Outmuscled in the Transfer Market

Hi all,

I'm Eddie Bono, manager of Whampoa Rangers. Previously I posted my plan to overhaul my entire squad in a bid to come up with a decent XV, leading to possible financial problems. Well, it turns out it's not a problem, as I have been outbid - and outmatched - on each of my offers. It's driving me a bit mad. Having put in the due time scouting the market and selecting players within my price - and level - range, it turns out that I may not get a single one of them. Cheers.

I usually scout the transfer market this way :
Age - Max 19
Bid - Max 15K
CSR - Min 20,000 (too ambitious?)
Various skills required for the position being scouted

I try to look for the best players that come up, that aren't too expensive and haven't really attracted much interest yet.

Take the example of Lloyd Koti, an 18-year-old, 130kg beast that I reckoned would be a monster prop in my division. He was available pretty cheaply, and I managed to stay in the running to sign him until a bid of $306,000 came up, thus ending all my hope - and energy - in pursuing him. This trend pretty much continued for most of my targets, being available pretty cheaply until some of the big guns got involved in the hunt. I have about five players I'm still hopeful of signing, but with four days left to each auction I'm not very confident of getting them. The frustration continues.

Any tips on how to sign players effectively? I suspect I might be too ambitious in trying to sign the best players that come up during scouting, but honestly I'm not sure if the rest are really much better than my current crop of players, since their wages are much higher.

Help needed, I'm pretty fed up of my club secretary at the moment.

18 year old 130kg was never going to be cheap. Sounds like you may have the right idea, but may be a little too cheap. My advice would be replace your worst players. Never less than 20k csr and not older than 21. Be willing to spend a little more, and make sure you're online for the end of bidding (or set a decent autobid).

If you login to the chat, see if someone online is willing to take a look at the tm for you, may be able to find some bargains with potential.

The only tip I can give with regards to being succesful on TM is have lots of a money... and that's not even very useful lol

I myself wouldn't put to much time/money into buying players I would just try to get a decent 15 and not worry to much bout a bench in my first season. Id mostly use youth pulls to pad out my squad, as its the most cost effective way.

Patience is very important in this game and you need to develop a long term plan, most importantly you want to be upgrading your facilities and hiring better coaching staff so you can create your own "beasts".

If you haven't already, make use of your two week premium trial. This will help you in the transfer market. My view is never chase a bid because you only end up paying more than you think he is worth. Bid the amount you can afford and walk away. The premium will make it easier and possibly cheaper as it will take your bids up in increments.

Regarding the player you aimed at - go for something less. For props you can get a fairly good division 5 standard prop with around 16-18kcsr and 120kg.

When i was hunting for players when i was starting i used a csr min of 15k, max age of 19, less than 30000 cost and then went through them all looking at what players would find in to my squad. With those you will get a fairly good squad and may snap up some bargains.

Also, don't compromise - If there's a skill a player's weak in that will hinder your training plans, don't buy him, you'll get a good one come along soon enough. When you're looking to build, it's better to wait for the ideal purchase rather than rushing to get a player who has weak spots .