Football Manager 2012 Tutorial - Contract Negotiations

How to begin contract negotiations with a player's agent after your transfer offer has been accepted

After making a transfer offer, watch your inbox. You should receive mail within a few days, with the decision regarding the transfer. If the transfer is accepted, you are given permission to discuss a contract with that player. Click "Offer Contract" to commence the contract negotiations.

Some players will have an agent that represents them, and other players do not have an agent and represent themselves. Depending on that, you will be either negotiating with the player himself, or with his agent.

How to use information about the player, his agent, your club's current financial status, to determine your first offer to the player's agent.

Information about the agent (if any) will be displayed in the right top panel. Such information includes:
Willingness - How much he touts his players. Trustworthiness can be determined for this, an agent who is more willing to tout his players is less trustworthy judge of the player's ability than an agent less likely to.
Fee - Level of compensation the agent is expecting. Agent's greed can be deduced from this.
Patience - How patient the agent is, the more patient he is the less likely the agent is to just leave negotiations abruptly if he does not like your offer

All those characteristics range between 1 (lowest) to 20 (highest).

Successful negotiations with an agent can lead to developing a professional relationship with that agent. A positive relationship ensures the agent is more reasonable and flexible in your negotiations. But failure in negotiations, on the other hand, can cause a negative relationship with the agent which results in more difficult negotiations.

Below the agent is the player information. It includes the following:
Wage - Current wage that player is being payed in his current club, per week. This gives you an idea of the minimum salary he will be expecting. He will certainly not like it if you offer him a lower salary.
Expiration - When his current contract expires.
Value - Estimated Transfer value.

Below the player there is additional information:
Payroll  Budget- How much budget you have from the board for in player and staff salaries.
Payroll Total - Current amount being spent on salaries for players and staff
Future Transfers - Lists players who will be joining your club in the future
Squad Status Interest, Max Salary and Average Salary are also listed.

Click on "Budget Adjustment" if you want to increase your club's payroll budget in the expense of the Transfer budget.

The agent will make an opening statement which will let you know if other clubs are interested in the player (which will require a better offer from you if that is the case), and if the agent is going to give you an idea about his client's demands or make you wait until you've submitted your first offer.

Create your initial offer, which includes:
Salary - This is the initial salary
Contact Length - The length of the proposed contract
Squad Status - The proposed team role.
Agent Fee - Proposed agent fee, as the agent requires compensation for his role in the negotiations
Loyalty Bonus - Offer a loyalty bonus to the player

A proposed term can be vetoed by your board due to restrictions imposed by your club's current wage and transfer policy. It will be displayed in a red background color. If any term is vetoed, you're unable to suggest a contract offer until you first satisfy your board with the proposed terms.

Click on "Suggest Terms" to suggest the contract terms.

How to respond to an agent's counter offer if they were not satisfied with your originally proposed terms

If the agent is not satisfied with the proposed terms, for example the salary, there will be a yellow background color on that field to show what the agent is not happy with. The value will be replaced with the agent's demands, for example a higher salary. You can either accept the counter offer or make adjustments to it.

You can also choose to walk away from the negotiations. This can cause a negative relationship with that agent, though.

Once you have modified the terms, click on "Suggest Terms" again to present the counter-offer.

How to finalize your contract offer

After submitting the offer (or counter offer) you will get a response from the agent. He will tell you if he is happy or not with the terms. If he is satisfied, he will inform the player of your offer. Click on "Finalize Deal" to confirm your contract offer. You will have to wait a few days for the final decision from the player.

The agent will now give you the feedback about the negotiations, for example that they were very constructive. The more positive the feedback, the more likely your terms will be accepted by the player. Although remember that other clubs might also be interested in that player, and grab him if they have a bigger budget.

This concludes the tutorial on negotiating contract terms.