Thank you, saplingg. The way I see it, I was making enough positive strides with the club to keep going. It was a big blow to watch our wage budget suffer so dramatically from 2009 to 2010, and I think our early run of success was instrumental in keeping me motivated. I have no problem with fighting through a challenge, but it has to come with enough financial backing to make the fight reasonable. To be honest, I would have probably resigned early into 2011 if I didn't get a competitive budget.
As it stands, however, we're going into 2011 with a wealth of success and I'm hoping our ascension into Division 1 comes with a workable budget. When I was taking Newport County through the ranks, it always killed me when we would earn promotion only for the board to maintain a similar budget from the previous league. Typically speaking, you get a bump in income from gaining promotion - new kit sponsors, new TV deals, etc. Ultimately, I will work with what I'm given, but it sure is nice to have money to upgrade players! And I'm not even talking about world-class footballers - I just want players that can keep me from getting relegated.
With the funds that the board has laid out so far, I have guarded optimism regarding our upcoming wage budget. On the one hand, the board looks to be feeding off the confidence of getting promoted; having laid out money for a new stadium (a first in any of my games!) and then shelling out another ~200k for running costs. Why not continue things by giving me a budget that will allow me to upgrade the roster a bit and keep our success going, right?
On the other hand, the owners may want to keep the wage budget under control because of the mentioned expenses. We will have loan payments to worry about, on top of the regular operating monthly expenses.
We'll find out this morning when I fire things up. Off the top of my head, there will already be several starting positions to fill due to expiring loan contracts. We'll be missing some bench depth as well since I transferred out a handful of players to keep our weekly wages from going into the red. The big thing, however, will be trying to find upgrades instead of the same level of talent that we had been bringing in. It goes without saying that we were outclassed in most of our games (according to the oddsmakers) and I'm sure that we will be facing the same challenge in a higher division.
As it stands, however, we're going into 2011 with a wealth of success and I'm hoping our ascension into Division 1 comes with a workable budget. When I was taking Newport County through the ranks, it always killed me when we would earn promotion only for the board to maintain a similar budget from the previous league. Typically speaking, you get a bump in income from gaining promotion - new kit sponsors, new TV deals, etc. Ultimately, I will work with what I'm given, but it sure is nice to have money to upgrade players! And I'm not even talking about world-class footballers - I just want players that can keep me from getting relegated.
With the funds that the board has laid out so far, I have guarded optimism regarding our upcoming wage budget. On the one hand, the board looks to be feeding off the confidence of getting promoted; having laid out money for a new stadium (a first in any of my games!) and then shelling out another ~200k for running costs. Why not continue things by giving me a budget that will allow me to upgrade the roster a bit and keep our success going, right?
On the other hand, the owners may want to keep the wage budget under control because of the mentioned expenses. We will have loan payments to worry about, on top of the regular operating monthly expenses.We'll find out this morning when I fire things up. Off the top of my head, there will already be several starting positions to fill due to expiring loan contracts. We'll be missing some bench depth as well since I transferred out a handful of players to keep our weekly wages from going into the red. The big thing, however, will be trying to find upgrades instead of the same level of talent that we had been bringing in. It goes without saying that we were outclassed in most of our games (according to the oddsmakers) and I'm sure that we will be facing the same challenge in a higher division.
