Football Manager 2018 Finances; How To Save Money at Contract Negotiations

How to Save Money at Contract Negotiations | A Football Manager 2018 Finances Guide

Today, we welcome you to the first Football Manager 2018 finances guide. Here, The Youtuber and co-writer ‘The Northman’ looks at the essential caring of understanding contract clauses and bonuses in order to save more money at contract negotiations.

The part 1 of Passion4FM’s Football Manager 2018 finances guide looks at how to save money at contract negotiations by carefully review which contract clauses and bonuses you offer the player at negotiations of contract extension or offering a new contract. These tips can help you improve the financial situation of your club and keep a positive wage budget for the next seasons ahead.

By carefully consider which clauses and bonuses you offer at contract negotiations it’s only one of the simply measures to take to increase the projection for the club’s finances and reduce the expenditures for your managing club.

We hereby give the word on to our expert for financial management in Football Manager, The Northman.

Contract Negotiations & Clauses | How They Influence the Wage Budget

Money, something that can make or break your club. Many people go into a save, a journey with a club with the intentions of signing player x, y or z but have you really planned it, have you looked into what you can afford and what you can not afford? In this post I will give some tips and tricks that I use when planning a signing.

Signings in Football Manager, is it as simple as selecting to offer a contract and just clicking confirm? No, this will financially ruin your club, players are greedy, players will milk you for all you have and more.

Looking at the above contract negotiations, you can see that with some simple negotiations, often offering slightly higher base wage can give you a saving in the long term. If you are managing in the lower leagues of world football, that £3,400 on the contract can be a big help in moving your club into a better position financially, if you have a squad of 15-20 people who all are on the same contract level you will be looking at the possibility of saving up to £68,000 over the 2 year period, that could be invested into your youth facilities, staff wages or into a signing which could get you the promotion you have been battling for.

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The development of my FC United of Manchester squad in my YouTube series is a real example of how you can really improve and increase finances by handling your contracts wisely. if we take a look at the squad upon my arrival and with my best starting squad and subs bench, the financial expenditure looks like this;

• £2,925 per week on wages
• £424 on appearance fees (starting 11)
• £40 on unused sub fees (subs only)

Now if we look at what the finances look like going into my second season with the club, as I have had a full season plus a window to build for this second season;

• £2,010 per week on wages
• £860 on appearance fees (starting 11)
• £25 on unused sub fees (subs only)

Upon starting my journey, my starting squad was costing me around £3,389 IF I did not make substitutions in a game, with appearance fees and unused sub fees as well as weekly wages, After a year at the club I have it down to £2,895 which is a saving PER GAME of £494, which over a 42 game league season could save me £20,748. This is a huge saving which again gives you an idea of how important contract planning is. My main focus whilst in these lower levels is to make sure my starting squad are the only players getting paid and trying to make sure that my substitutes will only be played if they enter the field, sitting on the bench will earn you nothing in my squad until we move us the leagues, become a professional club and then we look at finances within the whole team, the contract negotiations become even more important as we look to save money within the weekly wage budget and not so much at the appearance side of the contract. You will find in the higher divisions that one of the biggest financial killers is the yearly wage rise! Below we look at a contract negotiation at a higher level so you can see the large changes that can happen from you planning and negotiating the contract;

The above contract shows you what can happen with some negotiations, players will often accept removals of clauses for instant cash, a boost in the wages. This can give you the chance to save big over a long contract. The savings on the contract negotiation above are £304,480. If this negotiation is done with 10 of your team over a 4 year contract, you will be saving £3,044,800! This is a huge saving and one which must be considered when controlling your club and your clubs finances in Football Manager 2018.