Setting up this Football Manager thread to not derail the miscellaneous thread again. :P
I took over Cordoba when they were almost down in relegation ranks of Tier 3 in Spain, when their goal was finishing top half. It was a bit of a rough start, but two underdog wins in Copa Real against La Liga 2 and 1 teams bolstered morale enough to almost make it to the promotion play offs.
(https://i.imgur.com/TW3owip.png)
Towards the end of the season, my wage budget, though, was 800k over the 3.2M allotted by the board. I asked for a wage increase .... and it was granted, putting me into the black. :o
The new season starts off. And my wage budget is "a bit" (400k) over. Reason 1: I signed two many youth players. Reason 2: a player wanted to leave but agreed to only leave if I find a replacement. I sign a replacement and ... the original player stayed on. I tried to shed bankroll, but not much luck.
So now I have 28 players out on loan at other clubs (including some overpaid second tier ones where the other club is paying their wages now :P ). And my budget is back on track. :goodboy:
Meanwhile, the new season ....
(https://i.imgur.com/ckxeBSd.png)
I'm kinda worried that when this run crashes it will crash HARD. :ph34r:
I have only a National A licence. But I feel boosting my mental/tactical/motivational stats is a bit gamebreaking? :unsure:
(https://i.imgur.com/oO7ufPI.png)
Meanwhile, my previous club Illescas who scratched at promotion is now fighting relegation to tier 5. My striker who scored 29 goals in my first season is now a shadow of his former self (and has no potential to come to tier 3). :(
I like starting in the lower tiers.
But it means you have poor youth recruitment (really poor), no money, often your club is semi-pro, so if you should be lucky and find a good coach, that does not help.
When my Lyn FK was at tier three, I managed to get a striker called Santiago Hoyos. He got a work-permit, and was banging them in. Two seasons later, he is sold under my nose by the board to Heerenveen of all clubs.
I play with only one striker. So I had no back-up. And no-one wanted to join FK Lyn. I am a fan of gegenpress and counters rather than sitting back. I needed a striker. We had money. Lots, to be honest, because I had been selling off much of the first team during our promotion season to the Norwegian premier league.
But the history of Lyn is that they were once one of the greats in Norwegian football. Even played quarter finals against Barcelona and beat them in the late 60s in Europe. The club went bankrupt after the owner just said "sod it". So I felt that I needed to be fiscally responsible. My aim is to always leave a club in a better position than when I came in.
This restricted the opportunities to sign a striker, but a reject from Tromsø was available and keen. And he had better stats than Hoyos. So, 3.5 million NOK (300k Euro) and a deal was done, '
He was scoring so many goals after just a few weeks that I could hardly believe it. Granted, I had upped the attacking line-up with Emil Ceide from Salernitano for 700.000 NOK. He gave the necessary flair and creativity for my 4-3-3.
Oscar Aga scored 35 goals between all competitions.
We did poorly in Europe, lost most matches, but Ceide and Aga between them managed 11 goals.
A new season beckons, and we are still a selling club. I had offers from Fiorentina and Lens for my services. Rejected both.
There is only one job I want other than FK Lyn.
Nottingham Forest.
I get it, I also like to "work my way up." Dropping myself into the big chair at Bayern or Madrid or PSG something feels a bit like cheating, though I do understand the appeal of the fantasy of it. (I'm the same in CK, I prefer starting as a count to starting as a King or Emperor.)
And there's always something to be said about restoring a previously prestigious club back to old glories. And German tier 3 and 4 have plenty clubs that used to play in 1st Bundesliga or internationally before falling on hard times (usually after sponsors/private financiers jumped ship). And yeah, resources are much more limited.
Unless you have Qatari owners like Cordoba. Board approval A+. "Can I have some more transfer money?" - "Here you go!" :P
Side note ... you literally have ONE JOB! :rolleyes:
(https://i.imgur.com/YSRsvc7.png)
How on earth do you keep a game going long enough to hop between clubs and have seasons of history :lol:
Its usually dozens of hours per season when I play.
I usually only have one career game with each version of Football Manager.
I need time to build a team. And while that team mostly will be sold to greener pastures, it is fun, albeit frustrating at times.
When I was in treatment, my only "free space" was playing FM18 in my small room. Carlisle did really well after a few seasons.
I got some Spaniard (this was pre-Brexit) as a playmaker in 4-2-3-1.
I used to be a fan of 4-4-2, but it proved inflexible when going up the leagues. I need a playmaker and some pacey wingers. I've found concentration to be important in players. A decent striker does not need to be 20 in finishing, but if he has work rate and composure, he fits in my team.
Maybe I should start a game and go for a completely different style. Low-block counter-attack and long ball.
(https://i.imgur.com/ewLURPu.png)
:pope:
The agent of my star striker, Antonio Casas, who's setting a goals record for the Primera RFEF Grupo II approached me, saying he thinks his client should have his contract (which still runs for another two years) jacked from €220,000 to €500,000.
Fortunately, I'm close with Casas, so I thought I'd try and ask him to drop his agent, because "he doesn't seem to have his best interests at heart." And he did. ^_^
We managed to secure the title and automatic promotion to La Liga 2 with 3 matches still to go, and my contract has been extended till 2028. :cool:
(https://i.imgur.com/6ORqGSI.png)
Now to focus on building a squad that will keep us on that level. :ph34r:
My other striker who had a great season and grew a lot in that period comes to me saying he deserves a new contract. I try to stall but eventually give in because I need him focused on his game.
His current salary is 140k. I'm expecting he's going to ask for 300-400k.
No, he's asking for 160-205k.
I tell the agent that that's a lot of money. So he reduces the demand to 140-165k. :lol:
Sure, lad, happy to! :P
We're talking Euros here, not old pesetas? :huh:
EUR, yes. -_- My La Liga 2 budget is ca. €7M
Quote from: Syt on September 19, 2025, 03:44:04 AMSide note ... you literally have ONE JOB! :rolleyes:
(https://i.imgur.com/YSRsvc7.png)
Solution: Amputate their toes?
Quote from: Syt on September 22, 2025, 11:32:28 AMEUR, yes. -_- My La Liga 2 budget is ca. €7M
And I had to break the bank for 200.000 Euro sign-on bonus.
We're in the goddamned Champions League, make some cash available.
What was that? Oh. We only have an average attendance of 4.100. Right, I get you. I'll go back to hearing what moronic extra training the coaching staff suggests during our weekly meeting and try and win the league again.
(https://imgur.com/a/m1qlGqS)
I... might want to try a low block in this next match.
We're sitting prettily in 11th position in the UCL. Rupil, a Luxemburg international, cost a small fortune, but has repaid it, as you can see. Aga's goals speak for themselves. Season's over, so I am pondering if we need some friendlies to keep match shape into a long winter.
Meanwhile my assistant manager:
Tactical Meeting: "I think we should remove 'Play for set pieces.'"
20 minutes into the match: "We're doing well on set pieces, so maybe we should play for set pieces?"
(https://imgur.com/a/m1qlGqS)
Champions League League
(I don't like this new mode btw)
We are so going to be smacked by Liverpool. But the win against Slavia was pretty convincing. Aga even missed a penalty.
Now half of Europe wants my players. :cry:
Would you believe it, just 0-3 at Anfield Road. Against FK Lyn, that is. Outplayed and out-classed in every department.
It looked promising when we got the first goal after 2 minutes, but of course, VAR decided it was an offside.
Half the team is leaving, as they are looking for greener pastures than the Norwegian first tier.
The problem with playing in Europe for Norwegian teams isn't the match fatigue, rather that the Norwegian season is spring to late autumn. So the board decided to send the team to a training camp in Turkey. Sorry, Erdogan, I am not going to use that new name you came up with. No habla Turkish.
We smashed one team, but all players need some minutes, so in the next game we go down 3-4 with a last minute winner.
Some journalists are now questioning my tactical inflexibility. Unfortunately, there is no option to answer "Have YOU won the double two seasons in a row? No?"
Haven't really picked up my Cordoba save since switching PCs yet. -_-
Preview of the changes to tactics in FM26:
Major change: different formations when in possession and out of possession.
(https://i.imgur.com/5wVZJfy.png)
Player roles/abilities also split between the two.
A good change, IMO, but I expect a lot of jank and gamebreaking combos. :D
Early Access "beta" unlocks on Thursday. On various videos Miles Jacobson warns that the new UI will require a lot of muscle memory rewiring and is easier on people new to the series than "people who spend 1000+ hours per title".
Fully licensed FIFA World Cup update comes next year, including managing international sides.
FM did (finally) a first look at the gameplay (with Miles Jacobson and Jarrod Bowen from West Ham Utd):
EDIT: Apparently there will be an "instant result" button included by default. This should speed up long term careers, but I kinda prefer managing the match myself. :D
I've been looking at the beta for a bit now, and for the most part it feels incredibly disorienting. To say the UI compared to the previous 10+ years feels different would be a vast understatement.
I'm not as doom & gloom as some vocal folks out there, but there's definitely light & shadow here (and, as expected, some bugs).
All screenshots below are done on 4K screen with 2160 resolution. Images are on imgur - sorry, Brits. :( If you know an equally easy to use free image host that hasn't been blocked in the UK, I'm all ears. :)
Overall, I think there's a good general thought behind it.
FM24 and earlier had its pages (accessible from the main menu), and the pages had tabs and you'd navigate through those. However, I often found it a bit inconvenient when you look e.g. at some specific info for a sec and had to switch between tabs in a pages, sometimes only looking at the other tab for moment before switching back.
The new UI seems to be built around the idea that there's a number of "landing pages" that give you key high level info in tiles, and when you want more you click on a tile which opens a pop up modal with the details (which in turn can lead to more tiles). While I guess this might increase the number of clicks, potentially, it can also feel more fluid/intuitive, if done right.
E.g. on a club landing page, it will have an "About Club" tile that shows their jersey, when they're founded, their stadium, when they were founded and their nickname.
(https://i.imgur.com/9NI4FHM.png)
*If you click the tile, a pop up opens, with several tiles - Club Profile (similar to before), Facts, Stats, Club Info, Affiliates. There's top level info again, but a bit more detailed (though Facts & Stats tile info seem a bit borked at the moment.
(https://i.imgur.com/L6pXqi4.png)
And each of the tiles gives you more info. Stuff like this is, IMO fine, and I'll get used to it.
(https://i.imgur.com/UEUzKQw.png)
Often you will be able to access certain modals or screens from different areas where previously you had to click through menus because they can re-use certain tiles where it makes sense. Stuff like that is great.
However, I think there's still work needed. Generally they seem to try to keep the interface clean from clutter. But I think they're also wasting space, or want to be slick and end up being a bit confusing.
E.g. if you look at the Managerial Vacancies, this gives you this screen:
(https://i.imgur.com/K8nB2ZU.png)
And my first impression is "what's with the wasted space?" See, the idea is that you select a club and then it shows you some key figures below:
(https://i.imgur.com/zSxOrL0.png)
Personally, I think this is not ideal - I think it would have been better to have an info pop up here when you click on a club and make the scroll list larger. (You can click on a team name, but it then takes you to the team landing page ... which is probably what I would want, anyways, to examine their squad, etc. Never mind that while you can sort the columns, there are no filters here.
And these kinds of things are found throughout. E.g. the Team Hierarchy which was visible on one screen is now scrollable.
(https://i.imgur.com/lCrb66p.png)
(And it looks barren without at least their photos there :P )
This screen is also an example that while they still have the little thingy where you can open a pop up with a player's key data, it's not present on all screens.
Where it becomes baffling is the Staff Screen which is unnecessarily finicky.
(https://i.imgur.com/luKBkMa.png)
You will notice that on the Overview page you will not see the names of any of your Staff. For that you have to navigate to the corresponding Tab (which I feel they generally want to use less, so not sure why it's here?).
(https://i.imgur.com/1VhfIX0.png)
Notice how on the previous screen the list of coaching staff had a lot of empty space underneath? Well, here it's squiched ansd crollable.
You may also notice that you can't see your staff's attributes. For that you have to go to their profile again.
(https://i.imgur.com/eINImjD.png)
(The back button takes you again to your staff overview, not to the Coaching Staff list.)
The All Staff list is just a sortable list of all Staff folks. Want to see their attributes (I don't mind that they're masking it more now instead of showing numbers)? Prepare to click through their profiles (and staff recruitment does the same).
There's many such quality of life issues at the moment. Like not being able to right-click on a training session to change it. I like to leave training to my assistant, but like to add match reviews and community outreach (for team cooperation) each week. In '24 this was a right click on the upcoming training schedule. Now I have to click the unit, navigate through the corresponding drop down, then confirm.
Though the game does know differences between left and right click. E.g. on the pitch you can click on a player role and get this with left-click:
(https://i.imgur.com/CZv9RHH.png)
While right-click is more concise:
(https://i.imgur.com/s4KbTFJ.png)
Or in the Medical report, where - instead of showing all players in one list - they have one tab per injury risk level even though IMHO a scrollable list would make more sense.
(https://i.imgur.com/K743KAX.png)
Now, I'm sure those are all just teething issues and Sports Interactive is currently getting inundated with feedback (though much of it is not very constructive to say the least :P ), so here's hoping things will improve. But I admit every time I start trying to play my brain gets annoyed with having to learn something new.
I guess I would like more options for customization (like it used to be in some screens in older versions), where you can decide which tiles to show where, ore maybe resize them/edit what information goes into them. In 4k I feel I have both wasted space but also keep running into text overflows/being cut off (on lowest text size).
I do like the new search function. In the previous games you could only search for entities (players, clubs, etc.), now it searches also messages, UI (to some extent) and the "FMPedia" (an in game wiki, essentially):
(https://i.imgur.com/lmipyJs.png)
But there's still limits. If you search e.g. "Gegenpress" or "Formation" it will not have relevant results. You can create bookmarks, but not sure why it was arbitrarily limited to six. (Though they said they'll look into offering 12 or 18 for higher resolutions.)
I guess the main impression is of a weird bizarro-world. The pieces are all familiar, but when you start using them it feels like a dreamscape where everything familiar has been rearranged into an uncanny valley.
There's people shouting loud into the void at the moment that this is the end of Football Manager, and that this looks like a mobile game and that nobody tried to play the game before releasing the beta, but I think that's exaggerated. I think this can become pretty good with more customization and better Quality of Life. Though I think I will wait a bit more before really digging in and the dust settles a bit. :D
I'm sure once modders figure this out this can be really amazing.
But e.g. a screen like this - great! Key info about your squad (you can switch the view for the roster with the three buttons to U21 and U18, each tule takes you to the relevant bit (Team Roster, Tactics, Youth Development, Training etc.).
(https://i.imgur.com/Rj7ubWV.png)
Or the Match Day screen:
(https://i.imgur.com/67BZYdN.png)
Stuff like this is good. More of this, please :P
P.S.: A lot of people complain about performance of the UI ... can't confirm that on my side, tbh.
I bought the game and tried a few games. My impression is that this is as little of an improvement as previous yearly versions were over the former one.
Matches look good, though.
I will delve more deeply into it at a later point.
They posted that tomorrow's release will be the same as the beta released last week and that there will be a small update this week with some database changes.
I expect the initial reviews to not be kind as there's still plenty very vocal people online being quite enraged by the new UI. :lol:
:lol: Shouts will be back!
https://community.sports-interactive.com/forums/topic/598745-forthcoming-beta-track-update-preview/
QuoteSince the launch of the FM26 Advanced Access Beta, we've been analysing all aspects of play data to help contextualise your feedback. One area that stands out is the amount of time players are spending in the revamped match experience, which some players have told us feels quite passive.
The data shows that time spent in-match has increased significantly, up 51% from FM24. While part of this may be attributed to the introduction of Dynamic Mode, there has also been a notable change in how players behave in-between highlights: in FM24, 90% of players opted for a faster speed, but this figure has dropped to 50% in FM26. Additionally, it is important to acknowledge the new 2D radar as a factor.
All things considered, the extended match duration has likely heightened the sense of passivity for some of our longer-term players – but we now believe our decision to remove Shouts has compounded that feeling.
Although our original reasoning for removing Shouts remains valid (them not working as ideally intended), after reviewing the data and considering your feedback, we recognise that we should have kept the feature in place until a more suitable alternative was ready. Our apologies, we got this one wrong – and so we're bringing Shouts back, imminently.
Having closely monitored the data since Beta, we are already well advanced in the development work necessary to reintroduce Shouts. We are therefore pleased to confirm they will return during the week commencing 8 December as part of Content Update 1 - our most significant update to date - which will also feature enhancements to loan screens, player searches, mouse wheel use in transfer offers, player training tooltips and the previously announced Match Engine upgrades, and a lot more besides.
Shouts will work just as they did for FM24, meaning that your instructions will be delivered the next time the ball goes out of play. While replacing this feature remains a goal for the future, the priority for now is restoring its original functionality to help improve Matchday immersion.
In addition to the above and alongside the introduction of more in-match stats in the 21 November update, we're exploring further ways to enhance Matchday engagement. For example, a current focus is on surfacing more data post-match and we'll provide more details on this soon.
Thank you once again for your continued support and valuable feedback. It is greatly appreciated.
Further information regarding the availability of Content Update 1 on the Steam public beta track will be shared later this week.
I've fired up FM26 and 24 for comparison last weekend. Yes, 26's UI is more modern, and overloads you not so much with data, but I miss the reams of data you could put on screen in 24. Not that I was actively studing everything in detail. I had my key areas that I looked at in player and club profiles, and those are mostly there. But once in a while I would catch something that drew my eye and sent me down a rabbit hole of players, clubs and leagues. Not because it was critical to my game, but because I was curious. Same with match day overviews and news articles. Removing the clutter lets you focus on the game and your club more, but for me at least it removes a lot of the immersion of playing in a somewhat dynamic world.
It's similar to how I feel about Victoria 3's notifications. I would love to be able to see government changes, elections, laws more easily in other countries if I so wish. Give me a ledger, or map modes to see who has what voting right, what economic law, what institutions, without having to click through each single country.