Football Manager 2026

[Finnegan]

On 26/11/2025 at 11:14, Tommy Fresh said:

Want to do my usual South American save, but I just can't be arsed to sort out all the license issues with Brazil

 

.. you know about the sortitoutsi licence fix right?

 

[Samilktray]

Is there a website anywhere where I can find out if my lappy will run this? I feel like there used to be something like this back when I last played am FM game 

[Tommy Fresh]

22 minutes ago, Finnegan said:

 

.. you know about the sortitoutsi licence fix right?

 

Yeah, there used to be more to Brazil then just the license fix file, but seems like the license fix actually resolved it all this year. 

[Beliall]

11 hours ago, Tommy Fresh said:

Yeah, there used to be more to Brazil then just the license fix file, but seems like the license fix actually resolved it all this year. 

yeah except it breaks on every update, and there are many updates . might be ok if you stick with one save, but i have done the fix 3 times now

[Tommy Fresh]

2 hours ago, Beliall said:

yeah except it breaks on every update, and there are many updates . might be ok if you stick with one save, but i have done the fix 3 times now

Don't remind me 

[Lineker's Lugs]

Just started up the game and noticed in Steam that I'm up to 423.5 hours played.  I think it's safe to say I'm enjoying it!

[Finnegan]

6 hours ago, Beliall said:

yeah except it breaks on every update, and there are many updates . might be ok if you stick with one save, but i have done the fix 3 times now

 

It's not so much that it "breaks" it's just that the update overwrites the files so you just have to put them back in the folder after a patch.

[moore_94]

Bury were a pain in the ass across the season, 40 games unbeaten at home or something like that, but we managed to finish the season in 1st to secure back to back Champions!

 

Shepshed Dynamo into the National League North!

 

[Miquel The Work Geordie]

On 30/11/2025 at 14:55, moore_94 said:

Bury were a pain in the ass across the season, 40 games unbeaten at home or something like that, but we managed to finish the season in 1st to secure back to back Champions!

 

Shepshed Dynamo into the National League North!

 

 

Where did you pick up your logo pack brother? I need a fresh one but don't wanna find one riddled with Christ knows what

[moore_94]

3 hours ago, Miquel The Work Geordie said:

 

Where did you pick up your logo pack brother? I need a fresh one but don't wanna find one riddled with Christ knows what

I use Sortitoutsi for all of my graphics packs and real name fix

[Samilktray]

I've been playing a bit of the demo and it seems enjoyable enough to spend the money on for me. It seems cheaper to buy it on Epic games than it does Steam, does it make much of a difference or should I spend the extra to play it through Steam?

[Beliall]

2 hours ago, Samilktray said:

I've been playing a bit of the demo and it seems enjoyable enough to spend the money on for me. It seems cheaper to buy it on Epic games than it does Steam, does it make much of a difference or should I spend the extra to play it through Steam?

steam has the advantage of the workshop and it gets all the updates first. cheapest price is here, you can go steam or epic for the same price. and its a safe website Buy Football Manager 26 PC Steam (Europe & UK) CD Key | Loaded

[Samilktray]

26 minutes ago, Beliall said:

steam has the advantage of the workshop and it gets all the updates first. cheapest price is here, you can go steam or epic for the same price. and its a safe website Buy Football Manager 26 PC Steam (Europe & UK) CD Key | Loaded

Nice one I'll just go with Steam then, thank you!

[Dan]

On 28/11/2025 at 11:12, Dan said:

Appears I've landed on Greece in the midst of their league reformatting so the second tier is just a flat 16 teams with the top 2 promoted from the second year. Prefer that I think.

 

Actually a pretty bad second season on the whole. Draws killed us for the most part but I can't even say that it was an unfair outcome, xg table had us exactly 6th. I'm definitely finding this one a bit trickier tactically but I guess it's always a bit different on a new game. I just know on 24 I'd have gone up this season, possibly even last.

 

Squad isn't in a terrible state though and we did finish well so feel like we're getting there somewhat but must be the first season in absolutely ages on FM I've finished below my media prediction (4th). I still can't quite find a system I'm totally comfortable with. I'm enjoying it though and 24 had gotten too easy, so in a strange way I prefer this.

[Dan]

On 03/12/2025 at 19:31, Dan said:

 

Actually a pretty bad second season on the whole. Draws killed us for the most part but I can't even say that it was an unfair outcome, xg table had us exactly 6th. I'm definitely finding this one a bit trickier tactically but I guess it's always a bit different on a new game. I just know on 24 I'd have gone up this season, possibly even last.

 

Squad isn't in a terrible state though and we did finish well so feel like we're getting there somewhat but must be the first season in absolutely ages on FM I've finished below my media prediction (4th). I still can't quite find a system I'm totally comfortable with. I'm enjoying it though and 24 had gotten too easy, so in a strange way I prefer this.

 

I think we may have cracked it  

[Dan]

On 08/12/2025 at 18:39, Dan said:

 

I think we may have cracked it  

Consider it cracked. The first year up Europe glitch is back in style.

 

 

We had an astonishing season and what's even more mad is we lost our opening four games as well. I could tell from the performances we looked steady though and it wasn't a surprise when the results did pick up but the sheer level of it caught me a bit by surprise. We beat Levadeiakos 7-0, OFI Crete 0-5, Aris 5-3 and many more, sneaking a top 4 spot and at least a European place on the final day with a draw against Olympiakos.

 

 

We took it a step further in the Championship group, playing our part in a mental last day. We scabbed a 0-1 victory at Olympiakos to deny them the title and hand it to PAOK on the final day which was funny. We picked up 4 wins and a draw from these games, which again is madness. I have a steady team but it's performing well above expectation.

 

We're largely being carried by three players in attack. Veteran Nigerian striker Chinedu Geoffrey, Italian playmaker Giovannini and the real joker of the pack is 18 year old Nando Sanders, a completely ridiculous signing we got from Vitesse a year ago. We're not in a good place financially and we're going to have to sell him - Inter have come and taken him off us for a release clause of £4.4mil but they've offered him back on loan, with no wage commitments which is great. It's hard to judge if I've just come up with a really neat system or if I've got a better squad than I realise.

 

Have just knocked out Apollon Limassol in the Europa League 2nd qualifying round 4-1 on aggregate. We'll play Aberdeen in the next round. We could do with the money from a league phase so we just need to win one of our two remaining qualifying rounds to get one.

 

 

This is Nanders. It's complete nonsense that he'd sign for a newly promoted Greek side but I did make him my highest earner. Like I say, it's hard to know if I've just divulged a really effective tactic or if I'm being carried by a couple of star players. The Apollon game made me wonder the latter as he came on and turned it, but we have something about us for sure. Had a very decent intake defender as well which is especially handy in Europe.

 

The game is still largely broken, albeit a fix in the last week or so has definitely improved things somewhat. I am spotting the annoyances in the ME though. Wing play seems even more overpowered than ever.

[Dan]

Definitely noticed a difference in the way my games are going post update. For the better in all honesty because it actually had started feeling a bit easy, we were regularly hitting 20+ shots and racking up 2.00+ xg against nearly anybody. A slight quirk I've noticed is the OPPDA stat, the numbers are totally out of kilter with reality. So opposition passes per defensive action, basically a way of reading how well you're pressing. The average number for this is something like 15 (I've looked at the Premier League, La Liga and the Championship) yet these are quite often hitting silly numbers. I knocked out Aberdeen having been quite lucky to draw away then somehow battered them 4-0 at home, but I've just played APOEL in the last qualifier and at half time of the game their OOPDA number was 99  which is absolutely ridiculous, San Marino would put up better numbers.

 

The quite funny quirk is we bloody lost 1-0, but we were so dominant that I'm not even particularly worried and think we'll likely slaughter them at home. It's been an issue for years on FM that 'greyed out' leagues teams are substantially easier than they are meant to be and Cyprus, not being on the game, means this is the case for them even though I've set it so that teams in continental comps do have their real players. APOEL's team on paper is probably a little better than ours, there is no way we should be able to dominate them that easily. It wasn't dissimilar against Limassol.

 

Isn't that a load of fun for us, being a Greek team in Europe for the first time ever and two of our bloody opposition so far are from Cyprus.

[Dan]

Oh and Sanders turned down Inter, much to my irritation, but Juventus have come in and for some reason offered £4.6mil (release clause is £4.4mil) and offered the loan back. Completely in our interest to sell him because he's out of contract in a year and he won't extend, which is fair enough as he's just miles too good to play for a provincial Greek team. It's basically fixed our finances, given me a bit more money to find the next one of him and even saved on his wages for the year too. The Greek league is funny in August - for the second year running we haven't even kicked off while some teams have played 3 games. Childish.

[Thefox81]

Enjoying these updates @Dan. Not played the game for years but would always look at CMstories and FMstories. Keep up the good work 👍

[Dan]

I don't know if this is a bug but in the Europa League qualifiers I signed two players after the Apollon tie and I've not been able to register either for the Aberdeen/APOEL ones. I really hope I can change this for the league phase (not being presumptuous here but we will be in the Conference League if we lose). I can't use Sanders against APOEL either as he's been deregistered after moving to Juventus, but is obviously back here on loan.

 

I don't know if this is one of those silly UEFA rules or if it's a bug. I'm hoping the former.

Edited 19 December 2025 by Dan

[Aleksz]

5 hours ago, Thefox81 said:

Enjoying these updates @Dan. Not played the game for years but would always look at CMstories and FMstories. Keep up the good work 👍

Agreed, @Dan your FM posts make great reading. You're a better man than me for going in to the leagues you do 

[Fear Of The Fox]

Really enjoying Dan's storylines. The problem though is that the game is very easy. You shouldn't be able to finish so high in the table with a newly promoted team in Greek Superleague. I know it's just a videogame but there was no way to achieve that in early 00s CM or iterations of FM up until around 2015-16. 

Back then especially when you loaded a full database and enabled high detail in every league the game was brutal. The full transition to a fancy 3D ME have made the game easier to boost sales amongst casual gamers. 

[Miquel The Work Geordie]

21 hours ago, Fear Of The Fox said:

Really enjoying Dan's storylines. The problem though is that the game is very easy. You shouldn't be able to finish so high in the table with a newly promoted team in Greek Superleague. I know it's just a videogame but there was no way to achieve that in early 00s CM or iterations of FM up until around 2015-16. 

Back then especially when you loaded a full database and enabled high detail in every league the game was brutal. The full transition to a fancy 3D ME have made the game easier to boost sales amongst casual gamers. 

 

I'm not sure about that man, I had some pretty piss easy continental rises on FM12. I don't think the game has particularly changed in difficulty at all, if it has I'd argue it's gotten a bit harder with league quality (for example) having a bit more weighting when it comes to potential transfers.

[Dan]

On 19/12/2025 at 15:38, Aleksz said:

Agreed, @Dan your FM posts make great reading. You're a better man than me for going in to the leagues you do 

My mate came up with the idea a couple of years ago and it's given a bit of a new lease of life tbh. I think it helps that I usually can get into Europe fairly quickly and then it just snowballs. Loads of leagues I've not touched yet as well.

[Dan]

On 19/12/2025 at 20:51, Fear Of The Fox said:

Really enjoying Dan's storylines. The problem though is that the game is very easy. You shouldn't be able to finish so high in the table with a newly promoted team in Greek Superleague. I know it's just a videogame but there was no way to achieve that in early 00s CM or iterations of FM up until around 2015-16. 

Back then especially when you loaded a full database and enabled high detail in every league the game was brutal. The full transition to a fancy 3D ME have made the game easier to boost sales amongst casual gamers. 

No I tend to agree. We were the highest scorers in the league, had the most shots, most chances created and it was with around on average 7 of my first 11 from the 2nd tier (which admittedly absolutely walked the league). We're good but shouldn't be... 'that' good. We'd to away to AEK and we'd have treble the amount of shots they'd have for example. I'd have been happy if I'd finished 9th in that season and even more so after losing my first 4 games and yet if I'd beaten Olympiakos in the Championship group, which we weren't that far off doing, I'd have actually won the league. My tactic really isn't that special either I don't think.

 

I actually think it has been slightly patched on this update based on the games I've played so far since. The 'greyed out' issue still exists but that's been a problem for years. I've played four league games so far and have drawn with a newly promoted side away, drawn at home to Aris (last min equaliser for them), beaten AEK 1-0 and lost 5-0 at Olympiakos (revenge eh). This feels more sort of in line with our ability level. AEK and Aris games could've gone either way, we should've beaten Panserraikos and the 5-0 was harsh but we were definitely second best as well, while last year at Olympiakos I got a red card in the first half and held them to a quite comfortable 0-0. In a quite weird way I didn't mind the 5-0 loss because it will actually make it rewarding when we are decent and at certain points last season, particularly some of the absolute drubbings and outplaying of 'bigger' teams it had started to feel less like we were playing well and more that it was just a bit broken. There's a fine balance and on early evidence it feels like it's been improved, but we'll see over time.

 

It's too easy to sign good youngsters. So Nanders is here on loan for the year, a free £4.6mil made off him and I've just basically managed to get somebody just as good from the Brazilian 4th tier on a free simply through the transfer room. I have a very average director of football and he's bringing me borderline wonderkids for free. It's great but it should not be that simple as around the 20th biggest club in Greece.

Edited 22 December 2025 by Dan