Gaming Football Manager 2024

[saik]

You never know about the takeover, we had our second takeover in quick succession this past season. We've been fan-owned for a few months now.

Can always dump the entire transfer budget into wages, that's been the strategy so far. Mind you, that's only been set at £400k but could get us another 8k a week towards wages. Perhaps I could sell off a few of the higher value players if anyone is interested and then do the same with that money. It's going to be a juggling act to see if we can actually get money for them while looking who is out there on cheap transfers or freebies. Got one player supposedly worth £3-4m, a few in the £1-2m range. Every £1m in sales is roughly worth £20k a week in wage budget if doing that.

I don't think you are getting a takeover anytime soon in that case.

Do you have 100% of the transfer revenue retained? Usually it's not, and really fecks me over even if I sell players as it all goes into the bank and I get feck all to spend.

 

[Donut]

It’s 30% off on Steam… I’m really tempted. Selling Bruno and Rashford or fining them wages for no reason sounds like great fun. I haven’t played in ages, I remember I kept giving Gary Nevile new contracts, but always for 5k less, and as a true red he always accepted and eventually he was playing for 5k/week.

 

[Chipper]

I don't think you are getting a takeover anytime soon in that case.

Do you have 100% of the transfer revenue retained? Usually it's not, and really fecks me over even if I sell players as it all goes into the bank and I get feck all to spend.

Ah, I'd forgotten about the percentage of transfer revenue thing. It was all of the first £800k and then 60% afterwards.

Spent some time on it since then. Released 3 players with contracts expiring and sold 4 for £3.6m in total. Brought in 9, all on freebies and we're now spending £75k a week on wages. Wage budget is £80k and transfer budget £2.7m so there's room to do more if I want to.

Not sure I will be doing much more though or we'll have players that I've just signed as starters would end up as backups and I don't want to piss them off. Maybe just one or two more, and I haven't even looked at the loan market yet. We could struggle a bit but it might just be best to try and survive (I think we will), then go for it more the season after. Could also look at a young player or two for the U21 squad with an eye to develop them.

I did give my star striker from last season the new contract he wanted. £4.6 a week, we could easily afford it in the end. Problem is his partner now wants £10.5k. Not happening!

 

[saik]

It’s 30% off on Steam… I’m really tempted. Selling Bruno and Rashford or fining them wages for no reason sounds like great fun. I haven’t played in ages, I remember I kept giving Gary Nevile new contracts, but always for 5k less, and as a true red he always accepted and eventually he was playing for 5k/week.

You can't do that anymore sadly. Something about the PFA saying it's never done and SI don't want to get into trouble.

You can still fine wages if they get red cards but you cant fine them anymore for poor performances.

 

[saik]

Ah, I'd forgotten about the percentage of transfer revenue thing. It was all of the first £800k and then 60% afterwards.

Spent some time on it since then. Released 3 players with contracts expiring and sold 4 for £3.6m in total. Brought in 9, all on freebies and we're now spending £75k a week on wages. Wage budget is £80k and transfer budget £2.7m so there's room to do more if I want to.

Not sure I will be doing much more though or we'll have players that I've just signed as starters would end up as backups and I don't want to piss them off. Maybe just one or two more, and I haven't even looked at the loan market yet. We could struggle a bit but it might just be best to try and survive (I think we will), then go for it more the season after. Could also look at a young player or two for the U21 squad with an eye to develop them.

I did give my star striker from last season the new contract he wanted. £4.6 a week, we could easily afford it in the end. Problem is his partner now wants £10.5k. Not happening!

Oh yeah, loan market is great especially in the championship where you can get wonderkids for dirt cheap even from abroad.

Senior affiliate also helps. I've had Liverpool as my senior affiliate in my most recent save and every season I had a wonderkid join me for free. It was great. Their academy is really overrated in this game and churn out wonderkids literally every year.

 

[Chipper]

Oh yeah, loan market is great especially in the championship where you can get wonderkids for dirt cheap even from abroad.

Senior affiliate also helps. I've had Liverpool as my senior affiliate in my most recent save and every season I had a wonderkid join me for free. It was great. Their academy is really overrated in this game and churn out wonderkids literally every year.

We've got the mighty Norwich as senior affiliate who only just won the Championship and are 19th in the Premier League. They don't have the best players. Didn't take anyone on loan from them or anyone else in the end. Gave up after the clubs the first few players I looked at as potential loanees told me they wanted them to play with better players.

Settling in very nicely to life in the Championship. I keep waiting for life to get very hard after each promotion, thinking that at some point the step up might just be too big. It's not happening though which is a good thing! We're 5th in the Championship on 29 points after 16 games.

Spending £4.15m a year on wages. Next lowest is Burton who got promoted with us on £8.18m. Wolves are the big spenders on £63.8m.

We've got the smallest stadium which we don't even own and therefore the lowest attendances, the smallest sponsorship deals by far, the worst training ground, worst youth setup, worst youth recuitment budget etc.

We paid a transfer fee for just one player, £1.3m from Leicester because they've gone into administration and had to accept all reasonable offers, signed 13 first teamers for free and and another 2 for the U21s. Brought in £7.75m by selling players.

Last time I played FM (FM21) I did get relegated the first time I took a team to the Premier League from the bottom. Maybe that's still where things suddenly get a lot tougher.

 

[saik]

Started a new save unemployed with the highest coaching qualifications and experience, holidayed 5 years into future as that's when most of the newgens start coming through and it's fun snapping them up. Anyways, the day I'm back from holiday in game, Everton show up with an interview.

These are their finances in the fecking Championship. They had a tycoon takeover in 2024 and Jesse Marsch got them relegated this season with these kind of finances. Bonkers.

 

[Nickosaur]

In 2030 and I've just applied for- and been offered- the United job!

After three and a half seasons at Gladbach, with 2 Bundesliga titles and 2 DFB Pokal cups, it felt like the right time to move on. I had been close to getting 3 titles in a row but Bayern pipped me to it in my final season. Beat them 3-0 in the Pokal final though to go out on a high!

Haven't been paying much attention to the PL but feck me wages are insane in the future. Antony and a 35 y.o. Kimmich both on £575k a week! My highest wage at Gladbach was Wirtz on £190k. Have a feeling it might be tricky to shift some of this lot... Board have given me £300m to spend so I'll spend tonight assessing the squad and deciding what kind of tactic and formation I want to play. Plus overhauling the backroom staff etc.

 

[Chipper]

Premier League bound!

Had our moments in the top 2 throughout the season but the penultimate match was decisive. Went away to Birmingham and won 3-0. We both won our last games and that was enough to seal promotion.

The fun has already started with players asking for new contracts. We play 2 men in central midfield, and the 3rd choice who was on £2k a week wants £17k a week I'm sure we're about to be able to attract much better players so that's not happening. My staff rate him as a decent League One player, definitely not worth that much!

Still homeless, we've ground-shared with Cirencester ever since getting to the Vanarama South. Their ground is not good enough the PL so we're off to Wimbledon. Capacity is 9015. If we survive the first season up I'll put in for a new stadium build.

Just asked for training and youth facilities to be improved, as well as youth recruitment and junior coaching. Really needed it and all requests were granted.

Now to have some fun in the transfer market. Initial budgets of £18.8m and £339k a week.

 

[OnlyTwoDaSilvas]

I haven't played one of these for quite a few years but just picked up 24. I started unemployed with qualifications/experience somewhere around the middle, and went on holiday for 2 seasons to let the dumb FM AI do it's thing for a bit.

Just taken on the Buckie Thistle job. Newly promoted from the Highland League last season, they finished 2nd last in League 2. The board want a playoff push right away, no pressure. First day on the job, two players are worried about lack of squad depth. I see this game hasn't changed a bit...

They're right though, I've only got 16 players, so we need some incomings. We're based right on the Moray coast against the blistering north sea wind, so I'm gonna go sign some proper hard bastards, and play the most horribly direct 4-4-2 possible. Hard tackles, long balls, time wasting, the works.

 

[Nickosaur]

There is no better feeling than clearing out deadwood.
I thought it would be impossible to shift a 30 year old Antony on £575k a week, but who's come knocking with a £75m bid... God bless you Chelsea

Also looks like firm interest from Italy to take 32 year old Sancho on loan. Might actually be able to transform this creaking United team. Probably keep Rashford though, he's club captain and still has good physicals. And I probably shouldn't rock the boat too much...

 

[Chipper]

Wow the step up to the Premier League is a big one isn't it?

Haven't played any games yet, just going through the transfer window and it's hard to get my head round these wage demands and transfer fees. I've been in for some players wanting £40k-£60k a week, was reluctant to pay it because I don't know if we're staying up or not and don't want to ruin us financially if we go down. The same players then sign for Championship teams on £10k-£20k.

Don't know if I should just splurge every lasy penny we have or not.

Been very frugal so far, paying fees for 5 players that have cost £12.5m combined and one on a free. 2 are on the £30k, the rest under £20k . Sold off 5 for £18m. We should have another defender coming in soon for £6m from Sheff Wed who have just been relegated to League One.

The players we've brought in are better than we had, but not by big particularly big margins and I don't know what to expect when the season starts.

 

[SilentWitness]

Saw that they updated it again so was going to fire up an Everton save but it's been updated prior to our additional 2 point deduction so we only have 6 in game instead of 8. It's ruining video games now too.

 

[Berbaclass]

Saw that they updated it again so was going to fire up an Everton save but it's been updated prior to our additional 2 point deduction so we only have 6 in game instead of 8. It's ruining video games now too.

Will have been after the cutoff date.

 

[Berbaclass]

Wow the step up to the Premier League is a big one isn't it?

Haven't played any games yet, just going through the transfer window and it's hard to get my head round these wage demands and transfer fees. I've been in for some players wanting £40k-£60k a week, was reluctant to pay it because I don't know if we're staying up or not and don't want to ruin us financially if we go down. The same players then sign for Championship teams on £10k-£20k.

Don't know if I should just splurge every lasy penny we have or not.

Been very frugal so far, paying fees for 5 players that have cost £12.5m combined and one on a free. 2 are on the £30k, the rest under £20k . Sold off 5 for £18m. We should have another defender coming in soon for £6m from Sheff Wed who have just been relegated to League One.

The players we've brought in are better than we had, but not by big particularly big margins and I don't know what to expect when the season starts.

I always love getting promoted from Championship to Prem. You can relatively easily build a solid team that should finish like 15th ish and pretty cheaply too.

Always love the summer when you're properly scouring the market for cheap deals but it's made so much easier by the fact you're in the PL and the rep bump you get from it.

 

[Big Andy]

I'm into 2046 on my game, and the last surviving real life player is Lamine Yamal, who is now 38 and retiring at the end of the season as a squad player at United.

Been at United 10 years now, and we've just moved into the Tena for Men Stadium with 100,000 capacity.

 

[Chipper]

I always love getting promoted from Championship to Prem. You can relatively easily build a solid team that should finish like 15th ish and pretty cheaply too.

Always love the summer when you're properly scouring the market for cheap deals but it's made so much easier by the fact you're in the PL and the rep bump you get from it.

Don't think I've handled this the best at all so far.

Was a bit confused as to who we could get with normal work permits and who would need ESC slots. We already had 2 players on ESC from last season, but they're about get full work permits. After using up what was our last 2 ESC slots all the while being reluctant to increase the wage budget by much I went British with a lot of the signings we've made so far and they're not the best at all.

As soon as these 2 get full work permits I'll make at least 2 key foreign player signings. Just upped the wage budget by a lot, from £350k a week to £525k.

 

[Berbaclass]

Don't think I've handled this the best at all so far.

Was a bit confused as to who we could get with normal work permits and who would need ESC slots. We already had 2 players on ESC from last season, but they're about get full work permits. After using up what was our last 2 ESC slots all the while being reluctant to increase the wage budget by much I went British with a lot of the signings we've made so far and they're not the best at all.

As soon as these 2 get full work permits I'll make at least 2 key foreign player signings. Just upped the wage budget by a lot, from £350k a week to £525k.

The best way to do it I've found is to pick a team in like 10th the previous season as a benchmark and compare everything you do recruitment-wise to them. Pretty much guarantees that you're buying the right standard of player to comfortably stay up.

 

[flameinthesun]

I've been in for some players wanting £40k-£60k a week, was reluctant to pay it because I don't know if we're staying up or not and don't want to ruin us financially if we go down. The same players then sign for Championship teams on £10k-£20k.

This is a very annoying thing. In my united save I went in for Musiala and was quoted £220mil.....city come in in January and get him for £100mil..... loads of examples of that.

 

[Berbaclass]

This is a very annoying thing. In my united save I went in for Musiala and was quoted £220mil.....city come in in January and get him for £100mil..... loads of examples of that.

Weird that, usually the other way round.

I like that they made teams demand more for players in January though, pretty realistic.

 

[Big Andy]

This is a very annoying thing. In my united save I went in for Musiala and was quoted £220mil.....city come in in January and get him for £100mil..... loads of examples of that.

It annoys me when you go to sign a player, and they ask double what they're worth, and yet when they offer you for a player, they always offer under market value and won't budge.

The only time I've ever had it the other way round was when I had a Wonderkid defender come through my youth team who was worth about £70m, Barca came in with a £176m bid, which I snapped their hands off for, and then he played about 5 games in two season and I bought him back for £50m.

 

[Lay]

Weird that, usually the other way round.

I like that they made teams demand more for players in January though, pretty realistic.

That is definitely a plus side. The older versions you'd see the best talent be taken in January which always felt wrong

 

[SilentWitness]

I think it's coded into the game that Mykolenko goes to Saudi. In both saves I've done with Everton (Beta and now), Saudi clubs come in for him and he will fight to leave.

 

[Chipper]

I think it's coded into the game that Mykolenko goes to Saudi. In both saves I've done with Everton (Beta and now), Saudi clubs come in for him and he will fight to leave.

Just checked, he's there in my save too. Went to Al-Hilal for £50m. They let him go to Al-Khaleej for free after 2 seasons and he's been there 8 years now.

 

[Chipper]

It's going to be a tough season.

There's 8 teams who I think we're going to struggle to get (m)any points off at all. Got to make the other games count.

Should have beat Stoke at home and got a point at West Ham so there's plenty to be hopeful for.

 

[Hoof the ball]

When do we get FM25 news? I'm hyper-bored of this engine.

 

[Berbaclass]

When do we get FM25 news? I'm hyper-bored of this engine.

September probably

 

[Chipper]

Going well. Just picked up 15 points out of 18 which was kickstarted by a favourable fixture run.

Beat Bournemouth and Bristol City away, Newcastle reserves (H) in the Carabao cup QF, then Brentford at home. Morale is high and we took that away to underperforming Arsenal and won 2-0 before losing heavily at home to Chelsea. Everyone still on high despite that and we went to Anfield and won 2-0. Liverpool also off form.

Carabao Cup semi final first leg next against Middlesbrough from the Championship.


Took 2 loanees in on transfer deadline day and I dropped them both for this little run as they've not fitted in at all and I prefer to work with a squad of 22 anyway plus prospects in the U21s. Don't like all the chopping and changing of team selection with a larger squad. Had the Napoli manager (Sean Dyche ) moaning about playing time for one of the loan players. I promised I'd use him more but I'm not going to. If we lose him before the end of January then so be it. Just keeping him and his mate for emergency backup if we can.

1st of January in-game, going to see if there are any players with contracts expiring we can pick up on a Bosman.

Edit: Boom, signed one!

 

[Chipper]

Excellent first season in the Premier League. Finished 8th, qualified for the Conference League. Carabao Cup runners-up to City, and FA Cup Quarter finalists.

The club is growing so much. Just requested a load of stuff, all approved. Training ground and youth facilities upgrade, increase in junior coaching and youth recruitment budget and I'm getting my contintental A coaching licence.

We're now making plans to build a new stadium too. Nothing announced, we're in the research stage.

Finances looking very healthy.

Can do some serious damage next season. As a minimum I'm aiming for Europa League qualification, whether that's through league position or winning the Conference League. Hopefully we can either win that, or one of the domestic cup competitions. One problem with the Conference League is that we literally have zero home-grown at club players but I'm sure we can navigate it.

Might even be able to qualify for the Champions League with a bit of luck.

 

[Chipper]

How do senior afilliates work? We've got Norwich as ours, and we kept them when we got promoted to the Premier League and they got relegated to the Championship.

I'd have thought being in a higher division than them would have cancelled the link. I'm sure that used to happen? Or maybe in the past is was being in the same division and in an unlikely turn of events we avoided that.

They've now been relegated to League One. The season tick-over date hasn't happened yet, but as of 2/6/34 we still have them.

Didn't use the link for any loans, just wondering how they're still supposedly senior to us.

 

[Chipper]

England manager now in conjuction with the club stuff and I already can't be arsed. There was the option to use a recommended squad but I wanted to do it myself. Took ages.

Gave call ups to uncapped James Garner (33) and Jarrad Branthwaite (32). Quite a few other farmiliar names still around. Ramsdale, Colwill, Rico Lewis, Reece James, Bellingham, Foden and Saka.

36 year-old Rashford is just about past it barring injuries. He's been chilling in Saudi for 18 months. A 32 year-old Greenwood is also out there, technically good enough to make the squad but screw him. Think the game has the same opinion as he only has 1 cap.

 

[Chipper]

Just signed our first wonderkid. An 18 year-old Mexican striker in the January window for 4.5m, activating his release clause.

Perfect timing, I was persisting with a striker who we signed over the summer that just wasn't cutting it. 3 goals in 14 Premier League starts and 1 in 7 Europa Conference League. 2 penalties in there and the other 2 came in a 7-0 demolition of Blackburn where they gave up. He broke his leg the day before the wonderkid's work permit was approved. Don't have to worry about not picking him in now.

Feel a bit bad for his backup who was actually scoring. 8 league goals in 9 starts + 7 sub appearances. The wonderkid is going straight into the team.

Our left back won world golden boy which was nice, came 3rd in the NxGen the previous March.

8th in the league just after halfway which is where were we finished last season but I think we're a much better this campaign. Played all the top teams away from home in the first half of the season and lost a lot but we didn't get battered by anyone which we did a few times last season. Easier away games from now on and maybe we can get top 6.

Wonderkid

Golden boy

 

[Precaution]

Been PSV manager for 3 seasons, runners up to Feyenoord by a point in the first season, won second season quite comfortably, runners up in the Cup but won it following season, went quite far in the Champs League knocking out Chelsea but getting crushed by Barcelona.

One thing irks me about this game and I guess it's mostly true of all Football Manager/Champ is that you can be great for a good chunk and then suddenly you get a bunch of 4-1 and 6-0 defeats to teams you wouldn't normally lose to and subsequently do nothing after beating you.

Anywho Arda Gudler is a freaking beast, I had him on loan for most the season until Real Madrid got fed up with me playing out of position which was abit odd as he was playing Right Att mid but whatever, he'd join me if I had £100mill...

I now have Messi/Neymar in my lineup, Konate/Marcus Leonard/Greenwood all running riot, massively getting lowballed offers but i don't wanna sell at that price when Dejan Kulusevski went for way over £100mill...! Surprise signing has been Yerson Chacón who is getting bids of £40mill and got him for under £2mill.

Defence is now after messing around with south American keepers, now De Gea as backup to Rome-Jayden Owusu-Oduro, Vitek from Sparta Prague and Valentiz Gomez, both rocks, I had Quaramesa from Sporting but he buggered off in a huff to Newcastle for £35mill, still have Sebastián Boselli mind you and he's ace.

Coaching I have Ronaldo in my u18 setup along with a retired Luuk De Jong and Thiago Silva

 

[Chipper]

It's going to be a mad end to the season. Could get champions League, could end up 7th.

United favourites for the title but if Spurs and City win their games in hand they're only 3 points off the top. We've got Arsenal (H), City (H) and Liverpool (A) in our last 6.

Still going in the Conference League. Got Legia Warsaw in the last 8.

 

[Chipper]

Finished 4th and won the Conference League, beat FK Trvana (who?) in the final.

6 teams going to the Champions League next season. City with the extra place, Spurs for winning Europa. Guardiola returned to City this season after a few years on tour and got sacked after the last league game. I don't know if he'd have kept his job through qualifying for the CL but the exta spots hadn't been announced yet as European competition still had the finals to play.

New stadium build announced. Will take 3 years to build it, capacity of 23375. Crap name unless it can change? The "Fairford Town Stadium".

Got a load of Saudi clubs after my players and might cash in on a few. I've got a fairly young squad anyway, but am thinking of going all out with trying to sign wonderkids. First XI - best 11 players I can get, rotation options all wonderkids. Board wants us to be mid table next season and now I feel we're sort of established it should be doable with that kind of approach. Not too bothered if we took a dip in the league while giving young players plenty of minutes on the pitch. By the time the new stadium is built they'll be ready to go after the title.

 

[SilentWitness]

Saudi League stuff is still daft. It's consistently funding my transfers. First season sold Mykolenko for 52m in Jan, second season I have sold them DCL in the summer for 60m and Beto for 50m in Jan. I didn't want to sell DCL but he wanted to leave. An easy 162m that can fund an entire new team.

 

[Chipper]

I blew a transfer to the Saudis, still learning the transfer system.

Had one of them bid £38m for a right back I was trying to shift. Tried to squeeze them for £40m and they said no, cancelling the bid. Ended up flogging him to AC Milan for £22m. I think I know what happened . The offer came after I approached his agent asking about market interest and I invited that bid after the discussion.

There was another 1 or 2 occasions where I tried to negotiate after getting bids in the same way for other players and the clubs cancelled their offer too. Seems to be a thing where they won't increase the offer if it came after asking a player's agent?

Second summer in a row I fecked up in the market.

The year before I was trying to offload a striker. Got a loan offer from Fulham, with a future fee of £21m if he made 25 appearances in the Championship. I accepted it. Another loan offer then came in from 'Boro with a mandatory fee of £16m. Had to persuade my board to accept 'Boro's offer, but I then didn't go back and reject Fulham. He chose Fulham and only played 16 times for them.

He came back to us this summer and I was trying to sell him again with little success when he got injured for 5 months. He still has almost 2 years on his contract, is one of our biggest earners on 57k a week and is now 30 so it's going to be hard to shift him in January.

I've lost the club £32m over 2 summers. Sacking offence!

 

[Chipper]

Random one, how does everyone deal with rotation and tired players?

I've been resting players in matches when they have a full green heart for conditioning but when it also says they're tired. Is that too much?

Installed the SaS skin for the current season where you can see player conditioning as a percentage like old-school versions of the game had as default. Been doing some googling and people were saying they're happy to start players at around 89-91% and results seem better so far following that. Normally I'd have rested these players with any hint of tiredness. Could barely play anyone for 3 games in a row if we had a match midweek with a weekend game either side of it.

A bit worried that my squaddies might get annoyed through lack of game time or might not develop as much if they're young but so far results seem better playing my strongest XI on paper a bit more often. Might pay for it later in the season when I get physio reports saying players are jaded and need of a rest but so far so good.

 

[SilentWitness]

Random one, how does everyone deal with rotation and tired players?

I've been resting players in matches when they have a full green heart for conditioning but when it also says they're tired. Is that too much?

Installed the SaS skin for the current season where you can see player conditioning as a percentage like old-school versions of the game had as default. Been doing some googling and people were saying they're happy to start players at around 89-91% and results seem better so far following that. Normally I'd have rested these players with any hint of tiredness. Could barely play anyone for 3 games in a row if we had a match midweek with a weekend game either side of it.

A bit worried that my squaddies might get annoyed through lack of game time or might not develop as much if they're young but so far results seem better playing my strongest XI on paper a bit more often. Might pay for it later in the season when I get physio reports saying players are jaded and need of a rest but so far so good.

If you have a bunch of games in a row then a 'cheese' of the game is you can highlight all players in the squad and then rest them from training for one or two days. Since the AI doesn't do that it will help a bit.

I got inspired by yourself and @Solius and the runs you did with lower league pyramid sides so have done the same with my hometown club in Scotland. They start in the Scottish Midlands League. Now sitting top of Scottish League 2.

 

[Solius]

I still plan to resume mine despite the quintuple I won. Just been reading a lot of books instead lately.