FM24 | Honorary save | Six seasons with Reading FC

November 10, 2024

I spent 24 years with Reading FC back in the Football Manager 2017. This time, in FM24, it was only six years. For some, it’s too many years with a single club, especially within the save that’s a journeyman save in some way. But waiting (and hitting the spacebar) for some/any FM25 news resulted in almost a complete save in terms of the longevity and how I started the development of the club itself and some players.

I joined the club at the end of the virtual calendar year of 2029 after three seasons with Perugia and two seasons with Dijon. I decided to wrap up this part of the save with this six seasons summary including details about results, trophies, transfers, finances and tactics.

2028/2029 - the survival

I got the Reading FC job in December 2028 when the club was (rock) bottom of the Premier League with only ten points after 17 matches. The only aim was to try to save the club in the Premier League before a new start.

I set the 4-1-3-2 formation as it was planned before and the fight started. January transfer window is not my favourite part of the season and I always feel I did a bad job during the previous summer if I need to buy new players during winter. But this was not my squad and I need to make some business. As always, I didn’t spend too much money compared with other clubs, and the fact that the most important transfer was recalling my own player from his loan speaks for itself.

Everything worked well and we finished 14th in the table after the final round of the 2028/2029 Premier League campaign.

2029/2030

My ambitions were much higher than fighting about survival. I started improving everything and we were able to finish 6th in the league in my first complete season. That also meant continental qualification.

The League/EFL/Coca-Cola/Carabao Cup final appearance was also a great success for the club despite losing 1:4 to Manchester City in the final.

2030/2031

The main highlight of this season was our Europa League campaign. We finished 6th in the League Phase with five wins and three draws in eight matches and that was enough to progress straight to the Last 16 round.

We played against Rennes in this knock-out round and we won 5:4 on aggregate after a 2:2 draw away from home and a 3:2 home win. The quarter-final took us to France again as we got Nantes. We beat them 3:0 at home in the first leg after one of the best performances of the whole season. We made it to the semi-final despite a 1:2 defeat in the second leg.

The great cup run ended in the final as we lost to Chelsea 2:3 after being 0:3 down already after the opening sixty minutes. But it was a great season in the end despite losing the final.

2031/2032

The fourth season with Reading ended with a silverware. We finished 5th in the Premier League and I was happy with it because it meant we secured the Europa League again. The Champions League would be great but we finished three points behind Newcastle and they also have a better goal difference so we would not be able to move over them.

But it was the Europa League campaign that made everyone happy. We finished 2nd in the League Phase just two points behind Barcelona. We beat Göztepe, Cremonese and Valencia in the knock-out stage to make it to the final for the second year in a row.

The save is full of narratives and this final was not an exception because we played against Dijon - one of my former clubs in this save. After an uneventful first half of the final, we scored the winning goal in the 54th minute. Another narrative was that my own academy players made that goal as a central defender Niall Wright made an assist for a goal by the right wing-back James Norley.

“We are devastated because too few youngsters were afforded significant first-team opportunities this season and we are disappointed that this has been allowed to happen.”

I see you, my dear board members. I’m also devastated we won the Europa League with a half-squad of academy graduates.

2032/2033

After winning the Europa League in the previous season, we qualified for the Champions League for the first time. We did great and finished 5th after winning six matches from eight in the League Phase. It meant qualification to the Round of 16 and more prize money. We destroyed Athletic Club 7:0 on aggregate and made it to the quarter-final. The draw was boring, we got Arsenal and lost 0:3 on aggregate.

We concentrated on the Champions League too much in this season and I let to play many young players in both domestic cups and in the Premier League too. And it was the worst Premier League campaign within this save so far as we finished 8th in the league and we won the last European spot. If I don’t count the first season when I took over the club, we managed to get the least number of points and we had the worst goal difference.

2033/2034

The last season of this “Honorary” save so far. And the last season with Reading. I wasn’t 100% sure if it would be the last one but the info about FM25 delay helped me with this decision as I want to play the game occasionally and I don’t have an urge to start a new save with updated database, transfers etc.

I changed the tactic ahead of this season a little bit and we were flying from the beginning of the save. The easier level of the Conference League gave me one great thing - the opponents were not good enough, I was able to play only with youngsters and backup players and the full-strength squad played in the Premier League.

The average age of the squad within Conference League matches was under the age of 20 in most matches. We won all six matches in the League Phase with 25 goals scored and only three conceded. The knock-out stage was quite easy too as we beat Rangers FC, Austria Lustenau and Slavia Prague before we beat Lens 2:1 in the final match. The winning goal was scored by one of the academy youngsters again.

We won the EFL Cup this season too as we beat Arsenal in the final. The FA Cup campaign ended in the quarter-final again after a 1:2 defeat to Manchester City. Again.

14th February 2034, the new Premier League record high scoring game

But the main point of this season was the Premier League campaign. We fought about the league title with Manchester City until the last round. City had 37 matches played already while we were four points behind them with two matches in hand. We beat Chelsea and Wolves 2:1 and 3:2 respectively and we moved over Manchester City ahead of the last round.

City had to beat Brighton and we travelled for an away match against Everton. City went down early in the match against Brighton. We were 2:1 up after the first half and I knew it was very close after scoring the third goal after an hour of play. City scored two and won 2:1 in the end but we don’t care.

Premier League 2033/2034 champions = Reading FC. We scored 102 goals, conceded only 36 (the best effort of these six seasons) and we gained 101 points. All top five clubs in the table scored 100+ goals in this season.

Tactics through the Reading FC part of the save

Every single tactic/formation had something special but I enjoyed using the last one the most. It offered us the most attacking things and I think we played the most enjoyable football from all the six seasons I spent with Reading.

Maybe I will use it with the next club so there’s a possibility I will write more about it.

The initial 4-1-3-2

A real life replication of 3-4-3

The Europa League 2032 winning 4-5-1

The title winning 4-3-3 DM Wide

The magic of Moneyball transfers

I love buying cheap and selling for a lot of money. Who doesn’t? I had a lot of players I signed for almost nothing in comparison with what I got for them. Japanese national team was almost full of players I would be able to buy for around €5M each and sell them later for ten times as much. At least.

There are some examples in the gallery.

Conclusion

Four cup wins and one league title in the five and a half seasons when the club was bottom of the Premier League in that first season. I think that’s a really good review of this part of the save.

It was great to add some big trophies to the Reading FC history. I’m in the favoured personnel only right now but I’m happy with it.

Dijon continues finishing in the top 5 within the Ligue 1 and they are doing very well in overall since I left them. Perugia, my first club of this save, is struggling and battling against relegation from Serie A every season since I left them. They finished 13th, 15th (twice), 18th and relegated, 17th (twice) and 16th since I left the club after finishing 4th in the opening Seria A season. But that’s history already.

I won’t return for Dijon or Perugia within this save. That’s 100% sure as I already rejected a job offer from both of these clubs while I was with Reading.

“This is my last FM24 club, I don’t know how long I will be able to play this save but I’m one season ahead of the schedule in terms of playing with two clubs already. I feel I will focus on the club development the most now as it would be the one-club save…”

I wrote this in the first blog dedicated to this part of the FM24 save. But it’s not true anymore. With the already knowns news about the FM25, I will continue with this save with another club.

Bonus club - I already mentioned the fact I had a quite long list of possible clubs. The same as I had a lot of favourite clubs/saves within the last 20 years of Football Manager, I also had a lot of favourite players. It’s not only that great regen Loader, but there were many others. If I have enough time, and some of my previous clubs connected with some favourite players would be available within the job centre in the game, I can move here too.

This quote is from the opening post about this “Honorary save.” I don’t know if some of my former FM clubs will be available, but I resigned from my Reading manager job and will wait for the right offer. I know I want some challenge for a couple of months again.

I already added Poland, the Netherlands and Belgium to playable leagues of this save. I thought about going back home to the Czech Republic and play for some my favourite or former clubs within FM saves. I also already had some job offers from Premier League clubs during this last season but I rejected all of them as it was from Chelsea or Brighton. I didn’t think about it as some kind of challenge.

We will see what will come next after I will resignate from Reading job…

Thanks for reading, take care and feel free to join FM Slack.

What FM Slack is?

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.

FM24 | Replicating real-life lower league tactic

August 28, 2024

I didn’t play Football Manager 2024 for a while but wanted to get back into it. My FM24 save with Perugia, Dijon and Reading was still among the saved files, and I restarted it. I’m in 2030 and at the start of the new season with Reading FC in the Premier League. I replicated all three tactics I used while I was playing with these three clubs in the past. I didn’t have to continue with 3-5-2/4-4-1-1 or 4-1-3-2. I decided to replicate the tactic I’m currently using with my local town team in the 8th tier.

Intro

It’s not a secret that I love playing with the 3-5-2 formation and its variations. I love playing within the defensive line with three central defenders. And I like to play in this way even if we are playing in the 8th tier (from the 10th). We are just amateurs but I’m lucky enough to have a couple of talented young players around who are intelligent enough to think about what they are doing on and off the pitch and they are not only scrolling through Instagram or any other social media…

I’m playing coach and that means I’m playing where is it needed. When we miss the central defender, I play here. When we have enough central defenders, I prefer to play as a CM. I have been playing for my local town club for 18 years. I consider myself a piece of history with all due respect. I love it here. I met my wife here, we live here together with our kids. But it’s probably my last season because of the many stupid and childish things our club board does.

“That was great, I enjoyed how often I was able to play with the ball and I didn’t have to only defend and mark the opponent. It’s a great change in comparison with a defensive line containing only four defenders.”

I still remember this feedback from my one-year-old teammate after the first match while using the 3-5-2 two years ago. It was also my first match as a playing coach. We survived the last season with just regular 10 players in the squad. The rest was from our U19s team and one or two players from the main team (our A team plays in the 5th tier). Many players had to play in different positions and roles but I think it helped them.

My aim for the new 2024/25 season was to improve our squad with some new local players. It turned out quite well and we have 5 new players. Three of them played for our club already in the youth categories so I brought some good lads back. The return of one player also meant the change in our shape…

From 3-5-2 to 3-4-3

The main change was simple: We had more than one player capable of playing as a winger or inside forward. On the other hand, the new player who should be our team's biggest attacking weapon is attacking-minded, and I can’t imagine playing him as a wing-back. Most of our opponents also have strong and big defenders, so that’s why I want to play simple passing football and only long balls.

I decided to keep the formation with three defenders but we are now using both wing-backs and AMR/L positions.

The biggest change, both in real life and in the game too, is that my team is not using three central midfielders after a long time. This is probably a bigger change and difference than the fact there are now AMR/L players. This needs to be balanced the most.

Central defenders? One calm boy & two bulldogs. Or vice versa?

Two central defenders with the stopper duty and one classic CD(D). That’s my most common and the most favourite combination. I’m lucky to have two clever-aggressive teammates back after a long-term injury so I can use the stopper duty.

The aim is to have the central defender with a “defend” duty and both right and left central defenders with the stopper duty. These two can step up to attack the opponent and they are also able to provide the width as I use “Stay wider” individual instruction for both of them.

I like to swap from CD(St) - CD(D) - CD(St) to CD(D) - CD(St) - CD(D) when the opponent team plays with two strikers and the AM player too. That’s usually the most critical and the most risky because both CD(St) players would be too high to press/attack the opponent and there are too big gaps. Both in real life and in the game.

Two CM(S)

As I mentioned already above, resolving the right balance in the central midfield area is key. The DLP and the CM(S) are my favourite roles. I mentioned it many times during the time I have been writing about the Football Manager. I thought about using the combination of these two roles (in the game) but I decided against it to copy the real-life properly.

It’s safe to say that we are using two CM(S) and they rotate between each other. One CM player is a little bit more creative and he should support the attack more. The second CM players should be a little bit more aggressive and something between the BWM and the DLP.

In real life, both CM(S) (including me) are versatile players and we all have something that we want from CM players. Creativity, out-of-the-ball movement, decisions but also anticipation. That means I set up the CM roles in the way bellow. And they switch positions with each other during the match.

Counters? Yes, please.

I know we can play a quality possession-based football but we also now have some fast (or faster than in the past) players. And I want to take advantage of it. That means, when we have the chance counter, we have to try it.

Just wait for the right time, don’t panic all around the pitch with the pressing.

Be sure all players know where their position is and remain patient. It’s not a Champions League (in our real-life example) and the opponent will make a mistake. They lose the ball, they are not fully concentrated, the pass is misplaced…

It happens even in the game.

(I don’t have a full-length video of our goal from the recent tournament but we got the ball in our own half thanks to the tight marking, speaking to each other and our fastest player took advantage of his quickness after a simple through ball.)

Here are some examples of goals we scored during the season. There are goals from the same match so you can see it can be very straightforward while playing from the back but also a build-up with a lot of passes in the middle of the pitch.

Playing from the back

“What the fuck are you doing? Don’t play with the keeper, he is useless. Kick the ball out!”

“For sure. Should we also kick the ball out while our lone striker is 170cm “tall” and their central defenders are a head bigger? We can also play 4-4-2 and I will try to find two or three players who will get a red card every match…”

We are a small town but the same rule applies here as everywhere else. The smaller the town, the more football coaches are around the pitch/pub. Yes, we conceded a lot of goals because of mistakes we made while playing from the back. But we would probably play in a much higher division if we did not make mistakes. I remember we conceded 15 goals in two friendly matches within a single weekend in the summer of 2023. Two-thirds of them were because 1) we had 16/17 years old defenders, 2) a very shy and uncertain goalkeeper and 3) we were learning.

We played against the same opponents this summer. We drew 1:1 and won 4:2 against them. The squads of our opponents were almost the same as last year. Our squad was a little bit better but not because of the new players. It was mainly about experiences and what we learned throughout the previous season.

“I really liked how you played. You had a simple idea of how to close our playmaker and how to reduce the depth of the pitch. It meant we were not able to create something.” That’s probably the best compliment I received from the opponent in a long way. The fact we won was not important too much. This feedback was great after the second match of that summer tournament.

The main thing is very simple - wide central defenders offer the option at the sides of the penalty area, and both central midfielders have to rotate and find the best possible place to create the simple triangle. It’s only about the movement.

The example from the FM24 can be this one. It’s easy, simple and addictive to watch. The good thing is it happened in the first Premier League round - the learning in the game is much faster than in real life :)

Don’t be affraid…

…to experiment and play football you like just because it’s a lower league. I know very well that we can’t play a complex football like Manchester City or a heavy-metal football like Bayer 04 Leverkusen because we don’t have good enough players for it. But that doesn’t stop me trying my best to ensure we enjoy what we are doing.

I know my 20 years old teammate is not good enough neither as a right FB, WB, MR or AMR. He is always between something. He always miss something. One match he is great as defender, the other week he can’t even head the ball out of the penalty box. But he found how and where to stay while he is defending fast or tall player and he is able to think about it. That’s something I consider as my biggest trophy or medal after two years in this role. They are listening and they are learning.

That’s my win.

I don’t know how the real-life season will end. I will find out next year. But in FM24, I finished 7th in the Premier League. We made it to the Carabao Cup semi-final and we made it to the Europa League final where we lost 2:3 to Chelsea…

The best goalscorer of the team was our IF(A) - James Taylor (click to open his profile) who scored 25 goals in 37 appearances. He also added 9 assists. It would be great if my real-life AMR player would have at least ten goals this season.

A couple of pictures from the 2030/2031 season including Niall Wright (my favourite defender) and Derek O’Brien (my favourite signing during my Reading time so far).

What next? One more season with a new tactic…

Take care.

FM Slack alert!

You will find a short channel summary in the ‘generalchat’ so it will be easier for you to navigate through the channels.

FM24 | Honorary save | Reading 2028/2029

May 9, 2024

June 5, 2029. The in-game date of my resignation as a Dijon FCO manager. I decided to leave this French club a season earlier than planned for this save, but I felt it was the best decision in combination with winning the domestic double twice in a row and winning the Champions League in the second season too.

My next aim was to become the Reading FC manager as the club is the last one on my list of clubs I want to play with in FM24. They had their manager who was the fan’s favourite and he was able to keep them in the Premier League by just one point in the previous season.

So, I had to wait…

FM24 save

Nov 10, 2024

Honor

FM24 | Honorary save | Six seasons with Reading FC

Nov 10, 2024

Honor

Nov 10, 2024

Honor

FM24 | Replicating real-life lower league tactic

Aug 28, 2024

Tactics, Honor

FM24 | Replicating real-life lower league tactic

Aug 28, 2024

Tactics, Honor

Aug 28, 2024

Tactics, Honor

May 9, 2024

Honor

FM24 | Honorary save | Reading 2028/2029

May 9, 2024

Honor

May 9, 2024

Honor

Apr 20, 2024

Honor

FM24 | Honorary save | Dijon 2027/2028

Apr 20, 2024

Honor

Apr 20, 2024

Honor

Mar 22, 2024

Honor

FM24 | Honorary save | Dijon 2026/2027

Mar 22, 2024

Honor

Mar 22, 2024

Honor

Mar 8, 2024

Honor

FM24 | Honorary save | Life in the new club step by step

Mar 8, 2024

Honor

Mar 8, 2024

Honor

Feb 26, 2024

Honor

FM24 | Honorary save | Perugia 2025/2026

Feb 26, 2024

Honor

Feb 26, 2024

Honor

Feb 1, 2024

Honor

FM24 | Honorary save | Perugia 2024/2025 (Promotion party in all clubs)

Feb 1, 2024

Honor

Feb 1, 2024

Honor

Dec 29, 2023

Honor

FM24 | Honorary save | Perugia 2023/2024

Dec 29, 2023

Honor

Dec 29, 2023

Honor

Dec 4, 2023

Honor

My Football Manager 2024 honorary save

Dec 4, 2023

Honor

Dec 4, 2023

Honor

…waiting was not so long.

It took only around six in-game months of clicking the continue button, and watching a couple of Perugia/Dijon/Reading matches just to let others know my in-game manager person is still alive. And tens of similar press conferences with the same questions and the same reactions no matter what answer I selected.

Reading started the 2028/2029 season horrendously with seven defeats in the opening seven Premier League matches. They gained the first point of the season after a 1:1 draw against West Brom away from home. The first win was a 1:0 win over Middlesbrough in the 12th league round thanks to a goal in the 90+5 minute.

But despite the job security of their manager being insecure, it lasted until the start of December 2028 before the board decided to sack the manager. It was after 16 matches with just 1 win, 4 draws and 11 defeats. Bottom of the table.

The Premier League table after the opening 16 matches.

Will they give me the job?

I already declared my interest in the job back in September but there was nothing to do more. The only real response after declaring the interest was from the Reading fans as they said they want to keep Tyler as the Reading FC manager. But when the board sacked him, I applied for the job immediately.

They sacked him on December 9, 2028, after a 2:3 defeat by Aston Villa. Before the board decided to hire me, it lasted around 10 days and the caretaker manager was able to beat Sunderland 2:0 at home so I took the job with two wins in 17 matches.

I had just three days before the first match against Arsenal away from home. We lost 0:1. I didn’t count some points from this match but conceding just one goal was a positive result.

Worst performing team in everything before my appointment.

Tactic: 4-1-3-2

The same as I planned what clubs I would play with in FM24, I also had a clear idea of what formations I would use with each club. It was a 3-5-2 with Perugia, it was a 4-4-1-1 with Dijon and the plan was to create some 4-1-3-2 formation with Reading. The same as I used in Football Manager 2017 when I played with Reading for many years and I tweaked it a lot.

The main difference between FM17 and the current version is that I didn’t use the Half Back role in FM17. But I will use it as my main role for the defensive midfield position.

The tweaking of this formation began straight in the match against Arsenal. It’s not ideal to tweak and test the formation against the second team of the table with a couple of great young players in combination with the fact you’re at the bottom of the table. But it’s just a game.

My initial idea was to use WB(A) or CWB(S) on both sides of our defensive line in combination with the Half Back role. But the first match gave me enough reasons to start rethinking this selection. Despite the overall tactic is not so risky, using CWB(S) is risky if you don’t have enough players to cover all the offensive adventures and trips by the wide defenders. They are wide attacking midfielders more than defenders.

We conceded eight goals in the first four matches and I had enough despite we gained four points thanks to a win against Leeds and a draw with Chelsea. But the wide defenders were 1) too high up the pitch, 2) too wide and we lost too many simple passes, and 3) they didn’t contribute effectively on both sides of the pitch.

I changed both to FB(S) and lately to FB(A). And our “stay in the Premier League quest” started definitely. We beat Leicester in the league and Charlton in the FA Cup with two clean sheets. We drew 2:2 with Brighton (2nd of the table at that time) and we beat West Ham in the FA Cup. The great bonus was three wins against Liverpool, Manchester United and West Brom.

The bottom place of the Premier League was behind us after these results as we moved up to the 16th place.

GK - FB(S) - CD(D) - MEZ(A) - DLF(A) - MEZ(A) - FB(S) - DLF(A) - AF = goal. Simple. #FM24 pic.twitter.com/oKjknqMNks
— FM Rensie | Ondrej (@FMRensie) April 29, 2024

Winter transfers break

It’s not so easy to join a new club in the middle of the season. I had very limited time to analyse the squad and I also had to deal with a couple of unhappy players because 1) they wanted a new/better contract or 2) they wanted to leave because they don’t play as much as they would like.

It resulted in some winter transfer business but I will keep it short. The main outgoing transfers were Alex Bailey to Leeds for €37.5M and Erwand Chelbon to Rennes for €23.5M. Some more players didn’t accept offers so they remained in the club. The bank balance was already boosted enough by these two big transfers.

I knew the biggest issue was the defensive line. I bought Enrico Brancadori from Südtirol just for €900k (a stupidly low transfer release clause), Bren Worrall from Bristol City for €8.5M and Elliot Kidner from West Ham for €1.1M. The first two mentioned players are also able to perform in the Half Back role solidly, that’s another bonus for both of them.

The real strengthening of the squad was buying Sam Gerlofs. The young Dutch midfielder is able to play as DLP(S) or AP(S) but also as a boring CM. I decided to pay €17.25M for him because I felt it would be worth it.

TL:DR: We spent €27.5M and we received €65M during winter.

Probably the best decision in terms of the squad and transfer policy within January was when I found out one of the best-rated central defenders Mike Seager is out on loan in the Championship with Bristol City. It felt weird to have the most valuable defender out on loan and I decided to recall him back.

He made 17(1) Premier League appearances and he ended the season with an average rating of 7.01. Our defensive line was much better with him and I also gave him a new contract.

Back on the pitch

After beating West Brom 4:0 at home at the beginning of February, I thought we need some real challenge or some slap to feel the reality again. Luckily, we lost in Newcastle and players went back to the ground.

Six wins followed this match against Newcastle as we won four matches in the league and fifth round and quarter final of the FA Cup. The 3:2 win against Sheffield United in the middle of March was our penultimate win of the season.

We lost to Nottingham Forest and tied with Everton at home. Both these results were dissapointing but I was calm as I was 100% sure we will survive. The FA Cup semi final against Newcastle was cruel. We were 2:0 up, they equalised but we scored our third in the 90th minute. Newcastle equalised in the 90+6th minute and they scored the winning goal in the 119th minute when we already played with ten men because I was not able to substitute. But matches like this happen. Reaching the FA Cup semi final while battling against relegation really was not in a plan.

We didn’t have easy schedule for the last league rounds and it started with a heavy 0:4 defeat against Manchester City. But we beat Aston Villa 2:1 at home and that meant we had safety secured. After one draw and two defeants in the last three matches, we ended 14th in the Premier League while Aston Villa won the league and they became the first team outside Manchester winning the title since Liverpool in 2020.

Results before joining...

Results after joining...

How did the other two (past) clubs do in the 2028/2029 season?

Dijon finished third in the French top tier and made it to the Champions League quarter-final.
Perugia finished 15th in Serie A, just two points above the relegation, almost the same as in the previous season when it was three points above the relegation.

What next?

The main aim of keeping the club in the Premier League was successful. I feel the real club re-building starts now ahead of the 2029/2030 season. There are many more players I don’t want in the club and I am sure I can safe some serious money if I would be able to sell them.

Also, the contracts of two-thirds of staff members end at the end of the season. The club facilities are great but the potential is not fully used because staff members are not good enough. It’s time to find some better ones for all teams.

I set up some new scouting recruitment focusses to find some good UK-based players + some top players outside the UK who are able to gain the work permit.

I will try to improve the tactic too for another season. Do you have some tips on how it can be improved? Just let me know and I will try to take some inspiration.

When I mentioned the potential/great facilities, the youth intake 2029 proved there can be some great new players. The central defender Niall Wright has a lot of potential and I think I will let him play in the next season as much as possible. He just needs to work on some things like jumping and strength.

This is my last FM24 club, I don’t know how long I will be able to play this save but I’m one season ahead of the schedule in terms of playing with two clubs already. I feel I will focus on the club development the most now as it would be the one-club save…

FM Slack alert!

You will find a short channel summary in the ‘generalchat’ so it will be easier for you to navigate through the channels.

Thanks for reading.

FM24 | Honorary save | Dijon 2027/2028

April 20, 2024

“I considered leaving Dijon after this incredible season because I don’t think I can make it again.” That was one of the last sentences of the previous blog post about this save when I reviewed the 2026/27 season with Dijon FCO. I stayed for another season and I also signed an extension of my contract until 2029. I just resigned a little bit and I thought it would give me one season to build some quality squad ahead of the third and the last season with the French club. But I got ahead of myself in time. Why? Let’s find out in this blog.

Transfers

The main priority of the transfer window between seasons was to make the first team squad bigger and to have stronger backup/rotated squad. I signed a couple of young players from around the world. I also decided to sign Mario Mercurio, the left WB or ML, from Perugia as I was happy with him and his development during my first three seasons of the save.

There were some great incoming transfers like Bayron Carilao from Universidad de Chile for €5M, Mário Vieira from Lorient for the €5M(€6M), Jean-Michel Wolf from Metz for €3M or Pablo Cardozo for free after the end of his contract with Nacional.

The outgoing transfers were significant in terms of the bank balance improvement and we earned €113M during this season. There were some big transfers like Vincenzo Trentadue for €11.25M to Manchester City, Yan Fei to Arsenal for €11.75M, Baye Mané (my favourite player from the first season) to Manchester United for €23.5M or Vusi Sergel to Galatasaray for €19M.

All these, and many more, outgoing transfers were more or less forced because these players were wanted and some of them wanted to leave to play for a bigger club. But for example, a transfer of Vusi Sergel to Galatasaray was just because no club wanted to pay his transfer fee around €100M and I decided to hire agent and it took a couple of days to finish the transfer.

He, and some more players, just didn’t want to be in the club and I really don’t want players who don’t want to be here. So, I rather took the money.

Cash transfers 2027/2028 without loans, it would not fit to the screen despite changing the zoom to 85%…

Tactics

The main two changes within the 4-4-1-1 tactics were in terms of player roles’ tweaks and I decided to be more aggressive in terms of out-of-possession. I decided it was enough to play with the shadow striker & wide playmaker roles combination and these two roles were the first changes I made. I changed them to AM(A) and IW(A) as I wanted the more productive and more straightforward role on the right side of the pitch instead of the playmaker.

Another important change was that I got rid of the CM(D) role in the MCR slot. I played mainly with DLP(S) or AP(S). The second option with the advanced playmaker role was useful while playing against weaker sides and the DLP(S), as the more static role in my eyes, was useful while playing against stronger/more reputable teams or stronger teams away from home.

4-4-1-1 2026/27

4-4-1-1 2027/28

One of my favourite tweaks was to change the winger role from the attack to the support duty. The reason was that I didn’t like how many times the winger received the ball with his back turned to the opposite half/goal. That meant he had to make the turnaround with the ball and our play was slower this player also lost many balls because of his dribbling ability. When I changed it to the support duty, the ML player had more space ahead of him and he received more balls with the possibility to run forward rather than only to the side or pass the ball back to the defensive line.

Also, just to mention, I changed the lone striker role from the complete forward to the advanced forward because I didn’t have good enough players for this most demanding attacking role.

One of my favourite goals after changes.

Coupe de France

In terms of the competition review, I would like to start with the domestic cup - Coupe de France. We won it in the previous season when we beat Nantes in the final 1:0. We made it to the final again in the second season after beating Saint-Étienne after penalties in the Ninth round, two comfortable wins against Villefranche and Guingamp and a tight win over Lens.

The semi-final against Monaco was scheduled during demanding weeks of playing every three days and I rotated the squad completely. But we won 3:2 and the second and third goals were scored by our own players. One of my favourite things in FM and football overall.

We played against PSG in the final and we went down after 22 minutes but Bayron Carilao scored a brace including the 111th minute winner and we won the domestic cup again.

Ligue 1

We needed the goal difference rule to decide about the league title holders in the previous season when Lyon lost in the last league round and we moved top of the table.

What about the second season? We were second or third most of the season. Olympique Marseille was top of the table between rounds 14 and 30 but they finished fourth in the end. We moved top of the table after a 2-0 win over Nantes in the 32nd round and we needed a win in the last league round against Nice.

We won 4:1 and Lyon drew 1:1 at home against Olympique Marseille. That meant we finished first again with 79 points (12 points more than in the previous season), Lyon finished second again, three points behind us this time. We improved our goal difference thanks to scoring 12 goals in the last four rounds and we had it better than Lyon again in the end. Just if it would be needed again.

Champions League

I think we were lucky and we had a great draw for the Champions League “league” phase as we faced Adana Demirspor, Boavista, Partizan or Vitória Guimaraes. We lost only to Sevilla 2:4 but we finished 5th with 19 points after six wins, one draw and one defeat.

It meant we went straight to the Round of 16 and we faced Bologna. We won 3:2 in both away and home match and we progressed to the quarter final. We faced PSG in this round and you can se two goalscorers were able to beat them - Bayron Carilao and Mario Etxarri who scored three goals in the second leg away from home as we won 4:1 and made it to the semi final.

We faced another European giant - Bayern München. Despite drawing in the home first leg, we won 1:0 in the second leg in München and German U21 national team player Alexander Lieberknech was our only scorer in both legs.

The final agains Manchester City in Vien was tight but we scored two goals and we were a little bit more dangerous in my eyes and more dominant. Goals by Pablo Cardozo and Bayron Carilao secured the Champions League trophy.

How did the other two (past and future) clubs do in the 2027/2028 season?

Perugia finished 15th in Serie A, just three points ahead of the relegation zone. They scored only 33 goals in 38 matches and conceded 44.
Reading survived in the first season back in the Premier League just one point ahead of the relegation zone with 34 points and a goal difference of -20.

The average age of the squad was 19.55 at the end of the season…

What next?

“I considered leaving Dijon after this incredible season because I don’t think I can make it again.”

This is not true anymore. I did it even better and won the Champions League together with a domestic cup & league. Now, I’m sure I can’t beat it or repeat it and I decided it’s time to resign and leave Dijon despite the Reading FC job is not available right now at the end of the season. But I’m sure I would want to stay with Dijon if the third season is not as successful.

It’s time to click continue button now and hope the Reading FC job will become available…

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Thanks for reading.

FM24 | Honorary save | Dijon 2026/2027

March 22, 2024

The fourth of possible nine seasons of my Football Manager 2024 save is over. It was my first season in France with Dijon FCO. I won two promotions with Perugia and finished fourth in Seria A before I left Italy. I was lucky that the other two clubs - Dijon and Reading - also won promotions in the opening three seasons so I was able to manage Dijon straight in the French top tier.

Just a reminder - I aim to play three seasons with all these mentioned clubs and I’m playing with the blank database full of newly created/fake players and staff. If some of you haven’t read about it before, you can find all the details in this post. All previous posts are at coffeehousefm.com/fmrensie.

FM Rensie Blog

Honor

FM24 | Honorary save | Six seasons with Reading FC

Honor

Tactics, Honor

FM24 | Replicating real-life lower league tactic

Tactics, Honor

Honor

FM24 | Honorary save | Reading 2028/2029

Honor

FM24 | Honorary save | Dijon 2027/2028

Honor

FM24 | Honorary save | Dijon 2026/2027

Honor

FM24 | Honorary save | Life in the new club step by step

Honor

FM24 | Honorary save | Perugia 2025/2026

Honor

FM24 | Honorary save | Perugia 2024/2025 (Promotion party in all clubs)

Honor

FM24 | Honorary save | Perugia 2023/2024

Honor

My Football Manager 2024 honorary save

Honor

Transfers

As I mentioned in the previous post about life in the new club step by step, the squad was in a very bad condition when I arrived. Especially in combination with the future transfers of some key players as they were unhappy and wanted to leave and play for some bigger club.

All these unhappy players moved out of the club during the summer for a lot of money. Ugo Lacombe, the main striker, went to Manchester United for €14.5M, two players went to Manchester City for around €10M together and Gilbert Cardon (the main left defender) went to Fulham for €25M (up to €30.5M).

I created a top-priority recruitment focus for the right WB(A) and the left FB(S) and the ongoing recruitment focuses for MC, WP(S) and striker.

I spent €34.5M in the end during the first summer including €2.5M for a central midfielder Gianluca Ciucci from Perugia. He is the one young midfielder I shared in the first post about my time with Perugia when I mentioned I can imagine he will be the one who I will take together to other clubs. It was just before he damaged cruciate ligaments and he was out for 7 months. But he is alright.

The only thing I was not able to improve was the position of the left defender. But as it’s my favourite thing to do in FM - I started retraining other players to play here. I can reveal that the main one has one goal and 4 assists in the opening 8 league matches of the season as FB(S).

The central defender Roy van den Bogert is one of my favourite signings. I bought him for €55k from the Czech second league. He was one of the best players of the season, his transfer value increased a lot and his development is also great.

Vusi Sergel signed for just €950k from South African SuperSport United was a bargain and I feel I will have no issue selling him as his transfer value increased to almost €100M. Chinese midfielder Yan Fei signed for €3.4M from Beijing has everything to be a great player but he spent too much time with the national team and missed too many matches due to small injuries. Maybe from fatigue?

The biggest failure was central midfielder Gaoussou Coulibaly. I signed him from Havre AC for €6.5M but he missed 7 months of the season due to injuries. He is now transfer listed at the end of the season as I changed his playing time and he is unhappy that he is not considered as a star of the team after 5 months out of the sidelines.

Tactics

The aim was to build a solid 4-4-1-1 with the shadow striker. When I tried to select clubs for this save, I was undecided between Dijon and AB Copenhagen. I selected the French club in the end but I decided to combine some parts in terms of tactics.

I used 4-1-4-1 with the WP(S) whilst managing AB so I decided I would stick to the 4-4-1-1 but I will try to make it work with the WP(S) role on the right side of the pitch. I put together the tactic I will tweak during the next three seasons and I will mention something about it in the next posts, the same as I did in blogs about my time in Perugia.

Pictures down below show you the initial tactic (left) and how it developed during the season (right). I was too optimistic about the aggressive out of possession instructions and they were the first part I changed after a couple of matches. It was obvious our defensive line was extremely weak, especially against teams playing with the attacking midfielder or with two strikers. It was mainly because of the “Step Up More” instruction - sometimes it was absolutely “normal” that all defenders were out of their positions hunting opponents. So I removed it, the same as the “Higher Defensive Line”.

The main and most visible change is the role of the lone striker. I used the Advanced Forward role probably the most of all in the last two versions of the game but it didn’t work as well as I would have liked in combination with the Shadow Striker behind him. I felt it would be better to use the Shadow Striker role with some support-duty-minded striker. I used the CF(S) in the past a lot including the save with AB Copenhagen, so it was an easy choice. And Baye Mané (screen above within gallery) is developing very well for this role…

Defensively, we were much stronger and compact. Reducing the defensive risk was the best decision considering how the season ended and how many times we were defeated or how many goals we conceded…

Btw. the club board was “very disappointed” for the whole season because we didn’t play a direct style of football as they added it to the board culture. But it didn’t lead to some issues or ultimatum. It was just there for the whole time.

Ligue 1

We had a very solid start to the season with 2 wins, 1 draw and two defeats in the opening five matches. That was solid considering we were predicted to be relegated. But as I already mentioned, we were defensively weak and I made the already mentioned changes. It resulted in 6 matches unbeaten before we lost 1:2 to Toulouse (no jokes here please, I know I had nothing to lose…).

Our best position was third place during the opening part of the season before we started to climb inconspicuously. We were 6th after the 12th round but thanks to good results we moved to the top of the table after a 2:0 win over Marseille in the 20th round. We were first in the table until the 26th round when we drew 1:1 with OGC Nice. It was our fifth league draw in a row. This run of draws ended with a 1:0 win over Lille and our run for the league trophy started.

We tied with PSG and we won the last four league matches. We had Caen and Montpellier in the last two matches, both these teams fought against relegation. But in vain. We beat Caen 1:0 and they were relegated.

PSG was three points ahead of us before the last league round. We needed to beat Montpellier and PSG had to lose against Nantes away from home. The goal difference is the main decisive rule when teams have the same points.

We were 3:0 up in the halftime while Nantes vs. PSG was 1:1. We scored two more in the second half and we won 5:0. The second place was already a phenomenal success but Nantes scored the winning goal in the 88th minute from a penalty kick and beat PSG 2:1.

That means we moved to the top of the table with a better goal difference and won the league for the first time in the club's history.

Coupe de France

I had a dream to win the domestic cup with Dijon to earn a European place but I was sceptical when we got Lyon in the semifinal. We were lucky to beat Nancy after penalties in the tent round as I rotated the squad a little bit. We were 0:1 down against Auxerre at home after the first half but a slightly aggressive halftime talk helped and we scored two goals within a minute before we scored a third one in the stoppage time.

The semifinal’s 3:0 win over Olympique Lyon was very pleasing and surprising too because it was almost one-sided and it was a very comfortable win. The ego-boosting win I would say.

We got Nantes in the final as they beat Lens after penalties in the semifinal. The final was played a week later after the last league round when they helped us to win the league. “You give us the league, we give you the cup.” I know that phrase but it didn’t go this way this time. We won 1:0 and secured the first domestic cup trophy in Dijon’s history.

How did the other two (future) clubs do in the 2026/2027 season?

Perugia finished 13th in Seria A and scored only 40 goals while conceding 50. They played in the Champions League too but won only two matches and finished 26th. A disappointing season considering we finished 4th in the league in the previous season.
Reading is back in a big time as they finished 4th in the English Championship and they beat Luton in the play-off semifinal and Sunderland in the play-off final. A second promotion in the fourth season.

What next?

I considered leaving Dijon after this incredible season because I don’t think I can make it again. But I decided to stay at least for one more season as I have a contract until 2028. There’s also not a job available at Reading FC right now as they won a promotion to the Premier League.

The Dijon board announced they will build a new stadium soon, I also signed a couple of promising players for the next season and I’m interested how some other players will develop. So, I will stay and play at least one more season with Dijon.

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FM24 | Honorary save | Life in the new club step by step

March 8, 2024

It's the same save, a new club but it feels like a new game. The motivation to create something new is high. The mood and desire to build something is so big. At least I got this perfect feeling when I moved to Dijon after three years with Perugia. There was a lot of room for improvement in all areas from the squad building to staff, training regime and mainly - the new tactic. The club change meant I got 100% new motivation to play the game again because of THAT feeling ‘there’s something new’.

It also inspired me to put together some basic things/steps I did in the opening weeks after moving from Italy to France virtually. So, it gave me not only the fresh blood to play the game but also to write about it.

Step #1 - Staff and responsibilities

I mentioned in the previous blog post that I could select staff members I would like to take with me from Perugia to Dijon or select staff members of Dijon I don’t want to work together when I take over the club. I wanted to take two staff members - the DoF and HoYD. Neither of them was interested in moving from Italy to France.

In the end, the Dijon board gave me one condition during the contract talks: I will continue working with their current DoF. He is not that bad but I can imagine having someone better. And I was able to find someone better quite easily but, to be clear, I was afraid the board would fire me earlier than the new season would begin :-)

Knowing the fact I won’t replace the DoF, I decided to concentrate on everything else. There were just 2 coaches out of 9 possible within the first-team squad. There were only two scouts and I fired one of them as he was not good enough. The medical team was also very bad. Also, the current Head of Youth Development was far from the ideal adept for securing the youth teams for the future. It took me about three or four in-game weeks before I was satisfied 90% with the new staff team.

As you can see in the picture below, the staff team was bad. Really bad. Maybe I’m offending the word “bad”. I started searching, comparing and mainly signing new staff members. The new Head of Youth Development Ugo Lafon is 100% a great signing. I signed also the Technical Director as I decided to divide some responsibilities among the staff members to have more time to play the actual game.

In the end, I created a very good staff team. The simple comparison with the rest of the French top tier speaks for itself within the second picture.

Responsibilities - that’s a topic I like to discuss with myself very often. I know many people delegate a lot of stuff but I usually do most of the things by myself. I liked to delegate “Find and sign young players for the future (U19)” to the HoYD but it didn’t work in the previous two versions for some reason. Maybe I had too many players in the youth squad so he had no reason to buy someone new. But the U19 Dijon squad was tiny and the new HoYD already signed three players during the summer so it’s nice to see some activity. The 2nd team is not currently as important because it’s in an inactive league.

I also set the technical director to hire new staff members for both the second and U19 teams, the same as extending contracts. If nothing more, it’s just mainly to try something new for me and do everything by myself.

Step #2 - Tactics

After three seasons of using my beloved 3-5-2 formation, it was time to move to something else. The plan was to use the 4-4-1-1 tactic, the same as I played with Dijon in past. When I tried to select clubs I will play with during FM24, I was undecided between Dijon and AB Copenhagen. I select the French club in the end but I decided to combine some parts in terms of tactics.

I used 4-1-4-1 with the wide playmaker role whilst managing AB so I decided I will stick to the 4-4-1-1 but I will try to make it work with the WP(S) role one the right side of the pitch. I put together the tactic I will tweak during next three seasons and I will mention something about it in next posts, the same as I did in blogs about my time Perugia.

I’m currently at the beginning of September 2026 when I write this post. We played five league matches (2-1-2) and we are 7th in the table. The club board is “Very Disappointed” by not playing direct football. Maybe it’s something I will have to change soon and I will probably create two styles - Dijon “short” and Dijon “direct”…

There’s an example of a very nice goal we scored and it’s great to see how the players are moving around the pitch while we are attacking.

Step #2.1 - Tactics - Set Pieces

Tactics also consists of the set pieces and I decided to modify what worked quite well during the Perugia time. We have four corner kick goals in 8 matches so far in the Ligue 1. There are also three indirect free kicks and one direct free kick. So, it probably works quite well…

I’m using the near post, far post and centre types of delivery. These routines are very similar in terms of player roles, there are only changes when the routine delivery is near post or centre in terms of what player is set to attack near post within the ranking.

Step #3 - Squad analysis based on the tactics

Setting the tactic before I started planning to improve the squad was important. Or maybe better worded, not improving but mainly refilling the squad. The squad planner is so weak in the first picture for a couple of reasons. I made this picture just after the game switched from Perugia to Dijon and I set the tactic.

Three or four players were unhappy and all wanted to leave the club. All of them would be 100% key players for the next season but they wanted to go out for some time mainly to “play in a better team with better players”. I didn’t know them but I decided I would build the squad on my own and I will let them go. So, I remove them from the planner or move them to the last place within the planner of the specific position/role.

When I did that, I found out I had just two natural central midfielders, one attacking midfielder and zero players who would be able to play as a wide playmaker. It was obvious we also had a problem with both wide defensive positions, we needed at least one new striker because the one who wanted to leave was the best player and the main striker…

The first team squad planner 5/2026

The first team squad planner 10/2026

Step #4 - friendlies

Maybe it can feel like something natural and something normal thing but I like to arrange friendlies by myself. Mainly because I want to decide what level of opponents we will face. I feel it’s very important, especially in combination with the new formation and the new style we will play.

There’s no science fiction in planning these fixtures, it’s probably the same as most of you do it. I like to arrange the training camp since it’s possible in the game because I can take a lot of players here and I can play at least two matches per week, rotate the squad and test the tactics a lot. This was no different.

Step #5 - transfers

I should probably put this step above friendlies straight after the squad analysis but the fact I set the friendlies after I decided about my priorities within the squad, I also knew the time I had to bring the right players to the club before the first friendly will be played. Why? Firstly because I like to have the squad completed before the pre-season starts, and secondly, because of what I mentioned above - players need some time to adapt to the new tactical style.

I created a top-priority recruitment focus for the right WB(A) and the left FB(S) and the ongoing recruitment focuses for MC, WP(S) and striker. All unhappy players who wanted to leave moved out of the club during the summer for a lot of money. Ugo Lacombe, the main striker, went to Manchester United for €14.5M, two players went to Manchester City for around €10M together and Gilbert Cardon (the main left defender) went to Fulham for €25M (up to €30.5M).

In combination with the rest of the smaller outgoing transfers, we received almost €50M. It’s not my style and I’m not really into spending too much money but I knew I needed to improve the squad a lot. I spent €34.5M in the end during the first summer including €2.5M for a central midfielder Gianluca Ciucci from Perugia. He is the one young midfielder I shared in the first post about my time with Perugia when I mentioned I can imagine he will be the one who I will take together to other clubs. It was just before he damaged cruciate ligaments and he was out for 7 months. But he is alright.

Just for an example of my transfers - Mario Etxarri was bought for €1.1M from Ponferradina (3rd Spanish tier if I’m right). I signed him mainly for the WP(S) role after I found him. I’m sure he would be able to play as a Shadow Striker and I will surely test him in this role too.

Step #6 - training

I like to set both team and individual training of the first team players on my own. I’m not sure if I’m doing it wrong or good but this is how I like to do it. The screen below shows my custom view dedicated to the training. It consists of some basic things and some training and fitness-related things I like to see.

Columns with the training role/duty + intensity + individual focus can show me not only what players are focused on but it can also serve as some kind of reminder to change the focus or a reminder something was changed behind your back. For example, the position when some player played the match in a different position. I’m not sure why the game restarts the training when it happens but who am I to understand all these things the game does for our good?

The squad view customised based on the training.

I created two main training schedules when the matchday was Saturday and Sunday while I was in Perugia. In France, it’s almost only on Sunday so far as we haven’t played in another competition so far.

It’s some kind of variation of what I would like to do myself if I were a player. There are a lot of set piece routines sessions, some general training, some physical when we don’t travel to an away game. It’s mainly to just play with it.

As I already mentioned, I have no game-breaking info on how things work and what you have to do to develop the best possible players. I’m doing it mainly as I like it and as I want.

Eight league matches in…

…we started life in the French top tier with four wins, two draws and two defeats as we scored 16 goals and conceded 8. There were three weeks of international break after the game with Lens so I arranged two friendlies as it’s a really long pause to just train.

The fourth place in the table is a very good start, especially as we are predicted to finish 16th. Both big wins against Sochaux and Rennes were highlights so far.

Now, as the most important things are set, let’s play more…

FM Slack alert!

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FM24 | Honorary save | Perugia 2025/2026

February 26, 2024

One month = one season? It looks like it right now. I play quite fast, but finding enough time to finish the season and write about it isn't easy. The end of this 2025/2026 season speaks for itself - it took me one real-life week to play the last league match of the campaign to find out how it will end. The third season within this FM24 save was also the last season with Perugia and the 3-5-2 formation. How the season did end? And how is the future resolved for itself? Let me tell you about it…

Transfers

Let’s start with the last transfer activity within my Perugia time. It’s nothing ridiculous, spectacular or game-breaking. I was active mainly during the summer of 2025 after a promotion from the Serie B as I knew I had to improve the squad a little bit to survive in the top tier. My main target was Alessio Signorelli from Parma who was the best goalscorer of Serie B in the previous season. I bought him for €3.4M in the end, and he became my first-choice DLF(S).

I also bought Nicolas Dimitri - my main central defender in the first season who went to Bari for €250k in January 2024 and played 1 and a half seasons in Serie B. I just bought him back for €400k to have some experience at the back.

Probably the last player I want to mention is André Chaves - a Portuguese midfielder who I bought for €375k from Virtus Entella, a transfer release clause for clubs in higher division strikes again (I mentioned it in the previous blog post).

It was for the first time within this save that we spent more on incoming transfers than we received. It was mainly because Dario Iazzetta left for free as he refused to sign a new contract last year and moved to AS Roma. That means only one major transfer was when Michele Cincillia left for Sampdoria for €550k at the beginning of January.

Stefano Scardino, who was our captain in the opening two seasons, decided to leave the club but the fee was laughable as he left for Benfica for just €83k. Well done, DoF…

You can see one more incoming player in the transfer history screen above, it’s Moreno Peretti. A goalkeeper who came in from Sparta Rotterdam in winter when I was not already in charge of scouting or transfers…

The narrative I needed…

…the reason why I was not involved in scouting, transfers, contracts etc. for the second half of this season was very simple. I found out that the manager Cedric Coste left Dijon FCO and became the new manager of Atalanta Bergamo. That meant the Dijon was without a manager. And Dijon was my next destination within this save. There was only one thing I feared about when I decided to play this save - I was afraid I would leave one club but I would have to wait for too much time before another club job would be available.

I wanted to prevent that situation and I decided to apply for a Dijon job. I went for the job interview and I was successful. I didn’t want to leave Perugia ahead of the end of this season so I was very happy that I was able to negotiate the start of my next chapter and signed a contract with Dijon with a start at the end of the 25/26 season.

Perugia board didn’t have any issues with my decision as I already rejected the contract extension three times and they were happy to let me go at the end of the season. I’m sure our great Serie A results helped it.

They only decided I couldn’t affect the transfers, contracts or scouting including the recruitment focus and they gave all the responsibilities to the Director of Football. I, btw., wanted to take the DoF with me to Dijon but he rejected it. I’m not used to changing clubs in FM so all these things are new to me but most of these things worked very well and were reasonable in my eyes.

As I said, I’m not used to moving between clubs in my save so the next screen is a very nice addition in my eyes. It’s nice you can take someone with you instead of just receiving the inbox message “other staff members left the club because of your departure” as in the past. You can see not so many Perugia staff members were willing to join Dijon.

I would probably change only one thing - the date of joining the new club. I played the last Serie A match on Sunday, May 24, 2026. A day later I should join Dijon. Maybe give the manager at least a week before switching the clubs? Maybe more than a week? I would expect at least to the date when the seasons end/start. Or from July 1? Dijon ended their season ten days before Perugia but I would still set this a little bit differently and gave the manager some more time before switching the clubs.

My decision to join Dijon from the next season also meant they would finish the season with the interim manager.

Coppa Italia & Serie A

We made it to the Coppa Italia third round this season. We beat Reggiana 5:3 and Cesena 3:0 in the opening two rounds but we lost to Salernitana 1:4 after an extra-time. I hope for a better cup outcome in the last season but I will have to accept winning the Coppa Italia Serie C in the opening season of the save will remain the only cup trophy with Perugia.

Our Serie A campaign started with four points from the first three matches as we drew with Cittadella, beat Cremonese and lost to Fiorentina. But we won all three matches in September and we moved up in the table.

On the other side, October was the complete opposite. We lost to Sampdoria (2:4), Lazio (2:3), Milan (2:3) and Torino (0:2). It was a combination of some small injuries, not-working tactical small tweaks and the fact all these four teams are/were stronger.

We made it back on track with four wins and four draws during November and December before we packed the calendar year of 2025 with a 2:4 defeat against Inter.

The beginning of the second part of the season included some very depressing matches like a 1:2 home defeat against Cittadella or a 0:2 defeat against Frosinone away from home. But we were also able to beat Lazio 2:1 away from home and we climbed through the table quite inconspicuously.

The last weeks were absolutely superb from all players and six wins in the last eight matches resulted in the top-four finish. The final 4th place also means the Champions League for the next season.

Alessandro Casella finished the 2025/2026 season as the best goalscorer of the Serie A with 20 goals. I signed him for €85k while we were in Serie C in the first season. He scored 34 league goals in Serie C, 10 in Serie B and 20 in Serie A. I think this is the best possible example of my FM saves in terms of signing players (despite this save is a little bit different because of the blank database and fake players and staff).

My favourite player within three seasons with Perugia.

Goodbye, Perugia

I’m leaving Perugia after 133 matches with a 62% win. We won 83 matches, drew 28 and lost 22. We scored 312 goals and conceded 146. We won promotions from Serie C and Serie B and Perugia will play the Champions League football in the fourth season of the save.

I played only with the 3-5-2 formation and I made only a couple of small tweaks during these three seasons. Nothing revolutionary despite moving to better competition.

2023/2024

2024/2025

2025/2026

How did the other two (future) clubs do in the 2025/2026 season?

Dijon finished 12th in the Ligue 1 despite they were 16th after the 25th round. The interim manager did a great job of keeping the club in the top tier.
Reading finished 10th in the English Championship in their first season back in the second tier. They finished just four points behind the 6th place (Tottenham btw.).

What next?

I will switch to Dijon soon after I hit the continue button, I will create a new save file and I will start creating and tweaking the 4-4-1-1 formation as it’s in the plan of the save for next three seasons…

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FM24 | Honorary save | Perugia 2024/2025 (Promotion party in all clubs)

February 1, 2024

A time flies and the second season of my Football Manager 2024 save is over for some time. For a long time to be absolutely honest. But there was not enough time to write about due to many real-life things, mainly because of the almost five weeks-long illness of my son including a couple of days in hospital before Christmas. But the custom skin edits also played a role in it as I spent many days (maybe weeks) just tweaking the code and reloading the skin to find out I made something I wanted for a long time instead of playing the game. I’m one hundred per cent sure I spent more time with the skin customising than playing the game itself. I’m not sure if it will change in the upcoming time but not because of the skin but because of real-life work and real-life football. Priorities they say. Maybe it’s more about I’m just older…

After a promotion thanks to the penalty shootout win in the Serie C play-off final (feel free to read more about the first season HERE), I hoped to be competitive in Serie B mainly because the squad was even younger than in the first season. And also because of the injury crisis during the season. It surprised me when the pre-season odds were presented and our side was set to finish 1st despite being Serie B newcomers.

No pressure there…

Transfers

It was very similar to the opening season in terms of what I knew - we needed some good players to strengthen the squad. My favourite way how to find some good and cheap players in this save is to use the “Minimum Fee Release Clause (Domestic Clubs in Higher Division)”. That’s how I, for example, found young central defender Alberto Cinelli who I bought for €58k from Giugliano (I can safely say it was the best signing from all in my eyes and in terms of his development).

Lorenzo Di Adario (a new main RWB) is the same example as he was one of the best players of Serie C in the first season - €155k was easy money to pay.

I knew some key players from the first season would attract interest from some clubs. But it’s always sad to lose your key players. And I lost two of three of them during the winter of 2024/2025. The best goalscorer of the first season Francesco Riccio left for €1.4M to Lille. And Antonio Donnarumma, our best central midfielder, went to Fiorentina for a club record fee of €4.2M. Donnarumma left us almost at the end of January 2025, which means I had to react very quickly.

After some brief scouting, searching and comparing, I decided to sign Youssou Keïta from Espanyol. He is one and a half years younger than Donnarumma but he is enough experienced to help our central midfielders who are mainly youngsters. In terms of attributes numbers, he is not as good as Donnarumma but he was also a reason why I made a change in our tactics. And maybe it also led to how our Serie B campaign ended…

The picture above shows the comparison of Keïta and Donnarumma from the end of the season. The attributes are highlighted for the CM(S) role because this role is 1) the base for our central midfielders and 2) all our central midfielders are trained for the CM(S) role. Keïta played only a couple of times as CM(S) but that’s not important.

Donnarumma played 10 matches in Serie B for us, scored one goal and made one assist. Keïta made 7 assists in 17 appearances.

The striker Michele Cincilla was the best signing in the end-of-season summary. I signed him as a possible Riccio replacement and he scored 12 goals and made 3 assists in 23(13) appearances. But he didn’t become one of my favourite players and if there will be some bid in the summer, I have no issue with letting him go.

Coppa Italia

We didn’t play in the Coppa Italia last season, only in the Coppa Italia Serie C so we entered to the main cup competition at the beginning of the 2024/2025 season. We got Potenza in the preliminary round, our opponent in the play-off semi-final. Already mentioned Cincilla scored twice and we won 3:1 despite we were 0:1 down after the first half but three goals within twenty minutes secured our win.

The first round draw decided we faced Bari away from home, one of the candidates for a promotion. It was played a week before the Serie B beginning so I took it as another test. We went 1:0 up after the half-time but the home side equalised shortly before the end. They went 2:1 up almost immediately after the extra-time started but we equalised thanks to a second goal by Casella. Gwaeron Vrede scored their third but the captain Stefano Scardino scored after a corner kick in the 119th minute.

Unfortunately, the hard work was not rewarded and we lost on penalties after Forastiero and Scardino missed their attempts. I know it was only a first-round tie but if someone would need some proper advert for the Coppa Italia, this game would be good enough. I also gained enough confidence we can play against stronger sides in Serie B.

Serie B - part 1

The first part of the Serie B campaign was very good except for one month. We remained unbeaten for the first 12 league matches and we were in a very comfortable position without any relegation fears. When we beat Ternana 3:0 away from home in the first round and Gianluca Giucci scored our third in the sixth additional time, I didn’t even imagine it was his last goal for the rest of the season. I mentioned this player in the post about the first season, but his development got a big knock as he damaged his cruciate ligaments and he was out for 7 months.

It happened at the end of October and there were up to eight more injured players during November and we had to improvise a lot. The results show we were not able to win five matches in a row before some players came back in December and we finished third in the table after the first half of the Serie B campaign. Very solid.

The 3-5-2 for the second season

I already mentioned Youssou Keïta and his influence on our tactics for the second half of the season. I played the first half of the season with the same formation as in the first season but when Keïta came in, I decided to make a couple of changes.

The main was to change one CM(S) role to the Roaming Playmaker role and use Keïta in this role. The CM(A) role moved from the MC spot to the MCL. I also switched the duties of both wing-backs. The other changes were in terms of instructions - instead of using more often pressing, I decided to use Counter instruction within the “in transition” and the goalkeeper should distribute the ball through the Take Short Kicks instruction as it works better (in my eyes) when you have some playmaker role as the keeper doesn’t distribute it only to defenders. But maybe that’s only some of my imagination…

What has changed on the pitch? The main change was in terms of variability of how our attacks looked thanks to the unpredictability of the Roaming Playmaker. I really liked how Keïta operated in the middle of the pitch in both halves of the pitch. I also liked how the RPM and CM(S) players were able to swap their positions just because RPM went deeper for the ball more centrally and the CM(S) player moved to the MCR slot automatically.

3-5-2 v 2023/2024

3-5-2 v 2024/2025

Serie B - part 2

We started the second part of the season with a 1:0 win against Empoli, a 1:2 defeat with Cesena and a goalless draw against Brescia. But we woke up after these three not-too-impressive matches. The search for the right starting XI after transfers resulted in a big 5:1 win against Parma. We had strong February, March and April and despite losing 0:2 against Palermo in the 36th round (they secured a promotion thanks to it) we finished second in the table and won the promotion to the Serie A.

It was not “I don’t want to win the title/promotion” style but, yes, I was surprised it ended like this. Maybe it’s because of the completely fake FM world thanks to the blank database. Maybe it’s just a coincidence. I wanted to compare the first and the second half of the season as I thought we scored more and conceded less after the mentioned tactical tweaks. But the truth is that it was almost identical. We scored 37 goals in the first half and 36 in the second half. We conceded 17 in the first half and 16 in the second half.

While comparing these two parts of the season in my head in terms of the tactics, we played more like a team in the second half of the season. It was much more compact and I thought every player wanted to fight for his teammates. I’m not sure why I have this feeling but it’s not always only about results and goals in my head.

Bari is the loser of this season in Serie B 100% as they were the first in the table for some time twice during the season but they finished 5th in the end and lost to Sampdoria in the play-off preliminary round and their season ended negatively. Sampdoria as the last play-off member won the promotion.

I already know I will lose one of the key members of the squad - the WBL Dario Iazzetta who is set to join AS Roma for free as he was unwilling to sign a new contract with us. That’s also why he played fewer matches at the end of the season to give Mario Mercurio enough playing time before he became the new WBL number one.

Just for your idea, this is the team from the end of the season. The average age of the team - 19.93.

How did the other two (future) clubs do in the 2024/2025 season?

Dijon finished 3rd in the Ligue 2 and they qualified to the promotion play-off. They beat Nancy in the semi-final after penalties and they also beat Metz 1:0 on aggregate to make it back to the Ligue 1 after four years. That means a second straight promotion for Dijon, the same as we did with Perugia.
Reading is back in the English Championship after two years in League One as they finished 2nd in the table just a point behind Charlton.

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FM24 | Honorary save | Perugia 2023/2024

December 29, 2023

It took me around one month to finish the opening season within my Football Manager 2024 save. The save I named “Honorary save” and the plan is to play with three different clubs with I played for in the previous 20 years of the Football Manager series. If you would like to read more about this save, feel free to open this post.

The opening three seasons will be (or should be) played in Italy with AC Perugia. I would like to try to play with the same formation/shape as when I played for each club in the past. And Perugia was the club where I started using the 3-5-2 formation the most.

Another different part of this save is that I’m playing with the blank database - no real players, no real staff members. Everything is fake and created by the game through the “add players to playable teams” option.

The 3-5-2 for the opening season

I didn’t want to limit myself with some rules about using the same team instructions as in the past. Firstly, I played with Perugia fifteen years ago and some of the team instructions don’t exist in the game anymore. Secondly, I played the game differently fifteen years ago (read = ”tick all the instructions and we will see what will happen”).

That means I kept the 3-5-2 formation, but I customised the instructions and intensity of the tactic within the players available.

As I mentioned already, I love to play simple football. Everyone who knows me a little bit thanks to previous posts and saves, is aware that my favourite central defender role is the one with the stopper duty. This blank database was generous to me and created almost all the central defenders with the key attributes for this role.

Almost like I would tick some button in the game set-up to create everyone as CD(St). I decided to make it to my advantage and I’m using both right & left central defender with the stopper duty. The middle one was changed from the BPD(Co) to CD(Co) and to CD(D) throughout the season.

As I already said, it’s a very simple and not so demanding and intense tactic in terms of pressing. The most important thing is that both CM(S) players have the hold position of individual instruction. But it doesn’t affect their movement up top and they still can reach the area around the opponent’s box to finish second balls or support the offensive phase overall.

The focus play down the left/right instructions worked very well as we were able to use both wing-backs properly. The amount of their assists during the season speaks for itself.

I don’t think I will change something major for the second season of this save. Maybe, but only maybe, I will be changing both wing-backs‘ duties from support to attack and back to have both of them with the same duty. I think it will be possible in combination with CM(S). But we will see.

Coppa Italia Serie C

The cup competition was a welcomed exit from the league competition. It was also good that we played mostly against teams from the other two Serie C groups so we were able to compare with other teams too. We needed an extra-time win straight in the first round against Carrarese as I rotated the squad and it was almost our end.

But the rest of the competition was great for us and after beating Catania, Ancona, Fermana and Cesena (semi-final), we made it to the final against Alessandria. It ended with a 6:3 win on aggregate after two wins and we were able to lift the first trophy of the save.

Serie C

Despite the relegation from the Serie B, the promotion back from the Serie C was not the main aim. Neither the club board nor myself. We started the season very well and we were top of the league between the fourth and the 12th round. But we moved down and we were mostly third or second in the rest of the season.

We were behind Pescara most of the time as they were great and top of the league for almost half of the season before Cesena moved over them and they won the straight promotion to the higher division.

We overcame Pescara in the end and we finished second in the table. Just one point behind Cesena with 90 points. We beat some records during the season including the most wins in the club's history or most points gained too. But the main one was the amount of goals we scored across the 38 matches – 118. The goal difference was 90 goals in the end. We beat the league record by Piacenza (78 goals) after 26 matches were played…

The second place in the table meant we reached the promotion play-off and we had to wait for two in-game weeks for the first opponent in the play-off quarter-final. It was Pescara, probably the hardest possible opponent. But we beat them 5:2 on aggregate. We also beat Potenza (2nd in the Serie C group C) mainly thanks to a perfect away performance in the second leg.

The play-off final was very tight against Pro Vercelli (5th in the Serie C group A). The first leg away from home ended with a 2:2 draw and I was positive ahead of the home second leg. But it the second leg was only about penalties in the end. Condellos scored from a pen in the 12th minute, we equalised from a penalty in the 29th minute. And that was all for the rest of the match. No more goals, no more big chances, mostly only ineffective set pieces. It went to the penalties in the end we were the luckiest team as our goalkeeper Eligio Spagnolo saved two of their attempts and we won the play-off and the promotion to Serie B as well.

Signings were key - most of them

When I created the save, the squad contained around 18 players. I promoted some youngsters from the youth teams but I was 100% sure I had to sign someone new (better) to be able to compete in the league for the whole season. Especially as some of the „key“ members of the original squad were not „key“ in my eyes after I checked their attributes.

As you can see in the picture above, the strike Francesco Riccio became the best Serie C goalscorer with 34 league goals. He scored 47 goals in 50(2) appearances in all competitions this season.

Another striker, Alessandro Casella, who played most of the season as the DLF(S) was another key member of the squad as he made 46 appearances, scored 37 goals and made 21 assists. Central midfielder Antonio Donnarumma would be among my most favourite signings (and players overall) during the first season. He gave us the needed experience and calm in the central midfield area and some of his assists were delicious.

Dario Iazzetta who played as our main left WB(A) scored 11 goals and made 21 assists. The right WB slot was the only position where I had to sign someone on loan because there were no available or interested transfer players in the summer. I went for Yannick Dan from Hellas Verona in the end and it was a good choice. He was very solid, mainly during the first two-thirds of the season before I started playing also our own youngsters to give them more playing time in this position/role as it was more clear that I wouldn’t be able to sign Dan permanently.

The only not-so-good signing was a young central midfielder Gerard who I signed on loan from Mallorca for the second part of the season. But he didn’t get enough opportunities mainly because he injured himself during the training session a couple of days after his arrival. And I decided to use my own players in the end.

Gianluca Ciucci

One of the side things of this save I thought about was to take some player or players within all three clubs I will with. After one season with Perugia, my current hottest candidate for this role is 17-year-old central midfielder, Gianluca Ciucci.

I played him as the CM(S) and he was in the starting line-up in all last four play-off matches against Potenza and Pro Vercelli. His development so far is very good and I’m looking forward to if he improves further.

How did the other two (future) clubs do in the 2023/2024 season?

Dijon had a great season in the French Championnat National (3rd tier) as they finished 2nd in the table and won the promotion to the Ligue 2. Nancy finished first with 78 points, Dijon second with 77 points, Sochaux third with 76 points and Chateauroux fourth with 75 points.
Reading did very well in the Sky Bet League One in comparison with real life. Despite the points deduction, they managed to finish 6th and reached the play-off. But they lost to Lincoln on aggregate and didn’t win a promotion.

Note about the blank database

The major advantage of this blank database is that is not boring. I have no urge to buy the same players again and again, the same as I’m not searching for the same coaches and scouts because I know they are good and free. I had to scout more properly because I didn’t know the majority of players. And thanks to the fact that players were added to playable teams randomly, the leagues are not as predictable as in real life or in the traditional database.

Just an example: Sassuolo ended 2nd in the Serie A while Lecce was third and Frosinone fourth. The big clubs Milan, Juventus and Roma ended up outside of the European cups. Leicester didn’t even make it to the English Championship play-off, the same as Southampton. Lyon won the Ligue 1, Leverkusen and RB Leipzig ended in 15th and 16th places in the Bundesliga, AZ Alkmaar won the Eredivisie and Ceske Budějovice ending third in the Czech top tier despite their being a total mess in real life and bottom of the table.

And to be honest, it's probably exactly the best thing I could make because it’s a great refreshment after so many years. In combination with the faces from FMUGens pack and “ultrarealistischen NewGAN-Facepack” by FMRocknRolla & FM.Z Community it’s perfect.

FM Slack alert!

You will find a short channel summary in the ‘generalchat’ so it will be easier for you to navigate through the channels.

Take care.

My Football Manager 2024 honorary save

December 4, 2023

When I started thinking about what kind of save I would like to do in the Football Manager 2024, it wasn’t an easy decision. Especially as some of the new edition’s features, including the option to transfer the FM23 save to the new edition, were announced. One part of me decided to continue within the save with VVV-Venlo. But when I won the top tier three times in a row and the club board was refusing to improve the club in terms of the new stadium, I lost the motivation to continue with this save.

The second option I thought about was to just open one of my favourite books “The Football Shirts Book” by Neal Heard and just select some club with some quality shirt(s).

Another way I thought about was to start a save with Reading FC. Many of you who have followed me for some time will know that it’s a club that I have been following for many years despite not living here. But who doesn’t support/follow some foreign club, hm? I had one of the best saves in my CM/FM history back in FM17, they are in a total mess right now in real life and it’s depressing following all the things around the club.

But in the end, I decided to do something I didn’t do for a long time. Journeyman save. In some way…

Honorary save with a lot of memories

Do you remember what was your first-ever CM/FM club? I don’t remember it. I know I always was that type of young FM player who was interested in similar youngsters/wonderkids and I wanted to bring them to my current club no matter how hard it was. It’s still the same in some ways after many years. I saved almost all my money during my FM23 save with Venlo to just buy one player for €25M to play just a couple of in-game months before I ended the save.

I decided to make some kind of honorary save in the Football Manager 2024 because the FM24 edition will be the last of its kind. The same as I decided there will be the FM24 Rensie skin, the last of its kind.

The decision to make the honorary save came to my mind also thanks to following all the circumstances around the Reading FC as I wrote above. The other reason was that I had some fantastic saves in the last 20 years about I didn’t write about. Or maybe better worded - I didn’t write about them in English and they are not saved/archived somewhere because most of my writing in English is on one hard drive as my old WordPress blog after I moved here to CoffeehouseFM.

I wrote about a lot of my saves in my native language at the old forum-based website I led for some time. I learned a lot about FM but also about writing during this time and I think it was one of the main basics before I started writing for a living. Good old days.

The save summaries from the Football Manager 2015 until the Football Manager 2023 are still available to read here on the CoffeehouseFM website as you can see in the posts’ summary below. The newer = the more detailed. But that’s only nine editions of twenty. What happened before?

Save summaries from FM15 to FM23

Oct 6, 2023

FM23 | Nine and a half seasons with VVV-Venlo

Oct 6, 2023

Sep 30, 2022

FM22 | Ten years with Warta Poznan

Sep 30, 2022

Oct 8, 2021

FM21 | Ten years with GAIS in Sweden

Oct 8, 2021

Aug 27, 2020

FM20: Celaya FC - ten years of club development

Aug 27, 2020

Sep 28, 2019

Goodbye South America, goodbye FM19.

Sep 28, 2019

Oct 10, 2018

FM18 Epilogue | BFC Siófok 2017 - 2045

Oct 10, 2018

Sep 10, 2017

FM17 | 24 years with Reading FC

Sep 10, 2017

Oct 4, 2016

FM16: Seventeen years with AB

Oct 4, 2016

Oct 18, 2015

FM15: Twenty years with Spartans FC

Oct 18, 2015

Keep calm and head down

…there were a lot of great saves before I started my first blog(site) in a language called CzEnglish. I have some screens and some pictures from old games saved at several places but it’s not too much detailed archive. But I remember most of these saves by the Football Manager in the last twenty years.

As always, when I got this idea, I was 100% sure it was the right thing. The more I thought about it, the more I was sure it was a perfect idea. And as always, I was so excited and ambitious, that I was sure I could play with all the clubs I managed in the last 20 years…

…luckily, I woke up at the right time and told myself it was time to think a little bit rationally and not be an idiot. I have two small kids, I have a time-consuming job and I love being outdoors a lot. Playing & coaching my local town team, riding and running etc. And the Football Manager is not even around my top 5 priorities right now. It’s just something I love but I don’t want to spend all my time with it.

Dijon, AS Roma, FK Zarkovo (3rd Serbian tier), RCD Mallorca, uncountable amount of saves with Sparta Prague, Tranmere Rovers, York City FC, Derby County… There were a lot of English saves when I was around my twenties as I loved playing here. I initially planned to select five clubs I would switch between during FM24.

But I have to be realistic. I decided to select three clubs. Two of them are from the time before I started to write in English. One of them is from a more recent past.

Tactics - then & now

The good thing about my Football Manager saves from the past is that I, for unknown reasons, remember the tactics I used with each club. When I played with the BFC Siofok, my main tactic was the 4-3-3 with a flat midfield. When I played with York City FC, it was all about a proper 4-4-2 formation aka all the balls had to go to the top and players like David McGurk, Martyn Woolford or Manny Panther were on my shortlist for a long time within a game but also within a real life when I was searching results and line-ups.

I also remember when I tried my favourite tactics with three central defenders for the first time. I still remember how I used four playmakers within a 4-1-4-1 formation while playing with AB Copenhagen in FM16 and many people didn’t understand how is it possible it works together.

The simple aim is to use the same tactic as in the past with the same club. And try to make it better than in the past. It won’t be easy to show exactly what instructions were in some tactics because it was changed in the game recently. Some instructions don’t exist anymore. Some were renamed or moved elsewhere.

But the main common thing of all my saves is clear (probably) for all - make the most of set pieces. With some new features and designs of set pieces, it can add a new dimension to the save I will try to create new routines for each club and I will try to manage the stats of set pieces for all clubs separately.

Three selected clubs + bonus

Before I made the final decision on the three clubs I would try to play with in FM24, I had a long list of clubs and tactics. Naturally, many of these clubs were from the saves from the recent years but as I said, I narrowed it down to two clubs from the non-English-blogging era and one from the more recent time.

AC Perugia Calcio - this will be my first club and the starting point of my virtual manager. I remember I didn’t play with Perugia for a long time like 15 or 20 seasons but I remember I liked that save. It was that save when I tried the 3-5-2 formation for the first time after reading a lot about it. I also remember it was one of the first saves when I just didn’t pick some big club and destroyed everyone because of money. I remember I was proud I selected some club with a rich history, with some amazing former players and I was able to read a lot about it. So that’s the first one.
Dijon FCO - I will try to move a little further north within Europe as my second club should be Dijon. I remember I liked playing with their club badge when I was creating some simple graphics for the save like headers etc. But I remember this save mainly because of Raphaël Cacérès. Raphaël is only one and a half years younger than me in real life. I played most of this save with the 4-4-1-1 formation and Raphaël played as a lone striker and as the AM player when he was older within the save. Cacérès was Dijon’s player during 2010-2013 with a short loan spell with Troyes. I don’t remember the exact number of goals and assists he made during this save but it was a lot. He was my typical FM player/hero - unwanted and not good enough at the start of the save, hidden somewhere in the reserves, I promoted him to the first team, found him the right role and I remember him since that moment.
Reading FC - I already mentioned I had quite a lot of English-based saves in the past. I was a big fan of lower leagues and I enjoyed starting from the bottom of the playable competitions. I remember I downloaded some custom database with the 10th tier activated and there were too many clubs to choose from that I didn’t even start that save. As I enjoyed most of these saves including some short saves in Northern Ireland or Scotland, all of them were beaten by my FM17 save with Reading. The same as many people follow me just because I decided to release my custom skin, many people still remember the days when I managed Danny Loader, Liam Kelly and more of these young players. This save was a mix of 4-1-3-2 and 4-3-1-2, which means I will try to adapt to this narrow formation.
- It’s probably not only about the save itself and how much I enjoyed it (24 years of the save) but it was also a great time in terms of my FM website where many great people also shared their FM articles - Oliver Jensen aka @fmFutbolManager, Mike @BrazierFM, Chris Johnson @randomfilming/@FM_BlackCrow for example. It was great to follow all of them in the next years as they developed into great FM authors and they have/had their websites with great posts.
Bonus club - I already mentioned the fact I had a quite long list of possible clubs. The same as I had a lot of favourite clubs/saves within the last 20 years of Football Manager, I also had a lot of favourite players. It’s not only that great regen Loader, but there were many others. If I have enough time, and some of my previous clubs connected with some favourite players would be available within the job centre in the game, I can move here too.

It’s somehow interesting and sad too that all these teams are in the third tier at the start of the save…

The set-up of the save?

I can’t play with one club forever. That means I will play 3 seasons with each of these three clubs. I put them as my favourite clubs so I will also see news about them within the game. And I can spot if they will be without a manager.

I will use the same formation/tactic for all 3 seasons within each club but mostly as the core shape, I can change roles, instructions etc. Just make the tactic better than before.

I also decided to try one new thing. I say new but some of you probably know it. I didn’t want to use the “fake players/staff” option within the game because you can very easily find out what player is it as he has only a different name. But thanks to @Jord, who notified me about the “blank database”, it all clicked on.

The game set-up is straightforward - England, Italy and France are not the only loaded nations but I loaded some more to have more players in the game. With “Add players to playable teams”, there are more than 16.5k players at the start of the save, that’s more than enough.

I started the save with the “Your World” game mode just for the narrative because it is my world now with the blank database. After many years, I also didn’t disable the first window transfer activity because I thought it didn’t matter with the blank database and because I didn’t know the players.

The save set-up

Player search view with the facepack

To improve the newgens, I decided to download the “ultrarealistischen NewGAN-Facepack” by FMRocknRolla & FM.Z Community. I’m using the pack with shirts as it reminds me of the old times.

You can find me in the Football Manager Slack or on Twitter.

Take care.

Follow @FMRensie