How do you deal with wage demands?

[LetsNotScoreGoals]

It's ridiculous, I'm trying to offer new contracts and I'm not allowed to modify the demands. The only change I made was knock the wage down by a click (-25k/w) but I left everything else as is, but the agent is not having it. I try to modify other clauses also by one click but the agent just gets more and more angry. I literally cannot modify anything. I'm not paying 400k for a single player, I already had to sell a guy asking for 600k! (And of course because transfer in this game is stupid af, I still have to pay half his wages for the next 5 years).

[zyfon5]

Not entirely clear of what your situation is. If you have a player already on 600k, be prepared for someone asking 400k. Hence very important to establish a wage structure in your team. If any player is asking for big wages, you can just reject them if you feel it is not worth it. Do not always cave in to their demands.

Some tips to save wages:

1) Let them run out their big contract and leave for free if needed. You can always find a cheaper replacement.

2) trimming down your squad is very important to get rid of deadwood so that the wage bill you saved can be given to your star players.

3) use young players. Younger players tend to have slightly lower wage demands.

4) before you sign any players, their wage demands need to be taken into account 

[santy001]

I posted this in another thread, but personally for me the journey to the top is incredibly expensive. Certain key players I might not be able to replace like-for-like I will give in to and keep happy before I'm fully established. Once I'm established, I will keep players tied down to long contracts and either reject their demands and wait them out or sell them. 

You have to be careful how you pick your battles, because if enough players call you on it and become unhappy it can create a toxic element in the team. Only really happened to me in one save and even then I rode it out, still able to win enough to eventually bring players back around.

[sporadicsmiles]

4 hours ago, LetsNotScoreGoals said:

It's ridiculous, I'm trying to offer new contracts and I'm not allowed to modify the demands. The only change I made was knock the wage down by a click (-25k/w) but I left everything else as is, but the agent is not having it. I try to modify other clauses also by one click but the agent just gets more and more angry. I literally cannot modify anything. I'm not paying 400k for a single player, I already had to sell a guy asking for 600k! (And of course because transfer in this game is stupid af, I still have to pay half his wages for the next 5 years).

Keep key players on long contracts and always make sure they have at least two years left on their contract as a minimum. Then you can just say no to their wage demands and negotiate in the future when they may ask for less. You do not have to worry about them running their contracts down if you upset them. The only players who should enter the last year of their contracts are players you do not mind losing for a free. This is one of the basics of good squad building. 

And if you give a player 600k you are not going to be able to sell him because only a handful of teams could even begin to afford that, and if he is not literally a top 5 player nobody is going to pay that much. This is also just bad squad management. 

[Freakiie]

Or just use FM cheese! Lower your wage budget and suddenly players think you're broke and won't demand much anymore! Why this is still a thing throughout the years I honestly don't know, but it works like a charm.

[XaW]

14 hours ago, LetsNotScoreGoals said:

It's ridiculous, I'm trying to offer new contracts and I'm not allowed to modify the demands. The only change I made was knock the wage down by a click (-25k/w) but I left everything else as is, but the agent is not having it. I try to modify other clauses also by one click but the agent just gets more and more angry. I literally cannot modify anything. I'm not paying 400k for a single player, I already had to sell a guy asking for 600k! (And of course because transfer in this game is stupid af, I still have to pay half his wages for the next 5 years).

So what are you having issues with? Just refuse if the wage demands are over the top. If the player is that important, you pay what's needed.

I for one, NEVER accept ridiculous wage demands, and I'd rather let any player leave rather than pay more than I think the player is worth. Whenever a player ask for a new contract I look at what they are payed compared to others who are equally important in my squad and if he is lower, I can give him a small boost if his contract is on the shorter side. Otherwise, I'll flat out refuse and tell him to stuff it. I have no other basis for this other than my own anecdotal experience, but I feel the more I cave in to demands, the more demands (and more outrageous demands) I get get. Shutting players down regularly, I don't have many unwarranted demands, I feel.

The only exception to this is when higher rated teams are after one of my players, then they will have higher demands than usual, but I don't mind that. It's quite realistic.