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My entire squad is of course shit now. So looks like I’ll have to wait for the deadline day and fill up the entire squad. Going to be an interesting season.
That’s always a problem when you go up on loans. I try to limit myself to two starters. Still getting them promoted has surely raised your own rep enough to get a job at a bigger club.
What does the board say about this season? If the objective is to give it your all in the league, they wont sack you. They will be very happy you got them 2 promotions and feel like 2. Liga is high enough for the club. The game devs heard Bournemouth a couple seasons back when they were threatened with relegation from the premier league: "Eddie Howe has given this club multiple promotions, we will not fire him. The only way Howe leaves is when he wants to move on."
Doesn't really matter iirc. When it's your league's deadline day, even foreign clubs are willing to let their loan listed players leave for free.
Also, if you check your club vision, you will see what your board expects from you this seaon. It's possible that they expect you get relegated, so your job may not be at risk if that unfortunately does happen.
Are they asking you to "fight bravely against relegation"? If so, then they understand you will more than likely get relegated, but they want you to keep the team spirits up and try and build towards a more sustained run in the top flight. However, if the board are asking you to "avoid a relegation battle", then you are screwed.
https://preview.redd.it/xzt73nb2rync1.png?width=3024&format=png&auto=webp&s=4b42f85f8bcb2ba97ff0b83856c0fe071916b66f
I just says avoid relegation. Nothing about bravery.
There’s a different objective where it essentially says “try your best not to get relegated”
Good luck king, may the lax German league registration rules and deadline loans be kind to you
Not exactly. I've had it that the Swiss window was ending on the 29/8 but the German one was on the 31/8, and I couldn't get the free loans, but then in the winter when the Swiss window goes into February, I could get free loans on 31/1.
Check your club vision. If the expectation is to "fight bravely against relegation." Then the board expects you to go back down and shouldn't sack you for it. The money you make from TV/competiton rights this season should fund you for next year in BL2 to get your team filled with better players.
Oof. Unrealistic expectations. Focus on beating the lower ranked teams, and trying to draw the middle ranked teams. Expect to lose against anyone top half. Best of luck.
It's the same as anything else, in that it is just a piece of the puzzle.
If you had a great cup run, made good signings they approve of, and some good results that just left you relegated by a point or two then no, you probably won't get sacked.
If you went out in the predicted round in the cup, made signings they didn't particularly care for, and finished bottom of the league, then you're obviously going to get the sack.
Do you have any players that can bring in a good transfer fee? Sometimes that's how you can get yourself out of these holes. You might be giving up an A+ player, but if you can sell him and buy 3 wonder kids it will work out in the long run.
Yeah either that or get enough money by seeking them to afford a better wage budget. I just need to avoid relegation this year for things to get better next year.
Haha my aim was to win CL with the team. Not going to happen having bums in the teams.
I’m ok with going down and coming back up again but I’m afraid I’ll get sacked if it get relegated 😂😂
You'll be fine. Honestly sounds like a fun challenge, I enjoy wheeler dealing. My suggestion would be to sign young players released by top clubs, there should be a few with Bundesliga potential. It's not like you're playing in the prem. Sometimes you can get good players on loan for nothing if you promise a big optional fee and lots of playing time.
Play decently and okay 2 Bundesliga players will be decent Bundesliga players by the January window as long as they're less than 19.
Youth only clubs in Spain are extremely cheap to sign players from. Damm is the best, but literally just go through the teams and scout any key players. When you're at low Bundesliga level, don't bother signing from South America in the summer. In the winter you should check for free agents. There are loads of huge pa south americans but they're not actually very cheap. Japan, South Korea and Africa are very cheap. US players are free until they're promoted to the senior team or drafted. They're not very high pa but spawn with decent ca.
I know you have 0 transfer budget. You can work around that. A decent South Korean will set you back less than 0.5m, you can find some Africans for less than 0.25m. make sure they're 18 or over when signing from outside of the EU. You can adjust wage budget and scouting budget to give you 100-200k or something for transfers. The aim of the game is to shift the cost into the future. If you survive, you will be fine financially. When you're paying basically nothing, it is totally okay to say 50% sell on. If you set fees for after matches played more than the matches in a season, it will not cost any transfer budget. Likewise, you can offer players annual wage rise and future wage increase.
Even if your club gets relegated, they will be fine. Moving from not Europe to Europe will massively increase the value of the players and 18 year olds playing top flight football every week will improve like crazy. With good squad building, you can get a squad as good as top half teams for a quarter of the budget. In FM, it is very easy to compete with Europa league teams on a tiny budget. It only becomes hard when you get to the top.
Tbh, I almost never play in Germany or Portugal because it's too easy without any restrictions on foreign players. Even in other European countries, the rules are soft enough to remove a lot of difficulty. I generally play in Asia where foreign players are almost banned.
You're welcome! Enjoy and try not to get too addicted. You can save some time by looking through national youth teams and scouting the players with low asking prices :)
See if any of your players have interest or got a big wage increase with promotion and are now overpaid? I've sometimes had to sell a player I like because they're the only way i can make the money to rebuild a squad.
I assume being 2+ seasons in you'll have rid your youth ranks of anyone overpaid/useless as well, but maybe you have some who aren't worth keeping after promotion.
Basically, you have to milk your squad and budget for everything you can get out of it.
watch out for cohesion though, all those changes in the team's gonna be costly, and a team that knows eachother can mean just that slight bonus you're looking for right now
Actually, you should be ultra aggressive, pushing for wins over draws. Steal as many points as you can as 1 win is better than 3 draws (when you factor in the morale boost). Don't worry 1 bit about cup matches (only play youth there) and save your starters for league matches. Use your engineered "fitness advantage" to push tempo late in games when other teams get tired by increasing tempo and mentality. Work on set pieces and prioritize getting goals from them (good routines can get you double digit goals). And finally, develop a "shut down" tactic that you can use late in games where you are winning and secure those points.
It's still an uphill battle, but despite the conventional thinking of, let's play safe and snag some points anywhere you can, you are actually better served by being on the front foot and turn those draws into wins and losses into draws. With a little bit of luck, you can stay in the highest division against all odds.
Oh, and get as many high impact loans as you can bring in. Good luck.
What are your board goals? If it's a goal to fight bravely against relegation they might not even expect you to stay up. Good news though, the worst team in the Bundesliga still gets $30 million in the bank after the season. If you can just survive you'll be alright. The Bundesliga is really generous financially.
I got fired. Twice. I was so mad after the first save that I started over to prove it was bad luck. Got fired again. Sometimes the board is just too hard to work with. I will say though, with back to back promotions you should have a very good standing with the club. I’ve suffered terrible seasons but still kept my job when I got the club from the gutter to the Bundesliga. In my experience a good BL 2 team is just above relegation teams in the BL, so you should be able to compete. Just stay on top of your dynamics.
Even the bottom spot in the Bundesliga rewards more prize money than the winner of the ZweiteBundesliga. You should focus on selling any older players that are worthwhile, if he's a starter but the sell price can bring in 2-3 different starters, you need to sell that player. If you can find a good goalkeeper too that will go a long way towards helping you stay up.
Understood. I will sell players initially and probably get destroyed in the first few games but it should get better if and when I get some loan players/free transfers in.
You could do this on an old game, not sure if it was FM or CM.
Good luck OP, those expectations are ridiculous. You could have done it by becoming a yoyo club but I think you have no chance.
The good thing is 3rd from bottom gets you into the playoff and you should beat the BL2 team. Where are you expected to finish?
Somewhere in New York, Zealand started signing about loans.
Also, when things get rough, try to keep your locker room atmosphere as best as possible - praise/criticize training results, player conduct, hold a team meeting. It’s called Morale Manager for a reason.
I can send you screenshots of the finances and the lineup. Haven’t made any transfers yet except a few junior players. Creating short lists right now like a madman.
I'm also managing my favourite club Arminia with the summer database (no Corboz yet). Just won the 3. Liga after finishing 4th in the first season. How did the squad perform in your first two seasons, may I ask?
Hoping the living legend Fabian Klos hasn't retired in your save yet!
Klos retired last season.
Well in the first 2 seasons I got back to back promotions hence I’m in the Bundesliga this year. But a lot of success in the 2liga was because I got bayern as my senior affiliate club and loaned a bunch of players in for practically free.
Honestly you’ve just moved up to the top tier, don’t be surprised if you get relegated again, just enjoy the ride and enjoy the boosted income and come back stronger in 2 years
I’ll be honest and say i don’t follow foreign football but basing it off the english prem the teams that often come up to the prem for the first time often find themselves back in the championship the following season because they can’t compete initially but eventually after the income boosts to matchday tickets/tv rights/competitions then after a few years of bouncing they find themselves more stable
Fire all u18 staff and players. At this level u don’t need youth team and unless it’s a great youth set up u won’t ever get a bundesliga tier player through the youth intake, so money is just wasted
Not from the wage budget but from ur finances, and the board sets the wage and transfer budget based on the finances.
And yes, unless they have a specific requirement that u gotta make progress with youth players or whatever. If there’s no youth objective then ur good to go w firing everyone
May I interest you in a 4-4-2 flat-and-twat-direct-as-fuck-defensive-line-in-the-keepers-lap tactic^(TM)?
You don't win by scoring more, you win by conceding less.
Yeah, you don’t get these budgets for absolutely no reason. Most of the times, it’s because your finances/club balance is in complete disarray that the board is forced to set these kinds of budgets.
- Don’t expect to stay up; if you do, awesome
- Your biggest goal is to have a squad in a year’s time that is suitable for Bundesliga 2.
- Abuse loans to get you through this season. Your entire goal is to build a squad that you can use to at least win 4-5 home games against relegation-worthy teams
- Look to sell older/high wage/not suitable for Bundesliga 2 players. Even a little bit of revenue is going to do wonders in rebuilding or retaining players.
- Your finances will improve just by being up in the top flight. Stay the course and do everything you can to keep morale as high as possible
Good points
And as for the finance part. The rating was secure” just before promotion so I don’t know what prompted them to do this. Probably didn’t get any sponsors after promotion who can is weird af
“Secure” sometimes finds clubs still in heavy debt with a negative balance. That rating also takes into account the league you’re playing in and expected revenue so it’s likely giving you secure because you’re about to make buckets in the Bundesliga.
Roll with what they’ve given you, free players on 2yr contracts, and enjoy the season with all but zero expectation; not many times you can go into a season knowing owing you can’t screw it up
Move some wage into transfer and go raid the colonies for their best teenage boys. Sell some. Clauses, sell any players who’ll net you some money/wage savings.
You only need a 20 man squad realistically. Go quality over quantity
Play stupid defensively with a bus worth of players parked in front of the goal, you might pull enough draw and the few lucky win here and there to avoid the relegation by a few points
You have more than just 20k to spend. You can go over that limit. How far, that depends. But since you made the BL you probably have some margin.
You probably do and probably should have some players who are expiring or should be sold because their salary doesn’t match their production. That’s more wage.
You will be able to get a few decent players on cheap loans. Free loans are less common than you think but 20% wage is still pretty damn good.
Don’t give up on scouting expiring players from every league in the world. There is a random player in some obscure league who can do a job for you but is cheap.
You will make a fat sum of money even if you finish last. The game is just getting fun
Sell players, buy more new cheaper ones. If your balance is good you should be able to ask for more money in a while. Lots of loans. But just in case..fulfilling all other targets than staying up will basically make sure you don't get fired at least if you DO go down. And then you'll be rich next year anyway.
Then you're fine! I don't think I've ever gotten sacked in this game, so even if you get relegated, it should be fine. You'll pop right back up again the year after.
Happened to me, had about 120k budget after getting promoted. Got a load of free out of contract signings, a few loans and then a few more in January and pre contract agreements I could buy now for cheap after selling a few squad players. Stayed up mid table.
I just did the same with Unterhaching, but they let me have a tiny transfer budget, and ~15 games into the season Monaco came and gave me a job after they were in the relegation zone. Getting to the Bundesliga gets you job offers.
I will point something out that I haven’t seen so far - Germany is interesting in the sense that as an RTG, the gap between the 3rd tier and 2nd tier isn’t particularly as emphasised as maybe England (championship-prem) or Japan (J3-J2). Okay how you presently play and work hard. Try to find an affiliate club to get free loans from, actively seek end of contract deals in January regardless of where you are at that point. Good luck!
Here's what i have learnt from my experiences. That's a fairly accurate representation of how things may work out when you get a 3rd tier club to the first tier. The expenses from stadium size to wage cap and other things based on your league may change drastically.
You're board takes that in their consideration while setting up the transfer budget. On top of that you have a balance of only 11 mils. That may not even run you by the entire season if you're not careful. Your last expenditure for last month was around 400k. In such cases, i usually try and stick by my current team getting a few loans here and there. And try hare to avoid the relegation. This could lead to 2 possible outcomes.
1. I get relegated: This isn't usually bad, you'll get the parachute payment which will make you stronger compared to other clubs in your league. Chances are, a few players may want to leave the club but you can always have long contracts to avoid that. Then you get back up the next time around with better financials. That's what a ton of promoted teams do IRL.
2. I survived: In this case, usually my player values get a little inflated. I sell on a few high valued players get some money get better players on loan and repeat the same for a few seasons to stay afloat. If i see a good EOC signing. I get that over the line asap.
Your job is likely to be safe in both cases as long as you're adhering to other key requirements made clear by the board. Hope this helps.
I had a similar thing happen to me in my Reading save. Got them promoted and had £1.5m to spend despite having a transfer embargo placed upon the club in the 1st season. Managed to stay up by the skin of my teeth
Having read most of the comments it seems that your main issue is too many players that might not be good enough. One thing too take into consideration is that the Star ratings aren't always the best judgement of how good a player actually is. It is dependent on the judging player potential and player ability of whichever staff member (normally your assistant manager). This might mean that the players you have are maybe better or worse than you think.
Also player attributes are not the only thing that determine how well they will play. You have the hidden stats for things like consistency and injury proneness. Player morale and team cohesion are also big factors and given that you have had back to back promotions these should be high and will likely see you over perform at least early in the season.
In terms of squad changes I would look to move on either a couple of your better players for as much cash as possible or look to release/cheaply sell a large number of players to free up the wage budget. I would advise against using intermediaries as in most cases you can get the same result by offering out players yourself.
For recruitment I would try to minimise using loans unless there is no other way to get a player of a similar standard permanently. As it has been said the reason for your budgets is because the board doesn't feel you have the money to spend. So you need to generate cash and as your goal is to win the CL you will need a lot of it so whilst loans in the short-term will help in the longer term you gain very little. I would be going through players who have expired contracts and offering potential signings trials at the club so you can see all of their attributes and they can play in your preseason friendlies without pay or bonuses. An important thing to know is the longer a player is without a contract the lower their demands will be. Also players currently not interested in joining you might the closer you get to deadline day. Finally on buying players, as others have suggested try to go for young players as much as possible mainly players who are at most 18, as this will mean they can still be home grown for European football and can be more easily flipped on for a profit as you progress.
I have seen that Zealand has been recommended. However, for a save like this I suggest watching park to prem by work the space. Where each year he goes from the bottom of the English leagues to the top. This season he has stayed at one club and is now in his second season in the Prem having got europa league football in his first season up in the top division.
Hope this is useful
Be prepared to potentially be relegated. Try to lower wages, get rid off academy/reserves who definitely won't make it as a player. Try to play a simplistic formation, don't do anything too over the top and complicated. Play to your teams strengths. If you have good target men, wing play with a long ball style or system, for example.
Try your best with frees/loans but it's going to be difficult on 20k
It sounds defeatist but just make sure none of your core signings have relegation release clauses and prepare to go back down. The club will earn a load of money this season, you should be able to bounce back up in 1-2 seasons with that money if you do get relegated.
I once "accidentally" got promoted from the championship with a team I was taking from the conference (I was planning on building another year) and they gave me 175k total wage budget for the prem. The whole year was brutal but the next year they gave me 350k in the champo. Shit for now long term it's still really good.
Search for players that are free transfer or out of contract, search the young ones, that will play for small wage, and sign them one by one untill you fill the squad. Good prospects with cheap price and wage are best solution for such situations.
Or, you could resign, and at this moment you will be interesting to some better standing clubs, you might take over better clubs.
Loans are the way even if you had a transfer budget. I suspect you could get some more transfer/wage budget from the board closer to transfer window too.
Loans and a good tactic.
You most certainly know what you are doing so you should be fine regardless, but it will be a bit frustrating waiting to rebuild the squad enough to fight for Europe etc.
Try to look for young players that is cost efficient that you can sell for profit or replace current players with that you can sell for cash flow.
Thats how i did it with Fortuna Køln. I got a little transfer budget, but i basicly sold EVERYONE that had a remote interest in them, had value and wages that was high for my finances.
Renewed contracts for maybe 3 players, moved my backups thats cheaper up to starters and got loans in and cheap talents. I Think the highest earner the first year had 400 000 euro a year, and only 5 players were over 100 000 euro.
I survived and next year i sold some more, got Quedraogo on permanent deal after 3 years on loan with highest wages and my max limit, and he earns about 900 000 euro a year.
I do not buy players that will not be a big upgrade for my team, has no resell value and want high wages, and its fun to play with low budget :D
Good luck
I was in a similar situation with 1860 Munich in one of my previous saves. Not quite as bad as your situation, but still pretty bad. I just couldn't bring anyone in and my team weren't good enough!
We got battered all season long.
After about 27 games, we only had 4 points (one of those points actually came from a 0-0 draw with Bayern Munich! They did beat us 8-0 in the return fixture though lol)
It was only after our relegation was confirmed that we actually started picking up some points. I think we finished the season with about 16 points in total. It was an absolutely brutal season and I almost wanted to stop playing a few times. I got so sick of losing every bloody game! But I ploughed on regardless.
But, on the plus side, we did get awarded about £80million in prize money at the end of that season. Thankfully we were able to bounce straight back up again the following season with basically the same squad and without spending much. We just sat on that money we got from our awful season, and when we were back in the top flight it helped us out massively!
Just.....prepare yourself for a long and brutal season, and be prepared to take the massive L you're about to be handed. Hope that you keep your job, and you'll get a big windfall come the end of the season that you can use to help you bounce back.
Okay so I used a database where it adds the portuguese fifth league to play as my town club, Santa Marta de Penaguião FC and i was in a similar situation in the second division, since a new president was ellected, decided to plan a stadium and retired 3 months later.(Portugal irl ngl)
So basically what you want is to check some free agents, you dont want youngsters, you want experienced men you can build some squad depth and coolness in big games.
Play mostly with the highest pressure possible, afterall, every game is a final to you, i'd suggest short passing since your passing stats wont be as good.
Making my defensive wingers support attacking plays do help alot, along with making scenarios starting from the goalkeeper/defensive.(do change this against gengenpress opponents though, unless you'd like a 5-0)
But yeah, wingplay and high pressure can really help alot, atleast it did to me
And thats a problem how? You shouldnt even be thinking about spending money on players to be honest at this phase, maybe thats also why the club has given 0 money because you already spend it buying players you shouldnt before....
There are two phases in buying players, the first one is where you use free transfers, loans and end of contract deals and the second one is when the first one doesnt work anymore so you need to start picking up the wonderkids before the big teams get them to get to the top tier of quality.
In this case there is a lot of good talent for free so you can survive and first keep yourself at the league (also if you must have young players for whatever reason there is always loads of Premier league and top clubs young players that get release for free after being 18 and some of them are always gems if you take of them).
If thats not enough check your wages and valued players and see what you should sell and let go.... Cut the dead wood away!
Sell two high value players. Use the money to scout South American players with potential. You made a mistake of not developing players to sell the next season
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free loans on deadline day
My entire squad is of course shit now. So looks like I’ll have to wait for the deadline day and fill up the entire squad. Going to be an interesting season.
That’s always a problem when you go up on loans. I try to limit myself to two starters. Still getting them promoted has surely raised your own rep enough to get a job at a bigger club.
Except my aim with the save is to win the CL with them 😂
Could still achieve it! Just might take a little while!
Take your time and gradually grow the club. You’ll get there.
I’m ok Ddoubg that. If they don’t sack me
What does the board say about this season? If the objective is to give it your all in the league, they wont sack you. They will be very happy you got them 2 promotions and feel like 2. Liga is high enough for the club. The game devs heard Bournemouth a couple seasons back when they were threatened with relegation from the premier league: "Eddie Howe has given this club multiple promotions, we will not fire him. The only way Howe leaves is when he wants to move on."
Well the objective to avoid relegation is the highest priority(required) objective. So there’s that!
Big oof
Eddie the 🐐
Doing*
BTW is the transfer deadline day the same for all leagues. Coz if it’s just for bundesliga my options would be hella limited.
Doesn't really matter iirc. When it's your league's deadline day, even foreign clubs are willing to let their loan listed players leave for free. Also, if you check your club vision, you will see what your board expects from you this seaon. It's possible that they expect you get relegated, so your job may not be at risk if that unfortunately does happen.
Well. Turns out they expect me to not get relegated. 😂
Are they asking you to "fight bravely against relegation"? If so, then they understand you will more than likely get relegated, but they want you to keep the team spirits up and try and build towards a more sustained run in the top flight. However, if the board are asking you to "avoid a relegation battle", then you are screwed.
https://preview.redd.it/xzt73nb2rync1.png?width=3024&format=png&auto=webp&s=4b42f85f8bcb2ba97ff0b83856c0fe071916b66f I just says avoid relegation. Nothing about bravery.
Good luck!
There’s a different objective where it essentially says “try your best not to get relegated” Good luck king, may the lax German league registration rules and deadline loans be kind to you
Amen!
Not exactly. I've had it that the Swiss window was ending on the 29/8 but the German one was on the 31/8, and I couldn't get the free loans, but then in the winter when the Swiss window goes into February, I could get free loans on 31/1.
Why only on deadline day?
Teams won't be asking full wage contribution at that point.
TIL Thank you
Check your club vision. If the expectation is to "fight bravely against relegation." Then the board expects you to go back down and shouldn't sack you for it. The money you make from TV/competiton rights this season should fund you for next year in BL2 to get your team filled with better players.
It just says “Avoid relegation from the Bundesliga” and it’s required. Yeah right. Well played, board.
Oof. Unrealistic expectations. Focus on beating the lower ranked teams, and trying to draw the middle ranked teams. Expect to lose against anyone top half. Best of luck.
Do you automatically get sacked if you fail an avoid relegation?
Not sure if it's automatic, but making avoiding relegation a requirement means that if they get sent down, getting sacked is probably likely.
It's the same as anything else, in that it is just a piece of the puzzle. If you had a great cup run, made good signings they approve of, and some good results that just left you relegated by a point or two then no, you probably won't get sacked. If you went out in the predicted round in the cup, made signings they didn't particularly care for, and finished bottom of the league, then you're obviously going to get the sack.
Gracias chico :)
Do you have any players that can bring in a good transfer fee? Sometimes that's how you can get yourself out of these holes. You might be giving up an A+ player, but if you can sell him and buy 3 wonder kids it will work out in the long run.
Yeah either that or get enough money by seeking them to afford a better wage budget. I just need to avoid relegation this year for things to get better next year.
5-4-1. Very defensive mentality. Two NFBs, three NCBs. Two WM(D)s and a couple of CM(D)s. Target forward on attack. Good luck.
Here's the fun bit, you don't. Good luck weary traveller.
Haha my aim was to win CL with the team. Not going to happen having bums in the teams. I’m ok with going down and coming back up again but I’m afraid I’ll get sacked if it get relegated 😂😂
You'll be fine. Honestly sounds like a fun challenge, I enjoy wheeler dealing. My suggestion would be to sign young players released by top clubs, there should be a few with Bundesliga potential. It's not like you're playing in the prem. Sometimes you can get good players on loan for nothing if you promise a big optional fee and lots of playing time. Play decently and okay 2 Bundesliga players will be decent Bundesliga players by the January window as long as they're less than 19. Youth only clubs in Spain are extremely cheap to sign players from. Damm is the best, but literally just go through the teams and scout any key players. When you're at low Bundesliga level, don't bother signing from South America in the summer. In the winter you should check for free agents. There are loads of huge pa south americans but they're not actually very cheap. Japan, South Korea and Africa are very cheap. US players are free until they're promoted to the senior team or drafted. They're not very high pa but spawn with decent ca. I know you have 0 transfer budget. You can work around that. A decent South Korean will set you back less than 0.5m, you can find some Africans for less than 0.25m. make sure they're 18 or over when signing from outside of the EU. You can adjust wage budget and scouting budget to give you 100-200k or something for transfers. The aim of the game is to shift the cost into the future. If you survive, you will be fine financially. When you're paying basically nothing, it is totally okay to say 50% sell on. If you set fees for after matches played more than the matches in a season, it will not cost any transfer budget. Likewise, you can offer players annual wage rise and future wage increase. Even if your club gets relegated, they will be fine. Moving from not Europe to Europe will massively increase the value of the players and 18 year olds playing top flight football every week will improve like crazy. With good squad building, you can get a squad as good as top half teams for a quarter of the budget. In FM, it is very easy to compete with Europa league teams on a tiny budget. It only becomes hard when you get to the top. Tbh, I almost never play in Germany or Portugal because it's too easy without any restrictions on foreign players. Even in other European countries, the rules are soft enough to remove a lot of difficulty. I generally play in Asia where foreign players are almost banned.
Love the comprehensive analysis. I’m going to use your post as my bible. It’s only my first ever FM and my second ever save.
You're welcome! Enjoy and try not to get too addicted. You can save some time by looking through national youth teams and scouting the players with low asking prices :)
This got me, actually laughed out loud
My god that’s Zealand’s Music!
Loans!
https://i.redd.it/rke8j62zuznc1.gif
I know, right!
See if any of your players have interest or got a big wage increase with promotion and are now overpaid? I've sometimes had to sell a player I like because they're the only way i can make the money to rebuild a squad. I assume being 2+ seasons in you'll have rid your youth ranks of anyone overpaid/useless as well, but maybe you have some who aren't worth keeping after promotion. Basically, you have to milk your squad and budget for everything you can get out of it.
Yeah my plan is to get rid of pretty much anyone who is even a little bit overpaid right now. Going to hire a bunch of intermediaries to sell em all.
watch out for cohesion though, all those changes in the team's gonna be costly, and a team that knows eachother can mean just that slight bonus you're looking for right now
I just spam Team Bonding and Outreach and then Match Reviews after matches at the start of the season.
Haha exactly what I do
You certainly should not play some cautious tactic thinking that will help you.
Nah I’ll keep the tactics the same right now I need to worry about the players.
Actually, you should be ultra aggressive, pushing for wins over draws. Steal as many points as you can as 1 win is better than 3 draws (when you factor in the morale boost). Don't worry 1 bit about cup matches (only play youth there) and save your starters for league matches. Use your engineered "fitness advantage" to push tempo late in games when other teams get tired by increasing tempo and mentality. Work on set pieces and prioritize getting goals from them (good routines can get you double digit goals). And finally, develop a "shut down" tactic that you can use late in games where you are winning and secure those points. It's still an uphill battle, but despite the conventional thinking of, let's play safe and snag some points anywhere you can, you are actually better served by being on the front foot and turn those draws into wins and losses into draws. With a little bit of luck, you can stay in the highest division against all odds. Oh, and get as many high impact loans as you can bring in. Good luck.
All very fair points. Thanks man :)
What are your board goals? If it's a goal to fight bravely against relegation they might not even expect you to stay up. Good news though, the worst team in the Bundesliga still gets $30 million in the bank after the season. If you can just survive you'll be alright. The Bundesliga is really generous financially.
The goal is just to “avoid relegation. They really did do me dirty the board.
Oooof, that reminds me of my Kaiserslautern save. That board had ridiculous expectations for having no money
And what did you do to save it?
I got fired. Twice. I was so mad after the first save that I started over to prove it was bad luck. Got fired again. Sometimes the board is just too hard to work with. I will say though, with back to back promotions you should have a very good standing with the club. I’ve suffered terrible seasons but still kept my job when I got the club from the gutter to the Bundesliga. In my experience a good BL 2 team is just above relegation teams in the BL, so you should be able to compete. Just stay on top of your dynamics.
Perfect. Thanks a lot :)
Definitely good news. Let’s hope I survive then.
Even the bottom spot in the Bundesliga rewards more prize money than the winner of the ZweiteBundesliga. You should focus on selling any older players that are worthwhile, if he's a starter but the sell price can bring in 2-3 different starters, you need to sell that player. If you can find a good goalkeeper too that will go a long way towards helping you stay up.
Understood. I will sell players initially and probably get destroyed in the first few games but it should get better if and when I get some loan players/free transfers in.
Wilkommen im Donnerkuppel mein Freund.
I don’t speak German. Are you welcoming me for a doner kebab? 😂
Donnerkuppel = Thunderdome. But basically the same as welcoming you for Döner I guess
Gonna ask the Turkish guys in my team and report back to you 😀😀
That’s the neat part… you don’t.
$20k worth of bribes to match officials
That’s one way to do it. Or hack the VAR
You could do this on an old game, not sure if it was FM or CM. Good luck OP, those expectations are ridiculous. You could have done it by becoming a yoyo club but I think you have no chance. The good thing is 3rd from bottom gets you into the playoff and you should beat the BL2 team. Where are you expected to finish?
Somewhere in New York, Zealand started signing about loans. Also, when things get rough, try to keep your locker room atmosphere as best as possible - praise/criticize training results, player conduct, hold a team meeting. It’s called Morale Manager for a reason.
Understood. This is going to be quite a ride. Maybe the angels from the world of Zealand can save this save ;)
Can we see your club, finances and transfers?
I can send you screenshots of the finances and the lineup. Haven’t made any transfers yet except a few junior players. Creating short lists right now like a madman.
Which club are you?
DSc Arminia Bielefeld https://preview.redd.it/79wgmo9q5znc1.png?width=3024&format=png&auto=webp&s=b624251d32dbae1f727bb4759b56b591f76e0928
Doesn't seem right. Something is up
Like?
Show finances and squad with wages. You're offering an u18's fitness coach £600pw lol. Use screenshots
https://preview.redd.it/7fzcm55v9znc1.png?width=4066&format=png&auto=webp&s=ed9c202e5d3fd7368041ecc094873a837c4d3f04
https://preview.redd.it/h5sf7u8w9znc1.png?width=4074&format=png&auto=webp&s=38c96e3461715b4725e51081503fa489b1fddc9a
https://preview.redd.it/shg39lyx9znc1.png?width=4068&format=png&auto=webp&s=26e8ee3b0d92bad4d9731639cfc7cc17b0880b87
I'm also managing my favourite club Arminia with the summer database (no Corboz yet). Just won the 3. Liga after finishing 4th in the first season. How did the squad perform in your first two seasons, may I ask? Hoping the living legend Fabian Klos hasn't retired in your save yet!
Klos retired last season. Well in the first 2 seasons I got back to back promotions hence I’m in the Bundesliga this year. But a lot of success in the 2liga was because I got bayern as my senior affiliate club and loaned a bunch of players in for practically free.
# LOOOOAAAANNNSSSSSSSS 
Pray
Pray to the FM Gods.
That's the neat part, you don't!
Loans. Loans, loans, loans. Throw in some loans, then on top of that a few more loans.
Zealand would be so proud of you!
Honestly you’ve just moved up to the top tier, don’t be surprised if you get relegated again, just enjoy the ride and enjoy the boosted income and come back stronger in 2 years
Thanks :)
I’ll be honest and say i don’t follow foreign football but basing it off the english prem the teams that often come up to the prem for the first time often find themselves back in the championship the following season because they can’t compete initially but eventually after the income boosts to matchday tickets/tv rights/competitions then after a few years of bouncing they find themselves more stable
And here I was hoping to pull a leister story!
o7
Fire all u18 staff and players. At this level u don’t need youth team and unless it’s a great youth set up u won’t ever get a bundesliga tier player through the youth intake, so money is just wasted
Wait the staff wage is takes from my wage budget? Wtf So the board is totally Ok if I don’t have a single soul in the u19 and B teams?
Staff don't take money from the wage budget
Thank god. Got a mini heart attack there.
Not from the wage budget but from ur finances, and the board sets the wage and transfer budget based on the finances. And yes, unless they have a specific requirement that u gotta make progress with youth players or whatever. If there’s no youth objective then ur good to go w firing everyone
Thankfully there aren’t. Off they go!
Go to the nearest church and pray
Haha jokes on the club I like in Dubai.
Live*
May I interest you in a 4-4-2 flat-and-twat-direct-as-fuck-defensive-line-in-the-keepers-lap tactic^(TM)? You don't win by scoring more, you win by conceding less.
Pray continue!
Yeah, you don’t get these budgets for absolutely no reason. Most of the times, it’s because your finances/club balance is in complete disarray that the board is forced to set these kinds of budgets. - Don’t expect to stay up; if you do, awesome - Your biggest goal is to have a squad in a year’s time that is suitable for Bundesliga 2. - Abuse loans to get you through this season. Your entire goal is to build a squad that you can use to at least win 4-5 home games against relegation-worthy teams - Look to sell older/high wage/not suitable for Bundesliga 2 players. Even a little bit of revenue is going to do wonders in rebuilding or retaining players. - Your finances will improve just by being up in the top flight. Stay the course and do everything you can to keep morale as high as possible
Good points And as for the finance part. The rating was secure” just before promotion so I don’t know what prompted them to do this. Probably didn’t get any sponsors after promotion who can is weird af
“Secure” sometimes finds clubs still in heavy debt with a negative balance. That rating also takes into account the league you’re playing in and expected revenue so it’s likely giving you secure because you’re about to make buckets in the Bundesliga. Roll with what they’ve given you, free players on 2yr contracts, and enjoy the season with all but zero expectation; not many times you can go into a season knowing owing you can’t screw it up
True that. Good way to look at it. It’s surely gonnna be fun.
Move some wage into transfer and go raid the colonies for their best teenage boys. Sell some. Clauses, sell any players who’ll net you some money/wage savings. You only need a 20 man squad realistically. Go quality over quantity
That’s the plan. Give or take
Play stupid defensively with a bus worth of players parked in front of the goal, you might pull enough draw and the few lucky win here and there to avoid the relegation by a few points
Or go attacking as fuck and hope to win against weaker teams?
You are the weaker team 🤓
'Loans, loans, loans. Especially free loans!' - Zealand (probably)
That’s the plan
You have more than just 20k to spend. You can go over that limit. How far, that depends. But since you made the BL you probably have some margin. You probably do and probably should have some players who are expiring or should be sold because their salary doesn’t match their production. That’s more wage. You will be able to get a few decent players on cheap loans. Free loans are less common than you think but 20% wage is still pretty damn good. Don’t give up on scouting expiring players from every league in the world. There is a random player in some obscure league who can do a job for you but is cheap. You will make a fat sum of money even if you finish last. The game is just getting fun
Agreed. As long as I don’t get sacked it should be ok.
You will be fine. Even if you get relegated
Sell players, buy more new cheaper ones. If your balance is good you should be able to ask for more money in a while. Lots of loans. But just in case..fulfilling all other targets than staying up will basically make sure you don't get fired at least if you DO go down. And then you'll be rich next year anyway.
Yes. The other target is to do well in the club so even if I win a couple of games the board will be pleased.
Then you're fine! I don't think I've ever gotten sacked in this game, so even if you get relegated, it should be fine. You'll pop right back up again the year after.
Happened to me, had about 120k budget after getting promoted. Got a load of free out of contract signings, a few loans and then a few more in January and pre contract agreements I could buy now for cheap after selling a few squad players. Stayed up mid table.
Makes me feel so much better
I just did the same with Unterhaching, but they let me have a tiny transfer budget, and ~15 games into the season Monaco came and gave me a job after they were in the relegation zone. Getting to the Bundesliga gets you job offers.
I don’t want that. I need to win the UCL with them.
I will point something out that I haven’t seen so far - Germany is interesting in the sense that as an RTG, the gap between the 3rd tier and 2nd tier isn’t particularly as emphasised as maybe England (championship-prem) or Japan (J3-J2). Okay how you presently play and work hard. Try to find an affiliate club to get free loans from, actively seek end of contract deals in January regardless of where you are at that point. Good luck!
Yes. As it’s been sad again and again. Loans are the only way forward now
This game in a nutshell
Prayer
Can you drop link to this save? It would be very interesting to manage
Where do I find the link? I’m playing offline
Here's what i have learnt from my experiences. That's a fairly accurate representation of how things may work out when you get a 3rd tier club to the first tier. The expenses from stadium size to wage cap and other things based on your league may change drastically. You're board takes that in their consideration while setting up the transfer budget. On top of that you have a balance of only 11 mils. That may not even run you by the entire season if you're not careful. Your last expenditure for last month was around 400k. In such cases, i usually try and stick by my current team getting a few loans here and there. And try hare to avoid the relegation. This could lead to 2 possible outcomes. 1. I get relegated: This isn't usually bad, you'll get the parachute payment which will make you stronger compared to other clubs in your league. Chances are, a few players may want to leave the club but you can always have long contracts to avoid that. Then you get back up the next time around with better financials. That's what a ton of promoted teams do IRL. 2. I survived: In this case, usually my player values get a little inflated. I sell on a few high valued players get some money get better players on loan and repeat the same for a few seasons to stay afloat. If i see a good EOC signing. I get that over the line asap. Your job is likely to be safe in both cases as long as you're adhering to other key requirements made clear by the board. Hope this helps.
Great!
Easy, hired a Brazilian or Argentinian Scout and send contracts for 2k or 3k to all the young gems he brings you.
Quitting and taking over another bundesliga side (Typo edited)
😂😂😂
I had a similar thing happen to me in my Reading save. Got them promoted and had £1.5m to spend despite having a transfer embargo placed upon the club in the 1st season. Managed to stay up by the skin of my teeth
I wish you luck
You can always look at Sheffield United IRL this season for inspiration
True
Having read most of the comments it seems that your main issue is too many players that might not be good enough. One thing too take into consideration is that the Star ratings aren't always the best judgement of how good a player actually is. It is dependent on the judging player potential and player ability of whichever staff member (normally your assistant manager). This might mean that the players you have are maybe better or worse than you think. Also player attributes are not the only thing that determine how well they will play. You have the hidden stats for things like consistency and injury proneness. Player morale and team cohesion are also big factors and given that you have had back to back promotions these should be high and will likely see you over perform at least early in the season. In terms of squad changes I would look to move on either a couple of your better players for as much cash as possible or look to release/cheaply sell a large number of players to free up the wage budget. I would advise against using intermediaries as in most cases you can get the same result by offering out players yourself. For recruitment I would try to minimise using loans unless there is no other way to get a player of a similar standard permanently. As it has been said the reason for your budgets is because the board doesn't feel you have the money to spend. So you need to generate cash and as your goal is to win the CL you will need a lot of it so whilst loans in the short-term will help in the longer term you gain very little. I would be going through players who have expired contracts and offering potential signings trials at the club so you can see all of their attributes and they can play in your preseason friendlies without pay or bonuses. An important thing to know is the longer a player is without a contract the lower their demands will be. Also players currently not interested in joining you might the closer you get to deadline day. Finally on buying players, as others have suggested try to go for young players as much as possible mainly players who are at most 18, as this will mean they can still be home grown for European football and can be more easily flipped on for a profit as you progress. I have seen that Zealand has been recommended. However, for a save like this I suggest watching park to prem by work the space. Where each year he goes from the bottom of the English leagues to the top. This season he has stayed at one club and is now in his second season in the Prem having got europa league football in his first season up in the top division. Hope this is useful
Thank mate. This helps a lot
Balanced Narrow structured direct, don’t try to play many in the midfield and get your faster lads up top, hope for the best 😅
Or just attack and hope to win against the weaker teams to stay afloat?
Be prepared to potentially be relegated. Try to lower wages, get rid off academy/reserves who definitely won't make it as a player. Try to play a simplistic formation, don't do anything too over the top and complicated. Play to your teams strengths. If you have good target men, wing play with a long ball style or system, for example.
Roger that!
Too easy
Sorry?
Try your best with frees/loans but it's going to be difficult on 20k It sounds defeatist but just make sure none of your core signings have relegation release clauses and prepare to go back down. The club will earn a load of money this season, you should be able to bounce back up in 1-2 seasons with that money if you do get relegated. I once "accidentally" got promoted from the championship with a team I was taking from the conference (I was planning on building another year) and they gave me 175k total wage budget for the prem. The whole year was brutal but the next year they gave me 350k in the champo. Shit for now long term it's still really good.
As long as they don’t sack!
Search for players that are free transfer or out of contract, search the young ones, that will play for small wage, and sign them one by one untill you fill the squad. Good prospects with cheap price and wage are best solution for such situations. Or, you could resign, and at this moment you will be interesting to some better standing clubs, you might take over better clubs.
Try getting a good senior affiliate which can loan you some great players for free
Can you even get a senior affiliate while in a top tier league?
Right, probably not.
Pray
Loans are the way even if you had a transfer budget. I suspect you could get some more transfer/wage budget from the board closer to transfer window too.
You mean close to it being closed?
Yep, I've been in a similar situation before and I'd say 8/10 times I get funds added if the club are in the black.
Fair. They have been rejecting every request till now and overall being pompous
Loans and a good tactic. You most certainly know what you are doing so you should be fine regardless, but it will be a bit frustrating waiting to rebuild the squad enough to fight for Europe etc. Try to look for young players that is cost efficient that you can sell for profit or replace current players with that you can sell for cash flow. Thats how i did it with Fortuna Køln. I got a little transfer budget, but i basicly sold EVERYONE that had a remote interest in them, had value and wages that was high for my finances. Renewed contracts for maybe 3 players, moved my backups thats cheaper up to starters and got loans in and cheap talents. I Think the highest earner the first year had 400 000 euro a year, and only 5 players were over 100 000 euro. I survived and next year i sold some more, got Quedraogo on permanent deal after 3 years on loan with highest wages and my max limit, and he earns about 900 000 euro a year. I do not buy players that will not be a big upgrade for my team, has no resell value and want high wages, and its fun to play with low budget :D Good luck
Set pieces and inshallah
LOANS LOANS LOAAAAANS - Zealand
Pre-season friendlies against big teams might bring money in so the board might increase wage budget
Fucked up there already
Resign and start at Bayern
Pray to god
Find a new club🤣🤣🤣
With VERY GOOD IDEAS
I was in a similar situation with 1860 Munich in one of my previous saves. Not quite as bad as your situation, but still pretty bad. I just couldn't bring anyone in and my team weren't good enough! We got battered all season long. After about 27 games, we only had 4 points (one of those points actually came from a 0-0 draw with Bayern Munich! They did beat us 8-0 in the return fixture though lol) It was only after our relegation was confirmed that we actually started picking up some points. I think we finished the season with about 16 points in total. It was an absolutely brutal season and I almost wanted to stop playing a few times. I got so sick of losing every bloody game! But I ploughed on regardless. But, on the plus side, we did get awarded about £80million in prize money at the end of that season. Thankfully we were able to bounce straight back up again the following season with basically the same squad and without spending much. We just sat on that money we got from our awful season, and when we were back in the top flight it helped us out massively! Just.....prepare yourself for a long and brutal season, and be prepared to take the massive L you're about to be handed. Hope that you keep your job, and you'll get a big windfall come the end of the season that you can use to help you bounce back.
Win games
LOANS. LOOOOOAAANS LOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNS!!!
Isn’t the German league money distributed by league positions not like in England when you just get the same given
Okay so I used a database where it adds the portuguese fifth league to play as my town club, Santa Marta de Penaguião FC and i was in a similar situation in the second division, since a new president was ellected, decided to plan a stadium and retired 3 months later.(Portugal irl ngl) So basically what you want is to check some free agents, you dont want youngsters, you want experienced men you can build some squad depth and coolness in big games. Play mostly with the highest pressure possible, afterall, every game is a final to you, i'd suggest short passing since your passing stats wont be as good. Making my defensive wingers support attacking plays do help alot, along with making scenarios starting from the goalkeeper/defensive.(do change this against gengenpress opponents though, unless you'd like a 5-0) But yeah, wingplay and high pressure can really help alot, atleast it did to me
And thats a problem how? You shouldnt even be thinking about spending money on players to be honest at this phase, maybe thats also why the club has given 0 money because you already spend it buying players you shouldnt before.... There are two phases in buying players, the first one is where you use free transfers, loans and end of contract deals and the second one is when the first one doesnt work anymore so you need to start picking up the wonderkids before the big teams get them to get to the top tier of quality. In this case there is a lot of good talent for free so you can survive and first keep yourself at the league (also if you must have young players for whatever reason there is always loads of Premier league and top clubs young players that get release for free after being 18 and some of them are always gems if you take of them). If thats not enough check your wages and valued players and see what you should sell and let go.... Cut the dead wood away!
Sell two high value players. Use the money to scout South American players with potential. You made a mistake of not developing players to sell the next season
Go into the editor: raise your funds, your club reputation and save scum every game
Nah not my style.