Working on a Shoestring

Back to Experts Guide

As someone who has taken third division Brighton to the domestic treble in my first season, I think I have sufficient knowledge to explain how you can turn a bunch of no hopers into a team capable of banging in goals all over the shop, and beating Man Utd thus whiping the smiles off all those glory seeking supporters.

The principles are actually pretty similar to those needed to manage a big team budget, as described in the previous tutorial.

1.) Training is important : In order to succeed, you will have to find out the members of your squad who are good, and those who are, quite frankly, cack. Make sure you test all the substitutes, all the reserves, all of the trialist. Pick out the star members of your squad. This is important for two reasons - 1 - because you need to model your tactics around these players, and 2 - you need to build your squad around these players.

2.) Get rid of the junk : OK, so you've looked through the squad, and you've picked out your stars. Now it's time to chuck out the losers, poach some other teams' stars, and bring in some fresh foreign talent. As you will notice, you don't have much money to spend, probably about 300K at the most. This coupled with the fact, that your chairman will probably only allow you a maximum of 6 transfers per season, means that you have to be shrewd in the transfer market. Therefore, there's no room for duff transfers. This is where the bargain players page, on this site will come in very handy. Although it may be tempting to spend all of your money on a relatively expensive player, it is much better to spread your money more thinly, and bring in a collection of cheap, yet talented players so bring in some of the players on the 0-250k range. Even at this price range, the money will soon disappear. But this is where those cacky members of your squad come in handy. For as many transfers as possible, offer to exchange these players for your transfer target. Don't worry if the value of your players is greater than the player you are buying, because the values of the players is not important, if they aren't any good.

3.) Picking the team, and sorting out your tactics: There's no point bringing in a load of exciting new talent, if you've got the player from hell slugging it out in your as your creative midfielder, and Linford Christies long lost brother playing at centre back. Speed is the key, when building your team, and don't worry about having a total disregard for a players preferred position, when picking your team, although I would never advise playing anything other than a striker up front, and perhaps moving your 'keeper around isn't such a good idea. Anyway, always make sure you have plenty of pace out on the wings, and in the centre of midfield. If you have, for example, a sluggish midfield player, and a rocket of a right back, then play the right back in midfield, and fill the gap at the back with the midfielder, or even bring in a trialist. The point I'm trying to get across is that speed in midfield is much more important than speed at the back. A speedy midfield is crucial, because it means you can support your sluggish strikers (it's rare you'll find a quick striker for less than 500K), and also charge back when the oppostion breaks.

4.) Play to your stars' strengths : In 1994, Matthew Le Tissier was the best player in the country, possibly the world, thanks to Alan Balls tactics of "Get the ball and pass it to Matt". As Matt was our only quality player that year, this tactic probably kept the Saints in the premier league, and you should adopt similar tactics to take your team up towards the top of the league. Give the ball to your top players, and let them do their stuff. Obviously this is easier, with the more players you manage to tempt to the club.

5.) Try out the trialists because some can be VERY GOOD. Don't be fooled into thinking, that because you are managing a crap team, you will ony get crap trialists.

There, I hope that helped you out a bit, and hopefully lot's of you will soon be repeating my success in the lower leagues.

Back to Experts Guide