What am I doing wrong with Manchester United?!?!?!

So I tried to play with Manchester United (no edits, no cheat, 8.02v2 patch).

Attempt 1:

[season 2007-2008]

Started the season with 38million pounds club balance. Was given a transfer kitty of 12.5 million pounds and a 1.2million pound/week wage budget.

Bought:

Huntelaar, Zacardo, Bojan(loan)

Total spending of 21.5 millions pounds

Sold reserve players, Saha, Park, Foster for total of 10million.

Wage total after all the transfers was 1.16 Million pounds.

Season starts... regular loan payments occur, interest keeps rises, i saw a profit for months July,August, September. But then I started having losses of 4million pounds a month and more.

Dec 31.2007: Signed Sebastian Kehl, Tim Wiese, Amarbrat as future free transfers(bosman)

By March 2008 the club balance had gone into negative.

In the end of the season I won the Champions League, League Cup, FA cup and came 2nd in the EPL.

Before the prize money and TV revenue my balance had reached -10million.

David Gill sacked and Martin Edwards replaces him.

[season 2008-2009]

June 2008: Club balance=24million pounds... Transfer budget of 51.2million pounds...wage budget of 1.6million pounds/week.

Sold players worth 35million pounds

Bought players worth 92million pounds

Wage budget after transfers was 1.67million pounds/week. Club balance was 10 million pounds.

Season starts and every month I am having losses. By April 2009 I am top in the league, qualified for champions league semifinals, won league cup,community shield, fa cup sixth round.

Club balance= -28million pounds.

Placed under administration....docked 9 points off the premier league which made me go second. The club accepted all offers for players and my team was almost all sold off.

Season end: 2nd in EPL, won FA cup, community shield, league cup, champions league.

I stopped the game since next season wud also see the club go under administration

Q) What did I do wrong.... I stayed within limits of the transfer budget and wage budget !

Attempt 2:

Once again I tried to give it another try to see maybe if I could be wrong (as if that cud be possible):

[season 2007-2008]

Started the season with 38million pounds club balance. Was given a transfer kitty of 12.5 million pounds and a 1.2million pound/week wage budget.

Bought players worth 21million pounds

Sold players worth 11 million pounds

Wage after transfers was 1.18million pounds/week. Club balance 18million pounds

Dec 31,2007: bosman transfers sebastian kehl, and 3 young players

February 2008: Negative club balance

Won EPL, Champ League, FA Cup, League Cup, Community Shield.

Before winning money arrived balance was -13million pounds.

Got 50 million pounds transfer budget and 1.6m pounds/week wage budget. Club balance 11M pounds.

I stopped playing the game because the same thing is going to happen the second season like last time !

Q) Is there anyway NOT to become bankrupt and go into administration with Manchester United and still win the treble?

Q) Are the loan payments and interests too high?

Q) Are the match day fees and incomes sources too low?

NOTE:

i) I never crossed my transfer budget (raised extra funds by sales)

ii) I only once crossed my wage budget by 70K pounds/week (otherwise it was below budget).

are you giving huge signing bonus's?

Not huge.... maximum i offered was of 2million pounds. Usually the figure was around the 500K mark. Also I have taken care to keep low Appearance fees .

look at your expenditure screen under finances, something has to be way off

With Man United you have got to watch your spending as even if you stay within your transfer budget they have a huge loan to repay which is like real life. I usually don't buy players at the start of the game (maybe one or two hot prospects for free or less than 1 million). You have got to achieve some success without overspending. The transfer budget comes out of your balance and what I have found is with a big club like Man United even if their balance is low they will give you a relatively big transfer budget. The only advice is not to spend a lot unless you have the money in the balance which is more important than the transfer budget.

To answer your questions:

You can achieve success with Man United without going bankrupt.

The loan payments match reality

Income sources are not too low.

Hope that helps.

I just re-read your post again and as you stressed your stayed within your transfer budget I am not sure that you get that is not money. Say you have £50m transfer budget and a £10m Bank Balance. If you spend that £50m then (assuming there is no other income and expenditure) you will have a bank balance of -£40m. The transfer budget is only how much the board are allowing you to spend from your balance. In this situation with Man United I would not spend any transfer money, unless my balance improved, as I know the club will make heavy losses for the next few months so it really is important to have as much money in the balance as possible.

Quite simply, you are spending far too much money, money that the club doesn't really have.

In your first attempt, you say your bank balance was only £24million in June 2008, you then made £35million from player sales, giving you a balance of £59million. You then spent £92million on players..................of course your balance is going to be in the negative. Just because they [The Board] give you X number of pounds to spend on transfers and wages, doesn't mean you have to spend it. Have some common sense and analyse your finances before you go off spending money like a fat kid in a sweet shop.

Put as simply as possible............there is nothing wrong with Manchester United, you just have no concept of taking care of your own finances.

Not huge.... maximum i offered was of 2million pounds. Usually the figure was around the 500K mark. Also I have taken care to keep low Appearance fees .

Why? Don't offer ANYTHING for signing on fee's... it doesn't do anything.

Man U are a special challenge because of the debt and loan payments. You need to keep a very tight reign on the finances - don't trust the board's wage bill and transfer budget: set your own.

My recommendation for Man U is to set the game to show you salaries per annum, and do some calculation - with Excel if you have it - about what your expected income and outflow are on a year-over-year basis. Then you can start setting your own transfer targets and wage bill targets .. and they will be much more conservative than the board's.

I mean, looking at the first attempt, Year 2, if you had simply set yourself a transfer budget of 40M instead of allowing yourself to spend 92M ... you would have finished the season with a positive bank balance of +24M instead of -28M .. coincidentally exactly what you started with.

Interestingly, the AI often make the same mistake - it hasn't been uncommon, in my experience, to see Man U go into administration and even get relegated on occasion due to financial mismangement on the part of the board and the AI manager.

Man U are a special challenge because of the debt and loan payments. You need to keep a very tight reign on the finances - don't trust the board's wage bill and transfer budget: set your own.

My recommendation for Man U is to set the game to show you salaries per annum, and do some calculation - with Excel if you have it - about what your expected income and outflow are on a year-over-year basis. Then you can start setting your own transfer targets and wage bill targets .. and they will be much more conservative than the board's.

I mean, looking at the first attempt, Year 2, if you had simply set yourself a transfer budget of 40M instead of allowing yourself to spend 92M ... you would have finished the season with a positive bank balance of +24M instead of -28M .. coincidentally exactly what you started with.

Interestingly, the AI often make the same mistake - it hasn't been uncommon, in my experience, to see Man U go into administration and even get relegated on occasion due to financial mismangement on the part of the board and the AI manager.

lol im with Man Utd @ 2042 after u pay off your debts the club finances go thru the roof if u regulary win trophies, my club value was at 2bn then martin edwards took over & it went up to 3bn its currently @ 4.5bn with a balance of 1.5bn & 350mil in transfers with a 11mil wage budget, the lowest the board offered me as manager was 700k per week so jus keep winning & aim to balance out your transfers with selling to stay good. ohh yea those value are in Australian dollar

I've played with Man Utd for several seasons. What I do is to sell REALLY high and buy really low (That's if I buy atall in the first season). Man Utd have the players to win every major title but the board will be satisfied if U can win 2 or 3. Never, never, NEVER use more than a 3rd of Ur transfer buget. And don't go for big name signings in Ur first season. Make long term bids on good youngsters and U'll be ok.

Why? Don't offer ANYTHING for signing on fee's... it doesn't do anything.

Is this true?

That is true. Signing on fees do not have an impact. I have not offered any signing on fees for quite a long time, and they often accept.

I know this has to do with nothing, but I kind of wish that happend in my United game, would make a GREAT challenge.

That is true. Signing on fees do not have an impact. I have not offered any signing on fees for quite a long time, and they often accept.

It helps me in bringing down the salary they ask. If I give them a signing on fee, they're more tempted to take a lower monthly salary. Which is why I hardly ever break my wage budget.

Last time with Hayes & Yeading my board even expressed their concern about my used wages being not even the half of the wage budget they allowed me to spend, and they were afraid players wouldn't be willing come to us due to the low wages I give out with contracts.

Heres my advice to you...

Next time you start a game, only sign players that will strenghen your first team, your current squad is capable of challenging for the title as it is, so you could probably get away with singing about 2 players, as the players who were first teaming before can be the back-up

Also, before signing a player, just check if there are any cheaper alternatives, for instance, i could of signed Dani Alves as Liverpool, instead a signed Rafinha, cheaper and just as good, also i signed Ryan Tayor, Again cheap, and he plays really well for me, also can play LM

Another thing, if you notice your wage bill is high, offer some players a new contract and see if they will accept less thann they are already on, yeah you may be under your wage budget but 2m going out of your bank every week isnt what you want now is it

Cant really think of any more advice atm, hope that stuff helps

Make sure you dont spend out huge amounts over months, as this can obviously affect your long term finances. Try to buy with fees paid up front.

Also, you said this :

June 2008: Club balance=24million pounds... Transfer budget of 51.2million pounds...wage budget of 1.6million pounds/week.

Did you spend the 51.2 million? Because if you did, as you stated, your balance would be minus 27 million pound, which would mean you are likely to be in huge financial trouble.

Man Utd as a long term game is a nightmare, believe me, it will only get worse

Its just my opinion but I think considering the large loan that has to be repaid and the fact that you might not be a very good\successful manager you should seriously consider getting rid of your biggest wage earners especially in the case of Giggs and Scholes who are getting on a bit and Saha who is rather injury prone and out quite a lot.

If you sell Ferdinand,Hargreaves,Carrick,Ronaldo,Park,Giggs,Scholes,Saha & Rooney then you should save yourself over 500k in wages and if you are prepaired to look about there are plenty players with simillar stats that are available for a lot less wages.

At a push you could possible keep Rooney and Ferdinand but the rest, especially Ronaldo who is on 120k a week, should go.

Signing on fees do have an impact. You can use them as a replacement for wages if your wage budget is too low. So instead of offering 20.000 a week with a 300K signing on fee, you can FOR EXAMPLE change the wage to 15.000 a week by offering a 350K signing on fee.

Those figures don't really match but you get the point…

If you just lower the wage without offering a signing on fee they will usually reject the contract. But it is true that if you change the signing on fee WITHOUT changing the wage it has no influence at all. At least that's my experience with FM anyway.

By the way, sorry for being off-topic.

On-topic: As most people have said already: The transfer budget isn't actually a separate jar of money, it's just part of your total amount of cash. If you buy or sell players, it has a direct influence on your amount of cash. E.g. if you get a 60 million budget with 30 million on your bank accout, and you use up your entire budget, you will end up with a negative 30 million.

So I tried to play with Manchester United.

Yep, there's your first problem.

Ryan,,, is online now Ryan,,,

Amateur

Location: In a pineapple under the sea, a country free of EU rule!

Join Date: 30th December 2007

Posts: 666

We need an exorcist folks.

You do have to watch the pennies for the first season but after that as long as the campain was successful you can really make a lot of money with UTD. Sell off the scraps like saha but do keep foster.

just buy in a few young players to offe a bit of cover and who will be there when the club takes off after a couple of seasons

in my game i tend to hoard the current squad for sentimental reasons, brown & o'shea didnt play for 5 years before retiring but i gave them a run last game of the season when they did. first 2 years the only major signing i made was huntelaar and the rest were all players under 19 signed for the future for little or nothing. It pays dividends over the 1st 5 seasons, every summer i'd make a garaunteed 15m by selling kids i'd trained up for a few years, it ended up with two or three premiership teams like portsmouth ending up as my b team with the amount of my ex players they had.

Every 2 seasons or so i'd make a big signing to keep the fans happy, cash up front and every player i sell i stick in a sell on clause.

The first season i get rid of saha, kuscak after foster gets fit, park and most of the reserves like eagles or ritchie jones. that gets 15-20m in.After a few seasons i got 12m for fletcherson and 7m for fabio de silva off portsmouth who had already bought kuscak off me for 5m and saha for 7.5m.

It seems that they have the glazers financial plan coded in because if you finish top 3, semi of one domestic cup and the qf of the champions league you get by, any better and you've got cash to spare and play around with.

on a related note, im playing it now and friday before the last game of the season villa went into administration, got hit with a 9 point penalty and got relegated by one goal on the sunday, monday the whole squad was put up for sale and on the wednesday o'neill quit!

Ryan,,, is online now Ryan,,,

Amateur

Location: In a pineapple under the sea, a country free of EU rule!

Join Date: 30th December 2007

Posts: 666

We need an exorcist folks.

What!? Am I being mocked? I'm confused, whats going on! This must be some kind of EU consiparcy against me!

OK so I tried to play with a good club (that i don't hate)...and I chose Newcastle because of its fans AND ALSO BCOZ IT HAS NO DEBTS !

Season 2007-2008:

Start balance of 80M pounds

Transfer budget of 52M and 1.2M/week wages

Sales: 5M pounds

Purchases : 51.8 M pounds

After transfers:

Balance: 32M pounds

Wage: 1.18M/week

EPL: 3rd (i slipped at the end due to injuries)

FA Cup: Lost in 6th round

League Cup : Won it

Balance at the end: 31M pounds

Question:

Is it possible to play with Manchester United and make a profit EVERY MONTH while making signings and paying high wages and bonuses (under wage budget) ???

OK so I tried to play with a good club (that i don't hate)...and I chose Newcastle because of its fans AND ALSO BCOZ IT HAS NO DEBTS !

Season 2007-2008:

Start balance of 80M pounds

Transfer budget of 52M and 1.2M/week wages

Sales: 5M pounds

Purchases : 51.8 M pounds

After transfers:

Balance: 32M pounds

Wage: 1.18M/week

EPL: 3rd (i slipped at the end due to injuries)

FA Cup: Lost in 6th round

League Cup : Won it

Balance at the end: 31M pounds

Question:

Is it possible to play with Manchester United and make a profit EVERY MONTH while making signings and paying high wages and bonuses (under wage budget) ???

At the start it is almost impossible not to make a loss every month even if you sign nobody. As I already said I almost always sign nobody in my first season with Man United and I still lose around £4m per month. At the end of the season I may get most of this back depending how much success I achieve.

These are the tips I would give when managing Man United:

1. Try to get 2 merchandising feeder clubs as soon as possible.

2. Scout the world for hot prospects that you can sell for a profit if they don't make your team.

3. Always make sure that you have at least £10m as your bank balance after the transfer window shuts in September. By the end of the season you will probably be in debt but prize money and TV reveue will boost your balancne up.

4. Try and win things. Obviously the more you win the more money you get.

5. Try and get the stadium expanded as that will bring in more gate receipts and season tickets.

6. Nuture the young players so like point 2 if they are not good enough for Man United you can sell them.

That is all I can think of. I probably left something obvious out. That is what I do I achieve success with United, maybe not the 1st season but within a few seasons.

Question:

Is it possible to play with Manchester United and make a profit EVERY MONTH while making signings and paying high wages and bonuses (under wage budget) ???

Yes of course it is, just not from the start of season one. I am currently playing with United, and at the end of my first season the balance was down to about £5million, but that was made back easily due to success, TV money, and selling players who had been out on loan. Now at the end of my 3rd season, my balance is £234million, with a profit this year of £123million.

The best advice would be;

Dont go over the top and pay huge transfer fee's in the first season or two, because, quite frankly, you dont need to.

It is possible to make a profit every year but not every month until the loan is repaid and as tomtuck and I said above you don't need to sign expensive players in the first season or even the 2nd.

tomtuck - changed my post.

try getting feeder clubs in China/Japan/USA. they help a lot.

Question:

Is it possible to play with Manchester United and make a profit EVERY MONTH while making signings and paying high wages and bonuses (under wage budget) ???

Sure. Just not the way you're doing it.

I. Reduce your costs by a lot.

In other words:

1. Renegotiate contracts for anybody who will accept a reduction in base salary and/or per-appearance fees - but make sure that you aren't losing money via signing bonuses required.

2. Sell anybody who you don't think will play for you. In other words, clear out the Reserves and U-18s.

3. Don't pay "high wages and bonuses", pay reasonable bonuses and wages.

II. Then, increase your income by as much as you can:

2 (again). Sell anybody who you don't think will play for you. Sales = income.

4. Get a merchandise feeder club.

5. Schedule some home friendlies vs big-money teams. (Barca, Bayern, etc.)

6. Win

III. Finally, think about new transfers:

7. Don't spend ALL of your transfer budget. Come in well under it.

8. Don't spend ALL of your wage budget. Come in well under it.