Budget management in Football Manager 2024 is crucial for keeping your club profitable. This means keeping your club’s income and expenditure reasonably balanced so that it is operating at a profit. A club that isn’t operating at a profit will have a negative balance with insufficient funds available to sign new players. You’ll reap the benefits of a larger transfer fund if you can keep your club financially healthy. Here are some tips for better club budget management in Football Manager 2024.
Read also: 9 Football Manager 2024 Tips for Beginners
Drag that Budget Adjustment Bar
The budget adjustment bar is one of the most crucial tools for budget management in Football Manager 2024. You can increase your transfer budget by dragging the slider on that bar further to the right. To adjust that bar, click Transfer Budget Remaining within Transfers. Adjusting this bar can be a good way to grab a few million more for a player you want to sign.
However, remember that increasing the transfer budget also decreases the payroll finances. Operating within the club’s payroll by dragging the bar’s slider further left will keep the board happier. Furthermore, this will also give you more money to offer for salaries when negotiating player contracts.
The budget adjustment bar
Thus, dragging the bar to the far right isn’t necessarily always the best thing to do if that leaves you with a negative payroll. Try to keep your club’s payroll positive (no negative figures) by setting the budget adjustment bar appropriately. However, drag the bar’s slider further right for the sake of increasing transfer funds if your club’s budget permits it.
Loan Players
Loaning players is a good way to reduce your club’s wage bill for players you don’t need much but aren’t attracting that many transfer offers. Your club will probably have numerous players in its B and junior squads that all add to wage costs. Try loaning some of those players by right-clicking their names and selecting Transfer > Loan Status > Available for loan. Make sure the clubs you’re loaning the players make a high 70-100 percent salary contribution when negotiating offers.
The Available for loan option
Trim Down Your Squad
Overly large squads will inevitably drain your club’s budget. The more players you have, the more salaries your club has to cover. So, it’s in your best financial interests to trim down your squad to about 22-25 senior players. This is a sufficient number of players to give you enough cover for injuries and suspensions.
However, don’t forget that most clubs also have B teams often full of second-rate players. Don’t waste your club’s budget on financing a B team. There may be a few decent players in there worth promoting to your senior squad, but sell all the more substandard players in the reserve side. Doing this will reduce payroll costs and increase transfer funds.
The Summary tab for finances
Sell Players at a Profit
Selling players for higher transfer fees than you paid to sign them is one of the best ways to keep your club profitable. So, check what you paid for players and try to sell them for more. You can view past transfer fees for players in your squad by clicking their History tabs and Career Stats.
The player history details
You probably won’t be able to sell players in their mid-30s for much of a profit. Most players in their mid-30s who are close to retirement are somewhat cheaper because they lack future potential. It’s usually best to sell a player by 32 before their attribute ratings start declining.
The best way to sell for a profit is to sign players nearing the end of their contracts with free transfers. It’s easy to make a profit selling players you signed for free. So, keep an eye out for players with contracts close to expiring when recruiting.
Review Contract Expiry Dates at the End of Each Season
Nothing is worse for business than losing players on free transfers, particularly those who are in their prime and no longer want to play for your club. Always review the contract expiry dates for players in your squad at the ends of seasons to see if any are close to expiration. You should offer new contracts to all players you want to keep with contracts with little more than a year left to run.
The contract expiry details for squad players
If a player you prefer to keep is completely unwilling to renew a contract, it’s best to sell when the going is good rather than lose him on a free transfer. Losing high-value players worth more than 50 million on free transfers will cost your club a lot financially. One year should give you enough time to sell a decent player before clubs can approach to sign him for free.
Negotiate Contracts
Try to negotiate contracts by reducing salaries and bonuses offered when signing new players. Players will seldom accept significant salary reductions. However, you can usually slightly cut down the salary figures and bonuses in contracts offered with some negotiation. These slight reductions amount to more significant savings across multiple-player contracts.
The contract negotiation options
Lower Squad Bonuses
You are given a choice of offering low, medium, and high bonuses for league, domestic cup, and European competition at the start of every season. Selecting the lowest option for these bonuses will save your club money and can even increase your transfer budget. However, the drawback of doing this is that higher bonuses give your squad a bit of a morale boost.
Don’t Get Overloaded With Staff
Coaching, recruitment, and medical staff also add to your club’s wage budget, much the same as players. You don’t necessarily need a huge amount of staff at your club. Lots of scouts are especially unnecessary as you can search for new players yourself. So, don’t let your club get overloaded with staff. If you have loads of scouts and coaches, try terminating some of the contracts for the poorer ones to cut costs.
The staff overview tab
Request Stadium Expansion
Your stadium’s gate receipts are quite a big part of your club’s overall turnover. You can increase your club’s overall turnover by expanding your club’s stadium. Doing this will increase the ground’s capacity, which amounts to higher gate receipts that will boost your budget.
To request a stadium expansion, select Finances and click Make a Board Request > Ground > Expand Ground. The board will then either accept or reject your stadium expansion proposal. Note your club will probably need to have an overall balance of at least 40 million to afford a ground expansion.
An approved stadium expansion request
You can also make other board requests that can enhance your budget. For example, selecting the Decrease the Junior Coaching Budget option can cut costs for your club if approved. Or you can select Increase Transfer Budget to obtain more funds for signing new players. The board will more likely approve this request if your club is only allocating a small percentage of its overall balance for transfers.
Better budget management in Football Manager 2024 will make your club richer. You can then splash out on better-quality players with a bigger transfer budget when your club has a higher overall balance. A larger transfer budget doesn’t necessarily guarantee glory in FM24, but it certainly helps!
