When the big clubs come knocking........

[ademac]

Of course I refused all the initial offers, then they wanted a new contract, asking for over £100k a week. The max I can pay a player and not bankrupt the club is circa 30-40k a week. So again I refuse, the morale of the squad plummets, and the next thing I have them all knocking on the door telling me they think the club is underachieving. Then the transfer requests start coming, and the final nail in the coffin....

"Do you really want an unhappy player at the club? ", 8 players in abysmal morale. What a shock, if they all pulled together we would have qualified for the champions league. I'd gone from 13th ( 1st season in the prem ), to 9th ( 2nd season ), to 5th ( 3rd season ), and then boom.

It's like managing back in the Skrill Prem. Absolutely powerless. At least on my way up I've ensured I've invested in the youth facilities. My 1st elevens average age has gone from 26 to 20 and we are languishing in 15th, but on a good cup run. Had the heart ripped out of my club, but hey, we got a shed load of money in the bank now......not that that is much use, because every club with a talented youngster wants £50m for them. Meh, nvm, can't help feeling this will be a rinse and repeat scenario in a few years when the next load of talent matures. And that's only if we managed to stay up !

I did manage to negotiate 40% of next sale fee's on most of them though.

[sosasoser]

Not a whole lot you can do unless your board suddenly agrees to buy a new stadium. My suggestion would be to use money earned from selling players to buy the best players you can afford. Play good, defensive football and try to grind out as many results as you can. A couple of good Euro Cup runs should help convince the board to give you more money for wages.

[ademac]

New stadium has already been built, 18000 seater, but gates still only average around 10,000. Qualified for the euro cup via finishing as beaten finalists in the FA cup the season I got promoted ( knocked out in group stage, ) qualified for having the best disciplinary record in the 2nd season ( 2nd knockout round, ) and qualified outright in the 3rd season ( lost in the final to PSG. )

I can pay my key players 95k a week, only issue is that they all think they deserve that status, and accordingly want that kind of wage ( even if I put the wage slider all the way to the right. ) Most of my players are now on between £30-£40k a week, but I really pushed the boat out to ensure I kept my two best players, and they are on £65k per week and £77k per week respectively. I still have them, but the second I signed them to those amounts, instead of making money and being solvent, I started to lose circa £800k a month ( with all the add on performance bonuses etc. )

That's how I know I can't have a full team on that wage. At least not at the moment. I'll work it out. I'm up to 27th most reputable club in Europe now, so it's not like I can't attract players. It's just when City, PSG et al come knocking I currently don't have the ammunition to fight them off.

[Hootieleece]

I have the same sorts of problems in my current save in French Ligue 1. Everyone wants top wages and all of the good youngsters I can't afford to transfer......lost out on a DC to Arsenal, They offered the club in question 8M for the player which was more than my whole transfer budget! The other problem is that my coaches and scouts can't really judge talent.......I gave two albatross contracts to 2.5 star players........when they were 4-5 star players in the lower league. Which hamstring my current efforts to help the team.

I will not be ever able to challenge for League title at current rate. PSG and AS Monaco have All-World players my best players might be substitutes on their team.

[Puni]

It's how things go when you overachieve as a club. Just look at Southampton this year and what happened to them.

One thing though. First, having a monthly deficit isn't necessarily an issue since you'll collect most of your income at the end of the season through prize money.

[nangaparbat]

This is where Chairman stats come in, you want a good chairman with stats of ~15 or above for business and as low as possible for interference.

[CityAndColour]

Are you managing Southampton?

[sosasoser]

By chance do you have Brazil and Argentina loaded in your save? One of the things that I did in my current save to take me from small club to top of the table was to sell off players the bigger clubs wanted. I had my scouts in South America constantly. I could almost always buy players in the Brazilian and Argentinian leagues for less than what I sold players for. And, players in those leagues rarely demand big wages to move to Europe initially.

When you can buy a player from Brazil for £10 million and flip them a year or two later for three of four times what you paid, you stop worrying too much about having the money to retain players. There's always money in the transfer budget to adjust payroll to keep who you want to keep.

[fleety620]

I agree with Puni - in effect you are victim of your own success. It sounds like you've done the best you can do in the situation, although I've noticed in the past that it has helped to not refuse initial bids for my best players, but to negotiate with a much higher selling price. If the buyer then withdraws, at least it's their decision not to buy, and not your decision not to sell.