Football Manager 2024

[Pyfish+]

10 hours ago, Tommy said:

I think this is the first time (that I can remember) that I had a player with a 10.0 rating at the end of a match. 

I've had it a couple of times in my current save but I think it's a bugged save because every single game it's stupidly high scoring so it's easier for players to grab 10.0 rating if they're banging in hattricks.

[MUFC]

Is this game any good on the ps5?

[MUFC]

[Tommy]

"Would have prefered to stay on the bench" after you sub in a player is a bit overused, isn't it?

[Dan+]

On 15/05/2024 at 20:53, Tommy said:

"Would have prefered to stay on the bench" after you sub in a player is a bit overused, isn't it?

Yeah it's a nonsense. Often from the same twats who moan I don't play them as well.

[Dave]

The interactions with players are pretty poor. You know if you've been promoted whatever you say about aims for next season will be wrong. Then there's the team leaders who say: "Play him or lose him! It's your job at stake!" when your 36 year old third choice Goalie is unhappy about playing time. 

If there was a stripped down version without this nonsense like FM Touch was I'd probably play that to remove some of these features that are not up to scratch.

[Smiley Culture]

Loads of time till the new one comes out, so plenty of time to get stuck into a new save. 

 

Académica de Coimbra

 

Back in 2012, Académica made it to the final of the Taça de Portugal for only the fifth time, for the first time since 1969 and had the chance to lift the trophy for the first time since 1939. They were facing Sporting, one of Portugal's "Big Three", on that day so it wouldn't have been particularly pessimistic to say that the 73 year wait for a trophy might go on a little longer, however, after four minutes Marinho scored what turned out to be the only goal of the game. Wild celebrations ensued and European Football for the following season was confirmed. Atletico Madrid, Viktoria Plzen and Hapoel Tel-Aviv were the opponents at the Group Stage and despite an impressive 2-0 win over Atleti, 'Briosa' finished third and failed to qualify for the knockout stages. Since that jubilant day back in 2012, life hasn't been too good to Portugal's oldest club. Relegation from the top flight in 2016 was soon followed by relegation to Portugal's third tier in 2022, finishing twenty points from safety. 

Portugal's oldest club languishing in the third tier, a weird league format and promotion system, a 29,744 all-seater stadium built for Euro 2004 and youth and training facilities ranked as "Great" and this is very much something I can get my teeth into for a bit of fun.

Portuguese Third Division - The third tier is split into two sections, a Northern and a Southern section, made up of ten teams each. You play the other nine teams in your region home and away and after eighteen games, the league splits. The top four from each region goes into the Championship Group and the bottom six from each section goes into their own Relegation Group, where you then play everyone in your group home and away. The top two in the Championship Group goes up automatically and third go into a play-off with a team from the bottom end of the second tier. Hopefully I won't find out but the bottom two of the Relegation Group goes down to the fourth tier of Portuguese Football.

 

---------------------------------------------

Finances are pretty good upon starting, which is not usually the case with some big clubs in lower leagues. £901,685 is in the bank, which is a nice surprise, and the projection predicts a profit come the end of the season, which is even better. Being a little greedy and seeing a potential profit, I couldn't help but arrange for a money spinner of a home friendly against FC Porto, to go with the home friendly against Braga, who are an affiliate club.

---------------------------------------------

The playing squad is reasonable for the level. It's definitely workable. There's very few real standout players but it should be enough to challenge at the top end of the table. Nwankwo Obiaro is a 31 year-old Nigerian international centre midfielder who will boss this level despite his age. Having played in his homeland, Spain, Italy, Romania and Greece before discovering a love of Sagres and Pastel de Nata, he'll lead this team. I've no plans to make any signings, the squad size and depth is sufficient for now and I don't think I need to do much. Lucas Henrique has left as quickly as he joined the club. He's a number 10 and I'm going to be playing a 4-4-2 and he simply didn't fit and he's returned to Brazil's third division, for a fee of £950 that may rise to £1,300 and has shaved £350 per week from the wage bill. 

We're predicted to finish 5th but that is a list of all the twenty teams at this level. I'm quietly confident we can do slightly better.

[Whiskey]

Academica have no place in the third tier, their a pretty solid second tier outfit in truth. Should be looking for promotion in season one and then seeing what comes beyond.

Obviously biased, but I do love Portugal for an FM save.

[Dan+]

Having an absolute belter of a save here in Czech Republic. I'll do a proper review of it. Could be on the cusp of something pretty outrageous.

[Dan+]

On 15/11/2024 at 03:50, Dan said:

Having an absolute belter of a save here in Czech Republic. I'll do a proper review of it. Could be on the cusp of something pretty outrageous.

I won't go into huge depth as there's just too much, but basically I've changed my method of playing and this is why I keep ending up in slightly odd countries. Of the European countries you can access without downloading, I had managed in 14 of them before this game was released, and to my memory had won 11 of the top divisions. A mate of mine had a bit of an idea while picking his own save, and I've sort of copied it and taken it to another level. Go on the wheel of names site, enter every country you have not managed in and let the wheel pick your team for you. This way you are guaranteed to manage in a new league.

So I'd landed on Sweden and Croatia before. I'd landed IK Brage of the 2nd tier of Sweden and Varazdin of the top tier of Croatia. It took me 4 and 3 years respectively to become champions. Brage was a really big achievement and we won it against the odds. Varazdin, well I thought it would take longer to overhaul Dinamo Zagreb, but I did also start with the sixth best team in the country. So I created a new rule for the next spin - you must avoid the top tier.

Czech Republic was the next country spun. In-fact, it was during this that I decided I would go for the lower leagues, because I landed on Slavia Prague and this would've made it a bit too easy. I landed a team called Vysocina Jihlava, predicted to finish 7th in the second tier.

There's quite a lot, so I'll do this in two parts.

---

Season One (2023/24 - Predicted to finish 7th in 2nd tier)

Predicted to maybe have an outside push of promotion but in real life had finished 13th out of 16. I take over a squad with a very bizarre imbalance, hardly any wide players in any position so I'm forced to improvise. We make numerous loan and free signings, make a brilliant start to life in the second tier if not a little chaotic, not losing until our thirteenth game of the season and scoring plenty. We hit a very rough patch mid-season and title favourites Brno take top spot from us, but we find a second wind, change my tactics from a chaotic 4-2-3-1 to a more solid 4-3-3 and we start winning again. We take the title, and automatic promotion with a game to spare. Success in our first year. I'm offered an interview by Mlada Boleslav who have just finished 4th in the top tier. I politely decline.

 

Season Two (2024/25 - Predicted to finish 16th in 1st tier)

We're the only team to get promoted. Czech Republic's system has 1-3 teams get promoted, where the teams who finish 2nd and 3rd get to face off the teams 2nd and 3rd bottom of the top tier in a two legged play-off, with obvious benefits to the top tier team it would turn out, so it was pretty crucial I'd topped the league. We'd been given a fairly generous wage budget that was in line with the teams towards the bottom of the league, but not actually far off them. With loads of out contract I went for nuclear overhaul and built a team almost entirely around my 4-3-3 from last season, thinking that playing expansively in the top tier would be suicide. What panned out was quite remarkable, as we won 6 of our first 7 games (four of them 1-0). We had arrived. We tail off somewhat but still collect huge scalp victories over the likes of Slavia Prague and Viktoria Plzen. We defy the odds and finish 6th in the league. The Czech top tier system splits into three where the top 6 battle for the title & Europe, the middle 4 have a play-off to get a final spot to have a pop at the team who finish 5th to get their European place, the bottom 6 fight to survive. We remarkably win 3 of our 5 games and end up taking 4th spot with the last kick of the season ahead of Hradec Kralove. Jihalava are going to Europe. I'm offered an interview by Viktoria Plzen. I take the interview, am offered the job. I massively ponder over it. This would be a substantial step up while not being a complete cheat, and there's still a bit of a job to overhaul the Prague teams. But I've come so far so quickly that I decide to stick with Jihlava.

 

Season Three (2025/26 - Predicted to finish 13th in 1st tier & in Europa Conference League 2nd round qualifying)

We make no mistake in our European debut, despatching Lithuanian Suduva Marijampole 7-1 on aggregate, but we're given a nasty tie in the third qualifying round and are knocked out by Shakhtar Donetsk who beat us 2-0 in both games. It's annoying that we haven't really managed to get anything to show for our effort bar the memories of losing to a bit of a falling heavyweight, and our finances weren't really given much of a lift by this either (Jihlava's support is genuinely horrendous). We have a poorer season in the league, but we pick up a lot towards the end and bizarrely finish 4th in the regular season despite a lesser points tally than the one I got the year before that landed me 6th place. We develop an uncanny knack of scoring late goals - netting eight decisive goals in injury time in just thirty league games. We have a couple of nice looking youngsters coming through and we move back to a slightly more expansive style of play despite some of our limitations, and we don't really pay a price for it. We grow into the season and end up repeating the 4th placed finish meaning it's another crack at the Conference League. Our finances are still pretty shit and we don't have a load in terms of sellable assets. 

 

Season Four (2026/27 - Predicted to finish 8th in 1st tier & in Europa Conference League 2nd round qualifying)

It's gone without saying we have massively overachieved already, but at some point this needs to be converted somehow into either money or trophies. Naturally I'd prefer trophies, but money will allow us to sustain this. Our robust, physical pressing game could give anybody in this league a game and I think my strength lies in knowing how to recruit a really balanced team. You want centre halves who play out from the back, I want centre halves who win everything in the air. We're a pain of a team, a dirty side. Teams don't like facing us. We have an identity and we run with it.

I sell star player Atakan Akkaynak to Huesca for a club record £675k. Less than he's truly worth, but we are paupers and we just needed the money. My policy of signing any free agent youngster with a 5 star potential pays dividends as Brazilian right back Caio is sold to Slavia Prague for £750k without even making a senior appearance (and there's no way he's good enough for them either). We're still largely reliant on free transfers although break our transfer record to sign attacking left back Derik for £180k - a player I had success with at Varazdin. We beat Akranes of Iceland in the 2nd round despite a scare in the away game. We beat Hearts 2-0 at home and scrape through with a 2-1 loss in Edinburgh, meaning we just have the one opposition between ourselves and a Conference League group stage which would make a big financial difference to us. We defy the odds by taking Belgian Standard Liege to penalties, but we lose and the dream is over for another year.

We become draw specialists in the league and this time can only manage a 7th placed finish in the regular season. Meaning Europe wasn't dead, but we're going to have to do it the hard way. But people had to learn to not write off the pesky Jihlava by this point. We take Slovan Liberec apart in the semis and then absolutely slaughter Slovacko 6-1 at home, meaning I can rest everybody for the 2nd leg (which we lose 3-1). It's our old friends Hradec Kralove, we go away there in a one off game knowing a win steals their European place. We take the piss and beat them 1-4. Even when we flunk it, we still take that European place. We burgle another £1.1mil out of Slavia Prague for a genuinely rubbish Bolivian who the game seems to rate and all of a sudden we should be able to start buying some better players. Four seasons and so far we've done better than expected in basically all of them. But we'll come back to the story a bit later.

[RandoEFC+]

@Dan I don't know if people do it anymore but I feel like you'd enjoy this.

On one of the proper old FM games, I think it was 2017, someone in the community released a downloadable database which made basically every league in world football playable including lower leagues in England and some other weird tournaments that run across multiple countries like the Baltic States or the Gulf States.

I started a career once which I posted on the old forum using that database. I started off in Sao Tome & Principe which I'd picked at random and basically did a journeyman save that took me through Africa working my way up to leagues with a higher reputation. If I remember correctly I went from Sao Tome to Burkina Faso, Zambia and then Algeria where I managed to win a continental competition. My save fizzled out a bit when I moved to Peru but I started another one up a couple of years ago where I started in Nepal, then to the Thai Second Division, got promoted, moved to a bigger job, won the Thai League a couple of times ahead of Buriram Utd who had done 5 in a row before me, and then moved to China before getting distracted.

Those saved were massively fun. The only annoying thing is if you start in too much of a backwater league you have to deal with every player being non-contract and other teams trying to pinch them outside of the transfer window unless you keep offering them new contracts. Still would recommend seeing if there's a database download like that for the newer games.

[Dan+]

6 hours ago, RandoEFC said:

@Dan I don't know if people do it anymore but I feel like you'd enjoy this.

On one of the proper old FM games, I think it was 2017, someone in the community released a downloadable database which made basically every league in world football playable including lower leagues in England and some other weird tournaments that run across multiple countries like the Baltic States or the Gulf States.

I started a career once which I posted on the old forum using that database. I started off in Sao Tome & Principe which I'd picked at random and basically did a journeyman save that took me through Africa working my way up to leagues with a higher reputation. If I remember correctly I went from Sao Tome to Burkina Faso, Zambia and then Algeria where I managed to win a continental competition. My save fizzled out a bit when I moved to Peru but I started another one up a couple of years ago where I started in Nepal, then to the Thai Second Division, got promoted, moved to a bigger job, won the Thai League a couple of times ahead of Buriram Utd who had done 5 in a row before me, and then moved to China before getting distracted.

Those saved were massively fun. The only annoying thing is if you start in too much of a backwater league you have to deal with every player being non-contract and other teams trying to pinch them outside of the transfer window unless you keep offering them new contracts. Still would recommend seeing if there's a database download like that for the newer games.

I remember reading about that - something I'd look into for sure, although at the minute I do think I will just chip through Europe and maybe some leagues outside of it before I get onto that. To win each one in Europe would take me years anyway so it just keeps the game a bit interesting.

I actually think in terms of a youtube series it would be really good if you combined this with actually going and watching said team.

[Dan+]

On 03/12/2024 at 05:31, Dan said:

I won't go into huge depth as there's just too much, but basically I've changed my method of playing and this is why I keep ending up in slightly odd countries. Of the European countries you can access without downloading, I had managed in 14 of them before this game was released, and to my memory had won 11 of the top divisions. A mate of mine had a bit of an idea while picking his own save, and I've sort of copied it and taken it to another level. Go on the wheel of names site, enter every country you have not managed in and let the wheel pick your team for you. This way you are guaranteed to manage in a new league.

So I'd landed on Sweden and Croatia before. I'd landed IK Brage of the 2nd tier of Sweden and Varazdin of the top tier of Croatia. It took me 4 and 3 years respectively to become champions. Brage was a really big achievement and we won it against the odds. Varazdin, well I thought it would take longer to overhaul Dinamo Zagreb, but I did also start with the sixth best team in the country. So I created a new rule for the next spin - you must avoid the top tier.

Czech Republic was the next country spun. In-fact, it was during this that I decided I would go for the lower leagues, because I landed on Slavia Prague and this would've made it a bit too easy. I landed a team called Vysocina Jihlava, predicted to finish 7th in the second tier.

There's quite a lot, so I'll do this in two parts.

---

Season One (2023/24 - Predicted to finish 7th in 2nd tier)

Predicted to maybe have an outside push of promotion but in real life had finished 13th out of 16. I take over a squad with a very bizarre imbalance, hardly any wide players in any position so I'm forced to improvise. We make numerous loan and free signings, make a brilliant start to life in the second tier if not a little chaotic, not losing until our thirteenth game of the season and scoring plenty. We hit a very rough patch mid-season and title favourites Brno take top spot from us, but we find a second wind, change my tactics from a chaotic 4-2-3-1 to a more solid 4-3-3 and we start winning again. We take the title, and automatic promotion with a game to spare. Success in our first year. I'm offered an interview by Mlada Boleslav who have just finished 4th in the top tier. I politely decline.

 

Season Two (2024/25 - Predicted to finish 16th in 1st tier)

We're the only team to get promoted. Czech Republic's system has 1-3 teams get promoted, where the teams who finish 2nd and 3rd get to face off the teams 2nd and 3rd bottom of the top tier in a two legged play-off, with obvious benefits to the top tier team it would turn out, so it was pretty crucial I'd topped the league. We'd been given a fairly generous wage budget that was in line with the teams towards the bottom of the league, but not actually far off them. With loads of out contract I went for nuclear overhaul and built a team almost entirely around my 4-3-3 from last season, thinking that playing expansively in the top tier would be suicide. What panned out was quite remarkable, as we won 6 of our first 7 games (four of them 1-0). We had arrived. We tail off somewhat but still collect huge scalp victories over the likes of Slavia Prague and Viktoria Plzen. We defy the odds and finish 6th in the league. The Czech top tier system splits into three where the top 6 battle for the title & Europe, the middle 4 have a play-off to get a final spot to have a pop at the team who finish 5th to get their European place, the bottom 6 fight to survive. We remarkably win 3 of our 5 games and end up taking 4th spot with the last kick of the season ahead of Hradec Kralove. Jihalava are going to Europe. I'm offered an interview by Viktoria Plzen. I take the interview, am offered the job. I massively ponder over it. This would be a substantial step up while not being a complete cheat, and there's still a bit of a job to overhaul the Prague teams. But I've come so far so quickly that I decide to stick with Jihlava.

 

Season Three (2025/26 - Predicted to finish 13th in 1st tier & in Europa Conference League 2nd round qualifying)

We make no mistake in our European debut, despatching Lithuanian Suduva Marijampole 7-1 on aggregate, but we're given a nasty tie in the third qualifying round and are knocked out by Shakhtar Donetsk who beat us 2-0 in both games. It's annoying that we haven't really managed to get anything to show for our effort bar the memories of losing to a bit of a falling heavyweight, and our finances weren't really given much of a lift by this either (Jihlava's support is genuinely horrendous). We have a poorer season in the league, but we pick up a lot towards the end and bizarrely finish 4th in the regular season despite a lesser points tally than the one I got the year before that landed me 6th place. We develop an uncanny knack of scoring late goals - netting eight decisive goals in injury time in just thirty league games. We have a couple of nice looking youngsters coming through and we move back to a slightly more expansive style of play despite some of our limitations, and we don't really pay a price for it. We grow into the season and end up repeating the 4th placed finish meaning it's another crack at the Conference League. Our finances are still pretty shit and we don't have a load in terms of sellable assets. 

 

Season Four (2026/27 - Predicted to finish 8th in 1st tier & in Europa Conference League 2nd round qualifying)

It's gone without saying we have massively overachieved already, but at some point this needs to be converted somehow into either money or trophies. Naturally I'd prefer trophies, but money will allow us to sustain this. Our robust, physical pressing game could give anybody in this league a game and I think my strength lies in knowing how to recruit a really balanced team. You want centre halves who play out from the back, I want centre halves who win everything in the air. We're a pain of a team, a dirty side. Teams don't like facing us. We have an identity and we run with it.

I sell star player Atakan Akkaynak to Huesca for a club record £675k. Less than he's truly worth, but we are paupers and we just needed the money. My policy of signing any free agent youngster with a 5 star potential pays dividends as Brazilian right back Caio is sold to Slavia Prague for £750k without even making a senior appearance (and there's no way he's good enough for them either). We're still largely reliant on free transfers although break our transfer record to sign attacking left back Derik for £180k - a player I had success with at Varazdin. We beat Akranes of Iceland in the 2nd round despite a scare in the away game. We beat Hearts 2-0 at home and scrape through with a 2-1 loss in Edinburgh, meaning we just have the one opposition between ourselves and a Conference League group stage which would make a big financial difference to us. We defy the odds by taking Belgian Standard Liege to penalties, but we lose and the dream is over for another year.

We become draw specialists in the league and this time can only manage a 7th placed finish in the regular season. Meaning Europe wasn't dead, but we're going to have to do it the hard way. But people had to learn to not write off the pesky Jihlava by this point. We take Slovan Liberec apart in the semis and then absolutely slaughter Slovacko 6-1 at home, meaning I can rest everybody for the 2nd leg (which we lose 3-1). It's our old friends Hradec Kralove, we go away there in a one off game knowing a win steals their European place. We take the piss and beat them 1-4. Even when we flunk it, we still take that European place. We burgle another £1.1mil out of Slavia Prague for a genuinely rubbish Bolivian who the game seems to rate and all of a sudden we should be able to start buying some better players. Four seasons and so far we've done better than expected in basically all of them. But we'll come back to the story a bit later.

Part two...

Season Five (2027/28 - Predicted to finish 6th in 1st tier & in Europa Conference League 2nd round qualifying)

What was notable about last season is that we started scoring an absolute hatful of goals once I'd changed system to 4-4-2, so the recruitment in the summer was built around this. I'd loaded the squad so we had 5 good-average strikers at this level with the pick of the bunch being somebody who came through the academy called Jan Svejda - basically the perfect striker for the way I try and play. We were handed £3mil for winger Yassine Benrahou which came as a surprise to me and allowed us again to spend more ourselves.

We start superbly in the league and spend a lot of it looking like real title challengers, but we do drop off towards the end of the season and finish 2nd - quite a way off Slavia Prague who absolutely piss it. We finish 2nd overall too meaning we get a crack at the Champions League preliminaries next season. We score 91 goals in our 35 games and break the record for the highest points tally achieved by a team that didn't win the league, which sums up how good a season we'd had.

As for Europe, we finally crack it and get into the group stage of the Conference League, following wins over Dinamo Minsk, Brondby and then a thriller over Basel. We take the goalscoring into Europe too by beating Aberdeen 4-0, Malmo 0-4, LASK Linz 2-5 and Puskas Akademia 7-3. We looked very at home in Europe and finished 5th overall, meaning we were into the last 16 where we faced Hajduk Split. We'd beaten them in the league phase 0-2 albeit were pretty fortunate. We win 1-3 in Croatia and then spoil a terrible game at home with a 0-0 draw, meaning we were into the quarter finals. This was a step too far however as we fell to OGC Nice - a totally understandable loss but it was only 5-3 on aggregate, so we weren't being hammered. This was a season that made me think something of note was coming soon. We lose the Czech cup final to Slavia on penalties, which was gutting, though it's strange how little emphasis the clubs seem to put on it.

 

Season Six (2028/29 - Predicted to finish 4th in 1st tier & in Champions League 2nd round qualifying)

What we knew about Europe this year was that just one win in the play-offs and we were at worst going to be in a group stage, and we got it by beating Kobenhavn 3-1 following a 0-0 draw in Denmark. We'd lost 1-4 to them in the conference league last season, so this was a good feeling. We draw 1-1 at Genk but then lose the home leg 0-1, meaning we just fall straight to the Europa League league phase. I'm happy enough with this. We're not really ready for the Champions League, although qualifying wouldn't have been a bad thing either.

We've got a strong team for this level all over the pitch now and we absolutely should be competing towards the top. Still a bit off the Prague teams, but enough to think we have a chance of winning the league. We've hit a point where we're spending decent money on prospect signings now, with two arriving for £600k each from the Slovakian league. We're not quite the attacking force of last season and I have started mixing the 4-4-2 up with a defensive 4-3-3 not dissimilar to what I was playing when we first got promoted, but we're getting the results and dropping very few points against anybody other than the rest of the top six. What's really infuriating is that it seems if Slavia Prague aren't unstoppable, then Sparta Prague are. We finish 2nd yet again, a very poor ending to the season with just 1 win from our final 8 games meaning we didn't even get to the points tally of a year ago. The crucial turn was that Dortmund signed my striker Jan Svejda for a release clause of £6.25mil. We spent a club record £2mil on Serbian Tomas Beno as a replacement, but he wasn't really looking capable of filling his boots yet.

The real story was in Europe though. We pick up scalp wins over Utrecht & Anderlecht in the group stage and a fantastic 3-3 draw away at Fiorentina in the league phase, meaning we finish 14th and go into the round of 24 knockouts where we face Athletic Club de Bilbao. The away game is similar to the Nice away game where we take a surprise early lead, get absolutely battered for most of the game and then fall to a 2-1 loss at the end. I'm impressed with our effort against a vastly superior side. I bring them back to Brno (we can't even play at home) and we turn in the most insane performance out of the blue, two wondergoals and a heroic defensive display to give us what I'd say is up there with my least likely win. We win 3-1 and progress to the last sixteen.

Quite remarkably though, we play Genk again, and it goes exactly the same way - a 1-1 draw in the first leg with a 1-0 loss in the second. Quite a comedown. It is again hard to get too angry with the team, and you have to remember we've beaten Bilbao in the post Svejda era, but this game was a sign of things to come for the rest of this season. The Czech Cup was garbage again - we went out to a 2nd tier side in the first game, which was really, really poor. The Svejda sale does give us money to spend though.

 

Season Seven (2029/30 - Predicted to finish 3rd in 1st tier & in Champions League 2nd round qualifying)

We start the season with the same sketchy form that we finish last season with, losing two of our first four games prompting me to finally bin the 4-4-2 which it was apparent had become a bit sussed, and relied that bit too much on Svejda's brilliance. We bring in a new goalkeeper on a free from Zilina as an upgrade and Austrian striker Nicolas Binder, also on a free, to carry the workload as Beno had really struggled. We knock Rangers out of the second round of qualifying which is a sign of how far we've come again, 1-1 away, 3-1 win at home. But Braga beat us in the next round and it's a repeat of last year - Europa League league phase. I have hit a point where I just want the league title above all now, so while Europe isn't something I'll totally bin off, I will prioritise the league.

The system change to a deep lying 4-2-3-1 seems to bring the best out of virtually everybody. There's no facet of our game that is done badly. We're the best defensively I can remember and we're always creating chances, with pretty much any striker playing scoring at a rate of nearly a goal a game. Binder isn't Svejda, but he's the next best thing. We suffer a surprising loss to Olimpia Ljubljana in the Europa League but recover it with wins over Rangers (again), Astana & Besiktas. We lose to Braga (again) & Chelsea (Chelsea need an injury time goal to beat us) while drawing at APOEL. We place 17th in the Europa League despite making changes for multiple games.

While I thought the league looked very unlikely from the early results where it's very unforgiving, Slavia/Sparta are hitting 85 points from 35 games a year now so you really cannot get away with losing to sides like Prostejov. Remarkably though, the system change is even more effective than the last and we produce what turns into a record breaking winning run for the Czech league - winning 17 games in a row. Even despite this, we're only slightly above Sparta Prague. This really isn't a forgiving league.

While I said my focus was on the league above Europe, we are quite a bit better than our domestic opposition now and we're often rotating players against them ahead of European games. Remarkably - we run into Bilbao again in the same round, although we're at home first this time. We get a red card in the first half, defend for our lives and then against all odds we nick the winner in injury time. We're obviously no mugs now, but I really did think after the red we were done for. We go to a packed San Mames with our contingent of 100 away fans (I cannot understand how our support is still this bad) and once again defend for our lives, they hit the post twice in injury time but lightning has struck twice, we hold on for a 0-0, a 1-0 win on aggregate and Jihlava have knocked out Bilbao.

We play Sturm Graz in the round of 16 which was one of the kinder ties we could've had, but honestly, we're fortunate to draw at home to them and even more fortunate to beat them 1-2 away. We're into the quarters but that was a real scare. Genk vibes without the loss. We'll face Borussia Monchengladbach.

Our league form had started to tail off just a little, but it's virtually impossible for it not to when you win 17 straight. We've gone too far in Europe to not take it seriously, but Sparta Prague are on our tails in the league. I'm once again fearful of the scenario where we do well in everything without winning anything. We've even made the cup final again too.

We lose the home leg 0-1 to Gladbach, a pretty flat game but the gulf in quality shone through. They're struggling in the Bundesliga, objectively a poorer team than Bilbao so it's again a little disappointing, but I understand. What then pans out is the most insane turnaround I've seen as we go to Germany and beat them 2-5. We absolutely rip them apart over and over again and book our place in the Europa League semi finals! We will be back to the Basque country to face Real Sociedad. It was this game that prompted the post about being on the verge of something ridiculous. AC Milan v Chelsea is the other semi. I wouldn't say it's likely, but you can't write us off at this point.

We beat Banik Ostrava 2-1 in a pretty dour cup final and claim our first ever major domestic silverware. I'm relieved that no matter how this pans out, we'll not end trophyless.

Sociedad does prove to be the end of the line. We're largely the better team at home but a late Oyarzabal goal gives them a draw, before another absolutely great effort away from home, 26% possession but the higher xG. We lose the game 2-1 fairly late on. Real Sociedad lose the final 4-1 to Chelsea. It's probably pound for pound the best European run I've had - with a team that should be absolutely nowhere. But we have a balanced team, a strong system and teams don't really know how to handle our style.

This frees us up for a clear run in the Championship group and finally, we get that league title following a 5-0 win over Ostrava. 88 points doing the trick. A league and cup double secured. I've done all I really can here I think. I move onto Inter in the summer but honestly it just isn't the same. I will forever be a smaller club manager. So my next wheel spin is coming soon - this will probably take me through to FM25.

So I have league titles now in Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, England, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain & Sweden.

I have managed in Hungary, Russia, Switzerland & Turkey without landing the league title. I'm going to now add Hungary, Switzerland & Turkey back onto my list of potential options because I need the titles. I'm going to leave Russia for now because their teams are banned from Europe.

So I will next be heading to either Austria, Belarus, Bulgaria, Denmark, Finland, Gibraltar, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Latvia, Northern Ireland, Romania, Scotland (genuinely never done it), Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine or Wales.

I will spin the wheel three times and I'll pick my favourite.

[Pyfish+]

Currently just sacked off my annual Grimsby save. Finished it after 7 seasons and we were mid-table Championshp. Lost out in the play-offs the season before and just couldn't face another Championship season.

Just started a new one with Como - I never start in the top league of a country usually so something different for me.

[Dan+]

We're heading to Austria!

[Dan+]

 

 

We land at SV Lafnitz of the Austrian 2.Liga.

 

 

 

I was given three options by myself. They ended up being Austria, Belarus and Bulgaria. I've gone for Austria because I think it's probably the strongest league I'm yet to manage in and it's one I've fancied a while - but my underlying fear is it may just be a bit similar to Czech Republic. We'll see though.

As you can see, Lafnitz are a historical minnow who have only in very recent years risen to the second tier. This is their strongest period yet as a club. I would say they're easily the smallest club I could've landed on in the top two tiers of Austria. But the side isn't terrible - predicted around a midtable finish.

Austria is going to be very tough and I think it might well take me through to FM25 (if it ever comes out). RB Salzburg have complete dominance of the league and the best side by an absolute mile, to the extent that their reserve team, Liefering, are likely to win the 2nd tier too (but can't go up). Overthrowing them is going to be a mammoth ask with a club like this. But we did it at Brage, we did it at Varazdin, we did it at Jihlava. We will go again. This is probably tougher than any of those however.

The 2nd tier of Austria holds 16 teams with just one promotion spot - 1st (obviously) but you can go up in 2nd if it's behind Liefering, or 3rd if it's behind Liefering and Sturm Graz II (unlikely). I think it may be a bit beyond us this year. This is one of those leagues where there is very little time on contracts and I fully envisage an almost nuclear overhaul of my squad within a years time, regardless of division. We do have a couple of players I like the look of though - the standout being Andre Leipold, a young winger I went for at Varazdin (but missed out on).

The next leg of this silly journey commences.