Setting up your initial squad

When you set up your initial squad you receive £500,000 towards acquisition fees (AF) and £100,000 towards your initial salary budget. You have the choice of allowing the computer to automaticall assign you a squad of players within certain rough parameters, but where is the fun in that?

Before you begin randomly selecting the best players you can remember from FM08 or the ones you find with the best attributes it's a good idea to have already worked out how you want to play. At a basic level this means if you want to play 3-5-2, you can skip looking for fullbacks. If you want to play a narrow diamond, you can skip wide midfielders. If you want to play 4-5-1, you only need a 2-3 strikers but plenty of cover in central midfield.

I'd advise that you keep your initial team salary below £50,000 a day. Your initial income will be £100,000 a day. At £50,000 a day profit plus you newly found overdraft limit, you can soon afford the better quality players that you can't fit within your initial budget.

Either buy the minimum number of players and preserve your cash, or buy additional players with a view to selling them after 7 days for a profit. At the beginning of a gameworld, player values go through a period of steep inflation as more money is pumped into the market.

Either way, don't get too attached to your initial squad. Select players with high resale value (i.e. young, good attributes and good reputation), when you look back after 3-4 seasons you will have very few of your original squad left.