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Finances
Apologies if these are questions already asked a thousand times, but are other managers like me that keep having to sell best players to stay in the black and simply replace them with academy promotions? I never have the luxury of enough funds to dip into the transfer market!
Any top tips greatly appreciated

It's a common problem.

There are probably a bunch of things you can do to help but your club is in an awkward spot of not being able to compete with the top teams enough to win a lot of games and push your ratings forward.

That being the case you have two main options, a) trim the squad & wage bill, utilise those youth promotions to gradually improve the finances or b) drop a division and rebuild from the bottom up with a much lower wage bill and better results enabling you to then go back to the top flight in much better shape to compete.

a) is a very slow approach, maybe 10 seasons to really make ground, b) is quicker (although will still take 5 seasons or so), but takes a lot more effort. b) is probably more fun though.

Either way 2 things I'd address first:

1) The wage bill. Trim the squad to match your needs, negotiate them down as best you can and, if you're going to get relegated pop in a bunch of relegation wage reduction clauses. Sell your highest earners and bring in younger lower rated players with potential to replace them. Lock in low wages on those young players and then train them up. You should be able to do that without dropping much down the league but will have a better base for turning a profit.

2) Attendances - you really want to get to 100% attendance with a few people locked out. Even if you have to drop the ticket price a little and short term get less income as a result, it'll be better longer term to help grow revenue.

I spent around 15 seasons selling my best players and mostly finishing in 17 th place in premier league. I have built up a nice amount of money and now try to keep my best players.
We are now mid table and if I spent my money on players could make quite a good team I think.
With luck I sold my players for top money before the youth team changed. I think my plan would be harder if I tried it again.
My second team isn't good enough and in a transition stage. With that team I'm selling half my good players and buying some quite good old players for cheap. I'm waiting to see how the different approach will work.
A team finishing higher in the league will produce more money in crowds. That's something to consider too.

Everything TG said but in particular...



If you could get a 100% attendance with a TP of 16 (not unreasonable) you'd actually get more income.

Promoting well from the youth academy and selling your best/highest potential players is not a bad strategy at all, if you get it right.

With the right negotiating techniques, you can cut down the daily wages significantly. One of the best options is to offer longer contracts than the player wants. They will usually accept them, and a player will value a 4-season contract on 5000 per day about as much as a 2-season contract on 10000 per day. You can significantly reduce wages of your top earners this way while locking your players into long contracts (saving future sign on fees).

You want to get your lower rated players on 5 season contracts every single time. You can train them up and end up with high rated players still on a pittance until their contract expires.

The issue arises once the player is maxing out their stats and you have to renegotiate, but there's still ways to save money on daily wages. For example, if I have a youngish (under 27) player that's already fully trained up, then I offer them as long a contract as they'll take with no sign-on fee and 30% seasonal wage rise. They will accept lower daily wages than they're asking for because they think they'll earn more money in the long term. Then when that 30% rise kicks in, I just renegotiate the contract again (again with no sell on) back to the original wage. This is a good way to make the player think he's getting an amazing deal worth millions over the course of the contract, but he never actually gets to see any of his seasonal wage rises.

You do have to keep track of which player are on this type of contract though or it will become very expensive very quickly!

This will become less effective as players age because your negotiation options become limited when they're nearing retirement. At this point you probably want to consider selling them and replacing them with young players you can train up again.

You dont need 26 players so I would start there. You can probably get rid of 4-5 easily.

Think longer terms. Renegotiate contract with a 30% relegation reduction then get relegated. Spend 5-6 season on the lower division and build a cheap young team building through your youth team.

Build your bank and then look at getting promoted again.

Hi good points you made can you just explain this part ? I just renegotiate the contract again (again with no sell on) back to the original wage. TY

Sure.

So you negotiate a 5-season deal with 30% seasonal wage rise on a wage of 5,000 per day. After a season his wage increases to 6,500 per day. As soon as you get the seasonal wage rise message, enter negotiations again and then get him back on another 5-season deal at 5,000 per day with 30% seasonal wage rise.

The guy thinks he's going to be on 14,280 per day in the final year of his contract so he's really happy, but he will never actually see the last season of his deal. He will also only see a single day of his 6,500 per day!

Only works if you can keep negotiating with him every season, because as he nears retirement he won't renegotiate another 5 year deal.

Cheers well explained i get it now, a great system to use in contract negotiations