You can make your rise toward franchise glory easier by keeping the following tips in mind.

Find a good assistant. He'll offer helpful advice on almost everything else you do in the game, so don't settle for the (likely awful) default.

Hire a good scout. It takes the guess work out of recruiting, which can otherwise be an insane task.

Recruit from more nations. More nations means more likelihood that you can find an affordable, undervalued player who will transform your team into a winning machine.

Keep your facilities simple. It's easy to spend so much money on facilities that you don't have the resources to make the other changes your team needs more. Focus on smaller improvements and save the big expenditures for those wonderful days when you're finally in the premier league. Otherwise, you may never quite get there.

Limit your recruitment. You don't need to recruit every great player, and in fact, you often shouldn't. Build a team with a few core players who fill the required roles, then save your financial resources for concerns that aren't wage-related.

Don't rush to make drastic tactical changes. Sometimes, a tactic doesn't yield the desired results, but it just may need more time. Make slight changes, such as changing player positions, but don't give up too quickly on a sound plan that just didn't work when executed a certain way. Small adjustments are usually better than sweeping changes.

Have an alternate plan in mind. The game makes it easy to prepare multiple tactics, so you should always have a good offensive tactic and a good defensive one prepped and ready to go, in case the tempo changes unexpectedly.

Attend press conferences. Even if the interviews are a repetitive, they're a great way to improve dipping player morale and to perhaps do the opposite for the opposing team.

Look for young blood. Stats aren't everything, nor is experience. There are probably young players on your team who can play above expectations. Give them a chance, especially if a veteran has a run of three or four bad games. It may be time to bench the familiar guy and take a chance with someone unproven.

Pay attention to your contracts. You don't want a good member of your staff to leave because you let a contract expire, nor do you want to have to pay a premium to keep someone around when a contract renewal would have avoided costly negotiations.