1) Earn money and buy players from the transfer list

2) Get young players - don't sell them the first seasons. Train them so they develop.

3) Log in and train your players every day

4) Do your youth pull every day

5) Sign sponsor deals

6) Play your matches every day to earn cash and finish top 7 in the league to promote.

 

Advice:

Your starting squad is made up of common (grey card) players. They are decent but will never be good players.

 

To improve your team you need to pull youth players and train them. After a season or two you will see your youngsters quickly will start being much better players and you can start replacing your starting squad players and see your team grow in strength.

 

NEVER sell your best youth players for the first many season. They are the future of your club.

 

You can also get instant improvements by buying players off the transfer list. This can be a quick but also expensive way to improve your team.

 

Note that the grey/common cards on the transfer list can be very cheap to buy, but they also will develop very little and won't improve your team much long term. 

To get a much stronger team and build for the future focus on your youth development and invest in players with higher rarity (see more under "Players" -> "Player Rarity").