10. Newcastle United
Eddie Howe did a great job keeping Newcastle in the Premier League but now the club are looking to use their new found wealth to push up the league and challenge the big boys
This is a fun save as they already have the nucleus of a good team, with players such as Pope, Trippier, Guimaraes and Isak as well as the budget to add established stars and wonderkids as you look to build for the future as well as the here and the now.
Without a trophy in almost 70 years, you have the chance to be the manager who brings silverware to St James’ Park and the board will expect you to reach the latter stages of the cup competitions as well achieving a top half finish.
The top half finish should be easily achieved as you look to enhance the club’s reputation by challenging for trophies and qualifying for European competition. Your role will be to build not only a team to compete immediately but a club that can eventually dominate for years to come.
Your task will be to go one better than Kevin Keegan’s entertainers of the 90s and win a trophy for your huge, loyal fanbase to celebrate.
What Makes Newcastle United Fun To Manage:
1. They have a huge and loyal fanbase who will view you as a hero if you can bring them glory
2. You will receive a really healthy transfer budget season after season that will allow you to build the club into a force to be reckoned with.
3. Newcastle haven’t won a trophy since 1955 so you can write your name in history!
9. Dorking Wanderers
A real challenge, particularly with the ex-manager as your chairman.
Dorking Wanderers are owned and managed by Marc White who has overseen an astronomical rise through the leagues and the club currently find themselves in the National League for the very first time. This is a fun but very challenging save that will require all of your bargain spotting abilities as your transfer budget of around £15,000 and available wage budget of less than £1000 a week doesn’t give you a lot of freedom in the market.
Make sure you get the results the chairman is looking for as he won’t be afraid to sack you, after all he was willing to sack himself to hire you.
Prepare yourself for a struggle, particularly in the first year as you lead your team at this level for the first time. After the first season, you have the opportunity to build a team that could compete for a place in the Football League and write your own chapter in the club’s history.
Key players at the start of the save include Ryan Seager and Alfie Rutherford and using a combination of players released by bigger clubs and those impressing in the National League North and South you can build a team that will not only survive in the league but flourish.
What Makes Dorking Wanderers Fun To Manage:
1. This is a real challenge and will test your management skills.
2. A chance to create history and get Dorking Wanderers into the Football League for the first time.
3. The facilities are poor and you have the chance of building a club as well as a team.
8. CF Intercity
This could be your best trip yet to Alicante!
Intercity are a new club who were only founded in 2017 and have achieved a number of promotions to find themselves in the 3rd tier of Spanish football.
The exciting save gives you the chance to build a club from bottom to top and put your own stamp on it. There are no legends, the stadium only holds 4,000 and the quality of the facilities is low so you have the chance to improve all of these as you guide Intercity through the Spanish leagues.
The club’s reputation is low so it will be difficult initially to attract high profile players so you will have to slowly improve the players and reputation of the club by finding bargains and young talent to develop. Your task is to see how quickly you can take the team into La Liga and win some domestic silverware before leading your team into Europe.
What Makes CF Intercity Fun To Manage:
1. You have a clean slate and a chance to build the whole club, from training facilities to the stadium to the team itself.
2. This is a chance to continue the club’s rise and eventually challenge Spain’s elite.
3. Become a legend at the club as you bring domestic and European glory.
7. Peterborough Sports
This is a tough save - starting in the bottom division and looking to make the big time.
In 2015, Peterborough Sports were in the 10th tier of English football and have risen to the National League North for the first time in their history.
The club are semi-professional which will make this save a difficult one so something you might want to do is establish the club as a professional side, making it slightly easier to attract players and compete in the division.
Predicted to finish around 16th place, establishing the club in this league and then pushing them towards promotion will be difficult but achieving Football League status and then taking the club even further up the pyramid will be fun and worth the effort.
There are improvements to be made throughout the club that can be made as you start to build the reputation and move up the leagues. Currently, the stadium only holds 2,300 and the other facilities are of low quality waiting for your success to bring in the money to make them better. Bring success to the second team in Peterborough and any new stadium could well be named after you.
What Makes Peterborough Sports Fun To Manage:
1. They are a semi-professional club so the challenge of taking them to the Football League is a tough and exciting one.
2. Peterborough Sports are a club who you can build and make better. They have a good base but you can take them even higher.
3. You have affiliates in the Football League, Cambridge United and Peterborough United, who you can use for loan signings to improve your squad without using your very limited budget.
6. Borussia Dortmund
You'll need the yellow wall, talented players and luck on your side in order to topple Bayern
From a semi-professional team in England’s lowest playable league in the form of Peterborough Sports to one of Europe’s biggest clubs. Borussia Dortmund sit in the shadow of Bayern Munich who have a stranglehold over the Bundesliga.
You will take charge of a Dortmund side who have lost Erling Haaland but who still have a squad packed with young, exciting talent. You will be fielding a team including Moukoko, Karim Adeyemi Gio Reyna and English soon-to-be superstar Jude Bellingham.
The facilities are incredible as you would expect but you won’t be blessed with large transfer or wage budgets so you will need to make a choice whether to continue with the players you have or sell one of your young superstars and use the profits to add extra quality in your attempt to topple Bayern.
What Makes Borussia Dortmund Fun To Manage:
1. Already established as a giant in European football, your task with Dortmund is to end Bayern Munich’s domestic dominance.
2. Dortmund have a very exciting team that, if you can keep it together, can grow to dominate the Bundesliga for years to come.
3. Managing Dortmund gives you an immediate chance to not only be successful domestically but also in European competition.
5. Bordeaux
Six-time French champions Girondins De Bordeaux have hit some hard times and find themselves in Ligue 2, only avoiding 3rd tier football on appeal.
The club have had serious financial problems in recent times and getting back to Ligue 1 won’t be an easy task with the likes of Metz and AS Saint-Etienne the favourites for promotion.
Your job is to stabilise the club’s finances before getting promoted and then, eventually, challenging PSG for supremacy in French football. With a young squad at your disposal, a limited budget of less than a million to make any changes and with only two promotion spots available this save is not as easy as it may sound.
What Makes Bordeaux Fun To Manage:
1. This is a chance to rebuild a fallen French footballing giant and take them all the way to the top.
2. The club has good training and youth facilities that will help bring through your own young stars.
3. With a young squad you can improve the players and develop them over time as you make your way up the leagues.
4. RSC Anderlecht
Anderlecht have won 5 European trophies but are 5 years without a title.
Anderlecht are one of if not the biggest and well known club in Belgium but have faced a serious challenge in recent times with the improvement in teams like Genk and Club Brugge.
The club haven’t won a Belgian league title in five years and have been absent from European football’s top table during that time so your task is to take this giant back to the domestic summit. There are players in the squad like Yari Verschaeren who, if you can keep hold of him, can be the focal point of your team for years to come.
There are also quality loan players in the squad such as Fabio Silva from Wolves and Sebastiano Esposito of Inter. Esposito can be purchased fairly cheaply as part of his loan agreement.
What Makes Anderlecht Fun To Manage:
1. The club has excellent youth facilities, making it easier to develop your own talent.
2. Another chance to restore one of the league’s giants to the top with enough challenge from other clubs to keep this very interesting.
3. The club has a solid European pedigree, winning five titles, so once you have achieved the title domestically that is a great next step.
3. Brighton and Hove Albion
Chelsea's feeder club are a very good side to manage
Brighton and Hove Albion are a team on the up and one earning respect within footballing circles.
The big transfer budget and almost £200,000 left in the wage budget allow you to add to your squad as you initially look to qualify for Europe before the really ambitious task of challenging for the title. The Albion squad contains the talent of Moisés Caicedo and Tariq Lamptey with a nice mix of youth and experience. Having such talent available means that, even if you do use all of your budget, Chelsea will come and buy one of your players for 50x more than you paid for them.
What Makes Brighton and Hove Albion Fun To Manage:
1. You have the second biggest budget in the Premier League and already have a squad full of talented players.
2. The club has excellent facilities to attract better players and develop your own future stars.
3. Taking an already strong Brighton side to the next level and challenging for European qualification and silverware against English football’s big boys.
2. FC Kaiserslautern
Four times Bundesliga champs, you need to make these chumps better!
Another fallen giant to appear on the list, this time from the Bundesliga 2 in Germany and former German champions FC Kaiserslautern.
This fun and challenging save sees the club climbing its way back to the Bundesliga from 3.Liga having been out of the top flight since 2012. Kaiserslautern are predicted to finish 13th so the challenge of promotion will not be easy as you look to keep your 50,000 supporters happy.
A transfer budget of zero is not going to help your chances as the squad does need an overhaul if you are to achieve your goal of promotion.
I actually took control of Kaiserslautern on FM21 when they were in 3. Liga and the save was fun. They had no money but you could adjust the budgets and sign players for a small fee. Taking on teams like Bayern Munich II, Dynamo Dresden and 1860 Munich is not easy but building a team for promotion and then to challenge in Bundesliga 2 is a lot of fun.
What Makes Kaiserslautern Fun To Manage:
1. Taking former champions back to the top from a league they are not favourites in will require all of your tactical and transfer knowledge
2. Getting back to the top division and eventually doing what seems impossible and beating Bayern Munich to the German league title.
3.You have to do it all with an initial transfer budget of nothing!
1. Deportivo La Coruna
Deportivooooooooooo! Giants of Europe 20 years ago, bad since!
Deportivo were a huge name in Spanish and European football around the turn of the millennium with players such as Roy Makaay and Diego Tristan helping the club to league and cup success.
Silverware and Champions League night have long gone from the Riazor and the club find themselves in 3rd tier of Spanish football following relegation from La Liga in 2018 and then from Segunda Division in 2020.
Your task in this really fun save is to initially get the club back into the second division and then eventually to La Liga before challenging for the top honours once again. There is a small transfer budget available to help you add to a squad that lacks recognisable names and the club have a good reputation and facilities that will assist in attracting players.
What Makes Deportivo La Coruna Fun To Manage:
1. The club needs rebuilding and you can do that. Improve the playing squad, the facilities and the league position.
2. Getting the former champion back to La Liga will be a massive yet thoroughly enjoyable task.
3.Once you’re back in the big time, winning titles and being back in Europe is the next step.
