In the second half of the season, all other teams can make a contract offer for a player who has an expiring contract. If a a team agrees a contract with the player, then the he will transfer to them for next season.
Should the player have already extended his expiring contract with his current team, then no other contracts can be signed, or in other words,other teams cannot make an offer for him.
Negotiations can take place over numerous negotiation rounds and also be conducted over several days.

Both negotiating parties, the manager of a team and the player, each submit an offer or a demand respectively. If the offer matches the demands then a pre-contract is signed and negotiations are successfully completed. However, it is not certain if the player will in fact move to a new club for next season.
If the team manager and the player do not see eye to eye on the terms offered, then negotiations carry on into the next round of negotiations, where both parties can adjust their expectations in contract terms.

After the agreement of a pre-contract with a team, a player then waits on offers from other teams. The waiting time for a player to make his mind up usually three days after completions of the first pre-contract. When three days are up the player has to decide which of offers he has received he will accept . If he has only received one offer, he will accept the offer. The pre-contract he has signed will change into a regular contract and as of next season the player will play for his new club. When the player receives more than one offer then he will accept the best offer he has received, while all other contracts or pre-contracts are irrelevant.

A player's willingness to negotiate, restricts the number of negotiation rounds available to negotiate a contract. With every round the players willingness to negotiate drops, and should it reach 0 negotiations will be called off without any kind of agreement. No further contract talks with the player is then possible.

After the successful completion of contract negotiations a possible signing-on bonus is to be paid to the player. The monies owed to the player is a one off payment and is paid directly after the contract is signed.

• The player has only one contract (no successor contract).
• The player‘s contract expires during the current seasons.
• Contract negotiations can only happen in or after the winter break (2nd half of season) of the respective season.

In some cases the club‘s board can veto a submitted contract offer, whereby an offer that was submitted by you will be withdrawn by the club‘s president.

• Salary-cap
  The salary of the player that you want to bring in to the club can be a maximum of double the average wage of the squad. In other words, the wage of the player can be 100% more than the average wage of your squad.
• Negative bank balance
  If the team‘s bank balance is in the negative, then you cannot submit any offers.
• Bordering on negative
  If a team has submitted many offers for free agents, then the sum of the promised signing on bonuses cannot exceed the amount that is currently in the club‘s bank account.

If the player is signed to be an integral part of your team then the transfer process runs smoothly. However if the player will be be used as a reserve, he will check how good his chances are of getting a chance to play in the team. If he estimates his chance are good then the transfer will go through, but should he rate his chances to be bad then he will refuse to accept the offer. This applies also when the player has no other contract offers.

A player counts himself to be a future regular first team player, if his technique value is over the average technique value of the bidding team‘s players in his position (e.g. CM). If not then he counts himself to be a reserve player.

A reserve player counts his chances of regular first team football as good, when the average match practise of a player, from a bidding team, in his position (e.g. CM) is over 50. If this is not the case then he has a slimmer chance of playing.

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