My strategy is simple, common and (hopefully) effective. It may be boring for some, and interesting for the others. I am continuously experimenting, so don't be surprised if I write complete nonsense at some point.
AIM
I aim to buy youths cheaply and sell them for profits of over $ 100 000 000. I am also collecting credits and building up slowly towards King Midas ($1billion+) to avoid huge tax.
CREDIT EXPENSES
Now, we all know we need to play our 201 friendlies each season for that. To be guarenteed that, limited time allows me to play 100 sets and give an open challenge. This costs 101 credits.
Furthermore, 5 extreme camps per season can mean a lot of gains, so I see them as a must. This costs 10 credits.
Custom cups can be very rewarding, and I am aiming to play 4 eight-team cups every week. In order to be almost certain of playing all 12 matches every week, I need to create cups in which my opponents are of poor quality, 73 to 76; this means I will make them free, so this costs128 credits.
End of Season cups cost 2 credits. Because my teamstats are low, I usually lose in the first round so I will not consider them for the time being. But if you have good team stats, this gan get you an impressive number of extra matches.
Total 238 credits minimum, because I might just purchase free agent players (1 credit each) or rename and upload pictures for my youth (1 credit per action), which I see as fun.
CREDIT INCOME
Things look bad enough, but it's time to look on the bright side. Each season we get 15 credits from Mr. Spinner, and I always pick the sponsor that gives me 5 credits.
I also convert 75 credits (from over $90 million), which of course digs deep in my finances.
The trustworthy total would be 95 credits, far below my needs for a sustainable credit supply. And by trustworthy I mean a source I can always rely on, no matter what.
But of course, this is where the beloved credit buyers come in handy. There would be no way for non credit buyers to become champions without credit buyers, so keep that in mind.
We can receive a total of 200 credits by donation each season, considering we donate none (receiving+donating=200 max).
Best way to do that is to train youth, and sell them when they reach a decent quality. The credit deal, in which a credit is seen as half a million by most, is not supported by Manager League, and you will have to do it at your own risk.
Another way to earn credits is to win Global or National Gainer competitions. This is very difficult though, as you compete against everyone, but can give an amazing boost to your team if you manage it.
Total potential income for one season would therefore be 295 credits. Of course, you can make a deal for more than 200 credits, but you will have to get them over 2 seasons. I am not entirely convinced this is very safe, do it only with someone you are sure you can trust.
Other credit awards available, according to the ML Guide:
Champions League 1st place 200 credits 2nd place 100 credits
Super Cup 1st place 150 credits 2nd place 75 credits
Division 1 1st place 100 credits 2nd place 50 credits 3rd place 30 credits
League Cup 1st place 100 credits 2nd place 50 credits
Department Cup 1st place 2 credits
Player Cups 1st place 1 credit per 8 participating teams
Player Awards 3 credits for Gold/Silver (top players in department) 10 credits for Platinum (top players in Division)
Promotions earn you 7 credits.
DIVISION STRATEGY
My team is currently revolving around Q87, and I like it to stay this way, because it allows me to win division 4, which has an average Q77 and relegate from division 3 which is about 7 points higher. This 2 season cycle gives me those extra credits I get for player awards and promotion.
YOUTH SELECTION STRATEGY
As I said, I am not a credit buyer. I just want to prove that you can succeed without buying credits. The only way I can sustain such a team is through selling youth, just like Porto does it every season. But how do I find the perfect youth?
Because I am not building a team, just doing business, I have to think about what players the rich teams want. My experience lead me to the conclusion that 5 star players will give you more money than the others, just because they have a better chance of gaining. Surely you can't tell if a player is a 5 star unless he played a couple of matches, so buying an unsigned 17 year old is out of the quiestion for me. I might test my youth from the academy, and if he is Q69+ and over 4 stars, I usually keep it. I usually buy 5 star youth at the end of the season, or at the start of next season (if he is Q74 at least), when most of the other players will not know the exact number of stars. You can however trust the owner to tell you here, but it's up to you; I wouldn't.
Low main attributes (Keeper-Keeping; Defender-Tackling; Midfielder-Passing; Striker-Shooting) are seen as very good, because a main attribute gives you more than a third of a full quality point. If the main stat is 10 points over the player quality, not so many people would rush to buy it. If it's 6 points over, it's average, 2 points is great, and if you get your hands on a gem with the main attribute lower than its quality, you can be sure it will get a lot of following.
Other important attributes are Stamina (because everyone prefers a player that lasts long), Perception and Speed. The higher, the better. High perception on defenders and midfielders is extra-important. I find ironic that most of the players I scout that have amazing attributes have low star-count.
I usually spend about $30 million on scouting players at the end of each season, to buy them when they are 18 at the start of the next. May players want credit deals, though, so it can be difficult to get everyone you want. Message people, insist, put money in their face, and they would say yes at some point. In time you will learn to make better deals. I had some disastrous deals myself.
TRAINING STRATEGY
I haven't been playing all my friendlies for long, but I did my research, asked people, read blogs and experimented myself with what works best. I am still learning, but for now I have a clear strategy for player development.
I came to the conclusion that to maximize player gains I need a lot of old players with high quality, so that the youth have more chance of gaining. Because playing one minute does qualify them to gain and does not decrease a single fitness point, I decided to train 3 youths per season, and surround them with many oldies.
This way, all 3 players can get the maximum of:
30 League matches
0-3 Playoff matches
1-4 Department Cup matches
1 or more League Cup matches
201 friendlies
12-48 Custom Cup matches (highly unlinkely to play less than 40 custom cup matches though, when my team is 13 Q above the opposing ones)
1 or more End of Season Cup matches (which I don't take part in at the moment)
No rest on trainings, giving them about 37 chances to gain attributes.
5 Training Camps!
Needless to say, the non-youth should have Stamina over 90, or over 80 if strikers. I still need about 6-7 more oldies for this programme, because I currently use all 4 rest slots in training, which is damaging my already-low teamstats. From next season, I can start building up the teamstats, and in a few seasons time, maybe I will be able to change my promotion/relegation cycle from div 3/4 to div 2/3. It will still be difficult, because I estimate that I will have to buy about 3 old players per season, and 2 youths.
I started this experiment this season, and so far the results are pleasing. After 100 friendlies, my youths had +22, +27 and +36 attributes.
FINANCIAL STRATEGY
I will have to moan again, so bear with me... For credit conversions I pay $ 93 500 000 every season. Then, I pay about $ 80-150 million for 2 or 3 old players every season (Q86-90), depending on when the others retire. Add up $ 75-200 million for one or two five-star youths (depending on the quality of the player from the academy), and we've got expenses ranging $ 258.5-443.5 million. I will ignore salaries for now, until I feel they become significant. There is also the luxury tax that comes at 4% of my total income, so it's bigger every year, if everything goes according to my plan.
What comes in?
$ 30.3 million from friendlies home
$ ~45 million from league matches home
$ 3.4-9.8 million from sponsor (9.8 if I win the department)
These are certains, but there are other sources, like Custom Cups, League Cup, and Department Cup that can prove rewarding.
Total $ 78.7-85.1 million certain. This leaves about $ 180-360 million to cover by selling youth, and if I sell all 3, it must come at $ 60-120 million each. Sounds easy, but I need to get credits for them too! So they better gain!