Dictum Meum Pactum

My word is my bond. I'm a firm believer of the so-called gentleman's agreement. When I orally agree to a certain deal, I live up to said deal because I feel my reputation is at stake when I don't. In a community-based game like FM Live, your reputation is all you have, so therefore crucial to your success in the game. Managers deemed unreliable or not trustworthy will have difficulties signing players or getting bargain deals done.

Still, whenever I strike an agreement which revolves around trust, people seem genuinely surprised that I actually live up to my end of the deal. This means there's something fundamentally wrong with the community, when you're not able to trust another manager on his (or her, I'm not biased) word. It might even be a reason why the transfer market is not always going as smooth as it could be, some people do not live up to their promises and others become reluctant to make deals because of previous bad experiences.

The gentleman's agreement really helps when making deals. Only yesterday, I struck a deal for a Mexican wingback for 1.4 million. In exchange, two of my youths were loaned to the other side to cover for his loss of a first teamer. The guy seemed genuinely surprised when I actually accepted the first offer and promised him he could loan the second youth next season, because the auto extension of his contract was within the next 7 days.

Since the gentleman's agreement seems to be failing, I feel that either the First Option or Future Transfer clauses from FM should be imported to FM Live. Some managers are reluctant to sell during the season, but they would be willing to settle a deal once the season ends. A Future Transfer option might liven things up, as managers could really start their long term planning this way.