Sheffield United Caretakers Diary: Chapter 5 "Pennies (or Pounds) from Heaven"

[Dave Thacker]

Not a great week. Looks like the FFO will survive, but what a bunch of unnecessary drama. Sheffield has a new finance balance, with a sweet 10 million ladled on the top, which will help a little.

The Problem
Sheffield United starts with 42 million. That’s what I’ve got to pull the club out of the ditch and make it somewhat attractive to a new manager. These are the assumption that I’m making as I put together my disaster plan.

• The Blades will probably not be able to stay up after Season 5. I don’t think that the club as the talent keep up in the Premiership. Our roster will be very thin, and we’re bringing young players that will need minutes. We’re going to throwing 18s against 20-21s or better. The Gods of Football will certainly give us few breaks during the season, but I expect that points will be hard to find.
• The Academy needs to be protected. My job “...is to make (this club) a more appealing prospect” and I think having a well-stocked Academy is an attractive part of a club. The problem is that the previous regime did not add any coaches and one coach in the Premiership is more than the Blade’s current balance. Because of retirements I had to pull all three available players up to the main club. That dropped the enrollment to six players. Next year the retirements are going to continue and I may have to pull all four eligible players at the start of Season 6. That puts me below the four minimum.
• Backups are needed. After calling up three, I’m still short of a 23 player roster. I have a good chance for a loan-in player, and I want another. I need to pull in a couple for more 2 or 3 players of the BHN list. Need to save money for that.

The Solution
I’m planning on three or four expenditures. Starting with 44 million….

• Purchase two individual Academy players. That will bring the enrollment at the Academy to eight. If I do have to promote all four of the eligible players after Season 5, I will only have to purchase one replacement players. The one player that will have to get replaced is a keeper, because the current keeper will be forced to retire EOS 5. I have 20 million left for….
• Let’s go shopping at BHN! I’ll have to grab a couple of squaddies at BHN. I hope I can pull this of, because I’ve been watching a 5 mil squaddie get bid up to nearly 10 million this week. I need get the BHN low, low discount. I’m trying to keep the cost below 12 million and keep 8 million for reserve.
• Watch the books closely. I know I’m going to have some uneven revenue months because the of the months that are more than half away matches. Hopefully I’ll get some cushion with media payments.

That’s the plan. Hope it works. Send me PM if you have for a suggestion. Keeping clubs healthy is good for the game. Next: “How was your Bonanza?” Blades caretaker out.

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