Having restricted economic possibilities,reduces the strategical options for a user,that's the real problem.If you are forced to be always close or under the 0 level to REMAIN in a league,you have less possible choices.
If you can have a +50/75k of weekly incomes,which is very low related to the balance of many teams in small countries,you can chose if put them quickly on salary and buying a player if you have the money and want to be promoted,or you can chose to buy a new young player with low salary to train without make your team weaker,or you can spend more on draft,or you can save money for the next draft or for a player and so on;you can use the extra money of the cup for every thing that you want
Having a 0 or below the 0 salary,forced you to spend the bare minimum for specialists,to reduce the expenses for the draft,to sell a player and make your team weaker(hoping temporarily) if you want to make any kind of move on the market and the extra money of the cup had to be used to avoid the weakening of the team
And the fact that we are in more competitive leagues also counts,because you can't lose every kind of opportunity to rise up in the leagues.If you need in a certain moment of the season a player,you have the money to buy him,but someone overpaid and buy him,it could be decisive for your season's result and if you fail to rise in a season,losing so much money coming from the promotion,you have many fewer chances to do it in the next season than you would have in a less competitive league............so if the team that steal on the market the player you need is a team with nearly the same your economic situation(no matter what kind of league he is in),you can accept the fact because it's a fight between two teams with the same possibility and he manage the team to have more money than you;if the team that steal you the player is a team with much more economic posibilities than you,only because he plays in a league when he can earn a lot of mony without doing the same sacrifices you have to do,you feel very angry because is an unjust fight on the market
And all of this,REGARDLESS OF THE ABILITY OF THE MANAGER,as instead many users who doesn't know the situation, claim.
I would to ask to the Portuguese user if he would chose to stay in the league with a balance close to 0,with few possibilities to be promoted in few seasons,or if he choses to be relegated in IV division, without being safe to be promoted again soon(as he could see the level of a IV italian or spanish division),and knowing that if he fails the promotion in the first season,he would have to destroy and rebuild the team,but with the economic possibilities of a Iv division,risking to stay there for some seasons
These are the kind of choiches we have to do,and many of the users that talked in this discussion doesn't at least try to understand it,that's why it's very difficult to talk with them here