iantarver

Am I right in saying that on the whole in real life players minimum fee release clauses are not public knowledge (apart from mainly in Spain). I was just wondering if this is the case that in future versions of FM a players min fee release clause does not get shown on the buy player screen unless perhaps as a footnote from his agent that could say something like, "Player X's agent informs you that his client is very interested in joining your club and would like to inform you that he has a minimum fee release clause of £xx,xxx,xxx".

I know some players have public minimum fee clauses such as Owen I believe I heard once but I just think that it might make the game a bit more exciting when you discover that a player you are really interested in has this clause.

Any thoughts??

DontCallItSoccer

There was a suggestion (yesterday, I think) to blank out the player's value, similar to the attribute masking, so the idea of masking contract details, etc, would fall into the same "bucket".

The question is how easy it would be to find out, for example, would it be revealed in the same way as attributes, assuming that if you send scouts, the player's agent might inform the scout. Especially if you scout a player multiple times.

Or could you simply have an option to "Approach Agent", who will then let you know everything you need?

Makes finding the right player a bit harder.

Klimowicz

tapping up?

i'm not certain, but you would think that there is some kind of database scouts can access to find out contract information. it wouldn't make sense irl if clauses were hidden, as players negotiate these terms themselves to make themselves available.

and remember, if they were hidden, the AI would still know what the clauses are, and you would feel gutted if one of your targets had a £5M clause and got signed by your rivals before the window opened.

not a terrible idea, but pointless when the AI could exploit it.

iantarver

[/quote]not a terrible idea, but pointless when the AI could exploit it.[/quote]

Yeah I see your point but surely there is a way that they would still have to send scouts to your club or whatever, or maybe if you have a player that does not want to leave the scout could inform you that other clubs are sniffing around and then you could renegotiate with the player a new contract with a higher min fee release or none at all.

On a personal note I never really offer them anyway, if a player must have one I find he never turns it turn if you make it £80million anyway.

backpackant

I think that is an excellent idea, and more like real life. Everyone suspected Michael Owen had a release clause at Newcastle but no one knew about it until it was almost expired. Which raises another suggestion:

More clauses within the release clause. Michael's, for example, meant he could move to a Champions League-qualified team if they offered £xxxxx (15m I think). It also had a time-limit as to when it expired. At least that's what was reported. Am sure there were other conditions attached too, like if Newcastle qualified for the ECL the clause would either expire or increase.

It would help mid-table teams buy in bigger players. Not suggestion you should need a lawyer sat beside your PC while you play, but a few more clauses would be useful.

As Leeds, 1st season back in the Prem, when a player says he isn't interested I always insert a "0" relegation release clause. Doesn't always work, but helps. Am sure the Aston Villas and Tottenhams out there would benefit from the ECL release clause.

DontCallItSoccer

Contracts IRL tend to be more complicated than in FM. For example, Rafael van der Vaart signed a 5-year deal with Hamburg, but has a release clause of only 1.5m euro in season 4. I don't think you can construct deals like that in FM.

I'm also aware of major deals being paid off in annual chunks, as opposed to monthly payments, which, again, isn't possible in FM. (An option that makes more sense in some cases, e.g. if your club just about breaks even every month, but gets a blast of TV money at the start of every season.)

Buying and selling players is one of the fun aspects of the game, apart from the matches themselves, so I would hope for a bit of an overhaul for the next release, as this part of the game has been a bit static for some time now.