Transfers is another area of the game that has been radically changed from previous FM games. You start with an initial set of, er.. 0 players. It’s your job to pick a selection of players with a total value of 500k, or use the auto-pick feature. Choosing the scout ‘class’ at the start of the game really helps here, as you have a larger pool of players to pick from. Players you sign will then be yours for 28 real-life days, or 1 season. You can only sell players who are 7 days into their contract, but can loan at any time. In addition, trialists can also be brought in at any time, so long as their wages are below £10K. The auto-pick is for new players only, but does work well in most cases – you probably won’t get any superstars, but populating a squad quickly can be useful if you just can;t wait to get into some matches.
What’s strange about this system is that the values of players is ridiculously low at the start – Cristiano Ronaldo, for example, is available for £3,250,000 – but as the market fluctuates, the prices for players owned by other clubs naturally goes with it, i.e. if you buy a player worth £50,000 for £500,000, the game models this against other purchases made by other clubs to determine what other player’s market value is – usually resulting in ridiculous player values given time.
Speaking of finance, this has also been changed to fit the online model. You are given around £100k in daily funds initially, with an overdraft set at £100K for 7 days. In order to increase revenue, you can join or host user-generated friendly competitions, loan or sell unwanted players, or increase your Finance skill. If you attempt to go over your overdraft, you’ll receive a swift veto hammer from your board – get used to this screen, as at first the implementation can be a little irksome, even if it is in your best interest.
