#3 : Playing Poker (( Selling Players))

Finding Suckers

One of the most important aspects of playing FM™ effectively is the ability to make astute moves in the buying and selling of players at the clubs the player manages during his or her career.
  In the previous post, manager Tony Daggeroni has been placed in the uncomfortable position of pretty much having to sell his top goalscorer and best player, Patrick Aubameyang, who has requested a transfer.  In addition to that, his club is facing a relegation battle - mostly due to having a horrendous central defense - and will need to bring in new players soon to have any chance of saving their season by staying in the first division. The club desperately needs to 'cash in' on their star striker now, at a point where his current form acts as an advertisement to clubs potentially interested in the player.
   Since the player is ready to leave, the timing actually couldn't be better for Daggeroni and Saint-Etienne. There is a good chance that the club can get maximum value for Aubameyang in the upcoming transfer window.

The Fish and the Shark

Patrick Aubameyang was an excellent signing for Saint-Etienne.  Purchased the previous season for just £875,000 from Serie A side, AC Milan, the Gabonese youngster is now listed as being worth over £10m. As veteran FM™ players would know, it is often possible to sell a player for double or perhaps triple the player's 'worth', if one handles the transfer with savvy, times the deal to coincide with peak interest, and targets the right clubs.
    For many of the top 'super' clubs in Europe, money is of little concern when it comes to buying players. Therefore, it makes sense for Daggeroni to play a bit of poker, to try and get a lot more money for his best player than the player is  worth. How much more should Daggeroni be trying to get?
   The Saint-Etienne manager decides to set a price almost double the listed player value as his asking price for Aubameyang: £20m.  He is careful, however, to check the box deselecting the option to 'transfer list' the player and set his squad status to unneeded, since this will undoubtedly lower the Aubameyang's value in the market, since it makes the club look desperate to sell. 
    In truth, Daggeroni is somewhat desperate to move the player on - the club need money quickly, and his side is in poor form -  but he is also determined to get value in any deal involving this player, sticking with his hunch that he can get significantly more than the striker is worth.

  

Reality Check

 Daggeroni's gambit to sell Aubameyang at almost double his value - £20m - is unsuccessful; there are no 'sucker' clubs who are clamoring so earnestly for the striker to value him at such a price. This is a reality check - Aubameyang may be good, but he's not the next Messi, the market is saying -  so Daggeroni knocks down the price by £5m, to £15m.
   After this move by the Saint-Etienne manager,  German giants, Bayern Munich, throw their hat into the ring, biting the bait at the new price point of £15m. This is good news, thinks Daggeroni, until he looks at the details of the deal the Bavarians are offering:

Bayern are willing to pay less than £5m up immediately, and want to stretch the payment of the rest of the  £15m price - £10.5m -  over the next two years! This is a laughable proposition,  one which the Saint-Etienne manager wastes little time in turning down.  Daggeroni knows Bayern are not cash-strapped, and can afford more than £5m up front. He knows the Germans are  trying to snooker him. 

     It is advisable that one demand that clubs interested in buying players from the player's club pay the asking price up front in one payment. One reason for this is that demanding the full amount in a lump sum will 'weed out' clubs who are being overly-ambitious in seeking a player they cannot really afford. The other reason is to avoid having clubs 'cry poor' and gettting away with the slick antics such as the one shown above.
   In this case, it is easy for the player to turn the offer down, since his club needs virtually all of the transfer fee to be available immediately for the purchase of other players. But as a rule, even if one is fortunate enough to manage a rich club, it's better to get the bulk of the fee in a lump sum when selling players. It's simply a neater way to do business.
  
Called Bluff

 Despite the fact that Tony Daggeroni is playing 'hardball' with Bayern Munich over the Aubameyang deal, he is mindful of the fact that his position is weakening, because Bayern are the only club interested in the player at a price above his listed value. He could try to 'call' Bayern's bluff, and stand pat at his asking price of £15m. But, with the transfer window due to open shortly, and knowing that he needs the financial flexibility to find a number of players to bolster his squad, Daggeroni wants to get the deal done as soon as possible.  He decides to come down once more, to £11m.
  

Handshake

 

 At this point, Bayern are happy enough with the asking price that they are willing to pay the £11m in a lump sum, a significant increase from their initial offer of just £4.5m up front. In a sense, the deal is win-win, since the Germans got their man without paying a significant premium - courtesy of having no competition in the bidding - while Tony Daggeroni got slightly more than his player was worth, and can now turn his attention  to buying the necessary players at the very start of the transfer window. The situation was handled astutely by both parties in the deal, which, were it a football match, would have been said to have ended in a draw.

Conclusion

There are few ways to have misery rain down on an FM™ player's head than for one to mismanage a club's finances through committing egregious errors in the transfer market. There are a number of principles a player can keep in mind to prevent them making costly mistakes when buying or selling players, but they require the player to be disciplined, able to stick to the implementation of them,  even in the face of all sorts of pressures to push deals through. To recap, here are some of the principles to keep in mind when dealing with transfers in FM™:

• Seek Value / Play Poker - There is no shame in a player setting an asking price two or even three times the amount their player is worth at the outset of trying to sell him. If there are no offers for the player, a manager can feel comfortable lowering the price, while still knowing that a sale - bulk up front - would still be more favorable for the selling club than the buyer. In some cases a club will play the 'sucker', and come in for the player at the inflated rate.

• Timing - Players bought in mid-season are purchased mostly due to needs than wants, and thus their value  tends to increase during this period.

  In the case of Patrick Aubameyang, would the player be worth more at the end of the season? Perhaps, given his surge into the upper echelon of Ligue 1 goalscorers this season, the striker's value would have increased much  more than it was at the end of December come June. But, maybe not. It is equally  possible that the player could suffer a long-term injury,  stop scoring goals, or have some other setback see his value plummet.  It makes no sense to delay the sale of a player in top form - and who wants to leave - at a club where, if results don't improve soon, could see the manager himself shown the door within weeks. All signs are pointing to the 'sell now' button.

• Pay Attention - One of the most foolish things for an FM™ player to do, is sign off on a deal at the 'news' screen without looking at the details of said deal on the transactions page. Although the details are shown in the news item, from experience we know that many players do not read transfer / contract details in the news feed. Therefore, agreeing on a major deal without looking at it in detail is simply lazy. 

As has been shown, had Tony Daggeroni agreed to the initial deal Bayern were offering, he would have been left with less than £5m at his disposal to buy players with, and would have had to settle for monthly payments spanning two years, when he knows not whether he will even be at the club for another few months. Due diligence on the manager's part dictates that he get the most money he can get in any deal he completes in January.