Football Manager 24

[Tyga]

I went with classic mode. I started a couple of games with the other modes but they restricted clubs you could choose to manage to the main country you chose at the start of the game. Probably because altering player rosters and setting up future transfers takes a lot of processing so they restrict it to the one country.

I might try them again one day.

 

[rowe23]

Still in the NL having completed my second season.

Has no transfer budget for the second season on the trot, finished 15th. If ever there was a Southend style takeover I had it! Made the FA CUP 5 rnd knock out by Spurs and Rochdale away in the second rnd FA Trophy, so got some money in.

This season I've got an £84k transfer budget and up to £28k wages.

But sold Gus, Frankie Maguire and Lomas, so my budget is now £110,687.

Picked up; Jayden Richardson, Luca Ashby-Hammond, Jacob Mendy, Joe Snowdon and Reiss McNally all on frees.

Still have £1,400 spare on the wage budget so searching for a WOW signing.

Tel me those that are playing it, what game mode are you playing in. I'm in classic, but wondering if I should have chosen "Real"?

I have just restarted my save as I deleted it by accident. Have gone with the real database, so Martin and Kabangolo join mid end of September. Found it more challenging that way.

 

[ColinMorrisWalksOnWater]

Now £40K up on transfer deals and fringe of he play offs, with £1,100 free in wages, still looking for that striker though as Cards is diminishing......

 

[Tyga]

Now 8 games left (9 for us as we have a game in hand due to Roots Hall regularly being waterlogged) in my second season and the first back in the Football League and we are top of the league, 6 points clear of Notts County and Colchester.

The squad is now in a major transition with a lot of the original players gradually diminishing in status within the squad.

It was a busy January window with 4 players leaving.

Archie Mair (a keeper I signed to appease the "we need to strengthen the squad in goalkeeping" brigade who cornered me on a promise) eventually got tired of warming the bench and requested to leave, I sold him to Orient for 250K (potentially 275K) so made a nice profit on him and managed to avoid the squad mutiny over goalkeeper depth.

I sold Gus to Shrewsbury for 52K as he was nearing the end of his contract and was probably not going to be good enough for League 1 next season should we go up. I also sold Mooney for the same reason, 12.5K to Carlisle. The other out was Harry Taylor on loan until the end of the season at Fylde.

Incoming, we invested the player sales money bringing in 5 new players. Defender MJ Kamara (19) and midfielder Alistair Smith (25) from Lincoln for 170K and 25.5K respectively, 19 year old goalkeeper Noah Cooper on a free to make sure the goalkeeping depth keeps the mutineers at bay, 23 year old winger Liam McCarron for 75K from Stoke and 25 year old Estonian midfielder Markus Poom on a free using the newly available ESC work permit system.

Performance-wise, Tony Weston is joint top scorer in the league with 18 goals in the league so far. Cav Miley is still motoring along and is second in the league for assists with 11 and Magnus Norman leads the league in clean sheets with 13 so far even after missing a month with a broken finger.

On a gameplay note, is anyone else noticing that players are always demanding more quickness training? I've tried two different training regimes and I'm still getting a group of players demanding more quickness training. Just want to know if it is just me!

 

[ColinMorrisWalksOnWater]

Interesting reading Tyga. can't say I've noticed that yet, but will keep an eye out.....

 

[Bearded Shrimper]

i've decided to spam this thread with my FM23 game too. it's 2028, and the infestation is finally over with a consortium headed by Adam O'Sullivan taking over. Work started as soon as the season finished on the Steve Tilson arena, 19,713 capacity due in June 2029. That will be useful as I get so many matches rearranged due to a waterlogged pitch, including my FA Cup 3rd round game against Man U, 3 times in one week!

This season Marcus Dackers scored his 123rd league goal for me, making him our stop scorer of all time in league games and he has 123 in 203. Essentially he's the main reason I'm an established 2nd tier side.
Hopefully the new stadium means I can afford to pay Samuel Iling more than his current 9.25k per week so he'll sign a new contract but he's class, averaged 7.10 this season in the league with 9 goals and 7 assists.

i desperately need two back up full backs because I'm short of bodies there. as ever I've been looking at young players who's contracts are expiring at Prem teams. I do that every season and has made me enough money to go racing up the leagues

 

[Tyga]

I do the same thing with the expiring Prem contracts. I also search the released players list from Europe semi-regularly and get some younger players who look promising in on trial to see how good they are. Costs nothing and can unearth some decent players.

 

[ColinMorrisWalksOnWater]

Made it via the play offs after finishing runner up.

Over £650K in the bank and next season a transfer budget of £708k with a wage budget of £50k.

So should be able to give L2 a good go.

 

[Tyga]

I finished season two top of the table in League 2 and am now in League 1 this season. Colchester who were in the automatic promotion places slipped out in the last few games and then lost the playoff final to Crawley so no Essex Derby this season.

I was given a transfer budget of 1.2 million and a wage budget of 75K for the new season and have spent the off-season and most of August trying to offload players who are no longer good enough for League 1 or are injury prone which has seen a lot of changes in the squad including the departure of our captain and vice captain from last season.

I still have a decent chunk of money left as a transfer budget even after all the comings and goings but with a full squad of 22 registered I think the transfers are done until January.

We have started the season well, currently top of the table but its early days and I think a id-table finish will be a decent result with the resources we have.

 

[Bearded Shrimper]

Blackburn went up and triggered my keepers release clause, getting him for £7.5 mil. Means I've spent a total of £325k and brought in £24.5 million. I should add at least 1-2 mill to that this summer. the problem is i'm still at Roots Hall, so can't offer much in wages. I'm still only going after free transfers, but can't compete on wages. last season I had the 21st highest in the league, and finished 9th.
I wanted a new striker, thought I had a kid from Spurs but couldn't afford his wages. I need to sort my keepers, coz my first choice is gone. my second choice started last season as first choice so he's alright. but I listed him not thinking my first would go. so he's back. my academy went wild with young keepers, so I have 3 England youth keepers, but none old or good enough yet to be my number one. so not sure what do to to bring them on, loan them out, make them back up, or play them and accept they're not up to it and hope they improve quickly.
only signings so far are some kids for the future and a left back on loan from Milan who is class, but only on loan

 

[Tyga]

Blackburn went up and triggered my keepers release clause, getting him for £7.5 mil. Means I've spent a total of £325k and brought in £24.5 million. I should add at least 1-2 mill to that this summer. the problem is i'm still at Roots Hall, so can't offer much in wages. I'm still only going after free transfers, but can't compete on wages. last season I had the 21st highest in the league, and finished 9th.
I wanted a new striker, thought I had a kid from Spurs but couldn't afford his wages. I need to sort my keepers, coz my first choice is gone. my second choice started last season as first choice so he's alright. but I listed him not thinking my first would go. so he's back. my academy went wild with young keepers, so I have 3 England youth keepers, but none old or good enough yet to be my number one. so not sure what do to to bring them on, loan them out, make them back up, or play them and accept they're not up to it and hope they improve quickly.
only signings so far are some kids for the future and a left back on loan from Milan who is class, but only on loan

It is frustrating with the wages. Especially when you find a player who would be a great fit for your team but they demand insane wages so you have to break off your interest. Then you see a month or so later they sign for a club on wages a third of what they demanded of you.

I'm in the same boat as I just use my transfer budget mainly to increase my wage budget and focus on signing players on free transfers or minimal fees where possible.

 

[Bearded Shrimper]

It is frustrating with the wages. Especially when you find a player who would be a great fit for your team but they demand insane wages so you have to break off your interest. Then you see a month or so later they sign for a club on wages a third of what they demanded of you.

I'm in the same boat as I just use my transfer budget mainly to increase my wage budget and focus on signing players on free transfers or minimal fees where possible.

yeah, I have that. they want ****ing loads, then go elsewhere for less! Drives me mad.
any good tips on getting kids to actually meet their potential? rather than spending anything on transfers I've tried to spend it on training facilities. so what i've got is alright for my level. but do I loan these kids, keep them but only play youth football, or throw them in?

 

[Tyga]

yeah, I have that. they want ****ing loads, then go elsewhere for less! Drives me mad.
any good tips on getting kids to actually meet their potential? rather than spending anything on transfers I've tried to spend it on training facilities. so what i've got is alright for my level. but do I loan these kids, keep them but only play youth football, or throw them in?

From what I have read from a number of sources it is best to keep your youth players playing in the youth team until they are 18, then make a call on whether to promote them to the senior squad (if they are good enough or have high potential) or loan them out for future sale if they are not going to be good enough for the first team. Apparently, training is more important than senior playing time for players under 18. As much as I love to see a 16/17 year old youth player break into the first team it is best they stay in the youth set up.

At the moment, I generally loan them out after they turn 17 if an offer comes in. I might re-think this with any players that have high potential and hold off until they turn 18. I have an affiliation with Kings Langley in my current game so can ship a few youth players off to them for some senior experience but that is generally the players who will probably never be good enough to play in my first team.

On top of that, get the best Head of Youth Development you can and one with a good mentality as this rubs off on the players that are under their guidance.

The other thing, as you mentioned, is improving facilities. Something I need to do in my current game.

 

[rowe23]

Following my restart, not doing too bad in 1st season.

Just outside the playoffs, with plenty of games left to close the gap.

Tied down Kens, Nor and Cardwell to new deals. Having a bit of an injury crises at the moment in the striker department, but just beat Gateshead 6-2 in last match so not too bad.

Fingers crossed for a takeover soon and a strong end to the season with playoffs and hopefully promotion

 

[Bearded Shrimper]

From what I have read from a number of sources it is best to keep your youth players playing in the youth team until they are 18, then make a call on whether to promote them to the senior squad (if they are good enough or have high potential) or loan them out for future sale if they are not going to be good enough for the first team. Apparently, training is more important than senior playing time for players under 18. As much as I love to see a 16/17 year old youth player break into the first team it is best they stay in the youth set up.

At the moment, I generally loan them out after they turn 17 if an offer comes in. I might re-think this with any players that have high potential and hold off until they turn 18. I have an affiliation with Kings Langley in my current game so can ship a few youth players off to them for some senior experience but that is generally the players who will probably never be good enough to play in my first team.

On top of that, get the best Head of Youth Development you can and one with a good mentality as this rubs off on the players that are under their guidance.

The other thing, as you mentioned, is improving facilities. Something I need to do in my current game.

yeah, I've put all my money into training and youth facilities, every season I look at my Head of Youth in case I can upgrade. couldn't this summer so gave the current one a new contract. got to have lots of determination, but that doesn't always work.
I try to keep them in the youths till 18, then basically don't bother with an under 21s. If they're 18 and over I think they have to play, either with the first team or out on loan.
because I keep bringing in kids released by prem clubs I have a massive squad, but the bloody board won't let me have a loan manager so I have to do all that myself

 

[Medway Blue]

Morning all.

I have a save game file that might interest some of you (although I'm sure you're all very attached to your current saves).

I have used the pre-game editor to do the following at Southend:

• Install the new ownership and board
• Edit finances to something which I think is closer to real life - a hundred grand or so in the bank, a £30k transfer budget and around £5k unused wage budget. This should stop the wage budget from unrealistically plummeting in the second season, and puts the wage budget at a little less than Daggers'.
• Play around with income streams to try to reflect the current sponsorship situation
• Reduce facilities ratings at Roots Hall to better reflect the fact that its a ****hole money pit
• Reduce training facilities rating to better reflect the fact that Boots & Laces is a ****hole
• Reduce the youth setup ratings to better reflect the fact that we have no Academy and lost our best young prospects
• Schedule gradual Roots Hall capacity changes to get the stadium up to a better condition and 16,000+ capacity by Jan 2026, to reflect the new owners' planned improvements. Unfortunately I don't believe this will cause an improvement in commercial facilities
• Schedule a move to the new training ground (called Smithers' Farm in the absence of any other ideas) for Summer 2024, which will cause a rise in the training and youth facilities ratings
• Play around with some current and potential abilities plus position ratings of squad and staff, nothing drastically up or down, just my own opinion of what they should be
• Give John Still a secondary role as Chief Scout and set him a responsibility to manage and assign scouts, which I hope will better reflect his real life mix of responsibilities
• Release the several members of staff who left the club ages ago and added Danny Heath as U18s Manager
• Convert Demi and Dave Martin to player/coaches.
• Schedule the transfers of James Morton, Adam Crowther and Danny Waldron to occur on their real-life dates

I then started a new career and selected Ireland as a playable nation so that I could start the game in the Irish pre-season, i.e. January 2024. This meant the season up to 08/01/2024 was simmed.

I then used the FMRTE editor to make the following changes:

• Added Dave Martin and Harry Cardwell injuries - I know they are both nearing a return IRL, but you'll be without them for a week or two when you start playing this save
• Moved Marcus Dackers and Henry Sandat over on loan.
• Set the league standings from Premier League all the way down to National League North/South to as close as possible to what they are now. It's not perfect - the game obviously hasn't mirrored postponements and cup runs as in real life, so not all clubs had played the same amount of games in game as they had at the same point IRL. I obviously also can't reflect real-life cup runs or real-life individual player stats like games played, goals, etc. But the league standings are as close to current real life as possible.
• Made some key player and managerial changes in the English leagues.

I have loaded Home Nations' and Irish leagues, and ensured that all players based in England in the database are loaded too, right down to the lowest unplayable levels (Finley Wilkinson, wink nudge), to give you a nice big batch of players to ask John Still to scout.

If you load my save, which picks up on 21st January 2024, you'll be starting as Southend manager with things pretty much exactly as they are now. Can you take us up this season?

Let me know if you'd like the save game and PM me your email addresses. I can't recall how big the save is - I can always compress and host somewhere if I need to.

 

[Seaside Shrimper]

Morning all.

I have a save game file that might interest some of you (although I'm sure you're all very attached to your current saves).

I have used the pre-game editor to do the following at Southend:

• Install the new ownership and board
• Edit finances to something which I think is closer to real life - a hundred grand or so in the bank, a £30k transfer budget and around £5k unused wage budget. This should stop the wage budget from unrealistically plummeting in the second season, and puts the wage budget at a little less than Daggers'.
• Play around with income streams to try to reflect the current sponsorship situation
• Reduce facilities ratings at Roots Hall to better reflect the fact that its a ****hole money pit
• Reduce training facilities rating to better reflect the fact that Boots & Laces is a ****hole
• Reduce the youth setup ratings to better reflect the fact that we have no Academy and lost our best young prospects
• Schedule gradual Roots Hall capacity changes to get the stadium up to a better condition and 16,000+ capacity by Jan 2026, to reflect the new owners' planned improvements. Unfortunately I don't believe this will cause an improvement in commercial facilities
• Schedule a move to the new training ground (called Smithers' Farm in the absence of any other ideas) for Summer 2024, which will cause a rise in the training and youth facilities ratings
• Play around with some current and potential abilities plus position ratings of squad and staff, nothing drastically up or down, just my own opinion of what they should be
• Give John Still a secondary role as Chief Scout and set him a responsibility to manage and assign scouts, which I hope will better reflect his real life mix of responsibilities
• Release the several members of staff who left the club ages ago and added Danny Heath as U18s Manager
• Convert Demi and Dave Martin to player/coaches.
• Schedule the transfers of James Morton, Adam Crowther and Danny Waldron to occur on their real-life dates

I then started a new career and selected Ireland as a playable nation so that I could start the game in the Irish pre-season, i.e. January 2024. This meant the season up to 08/01/2024 was simmed.

I then used the FMRTE editor to make the following changes:

• Added Dave Martin and Harry Cardwell injuries - I know they are both nearing a return IRL, but you'll be without them for a week or two when you start playing this save
• Moved Marcus Dackers and Henry Sandat over on loan.
• Set the league standings from Premier League all the way down to National League North/South to as close as possible to what they are now. It's not perfect - the game obviously hasn't mirrored postponements and cup runs as in real life, so not all clubs had played the same amount of games in game as they had at the same point IRL. I obviously also can't reflect real-life cup runs or real-life individual player stats like games played, goals, etc. But the league standings are as close to current real life as possible.
• Made some key player and managerial changes in the English leagues.

I have loaded Home Nations' and Irish leagues, and ensured that all players based in England in the database are loaded too, right down to the lowest unplayable levels (Finley Wilkinson, wink nudge), to give you a nice big batch of players to ask John Still to scout.

If you load my save, which picks up on 21st January 2024, you'll be starting as Southend manager with things pretty much exactly as they are now. Can you take us up this season?

Let me know if you'd like the save game and PM me your email addresses. I can't recall how big the save is - I can always compress and host somewhere if I need to.

I've been holding off buying this years game (it's really been hurting but i have dug my heels in) I may give in now just because of this save, thanks!

 

[SUFCGoals]

Morning all.

I have a save game file that might interest some of you (although I'm sure you're all very attached to your current saves).

I have used the pre-game editor to do the following at Southend:

• Install the new ownership and board
• Edit finances to something which I think is closer to real life - a hundred grand or so in the bank, a £30k transfer budget and around £5k unused wage budget. This should stop the wage budget from unrealistically plummeting in the second season, and puts the wage budget at a little less than Daggers'.
• Play around with income streams to try to reflect the current sponsorship situation
• Reduce facilities ratings at Roots Hall to better reflect the fact that its a ****hole money pit
• Reduce training facilities rating to better reflect the fact that Boots & Laces is a ****hole
• Reduce the youth setup ratings to better reflect the fact that we have no Academy and lost our best young prospects
• Schedule gradual Roots Hall capacity changes to get the stadium up to a better condition and 16,000+ capacity by Jan 2026, to reflect the new owners' planned improvements. Unfortunately I don't believe this will cause an improvement in commercial facilities
• Schedule a move to the new training ground (called Smithers' Farm in the absence of any other ideas) for Summer 2024, which will cause a rise in the training and youth facilities ratings
• Play around with some current and potential abilities plus position ratings of squad and staff, nothing drastically up or down, just my own opinion of what they should be
• Give John Still a secondary role as Chief Scout and set him a responsibility to manage and assign scouts, which I hope will better reflect his real life mix of responsibilities
• Release the several members of staff who left the club ages ago and added Danny Heath as U18s Manager
• Convert Demi and Dave Martin to player/coaches.
• Schedule the transfers of James Morton, Adam Crowther and Danny Waldron to occur on their real-life dates

I then started a new career and selected Ireland as a playable nation so that I could start the game in the Irish pre-season, i.e. January 2024. This meant the season up to 08/01/2024 was simmed.

I then used the FMRTE editor to make the following changes:

• Added Dave Martin and Harry Cardwell injuries - I know they are both nearing a return IRL, but you'll be without them for a week or two when you start playing this save
• Moved Marcus Dackers and Henry Sandat over on loan.
• Set the league standings from Premier League all the way down to National League North/South to as close as possible to what they are now. It's not perfect - the game obviously hasn't mirrored postponements and cup runs as in real life, so not all clubs had played the same amount of games in game as they had at the same point IRL. I obviously also can't reflect real-life cup runs or real-life individual player stats like games played, goals, etc. But the league standings are as close to current real life as possible.
• Made some key player and managerial changes in the English leagues.

I have loaded Home Nations' and Irish leagues, and ensured that all players based in England in the database are loaded too, right down to the lowest unplayable levels (Finley Wilkinson, wink nudge), to give you a nice big batch of players to ask John Still to scout.

If you load my save, which picks up on 21st January 2024, you'll be starting as Southend manager with things pretty much exactly as they are now. Can you take us up this season?

Let me know if you'd like the save game and PM me your email addresses. I can't recall how big the save is - I can always compress and host somewhere if I need to.

Sounds absolutely fantastic. Would do it but am currently in Jan 2028 with Blues sitting seven points clear with three games in hand in league one (was 13 points clear until some bad form over christmas). I have done a Phil Brown and have ruined the club financially and reduced my wage budget mid season by 50k. I'm now overspending by 25k per week.

 

[Bearded Shrimper]

when Morgan Rogers first joined me he looked a class apart. in the 25/26 season he got 11 goals and 12 assists. then just 9 more goals and 3 more assists in two seasons. my dreams of a big pay day were dashed, he wanted more money than I felt he was worth to agree a new deal then Hull triggered his release clause and he was gone for £7.5 mill in August 28. what might have been

 

[Tyga]

I'm now approaching the January transfer window in season 3 and am sitting top of League 1. So far we have won 18, drawn 2 and lost 2. A bit change this season is that we seem to be scoring late winners as opposed to my usual habit of conceding late to throw points away.

With so many cup games going on there are a few teams with games in hand on us and we also have games in hand on others so until that all evens out I won't know where we truly sit but either way we are at the right end of the table for now.

In the cup competitions we made it through to the quarter finals of the Carabao Cup losing 1-0 to Man Utd at Old Trafford which gave us a nice cash injection from the gate receipts. We are through to the second knockout round of the Bristol St Motors Cup, this is probably the one cup competition where we have some chance of winning some silverware although that depends on how strong the Prem U21 team is we eventually end up playing later in the competition. In the FA Cup we are into the second round.

As the team gets better I'm finding the turnover of players to be increasing. Players who were important players last season have found the step up a division a step too far and have needed to be shipped out either permanently or on loan as better players are brought in in their place.

This upcoming transfer window will be an interesting one as I am hoping to move 3 or 4 players on and have some replacements incoming. One player has already agreed to a transfer once the window opens and with some luck the others on the transfer list will be on their way too.

I have been using a few of the new features to get players out of the club. Early days in the National League I didn't find the intermediaries much use. They almost always came back with "there is no interest" as a response but as the club has moved up the leagues this has changed a bit. The Transfer Room option, to me, is a rebadging of "offer to clubs" but without the direct response. The one feature that I have found works well if there is interest in a player is getting their agent to find a move for their client. Generally, if there is interest, the move happens quite quickly and the offers are not low balls. I've sold a few players this way.

I'm still having the headache of a group of players complaining about a lack of quickness training. The solution, I read somewhere, was to give those players quickness training as additional training. This works for a few days until the complain about all the extra training they are doing. So, I switch back and forth endlessly between adding and removing additional quickness training. This is probably the only real annoyance for me so far in FM24.