Rangers new save help?

[Cold Shaun]

I'm starting a new save with Glasgow Rangers, I need help signing some decent players, my budget is 180k .

Mainly Young players

[NathanCarr]

go for some loans mate, till budget increases

[blackhat]

+ wait for regens

[D93J]

I went for a team of

GK - Viktor Noring (£250k over 24 months)

RB (Full Back/Support) - Hegarty
CB (Central Defender/Defend) - Faure
CB (Central Defender/Defend) - Urquhart
LB (Full Back/Support) - Wallace

CM (Box to Box Midfielder/Support) - MacLeod

RAM (Winger/Support) - Aird
CAM (Tranquelista/Attack) - McKay
LAM (Winger/Support) - Templeton

ST (Advanced Forward/Attack) - Kane Hemmings
ST (Poacher/Attack) - Jason Bola (£300k compensation)

Noring didn't turn out as good as his stats suggested he might for his age, however, Bola is very much worth the money for his potential. Some people shy away from playing the likes of McKay, Aird, MacLeod, Urquhart, Hemmings and Hegarty, but their PA's are high enough to warrant it. Most people go with Gasparotto the young canadian, but he's only a fast developer and his PA is not as good as Urquhart's. Jamie Mills, a left back/left winger also has good potential, focus on developing him too just incase you sell Wallace for big money.

The kind of formation I used was perfect for the lower divisions, even if it is a bit full on and attacking. I played a high line, a high tempo and my scoring in my first season ended up like this:

Hegarty - 4 goals / 11 assists
Faure - 12 goals / 2 assists
Urquhart - 8 goals / 1 assist
Wallace - 13 goals / 20 assists
MacLeod - 11 goals / 14 assists
Aird - 10 goals / 17 assists
McKay - 22 goals / 16 assists
Templeton - 14 goals / 30 assists
Hemmings - 20 goals / 12 assists
Bola - 32 goals / 10 assists

Most of these players don't look very good, but have the higher PA's of the whole team below the age of 25. You'll develop a very good team by the time you get into the SPL. This may affect your chances in the cups until then, however, in the first season you will be unable to sell the players brought in for that season from before you started your save, so use them in the cups and sell them on at the end of the season. For the lower divisions you really do not need many players, so there is not much point in bringing in any more than 3 or 4. You should save money for grabbing regens from other British cubs when the youth intakes come around (Compensation fees and all that!), just incase you don't get any good regens from your own. You'd be better using the cash you have to move on your staff and bring in more competent coaches also.

I sold a great amount of the older players in my first season, as with Rangers it's all about keeping costs down. Bring in young players and use your youth team, that is the key. Start pre-season earlier and play loads of home friendlies against big european teams. I earned roughly £1m every pre-season doing this. You'll find you are hemhoraging money every month, despite this, I never had any financial issues apart from changing owner before Division 1. Season ticket sales of 37000 and I averaged an attendance of rougly 45000 per game.

Players i sold:

Hutton - doesn't develop much
Perry - decent stats but doesn't get much better
Alexander - high wages, ageing, decent stats but inconsistent
Lee McCulloch - good stats, but very inconsistent and getting on a bit
Andy Little - doesn't develop much, but you may want to keep him

Along with a few others, this raised a little bit more money to spend so I could afford Jason Bola's compensation.

My sucsesses only came in the leagues, and I didn't do too well in the cups apart from beating a few SPL teams, however, this appears to be the same for most people even with big name players, So i don't think it is worth leaving out youth players with good potential in that case.

I myself am a Rangers supporter and the whole journey on FM is fantastic, I hope you enjoy it all the same.

[Vince Harvie]

A good defender is Thomas Piermayr - he can play both left back and right back plus he's OK as a centre back. This makes him an ideal defensive substitute (in the Scottish lower leagues, you're only allowed 4 outfield subs). Out of contract at the start of the game. But you have to be quick, or an SPL club will snap him up.

Richard Brittain from Ross County also turned out to be an excellent buy. Got him for 70k and he became the mainstay of my midfield for three years.

I was also able to get Luke Shaw from Southampton on a end-of-contract free at Xmas (signed the deal in Xmas of first season, arrives in the summer).

[Cold Shaun]

Does that formation work, because you only have one player in Central Midfield, how do your games pan-out?