It seems that your league is very competitive and challenging.
Besides increasing income, I’m sure you also know that players should be chosen based on a high performance-to-salary ratio.
I’ve seen a method used by quite a few B3 teams: they bid a small amount on a player and then fire them before the financial update.
(328292.3)Although I think this method is a bit dirty, it can indeed give you a player whose strength is greater than their one- or two-thousand salary.