At first let's start with the player’s price tags. In opposition to the standard version of Football Manager every player has two values. First one called the Market Value does not influence the play in a direct way. However, most players are unlikely to sell a footballer below it. Still, everything depends on the manager and his will to get rid of the player, because the wage budget is not made of gum. From the new player's point of view the Acquisition Fee plays way more vital role. It tells us how much do we have to pay for a player who does not have a club or whose contract is running out. As You see we have to give money to get a, de facto, free player - which makes me think about it as a signing-on-fee (because it does not exist in game).

However, the things are getting more complex. When we are making an offer we get the player immediately ONLY if we have not approved our team earlier (look point 5 in the first part of RtFM Live). Otherwise we start the salary auction. It lasts for 24 hours and in that time all other managers can make their offer too. Each of them knows the player's demands (or his salary in a club if we are trying to get a player whose contract ends) but at the same time he can see only his offer. All players without the contract extension are being automatically auctioned 24 hours before the expiry date. The footballer will join the club which made the biggest offer. Moreover, we can ask a free agent to sign a trial contract. It gives us a 24 hour period in which we can test him and we get him without any auctions or other strange operations.

But, as You have probably noticed, we are still at getting free agents and half-price players (because that is how paying only signing-on-fee should be treated), while the footballer's market value is several times higher - this surely is not the quintessence of transfers. Let's move on to the bigger sums and real 'shopping'. We can make a private transfer bid for any player from any club. This means that the offer can be seen only by the other team's manager and he can accept, negotiate or simply reject it with having an option of informing the public. What's more - we can propose a sum to be paid right away plus part of the payment in installments plus future payments depending on the next sale of a player. Easy, isn't it?

It gets much more interesting when the other manager wants to get rid of his footballer. He has to place him in auction. This time it is the transfer one. To do this we have to determine a starting amount for bids and the time period in which the auction will be running. Optionally we can choose an 'Instant Buy Amount' (giving the others a chance to buy a footballer without auctioning), the future profit percentage and the auction’s repetition (which may be useful if no one would want to buy our player in the first one). The number of players being auctioned is huge. We can find them all in one place and apply all the filters we want to find the one we are searching for. After finding him we can finally make a bid defining the maximum amount we are prepared to pay. Transfer auctions differ from the salary ones because everyone is able to see the highest offer. While trying to get a footballer it is not sure that our offer will be the best one. The game cares about our finances. What does it mean? Here is the explanation. Imagine a player with the lowest price being 1 pound. Now we make an offer worth exactly 1 million pounds. If no one else will make a bid we get the player for one pound. What's more if someone will make a bid worth 500k pounds our offer will raise to 500,001 and the opponent may rise it further or give up. Of course ANY manager can press the 'Instant Buy' button when the auction occurs and he gets the player instantly for the seller's price (if it did exist).

Finishing this another a bit too long argument about FM Live it is necessary to mention the ability to loan a player. We can try to do it in a traditional way, which is making a private bid and defining a period to loan and wage contribution. Though actually it is better to search for players on an appropriate list, where we can find footballers placed there by their managers and the loan conditions. If we agree we choose the instant loan option while making an offer and chosen player joins our team immediately.

Therefore, as you see the transfer market seems to be pretty interesting. For me it is really useful to see what my finances will look like after making any offer before I make it. In the next Road to FM Live we will focus on federations and competitions so if you have any questions connected with that topic - you are free to ask in the comments.