How do you win the Premiership with no money?

This is the first time I have tried to play a long-ish game. I am managing Sheffield United in the Premiership but appear to have hit a peak.

My first season with them finished 1st in League 1, then 2nd in the Championship, then 11th in Prem, 10th, 7th, 10th.

This season has started fantastically and we are in 4th at Christmas but this happened before and I ended up in 7th at the end. The problem is I am running out of ways to improve the squad. I am pretty much reliant on free transfers and bringing through youngsters because the club has no money. I am given a transfer budget of £15,000,000 but the clubs balance is only ever about £3,000,000. I know I could do better in the league if I ignored things like the FA cup and Europa League but the club needs the extra money generated by runs in these competitions.

I am bringing through some decent youngsters and keep trying to sign young wonderkids but I am always beaten to them by the likes of Man City. Is there something I am missing to help my team push on up the league or is it just a waiting game for all my 16 year olds to come good and hopefully not get sold?

Only time I've ever won the Premiership on this I have had some form of tycoon at the helm just pumping me a constant stream of money.

Probably win some money through cup runs, the FA cup has a high rep, winning that and getting a mid table finish might be the solution!

the only way to get a really small club without bugdet to the really top of a strong league is to buy talented players (easiest are the africans) let them play and sell them 1-2 years later, do that for around 20-30 years and your balance will shoot trough the roof and you can buy a whole solid squad for 250-350 millions...

all the cup things dont reward as good, you get a million here and there... but nothing significant

Well, with Bradford I am in my third season in the PL now, and the two previous I came 6th. I have acquired quite a few talented players and quite frankly the only thing I can do is to wait until they mature. There are no "leading PL players" that wants to move to me yet, and even if there was I would not jeopardize the club's economy by signing one. I make money every month, usually 500k-1m and have a healthy balance, and I believe that the reason I can do this is that I have limited the max wage I will offer any player to 30kpw currently. A leading PL player would quite likely want £50k p/w or more, and that's the wage of at least two players in my current regime. He needs to be really expectional should that be worth it.

As soon as my 4,5 and 5 star PA teenagers reach their potential I expect to crawl into a CL spot, and that's when the real money start flowing!

free transfers are a blessing, really, do spend some money and use the 48 months extra thing if need be.

30kpw will honestly get you nowhere, i got players on 64k a week with blackpool, depends on what is around, i was fortunate enough to get ryan babel on a free due to hoffenheim getting religated and him putting in a bosman, his wages demands decreased from 100k+ to 64 as a result of not being signed

the money you get with cup runs should far outweigh any wages etc.. the only issues with finances are the board upgrading everything

darren gibson can be got for around 30k p/w though

2nd season in the premier league

won league cup twice,

promotion from championship

and FA cup

europa league final

for my first league season. had such players as seedorf and tymochuck and was offered van nistlerooy as well. all all free and can be got on under 40kpw if lucky

free transfers are a blessing, really, do spend some money and use the 48 months extra thing if need be.

30kpw will honestly get you nowhere, i got players on 64k a week with blackpool, depends on what is around, i was fortunate enough to get ryan babel on a free due to hoffenheim getting religated and him putting in a bosman, his wages demands decreased from 100k+ to 64 as a result of not being signed

the money you get with cup runs should far outweigh any wages etc.. the only issues with finances are the board upgrading everything

darren gibson can be got for around 30k p/w though

I got far better players than Ryan Babel on 1/10 of that wage then. Darron Gibson and Ryan Babel will not get you anywhere close to a CL spot. You need to aim higher than that, yet, paying 100kpw for mediocrity is not the way to go. 100kpw should be reserved for world class players.

oh they will ryan babel is an immence winger for me, takes on players scored goals, and he isnt on 100k a week, board won't let me go over 64k which only he and gaitan are acctually on. only 8 games played in the premier league, (i played 1 less) sat in 3rd with 21 goals scored, and a further 12 in the europa league afer 3 games.

babel is one of my best players i wasn't sure about him either, but i had to go somwhere i had 5 retirements and a tiny tranfer budget.

i already have sango and wilfried from season 1, i already have uros cosic nearly fully developed and areola.

and you are forgetting the thing with babel, i got him for nowt, and he is a big name signing therfore brought money in from shirt sales.

i'm not after a champions league spot, i'm after a good finish for more funds to keep rolling up. i'm more interested in newgens (got a 184PA AM/S from willhelm II in erdivise) gaitan, rodwell, and a few players that still do it in this league.

trust me. if i had 100k p/w to spend on wages i would have adebayor by now

ooh boy did i have the same problem in FM11. i took over droylsden in the BSN i think, bottom at xmas, in 12 seasons i think it was i took them to the premier league, i had a 3000 seater stadium, which the board refused to expand or build a new one, despite turning a profit every year. i basically was forced to look at barca, madrid, Ac.Milan, Inter, united, chelsea, arsneal, all the big teams, at the players they released, i then signed up their best players they got rid of, usually for 2 seasons, yes they was old, but i had players like messi who was released for only £23,000 a week, didac, theo wallcott, ect they where all old, but they where good enough to get me midtable...just use every penny after 5 years to get your stadium as big as possible. 20 years later in my game my board built a 12,000 seater stadium, however years down the line we had a attendance of 50,000 showing up which the board said "poor attendance expected"

oh they will ryan babel is an immence winger for me, takes on players scored goals, and he isnt on 100k a week, board won't let me go over 64k which only he and gaitan are acctually on. only 8 games played in the premier league, (i played 1 less) sat in 3rd with 21 goals scored, and a further 12 in the europa league afer 3 games.

babel is one of my best players i wasn't sure about him either, but i had to go somwhere i had 5 retirements and a tiny tranfer budget.

i already have sango and wilfried from season 1, i already have uros cosic nearly fully developed and areola.

and you are forgetting the thing with babel, i got him for nowt, and he is a big name signing therfore brought money in from shirt sales.

i'm not after a champions league spot, i'm after a good finish for more funds to keep rolling up. i'm more interested in newgens (got a 184PA AM/S from willhelm II in erdivise) gaitan, rodwell, and a few players that still do it in this league.

trust me. if i had 100k p/w to spend on wages i would have adebayor by now

I actually have Adebayor on my Bradford team, 32 but still looking good. He has half a star more (4) than my second best striker but so far, in October, he hasn't been better than them. 64k is a lot too - I signed him on a free transfer and he has 30kpw I think. The thing with having a wide spread in basic wages is that everyone else will look at what he's earning and thus you will have to pay 30-40k (in your case) for players that would want 15k from me. This is the reason I maintain my own -much stricter- wage restriction than the board, which is completely irresponsible in this matter.

Look here:

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I am not stressing the economy at all, simply because the quality I -can- get if I throw money at someone is only marginally better (if at all) than the ones I get for a few millions as 17-year-olds and those I can get for cheap because they are not wanted somehwere, or find themselves in a lower-rated club so that they are on manageable wages already.

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Maybe unfair to compare him with my left winger, but I do it anyways. Showcasing building from ground-up as a strategy rather than ego

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Got him for 650k two years ago, so he will be HG club next season. Another important benefit from this strategy. 64k is way too much to pay for the likes of Babel, but it is not unreasonable for the likes of Gaitan, who is probably comparable to Wisniewski here.

The thing I've found is really helpful is trawling the squads of the big teams towards the end of the season for players who are unhappy at not getting games, when you find them try to unsettle them and you should be able to pick them up reasonably cheaply. You can also pick up the better players from the relegated teams, they should be wlling to move for low(ish) wages.

I think my main problem may be an unwillingness to sell my players. I keep getting £20,000,000 bids for my two young stars but really dont want to sell them, though I could really use the £40,000,000 to build a good squad and not just rely on a couple of guys

When I first saw this thread, I thought it was David Moyes who made it.

You need money to win Premiership, and money can be earned from playing in the Champions' League. You can also reduce your expenses by cutting the whole youth program. Considering the low probability of it producing EPL winner material, it's not really worth it.

i made buckets of money in my season (was up to 30 million from about 6) the problem is the board spending it for you

i made buckets of money in my season (was up to 30 million from about 6) the problem is the board spending it for you

On training facilities and the like? That is great! If my board spent as much on that as I would like, I would have had state-of-the-art facilities all over a long time ago. Sadly, I need to wait for the club's reputation to rise so that takes time.

I guess what I try to say here is that you win the Premiership with no money by signing 14-17 year-olds with the potential to become leading PL players and transfer-listed or free experienced players while waiting for them to develop. Keep below half or even 1/3rd of the board's "maximum allowed wage" at all times - no exceptions - and always keep a healthy bank balance so that you get to improve facilities whenever you have gained enough Reputation to do so.

The other way to build a title contender is to pick a team with money. If you choose a team with no money and plan to spend mountains of it on high-rep quality to build a classy team that way, you may be in for some dissapointment. If you spend wisely the little money you have, and sell with a profit at the right time, you may manage to build a good team in the end - but this isn't faster than developing your quality players yourself.

get loans, i loaned a newgen myself got a buyout clause put on it so i could get the guy at a discount.

the key is reputation, and frees imo, if a world class or big name player is offered or available, you can use him in your squad it is the way to go. even if they are old and last a season, still worth it if they are still fantastic. you need the old players there so your younger newgens have time to develop from thier lower league standard

I think my main problem may be an unwillingness to sell my players. I keep getting £20,000,000 bids for my two young stars but really dont want to sell them, though I could really use the £40,000,000 to build a good squad and not just rely on a couple of guys

Every single player has a price, your scouts should be always looking for cheap talent and if you have to sell one top player every season to fund the rest of the club it shouldn't be too hard to replace.

you could spend £100k and win the league. its just about signing the RIGHT player, be those free's loans, or even looking at league one/two championship for youth who could do something

In FM 11 my answer was to risk a Leeds. Spend as much as you can on half a team good enough for one level above where you now are (so your team is always 50% good enough, 50% too good for last years position), make that step up and the money that comes pays for the past risks.

I managed to take a conference team up to the premiership with consecutive promotions, then survived, came mid table, won a champions league spot, won the champions league then finally won the league and champions league in my first 5 years up. How? I overspent, but over achieved. I bought players too good for my club, took a risk, and ended up with it paying off.

When I stopped, however, I was in a position where it'd take 3-4 years of sustained success with little extra investment in order for me to clear my obligations and be a long term success. But by then I had a few top prospects too, as I'd had 3 years as a champions league side, and 2 as winners, so could attract almost anyone.

It's not a path I'd recommend a real club take, but in the game sometimes the best choice is to gamble it all on a throw of the dice.

As Norwich, i have won 2 premierships in 5 years, have a new 40,000 seater stadium and have signed the likes of Ganso, Sebastien Giovinco, Stevan Jovetic, Domenico Criscito and Javier Pastore. Only problem is that i bought them all on 48-month payment deals and spent about £400million doing so. Now the club are ruined financially, might have to liquidise my assets at a loss (sell players for less than they're worth).

Funny thing is, i won my first league on a modest £30m squad budget, with Shawcross, Carlos Fierro and Hoilett costing a combined £25m the stars of the team. Then i got a bit daft and got the likes of Di Maria, Kaka, Balotelli and Pedro on loan and finished 7th and reached last 16 of Champs League. Looks like the team spirit was worth more than the ability of individuals.

I'm currently trying to achieve this with Fulham 5th season now, i am picking up young talent as i can and some big names on free transfers. had Budgets from 230k to £20m

i'm sat in 2nd in the premier league afer 12 games in only my second season there.

my home form is insane scored 31 goals already and december has only just started, only lost away to everton (didn't deserve) arsenal and chelsea. only signed rodwell and gaitan with any money bar newgens. the signing of babel forced my hand with a new attacking formation which has paid off.. big time.

Im going through the same sort of scenario as yourself but I am managing the blue side of Sheffield

In in my 4th season and my first in the premiership. I'm currently 7th at the moment mid way through the season and hardly spent a penny. I think it's all about saving your transfer budget as much as possible and buying relics from years gone by or any other little gems from other clubs. 2 players I have who are on fire are Soukana and Fatai. Both are scoring for fun. Infact Soukana has just scored his 100th goal for me in his 3rd season at the club. I also picked up Schmeichel for a couple of million along with Ryan Shotton and a couple others that are helping. All pretty cheap.

First couple of seasons I set about establishing the club, We now have a 40,000 seat stadium (and before the Wednesday fan gets in here ahead of me, no it is never full :-( ) Top training facilities and youth facilities.

Never really thought about cutting back on things like youth recruitment. How much money would it save?

Bearing in mind every season I bring through on average 2 players that I will be able to sell for about £5,000,000 when they turn 20ish

Pretty much buy young and sell them on, like Wigan do but on a more successfull basis (earn 10m-20m per season) while replacing with youngsters and repeat

Really tho is not meant to be possible to win and make money to the degree you wish, look at Wenger in real life, he is managing a big club like Arsenal and even he cant win something for 7 years when he always has to replace his stars with young talent

I think my main problem may be an unwillingness to sell my players. I keep getting £20,000,000 bids for my two young stars but really dont want to sell them, though I could really use the £40,000,000 to build a good squad and not just rely on a couple of guys

There's your problem. You can either wait until all your youth players turn into stars and hope that a) the board haven't sacked you and b) they're content to stay at a club that hasn't achieved anything yet, or you can spend the money to get yourself into a position when you're able to poach young stars from other clubs. £40m investment spent wisely should be enough to get you challenging for the Champions League, then once you're there the money starts rolling in. There's no point having the next Fabregas in your team if the rest of the players aren't up to standard.

I turned United into the second best team in the world (bloody Van Basten at Arsenal my arch nemisis) with this strategy. Promotion in my first season (it was FM 07), a couple of hard years struggling to stave off relegation, then gradual improvement up the league - every player had a price until I won the league and no longer needed to sell.

Incidentally, how much did it cost to improve your stadium? Bramall Lane would be the 11th biggest stadium in the Premier League if United were there now - were the extra 7k seats really a priority?

gotta say what a great thread this is the last two seasons ie been managing barnsley im in 2015 atm and when i took over we were 19th i managed to finish 17th and then last season finished a respectable 9th.

since reading this ive had a bit of a change of plan as i usually tend to go for unproven youngsters. however i am now on a player search looking for players aged between 30-34 and what can i say but WOW i am amazed at the amount of quality players out there. i have made offers for defoe,toure,pandev and a host of others offering all of them yearly contracts and seeing if this gamble will drag the tykes into top 6-8 hope people keep coming forward with good ideas.

For instant success just buy fastest players you can find. Speed all over the field!

if teams are bidding 20 million on young players you own, you are better off with those players.

build a good base plenty of cheap players around (i got sanogo and wilfried in the championship) once you got your base, find your weaknesses and fill them.

I can't remember how much it cost to expand the stadium, all I know is we were getting 32,000 attendance in the old ground so I had it extended and now we are still getting 32,000 - bad times.

The players are quite content seeing as we do usually win something each season (or at least make a final).

I just feel the only thing missing right now is a spare £50,000,000 or so. The youngsters are coming through and I keep signing decent quality older players on one or two year deals.

I just need one more top quality defender, midfielder and possibly new striker to do it.

However potential champions league spot up for grabs this season so fingers crossed this can help push us on if we can squeak 4th

that is how i am doing it, not going after the title yet, just getting as far as i can in cups, building up the squad, leabing the board to expand whatever they need to (not going to ask them too as i want as big a budget as possible) i'm only in my second season, and only looking at specific targets, seeing if there anything avaialble elswhere (my attacking formation is making my defence leaky, so i need someone to hold centre midfield with rodwell.. and carrick is going cheap )

I always found it easy to make a profit each month in the PL. Got Crystal Palace promoted first season, signed decent players like Scott Sinclair, Victor Moses, Leigh Griffths but keeping the wages tight and I was making about 1.7M a month. It gets harder when you stay up and the players want new contracts tripling their wage, but by then you should be into Europe and have more income.

Those pesky wage increases appear to be a real stumbing block. The players that were on contracts of about £15,000 in my first couple of seasons are now asking for at least double that since we have been involved in the Europa League. I am gradually losing money each money each month and regain it all at the end of the season. Over the course of the year I generally make about £4,000,000 profit, meaning I am pretty much at a stalemate.

It doesnt help that I end up paying pretty excessive agents fees when signing big names on free transfers

One game to go in the season and I'm in 4th, 2 points ahead of Chelsea who face Huddersfield while I have to travel to Everton... gulp

A useful guide if you are interested

http://www.footballmanagerstory.com/2011/04/football-manager-financial-guide-part-1-how-to-create-a-stable-club/

As for contract negotiations, I must admit to being quite fortunate so far in my save. The elder statesmen I have at the Club took pay cuts at their own volition. Probably saved me around £50k - £60k a week in that alone. Some or most of that saving was then absorbed back into increased wages or younger players coming through.

Recent experiences have taught me to be harsh with contracts. I always look to see what the player is currently on and what the bonuses are. I will now regularly locked down aspects of the contract, and if an agent is being particularly difficult, I will run negotiations right down to the wire and throw in a final offer locked at non negotiable, sometimes it works, sometimes not.

Some younger players also tend to get a bit ahead of themselves, wanting to go from a £15k per week contract to like a £45K per week contract. I have a couple like that and whilst potentially they could go on to be extremely good, currently they are not. The agent who basically detests me, in the end gave in after I locked everything down over the course of the deal and the player settled for £25K, which I felt was what they were worth.

Moral of the story, don't be afraid to be pretty harsh, and be prepared to walk away or have them walk away.

The best thing to do (if you're a few seasons into the game) is look at the youngsters that get released from German and French clubs.

With Plymouth Argyle, in my 5th season I was starting my second season in the Championship. I saw a crop of amazing young talent that got released from the likes of Stuttgart and OM and signed them all up along with a few promising domestic players. They played together for a few seasons in the Championship and got better as a team where we came first. The following season I was given about £10m to spend in the Premiership but reduced this to spend a bit more on wages. I spent £3m on a right back and £2m on a central defender along with a few more young free transfers.

We finished 8th, 7th, 8th in the first three seasons before reaching 4th the next and winning it the following season. My budget never exceeded £20m and i didn't sell many players.

I've been helped by having a decent board who always expand the stadium, but building a young team of good players is always the way to go. In ANY FM game, i've never found older players in the Prem to be much use.

currently sat on top of the league with -6 million in the bank... erm yea

I finished 4th, sold about 5 squad players for a combined total of 6 million and then spent £40,000,000 on two youngsters, one defender and one striker.

My new plan is to spend all my money and then hope the club gets taken over by a wealthy businessman...

One word: youth.