“You’re more mad than me!”: the wildest ELDT negotiations

In ELDT, the transfer market is not just auctions. Every club without a manager is run by the game, and each one has a chairman with their own way of speaking: there’s the calculating type, the one who shouts, the one who calls you "bro" every three words, and the one who cuts you off cold. Any manager can message them to buy, sell, or ask for a discount. What follows are some of those chats, told without naming the managers involved.

"Four million for a defender with OVR 5?"

We start with a classic. One manager had a low-rated defender and wanted to squeeze every penny out of him. He wrote to the chairman of Club Tucumán Centro and told him he was going to list him at four million "so it gives you a bit of room".

The reply came back shouting:

"NOOO! WHAT A MADNESS! Four million for a defender with OVR 5? You’re more mad than me! And that’s saying something, mate."

The chairman didn’t stop at complaining: he threw out a more realistic range, somewhere between 600 and 800 thousand, and left him with a question anyone who’s ever sold a used car will know well: "Are you listing him at a sensible price, or do you want him rotting on the market?"

The lesson is the same as always: market value rules. You can ask for whatever you like, but somebody on the other side is doing the maths.

The billion-dollar bid

Another manager tried the opposite approach: instead of selling high, he tried to bamboozle the seller with an impossible number. He wrote to the chairman of Sportivo Roque Pérez and offered, just like that, one billion for one of his players.

"What a madness, mate! That number makes no sense. I’m not giving away Zeni for a price that’s miles off reality."

And he finished with a "don’t waste my time". ELDT chairmen know their club’s finances and they know what each player is worth, so a ridiculous offer doesn’t even make them blink. What does work is getting close to the real value and negotiating from there.

The warrior chairman

If there’s one chairman who earned a spot in this piece, it’s the one at Defensores de Tigre Norte. He talks like a fan in the stand: everything is "mate", "bro", and, above all, "warrior".

One manager wanted one of his strikers, whom the chairman simply called "the Kid". He started with 4.4 million, exactly the valuation, and the reply was:

"4.4 million is just the market value, mate. That’s not an offer, that’s what the valuation says. The Kid is my first-choice 9, warrior."

The manager went up to 5.8 and the chairman felt they were getting close: "6 million and he’s yours, mate. That’s my final price". The player ended up in a public auction and the manager got him. The best bit came afterwards, when he wrote to let him know:

"That’s how it’s done, warrior! Congratulations, mate. Take good care of him, because he’s a gem in the making. Give him minutes and you’ll see him explode."

In another chat, that same chairman refused to let a 17-year-old youngster go for less than 7 million and swore "by the charrúa grit". Tigre Norte don’t give anything away, but when you lose, they at least congratulate you.

"Intergalactic robbery"

The last one comes from a club that didn’t have a manager at the time, and its chairman was, to put it mildly, intense. One manager asked for his number 10 and offered two and a half million, with an extra request: that he also buy another one of his players.

"What cheek! You want to buy my number 10 for 2.5 million, when he’s worth THREE TIMES that, and on top of that you want me to buy another player when I’ve got less than 4 million in the bank... That’s an intergalactic robbery, mate!"

And he rounded it off with: "Mad, yes, but not daft".

Why these chats matter

Beyond the laughs, these conversations show something that makes ELDT different: the clubs without a manager are not just decoration. They buy, sell, bid, manage the cash and defend their players. If you want to build your squad, you’ll have to negotiate with them, and you won’t always win.

Fancy sitting down to negotiate with the warrior chairman? Create your club at eldt.com.ar, get into the market and give it a go. Just make sure you come armed with proper numbers.