Small club coach hiring problem.

So I started FM11 with my favorite team, Colorado in the MLS... quickly found out I couldn't hire any coaches for the team because the absolute minimum they would accept was 40K/yr, these are even the lowest skilled and rep coaches, while the most the board would allow me to pay for a coach was 38.5K/yr. It annoyed me but I was able to hire player/coaches at least for the team, eating up salary cap and registration spots, but I was at least able to train my players. I chalked it up to just the lack of attention to the MLS however and figured it was fairly isolated.

I've put that team on hold until the 11.2 patch, hoping they'd fix some things. So I go to my unemployed save, getting on with Hereford. Now I'm looking for staff for them as well and running into similar problems, however with Hereford I can't even hire player coaches. If the job is set to player I have a nice workable salary max allowed by the board (68K/yr backup player), but once I set the job to player/coach there is a second salary max added tot he list 7.5K/yr and this is the number that it works off... it still shows the same 68K/yr above but also 7.5K and to make an offer I have to abide by the 7.5. Who in the freaking world is going to work for 7K a year for starters, so the system is obviously broken there, but if I set it to just a coach then the max salary goes up to 33K a year. But why would Colorado not have extra salary stipulations for a player/coach like Hereford gets.

Even at 33K for a coach though I'm having the same issues as I had with Colorado, not being able to pay enough to hire a coach. I've not done the same exhaustive search with Hereford yet as I did with Colorado, but I don't expect anything different.

So has anyone else seen this as well... I can't believe it's just me, or are people just running with whatever staff they start with the first season? I select the limited staff for a new game as well, so I only started with a physio, fitness, GK, and 2 youth coaches.

I mean it's pretty obvious this entire thing is broken because I know damn well Colorado isn't just a pathetically small team they can't afford to pay more then 40K/yr for a coach, especially when most coaches fair coaches are asking more in the range of 60-100K/yr. But I'm just wondering if other players have found a way around it or don't suffer from it for some reason.

Which coaches are you trying to hire? At lower levels, you have to settle for lower skilled staff. ALso take a look at their reputation. This place a HUGE role in FM 11 and what coaches, ass men, etc want. You can be a better coach at a local rep than a worse coach at regional, and so on. I've got two saves, one in the South Korean N-League and one in England's BSS, in both I was able to hire full staff, just not the best of what I hoped for. You need to work towards it.

Yes I realize the coach costs would be based on their skill and rep, as I said I couldn't hire even terrible coaches with Colorado. I know I tried hiring local rep coaches and that stopped at the 40K line.

I was just able to hire coaches with obscure rep for the Hereford side, but there is still that matter with the player/coaches... why in the world the game limit any salary for pro team to 7K? (Hereford is a full pro club in the npower2 league btw)

Aside from that aspect though I guess my initial thoughts were correct, the MLS was just boned. Hereford would allow me to spend 33K/yr on a coach. Colorado would allow me to spend 38.5K/yr... 5.5K/yr difference. Hereford's estimated value in game is 900K with 1.8 million loan debt, Colorado's is like 55M with no debt. I'm thinking Colorado can afford to spend a little more then 5.5K/yr more then Hereford for coaches.

Are you not able to bump this up with a signing on fee? I always used to get players that way when the board wouldn't allow me to go above my wage budget, i offer them what the board would let me and then quadruple the signing on fee

Didn't try sign on fees with Colorado to be honest... I try avoiding spending the money because I'm used to them losing money hand over fist. (poor financial modeling)

But regardless, do others outside the US really think so poorly of the MLS that SI makes the salary limitations so low for one of their teams? Granted Colorado isn't the most well financed team in the MLS but they aren't like some minor crap club either. They are in the MLS final IRL, this Saturday. The logic is just terrible, if you saw how messed up the MLS is in game over all it would be more obvious.

Plus that reasoning that SI have overlooked things is again re-enforced by having a salary limitation of 7.5K/yr for a player/coach in Hereford... when a player has a cap of 68K/yr and a coach 33K/yr, why is a player/coach 7.5?

Martyr, some people from FM North America have noticed the bugs that you're having. The only thing that you can do is wait for the next patch to come...it's disappointing that the playability of MLS in FM11 has seem to have gone backwards from FM10.

Thanks Racer... only heard them reply to issues like 'board unhappy you are -only- on pace to win the MLS' bug and such. Not heard anything about the general playability of the league itself.

I'm not sure whether the bug where all contracts are considered developmental ones are fixed, but the coach contract one seems to be still there since you're having that problem. There's still problems with DP recommendations and the players that go on waivers...overall, similar issues from last year, and the year before that...

The developmental bug is still there, at least since yesterday, that might break my team once it's fixed though because of the player/coaches. Personally I thought the MLS was far more playable in FM10. There were bugs but not as noticeable or serious imo.

Same with the South African league. I started a new game unemployed, was hired by a first division South African team and found out coaches were basically way too expensive to even attempt hiring. The funny thing was that other teams in the same division did manage to sign coaches for normal wages, but when I approached similar coaches they all asked for a small fortune. Even the ones with the worst of stats who reacted to my coach adverts, and were interrested in the job asked for about a fifth of my total wage budget, lol...

I'm finding the same thing; just started up in the BSN and every coach my assistant thinks I can sign is asking for twice the amount the club will let me pay them! The quality not being much cop is one thing, but not being able to rely on the assistant manager filter is ridiculous...

What was your overal salary commitments for your Hereford save? If you're being limited to 7K, it could be because your board is overruling anything larger due to high commitments.

What was your overal salary commitments for your Hereford save? If you're being limited to 7K, it could be because your board is overruling anything larger due to high commitments.

No you totally misunderstand... If I offer a contract and set the job to player the board max is 68K/yr, set the job to coach and the max changes to 33K/yr. Set the job to player/coach and I have 2 maxes, the 68K/yr for a player contract but a second is added that is 7.5K/yr and I can't offer any more then that.

So it's not the board overruling anything because I normal options for hiring players, coaches salaries are low but I can hire them. But if you try a player/coach that is the only time it has the 7.5K. It's obviously broken, especially considering a 2-in-1 package is perfect for such a small club.

Edit: but just to answer your question directly, I have the max payroll budgeted and I'm well under the budget, have no problem trying to hire players at all, just can't for a player/coach.

I find the maximum salary you can offer to a player/coach is much lower than anybody would ever accept as well, and I'm using less than 50% of my wage budget (just been promoted).