FM26 | Lokeren | 2028 - Goodbye...

February 28, 2026

It was supposed to be a blog about the next two seasons I played in Football Manager 26 with Lokeren. Yes, it was supposed to be. I finished the 2028/29 season, and at the same time, I was writing this blog with the vision of continuing to play and write. And I will publish the blog after the end of the 2029/30 season. But I will not finish this season. And probably not any other season in Football Manager 26 either. I am deliberately leaving the blog as I wrote it continuously until I finally ran out of patience...

Season 2028/29

Arguably, the biggest question ahead of the 2028/29 season was whether I would be able to keep Said Okoce in the squad for at least another season. As I wrote in the previous post, he was wanted by Barcelona after he was named 2nd in the NXGN 2028 award + he made his debut forthe Belgian national team.

They made their move and placed a bid. Okoce had €18M release clause at that time. I decided to negotiate the bid a little bit; I also added the loan back option. But they withdrew. I expected Okoce would be angry, but he was alright with it. Bayern came for him too during the summer, but they also refused to meet the release clause. Two days before the end of the summer transfer window, Arsenal came with their bid, but it was too low, and I rejected it.

I was not able to find the replacement (I’m not sure if I will ever be able to) & their bid was too low. Okoce was in great form at that time, and I was very happy I was able to keep him in the club.

We went into the new season with the negative transfer budget again. This time, it was around -€1,7M. I didn’t want to sell too many players, but I decided to take some useful bids, and I sold a couple of players, mainly youngsters. The only exception was central defender Christopher Mamengi, who was a key player, but he wanted a new contract with around €40k p/m, and that was not worth it. So I took the bid from FC Lorient and sold him for €700k as it was his release clause.

The rest of the players were mainly youngsters, whom I sold for a couple of hundreds euro and some % from next transfers. Unfortunately, despite earning €1.8M, the transfer budget improved only to -€1.38M. Unfortunately, #2, although I decided to sell some clauses, the money from these clauses didn’t go to the transfer budget. If I think about it backwards, I don’t think I would sell these youngsters if I didn’t need the money, if it were “a normal” save without the money issues.

I signed eight players during the summer of 2028. The standout players were René Mitongo (free), Liam van Nistelrooij (free), Kryštof Čížek (loan), Harvey Owen (loan) and Adam Hrdina (loan).

Twenty years. That’s the average age of the squad at the beginning of September 2028, when the summer transfer window was closed. Eighteen from 31 players in the first team squad were under the age of 20. Only central defender Visar Musliu was over 30. Most of these youngsters were available to play for reserves during the season, but we had a great start to the season, and I knew I would need them.

Especially as we beat Astana 3:1 on aggregate in the Europa League play-off, and we made it to the main stage of the European competition #2. No money for transfers. No money for better loans. I will play with my own players no matter the results. I like to do it this way even if I have enough money to spend, so it’s nothing new.

Europa League: I will be clear - the only motivation to reach the main stage of the European competition was money. We earned €3.4M for reaching the main stage, and it improved our bank balance a lot. Everything else would be a bonus for us. We beat FC Nordsjælland in the first game. We also host Chelsea in the home match - lost only 0:1. The stadium capacity is over 12k, but only 8k seating, so we couldn’t earn money for the full capacity. The overall Europa League income was around €6M. I would like to tell you the exact number, but there’s no option to divide the prize money by competitions in FM26, like it was possible in the past.
- We finished 25th in the League phase. We won one match, drew 5 and lost twice. With 8 points and a -3 goal difference, we didn’t make it to the knockout stage because FC Zürich had a better goal difference by one goal.
- Hoffenheim won the competition after beating Brighton on penalties. We tied with Hoffenheim 0:0 at home during the League Phase.
- It was a good experience.

At the end of the 2028 calendar year, Said Okoce was voted the best young Belgian player of the year, the same as the European Golden Boy. He was wanted by 18 clubs at that time. But something was different. Instead of big clubs like Barcelona or Bayern, there were some Belgian clubs interested, plus clubs from Poland, Czechia or Germany. But not the top European clubs. Some of these clubs also thought it would be a good idea to take Okoce just for a loan…

But it was only a matter of time. The bids from bigger clubs started flying around again during the winter transfer window, and he started to be unhappy after I rejected a couple of these bids. For example, from Napoli or Eintracht Frankfurt. In the end, four players placed €18M bid, and he was sold to RB Leipzig. Unfortunately, without some percentage from the potential next transfer.

He made 102 competitive appearances since appearing in the 2025 youth intake. He scored 51 goals and made 27 assists.

The worst thing about this transfer was that the board didn’t add something from €18M to the transfer budget. That means, despite earning €18M on a single transfer, we still had the negative transfer budget of -€1.32M…

I’m not sure if it’s a bug. I don’t understand it.

The biggest irony of all changes during this 2028/2029 season was when I asked the board about improving the youth facilities (after the club balance went up to over €26M), they rejected it because “they would rather sign players for the first team”. Alright, I like the irony and sarcasm too.

The irony number 2? The board took control of the transfers, “As a result of the club’s failure to generate sufficient funds…”

The pathetic result of this negative transfer budget saga was that, without a mailbox message or any other mention, one match before the end of the league campaign (when I had already secured a top 4 finish), the transfer budget was somehow €0M instead of -€1.32M. The club board was “very pleased” with the negative transfer budget business model…

Life after Okoce

When Said Okoce left the club, I had two main strikers in Mitongo and Liam van Nistelrooij. I decided to rotate them continuously within the Channel Forward and Target Forward roles. And we did pretty well. Nistelrooij scored six goals and made two assists as a Target Forward in the first three matches after Okoce’s departure.

Both Mitongo and Nistelrooij had some minor injuries during the second part of the season, but they did great, and we were very lucky their injuries were not serious, and they didn’t miss too much. I promoted two youngsters from the U18 team, and they were backup players for the last ten minutes, usually.

The closer we got to the end of the season, the closer I got to deciding how I would proceed in the coming seasons in terms of team composition/strategy. More on that below...

Croky Cup: We were lucky to face two lower league sides in the 6th and 7th rounds, and we won 3:1 and 4:1. The eighth round meant we faced OH Leuven, our close rival in terms of league position, but we beat them 4:0. We scored 4 goals in the quarter final too as we beat RFC Liege 4:1. We faced the strongest opponents in the semi final and final. The semi final is still played on two legs in Belgium, and we beat Anderlecht 1:0 at home, and we beat them on penalties after Anderlecht won the second leg 3:2 after extra time. It was our second Croky Cup final of this save. We lost to KRC Genk in the 2025/26 season. We faced the league title holders, Club Brugge, this time. They were better in the 1st half, we dominated in the 2nd half, and it ended 1:1. They scored a winner in the 104th minute and won a double.

Jupiler Pro League: Our league campaign started really well as we beat Eupen 4:1 away from home, and Anderlecht 6:4 at home. The club board wanted us to play entertaining and attacking football, so we delivered. I was afraid we would struggle a lot in combination with the Europa League and fatigue, but it was not that bad. We had a small crisis in November 2028 when we didn’t win five matches in a row. The same happened in January. We scored 13 goals in three matches during February, and we supported it with two wins in March. Despite losing to Genk and Brugge in April, we were in the top four. We earned 7 points in the last three matches, and we finished 3rd in the league, one place better than last season. That means higher prize money for the final position in the league. And also the Europa League place again.

Season 2029/30

As it was not fixed since the previous blog post, I went to the 2029/30 season with the fact that we had only 20 days-long pre-season because of the holiday bug. We are used to it already. The club board was very generous, and our transfer budget for the new season was set to -€2.23M. But the wage budget was increased to €922k p/m from €399k p/m.

These budgets were set when I had already decided how I would care about the first team squad in the upcoming years of the save. At least until the moment when there won’t be the policy of the negative transfer budget.

During the second part of the season, I decided not to renew the contract of a couple of players, including the eldest and the most experienced player of the squad, 34-year-old defender Visar Musliu. He had €25k p/m. Mainly to save money, but he probably wouldn't play much anymore anyway. Plus several other players with lower salaries. A refresh, a little bit.

The board wanted a mid-table finish, and I had no issue with it. I don’t have to finish in the top four/five every season. And I decided about this:

I will try to sign a permanent goalkeeper #1 - our first-choice keepers in the previous two seasons were loans, and I would like to have my own.
I will try to find four loan players at maximum. They all have to be important or key players. Ideally, one player per line. Including the goalkeeper, if I can't find a good enough permanent goalkeeper on decent terms.
The rest of the squad will be our own players - from our academy, or players who are already in the squad. I expected at least three or four outgoing transfers for decent money.
The only exception will be a free transfer with a view to selling this player, and it will be an advantageous transfer for all parties.

I decided to delegate scouting assignments/recruitments to my DoF and Chief Scout, just to see how it would work. I was just interested. The player recommendations were filled with 100 players very quickly. Two-thirds of these players’ estimated wage was between €70k-€100k p/m, or their transfer value was €5M or higher. No problem, I will buy the whole starting XI with the negative transfer budget. And with the board that keeps all the money out of the transfer budget :)

That was the moment (again) when I knew I would have to do everything by myself (again).

Edit of the negative transfer budget vision and others…

…the part about the scouting was written at the beginning of the last week of February 2026 in real time. The part below was written on February 27th, 2026, when I had a couple of hours of free time to play again after a couple of days.

…as I was slowly progressing to the 2029/30 season, it was July 9th when I realised something was wrong. Or different. A month ago, in-game time, I got a message that our transfer budget is -€2.23M. No more messages since. A month later, the transfer budget is €46.8K, as the original was €47K...

And the bonus - the negative transfer business model club vision was not within the actionable objectives/club vision, despite I confirmed it two in-game weeks ago during the meeting with the board.

This was probably the moment I lost every last ounce of trust in this game...

It does absolutely whatever it wants.

I progressed a little bit more. I was close to the start of the new season, and I wanted to beat Club Brugge in the Belgian Super Cup. I didn’t have a better squad, but it’s always possible. But only with a playable game.

Ten days ahead of this Super Cup match, I was asked to make a squad registration, as always. When I got a crash dump for the fourth time because I unregistered a young player who went for a loan, I was angry because I had to progress everything in the last three weeks of the in-game time again.

When I finally made it through the registration without a crash dump. Yes, I already saved it. I was asked to assign the squad numbers. Yes, you guessed right - every time I removed the assigned number to a player who is not in the squad already, I got a crash dump. No matter if I removed that number manually or via the “clear all” button.

At that time, I despite signing no player and pay nothing related to transfers and signing players. Only receiving a small percentage from a transfer of one former player, the transfer budget went from the mentioned €46.8K to €10K without any messages. My planned free signing was cancelled because I didn’t have €21K in the transfer budget to pay the agent fee - that agent fee that was set to €0 in the contract offer. And before someone asks, I was not able to adjust the transfer budget, despite I had almost €600K p/m available in the wage budget…

I’ve had enough of this game. I had more crash dumps during one Friday afternoon than in FM23 and FM24 together.

Playing FM (or any other game) should be a joy. It should be a therapy for your brain. But FM26 is a depressive experience. I spent more time worrying about clicking something that would cause a crash dump than enjoying the game itself.

I should rather buy another running gear for €46.73 I spent on the game last year. I should rather go for another slow run rather than creating my own faces for the game and all the narratives to feel the game is alive.

Take care, everyone.

Hopefully, we’ll meet again in a better FM future. Or maybe I'll learn to play Minecraft, so I know what my son talks about every day from morning to night.

👋🏻

FM26 | Lokeren | 2026 - 2028

February 9, 2026

Everything is taking me much longer than it used to - both playing and writing about Football Manager. Yes, FM26 is not ideal in many ways; there are still more things in the game to fix than to use, but the fact that it takes me two months to write a blog is not the fault of the game itself. However, it is a bit, because it takes me much longer to finish a season. This blog is proof of that. Originally, it was supposed to be a blog about the 26/27 season. But combined with the Christmas holidays, the opportunity to run again (and do sports in general) and lots of new books to read, it ends up being a blog about two seasons at once.

"My" Lokeren is practically broke for the third year in a row, and I haven't bought a single player yet. Either it has to be free, and I have to talk him into it so that the player and the agent themselves don't want a signing bonus, or it has to be a loan. That saved my second season in the top flight. You can read about that too...

2026/2027

It was our first season back in the top tier after a promotion. I knew it would be crucial to strengthen the squad wisely to have the best possible chance of surviving in the top division. Our mission was highly successful, as we remained out of the relegation battle for the entire season. In the end, we almost won the European slot…

TransferRoom (In)

I wrote about the transfers ahead of the second season of this save, more detailed in my post about the TransferRoom (In) option. This option within the recruitment really helped me to find players which I didn’t even think about, but also I wouldn’t probably find them either.

As I mentioned in that post, all of these players were signed for free, and I didn’t pay a transfer fee. I only decided not to sign any new goalkeeper during this process because I was not able to find someone who would be better than the current backup or someone who would not want too high a wage.

It’s obvious that not all players became key players of the squad, but the central defenders’ trio Musliu, Doudaev and Mamengi were key to have the required stability at at the back. I can’t imagine I would play with the same defenders as in the first season while we were in the second tier.

The biggest surprise to me wasa striker Keano Vanrafelghem whom I signed for free after his time with KV Mechelen came to an end. He scored 14 league goals and he was our best goalscorer. He was more consistent than young Okoce and that was what we needed.

French midfielder Lilian Raillot also became our very important player as he made 29 league matches. The main thing is that all these signings went as I planned in terms of the promised/required playing time of each player. The one who I wanted as a backup fulfilled this role and the players who should be in the starting line-up also fulfilled what I wanted and expected.

Collapsed takeover and finances

The second season was a rollercoaster, not because of the results, but mainly in terms of the number of takeover rumours. We were under transfer embargo six times during the season, not that we would have money for any transfers.

All the takeover speculations were dismissed, or the takover colapsed. Everything escalated at the end of the season, when a few days after the last match, we found out that we didn't have a single euro in the budget for salaries before the new season. And the transfer budget is in the red.

The total balance at the end of the 2026/2027 competition year from the club's cash point of view was -€8.5M. The balance improved by about €2M after receiving prize money.

Tactical shift #1

We played the first season, in which we won the second tier, with the 3-5-2 formation, but not with the strikers, so it should rather be 3-5-1-1, as Radja Nainggolan played mainly in a free role. But I wanted to get back to the 3-5-2 with two strikers ahead of the second season. And I did that.

The main tweaks were in the middle of the pitch. I tried a lot of combinations for my central midfielders before I settled for this.

I kept it simple as always. The formation was not based on ticking all the instructions and using all the new (renamed) roles. Another change was that instead of using AWB on both sides, I kept this role only on the left side of the pitch, while the right wing-back is just…wing-back. Boring, I know.

But Jarno Vervarque, our key right wing-back, made 14 assists in 33 league matches = the second best in the league. I can live with it.

Avoid(ed) relegation

I mentioned it a couple of times already. The main aim of the 26/27 season was to avoid relegation back to the second tier. The prediction was 16th place. We finished 6th.

We fought about the Conference League slot until the last league round. But a 1:4 defeat in the last match of the 26/27 season against Anderlecht meant we dropped to the final 6th position. Club Brugge lost in Gent, but OH Leuven lost to Union SG = Club Brugge retained the title despite the first three teams having the same points. Interesting end for all. We exceeded the expectations 100%.

Goodbye, Radja!

The season 26/27 was the last one for my biggest star - at least by the name. Midfielder Radja Nainggolan retired from playing at the age of 39. He made 26 appearances, scoring 9 goals and making 6 assists in the first season when we won the promotion. He was able to participate in all 34 league matches in the top tier. He scored seven goals and made six assists.

He definitely was not within the list of my favourite players in real life; there are 100% other names, but it was nice to have a player like him for two seasons at least. I’m not sure if I will be able to sign someone like him in the near future of this save.

Still got it, Radja! 🥰🥐 #FM26 pic.twitter.com/FNa7lbS9yR
— FM Rensie | Ondrej (@FMRensie) December 11, 2025

One-touch football & Radja scoring in the wheelchair.

Everything's possible if 38-year-old Radja is the fastest here.

Hello, Lokeren-Ball! 😁🧇 #FM26 pic.twitter.com/rNZh3MPilN
— FM Rensie | Ondrej (@FMRensie) December 23, 2025

2027/2028

After mid-season weeks, I’m very happy we didn’t make it to Europe. The club has a new board after a successful takeover during June 2027, but the finances are so limited that I had to do everything a little bit differently this summer. Mainly, the incoming transfers are needed to be able to sign someone.

Long holidays thanks/due to annoying bug…

I already experienced this between the first and the second season. And it happened again. Players left for their holidays, but someone was very generous while coding the gam,e and their holiday lasted until July 5. The first competitive match of the new season is on July 24.

That means a very short time to prepare everything ahead of the new season. We can safely say that everything what was said about how the pre-season is important can go to the bin "thanks" to this bug. It was reported on the SI Forum, but I don’t expect it will be fixed before I will definitely lost the interest in playing FM26. Or it will be fixed, but it won’t be save compatible…

The negative transfer budget and (Unwanted) loan army

In June 2027, the takeover was completed. The club balance went from -€8M to €1.2M. But that was all.

The transfer budget remains the same: -€1.2M. The loans remained the same.

So, yes, we started improving the squad with the -€1.2M in the transfer budget. The new board didn’t boost the club financially. They kept the same strategy - sell before buy.

I had the first major outgoing transfer as Brighton bought our first-choice keeper for €1.3M (his transfer release clause). 15% was made available, which means it went up to -€1.01M

The fact that we have a negative transfer budget means I can't sign even free players because all players require a signing fee or agent fee = both of which are taken from the transfer budget.

All the free transfers were cancelled because of a lack of money for signing/agent fees. I sold six players for €3.4M, but it was not enough to make the transfer budget go from negative numbers. The only way I was able to sign someone was to find some loans. I’m not a big fan of loan signings, but I knew it was the only way to improve the squad without money, as our own youngsters are not good enough yet.

“A maximum of three domestic-based players allowed on loan in a season. A maximum of six foreign-based players over the age of 22 allowed on loan at a time.”

I signed one goalkeeper, one midfielder and two strikers. Babatz, Berenbruch and Fall became our key players. Meier should be an important player, but injuries limited him to being just a sub. And when he was not injured, Fall was in so good form that I couldn’t put him on the bench.

It showed me one main thing - I will sign at most three loan players in the future, or I will not be able to sign loan players for the same position.

Kindergarten Lokeren

@Oaky advised me to remove signing & agent fees while negotiating contracts to be able to sign free players, and it worked out when I signed midfielder Hugo de Llanos for free.

But it didn’t change the fact that my Lokeren squad already turned into a kindergarten. The average age of the squad during this season was slightly above 20 years old. I had 30 players in the squad during the first half of the season, and 15 players were 19 years old or younger.

During the winter transfer window, when I felt we were secured in terms of relegation, I decided to sell some players to improve the books. I sold striker Keano Vanrafelghem to Sampdoria for €1M. I signed him ahead of the previous season for free. He was the best goalscorer of the previous season, but it's a lot of money, and I had enough strikers.

Another winter transfer was Alessandro Giliberti, a 17-year-old midfielder - I signed him for free from a lower league club to have enough players for reserves and maybe develop him. It turns out he developed very well, and Genk bought him for €400k + €400k + 30% from the next sale. No big savings on wages, but €800k is great.

I managed to transfer the budget from negative numbers, but I’m sure the race against the negative transfer budget will begin again after this season…

Tactical shift #2

I did a couple of tactical changes before the 2027/2028 season compared to the previous one I shared above. I did some more tweaks during the first league rounds, as I didn’t like our hyperactive and chaotic approach, mainly because of the out-of-possession instructions hyped too much.

So, I went with a simpler approach and tweaked it. You can also see I changed the positioning of the central midfielders’ roles. It created some kind of roof with this approach. Thomas Brerenbruch scored some nice goals as our main attacking midfielder after a simple cutback pass. If I find a player with very good off-the-ball movement, it will work even better.

The biggest change, and the most effective one, was surely the change to the Target Forward role as Pape Moussa Fall scored 20 league goals in 24(2) appearances and ended the season as the best rated player from all with the 7.44 average rating.

I was very happy with how it worked. I will keep it like this for the next season. Maybe I'll write a separate blog about it if I have the time and the right mood.

Two places better

The second season in the Belgian top tier ended with a better final position in the table for Lokeren. We didn’t have a good start to the league campaign. It could be caused by the lack of time in the pre-season due to the bug mentioned above. But our form and results improved a lot after the loan signings. All Babatz, Berenbruch and Fall had a big impact on our play after I settled the tactic down and stopped tweaking every little thing.

I would like to show you the progress of our league standings, but I couldn’t find the screen with the standings development in FM26. “Past positions” screen - if it’s there somewhere, please let me know. It was one of my favourite screens in previous editions within competition panels, but I’m probably blind, and I couldn’t find it.

The league was very tight and dramatic until the last round. Club Brugge won the league title in the previous season because they won 20 matches. OH Leuven and Union SG also had 67 points, but only 19 wins. Club Brugge won the league title in the 27/28 season. And this time, it was thanks to a better goal difference; Anderlecht also ended with 69 points. But Brugge won 7:0 against Beerschot…

We improved our final league position by two places in comparison with the previous season. We won 3:2 away from home against Zulte in the last round and finished the season with 66 points. Just three points behind the top two.

It also means we qualified for Europe. We will start in the Europa League qualification - third round.

A combined Jupiler Pro League 2027/2028 table. Purple = home, green = away.

Said Okoce update

The first youth intake of this save delivered a couple of very good young players, including Said Okoce. The young winger or striker is 100% one of the best newgen I’ve ever had in the Football Manager. He has been our key striker since the start of the second season, and his development continued very well.

Playing mainly as a Channel Forward within our 3-5-2 formation, his reputation increased during the last two years, and a couple of weeks ahead of the end of the 2027/2028 season, he was named 2nd in the NXGN 2028. At that time, he was wanted by Barcelona.

His release clause was about €10M. I gave him a new contract, and the release clause was increased to up to €18M for foreign clubs. He was also called up to the Belgian senior national team by Ralf Rangnick at the age of 17…

…a couple of weeks later, he made his debut during the first match of the EURO 2028, and became the youngest Belgian player in the senior national team.

Thanks to the financial challenges, the save remains interesting to me, despite thefact that Football Manager 2026 itself is not as good as we all hoped. Maybe it will lose the last small magic when the finances are repaired, and I will stop playing. I don’t know.

What about next season? I can only confirm that any of the four loan players will continue with us. Richard Meier is out of contract, but he was injured too often, and it’s not worthy to risk. Babatz & Berenbruch will not be allowed to join us again; their clubs want to “test them somewhere else” and rejected our loan bids.

And Pape Moussa Fall? The best-rated player of the Jupiler Pro League 27/28 will probably earn his place in the FC Metz squad for the next season. They were relegated to the Ligue 2; they would be stupid not play him. But I will follow him surely.

Thank you for reading. Feel free to join us on FM Slack. Feel free to follow me on Twitter or Bluesky

What is FM Slack?

There were a lot of changes within many social media, including Twitter (now “X”), and it’s not the same as in the past. We can’t see many things due to the algorithm, weird preferences and many other reasons I don’t even want to know.

There are many Discord servers, and I’m sure they are good and useful. But I will probably always be a bigger fan of Slack. Or, better worded, the Football Manager Slack. Feel free to join us with this link.

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

FM26 | How the TransferRoom (In) saved me

December 16, 2025

Some footballers are slow, some footballers can’t read the game as well as others, some players can’t keep their mouths closed, and they pick a stupid yellow or red cards. Some players have different weaknesses. And the same applies to us, Football Manager players. We all play the game in a different way. We all ignore a different part of the game. Some of us don’t care about training, some of us don’t care about set pieces, press conferences and many more. My biggest weakness is that the older I am, the bigger issue and pain in the ass are TRANSFERS.

Yes, you read it right. Something so essential for the Football Manager, like transfers, became almost a nightmare for me in the previous years. It’s not a game issue or the fault of the developers. It’s just me being lazy, but it also reflects the fact that I'm very down-to-earth.

In recent years, nine times out of ten, I've decided to promote one of the youngsters to the first team and try to improve him as much as possible, rather than looking for other players on the transfer market.

The players database, how it's named in FM26, or just the player search screen in previous versions, became almost a no-go screen for me. I relied mostly on scouts or HoYD recommendations, or I just used a screen flow with some stats screens. Especially when the save was more than three or four seasons in.

In FM26, I didn’t care about transfers too much in the opening season because 1) the first transfer window was disabled and 2) I used the “Real World” database option. The latter means I have incoming and outgoing transfers set for the first season.

But my team needed improvement in various positions after a promotion to the top tier. And I decided to use one of the new features of the game - the TransferRoom (In).

Part 1: Squad planner

My system is not unique, and I’m sure many of you plan your squads in a very similar way. No matter if there was a squad planner screen in the game, or if you just wrote the names in your notebook.

I usually want to have 1) key/first choice player, 2) backup player and 3) future prospect. In my saves, it’s very common that the second and third players are the same. Or there are two youngsters as backup players.

The squad planner in FM26 works in a very similar way to the previous versions, but there are a couple of bugs, and it can be a little bit frustrating to go through due to general UI fuckups like reverting to a different screen after removing one player, etc.

The biggest con of the squad planner right now is that I can’t add the youth players. There are only the shortlist and the first team squad options in the drop-down menu. This was fixed before I finished this post.

But I told myself that I have to be patient, and I don’t want to write everything in the notebook. So I went through and aligned players as I wanted. The positive thing was that I didn’t have any position issues, and I have enough players. The other side is if they are good enough…

Step 2: Identifying what I need

…the answer for the unfinished sentence above is simple - they are not good enough. Watching just the squad page and potential ability star rating can be misleading. “Yes, I have enough central midfielders.” That’s exactly my words and my (wrong) approach from the past.

Putting the player’s list for the next season gave me a similar headache as waiting for the new contract ahead of the end of the first season. I already tweaked the tactics, including player roles I want to use next season, and it turned out I need some major improvement.

I was not able to put together at least three goalkeepers, so I need one backup or some prospect to have enough goalkeepers for reserves and U18 sides, too.

I realised that I was being somewhat blinded by the fact that Radja Nainggolan would continue in the team and thus overlooked the fact that, due to his age and declining physical attributes, he would no longer be able to play in physically demanding and running roles. That meant I needed at least one new channel midfielder and one new central midfielder. The fact that most of our midfielders want to play as DM is also not helpful.

In an effort to get rid of unnecessary players during the first season, to reduce the budget, I released or sold for a few pennies all the players who could play as LWB, so the replacement for Jordi Palacios is a physically pumped 19-year-old young man who occasionally gets the ball tangled between his legs so much that a physiotherapist has to untangle it.

And to make matters worse, when I put together all the pros and cons, eliminating all the available players, it turned out that our main Channel Forward is a fifteen-year-old with a youth contract. This is what I put together in my head and in the end also in the notebook:

GK: Backup or youngster with a low wage
WBL: Backup with a low wage, or promote two newgens from the Youth Intake 2026 and rotate them in the Reserves and U18 team.
CD: At least one first-choice player
DM: The new first-choice player was already signed; I only need to decide about covers.
MC: The first-choice Channel Midfielder & squad player for the CM role.
ST: The first-choice Channel Forward & squad player for the DLF role.

Easy, right?

Step 3: Setting the Requirements

I know we are able to set up the “classical” Recruitment Focusses straight from the Squad Planner, but I’m not a big fan of the recruitment focus, and I decided to keep only two focusses active - outgoing. One for the U18 and one for the U21 players within Belgium.

The main difference between the old Recruitment Focus and TransferRoom(In) focus is that the classic Recruitment Focus is continuously refreshed. The focus within the TransferRoom (In) will show you 15 players, for example, and you have to set the new one if you want to see different players. I’m a much bigger fan of the TransferRoom (In) option, although I would like to have it refreshed automatically, too.

As I already know what I need and what I want to find, it was time to set up the specific requirements. I started with the keeper, and I set two requirements. The first one with Backup as a playing time with no limit of age, and the second one with Emergency Backup and the age is limited to 15-20. It’s a little bit easier with outfield players, as you can set the youngster, future prospect or a breakthrough prospect's playing time.

Selecting the right playing time in combination with the age within setting the requirement is the most important in my eyes, and I enjoy experimenting with it more than searching players manually within the player database. I like how the advert system shows me some different players every time.

You can see in the picture above that there are various age ranges. I decided, for example, in the case of the DLF role, it can be someone who is already a little bit experienced; it doesn’t have to be always a youngster/wonderkid. The same applies to the ad with the backup keeper. I have plenty of them already. If the results are not good and I don’t like the “ads”, I change the requirements.

When I progressed to the next day of the save with these requirements, I got 96 responses. I would be able to select at least two or three players on the first try.

One thing I would like to tweak within the setting of the requirement is the option to add a nationality option.

After some days of scouting and comparing, I decided to make the age limits more specific or more restrictive, so the span was too big in some cases. I changed the age for the backup to 25-35, the age of the important centre defender to 19-25 and so on.

I also removed the 'Out of Possession' position from the requirements, as the responses offered better players. Some combinations, like Channel Forward & Tracking Centre Forward, were too demanding for the current level of my club/league.

Step 4: Results

I don’t want to comment and analyse each of these nine players I signed ahead of the second season with Lokeren, but I decided to share all of them here because it shows I was able to find almost every player I wanted/needed. There are new key central defenders (Doudaev, Musliu!! & Mamengi), Sem Audoor can be a solid LWB backup player - and he already proved it during the opening months of the second season.

Slovenian midfielder Aljaž Casar is a lovely versatile player who is able to play both as DM and CM. And the fact he can also be a Ball-Playing Defender is very welcomed.

I like the fact I was able to find and sing two young strikers for both Channel Forward and DLF roles, and there’s a chance they both will improve and I will sell them. French midfielder Lilian Raillot is also a great example of my favourite transfer policy. I like he can also play both as DM and CM, but also as CD if needed.

All of these players were signed for free, and I didn’t pay a transfer fee. I only decided not to sign any new goalkeeper during this process because I was not able to find someone who would be better than the current backup or someone who would not want too high a wage.

I also decided to sign a backup channel forward instead of the new first-choice player for this role because I want Said Okoce (the newgen from the first youth intake of the save I shared in the previous post) playing as much as possible.

I’m 100% sure I will use the same (or a little bit modified method again in the future of the save).

“The biggest difference in what was done before and what we are doing now is the proactivity of searching in the market. Not only looking for players who are good enough, but also who are suitable.”
Mark Coonen, Chief Scout, PEC Zwolle

I liked this thought in this interview with PEC Zwolle Chief Scout. It sums up my thinking of how I decided to use the TransferRoom in combination with the right requirements set. It’s not only about the immediate impact, but it is also, above all, an opportunity that you should not miss and take advantage of in the right setting.

The video by @Secondyellowcard would be my recommendation for anyone who would like to watch a video about the TransferRoom (In).

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

What is FM Slack?

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

FM26 | Lokeren - season 2025/2026

December 7, 2025

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

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

First Christmas, then sale

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

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

A simple summary:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Be competitive against SK Beveren”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Belgian Challenger Pro League 2025/2026 table

A domestic cup run

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

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

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

Unnecessary contract drama

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

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

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

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

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

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

The bright future?

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

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

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

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

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

What is FM Slack?

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

FM26 | Heading to Belgium

November 7, 2025

The same as I/we didn’t know if the FM 26 would be a thing after a previous year, I also didn’t know where I should spend most of the new edition in terms of the long-term save. In the end, I decided against all the experimental thoughts I had in the previous months, and I decided for, maybe boring, but a traditional type of save with the club from the European second division with a rich history, but also recent struggles and issues.

The new game is not finished, and there are a lot of issues. A lot of things I/we used in the past are not in the game anymore, which means the style of playing the game will be different.

But I hope I will enjoy my time with the new game and developing K.S.C. Lokeren in Belgium.

Searching the (Czech) “mafia”

My kids would say it’s like talking about the prehistoric times, but back in the 70s and 90s, Lokeren football club was a vital part of the Czech football history.

If we were to look for a place in the world where football has done the best advertising for the Czech Republic, Belgian side Lokeren would rank very high. The captain of the 1962 world champions, Ladislav Novák, trained there, the Slovak European champion from Belgrade, Karol Dobiáš, played there, and Jan Koller developed into a top striker there…

The story from the 90s: Roman Vonášek (midfielder) and Václav Budka (midfielder) were both on Lokeren’s radar, and Belgian club representatives came to Prague to finalise the deal. When the talks between clubs were ongoing, they also talked about the fact that they would need a striker too.

Jan Koller was a Sparta Prague player at this time, but his position in the team (and the club itself) was not very good. He was offered to Lokeren, but it wasn’t so easy. They didn’t trust in his abilities. And he really was not as good as you may remember him from the time with BVB or in the Czech national team shirt later. He lacked the technical skills; he was clumsy; he was not ready for a big football…

…but Josef Vacenovský, a former Czechoslovakia national team player and also a Lokeren player & coach in the 20th century, had his word, and he convinced the representatives of Lokeren to sign Koller too. That means Lokeren bought three players from Sparta Prague during the same transfer window. A year later, Martin Pěnička joined Lokeren from Slavia Prague. That meant Lokeren had four Czech players at the same time in the squad.

“If I hadn’t played for Lokeren, my career probably wouldn’t have been as successful. I was lucky with the coach, the people at the club, and I made the most progress there. Before leaving the Czech Republic, I had to look for Lokeren on the map; I didn’t know anything about it.”

— Jan Koller in 2020

They called them “Czech mafia”. Goalkeeper Jan Musil also spent a short period of time with the club in 1997.

Jan Koller left the club in 1999 as he joined Anderlecht, where he won the Belgian title with them before he moved to Dortmund and became one of their legends. Budka and Pěnička left after another year. A couple of more Czech players were in the club later for a short period of time, but not in a big group like these four „mafiosi“.

Václav Budka, Roman Vonášek, Martin Pěnička & Jan Koller. Picture @www.standaard.be

The aim is not to concentrate on the Czech players within the transfer market. The idea is to just have a group of players from the same nation.

“Will you sign another player from the country “XY” to help this player “XY” to settle in the new club?”

If you follow my saves in the past, you will know that I usually play mostly with the domestic players. My saves are focused on the youth development a lot. It’s not only about having three or four players from the same nation. It can be one player in the senior squad and three youngsters. Or vice versa. It depends on the situation.

And as I said, it’s not necessary to sign Czech players just because of this story. We can create a “mafia” from a different country.

I don’t know if it will be a thing in Football Manager 26, the same as in the previous versions, but the affiliate clubs can play a part in this scenario within this save.

Also, the players already mentioned were one central defender, two central midfielders, and one striker. So, some kind of team axis. But it’s not a restriction that I have to replicate this. It will be random. It can be the defensive line, as in FM25, when I had three Slovenian defenders in the starting XI, for example.

If I check the current 25/26 Lokeren squad, there are 19 players with Belgian nationality (including Radja Nainggolan, for example) and around 10 foreign players - two Spanish defenders, four strikers from African nations. I found it an ideal combination to start with - the base of the squad will always be domestic-based + a couple of foreign players who will offer something different.

And in this case, I will try my best to find the new “mafia” and these foreign players will be from the same nation. It can be four Spanish players for two seasons, or three Austrian players for five seasons. There’s a rich history of Icelandic players in the club; Alfreð Finnbogason was probably the most well-known, I would say.

It depends, but I’m sure I will play at least five seasons of this save, so it’s manageable.

The important thing to remind myself - this is not a must! It’s not something I have to do; it’s not some restriction. If it won’t happen, it’s not the end of the world. I just want to enjoy playing the game again, and this can be some kind of side story.

Lokeren and its struggles in the 21st century

I won’t pretend I’m an expert on Belgian football or the history of the Lokeren football club. The good old Wikipedia and a couple of online articles are my useful friends. The “original” Lokeren was founded in 1923, and they won the Belgian Cup twice. Their history is rich. I would say every club that has been on the map for too long has a rich history. No matter of highs and lows, trophies or defeats.

Lokeren almost made it to the 100th anniversary. But they were relegated from the top tier in 2018. Two years later, they were declared bankrupt, and in April 2020, they merged with the nearby town of Temse (KSV Temse), and the new club K.S.C. Lokeren-Temse was founded, starting in the fourth tier.

The club from Temse was formed in 1945, so that’s also a club with a long history, and it was a logical step to connect both clubs to avoid the complete extinction of Lokeren.

The new club started in the fourth tier, and they moved up in 2022/2023. A second successive promotion followed in the next season. The key thing was that the club got the professional license, and they are now back in the second tier for the second season. The seventh place was a success.

In 2025, the club decided to use the K.S.C. Lokeren name again.

Daknamstadion - capacity 12,136, not renovated, expanded or massively improved since 1974.

As I already mentioned, I’m not an expert on Belgian football. When I check the Lokeren current squad, I know only Radja Nainggolan. The rest of the players are unknown to me. I would be able to talk about Michel Preud’homme, Raymond Braine (he played for Sparta Prague, and I read a lot about him), and how I signed Antony Vanden Borre every time in the old FM editions or about my platonic love for Walter Baseggio and Bart Goor, when they played for both Anderlecht and Belgium in the 90s.

I, of course, know current or recent Belgian players, but I don’t remember playing in an FM save in Belgium for too long a time, and this can be a good thing to get to know some new players, too.

Challenger Pro League

The second Belgian tier has been continuously expanded in terms of the number of teams since 2016. There are 17 teams for the 2025/2026 season. The league changed its format a lot during recent years.

This season, two teams will be automatically promoted to the Belgian Pro League, and the promotion play-off winner will be matched against the last-placed top-tier team, with no direct relegation due to the top tier's expansion to 18 teams from 2026–27 onwards.

I like that there’s a promotion play-off; it will be even more challenging to get the club back to the top tier.

I made kits! Although I didn’t know if I would be able to use them in the game…

Tactical direction

With the new in and out-of-possession possibilities, there will probably be some experiments. I know I will keep it simple as always, but I would like to create another quality tactic with three central defenders and attacking wing-backs who will be, or should be, the main power.

Also, there’s no pressing forward role in FM26. I will continue experimenting with the Centre Forward role and player instructions to create a pressing monster in the attacking phase.

Save set-up

The game setup is simple - a real world with real transfers with real dates and the first transfer window disabled. That means there will be arriving and departing players during the opening weeks and months of the save. It will surely keep me entertained in terms of the squad planning.

Especially as there are four squads - the first team, reserves, U21 and U18, it will be fun. Hopefully.

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

What is FM Slack?

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

Featured

Nov 4, 2025

FM26 Touchline Shouts compensation

Nov 4, 2025

There are a couple of things missing in Football Manager 26. The touchline shouts feature is one of them. I found out I miss them more than I could’ve imagined, and I decided to create some kind of compensation. It works like a therapy. I keep this page open and hit the relevant button from time to time during the match.

Nov 4, 2025