Depends what sort of a save you want. Want a real survival challenge? Rotherham is your bet. Easy time in the league? Leicester, Leeds or Southampton. Playoff push with an aim to over-achieve? Middlesbrough or Coventry are good picks. Mid Table Mediocrity? Preston and Bristol are notorious for it. Youth-focused save? Sunderland is your best bet. Would recommend figuring out what you want from your save and looking in to some of the clubs in the Championship from there, its a fantastic league with huge potential to make many good stories.
Fundamentally it is the same game. Sign better players, get them to fit into a tactic, keep everyone as happy as possible. Loans and free transfers are more important compared to elite clubs. You can pick up some instant starters released from huge clubs academies, who they don't even consider keeping away from you.
As a newly promoted team specifically it is about striking a balance between preserving the team who got you promoted and spending that extra money on a bunch of improvements. When you are promoted you likely have the best cohesion, happiness and manager support in the entire league maybe only second to the reigning premier league and/or champions league champions. And whoever finished 14th last season certainly doesn't have that.
This is your only natural advantage, but it can be ruined immidiately if you have to pick fights with every formerly important player who feels they earned the right to Premier League football. Especially if you want to get rid of your captain or vice captain. Or that everyone asked for a raise because they know you have a lot more money and they want some of that. Signing a player who is 5% better is likely not worth it, because near perfect squad cohesion, happiness, tactical familiarity and manager support is worth way more than 5%. But on the other hand your squad is likely not good enough to compete, so it is tricky.
During the first promoted season it is all about keeping that happiness around. Praise players for everything they do right.
Me personally took me 2 seasons to reach the Premier league (I am playing with sunderland) and the first 2 seasons in the premier league I manage to stay at 8th and 9th places, after that e reached the 3rd place and qualify for the champions league and now I am battling for top 6, I think the difficult part is not getting promoted or stay in the premier league ( I mean, if you have a good tactic and Ok ish players you’ll be good ) the difficult part for me right now is how do I make the jump from a regular premier league team to a top 6 or top 4 contender. I also have a problem with the finances right now I am on 50 mil in debt IDK why to be honest but I think I over-spend in some contacts I have made when I reach the premier league, pay attention to that if you are very cautious either your finances
If you pick Leicester/Leeds/Southampton you can walk the league in season one, and then survive the first season in the prem pretty handily with minimal reinforcement. Picking a midtable side provides more of a challenge, you can still go straight up in season one, but it will be a fight to survive. You’ll have to rely heavily on loans/free agents. If you want a relegation fight right off the bat, pick one of the bottom teams. You’ll be in the championship for at least a couple of seasons and will have to think a little more long term
Depends what sort of a save you want. Want a real survival challenge? Rotherham is your bet. Easy time in the league? Leicester, Leeds or Southampton. Playoff push with an aim to over-achieve? Middlesbrough or Coventry are good picks. Mid Table Mediocrity? Preston and Bristol are notorious for it. Youth-focused save? Sunderland is your best bet. Would recommend figuring out what you want from your save and looking in to some of the clubs in the Championship from there, its a fantastic league with huge potential to make many good stories.
Fundamentally it is the same game. Sign better players, get them to fit into a tactic, keep everyone as happy as possible. Loans and free transfers are more important compared to elite clubs. You can pick up some instant starters released from huge clubs academies, who they don't even consider keeping away from you. As a newly promoted team specifically it is about striking a balance between preserving the team who got you promoted and spending that extra money on a bunch of improvements. When you are promoted you likely have the best cohesion, happiness and manager support in the entire league maybe only second to the reigning premier league and/or champions league champions. And whoever finished 14th last season certainly doesn't have that. This is your only natural advantage, but it can be ruined immidiately if you have to pick fights with every formerly important player who feels they earned the right to Premier League football. Especially if you want to get rid of your captain or vice captain. Or that everyone asked for a raise because they know you have a lot more money and they want some of that. Signing a player who is 5% better is likely not worth it, because near perfect squad cohesion, happiness, tactical familiarity and manager support is worth way more than 5%. But on the other hand your squad is likely not good enough to compete, so it is tricky. During the first promoted season it is all about keeping that happiness around. Praise players for everything they do right.
Always scout youth player who is realeased from the top clubs of your second division or below
Me personally took me 2 seasons to reach the Premier league (I am playing with sunderland) and the first 2 seasons in the premier league I manage to stay at 8th and 9th places, after that e reached the 3rd place and qualify for the champions league and now I am battling for top 6, I think the difficult part is not getting promoted or stay in the premier league ( I mean, if you have a good tactic and Ok ish players you’ll be good ) the difficult part for me right now is how do I make the jump from a regular premier league team to a top 6 or top 4 contender. I also have a problem with the finances right now I am on 50 mil in debt IDK why to be honest but I think I over-spend in some contacts I have made when I reach the premier league, pay attention to that if you are very cautious either your finances
England is incredibly easy to manage in because of the money in the premier league. You’ll get a £40m budget usually and can buy plenty of wonderkids.
Avoid Leicester and Southampton, it's easy to the point where you won't enjoy it
Championship team you can probably make europe after 3/4 seasons
If you pick Leicester/Leeds/Southampton you can walk the league in season one, and then survive the first season in the prem pretty handily with minimal reinforcement. Picking a midtable side provides more of a challenge, you can still go straight up in season one, but it will be a fight to survive. You’ll have to rely heavily on loans/free agents. If you want a relegation fight right off the bat, pick one of the bottom teams. You’ll be in the championship for at least a couple of seasons and will have to think a little more long term