Today I'm going to show you how to save money on every single contract on Football Manager. In fact, I have one tip that is so sneaky that if you do it right, you might become so corrupt that FIFA will want to hire you immediately.The goal of every contract negotiation is the same as the goal of the transfer negotiation; you want to save as much money as possible.
I would like to start by talking about squad status, it is something often that's overlooked, but the team status will indicate what kind of wages will the player and the agent ask. It makes sense that the key player will ask for more money than the youngster, because the key player will be more valuable to your team in the short term. Also, players don't like short term contracts because this brings them a lot of instability. Now, this rule is a little bit different for smaller teams and players nearing the end of their career; they are more likely to accept the short term contract.
But generally speaking, a shorter contract means you will have to pay the player a lot more because you are making up for that uncertainty with cold hard cash.
ALSO READ: Tips for Buying Players More Easily in Football Manager
Every time you enter a contract negotiation I recommend lowering every single item on the list by little bit except for the agent fee. Mostly the agents in the game will happily accept reduced fees if it means they will still get a lot of money.
Once you have brought down initial demands, it is time to start playing around with clauses and bonuses.
If you are looking to purchase a promising youngster, you should look to offer low based salary and a lot of future incentives. You should look to give a yearly increase in wages between 5 and 15 percent. One thing you can do is to set a specific salary after appearances or international appearances, and this is very useful because if you know you are not going to use someone a lot, you won't need to pay them a lot of money for a certain amount of time. So again, if you are signing a youngster, you want to offer a low base salary and a lot of future incentives to save yourself some money.
Now on to the secret tip, but bear in mind if you don't do this properly you could royally screw yourself up.
If you add a sell on fee clause of 50% on any contract a likelihood of the player signing is HUGE. This fee can be beautiful because it lets you lower all other expenses in the contract. However, you should only use this clause on players you have no intention of selling. So, if you are signing a world-class player or if you're signing someone at the end of their career, this can be a significant fee to sign a player more smoothly. But if you are contracting some youngster from whom you want to profit of, with this clause in effect you will not make any money, and you will lose money in the long term.
If a release clause is a part of your league, then you can also try adding a high release clause of let's say 100 million and then add a sell on fee percentage of 50% as well. The main takeaway here is that the sell on fee percentage can be a tremendous asset for you, it can help you reduce the rest of the contract costs, and if you misuse it, then you are going to lose on a whole bunch of money.
Always think critically before applying it, because once you apply it and once that contract goes through, the chances are that on the next negotiation the player is not going to give up on the 50%.
This tip comes handy to all of you who like to switch clubs on a regular basis as it wont affect you anymore once you take charge at the new club.
