Gaming Football Manager 2024

[Cessna]

I am prone to ruin my own fun with each version of FM. If you CAN make certain clubs have 1BN debt per year over 200 years, why wouldn't you?
I always regret it, next year I will not do the same.

Also: The workshop mods available that bring back old stars into the game.. well, I wish I never started downloading em.

 

[Zebs]

Have started a new save, moving Irish 4-in-a-row league champions Shamrock Rovers into League Two in England, however, I'm stipulating that I can only use players born on the island of Ireland. Proving difficult to fill the gaps left behind by non-Irish players so far but hopefully I've enough to mount a decent challenge for promotion.

 

[Solius]

Boom.

And not just that!

I still plan to carry on as I don't think we'll technically be the best team in the world yet and I want to win the super cup & cwc too. Plus still enjoying it as it feels organic. I invested intensely in youth and potential and tried to time it so they all bloomed at the same time. That plus spending £59m on newgen Leo van Rijn who got 38 goals from the RW in his debut season.

Jardler is now a club icon. He doesn't actually play that often but he joined at League One level, scored the winner for our first top flight trophy and now scored a crucial goal in the CL final. I also have a player called Harry Griffiths who has been with me since League One and is basically a Milner type reliable attacking utility player. van Rijn has already reached favoured personnel and I may manually edit some because a lot more should definitely be on there.

 

[Maluco]

Boom.

And not just that!

I still plan to carry on as I don't think we'll technically be the best team in the world yet and I want to win the super cup & cwc too. Plus still enjoying it as it feels organic. I invested intensely in youth and potential and tried to time it so they all bloomed at the same time. That plus spending £59m on newgen Leo van Rijn who got 38 goals from the RW in his debut season.

Jardler is now a club icon. He doesn't actually play that often but he joined at League One level, scored the winner for our first top flight trophy and now scored a crucial goal in the CL final. I also have a player called Harry Griffiths who has been with me since League One and is basically a Milner type reliable attacking utility player. van Rijn has already reached favoured personnel and I may manually edit some because a lot more should definitely be on there.

That’s a great effort to stick with it all the way like that! It’s hard to know what a next save could be after something like that!

 

[Maluco]

My own NLTL save looks to be at an end. After wrapping up the league, we beat Milan 3-0 in the final of the Italian Cup.

We then beat Newcastle (5-0 agg), Man City (7-0 agg), Benfica (3-0 agg) before drawing PSG in the CL Final.

It was a terrible game whose best chances fell to them, but younster Breschi came off the bench to give us the lead in extra time and Mbappe also came of the bench (he was “tired”) to finish it off in the 119th minute.

After working my way up to win league titles with Viz in Portugal, I have now won every single title with Juventus over three years!

2 Champions Leagues, 3 Série A, 3 Italian Cups, 1 Europa League, 2 Super Cups and 2 Italian Super Cups.

I am at a crossroads now. The game is clearly very easy this year, but I love having a save on the go to break up my routine and distract myself from the stress of work.

I have a few ideas…

a) Maybe a Brexit FC with only English players and a 4-4-2, maybe starting with a traditional club in League 1 or 2.

b) Using Cueta or Melilla (clubs in the Spanish pyramid that are actually independent cities on the African continent) and build them up using only African players.

The second might not even work, but it seems like a potentially cool idea.

Does anyone have any opinions or ideas that I could try to make a unique save/challenge?

 

[TrustInOle]

My own NLTL save looks to be at an end. After wrapping up the league, we beat Milan 3-0 in the final of the Italian Cup.

We then beat Newcastle (5-0 agg), Man City (7-0 agg), Benfica (3-0 agg) before drawing PSG in the CL Final.

It was a terrible game whose best chances fell to them, but younster Breschi came off the bench to give us the lead in extra time and Mbappe also came of the bench (he was “tired”) to finish it off in the 119th minute.

After working my way up to win league titles with Viz in Portugal, I have now won every single title with Juventus over three years!

2 Champions Leagues, 3 Série A, 3 Italian Cups, 1 Europa League, 2 Super Cups and 2 Italian Super Cups.

I am at a crossroads now. The game is clearly very easy this year, but I love having a save on the go to break up my routine and distract myself from the stress of work.

I have a few ideas…

a) Maybe a Brexit FC with only English players and a 4-4-2, maybe starting with a traditional club in League 1 or 2.

b) Using Cueta or Melilla (clubs in the Spanish pyramid that are actually independent cities on the African continent) and build them up using only African players.

The second might not even work, but it seems like a potentially cool idea.

Does anyone have any opinions or ideas that I could try to make a unique save/challenge?

Could try a build a nation save? Take over a team in say Malta/ Iran ect, and try to improve the international standing of that country, maybe eventually jumping a few teams in the league to give the country a few top teams with the ultimate goal making that country a force in the international scene?

 

[Maluco]

Could try a build a nation save? Take over a team in say Malta/ Iran ect, and try to improve the international standing of that country, maybe eventually jumping a few teams in the league to give the country a few top teams with the ultimate goal making that country a force in the international scene?

I did think about that, but I think that endless loan farming would do my head in. It’s stressful enough finding clubs for my own youth team. I can’t imagine how long it would take to loan out 150 players every season

 

[TrustInOle]

I did think about that, but I think that endless loan farming would do my head in. It’s stressful enough finding clubs for my own youth team. I can’t imagine how long it would take to loan out 150 players every season

That's very true, always appreciated the idea of a task like this, but would never undertake it myself haha!

Maybe try to win each continental UCL with clubs not so dominant?

 

[Zebs]

Have started a new save, moving Irish 4-in-a-row league champions Shamrock Rovers into League Two in England, however, I'm stipulating that I can only use players born on the island of Ireland. Proving difficult to fill the gaps left behind by non-Irish players so far but hopefully I've enough to mount a decent challenge for promotion.

As expected, I've won League Two at the first time of asking, however, I'm struggling for cash and some of my better players want to leave and I'm not confident in my financial ability to replace them with similar quality and also improve the rest of the team for League One. Luckily I'm on holidays for a week so I've plenty of time to consider my options.

 

[SilentWitness]

Got Yeovil to the PL. Finished 7th in my first season. Just trying to bring facilities up to standard as it's the first year we have had decent finances to do anything. Managed to get Chukwuemeka on a free and he's been great for me. We also won the FA Cup. Bit annoyed about that actually as we would have qualified for the ECL and had a decent chance at winning it but now we have to play in the bloody EL.

 

[SilentWitness]

Bayern matched Chuks release clause of 36m so he left. No worries. Just brought in Nwaneri as his replacement as he was on the transfer list.

 

[Big Andy]

Trying my own little experiment to see if I can win the league in each of Holland, Spain, France, Germany and England.

Started off jobless and took over at Ajax where I won the league and Conference league in my first season. Left to go to Madrid after they potted Ancelotti for finishing 3rd and promptly won 2 leagues and a couple of cups in 2 and a half years. Took the Newcastle job when it came up half way through the season while they were 16th seeing if I could keep them up then build, but the fans never took to me and I got sacked at the end of the season for not qualifying for Europe.

took the vacant Dortmund job in pre season and won the league on the last day by a point and then did the double beating Union Berlin in the cup.

waiting for the United job to come up so I can bring the glory days back before heading to France to complete the set.

champions league is on my list but should’ve won it with Madrid as I’ll never have another team that good again.

Well I did it. Won the treble in France with PSG, then immediately got sacked for flirting with United. Won 3 trebles in a row and my 21 year old right back just won the ballon D’Or. Waiting til 2041 for the club World Cup and hopefully win that before taking in whichever giant club in England is struggling the most and try to bring them back to the top.

 

[Big Andy]

Well I did it. Won the treble in France with PSG, then immediately got sacked for flirting with United. Won 3 trebles in a row and my 21 year old right back just won the ballon D’Or. Waiting til 2041 for the club World Cup and hopefully win that before taking in whichever giant club in England is struggling the most and try to bring them back to the top.

My last treble I beat City on the last day with a 94th minute winner to win by 1 goal difference, then I beat City in the FA Cup final 1-0 with an 89th minute goal, and then beat City on penalties in the Champions league. Imagine that 10 days in real life as a United fan

 

[Chipper]

Accidentally clicked to restart my PC and lost a few games of my save when were in great form.

Had taken 28 points out of 30 and knocked out Championship Birmingham in the FA Cup, moving us up to 6th in League One. Wiped off 7 league games as well as that cup victory so the run of form restarts at the point we'd won 3 on the bounce.

Thought I'd lost the save altogether so could be worse! I don't even know where this save file is located on my computer, and couldn't find it other than clicking "load last game". Long story, but new computer at Christmas, things were being backed up to One Drive by default at first until I deleted it as it was annoying and now I've got me as a user, a public user for some reason with SI folders for both and other things in random places. It's not in Docs>SI>FM24>games in either my profile or the public one.

Edit: Apparently I still had a OneDrive documents folder even though I deleted OneDrive and it was putting it there!

 

[Solius]

 

[SilentWitness]

Won the league with Yeovil. Got bored again so started another Vikingur save. Signed up my boy Gylfi as a marquee signing.

 

[Alex99]

Won the league with Yeovil. Got bored again so started another Vikingur save. Signed up my boy Gylfi as a marquee signing.

Just keep him away from the academy.

 

[Maluco]

Right, my break has been too long and I need to get back in!

Final shortlist is…

1860 Munich/Dynamo Dresden - Taking a team up from the 3rd division, either to topple rivals Bayern, or be the first Eastern German Bundi winners.

Telstar - I had a great save with Excelsior about 5-6 years ago and enjoy Holland. This seems like an unassuming club, and I like the space connections.

Edinburgh City - always been a big fan of the city and loved playing a Scots Prem save as a teenager. Maybe a bit of nostalgia?

Paris FC - very stylish kits and badge and a very obvious enemy to topple.

Any thoughts or ideas to sway me one way or another?

 

[Jericholyte2]

Had a very cathartic sesh on FM24, for summer ‘24

AWB - 40m to Chelsea
Maguire - 30m to Spurs
Evan - released
Lindelof - 30m to Betis
Varane - 75m to Saudi
Malacia - 25m to Dortmund
McT - 25m to Juventus
Casemiro - 60m to Saudi
VDB - 12m to Leicester
Antony - 27m to Forrest (lol)
Bruno - 130m to Saudi
Martial - released

I bought

Evan Ferguson
Joao Neves (CM)
Koopenmeiers (CM)
Guehl (Palace CB)
Antonio Silva
Diomande (Sporting Lisbon CB)
Georgio Scalvini
And another CB I can’t remember his name.

I play 352

—————Onana
—Silva—Martinez—Scalvini
Dalot——???——Koop——Shaw
—————Mainoo
———Holjund—Ferguson

 

[AFC NimbleThumb]

Right, my break has been too long and I need to get back in!

Final shortlist is…

1860 Munich/Dynamo Dresden - Taking a team up from the 3rd division, either to topple rivals Bayern, or be the first Eastern German Bundi winners.

Telstar - I had a great save with Excelsior about 5-6 years ago and enjoy Holland. This seems like an unassuming club, and I like the space connections.

Edinburgh City - always been a big fan of the city and loved playing a Scots Prem save as a teenager. Maybe a bit of nostalgia?

Paris FC - very stylish kits and badge and a very obvious enemy to topple.

Any thoughts or ideas to sway me one way or another?

I’d go German though Paris FC would be good you’ve got the Mbappe issue at PSG where the guy is unbelievable well into his 30s.

Also much prefer saves with multiple promotions so the Scottish one sounds good too.

 

[the hea]

Right, my break has been too long and I need to get back in!

Final shortlist is…

1860 Munich/Dynamo Dresden - Taking a team up from the 3rd division, either to topple rivals Bayern, or be the first Eastern German Bundi winners.

Telstar - I had a great save with Excelsior about 5-6 years ago and enjoy Holland. This seems like an unassuming club, and I like the space connections.

Edinburgh City - always been a big fan of the city and loved playing a Scots Prem save as a teenager. Maybe a bit of nostalgia?

Paris FC - very stylish kits and badge and a very obvious enemy to topple.

Any thoughts or ideas to sway me one way or another?

I did a Paris FC save in FM22 and it was super fun, probably one of my favourite saves ever. Beating PSG for the league title was a real struggle, they had Mbappé, Haaland and Moukoko as the front 3 and I had won the CL 3 times before I was able to win the league.

 

[Chipper]

Anyone fall for the April fools joke today?

I've not played but saw some mentions of it online.

 

[saik]

Anyone fall for the April fools joke today?

I've not played but saw some mentions of it online.

Always happens if the in game date is April 1st as well. Unless you are talking about something else ?

 

[Chipper]

Always happens if the in game date is April 1st as well. Unless you are talking about something else ?

Oh right, I've never seen it before. £500m windfall and a new stadium as the April fools joke.

Must have become a thing after I stopped playing so much and/or I missed it other years, I've played a lot. Just going through my Steam history now:

FM 09 - 2837 hours
FM 10 - 10794 hours
11 - Got it but never played
12 - 37 minutes
13 - 3.7 hours
14 - 1684 hours
15 - didn't buy
16 - 10.7 hours
17 - 10.6 hours
18 - 10.7 hours (think I just farmed the steam cards these 3 years)
19 - Got it but never played
20 - 1828 hours
21 - 1649
22 - didn't buy
23 - didn't buy
24 - 1632

 

[saik]

Oh right, I've never seen it before. £500m windfall and a new stadium as the April fools joke.

Must have become a thing after I stopped playing so much and/or I missed it other years, I've played a lot. Just going through my Steam history now:

FM 09 - 2837 hours
FM 10 - 10794 hours
11 - Got it but never played
12 - 37 minutes
13 - 3.7 hours
14 - 1684 hours
15 - didn't buy
16 - 10.7 hours
17 - 10.6 hours
18 - 10.7 hours (think I just farmed the steam cards these 3 years)
19 - Got it but never played
20 - 1828 hours
21 - 1649
22 - didn't buy
23 - didn't buy
24 - 1632

Yea, I don't remember when it started exactly but it has been there for the last few years. In addition to the above, you also get some freak injuries like slipping in your bath tub or some shit and out for a year as a prank.

 

[Zebs]

Oh right, I've never seen it before. £500m windfall and a new stadium as the April fools joke.

Must have become a thing after I stopped playing so much and/or I missed it other years, I've played a lot. Just going through my Steam history now:

FM 10 - 10794 hours

 

[Chipper]

I know!

They're far from being actual playing hours. I pretty much leave my PC on 24/7 with the window minimised when I'm not in-game.

Had to back then, saving a game or loading it would take 10 to 15 minutes on a slow PC at the time and there were no SSDs, or if there was they were rarer and I didn't have one, so even booting up and shutting down Windows would take another 5 minutes. Just left it running!

Sort of fell into that habit and still leave the PC on all the time even now. Other reasons to do it now as PCs have become more of an all round media centre and I always have a connection to a TV for streaming, Youtube on a big screen, etc. then there's music over the speakers. Hardly ever shut down.

Still, that is just over 14 months solid

 

[rio's upper lip]

Just promoted with Bradford City from L2 to L1. Didn’t really buy anyone or do anything in particular before or during the season, so the promotion is basically down to a good tactic I found online.

For people who have taken minnows to the pinnacle of European football, what’s a good way to proceed from here (24/25)? Any tips on super cheap or free players? Any particular steps to take staff wise or training wise? What abilities are especially important to look out for at this point in the game?

I’ve played this game for years, but I’ve only really played with United. Would love to be able to build up Bradford from the ground up!

 

[Chipper]

Stupid player interactions rearing it's head again.

2nd choice right back was unhappy with playing time, I told him tough luck. He was unhappy which I was fine with. 1st choice right back was against me giving the 2nd choice player more game time which is natural as it would be eating into his own time on the pitch.

1st choice right back then gets injured for 5 weeks so I have to give he 2nd choice a run in the team. 2nd choice is now happy as he's played a bit more, but 1st choice is now unhappy with me for supposedly backing down to the demands of the 2nd choice player. It's ridiculous, he only played so much because you were injured!

 

[saik]

Just promoted with Bradford City from L2 to L1. Didn’t really buy anyone or do anything in particular before or during the season, so the promotion is basically down to a good tactic I found online.

For people who have taken minnows to the pinnacle of European football, what’s a good way to proceed from here (24/25)? Any tips on super cheap or free players? Any particular steps to take staff wise or training wise? What abilities are especially important to look out for at this point in the game?

I’ve played this game for years, but I’ve only really played with United. Would love to be able to build up Bradford from the ground up!

Basically what I noticed in this game is momentum carries you in these kind of saves. Always try to keep morale high(schedule friendlies with rubbish teams so you can spank them).

I'd try to look for free signings - request your DOF if you have one or just go through your scout reports. There will be good players who will be leaving on a free at the end of their contracts. Also, you get an inbox item saying that prem clubs have released some youngsters every year around March who are also good pick ups on the cheap. A lot of them have atleast Championship potential usually. If there isn't one already, try to set up a senior affiliate too so you can get free loans.

This is assuming you literally have no money in the bank like me. All my signings until the Championship were free players.

I have never tinkered with the training stuff though. I always leave it to my assistant manager. Hiring staff is basically just min-maxing. You can just go the staff search and look for the best one that is willing to join every year.

 

[Chipper]

Safety ensured in League One with 4 games remaining. In the real world that would be great, in-game it's looking like our worst season to date at Fairford. Promoted every season barring one 9th place finish in the Vananrama National.

Thinking of changing the formation for next season and I'm going to experiment for the remaining games.

 

[Chipper]

Switching those tactics, but it involves a big squad overhaul. Need wingbacks instead of full backs, an extra CB or two in my squad to switch to 3 central defenders and I'm going from double DMs on support to a Mezzala and a HB and I need to get the right players in for that.

Raised relatively good money so far a club of this size, selling players for £725k in total. Usually sign freebies but might be able to actually buy some players here.

Bit concerned about staff costs. I used to have bare minimum for the U21 and U18 squads but after getting to League One I thought we could go to town on that. Couldn't be bothered sifting throught it myself and we don't have a technical director whose job that would normally be but I do have a director of football who I gave the hiring and firing duties to. U21s now has 5 coaching staff, 1 medical and it's 9+2 for the U18s. Player wages were £1.17m last season, staff £373k which seems a bit high and it be more for the full season as quite a few staff memebers were hired during the season. All staff are on low wages but it adds up.

 

[Zebs]

Minor gripe but I hate when you've a shit performance and you just want to rage about the players in the post-match presser but they ask no questions that allow you to do so.

 

[Chipper]

Only 7 games in but already looking like a frustrating season again, just not getting what I think we deserve.

Finished 16th last season, 7th in the xG table. 16th again currently, 2nd in the xG league. Missing chances, giving away stupid penalties, making mistakes, opponents being ultra clinical etc.

Hopefully it's just teething problems with new signings and the new formation needing to gel but realistically I think we might end up being stuck in League One again. Already looking like a battling season. Just got to plod on through it.

 

[Chipper]

Don't know how to feel about my squad currently. Obviously doing my best to get the best players we can but being the smallest stature club in the division it's tricky. It's been an uphill battle since starting the save and we've always outperformed where we should in terms of quality. Still are, just not by as much as we have done in the past. Seemed to have hit a bit of a wall.

My DoF has good judging player ability and of the 22 man squad he reckons that in League One we have:

2 good League One players
9 decent League One
2 good League Two
2 decent League Two
4 good Vanarama National
2 decent Vanarama National
1 Leading Vanarama North/South

So it shouldn't be a surprise that we're not top of the league.

 

[Chipper]

Clicking into gear now. 36 points from the last 18 matches (W11 D3 L3), shame we only took 4 from the first 5. Just outside the playoffs halfway through. Top scorers, best defence. Signs are good.

 

[Chipper]

4 posts in a row from me, I'm hammering it today and am talking to myself. Long, drunken FM session!

Keep getting press conference questions asking why we've used the fewest players in the league. It's becasue we only have 22 players and one more in the U21s. Squad is running on empty. Suspensions, injuries and jaded players. Just about hanging in the playoff positions with 10 games left, although we do have a game in hand. 3 wins and 5 losses in the last 8 games.

Absolutely smashing the xG table but when we lose we lose in stupid fashion.

 

[Chipper]

Got promoted to the Championship!

Feels like we're in the big time now. Will hopefully be able to attract international players from smaller countries etc. Think the number of those ESC slots for players who can't get work permits increases in the Championship which should help with the bargain hunting too.

Looks like the financial fair play rules are much more forgiving which is nice. We were very marginally in breach of the rules at one point during this campaign although nothing bad happens. Was allowed to spend 60% of turnover on wages in League One and we were just £100 a week over it. All that happens is you get a transfer embargo while you're over. Managed to move on a veteran full back from the reserves in January on a free and it fixed it.

In the Championship it's a £15m loss over a three year period so that's a lot of leeway.

Just got to decide if my star striker should be given the wage rise he wants now or if I can do better. He only wanted to be a fringe player when I signed him ahead of the season on £1k a week. Scored 26, all in the league and now he wants close to £5k. Initial budget for the whole squad is £61k a week on wages, and I don't know if we'll be able to find better players for similar wages or not over the summer. Still got 1 year remaining on his contract currently.

Edit: Forgot, we won the EFL Trophy/Bristol Street Motors thing too! Bolton must hate us, beat them 1-0 in the final of that and won 2-0 at their place on the final day of the season to deny them a playoff spot and seal our promotion.

 

[saik]

Got promoted to the Championship!

Feels like we're in the big time now. Will hopefully be able to attract international players from smaller countries etc. Think the number of those ESC slots increases in the Championship which should help with the bargain hunting.

Looks like the financial fair play rules are much more forgiving too. We were very marginally in breach of the rules at one point during this campaign although nothing bad happens. Was allowed to spend 60% of turnover on wages in League One and we were £100 a week over it, all that happens is you get a transfer embargo while you're over.

In the Championship it's a £15m loss over a three year period so that's a lot of leeway.

Just got to decide if my star striker shpuld be given the wage rise he wants now or if I can do better. He only wanted to be a fringe player when I took him ahead of the season on £1k a week. Scored 26, all in the league and now he wants close to £5k. Initial budget is £60k a week on wages, and I don't know if we'll be able to find better players for similar wages or not over the summer.

Oof, 60k overall weekly wage budget ? That's really rough. I don't think I ever had it that low. Always used to be around 100k-130k for championship. I fear you are really going to struggle to attract Championship quality players as you just can't afford their salaries. Free loans until you can stabilize in the league I guess.

Or there's always a tycoon takeover that you can hope for.

 

[Chipper]

Oof, 60k overall weekly wage budget ? That's really rough. I don't think I ever had it that low. Always used to be around 100k-130k for championship. I fear you are really going to struggle to attract Championship quality players as you just can't afford their salaries. Free loans until you can stabilize in the league I guess.

Or there's always a tycoon takeover that you can hope for.

You never know about the takeover, we had our second takeover in quick succession this past season. We've been fan-owned for a few months now.

Can always dump the entire transfer budget into wages, that's been the strategy so far. Mind you, that's only been set at £400k but could get us another 8k a week towards wages. Perhaps I could sell off a few of the higher value players if anyone is interested and then do the same with that money. It's going to be a juggling act to see if we can actually get money for them while looking who is out there on cheap transfers or freebies. Got one player supposedly worth £3-4m, a few in the £1-2m range. Every £1m in sales is roughly worth £20k a week in wage budget if doing that.