherwise no.

Would you say that covers any position for you?

[forameuss]

Pretty much.  I'm not very precious about paying too much.  I'm very rarely in a position to be spending that much, but I did end up at Juventus where I wanted to pick up a player I'd managed in previous saves.  That transfer went for a little over the three-figure-millions after negotiating them down.  

[cbcruz]

It depends on the club you're managing. If all your club has is 100m, then no. Not ever.

 

PSG, City etc.. Definitely.

[deltablue]

Never. 40M seems to be my informal limit (though I have gone above that on a handful of occasions in the past), with any signings of 30M or above being considered very high end. In my experience I haven't really needed to spend more than that to get quality players.

[Silver Twilight Sparkle]

I try to avoid going higher than 50M euros, except on really good players. There are many good players that you can get for less than this that are undervalued by their clubs, as long as they suit your strategy. But i would never buy a player that was from my club and i sold or let him go before, unless he was really really cheap.

[cpfcfm2009]

I have argued this point regarding real life transfers so many times with work mates who say something like "£100m is too much for a footballer".

The value of any commodity can only be judges against other commodities in the same market.  For example, you can not compare the price of a car with the price of a house.  Yes, the cost of both far exceeds the sum of the parts that make them, but you can only judge 'value' based on other commodities in that market.  And the 'value' of intangibles like workmanship/personality etc are again only comparable within their own market (£10 tip for good service in a restaurant but £10m for a hardworking footballer).

Assuming club revenues continue to increase, in 10 years time £100m will seem normal.  £1m seemed crazy for Trevor Francis at the time, £15m seemed crazy for Shearer at the time.

So £100m for a player in the market as it exists today represents top end but is not unthinkable in comparison to other premier league/championship players. 

If you (or irl a chairman/manager) thinks "£100m is to much" I would suggest that steadily falling behind competitors is close to inevitable.

[begilsson]

I have never paid £100m for a player but in the right circumstances I definitely would. 

I've come to learn in the last few FMs that if you want top top quality you have to pay. I like to build up a squad from within, youth academy and young signings, but even as you reach top youth and training facilities and 30 scouts it's difficult to get the best for your roles. If I spot a world class player who is also great in the right areas for my formation and player roles (and clearly better suited than what I got), I  will consider going for him. But he would have to be young enough (24-25 tops) to get a decent amount of years in the club and still potentially recuperate some of the investment.

One can't really compare the game to real life as in the game you basically know what you're going to get. It does a better job each year to make it difficult to say which 16 year old is gonna be the best of the best and who is gonna be "just" very good, but it is you can pretty easily tell your £70m investment in an established player is gonna work out. 

[scott MUFC]

only Messi have i paid that sort of cash.

 

[begilsson]

Are there really  situations where you would have to pay  £100m for a player in the game?

[Joso1000]

LOL. I just gave 255 million for Neymar, 240 million for Aguero. And thats just the start. Playing with Real Madrid

[Wasp]

That's too much for me. I also have an informal limit of EUR 40 million, but I prefer to get youths and undervalued players anyway.

[Wavelberry]

I get antsy paying any transfer fee. Couldn't imagine a £100 million deal and then there will be some agent out there wanting a slice of the pie. Nah.

Anything over 10 million needs serious consideration and if an agent is involved you can forget it. What do you mean I'm fired?

[tmason122]

I could never imagine paying that for a player. Anything above 15 million GBP gets serious scrutiny for me. I think my most 2 expensive signings in football manager have been a  regen winger in my current save of FM 2016, who cost 45 million GBP and was a replacement for Jordan Ibe who had just left for 50 million GBP to Chelsea. And then Fabian Delph cost me 50 million GBP  back on FM09.... seems a little overpriced now but he was a monster back then, haha.

[rich10]

I've spent 70m (my largest ever transfer fee on FM) on a 25 year old Harry Kane thinking he would be my main striker for the next 7ish years, and have since regretted that purchase after picking up an incredible 19 year old regen from Dortmund for 30m, I know I'll have to take a loss on Kane eventually...and he hasn't been the consistent 30+ goals a season man I thought he would be.

I've had the chance to bid around 100m for Pogba on this save (eventually, when he was 28), and I just couldn't bring myself to do it...it's all of the extras they demand: Agent fees, bonuses, signing on fee, huge wages...and 2 weeks later he breaks his leg. The risk is not for me Jeff.

If I did I'd have to run it through the following internal checks:

1. Do I have the budget?

2. Do I need him?

3. How old is he?

4. Do I have a youth player with the same position/potential?

5. How badly do I need him?

6. Is there a cheaper alternative available?

[Lucas]

Bought a player for £100M on FM15, newgen Sergio Soto Soto. Came up through the youth ranks at Colo Colo where I managed, and when I moved to Cruzeiro I signed him for £5 Million to take him there where he helped me win the Libertadores and Club World Cup. 

I left Brazil though for the US, and about 5 seasons later ended up at Barcelona via Pohang. By this point Sergio was at Chelsea and I desperately wanted him after losing 2 out of my first 3 matches. Transfer Deadline Day I signed him for £100 Million and he scored 50 goals in 50 games for me, so was well worth the money. 

Usually I think of transfer fees in terms of how many years I expect to have the player, whether I expect to recoup or sell on. With the £100Million case I was just absolutely desperate and needed a player I knew I could use and make the most out of. He didn't disappoint.

[AdamRedwoodAVFC]

It all depends on who you are managing. On FM15 I think I brought a regen for £85m, that's the most I've ever paid.

If the right player comes along and he would improve your squad a lot, then I would definitely spend that, only as long as the club could afford it.

[setzel]

Simple short answer ? NO

 

Develop and sale  no player is bigger then the club .

[gunner86]

My transfer record is £112m way back in FM09 or something. I'd done a journeyman save and ended up with AC Milan who were bereft of quality in midfield so plumped for Fabregas.

Nowadays I don't tend to get anywhere near that, I tend to go for one marquee signing a year but tend to stop at around the £50m, if there's a player I really want I do bid higher but it's not common. I was bidding around £80m a couple of years ago for a player that had won the golden ball twice, but his club weren't interested then after 2 summers of trying, he handed in a transfer request and I picked him up in January for £35m.

[Toffle]

I never spent more than €15m on my "serious" games. However, If I was coaching PSG, Real Madrid, United or City, I would consider spending that much money on a beast (Griezmann, Pogba, Neymar...).

[eric1000]

In a video game doesn't really matter, in real life no player is worth £100 mill imo unless he can beat a non-league team on his own. 

[joeseph145]

I have no problem paying over £100M for a player, in fact in FM 2009 in 2014/15 I paid over £600M for Karim Benzema. He flopped.

[cpfcfm2009]

4 hours ago, joeseph145 said:

I have no problem paying over £100M for a player, in fact in FM 2009 in 2014/15 I paid over £600M for Karim Benzema. He flopped.

Well done! I hope you aren't an accountant.

[alter_ego]

On 9/2/2016 at 22:47, cpfcfm2009 said:

Well done! I hope you aren't an accountant.

600million for Benzema..???? wtf

[Citizen Sandman]

On 01/09/2016 at 14:38, eric1000 said:

In a video game doesn't really matter, in real life no player is worth £100 mill imo unless he can beat a non-league team on his own. 

why would beating a non league team be worth it, kit sales alone can make up the players transfer fee.

[BoxToBox]

If I'm at a vastly rich club, and really want a certain player, absolutely.

I haven't actually done it yet, though on a save in FM 16, I did spend 95m on Neymar for Man Utd. Actually, in that save, across 2 seasons I bought Neymar for 96, Dybala for 80, Verratti for 75, Pogba for 65. Across the two seasons I spent like 500m, all told, ended up with a front six of

Martial

Neymar---Pogba---Dybala

Bender---Verratti

They powered me to 5 CL's on the bounce, money well spent.

[Welshace]

It's simple maths in real life... a £100million player is worth that to certain clubs for his merchandising potential alone frankly.... pogba and ronaldo are great examples of players that will pay for themselves over a few seasons in real life..

 

In game? of course, why wouldn't I? it's not real money 

[Richey2008]

I just panic bought a $50m centre back for my Gala Fairydean Rovers side on deadline day after my 2 centre backs went down with long term injuries and he was the only comparable quality I could get. My finances are now on the edge - the pressure is on to do well in the Champions League now...!

[talhak]

£100M - no way except Messi

But up to £60M is acceptable for me for the players who I completely believe going to contribute a lot and fill the blanks in my tactics & not older than 25. Without any doubt, strikers more deserve that money just like in the real life but according to the importance of the player in my tactics, I do not see anything wrong to splash that limit to sign the player. My philosophy is signing only the best players instead of big squad. "Quality over quantity" 

[WillyBroadband]

If I had the budget then sure, I would definitely pay that much but I never have. Think the most I've paid is about £50M, that was for Guiseppe Rossi on FM11 or 12 for Arsenal, he was awful & got injured a lot. 

I like imposing wage caps too - ie on my current Schalke save, I've won the Bundesliga each season for 4 years but I still haven't got any players earning more than £100K a week. About to sign Oxlade-Chamberlain and he will be highest paid player on £99K a week. 

[Ji-Sung Park]

I bought Neymar for €110m to PSG not long ago. Managing these clubs over time means you'll have 250 mill+ budgets once your team is complete and there is almost no one to spend it on.

[hoppo1982]

On 7/9/2016 at 16:20, Welshace said:

It's simple maths in real life... a £100million player is worth that to certain clubs for his merchandising potential alone frankly.... pogba and ronaldo are great examples of players that will pay for themselves over a few seasons in real life..

 

In game? of course, why wouldn't I? it's not real money 

This almost never happens. I seem to remember there was a Guardian article recently after Pogba and Ibra signed for Man Utd.

 

Merchandising (especially shirt sales) are heavily weighted in favour of the manufacturer and a smaller percentage is distributed to the club.

Hence why companies like Nike, Addidas and Warrior pay such huge sums for an overall partnership.

 

 

 

[Welshace]

12 minutes ago, hoppo1982 said:

This almost never happens. I seem to remember there was a Guardian article recently after Pogba and Ibra signed for Man Utd.

 

Merchandising (especially shirt sales) are heavily weighted in favour of the manufacturer and a smaller percentage is distributed to the club.

Hence why companies like Nike, Addidas and Warrior pay such huge sums for an overall partnership.

 

 

 

I think you're looking at it wrong..

When I say merchandising, I'm not talking about man utd selling a billion more shirts therefore making a billion more £ ... 

 

I'm talking to overall commercial value to teams from signing players like Ibra and Pogba.. Sponsors pay hand over fist to see players like Pogba in a shirt of theirs with a team like utd on the badge... hence the ridiculous sponsorship deals the like of utd get.

That plus the 10-20% from each shirt sale (after VAT, retailers and sponsors taking their cut) over the 2-5 years they have the player means teams more than make their money back plus more.

 

 

[Sherdil]

I used to spend BIG MONEY (£100M++) on world class players that I knew produced results, regardless of their position. However, recently in my latest save, I've been more thrifty with cash as I want to have Billion Pounds in cash reserves. So yeah, I instead focus on buying youth players and developing them, then some, I sell. Currently, transfer budget for the season is at £400M, and cash reserves are at £640M. I still get to win the Premier League and Champions League almost every year so I dont see the need to splash big money.

Dybala, Neymar, Messi are closer to £200M asking price, while Verratti, Pogba and a few others are at the £100M range.

[Earnie is God!]

I bought Bale for £100m this season, 2020/21.
This is the first time I have ever spent £100m on a player in any version of FM; I think my previous highest was £68m for Ramsey.

I'm managing Cardiff and have been quite frugal in general but, having established ourselves in the Premier League and after accumulating money in the first 3 seasons through some shrewd business, I decided to really go for it this season and brought in Sterling (£48m), Isco (£35m) and Bale (£100m). Our performances so far: 1st (Championship), 9th, 6th, 3rd, 3rd and now currently 5th after 7 games.

Overall, after 5 and a bit seasons, we only have a net transfer spend of £88m which isn't bad at all.

IRL, I don't think Pogba is worth anywhere near £100m. Sure, he's a good player but I don't like his attitude and he's another prima donna who loves himself too much and thinks everything has to revolve around him.

[hoppo1982]

18 hours ago, Welshace said:

I think you're looking at it wrong..

When I say merchandising, I'm not talking about man utd selling a billion more shirts therefore making a billion more £ ... 

 

I'm talking to overall commercial value to teams from signing players like Ibra and Pogba.. Sponsors pay hand over fist to see players like Pogba in a shirt of theirs with a team like utd on the badge... hence the ridiculous sponsorship deals the like of utd get.

That plus the 10-20% from each shirt sale (after VAT, retailers and sponsors taking their cut) over the 2-5 years they have the player means teams more than make their money back plus more.

 

 

https://www.theguardian.com/football/the-set-pieces-blog/2016/aug/24/transfer-window-market-myths

[Crispypaul]

On 29/08/2016 at 14:38, mikenevo said:

Goalkeepers: No I don't think a goalkeeper would be worth spending £100mil+ on because I feel that you can get a top goalkeeper for much less. I would say £50mil maximum for me personally.

Interestingly IRL goalkeepers are consistently undervalued, and strikers overvalued.

http://www.sportsgazette.co.uk/section.php?aid=1544&sid=3

Getting a good keeper is pretty important in FM - in my current game as Accrington I struggled along with the starting keeper and another young'un on loan until Paddy Kenny became available on a free transfer, and despite being 37 and one of my highest paid players has made somewhat of a difference.

[Earnie is God!]

Having spent almost my entire transfer kitty on Bale, Sterling and Isco, as I mentioned 3 posts above, I was left with less than £8m but I wasn't concerned as I now had the squad I wanted.
Fast forward a few months and I get this message from the board......

So, even though I wasn't after any other player and we were doing well in the league, I thought an extra £10-15m could be useful and therefore I told them I'd be happy if the transfer budget was increased.
I wasn't expecting this though.....

An extra £120m? Jeepers! Not sure I'll spend much of it though.
The problem is that I'm already in slight trouble with FFP over the increase in wages this season as it's more than £5m (£100k/wk) higher than what we are allowed to spend compared to last season (due to those 3 signings).

From what I can gather, if I don't rectify it then we'll just be fined a percentage of that £5m but in-game it's not that clear as it's in the same section as the FFP profit/loss regulations (which we are OK in) and, this is where I'm unsure, it goes on to say:

Failure to comply will result in one of the following sanctions:
If remaining in the same division, a points deduction of 5 points for the following season.
If player wage expenditure increases above allowed limits a fine of the percentage of the amount overspent will be imposed.

One of the following? That's a bit ambiguous. I think all they will do is fine us and that the points deduction is only if you fail the profit/loss rule but they could have written it better.

Can anyone clarify this for me? Thanks

[Guest]

Exceeding wage budget is just a fine, the points deduction is for not meeting the P/L target.

[Vilmar]

I got Pogba for 99 million in my 3rd season. The season before I was able to get him for 65 million but opted not to do it. Would have also cost less in signing fee. 

Are players worth 100 million, a few exception aside but more than 60 million is an overkill. Same with wages going above 250. I feel reluctant to pay more which excludes from some star players before they hit big numbers.

I find it funny in the same that some clubs ask 150 million when I'm 10 million above the market value, yet when they come after a player of mine they don't want to pay more than the marker value.  

 

In FM15 I was able to keep my wages below 200k for my key players without giving big bonuses up front. 

[Earnie is God!]

4 hours ago, Vilmar said:

I got Pogba for 99 million in my 3rd season. The season before I was able to get him for 65 million but opted not to do it.

The season before I paid £100m for him, Bale was available on a free. I went for him but he decided to go to Liverpool. They ended up having a terrible season, spending most of it in the bottom half before rallying to finish a still miserable 10th.

Barside, thanks for the info.