Prem Survival.

Hi all.

After a varied 8 year career from Luton Town to Slovakia U19's to GIF Sundsvall (Sweden) and finally to Southampton, I have just sneaked in very unconvincingly to the premier league via the Championship playoffs. . My u18s have won the league so I have a couple of youth players which I have brought through but other than that I look very light in most area's of the pitch.

So my question is what is your best stategy for a first season in the premier league with quite a weak side on paper ? I dont just mean tactical strategy, more whats your overall approach to what is likely to be a very difficult season?

Any advice and feedback would be most welcome :-)

With Peterborough, where i'm in the first season in the prem, I've just used a gun-ho attitude. Depending on who im playing I vary. So for the likes of Man City and United I just throw my best team out and prey (Somehow I beat United 2-1). My team though is full of up and coming youths/championship rated players, so i'm not expecting a middle of the table finish (although i'm 11th at the moment). Weaker teams, full out attack.

My approach was to sign some experienced (i.e. aged 32+) players with good mental stats on one year contracts.

They are normally cheap, don't want very high wages, and are good tutors. You can then safely jettison them after a year without any cost incurred.

I don't know how you generally appraoch the game, but I like to bring through my own players through the youth teams. However I put this on hold for one year as survival is the key.

With Peterborough, where i'm in the first season in the prem, I've just used a gun-ho attitude. Depending on who im playing I vary. So for the likes of Man City and United I just throw my best team out and prey (Somehow I beat United 2-1). My team though is full of up and coming youths/championship rated players, so i'm not expecting a middle of the table finish (although i'm 11th at the moment). Weaker teams, full out attack.

Thanks for the quick reply. That was kinda how I sneaked into the playoff places in the championship lol.

Thanks for the quick reply. That was kinda how I sneaked into the playoff places in the championship lol.

Somehow I won it with Peterborough, but the Prem is a massive jump up, as you can easily lose 5-0 to Manchester City.

My approach was to sign some experienced (i.e. aged 32+) players with good mental stats on one year contracts.

They are normally cheap, don't want very high wages, and are good tutors. You can then safely jettison them after a year without any cost incurred.

I don't know how you generally appraoch the game, but I like to bring through my own players through the youth teams. However I put this on hold for one year as survival is the key.

That sounds sensible. I have some great youths which I brought through last year as Southampton have an excellent academy but nobody to tutor them so I think definitly a few old heads would be wise.

Somehow I won it with Peterborough, but the Prem is a massive jump up, as you can easily lose 5-0 to Manchester City.

I took a few pastings early on in the championship but being a spurs fan in real life, I have a tendency for attacking attractive football !

By the way, I also agree above, bring in a few older experienced players, tutor your younger ones, bring them up through the ranks whilst utilising the older players in the matches.

I generally don't like having older players, but I bought in Pires, and a couple others to give my team a helping hand.

By the way, I also agree above, bring in a few older experienced players, tutor your younger ones, bring them up through the ranks whilst utilising the older players in the matches.

I generally don't like having older players, but I bought in Pires, and a couple others to give my team a helping hand.

I think I will definitley do that. I am planning on hanging around at Southampton for a few years to come so will be trying to focus on youth and bring them through. I only just finished the play-off final last night so I have the whole summer to find a few old heads.

experience and a world class strike is what you need from my experience. took basingstoke to premier league blew my entire budget on a 21yr old who was rated 4.5 stars and he kept me up with 25 goals alone. i then brought in a couple of freebies as well.

I wouldn't go and spend large amounts of money either on players. I'd look for a goalscorer or two, as they'll be key and judge each game differently. The likes of Man City, United etc etc will be looking to beat you comfortably playing free flowing attacking football, most probably. So against those sides, you could look to either play attacking football with the we'll score one more than you attitude, or shut up shop, pick up a point and go for the wins against other teams in and around you. Or who are expected to be battling you. I'd also try an sign determined players both young and old. Not only will they more likely to try, they'll also help with the tutoring of your younger players.

Don't be scared to be a yoyo team for a few years. I'd look at buying young players still with a few older players. Southampton are a fairly well set up club, so should make a profit most months, so as long you don't go spending daft amounts of money, going down and then coming back up again wouldn't be such a bad idea.

Ideally though, staying up is what you want.

it depends, i got a fair bit of luck facing these teams at home.

i got blackpool promoted, already had a nice strike partnership of wilfried and sanogo, agents were offering around seedorf, tymoshuck and van nistelrooy, all seasoned veterans and fantastic.

get any of these experianced players it helps a lot.

a good couple of tutors would be good for those young players - remember to get good personalities, particularly determined types

You get 30-40 millions to shop with, I think. Use them well. Sign players with "Good player for most PL sides" CA. One in each area should be enough. As said above you shouldn't spend all 40 on 3-4 expensive players. Anything above 6-7 millions is a waste of money since with your reputation "leading stars for most PL sides" are rarely available, so what you do when you flesh out tens of millions at this stage is to massively overbid to get a player who isn't really for sale and doesn't really want to come. You can get equally good players for 1/10th of that price, or even for free.

There are really two paths you can go:

A. Spend wisely and hope you survive, but if you go down again you can re-build in the Championship again using the season in PL as a financial goldmine

B. Replace 20-25 players (Decent/Good CH players out, Decent/Good PL players in). There is no difference between signing 5-6 players and 25-26 when it comes to team gelling penalties.

Both are possible and both would work, but I suppose A is more realistic if that is your thing. I think I was closer to B than A when I took Bradford up.

Thanks for all the advice guys. This is why I love this forum. Genuine requests for help always get great replies.

I spent last night wheeling & dealing in the summer. I have a transfer budget of 22million but have only bought in a few cheap guys & free transfers (including a few old heads) to bolster the depth of my squad. I got rid of all the deadwood as they were out of contract and have at least 2-3 players for every position and also have some great youths so should have enough cover for even the worst injury crisis.

I will be taking your advice by attacking the hell out of the weaker teams and take each game against the tougher teams as they come.

I am genuinely excited for the first time in ages about the new season lol dam work getting in the way !!!

Building a squad of quality. If you get decent money don't spend half of it on 1 player.

Use your knowledge and scouts to find players.

If you can add decent quality and depth where needed, just incase of injuries etc.

Against teams around you treat them as must wins, If you write of games against top 6 then you sometime pick up points because there is no expectation.

All the best.

I would suggest looking around major clubs and seeing which youths have been released. The last time I was promoted I had a message on my news feed saying that Bayern had released a ton of youths and found two who turned out to be great rotation players for and cost less than a grand a week. After a couple of years they were world class and able to perform in the Champions League for me. Found some others for not a lot of cash who had big potential and could produce immediately. I remember one of them Criesteg from Inter became insanely good. I would spend good money on a high quality 'keeper who can save you quite a few points over the course of the year. Also I'd look for a striker. IMO having a high quality striker is often the difference between Europa Legaue qualification and relegation. Look to South American nations where players have dual nationalities. Looks of Argentinians have Italian and Spannish passports while Brazillians tend to have Portuguese ones. Your scouts should find you some talent pretty quickly in this area. Personally I like to load my squad up with ball winning, combative midfielders. Probably a good five or six of them who I can rotate. Then when you are playing superior teams start three of these guys along with your speedy striker and two quick wingers and playing on the counter attack all game. This even works for home games. Basically having seven defensive players with a lightening fast front three who can finish.

I just lifted West Ham from relegation to 2nd in one season!!

Things that helped were.

- Most of transfer budget spend of defence.

- Hunted free agents, picked up a star which incresed reputation, shirt sales and crowds. So more Income.

- Worked out that extra income over the season, spent it on signing 2 or so more players in key positions on payments over 12 months.

- Hunted free agents for youth regens that were quality players, found 2 and signed them.

- Used my most successful tactics, got rid of any players who do not fit that tactic, regardless of player skill.

- Sold most reserve players over age 22-23, spent the extra money on several more youth players.

In space of 1 season, I went from broke to rich, slightly better reputation and I even survived a full club take over.

Next season I have 42 Million transfer budget to spend. Which should be plenty to fill all holes and then some, Will get top 3 again.

Chelsea ran mad last season, can't see topping them, and mu previous club Liverpool went through 2 manager last season, the latest has them raring and performing out of this world. So Chelsea will be first, Liverpool Second and West Ham (Me) third.

Ok so I have just achieved promotion with derby to the prem. it's early August and I am still waiting for any kind of windfall. I got given some money as winnings from the championship, and I think some tv rights money from the prem but nothing in terms of the 30 or 40 mil touted around in here, do I keep waiting for it? Do I not receive it? Or is it in installments? Any help appreciated! Ta

You get the TV money in installments every month. So it won't actually be in your finances yet.

Thanks notts forest! So does that mean that really until at least jan window, but more so the end of season one in prem it's just about scraping by! And that season two is when you really notice the impact on finances?

Notts . No, you'll get it every month. So as long as you don't spend stupid money, you should make a profit every month.

Errr thank you Nottingham Forrest. Much appreciated! Haven't spent silly money but at that stage of a clubs development every transfer becomes so important! Especially when you haven't spent more than 100 thou before

Errr thank you Nottingham Forrest. Much appreciated! Haven't spent silly money but at that stage of a clubs development every transfer becomes so important! Especially when you haven't spent more than 100 thou before

I remember I got like 30 millions to shop with when I took Crewe to PL in FM11.2. I think I got over 20 with Bradford, and the OP got 22 millions with Southampton. If you didn't get that budget the 24th of June you probably won't at all. This means your bosses are very careful with the money so you need to earn them first.

With Birmingham I was given around £10m. Maybe I was unlucky

you get the 40 million through the season in bits, you get prize money at the end depending on your final position, look under league rules it will show you ammounts