Contract Query

How does a player (w/ agent) determine what contract to request and who they sign for?

The reason I ask is because in my current game (FMC), I looked into signing Fernando Torres (32 years old) with my newly promoted Sunderland side after he was released by Chelsea. When entering contact discussions with his agent his wage requests were around the £50k pw mark with signing/agent fees between the £500k-£1m mark. Seeing this, I had to withdraw my interest because I simply couldn't afford to bring him on board in a rotational capacity. However, a little time passes and I play my first few pre-season games and return to take a look to see if he was still unsigned, after I getting my budget adjusted a little. Turns out he signed for Parma in Serie B on a contact worth £4.2k with no bonus - just a promotion increase and relegation wage decrease clause. How the hell does that work?

I've noticed similar in previous games and but never quite to this drastic extent. Obviously, not every player moves for money, but I feel in this case the difference between the original demands, and to what he signed for, a touch beyond comprehensible. More so when he's dropped down a playing division in the process.

Surely something that should be looked at going forward?

I'll brainstorm / knowledge dump;

- A players demands lower the longer he is out of contract as his reputation is slowly decreasing, I always make a habit of checking the demands of free agents every few days as they do tend to slide
- Has he changed agent? Maybe the new agent has links to Italy
- Does Fernando have a preference to play in Italy set in the editor? (not a clue)
- Does he have a friendly relationship with the manager at Parma?
- Have they given him a coaching role as part of the deal?
- This is FM, FM does silly things.

Its one of those minor annoyances, I think FM is right to have big-name players drop down divisions (last year I managed to get Fernando Torres to Sheff Utd after his Chelsea release and we were in the Championship, he cost me 28k a week), but this Torres one is the perfect example of things not aligning correctly. Chances are, interest in Torres cooled, his rep went down, his demands followed and Parma were the only club willing to snap him up at that precise moment in time.

I factored in most of those situations into the equation, none really played a part in being a definitive factor from what I could see at face value. Of course, it's understandable to see those points playing some part in the decision process generally speaking, but not to the extent that has been witnessed this time around. The difference between me entering contract talks and going back would have one the matter of days, not so much weeks. Which is what baffles me. If he was without a club for awhile I can fully understand far reduced terms from the time of his initial release and the dropping down of divisions. This would have to be the extreme side of the coin.

I'd consider this something that does need to be looked into. Somewhat feels like the AI gets an unfair advantage being able to hustle such deals, particularly when it comes to picking up a still fairly reputable striker; (even if just by name), in a division he's still clearly too good for. A more reasonable balance needs to be struck.

Double Post.

Some fine tuning of the mechanics behind it and the introduction of a new feature could do the world of wonders here. In these situations the agent should come back to you saying his client is now willing to renegotiate with lowered terms. In real life if this had happened surely Torres' agent would have contacted you, so if he originally wanted 50k then he could come back wanting 35k, but in this situation you know you hold the power and you could realistically pull it down to 20/25k since the only other offer on the table is 5k.