Football Manager 2026

[Dan]

On 08/09/2026 at 23:57, Dan said:

The following season was about building on what I had rather than ripping it up and going again, which is better.

 

We made five big signings in the summer. Nguomha joined on a free transfer and became the highest earner on £83k a week. Two longer term targets arrived in Benjamin Andric from Copenhagen and Luis Padilla from Club America. Both just under £20mil each. Both extremely high potential players that I think could actually kick on to the very top. The other was a slightly controversial move, but the declining form of goalkeeper Nicolas made me go for it. On a one year deal for an enormous £155k a week came in Mike Maignan. He was old, but he was still performing well for AC Milan. Not my usual type of signing, but I am fed up of being plagued by goalkeepers. Despite his age I'm still hopeful he can be the solid, reliable goalkeeper I just cannot seem to bring in. The other was striker Mohamed Meite who had just been released from his Saudi club. A serious coup I thought, substantially better than our other striker options.

 

We make a very decent start this time around, winning 8 and drawing 1 of our first 9 games. Meite is banging the goals in. Padilla and Andric, while not ripping it up, aren't doing too badly.

 

The problem though is we are still letting goals in. Maignan hasn't really solved anything. The most egregious is a complete shocker of a performance in the CL at home to Roma, which prompts me to look for a new goalkeeper for January already. Maignan was a dud. Is it the tactic? Is he just finished? I'm glad I only signed up for a one year deal with him.

 

We're in proper title contention, but it all comes crashing down in January. Bayern inflict our first defeat of the season and we go and lose pathetically at Hannover the week after. As good as we've been, Bayern really are back this season and they just look too much for us to deal with.

 

January does see some interesting movement. Aljoscha Kemlein, a steady midfielder, is sold to Leipzig for a ridiculous £31.5mil. I liked him but I couldn't believe they bit on that, he's worth probably half of that. Shun Muto, my left back, again - good, but not amazing, makes a £38.5mil move to Wolves. They are replaced by Sebastian Olderheim (who is a better tactical fit) for £8.5mil and Jofre Torrents (who is better than Muto) for £18mil. Once again a post Saudi free agent rocks up here as goalkeeper Tommaso Martinelli joins for £44k per week. One of those classic, satisfying FM windows where you improve your team and make money in the process.

 

We are dumped out of Europe again by Manchester United, this time in the knock-out play-off round of the Champions League.

 

Our league form remains steady, but we suffer a couple more silly defeats, a totally undeserved 2-0 loss at Freiburg, and late on a 3-1 loss at Bayer Leverkusen to bury any small hopes of the title we had. Disappointingly, we ended up slipping to 3rd after all.

 

 

So it's the same as last season. But I felt we'd improved. We scored more goals and we're definitely playing at the highest level I can remember us playing at. Other than the 11th placed abberation we have ended up on 72-75 points each season. We're going to have to bump that up slightly to win the league. But Andric and Padilla were looking encouraging and definitely improved as the season went on. I don't think we are far off. But Bayern are just beyond annoying.

 

Our final ever game at the Ruhrstadion is a 5-1 win over Hoffenheim, which sends them down.

I'll do a half season thing this time around, although I think there is probably a fairly obvious reason for it.

 

This year I think is going to be the one.

 

Something quite interesting happened in the summer. Bayern just left themselves totally underprepared. I was monitoring what they did and they seem to have had two things happen at once in that a lot of their better players are hitting their mid thirties, while they have gone bizarrely light on the squad.

 

I mean look at this. What is happening?!

 

 

They have left themselves completely underprepared for this season. It's still the skeleton of a team that just won the league, but that looks vulnerable to me.

 

Nowhere does this vulnerability show more than the fifth game of the season, away at Bochum.

 

Unfortunately though, it still ends in a Bayern win, Bochum's first points dropped of the season and a first loss at the new stadium. Bayern win, but my god, they were bad. We outplayed them in a way I just don't really remember happening. If that is the performance level on offer this season, they are catchable.

 

We make a very good start overall. Then our eighth game of the season arrives. It's truly extraordinary what plays out. We go to Freiburg who fairly recently had beaten us 2-0 at their place. We look on fire going forward this season, but this just clicks in a way that I'm laughing to myself during the game.

 

 

0-6 just before HT, then somehow 2-6 at HT, then 3-9 after 54 minutes. The red card actually seems to help Freiburg as they decide to finally stop letting us walk through them. A really mental game and I can't remember seeing anything quite like it.

 

In classic FM style we only draw our next game at home to Leverkusen 1-1, but at the half way mark, these remain the only points we've collected.

 

And my god was I right about Bayern.

 

 

You can never totally discount them from the race, but to be 15 clear of them already. The issue is Dortmund are also flying.

 

We go away to the three teams below us which is a concern, but we have been an absolute machine. Padilla has 8 goals and 11 assists in 16 games. The likes of Andric, Olderheim, and new striker Francisco Souza Silva are also hitting very encouraging numbers.

 

Souza Silva has 19 goals in 20 in all competitions. Meite's form fell off a bit late last season and I couldn't pass up what looked a top striker on paper for £25mil so in he came.

 

I broke my club record to sign a player that I sold for £22mil two years ago. Gavin Darby is back. He just ticked too many boxes unfortunately and I never wanted to actually sell him in the first place.

 

The only other signing of note is Dutch centre half Juricmar Hose, who I'm hoping is of a similar category to Andric and Padilla.

 

I would've taken the Padilla money in a few situations, but we don't need money urgently and this is the best chance to win the league I'll have. I've identified a replacement for him and I'll possibly sell in the summer, but for this year he will stay. Simply not worth it.

 

Bring on the unlikelier of the title battles.

[shen]

You've proper put Bochum in to fifth gear, Dan. Averaging almost four goals a game in the Bundesliga is pretty wild. Also nuts that it's already a two horse race after half a season. 
I'm liking the look of your tactic. It's not too dissimilar to mine with a back five and a front five - classic FM stuff.
Best of luck for the remainder of the season!

[shen]

Diegem update:

Just as I was thinking that this team can walk on water... 

 

We drew Chelsea in the last-16 and just put out a wholly professional performance away in the first leg winning it 1-2, letting them back into the tie in the 87th minute. It was a pretty even game, we were just sharper with Orakpo and Pieters getting the strikes.

In the return leg, we definitely have the upper hand but cannot make a breakthrough until Reece James gets shown a straight red in first half added time. We start the second half like lightning and race into a 2-0 lead by the 58th minute, Orakpo and September getting the goals, and four minutes later I make what in hindsight looks like a big mistake by changing five players and freshen things up as my tactic is very taxing against strong opposition. Just five minutes after this, they reduce the arrears and then on 76 minutes they bloody equalise with ten men. Suddenly, my entire team's confidence is shot and I'm biting nails here. But we hold on and win 4-3 on aggregate.

We continue bulldozing in the league winning 6-1 against Gent and 7-1 against Standard which sets us up to win the league in between the CL quarterfinals against none other than Real Madrid....

The first leg is at home and we are absolutely flying. Petterson saves an early penalty from Güler and makes two outstanding saves in the following corners. Then Andrey Santos bursts through a few minutes later and gets chopped down in the area. Penalty. Orakpo buries it and the stadium erupts. 37 minutes, a corner taken short and Jetten works it in towards Gueye who buries it from close range. Half time. We're deservedly ahead and beating the biggest club in the world! 49 minutes - Orakpo buries another through ball, again assisted by Santos and we're on cloud 9. 
But then our excellent defence gets punished with some bad luck. A pot shot from distance hits two players and lands at Endrick's feet who taps into an empty net with Petterson wrongfooted. And now Real have their tails up and are throwing the kitchen sink at it. I make another mistake and don't dare change anything after the punishment by Chelsea - Jetten loses it badly in their half as he dithers too long and Güler just punts it long and Bellingham races through from his own half - unopposed - and buries it with 6 minutes left to play. We hold on for a famous - and deserved - win, but Real are very much alive in the tie.



We play third-placed Charleroi away in-between and thoroughly outplay them, but we waste chances which they don't and we end up with a draw which means we don't secure the league yet. Would've been nice with that morale booster.

 

We go to Bernabeu and are immediately under the cosh. Yeremy Pino, who we kept completely quiet in the first game as well as Güler are toying with us and within 23 minutes we're down 2-0 with them two assisting eachother. But in both cases, we had just wasted two gilt-edged chances just before their goals, with Gueye missing the target on both occasions, which just added salt to the wound. We fought bravely and missed the target with another two clear chances which is so uncharacteristic. Terrible day for my strikers to draw blanks. We contain Real Madrid well, but we just couldn't find that one goal to take it into extra time and the miracle run is over. Proud but also thinking what could've been.

 

-------

Then a couple of weeks off before the cup final against Genk and I place two friendlies against amateur sides which we casually win 19-0 and 22-0 respectively  to build up morale and confidence.
Preparations have gone great, we practice extra penalties and set pieces and focus on penalties in the match prep as well. 
The game starts cagey until we get our first chance in the 11th minute. A Machmoum cross is floated to the middle and Orakpo, flying in from the left wing, directs it beautifully into the far corner. We keep creating openings and clear sights of goal, but at half-time we've had 18 shots with only 4 on target and I'm already sensing what's coming. Genk haven't had a sniff so far. 
We sub three on 75 mintues and another two on 83 minutes to keep performance levels up and lo behold, we miss a sitter in the 85th minute to kill the game and two minutes later Genk create their only chance of any danger to equalise. Unreal. 
Extra time is one way traffic and we end the game with an xG of 3,29 to their 0,59, but it goes down to penalties and I just hate penalties... The perfect season comes crashing down as Irankunda buries the last pen to win it.

[shen]

Also, kind of funny that Steve Cooper was appointed manager of Club Brugge a month ago in my game (April 2031), Brendan Rodgers has been OHL manager since 2029 (previously Genk from 2026-28). Even in Belgium I cannot escape Leicester's ghosts haunting me!

[Tommy Fresh]

Started one with NK Kalcer Radomlje in Slovenia, predicted to finish 9th in the top flight which is bottom as Domzale went bust in real life. 

First game played Bravo and beat them 8-2, Bristric bagged for them

[Dan]

Slovenia haha. Same here.

[Tommy Fresh]

2 hours ago, Dan said:

Slovenia haha. Same here.

Who did you go for?

[Dan]

4 hours ago, Tommy Fresh said:

Who did you go for?

Triglav Kranj. Going to bring fully archaic football to this country. They won't have a clue how to break me down.

[Tommy Fresh]

14 minutes ago, Dan said:

Triglav Kranj. Going to bring fully archaic football to this country. They won't have a clue how to break me down.

Should piss that second division with them, I did one with Slovan in the second tier a while back but didn't persist with it. Enjoying this save so far though, got about 6 league games left and in with a slight chance of the title still but just want to make sure I get a conference league spot

Edited 22 September by Tommy Fresh

[shen]

Urgh, the bugs are at it again. It's really messed up my pre-season.

Many of my stars were wanted (unsurprisingly) after that great season, none more so than Orakpo who had elite clubs after him. Despite being valued around 22-25m, I upped the price to 50m and Leipzig took the bait. But I had left the negotiation screen and that reset the deal, which upon renegotiation makes it stall forever. I didn't realise this until far too late, so many of the deals I'd set up with the expected money, I needed to cancel again.

This was particularly crap as I'd already upset Orakpo and other profiles by offering them out for big fees.

 

Then when he finally went, in a worse, structured deal to Inter worth £40-50m, the board promised to add £33m to the budget upon completion, which never happened! I'd made some smaller sales in-between and noticed the transfer budget still showed a big fat 0, so I was suspecting something was up.

 

I'll be sending in another report and then just edit using the free editor because this is bull. 

 

And today I saw the sneak peak of FM27 which already looks and promises to be light years better, so my motivation has severely dropped...

[Tommy Fresh]

19 hours ago, Dan said:

Triglav Kranj. Going to bring fully archaic football to this country. They won't have a clue how to break me down.

Also got saves going in Chile and Sweden as I'm trying to decide on one last big save before 27 comes out

[Dan]

On 14/09/2026 at 19:26, Dan said:

I'll do a half season thing this time around, although I think there is probably a fairly obvious reason for it.

 

This year I think is going to be the one.

 

Something quite interesting happened in the summer. Bayern just left themselves totally underprepared. I was monitoring what they did and they seem to have had two things happen at once in that a lot of their better players are hitting their mid thirties, while they have gone bizarrely light on the squad.

 

I mean look at this. What is happening?!

 

 

They have left themselves completely underprepared for this season. It's still the skeleton of a team that just won the league, but that looks vulnerable to me.

 

Nowhere does this vulnerability show more than the fifth game of the season, away at Bochum.

 

Unfortunately though, it still ends in a Bayern win, Bochum's first points dropped of the season and a first loss at the new stadium. Bayern win, but my god, they were bad. We outplayed them in a way I just don't really remember happening. If that is the performance level on offer this season, they are catchable.

 

We make a very good start overall. Then our eighth game of the season arrives. It's truly extraordinary what plays out. We go to Freiburg who fairly recently had beaten us 2-0 at their place. We look on fire going forward this season, but this just clicks in a way that I'm laughing to myself during the game.

 

 

0-6 just before HT, then somehow 2-6 at HT, then 3-9 after 54 minutes. The red card actually seems to help Freiburg as they decide to finally stop letting us walk through them. A really mental game and I can't remember seeing anything quite like it.

 

In classic FM style we only draw our next game at home to Leverkusen 1-1, but at the half way mark, these remain the only points we've collected.

 

And my god was I right about Bayern.

 

 

You can never totally discount them from the race, but to be 15 clear of them already. The issue is Dortmund are also flying.

 

We go away to the three teams below us which is a concern, but we have been an absolute machine. Padilla has 8 goals and 11 assists in 16 games. The likes of Andric, Olderheim, and new striker Francisco Souza Silva are also hitting very encouraging numbers.

 

Souza Silva has 19 goals in 20 in all competitions. Meite's form fell off a bit late last season and I couldn't pass up what looked a top striker on paper for £25mil so in he came.

 

I broke my club record to sign a player that I sold for £22mil two years ago. Gavin Darby is back. He just ticked too many boxes unfortunately and I never wanted to actually sell him in the first place.

 

The only other signing of note is Dutch centre half Juricmar Hose, who I'm hoping is of a similar category to Andric and Padilla.

 

I would've taken the Padilla money in a few situations, but we don't need money urgently and this is the best chance to win the league I'll have. I've identified a replacement for him and I'll possibly sell in the summer, but for this year he will stay. Simply not worth it.

 

Bring on the unlikelier of the title battles.

You can probably guess what played out based on the last few posts saying I'm managing Triglav Kranj.

 

That is just what the Bundesliga winning manager normally aims for. A move to a 2nd tier Slovenian team.

 

Starting in January, the break seemed to do nothing to deter us, with 0-4 and 6-1 wins over Dusseldorf and Kaiserslautern. 100 goals felt like a formality at this point. We even won away at Barcelona in the league phase, which prompted me to wonder... could we even win that? Probably not.

 

The month ended a bit sourly though. Starting with a genuinely poor performance in a 2-2 draw at Mainz, but more importantly seeing the vultures arrive. Ngumoha departed for Barcelona for £27.5mil after they hit his release clause. Suddenly the whole "I will remove release clauses, but I can live with that one, I don't mind losing him for that" didn't seem too clever late in the window when our depth in that position was already a bit low. Replacing him for £20mil was Dutch winger Mark Swank, who wasn't quite as good, but had pretty high potential according to scouts.

 

The real problem though was Mohamed Meite. He'd fully checked out and wanted to move. He'd operated as a pretty much perfect 2nd choice striker this season, he played enough to keep him happy and he performed well enough to keep me happy, including a hattrick away at Chelsea in the CL. He kicked off and he got his move, with Marseille putting down a club record £55mil to bring him in. It was decent money, but we really needed replacements and we were left scrambling around on deadline day. Given I was happy with Souza Silva as first choice, I needed somebody to replicate the role of Meite and we got left with two options at the end. After panicking somewhat about being able to get one of them, we actually ended up getting both. Igor Matanovic joined from Freiburg for £9mil and Lorenzo Granelli, a regen Italian striker, joined on loan from Roma with a view to a permanent. Matanovic was the definition proven goalscorer. A reliable striker for 15-20 every season for Freiburg. Now 30 years old, but I was very much buying for the situation rather than any sort of sell on fee or whatnot here. I simply needed a striker who could come in and provide probably 5 goals for the rest of the season. His wages were almost Maignan level, but I did not want to jeopardise the title.

 

February was trickier. We'd shown signs of slowing down, which feels mad to say after a 0-0 draw away at Bayern in which, once again, we'd had the much better chances. Then came Frankfurt at home. One of those games we were largely in control against one of the tougher opponents but just could not find a way through them. Until the 93rd minute - a Matanovic header. You literally couldn't have a more ideal outcome for what I was aiming for. That's what he's in for.

 

We have the chance to go 10 clear of Dortmund when facing them away, but pick up our 2nd loss of the season. A genuinely rubbish performance as well. Before losing 2-0 at Barcelona (again!!!) in the knockout round of the CL. We lose the 2nd leg 0-1 so the dream is over, but the Freiburg home game in between the two, which is the bigger priority and proves a lot trickier than the 3-10 away win there, is settled once again by Matanovic late on against his old team.

 

We play Leverkusen away and are 2 down early doors, but come back to draw it 2-2. Dortmund's form has also dipped. We have retained a big gap over them and have gotten our toughest fixtures out of the way. We have no excuses.

 

And there are none. The only points we drop in our final 8 games are a 0-0 draw away at Schalke, while already champions. We secure the title with 3 games remaining at home to Hannover.

 

On the final day, we beat Dusseldorf 5-0 to get over the 100 goal mark. There is no doubt we had dipped a bit in terms of goals, but it's still a super effort and the biggest points tally posted in this league in five seasons.

 

 

We'd had yet another favourable run in the DFB Pokal too, where we had 2nd tier Nurnberg at home in the semis. No problems. 3-1 win. We have the chance to complete the domestic double, against Bayern Munich in the final.

 

In a game where we spent one half attacking them, one half defending them, a surprisingly, rare brilliant performance from my backup goalkeeper, and another where Matanovic did what he was brought in to do, we did it (though I can't upload the file for some reason). A 3-1 win and fairly comfortable throughout.

So this is probably the natural time to conclude. 9 seasons. 1 promotion. 3 DFB Pokals. 1 Bundesliga. I'd say a job well done.

[Dan]

Oh - and Meite still hasn't made his Marseille debut. Nice one fool.

[Tommy Fresh]

14 hours ago, Dan said:

You can probably guess what played out based on the last few posts saying I'm managing Triglav Kranj.

 

That is just what the Bundesliga winning manager normally aims for. A move to a 2nd tier Slovenian team.

 

Starting in January, the break seemed to do nothing to deter us, with 0-4 and 6-1 wins over Dusseldorf and Kaiserslautern. 100 goals felt like a formality at this point. We even won away at Barcelona in the league phase, which prompted me to wonder... could we even win that? Probably not.

 

The month ended a bit sourly though. Starting with a genuinely poor performance in a 2-2 draw at Mainz, but more importantly seeing the vultures arrive. Ngumoha departed for Barcelona for £27.5mil after they hit his release clause. Suddenly the whole "I will remove release clauses, but I can live with that one, I don't mind losing him for that" didn't seem too clever late in the window when our depth in that position was already a bit low. Replacing him for £20mil was Dutch winger Mark Swank, who wasn't quite as good, but had pretty high potential according to scouts.

 

The real problem though was Mohamed Meite. He'd fully checked out and wanted to move. He'd operated as a pretty much perfect 2nd choice striker this season, he played enough to keep him happy and he performed well enough to keep me happy, including a hattrick away at Chelsea in the CL. He kicked off and he got his move, with Marseille putting down a club record £55mil to bring him in. It was decent money, but we really needed replacements and we were left scrambling around on deadline day. Given I was happy with Souza Silva as first choice, I needed somebody to replicate the role of Meite and we got left with two options at the end. After panicking somewhat about being able to get one of them, we actually ended up getting both. Igor Matanovic joined from Freiburg for £9mil and Lorenzo Granelli, a regen Italian striker, joined on loan from Roma with a view to a permanent. Matanovic was the definition proven goalscorer. A reliable striker for 15-20 every season for Freiburg. Now 30 years old, but I was very much buying for the situation rather than any sort of sell on fee or whatnot here. I simply needed a striker who could come in and provide probably 5 goals for the rest of the season. His wages were almost Maignan level, but I did not want to jeopardise the title.

 

February was trickier. We'd shown signs of slowing down, which feels mad to say after a 0-0 draw away at Bayern in which, once again, we'd had the much better chances. Then came Frankfurt at home. One of those games we were largely in control against one of the tougher opponents but just could not find a way through them. Until the 93rd minute - a Matanovic header. You literally couldn't have a more ideal outcome for what I was aiming for. That's what he's in for.

 

We have the chance to go 10 clear of Dortmund when facing them away, but pick up our 2nd loss of the season. A genuinely rubbish performance as well. Before losing 2-0 at Barcelona (again!!!) in the knockout round of the CL. We lose the 2nd leg 0-1 so the dream is over, but the Freiburg home game in between the two, which is the bigger priority and proves a lot trickier than the 3-10 away win there, is settled once again by Matanovic late on against his old team.

 

We play Leverkusen away and are 2 down early doors, but come back to draw it 2-2. Dortmund's form has also dipped. We have retained a big gap over them and have gotten our toughest fixtures out of the way. We have no excuses.

 

And there are none. The only points we drop in our final 8 games are a 0-0 draw away at Schalke, while already champions. We secure the title with 3 games remaining at home to Hannover.

 

On the final day, we beat Dusseldorf 5-0 to get over the 100 goal mark. There is no doubt we had dipped a bit in terms of goals, but it's still a super effort and the biggest points tally posted in this league in five seasons.

 

 

We'd had yet another favourable run in the DFB Pokal too, where we had 2nd tier Nurnberg at home in the semis. No problems. 3-1 win. We have the chance to complete the domestic double, against Bayern Munich in the final.

 

In a game where we spent one half attacking them, one half defending them, a surprisingly, rare brilliant performance from my backup goalkeeper, and another where Matanovic did what he was brought in to do, we did it (though I can't upload the file for some reason). A 3-1 win and fairly comfortable throughout.

 

So this is probably the natural time to conclude. 9 seasons. 1 promotion. 3 DFB Pokals. 1 Bundesliga. I'd say a job well done.

Have you just binned Slovenia?

[shen]

2 hours ago, Tommy Fresh said:

Have you just binned Slovenia?

I think he quit Bochum to go to Slovenia.

[Dan]

4 hours ago, Tommy Fresh said:

Have you just binned Slovenia?

Nah - I'd already started. Finished Bochum like a week ago.

[Tommy Fresh]

30 minutes ago, Dan said:

Nah - I'd already started. Finished Bochum like a week ago.

Ah, hows Slovenia going, I did too well in that first year and found it boring in the second .

[shen]

Yeah, I'm not sure I'll finish this season with Diegem. 
The bug has kinda killed any motivation I had to keep going. 
I sold for about £80mil during the summer window, including star players Orakpo and September (who put in a request after I priced out Al Ahli from a deal), I upset Gueye and Osnes-Ringen by offering them out and I got a big fat £0 to do incoming transfers.
The only saving grace is that I managed to spend my entire budget on three promising young players (and a potential GK upgrade), including Aaron Van Troys, a regen from Anderlecht.
Him, Pieters and Webber, who I brought in last year are the young guns that feel exciting, but I've really gotten weaker overall, which was never the intention. 

I'll still have enough about me to win the league, maybe the Cup as well, but I doubt my CL performance can be replicated without those two stars.
 

Edited Saturday at 08:22 by shen

[Tommy Fresh]

7 hours ago, shen said:

Yeah, I'm not sure I'll finish this season with Diegem. 
The bug has kinda killed any motivation I had to keep going. 
I sold for about £80mil during the summer window, including star players Orakpo and September (who put in a request after I priced out Al Ahli from a deal), I upset Gueye and Osnes-Ringen by offering them out and I got a big fat £0 to do incoming transfers.
The only saving grace is that I managed to spend my entire budget on three promising young players (and a potential GK upgrade), including Aaron Van Troys, a regen from Anderlecht.
Him, Pieters and Webber, who I brought in last year are the young guns that feel exciting, but I've really gotten weaker overall, which was never the intention. 

I'll still have enough about me to win the league, maybe the Cup as well, but I doubt my CL performance can be replicated with those two stars.
 

Have you noticed stats not pulling through for players that have played for B teams, but only from the start of the save, historical appearances are fine.

So they show when you go in to career stats and look season by season but don't seem to get added to the total on the overall player profile. (Potentially not added to the overall total in the career stats tab either) 

Edited Saturday at 06:56 by Tommy Fresh

[shen]

2 hours ago, Tommy Fresh said:

Have you noticed stats not pulling through for players that have played for B teams, but only from the start of the save, historical appearances are fine.

So they show when you go in to career stats and look season by season but don't seem to get added to the total on the overall player profile. (Potentially not added to the overall total in the career stats tab either) 

Not sure I understand what you're referring to. But it's either way not something I've paid much attention to, except for my own players. I don't like that it only counts League appearances, as if Cup and continental matches don't count 😅

[Tommy Fresh]

On 26/09/2026 at 10:46, shen said:

Not sure I understand what you're referring to. But it's either way not something I've paid much attention to, except for my own players. I don't like that it only counts League appearances, as if Cup and continental matches don't count 😅

I'll try and remember to get a screenshot of what I mean next time I'm on it, should explain it better than me 

[Tommy Fresh]

Probably my final save of 26 (hopefully) Defensor in Uruguay, dabbled with them before on this years but nothing long term.

 

First season and I've won the opening stage comfortably, and the weird little mid season league they have as well. Got 4 games of the closing stage left and don't think I'll win it but I'm top of the overall table by some distance, so even if I lose the opening vs closing stage playoff, I'll be in the final playoff regardless. 

 

Managed to avoid any big sides in the Sudamericana knockouts luckily and managed to get to the final, expect to lose as it's against River Plate, but it'd be nice to win as I expect to be in the Libertadores every year moving forwards, so probably won't get another chance.

[Dan]

On 25/09/2026 at 13:14, Tommy Fresh said:

Ah, hows Slovenia going, I did too well in that first year and found it boring in the second .

I've played about 1.5 seasons. It's been interesting. I'll do a proper write up of it for a little more interest.

 

But I am genuinely doing this save in a different way. I'm playing very direct football and building the entire thing to suit.

[Dan]

Nabijanje žoge - NK Triglav Kranj

 

 

So with the new game out in not too long I thought I'd give something slightly different a go. Not me managing in a crap European league - that isn't different at all. But I'd combine that with trying to play a way I've not really purposely built around before.

 

I think I probably play more direct than the average FM player does anyway. I've never hugely cared for possession. I'm far more interested in chance creation and prevention. But this is the one to take it to another extreme.

 

Nabijanje žoge - this is the nearest Slovenian translation for hoofball. Can I build a club successfully around very long ball tactics? My most advanced player out of possession is a CM!

 

To give you the answer, after year one - no.

 

We started with a terrible, terrible performance at home to Beltinci and lost 0-3. We did actually go on to win 5 of our next 6, keeping clean sheets in all of them, but hit a rock in October with three defeats on the spin. I tweaked a few things. Changed a few roles. Our form remained inconsistent. Very good some games. Very bad in others. The dominating factor working against us, and this isn't hugely surprising, is that as soon as we went 1-0 down we were toast. In-fact it took us until our 12th league game to actually concede in a game and avoid defeat in it.

 

We were floating around 2nd-4th for the majority but, unfortunately, ND Gorica were absolutely walking the division and looked almost certain to win the league going into the ridiculous 4 month mid-season break that we had.

 

So I made a compromise. For this season we are going to change to a very similar 4-1-4-1, attacking system to what Bochum played in an attempt to save our season and get promoted. The prediction was 2nd in the table, but I usually can better this by a place or two.

 

This did bring about a bit of a change in fortunes. We were scoring more, but we were still prone to the odd shitter.

 

Pre-break form with 4-2-3-1 HOOFBALL:

Played -16

Won - 9

Drawn - 1

Lost - 6

Points - 28 (1.75 per game)

For - 28 (1.75 per game)

Against - 16 (1.00 per game)

 

Post-break form with 4-1-4-1 attacking:

Played -14

Won - 9

Drawn - 2

Lost - 3

Points - 29 (2.07 per game)

For - 29 (2.07 per game)

Against - 17 (1.21 per game)

 

So there was definitely an upturn in form. But it wasn't enough. We finished 2nd with Gorica winning the league.

 

But it did mean a play-off game for us. 2nd in the division plays a play-off against the team finishing 2nd bottom in the top tier - or should I say 9th. However for this season, 9th is bottom. NK Domzale's liquidation during the 2025/26 season meant the league was cut and there was essentially only 0.5 relegation places.

 

On that same note, ND Gorica, in real life, have actually liquidated themselves in 2026.

 

We were to play NS Mura - remember them anybody?

 

We lost it 5-4 on aggregate. A bodged attempt at holding them to a draw away where we equalised in injury time and still managed to concede a 97th minute penalty and lose. Then a failed comeback at home.

 

We were very unlucky to lose to them really. Mura were very clinical.

 

Despite the upturn in form, I have to stay true to why I really started this save. So we went back into season two with a fresh HOOFBALL tactic. Triglav will be playing 4 4 ****ing 2.

 

I had a bit of a squad overhaul. With the finances looking pretty dreadful I did end up bringing in 13 new players and getting rid of a similar number - somehow making around £200k in fees in the process.

 

To be continued...