Lineker's Lugs

Last season WSL2 kick-offs were generally 2pm on Sundays, but there was a bit of variety. The games were only on YouTube so there was no broadcaster dictating noon kick-offs.

I'm up to ten completed leagues now with three more finished. USA (women) – Seattle Reign. This was short and sweet. I took over at Reign when they were 10th (top 8 make the playoffs where the champions are decided). Finished 4th but won the playoffs. Had they already been in a playoff position I probably wouldn’t have counted it but I felt I’d done enough to change their season. And it meant I didn’t have to try and decipher any weird squad/transfer rules. USA (men) – Vancouver Whitecaps. I did the MLS the best way – from Canada. Vancouver are the most recent runners up in the MLS Cup in reality and a very good team in my save – the opportunity only arose as the previous manager left for a job in Europe. FM26 doesn’t cope with the MLS very well. I ran into a couple of problems which I had to google and discovered them to be known issues with a suggested solution of holidaying forward a couple of days. I also messed up the salary cap and was forced to leave a couple of players unregistered in order to comply, but I had a big squad anyway so it was fine. The season took an age due to constant trade offers. We got to the MLS Cup – the final of the champion-deciding playoffs – and thankfully won. Another year in this league and my laptop probably would have been lying in a crumpled heap on my drive by now. Removing USA from my available leagues was a joy. Italy (men) – Roma. There were a ridiculous sixty players in the first team squad so I was able to generate significant funds over the three transfer windows I was there, and the club was already rich when I arrived. I brought my goalkeeper from Vancouver with me, only the second player I’ve signed from a previous club in this save. He helped us concede just 18 goals in the second season while we scored over 100 and won the title by ten points from Napoli.

Pointless challenge update: Germany done with Eintracht Frankfurt. I’d underestimated them – they had just finished 5th (but close to 2nd), had won the Europa League, were already classed as rich and had Champions League money incoming. In short, not as far away from Bayern as I anticipated. My career plan to boost my reputation so that I could cherry-pick jobs was working out. By the time I was done in Germany I had all my coaching badges and a continental reputation. And the plumiest of plum jobs was available. Spain was done in one year with Real Madrid. The squad was ageing but brilliant so I didn’t waste time with transfers and just got cracking. Barcelona started so badly that they were still 6th at halfway. They recovered to 2nd but we were over the hills and far away. Belgium – Club Brugge. There were a couple of other options in similar reputation leagues but I’ll always take the easiest and Brugge had plenty of dosh and were title favourites before I’d done anything. In contrast to Madrid, I did splash the cash: £100m+, breaking the club and Belgian spending records. I was just buying some insurance really, and it worked to the extent that even the fully rotated team that I was using in alternate games for most of the season was winning easily. Seven down, sixty-two to go. I've practically finished.

I've wrapped up some more leagues in the Too Much Time On His Hands Challenge. Gibraltar and Northern Ireland were straightforward and took me up to three leagues completed, all at the lowest level of league reputation. Loan signings were crucial to both, in particular strikers from clubs that wouldn't dream of sending players on loan to places like Gibraltar in reality. By now though, I'd hit on a different approach. Instead of working up the reputation levels, my new plan was to try and get to the top as soon as possible. The theory was I would then have my pick of jobs at lower levels and could choose ones that offered a quick route to success as I worked back down the levels. With that in mind I added Scotland and England to the save with the idea of using them as ladders by getting promoted up the divisions. Instead, just as I finished at Glenavon, a Scottish Premiership job opened up at Motherwell. I was a bit surprised to be appointed and even more surprised with how it went. We started the first season well but by halfway Rangers and Celtic had passed us, though we weren't too far behind. We tailed off over the second half of the season, but a win over Hibs near the end meant we finished third, 13 and 23 points behind Celtic and Rangers respectively. Crucially, as it turned out, we had qualified for the Europa League. Although we were knocked out of that in the final qualifying round, we dropped into the group stage of the Conference League. By the end of the year we had qualified for the round of 16 by finishing in 7th. The Premiership had gone the same as last year with Celtic and Rangers slightly ahead of us, but the prize-money from our European exploits led to funds being made available to strengthen in the January window and the reinforcements meant we could rotate a fair bit without weakening the team too much. We were on a roll and it felt like we couldn't lose if we tried. We kept pace until late in the season when our last three games were Rangers away, then Aberdeen and Celtic at home. We won at Ibrox with our January loan keeper getting the man of the match award. That effectively ended their challenge and took us top for the first time. Then we comfortably beat mid-table Aberdeen. The title was ours barring the unlikely event of losing by eight goals to Celtic, but we managed to finish on a high by beating them too, giving the final table a deceptively comfortable look. I really thought this one was going to take at least three or four years, but the prize-money was a game-changer. I'm in Germany next, but as it's not Bayern I think things will slow down. At least I'll be completing my Pro licence midway through next season.

I’ve decided to go ahead with this daft idea, or least make a start and see how long I last before I chuck it in. I started by going through all the top divisions to see how they are rated at the start of a save. Six had a reputation of ‘average’ so I loaded those six and began the game. There were only two jobs available so I applied for both, interviewed with both and took the first one offered. I was starting in India, and immediately ran into an issue when I looked into my club’s history and discovered the division they are in, the only Indian one in the game, is not actually the top division in India. Since the Indian Super League is not in the game I’ll have to change the aim of the challenge to be to win the highest division in the game in every country. COUNTRY ONE: INDIA Churchill Brothers was the club. I joined in May 2025 but the 20 match league season didn’t start until late November. That was just as well, as the Board set the objective of winning the league, but the squad didn’t look good enough. There was plenty of available wage budget though, relative to wages in this division, so I was able to put a decent squad together. By the time the season began the media and bookies had us finishing second to Diamond Harbour. If goal difference had been the tie-breaker they would have been right, but luckily for me it was head-to-head. We had a win and a draw in those games, so title number one was done quickly. I think I got lucky with the club, but I’ll happily take a few more like that please. No coaching badges yet and a league title in the 43rd best league in Asia hasn’t done a huge amount for my reputation. But it’s a start. The other leagues with a reputation of average are Lithuania, Gibraltar, Northern Ireland and Wales (both men and women), so one of those will be next.

I've had an idea for a save and I can't decide if it's a good one or absolute madness. Win the top division in every country in the base game. Apparently that's 58 for men and 11 for women. I'm assuming FM managers are basically immortal. And by 'I had an idea' I mean I saw someone is trying to win the league in 211 countries using an expanded FM24 database. That's definitely too much though!

Gary Delaney joke: I asked a Welsh friend how many sexual partners he'd had. He started counting and fell asleep.

My GB Olympics job did the trick for improving my job offers. Before the Games I was turned down by relegated QPR (QPR relegations seem to be a recurring thing but in this case it was from the Championship) and afterwards I was approached by England men, Liverpool men and Spain women among others. I had something happen that I hadn’t experienced before in the Olympic final. We led 2-0, Germany got one back and they won a free kick near the corner flag in stoppage time. Their keeper came up for it and I was fully expecting an equaliser. But Hampton punched it clear, Park passed to James and she rolled it into the empty net from just inside Germany’s half with their keeper still in the centre circle. 3-1, game over. I might have to watch more games if this stuff happens! Despite the job offers, I also decided to start a new save. I didn’t have an end goal in that one so I was just drifting along with no real purpose. I’m trying a one club save in England and I joined Farnborough 17 games into the season. I had quite a few interviews and decided to take the first job offered. Luckily it was one of the two clubs that agreed to a coaching course, although since I won’t be job hunting it doesn’t really matter. I think I might just do ten seasons and see how far I can get, or finish if/when I get promoted from the Championship. Realistically they might turn out to be the same thing. I’m slightly distracted by the fact I’ve got a plan for the next three saves and quite fancy cracking on with them too!

FM really can't cope with Great Britain... Wait until he realises all the rest are also foreigners from England and Scotland.

My latest FM doing FM things experiences: I've been struggling to get a decent international job, but I was finally offered what I hope will prove a decent entry level role as manager of the Great Britain women's Olympic team, though a wage of £15 p/w suggests it probably doesn't have the prestige I was hoping for! I had an introductory press conference and was asked if I thought it was a problem that I was English rather than being a native of Great Britain. I've also been turned down for the England men's job three times despite only ever having applied for the women's team.

After three years in Bulgaria I've moved on to the second club of my save and it's tight at the top in Romania. I was trying to find challenges in this save but I've been drawn in under false pretences by a club that was 14th when I applied but is actually much better than that. As they are one of the few Romanian clubs I've heard of I assumed they had fallen on hard times but no, they were just temporarily underperforming. They were already up to 10th when I was appointed. The squad is pretty decent and I have what looks like a lot of money for this league to spend in the imminent window. In order of priority I need a starting striker and extra bodies in DM/MC and the fullback positions. There is no spare wage budget but I have a squad that's about 10-12 players too big so moving a few out will free up some cash and I can always switch some transfer budget over.

Only four wins from safety! I think I need to upgrade staying up from being seriously impressive to it being a miracle.

How's the league table looking now, and do you have any free wage budget? I think I'd focus on the money and not worry about signings, accept the relegation and clear the decks for next season. But at the same time staying up after starting with no points from seven and with those finances would be seriously impressive so it would be tempting to give it a go.

It might be a year of pain, but the expectation is only to try and avoid relegation so you'll get a shot at promotion with parachute payments. I always work within budgets but the finances still often go south because I don't sell players at the right time. I don't tend to care about that because I move around a lot. I'm trying to address that a bit in my new save by self-imposed rules that I can't resign from a club and I have to stay in a job for 1,000 days before applying for another one so I need to think a bit longer term.

The Palmeiras board’s expectations were not in sync with my own. They wanted to win the league and reach the semi-final of the Copa Libertadores. I just wanted to go all out at the Copa Libertadores but do well enough in the league to qualify for it again next season just in case. It’s like the board don’t know I’m doing a pentagon. They haven’t done their due-diligence. Since I thought the squad looked strong, I just pressed on with the Campeonato Paulista. If we didn’t get the job finished this year there would be work to do as a few of the best players were at the veteran stage but for now I just went with what I had. There were 52 players in the squad and I mainly used third and fourth string players in the state championship to give the better lot a break before the more important stuff started. Either the other teams did the same or they just weren’t very good because we breezed through the tournament. By the time the national league, the Copa do Brasil and the Copa Libertadores began I had picked and saved first and second XIs. I alternated between them throughout the rest of the year based on the importance of the game or standard of the opposition. It became auto-pilot: select team 1 or 2, remove anyone who was injured or suspended then click Quick Pick to replace those players. With players only occasionally playing more than once a week there weren’t many injuries, and those we had were mostly of the 1-3 days variety so they didn’t miss a game anyway due to the rotation. Injuries did pick up a little from October but still weren’t significant. My method of team selection and instant resulting every game meant the season rolled by reasonably quickly until we got to the start of June and transfer windows opened around the world. With so many players I had 15 weeks of being flooded with messages and bids. Luckily our good form meant morale and team spirit were high so hardly anyone expressed an interest in leaving and I was able to keep almost everyone, but that period was a real slog. Once all the transfers windows were closed, the pace picked up again. I didn’t sign a single player all year. That, and the auto-pilot way I was playing, made the season unfulfilling. We won everything but I didn’t feel that was in any way down to me - I was basically just clicking continue for a few hours until it was over. Things were so comfortable that I even decided to watch the Copa Libertadores final which risked having to stay in Brazil for another year. We scored two in the first seven minutes and that ended any jeopardy despite both teams hitting the woodwork a few times. A 30-yard screamer five minutes from the end gave us a 3-0 win and completed the pentagon. My previous club, San Lorenzo, were knocked out in the group stage and dropped into the Copa Sudamericana where they were promptly knocked out again in their first tie. The Libertadores semi-finalist were all from Brazil, so the move to Palmeiras was correct in terms of the pentagon but not in terms of giving a feeling of achievement. I enjoyed Mexico and Argentina the most due to the Apertura/Clausura system meaning there are effectively two seasons a year so you never feel bogged down. South Africa has too many cup competitions though the 30 game league season helps. I’ve played Japan a lot and I still like it but there’s very much a feeling of ‘done that’. In Europe, I joined Barcelona at a time when they were dominant. I did at least renew the squad so it wasn’t quite the free ride I had at the end. And I’ve done Brazil now. Never again! I’m going to park this save for now. Maybe I’ll continue it and go for the heptagon later, and in the meantime start something new that I haven’t thought of yet. Ideas welcome! Oh, and this is Gary Rowett’s biography from my save, complete with classic FM duplication...

We began the transfer window with 30 players in the first team squad and by the time the new season began we had 24. Four had left at the end of their contracts and twelve had been sold. Those moves boosted the transfer and wage budgets nicely and I was able to add ten and have money left over. We were vastly better. One of my signings was this guy. The name is genuine, adding the picture was something that just had to be done. He’s good too, and a bargain at £65k, even if he can only play at night. The media prediction was 11th in the combined table at the end of the year. That was exactly what I was targeting but I was hopeful we could do better. And we did. We finished second in our Apertura group but missed the first chance to qualify for the Copa Libertadores when Talleres beat us 1-0 in the playoff final. I added a new keeper in the summer, but otherwise stuck with the same players and the Clausura went even better, possibly because all the winter signings had settled in and those that needed to had learnt the language. We reached the final round of games in third but then beat the team in second. River Plate also lost so we leapfrogged them too and finished top of the group. That all meant we had finished third in the combined table so had secured a place in the Copa Libertadores through that route. It also meant the Clausura playoffs didn’t matter to us at all, so inevitably we won them. Just as I was sorting out my plans for the transfer window I was approached by Palmeiras. I’d had no thought of leaving, and had never managed a Brazilian side as the season seems such a slog. However one look at the squad revealed it was clearly a big step up and potentially an opportunity to get the pentagon finished in a year or two. and it also made it clear that it would be a big ask with San Lorenzo. The first thing I did was confirm they were in the Copa Libertadores and then I took the job. It feels a little cheaty to make this move, but as I didn’t seek it I’ve decided it’s ok.

I've only watched a full England men's game once in the last ten years and that was only because it was on in the waiting room when I took my late father to a hospital appointment in 2018. I tuned into the Euro final against Italy as it felt like a national event I should watch. I switched off after ten minutes as I realised I just wasn't interested, even though England were leading. I still don't know what happened after that, other than England clearly didn't win as I would have heard about it if they had. I tuned in for Tuchal's first match but again only watched a few minutes - I don't watch the Premier League or Champions League so didn't know half the players on the England team, let alone the opposition. But I keep having this thought that maybe I'll watch some of this tournament. And then I remember it's mostly in America, it's environmentally horrific and I'll probably know less than 20 players in the whole of a bloated tournament run by a corrupt organisation. So I go from thinking I might watch it to already being heartily sick of hearing about it, and back again. I think ignoring it is going to win though.

I had the same situation in the Swedish lower divisions on my last save. I got one promotion but it made no noticeable difference to my reputation and after three years with no coaching course I resigned. The only job offers I got were in the league I'd been promoted from and none came with a coaching course so I ended up quitting the save. It's a shame you can't opt to pay for your own early courses since the lower levels are meant to be pretty cheap in reality, but I suppose that changes the nature of a career save. Looking for a course as part of taking my first job did feel like a bit of a cheat in my current save but I didn't want to repeat that experience. It has had the knock-on effect of making it easier than a pentagon is supposed to be, but at the same time this is only a game and games should be fun.

My new club was in Argentina: San Lorenzo. My initial assessment of the squad involved a lot of use of the letters c, r, a and p. The game agreed: I took over after two games of the second stage of the season, the Clausura. San Lorenzo had lost both 2-1. They had finished 13th of 15 in their group in the Apertura stage and the board’s objective was to avoid relegation. As San Lorenzo had done pretty well in the previous couple of years and relegation was decided on a three year average, I didn’t think there was too much danger. Closer inspection revealed a pretty reasonable XI, and with only one match a week that could be enough in the short term. The transfer window was open and I brought in a left back, left winger and central defender whilst selling a high earning 30-year-old back up central defender. I didn’t know what a good player looked like in this league so I decided to leave my business at that and not waste the somewhat limited available funds. The XI, with the defensive reinforcements, turned out to be good enough and the remaining games brought six wins, six draws and two defeats as we finished 7th in our group and qualified for the playoffs. We beat Atlanta 3-2 in the first round but lost 1-0 to Rosario Central in the QF to end our season. We finished 22nd of 30 in the combined table for the Apertura and Clausura. A finish of 11th or better (or winning the Copa Argentina) is required to be certain of qualification for one of the continental competitions. We had ended up 8 points behind 11th, which I felt was a gap we could bridge, so that became my target for the new year. Time for a transfer window. There is lots to do.

I've just checked and I started on 20th May. I packed in my job a couple of years ago and have very few responsibilities so my time is largely my own. I'm not sure 1,667 hours of FM26 counts as making the best use of it though!

It turns out managing Barcelona is not very satisfying. Real Madrid had a poor first half of the season. They and most other teams were taking points off each other so we reached the end of the year with a significant advantage in the league. That meant I could put out a second string in most of the remaining games and save the best XI for the biggest league games and the Champions League. Some of the fringe players had been getting a bit unsettled so it was a win-win. Well, not entirely because we did drop a few points in the league that wouldn’t have happened with less rotation. But we still clinched the title with four games to spare having already won the Supercopa and the Copa del Rey. The challenge came in the Champions League. We finished third in the group stage to get straight through to the round of 16. Marseille were easily beaten but Real Madrid in the QF pushed us close. We won 4-3 at home and drew 2-2 away, but it needed a 93rd minute equaliser to get us through. In the semi we faced PSG and both games finished 1-1 but we triumphed on penalties. The final was against Lille and since they had only finished 5th in France it felt like a formality. I was confident enough to play the game rather than instant result it – the prospect of watching a trophy lift drew me in. We started well but fell behind after 15 minutes. It was only when he picked up a bit of an injury that I realised I’d started with my back-up striker by mistake. In fairness there wasn’t much to choose between them but the first choice, Diakité got the equaliser on the stroke of half-time, ten minutes after coming on. With no second half goals it went to extra time and we fell behind again before Omar Nduwimana smashed in an equaliser from 25 yards. Our left-back Lamine Dramé gave us the lead in the 108th minute and that proved to be the winner. The other notable event of the season was Diego Simeone getting sacked by Atlético after 400 years in charge. Leicester finished one place above relegation. Not very realistic this game. I think I’m going to abandon my plan to stick around for another couple of years as it’s been too easy, and with only 5 or 6 players to gradually replace over the next few windows it feels like it will stay that way. So either South America, the WE League in Japan or a women's European league next. I haven't checked the job market yet, but I don't intend to cherry pick as I did in Europe. Any team with finances that are ok or stable is a possibility. It's also a women's world cup year meaning there should be a few jobs available after that so I might try a little international management on the side.

I can (and do) spend most hours of every day on the save and I instant result the vast majority of games so I'm getting through it quite quickly. I think I get better results that way as it seems my strength is building squads rather than managing games! The one player I named, George Mokoena, has just joined Leicester in game oddly. The women's game is what I watch almost exclusively IRL so I'd like to do more saves there, but there's not enough leagues for a good journeyman save. Tacking them on to this seems like a better idea. You seem to be heading in the right direction in SA now.

I started a pentagon a few days ago and it’s going well. I’ll admit I gave myself a bit of a head-start by beginning with only Australia, Japan, South Korea, Egypt and South Africa playable, avoiding the likes of Indonesia and Malaysia where I would normally begin. But it was the usual idea of starting unemployed with no qualifications or experience. ASIA I didn’t take the first three jobs offered as I was holding out for a coaching course. Just when I gave up on that idea as it was taking too long, I was offered an interview by J3 side Vanraure Hachinohe. And in whatever the opposite of sod’s law is, they agreed to send me on a course. By the time I left, I’d taken them to J2 and I was doing my Continental B. Tokyo Verdy were my next stop, and I took them up to J1 but they had refused multiple requests for my next course so I was keeping an eye on other opportunities. A juicy one arose quite soon – Yokohama F. Marinos, so off I went. There no loyalty in football anymore. Not from me anyway. I felt I was finally at a club that could get the first leg of the pentagon done, and so it proved. I won a league title as well, but consistently bombed in the domestic cups, as I had throughout the save so far. The AFC Champions League was won in a finals tournament in Taiwan. The QF was a complete smash and grab despite being a 4-0 win over Al-Hilal, then we edged past fellow J1 side Machida Zelvia in the SF. The final looked tough, but we finally had a game where it all clicked and we beat Al-Nassr easily and deservedly. AFRICA I hoped Africa would mean Egypt as I still haven’t managed there, but I ended up at Mamelodi Sundowns. Their budgeting is clearly up to Leicester City standards as despite the fact that I was working well within them we were losing money hand over fist. We were cleaning up domestically and thankfully got the CAF Champions League done before the club totally imploded. The group stage had been a bit iffy with two draws and a defeat, but the knockout stages were little more than a procession. I had a star centre forward called George Mokoena who was an absolute cheat code. NORTH AMERICA CONCACAF means Mexico because no-one in their right mind would go to USA. The job screen told me Atlas Guadalajara were rich and that was good enough for me. It’s just as well they were because the squad was rubbish and it was clear why they were in 17th of 18 in the Clausura with games running out. We finished 15th but some good transfer business turned thing around very quickly to the extent that we actually qualified for the next Champions Cup through both the Leagues Cup and the Apertura Torneo. We only had to play seven matches to become CONCACAF Champions, and since we were now the best side in Mexico, and therefore North America, we were able to get it done. My stay in Mexico was relatively short and very sweet. EUROPE I hit the job market again. Leicester was available, but I never play the Premier League (where Leicester were, remarkably - presumably they’d had a takeover) so I left that well alone. I took my time waiting for an appealing job and Bayern Munich was the first I went for. I was interviewed but didn’t get it. Then Barcelona approached me without me having applied. It turned out it was their former manager that had pipped me for the Bayern job. Normally I’d have expected another rejection but because they approached me I was hopeful, and sure enough I was offered the gig. I’m nearly at the end of the summer transfer window and I’ve revamped the squad at a cost of £500m. The outgoings brought in £224m so I’ve stayed within my £310m transfer budget. I’ve kept the wage bill the same, lowered the average age of the squad and made it stronger. I have a four year contract, but the end of year three has a World Club Cup and I fancy a crack at that – we qualified for it last season before I joined. That’s been part of my recruitment strategy too – signing players in their mid-20s who will be at their peak then. It does feel like I’ve broken the back of the pentagon. I’d normally have done South America before Europe but nothing decent came up in Argentina, Brazil or Uruguay. I’m thinking I might make it a heptagon by doing Asia and Europe in the women’s game too. In theory there’s North America too but only the USA is in the game so that’s out.

He's certainly there but the cameras are on the same side as the bench so it's not easy to see how much he's getting involved or whether he's letting others take the lead.

WSL2 channel on YouTube. I think every game is on there but it might just be a selection.