FM Stag

I love managing at lower levels. The pool of players who can improve you is huge, instead of everyone fighting over the same few elite names. Teams also have obvious weaknesses you can actually plan around. It’s less about stacking 15+ attributes and more about managing what you’ve got, flaws and all, and reacting to the game as it unfolds. Love it.

Retweet if you played/still play Championship Manager 97/98 What a game! 🤩

@BadgerBonzai Nah sadly I stopped writing and let my website expire when I saw FM26.

@FM_Stag Are you documenting this anywhere mate?

The journey continues. Now in 2032 and it has gone Kitchee > Yamaguchi > Cluj > Lecce > Werder Bremen. Won titles in Hong Kong and Romania, and gained promotion in Japan, Italy and Germany 😍. Currently flying high in the Bundesliga and eyeing a move to the Premier League in a year or two… #FM24

@90sfootball I still play it, and still love it 😍

Barcelona on Championship Manager 1997/98.

Juan Román Riquelme at his best!

@FabrizioRomano Charlie Adam

🚨 Atalanta are qualified to Champions League round of 16 with a comeback! Borussia Dortmund, eliminated. Who’s been your Man of the Match?

Diego ✨

@MustermannFM Hahaha. "The attacking midfielder, having insinuated himself into a preternaturally advantageous locus amidst the unfolding theatre of play, commanded a sovereign purview over the verdant tableau, surveying its geometries and emergent trajectories with imperious clarity."

@FM_Stag I'm gonna respectfully disagree. Strata is a great word. It's fun to say. It communicates what it needs to. It's far better than: "The Midfield Echelon" "The Midfield Rank" "The Midfield Footing" "The Midfield Gentry" Actually. Maybe not. I might start using "gentry" now.

“Strata” is the latest one 🤢.

@90sfootball The best shirt number font in history.

David Trezeguet and Thierry Henry 🇫🇷

@DGear86 Charlie Adam Simulator is a belter

I need some #PlayStation5 game recommendations that aren’t your big name games… Anyone got any shouts?

@thegibshow_ I've just been promoted to J1, but with an eye on the exit ✈️

@FM_Stag Defo aim for a Japan or Korea job and climb the ladder, either via promotion or jobs

I’m still on this and love it. I need to do a further data update though. Latest journeyman save has gone as follows in the first three years: Kitchee, Hong Kong > Yamaguchi, Japan. 10 trophies in Hong Kong and now a promotion to the J-League. Gone from now no badges to Continental A so far. Up to 55% reputation from a standing start. A move to Europe beckons! #FM24

@thegibshow_ Yeah it might have to be! Or perhaps a third tier club in a higher reputation country. I guess we'll see...

@FM_Stag Hahaah how random is that. Really enjoyed my time in Romania. Turkey os tough, but fun. Yeah. Maybe a bigger Asian job first?

@thegibshow_ This is so interesting! After Kitchee and Yamaguchi - Samunspor and Dinamo Bucaresti are two of the interviews I’ve had! I keep being rejected though so maybe more experience is required 😂.

@FM_Stag This would have been easier

@thegibshow_ This got me thinking. Was it just one club in each country? Which ones?

@FM_Stag Love it! 2039 in mine. Chile > Argentina > Korea > Romania > Turkey > Germany

@Steveo0511 I know that feeling! Sometimes it’s even just one player moving in real life that make me want to kick off a new save and see what impact it has.

@FM_Stag Thank you! I will have a look into this and see if it works. I haven't touched FM in months. But whenever a real life transfer window kicks in, something inside me just wants to play it in

@davecrawford84 No worries! I’m just sad that I’ve had to let my website go after all these years since I don’t blog anymore. Sadly FM26 killed it…

@FM_Stag …and having followed you for a long time, found that last post, very interesting. Always appreciate people’s time and effort to heighten the experience on #FM. Cheers

I just realised you said the challenge was with the combo of start date and transfer update. The problem I had was loans. I had to go into the enter and manually change the end date of loans to summer 2026 for as many real life loan deals as I could stomach before boredom kicked in 😂.

@Steveo0511 I’ve used a combination of tons of different editor files to get mine working, but the starting point was something like this. I haven’t used this one so can’t vouch for how it works, but it was something similar. fmscout.com/i-25-26-real-f…

It depends on if you’re a manager with a fixed philosophy you’re asking players to fit into, or a pragmatist building something to fit the strengths of the squad you have. Either way, I just think of what you want in each phase of play, then look at the attributes and traits of the players who will be involved in those phases. Seems cliched, but if you want to play from the back, bypass midfield and go direct, focus on selecting physical forwards and defenders with good distribution and decision making. If you want to pass through midfield, sort your midfielders by their attributes for vision, passing and composure and focus on fielding those with the most appropriate skillset. Often I’ll use a custom view on my Squad page that shows all outfield attributes and get a feel for both the spread of strengths and weaknesses and highlight anyone is good at one particular thing (like a giant target man or a full back who can cross), start with that position and role and build the system around that route to scoring goals.

@FM_Stag I’m still in my #FM24 save. Fourth division of Holland with Volendam, promotion and now Antwerp in Belgium. 2026. How do you go about tactics with squads that are less than…fluent shall we say? I’ve changed 3,4 times with different ones to suit, but does struggle time to time