Keeping wages under control in title winning team

Is it possible to not pay top wages and keep winning and challenging in the EPL? I recently sold my highest earning player and have one player on over 100k a week who I am considering selling if I can find a decent replacement. Just got me wondering what sort of wage bills and high earners other people have in their title challenging sides.

I've got a save with a two/three times premier league winning Brighton team where the highest wage is £35,000 a week. Total wages around £500,000 a week. Club turns a profit every season. Combination of right tactics and players to bring success in the league combined with ruthless wage control. Certainly doable to win big without breaking the bank.

I'm in 2019 and managing Juventus (have been for 1½ season now) and this is my current first team (just about to start my second full season):

The two top earners were already at the club when I got the job, so I kept them (was close to selling Rodgrigo for a huge amount, but Barcelona backed down).

My GK is a regen I bought from my old club and he is very good, so he's worth the money.

I'm about £100k under my wagebudget max., which is £1,4m.

And so far it's going very well.

This is FM2010, Barcelona game: I lost Lionel Messi because I couldn't afford him. Quite literally, too. He wanted 325,000 euros a week, the board would only allow 250,000. Messi refused every offer I made for six months, even going as far as rejecting triple goal/appearance bonuses (and he scored a LOT) and a 15 million sign-on fee instead of the 3.5 million he demanded... So, I had to cut him loose before he would get a free transfer, and I sold him to Man City for 30 million.

I've got a save with a two/three times premier league winning Brighton team where the highest wage is £35,000 a week. Total wages around £500,000 a week. Club turns a profit every season. Combination of right tactics and players to bring success in the league combined with ruthless wage control. Certainly doable to win big without breaking the bank.

500k is very impressive are they mostly youngsters?

Noramlly my wages hover around £1mil for a title team but my current team is £1.25mil .Have 3 players over £100k including worlds top player on £165k. I also normally have 3-4 under 18 players will replace the current starters within 2 years and they are under £10k. Wage budget is £2mil so well under but like to keep it in check.

I'm on a wage total of around £770k for a team that has won quite a lot in recent years.

It helps when you have a tycoon chairman and can afford big agent fees though

Tbf, this team has won the CL 6 times in a row

My wage at liverpool is 1.65 im looking to cut that down as im not winning the league and only jsut got into the champions league.

That was my Sevilla sides wages on a different save. The idea being to win the Champions League as quickly as possible so I took over a team with a tycoon and spent £500 million in three season and paid some big contracts out.

It is possible. I try and keep my wages around the 1.1m mark. Anything more than that is a bit daft.

I've had some impressive teams on low budgets over the years, never been able to keep them for more than a season or 2 without breaking the bank a bit though.

If you can build a super team without buying from any of the top clubs, it is possible.

It helps starting with a small team and building from scratch. Lack of money forces you to keep the wages low. When success comes, you gradually increase your imaginary max wage so that you keep turning a profit every month (or at least year).

Before my Las Palmas save (10 seasons) started corrupting, I had similar wages throughout the team as you do. Roughly 1.2-1.4m. The stadium was housing 40 000 fans every home game, and the TV rights were around £115m the 2019-20 season. This meant that the club raked in 1-5 millions every (normal) month. I wonder what the income would have been if I could have continued until the end of that 20/21 season because then my 55k stadium would have been finished :/

As long as you keep making a profit, there is no reason that max wage should stop at an arbitrary number like 100k p/w.

£115 million TV rights that's a lot of cash. Starting as a small team helps but eventually even with young players they will want big wages after a few seasons of success.

My club do not make a profit and most of my money has come from selling players at their peak to balance the books. That was mainly due to have a 14k stadium up until a season or so a go now we only have 32k but the board are planning the expansion.

Buy them young, and keep them tied down to long term contracts on massive signing-on fees. I had a player who sacked his agent, and with the aid of a massive signing-on fee, I was able to knock his wage down £15k/week.

Very possible, but like BiggusD says, you can't buy from the top clubs. Currently, I have won the EPL once with a £50k/week limit (though one player has pushed it to £60k) with a total of £800k.

500k is very impressive are they mostly youngsters?

A mix. I have been very aggressive with my wage control and have never had a player with a yearly wage rise clause. Spent quite a bit on signing on fees over the years but it has kept me profitable. The core of the team has been together for years. It is good enough to win the premiership but struggles a bit in the CL. When I've not been able to negotiate a contract extension below my self imposed cap I've sold the player.

Hi mate, my question is of topic, but what is that skin called you are using? I like it as I am blind as a bat and the font seems very clear. On the topic of wages I must say I have lost many players when trying to get them to sign a new contract as they ask more than the board will allow. Furthermore most times even if I am successful with an offer, it falls down as they ask to much, example my last signing wanted to go from 35K a week to 175K excuse my lanuage thats just farking crazy. I think this will destroy some aspects of the game unless I say (dare I say?) use an editor to change money for wages and transfers. Again if you don't mind telling me the skin I will be able to get it. Thanks

That was my Sevilla sides wages on a different save. The idea being to win the Champions League as quickly as possible so I took over a team with a tycoon and spent £500 million in three season and paid some big contracts out.

The skin is the retro one you get if you got the game through steam.

Thanks mate, no luck for me then, bought the game from EB Games, oh well thanks anyways. On another note, no fun when your eye sight declines :-(

The skin is the retro one you get if you got the game through steam.

I think if you install through steam you can access it as well but I am not totally sure. Have you tried any other skins like Flex or Steklo X1? Steklo especially seems to have a very clear font.

There's a few skins about based on the FM07 skin which looks fairly similar, only problem is the antiquated menus and stuff.

You also need to keep an eye on your staff wages. I've never really paid much attention to staff wages until recently because most of my staff want pay rises to the tune of 80%. At least they are pretty easy to negotiate down.

My wages in 2051 with Man City. Winning Premierships and Champions League every year.

Ive got wages around the £800k mark with my Hull City save. We're top half of the Premier League on season 7. I am just about breaking even at the moment each season. Would like to drop it to c£650k to get a decent profit but would have to sell off my crown jewels to do so and thus probably drop down the league.

Its a fine art to manage wages - something I should try to improve on

I've won the EPL 12 times in a row with Truro now, although only won the CL 4 times, been runner up 3 times. Wage bill tends to hover around £1.2m per week, I can't really imagine holding onto my "stars" in the EPL and spending any less than I currently do. I could go to 1.1 million or even a million, but to do that I'd lose some of my strength in depth, and I'd rather run this wage, have tons of cover, while also being able to train up youngsters, and sell on any player that nears 30 that's not integral to my side as i feel it's more profitable to do that.

Sure, it's cold selling players in their "prime" but I can get some decent fee's for 29 year olds, and have a youngster take his place, while on a lower wage.

The only players I'm considering holding into their thirties are Jose Maria, who is worth 29 million pounds at age 29, but he's my captain, I'd hate to lose him, he's been such a loyal servant, he's been our captain since he was 19 or something stupid, because he's just such an influential player, and at the time, sure, people were a bit wary about having such a young captain, but he's held the armband faithfully through it all, leading us to tons of EPL and cup wins. Also I'll hold onto William, he's probably the second best goalkeeper in the world, and at 28 he will last a few good years yet.

Rui Carvhalo I will sell at the end of the season most likely, to make room for me to train up more youngsters.

So, I feel you have to be quite ruthless to keep the wage-bill down, and sell players who are "in their prime" but soon about to leave it. Wage-bill if you can afford it isn't the most important thing, as long as you can sell your high earners and bring new people into the side you should gain a profit, assuming you aren't paying over the odds for you youngsters.

I am currently Inter Milan and my wage total sits at a little over 900k per week. My top earner will be leaving in the January transfer window, and he earns 130k per week, so that will bring the total wage bill (for the 1st team) down to about 780k per week. My highest wage earner will be 70k per week.

Also worth looking at the wages of reserve players when you start a new game/take over a club, as I find at least 1 or 2 players will be on over 25k per week, which to me is a complete waste.

At Dresden I was spending under a third of my wage budget for my first title-winning season. But that was because I was just buying young wonderkids and tying them down to cheap contracts. After three more years of title challenges and European success I was only about £15,000 under budget. So it can be done, but in my case it was in a very short term environment. I jumped ship before the club was crippled by the huge wage demands of the players who I'd signed on the cheap...

When you sign players, or offer new contracts, have a calculator to hand.

You can keep the wage bill down by using the signing on/agent fees to your advantange.

It is usually possible to cut the wage to save an amount of money, and increase the fees by less than that amount and the player will still sign.

By this I mean doing something like the following:

Player asks for £60k p/w for 3 years with £1m for him and £1m for his agent.

You offer them £40k p/w, saving you £3,120,000 in wages over the course of his contract.

So even if you have to give him and his agent £2m each instead of the £1m he asked for then you will still have saved £1,120,000 over the course of the players contract.

When you sign players, or offer new contracts, have a calculator to hand.

You can keep the wage bill down by using the signing on/agent fees to your advantange.

It is usually possible to cut the wage to save an amount of money, and increase the fees by less than that amount and the player will still sign.

By this I mean doing something like the following:

Player asks for £60k p/w for 3 years with £1m for him and £1m for his agent.

You offer them £40k p/w, saving you £3,120,000 in wages over the course of his contract.

So even if you have to give him and his agent £2m each instead of the £1m he asked for then you will still have saved £1,120,000 over the course of the players contract.

In addition to this ^ use the release clauses liberally (unless they ask for them). If you sign the player for £10m, set the Release Fee to £60m offering him half of what he wants. He will negotiate but now demand that release clause. Now set the clause to 40m instead, again offering him the same as last time. You will be surprised how many players believe that clause is a lot more important than earning money...

My friend offered Phil Jones twice the p/w as I did in a bid war once, plus just about any clause he could think of just like me. But I offered him £10m less in Release Clause foreign clubs and so he signed for me (Sunderland) rather than for his Aston Villa.

When you sign players, or offer new contracts, have a calculator to hand.

You can keep the wage bill down by using the signing on/agent fees to your advantange.

It is usually possible to cut the wage to save an amount of money, and increase the fees by less than that amount and the player will still sign.

By this I mean doing something like the following:

Player asks for £60k p/w for 3 years with £1m for him and £1m for his agent.

You offer them £40k p/w, saving you £3,120,000 in wages over the course of his contract.

So even if you have to give him and his agent £2m each instead of the £1m he asked for then you will still have saved £1,120,000 over the course of the players contract.

People moan about agents but using them like this can save a fair bit of cash.

It gets quite easy for me once I've started to get regens to first team standard. Initially they'll replace the senior backup players for about a tenth of the price, then by the time they get into the starting lineup, I'll get them on 5 year contracts, so they're mine for a while. Also, I'll try and make sure they're professional in their attitude if I can, as a professional palyer tends to back down over wanting a new contract. If when I renegotiate, their demands are too high, I'll sell them(I always keep bringing in more talented youth to potentially replace them), usually I can keep them low for a a title winning team. My Wonderkid DM in my Liverpool team, is as good as you'll get in that position, renegotiated last year, he only asked for 22 grand, I'd have paid him 50 at least!

This is FM2010, Barcelona game: I lost Lionel Messi because I couldn't afford him. Quite literally, too. He wanted 325,000 euros a week, the board would only allow 250,000. Messi refused every offer I made for six months, even going as far as rejecting triple goal/appearance bonuses (and he scored a LOT) and a 15 million sign-on fee instead of the 3.5 million he demanded... So, I had to cut him loose before he would get a free transfer, and I sold him to Man City for 30 million.

What are they paying him at city? Did you try bribing the agent?

if a player is really good that he can stay in team for atleast 3 or 4 year, i go for a 5 year contract bribing the agent if necessary, giving a increment of max. 15% above present salary.

For important but short term player it's around 10-25%. Rest all falls under 10% except wonderkids; that depends on their determination and workrate.

In past games the thing I have over looked was the yearly wage rise I just offered players what they wanted. On FM11 I have started to be more careful with the finances and am more willing to sell players and search for a replacement. I also hate the match highest earner clause I took over Sevilla and signed a world class player on a big contract about 50k a week more than any other player when he signed players I never signed suddenly got big pay rises three of them altogether.

Here is my list of players and wages.

In my second season, won the treble last year EPL, FAC and ECC.

Also picked up 2 CS and World Club Championship.

I managed to win the premiership with Stoke with 1 player above £60k a week wages. Of course this is still substantial, Babacar was on £84k a week, then Ryan Shawcross was on £60k a week. It was tough to do and I did consider breaking it, but there really wasn't the money coming into the club to do so, I was stuck with Champions League revenue being the only reason I could sustain a £650-700k per week wage bill, since winning the premiership I have added a second player on more than £80k a week but he is only a loan for the season a striker signed from Chelsea with the excess revenue from progressing further in the CL and winningthe premiership has seen my second striker pick up £67k a week. The clubs wage bill has inflated to £950k but after the loan is over and some veterans leave the club who are in the final year of their contract it will have come down an awful lot again.

In past games the thing I have over looked was the yearly wage rise I just offered players what they wanted. On FM11 I have started to be more careful with the finances and am more willing to sell players and search for a replacement. I also hate the match highest earner clause I took over Sevilla and signed a world class player on a big contract about 50k a week more than any other player when he signed players I never signed suddenly got big pay rises three of them altogether.

I do whatever i can to not have the match highest earner clause.

I do whatever i can to not have the match highest earner clause.

So do I a pity the previous manager was a goon.

I do whatever i can to not have the match highest earner clause.

I hate that. Some players demand a minimum release clause and a match highest earner clause. Most of the time I just negotiate a higher minimum release clause and negotiate out the match highest earner clause. Sometimes I think the AI managers give this clause way too much.

I hate that. Some players demand a minimum release clause and a match highest earner clause. Most of the time I just negotiate a higher minimum release clause and negotiate out the match highest earner clause. Sometimes I think the AI managers give this clause way too much.

If they wont sign without that i leave them as that clause can cripple your finances in the blink of an eye.

my wage bill for southampton is as bad as your sevilla one lol

my wage bill for southampton is as bad as your sevilla one lol

lol, sugar daddys enabled me to pay whatever the player wanted. I really hope the tycoon never leaves Sevilla the loses were between £10 million and £15 million a month.

My liverpool squad in 2017 have a wage budget of 1.7 mill I will be looking to reduce to that around 1.2 at the end of this season. The goal is going to be to turn a big profit every season.

(i have won pretty much everything in a long long time.)

941k p/w wage bill with Athletic Bilbao. I won Spanish double with them last season.