dalenichol

Buy players cheaply to sell on, that's going to be your main way to make money most likely. As brexit makes an impact on player work permits, you're also going to probably look mostly at signing British players that you can hopefully sell on. Between that and trying to solidify third place and try to make it to the group stage of the EL or Conference League, that's how you'll keep afloat in Scotland.

Please don't let them change it

To my knowledge SI have never really given a comprehensive explanation as to how DYR actually works. I know Zealand made a video basically claiming it was broken/a lie at one point in the past and the response was something along the lines of "We could've explained it better, but it wasn't a lie". DYR seems to be linked to certain hardcoded figures, such as economic status and a few others I think. I don't believe it'll ever be something that makes massive impacts independently of other factors, so it's always going to go hand in hand with club youth ratings, league and club reputation and all those sort of factors. Top nations will still get top players regardless of the DYR for the most part, because the some static figures, as well as club and league rep and facilities. If anyone can expand more on the topic I'd be really interested in learning more though

That could just be a display bug? For example, I'm entering season 6 of my save in Luxembourg and my request history says that I've made 4 requests in my time at the club. I've asked for more coaches at least 5 times, I've asked for youth facility upgrades at least once a season, I've upgraded junior coaching (and had it refused 3 or 4 times) and upgraded my training facilities about 5 times. I must've passed 20 requests but my screen says I've only ever made 4.

Oh yeah, absolutely not a criticism of the db or anything like that. Just one of those things, isn't it.

So the board have accepted the news item for building a new stadium? Surely it's just a case of patience now, as AFAIK, new stadium announcements usually don't happen until after the season has ended. Could be wrong, but pretty sure it'll just be a waiting game

It's the amount of time that these managers are spending at clubs that is completely throwing me. 17 years, 13 years, 8,7,6,5...it's just mental. No wonder it can be a struggle getting a move to a new nation :/

I think I was in a somewhat unique position as being a semi pro club in the top division of a nation. We had already won the league in season 1 and made the Conference League group stages in season 2, 3 and 4. This afforded us the chance to push the boat out with some wages and improve facilities. If we didn't have that money, I'd have been pretty screwed. The 5x wage increase wasn't across the board, but 4 or 5 best players started asking for big increases, from 150-200pw beginning to want as much as 1.2kpw and I just wasn't willing to do that at the time. I was fortunate that I was able to bring in some replacements for some and play the waiting game with others and not give in to demands. I think semi-pro to pro will be difficult with a promoted club, and you'll need a few million in the bank before the board will entertain it, unless they enforce it upon promotion. I wouldn't worry too much though, especially if you're planning on leaving after some success anyway

I can definitely see the merits in both ways of doing things. I'd downloaded a bunch of AI facepacks but never got around to making them work. The stuff in the Newgan facepack does look a little too realistic (which might be an odd complaint) but I'd prefer that over all the awful standard newgen faces in the game and then as I find players I grow particularly fond of, then I might start changing some of them to ones I particularly like, but we shall see how it goes I guess.

Ah, that's cool. I will take a look at that! Thanks!

Sweet baby Jesus, this thread has reminded me why I stayed away from football manager forums for so long.

Is there any way to make it so the game just assigns some of these newgen faces to the newgens as they appear in game, instead of having to manually assign them? I know it's not entirely the same thing, but I remember in previous games there were hairstyle packs and stuff you could download that would do this, increased the variety a whole lot.

Pre-season trialist - bring in as many players as you can, even if it feels unrealistic. 50 trialists at the club at a time so you can find the players you want? Nothing wrong with that, Depending on how long you're staying at a club, take a look at the staff you have employed. In my save in Luxembourg, I was spending over double a year on staff wages than I was on player wages - I had coaches on 600 p/w when I could hire replacements for as little as 25-50p/w. Senior affiliate clubs can be good but not as beneficial as previous versions. Loans, loans and more loans. haggle on contracts as others have mentioned. There's a wee trick that some may frown up but: You can often get players to agree to much lower contracts if you offer them a big wage boost upon getting an international cap. Obviously if you're in the lower leagues, if you're negotiating with players who're from the bigger footballing nations, the chance of them getting a cap is almost 0, so it's something you might want to try.

Thanks lads. Ended up playing into the wee hours last night, so asked about turning pro and the club accepted and some of the benefits very quickly became apparent. We turned pro and I was instantly able to increase my scouting range beyond Luxembourg (which is great if you can go to whole world scouting, even if just for a month to scope out players), used the increased scouting range and some tips I'd picked up from youtube to find some foreign amateur players to bolster the squad, and the board agreed to both training and youth facility upgrades. Obvious downside of player and staff greed has set in, with some of my best players wanting as much as a 5x increase in wages, which they absolutely wont be getting, and an increase to the cost of things like 'youth setup' fees etc. I think the advantage of being in Luxembourg and being one of the better teams is that I should be able to offset most of this with prize money and if we keep getting favourable draws, we could be heading for our second conference league group stage appearance, which again is about 2-3 seasons worth of income to not worry about. As for your specific question, the goal is absolutely to raise the clubs rep and continental standing, as well as that of the nation as a whole. If this save goes on with out any major issues then ideally this might be my save until the new game comes out, or at least until I've achieved everything I want to. If that takes 40-50 seasons then fine. I want to win the Champions League and have Luxembourg consistently make it to the Euros and the World Cup if possible. Basically, I want to build Luxembourg up to be one of the best leagues in the world.

Alright, Couple of quick questions as it's been a while since I've managed at semi pro level. I'm currently managing Racing Luxembourg in, well, Luxembourg funnily enough. Approaching the end of season 2 and looking to retain out title, we have around £4m in the bank, give or take, and thanks to punting all the stupidly overpaid staff we had at the start of the game (we spent almost 300k on staff wages season 1, compared to 120k on player wages). We've no massive outgoings and I don't plan on having to spend much on players. So I'm considering going pro but I'm trying to figure out if there's an inherent value in me doing that just now. We're going to get a little bit of money from Europe each year, even if it's just a few hundred grand for getting knocked out in the qualifiers. So here's what I'm loosely thinking just now: Pro: More players willing to sign - but is this needed in Luxembourg yet? Ability to employ more staff - See above Ability to at least request a wider scouting network More willing to increase facilities - Could be an easy way to lose all my money though Maybe a chance of better sponsors? Increased attendances/ticket prices? Pro contracts in theory means more training and more development Cons: Players and staff on full time contracts will want more money? Professional status is likely going to incur general costs? Board might use the money, turn pro and still not give me any improvements How far off the mark am I with these? I'm less than 2 seasons in to what I plan to be a long term save to build up the nation, so nothing has to be done quickly, but I also don't want to miss out on any early kick starting advantages whilst I have the money to implement them.

Damn, mans just flying through the save now. Good luck!

Great stuff. Glad you finally managed to get yourself out to another club and country. Has this changed your adaptability rating at all? I've still never figured how to properly improve that one

Cheers, figured this would be the case but just wanted to check. The issue you often get when playing in smaller leagues is that you'll end up like 500k in the red by the end of season 1 and then it just makes everything else a slog. As long as I can keep us afloat and steadily build some income for facilities down the line, it should be fine!

Right, fine, you've twisted my arm! Between this and Makoto's adventures around the Caribbean, Haiti is finally calling to me I think. There's a bunch of interesting nations here, but I like the nice big league with plenty of teams, the somewhat sane format and some decent regens popping up. Think this is a solid foundation for a nice long term save to build up the league and the nation. Is there much money in the Caribbean cup or NACL, out of interest?

A very interesting set of countries too, with the different nations, cultures and currencies on the same landmass. I am unreasonably amused by the name Tyrique Gumbs, for some reason.

Absolutely flying now! I absolutely love the team names in some of these countries! Eagle Claw! West End Predators! It's not quite 'Eleven Men in Flight FC', but it's up there!

Well, this is going to be a bit of a challenge, fair play!

Awesome, thanks for that. I've been following this save, and there's a few others going on in Africa, so I think I'll look at the OFC and see where I can go with that. Thanks!

This is great stuff. After having a mess around with the Old Firm playing in England I'm looking for a new save and keep coming back to the idea of journeyman saves or something similar. I always get annoyed at j'man stuff because 'add/remove leagues' never quite works as intended, and there's just too many leagues in African or Asia once you get all the editor files. Oceania or the Caribbean could be absolutely perfect. I like the idea of trying to build up one of the nations over the course of 20-30 seasons. Just need to see if it's going to be financially viable, how are you finding the finances at the club now that you're a few years in?