Why should I break my wage structure?

If you follow my career with Young Boys in Switzerland, you'll know that in my second season at the club I decided to break my wage cap. I signed one Gelson Fernandes, who is costing me double what my next highest earner is earning.

As much as I encouraged you to set a strict wage structure at your club, there are times when you must break it, to ensure progress at your club.

So here are some reasons why you may wish to break your wage structure.

[indent]
1. You wish to attract players of a higher calibre.

2. You want to sign more players to cope with a heavier fixture schedule.

3. You want to fulfill an overarching motivating goal in your game.[/indent]


In my game, all three reasons led me to the signing of the Swiss midfielder. Firstly, he was a shoo-in to my first team. He was better than any of the midfielders I had at the moment, and he would be an improvement to my first eleven. Secondly, since I qualified for the Champion's League, we'd have to play more games this season. We needed a deeper squad. Lastly, the goal in my game is to bring talented Swiss players back to Switzerland. Fernandes is certainly that. I needed to spend the money to achieve my personal desires.

How do I decide when to break my wage structure?

Breaking a wage cap, for me at least, is a daunting thing. It is not easy, as the structure is a strict guideline that you have set in place to ensure that you don't drop into financial turmoil. You must be extremely prepared if and when you decide to break it.

Here are some important factors to consider when you wish to sign that player that's going to cost you a ton of wages.


Is your club capable of handling the added wage burden?

1. Will you be receiving added income in the near future? Where from? Here are some of the ways.
[indent]
- Champion's League group stages qualification prize money
- Won the Champion's League and qualified for Club World Championship and Euro Super Cup
- Just signed a new sponsorship deal
- Moved into a new stadium
- Got bought over by a rich new owner
- About to sell some big value players, and you are not going to spend the transfer income[/indent]



2. Is your current balance large enough to handle any short term problems?
[indent]
- Half of last year's total expenditure is a good cushion to make sure you don't go into debt
- Problems that occur might be, losing your competitions, transfer deals don't go through, you don't win whatever competitions you expected to.[/indent]


3. Is your club profitable?

[indent]- Are you making money on a season-to-season basis? How about month-to-month?
- Do take note to account for any "dividends" paid out. These should not be counted into your annual profits, as dividends in FM are an optional thing and it is not necessary to pay them out, so if you have a really good year you might give 10 mil to shareholders, but on an average or poor year that 10 mil would go into your bank.
- For the same reason, don't account for "investments" paid in. These don't happen all the time (unless you are Man City).
- It also can be reasonable to account for profitability before transfer spending/income. You might not sell big next year, or you might not buy that expensive player next year, so try and get a clear view of the "bare necessities" of your operating costs.[/indent]


4. Can your wage budget accomodate it?
[indent]
- Wage structures and wage budgets are two completely different things, and you may think that you're earning enough to increase your wage spending, but if your board didn't give you a large enough wage budget and you can't afford to then you're stuck.[/indent]


5. Do you have a clear idea of how much you are going to expand the cap by?

[indent]- Think about how many players you really want to sign, and how many you can afford to sign.
- Plan ahead before making the contract deals. Say to yourself, "ok, my highest earner is taking in 10k p/w. I'm going to sign these two players and pay them 15k p/w.[/indent]


6. Do you have any dangerous contract clauses that you should be aware of?

[indent]- Namely, the Match Highest Earner clause. Don't sign a new player and pay him 15k p/w, when your current highest earner at 10k p/w has that clause on - he'll automatically get bumped up.[/indent]


7. Is the player good enough?

[indent]- This is an important consideration. Think about the rest of your team. If an average player joins your team, and you break your wage cap and pay him more than everybody else, how will the rest of your players feel?
- They will want wage parity, and so now everybody wants a payday.
- The player that you are breaking your cap for, he must be better than or as good as your current top players. Also do note that if for example he's a 4* player and you have two other 4* players in your team, you will have to, in future, consider paying them the higher wages as well.[/indent]

How do I find out some of this info?

Well, most of it is through guesswork. Expanding your wage structure is a risk. Be prepared, think about it, and then you can take that risk.

Here I have the benefit of hindsight. It is 6 months after I broke my wage structure, and I'm going to show you some of the stuff that you should consider 6 months before making the big signing.





This is my finance summary screen. As you can see, my club is on the up. My turnover has increased, and I am making more profits than I was last season, despite a 6 mil difference in transfer spending.





My increased turnover came primarily from increased prize money (Champion's League group stage money), as well as increased season ticket income.





This is the salary summary screen. As you can see my salaries have increased quite considerably, but importantly, they have also plateaued - I had an idea of the players I wanted to sign, I signed them, and I went through with my plan. I didn't get my head turned by a new player getting transfer listed - if he costs too much, he costs too much. If he's not part of the plan, then he can fuck off.

Don't think to yourself "ok, now that my wage cap is 15k p/w, all these new talented players are available to me... I'm gonna sign them!"





You can use the benefit of hindsight too. Check how your player has been doing. Has he been playing well? Is his average rating one of the better ones on your team? Is he making a lot of starts in your first team? In crucial games? If his average rating is poor, if he is being used mainly as a sub, if he's not playing in your important games, then you must consider that you made a bad transfer. You might have to sell him.

Final thoughts

Once again: breaking your wage structure is a risky move. Unless you are sure that you can afford it, you may end yourself up in a situation like West Ham for example, where their players are simply earning too much. At the same time though, it is a necessary decision that we have to make, for the progress of the club. If you can never afford to sign a top level player, it's possible that you may never reach the top level.

I hope this guide will help you to make that risk a calculated one, and that you will be assured, confident and prepared when you do decide to make the decision.




Link to part 1: "Maintaining a wage structure"


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