Every manager who starts out life in the lower divisions has the ambition to take his side to the top level; those who achieve this goal will often find themselves in a situation where money is desperately tight. Taking a very small club to the top is a difficult task, but it is equally difficult to survive once you’ve made it to the top.

A number of times I have found myself in the situation where I have a team that is performing on the pitch at a level much higher than anticipated – which often leaves the infrastructure of the club left behind the times. You can find yourself playing in the top division with a poorer financial situation than most of the teams on a level (or even two) below you.

A common problem for the finances, no matter how good you are at cutting costs or selling players, is sponsorship. This is largely out of your control, your club can recoup higher sponsorship by applying themselves on the pitch – but this is not the whole story. No matter how good your side is performing, if you achieve rapid success the sponsorship levels are often left behind.

An Example



Using the example of my current save with Varbergs BoIS FC in Sweden (May 2017), I will guide you through the process of restructuring your squad and earning the club a tidy sum when the purse strings are held with a very firm grip. In this example, 0.2% of the total sponsorship in the league is generated by my club (see screenshot below); and in a league of 16 teams that is far lower than what you would expect. This is obviously going to have a knock-on effect on the club’s finances and more importantly your wage budget.



If you find yourself in a situation where finances are down the toilet and you are handed a wage budget much lower than you currently spend on wages, there are a number of steps that can help you survive at the top level. With the new season around the corner, I found myself with an appalling wage budget of £13,750 p/w. Compare this to the wage budget of the season before of £15,750 p/w and you can see that changes will have to be made. After contract expiry and a couple of retirements, the wage total sat at £18,800 p/w when the new budget was announced.



Who To Sell

The first thing to do is to take a hard look at your squad, highlight which players earn the most money, which players play the biggest part in your squad and which players will fetch in the most money for your club. I am of the belief that all outfield players can be replaced by someone of equal value, but a good goalkeeper can be very hard to come by when you have a transfer budget of zero. My goalkeeper is my biggest earner, but he will play every game of the season barring any injuries or suspensions – there are very few outfield players who this can also be said about.

The next port of call is to identify which players earn the most, have a good value and have clubs interested in them. I had a number of players who were earning over £1,000 p/w, were worth around £16,000 and had clubs interested in them. The task here is to offer them to clubs at just over double their market value – for me this was £35,000 or £40,000. This technique allowed me to shift three heavy earners for £35,000 each to both clear some debt and free up wages.

I looked at which players had transfer interest and also offered them out to clubs, fetching a further £22,000 for four fringe players who could easily be replaced by players on lower wages. The only other players to leave were basically dead money to the club, as I had two players who were past their best and would serve as nothing more than bench warmers – these were both offered out to clubs and eventually went on free transfers to smaller clubs.

Who To Sign

Once you’ve cleared out your squad and recouped some money, take stock of your squad and identify which areas now need filling. It’s then off to have a chat with your scout(s) who should hopefully have already been scouting at every opportunity. Those news reports of players released by clubs are there for a reason – scout these players, they could quite easily be worth signing.

When you’ve found players who are rated by your scout(s) and are unattached – offer them a trial. It’s much easier to evaluate players and compare them to what you already have and make a decision on whether to sign the player or not. Remember, the key here is to offer as little as possible to sign the player – a favourite of mine is to throw clauses at him and lower his basic wage and it works with a good number of players. The biggest problem I find is players who have agents – I try to avoid them at all costs. It’s one thing giving a player a larger signing on fee to lower his wage, but having to do the same with his agent is something that is a step too far for me.

Once you’ve maxed out your wage budget, and trust me it won’t last long, it’s time to start looking at the loan market. Get your assistant manager to build a report on whatever position’s you need to fill and then move onto to clubs in your division – another man’s rubbish can be your gold. Fill out any gaps you can with loan players – once again trying to limit any wages you pay.

Recap

Who to sell;
- High earners, high value, with interest
- High earners, with interest
- With interest
- Not needed

Who to sign;
- Free agents
- Loanees

It’s that simple: lighten the wage load, earn a bit of cash and feel slightly better about the uphill struggle that is... Surviving on a Shoestring.


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