Plainlayzee Posted August 1, 2013 Share Posted August 1, 2013 Hello, Wonder if anyone can give me a bit of advice. Unfortunately I don't have my game in front of me so I cannot give exact figures, but I am sat in work and it is really bugging me. My Tranmere side are bleeding money and I cannot seem to stop it. We are currently sitting 2nd in the league, gates are quite high (around 6-7k on average per game) and all the club running costs appear to be quite low. The wage budget is slightly high (I am spending around £400 more per week than I should be) however this was the case when I joined the club and I have been unable to move any players on and therefore bring it down. My problem it would seem is that a lot of players are on average wages (around £600-£800) but have appearance/goal/clean sheet clauses that can rack up quite a bit of extra money. The players won't reduce their contracts or except a contract without these clauses. Any ideas? An example of how bad things are is that I beat Watford in the cup and gained 90k, putting my balance at around £102,000 - 2 weeks later I now only have 6k left in the bank. The 3 games played since Watford I have won all 3, kept 3 clean sheets and scored quite a few goals. It would appear that my success is actually costing the club big time financially. Cheers Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nottingham Forest Posted August 1, 2013 Share Posted August 1, 2013 It's part of being in the lower divisions of English football. Until you get to the Premier League you won't make massive amounts of money. It's extremely realistic in terms of clubs in the lower leagues of England losing money as most do in real life. If you get to the Championship you might start making a profit depending on what your wage budget and other incomes are. Now all I can say is negotiate on every contract. Some players will be interested in accepting less bonuses so just try and see whether they'll accept lesser bonuses. I'd also say don't be afraid of selling someone if you get a good offer as there will always be someone else for a similar wage or less around who can do the job. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Plainlayzee Posted August 1, 2013 Author Share Posted August 1, 2013 I think my biggest problem is that my team is clearly over performing. The players within my squad are still being targeted by lower league sides or sides in the same division, hence the bids are either extremely low or I get no bibs at all. For example, Joe Thompson, not the best player on the planet by any stretch but reasonable at this level and could possibly do something in the Championship, he is worth £350k according the game. I got an offer in the recent January transfer window from Gillingham of 60k. Not a chance! Wages wise the only thing I am considering is maybe renew contract for more money but with less clauses. I.e Ash Taylor is on £1200 p/w with a £350 appearance fee and goal bonus of £90. I might put him on £1500 and no bones/lower bonus. On the basis most league one teams play twice a week, he is effectively getting in excess of 2k per week. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nottingham Forest Posted August 1, 2013 Share Posted August 1, 2013 That might not work. Some players always want bonuses. Just start off by offering the same wage and less bonuses and going from there. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
podunkboy Posted August 1, 2013 Share Posted August 1, 2013 I think my biggest problem is that my team is clearly over performing. The players within my squad are still being targeted by lower league sides or sides in the same division, hence the bids are either extremely low or I get no bibs at all. For example, Joe Thompson, not the best player on the planet by any stretch but reasonable at this level and could possibly do something in the Championship, he is worth £350k according the game. I got an offer in the recent January transfer window from Gillingham of 60k. Not a chance! Wages wise the only thing I am considering is maybe renew contract for more money but with less clauses. I.e Ash Taylor is on £1200 p/w with a £350 appearance fee and goal bonus of £90. I might put him on £1500 and no bones/lower bonus. On the basis most league one teams play twice a week, he is effectively getting in excess of 2k per week. but if the team's doing well and Taylor's value is going up, he's not going to settle for 1500 and no bonuses...he's going to want 2500 to re-sign if you take his goal and appearance fees away, almost guaranteed. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lawlore Posted August 1, 2013 Share Posted August 1, 2013 As much as a I sympathise with your situation, as NF says, it's sadly reasonably accurate for a lot of clubs outside the top two divisions that there isn't much money about. I won't hijack this thread and turn it into another anti-EPPP rant, tempting as it may be, but really, outside of a decent cup run against some high-profile opponents, it's really quite tough to get money coming in. However, coming to your specific situation, if players won't do something for the good of the club, you need to be questioning how vital they really are, and whether you can find someone else on a free transfer who will do the job for cheaper. Having a "no player bigger than the club" mentality is the best I can offer- if it means offering them around on a free, so be it. Also, don't forget loaning players out- if you can get someone to pay even a fraction of the wages for a short period of time, at least it takes it off of your bill. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
haunted1234 Posted August 1, 2013 Share Posted August 1, 2013 cant make money in lower leagues, wouldnt bother trying, try to max out your wages with as many players as possible and play for promotion every year, gonna get the money back when you hit premier league Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
uprockindude Posted August 1, 2013 Share Posted August 1, 2013 yeah the problem is there is barely any tv revenue in the lower leagues you can only get a bit if you go on a trophy run and maybe win one but the annoyance is depending on your team size you might not even see a lot of winnings for example i won the league cup with west ham got given something like 411k and had to pay my team 410k which is appalling. The wage budget is so deceiving if you want to make a profit you kind of have to see how much income you make and do the maths with the wages just because the chairman says you can spend a billion on wages doesn't mean you can afford to thats mainly why I buy young or very old lol as for the bonuses you really have to allow them as I find that as a refusal of giving them you get a LOT of rejections in signing players but just don't go OTT with them and also you may want to get a decent parent team and you can save a few wages on loaning some players in cashing out some and that will revitalise you for a while but ultimately you really have to push for promotion otherwise it will all catch up to you eventually Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lostsouls Posted August 1, 2013 Share Posted August 1, 2013 Agree with whats been said, always go between 10% and 20% below what the wage budget is and be tighter with bonuses including team bonus never go high always aim for average bonus. Work out maximum wage to be given to any player and don't go over this, two main problems in the game at all levels are bids for your best players, it just doesn't happen, so in previous games you could do well at lower levels by relying on transfer fees you really can't do that now. The other problem is the growth of your club with attendances and reputation not going up as quick as it should. Generally I can break even or make small profit but can take about three years to do so. I also try every year to bring in good U18 players who can develop ready to replace senior players who can be sold for a fee. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
martinji Posted August 1, 2013 Share Posted August 1, 2013 I.e Ash Taylor is on £1200 p/w with a £350 appearance fee and goal bonus of £90. I might put him on £1500 and no bones/lower bonus. On the basis most league one teams play twice a week, he is effectively getting in excess of 2k per week. Remember that you pay the salary during off season as well though. The maths is pretty simple, ignoring goals for the moment, his basic salary will be 300 x 52 weeks = 15,600 more at 1500, so if he's going to play in more than 15600/350 = 44.6 games, then it's better to pay the higher salary. Factor in a goals for season estimate if that's significant (I've no idea what position he plays). Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Plainlayzee Posted August 1, 2013 Author Share Posted August 1, 2013 Thanks for the reply guys. I appreciate that it is difficult if not impossible to make a profit whilst in the lower leagues, however, my main concern is keeping the club afloat. With the amount of money we are currently losing, it is estimated that we will be about -£800,000 by the end of the season. Clearly if we do not get promotion to the Championship this can only continue to increase and, even if we do get promoted, the financial differences between league one and the Championship I suspect aren't that great? I agree with what a previous posted put regarding the cup run being the only way to sustain a healthy balance. I have made around 200k from my cup run so far, who knows what would happen if we didn't have this. I suppose all I can hope is that I can beat Stoke (or at least get a reply) in the next round and get some extra funds in. Does anyone know how much money you get if you get promoted? Regarding the individuals wages, I have just had a quick go at re-negotiating some of the contracts and everyone either wages a higher weekly wage and bonuses or will accept lower bonuses if I significantly increase their weekly wage. I suppose you are right with regards to each individual being considered and seeing if I can replace them with a cheaper option. At the moment though it does feel a bit like I am trying to replace my key players with players that are just 'OK' failing which I have to watch the club swallow the financial impacts and potentially struggle long term. Ah well, the wonders of lower league management I suppose....I wanted a challenge, seems I have got one. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
joshpmilton Posted August 1, 2013 Share Posted August 1, 2013 Not a lot of advice that I can give you, but as a Tranmere Rovers supporter I'm glad you are currently able to experience what we have to do when we play with our favourite team. Also, it's incredibly realistic as I believe we have one of the smaller budgets in the Football League, let alone League One. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Plainlayzee Posted August 1, 2013 Author Share Posted August 1, 2013 Not a lot of advice that I can give you, but as a Tranmere Rovers supporter I'm glad you are currently able to experience what we have to do when we play with our favourite team. Also, it's incredibly realistic as I believe we have one of the smaller budgets in the Football League, let alone League One. My colleague who is a Tranmere fan made that comment to me the other day. Apparently their wage bill is lower than most teams in League Two! God help me if I get promoted, my maximum wage will be about 2k p/w Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
uprockindude Posted August 1, 2013 Share Posted August 1, 2013 if you are looking for players have a look at the Scandinavians you can usually find decent players for free with low wages it helps if you have loaded any of those countries up. to answer your question I believe you get something like 30k for winning league 1 or something like that plus about 10-20k tv money pre-season is always rough for finances but all you can hope is that season ticket sales are good and you get some good sponsorship deals. I have made profit in the lower leagues and trust me its not easy you need a great tactical approach an understanding of what makes it work get rid of ALL high earning players no matter how amazing if you are really bad in debt and then look for youth as a 21 year old player will usually be worth a lot more then a player at 28 of the same ability, and at January look at signing free players who are running out of contract the only downside is you usually have to match their wage but you have less competition then what you would have if it expired. I know I am rambling but I'm trying to give you a few ideas Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.