Hey, remember me? I’m that guy that used to occasionally write some stuff about FM.
This could be a record for the longest time ever between the start and release of a blog post, as I started the draft on the 8th of February earlier this year. FM took a complete backseat from that point onwards, as becoming a father for the first time got closer and closer (the wee man is now six-months-old already, where did that time go?) and the brutal side of working in football took hold, as relegation became a reality.
From negatives to positives. We’ve settled into parenting life, bed times are nailed and there’s a window of FM time that seems to have appeared just in time for FM24 rolling around (if I don’t fall asleep on the sofa). Oh, and also, the Championship is way better than the Premier League! It’s acceptable to get promoted and not go up, right?
If anyone remembers, the image above sort of gives it away, I was managing FC Nordsjælland on FM23. I’ve taken advantage of one of the best new features to come to FM in a long time and loaded up that save onto FM24. It’s been great fun jogging my memory of who’s in my squad, what challenges we’re facing in the save and just generally trying to remember how to play FM again after the longest period I’ve not played the game since I got obsessed with CM01/02.
The last time I spoke to you in FMCoffeehouse blog form we’d just won the Superliga for the third time in a row, this time going unbeaten across the entire season. Since then, I’ve actually played three seasons of the save. Two and a half of those on FM23, and now finishing off that third season on FM24.
How have we done? I think the title of this post might give it away slightly.
Summary of 2025/26, 2026/27 and 2027/28
Our position as the best and most reputable side in the country has been well and truly cemented.
But how have I done this? How have I taken a side that hadn’t won the domestic league title since 2011/12 or even finished in the top three since 2017/18 and turned them into champions for a domestic record of six straight league titles and counting?
Settle on a tactical approach
It’s always been Gegenpress. I feel like I don’t know any other way of playing now, it’s the style I like to watch. I want my players in the faces of the opposition. Forcing them into mistakes to then quickly pounce on them. It’s all about speed, movement and energy.
However, while the style hasn’t changed, the formation has. In the first four seasons it was a simple 4-3-2-1 to showcase my talented wide players, Nuamah, Schjelderup, Walle Egeli and Tongya. I think that worked well with that quartet scoring 117 goals between them across those seasons. Those four were also sold for just under £50m. Setting up a tactic to show off that talent has certainly worked. The tactical tweak in my fifth season was also geared up to do that.
Aune Heggebø was one of my first signings at the club, arriving for £1.7m from Brann. He’d been fine up to the end of season four, he was the main striker in that 4-2-3-1 system, but as I already said, the focus was on the wide men. He scored 74 goals across those four seasons, an average of 18.5 goals a season. Since the switch to the below tactic, he’s scored 64 goals in two seasons, a 32-goal a season average. What was said tactic?
Apparently three at the back is in for FM24? Pfft. I’ve been using this for ages! It worked like a treat in my first season using it, as we went unbeaten domestically across the 2026/27 season. I haven’t changed a thing since loading up the save into the new game, and it’s still working like a treat. Some of the movement and assists from the wing-backs and midfield three is a sight to behold at times, it’s even better on FM24 than it was on FM23 which is a good advert for the new game I suppose.
Those assists usually get laid on a plate for my strikeforce. It certainly unlocked something in Heggebø, who wasn’t able to stop scoring. So much so that he left in January 2028. He’d scored so many goals in a short space of time that PSG snapped him up for £27m. The two forwards are set to swap positions constantly throughout the match, one of my favourite FM features. For me, this leaves the opposition defence in a state of confusion about who they’re up against. Would it be Heggebø’s power and aerial ability, or the speed and dribbling ability of the probable next big sale out of FCN, Abdoul Aziz Ouattara? The 20-year-old £250k signing from ASEC Mimosas scored 39 goals in his maiden season at the club, 25 of them in the league as he finished top scorer and we dominated domestically yet again.
Be smart in the market
It’s difficult not to be smart in the transfer market for human players on FM. This part shouldn’t come as a shock to you, but some aspects might be slightly different to how you play the game.
I’ve said smart in the context of my save, and the way I’ve been managing FCN. I haven’t been afraid to sell my star players, and I think that’s all about knowing your position in the world of football. FC Nordsjælland are a selling club in the real world, they’ve had a lot of plaudits over the past few seasons for players that have come through their ranks and moved on to bigger clubs. I’ve tried to manage the club on FM in a similar way. A snapshot of this is below:
Players bought - 39
Value of players bought - £48.5m
Players sold - 54
Value of players sold - £247m
I’ve gotten attached to some incredible players over the years on this game. The time you spend with them could have been 10+ seasons or half a season on loan. It took a lot for me to accept PSG’s big for Heggebø, but I knew it was right to based on our position as a club. There’s always a right time to let talent leave, and that’s been the case for the entirety of my time at the club so far (note, newgens starred so you don’t go hunting for them in your save…):
End of season one - Andreas Schjelderup and Adama Nagalo to Man Utd and Chelsea for a combined £16.5m
End of season four - Mohammed Diomandé and Ernest Nuamah to Arsenal and Aston Villa for a combined £29m
January of season five - Sindre Walle Egeli and Dinis Carrasco Júnior* to Leipzig and Aston Villa for a combined £23.75m
End of season five - Franco Tongya and Øyvind Haugen* to Monaco and Rennes for a combined £25.25m
January of season six - Lamine Camara and Aune Heggebø to FC Köln and PSG for a combined £63m
End of season six - Silviu Niculae*, Max Normann Williamsen and Jonas Jensen-Abbew to Everton, West Ham and Al Shabab for a combined £33.25m
I’m not even through the summer yet going into my seventh season, so those last departures may continue depending on offers. What I’m trying to stress is that I’ve lost a huge amount of key players over the six seasons, and yet, I’ve still been domestically dominant. A big part of that is down to how I’ve recruited.
It’s been a three pronged approach to transfers into the club. We’re FC Nordsjælland, one of the most reknowed football academies into the world, so it’s only been natural to bring through some of our homegrown talent. My current first team squad contains 13 homegrown players, but the challenge I’m setting myself is to increase this in the coming seasons. The biggest debate I have with myself is over bringing through the right number of players that have enough quality that it doesn’t detract from us being so superior to our Superliga opponents. They might not be the complete article, but if they’re good enough to even be a squad player then there’s a good chance they’ll make it to my first team squad. Ahmed Salah is a great example of this. He came through in my second season youth intake as a left-footed right winger. When I moved to the wing-back formation, he graduated to the first team squad and retrained as a left wing-back. He’s now made 46 appearances over the past two seasons and is here to stay in my first team. There’s some talent in my youth squads banging down the door to be more involved in the first team, so we’ll see if any of them make the breakthrough in the coming season.
I’m dominating domestically, but I also want to be the destination for players across the region to come and showcase their talent. Schjelderup inspired this one slightly, given he’s Norwegian but plyed his trade in Denmark. Heggebø being plucked from Brann started that trend in my time at the club and it’s only continued throughout the seasons. Edvard Tagseth joined from Rosenborg (making 141 appearances before subsequently leaving for Toulouse); Franco Tongya, although Italian, was playing for OB before he signed; Max Normann Williamsen joined from Kristiansund; the Icelandic international, Ísak Jóhannesson, left Djurgardens to come to FCN; in January of season six an old favourite joined me, Odin Thiago Holm had lost his way in Milan so returned to Scandinavia and joined the biggest club he could; and finally for now ahead of my seventh season at the club, Jonathan Asp-Jensen just became the first player I’ve nabbed from FC København. There’s been numerous other younger players we’ve identified and signed from the continuous scouting of the region to supplement the squad and my youth teams.
The final part of my recruitment is those signings from further afield. FC Nordsjælland is a place for everyone. Young talent knows when they sign for us, they’ve got the Right to Dream that they’ll go onto even bigger things eventually. It started in Africa, but has slowly grown to be a global network now. It all started with Nduka Junior, a £450k signing from Remo Stars in Nigeria. He then went on to leave for Fulham for £9m three seasons later and subsequently moved to Besiktas a season later for £20m. Amadou N’Diaye was a £200k signing from AS Pikine in Senegal, 153 appearances at left-back later he moved to Monaco for £14m. Lamine Camara’s departure was already moved above midway through season six, he was a £120k signing from Génération Foot in Senegal. Last season Alexander Montoya, a Costa Rican right wing-back, and Rodrigo Alfaro, a 19-year-old Uruguyan striker, joined the club for a combined £3.2m. Montoya had a stellar first season at the club and is now deemed a wonderkid. Alfaro had a slower introduction after joining in January but he should get more opportunities this coming season. They were both newgens, but the African players mentioned further up the paragraph were all real, so go hunting!
That mix of Danish, Scandinavian and worldwide talent will see us continue to consolidate our place at the top of the tree in the country.
Leaders are overrated, get lots of followers
I’m the captain here. My FC Nordsjælland players shouldn’t ever get themselves too comfy. Yes, some stay for multiple seasons, but almost as soon as you make it up to be classed as a “Team Leader” by the game, you’re now in danger of being moved on. Having a team of players that listen to me, and me only, rather than their colleagues is my aim of the game here. I do want them to run through brick walls for each other, but ultimately they’re doing that for me. It’s looking likely that I’ll be letting all three of my current leadership team leave the club this summer. Our collective squad Leadership average attribute of 8.88 before they leave is already the 10th worst in the league, just proving you don’t need leaders on the pitch to lead a team to glory.
Winning breeds happiness, of course. My players are also always happy because they’re playing for me and I run the club in a way that keeps them happy. I’ll talk them up when they deserve to be talked up, and I’ll rage at them when they aren’t performing to my expectations. The Club Atmosphere is currently excellent, with the players all pulling in the same direction. Perfect. That direction is towards more domestic domination under my management.
Invest in infrastructure
This one is a bit of a cheat considering I joined a club that had incredible facilities already. However, to be the best you need to stay on top of your game. Just look at Manchester United and a crumbling Old Trafford as an example of when it’s neglected.
The club are currently on the hunt for a site for a new stadium that’ll increase our capacity from around 15k to just under 23k, another step in the right direction. There’s still a long way to go to reach 38k Parken in Copenhagen, but we’re a few years behind their history and trajectory as a club.
Our training and youth facilities are both superb at the moment, so there’s potential to level them up to state of the art when the opportunity presents itself. Our junior coaching is maxed out at exceptional, while our youth recruitment could be improved still with it currently being excellent.
The work in the transfer market, our six straight Superliga wins and a good level of progression in Europe has seen the club coffers bolstered to over £250m in the bank. The money is there to make continual improvements to the infrastructure around the club.
Stay long enough
I feel like six seasons is maybe slightly more than your average FMer will do, but probably way, way less than some of the hardcore players. For me, you’re only able to create that domestic dynasty if you stay long enough. We’ve won six league titles in a row now, plus five domestic cups. Since the 1990s Brondby and Kobenhavn have only managed to win three titles in a row. I certainly count our success as domestic domination. We’re even up to 17th in the European Club Rankings as well, so there’s steady progress continentally too. All of these things help to cement our status.
I want more though. I don’t intend to leave and park this save any time soon. I’ve got plans to gradually overhaul the squad and introduce a majority homegrown first team squad. This feeds into my approach of the squad all conforming to how I want them to behave and perform. Think Sir Alex and the class of ‘92.
I’ve just rejected approaches from Bayern Munich and Liverpool as well. We’re dreaming bigger at the Right to Dream Park.
It feels good to be back writing a bit of FM and I’ve really enjoyed picking the save back up where I left off earlier this year.
Will domestic domination get boring? I don’t think so. Plus I think everything I’ve just gone through will help me keep my interest going in the save for a while yet. I’d love to get even more homegrown players through into the first team, as I said.
Cheers for reading, see you whenever. I’m on Slack loads still so if you want to join there’s a link below. It’s crazy it’s still going after all these years.
