So, you’re trying to balance your club’s finances. You’re going through your squad and notice three or four once-great players who won’t cut it anymore.
Maybe you’re trying to get rid of ‘stepping-stone’ players just like Man City had to do a couple of years ago while rebuilding its squad.
Either way, they have to go and you decide to sell them. I mean, your side revolved around them just a couple of seasons ago, so there’s probably somebody out there who wants to sign them for good money, right?
Right?
Days go by, and not a single offer comes through.
Turns out, getting rid of deadwood players is harder than you thought.
Well, I’ve been there myself, and I know it’s a struggle. What’s worse, these players are likely eating out your wage budget, making it almost impossible to sign a suitable replacement.
Here, I’ll show you how to get rid of deadwood players and make clubs want to buy them for actual money. No mutual termination, no extra fees, just cold, hard cash in exchange for useless players.
How to Sell Off Unwanted Players
Here are 4 tips to get rid of any unwanted player in your squad:
#1 Play Them in Friendlies Against Weaker Sides
Sometimes, all it takes to get rid of deadwood is just a couple of friendlies. The logic is there: more time spent playing against weaker sides means better ratings, and better ratings lead to more clubs willing to buy your players.
Keep in mind that, for this tip to work, you won’t simply need to win matches, you’ll need to dominate your opponent all game long.
Your deadwood players need to shine, so I suggest playing them in more aggressive positions, where they’ll be able to collect more assists and goals than normal.
This tip will work best for top-flight clubs since they have the most chances of crushing relatively well-known teams while using weaker players.
So, how do you set up friendly games where your deadwood can be under the spotlight?
All you have to do is open the Schedule screen and get to the Fixtures tab. There, you can click on Arrange Friendly and set it up to your liking. Make sure to select clubs with a higher or at least similar reputation to yours.
#2 Improve Your Club’s Reputation
Struggling to offload players with enormous wages? What you need to do is improve your club’s reputation so that better, richer clubs will become interested in buying them from you.
This tip works best with clubs from lesser leagues or mid-table ones in the top leagues in Europe or South America.
Here’s how you check your club’s reputation. Open the “Club Info” tab on the left side of your screen, and look for the Reputation rating near your club’s logo. You want to aim for at least 3,5 stars, which will get you a “Continental” rating.
However, this isn’t going to be quick. The only way to improve your club’s reputation is through repeatedly going above and beyond expectations and winning lots of silverware. So, this is more of a long-term fix to avoid being stuck with deadwood in the future.
Just a quick heads up: don’t focus on cup games. Most of all, you want to dominate your league and continental competitions like the Champions League or the Copa Libertadores.
Playing friendlies against clubs with a higher reputation could also help!
#3 Don’t Set An Asking Price And Play The Auction Game
Sometimes, setting an asking price could scare away potential buyers.
Instead, I suggest offering your deadwood to clubs without setting one, just to test the waters and see what offers you receive.
Yeah, you could end up losing money overall, but that’s fine. After all, your goal is to just get some players off the books without terminating their contracts!
What I like to do when I receive an offer for my deadwood is play the auction game. It’s pretty simple: clubs come up with an offer for your player and I reject it. Then, I would set a slightly higher asking price and offer the player to clubs again.
Once you reach a price tag other clubs aren’t willing to match, you go back to the highest price you got offers for and settle for that. Easy money!
I’ve sold quite a lot of unwanted players this way, bolstering my club’s finances in the process. Try it out and see where it brings you.
#4 Interact With Your Players, The Right Way
Say you’re managing a club like Barçelona. You’re stuck with ageing players who don’t want to leave, eating up your vacillating finances. You can try to offer them to other clubs and a message pops up, saying they might not react well to you trying to offload them.
Don’t worry, it happens all the time, even in real life. For example, take Donny Van De Beek. He doesn’t want to leave Man United, even though he doesn’t play that often and would have a much easier time shining at Everton.
However, there’s a way out.
You’ll notice a small “Explain Why Offering To Clubs” box on the bottom right side of the “Offer To Clubs” window. Click on it, and you’ll have the option to talk to those players who don’t want to leave.
You’ll enter a dialogue with them and their agent. Now, you want to select the bottom left box.
Then, click on the “Convince” option, and you’ll be able to set a reasonable price to sell them for.
After a price tag is agreed upon, the player will walk away from the conversation, willing to be sold and with a boosted mood. And the job is done!
You will now start receiving transfer offers for those players, and they’ll be glad to negotiate a contract with a new club.
The Bottom Line
Selling players is harder than ever in FM22. It’s almost never easy to offload an unwanted player for the price you want, especially at lower-level clubs.
However, you have a couple of options: letting them play more; improving your club’s reputation; avoiding setting an asking price; interacting with them if they don’t want to go.
Follow these tips, and your deadwood will be gone quicker than ever!
If you’re looking to buy the latest football merchandise from your favourite club, you can check out the latest deals at Kitbag.
Subscribe to Telegram and Twitter to get the latest updates!
Are you passionate about football and want to earn some side income?
