AI cheating on salaries and transfer fees?

[ThreeLion]

Hey guys,

so out of curiosity ( and boredom) I have recorded all transfers from the big teams (like Arsenal, ManU, ManCity, Liverpool, Juventus, Real, Barca, AC Milan, Inter etc.) that involved a transfer fee of at least 15 million Euros.
In the first place I did that because I am interested in looking up how the big players moved around over the years.
But now I am in my sixth season and I strongly believe that the AI is cheating big time with regards to transfer fees and operating costs, particularly the players salaries.
For example: Arsenal has never won the league, never won th CL, never won the FA Cup, but has a deficit of close to 300 million Euros just from the transfer fees (I'd be curious to see their payroll). Juventus has never won the CL, won the leageu once I think, don't know about cups, and has also a transfer fee deficit of around 280 million Euros.
It's just ridiculous how those teams are throwing around their money, every transfer window there are at least 5 transfer of the >50 million Euro magnitude involving those teams.
How can a team like Arsenal afford a squad including players like: Aguero, Pato, Hamsik, Buffon, Casillas, Fabregas, Fabio Coentrao, Denilson, Heitinga etc.?

I mean I'm playing with Chelsea and I have to carefully consider a transfer if it costs me 20 million Euros, because it would otherwise kill me in the long run.

These teams don't even sell that many players, let alone for lots of money, but instead they bring in those players from smaller teams.

Have you guys observed similar stuff in your MLs?

 

[0zz]

Of course, I'm beating Inter with my ML Juventus 6 seasons in a row, thanks to me they have won nothing at all, but they have managed to buy Gourcuff, Aguero, Rooney, Kaka and Buffon. It is just freckin' annoying. I'm winning everything that is possible, and still find it hard to sing some players, while they spending 126 mil, just to buy couple of players that will hardly ever kick the ball, because of flooding of talent in that team.

 

[KingShorty]

ThreeLion, just for kicks, you should post the transfer history of the players that you have been tracking. I'd love to see where they've moved to/from over the years.

 

[lazysod]

Absolutely correct! I was thinking the same thing. On my game (7th season) Chelsea have constantly bought star after star, for big money and big wages. They can not possibly operate on the same system your team does and survive.

I made the decision to get rid of all big names, and use only my youth team players, partly because of the huge wage bill you quickly generate with a talented team of players. I slashed my wage bill in two seasons from 200 million to 35 million.

4-5 of my players went to Chelsea for prices in the range of 60-85 million. They joined Aguero, Hamsik, Gourcuff, Silva as signings Chelsea had made. They must have 8-9 players on 10-14 million wages per year. The Wage bill alone would crush them, then add on the transfer fees which must total 500 million over the last 6-7 seasons. I could not operate like that and survive.

 

[kempo85]

i agree with the AI, my team has got all my 1st team in the 90's, some in the 100's an my wage bill is 250m, most players are on between 15-20m a season, i fink the idea is to hav a gd base of players and then bring on the youth team for cheap wages, once you get to 5th season though you will have to start getting rid of your star players to get the wage bill down

 

[ThreeLion]

ThreeLion, just for kicks, you should post the transfer history of the players that you have been tracking. I'd love to see where they've moved to/from over the years.

Sure! So as I said I am currently in my sixth season with Chelsea. Notable transfers from other teams are as follows (note: I didn't note when the transfer happened, I only note down the teams involved and the fee):
Obviously, the provided figures are rounded to the next million, because I can't be bothered to write down exact figures right here (have them on my file though). Also, I am only going to write down players who joined the respective teams:

Tottenham:
+ Raul Abliol 45.000.000
+ Bojan 62.375.000
+ Tevez 35.250.000
+ Camoranesi 25.000.000
+ Poulsen 19.000.000
+ Sneijder 55.000.000

Real Madrid:
+ Viricchi 33.000.000
+ D'Agostino 21.000.000
+ Gomes 17.000.000
+ Gordon 33.000.000
+ Gagano 48.000.000
+ Menez 65.000.000
+ D. Milito 31.000.000
+ Gurzallo 24.500.000
+ Carvalho 31.500.000
+ Pato 96.000.000
+ Sagna 17.000.000

ManU:
+ Defour 63.000.000
+ Mark Noble 32.000.000
+ Benzema 113.000.000 (no, that's not a typo)
+ Barry 19.000.000
+ Guardado 55.500.000
+ Santon 17.500.000
+ M. Jensen 52.000.000
+ Kravchenko 19.500.000
+ Vargas 17.000.000
5-6 more at around 15-16 mil. each

Juventus:
+ Rossi 42.500.000
+ Evra 19.000.000
+ Makoun 22.000.000
+ Montolivo 49.000.000
+ Sverkos (reborn?) 40.000.000
+ Balotelli 69.000.000
+ Pique 50.000.000
+ Dudka 30.500.000
+ Menez 60.500.000 (cam from AS Roma then went to Real Madrid)

Barcelona:
+ Modric 41.500.000
+ Veron (reborn) 70.000.000
+ Hargreaves 19.000.000
+ Zarate 35.000.000
+ Chivu 57.000.000
+ Mutu 22.000.000
+ Tanaka 24.500.000


AS Roma:
+ Villa 50.500.000
+ Zeman 48.000.000
+ de Guzman 31.000.000
+ Park JiSung 26.000.000
+ Ederson 35.500.000
+ Ballack 19.000.000
+ Coutadeur 26.000.000
+ Eboue 20.000.000

Arsenal:
+ Cazorla 37.000.000
+ Drenthe 56.000.000
+ Casillas 49.500.000
+ Taiya Kauyo 35.000.000
+ Hamsik 54.000.000
+ Heitinga 45.000.000
+ Zapata 39.000.000
+ Fabio Coentrao 41.500.000
+ Buffon 33.000.000
+ Agüero 106.000.000
+ Pato 72.000.000 (came from AC Milan then went to Real Madrid)
+ Nesta 16.500.000

AC Milan:
+ Silva 65.000.000
+ Banega 40.000.000
+ Fletcher 25.500.000
+ Lisandro 51.000.000
+ Walcott 18.000.000

I have just made Excel adding up the numbers and found that Arsenal has currently spend a total of almost exactly 630 million Euros on transfer involving at least 15 million Euros. They have sold players worth close to 288 million, which results in a deficit of close to 341 million Euros

 

[dan101rayzor]

I find it anoying that the AI will buy Buffon, Casillas or Cech on the same team.

 

[horo2]

@3lions:

hehe...i agree with you,

but for me, that's all just make me more challenging to win more thropies..

now i use Unirea Urziceni with default ML player and top player difficulty,
and i NEVER can afford buy star player..

but i can beat EPL's big4 team.. and won my first league cup after 3 season on ML

sorry for my bad english..

 

[cenovita]

As I said on another post, this version of the game cheats a lot, behind your back and in front of your eyes. I don't know what Konami's version of Difficult is, but from my point of view, they confuse Difficult with Frustrating.