Gaming Football Manager 2024

I don’t really know where to go now with Juve.

The CL win against the old rivals Benfica feels like it finished the story, but so much work went into getting a job like Juventus in the first place! No badges and no experience!

Going into the summer, I have sold Chiesa (turning 32), Sieweld (has been poor for a while), as well as Doku (couldn’t stay fit) and Balogun who were only ever here because they were free transfers. The other big exit was Wirtz, who went to Atlético for £82 million. He just couldn’t stay fit. All of this gave us a little war chest which I wanted to use to change tact.

Up until now, the squad has been built with whoever was in their prime and would join us. The transfer budgets were built entirely of sales and that looks set to continue, but I wanted to change the focus to youth, and in particular, Italian youth. There was one expection to that though…

…Vinicius Junior, whose value had plummeted for a reason that I couldn’t see. We ended up paying only £54 million (plus 10 mil in add ons) overall and he is absolutely top drawer. We also picked up Donnarumma for our new look Italian side (costly at 77 million, but absolutely world class) and loaned out current incumbent Mamardashvili after his CL disaster.

We picked up three young Italians for their release clause. Tartaro (RB), Dondoni (all round midfielder) and Granelli (AMRC) are all wonderkids with sizeable release clauses, but I thought it was a great investment for the future.

I want to try and leave the club with a great young squad when my time is up. All three of those kids are Italian and the latter two look really special. The RB looks less so, but he is only 19 and will come in as a starter.

Hoping I can enjoy the challenge of growing them and adding more Italian flavor to the squad

Anyone have any weird & wonderful self imposed rules when they play?

Mine is no Brazilian wonderkids. It’s been like this for as long as I can remember for me, it always feels a bit like cheating for whatever reason.

I’ll farm a wonderkid from Brazil every now & then early in a save but they’re not playing for my first team. I’m looking for loan fees & a payday then once my team are doing well financially I just ignore any recommendations.

I’ve always preferred scouting that random wonderkid from Albania otherwise I go for a homegrown feel, I won the World Cup with 13 of the squad playing for me. I’ve set a target of going into a tournament with all the players from my squad.

Anyone else?

Berbaclass said:

Is it petty that I give City a 100-point deduction in every game I start?

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I made a database for FM23 that gave them 100 points deductions every year until they dropped out of the National League North, as well as a 20 year transfer ban.

Never saw them again.

Trying my own little experiment to see if I can win the league in each of Holland, Spain, France, Germany and England.

Started off jobless and took over at Ajax where I won the league and Conference league in my first season. Left to go to Madrid after they potted Ancelotti for finishing 3rd and promptly won 2 leagues and a couple of cups in 2 and a half years. Took the Newcastle job when it came up half way through the season while they were 16th seeing if I could keep them up then build, but the fans never took to me and I got sacked at the end of the season for not qualifying for Europe.

took the vacant Dortmund job in pre season and won the league on the last day by a point and then did the double beating Union Berlin in the cup.

waiting for the United job to come up so I can bring the glory days back before heading to France to complete the set.

champions league is on my list but should’ve won it with Madrid as I’ll never have another team that good again.

AFC NimbleThumb said:

Anyone have any weird & wonderful self imposed rules when they play?

Mine is no Brazilian wonderkids. It’s been like this for as long as I can remember for me, it always feels a bit like cheating for whatever reason.

I’ll farm a wonderkid from Brazil every now & then early in a save but they’re not playing for my first team. I’m looking for loan fees & a payday then once my team are doing well financially I just ignore any recommendations.

I’ve always preferred scouting that random wonderkid from Albania otherwise I go for a homegrown feel, I won the World Cup with 13 of the squad playing for me. I’ve set a target of going into a tournament with all the players from my squad.

Anyone else?

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Not routinely, but I want to try a save with some self imposed rules at some point this year.

It's likely to be based off only signing players from a certain nationality or a bit of a weird one - tall players only, preferably while playing hoofball although the game engine really doesn't like that style at all.

Some way off doing as I'm still happy with my current save but already thinking about potential clubs. I want the save to have a story.

For the nation only thing it's a case of finding just the right level of challnge. I'm sure it's easy to win the Brazilian Serie A and Libertadores with Brazilian only players, that wouldn't take much. Some other challenges might be too difficult. Was thinking of seeing how far I could go with one of the Welsh teams based inside the English league system while only using Welsh players but I'm hugely doubtful I could ever win the Premier League or Champions League with those restrictions. Even a domestic cup might be too optimistic.

For the tall players save I'm on the hunt for teams nicknamed the giants, or giant iconography in their club crest referencing local folklore etc.

In both cases I have a huge preference for teams in low divisions.

I completed the quadruple with Dulwich Hamlet and resigned a week later, feeling accomplished having won every single trophy available from National League South to the Champions League. I was tempted to engineer myself into the Europa League and the Europa Conference League but I thought that would take too long and I would risk getting sacked.

The Ireland job came up a few weeks later and they didn't hesitate to hire me when I applied. Have implemented the same tactics I used at Dulwich and they've been an outrageous success, although I'm yet to play a truly big team yet. Have convinced the uncapped 29yo Anthony Gordon to play for Ireland as well as Shea Lacey, who is decent but not a superstar. Evan Ferguson is in his prime and I've a few decent regens, one of whom is valued at £250m by Arsenal and Real Madrid are on the hunt.

Not played this the past week or so, just getting back into it. After winning League Two the board have agreed to improve the training and youth facilities but still won't agree to a senior affiliate.

Just had one of our players named League Two player of the season. A nice little comeback story.

Signed him for our first season in the National League, intending for him to be our first choice right winger. He was awful so I dropped him to be a rotation option part-way through that campaign. He spent our second season in the National League as a backup too. Gave him another go this past season a division higher and he smashed it. He's only 20 so you could say he's still improving although his attributes didn't really go up much.

Given him a new 2 year deal just now, he was happy to sign it as a squad player and isn't costing much so it's all good.

Chipper said:

Not routinely, but I want to try a save with some self imposed rules at some point this year.

It's likely to be based off only signing players from a certain nationality or a bit of a weird one - tall players only, preferably while playing hoofball although the game engine really doesn't like that style at all.

Some way off doing as I'm still happy with my current save but already thinking about potential clubs. I want the save to have a story.

For the nation only thing it's a case of finding just the right level of challnge. I'm sure it's easy to win the Brazilian Serie A and Libertadores with Brazilian only players, that wouldn't take much. Some other challenges might be too difficult. Was thinking of seeing how far I could go with one of the Welsh teams based inside the English league system while only using Welsh players but I'm hugely doubtful I could ever win the Premier League or Champions League with those restrictions. Even a domestic cup might be too optimistic.

For the tall players save I'm on the hunt for teams nicknamed the giants, or giant iconography in their club crest referencing local folklore etc.

In both cases I have a huge preference for teams in low divisions.

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I like the tall player idea. On FM22 I managed HSV & went for players over 180cm only. I massively believe that physicals overpower technicals in this game. If your player is 180+ with a decent set of physicals he’s going to score crosses for example. Same with a big energetic midfielder, he’s going to crash the box better.

That Welsh one in England would be difficult. You’d have to scout every regen immediately & get them young. I’ve noticed, even though managing in Italy, that Citeh seem to regen lots of talented Welsh players.

For me though, it’s usually start at the lowest playable league in a country then dominate. I’d love to start a journeyman save but I get too involved with my club to the point I can’t leave.

If I was back playing on PC I’d download a massive database then start somewhere like Indonesia looking to work my way up but with FM touch I generally start as far down the pyramid in a country with a fallen giant.

Solius said:

Talking of tall players I've just had a 15 year old midfielder come through my youth intake and he's 6ft7. Feels a bit ridiculous.

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They really do need to incorporate a ‘growing’ aspect to height in the game.

Per above you get the odd anomaly but it’s really annoying when I get a 162cm regen that’s just going to be that height forever regardless of statistical growth.

Had a player on loan from Luton last season, he started 23 games and 17 sub appearances in all competitions as he helped us to promotion to League One. He's now a free agent and I'm listed as one of his favoured personnel.

Offered him a contract and I instantly agreed to his demands with no negotiation.

He's turned us down to go on trial with Wealdstone in the Vanarama South 3 leagues below us

Solius said:

Snuck into 3rd in the end. What a weak league. I should be winning it next season.

I won the FA Cup as well to add to the Carabao I won. Knocked out Chelsea, Utd and Soton on the way so I only had to beat Championship Sheffield Utd in the final.

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Have you nuked City?

Also, Spurs surviving by one goal and Liverpool in the bottom half.

Just spent an enjoyable hour catching up on some of this thread - especially the exploits of St Margaretsbury and Fairford Town.

I used to play Championship Manager (as it was then) obsessively when it first came out and up to the mid 2000''s.

But by then it had started getting increasingly more detailed and taking longer and longer to play seasons - and crashing more often on my computer. So I just stuck with one of the best versions prior to all the additions - the 01/02 season (Maxim Tsigalko, To Madeira, etc) - whenever I played it. But then it started to feel outdated in terms of the squads, and none of the newer real life star players were in it, so I gradually stopped playing it. And by then it was pretty much the only game I was still playing so that factored into it to I suppose.

But reading this thread always makes me nostalgic and tempted to play it again - though it seems the games carried on getting ever more detailed and convoluted and sounds like it requires even more of a time commitment to play it!

AFC NimbleThumb said:

I like the tall player idea. On FM22 I managed HSV & went for players over 180cm only. I massively believe that physicals overpower technicals in this game. If your player is 180+ with a decent set of physicals he’s going to score crosses for example. Same with a big energetic midfielder, he’s going to crash the box better.

That Welsh one in England would be difficult. You’d have to scout every regen immediately & get them young. I’ve noticed, even though managing in Italy, that Citeh seem to regen lots of talented Welsh players.

For me though, it’s usually start at the lowest playable league in a country then dominate. I’d love to start a journeyman save but I get too involved with my club to the point I can’t leave.

If I was back playing on PC I’d download a massive database then start somewhere like Indonesia looking to work my way up but with FM touch I generally start as far down the pyramid in a country with a fallen giant.

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Yes, the tall player idea is tempting in the future. Probably being silly wanting the club name or crest to fit in with the theme but I think it would make the save more meaningful on some level.

I've found Wakiso Giants in the Ugandan Premier League. I'd need to check if there is a custom database to be able to play that league. The goal would be to win the African Champions League with them. I've no idea if that's realistic or not. There's Sando (or San Fernando) Giants in Trinidad & Tobago but I'd imagine winning the CONCACAF Champions League would be ridiculously difficult against the Mexican and USA based clubs. There's a team in Wales team called Giants Grave in the 4th tier. Could possibly try to turn them into the best team in Wales if I can find a database, and might even be able to do that using tall Welsh players only.

Stadium-wise there's quite a few in Spanish speaking countries simply called "Gigante". Then there's the Giant Axe at Lancaster but I'm already doing an English lower-league team in this save.

The Welsh team in the English leagues with only Welsh players would be very difficult like you said. First of all I've looked at the Welsh Squad in my current save, doubt that could win the Premier League even if I had all of them. On the top of that if I started at somewhere like Newport it would be difficult to sign the best Welsh players generated at Cardiff and Swansea when smaller than them. They wouldn't want to sign for me and therefore it would be hard to become a bigger club than them which is what I'd need to do be able to attract them in the first place. I could get stuck in a frustration loop.

With some smaller leagues who don't sign a lot of overseas players due to finances it might be easy to dominate domestically with players with the same nationality. Problem is that leagues like that are usually in lesser footballing nations so making an impression on a continental level would be extremely difficult. Could be boring too, dominating everything domestically year after year and the whole season being about Europe.

I'm sure I'll find something that takes my fancy when the time comes for a new save!

Bertie Wooster said:

Just spent an enjoyable hour catching up on some of this thread - especially the exploits of St Margaretsbury and Fairford Town.

I used to play Championship Manager (as it was then) obsessively when it first came out and up to the mid 2000''s.

But by then it had started getting increasingly more detailed and taking longer and longer to play seasons - and crashing more often on my computer. So I just stuck with one of the best versions prior to all the additions - the 01/02 season (Maxim Tsigalko, To Madeira, etc) - whenever I played it. But then it started to feel outdated in terms of the squads, and none of the newer real life star players were in it, so I gradually stopped playing it. And by then it was pretty much the only game I was still playing so that factored into it to I suppose.

But reading this thread always makes me nostalgic and tempted to play it again - though it seems the games carried on getting ever more detailed and convoluted and sounds like it requires even more of a time commitment to play it!

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Same here,I found a skin on FM24 that closely resembles a little bit of CM 0102 and it's just about finding a team I can settle on, too much information kinda bores the crap out of me but last time I got into it I was RB Leipzig so I may goto Anderlecht or RB Salzburg then build up and join a bigger team

Solius said:

Yeah think they got relegated from the Championship this same season.

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Love to see it.

I'd like to create a database where they've just been dumped in the lowest possible league (Manchester League Division Two or something) as a phoenix club. Probably do Chelsea too.

Just seems a right faff sorting out all of the various division rules, so it's easier to just strip all their income, load them with debt, give them a 10 year transfer ban and slap them 100 point deductions every season until they get relegated into oblivion.

Big Andy said:

Trying my own little experiment to see if I can win the league in each of Holland, Spain, France, Germany and England.

Started off jobless and took over at Ajax where I won the league and Conference league in my first season. Left to go to Madrid after they potted Ancelotti for finishing 3rd and promptly won 2 leagues and a couple of cups in 2 and a half years. Took the Newcastle job when it came up half way through the season while they were 16th seeing if I could keep them up then build, but the fans never took to me and I got sacked at the end of the season for not qualifying for Europe.

took the vacant Dortmund job in pre season and won the league on the last day by a point and then did the double beating Union Berlin in the cup.

waiting for the United job to come up so I can bring the glory days back before heading to France to complete the set.

champions league is on my list but should’ve won it with Madrid as I’ll never have another team that good again.

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Left Dortmund after 3 seasons (2 titles) and joined PSG after Enrique retired. Currently tearing up French league so will hopefully win everything I need to and keep hoping United sack Enzo Maresca as they’ve win feck all and are currently 10th

Just wasted £25k of the club's money.

Selling my Morrocan International goalie for his release clause of £150k and am doing business over the summer. While that deal was going through I picked up a Haitian defensive midfielder and moved to get a new 'keeper in from Poland. Neither would get work permits but thought I could allocate the 2 "ESC" slots I have to them once the Morrocan guy had left. The Morrocan 'keeper has 1 of the slots and the yearly review of whether he gets a full work permit or not (I'm confident he would) hasn't taken place yet.

It's a timing issue. The the two incoming players agreed to sign, had their initial work permits (£20k each) and appeal turned town (£5k) before the Morrocan 'keeper left as he's going through all the work permit stuff himself to go to Ipswich and it's delayed things. Gave the Haitian DM an ESC slot but now don't have one left to give to the Polish 'keeper until Morrocan guy leaves.

There's no option in the game to delay just 3 days before signing the Polish 'keeper with an ESC slot. It was either now or never and the only thing I could do was tell him we're going to keep trying for a work permit or that we'd send him on loan. He doesn't want either and the transfer is off after spending £25k in total on work permit and appeal applications.

Back to finding another new goalie!

Big Andy said:

Left Dortmund after 3 seasons (2 titles) and joined PSG after Enrique retired. Currently tearing up French league so will hopefully win everything I need to and keep hoping United sack Enzo Maresca as they’ve win feck all and are currently 10th

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Won the treble with PSG to complete France and then noticed that Uniteds manager was “insecure” so I basically registered my interest to oil the wheels of his departure. PSG then sacked me for flirting with United but then once I was free they binned off the manager and now my career plan to bring United back to the top after winning a league title in Holland, France, Germany and Spain is almost done within 10 years.

City starting to drop away slightly and Arsenal looking to be the team to beat.

The League One season about to kick off. Going to go into it with last season's backup 'keeper in between the sticks, and haven't been able to strengthen anywhere near as much as I'd have liked to. Missed out on so many targets who preferred to go elsewhere and ended up settling on players who were only as good as some of the players we released in the end.

Also a little short on numbers, with no dedicated backups in the right back, right winger or striker positions although a couple of players from other positions can play up front too and one of my wingers can play both flanks. I think a season of consolidation lies ahead as we haven't really improved the squad from last season's promotion campaign.

Still time to some business before the window shuts but I usually like to have my squad in place nice and early over the summer.

Not the best start to League One, struggling a bit to create. Defence isn't marvelous either but it's not alarming. Scored 5 and conceded 7 in the first 5 games. We've been competetive in every game.


Strengthened up the squad right at the end of the window so let's see how it goes now. Signed a Senegalese winger on the eve of the transfer deadline, he'll be first choice on the right wing.

On deadline day itself we took a centre back on loan from QPR who I've pencilled in as the second best option at the club so he'll be starting. We also loaned in a young striker from Middlesbrough who is a bit raw but should be first choice. Just tricky to know how to handle things as we only play one up front. The striker we own expects to be treated as a star player, 'Boro expect the loanee to be an important player.

Picked up 2 attacking full backs on deadline day too on free transfers. One for each side and they're going be starters.

I sold the likes of Tonali, Sneddon (great player but too defensive to be a wing back and didn’t trust him fully at CB, as well as reselling Iling, who I stupidly tried to resign for homegrown rules only for him to cry again.

I got Kayode, another decent Italian, to play as a proper wing back, a 34 year old Kimmich to cover the midfield positions for easier league games and ….Kylian Mbappe!

I saw his value had dropped quiet considerably and I could probably get him for about £90 million. Only 31 with superb natural fitness, so I made the move!

If I stay on, I will probably need to clear out some of my older fellas. Upamecano doesn’t want to sign a new deal, and it’s tempting to offload Vitinha, Muani and, sadly, big Vlahovic, who are all on the wrong side of 30. We still don’t make enough money to afford to lose players like that on a free. We need to sell and reinvest.

Also, ridiculously, new signing Donnarumma is losing his place to our young GK from Argentina, Lopez and could well join other oldies on the chopping block in the summer!

As it is, we are about £70 million in debt, but a nice restructure and focus on younger players in the summer should sort that out now without a massive drop in quality.

We are about 7 points clear of Inter in the league, who are destroying teams, so we need to keep winning, and we drew Napoli in the semi finals of the Italian Cup.

My contract is up in July and I am refusing a deal. If we were to win even a domestic double again, I would see that as legend status confirmed at Juventus.

Teams like inter, PSG and Real can certainly beat us, but I fancy us against anyone in two legged ties. If we were to win the CL again, it would be hard to argue about the merits of staying on here.

The idea of rejuvenating the squad and making it youthful (and the club profitable) is quite attractive, but I would also be feeling disappointed at every season that didn’t have a couple of trophies.

A CL exit and cup loss would change my mind, so no decisions until the end of the season!

Almost halfway though the season in League One with Fairford and we've hit a sticky run of form. We're playing ok, just keep running into opponents who are more clinical than us in front of goal. The xG gods are hating us in general, and then we find silly ways to throw away points. Slight cause for concern regarding relegation but hopefully we'll be fine.

Had a takeover go through after rumours about it going on for years. No tycoon, we got a £140k investment into the club. I'm fine with that as the the other proposed bidder was talking about replacing me!

Solius said:

Is that the Ben White? Also Bacary Sagna's cousin or something?

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It's not The Ben White! A newgen striker on loan from Middlesbrough Not a very imaginitve name for the algorithm to spit out.

Nothing mentioning this guy is related to Bacaray Sagna and I just checked wiki too as he's a real player. Just some random Senegalese winger I brought in on a free.