Negotiation skills

One of the most important skills you can possess as an individual is an ability to negotiate with your fellow players. Unlike AI, humans possess radically different characters and you should change your approach depending on who you are dealing with. But first some general principles:

1. Good manners cost nothing. Being rude automatically makes a deal less likely to go through.
2. Never sell a first team player unless you know how you are going to replace that player's value to the team.
3. Don't be rushed into making decisions. If you own the player, you own the clock.
4. Never accept the first offer. A sensible manager's opening offer will be less than his maximum. Always ask yourself what else you could get thrown into the deal. Often you can casually ask for a 4+ star youth player to be thrown in the deal.
5. Every player has a price. Your job is to know it. Sentimentality is for the weak. Lionel Messi is worth less than two almost as good players to your team.
6. Famous players are worth more for sentimental reasons. If a manager has Arsenal in his team name, he is probably going to pay over the odds for any Arsenal players you hold. Always check which team managers support when you negotiate with them.
7. Some attributes are worth more than others. Players with 20 pace, or 20 long shots, or 20 freekicks will always command a premium.
8. As soon as a player opens private chat with you take a look at his players, sort by AF and review a few that look attractive to you. In particular look for good players not in his starting team or unprotected. He is most likely to trade these players.

The different types of characters you will come across require different negotiation approaches. From my personal experience, here are some personas and how I have tried to deal with them.

1. The vocal high ranker. Has a good team and knows it, always gets what he wants, knows the game very well, will never sell you his players but will demand your best players be sold to him.

These guys are difficult to buy from, apart from when they have contract renewal issues. They often take great pride in their teams and are looking for marque 'named' players. As such never forget you hold the aces if they try to buy your players. You may be better off exchanging your player for a few of his reserves - because his reserves will probably be better than your starting team. And two very good players are better than one great player in my opinion.

2. The fan. The fan either wants players of his nationality, or who play for his club (the giveaway is usually in the team name). Fans will try to emotionally blackmail you into giving him his favourite players by going to great lengths to explain why they love the player so much.

My advice is to be as polite as possible but play on their sentimentality. You can always get more than the going rate from these guys. The fan can be played off against another fan to create bidding wars.

3. The bully. The bully will roll up and attempt to buy one of your players by brute strength. He will tell you that nobody else will buy that player, he will tell you that you have 15 minutes to decide, he will only look for a deal that's right for him.

The best way to deal with bullies is to laugh at them, and make their offers public, a whitty put down and making it public is just icing on the cake. If they are bidding on your best player(s) remind him that the whole gameworld wants that player - so what makes him so special? The bully will likely move on and target the next soft manager he can find. Bullies will be dismissive of your offers on his players.

The key to negotiation is to lose any sentimentality you have for your players, know their worth and know the worth of anyone you are bidding for. You can gain an advantage by being polite, massaging someone's ego and being as flexible as possible.