FINANCIAL GUIDE TO FOOTBALL MANAGER 2011

How to create a stable club

and

Youth to Gold system

FINANCIAL GUIDE TO FOOTBALL MANAGER 2011

How to create a stable club

Hey guys, I have a rather special post for you today. Since Football Manager 2011 ′s release, I have created many guides on tactics, cheap players, wonderkids and how to win. But it just dawned on me there is one vital aspect we all forget about, our clubs finances. I am the worst gamer when it comes to spending beyond my means…I just think, ahh the owner will take care of that! The allure of so many world class regens and strikers with 20 for pace and finishing etc just draws me in. Well today I want to share a few tips on how to keep the clubs bank balance in order. This Football Manager financial guide should help you see a nice white figure, as opposed to a nasty red one.

Very soon I will be resuming my Newcastle United game. With this in mind I snook a quick peak at the in game finances. That certainly didn’t make for happy reading. Despite winning lots of trophies and enjoying a full capacity stadium, my cash flow is grim and doesn’t look like getting better any time soon. Getting carried away with my dreams of fame and glory meant losing track of the clubs bank balance which is now in the red. We also have £137 million of debt to clear by the year 2030…ouch!! Well, over the last few days I have used a pen, paper, calculator and cup of coffee to get my long term plan together. Today, I want to use this Newcastle save as a perfect example on how you can turn your club into a profitable business. Don’t expect easy answers, to spend ridiculous sums on players, or to offer Messi £300K a week ! It is impossible to have a healthy club and still enjoy that managing style. You’ll need to change your ways, but I find this makes the game more realistic.

Income – the happy part of finances?

First things first, lets take a look at the clubs income from last season and see how we can improve for next season. Just ignore anything that isn’t boxed in red. These cannot be controlled by our actions and therefore are not worth talking about. Actually, we could ask the chairmen to increase stadium capacity, but this is a one time thing, so we’ll leave it at that.

1. TV revenue – This can be improved by making it to the top flight and also the Champions League. Somewhere around £15-20 million a season is offered from the Champions League depending on how far we progress. Because my Newcastle team are already going the distance in both league and Europe, I can’t improve on this. But I’m sure you can. I made £73 million plus last year and that’s probably the maximum playing in England, this is what you could aspire to.

2. Players sold – Part of the game none of us like, but one we should pay more attention too. Below are my five steps to make money from your players. Invest in your youth and training facilities. The better they are, the faster your players will

develop and much better youth players will climb through the ranks. Sell any dead weight. Look through your squad, highlight any players that won’t play or lack

the potential to make it in your team and get rid of them. You can offload unwanted players by transfer listing them, then offer to clubs, still no luck then offer them for nothing and if all else fails just release the player on a free. You should be doing this every year!

Send unused or young players out on loan and where possible charge clubs for this privilege.

Buy players with potential for a good resale value, DON’T JUST BUY 27 YEAR OLD PLAYERS THAT HAVE REACHED THEIR POTENTIAL!! I will elaborate on this while explaining expenses.

Selling players could fill the largest part of your income pie, so always look to make moremoney on transfers than you spend. I made just under £7 million last season, not bad, but if I’d followed the above and below steps it could have been much more. I WILL EXPLAIN HOW TO MAKE MORE MONEY ON TRANSFERS THAN YOU SPEND IN PART 2!

3. Prize money – This will vary depending on your division and level of club. My Newcastle side are battling in all competitions and getting into the Champions League final, therefore we make loads. Making the Champions League offers a huge windfall. Somewhere around £4 million can

be earned just from reaching the group stages. Then you could make the same again by winning all your group games. Last season I made the final and earned a total of around £20 million from Champions League prize money.

Expenses – where and how to cut back

Most of us ignore finances because we can’t be bothered with tallying everything up and working out where its going wrong. Well I have spent a while looking through the potential pit falls within club expenses. Again ignore anything not highlighted within a red box.

1. Player wages – The devil of football finances. If you’re not careful these can spiral out ofcontrol. I started my Newcastle save with a wage bill of around £800K a week. Now my players wage bill totals a staggering £1.45 million a week. That is an increase of £650K within 4 years, how did this happen!! Simple really, I got greedy and wanted the best players available. Buying stars that weren’t too bothered by a move to Newcastle meant ridiculous wage demands. Below is what I’m up against and how I can bring things back down. Again look at the red boxes and try to do a similar analysis of your first team…

Do I really need 12 players with a key player status? No of course I don’t, this is just what I assigned them to gain the signatures. This came at a cost, the average wage of a key player within myNewcastle squad is £73K a week!! A total of more than £873K a week, this is more than mostPremier League clubs spend on their entire squad. I aim to offload at least three of

these so called key players over the next few seasons. Below is a list of my highest earners, the red boxes indicate which ones need offloading.

All four of the highlighted players were given inflated wages due to fear of losing them. In all reality, none are worth these extortionate wages. Steven Taylor threatened to leave with his contract running out, offering £110K was the only way to keep him. Afellay was offered such wages under a similar scenario and the list goes on…Basically, stop and think if you really need to offer a player such wages, or you could end up like me.

My plan is to offload Afellay next year, and at the same time buy an under 21 to fill the gap. This new player should be on a maximum of £40K a week. I also want to sell Taylor ASAP, as I already have the players to back his departure. Enrique can be sold next season too as I have good enough cover for him. Then we have Dudu who can be sold straight away, he is surplus to requirements now. So taking all these sales into consideration as well as the replacement player wages…we can save £303K a week, which equals £14.5 million a year!! I seriously suggest you take 30 minutes to analyse your squads wage bill in a similar fashion, you may be shocked at what you see.

2. Bonuses – I know offering a whopper bonus is the easy answer to good morale, but lets be sensible. I tend to offer high bonuses for the league and Champions League, but keep the domestic cups to medium. This isn’t exactly money smart as the league and Europe cost more in squad bonuses than domestic cups. From now on I will offer a medium squad bonus in the league and Champions League, but up the domestic cup bonus to high. In theory this could save me around £4 million a year, maybe even more.

3. Signing on fees and renewals – Another big expense as the agent and player tend to get greedy. The best way to avoid a big contract renewal signing on fee, is to offer the contract early. Maybe offer a player that is developing well a new contract 2-3 seasons before its expiry date. You will not save money by waiting for his contract to run down. Most players that are worthy keeping will just expect a bigger contract and signing on fee with every year that passes. So offer a new contract early and save some cash. As for new signings, you just need to be persistent. When considering their signing on fee demands, lower their initial request by 10%. seven times out of ten the new offer will be accepted. I paid £7.2 million for signing on fees last season. If I had used the 10% rule, I could have saved £720K.

4. Players bought – The easy answer here is not to spend as much. But anyone who knows me, should expect a better guide than that. Please bare with me as I explain the best way to make money. OK, so let me ask a question…how many times do you buy a player over the age of 24? Also how many times do you sell these players for more than you paid? I think I can answer that question and hopefully you see where I’m going with this. Basically you need to buy players with a reasonable sell on value. What I mean is try to buy young players cheap, so you can sell them off between the age of 27-29 (their peek age) for a huge profit after they’ve served a purpose. If you get organised, you should have the correct number of youth coming through to sell those older stars without losing quality. If you sell these stars just as they’ve reached full potential, you’ll only miss two further years of their best football, but will see a huge improvement financially. These extra funds could buy two or three amazing young prospects and the cycle goes on. Don’t get me wrong, I know this is extremely difficult, but you can’t expect to get rich by sitting around twiddling your thumbs.A great example is one of my first signings. I bought Sergio Araujo for £1.3 million, four years later he is worth £7.25 million. At the age of 24 the Argentine is almost surplus to requirements because of the clubs growth. I reckon I could sell him for £15 million, something I wouldn’t have dreamed of until writing this guide. That is a profit of £13.7 million if I get a good enough offer. Below is a run down of my thought process. Every season look for a minimum of two under 21′s for a maximum transfer fee of £5

million. These players should have the potential to be worth £8 million plus within 6 years. When you receive an offer too good to refuse, accept it. Other than that try to sell these

players when they reach their peak, after about 6-8 seasons or before. Using this cycle every single season, will make you rich in the long run. After 6 seasons in

game, you should be making a minimum of £15 million every season from transfers but probably more.

Because you are bringing in new youth every season, there should always be someone waiting to take over from the key players you sell. Therefore no loss of quality.

This is completely down to your judge of talent and management in terms of buying for the correct positions.

Conclusion – How much money could I save

The answer here is a lot, but let me explain the figures. Below is how much I could save within the first two seasons by following the above guidelines (excluding the buying players with a sell on value rule.)

Player wages savings a year = £14.5 millionSquad bonus savings a year = £4 million plusSigning on fee savings a year = £1.5 millionTotal savings a year within first two seasons = £20 million

Now lets look at how buying youngsters with a sell on value works in numbers. Remember this could take 5-6 years to see any rewards from. This is also based on buying at least two players under 21 with a big potential sell on value every season. You must also sell them after a maximum of 7-8 years. Lets also say you pay a maximum of £4 million per player, and then manage to sell them for a minimum of £8 million 7-8 years later. This means you could make a minimum of £16 million every season after the first 5-6 seasons.

Remember, the figures above are based on my Newcastle game. You may not make as much depending on your financial situation, stadium, level of football or in game time. I am already gaining the maximum from match day revenue, TV revenue and prize money but you could still increase your current income in these areas a lot more than myself…just gaining Champions League football could earn an extra £25 million plus per season if you’ve not qualified yet. Equally, you may not have wasted money on wages like myself, and therefore won’t save as much in that area by following this guide. However, I guarantee that you can save money from something within this guide…if not, I don’t know why you’re reading it Only kidding.

Part 2 is a must read so don’t miss it!!

During part two of this Football Manager financial guide, I’ll be teaching you how to go beyond a stable club and get rich. It may be a little complicated and take some effort to put in place. But I promise if used correctly, it WILL work!! The post will be about buying youth with a sell on value, plus when and how to sell them while maintaining a quality starting XI. I have worked on a whole plan and cycle for this as well as a list of players with great potential sell on values to get you started. Part two will be tough to explain and structure. Therefore I’ll base it on my plan with Newcastle so you can see clearly what is required. Until next time, thanks for reading.

FINANCIAL GUIDE TO FOOTBALL MANAGER 2011

Youth to Gold System (Y2G)

Hey guys, I’m back with part 2 of my Football Manager financial guide. Let me start by saying thank you for the support and kind words, your comments from part 1 meant a lot.

OK, so part one covered all the basics. We looked at income, expenditure and a few other financial aspects. Then used my Newcastle save to analyze different ways of improving your clubs finances as well as secure the long term future. All fairly simple, well part two isn’t such a walk in the park. While playing FM, I tend to succeed very quickly, but then see my club slowly decline below the level I have become accustomed to. This is partly down to finances and my owners getting sick of seeing red, but also poor squad management. Every season I expect to buy bigger and better players, understandable as my club keeps growing in stature. But after you’ve spent £15 million plus on one player, the price tags start to sore out of control. Before you know it, you are spending £60 million a year on just three players. Then as the seasons progress you lose track of which positions to buy for and just target the best players on the market. A few more years down the line and you’re stuck with an old squad, or lacking in particular departments, or even in so muchdebt the chairmen won’t offer £2 to buy a BLT sandwich from the cafeteria. Well today that stops!!

Part one of this financial guide was created to teach you the basics on how to save money and create stability. Part two is not only to make you rich, but also keep tabs on some much needed squad management. Over the past few weeks I have been working on something called the ‘youth to gold’ system. Before explaining my new system, we should establish a few ground rules. Firstly, this is not guaranteed to work and will come down to your skills as a scout and youth developer. Secondly, this system takes a lot of time and patience to implement, so don’t expect any easy answers. Last of all, you must have completed the following stages before trying to implement my ‘youth to gold’ system.

Stage 1: Survive and build – every club starts somewhere, whether it be the bottom division, a relegation threatened Premier League side or the best club in England. You must survive the early years, doing whatever is necessary to gain success and move forward. Even if this means ignoring your finances. You must buy the required players to move up the tableand gain that all important European status.

Stage 2: Prepare for the future – You should hopefully be moving up the table/leagues quickly. You must start to build a better future. This means getting the youth and training facilities upgraded ASAP. Also get the best possible backroom staff. Amazing coaches to train your squad and incredible scouts to find talented players are vital. Without these the system fails.

Stage 3: Stabilize and secure – When you have achieved European qualification and created a successful squad, we need to stabilize. This means following part one of this financial guide. Correct your wage budget, offload the over paid members and get your squad size

down to around 26 players. All the time upgrading your facilities and finding the best coaches/scouts available.

Stage 4: Implement my ‘youth to gold’ system – When you have achieved Champions League status, your squad should be at a very high level. This means you shouldn’t need to spend inflated prices for players over the age of 24. This is the perfect time to try my new system.

What is the ‘youth to gold’ system?

Basically, its like playing chess. You need to assess the best time to sacrifice your top players. This means accepting big transfer offers for the greater good, like sacrificing your queen for check mate. Thomas Levin (FM Pundit) has this down to a tee within his Udinese save. However my ‘youth to gold’ system is on a much bigger scale. We will use pre-defined selling dates for each player to plan the clubs future. By planning a big players departure, we can sign a cheaperwonderkid with enough time to develop him as a replacement…this is as opposed to panic buying when the likes of Afellay get too old, or are ready to be sold. On an even better note, because we’ve signed the wonderkid replacement young, he should hopefully be cheap. This will lead to a big profit when the wonderkid is finally sold. Hopefully you understand me so far and see a cycle developing.

Guidelines to follow

I know this system could get messy and disorganised, but below are the pointers you should follow and be strict with. If the system is to work, we must be buying youth at the right age, time and price. For the purpose of these guidelines, we’ll say I’m wanting to plan for the sale of Afellay and the purchase of his replacement. I should buy players under the age of 22, but preferably around the ages of 16-18. Each players transfer should not exceed £7 million, and players should have a potential sell

on value of at least double that in six years time. I should plan for the new wonderkid to replace Afellay when he reaches 27-30 years old.

This means Afellay will be around peak age and still worth a lot, but we won’t be missing more than two of his best years.

Afellay must still have two years running on his contract during the year I want to sell. This will avoid low transfer offers.

The new wonderkid should be bought at least three years before Afellay’s departure. This is so I have time to develop him and nurture the youngster into Afellay’s role.

You need to follow these guidelines for every player. It will take a while to see the financial benefits, but they should be great. If you sign a 17 year old for £3 million, then develop him into a top class player. By the time he departs at 27-29 years old you could sell him for a massive profit. If you have followed the system correctly, his replacement will have been purchased at least three years ago and be ready to walk into the limelight without damaging the squads quality. You’ll need a great eye for talent and the correct facilities/staff, but the youth to gold system will work if approached correctly.

Prototype – the testing begins with Newcastle

That’s right friends, when my Newcastle game resumes, I will be testing the ‘youth to gold’

system. Below is my squad and you’ll notice various different age groups for various different positions. This is because I’ve been trying to build for the future already. The youth to gold system must be applied to every player. Therefore you’ll notice a ‘planned departure’ for every squad member. This is the year I intend on selling the player. Obviously certain circumstances could change the preferred year, but its a good estimate. You’ll also notice each departure is arranged for the players latter years (between 27-30 years old.)

Name Position Age Value Planned departure (now in 2014)Vincent Enyeama GK 31 £5.75M -Gökhan Inler DM, M (C) 30 £5.25M 2015Steven Taylor D (RC) 28 £6M 2014José Enrique D/WB (L) 28 £6.25M 2015Ibrahim Afellay M/AM (RLC) 28 £11.5M 2016Martín Cáceres SW, D (C) 27 £4.6M 2015Sami Khedira DM, M (C) 27 £5M 2016Danny Guthrie M (C) 27 £3.5M 2015Danny Simpson D (R) 27 £3.4M 2015Nicolás Gaitán M (L), AM (LC), ST 26 £8M 2016Micah Richards D (RC) 26 £5.5M 2017Tim Krul GK 26 £3.3M -Theo Walcott AM (R), ST 25 £6.5M 2018Alberto Paloschi ST 24 £15M 2017Kieran Gibbs D/WB/M/AM (L) 24 £3.3M 2018Gaël Kakuta M/AM (RLC) 23 £3M 2019Jack Rodwell D (C), DM, M (C) 23 £7.75M 2020Mateo Musacchio SW, D (C) 23 £6.25M 2020Danny Wilson D (LC) 22 £26M 2022Jack Wilshere M/AM (RLC) 22 £6.5M 2021Dudu M (R), AM (RC), ST 22 £6M 2014Sergio Araujo ST 22 £7.25M 2015Yaya Sanogo ST 21 £8.5M 2022Marco Verratti M/AM (C) 21 £4.6M 2020Phil Clark DM, M (LC) 19 £3.4M 2023Marcos Pereyra D (LC), WB (L) 18 £2.2M 2023Marcelo Santos ST 18 £2.3M 2024Luis Hernández M/AM (C), ST 18 £12.25M 2024Peter Kalu D (C), DM, M (C) 17 £4.5M 2024

Based on the table above, I can work out when I need to be buying my replacements. ie Afellayleaves during 2016, but I’ve already got the incredible Hernandez waiting at the age of 18. He will be 20 when Afellay is sold and ready to takeover. Remember

my three year rule, each youngster must be bought at least three years prior to a current squad member been sold. E.g. Kieran Gibbs is scheduled to leave during 2018, therefore I need to get his replacement during 2015 so the youngster has time to develop.

How could this effect finances?

Simple, if you get organised and plan your squad management you won’t be forced to buy older players at a huge price. Plus, by following my ‘youth to gold’ system you shouldn’t be paying more than £7 million per player…then you’ll be selling them on at a later date for double the original price. Obviously I can’t expect to just pay £7 million or under for every single player, but lets say I did. How would the transfer income and expenses look?? Lets fast forward to the year 2022. This should be around the time my first ‘youth to gold’ signings are eventually sold. Lets pretend three of these players are scheduled to leave Saint James Park, one originally bought for £2m, another for £4m and the final player for £6m. Remember these players are aimed to sell for double their cost, which means an overall transfer income of £24 million. Now lets say we need to buy three new youngsters within the same year. The maximum fee should be £7 million, so a maximum of £21 million can be spent. Hence my transfers could pay for themselves.

I know what you’re thinking, ‘I hardly ever sell a player for double their original value.’ That could be because you’re not selling them at the right time, age or when they have a reasonable contract length. But I share your concerns. The worst case scenario is you wind up selling players for a smaller profit, but the transfers should still pay for themselves if you’re buying the players young enough and at the right price. Below are some players that I have seen sold for a huge profit. I have listed the value you can purchase each youngster for in 2010, as well as what I’ve seen them sold for after their 25th birthday. This proves doubling your money is possible.

Name Club Position Age bought for sold forKyriakos Papadopoulos Schalke D © 18 £6.5M £15MAdam Hlousek Kaiserslautern AM (L), ST 21 £3M £12M

Alfred N’Diaye AS Nancy Lorraine D ©, DM, M © 20 £4.2M £12MRaphaël Varane RC Lens D © 17 £5.5M £14MYaya Sanogo AJ Auxerre ST 17 £5M £19MRafael Tolói Goiás D © 19 £4M £10MLeonel Galeano Independiente D © 18 £6M £21MSergio Araujo Boca ST 18 £3M £12MSébastien Corchia Le Mans FC D/WB © 19 £5.5M £13MSerge Aurier RC Lens D/WB © 17 £5M £14MVaclav Kadlec Sparta Prague AM (L), ST 18 £4.8M £15MRomelu Lukaku Anderlecht ST 17 £6M £25MTom Cairney Hull M © 19 £2.2M £10MDennis Appiah AS Monaco FC D (RC), WB © 18 £5M £11MSime Vrsaljko Dinamo D/WB ©, DM, M © 18 £3M £10MZezinho Bahia M/AM (LC) 18 £3.8M £10MLorenzo Crisetig Inter DM, M © 17 £1.3 £18MKevin Zaragoza M (RC), AM © 18 £2M £15MEyal Golasa M. Haifa M/AM (RLC) 18 £425K £4.2M

Conclusion

I accept you won’t sell every single ‘youth to gold’ type signing for double the price…but by selling them at the right time you MUST make a profit at least. Now, when I say the right time, I mean if there is a good offer on the table 1-2 years before your planned selling date, accept it. If you’ve followed the guide, you will have an extremely talented youngster just one year away from been capable of filling the hole anyway. I just put the three year rule there as an example, you may want to change this. It all depends on your managing style and age of transfer targets. Some players need more time to fit into the slot than others. Please remember part two of this guide is a concept, not something that can be put in place and work straight away. I formulated this idea to try out myself and just wanted to share it with the FM community. You could use the structure of my ‘youth to gold’ system, but generate your own version to suit your style. Just remember that buying replacements early, at a young age and a decent price are key. You should also make a big effort to sell your older players before the age of 30.

I hope this post wasn’t too complicated, I have redone it a few times to get the wording right. If you have any questions I’m happy to help as always, but we’ll soon see how this system works…I’m getting close to resuming my Newcastle game and testing this ‘youth to gold’ system. Until next time, thanks for reading and I look forward to your comments as always.