Promotion Problems

First season started unemployed, low rep etc. Got the job with Regensburg, board expected 16th place, and got promoted (first time I've ever managed that with a team, be proud of me). However I am now in the Second Division and cannot win a game, played 4 league and 1 cup game and lost all 5. My significant problem here is half the squad left at the end of the season, due to the clauses in contacts/my wage budget not actually increasing with the promotion, I now only have 15 players and about 4 staff. I'm now stuck on how to take the team forward. I was going to post this in tactics help, but I really don't think it's my tactics, there just reaches a point where my players that were expecting to get relegated from D3 aren't good enough to play in D2 successfully.

I'm good with the board (got offered a new contract at the end of the first season), job still stable and them satisfied with how I'm running the club, morale is abysmal within the players.

The best Regensburg have done in their history is to get relegated from D2 after they got promoted about 10 years back. I would very much like to leave after this season having kept them up and being the best they've had in a while.

Any ideas?

Is your transfer window still open??

Yep, although I have no transfer budget, nor any wage budget left

How have you not got any wage budget left if several left over the close season??

Loans are the first port of call along with looking to sign any young players you can get with potential on cheap wages.

I'm not familiar with the club - which country do they play in and how many games do you play in a season? You can probably manage with a squad of around 18-20 I would imagine.

In terms of tactics look to play defensive, counter attacking football. Aim not to concede and try to pick up odd points/wins here and there. Chances are you'll probably be relegated anyway so its just a case of getting through the season and giving experience to your players.

Also look at teamtalks and use them to keep morale up - Wish luck & no pressure before matches where you don't really have much chance and sympathise/good effort after the match depending on how they did. Don't be afraid to have a go at them if they were poor but if they did ok encourage them.

EDIT

Just googled them and they are German so should be a fair chance of getting loans from bigger clubs.

How have you not got any wage budget left if several left over the close season??

I think he said all the promotion wage rises kicked in.

Because several players had pre existing percentage wage rises for if we got promoted. My original wage budget for D3 was 68k, I'm now on 72k so it went quite quickly. I have got in 4 players this season, I didn't even have a full squad originally! Loans are becoming a pain, been attempting for a few (in game) weeks now and all the clubs want a fee for the loan, which my club cannot afford.

Regensburg play in the German leagues.

I'm currently playing 5-3-2 (the same formation which won me promotion) so I'll play with the manner of attacking in that and see if it makes a difference.

Cougar says pretty much what I'd say. He's spot on about tactics/morale in your situation.

You need to harrass for a ^ in budgets, but that may not work. And then hunt and hunt for free transfers, loans etc that you can afford. With a bit (or a sizeable amount) of work on the player search screens, you'd be surprised what you can unearth and what you can get with seemingly restricted wage budgets. Negotiate and dabble, ie offer them max 'team of the year' bonuses to offset some wage demands etc. It's laborious but worth it.

Also, probably not suitable for you with your squad size immediately but if you can offload any players you're now paying what you think is too much. With promotion bonuses it can really skewith your budgets and what bang you're getting for your buck from your players.

But sometimes you just have to accept your lot. It is possible to be promoted 'too quickly' and find yourself heading right back down again or struggling in the new Div....just like irl I guess.

I think he said all the promotion wage rises kicked in.

Ah yes, same thing happened to me last season.

Yep, attempting for the wage budget rise with no luck, club lost 3 million last year so no luck there. Continuing to hunt for players as I go on and shall take the morale point on board, I normally manage to get them "looked motivated" or "looked fired up" with no avail so however much I hate to say it, after looking on here for something I may have missed, I think my team is just not good enough for this division.

However, thats not gonna stop me putting in a damn good fight to stay in this league! Even if I get relegated I equal the best the team have done, saying up would just be epic. First ever unemployed/low rep save (played CM since CM2 but always as Man Utd) so would like to leave the first club having set some sort of record before I move on (aiming for 2-4 years per club, hoping to eventually manage Man Utd through merit rather than at the start!)

....However, thats not gonna stop me putting in a damn good fight to stay in this league! Even if I get relegated I equal the best the team have done, saying up would just be epic. First ever unemployed/low rep save (played CM since CM2 but always as Man Utd) so would like to leave the first club having set some sort of record before I move on (aiming for 2-4 years per club, hoping to eventually manage Man Utd through merit rather than at the start!)

Nice one. Good way of thinking imo

I know what I would do in your situation given the loan cost and big loss last season but you may not like it.

Personally I would bite the bullet and accept relegation more or less.

Get rid of as many high earning players as you can - ie sell for money. Replace them with young talented players with potential to cut it in L2. Give the youngsters plenty of games and they'll gain 1-1.5* over the season. Next season they'll be good enough for L3 or if you manage to survive good enough to push you up the table a bit.

Overall though and aside from your on field problems you need to deal with the finances. If the club is stable off the field you'll then be able to afford better players.

Personally I would bite the bullet and accept relegation more or less.

Get rid of as many high earning players as you can - ie sell for money. Replace them with young talented players with potential to cut it in L2. Give the youngsters plenty of games and they'll gain 1-1.5* over the season. Next season they'll be good enough for L3 or if you manage to survive good enough to push you up the table a bit.

Overall though and aside from your on field problems you need to deal with the finances. If the club is stable off the field you'll then be able to afford better players.

Oh yeh, don't get me wrong, despite putting in the good fight I have no doubts that D2 is not going to be my destination next season unless I change jobs. My problem with getting rid of players at the moment is my distinct lack of them. I have enough players to fill my positions and then a couple of subs! However when I load my game up again tonight I shall certainly look into it and work out how I could do it.

Finances is a hard one, we had one of the lower wage expenditures out of clubs last season in D3! Unfortunately also one of the lowest attendances, both of which have followed me into this league. We saw an increase in the sale of season tickets by around 1000 however no increase in overall attendance.

My only upside here is the board must be expecting this, they haven't battered an eyelid at the losses, aside from one game we lost 4 - 0 (3 players injured!) so therefore I should still be able to continue my career with a decent reputation. It was always my plan to leave Regensberg after this season (although I am feeling a little attached to them now, is this normal in LLM haha), would just be nice to leave them in a decent state.

If I remember correctly, you get good money for you final position in the D2. Don't worry about losses.

Use hard work..and I mean hard work from you OP

As someone else said your 1st point of call is get in some good loan signings and do not count on your Assistant Manager for this.

Have a look at the top division teams and search through their under 18 squad,it takes time but is well worth it.

Also ask the board for a parent club.

Lastly get yourself busy searching the free agents,focus mainly on the younger player,I only look for 15-21 year olds,not only can you get some real gems if you look hard enough but you can also get players signing a youth contract that cost you nothing or you will get players signing for as little as 5 pounds per week and maybe a couple at 100 pounds a week will not effect your yearly out goings that much.

I have taken Nuneaton from the BSN to the Premiership with promotion each year,I signed a player at 15 when I was in the BSN for only 50 pound a week,now he is 20 and still with me and is now a wonderkid!

I spend hours and hours looking for players every season and there are some real good players(regens)out there just waiting too be found.

Get busy

Just finished a 4 hour session, split 2 hours into personal scouting and 2 hours into adjusting tactics and general tweaks. We won the first game 2 - 1, then drew the next 1 - 1. Unfortunately once again though we are now on a run of losses again. The players aren't even playing horrifically, averaging 6.7-6.9 over the current season. Currenrty at

Played: 9

Won: 1

Drawn: 1

Lost: 7

I got rid of my two top earners and brought in about 5 players all with 3/3.5 report and a 4/4.5 potential as suggested earlier in an attempt to fill out the squad and plan for the future at the same time.

Unfortunately the other results in the league are already making a massive gap between 17th (us) and 16th. Next aim is just to try and keep finding players, we only lose most games by one goal so hopefully the right input in the right place and we may stay up.

For those that have played lower leagues before, how badly does this season have to go before the board/players start wanting my head. I'm putting in everything I know how and taking advice from this board yet still no real impact. Is it worth eyeing up other jobs before my reputation goes down, I was intending this to be a 20-30 year save (as I say my first LLM save ever) and would prefer not to become unhirable from the second season haha.

You probabaly wont get sacked if the board expectations are to fight bravely against releagtion . Presuming your are fighting bravely

Good luck tho.

Some good advice so far. Take into account that the teams above that are pulling away will more than likely have poor runs at stages in the season so if you have a couple of small runs of good form you may still be able to catch them. Also remember that the other teams at the bottom will all have to play you at some stage meaing "six-pointers". These are the games you need to be winning to stand a chance. Keep an eye on your fixtures and when your facing a fellow struggler make sure your key players are in as good condition as possible with maybe a team meeting in the build up to improve morale.

Good luck

I recommend playing a kamikaze style of football. When I am promoted as a small club and out of my depth I tend to play a 4-2-4 type formation with wingers and two strikers (one DLF/TM and one AF/P) and hand working central midfielders. You will concede lots of goals and lose quite a few games but you will score a lot too and win quite a few games. Beats scrapping for draws every week and it's far easy to win 1/3 games than to draw 3/3 for the same point total.

When you check out the free transfers, try to get in a few of the older, more experienced players, that will accept the wages you offer. They will be happy with a year's contract and will be better able to survive the sort of fight you have ahead.