Good Tips for the Transfer Market in Football Manager Live

I’m not about to divulge any of my carefully guarded team tactics to anyone, but I think it would be useful to compile a list of things for newcomers of the game to think about when buying players. I’m doing very well in my league and I think that it’s down to, along with good luck, good success in the transfer market. These are not clear-cut rules as you ultimately need to use your own initiative. You might however, make use of these as a general rule of thumb for things to consider when going about your business:

Keep Your Shortlist Active

Make good use of the shortlist tool. Add players you’ve found on player searches as well as good players you’ve come up against in matches. Make sure you check the availability of the players now and again by emailing their owners. Be sure to remove the players that you no longer wish to pursue.

Buy Young 

No offense to those who’ve done this but the biggest fail I have come across in the game are people who don’t take the age of a player into account when selecting their squad. When trading it doesn’t matter if the stats of an older player are slightly better, a younger player is always the better commodity. A younger player has time to improve whereas an older player is only going to get worse. In my opinion, a player over 30 is too old to buy. If you come across some real youngsters (16-19y/o) with good stats then snatch them up. They may not be quite as good as first team players but could show real potential for the future, their wage demands will also be very low.

Buy Utility Players

Buy players who can play well in more than one position. If you’ve got a few versatile players you’ll cope better if you’re hit by injuries. You’ll also have more options for substitutions when a player plays more than one position. If your substitute plays on the left OR right wing, you have the choice of bringing off the winger who has had the least impact on the game.

Never Sell Your Top Performers

Make a concerted effort not to let go of anyone who’s playing well for you. You may get good offers for them but the money will do you no good if your results drop. Sell players from the positions you have adequate cover for and those who aren’t fitting into your squad. Don’t expect there will be plenty of free agents on the market to fill the place of your best players, there really won’t be. If they a player is good, affordable and playing well then they won’t be for sale!

Look For Weak Links

Sounds like an obvious thing to say but before you buy a player, make sure you know exactly where it is you need to build from. Just because you’re not getting goals it doesn’t necessarily mean you need a new striker, perhaps your midfield is not creating enough chances to get the goals. Go by form ratings: Consistency is the key, get players who’ll play well week in, week out, over players who are amazing one week and a waste of space the next. 

Get Star Power

Get at least one star player to build your team around. Acquire him either in your starting line-up or within your first month. Pick the best man for the job, weighing out acquisition fee, wage demand, overall attributes and strength of name:

Acquisition fee: (If bought in initial squad) Look to spend around 100 to 150 thousand. If you spend any more, the money you have left will not stretch to provide a decent enough squad. (If bought in first month) Feel free to spend up to 500 thousand. If you have a relatively low wage budget once you start the league and start getting your media payouts you may find your financial position strong enough to part with up half a million provided you’ve been frugal this first month.

Wage demand: Get the most reasonable wage demand for your money. Some players (usually the older ones) have relatively low acquisition fees but ask for very high wages. If you’re a lower league team I wouldn’t think about paying anything over 20 thousand per day. Try to get a player with wages that range from 10 to 14 thousand. Make sure your daily income is more than your daily wage bill. It’s better to splash out on acquisition fees if you’re still making a daily profit, whereas if you can’t afford your wage bills, your funds will just gradually deplete until you reach your overdraft limit, and then you’re in trouble! It will pay off in the long run to pay a bit extra in acquisition fee if the wage demand is much lower.

Overall attributes: A player you can build your team around is not somebody who simply gets you goals. Pick a player who has good stats overall, not just a finisher with pace. You want a player who passes well, marks well and is creative for example, someone who will do a bit of everything for you.

Strength of name: What I mean here is pick somebody who you have heard of basically (somebody who plays in the EPL.) If you have heard of them then other people probably have too. Even if it’s not a first team player people will usually recognise the name and will therefore be more interested when you intend to sell them.

Form is never going to be static. You will have some good games along with some shockers. Make sure you experiment with your team; find out which tactics work and which don’t. It will take you a couple of weeks to truly find your feet but once you have finalised a squad that suits your tactics perfectly, you will get the results. Happy transfers!