Football Manager 2026

[shen]

40 minutes ago, Beliall said:

i take it back, the update ****ing sucks, i just lost 4-2 to the team in the relegation zone. didnt change anything after taking the lead, just decided to concede 3 goals for some reason

Sometimes FM is just gonna "FM". It's often a tricky decision whether to stick or twist.

[Miquel The Work Geordie]

51 minutes ago, Beliall said:

update seems decent so far, not bothering with world cup mode just yet but theres a couple of nice UI changes and dynamic mode seems fixed so thats good. also, SPFL ad boards in south africa  

 

Is Taukobong doing keepy uppies here? Same old Taukobong, taking the piss

[shen]

2 minutes ago, Miquel The Work Geordie said:

 

Is Taukobong doing keepy uppies here? Same old Taukobong, taking the piss

Also gotta love the steward-to-spectator ratio here... 

[Dan]

Brilliant stuff that @shen I tend to find once you've hit a European league phase off the back of no backing that everything else becomes a bit easier and I've no doubt you'll have these as the best team in Belgium in the long run if you stick with them.

 

Update does look a bit smarter I think. Don't know if I'm seeing what I want to see though.

[Dan]

Leicesterford City is actually not a bad save idea. I've done South Africa but it was on the pentagon and straight into Kaizer Chiefs so there was no proper building job. I really enjoyed a lot of the other continents' Champions Leagues.

[Beliall]

33 minutes ago, Dan said:

Leicesterford City is actually not a bad save idea. I've done South Africa but it was on the pentagon and straight into Kaizer Chiefs so there was no proper building job. I really enjoyed a lot of the other continents' Champions Leagues.

its been pretty fun overall, despite me not really making any progress up the leagues, i ended up here after i got sacked from casric stars, these were the team below us at the time, they hired me, i kept them up and casric stars havent been seen since  

theres some fun to be had trying to do the best with an ever shrinking budget, 1 year contracts, players being poached by top teams all the time and trying to fill your  U23 slots with good loanees. SA hosts the world cup next year and we are  building a new stadium for it, its why im sticking around. theres opportunity here. still not got a single coaching badge mind, they wont have any of it. 

[Beliall]

season over, we played hungry lions on the last day, even game but we lost 1-0 and finished 4th. a step closer than ever before but still not good enough, now to put together next seasons squad and see what happens. 



signed our loanees to permanent deals as their contracts were up at their clubs, lost or most reliable CM though to sekukune in the prem. snuck that one by me without me noticing until it was too late. hopefully i can keep most of the same squad this time, and it would be nice to use less than 3 keepers in a year for once too. 

[Beliall]

i have never had this happen before. board going over my head to sell our captain to a recently relegated club. i signed him a free, he scored 6 and assisted 13 goals last season. 








i protested but the board said no. if he agrees a deal ,which he might not because he wants to stay, i might seriously resign from the club if this is the shit they want to pull

[Dan]

3 hours ago, Beliall said:

its been pretty fun overall, despite me not really making any progress up the leagues, i ended up here after i got sacked from casric stars, these were the team below us at the time, they hired me, i kept them up and casric stars havent been seen since  

theres some fun to be had trying to do the best with an ever shrinking budget, 1 year contracts, players being poached by top teams all the time and trying to fill your  U23 slots with good loanees. SA hosts the world cup next year and we are  building a new stadium for it, its why im sticking around. theres opportunity here. still not got a single coaching badge mind, they wont have any of it. 

These lower leagues are generally just totally duff. Got to probably loan your way to the top tier for things to ever really take off.

[Beliall]

Season 29/30 is about to begin and i hope im ready. 

managed to keep most of the key position players for this year, most of the back 4, brought in 2 LB to replace the 2 loanees i was using there last season, experienced player shane saralina aged 32 from uppington city hopefully will bring some experience and stability in the back line, along with 19 year old Robert Seman as cover/rotation 




midfield is mostly the same, just Motlhaloga in on loan and sithole on a free, leaves me a little short on options but im planning to use my reserve youth as cover after mothbedi came in at the end of last season to cover injuries and got 1 goal and 3 asssits in 8 total appearances, including as a sub


)
im broke my wage limit this year that i set myself, which is why im ran out of money for midfielders, on these 2 players, Risen Albert, on a free from Tuks, 3.8kp/m (most players are at or around 2k p/m) who decided to get injured in his second friendly and will miss the first 2 months of the season, and Lassine Diarra, a GK i snagged from colchester. 



We didnt lose Mkhonza to highbury in the end, so thats the main team for the new year, there a few more added that i wont bore you with as they are just depth options. hope this is the one






 

[shen]

@Beliall 
Some interesting signings. The GK looks pretty solid and your striker should be scoring a lot if you play to his strengths.

Seman looks like a decent CB with some potential, but I'd only use him as an emergency LB.

The FB/WB positions feel extremely important offensively in this version, and Seman is the pits in that regard.

Be sure to add quickness as specific training focus for him and your striker (even your DM) .

[Beliall]

57 minutes ago, shen said:

@Beliall 
Some interesting signings. The GK looks pretty solid and your striker should be scoring a lot if you play to his strengths.

Seman looks like a decent CB with some potential, but I'd only use him as an emergency LB.

The FB/WB positions feel extremely important offensively in this version, and Seman is the pits in that regard.

Be sure to add quickness as specific training focus for him and your striker (even your DM) .

thanks for the tips, i agree hes not the best LB im hoping to just use him as a late sub / rotation option mainly, theres another player i have also can play all across the back line and striker i got as a safety net, i alos have a youth player who looks good for that role that will get some minutes. i got rid of a load of staff for a refresh and lost a lot of scouting information so i couldnt find much else this year, but im pretty happy overall

Edited 28 May by Beliall

[shen]

23 minutes ago, Beliall said:

thanks for the tips, i agree hes not the best LB im hoping to just use him as a late sub / rotation option mainly, theres another player i have also can play all across the back line and striker i got as a safety net, i alos have a youth player who looks good for that role that will get some minutes. i got rid of a load of staff for a refresh and lost a lot of scouting information so i couldnt find much else this year, but im pretty happy overall

The fullback desperately needs pace.

If you can place him in a mentoring group with a senior pro with a professional (fairly or better professional, model citizen etc) then he'll reach his potential faster. In fact, since you're limited in scouting knowledge, transfer and wage budget, I'd try to optimize training in your case to get youth players pushing for first XI places and add sales value.

You can follow the tips in this thread: 

 

 

In short, each month of training should be scheduled as 3x weeks of 5x physical, 5x attacking and a full rest day after match (assuming 1-match weeks) and 1x week of 4x recovery, 1x resistance with a full rest day after match again and nothing else. 
To reduce injuries, set the training intensity to Double only when fully fit. The others should all be set to no training so they can fully recover.
 

[Beliall]

39 minutes ago, shen said:

The fullback desperately needs pace.

If you can place him in a mentoring group with a senior pro with a professional (fairly or better professional, model citizen etc) then he'll reach his potential faster. In fact, since you're limited in scouting knowledge, transfer and wage budget, I'd try to optimize training in your case to get youth players pushing for first XI places and add sales value.

You can follow the tips in this thread: 

 

 

In short, each month of training should be scheduled as 3x weeks of 5x physical, 5x attacking and a full rest day after match (assuming 1-match weeks) and 1x week of 4x recovery, 1x resistance with a full rest day after match again and nothing else. 
To reduce injuries, set the training intensity to Double only when fully fit. The others should all be set to no training so they can fully recover.
 

thanks

[shen]

26 minutes ago, Beliall said:

thanks

Sorry, just realised it might have come across as unwelcome advice - didn't mean that 

[Beliall]

11 minutes ago, shen said:

Sorry, just realised it might have come across as unwelcome advice - didn't mean that 

not at all mate, sorry if my short reply gave you that impression. i dont often do anything manual with the training but i might try for this season because my injuries happen at the worst times

[Dan]

On 25/05/2026 at 22:48, Dan said:

The winter window takes a turn as the vultures finally cotton onto Andrea Donno, and as stated in an above post he left for PAOK for £5.5mil rising to a potential £6.25mil. It's a great deal but it's definitely going to make a dent in my team in the short term, and annoyingly as well it's the loss of a club grown player, meaning somebody will have to be dropped from the European squad. In came Romanian winger Lorenzo Biliboc for £800k.

 

We sell our 4th choice CB Stefan Gudelj to Honved for £600k which is a decent deal albeit he does need replacing. Where else to look but to go back to Cukaricki to finally secure Maksimovic who has regained interest in joining us. Only for him to sign yet another new deal at Cukaricki. His one goal all season happens to be for us. We break our club record on deadline day to bring in this tank from Vojvodina, who is better than Maksimovic anyway for me. £2.5mil.

 

 

We finally move back to Vrsac after three and a half years but unfortunately, despite facing the worst team in the division in Novi Pazar, it is they who score the first ever goal. Though we manage the next four. Truth be told the league has become a bit of a procession and everything just follows the same pattern as before. We have a disappointing draw at OFK Beograd but produce an absolutely hilarious result at the end of February. We draw Sturm Graz in the round of 16 - quite middle of the road, tricky, but winnable.

 

 

We put in a very decent performance in Austria and take a 1-2 lead back to Belgrade. Unfortunately the ground still isn't big enough to hold European games, which I wish they'd thought about. We actually make very hard work of the second leg and it's far more frantic than I was hoping for, but we do see it out in the end. To the quarters we go. It'll be Hoffenheim.

 

 

I think the funniest part about the form of Bubanj, who managed 9 goals in the Subotica and Partizan games, is he isn't even our best striker. The younger Igor Jovanovic has been just as good, albeit mostly played deputy. He's delivered far more in Europe, while Bubanj seems to save most of it for the Serbian league. In short, he's too good for Serbia, but he's not really that great against better opposition.

 

We beat Mitrovic's old club Vojvodina away before the league kindly postpone our game between the Hoffenheim games. Unfortunately we totally flunk it and are 0-3 down in the first half at home. We do push them and end up losing 2-3, but it's very uphill from here.

 

It's a similar story in Germany. We're 2 down very early on and it's just too much. Despite doing most of the attacking over the two legs, Hoffenheim's superior quality showed. I do wonder what if Mitrovic was able to actually play, but that's the shit side of the registration rules I suppose. Out in the quarters. Respectable, but I do feel like we probably could've offered a bit more. Poor goalkeeping and defending cost us.

 

The rest of the league season is a procession. We secure the title with four remaining games beating Zvezda 4-0. The job now is to do the invincible season. We have three kind home games after this but on the final day travel to 2nd placed TSC, who we've drawn 3-3 with on both occasions.

 

Job done.

 

 

 

An amazing season but a sign that things probably ought to come to a bit of an end. I won't better that season because I found myself instant resulting a couple of games by the end. I will have one more year, with a £5mil budget and £70k a week in wages (we're spending £33k!). The aim is the domestic double. We're in the Champions League play-off round so it's either that or the Europa League this year. I have an itch for a new save after this season.

 

Bubanj signs off with 38 goals in the league which is a new record for the league. Jovanovic scores 17 in the league from 11 starts and 17 sub appearances, but bags a remarkable 15 goals in the Conference League in just 10 games. This has alterted the vultures, and with a £2.9mil release clause, interest from Italian giants and no interest in a new deal, he'll almost certainly be off.

2032/33 - possibly the final one.

 

It started by being hit with the classic FM situation where you've stuck a clause in a players contract thinking over time you'll get rid of it before the vultures find it, only for them to grow a bit too quickly and have no interest in signing a new deal by the time you realise. This is what led to Igor Jovanovic departing for Saudi for just £2.9mil. But money isn't a huge issue for us, we're in a good place. He's replaced by TSC's Muhidin Vehabovic for £1.1mil.

 

Also joining are experienced Aleksa Terzic who Zvezda have let go, a new first choice goalkeeper in Slovenian Lan Jovanovic after I controversially let my existing first choice Mateja Premovic go on a free. The pick of the signings though was Ukrainian Roman Fedorchuk who had just averaged 8.00+ in the Ukrainian 2nd tier. Another winger, which admittedly we have probably too many of already, but he was too good to leave.

 

This season we're straight into the Champions League play-off thanks to Serbia's improved position and we're given a very generous tie of either Beitar Jerusalem or KI Klaksvik of Faroe Islands. I'm fully expecting the former only to my amazement find Klaksvik had pulled off the upset. So between us and the Champions League, we had a Faroese side. We'd dispatched the next best 14-2 on aggregate last season so I wasn't too concerned although I did think these can't be 'that' bad if they've knocked out Beitar. I was wrong. What on earth Beitar were doing I've no idea. 1-6 in Faroe Islands and a fully changed XI won the 2nd leg 3-0. The Champions League is coming to Vrsac Belgrade.

 

 

We are finally beaten in the league courtesy of two late goals at Zvezda. 43 games. Not quite matching the 57 Zvezda themselves managed from October 2017 to April 2019, but some effort.

 

We make our Champions League debut away to Club Brugge. It was meant to be wasn't it?

 

 

It couldn't have been much better. Both teams miss chances but we take one and get on the board immediately becoming the first Serbian side to win an away game in the CL proper since 2025 (I'll be honest, when looking this up I was disappointed it was this recently), before being thrown straight into Lucy Bronze's Monaco - who deems Vrsac "an easy opponent". It was pinned in the dressing room. To be absolutely fair, we lost the game, but it definitely couldn't be described as 'easy' for them.

 

 

I'm definitely keeping mental notes of who is and isn't disrespectful to us during this run, and she is to be joined by three time Premier League and two time Champions League winning Mikel Arteta in the next game. An 'easy opponent' for his Arsenal side. Once again, we go down to defeat, but once again, we absolutely leave it out there. It's a genuinely great effort managing a 3-4 loss to them, joining the illustrious Luton Town side of Rob Edwards in 2023.

 

 

But then came the real test for us. No not Real Madrid, not Barcelona, but Dinamo Jug in the first round of the Kup Srbije. I've stressed to death the cup situation, but this is a team we did go out to in 2026 in disgrace. I did rotate, thinking that if we were to fumble it that I would regret it, but no issues, a 1-5 win. The league campaign is going very well, too. News filters through from Smederevo that Zvezda have fallen at the first hurdle, which is brilliant news.

 

 

Then the lambs are sent to the slaughter. Our first trip to one of the real iconic grounds of world football. Inter and their newly appointed Pep Guardiola. Do I play a relatively aggressive game to try and unsettle them, or do I park the bus somewhat. I feel both leave us very open to a battering. I opt for the aggressive game and am nearly punished early doors. By the 25th minute I concede we're not really making any threat to them and we're just waiting to concede, so I revert to the defensive 4-4-1-1 tactic. By hook, by crook. Honestly. **** knows how, but...

 

 

I feel I've cracked the game somewhat and the wins particularly in the league are very much normal service. But not very often do I get a result where I'm actually cheering it at full time. This was mammoth and up there with my best ever result. Extraordinary. Guardiola was even respectful of us before and after the game and this is always a concern with him as he does tend to have a thing for praising absolutely rubbish teams who bend over for him. But this was a man of class. Be less like Lucy Bronze and Mikel Arteta, and be more like Pep Guardiola. Admittedly Guardiola the only one of the three who did lose to us, so that may impact things.

 

With that result we've conjured out a genuine Qarabag-style chance of a play-off round, with home games to Feyenoord, Marseille and Leverkusen all to come.

 

Zvezda become the first team to avoid defeat at the inventively named "OFK Vrsac Stadium" with a nervy 0-0 draw. Zvezda, to their credit (I guess?) are actually pushing us this year and a genuine title race has made me think with the upgrade in facilities, extra money, and no guarantee that I win the cup that I might actually stick this out a little longer yet.

 

Feyenoord repeat their trick of last season with a 1-3 victory at our place, and admittance from me that we're probably not going to go through. I think 10 points is about the baseline to qualify and we're on 6 points with 3 games left.

 

The second round of the all important Kup Srbije pits us at home to Novi Pazar, recently relegated and like most relegated teams in Serbia, struggling in the 2nd tier. This should be a cakewalk. But I'm not naïve to this anymore. No problems. It's a 4-0 win and progression to the quarter finals with only Partizan, OFK Beograd and Radnicki Nis of the top tier making it this far with us. This simply has to be it.

 

Then it's Marseille, who've hit a shocking bit of form losing 6 games on the bounce in all competitions and an inquest following a 1-0 loss at Auxerre. This is a real opportunity, one that we look set to blow as they get an early lead. We do peg them back quickly but Emegha puts them back in front after half an hour. N'Tamon equalises with the last kick (header) of the half.

 

The second half is a pretty rubbish game. I reluctantly think a point is probably going to be enough but it'll mean beating Leverkusen, who aren't doing too well themselves. Bayern are another kettle of fish to Inter and I think we'll be slaughtered there. But then...

 

 

An extremely efficient display from us and the last 15 minutes locked down with relative ease. 3 wins from 6 in the Champions League. This is an absolutely great effort no matter how this ends.

 

We end December by pummelling Partizan at their place, seeing their manager sacked. Quite how he lasted this long is beyond me - they're absolutely atrocious.

 

 

 

When I said Zvezda had created a title race. Well they sort of did, but they've completely fallen off again with two surprise home losses giving us a huge cushion.

 

As for the Champions League. I think we still need a result off Leverkusen personally.

 

 

Especially given they're one of the teams chasing us. I think if we avoid defeat to them we might just do it.

 

But it's been another very good season. The league and cup have gone to plan but the Champions League has been superb and genuinely miles above expectation. I'm sort of expecting them to top my budget up in January. The signings have been decent, especially Fedorchuk who has been terrific. The new striker has been a bit disappointing and neither him or Bubanj have been as good as last season, so I will probably get another in January. Things are great now though. It's a well oiled machine and I'm actually more likely to stick out another year than I was before, but we'll see how it goes.

[moore_94]

I really hate the Prem sometimes, 2039 and our 4th season in the Prem and we could've taken advantage of basically all the big clubs becoming absolute sh!te and winning the league but we were just beaten to it by Chelsea because we drew our last 2 games against Burnley and Sunderland... FFS.

 

Also yes Leicester are genuine top 4 / title contenders, they got a tycoon takeover in 2032 and have spent over £1billion since and have some very good players 

 

Bournemouth had previously had a tycoon owner as well and were right up there for a few seasons until he started scaling back his funding.

 

 

With the transfer budgets I have been getting so far I can usually only sign 1 maybe 2 new first team players at a push so our squad development is a bit slow and our squad depth is okay but probably not good enough for a side now in the Champions League - although some of the youth players I have been signing and loaning out are developing nicely and are very close to coming in to the squad with 1 or 2 probably stepping up this summer

 

[moore_94]

I NEED to sign this guy... 17 years old, just played a full season for Koln as their number 1 in the Bundesliga and has a release clause of just £4.1m...

 

But he doesn't want to join 

 

[Miquel The Work Geordie]

On 27/05/2026 at 17:38, Beliall said:

season over, we played hungry lions on the last day, even game but we lost 1-0 and finished 4th. a step closer than ever before but still not good enough, now to put together next seasons squad and see what happens. 



signed our loanees to permanent deals as their contracts were up at their clubs, lost or most reliable CM though to sekukune in the prem. snuck that one by me without me noticing until it was too late. hopefully i can keep most of the same squad this time, and it would be nice to use less than 3 keepers in a year for once too. 

 

Hungry Lions ey, sounds like they have some raw talent

 

 

[Beliall]

20 hours ago, shen said:

The fullback desperately needs pace.

If you can place him in a mentoring group with a senior pro with a professional (fairly or better professional, model citizen etc) then he'll reach his potential faster. In fact, since you're limited in scouting knowledge, transfer and wage budget, I'd try to optimize training in your case to get youth players pushing for first XI places and add sales value.

You can follow the tips in this thread: 

 

 

In short, each month of training should be scheduled as 3x weeks of 5x physical, 5x attacking and a full rest day after match (assuming 1-match weeks) and 1x week of 4x recovery, 1x resistance with a full rest day after match again and nothing else. 
To reduce injuries, set the training intensity to Double only when fully fit. The others should all be set to no training so they can fully recover.
 

ok so, no idea why im trying this because we have won the first 4 games of the season and tinkering doesnt seem wise but im trying this new training for the rest of the month. i got confused where what you said about training modules didnt match with the graphic on reddit, so i copied that 

[shen]

1 hour ago, Beliall said:

ok so, no idea why im trying this because we have won the first 4 games of the season and tinkering doesnt seem wise but im trying this new training for the rest of the month. i got confused where what you said about training modules didnt match with the graphic on reddit, so i copied that 

So with 1-match weeks (assuming Saturdays matches, like you posted), it's pretty simple.

 

The first three weeks of the month you go:

Mon/Tue/Wed/Thu: Physical, Attacking, Rest

Fri: Physical, Attacking, Match focus (forced)

Sun: Rest, Rest, Rest

 

The last week you go:

Mon/Tue/Wed/Thu: Recovery, Rest, Rest

Fri: Resistance, Rest, Match Focus (forced)

Sun: Rest, Rest, Rest

 

I changed to this schedule between my last two Diegem updates and my players are developing great (i.e. 9+ training ratings and green arrows all around).
Match sharpness might become an issue for players that aren't playing, so for your squad players it might be worth arranging friendlies.

 

You don't even need to assign a Position role/Out of Possession role to players, just leave them on their generic position i.e. AM (L). 

Only assign their specific training focus to "Quickness" (for GKs you can select "Agility & Balance" as quickness is less useful). 

 

With high potential ability (PA) players, you can stop focusing on quickness once they-re 15-18 pace depending on your preference and round out their technical/mental skills by focusing those. Either way, Acceleration/Pace are by some distance proven to be the most impactful on performance across all positions (except GK) and it's also weighted the highest in terms of development points, so they will reach their potential quicker. Higher current ability (CA) players will be considered more valuable and should net you some decent transfer revenue.

Also, one month running these schedules will not be that effective, but maybe you'll see the same development trends I did and then you can stick to that.

 

If you have high player/squad turnover, it may be worth replacing (or adding) one or two team bonding/tactical familiarity sessions so your performances don't suffer needlessly.

 

 

Edited 29 May by shen

[Beliall]

2 hours ago, shen said:

So with 1-match weeks (assuming Saturdays matches, like you posted), it's pretty simple.

 

The first three weeks of the month you go:

Mon/Tue/Wed/Thu: Physical, Attacking, Rest

Fri: Physical, Attacking, Match focus (forced)

Sun: Rest, Rest, Rest

 

The last week you go:

Mon/Tue/Wed/Thu: Recovery, Rest, Rest

Fri: Resistance, Rest, Match Focus (forced)

Sun: Rest, Rest, Rest

 

I changed to this schedule between my last two Diegem updates and my players are developing great (i.e. 9+ training ratings and green arrows all around).
Match sharpness might become an issue for players that aren't playing, so for your squad players it might be worth arranging friendlies.

 

You don't even need to assign a Position role/Out of Possession role to players, just leave them on their generic position i.e. AM (L). 

Only assign their specific training focus to "Quickness" (for GKs you can select "Agility & Balance" as quickness is less useful). 

 

With high potential ability (PA) players, you can stop focusing on quickness once they-re 15-18 pace depending on your preference and round out their technical/mental skills by focusing those. Either way, Acceleration/Pace are by some distance proven to be the most impactful on performance across all positions (except GK) and it's also weighted the highest in terms of development points, so they will reach their potential quicker. Higher current ability (CA) players will be considered more valuable and should net you some decent transfer revenue.

Also, one month running these schedules will not be that effective, but maybe you'll see the same development trends I did and then you can stick to that.

 

If you have high player/squad turnover, it may be worth replacing (or adding) one or two team bonding/tactical familiarity sessions so your performances don't suffer needlessly.

 

 

thank you shen, very helpful. i will make the cutom schedules and use it for the whole season and see what happens

[shen]

2 minutes ago, Beliall said:

thank you shen, very helpful. i will make the cutom schedules and use it for the whole season and see what happens

Keep us updated on the progress of Seman and Mayo 

[moore_94]

Ended up selling some squad players and managed to make some very very very good money on them (thank you Wolves, Galatasaray, and Atalanta) and signed a couple of good yet relatively cheap replacements for them and also brought through a couple of players who had been out on loan.

 

 

Then because I couldn't really find much else to spend money on and I had about £100m in my transfer budget (before I had even sold Kock or Lithgow) I decided to drop a club record fee of £75m (previous record was £40m) on a new centre back. Definitely worth it though with how good he is, especially with how hard it can be to find good newgen centre backs on this game.

 

I have still ended up with around £50m and £100k to go wonderkid hunting with as well!

 

Edited Friday at 21:35 by moore_94