Re: the transfer market:
Last week, after months of searching, I finally found and bought a prospect I'm happy with -- 99 SP 21 yo old with superstar potential, for $2.6 million. My original budget was $1 million and I had to sell two rotation players to afford it, but I had to do it.
However, it's a grueling process finding the right player at the right price. Ultimately, what it took was checking the transfer market late at night, every day for months at a time. And even then, it often comes down to luck and timing (I had to get up at 3:30AM to bid on my guy).
And this was with a $3 mil budget. With $1 mil (which should be a lot of money), you can find solid bench guys but stars are unicorns.