Luton Town money problems

Hi guys,

I'm in my third season with Luton Town and I'm 7th in League 1. I haven't had a penny to spend since the beginning getting all my players from free transfers. I'm at the point now where I reckon I need money to progress any further. I have £55000 for transfers which hasn't changed since my BSP days.

My question is this; Is there any chance of being takenover by someone who can provide transfer funds? I don't think I'll be able to get promoted to the Championship and stay up unless I have a bit of cash to spend. My problem is made worse by the fact I cannot scout abroad so I have no idea if foreign players with expiring contracts are any good until they arrive. Add this to the fact I can't approach english based players until they have only 3 months left on their contract. At this point foeign teams have a 3 month headstart on signing them and what's left are too poor, wont come to me or ask for wages I can't afford as I have no money and my wage budget is small. I thought if I got promotion and some good cup runs money would follow or the owner would invest but this hasnt happened.

My aim was to get them into the premier but if there is no chance of getting transfer funds I'll never do it and may just abandon the game.

I think a lot of people have played with Luton and I'm wondering does anyone know if my future is any brighter? Will there be a takeover/investment. Can I do anything to help these along. Ultimatum maybe?? I already asked for transfer funds and they said as soon as the financial situation is sorted blah blah.

Any help, info or tips would be greatly appreciated!

Sounds like you've had 2 consecutive promotions and are already doing well in league 1, considering you were in the BSP only 2 years ago you should maybe take it easy, 3 consecutive promotions is not easy and you might need a season or 2 to get the whole team ready for promotion again.

As for free transfers you should be finding loads of decent frees but you really need to increase your scouting range, board room chat > networking > scouting range, they should accept, I'm just starting season 3 with Havant & W in BSP and I already have no restrictions on scouting at all!

You need to play with your reserve squad every day a friendly match AWAY .. if you choose wisely one away friendly can give you about 20 000 E a day...

Again the point of Fm is not to rapidly achieve the top each time, that does not get enjoyment for me. I find itsort of unrealistic the way people buy completly new squads each year to get them promoted when in relate there would not be this much unsteady nature. But to your senario:

Find players who have less wages, improve finance by using your own knowledge pretty straightforward, if this means success takes a backseat for a few seasons then so be it, also Lutn ave been known to have bad finanaces in reality in he last 5 years or so, so its not much of a suprise promotions will not be smooth sailing for Luton.

Good advice by Titov about the pre-season friendlies. I usually arrange with foreign clubs to come to my club Alfreton.

I managed successive promotions. My last season was in the Championship, where I finished 19th or 20th.

What I found was that this "setback" was actually a good thing for me and the club.
Good? yes, if we managed another promotion I would have surely gone mad in the Premiership. Not getting promoted was actually a good thing. I have a reasonable wage and transfer budget, and I continue to buy free and unattached players (albeit with the help of FMRTE). Still, FMRTE cannot be trusted fully to just give you good players.

Usually young players with >8 for strength, stamina, consistency, work rate, determination, and bravery is an indicator of someone who is going to reach his potential.

Thanks for all the advice guys,

Im not really worried about this season or next to be honest. I fully expect mid table at best this season, I actually want to stay down and build my team anyway. In the future though, Ill need money to compete in the transfer market if I was to get to the Prem. I wont get it from the board, I cant sell my best players, my av att. is 800 below my capacity of 10300. I just dont see where the money is going to come from. It would be great to get up to the Prem with just free transfers but I dont think it'll be possible.

I didnt know of Lutons financial problems before I started the game, I would have picked a more secure club to try this with if I did. I want to stick with it but was wondering if anyone had tried the same thing with Luton and had a similar problem.

I dont have many spare players for the reserve friendly idea but Ill try get a cheap team together cos it spounds like it might help. As far as scouting goes, I think last season they exyended it to France so now I cant ask agian.

Also, how prevalent are takeovers in the game. Would an investor come in to a club on the rise and fix the finances. I have no idea why we're operating to such a loss every month, I cant do much to change it.

# bl007 : Good advice by Titov about the pre-season friendlies. I usually arrange with foreign clubs to come to my club Alfreton.

I managed successive promotions. My last season was in the Championship, where I finished 19th or 20th.

What I found was that this "setback" was actually a good thing for me and the club.
Good? yes, if we managed another promotion I would have surely gone mad in the Premiership. Not getting promoted was actually a good thing. I have a reasonable wage and transfer budget, and I continue to buy free and unattached players (albeit with the help of FMRTE). Still, FMRTE cannot be trusted fully to just give you good players.

Usually young players with >8 for strength, stamina, consistency, work rate, determination, and bravery is an indicator of someone who is going to reach his potential.

not just pre season i arrange every day one friendly on my B team thats about 300 friendly games a year.. thats a lot of money....6 000 000 eur only from friendly games a year.. thats your ultimate solution man... THINK

Alright guys,

I just want to post an update for anyone else who is experiencing a similar problem. Titovs advice worked a treat. I have my reserve squad playing friendlies every day the pitch is available @ around £15,000 a match. Not every team accepts friendly invitations and/or provide enough revenue but I have a core group of 5 or 6 teams who accept every request. It has greatly increased my bank balance ( with some help from a good cup run) and hopefully next season I might see some benefit from that. Some might consider it cheating/unrealistic to some extent but I dont agree. My finances were about to bring me down being in the red in may 2012. Since I have no control over finances and was facing possible administartion and points deduction through no fault of my own I had to use the only method at my disposal to avoid making my quest for global domination a complete waste of time. Hey, I got them from BSP to (hopefully) Championship (currently 2nd following a previous 8th place finish) without spending a penny on transfers. I feel I deserve a little bit of cash to flash.Thanks for the advice Titov. The futures bright, the futures (Luton) orange.

Hello Flameboy. Nice to see you are Luton in your FM2011 season. Well done on raising your finance, and I also used that technique. Like you said, worked a treat.

Unfortunately, Luton have had BIG money problems in the last 4-6 years. Although, after the sale of Andy Drury to Ipswich (reported £250,000), Luton have only spent about £100,000 of that on replacements.

Hopefully in FM2012 Luton will have at least some sort of financial solution.

Also, it's great to see you building a squad! I got promoted to League 2, then again to League 1. I then failed in a play-off place, but I wasn't disappointed as I was tipped by the media to be in a relegation battle. I then built on my attacking options, bringing in a certain Nathan Eccleston on loan for the season. He then went on to score 20+ goals, which saw me promote to the Championship in 2nd position. I am currently mid-way through the season, and I am struggling in a worrying 20th position. Good luck in your quest with the mighty Hatters!