Football Manager 2026

[Beliall]

25 minutes ago, Lineker's Lugs said:

I started a pentagon a few days ago and it’s going well.

 

I’ll admit I gave myself a bit of a head-start by beginning with only Australia, Japan, South Korea, Egypt and South Africa playable, avoiding the likes of Indonesia and Malaysia where I would normally begin.  But it was the usual idea of starting unemployed with no qualifications or experience.

 

ASIA

I didn’t take the first three jobs offered as I was holding out for a coaching course.  Just when I gave up on that idea as it was taking too long, I was offered an interview by J3 side Vanraure Hachinohe.  And in whatever the opposite of sod’s law is, they agreed to send me on a course.

 

By the time I left, I’d taken them to J2 and I was doing my Continental B.  Tokyo Verdy were my next stop, and I took them up to J1 but they had refused multiple requests for my next course so I was keeping an eye on other opportunities.  A juicy one arose quite soon – Yokohama F. Marinos, so off I went.  There no loyalty in football anymore.  Not from me anyway.

 

I felt I was finally at a club that could get the first leg of the pentagon done, and so it proved.  I won a league title as well, but consistently bombed in the domestic cups, as I had throughout the save so far.  The AFC Champions League was won in a finals tournament in Taiwan.  The QF was a complete smash and grab despite being a 4-0 win over Al-Hilal, then we edged past fellow J1 side Machida Zelvia in the SF.  The final looked tough, but we finally had a game where it all clicked and we beat Al-Nassr easily and deservedly.

 

AFRICA

I hoped Africa would mean Egypt as I still haven’t managed there, but I ended up at Mamelodi Sundowns.  Their budgeting is clearly up to Leicester City standards as despite the fact that I was working well within them we were losing money hand over fist.  We were cleaning up domestically and thankfully got the CAF Champions League done before the club totally imploded.  The group stage had been a bit iffy with two draws and a defeat, but the knockout stages were little more than a procession.  I had a star centre forward called George Mokoena who was an absolute cheat code.

 

NORTH AMERICA

CONCACAF means Mexico because no-one in their right mind would go to USA.  The job screen told me Atlas Guadalajara were rich and that was good enough for me.  It’s just as well they were because the squad was rubbish and it was clear why they were in 17^th of 18 in the Clausura with games running out.  We finished 15^th but some good transfer business turned thing around very quickly to the extent that we actually qualified for the next Champions Cup through both the Leagues Cup and the Apertura Torneo.  We only had to play seven matches to become CONCACAF Champions, and since we were now the best side in Mexico, and therefore North America, we were able to get it done.  My stay in Mexico was relatively short and very sweet.

 

EUROPE

I hit the job market again.  Leicester was available, but I never play the Premier League (where Leicester were, remarkably - presumably they’d had a takeover) so I left that well alone.  I took my time waiting for an appealing job and Bayern Munich was the first I went for.  I was interviewed but didn’t get it.  Then Barcelona approached me without me having applied.  It turned out it was their former manager that had pipped me for the Bayern job.  Normally I’d have expected another rejection but because they approached me I was hopeful, and sure enough I was offered the gig.

 

I’m nearly at the end of the summer transfer window and I’ve revamped the squad at a cost of £500m.  The outgoings brought in £224m so I’ve stayed within my £310m wage budget.  I’ve kept the wage bill the same, lowered the average age of the squad and made it stronger.  I have a four year contract, but the end of year three has a World Club Cup and I fancy a crack at that – we qualified for it last season before I joined.  That’s been part of my recruitment strategy too – signing players in their mid-20s who will be at their peak then.

 

It does feel like I’ve broken the back of the pentagon.  I’d normally have done South America before Europe but nothing decent came up in Argentina, Brazil or Uruguay.

 

I’m thinking I might make it a heptagon by doing Asia and Europe in the women’s game too.  In theory there’s North America too but only the USA is in the game so that’s out.

 

pretty impressive work for a few days play. good luck on the 5th. meanwhile im still in africa in 2030. im also planning to flip to the womens side again at some point, it was fun the couple of saves i did

[Lineker's Lugs]

18 minutes ago, Beliall said:

pretty impressive work for a few days play. good luck on the 5th. meanwhile im still in africa in 2030. im also planning to flip to the womens side again at some point, it was fun the couple of saves i did

I can (and do) spend most hours of every day on the save and I instant result the vast majority of games so I'm getting through it quite quickly.  I think I get better results that way as it seems my strength is building squads rather than managing games!

 

The one player I named, George Mokoena, has just joined Leicester in game oddly.

 

The women's game is what I watch almost exclusively IRL so I'd like to do more saves there, but there's not enough leagues for a good journeyman save.  Tacking them on to this seems like a better idea.

 

You seem to be heading in the right direction in SA now.