If I would want to be a very cynical person, I would say the first season with Lokeren in Football Manager 26 was just a normal season. But when I look at the previous in-game months from a real-life perspective, most managers would need a long holiday without phone calls, emails and with a couple of beers every day.

I wrote about the “Real World” database option, the rivalry with SK Beveren, the domestic cup run or about how I was afraid the save would end sooner than I expected.

First Christmas, then sale

As I mentioned in the opening post about this save, my game set-up includes the “real world” option with real transfers, with real dates and the first transfer window disabled. That means there were a lot of players both arriving and departing during the summer and autumn of 2025.

I hoped it would keep me entertained in terms of the squad planning. It surely kept me very entertained, but mainly when I followed how the wage budget was exceeded more and more.

A simple summary:

Fourteen of 23 incoming players arrived at the club on July 1, 2025. Six players arrived during the summer, and three players arrived during September. The beauty of this real-world option is that you can have a new player for just days. That was an example of one midfielder who arrived at the beginning of July but left for a loan after a couple of days. And yes, I already had him in the squad planner :-)

There were 29 outgoing transfers during the summer, including free transfers or loans. Twenty-six players left the club on June 30 or July 1. That was easier in terms of planning the squad selection.

When all these players left, I had to check the future incoming transfers. I knew what the squad was missing and where our weaknesses were. When I found out there would be new central defenders and attacking midfielders, it was like opening late Christmas gifts. Yes, it’s not ideal not to have the squad together because of the tactics, but it doesn’t matter too much when I take a look back at how the season went.

But everything has two sides. The club’s finances are terrible. When all the transfers settled, I found out the wage budget (the original was €236K per month) was already exceeded by almost 10K.

Three weeks later, at the beginning of December 2025, I found out the board lowered the wage budget to €196K per month. I didn’t notice any message about it during the previous three weeks, even though I tried to find it. That meant we were significantly over the budget. I needed to cut out €45,865.

I decided to take advantage of a potential bug - I’m not sure if it’s intentional or a bug. There was always an option to cancel the loan when the player picked up a serious or long-term injury. But in FM26, it’s there even if it’s some minor injury.

And some of the players who arrived during the summer were players on loan. And we paid their full wage. When one of these players picked an injury for a week, the inbox message also contained the “Terminate Loan” button.

This player had €21K p/m. I will always rather play (=develop) my own youngster, even a worse player, than some loaned player. So, I terminated the loan.

When it happened again with a different player, I terminated his loan, too. I did it with all three loaned players. And it saved €38.5K p/m. The striker Daishawn Redan (loaned from U.S. Uvaellino 1912) scored 8 competitive goals in 13 appearances, and he was very good as a Channel Forward, but we paid 100% of his wage - €10,75K p/m, and it was too much.

I also decided to sell or release a couple of players in January, although at least two of them were very useful. But when you’re 4 million in debt, you can’t reject offers that earned over €300K for six players, and it will also save €20K p/m on wages.

It turned out that I put the wage budget under control (€7K p/m under the budget), despite signing two players on free at the end of January. But they got €1.1K and €1.2K per month, and they both are better than the sold players. Also, both of them have relatively high transfer value, so there’s a possibility to sell them and make some profit.

And to be absolutely clear, Tebili helped us and played a lot, Villorejo lacks physical attributes, and he was good mainly playing for reserves. My thinking is to renew his contract and try to sell him in the near future.

On one side, it was fun to have the first transfer window prepared on a plate from the real world. But it was also challenging in terms of keeping the money alright. I’m glad I will have it under my control since the second season.

Another important part of keeping the wage budget within its limits was to stop delegating the responsibility of signing staff members for my youth teams. I have Reserve, U21 and U18 squads. Only reserves and U18 play competitive matches. There are no players in the U21 team, and it’s a useless team right now, the last one in the hierarchy in my eyes. But my (already former) DoF signed staff members for this team. I know these coaches will help with the training within other teams, but releasing seven U21 staff members saved around €15K p/m.

[In the previous version(s), the staff wages were included in the general wage budget - in FM24 for sure. I can’t see it in the FM26. It shows only the players' wage budget in the Finances tab. There’s no staff wage budget mentioned if I was searching right]

We ended the season with more than 4 million euros in debt. The wage budget was increased by about €100K p/m to €297.379 p/m for the next season. But the club will have to start paying another loan, so the investment in the squad will have to be very careful. Especially as the club board has to invest another €2.3M for the undersoil heating to comply with the league requirements…

“Be competitive against SK Beveren”

The Waasland derby, also known as the Wase derby. That’s how matches between KSK Beveren and Sporting Lokeren were known in the past. Both clubs had their own existential issues, and fans of both teams - successors of the original clubs - had to find the right feeling again.

The history of these matches dates back to the 1970s as the rivalry between Lokeren and Beveren arose, also thanks to the successful times of both clubs in the domestic but also in European competitions. The last derby (the original one) match was played in February 2007. KSK Beveren had its issues, and the club has disbanded its men's team.

Between 2012 and 2020, Beveren played under the name of Waasland Beveren. Sporting Lokeren went bankrupt in 2020, and the club now exists thanks to merging with a nearby town. In real life, the season 2024/25 brought back the derby in the Belgian second tier despite clubs using different names. Lokeren won the first match 1:0 in Beveren. Beveren won the second match 1:0 in Lokeren.

In terms of my 2025/26 season with Lokeren in Football Manager 26, I was able to play this derby four times during the opening season of the save. And both the board and supporters gave me a simple aim: “Be competitive against SK Beveren”.

The clubs have a fierce rivalry in the game. The Beveren’s manager, Marink Reedijk, did a great job during the season, but he will not remember our matches with a positive smile.

“…I’ve been itching to put him back in his place for a while now and at full-time on Sunday he is going to be regretting making this personal.” - Marink Reedijk ahead of the Lokeren - Beveren in March 2026.

It was quite optimistic from someone whose team had conceded ten goals in the previous ten matches against us.

The first match was scheduled for November, and we won 2:1 away from home. We were 0:1 down early in the game, but Beveren scored an own goal a couple of minutes later, and Vervaque scored the winning goal twenty minutes before the final whistle.

We also faced Beveren in the Croky Cup semi-final (more about the domestic cup run later). The first leg in Beveren ended with a 1:1 draw, and the second leg at home was 100% the most entertaining match of the season as we won 7:4 - 3:0, 3:3, 4:3 HT - 6:3, 7:4 FT and a 8:5 win on aggregate. But the world is in the balance as the game decided the best match of the year was a 1:1 draw in the early round.

Some fans started calling these matches “Wasico” derby as a pun on Waasland and the Spanish El Clásico. The last one of the 2025/2026 season was played almost at the end of the Challenger Pro League season.

We faced Beveren at home, and a win would secure the league title for us. Our best goalscorer of the season, Mohamed Soumaré, scored two goals, and we won 3:2. That means we did quite well against Beveren during the whole season, right? Four matches, three wins and one draw.

This brings us to the fact that we won the second tier in the opening season of the save, and we won the promotion to the Belgian top tier. We were 12 points clear at the top of the table at some point in the season, but in the end, we won the league by three points ahead of Eupen. The third promoted club is KV Kortrijk, as they succeeded in the play-off.

SK Beveren ended sixth, and we will have to wait for another Waasland derby.

As I already mentioned, Mohamed Soumaré was our best goalscorer with 22 goals scored in 29 league appearances. I would like to keep him for another season, but he has already decided he doesn’t want to renew his contract.

Belgian Challenger Pro League 2025/2026 table

A domestic cup run

The Belgian domestic cup, named “Croky Cup”, was very generous to us in the opening season, as we were able to make it to the final. We beat RWDM Brussels 3:1 in the 6th round. We also beat Union SG 3:1 in the 7th Round - our first experience against some of the top-tier teams. We also hosted Club Brugge at home in the 8th round, and we beat them 3:2 after being 3:0 up already, but they almost equalised, and one of their goals was disallowed. Luckily.

We faced Dender EH, also from the top tier. We were 0:1 down after an early penalty kick, but Mohamed Soumaré scored twice, including a stoppage-time winner after a short free-kick routine, and we made it to the semi-final.

The semi-final against Beveren was already mentioned. We faced KRC Genk in the final. We were 1:0 up after a nice goal by David Tebili, but Genk scored four goals within 30 minutes and won 4:2 in the end after Soumaré scored our second before the end.

Unnecessary contract drama

As usual, at the beginning of the new save, the club gave me a one-year contract at the beginning of the season. I didn’t think or doubt that I would not receive an offer for the new one based on the results and based on exceeding expectations.

But when a reporter asked about the contract situation three months before the end of the season, I started panicking a little bit. The wage budget situation was under control again, and we were close to winning the promotion…

…nothing was happening. No offer. A month and a half before the end of the season, I gave up, went to the board and requested the new contract.

The response was something I didn’t expect. “We have considered your request for a new contract, but the club currently can’t afford to offer one.”

I adjusted budgets and tried it again, but the response was the same. The cup final was played, and players and staff left for a holiday, and I started planning the next season with a view to playing in the top tier. No matter how it will end with the contract. But partly, I almost started searching for the new club.

Maybe I was too impatient, maybe it’s connected to a bad club’s financial status, I don’t know. I don’t remember experiencing something like that. But I was offered a new contract on May 28. The offer was for 2 seasons with €13K p/m. I adjusted it to €4.1K p/m and 3 seasons. The Lokeren & FM Rensie will continue.

The bright future?

We had 7 “Elite Prospects” within the 2026 Youth Intake. It also includes Said Okoce, a 15-year-old Belgian striker or winger. I can say this player is the best newgen within my FM saves for a long time. Maybe the best.

I need to tie him down with a contract, and I have to hope he will not want some ridiculous release clause.

I already gave him the league and a cup debut at the end of the season; he also scored his first goal in his first appearance, and he became the youngest player and goalscorer of the league.

Other newgens need some “baking”, and they will get some minutes next season, but Okoce will be considered as one of the strikers, as I plan to change the tactics slightly. You can find my tactic from season one here.

Thank you for reading, and thank you to everyone for supporting everyone else across social media or forum(s).

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.