The same as I/we didn’t know if the FM 26 would be a thing after a previous year, I also didn’t know where I should spend most of the new edition in terms of the long-term save. In the end, I decided against all the experimental thoughts I had in the previous months, and I decided for, maybe boring, but a traditional type of save with the club from the European second division with a rich history, but also recent struggles and issues.
The new game is not finished, and there are a lot of issues. A lot of things I/we used in the past are not in the game anymore, which means the style of playing the game will be different.
But I hope I will enjoy my time with the new game and developing K.S.C. Lokeren in Belgium.
Searching the (Czech) “mafia”
My kids would say it’s like talking about the prehistoric times, but back in the 70s and 90s, Lokeren football club was a vital part of the Czech football history.
If we were to look for a place in the world where football has done the best advertising for the Czech Republic, Belgian side Lokeren would rank very high. The captain of the 1962 world champions, Ladislav Novák, trained there, the Slovak European champion from Belgrade, Karol Dobiáš, played there, and Jan Koller developed into a top striker there…
The story from the 90s: Roman Vonášek (midfielder) and Václav Budka (midfielder) were both on Lokeren’s radar, and Belgian club representatives came to Prague to finalise the deal. When the talks between clubs were ongoing, they also talked about the fact that they would need a striker too.
Jan Koller was a Sparta Prague player at this time, but his position in the team (and the club itself) was not very good. He was offered to Lokeren, but it wasn’t so easy. They didn’t trust in his abilities. And he really was not as good as you may remember him from the time with BVB or in the Czech national team shirt later. He lacked the technical skills; he was clumsy; he was not ready for a big football…
…but Josef Vacenovský, a former Czechoslovakia national team player and also a Lokeren player & coach in the 20th century, had his word, and he convinced the representatives of Lokeren to sign Koller too. That means Lokeren bought three players from Sparta Prague during the same transfer window. A year later, Martin Pěnička joined Lokeren from Slavia Prague. That meant Lokeren had four Czech players at the same time in the squad.
“If I hadn’t played for Lokeren, my career probably wouldn’t have been as successful. I was lucky with the coach, the people at the club, and I made the most progress there. Before leaving the Czech Republic, I had to look for Lokeren on the map; I didn’t know anything about it.”
They called them “Czech mafia”. Goalkeeper Jan Musil also spent a short period of time with the club in 1997.
Jan Koller left the club in 1999 as he joined Anderlecht, where he won the Belgian title with them before he moved to Dortmund and became one of their legends. Budka and Pěnička left after another year. A couple of more Czech players were in the club later for a short period of time, but not in a big group like these four „mafiosi“.
Václav Budka, Roman Vonášek, Martin Pěnička & Jan Koller. Picture @www.standaard.be
The aim is not to concentrate on the Czech players within the transfer market. The idea is to just have a group of players from the same nation.
“Will you sign another player from the country “XY” to help this player “XY” to settle in the new club?”
If you follow my saves in the past, you will know that I usually play mostly with the domestic players. My saves are focused on the youth development a lot. It’s not only about having three or four players from the same nation. It can be one player in the senior squad and three youngsters. Or vice versa. It depends on the situation.
And as I said, it’s not necessary to sign Czech players just because of this story. We can create a “mafia” from a different country.
I don’t know if it will be a thing in Football Manager 26, the same as in the previous versions, but the affiliate clubs can play a part in this scenario within this save.
Also, the players already mentioned were one central defender, two central midfielders, and one striker. So, some kind of team axis. But it’s not a restriction that I have to replicate this. It will be random. It can be the defensive line, as in FM25, when I had three Slovenian defenders in the starting XI, for example.
If I check the current 25/26 Lokeren squad, there are 19 players with Belgian nationality (including Radja Nainggolan, for example) and around 10 foreign players - two Spanish defenders, four strikers from African nations. I found it an ideal combination to start with - the base of the squad will always be domestic-based + a couple of foreign players who will offer something different.
And in this case, I will try my best to find the new “mafia” and these foreign players will be from the same nation. It can be four Spanish players for two seasons, or three Austrian players for five seasons. There’s a rich history of Icelandic players in the club; Alfreð Finnbogason was probably the most well-known, I would say.
It depends, but I’m sure I will play at least five seasons of this save, so it’s manageable.
The important thing to remind myself - this is not a must! It’s not something I have to do; it’s not some restriction. If it won’t happen, it’s not the end of the world. I just want to enjoy playing the game again, and this can be some kind of side story.
Lokeren and its struggles in the 21st century
I won’t pretend I’m an expert on Belgian football or the history of the Lokeren football club. The good old Wikipedia and a couple of online articles are my useful friends. The “original” Lokeren was founded in 1923, and they won the Belgian Cup twice. Their history is rich. I would say every club that has been on the map for too long has a rich history. No matter of highs and lows, trophies or defeats.
Lokeren almost made it to the 100th anniversary. But they were relegated from the top tier in 2018. Two years later, they were declared bankrupt, and in April 2020, they merged with the nearby town of Temse (KSV Temse), and the new club K.S.C. Lokeren-Temse was founded, starting in the fourth tier.
The club from Temse was formed in 1945, so that’s also a club with a long history, and it was a logical step to connect both clubs to avoid the complete extinction of Lokeren.
The new club started in the fourth tier, and they moved up in 2022/2023. A second successive promotion followed in the next season. The key thing was that the club got the professional license, and they are now back in the second tier for the second season. The seventh place was a success.
In 2025, the club decided to use the K.S.C. Lokeren name again.
Daknamstadion - capacity 12,136, not renovated, expanded or massively improved since 1974.
As I already mentioned, I’m not an expert on Belgian football. When I check the Lokeren current squad, I know only Radja Nainggolan. The rest of the players are unknown to me. I would be able to talk about Michel Preud’homme, Raymond Braine (he played for Sparta Prague, and I read a lot about him), and how I signed Antony Vanden Borre every time in the old FM editions or about my platonic love for Walter Baseggio and Bart Goor, when they played for both Anderlecht and Belgium in the 90s.
I, of course, know current or recent Belgian players, but I don’t remember playing in an FM save in Belgium for too long a time, and this can be a good thing to get to know some new players, too.
Challenger Pro League
The second Belgian tier has been continuously expanded in terms of the number of teams since 2016. There are 17 teams for the 2025/2026 season. The league changed its format a lot during recent years.
This season, two teams will be automatically promoted to the Belgian Pro League, and the promotion play-off winner will be matched against the last-placed top-tier team, with no direct relegation due to the top tier's expansion to 18 teams from 2026–27 onwards.
I like that there’s a promotion play-off; it will be even more challenging to get the club back to the top tier.
I made kits! Although I didn’t know if I would be able to use them in the game…
Tactical direction
With the new in and out-of-possession possibilities, there will probably be some experiments. I know I will keep it simple as always, but I would like to create another quality tactic with three central defenders and attacking wing-backs who will be, or should be, the main power.
Also, there’s no pressing forward role in FM26. I will continue experimenting with the Centre Forward role and player instructions to create a pressing monster in the attacking phase.
Save set-up
The game setup is simple - a real world with real transfers with real dates and the first transfer window disabled. That means there will be arriving and departing players during the opening weeks and months of the save. It will surely keep me entertained in terms of the squad planning.
Especially as there are four squads - the first team, reserves, U21 and U18, it will be fun. Hopefully.
Thanks for reading, take care and feel free to join FM Slack.
What is FM Slack?
There were a lot of changes within many social media, including Twitter (now “X”), and it’s not the same as in the past. We can’t see many things due to the algorithm, weird preferences and many other reasons I don’t even want to know.
There are many Discord servers, and I’m sure they are good and useful. But I will probably always be a bigger fan of Slack. Or, better worded, the Football Manager Slack. Feel free to join us with this link.
You will find a short channel summary in the ‘generalchat’ so it will be easier for you to navigate through the channels.
There are a couple of things missing in Football Manager 26. The touchline shouts feature is one of them. I found out I miss them more than I could’ve imagined, and I decided to create some kind of compensation. It works like a therapy. I keep this page open and hit the relevant button from time to time during the match.