Transfer strategies

There are 2-3 days to go in season one on GW15. You'll be pleased to know that Wild Geese FC have done ok this season. After a slow start we're ranked number 2 in the senior rankings and number 8 in the U21s. If my academy team wasn't so poor I'd be about 3-4 in the youth rankings. Why did I enter that U18 league with a team of 15 and 16 year olds.

We play our last 4 league games today and are currently six points clear in the league. We've also got the 5th round of the GW Cup today. Unfortunately and unavoidably I think the other rounds, if I progress, will have to be handled by my AI. The tournament is backed up with every round going to AI rights at the moment. The play time is at midday, and I'll be at work from tomorrow. So I don't hold my hopes too high.

The end of the season is also contract renewal time. It's vital that you work out who you want to keep and who you don't mind losing. Anyone you can't protect you should sell before the end of their contract. A wage auction will result in you only receiving their acquisition fee as compensation. If you sell you should be able to get 2-3 times their AF. Because the beta is going to end shortly, I could just use my contract locks this season rather than saving them for better players next season. However, I am pretty skint at the moment so I could do with some cash coming in. There are potentially 2 of my first team that need to be sold. At this point in the game some people get upset about losing their starting players. You quickly need to realise that you will always lose 2-3 players a year, and this is an excellent opportunity to improve your squad.

I've started to run queries looking for the best players soon to be out of contract. There are lots of inactive players, and you can be sure that these guys won't protect their players at the last minute. Time spent scouting at this time of the season will really pay you back. There are plenty of bargains to be had. What you don't want to do is chase the 5-6 famous players that everybody else is trying to sign. Their wage will be £50k+ and limit your options on salaries going forward.

In getting to number 2 in the world I haven't bought any stars. In addition to my initial squad I have made the following purchases this year:

• Michalis Sifakis - GK - £75k, plays in Greece for Aris FC, avg rating 6.75
• Asamoah - ST -£117k, plays in France for Stade Rennais, avg rat=7.10
• Wanderley - ST - £133k, plays in Brazil for Cruzeiro, avg rat=7.00
• Hedwiges Maduro - DMC -£136k, plays in Spain for Valencia, avg rat=6.97
• Gabriel Pimba - MC - £260k, plays in Brazil for Atletico Paranaense, avg rat=6.96
• Federico Fazio - DC - £319k, plays in Spain for Sevilla, avg rat=7.21 (pictured below)
• Christiano Maidana - MC - £500k, plays in Russia for Spartak Moscow, avg rat=7.22
• Luciano Civelli - DL - £19k, plays in Argentina for Banfield, avg rat=7.09
• Olivier Kapo - MC - £64k, plays in England for Wigan, avg rat=7.00

So that's £1.62m for nine players of my first team. For the same money I could have bought Rooney or Torres. And unsurprisingly that is exactly what some managers do. My strategy helped me to number 2 in the GW. The owners of Kaka, Ronaldo, Torres and Villa are currently ranked 290, 496, 116 and 286. Two of them are paying £100k+ in wages too. You get diminishing returns for star players. Yes you can make money selling them, and yes they perform really well - but Torres is not 14 times better than Asamoah (which is how much more he costs - let alone wages). He's not even 2 times better. He's about 30% better in my estimation.

When buying players, I would recommend you consider the following:

1. Stay away from big one off purchases that bankrupt you and cost the earth in wages.
2. Think about the future saleability of the player you are signing. U21 eligibility, reputation, PPMs, attributes, wages and senior stats all affect the value of a player.
3. Don't pay over the odds for benchwarmers. You should pride yourself on how cheap your subs wages are.
4. In an ideal world, buy before you sell.
5. Versatile players who play in two or more positions help you keep a much smaller squad.
6. Your reserves should all be u21s and improving. Low wages, the chance for progression and again future value all dictate this is the right way to go.
7. I know it's tempting but buying famous old players is a short term solution. They cost too much in wages and have no future sales value. So bye bye Scholesy, Becks, Cannavaro and Zambrotta. You should be in it for the long term.
8. Give your youth players opportunities in your senior team. You will be surprised how well some of them can play - and it won't be just the guys with the best attributes.
9. When selling a player the perfect replacement will be better, younger, cheaper and more saleable. I take great pride in the fact that I can beat top 10 teams with three players worth less than £30k each in my team.
10. Don't pay high wages, ever. Don't get involved in popular wage auctions. Set yourself a limit. High wages are the number one factor for getting stuck in a rut. Nobody will buy David Villa off you for £10m if you are paying him £130k a day. The lower your wages, the more options you have. If you are near your wage cap, you are limited to who you can sign.

I hope this article demonstrates that you don't need a team of superstars to win at FML. You don't need to log in within the first 15 minutes of the launch of a server. You don't need to sign a famous player. I'd never heard of most of my players before, and I think I've got a pretty good knowledge of football. Play for the long term, and remember that's not Fernando Torres you are watching on your screen, it's a bunch of 1's and 0's. Do that and you can see FML like Neo can see the Matrix.