Football Manager 2022 is here. The buzz of save reveal season is upon us and I couldn’t miss out on gaining some of those juicy hits for the new home of my FM writing, CoffeehouseFM.
I’ve found myself struggling to follow my usual process when it comes to picking a save for this edition of the game. I knew I wanted to head to Norway for FM21 for a good while. Eibar and Vitória were both planned way in advance too. Samo’s Stirling saw me putting in the yards on the editor to revamp Scotland’s league setup.
Time has been the big factor. I haven’t had the time to do my usual of looking into stories that catch my eye or a club that is doing things a little bit differently to the norm in. It’s been a busy few months as I settle into a new job for the first time in eight and a half years. It’s the dream job too, I’ve finally made the move into working in football full time. How will I cope when my working and FM lives combine?
Well, my proposed coping mechanism is to start off my FM22ing at my place of work, St Mary’s. My office will become my virtual office. I’m heading to the English Premier League for the first time on the game since FM16.
Why Southampton?
Didn’t you just read me say why? I work there now.
In all seriousness though, I didn’t have the time to look for a club that’s doing things differently but luckily I didn’t need to look very far for one.
In a footballing world where Newcastle are now the richest club on the planet and money is everywhere, Southampton live within their means and try to turn potential into excellence.
Gareth Bale, Luke Shaw, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Theo Walcott, Adam Lallana. They’ve been highly regarded as one of the best talent producing clubs in the country for a long time. Couple that alongside the talent identification approach that brought in and sold on the likes of Virgil van Dijk, Sadio Mané, Morgan Scheiderlin and Victor Wanyama, there’s a lot for me to base a Football Manager save around.
The club seemed to lose its way for a few seasons though. The heady heights of a 6th place finish in the 2015/16 season were followed by narrowly avoiding relegation in the 2017/18 season. Big money signings haven’t worked out. Roughly £50m was spent on Guido Carrillo, Mario Lemina and Wesley Hoedt with little to no return on the pitch. That can’t happen again. Ralph Hasenhüttl arrived to steer the club to safety in the 2018/19 season, has steadied the ship and been well backed since, despite some heavy, heavy defeats. That’s where I now come in, sorry Ralph.
This season has seen another slight shift in the approach to the transfer market. When you look at it, it’s three-fold. One marquee signing (Adam Armstrong from Blackburn), affordable talent from abroad (Romain Perraud and Lyanco from Brest and Torino, respectively) and identifying younger players who could come in and either develop or make a difference immediately. Dynel Simeu and Thierry Small have promise, but Armando Broja and, perhaps my favourite player right now to watch, Tino Livramento, have made a big impression already. Livramento, at just £5m, will be one of the signings of the season and I’m sure if he develops at the same rate on the game Chelsea will have their eye on that £40m buyback clause they’ve got.
I did it on FM21 and I’ve done it again for FM22, the first window has been switched off. I think with FM coming out so long after the transfer window shuts now it just makes sense to do that and have the settled squads.
The Aims
Is it even an FM intro blog post without some aims?
Develop Talent
Is it possible to bring through your own youth players and play them in the Premier League anymore? Who knows but I’ll give it a good go. Developing talent is what Saints are built on. That could be our own youth players but it could also be younger players who come into the club and are given the platform to play.
Salisu is a prime example of that. He arrived for £10m, when he leaves he’ll be making us a fair bit more than that.
The board are expecting me to:
Develop players using the club’s youth system
Sign players under the age of 22 for the future
Sign players under the age of 23 for the first team
Not to sign players over the age of 28
The aims perfectly align there.
Identify Talent
I’m starting at a Premier League club, I’ve got a little bit of a headstart here when it comes to building out a strong scouting network with the finances available to me. I don’t just want to be going out and scouring the wonderkid lists to rinse and repeat that well trodden path on the game.
Would I have gone to the Championship and signed Adam Armstrong for £15m on previous versions of the game? Probably not. It’s those types of signings I want to be making. Signings that go against the usual grain. Not just signing anyone because they’ve got light greens all over the place and I get attracted by the shiny things. Players that fit, players that suit us and the type of club we are.
Play with Style
It looks as though FM wants people to move away from setting up a Gegenpressing tactic and winning all the time does it? Fat chance of that happening here. I love that high pressing, chaotic style of play and I’ll be looking to harness it in our approach.
The board are expecting me to play attacking and entertaining football so I’m not exactly going to be finally giving Park the Bus a go am I. I’ve set up some very standard looking 4-2-4, 4-1-2-3 and 4-2-3-1 formations to start me off and we’ll see where things go from there.
Win Some Stuff
It’s a fact that I’d happily pick a team, play through a save and never win anything on the game. The rewards for me are usually bringing through players or finding a gem and making loads of money on them. Let’s change that for FM22. The first objective is usually always “don’t get sacked”, and then I’ll look to actually win something with a club that hasn’t won a major trophy since the 1976 FA Cup.
I’ll take another FA Cup, maybe even the Europa Conference League. A Premier League win? Come back to me in a couple of seasons and I’ll tell you how I’m feeling on that.
Will Saints be my only save on FM22? Who knows. I’m not setting any goals, guidelines or targets for myself.
How often will I blog? Who knows. I’ve not quite settled into a new rhythm of free time yet so I wouldn’t like to say.
Wait, so this isn’t a beta save, you’re actually starting a save straight away in the English Premier League? No journey to get there or anything? Yeah, I am. Hopefully you’ll join me by following along.