This guide will all be about getting the best contracts you can, but more importantly not letting your players get away with loads of bonuses that at first seem to not matter but when you look at it further they can really screw you over in terms of money.

So here are some tips & tricks to avoid being ripped off.

1. Never offer them what they want
Never just offer the player what he & his agent ask for when you first offer a contract. They can always be negotiated. If you feel the offer is actually okay, still don't offer it. Remember, you can always revert back to the original offer via the button on the bottom of the screen, and there is always room for negotiation.

2. Check out the Agent

If you wish to read about agents in much more detail, Nasri wrote a terrific guide which you can find here.

To know how much room for negotiation there is, check out the agent. Here is the agent for my player Davide Lanzafame, who's contract I am trying to renew:



Wow, this guy is a bit of an arse from the sound of it! Firstly, notice the relationship. His is "unfriendly". We don't get on. This can be for a number of reasons, it's usually if previous negotiations have broken down, that kind of thing. Secondly, his 3 agent stats:
Willingness: 4 This is how much an agent will tout his players. The lower the better, as he will do it less.
Fee: 9 This is this guy's best stat. Here, the higher the number, the more the agents will ask for as their fee. So at 9, this guy is not too bad at all.
Patience: 7 Patience is the key stat for me. The higher this is, the more patient the agent is and the more times you can try and negotiate before they storm off. This guy has a low patience, so coupled with our bad relationship, it's going to be very hard to get a good deal here.

3. Reacting to the FIrst Offer
So here I've made Davide an offer than reflects his squad status in my opinion, more of a back up player than my key first choice that he was 2 seasons a go, and the agent has come back with this:



Firstly, note the agent's reaction. He is pleased with how it is going, which is good as I know I can afford a couple more rounds of negotiations at least. Now, lets take a look at the wage he wants, 72k pw? Firstly that's not allowed by my board for a player who I'm attempting to sign as a 'First Team' player. There's no way I'm going to go up to 'Key Player' to give him 72k. His contract is expiring in 6 months, and he is currently on 57k pw. For a player like this, I'm not too fussed to let him go, and I'm very much against the idea of giving him a wage rise right now. Now, continuing on from this point, lets talk about sneaky bonuses.

4. Sneaky Bonuses
FM players and their agents are sneaky buggers. In this offer from the agent, take a look at the bonuses Lanzafame wants:

Appearance Fee: 8.25k
That's £8.25k to him everytime he plays a game. Now, I'm in Europe, have a 38 game domestic season + cups, it's not unreasonable to imagine Davide would feature 50 times over the course of a season, but as he's not a key player for me I'd say 40 games is about right. Now, do the maths. 40 * 8.25k, or 40 * 8250 = £330,000. So over the course of the season, he is getting an extra £330,000 off me just for playing. No thank you. Appearance Fees are something I tend to reserve for youngsters and even then I'm careful.

Team of the Year Bonus (Division): 400k
This means if he is featured in the EPL's 'Team of the Year' we have to pay him £400k. This one you can be a bit more clever with, as I'm pretty sure he's not going to be in the team of the year. But even so, £400k is a lot of money, look out for this one.

Goal Bonus: 8.25k.
Over £8,000 just for scoring a goal? No thanks. Not so relevant for someone like Davide, who has scored just 4 goals so far this season, but if this was my main striker, who is on course to hit at least 30 goals, that's around £300,000 to him. So lets say, Davide plays 40 games this season (Appearance Fees totalling 0.33 mil) and scores 35 goals (he has an amazing season). That's over £600,000 extra I've paid him just to play well and do his job. That's horrendous!

5. Signing on Fees. You do the maths!
As saplingg mentions in his terrific guide on Wage Structures, giving a player a higher signing on fee can do two things:
- Firstly, it can persuade them to sign for you or accept the offer on the table.
- And secondly, it may well lower their demands for wages per week.
You have to figure out if it's cost efficient to give them more up front and less per week.

Take an example like this:
Player is asking for 50,000pw and a 500k signing on fee. This is not unreasonable. Over 52 weeks, you will pay that player a rather large 2.6million per year. (And you thought 50,000pw was actually a reasonably low wage!). Plus the signing on fee, you get to a total of 3.1 to sign this player and pay his wages for 1 year.
Lets now say he will only ask for 40,000pw if you give him 600k signing on fee. Again, do the maths:
52 * 40,000 = 2.08million per year in wages
Plus 600k up front = 2.68 million.
Bang. You've now saved yourself £402,000 over the course of one year just by giving him a bit more up front. What can seem like a small reduction in wage, 10k pw works out at 520,000 over the course of the year.

6. Another catch - Yearly Wage Rises
I've done this. I'll happily bet you've done this. There is a player who you are dying to sign, pulling out all the stops. And then you add a yearly wage rise. It's not too much, right? And then he signs. Joy! But how much is he going to get extra each year? Remember, the interest is compound (Hat tip to Jackk! for confirming that to me), so the increase is based on the player's current wage at that time.

Again, lets dive into Maths class. Lets say this player is earning 50,000pw. Below are the wage increases year on year for 3 seasons:

At 5% - Season 1: 50,000. Season 2: 52,500. Season 3: 55,125.
Lets pause and take a look at this. In total the player's wages will have gone up by 5,125. In season two you are paying him 2,500 extra, and in season 3 5,125 extra. Add those together - 7,825 extra each week. Times that by 52 for the year, and you have: 406,900. That's a hell of a lot of money.

But sometimes they need more persuading. Lets go for 10% extra:
At 10% - Season 1: 50,000. Season 2: 55,000. Season 3: 60,500
Doing the same as above - total increase is 10,500 - a huge figure. By the end of season 3 you will have paid this player 15,500 extra. That totals 780,000. That's a lot of money. Imagine if you had 3 players on a 10% increase all on 50k. You've lost over 2 million by the time you've had them for 3 seasons. Now, if you're Man City, that's fine, but if you're a lower EPL side, that's killer.

And just to hammer the point home, lets go for that 25% one. I'm sure you can see where this is going:
At 25% - Season 1: 50,000. Season 2: 62,500. Season 3: 78,125.
Total Increase = 28,125. Suddenly this guy, in 3 seasons has gone from 50k, pretty standard ish wage for an important player, to nearly 80k.
By the end of season 3 you will have paid him 12,500 extra in season 2, and a huge 28,125 extra in season 3. Totalling 40,625. That's a wage for another key player. And over the year? 2,112,500. Over 2 million.

I think I've proved my point with this one. Go very, very careful. I know it's tempting, but if your player needs so much convincing and extra cash to sign for you, is he really worth it?

7. Squad Status
Just a quick tip this one - if you bring a player's squad status up / down, they are going to expect more / less money. So if you're trying to get a player who wants more wages, try bringing his status down.

8. Match Highest Earner Clause
I stay far away from this. It is a clause a player can have meaning that their wage must always match the highest earner in your squad. Now, for me is is dreadful. I have a regen who is world class, I keep rejecting offers from various top clubs for him, and to keep him at the club he is paid just over 100k, which is at least 20k more than any of my other players. When I sign a player, say I let this new player have the "Match Highest Earner" clause. That's fine right now, this new player can get the 100k that my top player is on.

A couple of months down the line, and my star top player wants a new contract. Desperate for him to stay, I bow in (tut tut) to his demands and he leaves with a 150k pw contract. Suddenly that new player with the clause pops up in my inbox...ah.

Be very careful with this one. To be honest, I try to completely avoid it.

9. Contract Length
A very quick tip to finish - well done if you're still reading! Quick tip with contract length - if you're signing a player who you know can make an impact for 1 season, and then will be too old to keep playing - maybe you've forced Gary Lineker out of retirement - only give them a contract you feel they need. Only give players you most likely will get rid of 1 year. Any player you want to secure, give them 4-5 years. Remember, you can always offer new contracts.

To Conclude
I hope this guide has been useful to you and that it helps you save money down the line and you go on to be very successful and make millions!


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