In steam it’s under tools, not games from memory
Gaming Football Manager 2020 (PC, Mac, Switch, Android, iOS, Stadia)
- Thread starter FC Ronaldo
- Start date
In steam it’s under tools, not games from memory
Wasn't expecting this to be free on Epic Games Store, nice surprise.
They need to fix dumb shit like:
- Getting quoted a ridiculous price like 100m for a player and then seeing them move to another club for 30m.
- Your player wanting a wage rise and you not giving it and then them moving to another club for less wages.
- Getting quoted a ridiculous price like 100m for a player and then seeing them move to another club for 30m.
- Your player wanting a wage rise and you not giving it and then them moving to another club for less wages.
Reading some of the career stories on this thread led me to download FM20 whilst it was on sale recently (the first one which I’ve played since being pretty hooked on it between FM06 and FM13), so I thought I should contribute.
2019/20 season:
I’ve started a game with Falkirk, who start in League 1 in Scotland. They were only relegated the season before last, so the expectation was to achieve promotion and the bookies had us as promotion favourites. As a result, I only made minimal additions to the squad and hoped that would be enough to win the league - the only transfer fee spent was £68k on Chris McKee, a highly-rated 17 year old striker from Rangers. Unfortunately, McKee turned out to be not quite ready for first team football and the ageing squad suffered a number of irritating recurring injuries as we finished second in the league. We went on to lose narrowly in the playoff semi-final against Clyde.
2020/21 season:
In my first full summer, I shifted a few of the older players and high earners, replacing them with 12 new faces, a combination of loans and free transfers. Some of the loan incomings were really great additions and certainly too good to be playing in League 1. The best of the bunch were Saul Shotton (ball-playing CB on loan from West Brom) and Yan Dhanda (a goal-scoring #10 on loan from Swansea), whilst Chris McKee started to show exactly why he was highly rated. He managed 12 goals plus 5 assists on our way to winning the league with a game to spare, ahead of second placed Dundee.
2021/22 season:
Ahead of the third season, I was pretty confident in the squad which had won promotion, so renewed all of the existing loan deals and mostly only added young, high-potential players identified by my scouts. In real life, Falkirk previously had a well-renowned youth academy and a good number of professionals playing in Scotland had come through the system, however they closed it down a few years ago in order to cut costs. In FM, the club’s board like to see players signed under the age of 23 with potential to play for the first team, as well as avoiding signing players aged 30 or over - requirements with which I am more than happy to comply.
The only transfer fee which I spent during this summer window was £60k on Fabio Lopes, a 19 year old Portuguese striker from Dundee. Although I had won the league and Dundee finished second, Lopes was the league’s top scorer by some distance and he appeared to be on an upward trajectory, so I felt that he was worth the cash. It turned out to be a great piece of business, as Lopes scored 22 goals in 29 league games (25 goals in 39 apps, in all comps), leading us to another league title and back-to-back promotions!
Unfortunately for Chris McKee, the form of Lopes meant that he was dropped to the bench most weeks, as the two teenagers competed for the single starting spot in a 4-2-3-1 formation. In the January transfer window, Hibs came in with an offer of around £100k for McKee and his agent informed me that the player might become unsettled if he wasn’t allowed to speak to them. I made a counter-proposal to Hibs’ offer and they came back with a structured deal of around £200k up front, a further £175k in instalments, plus £100k if McKee made a single international appearance (he’s from Northern Ireland, so the clause seemed somewhat likely to be triggered). I accepted the offer and during the next season, McKee was called up to his first international squad, triggering the bonus payment and adding to an already very tidy profit for the club.
The other big positives of the season were our impressive cup runs. We dominated the match and were unfortunate to lose 1-0 to Inverness Caley Thistle in the Challenge Cup Final and managed to reach the quarter finals of the Scottish Cup, where we lost 1-0 away to Aberdeen. In the previous round, we were drawn against Rangers and managed a credible 0-0 draw at home and then scored to take a late 2-1 lead in the replay at Ibrox, after Timothy Fosu-Mensah had been sent off for the hosts. Frustratingly, my usually reliable goalkeeper, Robbie Mutch, dropped a howler in the last minute to allow Isaac Success to equalise for Rangers, but we managed to win the penalty shootout to secure a famous victory.
2022/23 season:
In truth, I felt that we had perhaps reached the Scottish Premier League one season too early and that the squad may struggle to cope with the increase in quality of opposition. I was given a decent transfer budget of around £800k and around £10k per week in additional wage budget - huge sums compared to what I had worked with to date, but perhaps not sufficient to improve each area of the squad which needed upgrading. As such, I renewed most of the same loan deals again - the squad had been dominant in winning the league and many of those loan players were young, so should hopefully be improving and perhaps be enough for us to avoid relegation.
However, two vital additions were made to the squad with the signing of Teden Mengi on a free transfer from United (wow!) and Octavio Gomes, a 19-year old regen striker on loan from AC Milan. Gomes had been brought in on loan from Sporting Lisbon during the previous January window to take Chris McKee’s vacated spot on the bench, but then went on to score 6 goals in 11 games. I was unable to renew his loan after Milan spent £12m to sign him on a permanent deal, but I thought it was worth trying my luck to then immediately sign him on loan again from Milan. Milan accepted the offer and Gomes said that he had enjoyed his previous loan spell, so the deal was concluded quickly.
The season got off to a bad start, although the fixtures weren’t kind to us. We started with a disappointing 3-1 loss away at Hearts, followed by another draw with Rangers (unbeaten in three matches against Gerrard’s men at this point, so I think we might be their bogey team!). However, any positives which could be taken from holding one of the big teams to a draw were promptly negated in the next game, as a Diogo Dalot-inspired Celtic destroyed us 5-0 away from home - Eric Dier and Harry Winks were amongst the scorers too. Celtic seem to do great business in buying cheap European talent and then flipping them on to English clubs for a large profit after a season or two, a bit like real life I guess, so they have plenty of money and a strong squad. The heavy loss against Celtic was compounded by an agonising 3-2 loss at home against Hamilton, then a 1-0 defeat away at St Johnstone, leaving us bottom of the table with only 1 point from our opening 5 matches. It was looking likely to be a long and difficult season.
In response, I ripped-up my tactics based on the advice of my coaches, changing from our tried and tested 4-2-3-1 which had worked in the lower leagues, but now seemed to be leaking goals and not creating many chances for our attackers either. The coaches advised a vertical tiki-taka approach with a 5-2–1-2 formation, making the most of our strong wing backs, although also making the squad’s handful of wingers pretty much redundant. Given the terrible results so far, it seemed worth a shot - and it worked! We went unbeaten in the next 7 league games, winning 4 of them and conceding only 2 goals in the process.
Right now, we are in the mid-season break for the winter World Cup in Qatar (I initially looked at the large gap in my upcoming fixtures and thought the game had broken!) and we’re sitting 6th place in the league. I’m hopeful that this new system will be enough for us to stay up, but it will be put to the test immediately after the restart, with matches against Celtic then Rangers back-to-back. Also, at the end of this season, several of my players’ contracts are expiring and I know most of them are not really good enough for this level, so it’s likely to be an extremely busy summer of both incoming and outgoing transfers. It’ll be vital to replace the departing players with quality, in order to push on and hopefully cement our place in the top division.
On a side note, the 2022 World Cup final was a 0-0 draw between Denmark and Turkey, with Turkey going on to win a penalty shootout. I suspect there were some decent odds on that outcome at the start of the tournament…
If people are interested, I’ll provide an update at the end of the season.
2019/20 season:
I’ve started a game with Falkirk, who start in League 1 in Scotland. They were only relegated the season before last, so the expectation was to achieve promotion and the bookies had us as promotion favourites. As a result, I only made minimal additions to the squad and hoped that would be enough to win the league - the only transfer fee spent was £68k on Chris McKee, a highly-rated 17 year old striker from Rangers. Unfortunately, McKee turned out to be not quite ready for first team football and the ageing squad suffered a number of irritating recurring injuries as we finished second in the league. We went on to lose narrowly in the playoff semi-final against Clyde.
2020/21 season:
In my first full summer, I shifted a few of the older players and high earners, replacing them with 12 new faces, a combination of loans and free transfers. Some of the loan incomings were really great additions and certainly too good to be playing in League 1. The best of the bunch were Saul Shotton (ball-playing CB on loan from West Brom) and Yan Dhanda (a goal-scoring #10 on loan from Swansea), whilst Chris McKee started to show exactly why he was highly rated. He managed 12 goals plus 5 assists on our way to winning the league with a game to spare, ahead of second placed Dundee.
2021/22 season:
Ahead of the third season, I was pretty confident in the squad which had won promotion, so renewed all of the existing loan deals and mostly only added young, high-potential players identified by my scouts. In real life, Falkirk previously had a well-renowned youth academy and a good number of professionals playing in Scotland had come through the system, however they closed it down a few years ago in order to cut costs. In FM, the club’s board like to see players signed under the age of 23 with potential to play for the first team, as well as avoiding signing players aged 30 or over - requirements with which I am more than happy to comply.
The only transfer fee which I spent during this summer window was £60k on Fabio Lopes, a 19 year old Portuguese striker from Dundee. Although I had won the league and Dundee finished second, Lopes was the league’s top scorer by some distance and he appeared to be on an upward trajectory, so I felt that he was worth the cash. It turned out to be a great piece of business, as Lopes scored 22 goals in 29 league games (25 goals in 39 apps, in all comps), leading us to another league title and back-to-back promotions!
Unfortunately for Chris McKee, the form of Lopes meant that he was dropped to the bench most weeks, as the two teenagers competed for the single starting spot in a 4-2-3-1 formation. In the January transfer window, Hibs came in with an offer of around £100k for McKee and his agent informed me that the player might become unsettled if he wasn’t allowed to speak to them. I made a counter-proposal to Hibs’ offer and they came back with a structured deal of around £200k up front, a further £175k in instalments, plus £100k if McKee made a single international appearance (he’s from Northern Ireland, so the clause seemed somewhat likely to be triggered). I accepted the offer and during the next season, McKee was called up to his first international squad, triggering the bonus payment and adding to an already very tidy profit for the club.
The other big positives of the season were our impressive cup runs. We dominated the match and were unfortunate to lose 1-0 to Inverness Caley Thistle in the Challenge Cup Final and managed to reach the quarter finals of the Scottish Cup, where we lost 1-0 away to Aberdeen. In the previous round, we were drawn against Rangers and managed a credible 0-0 draw at home and then scored to take a late 2-1 lead in the replay at Ibrox, after Timothy Fosu-Mensah had been sent off for the hosts. Frustratingly, my usually reliable goalkeeper, Robbie Mutch, dropped a howler in the last minute to allow Isaac Success to equalise for Rangers, but we managed to win the penalty shootout to secure a famous victory.
2022/23 season:
In truth, I felt that we had perhaps reached the Scottish Premier League one season too early and that the squad may struggle to cope with the increase in quality of opposition. I was given a decent transfer budget of around £800k and around £10k per week in additional wage budget - huge sums compared to what I had worked with to date, but perhaps not sufficient to improve each area of the squad which needed upgrading. As such, I renewed most of the same loan deals again - the squad had been dominant in winning the league and many of those loan players were young, so should hopefully be improving and perhaps be enough for us to avoid relegation.
However, two vital additions were made to the squad with the signing of Teden Mengi on a free transfer from United (wow!) and Octavio Gomes, a 19-year old regen striker on loan from AC Milan. Gomes had been brought in on loan from Sporting Lisbon during the previous January window to take Chris McKee’s vacated spot on the bench, but then went on to score 6 goals in 11 games. I was unable to renew his loan after Milan spent £12m to sign him on a permanent deal, but I thought it was worth trying my luck to then immediately sign him on loan again from Milan. Milan accepted the offer and Gomes said that he had enjoyed his previous loan spell, so the deal was concluded quickly.
The season got off to a bad start, although the fixtures weren’t kind to us. We started with a disappointing 3-1 loss away at Hearts, followed by another draw with Rangers (unbeaten in three matches against Gerrard’s men at this point, so I think we might be their bogey team!). However, any positives which could be taken from holding one of the big teams to a draw were promptly negated in the next game, as a Diogo Dalot-inspired Celtic destroyed us 5-0 away from home - Eric Dier and Harry Winks were amongst the scorers too. Celtic seem to do great business in buying cheap European talent and then flipping them on to English clubs for a large profit after a season or two, a bit like real life I guess, so they have plenty of money and a strong squad. The heavy loss against Celtic was compounded by an agonising 3-2 loss at home against Hamilton, then a 1-0 defeat away at St Johnstone, leaving us bottom of the table with only 1 point from our opening 5 matches. It was looking likely to be a long and difficult season.
In response, I ripped-up my tactics based on the advice of my coaches, changing from our tried and tested 4-2-3-1 which had worked in the lower leagues, but now seemed to be leaking goals and not creating many chances for our attackers either. The coaches advised a vertical tiki-taka approach with a 5-2–1-2 formation, making the most of our strong wing backs, although also making the squad’s handful of wingers pretty much redundant. Given the terrible results so far, it seemed worth a shot - and it worked! We went unbeaten in the next 7 league games, winning 4 of them and conceding only 2 goals in the process.
Right now, we are in the mid-season break for the winter World Cup in Qatar (I initially looked at the large gap in my upcoming fixtures and thought the game had broken!) and we’re sitting 6th place in the league. I’m hopeful that this new system will be enough for us to stay up, but it will be put to the test immediately after the restart, with matches against Celtic then Rangers back-to-back. Also, at the end of this season, several of my players’ contracts are expiring and I know most of them are not really good enough for this level, so it’s likely to be an extremely busy summer of both incoming and outgoing transfers. It’ll be vital to replace the departing players with quality, in order to push on and hopefully cement our place in the top division.
On a side note, the 2022 World Cup final was a 0-0 draw between Denmark and Turkey, with Turkey going on to win a penalty shootout. I suspect there were some decent odds on that outcome at the start of the tournament…
If people are interested, I’ll provide an update at the end of the season.
I lost a 4th round league cup game 13-12 after pens.... with Bruno being the only player to miss. Odd.
Quite enjoying FM20, I picked it up for free last week. Haven't done an awful lot in year one, got the board to buy Sancho which took up my entire transfer budget. But I managed to sign James Rodriguez, Vidal and Douglas Costa all on loan for the season which added a lot of depth to the squad.
Never really looked at loans when playing as big clubs, apparently you can bring in some good players.
Quite enjoying FM20, I picked it up for free last week. Haven't done an awful lot in year one, got the board to buy Sancho which took up my entire transfer budget. But I managed to sign James Rodriguez, Vidal and Douglas Costa all on loan for the season which added a lot of depth to the squad.
Never really looked at loans when playing as big clubs, apparently you can bring in some good players.
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DDG not saving a pen looks realistic to me.
I have never seen a shoot-out that long before in FM
I have never seen a shoot-out that long before in FM
Good read. I used to manage in Scotland in all of the earlier FM’s - Rangers were the first team I ever managed and from there used to manage lower and lower. I have an itch to manage Edinburgh city and turn them into the best Scottish side.
Did you use installments etc for your transfers? You're definitely missing a trick if you didn't because I managed to get Sancho and Pau Torres in my first summer, along with one or two wonderkids.I lost a 4th round league cup game 13-12 after pens.... with Bruno being the only player to miss. Odd.
Quite enjoying FM20, I picked it up for free last week. Haven't done an awful lot in year one, got the board to buy Sancho which took up my entire transfer budget. But I managed to sign James Rodriguez, Vidal and Diego Costa all on loan for the season which added a lot of depth to the squad.
Never really looked at loans when playing as big clubs, apparently you can bring in some good players.
Also, when you're offering contracts to younger players, put the clause which allows you to trigger additional years to the deal and put it up to 3 years.
I've started a new save for the first time in months with Schalke. Going to see if I can turn them around.
You love to see it
Gutted. My club vision target was to get UCL qualification in season one and I missed out on goal difference against Leipzig 
Kept my job and the board gave me £60 Million to spend. Greenwood was unhappy with playing time and listed so I grabbed him for 20+20 and also nabbed Bellingham from Dortmund for £15 Million. Added Batista Maier, Montiel and Fein too. Very happy with my window.
my current team is
———————Fahrmann——————
Montiel-Kabak-Kehrer-Katterbach
————-Kovalenko-Berg—————-
Tsygankov—————————Harit
————-Lincoln——Petagna———
Got a sizeable bid for Nastasic who was a starter at first but got push(£22.5 Million) and I’m more than happy with my Kabak-Kerher partnership, Kehrer was listed for 3.9 Million! Bargain.
Got my eye on a young Spanish CB as a replacement (Cuenca his name is) for 1.9 Million to fill in when needed.
I also signed that young Norwegian kid Hauge from Bodø/Glimt who looks decent. As well as his teammate Berg who is a cheapbeast this year.
Kept my job and the board gave me £60 Million to spend. Greenwood was unhappy with playing time and listed so I grabbed him for 20+20 and also nabbed Bellingham from Dortmund for £15 Million. Added Batista Maier, Montiel and Fein too. Very happy with my window.
my current team is
———————Fahrmann——————
Montiel-Kabak-Kehrer-Katterbach
————-Kovalenko-Berg—————-
Tsygankov—————————Harit
————-Lincoln——Petagna———
Got a sizeable bid for Nastasic who was a starter at first but got push(£22.5 Million) and I’m more than happy with my Kabak-Kerher partnership, Kehrer was listed for 3.9 Million! Bargain.
Got my eye on a young Spanish CB as a replacement (Cuenca his name is) for 1.9 Million to fill in when needed.
I also signed that young Norwegian kid Hauge from Bodø/Glimt who looks decent. As well as his teammate Berg who is a cheapbeast this year.
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Currently having a go at returning Sunderland to the Premiership. I am currently top of league one - but much more importantly, I have a player called Max Power!
For anyone playing FM20 there's a match engine mod patch that has been released by FM Korea. It significantly improves the match day on pitch experience. It's available on the well known FM editor/skin websites. Give it a go.
I’m waiting for the transfer update to drop, if it hasn’t already to start my final save for this game. Thinking of Bournemouth for some reason. I’d just really like to build a nice English core also being reliant on developing youth.
I’ll inevitably just play as United for Telles and Cavani though
I’ll inevitably just play as United for Telles and Cavani though
Revisited my Brighton save (again) after a few months. In the 14th season, joint favourites for the league but in November and have lost the last 5 games 
must have given up in frustration.
I've decided to rip up my tactics and go completely out of my comfort zone - a 3-2-2-3, playing with wing backs, a libero and three strikers. This season is down the pan anyway so hoping to stumble onto a game-breaking tactic and take the league by storm next season.
must have given up in frustration.I've decided to rip up my tactics and go completely out of my comfort zone - a 3-2-2-3, playing with wing backs, a libero and three strikers. This season is down the pan anyway so hoping to stumble onto a game-breaking tactic and take the league by storm next season.
will they bring back scenarios? like where you have to save a club from relegation etc?
If so I'm looking forward to the one where your board is run by people obsessed with noodle sponsors and over the hill footballers, and you have to save your job by playing those guys, or untested youth punts
If so I'm looking forward to the one where your board is run by people obsessed with noodle sponsors and over the hill footballers, and you have to save your job by playing those guys, or untested youth punts
Thought Bournemouth would be a little easy so I went with Forest after seeing they had sacked their manager today.
Main goals are:
- Get promoted and stabalise in the PL
- Make a transfer profit every season
- Develop youth
- Develop British core to squad
Main goals are:
- Get promoted and stabalise in the PL
- Make a transfer profit every season
- Develop youth
- Develop British core to squad
Having loads of fun with this Forest save. Built mainly on free transfers and loans so far. This is my current side. Bertolacci has literally just signed TBF, has usually been Arter.
Where do you download your transfer updates from?
FM Scout I think mate.
Sortitoutsi do a daily update.
Think they pretty much all do ATM.
True, yes. Cheers anyway.
I managed to get Grabban of the wage bill and received 1.6 Million too so that made me happy.
I had a bit of a panic January window though because I’m really struggling to score at times and I’m having to resort to throwing everything at teams to make a breakthrough.
Paid 3 Million for Dwight Gayle, got Aaron Connolly, Josh Onomah and Trincao on loan for depth more than anything.
Currently sitting in 3rd about 5 behind Watford.
I had a bit of a panic January window though because I’m really struggling to score at times and I’m having to resort to throwing everything at teams to make a breakthrough.
Paid 3 Million for Dwight Gayle, got Aaron Connolly, Josh Onomah and Trincao on loan for depth more than anything.
Currently sitting in 3rd about 5 behind Watford.
So fecking close
Have to admit I got a little excited when we scored. Should have re-adjusted my tactics...
Have to admit I got a little excited when we scored. Should have re-adjusted my tactics...
Is it worth updating from FM2014 yet?
Is it free or do you have to pay for epic games?
If it's free can you send me a link?
I've got the game on mobile but not on PC etc.
Neh not really
Nope, not to 20 anyway, jesus it gave me a headache looking at the menus. I've made a slight jump up from 15 to 18 though.
The regen faces are awful, look like the faces that are made up on Crimewatch
Nice read! How did it go? I know being a recently promoted underdog can be quite frustrating.
The offer expired weeks ago.
It absolutely is
The series peaked at FM18. 19 and 20 have transfer updates but everything else got worse. Especially training and match engine.It absolutely is
Let's see about FM21
I personally prefer the training on FM20 I think it's great. Each to their own but FM20 is a massive upgrade on FM14.
I love FM14 and had one of my best ever saves on it but 20 is still better.
I'm happy playing my free version of fm20 rather than jumping to 21, but saying someone should stick to fm14 is madness!
I can't really talk for whole team training as I usually leave that for my assistant (although I'll sometimes edit and amend sessions depending on the situation).
But I really enjoy the individual training development. Very satisfying to train a player into a certain role/gradually boost certain attributes. I'm turning a very technical, tall deep lying playmaker into a libero.
Is it any good on tablet?
Yeah exactly. That sort of stuff is great.
It's very glitchy, I'd stay clear.