Haven’t played 24 in ages but thinking of doing a new save starting at Umeå FC in the Swedish third division (city where my company’s office is that I visit multiple times a year) and doing a journeyman save in Europe where I’m only allowed to take jobs in cities I’ve actually been to or will be going to this year but it feels like I should just wait for FM26 at this point
I still have to finish kingdom come deliverance 2 and then try out avowed and Indiana jones but in April I will be entering my travel season and will start playing FM again on my trips
Ok I gave in and started a new run in FM24 I am starting off the Swedish third division at Umeå FC and I can only leave for a job in a European city I have been to or have booked a trip to go to this year: Stockholm Malmö Copenhagen Amsterdam Rotterdam Utrecht Brussels Bruges Genk Madrid Prague Paris Dublin The emphasis will be on youth development and I will not take a job at a club that puts signing high reputation players ahead of youth development in their club vision. If I’m at a club and a takeover happens and changes the vision I will resign. I will not break a transfer record fee until I’ve won a major trophy at that club and I will be running a 4231 fluid counter attack loosely based on Klopp’s time at Dourtmund. I will not be taking advice or watching videos on tactics, if something isn’t working I look at the data and make tweaks on my own. also if a player puts up a stink to move to a bigger club I will not fight it ultimate goal is to move to a city I love and build a champions league contender built on youth players and when I sell players for big money the emphasis will be on using that money to improve facilities and staff
played 6 games today 3 wins 2 draws and a loss I disabled the first transfer window so it’s all real life moves and so the only new additions I make in my first season are youth academy players. currently in 5th only the top two teams get promoted to the second division, this could be a grind
1860 Munich update: March 2032. 4th in BL. Into the Round of 16 in Europa(v. PAOK). Spoiler: squad This season has been successful as hell on field. With some player/roster drama due to transfers/contracts etc. Transitioning from lower level squad into a solid BL squad financially, while trying not to sell everyone off, has been a somewhat headache. Trifunovic had a 78m release clause expire in January, which was great for short term. Kamga was starting to complain about stuff, got hurt, and I was able to get him to sign a big extension and make him my clear cut highest earner. I've been trying to focus on developing through academy, so have only really bought at positions of greater need. Biggest transfers to date are Mokrani(7 -> 8.75m), and Ricardo Junior(7.25m). It's almost time for the next academy class, and IIRC, it's supposed to be good again.
10 wins 6 draws and 2 losses in my first 18 games at Umeå FC currently in second place in the league after being projected to finish 9th the games feel better when I win with such a not good team but I will be looking to move up to a bigger team as soon as I can managing a payroll budget of 207k USD is ass
I think I’m doing pretty good man on to the third round off he Swedish cup after upsetting a team ahead of me in the 2nd division on pens and I just won manager of the month
I have a 3 point lead holding down the second spot which gets me into a promotion playoff with 5 matches left in the season
Lost out on the playoff promotion spot on the last day by goal differential fucking pain Someone give me a better job
Switching to a 433 for year two because I am at budget with my new signings and have absolutely nothing for a number 10 type role this year
Halfway through year two at Umeå and things are going well despite my best center back and best player on the team forcing a transfer in the preseason currently in a title race and I’ve signed a new contract at the same salary but got them to pay for my continental B license. I have my eye on the Hammarby IF job in Stockholm though as they currently using an interim head coach but they’re right by Södermalm, my favorite neighborhood in Stockholm and are in the top Swedish league. would love to win this league or at least get promotion before moving on though
What is everybody’s formation of choice lately? Any that have just been deemed completely broken in the current engine?
4231 gegenpress is pretty unstoppable with the right instructions but it can get boring when you win 80% of your games for 7-8 seasons
Umeå with a 3 point lead with 3 matches left in the season and I sadly have to go play trivia with my friends tonight so it will have to wait until tomorrow :(
Well the match engine tried to cheat me into bottling it down the stretch but I win the Swedish First Division North league title on a +4 goal differential on the last day of the season I will be staying with Umeå FC until I can get a job with a Swedish premier league club based in Stockholm I guess so now I gotta work my ass off to find a good right back on a free or on a loan this offseason but I have my first trophy and we are now a full professional club
2 games 6 points in the Swedish Elite league including a 2-0 win over a team that’s favored to get promoted to the premier league I also beat Hammarby 3-1 before getting eliminated in the group stage round of the Swedish cup. I am however operating 40k over payroll budget because I went crazy on free transfers to make sure I have team that can stay up. I need Hammarby or Djugardens to hire me before we get into financial trouble. Cercle Brugge job is currently open and I’m tempted but Umeå just paid for me to get my continental class A license which would be huge and they paid for my class B so I feel kinda of loyal to them
not 100% sure but when I got my class B license my tactical attribute got a plus 2, my offense and defense got a plus 3 and my motivation attribute went from 12 to 18 so it was a huge bump
Had 3 straight games where a player got sent off to bottle automatic promotion and then lost on a stoppage time winner in the playoff so I’m still in the second division Got my continental A license though so I’m ready to move on to a new club ASAP
Played for like 10 hours yesterday and basically did my fourth season with Umeå in a day. Finished second to clinch automatic promotion to the Swedish premier league on the last day of the season, and my reward was a new contract for 32k a year salary and a curt refusal to upgrade our youth setup from basic. Got interview requests from a team in Denmark and Union SG outside of Brussels and Oostende outside of Bruges. I got the Oostende job with a 230k yearly salary, they are 5 million in debt and have a fucking wreck of a wage structure so I’m in for a rebuild, good news is they already have 3 youth academy regen players pushing for starting minutes and this baby Will be trying to cut some wage fat in my first offseason and then using this academy to build a European competition team
I am excited about the prospect of rebuilding this club via the academy, I’ve never really done it before and I’m still technically a no name coach with my only trophy being the third division of Swedish football league title Oostende has never won a real Belgian trophy so I’m locking in and not considering leaving until I do and I’ll either stay and see how far I can take them or look to move to a sleeping giant like an Ajax or FC København eventually like way down the line
10 hours to play a video game in a single day. I love having kids and doing stuff with them but my god I’m jealous of Irush right now. I’m lucky to get 10 hours of gaming a month.
Haha I live alone and was dealing with a hangover from partying all weekend so I chose to be lazy as hell
Open day of my first full season at Oostende 3 regen youth academy kids under 19 in the starting line up let’s do this
This is now my favorite player and I will die to keep him on this team. Was languishing as a left winger in a 442 under the old manager, I made him my shadow striker in my 4231 and now he’s leading the entire league in average rating. He is my son now. 18 games into the first full season and I have Oostende in 5th despite not adding anyone new except promoting two academy kids in the summer. My star left back is a youth kid who I could probably sell for like 12-13 million but he has an 8.25 million dollar release clause and is wanted by Chelsea, Citeh and Yanited right now. Sucks but 8.25 million would change this club tremendously especially with us fighting for a conference league spot at almost the halfway point in the season. I will ask for a loan back if someone activates his clause in the winter window because he is a key part of the side
Played a bit last night. Lost in Europa quarterfinals to Leverkusen. Drew 0-0 away, lost 1-0 at home. Now have ~month left in league and currently 4th.
Tough end to the season we finished second in the league and lost the Belgian cup final. Man the last month of the Belgian season is brutal. Man city did activate that 8.25 million dollar clause on my left back but they loaned him back, that shadow striker a posted earlier won NXGN and signed a new contract with a 17.25 million dollar release clause. we are going to the Europa league way ahead of schedule but I think our days of being broke are over. Time to ask the board to improve our youth recruitment and to let me take my continental pro license course. I think I’m gonna stay here for the rest of my save and try to make the best youth academy in the world here
About 9 million in the black two weeks before my second full season at Oostende I’ve signed one midfielder on a free to replace one who asked to return to French football because he missed France. club started taking out loans to build a new stadium so I don’t wanna go crazy but I really need a wing back. I have a 2* CA 4* PA 20 year old wing back from academy but he can’t cross the ball for shit, board wants more chances for youth players do I may have to roll with him. Currently projected to finish tenth in the season preview
Do you do anything with the players in the academy? Typically I let the staff/HOYD handle everything until I get them into the first team
sometimes I will change their position training, especially if they come out of the academy as a center back but they’re like 5’10 with 8 jumping reach. I’ll never start a CB with a jumping reach of less than 12 unless I’m getting cooked by injuries and match congestion
Damn I just looked up Oostende football club on wiki and found out they dissolved due to bankruptcy in May of 2024 which means I’m now in an alternate universe where I saved the club from death by shedding bad wages and getting them into European football I may stay here with this save until FM 26 is out
They were owned by pacific media group. A bunch of Americans who from the evidence know absolutely nothing about football. they own or did own clubs in France, belgium, Germany, Denmark etc. Let me use what happened at their Danish club Esbjerg as context. they took over control. first of all Esbjerg is like the 5th biggest city in Denmark. The club has a big following and great potential, but had been bouncing around from the two highest leagues. PMG took over and hired a manager who was a litteral mad man, he’d bully players, get physical etc. it turned into a huge media storm but PMG was like “harden up losers” but they fired him like after a couple of months because everything sucked on and off the field. The players association then dragged them in court for misconduct. things just got worse and worse. PMG spent a lot of money on bad players and Esbjerg gets relegated to the 3rd tier. this is absolutely insane to anyone. okay well theres no chance they dont steamroll the 3rd tier and get promoted. except they dont. so they play 2 years in the 3rd tier and are pretty much bankroupt when local business owners get Paul Conway and PMG thrown out of the club. that cost them a 10 point deduction. but they managed to get promoted anyway. I know other clubs have felt similar effects of Conway and his goons. oostende paying the ultimate price. its insane malpractice.
Theres not many newer articles on this but this gives you a pretty good idea on what they want/wanted to do and how awful its turned out pretty much anywhere. and yes this is exactly what they tried with Esbjerg and i’ve never seen a bigger dumpster fire. https://sportsinvestment.substack.com/p/pacific-media-groups-disastrous-impact
This is pretty damning getting a huge cash out from Ratcliffe and using it to run multiple clubs into the ground in 5 years is peak malpractice
reminds me of having to explain to my dad that just because America has a bunch of freak athletes doesn’t mean we can win things in futbol every time the World Cup rolls around
Season two completed I someone managed to convince Patrick Kluivert to be my new head of youth development, made it to the round of 16 in the Europa league and oh yeah won the Belgian Pro League on the last day of the season despite a bunch of injuries and losing more games than I wanted to I just had the release clause on my goalkeeper I loved triggered and now I’m scrambling. The board keeps refusing my requests to improve our youth recruitment and PSV just offered me an interview for the job Really not sure what to do Edit: just realized PSV is in Eindhoven which I’ve never been to irl so that would break the rules of the challenge. Fuck it we ball. I got a 20 year old 2*CA 5*PA keeper I signed on a free from a small team in the Netherlands last season I’m just gonna give him the job and see what he does Also the board finally agreed to improve youth recruitment after my keeper left on a 7 million dollar transfer and I got some great hires on the staff feels like I’m building a club instead of just splashing cash on transfers it’s more fun
Also look at this kid from my first youth intake who is only 16 and started in 21 league games for me last season currently locked into a contract with a 16.25 million dollar release clause but if no one comes looking for him this season I’m gonna offer him another contract for a bigger clause because he looks like a future best DM in the world