Football Manager 2020: How to sign an uninterested player

Football Manager is unlike other football game managers modes. Sometimes, a player just doesn't fancy making a switch to your club.

Thankfully, Sports Interactive is on hand to take you through how to get out of such a tricky situation. They spoke with Football Manager expert FridayNightFM to reveal the tricks of the trade.

Background work

The following tips and tricks have proved successful over the years, but they don’t guarantee success, even if you do track the player season after season.

We will start by presuming that you’ve already scouted the player, have made your judgement and you’re in the preparation stage of making a bid to bring the player to your club.

ACCESS DENIED: A move at this stage looks unlikely thanks to the 'extremely doubtful' transfer interest

The dreaded no interest screen - you will be familiar with this screen having seen it whenever a player isn’t interested in joining you.

Fear not, this isn’t the end of the road; just because he isn’t interested now doesn’t mean he won’t be in the future.

Make a transfer enquiry

At this stage, we’re just testing the waters and we’re only working out how their club values them.

If they’re a Star Player the likelihood is that you’ll get an inbox message saying that the player is not for sale at any price.

SLOW PROGRESS: It looks over if they dismiss your enquiry, but is it?

Should they come back with a transfer figure, it’s worth noting down what they’re after and we can use it later if we manage to change the player’s mind.

Declare your interest

In Football Manager 2020 you have the option of making a player a transfer target or a top transfer target (the top transfer target option is only available at higher reputation clubs).

SPEAKING OUT: It's time to go public and announce your interest in the player to the media

If this player is your number one priority then make him your Top Transfer Target, but both selections produce the same result; an inbox message from the media asking you to comment on the rumours that you’re interested in signing the player.

READ MORE: All the Best Goalkeepers (GK) to sign on Football Manager 2020

If this player is your number one priority then make him your Top Transfer Target, but both selections produce the same result; an inbox message from the media asking you to comment on the rumours that you’re interested in signing the player.

STILL NO LUCK: More tools will be needed to get any traction on this move

If you answer the media questioning in the right way the player will be asked to comment on your response and it’s now that you’ll start to see if there has been any change to his acceptance of a move.

Show Your Face

Now’s the time to crank up the media pressure by sitting in the stands and watching your Top Transfer Target strut his stuff in the flesh.

To visit a match, simply select the team the player currently plays for, go to their schedule and look for the ‘-’ on the schedule - this indicates that you do not have any scheduling conflicts.

ACTIONS LOUDER THAN WORDS: It's time to physically show your desire in the player

Clicking on the ‘-’ will change this to ‘Attend’, meaning that you will now be able to view this game as it appears in the schedule.

READ MORE: All the best Centre Backs (DC) to sign on Football Manager 2020

You don’t have to do anything else - as the date approaches you will be taken into the game as you would your own, you’ll see the line-ups and with a bit of luck the player you’ve come to see will be playing.

MOMENT OF TRUTH: Was making the trip to see the player worth it

Once the game is over you will see an inbox message that states you were at the game watching the player and, as before when declaring your interest, you’ll get an idea of the player’s opinion on signing for you after they’ve appreciated your visit.

The more you do this the more you are likely to influence the player’s opinion of you.

Talk is cheap

An often underused feature in Football Manager is player interaction.

CALLING IN THE BOYS: Can your players help induce the move?

In this example, you would use the ‘get top player to promote move’ to generate a bit of extra media attention.

HIGH PRAISE: If you've remained patient thus far, the wait is almost over

Good examples of this are to use favoured personnel, former teammates or international colleagues but it will still have an impact if they are a highly reputable player.

Friends for life

This is really a last throw of the dice to try and change the player’s opinion of you.

TUGGING AT THE HEARTSTRINGS: Your last move can be to bring on one of the player's favourite personnel

When you look at the player’s information tab you will see a list of his favourite personnel (these can be a mixture of playing and non-playing staff) and bringing one of these players into the club may increase your chances of the player wanting to join.

Make the offer

Once you’ve worked through the steps listed above you will hopefully have seen that the player’s opinion on a potential transfer has changed.

READ MORE: All the best Young Defensive Midfielders (DM) to sign on Football Manager 2020

If it has, then making a transfer request is your next step. Get that accepted and there’s a great chance you’ll be able to start negotiating a contract with the player. 

AT THE TABLE: Talks have opened, but can you get the deal done?

If you can’t get a bid accepted then my advice would be to repeat the steps above, concluding with another transfer offer.

If the player’s opinion of you gets to a stage that he’s keen on a transfer you may see him attempt to push through a move himself and ultimately end up on the transfer list where there’s a chance you’ll sign him for a lot less than that number you wrote down at the start.

READ MORE: All the best Wonderkid Defensive Midfielders (DM) to sign on Football Manager 2020

So you've finally got your player - but how you will implement him?

Check out our Football Manager 2020 tactics guide here.