We’ve all been there. You find a once-in-a-lifetime gem in your scouting reports, and you decide to continue scouting and even request an analyst’s report. However, when your scouts return, they come bearing bad news that the player is not interested in playing for your club.
Sounds familiar, right?
Over the years, we’ve seen real-life clubs struggle to sign players they are really interested in. In the 2022 summer transfer window, Manchester United declared interest in Barcelona midfielder Frenkie De Jong, and despite multiple attempts, offers, and media props, the Dutch ace decided to remain with the Spain giants.
If you’ve played Football Manager, you definitely have experienced this or something like it. Luckily, there are ways that you can unsettle a player you want to sign and help change his mind about your club.
How to Unsettle a Player in Football Manager
‘Extremely Doubtful’ or ‘Not Interested’ are two phrases every FM player hates to see under the Transfer Interest tab in a scout report. Especially when this player isn’t above your league and fits perfectly into your system. Don’t give up though! There’s still a chance you can sign that player, and even if you miss him in this transfer window, you’ll get him in the next, or next two.
So, what can you do?
Here are some tips to guide you along:
#1 Transfer Enquiry
After you’ve fully scouted the player and found him perfect, make a transfer enquiry about him. This is not a transfer offer; it’s more about finding what it might take to sign the player and how important he is to his current club. Send your enquiry directly to the club and not the player’s agent because he/she will most likely repeat what you read in your scout reports.
When you enquire from the club, depending on how important the player is, you might receive a mail saying he’s untouchable, or they might reply with a very high transfer fee. Anyway, you’ve indicated an initial interest, and if lucky, you’ve also got a transfer fee.
#2 Publicly Declare Interest
One of the best ways to unsettle a player in Football Manager is by declaring him a transfer target or a top transfer target if you manage a high-reputation team.
Immediately after you do this, you’ll get a mail from a journalist asking you to comment on the rumours linking you to that player.
If you make the right statements, like affirming your interest and making claims that you’re working on signing the player. After a while, you’ll get a reply from the player through the media, and you might start noticing changes in his interest.
#3 Become a Scout
If you have exciting talents in your squad, you may have received a post-match mail about another manager that came to watch one of them play. You can be like them too because there’s nothing that screams interest more than travelling several miles amidst a busy schedule to watch another player.
To do this, go to the player’s club schedule and find a game that doesn’t clash with your personal schedule. Click attend, and on that day, you’ll be in the stadium watching as you do with your team.
You can click on the – to attend a match. If successful, you should see something like this:
After the game, you’ll get a mail about a news report confirming your attendance and interest in that player. Every player loves to be appreciated, and the more matches you attend, the more interested he gets.
#4 Media Hype
Who doesn’t like a world-class player hyping them up in the media? No one! This is an underrated feature in Football Manager and one that’s mostly used by the game’s AI.
You must have seen news along the lines of “Kevin De Bruyne Encourages Jude Bellingham to make big money switch to Manchester City” on your news feed several times. This is a very helpful tool to sign a player you’re really interested in.
You can get your star player to hype up a player you’re interested in by using the ‘get top player to promote move.’ To do this, go to your star player’s profile, click on the Interaction tab, and choose the ‘Promote club to Top Target via press’ option.
Using a player with the same nationality or previous relationship will increase the efficiency of the feature, but there isn’t a need for an existing relationship if your player is world-class or highly influential.
#5 Sign Their Friends
This is another underrated FM hack many players don’t know or use. Every player in the game has his favoured personnel listed at the bottom of their profile or Information page (2022 and above). These people could be coaches, players (current and retired), or staff members that have a good relationship with the player you’re interested in.
If you truly want to unsettle a player and show your undying interest in him, you can sign one or two of his favoured persons. In addition to being an immense show of interest, signing a player’s friend will help the player settle faster should he sign for you.
These are some of the factors these players consider when debating a move.
#6 Make Your Offer
These above steps can take a while to complete, and when you’re done, the next move is to submit an official transfer bid. By now, the player’s interest rating should have at least changed to ‘Slightly Interested.’
If the player’s current club truly values that player, there’s a chance that your bid will be rejected. When that happens, repeat the above steps and end with another transfer bid. If you continually do this, you’ll fully unsettle the player, and he might start pushing for a move. Sometimes, they might send in a transfer request to their club, allowing you to snap them up for a reduced transfer fee.
The Bottom Line
Transfers in Football Manager are one of the true beauties of the game. The joy of signing a player you’ve been scouting for months and the pains of losing one to another team. It’s all part of the game and the reasons why we adore it!
We all know how painful it is to scout an absolute gem only to discover that he has no interest in signing for you. One of the best ways you can change his mind is by unsettling him. Here, I covered some tips you can use to unsettle an uninterested player and have him yearning for your club’s badge.
Nevertheless, you won’t always sign the players you want. There are many factors that determine a player’s interest, and sometimes you won’t get a player no matter how hard you try. These factors include your reputation, club status, wages, current league, and location. However, if you’re having issues signing players you know you should be signing, these tips will greatly help you.
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