Reducing the clubs wage bill

I have just started a new game with my beloved portsmouth. And have the "dawnting prospetct" of getting the club back to fiancial securety. I feel my first job is to reduce the clubs wage bill as well as desist temptation to sign some people in on free transfers.

Has anyone had sucsess with getting pompey's fianances bank in shape? And does anyone have any tips into getting the clubs wage bill back into shape?

Or im i always going to be verging on the dreded red?

regards.

What I did to balance the wage bill at Leicester was to offer players to clubs for free. The players that I felt were not going to get in my 22 man squad and were earning high wages. Because I found that clubs wouldn't sign these fringe players due to having to pay a transfer fee and the players wages.

1. Arrange a 3-team Friendly League competition through the summer, it won't bring in much, but it'll boost your finances more than simply arranging a few friendly games. A 3-team league will play 6 games in total between all the clubs and Pompey will get all the Gate Receipts, minus of course the match fees to the competing teams.

2. Don't buy players for upfront fees, hold onto your balance as long as possible for the interest you receive on the balance. Pay in installments over as long as possible. This also spreads out the Tax payments too.

3. When signing players, lower their Signing On Fee to as low as possible and reduce their requested wage, maybe slightly increasing their Appearance/Goal Bonus to compensate.

Thanks guys,

It seems whatever i do to help the clubs fianances the board are determinded to put me in the red, just before the start of the season they re-structure the clubs debt and put me 26mil down before the season has even started.

Not much i can do i expect, just finish as far up the league as i can and hope to get all the tv revenue that the end of the season brings.......

You could always try and renegotiate some of your current players contracts. Sometimes they will be willing to accept less that what they are on now.

As long as you survive relegation you are fine. I definitely offload a few players and sign a few on free. And send back some of the bad ones that are on low. I end up trying to sell anyone worth of any value and replace them with free on cheaper ones. Like I cancelled a lot of the striker loans and signed Ronaldo for about $3mil, even though he is old, he put in a lot more goals than any of those on loan could plus I could resell him (Roma eventually was willing to pay $7 for him the next season), I ended up keeping him until he retired because he was scoring about 15 to 20 goals a season, except the last season in which he retired, I just didn't use him much cause I signed some better plays on a free. The club will be in the red for most of the season and the board knows this but they give you some money the next season. I liked playing as Portsmouth as its amazing what you can do without spending much money. Only problem is injuries as most free transfers are old. I had Ronaldo and van Nistelrooy which are injury prone but they stated fit because I revamped the backroom staff and did not play them in reserves. They stated with me until they retired and both keep finding the back of the net just like any prolific goal scorer. Ballack I did the same and he scored a ton the first season I believe it was 17 goals. First season I finished 7th!

Thing is though with Portsmouth you have to have a good turnaround of players because if you keep signing old players you will have to keep signing new ones to replace them. So only the first season I went wheeling and dealing. Second season I had some money (although in the red) I managed to bring in some more frees and sign some cheap ones, and only bought in old players who I knew I could resell or would really contribute. As its not worth bringing in oldddddddddddddddddddddddd players who are probably too injury prone or too old to play even run because then all they will do is eat up the wages.

In short, become an Italian club with no money.

Also don't forget about December. You can start looking for players who contracts will expire in Jan. Russian League ones only sign after Jan 1 otherwise you will pay a fee if you agree a contract early. Plus don't be afraid to cancel loans or loan out players. I loaned out Boateng because there were free and better players. Plus players you sign on a free can be sold for something, players you get on a loan cannot and probably require a fee anyways. You really only have to hold for for 6 months until January, which then you can really rehaul the squad.

Btw like I said free transfers are old thus have experience, which has helped me win the FA Cup and go to the Semis of the Euro Cup my second season and finish 7th in my first. I couldn't believe how well I did with the kind of players I had. As they were mostly free transfers and the ones I did pay have been really low fees.

I'm now 3 or 4 seasons in and in 2nd place challenging for the title while just rounding the tables with Cups. Now I'm starting to actually sign players but I still bring in mostly free transfers as you get some nice ones. Tore Reginiussen and Landon Donovan (goal every 2 games) and then Nistelrooy, Ballack, Burdisso, then Ben Arfa, and Busquets and Woodgate. Others I signed in Jan to make sure I had them before their contracted expired in June like Paulo Ferreira and Jo (scoring a goal a game) then Gilberto Silva, Kyrgiakos, to Anton Ferninand, Kompany, Nani (all for little fees as they were not wanted or were about to expire). Frankly I've been able to go more with no cash than most of the other clubs have with a ton. I can do very well without spending much money, but of course to push for the title you need to spend some money which now I am and my finances are stable after making quite a bit by selling my free transfers.

I also even made money from my reserve keepers. Twice I signed some cheap Englishman (helps with home grown rule) for about $100k and sold one for $1.2mil and another for $3mil. They were really Championship quality or League One quality but they could fill in for a game or two. Eventually I signed a goalie with high PA but that was very young as a reserve so I training him to eventually replace Ochoa who I signed for $14mil but the fans complained it was too much money, needless to say he won Goalie of the Year the next Season after learning from David James a bit.

2. Don't buy players for upfront fees, hold onto your balance as long as possible for the interest you receive on the balance. Pay in installments over as long as possible. This also spreads out the Tax payments too.

Thats an awful idea. It took me 5-6 seasons to get out of debt as Hull, irl a club doesnt just 'fix' its finance status in 1 month and start making money out of nowhere. It takes time and planning.

Just buy the player in one payment, long term ones keep you in debt.

Thats an awful idea. It took me 5-6 seasons to get out of debt as Hull, irl a club doesnt just 'fix' its finance status in 1 month and start making money out of nowhere. It takes time and planning.

Just buy the player in one payment, long term ones keep you in debt.

I disagree entirely. You mentioned time and planning and long term, but then suggest spending a large chunk of a balance in 1 payment?

If your finances are in the black, say a balance of £10m, it's very poor financial mangement to spend say £8m of that on a top striker to help Portsmouth move up the table. Instantly sending the balance down to £0 (see below) which won't last very long if you're losing say £500,000 a month. You're edging ever closer to a negative balance, in fact you've just brought a potential perilous debt situation forward by several months. Don't forget his signing on fee, the tax paid for the transfer and the fact you're not making as much on Interest on your lower balance.

Now look at it from another point of view. Spending say £10m for that striker over the new 48month model, is going to set you back around £200,000 per month. So add that to your monthly losses of £500k per month to make a combined new monthly loss of £700k on a £10m balance or thereabouts. You're also making higher Interest on your higher balance.

So to summarise in basic terms:

Scenario A is losing £500k a month on a balance of £0, with the player transfer, signing on fee and tax paid up front and no interest earned on your balance.

Scenario B is losing £700k a month on a balance of £9m, with the signing on fee of £1m, tax spread across 48mths and interest being earned on your balance.

I know what i'd do.

I have just started a new game with my beloved portsmouth. And have the "dawnting prospetct" of getting the club back to fiancial securety. I feel my first job is to reduce the clubs wage bill as well as desist temptation to sign some people in on free transfers.

Not sure what your finances are like because I've never played with that particular club but if you currently have any transfer funds have you actually considered increasing your wage budget? You can do this by going to the board room and at the bottom adjust the wage\transfer budget as required. This is assuming obviously that the board will let you do this in the first place.