That's the finances sorted out for two years then !

Having had a meteoric rise to get into the EPL from the skrill prem with Chester within 10 years I've always been battling with the wage budget. Having concentrated on spending all the available cash on upgrading facilities to the highest they could be and running the club solvently with an emphasis on producing my own talent, finally things caught up with me.

I've won the Euro Cup, and last season ( my 1st in the CL having finished 3rd in the EPL, ) I managed to win it. I had been reaping the rewards of my youth policy, but instead of being able to keep hold of them I've found the club has been having to sell between 3 or 4 players to keep the balance stable. After a few fallow seasons in terms of my youth intake ( absolute killer for a small club with a recently built 18,000 stadium ), I found I needed to keep hold of my best players because I simply couldn't fill the gaps from within.

So I had to give 4 of my players the money they were asking for, as a stop gap. They have made me go from being relatively stable budget wise to losing circa £1.5m per month. Fortunately I had built up a decent balance through selling when the wage demands got too high. However this season it's just got completely out of control.

I've only got 2 players coming through the academy, but realistically I have seven key players who I need to get off the payroll, one in particular who I'd dearly love to keep but who's contract is up in 18 months time.

From experience if you let the contract get to less than a year then the value drastically drops. So being realistic I knew I had to sell him for as much as possible in the Jan window when he still had 18 months to run. ofc I tried to keep him, but he wanted 150k per week, 20k per game, 19k a goal etc. I have to sell.

So Man City bid £45m, £9m upfront and £36m over 24 months. I reject and set his asking price at £60m ( which is pretty damn hopeful considering how long he has left on his contract. ) Man City come back the following day with a £8.75m upfront and £51.25m over 48 months. Now that had me really thinking.....So I checked fb & checked twitter whilst I thought about it.....

At the time I was listening to TalkSport. I heard something that really made me laugh, so tweeted and told the presenter that I thought it was funny. I went for a smoke and reasoned that if I'd had a reply by the time I went back upstairs I would either reject or negotiate, otherwise I'd accept it. The likelihood of a reply was somewhere between negligible and zero.

When I got back I'd had a reply ! From Georgie Bingham no less, only the foremost, knowledgeable female sports presenter ( in my eyes, ) in the UK !

So I negotiated to £60m upfront and 40% future fee.....the result....

If you don't already listen to her, she's a shed load of fun. Always up for a laugh and doesn't take herself too seriously. And she knows footie better than any of us. And she is good at golf.

Brilliant

Crazy, that's some deal. What is his attributes like?

Great deal but aren't you better having % of next sale instead of profit? Its unlikely that he will be sold for much more. Might be wrong....

Yeah I just noticed that dsouthy. My bad. Oh well. I can keep all my other players now for 2 more seasons. Hopefully the youth system gives me some decent players over the next few years. His stats are pretty good but not amazing. He must have crazy high PA.

You do realize that your tax bill will go through the roof now?

I'm managing in France (Red Star FC) and I have to sell more than £20M worth of players and qualify for CL each year to make ends meet. And my tax bill is rising each year. It seems wages aren't tax-deductible...

Oh, and let's have a screen shot of that players abilities

That's a pretty good striker you just off-loaded

Managing in the PL don't you get so damn much TV money you could have paid him his wage demands?

I norm sell my players at around 28-29 but from time to time, I do like to get a a big pay day in for the club

I've had him from 16 years old, poached from Racing in Spain on newgen day. I think I paid £1.1m in compensation which usually indicates a very good player coupled with him having very good stats for a 16 yr old. He had 5* potential but looking long term I knew I'd be losing my left winger because of wage restraints in a few seasons, so I retrained him to AML. He has been a 1st team regular since he was 18.

Yes you get £53m in TV money over the season, but I've only got an 18,000 seater stadium. And I've now got 6 players earning over £100k a week with silly appearance money, goal bonus etc. And the agent fees, damn those agent fees ! But those 6 players are all signed to long term contracts with a 3 year optional extension. So at least I know I will not have to pay them anymore than they are currently on, and that will save a fortune over the years, especially those ridiculous agent demands.

Even with the TV money and regular CL money I still need to recoup around £30-40m from transfers just to break even. I'm just hoping I can keep spotting young talent and they come through. If I fail to do so for just a year I'm in deep trouble and will have to offload 2 or 3 of the highest earners. Not much I can do about it atm. I asked the board to expand the stadium which they agreed to. I was like "cool an extra 10,000 seats will really help out," and when they announced the expansion......1,500 seats, BAH!

Love this post

I'm currently taking on Chester, breezing through the Skrill Premier with only two losses in twenty-nine games

Not looking forward to making the Premier League with them if you're having such trouble.

I like georgie too I think the biggest compliment you can pay her is she seems like one of the lads!

Nice sale btw I would of struggled with that decision, after nurturing the talent from an early age and turning into a world class player.

Looks a cracking player

@Gandy. It's a struggle all the way through. Simplest thing I can tell you is, don't get attached to your players. If they are asking too much, let them go. Focus on free transfers and loans. And whenever possible upgrade your youth facilities, youth recruitment network and junior coaching. Then focus on your 1st teams training facilities. You will have times when you get so frustrated at the wage demands. Try and let it pass, and let the player go.

@Craglyboy. Yeah she really is great. I'm a newbie to talksport, previously being very "Sniffy" about it, preferring the BBC and Radio 5. But during the world cup all I wanted to listen to was footie, footie, footie, instead of footie, news, news, politics, footie. Talksport exclusively talked footie, and they still are. Add in that I've gotten used to the presenters and find they can be both clever enough to hold my attention and "Laddish" enough to not make me feel like a stupid imbecile ( which R5 and R4 often do. ) It's like being in the pub and having a laugh with your mates, no matter what time of the day you tune in.

@baboyray. He was and still is, and it's already coming back to bite me in the bum. 15 goals in 12 games for City playing upfront and I'm 4 points behind them in the league with 6 games to go. Bugger

I'm really enjoying watching the crowds grow as I keep winning. Finances are fine at the time being.

@Gandy. It's a struggle all the way through. Simplest thing I can tell you is, don't get attached to your players. If they are asking too much, let them go. Focus on free transfers and loans. And whenever possible upgrade your youth facilities, youth recruitment network and junior coaching. Then focus on your 1st teams training facilities. You will have times when you get so frustrated at the wage demands. Try and let it pass, and let the player go.

@Craglyboy. Yeah she really is great. I'm a newbie to talksport, previously being very "Sniffy" about it, preferring the BBC and Radio 5. But during the world cup all I wanted to listen to was footie, footie, footie, instead of footie, news, news, politics, footie. Talksport exclusively talked footie, and they still are. Add in that I've gotten used to the presenters and find they can be both clever enough to hold my attention and "Laddish" enough to not make me feel like a stupid imbecile ( which R5 and R4 often do. ) It's like being in the pub and having a laugh with your mates, no matter what time of the day you tune in.

@baboyray. He was and still is, and it's already coming back to bite me in the bum. 15 goals in 12 games for City playing upfront and I'm 4 points behind them in the league with 6 games to go. Bugger

Yeah my favourite to listen to are hawksbee and jacobs a tottenham fan and a chelsea fan, but most of all they are football fans they love their respective teams but can look at football pragmatically and are really fun to listen too.