Building the City

Welcome to 'Building the City'



Within this journey you will follow me as I implement my nerd settings into the world of Football Manager, financial control will be at the front of all which happens during this journey so if you don't like the finance screen, turn off now! Building the City does not mean bankrupting myself or taking insane risks along the way, we will be doing this in a way to make sure the club is secure and safe if the worst was to happen and they sack me.



Edinburgh are a fairly new league side, after back to back non league titles in 2015 and 2016 they won the playoff into league two, going into their 3rd season now in league two after a 7th and 9th finish so far, the board and media now expect change with the expectations of a playoff spot


This is going to be a great test season one to take a club from 9th in the previous season to the playoffs but one I am excited to take on. in the next post we will go through the squad and finances going into season 1

thanks for reading

TheManager - Paul

This seems like an interesting concept. Good luck with Edinburgh and the story!

Pre season Season ONE:

Can we count pre season as the betfred cup, why play friendlies when we can go straight into that
With the group stage taking place before the league starts, I decided to use the cup groups as my pre season. Getting 6 points was something to be proud of in my opinion, we pushed St Mirren close with only Motherwell clearly being a class above us currently!


Transfers were tough, we managed to get two players to join from Queens Park, I think they were happy to just get some money for playing football!



Now onto how we look in the finances going into season one, I still don't know how but finances look amazing, maybe the club got some insane boost before I got the job haha

In terms of the budgets for the season, we have a fairly big wage budget at just under 20k a month which seems a little strong to me, 240k for one season in Scottish League Two... The first 6 months are going to be very important to work out expenditure to income and see where we go from there finance wise, will we need to release some players, can we add some more depth going into the second half of the season, these are all questions I need to find out!


Here is the squad going into the first season in wage order, some big earners at the club as well as some on a wage which I think is a little low for thier ability but I will not be complaining


Thanks for reading and see you next time!

Mid Point Season One

So we are now into January of season one and we can get a better idea of players who are going to help build the future of the City as well as which players are robbing a living and we need to get out the door!

Talking about robbing a living, we can start by looking at the finances of the club and how we are looking:

Well, 135k down since the start of the season is not how we wanted it to be, the club has some huge finance issues and if we don't address this, within 2 seasons we won't have the finances to progress

We have 950 a week going out on players not in my x11, 4 of my highest paid players are not in the x11, this is insane, that works out at 49,400 over a 52 week period we are paying for players who are not in the starting team! only in the 9 shown on this list, in total for players not in the x11 we are paying 1460 a week, working out at 75,920 a year for back up players as a Scottish league two side, this can not happen! we are throwing money away and going into next season we need to get this number down by a huge amount!

looking at how things have been going on the pitch, we are in a decent position going into the final period of the season and I hope we can turn some draws into wins and chase down the title


The only cup we are left in is the Scottish cup, we are into the 4th round but have drawn Celtic at home, this does mean a good crowd will be at the ground so financially is good for us but does mean we will be no doubt going out in the 4th round haha.

Thanks for reading, see you next time

End of Season One

The season has come to an end with success,

Winning the title in season one was not needed in terms of my long term plans but I see little quality difference from division 2 to 1 so promotion this season is nice and now the long term building can take place in division 1.

One big change going forward is that the board have agreed to improve Junior coaching and Youth recruitment which is needed as we didn't recieve an intake season 1 as we have no youth team. The need to depend on what I can find being released by other clubs adds alot of pressure into a save so the need to improve the youth set up... or create one at all is needed!

Looking back at part 1, we started the season spending 4.3k on wages a week, now we are at 2.8k with 900 going out in the summer so we have a great amount we could use if needed in the improvement of the squad. I dont want to use much of it as also the biggest thing is to make this club one which makes profit!
Ending the season with 223k in the bank and a 177k red amount is not what we wanted for the season, a large loss and another season of 177k loss would put us nearly at 0 in the bank so this next season is huge for taking control.

A great start to the story. I love the financial aspect you include in each update. I'm interested to see how the finances change next season with the step up in division. Scotland isn't renowned for its sponsorship money, nor its TV deals - with a lot of pressure on clubs to remain self-sufficient. Congratulations on promotion and I look forward to seeing how life goes in Scottish League One!

Turning Edinburgh into a city that can rival Glasgow will not be easy but with perseverance and patience you'll get there

2019-04-18 18:47#256007 ScottT : A great start to the story. I love the financial aspect you include in each update. I'm interested to see how the finances change next season with the step up in division. Scotland isn't renowned for its sponsorship money, nor its TV deals - with a lot of pressure on clubs to remain self-sufficient. Congratulations on promotion and I look forward to seeing how life goes in Scottish League One!

Thank you, I am hoping the finances show some good growth but that depends on an increase in fans so we shall see, would be nice to be able to spend a couple of k on a key signing knowing we are making profit as a club

Welcome to Season Two


Season two and a new division, I think/hope we can have a good season, I dont see a huge gap between division two and one and we have added some good quality to the club!

weirdly I got asked if my U18 want to join a league but I dont have a U18, I clicked yes hoping this would create one and we get a youth team but no


as you can see during season one I asked to improve youth recruitment and coaching, I really did think this would create a U18 team, so important for the long term goal of the club to get one quickly and stop the need for depending on signings.

Finances



We are not in a bad position, making 22k over pre season and also keeping wage spend at about the same as it ended season one, a huge bonus for us considering the amount of deals we did, 9 coming in, 2 going out and including a renewal of our top scorer from season one going from 80 a week to 300.

In terms of the season ahead, the board expect a fair amount from us, I did think they would ask for us to avoid relegation, they have gone with mid table, yes in a 10 team league the difference is 1 or 2 places but the pressure of them spots could cause some issues.



Signings



I think we made some good business, I am happy with how the squad is looking, some good depth and also some good business finance wise.

This season is going to be important.

Thanks for reading and if there is anything you want to see please let me know

2019-04-18 16:47#256007 ScottT : A great start to the story. I love the financial aspect you include in each update. I'm interested to see how the finances change next season with the step up in division. Scotland isn't renowned for its sponsorship money, nor its TV deals - with a lot of pressure on clubs to remain self-sufficient. Congratulations on promotion and I look forward to seeing how life goes in Scottish League One!

Funnily enough I was thinking the same thing as you Scott, enjoying the financial talk too. It will be very tough fighting your way up without any investment or player sales! I like the signings of Humphrey and Kenneth and I'm sure Caddis is fairly decent too. Looking forward to seeing how you get on.

Mid Season Two

Firstly lets get the league postion out of the way before we look at the finance side of things and how we are looking going forward for the club.

We are sitting in a good position, what I found annoying was that at one point we dropped to 6th near the start of the season and a few players complained about the dressing room and said they are worried... very annoying and shows them players need replacing, maybe the personality or some mental stats are lacking and gives me an idea of what I must look for going into future seasons for players.

Finance review





15k down from the start of the season, not perfect but this puts us on track for a 30k loss for the season BUT this does not take into account a cup run, we are still in the Scottish cup and final position for that as well as money for being in round 4 should bring us close to breaking even for the season. So we are in a good position for that

Looking at the income you can see some key parts of why we are looking stronger, Gate Reciepts already more than the whole of last season as well as smaller things like Fund Raising 12k more than last season already is a nice sign of the locals coming to games and helping the club!

In terms of money leaving the club

You will see some key parts of this, Players wages are on track to be a little more than last season but only by about 15k, staff wages also only about 10k more than last season, a huge saving though is on the second image, bonuses, I have cut all bonuses, from day one at the club it is something I always work on, no fees apart from wages and now only 1 player remains getting a fee for playing or being sub, once he leaves in the summer this will be complete and no players will be robbing us anymore! you get a wage and that is it. Last year we spent 84k. EIGHTY FOUR THOUSAND POUNDS as a league two club on bonuses alone, this year we are just over 1k, 83k saved comparing to last season.

Thanks for reading and see you at the end of season 2

End of Season Two!

Welcome back, what a second season this is, I did say that I think the quality between division 2 and 1 is not that big but the gap to the Championship could be huge



The gap to Partick Thistle makes me worry, this is going to be a tough tough 3rd season and I am worried how it will go, we will be in a battle from day one to survive but we now have ourselves in a division where we can attract a crowd, we can attract some new players of higher quallity and IF, IF we can survive we are in a division where we can build a team for 3 or 4 seasons.

We must continue to build the team around a couple of players who have been with me both seasons and really have been a class above the rest


What a talented two players, Blair, top goal scorer two years in a row, a top top player to lead the line, a original from when I came to the club he stepped up and has believed in the shape and formations we have played and scores for fun. Liam, well, stat wise is not amazing but as a left back, he has been a class above, keeping it simple, defending well, I cant say a bad thing about him. the two highest payed players at the club by a long way and well deserved.

Finances

We have ended on 281k in the bank, A fantastic amount and great to end season 2 in profit, without a doubt the financial control through the two seasons so far is paying off as well as a run to the playoff win helped greatly with gate reciepts being a huge help in ending at 281k. The lack of bonuses payed without a doubt one of the biggest things to mention, if we had paid the same amount as last season we would be down at 200k.

I am excited to get into season three and see what we can achieve, If we survive I think we will be lucky and proud.

Season Three

Safe to say that this season is one which I had two choices, spend the insane wages some players wanted to join me and risk the club or take the risk of going back down but being financially secure to return again. I decided on the last option. It was a tough call but I just can't put the club at risk and most players I wanted to sign would only come if I paid them close to 1k a week, 700 more than my current highest paid player.



Bringing Block back to the club was a must, having him on loan last year, he was key in us winning promotion so was delighted to sign him to the club now, coming in on 300 a week but with a 50% drop in wages if we do go down also on a 3 year deal!
The loan signing from Celtic is one that shocked me and has put us in the position of a 4-4-2 as a formation we can consider, he is a class above many in the club and having him with no wages to pay is insane.

Finances

We are in a good position


spending only 200 more on wages than last season is a position I wanted to be in, I did not want to push this club out of control, we are in a safe position for now, I have NO IDEA what income we will make this year, what our gates will be, until that, I don't know what I cant spend. There is a chance in January we can spend maybe 500 to 1000 of the wages but we must see how we are finance wise before that. Spending without knowing your income is insane in my eyes.

Expected

Our pre season went well, we have made it into the second round of the Betfred cup, I still only considered this as my pre season practice but I guess if we do much better I should share images of it haha.


The league and other cup expectations are helpful, so little pressure is nice and we can provide some shocks I hope this season and make a name for ourselves, which in turn I hope can give us the ability to attract some more talent to the club without paying insane wages!

Congratulations on a fantastic second season with Edinburgh, in which you are guiding them to new heights. The club are growing as a whole, which is great to witness. The quality in the Championship by far outweighs that you have encountered before and with only a couple of additions, it will be interesting to see how you will fair. Good luck!

If you are successful I could see Manchester City adding you to their brand really like this, keep it up!