Whether you’re in debt, struggling to buy top players, or want to fund a new stadium. I’m going to let you in on all the secrets to making money on Football Manager.
Flipping players
For me, I make most of my money by flipping players. The trick to this is waiting until the end of the season when the players go out of contract and snapping up those from top academies. If you’re not a top team this is essential for two reasons. Let’s say you’re playing as SK Brann in Norway. Players released by Barcelona, Real Madrid, Borussia Dortmund, Bayern Munich, AC Milan, Juventus, Arsenal, and Man City, are the ones you need to be watching. Not only will you be able to sell them on for profit but you’ll very likely find some for your first team.
The reason you wait for them to go out of contract instead of signing them in January is to pay them lower wages. When they’re team-less they are more willing to join you for pennies., which will increase profit margins. You should give them two-three year contracts because you want to loan them out and sell them next summer. Luckily, players in this game aren’t valued based on form. This means they won’t lose any if they have a bad loan. It should also be easy to loan out players that come from the most known academies as they will be on more teams’ radars. If you are doing well in the league and want to boost their value, put them in for a few games. A few players I’ve signed for free went for 5m in only 12 months, now that’s a nice little profit. Though, if you’re a big team then this trick won’t make you a lot of money fast.
From tens of millions to hundreds
They say it takes money to make money, well that remains true for Football Manager. Flipping players is how you’re going to make money as a big team but your methods will need to change. Here you won’t be signing free agents, unless you can grab them in January with decently low wages. This time your focus will be the transfer list, and taking note of which league players are in. In the more recent FM games teams will place players on the transfer list because they won’t sign a new deal. Sometimes this is a stepping stone club and the player has big ambitions. Here you can find some cheap players for around 5m that will be worth 15m when he joins you.
Their value could go from 5m to 50m if they’re in a considerably lower reputation league than you. As an example, I was recently forced to sell my beautiful winger Stroeykens for his release clause price of 8m. He went from Belgium to Germany, and his value went from 7m to 45m. As a tip, try not to buy players over the age of 25 because some of these players can take up to two years to sell. If you get unlucky, they may start to decline especially if you aren’t sending them on loans. It will happen to you a lot, you will make no profits on some of these players. Though, all it takes is two or three deals like Stroeykens and you’ll be able to sell them for a huge profit.
So, your hands are tied. This is one of the hardest situations to be in if you’re not even able to bring free players in. The first thing you need to do in this situation is ask how possible it is to get into Europe. Even if it’s only the Europa Conference League, you absolutely need to qualify for this it will solve all the small team’s debts. If you have a player carrying you hard and he’s going out of contract soon, you must keep him. Getting into Europe is priority number one and the money lost on that player will be made back. Unless of course you are holding onto a player worth over 30m. Some don’t enjoy doing this but you will need to become Loaned In FC. On the deadline day clubs are more willing to let them go with 0% of wages and 0 fees involved. Snap up as many as you can.
To stop the bleeding fire your staff, even the scouts. If you’re closing in on administration those scouts are surplus to requirements, as are most of your staff. You might need to run a budget staff team of just you, your ass man, a coach, and a head of youth. Unfortunately, the only way to get out of serious debt is to start winning. If you can’t do that, you better pray your youth intake produces a golden generation.
Doing well but I’m still losing money
Many teams without Europe usually can get by with gate receipts and broadcasting deals. You might need to look at gate receipts if you are winning a lot. Many teams struggle to make profits because they have no fans. One thing many forget to pay attention to is the city their team is located in. Ligue 1 fans will know what I’m talking about because of Monaco. They’re a big team but their average attendance is 7,000. Compare that to their peers Lyon who had a whopping 46,000 on average this season. Well, Monaco the country only has a population of 36,686, and Lyon has over half a million. If you’re the manager of Monaco, there isn’t much you can do except sell players for a profit and win.
If you have a team in a populous city, then your problem could be the opposite. A stadium selling out consistently is telling you that it’s time for an expansion or a whole new stadium.
Last few tips for making money on Football Manager
Something I wish I knew earlier, but please God turn off your “Keep Scout Reports up to date”. This will make your scouts extremely rich, and you poor. Be cutthroat with your players. Your highest-paid players cannot be excluded from your first team. If they aren’t performing and they’re on big wages, it’s time to sell them. Even if you need to force them out and sell them cheap, get them off your wage bill. If you sell younger players always sneak a percentage of profit clause in there. The AI doesn’t seem to care about it but those players you are selling for 100 dollars may be sold for millions by that team.