Its really dependednt on level and ambition/expectations.

My simple needs have been to target enough to buy 3xMax Value players + construction costs.

At lower levels this Max Value based budget gives me the choice to buy that number of max value players or more lesser value players. (But it takes a few levels to get to this point.) At higher levels I expect this choice diminishes and budget is more based on the number of players rather than value range (which diminishes, I think).

But the answer is as much as you can get.