Gripe with Finances

I'm currently playing as Bolton Wanderers and I'm early into my first season. At the start I had roughly 5M in the bank and a transfer budget of around 4.5M. I have 36K free on my wage budget. I haven't bought anyone, nor given anyone a new contract. I just started the season, basically. Two months in I've lost 1.5M because of players' wages, which always seems to bleed a club of its money. But that's not why I've created this topic.

There's been some discussion in the past and present on the possibility of being a chairman. I can see why some people would like this option but in my opinion it's not something SI should consider (which I know they aren't). The game is called Football MANAGER, after all. That's where the action lies. Winning the matches, trudging through the seasons and fining the players for being smartarses. Anyway, the reason I explained my situation at Bolton earlier is because it's bugging me, quite frankly. Why is it bugging me, you ask? Because I'm the MANAGER. I have my transfer and wage budget, both given to me by the chairman - the real boss of the club. He's the one who oversees the financial department with his employees. He's the one in charge, the one that looks to ensure that the club progresses - outside of the pitch. The manager's job, that which he was hired for, is to handle the squad and win matches out on the pitch. That's the manager's job.

A normal manager for a normal football club does not have any say or real insight into the club's financials. He trusts the chairman, whether it's about sales, buys and other things. If the manager is given a particular transfer budget it is because the chairman thought it was reasonable in terms of the club's economy. At least if the chairman is sane and sensible, but that's beside the point. The question of money is the chairman's job - not the manager's. So, if I'm given a transfer budget of 4M and the bank balance of the club is 4M, and we're losing about 1M every month because of players' wages, I still have every right in the world to spend every dime that I was given - because I trust my chairman. So, I spend my 4M and I use up my 36K in the wage budget. The club's economy is now in the red and I lose even more money each month on wages. But why should I care? Why should I let that bug me, considering I'm just the manager and in fact NOT the chairman?

I guess you can see where I'm going here. My proposal to SI for FM11 or FM12, is to COMPLETELY remove the "finances" section. I'm not supposed to have that kind of access into the club's financials. Correct me if I'm wrong. I don't want to see that I'm losing 1M a month because of those darn wages, knowing full well that I have 4M to spend freely and 36K on further wages. Let me spend the money and leave the financial aspect to the chairman and his board. If the chairman is irresponsible with money then let it manifest in a number of ways. Special news, from within or outside of the club, concerning the club's dodgy economy. Let the chairman reassure you that the situation is under control, or let you know that emergency transfers will take place at the next transfer window to clear the deficit. Then you, the manager, will sit there and watch while some of your players are sold off. That's reality. Realism. Either that or some other scenario based on the attributes of the chairman. But, and I can't make this clear enough, I DO NOT want to see that I'm losing a specific amount of money every month, that I'm heading into a deficit if I don't do anything soon. That's not my job. It's the club's job to analyse the financial side and decide what route to take. If they then decide to give me a transfer budget or not, that's their decision. If the club is heading into a catastrophe because I used up my transfer money and maxed out my wages, then let it happen. It's not my fault, considering that I spent what the club gave me.

Yet I feel bad because I know this information, every single number, and thus have a responsibility; I know that I'm the only one who can turn it around. After all, the chairman is just an inanimate object who will perform predictable actions and say predictable things at scripted moments. Just remove the entire section or limit considerably, and let me focus on what I'm given. If the club sinks into debt then so be it. It happens. But it's not my job to avert it, it's my job to focus entirely on the squad and the pitch. My chairman is relying on me to do just that, and leave other matters, like the economy, to the board. Just think about it. What chairman or board member would abide a manager, especially an inexperienced one, to waltz into the board room with a mobile whiteboard with drawn detailed graphs on the club's economy. I mean, seriously?

I'm interested at what people have to say on this particular topic. Do you agree or disagree?

Don't look at the Finances screen!

It is normal to be losing money each month through the season, as by the end it usually gets a nice boost from prize money, etc. and is back to where it started.

So you are right to spend your budgets as this is what was given to you. Leave the big picture for the board to sort out.

I agree in part. yes if your finances are getting f*cked up then all those special things you mentioned (enforced clear-outs, special news items etc.) should happen but i disagree that the finances section should be removed. I see your point but i think your evidence is stunted. at some clubs yes, the board are very secretive about their finances and won't even tell the manager what state they're in and just give him a budget, a cheque-book and wave him away, but most do tell the manager about all aspects of the finances and at some clubs the books are completely open and anyone can find out how the club are doing. I do think it's a bit weird that in-game we can see the finances of other clubs as the open-book clubs are very rare.

So, my revised proposal to you is that depending on the personality of the chairman and board, some clubs remian as they are now with all information completely visible, some allow the manager to access financial info but this is invisible to other people and yet others won't tell even their manager the finiancial state they are in and when you as manager of this team access the finances screen it is blank and a message pops up which says something like "the chairman believes that the club's finances are none of your concern, reminds that you have X to spend and a wage budget of Y and asks that you get on with your job, which he would like you to remember is coaching the team and deliviering results on the pitch."

This would also mean that the game could reflect the difference between the British job known as Manager, a person who's in charge of club affairs but answers to the board, and the European system of having a Head Coach who's merely in charge of the team and is completely at the mercy of the board, sometimes even to the point that he has no control over signings and is directly under the influence of a director of football (i.e. kevin keegan at newcastle). This could become part of applying for jobs in the game, where you have to negotiate your role at the club, which could be manager, director of football or head coach.

or

Don't look at the Finances screen!

agree with this guy, you could just ignore it if it ****es you off that much.