Football Manager 2026

[Dan]

 

This is the player.

 

 

That's my director of football. I'm not even scouting South America and he's got knowledge of France, Greece and Cape Verde. There is just no way we should be finding this player. I mean great that we have, but it just wouldn't happen.

[moore_94]

Shepshed Dynamo promoted to the National League!

 

Although we still ended up winning the league by 8 points, it could have actually been a lot more comfortable than that. We only won 2 of our last 11 games!

 

I think next season we may well struggle to go up again as I have barely any budget to really improve the squad - just an additional £2.5k wages and no doubt a good chunk of that will be taken up by players asking for new contracts after promotion

 

Hopefully we can get ourselves a good cup run going to generate some money - bank balance is okay for now, sat at around £70k

 

We got a fans trust takeover earlier in the year, but we are already in the process of another takeover already

 

[moore_94]

7 minutes ago, moore_94 said:

Hopefully we can get ourselves a good cup run going to generate some money - bank balance is okay for now, sat at around £70k

Ah well there goes most of that bank balance 

 

[Dan]

2 hours ago, moore_94 said:

Ah well there goes most of that bank balance 

 

Go on the transfer room and search for breakthrough prospects. You might be a tiny non-league club with no real infrastructure or scouting beyond 50 miles away but rest assured there are wizards from Tajikistan ready for the call.

[Beliall]

been switching between saves recently, took a little break from my pentagon / journeyman/ whatever the **** i feel like save where i start with nothing and played a season with leicester women, kept them up, lost interest season 2 and now im back at hemel hempstead. we made it to the FA trophy semi where we got knocked out 1-0 by southend with a shite performance. its my second season here, i got them promoted to the national league and are safe but outside the playoffs. the board refuse to pay for coaching courses or even discuss it so im off at the end of the season. its season 3 in the save, i started at pontypridd ladies where i got sacked after failing to keep them in the league

[Leicester_Loyal]

On 28/11/2025 at 17:30, Samilktray said:

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 

https://www.systemrequirementslab.com/cyri

[Dan]

Played another season and had basically a repeat. Ended up grabbing 4th on the final day, this time ahead of AEK rather than Panathinaikos. Had a much worse points tally though and only managed 3 draws and 3 losses from the Championship group. PAOK absolutely blitzed the league this time, and then won the cup meaning once again we go into the Europa League qualifiers and will face Legia Warsaw.

 

We went out of the Greek cup in the quarters again. A proper repeat season.

 

But this was all fine because the Nanders sale and a decent run in the Europa League has left us with a £6.5mil budget for next season, so we're actually playing properly now. We picked up 5 wins in the Europa League league phase - beating Fenerbahce, Nice and Union Saint-Gilloise as real highlights. We finished 11th, beat Hajduk Split 3-1 on aggregate but then went out 4-0 on aggregate to David Moyes' Tottenham ().

 

We started badly, finished badly but had another very good run midseason. I've bought an Armenian winger to replace Sanders and upgraded parts of my team so will be intrigued how high up I finish this year. Should in theory be stronger, but I feel like despite coming 4th we were miles off the top teams this time. AEK were definitely going to haul us in if there were even 1 or 2 more games. I think the game probably underestimated us in the first season now takes us a bit more seriously.

 

Highlight result was winning 0-5 at Panathinaikos - absolutely ridiculous freak of a score.

[Tommy Fresh]

Started a save with Cape Town City who were in the second tier of South African football and were quite clearly way above the level, got them promoted and won the South African cup. Second year I'm 4th with a few to play and in to the knockouts of the African equivalent of the Europa. 

 

But I'm fairly tempted to start a new one and come back to this later, I've done South America a lot over the years and it's definitely my preferred continent for long term careers, but I've never done Brazil because I can't be arsed with the amount of games. But I think I'm going to find a side who play in a small state championship so they won't play as many and give it a go.

[Stadt]

18 hours ago, Tommy Fresh said:

Started a save with Cape Town City who were in the second tier of South African football and were quite clearly way above the level, got them promoted and won the South African cup. Second year I'm 4th with a few to play and in to the knockouts of the African equivalent of the Europa. 

 

But I'm fairly tempted to start a new one and come back to this later, I've done South America a lot over the years and it's definitely my preferred continent for long term careers, but I've never done Brazil because I can't be arsed with the amount of games. But I think I'm going to find a side who play in a small state championship so they won't play as many and give it a go.

I had a save in South Africa as parr of Pentagon challenge (won 4 out of 5 but stop playing FM generally) and I looked mostly fondly at the SA save at the start. Was a total grind getting promoted and staying up.

[Tommy Fresh]

37 minutes ago, Stadt said:

I had a save in South Africa as parr of Pentagon challenge (won 4 out of 5 but stop playing FM generally) and I looked mostly fondly at the SA save at the start. Was a total grind getting promoted and staying up.

Yeah it was fairly easy to get up and stay up with Cape Town City as not sure what's gone on in real life but they're definitely too good to be in the second tier

[Beliall]

all this talk of the SA league and no mention of the mighty leicesterford city  

[Dan]

It's hit the point where it's started feeling a bit easy again. I do have a pretty good team now for this level, probably the 5th best in the league (I think there are less gaps in my side than Aris, who have really fallen off) but the way we can just slaughter Panathinaikos and AEK feels a bit unrealistic.

 

Unfortunately PAOK are an absolute machine though and are going to win the league. I'm likely to come 2nd.

 

Knocked Legia Warsaw and Rijeka out of the Europa League qualifiers but Slavia Prague ended up beating us 5-0 at their place in a genuine freak of a game, we had double their shots and beat them on xg  beat them 3-1 at home but 5-0 is just too much. Ended up in the Conference League and didn't drop a point in the league phase.

 

Really seems to be random how 'greyed out' teams play against you. I was fortunate to beat Rosenborg but I changed 9 players for FCSB away and absolutely battered them, and on paper there is quite little between those two.

[Dan]

First trophy in the bag in the form of the Kypello Ellados (Aka Greek cup). Beat Panetolikos, Panathinaikos in the semis then AEK 1-0 in the final. We've finished 2nd in the league, we're good but PAOK are just unstoppably good, four league titles in a row. I've posted a points tally that would compete for the league in normal circumstances but PAOK have dropped points in I think 9 games in 2 seasons. Challenge I set myself is to win the league and the cup before I sod off to another league and do it all over again, this league may take a while. Their squad is ridiculously good though.

 

I'm in the Conference League semis as well. Knocked out AIK of Sweden in the round of 16 and Vitoria Guimaraes in a very tight quarter final. I've got Rosenborg again in the semis which on paper sounds nice but the game against them in the league phase was very tricky and we got lucky to win. Man Utd or Nice in the final. If it's Nice I think I can win it, if it's Man Utd we'll lose though. Would be quite funny if I could win a European trophy before I could win the Greek league.

[Tommy Fresh]

Started one with Angers, currently second and just got in to February, PSG are miles clear, and there's about 6 points between me and 8th. Currently in the middle of an average run of results and think I'll drop off but the goal was to avoid relegation so it'll still be a good year

[Dan]

Bloody lost to Rosenborg on pens. Proper fumble. Their equaliser was literally the last touch as well.

[Dan]

Played through another full season with Kallithea.

 

Lost in the super cup to PAOK 3-1, beat Club Brugge 5-2 on aggregate in the CL qualifier bagging us £4mil in prize money, but got put out by RB Leipzig in the play-off 8-5 on aggregate meaning we'll be in the Europa League again, which I'm OK with - although the money we'd have gotten for making the CL league phase would've changed the game.

 

We made a bad start in the league losing 3 of our first 5, including away at local rivals Panionios in what in hindsight was an utterly dismal result as they ended up finishing bottom by quite a distance. We responded by somehow beating Bilbao away on my first Europa game before going on a superb run in that competition, somehow finishing 2nd with a 6-2-0 record, beating as well as Bilbao, Frankfurt and Ajax, and getting a draw at Napoli from 2-0 down.

 

What became apparent during the season was PAOK had dropped off at last, but annoyingly Panathinaikos had come from nowhere to be running away with the league and a loss there in November, despite our upturn, made me think it was another season without the title.

 

But Panathinaikos dropped off, PAOK picked up as expected, Olympiakos and AEK had decent seasons as well and it left an absolutely mad final day of the regular season where there was something like 3 points between 1st and 5th - and whoever finishes 5th in this scenario is out of the title race because the top 4 have essentially a group stage to decide the league winner. We beat Panathinaikos to come out of the final day chaos top of the table and Olympiakos suffered a shock loss to end up finishing 5th.

 

 

It really was as tight as was ever likely to be.

 

We draw 2-2 with Panathinaikos and then lose 1-0 at PAOK (as usual) leaving us 3rd. AEK, comfortably the poorest of the 4 really show it and lose 5 of their 6 games. But we pick up by beating them at home and Panathinaikos away. Other results meant if we won our last two games of PAOK at home and AEK away, we would win the league.

 

We beat PAOK 1-0 in a hilarious game. We completely dominate it for 70 minutes, the shot count 20 to 0 in our favour, albeit not particularly high an xg. Before PAOK's first proper attack all game sees my idiot centre half chop their striker down. Goalkeeper makes a save that'll live in Kallithea folklore. We're very much holding on for the last 20 but we see it through.

 

The AEK away game - absolute doddle.

 

 

So that's Greece completed I suppose - I won the league and cup here. I will probably play on and see what happens, if I get bored, I'll do it all over again somewhere else.

 

Oh and as for the Europa League, scraped past Braga after beating them away in the first leg, and then lost on penalties to AC Milan after drawing both games. A great effort but not quite enough.

[Tommy Fresh]

Pretty much just waiting on the winter update now, want to do South America but I'm waiting on being able to start in 2026 with updated promotion and relegation etc

[shen]

Looking to rekindle my interest with a new save. 

Any suggestions for fun Leagues or challenges? Realistically I'm looking at Europe, but I'm open for whatever.

I usually choose the worst side in the lowest league I can, spend the first season cleaning up and finding some good frees and quality loans, setting up a solid tactic and hopefully achieve promotion at the first time of asking. It's usually a procession after that.

[shen]

Ended up going to amateur side Diegem in the Belgian third tier, as it is probably the club in the lowest playable tier in Belgium that is closest to my hometown.

 

Don't remember when I've last played as an amateur side, if ever. They have "good" youth facilities, which I'm already learning is a massive drain on finances (~60-75k Monthly expenses) as I have no Income, really.

Easy start so far with an away win at league favorites OH Leuven U23 😅 though.

 

Am being reminded of how frustrating the bugs and navigation in FM26 is though 😫

[shen]

Ended up going to amateur side Diegem in the Belgian third tier, as it is probably the club in the lowest playable tier in Belgium that is closest to my hometown.

 

Don't remember when I've last played as an amateur side, if ever. They have "good" youth facilities, which I'm already learning is a massive drain on finances (~60-75k Monthly expenses) as I have no Income, really.

Easy start so far with an away win at league favorites OH Leuven U23 😅 though.

 

Am being reminded of how frustrating the bugs and navigation in FM26 is though 😫

 

Update: Finding it to be a breeze so far. Went on an 11-game winning streak to kick off the season. Bogstandard 4-2-3-1 gegenpress style formation without any OP players even.

Got some new skins which greatly helps speed and overall UI experience though.

[moore_94]

1 hour ago, shen said:

Ended up going to amateur side Diegem in the Belgian third tier, as it is probably the club in the lowest playable tier in Belgium that is closest to my hometown.

 

Don't remember when I've last played as an amateur side, if ever. They have "good" youth facilities, which I'm already learning is a massive drain on finances (~60-75k Monthly expenses) as I have no Income, really.

Easy start so far with an away win at league favorites OH Leuven U23 😅 though.

 

Am being reminded of how frustrating the bugs and navigation in FM26 is though 😫

 

Update: Finding it to be a breeze so far. Went on an 11-game winning streak to kick off the season. Bogstandard 4-2-3-1 gegenpress style formation without any OP players even.

Got some new skins which greatly helps speed and overall UI experience though.

What skins would you recommend? Not tried any out yet

[moore_94]

Shepshed Dynamo promoted to League Two and are now a professional team!

 

Won the league with ease and we also managed to pick up the FA Trophy

 

Starting to build a squad with some decent young players in it, but will obviously depend on how well they can step up to the next level. A few of them have interest from Championship level clubs so I may cash in on them to give myself a bit more spending power in the summer - £25k transfer budget and £12k total wage budget is going to be fun...

 

[shen]

1 hour ago, moore_94 said:

Shepshed Dynamo promoted to League Two and are now a professional team!

 

Won the league with ease and we also managed to pick up the FA Trophy

 

Starting to build a squad with some decent young players in it, but will obviously depend on how well they can step up to the next level. A few of them have interest from Championship level clubs so I may cash in on them to give myself a bit more spending power in the summer - £25k transfer budget and £12k total wage budget is going to be fun...

 

Loans, loans, loans 🥇

[moore_94]

1 hour ago, shen said:

Loans, loans, loans 🥇

Managed to pick up some free's so far but still need another 4/5 for squad depth which will probably be loans

[Tommy Fresh]

Update on Monday apparently