Transfers and Budgets changes

[danielgear]

Transfers

I would like to submit this idea for transfers going forward in future FM’s,
More and more we’re seeing transfers negotiated outside summer transfer windows.
Examples – Keita to Liverpool august for a following June transfer, Sancho to United (potentially) for example on the Dortmund Amazon documentary the DOF raised that United had made an approach for Sancho and their response was no now but maybe next summer, whilst we have the option to set a future transfer date we don’t have an option to reject for this window with talks going throughout the season

Maybe an option could be Reject but agree to sell next summer– with a fee to be agreed by a certain date.
We could offer a few different options –

1) agree to sell next summer for a set fee.
2) agree to sell next summer for offers in excessive of a fee
3) agree to sell next summer with negotiations ongoing with a date to agree by.

I believe this would be more realistic, in FM a lot of transfers just feel instant and spontaneous from the AI. With negotiations agreed in a day which is unrealistic I feel.

Transfers are a big part of FM and so is long term squad planning, IRL I’d imagine a lot of clubs know well in advance which players will or might be leaving that coming summer. Whereas in FM it feels like we get our budget in May, a flurry of bids from the AI at the start and end of windows and we’re scrambling around on deadline day for players, which happens too IRL but is becoming less and less of a thing, look at the past few deadline days nearly everyone has been home wrapped up in bed before the deadline 😉

I’d imagine IRL this happens a lot more between the closure of the winter window and end of season, A short term fix could be just to bring forward the budget date to day after the winter window closes.

We don’t need to totally overhaul the system but some tweaks mainly from the AI could improve a very important part of the game.

A knock on effect of this would mean transfer budgets potentially being a bit more fluid, If we knew we were selling player X for a certain fee this could be added to the budget to spend for any future deals i.e. any deals we agree in the future.
Maybe a clearer indication of what the transfer budget will be the next summer so we know what we can spend on a future agreed deal but knowing this would be deducted from this summers transfer window.

Transfer Budgets

I think budgets could also do with an adjustment too.
Once the summer window closes we should get an email with minimum expected transfer budget for the following summer.
On the email we should of a list of potential adjustments depending on targets met or over achieved.
It would look a bit like this -

Due to predicted turnover from the club for the next season the expected Minimum Transfer budget for next season will be = £10m
Should these targets be met the budgets will be increased by these set amounts -

Qualify for Europa League - £5m extra
Qualify for Champions League - £10m extra
Fa Cup win - £2m extra
League Cup win - £1m extra.

I think this would help with long term planning of squads, it could maybe be added to an job offers too.

Director of Football & other transfer staff.

I think the DOF needs an overhaul too. At the moment they’re very restrictive and as the real life football evolves off the pitch with DOFs becoming more involved I think this needs to be reflected in FM too.
At the moment we can ask the DOF to deal with transfers totally or ask him to just negotiate the deal but there’s no real interaction.
To tie in with the above suggestions I’d like the implementation of monthly/quarterly transfer meetings.
The DOF can bring up any players with increased attraction that he believes other clubs might make a move for or who have already started negotiations.
From that he can  ask the HOYD to recommend any youth players that he feels is nearly ready to step into the first team if not he can then suggest certain players to scout/or he’s had scouted as potential signings.
We can then reorder those recommended suggestions plus add any others to a list and he can go out and negotiate a deal. We can assign a max fee/wage we’re happy for the DOF to offer each player.
He can then return saying I failed with player 1 and player 2 were happy to sell but wanted £1m more, do you wish to proceed or should I move on to player 3.
After watching the Dortmund documentary mentioned above there seems to be a lot more opportunity for DOF/HOYD etc interaction than we currently get.

Future wage budgets

This was raised by my podcasting co-host @FM_Grasshopper,
He would like an option to toggle which seasons budgets, With wages we can now get a heads up of the next likely wage bill in the finance screen but we can’t use it, this would be helpful for when trying to sign players who will be out of contract in the summer.

This makes sense as if there is a predicted increase in wage budget for the next season, we should be able to agree to sign a player on a free with the available wage space that will be free that summer.

Overall I think this side of the game could be improved long term and hopefully these suggestions can help,
If anyone from SI wants to discuss this further feel free to @ me.

Thanks

Dan

[Seb Wassell]

1 hour ago, danielgear said:

Transfer Budgets

I think budgets could also do with an adjustment too.
Once the summer window closes we should get an email with minimum expected transfer budget for the following summer.
On the email we should of a list of potential adjustments depending on targets met or over achieved.
It would look a bit like this -

Due to predicted turnover from the club for the next season the expected Minimum Transfer budget for next season will be = £10m
Should these targets be met the budgets will be increased by these set amounts -

Qualify for Europa League - £5m extra
Qualify for Champions League - £10m extra
Fa Cup win - £2m extra
League Cup win - £1m extra.

I think this would help with long term planning of squads, it could maybe be added to an job offers too.

Thanks for taking the time to translate this from twitter to the forums.

I'd like to highlight the above and add some thoughts.

What needs to be considered is that the further you look into the future, the more inaccurate a predicted budget is going to become. At some point it becomes inaccurate to the point of uselessness. Currently in FM, a budget is agreed at the start of the season (new save) or the start of your tenure (new job) or as appropriate. The next season's provisional budget is then available as soon as certain qualifications are confirmed, such as promotion or continental competition. This is then converted from provisional to actual as the new season arrives. The reason this is done in these stages is that the Board need to know what competitions they are taking part in and what funding they can secure (sponsors, ticket revenue, etc.) before they can assess finances and agree budgets. For some teams in some competitions this may seem trivial, such as being in a league with no relegation or being 26 points ahead in 1st place. However, in leagues where continental football literally makes/breaks the balance sheets or promotion/relegation will determine the financial future of the club this cannot be done until such a fate is known. The difference between provisional and final budgets is competition draws (which round you'll be placed in, often based on factors out of the Board's/your hands) and the link to seasonal expectations, which themselves then tie into Club Vision.

A final consideration - the Board are not going to allow you to spend next season's budget before they know if you're keeping your job or not. Despite many having years left on contracts, managers are replaced regularly between seasons. Even for successful managers, what happens if you get a better offer or collapse and go from almost-certainly-safe to relegated?

[danielgear]

Thanks for reading Seb and getting back to me, What you have said certainly makes sense, and is understandable. 
hopefully the rest gave you some food for thought .

[Seb Wassell]

Reviewed, cheers, now locked.