What Have Hull Got That We Haven't?

[Sandy Tait]

I'm genuinely perplexed by this one, and I'm clearly missing something... Hull and my team, Forest, were both in for picking up former Man City youngster Darko Gyabi on a free after his contract expired.  After some time thinking about he, it went for Hull.  Fair enough, you win some you lose some.  But then I saw the contract he'd accepted to go to Hull...  And that's after he'd gone back to them to get them to up their offer because while they were the preferred option their contract offer wasn't on a par with the one we'd offered him.  So I figured maybe he just hates Forest or he's a secret Hull City fan but I had a quick look at his personal info with the in-game editor and, nope, nothing for either club. Nothing for either manager or any of our staff, either. He's got a preference to not play for Man City, and he's fond of Stromsgodset after a good loan spell there, but that's it.  And it's not because they have a higher reputation - Forest have a bigger rep than Hull at this point in the save, and I have a bigger rep than their manager, too.  And we finished 9th last season while Hull finished 18th.

So can anyone tell me why, with no preferences or dislikes for either club, a player would accept a poorer contract at a smaller club in a worse position and with a weaker squad?  Is the player AI smart enough that he's looking at how many midfielders I have and thinking there's too much competition for 1st team places?  I need to know!! xD

(Below is the contract he accepted to join Hull, and bottom is the contract offer he had from us.)

[Djecker]

Manager rep? Playing time offered?

[FrazT]

It is difficult to be sure but it could be that Hull were offering a higher amount of game time/squad status, which for a young player can be sometimes more important that the money.  As was s said above, maybe the Hull manager had a higher reputation or a better record?

[Sandy Tait]

10 hours ago, Djecker said:

Manager rep? Playing time offered?

Ahh, playing time could be it.  I offered Breakthrough Prospect, which is what he asked for, but if they went for Squad Player or something then yeah I can see how that might have swung it.

[santy001]

Combined with player time, minimum fee release clauses (that aren't relegation based) seem to skew heavily in a players decision. Especially at £10m, that's a snip for a Premier League club if he does develop well so it is a huge allure.