You can gripe all you want about salaries, but a team that has been around since season 4 can pretty much do what it wants. And I'm guessing he has higher aspirations than merely getting out of D3.
The truth is that this is a miserable group to be in because it's so competitive. The bright side is that steel sharpens steel and most of the teams that promote from here are poised to compete at the next level.
Like most manager games, tactics make a small difference. Players make a big difference. And really good players end up with high salaries. The art is how you manage all of that. You've done a good job building a team in a very short time. But I knew from the start that NYC was probably going to win the league. He's just been around too long.
As a matter of fact, he's the only person I have on my buddy list. That's because he was my mentor when I came back to the game. I doubt we interacted more than a couple of times, but I could always see his transfers pop up in my news feed. And it was obvious he knew what he was doing.