A Happy New Year to all of you lucky enough to find yourself here! It’s been a while since I blogged…I got into that habit of playing a lot and quickly that I didn’t want to stop to blog – despite the catharsis it brings. I then stopped playing. And then started again. It felt…familiar.

I’ve now noticed a pattern to my habits and playstyle when it comes to Football Manager. As I’ve aged, got married, had 3 kids naturally my time with FM and how I play has changed quite a lot.

I now tend to find myself almost over-excited for a new version of FM; with multiple ideas and desires in my head to blog, podcast, do videos & narratives. I’ll then go on an early-FM blitz of content – riding the crest of an FM wave. Inevitably, there comes a time when that wave has to crash and I think with FM23 I couldn’t recover from it.

With FM24 I feel like my wave had a small crash of its own already (sorry for all the metaphors). I really enjoyed my time with AZ; 3 seasons completed fairly quickly with success coming earlier than expected, but then the joy & excitement that was there at the beginning of the save petered out to the point where I felt I needed to move on to something new.

That something new turned out to be Aston Villa. I had thoughts in my head on how this was a natural next step & I could make it work, but alas that spark never returned and I stopped returning to that save.

I often think does playing the game at breakneck speed at times affect my enjoyment? I probably play faster than your average FMer but when I’m in a groove I’ll often play 9pm-1am most evenings, and once I’ve found a tactical sweet spot I’ll switch to key highlights, only dropping back to extended highlights if problems arise. Does this speed mean I’m moving more quickly towards these dips in enjoyment? Probably.

So I needed to find a way around this. As it happens, a friend presented me with an idea that I liked the sound of; we both manage a lower league club in England and compare our journeys. I haven’t done a lower league save in a very long time so it appealed on a few levels. I enjoy playing the game for what it is but also the social aspect of keeping each other updated on our progress. It reminds me of when I used to play network saves all the time in the FMs after Football Manager Live died. RIP. I still reiterate that some of the most fun to be had in FM is in network saves.

Fast forward a few weeks and the buzz and enjoyment are back like they never left. Part-time club, part-time players, next to no budgets, no staff, next to no training, small squads…it’s all there and the challenges were refreshing.

Bath City now sit 2nd place in League Two at the halfway point in the season after back-to-back promotions. Safe to say we’ve surpassed all expectations. It’s a lot of fun yet there’s always a part of me that thinks ‘is this success down to me being good at Football Manager? Or is the game now hardwired to make it easier for me to be successful?’ It’s probably a little from column A and a larger chunk from column B – but whilst it’s enjoyable I’m all for it.

I’m hoping to provide further updates on this particular journey, though maybe a little less conventionally. As ever I’ll be providing regular updates on my Slack channel but for now, it’s time to earn that back-to-back-to-back promotions.