Free agents in football manager might be the difference between your team getting relegated or hanging on to the top flight league for another season. Signing free agents coupled with loaning players from higher ranked teams, especially in the lower leagues where finances for huge transfer fees aren’t always feasible, become more crucial.
To find free agents in football manager;
- Go to the scouting tab
- Click on players, then player search
- After clicking on player search, you will be provided with all players that your scouts have knowledge of, not all players in the save game.
- Click the ‘new search’ button in the top right corner
- Open ‘contract status’ then select ‘unattached’ to get players that are free agents
To further fine tune your results, you can add more filters like maximum age, position played, personality, nationality amongst other things.
To get more players that you can search from, create new scouting assignments in areas and competitions that your scouts have little knowledge of. You can also sign new scouts from these areas, as they already have knowledge of players found there.
Before signing a free agent, especially when you are managing in the lower leagues, first offer them a one week or two weeks trial if your scouts do not have 100% knowledge of the player.
Most free agents who are interested in joining your club will always agree to attend the free trial. It gives your coaches time to assess the player while freeing up your scouts to search for other players.
Using Scouts To Find Players, You Can Sign For Free
The above method will find players that your scouts already have knowledge of. To specifically ask your scouts to find more players you can sign for free, you need to create a scouting assignment for them.
It is a slightly slower method, but most players you find here will be in clubs that they actively wish to leave due to a variety of factors including the club getting relegated, promises getting broken by the manager or insufficient game time, so signing them will be much easier and at no cost.
To find players that you can sign for free;
- Head over to the scouting tab
- Choose assignment
- Select create new assignment. You need to be responsible for scouting under scouting responsibility for you to see this option.
- Under transfer type, select ‘End of Contract’
- Before starting the assignment, choose the region or competition you want your scouts to scour.
- Finally, select an age limit under additional settings to prevent your scouts from flooding your inbox with players who are at the cusp of retiring.
If you are managing in the lower leagues, do not offer very long contracts to free agents, or any other player for that matter. Once you earn promotion to the next league, the quality of players increases dramatically, and you might find yourself tied to players with long-term contracts, yet they are not good enough to make an impact in the new league.
For players that you think are exceptional, three years should be the limit. For others, try sticking to two-year contracts, unless the board specifically requires long-term contracts as part of their board expectations.
The above two methods will get you some quality free agents in football manager. You might also be interested in this guide here on how to properly set up your scouting network to get future wonderkids.
