Bundesliga Sell-out

[Goofyco]

Dear all,

After some months without FM12 I started a new game. Because i wanted a fast game with main focus on transfer policy and long-term development I only selected the German Bundesliga as playable and all other leagues as viewable-only. The player database started with only 6000-7000 players.

Now I am in the second half of the season and to me it seems that, beginning in the second transfer periods, many foreign top clubs start to buy the best players in the Bundesliga. For example, Arsenal bought Okazaki from Stuttgart, Flum from Freiburg and even another not so famous guy. FC Porto bought 4 German players and so on.

My suspicion is that because of the few players in the database (which are mainly German), that this will continoue for the whole game. Of course, this is very unrealistic because, many of these players are not good enough and secondly because the quality of the Bundesliga will be reduced over time.

Has anyone experienced this before?

Thanks,

Goofyco

 

[Kiltman67]

The flipside is that if lots of German players are getting bought out of Germany then there's lots of foreign cash flooding into the Bundesliga. That cash can always be invested in training and developing young players. It may become hard to keep your players, but you should be able to bring youngsters in. You did say that you were interested in long-term development, so this seems like it should be a good situation for you.

As long as the cash is circulating around the league, and all of the teams are doing the same then I don't see why the reputation of the Bundesliga shouldn't increase over time.

As an example of how things can go: In my current save (2023) my team, Man Utd, bought a young striker from Newcastle for £50m (young, English player, moving from club to club in the Premier League... The perfect storm to inflate transfers!). Newcastle didn't rush out and blow £50m on another striker. Instead they consolidated, became "Rich", and a couple of years later they were in second place for much of the season. It's hard to know for sure, but can't help but think there might be a link there.

 

[Goofyco]

Hey Kiltman67,

Yes, it brings new cash into the league ...
On the other side, selling 3-4 key players for, let's say, around 5 mn each, can be really devastating for a Bundesliga club in the short term. I'am curious how they will will re-invest that money at the end of the season. I don't say that i am afraid of loosing my top players. I can "defend" myself very well and keep the best players but i think the AI of the other clubs always sells players at some point. Of course, this is good for me because the Bundesliga competition gets weaker but its not realistic.
In my previous games i always selected Bundesliga, Premier Leage, Seria A and La Liga as playable, the long term development was very realistic and balanced... unfortunately my laptop is not fast enough for that setting :-(

 

[Kiltman67]

On the other side, selling 3-4 key players for, let's say, around 5 mn each, can be really devastating for a Bundesliga club in the short term. I'am curious how they will will re-invest that money at the end of the season. I don't say that i am afraid of loosing my top players. I can "defend" myself very well and keep the best players but i think the AI of the other clubs always sells players at some point. Of course, this is good for me because the Bundesliga competition gets weaker but its not realistic.

That is a good point, and I am a little suspicious about "negotiations" between AI clubs. As mentioned, I've bought one player for £50m, and just tried to buy a player from Liverpool who are demanding £120m. I rarely, if ever, see an AI team pay more than £40m to buy a player from another AI team. So either they're much wiser than I am, or the selling team gives in easily.

That said, I think there's another tendency for teams, particularly rich ones, to buy new star players at the beginning of each season, whether they're needed or not. Man City are huge offenders on this one, both in real life as well as FM. In my save, Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool all do the same.

Maybe the willingness to sell for low prices is countered by the willingness to buy "unneccessary" players, with us covering the bill by being the only managers overpaying for players.

One thing I will say though is that it's not impossible to sell 3-4 key players for £20m in total, and bring in young talent in the same positions. It just becomes more about gathering depth, rather than gathering stars.

 

[robboo]

im currently managing furth in the bundasliga not the biggest or richest club in germany a ground of only just over 15000(they wont make it bigger) i have had to sell players because of the size of the club but the board were very good and they re invested the money in training ground youth recruitment and so on.im in my 4th season with them the 1st season i finished 8th the 2nd i finished 3rd and the 3rd season i finished 1 point behind bayern in 2nd.the point im trying to make is clubs in germany dont go into administration they are all finacially sound even the smaller clubs they fill there stadiums every home game even when they are doing poorly this is why the bundasliga is 1 of the best leagues in the world. after 3 seasons with furth on fm i am no longer having to sell my best players. and if you look at the german youth system its amazing they get so many class players come through there systems and long may it continue.