How to handle a forced wage budget increase

[BraidsMamma]

Hi all, long time reader first time writer etc...

I got into FM about six months ago after listening to an excellent swedish football podcast called When we Were Kings.

For these last monhs I have been slowly and steadily taken FC Trollhättan from the lower parts of the swedish third tier to being in the run for top spots in the swedish premier division (the Allsvenskan). I have been very dilligent with the clubs finances, spending almost no money on transfers and working hard to keep a wage structure in the club. This has been required because I'm dead last in the league when it comes to ticket sales, being in the high 3000's while my main competitors is close to ten times that audience week after week. I have always kept the wage slider at the dead bottom to get my club to save what it can and not spend my hard earned cash on increasing wages.

Just recently however I seemed to have gotten a lucky break with two of my first team playrs leaving on expensive transfers, bringing in about 2M £ to the club. But what happened then was that my board instantly increased my minimum wage budget from about 10 k £ per week to about 50 k.

A lot of my first team player have only one or two years left of their contracts and when I asked about renewal their demands suddenly increased by at least 3 or 4 times from earlier. My main striker asked for a increase by 10 times (allbeit from quite a low base level). There is no way my club can handle this. If I were to pay these wages I'm quite certain that we would run out of those sweet transfer millions in about two years and after that I would go into debt.

It also seems like the same has happened to players outside the club so finding new players would be just as expensive.

 

Is there anything I can do, I've been playing this save for 9 seasons now and I just had the guts to invest in a youth program that could perhaps pay out in 5-10 more seasons but that was with the assumptions that I could keep the club going til then. Now it seems quite tough.

 

If you have any input I'd be so happy.

 

ps. Am I right in assuming that player wages also is the main driver for other (non sporting staff) wage costs. Last season I spent about 2 M £ on player wages and 10 M £ on "other wages", will that cost also triple if I were to tripe my player wage spending? .ds

 

pps. Oh, and I'm  playing FM15 if that matters.... ds.

Edited May 16, 2023 by BraidsMamma

[starbugg]

The more successful you are the more money they want when renewing contracts.  I would do the usual first, beg the board for more money. 

If I was unsuccessful there, I would sell them and try to buy replacements from lower leagues or cast offs from the big guys. 

Failing that you might end up like a lot of teams that hit the big time only to spiral back down again, that is if you keep your job long enough.

[BraidsMamma]

17 hours ago, starbugg said:

The more successful you are the more money they want when renewing contracts.  I would do the usual first, beg the board for more money. 

If I was unsuccessful there, I would sell them and try to buy replacements from lower leagues or cast offs from the big guys. 

Failing that you might end up like a lot of teams that hit the big time only to spiral back down again, that is if you keep your job long enough.

But the issue is not asking the board for more money but rather the opposite. I was fine as long as the board kept the money themselves and gave me a wage cap of about 10 k, but now that they forced an increase of the minimun wage cap (slider going as far right as possible) to 50 k this will ruin the club...

[Andy1979]

The better you get the more you got to spend to get th  players. Get young players on long contracts. Try an  get loans too save wages. The fact is players will want higher wages. Even more so when your low rep in the top division. It's up to you to decide who deserves th  wage an  what would a replacement cost in wages.

[Left right out]

11 hours ago, BraidsMamma said:

But the issue is not asking the board for more money but rather the opposite. I was fine as long as the board kept the money themselves and gave me a wage cap of about 10 k, but now that they forced an increase of the minimun wage cap (slider going as far right as possible) to 50 k this will ruin the club...

Not necessarily the case. Generally success breeds interest in the club and a richer owner may take you over.

In terms of manager strategy, I'd probably accept the boards direction (despite your misgivings) but make sure the wage is spent on the right players. That is if your $10k pw striker isn't worth 50k pw find someone who is and offload him.

[Draakon]

Logically, if your finances improve you should renew your wage structure, especially when being promoted to higher division, because you need more money to attract better players anyway.

 

About specific players coming to you with wage demands, it's usually wise to shoo them away. The best case scenario is when you manage to convince the first one (for example using "you have enough time remaining on your contract"  excuse) then the next ones are easy, because you'll get the "Player X recently came to me with a similar request" option in the dialogue box and at least in FM22 it settled most of the players.

If you fail to convince them and they remain adamant that they should receive more money and finally get upset about you not agreeing to their request, it gets more tricky because their morale will slump for a while and then it depends on your reputation as a manager and popularity among the squad if there will be any sort of mutiny because of that or if the player will remain alone with his sulking.