"Don't ever forget you're the Boss". That's the mantra I try to live by in FM16, no matter how difficult at times it may be. An example of this is the interference from player's agents. Just like in Modern Football, the Agent has become a key focus in transfer & contract negotiations. Many moaned about their involvement in FM when they were introduced, but let's face it...we want realism.
In many cases nowadays the Agent dictates a player's career. The roles are now reversed and we now have Agent's players. Agents who now play a key role in deciding where their players retire and, in the case of Super Agent Jorge Mendes, can turnover as much cash in a year (£30m in 2015) than recent Premier League clubs like Blackburn and Bolton!
Falcao: An Agent's Dream. 5 clubs in 5 years £££££
There's a danger that player recruitment could be solely dictated by Agents, so what are we going to do in FM16 to stop that? "Don't ever forget you're the Boss" right? A few months ago I spoke about investing your manager points in the right places. A few attributes at the onset of your managerial journey can help you take back control from the Agents, specifically Level Of Discipline (LoD) and Man Management (MM). LoD reduces the amount of problems that players may bring to you and MM increases the chances of good reactions from your players during 1:1 discussions. Imagine the most authoritarian of managers of recent times: Sir Alex Ferguson . In FM13 I believe he had LoD of 19 and MM of 18, he was THE Boss.
So in my current Grasshopper Club Zürich (GCZ) save, my manager Loïc Swartzendruber has high LoD and MM stats:
Swartzendruber on Day 1 of my save. 17 in both LoD and MM
Sack the Agent
One useful way of exerting my high LoD and MM is through dealing with contract sagas at the club. In Nov 2016, 19 year old Nikola Gjorgjev was coveted by some of Europeans top clubs: Chelsea, Inter Milan, Liverpool and Man Utd to name a few. Gjorgjev was still contracted for a further 18 months (£2.2k pw), so I thought I could ride this out. Until...Gjorgev's Agent pulled this on me (after 'starring' in a 0-0!):
Remember: "you're the Boss"
Now the conservative manager here would offer or reject. The riskier approach is to ask for this Agent to be sacked (à la Sir Alex Ferguson maybe?). Remember, if your values are high in LoD and MM...you have a strong chance of getting this to work (Note - this has succeeded 3/3 times for me in FM16):
I assertively voice my opinion about dropping his Agent (1st option)
The Agent is sacked and Gjorgjev for now is happy to remain on £2.2k per week
Once done, Gjorgjev will concentrate on his football again. But in this case, I didn't stop there. Money is tight at GCZ (as you have probably gathered from reading my Twitter feed). So having an Agent-less player is the perfect time to offer a new contract. If you're wondering why, it's because there will be no Agent fees that deduct from your current season transfer budget. Contract negotiation are also (I find) less painful to go through.
Here is what Nikola ended up getting at GCZ (below). You will see that the transfer cost from the 16/17 budget is just £4.4k!
Now contracted to 2020, I have the security of getting what I want for Nikola within the next 3 years (i.e. at least £9.75m)!
So, don't forget you're the Boss. We play FM to be managers and not to be dictated by the whim of player Agents. Go forth and sack the bastards!
Thank you for reading,
FM Grasshopper