The transfer market is a make-or-break part of any Football Manager 26 career, with good recruiting essential if you want to get the most out of your club. To do that, it’s important to make sure you’re not making unforced errors in your recruitment process. Learning about what not to do can set you up for success when the next window opens.
Five Signings To Avoid Before They Wreck Your Club
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Before you hit confirm on your next inbound transfer, check that you’re not about to make one of these all-too-common mistakes:
Anyone With A Transfer Fee In The Lower Leagues
One of the first things that happens when you start up a new position with a club is a conversation with the board about your financials, specifically your budget available for salary and transfer fees. As a new player, it can be tempting to think this provides a reasonable framework to work within, to serve as a guiding light as you come to grips with your new club.
If you’re at a club in the lower reaches of the sport and there is any money in your transfer kitty, however, using it as suggested would be a terrible waste of resources. If you’re doing a minnow to mighty playthrough where you’re at a semi-pro or barely professional club, there is almost certainly no need to spend any money on transfer fees.
Instead, you should be looking to free agents and loan signings in the window while directing your scouting to look at players out of contract or who will be out of contract next window or next season. You can find all the players you need to build a league-winning team by simply signing these free players, and shifting all budget from fees into salary maximizes how much you can spend doing so.
Young Potential Monsters Who Will Develop Slower Than Your Club
Potential is one of the most enticing sirens in the game, and with good reason, as the right wonderkid can provide you with a decade or more of stellar play en route to you both becoming club legends. Unfortunately, particularly at lower clubs, it can be easy to get so excited about a lot of stars that you overlook what those stars are actually telling you.
A sixth division club eying up a move for a young player who is a half-star now but has five star potential can seem like a great piece of planning for the future, but it’s important to check what those high star ratings actually translate to or else you may end up with a player who realizes their potential only to find that said potential doesn’t even make them a squad player by the time they’ve done so.
Consider, for example, a club in the National League South that makes a move for an undeveloped teenager who has the potential to be a leading League Two player. While this could seem like a slam dunk signing, even if that player reaches that high mark that would make him better than anyone the club ever had at the time of the signing, if it takes five years and the club has three promotions you just spent money and several years of development on making a really good player for the league you just promoted out of.
Low Floor, High Ceiling Players You Lack The Infrastructure To Develop
Another easy mistake to make when it comes to potential is thinking that it is more set in stone than it actually is. There are two important things to consider before going all-in on what might be instead of focusing on what is: your talent assessment capabilities and your development abilities.
For starters, your scouts may be simply wrong about the player’s potential, particularly if you’re at a smaller club with less-accomplished staff. Even if that estimation is correct, you also need to be able to develop the player effectively for them to reach it. If you have poor coaching and facilities, your players will not develop to their full capability, meaning your potential future star could instead be a flop.
A Big Name Who No Longer Has The Physical Tools To Compete
On the complete other side of the spectrum, another popular shopping option is to scoop up a player with experience at the highest levels who is now available for cheap to your club. While established talent can certainly be a huge boon, particularly below the top flight, with high technical skill allowing for dominant play, it’s important to check their physical ability, too.
Can a 38-year-old Victor Moses dribble circles around a non-league defender? Probably. Will that do him any good if he’s so slow they simply catch up to have a second bite of the apple? Not particularly. Always check that you’re not being seduced by a hot rod that can no longer get into gear.
Superstar Talents Who Hate The Spotlight
If you want to make it to the top of the sport, you will ultimately need to acquire a roster of players with superstar abilities to get the job done. When doing so, make sure that you’re paying attention to their traits as well.
Nothing can undo a Champions League run like a team whose best players are afraid of big games. It doesn’t do you any good to bring in players capable of bringing you to the top of the table if every time they’re in a game to get a trophy across the line, they turn into a shambling mess. The mental game can be every bit as important as the technical or physical one, so don’t get caught neglecting it.
Scouting and signing is an inexact science, and that’s what makes a game like Football Manager so fun, but by watching out for these common errors, you can improve your chances of landing more hits than misses on your way to the top.
