Early season transfer strategy

The first few days of the 1st season in a gameworld are indeed a strange time. The first week in a gameworld representing pre-season and lots of desparate attempts to sign players. Many players bolster their squads with trial signings.

When the 1st season begins in the second week, things change. Firstly you get about £300k of media money. Secondly you have to play some official games, with far more ranking points on offer. It is really important that you get your transfer strategy correct in this week. You will see all the best players under £600k start to get signed up in rapid time. You have to make this period count and get the players you need to bolster your squad.

So - be honest about your squad. Where are the weak links? I'd focus on making sure you have the best striker, playmaker and central defender you can sign. Minor positions can take a back seat for now. You could either spend your entire transfer fund on one player - or spread it across 2 or 3. However how you bid for players is vital to your success. I recommend following this approach:

1. Write down your team on a piece of paper and put tick, question mark or cross against each of your starting 11. Tick the ones you think are strong enough for the league, question mark those you are not sure, cross the ones you know are too weak. Which positions are the crosses in? Are they concentrated in one area? Congratulations you have just prioritised your targets by position.

2. Create a shortlist of players who fit your positional, value and attribute parameters. Check each on to see if he is on a trial, is currently being bid on or is currently idle. If someone else has bid, the clock is already ticking.

3. Don't bid on the player you want. Draw up a list of players you want and check out when their trials expire, or their auctions end. I wanted a DC or a MC yesterday.

4. The strategy you should follow is to put all your money into one bid to get the best player possible. You never start a bid unless a trial is about to end. That means you have tied up all your money for 24 hours and have no flexibility. Don't spread your money thin by bidding on average players. You will outgrow average players and nobody wants to buy them from you. My strategy is to sign the first person on my list, and everytime I miss out I move onto the next target. It guarantees me one good player, and then I start again with however much money I have left.

Here is my list, along with auction time and who started the auction:

Pique 22:42 - KadowMeaw 31th - bid £24k =bank limit, lost

Davies 01:00 - AZ Bruntsfield - passed - not good enough

Fazio 17:28 - Phantoms - bid £26.9k, won £20k

David Luiz 19:29 - KadowMeaw 31th - went for £8k

De la Red 20:01 -Busted Flush

Taylor 20:05 - Maceys Magicians

Naldo 20:12 - Gesh Utd

Burdisso 20:24 - JuJu FC

Sobis - 23:58 - mighty magpies - went cheap

Martinez 01:01 - AZ Bruntsfield - went for £37.5k wages

So I started with bidding on Pique, lost him and then went all in for Fazio. Luckily I won him, I think he is an excellent player and still 21. If I had lost him, 2 hours later I had a chance with David Luiz, another great DC. Had I missed him I would have gone for De la Red (I like his PPMs), then maybe Steven Taylor (but I am not convinced on him) then Naldo, Burdisso, Sobis or Javi Martinez.

Notice how Nick from AZ Bruntsfield started auctions exactly 24 hours apart. He is following a similar strategy but he is starting auctions because he has clear targets in his mind. He had Martinez in GW10 and he was a legend (I would not have bid £37.5k wages for him). Also notice mighty magpies starting an auction at 23:58. This is very clever because it means the auction ends just before everybody gets paid their daily money - and stops new bidders coming into the race.

A really important point here is that if you want to be successful in FML, you should forget about signing an individual player and be prepared to sign one of a handful of players who fit your requirements. At the end of the day, I didn't really mind whether I won Pique, Fazio, Burdisso or Luiz - I just wanted one of them.

Don't tie all your money up for 24 hours, bid late and bid aggressively on wages. There is no prizes for coming second, and if you are prepared to pay £19.5k wages, you should be prepared to pay £20.5k and beat all the guys bidding round numbers like £20k.

Luckily for me I had enough money left to buy another £150k player, so I quickly moved former Dutch U21 Ajax player Hewiges Maduro - who has locked down my midfield quite nicely. However I still need an authentic playermaker, but that can wait for now. Just need to sell Lucas Trecarichi to fund the move!