A players value is only determined by what a club is willing to sell for or release clause IRL. there is nothing to say that x player is worth x amount.
God dammit. When none of 300 top players in the world gets tranfer listed after 3 years in the save and the clubs won't even accept 200% bid for unhappy player then there is something wrong. If a player is happy and important player for the club your statement works, other it doesn't
I have to agree with Pepassi.
Player X does not get a value set by want the demand of others say, but by a complex system to turn that player X an active in the balance sheet of a company (this case club).
If that active tend to depreciate in value because of some reason (age, for example), the company/club will try to replace it for another active that is or could turn into a start player.
Now, concerning want you say, release clauses don't show the true value of a player. many clubs use them to protect themselves and force clubs to negotiate with them, even for inferior values. I saw that some english newspapers made a story about Nakata, a Japanese players that came to Portugal and it had set a Release of 60 Mill. They stated that the player is not worth it.
lets say that they where right and the release clause should be the value that Sporting payed for him, something like 1 Mill €.
Again, in theory, the guy starts playing and scores 22 goals in the 1st 15 matches, a prodigy!
Sporting would be completely stupid to let a player like that to go for that price, but ofc they are not going to ask for 60 Mill.
This is why release clauses don't show the true value of a player.
Now, lets say that Messi was unhappy because he couldn't go to real Madrid. He asks the board to let him go and they say no, leaving a frustrated player in the squad. I accept that he understands that its not simple to let a player go just because and he stays, but after 3 season, 100 goals and still nothing, he gets frustated as **** for not going into theg club and here is where SI is failing! At this point, the club, IRL would let him go and get the money.