FM 2005 - Help in attracting players to small club

YeatsCounty

I'm into my fourth full season in charge of Sligo Rovers. It took me half a season to get used to my old squad, and in the following seasons I won the First Division and I have just retained the Premier League. Quite difficult tasks, I can tell you. Nail biting last minute goals and the like, but I digress.

I have come across a problem, however. In past seasons, I had problems finding good players that would come to me for £3,000 (my maximum transfer budget) or less. I struggled through with free transfers and loans and I got some great short term players that way.

This season, I have been given £35,000 to play around with. Not too bad for a LOI club. The big problem is that no one will come to Sligo Rovers. Not one. Doesn't matter if they are out of contract and have only ever played for Finn Harps Reserve's. It doesn't matter even when I mess around and offer them extravagant contracts (in LOI terms), they still won't accept and they stay with Athlone Town Under 18's (for example).

I need players to shore up my defence and attack. I was banking on extra transfer funds to help me, but they are next to useless so far. How on Earth do I get anyone to join Sligo Rovers this season? Any help would be much appreciated.

j22

If your looking for a few good defenders try Mark Rossiter(DRC) and Joseph Regan(DC/DM). Got both of them on a free for Finn Harps. two amazing players in the EL. I play Rossiter at right back and Regan usually as a centre half and between the two I have really tightened up my defence.

Laguna

The only way you can increase the likelihood of players willing to come to your club is to increase the reputation of your club through performance. A good way of increasing the reputation of a LOI club would be to consistently qualify for the qualifying stages of the Champions League and trying your best to perform well there, other than that you have to accept that you are indeed in management of a LOI club and you're going to have a hard time of it in the first place attracting players...

Or you could just go into the FM editor, boost the reputation points of Sligo to an equivalent of Barcelona and give yourself 250 million quid to throw around!

YeatsCounty

I forgot about this thread........oh dear. I was reminded of it since I started playing FM2005 again yesterday.

Firstly, thank you both for your replies. J22, I tried searching for those two players but they didn't exist in the database. I'm using version 5.0.2.

As for increasing the reputation of Sligo Rovers, they already have a national reputation having won the League twice, and the FAI and League cups once. I'm in the CL for the second year in a row. I can't see how I can get any more high-profile that that with my current squad. I still can't get anyone, and I'm talking about Cherry Orchard players here (I offered a few Orchard players everything I could offer them as a test. Nothing.).

Rovers are ninth in the table at the moment on 9 points after 7 matches, 6 points behind the leaders Drogheda United (who have a game in hand). My results so far are as follows:

Loss: 0-2 Bohemians
Draw: 2-2 Cork City
L: 0-2 Saint Pat's
L: 0-3 Shelbourne
Win: 2-1 UCD
W: 3-1 Derry City
1-1 Galway United

There has been an improvement in the last three matches but I need help with my squad. Does anyone have any ideas?

walrusgumble

its always crap to have to cheat in this game, ya want to win everythng on your own steam.

have u considered going to options and add manager/user, do it a couple of times(ya b brought to a screen like when u started, ye enter your new managers details) pick to manage the club of your targeted player (within reason, no matter how do ur team is players may not leave due to loyalty for club etc)

as a new manager demote ur targeted player to reserves/u-21, fine him, publicily critics him, do everything to make his life miserable like making sure he doesn't play any matches. then up him up for transfer.

then go to change user and click ur name/sligo. make a bid dont even bother giving money, change user bak to targeted team and accept transfer for free.

hopefully by then ur targeted player will be gratefull to leave and play football for such a top club etc. the more top players within that league that come to u the better chance of u getting better players in the future.

4 years at loi is long time, maybe after a season or so u should try ur hand in england to further ur rep. be aware that a player may demand hirer wages to play for sligo (ye know urself in real life dubs prefer to stay with dublin clubs or the likes of droghs/dundalk) so b prepared to splash out on wages

YeatsCounty

Cheers for the advice walrusgumble. I'm afriad that I will have to make a cpoy of my Rovers game and use that to cheat, keeping the original version 'frozen' for a while until I decide whether it's worth continuing with it. Sad that it has to come to this. I won't buy the likes of Rooney or anyone, mind. I'll only get a couple of my original targets, LOI level.

Four years is a long time alright at LOI level but I'm quite happy to continue it until I can get Rovers to qualify for the group stages of the CL. I reached the second qualifying phase last season, so if I could get new players to come to me, that aim might be achieved sooner.

walrusgumble

ye fair enough i am managing by local team athlone town, da pride of the midlands lol, ah sure at least you wont get bored cause the challenge of getting your team into group stages of CL is keep ya busy. some achievement it would be in your news section

first league of ireland team to qulify for the quarter final" sure once ya got to the second round u wont care about losing the away game, anyway if ya did that ur rep would be increase quicker if ya manged a premership team to 5 championships in a row, one thing is for sure some of the mangers in the league have it hard.

bit of red are doing well this season, hope ye dont get relegated.