Club Management

[hicuty]

I somewhat know how to arrange a tactic but my issue is with club management in general. How can i relate my tactics to club management? Things like who should i sign? Who should i look for scouting? What kind of contract should i offer to who? Should it be a long term contract or short? I dont have a clear vision on these questions. How do you guys play the club management part? And how that does it relate to your tactics?

[felley]

That's a lot of questions to ask right off the bat!  The simple answer to most of them really is to say: 'You need to know yourself' ;-)

By that I mean if you have a tactic you're happy with, then it should inform everything else you want to achieve at the club. You'll know where you're weak and where you'll need to bring players in and you'll know where you have potentially too many players and that you can sell a couple to bring in funds.

As for contracts, there's simply no right answer. If you were to follow best practice in a business sense, then you'd want your most valuable players tied to club for several years to reduce the possibility of losing them but apart from that, you kinda have to know yourself! There's no point people on here telling you to sign player 'x' on 20k a week for 5 years just because it worked for them

 

[FMunderachiever]

Youd have to adapt this to who youre managing.

 

I got two saves at the monent lyeton orient and arsenal. Both totally different. Both successful for different reasons.

 

At orient im more ruthless with contracts. I manually scout my players from clubs based mostly around london and they need to be determined versatile and cheap in wages.

 

At arsenal i look for quality in specific positions not so much versatility. 

 

Lower down i wouldnt bother with youth development. Get players for now as you dont have good staff.

 

Hard to answer though depends on your tactics club finances etc

[BadanieLuck]

Just apply logic. But here are some basic things I do.

.) Squad: I work with a 3 players per position scheme. The first team player who performs best or has the best stats. A decent backup or already well established prospect I want to give much game time. A promising youngster in my youth teams who isn't quite there yet to move up the ladder or needs more time to develop. This leads me to..

.) Transfers: When you first start out at a club, usually you won't find such a scheme already in place. So you have to fill in the gaps over the years. Usually after 2-3 years I'm happy with the squad (and depth) I assembled, so can takes some time. Additionally at the end of the season I pick my best eleven in the tactics screen and try to find 1-2 instant upgrades for my weakest positions. Depending on the market and your money the number varies. It can be 3, 4 or even more players, but I also had season where I didn't buy a single player for the first team.

.) Contracts: This is fairly simple. Simplisitcally speaking, if a player performs, give him a contract. Length is basically determined by his age. You don't want to give a 30 year old a 5 year contract because he's physicals will drop massively. It's quite the opposite for younger players, because they should improve over the years and you want to make sure they are still at your club when they reach their peak (usually when they are 25-28 years old). Sometimes the demands of young players will be much higher the longer the contract is, so you have to settle for less years (2-3 years).

[PinkSpeedos]

On 22/04/2018 at 16:19, hicuty said:

I somewhat know how to arrange a tactic but my issue is with club management in general. How can i relate my tactics to club management? Things like who should i sign? Who should i look for scouting? What kind of contract should i offer to who? Should it be a long term contract or short? I dont have a clear vision on these questions. How do you guys play the club management part? And how that does it relate to your tactics?

1) Who should I sign? --- Are you happy with your formation, player roles and overall tactic? Does it work? If so, then look for players that can fit into those roles well while keeping an eye on your club finances. It's all well and good getting a world class striker with a big transfer fee but does this leave you short in other areas? As has been mentioned above, you want to have a solid first team player for each position and then adequate back up in case of injury or suspension. This could be in the form of youth but could also be an older, more experienced player coming to the end of their career. It depends on what you are looking for in any given position. 

2) Who should I be scouting? --- Again, are you happy with your current tactical set up? If so, then you want to be scouting for players that fit into that system and the roles you have chosen. Are you in European competitions? Do you need players from a certain country with homegrown status? (For example English players for Premier League teams in the Champions League). As a general rule I will always be using at least one or two scouts to search for talented youngsters. It's good to have a long term vision. 

3) What kind of contract should I offer? --- That entirely depends on the player and what you want from them. If it is a very talented young player with a bright future ahead of them, you probably want them on a long term deal. If it is an older player coming to the end of their career then a 1-2 year deal would be best. I always try to avoid release clauses (especially for my really quality players) even if it means paying them a little more than I would like per week. I also make sure there is no appearance fees in there as I don't want to be paying my players a bonus every single time they play a match. Try to keep signing up fees and agent fees down where possible as well, these can take a big chunk out of your transfer budget without you realising. 

 

Basically, these are all decisions that only you can make on a player to player, deal to deal basis. For me personally, the transfer window is always the bit I enjoy the most. Take your time, make sure that you are happy with the player you are about to sign and what they will bring to your team and then think about whether the transfer cost, as well as the contract cost, fit into the finances of your club. 

With regards to finances, this can also be a personal choice. I'm playing as Leeds, got them promoted in my first season, saved them from relegation in the second. At the end of the second season I was given £62m to spend and a £300k wage budget. I can afford to pay some big fees and wages but I've put in place a self imposed wage cap of £60k per week. If a player wants more than that, I won't sign them, no matter how good they are. I've done this because it will allow me sign the number of players I need across all of the positions I need covering and in the hope that it will stop some of the lower earners complaining about their current contracts (I don't know if this works, I just thought I would try it). I also don't believe that anyone playing for a relegation threatened team like mine should be earning more than that and I don't want to find myself in serious financial difficulty if the worst case scenario of relegation happens. 

 

Hope this helps. 

[FlairRA]

SFraser's articles should be of some help!

In response to your question I believe that it depends on your style of managing, and your tactic. For signings you can look for a player who offers a Plan B, i.e when Barcelona signed Ibrahimovic to give them a more direct way to attack. You can also look for young players and look to mould them and develop them, however I believe in the end the best way is to analyze how real life teams do it. To take Man City as an example, I'd say we've been the role model in terms of transfers. We look for young, highly technical players that fit Guardiola's attractive, possesion-based style of play. However a serial winner like Mourinho favors the experience of a Matic and Sanchez, prefers signing older players that are hard working, dependable and are certain to show their quality, taking a risk to develop youngsters comes second. Klopp was happy to sell Coutinho; the team press far better without him, and the inferior yet hard-working Oxlade-Chamberlain is far better at winning the ball back, and as such they're a better team. In the end with Man City and Liverpool, they and us sign players that fit our style of play rather than look at individual quality and as such we alongside them are one of the best teams in Europe. Contracts depend highly on the player, an excellent tutor is worth his weight in gold, as is a player who offers leadership and experience. Look at Iniesta this season. However someone clearly past it and struggling to make a difference should probably be let go.