Trades

A trade swaps players, prospect rights and draft picks between two clubs. Players keep their contracts, and the deal goes through the moment the other side accepts. You can trade with any club one league level above yours, in your own league or one level below, whether a manager or the computer runs it.

Making a trade

Open Trades from the Actions menu on the Transfer Center (Transfers in the sidebar). Pick the club you want to call, put players and picks on both sides of the deal, and press Send offer.

You can also start from what you are looking at: Propose trade in the Actions menu of another club’s page, Offer trade on one of its players (on his page, in his panel or on his row of a roster), or Offer trade on a row of the Trade block. The Trades screen then opens on that club, with that player already in the deal. If the clubs are too far apart, or the player is untouchable or trade-locked, Offer trade is greyed out and says why.

To build the deal:

1. Under Who are you calling?, pick a club. The list holds the clubs within one league level of yours, and Human GM marks the ones a manager runs.
2. Fill You receive and They receive. + Add player and + Add pick open the club’s roster, its Prospects and its Draft picks. Each side carries at most nine players and picks together.
3. Read the deal (see reading the deal) and press Send offer.

A player who can’t be traded says why in the list:

• Untouchable — his club keeps him out of trades.
• Recently traded — he is still trade-locked after joining his club.
• On waivers.
• One-way contract blocks this move — his contract stops a move to a lower league.
• Under 18 — he hasn’t turned 18 yet. This goes for the rights to a prospect too.

Injured players can be traded. The draft picks a club owns are traded the same way, and so are the rights to a prospect once he has turned 18; see youth draft. There is a limit to how many offers you can have open with the same club at once.

Answering an offer

When a club sends you an offer, a notification tells you, and it opens the offer. The Trades screen keeps your offers under Offers: Your turn for the ones waiting on you, Waiting on them for the ones you sent. The Trades entry in the Actions menu shows how many wait for you.

On an offer waiting for you, you have three choices:

• Accept trade — confirm, then hold Hold to accept. Players and picks change clubs at once, and both caps adjust with them.
• Decline — the offer comes off the table. The other club is told, without a reason.
• Counter offer — change the deal and send it back. The next move is theirs. Once you have changed the deal, you can no longer accept it as it was.

An offer you sent stays read-only while you wait; Withdraw offer pulls it back. An offer stays open until it is answered or withdrawn, or until a player or pick in it changes clubs in another deal. On the day of the trade deadline, every open offer is cleared.

Reading the deal

While you build, the Trades screen reads the deal for you. The line under the deal names whatever would stop it, or reads Nothing stands in the way — this deal can go through.

• Balance — the value you get against the value you give, from your side: In your favor, Even deal, Against you or Heavily against you.
• Board reaction — what your own board makes of it: Approves, Unbalanced or Would veto. It also reads Would veto, with the reason under it, when the deal would take your club over the cap or, during the season, break your roster’s limits. See balance and the board.
• Cap room left — each club’s cap space after the trade, the tighter of this season and next first. Neither club may end up over the cap; see salary cap.
• Roster after — each club’s roster size after the trade, counted as on roster, and a warning for any position it would leave short.
• Their GM — with a computer-run club, its general manager reacts as you build, from They’d hang up on you to They love this deal, with notes such as Doesn’t fill a need, Tight against their cap or Unbalances their roster. With a club a manager runs, you only see that their manager will weigh the offer.

Send offer stays unavailable while your own board would veto. Accept trade stays unavailable while either board would veto, a club would end up over the cap, or, during the season, a roster would break its limits. You can send an offer that breaks the other club’s cap; it can’t be accepted until they make room.

Balance and the board

Each club’s board weighs what it gets against what it gives. A trade in which either club gives up clearly more than it gets back is unbalanced, and it goes through only when every manager in it has the Successful rank or better, or Premium. A computer-run club has no manager, so against one only you need it. Ranks are explained on manager career.

You see only your own board’s reaction; the other club’s board can find the deal unbalanced without you seeing it. If your Board reaction reads Unbalanced, or Balance reads In your favor, the trade may be unbalanced, and it then goes through only if every manager in it has Premium or the Successful rank. If one of you has neither, bring the deal toward Even deal before you send it.

Each board measures value at its own club’s league level, so two boards in different leagues can read the same deal differently. The line under the deal does not check this rule: an unbalanced trade is refused when someone tries to accept it.

A board can also veto a trade, in a world that runs with board vetoes. It does so when the trade is unbalanced against its club and it judges the deal very bad overall, for example one that also leaves the roster short at a position. Neither Premium nor reputation gets a trade past a veto.

Computer-run clubs

A computer-run club answers offers at a set time each day; Coming up today under the countdown shows when, as Clubs answer trade offers. It never counters: it accepts or declines. Some worlds run without computer-run clubs answering offers: there, the trade screen tells you so when you pick a computer-run club, Coming up today leaves the line out, and an offer to one stays open until the trade deadline.

Watch its GM’s line as you build. If it reads They’d consider it or anything lower, the club won’t accept, so build toward They like this deal or better. Even then it may take a day or two to say yes, and the warmer the line, the sooner it tends to. In a world where computer-run clubs answer offers, an offer it has not accepted after a few days is declined.

A computer-run club weighs the value, whether the incoming players fill gaps on its roster, whether its roster stays balanced at each position and, when it is close to the cap, its cap room. It won’t give up its young stars or its most promising young players, and it won’t swap draft picks for draft picks. A club in a lower league that is near the top of its table won’t give up its draft picks. It likes a deal less the more players it has to take on beyond those it sends away, and hangs up when that is far more. It also likes very large deals less.

Computer-run clubs also make offers of their own, aimed at what their rosters lack, to managers’ clubs as well. The players they look at first are the ones on the trade block. They put their own unhappy players on the block and mark their most valuable players untouchable.

Trade value

Every player has a trade value: what he is worth in a deal. The Trades screen shows it as one to five pips next to each player, and your Shortlist shows it too.

What it rests on:

• Ability, age and reputation. His ability measured against the league, his age and his reputation; see player reputation. A young player is worth more, and the value falls as a player ages past his prime.
• The draft. For a young player, how early he was drafted.
• Personality. On each personality bar one end raises his value and the other lowers it: the Humble, Leader, Clutch, Ambitious, Loyal and Physical ends raise it. See player personality.
• His game. Strength in several roles, size and a right-handed shot raise it.
• His condition and contract. High confidence raises it. Low confidence, a long injury, weak endurance, unhappiness with his contract and a big salary on an older player lower it.

A player’s value depends on the league he would play in: the same player is worth more to a club in a lower league. In a package, only the best player counts in full, and each further player adds less than he would on his own. A draft pick is worth more the earlier its round.

The trade block and transfer status

Choose how each of your players is offered with Set transfer status, from the Actions menu on his page or on his row of your roster:

• Available — he can be traded, but is not advertised. It is the standard setting, and every player who joins your club starts on it.
• On the trade block — he is listed on the Transfer Center’s Trade block, where every club in the world can find him and make an offer from his row.
• Untouchable — he can’t be put in a trade at all, by you or anyone else.

If you want offers for a player, put him on the trade block: computer-run clubs look at those players first. Some players take being put on the block badly; see player personality.

A player’s status shows under Availability in the Transfer section of his page, together with any trade lock.

Transfer needs

Transfer needs record what your roster lacks. Open Set transfer needs from the Transfer Center’s Actions menu. Under Assistant suggests, your assistant reads your roster and proposes needs: Accept one or Accept all, or Add custom need with a Position, a Type and a Role. Then press Save needs.

Your assistant measures your roster against the rest of your league as well as by its own numbers. Where a group of yours ranks near the bottom of the league, he suggests an upgrade there even when the group is full, and he names the role that answers what your club is thinnest on, the same weakness the roster rankings point out. He also reads the ages of a full group, so an aging core still prompts a prospect.

Your needs mark the players who fit them: the need-fit mark beside each player when you browse another club in a trade, and Matches a need and the Need column in Find players. When you have filled a need, remove it, so the marks point at what you still lack. While your assistant runs the club in your absence, he replaces your needs with his own read of the roster.

The trade window

Trades can be made from the first day of the season until the trade deadline, late in the regular season. After the deadline, trading is closed until the regular season ends. From then on, clubs out of the playoffs can trade again; a playoff club can trade once it is knocked out, or when the playoffs are over. Both clubs must be able to trade for a deal to go through. While your club can’t trade, a deal you open says so at the top; you can still work on it, and send it once trading opens.

Trading between league levels

A player traded to another league level keeps his contract, but it is adjusted the way it would be if his club moved up or down:

• Moving down. His salary is scaled to the new league, and he gains a Promotion contract and a One way contract. A player who moved up earlier without a raise keeps his salary instead.
• Moving up. A Promotion contract pays its raise; without one, his salary stays. A One way contract comes off.
• Entry-level contracts take the new league’s entry-level salary.

The deal card shows his contract as it stands, while Cap room left already counts the adjusted salary. The clauses are explained on player contracts.

After the trade

A player who joins you:

• starts out scratched;
• arrives rested, with his confidence at its normal level;
• goes back to the standard training program (see training and development);
• is listed as Available, whatever his old club had set;
• can be trade-locked for a while. His page shows the days left at Trade lock, and until then he can’t be traded.

A player who leaves takes his lineup spot and any captain’s letter with him. After a trade goes through, open Edit lineup: your new players are scratched and the spots of those who left stand empty. See lineup.

Every trade is listed in the Transfer Center under Transactions (the Trades filter), and in a player’s Transaction history in the Transfer section of his page.

Worth knowing

• Each club values a deal at its own league level, so the same player counts for more to a club in a lower league.
• In a package, only the best player counts in full; each further player adds less than he would on his own.
• The line under the deal does not check the balance rule: an unbalanced trade is refused only when someone tries to accept it.
• A computer-run club never counters. In a world where computer-run clubs answer offers, a deal its GM likes can still wait a day or two, and one it has not accepted after a few days is declined.
• Injured players can be traded, though a long injury lowers a player’s trade value.