Should I Stay or Should I Go??

It's 2016, my journeyman has taken me to Port Vale in the mighty league 2 (I promoted them from the blue square thingy). We consolidated last season finishing 17th. All through my tenure the club has been haemorrhaging money, at least £100k a month, more when we were in the blue square. We've only been in the black for about 2 weeks of my 2 years there. And heres the killer, the reason why I think I need to move on. My wage budget has been reduced every season I've been here, from 18k in my first season to 12k in my current (third) and last season that resulted in me losing all but 4 of my 'senior' players (those not under 21). I now have a team with an average of what must be about 7, maybe 8. And I've lost every single quality player that I had. I need to have an average attendance of about 8000 to make any sort of profit (it current sits at just about 5000) and the only way to increase the attendance is to get myself to to the top end of the table but with a team of only 20 players, only about 8 of which I actually have any confidence in I really don't see a future for the club! As things stand I can't even afford a decent physio! My training facilities have just been down graded to 3 grey stars (adequate)! And come the end of this season it looks like I wont be able to keep any of my remaining senior players as I'm over my budget as it is!!!

It's a shame, because I would really love to 'make it' with them, but it's just not going to happen! AND I'm now being beaten by the newly promoted Forest Green! For petes Sake!

Wait intill an club offers you another job , rather than quit. As despite your success in the game , what usually happens after you quit is that nobody will be willing to hire you! in the lower leagues anyway.

It's 2016, my journeyman has taken me to Port Vale in the mighty league 2 (I promoted them from the blue square thingy). We consolidated last season finishing 17th. All through my tenure the club has been haemorrhaging money, at least £100k a month, more when we were in the blue square. We've only been in the black for about 2 weeks of my 2 years there. And heres the killer, the reason why I think I need to move on. My wage budget has been reduced every season I've been here, from 18k in my first season to 12k in my current (third) and last season that resulted in me losing all but 4 of my 'senior' players (those not under 21). I now have a team with an average of what must be about 7, maybe 8. And I've lost every single quality player that I had. I need to have an average attendance of about 8000 to make any sort of profit (it current sits at just about 5000) and the only way to increase the attendance is to get myself to to the top end of the table but with a team of only 20 players, only about 8 of which I actually have any confidence in I really don't see a future for the club! As things stand I can't even afford a decent physio! My training facilities have just been down graded to 3 grey stars (adequate)! And come the end of this season it looks like I wont be able to keep any of my remaining senior players as I'm over my budget as it is!!!

It's a shame, because I would really love to 'make it' with them, but it's just not going to happen! AND I'm now being beaten by the newly promoted Forest Green! For petes Sake!

OK, you can sort your finances out but it's a dodgy method of doing it for some.

If you arrange pre-season friendlies, set them to away and play a "Small Team (Foreign)" - pick the biggest amount of money available and you'll receive that for the game.

You can earn silly money doing that, but its not realistic. It's not cheating either as it's a legitimate game function but it's definitely not realistic.

So it's up to you.

I think the answer is youth but it may take a while. A club in your financial situation has to hope to find the next big name and sell him, or at least make some money selling a player.

Maximise your loan signings and see if you can find some cheap, aging talent to bolster your young players and give them a boost with their experience.

That is the direction I would take if I were in your shoes. As for whether you should stay or go, well I am inclined to say go unless you really fancy a challenge. I don't agree that you're not going to attract a club willing to give you a chance but you might need to be unemployed because I suspect clubs that may want you will be lower. It sounds like you haven't really made a name for yourself among the upper echelons of the game so you might have to drop back down and find a club you can push up the ladder.

I'm sorry to say that, and I don't mean to quash any success you may have had. It just sounds like Port Vale are going nowhere unless they major investment or make a big sale. If you get the boot for a bad season it might do your reputation a lot of harm.

Maybe try pushing the club to do something about the financial situation. I doubt they'll raise the budget available to you but will they look to the future with an improvement in the youth facilities?

Just one thing to end. When you had a budget of £18k were you spending all of it? I have found that budgets are often way too high for the club to support and I've started to look to trying to stay well below what I'm given. Better safe than sorry is my motto.

Good luck and I hope some success comes your way, with Port Vale or someone else.

Go - but as posted before, only to a job. Haven't got to this stage on 2011 yet (still in BSS),

but have played career games on all the previous versions, and getting promotion should

eventually get you interest from a more stable but struggling League 2 team (or even League 1).

My last one went from BSN to Premiership with Stalybridge/Carlisle/West Ham. Each step up to

a team fighting relegation, but with the infrastructure to top its league.

There's a limit to how far any club can go, and it sounds like you've hit it with the Vale.

Cheers for the tip tubey, if I make it to the end of the season I might look in to it! It would be nice to spend some part of the season in the black!

To anagain, that is how I too would go for it, but I could only afford youngsters with their small wage demands, I was outpriced (by the board) when it came to the older players I wanted to sign! On the point about selling players, generally my first team are worth 100-200k, so selling a couple would put us into the black as I should get the premium that comes with youth but at the moment, I get 0% of transfer fees so, I would not be able to replace them, and with such a small squad I cant really afford to lose key players and stay competitive! This season is ALL about staying in league 2, but, that won't solve any of my problems, I need to get to the top half of the table at least!

When I had my 18k budget I was only using 14k, that was in the BSP, then when I got promoted that went up to 18k but my budget went down to 14k - so I now have 40odd% less in wage budget and I'm trying to operate at a higher level! Wages are unfortunately pretty low at 55k/month, some times they're not even the highest cost! My income from gate receipts is about 90k/month which I think is a pretty average level? especially in terms of percentages!

The most disappointing thing is that Vale have a 19000 seater stadium! If I did get them promoted (by some divine power) I think they could become a largely successful team! I just don't see how they could ever get there! Argh!

To make it worse, after my first season the club was taken over! By a fans trust Lots of fan days, but no investment :/